Note 15 — ON GAINSBOROUGH’S PICTURES

The idea of the necessity of tampering with nature, or giving what is called a flattering likeness, was universal in this country fifty years ago. This would no doubt be always easy, if the whole of the art consisted in leaving out, and not putting in, what is to be found in nature. It may not be improper to add here, that, in our opinion, Murillo is at the head of the class of painters, who have treated subjects of common life. There is something in his pictures which is not to be found at all in the productions of the Dutch school. After making the colours on the canvass feel and think, the next best thing is to make them breathe and live. But there is in Murillo’s pictures a look of real life, a cordial flow of animal spirits, to be met with no where else. We might here particularly refer to his picture of the Two Spanish Beggar-boys in Mr. Desenfans’ collection, which cannot be forgotten by those who have ever seen it.