THE ART EXHIBITION.

Press, Volume XVI, Issue 2161, 22 March 1870, Page 2

THE ART EXHIBITION.

ENGRAVINGS. First in order, although not fi . catalogue, wo take tho Monrad colWf '*, on th« north end wall and ,3 mc u,,vo. Bwhop Monrad '° «Uh the view of settling there but I n - his r-lans and returned to Denmark of taste the worthy Bishop provod ]'.- A he, fur beyond tho calibre of ? orf/i ** lf *° noisseurs, for on hia departure with C ° n * disinterestedness, ho placed his' «>H.,!!' n<rt ' le tho Colonial Museirin. Such\ ' in have been valuable to auch an !nstitnt ,W ° Uld the old country ;to our new country t ln education, it was a great deal more*.' . I art pay our tribute of aoknowled«om'Jf » * c public benefactor. Th* prints in tt Ps ih v * form but a portion of Biehop Moiiradl' ', ! ° n tion ; they comprise, however, ■ov«*i . . mene of early wood " engraving and a * number of etchings and copperpl ato Tinge. c "graThe woodcute of Albert Durer are not merely ac early specimens of an » r » J lato so wonderfully developed, especial!* ° England, they ore valuable also for their tm V merit, A superficial observer will nrobiM set down as rude aud coarse that which P fully studied, will bo recognised as the' ings of a bold masterly hand, intent on eSW inasmuch as tho materials denied fiaiah tl strokes of the graver however coarse aro Z,7 earelees. tf The etchings of Rembrandt, who dco : oM light by exaggerating his shadows, rLir! also very careful examination in order that they may be properly understood and tt preciated, «'' The copperplato engravinga require B r assistance, their drawing aad perfect portrait ture aro at onoo recognizable. Having perused tho Monrad collection * 0 invite attention to No. 30 for its excellence of drawing, and then proceed to tho ecreon i,, Bay D. Nos. 59 to 63 inclusive are all vulu-ible copperplate engravings, second only in effect to their wonderful originals by Dutch masters who for fidelity in drawing and detail are hardly eurpassed by photography. N o . 18on the north wall ia a solitary specimen of tho great English engraver and painter, William Hogarth, and in a collection contributed bj an English people it is oingular there should be no more of so great a master. Like the Dutch masters, he painted what ho caw, and painted it well. Tho English school is further represented by No. 69, a Magdalen by StrangeNos. 27 and 28, by Woollei; No.' 72, a pHnt of a picture by Sir Joshua Beynolds, a painter whose models wore English men and .women. No. 14, by 8. Cousens, after Lawreuce, is also a copy of a chanriipg picture thoroughly Kaglieh. Jf os. 78 ta>Bl,.and others by B&ttolom, although not of the great school, •B^β'*et noticeable for a prettiness of composition which places them in the category of hn cPoßuvres on the table of tho arts. Nos. 55 to 58 are all worthy of especial attention, especially the " Sistine Madonna," a print which as a copy alone impresses the mind with ths genius of the original picture. The screen in Bay 0 and Bay Qt contain many modern engravings of merit. Proini« nent among all is Millaie' " Order for Release" —a picture worthy of a great painter. CHBOMO-liITHO&UArnS. Bay K. contains a collection of prints in colors. Chromo-iithography ac ea art i« sot much raore than twenty-f|ye : yeara old, ami the effects it is capable of "producing aria certainly surprising. Tho most common defects are opaqueness in the coloring and defeetire manipulation in tho adjustment of the blocks of the several colors. There aro pksturoa to which full justice can be there are pictures painted ib purpose of being printed. Wβ wS Sfft go into the question of how far puch pictures must suffer as transcripts of nature—-we prefer simply taking chromo-lithographa for what they are. worthy and there is no doubt they are capable of' doing eernco in producing copies of piotures in tach a style as to convey no mean idea of the original. No. 43 ia an instance, being tits copy of an early master, and of a lovely ideal. Rowbotham is a landscape painter who is particularly connedteS with- chromo* lithographs, and those with his name arOj, ss a rule, successful. No. 10, Children Gathering Roses, by Birket Foster, is admirable, an<j, Sβ a specimen of art, contrasts with its neighbour, No. 9, which shows the defects in manipulation to which we have referred. There are* several exhibits by Mr Chiaroni, of which Noe.' 3, 34, 36, 39, 42, 51, end 62 art excellent., : TIPOGHAPIiy. i It may surprise some to say that :.as a mechanical art, has advanced ibe leail ;of all, yet if we look at No. 17 case, Bay A a law boo*—date, 1565—we can find tid'fau with the clear, w«ll-cat typo, and may mil >wish our ink and paper may enduro the test "of 300 years a« well as this work of the. ww century. Noe; 8 and 15 are Biblea-th* former, catalogμed as Matthew's Bible, PWi is the edition of John Bogere, onoofwe English martyred who assumed the name o Thomas Matthews* and having assisted TimW in his biblical labours, edited a Biblo, probaWy at Hamburg or Antwerp. Wβ may perhaps state, for the information of our readen,*tnM between the Matthew* cfld the "*Sre«oJfß Bible there was, in 1539—*• TaverWeoMwo,., which waa a <*orrectioir of Matthews. *•. tho Greefc Bible, by uranm<? and Coverdale. 3. In U'4&Bonnl edrfjW of the last n*med called Crabirierii ;»»■ 4 In 1550, The Genova Bible. 5. In W®, *"? Bishop's Bible, of which the exhibit No. i<>> dated 1597 is, we take it, an edition. M i * specimen of elegance in type &n« , direct attention to No. 24, printed by BasKef ville, in 1772. In this case is a collection of mat trative of wood engraving and of Wβ c type process j we take the °PPNjJ$# If expressing ouir regret that naor© iWW* m this nature are not to be found. In a case near we find aome old Bince whoso issue there has certainly ow improvement in plant—although in *P»Tfi. it must be owned, they are by no mem. «■»'' cient. The copy of the first number 0t |« " Lyttelton we believe, » Dβ**? -but aji iSngliefa reprint. The onyMj however, of Mr spirited contemporary fully eqiai -in vorkmanehip to exhibite4-*-wi44soatra«te with the J»*gP newspaper, the progenitor of tho press; . * .^j.^ Some handeome folio illustrated in colors, eerve ac a **$?&* costly class of works, highly J «Si of only as precise and valuable j object* Worthy of cc «pe«wff arc iaauufscture.