New-York tribune., 1882-03-10
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

hearty thanks of her countrymen for the 'horoush
ness with which she has performed very iaoorio"'
and difficult task. She may have the sauSiactoh
Of knowing that her book must come to oe 'ne
.,andarl work ON the jmportant subject of which IL
treats and that beside what we may call the scen-
t,ec xalne Of her treatise there is another Nalue
which the pnblIc is sure 10 put upon IL as q most
entertaining storF- house OF anecdo'e-soclal' Nus
tor;e and artisric--connectcd with the lie ana
times of Washington.
The publishers. too, have done their part wei
ord have made handsome book. 1t is largo
ouarto in size of 2o7 pages, and is printed on goou
white paper in clear type. 1t is appropriately
dedicated to the memory of James Abram Garfield,
md in steaking of this fact the author writes:
"The dedication Of this volume to President Gar
field wns in PRESS when the sad event OF the l7th OF
September caused it to be changed TO a memorial.
The interest he expressed in anticipation OF TIE
publication of this work in the last interview had
with him will ever be a cherished remem0raLce'
OF the various reasons for making such dedicatoh
beside the personal pleasure it gives me to thus INK
the names of Washington and Garfeld-the Father
of his country and the Son of his country-perhaps
The compenng one is the fact that have never met
n man more appreciative of the first Presidents
greatness than he whose untimely death nation
,nournsr The text that follows is written on the
pian of simple statement of facts. without more
comment than is necessary to clear mp, or attempt
to clear mp. doubts and contradictions; criticism IS
hardly attempted AZ all, ard indeed on by fat tne
greater number of these portraits criticism would
lie thrown away; not more than a half dozen of
them deserve notice than Is sufficient 10 let US
know their history. Yet the author has very
wisely excluded nothing hut has allowed the por-
traits to tell their story, nor Is 1t small gam
10 learn from these attempts often so crude as 10 NC
ridiculous were it not for :he spirit OF reverence
affection and gratitude that gave them brtn' now
deep in the hearts Of the american people lay the
love of the Father of his Country.
The thirty-two plates contained IN the BOOK
represent some sixty odd objects, thrtyseren out
of the number being reproductions of portraits OF
Washington in oils crayon, miniature and by other
methods and the remainder consisting of busts full
length statues and medals 1t was inevitable, we
suppose that the process employed for these repro
duetions shoud be the heliotype and we are not
disposed 10 quarrel with its in the present in
stance except far as the artistic result 10 oe
desired in some instances is concerned. we nave
said so often that the heotype process Is absolutely
md irredeemahy inaristic in its results that we do
not need to enlarge upon the fact here It's en-
ployment has spoiled many a book that without
IL might have been handsome, but commercial
reasons so constantly in the kpubliShlng trade
of to-day override all other considerations IL
would no doubt be useless to demonstrate. In the
present instance it was desirable to secure lterat
fidelity first of all and this is sufficient reason for
the employment of the hehotype process In the
greater number Of these performances. 1t would
indeed have been a waste of labor to attempt their
reproduction by wOOd-cngrsvng or by steei-engraV-
ing for they crude or jejune, or Obviously uh-
faithful or occasionally only little removed from
what might have been accomplished by the efforts
of an intelligent savage. We think however that
lthography would have done more justice to even
some of these but lithography is unfortunately out
of favor, and besides darcSay would be found
little less costly than wood-engravng. In the case
however, of the more important works, 1t might
have "pa;6 to attempt something more worthy
their character. Thus the HOudon statue-llttle
known to our people at large-is most unfairly
treated by the photographer and 10y the hellotype
Ii is indeed most inartistic performance, albeit by
a famous man foolish in its attempted Symbolism
awkward in its pose, but the bust redeems IL, ana
vet in the helioype of the statue the head is the
worst part. Norris the reproduction of the bust by
Uoudon satisfactory: it should, we think, have
been glven in profile. The bust by Ceracchi Is
extremely interesting but it is only dmly discov-
cradle to be So so muddy is the helotype reproduc
tion of the photograph no doubt itself unsatisfac-
tory.
But in truth how unsatisfactory are all these
attempts to tell MS how Washington looked Every
man who sat down to draw him saw different
person. and the variety in these portraits is their
most striking Characteristic What sort of nose did
the great man have 7 was it smoothly aquillne or
was it ripping and irregular in its Outlincf Was
il blunt at its extremity, was it finely pointed
And his mouth Are all the varieties shown here
in that feature to be ascribed to the famous set of
false teeth that have had to answer for so many
sins or did Washington sometimes clamp his lips
like wise sometimes pucker them into vapidity,
sometimes make frill of them, or purse them up III
scorn, or dissolve them away in unmeanng com
placencyf These things we are never TO nave
settled and the worst is that almost every portrait
has been said By somebody to be the very best like
ness he has ever of the hero. Lafayette with
an amiable desire to please to have adopted
formula Of Joyful recognition which he applied to
every new picture presented 10 him. but we think
even he would have been staggered if he could have
had the opportunity of seeing the present remark
able collection. Imagine him, for instance shown |
the second plate and asked which of these four |
pictures represents his great commander Plate |
third almost bad, yet though it looks like no
other portrait in the book told that the artists
miniatures of Washington were highly esteemed |
1t may be noted by the way that we are not told In
the text which OF his portraits OF Washington is the
one contained in plate third, though presumably 1T |
is the described on page go as half-Iength, |
three quarters vew coat OF snuhcolor and an |
exuberance of shirtruf1e. Here again the unfor- |
tunate mouth excuses itself by the want of its |
teeth But how the rest of the features to
tbemselvesi The whole face is weakness personi- |
fed.
The truth is we take it, that in painting we must
content ourselves with Stuarts unfinished picture
and that In sculpture the bust of HOudOn Is our only
sure reliance Stuart is the fist artist OF ability
who applied himself to the task of securing Wash |
ington's portrait unless to except Copley to
whom miniature is given which we find difficulty |