the auspices,
and in the company, of the late Lord (then Commodore) Keppel, who was
appointed to the command of the British squadron in the Mediterranean.
In this garden of the world, this magic seat of arts, he failed not to
visit the schools of the great masters, to study the productions of
different ages, and to contemplate with unwearied attention the
various beauties which are characteristic of each. His labor here, as
has been observed of another painter, was "the labor of love, not the
task of the hireling;" and how much he profited by it is known to all
Europe.

Having remained about two years in Italy, and studied the language as
well as the arts of the country with great success, he returned to
England, improved by travel and refined by education. On the road to
London from the port where he landed, he accidentally found in the inn
where he lodged Johnson's life of Savage, and was so taken with the
charms of composition, and the masterly delineation of character
displayed in that work, that, having begun to read it while leaning
his arm on the chimney-piece, he continued in that attitude,
insensible of pain till he was hardly able to raise his hand to his
head. The admiration of the work naturally led him to seek the
acquaintance of its author, who continued one of his sincerest
admirers and warmest friends till 1784, when they were separated by
the stroke of death.

The first thing that distinguished him after his return to his native
country was a full-length portrait of Commodore Keppel; which in
polite circles was spoken of in terms of the highest encomium, and
testified to what a degree of eminence he had arrived in his
profession. This was followed by a portrait of Lord Edgecombe, and a
few others, which at once introduced him to the first business in
portrait-painting; and that branch of the art he cultivated with such
success as will forever establish his fame with all descriptions of
refined society. Having painted some of the first-rate beauties of the
age, the polite world flocked to see the graces and the charms of his
pencil; and he soon became the most fashionable painter not only in
England, but in all Europe. He has indeed preserved the resemblance of
so many illustrious characters, that we feel the less regret at his
having left behind him so few historical paintings; though what he has
done in that way shows him to have been qualified to excel in both
departments. The only landscape, perha