THE PAINTINGS OF POPE. [To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")
SIR,—All who are interested in this subject should be obliged for the trouble your correspondent "D. R. B." has so successfully taken to demonstrate the probability that the Mansfield portrait of Betterton is the work of Pope. The description of the picture given by "D. R. B." is most interest- ing, and amply justifies my contention that Pope's Madonnas, painted as they were under the tuition of the fine colourist Jervas, were unlikely to be daubs. Some error may be sus- pected in the statement attributed to Lord Mansfield, that the portrait of Betterton was the only picture Pope ever finished, for it cannot be supposed that he commenced forty Madonnas when with Jervas and did not complete any of them. It is to be hoped that the publicity given to the matter by the Spectator may lead to the identification of some of these canvases.—I am,
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