The portfolio. April. Edited by P. G. Hamorton. (Seeley and
Co.)—This is a noticeable number, from the remarkable excellence of the two principal illustrations. "The Shepherds at Bethlehem is an etching by M. Henri Manesse, after the picture by M. Henri Lorolle. It is intended as an illustration to the series of papers which the editor is writing on "The Present State of the Fine Arts in France." As a matter of fact, it does not illustrate the particular paper contained in this number, which deals with "Impressionism," for, as Mr. Hamorton remarks, "nothing can be more remote from impressionism than the art of M. Lerolle.' Its appropriate literary matter will come in due tines. The picture is admirable. It is realistic, indeed, but the realism is of the most satisfying, even attractive kind. We feel that we are in the presence of a truth, and of what really happened; nor does the glory with which the painter has surrounded the holy figures contra-
diet it. The other notable feature of the number is Mr. Dawson's engraving of Madame Vig6o-lo-Brun's picture of herself with her daughter. Nothing could be more attractive,—" Mater pulchra, filia pulchrior," one might say, only that both mother and child can only be described by superlatives. It is admirably given by the engraver, with something of the effect of a mezzotint.
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