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In 1749, he accompanied captain, afterwards Lord Keppel, by whom he was warmly patronized, in a voyage to the Mediterranean; and, after spending two months in Port Mahon, sailed to Leghorn, from whence he proceeded to Rome. Of the course of his studies, while he remained there, little can now be known. In his notes on Du-Fresnoy, he gives an account of an ingenious method taken by him, when at Venice, to discover the principles of chiaro-scuro, adopted by the painters of that school; and in another part confesses, that he was much disappointed at the first sight of the works of Raphael in the Vatican, and greatly mortified to find that he had not only conceived wrong notions of that great man, but was even incapable of appreciating his real excellence. "Notwithstanding my disappointment," he says, "I proceeded to copy some of those excellent works. I viewed them again and again. I even affected to feel their merit, and to admire them more than I really did. In a short time a new taste and new perceptions began to dawn upon me, and I was convinced that I had originally formed a false opinion of the perfection of art; and since that time, having frequently revolved the subject in my mind, I am of opinion, that a relish for the higher excellencies of the art, is an acquired taste, which no man ever possessed without long cultivation, great labour and attention."

On his arrival in London, in 1752, he soon attracted the public notice; and not long afterwards, the whole length portrait he painted of his friend and patron, Admiral Keppel, exhibited such powers, that he was not only acknowledged to be at the head of his profession, but to be the greatest painter that England had ever seen since Vandyck. Mr. Reynolds soon saw how much ani

ENGLAND.] SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.

mation might be obtained by deviating from the insipid manner of his immediate predecessors-hence, in many of his portraits, we find much of the variety and spirit of a higher species of art. Instead of confining himself to mere likenesses, in which he was eminently happy, he dived, as it were, into the minds, habits, and manners, of those who sat to him; and never began a picture without a. determination of making it his best. He was one of the few artists whose efforts to improve ended but with his life; and whose unceasing progress almost justified the maxim he was so fond of repeating, " that nothing is denied to well-directed industry." Though the landscapes which he has given in the back-ground of many of his portraits are eminently beautiful, he seldom exercised his hand in regular landscape painting. But in the historical department he took a wider range; and, by his successful exertions in that higher branch of his art, he has not only enriched various cabinets at Rome, but extended the fame of the English school to foreign countries.

As an author, a character in which he appears scarcely less eminent than in that of a painter, we probably owe his exertions to his situation in the Royal Academy of Arts, in the institution of which, in the year 1769, he had a principal share; and, being unquestionably of the first rank in his profession, he was elected the president. This circumstance did not a little contribute to the increase and establishment of his fame: nor did the Academy derive less credit from the admirable works which he continued yearly to exhibit in it, consisting chiefly of portraits; though he rarely suffered a season to pass in which he did not bring forward some fine specimens of his powers in history. From the years 1769 to 1790 in-. clusive, it appears that he sent no less than 244 pictures

to the exhibition. Soon after his election, the king, to give dignity to the new institution, conferred on him the honour of knighthood.

It was no part of the prescribed duty of his office to read lectures to the Academy; but this task he voluntarily imposed upon himself, for the reasons assigned in his fifteenth discourse." If prizes were to be given, it appeared not only proper, but almost indispensably necessary, that something should be said by the president on the delivery of those prizes; and the president, for his own credit, would wish to say something more than mere words of compliment, which, by being frequently repeated, would soon become flat and uninteresting, and by being uttered to many, would at last become a distinction to none. I thought, therefore, if I were to preface this compliment with some instructive observations on the art, when we crowned merit in the artists whom we rewarded, I might do something to animate and guide them in their future attempts." Such was the laudable motive which produced the fifteen discourses pronounced by Sir Joshua; a work, to use the language of his biographer, which contains such a body of just criticism on an extremely difficult subject, clothed in such perspicuous, elegant, and nervous language, that it is no exaggerated panegyric to assert, that it will last as long as the English. tongue, and contribute, no less than the production of his pencil, to render his name immortal. Some years after the publication of the first seven of these discourses, the author had the honour to receive from the Empress Catherine of Russia, a gold box, with a basso relievo of her imperial majesty on the lid, set round with diamonds; accompanied with a note within, written with her own hand, containing these words:" Pour le Chevalier

ENGLAND.] SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.

Reynolds, en temoignage du contentement que j'ai ressentie à la lecture de ses excellens discours sur la peinture."

The assiduity and love for his profession left him but little leisure, and less inclination, to make excursions into the country. Occasionally, however, he passed a few days at his villa on Richmond Hill, and visited at different times the seats of some of the noblemen and gentlemen of his acquaintance, from whence he was always glad to return to the practice of his profession, justly considering, like his friend Johnson, the metropolis as the head-quarters of intellectual society. In the summer of 1781, with a view of examining critically the most celebrated productions of the Flemish and Dutch painters, he made the tour of Holland and Flanders; and the fruit of his travels was a very pleasing account of his journey, containing remarks on the pictures preserved in the various churches and cabinets that he visited-to which he has subjoined a very masterly character of Rubens. In the year 1783, the late Mr. Mason having finished his elegant translation of Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting, Sir Joshua enriched that work with a very ingenious commentary; and, in the following year, on the death of Mr. Ramsay, he was sworn principal painter in ordinary to his majesty, in which office he continued to his death.

Having thus borne down all opposition, and, as the summit of human felicity, obtained the first place in his profession, little remains to be added, but that he was one whom the most rare and enviable prosperity could not spoil. His whole life, to the time of the failure of his sight, was passed in the diligent and unwearied pursuit of his art, at once his business and his pleasure. The hours of relaxation were chiefly spent in the company of his

numerous friends and acquaintance; and, from his cheerful and convivial habits, his table for above thirty years exhibited an assemblage of all the taste, talents, and genius of the three kingdoms: there being, during that period, scarce a person distinguished for his attainments in literature or the arts, at the bar, in the senate, or in the field, who was not occassionally found there. The pleasure and instruction which he derived from such company induced him, in conjunction with Dr. Johnson, to establish the Literary Club-a society which can boast of having had enrolled among its members, many of the most celebrated characters of the last century.

Although for a long series of years Sir Joshua Reynolds enjoyed an uninterrupted state of good health, in the year 1782 he was for a time afflicted with a paralytic affection, from which he in a few weeks recovered; but, in 1789, while he was painting the portrait of Lady Beauchamp, he found his sight so much affected that it was with difficulty he could proceed in his work, and notwithstanding the aid of the most skilful oculists, he was shortly afterwards deprived of the sight of his left eye. After some struggles, lest his remaining eye should fail him, he resolved to paint no more. This determination to him was a serious misfortune; still, however, he retained his usual spirits, and partook of the society of his friends with the same pleasure as before. But, in October, 1791, from an apprehension that an inflamed tumour which took place over the eye that was lost, might affect the other also, he became much dejected. Meanwhile he laboured under a much more dangerous disease; but which, as he could neither explain to his physicians the nature, nor point out the seat of it, many believed to be imaginary, and he was advised to shake it off by exertion. At length,

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