The Book of Three Hundred Anecdotes | Page 3

the
bridge without discovery.

ARTISTS.
Sir Joshua Reynolds.--"What do you ask for this sketch?" said Sir
Joshua to an old picture-dealer, whose portfolio he was looking over.
"Twenty guineas, your honour." "Twenty pence, I suppose you mean?"
"No, sir; it is true I would have taken twenty pence for it this morning,
but if you think it worth looking at, all the world will think it worth
buying." Sir Joshua ordered him to send the sketch home, and gave him
the money.
Ditto.--Two gentlemen were at a coffee-house, when the discourse fell
upon Sir Joshua Reynold's painting; one of them said that "his tints
were admirable, but the colours flew." It happened that Sir Joshua was
in the next box, who taking up his hat, accosted them thus, with a low
bow--"Gentlemen, I return you many thanks for bringing me off with
flying colours."
Richardson, in his anecdotes of painting, says, a gentleman came to me
to invite me to his house: "I have," says he, "a picture of Rubens, and it

is a rare good one. There is little H. the other day came to see it, and
says it is a copy. If any one says so again, I'll break his head. Pray, Mr.
Richardson, will you do me the favour to come, and give me _your real
opinion of it?_"
Gainsborough.--A countryman was shown Gainsborough's celebrated
picture of "The Pigs." "To be sure," said he, "they be deadly like pigs;
but there is one fault; nobody ever saw three pigs feeding together but
what one on 'em had a foot in the trough."
Turner.--Once, at a dinner, where several artists, amateurs and literary
men were convened, a poet, by way of being facetious, proposed as a
toast the health of the painters and glaziers of Great Britain. The toast
was drunk, and Turner, after returning thanks for it, proposed the health
of the British _paper-stainers_.
Lely and the Alderman.--Sir Peter Lely, a famous painter in the reign of
Charles I., agreed for the price of a full-length, which he was to draw
for a rich alderman of London, who was not indebted to nature either
for shape or face. When the picture was finished, the alderman
endeavoured to beat down the price; alleging that if he did not purchase
it, it would lie on the painter's hands. "That's a mistake," replied Sir
Peter, "for I can sell it at double the price I demand."--"How can that
be?" says the alderman; "for it is like nobody but myself."--"But I will
draw a tail to it, and then it will be an excellent monkey." The alderman,
to prevent exposure, paid the sum agreed for, and carried off the
picture.
Morland.--It is well known that Morland the painter used to go on an
expedition with a companion sometimes without a guinea, or perhaps
scarcely a shilling, to defray the expenses of their journey; and thus
they were often reduced to an unpleasant and ludicrous dilemma. On
one occasion the painter was travelling in Kent, in company with a
relative, and finding their cash exhausted, while at a distance from their
destination, they were compelled to exert their wits, for the purpose of
recruiting themselves after a long and fatiguing march. As they
approached Canterbury, a homely village ale-house caught their eye;
and the itinerant artists hailed, with delight, the sign of the Black Bull,
which indicated abundance of home-made bread and generous ale.
They entered, and soon made considerable havoc among the good
things of mine host, who, on reckoning up, found that they had

consumed as much bread, cheese and ale, as amounted to _12s. 6d._
Morland now candidly informed his host that they were two poor
painters going in search of employment, and that they had spent all
their money. He, however, added that, as the sign of the Bull was a
disgraceful daub for so respectable a house, he would have no objection
to repaint it, as a set-off for what he and his companion had received.
The landlord, who had long been wishing for a new sign (the one in
question having passed through two generations), gladly accepted his
terms, and Morland immediately went to work. The next day the Bull
was sketched in such a masterly manner that the landlord was
enraptured; he supplied his guests with more provisions, and
generously gave them money for their subsequent expenses. About
three months after a gentleman well acquainted with Morland's works,
accidentally passing through the village, recognised it instantly to be
the production of that inimitable painter: he stopped, and was
confirmed in his opinion, by the history which the landlord gave of the
transaction. In short, he purchased the sign of him for twenty pounds;
the landlord was struck with admiration at his liberality; but this
identical