of ability, which startled the country, back the artists were allowed to slink, to get their daily bread by any thing they could honestly sell. Never was a finer opportunity for a series of frescoes than in the Royal Exchange, to illustrate the progress of British Commerce, from the first trading of the Phœnicians, to Hong Kong: and yet, what has been the result? Baskets of flowers hanging over steam-packet announcements; griffins and eagles; mermaids and tigers; roses, pinks, tulips, and daisies, in galvanic ecstasies of twist and twirl; full of talent, full of skill; but no more to do with a decorative illustration of the objects for which the building was erected, than if the ornaments had been taken from a tea-garden alcove at Bagnigge Wells. Even in the intended decoration of the Lords, what must it be? a feeble return backwards to a meagre period, when poverty was simplicity; crudeness, truth; and the Founders of Christianity, and their Divine Master, were represented by fac-simile imitations of the lazy paupers of Italy. The painters of the time having neither knowledge, nor taste, nor power, nor poetry of mind, to elevate them out of their miserable individualities, face, figure, and feet! What would Raphael and Michael Angelo, Titian and Rubens, Velasquez and Reynolds; Hogarth, Barry, Wilson, Wilkie, Gainsborough, or their friend Beaumont, say to the heart, patriotism, or common sense of such proceedings, were they living to witness them? Michael Angelo rose out of the net of early Gothicism in which he found himself entangled, by the vigour of his own wings; Raphael fluttered longer, but at last up he sprang in majesty, like a morning sunbeam, to enlighten the earth he decorated with his beautiful mind. Butsay the Germans-get again into the net, that you may rise as they rose, and break the threads: in they got first, but the cords are too strong for them; in we are getting, to help our friends out; and both will be held up hereafter to the amusement of Europe, fettered and entangled in their own "springes" to catch others. One hundred and fifty years ago the taste was infinitely grander; and though Verrio and Thornhill were not worthy of the time, they did their best to realize the wants of the Nobility and King. The Art is becoming naturally a mere commercial speculation, or annual lottery, which must narrow its great calling the feeling which burst forth amongst the : patrons in Charles's and William's time, when there were hardly any artists to meet it, does not exist now, when there are; and though all the critics blame the artists annually for the want of elevated subjects, is that their fault? What do all the exhibitions in London show? The works the artists wish to paint? Not in the least they bring out what they are obliged to paint; they bring to market the goods which will sell. : Demand great works, well drawn, finely conceived, powerfully executed: buy them when they appear, and you will soon have youth vying with each other in producing such productions. Westminster Hall proved that the Artists had not done annually what they could do, but what they were ordered to do; and, therefore, till a more enlightened system of patronage be in force, the Annual Exhibitions will be no test of the extent of British genius. B. R. H. P. S.-I beg to express my regret for omitting the town of Hull in my enumeration of the towns where I had the honour to lecture (Vol. I.), after the enthusiasm and hospitality with which I was there received. It was quite a paralysis of memory, and has pained me much. 14, Burwood Place, London, May 21, 1846. CONTENTS. Absolute necessity of Nature for every object of Imitation— advice of Hamlet to Actors useful to Artists-Fuzeli, his great Genius, and great Defects-Haydon's first Interview -comparison of Greek, French, and English Dramatists, in allusion to the same principles in Art-anecdote of Mrs. Siddons-whether Genius be superstitious, or only alive to the Supernatural-whether it be Irritable, or only Sensi- tive-Byron, Scott, &c. &c.-balance of Fuzeli's errors, LECTURE IX.-WILKIE. Birth-early tendency to Art-removal to Edinburgh-arrival |