memory dwells with pleasure to this hour on the recollection of his having said a few kindly and encouraging words to me when a boy, drawing at the time in the study. I was, however, most struck with what seemed to me, in such a man, an undue and unbecoming anxiety about his good looks in the portrait to be executed. The efflorescence in his face had been indicated by Sir Joshua in the picture, not, it may be presumed, à bon gré on the part of Sheridan, and it was strongly evident that he deprecated its transfer to the print. I need scarcely observe that Hall set his mind at ease on that point."

LORD HOLLAND'S PORTRAIT.

The unfinished appearance of some of Reynolds's pictures, when they were sent home, caused occasional disappointment. It is said that Lord Holland, when he received his portrait, could not help remarking that it had been hastily executed; and making some demur about the price, asked Reynolds how long he had been painting it, when the offended artist replied, "All my life, my Lord."-Northcote's M.S. in the Plymouth Library.

GEORGE III. AND SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.

On one of Sir Joshua Reynolds's friends observing to Dr. Johnson that it was extraordinary the King should have taken so little notice of him, having on all occasions employed Ramsay, West, &c. in preference to Sir Joshua, he said he thought it a matter of little consequence; Majesty's neglect could never do him any prejudice; but it would reflect eternal disgrace on the King not to have employed Sir Joshua Reynolds."

"His

In 1779, the King and Queen honoured Reynolds by sitting for their portraits, at His Majesty's particular request, for the Council of the Royal Academy. The King, who was an early riser, sat at ten in the morning. The entry in Reynolds's pocket-book is: "Friday, May 21, at 10, the King." The Queen's name does not occur until December. These, Mr. Cotton believes, were the only portraits of their Majesties painted by Reynolds: he was never the Court-painter, nor were his pictures much admired by George III., who, being near-sighted, and consequently obliged to look close at them, said they appeared to be rough and unfinished.

PORTRAITS OF GIBBON AND GOLDSMITH.

In 1779, Sir Joshua painted Gibbon's portrait, which hung over the chimney-piece in his house at Lausanne. M. Rogers says, in this wonderful portrait, while the oddness and vulgarity of the features are refined away, the likeness is perfectly preserved.

Cotton states that Miss Reynolds remarked Sir Joshua never gave a more striking proof of his excellence in portraitpainting than in giving dignity to Dr. Goldsmith's counte nance, and at the same time preserving a strong likeness. To this treatment all Reynolds's sitters were subjected, so that even the most deficient in grace came off his easel ladies and gentlemen.

PORTRAIT OF ADMIRAL KEPPEL.

This picture was presented to Mr. Burke by Admiral Keppel himself, at his trial at Portsmouth, in February, 1779. Of his full and honourable acquittal, Sir Joshua, in a letter to the Admiral, says: "The illuminations were universal, I believe, with the exception of a single house. Lord North and Lord Bute had their windows broken. The Admiralty gates were unhinged: to-night, I hear, Sir Hugh (Palliser) is to be burnt in effigy before your door. I have taken the liberty to lend your picture to an engraver, to make a print from it."

Sir Joshua painted Keppel's portrait, con amore, several times.

THE LADIES WALDEGRAVE.

Of this celebrated work Walpole wrote, in 1780: "Sir Joshua has begun a charming picture of my three fair nieces, the Waldegraves, and very like. They are embroidering and winding silk; I rather wished to have them drawn like the Graces adorning a bust of the Duchess as Magna Mater; but my ideas are not adopted."

This very fine picture is still at Strawberry Hill. It is lucky that Sir Joshua did not adopt Walpole's idea, or we should have had something as still and formal as the Blessington picture, by the same hand, of the three daughters of Sir William Montgomery, as "The Graces decorating a terminal figure of Hymen," now in the National Gallery. "Sir Joshua

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gets avaricious in his old age," Walpole remarked to Pinkerton. 'My picture of the young ladies Waldegrave is doubtless very fine and graceful, but it cost me 800 guineas."

"MUSCIPULA.”

Count d'Adhemar was the original purchaser of Sir Joshua's Muscipula (the Girl with the Mousetrap). Reynolds, who fancied that he was bargaining for a different and less important picture, told him that the price was fifty guineas; and on discovering the mistake, allowed him to have Muscipula for that sum. Fox had been anxious to possess Muscipula when it was first painted, and he bought it at the ambassador's sale for (I believe) fifty guineas. It is now at St. Anne's Hill. It would fetch, in the present day, a thousand guineas. -Rogers.

"THE TRAGIC MUSE.”

In 1784, about sixteen months after Sir Joshua's paralytic attack, he sent to the Exhibition his noble picture of Mrs. Siddons, as "The Tragic Muse," which Lawrence, in 1823, pronounced to be a work of the highest epic character, and indisputably the finest female portrait in the world. It was valued by Sir Joshua at 1,000 guineas, but was sold to Mr. Smith, M.P. for Norwich, for the sum of 7007., and subsequently purchased by Lord Grosvenor for 1,7607., in whose Gallery it remains. In the Dulwich Gallery is a duplicate of this celebrated picture; for this Sir Joshua received 800 guineas, although it is allowed to be very inferior to the other. The Dulwich picture was purchased of Reynolds by M. De Calonne : at the sale of his collection in 1795, it was purchased, together with the Spanish Flower-girl of Murillo, by Mr. Noel Desenfans, and bequeathed by his heir, Sir. F. Bourgeois, to Dulwich College.

When Mrs. Siddons sat for this portrait, she was in her twenty-eighth year, "in the prime of her glorious beauty, and in the full blaze of her popularity."

It is said that Sir Joshua took a hint from the Isaiah of Michael Angelo, as the basis of his figure of Mrs. Siddons; but Phillips states that Mrs. Siddons told him it was the production of pure accident. Sir Joshua had begun the head and figure in a different way, and while he was preparing some colour, she changed her position to look at a picture

hanging on the wall of the room. When he again looked at her, and saw the action she had assumed, he requested her not to move; "and thus arose the beautiful and expressive figure we now see in the picture." Mrs. Siddons's own version of the story is, however, as follows:

When I attended for the first sitting, after more gratifying encomiums than I can now repeat, he (Sir Joshua,) took my hand, saying: "ascend your undisputed throne, and graciously bestow upon me some good idea of the Tragic Muse." I walked up the steps, and instantly seated myself in the attitude in which the Tragic Muse now appears.

Sir Joshua has painted his name in the gold border of the drapery, as some of the old masters painted theirs on the garment of the Madonna. When Mrs. Siddons, stooping down to examine what she supposed to be a piece of classic embroidery, noticed it, the painter replied, "I could not lose the honour this opportunity afforded me of going down to posterity on the hem of your garment."

This picture has Reynolds's peculiarity-that, however loaded and enriched in every part of the work, the head is kept smooth and thinly painted. Mrs. Siddons, looking at the picture when unfinished, begged Sir Joshua not to touch the head any more; and, having promised her, he refrained, notwithstanding the richness and depth of the fearless glazings would seem to demand a corresponding force in the head.

REYNOLDS'S CARRIAGE.

When Sir Joshua started his coach, he employed Catton to paint the panels with figures of the Four Seasons; the wheels were also carved and gilt; indeed, it was a state or full-dress carriage. His sister complained that it was too showy"What?" said the painter, "would you have one like an apothecary's carriage?" This has been mentioned as an instance of vanity and ostentation; it has been likewise said that Reynolds's coachman made money by showing the carriage, which may have been done without his master's knowledge. There was nothing remarkable in having the carriage ornamentally painted; for coach-painting was then a higher profession than at present, and Sir Joshua was perhaps anxious to show his friend Catton's skill and proficiency in the art. Nor did Reynolds keep his carriage merely for ostentation, but for use: he frequently devoted it to the comfort and convenience of his friends, and Boswell

relates that a party having been invited to dine at Twickenham, Sir Joshua lent his carriage, and went himself on horseback.

Catton was a native of Norwich, and a distinguished coach painter at the Academy in St. Martin's-lane, he learned to draw the human figure, and at the foundation of the Royal Academy, he was appointed one of its members. In 1784, he served as Master of the Painter Stainers' Company, when Reynolds dined in their Hall on St. Luke's Day, taking with him Boswell. Sir Joshua was a member of the Company, to which he was presented in 1784. Peter Cunningham significantly remarks, "No Royal Academician of the present day would ever dream of becoming a member;" but it is gratifying to record that in 1860, the Painter Stainers' Company gave in their Hall in Little Trinity-lane, an exhibition of works of Decorative Art, thus reviving the object of the ancient guild; and the exhibition is to be continued annually. Catton is believed by some to have painted the allegorical subjects on the panels of the present City state-coach, which was built in 1757; by others, the panels are said to have been repainted by Dance.

HORACE WALPOLE AND SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.

Walpole had several tiffs with Reynolds. Thus, he writes, in 1785, to the Countess of Ossory: "I am not quite in charity with Sir Joshua: he desired to come and see my marvellous Henry VII.; when he saw it, he said, 'It is in the old hard Flemish manner.' For hard, it is so bold, that it is one of the greatest reasons for doubting its antiquity; and for Flemish, there is nothing Flemish in it, except a chiarsoscuro, as masterly as Rubens's; but it is not surprising that Sir Joshua should dislike colouring that has lasted so long!"

Upon another occasion, however, we find Walpole yielding, when he says of "Prior's picture, an uncommonly fine head, "I do not pretend to dispute Sir Joshua's skill, as he must know better than I do, the pencilling of different masters. At first sight, I merely supposed the Prior was painted by old Dahl, but I dare say Sir Joshua is in the right.”

Walpole is very severe upon Sir Joshua's Last Discourse to the Academy, which "will rather do hurt than good on his disciples, and make them neglect all kind of finishing. Nor is he judicious in quoting Vandyke, who at least specified