FINE ARTS.

EMBELLISHURNTS OF THE ANNUALS.

WE have before us the plates of the Keepsake, always the best of the miscellaneous Annuals, and of Friendship's Offering; but neither are equal in interest, or in the excellence of the designs, to those of, the last year; and the engravings of the Friendship's Offering are decidedly in- ferior. Our designers, indeed, are sadly deficient in meaning and pur-

pose; and our remarks upon them, a week or two back, are verified by

the plates before us. In the Keepsake, we have a charming picture of a female reading, by BOXALL ; a clever scene by the late HENRY LIVER- SEEGE of a girl at confession, misnamed Juliet, and spoiled by the

countenance of the fair penitent being unnaturally obscured by her veil, in order to save the artist the trouble of inventing a face ; a miniature

copy of PARISIS'S popular picture of " The Bridemaid ;" clever designs, though feeble in character, and possessing little interest, by CATTER- MOLE, J. M. WRIGHT, and CORBOULD; two vulgar designs by RICHTER

.—one a coarse caricature representing three gossips in a country post- office, one of whom is peeping into a letter ; and two by Miss L. SHARPE—one a fantastic female figure, called " Flora Mac Ivor"—the other a tame domestic scene of the return of a wounded officer to his family. They are mostly dressed up pleasingly, with the artificial aid of effect ; and being well engraved, form very pretty embellishments ; but as illustrations, they are of little worth.

There are, however, two real gems amidst all this display of paste, though they do not need any foil to their brilliant beauty,—the " Fall of

the Rhine," and " Ehrenbreitstein," by TURNER. There is nothing extravagant in these two lovely scenes ; none of that exuberance of style which too often obscures the charm of TURNER'S landscapes.

Elrenbreitstein is a perfectly natural view, with the transient effect of a broad transparent shadow on one side of the picture, whose tone is pure, lucid, and bright as the day. Here is no inky blot, or unaccount- able screen of black, such as we see in the mechanical effects of land- scape-painters who make pictures from their sketches by recipe : it is a scene from nature, with all her beauties, and nothing to derogate from them. The Fall of the Rhine is a more romantic scene ; but, owing to the inability of engraving to give the effect of colour in the sun- bow, and of the mist of spray rising from the fall, it loses some of its

effect in the plate,—which is, however, admirably engraved by ALLEN; but the grand beauty and wildness of the scene, and the masterly skill with which the picture is made up, are not lessened by this defect. We can fancy from this engraving, what the original must be. " Why

are these things hid ?" Will no one indulge us with a sight of some of these glorious creations of art? There are hundreds, we had almost

said thousands, of TURNER'S drawings in various hands ; yet no one ever sees them, except one by chance now and then ; and we are only acquainted with their beauties through the dim medium of engraving.

What a contrast do these true pictures present to this mock-sublime scene by MARTIN, of Marius mourning over the ruins of Carthage !-

a mere affectation of grandeur and solemnity. Excess and exaggera- tion, false effect, and forced perspective, are the characteristics of this aggregation of ruins and smoke.

An engraving from a medal of the King, by WYON, is a good speci- men of the novel mode of representing the effect of relief, even to de-

ception until the test of touch is applied. It is perfect, except that in the lights the mechanism of the process is too evident on a near in- spection.

. But what will be esteemed the most captivating plate of all, is a por- tinit of a lovely girl in an ultra-fashionable bonnet, by A. CHALON, miscalled " The Adieu." It is beautifully engraved, by CHARLES HEATH.

The designs for Friendship's Offering, by Messrs. Woon, RICHTER, J. P. DAVIS, CORBOULD, and BOADEN, are open to the same objec- tions as those of the Keepsake ; they are insipid, and some of them are deficient in the attractions of pictorial effect, as well as in interest and character.

There are two pretty, but tame views, by PURSER, of Corfu, and the Bridge of Alva; one of MARTIN'S architectural exaggerations intended to represent Christ entering into Jerusalem ; the portraits of two ladies with unmeaning faces ; and of a handsome Highlander in attitude, which, having fancy titles given to them, are deprived of their only in- terest—that of likeness to the originals. Artists and pictorial pur- veyors fall into the fatal error of supposing that a pretty picture, which pleases the eye with its arrangements of colour and effect, is all that is required; and nature, motive, expression, and good drawing, are alto- gether left out of their consideration as unimportant characteristics.