sentation of triumphant death, but there is at the same time much vigour in the conception, and some of the details are admirably executed. West, however, possessed too judicious a taste to indulge often in subjects of this class. His picture of St. Paul, in the chapel at Greenwich, bears the genuine stamp of his talent.

Barry, the contemporary of West, with all his high pretension, was more remarkable for the singularity of his ideas, than for his talent as a painter. Measuring his own genius by the size of his pictures, his vanity led him to fancy himself the greatest artist in the world; and while he neglected proportions, and affected to despise colouring, he was particularly deficient in the delineation of nature and grace. His pictures, which decorate the Great Room of the Society of Arts, are filled with colossal figures. They are a succession of allegories, representing the progress of civilization. It is impossible to refrain from smiling when one's attention is directed to the faithful portraits of Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, Captain Cooke, Dr. Burney, &c. all represented under the form of Tritons, surrounded by Nereides, in the Triumph of the Thames.

Fuseli, the professor of painting to the Royal Academy, seems to have mistaken the gigantic for the grand, caprice for originality, and exaggeration for boldness. In the professor's chair he inculcates other principles, he becomes enthusiastic, without being extravagant, and frequently evinces genuine taste in his remarks on the great masters

and the great epochs of art. But in his written lectures, his frequent hyperboles, forced metaphors, and metaphysical allusions, betray his Germanic origin, and the pedantic rather than enthusiastic school of Schlegel. How different from the chaste elegance of Reynolds! But it is chiefly in his pictures that Fuseli shows his contempt for the graces of the English Titian. He aspires to be the Michel-Angelo and the Dante of modern painting. Though sometimes grand and sublime, he is more frequently outrageously exaggerated, and transfers to his canvas the horrors of German extravagance. His forms, his colouring, his expression, embody ideal conceptions which belong to his own imagination alone, and are founded on nothing in nature. He is original, because he is like nobody else; and his favourite subjects, borrowed from the Scandinavian mythology, would be suitable decorations for the blood-stained palace of Odin.

The painter whom I have next to mention, is younger than any of the three I have already noticed, and has all of a sudden acquired, by two of his compositions, a greater share of praise than any of his predecessors or contemporaries. Mr. Haydon has obtained the reputation of the first historical painter in England, since the production of his Christ entering Jerusalem. The Judg ment of Solomon, which preceded the latter picture, and which was also a remarkable composition, has since been looked upon only as a promise of future talent. The Entry into Jerusalem, which

was exhibited alternately in all the principal towns of Great Britain, met with some severe critics at Edinburgh, in the Aristarchi of the Edinburgh Review, who could see nothing in it beyond the sketch of a fine picture. However, it cannot be denied that at least one figure of this vast composition is really finished. There is considerable skill in the arrangement of the groupes, some of the contrasts are very effective, and the execution is often vigorous and bold. But the picture wants that beauty of colouring which gives life and sentiment to drawing. The figures seem to be waiting for the last touch of the pencil, which should animate them, as the breath of Jehovah animated the clay which his hands had moulded into forms. In his delineation of our Saviour's head, Haydon has ventured to depart from that species of consecrated tradition, to which all painters before him have conformed. We find in it none of that mingled gentleness and majesty, whose very mildness is characteristic. Mr. Haydon has aimed at personifying supreme intelligence, and infusing into the features of the Son of God and man, that divine radiance with which he is encircled in the pictures of the old masters.

Two of the groupes are particularly striking; one on the right, the other on the left of Jesus. The latter is composed of three portraits of celebrated writers. A sophist, with the features of Voltaire, sneers at Christ with a sardonic grin; a Christian philosopher, who is easily recognised for Sir Isaac Newton, is represented in the atti

tude of respectful contemplation; and a religious poet prostrates himself in humble adoration. The last is Wordsworth, who has attempted to carry back poetry to its origin, the meditation of the great mysteries of nature and Providence. These portraits, however, by no means produce the same interest that is excited by the opposite groupe of the kneeling Centurion, and the repentant daughter led forward by her mother and sister. The artist has thrown an enchanting grace into the expression of this young girl.

Mr. Haydon has produced nothing since this picture, except some rich drawings from the Elgin Marbles, of which he is an enthusiastic admirer. It is true, I have not yet seen his Resurrection of Lazarus, and his Macbeth, which I heard very highly spoken of the other day.

One would wish to forget that Westall ever assumed a place among the historical painters at Somerset-house. In Mr. Cooke's exhibition in Soho-square, he is conspicuous for his elegant drawings of less ostentatious dimensions; but the works which reflect the greatest honour on his talents are his beautiful vignettes, in which the defects of drawing are redeemed by completeness of general effect. What a fund of poetry he can compress within the space of four square inches! How happily are the charms of innocence and beauty blended in his female figures! What poet, whose works have been illustrated by Westall, but must feel that those illustrations have embodied the ideality of his most pleasing dreams; for

sylphs and fairies, and not the forms of mortals, are the usual creations of his pencil!om omog

Stothard, who has illustrated scenes of a more domestic character than Westall, comes next to him in merit. He is superior to Smirke, who, though sometimes original, is often merely burlesque. The Canterbury Pilgrims, from the poetry of Chaucer, is a fine composition by Stothard; but I have only seen the engraving.

"...THE Exhibition is not the only place in which I have sought the works of the English painters. I have sometimes met with them in the different private collections in London. Sir John Leicester's Gallery presents the greatest number; it being reserved almost exclusively for the productions of the English school, the origin of which is prudently dated from the successful career of Sir Joshua Reynolds. In reviewing the successors of that artist, I cannot do better than begin with the individual, who not only officially presides over his colleagues of the Academy, but who seems to have followed the example of Sir Joshua in making his pencil immortalize the distinguished personages of the day. Had his genius taken another