canvass, which is a Roman one, was the portrait of a Cardinal; I will show you his cap."
The Chevalier did not know which of the rival artists to believe; the proposition alarmed him. "He who painted the picture shall mend it," said Mignard; and taking a pencil dipped in spirits, and rubbing the hair of the Magdalen, he soon discovered the cap of the Cardinal. The honor of the ingenious painter could no longer be disputed.
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
This eminent painter was born at Plympton, in
Devonshire, in 1723. He was the son of the Rev.
Samuel Reynolds, who intended him for the medical
profession; but his natural taste and genius for
painting, induced his father to send him to London
to study painting under Hudson, when he was seventeen
years of age. In 1749, he accompanied Captain,
afterwards Lord Keppel to the Mediterranean,
and passed about three years in Italy. On his return
to England, he established himself in London,
where he soon acquired a distinguished reputation,
and rose to be esteemed the head of the English
school of painting. At the formation of the Royal
Academy in 1768, he was elected president, and received
the honor of knighthood. In 1781 he visited
Holland and the Netherlands to examine the productions
of the Dutch and Flemish masters, by
which he is said to have improved his coloring. In
1784, on the death of Ramsay, he was appointed
