199. The late R.W. Elliston, Esq. One of Harlow's best portraits: the likeness is admirable, and the tone well accords with Elliston's unguent, supple expression.
204. Portrait of Dr. Wardrope. Raeburn. This is one of the artist's finest productions: it is clever, manly, and vigorous—painting to the life, without the flattering unction of varnished canvass. The fine, broad, bold features of the sitter were excellently adapted to the artist's peculiar powers.
205. Portrait of Thomson, the Poet. Hogarth. The well-known picture. How fond poets of the last century were of their dishabille in portraits: they had their day as well as nightcaps.
217. Johnny Gilpin. Stothard. This lively composition is well known, as it deserves to be; but it may not so well be remembered that the popularity of John Gilpin was founded by a clever lecturer, who recited the "tale in verse" as part of his entertainment. (See page 367.) What would an audience of the present day say to such puerility; though it would be certainly more rational than people listening to a French play, or an Italian or German opera, not a line of which they understand.
229. Portrait of R.B. Sheridan. The well-known picture, by Reynolds, whence is engraved the Frontispiece to Moore's Life of the Statesman and Dramatist. Here is the "man himsel," in the formal cut blue dress-coat and white waistcoat of the last century. The face may be accounted handsome: the cheeks are full, and, with the nose, are rubicund—Bacchi tincti; the eyes are black and brilliantly expressive;—and the visiter should remember that Sir Joshua Reynolds, in painting this portrait, is said to have affirmed that their pupils were larger than those of any human being he had ever met with. They retained their beauty to the last, though the face did not, and the body became bent. How much it is to be regretted that Sheridan with such fine eyes had so little foresight. There is in the gallery a younger portrait of him, in a stage or masquerade dress, which is unworthy of comparison with the preceding.
231. Scene in Covent Garden Market. One of the best views of the old place, by Hogarth; and one of the last sketches before the recent improvements, will he found in The Mirror, vol. xiii. p. 121. By the way, the pillar and ball, which stood in the centre of the square, and are seen in the present picture, were long in the garden of John Kemble, in Great Russell-street, Bloomshury.
243. Portrait of the late Mr. Holcroft. Dawe. In this early performance of the artist, we in vain seek for the "best looks" of the sitter: such as the painter threw into his portraits of crowned heads.
248. The Happy Marriage. An unfinished picture by Hogarth; yet how beautifully is some of the distant grouping made out;—what life and reality too in the figures, and the whole composition, though seen, as it were, through a mist.
249. Study of a Head from Nature, painted by lamp-light. Harlow. A curious vagary of genius.
258. Daughter of Sir Peter Lely. Lely. We take this to be the oldest picture in the gallery. Lely has been dead upwards of a century and a half.