stream of their prejudices. Men's minds must be prepared to receive what is new to them. Reformation is a work of time. A national taste, however wrong it may be, cannot be totally changed at once; we must yield a little to the prepossession which has taken hold of the mind, and we may then bring people to adopt what would offend them, if endeavoured to be introduced by violence." These observations, however, do not apply to Mr. Hilton, but to those self-called par excellence painters of history, who, selecting subjects with which we have no sympathy, turn round, and in no measured terms abuse the taste of the public, merely because that public cannot comprehend their merits. The heroes of antiquity and their virtues are now quite out of date, and we therefore beseech the student never to read Livy when at a loss for a subject for an historical picture, though he may introduce such into landscapes. We recommend him as little to read Spenser, or the older dramatists and poets. Few persons now read them*; and half the effect of a picture is lost if all the circumstances respecting it be not at once either seen or remembered. If the story be not understood or approved, nothing can redeem the deficiency-not the most correct drawing or the most admirable arrangement, or the nicest management of light and shade and minutiæ of colour-and of all these Mr. Hilton is master. Mr. Briggs has delighted us in his subjects; but we wish he would take our advice and paint without waiting for commissions. We would direct his attention to our popular poets, known and unknown, and beg of him to show that poetry is not so very superior in point of expression to painting. Shakspeare we will allow is one not to be approached without fear and trembling. Independently of his intrinsic merits, his works have been so familiar to us from our childhood, that we have formed certain idealities of his characters which it is unwise to cope with. But how many passages there are in other writers yet unattempted, and which could scarcely fail to present all the features of a good picture:

• We once borrowed a volume of the Fairy Queen from a College Library at Cambridge, and though the book had, according to a note in it, been in the library nearly one hundred years, the leaves were uncut!

Or the early fate of him for whom

"Gray Bolton's monks were hymning plighted mass,
Their requiem for the hunter's soul who died
Beneath their wall, the boy of Egremond."

"What is good for a bootless bene'
The Falconer to the Lady said,
And the Lady answer'd,' Endless sorrow,'
For she knew that her son was dead."

Or not to multiply quotations, that congregate of pictures "The Dream,"
when the poet saw the reflections of life from the time, when were
"Two beings in the hues of youth

Standing upon a hill, a gentle hill,
Green and of mild declivity,”-

to when" the wanderer was alone" and

...." with the stars

And the quick spirit of the universe

He held his dialogues; and they did teach

To him the magic of their mysteries."

In summary of our ideas, we should wish to see centered in a grand composition subjects like these, which might include everything to please us in memory, with the addition of all that was excellent in execution. Landscapes, architectural fragments or buildings, some portion of the animal creation, the garb and manners of an older world, with what is pleasant to remember in our literature, and yet not as too familiar. With these we would associate the feelings and passions common to all ages and all nations. The fair or manly proportions of the human frame, the innocence or inexperience of youth, and all that can create or command sympathy with good taste. The misfortunes of mankind, domestic afflictions or bodily pains or infirmities, leave to our Gallic neighbours; leave them also classical selections from the Roman History, and all those subjects where violence of action or motion is to be depicted, or even more than the easiest motion of body.

It is a foolish ambition also for an artist to select a subject which requires an exhibition of every muscle in exercise, merely to show a knowledge of anatomy; for it is as likely to create disgust in the hundred as to excite admiration in the few. The wisest policy is to consider the means of pleasing the many, and the many longest. This is not to be done merely by caprice. Vulgarities in art may to a certain extent meet with encouragement, for they will please in the print-shops, and afford food for a vitiated taste. But these can have no lasting influence over the mind; rivals in absurdity will constantly arise to consign them to ob

livion, and the artist will find he has only been labouring for his "daily bread,”—and not for fame. If he have the mens divinior, the high spirit of genius, he will scorn all ignoble means of notoriety, satisfied that if he deserve it, justice will some day be awarded him. If he have not that high spirit and feeling,—if he feel that he is only to be classed among ordinary mortals, then he is certainly wise in his generation to pursue his avocation in the way he finds most profitable.

SIR F. BOURGEOIS AND THE DULWICH GALLERY OF

PAINTINGS.

SIR Francis Bourgeois was one of those mortals who, though not blessed from their birth by any rare endowments of the mind, are placed by the caprice of Fortune in situations to become the envy of even the most able of the children of genius. "There is a pleasure in painting which none but painters know," said an enthusiastic votary of the art. There is also a pleasure in possessing, which painters seldom know, but which the true collector would not exchange for any which might arise from mere mechanical labour. It was the good fortune of Bourgeois to share both pleasures; and if he had not the power to hand down his name to posterity on the one side as the inventor of great works, he has done that which is almost tantamount, as the founder of a gallery, from which thousands may continually receive lessons in taste, and engage hours of delight in perusing works of far more varied character and excellence than could have been put together by the unaided exertions of almost any individual.

Bourgeois was descended from a Swiss family, which was said to have held several respectable offices in the State in their original country, but which had sunk into obscurity; and, like many others, sought in England the means of retrieving their fallen fortunes. He was born in the year 1756, in London, his father having pursued there the occupation of a watchmaker in St. Martin's Lane. When about eight years of age, the celebrated Noel Desenfans, whose name must be ever associated with his, came to lodge at the same house. This gentleman was a teacher of languages, in which capacity, being moreover a man of great natural ability, he gained the means of acquiring powerful connexions. He had also a great predilection for the Arts, and was conVOL. III.-No. 16.

3 I

sulted by many of the nobility in the formation of their galleries. His taste and knowledge in matters of Art became at length known to the unfortunate Stanislaus, King of Poland, who remitted to him a considerable sum of money for the purchase of paintings for the Royal Gallery at Warsaw. The subsequent ill-fate of that monarch prevented this destination of the pictures which had been bought, and they remained in the hands of M. Desenfans. Such a prize was sure to excite the jealousies of his less fortunate fellow-adventurers; and all sorts of surmises were spread about him, and the world forgot-what we should have expected the experience of four thousand years might have taught it,—that in our actions we are as much the slaves as the masters of circumstances. Whatever, however, might be the singularity of the acquirement, the possession of such treasures became a matter of considerable notoriety, and the destination of them by the aged collector one of as considerable speculation. Even the curiosity of royalty was excited; and His Majesty George III., with that degree of bonhommie which led him to inquire into the private circumstances of many of his subjects, who little thought of such inquisitorial superveillance, condescended to make himself master of the secret. It was after an audience with the King that Bourgeois said to a friend, "His Majesty has congratulated me on being Desenfans' heir. I assured His Majesty it was the first intimation I had of such good fortune attending me." This good fortune, however, did await him. Having early showed a predilection for the Arts, he was placed as pupil with the celebrated Loutherbourg at the instance of M. Desenfans, whose example and conversation perhaps it was which had awakened the feeling originally. Under Loutherbourg's instructions he paid considerable attention to his art, and made himself master of the elementary principles. He afterwards travelled on the continent, and proceeded through Germany to Poland, where, with letters from his friend Desenfans, he was favourably received by the King, who conferred on him the Knighthood of the Order of Merit. This honour was, on his return to England, confirmed to him by George III., when he was also appointed Landscape Painter to the King. Thus he afterwards continued the practice of his profession with great perseverance: but though his works exhibit a strong feeling for art, and met with many admirers, they must be pronounced crude and sketchy, and not such as in the present day would be thought to entitle an artist to the honours of the Academy. He was, however, elected an Academician in 1792; but he soon after retired from the more active pursuit of art, M. Desenfans having in 1804 bequeathed to him his property, with the paintings before referred to. This was, per

haps, in some measure due to him, he having given very considerable assistance in the due selection of choice and undoubted works; as M. Desenfans, though a man of considerable shrewdness and some taste, had not that tact and knowledge of Art which is always necessary for a collector of pictures*. Before the death of this gentleman a sale of his pictures was made, and the best reserved, and thus bequeathed to one who had the good sense to leave them in such a manner as enabled the public to receive the full advantage of such a collection. Sir F. Bourgeois having been placed in a situation to enjoy the pleasures of a cultivated taste and refined society, was in the habit of visiting the Master and Fellows of the Charitable Foundation, or College, at Dulwich; for the maintenance of which large estates had been left, in the reign of James I., by W. Alleyn, an actor. On one of these occasions it was incidentally suggested that to that body his collection would be an appropriate gift, as they already had a Gallery, and were not shackled with any onerous duties to divert them from the due care of the paintings; the distance from London also was not inconvenient for visitors; while it would operate favourably in preserving them from the atmospheric and other evil influences of the metropolis. The idea remained in his mind; and after an ineffectual offer of them to the Government, upon certain conditions of building a Gallery, which, (with the usual culpable inattention of former Administrations to the Arts,) was refused, he determined to bequeath them to the Master and Fellows of Dulwich College, with such a sum as should ensure their proper preservation. This he duly carried into effect, leaving with the paintings (above three hundred and fifty in number) the sum of 10,000l. for their being kept in order, with another sum of 2000l. to build or adapt a Gallery for their disposal. He also bequeathed 1000l. each to the Master and Chaplain, and left the Master and Fellows his residuary legatees.-Dulwich is a pleasant village near Norwood, in Surrey; about four miles from the bridges, whence coaches are proceeding almost every hour in the day, and a visit to which forms one of the most delightful intellectual trips which the neighbourhood of the metropolis affords.

The collection, though containing, (as may be supposed among so great a number,) many inferior specimens of some of the masters, among others presents some of unrivalled excellence. It is particularly rich in the specimens of the Dutch and Flemish schools, among which we must point out the works of Wouvermans. The specimens of Murillo also are extremely valuable; and some of the Italian school (where, however,

See ante, p. 102.