292 A MASTER OF HIS ART. 



guineas) as worthy his canvass was a consummation, 

 though devoutly wished, never to be hoped for. Thou 

 King, thou Mammoth of animal painters, great Ward ! 

 I would not have given thee one guinea to paint a 

 trotting hack, though half a diadem was the worth of 

 some of thy all but sublime productions. One dun 

 charger I once saw painted by Ward was enough to 

 immortalise him : take the him for which you please, 

 horse or painter, the picture was fine enough to im- 

 mortalise both. 



This era brought forth another (I believe) self- 

 taught artist Cooper a most clever artist, always, 

 so far as my judgment goes, true to nature, and in 

 many, I may say most, of his pictures beautifully 

 correct : a most decidedly better painter than Mar- 

 shall, equally characteristic, and quite as aware of the 

 points to be admired in the hunter. As pictures his 

 were very superior to the other's, and possessed the 

 great desideratum of all pictures, namely, his objects 

 standing well from the canvass. I never detected in 

 any of Cooper's pictures any thing contrary to nature. 

 In most of them I have admired a whole as perfectly 

 natural, and they possessed that most difficult excel- 

 lence to achieve, boldness with perfect softness. 



Notwithstanding all the superiority of many, nay 

 a host of painters, none I ever yet saw came up to 

 Marshall in producing the representation of hair on 

 the horse. His horses in the most blooming con- 

 dition still looked hairy, and like a diminutive horse 

 standing in front of the canvass. It was a knack 

 (to use a common phrase) he had of producing this 

 effect. To show it was a particular knack, though 

 no proof of general fine painting, I will illustrate it. 



I was from a child fond of a little daubing myself, 



