but more interesting was Schiavanetti's etching of the Canterbury Pilgrimage, from Stothard's celebrated picture. Next we had etchings of some of Wilkie's early works; Boys Fishing, hy W. Collins; and some most expressive outlines by J. M. W. Turner.

*

To

The line-engravings commenced with a selection of Hogarth's prints, from the well-known collection of Mr. Felix Slade, and included the Harlot's Progress, and the Rake's Progress; and Morning, Noon, Evening, and Night, which, we do not use the phrase in a disparaging sense, were the art-furniture of the last century.* Vivares, Woollett, and Browne succeeded, with their landscape-engravings; and then Sir Robert Strange's masterly productions, as his Cleopatra, after Guido; and Charles I., after Vandyke. Bartolozzi's specimens included the diploma of the Royal Academy, after Cipriani; and a few benefit tickets. these succeed a dozen of Woollett's conscientious works, including the Death of Wolfe, and the Battle of La Hogue, after West; and then we had a group of William Sharp's fine engravings of great pictures, comprising Sir Joshua's portrait of John Hunter. Then followed Heath and Bromley's clever book-illustrations. Rainbach's prints of Wilkie's pictures came next; and next, G. and W. B. Cooke's charming prints of Turner's coast-views; and the fine works of Charles Heath and W. Findoe brought us near the close of the line engravers, who were not altogether well

Art-critics will never tire of lamenting the want of a biography of Hogarth which shall give a fair estimate of what they regard as his life-struggle for his art. By his prints, however, Hogarth succeeded--for a reason which does not appear to have been generally recognised by those who have written about the painter and his works. Elsewhere we have remarked:

"How much of the moral effect of Hogarth's works is due to their being engraved, and the prints sold at prices available by all classes, must be evident to every one who has bestowed any thought upon the subject. If we refer to the list of "Prints published by Mr. Hogarth; Genuine Impressions of which are to be had at Mr. Hogarth's House in Leicester Fields, 1781," we shall find the price as low as One Shilling, and rarely to exceed One Guinea. For example, the Harlot's Progress, 6 prints, cost but 20s.; the Rake's Progress, 8 prints, but 42s. ; and the Industry and Idleness, 12 prints, 12s." (Anecdote Biography of Hogarth, pp. 93, 94).

Mr. Leslie, the painter, has thus admirably illustrated the same view: "To the art of Engraving it is scarcely too much to say that we owe the very existence of Hogarth. His patrons were the million. The great people were told by Walpole that he was no painter; and Walpole being one of themselves, they believed him. But for engraving, therefore, Hogarth must have confined himself to portraits, on which he might have starved, for he was never popular as a portrait-painter. But when the prints of the Harlot's Progress appeared, 1200 copies were immediately subscribed for. This was the beginning of the patronage produced for painting by engraving."—Autobiography, p. 214.

The genius of Hogarth has unquestionably been advocated with great ability, eloquence, and ingenuity. If Walpole traduced him, and Reynolds slighted him, and Ireland and Nichols undervalued him, and Fuseli estimated him falsely, Charles Lamb has manfully vindicated him; Leslie has fully appreciated him, and J. T. Smith has circumstantially defended him; while, in another view, his genius has been picturesquely illustrated by Thackeray, one of the best art-critics of his day; by Sala, in his own clever manner; by Hannay, in his able essay; and in a hundred pages of the Anecdote Biography already

referred to.

illustrated. The mezzotints were better represented by MacArdell, the two Watsons, Green and Earlom, the two Woods, Bromley and Clint, Say, Reynolds, J. M. W. Turner, and a few of his pictures engraved by C. Turner; Martin's Belshazzar and Nineveh brought the series near its close. The stipple specimens commenced with Bartolozzi's plate of Copley's great work, misnamed "The Death of Lord Chatham;" followed by those of Howard, Caroline Watson, and C. Scriven.

The living Engravers' specimens included George Cruikshank's etchings, works by the Etching Club, and Sir E. Landseer's Animals. The line, Allen, Burnet, E. W. Cooke, Doo, Goodall, Greatbach, Pye, Robinson, Rolls, Wallis, and Wilmore; mezzotint, Bromley, Cousins, T. Landseer, T. Lupton, and G. R. Ward; stipple, F. and W. Holl, and W. Walker.

The deceased Engravers on Wood represented were Bewick, Branston, Clennell, Nesbit, S. Williams, and E. Landells.

The Engravings on Wood included William Harvey's matchless Dentatus, after Haydon; and a few truly artistic works by W. J. Linton, J. Thompson, and J. L. Williams; there was little of the rapid engraving of the present day.

Of Lithography there were a few fine specimens by Boys, Harding, Lane, Lynch, and Maguire.

FOREIGN PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.

The foreign display of Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, Sculpture, and Intaglios, was numerically as strong as the British exhibition.

France led off with about 200 oil-paintings-specimens of the great French School; nearly 40 water-colour pictures; 50 groups of sculpture; and about 130 engravings, lithographs, and architectural drawings. The pictures selected by the Imperial Commission were those painted by living artists since 1850, or those painted since 1840 by deceased masters born after 1790. The greatest novelties represented were the recent school of natural landscape, and domestic subjects. We can only enumerate a few of the more striking works. There were six specimens of Paul Delaroche, namely: a portrait of M. Péreire; a Martyr in the reign of Diocletian, founded on an ancient Christian legend, that a nimbus floated over the head of a drowned female martyr; Marie Antoinette; the Virgin in contemplation before the Crown of Thorns; Good Friday celebrated by early Christians; and the Return from Calvary.

The high level of feeling and of art reached in these three little scenes from the history of the Virgin at the time of the Crucifixion is thus characterized in the Saturday Review :-" They are pictures to study, inch by inch. Everything is so simple and so true. The Virgin is so thoroughly a plain Jewess, and yet a woman torn by an agony of deep grief, and exalted by her meditations and her trials. This is the religious art which we feel sure will, little by little, drive into oblivion the dreams and the fancies of modern Continental mediævalism."

There were also the very intellectual portrait of Mdlle. Rosa Bonheur, by Dubufe fils; the Dying S. Francesco d'Assisi, by Benouville; St. Augustine and St. Monica, his mother, the only work by Ary Scheffer; the Spring, a female figure nude, the only example of the great master Ingres; the Landing of the French Army in the Crimea, and an Incident at the Battle of the Alma, two colossal pictures by the young painter, Pils. By Yvon there were small copies of the great pictures at Versailles, painted for the Emperor-the Battle of Solferino, Curtain of the Malakoff, Gorge of the Malakoff, and the Attack on the Malakoff-all well known by engravings; the Landing of the French Army in the Crimea, by Barrias-another colossal picture from Versailles; Flandrin's over-finished portrait of the Prince Napoleon; Winterhalter's large portrait of the Empress; a portrait of the Emperor, by Flandrin; Vipier's full-length portrait of Abd-el- Kader; Gerôme's well-known picture of Roman Gladiators saluting Tiberius in the Roman amphitheatre; Embarkation of Ruyter and De Wytt, by Isabey; and the Arrival of Queen Victoria at Cherbourg, by Gudin. There were two portraits by Horace Vernet, of Marshals Bosquet and MacMahon ; there were three of the minute pictures of Meissonier; and charming examples of Trayer, Lambinet, Ziem, Marilhat, and Edouard Frère. Horace Vernet's only war-picture here was his Battle of the Alma.

Among the drawings was a large and elaborate composition by Decamps, of Joshua commanding the Sun to stand still.

Among the French sculpture we can only enumerate a few specimens as a bust of a Negro and Negress, in bronze and marble, by Cordier; a noble marble bust of President Boileau, by Iselin ; Mené's Death of the Fox; Pradier had but one subject-Sappho ; Guillaume's bronze Tomb of the Gracchi; and Barge's Theseus subduing the Centaur; Vechte's chased Silver Vase; Cavelier's bust of Ary Scheffer; Fauns, by Gumery and Lequesne. Canova's colossal marble bust of Napoleon I. was in the French Gallery: it has not gained in estimation by the lapse of years.

THE GREAT GERMAN SCHOOL OF PAINTING was well represented by the Zollverein, and other German States. Prussia sent nearly 200 works of art, in architectural designs, oil-paintings, sculpture, and engravings. Berlin and Dusseldorf each sent a fine collection of paintings; and the engravings from the former city were choice and numerous. Among the sculpture from Berlin was a case of medals by Carl Fischer. Only one specimen was sent of Peter von Cornelius, and two of Oswald Achenbach. The oil-paintings from Dusseldorf included a series of 11 pictures by H. Mücke, representing the Life of St. Meinrad.

In sculpture, Cauer and Eichler contributed the greatest number of groups; and most of the works of art from Prussia generally were exhibited by these artists. Bavaria sent about 40 works of art, chiefly oil-paintings, amongst which were seven pictures by

Carl Wilhelm Müller. One of the grandest pictures was Nero after the Burning of Rome, by Piloty, of Munich, full of skilful drawing and expression; and "a conspicuous instance of the power of rendering human emotion and expressing human action on a large and free scale." Saxony was represented in 30 paintings, drawings, and groups of sculpture: the Grand Duchy of Baden sent a small fine-art collection. The Duchy of Brunswick, Frankfort-on-the-Maine, the Electorate of Hesse, the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Wurtemburg were represented by about 40 works of art. North Germany and the Hanse Towns also sent a small collection, Hamburg having contributed about 20 works. Among these were three pictures by F. Heimerdinger, one a scene of fairy life from a tale by L. Tieck, and three pictures by B. Mohrhagen. A cartoon by Peter von Cornelius, of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was the only work in the Exhibition that represented by its chief master one of the highest forms of modern German art. There was a cartoon of Charlemagne meeting Duke Thessilio at the monastery, by C. Adamo; and one of the Deluge, by Herr August Hovemayer; there were also 17 Cartoons from the Odyssey, by Friedrich Preller; and a very German and conventional study of King Lear with his Fool, by Hermann Wislicenus. Somewhat allied to the cartoon-painting were the illustrations, in long perpendicular strips, to Goethe's Faust, Prometheus, &c., by Herr B. von Neher; and the spirit of the cartoon-drawer and fresco-painter was expressed in miniature by three frames of small sketches painted in oil, by the Baron Hugo von Blomberg, 27 in number, to illustrate Dante's Divina Commedia. We searched in vain for any of the grand historical works of Overbeck, Iteinle, Deger, Schnorr, or Kaulbeck, or for the clever incident pictures of Bendemann, Köhler, Hildebrandt, Schadow, or Sohn; or for the pleasing landscapes of Lessing or Koch. "In the religious art which represents the scenes of Gospel history as incidents of human life, but appeals most forcibly to our sympathy and veneration, this collection was very strong; of which art Richter's Raising of Lazarus was a most conspicuous and striking example." (Saturday Review.)

THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL was represented by about 80 oil-paintings, 16 water-colour pictures, 19 pieces of sculpture, and a few engravings and architectural sketches. Here was a remarkably pleasing portrait of the Empress of Austria, by Schrotzberg. There was likewise Eugert's portrait of the Emperor of Austria, in which a solid mass of red velvet is cleverly kept by the artist subordinate to the main effect of the picture.

HOLLAND exhibited about 120 oil-paintings, and two engravings. Amongst the pictures were 7 by D. Blas, mostly good, and 8 by P. Van Schendel. There were a few flower and fruit pieces, and views with dykes, canals, and water-courses; the finest coast picture was the Shipwrecked, by J. Israels.

SWEDEN was represented by about 40 works in oil-painting and sculpture. The rustic scenes of J. F. Heckert and Miss A. Lindegrön were the most numerous amongst the pictures. Among the sculpture, a group, and bas-reliefs, in bronzed zinc, illustrating a story of jealousy, by Molin, were very interesting.

NORWAY was represented by some 50 oil-paintings, including nine specimens of Boe-pictures of flowers, fruit, birds, and jewellery-six landscapes by Gude-landscapes by Dahl and figure-pieces by Tidemand. Several portraits in ivory were in the small collection of sculpture. Altogether, the Swedish and Norwegian pictures astonished by unlooked-for excellence.

DENMARK sent about 110 works, including six groups of sculpture by Thorwaldsen, and five by J. A. Jerichau. Among the oil paintings, E. Jerichau was the artist most largely represented. The Danish portraits have been described as "the very feeblest efforts of the art ever seen out of the parlour of a country inn." Among the sculpture were a colossal portrait-statue of Oersted, by Bissen; six of Thorwaldsen's masterpieces, including Mercury and Jason; and a Dancing Faun and Bacchante, by Peters.

RUSSIA sent more than 100 works of art; 80 oil-paintings, five groups of sculpture and medals, three architectural sketches, and seventeen engravings. Amongst them was a collection of medals exhibited by the Academy of Fine Arts of St. Petersburg, and a monument representing the Empress Catherine II., by Felix Chopin. The earliest picture exhibited was one by Anthony Losenko, who died in 1773; and there were seven specimens of Axenfeldt, and five portraits by Demetrius Levitsky. The other pictures were remarkable for the insight they afforded into the Russian manners and ways of life, its humour and character.

BELGIUM Contributed the most complete display: about 113 oil-paintings, about 26 groups of sculpture, and two engravings. The great features were nine pictures, historical figures of the full life size, by L. Gallait his Last Moments of Count Egmont is full of poetry, and is highly finished.—The Joan of Arc of Van Lerius is described as "bright with an intensity of colour which makes us think of Hunt and Millais; and it would not be difficult to find an English parallel to the picture of Leys-so painstaking, so full of sentiment, and so carefully conceived after the manner of an antiquated school." (Saturday Review.)-That Belgian art is much more like English than the art of any other country was shown by two sketches of heath scenery, with no marked differences from English landscape. Alfred Stevens's single-figure studies, the Nosegay, At Home, and the Widow, were wonderfully perfect. Very attractive, but painfully impres sive, was Slingenmeyer's large picture, a Martyr in the reign of Diocletian,- -a Christian youth asleep in a cell of the Roman amphitheatre, the door of which is held open and gives a glimpse of the arena in which he is to be thrust to be devoured by