DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61252#0341
INTRODUCTION.
297
certain old pictures are exquisitely felicitous. His por-
traits of illustrious men have the dignity and authority of
history; his portraits of beautiful women, all the charm of
poetry; his picture of Mrs. Siddons, as the Tragic Muse,
combined both.
As Six' Joshua Reynolds lived to paint two genera-
tions, and was the fashionable, as well as the unequalled
painter of his time, there are few families among our
nobility who have not at least one, if not two or three
works of his hapd. But in this collection there are eleven,
which afford the opportunity rarely to be met with in any
private gallery, of comparing different works, of different
style and aim, painted at different periods of his life. He
had two manners: his earliest, which is perceptible during
the first ten years after he settled in London, is rather
more timid and more finished, the colouring more chaste,
yet brilliant and sure. A very perfect example is the por-
trait of the Countess of Berkeley, in this collection. After-
wards, he began to try experiments, and his hues some-
times failed; his tone of colour was deeper, his impasto
richer; he was more sketchy, and aimed more at effect; he
had also more grandeur, more freedom of execution, more
variety. Of this second style, the portrait of Mrs. Baldwin,
(No. 160,) is an instance; that of Mrs. Sheridan is an ex-
ample of the most touching grace and sentiment ; that of
Sterne, of spirit, power, character, life-like truth, all that
can be required in a portrait; the little strawberry-girl, of
that naivete of expression, in which he has never been ex-
celled. As the history of each individual picture is given in
the catalogue, I shall not dwell upon them farther here, ex-
cept to add that every one of them possesses, besides its own
intrinsic beauty and value, a relative and comparative value,
as illustrative of the various powers of this most admirable
man, whose blameless life and character shed a lustre on
his genius, as his genius has shed lustre on the country
o 3
297
certain old pictures are exquisitely felicitous. His por-
traits of illustrious men have the dignity and authority of
history; his portraits of beautiful women, all the charm of
poetry; his picture of Mrs. Siddons, as the Tragic Muse,
combined both.
As Six' Joshua Reynolds lived to paint two genera-
tions, and was the fashionable, as well as the unequalled
painter of his time, there are few families among our
nobility who have not at least one, if not two or three
works of his hapd. But in this collection there are eleven,
which afford the opportunity rarely to be met with in any
private gallery, of comparing different works, of different
style and aim, painted at different periods of his life. He
had two manners: his earliest, which is perceptible during
the first ten years after he settled in London, is rather
more timid and more finished, the colouring more chaste,
yet brilliant and sure. A very perfect example is the por-
trait of the Countess of Berkeley, in this collection. After-
wards, he began to try experiments, and his hues some-
times failed; his tone of colour was deeper, his impasto
richer; he was more sketchy, and aimed more at effect; he
had also more grandeur, more freedom of execution, more
variety. Of this second style, the portrait of Mrs. Baldwin,
(No. 160,) is an instance; that of Mrs. Sheridan is an ex-
ample of the most touching grace and sentiment ; that of
Sterne, of spirit, power, character, life-like truth, all that
can be required in a portrait; the little strawberry-girl, of
that naivete of expression, in which he has never been ex-
celled. As the history of each individual picture is given in
the catalogue, I shall not dwell upon them farther here, ex-
cept to add that every one of them possesses, besides its own
intrinsic beauty and value, a relative and comparative value,
as illustrative of the various powers of this most admirable
man, whose blameless life and character shed a lustre on
his genius, as his genius has shed lustre on the country
o 3