NAPOLEON THE FIRST.

Sir Thomas Lawrence, writing from Aix-la-Chapelle to Mrs. Wolfe, says: "Lord Liverpool gave me an account of the Commissioner's interview with Bonaparte, when his doom of St. Helena was announced. Throughout the whole, he preserved the most calm and dignified composure: once only being at all agitated, when, in speaking of the Regent, he said that posterity would be the judge of his conduct towards him. At that moment, a quivering in his upper lip, and his eyes filling, spoke an emotion that betrayed itself at no other time during the conference."

REMOVAL TO RUSSELL SQUARE.

Lawrence was now on the verge of middle life; he had built up a stately reputation in Art; and ranked at the head of his profession. He next removed from Greek-street to 65, Russell-square. Here he set up his easel, never to be removed by his own hand. His painting-room was filled with portraits in all stages of study or progress. Here might be seen the heads of sitters, awaiting their turn to be mounted upon shoulders; and here at one time might be seen, in this condition, the heads of Scott and Campbell, West and Fuseli, and scores of other distinguished persons. His house was a museum of choice specimens of painting, sculpture, architecture, and engraving; his pictures, drawings, and studies of the great masters of modern art, were arranged by his own hand, but the house exhibited no luxurious appearance beyond the treasures of art which his taste and fortune had enabled him to collect. Of the designs of Fuseli he had thousands, and loved to show them to his friends in the evening; every new drawing had its anecdote history; he was extremely fond of talking of Fuseli. His bust was placed in Lawrence's evening-room, beside those of Flaxman and Stothard; and statues of Michael Angelo and Raphael by Flaxman-these were the Penates of the painter's private room. Hoppner, his most formidable rival in portraiture, was now dead; and Lawrence largely increased his prices, yet without reducing the number of opulent sitters.

His principal expenses were on account of his art his great ambition was to rear up a school of his own; and among other evidences of his enthusiasm was a plan for trans

forming his house into a series of studios and galleries, on which he consulted Smirke, the architect; but the scheme was far too costly, and required time.

PORTRAITS OF THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA, THE KING OF PRUSSIA, BLUCHER, AND PLATOFF.

In 1814, Lawrence took advantage of the presence of the Allies in Paris to visit that capital, and inspect the treasures of the Louvre. He was, however, soon recalled by the Prince Regent to paint the Emperor of Russia, the King of Prussia, Prince Blucher, and the Hettman Platoff. They sat for their portraits in the mansion which then occupied the ground between Stable-yard and St. James's Park; which is now the site of Stafford House, the mansion of the Duke of Sutherland.

The pictures painted in memory of the visits of the conquerors were exhibited next year, with a portrait of the Duke of Wellington bearing the Sword of State at St. Paul's, on the day of Thanksgiving for the Peace. The portraits of Blucher and Platoff are excellent.* The Prince Regent, it is said at the suggestion of the Emperor of Russia, conferred the honour of knighthood upon Mr. Lawrence; the Regent assuring him of his esteem for a man whose genius had so greatly elevated the character of the country for the arts, in the estimation of Europe.

LAWRENCE AND CANOVA.

During Canova's visit to England, in 1816, he sat to Sir Thomas Lawrence for his portrait, with which he was much pleased; and the great Sculptor, on his return to Rome, was principally instrumental in procuring the honorary distinctions of the Academy of St. Luke's for Lawrence and Flaxman.

About the same period, Sir Thomas painted, it is said, after death, the portrait of James Watt, the inventor of the present power of the steam-engine; but the likeness never became so popular as Chantrey's bust of the great inventor.

*The Rev. Mr. Mitford has left this interesting record of Platoff's sitting at Sir Thomas's house in Russell-square: "We shall never forget the Cossacks mounted on their small white horses, with their long spears grounded, standing centinels at the door of the great painter, while he was taking the portrait of their General Platoff."-Gentleman's Magazine, Jan. 1818.

LAWRENCE AND MRS. WOLFE.

Among Sir Thomas's fair sitters was Mrs. Wolff, the wife of the Danish consul, but living apart from her husband; a young and beautiful woman, and of considerable taste in art and literature. The painter and the sitter became intimate: the one complained of the coldness of spinsters; and the other condoled with his entanglements in love. Of course, the lady's advice was pure and platonic. Lawrence called her in his correspondence Aspasia, and designed a picture of the building of the Parthenon, with Aspasia and Pericles directing the workers in ivory and gold in raising the temple. But he soon laid aside the sketch. His letters were garnished with strange and flighty speculations; but he also confided to the lady his troubles of actual life and the working-day world -how he had enemies abroad accusing him of "forming his squad," so that he might have everything his own way. He also revealed to Mrs. Wolff the vexations of his own studio. "I have," he says, "the cares of an overwhelming business, and all its dissatisfactions, together with the perplexing adjustment of those incumbrances that once so nearly ruined me. I am perpetually, too, mastered by my art; and am as much endowed by the picture I am painting, as if it had a personal existence, and obliged me to attend to it." Mrs. Wolff adored Lord Byron, and Lawrence, to gratify her, dashed off with his pen the head of the poet, but with somewhat too dark a shade. To conclude, there seems to have been much impassioned talk in the letters, of which the painter's love mostly consisted: but the lady retired into Wales, and so the story ends.

Mrs. Wolff, however, continued to correspond with Lawrence until her death, in the middle of the year 1829. He was deeply affected at her loss: he laid aside his pencil for nearly a month; and in sadness of spirit, he wrote: "I have lost a faithful and revered friend; one worthy, from genius, right principle, benevolence, and piety to be the companion of the best."

THE ELGIN MARBLES.

On the merits of these celebrated antiques, Lawrence, in 1816, gave the following evidence:

"I am well acquainted with the Elgin marbles: they are of the highest class of art; and to purchase them would be

an essential benefit to the arts of this country. They would be of high importance in a line of art which I have very seldom practised; I mean, the historical: for, though I have seen the marbles in Paris, and know other figures of great name, the Elgin marbles present examples of a higher style of sculpture than any I have seen. I think they are beyond the Apollo. There is in them a union of fine composition and grandeur of form, with a more true and natural expression of the effect of action upon the human frame, than there is in the Apollo, or in any other of the most celebrated statues. I consider, on the whole, the Theseus as the most perfect piece of sculpture of a single figure that I have ever seen as an imitation of nature: but, as an imitation of character, I would not decide, unless I knew for what the figure was intended."

Sir Thomas appears to have been misunderstood or misrepresented at the time he gave these opinions, in which the majority of our artists agree-in pronouncing the Theseus to have been a closer imitation than the Apollo. Lawrence, except the President of the Royal Academy, was the only painter who was consulted upon the subject. The last of worldly affairs that engaged his attention was the able defence of Flaxman upon the Elgin marbles, by their mutual friend, Mr. Campbell. Whilst Lawrence's feelings were absorbed in this subject, he expired,-little reflecting that the defender of Flaxman would, in a few days, be called upon to perform the office of his biographer.

LAWRENCE AT CLAREMONT.

In 1817, Sir Thomas was commissioned to paint the portrait of the Princess Charlotte a second time, and he stayed at Claremont nine days. In letters to a friend he has described the habits of the royal pair, in an unostentatious and delightful picture of their domestic life.

"The Princess he describes wanting in elegance of deportment her manner (he says) is exceedingly frank and simple, and if she does nothing gracefully, she does everything kindly. She both loves and respects Prince Leopold, who, from the report of the gentlemen of his household, is considerate, benevolent, and just, and of very amiable manners. In his behaviour to the Princess he is affectionate and attentive, rational, and discreet.

"Their mode of life is very regular: they breakfast together about eleven; at half-past twelve, she came in to sit to me, accompanied by Prince Leopold, who stayed great part of the time. About three she would leave the painting-room to take her airing round the grounds, in a low pony-phaeton, the Prince always walking by her side. At five she would come in and sit to me till seven; at six, or before it, he would go out with his gun to shoot hares, or rabbits, and return about seven; soon after which we went to dinner, the Prince and Princess appearing in the drawing-room just as it was served up. Soon after the dessert appeared, the Prince and Princess retired to the drawing-room, whence we soon heard the pianoforte, accompanying their voices. At his own time, Colonel Addenbroke, the chamberlain, proposed our going in.

"After coffee, they sat down to whist, the young couple being always partners, the others changing. (Owing to Sir Thomas's superiority at whist, he did not obey the command.) The Prince and Princess retire at 11 o'clock.

"I was at Claremont, on a call of inquiry, the Saturday before the Princess' death. Her last command to me was, that I should bring down the picture to give to Prince Leopold upon his birthday, the 16th of the next month.

"It was my wish that Prince Leopold should see the picture on his first entering the room to his breakfast, and accordingly, at 7 o'clock, I set off with it in a coach. I got to Claremont, uncovered it, and placed it in the room in good time. Before I took it there, I carried it in to Colonel Addenbroke, Baron Hardenbrock, and Dr. Short, who had been the Princess' tutor. Sir Robert Gardiner came in, and went out immediately. Dr. Short looked at it for some time in silence, but I saw his lips trembling, and his eyes filled to overflowing.

"I learnt that the Prince was very much overcome by the sight of the picture, and the train of recollections it brought with it. Colonel Addenbroke went in to the Prince, and returned shortly, saying, 'The Prince desires me to say who míuch he is obliged to you for this attention, and that he shall always remember it.' (Soon after Sir Thomas proceeded to the Prince.) As I passed through the hall Dr. Short came up to me, (he had evidently been and was crying,) and thanked me for having painted such a picture. 'No one is a better judge than I am, sir,' said he, and turned away.