cessfully, that is, lastingly, in this country, for an artist. The one is to paint for the King; the other, to meditate a scheme of your own.' The first he has monopolised; in the second he is not idle; witness the prints from English history, and the late advertisement of allegorical prints to be published from his designs by Bartolozzi. In imitation of so great a man, I am determined to lay, hatch, and crack a egg for myself too, if I can. What it shall be, I am not yet ready to tell with certainty; but the sum of it is, a series of pictures for exhibition, such as Boydell's and Macklin's. To obtain this, it will be necessary that I should have it in my power to work without commission, or any kind of intermediate gain, for at least three years; in which time I am certain of producing at least twenty pictures of different dimensions. The question is, what will enable me to live in the meantime? With less than three hundred a-year certain, I cannot do. My idea is to get a set of men (twenty, perhaps,—less, if possible, but not more,) to subscribe towards it. Suppose twenty pounds each annually, to be repaid either by small pictures or drawings, or the profits of the exhibition, should it succeed, of which there can be no very great doubt.”

In 1797, six of Fuseli's intimate friends agreed to advance him 3007. per annum, until the task was completed. These generous patrons were Messrs. Coutts, Lock, Roscoe, G. Steevens, Seward and Johnson; and Mr. Coutts, in addition, presented Fuseli with 1007., under the injunction that his name should not appear in the transaction. Roscoe also bought pictures by the artist to a considerable amount, and induced his friends and connexions at Liverpool to make purchases.

On May 20, 1799, the rooms in Pall Mall, formerly occupied by the Royal Academy,* were opened for the exhibition of the Milton Gallery: Fuseli renting the premises at 2101. per annum. The exhibition consisted of forty pictures of different sizes; the following being the dimensions of some of the principal ones: Satan starting from the touch of Ithu riel's spear, and Satan calling up his Legions, each 13 feet by 12. Satan encountering Death, Sin interposing; Adam and Eve first discovered by Satan; Satan flying up from Sin and Death in his enterprise; and The Vision of Noah; each 13 feet by 10. Death and Sin bridging the waste of Chaos, and

*This house stood in Pall Mall, opposite Market-lane, leading to St. James's Market, at the south west end of Norris-street.

The Vision of the Lazar House, each 10 feet by 10. The Creation of Eve, Christ on the Pinnacle of the Temple, The Fall of Satan, Adam resolved to share the Fate of Eve, and Eve at the Tree of Knowledge, each 10 feet by 7.

Mr. Knowles describes the Vision of the Lazar-house as the chef-d'œuvre of the Gallery. It is a composition of seventeen figures and parts of figures, in which the painter creates both terror and pity in the spectator, by judiciously excluding most of the objects represented by the poet as suffering under bodily diseases calculated to create disgust, and confining himself chiefly to the representation of the maladies of the mind, which are so forcibly described by the passage,—

Demoniac Phrensy, moping Melancholy,
And moon-struck Madness.

Fuseli shone not only in the grand, the sublime, and the pathetic scenes, but also in the playful ones. Unfortunately for Fuseli, some of the newspapers of the day were so inimical to this Exhibition, that it was difficult for him to get them to insert an advertisement; and some well-timed lines which Mr. Roscoe wrote on the Milton Gallery, lay in the hands of the editor of a popular journal for some weeks before he gave them insertion.

Meanwhile, the whole of the money taken at the doors was not adequate to the payment of the rent of the premises, and the expenses incurred for advertisements and attendants. Fuseli was dismayed, and said: "I have dreamt of a golden land, and solicit in vain for the barge which is to carry me to its shore." But the consciousness of his own merit did not allow him to sink under the disappointment; he determined to try the effect of another season, and laboured diligently upon pictures to be then added to the Gallery.

Barry, who was Professor of Painting, had now rendered himself so obnoxious to the Royal Academy, that they not only dispossessed him of the chair as Professor, but expelled him the Academy. Opie then intimated an intention of offering himself as a candidate for the vacant Professorship; but on being told that Fuseli had the same intention, Opie withdrew, saying: "I would not have surrendered my pretensions to any other artist but Fuseli," who was therefore elected. "The power," says Mr. Knowles, "which he had displayed in the pictures of 'The Milton Gallery,' his learn

ing, and well-known critical knowledge, were the causes which influenced the Academicians in their choice."

The Gallery was reopened in 1800, but did not attract the public; notwithstanding the President, Council and other members of the Royal Academy gave some éclat to the exhibition by publicly dining in the Gallery: the seven additional pictures were much admired; but all that Fuseli got on he occasion, to use his own words, was "mouth honour."

Fuseli closed the Exhibition on July 18, 1800, saying to a friend: "I am fed with honour, and suffered to starve, if they could starve me." The painter sometimes lounged in the Gallery to hear the remarks of the visitors. He did not brood over his failure, but bore it with good humour. One day, a coarse-looking man left his party, and coming up to him, said, Pray, sir, what is that picture?" Fuseli answered, "It is the Bridging of Chaos; the subject from Milton." "No wonder," said he, "I did not know it, for I never read Milton; but I will." "I advise you not," said Fuseli, "for you'll find it a d-d tough job."

66

Fuseli's friends, feeling his embarrassment by these unsuccessful exhibitions, relieved him by becoming purchasers of some of the pictures.

Sir Thomas Lawrence, in his discourse as President of the Royal Academy, December 10, 1823, said, in reference to the Milton Gallery: "The many sublime designs by the great author of this, whose unapproached invention and high attainments, enforce this tribute to living genius."

MR. COUTTS'S LIBERALITY TO FUSELI.

For a period of sixty years, the opulent banker was the unchangeable friend of the painter. He once waited on his patron, and said, "I have finished the best of all my pictures

-the Lazar House-when shall I send it home?" "My friend," said Coutts, "for me to take this picture would be a fraud upon you and upon the world. I have no place in which it could be fitly seen. Sell it to some one who has a gallery-your kind offer is sufficient for me, and makes all matters straight between us."

The apprehensions which Fuseli entertained of poverty were frequently without cause, and Coutts, on such occasions, was known to assume a serious look, and talk of scarcity of cash, and of sufficient securities. Away flew Fuseli, mutter

ing oaths and cursing all parsimonious men; and having found a friend, returned with him breathless, saying, "There! I stop your mouth with a security." The cheque for the sum required was given, the security refused, and the grateful painter went on his way. That Fuseli respected every obligation to this stedfast friend is proved by the Countess of Guildford (Mr. Coutts's daughter) and her family attending the painter in his dying moments; and by the Duchess of St. Albans paying the last tribute of respect to Fuseli, by sending her carriage to his funeral.

FUSELI AND THE BRITISH INSTITUTION.

In 1805, (the same year in which Fuseli edited, for Mr. Johnson, Pilkington's Dictionary of Painters,) a number of noblemen and gentlemen, anxious for the encouragement of the fine arts in England, and especially historical painting, established the British Institution, in Pall Mall; and Fuseli was solicited to send thither some pictures for exhibition and sale. He, however, had no high opinion of the scheme; for, although, in common with other artists, he wished it to succeed-for he held that "the man who purchases one picture from a living artist, which may have some pretensions to the highest class of art, does more real service to the fine arts than he who spends thousands upon the works of the old masters"; yet he thought, to use his own words, "from the colour of the egg, it was more likely to produce an ichneumon than a sphynx," and expressed reluctance to be a contributor. Mr. Coutts, who used every endeavour to promote the establishment and prospects of the British Institution, advised Fuseli to become an exhibitor, and to send, among other pictures, the Lazar House; observing, "I never intended to deprive you of this-it is yours; therefore, sell it if you can." In addition to this picture, the price of which was fixed at 300 guineas, Fuseli sent the Nursery of Shakspeare, for which he asked 150 guineas; and Christ disappearing at Emmaus, the price of the latter, 100 guineas.

The leading members of the Institution, however, hesitated to admit the admirable picture of the Lazar House, considering the subject too painful for the public eye; and they had three meetings before they came to the resolution of exhibiting it. This hesitation on their part, a slight degree of damage which the Nursery of Shakspeare sustained in its

removal from the rooms, and the not finding of a purchaser for either of the pictures, made Fuseli resolve never to exhibit at the Institution again, to which resolution he pertinaciously adhered.-Life, by Knowles.

CANOVA AND FUSELI.

When Canova visited England in 1816, he was much struck with the paintings by Fuseli, as well as with his society. The eminent sculptor remarked, that he not only showed the brilliancy of his genius in his conversation, but that he spoke Italian with the purity of a well-educated native of Rome. And on his return to the Academy of St. Luke, at Rome, Canova sent a diploma, constituting Fuseli a member of the first class.

FUSELI'S RESENTMENT OF A SLIGHT.

One day the painter went, with Mr. Knowles, to the private view of a picture: after they had been in the room a few minutes, Fuseli pointed out a clergyman, and said, "That is Howley, the Bishop of London; he and I were very intimate. Before he became a dignitary of the Church, he used to come to my house frequently, and sit there for hours together; but for some years he seems to forget even my person." Shortly after, Lord Rivers came into the room, and accosted Fuseli in his usual familiar manner, and perhaps, not knowing that he had been acquainted with the Bishop, took an opportunity of introducing him. Fuseli immediately said, "I have seen his Lordship before now," and turned upon his heel. The Bishop, without reference to this passage, which perhaps he had not seen, told Mr. Leslie that, greatly as he admired the genius of Fuseli, he was obliged to withdraw from him on account of his ungovernable temper, which was apt to explode in downright insult on his associates.

LONDON SMOKE.

Haydon notes: "So far from the smoke of London being offensive to me, it has always been to my imagination the sublime canopy that shrouds the city of the world. Drifted by the wind, or hanging in gloomy grandeur over the vastness