New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-13

occasion Mr.. Wards essay, which fills only
fourscore pages in the first volume, gives an
admirably clear and comprehensive account of
Romney's life, and summarizes the salient quail
tiles of his art This is followed by a verbatim
transcript of the diaries in which, from 1916
to 1875, the painter noted the sittings that he
gave to his patrons. The document has dou-
BILE interest 1t fixes the chronology of the
works, and it gives abiding sense of the
heroic labOrs of which this of genius
capable. In something less than twenty years
Romney gave about nine thousand sittings. The
catalogue raisonne, which fills the second of the
volumes before US. imposing array of names
great and small, shows that those sittings bore
abundant fruit. Romney painted veritable
world of men and women, to say nothing of the
imaginative designs which, with a kind Of
strange perversity, he liked to regard as pro-
vdng the best field for the exercise of his gifts.
To the invaluable data disclosing the full ex-
tent of his activity which they have given us
Mr.. Ward and Mr.. Roberts add seventy superb
photographers. Taken together with the text
they enable us to apprehend the full significance
of Romney in the history of British art. almost
as though reading his biography in
the midst of a collection of his paintings.
1t is curious biography. The son of a car
penter, Romney had little schooling, and that
little was of next to no value. He was eleven
when he was taken from his books and taught
to make himself useful in his fathers workshop.
and he stayed there for eight years. The ar
tiStic instinct which was born in him early de-
clared itself By the time he was twenty his
gifts had made sufficient impression upon his
father to convince the latter that it was worth
While to apprentice him to one Christopher
Steele, a painter long since forgotten, who seems
to have travelled about making portraits at a
modest price. Romney got some instruction
from this individual, and, in his company
much practical experience He took to painting
portraits on his own account, at two guineas or
six guineas apiece, according to the size In
cidentally. he married a woman of his own
humble class, but she obtained so slight hold
upon his affections that when he went I'D to
London In his twenty-eighth year he left her
behind him, and thenceforth supported her from
a distance. He visited her twice in a period of
more than forty years. He fairly success
full in the metropolis and in a short time was
able to make trip to Paris. This was bened-
cial to him, but longer journey made to Italy
not long afterward served to carry him still
further toward his goal. That goal was a posi-
ton of prominence among the portrait painters
of his time On his return from Italy the Duke
of Richmond gave him commission just when
he was beginning to wonder whether he had not
made n mistake in taking Cotess old house in
Cayendish Square, and almost before he knew
II he WAS about as fashionable as Sir Joshua
himself For the rest of his life he was, as we
have indicated above one of the busiest artists
history has ever known
He was self-absorbed and shy. There Is the
strongest possible contrast between his career