LAURENCE'S PICTUERS.
Mr. Laurence, whom many of our readers will remember as a painter characterized by unaffected style, truthful and luminous colouring, and a certain air of distinction in his portraits, has recently returned to this country, and three of his pictures are now to be seen at Hogarth's, in the Ha3rmarket. One is a portrait of James Spedding, the editor of the new edition of Bacon. It is alone enough to show that the transatlantic climate has not impaired the English painter. For power, effect of re- lief, and light, the painting would not easily be matched by any save one or two of the best living larulsoape painters. A countenance thought- ful, animated, placid, and kind, is pourtrayed, reproduced with all the accuracy and freedom of life. Another portrait is full of similar qualities in the execution, though less remarkable. The third is a life-size drawing of Monckton Milnes-" the very picture of the origi- nal," almost to the sound of the voice -so powerfully does one trait of nature suggest others. There is a bold delicacy in the drawing admir- ably in harmony with a certain self-possessed dignity in the pose of the head. Such portraits do what the photograph cannot do-they give you the moral and intellectual aspect of the man, as caught in the passing traits of what we may call a sub-active state, in lineaments which stiffen or disappear in the fixity required for the photograph.
The current number of the Journal des Beaux Arts begins with a paper by Charles Blanc on Raphael, and has five most interesting facsimiles from drawings by that chief of all painters-a Murder of the Innocents, a Descent from the Cross, a female head, a study of Sappho, and a wondrous design for the figure of Dante, the two last studies for the fresco of Mount Parnassus. If the artist student wants to see what a few lines can do, in portraying form, trines, power, dignity, and elevation of thought, let him look at these draw- ings : but it will need something more than a tyro to recognize the full meaning of every form indicated,-like that of Dante, under the long folds of a loose gown. The whole number is interesting.
The Art Journal gives us Wilkie's " Guerilla Council of War,"-a serious Spanish picture in the painter's last "manner,"-and not his best ; a child's head by Greuze, beautifully engraved ; and an able engraving from a charming groups by Foley-" The Tomb revisited "-a tomb, with three yobng women contemplating it in a silent and tender grief most naturally and touchingly rendered. The Halls' Journey in Wales, and the paper on our National Flags, are continued, with copious illustrations.
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