looked them over and chosen the
position they wished, he sketched it on canvas and then made the likeness
to correspond. In this way, when at his best, he was able to paint a
portrait in about four hours. His sitters' chairs moved on casters, and
were placed on a platform a foot and a half above the floor. He worked
standing, and used brushes with handles eighteen inches long, moving them
with great rapidity.

In 1768 Sir Joshua was made the first President of the Royal Academy, and
it was then that he was knighted by the king. He read lectures at the
Academy until 1790, when he took his leave. During these years he sent two
hundred and forty-four pictures to the various exhibitions. In 1782 he had
a slight shock of paralysis, but was quite well until 1789, when he feared
that he should be blind, and from this time he did not paint. He was ill
about three months before his death, which occurred in February, 1792. His
remains were laid in state at the Royal Academy, and then buried in St.
Paul's Cathedral, near the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren.

It is to be regretted that the colors used by Sir Joshua Reynolds are now
much faded in many of his pictures. Those in the National Gallery, in
London, are, however, in good preservation. Naturally, since so many of
his pictures were portraits they are in the collections of private
families in England, and but few of them are seen in European galleries.
There is an excellent opportunity to study his manner in the pictures at
the South Kensington Museum, where there are several portraits, some
pictures of children, and the "Graces Decorating a Statue of Hymen."

It is very satisfactory to think of a great artist as a genial, happy man,
who is dear to his friends, and has a full, rich life outside of his
profession. Such a life had Sir Joshua Reynolds, and one writer says of
him: "They made him a knight--this famous painter; they buried him 'with
an empire's lamentation;' but nothing honors him more than the 'folio
English dictionary of the last revision' which Johnson left to him in his
will, the dedication that poor, loving Goldsmith placed in the 'Deserted
Village,' and the tears which five years after his death even Burke could
not forbear to shed over his memory."

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH (1727-1788) was born in Sudbury, in Suffolk, and when
still quite young went to London, and studied under Francis Hayman, who
was not an eminent painter. Gainsborough became one of the most imp