THE LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT BRITISH PAINTERS, SCULPTORS, AND ARCHITECTS. BY ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. VOL. VI.. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. MDCCCXXXIII. 1 erial ki. PREFACE. or My undertaking is now concluded, and I have the agreeable duty of thanking my friends for their aid, the public for its kindness, and critics for much mildness and forbearance. I at first imagined that three volumes, or at most four, would hold all I had to say; but as the work advanced, new sources of intelligence were opened. What was intended for a sketch took a more important form, and I soon perceived that I required more room, and greater fulness, both of narration and remark. The deaths, too, of such men as Lawrence and Jackson obliged me to extend my plan; nor am I sure that I have yet admitted all artists of merit and genius into my volumes. In tracing the lives and delineating the characters of the chief men of our native school of art, I have endeavoured to be scrupulously impartial: it was my wish to speak warmly of merits and candidly of faults, and in no way to sacrifice my own opinion in matters either of taste or conduct. Yet, with all my care, I have, I fear, committed many mistakes. I had to gather intelligence from various sources, written and oral, and seek original matter on all sides. In extracting a consistent narrative from my many-coloured materials, I have not, I am afraid, always reconciled contradictions, or taken the true version of a story which had many variations. I have incurred obligations to many friends during the course of the work, but to none so much as to Mr. Lockhart, who not only suggested the undertaking, but, when in town, has been so kind as to help me in its progress, often pruning what was redundant, and bringing light to what was obscure. Mr. Southey has likewise aided me, and by his too favourable expressions regarding the merits of my first volume, encouraged me much with the rest. Lord Dover also has afforded me, in many cases, the advantage of his taste and knowledge. To the friendship of Sir Andrew Halliday I am indebted for all that is interesting in the life of Cosway; and the communications of those accomplished antiquaries, Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, of Hoddom, and Mr. David Laing, of Edinburgh, were invaluable to me when treating of artists of Scottish birth. Of the members of the Royal Academy, my friends, Mr. Chantrey and Mr. Wilkie, have assisted me the most; not so much with direct communications, |