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nolds's lectures, which appears to approach nearest to the sobriety of just criticism.

His style of execution, as well as choice of subjects, was original, although considerably resembling that of Watteau, more particularly in his landscapes. His pictures are generally wrought in a loose and slight manner, with great freedom of hand, and using very little colour, with a great body of vehicle; which gives to his works great lightness and looseness of effect; properties extremely valuable in a picture, and too easily lost in the endeavour to give more strict and positive resemblance of substance. Sir Joshua Reynolds in his fourteenth lecture says of this hatching manner of Gainsborough, that his portraits were often little more than what generally attends a dead colour as to finishing or determining the form of the features; but, "as he was always attentive to the ge neral effect, or whole together, I have often imagined (says he) that this unfinished manner contributed even to that striking resemblance for which his portraits are so remarkable. At the same time it must be acknowledged that there is one evil attending this mode; that if the portrait were seen previously to any knowledge of the original, different persons would form different ideas; and all would be disappointed at not finding the original correspond with their own conceptions, under the great latitude which indistinctness gives to the imagination, to assume almost what character or form it pleases."

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In the same lecture, which principally treats of the acquirements of Gainsborough, and which was delivered at the royal academy soon after his death, by its truly exalted president, it is said of him, " that if ever this nation should produce genius sufficient to acquire to us the honourable. distinction of an English school, the name of Gainsborough will be transmitted to posterity in the history of the art among the first of that rising name.' "Whether he most excelled in portraits, landscapes, or fancy pictures, it is difficult to determine: whether his portraits were most admirable for exact truth of resemblance, or his landscapes for a portrait-like representation of nature, such as we see in the works of Rubens, Rysdael, or others of these schools. In his fancy pictures, when he had fixed upon his object of imitation, whether it was the mean and vulgar form of a wood-cutter, or a child of an interesting character, as he did not attempt to raise the one, so neither did he lose any

of the natural grace and elegance of the other; such a grace and such an elegance as are more frequently found in cottages than in courts. This excellence was his own, the result of his particular observation and taste. For this he was certainly not indebted to any school; for his grace was not academical, or antique, but selected by himself from the great school of nature; where there are yet a thousand modes of grace unselected, but which lie open in the multiplied scenes and figures of life, to be brought out by skilful and faithful observers.

"Upon the whole we may justly say, that whatever he attempted he carried to a high degree of excellence. It is to the credit of his good sense and judgment that he never did attempt that style of historical painting for which his previous studies had made no preparation.'

Nothing could have enabled Gainsborough to reach so elevated a point in the art of painting without the most ardent love for it. Indeed his whole mind appears to have been devoted to it, even to his dying day; and then his principal regret seemed to be, that he was leaving his art, when, as he said, "he saw his deficiencies, and had en-. deavoured to remedy them in his last works." Various circumstances in his life exhibited him as referring every thing to it. "He was continually remarking to those who happened to be about him, whatever peculiarity of coun tenance, whatever accidental combination of figures, or happy effects of light and shadow occurred in prospects, in the sky, in walking the streets, or in company. If in his walks he found a character that he liked, and whose attendance was to be obtained, he ordered him to his house and from the fields he brought into his paintingroom stumps of trees, weeds, and animals of various kinds; and designed them not from memory, but immediately from the objects. He even framed a kind of model of landscapes on his table composed of broken stones, dried herbs, and pieces of looking-glass; which he magnified, and improved into rocks, trees, and water: all which exhibit the solicitude and extreme activity that he had about every, thing relative to his art; that he wished to have his objects embodied as it were, and distinctly before him, neglecting nothing that contributed to keep his faculties alive; and deriving hints from every sort of combination." He was also in the constant habit of painting by night, a practice very advantageous and improving to an artist, for, by this

means he may acquire a new and a higher perception of what is great and beautiful in nature. His practice in the progress of his pictures was to paint on the whole together; wherein he differed from some, who finish each part separately, and by that means are frequently liable to produce inharmonious combinations of forms and features.

Gainsborough was one of the few artists of eminence this country has produced who never was indebted to foreign travel for his improvement and advancement in painting. Some use, indeed, he appears to have made of foreign productions; and he did not neglect to improve himself in the language of the art, the art of imitation, but aided his progress by closely observing and imitating some of the masters of the Flemish school; who are undoubtedly the greatest in that particular and necessary branch of it. He frequently made copies of Rubens, Teniers, and Vandyke, which it would be no disgrace to the most accurate connoisseurs to mistake for original pictures at first sight. What he thus learned, he did not, however, servilely use, but applied it to imitate nature in a manner entirely his.

own.

The subjects he chose for representation were generally very simple, to which his own excellent taste knew how to give expression and value. In his landscapes a rising mound and a few figures seated upon, or near it; with a cow or some sheep grazing, and a slight marking of disstance, sufficed for the objects; their charm was the purity of tone in the colour; the freedom and clearness of the touch; together with an agreeable combination of the forms; and with these simple materials, which appear so easy as to be within every one's grasp, but which constantly elude the designer who is not gifted with his feeling and taste, does he always produce a pleasing picture. In his fancy pictures the same taste prevailed. A cottage girl; a shepherd's boy; a woodman; with very slight materials in the back-ground, were treated by him with so much character, yet so much elegance, that they never fail to delight.

In the spring following Gainsborough's death, an exhibition was made at his house in Pall Mall, of his pictures and drawings. Of the former there were fifty-six; of the latter one hundred and forty-eight; with several pictures of the Flemish and other masters, which he had collected during his life-time. They were announced for sale, and

their prices marked in the catalogue, and several were sold. Some time after, the whole remaining collection was sold by auction, and brought good prices. Among his attempts were the portraits of Garrick and Foote, but he did not succeed according to his wish, which he used to excuse by saying that "they had every body's faces but their own," a very pertinent remark, as applied to the portraits of dramatic personages.

Mr. Edwards mentions three etchings by the hand of Gainsborough. The first is small, and was done as a de coration to the first "Treatise on Perspective," which was published by his friend Mr. Kirby; but it is curious to observe, that what little of perspective is introduced, is totally false; but from the date of that work Gainsborough must have been at that time very young. The second is an oak tree, with gypsies sitting under it boiling their kettle; the size 19 inches by 17. Both these were finished by the graver, though not improved, by Mr. Wood. The third, a more extensive view, represents a man ploughing on the side of a rising ground, upon which there is a wind mill; the sea terminates the distance. This he called the Suffolk Plough. It is extremely scarce, for he spoiled the plate by impatiently attempting to apply the aquafortis, before his friend, Mr. Grignion, could assist him, as was agreed. Its size 16 inches by 14. He also attempted two or three small plates in aqua tinta, but was not very successful with them, as he knew little of the process.

This eminent artist had a nephew, GAINSBOROUGH.DU+ PONT, a modest and ingenious man, who painted portraits with considerable success, but died at the early age of thirty, in January 1797. His principal work is a large picture (for which he received 5007.) of all the Trinity masters, which is in the court-room of the Trinity-house upon Tower-hill, '

GALATEO (ANTONY), or GALATEUS LICIENSIS, an emie nent Italian writer, whose proper name was FERRARI, is generally known by that of Galateo, from his native place, Galatina, in Otranto, where he was born in 1444. His father dying in his infancy, he was taken into the protec tion of his grandfather, who had him educated at Nardo:

Edwards's Supplement to Walpole's Anecdotes.-Malone's Life and Works of sir Joshua Reynolds.-Northcote's Life of sir Joshua.-Rees's Cyclopædia.Gent. Mag. vol. LVIII.-Sketch of the Life of Gainsborough, by Thicknesse, 12mo, 1788.-Jackson's Four Ages, 1798, 8vo.

He afterwards studied medicine, which, after taking his degrees at Ferrara, he practised at Naples with great reputation, and was appointed physician to the king, in consequence of the recommendation of Sannazarius and Pontanus. The air of Naples, however, not agreeing with him, he removed to Gallipoli, near Galatina, where he resumed his practice. He died Nov. 12, 1517. He was not only eminent as a physician, but his natural and moral philosophy is said to have risen beyond the level of the age in which he lived. He is also said to have indicated the possibility of the navigation to the East by the Cape of Good Hope, in his treatise "De situ Elementorum," published in 1501, but written some years prior to that period. He also illustrated the topography of his native country with accurate maps and descriptions; and was reputed a poet of considerable merit. His works are, besides what we have mentioned, 1. "De situ Iapygiæ," Basil, 1558, but the best edition is that of 1727, with the notes of Tasneri, and some lesser pieces by Galateo. 2. " A Description of Gallipoli." 3. "Successi dell' armata Turchescanella citta d'Otranto dell' anno 1480," 4to, 1480. He had accompanied the son of the king of Naples on this expedition. He published also some poems in Latin and Italian. '

GALE (JOHN), a learned divine, and an eminent preacher among the baptists, was born May 26, 1680, at London. His father was a citizen of good repute; and observing the natural turn of his son to be from his infancy grave and composed, he resolved to breed him for the ministry. He spared no cost in his education, and the boy's diligence was such, that, both in school and out of school, he applied attentively to his learning, and became not only master of the Latin and Greek, but of the Hebrew language, at the age of seventeen; when he was sent to Leyden, to finish what he had so happily begun. Soon after his arrival there he received the news of his mother's death, and, being sensible that this would hasten his return home, he made it a spur to his industry; and so surprising was his progress in academical learning, that he was thought worthy of the degrees of master of arts and doctor of philosophy in his nineteenth year, and accordingly received those honours in 1699, having performed

1 Moreri.-Dict. Hist.-Niceron, vol. II.-Roscoe's Leo X.-Saxii Onomast,

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