Page:Chats on old prints (IA chatsonoldprints00haydiala).pdf/431

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reading a letter in the street, Lettre à Ninon, is especially delightful.

There are hundreds of lithographs that may readily be had for a shilling apiece; indeed, the collector need hardly ever go above five shillings to procure fine specimens unless he intends to specialise, when, of course, there is no telling where he may end. We reproduce a lithograph by Allongé entitled Une Rivière, from the series Le Paysage au Fusain. The marvellous depth of tone, the brilliance, and the delicacy proclaim it at once as a gem not unworthy of any collection. (Facing p. 284).

Of Germany, home of lithography, there are many examples and many artists to tempt the collector. Adolph Menzel has left some fine lithographs, and Fransz Hanfstaengl, with his Portrait of Alois Senefelder, and his Madonnas and Mädchens after the old masters' canvases, has executed some unusually brilliant work. In Holland there is Mesker and Weissenbruch; in Belgium, Ary Scheffer and Madou; in Switzerland, Alexandre Calame; in Italy, Vrolli, Dusi, and Pepino; and in Spain, Blanchar, Craene, and Sensi.

In all, the art of lithography has not attracted the esoteric collector. It is a fine field in which the beginner may devote his energies in procuring masterpieces of the finest artistic feeling. Perhaps its comparative cheapness has something to do with the aloofness of the fashionable amateurs. There are many fine specimens of work to be found in French and German journals, and at an Exhibition celebrating the centenary of lithography held at the