14 JANUARY 1837, Page 17

FINE ARTS.

THE Exhibition season is commencing. This week the artists sent in

their works to the British Institution, which is alisaya the first. A fortnight will be employed in arranging the pictures; it will scarcely open before Parliament meets. The Gallery has been im- proved as well as beautified, we are told; the south room bring much better lighted than before, so that it will no longer be "the dark hole."

In the mean time, thereare no new prints of any mark before us. Ro- BERTS'S Sketches of the Architecture of Spain—lithographed fac.similes, in the tinted rummer, of HARDING'S and LEWIS'S Sketelles—are in a forward state. We have seen two or three specimen plates, which, for grandeur and richness of subject and skill in the treatment, are most admirable. ALFRED VICKERS, we hear, is going to bring out some of his Russian views, in a similar style; and SYDNEY Cooreit, we are told, Mat work on a set of sketches of animals, is the tinted manner. 'I he names of other artists, great and small, are also mentioned in conjunc- tion with the tinted style of lithography. HARDING has set them all to work to multiply their sketches in this way. We have taken a glance at the heap of Picture Periodicals; but their general features vary so little from month to month, that a passing

mention will suffice, as there are none that we have not before noticed.

The principal among them is Sir Thomas Lawrence's Works; Part III. of which contains the clever portrait of Lady Peel, a whole-length of

the Archbishop of York, not before engraved, and Lord Hardwicke.

The execution of the plates calls for no psricular remark. BALMER improves in his views for FINDEN'S Ports and Harbours; some of those

in Parts III. and IV. me very creditable to his talent : he looks at

nature as Well RS at TURNER, STANFIELD, and liaannve. Roseoe's Wanderings in South Wales will afford fine scope for the talent of Coeany FIELDING and HARDING, who are the coadjutors of Davits Cox iii illustrating the text; but as yet the work is not far enough advanced to enable us to speak of it : No. III. is the last we have seen. ALLONt'S views in Fisusa's Picturesque Illustrations if Great Britain, merit a word of praise; and the Memo/ids tf 0.0brd, that show us the colleges and churches as in a camera, are ever welcome for their subjects' sake. No. V. of Sitaw's Encyclopadia if Ornament is enriched by some dainty devices for jewellery, designed by HOLBEIN; and Part V L of his Specimens if the Details if Elizabethan Architec- ture, contains two rich and quaint chimney. pieces, mid two elegant pat- terns of ceilings.

We have this month to take leave of one of the best and most inte- resting of the Picture Periodicals : the Gallery of Poi traits is con- cluded by the publication of No. LVI., which completes the seventh volume. The last plate is an engraving from CuaNTars's inimitable bust of SCOTT, in which the poetical character is blended with shrewd- ness and humour' and the natural man idealized by mental expres- sion. As a set of portraits, we do not know its equal for authenticity of likeness and fidelity and force of engraving; while the intelligent and impartial memoirs make up all that can be required in a popular work of biography. The portraits and memoirs are one hundred and sixty-eight in number, of which about one-ball are British. This includes the most celebrated persons of modern times of whom real portraits are extant ; and the eminent names in the several branches of knowledge and skill are fairly proportioned. Classified indices are given with the last number.

High as is the degree of perfection to which wood-engraving hao been brought in this country, we have never seen landscapes so exqui- sitely rendered in wood as in a set of cuts to a volume of religious- poetry—whose merit, by the way, is superior to the average of its class—called The Solace if Song. They are designed by W. HARVEY, whose fame is identified with the art, and engraved on the wood by ORRIN SMITH, and others. The effect of sunlight on the clouds iu the view of Elba, and of the glare of Vesuvius in eruption on the sea; the foliage and foreground in the view of Sorento; the sky in that of Florence ; and the moonlight in that of Cologne, are extraordinary. There is an elaboration in the execution like that of copperplate- engraving; and the force of the effects is greatly increased by the bril- liant,- and colour thrown into them. The Views of Dudley Castle, by DAVID Cox and J. E. WALKER. are the chief attractions of an Historical and Descriptive Account of that fine old ruin, by W. HAWKES SMITH. Their sobriety and unaf- fected beauty are in harmony with the venerable and picturesque ap- pearance of the place ; and the three general views are pleasing speci- mens of English scenery und English art. Messrs. II anCLIFFES, the engravers, have executed their share of the svork in a very creditable manner.

Mr. HAWEES SMITH'S Account of Birmingham and its Vicinity, which we noticed on the appearance of the first numbers, is now com- pleted, and forms an embellished picture of this great emporium of hardware; in which the pretensions of some of the manufacturers and retail traders are set forth with picturesque prominence.