FINE ARTS.
THE PRIZE CARTOONS IN MINIATURE.
THE miniature copies of the Eleven Prize Cartoons are now completed, and are exhibited by cards at Messrs. LEGGATT and NEVILLE'S print- rooms in Cornhill, where they will remain only a short time. The re- ducing and drawing have occupied the three sons of Mr. LINNELL in- cessantly nearly all this year ; and the result of their labour and skill is the production of a set of the most finished, faithful, and spirited copies that could be desired. Having attentively watched the progress of these drawings, and compared them with the originals, we are enabled to speak positively as to the minute fidelity with which the style of each artist and the character and expression of every figure have been rendered, while at the same time the sentiment of the originals has been preserved. The miniature drawings are more attractive to the eye than the cartoons, on account of their delicate and beau- tiful execution ; the concentration of the composition and chiaro- scuro also improves their effect : in short, these copies display the designs to great advantage. Those who have not seen the Prize Cartoons will form a lively and favourable idea of them in a diminished form ; and those who have will be gratified by finding their first impressions thus agreeably recalled. Indeed, as specimens of good draughtsmanship alone, these exquisite crayon-drawings merit close examination and high praise. The knowledge of anatomy dis- played in drawing the figure, and the appreciation of what is excellent in art manifested in indicating—and in some instances improving upon—the points on which the coherence and keeping of the groups depend, show that the sons of Mr. LINNELL, young as they are have been better educated than many artists of greater pretensions. In the present dearth of draughtsmen such rare qualifications deserve especial recognition. Their labour is only half done yet, however ; Messrs. LINNELL having undertaken to lithograph their drawings ; a task which, judging from one specimen that we have seen—a head of Flora after LEONARDO Da Vizier—they are equally competent to perform. The want of draughtsmen skilled in design and drawing the figure is a great impediment to the spread of lithography in this country, and limits the field for employment in other modes of engraving. The French and Germans almost divide the market for prints between them, because of the number and excellence of their figure-copyists on steel and on stone. Yet we have still no -School of anatomical drawing in England!
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