DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61252#0339
INTRODUCTION.
295
moral beauty and harmony availed him as much as his
keen perception of those which resulted from form and
colour.
One of the early friends of Sir Joshua was Dr. Mudge,
the Platonist. The development of the contemplative, the
spiritual, the refined in his intellect, he owed to that reli-
gious philosopher. Then, his constant communion with
Dr. Johnson aided considerably in carrying on this equal
development of the higher faculties of his mind. His
acquaintance with Johnson began soon after he settled in
London, and continued till the death of the Doctor. John-
son was profoundly ignorant of art—he even despised, or
affected to despise, it—he was, at least, utterly insensible
to all the pleasure it can bestow; “ but,” says Sir
Joshua, “ he qualified my mind to think justly: the obser-
vations which he made on poetry, on life, on everything
about us, I applied to our art, with what success others must
judge.” He adds, “Perhaps an artist in his studies should
pursue the same conduct, and instead of patching up a par-
ticular work on the narrow plan of imitation, rather endea-
vour to acquire the art and the power of thinking.” To
the early development of his mental faculties, and to their
subsequent exercise in a general way by the constant society
of such men as Johnson and Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds
owed that quickness of observation, which enabled him to
perceive the indications of character which his art was
afterwards to fix on the canvas; that predominance of the
mental over the mechanical in all he did—that sympathy
with the minds of those who sat to him; and, let me add,
that sympathy with children, with infantine beauty and
intelligence, which is ever a characteristic of creative
genius in poets and in artists.
The serenity and gentleness of his temper, which at all
times left his faculties free and clear foi' use, was another
advantage. The dogmatism of Johnson, and the petulance
295
moral beauty and harmony availed him as much as his
keen perception of those which resulted from form and
colour.
One of the early friends of Sir Joshua was Dr. Mudge,
the Platonist. The development of the contemplative, the
spiritual, the refined in his intellect, he owed to that reli-
gious philosopher. Then, his constant communion with
Dr. Johnson aided considerably in carrying on this equal
development of the higher faculties of his mind. His
acquaintance with Johnson began soon after he settled in
London, and continued till the death of the Doctor. John-
son was profoundly ignorant of art—he even despised, or
affected to despise, it—he was, at least, utterly insensible
to all the pleasure it can bestow; “ but,” says Sir
Joshua, “ he qualified my mind to think justly: the obser-
vations which he made on poetry, on life, on everything
about us, I applied to our art, with what success others must
judge.” He adds, “Perhaps an artist in his studies should
pursue the same conduct, and instead of patching up a par-
ticular work on the narrow plan of imitation, rather endea-
vour to acquire the art and the power of thinking.” To
the early development of his mental faculties, and to their
subsequent exercise in a general way by the constant society
of such men as Johnson and Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds
owed that quickness of observation, which enabled him to
perceive the indications of character which his art was
afterwards to fix on the canvas; that predominance of the
mental over the mechanical in all he did—that sympathy
with the minds of those who sat to him; and, let me add,
that sympathy with children, with infantine beauty and
intelligence, which is ever a characteristic of creative
genius in poets and in artists.
The serenity and gentleness of his temper, which at all
times left his faculties free and clear foi' use, was another
advantage. The dogmatism of Johnson, and the petulance