CRIMEAN VIEWS BY CARLO BOSSOLL
-A collection of views from the Crimea, more varied and complete than any we had heretofore known, is now to be seen at Messrs. Day's litho- graphic establishment, in Gate Street, Lincoln's Inn;Fields. They are the production of Signor Carlo Bossoli, an Italian artist, done years before war had changed the Crimea from a picturesque peninsula into the battle-field of Europe and centre of men's thought ; the painter having, it is stated, " lived some time there, attached to Prince Woronzoff, then Governor-General of New Russia, 'Bessarabia, and the Crimea ; and having, by the assistance of the Prince and many other illustrious per- sonages, had the opportunity of visiting frequently every part of the -pcminsula." Fifty-two of the sketches, from which numerous pictures havelreen painted for noble and distinguished patrons, are now to be pub- lished in double-tinted lithography, to range with Mr. Simpson'a Crimean designs.- The views are done in distemper—a style unfamiliar as a modern form of art to British eyes, and partaking somewhat of the character both of oil and of coloured chalks ; and, if not belonging to the highest style, are Marked by manifest facility, a sense of the picturesque, and clever com- petence. Eupatoria, the Alma, the entrance to Sebastopol, and -other views of the same uncaptured fortress, the Valley of Inkerman, the Har- bour of Balaklava, and others, rank among the spots of whose pittured aspect we have now had almost a glut, and which it looks curious •to see painted without any reference to their present associations. Simferopol, Kertch, the Tomb of Mithridates, possess similar interest, but are as yet unexplored, or at least unfamiliar ; while such points as the Pinnacles of 'Mount St. Peter or the Grotto of Jursuf may still be regarded simply as remarkable for natural beauty or grandeur, and indicate a rich field for the student of nature in a region which the mind will scarcely con- nect with anything but devastation and giant conflict.
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