[ 3& ]

has indeed been his only inftruclor: he is likewife a
great mafter of effect, he has fome excellencies pecu-
liar to himfelf: his pencil is rapid j his touch firm.

" Marlow is a painter of acknowledged merit
and high repute; he is perhaps not quite fo happy in
his trees as might be wifhed, but where the fcene is
on the fea coaft, or reprefents any extenfive view, he
is very fuccefsful. His coloring is more natural,
and his pictures are better finifhed than thofe of the
artift juft named.

In confidering Gainsborough's character as a
painter, I feel ftrong inducements to give him the
preference to all his predeceflbrs or cotemporaries in
this country. His firft. manner was very different
from that he has now adopted. At his outfet in life
he appears to have ftudied and preferred the Flemifh
ftyle, and particularly to have imitated Wynants in
the breaking of his grounds and choice of his fub-
jects; in thefe pictures, however, he gives a faithful
reprefentation of Englifh nature. His churches,
cottages, figures, hamlets, are all Englifh, and are
painted with ftrict attention to truth. Upon ma-
turer ftudy and riper judgment, he feems to have
aimed at fomething more elevated ; he began to neg-
lect the minuter cha adlers of nature, and to de-
pend more upon the chiaro ofcuro, and upon the
beauty of his figures : yet he frill continued to paint
in the Flemifh ft vie, but it was in the broader man-
ner, more refembling Artois. Although in this
latter manner he gives us little of the detail of nature
in its more delicate graces, yet his works have in-
creafed inconceivably in their merit and value, and
the change has been a moft fuccefsful one. Nothing

can