I. Mrs. Siddons Frontispiece At the National Gallery, London Page II. Ralph Schomberg, M.D. 14 At the National Gallery, London III. Queen Charlotte 24 At the South Kensington Museum IV. "The Blue Boy" 34 At Grosvenor House V. The Hon. Mrs. Graham 40 At the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh VI. The Duchess of Devonshire 50 In the collection of Earl Spencer, K.G. VII. Mrs. Robinson--"Perdita" 60 At the Wallace Collection VIII. Miss Haverfield 70 At the Wallace Collection [Illustration] I PAINTING IN ENGLAND BEFORE GAINSBOROUGH The British school of painting was, compared with those of the other nations of Western Europe, the latest to develop. In Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Germany, and even Scandinavia painting and sculpture flourished as early as the Gothic Age, and in most of these countries the Renaissance produced a host of craftsmen whose works still endure among the most superb creations of artistic genius. It is now inexact to say that there was no _primitive_ period in British Art; the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, so resplendent on the Continent with pictures and statues reflecting the character, the aspirations, the temperament of the respective peoples that produced them, produced works of art also in these islands. There are ample records of pictures having been painted in England, both religious subjects and portraits, at a very early age, as far back even as the reign of Henry III.; of such remote productions little has been preserved, but there are still extant a few specimens, from the thirteenth century onwards, as well as portraits of Henry VI., Henry VII., and effigies of princes and earls, which cause us to mourn the loss of a large number of paintings; they are at times grotesque and so thoroughly bad as to be a quite negligible quantity as works of art, though no doubt historically interesting. PLATE II.--RALPH SCHOMBERG, M.D. This canvas can be seen in the National Gallery, and represents a member of the family of Field-Marshal Duke Schomberg, who was killed in 1690 at the Battle of the Boyne. It is painted in the fashion of the time, a full figure in the open air, and is a very fine example of Gainsborough's work. [Illustration: PLATE II.--RALPH SCHOMBERG, M.D.]