THE ART OF ROMNEY
Romney is almost exclusively known as a painter of portraits, his historical scenes attracting but little attention. In their way they were remarkable, but they were forced in their conception and over-sentimental in their design, as was the fashion of the day. In his portraits he struck a much truer note and by them his repute will stand.
It is almost impossible, taking into consideration the time in which he lived, to avoid comparing him with his great rivals Reynolds and Gainsborough, and perhaps it is well that it should be so, as by thinking of him in connection with these two men it will be possible to obtain a better impression of his capabilities and a knowledge of his faults.
He was, it is quite certain, a far less important man than Gainsborough, who must certainly be reckoned as the greatest of the three.
He lacked the colour sense that distinguished that great artist; he was by no means his equal in technical merit; and he had no ability to produce landscape-work that gave so great a charm to the pictures of the Sudbury artist.
The wonderful poetry that streamed from the brush of Gainsborough and refined all his works, the delicacy, the grace and the sweetness of his figures are all superior qualities to those which Romney possessed, whilst as a colourist Gainsborough stood head and shoulders above both his rivals.
When we come to draughtsmanship we are, however, on a different footing, as Romney was the superior both of Reynolds and Gainsborough in ability to draw with accuracy and truth, and he also surpassed both of them in the manner in which he obtained his effects.
Where Reynolds laboured Romney achieved the same effect with the greatest ease and simplicity; and, in fact, the word "simplicity" may be taken as the key-word in anything like a critical survey of Romney's work.
He was not so varied as was Reynolds. His pictures have a certain monotony about them which is more apparent than real. It is not that Romney, as has been unwisely said, made all his women alike, for that is not so; but the charm that constituted one of the chief merits of the artist was dependent to a great extent upon tricks of posture, glance and costume, and, having ascertained what these were, there was a danger on Romney's part of repeating them. There is further a certain monotony about his colouring, as he so greatly favoured the rich golden browns and deep roses that distinguish his best works.
He was, however, a true artist and could not avoid making his pictures beautiful. He had a keen sense of beauty, a passionate love of warm, rich, sunny colour, and when he came to deal with historical or dramatic scenes a very powerful imagination; but he was careless and wasteful of his powers, and was so overwhelmed with commissions that he did not put his best work into many of the pictures that he painted. They, however, always charm, and they are always pleasing and generally poetic, although they are in other respects very frequently open to grave criticism.