PICTURES AND ARTISTS..
THE City Society of Artists and Amateurs held theirfikst Conversa- zione for the season on Thursday evening, at the. London Coffeehouse. There was a brilliant display of winks of art.. &acing the picture* were some of TURNER'S resplendent drawings, a beautiful sunset by CLENNELL, and two fine watelb-colour paintings by PROUT and COPLEY FIELDING. DAVID Cox's portfolio contained a very numerous and charming collection of his sepia sketches of scenery in Wales and some of the most picturesque parts of England. There were also some clever sketches by PYNE, POWELL, CROUCH, &c. Among the novel- ties in engraving, were the proofs of some of the plates of TURNER'S first Annual Tour, which elicited universal admiration both of the views and the execution of the engraving ; the proof plates of the Book cf Beauty; the etchings by WILLblORE of PROUT'S View of Venice, and by LE KEUX of " I3yron's Dream," by EASTLAKE. But the greatest attraction was an unfinished proof of ROBINSON'S engraving of LAW- RENCE'S portrait of Sir Walter Scott. The likeness, as far as we could judge from the state of the plate, is one of the painter's happiest efforts. It combines the homely appearance of the man with the elevated cha- racter and animated expression of the poet. The elegant style of the artist has not neutralized the manly simplicity of his sitter. The ordinary portraits of Scott are mostly too literal/ and convey the less noble qualities of his physiognomy : they portray only the shrewd country gentleman and the humorist.
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