Illustrated biography; or, Memoirs of the great and the good of all nations and all times; comprising sketches of eminent statesmen, philosophers, heroes, artists, reformers, philanthropists, mechanics, navigators, authors, poets, divines, soldiers, savans, etc . , by the various masters ofall the different schools and nations. Those he looked upon as his library,with this advantage, that they decorated at the same time that they claimed his attention—objects at once of amusement, of study, and ofcompetition. Beautiful and seducing as his style undoubtedly was, it can not be re
Illustrated biography; or, Memoirs of the great and the good of all nations and all times; comprising sketches of eminent statesmen, philosophers, heroes, artists, reformers, philanthropists, mechanics, navigators, authors, poets, divines, soldiers, savans, etc . , by the various masters ofall the different schools and nations. Those he looked upon as his library,with this advantage, that they decorated at the same time that they claimed his attention—objects at once of amusement, of study, and ofcompetition. Beautiful and seducing as his style undoubtedly was, it can not be recom-mended in so unreserved a manner as his industry in both study and practiceColoring was evidently his first excellence, to which all others were more orless sacrificed ; and though in splendor and brilliancy he was exceeded byRubens and Paul Veronese, in force and depth by Titian and Rembrandt, andin freshness and truth by Velasquez and Vandyk, yet perhaps he possessed amore exquisite combination of all these qualities, and that peculiarly his own,than is to be found in the works of any of those celebrated masters. In historyhe does not appear to possess much fertility of invention j as, whenever he aa» SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 297 C3 I 1 -? o^ IB. ... .^-^-- - 298 ADAM SMITH. introduced a striking figure, it may commonly be traced and found to belong tosome of his predecessors ; and, at the utmost, he can only be allowed the meritof skilful adaptation: but in portrait, the variety of his attitudes and back-grounds is unequalled by any painter, ancient or modern, and that variety isgenerally accompanied with grace in the turn of his figures and dignity in theairs of his heads. Drawing, as he himself candidly confesses, was the part ofthe art in which he was most defective ; and from a desire perhaps to hide thisdefect, with an over-solicitude to produce a superabundant richness of effect,he was too frequently tempted to fritter his lights, and cut up his composition,par
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectbiography, bookyear18
