FINE ARTS.
EMBELLISHMENTS OF THE ANNUALS.
Or the twelve plates which embellish the Amulet, seven are from pictures by LAWRENCE ; whose works possess a fascination of style and manner that almost blinds us to their defects. Of these, the far- famed portrait of the Dutchess of Richmond appears in the engraving shorn of its charms ; a lady and child, entitled " The English Mo- ther," a natural iind pleasing picture; an& John Kemble as Cato—the beau ideal of a theatrical portrait—are admirably well engraved by Grmazaiacit. Two female heads, engraved by J. C.' EDWAliDS,—one called a The Evening Star," the other forming a vignette to the title- page,—are instances of the mistake which our modern engravers make- in representing flesh by means of comparatively coarse lines. They seem anxious to show their skill in imitating the natural texture and colour of flesh in the most unnatural manner, and by the most inappropriate means, as if to overcome difficulties were their only aim. If it be, they do not succeed in it. These two faces are muddy, instead of possessing the brilliancy and transparency of the tone of flesh. One might as well covet a bust of woven wire, or a portrait wrought of packthread, as one of these faces composed of convolutions of lines. The head by CHARLES HEATH, forming the frontispiece to the Keep- sake for 1833, is brilliant in effect, and therefore we do not quarrel with the means employed ; but we protest against the principle. In heads of a large size the lines, if judiciously employed, are lost in the masses of shade or half-tint, as in those paintings on copper' the portraits of EnEr.INcK, and others of the old French school. SHARP, ANKER SMITH, WEDGWOOD, Doo, and others, have produced wonderfully fine examples of the beauty, precision, elaboration, and brilliancy, at- tainable by the use of bold flowing lines running across the face ; but either the effect is heavy, like these plates before us, or where bril- liancy is obtained, it is with a degree of hardness that is inconsistent with the character of flesh. The lines ought not only to be varied, but used in conjunction with dots and hatching; so that the texture or mechanism of the engraving should not he apparent at the proper dis- tance of the plate from the eye. There are two imitations, by F. C. LEWIS, of LAWRENCE'S pencil sketches,—one, a beautiful young girl ; the other, two line children : both of these drawings are tinctured with that affectation of style which was one of LAWRENCE'S besetting sins. The " Evening Star," by the by, is still more conscious and theatrical in air and attitude ; and what a hideous caricature of form is the neck!. —the effect of drawing by recipe. " The Gentle Student," a girl reading, by NEWTON, beautifully en- graved by C. ROLLS, is a pretty face spoiled by an affected attitude and costume; the fair one appears to be holding her face before her like a mask—for it has no connexion with her bust, and we almost expect to see her remove it : the drawing is preposterous. WILKIE'S picture of a staid-looking man making grim horse-play with a child, whose cap and cloak he has put on in sport, is a very literal represen- tation of ungainly fun : it is a dry and meagre bit of drollery. The engraving, by E. FINDEN, is excellent; as is that by C. Fox, of MULREADY'S ingenious picture of boys launching their toy-boats. This design is spoilt by the affected little urchin who eyes "the young na- vigators" askance : he is as artificial in look and manner as they are natural. LIVERSEEGE'S design of " The Lute" wants grace and feel- ing; and BOADEN'S Mexican Girl is too theatrical in air and attitude. Altogether, however, the plates in the Amulet are of a high order in modern art : we must leave purchasers to decide between them and those of the Keepsake and Souvenir. The embellishments of the Juvenile Forget Me Not are also of a su- perior deseription. The frontispiece, a girl with flowers, by BOTH- WELL, has very natural and pleasing expression ; a rustic girl with a pitcher, by GAINSBOROUGH--" Sailors' Wives" by Hormit—" The Grandmother," by FRASER--" The Industrious Young Cottager," by JoNEs—and a very pretty View on the Sea, by SaLmorr—are the best of the plates. With the exception of HEATH'S Book of Beauty and TURNER'S Annual Tour, both of which appear this year for the first time, we have got to the end of the Annuals ; and we cannot help remarking upon the similarity of the embellishments, and the system of getting them up. Among so numerous a family, we naturally expect to see some more striking differences : but each seems to follow in the track of the one that went before. Such poverty of taste, dulness of fancy, and sterility of invention, in a class of books whose prominent features should be novelty and variety as well as elegance, can only be accounted for by referring the cause to the bovine imagination" and plodding genius of the traders in these Tunbridge toys of literature. For in- stance, one of the most gay and attractive species of embellishments, the coloured plate, has not been introduced in any Annual. Yet this medium is susceptible of the highest degree of finish and accuracy, and its effects are surpassingly rich and beautiful.
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