hat
off the head of the Prince of Wales on a wager.

And so into this atmosphere of seething life came Joshua Reynolds, the
handsome, gracious, silent, diplomatic Reynolds. Fresh from Italy and the
far-off islands of the Southern seas where Ulysses sailed, he came--his
name and fame heralded as the Raphael of England.

To have your portrait painted by Reynolds was considered a proper
"entree" into the "bon ton." To attempt to give the names of royalty who
sat to him would be to present a transcript of Burke's Peerage.

Unlike Van Dyck, at whose shrine Reynolds worshiped, Reynolds was coldly
diplomatic in his relations with his sitters. He talked but little,
because he could not hear, and to hold an ear-trumpet and paint with both
hands is rather difficult. On the moment when the sitting was over, the
patron was bowed out. The good ladies who lay in wait with love's lariat
never found an opportunity to make the throw.

Reynolds' specialty was women and children. No man has ever pictured them
better, and with him all women were kind. Not only were they good, but
good-looking; and when arms lacked contour, or busts departed from the
ideal, Kitty Fisher or Nelly O'Brien came at the call of Marchi and lent
their charms to complete the canvas.

Reynolds gradually raised his prices until he received fifteen guineas
for a head, one hundred for a half-length, and one hundred and fifty for
a full-length. And so rapidly did he work that often a picture was
completed in four hours.

Usually, success is a zigzag journey, but it was not so with Reynolds.
From Seventeen Hundred Fifty-seven to Seventeen Hundred Eighty-eight, his
income was never less than thirty thousand dollars a year, and his
popularity knew no eclipse.

About the time the American Stamp Act was being pushed through
Parliament, Reynolds' studio was the neutral stamping-ground for both
parties.

Copley, the Boston artist, gave Reynolds a bias in favor of truth; and
when Townshend, the man who introduced the Stamp Act in Parliament, sat
to Sir Joshua, the artist and sitter forgot their business and wrangled
over politics. Soon afterward Sir Joshua made a bet with Townshend, a
thousand pounds against five, that George Washington would never enter
Reynolds' studio. This was in response to the boast that Washington would
soon be brought to England a captive, and Townshend would conduct him to
Reynolds to have his picture taken.

The bet made a sensation and Rey