nch etching; some studies in black
and white may be seen in the narrow passages of the Louvre of very high
merit, showing great skill and delicacy of execution, and most
determined industry; (in fact, I think when the French artist fails, it
is never through fear of labor;) nay, more than this, some of them
exhibit acute perception of landscape character and great power of
reaching simple impressions of gloom, wildness, sound, and motion. Some
of their illustrated works also exhibit these powers in a high degree;
there is a spirit, fire, and sense of reality about some of the
wood-cuts to the large edition of Paul and Virginia, and a determined
rendering of separate feeling in each, such as we look for in vain in
our own ornamental works.[76] But the French appear to have no teaching
such as might carry them beyond this; their entire ignorance of color
renders the assumption of the brush instantly fatal, and the false,
forced, and impious sentiment of the nation renders anything like grand
composition altogether impossible.

Sec. 28. Foliage of J. D. Harding. Its deficiencies.

It is therefore only among good artists of our own school that I think
any fair comparison can be instituted, and I wish to assert Harding's
knowledge of foliage more distinctly, because he neither does justice to
himself, nor is, I think, rightly estimated by his fellow-artists. I
shall not make any invidious remarks respecting individuals, but I think
it necessary to state generally, that the style of foliage painting
chiefly characteristic of the pictures on the line of the Royal Academy
is of the most degraded kind;[77] and that, except Turner and Mulready,
we have, as far as I know, no Royal Academician capable of painting even
the smallest portion of foliage in a dignified or correct manner; all is
lost in green shadows with glittering yellow lights, white trunks with
black patches on them, and leaves of no species in particular. Much
laborious and clever foliage drawing is to be found in the rooms of the
New Water-Color Society; but we have no one in any wise comparable to
Harding for thorough knowledge of the subject, for power of expression
in a sketch from nature, or for natural and unaffected conception in the
study.

Maintaining for him this high position, it is necessary that I should
also state those deficiencies which appear to me to conceal his real
power, and in no small degree to prevent his progress.

Sec. 29. His brill