21(5 



Monthly Reviciv of Literature, 



[[AuR. 



laughs at the whigs for their imbecility, 

 &c. The Cynic of course takes a leading 

 share in these discussions ; but as to his 

 personal and domestic story, he is left as he 

 was found — no change or conciliation being 

 attempted, and his lady continues to iigure 

 in fashionable circles, and commits no in- 

 discretions. 



FamUy Library, vol. 4. Allan Cunning, 

 ham's Lives of British Painters ; 1 829 — 

 Allan Cunningham is himself no painter, but 

 he is a man of good sense and sound cultiva- 

 tion, and of too much intrepidity to be deter- 

 red by the sarcastic complaint to which he 



alludes will nobody write a book about 



what he understands ? His business is to 

 write lives, not to paint them — to gather 

 and record events — to trace the rise and 

 career ofartists — to examine principles, and 

 judge of execution, and why can none but a 

 painter do this ? Nay, is not the artist the 

 very man least likely to do justice to such 

 a subject ? He is sure to liave his bias and 

 prejudice, and will be guided more by his 

 own tastes, than general judgment. 'We 

 question if there exists a painter with pluck 

 enough, suppose liim unprejudiced — tospeak 

 his mind freely of the British school. It is 

 not long since, tliat we heard a distinguished 

 artist, in a lecture, tallc about the " dear, 

 dcligluful Sir Josliua," obviously, a mere 

 clap-tra]i — it is so liberal to extol established 

 authorities, good or bad. 



The end and aim of painting is not, it is 

 to be presumed, to please painters, but the 

 public; and what is to prevent a cultivated 

 person, though he knows notliing of the 

 manipulation of the art, from judging cor- 

 rectly of its effects ? He, as well as the best 

 artist in the world, can surely decide where 

 a man fails or succeeds. He can tell, as 

 well as he, what is a likeness — yes, and 

 what is a likeness represented with taste or 

 grace. He may know when a tiling is tvell 

 grouped, or a tale ivell told. He can see 

 what is nature and what is not. He can 

 discern where ornaments are incumbrances, 

 where appliances are appropriate, and judge 

 too of the value of what proceeds from 

 current practice and academic habit, and 

 what springs direct from internal prompt- 

 ings, unshackled by rules and authorities. 



AH this, any man of cultivation, who 

 gives his attention duly and steadily to the 

 subject, can do ; and this Allan Cunning- 

 ham ha.s done. He has not been alarmed 

 by great names, nor constrained by fixed 

 rules, which are fixed fetters, which every 

 free man longs to shake off. Artists, some 

 of them at least, will exclaim at his heresies 

 and his temerity, but we have no doubt his 

 example will unseal other lips, and teach 

 them to speak out. The lives of Hogarth 

 and Reynolds arc good specimens of manly 

 judgment ; the latter is calculated to place 

 Sir Joshua in his distinctive and true posi- 

 tion, which is, we take it, somewhat below 

 the niche he nmv occupies. 



The work will extend to three volumes. 

 The present contains an introductory view 

 of the' state of the Art, and some account of 

 the Artists of England, and of foreigners 

 employed and popular in England, up to 

 tlie days of Hogarth. The earliest British 

 painter entitled to individual distinction is 

 Hogarth. In hia sketch of this extraordi- 

 nary artist, Mr. C. has pursued his career 

 step by step, marked his peculiarities, and 

 discussed all his main performances. In 

 his early works he observes, there is little 

 of the spirit which distinguished his after- 

 works, but they are well worth examination, 

 were it but to learn, he wisely adds, the 

 lesson wliich genius reckons ungracious — 

 that no distinction is to be obtained witliout 

 long study and well-directed labour. Self- 

 taught, as he was, Hogarth had probably 

 more than a just contempt for academies 

 and authorities. The taste of his time was 

 gods and goddesses, and especially allegori- 

 cal figures^ and for these Hogarth, whose eye 

 was fixed upon the coarsest scenes of actual 

 life, who had not been bred in the clouds, 

 and had no ambition to soar thither, enter- 

 tained the most sovereign contempt. Nor 

 was his respect for the older painters, 

 especially those who indidged in grave or 

 fanciful subjects, and beyond all, the 

 "dark" ones, as he called them, much 

 greater. The truth is, he had cut out his 

 own path — succeeded eminently — was na- 

 turally satisfied — indifferent about others — 

 and conteiiiptuous when bothered about 

 others' merits. The absurdities of the con. 

 c cited and fastidious AValpole, as well as 

 the prejudices of Ireland and NichoUs, are 

 well exposed. " Hogarth, as a painter," 

 says Walpole, "had little merit." ""What," 

 asks Mr. Cunningham, with spirit and elo- 

 quence, " is the merit of a painter ? If it 

 be to represent life — to give us an image of 

 man — to exhibit the worldngs of his heart — 

 to record the good and evil of his nature — 

 to set in motion before us the very beings 

 with whom earth is peopled — to shake us 

 with mirth — to sadden us with woeful re- 

 flection — to please us with natural grouping, 

 vivid action, and vigorous colouring — 

 Hogarth has done all this — and if he that 

 has done so be not a painter, who will shew 

 us one ? I claim a signification as wide for 

 the word painter as for the word poet,"&c. 

 Wilson's is a short but spirited sketch. 

 That able artist was unlucky enough to be 

 unappreciated in his own day, and forced to 

 labour for bread, which he could scarcely 

 get. Hogarth sold some of his early plates 

 by weight, half-a-crown a pound ; Wilson 

 parted with his Ceyx and Alcyone for a pot 

 of porter and the remains of a Stilton cheese. 

 His view from Kew Gardens was returned 

 by the king, for whom it was painted. In 

 the full consciousness of superiority, he 

 nevertheless worked on, and confidently 

 predicted his pictiu-es would sell for high 

 prices, when Barrett's (a man then making 

 twothoi^sand pounds a year) would not fetch 



