BROMLEY'S mezzotint engraving of PRENTIS'S picture of "Amelia Awaiting the
Return of her Husband," is a most elaborate and highly- finished copysin black and white, of the painting: indeed it is a perfect monochrome picture. The details so distinctly made out are subser- vient to the general effect ; and it seems as if we saw the original reflected in a black mirror. There stands the anxious wife looking with patient anxiety out at the window, not so much hoping to catch a sight of her returning husband, as because she cannot sit still. The neat yet homely. furnished apartment—the cloth laid so orderly—the dinner at the fire— the boot-jack arid slippers in readiness—the child's rattle on the floor, and the work just deposited on the chair—tell the story without need. of comment. The art, though humble, is perfect of its kind : it pre- tends to nothing beyond literal truth ; and truth in any pictorial shape is acceptable amidst the quantity of meretricious trash now put forth. The only defect of the print—and it is a material one—is that the look of Amelia does not express all that we think it did in the painting; and even that was deficient in intensity. This deprives the picture of its great charm, for it makes it look like a mere group of still-life objects ; whereas in the original, the minute fidelity of the imitation partook of the spirit which Amelia's look, feeble as it was, infused into the scene.
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