FINE ARTS.
NEW ENGRAVINGS.
THE important work, which Messrs. FINDEN have been so long pre- paring, of Engravings from the best Masters of the British School of Painting, from time time of Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS downwards, is on the eve of publication. We have seen specimens of line engravings after pictures by EesTseeE, LESLIE, and WILKIE ; which for finished execution, and fidelity to the originals, may compare with the finest works of the day. The Queen having consented to patronize the work, it will be called Fbalen's Royal Gallery of British Art. It is to appear in parts, ti ree in the course of a year, each containing three engravings, the size about inches by 9, with descriptive letterpress, in a port- folio. The price is as remarkable for cheapness as the work is for beauty; and the lovers of art will be able to possess the chefs4wavre of British paintieg and engraving at a moderate cost. In most cases the pictures selected will be engraved for the first time : an exception is made in the instance. of LEscw's " Sir Roger de Coverley." As Messrs. FINDEN seem desirous to give to this undertaking a truly national character, we cannot doubt but the choice of subjects will be such as to embrace all the great painters of the British school : we therefore conclude the omission of such names as BONINGTON, STOTHARD, CALLCOTT, COPLEY FIELDING, HARDING, DEV,INT, &C. to be accidental. We remark in the list of plates in progress, two or three pictures each by LESLIE, EAST LAKE, and NEWTON; who, as three of time most talented and popular designers of the present day, are unquestionably entitled to preeminence, but not to the exclusion of others. In a work of this kind, the number of specimens by each master should be proportionate to his rank in the school, not to his popularity merely—much less to the facility with which his works may be procured.
The series of painters is to commence "is ith the rera of Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS:" this, of course, will embrace the names of llocatern, BARRY, Wn.sose and OAINsBOROUGH. We could have wished the fine old English portrein painters COOPER, DOIR,ON, and OLIVER, Lad been included : but portraits are not to form a feature of the womk, with the exception of one of Queen VIcTORIA, as patroness. This is pte imps a good regulation ; though a bona fide likeness of sonic eminent person would be preferable to a "fancy head as a specimen of the talent of mere portrait-painters.
We throw out these hints in a fridelly spirit towards am enterprise whose magnitude and character entitle it to warm encouragement ; but as it will he vuluahle in proportion to its completeness, Messrs. FIN- DEN would do well to settle the details of the plan with reference to this point.
We have but one objection to urge against the engravings that we have seen,—and it is to the metallic hardness of the flesh tints in one or two of the plates ; a prevailing defect of no dere engravings, that we have often protested against. It is caused solely by the practice of running harsh lines across time face as well ats the arms and bust, to show the boldness and dexterity of the engraver. The effect of this Vicious manner is to destmoy one of the chief excellences of an eegrav- ing of a design of figures—variety of texture. Were the flesh tints more delicately wrought with fine hair lines, as in those exquisite pabdines on copper that we see among the old engravings, time force and brilliancy of the drapery and other accessories would produce a still more brilliant effect, by contrast. In connexion with this part of the subject, we have to notice three beautiful specimens of line engraving that have been submitted to us by Mr. GEORGE Doo, time most eminent artist in this stvle,--namely, The child with Flowers, :aid the Portrait eff Lady Selina Meade, Conn- .!ess Clammartinies, after LAWRLNCE; and The Fair Forester, after WYATT. These plates are two well known to need description : us engravings, also, they have attained as much popularity as the pictures enjoyed. They exemplify in an eminent degree the three prime re. quisites of a perfect engraving,—fidelity of character, brilliancy of tone and colour, and variety of texture ; with a slight reservation as to the mode of producing the flesh tints. That transparency and purity of tone which is so admirable in the portrait of Lady Selina Aleade—as shown in the glossy black hair, the white satin dress, and the fair com- plexion—reflects the style of the painting, just as the heavy background of the Child with Flowers, and the daylight clearness of the atmo- sphere in the Fair Forester, do their respective originals. No one would say from looking at the three prints they were time work of the same en- graver : the character of the painter is distinctly shown, in the manner of the engraver's handling. The lines in the face of Lady Meade are ex- ceedingly delicate, and broken into light touches und dots ; so that they are scarcely visible at a proper distance : in the shadows of the face and bust of the Fair Forester they are too evident, however ; mid in all the flesh tints of time Child with Flowers they are too hard and heavy. The colours of the chintz pattern dress of the Fair Forester
are translated inimitably. Our exalmuinmutiomm of the details of these masterpieces of the burin, imperfect as it is, has already run into too great a degree of minuteness : suffice it to say, that even in these works of Doo—whose celebrated engraving of the group of two children utter LawitENce, called " Nature," is a triumph of the " line" manner—we see the injurious effect of continuous lines in iepresenting flesh; though we cannot but admire the daring and skill of the engraver even while we find fault.
Mr. Doo, it will be remembered, is the engraver of WILKIE'S "John Knox," on which picture he has been employed nearly foes years: it is in an advanced state of forwardness, and will be com- pleted in a few weeks. It will be the largest print in line that buil appeared since the days of SIIARPE. The same engraver is also about to pioduce a line engraving of NEWTON'S picture of" Sterne and the
Grissette."
Of the few new prints that our portfolio yields, the principal are two inezzotints of the class of domestic subjects ; pretty and inoffensive, but weak and insipid. The Village Church is engraved by EGAN from a water-colour painting by Mrs. SEYFFARTH, exhibited a season ost two ago. It is a picture of rustic life en beau; and in point of cha. racier more like the artificial rusticity of the stage than that of real A blooming young widow leading two pretty children, a lass support.ng her old grandmother, and one of the Italic of the village with his bride, to whom A graceful gallant in a smock-frock is offering a posy, are the parties going to church. The girls have ll "Book of Beauty" faces, and the two men ate as handsome as mortals are made to look in miniatures.
The Wife is engraved byBRoat LEY, from the picture by PRFNTIS, exhi. bited at Suffolk Street. The wife is seated in a chair by the bed-ride of her sick and sleeping husband, watching his slumbers. The dins light and stillness of the chamber give a degree of impressiveness to the literal representation ; which, however, is not assisted by the express:on of the wife's face—she looks more like a mother pensively gazing on her sleeping infant, than an anxious wife troubled with apprehension for her husband's recovery.
H. P. PARKER'S successful trick of painting a figure as if it pro- jected from the canvas, seems to take with the vulgar; for a comp., nion to his smuggler with a pistol, called " Looking.ont," has been engraved, in the mixed mezzotint style, by GtasEft, with the title of Loohiny.in: it represents a spectacled veteran " looking-in" to the Naval and Military Gazette.
In another design of a commonplace melodramatic character, Smug. glers Attached, the same trick is repeated : but it is become stale already. This last is lithographed by THOMAS FAMLAND ; as is also another of FARRIEICS hard cotnicalities, called A Philosopher in Search) of the Wind ; a boy cutting open the bellows to see what is inside—. the idea of which is better than the execution. FantsaNtes graphy is deficient in variety of colour and of texture.
INSKIPP'S Tenth " Study from Nature" is of a Roman boy, with pipe—a handsome face with a sweet frank expression. The artist's visit to Rome has not altered his peculiar manner
Previous page
