FINE ARTS.
RECENT ENGRAVINGS AFTER WILKIE.
Two remarkable additions have recently been made to the series of large prints after Wilkie; both fine engravings of his latest pictures,—The Queen's First Council, and Sir David Baird at Seringapatam. Neither subject, how- ever, is well suited to the peculiar genius of the painter: for both are Foe- trait-pictures; and though Wilkie excelled in portraying haulm' character as well as objects of still-life, he failed in mere portraiture,—for the same reason that he was unsuccessful in historical subjects; strango as this may appear.
Wilkie, though essentially a dramatic painter, could not generalize: he did not embody abstractions either of -persons or -events. He must have particular factsto deal with, and these he depicted circumstantially. Ilia fan- cy could not soar beyond the present age, or above material things; its .range was narrowed to the scope of his perceptions: and Wilkie's mental vision was short-sighted, though of microscopic power. Hence, every successful figure in his pictures is engaged in some special act, either of mind or body, in which all the faculties are concentrated. In depicting this intense state of momentary consciousness,—whether it be the apprehensive anxiety of a mother awaiting the doctor's opinion of her sick child, as in " The Sick Daughter," or the farmer coughing and the butler drawing a -corkin " The 'Rent Day," the boy crying with a bruised shin in " Blind Man'a Buff," or the man snapping his fingers to the child in " The Blind Fiddler",—Wilkie has never been surpassed for vivid truth. He possessed the power of combining the expression of character with that of sensation and emotion : or rather through these feelings; for it was his perception of their manifestation that was his clue to the delineation of character. Want- ing this material clue, he oftener missed than hit individual characteristics. He should never have attempted the conventional airs and graces of poz- trait-painters; as in trying to give dignity to George the Fourth at Holy- rood. Literal truth was 1Vilkie's forte; truth vitalized by character and action, but concentrated to minute points of expression.
As with his conception so with his execution; it was the last touch 'that brought the picture to perfection. And this last touch was rarely wanting in his finished works; so patient, so conscientious a painter was ho. The art alone of his pictures, independently of their subject, has a charm that attracts even the superficial gazer: his careful drawing and well-studied light and shade give value to accessories and vitality to figures.
These characteristics of Wilkie's pictures require to be borne in mind while looking at the two prints mentioned above; to enable one to account for the strange mixture of good and-bad qualities—of remarkable success and glaring failure—that they exhibit.
The Queens First Council is a curious mixture of the actual and tmreaL The idea of a youthful princess, suddenly summoned from her girliah pur- suits and the retirement of home to preside over the councils of a great nation, is conveyed by Wilkie's picture. Queen Victoria, in a simple white robe, with head unadorned, is seated on the edge of the chair of state, at one end of-a long table, in a plain, low-celled room; and surrounded with a number of grave mon in official costume, looking at the new Sovereign as if wondering how she would play the first act of her important part. The interesting scene is vividly represented; and a dramatic effect is produced ber the eyes of nearly all the Councillors being directed towards the Queen, who thus becomes " the observed of all observers." This attention to a natural circumstance shows Wilkie's sense and observation; the more so that the obvious propriety of directing the looks of a company to the person who is speaking, is too often neglected by painters of portrait-pictures; which want life and unity Asa consequence. But Wilkie could notpaint a woman; and his Queen Victoria wants likeness, in feature, expression, and air. The Dukes of Cumberland and Sussex are the best of the whole group; and the four Ministers—Melbourne and Russell, Peel and Wellington—are among the worst. There are traits of individual character in most of the' fame; but they-are not completely and satisfactorily portrayed—because they are mere passive spectators, and are performing no specific act. Nevertheless, the excellence of the painting in other respects renders this picture-second only to Leslie's " Coronation Sacrament " in the series of royal ceremonials of Queen Victoria's reign.
Sir David Baird at Seringapatam is a fine picture spoiled by a bad por- trait. Sir David Baird, with a helmet of that obsolete fashion which seems to have been suggested by a huntsman's cap with the fox's brush stuck in it, on the top of his head to show his forehead, stands at the gate of the fortress flourishing his sabre; reminding one of a City Light Horse Volunteer affecting the heroic. But this ludicrous figure is set'off with a blaze of effect that makes the masses of the picture attractive; and
he figures around, though squeezed into flatness by the great space mo- nopolized by the principal personage, are fall of action and life. The story of the discovery of the dead body of Tippoo Saib is effectively told: the eager gaze of the crowd of faces, straining to catch a glimpse of the features of the slain Sultan, and the lurid reflections of torch and lantern-light, make up a scene of stirring interest.
The pictorial effect is splendid; and Wilkie's chiaroscuro has received full justice in the print by Mr. Burnet. Mr. Burnet's engravings have more of the artistic qualities of painting than those of almost any other engraver; for he is himself a painter also. In this plate, the richness, vigour, and free- dom of the engraving, are remarkable; combined with that true delicacy which is shown not in finical mannerism but by a fine appreciation of the light and shade of the original picture. The extreme elaboration, neatness, and force of Mr. Fox's mezzotint of " The Queen's First Council," may be preferred by those whom its cold and hard thinness does not repel; but it will not bear comparison with the original, as Burnet's plate does: it wants that refinement of style with which Wilkie's works require to be rendered. The way to test the merit of an engraving is to look at it beside the picture; a test rarely applied, and such as few plates will bear.
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