Morghen, called
sometimes an imitator of Strange.[9] To these I would add the rare
autograph PORTRAIT OF THE ENGRAVER, being a small head after Greuze,
which is simple and beautiful.

[Illustration: JOHN HUNTER

(Painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Engraved by William Sharp.)]

[Sidenote: Sharp.]

One other name will close this catalogue. It is that of William Sharp,
who was born at London in 1746, and died there in 1824. Though last in
order, this engraver may claim kindred with the best. His first essays
were the embellishment of pewter pots, from which he ascended to the
heights of art, showing a power rarely equalled. Without any instance
of peculiar beauty, his works are constant in character and
expression, with every possible excellence of execution; face, form,
drapery--all are as in nature. His splendid qualities appear in the
DOCTORS OF THE CHURCH, which has taken its place as the first of
English engravings. It is after the picture of Guido, once belonging
to the Houghton gallery, which in an evil hour for English taste was
allowed to enrich the collection of the Hermitage at St. Petersburgh;
and I remember well that this engraving by Sharp was one of the few
ornaments in the drawing-room of Macaulay when I last saw him, shortly
before his lamented death. Next to the Doctors of the Church is his
LEAR IN THE STORM, after the picture by West, now in the Boston
Athenaeum, and his SORTIE FROM GIBRALTAR, after the picture by
Trumbull, also in the Boston Athenaeum. Thus, through at least two of
his masterpieces whose originals are among us, is our country
associated with this great artist.

It is of portraits especially that I write, and here Sharp is truly
eminent. All that he did was well done; but two were models; that of
MR. BOULTON, a strong, well-developed country gentleman, admirably
executed, and of JOHN HUNTER, the eminent surgeon, after the painting
by Sir Joshua Reynolds, in the London College of Surgeons,
unquestionably the foremost portrait in English art, and the coequal
companion of the great portraits in the past; but here the engraver
united his rare gifts with those of the painter.

[Sidenote: Mandel.]

In closing these sketches I would have it observed that this is no
attempt to treat of engraving generally, or of prints in their mass or
types. The present subject is simply of portraits, and I stop now just
as we arrive at contemporary examples, abroad and at home, with the
gentle geniu