ground. It is Tennyson who killed Elaine, | M. Dore. In the Exhibition at Bond-street who sent her corpse floating down the a fresh treatment of the subject of the first river, who produced it in Arthur's court, plate is in some respects superior to the enand who took the diamonds from the brow graving, especially as to the face of Elaine; of the skeleton; and the only blame that but the brilliant and effective blue of the can be thrown on Dore in the matter is that kingfisher, and the green and purple tint due to the selection of the Idyll as a sub- of the waters, could not have appeared, to ject for his pencil. any ordinary vision, by moonlight.

Elaine' is the least satisfactory of the As to Vivien and Guinevere we have but three Idylls. It is marked by several of little space for minute investigation. The the defects which we have ventured to point volume is one of extreme beauty. We out as apparent in M. Dore's works, and have referred to the sea-fight, to the affords less scope for his admitted excel- knight's progress, to the cave scene, and to lencies than either of the later poems. The the plate entitled (but not drawn as) Vivheroine is ill-imagined. The model of the ien encloses Merlin in the tree.' The first frank British girl should have been sought scene, Vivien and Merlin repose,' has among the Celtic maidens of Ireland. As been reproduced as one of the paintings it is, the figure is too massive, and the face exhibited in Bond-street, with hasty and inis not agreeable. Neither is that of Lance- correct drawing in the hands and feet, lot suited for an ideal nero, although proba- which are of disproportionate size, but with bly much truer to the time and to the man a wonderful cat-like intensity of gaze in than when clothed in the chivalresque Vivien. The massive tree seems to be adornment of later fiction. In one of the drawn from a cork oak one of those finest plates, where Arthur discovers the gloomy martyrs the barkless forms of which crown, the scene, apart from the ghastly make dreary the South of France and the incident detailed by the poet and illustrated North of Spain. The depth of the forest by the painter, is wild and romantic. The where the knights carouse, the stunted, effect of the distant tower looming through wind-nipped trees of the forest of Brocethe haze is highly picturesque. The knight, liande, the glade where Merlin is painting and, still more decidedly, the horse, are the young knight's shield, are charming well drawn and expressive. But freedom and truthful bits of woodland scenery. of rendering has been here claimed by M. Dore. His Arthur is mounted, and, apparently, riding down a mountain pass. The Arthur of Tennyson was 'labouring up,' and, in the poet's mind, was on foot. Discrepancies of this kind do not occur where the artist illustrates works written in his own language. The scene must have formed itself in his imagination before he had fully mastered the translation.

After so much actual blame or stinted praise it is a great pleasure to speak of such exquisite engravings as the Moonlight Ride,' the Dawn of Love,' and the Joyous Sprites.' We have before referred to the life-like drawing of the horse in the first of these plates. The scene is wild and sayage; the figure of the desolate and lovely queen is that of a tall and slender woman. In the Dawn of Love,' it is represented as The landscapes are the finest feature of of that faultless symmetry which, measured the illustrations. The Castle of Astolat by the usual module, or scale, of foot, or 'fired from the west,' is less happy in the hand, or head, gives no definite idea of engraving than in the original. The same size. You see a perfectly proportioned remark applies to the last plate, where the figure; to judge of its actual height you figure of Lancelot, admirably drawn as it is, must place near it some independent scale. seems rather that of a man who is endeav- The landscape in this scene, simple as it is, ouring to express emotion by his pose, than in its incidents, is enchanting. The most that of one who has sought solitude in order beautiful of all the twenty-seven plates is to wrestle with his despair. The great ce- the last we have named. The gloom of dar in the fifth plate is one of Dore's char- the forest, the trunks and branches of the acteristic and noble forms of tree portrait- tall firs, the glint of the moonbeam from ure. The beardless face of Sir Galahad in amid the clouds, the lush and rampant herthe eighth plate is a wonderful bit of en- bage, the pose of horse and rider, and the graving. The most happy of the nine charming fancy displayed in the seven little plates is the fourth, where the grouping of fairies, beneath one of whom, in his flight, men and horses in the dewy light of the you see the same pulsing lustre on the morning distance, and the figure and face ground that attends on the flight of the fireof the old knight, are al! admirable. The fly, all these form a picture which we finest scene in the poem, the sudden anger hope M. Dore will reproduce in oil. In of the Queen, has not been attempted by that case, however, he should choose a set

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ting sunlight rather than the illumination [ The Atala of Chateaubriand, illustrated of the moon, which cannot properly allow with forty-four designs by Dore, is justly the production of those prismatic colours called by its publishers a magnificent of which he has made so wonderful a use in work.' An English edition is provided by the Triumph of Christianity.'

Messrs. Cassell for those to whom the In illustrating Paradise Lost,' M. Dore French is a sealed tongue. Of course no had comparatively little scope for the exer- one who can even spell in the latter will cise of that weird and fantastic imagination seek a translation; but two very distinct which revelled among the torments of the portions of the public may each be charmed Inferno. On the other hand, there is am- by these beautiful volumes. A question ple space for the introduction of that in may arise how far the great variety of which the French artist is most happy- scenery, comprising the pines of forest like wild and romantic landscape. The volume those of Norway, the oaks of Southern produced by Messrs. Cassell is superb. Europe, and the luxuriant palms, lianas, These enterprising publishers state that and epidendric parasites of a sub-tropical they have expended upwards of fifty thou-flora, are to be found on the banks of one sand pounds in the production of the works river, even if that be the Mississippi; but of M. Dore. Messrs. Hachette say that in this instance M. Dore is faithful to his they have nearly doubled that large sum author. We have referred to one curious for the same purpose. A great amount of consideration is due to these spirited men, who have not only reproduced for English readers works already famous in France, such as the Holy Bible,' the 'Don Quixote,' and the 'La Fontaine,' but who have, at their own risk, induced M. Dore to devote his time to the illustration of exclusively English works, such as the 'Paradise Lost,' and the Idylls of the King.'

It would exceed any reasonable limits were we to attempt to apply to each of the volumes cited in the present review that proportion of praise and of blame which we may hold them respectively to deserve. We have therefore directed our critical attention rather to the genius of the artist, as illustrated by his works, and we can only point to one or two of the most salient characteristics of the cited works themselves. Of the illustrations of the Bible we defer to speak, as the question of Scripture illustration is one of sufficient magnitude to demand a separate article, and one in which the efforts of M. Bida will claim as much attention as those of M. Dore.

The landscapes in Paradise Lost' are the most admirable of the illustrations. The separation of the waters on the second day of creation is a wonderfully fine chaotic scene. The rush and movement of the river pouring into Paradise; the recumbent elephants in the evening of the sixth day; the graceful forms and delicate plumage of the birds, amid the rain, mist, and aerial perspective of the fifth evening in Eden; the departure of the angel into Heaven, as his form fades from the view of the human pair; the flight of the train of angels descending after the fall; and the silent, stealthy, unresisted, progress of the serpent towards his unsuspecting prey-each of these is a poem in itself.

The

defect in some of the wilder scenery, and
the figures are, at times, painfully unpleas-
ing. But some of the scenes are admirable
for picturesque beauty of a nature not often
brought before us. Such is Tout ici, au
contraire, est movement et murmure.
giant limbs of the patriarch of the forest,
its loads of lichens and of orchidaceous
parasites, the radial fronds of the chamo-
rops, the broad leaves of the musa, the
gleam of the sunlight on the deer, the rich
growth of the herbage, the birds flitting
across the nave of the forest, are given
with a force and fidelity to nature that form
the peculiar gift of M. Dore.

Again the wild rush of the swollen river through the pine forest, devastated by the storm; the shaded lake and distant peak (at page 26); the natural bridge formed by the fallen tree; the fire of the Indian warfare amid the awful calm of the wood-hung stream: the rich sub-tropical growth that buries the deserted city; the wild ruin of the vignettes on pages 45, 146; the toss of the boat on the waves, and the masterly effect of wide expanse given to the Solitudes demesurees of the desert are only some of the chief beauties of a very beautiful work.

For his sins against the Horatian Canon in his earlier works, M. Dore has done simple and satisfactory penance in two books which should, by their successful beauty, have much influence on his future career. In several of the plates of the Contes de Perrault, which appear in an English dress as the " Fairy Realm," and above all in the greater part of the illustrations of the fables of La Fontaine, we have charming fare, not only for the inhabitants of the nursery, but for children of every growth. We say for the inhabitants, not for the nursery itself, for the volumes are

by far too rich and rare to be displayed in | nursery; where no doubt the large type of that universal lyceum, if the proper spirit of the fearsome close will excuse such a ramromp and freedom of life are therein duly pant Cockneyism as making 'better' rhyme maintained. Those have been the wisest toate her. The painting of the wolf in teachers of mankind who have spoken by bed with Little Red Riding Hood very soon parable, by fable, or by imaginative story; found a purchaser when exhibited in Bondand it is the deeper wit of the Greek street. fabulist rather than the more superficial glitter of the Frenchman, that M. Dore has embodied in his charming sketches.

For persons who do not instinctively withhold from the eyes of children all that is positively repulsive, grossly burlesque, or inelegantly extravagant, in caricature,for all subscribers to comic periodicals, readers of comic grammars and histories, and admirers of the style of what is called literature introduced by Mr. Dickens, there will be much that is genuine and welcome in Croquemitane' and Munchansen.' Those who like the works will still more like the very appropriate illustrations. For ourselves, and for those who, with us, believe that not only the provision of wholesome food for the fancy, but the culture of refined taste, and of pure imagination, are essential conditions of anything worth calling education, we have only to say that they abound in clever burlesque. They differ from what we have subsequently to mention, as Punch' differs from Esop.

The preparations for satisfying the appetite of the Ogre in “Puss-in-boots," are grotesque to a degree that is almost sublime. The ravenous hunger that looks out from the eyes of the monster, makes his face bear a very strong resemblance to the features of a noted French speculator. The mighty cup, which seems capacious enough to hold more than a single wine-jar, the cow's-head soup, and the unprecedented plat of petits enfans aux épinards, the grim personality of the chair, the edge of the Ogre's look, the expressive pose of the cat, brave, but feeling the necessity of making a supreme effort, must be seen, not told. A wilder, or rather, a more tender fancy, has filled the room of the Sleeping Beauty' with climbing plants that have forced their way through the joints of the masonry, and The illustration of the fables of La Fonhave not shared the slumber of the human taine,' the finest work that has issued from inmates. The face and figure of the reclin- the atelier of M. Dore, demands more space ing princess show that M. Dore is without than we can afford, to do it justice. Free excuse for his frequent failures to depict from the chief defects of others of the artfemale beauty. If this scene is compared ist's works, it unites most of their beauties. with the exquisite vignette by Sir Noel The variety of the style of illustration is one Paton, we may well be at a loss to deter- of its charms. We have large, highly-finmine which is the happiest illustration of ished portraits, not always of pleasing, but the exquisite fable so happily rendered by always of characteristic and expressive faces, the verse of Tennyson. The façade of the of the highest merit. Such are Le Pêcheur palace, again, in the scene where the prince avec le Petit Poisson, the Rustic who has arrives, is a wonderful architectural dream. just killed the goose, and finds no store of The Ogre's castle, in 'Puss-in-boots,' is golden eggs, Les Medicins, L'avare, and Le another charming chateau en Espagne, set Villageois et le Serpent. These are physiin a frame of foliage and lofty pine-stems, ognomical studies of the highest order. that recalls the scenery of the South of Then we have a group of very charming and France. Similar pine-stems are represented carefully drawn figures, such as La Cigale in the very forms and tints of nature, in the et la Fourmi Tircis, and Annette fishing, the oil-painting of a forest in the Vosges, at the milk-maid who reckoned her eggs too soon, German Gallery. Again, in the Contes de Les deux Coqs, Le Bassa et le Marchand, Perrault, they mark the entrance to a wood the Watteau-like group of Tircis and Amarof impenetrable depth, like the fringe, ante, the Spanish beauty of La Fille, and planted by the orders of the real Napoleon, the life-like face of her father, and the large that protects the wide wastes of the Landes illustration of Le Loup, la Mère, et l'Enfant. from the inroads of the Bay of Biscay. To these must be added a work in another The landscapes give the charm of the book style, Le Paysan du Danube, which is quite to us; as the gallant bearing of Puss-in-worthy of Gérome or Alma Tadema. Then, boots,' the sly approach of Gauntgrim, as he again, we are struck by the admirable renupsets grandmamma's spectacles and snuff- dering of animal life. Le Loup et le Berger box (to the terror of the flying cat, pre- is treated in the style of the illustrations of viously to the devouring of that ill-fated old the famous German edition of Reineke Fuchs, lady), or the evil face disguised in the vic- and is fully equal to any of that clever series. tim's night-cap, will win the applause of the With more fidelity to actual nature, M.

Dore has given us the stag in Le Cerf et la and playful groups that amuse, without Vigne, L'œil du Maître, Le Cerf se Voyant offending, the severest taste. M. Dore is dans l'Eau, and Le Cerf Malade. Nothing particularly happy in his reproduction of can exceed the beauty of these drawings, well-known portraits, as more or less highlythe last of which is charming as a landscape, finished vignettes. Such are those of Ruas well as for its animal life. The mare in bens and of Goethe, in Le Chemin des EcoLe Cheval et le Loup, the dogs pursuing the liers; Albert Durer, in the same charming poodle who bears his master's dinner, the volume, drawn with the touch of the stern monkeys in Le Singe et le Dauphin and Le old artist himself; and Beethoven in the Singe et le Chat, and indeed wherever rep- Voyage aux Pyrénées. A set of illustrations resented, the Lion in love, as well as the of this class, for a historical or a biographgroup which surrounds him, the Peacock ical dictionary, would be a very valuable complaining to Juno, these are but a few contribution to physiognomical study. Those of the gems of a gallery of animal life of the of our readers who are not practically acmost unquestionable truth and beauty of quainted with the incredibly fantastic forms representation. Then there are little in which beggary assails the Continental toursketches, rich with all the point and humour ist, should study the sketches of mendicants of those of the Contes Drolatiques, and en- in these two volumes. We have a sedentary tirely free from any questionable character- cripple on crutches and wooden legs (at p. istic. Such are the scenes when Discord 180), in the Chemin des Ecoliers, who is watches the two lovers from a distance; the pursuing a troop of witches on the opposite plate and the vignette of La Veuve, the page with a speed that is magic in its repregroup around the quaint little cupid in Les sentation. A sturdy brigand descends, not Souhaits; Les Femmes et le Secret, and the to ask, but to claim, alms, overleaf. Ten astrologer in the well. Among the land- unfortunates, the like of whom are but too scapes we call attention to that in Les Deux familiar to our memories, are grouped at p. Rats, Les Lapins, Le Cerf Malade, before | 419 of the Voyage aux Pyrénées, where the cited, and Le Juge Arbitre, a real Italian woman, who is surrounded, after the manravine. The only point as to which we ner of an allegorical figure of Charity, with could wish this charming work to have been six infants in, on, and under, her arms, is differently arranged is, that the author illus- rather Irish than Provençal. The same costrated had been Æsop, rather than La Fon-mopolitan fraternity appears at p. 76 of the taine. We must not omit to mention the portrait of the Fabulist, a reproduction in what is called Heliogravure,' of the grand broad style of the best engravings of the best time of the art. We fully agree with the Art Journal' when it says:- Happy are the children who may at once have the taste formed by the contemplation of beautiful drawings, and the mind opened to the teaching of nature. The illustration of La Fontaine" bids fair to rank as the best service M. Dore has yet rendered to the world.'

In the years 1860, 1861, and 1862, Messrs. Hachette published four works illustrated by Dore, in his happiest style, to which the glossy, vellum-surfaced paper, and the careful printing of the French editors,' have rendered ample justice. The advance in delicacy of touch made by the artist since the production of his earlier sketches is most marked in these beautiful volumes. There is not an entire absence of scenes of 'battle, murder, and sudden death,' as to which we hold that the highest feeling for art is in accordance with the suffrage of the Litany; but such scenes are few and far between; while we find landscapes of rare and faithful beauty, physiognomical sketches of great power and merit, and grotesque

Chemin des Ecoliers, and you come at last to feel a positive sympathy with the dogs which, on p. 28, are seconding the warning of the droll little figure armed with a broom. The brigands in the brilliant little novelette of M. About are no less life-like. After all, a brigand is only a beggar à fusil.

But the finest satire in any of these illustrations is that conveyed in the pair of sketches, La Politesse d'Autrefois and La Politesse d'Aujourd'hui, at pages 51, 52 of the Voyage. The caricatured politeness with which the Louis XIV. chevaliers bow to a lady wearing something closely resembling a modern berthe, the sweep of the courtly pair on the opposite page, and the grave decorum of the Spanish marriage of 1660, are admirably and pointedly contrasted with the vulgar self-indulgence of the lounging, smoking, hirsute, beaux aujourd'hui.

In wildness of scenery and delicacy of drawing no work of Moritz Retsch himself has exceeded the little fairy scene at page 241 of La Mythylogie du Rhin. The satyrs of M. Dore are his own peculiar progeny. They are altogether unlike the Greek models, having much more of the quadruped in their forms; but they strike the mind not as fancies, but as portraits.

They have a terribly possible character. cordant terms of admiration. A journal The elf swinging on a climbing plant is as devoted to the fine arts, in two long and graceful as the Ariel of Retsch's Tempest,' well-written articles on the works of M. and the furore of the dancers, and the pro- Dore, says, that he has raised book illustrafessional abandon of the entirely original tion to the level of that higher art which band, are more comic than anything we does not exist to please people, but to move have seen from the pencil of the great Ger- and modify them. Another writer says man draughtsman. A whole tribe of elves that no illustrated work of the kind, at all and gnomes in this work will repay a care- comparable to the La Fontaine's Fables, ful study. Look, again, at the Cupid in has appeared since the days of Bewick. A the boots of a postillion at p. 13 of the Roi third remarks that only a gifted and acdes Montagnes, at the same god disguised complished artist could have illustrated as a brigand at p. 257; and note the charm- the class of books in which Gustave Dore ing fancy which, at p. 66, turns a heart into has triumphantly succeeded. The Builder a nest where you see the little loves es- calls him a great artist, unrivalled in feescaping from the egg-shell. The German cundity, unsurpassed in power and truthBurschen with their ponderous pipes- the fulness of drawing, mastering the difficulvery river god, Father Rhine himself, so ties of torsion and foreshortening with a far modernized as to revel in beer and to- touch that recalls that of the great Florenbacco are capital hits. The giant Og- tine, massing light and shade with a brush mius or Ogma, a white-bearded, black Co- dipped in the gloom and glow of Rembrandt, lossus; the figure of Luther, combattant les depicting animal life, up to a certain point, Superstitions des Papistes; the illustrated as faithfully as Landseer or Rosa Bonheur, bar of music at p. 261; the sleep-walker on and possessing an acquaintance with the the weathercock at p. 248; the idée mère of manner in which the direction and massing the triumph of Christianity at p. 225; the of lines gives at will either height, or drinking fawn at p. 207, and the three Teu- breadth, or distance, which seems to be petonic gods on the opposite page; the infant culiarly his own. Dore's power of depict Hercules; the giant Ymer; the wrathful ing space and multitude, observes another Rhine repulsing the discomfited gods of critic, has never yet been equalled, and Olympus- -are the offspring of a fancy of that is a sublime power. A writer familiar boundless fertility. We must not omit to re- with Italy, calls the Inferno' 'the most mark that in the Chemin des Ecoliers, which Dantesque work on Dante that ever was has been illustrated by M. Dore in common produced, from the Pontificate of Leo X. with Mr. Birkett Foster, the French artist to that of Pius IX.,' and adds that any has so assimilated his touch to that of our words that may be suggested to the rebest English illustrator, as to render it nec- viewer by the splendid English edition can essary to look to the signature of each vig- hardly add to, or detract from, the Euronette. At page 93, for instance, are to be pean celebrity of the artist. 'No one found the stems of a beech and of an elm, draws kindling eyes like Dore;' 'Don not only exquisitely drawn, but marked by Quixote is the completest representation of the peculiar dotty touch of Mr. Foster. No all Dore's remarkable power as an artist;' one who had not made a study of the sub- the volume is a delightful book, a possessject would have thought it possible that ion for ever, worthy to be an heirloom;' this charming little bit of woodland was these illustrations are to be regarded as from the pencil of M. Dore. the most exquisite embodiment of the great Spanish romancer's thoughts and characters ever drawn with pencil. Such are a few quotations which it would be easy to multiply, but enough has been said to show that if, measured by the opinions of other critics, we have been somewhat minute and pointed in our blame, we have been by no means lavish in our praise.

If we refer for a moment to the manner in which the works of M. Dore have been received by the press of this country, it is not with the purpose of resting the verification of our own criticism upon the authority of others, but for the object of showing what has been the general impression made on the public mind. We have quoted an attack which we think the author has cause to deplore, not so much because it is an unworthy expression of his judgment of an artist with whom he is evidently unacquainted, as on the score of its being an uujust attempt to inflict a commercial injury on the publishers. We find, on the other hand, numerous critics speaking in varied but acVOL. XIII. 542

LIVING AGE.

The chameleon is said to have the faculty of changing its colour to that of the plant on which it feeds. The genius of M. Dore shares this metamorphic power. As an illustrator, his imagination forms itself on that of his author; as a painter, it is modified by the scenery and the subjects by which he is surrounded. Thus in his de-i