fragments which I have found on this interesting subject. On the last topick he might with great truth have added, that he not only always aspired to attain the highest excellence of colouring, but that in very many instances he did attain it; there being no one particular in which he left his contemporaries so far behind him, as the richness and mellowness of his tints, when his colours were successful and permanent.35 Had he chosen to walk in the 35 The set of pictures which he painted as designs for the window of New College Chapel, are eminent and brilliant instances of the truth of this observation. However high expectation may have been raised by Mr. Warton's very elegant verses on this subject, it will be fully gratified by the view of these admirable pieces. They now form a beautiful decoration of that apartment, which formerly was appropriated to the exhibition of the various works of this great master, after they were dismissed from his painting-room. As the West Window of New College Chapel, decorated as it now is, will long continue to add to this great Painter's reputation, his own observations on this subject may not be unacceptable to the numerous visitors. who shall hereafter be induced to view it. The original scheme, it appears, was, to distribute the various figures common beaten path, he could have found no difficulty in following the ordinary method pursued by much inferior artists; by in different places in the Chapel, but this plan was abandoned, as it should seem on our author's sugges tion; and on his suggestion also the stone-work of the window was altered, só as to admit one large compartment for paintings in the centre; an alteration in effecting which the gentleman to whom Sir Joshua Reynolds addresses two letters on this occasion, who was then a fellow of New College, was actively instrumental. From these letters, which were obligingly communicated to me by Ozias Humphry, Esq. R. A. I subjoin the following extracts, in confirmation of what has been now stated. Leicester-Fields, Dec. 27,.1777. "I am extremely glad to hear the Society have determined to place all our works together in the West Window, to make one complete whole, instead of being distributed in different parts of the Chapel. In my conversation with Mr. Jervais about it, he thought it might be possible to change the stone-work of the window, so as to make a principal predominant space in the centre, without which it will be difficult to produce a great effect. As Mr. Jervais is now at Oxford, I need add no more; I have already expressed to him how much I wished this alteration might be practicable.". In a subsequent letter (Jan. 9th, 1778,) he says,Supposing this scheme to take place, [the alteration above proposed,] my idea is, to paint in the great space deviating from it, he attained that grace which sheds such a lustre on far the greater part of his works. 36 in the centre, Christ in the manger, on the principle that Correggio has done it, in the famous picture called the Notte; making all the light proceed from Christ. These tricks of the art, as they may be called, seem to be more properly adapted to glass painting, than any other kind. This middle space will be filled with the Virgin, Christ, Joseph, and Angels; the two smaller spaces on each side I shall fill with the shepherds coming to worship; and the seven divisions below with the figures of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and the Four Cardinal Virtues; which will make a proper rustick base or foundation for the support of the Christian Religion. Upon the whole it appears to me, that chance has presented to us materials so well adapted to our purpose, that if we had the whole window of our own invention and contrivance, we should not probably have succeeded better."--- The original Picture of the Nativity, a copy of which occupies the middle compartment of this window, is in the collection of the Duke of Rutland. 36.A notion prevails concerning this great painter; that in the majority of his works the colours have entirely faded and perished; but this is by no means the case: far the greater part of his pictures have preserved their original hue, and are in perfect preservation. Those which have failed, have been mentioned again and again, and thus have been multiplied in the imaginations of 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; his only works of this description, that I know of, being one in the collection of Sir Brooke Boothby, Bart., another in that of Lord Pelham at Stanmer, and the third a View from Richmond-Hill, in the collection of the Earl of Inchiquin. A few more may perhaps be found in other collections. 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 home, but ex But in connoisseurs.-Nor should it be forgotten, that the pictures of other considerable painters have not been more durable than his. As many perished pictures of Gainsborough, I have been informed, may be found in cabinets, as of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Even the great colourists of antiquity were not entirely free from this defect. Several pictures of Titian and Vandyck, it is well known have wholly lost that brilliancy which, without doubt, they once possessed. tended the fame of the English School to foreign countries.37 37 The most considerable of his Historical and Miscellaneous Pieces are the following; to which, for the sake of posterity, I have adjoined the prices paid for them, and the purchasers' names, where I could discover them. Another, the same subject. 100.. Sir B. Boothby, Bt: A Gipsy telling fortunes. . 350 . . Do. |