phen Liotard, whose only merit was a
strong likeness, with great neatness of finish, Reynolds says--"The
high-finished manner of painting would be chosen if it were possible
with it to have that spirit and expression which infallibly fly off when
the artist labours; but there are transient beauties which last less
than a moment, and must be painted in as little time; besides, in poring
long the imagination is fatigued, and loses its vigour. You will find
nature in the first manner--but it will be nature stupid, and without
action. The portraits of Holbein are of this high-finished manner; and
for colouring and similitude what was ever beyond them? But then you see
fixed countenances, and all the features seem to remain immoveable."

Northcote observes, "Of mere likeness in portraiture Reynolds thought
very little, and used to say that he could instruct any boy that chance
might throw in his way to paint a likeness in a portrait in half a
year's time; but to give an impressive and a just expression and
character to a picture, or paint it like Velasquez, was another thing.
What we are all," he said, "attempting to do with great labour, he does
at once."

Barry, speaking of Reynolds as a portrait painter, mentions the wretched
state the art was in before his time, and how elevated it became from
the manner Sir Joshua treated it. In continuation, he says--"In many of
Titian's portraits the head and hands are mere staring, lightish spots,
unconnected with either the drapery or background, which are sometimes
too dark, and mere obscure nothings; and in Lely, and even in Vandyke,
we sometimes meet with the other extreme of too little solidity, too
much flickering and washiness. Sir Joshua's object appears to have been
to obtain the vigour and solidity of the one, with the bustle and spirit
of the other, without the excess of either; and in by far the greatest
number of his portraits he has admirably succeeded. His portrait of
Mrs. Siddons is, both for the ideal and the executive, the finest
portrait of the kind perhaps in the world; indeed, it is something more
than a portrait, and may serve to give an excellent idea of what an
enthusiastic mind is apt to conceive of those pictures of confined
history for which Apelles was so celebrated by the ancient writers.
But this picture of 'Mrs. Siddons, or the Tragic Muse,' was painted not
long since, when much of his attention had been turned to history; and
it is highly probable tha