LX. TURE AND ART. "from a higher sphere. His paintings illustrate CHAP. "his lessons, and his lessons seem to be derived "from his paintings." Never, perhaps, was his LITERApencil more felicitous and truthful than in all its delineations of infancy. It was one of his favourite maxims that all the gestures of children are graceful, and that the reign of distortion and unnatural attitude commences with the dancing master." It was to portraits that Reynolds gave his more especial care. Yet they did not wholly engross it. Many exquisite fancy pieces of the most opposite kinds bear witness to his skill. How various, for example, are the works of his genius contained in that grey old mansion of Knole, where, embosomed in coeval groves of beech, the accomplished race of the Sackvilles, now extinct in the male line, showed themselves both partakers and patrons of intellectual eminence! There in one place we find Sir Joshua personify with the laughing eyes and the elastic form of Mrs. Abington the Comic Muse. There, on another side, we behold him follow in the footsteps of the Tuscan poet of old time-unveil the dismal secrets of the "Tower of Hunger,”—and portray Count Ugolino and his children in the agonies of their famishing despair. Far from being satisfied with his own success, Sir Joshua was ever aiming at improvement. Late in his career, and at considerable cost, he took the pains to discompose some valuable pictures of the *Life by Malone, p. lii. TURE AND ART. CHAP. old Venetian School, in order to trace and ascertain LX. their process of colouring. It must be owned, LITERA- however, that such experiments were made in some measure at the expense of his friends. Thus at Blenheim, which, during one phase of his art, he adorned with many admirable portraits, a spectator at the present day must observe with pain, that the colours have so far faded from each face of female loveliness as exactly to resemble the livid hues of death. The change can scarce have been greater in the originals themselves. From some such result or anticipation, Sir Joshua did not persevere for any long period in the new courses which he tried. Towards the close of his life, he had an opportunity to see again that portrait of Captain Hamilton which he had painted some forty years before. He was surprised to find it so good, and, comparing it with his later works, lamented that during so many years he should not have made a greater progress.* Of the other principal painters at this time, Hogarth had died four years before the Academy was constituted. The best judges have deemed him deficient in the art of colouring. But, as Horace Walpole happily expresses it, he should be considered rather as a writer of comedy with a pencil than as a painter. Allan Ramsay, son of the poet of that name, though far inferior to Reynolds, showed in his portraits both taste and skill. *Life by Malone, p. viii. LX. TURE AND ART. Like Reynolds he was a friend of Dr. Johnson, CHAP. who speaks of him with warm regard, and survived him only a few months.* Ramsay was painter in LITERA ordinary to the King and Queen; in fact, it has been remarked, that their Majesties never gave Sir Joshua a commission for a single picture, and sat to him only once, when their portraits were required for the Royal Academy.t In 1766, however, Reynolds was selected to paint the portrait of the Queen of Denmark on her marriage. He was wont to complain of the difficulties of the task, since during the hours of sitting, that illassorted and unhappy Princess had been for the most part in tears.‡ Romney was another painter of high reputation in his day. There are not many things in biogra phy more striking than the tale how, at the age of twenty-seven, he forsook his young wife at Kendal, and went forth to seek his fortune in Londonhow, after seven-and-thirty years of desertion, he returned to her, rich indeed and famous, but worn out in body and in mind—and how, with patient forgiveness, she nursed him during his remaining span of decay, and at last of imbecility. When in full possession of his powers, he had been deemed a rival to Sir Joshua himself, and it is by no means "Poor Ramsay! . . . . I no sooner lost sight of dear Allan "than I am told that I shall see him no more." (To Sir Joshua Reynolds, Aug. 19. 1784.) † Memoirs by Northcote, p. 259. Ibid. Supplement, p. xliii. LX. TURE AND ART. CHAP. to the credit of the President, that Romney never was elected even an associate of the Royal AcaLITERA demy. Indeed, whenever Reynolds had occasion to refer to him, he would call him only "the man "in Cavendish Square." In those days Lord Thurlow had said: "There are two factions in Art, "and for my part I am of the Romney faction." But, as Mr. Southey observes, time has reversed the Chancellor's decision.* The true rival of Reynolds, in our eyes at least, was Gainsborough. Born and bred in Suffolk, he had not the advantages of academic education or foreign travel; but from his earliest years he manifested an inborn passion for art. A beautiful wood near Sudbury is still shown, where Gainsborough, in his school-boy days, used to sit and fill his copy-books with pencillings of flowers and trees. With Wilson he divides the honour of founding our school of landscape; with Reynolds the honour of restoring our school of portrait-painting. Below Sir Joshua in the taste and composition of his portraits, it may be questioned whether he does not excel him in a still more essential quality — the true and life-like delineation of the countenance portrayed. At this time the name of British sculpture was worthily upheld by Bacon and Nollekens. To the former Westminster Abbey owes the great monu *Life of Cowper, vol. iii. p. 77. † Cunningham's Lives of the Painters, vol. iii. p. 320. LX. LITERA ART. ment of Chatham; the latter was good in statues, CHA P. but excellent in busts. In their literary attainments they differed greatly. Of Bacon we are told, that he showed some skill in composition, TURE AND while Nollekens was wholly ignorant of grammar and spelling. Of both it is pleasing to find, that their profession brought them wealth as well as fame. Bacon at his death left 60,000l., and Nollekens, whose career was much longer, no less than 200,000l. An Academy comprising men like these, men of every variety of birth, of education, of character, and of creed, (thus, for example, Bacon was a Methodist, Nollekens a Roman Catholic, and Flaxman a follower of Swedenborg,) was often discordant and disturbed. Some complaints from those whom it excludes, some quarrels among those whom it admits, are, perhaps, in any such institution unavoidable. Certainly they have not been avoided. Even at the present day the war, at least from without, is waging. But there is one day in the year, when, by common consent, all strife is hushed, all rivalry suspended, when on the first Saturday in May the Exhibition Rooms, rich with the well-wrought toils of the preceding year, are opened by the President and his brother Academicians to a chosen company of guests. There all ranks, all professions, and all parties-intellectual pleasure being for that day a sufficient bond be * Cunningham's Lives of the Sculptors, pp. 195. and 200. |