DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6915#0127
PAINTING:-THE EARL OF ARGYLE.
91
that point, is completed. The name of the other principal character is unknown
to history. The painter therefore makes him one of a class: his robe denotes
his rank.
In this picture, you have, as I think, given a proof how far moral instruction
may be unequivocally conveyed, and historical reference substantiated, by
painting. The lesson, which your work conveys, is addressed alike to the
learned and the unlearned ; and the effect which it produces, is satisfactory to
the one, and beneficial to the other.
The invention of your picture is properly that of a painter. You do not
desire to refer the spectator to lines of poetry, or figurative passages of history,
as a primary necessity, in order to explain the merits of your figures, or the
reason of their actions. You have made a particular fact become the organ of
a general sentiment; and, like the poet, without deviating from the general
train of historical probability and truth, you have rendered history in some
measure subservient to your own feelings. You have chosen your own moment,
impressed your own view of the event; and, in short, agreeably to your own
precepts in one of your papers in " The Artist," have contemplated nature at
first hand. Your picture, in this instance, cannot fail to remain an example of
a just application of the peculiar powers of the pencil j and ( if conjecture may
be formed of what is yet to come,) whatever may be the future expansion of
English art, your present work will be considered as one of those which are
calculated to form and strengthen a school of painting.
But t^iere is another point, on which my partiality for my own country, no
less than for yourself, makes me desirous of adding a few words. I have much
to say, in common with the public voice, in praise of your professional skill ;
but I conceive you in nothing more deserving, than in the general scope of your
historical works, which, at the same time that they are by no means deficient in
poetic imagery, yet divest fancy of caprice, and bespeak an attempered and
reflecting judgment. It is by such methods as you have pursued in the picture
of the Earl of Argyle, that the ability and character of a philosophical nation
is likely to unfold itself in the Fine Arts; and it is, in my estimation, the
greatest praise which I can give you, that, although versed in the skill of other
schools, you may be said to have painted in English. For it appears to me, that
91
that point, is completed. The name of the other principal character is unknown
to history. The painter therefore makes him one of a class: his robe denotes
his rank.
In this picture, you have, as I think, given a proof how far moral instruction
may be unequivocally conveyed, and historical reference substantiated, by
painting. The lesson, which your work conveys, is addressed alike to the
learned and the unlearned ; and the effect which it produces, is satisfactory to
the one, and beneficial to the other.
The invention of your picture is properly that of a painter. You do not
desire to refer the spectator to lines of poetry, or figurative passages of history,
as a primary necessity, in order to explain the merits of your figures, or the
reason of their actions. You have made a particular fact become the organ of
a general sentiment; and, like the poet, without deviating from the general
train of historical probability and truth, you have rendered history in some
measure subservient to your own feelings. You have chosen your own moment,
impressed your own view of the event; and, in short, agreeably to your own
precepts in one of your papers in " The Artist," have contemplated nature at
first hand. Your picture, in this instance, cannot fail to remain an example of
a just application of the peculiar powers of the pencil j and ( if conjecture may
be formed of what is yet to come,) whatever may be the future expansion of
English art, your present work will be considered as one of those which are
calculated to form and strengthen a school of painting.
But t^iere is another point, on which my partiality for my own country, no
less than for yourself, makes me desirous of adding a few words. I have much
to say, in common with the public voice, in praise of your professional skill ;
but I conceive you in nothing more deserving, than in the general scope of your
historical works, which, at the same time that they are by no means deficient in
poetic imagery, yet divest fancy of caprice, and bespeak an attempered and
reflecting judgment. It is by such methods as you have pursued in the picture
of the Earl of Argyle, that the ability and character of a philosophical nation
is likely to unfold itself in the Fine Arts; and it is, in my estimation, the
greatest praise which I can give you, that, although versed in the skill of other
schools, you may be said to have painted in English. For it appears to me, that