532. THE PROSPEROUS DAYS OF JOB. (William Thomas Charles Dobson.)

The Royal Academy Exhibition 1856

One of the earnest readings of Scripture which are the truest pride of modern art. How often has Job been painted with the look of a haggard, aged, and despairing mendicant how seldom, in this first era of his life, the refined Oriental lord; leading a life of mercy, and judgment, and truth. The despair indicated in the writhe of the lips and pressure of the knit hands on the head, in the fallen figure, is thoroughly grand; and the watching female figure above is very tender and lovely. All Mr. Dobson's Works are good (though this is the best),(1) as far as feeling is concerned ;but their colour, or rather want of colour, is deeply to be regretted. Does Mr. Dobson really see Nature as always white and buff or does he think Buff a specially sacred colour?(2) In my mind, it is associated chiefly with troopers' jerkins.

(1) [There was only one other picture by him in the exhibition of 1856 No. 310,

"The Parable of the Children in the Marketplace."]

(2)[See below, p. 114, and on the general subject of the sanctity of colour see Modern Painters, vol. iii. (Vol. V. pp. 281, 321), vol. iv. (Vol. VI. p. 68); and Vol. X. pp. 173, 457.]