seems likely that he would have taken some opportunity of expressing such feelings, if they had really existed. The cold and cautious nature of Reynolds rendered him, in the opinion of Johnson, almost invulnerable; but I think Hogarth would have found a way to plague even him, had he been so disposed. For the envy of Hogarth we have the authority of Nichols, who lived near those times; but his assertion is to be received with caution, if not with distrust; he was no admirer of the man whose character he undertook to delineate, and in the same book, where he depreciated the dead, he deified the living. Hogarth may have laid himself open to such a suspicion by the manner in which he opposed the foundation of public lectures and the establishment of an academy.

In the year 1760 a scheme, long contemplated and often agitated, was carried into execution-the establishment of an exhibition of the works of British artists. Concerning this undertaking, Johnson thus writes to Baretti. "The artists have established a yearly exhibition of pictures and statues, in imitation, I am told, of foreign academies. This year was the second exhibition. They please themselves much with the multitude of spectators, and imagine that the English school will rise much in reputation. Reynolds is without a rival, and continues to add thousands to thousands, which he deserves, among other excellences, by retaining his kindness for Baretti. This exhibition has

filled the heads of the artists and lovers of art. Surely life, if it be not long, is tedious; since we are forced to call in the assistance of so many trifles to rid us of our time-of that time which never can return."

One of the biographers of Reynolds imputes the reflections contained in the conclusion of this letter, "to that kind of envy, which perhaps even Johnson felt, when comparing his own annual gains with those of his more fortunate friends." They are rather to be attributed to the sense and taste of Johnson, who could not but feel the utter worthlessness of the far greater part of the productions with which the walls of the exhibition room were covered. Artists are very willing to claim for their profession and its productions rather more than the world seems disposed to

concede. It is very natural that this should be so; but it is also natural that a man of Johnson's cast should be conscious of the dignity of his own pursuits, and agree with the vast majority of mankind in ranking a Homer, a Virgil, a Milton, or a Shakspeare, immeasurably above all the artists that ever painted or carved. Johnson, in a conversation with Boswell, defined painting to be an artwhich could illustrate, but could not inform."

The catalogue to this new exhibition was, however, graced with an introduction from the pen of the doctor-which contains the following passage: "An exhibition of the works of art, being a spectacle new in the kingdom, has raised various opinions and conjectures among those who are unacquainted with the practice of foreign nations. Those who set their performances to general view have too often been considered the rivals of each other; as men actuated, if not by avarice, at least by vanity, as contending for superiority of fame, though not for a pecuniary prize. It can not be denied or doubted that all who offer themselves to criticism are desirous of praise; this desire is not only innocent but virtuous, while it is undebased by artifice or unpolluted by envy; and of envy or artifice, those men can never be accused, who, already enjoying all the honors and profits of their profession, are content to stand candidates for public notice with genius yet unexperienced and diligence yet unrewarded; who, without any hope of increasing their own reputation or interest, expose their names and their works only that they may furnish an opportunity of appearance to the young, the diffident, and the neglected. The purpose of this exhibition is not to enrich the artist, but to advance the art; the eminent are not flattered with preference, nor the obscure insulted with contempt; whoever hopes to deserve public favor is here invited to display his merit."

This is very specious and splendid; but the men of fortune and reputation who planned and directed this work, were more likely to seek stations of importance for their own paintings, than to be solicitous about obtaining such for the labors of the nameless. Positions of precedence were likely to be eagerly contended for among the contributing artists; and it is probable that Johnson did not pen these conciliatory paragraphs without a secret smile

ment.

In the year 1761, the accumulating thousands which Johnson speaks of, began to have a visible effect on Reynold's establishHe quitted Newport street, purchased a fine house on the west side of Leicester Square, furnished it with much taste, added a splendid gallery for the exhibition of his works, and an elegant dining room; and finally taxed his invention and his purse in the production of a carriage, with wheels carved and gilt, and bearing on its panels the four seasons of the year. Those who flocked to see his new gallery were sometimes curious enough to desire a sight of this gay carriage, and the coachman, imitating the lackey who showed the gallery, earned a little money by opening the coach house doors. His sister complained that it was too showy. "What!" said the painter, "would you have one like an apothecary's carriage?"

By what course of study he attained his skill in art, Reynolds has not condescended to tell us; but of many minor matters we are informed by one of his pupils with all the scrupulosity of biography. His study was octagonal, some twenty feet long, sixteen broad, and about fifteen feet high. The window was small and square, and the sill nine feet from the floor. His sitter's chair moved on castors, and stood above the floor a foot and a half; he held his palettes by a handle, and the sticks of his brushes were eighteen inches long. He wrought standing, and with great celerity. He rose early, breakfasted at nine, entered his study at ten, examined designs or touched unfinished portraits till eleven brought a sitter; painted till four; then dressed, and gave the evening to company.

His table was now elegantly furnished, and round it men of genius were often found. He was a lover of poetry and poets; they sometimes read their productions at his house, and were rewarded by his approbation, and occasionally by their portraits. Johnson was a frequent and a welcome guest; though the sage was not seldom sarcastic and overbearing, he was endured and caressed, because he poured out the riches of his conversation more lavishly than Reynolds did his wines. Percy was there too with his ancient ballads and his old English lore; and Goldsmith with his latent genius, infantine vivacity, and plum-colored coat.

It was

Burke and his brothers were constant guests, and Garrick was seldom absent, for he loved to be where greater men were. honorable to this distinguished artist that he perceived the worth of such men, and felt the honor which their society shed upon him; but it stopped not here--he often aided them with his purse, nor insisted upon repayment. It has, indeed, been said that he was uncivil to Johnson, and that once on seeing him in his study, he turned his back on him and walked out; but to offer such an insult was as little in the nature of the courtly painter, as to forgive it was in that of the haughty author. Reynolds seems to have loved the company of literary men more than that of artists; he had little to learn in his profession, and he naturally sought the society of those who had knowledge to impart. They have rewarded him with their approbation; he who has been praised by Burke, and who was loved by Johnson, has little chance of being forgotten.

He obtained the more equivocal approbation of Sterne, of whom he painted a very clever portrait, with the finger on the brow and the head full of thought. The author of Tristram Shandy, speaking of his hero's father, says, "Then his whole attitude had been easy, natural, unforced, Reynolds himself, great and graceful as he paints, might have painted him as he sat." The death of Sterne is said to have been hastened by the sarcastic raillery of a lady whom he encountered at the painter's table. He offended her by the grossness of his conversation, and being in a declining state of health, suffered, if we are to believe the story, so severely from her wit-that he went home and died. That man must be singularly sensitive whose life is at the mercy of a woman's sarcasm; the most of us are content to live long after we are laughed at.*

Reynolds' next work, Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy, has been highly praised. Figures of flesh and blood, however, never work well with figures of speech. Shadow and substance

*To poor Sterne there is an inglorious memorial among the nettles of Bayswater burial ground-a wretched headstone, inscribed with the more wretched rhymes of a tippling fraternity of Freemasons. The worst is not yet told; his body was sold by his landlady to defray his lodgings, and was recognized on the dissecting table by one who had caroused with him, and enjoyed his witty and licentious conversation.

can not enter into any conversation; the player standing irresolute between two such personations is an absurdity which the finest art-and it is not wanting-can not redeem. The soldier pondering between his Catholic and Protestant doxies, in Hogarth's March to Finchley, is natural and irresistibly comic; but David Garrick between his shadowy heroines is another affair.

Reynolds meditated a larger and more elaborate work—a composition displaying Garrick in his various powers as a comic and tragic actor. The principal figure was designed to be David himself, in his own proper dress, speaking a prologue. A little retired were to appear groups of figures in the costume and character of the various heroes, from Hamlet down to Abel Drugger, in the representation of which the actor had obtained his fame. All these were to be portraits, gently modified according to character. This idea was never probably sketched; it seems strange and unnatural; there could be no unity, as they were all individual personations, which fitted each other in the ludicrous manner of the scraps composing a medley. Garrick, however, who labored under a double load of vanity as actor and author, was charmed with the idea, and cried out, "That will be the very thing which I desire; the only way, that I can be handed down to

posterity."

While this eminent actor's portrait was in progress, he mentioned to Reynolds that he once sat to Gainsborough, whose talents he did not admire, and whom he puzzled by altering the expression of his face. Every time the artist turned his back the actor put on a change of countenance, till the former in a passion dashed his pencils on the floor, and cried, "I believe I am painting from the devil rather than from a man." He sat often to Reynolds for different portraits; and on one of these occasions complained wofully of the unceasing sarcasms of Foote. "Never mind him," replied the shrewd painter, "he only shows his sense of his own inferiority; it is ever the least in talent who becomes malignant and abusive."

In the year 1762, the health of Reynolds having been impaired by constant labor, he went into Devonshire, accompanied by JohnHe was welcomed with something of a silent approbation;

son.