Fine Arts, 4 1 9 



ment of the graphic art, are Messrs. Ryland and 

 Bartolozzi, of Great-Britain/ 



Mr. Smith, an engraver of London, toward 

 the close of the period embraced in this retrospect, 

 is said to have invented a method of making im- 

 pressions from his ov/n plates, so to resemble Oil 

 Paintings as to be with difficulty distinguished 

 from them, even by connoisseurs. These impres- 

 sions are represented as possessing that sort of 

 brightness which is so much admired in Venetian 

 paintings, as resembling them also in permanency, 

 and as being of such a nature as to render a cover- 

 ing of glass, so expensive and frangible a material, 

 altogether unnecessary. 



The art of producing Coloured Engravings be- 

 longs almost entirely to the period under consider- 

 ation. About the time of the revival of learning, 

 some artists produced prints of different colours, by 

 means of Wood-cuts, employing a different plate 

 for each colour. But so much inconvenience and 

 imperfection attended this micthod that it was sel- 

 dom resorted to. No further improvement seems 

 to have been attempted till near the middle of the 

 eighteenth century, v/hen some experiments were 

 made by French artists, with Copperplates, with a 

 view to obtain coloured prints. They also found 

 it necessary to use different plates for different 

 parts of the work; and on this, as well as other 

 accounts, the expense of their plan prevented its 

 general adoption. But toward the close o'^ the 

 century a method was invented of producing an 

 elegant coloured engraving from a single copper- 

 plate. The English artists are said to have carried 

 this improvement to the greatest degree of excel- 

 lence. 



p For tills, and for several ether articles of information, detailed in the 

 present section, and for some valuable hints on the subject of modern paint- 

 ing, the author acknowledges himself to be indebted to Mr. Archibald 

 Robertson, conductor of the Columlian Academy of Painting in the city 

 of New-York, whose ingenuity and taste as an artist ^rc well known. 



