REYNOLDS PAINTS HIS FIRST PORTRAIT.

This was painted when he could not have been more than twelve years old. It was the portrait of the Rev. Thomas Smart, in whose family the tradition is that in 1735, young Joshua coloured the likeness in a boat-house at Cremyll beach under Mount Edgcumbe, on canvas which was part of a boat-sail, and with the common paint used by shipwrights. Mr. Smart was tutor in the family of Richard Edgcumbe, Esq., who afterwards became the first Lord Edgcumbe, the "Dick Edgcumbe" of Walpole's correspondence; and young Reynolds seems to have been passing the holidays at Mount Edgcumbe with one of his sons. The portrait is said to have been painted from a drawing "taken in church, and on the artist's thumb-nail:" Hogarth was wont to sketch in a similar manner. The picture was for many years at Mount Edgcumbe, but was afterwards sent to Plympton, and hung up in one of the rooms belonging to the Corporation, of which Mr. Smart was a member. It was subsequently returned to Mount Edgcumbe, and given by the present Earl to Mr. Boger, of Wolsdon, the descendant and representative of Mr. Smart, by whom these circumstances were related to Mr. Cotton. This portrait has been accurately engraved by S. W. Reynolds. Mr. Boger has also a small portrait or panel of the daughter of Mr. Smart, which is supposed to have been painted by Reynolds.

At the above time, Mr. Edgcumbe was one of the patrons of the Borough of Plympton, which accounts for the acquaintance between the boys. Young Richard Edgcumbe had also a good deal of taste for drawing, and some of his paintings are still at Mount Edgcumbe. He became one of Walpole's constant Christmas and Easter guests at Strawberry Hill; and Reynolds, who painted the tutor on sail-cloth, in 1735, in his boyhood, likewise painted young Edgcumbe for Walpole, when he had reached the zenith of his fame, in a charming picture with Selwyn and Gilly Williams. Walpole describes this picture as by far one of the best things Reynolds had executed it is engraved in Cunningham's edition of Walpole's Letters; the original picture, a little larger than cabinet size, was bought by the Right Hon. Henry Labouchere, (now Lord Taunton,) at the Strawberry Hill Sale, in 1842. There is also at Mount Edgcumbe a portrait of Richard

Lord Edgcumbe, painted by Sir Joshua when he was an untaught boy at Plympton, and before he went to London.

According to Eastlake, the earliest portrait Reynolds painted of himself was one in the possession of his niece, Miss Gwatkin, of Princess-square, Plymouth; it is a fine Vandykelike picture, and in good preservation.—Cotton.

REYNOLDS IS ARTICLED TO HUDSON THE PAINTER. Joshua's father hesitated for some time whether to make him an apothecary or a painter. Seeing his son's propensity for painting, by the advice of Mr. Cranch, a neighbour and friend of the family, he sent the youth to London, to be placed under Hudson, then the most celebrated portrait painter of the day. Joshua consented, from his having seen a print from one of Hudson's paintings, which much delighted him. His father preferred for him the practice of physic; and the painter, in after-life, observed to Northcote, if medicine had been his career in life, 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 and country. He believed, in short, that genius is but another name for extensive capacity, and that incessant and well-directed labour is the inspiration which creates all works of taste and talent.

Joshua was now drawing near to seventeen, and his father writing to Mr. Cutcliffe, attorney, of Bideford, says that"Joshua has a very great genius for drawing, and lately on his own head, has begun even painting, so that Mr. Warmel, who is both a painter and a player, having lately seen but his first performance, said if he had his hands full of business, he would rather take Joshua for nothing than another with fifty pounds. Mr. Cranch told me, as to the latter, he could put me in a way. Mr. Hudson (who is Mr. Richardson's son-inlaw) used to be down at Bideford;" Mr. Reynolds then asks Mr. Cutcliffe's judgment and advice, adding that "what Joshua has principally employed himself in has been perspective, of which, perhaps, there is not much in face-painting. His pictures strike off wonderfully, if they be looked on with a due regard to the point of sight, and the point of distance."

Joshua reached London on October 13, 1740. We learn from his father's letter, that Hudson was to receive the sum of 1207., as a premium with his pupil, one half to be paid by his father, and the remainder, it is presumed, young Reynolds engaged to pay when he was in a position to earn money for

himself. Of Joshua's progress we gather from a letter of his father, dated Jan. 1, 1741: "Just now I had a letter from Joshua, wherein he tells me, 'on Thursday next, Sir Robert Walpole sits for his picture: Master says he has a great longing to draw his picture, because so many have drawn it and none like.' Joshua writ me some time ago that many had drawn Judge Willes's picture, but that by his master was most approved of."

Instead of studying from the best models, Hudson caused his pupil to waste his time in making careful copies from the drawings of Guercino; these he executed with much skill, so that it was difficult to distinguish them from the originals. Of young Reynolds's further progress we have the following evidence from his father:

April 20, 1742.

Joshua goes on very well, which I must always acquaint you with. Dr. Huxham, who saw a Laocoon, a drawing of his, said that he who drew that would be the first hand in England. Mr. Tucker, a painter, in Plymouth, who saw that and three or four more, admired them exceedingly, as I had it from Mr. Cranch; yet when he saw some later drawings of Joshua's, in his second year (of his apprenticeship), he still saw an improvement.

Although Reynolds in his letters expressed much satisfaction at the arrangement with Hudson, in two or three years their connexion was terminated by some slight misunderstanding. It appears that Hudson became jealous of his superior ability, from his painting the head of a female. servant in a taste so superior to the painters of the day, that his master involuntarily predicted his future success. Malone, however, states that Reynolds remained three years at Plympton, after he had parted from Hudson. He paid a second visit to London, during which he lived in St. Martin'slane, nearly opposite to May's-buildings.

REYNOLDS'S DESCRIPTION OF POPE.

Reynolds once saw Pope, about the year 1740, at an auction of books or pictures. He remembers that there was a lane formed to let him pass freely through the assemblage, and he proceeded along, bowing to those who were on each side. He was, according to Joshua's account, about four feet six inches high; very humpbacked and deformed; he wore a black coat; and, according to the fashion of the time, had on a little sword. Reynolds adds that he had a large and very fine eye, and a long, handsome nose; his mouth had those

peculiar marks which are always found in the mouths of crooked persons; and the muscles which run across the cheek were so strongly marked as to appear like small cords. Roubilliac, the statuary, who made a bust of Pope from life, observed that his countenance was that of a person who had been much afflicted with headache; and he should have known the fact from the contracted appearance of the skin between his eyebrows, though he had not otherwise been apprised of it.

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Reynolds was a great admirer of Pope. He purchased a fan, which the poet presented to Martha Blount, and on which he had painted with his own hand, the story of Cephalus and Procris, with the motto, "Aura, veni." "See," said Sir Joshua, throwing this fan to his pupils, see the painting of Pope: this must always be the case when the work is taken up from idleness, and is laid aside when it ceases to amuse; it is like the work of one who paints only for amusement. Those who are resolved to excel must go to their work, willing or unwilling, morning, noon, or night; they will find it to be no play, but very hard labour." The fan was afterwards stolen out of Sir Joshua's studio.

REYNOLDS VISITS ITALY.

During his residence at Plymouth Dock, Reynolds became acquainted with the third Lord Edgcumbe, and also with Captain (afterwards Viscount) Keppel. This led to the young painter visiting Italy. He accompanied Capt. Keppel, who had been appointed to the command of a squadron in the Mediterranean. They sailed on May 11, 1749, touching at Lisbon, Cadiz, Gibraltar, and Minorca; and landed at Port Mahon, on August 23. Here Reynolds received much kindness from the Governor, General Blakeney. He was detained here nearly two months by a severe accident: being out riding, his horse rushed with him down a precipice, his face was severely cut, and his lip so much bruised that he was compelled to have it cut away. A slight deformity marked his mouth ever after. His deafness, (says Cunningham,) was imputed by some to the same misfortune; but that affliction dated from a dangerous illness in Rome. During his detention in Minorca, Reynolds painted portraits of all the officers in the garrison, and as he lived, free of expense, at the Governor's table, the painter added considerably to his

travelling fund. On his recovery, he proceeded to Leghorn, and thence to Rome.

In this Metropolis of Art, Reynolds chiefly occupied himself in studying the works of Raphael and Michael Angelo, and in acquiring that knowledge of chiaro-oscuro and effect, which he was soon to display in his own paintings. Caricature, strange to say, employed him; for while at Rome, he painted a sort of parody on the School of Athens. The picture, (says Cotton,) still exists: it contains about thirty likenesses of English students, travellers, and connoisseurs; and among others, that of Mr. Henry Straffan, in Ireland, in whose family the picture still remains. Reynolds also painted two other caricatures while in Rome; and in after life he was heard by Northcote to say that, although it was universally allowed that he executed subjects of this kind with much humour and spirit, he held it absolutely necessary to abandon the practice, since it must corrupt his taste as a portrait-painter. Of his technical studies in Rome he has left a minute account, which is chiefly valuable to the student in painting.

Reynolds had for his companion at Rome John Astley, who had been his fellow-pupil in the school of Hudson. Astley was then poor and proud, and strove to conceal his embarrassments. One summer day, when the sun was hot, and he and Reynolds, and a few others, were on a country excursion, there was a general call to cast off coats. Astley obeyed reluctantly—and for this reason: he had made the back of his waistcoat out of one of his own landscapes, and when he stripped, he displayed a foaming waterfall, much to his own confusion, and the mirth of his companions.

From Rome, Reynolds went to Bologna and Genoa; hence to Parma and Florence, and Venice, and then home. His stay in Venice was very short, which is the more remarkable, since the Venetian school influenced his professional character far more powerfully than all the other schools of art put together. While at Venice, in compliment to the English residents there, the manager of the opera one night ordered the band to play an English ballad tune, which brought tears into Reynolds's eyes. On his way home over Mont Cenis, he met Hudson and Roubilliac hastening to Rome. At Paris he found Chambers the architect: here he painted the portrait of Mrs. Chambers, daughter of Wilton, the sculptor, who was very beautiful.