Liotard, a Swiss artist, who came to this country in the reign of George
II., and stayed two years, is best known by his works in crayons. His
likenesses were as exact as possible, and too like to please those who
sat to him: thus he had great business the first year, and very little
the second. Devoid of imagination, and one would think of memory also,
he could render nothing but what he saw before his eyes. Freckles, marks
of the smallpock, everything, found its place; not so much from
fidelity, as because he could not conceive the absence of anything that
appeared to him. Truth prevailed in all his works; grace in very few or
none. Nor was there any ease in his outline; but the stiffness of a bust
in all his portraits. Liotard’s lack of employment may, therefore,
easily be accounted for.