ABSTRACT
William Hazlitt's quarrel with Sir Joshua Reynolds has been the subject of many theoretical analyses. Reynolds modestly bows out of his own opinions to place his students in more distinguished hands. Hazlitt's theory of imitation is also one of expression, of how the medium and subject matter an artist is drawn to reveal his special disposition and character. Where human expression is concerned, Hazlitt is as much opposed to the stiffly conventional gesture-language of Benjamin West and Benjamin Haydon as to Reynolds's theory of ideal forms. Reynolds's ideas on painting are set out with persuasive clarity and gentlemanly discretion. Escaping always from the particular to the general, he holds subjects, images, and words together and apart in a relationship of ideal, inorganic unity. Hazlitt's elitist attitude towards public appreciation of art is only one aspect of his institutional stance.
