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THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS EDITED BY T. C- EIEPWORTEI, F-C.S. Vol. XXXV. No. 1717.—July 31, 1891. CONTENTS. PAGE Photographs versus Lithographs 537 Remarks on Dr. Emerson’s “ Notes on Perspective Drawing and Vision.” By W. H. Wheeler 538 Glass Etching 539 The Photographic Work of Herschel and Fox Talbot. By William Lang, Jun., F.C.S 540 Shadows in Portraiture. By Xanthus Smith 542 Spherical Aberration, Diffusion of Focus, &c. By W. K. Burton, Japan 545 PAGE Notes 544 On some Modifications of Eikonogen and Hydroquinone Developers containing Borax, Carbonate of Lithia, &c. By Colonel J. Waterhouse, S.C 547 Permanent Prints. By Brown Slick 549 Patent Intelligence 549 Correspondence 550 Proceedings of Societies 550 Answers to Correspondents 553 PHOTOGRAPHS VERSUS LITHOGRAPHS. Of all the varied abominations published under the profaned name of art, surely none can compare with the common lithograph of German origin which con fronts one at this season of the year at every seaside lodging-house, and which are to be found in every cottage home in the kingdom. The coloured glass vases on the mantelpiece, the lustres (also “ made in Germany”), the uncomfortable antimacassars on the chairs, the Berlin wool mats on the chiffonier—there is always a chiffonier—are disagreeably aggressive, but they are not so terribly self-assertive as that German lithograph in its veneered maple wood frame which hangs on the wall. As works of art, these pictures are utterly bad, and if there were not, unfortunately, in this country a great lack of artistic discernment among the general populace, they would never have found a sale. But the same feeling which prompts the multitude to listen to and encourage a street band (also “ made in Germany”), with its shrieking clarionet, its blatant cornet, and its snorting trombone of three notes, will also influence it in buying and proudly exhibiting on the home walls the lithographic trash which is as nasty as it is cheap. Both bear the semblance of art, and both appear to be good enough to tickle the uncultured senses. The producer of these lithographs has, after the manner of his countrymen, been keen enough to see a demand and to create a supply in a field which to Englishmen looked unpromising and barren. He knew that cottagers and lodging-house keepers of the more humble kind could not afford oil paintings or line engravings with which to decorate their walls. His knowledge of human nature also told him that pictures of some kind they would have if they could only get them cheaply, and so the German lithograph was conceived. The German producer has striven to present to the uncultured eye a cheap something which, in subject and size, shall prove attractive, and he has certainly succeeded in his efforts. He has also been clever in at once acknowledging the truth of the Shakespearian adage which tells us how “ one touch of nature makes the whole world kin,” and has rung the changes on touches of nature to the verge of idiotcy. He is great in scenes which illustrate the domestic virtues, and we have pictures of abnormally clean cottagers and their children sitting down to meals, and engaged in various other laudable and necessary occupations. Or we have a pair of wooden-faced lovers standing near a stile, with the church embosomed in trees in the middle distance, hinting at probable matrimony. Every face is smug and smooth, and has as much expression in it as that of a cabbage. But the teutonic producer does not stop at these original flights of genius, but actually has the audacity to serve up with the same hideous garnishing well-known pictures by our own English artists. Landseer’s noble dogs are degraded into stuffed animals with impossible limbs, and with all their force and character washed out of them; and Millais’ “Black Brunswicker” takes the form of a pudding-faced youth with an expression of utter vacancy. It is, indeed, a grave reflection upon a people which boasts of a national gallery like our own that such things should gain cur rency, but that they sell well is a melancholy fact about which “there is no shadow of doubt whatever,” and evidence of which is furnished by all the “fur nished apartments ” in the kingdom. But it is of little use to diagnose a disease unless we can point out a remedy, and, in this case, we think that we can indicate a means whereby the lithograph can be ousted from the position which it occupies in the estimation of the uneducated public. We must at least thank German enterprise for showing us that there is a vast mass of customers for pictures spread all over the rural parts of the kingdom, and we must now con sider whether we cannot supply the demand ourselves, instead of leaving to others that profitable business. Now, is there not here an opportunity for photo graphy to step in ? It may be argued that the people have already an opportunity of hanging their walls with most exquisite pictures gathered from the holiday and Christmas numbers of our leading illustrated