In pictures of STILL LIFE, the composition, an execution preciously careful, and the perfect illusion, chiefly merit attention.

Example.

No. 11.-AELST (WILLIAM VAN).

Dutch school. Died 1679.

Pupil of his uncle

Everard Van Aelst.

A table covered with a cloth of crimson velvet, bordered with a fringe of gold, upon which is seen a large goblet of antique form, made of bluish glass, and half filled with Rhine wine. The sides of this goblet reflect many times, on different parts of it, a neighbouring street, in a manner astonishing and truly magical, and its centre reflects the painter himself holding his palette and his pencil. Near the goblet are placed on one side, on a vessel of glass, four superb peaches and some roasted chestnuts. On the other side are many bunches of admirable grapes, both red and white. The whole is ornamented with butterflies, and other insects, which are quite illusive, and there is formed by the branches of the vine and of the peach, judiciously placed, a pyramidal group of the most agreeable kind, which terminates against a raised curtain of a brown-yellow colour. (See Plate.)

This picture, truly unique in its kind, and beyond all eulogium, excites the admiration of every one who beholds it. It is nature herself, in its forms,