Windsor Castle, painted by Mr. David Octavins Hill, and engraved
by Mr. William Richardson, both of Edinburgh, is a fine landscape, and on the whole the most striking portrait of the Royal residence that we have yet seen. The heap of buildings comprised in the Castle is viewed from the banks of the Thames at Eton; the round keep is seen in the middle of the pile, with St. George's Chapel on the right, and part of Windsor town beneath the walls. The Castle and its towers are lighted up by a setting summer sun; behind them a full moon already spreads a broad silver light; the effect being at once clear, brilliant, and subdued. From the point of view, and the treatment, the Castle looks to be better " brought together " than usual, and towering above the houses it assumes an aspect of gran- deur seldom imparted to it by the artist. Mr. Hill has bestowed a diligent painstaking iu elaborating the details, proportionate to his masterly skill; and the engraver has worthily followed him. There is no slurring nor tricking in the treatment, but every part is fairly worked out in lines; the handling is varied with the texture of the several parts, which is excel- lently imitated. The defect of the engraving is hardness-the natural and proper defect in a young artist who is bent upon mastering his craft by grappling with it in detail; but this defeat, slight in degree, is fully com- pensated, by the clearness, force, variety, and vivacity of the whole.
Previous page
