through negligence or evil communication, continue to disturb society. I believe she is engaged by the most upright and generous motives to do good to the convicts, and thus to benefit general society; and I have no doubt that she will be eminently successful in both, notwithstanding all misrepresentations of her measures and her character."

Thus, either through her philosophy, or in spite of her philosophy, Mrs. Farnham, by her indefatigable zeal, and eminent firmness and integrity of character, has succeeded in producing a thorough reform in the prison under her management, and is still achieving very grand and noble triumphs.The friends of the old methods, therefore, may carp as much as they please, at her phrenological experiments; but while she can exhibit practices like these to the Christian world, she will be sustained by its enlightened opinion. Her career is a fine commentary upon what we alleged at the outset, that as to the humane treatment of offenders, for she regards them rather as unfortunates than as criminals, and makes reform and not retribution the end of punishment. It is in accordance with the Divine principle which teaches us to "overcome evil with good." We rejoice, truly, that the world is beginning to see the efficacy of this truth in many other respects. It is, indeed, a glorious privilege to live in an age when the spirit of genuine Christianity is penetrating deeper and deeper into the heart of society, and when goodness is supplanting more and more, in all the relations of life, the ancient faith in severity and force.

AMERICAN WORKS OF PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.*

"Ut Pictura Poesis erit; similisque Pocsi

Sit Pictura; refert par æmula quæque sororem
Alternantque vices et nomina; muta poesis
Dicitur hæc, pictura loquens solet illa vocari.
Quod fuit auditu gratum cecinere poctæ
Quod pulchrum aspectu Pictores pingere curant:
Quæque Poetarum numeris indigna fuere,

Non eadem Pictorum operum studiumq; merentur."

A TASTE for the more elevated productions of painting and sculpture is rapidly increasing amongst us, and day after day brings new evidence of artistic genius, that will eventually raise this country to a level in this respect with any of the nations of Europe. When it is considered that the attainment of excellence in these pursuits is peculiarly the work of time-that a profound knowledge of the happiest efforts of past epochs is most essential to brilliant success, it will be perceived that this is no faint praise. Our local position, however advantageous in other regards, is not favorable to our progress in the fine arts. Withheld by the broad Atlantic from the frequent contemplation enjoyed by Europeans of those chefs d'œuvre which have obtained the suffrages of mankind, and been established by the voice of ages, we have had to contend with almost insuperable difficulties. But thanks to national enterprise and perseverance, the first steps have all been taken. Institutions and galleries for the encouragement of art, have been founded in different parts of the country; American painters travel more frequently to Italy and France, and, we trust the day is not far distant, when we shall have imbibed as a people that true spirit, which is most likely to direct the artist to a just standard of excellence. We should neglect no means of enabling the mass to form accurate notions of artistic beauty. In England, with all her means and appliances, the people are sadly deficient, to the great prejudice of genuine works of genius, and they have yet much to learn ere they reject those gaudy and meretricious efforts, (which now pander to a vitiated taste,) for those unpretending and meritorious productions that are fully appreciated only by a judicious minority. It would be folly, therefore, to deny, that our judgment in works of art is yet unformed, vague, and, in most instances, erroneous. There are many persons of highly cultivated taste in this country, who find, in the noblest efforts of the chisel and pencil, the congenial embodyment of their own refined and glowing conceptions; but this is not sufficient for the interests of painting and sculpture. The fame and fate of artists depend even still more upon the verdict of the people at large; and until true ideas of art are more generally diffused, and the demand becomes greater for works of a high order, it cannot be expected that men of genius will devote the utmost powers of their minds to produce fine compositions. These considerations induce us to offer some few additional remarks upon the subject of painting and sculpture, in the hope that they may render the reader more familiar with those principles, which being impressed upon the mind, enable it to arrive at a fair estimate of the value of those works which seem most worthy of examination. The opinions we advance are perhaps not remarkable for novelty, but they cannot be too often recalled to

*

* Vanderlyn's Landing of Columbus-Exhibition of the Art Union, &c. &c.

memory, nor too widely circulated. The first question asked by those who seek information on the subject is, what is true art? The response immediately arises, that it is a faithful imitation of nature. Such undoubt edly is the fact. But when we reflect that nature assumes a thousand varied forms, and that each painter and sculptor views her through the peculiar medium of his own mind, it will be acknowledged that there is great room for discussion. The habits, tastes, and observances of nations, too, are so different, that what one man lauds to the very echo, another may decry as barbarous and unnatural. To place art in a clear light before the world-to dispel illusions, and thereby give genius fair play, is one of the most important services that can be rendered the cause of civilization. This glorious task has been but partially accomplished, whether in France, England, or, we might venture to say, in modern Italy; but many have labored for its fulfilment, and all that we desire is, to afford our humble aid to sustain those principles and modes of thought which are most approved in the teaching and practice of the great masters. In all the varied phases of nature she possesses great beauty, but her productions, like those of art, are distinctly classified. Thus the genius of every painter, however peculiar, has its own field of performance, and thus have arisen the different schools into which the art, more particularly of painting, is divided. Whatever is good in its distinctive class of art, however low the subject, is worthy of respect, for in each of her realms nature, as we have said, is still beautiful. Thus, Teniers and Gerard Dow will live probably for an equal time with Raphael in the recollection of men, though how different their works, school, and reputation. It would be foreign to our purpose here to give a minute account of the various schools, and we will enter simply into a short dissertation on those principles on which some of the more elevated are based. In doing so we shall probably give the reader some insight that he has not hitherto obtained, into what we may justly term the poetry of art. The diversified figures, groupings, and scenery of nature, are only comparatively beautiful or defective. There are but few objects in her wide domain that reach the degree of perfection which the refined and glowing imagination of genius is empowered to conceive. A knowledge of this fact has given rise to schools peculiarly eclectic, and these, rejecting the deformities which, as many of the great writers on art have admitted, exist in most of her productions, have established certain standards of beauty to which it should be our constant endeavor to attain. The works produced by these very academies of art are, paradoxical as it may seem, the most natural. However beautiful individual objects may appear in nature, we rarely find in them that reunion of perfections which astonish us for instance in the Grecian statues. Every beauty that is possible for the painter to depict is certainly discoverable in nature, but scattered, as if by accident; and, even in her happiest efforts, there is almost invariably some slight deficiency, which is but too apt to dissipate all belief in her supremacy. The attempt to produce perfection by a close imitation of individual objects in nature had so often failed, that the grand secret of the beau ideal was at length revealed, and

"the sculptor from the rival forms

Of loveliest nymphs each faultless feature chose,
To mould the matchless marble."

Nor was this system of selection pursued simply with regard to statuary.
It extended also to landscape. Those peculiarities which are termed the

"accidents of nature," and which are often but ill adapted to pictorial effect, were thrown aside, and those charming subjects chosen, in the delineation of which a Claude Lorraine and a Poussin have won imperishable reputation. We may appropriately sustain our opinion as to the utility of the ideal system of beauty, by extracting the following lines from a poem written by one of the most intellectual of historical painters:

-"Tho' our casual glance may sometimes meet With charms that strike the soul and seem complete, Yet if those charms too closely we define,

Content to copy nature line for line,

Our end is lost. Not such the master's care,
Curious he culls the perfect from the fair;
Judge of his art, through beauty's realm he flies,
Selects, combines, improves, diversifies;

With nimble steps purues the fleeting throng,
And clasps each Venus as she glides along."

We have styled the ideal system the poetry of art, for by this means
alone are we enabled to depict upon the inanimate canvass those varied
beauties of sentiment, scenery, and character, the reflection of which
exercises the most elevating influence upon our minds.
What is poetry
but the chaste and happy presentment of the more refined, the nobler,
and the more ardent tastes, feelings, and passions of our nature? Paint-
ing is all this; for when imbued with the true spirit of ideality, it can
describe in the noblest outlines and most glowing colors, the gallant lover,
the beauteous mistress, and the glorious victories or signal downfall of
the hero. It will carry us alike into the simple cottage and the gorgeous
palace, and place before our eyes, in vivid contrast, the rich and the poor,
the great and the lowly, giving to all, under whatever circumstances, full
and adequate expression.

It enables us to rove through landscapes as glowing and delightful as fancy can picture, even in a dream. But if we would soar still higher, it will bring us into momentary association with the gods, and realise the highest and most brilliant flights of poetic imagination. Who then can deny that poetry and painting are born of the same spirit-that there is any difference, except, indeed, in their modes of expression?

If the poet have a lofty and glorious mission, is not that of the painter worthy also of the noblest efforts to attain distinction? The influence of neither is circumscribed, and both can render great and important service, whether

"To point a moral or adorn a tale."

In the foregoing, we have given the very pith and essence of the reflections which arose in our minds, from the examination of many native works which have been recently executed. We have been induced to offer them in the present article for two or three very cogent reasons. One of these is a firm belief that the views we have expressed form no inappropriate introduction to a consideration of any class of works; and another, that the attention of the community is more earnestly directed, than at any former period, to the subjects that we have selected. As we shall come, by and bye, to regard the less elevated and poetic, though certainly meritorious class of works, we trust that we shall be enabled, by a description of them, to sustain our assertion, that in all the legitimate and various ramifications of art, however lowly and unpretending they may be deemed, there is still to be found the pervading influence of poetic thought and genius. Poetry, like nature and art, assumes number

less shapes, giving us many gradations of beauty, and may be expressed in the familiar pictures of a Sir David Wilkie, or Edwin Landseer, as in those of a Michael Angelo, though in the former it cannot soar so high nor rest so long upon the wing. But let us now glance at some productions of an elevated order.

In Mr. Brown's Statues we recognise much of the true spirit of the "antique,"-much genius and knowledge. His Adonis, musing on the pleasures of the chase, is a noble work, that betrays a fine appreciation of ideal and poetic beauty, and would of itself place him in a high rank amongst American sculptors. The contemplative position of this figure, and the expression of the countenance, give an admirable idea of the moment chosen by the artist. Those who have seen the most celebrated statues of Venus, will find no disappointment in the contemplation of this beautiful representation of her especial favorite. The sculpture of Ruth receiving the Salutation of Boaz, also exhibits great artistic power, though the subject be not of so elevated a nature. This work is exceedingly graceful and natural. There she stands in simple, flowing and tasteful drapery--her eyes cast modestly towards the ground, her right hand upon her bosom, and on her left arm a small bundle or sheaf, which she had just gathered. There we say she stands, almost rivetted to the spot by the words of Boaz; and well indeed has the sculptor rendered manifest the emotions which ran through her sad heart,

" when sick for home

She stood in tears, amid the alien corn."

The Rebecca of this artist is also a pleasing and graceful performance, though not completely finished. She is represented on her way to her mother's house, after having received the gifts of Abraham.

The "Boy and Dog," or, to use a pithy phrase which describes the nature of this design, chi vince, mangia (who wins, eats) is full of life and character. Nothing can be finer than the position of both figures, whether independently or relatively considered. A child of some six or eight years old endeavours to pull back a dog, by means of his collar, from a well filled bowl, which the former desires with equal avidity. The idea was a happy one, and is exceedingly well carried out.

The only deficiencies which struck us were, in some few parts of the statue, a slight hardness of outline, a lack of muscular developement sufficient to describe the struggle going on between the two parties, and a trifling incorrectness in the relative position of the lower part of the face. Taken altogether, however, it must be regarded as a work of a very high order, and will give pleasure to the admirers of nature and graceful simplicity.

The series of bas-reliefs, representing the seasons, evince great genius for composition, and a fine classic taste; but in point of execution they are inferior to some of the statues we have mentioned.

The "Wife of Ariadne," a bust nearly the size of life, is exquisite. The features possess all the beauty of the ideal, with much of the individuality of nature; and the arrangement of the hair, in which are appropriately entwined some early vine leaves and grapes, renders the ensemble perfect. There are some other admirable works by Mr. Brown, needless to mention here; and we shall now offer a few additional remarks, explanatory of our reasons for taking notice of the above statues, previous to commenting on those of other artists. In the first place, then, Mr. Brown has shaken off local prejudices, as all must do