nostrums attracted me in spite of my self.

On a kind of covered stage you see a mountebank with a phial in his hand, disposing of his drugs and surrounded by people of the lower classes. A woman has her pocket picked without perceiving it, so deeply is she engaged by the extraordinary things which she hears. Here is a little Savoyard, with his box containing his treasure, a little marmot which every body is anxious to see; and there a match-woman, hunting the vermin on her child. This good mother might have performed this duty without letting us know it. The natural manner in which the artist has represented the scene, renders it still more disgusting. One of the principal persons in this composition is a jolly sportsman with a hare on his shoulder. His silly look and the solemn attention with which he gazes at the mountebank, seem to promise the latter that the countryman will not continue his journey till he has made him his dupe. You imagine you see a gardener, who passes by with his wheel-barrow, actually moving along. The mass of the spectators are principally engaged in listening and speaking. At a casement we discover the painter, who has represented himself with his pallet and pencils.

Great naïveté pervades this piece, and the heads are full of expresssion. Though I find in his Dropsical Man at Paris a much higher finish, bis Mountebank exhibits a much more sprightly touch. It appears to me that a picture resembles a book; we are not fond of reading those the author of which has explained every thing so as to leave nothing for us to add; he wishes to make us acquainted with every thing, and sometimes we would rather be allowed to guess. We throw down his book, angry that he has not left us some small intervals to fill up. Hagedorn says, on the subject of this celebrated picture in his Reflections on Painting: "That in the figures you find such delicate traits as are rarely met with in the most celebrated kind of painting."

The Mountebank is one of the largest performances of Gerard Douw. It is three feet, five inches on height, and two feet, seven inches in breadth. It was painted in 1632, and is in wood. It has been aquatinted and finished with the graver by Professor Hess. This print, which has appeared in England, is perfectly in the spirit of the original, a commendation which can rarely be bestowed on an engraving. Without prejudice to the other

productions of this eminent engraver, who resides at Dusseldorf, this plate may be considered as his master-piece.

If we consider Vandyke as a historical painter, he does not come near his master, Rubens, either for the richness of his compositions, or the grand manner of his execution; but with respect to his portraits, only look at them and you will give them the palm. In the other schools he has but one rival, Titian, and even with himhe may in some instances maintain a successful competition.

There are at Dusseldorf twenty-one. performances of Vandyke, most of which are of his best years. Among his historical pictures, I prefer that of Christ carried to the Tomb, which is painted with delicate colours and yet produces a wonderful effect; it is censured for incorrectness in the design. Others prefer his Jupiter as a Satyr surprising Antiope asleep. Among his portraits, a whole length of a woman pleases me most. You likewise see his own portrait painted in his youth.

I met with two pictures by Raphael: the first is a Holy Family, one of his early performances, on which I shall not enlarge; and the other a beautiful Academy of his best time. It is St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness, who, under the figure of a handsome young man, is seated on a rock, from which gushes a spring. He is almost entirely naked, has a cross in his left hand and a cup full of water in the other. What an admirable position, what truth, what design, what grandeur of style! Who was ever capable of uniting so many qualities except Raphael? And Forster refuses him the honour of having painted this piece because he thinks the colouring too fine. He ascribes it to Andrea del Sarto. But this is not a reason; Raphael was perhaps not always the greatest colourist, but he assuredly was sometimes. To admit this, it is only necessary to see some of his portraits, as I have, beside those of Titian; they even dispute the precedence with the latter. I think the defect of design in the shortening of the left foot gives us still more right to ascribe it to Raphael; for we know that in this particular that master was not always very happy. We are told that this picture was covered by a landscape in watercolours that was not hadly executed. In cleaning it, the owner discovered that there was an oil-painting underneath. Whatasurprize! What rapture must the person have felt who cleaned it, when he discovered, by degrees, the exquisite work of the god

of

The Blessed Virgin, with the Infant Jesus, is, without doubt, the master-piece of Carlo Dolce. He painted it in 1649, at the age of thirty-three. You know that I am not partial to this master, but I nevertheless think that this performance has been criticised too severely, perhaps, because it is hung immediately underneath the beautiful Raphael. Our opinion of a picture too frequently depends on the manner in which it is placed. Many pictures are exceedingly great loscrs by being misplaced. Different artists have assured me, that this is the reason why certain pieces of Rubens excite less admiration at Paris than at Antwerp.

The head of Christ, by Correggio, is very expressive: it made me melancholy, By Andrea del Sarto, who treated Francis I. with such ingratitude, we find a Holy Family, consisting of the Blessed Virgin, the infant Jesus, Elizabeth, and the infant St. John. I was uncommonly delighted with the head and the white drapery of Elizabeth. This piece is undoubtedly one of the most capital per formances of that master, as well on account of the grace of the heads, as the beauty of the colouring. This picture, which is four feet two inches in height, and three feet two inches in breadth, is painted on wood, and has been engraved in the dotted manner by L. Cosse.

By Domenichino, whose St. Jerome I am never weary of admiring, there is here one picture that does him honour, Susanna bathing. He here proves himself one of the first painters of expression. Susanna, having just come out of the water, is sitting on the steps of the basin, drying her fair body. She is surprised by the two elders, and appears to be shrieking out. One of the elders on the outside of the balustrade, leans over, and extends his arms towards her, whilst the other forces the door, and approaches her. The countenance of Susanna is not at all distorted, as Forster asserts; on the contrary, the distress and agitation of a virtuous woman are admirably expressed in it. The heads of the elders are replete with expression: it is

impossible to paint desire with greater truth than in the head of him who is breaking open the door. This picture is eight feet five inches high, and ten feet seven inches broad. It has been engraved in the dotted manner by Eginton.

The various judgments passed on Adrian Vanderwerff are overcharged. Some find in his works all the perfections of painting, and others all its defects. The latter have seen too little of him, and the former, enraptured with the finish of the details, forget the faults of the general composition; a wise medium should be observed in every thing. A painter who has bestowed so much pains on details as Vanderwerff, ought to be studied before an opinion is passed on him. No painter perhaps excels him in drapery. Fault is found with his flesh, which, it must be admitted, is daubed, and of an ivory cast; but if we have discovered one defect, must we for that reason forget all his beauties?

Vanderwerffought to be studied at Dusseldorf: we there find a great number of his works, and even of his most capital ones. He resided there at different times during the reign of John William. We see here twenty-five pieces by that master, and all but one are nearly of the same dimensions. Of these I prefer the following

1. Jesus in the midst of the Doctors. Jesus Christ is represented as a handsome child, full of intelligence: standing before a table, on which are lying papers and the Sacred Scriptures. The doctors stand round him; his bare head is shadowed with light hair; he is dressed in a grey habit over which a purple mantle reaches down to his knees. The eyes and attention of all present are fixed upon him, and the principal light falls on his head. The expression in the heads, the colouring, a well studied architecture, and in particular the choice and exccution of the draperies, cannot fail to excite admiration. This picture, painted in 1705, is two feet six inches in height, and one foot, nine inches in breadth; it has been eugraved by Green in the stroke manner.

2. Jesus laid in the Tomb, painted in 1703, is among the pictures of this master at Dusseldorf, and is that to which I should give the palm, both on account of the correctness of the design and the expression of the heads. The head of Jesus Christ is laid upon a rock; Joseph of Arimathea, richly dressed, on the top of it; beside him is the Blessed Virgin taking the crown of thorns from the head of the Saviour; the

three

4. Sarah presenting Hagar to Abraham. This picture was painted in 1699. It is impossible to suppose that such great luxury prevailed in the apartments of the ancient patriarchs. But we are inclined to forgive this fault in the painter of history, when we behold the admirable execution of his imaginary luxury.

5. Abraham sending away Hagar and Ishmael. This piece, painted in 1701, reconciles us with the faults against history remarked in the preceding. Its author here seems to have studied and felt the simplicity of patriarchal life.

All these pictures are nearly of the same dimensions as the first.

6. Jesus presented to the Jews by Pontius Pilate; four feet high, three feet five inches broad, painted on canvas at Rottendani in 1691. In this, as in the preceding pictures, the expression of the heads is particularly admired.

We find here nine pictures by Rembrandt, both portraits and historical subjects. Of the former, I prefer his own portrait, in which are exhibited that touch replete with energy, that clair-obscure inagic, which causes his pencil to be so highly ad.nired.

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin by Guido Reni is one of his finest productions. The Virgin is rising toward heaven, borne in the clouds by two angels; two other angels conceal them selves under her drapery. The attitude of the Virgin, the correctness, the agreeable expression of the heads, the exquisite drapery, all enchant us in this master-piece. Professor Hess has engraved it in the dotted manner. This picture is nine feet two inches in height, and six feet six inches in breadth.

I have still a few words to say concerning Rubens. We find here fortysix of his works. I shall not enter into any detail of them; since every day may be seen at the Museum (in Paris) more than fifty of his pieces.

The Last Judgment is one of the proJigies of the pencil of Rubens, and is,

beyond dispute, one of his capital works, replete with force and energy. I nevertheless think that this subject is not within the province of painting, any more than the Deluge, as I have elsewhere observed. The celebrated Lessing has made the same remark on his Laocoon. It cannot be denied that this picture possesses great beauties, but the subject is not treated in a manner worthy of its author. Scarcely any of the figures has the position or the character adapted to it, not even the principal personage, which is Jesus Christ. Ir ever subject afforded scope for expression, it is undoubtedly this, in which men of all ages, of all passions, of all virtues, and of ail vices, might be represented. He cannot therefore reasonably be pardoned for having introduced so many ignoble and unmeaning countenances, when he had at his command all the expressions by which human life can be characterized. But while we censure his defects, it is impossible to forbear admiring the grandeur and beauty of his composition, his exquisite groups, the variety of his attitudes, the boldness of his pencil, the warmth of that inimitable colouring which enchants us in all the works of Rubens, especially when we behold them at a certain distance; of that colouring which, unrivalled at the time when he painted, procured him the crown of immortality. This picture, one of the largest of that master, and which, from the magnitude of its dimensions, obliged the owner to construct the gallery, is eighteen feet nine inches in height, and fourteen feet in breadth. It has been engraved by Cornelius Vischer.

The Fall of the rebellious Angels into Hell, a sketch. It is impossible to guess where the artist began, or where he finished. The spectator suffers with the falling spirits. What beautiful confosion! It is an exertion of the genius of Rubens, which can be compared to unthing but the sublime conception of Milton's Paradise Lost. This piece has been engraved by Lucas Vostermann.

The whole-length portraits of Rubens and his wife, are well painted, and are replete with grace and truth. They have beeu engraved by Hess.

I have been too diffuse, and I have been too brief; but it is out of my power to correct these faults. I shall be happy if I can only enable you to appreciate the beautiful collection which I have attempt ed to describe.

Permit me to subjoin a few observa