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"Quod ad Patres et Scriptores Græcos attinet, pæne infinitus eorum numerus eft qui per libros Pentateuchi citantur, adeo ut in hac re confilium Editoris affequi, et officio meo prorfus fatisfacere, quovis labore vix potuiffem. Quatenus vero per indicia licebat, fcriptores eofdem, fi non omnes, quamplurimos faltem, ad partes vocavi; quod tamen cum ferius quam oportebat aggreffus fuerim, quæ mihi ad nondum innotuerant, aut in operis decurfu erant prætermiffa, in Appendicem conjeci."

Thefe intimations denote an editorial care, from which the beft expectations may fairly be derived; and the man who, in the commencement of a tafk fo fingularly arduous, ingenuoufly owns his difficulties, difappointments, or errors, is the very perfon whom we naturally may expect, in the progress of time, to make his work as free from faults as poffible. With the fame candour, a few various readings, which had been accidentally omitted in their proper place, are printed on the page, otherwife blank, which faces the first chapter of Jofhua; where, fays the editor," adponendas velim, potiùs quam lectoribus omninò fubtrahendas;" a conduct the more laudable, because the omiffion would not perhaps ever have been detected.

The laudable care thus taken by the prefent editor to follow the fteps of his predeceffor, precludes any further remarks from us, except fuch as are naturally fuggefted by a hearty defire to fee the work continued, and carried to a fatisfactory conclufion, We rejoice that a man has been found to carry on the laborious defign of Dr. Holmes; and we rejoice ftill more to fee in him a man impreffed with a due feeling of the importance of the task, and anxious to perform it according to the very best of his abilities. Such difpofi tions promife all that the public can defire; may Providence affift and bless the work. We fhall conclude by addreffing the friends of facred literature, particularly thofe within our own church, in the words of a former very celebrated editor of the Septuagint *.

Sufcipite defertum à multis literarum patrocinium; imprimis Ecclefiæ veftre avitam gloriam, ut hactenus æterna cum veftra laude facitis, ftrenue tuemini, et inter curas Reipublicæ falutares etiam in pofterum bonorum et innocentium, literafque amantium civium præfidium numerate."

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ART. II. Anecdotes of Painters, who have refided or been born in England: with Critical Remarks on their Productions: by • Edward Edwards, deceafed, late Teacher of Perspective, and Affociate, in the Royal Academy: Intended as a Continuation to the Anecdotes of Painting, by the late Horace, Earl of Orford. 4to. pp. 327. 11. 16's. Payne, White, &c. 1809.

FEW works have contributed more to the establishment of

the English school, than Lord Orford's "Anecdotes of Painting." Although by no means a complete hiftory, or a complete biography of the art, it was the first publication which excited a ferious with that our country, as it excelled in every other fcience; fhould not be without that of painting; and it ferved to point out in what we were deficient, how our deficiencies arofe, and by what means they might be fupplied. It fhowed that where there was patronage and tafte, there must be genius, which wanted only encourage. ment and whatever share of the merit of that work may be attributed to the oftenfible author, he cannot be denied the praife of having presented Vertue's notices and collections in a form and ftyle peculiarly calculated to be popular, and to engage the attention of that clafs, whofe zeal, patriotifm, and patronage, it was abfolutely neceffary to fecure.

Holding this opinion, we welcomed the prefent undertaking, as having a tendency to preferve the fpirit that has been excited, and to form a record of its fuccefs. Since the period of Lord Orford's labours, a very confiderable space has intervened, including, îndeed, nearly the whole of the prefent reign. It is perhaps furprifing that Lord Orford, who furvived the first appearance of his volumes fo long, and was not infenfible to the effects they had produced; who had witneffed alfo the rife and much of the progrefs- of the English fchool, fhould have done fo little to a work which he must have had many opportunities of enlarging. But whether having once difmiffed it, he became indifférent to its fuccefs, or whether he was unwilling to be the critic and hiftorian of contemporary merit, it is certain, that with the exception of very few notes, he left the copy for the edition to be printed with his other writings in 1797, exactly as it was first configned to the press.

The volume before us is the production of the late Mr. Edwards, a gentleman who, although he did not attain the highest rank in his profeffion, was qualified by foundness of judgment for what he undertook. He was one of the few artifts who have cultivated the art of writing, as well as of

painting,

66

painting, and appears to be, in a great meafure, divefted of the partialities which too frequently throw fufpicion on the opinions of profeffional men. The work, however, as we now have it, is pofthumous, and in a few inftances appears to have fuffered from this circumftance; yet we are informed that he was latterly chiefly employed in fuperintending the printing of this work, for which he had been collecting materials during the greater part of his life; much of it was printed before his death, and the copy for the remainder was completed." Notwithstanding this, had Mr. Edwards lived to revife it, he would probably have pointed out feveral errors, which have escaped thofe into whofe hands the care of the printing afterwards fell.

After a fuccinct and well-written life of Mr. Edwards, follows a PREFACE explaining the nature of the work, and fomething of the hiftory of Lord Orford's volumes. Mr. "Edwards feems to characterize that nobleman juftly, when he fays, that "he was by no means adapted in his own perfon to have acquired [acquire] the original information," (commu nicated by Vertue)" owing to a certain degree of faftidioufnefs in his manners, united with fomething of the confequence of rank, which difqualified him from making those familiar inquiries that would have been neceffary for the attainment of the requifite knowledge."

In the INTRODUCTION, the author gives a sketch of the rife of those focieties to which the arts have been indebted, as the" Antigallican;" the "Dilettanti," and the "Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce," particularly the laft. It began in 1754, and Mr. Edwards gives us the pleafing information (probably new to many of our readers) that in the courfe of the first twenty years, they expended "the fum of 7,9267. 5s. together with 10 medals of gold, 6 of filver, 17 pallets of gold, and 84, great and small, of filver: all of which were bestowed as rewards, in the departments of painting, fculpture, and architecture.' -We have alfo a fhort account of the Duke of Richmond's Gallery, which was opened for ftudents, foon after his Grace's return from his travels, about the beginning of the prefent reign. The origin and foundation of the "Royal Academy," is neceffarily an article of confiderable length and intereft, as it contains copies of documents which it would now be difficult to procure, and is enlivened by many curious facts, relating to the other focieties previoufly attempted on a fimilar plan, the rife of annual exhibitions, &c. &c,

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Mr. Edwards next proceeds to his principal fubject, a continuation of the Earl of Orford's Anecdotes. This, including a few names flightly noticed, as then living, by that writer, furnishes biographical memorandumis of about one hundred and ninety artifts who have flourished (a phrafe certainly not applicable to all) fince the period where Lord Orford leaves off. It must be noticed, however, that these are all painters; neither fculptors, nor architects are noticed; and whether Mr. Edwards had prepared any account of them, we are not told.

Among the most eminent in the lift here given, are Hayman, Mortimer, Wilfon, Mofer, Hone, Ramfay, Cipriani, Zuccarelli, Gainsborough, Meyers, Paton, Hoare, Pine, Penny, REYNOLDS, Serres, Webber, Hodges, Wright (of Derby), G. Hamilton, Rooker, Wheatley, W, Hamilton, Romney, Morland, Ruffel, and Bariy; and thefe very properly occupy the principal part of the author's attention. In general his biographical accounts appear to be accurate, and his criticifms juft; he appears to have had no particular favourites, whom he would wish to elevate at the expence of their brethren; and although he probably contemplated this copious lift with the honeft pride of an artist, who wishes well to the reputation of his country, he has not fcrupled to point out defects both in character and genius, a liberty which we fhould have been flow to allow, had he been lefs liberal and candid in bestowing praife, where it was due.

A few extracts will probably juftify our opinion of Mr. Edwards's performance.

The first we fhall give is his criticism on Wilson,

"Of this gentleman's talents as an artift, it is not easy to speak with precifion, for before we can form a juft eftimate of his abili. ties, he must be confidered in two capacities: firft, as a portrait painter; and fecondly, as a painter of landscape,

As a portrait painter, (which was his firft purfuit) his works are not fufficiently known, nor are they marked by any traits. which diftinguish them from the general manner, which then pre vailed among his contemporaries in that line of art. No decided character can therefore be affixed to them. It may, however, be afferted, that he drew a head equal to any of the portrait painters of his time, Afpecimen of which may be feen by a drawing now in the poffeffion of J, Richards, Efq. which is the portrait of Admiral Smith, and which was drawn before Wilfon went abroad. It is executed in black and white chalk, as large as life, upon

* One of the founders, and Secretary to the Royal Academy. 6

brown

brown French paper, and is treated in a bold masterly manner; but this is not a work which can authorize the critic to confider him as fuperior to the other portrait painters of his day.

"But while we are unable to define his merits as a portrait painter, from the want of fuch fpecimens as would direct our judgment, we are by no means deficient in proofs of his powers in landfcape painting, in which line his talents fuddenly broke forth, and fhone out with fuperior luftre.

"Though there is reafon to fufpect, that Wilfon had painted * fome landscapes before he went abroad, yet it is certain, that he did not commence a regular courfe in that ftudy, until after he had been fome time in Italy; when he began, however, he did not waste his time, nor fubjugate his powers to the unimproving. drudgery of copying the pictures of the old mafters, but contented himself with making his obfervations upon their works,: and afterwards confirming thofe obfervations by his ftudies from nature.

"In confequence of this prudent method of cultivating his talents, he wifely avoided any imitation of the pictures of the Italian mafters, who preceded him, and at once ftruck out a manner, both of execution and defign, which was claffical, grand, and original.

"Of the originality of his ftyle, we are convinced, by inspect ing his works, for in most of them he has represented the general character of Italy with more decided precifion, than can be found in the works of his predeceffors.

"In his pictures, the waving line of mountains, which bound the distance in every point of view; the dreary and inhospitable plains, rendered folemnly interefting, by the mouldering fragments of temples, tombs, and aqueducts, are all indicated in a mafterly manner, exhibiting that local character, which, though it be familiar to the inhabitants, cannot but be confidered as peculiarly grand and claffical.

But leaving general praife or criticism, it will be proper to confider more particularly this mafter's productions. In doing this, we shall first take notice of a cenfure, which has been paffed upon one of his principal works, by an artist, whose abilities and reputation command refpect though they cannot enforce our im plicit affent to his opinions, I mean Sir Joshua Reynolds, who, in one of the difcourfes t, which he gave in the Royal Academy,

There is a print engraved by J. S. Miller, from a picture painted by R. Wilfon, a view of Dover, without date, but evi. dently executed before he went abroad.

+ This difcourfe was read December 10, 1788, foon after the death of Gainsborough, and was the laft but one delivered by the Prefident

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