FINE ARTS,
STANFIELD'S SKETCHES.
STANFIELD unquestionably enjoys the most extensive popularity of any artist of the day. Others may have been for a longer time before the public, have painted finer pictures, and stand on a higher eminence in the world of art; nay, their works may even be more familiar to pic- ture-lovers through the medium of engravings ; but none has so uni- versal a reputation as STANFIELD. He is (must we say was?) a scene- painter. While the fame of his brethren has been limited to the com- paratively small portion of the community who enter into the merits of works of art, he has for years been in the habit of appealing nightly to the delighted eyes of the thousands who fig* to the theatres, and receiving the reward of his successful labours in thunders of applause. For one person who is acquainted with the name of TURNER or CALL- COTT, there are a hundred to whom STANmtn's is familiar. Some of the distinguished artists who have put forth lithographic fac-similes of their sketches, have by this means spread their fame STANFIELD'S fame will be the means of spreading his sketches—and with them a taste for pictures. To many a house of which a portfolio of prints forms no part of the furniture, and where the walls are guiltless of any thing more plc. torial than the effigies of a coat or a gown with a face above them, or the portrait of a horse or a ship, will STANFIELD'S name be the "open sesame" to a fine work of art in the shape of this volume of SheIch,es on the Moselle, ate Ritine, and the Meuse. And no artist is fitter to follow up this advantage, and confirm the prestige of his name, than STANFIELD. His style is bold and plain, dextrous and dias tiller. ioost painters who have wrought for the stage, he deli,. neittes lejects with substautial force, and minuteness ef detail; hie views are faithful portraits, characterized by local accuracy tuid identity of resemblance. If for the sake of effect he does sometimes, by the force of pictorial faith, remove mountains and transport churches—to say nothing of shoving aside a blank wall, planting a tree, or flinging in a rock as the Prosperos who wield the pencil wand are apt to do upon occasions when the necessity of picturesqueness is not absolutely imperative; still, his pictures retain the strong look of reality: when he falsifies, a be lies like truth." This is a great recommendation to the uneducated taste for pictures, which desiderates in the first instance likeness ; and this peculiarity be owes to his practice in scene-painting. Scene-painting is commonly con- sidered to be vague and sketchy ; whereas clearness of definition is the characteristic of the best-painted scenes. The execution is slight and rapid, but the forms are well made out ; and the easel-pictures of all great scenists, from CANALETTI to STANFIELD, are remarkable for force of realization. This increases the rigidness of outline and fixed- ness of look that we remarked in speaking of the original sketches; and that undoubtedly; detracts from their beauty as pictures; but it contributes to their value in the eyes of matter-of-fact people, who re- gard the resemblance of the objects more than the artist's style or the pictorial effect. To such, TURNER, in his soberest mood, is visionary ; tie; elegant freedom and slightness of HARDING'S pencilling only seems unfinished; and the vigorous character of LEWIS'S drawing ap- pears coarse and heavy. The artist's style, in short, is to them unin- telligible; they undervalue as much as others are apt to overrate it. STANFIELD'S " Sketches " are in fact complete pictures — carefully finished drawings ; in which the view fills the paper, and seems almost to burst its bounds, as if the margin were too narrow for it. We will not attempt to follow STANFIELD in his course along the rivers from whose banks he has gleaned the subjects of the thirty views of river and land scenery, castle.crowned hills and level country, cities and fortresses, crumbling Gothic ruins and scaffolded new buildings, with groups of figures and cattle, boats and waggons, rocks and foliage, introduced to give life and reality to the scene. In the titlepsge, the artist is seen seated in a boat sketching, the steersman looking over his shoulder : the portmanteau and bag in the bow, and the pot and bottle aft, lead us to infer that this was sometimes his hotel, upon occa don, as well as his means of transport. Among the most pie- ture,que in point of artistical treatment, are the church at Treves, on the Aloselle, with a ferry-boat, the figures reflected in the stream ; the castle of Marienburg, with the Moselle winding round the base of the prom an tory—a magnificent landscape, with an atmosphere like TURNER ; Dinant, on the Meuse, which has the chaste elegance and simplicity of CALLCOTT ; a rocky scene on the Meuse by moonlight—a most power- ful piece of effect. But our individual preferences cannot interest the reader, and the mere enumeration of beauties is a barren task. The château of Elz, and Huy, on the Meuse, will be recognized as part of the series of views forming the diorama at Covent Garden Theatre.
To the lover of art, the value and interest of the work would have been greatly enhanced had the lithographic fac.similes been made by STAN- FIELD himself, instead of copyists ; but to the generality of his ad- mirers it will be a matter of little moment. To them, the neatness and elaboration of the draughtsman, indeed, will be preferable to the more
spirited and hasty touch of the painter. Messrs. HAGHE and BOYS,
who have executed the greater number of drawings, too, are themselves artists of original.tident of no mean order; and they have caught the feel- ing of the painter and carried out his intention with congenial force and
clearness. Messrs. GAIT' and PICKEN have also performed their share of the work with praiseworthy care and fidelity. All of them have very successfully employed HULLMANDEL'S process of graduating the lights in the tint thrown over the drawings, as first practised by HARDING in his Sketches. The value of this beautiful means of imi-
tating the effect of drawings on tinted paper touched with white, was never more apparent. It gives relief and solidity to the near objects, airy brightness to the clouds, transparency to the water, and warmth and atmosphere to harmonize the whole.
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