Identifier: anecdotesofpaint00edwa (find matches)
Title: Anecdotes of painters who have resided or been born in England : with critical remarks on their productions
Year: 1808 (1800s)
Authors: Edwards, Edward, 1738-1806 Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797. Anecdotes of painting in England
Subjects: Painters Artists
Publisher: London : Printed by Luke Hansard & Sons, for Leigh and Sotheby, W.J. and J. Richardson, R. Faulder, T. Payne, and J. White
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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attempts offt prefumptuous man, determined to fend a being on earth, who** alone mould demonftrate what was perfection in art: Thoughit would be ridiculous to attempt imitating the foregoing ex-travagant exordium, by Way of producing a parallel in favourof the artift of whom we are now fpeaking, yet it is but jufticeto obferve, that at the time when Mr. Reynolds commencedhis profeffion, the art of painting in England was in the loweft ftate it had ever been, (it could not be lower). This defective ftate of the art, particularly in portraitpainting, certainly originated in the rapacity of that mafterlyartift Sir Godfrey Kneller, who, the better to enable himfelf towrade through the flood of bufinefs with which he was fur-rounded, ftruck out a flight and broad manner of marking hisportraits, which as it was at the fame time bold and mafterlyin its execution, gave him little trouble, though it fatisfiedhis employers. * Vita di Michelagnolo Buonarrotti. Giorgio Vaflari Fiorenza, 1568. The
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§I& &ODFKE1T K^EX,I>EK Portrait x History.B or 11 16 48 . Dieii V7 2 6 Anecdotes of Painting. 185 The confequence of this negligent practice was, that the artifts, who were his contemporaries, being pleafed with the bold-nefs of his pictures, and the facility with which they were pro-duced, became the mitnicks of his manner, but, like all imitators, they fell fliort of his merits, while they copied his defects. Their fucceffors, treading in the fame path, with equal imbecility, feemed to have purfued a conduct the reverfe of that, which the Italian biographer afcribes to thofe who preceded Buonarotti.—They appear to have laboured to become worfe rather than better than their predeceffors. Though it may be juftly allowed, that fuch an impoverimed ftate of art was difgraceful to this age and country, yet on the other hand it afforded a favourable opportunity of difplay to one who poffeffed fuperior talents and vigour of mind; for-tunately fuch was Sir Jofhiua Reynolds. He was born

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