\ 
1806. ] 
this defcription, and almoft inyariably 
marks them with infipidity ; 7. e. although 
they are not fufficiently ideal for the cha- 
raéter they affume, yet the portion of ideal 
character which they have renders them 
rather too fantaftical for portraits. This 
remark ia not meant to extend to the very 
beautiful productions of Sir Jefhua Rey- 
nolds and Mr. Romney, nor in any de- 
gree to depreciate this very fafcinating 
ftyle of pamting, but merely to intima’e 
that, except under the management of a 
fine tafte, and poetic imagination, the 
portrait is deprived of its refemblance, 
which ought to be its leading characte- 
riflic, and the poetical idea degraded, by 
atrempting to unite it with that to which 
gt has not the moft diftant analogy. 
7c. The Brook. A. W.Calcott. / 
An uncommonly {weet and chafte land- 
{cape. 
91. «4 Sheping Girl—229. Profpero and Mi- 
randa. 
M. A. Shee, R.A. 
OF the univerfality of Mr. Shee’s abi- 
lities we think with a degree of enthufi- 
afm. Some of his former pictures we 
thought entitled to very high praife, but 
he appears to have changed his manner ; 
in thele piftures there is a hardnefs and 
gloflinefs of effeSt, which is a confidera- 
ble draw- back on their merit; in the frit 
there is none of that fa/cinating {weetnel{s 
which rende:s fubjects of this defeription 
fo attractive; and the fecond, although 
we belicve it is the largeft pifture in the 
Exhibition-room, is gaudy ana laboured, 
and pot well imagined. 
Portrait of Sir ‘fofepb Banks. T. Lawrence, 
Rs AL 
A fine portrait, but we think it would 
have been better if the face had been lefs 
in fhadow. 
78. A Storm: Peel Cafile. Sir G. Beaumont, A. 
We have often contemplated the talents 
and taite of Sic George Beaumont with 
admiration; but furely this fubjeét is 
treated in a manner that, for the climate 
of Great Britain, more than borders on 
the extravagant. 
85. Lakeof Albaro. Sir Georgé Beaumont, A. 
This, like almoft every other piéture 
we have feen by the honourable Baronet, 
beams with tafte and feeling. It is admi- 
rably pated, and makes ample amends 
for the preceding extravaganza. 
305. Arural Scene: Mid-day, A. W. Callcote. 
A fimple, unaffected {eene, 
painted 
with truth and taite. 
Monthly Retrofpedt of the Fine-Arts. 
451 
136. Milton diftating to his Daughters. H. Fu- 
fei, R. A. 
When we faw the pictures which this 
artilt exhibited in the Milton Gallery we 
thought they formed a very fine whole, 
and confidered them as a feries that did 
honour to the poet, the painter, and the 
country; in which Mr. Futeli had dif- 
played a genius of the firft order, and 
fhewn that in colouring he was wonder- 
fully improved.—We have, fince that 
time, feen feveral of thefe very pictures, 
accompanied by the paintings of other 
artifts, and-their effce& is greaily injured 5 
they will not bear being contrafted with 
the gaudy productions that glitter on the 
walls of an Exhibiticn-room ; which are 
{ometimes painted for the place they are 
inrended to occupy, and occafionally (as 
we have been toli) altered and glazed 
after they are hung up, to fuit their re- 
lative accompaniments, and prevent their 
being put cut by the glaring canvas with 
which they are femetimes furrounded. | 
This pigture looks very ill in its prefent 
fiiuation, and, independent of all this, 
has nothing either in conception, charac- 
ter, or execution,. that will attraét the 
connoifleur; and by the feminine admirers 
of fan-painting, &c. it will indifputably 
be ftyled a very wzagreeable picture. 
143- AGirl at a Cottage Door, R. Weftall, 
R. 4, 
A charming picture, in the belt ftyle of 
this molt fafcinating artift. 
145- Village Politicians. Vide Scotland’s Skaiths 
D. Writkie. 
Of this very furpiifing picture it is dif 
ficult to fpeak in bigher terms than it de- 
ferves. Some of the diurnal critics have 
compared it, and indeed preferred it, to 
Hogarth. This judgment (or rather the 
want of it) muft have been pronounced 
upon it by thofe who did+ not knew Ho- 
garth’s pictures: it is much more ia the 
ftyle of Teniers, but it is not an imita- 
tionof him. Mr. Wiikie may be iaid to 
have looked at nature with the fame {pirit » 
and eye that Teniers would have looked 
vat it, and he has delineated the ale-houle 
politicians of Scotland with the fame fide- 
lity thar Teniers has reprefented the Dutch 
and Flemifh boors. Tne interior of a 
country ale-hoofe, and the general effect 
of the whole, are in the fret ftyle, and 
lead us to rejoice at the appearance of 0. 
promifing an artift, faid to be not more 
than eighteen or nineteen years of .age. 
We do not at prefent know him, but sn 
cerely congratulate him on his firft eflay, 
3 Ma whica 
