English predecessor had done, to the foolish desire of most people to be painted with a smile.

Of indefatigable industry, Lawrence's habit of undertaking too many pictures at the same time was a serious drawback, in many cases, to their excellence. He began the portraits of children which he did not finish till they were grown up; and of gentlemen and ladies while their hair was of its first colour, but which remained incomplete in his rooms till the originals were grey. The most beautiful of his female heads, and beautiful it is, is the one he painted of Lady Elizabeth Leveson Gower (afterwards Marchioness of Westminster). This was begun and finished off-hand; and so was the best male head he ever painted, his first portrait of Mr. West, not the whole-length in the National Gallery, in which he has much exaggerated the stature of the original. He took especial delight in painting the venerable and amiable President, who offered a remarkable instance of the increase of beauty in old age, and of whom this portrait is a work of great excellence.

It is said, that when money was in his pocket, he dealt it freely among all applicants,-whether mendicant artists, or importunate creditors; and that some of the former found, when they opened his sealed envelope, that, instead of the five pounds which they had solicited, they had obtained fifty. To supply this daily drain upon his income, he was driven to become importunate in money matters himself. Having received one moiety of the price for a portrait, he was frequently obliged to apply for the other before the work was done; and his correspondence with Sir Robert Peel, the greatest patron, under a prince, the painter ever had, is chiefly remarkable for the neat way in which he plays the politician about payment, and solicits the price before the completion of the picture.

Haydon relates, in his coarsest manner, of Lawrence, that in 1825, he addressed the Duke of Wellington at the Royal Academy dinner, and appealed to him for aid to build an academy. The Duke rubbed his face with his hand.

Here was Lawrence owing the Duke 2,000l. nearly, which he had advanced him for a large picture of all his general officers in Spain, and which he had never touched, to the Duke's great anger-here was Lawrence addressing the Duke, both he and the Duke feeling conscious of their private relations, and Lawrence the merest tool of the Academicians,

who had set him on. It is pitiable! I never saw any man who had so subdued a look as Lawrence, as if he was worried out of his senses."

PORTRAITS OF SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE.

In Mr. Williams's Life of Lawrence, are engraved three portraits by himself, one, when a boy of sixteen, his first attempt in oil; another from a crayon drawing; and the third, in oil. The latter is the picture he was occasionally persuaded to show to his friends, from its concealment beneath his sideboard.

In the collection of the Marquis of Abercorn, at Chesterfield House, South Audley-street, is an unfinished portrait of Sir Thomas Lawrence, by himself.

Sir Thomas once told Mr. West, "the only portrait he ever sat for, was for the character of a soldier in Trumbell's painting of the Siege of Gibraltar."

A person once went to him with an original portrait, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, of Mrs. Piozzi, and which Sir Thomas readily purchased. The bargain concluded, the vendor said "Sir Thomas, I have something in my pocket that will surprise you-it is a portrait of yourself." Sir Thomas, indeed, seemed surprised, and begged to see it, when the stranger took from his pocket a frontispiece from the Percy Anecdotes. Lawrence burst out laughing, and saying it was something like, got rid of the person.

In stature, Sir Thomas Lawrence was five feet nine inches high, with handsome limbs, and a body finely proportioned. His appearance was extremely graceful and gentlemanlike. When young, he was an accomplished fencer and dancer. His countenance was open and noble; and his eyes were large and lustrous, and very expressive, insomuch that a lady of taste once said that their light was never tamed down by the gentler emotions, nor the polished suavities of conversation, into harmony with the mild character of his face; the light seemed to kindle still, and he could not put it out. His personal friend, Mr. Baily, the sculptor, was allowed to take a cast of Sir Thomas's fine features after death. His head was finely shaped, and bald: he bore a striking resemblance to Mr. Canning, though his face was not of so elevated an expression or character

THE PAINTER'S DAY AND PRACTICE.

Cunningham thus describes Sir Thomas's diligence :-He rose early, and he worked late; for though no one excelled more in rapid sketches, he had a true enthusiasm for his art, and would not dismiss hastily any thing for which he was to be paid as a picture. He detained his sitters often for three hours at a time; had generally eight or nine of these sittings; and all the while studied their looks anxiously, and seemed to do nothing without care and consideration. His constant practice was to begin by making a drawing of the head full size on canvass; carefully tracing in dimensions and expression. This took up one day; on the next he began to paint; touching in the brows, the nose, the eyes, and the mouth, and finally the bounding line in succession. Lawrence sometimes, nay often, laid aside the first drawing of a head, and painted on a copy. This was from his fear of losing the benefit of first impressions, which in such cases are often invaluable. It may be added, that he stood all the while, and was seldom so absorbed in his undertaking, that he did not converse with his sitter, and feel either seriousness or humour, whilst giving thought to the brow, or beauty to the cheek. He adhered to the old rule of receiving half payment at the beginning of a portrait.

The distinguished person who favoured him with forty sittings for his head alone, was Sir Walter Scott. The picture was painted for George the Fourth, and Lawrence was anxious to make the portrait the best of any painted from so celebrated a character.

At other times, however, he was as dexterous as any artist. He once told Burnet that he painted the portrait of Curran in one day he came in the morning, remained to dinner, and left at dusk; or, as Lawrence expressed it, quoting his favourite author,

"From morn till noon,

From noon to dewy eve."

The following were his progressive prices :

The following were his latest prices :

For a head-size, or three-quarters, the great painter received 2107. ; for a kit-kat, 3157.; for a half-length, 4207.; for a bishop, half-length, 525l.; and for a full-length, 6307.; for an extra full length, 7357.

Lord Gower paid Lawrence fifteen hundred guineas for his admirable portrait of his lady and child; and six hundred guineas was the sum paid by Lord Durham for his portrait of Master Lambton.

PAINTING EYES.

One of the critics of this day described the eyes of certain portraits by Lawrence as "starting from their spheres." This remark is curious, for scarcely can ancient or modern art produce a better painter of eyes than Sir Thomas Lawrence. Sir Joshua Reynolds laid it down as a fixed principle that, to create the beautiful, the eyes ought always to be in mezzotint. Sir Thomas Lawrence, though always aiming at the beautiful, never pursued this rule; for his eyes had scarcely any tint at all, or were tinted above the mezzo. In his painting-room in Russell-square, the light was high; but in that at 57, Greek-street, it was higher than artists usually paint from, for it was introduced from the second story by the removal of the floor.

He is ever insisting upon the importance of eyes in pictures. Writing to a young artist, he says: "The eyes of the boy are two dark blots, and ill-formed. Let this carelessness be soon

impossible to you. Be at the pains often to draw that feature: I can quote high authority for it; I have a sheet of eyes, drawn by Michael Angelo, for some young painter, like yourself, whose genius had excited the friendly effort."

Lawrence excelled in painting fine mouths and dark eyes; and he took great pleasure in painting an ear, the intricate and elegant drawing of which, he said, required mastery to imitate.

It was once the lot of Sir Thomas to converse with a thorough wrong-head, who maintained that "Mr. Lawrence, the painter, had been a regular pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds." At last, somewhat irritated, he replied, "Sir, I am the identical Mr. Lawrence you allude to; and the only instruction I ever received from Sir Joshua was a kind offer to correct my drawings, if I brought them to him."

LAWRENCE'S PORTRAITS.

That there is much truth in the following criticism by Haydon is admitted more than it was some thirty years since, when it was written.

"Lawrence's flesh has certainly no blood. He sacrifices all for the head; and what an absence of purity of tint, in comparison with Vandyke or Reynolds! His excellence is expression, but it is conscious expression; whereas the expression of Reynolds, Vandyke, Titian, Tintoretto, and Raphael is unconscious nature.

"Lawrence is not a great man: indeed posterity will think so. Lady Lyndhurst's hands are really a disgrace in drawing, colour, and everything. He affects to be careless in subordinate parts, but it is not the carelessness of conscious power; it is the carelessness of intention.

"Since he went to Italy, his general hue is greatly improved, but his flesh is as detestably opaque as ever.

"Lawrence is dead!-to portrait-painting a great loss. Certainly, there is no man left who thinks it worth while, if he were able, to devote his powers to the elevation of commonplace faces.

"He was suited to the age, and the age to him. He flattered its vanities, pampered its weaknesses, and met its meretricious taste.

"His men were all gentlemen, with an air of fashion, and the dandyism of high life; his women were delicate, but not modest-beautiful, but not natural. They appear to look that they may be looked at, and to languish for the sake of sympathy. They have not that air of virtue and breeding which ever sat upon the women of Reynolds.

"Reynolds's women seem as unconscious of their beauty, as innocent in thought and pure in expression-as if they had shrunk from being painted. They are beings to be met with reverence, and approached with timidity. To Lawrence's women, on the contrary, you seem to march up like a dandy, and offer your services, with a cock of your hat, and a ‘d- -e, will that do?' Whatever characteristics of the lovely sex Lawrence perpetuated, modesty was certainly one he entirely missed.

"Twenty years ago, his pictures (as Fuseli used to say,) were like the scrapings of a tin-shop, full of little sparkling