of the strange and ominous
forms of level cloud behind the building. In that at page 223, there are
passages of the same kind, of exceeding perfection. The sky through
which the dawn is breaking in the Voyage of Columbus, and that with the
Moonlight under the Rialto, in Rogers's Poems, the skies of the
Bethlehem, and the Pyramids in Finden's Bible series, and among the
Academy pictures, that of the Hero and Leander, and Flight into Egypt,
are characteristic and noble examples, as far as any individual works
can be characteristic of the universality of this mighty mind. I ought
not to forget the magnificent solemnity and fulness of the wreaths of
gathering darkness in the Folkestone.

Sec. 27. The excellence of the cloud-drawing of Stanfield.

Sec. 28. The average standing of the English school.

We must not pass from the consideration of the central cloud region
without noticing the general high quality of the cloud-drawing of
Stanfield. He is limited in his range, and is apt in extensive
compositions to repeat himself, neither is he ever very refined; but his
cloud-form is firmly and fearlessly chiselled, with perfect knowledge,
though usually with some want of feeling. As far as it goes, it is very
grand and very tasteful, beautifully developed in the space of its solid
parts and full of action. Next to Turner, he is incomparably the noblest
master of cloud-form of all our artists; in fact, he is the only one
among them who really can _draw_ a cloud. For it is a very different
thing to rub out an irregular white space neatly with the handkerchief,
or to leave a bright little bit of paper in the middle of a wash, and
to give the real anatomy of cloud-form with perfect articulation of
chiaroscuro. We have multitudes of painters who can throw a light bit of
straggling vapor across their sky, or leave in it delicate and tender
passages of breaking light; but this is a very different thing from
taking up each of those bits or passages, and giving it structure, and
parts, and solidity. The eye is satisfied with exceedingly little, as an
indication of cloud, and a few clever sweeps of the brush on wet paper
may give all that it requires; but this is not _drawing_ clouds, nor
will it ever appeal fully and deeply to the mind, except when it occurs
only as a part of a higher system. And there is not one of our modern
artists, except Stanfield, who can do much more than this. As soon as
they attempt to lay detail upon their