20 FEBRUARY 1858, Page 30

CHEVALIER PETTRICH'S SCULPTURES.

A collection of sculptures and models of a quite unique kind is now on exhibition at the Gallery of the New Water-Colour Society. Chevalier Pettrich, a native of Dresden, and pupil of Thorwaldsen for seventeen years, has devoted the maturity of his career to studying the unarm cated forms of nature among the American Indians of the North and 8 In this pursuit he has spent no less than twenty-two years ; of whi the collection now in London is a result—and a result stamped with ev ry manifest impress of genuineness. Here we find portrait-statues in marble of Indian chiefs—" Tah-Tape-Saah, Chief of the Mississippi Sioux, six feet seven inches high, the finest man the artist ever saw" ; historical figures—" The Dying Tecumseh," who fell fighting for the British in 1813 ; historical or national groups—" A Battle between the Win-ne-ba-goes and Creek Indians," a War Dance, a Buffalo Hunt, or "A Council between the Ministers of the United States and the two Tribes, the Mississippi Sioux Indians, and the Sacs and Foxes." With these are some other sculptures, sacred or ideal, exhibiting occasional points of thought, but by no means adding to the real attraction of the gallery. Neither, indeed, are the Indian sculptures noticeable for artistic beauty or perfection. Their interest is in their faithfulness, their detail of national character, circumstance, and costume, and their singularity. This interest is neither small nor unimportant ; and the collection will well deserve the popularity which it may fairly be expected to attain.