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Full-lengths of the Duchess of Rutland, and the Countess of Salisbury-the former, notwithstanding the portentous height, the ultra-fashionableness of the lady's head-gear, being one of the most charming of the fulllength beauty portraits.

"Temperance" (one of the figures for the Oxford window); "Fortitude" (another of the same series) :"A Child Asleep."

"A Listening (or Laughing) Boy."

"A Lady and Child."

In July, Reynolds undertook that journey to Flanders and Holland, the results of which are embodied in the series of elaborate notes on the pictures seen, which have their place, together with the concluding essay on the Character of Rubens, in his collected literary works. The curious in such matters may profitably compare them with that exquisite example of the higher criticism, and of literary perfection, the Maîtres d'Autrefois of Eugène Fromentin, who, something less than a century afterwards, went over much the same ground, and, like Reynolds, had a double right to be heard-both as painter and as man of letters.

Our master, accompanied by his friend, Philip Metcalfe, left London on Tuesday, July 24th, 1781, went to Margate, and embarked there for Ostend; proceeded thence to Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp, Dort, The Hague, Leyden, Amsterdam,* Dusseldorf, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Liège. He then retraced his steps to Brussels, and went on to Ostend, landed at Margate, and arrived in London on Sunday, September 16th. Further reference will be made to these notes, and to the Character of Rubens, with which they wind up, in the final chapter.

* Haarlem is honoured only with the passing mention,-"Saw Harlem Church and Town House, where are three or four pictures by F. Hals,"

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Opie, "The Cornish Wonder"

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Towards the end of the year Offie Palmer, now Mrs R. L. Gwatkin, and her husband were sitting to Sir Joshua for companion portraits, of which pair the lady's picture was contributed by Mrs Gwatkin to the Reynolds Exhibition. This shows the master's favourite niece in a black mantilla worn on a white dress, and is said to have been painted over another portrait of Offie, begun before her marriage; at any rate, almost all the work done at that time was painted out and replaced by the extant portrait.

Opie, "The Cornish Wonder," now appears upon the scene as a youth of some twenty years, bringing with him, out of his province, rugged, powerful heads of "Old Men," "Beggars," and naturalistic studies, which cause him to be likened at once to Rembrandt, though his mannerdefinitively marked out even thus early-is, with its harsh black shadows and powerful, sculptural modelling, much more nearly akin to that of Caravaggio, Ribera, and the Tenebrosi generally. He had exhibited at the Incorporated Society in 1780, as "Master Oppey," a boy's head, entered in the catalogue of the exhibition in a fashion so amusing as to deserve commemoration :

"Master Oppey, Penryn, Cornwall. An instance of genius-not having ever seen a picture."

It is true that in Redgrave's Century of Painters of the British School, and in the latest edition of Bryan's Dictionary of Painters, this "Master Oppey" is made into a separate person, and dies in 1785. It is difficult, nevertheless, to believe that Master Oppey and Opie are two distinct individuals. It would be too singular a coincidence that there should have issued from the remote

province, at one and the same time, two Cornish Wonders of the same name, both painting more or less by inspiration. It appears far more likely, on the contrary, that this initial appearance of the youthful artist was the coup d'essai of his astute protector and Barnum, Dr Wolcott, afterwards celebrated under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar.*

The two, about the time of Opie's first appearance in London, had entered into a kind of partnership, under which Wolcott was to pay all expenses, and receive half the entire profits of Opie's artistic production. From this kind of exploitation the youthful artist, after less than twelve months' trial, abruptly shook himself free, declaring that he could shift for himself; and it is to the credit of Wolcott that he continued to push his protégé after this semi-rupture as ardently as before-partly from genuine admiration of his talent, and partly, also, to back his own opinion. Shortly after his arrival, the young provincial, practically self-taught, save for the counsel which he had received from Wolcott while the latter was residing in Cornwall, was introduced to Sir Joshua, and by him received with his wonted encouraging kindness. The studies submitted to the President were a "Jew" and a "Cornish Beggar," and we have evidence that he avowed himself astonished at the power and precocity of the Cornish Wonder.

Northcote tells the story that, having lately returned from the obligatory artistic tour in Italy, he paid a visit to his old master, whereupon the latter, in that teasing tone which he adopted towards his pupil and towards him alone, said:

It would appear that there was, in truth, another artist prodigy in the family, but not a contemporary of Opie. This was Edward Opie, the greatnephew of our painter (R. Polwhele's "Biographical Sketches of Cornwall")

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