REYNOLDS, SIR JOSHUA. 



RHAM, WILLIAM LEWIS. 



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rcquiro any particular comment hero. They are certainly in many 

 respects admirable ; yet with much sound and original criticism, they 

 contain much also that is questionable. 



In 1770 Sir Joshua raised his price for a head to thirty-five guineas. 

 In 1773 he painted his celebrated picture of Count Ugolino with his 

 Sons, from Dante : it was purchased by the Duke of Dorset for four 

 hundred guineas, and has been engraved by Dixon. This same year 

 he proposed his plan of decorating St. Paul's Cathedral with a series 

 of historical pictures, which was readily acceded to by Dr. Newton, 

 bishop of Bristol and dean of St. Paul's ; but Dr. Terrick, bishop of 

 London, put a stop to the whole scheme, upon the plea that it was an 

 introduction of popery : the other artists who had agreed to contribute 

 works were West, Barry, Dance, Cipriani, and Angelica Kauffmann. 

 This year is also memorable for two honorary distinctions which were 

 conferred upon Sir Joshua ; he was created Doctor of Civil Law by 

 the University of Oxford ; and was elected mayor of his native town, 

 Plympton, a circumstance which gave him great gratification, and he 

 presented the corporation with his portrait upon the occasion, which 

 portrait however the corporation sold a few years back. About this 

 time also he was elected member of the Imperial Academy of Florence, 

 to which body he also sent his portrait. In 1779 he ornamented the 

 ceiling of tho library of the Royal Academy, in its apartments in 

 Somerset House, with an allegorical painting representing Theory 

 seated on a cloud, with the inscription " Theory is the knowledge of 

 v/hat is truly Nature," written upon a scroll in her hand. In this 

 year he raised his price to fifty guineas for a head, which continued to 

 be his charge during the remainder of his life. 



In 1780 and the following years, Sir Joshua was engaged upon his 

 designs for the celebrated window of New College Chapel, Oxford, 

 consisting of seven compartments for the lower range, containing the 

 allegorical figures of the four cardinal and the three Christian virtues, 

 Temperance, Fortitude, Justice, Prudence, Faith, Hope, and Charity ; 

 and above them 'The Nativity,' lighted after the manner of the 

 famous ' Notte ' of Correggio. These designs were executed on the 

 glass by Jervis of Dublin. The original design for the Nativity was 

 purchased by the duko of Rutland for twelve hundred guineas, and 

 was destroyed by the fire at Belvoir Castle in 1816; there is an 

 engraving of it by Earlom. 



In -1784 Sir Joshua painted his magnificent allegorical portrait of 

 Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse, a picture of its class perhaps un- 

 rivalled. According to Northcote, Sir Joshua valued this portrait at 

 a thousand guineas; but it was purchased by W. Smith, Esq., for 

 seven hundred : it has been engraved by Hay ward. Upon the death 

 of Allan Ramsay, this year, Sir Joshua was appointed principal painter 

 in ordinary to the king. This year he also lost his old friend Dr. 

 Johnson, who appointed him one of his executors, and bequeathed 

 him his great French dictionary of Moreri and his own corrected folio 

 copy of his English dictionary. 



In 1786 he painted his ' Infant Hercules strangling the Serpents in 

 the Cradle,' for the Empress Catherine of Russia : it was sent to 

 St. Petersburg, with two sets of Sir Joshua's Discourses, one in 

 French, the other in English, in 1789 ; and the following year, the 

 Russian ambassador, Count Woronzow, presented him with a gold 

 box, having the portrait of the empress upon the lid, set with large 

 diamonds. His executors afterwards received fifteen hundred guineas 

 as the price of the picture. This picture, which was remarkable for 

 its rich effect of colour and forcible chiaroscuro, was the principal of 

 Sir Joshua's historical pieces, and met with universal applause from 

 the critics of the day. Even the eccentric Barry approved of it : he 

 said " the prophetical agitation of Tiresias, and Juno enveloped with 

 clouds, hanging over the scene like a black pestilence, can never be too 

 much admired, and are indeed truly sublime." The leading features 

 of the composition were apparently taken from the ' Iconic ' of the 

 younger Philostratus on the subject : it has been engraved in mezzotinto 

 by Hodges. 



Sir Joshua painted three pictures for Alderman Boydell's Shakspere, 

 the Cauldron Scene in ' Macbeth,' Puck in ' Midsummer Night's 

 Dream,' and the ' Death of Cardinal Beaufort.' For the first of these 

 pieces the alderman paid Sir Joshua one thousand guineas, for the 

 second one hundred, and for the third five hundred guineas. 



Towards the end of 1791, a tumour, accompanied with inflammation, 

 formed over his left eye ; and being apprehensive lest the right should 

 also be affected, he felt it necessary to desist from any further practice 

 in his profession. He accordingly sent a letter to the council of the 

 Academy, intimating his intention of resigning the office of president, 

 on account of bodily infirmities ; but he was induced to retain it upon 

 the appointment of West as a deputy. He never again however 

 resumed the chair ; but died a few months afterwards, after a painful 

 illness, of a disease of the liver, February 23rd, 1792, in the sixty- 

 ninth year of his age ; and on his body being opened by Hunter, his 

 liver was found to be more than double its natural size. The body 

 of Sir Joshua Reynolds, after lying in state in Somerset-House, was 

 buried with great pomp in St. Paul's Cathedral, where some j ears 

 after, a statue, executed by Flaxman, was erected to his memory. 



The principal portion of his property, which amounted upon the 

 whole to 80,000^., he ^bequeathed to his niece, Miss Palmer, who 

 shortly afterwards was married to the Earl of Inchiquin, subsequently 

 created Marquis of Thomond. His collection of works of art sold for 



about 17,0002., including several of his own works, and many unfinished 

 and unclaimed portraits. 



When we consider Sir Joshua's expensive habits and his liberal dis- 

 position, this large property enables us to form some idea of the 

 immense patronage that he enjoyed. Upon the whole, his career from 

 the beginning to the end exhibits an example of uninterrupted and 

 brilliant prosperity that has perhaps never been surpassed. There are 

 engravings from upwards of seven hundred of his works, mostly in 

 mezzotinto. Northcote has given a list of about three hundred of 

 his principal performances. The day after Sir Joshua's death a 

 brilliant eulogium from the pen of Burke, who was one of his executors, 

 appeared in the papers. 



"As to his person," says Northcote, "in his stature Sir Joshua 

 Reynolds was rather under the middle size, of a florid complexion, 

 roundish blunt features, and a lively aspect ; not corpulent, though 

 somewhat inclined to it, but extremely active ; with manners uncom- 

 monly polished and agreeable. In conversation his manner was 

 perfectly natural, simple, and unassuming.", He was never married. 



Sir Joshua Reynolds's literary productions, besides his discourses, 

 were three contributions to the ' Idler,' some notes to Mason's trans- 

 lation of Du Fresnoy's ' Art of Painting;' a few notes for Dr. John- 

 son's edition of Shakspere ; and his remarks upon the works of the 

 Dutch and Flemish painters during his tour through Flanders and 

 Holland in 1781. These last are full of admirable criticism, and dis- 

 play a raro discrimination of merits and demerits according to the 

 intents and means of the various painters. It was during this tour 

 that he first learnt to appreciate the wonderful powers of Rubens ; he 

 says of him, " he was perhaps the greatest master in the mechauical 

 part of the art, the best workman with his tools that ever exercised a 

 pencil." Several complete editions of his works have been published. 



Reynolds has been justly eaid to be the founder of the British 

 school of painting. Through a happy combination, and a judicious 

 and powerful application of qualities, whether originating in natural 

 feeling of acquired by selection from other master?, he struck out a 

 new path in portrait, and by uniting graceful composition and breadth 

 of light and shade with a rich and mellow tone of colouring, he 

 invented a style of his own. This was a style, through its novelty 

 and richness of effect, well calculated to captivate the taste of a 

 public accustomed to the dry and feeble manner of the painters imme- 

 diately preceding him, whether a Hudson, a Jervas, or a Kneller. But 

 these attractive qualities, being the chief aim of the painter, naturally 

 involved the sacrifice of some of those more solid properties of art 

 through which alone true expression and individual character can be 

 thoroughly attained, which we find more or less so well illustrated in 

 the heads of Holbein, Raffaelle, and Vandyck, and which must always 

 be imperfectly given when the features, though admirably placed, are 

 merely indicated, however rich the colour, and however great the 

 effect. The deficiencies of Sir Joshua's style are more striking in his 

 historical pieces than in his portraits. Its great characteristic, effect, 

 and effect founded upon colour, is incompatible with the qualities 

 peculiarly characteristic of the grand style simplicity, severity, and 

 dignity of expression, which can only result from the union of a grand 

 style of design with a subdued colour. 



RHAM, WILLIAM LEWIS, was born at Utrecht, in the Nether- 

 lands, in 1778 ; and of this country his father was, we believe, a 

 native, but his mother was of Swiss birth. Mr. Rham came to 

 England in early life. He stuiied for some time at Edinburgh, with 

 a view to the medical profession ; but eventually the Church became 

 his destination, and he entered at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 

 1806, being then in his twenty-eighth year, he took his degree, and 

 his name appears on the Tripos as tenth wrangler. In 1808 Mr. Rham 

 was presented by the dean and chapter of Salisbury to the living of 

 Winkfield, Berkshire ; and a few years afterwards the Nassau family 

 presented him to that of Fersfield in Norfolk. He died unmarried at 

 Winkfield, after a short illness, on the 31st of October 1843. 



The life of Mr. Rham was characterised by active and unremitting 

 usefulness as a parochial clergyman. He was the friend of the poor in 

 the best sense of the term. He looked beyond the wants of tho 

 moment, and sought the means to improve and elevate as well as tem- 

 porarily to benefit the objects of his benevolence. At the Winkfield 

 School of Industry, which under his fostering care became a model 

 for all similar institutions in country parishes, the young were taught 

 not only the elements of knowledge, but were instructed in agriculture 

 and useful arts, and trained to habits of industry. Such were the 

 means by which he endeavoured to promote the best interests of his 

 parishioners. 



But it is as a scientific agriculturist that Mr. Rham's name is most 

 widely known ; and during a large part of his life it was perhaps 

 better known in other countries than in England. His early con- 

 nection with the Continent, which was kept up in after-life, afforded 

 scope for observation of the husbandry of different countries ; and his 

 thorough knowledge of several living languages gave him access to the 

 works of scientific writers on foreign agriculture. In the next place, 

 his chemical studies at Edinburgh, while preparing for the medical 

 profession, were of eminent service to him ; and scarcely less so was 

 the proficiency in mathematics which he attained at Cambridge. It 

 may safely be asserted that no previous writer on agriculture ever 

 enjoyed in so great a degree such a combination of advantages; and 



