Sir Joshua painted two years later the beautiful but unhappy Mrs.
Musters, whose son John married Mary Chaworth, Byron's first love. "The
fine full-length of her as Hebe, with the eagle, still hangs at Colwich
Hall. Another full-length, with a spaniel at her feet, painted in 1777,
the year of her marriage, is at Petworth. It is interesting to compare
the two, and note the wear and tear of five years in the reign of a
queen of fashion." The eagle was a pet of Sir Joshua, kept in a yard
outside the studio.
In 1783, when Mrs. Siddons was the leading actress of the time, she sat
to Reynolds. Taking her hand, he led her up to his platform with the
words, "Ascend your undisputed throne: bestow on me some idea of the
Tragic Muse." "On which," she said, "I walked up the steps, and
instantly seated myself in the attitude in which the Tragic Muse now
appears." He inscribed his name on the border of her drapery, saying, "I
could not lose the honor this opportunity afforded me of going down to
posterity on the hem of your garment." Sir Thomas Lawrence called this
the finest portrait in the world of a woman, and Mrs. Jameson says, "It
was painted for the universe and posterity." This picture was purchased,
in 1822, by the first Marquis of Westminster, for nearly nine thousand
dollars. Reynolds also painted Miss Kemble, her sister, "a very sweet
and gentle woman."
This year, 1784, a friendship of thirty years was severed by the death
of Dr. Johnson. On his death-bed, he made three requests of Sir Joshua:
never to use his pencil on Sundays; to read the Bible whenever possible,
and always on Sundays; and to forgive him a debt of thirty pounds, which
he had borrowed of him, as he wished to leave the money to a poor
family. Reynolds was present at the funeral, when his friend was laid
beside Garrick, in the south transept of Westminster Abbey.
Reynolds said of his friend: "His pride had no meanness in it; there was
nothing little or mean about him.
"Truth, whether in great or little matters, he held sacred. From the
violation of truth, he said, in great things your character or your
interest was affected, in lesser things your pleasure is equally
destroyed. I remember, on his relating some incident, I added something
to his relation, which I supposed might likewise have happened: 'It
would have been a better story,' says he, 'if it had been so; but it was
not.' Our friend, Dr. Goldsmith, was not so scrupulous; but he said he
only indulged himself in white lies, light as feathers, which he threw
up in the air, and, on whomever they fell, nobody was hurt. 'I wish,'
says Dr. Johnson, 'you would take the trouble of moulting your
feathers.'
"As in his writings not a line can be found which a saint would wish to
blot, so in his life he would never suffer the least immorality or
indecency of conversation, or anything contrary to virtue or piety, to
proceed without a severe check, which no elevation of rank exempted them
from.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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