to mark the character and leading features
of the object represented. His drawings are generally in pen outline,
with a wash of bistre, or other warm colour; sometimes he makes use of
black and red chalk; they are seldom finished with colours, but have
often portions rendered lighter and broader by means of a wash of white.
From his great practice in using the point in etching, he not only
gives the greatest precision and certainty, but his outline assumes the
gentlest delicacy or overpowering boldness. Everything from his hand
seems to possess a largeness of form, and the greatest breadth of light
and shade that can be given; this it is that gives them the stamp of
truth, so that it is difficult to distinguish between those drawn
immediately from nature, and such as are emanations from his
imagination. On looking into the catalogue of his effects, we perceive
large folios of his drawings, which, though at the sale they produced
but small sums, are now marked with their true value. I may notice here
a small drawing of "The Death of the Virgin," that brought, at the sale
of the late Baron Verstolk, one hundred and sixty guineas. One cannot
but regret that the excellent collection of the drawings by Rembrandt
and other masters, selected by the late Sir Thomas Lawrence, with great
taste and at large sums, should have been lost to the country, though
offered in his will at comparatively a small price. Nevertheless, we
possess several fine specimens in the British Museum Print-room.

THE ETCHINGS OF REMBRANDT.

No painter has gained so much celebrity by his etchings as Rembrandt,
both on account of their number and excellence. Claude, Parmegiano,
Berghem, Paul Potter, Adrian Ostade, and others, have all been dextrous
in using the etching point. Rembrandt's performances have all the
interest and beauty of finished works; his making use of the dry point,
which was unknown before his application of it, gives his etchings that
richness and softness peculiar to himself, for the process in the
hands of others has never since been attended with the same triumphant
success. The etchings consist of three hundred and sixty-five plates,
accompanied by two hundred and thirty-seven variations. I can only here
give their titles and dates: the amateur is referred to the descriptive
catalogues of Gersaint, Daulby, Bartsch, Claussin, and Wilson. The
catalogue by the latter gentleman is the one adopted by the British
Museum; I have,