Hogarth

: Artists.

A nobleman, not remarkable for generosity, sent for Hogarth and
desired that he would represent on one of the compartments of his

staircase, Pharoah and his host drowned in the Red Sea. At the same time he

hinted that no great price would be given for the performance. Hogarth

however agreed. Soon afterwards he applied for payment to his employer, who

seeing that the space allotted for the picture had only been daubed over

wit
red, declared he had no idea of paying a painter when he had proceeded

no farther than to lay his ground. "Ground!" exclaimed Hogarth, "there is

no _ground_ in the case, my lord, it is all sea. The red you perceive is

the Red Sea. Pharoah and his host are drowned as you desired, and cannot be

made objects of sight, for the sea covers them all."





Tantara, the celebrated landscape painter, was a man of ready wit, but he

once met his match. An amateur had ordered a landscape for his gallery, in

which there was to be a church. Our painter did not know how to draw

figures well, so he put none in the landscape. The amateur was astonished

at the truthfulness and colouring of the picture, but he missed the

figures. "You have forgotten to put in any figures," said he, laughingly.

"Sir," replied the painter, "_the people are gone to mass_." "Oh, well,"

replied the amateur, "I will wait and take your picture _when they come

out_."



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