FINE ARTS THE "WATTEAUS" IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY. THE four
little pictures in the National Gallery of " The Ages of Man," called WATTEAUS, turn out to be by LA NCBET, one of his imitators. Engravings of the set are extant, we are told,
with that painter's name to them. i n
The amo and style of TEAU are better known than his pictures, n this country: the public are acquainted with his works mostly through the medium of engem inge. Indeed, there is but one picture by WATTEAU in the Louvre; and, strange to say, the French do not set great store hy He was the STOTII .1 RD of the French school; or, to speak more properly, STOTII AIM was the English Warrnau. In depicting scenes and characters c if artificial life, he threw grace into the quaintest costumes, and invested with poetic beauty the airs and assumptions of people of fashion. His drawing is correct and spirited, and his colouring charming. These pictures by LANCItET are more highly finished, and laboured in execution, than the few we have seen by WarrEau — inclining to the Dutch school: still there is a freedom of pencilling and an air of enjoyment, that, coupled with the imltation of Warreau's manner, led us to suppose them to be what they were represented. It did not then occur to us to doubt their authenticity ; but, upon looking attentively Into them, we find many essential points of difference. The fact is, that the national collection containa so many productions of questionable origin, that we are content to enjoy the pictures themselves, and not trouble our heads about their genuineness. In painting, " the style of Watteau" is a phrase that admits of as latitudinarian interpretation as" the Louis Quatoize style" in decoration. It is rather unfortunate, however, that the only valuable portion of Colonel OLLNEY'S bequest should prove to be spurious.
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