University of Virginia Library

“This artist will gratify all reasonable expectation; he is neither ostentatious,
nor dogmatical, nor too minute; he is not a partisan nor a carper; he admires
without servility, he criticises without malevolence; his frankness and
good humor give an agreeable color and effect to all his decisions, and the object
of them; his book leaves a useful general idea of the names, works, and deserts,
of the great masters; it is an instructive and entertaining index.”

“We have made a copious extract in preceding columns from this interesting
work of our countryman, Rembrandt Peale, recently published. It has received
high commendation from respectable sources, which is justified by the portions
we have seen extracted.”

“Mr. Peale must be allowed the credit of candor and entire freedom from affectation
in the judgments he has passed. At the same time, we should not omit to
notice the variety, extent, and minuteness of his examinations. No church,
gallery, or collection, was passed by, and most of the individual pictures are
separately and carefully noticed.”

“Such is the outline of a life, which, in Mrs. Thomson's hands, is a mine of interest;
from the first page to the last the attention is roused and sustained, and
while we approve the manner, we still more applaud the spirit in which it is
executed.”

“In all respects a most appropriate volume for the Cabinet Library. We
shall take an opportunity in another notice, to give some of the many interesting
passages in the volume that offer themselves for quotation.”

“The book is unquestionably the best Life of Ralegh that has ever been
written.”

“This is a piece of biography which combines the fascinations of romance
with the deeper interest that attaches to historical narrative.”