In the year 1749 a plan was submitted to the society by Mr. Dingley for the formation of an Academy of Arts, and the society voted an annual sum out of their general fund for the encouragement of Art in the three different branches of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, so soon as this or any other scheme for a similar purpose should be carried into effect. It does not appear upon the records of the society that the plan they thus pledged themselves to support was then prosecuted; but about the same period they appointed a committee to enter into a treaty for the purchase of a plot of ground, whereon to erect a building which was intended to be a repository for works of art, particularly casts from the most celebrated ancient statues, with a view to cultivate and encourage a taste for the Fine Arts. Towards the attainment of this object the society purchased and for some years retained possession of a plot of ground on the south side of Cavendish Square. Considerable purchases of Portland stone were made from time to time for the purposes of the projected building, the subscriptions of the members having been increased in 1750 in furtherance of this object.

In the year 1752 the society came to a resolution that the building should be erected on the model of some ancient monument, according to the most exact proportions and measurements.

It may not be improper to remark that in the preceding year the society elected Mr. Stuart and Mr. Revett members of their body. These gentlemen were then at Athens collecting materials for their great work, the proposals for the publication of which first appeared at Rome in the year 1748, but were not published in England until the spring of 1751, under the auspices of Colonel George Gray, one of the most active members of the society, and at that time acting as its secretary and treasurer.

The introduction of these young architects to the notice of the society was effected through Sir James Gray, at that time His Majesty's Minister at Venice, in pursuance of a permission granted to the members to recommend candidates for admission into the society notwithstanding their residence abroad. Sir James greatly interested himself in the success of their undertaking, and was the first, as Stuart relates in his preface to the first volume, who set on foot a subscription for the intended work. It appears that these artists became acquainted with Sir James during their residence at Venice, where they were compelled to wait for some months inquiring for a proper conveyance to the Morea. During the time they were detained at Venice they had visited Pola, and possessed themselves of all the details of the ruins there, which were VOL. III.-No. 15. 2 R

intended to form a work and serve as a precursor to the great publication they meditated.

In 1753 the society determined that the temple at Pola should be followed as a model in their intended building, and Sir John Dashwood, Mr. Howe, Mr. Dingley, and Colonel Gray, were appointed a committee in prosecution of this object: but its further progress was delayed in consequence of the measures taken by the Society of Painters for the formation of an Academy of Arts.

In the year 1755 such was the character of the society, as patrons and judges of what was excellent in Art, that the Society of Painters, desirous of exhibiting their works, mainly relied for success in their views to establish an "Academy for the Improvement of the Arts in general," on the countenance and support they should receive from the society. With this view a select committee of their body, amongst whom were Roubilliac, Hudson, Reynolds, and Gavin Hamilton, submitted to the society the plan of the Academy to be formed, the draught of a charter for the construction, maintenance, and government of the same, with an introductory discourse, and solicited the honour of their patronage and the benefit of their support.

The society appears to have acknowledged this mark of respect on the part of the artists with every degree of attention, and the committee, in reply to the minute containing the resolutions adopted by the society in furtherance of their object, observed that in consequence of this encouragement they wished to enlarge the plan of their charter so as to make it embrace a number of members not of the professions, as before intended; and further, that they should esteem themselves highly honoured in receiving the additional members out of the ranks of the society, to which they were also desirous of submitting the nomination of the first president. One of the last papers on the subject is so decisive as to the estimation in which the society was held at that period, that a transcript of it may not be unacceptable to those who are interested in the history of the Arts. It is dated December 30, 1755, and addressed

TO THE NOBLEMEN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE DILETTANTI SOCIETY." "We, the committee of painters, sculptors, and architects, beg leave to remind the Hon. Dilettanti Society of two resolutions of theirs: the one signed by His Grace the Duke of Bedford, encouraging us to proceed with our design of preparing a charter for the establishment of a Royal Academy; and the other by the Earl of Sandwich, chairman of the committee, for considering our proposals in relation thereto, assuring us

that their determination thereon should be communicated to us; as also to intimate in the most respectful manner that the sooner we can be favoured with their determination the more a favour we shall esteem it. It appearing to us to be highly unbecoming to proceed in an affair once laid before them till we be made acquainted with their sentiments upon it."

[To be continued.]

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE LATE THOMAS GIRTIN.

THE memory of Thomas Girtin is too intimately interwoven with that epoch which raised the title of draughtsman to that of painter in watercolours, to be forgotten by those who can remember the state of watercolour art at the end of the last century.

That painting in water-colours is an art of modern invention is universally known; and that the credit of the discovery is due to the British artists is equally admitted. Little had been achieved worthy the name of art by the draughtsman, until about the middle of the last century, when, the study of linear perspective having been successfully cultivated, the artists made some successful attempts at topographical drawing, or the representation of actual views of towns, cathedrals, castles, mansions, and other pictorial objects, with that fidelity to their respective forms and proportions in combination which constitutes the veritable picture.

Previously to the application of linear perspective to topographical delineation, nothing could be less natural than the representation of scenes from nature; as may be seen in all the back-ground subjects that were intended to represent real scenes, in the historical pieces painted by the ancients, and even the masters of more modern times, up to the period of the latter part of the seventeenth century, when the Flemish and Dutch masters, cultivating successfully the study of linear perspective, produced those justly admired topographical works in which architecture formed the principal features of the subject.

In our own practice of the topographical art until the period above mentioned, namely, about the middle of the last century, nothing could be less scientifically set forth; for in all the works topographical, such as Loggan's folio work (line engravings) of the Colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, the topographical illustrations of Stowe's folio History of London, and other large and expensive similar works, all the views were

represented in that heterogeneous style of delineation, termed "bird'seye views," which may be considered nothing short of the burlesque of perspective.

How it happened that the British artists were so entirely wanting in perception to remain so long in ignorance of the art of correct delineation, is the more surprising, as the ingenious Winceslaus Hollar had practised so many years in England, during the reigns of Charles the First and Charles the Second, and had made so many engraved topographical representations of various parts of London, with sufficient truth and intelligence to show them what the art was capable of. So, however, it was; and thus it continued until Paul Sandby commenced his topographical studies, and gave to the world his veritable delineations of the picturesque scenes of the island. These at once pointed out the right path to other artists, many of whom, availing themselves of his intelligence, pursued the same species of drawing, and spread the knowledge of this department throughout the empire.

The graphic works of Sandby assumed very little more than mechanical knowledge of light and shadow, being almost invariably marked in fore-ground, middle-ground, and distance, buildings, trees, figures, cattle, and every other object, with a deep penned outline, shadowed with Indian ink, and tinted with thin washes of colour, in the hues of brick, stone, tile, and slate; the trees and grass of crude greens, and the sky and distances with cold unbroken blue, or blueish gray.

Michael Angelo Rooker*, the next in succession, proceeded a step still further in topographical art. His views of the colleges, engraved for the Oxford Almanac for several consecutive years, are still admired as works of great merit. He moreover made the first successful approaches, in his coloured studies from nature, to imitate the local colour of each object, such as bricks, stone, tile, timber, &c., with the tints which they had acquired by exposure to weather, and which render them so fitting for pictorial representation. Rooker, however, though he thus advanced the art by pointing out the proper method of study, could not combine the whole into a picture. It was even considered by him, and his ingenious contemporaries and immediate successors, that the process of painting in transparent water-colours could never attain to sufficient power to form a picture.

Thomas Hearne + practised topographical drawing at the same period

* R.A., born about 1743, was brought up an engraver, and was afterwards a pupil of Paul Sandby's. He died 3rd March, 1801, when his large collection of drawings was sold for more than 12007.

+ Born about 1744 at Brinkworth, Wilts. He died April 13, 1817.

with still greater success; as his works, though not affecting force of light and shadow, and with little pretension to colour, were yet very complete in harmony, being chaste in effect and tasteful in execution, faithful in their general characteristics, and beautiful in their detail. His drawings, indeed, were so replete with these qualities, that Girtin and Turner owned they have derived from the study of his works, the rudiments of that topographical knowledge, which they improved so as ultimately to raise the British school, in this department of art, superior to that of any other nation, ancient or modern.

In this epitome of the rise and progress of water-colour art, it would be injustice to the memory of John Cozens* not to mention his meritorious labours in this branch of drawing, as it was he who first successfully practised that delightful attribute of scenery painting in water-colours, aerial perspective, which before his time had scarcely been attempted, from the erroneous belief that it was not to be accomplished by the limited powers of colours thus prepared.

These, then, may be considered the original founders of the school of British draughtsmen ; and each having added something to the common stock of water-colour art, Girtin and his coadjutor Turner, then youthful disciples in the same department, commenced their career, on the stepping stones which their ingenious predecessors had placed, for the advantage of these and others their more fortunate successors.

It would puzzle philosophy, in its wisest mood, to account for the superiority which these young artists obtained, at so early an age, over the labour of the whole long lives of these their worthy predecessors; for, they worked with the same materials and from the same prototypes. The very same objects which had served them,-the castles, ruined monasteries, abbey gates, and other pictorial subjects, which had by them been delineated,―also were sought by these: but their predecessors represented them only, at the best, as tinted chiar'-oscuro drawings, whilst these formed them into splendid pictures; such, indeed, that connoisseurship marvelled at the achievement; and painters in oil were no less lost in wonder, to know by what possibility such works could be wrought in materials apparently so entirely incompetent to the operation.

As this work is principally addressed to the attention of the amateurs and encouragers of the Fine Arts, it may be acceptable to a great portion of our readers, particularly those who amuse themselves by drawing landscapes in water-colours, to be informed of the mode of study by which Girtin attained that marked superiority over his predecessors

* He died, about 1799, in a state of mental derangement. See ante, p 12.