travagant length, and, fortunately
for the art, displays the false principles on which the system of their
composition is founded. The moment seized is uniformly that of the
strongest and most violent passion; the principal actors in the piece
are represented in a state of phrenzied exertion, and the whole
anatomical knowledge of the artist is displayed in the endless
contortions into which the human frame is thrown. In David's celebrated
picture of the three Horatii, this peculiarity appears in the most
striking light. The works of this artist may excite admiration, but it
is the limited and artificial admiration of the schools; of those who
have forgot the end of the art in the acquisition of the technical
knowledge with which it is accompanied, or the display of the technical
powers which its execution involves.

The paintings of _Vernet_, in this collection, are perhaps the finest
specimens of that beautiful master, and they entitle him to a higher
place in the estimation of mankind than he seems yet to have obtained
from the generality of observers. There is a delicacy of colouring, an
unity of design, and a harmony of expression in his works, which accord
well with the simplicity of the subjects which his taste has selected,
and the general effect which it was his object to produce. In the
representation of the sun dispelling the mists of a cloudy morning; of
his setting rays gilding the waves of a western sea; or of that
undefined beauty which moonlight throws over the objects of nature, the
works of this artist are perhaps unrivalled.

The paintings of _Claude_ are by no means equal to what we had expected,
from the celebrity which his name has acquired, or the matchless beauty
which the engravings from him possess. They are but eleven in number,
and cannot be in any degree compared with those which are to be found in
Mr Angerstein's collection. To those, however, who have been accustomed
to study the designs of this great master, through the medium of the
engraved copies, and above all, in the unrivalled works of Woollet, the
sight of the original pictures must, perhaps at all times, create a
feeling of disappointment. There is an unity of effect in the engravings
which can never be met with amidst the distraction of colouring in the
original pictures; and the imagination clothes the beautiful shades of
the copy with finer tints than even the pencil of Claude has been able
to supply. "I have shewn you," said C