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1068 THE LEADER, [No- 294, Saturday
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STivA Ca rf« ^U* <-£>**»•
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CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHY. The objection that w...
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The Southtvabk Election : Retirement of ...
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THE THEATRES. The JuLiiiEsr solstice has...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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1068 The Leader, [No- 294, Saturday
1068 THE LEADER , [ No- 294 , Saturday
Stiva Ca Rf« ^U* ≪-£≫**»•
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Chromo-Lithography. The Objection That W...
CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHY . The objection that would be made to a chromo-lithographic picture , by persons who distinguish very severely between imitative and deceptive art , would be that it is intended to pass for that which it is not . Mr . Kuskin might apply to this new and beautiful invention language as condemnatory as Tie has applied to cast-iron ornaments , " graining , " in imitation of costly woods and marble , machine-carving , and other cheap replacements of much-prized material or of human skill 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 prints 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 time and 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 j 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-litbography 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 and mislead a vulgar eye . But there is a specific difference between making a good thing go as far as possible and substituting that whxh is altogether contrary and vastly inferior . Leaf-eold 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 chromo-lithography we have not yet considered . Painters , -working expressly with a view to the peculiar effects of colour-printing , will learn 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 not owe its origin and development to circumstances that compelled an exercise of thought in the artist .
One of the last spooirnona that we have seon of Messrs . Rowney s enterprise and ingenuity is the beautiful little rustic figure vyhicli 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 tinta of the little figure before us—infinitely more difficult of management tlian the moss-lining of a nest or the bright scarlet cheek 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 , wo believe , the graceful figure studies of a most promising , but now almost unknown artist , will be published , through the medium of chromo-lithography . Several specimens of his power may be seen at Mr . Lock ' s photographic gallery , in Jiegent-street . We call particular attention to the " Reaper" and the "Flower Girl , " both of which studies contain as much life and heauty as are to be found in the works of Leslie and Frith .
PRE-RAPHAELITISM AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE The Arundel Society , on Saturday last , exhibited to the public , in the ' Ccmrtadjoining the Music Chamber of the Sydenham Palace , some very in teresting illustrations of the early state of art in . Italy , as well as of the productions of ancient Greece . The weather was most unfavourable for visitors , being cold and rainy ; but the Court was well filled . Mr . Diqbx Wyatt , in the absence of Mr . Ruskjust , delivered a very interesting extern pore address , in which he traced the history of Italian art , and contended that its germ may be found in the religious ideas and original freshness of mind carried on to the Continent by the Anglo-Saxon and Irish monks , who , in the eleventh century , penetrated to Constantinople , and infused their burning vitality into the formalism of the Byzantines , the anatomy of whose conr ceptions they in part adopted , but , while adopting , vivified . Mr . Wtati gave a brief sketch of the lives of Cimabue and Giotto , whom he described as the first exponents of the new school of painting ; and thus put his hearer 3 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 Padua ; of woodcuts of these on a reduced scale by the Messr 3 . Daiziel ; of copies of frescoes of fourteen allegorical figures by Giotto ; of copies of frescoes by Fe * Angelico da Fiesole ; and of a drawing from Domenico Ghibi-andajo . The CDllection . will not remain for long , and it i 3 well worth studying . The other objects of art contained in it consist of alabaster models of the Elgin marbles , reduced by Mr . Cheverton by means of a machine which copies with an accuracy so wonderful , that " the most minute and superficial marks are reproduced -with absolute identity ; 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 , ia short , be found of great interest to the artist , the antiquarian , and the lover of beauty .
The Southtvabk Election : Retirement Of ...
The Southtvabk Election : Retirement of Mr . Scovell . —Sir Charles Napier has addressed farther meetings since our last publication , and has been received with bo much enthusiasm that Mr . Soovell , finding his chance hopeless , has given in . In his address to the electors , he says : — " The canvass I have made in person of those whom I had not 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 Southwnrk the honour of being represented by him in Parliament . " Evasion ov Inoome-Tax . —Evan David , a haymerchant at Cardiff , made a transfer of a borae and cart to William J « nkin . in order to evade the payment of income-tax . Jenkin subsequently sold the horse , and had his name painted on the cart . On the death of Evan David , Thomas David , hia executor , sued the widow , And also Jon kin , 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 favourublo . At Manchester , there has been an improved demand at a slight advance in quotations , and the tono of the market is altogether less dull . The Birmingham report describes no change except an increase of uncertainty in the manufactured iron trade , owing to a combination for higher wages . At Nottingham , there has been great activity both in lace and hosiery , the American purohoses especially being very large . In the woollen districts , although there has not been much increase in the extent of transactions , a more cheerful feeling is observable , and confidence with respect to tho prospect or the winter and spring ia sustained . In the Irish linen markets there has been no alteration . With regard to discounts , the demand in the provinces generally seems to have been leas than in London , and in some important instances lower rates have been current . —Times *
Hkfohmatory Union . —A meeting has been held at Ilardwicke Court , near Gloucester ( in which Sir John Pukington , M . P ., Mr . Bracebridge , tho Rev . Sidney Turner , & c , took part ) , the object of which was the formation of a reformatory union for criminals . The result of the meeting was the appointment of a provisional committee intrusted with the task of . organising a reformatory union , the vocation of which would be to consider and promote the best meuns of reforming criminals , to procure employment for them , and to restore them to society ; also , to promote the practical truining und preparation of efficient teachers for' reformatory institutions . It was agreed that a general meeting of tho society should be held in London next Muy . Tina Rkfogkio Question . —A letter from Vienna , in tho Gazette tie la Bourse , aaya : — " Lord Elliot , it is « asertcd , delivered last week a note from his governmen t , relative to tho refugees , in which the British CJovornmcnt states that it will not suffer on its territory any np ltntion against tho righta of other etutos , or which would nneci the interests of friendly governments . It is awi ' -l tl'flt » similar note has been despatched to Paris "
The Theatres. The Juliiiesr Solstice Has...
THE THEATRES . The JuLiiiEsr solstice has opened at Co vent-garden with the usual riotous demonstrations of Great British Gentdom ; 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 ; his -waistcoat is as white , his " front " as dazzling , his locks as Ambrosian , his smile as Olympian , the wave of his baton as majestic and imperial as ever . His forces too are , we believe , undimiriished 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 ia England , the performance will be found quite equal to that of foruier seasons , and that it ia
only in the coarser condiments of the entertainment , in the claptrap burlesques of noisy patriotism , in the descriptive battles , and in the hideous noise 01 big-drum bombardments , that the falling-off has been observed . It is quite possible that the conductor and his orchestra arc 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 enough 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 unavailiugly , against the 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 concerts are welcome indeed in a dreary month , and the arrangement of the grand tier , as a dress circle , is a marked advantage .
At Duury Lake , Charles Matthews has appeared in a new rattling version of a French farce , un Monsieur qui suit les JFemmes , which he carries off with all his prodigious vivacity . We are glad to see a novelty or two underlined in the bills of the Ojlympic ; not before the desirableness of a change was beginning to be felt . Miss Blanche Fane continues to excite , a real sensation hi TThe Little Treasure at theHAYMABKET , by her exquisite grace and freshness , and the unwonted charm of naturalness in her acting . Mr . Chauiles Kean promises us something li ^ ht and cheerful for the long evenings—a revival of his Macbeth ; and , finally , the Court-newsmen report preparations at Windsor for a new series of performances in St . George ' s Hall .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 10, 1855, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10111855/page/20/
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