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  ...his subject. But it is in painting as in life; what is greatest is not always best. I should grieve to see Reynolds transfer to heroes and to goddesses, to empty splendour and to airy fiction, that art which is now employed in diffusing friendship, in reviving tenderness, in quickening the affections of the absent, and continuing the presence of the dead.' It is recorded in Johnson's _Works_, (1787) xi. 208, that 'Johnson, talking with some persons about allegorical painting said, I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.   "' He bought prints of Burke, Dyer, and Goldsmith--'Good impressions' he said to hang in a little room that he was fitting up with prints. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 639. Among his effects that were sold after his death were 'sixty-one portraits framed and glazed,' _post_, under Dec. 9, 1784. When he was at Paris, and saw the picture-gallery at the Palais Royal, he entered in his Diary:--'I thought the pictures of Raphael fine;' _post_, Oct. 16, 1775. The philosopher Hume was more insensible...   Johnson, Samuel

Excerpt from Life of Johnson, Volume 1 1709-1765 · This quote is about portraits · Search on Google Books to find all references and sources for this quotation.

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