Conversations of James Northcote, R. A. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Academy admire answered appeared artist asked beauty better Burke called character clever colours CONVERSATIONS WITH NORTHCOTE Correggio critic delightful Don Quixote Duchess of Argyll effect Elgin Marbles everything excellence expression fancy Farington fashion favour favourite feeling G[odwin gave genius gentleman give grace H[unt Hazlitt HAZLITT'S CONVERSATIONS heard Hogarth Hudibras idea instance JAMES NORTHCOTE Johnson King knew lady living look Lord Byron Macbeth manner mind Mudges nature never object observed once opinion painter painting person picture poetry portrait Prince Hoare Raphael recollect remarked remember replied respect Reynolds Richard Cosway seemed seen sense Shakspeare Siddons Sir Joshua Sir Walter Sir Walter Scott speak spirit spoke story suppose sure taste tell thing thought tion Titian told took truth turn virtue vulgar William Hazlitt wish wonder write young Zachary Mudge
Popular passages
Page 219 - Vice is undone, if she forgets her Birth, And stoops from Angels to the Dregs of Earth; But 'tis the Fall degrades her to a whore; Let Greatness own her, and she's mean no more: Her Birth, her Beauty, Crowds and Courts confess, Chaste Matrons praise her, and grave Bishops bless: In golden Chains the willing World she draws, And hers the Gospel is , and hers the Laws...
Page 122 - The loyalty, well held to fools, does make Our faith mere folly: — Yet he that can endure To follow with allegiance a fallen lord, Does conquer him that did his master conquer, And earns a place i
Page 32 - Goldsmith was there, full of ire and abuse against the late king, and went on in such a torrent of the most unqualified invective that Goldsmith threatened to leave the room. The other, however, persisted; and Goldsmith went out, unable to bear it any longer.
Page 28 - ... and looking into all the rooms in the Vatican : he had no fault to find with Italy, and no wish to leave it. " Gracious and sweet was all he saw in her !" As he talked, he looked as if he saw the different objects pass before him, and his eye glittered with familiar recollections.
Page 72 - I have ever heard. I remember his once reading Moore's fable of the Female Seducers with such feeling and sweetness that every one was delighted, and Dr. Mudge himself was so much affected that he burst into tears in the middle of it. The family are still respectable, but derive their chief lustre from the first two founders, like clouds that reflect the sun's rays, after he has sunk below the horizon, but in time turn grey and are lost in obscurity !" I asked Northcote if he had ever happened to...
Page 5 - that will never do, to take things literally that are uttered in a moment of irritation. You do not express your own opinion, but one as opposite as possible to that of the person that has provoked you. You get as far from a person you have taken a pique against as you can, just as you turn off the pavement...
Page 183 - Galignani's, he sat down in an outer room to look at some book he wanted to see ; none of the clerks had the least suspicion who it was. When it was found out the place was in a commotion. Cooper, the American, was in Paris at the same time : his looks and manner seemed to announce a much greater man. He strutted through the streets with a very consequential air, and in company held up his head, screwed up his features, and placed himself on a sort of pedestal to be observed and admired, as if he...
Page 18 - ... point of felicity which, whether you fall short of or have gone beyond it, can only be determined by the effect on the unprejudiced observer. You cannot be always with your picture to explain it to others : it must be left to speak for itself. Those who stand before their pictures and make fine speeches about them, do themselves a world of harm: a painter should cut out his tongue, if he wishes to succeed.
Page 107 - III., and his two natural sons or nephews, as they were called. My God! what a look it has! The old man is sitting in his chair and looking up to one of the sons, with his hands grasping the armchair, and his long spider fingers, and seems to say (as plain as words can speak), ' You wretch ! what do you want now ?' — while the young fellow is advancing with a humble hypocritical air.
Page 221 - ... comes clear and triumphant out of that ordeal, because his own imagination is not contaminated by it. If there had been the least hint of an immoral tendency, the slightest indication of a wish to inflame the passions, it would have been all over with him. The intention always will peep out — you do not communicate a disease if you are not infected with it yourself. Albano's nymphs and goddesses seem waiting for admirers : Guido's are protected with a veil of innocence and modesty.