FINE ARTS.
SICKENED as we have been this season with the vapid ant1 trreavtinglest tribe of miscalled " Beauties," whose perfections consist in an es_ aggerration of conventional ideality amounting to positive defoenitty, any thing in the shape of mortality that hears the semblance of chroacter Is welcome. We hug with delight, therefore, this bevy of Thee&d. ren of Me Nobility, that- come thronging iii, like an influx of the tittle people after dinner, from the tiniest denizens of the nursery to the. miss in her teens who is beginning to think of "coning out." They are all fresh from the toilet, and so bedecked in ribands and lime that we almost fear to rumple the finery. CHALov, moreover, has given them an air of ton that detracts from the infuntine simplicity; but they have not lost that charm which ingenuousness and unconsciousness invest childhood with. They wear their fine clothes as a matter of course; for although there are urchin coxcombs as well as coquettes among the little "lords" and "ladies," the vulgar pride of dress is not apparent. There are two groups of the daughters of the Duke of Beaufort—little girls from seven to twelve years old, with large fea. tures and fine eyes and hair, in whose attitudes the danciagmaster's in- fluence is visible : one of them, indeed, is tripping u measure---foc the amusement of a little guest, we may suppose, as the don teasserrice is set out. The three little boys, sons of the Duke of Buceleuch,- one of them an infant, make a very pretty picture : but the two children of the Earl of Wilton are our favourites; one, a noble boy, with a great hat laden with bows and feathers, under which his sturdy limbs seem to stagger, is dragging a tov-horse ; the other, a rosy girl, with a face beaming with health and spirits, is nursing her doll, which she seems actually to be singing to. The infantile character la, ad- mirably preserved in this group. These are all by CHALON; whevalso• contributes charming portraits of two grown girls,—the daughter of Lord Frederick Fitzelarence, and the young Baroness Le Despeuter, whose fine large eyes are lustrous with intelligence and sensibility. This last is a beautiful picture for the purity and simplicity of the style: the white muslin frock, too, is a quotable instance of CHALON4S, skill in treating modern dress.
Bosroce's portraits of two young ladies—Mary daughter of the Earl of Carlisle, and Diana daughter of Lord Canterbury—are unaf- fected and characteristic, and executed with distinctness and taste : the absence of a peculiar "manner," which is often mistaken for style, is a great merit of these two clever pictures. Macusc has sketched the daughter of Sir William Somerville, stretching up on tiptoe to touch the keys of the pianoforte, and looking at you with her large eyes and sensitive face—arid a sweet picture it makes only that he has overdone the hair and dress. This is a fault, too, of his group of the three daughters of Lord Lytulhurst : they might pass for specimens of the effects of Rowlands Macassar, so ostentatiously are their long black tresses displayed. Macuse's failing is that of intruding every pieturesqe point upon the eye, instead of letting you find them out. The character of the youngest is very vividly depicted.
The engravings are beautiful, as all are that have the benefit of CHARLES HEATH'S superintendence. The plates are accompanied with poetical illustrations by the popu- lar writers of the day, edited by Mrs. FAIRLIE; who dedicates this first volume to the Queen.
A series of Portraits of the Female Nobility was announced we hope it is forthcoming, being anxious to take refuge from the flimsy inanities of the easel in real portraiture.
Previous page
