Royal Academy.-Prize Pict...
TO THE EDITOR OF TEE TIMES. Sir,-In the present exhibition at Somerset.lHouse, there are three pictures which were painted for the last prize offared by the .y-al Academy for the best histojcal paintings on the subject of theVArchang,l MiZtiel rcscuin.t.the dead body.of Moses fromii Sataut; atitlanother picture on tha sarnt sulijectij eihited F the Society of Bxitish Artists,'in Pall-M1all East.'- These are all thi-pieic. tLires iliich were admitted to the competition except one * 4ndnot. withstauding the -.ianner in which they are ,lipersed,-.Jpnoria'e nity is thus aforded to the public to judge in some measure of the rclative merits of thiese works. As,-however the pictures.are-not- seen by the public before the prize is adjudgel, it wouldl have been betterhad they been all hung up side by side, and witb equal advan- tages oi light and situation. But twhy'not make thedistribution of the prizes an,MaffIir of publicity, 'nd let the names of the Acaderii- cians who are present at the ballotting be known ? As the case stands at' presetj, the public are altogether strangers to the transac- tion. One- bieVvation more [ beg leave to make. It appears to tne, that it wogMldbe lionourable to the Academy, and promote' the cultivation of thiehi4her stvle of art in this country, if'no prize for histerical composition were ever given to any painting which faUs below mediocrity. Itis, indeed, surprising thatEainy wvork obviously incorrect'in drawing, in the anatomy of the human figure, anildefi.- cient in allthose elepients of the art of desiga which it is more par- ticularly the businessi.f'the Acadenivtn to vi,n,,l,1 ha .,;,1 to tbie colpetition. - A LOVER OF THE FPINE AR;'TS; ItOYrA ACADEIM.-PRIZRV PIPTUR.I.