PAINTING. 
In landfcape, Lambert had advanced beyond the fteps 
of his contemporaries; and produced, with fome talent, 
a kind of union of the peculiarities of Gafpar Pouflin 
and Claude. But, when Wilfon expanded his brilliant, 
chafte, and glowing, tints, in ample mafl'es of light and 
Ihade, over the canvas, the art feerned to leap at once 
ages in advance; far too rapid, indeed, for the tafte of 
the public, or the benefit of its profefior. 
Whatever had been done here in portraiture, from the 
time of Vandyke and Lely till 1752, when Reynolds re¬ 
turned from Italy, was then utterly annihilated by the 
difplay of his fplendid talents ; the foundation of all 
which this branch of the art boafts in the Englifh fchool. 
Not but that there have been, and are, exhibited various 
deviations, with original feeling, from his peculiar tafte; 
but his is the acknowledged and undoubted claim of fu- 
periority, as of priority. His beft portraits are inferior 
to none, for truth of charafter and ftyle of treatment: 
in many points they are fitperior to thofe of all the por¬ 
trait-painters who ever lived. 
With refpeft to the prafiice of the higher ftyle of hif- 
torical painting in this country, the rank it merits is fo 
much the almoft exclufive privilege of artifts now living, 
that it is not eafy to know how to ftate the fentiments 
which liberal and candid criticifm dictates concerning it. 
Partiality may blind, or true criticifm, if given, may be 
mifconftrued to flattery, or fome principle of a meaner 
kind. It muft be left therefore to pofterity, to give the 
due meed of praife to thofej who have exerted themfelves 
againft innumerable difficulties, and endeavoured to up¬ 
hold the true fpirit of the art in this its moft arduous ap¬ 
plication ; and perfevered, till at length fomethinglike an 
inclination to encourage their efforts appears to arife, 
where alone it can be effeftual. No one can for an in- 
ftant hefitate to declare their fenfe of the exalted abilities 
with which it has been, and is, fupported 5 orceafe to fee 
them duly employed arid encouraged. 
Of thofe who have praftifed in this branch of the art, 
and are departed, Reynolds, Romney, Opie, and Barry, 
require to be particularly mentioned. The former, with 
all the fplendour of chiaro-fcuro and colour, which no 
one fince Rembrandt has wielded with fo much authority, 
exhibited in his pidlures of Hercules ftrangling the fer- 
pents, Macbeth, Cardinal Beaufort, and Ugolino, a fund 
of lriftoric power. Romney alfo had poetic imagination, 
feeling, and expreffion ; and, in the little leifure allowed 
by his general practice of portraiture, indulged in the de¬ 
lights ideal fubjeffts afforded him ; while Opie prefented 
“ images new and ftriking, drawn diredtly from nature ;” 
and “what he wanted of academical or claffical informa¬ 
tion, he compenfated for, in great meafure, by character, 
by force, and by a juft and bold imitation.” But, of the 
four, Barry was the only one who had regularly educated 
himfelf for its practice, and undoubtedly had the higheft 
and moft enthufiaftic feeling for its beft qualities. With 
a generous zeal worthy of the higheft encomium, he broke 
entirely from all confideration of the ordinary ftyle of fub- 
je£t, or defign; and, contemplating his art in the moft 
exalted manner, attempted to embody the elevated ideas 
he entertained. His moft fincere admirers muft how¬ 
ever regret, that thofe excellent fentiments which he fo 
ably inculcated by his pen, were not more completely fup¬ 
ported by his pencil; yet, his produdlions of theferies of 
pictures upon the culture of man, in the great room of the 
fociety in the Adelphi, notwitbftanding their imperfec¬ 
tions in the executive part, muft ever remain a marked 
event in the annals of hiftorical painting in England. 
Still we cannot refrain from mentioning a few more ar¬ 
tifts of our own time, both living and dead.—Benjamin 
Weft, for whom the arts even yet mourn, was an Ame¬ 
rican, but it was while thofe ftates belonged to the Eng- 
lilh crown ; and he arrived early enough in England to 
be one of the original members of the Royal Academy, of 
which he was fo long the chief ornament, and of which 
lie died prefident, in March laft, at the great age of 82. 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1238. 
233 
He painted a prodigious number of pi&ures ; which very 
frequently remind us of the fchool of Raphael, on ac¬ 
count of the correftnefs of the outlines.—Loutlierbourg, 
though mad with the folly of animal magnetifm, was 
however a great painter. His pencil blazes in battle with 
Bourguinone,orrepofes among cattle and flecks with Ber- 
ghem and Vandevelde. He died in 1812.—There areyet 
fpared to usFiifeli, who emulates the boldnefs of Michael 
Angelo, whofe admirably-expreffed ideas he has taken for 
his guide in the enthufiaftic regions of fancy ; and North- 
cote, who takes Rubens and Snyders for his models in the 
delineation of the rational as well as the brute cre¬ 
ation.—The lofs we have fuftained by the demife of 
Loutherbourg’s worthy pupil, fir Francis Bourgeois, in 
whofe lively tints, and correftnefs of imitation, P. Pot¬ 
ter, Berghem, C. du Jardin,and Cuyp, feemed to revive, 
is fomewhat compenlated by the talents of Calcott, Con- 
ftable, Collins, and other fuccefsful votaries of the pafto- 
ral mufe. Hilton makes rapid progrefs towards the higheft 
fummit of the chromatic Parnaffus, where Nicolo Pouflin 
feems to direct his efforts and crown his attempts. Cooper, 
whofe pencil blazes in battle with Wouvermans and the 
Parrocels, ftands the rival of Chalons and of Ward. Can 
we not boaft alfo of Beechey, Lawrence, Shee, Phillips, 
Dawe, &c. whofe correct eye arrefts on the canvas the 
features of fleeting beauty, and who approach fo near to 
thofe luminaries in the temple of phyfiography, Rubens, 
Vandyke, and the great Titian ?—Death hasfnatched Bird 
and Harlowe on the very threfhold of the fane ; but their 
name will laft long among the worthies in the infide of 
the chromatic Pantheon. The two Smirkes, Weftall, and 
many others, do honour to the end of the laft and the 
beginning of the prefent century. Haydon and Hayter 
Hand aloof, and boldly wield the pallet and the brufh on 
the ftrength of their own originality 5 and Wilkie feems 
to be at once the Teniers, the Bruyere, the Oftade, and 
the Gerard-Dow, of Great Britain.—We have only to re¬ 
gret that modern fafhion, that fways over academicians 
with as much tyranny as over the fwarthy rivals Day 
and Martin, and Turner, for the glofs of their black 
paint, has paralyzed the hands of modern painters, by 
preventing their natural talents from being tried in large 
and important works, fuch as the decorations of domes, 
ceilings, and ftaircafes, like what we fee at St. Paul’s, at 
Whitehall, and Montague-houfe; and w'e doubt not that, 
if proper opportunity were given, the genius of our Eng- 
lifti artifts would foar to the higheft peak of the chromatic 
Helicon. 
Barry was certainly a difeontented man ; but many 
have joined in opinion with him, that the arts have 
wanted encouragement in Great Britain. What they 
have received has been principally from commerce; and 
that is of a nature by no means calculated to advance 
their progrefs towards perfeftion. It may give the artift 
bread, but we fear it will not give him fame. Acade¬ 
mies have not always advanced the objeft of their efta- 
blifhments. Thofe compofed of artifts are found to be 
very fubjeft to errors; elpecially as it too often happens 
that the heads of them obtain their advancement by fa¬ 
vour and intrigue, rather than by the genius and talent 
difplayed in their works. Vitruvius complained of it in 
his day ; “ Animadverto potius indodos quam dodos gratia 
Juperare." And the complaint may be continued to our 
own day, and our own country. The Royal Academy 
has given fome eclat to the arts, but done them no very 
great fervice. Thofe of its members whofe names have 
given it all the celebrity it poflefles, were themfelves ce¬ 
lebrated before its eftabliflunent, or had laid the founda¬ 
tion of the fame they have fince obtained, in the good old 
quiet unpretending fchool in St. Martin’s Lane. We 
have at length, however, to congratulate our country on 
an eftabliflunent formed on fuch principles, governed by 
fuch regulations, fupported by fuch liberality, and pa- 
tronifed by perfons of fuch high diftinttion, fuperior 
knowledge, and refined tafte, that every thing is to be 
3 O expe&ed 
