in by somebody else. It is a very excellent picture, but unfinished. The figures as large as life, half length; Mr. W., three sons, and, I believe, two daughters, with maps, instruments, etc. Mr. Walker also showed me a portrait of himself (W.), whole length, on a canvas about two feet by one and a half; it is the first portrait Romney ever painted. But above all, a picture of "Lear and Cordelia,"[1] when he awakes and knows her,—an incomparable production, which Mr. W. bought for five shillings at a broker's shop. It is about five feet by four, and exquisite for expression; indeed, it is most pathetic. The heads of Lear and Cordelia can never be surpassed, and Kent and the other attendant are admirable. The picture is very highly finished. Other things I saw of Romney's first works: two copies, perhaps from Borgognone, of battles; and Mr. Walker promises to collect all he can of information for you. I much admired his mild and gentle benevolent manners; it seems as if all Romney's intimate friends were truly amiable and feeling like himself.
I have also seen Alderman Boydell,[2] who has
- ↑ "King Lear awakened by his Daughter Cordelia." Canvas, 52 x 42 in. Romney's wife sat for Cordelia (see Ward and Roberts' Romney, vol ii. p. 196).
- ↑ John Boydell, Alderman, Sheriff, and Lord Mayor of London; engraver and printseller, organiser of the Shakespeare Gallery "of pictures purposely painted by the first artists," and afterwards engraved to the number of one hundred.
