is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

XVI

THE PORTRAIT OF REYNOLDS

In the city of Florence, Italy, there is a famous gallery of portraits
unlike any other collection of pictures in the world. It consists of
the portraits of artists, painted by their own hands, and includes the
most celebrated painters of all nations, from the fifteenth century to
the present time. Here may be seen the portraits of Velasquez, Titian,
Tintoretto, Rembrandt,--the world's greatest portrait painters,--and
in the same splendid company hangs the portrait of Reynolds,
reproduced in our frontispiece. He painted it in 1776 for the special
purpose of sending it to Florence at the request of the Imperial
Academy of that city, of which he had just been elected a member.

As we have seen in our study of the Angels' Heads, a single portrait
can show us only one side of the sitter's character. This portrait of
Reynolds, painted as a condition of membership in a society of
artists, and for a gallery of artists' portraits, was intended chiefly
to show the artistic side of his nature. The pose itself at once
suggests the artist. The expression of the mobile face is that of a
painter engaged at his easel, turning a searching glance upon the
object he is painting. In short, it is a sort of official portrait,
introducing the new member to his associates in the Imperial Academy.

The artist wears the Oxford cap and gown, to which he is entitled, by
virtue of the honorary degree of D. C. L., conferred upon him by the
University of Oxford. In his hand he carries a roll of manuscript,
presumably one of his lectures before the Royal Academy. Both the roll
and the costume are, as it were, insignia of his English honors. A
Latin inscription on the back of the portrait, written by the
painter's own hand, enumerates the several distinctions which are his.

Reynolds might, indeed, be pardoned the pride with which he reviewed
his career. From somewhat humble beginnings he had now made his way to
the foremost place in his profession. He was born at a time when art
was in a very low state in England, and there were no advantages for
the study of painting. His only instruction was under an inferior
portrait painter named Hudson, with whom he served as apprentice about
two years.

His real art training was during three years of travel in Italy. There
he examined and studied the works of the greatest masters of the past,
and returned to England with altog