is uncouth and shapeless appearance, by a
kind of magic, at a certain distance assumes form, and all the parts
seem to drop into their proper places; so that we can hardly refuse
acknowledging the full effect of diligence under the appearance of
chance and hasty negligence.

"That Gainsborough himself considered this peculiarity in his manner,
and the power it possesses of exciting surprise, as a beauty in his
works, I think may be inferred from the eager desire which we know he
always expressed, that his pictures at the exhibition should be seen
near as well as at a distance.

"The slightness which we see in his best works cannot always be imputed
to negligence. However they may appear to superficial observers,
painters know very well that a steady attention to the general effect
takes up more time and is much more laborious to the mind than any mode
of high finishing or smoothness without such attention. His handling,
the manner of leaving the colours, or, in other words, the methods he
used for producing the effect, had very much the appearance of the work
of an artist who had never learnt from others the usual and regular
practice belonging to the art; but still, like a man of strong intuitive
perception of what was required, he found a way of his own to accomplish
his purpose."

To Reynolds's opinion of this technique as applied to portraits, we may
listen with even more attention. "It must be allowed," he continues,
"that this hatching manner of Gainsborough did very much contribute to
the lightness of effect which is so eminent a beauty in his pictures;
as, on the contrary, much smoothness and uniting the colours is apt to
produce heaviness. Every artist must have remarked how often that
lightness of hand which was in his dead-colour (or first painting)
escaped in the finishing when he had determined the parts with more
precision; and another loss which he often experiences, which is of
greater consequence: while he is employed in the detail, the effect of
the whole together is either forgotten or neglected. The likeness of a
portrait, as I have formerly observed, consists more in preserving the
general effect of the countenance than in the most minute finishing of
the features or any of the particular parts. Now, Gainsborough's
portraits were often little more in regard to finishing or determining
the form of the features, than what generally attends a first painting;
but as he was always attentive to the gen