excellence in his profession, it is now, I fear, too late to inquire; yet, as I find

contentedly submitted to any other authority. His early society was composed of men whose names are well known in the world; such as Hogarth, Rysbrach, Roubiliac, Wills, Ellis, Vanderbank, &c.

"Though he had outlived all the companions of his. youth, he might to the last have boasted of a succession equally numerous; for all that knew him, were his friends.

66

When he was appointed Keeper of the Royal Academy, his conduct was exemplary, and worthy to be imitated by whoever shall succeed him in that office. As he loved the employment of teaching, he could not fail of discharging that duty with diligence. By the propriety of his conduct he united the love and respect of the Stu- . dents: he kept order in the Academy, and made himself respected, without the austerity or importance of office; all noise and tumult immediately ceased on his appearance; at the same time there was nothing forbidding in his manner, which might restrain the pupils from freely applying to him for advice or assistance.

"All this excellence had a firm foundation: he was a man of sincere and ardent piety, and has left an illustrious example of the exactness with which the subordinate duties may be expected to be discharged by him, whose first care is to please God.

"He has left one daughter behind him, who has distinguished herself by the admirable manner in which she paints and composes Pieces of Flowers, of which many

among his papers a few slight hints upon this subject, in which he speaks of his merits and defects with that candour which strongly marked his character, though they are only detached thoughts, and did not receive his final revision and correction, I am unwilling to suppress them :

"Not having the advantage of an early academical education, I never had the facility of drawing the naked figure, which an artist ought to have. It appeared to me too late, when I went to Italy and began to feel my own deficiencies, to endeavour to acquire that readiness of invention which I observed others to possess. I consoled myself, however, by remarking that these ready inventors, are extremely apt to acquiesce in imperfection; and that if I had not their facility, I should

samples have been seen in the Exhibitions. She has had the honour of being much employed in this way by their Majesties, and for her extraordinary merit has been received into the Royal Academy."

for this very reason be more likely to avoid the defect which too often accompanies it; a trite and common-place mode of invention. How difficult it is for the artist who possesses this facility, to guard against carelessness and common-place invention, is well known, and in a kindred art Metastasio is an eminent instance; who always complained of the great difficulty he found in attaining correctness, in consequence of having been in his youth an Improvvisatore.---Having this defect constantly in my mind, I never was contented with common-place attitudes3* or inventions of any kind.--

32 Our great artist's excellence in this respect has been highly extolled by the late Lord Orford:

"How painting has rekindled from its embers, (says that lively and ingenious writer,) the works of many living artists demonstrate. The prints after the works of Sir Joshua Reynolds have spread his fame to Italy, where they have not at present [1780] a single painter that can pretend to rival an imagination so fertile, that the ATTITUDES of his portraits are as various as those of history. In what age were paternal despair and the hor

"I considered myself as playing a great game, and, instead of beginning to save money, I laid it out faster than I got it, in purchasing the best examples of art that could be procured; for I even borrowed

money for this purpose. The possessing portraits by Titian, Vandyck, Rembrandt, &c. I considered as the best kind of wealth. By studying carefully the works of great masters, this advantage is obtained; we find that certain niceties of expression are capable of being executed, which otherwise we might suppose beyond the reach of art. This gives us a confidence in ourselves; and we are thus incited to endeavour at not only the same happiness of execution, but also at

rours of death pronounced with more expressive accents than in his picture of Count Ugolino? When was infantine loveliness, or embryo-passions, touched with sweeter truth, than in his portraits of Miss Price and the baby Jupiter?" The exuberance of his inventions (the samę writer observes, in a note,) will be the grammar of future painters of portraits." ANECDOTES OF PAINTING, &c. vol. iv. Advertisement.

other congenial excellencies. Study indeed consists in learning to see nature, and may be called the art of using other men's minds. By this kind of contemplation and exercise we are taught to think in their way, and sometimes to attain their excellence. Thus, for instance, if I had never seen any of the works of Correggio, I should never perhaps have remarked in nature the expression which I find in one of his pieces; or if I had remarked it, I might have thought it too difficult or perhaps impossible to be executed.

My success, and continual improvement in my art, (if I may be allowed that expression,) may be ascribed in a good measure to a principle which I will boldly recommend to imitation; I mean a principle of honesty; which, in this as in all other instances, is, according to the vulgar proverb, certainly the best policy: I always endeavoured to do my best. best. Great or vulgar, good subjects or bad, all had nature; by the exact repre