The Vanity Fair Album. Vol. IV. (Vanity Fair Office.)—Here are
fifty portraits of the kind which Vanity Fair has made famous. There is cleverness about them ; each gives an idea of a quality, or at least an eccentricity in its subject. What we object to is that very few give us an idea of a man. It is not too much to say that most of thorn are positively not human. Of course, the exaggeration of the size of the head is allowable. We do not mean that; apart from that, the portraits are almost all monstrous. President Grant is an exception, but Ex-King Amadeus, M. Thiers, and the Earl of Cork, to speak of the first four, are caricatures. So much indeed we might say of almost all, the very rare exceptions, that of Mr. Eykyn, for instance, bringing out more strongly into relief the extravagance of the others. And the colour is often exaggerated as much as the outlines. The brief descriptions which accompany the pictures are very good.
Previous page
