HOGARTH'S PORTRAIT OF JOHN WILKES.

HOGARTH'S talent for catching a likeness was most remarkable; indeed, the study of his whole life was reading the human countenance; hence, he could sketch a character with a few scratches of his pen. The portrait of Mr. Wilkes, may be adduced as a memorable instance of this talent, which unfortunately for our esteemed artist, was too like, and too bitter a satire upon this "man of the people," to be forgiven by the witty champion of his party, namely, the much dreaded Charles Churchhill, who took up his Herculean club in defence of his friend, the member for Middlesex, and repaid the painter, in kind, by a satirical drubbing, which, if it "broke no bones," went nigh to the breaking of his heart. In testimony of the faithfulness of this resemblance of Mr. Wilkes, Mr. Nichols relates, that he was informed by a copperplate printer, that nearly four thousand copies of the caricature were worked off on the first impression: the informant being kept up for two or three nights on the occasion, observed, he had reason to remember it.

But a still higher testimony of the excellence of the portrait, which was etched by Hogarth, from a slight pen and ink sketch, made, as it appears, when the patriot was sitting unconscious of the artist's observation, may be instanced in the

opinion of Mr. Wilkes himself, which at the same time exhibits a striking trait of the playful ease of that gentleman, upon a subject that few men' have philosophy enough to endure-reflections upon their personal deformity.

Mr. Wilkes's observation was, long after the artist was gone to the grave,—" I think I am every day growing more like Hogarth's portrait of me."

"Nearly thirty years after the publication of this print," says an intelligent friend, "I had occasion to enrol the indenture of a ward, apprenticed to a Liveryman of the worshipful Painter Stainers' Company, and attended at the Chamberlain's Office at Guildhall. The clerk was executing the business, when in came Mr. Wilkes, and seated himself in the chair of office. Never till then," said he, "had I felt the full force of Hogarth's power. I could have sworn to the very letter of the resemblance, though I had never seen the prototype before."

EARLY STONE BUILDINGS IN IRELAND.

WHEN Rhoderick O'Connor, King of Connaught, in the year 1161* built a stone castle at Tuam, it was so new and unusual in those times, that the Irish called it the wonderful castle. But above all cities of that period was Temora now called Taragh, in the county of Meath, which, though it were

• Giraldus in 1185, mentions the stone round tower.

then the principal palace, and the place where at certain times they held their royal assemblies, yet at this day there is not the least sign or remainder of an ancient building. The first of the Irish, or at least one of the first who began to build with stone and lime, was Malachius O'Morgan, Archbishop of Armagh.

MARINI AND POUSSIN.

MARINI was born at Naples. Some political disturbances, in which he and his family had taken part, obliged him to quit that kingdom, and he took refuge successively in several of the petty courts of Italy. His talent for satire involved him in various literary disputes, as well as some political quarrels, and he never resided long in one place, until Mary of Medicis invited him to the court of France, where he passed the greater part of his life, and where he wrote most of his poems, which, though licentious both in matter and style, contain numerous beauties, and are full of classical imagery. Marini gave Poussin an apartment in his house, and as his own health was at that time extremely deranged, he loved to have Poussin by the side of his couch, where he drew or painted, while Marini read aloud to him from some Latin or Italian author, or from his own poems, which Poussin illustrated by beautiful drawings, most of which it is to be feared are lost; though it is

believed that there is still existing in the Massimi library, a copy of the Adonis in Marini's handwriting, with Poussin's drawings interleaved. To this kind of study which he pursued with Marini, may perhaps be attributed Poussin's predilection for compositions where nymphs, and fairies, and bacchanals are the subjects; compositions in which he certainly excelled.

FIRST CELEBRITY OF POUSSIN.

IN 1623 the Jesuits celebrated the canonization of Ignatius Loyola, and of St. Francis Xavier, and the pupils of their college at Paris, determined on that occasion to display the miracles of their patron saints in a series of pictures. Of these Poussin painted six in less than a week: his long practice in distemper painting gave him a decided superiority in readiness over the other artists employed on the occasion; and when the pictures came to be exhibited, although the details in his pictures were necessarily neglected on account of the haste with which they had been executed, they excited the greatest admiration on account of the grandeur of conception and elegance of design displayed in them, and obtained the preference over all the others, though executed by the best artists then in Paris.

THE PAINTER AND THE PARSON.

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WHEN Zoffani was in Calcutta, he painted " Last Supper," as an altar-piece, for the church, the

figures as large as life, and Dr. Johnson, the first chaplain, often called to see the artist at work, Being rather out of humour one day at the interruption he met with by the doctor's questions concerning the different figures, "who is this?" and "who is that?" and upon the doctor pointing to a jolly lusty apostle, in the front of the picture, and asking his name, the painter said, "that is Simon, but he was not so fat when a fisherman; he only grew fat when he became a parson."

NATIONAL FEELING.

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The Italians have of all nations the least affectation. What they feel they express, to please themselves, without any consideration of what construction others may put on their actions. France where vanity, and in England, where pride, induces every man to consider and foresee his neighbour's judgment, it is difficult for an artist, whose reputation is not already established, to arrive at that intercourse with polite or learned society, which ought to form a part of his education. The Italian painters, on the contrary, were courted into such society. Michael Angelo, in the palace of the Medici, while he received their patronage equally with Politian, was equally treated as their friend and companion; and that nothing vulgar ever enters into his conceptions may, in part, be attributed to his constant intercourse with