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"Fine Arts: Exhibition of the Royal Academy." The Illustrated London News, 13 May 1865: 451.

It is curious (to diverge partially from the class of painting of which we are speaking) to find how often in this exhibition the same fundamental principle of art is violated. Take, for instance, two pictures which naturally associate themselves in one's memory--Mr. Burgess's "Bravo Toro!" (304), a group of spectators at a bull-fight; and Mr. S. Solomon's "Habet!" (431), a party of Roman ladies witnessing a gladiatorial contest. Both give unmixed pain, or may afford a morbid gratification, but neither has a sufficiently evident moral intention. In the one the imagination is driven to figure the bull goring man or horse--doubtless the former, one horse or a dozen being of little account; in the other the exclamation "He has it!" leaves us in no doubt that a mortal thrust or blow has been delivered, and is the more revolting because women are the willing or delighted spectators. In Mr. Burgess's picture, the variety of character and expression is very admirably discriminated; but Mr. Solomon has ventured rather beyond his powers, both in scale and subject: the drawing is inaccurate, the modelling weak, the colouring mannered. (page 451, column 2)

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