to snatch up his trumpet, and resume a look of anxious inquiry and uncertain comprehension. Mr. Shee, the author of Sir Martin's Life, remarks: "I believe it is no uncommon thing for a deaf person to hear better in a tête-à-tête colloquy, than when surrounded by the buzz of general conversation in a large party. But in Sir Joshua's case the contrast seems to have been unusually marked and calculated to impart a peculiar significancy to Goldsmith's couplet:

When they talked of their Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff,
He shifted his trumpet, and only took snuff.

REYNOLDS'S PARSIMONY.

Odd stories are current of the President's meanness in small matters. Rogers used to relate that he happened to be passing by Sir Joshua's house in Leicester-square, when he saw a poor girl seated on the steps and crying bitterly. He asked what was the matter; and she replied that she was crying "because the one shilling which she had received from Sir Joshua for sitting to him as a model had proved to be a bad one, and he would not give her another."-Mr. Leslie discredits this story, and very properly.

REYNOLDS'S EXPERIMENTAL COLOURS.

It is to be regretted that Sir Joshua continued his experiments in colours for a long course of years, and that they infected more or less many of his finest works. He was (says Cunningham) exceedingly touchy of temper on the subject of colouring, and reproved Northcote with some sharpness for insinuating that Kneller used vermilion in his flesh-colour. "What signifies," said he, "what a man used who could not colour? you may use it if you will." He never allowed his pupils to make experiments, and on observing one of them employing some unusual compounds, exclaimed, "That boy will never do good, with his gallipots of varnish and foolish mixtures."

The secret of Sir Joshua's own preparations was carefully kept: he permitted not even the most favoured of his pupils to acquire the knowledge of his colours; he had all securely locked, and allowed no one to enter where these treasures were deposited. What was the use of all this secrecy? those who stole the mystery of his colours could not use it unless they stole his skill and talent also.

He was fond of seeking into the secrets of the old painters, and dissected some of their performances, without remorse or scruple, to ascertain their mode of laying on colour and finishing with effect. Titian he conceived to be the great master-spirit in portraiture; and no enthusiast in usury ever sought more incessantly for the secret of the philosopher's stone than did Reynolds to possess himself of the whole theory and practice of the Venetian. But this was a con

"To

cealed pursuit: he disclosed his discoveries to none. possess," said the artist, "a real fine picture by that great master (Titian) I would sell all my gallery, I would willingly ruin myself." The capital old paintings of the Venetian School which Sir Joshua's experiments destroyed were not few, and it may be questioned if his discoveries were a compensation for their loss.

Some soot fell on a picture of Sir Joshua's drying at the fire he took it up and said, "A fine cool tint that," and actually scumbled it beautifully into the flesh. Jackson had this anecdote from Sir George Beaumont.

The elder Reinagle remembered Sir Joshua using so much asphaltum that it dropped on the floor.

Reynolds said once, "Northcote, you don't clean my brushes well." "How can I?” replied Northcote, "they are so sticky and gummy."

REMBRANDT AND REYNOLDS.

Burnet remarks, that Rembrandt's etching of "Old Haring" has always struck him as one of the foundations of Reynolds's style in portraiture: a fine impression of this print, he observes, is more like Sir Joshua than many prints after his own pictures. Hudson had an excellent collection of Rembrandt's works, and therefore, he must have been early imbued with their merits and peculiarities.

I think (says Sir William Beechey,) Rembrandt seduced Sir Joshua, for he seems to have used something of the consistence of butter, which is a most bewitching vehicle certainly. Sir Joshua may, however, have learned this from Gandy, who said that a picture ought to have richness in its texture, as if the colours had been composed of cream or cheese, and the reverse of a hard and husky or dry

manner.

PAINTING FOR POSTERITY.

Burnet tells us that when Reynolds's sister asked him the reason why we never see any of the portraits of Jervas now, he replied, "Because, my dear, they are all up in the garret." Yet, this man rode in his chariot-and-four, and received the praises of Pope in verse. Sir Godfrey Kneller would sometimes receive a sum of money and a couple of portraits by Vandyke as payment; but now a single portrait of the great founder of the Dutch school would outweigh in true value a large collection of Kneller's collected talents; yet Rembrandt died insolvent, and Sir Godfrey accumulated a large fortune. And such will be the fate of all those who paint for posterity, "and look beyond the ignorant present."

The Rev. H. Crowe, the Vicar of Buckingham, relates: "The Marquis of Drogheda was painted in early life by Sir Joshua Reynolds. His Lordship shortly after went abroad, and remained there between twenty and thirty years; during which time he ran into excesses, became bilious, and returned to Ireland with a shattered constitution. He found that the portrait and the original had faded together, and corresponded, perhaps, as well as when first painted."

SIR JOSHUA'S LAST SURVIVING SITTER.

In 1856, it was said that Lord Fitzwilliam was then the last survivor of the sitters to Sir Joshua; but another then remained in the grown-up person of the sitter for Puck, late a porter at Elliot's brewery, in Pimlico. Puck was obtained by Mr. Rogers at Boydell's Shakspeare Gallery sale, for 100 guineas, the sum, Northcote states, Sir Joshua received for it. Lord Melbourne remembered, when a child, sitting to Sir Joshua,* who played with him and rode him on his foot, and said: "Now, be a good boy, and sit a little longer, and you shall have another ride." Lord Melbourne died in 1848.

Sir Joshua loved his art; and though compelled to take occasional excursions into the country for the benefit of his health, he was never so happy as when painting. Such was his application, that, according to Farington, from 1753 until

* Mr. Leslie says of this portrait: "No likeness between a child and a man of 60 (an age at which I remember Lord Melbourne), was ever more striking."

Reynolds's death in 1792, a period of thirty-nine years, excepting the visits which he paid to the Continent for improvement in his art, and twice visiting his native county, he was never absent from his painting-room for more than a few days at a time.

REYNOLDS'S LANDSCAPES.

In regular landscape-painting, Sir Joshua's works are very scarce. At Port Eliot there is a long narrow view of Plymouth and the adjoining scenery, painted by Reynolds in 1748, the year before he went to Italy.

The landscape backgrounds introduced into his wholelength portraits were executed with great breadth and freedom of pencilling, rich in colour, and brilliant in effect, many of them not inferior to the works of Titian and Paul Veronese. Although Reynolds made some studies from nature, yet it is not known that he finished more than three pieces, one of which was a view from his own house, on Richmond Hill. This picture, which may be considered rather an arrangement of rich and brilliant colours, than a defined landscape, was purchased by Mr. Samuel Rogers, at the sale of Lady Thomond's pictures in 1821, for 155 guineas. At the same time was sold a woody landscape; and a bold landscape with figures, in the style of Salvator Rosa: both by Sir Joshua.

REYNOLDS'S VILLA AT RICHMOND.

*

The second house on the right from the Terrace on Richmond Hill is the villa which Sir William Chambers built for his friend, Sir Joshua Reynolds; but it has been much enlarged since his decease. The situation is delightful; but it lacks the privacy which must have been so desirable for Sir Joshua. His niece, Miss Palmer, has well described this villa as "a house stuck upon the top of a hill, without a bit of garden, or ground of any sort near it, but what is as public as St. James's Park." Sir Joshua's last sojourn here extended to several days, which refutes the assertion that, although he frequently visited it, he never passed a night there. Fox observed that Sir Joshua never enjoyed Richmond, for he used to say that the human face was his landscape. This was a piece of pleasantry; for Reynolds must

* In one of the houses on the left of the road, Sir John Soane resided for a short time previously to his death.

have enjoyed the prospect of unequalled richness from Richmond Hill-over all the intervening flat country to the distant high grounds of Stoken Church, Maidenhead Thicket, Windsor Forest and Castle, Cooper's Hill, and St. Ann's Hill; and on the east, a fine view over London, to the Hampstead and Highgate hills.

Hudson, who resided at Twickenham, once observed to his pupil, Sir Joshua Reynolds, of his villa at Richmond, "Little did I think we should ever have had country-houses opposite each other;" to whom Sir Joshua replied: "Little did I think, when I was a young man, that I should at any time look down upon Mr. Hudson."

PRINTS FROM REYNOLDS'S PICTURES.

The earliest mezzotinto engravings which were published from Reynolds's pictures are the portraits of Lady Charlotte Fitzwilliam, with her hair curled and decorated with a feather and beads; and a half-length of Lady Ann Dawson, daughter of the Earl of Pomfret, as Diana. Both prints are dated 1745, and are by McArdell, in mezzotinto, which Reynolds considered best calculated to express a painter-like feeling, particularly in portraits; and he often was heard to declare, that the productions of McArdell would perpetuate his pictures when their colours should be faded and forgotten.

The finest and most complete collections of engravings from the works of Reynolds are those of the Marquis of Lansdowne, and the Duke of Buccleuch. The latter has been arranged by Mr. Colnaghi, in 17 vols. folio, and contains upward of 2,000 engravings. (Cotton.) The prints after Sir Joshua's pictures amount to about 700. (Wornum.)

LAWRENCE'S TRIBUTE TO REYNOLDS.

To the mutual honour of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Thomas Lawrence we select the following from the address delivered by the latter President to the students of the Royal Academy, December 10, 1823, in allusion to the exhibition of Sir Joshua's pictures at the British Institution, in Pall Mall : "With what increased splendour did that genius lately reappear amongst us! Many of us remember, when after long absence, the great Tragic Actress of our time returned for a season to the stage, to correct the forgetfulness of taste, and restore the dignity of her art: it was so with the return-the