Page:Chats on old prints (IA chatsonoldprints00haydiala).pdf/348

 colours he was wont to use have melted into the background, when the bitumen has become cracked and dull, and when the crimsons and the vermilions and the yellows have lost their brilliance as they are unfortunately fast doing, there is still the permanent record in the engravings upon which coming generations must rely for their views on the work of Turner. It is in vain that the authorities place little curtains to screen the light from his delicate watercolour drawings, sooner or later, and the time is surely coming, the beautiful dreams of Turner will have faded, as do all dreams, into nothingness.

In addition to the many illustrated volumes and the series of prints he himself issued, there are the larger engravings after his pictures. Cologne was engraved by E. Goodall in 1824, its size is 18-1/4 in. by 13-1/4 in. Tivoli, by the same engraver in 1827, is 24 in. by 16 in. Mercury and Argus, 1841 (15 in. by 10-1/2 in.). The Old Téméraire, 1845 (15 in. by 11 in.), both engraved by J. T. Willmore. The latter subject was also engraved in a large size (23-1/2 in. by 16 in.), by T. A. Prior. Modern Italy, 1843 (24 in. by 17 in.), was engraved by W. Miller, and Ehrenbreitstein, 1846 (15-1/8 in. by 11-1/8 in.), by John Pye, and there is the Straits of Dover, 1863 (22 in. by 15-1/2 in.), engraved by W. Chapman. This does not exhaust the list, but it is representative of the larger plates engraved after his oil pictures. There is, however, something about them less pleasing than the smaller plates of the same subjects and of subjects after his watercolour drawings.

We have already alluded to Brandard and his