JOHNSON COLLECTION ROSE. 687 



an English mansion. The painter who came after him knew that his 

 works would be hung beside Van Dyck's portraits, so aristocratic, so 

 elegant, so full of style ; and he felt that he must not derogate from 

 their high standard. 



By general consent Sir Joshua Reynolds is placed at the head of 

 the English school. Probably he deserved it, but his colors have so 

 often faded and dulled that as matters really stand to-day his pre- 

 eminence is no longer incontestable. 



When he pronounced the eulogy on Gainsborough, after the lat- 

 ter's death, he said that Gainsborough was the greatest of all English 

 landscape painters; and Richard Wilson, piqued, perhaps, that he 

 himself should have been assigned to an inferior rank in his chosen 

 field, exclaimed "And the greatest portrait painter, too." 



I confess that I am inclined to Wilson's opinion. Certainly when 

 we compare Reynolds's theatrical Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse 

 with the wonderful portrait of that marvelous woman by Gains- 

 borough, so refined, so keenly intelligent, so vitally alive, that hangs 

 in the London National' Gallery, Sir Joshua appears indeed a poor 

 second. But Rejmolds is not often so insincere, and Gainsborough 

 perhaps never again reached to such a height, so that the question of 

 preeminence is not easy to decide. 



In the Johnson collection Sir Joshua is represented by two fine 

 examples, the Duchess of Ancaster and Viscount Hill, both handsome 

 young aristocrats, painted with admirable skill and showing none 

 of that deterioration too common in his pictures. 



Gainsborough is still better represented. 



The portrait of Lord Mulgrave, dressed as a naval officer, is one of 

 his most important works. A large, distinguished-looking man in 

 blue coat and white waistcoat, he stands out with intense vitality 

 against a red curtain, while to the left we see a far-reaching and de- 

 lightful English landscape. 



Though he made his living painting portraits, Gainsborough was, 

 at heart, a painter of landscapes; and whenever he could escape from 

 the drudgery of portraiture, he sallied forth into the woods and 

 fields, to depict the beauties of nature. Here he is a supreme mas- 

 ter, as he is in portraiture. Unhappily he was compelled to paint 

 these truant masterpieces rapidly, putting on one coat before its pre- 

 decessor was entirely dry, so that they have cracked more than his 

 portraits ; but they are very beautiful and supremely attractive. In 

 this one we have fine trees, between which is a splendid view of an 

 extensive prospect bathed in the glow of sunset, the whole redolent 

 with the charm of the English countryside. At the door of an hum- 

 ble thatched cottage stands a most beautiful and aristocratic woman 

 evidently one of Gainsborough's most distinguished sitters. She is 

 supposed to be the mother of the four children about her, who, how- 



