ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE ANNU ALS.
OF all the Souvenirs that overwhelm the town this year, there is not one so entirely successful in its illustrations as the Landscape Annual. It makes its first appearance this season ; and most delightfully has Mr. PROUT performed his task of running his patrons pictorially through some of the most pleasant towns that the Continent possesses. We praised the Ms in our last notice, because it gave none but the old masters ; and now we feel inclined to praise the Landscape Annual, because its illustrations are consigned to the care of one artist —and a most eminent one ; so that instead of rambling about, pick- ing up a bit here and a bit there of the whole tribe, this Annual may be confidently referred to as the portfolio of one great artist, where he has full space to revel in all his powers. If we must be required, out of so many highly laboured and successful attempts, to pick those which are preeminent, we would mention the Arch of Constantine, the View of IVIartigny, and the Cathedral of Milan. The View of Mar- tigny is a happy illustration of what PROUT can do with what in most other hands \ VOUld be a mere cottage: the powerful touch that lie gives to common things, and the freshness of style which lie imparts to everything that falls under his pencil, if it is but an old wall, are here strikingly conspicuous : the background, too, is extremely happy ; the mountains spread on every side, and the tall castle rises from the most prominent with a fine air tom and effect. The Arch of Constan- tine and the Milan Cathedral are great specimens of what PROUT is able to do with fine architecture : we bring them purposely together in this way, because, taken as a pair, they show how masterly he can deal with either the ruined or the complete—the Grecian or the Gothic. Look at the old triumph-token of CONSTANTINE, and you shall almost see the stone crumbling beneath your eye ; so deeply marked and conclusive are the pencillings that express the columns and the body. Look at the well-preserved Cathedral, and you shall see how crisply the mighty screen is presented, and with what purity of effect the whole is handled, so as to be a whole indeed. If we were to object at all, it would be, as regards the Arch, to the introduction of figures : we cannot help thinking that there would have been some- thing grander and more impressive had it been represented in sullen and uninterrupted majesty, rearing what was left of its dignity to- wards that sun which for so many hundred years has shone upon it. The Amulet is fortunate in its illustrations this year. Mammas " Crucifixion" is well engraved by LE KEUX, and is in itself a very striking design. Something too much, however, has been sacrificed to effect ; or rather we would say, propriety has been given up for the sake of situation. How the strength of one man was to bear the cross on which the Saviour is placed, is a problem; and how the strength of one man could drag it up the huge crag on which it is erected, is more surprising than the existence of Stonehenge in the midst of Salisbury Plain. The architecture, as is always the case in MARTIN'S designs, is extensive and dazzling ; and the extreme streak of light thrown into the horizon on the right hand, is well placed for the purpose of showing the distance to which the city ranges. WILICIE'S " Dorty Bairn" is engraved by MITCHELL, in a manner to do credit to the clear colouring of the artist : as to the design, the wo- man's face is a failure, as everything that is hard and straining after too much n'ust be : the children are much better, particularly the boy ; and the dog wishing, but not having, with his nose beyond the barrier of the chain, and the bread beyond his nose, is a pleasant piece of by-play, in WILKIE'S own style. Macr,EanN's " Anxious Wife," and COLLINS'S "Fishermen's Children," also require to be mentioned with commendation. UwiNs's "Mandoline, with Naples in the distance," is skilfully engraved by BACON, and may be spoken of as one of the most exquisitely Italian subjects that ever were painted: the artist has given the thing as he really found it—" nothing extenuate nor aught set down, in malice,"—whereas some travellers either will not see what actually does exist, or else look at it through spectacles so entirely English, that the fine traits which distinguish country from country are lost.
The Gem has sonic pretty things ; among which is WILKIE'S " Sa- turday Night,"—though it has been infinitely too hacknied to be a subject for a work which professes to be novel as the year. CRES- WICK'S " Tyre" is agreeably drawn, and not less agreeably engraved by Lacy : the arrangement of the scene likewise is dextrous ;—but there are too many artists nowadays that hit upon the expedient of popping a sun in the middle of a picture, and working from it as from a pivot, for a sunshine and air tone—if the thing goes on much longer, there is danger of its becoming moonshine. MARTIN'S " Ruins of Trionti" is extremely vigorous, though not always in good keeping: the most striking part of it is the deep hollow that is studded with trees and darkened iy the blackness that rides onward with the storm.
The "Emmanuel !" Eheu! what a name for a new-year's present ! Its only illustrations are " Marriage," which to our mind requires no illustration at all ; and " The Pilgrim," which to look on nearly put peas—and not boiled ones either—into our shoes.
The Juvenile Forget Me Not (the first of that name) is tastefully /
illustrated for the most part ; though, here and there, in seeking for the-young, we are afraid that it has run into the imbecile. Mrs. Z'iraan's " Heart's Ease " is brilliantly engraved by THOMSON; and was deserving of such labour, for the expression of the countenance it represents is full of pleasurable things : there is also a graceful ar- rangement about the left arm, which evinces the study that has been bestowed upon the subject. RicirrEa's "'Holiday Time" is effective ; but we must say of this, as we said of WiLKIE's " Saturday Night " in the Gem, that it has been too long before the public to be now ad- missible into a work that professes to he annual. BACON, however, has engraved it well ; and it cannot be denied that it is applicable both to the season when presented, and to the years to which presented. The Bijou has for its frontispiece a portaait of the King, engraved by ENSOM, from one of Sir THOMAS LAWRENCE'S paintings. It is a successful. engraving in every respect ; and the manner in which the hair has been touched is extremely skilful,though it might have been more strongly expressed without any diminution of the effect of the other portions of the engraving. A little head by Sir l'aomAs LAWRENCE, called " Ada," has been very highly wrought by DEAN, —perhaps too highly, as it is almost in engraving what CARLO DOLCI'S style is in painting—a losing of reality for the sake of delicacy. " Lady Jane Grey," engraved by the same hand and in the same style, tells better, because there is in the manner of the thing itself a quaintness and antiquity, which accord with this very prim mode of engraving. WILKIE'S "Bagpiper" has been well engraved by Fox; it is replete with vigorous touches, and rises forcibly from the paper: we must object to the hands, however, as being too linear and parchment-like. BONNINGTON'S " African Daughter" is better in the landscape than in the figure, which wants grace, and a reclining ease : the richness of the surrounding foliage is very effective ; and the distance, which conies creeping in, is an agreeable carrying on of the effect. The engraving of this subject, which is by SANGSTER, is one of the best in the whole volume.
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