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ally, apparently with no feeling that it was particularly creditable, but rather that it
was the only and inevitable course; that to miss helping any one was
inconceivable.
He was a quiet, home-keeping body, staying in his own
house or going to the palace, where he had free entrance at all times. His presence at Gainsborough's funeral
is mentioned as exceptional in his retired life, and though he had many friends, his friendships were always
on a dignified and distant footing. He had no part in Johnson's famous Club, and is not even mentioned in
Boswell's Life. Johnson, through his friendship for Reynolds, seems
even to have been opposed to him, judging by his remark, " I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know
than all the allegorical paintings they can shew me in the world;"but when the Great Chan of letters, old and suffering,
refused the offer of a hundred pounds a year from Dr. Brocklesby, saying, " God bless you through Jesus
Christ but I will take no money but from my sovereign," it was West who told the King of it, and that the old
man needed such assistance. Fear of injury to his personal interests did not affect him. It has been told
how he welcomed Copley, who was likely to become a dangerous rival, and secured him royal commissions.
Haydon's works, too, were enough like West's to be preferred by many, but West went to Haydon's studio when
he was painting his " Solomon " and heartily praised it;at the end of the interview, as Leslie relates it, "
But," said the good old man," get into better air; you will never recover with this eternal anxiety before
you. Have you any resources?" "They are all exhausted." "D'ye want money?" " Indeed I do." " So do I," said
he ; " they have stopped my income from the King, but Fauntleroy is arranging an advance, and if I succeed,
my young friend, you shall hear. Don't be cast down ; such a work must not be forgotten." In the course of
the same day West sent him a check for 15.
His unfailing kindness to young artists and students will appear in the lives of the
younger generations of American painters. They were all his pupils, and his aid, while more essential to such
strangers in London, was not limited to them. Every morning until he began to paint, at ten, his studio was
open, his counsel and assistance were given freely and kindly to all comers. At his death his old
servant
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