was in Cranbourn-street, then called by the less dignified name of Cranbourn-alley. A perfect stranger-not being personally known to a single in dividual in this vast metropolis, the young traveller, notwithstanding the firmness of his character, suddenly became impressed with the apparent forlornness of his situation, and burst into a flood of tears.

He did not, however, long remain in this desolate condition. Having brought letters of introduction from Sir Robert Smith to Mr Coutts, the banker, and to Mr Johnson, and Mr Cadell, the booksellers, those gentlemen received him with great cordiality, and by every means in their power forwarded the purpose of his mission. Through their interest he obtained the situation of tutor to a nobleman's son, whom he subsequently accompanied on a visit to Paris. He also engaged with ardour in literary pursuits. In 1765, appeared his first publication, "Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks, with Instructions for the Connoisseur; and an Essay on Grace, in Works of Art; translated from the German of the Abbé Winckelmann." Soon afterwards, he was tempted to take a part in the dispute between Rousseau and Voltaire, and to write and publish an essay in defence of the former. Almost the whole of the impression, however, was destroyed by fire.

Among the men of genius and talents to whom Mr Fuseli was introduced upon his arrival in London, was Sir Joshua Reynolds. On showing several of his drawings to Sir Joshua, that profound judge of the art inquired how long he had been returned from Italy; and expressed great surprise at hearing that he had never before been out of Switzerland. The president would occasionally beg from him some of his little sketches; and was so much struck with the conception and power

displayed in these efforts, that at last he could not refrain from saying, "Young man, were I the author of those drawings, and were offered ten thousand a-year not to practise as an artist, I would reject the proposal with contempt." This unequivocal opinion, proceeding from such a quarter, at a moment when Fuseli was balancing with respect to his future career, decided it. He had been offered a living if he would take orders; but he now determined to devote his whole life to painting.

The first picture that he produced was "Joseph interpreting the dreams of the Baker and Butcher." It was purchased by Mr Johnson.

Fully aware of the necessity of having recourse to the fountains of excellence in the arduous profession which he had undertaken, Mr Fuseli resolved to go to Italy. Accordingly, in the year 1770, accompanied by his friend Armstrong the poet, he embarked for Leghorn. The vessel was, however, driven ashore at Genoa; and thence the travellers proceeded to Rome. The eager delight with which the young and enthusiastic artist rifled all the pictorial treasures of "the eternal city," may easily be imagined. Of course, the works of Raphael excited his warm admiration; but Michael Angelo-the object of his early fondness-Michael Angelo became the god of his idolatry. The master-pieces of that great man were for years the objects of his unwearied attention. From them he imbibed that grandeur of style which redeemed the productions of his future life from the consequences of an occasional inattention to minor qualities. So firm and broad was his pencil, even at that period, that the celebrated Piranesi, seeing him one day sketching a figure, exclaimed, "This is not designing but building a man!"

Mr Fuseli visited the other principal cities of Italy, and drew from them all

abundant nourishment for his genius. Nor did he pursue the vulgar track of students, who restrict themselves to a laborious copying of the works of the ancient masters. His ardent imagination, indeed, was little suited to such a task. Retiring from the intense contemplation of the productions of those masters to his study; while he endeavoured to exalt his own ideas to the standard of their excellence, he poured out, on canvass, the glowing conceptions of his fancy, regardless of any manner but that which nature dictated to him. For his subjects he most frequently chose passages of Shakspeare and Milton; but he sometimes sought them in the stores of his own vivid imagination. He sent several of his performances to England, where they were exhibited in the rooms of the Society of English Painters. In 1774, a drawing by him, the subject of which was "The death of Cardinal Beaufort," appeared in the Exhibition of the Royal Academy; and in 1777, a picture of "A scene in Macbeth."

Feeling that his mind had now acquired its full strength, and his hand its perfect cunning, Mr Fuseli, after a residence abroad of above eight years, again turned his thoughts to England, whither the invitations of men well known for their love of the arts forcibly attracted him. He left Italy in 1778. He first went to Zurich, where he remained for six months with his family, and thence proceeded to England, in the year 1779. On his arrival, he found himself without a rival as a connoisseur in art; and he soon distinguished himself by his own productions. The first picture which brought him into great public notice was "The Night-Mare," which was exhibited in 1782. The extraordinary and peculiar genius which it evinced was universally felt; and perhaps no single picture ever made a greater impression

in this country. A very fine mezzotinto engraving of it was scraped by John Raphael Smith; and so popular did the print become, that although Mr Fuseli received only twenty guineas for the picture, the publisher made five hundred by his speculation.

It is generally believed, that while Mr Fuseli was at Rome, he suggested the idea of the Shakspeare Gallery, which was afterwards so happily carried into effect by the late Alderman Boydell. Mr Fuseli painted eight very fine pictures for it, from the plays of "The Tempest," the "Midsummer Night's Dream," "Macbeth," the "Second Part of Henry IV.," Henry V "King Lear," and "Hamlet." The last was his master-piece, and was inferior to none in the entire collection. The scene is that of the Ghost, and it is painted with wonderful sublimity of conception.

66

In 1788, Mr Fuseli was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy; and on the 10th of February, 1790, he was elected Royal Academician.

Between the years 1790 and 1800, Mr Fuseli produced his " Milton Gallery," a series of forty-seven pictures, upon subjects taken exclusively from the works of our divine bard. They were exhibited during the years 1799 and 1800; and the extent of the painter's intellectual acquisitions, of his lofty, though sometimes certainly extravagant imagination, and of his fertile and eccentric fancy, was fully appreciated by the few who were capable of judging of such productions. Not a piece but had its own peculiar merit; though some were distinguished by a superiority over the rest, too striking to escape particular notice. Perhaps, of the whole, "The Lazar-House" was the most masterly effort.

This exhibition, however, "pleased not the million; 'twas caviare to the general." In a pecuniary point of

view, therefore, it was very unproductive, and after two seasons was closed. Of the pictures of which it had been composed, a few were sold, and dispersed in various directions.

On the secession of Mr Barry from the office of Professor of Painting to the Royal Academy, in the year 1799, Mr Fuseli was appointed to succeed him. He immediately began the composition of three lectures, his professional avocations not permitting him to prepare more at that time; which lectures, the first on Ancient Art, the second on Modern Art,* and the third on Invention, were delivered with great effect at Somerset House, in March 1801; and were published in the course of the same year, with a dedication to William Lock, Esq. of Norbury Park, Surrey.

In 1807 Mr Fuseli visited Paris, where he remained about six weeks.

Having held the office of Professor of Painting until the year 1804, Mr Fuseli was then, on the death of Mr Wilton, appointed Keeper of the Royal Academy; and there being a standing order of the institution, that no member should enjoy two offices in it at the same time, he resigned the professorship. However, on the death of Mr Opie, and the subsequent death of Mr Tresham (who never lectured), he was, in the year 1810, unanimously re-elected; and the Royal Academy rescinded the order abovea lluded to, to enable him to retain both his appointments. He soon produced and read three additional lectures; the first on the resumed subject of Invention, the second on Composition and Expression, and

the third on Chiaro-scuro; but they were not published until 1820. Of Mr Fuseli's profound knowledge of the history and principles of his art, and of the energetic and comprehensive manner in which he was accustomed to communicate that knowledge to the students of the Royal Academy, they only can adequately judge who were so fortunate as to be his auditors.

In 1805, Mr Fuseli's critical powers were again displayed in a new and much enlarged edition of " Pilkington's Dictionary of Painters."

One of the friends of Mr Fuseli's earlier life was Lord Orford, then Horace Walpole. Cipriani was a favourite artist of Mr Walpole's, and was much employed by him. The latter, however, wishing for a picture of Hero and Leander, Cipriani said that it was not a subject that would suit him, but that he knew a young artist who could execute it better than any man in England. He accordingly, in the kindest and handsomest manner, introduced Mr Fuseli to Walpole, for whom he painted several pictures, which, we believe, are now at Houghton. Mr Coutts, Mr Angerstein, Mr Lock, Mr Roscoe, Mr Knowles, Mr James Carrick Moore, and Vice Admiral Sir Graham Moore were among Mr Fuseli's most intimate friends. Mr Balmanno, and Mr Moses Haughton (the excellent artist in miniature, who exchanging for a while the pencil for the graver, transferred to copper some of Mr Fuseli's finest productions), maintained for many years a constant and kind intercourse with him. For thirty or forty years Mr Fuseli was in the

habit of dining once a-week at the hospitable table of his old friend Mr Johnson, the bookseller. Here he met a number of distinguished literary characters. Among the frequent visitors at Mr Johnson's, during that long period, were Mr Bonnycastle, Dr Aikin, Mrs Barbauld, Sir Humphrey Davy, Mr Godwin, Mrs Mary Wolstonecroft, Mr Horne Tooke, Dr Walcot, Dr Stock, the late Bishop of Killala, Dr Priestley, the Rev. John Hewlitt, Dr Henry, Mr Holcroft, &c. &c. Such were the attractions of Mr Fuseli's conversation, which was full of point, that it was considered quite a blank day at Mr Johnson's when any accident prevented him from being of the party. He was remarkably happy in repartee. His His friends relate many of his felicitous remarks; but owing to the peculiarity and vigour of his enunciation and gesture, they lose much in narrative; and, when they have not the advantage even of imitative tone and action, their spirit in many cases almost entirely evaporates.

On one occasion, when dining at Mr Johnson's, a gentleman called out to him from the other end of the room,"Mr Fuseli, I lately purchased a picture of yours." Mr F. "Did you? what is the sobject?" Gent. "I really don't know." Mr F. "That's odd enough; you must be a strange fellow, to buy a picture without knowing the sobject!" Gent. (a little nettled) "I don't know what the devil it is." Mr F. "Perhaps it is the devil: I have often painted him." Gent. "Perhaps it is." Mr F. " Well! you have him now; take care that he does not one day have you!"

Lounging in his Milton Gallery, a decently-dressed stranger accosted him:

These pictures, sir, are from Mil

ton ?" " They are." "Milton wrote

Paradise Lost?"" "He did."

I

never read it; but I will." "You had better not; you'll find it an exceedingly tough job."

He had a great dislike to commonplace observations. After sitting perfectly silent for a long time in his own room, during the "bald, disjointed chat" of some idle callers-in, who were gabbling with one another about the weather, and other topics of as interesting a nature, he suddenly exclaimed," We had pork for dinner to-day." "Dear! Mr Fuseli, what an odd remark!" "Why, it is as good as anything you have been saying for the last hour."

Like most persons of studious habits, he was occasionally liable to fits of great irritability. A well-known living engraver, a man not only of extraordinary powers in his art, but in perfect possession of every faculty of mind and body, with the exception of his hearing, which is much impaired, tapped one day at the door of Mr Fuseli's painting-room :-" Come in," was the answer, in a subdued tone of voice, which, of course, was not audible. Another tap followed. "Come in," again said Mr Fuseli, with a slight increase of emphasis, that still did not vibrate sufficiently on his visitor's tympanum. A third tap: "Come in!" roared Mr Fuseli, with the lungs of a Stentor, accompanying the alarming request with an ejaculation, as loudly vociferated: of which, however, it may be enough to say that it was exceedingly expressive, although perhaps not strictly classical. The astonished Mr L. entered the den, and received the full glare of the lion's eye. It can scarcely be necessary to add, that as soon as Mr Fuseli discovered who it was, he laughed at his misapprehension, and apologized for his rudeness. Speaking one day of a contemporary

artist, whose countenance was not of the most prepossessing character, and who, although he had a firm and vigorous pencil, did not evince much taste in the selection of his subjects, Mr Fuseli said, "He paints nothing but thieves and murderers, and when he wants a model he looks in the glass."

Mr Fuseli understood the Latin language thoroughly, and wrote it with great elegance and power. He was likewise an excellent Greek scholar. When Cowper was preparing his translation of the Iliad for the press, Mr Fuseli, having seen the “ Prospectus" of the work, made some observations upon it while sitting at Mr Johnson's table, which, having been reported to Mr Cowper, struck him so forcibly that he requested the critic's assistance in the revision of his manuscript, and received it. In Hayley's "Life of Cowper," there is a letter from Cowper to the Rev. Wm. Unwin, dated March 13, 1786, in which the fact is mentioned at length.

*

On the publication of Cowper's work, Mr Fuseli wrote an admirable critique upon it, in the "Analytical Review;" which publication, indeed, is enriched with a great many contributions from his pen, on subjects connected with natural history, the fine arts, and classical learning. It would be difficult to convey a more adequate notion of the soundness of Mr Fuseli's remarks, than by showing, in the following passage of a letter from Cowper to Samuel Rose, Esq. dated Feb. 17, 1793, what the author himself thought of the review :

"I have read the critique of my work in the Analytical Review, and am happy to have fallen into the hands of a critic, rigorous enough indeed, but a scholar and a man of sense; and who does not deliberately intend me a mis

chief. I am better pleased, indeed, that he censures some things, than I should have been with unmixed commendation; for his censure (to use the new diplomatic term) will accredit his praise. In his particular remarks he is for the most part right, and I shall be the better for them; but in his general ones, I think he asserts too largely, and more than he could prove."

Of his intimate knowledge of Greek, Mr Fuseli frequently availed himself for his amusement. He would compose Greek verses extemporaneously, and then pretend he could not recollect the author. "Whose are those, Porson ?" repeating four or five sonorous lines. "I really do not know," answered the learned professor, after a short pause; no doubt surprised to find that any Greek existed in the world with which he was unacquainted. "How the deuce should you," was the chuckling reply, "when I wrote them myself?"

There were few modern languages also of which Mr Fuseli did not know something; for he had great facility in acquiring languages, and used to say, that the application of six weeks was enough to enable a man to grasp the elements of any one. German was his native tongue. He was a perfect master of English, wrote French with great ease, and Italian in its purest dialect; and could read Dutch without difficulty. His memory was singularly retentive; he was never at a loss in quoting a classic author; and could always tell the part of the work in which the quotation might be found. Shakspeare, Milton, and Dante, were his favourites. With the first especially, perhaps few men ever lived who were so thoroughly conversant.

Mr Fuseli wrote the "Advertisement," as it is called, but which is in fact the preface to Dr Hunter's transla