FINE ARTS.
A PEEP AT THE PRINT-SHOPS.
PORTRAITS.
THE present is an age of portraiture, personality, and autobiography ; and, without going out of our way to discuss whether this egotistical taste has its origin in a love for the study of character, or in mere curiosity, we may be allowed to remark that it materially affects the condition and direction of fine art. A portrait is interesting to the many on account of the person whom it represents, to the few for the individual character of the counte- nance, and its physiognomical expression also. The National Portrait Gal- lery is a cheap and valuable addition to the periodicals of fine art, the number and excellence of which form a striking proof of the extension of a general taste for works of this class with the public. Portraits were until litely customary embellishments of the Magazines; but they have fallen int) disuse with all the higher class of literary periodicals, and have been continued only by those devoted to the entertainment of the fair sex, and the sectarians. Of this class, the portraits in La Belle Assemblie of the fe- male beauties of rank and fashion claim more than a general approbation; being engraved in an excellent style for prints of this description, from on. ginals of great merit. But if POPE'S remark be true, that " most women have no character at all," they will present more attractions to the admirer of female beauty than to those who look at portraits to study the character of the person represented. The Contemporary Portraits, a work of first-rate excellence, and high in its price as well as in its character, has been long discontinued ; but its place is well supplied by the National Portrait Gallery. This work also forms a very appropriate companion to the small edition now publishing of that splendid and valuable work the Portraits of Illustrious Personages, edited by Mr. LODGE ; and in the style of its execution and the authenticity of the portraits, it is worthy of a place beside it. The plates in the latter numbers of the National Portrait Gallery are very much supe- rior, in point of engraving, and in fidelity of character in the likeness, to the early ones, of which we had some reason to complain in the latter par- ticular. A portrait wanting the essential of identity of resemblance is worse than deficient, it is erroneous ; for the expression is either correct or false— it must possess character of some kind. In the ordinary description of heads, by courtesy denominated portraits, the engraver rests content with a merely general resemblance; and this has been too 'often the case with en- gravings of higher cost and pretensions. Of this besetting sin of the engravers, men of genius and celebrity, as well as the artist and the public, have had great reason to complain. The cruel misrepresentations which his countenance has suffered, was metrically lamented by Mr. So u THEY, in au admirable vein of humour, in the Anniversary, that " splen- did annual". which was not destined to see its name realized. The public have not generally the opportunity of discriminating between the infidelity of the engraver and that of the artist, which latter is too frequently blamed for the fault of the former. Even in cases where the artist superintends the execu- tion of the plate, lie has often occasion to regret that he is unable to remedy defects or errors which he observes in the copy. The utmost skill of the engraver can only produce, it is true, an imperfect imitation of the spirit and effect of the original, because of the limited scope of his art ; but by preserving the character and expression of a portrait, he may resider it a faithful reflection of the features of the original. The excellent arrange- ment made by the spirited proprietors of LODGE'S Portraits, has proved its efficiency in securing accuracy on the part of the engravers. Miniature copies, the size intended for the engravings, were made of the originals by the most eminent artists, amongst whom were Ilmrox, DERBY, and SAT CHWEL L. Of the spirit and beauty of their drawings, coloured in imi- tation of the original pictures, and as faithful aS reduced copies could be made, the public had ample opportunity of judging at the time of their ex- hibition at the house of . the publishers. The engraver of course is much better able to succeed in producing an exact copy, and in giving the identical character and expression, in a portrait from which he can make a tracing, and in the working up of which he can refer to his original for every indi- vidual line and shadow, than when he has to reduce it by squares. In the first case, mere mechanical skill of the highest order will suffice ; in the latter, it requires not only feeling and judgment, but knowledge and original power in art, which rarely fall to the-share of the practical draughtsman or engraver, those qualities being in the accomplished artist the fruits of long practice, close application, and study of the living or sculptured models. The large edition of the Portraits of Illustrious Personages affords remark- able instances of faithfulness on the part of the engraver ; but in the smaller work, occasional derelictions from the precise character of the original are perceptible, owing in a great measure, doubtless, to the material reduction in the size, which renders it extremely difficult, though not impossible, to preserve the spirit of the painting and the fidelity of the resemblance. We have been thus diffuse upon this one point, because we think it has been too much neglected both by engravers and publishers ; and if the artist feels the deficiency of his skill, and the limited powers of his art, in portraying the original, how much farther must a feeble or imperfect copy be removed from the life ?
A curious illustration of these remarks now lies before us, in a letter signed "A Subject of Donna Maria ;" the writer of which assures us, that the little Queen of Portugal, although a "woman in size," possesses an elegant figure, and that she has no deficiency of intellect, but on the con- trary, is a very clever and lively girl, well-informed and accomplished, and also of a sweet disposition. "The expression of her face," he adds, "is not only very different from the print which we noticed last week, but really very pleasing." We insert with pleasure this correction of the erroneous impression given of the features and expression of the original, while we refer our readers to the print, as supplying a justification of our interpreta- tion of its meaning.
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