REYNOLDS AND THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Hitherto we have travelled far and wide in our search for typical examples of the beautiful in painting.

We went from Flanders to Italy, from Italy to Germany, back to Holland, and thence to Spain.

It is true that we began in England with our first picture, and that we have returned twice, once with Holbein, and again with Van Dyck, both foreign born and trained artists.

We will finish with examples of truly native English art.
In the eighteenth century England for the first time gained a foremost place in painting, though the people of the day scarcely realized that it was so.

Even the poet Gray, writing in 1763, could say: Why this nation has made no advance hitherto in painting and sculpture, it is hard to say....