he earlier years there were painters of note who cannot
be passed over unmentioned.

[Illustration: FIG. 102.--WEST. PETER DENYING CHRIST. HAMPTON CT.]

THE EARLY PAINTERS: The "limner," or the man who could draw and color
a portrait, seems to have existed very early in American history.
Smibert (1684-1751), a Scotch painter, who settled in Boston, and
Watson (1685?-1768), another Scotchman, who settled in New Jersey,
were of this class--men capable of giving a likeness, but little more.
They were followed by English painters of even less consequence. Then
came Copley (1737-1815) and West (1738-1820), with whom painting in
America really began. They were good men for their time, but it must
be borne in mind that the times for art were not at all favorable.
West was a man about whom all the infant prodigy tales have been told,
but he never grew to be a great artist. He was ambitious beyond his
power, indulged in theatrical composition, was hot in color, and never
was at ease in handling the brush. Most of his life was passed in
England, where he had a vogue, was elected President of the Royal
Academy, and became practically a British painter. Copley was more of
an American than West, and more of a painter. Some of his portraits
are exceptionally fine, and his figure pieces, like Charles I.
demanding the Five Members of House of Commons are excellent in color
and composition. C. W. Peale (1741-1827), a pupil of both Copley and
West, was perhaps more fortunate in having celebrated characters like
Washington for sitters than in his art. Trumbull (1756-1843) preserved
on canvas the Revolutionary history of America and, all told, did it
very well. Some of his compositions, portraits, and miniature heads in
the Yale Art School at New Haven are drawn and painted in a masterful
manner and are as valuable for their art as for the incidents which
they portray.

[Illustration: FIG. 103.--GILBERT STUART. WASHINGTON (UNFINISHED).
BOSTON MUS.]

Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) was the best portrait-painter of all the
early men, and his work holds very high rank even in the schools of
to-day. He was one of the first in American art-history to show
skilful accuracy of the brush, a good knowledge of color, and some
artistic sense of dignity and carriage in the sitter. He was not
always a good draughtsman, and he had a manner of laying on pure
colors without blending them that sometimes produced sharpness in
modelling; but as a general rul