FREEDOM OF OPINION.
Sir Martin Archer Shee, in his “Rhymes on Art,” remarks:—“There is no enjoying a picture in peace while the proprietor is expatiating on its beauties. All pleasure is destroyed, all improvement prevented, when—
‘The connoisseur his cabinet displays,
And levies heavy penalties of praise;
Exacts your admiration without end,
Watches your eye, nor waits till you commend.’
Neither politeness nor prudence will allow you to dissent, however erroneous you may think his remarks, or misplaced his panegyric; for, in the present day, when old pictures bear a price so extraordinary, to hint a doubt of the various and often incompatible merits which the owner of the celebrated work chooses to ascribe to it, seems not only an insult but an injury, since it tends to depreciate his property, as well as to disparage his taste.” An amusing instance of this difficulty of forming an independent opinion is given in Richardson’s “Discourses on the Science of a Connoisseur.” “Some years since, a very honest gentleman (a rough man) came to me, and amongst other discourse, with abundance of civility invited me to his house. ‘I have,’ said he, ‘a picture by Rubens; ’tis a rare good one. Mr. —— came t’other day to see it, and says ’tis a copy. G—d d—n him, if any one says that picture is a copy, I’ll break his head! Pray, Mr. Richardson, will you come, and give me your opinion of it?’”
THE CONNOISSEUR TAKEN IN.
One day, at an exhibition in Brussels, there was a gentleman very finely dressed, who seemed uncommonly attentive to every picture, and condemned, like a modern critic, ad libitum. Coming at last over against a highly-finished piece of fruit and flowers, with insects placed upon some of the leaves, he lifted up his right hand, and applied his eye-glass, which was set in silver, and curiously chased round the rim; on the little finger of the other hand, which held the catalogue, he had an antique, set round with rich brilliants. After he had pored over the picture for some time, he exclaimed, “Oh, horribly handled!—the colouring is execrable. Was this thing done for a fly? never was anything half so wretched. A fly! nothing was ever more out of nature.”—This speech brought a group of listeners about him: he then pointed to that part of the picture where this insect was executed in so abominable a manner; on the approach of his finger, the ill-done reptile flew away, for it happened to be a real fly.