We have seen so many ladies with up-turned eyes, called in the annual
catalogues "Meditation," that we will not interrupt the calm of Mr
Cope's. C.G. Lewis has but one plate, "A Woodland Dell." A quiet spot of
shade and flickering sunshine--a streamlet, and a rural bridge. It is
sweetly etched, true to the character.
Richard Redgrave, in more than one instance in the book, shows that he
has power over the deep and solemn pathetic, as well as over the tender.
His first plate is "The Survivors of the Storm." The story is from
Petronius, as told by Jeremy Taylor. A floating body of one of a
shipwrecked crew lies pillowed on a wave, and is met with by the
survivors in their boat. Solemn and awe-stricken is their expression.
The plate is of a fine tone, befitting death in that awful shape. This
story of Petronius was the subject of a poetical piece, which we
remember to have read in a volume of poems by Thomas Flatman, one of the
"mob of gentlemen" condemned by Pope, who, nevertheless, did not care
about borrowing from him pretty much of his version of the "Animula,
blandula, vagula"--the Emperor Adrian's address to his soul. We remember
the commencement of the piece:--
"After a blustering tedious night,
The winds all hush'd, and the rude tempest o'er,
Rolling far off upon a briny wave,
Compassionate Philander spied
A floating carcass ride,
That seem'd to beg the kindness of a grave.
At near approach he thought he knew the man," &c.
His "Fairy Revels" make a light and elegant plate. A fairy group in a
frame of leaves. He is here both painter and poet.
"Hast thou not seen the summer breeze,
The eddying leaves, and downy feather,
Whirl round a while beneath the trees,
Then bear aloft to heaven together?
With just such motion, gliding light,
These fairies vanish'd from my sight."
Poor unfortunate Dadd! some years ago he exhibited a picture of this
subject, somewhat similarly treated, that was exquisitely ideal.
The "Ellen Orford," from Crabbe's _Borough_, is good in the effect; but
it has not the pathos that usually distinguishes Redgrave. "Rizpah
watching her Sons," is very fine. The night, the glaring torchlight, to
scare away the approaching wolves, and the paler, more distant light in
the sky, with the melancholy mourning Rizpah, are of the best
conception. "The Sick Child" has quite the effect of a Rembrandt plate;
yet it is very tender--a scene fit for the angelic visit, and pure and
devout of thought and purpose is that angel--we do not like the mother.
The best description is from Mr Redgrave's own pen.
"THE SICK CHILD.
"He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy
ways."--PSALM xci.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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