ROMNEY. 



ter times than tliofe in which he lived. His perception of art 

 was far purer than moil of his contemporaries, at leafl in this 

 country, were capable of enjoying ; and it muft be remem- 

 bered, that no one ever fet forth in the career of an artift 

 under greater disadvantages than he did. The talle he 

 imbibed for iimplicity and grandeur, on feeing, at an ad- 

 vanced period of his life, the works of the ancient artiils, 

 prove what might have been fairly expected of him, had he 

 happily been born under more favourable circumflances ; 

 and early initiated, under good inftrudtors, in the myfteries 

 of the art he cultivated with fo much fuccefs without thofe 

 aids. Till the time he was twenty-two he had feen no better 

 painting than the fign of a public houfe, in the place where 

 he was bom ; but to his active, enterprifing fpirit, all nature 

 was a fchool ; and at an age when others are employed in 

 laying by ftores of idea9 from books, and thence formi 

 regulations to guide their future progrefs in art, he was in- 

 dultrioufly obferving and reflecting upon the grand fcenery 

 around him, and the various characters of the objects among 

 which he lived. Thus, the little learning he had imbibed 

 from the few literary works he had feen was called into 

 immediate action, and his progrefs in real knowledge be- 

 came equal to what is ufually obtained in the ordinary way, 

 with greater affiilance from books and mafters. 



The purfuit of painting, however, requires a knowledge 

 of certain rules in the arrangement of lines ; of the beauty 

 and power of contrail in light and fhade, and in form and 

 colour ; as well as of the fpeediell and moil efficient modes 

 of execution. This fcience, being the refult of repeated 

 obfervations upon the principles by which Nature produces 

 her moil agreeable and fublime effects, is mod readily ob- 

 tained, by a careful infpeftion of good works of art where- 

 in it is exemplified. Such advantage was not Romney's. 

 He had to feparate for himfelf the partial, from the general 

 effects of nature ; and the inequality with which he, in this 

 point, met the rivalry of more fortunate artifts, is too 

 evident in moil of his productions. Frequently, his chiaro- 

 fcuro is ill conducted, and his harmony of forms and colours 

 imperfect ; even in pictures produced when enjoying the 

 height of his intellectual power, and at the happieil period 

 of his executive fkill : at the fame time they exhibit great 

 fertility of invention, with fweetnefs and delicacy of fen- 

 timent. 



He was happily endowed with an inquifitive mind, that 

 delighted in fcience, and purfued it warmly, with the beil 

 means he had : and he poflefled a versatility of genius, 

 which is exemplified by the variety of fubjects he chofe for 

 reprefentation. Both the comic and ierious impreifions of 

 the mind had charms for him. Early in life he painted two 

 pictures from Triflram Shandy ; one, of the arrival of Dr. 

 Slop at Shandy-hall, after the unlucky catailrophe he met 

 with on the road ; which afforded fcope for fentimental 

 comic humour ; the other from the affecting ftory of the 

 death of Le Fevre : both of them were highly approved 

 for truth and propriety of feeling and expreffion, though 

 differing fo widely in their effects upon the mind. His 

 journey to Italy expanded his view of art : new fcenes, 

 and new fources of information, were prefented to him, of 

 which he did not neglect to avail himfelf. The works of 

 fancy he produced after his return home exemplify the ufe 

 he made of the two years he fpent among the unrivalled 

 productions of art he there met with. The purity and 

 perfection of ancient fculpture appear to have made the 

 deepeil imprefiion upon his mind : and he afterwards afli- 

 duoufly cherilhed the taite he then imbibed, by procur- 

 ing a collection of calls from the beft models of ancient 

 itatues, groups, baffo-relievos, &c. which he would fit by 

 9 



the hour to contemplate ; examining tiieir appearances 

 under all changes of lun-ihine, and common day-light ; and 

 with lamps, prepared on purpofe, he would try their effects 

 in various modes of illumination, with rapturous delight. 

 Hence, grandeur and iimplicity became the principal objects 

 of his ambition ; he perceived thele qualities diftmctly, and 

 employed them judicioufly; even whilll imitating nature in 

 his molt uiual occupation, — portrait painting. To prefent 

 his figure, or tell his ftory, with fimple undilturbed effect, 

 rejecting all unneceffary minutiae, was the point he aimed at 

 and obtained. 



On his return from the continent, his zeal for hiflorical 

 painting revived, or rather became llrengthened. Infeveral 

 epiltles to Mr. Hayley, he laments his confinement to 

 portraits : in one he fays, " this curfed portrait painting, 

 how I am lhackled with it ! I am determined to live fru- 

 gally, and cut it (hort as foon as I can." In another, he 

 mentions his " wilh to be retired, in order to compofe with 

 more effect and propriety." And whenever he returned to 

 London from Ealtham, the hofpitable retreat of his admiring 

 correfpoiident and friend, whofe playfulnefs of fancy was a 

 conllant and ufeful ftimulus to Romney's dejected and defpond- 

 ing mind, he felt it a weight of drudgery again to fall into the 

 trammels of portraiture : yet from the enjoyment he by na- 

 ture found in the practice of his profeffion, a (hort time 

 inured him afrelh to it, and ft ill he felt pleafure in tracing 

 the features of each new face that prefented itfelf ; till again 

 his exhaufted frame required the exhilaration of retirement, 

 and the refrelhment afforded by pure uncontaminated air, 

 free from the grofs vapours that hover in the region of a 

 great and populous city. It is not a little furprifing, that 

 amidlt his continual labours in that branch of the art he 

 more immediately profeffed, he fliould have found time to 

 produce fo great a number of fancy pictures as he left behind 

 him. He alfo frequently fpent his evenings in making large 

 cartoons in charcoal, of fubjects which fuited his fancy ; — 

 generally of a fublime caft. Amongfl thefe, was one of 

 the dream of Attoffa, from the Perfian of iEfchylus, which 

 was conducted with the tafte and feeling of the ancient 

 Greek 3rti(ls. 



He was in general fortunate in the choice of his hiflorical 

 fubjects ; and certainly, in this refpect, had far the advan- 

 tage of his great rival, fir Jofhua Reynolds : and no lefs fo 

 in the power of expreffion, which he fcarcely ever failed to 

 obtain : whilll the latter, in his hiflorical pictures, has rarely 

 been fo happy. Reynolds gave beauty and grace to his 

 figures : Romney imparted foul. The former delights the 

 eye with the harmony and richnefs of colour, and beauty of 

 effect ; the latter thrills and gratifies the heart with truth 

 and force of expreffion, in action and countenance ; wrought 

 with more fimplicity, but with lefs art. His picture of 

 Ophelia feated upon a branch of a tree, the breaking of 

 which threatens her deftruction in the ftrcam below, whilll 

 the melancholy detraction vifible in her lovely face accounts 

 for her apparent infenfibility to danger, is a fufficient proof 

 of this affertion. His compofition alfo of " Titania and her 

 Indian Votarefs," in the poffeffion of Mr. Beckford ; 

 " Titania, Puck, and theChangeling,"at fir John Lcicefler's, 

 and others of his works of the like playful and intercfting 

 kind, might be brought forward to fupport it. In portrai- 

 ture, however, the juftly exalted prelident of the Royal 

 Academy flood alone, and Romney was not able to cope with 

 him. In the compofition of his figures, our artift exhibited 

 the talle he had acquired by the fludy of the antique ; and 

 he admirably varied the characters of his heads. The arrange- 

 ment of drapery which he adopted, partook largely of the 

 fame ilyle ; and being well underltood, was painted with great 



dexterity ; 



