NEW ENGRAVING.
HAGHE'S Views on the Upper Rhine, which have lately been published by GOULDING and D'ALMAINE, will be interesting rather to the traveller, as reminiscences, than to the stay-at-home gentlemen, who wish from book and .print to learn what other places are like. This. arises from the extreme slightness of the work ; which,.lhough managed with sufficient skill, does not bear impress enough to a mind that has all its ideas upon the subject to form. There are two of the views, however, of such superior excellence, that we must not, even in this brief notice of the work, omit to mention them more particularly. The view of the town of Basel is touched in a style of great simplicity, but at the same time with an introduction of air tone that could scarcely have been expected in so very slight an undertaking: the tall gables of the nearer houses, the toweringspires, and the lengthened bridge, are sweet features, all contributing to make up a beautiful whole. But the bijou of the collection is the view of Bonn, as seen through one of the ruined arches of the castle of Godesberg. The wide plain, with its extremities cut short by the perpendiculars of the arch, and the vast Rhine, here dwindled to a thread, and almost lost in the haze and obscurity of distance, have been seized upon by the artist with peculiar happiness ; and the finish of the whole with a most minute detail of something that may be a city, affords a conclusion worthy of the rest of the landscape. Messrs. Moosr and Co. have published a little bit of allegory in the shape of three pretty girls, who stand for the Rose, Thistle, and Sham rack. The artist is W. C. Ross,--a Scotchman as we guess, not only from the name, but because, with proper feeling towards the land of cakes, he has made the Thistle the prettiest flower of the group : though, therefore, we can recommend the engraving generally as a tasteful composition, we must make a special exception in favour of Mr.'O'CONNELL, or what is to come of his "first flower of the earth— first gem of the sea?" We have less to say in praise Of "Benedictine Monks at their Private Festivities in Carnival-time." The arrangement is too loose ; and though the room in which the company is assembled looks sufficiently like a refectory, there is nothing in the more intrinsic features of the scene to keep up the idea of enjoyment : there is jollity, but not of the kind that might be expected from such masters of the art of living as a band of Benedictine monks.
FARRIERS clever painting of "The Recruit, or Who'll serve the King ?" has been cap.tally lithographed : indeed we scarcely remember to have seen so finished a performance on stone, if we perhaps except Lord Cosmo RUSSEL and his Shetland Pony, after LANDSEER. The dashing Sergeant and the raw Recruit in this picture are the strong points ; though at the same time the party .already inlisted add no little to the humour of the subject. The pains which Mr. FARRIER has taken to render every part of the still life of the composition a continuation of the story, is remarkable, and reflects equal credit on his invention and perseverance. Sir THOMAS LAWRENCE'S portrait of Pins VII. has just been engraved by Consiars. It ia a good picture, and a good engraving, but a bad subject : the foreheafi of the Pontiff promises something, but there is nothing else to carry on the promise—all the rest of the face is peaky, and of a piece with the awfully full petticoat the successor of St. Peter has on. The engraving wants weight and potency to bear out the style of the painter; and indeed we think that Mr. COUSINS would have done better by employing the line style in this work, as it appears to be a much more effectual mode of expressing the President's manner.
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