THE END. 



77 



sound and unchanged; and as Leslie is known to have painted with mastic magilp 

 and Landseer is believed to have done so likewise, it would show that this medium' 

 when not used m improper quantities, is as safe and trustworthy as can be desired' 

 Some of these pictures have been long varnished, but do not show any signs of those 

 opening cracks which are sure to be seen when asphaltum is used, but which do not 

 seem necessarily to result from the use of magilp. Two or three places in tht 

 'Drovers' Departure for the South' have been touched with asphaltum, laid on 

 probably in the 'varnishing da^s' to enrich the darks ; these small spots will be seen 

 to have entirely failed, while the rest of the surface is firm, bright, and wholly 

 unchanged. Other pictures by Landseer have partially failed, as is the case with the 

 'Suspense,' and also with Leslie's ' Uncle Toby and the Widow,' in which asphaltum 

 has been used ; but, as a rule, the works of these two artists stand well." 



It is early days to talk of pictures painted, even within the last forty or fifty years, 

 "standing well.'' Such a verdict can only ^~e pronounced upon them three or 

 four centuries hence— a testimony one is able to give in favour of no inconsiderable 

 number of the works in the National Gallery by the old masters, which, when cleansed 

 of the accumulated dirt of generations, reveal themselves in almost all the purit and 

 brilliancy of colour they exhibited, it may be presumed, when fresh from the studio of 

 the artists. But those men painted for eternity, and paid as much attention to the 

 chemistry of their palettes as to the subjects depicted on their canvases. Judging by 

 what I have seen of not a few modern pictures within an interval of twenty or thirty 

 years between their appearance in the Academy, or elsewhere, and a second examina- 

 tion, it is to be feared that any expectation of durability would be futile, as a rule. 

 The demands made on Landseer' s time, especially during the latter half, or more, of 

 his life, were too great, and he was too desirous of meeting them, to justify the hope 

 that they will long withstand the deteriorating influences of very many years. 



If the popularity of an artist be estimated by the demand for his works — in anyform 

 — then it may fairly be asserted that no painter at any period in the history of art has 

 enjoyed such universal ftvour, not alone in our own country, but among foreigners, 

 during his lifetime, as did Landseer. The purchase of his paintings was attainable only 

 by the comparatively few, whose resources were ample, though the artist never received 

 exorbitant prices for them, but the art of the engraver has circulated his pictures 

 over the civilised world. Messrs. Henry Graves and Co. seem to have had almost a 

 monopoly of the privilege of publishing his works, and an exhibition of their prints, to 

 the number of more than three hundred, recently opened at their rooms in Pall Mall, 

 testifies to the favour in which Landseer is held by the public ; and no less to the 

 enterprise of Messrs. Graves : it is certainly a wonderful collection. One engraving is 

 •shown for the copyright of which they paid the artist s guineas ; the picture, " Wamba 

 and his Dogs," was painted long years ago, as an illustration to the Waverley Novels: 



X 



