The second number of FixnEN's Portraits of the Female Aristocracy
includes two of the lovely group of trainbearers to the Queen at the Coronation,—namely, the Ladies Wilhelmina Stanhope and Frances Cowper. CitAi.os's sketch of Lady Stanhope is one of the most charming pictures, of fashion adorned by beauty and sweetness, that this VANDYKE of millinery has produced : a white crescent of light plumage surmounts the dark tresses of the young beauty like the feathery crest of some elegant bird. JOHN HAvTen has sketched Lady Cowper in a morning.dress, in a simpler style, and less mannered than is his wont ; and Ile has given the face a quiet look of meaning, as if the young lady were shaping an arch reply to some remark. The pretty bonnet that the Countess of Falmouth wears is better drawn by CHALON than the face within it.
What ii contrast to the gay attraction of this trio of fashionable women, is presented by the grave, calm, deliberative countenance, of Mr. Stevenson the engineer ; whose massive forehead scents to weigh down the eyelids and concentrate the perceptive intelligence of the eyes. The breathing, thinking reality of the character, is also ex- pressed in the easy posture, and assisted by the broad simplicity and power of BainGs's painting ; which is well reflected in the clear and painter-like mezzotint of TURNER. BRIGGS'S portraits are unrivalled in the present day for force of resemblance, and an unaffected air of sense and meaning : he looks below the surface to find the likeness of the individual, and puts mind into the face.
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