The Portfolio for May. (Seeley and Co.)—The "Etching from the
National Gallery" this month is the well-known "Landscape, with the Death of Procris," by Claude Lorraine—or, as it seems we ought to say, Claude do Lorraine—the notes, as usual, being by Mr. Wornum. We have not space to enter here upon the long-standing controversy be- tween the partisans of Claude and Turner, a controversy upon which the last-named artist had, it may ho remembered, such strong views that, as the editor of this periodical (Mr. Hamerton) has elsewhere said, " from his grave he challenged Claude Lorraine." Are we heterodox in suggesting that the etcher's art does not fully enable us to realise either the strength or delicacy of either master? The article on "Blake," by Mr. Beavington Atkinson, may be profitably compared with some depreciatory remarks in the Saturday Review recently. The other important etching is "On the Seine, near Rouen," notable as being both drawn and etched by M. Brunet-Desbaines, who is already so favourably known by readers of the Portfolio.
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