PICTURES AND ARTISTS.
Mn. MARTIN has been styled by one of his most enthusiastic admirers, "Sovereign Lord of Space ; " to which cognomen might be added, " Frince of the Power of Perspective,"— a power that, like other princes, he is, however, sometimes apt to abuse. His last new print, The Fall of Babylon, is like any other of his architectural aggregations, "so as with a difference." The edifices, figures, effects and their ar- rangement, we have seen before in various shapes and combinations ; and the style is identical. It is an imposing picture, well calculated to astonish the uninitiated,and even to take by surprise the more:experienced. The pitchy, lava-like clouds, floating over a vast furnace of flame in which the devoted city seems enveloped, and the contending armies in the foreground, make up a scene, which, like a display of fireworks, excites momentary admiration ; but there is nothing on which the eye delights to rest, or loves to turn to again and again.
Of similar materials is Mr. ROBERTS'S elaborate imitation of MAR- TIN'S style, in his picture of The Israelites departingfrom Egypt; except that the imitator does not display that command of space, and that powerful concentration of effect, which constitute much of what the admirers of Mr. MmeriN's style call "the sublime" of his works. Mr. ROBERTS'S print is a ponderous agglomeration of architecture, stu- pendous in size, and Egyptian in detail though not in character. The colonnades in perspective, piled tier on tier, look like the well- filled shelves of a bookcase. There are buttresses enough to furnish half England with piers for suspension-bridges; columns, obelisks, and statues, stand as thick as the sculpture in the British Museum, and pyramids spring up in the distance as plenty as mushrooms. What little space remains is thronged with people scattered in masses, like vegeta- -bles over the area of Covent Garden Market; elephants swarm in droves like swine, and invisible standard-bearers cairy pairs of colours about twenty feet high. Mr. ROBERTS should reserve this mode of displaying Ins knowledge of perspective, for the scenery of the theatre, where we might applaud his efforts. The view of an imaginary Capitol at Rome, which forms one of the scenes in L'Esule di Roma, at the King's Theatre, is very effective as a scene; but it would be intoler- able as a picture. When the public grow sated with the prints of Mr. Maims, he will find a wider and more proper field for his exertions in the theatrical scene-rooms.
Somewhat akin to this preternatural school of Landscape introduced by Mr. MARTIN, is Mr. VARLEY'S picture of The Burial of Saul, now exhibiting in the British Institution, and engraved in mezzotint, with great force and feeling, by LINNELL. It is a grand, Poussni- looking composition ; the principal features of which, are a stately group of dark trees in the centre, relieved against a sunset, with murky clouds above; and the funeral procession passing over a bridge in the middle distance into the city on the left of the picture. The effect is solemn and impressive ; less so, perhaps, than it would be did it not appear somewhat studied and formal in its arrangement. It evinces, however, taste and poetic feeling on the part of the artist; and will captivate all who resign themselves to the influence of the picture, unrestrained by critical doubts as to the originality of the invention.
In addition to these imposing novelties, we have a good mezzotint by WALKER, of LONSDALE'S portrait of Lord Brougham ; the face of which does not look so hard as in the original, but the likeness is ion- intellectual, and not characteristic of the Chancellor.
There are also before us three lithographs of the highest excellence in their several styles. First in beauty, is a faithful copy, by LANE, of LANDSEER'S pretty Portrait of Lord .Alexander Russell; ahoy in the act of leaping his pony over the trunk of a tree. It makes a pleasing picture, and the subject is treated in the painter's happiest manner.. It forms a companion to the portrait of Lord Cosmo Russell on a High- land shelty. The finish and richness of the lithography, and the suc- cessful imitation of the artist's touch, are evidences of Mr. LANE'S un- rivalled skill. The print has a warm neutral tint thrown over it, which gives the appearance of an original sketch, without diminishing the brilliancy of its effect.
The Wounded Leopard, by Mourrsoy SMITH, is a masterly and spirited study of the 'character and expression of the animal. Rage and pain are forcibly depietedin the, head of:the brute ; and the paw of
the wounded limb hangs powerless. There appears some confusion in the making out of the form of the animal ; whose attitude, however, is so tortuous (naturally so), that it is difficult to point out where the defect exists-the paws, we think, are somewhat too large.
Spring Flowers is the title of a delicate drawing, by W. C. Ross, of two lovely females ; the elder with an expression of quiet archness; and the younger glowing with youthful merriment and good-nature. They are both captivating; but the last fairly runs away with our heart, and seems exulting at her roguishness.
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