Attempt > Volume 1 and Select writings

50
THE ATTEMPT.
to after them. Those Exhibitions stimulate superior artists to greater exertion, and
inferior ones to struggle for a higher position. It is by these annual Exhibitions of the
works of living artists that art is maintained in full force in this country, and they lead
to the best results—originality, variety, and adaptation to all the different requirements
of such an age as ours. What is more pleasing to the eye than a beautiful picture, one
at which you could sit and gaze for hours, and each time that you look at it some new
beauty appears 1 It cannot be said, however, that in the Exhibition at present open
in Edinburgh there are any such, hut there is certainly a fair proportion of fine ones.
Of every different style of painting you have here a specimen, so that the tastes of
every one may he suited. I shall now describe a few of the principal and most
attractive of these pictures.
“ The Keeper’s Daughter,” by William Crawford, is certainly one of the finest.
The scene is laid on a Highland lake, surrounded by hills. It represents a young
woman standing in a boat. With one hand she guides the boat, while with the other
she holds a chain to which is attached .a large dog, which lies at her feet protecting her.
This is a very fine painting, and one which all admire.
One of the largest is “ The Volunteer,” by H. O’Xeil. The scene of this is laid at
sea. A storm is raging, and the angry waves are dashing and foaming against the
rocks. A vessel has become a total wreck, and is all broken up. On a small piece of
it is crowded a number of men, women, and children, who expect every moment to he
washed into a watery grave. One man is willing to risk his life, and try to swim to
shore with a rope which is attached to the wreck. He is standing on the end of the
wreck, while they fasten the other end of the rope round him. The mothers are
casting imploring looks at him, as if beseeching him to save them; while the children,
unconscious of their danger, are seated on their knees, or playing at their feet. The
outline of this picture is very hold, hut beautiful. The faces of each one are so well
defined, that they would almost make a complete picture of themselves.
“ Sundown—Loch Achray,” by Horatio Macculloch, is a heautiful'picture. This
well-known lake in the Highlands forms a fit study for a painter. In the middle of
the lake is a small verdant island, and by its side a little cottage, from whose chimney
the smoke is curling up among the hills, behind which the sun has just sunk.
“ The Penny Bank.” The subject of this picture was suggested to the painter,
George Harvey, by the “ Vinegar Close Penny Bank,” which was formed in Leith some
years ago, for the purpose of receiving the small earnings of the poorest people, which,
if left to themselves, might he uselessly squandered. Behind a table is seated the
banker, who is in the act of receiving a few pennies from a poor woman. By her side