1802. ] 
Informed that it is fold for 300 guineas. 
Belifarius and the Boy is in a much better 
ftyle; and a fpeétator who judged from 
compofition, colouring, or any other cri- 
terion, would think it hardly poffible that. - 
_ they could be painted by the fame artift. 
Sir W. Beechey has eight portraits, and 
they are, as ufual, marked with tafte and 
talent. I. Lee has the fame number 3 
122, the portrait of the Marquis of Exeter, 
is matterly and original, J.M. W. Tur- 
ner has eight pictures, of various and dif- 
tinguifhed merit. The ftyle of this gentle- 
man’s produtions is in the ftrictett fenfe 
of the word original: they do not refemble 
thofe of any other artift, and though each 
of them differs from the other, all are ex- 
cellent, and marked by genius of the firft 
order. Mr. Laurence’s. portrait of Mr. 
Erfkine is a ftrong refemblance, and admi- 
rably painted. Mr. W. Owen’s portrait 
of Mr. Townley, of the Commons, is 
placed as a companion picture, and in 
choice of a refemblance, air of head, and 
colouring, has uncommon merit. Weft- 
all’s drawings have his ufual and marked 
pre-eminence. 
No. 62. A/Voman and Ghild in a Siori : 
part of the principal group of the Sterm in 
Harveff, is exquilitely piétureique. 
No. 196 Hannibal in Banifhment, 
— ‘Beneath the Weight of Age and Wee, 
Ruin’d but not fubdued” 
is in the higheft degree animated and) fpi- 
rited, 
By our favourite artift Paul Sandby, 
whole admirable productions were wont to 
bear fo prominent a front im every exhibi- 
tion, there.are three drawings, and they 
are executed in a matmer that Jeads us to 
regret that the number fs not greater. 
The two views in Windfor are faithful 
portraits. That in the neighbourhcod of 
Maiditone we do not recollect to have feen. 
There are feveral admirable portraits by 
Mr. T. Philips. Northcote is improved 
in his colouring, We were happy to. 
bearn that Mr. J. R. Smith, of King- 
fireet, has quitted print-felling, and will 
for the future devote the whole of his time 
to portrait painting. His portraits of Mr, 
Fox, Lord Holland, DoCtor Saunders, &c. 
are in the higheit degree fpirited and maf- 
terly. From memory, the buft, &c. heis 
now painting a portrait of the late Duke 
of Bedford, which promifes to be a moft 
ftriking refemblance. 
Poetry has been faid to -be a fpeaking 
picture; aud paintiug, a filent poem. This 
is well :lluttrated in the drawing, No. 
396, The Parting of Hetor and Andra- 
Retrofpedt of the Fine Arts. 
a 
493. 
mache, by Mifs Emma Smith, thus de- 
{cribed by the poet: 
—‘¢ The illuftrious chief of Troy 
Stretch’d his fond arms to clafp the lovely 
boy: 
The ang clung crying to his nurfe’s breaft, 
Scar’d at the dazzling helm and nodding 
creft. 
With fecret pleafure 
{mil’d, 
And Heétor hafted to relieve his child—~ 
The glittering terrors from his brow un- 
each fond parent 
bound, 
And plac’d the beaming helmet on the 
ground 5 
Then kifs’d the child, andy lifting high in 
air 
Thus to the Gods prefer’d a father’s 
prayer.” 
The fubjeét is very well underftood 5 
it is marked with mind, and delineated in 
a ftyle that does the higheft honour to the 
very young artift, who has alfo exhibited 
five portraits, (No. 880) all of them firi- 
king refemblances. We believe it is the 
firft time that the has exhibited her pro- 
duétions, and they difplay every promife 
of her attaining a very high rank in her 
profefiion. . 
With two landfcapes, No. 665, and 
874, by J. Landon, we were very much 
firuck. Not recolleéting the name ia any 
former catalogue, we made inquiry, and 
found that this is the firft year in which 
he has exhibited. From examining one of \ 
his tandfcapes. which’ is hung but little 
below the eye, we were induced to feek 
for the other, which is placed fo near the 
flocr as to render clofe infpeétion very dif. 
ficult; yet clofe infpection they will both 
efthem bear. ‘The artift has not adopted 
the general method, of taking Claude, 
Salvator, Gainfborough, or Wilfon, for 
his, model, but, recolleéting that whoever 
Jollows mufi remaia bebind, has not taken 
any artift ancient or modern for his pat- 
tern, but infpected and happily imitated 
nature; and by this means given a man- 
ner decidedly his own. ‘Though highly 
finithed}-his pictures are not laboured ; and 
from parts of them, we think the artift 
might fuccelsfully ftep forward with pic- 
tures on-a larger icale. 
Opie’s pi&ture of The angry Father, No. 
195, is one of the beft-told itories we ever 
faw, and drawn and painted in a manner 
that few artifls in this or any other coun- 
try could have equalle:. 
The: print from Weftall’s admirable 
drawing of the Storm in Harveft, which 
we noticed in a former Retrofoea, is now 
completed, and ready for delvery to the 
352 fubfcribers, 
