FINE ARTS.
E. V. B.'S CHILDREN'S SUMMER.*
THE chief characteristic of E. V. B.'s genius is an enjoying fancy. She enters into the beauties of nature with the heart more than the eyo ; perceives rather than observes. Not that she is deficient in the careful noting of details, or inapt at applying them ; but she pierces direct to the feeling of the thing, and realizes it : with this, the outward image— always suggestive and pleasant in her rendering, if sometimes not quite accurate—comes naturally. The reason is obvious : she loves what she represents. Art is a pleasure to her as well as a study ; and this alone would separate her widely and for ever from all the crowd of artists for whom designing is a profession, and from amateurs who rate it as an ac- complishment. In everything she does there is a true womanly gracious- ness.
For the expression of these various qualities no surer vehicle could have been selected than E. V. B.'s first publication "Child's Play." This exemplified the sympathy with childhood and its enjoyment, and gave endless scope for fancy. The subjects could be scarcely at all figured forth in the mind without a real feeling for them : quaint combination, playful grace, glimpses of a poetic perception, were of the very essence of the only garb in which they could be presented by art. On two grounds we think E. V. B. somewhat less happy in her new undertaking. She has to be more literal ; and, working as she does on a larger scale and in a more exact method of design, the demand on her knowledge is greater relatively to her opportunities for the exercise of fancy.
A Children's Summer is the illustration, in prose, verse, and chiefly design, " of a very happy summer which two sets of little cousins passed together." It deals, therefore,. except in one or two instances, with the domestic and actual. The incidents are not only natural to childhood generally, but, in all likelihood, passed individually before the lady artist's eyes ; and, tenderly watched at the time, are here reproduced in lively reminiscence. The figures are evidently portraits, and akin. In the literary portion there is a want of distinctness : it runs rather to seed, but touches occur not unpoeticaL • A Children's Summer : eleven Etchings on Steel, by E. V. B. Illustrated in Prose and Bbyme by M. L. B. and W. M. C. Published by Addey and Co.
The first subject is one of the few ideal ones--" The Cloister in the
Eriiie "; a company of little children thronging round the music of an angel. It is eery sweet, calm, and holy,—in dose assimilation tothe cha- racter of the early Florentine art. The standing saint who reads is a figure beautiful for chaste dignity. In the group of infants round the angel, one, standing on the skirt of her robe, nestles in her lap : another has round his head the glory of a -spirit in heaven ; and his little sisters stretch their hands towards' im in recognition as they mount the steps. The book begins and ends with angels ; the innocent religious feelings of diildren being symbolized in the first design, while the laats where, in their woodland wanderings, they meet with the .celestial beings, and skirt a mountain-fringed glade glowing with strange beauty and angelic music, may point to the enchantment with which nature shines to their
new eyes, and the nearness of the unseen world. This is imagined very spiritually, and dreamily.
The series of real-life scenes opens with the yotmg cousins angling. In style it is the least mature, and was probably the first etched. "Pic- ture-books" comes next,—also among the less successful : but the-intent gaze of a Scotch terrier lodkulg out on the sea-washed coast is an admi- rable touch of nature. This dog appears several times ; and always with a truthfulness to the momentary look, and a general extreme doggishness, wry remarkable. Mere again we 'note the feeling of the thing and the sense of life. In " Lilian's Pets," with equal fidelity of axpression, a dog of another 'breed (and of dubious anatomy about the haunches) retains his indented hold on a bough, innocuously snarling, against the tugging of a little 'boy. The Shetland pony, the flapping cockatoo, and a behatted child, whose chubby cheek, turned towards the looker-on, shuts out his every feature, are very good. Still better—in the pretty subject which fallawa of the children roraping stop of a hay-rick—is the squat infant diligently holding and.eyciag a,eouple of Medea of grass. The next de- aign -shows them all wending home after-a day's ramble as the moan glim- mers out over the sea, and is full of the appropriate sentiment. " The Flower Garden," with its lovingly studied plants, the pigeon feeding her brood, (charmingly done,) and the child, young in walking, who sties/dies across-the door-step, would be -the letter were the elder boy less horde in face and gait. But all these yield in beauty and completeness to 'the design ibiawheredia oEth.eNrchid 3oildrea testa are ark 'of art. Jo/leaf ; another, seated, glances sidelong with his'brilliant eyes ; and a they lie 'under, the -country expands glorious in sunlight,—the magic as a inlet dream. One child, carrying flowers, and attended by the eager terrier, 'has gone tothe bead afthe boat, and stands in hushed waters sheeny like the sea of glass mingled with -fire," the whole anticipations xpialopre thine amiirg rbevoaet.rie.IndTewedo, Beyond the arch of the boat-house little girls, one.acarcely more than an infant, who gazes out with a pew- Lady childlike look as she holds on by the zing -to which the boat is tied, areoneanvahile descending the stairs. The 'whole is intensely -poetical and fresh ; every. expression and action inatinctively -true, andthe design careful in all points. The idea of the scene is impressed with the vivid- ness-of apicture actually-left on the memory. The series closes with two tailpieces,—one, a study from nature, 'very delicate and pleasant in its minutiae of vegetable 'beauty and small animal Ilfe ; the other, a-danee of infants, fairy-like and-delightful, whose pat- twins feet scare the Birds.
Yrom a lady gifted so _rarelysa E. T. B. we shallneverbedissppointed in counting upon exquisite and engaging-sentiment. 'The-complement to this *maturity of study.and practice ; which the lest.ameng these de- aignejustify min-expecting as well as.hopinglor.
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