Page:Chats on old prints (IA chatsonoldprints00haydiala).pdf/325

 A View in Venice, after Canaletto, 1832. Reproductions of these two engravings appear as an illustration. The former is an engraver's proof taken after the preliminary stage of etching has been completed, the latter is a proof after Canaletto's picture, and the comparison of these two will show how much is added by the graver. In the former there is an almost entire absence of tone, there is no light and no sparkle in the agitated water with the rays of the sun aslant upon it, the whole stands flat and insipid, but the master hand of Le Keux with deft touch transformed that into a fine plate, the proof impression of which scintillates with light and is radiant with colour. In the second print after Canaletto the rich effect of such treatment by the graver is most evident. The dazzling sunlight of Venice, the deep blue sky fretted with a thin bar of clouds, the haze of heat, the lazy stillness of the city are shown with illuminating dexterity by the engraver. (See illustration facing p. 212.)

The collector who desires good examples representative of the fine book illustrations in steel appearing in the volumes of the first half of the nineteenth century will find a collection of little gems in the pages of "Jennings's Landscape Annual," "Forget-Me-Not," and the "Literary Souvenir," published between the years 1826 and 1840, after S. Prout, D. Roberts, Copley Fielding, Bonington, Smirke, and Stothard.

These volumes are not difficult to procure and contain several fine engravings in each, as well as much that is trivial. Enterprising printsellers have