Music.—A Man at the Spinet.details

Among our many truly gifted young artists who came under our notice at this period was J. M. Lawless. His drawings were of such a refined character that he at once took a place amongst the distinguished men of our time. He exhibited some few pictures at the Royal Academy which brought him prominently before the public; one of these, “A Midnight Mass,” another, “A Sick Call”—a poor woman has been to fetch a priest, who, with his acolytes, is being rowed across a river; the woman’s deep grief, and the solemnity of the entire scene, gives a touch of pathos to the group, and suggests it being a case in extremis. From “A Man at the Spinet,” which we give, he painted a sweet water colour. Lawless was regarded as a “coming man,” but, alas! like others of that “golden period” of Illustrative Art he passed away at quite an early age. (p. 236)