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Sir Joshua Reynolds 
 
" The whole world without Art would be one great wilder v ess.'' 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS 
 
 BY F. S._PULLING, M.A., 
 
 EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 LONDON : 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, 
 
 CROWN BUILDINGS, FLEET STREET. 
 
{All rights resented.") 
 
 Hazell, Watson, yiiwy, Printers, London <Sr^ Aylesbiirj. 
 
 THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM LIBRARY 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Pbobabl^ there is no artist who has had more biographers 
 than Sir Joshua Reynolds, nor is there any name in the list 
 of England's great painters better known than that of the first 
 President of the Eoyal Academy. Shortly after his death his 
 pupil Northcote and his friend Malone put forth lives of 
 Eeynolds, both of which are extremely A^aluable as original 
 authorities. They were succeeded by Parrington and Beechey, 
 both artists themselves, but who have in their turn been 
 supplanted by the magnificent work begun by Mr. LesHe 
 and completed by Mr. Tom Taylor. It is to this latter book 
 that all future biographers of Sir Joshua must go for materials. 
 It is a perfect mine of information, and no praise can be too 
 high for the careful and diligent manner in which the authors 
 have collected from all sources information about the great 
 master. But it is an unfortunate book ; it professes to treat 
 of the " Life and Times,"— a thing fatal to true biography, and 
 only to be tolerated in the life of a man who helped to malve 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 the history of his own times. The result of this injudicious 
 treatment is that the "Times" swamp the "Life"; contempo- 
 rary gossip, sketches of society when George the Third was 
 king, occupy the major portion of these bulky volumes. The 
 frame hides the picture it contains, and by its own beauty and 
 attractiveness takes the eye off that to which attention should 
 be exclusively directed. 
 
 But it hardly becomes me to criticise a work from which I 
 have derived so much assistance, and without which a great 
 deal of the information I here lay before my readers must have 
 been withheld. 
 
 I must also acknowledge my obligations to two valuable 
 articles on Eeynolds which appeared in the Quarterly Review 
 for April and July, 1866, and to Messrs. Eedgrave's " Century 
 of Painters." 
 
 My own work has no pretence to originality. All I have 
 endeavoured to do is to sum up in a short form the results of 
 the investigations of others, and to arrive at just conclusions 
 respecting the merits of Sir Joshua's work. 
 
 The more I have studied it, the more I feel the extreme 
 beauty of his character; he is almost faultless. And this 
 perhaps makes the biographer's task more difficult. The nine- 
 teenth century looks with suspicion on the " blameless " man ; 
 there must, it thinks, be something in the backgrouijd, — some 
 skeleton in the cupboard, which should be revealed in all its 
 hideousness, but which the partial biographer is carefully cou- 
 cealing. But such is not the case with Eeynolds. The veriest 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 vn 
 
 Smellfungus who ever delighted to blacken a great man's 
 character has been unable to find anything here to gratify 
 his morbid taste. In the roll o£ England's, great men there is 
 not one whose fame is more unsullied, whose example is nobler, 
 than Sir Joshua Eeynolds. His hfe is worthy of study, his 
 character of imitation, by any one who would be as he was— 
 an upright, courteous, God-fearing English gentleman. 
 
 F. S. P. 
 
 Oxford, June, 1880, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A.D. 1723 TO A.D. 1748. 
 
 PAOR 
 
 Birth and Early Life-First Pictures-Apprenticed to Hudson- 
 Death of his Father— William Gandy. ... 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A.D. 1749 TO A.D. 1761. 
 
 Commodore Kcppel-Visit to Italy-Return to England-Dr. John- 
 son— Garrick— First Exhibition of Pictures in 1760— Portraits 
 of Nobility 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 A.D. 1764. 
 
 Keynolds and his Friends-The Club-Dr. Johnson-Boswcll- 
 
 Burke— Goldsmitli— Mayor of Plympton Earl . . . • ^» 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A.D. 1765 TO A.D. 1775. 
 
 Portrait— The Royal Academy founded— Reynolds is knighted- 
 
 Northcote— Honours from Oxford-Gainsborough and Ronmey . 34 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A.D. 1776 TO A.D. 1783. 
 
 The Dilettanti Society-New College Chapel-First Academy Ex- 
 hibition— Opie— Barry . 
 
X 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 A.D. 1784 TO A.D. 1792. 
 
 i. Siddons as the Tragic Muse-The Infant Hercules— The Boydell 
 Gallery-Failure of Sight- Quarrel with the Academy-Dr 
 Johnson's Monument— Death of Reynolds .... 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 LITERARY WORKS. 
 
 Idler— The Discourses— Journey to the Low Countries— Ima- 
 ginary Dialogues 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Portrait of HiMSEtP 
 Penelope Boothby. 
 Kitty Fisher . 
 The Infant Samuel Johnso 
 The Snake in the Grass 
 Ugolino . 
 
 The Strawberry Girl 
 muscipula 
 The Holy Family . 
 Charles James Fox 
 Mrs. Siddons as '-The Tragic Muse' 
 The Duchess op Devonshire 
 Age op Innocence . 
 Mrs. Bradyll . 
 Simplicity 
 Lady Powis 
 The Ispant Hercules 
 
 PAGE 
 
 FRONTISPIECE 
 
 . 15 
 
 . 22 
 
 . 30 
 
 . 36 
 
 . 42 
 
 . 46 
 
 . 56 
 
 . 60 
 
 . 78 
 
 . iO 
 
 . 82 
 
 . 84 
 
 92 
 114 
 
 / 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 The "Works or Sie Joshua Eeynolds, Knight. In three 
 volumes, to which is prefixed an Account of the Life and 
 Writings of the Author, by Edmond Malone, Esq. Second 
 edition, corrected. London, 1798. 
 
 Memoirs oe Sib Joshua Reynolds, Knight, etc. By James 
 Northcote, Esq., E.A. London, 1813. 
 
 Memoirs oe the Life oe Sir Joshua Reynolds, with some 
 Observations on his Talents and Character. By Joseph 
 Earrington, E.A. London, 1819. 
 
 The Complete Works op Sir Joshua Eeynolds, with an 
 Original Memoir and Anecdotes of the Author. In three 
 volumes. London, 1824. 
 
 The Literary Works oe Sir Joshua Eeynolds. To which 
 is prefixed a Memoir of the Author, with some Eemarks on his 
 Professional Character, illustrative of his Principles and Practice. 
 By William Beechey, E.A. London, 1835. 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds and his Works. Gleanings from his 
 Diary, Unpublished Manuscripts, and from other Sources. By 
 William Cotton, M.A.; edited by John Burnet, E.E.S. London 
 and Plymouth, 1856. 
 
 Life and Times oe Sir Joshua Eeynolds, with Notices of 
 some of his Contemporaries. Commenced by Charles Eobert 
 Leslie, E.A. ; continued and concluded by Tom Taylor, M.A. 
 In two volumes. London, 1865. 
 
CHRONOLOGY 
 
 OF 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 DATE. 
 
 1723. Born at Plympton. (July 16.) 
 1740. Apprenticed to Hudson. 
 1744. First settlement in London. 
 1746. His father's death. 
 1749. Sails for Italy. 
 
 1752. Eeturns from Italy. 
 
 1753. Settles in London. 
 1760. First Exhibition. 
 
 1762. Visit to Devonshire with Johnson, 
 1764. The Club established. 
 
 1768. The Royal j^cademy founded. 
 
 1769. Knighted. 
 
 1773. Mayor of Plympton. 
 
 1781. First Tour in the Low Countries. 
 
 1782. Paralytic stroke. 
 
 1783. Second visit to the Low Countries. 
 
 1789. Partial blindness. 
 
 1790. Rupture with the Academy. 
 1792. Dies in London. (Feb. 23.) 
 
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 (A.D. 1723 TO A.D. 1748.) 
 BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE. 
 
 FOUR miles from Plymouth, on the same river which gives 
 that seaport its name, is the old-world town of Plympton 
 Earl, owing at the present day whatever importance it has to its 
 vicinity to the ' Three Towns,' but once by no means dependent 
 on such a humble title for fame. Eor as an old west country 
 distich tells us, — 
 
 ' Plympton was a market-town 
 When Plymouth was a fuzzy down,' 
 
 and the ruins of its strongly-situated castle show that, in by- 
 gone days, it must have been of renown, and no insignificant 
 possession of the great earls of Devon, who have bequeathed 
 their title to this town on the Plym. Even in later days 
 Plympton Castle played its part in history, for Prince Maurice 
 made it his head-quarters in 1643, when be was besieging 
 Plymouth, and next year its little garrison made a brave though 
 ineffectual resistance to Essex and the Parliamentary forces. 
 
 1 
 
2 
 
 SIR JOSHUA EETNOLDS. 
 
 But the visitor to Plympton will seek out first and linger 
 longest at the grammar school, for here it was that the greatest 
 of English painters was born. The Reynolds family had long 
 been settled in Devonshire, and could count amongst its 
 members two men who had in their day and generation been 
 worthy of renown. Of these the one was a staunch Eomanist, 
 and during the brief Catholic reaction gained the reward of his 
 constancy by being appointed Dean of Exeter while greater 
 honours were in store for him, when the tide turned and Pro- 
 testantism once more became the State religion. The other and 
 better known, Dr. Reynolds, was a sturdy Puritan, who took 
 part in the Hampton Court Conference, where he advocated 
 Presbyterian views, much to the disgust of James I., to whom 
 the " bishop, no king " formula was an inference not to be 
 impugned. Unsuccessful though he was in his endeavours to 
 puritanise the Church, Dr. Reynolds left behind him a lasting 
 monument of his skill in divinity ; for he ranks as one of the 
 translators of our Bible. Whether Sir Joshua could claim kindred 
 with the Catholic or the Puritan divine, it is impossible to say : 
 what we do know for certain of his lineage is that his grandfather 
 was John Reynolds, vicar of St. Thomas', Exeter, and his father 
 Samuel Reynolds, master of Plympton grammar school. 
 
 A kindly and genial man this Samuel Reynolds would seem 
 to have been, — perhaps not very energetic or business-like, and 
 more suited to the quiet, leisurely ways of the eighteenth 
 century than to the more stirring, bustling days we lire in. 
 Prom him, we may imagine, Joshua inherited that placid and 
 equable temper which was one of his most noted characteristics, 
 and which was eqaally proof against the fierce attacks of un- 
 successful rivals like Barry, and the brusque outspokenness of 
 friends like Johnson. 
 
 Mr. Reynolds had already five children when, on July 16th, 
 1723, a son was born to him who received the name of Joshua, 
 probably after his father's brother, the Rev. Joshua Reynolds ; 
 though Malone tells us that the name was given him from a 
 
BIETH AND EARLY LIFE. 
 
 3 
 
 notion of his father's that it might, at some future period, be an 
 advantage to a child to bear an uncommon Christian name, 
 which might recommend him to the attention and kindness of 
 some person bearing the same name, who might be led even to 
 become a benefactor. 
 
 We are always glad to learn particulars of the early educa- 
 tion of any man who has distinguished himself in politics or in 
 science, in art or in literature. Not unnaturally we inquire 
 how it was that his talent was first discovered, how his early 
 efforts were directed, and whether his success was marked from 
 the beginning. But how apt we are to exaggerate the preco- 
 cious efforts of genius, forgetful that it is not always the infant 
 Solomon who proves the wisest man, nor the head boy of the 
 school who succeeds the best in after life, nor the senior 
 wrangler who adorns the woolsack ! 
 
 Who has not noticed that silent plodding James often makes 
 his mark, while brilliant Jack's home reputation is all the fame 
 he ever earns ? And so when James has his life or memoirs 
 written, every saying of his early days that can be remembered 
 is faithfully recorded, every action of his boyhood recounted and 
 glorified ; while poor Jack's hons mots and bold exploits live only 
 perchance in the recollection of a favourite sister whose hero he 
 was, and, in spite of failure, still is. 
 
 It is not every boy who makes speeches in the nursery, or 
 chops logic with his governess, but there is scarcely a child who 
 does not show some inclination for drawing, who is not at some 
 period the proud possessor of a paint-box, and whose fond 
 parents have not discovered the genius of an artist in the baby 
 dauber. But Art is for the few, and many a child who has been 
 wholly given up to her worship at the age of six, in the short 
 space of a year has inconstantly abandoned her for the more 
 boisterous deity who presides over cricket. Nay, more : the lad 
 who declares that he too will be a painter very frequently ends 
 in becoming a lawyer or a merchant, and a humble but merito- 
 rious member of society. 
 
4 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 Still, it is unquestionable that a painter, like a poet, is born, 
 not made, and as the latter must lisp in numbers, so must the 
 artist reproduce the human form divine, even though it be in 
 charcoal on a whitewashed wall. 
 
 The stories told of Eeynolds' taste for art are certainly 
 remarkable, for not only did he copy the engravings in Dryden's 
 "Plutarch" and Cat's "Book of Emblems" (this any child 
 might have done), but he had the patience to read through the 
 Jesuits' " Perspective," a somewhat ponderous quarto volume, 
 and, if we are to believe Malone, at the age of eight he had made 
 himself so completely master of it that he never afterwards 
 had occasion to study any other treatise on that subject ! More 
 than this, he gave a proof that he had not studied his subject in 
 vain by drawing the quaint old piazza of the Plympton school- 
 house so correctly as to lead his father to assert that it was 
 wonderful, and clearly proved the truth of the boast the author 
 of the " Perspective" made in his preface, that by observing 
 the rules laid down in his book a man might do wonders. It 
 was probably after this that Reynolds perused Eichardson's 
 " Treatise on Art," the author of which, li^dng as he did at a time 
 when English art was beneath contempt and her devotees were 
 G-rub-street hacks without either talent or education, was san- 
 guine enough to look forward hopefully to the day when there 
 should be at least one real painter in England. No doubt the 
 reading of such a book as this must have inspired the youthful 
 artist, though as yet there was no prospect of his following 
 painting as a profession. The education he was receiving was 
 probably of the old-fashioned kind which flourished in our 
 schools before the age of cram and competition, and w^hich only 
 pretended to give its scholars a sound knowledge of Latin, and 
 the rudiments of Greek and the mathematics. But that this 
 learning would suffice is clearly shown in Sir Joshua's case, for 
 it was probably all he ever got, and yet he could hold his own 
 with Burke and Johnson, and wrote such English as neither of 
 those great masters of style would have been ashamed of. 
 
FIRST PICTUEE. 
 
 5 
 
 His father had intended him for the medical profession ; and 
 the remark he made to Northcote when at the zenith of his 
 fame, that had it been decided that he should be a doctor " he 
 should have felt the same determination to become the most 
 eminent physician as he then felt to be the first painter of his 
 age," has been frequently cited to show his wonderful resolution 
 to excel, — as if every boy worth anything did not make up his 
 mind to rise to the top of his profession, whether that be the 
 woolsack, the archbishopric, or the presidential chair of the 
 Eoyal Academy. Doubtless Eeynolds would have become an 
 eminent surgeon, had medicine been selected as his profession ; 
 his name would have lived perchance in Boswell as that of an 
 admirer of Johnson ; but England would have lost her greatest 
 painter. 
 
 Probably the success of Hudson as a portrait-painter first 
 suggested to Samuel Eeynolds the possibility of his son's em- 
 bracing Art as a profession. Hudson was a Devonshire man, 
 he had won his way almost unaided, and now he was the first 
 portrait-painter, and was, report said, rapidly amassing a large 
 fortune. Might not young Joshua Eeynolds humbly tread in 
 this great man's footsteps, and at all events acquire a modest 
 competency by handing down to posterity the faces of Devon- 
 shire squires and Plymouth aldermen ? At all events the idea 
 was worth a thought, and the successful painter might not be 
 unwilling to do a kind turn to a young west-countryman. 
 But before this idea occurred to the worthy schoolmaster, 
 Joshua had done something more than make a drawing of 
 the grammar school : he had painted some of the neighbours, 
 and had succeeded tolerably. The story which attaches to his 
 first attempt at portrait-painting is worth the telling. The 
 great family at Mount Edgcumbe had always been on friendly 
 terms with the Plympton schoolmaster, and young Dick Edg- 
 cumbe seems to have been in some sort a playfellow of J oshua's, 
 — at all events it was at his instigation that Eeynolds made a 
 sketch of worthy Mr. Smart, the tutor, as he was preaching in 
 
6 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 Maker churcb.; the drawing made, the two lads hastened down 
 to the beach, and finding a part of an old boat-sail, converted it 
 into a " canvas," and thereupon did the future President paint 
 his first portrait. This production still exists; and so it is that 
 to a schoolboy's pique this honest clergyman owes his immor- 
 tality, and Eeynolds his introduction to the world as a portrait- 
 painter. 
 
 But Mr. Eeynolds hears that Hudson requires ^120 premium 
 with every pupil ; and where is the poor parson, with his ten 
 children and his miserable pittance, to raise this sum? Recourse 
 is had to a mutual friend, one Mr. Cutcliffe of Bideford, who 
 for his good offices on this occasion deserves a place in the life 
 of Eeynolds ; and eventually Hudson consents to receive Joshua 
 as a pupil on yery easy terms. " Everything," writes Samuel 
 Eeynolds, in his delight at the generous proposal, " jumped out 
 in a strange, unexpected manner to a miracle. . . I shall always 
 be his (Mr. Hudson's) humble servant with abundance of 
 thanks." 
 
 So the matter is settled, and on October 13th, 1740, after " a 
 most prosperous journey," Joshua arrived in London, and shortly 
 afterwards took up his abode with Hudson in Great Queen's 
 Street, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Everything is most satisfactory. " Joshua," writes his father 
 in December, " is very sensible of his happiness in being under 
 such a master, in such a family, in such a city, and in such an 
 employment " ; and in August 1742 he tells Mr. Cutcliife that 
 " as for Joshua, nobody, by his letters to me, was ever better 
 pleased in his employment, in his master, in everything. 
 ' While I am doing this I am the happiest creature alive,' is 
 his expression." 
 
 Of this period of his life we know little or nothing; he was 
 probably hard at work mastering the technicalities of his art, 
 becoming daily more expert with his brush, and perhaps less 
 inclined to regard Hudson as a great master. And really but 
 little can be said for Hudson : he is mediocrity itself, and his 
 
REYNOLDS QUITS HUDSON. 
 
 7 
 
 portraits have as little claim to be considered in the history of 
 English art as Talden's or Montgomery's verses to notice in 
 a literary history. Whether they are correct likenesses we 
 have no means o£ determining ; we do know that they are 
 execrable pictures. 
 
 Eeynolds was to have remained with Hudson four years, but 
 as it was he quitted him before two years were over. To what 
 this is to be attributed is doubtful. Probably either to jealousy 
 on the part of the master, or disgust on the part of the pupil. 
 The commonly-received story is, that Hudson being chagrined 
 at the rapid progress Reynolds was making, and fearing that 
 he would prove a dangerous rival, caught at the first frivolous 
 excuse that offered itself to get rid of the young genius. The 
 proverbial jealousy of artists might incline us to believe this, 
 but it may be considered fairly disproved by a letter of Samuel 
 Eeynolds, in which he says that he shall persevere in his resolu- 
 tion not to meddle in the controversy between Joshua and his 
 master, adding, "In the meantime I bless God, and Mr. Hudson 
 ... for the extreme success that has attended Joshua hitherto." 
 Clearly, then, his father did not think that Joshua had suffered 
 much at his master's hands. Indeed, Eeynolds had good reason 
 to be thankful that he had done with Hudson; he had learnt all 
 he could from him, and it might have been well nigh fatal had 
 he remained any longer under his roof. Instead of founding an 
 English school, he might have contentedly followed Eichardson 
 and" Hudson, and produced " honest similitudes," instead of 
 pictures. 
 
 Eeturning to Devonshire, he sets up as a portrait-painter m 
 what was then known as Plymouth Dock, but has now got the 
 name of Devonport, and here he succeeded beyond all expecta- 
 tion. His hands are f idl of work, and all the notables of the 
 neighbourhood are flocking to the young artist's studio. But 
 it was only a temporary mania : the worthy Devonians soon 
 returned to more "practical" ways of spending their money, 
 and, as vsual. PhilLstia triumphed. 
 
8 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 Not unwillingly, perhaps, Eeynolds goes back to London, 
 convinced that it is there only that his genius can become 
 known, and there only that he can study great pictures and 
 perfect himself in his art. The quarrel with Hudson is made 
 up, for Eeynolds was one of those men who rarely make and 
 never keep an enemy, and we learn from one of his father's 
 letters that " Joshua by his master's means is introduced into 
 a club composed of the most famous men in their profession ; " 
 and in another letter that "Joshua's master is very kind to 
 him ; he comes to visit him pretty often, and freely tells him 
 where his pictures are faulty, which is a great advantage ; and 
 when he has finished anything of his own, he is pleased to ask 
 Joshua's judgment, which is a great honour." This intro- 
 duction to the Artists' Club must have been a great boon to 
 Eeynolds, who, as we know from Dr. Johnson, was one of 
 the most " clubable " of men ; but whether Hudson's advice 
 about his pictures was so desirable is more than doubtful ; at 
 all events, the portraits of this period have a wooden and con- 
 ventional appearance only too suggestive of his old master. 
 We mast except, however, from this category a portrait of 
 himself, probably the first he ever painted, which Mr. Taylor 
 describes as without a "trace of Hudson," but "masterly in 
 handling, and powerful — almost Eembrandtesque — in chiar- 
 oscuro." 
 
 To this period (from December 1744 to December 1746) 
 belong moreover a few portraits in which we can see the pupil 
 strugghng against the thraldom of his master. The most im- 
 portant are those of Captain Hamilton and Mrs. Field, and 
 the picture which bears the name of " The Eeading Boy." 
 
 In December 1746 he returned home once more, this time 
 to watch by the deathbed of his father, who expired on Christ- 
 mas Day. 
 
 No one who has read Samuel Eeynolds' letters can doubt 
 how keenly his death was mourned. His sincere yet manly 
 gratitude, his kindly interest in his son's career, his gentle 
 
WILLIAM GANDY. 
 
 9 
 
 humour, all show a most lovable disposition, and make him a 
 most interesting type of the best kind of parson of the eighteenth 
 century. He has been likened to Parson Adams, and in many 
 respects he resembles Fielding's hero. He has the same warm 
 heart, the same simplicity, the same guilelessness, and, we 
 must add, the same straitened purse. 
 
 The father's death broke up the home at Plympton, and, not 
 without a sigh of regret at having to leave London, Joshua 
 once more determined to try his fortunes in Plymouth Dock, 
 where he took a house for himself and two of his sisters. Who 
 could have supposed that in Devonshire he was to meet with a 
 master who was to teach him more than he could ever have 
 learnt from Hudson and the whole of his club ? Yet so it was. 
 This man was William Gandy. 
 
 His father had been a pupil of Vandyck, and a painter of 
 some reputation in his day, but the son possessed something 
 more than the father, — injured genius. His portraits, painted 
 though they were very frequently hurriedly and carelessly, dis- 
 play a knowledge of art and a beauty of conception which 
 prove that with but a moderate amount of patience and perse- 
 verance Gaudy's name might have been illustrious in the annals 
 of English art. But his dissipated and reckless habits prevented 
 this, and the highest honour that can be accorded to him is 
 that he showed Eeynolds what might be done. The truth of 
 Gaudy's maxim that "a picture ought to have a richness in its 
 texture, as if the colours had been composed of cream and 
 cheese," was at once perceived by Eeynolds, and every picture 
 he painted subsequently to this is a proof of the influence it 
 had over him. No longer do we find that "hard and husky or 
 dry manner," that stiffness and conventionality of attitude 
 which too often characterise his earlier portraits, but in their 
 place ease and naturalness, vigour and beauty unsurpassed and 
 unsurpassable. There are few pictures which we can certainly 
 attribute to Eeynolds' second sojourn in Devonshire. A por- 
 trait of himself, now in the National Portrait Gallery, in which 
 
10 
 
 SIK JOSHUA EEYNOLDS. 
 
 he is represented as in the act of painting, and a very fine one 
 of Lady Somers, are the only two of any importance that belong 
 to this period ; and probably family business, want of encourage- 
 ment, and it may be idleness, prevented his getting through 
 much work. Still these years 1747 and 1748 were by no 
 means throvni away, for in addition to what he had learnt from 
 Gandy he studied landscape, and where could it better be studied 
 than in Devonshire ? One thing alone was now wanting to com- 
 plete his artistic training, — he must go to Italy. 
 
CHAPTEE II. 
 
 (A.D. 1749 TO A.D, 1764.) 
 
 ITAL Y— FIRST S UC CESSES. 
 
 AT the beginning o£ 1749 nothing seemed less likely than 
 that Eeynolds, straitened as he must have been in means, 
 from having to support his two sisters, should be able before 
 the year was out to visit the country of Eaphael and Titian, and 
 study in Eoraan and Florentine galleries. And indeed this 
 visit of his to Italy was the result of one of those happy 
 chances which one finds not unfrequently occur in the lives of 
 great men. The famous Admiral Keppel,— then only f our-and- 
 twenty, and a Commodore, — had been appointed to the command 
 of the Mediterranean squadron, and on his way from Spithead 
 put into Plymouth harbour for repairs. While there he made 
 the young painter's acquaintance at the house of Lord Edgcumbe, 
 and was not long in discovering that the one object of Eeynolds' 
 life at that period was to visit Italy. With graceful patronage 
 Keppel offered to take him therein his own ship, the Centurion. 
 The proposal was readily accepted, and in May 1749 they set 
 sail. 
 
 Keppel's first business was with the Dey of Algiers, whose 
 corsair vessels were the terror of every civiHsed country. Alge- 
 rine pirates swarmed in the Mediterranean, and even pene- 
 trated to the English Channel, attacking merchantmen and 
 seizing: the unfortunate sailors as slaves. Often before this 
 
12 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 had " that nest of thieves " been attacked, prisoners released, and 
 treaties madd whereby piracy should be repressed ; but directly 
 the English ships were out of sight the slave-trade commenced 
 again, and was m reality never suppressed till, fifty years after 
 this date, an English fleet under Lord Exmoath destroyed for 
 ever the Algerine power. 
 
 Keppel found the usual difficulties to be encountered in 
 negociating with Oriental potentates. The story is one of delay, 
 evasion, and vacillation ; and it was two years before anything 
 definite was settled. Meanwhile Eeynolds, whose pleasant 
 manners and many accomplishments gained him friends where- 
 ever he went, had settled down at Port Mahon as the honoured 
 gaest of General Blakeney, the governor of Minorca. Here he 
 remained till December, painting the portraits of all the leading 
 men on the station, his visit to the island being prolonged by 
 an untoward accident he met with while riding, the mark of 
 which he bore for life in the shape of a scar on his upper lip. 
 
 From Minorca he sailed to Leghorn, and thence made his 
 way to the goal of his desires — Eome. "We can imagine how 
 eagerly he must have hurried to see with his own eyes those 
 masterpieces of Eaphael of which he had dreamed so often, 
 and for a sight of which he had longed so earnestly. But his 
 first feeling was one of bitter disappointment. Could this be 
 Eaphael's work? Where were the mellow tints, the rich colour- 
 ing he had hoped to see ? Everything was sombre, insipid, and 
 tame. How was it ? "Was Eaphael a grossly overrated medi- 
 ocrity, or was Eeynolds ignorant of the first principles of his 
 art? He gives us the answer himself. "Every painter," he 
 said to Northcote, " has some favourite branch of the art which 
 he looks at in a picture ; and, in proportion as that part is well 
 or ill executed, he pronounces his opinion upon the whole. One 
 artist looks for colouring, another for drawing, another for 
 handling." It was for excellence in the first of these that 
 Eeynolds had looked at Eaphael, and so his disappointment is 
 explained. For after all our painters training was by no means 
 
ITALY. 
 
 13 
 
 complete. He had learnt something from Hudson, something 
 from Grandy, something no doubt from study in London and 
 Devonshire. But as yet his taste was not thoroughly developed ; 
 the more striking beauties of colour and tone appealed to him 
 far more than the delicate graces of form and proportion. It 
 was in Italy alone that he could be taught that the perfect 
 painter must be no mere colourist, any more than a simple 
 anatomist. Mellowness of tone will not compensate for want 
 of proportion, and the painter who neglects form and expression 
 will inevitably be himself neglected. 
 
 Eeynolds had not come to Italy to carp at the great masters : 
 he was there to perfect his own education. His non-apprecia- 
 tion of Eaphael showed that he lacked something, and that 
 something he must gain, or he would never excel. He had 
 much to unlearn, as he himself admits : " All the indigested 
 notions which I had brought with me from England were to be 
 totally done away with, and eradicated from my mind." In 
 their place true ideas of art spraug up, and as his critical faculty 
 became sounder, his pictures became better. 
 
 Eeynolds spent two years in Eome, studying, and occasion- 
 ally copying pictures on commission. He does not appear tj 
 have done much original work; all that we find noticed are 
 certain caricatures of persons then resident in Eome. His 
 Italian note-books have been preserved, and contain many 
 admirable hints and critical remarks which show how keen an 
 observer he was, and illustrate most admirably the growth of 
 his critical powers. His studies in the Vatican cost him dear, 
 for a cold caught in its draughty corridors resulted in a deaf- 
 ness which prevented his being able to join in conversation 
 without the aid of an ear-trumpet. 
 
 In April 1752 Eeynolds left Eome, and spent four months 
 in visiting Florence, Venice, and other Italian cities. As was 
 his wont, he made careful notes of all the most important 
 pictures he saw; and, though there is more of description than 
 criticism in them, his remarks exhibit a just appreciation of 
 
14 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 various excellencies, and a true critical spirit differing in toto 
 from the crude connoisseurship of the age. 
 
 After spending three months with his old Devonsiire friend'!, 
 in January 1753 Eejnolds oi^ce more settles down in London 
 as a portrait-painter. His success is assured at once. His old 
 friend and patron Lord Edgcambe recommends him to all his 
 acquaintance, Hudson renews his intimacy with him, and the 
 artistic club welcomes back its old member. In n&rrating the 
 life of Eeynolds we have to record no long series )f struggles 
 for fame, no instances of neglect, no want of encouragement • 
 all goes smoothly with him, he is emphatically a thriving, pros- 
 perous man : never can he complain that he is not ippreciated, 
 that inferior rivals are preferred before him, or thit a jealous 
 clique prevents his receiving the honours that are his due. 
 True, he was the founder of a new school, the apostle of a new 
 creed ; but the old style had but few admirers, and though Ellis 
 might perhaps find some who would agree with him in 
 coupling Kneller and Shakespeare together, no one who pre- 
 tended to any artistic culture would assert that he had got his 
 ideal painter in Hudson or Cotes. There was rooa for a new 
 artist, for one who would dare to despise conven tonality and 
 follow Eaphael rather than Kneller. The one great painter then 
 alive, Hogarth, had long ago given up portraiture : his( genius 
 was in the truest sense humorous, and caricature rather than 
 likeness was his forte. Between him and Eeynolds there could 
 be no possible rivalry, Eeynolds was emphatically a portrait- 
 painter, and he had that deep insight into humaa character 
 which is essential to success in this art. Hudson and his 
 fellows had, produced likenesses which no doubt represent fairly 
 eaough the actual look of the sitter at the moment the picture 
 was completed, but there is a total absence of soul md feeling 
 such as in our own days we should scarcely expect in a photo- 
 graph. In Eeynolds' portraits, on the other hand, ve find that 
 " spirituality " and that " naturalness " which render them of 
 the greatest interest to those who do not even care to inquire 
 
Penelope Boothby. 
 
PORTRAIT OF KEPPEL. 
 
 15 
 
 the name of tlie actual sitter. "Who asks who Miss Penelope 
 Boothby was? Sufficient is it that in her childish coquetry 
 and arch simplicity she is the type of fresh young life in the 
 eighteenth century. That such could ever be the case had never 
 occurred to those critics who, no doubt sincerely, lamented that 
 Reynolds had sadly fallen ofi since he went to Italy. For- 
 tunately the world at large did not think so, and before 1783 
 was over Eeynolds was thoroughly established, his commissions 
 were almost more than he could execute, and he had boldly 
 raised his prices tiU they equalled those of Hudson. 
 
 At this time he is living in Great Newport Street with his 
 sister Fanny, a strange companion, whose nervous restlessness, 
 " habitual perplexity of mind and irresolution of conduct," 
 contrast so curiously with the placid and equable temper of 
 her brother ; and it is a striking proof of his unflagging good 
 temper that he put up with her society for so many years, even 
 though she used to produce copies of his pictures which he 
 said " make other people laugh, and me cry." 
 
 In 1753 he painted, amongst others, two of the beautiful 
 Miss Grunnings, then respectively Duchess of Hamilton and 
 Countess of Coventry ; but the great picture of the year, and 
 the one which established his reputation beyond dispute, was a 
 portrait of his old friend Keppel. A study of this picture will 
 illustrate what has been said above of the "spirituality" of 
 Reynolds' portraits and of his insight into character. He had 
 known Keppel well, and had recognised his intrepidity and 
 resolution. His bold attitude towards the truculent Dey, who 
 had threatened him with the bow-string, had made a lasting 
 impression on the painter. How should he represent his 
 friend so as to best illustrate his character ? Happily an in- 
 cident in Keppel's own career furnished Reynolds with the 
 idea which he has so nobly embodied. Some years before, the 
 sailor had been shipwrecked on the French coast, and under 
 these trying circumstances had preserved sufficient coolness 
 and presence of mind to rescue the greater portion of his crew. 
 
16 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, 
 
 In the portrait we find him represented walking rapidly along 
 a wild rocky shore, his face and mien determined and resolute 
 in the midst of the tempest which is raging round him. There 
 is animation in every line, the whole figure is full of life ; one 
 hand on his sword, the other stretched out in a gesture of 
 command, he looks every inch a hero. 
 
 Mr. Leslie notes with regard to this picture that the attitude 
 is taken from that of a statue of which Reynolds had made a 
 copy, and perhaps there never was an artist who borrowed 
 more from others. Tet Reynolds was no plagiarist, unless 
 indeed we are to apply that appellation to Shakespeare because 
 he drew the materials for that most charming of comedies, 
 As You Like It, from a tedious pastoral tale by Lodge, or to 
 Mr. Tennyson, who has sifted the gold from the dross of the 
 " Mort d' Arthur " and stamped it out into the noble " Idylls of 
 the King." 
 
 This portrait did more for Eeynolds than all Lord Edgecumbe's 
 recommendation. Noblemen crowded to his studio, and to be 
 painted by Reynolds was the thing. We have no list of sitters for 
 1754, but we know that among them was no less a person than 
 the Home Secretary, Lord Holderness, on the treatment of whose 
 rubicund face the painter expended a vast amount of time and 
 thought. Mason, to whom we owe the knowledge of many 
 interesting facts in Reynolds' career, was a personal friend of 
 the Secretary, and having been permitted to attend every 
 sitting, has left us a most interesting and valuable account of 
 the painter's method of operation " at this early time." The 
 description is worth quoting. " On his light-coloured canvas," 
 we are told, " he had already laid a ground of white, where he 
 meant to place the head, and which was still wet. He had 
 nothing upon his palette but fiake-white, lake, and black ; 
 and, without making any previous sketch or outline, he began 
 with much celerity to scumble these pigments together, till he 
 had produced in less than an hour a likeness sufficiently in- 
 telligible, yet withal, as might be expected, cold and pallid to 
 
DR JOHNSON. 
 
 17 
 
 the last degree. At the second sitting, he added, I believe, to 
 the three other colours, a Little Naples yellow ; but I do not 
 remember that he used any vermilion, neither then, nor at the 
 third trial ; but it is to be noted that his Lordship had a 
 countenance much heightened by scorbutic eruption. Lake 
 alone might produce the carnation required. However this 
 be, the portrait turned out a striking likeness, and the attitude, 
 so far as a three-quarters canvas would admit, perfectly 
 natural and peculiar to his person, which at all times bespoke a 
 fashioned gentleman. His drapery was crimson velvet, copied 
 from a coat he then wore, and apparently not only painted, but 
 glazed with lake, which has stood to this hour perfectly well ; 
 though the face, which, as well as the whole picture, was 
 highly varnished before he sent it home, very soon faded, and 
 soon after the forehead particularly cracked, almost to peeling 
 off, which it would have done long since had not his pupil 
 Doughty repaired it." That too many of Reynolds' pictures 
 have cracked, and either peeled off, or, what is worse, been 
 spoilt in the repairing, is unfortunately only too true; and 
 that the painter himself was conscious of this defect is proved 
 by the experiments he tried for the purpose of ensuring dura- 
 bility — but all in vain, and at last he is driven back to assert 
 that all good pictures cracked. 
 
 B/eynolds had not been in London a year before he made 
 the acquaintance of one who was destined to be his most inti- 
 mate friend, and in whose " Life " he too lives. The story has 
 often been told how at the house of some fair neighbours 
 Reynolds first met Johnson, how the painter's jesting cynicism 
 on the " comfort of being relieved from a burthen of gratitude," 
 while it shocked the ladies, struck the Doctor as displaying 
 observation and originality, and how Johnson walked home 
 with Reynolds and supped with him that night. 
 
 Two men apparently more unlike than Reynolds and 
 Johnson it would be hard to find. The gentle manner, bland 
 accents, and imperturbable good hiHnour of the one, contrast 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 SIK JOSHUA EEYNOLDS. 
 
 with the rough assertiveness, brusque speech and irascible temper 
 of the other. Tet they had much in common : if Johnson had 
 no taste for art, B/eynolds was by no means devoid of literary 
 power : both were sociably inclined, and both were earnest in 
 their honest detestation of shams. "With Edmund Burke they 
 form a trio such as it would be impossible to match in any 
 other age. Her three sons — the orator, the man of letters, 
 and the painter — are enough by themselves to justify the 
 last century from the calumnies w^hich have been levelled 
 against her. 
 
 In 1755 Reynolds had no less than 120 sitters, and could 
 number amongst them, heroes in Lord Anson and Colonel 
 Haldane, statesmen in Pulteney (now Lord Bath), Hillsborough 
 and Townshend, demagogues in Alderman Beckford and Dr. 
 Lucas, beauties in Mrs. Bastard and Lady Kildare, besides a 
 host of others celebrated in the world of their time, but now, 
 alas ! consigned to oblivion, or only noticeable for having been 
 painted by Eeynolds. 
 
 There was hardly one of these who did not find his pro- 
 fessional connection with the painter rapidly lead to friend- 
 ship, and by the end of this year E/cynolds was as well 
 known as any man in town. The " heau monde " (as the 
 phrase then went), the artists' clubs, the literary coteries, all 
 welcomed as an acquisition this genial and accomplished man. 
 His friendship with Johnson was becoming greater daily, he 
 was intimate with G-arrick and Hogarth, and there was not 
 a wit or a dilettante with whom he had not some acquaintance. 
 Success encouraged, and did not spoil Eeynolds. He was 
 just one of those men whom fortune destines for an easy life; 
 difficulties and disappointments would not indeed have soured 
 that sweet temper, or ruffled that placid constitution, but they 
 would, as far as we can judge, have made him careless and idle, 
 and often prevented him from doing his best. But the success 
 which had come so quickly, the praise which was so lavishly 
 bestowed upon him, instead of enervating, only stirred him to fresh 
 
LOSS OF MINOECA. 
 
 19 
 
 exertions, made him determined to outdo himself, to make each 
 portrait better than the last. Probably no painter ever worked 
 harder or more conscientiously. There is no scamping, no haste 
 observable in any one of Eeynolds' productions; and of what 
 other artist can that be said ? The most commonplace, the 
 most uninteresting sitter is carefully studied, and the magic of 
 the great painter's brush produces what is at once a genuine 
 likeness and a charming picture. 
 
 We have no list of sitters for 1756, and all we know for 
 certain of his work that year is that he painted a half-length 
 portrait of his friend Johnson,— a labour of love this must 
 assuredly have been, for the Doctor's pecuniary circumstances 
 were not such as to enable him to indulge in the luxury of a ten- 
 guinea picture. This is not, of course, the well-known portrait 
 of the sage in which he is represented as peering into a book 
 which he holds close in front of his eyes. That was painted 
 twenty-two years later, when Johnson's sight was almost gone. 
 The present one has been engraved for Boswell's " Life," and 
 gives us a truer and a better idea of the great man than do 
 any of the others. 
 
 It was in the June of this year that an untoward event 
 occurred, which sent a thrill of horror and rage through England, 
 and which must have affected Eeynolds in no small degree. 
 Minorca was lost. The stronghold which had been won so 
 bravely, and which seemed to promise England the command 
 of the Mediterranean, was no longer hers. Even the painter's 
 placid temperament must have been stirred to emotion when 
 he heard of his former host Blakeney manfully holding out with 
 his little garrison against fearful odds, and looking anxiously 
 jfor the promised succour, which never came. 
 
 This was indeed an annus mirabilis: disaster followed disaster, 
 till England seemed to have become the Job of nations. The 
 Convention of Kloster-seven, the failure of Havvke's expedition, 
 the losses in America, combined with a general scarcity of pro- 
 visions, make this year only too memorable in our annals. But 
 
20 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 it was not long before our losses were retrieved and fresh glories 
 gained. The year 1759 is the one of which Horace Walpole 
 speaks so gaily. "It is necessary," he laughingly writes, "to ask 
 every morning what new victory there is, for fear of missing 
 one." The conquest of Canada far outweighed the loss of 
 Minorca, victories such as Miaden wiped out the disgraceful 
 Convention of 1756, and Hawke's fame was established by the 
 glorious victory of Quiberon. 
 
 But this is to anticipate and digress ; we must go back to 
 1757 and to Eeynolds. This was a very busy year with him. 
 In reading the entries in the pocket-book one wonders how it 
 was possible that one man could get through so much work, 
 and not degenerate into a machine. But far from any deterio- 
 ration, there is a steady improvement visible in his portraits 
 this year, though it is not signalised by the production of any 
 one great picture. As a proof of Reynolds' power of work — or 
 rather as an illustration, for no proof is necessary — a list of his 
 sitters for the month of March 1757 is subjoined, with the 
 number of sittings allotted to each : — 
 
 Mrs. West (2) ; Col. Griffin ; Mr. Darby (5) ; Col. Vernon 
 (3) ; Mrs. Morris (3) ; Miss Pelham (6) ; Mrs. Watson (5) ; 
 Lord E. Bertie (9) ; Duke and Duchess of Ancaster (9) ; Mrs. 
 Charlton ; Mr. and Mrs. Jubb (10) ; Mr. Hayward ; Lord 
 Guildford (4); Lady C. Fox (6) ; Capt. Tryal(3); Lord Middle- 
 ton (4); Mrs. Lethulier (4); Mrs. Douglas; Lord Abergavenny 
 
 (2) ; Mr. Lloyd (8) ; Mrs. Lloyd (8) : Sir J. Ligonier ; Col. 
 Trapaud ; Sir H. Grey (2) ; Mrs. Phillips (4) ; Lord Pembroke 
 
 (3) . In all, 28 sitters, and 106 sittings ! And Northcote tells 
 us that the next year was even busier than 1757. No less than 
 150 persons sat to Eeynolds in the course of 1758, among 
 whom were the Duke of Cumberland, Prince Edward, Lady 
 Mary Coke, Lady Caroline Pox. No better proof can be given 
 of Eeynolds' kindly heart, than that in this busiest of busy 
 years he should have time to paint a son of his old friend 
 Dr. Mudge of Plymouth, and send the portrait as a gift to 
 
GAERICK. 
 
 21 
 
 the father, whom illness had prevented from seeing his son 
 in the flesh that year. 
 
 The year 1759 is signalised by a further extension of Court 
 favour. Perhaps it was because the King had a supreme 
 contempt for " Bainting and Boetry," that the rival court of 
 the Princess Dowager affected a certain love for the arts ; at all 
 events, the young Prince of "Wales sits to Eeynolds early in 
 this year, and the leading members of the Prince's party osten- 
 tatiously announce that letters and arts are to be patronised by 
 royalty in the new reign, which assuredly cannot be far off. But 
 far more interest attaches to the portraits of two persons very 
 different from the modest young Prince. It is a fortunate 
 circumstance that Garrick's vanity took the form of a desire 
 to perpetuate his face and figure. Portraits of the great actor 
 exist in profusion; every painter had had him as a sitter fre- 
 quently. Eeynolds painted him no less than seven times, and 
 he sat to Gainsborough, Angelica Kauffmann, and Zoffany, as 
 well as to a host of minor artists. It is fortunate that we 
 possess so many representations of Garrick, for surely other- 
 wise he would have long before this become a name and nothing 
 more. The actor alone of all artists produces nothing " fixed 
 and embodied in material objects," his fame rests solely on 
 report ; we who live after his day have the scantiest means of 
 determining whether his contemporaries were right in their 
 criticism and their praise. The actor alone has no appeal to 
 posterity; if he is unsuccessful in pleasing the taste of his age, 
 his name is " writ in water." Perhaps Garrick felt something 
 of this, and decided to call in the painter's art to ensure his 
 being remembered by future generations. The greatest of all 
 the portraits of Garrick is unquestionably the one Eeynolds 
 painted in 1761, in which the actor is represented between 
 Tragedy and Comedy, as if reluctant to choose either as his 
 only goddess. His looks and attitude tell as plainly as words 
 could the history of Garrick's career. It was Tragedy who 
 had been his earliest love, and even now that the allurements 
 
22 
 
 SIK JOSHUA EEYNOLDS. 
 
 of Comedy have bewitched him, he cannot altogether desert her 
 to whom he owed his first success. All this and much more is 
 expressed in this picture, which is to my mind one of the finest 
 of E-eynolds' allegoric portraits. 
 
 The other noteworthy portrait of this year is one of Kitty 
 Pisher, the Phryne of the day, whose wit and adventures formed 
 a favourite topic of conversation at this time. She was painted 
 by Reynolds no less than five times : once, most appropriately? 
 as Cleopatra ; but in this year's picture she is reclining on a 
 sofa with a dove on her lap, while hard by another dove is in 
 the act of fluttering down to join its mate. The portrait is 
 not altogether satisfactory ; there is rather too much " pose " 
 about this figure, and more studied ease than we should have 
 expected from a lady whose vivacity was her most renowned 
 quality. The air of innocence is evidently put on, and in the 
 whole conception there is something so incongruous that we 
 can hardly acquit the artist of a certain amount of irony. 
 Still, take the picture as it is, forget who and what Kitty 
 risher was, and who can fail to be charmed? To 1759 also 
 belongs the " Venus," one of the few pictures painted during 
 this period which are not portraits. Suggested by the famous 
 Venus of Titian, it in some degree resembles that magnificent 
 picture. The colouring is extremely beautiful, and the whole 
 pose of the goddess has a delicious languor, as if she were 
 resting from the noontide heat, while just above her Cupid 
 is gazing with boyish admiration on the lovely figure. The 
 landscape in which the goddess is set shows that the painter's 
 study of the scenery of his native county had not been tlirown 
 away on him. To Mason we owe an interesting description of 
 the curious way by which the perfect flesh-tints were obtained. 
 After mentioning his first visit to Eeynolds, while the "Venus" 
 was on the easel, which chanced to be just when the he&d was 
 being painted from the model of a beautiful girl of sixteen, 
 " A second casual visit," he adds, " presented me with a very 
 different object : he was then painting the body, and in his 
 
Miss Kitty P i s he b, . 
 
THE FIRST EXHIBITION OF PICTUKES. 
 
 23 
 
 sitting-chair a very squalid beggar-woman was placed, with a 
 child, not above a year old, quite naked upon her lap. As may 
 be imagined, I could not help testifying my surprise at seeing 
 him paint the carnation of the Goddess of Beauty from that of 
 a little child which seemed to have been nourished rather with 
 gin than milk, and saying that ' I wondered he had not taken 
 some more healthy model ; ' but he answered, with his usual 
 naivete, that ' whatever I might think, the child's flesh assisted 
 him in giving a certain morhidezza to his own colouring, which 
 he thought he should hardly arrive at had he not such an object, 
 when it was extreme, as it certainly was, before his eyes.' " 
 
 Next year is memorable alike in the history of our country 
 and in the life of the painter. Seventeen hundred and sixty is 
 the beginning of a new era. George II. is dead, and his place 
 is taken by a young king who is more of an Englishman than 
 any monarch since Elizabeth, who is determined to break free 
 from the bonds of the "Whig oligarchy, and be a king in some- 
 thing more than name. The Court is thronged with Tories, 
 who for well-nigh fifty years had been proscribed, but who were 
 now willing to forget that the king who gloried in the name of 
 Briton was one of the hated Hanoverian race. But in Eeynolds' 
 life, this year is noticeable for his removal from Newport Street 
 to Leicester Square, and his setting up a "chariot." This 
 vehicle, according to Northcote, was decorated in the most 
 elaborate fashion, and M^as soon well-known all over the town. 
 Not that Reynolds himself had much time for carriage-exercise, 
 or perhaps much inclination for it. But Miss Eanny no doubt 
 enjoyed it, and it was an outward visible sign of the painter's 
 prosperity ; for surely if to keep a gig be sign of respectability, 
 to have such a chariot as this must be significant of affluence. 
 Another event in Eeynolds' history is that in 1760 for the first 
 time he sends some of his pictures to an exhibition. The 
 Society of Arts opened an exhibition of paintings in April 1760, 
 and to this Eeynolds sent four portraits. The experiment 
 succeeded, and after this date annual exhibitions of pictures by 
 
24 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 living artists are continuous. Reynolds was not slow to per- 
 ceive the advantages of this system, both to himself and to Art 
 generally. By collecting together the productions of various 
 artists, connoisseurs were better able to judge of the peculiar 
 merits of each ; and Reynolds, who had nothing to fear from 
 comparison with any living rival, would thereby increase his 
 reputation and his income. 
 
 Among the portraits that belong to this year are those of 
 Dodsley, the famous publisher, Coltnan the elder, the Marquis 
 of Granby, Lord Grower, Sir E-ichard Grosvenor, Admiral 
 Boscawen, and Lady "Waldegrave. But perhaps the nost 
 striking portrait is one of Nelly O'Brien, a young lady of the 
 Kitty risher school, whom Reynolds painted again in 1763. 
 Altogether 1760 brought the painter 120 sitters, though two 
 years before this he had raised his prices, and now charged 
 twenty-five guineas for a head, fifty for a half-length, and one 
 hundred for a whole-length. Clearly his income must have 
 been more than sufiicient to have justified the chariot, and the 
 removal to Leicester Square. 
 
 The 1761 exhibition was as great a success as the first one. 
 Hogarth contributed no less than seven pictures, among them 
 being "The Gate of Calais" and "The Lady's Last Stake," while 
 Reynolds sent five, including the portraits of Lord Ligonier 
 and of Sterne. The former is represented as a somewhat con- 
 ventional hero, and the picture attracts us perhaps less than any 
 of the great painter's. But the portrait of Sterne is a master- 
 piece ; we seem to see, in gazing on this picture, what the man 
 really was. The whole attitude, every line of the face, even the 
 set of the wig, all show that Reynolds had fathomed that strange 
 character, had distinguished the sentimentalism of Sterne from 
 true sentiment, had seen the hideous sham, and done his utmost 
 to unmask the living lie. But, cowardly hypocrite though ho 
 was, who dares deny rare genius to the author of " Tristram 
 Shandy," and, what is far more uncommon, that perfect humour 
 which against our will makes us almost love the man ? There 
 
THE 1762 PICTUEES. 
 
 25 
 
 is no trace of nobility in the face, but there is a something 
 which marks it as belonging to one possessed, whether for good 
 or ill, of talent unequalled. Sterne tells us that the painter 
 refused to be paid for the picture, but desired his acceptance of 
 it as a tribute to his genius. The story may be true, but coming 
 from the source it does, it is at least not above suspicion ; and 
 Reynolds, generous as he was to his friends, was not in the 
 habit of paying such substantial tributes to genius, nor would 
 the intimate of Johnson have been altogether dazzled by Sterne. 
 
 Besides this great picture, we have in this year portraits of 
 Admiral Eodney, Lord Waldegrave, the Duchess of Beaufort, 
 Miss Cholmondeley, Lord Bath, and innumerable other persons. 
 To the next year's exhibition he sent only three pictures, but 
 all of them important ones : — Garrick between Tragedy and 
 Comedy ; Lady Elizabeth Keppel adorning a statue of Hymen 
 with flowers ; and Lady "Waldegrave clasping her child to her 
 breast. Of the first of these we have already spoken. That of 
 Lady Keppel is emphatically bridal : the dazzling white of her 
 dress, and the statue she is decorating, all point to the fact that 
 she was one of the young queen's bridesmaids. It is one of 
 those charming pictures of the beauties of the day, in which the 
 introduction of a piece of antique statuary lends a wonderful 
 dignity and classical grace to the portrait. The fastidious taste 
 of the realistic school — the pedants of art — may be shocked at 
 the incongruity, but the general verdict that they rank amongst 
 the loveliest works of art ever produced in England will not 
 be much affected thereby. In the other picture we see the 
 marvellous way in which the painter could depict children. The 
 half-shy, half-sly expression, the nestling attitude, the look of 
 apprehension more assumed than real, are all thoroughly 
 characteristic. The mother indeed is beautiful, but our eyes 
 are for the child. 
 
 Amongst other portraits for 1762 may be mentioned those 
 of Fox, the Duke of Bedford, Lady Guildford, and the Princess 
 Amelia. But the number of sitters is not quite so great as in 
 
26 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 some other years, for the painter found it necessary to take a 
 SIX weeks' holiday, and surely never was holiday better earned 
 or more enjoyed. With Johnson as his companion he revisited 
 his old Devonshire haunts and his old Devonshire friends. For 
 Seynolds was loyal to his native county if ever man was, and 
 the west country was proud of him. News of his great 
 success had reached Devonshire, and the squire who went up 
 to London made it his first business to arrange for a portrait 
 by Eeynolds, In the pocket-books occur over and over again 
 good old western names; Boiler and Edgcumb, Bastard and 
 Parker, all are to be found in the lists of sitters. 
 
 Eeynolds and Johnson shared the honours of the west 
 between them : from Salisbury to Plymouth their journey was a 
 royal progress. There was nothing to mar the holiday, never 
 was the Doctor in better spirits or more ready to throw off his 
 assertiveness. 
 
 At Plymouth they stayed with Eeynolds' most intimate friend 
 Dr. Mudge, a man, as Boswell tells us, " not more distinguished 
 for quickness of parts than loved and esteemed for his amJable 
 manners," and here it was they met Zachariah Mudge, a man 
 of most uneuphonious name, but who is worthy of remem- 
 brance if he but partly deserved Eeynolds' eulogium, that he 
 was " the wisest man he ever met with," or Johnson's magnificent 
 character," in which he is depicted as a model of the clerical 
 life of the time. This excellent man was painted by Eeynolds 
 four years later. 
 
 We have no list of sitters for 1763, but we know that to 
 this year's exhibition Eeynolds sent four portraits, one of which 
 represented Nelly O'Brien, and another the Earl of Eothes, 
 besides which we have a portrait of the new prime minister, 
 Lord Bute, and one of Jenkinson, afterwards to be known as 
 the leader of the " king's friends," which can be for certain attri- 
 buted to this year. Again the painter raises his charges. He 
 will not henceforth paint a whole-length portrait for less than 
 one hundred guineas, while even for a " head," 2 ft. by 1 ft. 
 
EEYNOLDS' SUCCESS. 
 
 27 
 
 6 in., he is able to ask thirty guineas. Tet, despite these in- 
 creased prices, there is no falling off in the number of sitters ; 
 the pocket-book for 1764 is as full as ever, and includes almost 
 more illustrious names than any other. Shelburne, Pratt, 
 Granby, the Archbishops of York and Canterbury, the Duchess 
 of Hamilton, Mrs. Abington, Miss Draycote, Miss Horneck, 
 the Duchess of Grrafton, the Count of Lippe-Buckebourg, all 
 sat to Reynolds this year. In the exhibition there are only two 
 pictures by him, portraits of Lady Waldegrave and Lady Sarah 
 Bunbury : the former no longer the happy mother, but a dis- 
 consolate widow, her husband having but recently died; the 
 latter, the fairest of the fair, now in the second stage of her 
 strange, eventful history. As Lady Sarah Lenox she had 
 made such an impression on the young king that, but for the 
 opposition of ministers, she would have ranked amongst our 
 queens ; as Lady Sarah Bunbury she was the wife of a worth- 
 less man, from whom she obtained a divorce ; and lastly, married 
 to Greneral Napier, she became the mother of two of England's 
 heroes. 
 
 But 1764 is more important, or at least more interesting, in 
 Eeynolds' life, from having seen the foundation of The Club ; and 
 this forms a convenient halting-point, where we can stop for a 
 moment to gather some idea of the men who called the painter 
 friend. 
 
CHAPTEE m. 
 
 (A.D. 1764.) 
 REYNOLDS AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 THE great painter's :kind]iness and sociability were famous 
 even in his own days, when the social virtues were more 
 cultivated than they are now. The unruffled temper, the gentle 
 sympathy of Eeynolds, tended to make him a man of many 
 friends, while his literary and conversational powers were such 
 that he had no need to fear a Johnson or a Burke. Devoted as 
 he was to his art, he was something more than a painter, and it 
 was not for his pictures but for himself that he was valued. 
 Of his introduction to Johnson I have spoken above, and the 
 acquaintance thus begun quickly ripened into a friendship which 
 only ceased with the great scholar's death. To " The Idler " 
 Eeynolds contributed three papers, of which hereafter. Johnson, 
 as we have seen, was Eeynolds' companion in the trip to Devon- 
 shire ; Eeynolds it was who founded The Club, of which Johnson 
 became the Dictator ; Eeynolds who supported the great man 
 in his feebler years with sympathy and kindly aid, who was 
 present at his dying bed, and to whom Boswell dedicated his 
 magnificent tribute to his departed friend. 
 
 For Eeynolds Johnson entertained the highest admiration 
 and respect; he was, as he told Boswell, "the most invulner- 
 able man he knew — whom, if he should quarrel with him, he 
 should find the most difficulty to abuse," — and the painter is the 
 
DR. JOHNSON. 
 
 29 
 
 one man in The Club whom the great Chairman never assaults. 
 Once and once only does the veracious Boswell record anything 
 approaching a quarrel between them, and then a soft but digni- 
 fied rebuke from Eeynolds is sufficient to at once bring out 
 Johnson's better feelings, and reconciliation follows before the 
 quarrel has more than begun. 
 
 The story is hackneyed, but I cannot resist quoting it here, 
 illustrating as it does so admirably the characters of the two 
 great men. Before 1766 Johnson had enjoyed his glass as 
 much as any member of The Club ; but a severe illness in that 
 year compelled him to give up the use of alcohol, and with 
 characteristic unreason he wished to force water-drinking on all 
 his friends. Never did he tire of inveighing against wine, and 
 any one who ventured to argue the point with him got a severe 
 rebuff. Witness the poor man who innocently suggested that 
 at all events drinking made one forget disagreeable things. 
 "Would you not," he mildly inquired, "allow a man to drink 
 for that reason ? " " Tes, sir," grunted Johnson, " if he sat 
 next you" To such an inveterate hater of wine, even Ee}Tiolds 
 moderation was excess ; and on one occasion, when the painter 
 had urged that " to please one's company was a strong motive," 
 Johnson, having no answer ready, retorted rudely with " I won't 
 argue any more with you, sir— you are too far gone." Eeynolds' 
 rebuke is calmly dignified: "I should have thought so indeed, 
 sir, had I made such a speech as you have now done." This 
 was enough. Johnson, " drawing himself in, and I really thought 
 blushing," says Boswell, " replies, ' Nay, don't be angry— I did 
 not mean to offend you.' " Tet, good friends as they were, and 
 impatient of any difference of opinion as Johnson was, there 
 were many points on which they held opposite views, nor did 
 Eeynolds join in that absurd worship of Johnson which gave 
 oracular value to his every utterance and invested all his opinions 
 with infallibility. He was too clear-headed not to perceive that 
 Johnson's weakness lay in exaggeration and arbitrariness, and 
 though he did not make it his business to argue every point 
 
30 
 
 SIR JOSHUA EEYNOLDg. 
 
 with the sage, no doubt when Johnson became more than 
 usually dictatorial, the painter "shifted his trumpet," and con- 
 lined his attention to his snuffbox. 
 
 The Club which owed its origin to Eejnolds, used to meet 
 at the Turks Head, Gerrard Street, Soho, once a week, and 
 originally consisted of but nine members, all of them men well 
 known m the literary world, and most of whom have left a 
 reputation behind them. Chief among these are two whose 
 names must live as long as England has a literature and a 
 history, for they are Oliver Goldsmith and Edmund Burke 
 
 In 1764 neither of them had achieved fame. Goldsmith was 
 . T^r^?^"' Pf ^ literary hack than aa the author of 
 
 The Citizen of the World," the only important work he had 
 as yet produced ; but this year was to see the publication of 
 
 The Traveller," a poem which Johnson unhesitatingly pro- 
 
 T^^^X t'f manuscript 
 
 of ''The Vicar of TVakefield " had already been sold. Gentle 
 as Eeynolds himself, simple-minded, careless, extravagant, 
 possessed of a charming pen but a faltering tongue, the 
 sport of fortune, to whose vagaries he patiently resigned him- 
 self, childishly vain and easily gratified, this curious medley 
 of characteristics results in a character altogether lovable 
 And remembering what he has left us, no one will demur to 
 Johnsons dictum, that despite this blemish and that foible 
 he vvas a very great man. Ten years only was he a membe; 
 of The Club, for m the spring of 1774, then only forty-six 
 years old he breathed his last. Eeynolds' inimitable art has 
 prevented the features of Goldsmith from ever being forgotten 
 Who does not know the famous portrait, which so truly tells 
 the hfe-history of the man ? It is the man himself who is 
 there as true as modest, as pure, as Sterne was artificial, vain 
 and base. The nobility of the face, which shows signs of 
 suffering and patient endurance, as well as of tenderness and 
 humour, is the one thing that strikes us. « He was a very 
 great man," and what Johnson said Eeynolds painted. 
 
BURKE. 
 
 31 
 
 But whatever debt Goldsmith owed Reynolds for this admirable 
 portrait was amply repaid. In his unfinished poem " Retalia- 
 tion," G-oldsmith in a series of epitaphs lightly sketches his 
 friends' characters ; praise is of course lavished on all, but the 
 highest encomiums are reserved for Reynolds : — 
 
 " Here Eeynolds is laid, and, to tell you my mind, 
 He has not left a wiser or better behind. 
 His pencil was striking, resistless, and grand ; 
 His manners were gentle, complying, and bland, 
 Still born to improve us in every part. 
 His pencil our faces, his manners our heart ; 
 To coxcombs averse, yet most civilly steering. 
 When they judged without skill, he was still hard of hearing, 
 When they talked of their Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff, 
 He shifted his trumpet, and only took snuff." 
 
 Strange irony of fate, that the writer of the epitaphs should 
 be the first to be taken away ! 
 
 Burke was also painted by Reynolds, but the portrait is 
 commonplace, and does injustice to the great orator. Not 
 that Reynolds failed to perceive, even in 1766, when the pic- 
 ture was painted, the grandeur of his friend's intellect, but 
 somehow it is not expressed, and the author did far more 
 justice to the painter when, after his death, he wrote his 
 character. That Reynolds eagerly watched Burke's rising 
 fame, that he rejoiced in his successes and sympathised in the 
 neglect he met with only too often, is certain, but I faU to see 
 that there is any ground for believing that Reynolds was an 
 ardent whig. Political passions were left outside The Club ; 
 and Johnson, who asserted and believed that "the devil was 
 the first whig," could none the less remain Burke's friend and 
 admirer to the end of his days. And if this be true of such 
 an ardent politician, how much more so is it of the painter, of 
 whom Northcote tells us "that politics never employed his 
 thoughts for a moment " ! Party-spirit, it is true, ran high at 
 this time, but it did not prevent social intercourse between 
 
32 
 
 Sm JOSHUA KEYNOLDS. 
 
 men of the most opposite political sentiments. England was 
 not split into two camps, nor was the question, " Under which 
 king, Bezonian? Speak or die," put in the eighteenth century 
 more often than it is now. 
 
 Burke remained Eeynolds' friend to the end of his days, 
 and in his will Sir Joshua, besides appointing him one of his 
 executors, left him a legacy of two thousand pounds, and for- 
 gave him a debt of an equal amount. 
 
 Besides these illustrious members, The Club as originally 
 constituted included Langton and Beauclerk, men of fashion, 
 but something more than wits and dilettanti, or they would 
 not have gained the friendship of Johnson ; Dr. Nugent, whose 
 chief claim to fame is that of having been Burke's father-in-law ; 
 Chamier, whose reputation was considerable in his lifetime, 
 and who rose -to be an under-secretary of state, but is now 
 only known to students of Boswell. Last, and deservedly last, 
 comes Sir John Hawkins, that most " unclubable " of men, 
 whose enforced resignation became ere long very necessary, if 
 harmony was to be maintained. The Club prospered, and in 
 1792, the year of Reynolds' death, contained thirty-five mem- 
 bers, amongst whom we find Fox and Windham, Boswell and 
 Sheridan, Bishop Percy and Dr. Burney, Malone and Steevens ; 
 but of the original nine Burke and Langton alone are left. 
 
 Merely to enumerate aU the painter's friends would occupy 
 pages ; for, as Malone says, " For above thirty years there was 
 scarce a person in the three kingdoms distinguished in litera- 
 ture, art, law, politics, or war, who did not occasionally appear 
 at his table." Sir Joshua's dinners were famous. Twice as 
 many people were asked as could sit roimd the table, and 
 dinner began at five o'clock whether the guests had arrived or 
 not. As fresh persons came in, the original diners were more 
 and more crowded, and "as for waiting," we are told " it was 
 every man for himself." But if material pleasures were not 
 very great, " the feast of reason and the flow of soul " made 
 up for all personal discomfort, and an invitation to dine with 
 
THE PLYMPTON MAYORALTY. 
 
 33 
 
 Reynolds was not likely to be refused by any one wbo liad 
 once been present at these convivial repasts. 
 
 But amongst all the talent and fashion of the metropolis, 
 Eeynolds never forgot his old Devonshire friends. A west- 
 country face was always welcome in Leicester Square, and a 
 Devonshire name sufficient to ensure a hearty reception, and, 
 if need were, sympathy and assistance. On his portrait of Dr. 
 Mudge, Eeynolds lavished more pains than on any other, and it 
 takes a very high place among the painter's masterpieces. 
 Northcote was recommended to Eeynolds as being a Plymouth 
 boy, and was received by him as a pupil on the most generous 
 terms. To be chosen alderman of his native place was con- 
 sidered by Eeynolds one of the highest honours man could 
 aspire to, and when the President of the Eoyal Academy was 
 raised to the dignity of Mayor of Plympton Earl, then indeed 
 fortune could do no more for him. This feeling of Eeynolds 
 has been wondered at and ridiculed, but it is not inexplicable. 
 Every man likes to be a prophet in his own country, every one 
 remembers certain persons (generally officials) whom he re- 
 garded with reverence and awe. To the schoolmaster's son no 
 doubt the aldermanship was " a thing of beauty," while the 
 mayoralty was " a joy for ever," and long years of absence had 
 not altogether destroyed this feeling. This gratitude for being 
 chosen to these high offices was so great, that he presented the 
 corporation of Plympton with a portrait of himself, with a 
 request that it might be hung in a good light. In thanking him 
 for the present, the worthy aldermen informed him that it had 
 been "hung between two old pictures, which acted as a fod and 
 set it off to advantage." These "two old pictures" he had 
 himself painted ! 
 
 Alas ! Plympton corporation is no more ; the ruthless hand 
 of the municipal reformer has been heavy on it, and the office 
 of which Eeynolds was so proud is now as obsolete as that of 
 Bretwalda. 
 
 3 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 (A.D. 1765 TO A.D. 1775.) 
 PORTRAITS: THE ROYAL ACADE3IY FOUNDED. 
 
 WE return to our chronological sketch, and in 1765 we 
 find that Reynolds sends to the exhibition only two 
 pictures. One of these is again a portrait of Lady Sarah 
 Bunbury, who is now represented as sacrificing to the Graces. 
 The other portrait has no name attached to it. This was a 
 comparatively idle year, the list of sitters is small, and if we 
 except the picture of Lady Sarah, there is nothing worthy of a 
 high rank. It is different in 1766, when we have a much 
 larger number of sitters, amongst whom for the first time we 
 notice the Princess Caroline, Lord Eockingham (the Prime 
 Minister), Greneral Conway, the Duke of Portland, and, last 
 but not least, Angelica Kauffmann. The only lady but one 
 who has attained the distinction of an E.A., and interesting 
 to us as the heroine of a charming story, it must be confessed 
 that her performances as an artist are of no very high calibre. 
 The fact that she and Eeynolds painted each other's portraits 
 was sufficient for the gossips to couple their nam.es together, 
 but it would seem that the encouragement the great painter 
 gave her arose rather from his usual kindliness than from any 
 deeper feehng. 
 
 To this year's exhibition Eeynolds contributes four pictures : 
 two fine heroic portraits of the Marquis of Granby and 
 
THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 
 
 35 
 
 General Amherst, a group representing Mr. Paine, a well- 
 known architect of the day, and his son, and a semi-allegorical 
 representation of Mrs. Hill as Euphrosyne. Nothing of 
 Reynolds' appears in the 1767 exhibition, for reasons which I 
 shall advert to hereafter, but this year gives us the grand 
 portrait of Dr. Mudge, as well as a carefully painted picture of 
 the Speaker (Sir J. Oust), to whose peruke alone a sitting is given. 
 There is the ordinary number of sitters, including representa- 
 tives of every class, from the Lord Chancellor and the Duchess 
 of Marlborough to Johnson's black servant and Nelly O'Brien. 
 
 In 1768 Reynolds snatches another six weeks' holiday, 
 which he spends in France, in company with E-ichard Burke. 
 A trip to the Continent was by no means so simple an affair 
 a hundred years ago as it is now. In the diary we find that 
 the first day's journey only brought the travellers as far as 
 Canterbury, and it is eight days before we have the entry " Lay 
 at Paris." The stay in France was spent partly in holiday- 
 making, partly in visiting picture galleries — for which Paris was 
 justly famous. Owing to this holiday and other circumstances, 
 the list of sitters is very small, and perhaps his friend and 
 fellow-countryman. Dunning, then Solicitor-general, subse- 
 quently Lord Ashburton, is the only one of the painter's sitters 
 who needs especia remark. 
 
 But meagre as this year is, both in the number and import- 
 ance of Reynolds' pictures, it stands out as illustrious alike in 
 the painter's biography and in the annals of English art, for 
 it was in 1768 that the Eoyal Academy was founded. Academies 
 for instruction in art were to be met with at this time in all 
 the more important cities of Italy, and the idea of establishing 
 an art school in England was an old one. Almost fifty years 
 before this. Sir James Thornhill had elaborated and laid before 
 the government of his day a scheme for a Eoyal Academy, 
 but the two first Greorges were little likely to do anything to 
 encourage art, and Walpole's contempt for all "unpractical" 
 pursuits is proverbial. Clearly, art must wait for a great change 
 
36 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 of feeling before she could hope for more than toleration from 
 royalty. It is true that George III. cannot lay claim to any 
 knowledge of painting, and criticised pictures rather for the 
 subjects they represented, than the style in which they were 
 executed ; still he did not profess that absolute carelessness for 
 art that his predecessors had done. He was not unwdling to 
 pose as the patron of the arts, or to associate his name with the 
 establishment of an English School of Painting, nor would his 
 ministers be likely to dissuade him from a course which might 
 possibly lend a sort of reflected lustre to their names. So one 
 great difficulty was got over ; and in another most important 
 respect there had been a change since the days of Thornhill. 
 Imagine an Academy founded in 1723. Why, for thirty years, 
 with the single exception of Hogarth, there would have been 
 no artist to exhibit pictures worth the trouble of looking at ! 
 The Academy would have perpetuated the inanities of such men 
 as Hudson, and the office of president would have fallen into 
 as great disrepute as did that of poet laureate under Pye and 
 Eusden. It was certainly a most fortunate circumstance that 
 Thornhill's scheme came to nothing, and the foundation of the 
 Eoyal Academy was postponed till the year of grace 1768. 
 
 Mr. Taylor gives us a most valuable account of the successive 
 steps which led to the foundation of the Eoyal Academy, which 
 he has compiled with great, care from various contemporary 
 authorities. Prom this it appears that the first attempt to 
 establish an Academy was in 1711, when Sir Godfrey Kneller 
 and other artists formed a school for instruction in drawing ; 
 and that Thornhill, after the failure of his great project, estab- 
 lished an academy at his own house, which he kept up till his 
 death in 1734. This was succeeded by a life-school held in 
 G-reyhound Court, Arundel Street, under Mr. Moser, which 
 was joined in 1739 by Hogarth and others, and migrated to 
 Peter's Court, St. Martin's Lane, whence, in 1757, it removed 
 to Pall Mall. Meanwhile schemes had been again proposed for 
 establishing a national academy under royal patronage, but 
 
THE SNAKE IN THE GRASS (in the National Gallery). 
 
THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 
 
 37 
 
 nothing had resulted from them, and the idea was dropped. As 
 we have already seen, the first exhibition of pictures was held 
 in 1760, in the great room of the Society of Arts, and this 
 was so great a success that in the next year the Society of 
 Artists held a second in their own rooms in Spring Gardens. 
 After this the exhibitions are annual, and in 1765 the Society 
 obtains a Eoyal Charter of Incorporation, and is known as 
 "The Society of Artists." The constitution provided that 
 there should be twenty-four directors chosen annually, who 
 were to elect the fellows. Among the original list of directors 
 we find the names of Wilson, Hayman, Sandby and Moser, 
 Paine and Chambers, the architects, Wilton, the sculptor, and 
 the engraver, McArdell. Thus it might have seemed that at 
 last an Academy had been established on a satisfactory basis. 
 But it was not so. A Society of Artists which did not include 
 Eeynolds could hardly be considered in a good way, and the 
 whole organisation of the Society very quickly got out of gear. 
 The charter had given unlimited power to the members, and 
 apparently they spent most of their time in abusing the direc- 
 tors. This state of things got to such a pitch that in 1768 the 
 members refused to re-elect sixteen of the directors, and the 
 remainder resigned their thankless offices very soon after. Thus 
 the management of the Society was left to men possessed of 
 neither experience, reputation, nor talent. But the ex-directors 
 had no intention of leaving matters in this unsatisfactory con- 
 dition. Headed by Chambers and Moser, they determined to 
 found a rival Society, if possible more directly under the 
 patronage of the Sovereign than the former one, and in which 
 the evils which had proved so fatal before should be effectually 
 prevented. The upshot of their deliberations was that a 
 memorial was presented to the King, in which the establish- 
 ment of a Eoyal Academy was sought, and a constitution drawn 
 up in outline. The King seemed very favourably disposed, and 
 no doubt was somewhat ashamed of his connection with the 
 Society of Artists. Early in December the scheme had been 
 
38 
 
 SIR JOSHUA EEYNOLDS. 
 
 elaborated and approved by tbe King, to whom a list o£ officers 
 was to be submitted. It was the universal feeling of the 
 artists that nothing could be done without Reynolds, and a 
 deputation consisting of Moser and Penny called upon him to 
 request his attendance at a meeting which was to be held at 
 Wilton's on December 9th, for the purpose of finally deciding 
 on the officers of the Academy. But Reynolds was cautious of 
 committing himself. Kirby, the new president of the Society 
 of Artists, had informed him positively that the King would 
 have nothing to do with the rival project. West was sent ofE 
 post-haste, and it needed all his persuasion before Reynolds 
 could be induced to attend the meeting. Meanwhile, the 
 artists who were assembled at Wilton's house knew how much 
 the success of their scheme must depend on the great portrait- 
 painter's co-operation, and there were grave fears that he might 
 continue obdurate. The return of West bringing Reynolds 
 with him was received vvdth delight, and by acclamation it was 
 decided that the first president of the Royal Academy should 
 be Joshua Reynolds. The King at once gave his consent, and 
 the Academy comes into being on December 18th, 1768. 
 
 The list of the original Academicians includes the names o£ 
 Reynolds, Chambers, Moser, Hayman, and Newton, respectively 
 president, treasurer, keeper, librarian, and secretary ; Penny, 
 professor of painting, Thomas Sandby, professor of architecture, 
 Wall, professor of perspective, and Hunter, professor of ana- 
 tomy ; the professoriate being increased soon afterwards by the 
 addition of Johnson as professor of ancient literature, and 
 Groldsmith as professor of ancient history, while Delton, the 
 original treasurer of the Incorporated Society, was appointed 
 antiquary. Besides these officers we have Bartolozzi, Cipriani, 
 Cosway, West, Wilson, Zoffany, NoUekens, and Wilton, 
 together with two ladies — Angelica Kauffmann and Mary 
 Moser. Other names, which it is not worth while to enumerate , 
 made up the number to thirty-nine. 
 
 In this list two names are wanting which we certainly should 
 
KNIGHTHOOD. 
 
 39 
 
 have expected to find there — those o£ Romney and Gainsborough. 
 It is needless to say that in the omission of these two artists 
 the President's maligners see proof of his jealous disposition, 
 Eeynolds, they say, would brook no rival. The accusation is 
 gratuitously false, and can be easily disproved. With regard 
 to Eomney, it must be remembered that although he had 
 already won prizes offered by the Society of Arts for the best 
 historical paintings, and had obtained a fair meed of success as 
 a portrait painter, he was in 1768 still a young man, and it 
 might well be thought could afford to wait. Grainsborough 
 should certainly have been included in the first list, but the 
 omission of his name must have been a pure oversight, as in the 
 official catalogue of the first exhibition the initials E.A. are 
 appended to his name. That Eomney felt slighted by his name 
 not appearing on the first list is probable, from the fact that he 
 never sent any pictures to the Academy exhibitions, and never 
 sought admission into that body. Canvassing would have been 
 necessary, and to this the shy, proud artist would not stoop. 
 But Grainsborough, though he took little or no interest in the 
 Academy, contributed to the exhibitions with regularity. 
 
 The establishment of the Eoyal Academy has without doubt 
 been extremely beneficial to English art. Its judgment is not 
 infallible : it may have occasionally failed to recognise genius, it 
 may have sometimes given its sanction to mediocrity, its elec- 
 tions may have been influenced by other motives than the 
 interests of art; but with all its failings and shortcomings, it is 
 an institution we are pi'oud of, whose judgment we respect, and 
 which has numbered amongst its members all the greatest 
 names in the history of modern English art. 
 
 Early in 1769, the king still further expressed his interest 
 in the new Academy by conferring the honour of knighthood 
 upon its President. As his friend Bu.rke declared, "There is a 
 natural fitness in his name for the title; "and it is as "Sir 
 Joshua" that Reynolds is best known. He was not a man to 
 despise such an honour, though, like the mayoralty of Plympton, 
 
40 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, 
 
 he may have shared it with those who were quite unworthy o£ 
 any distinction. Like the chariot, it had its value : it showed 
 the public that he was a successful man. 
 
 The Academy dinners, so famous in the history of banquets, 
 were instituted by E-eynolds, who also imposed upon himself the 
 task of delivering a presidential address every year. Of these 
 discourses I shall speak hereafter. It is only necessary to 
 remark at present, that the imputation that the President got 
 Johnson or Burke to write them for him is absolutely without 
 foundation. Dr. Johnson's indignant disclaimer is surely 
 sufficient to set the matter at rest : " Sir Joshua Reynolds, sir, 
 would as soon get me to paint for him as to write for him." 
 
 The first exhibition of the Eoyal Academy was held in the 
 Society's rooms in Pall Mall, and completely eclipsed all former 
 exhibitions, both in the number and excellence of the pictures. 
 
 Reynolds sent four, all of them worthy of high place amongst 
 his portraits. The portrait of Miss Morris as Hope nursing 
 Love is particidarly exquisite. "Its success," says Mr. "Wedmore, 
 " is in a treatment felt, as one looks at the picture, to be so 
 wholly ideal and refined. Nor in its own slight way, even, is 
 the damsel s face — Hope's face, — in this picture devoid of sub- 
 tlety. There is no touch here of a mother's abandonment, of 
 a mother's joy. Against the child's eagerness stands in contrast 
 the hesitation, the uncertainty, the timidity almost, of the girl." 
 The execution of the picture is perfect : the graceful attitude 
 and the flowing robe give it a beauty of its own ; while the sad 
 fate of the lady, who died of consumption while her picture was 
 being exhibited, lends it a tragic interest beyond that of any 
 other portrait. The other pictures of this year are representa- 
 tions of the Duchess of Manchester as Diana, Mrs. Blake as 
 Juno, and portraits of Mrs. Crewe and Mrs. Bouverie. In 
 regarding the two first of these pictures we must remember 
 that classicism was the taste of the age. The mythological 
 legends of Greece and Rome appealed to the eighteenth century 
 far more than they do to the present age. It was as natural 
 
THE 1770 PICTUKES. 
 
 41 
 
 then to depict a lady as Yeniis or Juno, as it was to represent 
 a member of parliament as a Eoman senator or a general, or as 
 a Grreek hero. Modern dress did not seem to lend itself to 
 painting or sculpture; and although Eeynolds was by no means a 
 slave to classicism, it must be recollected that a portrait painter 
 has to consult the wishes of his sitters as well as his own 
 taste. Let us forget that the Diana is the portrait of a Duchess 
 of Manchester, and that Mrs. Blake sat for the Juno, and surely 
 there can hardly be found two lovelier pictures. 
 
 The list of sitters for 1769 is a small one, and the President 
 seems to have found his Academy duties entail a considerable 
 expenditure of time. In October we find only one name re- 
 corded, and in the two following months only six. Angelica 
 KaufEmann, Burke, Dr. Hawkes worth, and Golman are among 
 this year's sitters, and we know that Sir Joshua also painted 
 Dr. Johnson and Goldsmith, as well as a portrait of himself, in 
 1769. 
 
 In the 1770 exhibition the portraits of Johnson, Groldsmith, 
 and Golman were exhibited, as well as those of Lord Sidney, 
 Colonel Acland, Mrs. Bouverie, Miss Price, and Lady Cornwallis. 
 Besides these there was a picture of " The Babes in the "Wood," 
 who are represented slumbering peacefully in that sleep from 
 which they were never to wake. This picture, Mr. Taylor 
 tells us, "is much faded, but the expression of repose in the 
 principal figure is admirable." Of the portrait of G-oldsmith 
 —one of the noblest Eeynolds ever painted — I have spoken 
 above. That of Johnson is, if we may judge from engravings, 
 the least satisfactory of any Sir Joshua attempted of his friend. 
 There is a worried, anxious expression on the face, a half 
 suspicious, half nervous look in the blinking eyes, which give it 
 more the appearance of a caricature than an "honest similitude." 
 It contrasts very unfavourably either with the earlier portraits 
 or the later ones, and is unworthy alike of the painter and 
 the subject. 
 
 This year the painter takes two holidays. In August he 
 
42 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 goes to York, where he spends a few days, probably, as Mr. 
 Taylor suggests, with the poet Mason ; and in September he 
 once more revisits the haunts of his boyhood. His " fire-new 
 stamp of honour " does not prevent his being the same genial, 
 pleasant companion he always was. His diary shows how 
 thoroughly he enjoyed himself, how he took his part in field- 
 sports and banqueting with the west country squires, as if such 
 a thing as the E-oyal Academy were unknown to him. In 
 October he is back again in London, and as usual hard at work. 
 It is true that the number of sitters was comparatively small, — 
 owing, in all probability, to the simple fact that all the chief 
 people in the kingdom had already been painted by Reynolds ; 
 — but Sir Joshua is not idle. He has to superintend the 
 Academy schools, and is assiduous as ever in his attendance. 
 He has, moreover, to prepare his discourses, which, from the 
 amount of condensed thought they contain, and the highly- 
 polished style in which they are written, must have occupied 
 no inconsiderable amount of time. And besides all this, he is 
 working at his great picture the " Ugolino," and the king and 
 queen' are sitting to him. The latter he had never painted, and 
 the former only as Prince of Wales; and it seems that Reynolds 
 had made it a condition of his acceptance of the presidentship 
 that he should be allowed to paint portraits of George III. and 
 Queen Charlotte. 
 
 The "Ugolino" is not finished in time for the 1771 exhibition, 
 but Sir Joshua contributes a portrait of an old man, studied 
 from the model who was sitting for the figure of Ugolino, as 
 well as five others, all extremely charming; particularly the 
 portrait of his niece Theophila Palmer, intent on the greatest 
 of English novels, " Clarissa," which in 1771 had not yet been 
 voted tedious and long-winded, but could entrance a simple 
 girl of fourteen like Miss Offy. Nor must we forget that it 
 was in this year that the lovely portrait of the famous actress 
 Mrs. Abington was exhibited. She is represented as " Miss 
 Prue " in Lov3 for Love. The graceful archness and spark- 
 
NORTHCOTE. 
 
 43 
 
 ling grace which contemporaries ascribed to the great comedian 
 are all here, as well as the sauciness and simulated coyness 
 which belong to the character. Certainly a painter who could 
 exhibit such lovely portraits as these had little to fear from the 
 rivalry even of Grainsborough, much less from West or Barry. 
 This year sees Northcote, the son of a Plymouth watchmaker, 
 whose parentage was alone sufficient to interest Eeynolds, 
 received into the President's house, and it is from his famous 
 biography that we learn most of Sir Joshua's home life and 
 mode of work. Northcote's reminiscences are extremely in- 
 teresting, and the picture he gives of Reynolds is in itself 
 sufficient to contradict the calumnies of Allan Cunningham ; 
 of the meanness and jealousy which the author of " The Lives 
 of the Painters " would have us believe were among Eeynolds' 
 most notable characteristics, there is no trace to be found in 
 the pages of ISTorthcote. On the contrary, numerous instances 
 are given of the painter's generosity and liberality. That he 
 was proud of the position he had won, and of the honours 
 bestowed upon him, is true ; but it was an honest pride, not 
 that despicable sentiment which makes a man look down on 
 his humbler friends, or desire by fair or foul means to "burke" 
 a rival. Reynolds, as could be abundantly proved, was ever 
 ready to assist a rising genius, and could appreciate the merits 
 of those who entered the lists against him. In the whole of 
 the man's character there is no trace of meanness, no suspicion 
 of malignity. The genial manner, the winning smile, the 
 gentle voice of the great painter were only the outward signs 
 of an unruffled temper and a lovable disposition. Northcote 
 is proud to acknowledge the great debt he owed Reynolds, and 
 frequently speaks of the encouragement he received from him. 
 Read for instance the letter which Northcote has preserved for 
 us in facsimile, and no one can accuse Sir Joshua of envy or 
 even of neglect of rising talent, and remember that after all the 
 contumely Barry had heaped upon him, Reynolds treated that most 
 impracticable of men with studied courtesy and consideration. 
 
44 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 It has been sometimes urged that Sir Joshua was not a good 
 teacher, and that none of his pupils became celebrated painters. 
 The somewhat coarse proverb about the silk purse and the 
 sow's ear surely applies to art almost more than to anything 
 else ; and besides, it has been remarked by those who are well 
 acquainted with the history of painting, that it is extremely 
 rare for the pupil of any great master to rise to any eminence. 
 The reason is not far to seek. The style of the master will be 
 copied, and his mannerisms exaggerated, till what were trifling 
 defects become insufferable blemishes ; the style may be there, 
 but the master hand which created the style will be wanting. 
 But was Eeynolds a good teacher ? It would seem not. That 
 he could discourse excellently on art, could lay down rules for 
 his pupils' guidance, and could point out faults and suggest 
 how they might be avoided for the future — all that is true. 
 But he does not appear to have been a good practical teacher. 
 All his pupils could hope for was the advantage of seeing the 
 great painter at work, and of observing his method, of study- 
 ing his pictures, and submitting their attempts to his criticism. 
 And I think we must allow that Sir Joshua could not or did 
 not give them much more. Not that he wilfully neglected 
 them, but, busy man as he was, he had not that time to give, 
 or that individual attention to bestow, which is necessary if 
 ordinary talent for painting is to be turned into anything 
 noteworthy. With him pupils were never the drudges that 
 other artists too often made them, — they were his friends and 
 companions ; and though Eeynolds' studio may not have been 
 quite the best place for learning to become a great artist, the 
 President's society alone was sufficient to compensate with 
 Northcote at least for anything he may have lost (though in 
 reality there was nothing for him to lose) in becoming his pupil. 
 
 The magnificent pictures which Sir Joshua contributed to 
 the exhibition of 1772 show that his avowed principle of 
 making each successive portrait better than the last was still 
 being acted upon. Most charming of the six pictures of 1772 
 
ZOFFANY'S " ACADEMICIANS. 
 
 45 
 
 is the portrait of Mrs. Crewe as St. G-enevieve, the sainted 
 shepherdess. Her head rests upon her hand, and she is gazing 
 intently on her book, while the sheep are grouped in various 
 attitudes around her. There is something so exquisite in the 
 pose, and so wonderfully effective in the drapery, that this 
 picture alone is sufficient to contradict Horace Walpole's hasty 
 assertion, that Reynolds seldom succeeded with women. This 
 criticism is so unfair and preposterous that we feel a natural 
 mistrust of all other critical remarks by the dilettante of the 
 period. 
 
 That the greatest of eighteenth-century connoisseurs could 
 have ventured to make such an astounding assertion, coupled as 
 it is with lavish praise of E-amsay, is almost enough to shake our 
 faith in all contemporary criticism of Eeynolds. More majestic 
 and scarcely less beautiful is the portrait of Miss Meyer as 
 Hebe gliding up the rainbow; and there is a divine charm about 
 the St. Agnes (a portrait of Mrs. Quarrington) with her rapt 
 heaven-turned eyes, and her hand clasping the martyr's palm- 
 branch. We find also in this year's exhibition striking portraits 
 of Hickey, and Dr. Robertson the historian, as well as another 
 study from the Ugolino model, who appears this time as a 
 ruffianly captain of banditti. Six pictures in all, and every one 
 of them remarkable. 
 
 This year's exhibition contained Zoffany's famous picture of 
 the Academicians, of which the President is naturally the central 
 figure. He is represented listening to Chambers, apparently 
 with no very great interest, and not unwilling to put down the 
 ear-trumpet which he is now holding. The portrait is not a 
 striking one, but we can forgive this as Sir Joshua has left us 
 so many representations of himself, and the picture is of ex- 
 treme interest, as it contains portraits of the whole of the 
 original Academicians. The two ladies, indeed, are not present 
 in projyriis personis, but their portraits are hanging on the 
 wall. 
 
 This year it was, as we have already seen, that Eeynolds was 
 
4 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 elected alderman of Plympton; and the pocket-book shows 
 that he was still busy on the " TJgolino." What a contrast 
 between the Plympton alderman and the painter of the 
 tragedy of Pisa ! The great picture was at length finished, 
 and found its place in the 1773 exhibition. It is certainly 
 the grandest picture Sir Joshua ever produced, and it is the 
 one on which his fame as an historical painter must mainly 
 rest. The grouping, the attitudes, the technicalities, are, it is 
 needless to say, perfect ; but there is far more than this — there 
 is what E-eynolds had never shown himself capable of before — 
 immense tragic power. The story of Ugolino's terrible fate 
 is as tragically told in this picture as in Dante's famous lines. 
 The " fear sunk to despair," and the overpowering grief of the 
 father, as well as an inborn nobility which almost triumphs 
 over agony, and a fierce desire for revenge which gives him 
 something akin to hope, — all these conflicting emotions are 
 expressed in Ugolino's face. That the picture attracted crowds, 
 and converted those who had hitherto asserted that the Presi- 
 dent was a mere portrait-painter, we can well believe. Bat de- 
 spite this great success it is as a portrait-painter that his name 
 lives. Why is this ? Are the " Ugolino," the " Nativity," 
 the "Infant Jupiter" and the "Cardinal Beaufort" to count for 
 nothing ? Not so ; but in the first place his historical pictures 
 are few, — we have more than ten times the number of portraits ; 
 and many who have never heard of any of the historical works 
 have gazed with delight on a portrait by Sir Joshua. Again, 
 as a portrait-painter Eeynolds is unequalled, as a painter of 
 historical subjects he has many a formidable rival ; and so it 
 is that while admitting the grandeur of the "Ugolino," we 
 would rather be without that than that Eeynolds had never 
 painted Goldsmith, and we would give up "Cardinal Beaufort" 
 for the sake of another " Miss Penelope Booth by." 
 
 But the " Ugolino " is not the only great picture Sir Joshua 
 exhibited in 1773. As if to show that he was equally at home 
 in dealing with the awful tragedy of Dante and the simple 
 
The Strawberry Girl 
 
HONOUES FROM OXFORD. 
 
 47 
 
 idyl o£ child-life, next in the catalogue to the " TJgolino " 
 stands the " Strawberry Girl." 
 
 This is the original picture which was often repeated by the 
 painter, " not so much for the sake of profit," says Northcote, 
 " as for improvement," — and we know from the same source 
 that Sir Joshua pointed out the " Strawberry G-irl " as one of 
 his half-dozen really original pictures. And indeed it well 
 deserves the high place its painter assigned to it. The grace 
 and delicacy of the child are not surpassed, and indeed are 
 unsurpassable, even by Sir Joshua himself. 
 
 No less than twelve pictures in all were sent by the Presi- 
 dent to this year's exhibition, and as Gainsborough, owing to a 
 disagreement with Eeynolds, refused to exhibit, it is probable 
 that many of these were sent in at the last moment to fill 
 vacant spaces on the walls. In addition to the two great 
 pictures we have mentioned, there were portraits of the Duke 
 and Duchess of Cumberland, Garrick and his wife, and the 
 Duchess of Buccleugh, as well as another nymph (this time 
 Mrs. Hartley, the actress), and " Bacchus." 
 
 Eresh honours await the painter this year. JSTot only does 
 he become mayor of Plympton, but a more august body — the 
 University of Oxford — confers distinction on itself and him. 
 The list of recipients of honorary degrees this year was large 
 and remarkable. It included Dr. Beattie and Lord Shelburne, 
 besides many other distinguished personages ; but J^orthcote 
 tells us with the honest pride of a biographer that Beattie and 
 Eeynolds were the only two to receive either encomiums from 
 the Professor whose duty it was to present the graduates, or 
 extraordinary applause from the spectators. It was in his 
 D.C.L. robes that Eeynolds painted himself for the corporation 
 of Plympton, and he was always justly proud of the recognition 
 he had met with from the great University. But Oxford was not 
 the only place he visited this year. He had to go to Plympton 
 to take the necessary oaths, and took the opportunity of visiting 
 once more his old west country friends. Besides these enforced 
 
48 
 
 SIR JOSHUA EEYNOLDS. 
 
 holidays, lie was absent from London in June on a visit to 
 Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. The fleet, which had 
 Sir Joshua's old friend Lord Edgcumbe as one of its com- 
 manders, was assembled at Spithead and reviewed by the king 
 during Eeynolds' visit. At the Isle of Wight his host was 
 Thomas FitzMaurice, Lord Shelburne's brother, and himself a 
 great patron of art. In his company the painter explored that 
 beautiful island, for whose scenery even lovely Devon had not 
 spoiled him. 
 
 But holiday-making does not take up all his time. There are 
 numerous sitters, and pictures are commenced which are to 
 rank high in the list of his works ; and above all a scheme is 
 proposed by Reynolds which, had it been carried out, would 
 have conferred a lasting boon on aU lovers of art—the decora- 
 tion of St. Paul's by the leading artists of the day. This scheme, 
 which originated with Eeynolds, had been carefully debated by 
 the Academicians, and had received the sanction of the King, 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Dean of the cathedral, and 
 the Lord Mayor. The painters had chosen their subjects — 
 Eeynolds was to paint the Nativity — and aU seemed settled, when 
 the unreasoning bigotry of a man who would otherwise have 
 never been remembered— Dr. Terrick, Bishop of London — 
 defeated the whole project. Arguments and persuasion were 
 thrown away upon him ; and indeed it was but little use trying 
 the one or the other on a -man who declared that while he lived 
 and had the power he would " never suffer the doors of the Metro- 
 politan Church to be opened for the introduction of Popery." 
 His power in the matter was unfortunately unquestionable, and 
 St. Paul's still remains free from the Popery which, according 
 to the Bishop, it was the design ot the Eoyal Academy to 
 introduce. 
 
 Mr. Taylor remarks that entries of dinners this year are 
 greatly increased in proportion to those of sitters. One of these 
 dinners led to the writing of some stanzas, in which we get as 
 true and charming a character of Sir Joshua as in the "Eetalia- 
 
DK. BAKNARD's apology. 
 
 49 
 
 tion," Dr. Barnard, Dean o£ Derry, was the author, and they 
 appear to have been written in playful apology for a fracas 
 which took place between him and Johnson at the painter's 
 table ; though, indeed, the Dean had little to apologise for, as 
 Johnson seems to have attacked him in the most unprovoked 
 manner, asserting, in reply to a most harmless remark of 
 Barnard's — that "after forty-five years of age a man seldom 
 improves " — " I differ with you, sir : a man may improve, and 
 you yourself have great room for improvement." The Dean was 
 not a man to be browbeaten in this fashion, and retorted, " On 
 recollection, I see no cause to alter my opinion ; except I was 
 to call it improvement for a man to grow (which I allow he 
 may) positive, rude, and insolent, and save arguments by 
 brutality." 
 
 The morning after this scene. Dr. Barnard sent Eeynolds a 
 copy of verses, in which he humorously admits the need of 
 improvement, and requests his friend Eeynolds first of all to 
 assist him : — 
 
 " Dear knight of Plympton, teach me how 
 To sufEer with unclouded brow, 
 
 And smile serene as thine, 
 The jest uncouth, and truth severe, 
 Like thee to turn my deafest ear. 
 
 And calmly drink my wine. 
 Thou say'st not only skill is gained, 
 But genius too may be attained 
 
 By studious imitation. 
 Thy temper mild, thy genius fine, 
 I'll study till I make them mine. 
 By constant meditation." 
 
 The exhibition of 1774 contained no less than thirteen of 
 Reynolds' pictures. The one that attracted most attention was 
 an allegorical one, which represented Dr. Beattie in his D.O.L. 
 robes, with his famous " Essay on Truth," while close beside him 
 an angehc figure is driving off three ill-conditioned objects who 
 stand for Sophistry, Scepticism, and Folly, which the Doctor 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 SIE JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 is supposed to have utterly vanquished. " The likeness of 
 Dr. Beattie," says his biographer, Sir W. Forbes, " was most 
 striking, and nothing can exceed the beauty of the angel. The 
 whole composition, as well as execution, is in the very best 
 manner of that inimitable painter." Few authors have ever 
 had a higher compliment paid them ; though Beattie, perhaps 
 through modesty, refused to take it to himself, and Goldsmith 
 was indignant at what he considered the gross flattery of the 
 picture. "How could you," he asked, "degrade so high a 
 genius as Voltaire " (for one of the vanquished personages 
 resembled and was intended for Voltaire) " before so mean a 
 writer as Dr. Beattie ? The existence of Dr. Beattie and his 
 book together will be forgotten in the space of ten years, but 
 your allegorical picture and the fame of Voltaire will live for 
 ever, to your disgrace as a flatterer." A special sadness is 
 given to this criticism when we remember that when the picture 
 he had so condemned was exhibited, Oliver Groldsmith was no 
 more. Probably few felt his death more than Eeynolds. North- 
 cote tells us " it was the severest blow Sir Joshua ever received. 
 He did not touch the pencil for that day — a circumstance most 
 extraordinary for him, who passed no day without a line," 
 And the gap could not easily be filled ; all that remained was to 
 provide some memorial for his friend, and it is interesting to 
 find that while Johnson composed the stately epitaph, Eeynolds 
 it was who selected the place in Westminster Abbey for the 
 monument. 
 
 The other pictures by Sir Joshua in this year's exhibition 
 which deserve special notice are the magnificent portrait of 
 Baretti, the graceful and lovely picture of the little Princess 
 Sophia, the exquisite group of Lady Cockburn and her children, 
 in which the famous macaw Northcote speaks of is introduced, 
 and which is noticeable as " one of the only two pictures on 
 which Sir Joshua inscribed his name at length," the fine por- 
 traits of young Eichard Edgcumbe and Lord BeUamont, and 
 the noble group of the three sisters, Mrs. Beresford, Mrs. 
 
GAINSBOROUGH AND EOMNET. 
 
 51 
 
 Gardiner, and the Marchioness Townshend, decorating a Temple 
 of Hymen with flowers. Besides these portraits, there is the 
 Infant Jupiter, a vigorous picture, but not equal to the Infant 
 Hercules which he painted some years later for the Empress of 
 Russia. 
 
 Grainsborough removed to London in 1774, and very soon 
 attracted numerous sitters. Reynolds' position was, however, 
 too strong to be seriously affected even by so great a rival as 
 Gainsborough, and it is quite in keeping vrith Sir Joshua's want 
 of anything like envy or jealousy, that he should have taken 
 an early opportunity of calling upon Gainsborough. The latter 
 had, however, not forgotten his quarrel with the Academy, and 
 never returned the visit, nor took any share in the work of the 
 Academy. This was felt by the Council to be such a slight, and 
 so bad a precedent, that in 1775 they resolved to omit Gains- 
 borough's name from their list, and though this motion was 
 rescinded at the General Meeting, it did not tend to improve 
 Gainsborough's feelings towards Reynolds, whom he seems to 
 have regarded as the prime mover in the matter. But jealous 
 and irritable as he was, he was too good a painter and too 
 honest a man not to admit Sir Joshua's great merits, though 
 the compliment was more suo bestowed somewhat coarsely. 
 
 " D him, how various he is ! " was the comment of the 
 
 painter who ranks among the highest both in portraiture and 
 landscape. 
 
 Nor was Gainsborough the only rival Sir Joshua had to fear. 
 Romney returned from his second visit to Italy in the summer 
 of 1775, and settled down in Cavendish Square, where his 
 studio rapidly became crowded with sitters : indeed, as Thurlow 
 remarked, " There was a Reynolds faction and a Romney fac- 
 tion ; " but Romney himself unhesitatingly conferred the highest 
 praise on his rival. "He is the greatest painter that ever lived," 
 he cried in his excitable way ; " I see in his pictures an ex- 
 quisite charm which I see in nature, but in no other pictures." 
 Surely few artists have won such encomiums from their rivals. 
 
52 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 Perhaps it is hardly human nature that Eeynolds should have 
 been glad of the success of Eomney and Gainsborough, but if 
 he was to share his fame with any one, he would have been the 
 first to acknowledge that it was far better that these two great 
 painters should share the town with him, than that he should 
 have been deprived of his sitters by some wretched charlatan 
 who might have degraded English art to the state in which 
 Eeynolds found it. But from Gainsborough and Eomney there 
 was nothing of the kind to dread: rivals, even supplanters 
 though they might be, the interests of art were safe in their 
 hands. That Sir Joshua could appreciate the former we know 
 from the Fourteenth Discourse, which was devoted to a careful 
 analysis of Gainsborough's style, and in which Eeynolds seeks 
 in every way to magnify the merits of his great rival. Of his 
 relations with or opinion of Eomney we know nothing ; the story 
 which represents Sir Joshua as always alluding to him as " the 
 man in Cavendish Square " is evidently apocryphal, but unfor- 
 tunately we have no true story to put in its place ; and so the 
 matter must rest. There is no longer a Eeynolds faction and 
 a Eomney faction; each painter has long ago had his true 
 position assigned to him, the one as the greatest of English 
 artists, while the other, though ranking far below him, occupies 
 no ignoble place in the history of portraiture. Another rival, 
 malicious and irritating, but by no means dangerous, was 
 Nathaniel Hone. This man, whose talent for miniature was 
 really considerable, regarded himself as a greater painter than 
 Eeynolds, who, according to him, was a charlatan and a plagia- 
 rist who stole all his ideas from the old masters, and often 
 spoilt them in the stealing. Starting with this hypothesis, 
 Hone determined to expose Eeynolds, and let the pubhc see the 
 true character of this much-vaunted painter. Accordingly, he 
 sent to the exhibition of 1775 a picture which he called " The 
 Pictorial Conjurer displaying the whole Art of Optical Decep- 
 tion." In this painting Eeynolds is represented as a conjurer 
 who is clothing the Academic models with garments taken from 
 
MES. Sheridan's portrait. 
 
 63 
 
 well-known pictures which float about the room. The idea is 
 humorous enough, and Eeynolds himself never denied that he 
 very frequently got hints as to drapery, attitudes, and grouping 
 from other pictures, — indeed, he prided himself on being eclec- 
 tic, and defended, nay, advocated, the practice in his Twelfth 
 Discourse. But everything that Eeynolds took he made his 
 own ; he was very far removed from the servile copyist Hone's 
 caricature would have made him out to be. It is needless to 
 say that the Academy refused to hang the picture ; but Hone 
 was not to be prevented from letting the public know the truth 
 about the President, and accordingly held an exhibition of his 
 own pictures, in which the " Conjurer" occupied a prominent 
 position, and no doubt raised many a laugh, without injuring 
 Sir Joshua in the smallest degree. 
 
 To this year's exhibition Eeynolds sent twelve pictures. 
 The portrait of Dr. Eobinson, Primate of Ireland, in half-length, 
 attracted the greatest attention, and Horace Walpole declared 
 that it was the best portrait he had ever painted. The pictm-e is 
 now at Christ Church, Oxford, of which Foundation the Prelate 
 was a distinguished alumnus. It is a M^onderfully unconven- 
 tional portrait : the old man is sitting in the most natural of 
 attitudes, with a book in front of him, from which his attention 
 has been for the moment distracted. It is just one of those 
 portraits which are so thoroughly characteristic of Eeynolds : 
 there is that graceful ease, that absence of attitudinising, which 
 Sir Joshua was the first to introduce, and which has ever since 
 his days lent a special beauty to English portraiture, Not 
 quite so original, but more lovely, is the portrait of Mrs. 
 Sheridan as St. Cecilia. It was in 1774 that the town had 
 been talking of the beautiful Miss Linley's marriage with the 
 brilliant Irishman, and when it became known that she was 
 now no longer to sing in public, many raised outcries against 
 what they considered the prudery and jealousy of Sheridan, 
 But he had a staunch supporter in Johnson, who was loud in 
 praise of his noble and unselfish conduct ; and here the matter 
 
54 
 
 SIE JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 rested. Mrs. Sheridan did not appear in public any more, but 
 that she was by no means ashamed of her early life is shown 
 by this portrait, in which she takes the form of the beautiful 
 Patron Saint of Song. Besides these, Eeynolds painted this 
 year the " Boy with the Cabbage Nets," and Master Crewe as 
 King Henry YIII., though the latter was not exhibited till 
 1776, What a contrast there is between these two pictures ! 
 Master Crewe is evidently determined to look *' every inch a 
 king;" he enjoys the fun of the masquerading dress as he 
 stands with his legs wide apart, his hands on his hips, and the 
 Order of the Grarter conspicuous on his knee. It is the humour 
 of the conception which strikes him as it strikes us — the idea 
 of this little innocent-faced lad representing bluff King Hal. 
 The attitude of the dog who is sniffing inquiringly at the little 
 king is admirable. Can this this be his young master ? or is 
 it some daring intruder, whom it is his duty to expel? To add, 
 if possible, to the beauty of this gem of humorous art, there is 
 a lovely bit of landscape just visible through the open window. 
 The other boy is very different. There is no masquerade for 
 him, — life is far too serious for fancy dress. His dress is that 
 of an ordinary peasant, and in his hands he clasps the nets he 
 has made, and which he hopes to find a purchaser for. A 
 resolute, determined lad this. His life, one may venture to 
 prophesy, was one of hard work, but of work done cheerfully 
 and well. For his companion he has, in place of the rich man's 
 dog, his little sister, whose look of trustful dependence and 
 admiration, as she leans over his shoulder, are most tenderly 
 portrayed. What a love Reynolds had for children, childless 
 though he was himself ! What a marvellous knowledge of their 
 v/ays, and even of their thoughts ! With the peer's son or the 
 beggar's child it was the same. The most fastidious critic finds 
 it impossible to discover faults in these child-portraits : the 
 whole soul of the painter has gone into them, and he is as 
 much at home with the gipsy child as with little Lord Morpeth. 
 As Mr. Stephens well observes, " Eeynolds of all artists painted 
 
CHILDHOOD IN THE LAST CENTURY. 
 
 65 
 
 children best . . . knew most of childhood, depicted its appear- 
 ances in the truest and happiest spirit of comedy, entered into 
 its changeful sonl with the tenderest, heartiest sympathy, 
 played with the playful, sighed with the sorrowful, and mas- 
 tered all the craft of infancy." 
 
 We are apt to think that child-life in the eighteenth century 
 must have been a most dreary thing — the children we read of 
 in "SandfordandMerton" and the "Young Spectator "are indeed 
 fearful and wonderful; they are '^progenies of virtue;" in other 
 words atrocious little prigs, or thoroughly and despicably bad 
 and mean. There is nothing else. At the beginning of the book 
 one boy is labelled " bad," and bad he remains to the end, the 
 end frequently being a violent one. The other, the good boy, 
 never commits faults, or if he does, immediately repents, and 
 returns to the dreary level of goodness, and closes his career as 
 far as the book is concerned by becoming a worthy gentleman. 
 It is the old story of the industrious and idle apprentices 
 repeated ad nauseam. There is nothing merry, lovable, or 
 attractive about the good boy, while the bad boy is such a 
 horrid little beast as to excite little else than disgust ; though I 
 am not sure that he is not the better of the two after all. Such 
 is the child-life of the last century as read in books : that it 
 never existed in reality it seems hard to deny ; but that it was 
 the ordinary life, Sir Joshua's pictures entirely disprove. His 
 children are not of one age, but of all time. They are true 
 types of childhood in all ages. Grraceful and tender, — often, if 
 you like, wilful and petulant, but always gracious and entirely 
 lovable. The miserable formalism of the eighteenth century 
 did no doubt sometimes crush out all that was natural and 
 beautiful in the child's life, did cramp the young mind and 
 fetter the imagination, did its best to grind away all that makes 
 childhood delightful, did produce prigs and scoundrels; but, 
 thank Grod ! its action and its influence was but partial. Nature, 
 strong and vigorous as she is, was too much for Puritanism, 
 and in the whole of Sir Joshua's gallery of child-portraits there 
 
5^ 
 
 SIK JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 are none who have not a healthy, natural, and unrestrained 
 appearance, so entirely at variance with Puritan principles. An 
 age which could give us such children as Master Crewe, the 
 Cockburns, Penelope Boothby, and " Muscipula," could not 
 have been quite such an artificial age as we are sometimes apt 
 to think. That Eeynolds was an abhorrer of artificiality, his 
 pictures alone prove ; and Northcote tells us that Sir Joshua 
 always contended that the natural gestures of children were 
 graceful, and that it was the dancing-school which gave them 
 any distortion or unnatural attitudes. Many are the stories 
 which are told of the way in which Eeynolds took advantage of 
 any happy incident to get an idea for an attitude. .For instance, 
 in the famous picture of the Eussell family painted in 1777, by 
 far the most natural and expressive attitude is that of little Lord 
 WiUiam, who is represented crouching in terror against the wall. 
 The attitude fits in admirably with the idea of the picture — 
 the victory of St. George over the dragon, — but it was obtained 
 entirely by chance. Lord "William was naughty, and would not 
 be painted ; and when brought into the room, " huddled him- 
 self against the wall in sulky anger and distrust." The paiater 
 at once perceived that the boy had unconsciously placed himself 
 in exactly the right attitude, and exclaiming, "Keep where you 
 are, my little man," proceeded to paint him there and then. 
 
 In 1775, Northcote, who had been with Eeynolds five years, 
 and was now twenty-nine years of age, left him to set up for 
 himself. He met with a fair meed of success, but never became 
 a great paiater — lacking originality, and contenting himself 
 with imitating first Sir Joshua, and afterwards Opie. Eeynolds' 
 parting words of advice to his pupil betray the conscious 
 pride of the founder of a new school of painting : " Now to 
 succeed in your art, you are to remember that something more 
 is to be done than that which did formerly ; Kneller, Lely and 
 Hudson will not do now." Perhaps it was rather unfair to 
 class Kneller, and especially Lely, with such a man as Hudson ; 
 but the advice was thoroughly sound, and, compared with 
 
northcote's memoirs. 
 
 57 
 
 Reynolds, there is not so very mucli difference after all between 
 the three painters. 
 
 Northcote, whose Memoirs of Eeynolds must always be the 
 best authority for this period of the painter's life, here makes 
 a pause, and indulges his thoughts in the pleasing recollection 
 of many little circumstances and matters of observation which 
 occurred during the space of five years which he spent in Sir 
 Joshua's company. Some of the anecdotes he relates are trivial 
 to the last degree, but some are so characteristic of Eeynolds 
 that they must find a place in any biography of him. North- 
 cote's apology for recording these " trifles " is charmingly 
 modest. He admits that many of the stories might have 
 been omitted, " but," he adds, "as it is all truth, and several 
 of the circumstances are worth preserving, I was unwilling to 
 make myself the judge by a selection, and therefore have 
 risked the danger of giving too many lest I should fall into the 
 worse fault of giving too few." The present writer, however, 
 not having four hundred quarto pages at his disposal, has been 
 compelled to make but a small selection, and must refer the 
 reader for further anecdotes to the veracious Northcote. 
 
 " On speaking to him concerning a friend of his who was 
 dying of a lingering disease, for w^hich he was sensible there 
 was no possible cure, it was remarked of this person that his 
 situation seemed to excite in him the utmost degree of im- 
 patience and terror, and that he appeared like a criminal under 
 sentence of death. Sir Joshua observed 'that we are all 
 under sentence of death ; but that his warrant was signed.' " 
 
 " A young painter, who was showing his performance to him 
 in order to have his opinion and instruction upon it, when the 
 faults were pointed out to him excused himself by saying he 
 had committed the error by following the dictates of his em- 
 ployer, whom he wished to please. Sir Joshua would not 
 allow such a reason to be any palliation of his faults, adding, 
 ' It is you who are to understand your own business, not your 
 employer.' " 
 
58 
 
 SIE JOSHUA EEYNOLDS. 
 
 " Mr. Edmund Burke, when in conversation with Sir Joshua, 
 remarked to him the peculiar advantages which certain situations 
 gave to those who chose to make use of them : ' For instance, 
 you, Sir Joshua, from your character and the opportunities you 
 have by your profession of being so much in private with 
 persons of the highest rank and power, at moments also when 
 they are at leisure and in good humour, might obtain favours 
 from them which would give you a patronage almost equal to 
 that of a prime minister.' ' There is some truth in what you 
 say,' answered Sir Joshua, ' but how could I presume to ask 
 favours from those to whom I became known only by my 
 obligations to them ? ' " 
 
 " I have heard him say that whenever a new sitter came to 
 him for a portrait, he always began it with a full determination 
 to make it the best picture he had ever painted ; neither would 
 he allow it to be an excuse for his failure to say, ' The subject 
 was a bad one for a picture' ; there was always nature, he would 
 observe — which if well treated was fully sufficient for the 
 purpose." 
 
 Besides these anecdotes, I cannot resist quoting some of the 
 aphorisms which Northcote took down from his master's lips, 
 many of which are wonderfully epigrammatic. 
 
 "Polite behaviour and a refined, address, like good pictures, 
 make the least show to ordinary eyes." 
 
 " G-randeur is composed of straight lines ; genteelness and 
 elegance, of serpentine lines." 
 
 " Simplicity is an exact medium between too little and too 
 much." 
 
 "A good portrait painter may not be capable of painting 
 history, but an historical painter has for certain the ability to 
 paint portraits." 
 
 "Eules are very necessary to, but will never make a painter. 
 They should be used as servants, and subject to us, not we to 
 them." 
 
 "We get a glimpse of Sir Joshua in 1776 from Hannah More, 
 
THE INFANT SAMUEL. 
 
 59 
 
 who revisited London in that year. Her fame as a poetess 
 was then considerable, and her vivacity and simple pleasant 
 manners gained her many friends among the great men of the 
 day. Early in this year she had a private view of the pictures 
 Eeynolds was preparing for the Academy, and the criticisms 
 she bestows on them in the letter to her sister are extremely 
 sensible. The religious bent of her mind naturally attracted 
 her to the Infant Samuel and the St. John. " I wish," she 
 writes, "you could see a picture Sir Joshua has just finished 
 of the prophet Samuel on his being called. ' The gaze of young 
 astonishment' was never so beautifully expressed. Sir Joshua 
 tells me that he is exceedingly mortified when he shows this 
 picture to some of the great — they ask him who Samuel was. 
 I told him he must get somebody to make an oratorio of Samuel, 
 and then it would not be vulgar to confess they knew something 
 of him. ... He has also done a St. John that bids fair for 
 immortality. ... I love this great genius for not being 
 ashamed to take his subjects from the most unfashionable of 
 books." 
 
 But art-critics of the present day have not endorsed Hannah 
 More's eulogium. They assert, and with a certain degree of 
 truth, that Eeynolds was not a religious painter, — all his faces 
 are of the earth earthy, there is nothing ethereal about them. 
 The Holy Family has nothing more divine about it than the 
 Bedford Family has ; the Nativity is not the great miraculous 
 birth which is to alter the whole destiny of mankind. This may 
 be granted, but still one must allow that, from the point of view 
 of religious fervour, these are the worst pictures that Reynolds 
 ever painted, and that it is not fair to class the Infant 
 •Samuel and the Moses in the Bulrushes with them. To 
 my mind, the Samuel in particular is thoroughly typical of 
 English religious ideas, and is precisely the picture we should 
 expect from the most national of our painters. England could 
 never produce a great religious painter, for what religious 
 enthusiasm there is in the English character has always taken an 
 
60 
 
 SIE JOSHUA EEYNOLDS. 
 
 entirely opposite direction. The preacher, not the painter, the 
 philanthropist, not the ascetic, the statesman, not the m/stic, 
 are the types of English religious li£e. Eaphael, Correggio, 
 even Murillo, rank very far above Eeynolds as sacred pairters ; 
 but in what a different world of thought did they live ! England 
 could no more have produced them than she could have given 
 birth to St. Erancis or to Dante. And it is just because it is 
 such a genuinely English picture, that the Infant Samuel has 
 always enjoyed such popularity. A severe critic of Keyiolds 
 as a religious painter allows this, and, curiously enough, 
 uses it as an argument against the picture. " The Iifant 
 Samuel," says Mr. Stephens sneeringly, "turns up every vhere 
 in England, has been engraved under more names than say of 
 Reynolds' pictures, and is to be seen in every country; — tawdry 
 coloured lithographs from Berlin; steel-plate impressions from 
 Vienna ; Parisian etchings of the commonest order ; Eiglish 
 woodcuts, lithographs, copper-plate engravings, and every other 
 means of reproduction have been employed for it; it has appsared 
 even on anchovy and jam pots." True enough, — but whal does 
 this prove? As far as the argument amounts to anythiag, it 
 seems to mean that the more popular a picture is, the vorse 
 it must necessarily be. With critics of this school thi old 
 proverb is reversed, and it is " Vox populi, vox diaboli." Per- 
 soaally, I prefer the notion which attributes a diviner origin 
 to popular sentiment. To my mind, the Infant Samuel :s the 
 outcome of the best type of English religious sentiment, and 
 I trust it will long continue to enjoy its present popuhrity. 
 And, after all, is it natural to expect anything very ettereal, 
 very divine in an Infant Samuel ? True, he had beei set 
 apart for the service of God, — true, he had a mighty destiny; 
 but was he conscious of anything to distinguish him fron the 
 other boys who attended on the high-priest ? He is ignorant 
 whence the voice that calls him comes, or at most the idea 
 of a divine message is only just beginning to dawn upor him . 
 In the case of the Madonna it is very different, and bobh in 
 
THE HOLY FAMILY (m the National Galhry). , p. CO. 
 
THE CHILD ANGELS. 
 
 61 
 
 the Nativity and the Holy Eamily I freely admit that Sir 
 Joshua has entirely failed— indeed, I hold the former to be in 
 many ways by far the worst picture he ever painted, — but I 
 cannot allow that the criticisms which apply to the portraits 
 of the Virgin or the Infant Saviour apply at all to those of 
 Moses or Samuel. 
 
 While on the subject of Eeynolds' sacred pictures, I will 
 allude to the " Child Angels," although this picture was not 
 painted till 1786. As is well known, it consists of simply five 
 different representations of the same face — that of Frances 
 Grordon. The perfect loveliness of the picture is beyond dis- 
 pute. " But," say the critics, " where is that seraphic expres- 
 sion we look for in angels?" These are human faces, it is true, 
 but can you imagine any purer, more innocent, more gentle 
 faces ? What ideal can he have who demands more than this ? 
 The whole question, in fact, resolves itself into one of sentiment, 
 and I for one am perfectly content to accept these faces as 
 those of the most lovely beings Grod ever created. 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 (A.D. 1776 TO A.D. 1783.) 
 BILETTANTI SOCIETY— FIRST ACADEMY EXHIBITION. 
 
 THE 1776 pictures are very fine. In addition to the Master 
 Crewe, we have a portrait of the lovely Duchess of Devon- 
 shire, and a magnificent half-length of Lord Temple ; Master 
 Herbert as Bacchus (another of these quaint masquerading 
 portraits), Omiah the Otaheitian, and the very fine picture 
 of Mrs. Montague, besides two studies of children, one of 
 which is styled The Child Daniel, but is in reality the 
 Samuel which Hannah More so greatly admired, the other 
 representing the Young St. John, Concerning Omiah, Mr. 
 Taylor gives much amusing information, and relates how he 
 was brought over to England by Captain Eurneaux, and at 
 once became the greatest " lion " of the day,— how his polished 
 and gentle bearing charmed every one, and how he was feted 
 wherever he went. The portrait is a very fine one: Omiah 
 is to Eeynolds the wild noble savage, and as such wears an 
 intensely unrealistic but very becoming costume, which, con- 
 trasting as it does with his swarthy face, has an extremely good 
 effect. The portrait of Garrick, which also finds a place in this 
 year's exhibition, is a masterpiece : it is one of those living 
 representations which seem to tell one at a glance what the 
 sitter was. The mobility of feature and the bright keen eyes 
 mark the man as having been either a great actor or a brilliant 
 
THE DILETTANTI SOCIETY. 
 
 63 
 
 orator, while the vigour of the frame and the resohiteness of the 
 attitude bespeak a man of great power and great endurance, — 
 and such Grarrick was throughout his career, which was now 
 coming to an end. That two of Reynolds' finest pictures 
 should have been portraits of Grarrick is very interesting, for, 
 as has been well remarked, their characters and careers were 
 not altogether dissimilar. "Both had broken loose from a 
 dreary, artificial, monotonous school of copyists, and reverted 
 to the freshness, the spirit, and variety of nature. Both had 
 joined unwearied study to intuitive genius. . . . Both had 
 advanced the dignity of their callings by their morals, their 
 manners, their intelligence and social charm, as well as by their 
 transcendent excellence in their professions. . . . Both had 
 risen from poverty to wealth, both were accused by the malig- 
 nant of avarice, and both united generosity to prudence." 
 
 We have no list of sitters for 1776, but Mr. Taylor has tran- 
 scribed from the price-book a list of the pictures paid for this 
 year, which shows that, despite the rivalry of Gainsborough 
 and E-omney, not to mention painters of less merit, Eeynolds 
 was able to adhere to his charges, and obtained a hundred 
 guineas each for his Samuel and St. John. 
 
 In 1777, Sir Joshua, who held the position of Painter to the 
 Dilettanti Society, commenced his famous portraits of the 
 members of that Society, which consist of two groups of seven 
 persons each. The word " Dilettante " has been much abused, 
 and has fallen from its high estate, till it has got to signify little 
 more than a dabbler and an idler. But the Dilettanti of 
 Reynolds' portraits are far more than this, as the names of 
 Henry Dundas, Lord Mulgrave, Payne Grail wey, and Stanhope 
 are sufiicient to prove. They were all of them connoisseurs of 
 no mean order, — aU of them actuated by a real love of art, and 
 a desire to encourage it. They undertook the publication of 
 valuable works, they established studentships to enable young 
 artists to proceed to Italy, and in numerous other ways acte 
 as beneficent patrons. The portraits were not completed till 
 
64 
 
 SIR JOSHUA EEYNOLDS. 
 
 1780, but the Society was fuHy repaid for the time it had 
 to wait. The likenesses appear to be excellent, the grouping 
 (no easy matter in such cases) is very effective, and the pictures 
 show that Sir Joshua was thoroughly conversant alike with the 
 characters of the different members, and the objects of the 
 Club. The picture of the Marlborough Pamily belongs to this 
 year, and (an unusual circumstance) was not painted in Sir 
 Joshua's studio. This great picture seems to have occupied 
 Eeynolds a very considerable time. He appears to have been 
 at Blenheim the whole of August, and again in November, and 
 every detail is elaborated with the greatest care. And the 
 sitters were worthy of the artist. Rarely do we find such 
 an amount of personal beauty in a family group: the Duke 
 and Duchess were strikingly handsome, and they transmitted 
 their good looks to all their children, six of whom appear in 
 this picture. The grouping is admirable, the individual figures 
 excellent, and the classic surroundings most effective. If we 
 must criticise this grand work of art, I should be inclined to 
 object to the do-nothing attitudes of most of the group. The 
 only "action " in the picture is in the child who holds the mask 
 in front of her face, to the terror of her little sister, and the 
 indignant astonishment of the dogs. This idea was, it is said, 
 suggested to Sir Joshua by some such incident as that which 
 determined the attitude of Lord "William Eussell in the Bedford 
 group, and is most effectively worked out. 
 
 The Marlborough picture was sent by Sir Joshua to the 
 exhibition of 1778, together with a fine half-length of the Arch- 
 bishop of Tork, and two other portraits. Mr. Taylor tells us 
 what a narrow escape the great picture had just before it was 
 exhibited. Sir Joshua goodnaturedly lent it to a young artist 
 of the name of Powell to copy. Now Powell was unfortunately 
 in debt, and one fine morning the bailiffs paid a visit to his 
 room. The artist escaped, but " the picture was seized by the 
 creditor, who determined that the best way of making his 
 money out of it would be to cut out the heads, and the dogs, 
 
NEW COLLEGE CHAPEL. 
 
 65 
 
 and sell tliem separately. Luckily, Sir Joshua heard what was 
 in the wind, and Ralph Kirkley (Reynolds' servant) was sent 
 with a cheque to redeem the picture." 
 
 The lovely picture of Mrs. Payne Grail wey (whose husband 
 figures in the Dilettanti groups) with her child riding " pick-a- 
 back," belongs to this year. The little girl clings to her mother's 
 shoulder, half afraid of tumbling, but all the while proud of her 
 lofty position, while the mother supports the baby with her 
 hands, and seems to enjoy the fun of being painted in this 
 attitude. The landscape is very beautiful, and is another proof 
 of the folly of regarding Reynolds merely as a portrait-painter. 
 It is true we have scarcely a landscape pur et simple from his 
 brush, but the backgrounds of his pictures show that had he 
 entered the lists he need not have feared comparison in this 
 style of art even with Wilson or Gainsborough. 
 
 A considerable portion of this year was taken up with the 
 "Nativity" and the "Virtues," which were designed for the west 
 window of New College Chapel, , Oxford. Of the Nativity 
 I have already spoken — it is not a great picture. The 
 grouping is of course good, but the unity of the picture is 
 destroyed by the angel (a very substantial one), who is flying 
 above the central figures. The original picture has perished by 
 fire, and the tracery of the window fortunately hides this great 
 blemish. The Seven Virtues beneath are as lovely as any- 
 thing Sir Joshua ever painted, and are well worthy of the noble 
 chapel of William of Wykeham. The central figure of Charity is 
 particularly striking, and affords an instance of the truth of 
 the dictum that Reynolds is at his best when painting children. 
 The motherly tenderness of Charity, for which Mrs. Sheridan 
 sat, is even surpassed by the clinging, trustful children whom 
 she is protecting. 
 
 Next year, 1779, is memorable for the trial and triumphant 
 Acquittal of Reynolds' old friend, Keppel. In gratitude for the 
 professional assistance he received from Dunning, Erskine, and 
 Lee (who were the counsel for the defence), and the sympathy 
 
 5 
 
66 
 
 SIE JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 bestowed on him by Burke, the Admiral had four portraits of 
 himself painted by Sir Joshua, and presented them to his friends. 
 The King and Queen also sat to the President this year, it being 
 the desire of the Eoyal Academy that their portraits should 
 hang in the new rooms in Somerset House. 
 
 Miss Moncliton, the great heiress and blue-stocking, was 
 among the sitters for 1779, and it is wonderful how Sir Joshua 
 has lent a charm and almost a beauty to this extremely plain 
 young lady. The attitude is graceful, and one well-nigh forgets 
 the unattractiveness of the face in the loveliness of the entourage, 
 while the attitude cleverly conceals the clumsiness of her figure. 
 
 More than one of Eeynolds' friends pass away in this year. 
 His old master, Hudson, bad painter as he was, was no doubt 
 sincerely mourned by the great painter. What thoughts must 
 have crowded on Eeynolds' mind when he heard of Hudson's 
 death ! How he must have looked back to the days when his 
 ambition had been to tread in his footsteps ! How he must have 
 marvelled at the state of art which had allowed Hudson to 
 occupy the high position he did ! And with all this there must 
 have been mingled a sincere gratitude to that man from whom 
 he had learnt the first principles of his art, and without whose 
 generosity he would never have become a painter. 
 
 But however Sir Joshua may have mourned Hudson, his 
 greatest grief this year must have been at the almost sudden 
 death of Grarrick — his Club-companion and intimate friend, and 
 whose character he has so clearly portrayed both with pen and 
 pencil. There is something, I think, of pathos, in the simple 
 entry, " Mr. Garrick," which occurs in the pocket-book under 
 February 1st. It was on that day that the great actor was 
 borne to his last resting-place in "Westminster Abbey. 
 
 From Miss Burney's Diary we get many extremely interest- 
 ing anecdotes of Eeynolds at this time. She ranked as one of 
 his intimates ; and gossip, never tired of marrying the bachelor, 
 coupled their names together. I can do no more than allude 
 to this charming book, from which space forbids my quoting; but 
 
FIEST ACADEMY EXHIBITION. 
 
 67 
 
 to every one who wishes to get a clear idea of society during the 
 latter part of the eighteenth century, the perusal of the memoirs 
 of this accomplished and vivacious authoress is so necessary, 
 that I omit quotation with less compunction. 
 
 In 1780 Reynolds painted for Horace "Walpole the beautiful 
 group of the Ladies "Waldegrave — a picture well worth the eight 
 hundred guineas which is said to have been paid for it. It is 
 indeed as charming a picture as any of the great master's : the 
 beauty of the sisters seems to be enhanced by the air of sadness 
 in their faces. All three had been destined brides this year, 
 but in each case the engagement had come to an untimely end. 
 Very different, but equally striking, is the admirable portrait of 
 the " Luminous Gribbon," which appeared in this year's exhibi- 
 tion, whither the President also sent the design for "Justice" in 
 the New College window, a lovely portrait of Miss Beauclerk, as 
 " heavenly Una," a full-length of Prince WiUiam of Grloucester, 
 and three other portraits. 
 
 This exhibition was the first held in Somerset House, where 
 the Academy now had a local habitation more worthy of the 
 importance it had attained to than its former humble abodes. 
 I quote the following description of the rooms occupied by 
 the Academy from a contemporary soiirce — the Gentleman^s 
 Magazine for May 1780 : — 
 
 "The right wing of the buildings is appropriated to the 
 Hoyal Academy. The exhibition room of sculpture and draw- 
 ings is on the ground floor ; it is plain and unornamented. . . . 
 The library is on the first floor. It is a small room, but 
 elegantly ornamented with a painted ceiling. The centre 
 represents Theory* by Sir Joshua Reynolds. She is described 
 sitting on a cloud, darting her eye through the expanse, and 
 holding a scroll in her hand on which is written, ' Theory is 
 the knowledge of what is truly nature.' This piece possesses a 
 most beautiful lightness, and the figure seems rather to hover 
 
 * Theory is not here opposed to practice, but is the Greek dewpla, a 
 looking at, and so generally, science, speculation. 
 
68 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 in the air, than to have any settled seat. In the Coves are also 
 emblematical pieces representing Design, Character, Commerce, 
 and Plenty, by Cipriani. Over the chimney is a bust of His 
 Majesty, by Garlini. It is a strong, expressive likeness. Under 
 the bust is a basso relievo of Cupid and Psyche, by Nollehens, 
 which is delicately executed. . . . The iec^ttre i^oom is spacious, 
 elegant, and well-proportioned. The ceiling is painted in 
 compartments, and the style does honour to the genius of Sir 
 William Chambers. The centre compartment represents The 
 Graces unveiling Nature. And the four next to it are The 
 Elements. These emblematical pieces are the productions of 
 Mr. West. In four small circles are the heads of ancient 
 artists, Apelles, Archimedes, Apollodorus, and Phidias, by 
 Biaggi. At each end of the ceiling Angelica Kauffman has 
 exerted her very utmost powers. The pieces represent Genius, 
 Design, Composition, and Painting. ... In the end of the room 
 fronting the door we are struck with two noble pictures of 
 their Majesties, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The King is sitting in 
 the coronation chair in Westminster Hall, with all the insignia 
 of royalty. The Queen is also drawn sitting in the chair of 
 state, and drest in her royal robes. In the right-hand corner 
 of the room there is a most beautiful picture of Samuel and 
 Eli, by Mr. Copley. . . . Over the door of the exhibition room 
 there is a painting in basso relievo of the Heads of their Majesties, 
 in a medallion, supported by Design and Painting. And on the 
 top of the door we read the following motto, imitated from that 
 of Pythagoras : 
 
 ' Let none but Men of Taste presume to enter. ' 
 
 The grand exhibition room, is noble and spacious, measuring 
 about sixty feet by fifty. It is very judiciously lighted by four 
 arched windows, which distribute an equal light over the whole. 
 The ceiling is painted with a tender sky, and has a very good 
 effect. ... On the whole, there is a taste both in the con- 
 trivance and execution of the plan of the rooms which does 
 
EARLY AET CRITICS. 
 
 69 
 
 high honour to the artist ; and even without the paintings they 
 would be worthy the admiration of the public." 
 
 The opening of the new rooms seems to have produced a race 
 of art critics whose observations are quoted by Northcote, and 
 at greater length in the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1780.' 
 As usual, there was the optimist and the pessimist critic : the 
 former is astonished at the rapid progress of the Academy, 
 which "has already made Britain the seat of arts; and in paint- 
 ing, sculpture, and engraving it rivals, if it does not excel, all 
 the other schools in Europe." The other critic takes a more 
 gloomy view, and while appreciating Eeynolds, both as a painter 
 and an art-teacher, cannot but perceive a mortifying disparity 
 in the best of these pieces in the late exhibition when placed in 
 competition with the works " of ancient Greece and Eome, or 
 of the modern Italian or Flemish schools." 
 
 "Without endorsing the opinions of either of these learned 
 critics, we may content ourselves with noting the difference 
 between the state of English art in 1753, when Eeynolds came 
 to London, and the position it had attained in 1780. An enu- 
 meration of names is sufficient. In 1753 England had to be 
 content with Hudson and Ellis, Pine, Cotes, and Hayman ; in 
 1780 she could boast of Eeynolds and Grainsborough, Copley 
 and "West, "Wright, "Wilson, and Eomney. 
 
 But we must pass on, merely noting by the way that the 
 exhibition, whatever its merits, was a great pecuniary success, 
 more than £3000 being taken at the doors. The year 1780 saw 
 London for a whole week given up to the insane fury of a mob, 
 led by the half-crazy fanatic Lord Greorge Grordon. The scene 
 must have been enough to try even Sir Joshua's equanimity, 
 and no doubt he was glad to escape from the turbulent city and 
 pay his long-promised visit to Lord Darnley at Cobham. Nor 
 was this his only holiday. In July he is at Cheveley with the 
 Duke of Eutland, in August he visits Keppel, and in September 
 once more re-seeks his beloved Devon, where he still finds many 
 old friends to welcome him. 
 
70 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 In 1781 he goes further afield, and in company with Mr. 
 Metcalfe makes the tour of the Low Countries. The " Notes " 
 he made during this trip were published after his death, and 
 are valuable, not only for the art-criticisms they contain, but 
 the interesting descriptions of the country and the manners of 
 the people. Sir Joshua's keen eye detected the grave faults of 
 Eubens and his school, but candidly admitted their wonderful 
 technical skill, and aptly remarks that young painters could 
 nowhere learn the rudiments of their art better than from the 
 Dutch school. That Eeynolds should have failed to appreciate 
 E-embrandt is not surprising. Titian was his ideal master : 
 he would willingly have ruined himself, he told Northcote in 
 an unusual burst of enthusiasm, to possess one really great 
 picture by Titian — and Eembrandt and Titian are as the poles 
 asunder. The magnificent effects which the great Dutch painter 
 produced were thrown away on the admirer of a school which 
 scarcely did more than recognise the existence of chiaroscuro. 
 
 The visit to Holland was a very pleasant one. The fame of 
 the English painter ensured every facility being given him of 
 seeing the picture-galleries, and the President of the Dutch 
 Academy was proud to act as his cicerone. So much was there 
 to be seen, and so much hospitality to be received, that the 
 travellers were absent nearly two months, and even then sight- 
 seeing and hospitality were not exhausted, and two years later 
 Sir Joshua paid another visit to Flanders. 
 
 The exhibition of 1781 contained no less than fourteen 
 pictures by Reynolds. Chief among these is the lovely group 
 of the Ladies Waldegrave, though the portrait of Master 
 Bunbury is perhaps more characteristic of the master. The 
 child (a son of Goldsmith's Miss Horneck) is a charming 
 specimen of eighteenth-century boyhood as he leans against 
 the mossy bank, his hair falling idly over his face and 
 shoulders, and his hands resting on his thighs. He seems 
 to be earnestly watching the painter who is reproducing him 
 on the canvas : there is a look in his eyes as if he was longing 
 
MAURITIUS LOWE. 
 
 71 
 
 to rush forward to kave a look at the picture, and see if it is 
 really like him ; but he has promised to keep stiU and be good, 
 so he controls himself. Tor some reason or other the picture 
 remained in Sir Joshua's possession, and in his will he be- 
 queathed it to the boy's mother. But not only do we find in 
 this exhibition the lovely maidens and the high-spirited lad : 
 to this year belongs " The Sleeping Child," scarcely less lovely 
 than the other pictures. Wonderfully natural is the quaint 
 attitude of the baby as it hangs one hand over its cot in its 
 dreamless slumber, while through the open window we catch 
 a glimpse of a fair landscape which shows that it is the mid- 
 day sleep of the child the painter is depicting. The historical 
 picture of the year. Dido, is not impressive. It is too stagey 
 and melodramatic, and altogether is one of the least satisfac- 
 tory of Sir Joshua's pictures. It is certainly surpassed by the 
 Thais, painted as Dryden represents her with a flambeau in her 
 hand, when she " led the way . . . and like another Helen, 
 fired another Troy." 
 
 Among the portraits, those of Dr. Barney, the author of "The 
 History of Music," and Lord Eichard Cavendish, are the best. 
 Two more of the 'New College " Virtues " are exhibited this year 
 — " Fortitude," with the lion by her side, and " Temperance," 
 holding a mirror in her hand. As an illustration of that 
 generosity which Allan Cunningham denied to Eeynolds, it is 
 perhaps worth while inserting a letter of thanks from Johnson. 
 Mr. Taylor conjectures that it refers to Mauritius Lowe, the 
 Doctor's godson, " an improvident and helpless man," who, 
 despite Johnson's repeated efforts on his behalf, failed to become 
 either a respectable painter or a respectable member of society. 
 Be this as it may, the letter is wonderfully characteristic alike 
 of the writer and the recipient, and it is a fortunate circum- 
 stance that it has been preserved : — 
 
 " Dear Sir, — It was not before yesterday that I received your splendid 
 benefaction. To a hand so liberal in distributing, I hope nobody will 
 envy the power of acquiring. " I am, dear Sir, yours, etc., 
 
 " Sam. Johnson." 
 
72 
 
 SIR JOSHUA EEYNOLDS. 
 
 My space is limited, otherwise I should like to give my 
 readers another letter— this time from Sir Joshua to a favourite 
 niece " Offy," whom we may remember as the original of " The 
 Strawberry Girl." She was this year married to Mr. Gwatkin, 
 and on this occasion received congratulatory letters from her 
 uncle and Burke, for which I must refer my readers to the 
 pages of Messrs, Leslie and Taylor. 
 
 Sir J oshua had now arrived at an age when each year wit- 
 nesses the death of some friend and companion, whose vacant 
 place can never be filled by a new acquaintance. Goldsmith, 
 Beauclerk, and Garrick were gone ; and this year Thrale— the 
 w-orthy brewer w-hose chief, indeed only title to fame is through 
 his wife and his friends— dies suddenly, and the pleasant house 
 where " all the wits of the town " had so often met is shut up. 
 
 In the list of sitters we find the name of Lord Chancellor 
 Thurlow, whom Eeynolds appears to have portrayed only too 
 faithfully, thus earning for himself from that great master of 
 abuse the character of " a great scoundrel and a bad painter," 
 which, however, like many other dicta of that wisest-looking 
 of men, posterity has, curiously enough, refused to endorse. 
 
 In 1782 Sir Joshua painted Mrs. Eobinson, better known 
 as " Perdita," whose affection for the Prince of "Wales skeds 
 some little romance over " the first gentleman in Europe ; " 
 a little boy whom history knows as Beau Brummell, but who 
 was then scarcely more than an infant; and the eccentric genius 
 Beckford. Besides these, the other noticeable picture by 
 Eeynolds in the exhibition was a portrait of Mrs. Baldwin, 
 the wife of the British Consul at Smyrna, " seated on cushions 
 in the eastern fashion, and habited in Greek costume." It is 
 pleasant to have to record that this exhibition seems to have 
 brought about a rapprochement between Eeynolds and Gains- 
 borough. It was in 1782 that Gainsborough exhibited his 
 famous » Girl and Pigs," which he modestly valued at only 
 sixty guineas. The President, at once perceiving its striking 
 merits, became himself the purchaser, but insisted on paying 
 
OPIE. 
 
 73 
 
 a hundred guineas for it. This led to a request from Gains- 
 borough that he might be allowed to paint Sir Joshua's por- 
 trait ; accordingly in the winter Reynolds sat to him, but an 
 untoward event prevented the completion of the picture, for 
 after the first sitting Sir Joshua had a somewhat severe 
 paralytic stroke, which necessitated his immediately hurrying 
 off to Bath, then at the height of its fame as the resort alike of 
 health-seekers and pleasure-seekers. Here he remained for a 
 fortnight, and appears to have thoroughly recovered his health, 
 but the sittings to Gainsborough were not resumed. Probably 
 E/Oynolds found arrears of work waiting to be finished, and 
 there was no time for him to sit to any one, or it may be that 
 Gainsborough's friendliness had evaporated by this time. 
 
 If Art suffered a loss this year by the death of E-ichard 
 Wilson, that most neglected of men, whose entreaties were 
 scarce sufficient to induce the public even to look at his pictures 
 in his lifetime, and whose true position has only gradually 
 and grudgingly been recognised, there was a counteracting 
 advantage to him from the fact that the exhibition of 1782 was 
 the first in which the name of Opie appears. This self-taught 
 genius came up to London in company with the bold lampooner 
 Dr. Wolcot, better known under his nom deplume of Peter Pindar. 
 This worthy was a fellow-countryman of Sir Joshua's, and in 
 his " Lyric Odes to the Eoyal Academicians," which he pub- 
 lished this year, the President receives the highest praise — but 
 judiciously mingled with subtle criticism. His verse runs 
 smoothly enough, and the whole poem is full of humorous 
 hints at the various painters of the day, Jby a man who had a 
 sound and thorough knowledge of the principles of Art. His 
 concluding verse on Reynolds runs thus : — 
 
 " Yet, Eeynolds, let me fairly say, 
 With pride I pour the lyric lay 
 
 To most things by thy able hand exprest — 
 Compared to other painting men, 
 Thou art an angel to a wren." 
 
74 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 This year Sir Joshua's old friend Mason, once esteemed a 
 poet, now known to be a poetaster of the feeblest type, pro- 
 duced a translation of Du Fresnoy's " Art of Painting," a work 
 of no great merit either for matter or style, and which owes 
 whatever fame it has to Reynolds having supplied some in- 
 teresting notes, which admirably illustrate the principles laid 
 down in the Discourses; and certainly Mason was too extrava- 
 gant in his praise when he speaks of these notes pouring " on 
 Fresnoy's rules a fuller day." 
 
 Early in 1782 Moser, the Keeper of the Academy, died, and 
 Eeynolds as President composed an obituary notice. An 
 honest, kiudly old man he would seem to have been, more 
 distinguished as a metal-worker than a painter, an admirable 
 disciplinarian, who could " keep order in the Academy, and 
 make himself respected, without the austerity or importance of 
 office," and such a good man of business that all the societies 
 he belonged to " always turned their eyes upon him for their 
 treasurer and chief manager." He plays an important part 
 in the attempts which preceded the foundation of the Eoyal 
 Academy, and forms an interesting link between Thornhill and 
 Hogarth, and Heynolds and Opie. 
 
 Many stories are told which illustrate the readiness of Sir 
 Joshua to assist rising genius, but perhaps none is more 
 striking than the one which recounts the pains he took to 
 advance Crabbe, who had come up to London with his poems 
 ready to be published ; and only waited for the patron — a 
 necessity to every literary man in the eighteenth century. He 
 had at length found J;his patron in Burke, who was not a man 
 to do things by halves, but at once introduced him to Eeynolds. 
 The painter proved a firm friend to the young poet, frequently 
 invited him to his house, and submitted one of his poems, "The 
 Village," to Dr. Johnson. The literary dictator praised it highly, 
 Dodsley agreed to publish it, and the poet's fame was assured. 
 
 The exhibition of 1783 contained no great picture by Sir 
 Joshua, and his friends began to fear that he had already passed 
 
BARKY. 
 
 75 
 
 his zenith, and that his paralytic attack had prevented his ever 
 producing again a really great picture. Mortifying this must 
 have been to the President, who would have been the first to 
 own that he was but poorly represented in the exhibition ; and 
 particularly galling at a time when his rival and inveterate 
 enemy, Barry, was attracting crowds and gaining immense 
 reputation by the exhibition of his designs for the decoration 
 of the Society of Arts' Eoom. Posterity has endorsed the 
 opinion of the best critics of the day, and places Barry's designs 
 on a far lower level than Reynolds' historical pictures ; but for 
 the moment the good sense of the public deserted it, and eager 
 crowds asserted that Barry's incomparable genius would now 
 at length be acknowledged. And indeed there was something 
 very noble in the manner this uncouth, ignorant, and passionate 
 man had worked. Nothing could daunt him; nothing make 
 him alter his style by a hair's breadth. He might have acquired 
 a fortune as a portrait-painter, but he would be content with 
 nothing less than the "grand style." History or allegory? 
 treated with the most rigid classicism, was all he would attempt. 
 So for years he goes on, neglected by the public, often with 
 scarcely enough to keep body and soul together, but never 
 relaxing his efforts, never swerving from his determination. 
 And now he has his reward. Nor would we grudge it him, 
 false as we know his principles to have been, but for the un- 
 measured abuse and the libellous scurrility with which he 
 attacked the gentlest and sweetest of men. With Barry, 
 Reynolds is a quack and a hypocrite, who used his position to 
 crush his rivals, — a mean, avaricious man, whose despicable 
 character was mirrored in his tawdry and worthless pictures. 
 It is the old story of the unsuccessful man using every means, 
 fair or foul, to pull down the hated rival from his pinnacle of 
 fame ; and the result is always the same : the great man remains 
 firm and placid amidst all the rude and bitter assaults, while the 
 rant of the libeller is scattered to the winds and remembered 
 no longer. 
 
76 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 Once only did Barry wring from Eeynolds anything like a 
 response, and this half in banter. " It is a very bad state of 
 mind to hate anybody, but I fear I do hate Barry," Sir Joshua 
 remarked to Northcote ; but no other notice was taken of this 
 Ishmael of painters. In 1782 he was elected to the Professor- 
 ship of Painting at the Academy, when, instead of aiming at 
 instruction, he seems to have regarded his new position as giving 
 him fresh opportunities for abuse of all his rivals, and attacks 
 on the " wretched business of face-painting." A strange being, 
 surely, for when he finds that the President does not deign to 
 answer him, he not only ceases to attack, but actually in Sir 
 Joshua's dispute with the Academy gives him his support, and 
 after his death lauds to the skies the man he has reviled, and 
 the pictures he has abused. 
 
 Sir Joshua was hard at work this year on his greatest picture 
 — the portrait of Mrs. Siddons, but found leisure for many a 
 little holiday. At one time we hear of him at Belvoir, where 
 his -protege Crabbe was enstalled as chaplain, at another time 
 he is with Lord Harcourt at Nuneham ; and he is able to pay a 
 flying visit to his dear old Devonshire friends at Saltram and 
 Mount Edgcumbe, Port Elliot and Plympton, besides running 
 over to Elanders to renew his acquaintance with E,ubens and 
 the Dutch masters, but chiefly to acquire some of those pictures 
 which the ecclesiastical policy of the Emperor was compelling 
 the Elemish monks to dispose of. 
 
CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 (A.D. 1784 TO A.D. 1792.) 
 
 MRS. 8IDD0NS—B0YDELL GALLERY, 
 
 THE year 1784 is in many ways a most important one in our 
 painter's career. It saw the exhibition of his greatest 
 picture, and the death o£ his greatest friend. Never had 
 Eeynolds been stronger than in the 1784 exhibition. There are 
 no historical or religious pictures, but we have the beautiful 
 groups of Lady Dashwood and her child, and Lady Honywood 
 and children, the magnificent portraits of Fox and Warton, the 
 charming representation of Mrs. Abington as Eoxalana, and 
 above all the masterpiece of Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse. 
 Wolcot does not criticise this year's exhibition, or he would 
 have at once retracted his last year's opinion, " "We've lost Sir 
 Joshua." The worshippers of Barry were in a hopeless minority, 
 and Eeynolds once more resumed his true place in the world of 
 Art. 
 
 To my mind the portrait of Warton, which hangs in the 
 Common Eoom of Trinity College, Oxford, is one of the very 
 finest of Sir Joshua's portraits. It is in a magnificent state of 
 preservation, and possesses every quality that a good portrait 
 should have— that blending of the real with the ideal, that 
 character and force, that grace and beauty which we so rarely 
 meet with combined in the same picture. A fine type of the 
 eighteenth century " Don " was Thomas Warton,— not a great 
 
78 
 
 SIR JOSHUA EEYNOLDS. 
 
 poet it may be allowed, but a ripe scholar and an appreciative 
 critic, and who shares with Bishop Percy the honour of re- 
 kindling a love for our early poetry, and so helping to wean the 
 world from its admiration of Beattie and Mason, and other 
 tenth-rate imitators of an exotic style. 
 
 Not less characteristic is the portrait of Eox, who this year 
 wins the famous "Westminster election, but whose political 
 character has received a stain which nothing can efface. His 
 desire that the painter should docket one of the papers upon 
 the table " A BiQ for the better regulating the affairs of the 
 E. I. Company," savours more of effrontery than aay other 
 quality — for whatever Eox's motives may have been in bringing 
 forward his India Bill, the verdict of History upon that measure 
 is that it was one of the worst ever proposed by an English 
 minister. He was now reaping the fruits of his unscrapulous- 
 ness : driven from office, and deserted by many of his old 
 friends, he had the mortification of seeing his great rival 
 becoming every day stronger, and his own position more and 
 more unbearable. The picture gives us the best side of Eox's 
 character. His resolution, manliness, and courage are admi- 
 rably depicted ; — it is the hero of the Westminster election, not 
 the Coalition Minister that stands before us. 
 
 Mrs. Abington is charming as ever. Her archness, her 
 quaint humour, her dainty sauciness are as apparent in Eoxalana 
 as in Miss Prue. She is no older in 1784 than she was in 
 1771. But we are half ashamed to linger even a moment here, 
 when next to it in the catalogue stands " Mrs. Siddons as the 
 Tragic Muse." 
 
 It in nowise detracts from the greatness of this portrait 
 that the general idea was probably borrowed from Michel- 
 angelo's Isaiah in the Sistine Chapel : it only furnishes an 
 example of the way in which Reynolds could borrow ideas, and 
 yet make them thoroughly his own. He was determined to do 
 justice to the great actress. "The picture kept him in a fever," 
 says Northcote ; the unfavourable reception his last year's pic- 
 
MRS. SIDDONS AS THE TRAGIC MUSE. 79 
 
 tures had met with, made him resolved to show the critics that 
 he was not in the " sere and yellow leaf " of art, while the 
 grandeur and magnificence of the sitter spurred him on to fresh 
 exertions. The picture is above criticism. Lawrence, Fuseli, 
 Stothard, and Barry, artists of the most different tastes and 
 styles, unite in considering it the finest female portrait ever 
 painted. It was at once recognised as the greatest picture 
 Reynolds had as yet produced, and it has never been surpassed. 
 The great Queen of Tragedy sits in her stately chair brooding 
 over deeds of horror and woe. Her noble head is resting on her 
 hand. Behind her stand two awful figures, the one bearing a 
 bowl, the other a dagger, — types of secret and open violence ; 
 and the whole atmosphere seems charged with a lurid light. 
 But description is useless, — the picture must be seen. And this 
 fortunately is easy enough, for it hangs in the charming little 
 galleiy at Dulwich College. Mrs. Siddons was justly proud of 
 it, and would relate many an anecdote of her sittings : how 
 when first she came to him, the painter had led her to the 
 platform and said, " Ascend your undisputed throne : bestow 
 on me some idea of the Tragic Muse! " — how Sir Joshua would 
 have " tricked her out in all the colours of the rainbow," * had 
 she not entreated to have more sombre drapery; how, when 
 the portrait was finished, the gallant painter had insisted on 
 inscribing his name on her robe, saying that he could not lose 
 the honour that opportunity afforded him of going down to 
 posterity on the hem of her garment. It would perhaps be 
 truer to say that Mrs. Siddons goes down to posterity as the 
 Tragic Muse of Reynolds, for we who have never heard a word 
 or seen a gesture of hers, can from this picture gain a real idea 
 of what the Queen of English Tragedy must have been. This 
 great picture, together with the Grarrick between Tragedy and 
 Comedy, and the Mrs. Abington as the Comic Muse (painted 
 
 * " The mistake," says Mr. Leslie, " must have arisen from seeing the 
 portrait in its early state ; the dress laid in with the most brilliant tints, 
 which Sir Joshua intended to glaze down to their present rich depth." 
 
80 
 
 SIR JOSHUA EEYNOLDS. 
 
 in 1787), illustrate tlie histrionic annals o£ the last century far 
 better than volumes of criticisms and reminiscences. 
 
 To this exhibition Johnson goes, as well as to the Academy 
 dinner. He has been failing of late, and is now an old man ; 
 but still his f I'iends do not despair ; if only he can get abroad — 
 to Italy — all will be well. B/eynolds and Bos well arrange the 
 matter for him, but Dis aliter visum. And indeed the journey 
 w^ould have killed him. A visit to his native county is all that 
 can be managed ; in November he returned to the London he 
 knew and loved so well, and on December 13, 1784, with a 
 " Grod bless you " on his lips, he breathed his last. 
 
 " So passed the strong, heroic soul away." 
 
 On his death-bed he asked three things of Reynolds, — to 
 forgive him thirty pounds which he had borrowed of him ; to 
 read the Bible ; and never to use his pencil on Sundays. How 
 characteristic of the man are these requests ! " Sir Joshua," 
 says Boswell, "readily acquiesced," or perhaps, as Hannah More 
 would have us believe, he hesitated a while before promising 
 to grant the third desire. Did he keep these promises ? The 
 debt was cancelled ; let us hope the Bible was read ; but (alas 
 for weak human nature !) the pencil was not always laid aside 
 on Sundays. 
 
 When Johnson's wUl came to be read, it appeared that he 
 had appointed Reynolds one of his executors, and had left him 
 as a legacy a copy of the last edition of the Dictionary. Of 
 Reynolds' opinion of the Doctor I have already spoken, but 
 Mr. Taylor has printed for the first time his " Character of 
 Johnson," which sheds a great deal of light on the relations 
 which existed between the two great men. One passage strikes 
 me as particularly remarkable, though Sir Joshua's modesty 
 would seem to have led him to attribute too much to Johnson's 
 influence : — 
 
 " We are both " (he was writing probably to Boswell) " of 
 Dr. Johnson's school. Tor my own part, I acknowledge the 
 
PORTRAIT OF BOSWELL. 
 
 81 
 
 highest obligations to him. He may be said to have formed my 
 mind, and to have brushed from it a great deal of rubbish. 
 Those very people whom he has brought to think rightly, will 
 occasionally criticise the opinions of their master when he 
 nods. But we should always recoUect that it is he himself who 
 taught us, and enabled us to do it." 
 
 Johnson was succeeded in his Academy professorship by 
 Bennet Langton, who, as we have noted, was one of the original 
 members of the Club ; but the vacant chair could never be 
 filled. After Dr. Johnson's death, Reynolds had only Burke 
 remaining of the great friends of his early manhood; while 
 among his later acquaintances, Gribbon appears to have been 
 the only one worthy the name of friend. Before quitting 1784 
 we must notice that it was in this year that Reynolds was 
 appointed " Painter to His Majesty," in succession to Ramsay, 
 who had died the year before. 
 
 In 1785 Boswell was busy on his great work, and very anxious 
 to be painted by Sir Joshua, but unfortunately the money was 
 not forthcoming. But, sanguine as ever, he proposes that the 
 portrait shall be paid for out of the first fees he receives as a 
 barrister. Groodnatured Sir Joshua agrees to the conditions, 
 and in 1785 commences his portrait of Bozzy. He was not a 
 fine subject for a painter, but Reynolds' wondrous art lends a 
 grace and charm which the original did not give outward proof 
 of. Very different is another whom we find among the sitters 
 for this year ; for, awkward, vain, and dissipated though he was, 
 Boswell was an honest man, while, even in these days of white- 
 washing, no historian has ventured to apologize for the infamous 
 Duke of Orleans, the brutal and cowardly Philippe Egalite of the 
 Trench Revolution — traitor ahke to his king and his country. 
 What disgust the pure-minded painter must have felt for this 
 blustering prince, who came swaggering into his studio, boasting 
 loudly of his great admiration for England and his friendship 
 with the Prince of "Wales! And how thoroughly Sir Joshua 
 saw through the man ! The portrait is that of a man endowed 
 
 6 
 
82 
 
 SIK JOSHUA EEYNOLDS. 
 
 with a not ignoble presence, but sunk in every species of vice, 
 and lost to all feelings of shame and honour, ready to propitiate 
 a mob by the sacrifice of his dearest friend or his most sacred 
 obligation. 
 
 Another sitter differs both from Boswell and Orleans. This 
 is Hunter, the great surgeon, and Professor of Anatomy to the 
 Academy. His is a magnificent portrait : full justice is done to 
 the noble, massive head, the strong individuality of the features, 
 and the "intent" expression of the great anatomist. The 
 attitude is that of a man of the highest intellect, absorbed in 
 reflection ; of one whose thoughts are far away, — not in the idle 
 day-dream, but in the eager search aft*^^ ^ruth. 
 
 There is nothing important o^ oir Joshua's in this year's 
 exhibition. There are portrai|j| of the Prince of Wales, Lord 
 Northington, and Sir Hector Munr6^ ; and one of Mrs. Masters, 
 which, despite Horace "Walpole's very unfavourable criticism, 
 " flat, and one of his worst," is to my mind an extremely 
 beautiful production — if indeed this be the' oi;e in which she is 
 represented as Hebe. Nor can I think there wSJ^e many to 
 endorse the virtuoso's opinion of the lovely " Duches^f Devon- 
 shire and her Daughter," which he characterises as " little like, 
 and not good." Of the likeness we can hardly judge, but as 
 regards the " goodness," the verdict of a modern writer that 
 " it is a superb work, and that in motive, colour, and compo- 
 sition it ranks as a triumph alike of nature and art," will, I 
 think, be the opinion of all who have seen this exquisite picture. 
 This portrait Sir Joshua exhibited in 1786, together with twelve 
 others, the most noticeable being the lifelike portraits of Joshua 
 Sharpe the lawyer, and of Erskine, Lady Lucan's children. 
 Lady Spencer, and her sister Miss Bingham, besides the portraits 
 of Orleans and Hunter mentioned above. But the great work 
 on which Sir Joshua was engaged this year was the Infant 
 Hercules. 
 
 In 1780 Eeynolds had painted a portrait of the Princess 
 Daschkaw, a woman who played a most important part in 
 
The Duchess op Devoid shire 
 
THE INFANT HEKCULES. 
 
 83 
 
 the revolution clu palais which resulted in the murder of the 
 Emperor Peter by the orders of his wife, who at once seized 
 the reins of government, and became as Catherine II. one of the 
 greatest of Russian sovereigns. Whatever her crimes were, 
 and even for these apologists have not been wanting, Catherine 
 was a grand woman, and her name will always be honoured in 
 Eussia. Her policy was in great measure a continuation of 
 that of Peter the Great, and she aimed at civilising her country 
 by the introduction of western arts. Under her, literature 
 flourished, and now she was to come before the world as the 
 patroness of the great English painter. Eussian art at this 
 time consisted of little more than the production of icons, or 
 pictures of saints, in which originality was downright heresy, 
 while portrait-painting was unknown at that period. Catherine 
 had probably seen and admired Eeynolds' portrait of her friend, 
 and accordingly, through her ambassador in England, signified 
 her desire that the painter would execute an historical picture 
 for her, — the subject to be left entirely to him. Never has a 
 greater compliment been paid to an English painter. Eeynolds 
 appreciated it, and determined to send to St. Petersburg a 
 masterpiece of his art. The first subject which suggested itself 
 to him was Queen Elizabeth reviewing her troops at Tilbury, 
 but on second thoughts it must have struck him that there was 
 little in common between the two sovereigns, and that the 
 incident proposed to be depicted was of national rather than 
 universal interest. 
 
 It was a most happy inspiration which led him to fix upon 
 the Infant Hercules as the subject for his Eussian picture. The 
 Empire, then as now, had its two foes — despotism and ignorance 
 — who must be crushed if it is to exist among the states of the 
 civilised world. It is a struggle for existence in its best aspect — 
 an heroic struggle in which there is a consciousness of victory, 
 but a victory not to be gained without a resolute and strenuous 
 effort — that Eeynolds depicts in his magnificent figure which 
 forms the centre of the picture. The Hercules is divine, and 
 
84 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 majestic in his terrible strength, but he is an infant neverthe- 
 less. " It teems with man," says Fuseli, " but without the sacri- 
 fice of puerility." The other figures of the group are hardly so 
 successful, though there is something exceedingly noble in the 
 figure of the blind seer, Teiresias — for whom Johnson was the 
 model — as with uplifted hands he " prophesies concerning the 
 child." The figures of Alcmene, and of Juno, who " hangs oyer 
 the scene like a black pestilence," are singularly unsuccessful, the 
 latter being at once poor and incongruous, with but little of 
 the " Meneincepto desist^re victam?" about her, and far less of 
 the " ox-eyed Hera." 
 
 But with such a magnificent central figure to gaze upon, the 
 eye is hardly likely to wander to the motley mob that surrounds 
 it. This great picture was most carefully elaborated by Sir 
 Joshua : Crabbe tells us that when he visited the studio while 
 the Hercules was being painted, Eeynolds iuformed him that he 
 was then engaged on his fourth attempt ; and when in 1788 — 
 after having been exhibited — it was leaving England, the painter 
 said, "There are ten pictures under it, — some better, some 
 worse." 
 
 In 1786 he was painting the lovely group of angels — five 
 likenesses of one child. Miss Grordon — which was exhibited in 
 the next year. Besides this, there were portraits of Bos well, 
 the Prince of Wales, Sir H. Englefield, and others, including a 
 charming one of " Master Torke teaching his Dog to beg," admi- 
 rable alike for the figure and the beautiful landscape in which it 
 is set. Groups of Lady St. Asaph and Lady Smyth with their 
 children were also sent to this year's exhibition ; and in all there 
 were thirteen pictures to represent the President. In 1787 
 Boy dell, the great print-publisher of the day, hit upon a plan by 
 which the public taste for Shakspeare as well as for Art should 
 be gratified. A grand edition of the poet's works was to be 
 produced, illustrated by all the great artists of the age, and 
 edited by Steevens. Eomney, "West, and Copley agreed to take 
 part in the scheme, but Eeynolds hung back for a long while. 
 
AGE OP INNO C E N 0 E 
 
THE BOYDELL GALLERY. 
 
 85 
 
 It may be that he thought "book-illustration" beneath him, 
 but more probably he did not particularly care to be associated 
 in a work the greater part of which would necessarily be executed 
 by men of very inferior talent. However this may be, he gave 
 in at length to Boydell's earnest solicitations, and consented to 
 paint three pictures—" Pack," " The Witch Scene in Macbeth," 
 and " The Death of Cardinal Beaufort." Of these, the first is 
 far the best, though it scarcely represents the mischievous 
 little elf of the Midsummer NigMs Dream any more than the 
 negro in the portrait of Mrs. ToUemache as Miranda can be 
 accepted as the Caliban of Shakspeare. Still Puck is a charming 
 little fellow, and Alderman Boydell deserves our gratitude for 
 having suggested the idea to Sir Joshua. Very little can be 
 said for the Macbeth. The composition and grouping are alike 
 unsuccessful, and the witches are not the witches of Shaks- 
 peare, — the " secret, black, and midnight hags, so withered, and 
 so wild in their attire." The other picture is far finer : it is the 
 Beaufort of the dramatist, not of history, which is depicted, and 
 whose awful death-bed we are introduced to in this picture. The 
 terrified visage of the dying Cardinal as he lies " blaspheming 
 God, and cursing men on earth " and the " busy meddling fiend" 
 who sits upon his pillow and " lays strong siege unto the witch's 
 soul," are worthy of the painter and poet. Bat here, as in the 
 Hercules, the surroundings are very inferior to the grandeur 
 of the central figure, and the composition is by no means 
 good. 
 
 The exhibition of 1788 showed that there was no falling-ofE 
 in his powers. The Hercules naturally formed the chief attrac- 
 tion, but there were to be seen, besides this great picture, no 
 less than sixteen others from the President's brush. The most 
 important portrait was one of Lord Heathfield, the heroic 
 defender of Gibraltar, who was par excellence the lion of the 
 dp-y. Eeynolds was particularly adapted to represent the great 
 general, for he had himself passed some days at Gibraltar on 
 his way to Italy, and could fully appreciate the importance of 
 
86 
 
 SIR JOSHUA EEYNOLDS. 
 
 the Eock, and the bravery and skill of Elliot's defence. This 
 picture, which is now in the National Gallery, is one of the 
 finest of Eeynolds' portraits. Almost all my readers must be 
 familiar with it, and there are few who will not endorse the 
 high praise Mrs. Jameson bestows upon it. " It is," she says, 
 " in all respects one of the finest and most characteristic por- 
 traits Sir Joshua ever painted. The head is full of animation ; 
 the figure finely drawn, especially the left hand, which is fore- 
 shortened with consummate skill; and the whole is painted 
 with the greatest possible breadth of manner and vigour of 
 colouring. The background is sublimely conceived, and serves 
 to throw out the figure with surprising force of effect. Volumes 
 of smoke obscure the atmosphere, and we almost hear the roar 
 of artillery: a cannon behind him, pointed perpendicularly 
 downwards, shows the immense elevation of the spot on which 
 he stands. This circumstance, and the keys grasped firmly in his 
 hand, give to the picture something beyond mere portraiture ; 
 almost an historic interest and significance." 
 
 The other picture of note is " Muscipula," well known to us 
 just now from Mr. Cousins' beautiful engraving. The eager- 
 ness of the girl, as she watches lest the captive should escape 
 her, is wonderfully true to life, but it is not the best side of 
 girlhood that Sir Joshua portrays. It may be we have got 
 over-sensitive nowadays, but I believe every one will prefer 
 "Eobinetta" to the pretty mouse-catcher. It is somehow more 
 in accordance with our ideas that a child should be tending 
 her pet bird than gloating over an entrapped mouse. 
 
 To 1788 belong two pictures of great merit, some idea of 
 which my readers may gather from the accompanying illus- 
 trations—the portraits of lovely Mrs. Bradyll, and charming, 
 quaint little Penelope Boothby. 
 
 It was in this year that Gainsborough died, at the age of 
 sixty-one. He hardly comes into Eeynolds' life at all, save as 
 the greatest of his rivals. There might have been friendship 
 between the two great painters, and certainly Eeynolds did 
 
DEATH OF GAINSBOKOUGH. 
 
 87 
 
 what he could to promote it. But their tastes, pursuits, and 
 modes of life were entirely different, and it was only as artists 
 that they had anything in common. Considering how little 
 intercourse there had been between them, and how quickly 
 the brief friendship of 1782 had terminated, one is pleased to 
 find that on his death-bed Grainsborough wrote to Sir Joshua 
 desiring that he might see him once more before he died. To 
 this interview Eeynolds alluded in his Discourse on Gains- 
 borough which he delivered before the Academy at the end of 
 this year. " The impression on my mind," he says, " was, that 
 his regret at losing Life was principally the regret of leaving 
 his art ; and more especially as he now began, he said, to see 
 what his deficiencies were ; which he said he flattered himself, 
 in his last works, were in some measure supplied." From 
 another source we learn that the dying painter had a large 
 number of his unfinished pictures brought to his bedside, and 
 explained to Eeynolds how he had intended to finish them. 
 Gainsborough's funeral was attended by nearly all the Acade- 
 micians, and the President acted as one of the paU-bearers. 
 Little could Eeynolds have thought, as he stood beside his 
 rival's grave in Kew churchyard, that he himself was so soon 
 to be lost to art, — but so it was. 
 
 In 1789 Sir Joshua was at the height of his fame. There 
 are no signs of declining years in his pictures, no symptoms 
 to tell that the hand had grown unsteady or the eye dim. The 
 great master was as fresh as ever, able to enjoy the society 
 of Sheridan and Burke, and to chat affably with Mrs. Jordan 
 and Mrs. Billington ; able, moreover, to paint such pictures as 
 " Simplicity " and " Eobin Goodfellow," and the portraits of 
 Sheridan and Lord Henry Fitzgerald. The first of these, the 
 lovely picture of little Offy Gwatkin, his great-niece, is the 
 most charming of all Eeynolds' child pictures. The name 
 " Simplicity," which was given it, exactly expresses its character. 
 There is none of that roguishness, that playful archness, which 
 we find in so many of his portraits of children ; but it is 
 
88 
 
 SIR JOSHUA EEYNOLDS. 
 
 none the less attractive for that. It is the ideal o£ happy, 
 guileless babyhood, the personification of the " simple child 
 that lightly draws its breath." Yet there is nothing insipid in 
 the little maiden ; she is just an honest, frank, good little girl, 
 " who fears no evil, for she knows no ill." It is an idyl in 
 itself. The landscape in which the fi.gure is set, the simple 
 wild flowers she holds so carelessly, are thoroughly in harmony. 
 It lacks nothing of the charm of the greatest of all the painters 
 of children ; and the age which could admire such a picture, 
 could not have been after all so utterly depraved as we have 
 been taught to believe. 
 
 All the mischievousness of " Simplicity " has been carried off 
 by " Eobin Groodfellow," who looks the impersonation of frolic 
 and roguishness as he sits on his mushroom, resting for a 
 moment, it would seem, from the fatigues of some practical 
 joke, and pondering in his mind who shall be the next 
 victim of his diablerie. 
 
 The portrait of Sheridan is a very characteristic one. The 
 young orator had made himself a great name in the Hastings 
 trial, which was still dragging its slow length along, and every- 
 thing might be expected from this eloquent and witty young 
 Irishman. But he lacked that 'stay' and those larger views 
 which are necessary to the statesman. To bring forward a 
 grievance, to attack a policy, to destroy a feeble adversary's 
 arguments, there was no one like Sheridan; add to which, 
 liveliness, geniality, and goodnature, and we get the man as 
 Reynolds painted him. A striking face truly, but without 
 that power which makes one at once recognise in Burke a 
 leader of men. The portrait gained the highest praise from 
 the veteran Horace Walpole, who was as assiduous as ever in 
 his attendance at the Academy Exhibition. "Praise," he writes 
 ia his catalogue against this picture, " cannot overstate the 
 merits of this portrait. It is not canvas and colour, it is 
 animated nature. All the unaffected manner and character 
 of the great original." 
 
FAILURE OF SIGHT. 
 
 89 
 
 The more ambitious pictures, are, as usual, the least effective. 
 The Cymon and Iphigeiiia would appear to have been the 
 most successful, while the very title of the other one, "The 
 Continence of Scipio" — quite the most hackneyed of all subjects 
 — is sufficient ; and we can bear with equanimity the knowledge 
 that it now hangs in the Imperial Grallery at St. Petersburg. Mr. 
 Waagen, comparing it with the Hercules, says, " The Continence 
 of Scipio is incomparably less happy: the composition is too 
 crowded ; the Scipio not weighty enough ; the bride, seen in 
 profile, nothing but a pretty, somewhat shamefaced EngHsh 
 miss; the head of AUucius is lifeless and mask-like. The 
 colouring, moreover, is untrue, the execution unequal, and in 
 various parts too slight." 
 
 I have quoted this criticism on account of its severity, for it 
 is, I believe, the harshest criticism ever applied to any of Sir 
 Joshua's productions; and when we remember the immense 
 number of pictures he painted, it is marvellous how very few — 
 they could be counted on one's fingers — can be entirely con- 
 demned. No doubt there is hardly a picture of Sir Joshua's 
 in which, if you are so minded, you cannot pick holes. In one 
 the colouring is patchy, in another the drawing is atrocious, 
 in another the perspective is at fault, and in a fourth the 
 composition is ungraceful. But the critic who is more than 
 a mere fault-finder, involuntarily stops in the midst of his 
 animadversions, for the charm of the great master is upon him : 
 he forgets the imperfections he was going to point out, the 
 shortcomings he was about to dilate upon ; and, laying aside 
 cursing, blesses him altogether. The pocket-book for this year 
 contains the ordinary number of sitters — the Prince of "Wales 
 among them ; but on Monday, July 13th, occurs this entry, 
 
 " 10^ for Miss ," opposite to which is written, " Prevented 
 
 by my eye beginning to be obscured." It was on this day that 
 the great painter " laid down his pencil, and never lifted it 
 more ; " in ten weeks' time he had entirely lost the sight of one 
 eye. Over-work, as Mr. Leslie says, was in all probability the 
 
90 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 cause of this blindness, which, like Milton's, was occasioned by 
 gutta Serena. 
 
 " So thick a drop serene hath quencht their orbs." 
 
 To a painter, what trial could be greater than blindness ? To 
 one who revelled in the visual delights and the enjoyment of the 
 beautiful, what grief so great as to be cut off at a blow from all 
 powers of sight ? Never more to gaze on his own lovely produc- 
 tions, never more to handle the wonted pencil ! It might seem 
 that his remaining years would be dragged out wearily — a 
 mere death in life ; and so, no doubt, it would have been with 
 Gainsborough, had blindness overtaken him ; but Eeynolds, 
 though yielding to no painter in his intense love for art, had 
 other pleasures, other delights. He could still attend the Club, 
 and join in converse with such men as Burke and Gi-ibbon ; the 
 Academy would not lose him altogether ; he could in his Dis- 
 courses stUl inculcate the true principles of art; the literary 
 salons, the assemblies of the great, were still open to him. His 
 life was not a dreary one. His equable temper, which had kept 
 him from undue exultation, was now to preserve him from 
 despondency ; his kindly disposition, which had ever been ready 
 to sympathise with the sufferings of others, now ensured him, in 
 turn, sympathy and attention. 
 
 And his affliction did not come upon him all at once : the 
 progress of his malady was gradual, and it would seem that he 
 never became totally blind, although very soon after his first 
 attack he found that it was impossible for him to read the paper 
 without considerable trouble and pain. His niece. Miss Palmer, 
 devoted herself to him, accompanied him in his visits to Beacons- 
 field and Brighton, and put up with a stay of two months at the 
 Eichmond Villa, which she tells us she hated, " for one has all 
 the inconveniences of town and country put together, and not 
 one of the comforts." 
 
 Sir Joshua's great picture had reached Eussia safely, and 
 together with it he had ventured to send to the Empress a copy 
 
QUAEREL WITH THE ACADEMY. 
 
 91 
 
 of his Discourses, which Catherine gracefully acknowledged in 
 a letter (dated March 5th, 1790) to Count Woronzow, the 
 E-ussian ambassador. She declares that she perused the Dis- 
 courses " with avidity," and that in them, as well as in the 
 picture, she could "easily trace an elevated genius." As a proof 
 of her appreciation of the painter, she presented him with a 
 snuffbox having her own portrait in bas relief on the cover. 
 
 For the "Infant Hercules" the Empress paid, though not 
 very promptly, the sum of fifteen hundred guineas. 
 
 But the same year in which so pleasing a testimony was given 
 to the value of his Academy Lectures, saw a most unfortunate 
 disagreement between Sir Joshua and the Society of which he 
 had been the President and the chief ornament for more than 
 five-and-twenty years. 
 
 As in all personal quarrels, it is always most difi&cult to 
 apportion the blame in this most unpleasant affair. That 
 the President's usual suavity and slowness to take offence some- 
 what deserted him on this occasion must be admitted ; but, on the 
 other hand, the conduct of the majority of the Academicians 
 was extremely discourteous, and altogether wanting in that 
 deference which one would have expected to have been shown 
 to the man to whom more than to any one else they owed the 
 high position to which their art had been raised. Indeed, it 
 would appear that they presumed on their President's good- 
 nature and mild disposition, and were considerably astonished 
 when they discovered the effect their conduct had had. 
 
 The facts of the quarrel, as far as they can be unravelled 
 from the contradictory statements we have, are briefly these. 
 After the death of "Wall, the Professorship of Perspective re- 
 mained vacant for a considerable time. Sir Joshua considered 
 it his duty to take whatever measures seemed best to him to 
 fill up the chair. But it was impossible to find, either among 
 the Academicians or the Associates, any one able and willing 
 to undertake the work. This state of things went on for some 
 while, till, in 1788, Edwards, an Associate, offered to give a 
 
92 
 
 SIE JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 series of lectures on Perspective, probably with a view to the 
 vacant chair. The success of these lectures clearly indicated 
 that they supplied a want; indeed, the idea of an academy pro- 
 fessing to teach painting without providing instruction in the 
 art of perspective is ludicrous. The President, for some reason 
 or other, seems to have been dissatisfied with Edwards, — at 
 all events, he did nothing to further his candidatui-e for the 
 Professorship. On the contrary, he had a protege of his own 
 to bring forward. This was the Italian Bonomi, whose know- 
 ledge of perspective was unrivalled ; but then he was not an 
 Academician, or even an Associate, and it had been decided that 
 the Professor should be chosen from among the E.A.s. Such 
 being the case, Sir Joshua was determined to obtain Bonomi's 
 election to the Associateship, and accordingly he proposed that 
 the next Associate should be chosen with special reference to 
 his eventually filling the Professorship of Perspective, and at 
 the same time it was suggested that candidates for the post 
 should send in specimens of their skill in perspective drawing. 
 In this Bonomi acquiesced, and sent a drawing of Lord 
 Lansdowne's library, which appears to have been excellent. 
 Edwards, on the other hand, turned sulky, and wrote that " if 
 specimens were required, he was past a boy, and should pro- 
 duce none." Shortly afterwards an election for Associate was 
 required, when Eeynolds advocated Bonomi's claims most 
 warmly; but the result was hardly what he expected, as it 
 appeared that Bonomi and Gilpin had received an equal number 
 of votes. Sir Joshua naturally gave his casting vote in favour of 
 his own candidate, and Bonomi was thus placed on an equality 
 with Edwards. But symptoms of revolt very soon began to 
 show themselves in the Academy: against the President and his 
 protege were brought the two gravest charges that Englishmen 
 ever bring against those with whom they differ, — Eeynolds was 
 accused of favouritism, Bonomi was branded as a " foreigner." 
 
 The result of this absurd jealousy was quickly seen. A 
 vacancy occurred amongst the Academicians : the time was 
 
THE PROFESSORSHIP OF PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 93 
 
 now come when they would show the public that they were 
 not going to be ridden roughshod over by their President. An 
 opposition candidate must be started to the foreign favourite, 
 and fortunately in Fuseli they found one whose genius and 
 merits could not be denied, and whose claims on general 
 grounds far surpassed those of Bonomi. But Sir Joshua's 
 argument was not invalidated. He still held that the first 
 thing to be done was to fill up the vacant Professorship, and 
 that the election ought to turn on the question who knew 
 most of the art of Perspective, and who could teach it best. 
 " The students," he said, " are our children, and it is our duty 
 to provide for them the best of masters, .... to make the 
 Academy itself whole and complete before we think of its 
 ornaments." There is much to be said for this view, but the 
 Academicians might fairly urge that to reject Fuseli for Bonomi 
 was impossible, and- that Edwards or some one else might 
 continue to give lectures on Perspective without occupying 
 the chair. There was nothing in tbis difference of opiuion 
 to lead necessarily to a rupture, but somehow or other a 
 great deal of ill-feeling seems to have been engendered, and 
 on the occasion of the election the President was certainly 
 treated with unpardonable discourtesy, while the result of the 
 ballot, which showed that Bonomi had obtained only eight 
 votes against twenty given to Fuseli, must have still further 
 irritated Sir Joshua. The cavalier manner in which his 
 wishes had been disregarded by the majority of the Acade- 
 micians, and the positive rudeness he had met with at the 
 hands o£ some of them, who interrupted his attempts to 
 explain and justify his conduct, and responded to his request 
 that they would examine Bonomi's productions by ordering 
 them to be removed from the room, — all seemed to Sir Joshua 
 to form part of a preconcerted scheme to drive him from the 
 Presidential chair. In all probability this was not the case. 
 Some of the Academicians may possibly have been envious 
 of Eeynolds' fame, but the motive with most of them would 
 
94 
 
 SIR JOSHUA EEYNOLDS. 
 
 seem to have been rather a jealousy o£ what they deemed 
 an infringement on their rights — an attempt to convert the 
 oligarchical form of government which the original constitution 
 of the Academy had established, into a despotism. 
 
 However this may have been, there was only one course open 
 to the President— to resign, which he did forthwith. This led 
 to a strong protest from the minority who had supported Bonomi, 
 including Barry, Northcote, Opie, NoUekens, and ZofPany; 
 and eventually the breach was healed by the Academicians 
 passing a resolution half-apologising for their conduct, alleging 
 that it arose from a mistake, and requesting Sir Joshua to 
 withdraw his resignation. This he did most readily, reflection 
 having no doubt shown him that no insult was intended, and 
 no " conspiracy " had been formed against him, that there had 
 been faults on both sides, and the best thing to do was to 
 forgive and forget. 
 
 So ends the single unpleasant episode in this gentle life. He 
 was as assiduous as ever in his attendance at the Academy, 
 where in December 1790 he dehvered his fifteenth and last 
 Discourse. To the exhibition he contributed six pictures, 
 including a portrait of himself, and one of Mrs. Billington the 
 actress. There was nothing of surpassing merit in any of these 
 pictures, but they clearly proved that the painter's skill was as 
 great as ever, and that English art had lost no dotard who 
 " lagged superfluous on the stage," but a man in the full enjoy- 
 ment of his powers, and who might, had his eyesight been 
 spared, have outshone his previous achievements. As it was, 
 all that he could do now was to occasionally clean one of his 
 pictures, and perhaps even add here and there some little touch 
 which was needed to give it perfection. 
 
 His friends still remained true to him, and he is welcomed 
 at Beaconsfield, at Woburn, and at Ampthill. To Ampthill 
 he received a most pressing invitation from the Countess of 
 Ossory, her letter being accompanied by a waistcoat which she 
 had herself worked for the painter. Sir Joshua's letter of 
 
Johnson's monument. 
 
 95 
 
 acknowledgment shows how little his spirits had been affected 
 by his malady, and is moreover so charming a specimen of his 
 epistolary style, that I subjoin it in extenso : — 
 
 Madam, — I am just setting out for Beaconsfield, with an intention to 
 stay there all next week, which, I am sorry to say, will prevent me from 
 waiting on your Ladyship at Ampthill — I should have said, throwing 
 myself at your Ladyship's feet, and expressing my thanks and acknow- 
 ledgments for the honour conferred on me by this new mark of favour. 
 I really think, as it is the work of your Ladyship's own hand, it is too 
 good to wear. I believe I had better put it up with the letter which 
 accompanied it, and show it occasionally, as I do the Empress of Russia's 
 box, and letter of her own handwriting. I will promise this at least 
 that when I do wear it, I will not take a pinch of snufE that day — I 
 mean, after I have it on. 
 
 Such a rough beast with such a delicate waistcoat ! I am sorry to 
 say I am forced to end abruptly, as the coach is waiting. Miss Palmer 
 desires her most respectful comphments, and I beg mine to Lord Ossory 
 and the ladies. 
 
 I am, with greatest respect, 
 
 Your Ladyship's, &.G., &c., 
 
 J. Reynolds. 
 
 Sir Joshua was busy this year (1791) raising funds for John- 
 son's monument in St. Paul's. It had been decided to erect a 
 colossal statue at the cost of. .£1200, of which, as Eeynolds tells 
 Malone in April, only £900 had been collected, but to prevent 
 the scheme falling through he had guaranteed the remainder. 
 He had hoped that the Academy would recognise the honour 
 which Johnson had conferred upon them in accepting the hono- 
 rary post of Professor of Ancient Literature to that institution, 
 by subscribing handsomely to the memorial ; and after some dis- 
 cussion a hundred guineas was unanimously voted, but the King 
 vetoed the subscription, probably thinking it a bad precedent, 
 and one likely to lead the way to reckless grants of the funds of 
 the Academy. So the affair dragged on, and it was not till 
 many years after, when Eeynolds was lying at rest by Johnson's 
 side, that the statue of the great author was erected. 
 
 To show that his quarrel with the Academy had been made up, 
 
96 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 Sir Josliua offered his collection of paintings to then for a very 
 small sum, on condition that a special gallery should be built to 
 contain them. This generous offer was foolishly ref leed, where- 
 upon Reynolds determined to exhibit the pictures, which con- 
 sisted of many " old masters," as well as a large number of his 
 own productions. His object in so doing was partly to secure 
 purchasers for them, and partly to provide a sum of money for 
 his faithful old servant, Ealph Kirkley. From this latter circum- 
 stance, it received the name of " Ralph's Exhibition," which gave 
 a handle to the wits for many a jest and lampoon — ";he neatest 
 witticism being an application of a couplet from Hulibras : 
 
 A squire he had whose name was Ralph, 
 Who in the adventure went his lialf." 
 
 Almost aU the states of Europe had recognised Reynolds' 
 position as the reviver of art in England, and had honoured 
 him in different ways. In Erance, Holland, and Flanders he had 
 been welcomed enthusiastically ; to Florence he h&d sent his 
 portrait on being elected an honorary member of tliat famous 
 Academy ; Catherine of Russia had extolled his powers as a 
 painter and a teacher ; and now the Academy of Sveden sent 
 an earnest request that the great English artist would aUow 
 his portrait to be painted by a young Swede then resident 
 in London, and hung in the Academy's rooms at Stockholm. 
 
 When this picture was being painted, in May, Sir Joshua, 
 despite his blindness, was a hale, vigorous man, foi whom one 
 might have thought eight or ten more years of life might be 
 predicted. Even in September Malone tells us that ' he was in 
 such health and spirits that during our return to town from 
 Mr. Burke's seat near Beaconsfield, we left his carriage at the 
 inn at Hayes, and walked five miles on the road, in a warm day, 
 without his complaining of any fatigue. He had at that time, 
 though above sixty-eight years of age, the appearance of a man 
 not much beyond fifty, and seemed as likely to live for ten or 
 fifteen years as any of his younger friends." 
 
DEATH. 
 
 97 
 
 But appearances were deceptive, and in reality the end was 
 near at hand. In October he began to feel great pain in his 
 eyes, and became almost totally blind, and in consequence 
 extremely dejected. He was compelled to give up attending 
 the Academy, and in November wrote resigning the Presidency. 
 But the Academicians would not hear of it, — he must continue 
 President even though his infirmities might prevent his dis- 
 charging his duties. West (who succeeded him) was appointed 
 Deputy, and Sir Joshua retained to the last moment of his life 
 the high office he had so greatly adorned. 
 
 During December and January it was evident to his friends 
 that the painter was gradually sinking. Each successive visit 
 they paid him found him weaker and more despondent. Still 
 the doctors insisted that there was nothing serious the matter 
 with him — that his fears arose from nervousness consequent on 
 his loss of sight ; but no danger was to be apprehended. But 
 they were entirely at fault : he was in reality suffering all the 
 while from a severe form of liver complaint, which was gradu- 
 ally wearing him out ; and the pain they declared to be imagi- 
 nary, was unfortunately too real. For a considerable while his 
 strong constitution, unimpaired by excesses, enabled him to 
 battle against the malady, but every day it gained upon him, 
 till at length he perceived that his iUness could have but one 
 termination, and aU he could pray for was cessation of pain. 
 In January he was compelled to take to his bed, where he 
 tranquilly resigned himself to his approaching end, and on 
 February 23rd, 1792, he peacefully breathed his last. 
 
 The news of his death was received with the utmost grief at 
 the Club and the Academy, while there could hardly have been 
 one of his sitters who did not feel that he had lost a personal 
 friend. Every one was determined that the great man should 
 be honoured in his death. He was buried in St. Paul's, close 
 beside the greatest of English architects, Christopher Wren ; 
 and the town " had seldom seen a costlier funeral." The body 
 lay in state in the model-room of the Academy, and on 
 
 7 
 
98 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 February 29th the procession set out from Somerset House. 
 Among the pall-bearers were to be seen the Lord High Steward 
 (the Diike of Dorset), the Dukes of Leeds and Portland, the 
 Earl of Ossory, and Lord Eliot, while the mourners included 
 all the members of the Royal Academy, the Archbishop of 
 York, Sir C. Bunbury, Hunter, Burke, Malone, Windham, 
 BosweU, and Langton. " Never," writes Burke, "was a funeral 
 of ceremony attended with so much sincere concern of all sorts 
 of people. The day was favourable; the order not broken or 
 
 interrupted in the smallest degree Everything, I think, 
 
 was just as our deceased friend would, if living, have wished 
 it to be, for he was, as you know, not altogether indifferent to 
 these kind of observances." 
 
 The will had been written by himself shortly before his death, 
 and by this he left the whole of his property, after certain 
 legacies had been paid, to his niece. Miss Palmer, who subse- 
 quently became Marchioness of Thomond. It has been calcu- 
 lated that she must have inherited at least ,£100,000, an 
 immense fortune for those days, and indeed at any time a very 
 large sum for an artist to be able to bequeath. The executors 
 were Burke, Malone, and Metcalfe. 
 
 So ends the life of Joshua Reynolds, and never was a 
 happier life lived. " Everything," as Burke remarked, " turned 
 out fortunately for him, from the moment of his birth to the 
 hour of his death." In his profession, for which he had a 
 genuine love, he rose to the highest place; he was fond of 
 society, and he could number among his friends the greatest 
 and the wisest of his contemporaries. " The whips and scorns 
 of time," " the insolence of office," were not for him ; but 
 thoroughly prosperous as he was, he never forgot his old 
 friends, never refused to assist less fortunate men. He was not 
 an ascetic or a devotee, but a thoroughly moral and religious 
 man ; and it is marvellous that, in those days of reckless abuse 
 and coarse invective, not one word was breathed against his fair 
 fame. Of his unruffled temper, goodnature, and affability I have 
 
BURKE'S character of REYNOLDS. 
 
 99 
 
 already spoken, and I will conclude this brief and imperfect 
 sketch of this great man with the eulogium Burke pronounced 
 upon him immediately after his death : " In full affluence of 
 foreign and domestic fame, admired by the expert in art, and 
 by the learned in science, courted by the great, caressed by 
 sovereign powers, and celebrated by distinguished poets, his 
 native humility, modesty, and candour never forsook him, even 
 on surprise or provocation ; nor was the least degree of arro- 
 gance or assumption visible to the most scrutinizing eye in any 
 part of his conduct or discourse. His talents of every kind, 
 powerful from nature, and not meanly cultivated by letters, his 
 social virtues in all the relations and all the habitudes of 
 life, rendered him the centre of a very great and unparalleled 
 variety of agreeable societies, which will be dissipated by his 
 death. He had too much merit not to excite some jealousy, too 
 much innocence to provoke any enmity. The loss of no man of 
 his time can be felt with more sincere, general, and unmixed 
 sorrow." 
 
CHAPTEE yil. 
 
 LITERARY WORKS. 
 
 IN this chapter I propose very rapidly to survey Sir Joshua's 
 literary works, to consider his claims to a place among our 
 great writers, and to exhibit the principles which he inculcated. 
 
 A word as to his style. There is a clearness and perspicuity 
 about it which enables us at once to perceive the drift of 
 his remarks ; he does not conceal himself in a dense mass of 
 verbiage, nor does he write ambiguously, hinting at this and 
 suggesting that, but arrow-Uke goes straight to his point. 
 Withal, there is no baldness ; every sentence is carefully con- 
 structed, and there are everywhere marks of the labor limce ; 
 perhaps here and there it savours somewhat too much of 
 elaboration. Still, it is a very graceful style ; just what we 
 should expect from a cultured, weU-tempered mind, — scholarly 
 without pedantry, easy without vulgarity. He is of course 
 tainted somewhat with the classical heresy, and often uses a 
 trisyllable where we should prefer a monosyllable, or a word of 
 Latin origin in preference to one of native English growth. 
 But for a man who had lived so much in Johnson's society, 
 he is no great sinner in this respect ; and all is so natural 
 and so unaffected, that we are certain it was done, not out 
 of a desire to parade his learning, but simply because it was 
 the ordinary style of the time. 
 
THE "IDLEKS." 
 
 lOi 
 
 His matter is as pleasant as his manner. No trace o£ that 
 lofty superiority, that assumption o£ infallibility, which the 
 critic generally thinks it necessary to put on, is to be found 
 in Eeynolds. His own views he puts forward as being in his 
 opinion the right ones, not as the only ones it is possible to 
 hold. He is severe on pretenders, on sham connoisseurs, but 
 the severity is always tempered with a playful banter or a 
 half-excuse. And his opinions are those of a sensible, unpre- 
 judiced man : he has his favourites among the old masters, but 
 he respects every great name. Fault-finding is not his forte, 
 and often we find him touching lightly on errors and defects, 
 only to pause over the excellences of the artist he is criticising. 
 His advice to students is, I should conceive, most valuable and 
 practical ; but of this I have really no means of judging. It 
 seems, however, to me, that having rescued English Art from 
 the degradation in which he found it, his great object in his 
 Discourses was to prevent its ever sinking to that state again. 
 
 " Eeynolds' Discourses " has always been a favourite book. 
 It has passed through innumerable editions, and appeared in 
 every imaginable form. But his three papers in the Idler have 
 been somewhat overlooked, yet in the whole of that admirable 
 collection of essays, few are to be found more charming than 
 those which the painter contributed. They are Nos. 76, 79, 
 and 82, and appeared respectively on September 29, October 20, 
 and November 10, 1759. The date is worth noticing, for it 
 shows that they were written at a time when artistic criticism 
 was in its infancy. A visit to Italy, and a gallery of ' old 
 masters,' most of them copies, and too often copies of worth- 
 less originals, was sufficient to set a man up as a ' connoisseur.' 
 This charlatanry it is that Eeynolds exposed and ridiculed. He 
 illustrates his remarks by an account of an imaginary visit paid 
 to Hampton Court in the company of a 'man of taste,' whose 
 cue it was to be for ever lamenting that Van Dyck had not ' the 
 flowing Hne,' that Eaphael lacked ' harmony,' and so on. He 
 had, in fact, learnt by rote the names of the great masters, with 
 
102 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 a suitable epithet appended to each name, but here his know- 
 ledge stopped. He could rattle on about the 'purity' of Dome- 
 nicheno, the 'learning ' of Poussin, the ' art' of G-uido, and the 
 'sublimity' of Michelangelo, but to suggest that Guide had 
 purity, or aittribute learning to Michelangelo, was rank heresy 
 in the eyes of the connoisseur. 
 
 The second Idhr exposes the ei'rors of the realistic school, 
 and is not altogether without its moral in the present day. 
 Eeynolds combats most successfully the notion that all a 
 painter has to do is to imitate Nature, and shows that Art 
 bears the same relation to Nature that Poetry does to Narra- 
 tion. Art is in fact the idealisation of Nature. The labour 
 of the realistic painter is "merely mechanical, in which the 
 slowest intellect is always sure to succeed best." Art does 
 not consist in painting a cat or a fiddle so finely, that, as the 
 phrase is, ' It looks as if you could take it up,' but in giving 
 a grace and sublimity to the most commonplace object. It is 
 the grandeur of the Italian school, not the literalness of the 
 Dutch, which is to be imitated. 
 
 No. 82 is on " The True Idea of Beauty," and is a contribu- 
 tion to a controversy as old as any in metaphysics, but which 
 had come just then into special prominence — Whence do we 
 get our ideas of beauty ? It is a question for metaphysicians 
 to argue over in ponderous tomes, but it is also a question, and 
 a very practical one, for painters. Eeynolds arrives at the 
 conclusion — probably the true one— that habit and association 
 are everything. The negro sees in thick lips, woolly locks, and 
 a coal-black complexion, the ideal of loveliness. Each animal 
 admires its own species. So there is hardly such a thing as 
 abstract beauty, nor can it be said that one species is more 
 beautiful than another. The question of individuals is different ; 
 and here Eeynolds adopts the theory that we consider that 
 excellent which is most common ; a straight nose is more 
 often seen than a crooked one, therefore the one is a beauty, 
 the other a defect; a squint is a rarity, and so it is considered a 
 
THE DISCOURSES. 
 
 103 
 
 deformity. There is, lie contends, "a central form winch Nature 
 most frequently produces, and always seems to intend in her 
 productions," and therefore a painter should attend to " the 
 invariable and general ideas of Nature," and not regard "minute 
 particularities and accidental discriminations," if he would pro- 
 duce beauty, and not " pollute his canvas with deformity." 
 
 The Discourses are fifteen in number, and were delivered 
 before the Academy at intervals from 1769 to 1790. The 
 circumstances of the case prevented his giving a systematic 
 course of introduction, "but," as a writer in the Quarterly 
 Review adds, " more methodical lecturers have not had equal 
 success in placing the student upon the vantage-ground occu- 
 pied by the master. He expatiated upon the qualities which 
 go to form a fine picture ; he described the various schools of 
 painting, with the merits and defects of each ; he specified the 
 characteristics of the several masters, showing what was to be 
 imitated and what to be avoided ; and he detailed to learners 
 the modes of proceeding which would best enable them to 
 appropriate the beauties of their forerunners." 
 
 Space forbids my attempting anything like an analysis , of 
 these Discourses, and I must refer my readers to the admirable 
 abstracts of them in Messrs. Leslie and Taylor's work, or, better 
 still, to the originals themselves, which, as old reviewers were 
 wont to say, " wiU amply repay perusal." Still I cannot for- 
 bear touching on some of the topics Sir Joshua expatiates 
 upon, as without a knowledge of his principles of Art it is 
 impossible to judge fairly one of his paintings. 
 
 The first Discourse is extremely interesting as being concerned 
 principally with the advantages of the establishment of an 
 Academy of the Fine Arts, and with laying down rules for 
 the guidance of students. The Academy will be a repository 
 for the great examples of art. " There the student receives, 
 at one glance, the principles which many artists have spent 
 their whole lives in ascertaining." There will be an " atmo- 
 sphere of floating knowledge in this seminary, where every 
 
104 
 
 SIR JOSHUA EEYNOLDS. 
 
 mind may imbibe somewhat congenial to its own conceptions." 
 Emulation will be excited, ideas will be interchanged, and a 
 student will often learn more from his companions than from 
 his masters. " One advantage," he adds with just pride, " we 
 shall have in our Academy, which no other nation can boast : 
 we shall have nothing to unlearn." 
 
 Proceeding next to methods of instruction and study, he lays 
 dovm as a general principle that the great thing to be exacted 
 from the young students is "implicit obedience to the rules 
 of Art as established by the practice of the great masters : 
 that those models, which have passed through the approbation 
 of ages, should be considered by them as perfect and infallible 
 guides ; as subjects for their imitation, not their criticism." 
 The boy who has exclaimed ''Ed io anche sono pittore" and 
 forthwith expects the world to recognize in him a second 
 Eaphael, is to learn in the Academy how slight his knowledge 
 is, how small his powers. He has first of all to acquire the 
 rudiments of Art : then, and not till then, may he criticise or 
 select any particular style and make it his own. Precocious- 
 ness, above all things, is to be discouraged, and the uselessness 
 of talent without industry should be demonstrated. Patience 
 and perseverance— two very homely virtues— are what the 
 great painter insists upon, and his whole life is a commentary 
 on the text. If these maxims are attended to, England will 
 never lack great painters; the present age may "then," he 
 hopes, « vie in arts with that of Leo the Tenth, and the dignity 
 of the dying art may be revived under the reign of G-eorffe 
 the Third." ^ 
 
 In the second Discourse he continues the same subject, and 
 proceeds to divide the study of painting into three periods. 
 The first is that of acquiring the rudiments, the grammar of 
 Art ; after which comes the second period, " in which his 
 business is to learn aU that has been known and done before 
 his own time. Having hitherto received instructions from a 
 particular master, he is now to consider the Art itself as his 
 
THE DISCOUESES. 
 
 105 
 
 master." He is still, however, under subjection and discipline, 
 and it is not till he has arrived at the final stage that he is 
 emancipated from " subjection to any authority but what he 
 shall himself judge to be supported by reason." Now he " no 
 longer compares the performances of Art with each other, but 
 examines the Art itself by the standard of Nature." Then, his 
 mind having been properly disciplined, he may indvJge in 
 enthusiasm ; then at length he may dare to be original. 
 
 Such is the advice Sir Joshua gave to the first students of 
 the Eoyal Academy, and it is just the counsel a wise teacher 
 should give his pupils. Enthusiasm, invention, originality, have 
 to be restrained, but not crushed. Nothing can be done 
 without a knowledge of rules and a study of models, but such 
 knowledge and such study as not to crush individuality and 
 damp the fire of genius. 
 
 In his third Discourse, Eeynolds enumerated "the great 
 leading principles of the Grrand Style," and distinguished "the 
 genuine habits of Nature from those of Fashion." The Grand 
 Style is touched upon again in the next Discourse, in which he 
 also describes the Composite style. There is a curious passage 
 in this lecture which might be only too well illustrated from Sir 
 Joshua's own pictures. "A portrait painter," he says, "when 
 he attempts history, unless he is upon his guard, is likely to 
 enter too much into the detail. He too frequently makes his 
 
 historical heads look like portraits A history-painter 
 
 paints men in general ; a portrait painter, a particular man, 
 and consequently a defective model." He might have added, 
 " Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor." 
 
 The fifth Discourse treats of a subject which he had already 
 touched upon — the difficulty of expressing a mixed passion, and 
 of combining different excellences. In the second Idler, he 
 had shown the impossibility of blending the Italian and the 
 Dutch styles ; and in this Discourse he goes still further, and 
 demonstrates the arduousness of attempting to unite all the 
 excellences of Art. 
 
106 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 The sixth Discourse is very important, for its subject is 
 Imitation, and it is a magnificent defence of the true method 
 of imitating, by a man who was not ashamed to borrow ideas 
 from every source, whether Michelangelo or Jacob Cats, and 
 who had been satirised and abused for this very thing. " There 
 is nothing new under the sun," is the burden of this Discourse; 
 " or if there is, it is not so good as the old." Inspiration 
 in Art he quietly laughs at ; " genius," he ventures to affirm, 
 " is the child of imitation." It is " by imitation only, that 
 variety, and even originality of invention, is produced." This 
 seeming paradox he most ingeniously proves, and then proceeds 
 to define the true limits of imitation and borrowing. He sees 
 clearly enough that imitation is very likely to degenerate into a 
 mere reproduction of peculiarities, or a feeble plagiarism. But 
 he insists that "the sagacious imitator does not content himself 
 with merely remarking what distinguishes the different manner 
 or genius of each master : he enters into the contrivance of the 
 composition — how the masses of lights are disposed ; . . . . 
 he admires, not the harmony of colouring alone, but examines 
 by what artifice one colour is a foil to its neighbour." The 
 defence of imitation was never better put than in Sir Joshua's 
 words : " "What is learned in this manner from the works of 
 others becomes really our own, sinks deep, and is never for- 
 gotten; nay, it is by seizing on this clue that we proceed 
 forward, and get further and further in enlarging the principles 
 and improving the practice of our art." The true imitator is 
 eclectic in his tastes : he wiU not copy the crudity of Eubens, 
 or the want of proportion of Correggio, but, like Eaphael, 
 he will take many models, and not one guide alone to the 
 exclusion of others. Thus there will be no servility in the 
 imitator, and the quality which will enable a painter to know 
 what to imitate, and why, is closely akin to genius, if it be not 
 genius itself. 
 
 In his seventh Discourse the President dwells on the fact that 
 there is "a standard of Taste, as well as of corporal Beauty," 
 
THE DISCOURSES. 
 
 107 
 
 but perhaps the most interesting part of the lecture is that in 
 which he enumerates the qualifications necessary for the painter 
 to possess. Industry of the mind must be joined to industry 
 of the hand ; for " he can never be a great artist, who is 
 grossly illiterate." He must imbibe a poetic spirit, he must study 
 human nature, if he wishes to excel. " Eeading, if it can be 
 made the favourite recreation of his leisure hours, will improve 
 and enlarge his mind, without retarding his actual industry. 
 What such partial and desultory reading cannot afford, may be 
 supplied by the conversation of learned and ingenious men, of 
 whom there are many in this age." 
 
 The eighth Discourse has for its subject Moderation. Excess 
 is bad, and particularly to be avoided by artists, in colour, light 
 and shade, and attitude. Eigid rules or minute details are 
 worse than absurd ; general principles of art, admitting often 
 of modification, are all that a lecturer can lay down. It is 
 the strict following of laws useful, but not infallible, of wide 
 but not universal application, which has so often led painters 
 into excess. 
 
 Of the next five Discourses I can do nothing more than 
 enumerate the subjects. The ninth deals with the " advantages 
 accruing to society from cultivating intellectual pleasure." The 
 tenth is on Sculpture ; the eleventh on G-enius, which, according 
 to Eeynolds, " consists principally in the comprehension of a 
 whole ; in taking general ideas only." 
 
 The twelfth Discourse teaches that particular methods of 
 study are of little consequence ; while the thirteenth is in some 
 degree a complement to the sixth, and shows art to be, " not 
 merely imitation, but under the direction of the imagination." 
 
 The fourteenth Discourse possesses a peculiar interest, as it 
 deals with the character of Gainsborough, who had died just 
 previously to the annual meeting of the Academy. No greater 
 honour could have been paid to the deceased painter than that 
 he should thus have been selected as the subject of discourse 
 by his great rival. High is the praise that Eeynolds bestows 
 
108 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 upon him. " If ever," he says, " this nation should produce 
 genius sufficient to acquire to us the honourable distinction of 
 an English school, the name of Gainsborough will be trans- 
 mitted to posterity in the history of the art, among the very 
 first of that rising name." . . . "Upon the whole, we may 
 justly say, that whatever he attempted, he carried to a high 
 degree of excellence." Grainsborough's intense love for his 
 art, his keen appreciation of beauty, his great judgment in the 
 selection of subjects, and his untiring application, are all dwelt 
 upon with generous appreciation. And though the President 
 thinks it necessary to warn the students against copying 
 Grainsborough's mannerisms, he admits that in the master these 
 defects become almost beauties. Sir Joshua, the man of culture 
 and refinement, saw clearly enough what the other lacked, but 
 this great deficiency — this absence of poetic feeling — is only 
 lightly touched upon. The Discourse is a model which all 
 critics would do well to follow : it is not a panegyric, there is 
 nothing fulsome in it, but there is the genuine, hearty praise 
 that a noble spirit alone can give. 
 
 The last Discourse was not delivered till December, 1790, 
 after B-eynolds had ceased practice, and after the quarrel with 
 the Academicians had been made up. The early part is devoted 
 to a review of his connection with the Academy, of which he 
 feels he is now taking farewell. He then speaks of his Dis- 
 courses, apologising for their defects, but declaring his purpose 
 to have been, not the promulgation of any novel theories, or 
 " unfledged opinions," but the inculcation of rules which have 
 commended themselves to the experience of past ages, and 
 which have been followed by "the most approved painters." 
 Thus, as he truly says, though he made no new discoveries, 
 he " succeeded in establishing the rules and principles of Art 
 on a more firm and lasting foundation than that on which they 
 had formerly been placed." 
 
 But the greater portion of the Discourse is taken up with 
 a panegyric on Michael Angelo. But he does not venture to 
 
LITERARY WORKS. 
 
 109 
 
 attempt the style of that great master ; it is as his admirer 
 rather than his imitator that he appears. He acknowledges that 
 the course he has taken is more suited to his abilities and the 
 taste of the age; "yet," he adds, with genuine enthusiasm, "were 
 I now to begin the world again, I would tread in the steps of 
 that great master : to kiss the hem of his garment, to catch 
 the slightest of his perfections, would be glory and distinction 
 enough for an ambitious man. I feel a self-congratulation in 
 knowing myself capable of such sensations as he intended 
 to excite. I reflect, not without vanity, that these Discourses 
 bear testimony of my admiration of that truly divine man ; 
 and I should desire that the last words which I should pro- 
 nounce in this Academy, and from this place, might be the name 
 of Michael Angelo." 
 
 And these were the last words Sir Joshua was to utter from 
 the chair he had so adorned, for though he lived for more than 
 a year after the delivery of this Discourse, his health forbade his 
 ever again attempting an appearance in public. 
 
 Besides the Idlers and the Discourses, we have among Rey- 
 nolds' ' works ' an account of his journey to the Low Countries 
 in 1781. Of the actual incidents of the tour, or the impressions 
 made upon the travellers, we get few details ; but we have what 
 is far more important and interesting — Sir Joshua's notes on 
 all the great pictures of the Flemish School. It is Eubens, 
 naturally, who attracts him the most : and his criticisms on that 
 painter are very full and valuable; and though a staunch 
 adherent of the Italian School, he is impartial enough to assert 
 that "those who cannot see the extraordinary merit of this 
 great painter, either have a narrow conception of the variety of 
 Art, or are led away by affectation." The colouring of "Weeninx, 
 the freshness of Ruysdael, the manly style of Jan Steen, and the 
 handling of Teniers, receive high praise from this most cathoHc- 
 minded of artists. 
 
 But Eeynolds was more than an art-critic : we have a sketch 
 from his pen which for quiet humour and delicate parody is 
 
110 
 
 SIE JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 hardly inferior to anything in our literature. Johnson's 
 relations with his fellow-townsman, Garrick, are singularly 
 characteristic of that obstinate, prejudiced, but generous-hearted 
 man. He had affected to despise Garrick, and may very likely 
 have been reaUy jealous of the extraordinary fame the actor 
 had acquired. At first he had strongly opposed Garrick's 
 introduction into the Club, and sneered at the ' player ' as a 
 being not worthy of such a society. But the more he knew 
 Garrick, the more he discovered that he was more than an 
 actor — that he was a man of commanding genius, of ready wit, 
 and of kindly heart. And so it came to pass, as Eeynolds 
 said, that the Doctor got to consider Garrick as his property, 
 and would never suffer any one to praise or abuse him but him- 
 seH. For any one to suggest that Garrick was no great actor, 
 but merely a good mimic, was enough to make Johnson wax 
 eloquent in his defence, and attribute to him all the talents 
 under the sun; while, on the other hand, an assertion that 
 Garrick possessed extraordinary and magnificent genius, gave 
 the cue to Johnson, who forthwith proceeded to depreciate the 
 actor, and contend that he was nothing more than ' a clever 
 feUow.' 
 
 This habit of contradiction and exclusive patronage of Garrick, 
 in which Johnson loved to indulge, has been admirably hit 
 off by Eeynolds in two imaginary dialogues. In the first of 
 these. Sir Joshua begins by praising Garrick, and asserts that 
 he was " a very great man." This is enough to draw Johnson 
 out, who retorts, more suo, " Garrick, sir, may be a great man 
 in your opinion, as far as I know, but he was not so in 
 mine ; little things are great to little men." And so he goes 
 on, Eeynolds in vain striving to get a word in edgeways, and 
 Johnson becoming more dogmatic every minute. "There are 
 various kinds of greatness," he contends ; " a man may be a 
 great tobacconist, a man may be a great painter, he may be 
 likewise a great mimic ; now you may be the one, and Garrick 
 the other, and yet neither of you be great men." Eeynolds 
 
THE DIALOGUES. 
 
 Ill 
 
 attempts to show that the Doctor has often expressed diametri- 
 cally opposite opinions about Grarrick, but Johnson refuses to 
 listen, and closes the discussion by exclaiming, " Have done, 
 sir; the company you see are tired, as weU as myself;" and thus 
 the dialogue ends. 
 
 The other side is shown in a conversation between Johnson 
 and Gibbon, where the Doctor indulges in the most extravagant 
 praise of Garrick. He is to actors what Homer is to poets, 
 while in the lighter kinds of poetry he is, " if not the first, in 
 the very first class." His manners were most polished, his 
 sensibility extreme, his generosity lavish. As a man and as an 
 actor he was alike admirable. 
 
 In these dialogues Johnson is drawn to the life : it is no 
 caricature, as those who know their Boswell will admit. The 
 subject of the satire would have been the first to have acknow- 
 leged its truth. To possess more of such sketches, we would 
 willingly give up the " Continence of Scipio " and the " Cymon." 
 But Sir Joshua had no ambition for a literary fame, and this 
 delicious little satire was probably never intended for publi- 
 cation, but only for private circulation in the Club. It was, 
 however, preserved among his papers, and was printed after 
 his death by the Marchioness of Thomond, and bears conclusive 
 testimony to the fact that Eeynolds has claims to be considered 
 a man of letters, as well as an artist ; and we may endorse his 
 friend Courtenay's opinion, that " Eeynolds' pen with Eeynolds' 
 pencil vies." 
 
 Such, then, as painter, writer, and man, was Sir Joshua 
 Eeynolds — a man of whom England may weU be proud. His 
 is one of the very few instances in which an epitaph is alike 
 extremely eulogistic and perfectly truthful. The art of writing 
 monumental inscriptions is, I fear, a lost one; and so my 
 readers may complain that I inflict upon them so lengthy an 
 epitaph. But I take it that, as a novel must, of necessity, end 
 with a wedding, so a biography should end with an epitaph ; 
 and I may, moreover, plead in extenuation that I give my 
 
112 
 
 SIR JOSHUA EEYNOLDS. 
 
 patient reader Northcote's Englisli instead of Knight's 
 Latin : — 
 
 TO 
 
 SIR JOSHUA EEYNOLDS, 
 CONFESSEDLY THE FIRST ARTIST OP HIS TIME ; 
 SCARCELY INFERIOR TO ANY OP THE ANCIENTS IN THE SPLENDOUK 
 AND COMBINATION OP COLOURS, 
 IN THE ALTERNATE SUCCESSION OF LIGHT AND SHADE 
 MUTUALLY DISPLAYING EACH OTHER ; 
 WHO, 
 
 WHILST HE ENJOYED WITH MODESTY THE FIRST HONOURS OP HIS ART, 
 
 WAS EQUALLY COMMENDED 
 FOR THE SUAVITY OF HIS MANNERS AND THE ELEGANCE OP HIS MIND,, 
 WHO RESTORED, BY HIS HIGHLY BEAUTIFUL MODELS, 
 THE ART ITSELF LANGUISHING AND ALMOST EXTINGUISHED 
 IN EVERY PART OP THE WORLD, 
 WHO ILLUSTRATED IT BY THE ADMIRABLE PRECEPTS CONTAINED 
 IN HIS WRITINGS, 
 AND TRANSMITTED IT IN A CORRECT AND REPINED STATE 
 TO BE CULTIVATED BY POSTERITY, 
 
 THE FRIENDS AND ADMIRERS OF HIS TALENTS 
 HAVE RAISED THIS MONUMENT. 
 
 1813. 
 
PICTUEES BY SIE JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 There are now in the National Grallery twenty-three of 
 Sir Joshua's paintings, which, fortunately, illustrate every 
 variety of the art he practised. Among them are The Holy 
 Family, The Banished Lord ; Portraits of Admiral Keppel, Lord 
 Heathfield, Lord Ligonier (on horseback). Dr. Johnson, the 
 Marchioness of Townsend and her sisters, and the Hon. Mrs. 
 Musters, The Snake in the Grass ; The Infant Samuel, Heads 
 of Angels, Age of Innocence, and Eobiaetta ; and there are 
 several more of his masterpieces in the Dulwich Grallery. His 
 pictures are extremely numerous, and are met with in almost 
 every mansion in England. There are about 700 prints after 
 them by McArdell, John Eaphael Smith, Valentine Grreen, 
 J. Watson, E. Fisher, and other celebrated engravers of the 
 day ; and fine examples realize very large prices whenever they 
 are sold by auction. 
 
 As it would be impossible to give a list of his paintings 
 in this volume, the reader is referred to the LirE and Times 
 OF SiE Joshua Eeynolds, by C. E. Leslie, E.A., and Tom 
 Taylor, M.A., which contains an almost exhaustive account of 
 
114 
 
 REYNOLDS' PICTURES. 
 
 his works, and to the manuscript catalogue which has been 
 prepared from Sir Joshua's own note-books and ledgers by 
 Mr. Algernon Graves o£ 6, Pall Mall, who will gladly give 
 any information on the subject of the Eeynolds pictures that 
 he is able to supply. 
 
 The Infant Heecules. (See page 83.) 
 
INDEX. 
 
 {The names ofjiersons and subjects painted hj Reynolds are in italics.) 
 
 AUngton, Mrs., 72, 78. 
 
 Baldwin, Mrs., 72. 
 Barnard, Dr., 49. 
 Barry, James, 75. 
 Beattie, Dr., 49. 
 BeauclerTi, TopJiam, 42. 
 Beanfort, Cardinal, 85. 
 Blalieney, Gen., 12. 
 Bonomi, 93. 
 Bootliby, Penelope, 86. 
 Boswell, James, 81. 
 Boydell, Alderman, 84. 
 Braddyll, Mrs., 86. 
 Bunbury, Lady Sarah, 27, 34. 
 Bunhury, Master, 70. 
 Burke, Edmund, 31, 98. 
 
 Catherine, Empress of Eussia, 83, 
 90. 
 
 Charlotte, Queen, 42, 68. 
 Club, The, 30. 
 Club, The Artists', 8. 
 Cockbvrn, Lady, 50. 
 Coventry, Lady, 15. 
 Crerce, Master, 54. 
 CreTve, Mrs., 45. 
 Cymon and Iphigenia, 89. 
 
 Daschaw, Princess, 82. 
 Dilettanti Society, The, 63. 
 Discourses, The, 103. 
 
 Edgcnmbe, Richard, Lord, 5. 
 
 Fisher, Kitty, 22. 
 Flanders, Keynolds' Trip to, 69. 
 Fox, Charles James, 78. 
 France, Reynolds in, 55. 
 Fresnoy, Du, 74. 
 
 Gainsborough, Thomas, 39, 51, 86, 
 107. 
 
 Gallwey, Mrs. Payne, 65. 
 Gandy, William, 9. 
 Garrick, David, 21, 62, 110. 
 George LIT., 21, 23, 68. 
 Gibbon, Edivard, 67. 
 Goldsmith, Oliver, 30, 41, 50. 
 Gordon, Frances, 61. 
 Granhy, Marquis of, 34. 
 Gmathin, Theophila, 87. 
 
 Hamilton, Duchess of, 15. 
 Hawkins, Sir J., 32. 
 Heathfield, Lord, 85. 
 Hercules, The Jnfant, 83, 91. 
 Hone, Nathaniel, 52. 
 Hudson, Thomas, 5, 14, 66, 
 Hunter, John, 82. 
 
 Idler, The, 101. 
 
 Incorporated Society of Artists, 
 
 The, 37. 
 Italy, Reynolds in, 12. 
 
 Johnson, Dr., 28, 80, 110. 
 
 Kauffmann, Angelica, 34, 38. 
 
116 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Keppel, Commodore (afterwards 
 
 Lord), 11, 15, 65. 
 Kirkley, Ralph, 96. 
 
 Langton, Bennet, 32, 81. 
 Lennox, Lady Sarah, 27, 34. 
 Ligonier, Lord, 24. 
 Lowe, Mauritius, 71. 
 
 Manchester, Duchess of, 40. 
 Marlborough Family, The, 64. 
 Mason, JRev. IF., 16, 73. 
 Michelangelo, 108. 
 Minorca, Eeynolds at, 12. 
 Monohton, Miss, 66. 
 More, Hannah, 59. 
 Morris, Miss, 40. 
 Moser, G. M., 36, 74. 
 Mudgc, Br. John, 26, 35. 
 Mudgc, Br. Z., 26. 
 Mtdge, Master, 20, 
 
 New College Chapel, Oxford, 65. 
 Northcote, James, 43, -56. 
 
 O'Brien. Nelly, 24, 26. 
 Omiah. 62, 
 Opie, John, 73. 
 Orleans, Bulte of, 81. 
 Ossory, Lady, 94. 
 
 Paine, Thomas. 35. , 
 Palmer, Theophila. 47, 72. 
 Plympton-Earl, 1, 33. 
 
 Eeynolds, Miss, 15. 
 Eeynolds, Rev. S., 2, 8. 
 Robinson, Bishop, 63. 
 Robinson, Mrs., 72. 
 Romney, George, 39, 51. 
 Royal Academy, The, 38, 91 . 
 Mussell Family, The, 56. 
 
 St. Paul's Cathedral, Decoration 
 
 of, 48. 
 Samuel, The Infant, 59. 
 Sheridan, Mrs., 53. 
 Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 88. 
 Siddons, Mrs., 78. 
 Society of Arts, The, 23. 
 Sterne, Lawrence, 24. 
 Strawberry Girl, The, 47. 
 
 Terrick. Bishop, 48. 
 Thvrlom, Lord, 72. 
 
 Ugolino, 42, 46. 
 
 Waldegravc, Covnte,ss, 25. 27. 
 Waldcgrave, The Ladies, 67. 
 Wal]}ole, Horace, 45, 88. 
 Warton, Dr. T., 77. 
 Wolcot, Dr. John, 73. 
 
 Yorhe, Master, 84. 
 
 Zoffany, Johan, 45. 
 
 Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, Londen and Aylesbury. 
 
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