The annual volume of the Magazine of Art (Cassell and
Co.) has many attractions, literary as well ae artistic. The principal pictures are twelve photogravures or etchings. It would not be easy to pick out from these the best, but two certainly appeal so strongly to one's sympathies, not to speak of their artistic merit, that they can scarcely fail to be general favourites. These are two companion designs, executed in photogravure after Mr. Hubert Herkomer,—" The Last Muster," a scene at Chelsea Hospital, and "The Chapel of the Charterhouse." The effects in the latter seem to us particularly fine. " Lord Heathfield " (the famous defender of Gibraltar), after Sir Joshua Reynolds, is an etching by M. Rajon, and very good indeed. If any one wants a curious contrast, let him look at " The Last of England," a photogravure after Mr. Madox Brown, excellent too in its way. Half of the twelve chief plates are etchings, half photogravures or heliogravures. Without depreciating the merits of the latter, we cannot but hope that the processes by which these are produced will not drive the etcher out of the field. As to the other contents of the volume, it is quite impossible to give any account of these within such space as we can command. Landscape is chiefly represented by the papers on "Wild Wales" and "Loch Torridon." There is an interesting succession of portraits of Robert Browning, ranging in date from 1854 to 1889; highly interesting papers on "The Illustrating of Books" and "The. Development of Illustrated Journalism in England ;" articles, with specimens of their work, of eminent foreign artists ; criticisms on the art of the year; and many other things qua nunc perscribere longum est.—An unpretending member of the same class—the Art magazine—un- pretending, but not without much merit, considering the limita- tions by which it is bound, is the Child's Pictorial. (S.P.C.K.)
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