366 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



state of his afiairs, was this day ad- 

 dressed by Aldcrmai! Bojdell to his 

 friend Sir Joliii W. Anderson, and 

 read by the latter in the House of 

 Comnions, when appl\ing for leave 

 to dispose of the paintings, &c. by 

 lottery : 



J)ear Sir, C/u upside, Feb. 1. 



The kindness with which you 

 have iindertakc^i to represent iny 

 case, calls upon me to lay open to 

 you, with tiie utmost candour, the 

 circumstances attending it, which 1 

 will nov/ endeavour to do as brielly 

 as possible. It is above oO years 

 since I began to study the art of en- 

 graving, in the course of which time, 

 besides employing that long period 

 of life in riy profession, with an 

 industry and assiduity that would be 

 improper in me to describe, I have 

 laid out with my brethren, in pro- 

 moting the commerce of the tine 

 arts in this country, above 350,0001. 

 When I first began business, the 

 whole commerce of prints in this 

 country consisted in importing 

 for(5igu prints, principally from 

 France, to supply the. cabinets of 

 the curious in this kingdom. Im- 

 pressed with the idea tliat the genius 

 of our own countrymen, if prop>'rIy 

 encouraged, was equal to that of fo- 

 reigners, I set about establishing a 

 Scfioul of Engrai'uig in England ; 

 with what success the public is well 

 acquainted. Itis, perhaps, at present 

 suificient to say, that the whole course 

 of that commerce is changed; very 

 few prints being now imported into 

 this country, while the foreign mar- 

 ket is principally supplied with prints 

 from England, in eli'ecting this fa- 

 vourite plan, I have not only spent 

 a long life, but have employed near 

 40 years of the labour of my ne- 

 phew, Josiah Boydell, who has been 

 bred to the business, and whose as- 



l 



sistance during that period has been 

 greatly instrumental in promoting a 

 school of engraving in this country, 

 By the blessing of Providence, these 

 exertions have been very success- 

 ful ; not only in that respect, but in 

 a commercial point of view ; for, the 

 large sums I regularly received from 

 the Continent, previous to the 

 French Revolution, for impressions 

 taken from the numerous plates en- 

 graved in England, encouraged me 

 to attempt also an English School of 

 Historical Painting. I had observed 

 with indignation, that the want of 

 such a school had been long made 

 a favourite topic of opprobrium 

 against this country among foreign 

 writers on national taste. No sub- 

 ject therefore could be more appro- 

 priate for such a national attempt, 

 than England's inspired poet, and 

 great painter of nature, Shakspeare; 

 and I flatter myself, the most pre- 

 judiced foreigner must allow that 

 the Shakspeare Gallery will convince 

 the world, that Englishmen want 

 nothing but the fostering hand of 

 encouragement to bring forth their 

 genius in this line of art. 1 might 

 go further ; and defy any of the i 

 Italian, Flemish, or French schools, 

 to show, in so short a space of time, 

 such an exertion as the Shakspeare 

 Gallery; and If they could have 

 made such an exertion, the pictures 

 would have been marked with all 

 that monotonous sameness which 

 distinguishes those different schools. 

 Whereas in the Shakspeare Gallery 

 every artist, partaking of the free- 

 dom of ids country, and endowed 

 ■with that originality of thinking so 

 peculiar to its natives, has chosen his 

 own road to what he conceived to 

 be excellence, unshackled by the 

 slavish imitation and uniformity that 

 pervade ail the foreign schools. 



Tliis 



