Like Rembrandt, Cruikshank's correctness of drawing might be objected to, yet, like that other great master of the needle, no one could surpass him in his knowledge of chiaro-oscuro and balancing of parts; but it is in the subtlety of his lines, and the expression which he was able to give with the least labour, that he stands unapproachable. At the present day those who admire the dexterity with which Mr. Harry Furniss can cram in multitudes of characters into his cartoons for 'Punch,' may only look at one of the crowded scenes on a small scale, such as 'Lord Mayor's Day' in Cruikshank's 'Comic Almanack,' to see where the inspiration comes from. Before the revolution which photography caused in illustrative art, that wonderful native of Strasburg, Gustave Doré, burst upon the art world like a flaming meteor, and gave quite a turn to artists and engravers. Before his coming, draughtsmen had worked on a white ground with a thin first wash, afterwards hatching up the details with a four or six H pencil; but Doré, in his frantic hurry to produce his exuberant fancies, discarded all these slow methods, and used a black ground with a few dashes of light and half-tone to express himself, as in some of his Inferno scenes, or a thin wash of light grey and some lighter touches, as in his Paradise pictures. For example, 'The Vision of Death,' for flimsy yet immensely clever touches of half-light and high-light on a jet-black block: here the figure of Death with his scythe sits astride a reinless horse, with figures of dragons, angels, and demons coming after him like vultures on the wing. This is one of the most effortless yet best balanced pictures in his collection. As Doré worked, I should say he produced this conception in about half an hour, if not less. The figures are rushing along pell-mell amongst dark rolling clouds, and the artist has been in a similar hurry. It is extravagant and theatrical, as all his work was, and sketchy in the extreme: but it is about as good a sample as I can call attention to for this description of art. Doré's system was an extremely simple one, and straightforward. He fixed on a single light, and set to gathering as much shadow about it as possible,--a broad light, in which he placed as many of his characters as he could cram,--and then set to fill out the shadows with as much detail as he could cram into them; for a sample of this, see his 'The Prince in the Banqueting Hall' (I quote from Cassell's Doré Gallery), 'The Mouth of Hell,' 'The Gathering of the Waters,' &c. &c. The composition is of the same naïve character throughout most of his weird and fantastic conceptions.