To Mr. Hogarth.
"Dublin, 29th January 1760.
"Dear Sir,—Enclosed I send you a note upon Nesbitt for one hundred pounds; and considering the name of the author, and the surprising merit of your performance, I am really much ashamed to offer such a trifle in recompense for the pains you have taken, and the pleasure your picture has afforded me. I beg you would think that I by no means attempt to pay you according to your merit, but according to my own abilities. Were I to pay your deserts, I fear I should leave myself poor indeed. Imagine that you have made me a present of the picture, for literally as such I take it, and that I have begged your acceptance of the enclosed trifle. As this is really the case, with how much reason do I subscribe myself, Your most obliged humble servant,
Charlemont.
"This elevating circumstance had its contrast, and brought on a train of most dissatisfactory circumstances, which by happening at a time when I thought myself, as it were, landed, and secure from tugging any longer at the oar, were rendered doubly distressing.
"A gentleman (now a nobleman) seeing this picture, pressed me with much vehemence to paint another for him upon the same terms. To this I reluctantly assented; and as I had been frequently flattered for my power of giving expression, I thought the figure of Sigismunda weeping over the heart of her lover would enable me to display it. Impressed with this idea, I fixed upon this very difficult subject. My object was dramatic, and my aim to draw tears from the spectator,—an effect I have often witnessed at a tragedy; and it therefore struck me that it was worth trying if a painter could not produce the same effect, and touch the heart through the eye, as the player does through the ear.[74] Thus far I have been gratified: I have more than once seen the tear of sympathy trickle down the cheek of a female while she has been contemplating the picture.
"As four hundred pounds had a short time before been bid for a picture of 'Sigismunda,' painted by a French master, but falsely ascribed to Correggio, four hundred pounds was the price at which I rated this.[75]
"By any other of my pursuits I could have got twice the sum in the time I devoted to it; nor was it more than half what a fashionable face-painter would have gained in the same period. Upon these grounds I put it at this sum; see the letter, and see the answer. It ended by my keeping the picture in my painting-room, and his Lordship keeping his money in his pocket. Had it been Charlemont!"
This transaction having given rise to many ridiculous falsehoods, the following unvarnished tale will set the whole in its true light:—
"January 1764.