gratulatory address to his majesty on his escape from the attempt on his life by Margaret Nicholson, received the honour of knighthood. No man ever better deserved his good fortune, or has a stronger claim on the respect and gratitude of posterity. His inventions have opened a new and boundless field of employment; and while they have conferred infinitely more real benefit on his native country than she could have derived from the absolute dominion of Mexico and Peru, they have been universally productive of wealth and enjoyments. originality and comprehensiveness of Sir Richard Arkwright's mind,' says Mr Bannatyne, was perhaps marked by nothing more strongly than the judgment with which, although new to business, he conducted the great concerns his discovery gave rise to, and the systematic order and arrangement which he introduced into every department of his extensive works. His plans of management, which must have been entirely his own, as no establishment of a similar nature then existed, were universally adopted by others; and after long experience, they have not yet, in any material point, been altered or improved.'"

Robert Adam.

BORN A. D. 1728.-DIED A.D. 1792.

THIS eminent architect was a native of Scotland. He was born at Kirkaldy in the year 1728, and received his education in Edinburgh. His father's profession was that of an architect, and the son early resolved to follow the same occupation. After studying the elements of his art in his own country, he went to Italy, where he remained several years. In 1757 he visited the remains of Dioclesian's palace at Spalatro, and executed a series of plans and drawings of these magnificent ruins, which were afterwards published in one volume, folio. On his return to Britain he was much employed, in conjunction with his brother, by the nobility and gentry throughout the kingdom, and designed many splendid mansions. In 1773, the two brothers commenced the publication of a series of their principal architectural designs. In their preface, they state, that with respect to the novelty and variety of the designs, they have not trod in the paths of others, nor derived aid from their labours. "In the works," they write, "which we have had the honour to execute, we have not only met with the approbation of our employers, but even with the imitation of other artists, to such a degree, as in some measure to have brought about, in this country, a kind of revolution in the whole system of this useful and elegant art." This is an ambitious statement, but is borne out by facts. Mr Adam, says his biographer, "introduced a total change in the architecture of his country; and his fertile genius in elegant ornament was not confined to the decoration of buildings, but has been diffused into almost every branch of architecture. His talents extended beyond the line of his own profession; he displayed, in his numerous drawings in landscape, a luxuriance of composition, and an effect of light and shadow, which have scarce ever been equalled. To the last moment of his life he displayed an increasing vigour of genius, and refinement of taste; for in the space of one year, preceding his death, he designed eight

great public works, besides twenty-five private buildings; so various in their style, and so beautiful in their composition, that they have been allowed, by the best judges, sufficient of themselves to establish his fame unrivalled as an artist." Among the finest designs of Robert Adam, are the college and the register office in Edinburgh.

Sir Robert Strange.

BORN A. D. 1721.-DIED A. D. 1792.

THIS celebrated artist was born in Pomona, one of the Orkney islands, on the 14th of July, 1721. His family originally came from Fifeshire. He was at first destined for the profession of the law; but becoming disgusted with the monotony and confinement of a writer's office, he relinquished the study, and entered himself on board a man-of-war, in which he made a cruise to the Mediterranean. A nautical life, he soon discovered, did not suit his genius either, and he was on the point of resuming his law studies, when accidental circumstances brought to light his taste for drawing, and introduced him to the favourable notice of a drawing-master in Edinburgh, who prevailed upon his friends to apprentice the young and promising artist to him.

The breaking out of the rebellion of 1745 for a time interrupted our artist's career; smit with a passion for military glory, and instigated, it is said, by the hopes of winning the hand of a fair lady, a keen Jacobite, he buckled on a sword, and followed Prince Charles's fortunes, in the troop styled the Life-guards. After the defeat of the Chevalier's hopes, Strange narrowly escaped capture and execution. He lay for some months concealed in the Highlands, where he suffered the extreme of peril and destitution. At last he ventured from his place of concealment, and for a time gained a precarious support by the sale of small drawings of the rival leaders in the late campaign. The lady of his love at last rewarded his sufferings and constancy with her hand; and in company with her he proceeded to Paris, where he studied for some time under the celebrated Le Bas, and learned from him the use of what is called the dry point, or needle.

In 1751 he settled in London, and soon established a reputation for himself, though the field was already in possession of such artists as Ryland, Bartolozzi, and Woollett. So conscious was he of his powers, and of the dignity of his art, that he dared to incur the displeasure of royalty itself, by refusing to engrave an ill-executed portrait of his majesty; yet, in 1760, he solicited and obtained permission to engrave West's painting of the apotheosis of the king's children-the only engraving he ever executed after an English artist. In the latter year he visited the continent, and made designs from the most distinguished foreign masters. In 1787 he received the honour of knighthood. He died in 1792, regretted by all who knew him, and leaving no equal in his line of art.

He executed about fifty plates from pictures of the most celebrated foreign masters. The following is nearly a complete list of them: Charles I.; two portraits, after Vandyke-The Children of Charles I., and Henrietta Maria, his Queen, with the Prince of Wales and Duke of York, after

the same master-St Cecilia, after Raffaelle-The Virgin and Infant Christ, with Mary Magdalene, St Jerome, and two Angels, after Correggio-Venus reclining, Venus and Adonis, and Danäe, all after Titian-Mary Magdalene, penitent; The Death of Cleopatra, Fortune flying over a Globe, Venus attended by the Graces, and the Chastity of Joseph, all after Guido-The Virgin, with St Catherine and Angels, contemplating the Infant Jesus sleeping, after C. Maratti-Christ appearing to the Virgin after his Resurrection, Abraham sending away Hagar, Esther before Ahasuerus, and the Death of Dido, all after Guercino-Belisarius, after Salvator Rosa-Romulus and Remus, after Pietro da Cortona-Cæsar repudiating Pompeia, after the same-- -Sappho consecrating her Lyre to Apollo, after Carlo Dolci-The Martyrdom of St Agnes, after Domenichino-The Choice of Hercules, after Nicholas Poussin-and the Return from Market, after Ph. Wouver

mann.

Sir Joshua Reynolds.

BORN A. D. 1723.-DIED A. D. 1792.

MR FARRINGTON, in his brief notice of the life of Sir Joshua Reynolds, describes the state of art in this country at the period when that eminent painter began his career, in the following terms: "It was the lot of Sir Joshua Reynolds to be destined to pursue the art of painting at a period when the extraordinary effort he made came with all the force and effect of novelty. He appeared at a time when the art was at its lowest ebb. What might be called an English school had never been formed. All that Englishmen had done was to copy, and endeavour to imitate, the works of eminent men, who were drawn to England from other countries by encouragement, which there was no inducement to bestow upon the inferior efforts of the natives of this island. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Frederigo Zucchero, an Italian, was much employed in England, as had been Hans Holbein, a native of Basle, in a former reign. Charles I. gave great employment to Rubens and Vandyke. They were succeeded by Sir Peter Lely, a native of Soest in Westphalia; and Sir Godfrey Kneller came from Lubec to be, for a while, Lely's competitor: and after his death, he may be said to have had the whole command of the art in England. He was succeeded by Richardson, the first English painter that stood at the head of portraitpainting in this country. Richardson had merit in his profession, but not of a high order: and it was remarkable, that a man who thought so well on the subject of art, and more especially who practised so long, should not have been able to do more than is manifested in his works. He died in 1745, aged 80. Jervais, the friend of Pope, was his competitor, but very inferior to him. Sir James Thornhill, also, was contemporary with Richardson, and painted portraits; but his reputation was founded upon his historical and allegorical compositions. In St Paul's cathedral, in the hospital at Greenwich, and at Hampton Court, his principal works are to be seen. As Richardson in portraits, so Thornhill in history painting was the first native of this island, who stood pre-eminent in the line of art he pursued at the period of his

practice. He died in 1732, aged 56. Horace Walpole, in his 'Anecdotes of Painting,' observes, that at the accession of George I., the arts were sunk to the lowest state in Britain.' This was not strictly true. Mr Walpole, who published at a later time, should have dated the period of their utmost degradation to have been in the middle of the last century, when the names of Hudson and Hayman were predominant. It is true, Hogarth was then well-known to the public; but he was less so as a painter than an engraver, though many of his pictures representing subjects of humour and character are excellent; and Hayman, as a history painter, could not be compared with Sir James Thornhill. Thomas Hudson was a native of Devonshire. His name will be preserved from his having been the artist to whom Sir Joshua Reynolds was committed for instruction. Hudson was the scholar of Richardson, and married his daughter; and after the death of his father-in-law, succeeded to the chief employment in portrait-painting. He was in all respects much below his master in ability; but being esteemed the best artist of his time, commissions flowed in upon him; and his business, as it might truly be termed, was carried on like that of a manufactory. To his ordinary heads, draperies were added by painters who chiefly confined themselves to that line of practice. No time was lost by Hudson in the study of character, or in the search of variety in the position of his figures: a few formal attitudes served as models for all his subjects; and the display of arms and hands, being the more difficult parts, was managed with great economy, by all the contrivances of concealment. To this scene of imbecile performance, Joshua Reynolds was sent by his friends. He arrived in London on the 14th October, 1741, and on the 18th of that month he was introduced to his future preceptor. He was then aged seventeen years and three months. The terms of the agreement were, that provided Hudson approved him, he was to remain four years: but might be discharged at pleasure. He continued in this situation two years and a half, during which time he drew many heads upon paper; and in his attempts in painting, succeeded so well in a portrait of Hudson's cook, as to excite his master's jealousy. In this temper of mind, Hudson availed himself of a very trifling circumstance to dismiss him. Having one evening ordered Reynolds to take a picture to Van Haaken the drapery painter; but as the weather proved wet, he postponed carrying it till next morning. At breakfast, Hudson demanded why he did not take the picture the evening before? Reynolds replied, that he delayed it on account of the weather; but that the picture was delivered that morning before Van Haaken rose from bed.' Hudson then said, 'You have not obeyed my orders, and shall not stay in my house.' On this peremptory declaration, Reynolds urged that he might be allowed time to write to his father, who might otherwise think he had committed some great crime. Hudson, though reproached by his own servant for this unreasonable and violent conduct, persisted in his determination accordingly, Reynolds went that day from Hudson's house to an uncle who resided in the Temple, and from thence wrote to his father, who, after consulting his neighbour Lord Edgcumbe, directed him to come down to Devonshire." From this statement it would appear that Reynolds was little indebted to the skill of his predecessors or instructors for his future eminence in art; and that it is

not without reason he has been styled 'the founder of the British school of painting.'

On being dismissed by the jealous old painter, he returned to his father's house, at Plympton in Devonshire, where he pursued, though in rather a desultory manner, his studies as a painter. He records of himself that he felt no little difficulty in shaking off the tame and insipid style to which his eyes had been so much habituated in Hudson's studio; but he succeeded nevertheless in drawing some fine and vigorous portraits in a style of his own, and so ably, that on seeing some of these juvenile performances at the distance of thirty years, he lamented that in so great a length of time he had made so little progress in his

art.

"Here," says

In 1749 Reynolds visited Rome for the first time. his biographer and pupil, Northcote, "his time was employed in such a manner as might have been expected from one of his talents and virtue. He contemplated with unwearied attention, and ardent zeal, the various beauties which marked the style of different schools and different ages. He copied and sketched in the Vatican such parts of the works of Raphael and Michael Angelo as he thought would be most conducive to his future excellence; and, by his well-directed studies, acquired that grace of thinking, to which he was principally indebted for his subsequent reputation as a portrait-painter." The following is Sir Joshua's own account of his feelings on first beholding the works of Raphael, in the Vatican: "It has frequently happened," he says, "as I was informed by the keeper of the Vatican, that many of those whom he had conducted through the various apartments of that edifice, when about to be dismissed, have asked for the works of Raphael, and would not believe that they had already passed through the rooms where they are preserved; so little impression had those performances made on them. One of the first painters now in France once told me, that this circumstance happened to himself, though he now looks upon Raphael with that veneration which he deserves from all painters and lovers of the art. I remember very well my own disappointment when I first visited the Vatican; but on confessing my feelings to a brother student, of whose ingenuousness I had a high opinion, he acknowledged that the works of Raphael had the same effect upon him, or rather, that they did not produce the effect which he expected. In justice to myself, however, I must add, that though disappointed and mortified at not finding myself enraptured with the works of this great master, I did not for a moment conceive, or suppose, that the name of Raphael, and those admirable paintings in particular, owed their reputation to the ignorance and prejudice of mankind; on the contrary, my not relishing them, as I was conscious I ought to have done, was one of the most humiliating circumstances that ever happened to me. I found myself in the midst of works, executed upon principles with which I was unacquainted: I felt my ignorance, and stood abashed."

Reynolds spent nearly three years in Italy in studying the great works of ancient and modern art at Rome, Parma, and Venice. He returned to England in the autumn of 1752, and commenced portraitpainting amidst the envy and opposition of his brother-artists in the metropolis. They freely and bitterly criticised his productions, and pronounced his style and mannerism a dangerous innovation on the es