The Star. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1896. STODDARD'S PORTFOLIO.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5501, 28 February 1896, Page 2

The Star. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1896. STODDARD'S PORTFOLIO.

PAET XIII. The high reputation of Stoddard's Portfolio of Photographs continues to be worthily maintained, and Part XIII is assuredly neither less interesting nor les3 artistic than the dozen that have gone before it. The English Houses of Parliament form a particularly pleasing picture, for the reason that it is so comprehensive, including the whole pile of buildings as seen from the river, and also the Abbey. Another London subject is the Albert Memorial, though the necessarily small scale fails to give any adequate idea of the exquisite beauty of the statuary, each group really requiring a' separate photograph. There is a magnificent presentment of a rich interior — the Henry 11. Gallery in the Palace of Fontainebleau, which amply repays , examination under a good lens; and another subject for close scrutiny is a photograph representing the crucifixion scene in the Oberammergau Passion Play. From the artistic standpoint there are several pictures that become prominent, and one of these is the Castle of San Angelo on the Tiber — " the yellow, legend - laden Tiber, guarding deeply in its breast some of the mightiest memories' of the world." Another is that scene "Where merchants ; most do congregate," -the Eialto of Venice; and yet another is the Sorrento stretch of the Bay of Naples, showing in minute 'detail some of the curiously constructed buildings. There is a highly successful panoramic photograph of. Egypt's capital city, wherein the citadel forms the background ; and there is another that enables one to appreciate to a nicety the situation and the . surroundings of classic Athens. Far and away the quaintest subject we have yet seen in this Portfolio, is a beach scene at Scheveningen, in Holland. At the first glance 'tlie .-beach seems to be thickly dotted with some fungoid monstrosity, but these things presently reisolve themselves into hooded chairs of wickerwork, wherein the seaside loungers take their ease. . The other pictures in Part XIII. are an exterior view of tho Palace of Fontainebleau, the Brandenburg Gate at Berlin, a street scene in Brussels, the Opera House at Vienna, a fine example of Turin architecture, and the Mormon Temple at Utah.