204 
before the spectator is represented in such a 
manner that the imagination has nothing to 
supply. The incident, the time and the place, 
are there -has we think they must have been ; and 
it 
is 
this wonderful 
force of 
conception 
which 
renders the sketches of Mr. West so much more 
extraordinary 
than 
his 
finished 
pictures. 
In 
the finished pictures we naturally institute 
COII1- 
parisons in colouring, and in beauty of iigure, 
;md_in a thousand details which are never noticed 
in the sketches of this illustrious artist. But 
although 
his 
powers 
of 
conception 
were 
SO 
superior, - equal in their excellence to Michael 
Angel0's energy, or Raphael's grandeur,'- still 
in the inferior departments of drawing and 
colouring, 
he 
of the greatest artists 
W35 OI16 
of 
his age; it was not, however, till late in life that 
he executed any of those works in which he 
thought the splendour of the 
might be judiciously imitated. 
Venetian 
school 
At one time 
he intended 
collect his Works 
to 
together, 
them all. 
and. to form a general exhibition of 
Had he' accomplished this, the great- 
HESS 
and 
versatility 
of 
his 
talents 
would 
have