HATTER'S Sketches of Miss Fanny Kemble in the character of
Juliet. Part II. Drawn on Stone by Messrs. HARDING, LANE, SHARP, and TEMPLETON.
We endeavoured to do justice to the taste and elegance of Mr. Har. TER'S Sketches in our notice of the first number of this work ; and it is not necessary to repeat either our praise of his skill or our opinion of his success. We have in the present number a profile portrait of the young] actress, which is like in its unlikeness : the general character and style of head, and the bridled attitude, so artificial and ungraceful, are portrayed with fidelity ; but the artist has not caught the indi- vidual resemblance of the features or expression. The Masquerade Scene, where Romeo first addresses Juliet, is a very clever piece of drawing : the figure of Romeo, whose features are partly con- cealed by the mask, is gallant and graceful, and the face of Juliet is in accordance with her situation, while the attitude is exactly that of Miss Kemble. The attitude of despair also which Juliet takes on hearing from the Nurse of the death, as she interprets it, of Romeo, makes a fine picture, though unlike Miss Kemble. In the coaxing scene, her attitude is rather sprawling, which effect is heightened by the flourish that her train describes on the floor. Juliet at the window is a
wretched piece of helplessness : she leans, too, on a broken chair, and the fall of her dress in front is like that of an empty drapery. The li-
thography is poor and meagre, and we can hardly credit our eyes as we
read the name of HARDING under such a performance. HARDING imitating HATTER'S sketches, is almost as bad as WARD painting mi.
niature nudities. When artists travel so far out of their path, they not
only fail to succeed, but succeed to fail. Mr. SHARP'S lithography is the very reflection of Mr. HATTER'S sketches : his fidelity, indeed, is of
that plastic character, that he not only adopts the spirit, but the modes
of his original; with ;he style of an artist, he never forgets the draughts- man ; his pencil aims at being the double of his prototype. His imita.
tions of the sketches of LAWRENCE, HATTER, and CATTEBSON SMITH, are distinguished for spirit, identity, and effect ; and for Pro- tean variety of manner, he vies with Mr. LANE, whose fame as a litho- graphic draughtsman he successfully emulates.
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