and the whimsical, Reynolds opposed constant courtesy, and soothed them by that professional flattery to which they are generally accessible. Disappointment and unmerited neglect had for ever roughened Johnson; his trade polished Reynolds. The flattery which the latter practised with his pencil helped to smooth his tongue, and I am surprised that Northcote, a man shrewd and observing, should have been unconscious of this, when he accuses the former of pride, envy, and vulgarity, and compares the discourtesy of his inquiring, in the presence of the Dutchess of Argyle, "How much, Reynolds, do you think we could win in a week, if we were to work as hard as we could?" with the graceful and accommodating manners of his old master. Reynolds, however,-whether from that kind of feeling which induces one man to admire another for what he wants himself, or from a desire of profiting by the wisdom and the wit, the conversational eloquence and opulent understanding of Johnson,-cultivated the friendship of the great author assiduously and successfully-and of the fruit which he derived from the intercourse he thus speaks in one of his discourses on art. "Whatever merit these Discourses may have, must be imputed in a great measure to the education which I may be said to have had under Dr. Johnson. I do not mean to say, though it certainly would be to the credit of these Discourses if I could say it with truth, that he contributed even a single sentiment to them; but he qualified my mind to think justly. No man had, like him, the art of teaching inferior minds the art of thinking. Perhaps other men might have equal knowledge, but few were so communicative. His great pleasure was to talk to those who looked up to him. It was here he exhibited his wonderful powers. The observations which he made on poetry, o' life, and on every thing about us, I applied to our art-with what success thers mus judge." The price which Reynolds at first received for a head was five guineas; the rate increased with his fame, and in the year 1755 his charge was twelve. Experience about this time dictated the following memorandum respecting his art. "For painting the flesh-black, blue-black, white, lake, carmine, orpiment, yellow-ochre, ultramarine, and varnish. To lay the pallet:-first lay, carmine and white in different degrees; second lay, orpiment and white ditto; third lay, blue-black and white ditto. The first sitting, for expedition, make a mixture as like the sitter's complexion as you can." Some years afterward I find, by a casual notice from Johnson, that Reynolds had raised his price for a head to twenty guineas. The year 1758 was perhaps the most lucrative of his professional career. The account of the economy of his studies, and the distribution of his time at this period, is curious and instructive. It was his practice to keep all the prints engraved from his portraits, together with his sketches, in a large portfolio; these he submitted to his sitters; and whatever position they selected, he immediately proceeded to copy it upon his canvass, and paint the likeness to correspond. He received six sitters daily, who appeared in their turns; and he kept regular lists of those who sat, and of those who were waiting until a finished portrait should open a vacancy for their admission. He painted them as they stood on his list, and often sent the work home before the colours were dry. Of lounging visiters he had a f great abhorrence, and, as he reckoned up the fruits of his labours, "Those idle people," said this disciple of the grand historical school of Raphael and Angelo, "those idle people do not consider that my time is worth five guineas an hour." This calculation incidentally informs us, that it was Reynold's practice, in the height of his reputation and success to paint a portrait in four hours. His acquaintance with Johnson induced him about this time to write for the Idler some papers, on exact imitations of nature and the true conception of beauty. These essays are not remarkable either for vigour or for elegance; they set nothing old in a new light. He claims for painting the privilege of poetry-in selecting fit subjects for the pencil, in imitating what is pure and lofty, and avoiding the mechanical drudgery of copying with a servile accuracy all that nature presents. He asserts that poetry is the sister of painting; that both exercise authority over the realms of imagination; and that the latter alone adds intellectual energy to the productions of fancy. Concerning our conceptions of the beautiful, he says that the productions of nature are all of themselves beautiful; and that custom, rather than the surpassing loveliness of particular objects, directs our admiration. He expended much thought in the composition of these papers, and as they were required by Johnson to meet some sudden emergency, he sat up all night, which occasioned a sharp illness that detained him awhile from his pencil. In these essays, he urges his favourite theory of contemplating and practising the more grave and serenely poetical style of painting, and his love of the religious productions of the great apostles of Romish art is visible in every page. His remarks are deficient in that original spirit which distinguishes the ruder memorandums of Hogarth; and what is odd enough, he seems to comprehend less clearly than the other the scope and character of the works of the great foreign masters, though he had lived long in the daily contemplation of their productions. Notwithstanding his professional diligence, and the time which he was compelled to yield to the attachment of friends and the curiosity of strangers, ›he found leisure to note down many useful remarks concerning his art; some of which seem coloured by the imagination or moulded by the sagacity of VOL. I.-T Johnson. "The world," he says, "was weary of "When you talked of your Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff, The influence of an artist of commanding skill now began to be manifest; those who admired the moral scenes of the shrewd and sarcastic Hogarth, were no less delighted with the works of one who had all the grace and beauty which long acquaintance with foreign pictures had taught them to admire. It was pleasing to national pride to see an Englishman measure himself successfully with Lely or Vandyke; and personal vanity was hourly pampered by his hand. Commissions continued to pour in the artist engaged several subordinate labourers, who were skilful in draperies-raised his price in 1760 to twenty-five guineas, and began to lay the foundation of a fortune. It has been said that Hogarth observed the rising fame of Reynolds with vexation and with envy; but of this I have observed no proofs, either in his ..works or in his memorandums; and as he was not given to dissembling, but a bold, blunt man, it 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 imitaion, I am told, of foreign academies. This year was the second exhibition. They please themselves |