_The English School of Painting._--In a note to a volume of poems by Victor
Hugo, published in 1836, occur these remarks:
"M. Louis Boulanger, a qui ces deux ballades sont dediees, s'est place
bien jeune au premier rang de cette nouvelle generation de peintres,
qui promet d'elever notre ecole au niveau des magnifiques ecoles
d'Italie, d'Espagne, de Flandre, et d'Angleterre."
Does this praise of the English school of painting show a correct
appreciation of its claims to distinction? or am I in error in supposing,
as I have done, that our school of painting is not entitled to the pompous
epithet of "magnifique," nor to be named in the same category with the
Italian, Spanish, and Flemish schools? I am aware of the hackneyed and
somewhat hyperbolical employment, by French writers and speakers, of such
terms as _magnifique_, _superbe_, _grandiose_; and that they do not convey
to a French ear the same idea of superiority, as they do to our more sober
English judgment; but making every allowance on this score, I confess I was
not a little startled to find such a term as _magnifique_, even in its most
moderate acceptation, applied to our efforts in that branch of art.
_Magnifique_, in truth, must be our school, when the French can condescend
to speak of it in such language!