was for portrait; it suited his strictly observant character; and he had this great requisite for a portrait-painter, having great sense himself, he was able to make his heads intellectual.  His female portraits are extremely lovely; he knew well how to represent intellect, enthusiasm, and feeling.  These qualities he possessed himself.  We have observed, in the commencement of these remarks upon the Discourses, that painters do not usually paint beyond themselves, either power or feeling—­beyond their own grasp and sentiments; it was the habitual good sense and refinement of moral feeling that made Sir Joshua Reynolds so admirable a portrait-painter.  He has been, and we doubt not justly, celebrated as a colourist.  Unfortunately, we are not now so capable of judging, excepting in a few instances, of this his excellence.  Some few years ago, his pictures, to a considerable amount in number, were exhibited at the British Institution.  We are forced to confess that they generally looked too brown—­many of them dingy, many loaded with colour, that, when put on, was probably rich and transparent:  we concluded that they had changed.  Though Sir Joshua, as Northcote in his very amusing Memoirs of the President assures us, would not allow those under him to try experiments, and carefully locked up his own, that he might more effectually discourage the attempt—­considering that, in students, it was beginning at the wrong end—­yet was he himself a great experimentalist.  He frequently used wax and varnish; the decomposition of the latter (mastic) would sufficiently account for the appearance those pictures wore.  We see others that have very much faded; some that are said to be faded may rather have been injured by cleaners; the colouring when put on with much varnish not bearing the process of cleaning, may have been removed, and left only the dead and crude work.  It has been remarked, that his pictures have more especially suffered under the hands of restorers.  It must be very difficult for a portrait-painter, much employed, and called upon to paint a portrait, where short time and few sittings are the conditions, to paint a lasting work.  He is obliged to hasten the drying of the paint, or to use injurious substances, which answer the purpose only for a short present.  Sir Joshua, too, was tempted to use orpiment largely in some pictures, which has sadly changed.  An instance may be seen in the “Holy Family” in our National Gallery—­the colour of the flesh of the St John is ruined from this cause.  It is, however, one of his worst pictures, and could not have been originally designed for a “holy family.”  The Mater is quite a youthful peasant girl:  we should not regret it if it were totally gone.  Were Sir Joshua living, and could he see it in its present state, he would be sure to paint over it, and possibly convert it into another subject.  We do not doubt, however, that Sir Joshua deserved the reputation he obtained as a colourist in his day.  We attribute the brown,