.

_Artist Life. By H. T. Tuckerman. New York: D.
Appleton & Co. 1 vol. 12mo._

Mr. Tuckerman is an author whose productions we have repeatedly had
occasion to notice and to praise. They have always a finished air,
which favorably distinguishes them from many American publications,
the products of mingled talent and haste. Mr Tuckerman does not appear
to rush into print, with unformed ideas hastily clad in a loose
undress of language--as if the palm of excellence were due to the
swiftest runner in the race of expression. His style is clear,
polished, graceful, and harmonious, combining a flowing movement with
condensation, and free from the tricks and charlatanries of diction.
He is not so popular as he would be if he made more noise about his
words and thoughts, and called the attention of the public to every
felicity of his style or reflection by a pugnacious manner, and a
strained expression. Though possessing a singularly rich and
suggestive fancy, and a wide variety of information, his use of
ornament and allusion is characterized by a taste, an appropriateness,
a reserve, which men of smaller stores rarely practice. As a critic,
he is calm, clear, judicious, sympathetic, and making the application
of a principle all the more stringent, from his vivid perception of
the object of his criticism. The present volume is worthy of its
subject, and is more calculated to convey accurate information of the
lives, character, and works of American artists, than any other we
have seen. It is also exceedingly interesting, being full of anecdotes
and biographical memoranda of artists who are commonly known only as
painters, not as men. In this respect the volume contains much
original information, which will be valuable to the future historian
of American art. In his criticism, Mr. Tuckerman evinces knowledge as
well as taste; and by avoiding technical terms, he contrives to render
agreeable and clear what is generally unintelligible to the
uninitiated reader of _critiques_ on paintings. The volume contains,
among other sketches and biographies, very interesting notices of the
lives and works of West, Copley, Stuart, Allston, Morse, Durand, W. E.
West, Sully, Inman, Cole, Weir, Leutze, and Brown.

_Appleton's Library Manuel: Containing a Catalogue
Raisonne of upwards of Twelve Thousand of the most
Important Works in Every Department of Knowledge,
in all Modern Languag