*LINTON, WILLIAM, was born at Liverpool towards the close of the last century. Much of his childhood Is said to have been spent with some relatives at the foot of Windermere, and there his fondness for scenery appears to have been nurtured. With a view to divert his thoughts from an early-formed wish to become a painter, the youth was placed in a mercantile office at Liverpool; but it being found that the intended purpose was not effected, and the mercantile prospects proving less advantageous than was anticipated, he was eventually removed from the office, and, after some hesitancy, per mitted to proceed to London with a view to trying his fortune as a painter. A picture which he exhibited at the British Institution in 1819 of 'A Carpenter's Shop near Haetiugs ' received much commen dation; but tho young artist soon found that his strength lay not in such homely scenes, though it was not till after he had mado several tours to North Wales, the Highlands, &c., that he turned towards those classic lands where he was to find congenial themuee for his I pencil. Extending over several years, Mr. Linton made tours of greater or less duration in Italy, Greece, Sicily, Calabria, and Switzer land; and from those countries most of his grander works have been drawn. A list of a few of his more important pictures will show that Mr. Linton baa not feared to grapple with the most trying themei which can employ the landscape-painter's pencil. To begin with hie British pictures—' The Vale of Keswick; "The Vale of Lonsdsle ; Morning after a Storm—Linton, North Devon;' Corfe Castle' (1848), one of the most impressive representations of those noble ruins ever painted; and 'Lancaster' (1352), one of the latest of his large' English pictures, and in its way one of the finest pictures of the English school. Among the scenes from Greece and Italy, and lathe' scenes eminent in history or poetry, which have most served to render him famous, are—the Italy' which forms a chief ornament of the Duke of Bedford's English collection at Woburn ; 'Positano,' in the collection of the Earl of Ellesmere; 'The Temple of Fortune,' pur chased by the late Sir Robert Peel ; The Embarkation of the Greeks for Troy;' A Greek City, with the Return of a Victorious Armament; ' ' Venus and 2Eneas before Carthage ; " lEtna and Taormina ; " The Lake of Lugano,' 1838; 'Corinth,' 1842; 'The Bay of Naples,' 1843; 'An Arcadian Landscape ; "Jerusalem at the time of the Crucifixion; ' ' The Ruins of Pmstom ; "Bay and Castle of Balm,' 1845; 'Athens,' 1347, painted about the same time as 'Corte Castle,' and in the same grand style; ' Temple of Minerva at Rome,' 1850; ' Venice,' 1851; 'Ruins near Enmulum,' 1852; 'A Mountain Town in Calabria,' 1853;' 'The Tiber,' 1856.
Mr. Linton's landscapes are many of them on canvasses of the largest size, and are painted in the broadest and boldest manner, with perfect simplicity of treatment, but correct in drawing ; clear, though sober even to sombreness, in colour ; and with fine atmospheric effect, though without any atmospheric exaggeration or trickery. Over all is diffused an air of poetry almost epie in its severity, but in strict accordance with the elevated character of the scenes and subjects. This very elevation and severity of style however, combined with an entire absence, indeed almost ostentatious contempt, of everything approaching to minute finish, have served to prevent Mr. Linton from ranking along with the popular painters of the day. Among the gaudy and glittering canvasses which cover the walls of the annual exhibitions such pictures as Mr. Linton's are little likely to attract the general eye, while in the public galleries, where their sterling merits would speedily ensure their appreciation, they find no place. Had Mr. Linton painted such pictures as many of those we have enume rated either in France or Germany they would have been at once pur chased for a national gallery ; here, till there is a really national collection formed, Mr. Linton must rest content to find admirers fit though few, and remain comparatively uuknown to the bulk of his countrymen. Being a member of the Society of British Artists, Mr. Linton has of course received no academic distinctions.