“You would have laughed to-day, could you have stood by and heard the courteous battle-royal of words which took place between me and my sitter—the witty, learned, and all accomplished Mr. Macaulay, M.P. He is fond of taking the other side of the argument, even though ’tis paradoxical. He loves to differ and defend his difference, and he wields a well polished, logical Toledo, I can tell you! He is too well read and too intelligent to entertain many of the absurd opinions respecting our country and its institutions that are so rife in the English newspaper press: but still I find he loves to bring on a discussion of some one or other of those puzzling questions that belong to our side of the water, namely, state-sovereignty, repudiation, slavery, etc. I congratulate myself upon having met in him one of those persons of renown for brilliant writing, whose attainments as poet, scholar, and reviewer, cause him to stand amongst the highest in modern English literature. Will you believe it? Noodle as I am, and albeit unused to the controversial mood, I rather flatter myself that ‘this child’ held his own in the fight! One touch of fence I used (and ’tis a custom I am generally fond of) was never directly to answer a Socratic query, but always to evade it, by begging him to state his position affirmatively. It worked to a charm. However, we had a delightful sitting of it. Only think! I had double duty to perform—namely, fight with the inside of his head, and paint the outside of it!”
In his letters from this time to that of his death, which took place in January, 1846, he constantly expresses the greatest anxiety respecting his pecuniary affairs. He found some professional employment, but barely enough to meet his expenses. He died of disease of the heart. He left a wife and five children. His kindness of heart, his intellectual attainments, his social accomplishments, his conversational power, his brilliant imagination, and his technical ability, were eulogized by the newspapers of all classes throughout the country.
JERVAS (CHARLES).
CHARLES JERVAS was born in Ireland, in the year 1675, and studied under Sir Godfrey Kneller. By the generosity of a friend he was enabled to visit France and Italy, where he gave himself up to hard study in his art, and on his return to England his talent was soon recognised, and he became very popular. The line he chose was portrait painting. He also discovered considerable ability in literature. He published a translation of Don Quixote; to which translation the celebrated Dr. Warburton added an appendix on the origin of Romances and of Chivalry. Jervas also gave instruction in the art of painting to Pope, with whom he was very intimate, and who has handed him down to posterity in his works. “Jervas was the last best painter Italy had sent us,” Pope used to observe. Jervas was also patronized by William and Queen Anne. He died on 3rd November, 1739.
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
Burnet relates that when Reynolds’s sister asked him the reason why we never see any of the portraits of Jervas now, he replied, “Because, my dear, they are all up in the garret.” Yet, this man rode in his chariot and four, and received the praises of Pope in verse.
DR. ARBUTHNOT.
Jervas, who affected to be a free-thinker, was one day talking very irreverently of the Bible; Dr. Arbuthnot maintained to him that he was not only a speculative but a practical believer. The painter denied it: Arbuthnot said he would prove it. “You strictly observe the second commandment,” said the doctor; “for in your pictures you make not the likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth.”
VANITY.