be said to take rank above any production of either of them. In
drawing, color, and composition, rendering of textures, and the
exhibition of the resources of the palette, now better known to
French painters than ever before, the picture leaves nothing to
be desired. The faces of the principal figures are full of
that "expression to the life" in which the English are justly
considered to excel, while the admirable focus of the groups,
the color, and interest, are as un-English as excellent.
Fault-finding in more than one or two unimportant details would
be hypercriticism where so much is perfect, and it becomes our
happy privilege, in this notice, to commend and to point out, to
"lay" readers about Art, the manifold beauties of its technical
execution. A critical examination will show that the composition
is on the pyramidal principle, and the arrangement of groups
principally in threes. In the central portion of the canvas,
where the marble pillars of the porch fall off in perspective,
the Profligate stands holding up a golden cup in his right
hand, as in the act of proposing a toast. His red costume and
commanding figure attract the eye, and the attention falls at
once and equally on him and on the magnificent woman whose arms
embrace his neck, and whose eyes, as her chin rests close on his
breast, gaze with dangerous fascination into his face. Her dress
is of rich white satin, and, with the delicate green and gold
sheen of her rival's robe--she with whom the Prodigal's right
hand toys in caress--makes up a wonderfully brilliant prismatic
chord, having the effect of focusing the richer, but not less
gorgeous, pigments spread everywhere on the canvas. The faces of
the women are very beautiful, and are made voluptuous by a
subtle art which, through all their beauty, tells a story of
unrestrained lives of passion and pleasure.