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1088 THE LEADER . [ No . 294 , Saturday , i
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CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHY . The objection that would be made to a chromo-lithographic picture , bypersons who distinguish very severely between imitative and deceptive art , would be that it is intended to pass for that which it is not . Mr . Ruskin might apply to this new and beautiful invention language as condemnatory as he has applied to cast-iron orrfaments , * ' graining , " in imitation of costly woods and marble , machine-carving , and other cheap replacements of much-prized material or of human sic ill and labour . Ordinary engraving , whether it be on stone , or on "wood or metal , simply pretends to give , as far as it can give , the general effect produced by the brush of the painter ; and when a more than commonly successful result of this kind is gained , connoisseurs will say that the print is full of colour—meaning no more than that it is , in its own degree , pictorial . But chromo-lithography is not satisfied with thus representing the main effect of a higher kind of work ; it must reproduce that kind of work—copying , touch by touch , and practically multiplying the original design . In looking at a good chromo-lithograph , you may easily be cheated into the belief that not merely skill but time and labour—not merely timeaud labour , but thought and study—have been expended on that single piece of cardboard , which bears but one of many hundred exactly similar impressions . Chromo-lithography , then , is liable to the charge of deceit . But surely there is something to be said in favour of an art which enlivens so pleasantly the windows of the printsellers , and which indefinitely extends the limits of parlour walls . Our own belief is that in the perfection of the art will lie its triumphant answer to objectors . In order to secure this perfection , you must have artists . While chromo-lithography was left in the hands of inferior men , employed as mechanical copyists of works of excellence , there might have been some risk that a healthily-increasing taste for water-colour painting would be vitiated by the sudden and wholesale supply of spurious food . We have an example of such bad influence in the vile imitations of the photograph , calculated to attract aud mislead a vulgar eye . But there is a specific difference between making a good thinggo as far as possible and substituting that which is altogether contrary and vastly inferior . Leaf-gold is gold still , though a grain of the real metal be made to cover a comparatively large surface . In the hands of a man who has originality as well as skill , chromo-lithography is a legitimate agent for the most productive and beneficial application of his powers . It is , therefore , with great pleasure that we find the Messrs . Rowney turning to worthy account the process which they have brought , by long and careful experiment , to its present stage of perfection . The artists whose co-operation they have secured are either deservedly popular or soon to become' so . One important result of a higher extension of ehromo-lithography we have not yet considered . Painters , working expressly with a view to the peculiar effects of colour-printing , will learu to modify their style in accordance with the necessities of the process ; and so far from this having a restrictive influence , the very contrary is to be expected , for there is nothing truly great and admirable in art that does noc owe its origin and development to circumstances that compelled an exercise of thought in the artist . One of the last specimens that we have seen of Messrs . Rowney ' s enterprise and ingenuity is the beautiful little rustic figure which was exhibited by William Hunt , a season or two ago , at the Water Colour Gallery , under the title of "Diffidence . " The print is remarkable , from its exemplifying the great advance which chromo-lithography has made in the course of a few months . In all the groups of hedge-flowers , autumn-berries , birds ' - nests , plums , and primroses , which have been given by Messrs . Rowney from this delightful painter ' s portfolio , we have observed a deficiency in the mingling of greys , for which quality Hunt is especially famous . Now , in the flesh tints of the little figure before us—infinitely more difficult of management than the moss-lining of a nest or the bright scarlet clnek of a berry—we find , almost in perfection , the very quality we had missed in those former groups of natural objects . In a short time , we believe , the graceful figure studies of a most promising , but now almost unknown artist , will bo published , through the medium of chromo-lithography . Several specimens of hia power may be seen at Mr . Lock ' s photographic gallery , in Regent-street . We call particular attention to the " Reaper" and the " Flower Girl , " both of which studies coutain as much life and beauty as are to be found in the works of Leslie and Frith .
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The Southwark Ejection : Retirement of Mb . Scovki . l . —Sir Charles Napier has addressed further meetings since our last publication , and has been received with" so much enthusiasm that Mr . Scovell , finding his chance hopeless , has given in . In hia address to the electors , he soys : —" The canvass I have made in person of those whom I had nut previously been acquainted with forces me to confess that the cry of ' an ill-used man ' in favour of Sir Charles Napier renders my return so uncertain , unless I continue a contest necessarily more expensive by its protraction , that I shall leave the field to the gallant Admiral , and to Southwark the honour of being represented by him in Parliament . " Evasion op Income-Tax . —Evan David , a , haymerchttiit at Curd iff , made a transfer of a horse and cart to William Jenkin , in order to evade the payment of income-tux , Jenkin subsequently sold the horse , and had his name painted on the cart . On the death Of Evan David , Thomas David , his executor , sued the widow , and also Jenkin , for converting the property to their own use , the horse and cart being only transferred , not sold . The judge of the Cardiff ^ County
Court , however , gave a verdict in favour of Mrs . David and Jenkin , on account of the transfer having been made with the design of defrauding the revenue . State of Trade . —The advices from the manufacturing towns regarding the business of the week ending November 3 rd , are generally favourable . At Munchester , there has been an improved demand at a slight advance in quotations , and the tone of the market is altogether less dull . The liirminghum report describes no change except an increiiso of uncertainty in the manufactured iron trade , owing to a combination for higher wogeB . At Nottingham , there has been great activity both in lace and hosiery , the American purchases especially being very large . In the woollen districts , although there bun not been much increase in the extent of transactions , a more cheerful feeling is observable , and conndrnco with respect to the prospect or the winter and spring is sustained . In the Irish linen markets there has been no alteration . With regard to discounts , the demund in the provinces generally seems to huve been loss than in London , and in some important instunces lower rates have been current . —Times * -
Rkfohmatory Union . —A meeting has been held j at Hardwicke Court , near Gloucester ( in which Sir M John Pukmgton , M . P ., Mr . Bmcebridge , the lle \ . | | Sidney Turner , &c , took part ) , the object of which was f , | the formation of a reformatory union for criminals . Tho . ! result of -the meeting was the appointment of a proYfc S )» sionul committee intrusted with tho task of organising ft r reformatory union , the vocation of which woidd be to ! consider and promote the best means of reforming criminalo , to procure employment for them , and to l . ; j rostoro them to society ; also , to promote the practical pj truining and preparation of efficient teachers for refor- »| matory institutions . It was agreed that a general meeting of the society should be held in London next May . This Itsiruaicu Question . —A letter from Vienna , >« tho Gazette de la Bourse , says : — " Lord Elliot , it ia ussertcd , dolivorcd laat week a note from hia government , rt-lutivo to tho refugees , in which tho Uritiah Government states that it will not suil ' er on its territory any ngUntion against tuo rights of other stutos , or which would ntleot tl » e intoroats of friendly governments . It is eaiil that ft Biniilar no to has boon despatched to Paris "
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THE THEATRES . The Jullien solstice has opened at Covent-garden with the usual riotous demonstrations of Great British Gentdorn ; but , in the opinion of many , whose good opinion is worth consulting , with scarcely the spirit and attraction of former Novembers . Still the Mons . himself has lost none of his splendours ; Irs waistcoat is as Avhite , his ' front " as dazzling , his locks as Ambrosial , his smile as Olympian , the wave of his baton as majestic and imperial as ever . His forces too are , we believe , undiminished in number and in quality . The ensemble of a band , in which , there are so many remarkable solists , cannot well be of a vulgar order . Perhaps the truth is , that in the better part of these concerts , in the higher class of music , which the celebrated conductor has done so much to democratize in England , the peTformance will be found quite equal to that of former seasons , and that it is only in the coarser condiments of the entertainment , in the claptrap burlesques of noisy patriotism , in the descriptive battles , and in the hideous noise ci big-drurn bombardments , that the falling-ofF has been observed . It is quite possible that the conductor and his orchestra are sick of the noise ; at any rate , a large and sensible portion of the public are heartily so ; although , in a vast miscellaneous audience , there will always be badauds euough . to shout for that sickly boudoir-ditty , which , is so poor a substitute for a national air , and which sounds so thin and meretricious between " God save the Queen " ~ and " Rule Britannia . ' We protest , however unavailingly , against tLe folly and bad taste of these most inopportune ebullitions of bravado at a time when , from one end of the continent to the other , England has fallen low in moral power and in military prestige . For the rest , these concertsare welcome indeed in a dreary month , and the arrangement of the grand tier , as a dress circle , is a marked advantage . At Dunnv Lane , Charles Matthews has . appeared in a new rattling version of a French farce , un Monsieur qui suit les Fe nones , which he carries off with all his prodigious vivacity . We arc glad to see a novelty or two underlined in i the bills of tho Olympic ; not before the desirableness of a change was begin- nj ning to be felt . Miss Blanche Fa . n . g continues to excite a real sensation in ' j The Little Treasure at the HAYMARicET , by her exquisite grace and freshness , and the unwonted charm of naturalness in her acting . Mr . Charles Kean , promises us something li&ht und clieerful for the long evenings—a revival j of his Macbeth ; and , finally , tho Court-newsmen report preparations at ^ Windsor for a new series of performances in St . Geox'ge's Hull . ¦ ¦ 1
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. M PRE-RAPHAELITISM AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE . 1 The Arundel Society , on Saturday last , exhibited to the public , in the Court I adjoining the Music Chamber cf the Sydenham Palace , some very in- 1 tere ^ ting illustrations of the early state of art in Ital y , as wen as of ^ l m productions of ancient Greece . The weather was most unfavourable for 1 visitors , being cold and rainy ; but the Court was well filled . Mr . Digby i Wtatt , in the absence of Mr . Ruskuv , delivered a very interesting extern- & pore address , in which he traced the history of Italian art , and contended 1 that its germ may be found in the religious ideas and original freshness of mini i carried on to the Continent by the Anglo-Saxon and Irish rhonks , who , in the 1 eleventh century , penetrated to Constantinople , and infused their burning | vitality into the formalism of the Byzantines , the anatomy of whose conceptions they in part adopted , but , while adopting , vivified . Mr . Wyatt gave a brief sketch of the lives of Cimabue and Giotto , whom he de- i scribed as the first exponents of the new school of painting- ; and thus put his hearers agreeably in possession of the chief facts necessary to a proper comprehension of the objects surrounding them . The works of art exhibited in the Court consist for the most part of tracings from the frescoes painted by Giotto , about the year 1306 , on the walls of the Chapel of Santa Maria dell' Arena , at Padra ; of woodcuts of " these on a reduced scale by the Messrs . Dalziel ; of copies of frescoes of fourteen allegorical figures by Giotto ; of copies of frescoes by Fra ' Angelico da Fiesole ; and of a drawing from Domenico Ghiblandajo . The collection will not remain for long , and it is well worth studying . The other objects of art contained in it consist of alabaster models of the Elgin marbles , reduced by Mr . Chevekton by means of a machine which copies with an accuracy so wonderful , that the most rcimite and superficial marks are reproduced with , absolute identify ; and copies of ancient ivory carvings , made from gutta-percha impressions taken from the originals . The Arundel Court—as we suppose it may for the time be called —will , in short , be found of great interest to the artist , the antiquarian , and the lover of beauty .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 10, 1855, page 1088, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2114/page/20/
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