1804.) | 
they difplay atafte, feeling, and knowledge 
of the art, which has not been the portion 
of very many of thofe who have paft 
their lives in the profeffion. 
Sir Walliam Beechy has feven portraits, 
painted in a ftyle which entities him to 
retain that pre-eminent fituation in his 
profeffion, which was fo juftly allotted to 
him fome years ago. 
Mr. Opie has feven, and they are all 
marked with his ufual force and vigour 
of pencil. His portrait of Mr. Hoicroft 
is admirably diawn and coloured. Mr. 
Hoppner has one fine porsrait; Mr. Shee 
has five. 
Of Mr. Henry Thomfon, A. E. we had 
accafion to {peak in high terms in our re- 
marks on la&t year’s exhibition. His 
pictures now exhibited are worthy of him- 
felf; i. 4, they are very fine. 
If any honour be attached to the title, 
Mr. Owen ought tobe a R.A.—he is not 
even an affuciate. 
admirably drawn; his Beggars, and Cot- 
tage Door, are each of them fo cajitally 
painted, that- we icarce know which to 
prefer. 
* Draummond’s Drowned Sailor, Glean- 
ers, &c. diiplay marks of mind and much 
improvement in his ftyle of painting. 
Mr. S$. Phillips has fix chara¢teriftic 
portraits. 
Mr. Buckler’s drawings of Cathedrals 
are very well underftood.. 
Mr. Bone’s Miniatures are in the ver 
firft tyle of the art; and thofe by Mr. 
Eddridge difplay a correét eye, and {kilful 
hand. eee 
A miniature portrait of the Rev. 
R. Young, by W.J Thomfon is painted 
i0 a manner which ied us to regret that it 
is the only pigture this artift has in the 
exhibition. , 
No. 207. Narciffi:s and Echom—-—J. M. W. 
Turner, R. A. 
So melts the youth, and languithes away, 
His beauty withers, and his limbs decay ; 
And none of thofe attra€tive charms remain 
To which the flighted Echo fu’d in vain, 
_ She faw him in his prefeat mifery, 
Whom, fpite of all her wrongs, fhe griev’d to 
fee: 
She anfwer’d fadly to the lover’s moan, 
Sigh’d back his fighs, and groan’d to every 
groan. 
6 Ah! youth, belov’d in vain”?! Narciffus 
cries ; 
** Ah! youth, belov’d in vain!” the nymph 
replies. 
S¢ Farewel!” fays he: the parting found 
{carce fell 
From his rat lips, but fhe replied, “¢ Fare- 
wei !” ihe 
Monthly Retrofpeé? of the Fine Arts. 
His picture, No. 1, is, 
477 
This -is a very claffical, and capital 
picture; the Echo behind the tree is 
poetically conceived, and correét'y drawn, 
and the v hole fcene pecutiarly appropriate 
to the tubjest, Aceh the irene: 
flovenly, which feems to arife from either 
affectaiion or negligence, and we are forry 
to fee any traces of either one or the other 
in the work of an arift who poffefies fe 
many fuperior requifites for ranking fo 
high in his profeffion. Ifa little more 
brilliancy hed been given to the fore- 
ground, it wouid have brought out the 
“tints in the middle diitance, which are very 
fine indeed. j 
Whoever has feen many of the works 
of Pouffin, will initantiy recognize the 
manner, and, in fome degree, the fcenery of ~ 
that great matter, who ttudied the ancient 
fiatutes and baffo-relievos with fo much 
idolatry that his colouring borders on the 
marble ; and it has been fometimes faid, 
he peopled his landfeapes with the beings 
of another world. However, as his fubjeéts 
were frequently taken from Ovid and other 
poets, it was perhaps more than juitifiable 
to introduce ideal figures. The fame 
reafoning will apply to this piéture, if we 
confider that the charaéters are of the poet’s 
creation; but in Mr. Turner's View cf 
Edinburgh, from Caulton-hill, No. 373, 
he might as well have attended a little to 
common nature,and furely 1° is of infinitely 
too brown atint. » This, confidering the 
great merit of the piéture in other par- 
ticulars, is to be regretted: the burit 
of light beyond the bridge is magni- 
ficent ; the group in Highland dreffes are 
picturefque ; and the cattie in the fore- 
ground are truly Scotch—they are neither 
bred, nor fed, nor fatted, in England. But, 
to return to the Echo—the colouring is 
too chafle and fober for the common eye, 
which is invariably attracted by. tiotel 
and glare, the mere fultian and bombatt 
of the art. 
It is curious to confider the different 
medium through which very fuperior 
artifts have feen and reprefented nature; but 
for one that admires the fevere and modetft 
colouring of Rafaelle, there are ten who. 
are dazzled by the forcible and luxuriant 
tints of Rubens; but when our modern 
painters attempt to imitate the former, we 
have fometimes feen figures refembling 
ttatucs ; and in the place of the {plendid 
brilliancy of the Fleming, they give ‘us 
the gaudy glitter of a modern tea-board. 
~ To contraft the manner of any of the 
common people of the palette with Mr. 
Turner, would not afford a fair examples 
aes ; Ut 
