broken, both in
colour and execution, which prevents heaviness. His handling--which
conveys from its dexterity and touch so lifelike an appearance--is not
unlike that of Frank Hals, of whom Reynolds speaks so highly:--"In the
works of Frank Hals, the portrait painter may observe the composition of
a face, the features well put together, as the painters express it, from
whence proceeds that strong, marked character of individual nature,
which is so remarkable in his portraits, and is not found in an equal
degree in any other painter. If he had joined to this most difficult
part of the art a patience in finishing what he so correctly planned,
he might justly have claimed the place which Vandyke, all things
considered, so justly holds, as the first of portrait painters." There
is, however, this difference in their works--independent of the flesh
of Rembrandt's being much richer in tone, it is produced by glazing and
fresh touches of transparent colour, whereas the tints of Hals seem
to have been mixed in the first instance on his palette; hence that
undisturbed dexterity of handling which gives so much the appearance
of life in his best works. The distinctive characteristics between a
portrait painter and a historical painter, is "that the one paints man
in general, the other a particular man;" hence, to ennoble the work, it
is necessary to make it conform, as much as can be done with safety to
the likeness, to the great principles that guide the highest branches
of the art--that is, by softening down those features that overstep the
boundary of general nature, and assisting those parts that fall short,
or are defective. Therefore, when Lawrence painted Mrs. Siddons, the
Duke of Wellington, or Lord Brougham, he chose a front view of the face,
that their peculiarities might not be too apparent. Now Sir Joshua
carried these generalizing principles to so great an extent at times
that his sitters did not recognise the striking likeness that some
people look for as paramount to all other considerations, which made his
pupil, Northcote, remark that there was a class of sitters who would not
be content "unless the house-dog barked at it as a sign of recognition."
Rembrandt, on the contrary, did not generalize enough; therefore, many
portraits were left on his hands, as it is said they were left on
Reynolds's. But see the result, those very pictures from the easel
of both painters bring higher prices than the more favoured of their