not superior, applause. When his uncle's lease of the Edinburgh theatre was expired, he quitted it with him, and attended him through his newly-purchased circuit, where he was a favourite in all the towns. Last spring his ill health obliged him to come up to London, where he remained till May, and then opened the Bir mingham theatre with his mother, where he remained with her three weeks, and accompanied her to Newcastle, Durham, Preston, and Lancaster. She was so pleased with the improvement he had made, that she wrote to Mr. Harris in his behalf, who politely attending to her letter, engaged him for three years. He appeared in a new comedy called Integrity, and met with a most favourable reception. A report has been circulated which very much injured Mr. Siddons in the progress of his profession. It had been insinuated that he and his parents had violently quarrelled on account of his going on the stage. The circumstance of his father's taking him to France refutes any such supposition; and we have undoubted authority to assert that such rumours must have been founded in ignorance or malevolence, as he has always lived with his father and mother in uninterrupted harmony and kindness.

The high opinion we entertain of this gentleman's talents as an actor is manifested by the early opportunity we have taken of introducing him to the readers of this work. In private life he has the happiness to be an object of universal esteem; and what to us, as amateurs of the drama, is a recommendation of no common weight and value; he is qualified, by a classical education, and a well cultivated mind, to do due honour to the profession of THE STAGE.

THE ARTS.

MR. DESENFANS' ANECDOTES AND REMARKS.

Few works have been published for a long series of years more truly interesting to the admirers and professors of painting, as well as to the amateurs of the fine arts in general, than Mr. Desenfans' descriptive catalogue of a great number of very valuable pictures now in his possession, and which are to be exhibited for private sale in the beginning of next February. These pieces, we learn, from the preface to this work, were originally designed to enrich the cabinet of the late amiable and unfortunate King of Poland, and were, at the express desire of that monarch, collected at a great expence by Mr. Desenfans, who was then Consul General of Poland in this country. The object of his labours was, however, defeated by the the revolution in Poland, and the fa of Stanislaus Augustus, and

the pictures have consequently become the property of the collector. The catalogue contains one hundred and eighty-five numbers, and scarcely one occurs in which Mr. Desenfans does not evince, in the course of his descriptive sketches, depth of science, correctness of taste, and the most impartial criticism. His anecdotes and characteristic traits are happily introduced, and the respective styles and merits of the most distinguished masters are discussed with great descrimination and candour. A few extracts will be sufficient to shew the manner in which this catalogue raisonné is executed.

"No. I. Adoration of the Shepherds. By A. CARACCI. In the centre of an old stable, amongst a few domestic animals, the divine infant reposes on the straw; the virgin is on the right, her hand joined in prayer, while St. Joseph behind tenderly inclines forward to contemplate him.

On the left the shepherds are approaching to make their offerings, and worship the new-born babe: two of them, cloathed with skins, have already deposited a lamb at his feet, and, in a rustic, but submissive, attitude, are standing before him in ecstasy and admiration.

A third shepherd is behind them, and at his side a young shepherdess is bearing on her head a basket filled with presents, while a choir of descending angels are floating on a cloud above.

Celestial rays blaze around the Saviour of the World, and spread light and happiness on those who surround him in his low, obscure, natal place. The sons of kings are received in velvet cradles, richly embroidered with gold, and the great King of Kings, the Son of God, is born on the straw."

The following anecdote is given of Andrea Sacchi, in the strictures on his two pictures of munks.

"So high was the reputation of Andrea for those subjects, that the benedictines of a rich friary applied to him to paint the life of their founder, St. Benedict, in twelve pictures, for their church, requiring their own portraits to be painted in those figures which would necessarily be introduced into the work.

"Sacchi composed the pictures, and when they were far ad. vanced, the monks began to sit for their portraits, and it was then, that, after having bestowed so much time and labour on so great a work, the artist was almost driven to despair, when he saw that most of their figures, being destitute of character and dignity, would be the ruin of the whole.

"The monks were as little satisfied with the painter as he was with them, for they had all pretended to the honour of representing St. Benedict. One found himself too corpulent, another too old,

none liked the place assigned to him in the pictures, and neither of them thought his likeness true.

"At length, harrassed and fatigued, Andrea desired them to withdraw, effaced their portraits, substituted historical heads, and finished the work, to his own satisfaction; but the Benedictines declined having it, so that Andrea was obliged to adopt legal measures to compel them to fulfil their contract, and as his pictures were proved to be the better, and highly more valuable, without the portraits, he was fortunate, or rather unfortunate, enough to gain his cause; for, immediately after paying for the pictures, the monks tore them into pieces: the sketches, however, have remained, and are dispersed in different cabinets."

The remarks suggested by CUYP's landscape with cattle and figures are worthy of attention.

"There are many men whose talents appear but by degrees and intense study, while the superior merit and genius of others continue long unnoticed and unknown, and stamp themselves upon the public, but after a length of time. Such has generally been thought to be the fate of artists, which has given rise to the French Proverb, "Gueux comme un peintre. *" It is, however, a false and vulgar prejudice. We see, on the contrary, that the great painters of every age have met with patronage and encouragement, and have been more or less wealthy.

"If we recur back to the lives of those who have rendered themselves celebrated, we shall not find that ministers of state, the most renowned generals, or admirals, have received more honours, or have been, in their illustrious career, rewarded with larger fortunes than those of Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Rubens, Vandyk, and many others that we could name. Every age has witnessed the different sovereigns, the pontiffs, cardinals, the great and opulent men of every state, eager to honour and enrich the painter, whose merit they have been made acquainted with.

"The possession of a pallet and a pencil, does not, however, constitute an artist, as the generality of the profession seem to believe; it is one of those difficult acquirements by intense application, and which admits of no middle degrees of merit, for they must either attain the summit of the art, or sink into obscurity. Mediocrity is unknown in painting, and is on a level with ignorance, since they are equally incapable of producing a good picture.

"It is indeed to that numerous class called mediocrity we must attribute the many pictures with which we swarm, which compose the exhibitions daily made in every street of the metropolis, and the

As poor as a painter.

innumerable public sales in which, amongst the very few objects worthy the connoisseur's attention, and under the cloak of three or four good pictures, so many indifferent ones, and so many daubs, are brought forward; but such as they are, they find auctioneers to puff, and fools to buy.”

Mr. DESENFANS, after a critical examen of several pieces by Gerard Dow, introduces the following anecdote :-" Some time after the accession of Charles II. to the throne, he sent Sir Godfrey Kneller to Versailles, to paint the portrait of Louis XIV. for him, and the artist so far conciliated the favour of the French King, that his majesty, at the last sitting, said to him, I have conceived so great a regard for you, that I shall not be satisfied, unless you request something of me before your departure.'- Well, Sire,' replied Sir Godfrey, the greatest favour I can ask, is, that you would prolong your sitting some minutes, and permit me to sketch the portrait of your majesty for myself.'-The king having learned the next day, that the artist had very much admired a small picture, by Gerard Dow, that was in his palace, which represented an old man sitting and reading to a girl who held the candle, sent it to him; and, as well for the merit of the work, as through respect for the monarch who had presented it, Sir Godfrey considered it as an heir-loom, and valued it as a little earldom in his family.”

We do not coincide in the distinction drawn by Mr. Desenfans between the knowledge of an artist and a connoisseur, but we give it as a curiosity." A good painter," says he, "must be a good judge of pictures, and may frequently point out, better than those we call connoisseurs, their qualities and imperfections, without being able to ascertain their authors, which is truly the business of a connoisseur; as in fact to learn painting, and to learn the different manner and styles of painters, are two distinct pursuits. An eminent writing master will judge better than a banker's clerk, of a piece of penmanship, though he may not even be acquainted with Abraham Newland's hand-writing, because to write well, and not to know the different hands, has been his chief study; but the youngest clerk of a banker, who can scarcely write his own name, is not only well acquainted with the hand of Mr. Newland, but is also familiar with the hand of hundreds and hundreds besides."

This work, which consists of two volumes 12mo. certainly abounds in very useful and entertaining information; and if the collection corresponds with the descriptions, it must be of considerable value.

ANECDOTES

OF THE

AUTHOR OF BEAUMARIS BAY.

(A poem lately published.)

AMONG the many modern instances of uncultured genius emerging from obscurity, and bursting through the almost insuperable barriers of poverty and contempt, may not unjustly be ranked the author of a poem of considerable merit, called Beaumaris Bay. This poem, which is of the descriptive kind, has the principal qualifications requisite for such a work; it has a beginning, a well-continued narrative, and an appropriate conclusion; the versification is smooth, and not incumbered with technical terms, or clouded with obsolete or new-coined phrases: it abounds with much interesting local anecdote, highly flattering to national vanity.

The author, Mr. Richard Lloyd, is a native of North Wales, and received his education at the Grammar School of Beaumaris, which consisted of a bare knowledge of the first elements of literature; but, as his parents could not afford to continue him at his studies, he, at an early period of life, was compelled to leave the classic shades, and, like his poetical predecessors, Broome and Dodsley, became a gentleman's menial servant, in which mortifying situation he continued some years. During that time he read with avidity the works of the ancient Welsh bards, and cultivated his taste for poetry, for which he evinced a decided predilection Disgusted, probably, at a situation so unfavourable to his genius and literary pursuits, he commenced minstrel, and, being a tolerable performer on the Welsh triple pipe, he traversed the whole of North Wales, and part of Scotland, like his ancestors, the bards, celebrating the victories or the woes of Cambria; by this means earning a scanty and but precarious subsistence. How long he continued this itinerant profession I have not been able to learn, but, for some years past, in consequence of the decease of a relation, added to the profits of his literary productions, and a provident disposition rarely to be met with among poets, he has accumulated enough of the good things of this life to satisfy the circumscribed wishes of a philosopher.

The poem of Beaumaris Bay, which has introduced him to the notice of the literati, contains fewer defects than are in general to be found in the first productions of the Muse. The apostrophe to the sun, at the commencement, is chastely correct.

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