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614 Painting in England. of Sir Christopher Wren. A statue to his memory by Flaxman was afterwards placed in the cathedral. Of historic and poetic subjects Reynolds painted upwards of one hundred and thirty, of which the principal are the Holy Family, the Snake in the Grass, the Age of Innocence (Fig. 180), and Bobinetta, all in the National Gallery ; Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy, Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse, Macbeth and the Witches, and Hercules strangling the Serpents ; the last-named was painted for the Empress Catherine of Russia, and for it she paid Sir Joshua fifteen hundred guineas and added a gift of a gold box, bearing her portrait set in diamonds. It is impossible to state the exact number of portraits by Sir Joshua, as he executed them in such vast numbers that he was obliged to employ artists to paint the draperies and backgrounds. No less than fourteen are in the National Gallery, and ten are in the National Portrait Gallery. Of the Portraits of the men who still occupy their station in history may be mentioned Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Horace Walpole, Laurence Sterne, Edmund Burke, Lord Heath- field, Admiral Keppel, and Warren Hastings. Of the ladies it is sufficient to say that there was scarcely one at that time celebrated for her rank, accomplishments, or beauty, who did not sit to Reynolds. There are more than 700 engraved portraits now existing. Thomas Gainsborough, who was born in the spring of 1727, at Sudbury, in Suffolk, where his father was a clothier, showed signs of talent at a very early age : he made a number of sketches of the scenery around his native place, and local tradition still loves to point out his favourite views. It is believed, on very authentic grounds, that he went to London, for the education necessary to