individually, and to the arts in Britain; for although his majesty had not perhaps any natural taste for the fine arts,

"He had been instructed in the principles of architecture by Chambers, of delineation by Moser, and of perspective by Kirby; and he was fully aware of the lustre which the arts have, in all ages, reflected on the dif ferent countries in which the cultivation of them has been encouraged to perpetuate the memory of great events. His employment of Mr. West, although altogether in his private capacity, was therefore not without a view to the public advantage; and it is the more deserving of applause, as it was rather the result of principle than of personal predilection."

A friendly intercourse thus commenced between his majesty and Mr. West.

"He was frequently invited to spend the evening at Buckingham-house, where he was often detained by the king as late as eleven o'clock, on topics connected with the best means of promoting the study of the fine arts in the kingdom. It was in these conversations that the plan of the royal academy was digested."

The Society of Incorporated Artists above-mentioned, although it derived its claim to public attention solely from the few eminent artists it contained, was composed, in a great measure, of obscure individuals, of little professional reputation, and whose views in the administration of its affairs, were directed more to their own personal advantage than to the general interests of art. Consisting of such jarring elements, a society could not long conduct its plans with unanimity or on a liberal system, and the animosities and disputes, so disgraceful to the society, which followed, led to the secession of Reynolds and West, and several others of its most distinguished members.

"This transaction made some noise at the time, and it happened on the very day when Mr. West waited on the king with his sketch of the departure of Regulus, that the newspapers contained some account of the matter His majesty inquired the cause and particulars of the schism; and Mr. West, in stating what they were, mentioned that the principles of his religion, made him regard such proceedings as exceedingly derogatory to the professors of the arts of peace. This led the king to say that he would gladly patronize any association which might be formed more immediately. calculated to improve the arts. Mr. West, after retiring from the palace, communicated this to Chambers and Moser, and upon conferring on the subject with Mr. Cotes, it was agreed that the four should constitute them❤ selves a committee of the dissenting artists, to draw up the plan for an academy. When this was mentioned to his majesty, he not only approved of their determination, but took a great personal interest in the scheme, and even drew up with his own hand several of the laws."

Shortly afterwards a meeting of those artists, who had separated from the association, was held, when the code of laws was read and accepted, and the gentlemen recommended by the king to fill the various offices were appointed, Reynolds to be president, Chambers treasurer, Newton secretary, Moser keeper, Penny professor of painting, Wale professor of perspective, and Dr. William Hunter professor of anatomy; and a report of the

proceedings having been made to his majesty next day, he gave his sanction to the election, and thus the academy was constituted on the 10th December 1768, under the title of the Royal Academy of Arts of London. At a subsequent meeting the academicians chose a council to assist the president, and visitors to superintend the schools in the three branches of art, painting, sculpture, and architecture.

The new establishment was to be supported by the produce of an annual exhibition, and the deficiency (if any) was to be supplied out of his majesty's privy purse. For a few years the infant institution required the aid of his majesty's bounty, and he at various times was pleased to advance for its support, sums to the amount of above £5000. From this time a great improvement took place in the state of the arts, the public interest being constantly kept up by the annual exhibitions; and the patronage of his majesty, and the magnificent asylum which, through it, the academy obtained at Somerset House, gave it a respectability which no intrinsic merits of its members could have conferred.

By the new lights which the genius and taste of Sir Joshua Reynolds threw upon history and portrait painting, the English school acquired a character distinct from any thing that had before been produced in art, and which placed its reputation on a level with the best contemporary schools of Europe. Reynolds was a man of most refined taste, though perhaps of no great fertility of fancy. He was originally a pupil of Hudson, under whom correctness of design was not to be learnt, and the want of it is the principal defect in his works. His portraits possess astonishing brilliancy of colour and breath of chiaroscuro; in the ease and elegance of his attitudes, and the air of gentility he gave his figures, he has never been excelled; and he displayed astonishing sagacity and judgment in seizing the characters of his originals, and disposing them with regard to attitude and gesture in the most appropriate manner. He also occasionally painted historical subjects, but as his taste led him chiefly to the study of colouring and effect, and as his knowledge of drawing was very superficial, his works display none of that grandeur and simplicity of composition, strength of expression, or purity of design, so indispensable in the grand style. His historical works were not numerous, but to those who have seen his large picture of the Infant Hercules, painted for the Empress Catharine, and his Macbeth in the Shakspeare Gallery, the truth of these remarks will appear sufficiently obvious. The Hercules, with all its beauties of colouring, was made up of a number of figures, without expression or vigour

of drawing, and which, being totally unconnected with the story, contributed nothing to the illustration of the piece. The Macbeth, of which there is a print in Boydell's Shakspeare, was, in point of conception and invention, a meagre representation of the scene of horrors which our great poet drew; while the colouring, for its depth and brilliancy, was the most splendid and scientific which perhaps the whole range of art can present. We speak of the picture in its original state; for, from the evanescent materials which Reynolds frequently employed, both it and many of his finest works have lost all the colouring which originally excited so much admiration. From the applause which the excellencies of Reynolds excited, the defects of his style received a sort of sanction that has been highly injurious to the English school, by introducing a taste for the more superficial recommendations of colouring and effect, to the prejudice of scientific design and powerful and appropriate expres

sion.

The lustre which Reynolds thus shed on the royal academy, and the whole English school, was ably sustained by his contemporaries and successors, who in their various departments displayed such excellence as to redeem the credit of British genius, and to prove that the stimulus of patronage and encouragement was alone wanting to rival the age of Leo and Julius. The names of Mortimer, Wright of Derby, Romney, Opie, Barry, and Northcote, are conspicuous among historical painters; in landscape, Wilson, Gainsborough, Sandby, Girtin, Cozens; and to these may be added several foreign artists, whose talents contributed in an eminent degree to the improvement of the art. The most distinguished of these are Bartolozzi, in the double character of a scientific designer and engraver; Zoffanii, in portrait; Loutherbourg and Zuccarelli in landscape; and Fuseli as a historical painter and a learned writer on art. Sculpture too, which had been hitherto practised only by foreigners, and not in the best taste, was brought to great perfection by Wilton, Banks, the Bacons, Flaxman, Westmacott, Chantry, and others, who, in adopting the antique as the model of their style, have given a purity of taste to their works, which none of their predecessors in England have exhibited.

By the acquaintance which we have formed, from the labours of Stuart, Pars, Revett, Wilkins, and others, with the finest remains of Grecian architecture, the majestic style of the Greeks has been naturalized amongst us, and a style of grandeur and simplicity has gradually assumed the place of the laboured littleness and ungraceful details of most of our former works in this

art.

The accuracy and minuteness with which these interesting remains of antiquity have been delineated, have afforded to the architects of the present day, opportunities of improvement which were not enjoyed by their predecessors; but it is to be regreted, that although correct taste has been more generally diffused, and displays itself in the purity of style of most of our villas, and the like, whether in the general distribution of the masses or in the various details, it has had less influence in those great public edifices] which offered the greatest scope for grandeur and elegance of conception. Those erected in and about London, even at enormous expense, have, with very few exceptions, betrayed a total disregard of those great principles of architectonic composition by which the works of the ancients have obtained the admiration of civilized mankind. In order to make ourselves more clearly understood on this subject, we shall offer a few remarks on some of those recent edifices which we consider most liable to reprehension.

Every circumstance respecting the new Custom-house, the advantages of its site on the Thames, the scale of magnitude on which it is constructed, and the immense funds devoted to its erec tion, gave us a right to expect the combination of unity and grandeur of design, and elegance of decoration. This vast edifice consists of three separate divisions; that in the centre has a range of long arched windows, and is otherwise deficient in architectural decoration; the wings have in their centre a range of six Ionic columns, with a proper entablature; but the discrepancy between the centre and wings, in the plainness of the one and the richness of the others, is such, as to destroy all conformity amongst these parts, and, instead of suggesting the idea of one great whole, to present the appearance of three distinct structures. These considerations induce us to regard this edifice in its River front as a complete failure, and to regret that so fine an opportunity has been lost of equalling, if not surpassing, the justly celebrated façade of the Louvre at Paris. It is but rendering justice, however, to the artist, to notice the long room as a very fine specimen of internal architecture.

The front of Covent Garden Theatre is highly creditable to the taste of its architect. We consider that if the portico had been extended to six instead of four columns, it would have been a decided improvement, and that the grave character of the Grecian Doric is not so appropriate for a theatre as a senate-house, or court of justice. The new church of St. Mary le Bonne is a structure on which a large sum of money has been most unprofitably squandered. Externally and internally it is a most grotesque

composition; the spire is distinguished by a very striking peculiarity-a sort of peristyle, consisting of caryatides of singular appearance. But its absurdities are in some degree redeemed by its very fine hexastyle Corinthian portico. Waterloo Bridge, amongst the recent architectural works of the Metropolis, is entitled to our particular attention, as one of the finest specimens of edifices of this kind in existence. To the greatness and equality of dimensions of its nine elliptical arches, and the long straight line of its parapet, are to be ascribed the magnificence and grandeur of effect which strike us so forcibly-and which we look for in vain in bridges which have a curved headway, and arches increasing in magnitude from the ends to the centre-a mode of construction which has hitherto, with very few exceptions, exclusively prevailed. The Grecian Doric columns over the piers are however very objectionable, as ill adapted to this species of architecture, and as some more appropriate decoration than any of the orders might have been adopted. The idea of this Bridge has been obviously derived from the Pont de Neuilly, by Perronet; but notwithstanding the defects we have noticed, it is superior in many particulars to that celebrated structure.

The new street leading from Pall Mall to Portland Place, and the other improvements in progress in that part of the Metropolis, claim our attention from the extent in which these operations are conducted, and as they forcibly illustrate our proposition, that the prevailing taste is not what might be expected from the advanced state of our knowledge in the sound principles of art. In street architecture, when conducted on so extensive a scale, we are decidedly of opinion, that picturesque irregularity is preferable to the principle usually adopted, where the uniformity of long ranges of houses is obviated by projecting the centre and wings, or some similar method. It is with pleasure, therefore, we observe in these improvements, the fine effect produced by variety of outline, and the contrast of the plain and simple buildings with those of a more embellished character. But here our commendation must end, for nothing can exceed the absurdity and extravagance of the details of the various buildings; in them Mr. Nash has set all authority at defiance,-rusticated columns and other corruptions of Vignola and Inigo Jones, and the monstrous combinations of King James's Gothic obtruding themselves at every step, and loudly proclaiming that novelty, and not purity of design, forms the groundwork of his style.

We could have wished to have said a few words on the pernicious tendency of the present prevailing taste for the Gothic style,

We speak here of his early manner.