28 Old Pictures (Jury, 
harm by its exhibitions ; for we are willing to admit, that all the amount 
of mingled shame, pity, and disgust, which these last-named displays | 
of pictorial pretensions have called forth year after year for the last half 
century, added to the weight of moral misery which has sprung from 
the creation of the herd of “artists” necessary to produce these displays, 
does not perhaps equal in magnitude the permanent delight and imstruc- 
tion, and the prolific results of these, which have arisen from that admir- 
ing contemplation of old pictures, which the general public could have 
accomplished by no other means, and of which pictures, for the most part, 
they were not even aware of the existence. 
We propose, chiefly for the sake of those of our distant readers who 
may not be able to inspect these admirable productions for themselves, 
to take a hasty glance at a few of the most choice (for they are all choice) 
among those which have been selected for the exhibition just opened. 
And be it expressly undersood, that we do this in the character of 
lovers of art, merely—not as connoisseurs of it, for we profess to know 
little or nothing about it, still less as artists—for we practise it not at all. 
So that in whatever terms we may, in conformity with the critical cus- 
toms of the day, express ourselves in regard to any object of our notice, 
all that we seek and hope to do is, to convey to those at a distance 
from these objects, what we ourselves feel or think when present before 
them. ; 
Here is a collection of a hundred and ninety pictures ; every one of 
which has been placed here solely on account of its merit. Now this, 
we take it, is more than can be said with truth of any other existing 
collection, public or private. The thing never before happened, except 
in the previous collections of a similar kind at this place. And the 
consequence has been, that, taking the same number of pictures, no 
other collection that at present exists, is at once so perfect and so inte- 
resting, looking at them as a general collection, comprising all the 
schools. We shall notice the most striking, in the numerical order in 
which they are arranged. 
No.1. The Duchess of St. Croix. VannyKEe.—WNo. 2. The Spanish 
Courtesan. Muriti0o.—tThe first-named of these pictures is one of the 
most refined, elegant, and characteristic productions of the most refined 
and elegant person, in his way, that ever lived. It is a whole-length 
portrait, the size of life. The courtly lady whom it represents, is in 
the act of retiring from the open air into an apartment, which is con- 
cealed from the vulgar gaze by a rich drapery—which latter she is 
pressing aside with her exquisite hand, as she places her foot on the 
rising step by which it is approached. Her robe, which envelopes her 
whole person, excepting only her face and hands, is one great dead mass 
of black velvet, which, however, in no respect impairs the lightness of 
the whole picture, but only gives it that solidity and dignity which (in 
the eyes of this most courtly of artists) become the subject: for “with 
him a court, and its privileged denizens, were no more to be approached 
or comprehended by the vulgar, than a fortified city is by its avowed 
enemies. These latter may stand outside the fortifications if they please, 
and gaze upon the outworks ; but, so far from entering, they must not 
‘be permitted even to understand the nature of that which keeps them 
out. The whole air of this exquisite portrait is the very acmé of that 
conventional refinement which never prevailed, either before or since, 
in such perfection as during the period of this great painter of artificial 
