NEW PRINTS.
" THE Pirate's Isle, or the Parting of Conrad and Medora," engraved by DAVID LUCAS after a painting by HARDING, is one of the largest and finest specimens of mezzotint applied to landscape that we have seen. It shows what variety of texture, purity of tint, and freedom of handling mezzotint is susceptible of. 1Ve have never seen etching on the mezzotint ground more boldly and successfully employed to give spirit and relief to prominent objects, than in the present instance. In this plate there are also some surprising imitations of the artist's touch in the indications of the substance of stone and the texture of foliage, which are new to us. It is painting on copper. So much for the_plate.
The picture we do act greatly admire ; though it is certainly a mas- sive and imp ?sing composition. It is nearly all foreground,—which consists of a rocky cliff, broken by a ravine, and adorned by the ruins of a temple bailt in the side of the cliff, and some wild foliage, from which two stapendous pines tower into the sky. The ruins are con- tinued into the middle distance, and the line of cliff forms a kind of bay ; the sea bounding the horizon. The foreground is all in shadow except where the light of the setting sun strikes on the face of the temple and the foliage above it. Its defects are, a want of subject, and of repose. It conveys to us no idea of the scene of BYRON'S Corsair, any more than EASTLAKE'S landscape reminded us of that of BYRON'S Dream. A ruined Greek temple stands instead of the "lone watch-tower" of Conrad, and a peasant girl weeping represents Medora. As regards the art of the painting, too, Haanixo has done much liner things since. The light and shade is disposed in large masses, but their breadth is frittered by a somewhat ostentatious display of mere style. In a word, the impression that the picture conveys, is that of a bold and dashileg piece of painting for effect, rather than of a design conceived in the spirit of the poem, and with a genuine feeling for the subject. G. SCHARF, whose sketches of the localities and popular scenes of the town we have often had occasion to commend for their fidelity, is making a series of lithographic views in the Zoological Gardens, of which four have already appeared ; showing the Bear-pit, the Monkey- cage, the Aviary, and the Elephant. We do not instance them as fine works of art; but they have the merit of being very like, and very cheap. SCHARF has also lithographed, very nicely, a pretty view of Hendon Church, after I IOLLAND ; showing the picturesque effect of the taste- ful restoration of the church, for which the parish is indebted to Sir FELIX Boom. It it a characteristic and pleasing picture of a village- church ; and the scene has a truly English look.
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