Volume 4 / Book 8 — The Fine Arts.
Reading edition
A series of four compositions representing the Seasons, by Calame, a Swiss artist, is highly praised in the Grenzboten, as something altogether original and superior to the technical traditions of the schools. They were painted for a Russian gentleman, and were exhibited for a short time in Berlin. Spring is an Italian or Grecian landscape of the antique world, and the time is morning; Summer is a German scene and the time noon; Autumn is from the lake country of Switzerland and the time late afternoon; Winter is a late evening scene with moonlight.
Mr. Harding's noble full-length of Daniel Webster—the best work of its class ever engraved in this country—may now be purchased at two dollars and a half per copy, of Sherman & Adriance, Astor House.
The celebrated Portrait of Bishop White, painted by Henry Inman, and engraved in London, by Wagstaff, is now published from the original plate, by Andrews and Meeser, of Philadelphia, at three dollars per copy. The impressions are quite as good as those first taken, which were sold for four times as large a price.
Norwegian Peasant Life, is the subject of ten pictures by Adolph Tiedemann, which a year since excited very general admiration at Düsseldorf. They have now been lithographed and published in that place, with explanatory text in German and Norwegian.
Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware, is universally conceded to be the best painting in the world, illustrating American history. Its production marks an era in American art. The exhibition of it, at the Stuyvesant Institute, is, of course, successful.
Kaulbach's frescoes in the New Museum at Berlin are to be engraved. The Prussian bookseller Duncker has undertaken the speculation, and intends that the engravings shall exceed everything yet done in Germany; not merely the pictures, but all the ornamental designs will be included.
The German papers announce that a colossal statue of Washington is casting at Munich. It is to be twenty feet higher than the famous Bavaria, and is destined for this country. Several other historical sculptures are in preparation for the United States.