FINE ARTS.
MISS EDEN'S SKETCHES OF INDIAN CHARACTER,
A NUMBER of water-colour drawings of remarkable characters among the Princes and People of India, made by the Honourable Miss E. EDEN during Lord AUCKLAND'S administration, are exhibited by Messrs. DICKINSON of Bond Street ; who are about to publish a selection from them. The collection is highly curious and attractive ; conveying lively ideas of the physiognomies and costumes of the various tribes in- habiting our Indian empire ; including persons of all ranks from the Rajah down to the Fakeer. Miss EDEN'S position, as sister of the Governor-General, gave her peculiar opportunities for exercising her extraordinary talent in portraiture ; which she has availed herself of with the industry and skill of a professed artist : her sketches are not less admirable for painter-like feeling and fine taste in colour, than for the felicity with which traits of individual character are depicted. The portraits of Dost Mahommed and his family, Runjeet Singh, Shere Singh, and other persons of distinction, are so expressive and animated as to carry conviction of the truth of the resemblances. Not only the looks but the attitudes are characteristic : for instance, "the old Lion of Lahore" is represented seated in his chair with one leg up, the foot of which is bare, it being a habit of his to kick off one slipper ; and Shere Singh sits as cross-legged as a man can do on a chair, resting his feet on a footstool. The Orientals look very uncomfortable seated on chairs and settees, betraying by their postures the tendency to draw up their legs ; which from the habit of sitting cross-legged, are bowed outwards. Shere Singh, with his low forehead, thick black beard, and bristling moustaches, has a look of brutal cunning and ferocity ; and is a very inferior character to his father Runjeet, whose wrinkled visage with long white beard, wears an aspect of sagacity as well as subtlety ;
the son of Shere Singh, a youth of mild and ingenuous countenance, with fine large dark eyes, is very prepossessing.
The variety and sumptuous richness of the costumes are quite extra- ordinary : strange and fantastic as are some of the dresses, they are all picturesque, and many of them elegant : the wildest and most ferocious ruffians, and even the Fakeers themselves, present a striking appearance, owing to the style of their dress ; a Jemindar or farmer is clad in embroidered silks of different colours, and might pass for a prince. The contrast between the rich and flowing draperies of the natives and the stiff close-fitting dress of Europeans is most conspicuous in the sketch of the Durbar of the Governor-General ; in which the native attendants make a better figure than the highest English officials. The gay hues of the housings of the elephants, camels, and horses, add greatly to the imposing grandeur of the riders : the bridles and trappings of Runjeet Singh's horse are studded with emeralds of extraordinary size, ropes of these precious stones encircle the horse's neck, and one of the largest known ornaments the pommel of the saddle : the value of the horse and its equipments is estimated at 350,0001.! Miss EDEN was permitted by RUNJEET to make a sketch of the famous diamond called " the Mountain of Light," the largest in the world ; and an enormous piece of pure carbon it is, almost as big as an egg. The sketches to be published will be lithographed in the tinted man- ner by Mr. LOWES DICKINSON; who has faithfully preserved the character of the originals in the few already done, improving the drawing of the figures—the only defective point in Miss EDEN'S work.
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