The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-05 00:00:00

FINE ARTS.

The Lake Scenery of England. Parts I.—V.
Painted by J. B. Pyne, Esq. Lithographed by
W. Gauci. Published by Thomas Agnew and
Sons, Manchester.
It would not be extravagant to designate this im-
portant work, a work containing the most remark-
able specimens of lithography that we can remem-
ber to have ever fallen under our observation. We
do so—and that, moreover, with all emphasis and
deliberation. We do so in justice to M. Gauci,
in justice to the Messrs. Agnew, and with refe-
rence to Mr. Pyne in a spirit of cordial and un-
affected congratulation. It is something- to have
had such scenery as the Lake Scenery of England
delineated by the hand of an artist such as Pyne—
in a series of brilliant and masterly water-colour
drawings. It is something to have had paintings
like those lithographed as they have been litho-
graphed by W. Gauci, so successfully, and
some of them, we can say, so very marvell-
ously. Remembering still the gratification
derived by us from more than one examination
of the original pictures at the time when the
collection was on view, a season or two back, at the
gallery of the Messrs. Graves' establishment, hard
by the Opera Colonnade—i t is with peculiar plea-
sure that we recognise in this series of plates the
fulfilment of what was then merely a projected en-
terprise—an enterprise which has now, however,
nearly reached the period of its completion, and
that with a success on the part of the lithographer,
and we may add of the printer, too, whic could
scarcely have been reasonably anticipated. It would
appear ridiculous, of course, in reviewing a literary
production, to take note, in the criticism, of the tex-
ture of the paper upon which the book is printed,
of the various dimensions of the volume in length,
breadth, and thickness, or of its weight, binding
and all, say in ounces avoirdupois. Not so, how-
ever, in regard to some notices in reference to cer-
tain matters of Art. In allusion, for example, to
lithography—the subject here immediately brought
under consideration—the size of a plate is
of no trivial or very subordinate consideration. In
viewing the mere mechanical part of the art of
lithography, it becomes a source of interest, and a
matter of curiosity to observe the scope afforded to
the skill of the artist by the largeness or smallness
of the calcareous stones, adapted to his purpose,
procurable, let us suppose from our insular quarries
at Corston, in Somersetshire, or from more remote
ones, such as the famous Bavarian quarries at
Solenbofen, near Pappenheim. It is obviously
allowable, therefore, to comment, en passant, upon
the peculiarly ample scope afforded to the dexter-
ous ability of M. Gauci, in copying on stones of
such singular amplitude
in their dimensions, the
exquisite scenes depicted in water colours by the
pencil of Mr. Pyne—the wonderfully diversified
and exquisitely picturesque Lake Scenery of Eng-
land. To the mere size of the impression thus
produced, we believe that we are indebted for much
of the vraisemblanee. For which reason, therefore,
we are fain to regard the otherwise subordinate
merit as especially deserving of remark, and par-
ticulary entitled to this passing but direct notifica-
tion. As well overlook the importance of the
dimensions of the slab placed under the hands of
the lithographer, as that of the drawing in red
crayon, or as that of the etching with nitric acid—
as any stage in the whole elaborate and ingenious
process, in fact, from the polishing of the surface
of the stone, to its final passage under the printer's
cylinder. Not without some commendatory re-
ference, therefore, to the scale upon which these
lithographic plates have been produced, may we
direct attention in befitting terms of eulogium to
the enterprise displayed by the publishers, the skill
evidenced by the engraver, and the genius revealed
by the painter in the delineation of some of the
most exquisitely beautiful of our insular landscapes.
Hitherto, no work at all commensurate in cha-
racter, no illustrative publication at once pictorial
and descriptive, has celebrated in a manner worthy
of the scenery, by a consecutive series of engravings,
accompanied by appropriate letterpress, the lovely
localities renowned among the many celebrated
and picturesque portions of our island as the Lake
District—the woods, and lakes, and hills, and dells
of the contiguous counties of Lancaster, Cumber-
land, and Westmoreland. Detached nooks, here
and there, have been depicted, it is true, by the
pen, and the brush, and the p ,ncil. Scarcely one
among the more prominent features in the land-
scape but has been commemorated as " a thing of
beauty," and therefore as " a joy for ever" in
immortal verse. The whole country side has been
described by guide-books in abundance. But a
work of the nature above indicated has never until
now made its appearance—a work portraying the
Lake District, in a way not altogether unworthy of
the theme at last selected for artistic treatment
through systematic and elaborate delineation. "It
was not," says the Introduction, " until the pro-
prietors had induced a painter, every way qualified
for the task, to co-operate, con amore, in the pro-
duction of such a work, that they decided on
attempting to supply ie desideratum." The
distinguished genius of Mr. Pyne as one of
the first among the great living colour-poets of
England, aided, as it has fortunately been, by
the practised ability of M. Gauci as a lithographer,
has at length enabled the publishers and proprie-
tors of this very noble serial to carry out to a suc-
cessful issue their undoubtedly bold and really na-
tional undertaking. The interest of the localities
here illustrated cannot be questioned by any one
who has turned over the pages of even the most
superficial hand-book descriptive of these classic
portions of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lan-
cashire. For it cannot be forgotten, either by the
student or the traveller, much less by those who
can lay claim at once to both characters—it cannot
be forgotten that it was among these " pleasant
places" and "sweet solitudes" that retired not only
" the noble-minded Arnold, the paradoxical Haz-
litt, and the speculative De Quincey," not only

artists as illustrious as the " graceful but neglected"
Romney, and as Hogarth, our glorious satirist of
the easel, but that here it was that Words-
worth found a home at Rydal Mount, and
Shelley at Ambleside, and Wilson at Elleray, and
Coleridge at Grasmere, and Southey at Keswick,
and Mrs. Hemans at Dovesnest. Memories, each
of sufficient interest, but together fraught with
irresistible fascination. Accompanied by memories
like these, we follow the painter with his attendant
lithographer, with rapt attention, through scene
after scene of pictorial enchantment. Now,
watching the " play of light" over Skiddaw,
asking—

" What was the great Parnassus' self to thee,
Mount Skithlaw, in thy natural sovereignty'?"
Now pausing successively before the woods, and
wilds, and waters of Ennerdale, and Rydal, and
Windermere, and Hawes, and Wallergill, and
Bassenthwaite, and Derwent, and Buttermere, and
Langdale, and Grasmere, and Ulleswater, and
Conister, and Crummoch--wandering off, in fancy,
from the track selected by the artist, hither and
thither as we list at the moment, in an ascent of
Fairfield, in a stroll down the Vale of St. John's,
in a saunter over the Sands of Cartmel, in an ex-
cursion to Saddleback, or in a ramble through
Borrowdale. a the period when the original col-
lection of water-colours from the hand of Mr.
Pyne was on view, we took occasion to express
our sense of the genius displayed by the artist in
his delineation of those remarkable landscapes. It
were idle to observe in regard to the engravings
from those original drawings, the engravings here
issued in the form of an eminently meritorious and
costly publication, more than that the genius of the
painter has been emulated to a considerable extent
by the skill and adroitness of the lithographer. In-
somuch that the enterprise, commenced some time
back under the happiest auspices, is now rapidly ap-
proaching a successful consummation.