A TRAVELLER AT BERLIN. 135 



<yf one, which perhaps you might not think highly re- 

 markable. A certain captain Gohl, who is in the pri- 

 vate fervice of Frederic duke of Brunfwic, and even 

 rclides in his palace, is, by his marriage with a daugh- 

 ter of the celebrated Terbufch, born Cicieffki, come 

 into pofTeffion of feveral of the choicer!; pieces of that 

 truly great female artift. He has her family pictures, 

 in which herfelf, her huiband, and their children, arc 

 reprefented ; exceedingly large, in fome thing of the 

 dark manner, yet the figures are not above the natural 

 fize. Jupiter, appearing to a nymph in the form of a 

 fatyr ; nymphs bathing ; both fomewhat too red. But 

 her mafter-pieces are two portraits of herfelf, one of 

 them as large as life., wherein fhe is drawn fitting, in a 

 white robe, and with a glafs before the right eye ; the 

 other fomewhat lefs than life, a three-quarter length, 

 which fhe painted while me was young : Ihe lits before 

 a table, whereon fhe leans in a negligent poflure. Thefe 

 two pieces are of that clafs which one cannot contem- 

 plate without admiration, and which the longer we 

 dwell upon the more we admire. Perhaps it is not pof- 

 iible to carry the ftudy of carnation to a higher pitch, 

 and all we can require is here performed. This lady 

 was pofTefTed of a particular knowledge in the mixture 

 of colours, and even her earlier! performances have not 

 fuffered in the fmallefl degree. 



The art in general has not yet taken any firm footing 

 in Berlin ; it is not the place where good artifts are to 

 be expected in a conflant fucceffion, as no proper aca- 

 demy is yet inftituted. Hitherto there have been no 

 really excellent models, and works are executed without 

 any fixed plan. The academy of arts might indeed do 

 a great deal, but a defect feems to lie fomewhere, that 



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