^3 CURSORY OBSERVATIONS 



such fidelity and spirit, as to be recognized at first view. Copley's 

 death of the Earl of Chatham was an historical picture of this class. 

 Every figure was a portrait from the life. The head of the earl 

 was copied from a likeness painted some years before. If, instead of 

 this lively truth, an artist were to draw a king from his own brain, 

 with fancy heads, persons, and dresses, for the archbishop, nobility, 

 and gentry, and to transfer the scene from Westminster Abbey to 

 St. Paul's Cathedral, or York Minster, in such a case, to offer his 

 coinage to the world as a representation of the coronation of George 

 the Fourth, or William the Fourth, would subject him to the charge 

 of a glaring incongruity, and an entire falsification. The whole 

 might be admirably executed, as far as the pencil and colours could 

 excel, but that would be no defence against a just censure. 



Where a picture is not ofiered as a representation of a reality, and 

 there is not a prototype in existence, or that its existence is only a 

 matter of report, doubted and denied, to censure a noble production 

 of genius, and charge the artist with incongruities, on account of a 

 supposed want of fidelity or vere- similitude, is surely not justifiable? 

 1 repeat, it appears to me the error and incongruity, in such an in- 

 stance, is in the mind of the censor who is so inconsiderate as to ex- 

 pect an impossibility, that is, he would have the canvass to contain 

 likenesses of persons and things which exist only in his own fancy 

 and never entered into the mind or plan of the painter. His objec- 

 tion is not that those young and lovely girls are ill drawn, ill co- 

 loured, or grouped, ill painted, or at all indecorous. Oh, no ! — it is 

 that they are too beautiful, and beautifully painted. But it is not 

 asserted that nature has withheld beauty from Ireland, or that young 

 and lovely females are not frequent in that island. Their introduc- 

 tion, therefore, in Mc'Clise's picture, is perfectly consistent with a 

 painter's license, and the objection falls to the ground. As I have 

 already observed, in all works of fiction, even in those which are 

 founded in historical events, a writer, or painter, is allowed to in- 

 troduce such probable agents and accessories, from general society, 

 as are calculated to render his work more pleasing and interesting. 

 This license is not exceeded by the introduction of these beautiful 

 girls in the Installation ; on the contrary, the artist, in availing 

 himself of his lawful privilege, has proved the richness of his inven- 



