FINE ARTS.
LEWIS'S SPANISH SKETCHES.
THE engravings in the Landscape Annual of DAVID ROBERTS'S Views in Spain, are limited to the architecture and scenery. Jour; LEWIS is the only artist that has delineated the people, their habits, and cos. tumes; and with remarkable success, as those who have visited the Water-colour Exhibition these last two or three years can testify. The present volume consists of twenty-five lithographic fac-similes of his original sketches; their effect heightened by a warm tint thrown over the drawing with the lights relieved in white, after the manner of his Sketches of the Alhambra, to which it forms a companion volume. There is this difference, however, that these sketches are drawn on the stone by Lewis himself, which was the case with but a few of the Alhambra views : the subjects, too, are more various and interesting, and are treated in a more felicitous and vigorous manner. That dis- tinct perception of character, and of the picturesque in attitude and costume, which gives such verisimilitude to this artist's drawings of figures, was by no means so strikingly displayed in the Alhambra sketches as it is in the present volume. Be has now become master of the lithographic material, too ; which'gives to these sketches a depth and richness of colour and force of effect, that, despite a certain heavi- ness of handling, makes us almost overlook that hardness which cha- racterizes his style. The subjects are chiefly groups of monks, muleteers, bull-fighters, peasant girls, and ladies; in which not only the costumes, but the man- ners, physiognomy, and mode of life of the Spaniards, are depicted. LEWIS is very successful in expressing the lounging, indolent air, and listless look of sensuality, which characterize the people; and the warm yellowish tint aids the effect of warmth in the atmosphere and sallow- ness in the complexions. A few views are introduced, of which the Interiors are by far the best ; indeed, they are more powerfully drawn than those of the Alhambra. The Chapel of Cordova, the Monk at the Convent-door, and the Prior seated in his snug apartment, sur- rounded by old books and carved cabinets, are among the most strik- ing. The Mosque at Cordova, with its multiplicity of horse-shoe arches, has a disagreeable effect, that appears to arise from want of keeping. Of the out-door views, those of the Great Square at Seville, and the Puerta del Sol at Madrid, look very like the view of Ronda is a hard outline, without any effect of distance ; and the Feluccas are too rigidly, though forcibly drawn. But in these subjects LEWIS is not so successful. It is in the figures and objects near the eye that he displays his power. The two Spanish ladies, with their plump round shoulders, languishing air, and voluptuous look, wearing the line comb and tvhite rose, und the great bunch of ribbon at the back of the head ; a couple of female heads, half-veiled by the rich dark fold of the mantilla; a market-girl, likewise wearing the mantilla, seated on a panniered mule ; and a Jewess in the fiesta.dress—a tight embroidered boddice, with full white hanging sleeves and enormous ear-nings, and a tasteftilly.arranged drapery on her head—are the most attractive speci- mens of female character. The Bull-tighter — a Picador, or horse- man, with his padded breeches and stiff leggings, embroidered short jacket arid sash, and broad-brimmed hat worn over the large black rosette that ties his hair behind—is a very characteristic figure, as he leans over the fence of the arena ; and Jose Maria, a brigand who was shot in an at- tempt to betray his comrades, is a precious specimen of brutal stupidity and cunning, with his half-shut eyes and thin compressed lips. There is a great deal of ease and of nature in the group of Contrabandistas, where a man on horseback with a girl behind him are stopping ats gateway talk- ing to another couple on foot the horse and dog, are well-drawn, though a little too hard : the mules and horses, of which there are several introduced, are in all cases drawn in a masterly manner. A group of monks on mules, talking to two of their brethren on foot, and a couple of Mendicant Friars, with long beards—one of them wearing the large-leafed hat that Basil parades in Figaro—receiving alms from. two lovely little girls who are kissing a toy-image of the Virgin, while their mother and her servant are gravely looking on, is a very delightful. picture : the sweet, innocent looks of the graceful children, contrast strikingly with the craft and sensuality of the friars. The two completest pictures, however, are Peasants Dancing the Bolero under a trellis of vines, through whose leafy awning the sun• bursts, dappling the tiled floor of the terrace, and the interior of a- Posada. The two dancers are not in very animated action ; but the guitar-players, the girl beating the tambourine while she carries on a flirtation with her lover, and the others looking on, are grouped taste- fully, yet in a natural manner, and their looks and attitudes are expressive of repose and enjoyment. The party in the Posada, with the bull-fighter playing cards with a muleteer, is equally characteristic : the easy atti- tude of the man lolling back with his arm over the chair, and the various expressions of the lookers-on—especially the half-idiot cunning of the pilgrim, with his spoon Ma in his hat instead of the cockle-shell- are expressed most felicitously.
The vignette in the title, showing the royal box in the amphitheatre, with the dead bull dragged out of the arena, is a pretty miniature picture. These sketches are as effective examples of the advantages which the use of the stump in lithography and the addition of the tint afford in
heads, figures, and costume, as HARDING'S are in landscape and archi-
tecture, though the lights are not so artfully introduced. The velvety richness of the dark touches is beautiful ; and they have all the power arid freedom of painting. The charm of this mode of lithography,
which HULLMANDEL has placed at the command of the painter, is the absence of all appearance of mechanism the artist's feeling gives value to every touch. This will recommend its adoption to artists, and teach the public to appreciate originality in prints as well as pictures. If EDWIN LANDSEER would but lithograph a set of sketches !
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