19 JUNE 1847, Page 18

MR. C. S. HAR.DINGE'S SKETCHES FROM INDIA..

Mr. M`Lean, of the Haymarket, is exhibiting a collection of sketches by a son of Lord Hardinge, taken on the spot in various parts of India. Mr. Harding° is a worthy pupil of his namesake Mr. J. D. Harding the emir neat artist; who is transferring the sketches to stone by a new proeesS. We often distrust these versions of amateur sketches, for they are most frequently mere conjectural inventions: in the notable instance of Sted- man's Siirinam, so much admired for its plates, Faseli made designs which bore as little resemblance to the worthless daubs that Stedman far-,- nished as those daubs must have done to the originals. But Mr. Ilardinge the amateur is really a very able artist: though his sketches are hasty, oftea generalized effects, they are bold, firm, and have every aspect of fidelity. In the human figure he fails—a leg, especially, seems to be beyond him; but even in the roughsnatch at a portrait there is somuch life and character as to stamp the drawing with the spirit of truth. Mr. Harding the artist does not flatter the amateur, but merely redlices his memoranda to a due distinctness, with a very congenial feeling to guide him in the operation. The sketches comprise some fine specimens of the most magnificent archi- tecture a India: it strikes us that we have never seen so magnificent an entrance as the one portrayed in a sketch to which the name is missing; There were great architects once in that region.