whom it depicted; and, as if he were gifted with Ithuriel's spear, the very toad became an angel at his touch. In his habitual embellishment, he was ever studious of characteristic expression; and the probability of his attitudes exceeded their verity. The majesty of the Queen, in the council-chamber of the Royal Academy, has been universally admired.

The art of taking heroic likenesses soon renders a painter popular in the great world, and in 1758 Reynolds advanced his price from twelve guineas, for a mere head as large as life, to twenty guineas. He also took a superior residence, and induced Miss Reynolds, a maiden sister, to superintend his household. Dr. Johnson was a frequent guest in the family, as was also Garrick; of whom the well known portrait, between Tragedy and Comedy, was painted in 1762. Reynolds now once more advanced his terms, viz. to twenty-five guineas; at which price his earnings are computed by Dr. Johnson, who had probably the best authority for the statement, at six thousand pounds a-year.

Exhibitions of the artists were first established in London at the suggestion of Reynolds, and in rooms belonging to the Society for the Encouragement of Arts. The practice began at Rome, where the temples of religion, and in particular the Pantheon, had been lent to the artists for the like purpose. In committees selected to prepare these exhibitions, originated the plan of a Royal Academy of Painting, which was chartered in 1765; and, when apartments were provided for it, Reynolds was unanimously elected the first president, and received on that occasion from the hand of Majesty the honour of knighthood. The portraits of Lady Elizabeth Keppel, in the dress which she wore as bride-maid to the Queen, and of Lady Sarah Bunbury sacrificing to the Graces, were distinguished by Barry as the fairest ornaments of the first exhibition at the Academy. Sir Joshua Reynolds began his annual discourse, or lecture, on the distribution of the prizes among the students, at the close of the session of 1768.

About this time, and at Dr. Johnson's instigation, Sir Joshua took an active part in founding the literary club, which comprehended Burke, Nugent, Percy, Goldsmith, and many other men of celebrity. He also belonged to a less grave association held at the British coffee-house. Around his own table, he assembled with eager hospitality all the talent which illuminated the rank, and all the rank which dignified the talent, of the metropolis.

In the year 1771, Mr. Northcote, the most distinguished of Sir Joshua Reynolds's pupils, and author of the work which we are analyzing, became attached to this celebrated painter. An attempt to characterize the professional skill of Sir Joshua had

been

been inserted in a work intitled "Letters concerning the present State of England," published in 1772*; and Mr. Northcote harshly revises this critique: which, however, except in the assertion that Sir Joshua wanted softness, is perhaps just, That his colours were graceful rather than chaste is not (as here maintained) absolute nonsense; and if his carnations looked like a painted cheek, or his draperies had the éclat of shop-windowsilks, this expression might fitly be applied. Cold, correct, unobtrusive colouring is called chaste, by a natural metaphor; and that colouring which imitates the dainty and delicate tints of flower-petals may be called graceful, though it suits the dyer rather than the painter. Sir Joshua's pictures, when fresh, were remarkable for a pink tint. We are surprized to see Mr. Northcote hazarding the proposition, (p. 165.) that colouring alone is superior to drawing alone; and we can not boldly rely on the sentiments of an authority so paradoxical.

Sir Joshua painted a portrait of Dr. Beattie in 1773; and, after the manner of Rubens, whose works he had lately examined at Paris, he introduced an allegoric figure of Truth trampling on Infidelity and Scepticism in the shapes of Voltaire and Hume. Goldsmith was very indignant at this picture, and told Sir Joshua that it would disgrace him among men of sense to degrade so high a genius as Voltaire, before so inferior a writer as Dr. Beattie. "In ten years," he said, "Beattie will not be known: but your picture, and the fame of Voltaire, will live for ever, to your disgrace as a flatterer." Sir Joshua, however, was perhaps consoled by the honorary degree which was voted to him at Oxford; and a new edition of Richardson on Painting was dedicated to him by Beattie. With that comprehensive tolerance of the painter which deserves to become the model of the opinionist, Sir Joshua also made a portrait of Goldsmith, which is now in the possession of the Duke of Dorset. When Goldsmith died, in 1774, he was sincerely lamented by Sir Joshua, who at his own expence erected a monument to his memory in Westminster-abbey.

In 1776, Mr. Northcote separated from Sir Joshua Reynolds, after a residence in the family during five years which were instructive to him both as an artist and as a man. He has thus recorded various apophthegms of his host;

The following observations by Sir Joshua Reynolds, were the result of many conversations, or from fragments written by himself. "The great principle of being happy in this world is not to regard or be affected with small things,'

"No man relishes an evening walk like him whose mind has been employed the whole preceding day."

"Polite behaviour and a refined address, like good pictures, make the least show to ordinary eyes."

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Humility is not to despise any thing, especially mankind." "Magnanimity is not to be disturbed at any thing."

"A man is a pedant who, having been brought up among books, is able to talk of nothing else. The same of a soldier, lawyer,

painter, &c."

"Natural, is that which is according to the common course of things. An ugly face is not according to the common course of things, consequently an ugly face is an unnatural face."

"The character of a nation is perhaps more strongly marked by their taste in painting, than in any other pursuit, although more considerable; as you may easier find which way the wind sits by throwing up a straw in the air than any heavier substance."

"Rules are very necessary to, but will never make, a painter. They should be used as servants, and subject to us, not we to them.' "In painting, prefer truth before freedom of hand.” "Grandeur is composed of straight lines." "Genteelness and elegance, of serpentine lines."

"A firm and determined manner is grand, but not elegant.' "Genteelness is not being crowded, especially if there is a fullness at the same time."

any

action."

"Air is a single moment of "Simplicity is an exact medium between too little and too

much."

""Grace is the medium of motion, beauty is the medium of form, and genteelness the medium of the fashion."

Ornament is the medium between wanting what is necessary, and being over-furnished."

"Ornament ought to arise only from the right ordering of things. Orno is Latin for to furnish." "

Manner in painting is like peculiarity of behaviour; though it may please a few, the bulk of mankind will condemn it."

"The only wages a real genius thinks of in his labour, is the praise of impartial judges."

"A good portrait-painter may not be capable of painting history."

"But an historical painter for certain has the ability to paint portrait." "

This communication constitutes the portion which is most peculiar to the present biography.

The year 1778 witnessed Sir Joshua's publication (dedicated to the King) of the seven Discourses which he had successively delivered in the Royal Academy. Rumours were circulated that Mr. Burke had assisted in correcting the manuscript for the press; and certainly graces of style appear in these discourses, which seem to announce the practised writer. The first of them dwells on the importance of beginning, like Raphael, with acquiring precision by close adherence to the

model

model and to the practice of the more laborious artists. Freedom of manner should succeed to accuracy, not precede it. The second discourse advises the young artist to copy only the fine passages, or parts, of a classical work of art, and to frame them in original circumstances, to surround them with new accidents; never undertaking finished copies, but rather companions to pre-existing pictures of merit. To Lodovico Caracci, a remarkable encomium is here given. The third and best discourse endeavours to shew what it is in which grandeur of manner consists, and ideal beauty. Sir Joshua places it in the attainment of that central form to which every individual. tends, and which represents the class to which it belongs rather than the person from which it is taken. Beauty, according to his theory, is the average shape of the human animal; and English beauty is the average shape of the native of Great Britain. Each subordinate division, child, youth, man, or woman, has again its common features, its collective tendency, from which all personality is aberration.

"This is the idea," says Sir Joshua, "which has acquired, and which seems to have a right to the epithet of Divine; as it may be said to preside, like a supreme judge, over all the productions of nature; appearing to be possessed of the will and intention of the Creator; as far as they regard the external form of living beings."

The fourth discourse aims at enforcing the principle that the topic chosen by the painter should not be trifling and uninteresting; and that he should study to give unity of direction to the beholder's attention, not to embarrass or divide it between rival objects. To general nature, and not to particular nature, the artist is advised to attend. The fifth continues the fourth discourse, and insists strongly on unity of expression, or on giving singleness of character to every emotion. An eloquent, though perhaps not a strictly just, contrast is drawn between Raphael and Michael Angelo. To cite an instance of imperfection, Raphael is said to have had more fancy, and Michael Angelo more imagination: yet Raphael, in our opinion, had neither fancy nor imagination in any eminent degree; he could not easily paint without the model, as Michael Angelo and Rubens could; and for this very reason we find a precision of outline, a truth of nature, a reality of animation, an humanity of beauty, in his figures, which gain on examination. Of all painters, he has been most careful in the selection of fine, various, and appropriate models. Michael Angelo, on the contrary, had both fancy and imagination in an eminent degree; and he excels most when he is painting posthumous figures, gazeous bodies, whose fluid outline yields to every tendency, and swells to every emotion, with superfluous but expressive obedience.

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The impression of Michael Angelo is made at first; it cannot be feeble, but it is not progressive. He studied the antique industriously but he rather painted after it than from it, using the idea in his mind, the internal representation in his memory, for the model. Thence his propensity, in every figure, to caricature and overcharge that expression, or characteristic peculiarity, which the mind is at the time contemplating. few painters possess the representative faculty, -the internal reminiscence of form and colour, with distinct and vivid completeness, it happens that nearly all the imitators of Michael Angelo are guilty of gross deviations from nature. There may be, as it is technically said, a great deal of mind in their paintings; that is, of the distortion which figures in the mind incur, in order to fit them for the point of view in which they interest the passions. To paint body is the painter's trade; the miracle of Michael Angelo consists in painting from mind, and forgetting and distorting so little. We say the more on this point, because, in the British school of painting, Mr. Fuseli and others have suffered from an excessive imitation of Michael Angelo; whose pupils (though Fuseli is eminent as an Anatomist,) usually excel only in sylphs, angels, ghosts, elves, devils, saints, or in whatever cannot be held up against nature, and compared with existence.

Sir Joshua's sixth discourse inculcates the importance of learning to the artist, and the value of studying the works of predecessors in preference to the mere contemplation of nature. The seventh and concluding lecture treats ingeniously on Taste, but is the feeblest dissertation of the set first published.

In 1779, Sir Joshua undertook to assist in ornamenting the new apartments in Somerset-House: but he was not a good cieling-painter. His figures look as if they had been drawn for horizontal inspection, and had then been fixed by mistake overhead. Under-shortening is to be acquired only by fatiguing discipline. The academic models must be hoisted on grates into the air, and sketched by the students on the floor; and standing, sitting, and lying, figures must be successively and repeatedly copied, omitting the cross bars which support them. We have but little demand for this sort of art in England, and therefore it is little studied: but our places of worship might be adorned, like the domes of Italian churches, with floating angels and ascended saints. We write on our pulpits: "Faith cometh by hearing :" a more vivid faith cometh by seeing.

1780.In this year, Sir Joshua made a sketch for the painted window in New-College-Chapel at Oxford; which design was afterward purchased by the Duke of Rutland. About this time, he appears to have become more ambitious than hitherto of fame as an historical painter. He undertook grand compo6 sitions