226 ANIMAI, PAINTERS 



which they were subjected to print mezztintos that 

 they would not take the chalk when he tried to 

 draw on the backs. 



A chance sketch of an arm, inspired by the 

 sight of a picture by Fuseli, which Smith and 

 William Ward were engraving, one day revealed 

 the budding gifts of James to his brother ; and 

 William, having reason to be dissatisfied with their 

 employer, kept the discovery to himself Soon 

 after William quarrelled with Smith and left, taking 

 James with him, and set up business on his own 

 account. He achieved success as a mezzotint 

 engraver, and trained his younger brother in the 

 art ; but James, though he proved a most apt 

 pupil, does not seem to have put his heart into the 

 business. He continued to work at it, at the same 

 time painting under the supervision of George 

 Morland, and made such a name for himself that, 

 in 1794, he was appointed mezzotint engraver and 

 painter to the Prince of Wales. His progress with 

 the brush must have been rapid after leaving 

 Raphael Smith's employ ; for despite the delay his 

 apprenticeship caused, he painted four pictures 

 which were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 

 1792, and continued to exhibit regularly from that 

 time forward. 



His appointment as Engraver and Painter to the 

 Prince of Wales, when only twenty-five years of 



