FINE ARTS.
THE LANDSCAPE ANNUALS..
THE Tourist Annuals bid fair to prove perennials, for their attractions are as great as their field is boundless. Our landscape draughtsnien, those in water-colours especially, are so skilful, and evince so much feeling in their sketches, and throw into them such charm of effect, that they realize all we can fancy of the romantic and beautiful scenery they delineate. In turning over the plates, we experience no disappointment—only a variation in the degree of our delight. Open- ing one of these Annuals, is like looking into a camera luckla, where the loveliest scenes are presented in succession to the eye in miniature. STANFIELD and HARDING are already in the field. HARDING, in the Fourth Volume of the Landscape Annual, completes the tour of Italy. The two first volumes were illustrated by PROUT ; the two last are by HARDING. HARDING is now gone to Spain to glean the wild and won- derful scenery of the Peninsula. TURNER will this year present us with his first "Annual Tour" along the Loire. ROBERTS illustrates the Continental Annual, commenced last year by PROUT ; who is engaged on a volume of lithographic fac-similes of his pencil sketches, to ap- pear early in the next year. STANFIELD, in the Picturesque Annual, carries us through Holland and along the Rhine ; while with HARDING, in the Landscape Annual, we visit the coast of Genoa, the Val d'Aosta, and other parts of Italy. Now that there are SO many artists employed Upon these Tourist Annuals, we think that a more settled plan should be adopted,—that of a little tour, for instance, like TuaNEa's, along some river, or among the more hidden or less known beauties of some delightful district. We have views in abundance of well-known scenes ; and as they are mostly from different points, we become acquainted with them in every aspect. Let the artist pitch his tent in the midst of some snug corner of the globe, in the bosom of some peaceful valley, or among the ruins of some ancient city, and gather every scrap of its beauties so that we may lie on the sofa with his book n hand, and fancy the i cushion at our head is the fallen capital of a temple, and that we are reposing on the ruins of a city or on an empire's dust ! The plates of HARDING'S Annual are this year superior in beauty and excellence, both as regards the drawings and engravings, to those of the last. His foregrounds are very rich ; his style is forcible, as usual; and his effects are, we think, more varied and beautiful than before. The views are not so heavy and crowded, though we still desidcrate more aerial distances. We had the pleasure of looking over his drawings for this year's Annual, and a superb collection they are. We traced in several an emulation of the splendid effects of TURNER, es- pecially in the skies ; but no artist can produce such exquisite grada- tions of colour, light, and shade, or throw over the scene that pervading tone which harmonizes all the various parts as in nature.
STANFIELD is as brilliant as ever, and more various. His drawings partake more of the quality of the scene than HARDING'S, which have sometimes too English a look. STANFIELD'S seem to present the ac- tual view before you; HARDING'S look like compositions. But it is perhaps a fault with English landscape-painters, that they do not suffi- ciently preserve the characteristics of the scenery they depict; we do not mean the more minute localities, but the broad general appearances of nature. They make sketches, and translate them on their return home. Some of STANFIELD'S views are exceptions to this remark —the Views in Holland especially—those on the Scheldt and the Brill—of Rotterdam Bruges, Ghent, the mill near the Hague, &c. The view on the Scheldt is a beautiful Dutch picture, and might have been painted by VANDERCAPELLA.
We should like to turn over the plates seriatim, and enjoy them as it were with the reader; but our space will only allow us to note a few of the most strikingly beautiful. Such are the 'Views on the Rhine ; of Coblentz from Ehrenbreitstein ; Bingen at evening; "the castled crag of Drachenfels ;" the distant view of the Castle of Heidelberg ; and the near one of the same fortress, by moonlight,—a scene for Mrs. RADCLIFFE ; -the Castle of Godesburg,—a very picturesque scene ; Andernach; Bonn ; Cologne, &c. HARDING'S' Views on the Coast of Genoa embrace many scenes that will be novel even to the traveller. We have besides some near Tivoli, and in the Val d'Aosta; of Terni ;-Victri Narni ; Mola ; Trevi ;- Castel Gandolpho : the Tower of Fiesole and Convent of Vallom- brosa, whose very names awaken a world of associations poetical, his- torical, and pictorial. The best engraved plates are by WALLIS, Goon- ALL, J. B. ALLEN, WILLMORE, BRANDARD, HIGHAM, and two new names, CARTER and FLOYD; but, seen after the original drawings, they are "poor indeed." They should be looked at from a little distance to catch the general effect ; but few will bear a close examination.
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