about the king's business." It is very pleasant to think of the discoverer of universal gravitation thus in' the end emancipating himself from the thraldom of his own idiosyncrasies, and coming down from the heavens to go about the king's business" with the simple earnestness of one led solely by the sense of duty. From the London Review. THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH.* IF we exclude from our view the works | the most distinguished of their followers. of one great master, whose fame may hereafter mark the glorious sunrise of a long bright day of art, but whose pictures at present constitute of themselves a grand and independent school-if we ignore the labors of J. M. W. Turner, shut out the new world which his pencil opened up, and confine our attention to the homely, classical, and orthodox productions of his predecessors, we may say that the art of landscape painting attained its maturity in a sudden and surprising manner. This fact contrasts strongly with the gradual improvement in the branches of history and portraiture. Nearly three hundred years passed away between the revival of painting by the Florentine Cimabue and its perfection under Michael Angelo and Raphael; while, only twenty years after the death of Adam Elzheimer, the founder of landscape painting in Italy, Poussin, Claude, and Salvator Rosa exhibited an excellence which none of their legitimate_successors have been able to surpass. In our own country, in like manner, the progress of landscape painting from birth to maturity was singularly rapid; its founders, Richard Wilson and Thomas Gainsborough, displaying a fine appreciation of nature, and a power of depicting her in her common aspects, which have not been excelled by The talents of these two great men were similar; their fortunes were most unlike. The first passed through life poor and neglected, though his declining years were brightened by a gleam of sunshine; admired by the painters of France and Italy, he had no honor in his own country, and saw himself slighted, while artists of far inferior merit succeeded in obtaining the approbation and patronage of the public. The pictures destined to win the admiration of posterity, in his own day could scarcely find a purchaser; his "Ceyx and Alcyone" was painted for a pot of porter and the remains of a Stilton cheese; and he was often compelled to consign his noblest landscapes to the hands of pawnbrokers, in order to procure the means of a scanty subsistence. Gainsborough's career, on the other hand, was, in every respect, far more fortunate, though he perhaps owed his prosperity more to the circumstance of his wife's fortune, and his own skill as a portrait painter, than to the public appreciation of those beautiful and truly English landscapes, which have since made his name illustrious. Gay, talented, kind-hearted, and eccentric, his life furnishes an admirable subject to the biographer; and we are bound to say that Mr. Fulcher has succeeded in producing, out of the materials at his command, a most interesting and instructive narrative. We may add that the value of this little work is greatly enhanced by the appended list of Gainsborough's works, including the names of their possessors-a list that appears to us very carefully and well compiled. us. Although nearly seventy years have passed away since Gainsborough was borne to his last resting-place in the churchyard of Kew, no authentic account of his life was published until the appearance of Allan Cunningham's Lives of the Painters in 1829, in which, owing to the extent of the general design, it was impossible to devote much space to the history of any one individual; and the graphic sketch there given of the career of the great landscape painter has now been filled up and finished in the work before Thomas Gainsborough was born in the town of Sudbury, Suffolk, in the year 1727. His father was a manufacturer, and is described by his descendants as "a fine old man who wore his hair carefully parted, and was remarkable for the whiteness and regularity of his teeth." When in full dress, he always wore a sword, according to the custom of last century, and was an adroit fencer, possessing the fatal facility of using his weapon in either hand. Besides the subject of our notice, there were eight other children, some of whom were equally distinguished for ability and eccentricity. One of them (John, better known in the district as "scheming Jack") began almost everything but finished nothing, frittering away his ingenuity and mechanical skill in elaborate trifling. On one occasion he attempted to fly with a pair of metallic wings of his own construction, and repaired to the top of a summer-house near which a crowd of spectators had assembled to witness his ascent. Waving his pinions awhile to gather air, he leaped from its summit, and, in an instant, dropped into a ditch close by, and was drawn out amidst shouts of laughter, half dead with fright and vexation. Humphrey Gainsborough, another brother, was an exemplary Dissenting Minister settled at Henley-uponThames. He, too, possessed great mechanical skill; and Mr. Edgeworth, the father of the distinguished authoress, says of him in his memoirs, that he had "never known a man of more inventive mind." His experiments upon the steam-engine were far in advance of his time: and it is stated by his family and friends that Watt owed to him one of his great and fundamental improvements-that of condensing the steam in a separate vessel. Gainsborough probably derived his love of art from his mother, a woman of highly cultivated mind, who excelled in flower painting, and zealously encouraged his juvenile attempts at drawing. From his earliest years he was a devoted student in the great school of nature, and afterwards told Thicknesse, his first patron, that "there was not a picturesque clump of trees, nor even a single tree of any beauty, no, nor hedge-row, stem, or post," in or around his native town, which was not from his earliest years treasured in his memory. "At ten years old," says Allan Cunningham, "Gainsborough had made some progress in sketching, and at twelve was a confirmed painter." While at school, (like Velasquez and Salvator,) he was more occupied in drawing faces or landscapes, than in attending to his les sons; and was never so well pleased as when he could obtain a holiday, and set off with his pencil and sketch-book on a long summer-day's ramble through the rich hanging woods which skirted his native town. On one occasion, having been refused a holiday, he presented to his master the usual slip of paper on which were the words, Give Tom a holiday, so cleverly imitated from his father's hand-writing, that no suspicion of the forgery was felt, and the desired holiday was at once obtained. The trick was, however, afterwards discovered; and his father, having a most mercantile dread of the fatal facility of imitating a signature, involuntarily exclaimed, "Tom will one day be hanged." When, however, he was informed how the truant school-boy had employed his stolen hours, and his multifarious sketches were laid before him, he changed his mind, and with a father's pride declared, "Tom will be a genius." In his fifteenth year Gainsborough left Sudbury for London, where he received instructions from Gravelot the engraver, and from Hayman, then esteemed the best historical painter in England. The latter was a man of coarse manners and convivial habits, who preferred pugilism to painting, and is said sometimes to bave had an encounter with a sitter previous to taking his portrait. From such a man as Hayman, Gainsborough could learn but little; and after three years of desultory study, he hired rooms in Hatton Garden, and commenced painting landscapes, and portraits of a small size; he also practised, and attained to great excellence in, modelling from clay figures of cows, dogs, and horses. His early portraits had little to recommend them; and he met with but slight encouragement from the public, which determined him to leave London and return to his native town, after an absence of four years. He now began again to study landscape in the woods and fields, and soon afterwards fell in love with and married Miss Margaret Burr, whose brother was a commercial traveller in the establishment of Gainsborough's father. The romantic circumstances relating to this marriage, which proved so happy for both parties, are thus narrated by Mr. Fulcher: "The memory of Miss Burr's extraordinary beauty is still preserved in Sudbury; and that a beautiful girl should wish to have her portrait painted by her brother's young friend, naturally followed as cause and effect. The sittings were numerous and protracted, but the likeness was at last finished, and pronounced by competent judges perfect. The young lady expressed her warm admiration of the painter's skill, and, in doing so, gave him the gentlest possible hint, that perhaps in time he might become the possessor of the original. On that hint he spake, and, after a short courtship, was rewarded by her hand, and with it an annuity of £200. Considerable obscurity hung over the source of this income. Gainsborough's daughters told the author's informant, that they did not know anything about it; the money was regularly transmitted through a London bank, and placed to Mrs. Gainsborough's private account.' Allan Cunningham, in remarking upon this subject, observes: Mrs. Gainsborough was said to be the natural daughter of one of our exiled princes; nor was she, when a wife and a mother, desirous of having this circumstance forgotten. On an occasion of an household festivity, when her husband was high in fame, she vindicated some little ostentation in her dress, by whispering to her niece, I have some right to this; for you know, my love, I am a prince's daughter."". Pp. 33, 34. carrying his palette into the open air, painting with the object before him, and noting down with patient assiduity every striking combination of foliage, and every picturesque group of figures, that met his eye. There he also made the acquaintance of Joshua Kirby, the well-known writer on perspective, and of Philip Thicknesse, Lieutenant-Governor of Landguard Fort, who first assisted, and then oppressed, him with his patronage. The inhabitants of Ipswich were more occupied by the concerns of business than by regard for the fine arts; but Gainsborough's facile pencil gradually began to find employment in sketching the parks and mansions of the country gentlemen, and in painting the portraits of their wives and daughters. Like Salvator Rosa, Gainsborough was passionately fond of music, and performed upon several instruments; but he never suffered these musical recreations to divert him from the steady and assiduous practice of painting; though he would often give extravagant prices for a lute, a violin, or a harp; and, on one occasion, presented Colonel Hamilton, the best amateur violinist of his time, with his beautiful picture of the "Boy at the Stile," in return for his excellent performance. Thirteen years' practice had now done much to improve Gainsborough's style; his portraits were distinguished by breadth and fidelity, and his landscapes showed freedom of execution, skill in coloring, and taste in selection. A larger theatre for the display of his abilities was therefore desirable, and accordingly, in 1760, he removed to Bath, then in the height of its fashionable reputation. At Bath he hired handsome apartments, and soon became so popular as a portrait painter, that a wit of the day said of him, "Fortune seemed to take up her abode with him-his house became Gain's-borough." Business came in so fast, that he was obliged to raise his price for a head At the time of his marriage, Gains- from five to eight guineas, and ultimately borough was only in his nineteenth year, fixed his scale of charges at forty guineas and his wife a year younger. Six months for a half, and one hundred for a whole, afterwards the young couple hired a length. He sometimes entirely lost temhouse in Brook Street, Ipswich, at a year- per at the absurdity and conceit of his sitly rent of £6, where Gainsborough's ters. On one occasion, a person of high first commission was from a neighboring rank arrived, richly dressed in a laced coat squire, who sent for him to repair a and well-powdered wig. Placing himself hot-house, having mistaken him for a in an advantageous situation as to light, painter and glazier. At Ipswich he re- he began to arrange his dress and dictate mained for several years, making his his attitude in a manner so ludicrously sketch-book the companion of his walks; | elaborate, that Gainsborough muttered, sent to the Academy's Exhibitions; and, in 1781, he exhibited whole-length portraits of the King and Queen Charlotte; in the subsequent year, the Prince of Wales; and, in 1783, portraits of the royal family, fifteen in number, but heads only. Peers and commons rapidly follow commissions for portraits soon flowed in so rapidly, that with all his industry and rapidity of execution, Gainsborough occasionally found himself unable to satisfy the impatience of his sitters. Among other titled sitters the beautiful Duchess of Devonshire honored Gainsborough by employing his pencil; but, in her case, the painter had not his usual success; nature was too much for art. "This will never do." His lordship, having at length satisfactorily adjust ed his person, exclaimed, "Now, sir, I desire you not to overlook the dimple in my chin." "Confound the dimple in your chin," returned the artist; "I shall neither paint the one nor the other." And he absolutely refused to proceed with the pic-ed the example set them by royalty, and ture. While at Bath, he painted the portraits of Garrick, Quin, General Honywood, the Duke of Argyll, Lord Ligonier, Sterne, Richardson, and many other celebrities. Besides these he also painted a good many landscapes, (not, however, among his best performances in that department,) several of which are still to be found in and around Bath. His pictures were annually transmitted to the London exhibitions by Wiltshire, the public carrier, who loved Gains- "The dazzling beauty of the Duchess," borough, and admired his works. For (says Allan Cunningham,)" and the sense this he could never be prevailed upon to she entertained of the charms of her looks, accept payment. "No, no," he would and her conversation, took away that say, "I admire painting too much." readiness of hand, and hasty happiness of Gainsborough, however, was not to be touch, which belonged to him in his ordioutdone in generosity, and presented the nary moments. The portrait was so little carrier with several fine paintings, which to his satisfaction, that he refused to send are now in the possession of his grandson, it to Chatsworth. Drawing his wet penJohn Wiltshire, Esq. The Royal Acade- cil across the mouth, which all who saw my was founded in 1768. Gainsborough it thought exquisitely lovely, he said, was chosen one of the thirty-six original Academicians, and, in compliance with the law that every member should, on his election, present to the institution a specimen of his art, he contributed a painting described as "A Romantic Landscape, with Sheep at a Fountain." To the early exhibitions of the Academy he was an extensive contributor, and many of his pictures attracted a large share of the public admiration. About this time Gainsborough and Thicknesse (whose needless and ostentatious patronage was becoming intolerable to the painter) quarrelled, and, soon after, the former finally left Bath, and established himself in London. There he prosecuted his career in portrait and landscape with fresh vigor and increasing success, his grace and fidelity in the former rendering him a dangerous rival even to Sir Joshua Reynolds. Thirty years before, he had quitted his modest apartments in Hatton Garden poor and unknown; now, he returned in the zenith of his fame and fortune, and established himself in a noble mansion in Pall Mall, built by Duke Schomberg, for which he paid £300 a year. He obtained the patronage of George III., who had frequently seen and admired the works which he had 'Her Grace is too hard for me."" In 1779 he painted his celebrated picture of a son of Mr. Buttall, commonly known as "The Blue Boy," and now in the possession of the Marquis of Westminster. This was done in order to refute the observation made by Sir Joshua Reynolds in one of his discourses, that blue should only be used to support and set off the warmer colors, and was not admissible in the mass into a picture. Of this portrait Hazlitt observes: "There is a spirited glow of youth about the face, and the attitude is striking and elegant-the drapery of blue satin is admirably painted." And another eminent critic remarks, that "The Blue Boy" is remarkable for animation and spirit, and careful, solid painting. In spite, however, of these deserved eulogiums, the difficulty appears rather to have been ably combated than vanquished by Gainsbor ough; and Sir Joshua was certainly right when he cautioned the artist against the use of pure unbroken blue in large masses. During fifteen years Gainsborough had contributed to the Exhibitions of the Artists' Society, and the Academy, fifty portraits, and only eleven landscapes. These last stood ranged in long lines from his hall to his painting room; and his sitters, as they passed, scarcely deigned to honor | the Princess Royal, Princess Augusta, and them with a look. He might have starved Princess Elizabeth at full length, and was but for his portraits. Those noble land-painted for the Prince of Wales' statescapes, by which he was to live to posteri- room in Carleton Palace. After this unty, were coldly admired or contemptuously fortunate dispute Gainsborough never sent passed by. Yet "Nature sat to him in all any paintings to the Academy; but his her attractive attitudes of beauty; his conduct in the matter can scarcely be pencil traced, with peculiar and matchless justified, as he must have known the diffifacility, her finest and most delicate linea culties inseparable from the arrangement ments; whether it was the sturdy oak, of a large number of pictures, and was the twisted eglantine, the mower whetting bound to conform to the laws and regulahis scythe, the whistling ploughboy, or tions of the Institution to which he bethe shepherd under the hawthorn in the longed. To divert his mind from the dale-all came forth equally chaste from chagrin occasioned by this occurrence, the his inimitable and fanciful pencil."* Some painter paid a visit to his native town of there were, however, who perceived the Sudbury, where his appearance in a rich genius and the nature so conspicuous in suit of drab, with laced ruffles and a Gainsborough's landscapes; and among cocked hat, created quite a sensation; and the number, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lord a lady, who remembered his visiting at Oxford, and the facetious Petar Pindar. her father's house, described him to Mr. The last of this distinguished trio, in his Fulcher as "gay, very gay, and good looksatirical "Ode on the Exhibition of 1783," ing." To about this period may be assigned thus counsels the artist not to forsake one of his most charming fancy pictures, landscape: "The Mushroom Girl," now in the possession of Mr. Gainsborough Dupont, of Sudbury. A rustic beauty has been gathering mushrooms, and, wearied with her labors, has fallen asleep beneath the shade of a rugged elm. Her head rests upon her arm; a gleam of sunshine, piercing through the leaves of the tree, gives a still more lovely bloom to her cheek. A young peasant stands near, amazed at so much loveliness; and a little terrier looks up as if inclined to bark at the intruder, yet afraid to waken his mistress. "O Gainsborough! Nature 'plaineth sore, Among the many celebrated and beautiful women who sat to Gainsborough, were Mrs. Sheridan, (once the lovely Miss Linley of Bath,) and Mrs. Siddons, the tragic muse. In 1784 he painted the latter, then "in the prime of her glorious beauty, and in the full blaze of her popularity." "Mrs. Siddons is seated; her face appears rather more than in profile; she wears a black hat and feathers, and a blue and buff striped silk dress-the mixture of the two colors, where the folds throw them in a mass, resembling dark sea water with sunshine on it." (Page 130.) Gainsborough experienced considerable difficulty in delineating her features, the nose especially; and, after repeatedly altering its shape, he exclaimed: "Confound the nose! there is no end to it." In 1784 Gainsborough quarrelled with the Royal Academy, in consequence of the refusal of the Hanging Committee of those days to break through one of their rules, and hang one of his pictures in a situation capable of adequately showing its effect. This canvas contained the portraits of *Thicknesse. During the summer months Gainsborough had lodgings at Richmond, and spent his days in sketching the picturesque scenery of the neighborhood, and the peasant children he met with in his rambles. An adventure of this time, and its results, are worth transcribing. John Hill, on whom nature had bestowed a more "On one occasion he met with a boy named than ordinary share of good looks, with an intelligence rarely found in a woodman's cottage. Gainsborough looked at the boy with a painter's eye, and, acting as usual from the impulse of the moment, offered to take him home, and provide for his future welfare. Jack Hill, as Gainsborough always called him, was at once arrayed in his Sunday's best, and sent with the gentleman, have filled a copy-book. Mrs. Gainsborough was laden with as many virtuous precepts as would delighted with the boy, and the young ladies equally rejoiced in such a good-looking addition to their establishment. But whether, like the wild Indian of the prairie, Jack pined for the unrestrained freedom of his native woods, the |