PINE ARTS. 361 



" 364 — Westminster Bridge, from Vauxhall Stairs,*^ by Thomas CreS" 

 wick J a most map^riificent piece of perspective. Perhaps this view, 

 although, heretofore, delineated by so many able painters, has never been, 

 represented under so beautiful an aspect. The broad extent of the 

 Thames, with nearly the whole of the sky, composes one commanding 

 light, which shows off the distant bridge, in tender receding hues, that 

 appear to melt in air. The buildings on the off bank, and all the diffe- 

 rent sized boats, and shipping ; the watermen, with the various piles 

 of houses, and the passengers, which, in picturesque irregularity, rise 

 on the Vauxhall side, are seen in exquisite gradation of tone. The 

 atmospheric transitions, in gentle succession, from those evanescent 

 hues, which float on the distant horizon, to the dark strong shadows of 

 the foreground masses, are painted with the purest chastity. 



This delicious effect is produced without any vivid tints; without an 

 opposition of cool and warm colours, that powerful auxiliary of the sub- 

 lime and beautiful, in every class of local scenery. The artist has suc- 

 cessfully, but not often, made use of that aid, in some of his landscapes j 

 but, here, there is not a tint, which can be considered bltie, on the 

 water or sky ; yet, in the general effect, they seem to want no additioa 

 to their clearness. Nor is there a touch of terra-sienna, burnt or un- 

 burnt, of crome or Naples, or any other yellow ; no borrowing of gold 

 from the treasury of autumn, to warm and enrich the effect. All ia 

 unobtrusive, modest, and silvery : all in admirable perspective. Every 

 one of those precious tiny boats, ships, houses, and animated little 

 people, is a link in a chain, which unites and invigorates the 

 whole ; each supports and is supported : enchants the eye by its har- 

 mony ; bears upon it the inestimable impress of genius, and is, as it 

 were, clothed in unclouded light. 



But that bridge! — that never-to-be-forgotten, miraculous bridge ! It 

 seems an airy illusion, an architectural vapour, raised from the river by 

 the wand of an enchanter, and ascending like a mist of the morning, 

 ready to dissolve itself and escape the eye. How vague and indistinct, 

 and yet how correctly defined ! I stretch out my hand and touch it ; it 

 is within a few inches of me ; and how very remote it appears. Let the 

 purchaser of this tempting performance change its title to that of the 

 Inquisition Bridge at Venice, and call it '*the Bridge of Sighs ;" for it 

 has caused me, and no doubt many more, to sigh for its possession. 

 Yes, the wand of enchantment, the pencil of art, has raised it; and 

 Creswick is the magician to whom we are indebted for those pleasant 

 longings. 



The penciling of this picture is what painters term crispy; sharp and 

 decided, without any hardness in defining forms ; sweet and mellow ia 

 the general handling. The genius of an artist is seen in the choice and 

 composition of his subjects ; his taste (I now advert to the manipulation, 

 a subordinate but invaluable quality) in his mode of handling the pencil, 

 and in expressing the texture, surface, and character of objects. Some 

 of your *' general-effect" men seem to despise delicacy, sweetness, and 

 beauty of touch. They are for huge wholesale masses of black and 

 white, or of light and darkness. Now, I, who am no painter, could 

 produce, and any person of common understanding could be taught, ia 

 a month or two, to produce this sort of chaotic general effect. In nature 

 there are not only commanding masses, and a magnificent breadth of 

 general effect, but also an exquisite identity and details of colour, form 

 and surface, which mark the generic character of all things. In nature, 

 whatever is not sunk in shadow, or rendered uncertain by distance, 

 possesses its distinct character to the eye. The error of the "general 

 effect" here consists in mistaking an empty swagger of the brush for 



NO. V. 3 A 



