tian Richter; probably a copy from the former, with a slight variation. What is wanting in circumstances is more than_compensated by his works. The most capital are the two figures of Melancholy and raving Madness before the front of Bedlam."

Brief and imperfect as this sketch may appear, I have now related all that is known concerning the works or the personal history of Gabriel Cibber, who must be regarded as the forerunner, at least, of whatever is poetic in the sculpture of Great Britain.

LOUIS FRANCIS ROUBILIAC.

WHEN D'Argenville in 1787 drew up his Lives of the most eminent Sculptors of France, he omittea the name of Roubiliac, for which no other cause has been assigned, than that he was known to the world through his English works alone, and had performed nothing for the decoration of his native land. There is the more reason that he should be attended to here; but in truth he needs no subsidiary title to all the distinction which a narrative of his life and a critical account of his works can give, for he was a genius and a gentleman.

Of the incidents of his story little more is on record than what we find by Walpole, who seems to deserve in this instance the reproach of negligence; for at the time when he was composing his Anecdotes, the works of this sculptor were widely known-his fame was high, and his memory must have been fresh in a thousand recollections.

The

courtly biographer has satisfied himself with a few leading facts, and left his early life and studies unexplored. Much traditional matter concerning Roubiliac still lingers about our London studios; but all stories of that class require to be received with caution; and in interweaving oral information with the anecdotes of Orford, I shall keep this rule before me. Roubiliac was born, by all accounts, at Lyons -it is generally supposed about the year 1695; studied under Balthazar of Dresden, sculptor to the Elector of Saxony; and came to London in 1720

when he was twenty-five years old. Of his parents I have never heard any account; but it is likely that they were respectable, for he had obtained a fair education, and was well acquainted with the literature of his native land. His knowledge of the best French poets I have heard described as extensive; and, indeed, some of his own short poems in that tongue are still remembered. He never mastered English so as to converse in it with readiness and elegance; and in most of the anecdotes which I have heard of him he is introduced as using that kind of broken dialect which is common to foreigners here.

An

Of the occasion of his coming to London, we have two accounts; one written, the other oral. The first alleges merely the known wealth of England, and the encouragement which was then held out in this country to foreign sculptors of even very moderate talents: the second is more circumstantial. English traveller, says the legend, happened to be strolling through a town in France, when his attention was casually attracted by some clay-sketches of a poetic nature in the humble studio of a young and nameless artist: he admired them-took the sculptor's address, and continued his journey. Some time-years, it is said-passed on, when a friend requested the traveller's advice concerning a monument of value which he proposed to raise--the merits of the living artists were discussed—the sculptor of Lyons was recalled to memory-an invitation was given, promises were made, and Roubiliac came over. Some have pronounced the circumstance of his working in the studies of Carter and Cheere to be inconsistent with this latter account, but I cannot perceive that the fact in question throws any discredit upon the tale. One monument could not be sufficient to occupy the whole time of an ardent young artist, and what could he do better than lend his hand to other sculptors, till he had the fortune to

obtain full employment on his own account? Rysbrach, a sculptor of some talent, at that time enjoyed the patronage of London, and years probably elapsed -as sculpture is of slow growth-before the new candidate succeeded in establishing his name. Lord Orford indeed informs us, that he had little business till Sir Edward Walpole recommended him to execute half the busts in Trinity College, Dublin; but he has neglected to give the date of this act of kindness.

The patronage of Sir Edward Walpole arose from another cause than a mere appreciation of the artist's talents, if we credit a story related by Sir Joshua Reynolds, respecting which Orford, in enumerating the generous acts of his relation, has been suspiciously silent. “Of Roubiliac,” says Northcote, "it is a pleasing circumstance to record that his own goodness of heart first brought his abilities into notice, and that his great success in life seems to have depended in some degree on his honest and liberal conduct soon after he came to England. At that time he was merely working as a journeyman to a person of the name of Carter; and the young artist having spent an evening at Vauxhall, on his return picked up a pocket-book, which he discovered, on examining it at his lodgings, to contain a considerable number of bank notes, together with some papers apparently of consequence to the owner. immediately advertised the circumstance, and a claimant soon appeared, who was so pleased with the integrity of the youth, and so struck with his genius, of which he showed several specimens, that he not only, being a man of rank and fortune, gave him a handsome remuneration, but also promised to patronise him through life, and faithfully performed that promise."

He

The owner of the pocket-book was Sir Edward Walpole, and according to the tradition of the pro

fession, all the recompense which he could persuade Roubiliac to receive was the present of a fat buck annually. This yearly present speaks not only of the gentlemanly pride of the artist, but of an establishment beyond the mark of a mere journeyman who had no higher income than his weekly wages. Some confusion has crept in among the authorities which I have consulted. The account given by Smith, who had it from his father, one of Roubiliac's pupils, assists but little. "I find," says he, in the life of Nollekens, " from a manuscript in my father's handwriting, that M. Roubiliac owed his introduction to Mr. Jonathan Tyers to his friend Cheere, with whom he worked before he ventured upon his own account. It happened in the following manner. At the time Mr. Tyers had engaged in the Vauxhall-Gardens speculation he requested the advice of M. Cheere as to the best mode of decoration. I conclude you will have music, observed Cheere, therefore you cannot do better than have a carving of an Apollo-now what do you say to a figure of Handel? Good! replied Jonathan, but that will be too expensive, friend Cheere. No, answered the sculptor, for I have an uncommonly clever fellow working for me now, and introduced to me by Sir Edward Walpole; employ him, and he will produce you a fine statue. This he did; and the following copy of a receipt will at once prove the kind way in which he assisted him :- June the 9th, 1750. I promise to pay to Jona. Tyers twenty pounds on demand; value received.'" By jumbling transac tions of very different dates together, this biographer has made confusion worse confounded. The statue in question was the work of a much earlier period than 1750. In 1732 Tyers was busy embellishing Vauxhall, and Hogarth and Cheere were both employed professionally in the improvements; and to this period I am disposed to assign the appearance