The fame of Copley as a portrait-painter is comparatively limited. I can
speak (says Dr. Dibdin) but of _four_ of his portraits from
reminiscence; those of the late Earl Spencer, Lord Sidmouth, Lord
Colchester, and the late Richard Heber, Esq.--the latter when a boy of
eight years, in the dining-room at Hodnet Hall. These portraits, with
the exception of the last, are all engraved. That of Earl Spencer, in
his full robes as a Knight of the Garter, and in the prime of his
manhood, now placed at the bottom of the great historical portrait
gallery at Althorp, must have been a striking likeness; but, like almost
all the portraits of the artist, it is too stiff and stately. The
portrait of the young Heber has, I think, considerable merit on the
score of art. There is a play of light and shadow, and the figure, with
a fine flowing head of hair, mixes up well with its accessories. He is
leaning on a cricket-bat, with a ball in one hand. The face is, to my
eye, such as I could conceive the original to have _been_, when I first
remember him a Bachelor of the Arts at Oxford, full, plump, and
athletic. In short, as Dean Swift expresses it, “if you should look at
him in his boyhood through the magnifying end of the glass, and in his
manhood through the diminishing end, it would be impossible to spy any
difference.” The contemplation of _this_ portrait has at times produced
mixed emotions of admiration, regard, and pity.
“BONAPARTE REVIEWING THE CONSULAR GUARD.”
In the year 1800, M. Masquerier had occasion to go to Paris on family
matters. Like a sensible man, who made all his pursuits available to the
purposes of his profession, he conceived the happy thought of obtaining
permission to make a portrait of Bonaparte, (then First Consul,) and
afterwards portraits of his generals the whole of which were
concentrated in one grand picture, of the size of life, and exhibited
in this country as “Bonaparte Reviewing the Consular Guard.” It appears
that Masquerier, through the interest of a friend acquainted with
Josephine, got permission to be present at the Tuilleries, where he saw
Bonaparte in the _grey great-coat_, which has since been so well-known
throughout Europe. Masquerier remarked that Bonaparte’s appearance in
this costume was so different from all portraits which he had seen, that
he resolved to fix him in his sketch-book in this identical surtout, the
French thinking that the portrait of a great man must necessarily be
tricked out in finery. He sketched him just as he saw him, and carried
him to England; placing him upon a grey horse, his usual charger, and
surrounding him with his staff. The picture told in all respects. The
Prince Regent (afterwards George IV.) and Tallien, then in London on his
return from Egypt, were among the twenty-five or thirty-thousand
visitors who went to see it. Tallien left in the exhibition-room the
following testimony to the likeness of the First Consul:--
“_J’ai vu le portrait du General Buonaparte fait par M. Masquerier, et
je l’ai trouvé tres resemblant._” TALLIEN, _Londres, ce 24 Mars, 1801_.”
There is a print of this picture, which is scarce. The original was
afterwards sold, to be taken to America. Masquerier netted about
1000_l._ by this speculation, but the remuneration did not overpay the
toil. Such was the reaction, from incessant application and anxiety,
that the artist was confined to his room several weeks afterwards.