, their
colouring partakes of the same dirty hue, there is generally a stiffness
in the position, and much high finish without effect; there are
certainly some exceptions to this rule, at the head of which is Madame
Lezinska de Mirbel, whose miniatures are broad, bold, and natural, but
always plainer than the originals; there are a few others who have come
forward latterly, whose performances are above mediocrity. There were
some landscapes which evinced much talent, both as to composition and
execution; the selection of subjects being from some of the wild
romantic provinces of France and Switzerland, aided greatly in affording
them a certain degree of interest. Taking a comparative view of the
artists of England and France, there is no doubt, generally speaking,
that the latter are superior in drawing, and the former in colouring;
many of the French artists have latterly adopted a leady tone in their
flesh tints, which gives their figures a half dead appearance. With
whatever faults he may possess, I doubt if there be any other man that
can do so much as Horace Vernet; many may be found who may excel him in
the separate objects which he must introduce in a general historical
subject, as a landscape, an architectural building, a ship, a horse,
etc., might be better executed by such artists as have exclusively
studied any one of those subjects, but I do not think there is any
painter now living who could produce the _ensemble_ so well, and manage
to give the effect to the composition in the same masterly style as
Horace Vernet. Delaroche also has completed many pictures which with his
name will be immortal; the same may be said of Ary Scheffer, whilst
Ingres is known and cited all over Europe for the perfection of his
drawing, supposed to be the only man who could correctly draw the naked
human figure in any position without a model. In portrait and miniature
painting, landscapes and water colours, the French are still decidedly
inferior to the English artists.

With respect to sculpture, it is so far more encouraged in France than
in England, that of course the numbers who profess it are far more
numerous in the former country, and there is a great deal of talent to
be found amongst the present French sculptors, but perhaps not quite of
the highest class. I never have seen anything which I considered so
beautiful as Bailey's Eve, and I doubt whether there are any of them who
could produce a work equal to Gibson, or tha