FINE ARTS' PUBLICATIONS. 



Roiinson Crusoe, illustrated u-ith Wood Engravings. — The designs and engrav- 

 ings to this new and cheap edition of Robinson Crusoe are of a nature that must 

 render them equally desirable to the man of taste, the artist, and the uninitiated 

 child. Let no one despise the title of wood-cuts when applied to such little 

 pictures as these. We laugh at some of the humble embellishments with which 

 our childhood was amused, and used to think a wood-cut merely a lame apo- 

 logy for the want of something better ; but our artists are convincing the public, 

 that the imagination of a poet, and the taste of a painter, can be displayed upon 

 two inches of wood as well as upon two feet of copper, or twenty feet of can- 

 vass ; and that all varieties of tasteful invention, including composition of forms, 

 expressive action, and effect of chiaroscuro, may be faithfully reflected amidst 

 the type of a volume — assisting language in the same manner as the look of an 

 intelligent eye will sometimes speak plainer than the tongue itself. When 

 wood-cuts are executed with the feeling and skill of these before us, they are 

 much more to our taste than small copper-plates as illustrations — they are more 

 like the pen and ink sketches of the artist, they are more spirited and firm in 

 the drawing, and, besides, are more a part of the book — when printed with the 

 type they cannot be extracted without injury to the text. The artist and author 

 are inseparable. Mr. Harvey, whose invention and taste have been most suc- 

 cessfully exercised in illustrating this elegant volume, has headed each chapter 

 of Crusoe's adventures with a small vignette, exhibiting his hero in the most 

 picturesque situations, and under the most varied circumstances the subject 

 would admit of — now lying senseless on a dark rock, the white sea-foam dashing 

 about him with the fui-y of an implacable enemy — in another place we see him 

 floating on the raft, the water beneath him calm, and shining with friendTy 

 looks — then wandering in his goat-skins solitarily on the beach, the wide and 

 melancholy sea stretched out for miles in the distance, blending with the misty 

 clouds — more lonely still, and the sea more melancholy still, in another page, 

 with the dead body, flung like a weed on the sand — then after these solitary 

 figures we suddenly turn upon tlie wild fantastic group of savages dancing round 

 a fire. This is one of the most spirited designs we have seen for a long while ; 

 the twisting of the bodies, and free play of limbs, are drawn with knowledge and 

 power. 



The engraver, Mr. Smith, has executed the drawings with corresponding 

 feeling and taste ; there is an attention to the varied textures of objects which 

 we do not often perceive in wood-engravers — they generally appear more intent 

 upon cutting their lines cleverly, and leaving a polished surface, than in repre- 

 senting the object with a painter's touch and feeling — we may be gratified with 

 a tasteful design, with skilful drawing, richness of effect, elegance of action, &c., 

 and yet the whole subject may appear of one hard texture — flesh, drapery, rock, 

 wood, and water. This is what artists call a hard style, and offends the eye 

 accustomed to observe nature, and to the enjoyment of the best productions of 

 art. 



In some of these cuts there is great tenderness in the sky tints^the distance 

 melts away from the sight — the water looks watery, and the sands level — the 

 edges of objects are softened and rounded, and on the principal figures bold bits 

 of black contrasted with dashes of white. We particularly like the Ship on 

 Fire — Crusoe with his Family — Chinese Feeding — Friday and his Gun — and 

 the Sea and Shipping. 



The Spirit of tko Plays of Shakspeare exhibited in a Series of Outlines, by 

 Frank HovmrJ, No. XXI. — Richard the Third and Henry the Eighth form the 

 subjects of this number, and supply a full proportion of striking and effective 

 jjoints for illustration — all of an ecjual, or very nearly e<iual degree of merit. 

 These outlines, though of no great value to the admirers of the great poet as 

 illustrations of Shakspeare — for a single good head would be worth them all — 

 will find favour m the eyes of the artist and the antiquarian, and furnish abnn- 



