The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-30 00:00:00

FINE ARTS,

Washington Irving and his Literary Friends.
Designed by F. 0. C. Darley. Engraved by T.
0. Barlow. Published by Moore, Macqucen,

and Co.

Everyone knows, of course, those two delightful
pictures called respectively, " Shakepere and his
Contemporaries," and " Scott and his Contempora-
' ries." Here, in this profoundly interesting en-
graving of " Washington Irving and his Literary
Friends," is an American ditto, revealing to view,
in Geoffrey Crayon's charming house-room at
Sunnyside (just the name for Irving's llama!) the
Author of the Sketch-book and his Contemporaries.
Fifteen celebrated American men of letters are
here, in this most interesting work of art, grouped
together, and revealed each in propria persona, each
a vivid and wonderfully life-like resemblance. In
the centre of the picture, of course, is the host—
literally a host in himself Geoffrey Crayon,
Diedrich Kuickerboclnr, Leuncelot .Longsteff,
Jonathan Otdstyle, all rolled into eine— otherwise
Washington Irving, Novelist, EJsayist, Historian,
Biographer, homme- de-lettres, and Ansbaesador!
Rather a lackadaisical pose is given to the
head of this delightful writer, as he is here repre-
sented, with that same head of his turned senti-
mentally on one side, while the blandest of smiles, a
smile almost amounting to a simper, is expressed on
the features. Stated near him, with his features shown
in profi e, is the author among mem all with the
noblest head—a sort of Napoleonic head—and the
finest thoughtfullest couutenanee—William Henry
Prescott, the luminous fits!orien of "Ferdinand and
Isabella." The glasses lift is fingering, suspended
round his neck by a ribbon, remind tie of that tern•
rible tiff ction of his,: embittering his
effitction annost amounting to biindiates. Leanii:g
en the back of the chair in which Prescott is seated,
is that. noblest of all the American poets, Professor
Longfellow. Behind him is the the mystical face
of the anther of the " Scarlet Letter," Neehaniel
Hawthorne, recently &ceased. In the background,
between Prescott and Longfellow, appears the
lugubrious, ringtetted visage of Mr. N. P. Willis,
looking like that of a handsome rocs thoroughl
used up. Yonder on the other bide of the picture
is the manly, vigorous, sailor-like face of Fenni-
more Cooper, the sea-neveliet, par excellence.
Nest to him is the historian of Aueeriee, Gems-,
Berncrott. And, further back, Ralph Waldo
Emerson's shrewd, close-shaven, old-fashioned
leaking Yankee visage peers at us incongruously
over a sort of a Byronic turned-down collar! Near
him, grim and ungainly as a Polar bear showing
his teeth through a shock of white hair, is -William
Cullen Bryant, Poet, and Editor of au Evening
Newspaper. Besides one other celebrity not yet
mentioned, to wit, Oliver Wendell Holmes, there
are five- welters, well known probably in their own
country, but little thought of in the old hemisphere
—namely, Halleck, Lirams, Paulding, Kennedy,
end Tuckerman. The difficulties in the way of
" arrangieg" such a picture as this transatlantic
companion to the two famous English prints
already menticned, viz., " Shakspere and his
Contemporaries," and " Scott and his Con-
temporaries," have been admirably well over-
come by the eminent American artist from whose
hand the original design emanated. And, in
transferring the general effect of that design of Mr,
Darley's to steel, in a style of (the engravet'e) art
known as mixed line and stipple, Mr. Barlow, of
London, has done his part, we should conjecture,
fo the painter's complete satisfaction. Published
by the Messrs. Moore, McQueen and Co , of Ber-
ners-street, this engraving of Washington Irving
and his Literary Friends is likely to vie in Levu-
lerity--39 affording the public a welcome peep
into Sunnyside—with the celebrated pictures
already yielding that public peeps', respectively:
into the Mermaid and into Abbotsford.