painting, I had not the most exalted opinion, and thought that, if I chose to practice in this branch, I could at least equal my contemporaries, for whose glittering productions I really had not much reverence. In answer to this, there are who will say with Peachum in the play, "all professions berogue one another"- but let it be taken into the account, that men with the same pursuits are naturally rivals, and when put in competition with each other, must necessarily be so what racer ever wished that his opponent might outrun him? what boxer ever chose to be beat in pure complaisance to his antagonist? The artist who pretends to be pleased and gratified when he sees himself excelled by his competitor, must have lost all reverence for truth, or be totally dead to that spirit which I believe to be one great source of excellence in all human attempts; and if he is so polite and civil, as to confess superiority in one he knows to be his inferior, he must be either a fool or an hypocrite; perhaps both. If he has temper enough to be silent, it is surely sufficient; but this I have seldom seen, even amongst the most complaisant and liberal of the faculty.

Those who will honestly speak their feelings must confess that all this is natural to man; one of the highest gratifications of superiority, arises from the pleasure which attends instructing men who do not know so much as ourselves; but when they verge on being rivals, the pleasure in a degree ceases. Hence the story of Rubens advising Vandyke to paint horses and faces, to prevent, as it is said, his being put in competition with himself in history painting. Had either of these great artists lived in England at this time, they would have found men of very moderate parts—mere face painters, who, if they chanced to be in vogue, might with ease get a thousand a year; when they, with all their talents, would scarcely have found employment.

To return to my dispute with Mr. Ramsay, on the abilities necessary for portrait painting; as I found the performances of professors in this branch of the art were held in such estimation, I determined to have a brush at it. I had occasionally painted portraits, but as they required constant practice to take a likeness with facility, and the life must not be rigidly followed, my portraitures met with a fate somewhat similar to those of Rembrandt. By some they were said to be nature itself, by others declared most execrable; so that time only can decide whether I was the best or the worst face painter of my day; for a medium was never so much as suggested.

The portrait which I painted with most pleasure, and in which I particularly wished to excel, was that of Captain Coram, for the Foundling Hospital; and if I am so wretched an artist as my enemies assert, it is somewhat strange that this, which was one of the first I painted the size of life, should stand the test of twenty years competition, and be generally thought the best portrait in the place, notwithstanding the first painters in the kingdom exerted all their talents to vie with it. To this I refer Mr. Rams-eye,† and his quick-sighted and impartial coadjutors.

* [The rival portraits here alluded to, are, George the Second, patron of the foundation, by Shackleton; Lord Dartmouth, one of the vice-presidents, by Mr. Reynolds (afterwards Sir Joshua); Taylor White, treasurer of the hospital, in crayons, by Coates; Mr. Milner and Mr. Jackson, by Hudson; Dr. Mead, by Ramsay; Mr. Emmerson, by Highmore; and Francis Fauquier, Esq, by Wilson. To say that it is superior to these, is but slight praise; independent of this relative superiority, it will not be easy to point out a better painted portrait. The head, which is marked with uncommon benevolence, was, in 1739, engraved in mezzotinto, by M'Ardell. J. IRELAND.]

+ [Thus does Hogarth pun upon the name of Mr. Ramsay, who

For the portrait of Mr. Garrick in Richard III. I was paid two hundred pounds (which was more than any English artist ever received for a single portrait), and that too by the sanction of several painters who had been previously consulted about the price, which was not given without mature consideration.

Notwithstanding all this, the current remark was, that portraits were not my province; and I was tempted to abandon the only lucrative branch of my art, for the practice brought the whole nest of phizmongers on my back, where they buzzed like so many hornets. All these people have their friends, whom they incessantly teach to call my women harlots, my Essay on Beauty borrowed, and my composition and engraving contemptible.

This so much disgusted me, that I sometimes declared I would never paint another portrait, and frequently refused when applied to; for I found by mortifying experience, that whoever would succeed in this branch, must adopt the mode recommended in one of Gay's fables, and make divinities of all who sit to him.* Whether or not this childish affecta

he seems to think peered too closely into his prints; though he acknowledges, that in a book entitled the Investigator, Ramsay has treated him with more candour than any of his other opponents. J. IRELAND.]

* [The fable here alluded to, is entitled, a Painter who pleased every body and nobody.

"So very like a painter drew,

That every eye the picture knew.—
His honest pencil touch'd with truth,
And mark'd the date of age and youth;"

But see the consequence,

"In dusty piles his pictures lay,

For no one sent the second pay.”

tion will ever be done away, is a doubtful question; none of those who have attempted to reform it have yet succeeded; nor, unless portrait painters in general become more honest, and their customers less vain, is there much reason to expect they ever will.

Finding the result of truth so unpropitious to his fame and fortune, he changed his practice;

"Two bustos fraught with every grace,

A Venus, and Apollo's, face,

He placed in view;-resolv'd to please,
Whoever sat, he drew from these."

This succeeded to a tittle,

66 'Through all the town his art they prais'd,

His custom grew, his price was rais'd." J .IRELAND.]

CHAPTER III.

Of Academies; Hogarth's opinion of that now denominated Royal ; and of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, giving premiums for pictures and drawings. MUCH has been said about the immense benefit likely to result from the establishment of an Academy in this country, but as I do not see it in the same light with many of my contemporaries, I shall take the freedom of making my objections to the plan on which they propose forming it; and as a sort of preliminary to the subject, state some slight particulars concerning the fate of former attempts at similar establishments.

The first place of this sort was in Queen-street, about sixty years ago; it was begun by some gentlemen-painters of the first rank, who in their general forms imitated the plan of that in France, but conducted their business with far less fuss and solemnity; yet the little that there was, in a very short time became the object of ridicule. Jealousies arose, parties were formed, and the president and all his adherents found themselves comically represented, as marching in ridiculous procession round the walls of the room. The first proprietors soon put a padlock on the door; the rest, by their right as subscribers, did the same, and thus ended this academy.

Sir James Thornhill, at the head of one of these parties, then set up another in a room he built at the back of his