"The Prince was looking exceedingly pale. He spoke at once about the picture, and of its value to him more than to all the world besides. From the beginning to the close of the interview, he was greatly affected. He checked the first burst of affection by adverting to the public loss, and that of the royal family. Two generations gone!-gone in a moment! I have felt for myself, but I have felt for the Prince Regent. My Charlotte is gone from this country-it has lost her. She was good, she was an admirable woman. None could know my Charlotte as I did know her. It was my happiness, my duty, to know her character, but it was my delight."

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During a short pause, I spoke of the impression it had made on me. 'Yes, she had a clear, fine understanding, and very quick-she was candid, she was open, and not suspecting, but she saw characters at a glance, she read them so true. You saw her; you saw something of us-you saw us for days-and you saw our year! Oh! what happiness!'

"I tried to check this current of recollection, that was evidently overpowering him (as it was me), by a remark on a part of the picture, and then on its likeness to the youth of the old King. Ah! and my child was like her, for one so young (as if it had really lived in childhood). For one so young, it was surprisingly like.'

"My Charlotte! My dear Charlotte!' And now, looking at the picture, he said, 'Those beautiful hands, that at the last, when she was talking to others, were always looking out for mine!'

"She was strong, and had courage, yet once she seemed to fear. You remember, she was affected when you told her that you could not paint my picture just at that time; but she was much more affected when we were alone-and I told her I should sit when we went to Marlborough House after her confinement. "Then," she said, "if you are to sit when you go to town and after my confinement then I may never see that picture." My Charlotte felt she never should.'”

PORTRAITS OF THE ALLIED SOVEREIGNS.

After Napoleon had been consigned to St. Helena, the sovereigns met in congress at Aix-la-Chapelle, and this was deemed by the Prince Regent of England a fit opportunity

for commemorating the crowning glory of the War by a collection of portraits of the principal personages engaged in it. The Regent accordingly dispatched his painter to the imperial and royal head-quarters: he was to be allowed one thousand a year for contingent expenses, and the portraits were to be painted at the usual price. From Aix-la-Chapelle, Lawrence was to proceed to Vienna, and thence to Rome, to complete the commission. Our Government caused to be constructed in this country three immense portable rooms of wood, which were shipped with all Sir Thomas's canvass and matérielthe rooms to be erected in the grounds of our ambassador at Aix. Sir Thomas, however, arrived there before the packages; when the Magistrates of the city granted him the use of part of the large gallery of the Hôtel de Ville, which was immediately fitted up as a painting-room, "and," says Sir Thomas, "it is certainly the best I ever had." Sir Thomas, in his letters, minutely describes the several sittings-the courts and assemblies, and public entertainments: he tells us how the Emperor of Russia chose to be painted in the close green hussar uniform which he had worn at the battle of Leipsic; how the features of the Emperor of Austria are anything but good, though the expression is that of a paternal monarch, who "has a face, when speaking, of benevolence," and how the painter was happy enough to catch that expression; how the King of Prussia is taller than either, has good features, and is of a sincere and generous nature; and how the head of the Archduke Charles is that of a fine, eager, soldier-like, undismayed man. The sovereigns of Austria and Prussia each gave the painter a superb diamond ring, and all kinds of courtly commendations were showered upon him.

From Aix-la-Chapelle, Lawrence went to Vienna, to paint Schwartzenburg, and other imperial generals. Count Capo d'Istrias was the best portrait he painted there. From Vienna he went to Rome, where he painted most magnificently Pope Pius VII. and Cardinal Gonsalvi. "His Holiness (says Lawrence,) has a fine countenance, stoops a little; with a firm and sweet-toned voice, and as I believe, is within a year or two of eighty; and through all the storms of the past he retains the jet black of his hair. Cardinal Gonsalvi, the Pitt of Rome, is one of the finest subjects for a picture that I ever had a countenance of powerful intellect, and symmetry; his manners but too gracious; the expression of every wish was pressed upon me, and the utterance of every complaint."

These two portraits are by far the finest which Lawrence painted during his long journey. He arrived in England in March, 1820.

We shall presently tell more of his stay in Rome. With respect to his commission, the gallery at Windsor, we may state that of these princes and rulers of the earth he now painted Francis, Emperor of Austria, Louis XVIII. and Charles X. successively kings of France, the Archduke Charles, Prince Metternich, General Tchernicheff, General Ouvaroff, Baron Hardenberg, Count Nesselrode, Baron Gentz, Earl Bathurst, the Earl of Liverpool, Robert Marquis of Londonderry, the Duke of Cambridge, and Mr. Canning. The whole collection of the European portraits which he painted amounted in number to twenty-four.

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This collection of pictures is now in the Waterloo Hall, at Windsor Castle. 'Among a great number of portraits," says Dr. Waagen, "all cannot be equal in merit. I was particularly pleased with those of the Pope, Cardinal Gonsalvi, and the Emperor of Austria. Besides the graceful and unaffected design, the clear and brilliant colouring, which are peculiar to Lawrence, these are distinguished by greater truth of character, and a more animated expression than is generally met with in his pictures." The praise here given to Sir Thomas Lawrence is just, but it is not complete: he possessed the happy talent of idealizing his forms, without departing from nature, or destroying the likeness. He evidently profited by the sound advice given him by Sir Joshua Reynolds, “not so to imitate the old masters as to give a richness of hue rather than the ordinary hues of nature, but to paint what he saw;' but at the same time, "not to fall into the vulgar error of making things too like themselves."

Thus was formed the magnificent collection of historical portraits in the Waterloo Hall, by George the Fourth, the most munificent patron of art in England since Charles the First; the magnificence of the commemoration is, however, but in just proportion to the importance of the event which it seeks to perpetuate by this noble triumph of pictorial art.

ON TURNER, BY LAWRENCE.

Sir Thomas Lawrence, writing to Mr. Farington, from Rome, in 1819, says: .

"Turner should come to Rome. His genius would here be supplied with materials, and entirely congenial with it.

It is one proof of his influence on my mind, that, enchanted as I certainly am, whenever I go out, with the beauty of the hues, and the forms of the buildings-with the grandeur of some, and variety of the picturesque in the masses of the ordinary buildings of the city-I am perpetually reminded of his pencil, and feel the sincerest regret that his powers should not be excited to their utmost force. He has an elegance, and often a greatness of invention, that wants a scene like this for its free expansion; while the subtle harmony of this atmosphere, that wraps everything in its own milky sweetness-for it is colourless, compared with the skies of France and England, and more like the small Claude of Mr. Angerstein's and Lord Egremont's, though the latter has a slight tendency-has it not?-to heaviness ;this blending, I say, of earth and heaven, can only be rendered, according to my belief, by the beauty of his tones. I must already have written the substance of this to you, as I have to Lyrons; but my dwelling on the subject arises from no affectation or assumed feeling. It is a fact, that the country and scenes around me do thus impress themselves on me, and that Turner is always associated with them; Claude, though frequently, not so often; and Gaspar Poussin still less."

(It will be seen that before the close of the year, Turner visited Rome.)

LAWRENCE PAINTING IN ROME.

About three weeks after Sir Thomas had left Rome, there appeared in the Collector, dated July 20, 1820, the following tribute to his genius and popularity:

"We have recently seen here quite a constellation of English talent. Lawrence, Turner, Jackson, Chantrey, and Moore to say nothing of a milky-way of secondary geniuses. The first named (Lawrence) has made a sensation beyond description. You will see a proof of the likelihood of this in the works he has taken over with him; but you cannot figure to yourself the effect here of the contrast they presented to the cold, insipid, weak things of the present school of Rome. To the Italians he seemed to introduce a new art, and he gave them all plenty of opportunity to see not only his works, but his manner of working, by leaving them freely open to inspection in all their different stages. With great liberality, and an utter absence of quackery and affectation,

he admitted the public, without distinction or exception, between each sitting, into the room where his pictures were. He was regarded as a superior being, and a wonder indeed he was here. His elegant manners made him so many friends, and these and his talents procured him so many distinctions, that he could scarcely prevail on himself to quit the place. Lawrence has declared that Rome supplies the test of the painter and the poet. It has, I believe, inspired him with high resolves, which I hope his return to London will not dissipate. His portraits of sovereigns, &c., you will see; but one small work which he has left here exceeds, in the estimation of everybody, all that he has done beside, without exception. It is the head of Canova, which he did in London, entirely repainted; and it may now be cited as the most poetical, elegant, enthusiastic delineation of acute genius, without flattery, that has ever been executed. Its animation is beyond all praise. 'Per Baccho, che uomo e questo!' I heard Canova cry out when it was mentioned. And then, the effect of the whole exceeds even the Emperor's. Crimson velvet, and damask, and gold, and precious marble, and fur, are the materials which he has worked up to astonishing brilliancy, without violating good taste, or the truth of nature. This painting is a present to his Holiness, and a noble one it is."

SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

Shortly before the return of Lawrence, in 1820, Benjamin West, the venerable President of the Royal Academy, died full of honours; and to the first intimation which he received of this event, it was added that he was to be elected in his place. Sir Thomas replied: "There are others better qualified to be present. I shall, however, discharge the duties as well and wisely as I can. I shall be true to the Academy; and in my intentions just and impartial." He was chosen unanimously, and the King, in giving his sanction to the choice of the Academicians, added a superb gold chain and medal of himself, inscribed thus: "From His Majesty George IV. to the President of the Royal Academy."

When Sir Thomas took the presidential chair among his brethren, it was generally acknowledged that for reputation in art, gentlemanly accomplishments, and acquaintance with