FINE ARTS.
Picturesque Views of the Antiquities of Ireland. Drawn on Stone by J. D. HARDING, from the Sketches of R. O'CALLAG.• HAN NEWENHAM. 2 Vols.
The scenery and antiquities of Ireland, have hitherto had my inadequate justice done to their wild beauties and picturesque ruins; and Mr. NEWENHAM has availed himself of opportunities which were pre- sented to him in the course of an official duty, to supply, in some mea- sure, this deficiency, which has been more-generally felt than expressed. The views consist principally of reixten.t Of antiquity, with the sur- rounding scenery ; and the plates are accompanied with brief descrip. tive matter ; Mr. NEWENHAM'S main object having been to rescue from oblivion these interesting memorials of former times. There is still room, therefore, for a work having for its object the delineation of the romantic scenery of Ireland ; and such a desideratum is supplied in a cheap form, corresponding with WESTALL'S Views of Eugland, by a work now in the course of publication. The principal value of the present work, as regards the beauty of the plates, consists in Mr. HARDING'S lithographic drawings, which have thrown the charms of effect over the scene, and given a variety and pic- torial character to barrenness, that renders them interesting, apart from any national or antiquarian feeling. He invests his subjeclooktwth
with allthese poetry of nature and the resources of his art ; and we plates until the black and white impression seems to pale in the moon. light or to glow in the splendours of sunset. It is one of the peculiar beauties of his lithographic drawings, that he renders the effects of colour so vividly. His lights glitter- in the sunny dawn, his shadows
deepen in the twilight ; he flings a mist over distant mountains, or the veil of evening round a mouldering tower ; he enriches a churchyard
with a prodigality of rank grass and wild foliage, peoples the river-side with a group of peasants merry-making, dotting the slope of a green hill with sheep, and casting fitful shadows from an intervening cloud, while the sunbeams pour a golden flood, of light on the tops of the trees and gild the village spire in the distance. His sea-views are not less effective: a bare insulated rock, the base of some toppling ruin, te- nanted by sea-birds, and a few tufts of weeds its only ornament, stands up against the cool grey dawn in bare magnificence ; or the foundations of some time-conquered castle, just seen above the ground, breaking the outline of a beetling cliff, are half shrouded in a cloud of mist and rain, whose gloom is just relieved by a gleam of pale light in one corner of the picture. Whether snow, or moonlight, sunset, or sunrise, mid- night, or high noon, there is equally displayed a feeling for nature, an understanding of its beautiful effects, and a mastery of art in their production. The antiquarian will find some strikingly curious specimens of architecture—crosses, and the curious round pillar-like towers, with
conical roofs, whose use and origin have so puzzled the learned. To the amateur of pictures, not less than the tourist, these volumes will be interesting for the sake of the beautiful scenes which they contain.
This work displays the great advantages of lithography in the handS of an original artist ; for he may produce any effect he pleases with as
much ease and freedom as with his pencil upon paper; and every im- pression is as it were an original drawing, with the touch and feeling of the master. We should like to see some of TURNER'S splendid effects transferred to stone : no artist is so competent to attempt such a task as Mr. HARDING; and for landscape sketches lithography has advan- tages superior to those of any other style of engraving.
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