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diff --git a/39265.txt b/39265.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..90862b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/39265.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6726 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of English Painters, by Harry John Wilmot-Buxton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: English Painters + with a chapter on American painters + +Author: Harry John Wilmot-Buxton + S. R. Koehler + +Release Date: March 25, 2012 [EBook #39265] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH PAINTERS *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images available at The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + +_ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOKS OF ART HISTORY._ + +ENGLISH PAINTERS + +BY H. J. WILMOT-BUXTON, M.A. + +WITH A CHAPTER ON + +AMERICAN PAINTERS + +BY S. R. KOEHLER. + + +ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOKS OF ART HISTORY OF ALL AGES. + +_Crown 8vo, cloth extra, per volume, 5s._ + +=Architecture: Classic and Early Christian=. By Professor T. ROGER SMITH +and JOHN SLATER, B.A. Comprising the Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, Roman, +Byzantine, and Early Christian. Illustrated with 212 Engravings, +including the Parthenon, the Erechtheum at Athens, the Temple of Zeus at +Olympia, the Colosseum, the Baths of Diocletian at Rome, Saint Sophia at +Constantinople, the Sakhra Mosque at Jerusalem, &c. + +=Architecture: Gothic and Renaissance=. By Professor T. ROGER SMITH and +EDWARD J. POYNTER, R.A. Showing the Progress of Gothic Architecture in +England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, and of Renaissance +Architecture in the same Countries. Illustrated with more than 100 +Engravings, including many of the principal Cathedrals, Palaces, and +Domestic Buildings on the Continent. + +=Sculpture=: A Manual of Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, and Roman. By GEORGE +REDFORD, F.R.C.S. With 160 Illustrations of the most celebrated Statues +and Bas-reliefs of Greece and Rome, a Map of Ancient Greece, +Descriptions of the Statues, and a Chronological List of Ancient +Sculptors and their Works. + +=Painting: Classic and Italian=. By EDWARD J. POYNTER, R.A., and PERCY R. +HEAD, B.A. Including Painting in Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Pompeii; the +Renaissance in Italy; Schools of Florence, Siena, Rome, Padua, Venice, +Perugia, Ferrara, Parma, Naples, and Bologna. Illustrated with 80 +Engravings of many of the finest Pictures of Italy. + +=Painting: German, Flemish, and Dutch=. By H. J. WILMOT-BUXTON, M.A., and +EDWARD J. POYNTER, R.A. Including an Account of the Works of Albrecht +Duerer, Cranach, and Holbein; Van Eyck, Van der Weyden, and Memline; +Rubens, Snyders, and Van Dyck; Rembrandt, Hals, and Jan Steen; Wynants, +Ruisdael, and Hobbema; Cuyp, Potter, and Berchem; Bakhuisen, Van de +Velde, Van Huysum, and many other celebrated Painters. Illustrated with +100 Engravings. + +=Painting: English and American=. By H. J. WILMOT-BUXTON, M.A. Including +an Account of the Earliest Paintings known in England; the Works of +Holbein, Antonis More, Lucas de Heere, Zuccaro and Marc Gheeraedts; the +Hilliards and Olivers; Van Dyck, Lely, and Kneller; Hogarth, Reynolds, +and Gainsborough; West, Romney, and Lawrence; Constable, Turner, and +Wilkie; Maclise, Mulready, and Landseer; and many other celebrated +Painters. With 80 Illustrations. + +=Painting: French and Spanish=. By GERARD SMITH, Exeter Coll., Oxon. +Including the Lives of Ribera, Zurbaran, Velazquez, and Murillo; +Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Le Sueur, Chardin, Greuze, David, and Prud'hon; +Ingres, Vernet, Delaroche, and Delacroix; Corot, Diaz, Rousseau, and +Millet; Courbet, Regnault, Troyon; and many other celebrated Artists. +With 80 Illustrations. Nearly ready. + +[Illustration: THE VALLEY FARM. _By_ CONSTABLE. A.D. 1835. + +_In the National Gallery._] + + + + +_ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOKS OF ART HISTORY_ + +ENGLISH PAINTERS + +BY H. J. WILMOT-BUXTON, M.A. + +WITH A CHAPTER ON + +AMERICAN PAINTERS + +BY S. R. KOEHLER + +[Illustration] + +LONDON +SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON +CROWN BUILDINGS, FLEET STREET +1883 + +(_All rights reserved_.) + +[Illustration] + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This brief sketch of the rise and progress of Painting in England has +been drawn from a variety of sources. The little that can be traced of +artistic work previous to the end of the fifteenth century does not fill +many pages. Ignorance, carelessness, and "iconoclastic rage" all +contributed to the defacement of paintings which we have every reason to +believe at one time abounded in our churches and public buildings, as +they did at the same period in Italy; and there is good evidence that +some of our early English artists are not to be despised. + +Our forefathers were too much engaged in the rough contests of war to +care much for the arts of peace. In the sixteenth century several +foreign artists of more or less celebrity were induced to visit and stay +in England. Foremost of these was Holbein, and to his example English +artists are deeply indebted. In the next century there were a few +excellent miniature painters, whose work is not to be surpassed at the +present day, and then came a succession of foreigners--Rubens and Van +Dyck from Flanders, Lely and Kneller from Germany, and a host of lesser +men, who seem to have in a great measure monopolized portrait +painting--then in vogue among the nobility--for more than a hundred +years. + +Early in the eighteenth century came Hogarth, followed by Reynolds, +Gainsborough and Romney, and from that time to the present, Art has year +by year progressed, till now English Painters have become a recognised +power in the state, and contribute, in no small degree, to the +enlightenment, pleasure and refinement of the age. + +H.J.W.-B. + +_November_, 1882. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +PAINTING IN ENGLAND. + + +CHAPTER I. + PAGE +Early English Art 1 + +CHAPTER II. + +English Art in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 9 + +CHAPTER III. + +English Art in the Eighteenth Century--William Hogarth 36 + +CHAPTER IV. + +The Royal Academy and its influence 44 + +CHAPTER V. + +The Progress of English Art in the Eighteenth Century 60 + +CHAPTER VI. + +Book Illustrators--Miniature Painters 85 + +CHAPTER VII. + +Painters in Water Colours 100 + +CHAPTER VIII. + +English Art in the Nineteenth Century--Sir Thomas Lawrence +and his contemporaries 116 + +CHAPTER IX. + +Landscape Painters 127 + +CHAPTER X. + +Historic Painters 148 + +CHAPTER XI. + +Subject Painters 163 + + +PAINTING IN AMERICA. + +Introduction 187 + +First, or Colonial Period 190 + +Second, or Revolutionary Period 195 + +Third Period, or Period of Inner Development 201 + +Fourth, or Present Period 217 + +INDEX OF NAMES 223 + +[Illustration] + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + 1. THE VALLEY FARM _Constable_ _Frontispiece_ + PAGE + 2. AGE OF INNOCENCE _Reynolds_ xiv + + 3. FROM ST. ETHELWOLD'S BENEDICTIONAL _Godeman_ 3 + + 4. ARTHUR, PRINCE OF WALES (_Miniature_) 7 + + 5. HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES (_Miniature_) 10 + + 6. NICOLAS KRATZER _Holbein_ 12 + + 7. EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES (_Miniature_) _Holbein_ 14 + + 8. A DUTCH GENTLEMAN _More_ 18 + + 9. COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE _Hilliard(?)_ 21 + +10. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (_Miniature_) _Isaac Oliver_ 23 + +11. JAMES I. (_Miniature_) _Hoskins_ 24 + +12. COUNTESS OF DEVONSHIRE _Van Dyck_ 27 + +13. OLIVER CROMWELL _Lely_ 29 + +14. GRINLING GIBBONS _Kneller_ 33 + +15. WILLIAM HOGARTH AND HIS DOG TRUMP _Hogarth_ 39 + +16. MORNING _Wilson_ 49 + +17. MRS. BRADYLL _Reynolds_ 53 + +18. MRS. SIDDONS _Gainsborough_ 57 + +19. TITANIA AND BOTTOM _Fuseli_ 63 + +20. DEATH OF WOLFE _West_ 65 + +21. DEATH OF MAJOR PEIRSON _Copley_ 68 + +22. MERCURY INVENTING THE LYRE _Barry_ 70 + +23. MARQUIS OF STAFFORD _Romney_ 73 + +24. CHARITY _Northcote_ 77 + +25. THE WATERING-PLACE _Morland_ 82 + +26. FROM DANTE'S INFERNO _Blake_ 86 + +27. THE DREAM _Stothard_ 88 + +28. THE PORTRAIT _Smirke_ 90 + +29. THE WOODCOCK _Bewick_ 92 + +30. TAIL-PIECE _Bewick_ 93 + +31. MORNING WALK _Chalon_ 98 + +32. EVENING _Turner_ 106 + +33. THE TOMB OF THE SCALIGERS AT VERONA _Prout_ 109 + +34. BERNCASTLE, ON THE MOSELLE _Harding_ 111 + +35. THE VIEW FROM RICHMOND HILL _De Wint_ 113 + +36. OLD ENGLISH HOSPITALITY _Cattermole_ 115 + +37. MASTER LAMBTON _Lawrence_ 118 + +38. TRIAL OF QUEEN CATHERINE _Harlow_ 122 + +39. SWISS PEASANT GIRL _Howard_ 124 + +40. THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE _Turner_ 128 + +41. TRENT IN TYROL _Callcott_ 132 + +42. THE FISHERMAN'S DEPARTURE _Collins_ 134 + +43. ST. GOMER, BRUSSELS _Roberts_ 136 + +44. FRANCIS I. AND HIS SISTER _Bonington_ 138 + +45. BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST _Martin_ 140 + +46. TERMINATI MARINA _Stanfield_ 144 + +47. THE PLEASANT WAY HOME _Creswick_ 146 + +48. THE RAPE OF EUROPA _Hilton_ 149 + +49. THE DANGEROUS PLAYMATE _Etty_ 153 + +50. GREEK FUGITIVES _Eastlake_ 155 + +51. JOASH SHOOTING THE ARROWS OF +DELIVERANCE _Dyce_ 157 + +52. HAROLD PRESENTS HIMSELF TO EDWARD +THE CONFESSOR _Maclise_ 159 + +53. THE MAID OF SARAGOSSA _Wilkie_ 165 + +54. CHOOSING THE WEDDING GOWN _Mulready_ 168 + +55. SANCHO PANZA AND THE DUCHESS _Leslie_ 171 + +56. CAPTAIN MACHEATH _Newton_ 174 + +57. PEACE _Landseer_ 177 + +58. THE ARAB SCRIBE _Lewis_ 181 + +59. OUR VILLAGE _Walker_ 183 + +60. DEATH ON THE PALE HORSE _West_ 194 + +61. GENERAL KNOX _Stuart_ 196 + +62. DEATH OF MONTGOMERY IN THE ATTACK +OF QUEBEC _Trumbull_ 198 + +63. JEREMIAH AND THE SCRIBE _Allston_ 203 + +64. A SURPRISE _Mount_ 210 + +65. DESOLATION _Cole_ 214 + +66. NOON BY THE SEA-SHORE--BEVERLY + BEACH _Kensett_ 216 + +67. SUNSET ON THE HUDSON _Gifford_ 218 + +68. LAMBS ON THE MOUNTAIN-SIDE _Hunt_ 220 + +[Illustration: AGE OF INNOCENCE. _By_ SIR J. REYNOLDS. + +_In the National Gallery_.] + + + + +PAINTING IN ENGLAND. + +BY H. J. WILMOT-BUXTON. + +[Illustration] + + + + +ENGLISH PAINTERS. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +EARLY ENGLISH ART. + + +The current English school of art is a creation of a comparatively +modern date. It is a mistake, however, to assume that there were no +native painters in England under the Plantagenets, and that we were +entirely dependent on foreigners for such art as we possessed. The +little care which has been taken of early English pictures and their +destruction, sometimes accidental, sometimes wilful, have led many to +imagine that ancient England had no art of her own. It has been +customary to imagine that in Italy alone, in the thirteenth century, +existed the Renaissance and growth of modern design. Later research has, +however, shown that the Renaissance in painting was not the sudden +creation of Giotto, nor that of sculpture the work of Niccola Pisano. +The Renaissance in Italy was a gradual growth, and there was in England +and in other countries a similar Renaissance, which was overlooked by +those whose eyes were fixed on Italy. It has been shown that there were +English artists, contemporaries of Giotto and Pisano, whose works were +as good as any paintings or sculptures which the Italians produced in +the thirteenth century. It is quite true that we know very little of +these Englishmen. Some gave themselves to illumination, and produced +delicate representations of human beings, as well as of animals, leaves, +and flowers. In the British Museum there are several manuscripts of a +very early date, which are ornamented with paintings undoubtedly by +English artists. The Duke of Devonshire possesses a manuscript, the +_Benedictional of St. Ethelwold_, written between A.D. 963 and 970, and +illuminated, with thirty drawings, by a monk of Hyde Abbey, named +GODEMAN, for Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester. It is a folio of 119 +leaves of vellum, 11-1/2 inches in height by 8-1/2 in width. Other +artists painted and gilded the images of wood or stone by their brother +craftsmen, and were classed in the humble category of _Steyners_. They +devoted much of their time to heraldic devices, and by degrees passed +from the grotesque to the natural, and produced what were styled +_portraits on board_. Painting on glass was a favourite art in this +early period, and, although the artists had no more noble title than +that of _Glaziers_, some of their works survive to prove their merits. +Many of these craftsmen combined the arts of the painter, sculptor, or +"marbler," and architect. Among these obscure pioneers of English art +was WILLIAM TORELL, a goldsmith and citizen of London, supposed to be +descended from an English family whose name occurs in Domesday Book. +Torell modelled and cast the effigy of Henry III. for his tomb in +Westminster Abbey, as well as three effigies of Eleanor of Castile, +about A.D. 1291. These latter works were placed in Westminster Abbey, +Blackfriars' Monastery, and Lincoln Cathedral. The figures in +Westminster Abbey show the dignity and beauty of the human form, and are +masterpieces of a noble style. The comparison between the effigy of +Margaret of Richmond, executed for Henry VII.'s Chapel by the Florentine +Torrigiano, and the figures by Torell, is decidedly in favour of the +latter. No work in Italy of the thirteenth century excels in beauty +these effigies by the English sculptor. At an earlier period than this, +during the life of Henry III., some English artists, as well as +foreigners, were employed to embellish the cathedrals and palaces of the +King. These native craftsmen, who seem to have been at once artists, +masons, carvers, upholsterers, or sometimes tailors,[A] are mostly +forgotten, but we can trace the names of MASTER EDWARD of Westminster, +or Edward Fitz Odo--probably the son of Odo, goldsmith to Henry +III.--MASTER WALTER, who received twenty marks "for pictures in our +Great Chamber at Westminster," and MASTER JOHN of Gloucester, who was +plasterer to the King. The names of the "imaginators" of Queen Eleanor's +Crosses are also well known. The early pictorial art of England has been +so neglected or forgotten, that it is commonly said to have commenced +with the portrait painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. + +[Illustration: FROM ST. ETHELWOLD'S BENEDICTIONAL. _By_ GODEMAN, A MONK +OF HYDE ABBEY. A.D. 970. + +_An Illuminated MS. in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire_.] + +Ignorance, indifference, and bigotry have destroyed, or suffered to +perish, the paintings which adorned the walls of almost every church, +and the panels of nearly every rood-screen, hundreds of years before the +date assigned to the English school. In Kempley Church, Gloucestershire, +the walls appear to have been painted early in the twelfth century with +large figure subjects. Those in the chancel are in a good state of +preservation, and represent the vision in the Apocalypse, and Christ in +majesty, attended by the twelve apostles and the saints, painted in life +size. In Chaldon Church, Surrey, the chancel walls are ornamented with +subjects illustrating the _Scala humanae Salvationis_, works apparently +of the twelfth century, which, though necessarily rude, are as good as +any Italian examples of the same period. In Westminster Abbey there is +an important series of small paintings by an English artist contemporary +with Cimabue. These pictures once formed the chief ornaments of a +frontal, and belonged to the high altar.[B] The work in question +consists of a rectangular piece of framed and richly panelled wood-work, +about eleven feet long by three feet high. The general design consists +of three central figures painted under canopies. On each side are four +star-shaped panels filled with painted groups of figures; beyond these +on each side is another single figure under a canopy. The wood is +covered with fine stucco, or _gesso_, to the thickness of cardboard, as +is always the case with old paintings on panels, and generally when on +stone. The pictures still extant on the frontal comprise, in the centre, +a figure of Christ in the act of benediction, holding an orb in His left +hand. At the right hand is the Virgin Mary, bearing her emblem of the +lily; on our left is St. John, with a book; on our right is St. Peter, +with the keys. In the star-shaped panels we find the miracles of the +raising of Jairus's daughter, the loaves and fishes, and the restoration +of the blind man. These figures, though somewhat like those of the early +Florentine school, possess a character of their own, and are undoubtedly +English. The well-known portrait of _Richard II_. (died 1400), now in +the Abbey at Westminster, is believed to have been painted by an English +artist of the fourteenth century. The figure of the King is of large +life size, seated in a coronation chair. He is in royal robes, with the +globe in one hand and sceptre in the other. This picture for many years +hung near the altar. + +The history of art in England during the reigns of Edward I. and Edward +II. is a blank; probably men were too busy with swords and bucklers to +turn to the gentle arts of painting and sculpture. The reign of Edward +III. shows a revival in art and letters, and the patron of Chaucer +adorned the Chapel of St. Stephen, Westminster, with the best works of +native artists. The fire of 1834, which destroyed the old Houses of +Parliament, almost obliterated these interesting relics. The walls of +the chapel were painted in oil colours with scriptural and historic +episodes on the prepared surface of the stonework. There seems to have +been at this period a method, peculiar to London, of producing a blue +colour, which is mentioned in a German MS. of the fourteenth century as +"the London practice." It is noticeable that a blue colour can still be +traced in the relics saved from St. Stephen's. The Society of +Antiquaries has published coloured copies of the paintings which adorned +the chapel. When we recall the state of England at the period which +succeeded the death of Edward III., the turbulence of the feudal barons, +the constant lawlessness and blood-shedding, and the ignorance which +prevailed even among the upper classes, we cannot wonder that art made +little progress. Some advance doubtless took place, but we look in vain +for originality among the artists who were alternately employed to +decorate a baron's pageant, or adorn an altar. + +There is a good portrait of _Henry IV._, removed from Hampton Court, +Herefordshire, and now at Cassiobury. + +To the reign of Henry V., or at latest to the early days of Henry VI., +belongs the earliest authentic specimen of historical portraiture in +England. It represents _Henry V. and his Relations_, painted on wood, +less than life size, and was at one time the altar-piece of Shene +Church. The portraits which were attempted in the troublous period of +the Wars of the Roses, though unlovely and ghastly to look upon, show +that art was gradually emerging from the fetters of monastic teaching, +where bad pupils copied bad masters, and reproduced saints and angels, +whose want of form and symmetry was atoned for by a liberal allowance of +gilding. A fairly expressive portrait of _Richard III._, which must have +been painted about this time by a very capable artist, is among the +treasures of Knowsley. In the well-known tapestry in St. Mary's Hall, +Coventry, there is a representation of King Henry VI. kneeling before +the altar, attended by Cardinal Beaufort, the Duke of Gloucester, and +many courtiers, in which the drawing will bear comparison with similar +work executed in Italy or Flanders at the same time. This tapestry was +probably made at Arras, from English designs. + +[Illustration: ARTHUR, PRINCE OF WALES. [B. 1486. D. 1502.] + +_From a Miniature at Windsor Castle_.] + +The gradual spread of knowledge at this period induced the English +nobility to promote the adornment of manuscripts, chiefly Missals and +Romances of Chivalry. These pictures comprise the best specimens of +English later mediaeval art, and in richness and delicacy of colour they +closely approach oil paintings. With the discovery of printing came a +check to the art of illuminating manuscripts, and the wild fanaticism of +the first Reformers led them to burn at once the religious manuals of +Rome, and the wit and wisdom of poet or philosopher. To these ruthless +iconoclasts we owe the obscurity in which early English pictorial art +remains. It must have been during the later years of the reign of Henry +VII. that two miniatures, now at Windsor Castle, were painted, probably +for the King. One represents _Arthur, Prince of Wales_, who, at the age +of fifteen, married Catherine of Aragon; the other is his brother, who +became Henry VIII. (_See Engravings_.) + +In the reign of Henry VI. there was an artist of note, undoubtedly an +Englishman, who may not be passed in silence. This was William Austen, +sculptor, to whom we owe the monument ("in fine latten," _i.e._ brass) +of Richard, Earl of Warwick, in the Church of St. Mary, Warwick, a work +which Flaxman somewhat courageously considered equal to the productions +of Austen's Italian contemporaries, Ghiberti and Donatello. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +ENGLISH ART IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. + + +The period of the Renaissance found all eyes directed to Italy, and +presently England welcomed a number of foreign artists who became the +teachers, more or less worthy, of our countrymen. Henry VII. was fonder +of money than of art, yet he invited several of these strangers to +England; but there are no grounds for supposing, though it is frequently +stated, that Mabuse was among the number. Among the foreign artists of +this period who visited England, were GERRARD LUCAS HOREBOUT, or +HORNEBOLT, of Ghent (1475--1558), who was employed by Henry VIII., and +probably by his predecessor; and SUSANNAH HOREBOUT, daughter of Gerrard +Lucas, a miniature painter, is said to have married an English sculptor +named Whorstley. Duerer, in his journal, says of her, "it is a great +wonder a woman should do so well." Henry VIII. was as lavish as his +father had been careful of money; naturally fond of display, and jealous +of the magnificence of Francis I. and Charles V., the King became a +liberal patron of artists. He is said to have invited Raphael, +Primaticcio, and Titian to visit England, but if so, the invitations +were declined. Among lesser names, however, we find that of ANTONIO +TOTO, who came here in 1531, and was appointed Serjeant-Painter to the +King. None of his works is now recognised. GIROLAMO DA TREVISO is +supposed to have designed the historic painting of the _Field of the +Cloth of Gold_, formerly at Windsor, and now in the possession of the +Society of Antiquaries at Burlington House. + +[Illustration: HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES. [B. 1491. D. 1547.] AFTERWARDS +KING HENRY VIII. + +_From a Miniature at Windsor Castle_.] + +LUCAS CORNELISZ of Leyden (1493--1552), son of Cornelis Engelbrechtsen, +came to England and entered the service of the King. It is said that he +taught Holbein in some branches of art, and, as he survived the great +painter of Augsburg for nine years, it is _possible_ that some of the +works attributed to Holbein after 1543 were painted by him. + +Henry VIII. seems to have had two other Serjeant-Painters besides +Antonio Toto, and previous to the coming of Holbein. These were ANDREW +WRIGHT and JOHN BROWN, whose names proclaim them to be natives. These +artists or craftsmen had positions of trust and honour, wore a special +dress, and received a weekly wage. Jan van Eyck had a similar post as +_varlet de chambre_ to Philippe le Bon. It was the age of pageants, and +one great duty of the King's artists was to adorn these singular +spectacles. Among the archives of the Church of St. Mary Redcliffe, +Bristol, is the following curious notice of a religious pageant held at +a somewhat earlier date:-- + + "Memorandum: That Master Cumings hath delivered, the 4th day of + July, in the year of Our Lord 1470, to Mr. Nicholas Bettes, Vicar + of Radcliffe, Moses Couteryn, Philip Bartholomew, and John Brown, + procurators of Radcliffe, beforesaid, a new sepulchre, well gilt, + and cover thereto; an image of God rising out of the same + sepulchre, with all the ordinance that longeth thereto: that is to + say--Item, a lath, made of timber, and iron work thereto. Item, + thereto longeth Heaven, made of timber and stained cloth. Item, + Hell, made of timber and iron work, with devils in number thirteen. + Item, Four knights, armed, keeping the sepulchre, with their + weapons in their hands, that is to say, two axes, and two spears. + Item, Three pair of angels' wings; four angels, made of timber, and + well painted. Item, the Father, the crown, and visage; the ball, + with a cross upon it, well gilt with fine gold. Item, the Holy + Ghost coming out of heaven into the sepulchre. Item, Longeth to the + angels four chevelers." + +[Illustration: NICOLAS KRATZER: ASTRONOMER TO HENRY VIII. _By_ HANS +HOLBEIN. DATED 1528. + +_In the Louvre_.] + +It is not surprising that art made little progress whilst it was mainly +directed to the painting and gilding of timber angels and of solid +devils for a hell of iron and wood-work. Things were not much better in +the reign of Henry VIII. His love of ostentation made him fond of +pageants, and the instructions which he left for his own monument are +curious. "The King shall appear on horseback, of the stature of a goodly +man while over him shall appear the image of God the Father holding +the King's soul in his left hand, and his right hand extended in the act +of benediction." This work was to have been executed in bronze, but was +never finished. Elizabeth stopped the necessary payments, and the +uncompleted figure was sold by an unsentimental and Puritan Parliament +for L600. The influence of the Reformation was decidedly antagonistic to +art in England and elsewhere. In attempting to reform, the leaders +tolerated destruction, and whilst pretending to purify the church they +carried away not only the "idols," but much that was beautiful. They +literally "broke down the carved work thereof with axes and hammers." +Pictures and altar-pieces were ruthlessly destroyed. Fortunately a +considerable number of old paintings still exist in our churches. A +little work on "Wall Paintings in England," recently published by the +Science and Art Department, mentions five hundred and sixty-eight +churches and other public buildings in England in which wall paintings +and other decorations have been found, all dating from an earlier period +than the Reformation, and there are doubtless many not noticed. The +branch of art which suffered least from the iconoclastic Reformers was +that of portrait-painting, and this received a great impetus in England +by the opportune arrival of-- + +HANS HOLBEIN, the younger, of Augsburg (1497--1543), who came, in 1526, +with a recommendation from Erasmus to Sir Thomas More, by whom he was +welcomed and entertained at Chelsea. Unlike Albrecht Duerer, the other +great German painter of the Reformation epoch, Holbein was a literal +painter of men, not a dreamer haunted by visions of saints and angels. +His ideas of heaven were probably modelled far more on the plan of the +Bristol pageant, than on that of the Italian masters. Such an artist +came exactly at the right moment to England, where Protestantism was +becoming popular. Holbein's wonderful power as a colourist and the +fidelity of his likenesses exercised a lasting effect on English art. He +founded no school, however, though he had many imitators among the +foreign artists whom Henry had invited.[C] + +[Illustration: EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES, AFTERWARDS KING EDWARD VI. + +_By_ HOLBEIN. + +_From a Miniature in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire._] + +In 1532 Holbein was made Painter to the King, with a salary of L34 a +year, in addition to the payment given for his works. The chief +pictures painted by Holbein in England are portraits; and tradition says +that Henry specially employed him to delineate the features of any fair +lady on whom he had cast a favourable eye. Among the portraits we may +mention those of _Nicolas Kratzer_, _Erasmus_, _Anne of Cleves_, and +_Sir Richard Southwel_ (in the Louvre); _Archbishop Warham_ (Lambeth +Palace); _Sir Henry Guildford_, a _Merchant of the Steelyard_, and _Lady +Rich_ (Windsor); _Lady Vaux_ and _John Reskimer_ (Hampton Court); _Henry +VIII._; the _Duchess of Milan_[D] (Arundel Castle); _Sir William_ and +_Lady Butts_ (Mr. W. H. Pole Carew); _The Ambassadors_, a most important +work, and _Erasmus_ (Lord Radnor, Longford Castle). There is at Windsor +a series of eighty portraits of the English nobility, drawn by Holbein +in black and red chalks, which are of infinite value as works of art; +and at Windsor likewise, and in other galleries, are many carefully +painted miniatures ascribed to him, of the greatest artistic and +historic value. + +Hans Holbein, like most artists of his age, could do more than paint +portraits. At Basle are noble subject pictures by him. He was an +architect, a modeller, and a carver. He was specially gifted in +designing wood-blocks for illustrating books, and in the ornamentation +of sword-hilts, plate, and the like. A book of designs for jewels, by +Holbein, once the property of Sir Hans Sloane, is now in the British +Museum. Holbein died of the plague, in London, between October 7th and +November 29th, 1543. + +Another painter in the service of King Henry VIII. at this time was the +above-named GIROLAMO PENNACCHI, who was born at Treviso, in 1497. He was +an imitator of Raphael, and painted portraits--chiefly at Genoa, Faenza, +Bologna, and Venice, and in 1542 came to England. He was killed by a +cannon-ball while acting as a military engineer in the King's service +near Boulogne, in 1544. There is an altar-piece by him, signed IERONIMVS +TREVISIVS P (No. 623 in the National Gallery.) In the "Old Masters" +Exhibition of 1880, was a portrait of _Sir T. Gresham_ (No. 165), a fine +whole-length, standing, life-size picture of the famous merchant, with a +skull on the pavement at our left. This work is dated 1544, the year of +Sir Thomas's marriage, in his twenty-sixth year, and, as we have seen +above, of Treviso's death. It is the property of the Gresham Committee +of London, and every expert has accepted it as a work of the Italian +painter, engineer, and architect, who was important enough to be +honoured with a separate biography by Vasari in his "Lives of the +Painters." Girolamo's salary from the English King was 400 scudi per +annum. Much likeness exists between the art of Gresham's portrait and +that of the masterly life-size, whole-length picture of the _Earl of +Surrey_, with his motto, _Sat super est_, which is one of the chief +ornaments of Knole, and almost worthy of Velasquez himself. This picture +(which is dated 1546) is attributed to the undermentioned GWILLIM +STRETES (or STREET). It is much more like an Italian production than a +Dutch one, and so fine that Da Treviso might have painted it at his best +time. It is not like the beautiful portraits of _Edward VI._ at Windsor +and Petworth, which are exactly such as we attribute to a man in +Stretes's position, and which, while differing from the productions of +Holbein, are, technically speaking, by no means unworthy of him. The +charming Windsor portrait of _Edward VI._ was No. 172 in the National +Portrait Exhibition of 1866. In the same collection were more works of +the same period, including the portrait of _Henry VIII._, No. 124, lent +by the Queen. + +The following are among the painters who flourished at this time of whom +records exist and are more or less confused, yet are so valuable that +they deserve to be sifted in comparison with the large numbers of +pictures. The artists' names are important because they prove how many +of the owners were Englishmen. These persons were all employed by Henry +VIII. They were JOHN BROWN, who received a pension of L10 a year; ANDREW +WRIGHT, died 1543; VINCENT VOLPE, who translated his name into "Fox" and +died 1529. He, _c._ 1529, was paid at the rate of L20 a year, a great +sum in those days, when Holbein himself had but L30 a year. ANTONIO TOTO +succeeded Wright as Sergeant-Painter to the King, a dignity which +afterwards fell to Sir James Thornhill and Hogarth successively. GERRARD +LUCAS HOREBOUT, or HORNEBOLT (1475--1558), and LUCAS HOREBOUT (died +1544), his son, Flemings, were painters of distinction here and abroad, +whose works have been added to those of Holbein. Their wages were more +than L30 per annum each. SUSANNA HOREBOUT was a painter of miniatures, +much employed by the King and his courtiers. A picture of _Henry VIII._ +at Warwick Castle has for centuries borne the name of Lucas of this +family. It is doubtless rightly named, and may some day furnish a key to +the style of the distinguished owner himself. It was No. 99 in the +National Portrait Exhibition of 1866, and No. 471 of the Manchester Art +Treasures of 1857. A somewhat similar picture is now in the National +Portrait Gallery. We may, in future, recognise in some of the beautiful +miniatures of this period, which are now ascribed to Holbein, the +much-praised works of Susanna Horebout. Doubtless some of the works of +Lucas have been bestowed on Lucas de Heere, who is mentioned below. +BARTHOLOMEW PENNI, and ALICE CARMILLION succeeded in honour. LAVINIA +TERLING (born Benich), "paintrix," as they called her, had for quarterly +wages L10, and was mentioned by Vasari as of Bruges. + +[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF A DUTCH GENTLEMAN. _By_ SIR ANTONIS MORE.] + +In the reign of Edward VI. GWILLIM STRETES was made Painter to the King. +Strype records that he was paid fifty marks for two pictures of the +King, and one of _Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey_, who was beheaded in +1547. KATHERINE MAYNORS and GERBACH FLICK--evidently a Dutchman, one of +whose drawings belonged to Richardson and is dated 1547--were here at +this time; Flick's likeness of _Cranmer_ (signed GERBARUS FLICIUS), +painted in 1546, is now in the National Portrait Gallery. They +continued the practice of art in this country. At Irnham is a fine +full-length portrait of _Lord Darcy of Chirke_, dated 1551. NICHOLAS +LYZARDI was second painter to King Edward, and succeeded TOTO, as +Sergeant-Painter to Elizabeth. JOHANNES CORVUS painted the likeness of +_Fox, Bishop of Winchester_, which belongs to Corpus Christi College, +Oxford, and which was at the National Portrait Exhibition, 1866, No. 46. +Corvus has been identified by Mr. Scharf as the artist of a fine +portrait, dated 1532, of _Mary Tudor_, wife of Louis XII., and the Duke +of Suffolk. WILLIAM KEY, or CAIUS, as he called himself, was born at +Breda in 1520 and died 1568. Some of his pictures were, as Mr. Scharf +has noticed, in the collections of Charles I., and the Duke of +Buckingham. A carver, and probably painter, well known at this period in +England, whose works are, however, no longer to be identified, was +NICHOLAS OF MODENA, who made _pictures_, possibly small coloured +statues, of Henry VIII. and Francis I. It is worth while to mention that +one P. OUDRY, apparently a Frenchman, was busily employed in this +country about 1578, and painted various portraits of _Mary, Queen of +Scots_, one of which is in the National Portrait Gallery, while others +are at Cobham, Hardwick, Hatfield, and Welbeck. + +In the reign of Mary I. we find art represented by SIR ANTONIS MOR, +MORO, or MORE (1512--1576--78), a native of Utrecht, who had painted and +studied in Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Philip II. was his especial +patron, and gave him a gold chain for the portrait of his gloomy Queen. +He came to England in 1553, was made painter to the Court, and received +very large prices for his pictures. He remained till the Queen's death, +in 1558, when he returned to Madrid. He afterwards established himself +at Brussels, under the protection of the Duke of Alva, but in 1572 +removed to Antwerp, where he died. His portraits of _Jeanne d'Archel_, +in the National Gallery, and of _Sir T. Gresham_, in the National +Portrait Gallery, are excellent examples of his skill. JOOST VAN CLEEF +(15001536?), a native of Antwerp, also painted portraits at this time +with considerable success. From his overweening conceit, which led him +into furious quarrels, he was called Zotte (foolish) Cleef. His +portrait, by himself, is in the Althorp Gallery. + +It has been said of Elizabeth, that although she had not much taste for +painting, she loved pictures of herself. Her court painter was a +Fleming, LUCAS DE HEERE (1534?--1584), who had also been employed by +Queen Mary, whose portrait (dated 1554) by him belongs to the Society of +Antiquaries, and was at the "Old Masters," in 1880, No. 202. He painted, +in 1570, the gallery of the Earl of Lincoln, describing the +characteristics of different nations. With a sarcastic wit, which +Elizabeth doubtless appreciated, he represented the typical Englishman +as naked, with a pair of shears, and different kinds of clothes beside +him, unable to decide on the best fashion. DE HEERE painted Elizabeth in +full state, as she loved to be depicted, attended by Juno, Minerva and +Venus. This picture remains at Hampton Court (No. 635), and is dated +1569. Mr. Wynne Finch has a capital picture of small figures, +representing _Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, and her second +husband Adrian Stokes_, dated 1559, by this able painter. Many other +works by him exist in English seats. Other foreign artists of this reign +were CORNELIUS VROOM, who drew designs for tapestry, representing the +victory of Lord Howard over the famous "Armada" of the Spaniards (these +tapestries were burnt with the Houses of Parliament in 1834); FEDERIGO +ZUCCHERO (1643--1609), whose portrait of the Queen in a fantastic dress +is in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, and was No. 229 in the +National Portrait Exhibition, 1866; and MARC GHEERAEDTS, or GARRARD +(1561--1635), of Bruges. There are three portraits ascribed to +Gheeraedts in the collection of the Marquis of Exeter, and others were +exhibited in the first (1866) National Portrait Exhibition. The most +important of all the works attributed to Gheeraedts is the group of +eleven _English and Spanish Statesmen_ assembled at Somerset House, +which has been recently acquired for the National Portrait Gallery at +the Hamilton Palace sale.[E] A very fine little example, signed "M.G.," +is a full-length portrait of _Queen Elizabeth_, standing, holding a +branch of olive, with a sword and a little shock dog at her feet. It +belongs to the Duke of Portland, and was long lent to the South +Kensington Museum. A head of _Camden_, in the Bodleian, is signed with +the artist's name in full. A very fine full-length portrait is at Woburn +Abbey; other signed specimens are at Barron Hill and Penshurst. + +[Illustration: COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE. "SIDNEY'S SISTER, PEMBROKE'S +MOTHER." _By_ NICHOLAS HILLIARD (?). _From a rare Engraving._] + +More interesting than these foreign artists is the name of NICHOLAS +HILLIARD (1547--1619), an Englishman, and the first native artist of +importance, whose fame remains to the present time. The "Old Masters" +Exhibition of 1879 contained many likenesses said to have been painted +by Hilliard; among these was one of _Queen Elizabeth_. Hilliard's skill +was specially shown in his miniatures, of which that of Jane Seymour, at +Windsor, is a crowning piece. The Duke of Buccleuch has a noble series +of Hilliard's and Oliver's paintings of this kind. Dr. Donne says of the +former-- + + "An hand or eye + By Hilliard drawn is worth a historye + By a worse painter made." + +The influence of Holbein is traceable in the works of Hilliard, and in +those of his successor, and, probably, pupil, Isaac Oliver. One of the +most able painters of this age was SIR NATHANIEL BACON, half-brother to +the great Sir Francis Bacon, whose life-size portrait of himself, +belonging to the Earl of Verulam, has been engraved in Walpole's +"Anecdotes." Sir N. Bacon died in 1615. + +[Illustration: SIR PHILIP SIDNEY AT PENSHURST. _By_ ISAAC OLIVER. _From +a Miniature in Windsor Castle._] + +The miniatures of ISAAC OLIVER (1556--1617) are considered by some +critics to rival those of Holbein. Both Isaac and his son PETER OLIVER +(1601--1660) painted in the reign of James I., who, if not a great +patron of Art, yet encouraged foreign portrait painters to work in +England. Most famous among these were DANIEL MYTENS, PAUL VAN SOMER, and +CORNELIS JONSON. Van Somer, a Fleming, is specially noted for his +fidelity, Mytens for the spirit and dignity of his likenesses and his +landscape backgrounds, and Jonson for the accuracy of his portraits. +JEAN PETITOT (1607--1691), of Geneva, also came to England and painted +portraits in enamel for Charles I. But native art was not altogether +unrepresented. _Nicholas Stone_, the sculptor, flourished; and JOHN +HOSKINS, who died in 1664, was celebrated as a miniature painter. The +special art of miniature painting was at this time lucrative to its +professors, as it was the fashion to wear pictures of friends, set in +gold and precious stones. There were symptoms of a growing taste for art +in England, and men were learning that it was possible to paint a good +picture without living on the Continent. + +[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF KING JAMES I. _By_ HOSKINS, AFTER VAN SOMER. +_From a Miniature in Windsor Castle._] + +The first Englishman of high degree who collected works of art in the +manner to which we apply the phrase, was the Earl of Arundel, who was +followed by Prince Henry, son of James I. The accession of Charles I. +marks a new and bright period in the history of English painting. +Walpole, in his "Anecdotes of Painting," speaking of Charles I., says, +not very accurately, "The accession of this Prince was the first era of +real taste in England. As his temper was not profuse, the money he +expended on his collections, and the rewards he bestowed on men of true +genius, are proofs of his judgment. He knew how and where to bestow." +The King was not only a patron of art, but an artist. We are told by +Gilpin that Charles "had singular skill in limning, and was a good judge +of pictures." Another authority states that he often amused himself by +drawing and designing. Charles inherited pictures which had been +collected by Henry VIII. and Prince Henry, all of which were scattered +in the different royal palaces. To these works, one hundred and fifty in +all, the King added a vast number of valuable examples. The manuscript +catalogue, left incomplete by Vanderdoort, the keeper of the royal +galleries, mentions 497 pictures at Whitehall, including 28 by Titian, 9 +by Raphael, 11 by Correggio, 11 by Holbein, 16 by Giulio Romano, 7 by +Parmigiano, 7 by Rubens, 7 by Tintoretto, 3 by Rembrandt, 16 by Van +Dyck, 4 by Paolo Veronese, and 2 by Leonardo da Vinci.[F] Charles +bought, in 1627, the collection of paintings belonging to the Duke of +Mantua for L18,280 12s. 8d.; and many foreign courts made presents of +rare and valuable pictures to the King of England. The good example of +their master was followed by some of the nobility, and the Duke of +Buckingham, the Earl of Somerset, the Earl of Pembroke, and the Earl of +Arundel were liberal patrons of art. The last made a noble collection of +statues and drawings; some of the latter are in the British Museum; many +of the sculptures are at Oxford. Charles vainly invited Albani to visit +England, but in 1629 RUBENS arrived as a confidential diplomatic +representative of the Archduchess Isabella, Infanta of Spain, and was +induced to remain for about nine months. The King delighted to honour +the great painter, and made him a knight. During his stay in England, +Rubens, among other works, painted his allegoric picture of _Peace and +War_ (National Gallery); _St. George_ (Buckingham Palace); the +_Assumption of the Blessed Virgin_, for the Earl of Arundel; and the +designs for the ceiling of Whitehall. The influence from this brief +sojourn was very marked, and it was followed by that of-- + +ANTHONY VAN DYCK (1599--1641), a native of Antwerp, after a brief and +unsatisfactory visit to England, returned here and was created Court +Painter in 1632. Charles I. knighted him in 1632. His influence affected +the portrait painters who lived a century after him, and survived till +the advent of Reynolds. The best of Van Dyck's pictures are in the +possession of the Crown and private collectors in England. There is one +famous _Portrait of Charles I._ in the Louvre, and another in the +Hermitage at St. Petersburg. The _Three Children of Charles I._ is among +his pictures in Windsor Castle. In the National Gallery the best +specimen of Van Dyck's art is the _Emperor Theodosius and St. Ambrose_, +No. 50. The _Gevartius_, No. 52, is probably by Rubens. There are +magnificent portraits by Van Dyck in many private galleries. + +GERARD VAN HONTHORST (1590--1656), a native of Utrecht, passed some +years in England, painting portraits for Charles I. and his courtiers, +and giving lessons to his daughter Elizabeth, afterwards Queen of +Bohemia. + +WILLIAM DOBSON (1610--1646), a dwarf, was apprenticed to Sir Robert +Peake, an obscure painter and picture dealer, and learnt to copy Van +Dyck so accurately, that he attracted the notice of the great master, +who introduced him to the King. He became, after his patron's death, +Serjeant-Painter, and Groom of the Privy Chamber. His career, like +himself, was brief. When the Civil War broke out, Dobson was a prisoner +for debt, and he died three years before the execution of his royal +master. His portraits are often mistaken for those of Van Dyck. At +Hampton Court is a fine picture of the painter himself with his wife. +The _Beheading of St. John the Baptist_, which resembles a Honthorst, is +at Wilton House; and a portrait of _Cleveland_, the poet, is in the +Ellesmere collection. Several of Dobson's portraits have been exhibited +in the National Portrait Exhibition, and in the collections of works by +the "Old Masters" at Burlington House. + +[Illustration: THE COUNTESS OF DEVONSHIRE. _By_ VAN DYCK. _From the +Engraving by P. Lombart._] + +GEORGE JAMESONE (1586--1644), the son of an Aberdeen architect, is +styled by Cunningham "the Scottish Van Dyck." He studied abroad under +Rubens, in the company of Van Dyck, and in 1628 commenced a prosperous +career in Scotland. He painted the portrait of Charles I., in 1633, when +the King visited that country. Jamesone also painted historic pictures, +landscapes, and subjects from the Bible. During the contest of the King +with his Parliament, the arts could not but languish. Some of the great +collectors fled to the Continent, where more than one of them existed by +the sale of portable works of art, such as medals. The Parliament +ordered the furniture of the royal palaces and the contents of the +picture galleries to be sold by auction, and the proceeds to be applied +to the expenses of the war in Ireland and the North. By an order of the +House of Commons, 1645, all such pictures and statues at York House as +bore the image of the Virgin Mary were to be forthwith destroyed as +gendering superstition. Although art, as represented in England at this +time, had been devoted to any but religious purposes--and many of its +manifestations were grossly indecent and infamous, or, at best, shocking +to unaccustomed eyes--these orders were not obeyed universally. Many +pictures were bought by foreign princes, some by Cavaliers, others by +the Puritans, among whom Colonel Hutchinson was an extensive purchaser. +Cromwell, on becoming Protector, stopped all the sales of royal +paintings and property. To him we owe the preservation of Raphael's +cartoons. They were valued by the Commissioners at L300 and ordered to +be sold, but Cromwell stopped the sale. In the reign of Charles II., +these cartoons would have been lost to England; the King had offered to +sell them to Barillon, minister of Louis XIV., and it was only by Lord +Danby's means that the sale was prevented. Cromwell employed as his +portrait painter-- + +[Illustration: OLIVER CROMWELL. _By_ SIR PETER LELY. _In the Pitti +Palace, Florence._] + +ROBERT WALKER, who died in 1658. The Protector insisted upon having the +warts and pimples on his face faithfully portrayed, and gave strict +injunctions both to Walker and Sir Peter Lely not to flatter him. One of +Walker's portraits of _Cromwell_ is at Warwick Castle. Some capital +examples of his skill are in the National Portrait Gallery. The +Restoration was not favourable to design. Charles II. had neither taste +for art, nor money to encourage painters. The unbridled license of the +Court defiled the studio as it did the stage; and the most popular +pictures were the portraits of the rakes and wantons who clustered round +the King. + +Sir PETER LELY (1618--1680), originally named Van der Faes, was the very +accomplished painter of the Court, some of whose better works may be +compared with Van Dyck's. He came to England in 1643, and profited by +his art under Charles I., the Protectorate, and Charles II. Walpole said +of Lely's nymphs that they are "generally reposed on the turf, and are +too wanton and too magnificent to be taken for anything but Maids of +Honour." + +The well-known collection of Lely's portraits at Hampton Court includes, +among others, those of the _Duchess of Richmond_; the _Countess of +Rochester_; _Mrs. Middleton_ the celebrated beauty; the _Countess of +Northumberland_; the _Duchess of Cleveland, as Minerva_; the _Countess +de Grammont_, and _Jane Kellaway, as Diana_ (misnamed Princess Mary). +_Mrs. Middleton_, in the National Portrait Gallery, by Lely, is +remarkably good. Lely fell dead before his easel, while painting a +portrait of the _Dowager Duchess of Somerset_, November 30th, 1680. + +Several English artists practised in this reign. + +HENRY ANDERTON (1630--after 1665) was a portrait painter employed at +Court. ISAAC FULLER (1606--1672) painted portraits and allegoric pieces. +He is described as extravagant and burlesque in his tastes and manners, +and his works bear the mark of this character. An epigram on a "Drunken +Sot" is to this effect:-- + + "His head doth on his shoulder lean, + His eyes are sunk, and hardly seen; + Who sees this sot in his own colour + Is apt to say, ''twas done by Fuller.'" + +JOHN GREENHILL (1649--1676) was the most celebrated of Lely's pupils. +ROBERT STREATER (1624--1680) was made Serjeant-Painter to Charles II., +and painted landscapes and historic works. His work still survives in +the Theatre at Oxford, but we cannot echo the praise accorded to it by a +rhymester who says-- + + "That future ages must confess they owe + To Streater more than Michael Angelo." + +That most delightful of gossips, Samuel Pepys, has much to say about +art, of which he was no mean critic. Writing on February 1st, 1688, +Pepys said: "I was carried to Mr. Streater's, the famous +history-painter, whom I have often heard of, but did never see him +before; and there I found him and Dr. Wren and several virtuosos, +looking upon the paintings which he is making for the new Theatre at +Oxford; and indeed they look as if they would be very fine, and the rest +think better than those of Rubens in the Banqueting-house at Whitehall, +but I do not fully think so. But they will certainly be very noble; and +I am mightily pleased to have the fortune to see this man and his work, +which is very famous, and he is a very civil little man, and lame, but +lives very handsomely." + +SAMUEL COOPER (1609--1672) was a miniature painter of a high order, +whose art attested the influence of Van Dyck; the Duke of Buccleuch has +the two famous unfinished portraits of the Protector by him, and a +galaxy of other works of this class. Pepys, speaking of a +portrait-painter named JOHN HAYLS, of whom he thought highly, said: "He +has also persuaded me to have Cooper draw my wife's picture, which +though it cost over L30, yet I will have it done." He called Cooper "a +limner in little," and referred to him several times in his Diary. On +the death of Sir Peter Lely, another foreigner became the popular +painter of the Court. This was-- + +Sir GODFREY KNELLER (1648--1723), a native of Luebeck, who came to the +Court of Charles II. in 1674, and maintaining his popularity during the +reign of James II., William III., and Anne, lived to paint the portrait +of _George I._ Kneller's works are chiefly portraits. Of these the +famous Kit-Kat series of likenesses of distinguished men is invaluable. +His portrait of his fellow-countryman, _Grinling Gibbons_, is one of his +best paintings. He was the fashionable painter of the age, and kings and +fine ladies, wits and statesmen, are embodied in his art. Dryden was +amongst his sitters, and the poet has left the following praises of the +painter:-- + + "Such are thy pictures, Kneller! such thy skill, + That nature seems obedient to thy will; + Comes out and meets thy pencil in the draught, + Lives there, and wants but words to speak the thought." + +[Illustration: GRINLING GIBBONS, THE SCULPTOR. _By_ GODFREY KNELLER.] + +The popularity of allegoric painting did much to hinder the progress of +English art. Nature gave place to naked gods and impossible +shepherdesses, who were painted on walls and ceilings at so much a +square foot. Charles II. had probably acquired a taste for such painting +abroad, and it retained its popularity for a considerable period. Fuseli +said: "Charles II., with the Cartoons in his possession and the +magnificence of Whitehall before his eyes, suffered Verrio to +contaminate the walls of his palaces, or degraded Lely to paint the +Cymons and Iphigenias of his Court, while the manner of Kneller swept +completely away what might be left of taste among his successors. It was +reserved for the German Lely and his successor Kneller to lay the +foundation of a manner which, by pretending to unite portrait with +history, gave a retrograde direction for nearly a century to both; a mob +of shepherds and shepherdesses in flowing wigs and dressed curls, +ruffled Endymions, humble Junos, withered Hebes, surly Allegros, and +smirking Pensierosos usurp the place of propriety and character." We can +see the triumphs of allegory over nature fully illustrated in Hampton +Court Palace. Chief among painters of this class of art was ANTONIO +VERRIO (1634--1707), who received from Charles II. L10,000 for the +decoration of Windsor Castle. LOUIS LAGUERRE (1663--1721) was associated +with Verrio, and carried on similar work after Verrio's death. His best +works are at Blenheim. In his later years Laguerre found a coadjutor in +SIR JAMES THORNHILL (1676--1734), whose decorations are superior to +those of Verrio or Laguerre. His chief productions are in the cupola of +St. Paul's Cathedral, the Great Hall of Greenwich Hospital, an apartment +at Hampton Court, and a saloon in Blenheim Palace. Thornhill was +knighted by George I., being the first English artist who received that +honour, and he sat in Parliament for his native place, Melcombe Regis. +Perhaps the most enduring fact about him is that he was the +father-in-law of Hogarth. Walpole said of the reign of George I.:--"No +reign since the arts have been in any estimation produced fewer works +that will deserve the attention of posterity." It was not only in +England that art slumbered. The Flemish, Dutch, and Spanish schools had +passed from the brilliance of their seventeenth-century period. In Italy +art had shrivelled with the last of the Bolognese school. France +possessed some original painters, but not of the highest order. + +Before passing on to the period of Hogarth and the creation of the +English school, we may mention a few names of painters in England. +These were JOHN RILEY (1646--1691); JAMES PARMENTIER (1658--1730); +WILLIAM AIKMAN (1682--1731); MARY BEALE (1632--1697); JOHN CLOSTERMANN +(1656--1713); MICHAEL DAHL (1656--1743); GERARD VON SOEST (1637--1681); +JOHN VANDERBANK (1694?--1739); WILLIAM WISSING (1656--1687); JOSEPH +MICHAEL WRIGHT (1625?--1700?), a pupil of Jamesone; JONATHAN RICHARDSON +(1665--1745), a pupil of Riley; CHARLES JERVAS (1675--1739), a follower +of Kneller, and the friend of Pope, who, with the fulsome flattery of +the day, compared him to Zeuxis. GEORGE KNAPTON (1698--1778) was famous +for crayon portraits; a large group, in oils, representing the Princess +of Wales and her family, by his hand, is at Hampton Court. + +In the middle of the eighteenth century, THOMAS HUDSON (1701--1779) +became the fashionable portrait painter. His chief remaining claim to +fame is that he was the first master of Joshua Reynolds. FRANCIS HAYMAN +(1708--1776) lived long enough to write himself R.A. among the earliest +members. His _Finding of Moses_ may be seen at the Foundling Hospital; +and his own portrait in the National Portrait Gallery. He seems to have +been highly esteemed, and, among other works, executed some for Vauxhall +Gardens. His fame is now almost as extinct as the lamps of that once +famous place of entertainment. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ENGLISH ART IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY--WILLIAM HOGARTH. + + +Hitherto we have seen painting in England confined to foreign artists, +or to natives who more or less slavishly copied them. We have seen, +likewise, that many of the English painters of the latter days of the +seventeenth century were decorators rather than artists, who, forsaking +all truth and nature, covered the walls and ceilings of houses with +simpering shepherdesses and impossible deities. The time of change came, +however, and with it the man who was to be the first original painter of +his country. It is to plain William Hogarth, the son of the Cumberland +schoolmaster, the apprentice of the silver-plate engraver, Ellis Gamble, +that we owe the origin of the English school of painting. The term +"school of painting" is, however, hardly correct, as Hogarth founded no +school, nor has there existed one in England till very recently. We +should rather say that Hogarth was the first English artist who forsook +exhausted conventionalities for large truthfulness and original thought, +and thus paved the way to a new life in art. A man who laughed at the +"black masters," as he called the painters of the most popular works of +the period; and who declared that copying other men's pictures was like +pouring wine from one vessel to another, a process which did not +increase the quality, and allowed the flavour to evaporate, was +naturally regarded as an innovator of a monstrous order. Like all +reformers, Hogarth had to defeat opposition and ridicule. But he dared +to think for himself, and in that courage lay the secret of success. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM HOGARTH AND HIS DOG TRUMP. _By_ HOGARTH. + +_In the National Gallery._] + +WILLIAM HOGARTH was born in 1697 in Ship Court, Old Bailey, hard by +Ludgate Hill, in a house which was pulled down in 1862. His father, who +had received a good education at St. Bees, kept a school in Ship Court, +and sought work from booksellers. But, like many another poor scholar, +he could not make a living, and died disappointed. After spending some +time at school, William Hogarth, warned by the example of his father, +determined to pursue a craft in preference to literature, and was +apprenticed, probably in 1711, to Ellis Gamble, a silversmith in +Cranbourne Alley. Here, though his drawings and engravings were mostly +confined to heraldic devices and the like, the young artist gained +accuracy of touch, to which he added truthfulness of design, and +prepared himself to delineate that London life which was to furnish him +with models for his art. He tells us how he determined to enter a wider +field than that of mere silver-plate engraving, though at the age of +twenty to engrave his own designs on copper was the height of his +ambition. The men and women who jostled him in London streets, or rolled +by him in their coaches, were his models. Besides the keenest powers of +observation, and a sardonic, sympathizing, and pitying humour, he +possessed a wonderfully accurate and retentive memory, which enabled him +to impress a face or form on his mind, and reproduce it at leisure. +Occasionally, if some very attractive or singular face struck his fancy, +he would sketch it on his thumb-nail, and thence transfer it. Hogarth +tells us that "instead of burdening the memory with musty rules, or +tiring the eye with copying dry or damaged pictures, I have ever found +studying from nature the shortest and safest way of obtaining knowledge +of my art." Thus, whether he was watching "society" on its way to court, +or mingling in the midnight orgies of a tavern, Hogarth was storing +portraits which were to appear, some in silks and satins, as in the +_Marriage a la Mode_, others among the humours of _Beer Street_ and the +misery of _Gin Lane_. Hogarth's apprenticeship ended probably in 1718; +we find him studying drawing from the life in the Academy in St. +Martin's Lane. In 1721 he published _An Emblematical Print on the South +Sea (Scheme)_, which was sold at one shilling a copy, and though +defective in the sardonic humour which marked his later works, shows +promise of what was to come. In the same year _The Lottery_ was +published. In 1724 he engraved _Masquerades and Operas_, a satire, which +represents "society" crowding to a masquerade, and led by a figure +wearing a cap and bells on his head, and the Garter on his leg. This +engraving delighted the public whom it satirised, and Hogarth lost much +through piracies of his work. He was employed by the booksellers to +illustrate books with engravings and frontispieces. In "Mottraye's +Travels" (1723) there are eighteen illustrations by Hogarth, seven in +the "Golden Ass of Apuleius" (1724), and five frontispieces in +"Cassandra" (1725). Walpole says, somewhat too severely, that "no +symptoms of genius dawned in those early plates." In 1726 was published, +besides his twelve large prints, which are well known, an edition of +"Hudibras," illustrated by Hogarth in seventeen smaller plates. Of this +Walpole says, "This was among the first of his works that marked him as +a man above the common; yet in what made him then noticed it surprises +me now to find so little humour in an undertaking so congenial to his +talents." The designs of Hogarth are not so witty as the verses of +Butler, but we must remember that the painter had never seen men living +and acting as they are described in the poem; they were not like the +men of whom he made his daily studies. At this period he who dared to be +original, and to satirise his neighbours, had much trouble. The value +set upon his work in those early days may be estimated when we read that +J. Bowles, of the Black Horse, in Cornhill, patronised Hogarth to the +extent of offering him half-a-crown a pound weight for a copperplate +just executed. In 1727, we find a certain upholsterer named Morris +refusing to pay thirty pounds to the artist, because he had failed, in +Morris's opinion, to execute a representation of the _Element of Earth_, +as a design for tapestry, "in a workmanlike manner." It is on record +that the verdict was in favour of Hogarth, who was paid L20 for his work +and L10 for materials. In 1730, Hogarth made a secret marriage at old +Paddington Church, with Jane, only daughter of Sir James Thornhill, +Serjeant-Painter to the King. He had frequented Thornhill's studio, but +whether the art of the court painter, or the face of his daughter was +the greater attraction we know not. There is no doubt that Hogarth's +technique was studied from Thornhill's pictures, and not from those of +Watteau or Chardin, as has been supposed. Hogarth was painting portraits +years before 1730. Mr. Redgrave, in his "Century of Painters," describes +some wall pictures in the house No. 75, Dean Street, Soho, which is said +to have been a residence of Sir James Thornhill. Some of the figures +here are thoroughly of the Hogarth type, especially that of a black man +in a turban, a familiar form in the _Marriage a la Mode_. For a time +after his marriage Hogarth confined himself to painting portraits and +conversation pieces, for which he was well paid, although Walpole +declares that this "was the most ill-suited employment to a man whose +turn was certainly not flattery." Truthfulness, however, is more +valuable in a portrait than flattery, and we surely find it in Hogarth's +portraits of himself, one in the National Gallery, and in that of +_Captain Coram_, at the Foundling. In 1734, Hogarth published the first +of those wonderful unspoken sermons against vice and folly, _A Harlot's +Progress_, which was followed immediately by _A Rake's Progress_, issued +in 1735. _A Harlot's Progress_, in six plates, met with an enthusiastic +reception; it was a bold innovation on the cold stilted style of the +day, and its terrible _reality_ stirred the hearts of all beholders. _A +Rake's Progress_, in eight plates, was scarcely so popular, and the +professors of the kind of art which Hogarth had satirised found many +faults with the reformer. Hogarth was now a person of consequence, and +the once unknown and struggling artist was the talk of the town. _The +Sleeping Congregation_ is a satire on the heavy preachers and +indifferent church-goers of that period. _The Distressed Poet_ and _A +Midnight Modern Conversation_ soon followed. The latter, in which most +of the figures are actual portraits, is considered in France and Germany +the best of this master's single works. In due course appeared _The +Enraged Musician_, of which a wit of the day observed that "it deafens +one to look at it," and _The Strolling Actresses_, which Allan +Cunningham describes as "one of the most imaginative and amusing of all +the works of Hogarth."[G] + +One of the best of Hogarth's life stories is the _Marriage a la Mode_, +the original paintings of which are in the National Gallery; they +appeared in prints in 1745. These well-known pictures illustrate the +story of a loveless marriage, where parents sacrifice their children, +the one for rank the other for money. Mr. Redgrave ("A Century of +Painters") tells us that "the novelty of Hogarth's work consisted in the +painter being the inventor of his own drama, as well as painter, and in +the way in which all the parts are made to tend to a dramatic whole; +each picture dependent on the other, and all the details illustrative of +the complete work. The same characters recur again and again, moved in +different tableaux with varied passions, one moral running through all, +the beginning finding its natural climax in the end." Some of the most +striking points in the satire of Hogarth's picture are brought out in +the background, as in the first picture of _Marriage a la Mode_, where +the works of "the black masters" are represented ludicrously, and the +ceiling of the room is adorned with an unnatural picture of the +destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea. In 1750 appeared _The March +of the Guards to Finchley_, which is "steeped in humour and strewn with +absurdities." It was originally dedicated to George II., but, so the +story goes, the King was offended by a satire on his Guards, and he +declared "I hate boetry and bainting; neither one nor the other ever did +any good." Certain it is that Hogarth was disappointed by the reception +of his work, and dedicated it to the King of Prussia. The painting of +_The March to Finchley_, on publication of the print, was disposed of by +lottery, and won by the Foundling Hospital. We cannot do more than +mention some of the remaining works by which the satirist continued "to +shoot Folly as she flies." _Beer Street_, and _Gin Lane_, illustrate the +advantages of drinking the national beverage, and the miseries following +the use of gin. _The Cockpit_ represents a scene very common in those +days, and contains many portraits. _The Election_ is a series of four +scenes, published between 1755 and 1758, in which all the varied vices, +humours, and passions of a contested election are admirably represented. +The pictures of this series are in Sir John Soane's Museum, Lincoln's +Inn Fields. + +Hogarth's last years were embittered by quarrels, those with Churchill +and Wilkes being the most memorable. The publication in 1753 of his +admirable book, called "The Analysis of Beauty," in which Hogarth tried +to prove that a winding line is the Line of Beauty, produced much +adverse criticism and many fierce attacks, which the painter could not +take quietly. He was further annoyed by the censures passed on his +picture of _Sigismunda_, now in the National Gallery, which he had +painted in 1759 for Sir Richard Grosvenor, and which was returned on his +hands. Two years previously Hogarth had been made Serjeant-Painter to +the King. He did not live to hold this office long; on October 26th, +1764, the hand which had exposed the vices and follies of the day so +truly, and yet with such humour, had ceased to move. Hogarth died in his +house at Leicester Fields; he was buried in Chiswick Churchyard, where +on his monument stands this epitaph by Garrick;-- + + "Farewel, great Painter of Mankind! + Who reached the noblest point of Art; + Whose _pictured Morals_ charm the Mind, + And through the Eye correct the Heart. + If Genius fire thee, Reader, stay; + If _Nature_ touch thee, drop a Tear; + If neither move thee, turn away, + For HOGARTH'S honour'd dust lies here." + +And yet it is of this man that Walpole says, that "as a painter he has +slender merit." Charles Lamb remarks wisely, in his fine essay on "The +Genius and Character of Hogarth, that his chief design was by no means +to raise a laugh." Of his prints, he says, "A set of severer satires +(for they are not so much comedies, which they have been likened to, as +they are strong and masculine satires), less mingled with anything of +mere fun, were never written upon paper, or graven upon copper. They +resemble Juvenal, or the satiric touches in _Timon of Athens_." + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE ROYAL ACADEMY AND ITS INFLUENCE. + + +Hogarth was the first original painter of England, and he was too +original either to copy or to be copied; but he founded no school. What +he did was to draw aside the curtain and show the light of nature to +those who had been hitherto content to grope amid the extravagances of +allegory, or the dreams of mythology. Two circumstances specially stood +in the way of the progress of English art--the absence of a recognised +academy, where a system of art-study could be pursued, and where rewards +were offered for success; and the want of a public exhibition where +painters could display their works, or learn from one another. There +were no masters, properly speaking, in England, and therefore no pupils. +Instead of gathering around them students on the atelier system of the +Continent, painters in England had apprentices, who were employed to +grind their colours, clean their brushes, and prepare their canvas. Such +apprentices might become mechanical copyists of their employers. +Nevertheless, such was the system under which all the pupils of all the +great Italian Masters, some of whom became great masters in their turns, +were trained. Several attempts to supply the want of a recognised system +of art-teaching in London had been made from time to time. Sir +Balthasar Gerbier had a drawing school in Whitefriars so long ago as the +days of Charles I.; Van Dyck promoted studies of this kind at his house +in Blackfriars; the Duke of Richmond in 1758 endeavoured to form a +school at the Priory Garden, Westminster; Sir Godfrey Kneller supported +an academy for drawing and painting at his house in Great Queen Street, +till his death in 1723; another society existed in Greyhound Court, +Arundel Street, Strand, till 1738, when the members joined the St. +Martin's Lane Academy. These, like the following, were drawing and +painting schools, under recognised teachers, but neither +honour-bestowing, benevolent, nor representative bodies. Each pupil paid +for the use of the models and premises, except those which were supplied +by the Duke of Richmond to his guests. In 1724 Sir James Thornhill had +opened an art academy at his house in James Street, Covent Garden; it +existed till his death in 1734; he suggested to the Prime Minister, Lord +Halifax, the idea of a Royal Academy. Vanderbank for a time had a school +with living models in a disused Presbyterian chapel. William Shipley +maintained an art academy in St. Martin's Lane for thirty years, and we +know that Hogarth studied there. But none of these schools had a +prescribed system of teaching. The absence of a public exhibition was +felt as a great misfortune by the artists of this period. Hogarth, +however, who regarded the painters of his country from a gloomy point of +view, had no belief in the regenerating power of academies or paid +professors. + +Apart from the Exhibitions of the Society of Artists in 1760 and 1761, +for which Hogarth designed the frontispiece and tailpiece to the +catalogue, the first public exhibition of pictures was that of sign +boards, promoted by Hogarth and B. Thornton in 1762. The impetus which +Hogarth's success gave to native art, however, was soon visible; and the +Society of Arts and the Dilettanti Society encouraged young painters by +giving prizes, and by suggesting the formation of a guild or +confraternity of artists. The first private exhibitions of pictures were +held in the Foundling and St. Bartholomew's Hospitals, to which Hogarth +and some of the leading painters of the day presented their works. This +happened in 1746. In 1761 the Society of Artists was rent in two, and a +new body, the Free Society, remained in the Adelphi. The Society of +Artists removed to Spring Gardens, and in 1765 obtained a charter of +incorporation: it was thenceforward called the Incorporated Society. +Owing to the mismanagement and consequent dissensions in this body arose +the Royal Academy of Arts, established by George III. on December 10th, +1768, though without a royal charter of incorporation. This institution, +which was to exercise so marked an influence on the art of England, +supplied two wants--a definite system of teaching, and an exhibition of +meritorious works. + +Before noticing the three eminent painters who mark a new era in English +painting, and who became members of the new Academy, we must speak of +others who were not without their influence on the world of art. ALLAN +RAMSAY (1713--1784) was considered one of the best portrait painters of +his time. He was the son of Allan Ramsay, the poet, and was born at +Edinburgh. After studying in Italy he came to London and established +himself there, frequently visiting Edinburgh. Walpole specially praises +his portraits of women, even preferring some of them to those of +Reynolds. In 1767 Ramsay was made painter to George III., and his +portraits of the King and _Queen Charlotte_ are still at Kensington. As +a man of literary tastes and great accomplishments, Allan Ramsay +received the praises of Dr. Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds. In the +Exhibition of 1862 was exhibited a portrait of the _Duke of Argyll_, by +Ramsay. Portrait painting was still the popular branch of art in +England, and the influence of Hogarth had produced no advance towards +the study of landscape. Among those, however, who attempted it was +GEORGE LAMBERT (1710--1765), a scene-painter, and founder of the +"Beefsteak Club." This latter distinction makes him remembered, whilst +his landscapes, after the manner of Poussin, are forgotten. WILLIAM +SMITH (1707--1764), GEORGE SMITH (1714--1776), JOHN SMITH (1717--1764), +usually known as the SMITHS OF CHICHESTER, were very popular in their +day. They painted landscapes from the scenery round Chichester, but gave +it a foreign and unnatural air by copying Claude and Poussin. Though +they exercised considerable influence on English landscape-painting, we +cannot wonder at the popularity of these painters when we remember how +utterly barren this branch of art still remained in England. PETER +MONAMY(1670?--1749) was a marine painter of the school of the Van de +Veldes, whose pupil he may have been. A Sea piece by him at Hampton +Court (No. 915) shows that he was an artist of a high order. Portraits +of Monamy and his patron are in a picture by Hogarth at Knowsley. SAMUEL +SCOTT (1710?--1772) was a friend of Hogarth, and a marine painter after +the mode of the Van de Veldes. Walpole considered him "the first painter +of his age, one whose works will charm in any age." They have, however, +ceased to do so in this. Another marine painter was CHARLES BROOKING +(1723--1759), one of whose productions is at Hampton Court. He +occasionally worked in concert with DOMINIC SERRES (1722--1793), a Royal +Academician (a native of Gascony), whose four large pictures of _The +Naval Review at Portsmouth_, painted for George III., are likewise at +Hampton Court. The works of Dominic Serres have been confounded with +those of his son, JOHN THOMAS SERRES (1759--1825), who was a far +superior painter to his father. + +We pass on to speak of three celebrated painters, who when already +famous became members of the Royal Academy--Wilson, Reynolds, and +Gainsborough. The story of RICHARD WILSON (1713--1782) is the story of a +disappointed man. Born at Pinegas, Montgomeryshire, the son of the +parson of that place. Wilson's early taste for drawing attracted the +attention of Sir George Wynne, by whom he was introduced to one Wright, +a portrait painter in London. Following the popular branch of art in his +day, Wilson in due course became a portrait painter, and although +nothing remarkable is known of his portraits, he managed to make a +living. In 1749 he visited Italy, and whilst waiting for an interview +with the landscape painter Zuccarelli he is said to have sketched the +view through the open window. The Italian advised the Englishman to +devote himself henceforth to landscapes, and Wilson followed his advice. +After six years' stay in Italy, during which period he became imbued +with the beauties of that country, Wilson returned to England in 1755, +and found Zuccarelli worshipped, whilst he himself was neglected. His +_Niobe_, one version of which is in the National Gallery, was exhibited +with the Society of Artists' Collection, in Spring Gardens, 1760, and +made a great impression, but, in general, his pictures, infinitely +superior to the mere decorations of the Italian, were criticised, and +compared unfavourably with those of Zuccarelli, and it was not till long +after Wilson's death that he was thoroughly appreciated. He was often +compelled to sell his pictures to pawnbrokers, who, so it is said, could +not sell them again. Poverty and neglect soured the painter's temper, +and made him irritable and reckless. He had many enemies, and even Sir +Joshua Reynolds treated him with injustice. Wilson was one of the +original thirty-six members of the Royal Academy, and in 1776 applied +for and obtained the post of Librarian to that body, the small salary +helping the struggling man to live. The last years of his life were +brightened by better fortune. A brother left him a legacy, and in 1780 +Wilson retired to a pleasant home at Llanberis, Carnarvon, where he died +two years later. Mr. Redgrave says of him: "There is this praise due to +our countryman--that our landscape art, which had heretofore been +derived from the meaner school of Holland, following his great +example, looked thenceforth to Italy for its inspiration; that he proved +the power of native art to compete on this ground also with the art of +the foreigner, and prepared the way for the coming men, who, embracing +Nature as their mistress, were prepared to leave all and follow her." +Wilson frequently repeated his more successful pictures. _The Ruins of +the Villa of Maecenas, at Tivoli_ (National Gallery), was painted five +times by him. In the same Gallery are _The Destruction of Niobe's +Children_, _A Landscape with Figures_, three _Views in Italy_, _Lake +Avernus with the Bay of Naples in the distance_, &c. In the Duke of +Westminster's collection are _Apollo and the Seasons_ and _The River +Dee_. Wilson, like many another man of genius, lived before his time, +and was forced one day to ask Barry, the Royal Academician, if he knew +any one mad enough to employ a landscape painter, and if so, whether he +would recommend him. + +[Illustration: MORNING. _By_ RICHARD WILSON.] + +Singularly unlike Wilson in his fortunes was a painter of the same +school, named GEORGE BARRET (1728?--1784), an Irishman, who began life +by colouring prints for a Dublin publisher, and became the popular +landscape painter of the day, receiving vast sums for his pictures, +whilst Wilson could hardly buy bread. Patronised by Burke, who gained +him the appointment of Master-Painter to Chelsea Hospital, and receiving +for his works L2,000 a year, Barret died poor, and his pictures, once so +prized, are neglected, whilst the works of Wilson are now valued as they +deserve. Another artist who derived his inspiration from Wilson was +JULIUS CAESAR IBBETSON (1759--1817), who painted landscapes with cattle +and figures and rustic incidents with much success. + +JOSHUA REYNOLDS (1723--1792) was born at Plympton, Devon, the son of a +clergyman who was a master in the grammar school. His father had +intended him for a doctor, but nature decided that Joshua Reynolds +should be a painter. He preferred to read Richardson's "Treatise on +Painting" to any other book, and when his taste for art became manifest +he was sent to London to study with Hudson, the popular portrait painter +of the day. Before this time, however, the young Reynolds had studied +"The Jesuit's Perspective" with such success that he astonished his +father by drawing Plympton school. There is at Plymouth a portrait of +the _Rev. Thomas Smart_, tutor in Lord Edgcumbe's household, which is +said to have been painted by Reynolds when twelve years old. It was in +1741 that Joshua Reynolds began his studies with Hudson, and as that +worthy could teach him little or nothing, it is fortunate for art that +the connection only lasted two years. On leaving Hudson's studio +Reynolds returned to Devonshire, but we know little about his life there +till the year 1746, when his father died, and the painter was +established at Plymouth Dock, now Devonport, and was painting portraits. +Many of these earlier works betray the stiffness and want of nature +which their author had probably learnt from Hudson. Having visited +London, and stayed for a time in St. Martin's Lane, the artists' +quarter, Reynolds was enabled, in 1749, to realise his great wish, and +go abroad. His friend Commodore Keppel carried him to Italy, and +Reynolds, unfettered and unspoilt by the mechanical arts of his +countrymen, studied the treasures of Italy, chiefly in Rome, and without +becoming a copyist, was imbued with the beauties of the Italian school. +Michelangelo was the object of his chief adoration, and his name was the +most frequently on his lips, and the last in his addresses to the Royal +Academy. A love of colour was the characteristic of Reynolds, and his +use of brilliant and fugitive pigments accounts for the decay of many of +his best works; he used to say jestingly that "he came off with _flying +colours_." Doubtless the wish to rival the colouring of the Venetians +led Reynolds to make numerous experiments which were often fatal to the +preservation of his pictures. It has been said of him that "he loved +his colours as other men love their children." In 1752 Reynolds returned +to England, and settled in London, first in St. Martin's Lane, then in +Newport Street, and finally in a grand house in Leicester Fields. His +course was one of brilliant success. At his house, wit and wisdom met +together, and the ponderous learning of Dr. Johnson, the eloquence of +Burke, and the fancy of Goldsmith, combined to do honour to the +courteous, gentle painter, whom all men loved, and of whom Goldsmith +wrote:-- + + "His pencil was striking, resistless, and grand; + His manners were gentle, complying, and bland. + Still, born to improve us in every part-- + His pencil our faces, his manners our heart." + +Most of the leaders of the rank and fashion of the day sat for their +portraits to the painter who "read souls in faces." In 1768 Joshua +Reynolds was chosen first President of the Royal Academy, and was +knighted by George III. He succeeded, on the death of Ramsay, to the +office of Court Painter. His "Discourses on Painting," delivered at the +Royal Academy, were remarkable for their excellent judgment and literary +skill. It was supposed by some that Johnson and Burke had assisted +Reynolds in the composition of these lectures, but the Doctor +indignantly disclaimed such aid, declaring that "Sir Joshua Reynolds +would as soon get me to paint for him as to write for him." A lesser +honour, though one which caused him the greatest pleasure, was conferred +on Reynolds in 1773, when he was elected Mayor of his native Plympton. +In the same year he exhibited his famous _Strawberry Girl_, of which he +said that it was "one of the half dozen original things" which no man +ever exceeded in his life's work. In 1789 the failure of his sight +warned Sir Joshua that "the night cometh when no man can work." He died, +full of years and honours, on February 23rd, 1792, and was buried near +Sir Christopher Wren in St. Paul's Cathedral. + +[Illustration: MRS. BRADYLL. _By_ REYNOLDS. _In the possession of Sir +Richard Wallace, Bart._] + +Reynolds was a most untiring worker. He exhibited two hundred and +forty-five pictures in the Royal Academy, on an average eleven every +year. In the National Gallery are twenty-three of his paintings. Amongst +them are _The Holy Family_ (No. 78), _The Graces decorating a Terminal +Figure of Hymen_ (79), _The Infant Samuel_ (162), _The Snake in the +Grass_ (885), _Robinetta_ (892), and portraits of himself, of _Admiral +Keppel_, _Dr. Johnson_, _Boswell_, _Lord Heathfield_, and _George IV. as +Prince of Wales_. Mr. Ruskin deems Reynolds "one of _the_ seven +colourists of the world," and places him with Titian, Giorgione, +Correggio, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Turner. He likewise says, +"considered as a painter of individuality in the human form and mind, I +think him, even as it is, the prince of portrait painters. Titian paints +nobler pictures, and Van Dyck had nobler subjects, but neither of them +entered so subtly as Sir Joshua did into the minor varieties of heart +and temper."[H] + +It is as "the prince of portrait painters" that Sir Joshua will be +remembered, although he produced more than one hundred and thirty +historic or poetic pieces. Messrs. Redgrave, speaking of his powers as +an historic painter, declare that "notwithstanding the greatness of +Reynolds as a portrait painter, and the beauty of his fancy subjects, he +wholly fails as a painter of history. Allowing all that arises from +'colour harmony,' we must assert that, both as to form and character, +the characters introduced into these solemn dramas are wholly unworthy +to represent the persons of the actors therein." They argue that the +_Ugolino_ fails to represent the fierce Count shut up in the Tower of +Famine, on the banks of the Arno, and that the children of the _Holy +Family_ "for all there is of character and holiness, might change places +with the Cupid who fixes his arrow to transfix his nymph." The child +who represents _The Infant Samuel_, delightful as it is, in common with +all Sir Joshua Reynolds's children, has nothing to distinguish it as set +apart to high and holy offices. We may mention as among the best known +of the historic and poetic subjects of this master:--_Macbeth and the +Witches_, _Cardinal Beaufort_, _Hercules strangling the Serpents_, +painted for the Empress of Russia, and _The Death of Dido_. Famous, too, +as portraits, are _Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse_ (Duke of +Westminster's and Dulwich Gallery), _Garrick between Tragedy and +Comedy_, _The Strawberry Girl_, _The Shepherd Boy_, _The Little Girl in +a Mob Cap_ (Penelope Boothby), _The Little Duke_, and _The Little +Marchioness_; many others which are scattered in the galleries and +chambers of the English nobility and gentry, and which are now +frequently seen on the walls of Burlington House as each "Old Masters" +Exhibition passes by. + +THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH (1727--1788), the son of a clothier, was born at +Sudbury, in Suffolk. He early showed taste for art, and would linger +among the woods and streams round Sudbury to sketch. Nature was his +model, and to this fact we owe the pictures which make him and Wilson +the founders of our school of landscape painting. The details of this +master's life are few and uneventful. When between fourteen and fifteen +years of age, his father sent Thomas Gainsborough to London to study +art. His first master was Gravelot, a French engraver of great ability, +to whose teaching Gainsborough probably owed much. From him he passed to +Hayman in the St. Martin's Lane Academy, a drawing school only. +Gainsborough began as a portrait and landscape painter in Hatton Garden, +but finding little patronage during four years of his sojourn there, +returned to his native town, and presently married Margaret Burr, who +had crossed his line of sight when he was sketching a wood. The lady's +figure was added to the picture, and in due course became the wife of +the artist. For a man so careless as Gainsborough, an early marriage +was good, and we owe the preservation of many of his works to the +thoughtfulness of his wife. Settling in Ipswich, he began to make a +name. Philip Thicknesse, Governor of Landguard Fort, opposite Harwich, +became his earliest patron, and officiously maintained a friendship +which was often trying to the painter. Gainsborough, at his suggestion, +painted a view of _Landguard Fort_ (the picture has perished), which +attracted considerable attention. In 1760 he removed to Bath, and found +a favourable field for portrait-painting, though landscape was not +neglected. Fourteen years later Gainsborough, no longer an unknown +artist, came to London and rented part of Schomberg House, Pall Mall. He +was now regarded as the rival of Reynolds in portraiture, and of Wilson +in landscape. Once, when Reynolds at an Academy Dinner proposed the +health of his rival as "the greatest landscape painter of the day," +Wilson, who was present, exclaimed, "Yes, and the greatest portrait +painter, too." One of the original members of the Royal Academy, +Gainsborough exhibited ninety pictures in the Gallery, but refused to +contribute after 1783, because a portrait of his was not hung as he +wished. A quick-tempered, impulsive man, he had many disputes with +Reynolds, though none of them were of a very bitter kind. Gainsborough's +_Blue Boy_ is commonly said to have been painted in spite against +Reynolds, in order to disprove the President's statement that blue ought +not to be used in masses. But there were other and worthier reasons for +the production of this celebrated work, in respect to which Gainsborough +followed his favourite Van Dyck in displaying "a large breadth of cool +light supporting the flesh." It is pleasant to think of the kindly +minded painter enjoying music with his friends; and, rewarding some of +them more lavishly than wisely, he is said to have given _The Boy at the +Stile_ to Colonel Hamilton, in return for his performance on the violin. +It is pleasant, too, to know that whatever soreness of feeling existed +between him and Sir Joshua, passed away before he died. When the +President of the Royal Academy came to his dying bed, Gainsborough +declared his reconciliation, and said, "We are all going to heaven, and +Van Dyck is of the company." This was in 1788. Gainsborough was buried +at Kew. The Englishness of his landscapes makes Gainsborough popular. +Wilson had improved on the Dutch type by visiting Italy, but +Gainsborough sought no other subjects than his own land afforded. Nature +speaks in his portraits or from his landscapes, and his rustic children +excel those of Reynolds, because they are really sun-browned peasants, +not fine ladies and gentlemen masquerading in the dresses of villagers. +Mr. Ruskin says of Gainsborough, "His power of colour (it is mentioned +by Sir Joshua as his peculiar gift) is capable of taking rank beside +that of Rubens; he is the purest colourist--Sir Joshua himself not +excepted--of the whole English school; with him, in fact, the art of +painting did in great part die, and exists not now in Europe. I hesitate +not to say that in the management and quality of single and particular +tints, in the purely technical part of painting, Turner is a child to +Gainsborough." + +[Illustration: MRS. SIDDONS. _By_ GAINSBOROUGH. A.D. 1784. + +_In the National Gallery._] + +Among the most popular pictures by this great master are _The Blue Boy_, +_The Shepherd Boy in the Shower_, _The Cottage Door_, _The Cottage Girl +with Dog and Pitcher_, _The Shepherd Boys with their Dogs fighting_, +_The Woodman and his Dog in the Storm_ (burnt at Eaton Park, engraved by +Simon, and copied in needlework by Miss Linwood). There are thirteen +pictures by Gainsborough in the National Gallery, including _The Market +Cart_, _The Watering Place_, _Musidora_, _Portraits of Mrs. Siddons_, +and _Orpin, the Parish Clerk of Bradford-on-Avon_. In the Royal +Collection at Windsor are seventeen life-size heads of the sons and +daughters of George III., of which, say the Messrs. Redgrave, "it is +hardly possible to speak too highly." + +We may here fittingly mention a contemporary of Gainsborough, HUGH +ROBINSON (about 1760--1790), who only gained a tardy though well-merited +right to rank among England's portrait painters by the exhibition at the +"Old Masters," in 1881, of his _Portrait of Thomas Teesdale_, which was +followed in the next exhibition by the _Piping Boy_. The remainder of +the works of this talented young Yorkshireman--who exhibited but three +pictures at the Royal Academy (in 1780 and 1782), and who died on his +way home from Italy, whither he had gone to study art--are chiefly +family portraits. The two mentioned above best display his happy +blending of landscape and portraiture, and, though somewhat recalling +the manner of Gainsborough, are full of natural talent. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE PROGRESS OF ENGLISH ART IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. + + +It will here be convenient to notice briefly some foreign painters who +worked in England in the middle of the eighteenth century. + +GIOVANNI BATTISTA CIPRIANI, R.A. (1727--1785), a Florentine, came to +London in 1755 and remained here, gaining a great reputation as an +historic painter at a time when foreign artists were specially popular. +He was one of the original members of the Royal Academy, and designed +the diploma of that body. To Cipriani the English school owes some +refinement tempering the rough originality of Hogarth, but his art, "the +worn-out and effete art of modern Italy," left few permanent traces on +that of England. + +ANGELICA KAUFFMAN, R.A. (1740--1807), a native of Schwartzenberg, in +Austria, came to London in 1765, and, aided by fashion and the patronage +of Queen Charlotte, became prominent in the art world. Her romantic and +sad fortunes added to her popularity. "Her works were gay and pleasing +in colour, yet weak and faulty in drawing, her male figures particularly +wanting in bone and individuality." (_Redgrave_.) Her pictures were +often engraved in her own days, but they are now thought little of. A +specimen of Angelica Kauffman's work may be seen in the ceiling of the +Council Chamber of the Royal Academy, of which she was a member; another +is in the National Gallery. + +JOHANN ZOFFANY, R.A. (1733--1810), was born at Frankfort, and on his +first arrival in England met with little success. He was, however, one +of the original Royal Academicians, and was patronised by George III., +whose portrait he painted, together with those of many members of the +Royal family. As a portrait painter Zoffany was truthful, natural, and +unaffected, and his influence for good was not lost on the art of his +adopted country. In 1783 he went to India, where he remained fifteen +years, painting pictures of incident, of which _The Indian Tiger Hunt_ +is an example; works produced after his return to England are less +interesting than these. + +FRANCESCO ZUCCARELLI, R.A. (1702--1788), born in Tuscany, has already +been mentioned as advising Wilson to cultivate landscape-painting. After +becoming famous abroad, he came to London in 1752, and secured a +fortune, whilst Wilson, his superior, was too poor to buy a canvas to +paint on. Zuccarelli's landscapes and rural villages are of the stage +rather than nature. He was the last of that artificial school of +painters who tried to paint a beautiful world without looking out of +doors. + +PHILIPPE JAMES DE LOUTHERBOURG, R.A. (1740--1812), a native of +Strasburg, studied in Paris, under Casanova, the battle-painter. He +acquired fame by delineating landscapes, battles, and marine subjects, +and was already a member of the French Academy when he came to England +in 1771. For a time De Loutherbourg was employed as a scene-painter at +Drury Lane, receiving a salary of L500 a year from Garrick. His scenery +was extremely meritorious, effective, and popular, but he too frequently +obtruded scenic characteristics into his other pictures. He was elected +an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1780, and a full member in the +following year. Becoming somewhat deranged in his latter days, he +assumed the gift of prophecy, and pretended to cure diseases. He was +buried at Chiswick, near Hogarth. De Loutherbourg was a clever +draughtsman, but neglected nature. Peter Pindar laughed at his "brass +skies, and golden hills," and his "marble bullocks in glass pastures +grazing." Nevertheless Turner owned great obligations to him, and he +succeeded in varying the aims of landscape painters, and gave what may +be called animation and dramatic expression to their art. His best-known +works are, _Lord Howe's Victory on the 1st of June_, _The Fire of +London_, _The Siege of Valenciennes_, _A Lake Scene in Cumberland_ +(National Gallery), _Warley Common_ (Windsor Castle). The _Eidophusicon_ +was a moving diorama in Spring Gardens, painted by De Loutherbourg, +which "all the world went to see." + +HENRY FUSELI, or more correctly, _Fuessli_ (1741--1825), born at Zuerich, +exercised very considerable influence on English art by his pictures and +lectures. He was a scholar as well as a painter, and had been educated +for the church. On first coming to England Fuseli turned his attention +to literature, but was advised by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who had seen his +sketches, to cultivate art. When nearly thirty years old he went to +Italy, where, like Reynolds, his chief devotions were paid to the shrine +of Michelangelo. Returning to England after eight years' absence, Fuseli +made his first decided mark by _The Nightmare_, painted three years +after his return. It is said that fully to realise the horrors of this +subject the enthusiastic Swiss supped on raw pork! In 1786, Alderman +Boydell, a successful engraver and art publisher, proposed a Shakespeare +Gallery, with the view of proving that England contained really good +painters of history. Fuseli executed nine out of the eighty-six examples +in this gallery. His studies of the works of Michelangelo fitted him for +the just treatment of the subjects, including _Hamlet and the Ghost_, +and _Lear and Cordelia_. It has been objected that his men are all of +one race, whether in reality classic, mediaeval, or Scandinavian, and +that Shakespeare's women are, in his pictures, all alike, too masculine +and coarse. Shakespeare is thoroughly English in taste and character, +and his men and women, even if represented in Verona, or Prospero's +Isle, are still English in heart. Fuseli was scarcely able to enter into +this characteristic of our greatest poet. He was more at home with the +majestic creations of Milton, to which he next turned his thoughts. He +projected a Milton Gallery of forty-seven large pictures, which, +however, was not a financial success, therefore in 1780 Fuseli +complained that the public would feed him with honour, but leave him to +starve. He became a Royal Academician, and Professor of Painting, a post +which he held till his death. + +[Illustration: TITANIA AND BOTTOM. _By_ _Fuseli_. _In the possession of +Mr. Carrick Moore._] + + * * * * * + +In proceeding to speak of artists of the English school, we must +remember that we have not to deal with men gathered round a great +master, as is the case with many foreign painters. Each English artist +has originality, and stands by himself. It will be most convenient +therefore to treat them according to the special branch of art which +they severally followed, _i.e._ Historic, Portrait, Landscape, or Animal +painting. HISTORICAL PAINTING had hitherto found little favour in +England, nor were the pictures produced in that line worthy of much +regard. Reynolds attempted it in _Ugolino_ and the _Infant Hercules_, +but it is not by means of such pictures he will be remembered. There +were others who devoted themselves to what they styled high art, with +earnestness worthy of greater success than they achieved. + +[Illustration: DEATH OF WOLFE. _By_ WEST. _In the possession of the Duke +of Westminster._] + +BENJAMIN WEST (1738--1820) was born at Springfield, Pennsylvania, and of +Quaker parents who descended from a Buckinghamshire family of the same +persuasion. He early showed signs of artistic genius, and strange +stories have been told of the precocity of the child. West received his +first colours from Indians, and made his first paint-brush from a cat's +tail. A box of colours, given by a merchant when he was nine years +old, encouraged him to persevere; and we know that the donor of the box +introduced him to a painter named Williams, of Philadelphia, from whom +he derived instruction. West started in life at eighteen as a portrait +painter; first at Philadelphia, then at New York. In 1760, he visited +Italy, and, after remaining there three years, proceeded to England. He +had intended to return to America, but became so successful that he +settled in London. In Rome the young American created a sensation, and +the blind Cardinal Albani, whose acquaintance with Americans must have +been limited, asked if he was black or white. In London West was greatly +sought after, and in 1766, three years after his arrival, he finished +_Orestes and Pylades_ (National Gallery); his house was besieged by the +fashionable world, eager for a glimpse of the picture. West now found +many patrons, among them the Bishops of Bristol and Worcester, and +Drummond, Archbishop of York. The Archbishop was so charmed by _Agrippa +with the Ashes of Germanicus_, that he introduced West to George III., +who became a warm and faithful supporter of the artist. From 1767 to +1802 West was almost exclusively employed by the King, and received +large sums of money. He was one of the original members of the Royal +Academy, and on the death of Reynolds, became President. His inaugural +address, which, like all he did, was highly praised, had two +subjects--the excellence of British art and the gracious benevolence of +his Majesty. The illness of George III. put an end to West's attendance +at Court, and he proceeded into a wider field of art, choosing that of +religion. Here he was more successful than in many of his former +pictures, as in _Christ healing the Sick_ (National Gallery), _Christ +rejected_, and _Death on the Pale Horse_. He died on the 11th of March, +1820, aged eighty-two. West, so popular in the days of George III., is +utterly neglected now. If he aimed at being great, he succeeded only in +the size of his pictures. A cold, passionless mediocrity was the +highest point to which he attained, and of his pictures we may say as +the old Scotsman said of Rob Roy, that they are "too bad for blessing, +and too good for banning." Redgrave says: "His compositions were more +studied than natural, the action often conventional and dramatic; the +draperies, although learned, heavy and without truth. His colour often +wants freshness and variety of tint, and is hot and foxy." We owe to +West, however, the example of courage in attempting great religious +subjects, and in departing from the absurd custom of representing the +warriors of all nations clad like ancient Romans. In his _Death of +Wolfe_, West insisted, contrary to the advice of Reynolds, in painting +his soldiers in their proper dress. + +JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY, R.A. (1737--1815), was born at Boston, America, +then one of our colonies, his father being English and his mother Irish. +Boston in those days could offer no facilities for art-education, but +Copley went to Nature--the best of teachers. He commenced with portraits +and domestic life, and between 1760 and 1767 sent pictures to London, +where they excited considerable interest. In 1774, he visited the Old +World, first England, then Italy, and finally settled in London in 1775. +In the following year he exhibited a "conversation" piece at the Royal +Academy, and was elected an Associate in 1777. In 1778, William Pitt, +Earl of Chatham, whilst speaking in the House of Lords against the +practice of taxing our colonists without their consent, was seized with +a fatal illness. This incident, specially interesting to an American, +suggested _The Death of the Earl of Chatham_ (National Gallery), which +at once raised the painter to a high place in the ranks of British +artists. The popularity of Copley was greatly owing to his choice of +subjects. Instead of dealing with ancient history or classic fables, +with which the general public was but imperfectly acquainted, he +selected events of the day, or of modern times, and contrived to combine +portraiture, ever popular in England, with the dramatic incidents of +his pictures. Copley was made a full member of the Royal Academy in +1779, and maintained his popularity by _The Death of Major Peirson_ +(National Gallery)--which represents an attack of the French on St. +Helier's, Jersey, in 1781, and the fall of young Major Peirson in the +moment of his victory. Following the path thus wisely selected, Copley +produced _Charles I. ordering the Arrest of the Five Members_, _The +Repulse of the Spanish Floating Batteries at Gibraltar by Lord +Heathfield_ (painted for the City of London, now in the Guildhall), _The +Assassination of Buckingham_, _The Battle of the Boyne_, &c. He +exhibited only forty-two works in the Royal Academy, all of which were +portraits except _The Offer of the Crown to Lady Jane Grey_, and _The +Resurrection_. In sacred subjects, Copley was far less successful than +in the particular style of art to which he mainly adhered. His son +became famous as Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst. + +[Illustration: DEATH OF MAJOR PEIRSON. _By_ COPLEY. A.D. 1783. _In the +National Gallery._] + +[Illustration: MERCURY INVENTING THE LYRE. _By_ BARRY.] + +JAMES BARRY, R.A. (1741--1806), who was a contemporary of Benjamin West, +and, like him, aimed at high art, formed a marked contrast to the +favourite painter of George III. Whilst West was well fed and well +clothed, rich, easy-tempered, and happy, Barry was often ragged, +sometimes starving, always poor, and seldom out of a passion. He was +born at Cork, the son of a small coasting trader who kept a tavern. From +such uncongenial surroundings Barry made his way to Dublin, and +exhibited _The Baptism of the King of Cashel by St. Patrick_. This work +attracted considerable notice, and secured for the artist the patronage +of Burke, who sent him to Italy. This was in 1765, but previously to +this date Barry had already visited London, and lived by copying in oil +the drawings of "Athenian Stuart," the Serjeant-Painter who succeeded +Hogarth. Barry's studies in Italy confirmed his ambitious design to +become a painter of high art subjects. With characteristic boldness he +entered the field against the greatest masters, and whilst at Rome +painted _Adam and Eve_, which he thought superior to Raphael's +masterpiece of the same subject. Returning to England in 1770, Barry +exhibited this picture, and began _Venus rising from the Sea_, which was +exhibited in 1772; he was elected a R.A. in the following year. His +undisciplined temper ensured him many enemies, and estranged his few +friends; he even quarrelled with Burke. His pride and courage were +indomitable, and he worked on through good and ill reports, never +swerving from the course he had marked out, and contemptuously +dismissing any chance sitter for a portrait to "the fellow in Leicester +Square," as he styled Sir Joshua Reynolds. In 1777, Barry undertook to +paint in the Great Room of the Society of Arts at the Adelphi a series +of pictures illustrating _Human Culture_. He had previously offered to +decorate the interior of St. Paul's. He began to work at the Adelphi +with sixteen shillings in his pocket, and toiled there during seven +years, being often in absolute want. The Society provided him with +models and materials only, and Barry was to receive the proceeds of +exhibiting his work in return for his unpaid labours. The hope of fame +enabled "the little ordinary man with the dirty shirt" to support +himself through the long years of want and semi-starvation, whilst he +was working for the glory which never came. Barry finished the pictures +at the Adelphi in 1783, and called them severally _The Story of Orpheus: +A Thanksgiving to Ceres and Bacchus_; _The Victors of Olympia_; +_Navigation, or the Triumph of the Thames_; _Distribution of Premiums in +the Society of Arts_; and _Elysium, or the State of Final Retribution_. +The luckless artist had been appointed Professor of Painting at the +Royal Academy in 1772, but outbursts of passion and furious attacks on +his brethren led to his removal from the post, and, in 1779, to his +expulsion from the Academy. He died miserably, in 1806, at the wretched +house he called a home, and the honours which had never blossomed for +the living man were bestowed on the corpse, which lay in state at the +Adelphi, surrounded by the work of his hands. He was buried in St. +Paul's. "There he rests side by side with the great ones of his +profession. Posterity had reversed the positions of West and his +competitor, the first is last, and the last first; but it was hardly to +be expected that the young would be anxious to follow Barry in a line of +art in which neither ability nor perseverance seemed to succeed, or to +start in a career for which not even princely patronage could obtain +public sympathy, nor innate genius, with life-long devotion, win +present fame, hardly indeed a bare subsistence." (_Redgrave._) + +Returning for a moment to _Portrait Painters_, we find two of that class +who were contemporary with Sir Joshua Reynolds, and of whom the first +nearly equalled the president in popularity. + +[Illustration: MARQUIS OF STAFFORD. _By_ ROMNEY. + +_In the possession of the Duke of Sutherland._] + +GEORGE ROMNEY (1734--1802) was born near Dalton-in-Furness, North +Lancashire, and for some years followed his father's craft of +cabinet-making. The story of his life is one of marked success and +singular selfishness. He first studied art with Edward Steele, of +Kendal, a portrait painter of some skill and reputation, who had painted +Sterne. Whilst assisting his master to elope with his future wife, +Romney fell ill, and was nursed by young Mary Abbot. He rewarded the +devotion of his nurse by marrying her, and when she was the mother of +two children, by leaving her at home poor and alone, whilst he was rich +and famous in London. During a long and successful career Romney only +visited his family twice, to find on the second occasion his daughter +dead, and his son grown up and in Holy Orders. The painter's strange, +selfish life ended in imbecility, and the patient wife who had nursed +the youth of twenty-three, soothed the last hours of the man of seventy, +whose fame she had never shared. Romney was as eccentric in life as in +his genius. Shunning the society of his fellow artists, he complained of +their neglect, and refused to enter the Royal Academy. It was said of +Sterne that "he would shed tears over a dead donkey whilst he left a +living mother to starve." In like manner Romney wrote gushing words of +sympathy for the widow of another man, whilst his own wife had been +practically widowed for more than thirty years. Of the intercourse of +Romney with the fair and frail Emma Lyon, who, as Lady Hamilton, +exercised an influence for evil over him and over Nelson, it is not our +province to speak. The fitful temper of the painter led him to begin +numerous pictures he never finished, cart-loads of which were removed +from his house at Hampstead. Romney's want of steadfastness often +compelled him to abandon works of which the conception was greater than +the power to carry it out. There was a want of _thoroughness_ about him, +and even the pictures which he finished seemed incomplete to those who +did not understand them. Noteworthy among these are _Ophelia_, _The +Infant Shakespeare_, and _The Shipwreck_, from "The Tempest." His +portraits, however, form the greater class of his productions. In the +National Gallery are _Study of Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante_, and _The +Parson's Daughter_. "We may sum up all that is to be said of Romney in +this: that whatever he did Reynolds had done much better; that his art +did not advance the taste of the age, or the reputation of the school, +and that it is quite clear, however fashion or faction may have upheld +him in his own day, the succeeding race of painters owed little or +nothing to his teaching." (_Redgrave._) A harsh and unsympathizing +judgment. Truer is it that he never offended the finest taste in art, +that he was a very fair draughtsman, a sound and accomplished painter, +who delineated ladies with the taste of a Greek, and children with +exemplary sweetness. + +JOSEPH WRIGHT (1734--1797) is, from his birth-place, commonly known as +WRIGHT OF DERBY. Quitting his native town, where his father was an +attorney, he reached London in 1751 and became a pupil of Hudson, the +portrait painter. Wright aimed at historical painting, but his works are +chiefly single portraits, and conversation pieces. After revisiting +Derby, he returned to Hudson's studio for a while, and then settled in +his native town, where he practised his art with success. He often +represented candle-light and fire-light effects, as may be seen in _The +Orrery_, _The Iron Forge_, and _The Experiment with the Air-Pump_ +(National Gallery). Marrying in 1773, Wright went with his wife to Italy +and remained there two years. He witnessed an eruption of Mount +Vesuvius, and painted that event with success, as well as the display of +fire-works at the Castle of St. Angelo, at Rome, which is known as the +_Girandola_. Returning to England, Wright painted at first at Bath; but +being unsuccessful, he returned to Derby, where he died in 1797. He +contributed a few works to the Royal Academy after quitting Italy; +_Vesuvius_, and the _Girandola_ were exhibited there in 1778. Wright was +elected an Associate in 1782, but removed his name from the Academy +books two years later. This step was taken either because Edmund Garvey, +a landscape painter, was elected a R.A. before him, or because Wright +had refused to comply with one of the Academy rules, and present works +to the society before receiving his diploma. He was said to be a shy, +irritable man, always ill, or fancying himself so, and ready to take +offence easily. Such are the unconfirmed statements of the advocates of +the Academy. He painted landscapes in his latter days, _The Head of +Ulleswater_ was his last picture. Best known among his works are _The +dead Soldier_, _Belshazzar's Feast_, _Hero and Leander_, _The Storm_ +(from "Winter's Tale"), and _Cicero's Villa_. Wright's most remarkable +fire-light effects are _The Hermit_, _The Gladiator_, _The Indian +Widow_, _The Orrery_, and, already mentioned, the _Air-Pump_. Like +Hogarth and Copley, he painted in that solid old English method which +insured the preservation of his works. "On the whole it cannot be said +that Wright's pictures have added much to the reputation of the British +school. As a portrait painter he is hardly in the second rank." His +portraits have a heavy look; of his landscapes it has been averred that +"they are large and simple in manner, but heavy and empty." + + +THE SUCCESSORS OF SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. + +Portrait-painting, always popular in England, continued to flourish +after the deaths of Reynolds and Gainsborough. Although the magic +touches of these masters cannot be found in the art of their immediate +followers, their influence produced several original and independent +artists, who, though successors, were not imitators. + +NATHANIEL DANCE (1734--1811) studied art under Frank Hayman, R.A., and +visited Italy with Angelica Kauffman. Returning to England he achieved +success as a painter, both of portraits and historic pieces. He was one +of the original members of the Royal Academy, from which he retired in +1790, on marrying a wealthy widow: he took the name of Holland and was +made a baronet ten years later. His best-known works are the _Death of +Virginia_, _Garrick as Richard III._, _Timon of Athens_ (Royal +Collection) and _Captain Cook_ (Greenwich Hospital). + +JAMES NORTHCOTE (1746--1831), the son of a watchmaker of Plymouth, spent +seven years as an apprentice to his father's craft, all the while +longing to be a painter. He was a man of indefatigable industry, who, in +spite of a defective education and few opportunities for improvement, +made his mark both as an artist and a writer on art. He was the +favourite pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds and his first biographer. Leaving +Reynolds in 1775, Northcote returned to Devonshire, and for two years +successfully painted portraits. From 1777 to 1780 he was in Italy +studying the old masters, especially Titian. He settled in London on +returning home, and maintained himself by portrait-painting. He was, +however, ambitious to succeed with historic pictures, though compelled +to confine himself to more saleable subjects, such as _A Visit to +Grandmamma_, and similar domestic scenes. Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery +gave Northcote a new opening in the line he yearned to practise. Among +nine pictures produced for this series, that of the _Murder of the Young +Princes in the Tower_, painted in 1786, brought the artist prominently +into notice. The _Death of Wat Tyler_, now in Guildhall, London, is one +of his best works. His _Diligent and Dissipated Servants_, a series +suggested by Hogarth's _Idle and Industrious Apprentices_, falls very +far below the standard of the original series. Noteworthy facts in +Northcote's historic pictures are the incongruity of the dresses, and +frequent gross anachronisms. Thus we have Sisera lying on a feather bed +and attired like a trooper of Cromwell's Ironsides, and Jael dressed +like a modern maid-of-all-work. In the Shakespearian pictures Hubert of +the thirteenth century, and Richard III. of the fifteenth century, alike +wear the dress of Elizabeth's day. Wat Tyler and the murderers in the +Tower wear the same armour, which belongs to the Stuart period. Such +mistakes, however, were common among all painters of his time. + +[Illustration: CHARITY. _By_ NORTHCOTE. A.D. 1783.] + +JOHN OPIE (1761--1807), the rival and friend of Northcote, was like him +a West countryman, and like him rose from the ranks. Born at St. Agnes, +near Truro, the son of a carpenter, Opie early showed intelligence and +quickness in acquiring knowledge which marked him out for a higher +sphere than a carpenter's shop. After evincing taste for art, and +disgusting his father by decorating a saw-pit with chalk, he found +patrons in Lord Bateman and Dr. Wolcot, the famous _Peter Pindar_. Some +biographers have described Opie as becoming the doctor's footboy, but +this is a mistake. Walcot brought the young painter to London and +introduced him to Sir Joshua Reynolds, but the selfish patronage of the +doctor soon came to an end. Opie was at first vigorously advertised in +London as "the Cornish Wonder"-- + + "the Cornish boy, in tin-mines bred, + Whose native genius, like his diamonds, shone + In secret, till chance gave him to the sun." + +Reynolds told Northcote that Opie was "like Caravaggio and Velasquez in +one." In 1782 the painter married his first wife, from whom he was +subsequently divorced owing to her misconduct. Although Opie was no +longer the wonder of the hour in fickle London, he was achieving more +enduring fame. His defective education, both in literature and art, left +much to be learned, and he set himself to supply his defects with a +laborious zeal which finally affected his brain and prematurely ended +his life. His earliest works in London were studies of heads and +portraits. In 1786, he produced the _Assassination of James I. of +Scotland_, a _Sleeping Nymph_, and _Cupid stealing a Kiss_. Next year +saw his _Murder of David Rizzio_. He was elected an Associate of the +Royal Academy in 1787, and a full member within a year. In the next +seven years he exhibited twenty pictures, all portraits. Opie was +engaged to paint for Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery, and contributed five +pictures, which improved as they progressed. Portrait-painting continued +to be, however, the most lucrative pursuit, and having been introduced +to some patrons at Norwich, Opie saw and married Amelia Alderson, who +afterwards wrote Memoirs of her husband, and described the hard +struggles which he had at times to encounter. His love for art and +untiring industry remained to the last. Even when dying, and at times +delirious, he gave advice about the finishing of pictures which he +wished to send to the Academy. It was said of him, that "whilst other +artists painted to live, he lived to paint." He was buried in St. +Paul's. Opie wrote several works on art, and was Professor of Painting +in the Royal Academy. His answer to a troublesome inquirer truly +expresses the character of his work. "What do I mix my colours with? +Why, with brains." Two of Opie's pictures are in the National Gallery--a +_Portrait of William Siddons_, and _Troilus, Cressida, and Pandarus_. Of +his art generally it may be said that he possessed considerable power +and breadth of treatment. His handling was often coarse, and his +colouring crude, especially in female portraits; in fact, coarseness was +the leading characteristic of works which were never tame or spiritless. + +SIR WILLIAM BEECHEY (1753--1839) was a portrait painter who received a +considerable share of Court favour. He is variously stated to have begun +life as a house-painter, or as a solicitor's clerk. He devoted himself +to the study of art at the Royal Academy. He lived for a time at +Norwich, produced conversation pieces in the style of Hogarth, but +finally settled in London as a portrait painter, and practised with +considerable success. In 1793 Beechey was elected A.R.A., and executed a +portrait of _Queen Charlotte_, who was so well pleased with it that she +appointed him her Majesty's portrait painter. Thus introduced to Court, +Beechey trod "the primrose path" of success, and in 1798 painted an +equestrian portrait of George III., with likenesses of the Prince of +Wales and Duke of York at a review in Hyde Park. The painter was +knighted, and elected a Royal Academician. The picture of _George III. +Reviewing the 3rd and 10th Dragoons_ is at Hampton Court. His _Portrait +of Nollekens_, the sculptor, is in the National Gallery. Beechey's chief +merit is accuracy of likeness. + +JOHN HOPPNER (1759--1810) was another portrait painter who prospered at +Court. At first a chorister in the Chapel Royal, he studied art at the +Academy schools, became an Associate in 1793, and was elected full +member in 1795. He enjoyed vast popularity as a portrait painter, +finding a rival only in Lawrence. Many of Hoppner's best works are at +St. James's Palace. Three of them are in the National Gallery--_William +Pitt_, _"Gentleman" Smith_, the actor, and the _Countess of Oxford_. +Three of his works are at Hampton Court; among them is _Mrs. Jordan as +the Comic Muse_. + +Examples of the work of nearly all the above-mentioned portrait painters +may be consulted in the National Portrait Gallery at South Kensington. + + +ANIMAL PAINTERS. + +The first animal painters in England were willing to win money, if not +fame, by taking the portraits of favourite race-horses and prize oxen +for the country squires, who loved to decorate their walls with pictures +of their ancestors, and their studs. The first to make a name in this +branch of art was JOHN WOOTTON, a pupil of John Wyck. He became famous +in the sporting circles of Newmarket for his likenesses of race-horses, +and received large sums for pictures of dogs and horses. Later, he +attempted landscapes, chiefly hunting scenes. His works are in country +mansions, especially at Blenheim, Longleat, and Dytchley. Wootton died +in 1765. + +JAMES SEYMOUR (1702--1752) was famous also as a painter of race-horses +and hunting-pieces; he is best known by the engravings after his works. + +GEORGE STUBBS (1724--1806) was the son of a Liverpool surgeon, from whom +he probably inherited his love for anatomy. He worked at painting and +conducted anatomic studies with equal zeal throughout his life, and is +said to have carried, on one occasion, a dead horse on his back to his +dissecting-room. This story is more than doubtful, though Stubbs was a +man of great physical strength. He was the first to give the poetry of +life and motion to pictures of animals, and to go beyond the mere +portrait of a Newmarket favourite or an over-fed ox. The Royal Academy +elected him an Associate in 1780, but as he declined to present one of +his works, he was never made a full member. Among his works are a _Lion +killing a Horse_, a _Tiger lying in his Den_, a noble life-size portrait +of the famous racing-horse _Whistle-jacket_, which is at Wentworth +Woodhouse, and _The Fall of Phaeton_. The last picture he repeated four +times. He published _The Anatomy of the Horse_, with etchings from his +own dissections. + +SAWREY GILPIN (1733--1807) attained considerable success as an animal +painter. He was born at Carlisle, and was sent to London as a clerk. +Like many others he preferred the studio to the office, and having +obtained the favour of the Duke of Cumberland at Newmarket, Gilpin was +provided with a set of rooms, and soon became known as a painter of +horses. In 1770 he exhibited at Spring Gardens _Darius obtaining the +Persian Empire by the Neighing of his Horse_, and next year _Gulliver +taking Leave of the Houyhnhnms_. Gilpin was elected a R.A. in 1797. + +[Illustration: THE WATERING PLACE. _By_ MORLAND.] + +GEORGE MORLAND (1763--1804), though not exclusively an animal painter, +is best known in that branch of art. His life's story describes wasted +opportunities, reckless extravagance, and misused talents. Brought up +with unwise strictness by his father, HENRY ROBERT MORLAND (died 1797), +a portrait painter of note, George Morland no sooner escaped from home +discipline than he began that course of riotous living which ended in a +dishonoured grave, for which he prepared the epitaph:--"Here lies a +drunken dog." It is a mistake to suppose that Morland was a self-taught +genius, since, although his father objected to his entering the Academy +schools, he himself was his teacher, and so assiduously kept the boy at +his studies that he learned to hate the name of work. + +As early as 1779 young Morland was an honorary exhibitor of sketches at +the Academy. At nineteen he had thrown off home ties, and was living a +reckless life of debauchery. Like most prodigals who think themselves +free, Morland became a slave. His task-master was a picture dealer, who +made money by the genius of the youth whose ruin he promoted. Leaving +him, the artist went to Margate, and painted miniatures for a time, +going thence to France. He would settle to no regular work, although his +necessities compelled him at times to labour lest he should starve. The +next scene in Morland's life is his sojourn with his friend William +Ward, the mezzotint-engraver, where an honourable attachment to Nancy +Ward for a time induced him to work. The pictures he painted at this +time were suggested by Hogarth's works, and had subjects with which +Morland was only too well acquainted. _The Idle and Industrious +Mechanic_, _The Idle Laundress and Industrious Cottager_, _Letitia_, or +_Seduction_ (a series), were studied from the life. In 1786 Morland +married Miss Ward, but there was no improvement in his manner of life. +Sometimes he was surrounded by eager purchasers, and using his +popularity as a means for greater extravagance. At one time we see him +keeping ten or twelve horses, and cheated right and left by profligates +who combined horse-racing, betting, and picture dealing. The luckless +Morland was the ready victim of these associates. His pictures were +copied as he painted them, during his temporary absence from the studio. +In 1790 Morland was at his best, _The Gipsies_ being painted two years +later. His last days were dark indeed. Loaded with debt, and dreading +arrest, he laboured like a slave, seldom leaving his studio, where his +pot-companions alternately rioted and acted as his models, and dogs, +pigs, and birds shared the disorderly room. In 1799, he was arrested, +and lived within the Rules of the Fleet, amid all the debaucheries of +that evil place and time. Freed by the Insolvent Act in 1802, the +painter, broken in health and ruined in character, was once again +arrested for a tavern score, and ended his life in a sponging-house on +October 29th, 1804. His wife died of grief three days later, and was +interred with her husband in the burial-ground of St. James's Chapel, +Hampstead Road. + +Morland chiefly painted country scenes, the memories of happier days, +and introduced animals, such as pigs and asses, to his works. Produced +for existence, and in a fitful, uncertain manner, his pictures were +hastily conceived, and painted with little thought or study. He did much +to bring the simple beauty of English scenes before the eyes of the +public, and to teach Englishmen that they need not go to Italy in search +of subjects for their art. Morland loved low company, even in his +pictures, and was at home in a ruined stable, with a ragged jackass, and +"dirty Brookes," the cobbler. In the National Gallery are: _The Inside +of a Stable_, said to be the White Lion at Paddington, and _A Quarry +with Peasants_, by him. In the South Kensington Museum is an excellent +example of his art, called _The Reckoning_; and in the National Portrait +Gallery is his own portrait, painted by himself at an early age. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +BOOK ILLUSTRATORS. + + +The earliest book illustrations in England were illuminations and +repetitions of them on wood. Frontispieces followed, in which a portrait +was surrounded by an allegory. Of this branch of art WILLIAM FAITHORNE +(1616--1691) and DAVID LOGGAN (about 1630--1693) were practitioners. +Topographical views, subjects from natural history, and botany followed. +Hogarth's designs for "Hudibras" were among the earlier illustrations of +a story. FRANCIS HAYMAN (1708--1776), his friend, illustrated Congreve's +plays, Milton, Hanmer's Shakespeare, and other works. He was followed by +SAMUEL WALE (died 1786), and JOSEPH HIGHMORE (1692--1780), who +illustrated "Pamela." Towards the close of the eighteenth century, book +illustrations had become a recognised class of art-works. Bell's +"British Poets," commenced in 1778, the British Theatre, and +Shakespeare, opened a wide field for artists of this order. Cipriani, +Angelica Kauffman, William Hamilton, and Francis Wheatley, all members +of the Royal Academy, were employed to illustrate Bell's publications. +Famous among book illustrators was-- + +[Illustration: FROM DANTE'S INFERNO. _By_ BLAKE.] + +WILLIAM BLAKE (1757--1827).--Though born in no higher grade than that of +trade, and in no more romantic spot than Broad Street, Golden Square, +William Blake, a hosier's son, was a poet, a painter, an engraver, and +even a printer. His genius was of an original, eccentric kind, and +there were many who believed him crazed. During his long life he was "a +dreamer of dreams" and a poetic visionary. Now he was meeting "the grey, +luminous, majestic, colossal shadows" of Moses and Dante; now believing +that Lot occupied the vacant chair in his painting-room. Anon he fancied +that his dead brother had revealed to him a new process of drawing on +copper, which he practised with great success. Neglected and +misunderstood, Blake was always busy, always poor, and always happy. He +lived beyond the cares of every-day life, in a dream-world of his own, +occasionally "seeing fairies' funerals, or drawing the demon of a flea." +In spite of poverty and neglect, the poet-painter was contented. Rescued +from the hosier's business, for which he was intended, Blake at the age +of fourteen was apprenticed to the younger Basire, an engraver. +Throughout his life he worked not for money but for art, declaring that +his business was "not to gather gold, but to make glorious shapes, +expressing godlike sentiments." Hard work with the graver gave him +bread, and when the day's toil was over he could illustrate teeming +fancies in pictures and in verses. He worked at first chiefly at book +illustrations. Marrying in his twenty-fifth year, his wife, named +Katherine Boucher, proved a faithful and useful helpmeet, one who +considered her husband's excursions to be dictated by superior +knowledge. Blake's courtship was brief and characteristic. As he was +telling his future wife of his troubles, caused by the levity of another +damsel, she said, "I pity you." "Do you pity me?" answered the painter; +"then I love you for it!" And they were married. It is not wonderful +that Blake's contemporaries thought him mad, as he often did strange +things. In 1791 Blake designed and engraved six plates to illustrate +"Tales for Children" by Mary Wollstonecraft, and later, his "Book of +Job," Dante's "Inferno," Young's "Night's Thoughts," Blair's "Grave," +and other series. Many of his designs show majestic and beautiful +thoughts, a bizarre, but frequently soaring and stupendous invention, +great beauty of colour, energy, sweetness, and even beauty of form; they +were rarely otherwise than poetic. Some are natural and simple, with +occasional flashes, such as belonged to all Blake's productions. The +process of drawing on, or rather excavating copper, which he declared +had been revealed to him by his brother's ghost, furnished a raised +surface, from which Blake was able to print both the design and the +verses he composed. By this process he produced his own "Songs of +Innocence and of Experience," sixty-eight lyrics, of which it has been +said that "they might have been written by an inspired child, and are +unapproached save by Wordsworth for exquisite tenderness or for +fervour." Then followed "America, a Prophecy," and "Europe, a Prophecy," +irregularly versified, imaginative, and almost unintelligible +productions. He was illustrating Dante when he died, and, happy to the +last, passed away singing extemporaneous songs. + +[Illustration: THE DREAM. _By_ STOTHARD.] + +THOMAS STOTHARD (1755--1834) began life as a designer for brocaded +silks, but, on finding the true bent of his genius, he made designs for +the "Town and Country Magazine," and the "Novelist's Magazine," +"Ossian," and Bell's "Poets." His works deal with the gentler and +sweeter side of human nature, and we can trace the quiet, simple +character of the man in them. His eleven illustrations of "Peregrine +Pickle" appeared in 1781, and are excellent examples of his truthfulness +and grace. He was essentially a quietist, and scenes of passion and +tumult were foreign to his genius. Trunnion and Pipes became living men +under his pencil, and "Clarissa" and others of Richardson's romances +gained from him an immortality which they would never have acquired by +their own merits. In 1788 Stothard produced illustrations of the +"Pilgrim's Progress," which, though possessing sweetness and beauty, +deal with subjects beyond his grasp. His designs for "Robinson Crusoe" +are among his best works. Stothard was made an A.R.A. in 1791, and a +full member of the Royal Academy in 1794. His best known painting is +_Intemperance_, on the staircase of Burghley House, in Northamptonshire. +There are eight works by him in the National Gallery, including the +original sketch of _Intemperance_. One of his most popular, though not +the best of his pictures, is the _Procession of the Canterbury +Pilgrims_. A collection of Stothard's designs is in the British Museum. + +JOHN HAMILTON MORTIMER (1741--1779), a native of Eastbourne, came to +London, and made a promising beginning in the world of art. He gained +the Society of Arts's premium of a hundred guineas with _St. Paul +converting the Britons_, and painted other large historic pictures. +Mortimer, however, fell into extravagant habits, and neglected art. His +oil paintings are "heavy and disagreeable in colour;" his drawings are +better. He drew designs for Bell's "Poets," "Shakespeare," and other +works, choosing scenes in which bandits and monsters play conspicuous +parts. + +THOMAS KIRK (died 1797), a pupil of Cosway, was an artist of much +promise. His best works were designs for Cooke's "Poets." + +RICHARD WESTALL (1765--1836) was a designer for books as well as a +water-colour painter. He made designs for Bibles and Prayer-books, which +were very popular. His best-known works are illustrations of the +"Arabian Nights." His brother WILLIAM WESTALL (1781--1850), was a +designer of considerable note, especially of landscapes. + +[Illustration: THE PORTRAIT. _By_ SMIRKE.] + +ROBERT SMIRKE (1752--1845), a native of Wigton, in Cumberland, is +chiefly known by his illustrations of Shakespeare and Cervantes. He came +early to London, and, as an apprentice to an heraldic painter, decorated +coach panels. He studied at the Academy, and in 1786 exhibited +_Sabrina_, from "Comus," and _Narcissus_. When chosen a full member of +the Academy Smirke's diploma picture was _Don Quixote and Sancho_. In +the National Gallery are twelve illustrations of "Don Quixote," three +representing scenes of the same story, and a scene from the "Hypocrite," +in which _Mawworm, Dr. Cantwell, and Lady Lambert_ appear. + +THOMAS UWINS (1782--1857) began life as an apprentice to an engraver, +entered the Royal Academy schools, and became known as a designer for +books, as well as a portrait painter. His book designs were chiefly +frontispieces, vignettes, and title-page adornments. Uwins for a time +belonged to the Society of Water-colour Painters--from 1809 to 1818. In +1824 he visited Italy, and, after seven years' sojourn, returned to win +fame and honour by oil paintings. He was elected an A.R.A. in 1833; a +Royal Academician in 1839, and subsequently held the offices of +Librarian to the Academy, Surveyor of her Majesty's Pictures, and Keeper +of the National Gallery. Among his best pictures are _Le Chapeau de +Brigand_, and the _Vintage in the Claret Vineyards_ (National Gallery); +_The Italian Mother teaching her Child the Tarantella_, and a +_Neapolitan Boy decorating the Head of his Innamorata_ (South Kensington +Museum). + + * * * * * + +Before quitting this branch of art mention must be made of one who, +though an engraver and not a painter, occupies an important place among +book illustrators:-- + +THOMAS BEWICK (1753--1828), born at Cherryburn, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, +adopted a fine mode of wood-engraving. Hitherto many illustrations of +books had been engraved on copper, and were necessarily separate from +the letterpress. Bewick's process allowed the cut and the words it +illustrated to be printed at the same time. In this way he adorned +"Gay's Fables," a "General History of Quadrupeds," and his most famous +work, "The History of British Birds" (1797), in which he showed the +knowledge of a naturalist combined with the skill of an artist. His last +work was the illustrations of AEsop's Fables, upon which he was engaged +six years. He was assisted by his brother John Bewick, who founded a +school of wood-engravers, and by some of John's pupils, among whom were +Robert Johnson and Luke Clennell. + +We have already seen that modern English art began with portraiture, +which always has been, and always will be, popular. We have noticed some +miniature painters, or "limners in little," who flourished in the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when miniature painting had among +its greatest masters Samuel Cooper, who has never been surpassed. + +[Illustration: THE WOODCOCK. _From "History of British Birds," by_ +THOMAS BEWICK.] + +THOMAS FLATMAN (1633--1688), an Oxford man and a barrister, who deserted +the Bar and became a painter, obtained great success in miniature. + +ALEXANDER BROWNE, his contemporary, painted portraits of Charles II. and +other members of the Court. He was also an engraver and published, in +1699, a work entitled "Ars Pictoria," with thirty-one etchings. + +LEWIS CROSSE (died 1724) was the chief miniature painter of Queen Anne's +reign. + +[Illustration: _Tailpiece by_ BEWICK.] + +CHARLES BOIT, a Swede by birth, practised at this period as a miniature +painter. Failing in his business as a jeweller, he left London in order +to teach drawing in the country. Here he is said to have induced a +pupil, daughter of an officer, to promise him marriage, and the intrigue +having been discovered, the expectant bridegroom was thrown into prison +for two years, where he employed himself in acquiring the art of +enamel-painting. Miniature painting is of two kinds--portraits in water +colour on ivory and in enamel on copper, the latter being the more +complicated mode. Boit on his release practised miniature-painting in +London, and gained high prices for his works, although his colouring is +by no means pleasant. He was in favour at Court, but, while attempting +to prepare a plate larger than ordinary to contain portraits of the +Royal family and chief courtiers, Queen Anne died, and Boit, having +borrowed money for the plate, was left without hope of being able to pay +his creditors. Escaping to France, he again succeeded in his art, and +died at Paris in 1726. + +CHRISTIAN FREDERICK ZINCKE (1684--1767), though a native of Dresden, +identified himself with art in England. He was a pupil of Boit, but soon +outshone his master. His enamel painting was simple yet refined, his +drawing graceful, his colour pleasing. George II. was among his numerous +patrons. Several of Zincke's enamels are in the Royal Collection. + +JAMES DEACON succeeded Zincke as a tenant of his house in Tavistock +Street, Covent Garden, and bid fair to succeed to his place as a +miniature painter, when he caught gaol fever at a trial at the Old +Bailey, and died in 1750. + +JARVIS SPENCER, who had been a domestic servant, gained by his talent +and perseverance a high place among miniature painters of this period. +Indeed, after the death of Deacon, he was the fashionable painter of his +class. He died in 1763. + +Other artists combined the skill of a jeweller and goldsmith with that +of an enameller. It was the fashion to decorate watches, brooches, +snuff-boxes, and other trinkets with portraits of friends and lovers of +the owner, and thus the work of the goldsmith and the miniature painter +were allied. + +GEORGE MICHAEL MOSER, R.A. (1704--1783), the son of a sculptor at St. +Gall, in Switzerland, came to England in his early days, and first +gained notice as a chaser of brass-work, the favourite decoration of the +furniture of that period. As an enamel painter he was justly celebrated, +and employed to decorate the watch of George III. with portraits of the +two elder Princes. He designed the Great Seal. Moser was a member of the +St. Martin's Lane Academy, and in 1766 joined the Incorporated Society +of Artists. He was a founder of the Royal Academy, and its first Keeper. + +NATHANIEL HONE (1718--1784) stands next to Zincke as a miniature +painter, although there is a wide gulf between them. He was self-taught, +and on quitting his native Dublin, spent some time in the provinces +practising as a portrait painter, and afterwards achieved great success +in London. He was one of the foundation members of the Royal Academy, +but brought himself into disgrace with that body by lampooning the +President in a picture which he sent for exhibition. + +JEREMIAH MEYER (1735--1789) is said to have been a pupil of Zincke, but +this is probably an error. Passing from the St. Martin's Lane Academy, +Meyer, a native of Wuertemberg, became Enamel Painter to George III., and +Miniature Painter to the Queen. Careful study of Reynolds is apparent in +his works. He was one of the original members of the Royal Academy. + +RICHARD COLLINS (1755--1831), a pupil of Meyer, held the post of +Miniature Painter to George III., and his works formed important +elements in the Academy exhibitions. + +SAMUEL SHELLEY, though born in Whitechapel, surely an inartistic +locality, and having little art education, became a fashionable +miniature painter. He studied Reynolds with advantage, and treated +historic incidents in miniature. He was one of the founders of the +Water-Colour Society, and died in 1808. + +JAMES NIXON, A.R.A. (about 1741--1812), was Limner to the Prince Regent, +and a clever designer of book illustrations. + +OZIAS HUMPHREY (1742--1810) commenced miniature-painting at Bath, after +being a pupil in the Academy in St. Martin's Lane. He returned to London +at the invitation of Reynolds. A miniature exhibited by him in 1766 +attracted universal notice, and gained for him patronage from the King. +Compelled by ill health to go abroad in 1772, Humphrey studied Italian +art, and came back in five years fired with a desire to attempt +historical painting. Here he failed, and neither by historic subjects +nor portraits in oil could he gain the success attending his miniatures. +Disappointed, he went to India in 1785, and painted illustrious natives +of that country. Three years later Humphrey was re-established as a +miniature painter in London, where he was elected a Royal Academician +in 1791. Six years later his eyesight entirely failed. It is said of his +miniatures that they are the nearest to the pictures of Reynolds. +Humphrey was also successful in crayons. + +GEORGE ENGLEHEART, who exhibited miniature portraits at the Royal +Academy as early as 1773, was, in 1790, appointed Miniature Painter to +the King. He painted on both enamel and ivory. He exhibited until 1812. + +RICHARD COSWAY (1740--1821) was famous for skill in miniature-painting, +in which no one of his day could approach him, and for vanity, +extravagance, and eccentricity. A _specialite_ of his was the +composition of small whole-lengths, the bodies of which were executed in +pencil, the faces in colour. No beauty of the day was happy unless her +charms had been delineated by Cosway; the fair companions of the Prince +Regent were among his warmest patrons, and the Prince was a frequent +visitor to the artist. Cosway's wife, Maria, was a clever miniature +painter, and worked for Boydell's Shakespeare and Macklin's "Poets." Of +the scandals concerning her and her husband we need not speak. In his +latter years Cosway professed to believe in Swedenborg, and in animal +magnetism, pretended to be conversing with people abroad, claimed to +have the power of raising the dead, and declared that the Virgin Mary +frequently sat to him for her portrait. He was elected Associate of the +Royal Academy in 1770, and full member in 1771. + +HENRY BONE (1755--1834) commenced life as an apprentice to a porcelain +manufacturer at Plymouth, where he painted flowers and landscapes on +china, and secured success as an enameller. Passing from the +manufactory, Bone began work in London by enamelling small trinkets. He +first came into general notice in 1781, by means of a portrait of his +own wife. Bone's success was rapid. He was made an Academician in 1811, +and was Enamel Painter to George III., George IV., and William IV. His +most famous works were miniatures after Reynolds, Titian, Murillo and +Raphael. Remarkable also are his portraits of the Russell family from +Henry VII.'s reign, the famous royalists of the civil war, and +eighty-five likenesses of Elizabethan worthies. + +HENRY EDRIDGE (1769--1821) was another miniature painter, who owed some +of his success to careful following of Reynolds. He painted miniatures +on ivory, and for a time on paper, using the lead pencil over Indian ink +washes. He was also highly successful as a landscape painter in water +colours. + +ANDREW ROBERTSON (1777--1845), the son of a cabinet-maker at Aberdeen, +came to London on foot in 1801, and gained the patronage of Benjamin +West, the President, whose portrait he painted. Robertson became, in due +course, a very successful miniature painter, and practised his art for +more than thirty years. His likenesses are truthful, but do not stand in +the first rank of miniature-painting. + +ALFRED EDWARD CHALON (1781--1860), born in Geneva, and of French +extraction, holds a high place in the history of English art as a +portrait painter in water colours; his miniatures on ivory are full of +life, vigour, and originality. He was elected R.A. in 1816. As a painter +in oils, Alfred Chalon achieved a high degree of success. _Hunt the +Slipper_, _Samson and Delilah_ (exhibited for the second time at the +International Exhibition in 1862), and _Sophia Western_ deserve notice +among his oil paintings. Chalon could not only paint with originality, +but could catch the manner of the old masters with such accuracy, that +some of his works were attributed even by the skilful to Rubens, +Watteau, and others. His elder brother, JOHN JAMES CHALON (1778--1854), +obtained celebrity as a landscape painter. + +WILLIAM ESSEX (1784--1869) painted in enamel, and exhibited a portrait +of the _Empress Josephine_, after Isabey, at the Royal Academy in 1824. +In 1839 he was appointed painter in enamels to the Queen, and in 1841 +to the Prince Consort. He was one of the last of the painters in enamel. + +[Illustration: MORNING WALK. _By_ ALFRED E. CHALON.] + +WILLIAM DERBY (1786--1847) was celebrated for his careful copies in +miniature of celebrated portraits. He was largely employed on Lodge's +"Portraits of Illustrious Persons." + +With SIR WILLIAM CHARLES ROSS (1794--1860) ends the school of deceased +miniature painters. Ross was an artist even in the nursery. He became an +assistant to Andrew Robertson, and although his forte was +miniature-painting, he longed for the higher flight of historic art. His +_Judgment of Brutus_, _Christ casting out Devils_ (exhibited in 1825), +and _The Angel Raphael discoursing with Adam and Eve_ (to which an +additional premium of L100 was awarded at the Cartoon Exhibition in +1843), are specimens of his power in this branch of art, at different +periods. It is as a miniature painter that he will live in the history +of art. He was elected to the full rank of R.A. in 1839, and was +knighted in the same year. The Court smiled upon him. He painted +miniatures of the Queen and Royal Family, the Saxe-Gotha Family, and the +King and Queen of Portugal. The late Emperor of the French, when Prince +Louis Napoleon, was among his numerous sitters. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +PAINTERS IN WATER COLOURS. + +(1750--1875.) + + +Water-colour painting is in one sense the most ancient mode of pictorial +art. We find examples of it in the tombs of the Egyptians, in the Roman +catacombs, and in the houses of Pompeii. Oil painting is, in comparison, +a modern process, though the statement that it was only discovered by +the Van Eycks in the beginning of the fifteenth century, is now known to +be a mistake. The earliest pictures were produced with colours soluble +in water and mixed with certain ingredients necessary to fix them. In +this way wall paintings were executed in tempera, a process familiar to +us as _painting in distemper_. Raphael's cartoons are specimens of +tempera-painting on paper, and Mantegna's _Triumph of Caesar_ (Hampton +Court) furnish examples of the like process on canvas. The art of +water-colour painting was practised by the early Italian and German +artists, and by those of the Flemish and Dutch schools. In most of the +illuminations of missals, in this and other countries, water colours +were used, mixed extensively with body white. Such was the case with the +early miniature painters of England, who began by using opaque colours, +and gradually advanced to transparent pigments. Notwithstanding the +antiquity of painting in water colours, the creation of a School of +Water-Colour Art, in the sense in which that term is now understood, +belongs to this country. It was not to the tempera painter, nor to the +illuminator of missals, nor to the early miniaturist that we owe this +modern school. We must look for its germ in the practice of the +topographer, who drew ruins, buildings, and landscapes for the +antiquary. The earliest of such works were executed in outline with a +reed pen. Examples are to be seen in some small pictures by Albrecht +Duerer, in the British Museum. The pigments used were transparent, and +applied on paper. The earliest of these pictures are in monochrome, +black or grey; next, colour was added here and there, and the whole +effect was something like that of a coloured print. Such were "the +tinted," or "steyned" drawings in which our modern water-colour +paintings originated. The early method prevailed for a long time, as may +be seen in the historic collection of water-colour paintings at South +Kensington, but gradually the art developed, better pigments were used, +and, as early as 1790, a marked improvement accrued, which led to the +triumphs of Girtin and Turner, and the more brilliant examples of later +days. One great advantage belongs to the modern school of water +colours--it started from nature, untrammelled by conventional rules or +traditions. The early topographers were brought face to face with +nature; some of them, like Webber and Alexander, extended their +observations to foreign lands; others, finding out the beauties of their +own country, were content to copy nature. It remained to our artists +towards the end of the last, and early in the present century, to give a +new and higher character to water-colour art, which from obscure +beginnings has risen to be a purely national and original school. +Practised by a succession cf men of great genius, a distinct branch of +art has been created, taking rank with works in oil. More luminous, and +hardly less powerful than pictures in that medium, it has lent itself, +in skilled hands, to the fullest expression of nature, and perfect +rendering of the ideal. + +PAUL SANDBY (1725--1809) has been called "the father of water-colour +art;" but as he never advanced beyond the tinted mode, and to the last +used Indian ink for shadows, and the pen for outlines, the title is +unmerited. Sandby was a native of Nottingham, and having served in the +Drawing Office in the Tower, he settled at Windsor in 1752, and became +instructor in drawing to the children of George III. He was one of the +original members of the Royal Academy in 1768, and at the same time was +made drawing master in the Military School at Woolwich. He painted many +scenes in the neighbourhood of Windsor, and for Sir Watkin W. Wynn and +Sir Joseph Banks landscapes in Wales. Specimens of his art in +body-colour and tinting are in the South Kensington collection, +including _An Ancient Beech Tree_, which is painted in body-colour; _The +Round Temple_ is in Indian ink, slightly tinted; _Landscape with Dog and +figures_, is in the fully tinted manner. + +THOMAS HEARNE (1744--1817) came early from Wiltshire to London, and was +intended for trade. He was, however, apprenticed to Woollett, the +engraver. In 1771, he went to the Leeward Isles as draughtsman to the +Governor, and this new occupation induced him to abandon engraving for +topography. He tinted landscapes, with local colour largely used. His +_Village Alehouse_, _View of Richmond_, two shipping scenes after Van de +Velde, and _Caistor Castle_ are at South Kensington. + +WILLIAM PAYNE, who at one time held a civil appointment in Plymouth +dockyard, came to London in 1790. He had previously exhibited tinted +pictures of Devonshire scenery, which attracted the notice of Reynolds. +He is best known as the introducer of a neutral colour, styled _Payne's +Grey_. + +ALEXANDER COZENS (died 1786), a natural son of Peter the Great, was born +in Russia. After studying art in Italy he came to England in 1746, and +practised as a teacher of drawing. Gifted with a fine poetic feeling, +and having a noble sense of breadth, this artist made a deep impression +on those who followed him. + +JOHN WEBBER (1752--1793) travelled in Italy, France, and Switzerland, +and made numerous drawings. He was draughtsman to Captain Cook in his +last voyage, and a witness of his death. + +JOHN ROBERT COZENS (1752--1799), son of Alexander Cozens, was one of the +earliest who practised water-colour painting in the modern sense of the +term. His works in the tinted manner are full of poetic beauty, and +exhibit a marked improvement on those of his predecessors. At South +Kensington may be seen his _Chigi Palace near Albano_. Constable, who +was much impressed by Cozen's art, said that he was "the greatest genius +who ever touched landscape." He was the first to go beyond topography, +and to impart pathos to his pictures. Although he worked mainly in the +received method of tinting, there are signs in his pictures of a noble +progress, which was soon to become more marked. + +JOHN SMITH (1749--1831), called "Warwick Smith," probably because he +travelled in Italy with the Earl of Warwick, or on his behalf. Six of +his Italian sketches are at South Kensington. Gainsborough said "he was +the first water-colour painter who carried his intention through." In +1816 he was President of the Society of Painters in Water Colours. We +must here briefly mention THOMAS ROWLANDSON (1756--1827), who is best +known by caricatures, including illustrations to "Doctor Syntax," "The +Dance of Death," and "Dance of Life." + +WILLIAM ALEXANDER (1767--1816) accompanied Lord Macartney to China, in +1792, as draughtsman to the Mission. He was afterwards made Keeper of +Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. He illustrated many books of +travel. + +JOSHUA CRISTALL (1767--1847), one of the foundation members of the +Water-Colour Society, of which he was more than once President. He +usually painted classic figures with landscape backgrounds, and genre +subjects. His _Young Fisher Boy_ and _Fish Market on Hastings Beach_ are +at South Kensington. + +HENRY EDRIDGE, who made excellent drawings in Paris and in Normandy, we +have already mentioned among the miniature painters. + +ROBERT HILLS (1769--1844) represented animal painting in water colours, +and may be styled the father of this branch of art. He frequently worked +in conjunction with other artists; as in _Deer in a Landscape_ (South +Kensington), where the deer are painted by Hills, and the landscape is +by Barret. + +MICHAEL ANGELO ROOKER (1748--1801) originally practised as an engraver, +but, having been instructed in painting by Paul Sandby, forsook the +graver, and worked as a student at the Royal Academy. Subsequently, he +became principal scene-painter at the Haymarket Theatre. He used much +local colour in tinted drawings, as may be seen in _St. Botolph's +Priory_, and _Boxgrove Priory Church_ (South Kensington Collection). + +Conspicuous among those artists who showed that the power and richness +which were supposed to belong to oil painting only, could be produced in +water colours, was-- + +THOMAS GIRTIN (1773--1802), who entirely revolutionised the technical +practice of his forerunners, by laying in a whole picture with the local +colours of its parts. Girtin found a friend and helper in Dr. Monro, who +possessed many fine drawings, and allowed the young painters of the day +free access to them. In the riverside scenery visible from the Doctor's +house at the Adelphi, Girtin found congenial subjects for his art, as +well as amid the old-world spots about Chelsea and Wandsworth. Later, he +extended his travels, choosing cathedral cities in England, and visiting +the Lake district, Scotland, and Wales. Girtin loved to depict scenes of +gloom and grandeur, such as the melancholy Cumberland hills, and the +sterner scenery of Scotland, whilst Turner, his friend and fellow-worker +at Dr. Monro's house, depicted light, even when treating similar +subjects to those which his friend affected. Girtin spent a great deal +of valuable time in painting a panorama of London, which was much +admired. He died at the age of twenty-nine, but he had lived long enough +to make a great advance in water-colour painting, and to add power of +effect, of colour, and of execution to the poetry with which Cozens had +invested it. Favourable specimens of Girtin's art may be seen in a _View +on the Wharfe_ and _Rievaulx Abbey_ (South Kensington). + +GEORGE BARRET the younger (1774--1842) was one of the foundation members +of the Water-Colour Society. He especially delighted in sunset effects. + +WILLIAM DE LA MOTTE (1780--1863) was originally a pupil of President +West, but abandoned oil for water colours. He painted landscapes in the +style of Girtin, but more chiefly architecture and marine pieces. + +Of JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER (1775--1851), we shall speak hereafter +as a painter in oils; here we must describe his influence in +water-colour art, which was greater even than that of Girtin. "Many date +the perfect development of water-colour painting from Girtin, but it is +far more due to Turner, who, while he could paint in that medium with +the power and strength of Girtin, added to that strength, delicacy and +_quality_" (_Redgrave_). Turner is famous as a painter both in water +colour and in oil, and as the artist of "Southern Coast Scenery," +"England and Wales," "Rivers of France," Roger's "Italy" and "Poems." +His _Liber Studiorum_ is a collection of valuable studies in monochrome, +now in the National Gallery. His etchings from them are very celebrated. +Mr. Redgrave says of him, "If ever writer dipt his pen in poetry, surely +Turner did his facile pencil, and was indeed one of nature's truest +poets." His water-colour drawings are well represented in the National +Gallery. + +[Illustration: EVENING.--"_Datur hora quieti._" _From a Drawing by_ +TURNER.] + +In spite of the marked progress of water-colour painting, there was as +yet no adequate accommodation for the exhibition of drawings produced +in that mode. The room assigned to works in water colour at the Royal +Academy exhibitions was described as "a condemned cell." The general +public still believed in the superiority of oil painting, and worshipped +a big, indifferent picture in that mode, whilst they allowed gems of art +to hang unnoticed in the water-colour room. To remedy this the +Water-Colour Society was founded on November 30th, 1804, the originators +being Hills, Pyne, Shelley, Wills, Glover and Varley. William Sawrey +Gilpin was the first President. This society gave new and increased +vigour to water-colour art, and a second body, the Associated Artists in +Water Colours, was formed in 1808. The older society exhibited the works +of members only, the new association was less exclusive: the career of +the latter was brief. The Water-Colour Society also lost popularity +after a while, and in 1813 the members determined to dissolve it. Twelve +of their number, however, were averse to this course, and maintained the +annual exhibition during a few years, with small success. Meanwhile, the +other members, in 1814, opened an exhibition in New Bond Street, and +invited contributions from British water-colour artists who belonged to +no other society. This effort failed. The original body styled itself +"The Society of Painters in Oil and Water Colours," for a time admitted +oil paintings, and made other alterations in its rules, but in 1821 +returned to its original constitution. In 1823 it was established in its +present premises in Pall Mall East, since which date it has flourished. +In 1881 it became The Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours. + +In 1831 The New Water-Colour Society was formed, a body which two years +later changed its title to that of The New Society of Painters in Water +Colours. In 1863 it became the Institute of Painters in Water Colours, a +title it still retains. The great increase in the numbers of artists of +this class rendered the formation of the second society necessary. A +third exhibition of water colours was formed in the Dudley Gallery, +which has recently undergone a reorganization in its Committee of +Management. + +JOHN VARLEY (1778--1842) was at first the assistant of a silversmith, +then of a portrait painter, and subsequently of an architectural +draughtsman. After a time he found his true vocation in +landscape-painting with water colours. He was as we have seen, one of +the founders of the Water-Colour Society. His works are noteworthy for +simplicity and pathos, but his later productions, owing to the necessity +of working against time, are very slight. Varley chiefly painted Welsh +scenes, many of which are at South Kensington, _e.g._ _Beddgellert +Bridge_ and _Harlech Castle_. + +WILLIAM HAVELL (1782--1857), another of the foundation members of the +Water-Colour Society, was a constant exhibitor till 1817, when he +visited India. On his return he chiefly contributed oil paintings to the +Royal Academy. Havell was one of those who aided to carry water-colour +painting beyond mere topography, and in later works he adopted the +"sunny method" of Turner. + +SAMUEL PROUT (1783--1852) is best known by his sketches of continental +scenery, _e.g._ _Wuerzburg_, the _Arch of Constantine at Rome_, and the +_Porch of Ratisbon Cathedral_ (South Kensington). He excelled as a +painter of cottages and ancient ruins, but rarely succeeded with +foliage. He published drawing-books, containing studies from nature. + +DAVID COX (1783--1859), the son of a blacksmith, was born at Birmingham. +He was a weakly child, and amused himself with drawing instead of the +rougher sports of his companions. Instructed by a local artist, he found +employment in painting lockets, and as a scene-painter at the theatre at +Birmingham and at Astley's Amphitheatre in Lambeth. Devoting himself to +landscape, and assisted by John Varley, Cox soon became one of the most +eminent artists of his school, remarkable for the truthfulness of his +colouring, the purity and brilliancy of the light in his pictures. He +was elected a member of the Water-Colour Society in 1813. His style may +be studied at South Kensington. His works are now highly prized. + +THOMAS MILES RICHARDSON (1784--1848), a native of Newcastle-on-Tyne, is +said to have been seized with a desire to become a painter on seeing a +landscape by Cox. He began as apprentice to a cabinet-maker. Exchanging +this vocation for that of a schoolmaster, he finally accepted art as +his calling, and became a distinguished landscape painter. + +[Illustration: THE TOMB OF THE SCALIGERS AT VERONA. _By_ PROUT.] + +ANTHONY VANDYKE COPLEY FIELDING (1787--1855) proved worthy of the names +he bore. He was a pupil of Varley, and contributed his first picture to +the Water-Colour exhibition of 1810. From that time his success was +assured. During his life his works commanded very high prices. He was +elected President of the Water-Colour Society in 1831, and held that +office till his death. Fielding executed some excellent oil paintings. +"He delights in distances, extensive flats, and rolling downs. It is +true that while space is often obtained, the result is emptiness." An +example of this is _The South Downs, Devon_, at South Kensington. Marine +pieces are among Fielding's best works, but even these are mannered. + +PETER DE WINT (1784--1849) was born in Staffordshire, and of Dutch +origin. A constant contributor to the Water-Colour Society, painting +scenes direct from nature, he chose the northern and eastern counties of +England. Corn-fields and hay-harvests are among his favourite subjects. +He is very largely represented in the South Kensington collection. + +GEORGE FENNEL ROBSON (1790--1833), after leaving his native Durham, +exhibited many pictures at the Royal Academy, but his best works +appeared at the exhibitions of the Water-Colour Society. He illustrated +many books, and painted in conjunction with Hills, who contributed +animals. Three of his works are at South Kensington. + +THOMAS HEAPHY (1775--1835) was born in London, and having been, like +many other artists, apprenticed to an uncongenial craft, left it to +pursue the art of an engraver. This, however, gave place to painting, +and he commenced with portraiture. He exhibited at the Royal Academy for +the first time in 1800, and was admitted an Associate Exhibitor of the +Water-Colour Society in 1807, and a member in 1808. For a time he +accompanied the English army in the Peninsula, and found patrons among +the officers. At South Kensington are two of his figure subjects, _Coast +Scene, with figures_, and _The wounded Leg_. + +[Illustration: BERNCASTLE, ON THE MOSELLE. _By_ HARDING.] + +WILLIAM HENRY HUNT (1790--1864) was one of the most original as well as +the most versatile of the water-colour school. Starting as a landscape +painter, he, in later years, excelled in rustic figure subjects, whilst +as a painter of fruits and flowers he was without a rival. Hunt was a +pupil of Varley, and had the advantage of Dr. Monro's friendship. The +varied character of his art may be seen at South Kensington, in _Boy and +Goats_, and a _Brown Study_ (a negro boy puzzling over an addition sum), +which illustrate his figure subjects, whilst _Hawthorn Blossoms and +Bird's Nest_, _Primroses and Birds' Nests_, and _Plums_, are examples of +another side of Hunt's genius. His humorous pictures _The Attack_, _The +Defeat_, _The Puzzled Politician_, and _The Barber's Shop_ are well +known. + +JAMES DUFFIELD HARDING (1798--1863), the son of an artist, was intended +for a lawyer, but chose to become a painter. At the age of fifteen he +was a pupil of Samuel Prout, and at first his works owed much to that +artist. Like his master he did not succeed in foliage. Harding gained +the silver medal of the Society of Arts for a water-colour drawing, and +became very popular as a drawing-master. He published many lesson books, +in which he called in lithography to his aid. His visit to France and +Italy resulted in numerous studies, which are embodied in _The Landscape +Annual_. He is represented at South Kensington by _A Landscape with +Hovels_. Harding is described as the first water-colour artist who used, +to any extent, body-colour mixed with transparent tints. His example was +almost always injurious. + +[Illustration: THE VIEW FROM RICHMOND HILL. _By_ DE WINT.] + +GEORGE CATTERMOLE (1800--1868) was a native of Dickleburgh, Norfolk. He +started in life as a topographical draughtsman, and studied +architectural antiquities. This fitted him for the mediaeval and romantic +subjects in which he delighted Brigands, robbers, and knights figure +largely in his works. His travels in Scotland bore fruit in +illustrations to the Waverley novels. His pictures were due to his +memory, rather than to new inspirations, and as he advanced in years +they became tame. Among Cattermole's principal works are _Sir Walter +Raleigh witnessing the execution of Essex in the Tower_, _Hamilton of +Bothwellhaugh preparing to shoot the Regent Murray_, _The Armourer's +Tale_, _Cellini and the Robbers_, _Pirates at Cards_, which are all at +South Kensington. + +JAMES HOLLAND (1800--1870) began as a flower painter and teacher of that +branch of art. He found a wider sphere, and is known as a painter of +landscapes and sea subjects. In his works high colouring is remarkable. +His _Nymwegen, in Holland_, is at South Kensington, where there is also +a series of sixteen of his drawings made in Portugal. + +SAMUEL PALMER (1805--1881) first exhibited, at the British Institution, +in 1819. In 1843 he was elected an Associate of the Water-Colour +Society, and became a full member in 1855; and it was at the exhibitions +of that society that his works were most often seen. + +His paintings are chiefly pastoral scenes, treated in an ideal manner, +and display imaginative and poetic genius of a high order. He drew +inspirations for his paintings from the writings of Milton and Virgil, +with which he was very familiar. He was influenced in his art by the +work of William Blake, and to some extent by that of his father-in-law, +John Linnell. Samuel Palmer executed a few highly-prized etchings. + + * * * * * + +EDWARD HENRY WEHNERT (1813--1868), FRANCIS WILLIAM TOPHAM (1808--1877), +AARON EDWIN PENLEY (1806--1870), EDWARD DUNCAN (1803--1882), GEORGE +SHALDERS (1826--1873), GEORGE HAYDOCK DODGSON (1811--1880), were all +members of one or other of the Water-Colour Societies, and attained fame +in their various walks of art. + +[Illustration: OLD ENGLISH HOSPITALITY. _By_ GEORGE CATTERMOLE. A.D. +1839.] + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +ENGLISH ART IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.--SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE AND HIS +CONTEMPORARIES. + + +In tracing the progress of British painting, we have seen that early in +the eighteenth century the English public thought most of foreign +artists. There was no belief in the power of Englishmen to create +original works, and therefore no encouragement was given against the +"slavery of the black masters." No one dared to hang a modern English +painting which aimed at being original. If a portrait was desired the +artist considered it necessary to imitate Kneller. If a landscape were +needed, it was thought right to seek it in Italy. If a painter desired +to prosper, he was forced to be more of a house-decorator than an +artist. We have seen also how this spell was broken, first by Hogarth, +who had the courage to abide by his originality, although but one +purchaser appeared at a sale of his pictures; next by Reynolds, who +painted portraits like living persons, and not mere dolls. We have seen +Wilson and Gainsborough create a school of English landscape-painting, +and show the hitherto neglected beauties of our own land. We have marked +historic painters bravely struggling against neglect, like Barry uncared +for, believing in his art; and like Copley, who treated history with +freshness and truth. To West we owe an attempt to depict scenes from +Scripture, and a bold stand against the ridiculous fashion which +represented any warrior, even a Red Indian, attired as a soldier of +ancient Rome. And we must not forget the poetic fancies of Romney, the +dramatic force of Opie, the grace of Stothard, the great inspiration of +Blake, and the wild nightmare illustrations of Fuseli. We have seen art +too long wedded to literature, and yet making great advances under the +treatment of those who turned their attention to book illustration and +miniature-painting, rising to a high pitch of popularity. We have +observed how the Royal Academy improved the social position of English +painters, who had previously been regarded as representing a better kind +of house-decorators, and how the establishment of the Water-Colour +Societies promoted a branch of art which, starting from the +topographer's sketch, has attained high excellence and beauty. + + * * * * * + +Among the foremost men of the beginning of the nineteenth century was-- + +[Illustration: MASTER LAMBTON. _By_ LAWRENCE. A.D. 1825. + +_In the possession of the Earl of Durham._] + +THOMAS LAWRENCE, who was born, in 1769, at Bristol; his father, trained +as a lawyer, being at that time landlord of an inn. At an early age the +future painter was removed with the rest of the family to the "Black +Bear" at Devizes, whither the fortunes of the elder Lawrence led him. +The inn was a well-known posting-house on the way to Bath, and young +Thomas had abundant opportunities for displaying his precocious talents +to the guests who stopped there. His father had given him desultory +lessons in reading and recitation. Nature furnished him with a wonderful +gift of art; and when only five years old the beautiful child, with long +flowing hair, was introduced to all customers, and would recite Milton +and Collins, or take their portraits, according to their several tastes. +We are told of his drawing a remarkably truthful likeness of Lady Kenyon +at this early age. Of regular education Lawrence had little or none +beyond two years' schooling at Bristol, but he learnt much from the +conversation of distinguished patrons and friends in early life. In 1779 +the Lawrence family moved from Devizes to Oxford, where the boy drew +many portraits. Leaving Oxford and settling at Bath, Lawrence +contributed to the wants of the family by drawing portraits in crayons +for a guinea and a guinea and a half each. His fame rapidly spread. Mrs. +Siddons sat to him, so did the Duchess of Devonshire, and, in 1785, the +Society of Arts awarded him their silver pallet, "gilded all over," for +a crayon copy of the _Transfiguration_ by Raphael, executed when +Lawrence was only thirteen. London was the fittest place for the +development of such talents as his, and accordingly the elder Lawrence +went thither with his son in 1787, and the latter was entered as a +student in the Royal Academy. He contributed seven works to the +exhibition of the same year, was introduced to Sir Joshua Reynolds and +kindly treated; the great painter encouraged the youthful genius, and +advised him to study nature instead of the old masters. Lawrence took +this advice, and avoided the temptation to try processes of colouring, +which proved fatal to many of Sir Joshua's works. The course of the +youth was one of unvarying success. The King and Queen were interested +in him. In 1791, he was elected an Associate of the Academy, and a year +after was appointed Principal Painter-in-Ordinary to the King, a post +rendered vacant by the death of Reynolds. The Dilettanti Society broke +its rules to make Lawrence a member, and painter to the society; in +1794, when nearly twenty-five years old, the artist was elected a Royal +Academician. Never, perhaps, did painter rise so rapidly and from such +slight foundations, and never was studio more crowded by sitters than +that of Lawrence. Messrs. Redgrave, in criticising his portraits, say, +"After Reynolds and Gainsborough, Lawrence looks pretty and painty; +there is none of that power of uniting the figure with the ground--that +melting of the flesh into the surrounding light which is seen in the +pictures of the first President. Lawrence's work seems more on the +surface--indeed, only surface--while his flesh tints have none of the +natural purity of those by his two predecessors; we think them pretty in +Lawrence, but we forget paint and painting in looking at a face by +Reynolds or Gainsborough." The same critics remark of Lawrence's +portraits of children that Sir Joshua was greatly his superior in this +branch of art, and that the former "had no apparent admission into the +inner heart of childhood." On the other hand, Fuseli, his contemporary, +considered Lawrence's portraits as good or better than Van Dyck's, and +recommended painters to abandon hope of approaching him. In 1797, +Lawrence exhibited his _Satan calling his Legions_, now the property of +the Royal Academy. Various and conflicting are the criticisms on this +picture, a fair specimen of the painter's powers in history. A +contemporary critic says of it, "The figure of Satan is colossal, and +drawn with excellent skill and judgment." Fuseli, on the other hand, +characterizes the principal figure briefly and strongly as "a d--d +thing, certainly, but not the devil." Lawrence himself rightly thought +_Satan_ his best work. On the death of West, in 1820, Lawrence was +unanimously chosen President of the Royal Academy. Five years earlier +the Prince Regent had knighted him. Foreign Academies loaded him with +honours. He made a foreign tour at the request of the Government to +paint portraits of the various illustrious persons who had engaged in +the contest with Napoleon I. Ten years after his accession to the +President's chair Lawrence died. The best critics declare that no high +place among painters may be accorded to him. Much of his popularity was +due to the fact that he flattered his sitters, and led the artificial +style of the day. He lost in later years the fresh vigour of his prime. +It must be allowed, however, that he was no copyist of Reynolds, nor of +any one, but treated his subjects in a style of his own. He is accused +of introducing "a prevailing chalkiness" into his pictures, derived from +his early studies in crayon. When he died there was no one to take his +place. The Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle contains the pictures of +_Pius VII._, the _Emperor Francis_, and _Cardinal Gonsalvi_. Famous +among his portraits of children are _Master Lambton_, _Lady Peel and +Daughters_, and _Lady Gower and Child_; for the last he received 1,500 +guineas. In the National Gallery are nine of his works, including +_Hamlet with Yorick's Skull_, and portraits of _Benjamin West_ and _Mrs. +Siddons_. The contemporaries of Sir Thomas who practised portraiture +were all indebted to Reynolds. + +GEORGE HENRY HARLOW (1787--1819) emerged from a childhood, in which he +was petted and spoilt, to a brief manhood which the society of actors +and actresses did not improve. He was, for a time, a pupil of Lawrence, +and it is supposed that if he had lived Harlow would, as a portrait +painter, have been his successful rival. After a foreign tour, he, like +many of his brethren, longed to succeed in historic painting. His _Queen +Catherine's Trial_, in which Mrs. Siddons appears as the Queen, does not +prove that he would have succeeded in this branch of art. It was at the +"Old Masters" Exhibition, 1882. + +WILLIAM OWEN (1769--1825), the son of a bookseller at Ludlow, came to +London in 1786, after receiving a good education at the Ludlow Grammar +School. He became a pupil of Charles Catton, landscape and animal +painter, and of the Academy. In 1792 he exhibited a _Portrait of a +Gentleman_, and a _View of Ludford Bridge_. He is chiefly known as a +portrait painter, and found that branch of art remunerative, but his +real tastes appeared in _Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green_, _The Fortune +Teller_, _The Village Schoolmistress_, and other simple stories of +country life. A picture of two sisters gained him one of the two as a +wife; and portraits of _Pitt_, _Lord Grenville_, the _Duke of +Buccleuch_, and other noteworthy persons brought him into fashion. +Owen was elected full member of the Academy in 1806, and appointed +portrait painter to the Prince of Wales in 1810. He was an unwearied +worker, and his subject-pictures commanded an interest which does not +continue. In the National Gallery is _The Dead Robin_. His _William +Croker_ and _Lord Loughborough_ are in the National Portrait Gallery. + +[Illustration: TRIAL OF QUEEN CATHERINE. _By_ HARLOW. A.D. 1817. In the +possession of Mrs. Morrison.] + +MARTIN ARCHER SHEE (1770--1850), a native of Dublin, commenced art +studies in the Dublin Academy. In Dublin he became known as a portrait +painter. He came to London in 1788, where he was introduced to Burke, +and by him to Reynolds, who advised the young painter to study at the +Royal Academy, advice which he somewhat unwillingly followed. Gradually +winning his way, he became a successful portrait painter of men. In +1800, he was made a R.A. Though devoting himself to portraiture Martin +Shee turned ever and again to subject-pictures, of which _Belisarius_, +_Lavinia_, and a _Peasant Girl_ are specimens. A more ambitious work was +_Prospero and Miranda_, exhibited in 1806. Shee owed his election to the +Academy to his position as a portrait painter, and he justified the +choice by his defence of the institution against those who attacked its +privileges. In 1830, he was elected President, and knighted. Three of +his works are in the National Gallery, _The Infant Bacchus_, and +portraits of Morton the comedian, and _Lewis as the Marquis in the +'Midnight Hour.'_ The first illustrates Shee's later style; the picture +of Lewis, painted in 1791, his early method. Besides paintings, Shee was +the author of several literary productions, including a tragedy, a +novel, "Rhymes on Art," and art criticisms. + +[Illustration: SWISS PEASANT GIRL. _By_ HOWARD.] + +HENRY HOWARD (1769--1847), though not intended originally for an artist, +early showed a talent for drawing, became a pupil of Philip Reinagle and +the Academy, where, two years later, he gained the silver medal of the +Life School, and the gold medal in the Painting School for _Caractacus +recognising the dead Body of his Son_, which Reynolds, then President, +warmly praised. From 1791 to 1794 Howard travelled in Italy, and painted +_The Death of Abel_ for the travelling studentship of the Academy, which +he did not obtain. The promise of his youth was not fulfilled. "His +works are graceful and pretty, marked by propriety, and pleasing in +composition; his faces and expressions are good, his drawing is correct, +but his style cold and feeble." (_Redgrave._) Most of Howard's works are +small: he selected classic and poetic subjects, such as _The Birth of +Venus_, _The Solar System_, _Pandora_, and _The Pleiades_, and +occasionally he painted portraits. He was Secretary and Professor of +Painting to the Royal Academy. In the National Gallery is _The Flower +Girl_, a portrait of his own daughter. + +JAMES WARD (1769--1859) began life as an engraver, and was thirty-five +years old before he devoted himself to painting. He selected animal +portraiture, and bulls and horses were his favourite subjects. His most +famous, but not his best picture is _A Landscape, with Cattle_ (National +Gallery), produced at the suggestion of West to rival Paul Potter's +_Young Bull_, at the Hague, which Ward had never seen. Ward's cattle +were all painted from life. Morland was a brother-in-law of Ward, and +his influence is obvious in the latter's pictures. The life-size cattle +in the before mentioned picture are an Alderney bull, cow, and calf in +the centre, another cow, sheep, and goat in the foreground. In the +National Gallery, too, is his large landscape of _Gordale Scar, +Yorkshire_. + +THOMAS PHILLIPS (1770--1845) was a native of Dudley, and began as a +glass painter at Birmingham. Coming to London, he was assisted by West, +then President of the Academy, and in 1792 exhibited a _View of Windsor +Castle_, and next year _The Death of Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, at the +Battle of Chatillon_. Phillips was more successful as a portrait +painter: his likenesses are faithful, his pictures free from faults, +and possess a pleasant tone, though as a colourist he does not occupy a +high place. He was Professor of Painting in 1829. In the National +Gallery are a portrait of _Sir David Wilkie_, and a _Wood Nymph_. The +latter looks more like a young lady fresh from a drawing-room. + +HENRY THOMSON (1773--1843), the son of a purser in the Navy, was born at +Portsea, or, as some say, in London. His works consist of historic and +fancy subjects, and portraits. His first picture exhibited at the +Academy was _Daedalus fastening wings on to his Son Icarus_. Thomson +was, in 1825, appointed Keeper of the Academy in succession to Fuseli. +He exhibited, from 1800 to 1825, seventy-six pictures, chiefly +portraits. _The Dead Robin_ is in the National Gallery. + +JOHN JACKSON (1778--1831) rose from the simple home of the tailor, his +father, to a high place in the world of art. He was freed from the craft +of his father by Lord Mulgrave and Sir George Beaumont. The latter +encouraged him to visit London, and allowed him L50 a year and a room in +his house while he studied in the Academy. The young painter soon +obtained success as a portrait painter, and in 1817 was elected a full +member of the Academy. In 1819, he visited Rome with Sir F. Chantrey, +and painted for him a portrait of _Canova_. A portrait of _Flaxman_, +painted for Lord Dover, is considered Jackson's masterpiece. Leslie, +speaking of the subdued richness of his colouring, said that Lawrence +never approached him; and Lawrence himself declared that the portrait of +Flaxman was "a great achievement of the English school, one of which Van +Dyck might have felt proud to own himself the author." Three portraits +by Jackson are in the National Gallery--the _Rev. W. H. Carr_, _Sir John +Soane_, and _Miss Stephens_, afterwards the late Countess of Essex. +Jackson's own portrait, by himself, is in the National Portrait +Gallery. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +LANDSCAPE PAINTERS. + + +JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER (1775--1851) stands at the head of English +landscape painters. It has been said that though others may have +equalled or surpassed him in some respects, "none has yet appeared with +such versatility of talent." (_Dr. Waagen._) The character of Turner is +a mixture of contradictory elements. He possessed a marvellous +appreciation of the beautiful in nature, yet lived in dirt and squalor, +and dressed in a style between that of a sea-captain and a hackney +coachman. The man who worked exquisitely was sometimes harsh and +uncouth, though capable of a rude hospitality; disliking the society of +some of his fellow-men, he yet loved the company of his friends, and +though penurious in some money transactions, left a magnificent bequest +to his profession. Turner owed nothing to the beauty or poetic +surroundings of his birth-place, which was the house of his father, a +barber in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. But as Lord Byron is said to have +conjured up his loveliest scenes of Greece whilst walking in Albemarle +Street, so the associations of Maiden Lane did not prevent Turner from +delineating storm-swept landscapes, and innumerable splendours of +nature. The barber was justly proud of his child, who very early +displayed his genius, and the first drawings of Turner are said to +have been exhibited in his father's shaving-room. In time the boy was +colouring prints and washing in the backgrounds of architects' drawings. +Dr. Monro, the art patron, extended a helping hand to the young genius +of Maiden Lane. "Girtin and I," says Turner, "often walked to Bushey and +back, to make drawings for good Dr. Monro at half-a-crown a piece, and +the money for our supper when we got home." He did not, of course, start +from London. + +[Illustration: THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE. _By_ TURNER. A.D. 1834.] + +In 1789, Turner became a student in the Academy, and exhibited a picture +in the next year at Somerset House, _View of the Archbishop's Palace at +Lambeth_. He was then only fifteen. From that time he worked with +unceasing energy at his profession. Indeed, the pursuit of art was the +one ruling principle of his life. He frequently went on excursions, the +first being to Ramsgate and Margate, and was storing his memory with +effects of storm, mist, and tempest, which he reproduced. In 1799, when +made A.R.A., Turner had already exhibited works which ranged over +twenty-six counties of England and Wales. In 1802 he was made full +Academician, and presented, as his diploma picture, _Dolbadarn Castle, +North Wales_. In this year he visited the Continent, and saw France and +Switzerland. Five years later Turner was appointed Professor of +Perspective to the Royal Academy. We are told his lectures were +delivered in so strange a style, that they were scarcely instructive. Of +his water-colour paintings and of the _Liber Studiorum_ it is impossible +to speak too highly; he created the modern school of water-colour +painting, and his works in oil have influenced the art of the nineteenth +century. He visited Italy for the first time in 1819; again ten years +later, and for the last time in 1840. His eccentricity, both in manner +and in art, increased with age. Though wealthy, and possessing a good +house in Queen Anne Street, he died in an obscure lodging by the Thames, +at Chelsea, a few days before Christmas, 1851, Turner bequeathed his +property to found a charity for male decayed artists, but the alleged +obscurity of his will defeated this object. It was decided that his +pictures and drawings should be presented to the National Gallery, that +one thousand pounds should be spent on a monument to the painter in St. +Paul's, twenty thousand pounds should be given to the Royal Academy, and +the remainder to the next of kin and heir at law. The National Gallery +contains more than one hundred of his pictures, besides a large number +of water-colour drawings and sketches. In his earlier works Turner took +the old masters as his models, some of his best pictures showing the +characteristics of the Dutch school, as _The Shipwreck_, and _The Sun +rising in a Mist_. In _The Tenth Plague_, and _The Goddess of Discord_, +the influence of Poussin is visible, whilst Wilson is imitated in _AEneas +with the Sibyl_, and _A View in Wales_. Turner was fond of matching +himself against Claude; and not only did he try his powers in rivalry +with the older masters, he delighted to enter into honest competition +with painters of the day, and when Wilkie's _Village Politicians_ was +attracting universal notice, Turner produced his _Blacksmith's Shop_ in +imitation of it. In his later pictures Turner sacrificed form to colour. +"Mist and vapour, lit by the golden light of morn, or crimsoned with the +tints of evening, spread out to veil the distance, or rolled in clouds +and storms, are the great characteristics of Turner's art as contrasted +with the mild serenity of the calm unclouded heaven of Claude." +(_Redgrave._) Turner in his choice of colours forsook conventionality, +and "went to the cataract for its iris, to the conflagration for its +flames, asked of the sea its intensest azure, of the sky its clearest +gold." (_Ruskin._) The same critic considers Turner's period of central +power, entirely developed and entirely unabated, to begin with the +_Ulysses_, and to close with the _Temeraire_, a period of ten years, +1829--1839. + +JOHN CONSTABLE (1776--1837) was born at East Bergholt, in Suffolk, June +11th, 1776, and the sunny June weather in which the painter first saw +the light seems to pervade all his pictures. Constable's father was a +miller, and intended that his son should succeed to his business; it has +been said also that it was proposed to educate him for holy orders. +Constable, however, was meant for a painter, and became one of the best +delineators of English scenery. In 1800, he became student in the Royal +Academy. In 1802, he exhibited his first picture. In 1819, he was +elected A.R.A., and became a full member ten years after. Constable's +earlier efforts were in the direction of historical painting and +portraiture, but he found his true sphere in landscape. He was +thoroughly English. No foreign master influenced him, and rustic life +furnished all he needed. He said, "I love every style and stump and lane +in the village: as long as I am able to hold a brush, I shall never +cease to paint them." To this determination we owe some of the most +pleasant English pictures, full of fresh, breezy life, rolling clouds, +shower-wetted foliage, and all the greenery of island scenes. He loved +to paint _under the sun_, and impart a glittering effect to his foliage +which many of his critics could not understand. Indeed, Constable was +not appreciated thoroughly till after his death. He seems to have known +that this would be the case, for early in his career he wrote, "I feel +now more than ever a decided conviction that I shall some time or other +make some good pictures--pictures that shall be valuable to posterity, +if I do not reap the benefit of them." Constable did not attempt bold or +mountainous scenery, but loved the flat, sunny meadows of Suffolk, and +declared that the river Stour made him a painter. In the National +Gallery are his: _The Corn-field_, _The Valley Farm_ (see +_Frontispiece_), (a view of "Willy Lott's House," on the Stour, close by +Flatford Mill, the property of the painter's father), _A Corn-field with +figures_, and _On Barnes Common_. + +[Illustration: TRENT IN TYROL. _By_ CALLCOTT. _In the possession of Mr. +Samuel Cartwright._] + +SIR AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT (1779--1844) has been styled the English +Claude. He was born at Kensington Gravel Pits, then a pretty suburban +spot. He was, for some years, a chorister at Westminster Abbey, but +early adopted painting as his profession. Callcott was a pupil of +Hoppner, and began as a portrait painter. He soon devoted himself to +landscape, with an occasional attempt at history. He became a full +member of the Academy in 1810, his presentation picture being _Morning_. +His best pictures were produced between 1812 and 1826, during which +period he produced _The Old Pier at Littlehampton_ (National Gallery), +_Entrance to the Pool of London_, _Mouth of the Tyne_, _Calm on the +Medway_ (Earl of Durham). Callcott married in 1827, and went to Italy. +On his return in the following year he soon became a fashionable +painter. "His pictures, bright, pleasant of surface, and finished in +execution, were suited to the appreciation of the public, and not beyond +their comprehension; commissions poured in upon him." (_Redgrave._) The +Queen knighted him in 1837, and in the same year he exhibited his +_Raphael and the Fornarina_, engraved for the Art Union by L. Stocks, +which, if it possesses few faults, excites no enthusiasm. In 1840 +appeared _Milton dictating Paradise Lost to his Daughter_, a large +picture, which overtaxed the decaying powers of the artist. Among +Callcott's later pictures are _Dutch Peasants returning from Market_, +and _Entrance to Pisa from Leghorn_. As a figure painter he does not +appear at his best. Examples of this class are _Falstaff and Simple_, +and _Anne Page and Slender_ (Sheepshanks Collection). + +[Illustration: THE FISHERMAN'S DEPARTURE. _By_ COLLINS. _Painted in_ +A.D. 1826 _for Mr. Morrison_.] + +WILLIAM COLLINS (1788--1847) was born in London, where his father +carried on business as a picture dealer, in addition to the somewhat +uncertain calling of a journalist. The future painter was introduced to +Morland, a friend of his father, and learnt many things, some to be +imitated, others to be avoided, in that artist's studio. From 1807 he +exhibited at the Academy, of which he became a full member in 1820. He +exhibited one hundred and twenty-one pictures in a period of forty +years, specially devoting himself to landscape, with incidents of +ordinary life. Now he would paint children swinging on a gate, as in +_Happy as a King_ (National Gallery); children bird-nesting, or +sorrowing for their play-fellows, as in _The Sale of the Pet Lamb_. +Collins was also specially successful in his treatment of cottage and +coast scenery, as in _The Haunts of the Sea-fowl_, _The Prawn Catchers_ +(National Gallery), and _Fishermen on the look-out_. After visiting +Italy, Collins forsook for a time his former manner, and painted the +_Cave of Ulysses_, and the _Bay of Naples_; but neither here nor in the +_Christ in the Temple with the Doctors_, and _The two Disciples at +Emmaus_, do we see him at his best. He wisely returned to his first +style. + +WILLIAM LINTON (1791--1876) was employed in a merchant's office in +Liverpool, but quitted it to begin an artist's career in London. In +1821, he exhibited his first picture, _The Morning after the Storm_. +After visiting the Continent, Linton returned to England, and produced +pictures of the classic scenes he had studied. After a second foreign +tour, in which he visited Greece, Sicily, and Calabria, he exhibited +_The Embarkation of the Greeks for Troy_, _The Temples of Paestum_ +(National Gallery), and several works of a like character. + +PATRICK NASMYTH (1786--1831), son of a Scotch landscape painter, was +born in Edinburgh, and came to London. His first exhibited picture at +the Academy was a _View of Loch Katrine_, in 1811. In the British +Institution Gallery of the same year his _Loch Auchray_ appeared. It is +by his pictures of simple English scenery that Nasmyth is best known. He +took Hobbema and Wynants as models, and chose country lanes, hedge-rows, +with dwarf oak-trees, for his subjects. Nasmyth was deaf in consequence +of an illness, and having lost the use of his right hand by an accident, +painted with his left. In the National Gallery are a _Cottage_, and _The +Angler's Nook_; at South Kensington are _Landscape with an Oak_, +_Cottage by a Brook_, and _Landscape with a Haystack_. + +[Illustration: ST. GOMER, BRUSSELS. _By_ DAVID ROBERTS.] + +DAVID ROBERTS (1796--1864), a native of Stockbridge, near Edinburgh, +began life as a house-decorator, and, becoming a scene-painter, found +employment at Drury Lane in 1822. Marked success in this capacity led +him to attempt a higher flight in architectural landscape. He exhibited +_Rouen Cathedral_ at the Academy in 1826, and very often contributed +pictures to the British Institution and Society of British Artists; of +the last-named body he was a foundation-member. Roberts made a tour in +Spain for materials of pictures and sketches; noteworthy among the +results of this journey are _The Cathedral of Burgos_, an exterior view, +and a small Interior of the same, now in the National Gallery. Extending +his travels to the East, Roberts produced _The Ruins of Baalbec_, and +_Jerusalem from the South-East_. He was made a full member of the +Academy in 1841, and lived to see his pictures sold for far higher +prices than he had originally assigned to them. David Roberts is well +known by "Sketches in the Holy Land, Syria, and Egypt." + +RICHARD PARKES BONINGTON (1801--1828) passed most of his life abroad. He +studied in the Louvre when a child, and gained his knowledge of art +exclusively in Paris and Italy. His influence on the French school of +_genre_ and dramatic art was very great indeed, almost equal to that +which Constable produced on the French artists in landscape. He died, +aged twenty-seven, from the effects of a sunstroke received while +sketching in Paris. Bonington excelled in landscape, marine, and figure +subjects. He exhibited in the British Institution, among other pictures, +two _Views of the French Coast_, which attracted much notice, and _The +Column of St. Mark's_, _Venice_ (National Gallery). Sir Richard Wallace +possesses several of his best works, notably _Henri IV. and the Spanish +Ambassador_. + +[Illustration: FRANCIS I. AND HIS SISTER. _By_ BONINGTON. + +_In the possession of Sir Richard Wallace, Bart._] + +WILLIAM JOHN MUeLLER (1812--1845) was another landscape painter whose +career was brief, and who chiefly painted foreign scenery. He travelled +in Germany, Italy and Switzerland, and for a time practised as a +landscape painter at Bath, though with little success. In 1838 Mueller +visited Greece and Egypt, and in 1841 he was in Lycia. He had +previously settled in London. His pictures were chiefly of Oriental +scenes, and his fame was rapidly growing when he died. His works now +command high prices. In the National Gallery we have a _Landscape, with +two Lycian Peasants_, and a _River Scene_. + +JOHN MARTIN (1789--1854) held a distinguished place as a painter of +poetic or imaginative landscapes and architectural subjects. He was born +near Hexham, and began the study of art in the humble field of coach +painting at Newcastle. Coming to London, Martin worked at enamel +painting, and in 1812 exhibited his first picture at the Academy, _Sadak +in Search of the Waters of Oblivion_, which is one of his best works. +This was followed by _Joshua commanding the Sun to stand still_ (1816), +_The Death of Moses_ (1838), _The Last Man_ (from Campbell's poem), _The +Eve of the Deluge_, _Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah_, &c. Martin's +most famous works were not exhibited at the Academy, _e.g._ +_Belshazzar's Feast_, _The Fall of Babylon_, and _The Fall of Nineveh_. +Many of his compositions were engraved, securing for them a wide +circulation. Mr. Redgrave said: "We can hardly agree with Bulwer, that +Martin was 'more original, more self-dependent than Raphael or Michael +Angelo.'" But if in his lifetime Martin was over-praised, he was +unjustly depreciated afterwards. Many of his brother artists and the +public, when the first astonishment his pictures created had passed +away, called his art a trick and an illusion, his execution mechanical, +his colouring bad, his figures vilely drawn, their actions and +expressions bombastic and ridiculous. But, granting this, wholly or +partially, it must be remembered that his art, or manner, was original; +that it opened new views, which yielded glimpses of the sublime, and +dreams and visions that art had not hitherto displayed; and that others, +better prepared by previous study, working after him, have delighted, +and are still delighting, the world with their works. + +[Illustration: BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST. _By_ JOHN MARTIN. _Exhibited at the +British Institution in_ A.D. 1821.] + + +THE NORWICH SCHOOL. + +We must now speak of a provincial school of landscape painters which was +founded by JOHN CROME (1769--1821). The father of the Norwich Society of +Artists is generally known as "Old Crome," to distinguish him from his +son, who was likewise a painter. Crome, the son of a journey-man weaver, +born in a small tavern at Norwich, was in due course apprenticed to a +house and sign-painter. The young house-painter spent his spare time in +painting something more attractive than the walls of houses, and chose +the scenery round Norwich for his subjects. The flat, sunny landscapes, +dotted with farms and cottages, through which the sleeping river glided +slowly, and the Norfolk broads, with their flocks of wild fowl, remained +to the last the frequent subjects of Crome's pencil. Determining to be a +painter in good earnest, Crome, when his apprenticeship was over, eked +out his scanty resources by giving lessons in drawing and painting. At +the Royal Academy he exhibited only fourteen pictures, but in his native +town one hundred and ninety-six. With the exception of _The Blacksmith's +Shop_, all the works shown at the Academy were landscapes. "He wanted +but little subject: an aged oak, a pollard willow by the side of the +slow Norfolk streams, or a patch of broken ground, in his hands became +pictures charming us by their sweet colour and rustic nature." "Crome +seems to have founded his art on Hobbema, Ruysdael, and the Dutch +school, rather than on the French and Italian painters; except so far as +these were represented by our countryman, Wilson, whose works he copied, +and whose influence is seen mingled with the more realistic treatment +derived from the Dutch masters." (_Redgrave._) In the National Gallery +are his _Mousehold Heath_, _View of Chapel Field_, and _Windmill on a +Heath_: all views near Norwich. _A Clump of Trees, Hautbois Common_ +(Fitzwilliam Gallery, Cambridge), is another favourable specimen of his +art. + +JAMES STARK (1794--1859) was a pupil of Crome, and takes rank next to +him in the Norwich school. In 1812, he was elected a member of the +Norwich Society of Artists. In 1817, he came to London, and became a +student in the Royal Academy. There appeared some of his best works: +_Boys Bathing_, _Flounder Fishing_, and _Lambeth, looking towards +Westminster Bridge_. Illness obliged Stark to return to Norwich, where +he produced his "Scenery of the Rivers Yare and Waveney, Norfolk;" a +series of illustrations engraved by Goodall and others. Stark lacked the +vigour of Crome in colour and drawing. + +GEORGE VINCENT (1796--about 1831) is best known for his _View of +Greenwich Hospital_, shown from the river. It was painted for Mr. +Carpenter, of the British Museum, and was in the International +Exhibition of 1862. Vincent was specially fond of sunlight effects or +clouds in his pictures. + +JOHN SELL COTMAN (1782--1842) having escaped the life of a +linen-draper's shopman, devoted himself to art, and coming to London +found a friend and patron in Dr. Monro. From 1800 to 1806 Cotman +exhibited pictures at the Academy, and, returning to Norwich, was made a +member and secretary of the Society of Artists there. In the year 1808 +he contributed to the Norwich exhibition sixty-seven works. Cotman paid +many visits to Normandy, and after 1834 was Professor of Drawing in +King's College School, London. He was more successful as a water-colour +artist than a painter in oils. He painted chiefly landscapes, marine +pieces, and executed many engravings of architecture. + +The Norwich school no longer exists as a distinct body. + + * * * * * + +FRANCIS DANBY (1793--1861) excelled Martin in the poetry of landscape +art. He was born near Wexford, and gained his first knowledge of art in +Dublin, where, in 1812, he exhibited his first picture, _Evening_. In +1813, he was established at Bristol as a teacher of drawing in water +colour. He became known to the artistic world of London by his _Upas +Tree of Java_, which was at the British Institution of 1820, an +intensely poetic work, now in the National Gallery. His _Sunset at Sea +after a Storm_, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1824, was purchased by +Sir Thomas Lawrence. A year later Danby exhibited _The Delivery of +Israel out of Egypt_, for which he was elected an A.R.A. He is most +famous, however, for quiet scenes, calm evenings at sea, sunset effects, +combined with some poetic incident, and always remarkable for great +brilliancy of colour, among which are _The Artist's Holiday_ and _The +Evening Gun_. In the National Gallery is _The Fisherman's Home, +Sunrise_. He never became a R.A. + +WILLIAM CLARKSON STANFIELD (1793--1867) holds one of the highest places +among English landscape and marine painters. Beginning life as a sailor +in the Royal Navy, he sketched vessels as they passed his own. A severe +fall compelled retirement from the navy. He began his art career as a +scene-painter in the Old Royalty Theatre, Wellclose Square, and later +became scene-painter to Drury Lane Theatre. His first exhibited picture +was _A River Scene_ in the Academy, 1820. In the same year _A Study from +Nature_ was at the British Institution. He exhibited _Ben Venu_, and _A +Coast Scene_, at the Institution in 1822. In 1824, he was a +foundation-member of the Society of British Artists, and sent five +pictures to their first exhibition in that year. Stanfield's large +_Wreckers off Fort Rouge_, was exhibited at the British Institution in +1828. In 1827 appeared _A Calm_, in the Royal Academy. From that time +Stanfield's success was assured. His truthfulness in reading nature, +whether in naval battle scenes, views of foreign sea-ports, or mountain +and river scenery, has seldom if ever been surpassed. He became a full +member of the Academy in 1835. An unwearied worker, he exhibited one +hundred and thirty-two pictures at the Royal Academy. We may mention +_The Battle of Trafalgar_; _The Victory, with Nelson's Body on board, +towed into Gibraltar_; _Entrance to the Zuyder Zee_; _Lake of Como_, and +_The Canal of the Giudecca, Venice_ (all in the National Gallery). Among +his earlier works are _Mount St. Michael, Cornwall_; _A Storm_; _A +Fisherman off Honfleur_, and _The Opening of New London Bridge_. + +[Illustration: TERMINATI MARINA. _By_ STANFIELD. A.D. 1840. _In the +possession of the Marquis of Lansdowne._] + +JAMES BAKER PYNE (1800--1870), born in Bristol, began life in a +solicitor's office, which he quitted to make a precarious subsistence by +painting, teaching, or restoring pictures. He went to London in 1835, +where a picture exhibited a year after at the Academy attracted notice, +and opened the way of success. He became famous as a delineator of lake +scenery, and for _pseudo_-Turner-like treatment of sunlight effects. + +THOMAS CRESWICK (1811--1869), one of the most pleasing modern English +landscape painters, was born at Sheffield. He came to London when only +seventeen, and his pictures were exhibited by the British Institution +and the Royal Academy in that year, 1828. Having settled in London, he +delighted lovers of landscape with views in Ireland and Wales, and, +later, turned his attention to the North of England, the rocky dales and +rivers of which furnished subjects for his finest works. In 1842, he was +elected an Associate of the Academy, and received a premium of fifty +guineas from the British Institution for the general excellence of his +productions. In 1851, Creswick became a full member of the Academy, and +somewhat later executed pictures into which Frith and Ansdell introduced +figures and cattle. There is a charm in his paintings, the character of +which may be gathered from _The Old Foot Road_, _The Hall Garden_, _The +Pleasant Way Home_, _The Valley Mill_, _The Blithe Brook_, _Across the +Beck_. In the National Gallery is _The Pathway to the Village Church_. +"He painted the homely scenery of his country, especially its streams, +in all its native beauty and freshness; natural, pure, and simple in his +treatment and colour, careful and complete in his finish, good taste +prevailing in all his works, and conspicuously so in his charming +contributions to the works of the Etching Club, of which he was a valued +member, and also in his many designs on wood." (_Redgrave._) + +[Illustration: THE PLEASANT WAY HOME. _By_ CRESWICK. _Exhibited in +1846._] + +JOHN LINNELL (1792--1882) the son of a carver and gilder in Bloomsbury, +was at first brought up to his father's trade, and had many +opportunities of studying pictures. At eight years of age he copied +Morland so well that his versions were often taken for originals. Soon +afterwards he became a pupil of John Varley, and in his studio met +Mulready and W. H. Hunt, with whom he frequently went on sketching +tours. In 1807, when only fifteen years of age, Linnell sent his first +pictures, _A Study from Nature_, and _A View near Reading_, to the Royal +Academy Exhibition, to which for more than seventy years he was a +regular contributor. He frequently painted portraits, and was +particularly successful in landscapes with many trees. Mr. Ruskin says, +"The forest studies of John Linnell are particularly elaborate, and in +many points most skilful." For many years towards the close of his life +he lived at Redhill, with his two sons and his son-in-law, Samuel +Palmer, all landscape painters, near him. + +During his long life he painted many hundred pictures, which are now for +the most part scattered in private galleries in England. Two of his +works are in the National Gallery, _Wood Cutters_, and _The Windmill_; +and three at South Kensington, _Wild Flower Gatherers_, _Milking Time_, +and _Driving Cattle_. + +EDWARD WILLIAM COOKE (1811--1880), the son of an engraver, was intended +for his father's profession; but he preferred the brush to the graver. +In 1851 he was made an associate and in 1864 a full member of the Royal +Academy, to whose exhibitions he was a most constant contributor: he +also exhibited at the British Institution. His works are, for the most +part, coast and river scenes, generally in England, and frequently on +the Thames or Medway. Paintings by him are in the National Gallery and +the South Kensington Museum. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +HISTORIC PAINTERS. + + +Many of our painters who aspired to high art in the field of history +were forced to abandon these ambitious designs, and confine themselves +to the more lucrative branches of their calling. It was not so with + +WILLIAM HILTON (1786--1839), who, although chilled and saddened by +neglect, and generally unable to sell his pictures, maintained his +position as a history painter, and suffered neither poverty nor the +coldness of the public to turn him aside. Few details are known of his +life; he was a gentle, silent, and retiring man, who knew much sorrow +and shunned publicity. Rescued from a trade to which he was destined, +Hilton was allowed to learn drawing, and became a pupil of J. Raphael +Smith, the mezzotint engraver. He entered the Academy schools, and paid +special attention to the anatomy of the figure. His earliest known +productions were a series of designs in oil to illustrate "The Mirror," +and "The Citizen of the World." Hilton's early exhibited works had +classic subjects, such as _Cephalus and Procris_, _Venus carrying the +wounded Achilles_, and _Ulysses and Calypso_. In 1810, he produced a +large historic painting, called _Citizens of Calais delivering the Keys +to Edward III._, for which the British Institution awarded him a premium +of fifty guineas. For the _Entombment of Christ_ he received a second +premium, and for _Edith discovering the Dead Body of Harold_ a third of +one hundred guineas. Nevertheless, the public did not appreciate his +works, and they were unsold. The Directors of the British Institution, +who had already marked their sense of this painter's ability, purchased +two of his sacred pieces, _Mary anointing the Feet of Jesus_, which was +presented to the Church of St. Michael, in the City, and _Christ crowned +with Thorns_, which was given to that of St. Peter's, Eaton Square, but +which has since been sold. In 1819 Hilton became a full member of the +Academy, and was appointed Keeper in 1827, a position for which he was +specially fitted, and where he gained the affection of the students. In +the next year he married. The death of his wife, in 1835, crushed his +energy and hope. He saw himself painting for a public which did not +value his art. + +[Illustration: THE RAPE OF EUROPA. _By_ HILTON. A.D. 1818. _In the +possession of the Earl of Egremont._] + +In addition to the above examples, we may mention Hilton's _Serena +rescued by the Red Cross Knight, Sir Calepine_, and _The Meeting of +Abraham's Servant with Rebekah_ (National Gallery), and a triptych of +_The Crucifixion_, which is at Liverpool. Most of Hilton's works are +falling to decay through the use of asphaltum. + +BENJAMIN ROBERT HAYDON (1786--1846) was the son of a bookseller at +Plymouth, and his "fitful life"--marked by "restless and importunate +vanity"--was ended by his own act. Haydon refused to follow his father's +business, and insisted on becoming a painter. Of his thoughts, hopes, +and dreams, we have been well informed. He was in the habit of writing +in an elaborate diary all that concerned himself. He came to London in +1804 with L20 in his pocket, entered the Academy schools, and worked +there with vigour and self-reliance. Northcote did not encourage his +enthusiastic countryman when he told him that as an historic painter "he +would starve with a bundle of straw under his head." We admire the +courage of Haydon in holding fast to the branch of art he had embraced, +but his egotism fulfilled the prophecy of Northcote. When twenty-one, +Haydon ordered a canvas for _Joseph and Mary resting on the Road to +Egypt_, and he prayed over the blank canvas that God would bless his +career, and enable him to create a new era in art. Lord Mulgrave became +his patron, and this may have added to the painter's hopes. He painted +_Dentatus_, and, intoxicated by flattery, believed the production of +this his second work would mark "an epoch in English art." _Dentatus_, +however, was hung in the ante-room of the Royal Academy, and coldly +received. In 1810, he began _Lady Macbeth_ for Sir George Beaumont; +quarrelling with his patron, he lost the commission, but worked on at +the picture. Although deeply in debt, he quarrelled with those who would +have been his friends. His _Judgment of Solomon_, a very fine picture, +was painted under great difficulties and privations. West, the +President, whom the painter accused of hostility to him, is said to have +shed tears of admiration at the sight of this work, and sent Haydon a +gift of L15. _Solomon_ was sold for 600 guineas, and the British +Institution awarded another hundred guineas as a premium to its author. +In 1820 Haydon produced _Christ's Entry into Jerusalem_, and during its +progress he, as he recorded, "held intercourse only with his art and his +Creator." This picture was exhibited at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, +and brought a large sum of money to the painter. Unsold in England, the +work of which Haydon had expected much was purchased for L240, and sent +to America. He established an Art school, where several able painters +were trained, but the master was constantly in great pecuniary +difficulties. In 1823, he exhibited the _The Raising of Lazarus_, +containing twenty figures, each nine feet high, which is now in the +National Gallery. Of this work Mr. Redgrave says: "The first impression +of the picture is imposing; the general effect powerful, and well suited +to the subject; the incidents and grouping well conceived; the +colouring good, and in parts brilliant. The Christ is weak, probably the +weakest, though the chief figure in the picture." Misfortune still +dogged the painter. He was thrown into prison for debt; released, he +worked in poverty, afraid of his "wicked-eyed, wrinkled, waddling, +gin-drinking, dirty-ruffled landlady." The closing scenes of his life +grew darker and darker. In 1826, he painted _Venus and Anchises_, on +commission, began _Alexander taming Bucephalus_, and _Euclus_, and was +once more in prison. An appeal in the newspapers produced money enough +to set him again at liberty. Then appeared the _Mock Election_, and +_Chairing the Member_, the former being purchased by the King. No +success, however, seemed to stem the tide of Haydon's misfortunes. He +lectured on Art with great ability in 1840, continued painting for +bread, and finally, disgusted by the cold reception of _Aristides_, and +_Nero watching the Burning of Rome_, the over-wrought mind of the +unfortunate man gave way, and he committed suicide, leaving this brief +entry in his journal--"God forgive me! Amen. Finis. B. R. Haydon. +'Stretch me no longer on the rack of this sad world.'--_Lear_." A sad +finish to his ambitious hopes! Of Haydon's art generally Mr. Redgrave +says: "He was a good anatomist and draughtsman, his colour was +effective, the treatment of his subject and conception were original and +powerful; but his works have a hurried and incomplete look, his finish +is coarse, sometimes woolly, and not free from vulgarity." + +[Illustration: THE DANGEROUS PLAYMATE. _By_ ETTY. A.D. 1833. _In the +National Gallery._] + +WILLIAM ETTY (1787--1849), the son of a miller at York, had few +advantages to help him on the road to fame. His education was slight, +and his early years were spent as a printer's apprentice in Hull. But he +had determined to be a painter; and his motto was, as he tells us, +"_Perseverance_." In 1806, he visited an uncle, in Lombard Street, and +became a student at the Academy, though his earliest art-school was a +plaster-cast shop in Cock Lane. Through his uncle's generosity, he +became a pupil of Lawrence, who had little time to attend to him. Though +overwhelmed with difficulties Etty persevered bravely. He laboured +diligently in the "Life School," tried in vain for all the medals, sent +his pictures to the Academy only to see them rejected; unlike Haydon, he +never lost heart. In 1820 _The Coral Finders_ was exhibited at the +Academy, and in the following year _Cleopatra_. His patience and +diligence were rewarded; henceforth his career was one of success. In +1822, he visited Italy, and in 1828 became a full member of the Academy. +His art was very unequal. He chiefly devoted himself, however, to +painting women, as being the embodiments of beauty. As a colourist few +English painters have rivalled him, and as a painter of flesh he stands +high. As showing the different forms of his many-sided art, we may +mention _Judith and Holofernes_, _Benaiah_, _The Eve of the Deluge_, +_Youth on the prow and Pleasure at the Helm_, _The Imprudence of +Candaules_, _The dangerous Playmate_, and _The Magdalen_ (all in the +National Gallery). Etty died unmarried, and the possessor of a +considerable fortune. + +HENRY PERRONET BRIGGS (1792--1844), distinguished as an historic and +portrait painter, began his art studies at the Academy in 1811, and was +made a full member of that body in 1832. His best-known works are +_Othello relating his Adventures_, _The first Conference between the +Spaniards and Peruvians_, and _Juliet and her Nurse_; the two latter are +in the National Gallery. This master in his later years forsook +historical painting for portraiture. + +[Illustration: GREEK FUGITIVES. _By_ EASTLAKE. _Painted for Sir Matthew +White Ridley, Bart._ _Exhibited at the Royal Academy in_ A.D. 1833.] + +CHARLES LOCK EASTLAKE (1793--1865), son of the Solicitor to the +Admiralty in that town, was born at Plymouth, and educated first in +Plympton Grammar School, where Reynolds had studied, and afterwards at +the Charterhouse, London. Choosing the profession of a painter, he was +encouraged, doubtless, by his fellow-townsman, Haydon, who had just +exhibited _Dentatus_. Eastlake became the pupil of that erratic master, +and attended the Academy schools. In 1813, he exhibited at the British +Institution a large and ambitious picture, _Christ raising the Daughter +of the Ruler_. In the following year the young painter was sent by Mr. +Harman to Paris, to copy some of the famous works collected by Napoleon +in the Louvre. The Emperor's escape from Elba, and the consequent +excitement in Europe, caused Eastlake to quit Paris, and he returned to +Plymouth, where he practised successfully as a portrait painter. A +portrait of Napoleon, which Eastlake enlarged from his sketch of the +Emperor on board the _Bellerophon_ when bound for St. Helena, appeared +in 1815. This picture now belongs to Lord Clinton. In the same year he +exhibited _Brutus exhorting the Romans to avenge the Death of Lucretia_. +In 1819 Eastlake visited Greece and Italy, and spent fourteen years +abroad, chiefly at Ferrara and Rome. The picturesque dress of the +Italian and Greek peasantry so fascinated him that for a long period he +forsook history for small _genre_ works, of which brigands and peasants +were the chief subjects. A large historical painting, _Mercury bringing +the Golden Apple to Paris_, appeared in 1820. Seven years later, _The +Spartan Isidas_, now in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, was +exhibited at the Academy, and procured for the painter the +Associateship. It illustrates the story told by Plutarch, in his "Life +of Agesilaus," of the young warrior called suddenly in his bath to +oppose the Thebans. Rushing forth naked with his sword and spear, he +drove back the Thebans and escaped unhurt. In 1828, Eastlake produced +_Italian Scene in the Anno Santo, Pilgrims arriving in sight of St. +Peter's_, which he twice repeated. In 1829 _Lord Byron's Dream_, a +poetic landscape (National Gallery), was exhibited, and Eastlake +becoming an Academician, returned to England. Then followed _Greek +Fugitives_, _Escape of the Carrara Family from the Duke of Milan_ (a +repetition is in the National Gallery), _Haidee_ (National Gallery), +_Gaston de Foix before the Battle of Ravenna_, _Christ blessing Little +Children_, _Christ weeping over Jerusalem_ (a repetition is in the +National Gallery), and _Hagar and Ishmael_. To his labours as a painter +Eastlake added the duties of several important offices, and much +valuable literary work. He was Secretary to the Royal Commission for +Decorating the New Palace of Westminster, Librarian of the Royal +Academy, and Keeper, and afterwards Director of the National Gallery. In +1850, he succeeded Sir Martin Shee as President of the Royal Academy, +and was knighted. From that time till his death, at Pisa, in 1865, he +was chiefly engaged in selecting pictures to be purchased by the British +Government. He was editor of Kugler's "Handbook of the Italian Schools +of Painting," and author of "Materials for a History of Oil Painting." + +[Illustration: JOASH SHOOTING THE ARROWS OF DELIVERANCE. _By_ DYCE. A.D. +1844. _In the possession of Mr. Bicknell._] + +WILLIAM DYCE (1806--1864), a native of Aberdeen, commenced his art +studies at the Royal Scottish Academy. Visiting Italy he studied the old +masters, and their influence had a lasting effect upon his style. In +1827 Dyce exhibited at the Royal Academy _Bacchus nursed by the Nymphs_. +In 1830, he settled in Edinburgh, and achieved marked success. _The +Descent of Venus_ appeared at the Academy in 1836. Having removed to +London, Dyce exhibited, in 1844, _Joash shooting the Arrows of +Deliverance_, and was elected an Associate. In 1847, he produced the +sketch of a fresco executed at Osborne House, _Neptune assigning to +Britannia the Empire of the Sea_. Dyce was chosen, in 1848, to decorate +the Queen's Robing-Room in the Houses of Parliament, and commenced, but +did not quite finish, a large series of frescoes illustrating _The +Legend of King Arthur_. He produced other historic works, chiefly of +Biblical subjects, and of great merit. + +GEORGE HARVEY (1805--1876) was born at St. Ninian's, Fifeshire, and +apprenticed to a bookseller at Stirling. He quitted this craft at the +age of eighteen, and commenced his art career at Edinburgh. In Scotland +he gained a wide popularity. He took an active part in the establishment +of the Royal Scottish Academy, and was knighted in 1867. His favourite +subjects were Puritan episodes, such as _Covenanters' Communion_, +_Bunyan imagining his Pilgrim's Progress in Bedford Gaol_, and _The +Battle of Drumclog_. + +THOMAS DUNCAN (1807--1845), a native of Perthshire, first attracted +notice by his pictures of a _Milkmaid_, and _Sir John Falstaff_. In +1840, he exhibited at the Royal Academy his historical painting, +_Entrance of Prince Charlie into Edinburgh after Preston Pans_, and next +year produced _Waefu' Heart_, from the ballad of "Auld Robin Gray," +which is now at South Kensington. + +[Illustration: HAROLD, RETURNED FROM NORMANDY, PRESENTS HIMSELF TO +EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. _By_ MACLISE. A.D. 1866. + +_From the "Story of the Norman Conquest."_] + +DANIEL MACLISE (1811--1870) was born at Cork, and was intended for the +unromantic calling of a banker's clerk. Fortunately for the world he +soon left the bank stool for the studio of the Cork Society of Arts. +In 1828, he transferred his attention to the Academy schools in London, +and soon obtained the gold medal for the best historic composition, +representing _The Choice of Hercules_. He had previously exhibited +_Malvolio affecting the Count_. In due course appeared, at the British +Institution, _Mokanna unveiling his features to Zelica_, and _Snap-Apple +Night_, which found a place at the Royal Academy. Maclise became a full +Academician in 1840. His latter years were chiefly occupied with the +famous water-glass pictures in the Houses of Parliament, _The Interview +of Wellington and Blucher after Waterloo_, and _The Death of Nelson at +Trafalgar_. The noble cartoon (bought by subscriptions of artists, who +likewise presented the designer with a gold port-crayon) of the former +is now the property of the Royal Academy. Maclise executed many book +illustrations, including those for "Moore's Melodies," and "The Pilgrims +of the Rhine." He executed a noble series of designs delineating _The +Story of the Norman Conquest_. A collection of his drawings has been +bequeathed to the South Kensington Museum by Mr. John Forster. Maclise +painted a few portraits, among them that of Charles Dickens, who spoke +thus of the dead painter, "Of his prodigious fertility of mind and +wonderful wealth of intellect, I may confidently assert that they would +have made him, if he had been so minded, at least as great a writer as +he was a painter. The gentlest, and most modest of men; the freest as to +his generous appreciation of young aspirants; and the frankest and +largest-hearted as to his peers. No artist ever went to his rest leaving +a golden memory more free from dross, or having devoted himself with a +truer chivalry to the goddess whom he worshipped." The most remarkable +works of Maclise are _Macbeth and the Witches_; _Olivia and Sophia +fitting out Moses for the Fair_; _The Banquet Scene in Macbeth_; _Ordeal +by Touch_; _Robin Hood and Coeur de Lion_; _The Play Scene in Hamlet_ +(National Gallery); _Malvolio and the Countess_ (National Gallery). + +CHARLES LANDSEER (1799--1879), the elder brother of the more famous Sir +Edwin Landseer, was a pupil of Haydon and the Royal Academy Schools. In +1836 appeared his _Sacking of Basing House_ (now in the National +Gallery). He was elected an A.R.A. in the following year, became a full +member in 1845, and Keeper in 1851. Amongst other good works by him are +_Clarissa Harlowe in the Spunging House_ (National Gallery), _Charles +II. escaping in disguise from Colonel Lane's House_, and _The Eve of the +Battle of Edgehill_. + +CHARLES LUCY (1814--1873) began life as a chemist's apprentice in his +native town of Hereford. He soon forsook the counter, and went to Paris +to study painting. Coming to London, he exhibited _Caractacus and his +Family before the Emperor Claudius_, a work which formed the +introduction to a long series of historic pictures, noteworthy among +which are _The Parting of Charles I. with his Children_, _The Parting of +Lord and Lady Russell_, and _Buonaparte in discussion with the Savants_, +all of which were exhibited at the Academy. Lucy established a great +reputation in Europe and America. + +JOHN PHILLIP (1817--1867) was one of the best colourists of the English +school. He was a native of Aberdeen, began life as an errand boy to what +the Scotch call a "tin smith," and afterwards became an apprentice to a +painter and glazier, and seems to have had instruction in his early +pursuit of art from a portrait painter of his native town, named Forbes, +who was very generous to him. A picture by Phillip secured him the +patronage of Lord Panmure, who sent him to London. In 1837 the young +painter entered the Academy Schools. He exhibited two portraits in 1838, +and two years later returned to Aberdeen, exhibiting in the Royal +Academy _Tasso in Disguise relating his Persecutions to his Sister_. +Once more returning to London, Phillip exhibited _The Catechism_, and +several pictures of Scottish life, as _The Baptism_, _The Spae Wife_, +_The Free Kirk_. Illness compelled him to visit Spain in 1851, and here +he produced many excellent pictures of Spanish life, which greatly added +to his reputation, and gained for him the sobriquet of "Don Phillip of +Spain." _A Visit to Gipsy Quarters_, _The Letter-writer of Seville_, and +_El Paseo_ are examples of his Spanish pictures. In 1857 Phillip was +elected Associate of the Royal Academy, and exhibited the _Prison Window +in Seville_. Elected a full member in 1859, he painted next year _The +Marriage of the Princess Royal_, by command of the Queen. _La Gloria_, +one of his most celebrated works, appeared in 1864. His pictures combine +correctness of drawing with boldness, if not refinement, of +colouring--which is seldom met with in the works of our best painters. + +ALFRED ELMORE (1815--1881), an Irishman by birth, won for himself fame +as a painter of historic scenes and _genre_ subjects. Among his works +are _Rienzi in the Forum_; _The Invention of the Stocking Loom_ and _The +Invention of the Combing Machine_; _Marie Antoinette in the Tuileries_; +_Marie Antoinette in the Temple_; _Ophelia_; and _Mary Queen of Scots +and Darnley_. He was elected a R.A. in 1857. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +SUBJECT PAINTERS. + + +Domestic subject, or _genre_, painting in England may be said to have +originated with Hogarth, but it made slow progress after his death till +the commencement of the nineteenth century. Historic pictures of a large +size were neither popular nor profitable. Corporate bodies did not care +to spend money on the adornment of their guild halls, and ordinary +householders had no room for large pictures. Englishmen are essentially +_domestic_, and pictures small enough to hang in small houses, and +illustrative of home life, suit their necessities, and appeal to their +feelings far more strongly than vast canvases representing battles or +sacred histories. In _genre_ painting the Dutch school has ever been +prominent; to it we doubtless owe much of the popularity of this branch +of art in England, where our painters have chosen familiar subjects, +without descending to the coarse or sensual incidents in which some old +Dutch artists delighted. The _genre_ painters of this country have +mainly drawn their subjects from our national poets and prose writers +and the every-day life of Englishmen, sometimes verging on the side of +triviality, but on the whole including pleasing works, which, as it has +been well said, "bear the same relation to historic art as the tale or +novel does to history." + +DAVID WILKIE (1785--1841) was born in his father's manse at Cults, +Fifeshire. It was fully intended that Wilkie should follow in his +father's steps, and become a minister of the Scottish Kirk, but it was +not to be so. He was placed, at his own earnest desire, in the Trustees' +Academy, at Edinburgh, and there in 1803 justified the wisdom of this +choice by gaining the ten-guinea premium for the best painting of the +time, the subject being _Callisto in the Baths of Diana_. Next year +young Wilkie visited his home, and painted _Piltassie Fair_, which he +sold for L25. He painted portraits, and with the money thus acquired +went to London in 1805. Having entered himself as a student at the +Academy, Wilkie soon attracted attention by the _Village Politicians_, +which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1806. One hundred of his +paintings appeared from time to time on the Academy walls; each +succeeding early work added to its author's fame. All his earlier works +were _genre_ pictures. His favourite subjects are shown in _The Blind +Fiddler_, _Card-Players_, _The Rent Day_, _The Jew's Harp_, _The Cut +Finger_, _The Village Festival_, _Blindman's Buff_, _The Letter of +Introduction_, _Duncan Gray_, _The Penny Wedding_, _Reading the Will_, +_The Parish Beadle_, and _The Chelsea Pensioners_, the last painted for +the Duke of Wellington. Wilkie was elected A.R.A. in 1809, and a full +member in 1811. He went abroad in 1814, and again in 1825, when he +visited Germany, Italy, and Spain. The study of the old masters, +especially Correggio, Rembrandt, and Velazquez, had a marked effect on +Wilkie, who changed both his style and subjects. He forsook _genre_ for +history and portraiture, and substituted a light effective style of +handling for the careful execution of his earlier works. _John Knox +Preaching_ (National Gallery) is a good specimen of this second period +of Wilkie's art. He succeeded Sir Thomas Lawrence in 1830 as Painter in +Ordinary to the King, and was knighted six years later. In 1840 Wilkie +visited the East, and painted the portrait of the Sultan Abdul Medjid. +Next year, whilst far from home, on board a steamer off Gibraltar, he +died, and found a grave in the sea. There are eleven of his pictures in +the National Gallery. Her Majesty possesses most of the pictures painted +by Wilkie in Spain, such as _The Guerilla Council of War_, and _The Maid +of Saragossa_. Another Spanish picture, painted in England, is _Two +Spanish Monks in the Cathedral of Toledo_, belonging to the Marquis of +Lansdowne. In it we notice the painting of the hands, which are full of +life and action, a characteristic in which Wilkie excelled. "His early +art certainly made a great impression on the English school, showing how +Dutch art might be nationalized, and story and sentiment added to scenes +of common life treated with truth and individuality. As to his middle +time, such pictures as the _John Knox_ also had their influence on the +school, and the new mode of execution as supported by Wilkie's +authority, a very evil influence, bringing discredit upon English +pictures as entirely wanting in permanency. His methods and the pigments +he used were soon discarded in England, but at the time they influenced, +and have continued to influence, his countrymen long after his death." +(_Redgrave._) + +[Illustration: THE MAID OF SARAGOSSA. _By_ WILKIE. A.D. 1827. _In the +possession of the Queen._] + +WILLIAM FREDERICK WITHERINGTON (1785--1865) combined landscape and +subject painting in his art. He exhibited his first picture, _Tintern +Abbey_, in 1811, and his succeeding works were principally landscapes +and figure subjects in combination. Witherington was elected A.R.A. in +1830, and became a full member ten years later. Favourable specimens of +his thoroughly English and pleasing pictures are _The Stepping Stones_ +and _The Hop Garland_ in the National Gallery, and _The Hop Garden_ in +the Sheepshanks Collection at South Kensington. + +ABRAHAM COOPER (1787--1868), the son of an inn-keeper, was born in +London, and early showed singular skill with his pencil. The inn stables +furnished his first and favoured subjects, and the portrait of a +favourite horse belonging to Sir Henry Meux gained him his first +patron. In 1814 Cooper exhibited at the British Institution _Tam +o'Shanter_, which was purchased by the Duke of Marlborough. In 1817 _The +Battle of Marston Moor_ secured his election as an Associate of the +Academy: he became a R.A. in 1820. There is little variety in the +subjects of this painter's works. The best known are _The Pride of the +Desert_, _Hawking in the Olden Time_, _The Dead Trooper_, _Richard I._ +and _Saladin at the Battle of Ascalon_, and _Bothwell's Seizure of Mary, +Queen of Scots_. + +WILLIAM MULREADY (1786--1863), the ablest _genre_ painter in England +except Wilkie, was born at Ennis, in the County Clare. Although his +works are familiar to most of us as household words, few details of his +life are known. We know that his father was a maker of leather-breeches, +and that he came to London with his son when the latter was about five +years old. The child is said to have shown very early the artistic power +which was in him. He sat as a model for Solomon to John Graham, who was +illustrating Macklin's Bible and probably the surroundings of the studio +stimulated young Mulready's artistic instincts. By the recommendation of +Banks, the sculptor, he gained entrance to the Academy Schools; at the +age of fifteen he required no further pecuniary aid from his parents. +Mulready worked in the Academy Schools, as he worked through life, with +all his heart and soul. He declared he always painted as though for a +prize, and that when he had begun his career in the world he tried his +hand at everything, "from a caricature to a panorama." He was a teacher +all his life, and this accounts, perhaps, for the careful completeness +of his pictures. Mulready married when very young, and did not secure +happiness. He began by painting landscapes, but in 1807 produced _Old +Kasper_, from Southey's poem of "The Battle of Blenheim," his first +subject picture. _The Rattle_ appeared a year later, and marked advance. +Both pictures bear evidence that their author had studied the Dutch +masters. In 1815 Mulready was chosen A.R.A., but before his name could +appear in the catalogue he had attained to the rank of a full member. +This was in 1816, when he exhibited _The Fight interrupted_ (Sheepshanks +Collection). From this time he was a popular favourite, and his +pictures, of which he exhibited on an average scarcely two a year, were +eagerly looked for. We may specify _The Wolf and the Lamb_, _The Last +in_, _Fair Time_, _Crossing the Ford_, _The Young Brother_, _The Butt_, +_Giving a Bite_, _Choosing the Wedding Gown_, and _The Toyseller_ (all +in the National Gallery or in the South Kensington Museum). "With the +exception perhaps of some slight deterioration in his colouring, which +of late years was obtrusively purple, he was in the enjoyment of the +full powers of his great abilities for upwards of half a century. * * * +He was distinguished by the excellence of his life studies, three of +which in red and black chalks, presented by the Society of Arts, are in +the Gallery." (_National Gallery Catalogue._) + +[Illustration: CHOOSING THE WEDDING GOWN. _By_ MULREADY, A.D. 1846. + +_In the Sheepshanks Gallery in the South Kensington Museum._] + +ALEXANDER FRASER (1786--1865), a native of Edinburgh, exhibited his +first picture, _The Green Stall_, in 1810. Having settled in London, he +became an assistant to his countryman Wilkie, and for twenty years +painted the still-life details of Wilkie's pictures. The influence of +his master's art is visible in Fraser's pictures, which are usually +founded upon incidents and scenes in Scotland, as, for example, +_Interior of a Highland Cottage_ (National Gallery) and _Sir Walter +Scott dining with one of the Blue-gown Beggars of Edinburgh_. Other +examples are _The Cobbler at Lunch_, _The Blackbird and his Tutor_, and +_The Village Sign-painter_. + +[Illustration: SANCHO PANZA AND THE DUCHESS. _By_ LESLIE. A.D. 1844. _In +the National Gallery._] + +CHARLES ROBERT LESLIE (1794--1859) was born in London, probably in +Clerkenwell, of American parents. His father was a clockmaker from +Philadelphia, who returned with his family to America when the future +painter was five years old. The boy was apprenticed to a bookseller, but +his true vocation was decided by a portrait which he made of Cooke, the +English tragedian, who was performing in Philadelphia. This work +attracted so much notice among Leslie's friends that a subscription was +raised to send him to England, the bookseller, his master, liberally +contributing. In 1811, Leslie became a student of the Royal Academy, and +received instruction from his countrymen Washington Allston and Benjamin +West. Leslie, however, considered teaching of little value. He said +that, if materials were provided, a man was his own best teacher, and he +speaks of "Fuseli's wise neglect" of the Academy students. Influenced, +probably, by the example of Allston and West, Leslie began by aiming at +classic art. He mentions that he was reading "Telemachus," with a view +to a subject, and among his early works was _Saul and the Witch of +Endor_. Even when he commenced to draw subjects from Shakespeare, he +turned first to the historic plays, and painted _The Death of Rutland_ +and _The Murder Scene from "Macbeth_." Unlike Wilkie and Mulready, +Leslie did not strive to _create_ subjects for his pictures. He +preferred to ramble through literature, and to select a scene or episode +for his canvas. Wilkie invented scenes illustrating the festivities of +the lower classes, Mulready chose similar incidents; it was left to +Leslie to adopt "genteel comedy." Like his countryman and adviser, +Washington Irving, he had visited, doubtless, many scenes of quiet +English country life, and one of these is reproduced in his well-known +picture of _Sir Roger de Coverley going to Church_, which was exhibited +in 1819. He had previously shown his power in humorous subjects by +painting _Ann Page and Slender_. Leslie had discovered his true +vocation, and continued to work in the department of the higher _genre_ +with unabated success. The patronage of Lord Egremont, for whom he +painted, in 1823, _Sancho Panza in the Apartment of the Duchess_, was +the means of procuring him many commissions. The picture in the National +Gallery, of which we give an illustration, is a replica with slight +alterations, executed many years later. He married in 1825, and became a +full member of the Academy a year later. In 1831 he exhibited _The +Dinner at Page's House_, from "The Merry Wives of Windsor"--one of his +finest works. No painter has made us so well acquainted with the +delightful old reprobate, Falstaff, with Bardolph, and the merry company +who drank sack at the Boar's Head in Eastcheap. There is a repetition of +_The Dinner at Page's House_ in the Sheepshanks Collection, slightly +varied from the first, and bearing traces of Constable's influence. In +1833, Leslie was appointed teacher of drawing at the American Academy at +West Point, and with his family he removed thither. It was a mistake, +and the painter returned to England within a year. He illustrated +Shakespeare, Cervantes, Goldsmith, and Sterne, the latter furnishing him +with the subject of _Uncle Toby and the Widow Wadman_. In 1838, Leslie, +by request of the Queen, painted _Her Majesty's Coronation_--which is +very unlike the usual pictures of a state ceremonial. In 1841 he was +commissioned to paint _The Christening of the Princess Royal_. The +domestic life of Leslie was peaceful and prosperous, till the death of a +daughter gave a shock from which he never recovered. He died May 5, +1859. Mr. Redgrave says of his art, "Leslie entered into the true spirit +of the writer he illustrated. His characters appear the very individuals +who have filled our mind. Beauty, elegance, and refinement, varied, and +full of character, or sparkling with sweet humour, were charmingly +depicted by his pencil; while the broader characters of another class, +from his fine appreciation of humour, are no less truthfully rendered, +and that with an entire absence of any approach to vulgarity. The +treatment of his subject is so simple that we lose the sense of a +picture, and feel that we are looking upon a scene as it must have +happened. He drew correctly and with an innate sense of grace. His +colouring is pleasing, his costume simple and appropriate." + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN MACHEATH. _By_ NEWTON. A.D. 1826. _In the +possession of the Marquis of Lansdowne._] + +GILBERT STUART NEWTON (1794--1835), connected with Leslie by +friendship and similarity of taste, was a native of Halifax, Nova +Scotia. In 1817, when travelling in Europe, Newton met with Leslie at +Paris, and returned with him to London. He was a student of the Academy, +and soon attracted attention by _The Forsaken_, _Lovers' Quarrels_, and +_The Importunate Author_, which were exhibited at the British +Institution. Newton began to exhibit at the Academy in 1823, and +delighted the world with _Don Quixote in his Study_, and _Captain +Macheath upbraided by Polly and Lucy_. In 1828 he surpassed these works +with _The Vicar of Wakefield reconciling his Wife to Olivia_, and was +elected an A.R.A. _Yorick and the Grisette_, _Cordelia and the +Physician_, _Portia and Bassanio_, and similar works followed. In 1832 +Newton became a full member of the Academy, and visiting America, +married, and returned with his wife to England. The brief remaining +period of his life was clouded with a great sorrow; his mind gave way, +and having exhibited his last picture, _Abelard in his Study_, he became +altogether insane. + +AUGUSTUS LEOPOLD EGG (1816--1863) was born in Piccadilly, and on +becoming a painter chose similar subjects to those of Leslie and Newton. +He had not the humour of Leslie; indeed, most of Egg's subjects are +melancholy. His first works were Italian views, and illustrations of +Scott's novels, which attracted little notice. _The Victim_ promised +better. Egg showed pictures in the Suffolk Street Gallery, and, in 1838, +_The Spanish Girl_ appeared at the Royal Academy. Failing health +compelled him to winter abroad, and on the 23rd of March, 1863, he died +at Algiers, and was buried on a lonely hill. Three years before his +death Egg had become a full member of the Academy. He is described as +having a greater sense of colour than Leslie, but inferior to Newton in +this respect. In execution he far surpassed the flimsy mannerism of the +latter. His females have not the sweet beauty and gentleness of +Leslie's. In the National Gallery is _A Scene from "Le Diable +Boiteux_," in which the dexterity of Egg's execution is visible. He +partially concurred with the pre-Raphaelites in his later years, and +their influence may be traced in _Pepys' Introduction to Nell Gwynne_, +and in a scene from Thackeray's "Esmond." Other noteworthy pictures are +_The Life and Death of Buckingham_; _Peter the Great sees Catherine, his +future Empress, for the First Time_; _The Night before Naseby_; and +_Catherine and Petruchio_. + +EDWIN HENRY LANDSEER (1802--1873) was eminent among English animal +painters. No artist has done more to teach us how to love animals and to +enforce the truth that-- + + "He prayeth best who loveth best + All things both great and small." + +Not only did Landseer rival some of the Dutch masters of the seventeenth +century in painting fur and feathers, but he depicted animals with +sympathy, as if he believed that "the dumb, driven cattle" possess +souls. His dogs and other animals are so human as to look as if they +were able to speak. The painter was the son of John Landseer, the +engraver, and was born in London. He received art lessons from his +father, and, when little more than a baby, would sketch donkeys, horses, +and cows at Hampstead Heath. Some of these sketches, made when Landseer +was five, seven, and ten years old, are at Kensington. He was only +fourteen when he exhibited the heads of _A Pointer Bitch and Puppy_. +When between sixteen and seventeen he produced _Dogs fighting_, which +was engraved by the painter's father. Still more popular was _The Dogs +of St. Gothard rescuing a Distressed Traveller_, which appeared when its +author was eighteen. Landseer was not a pupil of Haydon, but he had +occasional counsel from him. He dissected a lion. As soon as he reached +the age of twenty-four he was elected an A.R.A., and exhibited at the +Academy _The Hunting of Chevy Chase_. This was in 1826, and in 1831 he +became a full member of the Academy. Landseer had visited Scotland in +1826, and from that date we trace a change in his style, which +thenceforth was far less solid, true and searching, and became more free +and bold. The introduction of deer into his pictures, as in _The +Children of the Mist_, _Seeking Sanctuary_, and _The Stag at Bay_, +marked the influence of Scotch associations. Landseer was knighted in +1850, and at the French Exhibition of 1855 was awarded the only large +gold medal given to an English artist. Prosperous, popular, and the +guest of the highest personages of the realm, he was visited about 1852 +by an illness which compelled him to retire from society. From this he +recovered, but the effects of a railway accident in 1868 brought on a +relapse. He died in 1873, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. On the +death of Sir Charles Eastlake, in 1865, he was offered the Presidentship +of the Royal Academy, but this honour he declined. In the National +Gallery are _Spaniels of King Charles's Breed_, _Low Life and High +Life_, _Highland Music_ (a highland piper disturbing a group of five +hungry dogs, at their meal, with a blast on the pipes), _The Hunted +Stag_, _Peace_ (of which we give a representation), _War_ (dying and +dead horses, and their riders lying amidst the burning ruins of a +cottage), _Dignity and Impudence_, _Alexander and Diogenes_, _The Defeat +of Comus_, a sketch painted for a fresco in the Queen's summer house, +Buckingham Palace. Sixteen of Landseer's works are in the Sheepshanks +Collection, including the touching _Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner_, of +which Mr. Ruskin said that "it stamps its author not as the neat +imitator of the texture of a skin, or the fold of a drapery, but as the +man of mind." + +[Illustration: PEACE. _By_ LANDSEER. A.D. 1846. _In the National +Gallery._] + +WILLIAM BOXALL (1800--1879), after study in the Royal Academy Schools +and in Italy, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1829 his first +picture--_Milton's Reconciliation with his Wife_--and continued to +contribute to its exhibitions till 1866. Though his first works were +historic and allegoric, he finally became famous as a portrait painter, +and reckoned among his sitters some of the most eminent men of the +time--poets, painters, writers on art, and others, _e.g_. Copley +Fielding, David Cox, Coleridge, Wordsworth. In 1852 Boxall became an +associate, and in 1864 a full member of the Royal Academy; he was +Director of the National Gallery from 1865 to 1874; and received the +honour of knighthood in 1871, in recognition of the valuable services +which he rendered to art. + +PAUL FALCONER POOLE (1810--1879), a painter of high class of _genre_ +pictures as well as of history, exhibited his first picture at the +Academy in 1830, _The Well, a Scene at Naples_. In 1838 he produced _The +Emigrant's Departure_. Other pictures are _May Queen preparing for the +Dance_, _The Escape of Glaucus and Ione_, _The Seventh Day of the +Decameron_. Among the historic works of this artist are _The Vision of +Ezekiel_ (National Gallery) and others. Poole became a full member of +the Academy in 1860. + +GEORGE HEMMING MASON (1818--1872), a native of Witley, Staffordshire, +found art to be surrounded by difficulties. His father insisted on his +following the profession of medicine, and placed him with Dr. Watts, of +Birmingham. A portrait painter having visited the doctor's house, young +Mason borrowed his colour-box, and, unaided, produced a picture of such +promise that the artist advised him to follow art. Mason left the +doctor's house, made his way to Italy, and, without any teacher, +developed an original style which is marked by simplicity of design, +refinement of colour, delicacy of chiaroscuro, and pathos of expression. +He was elected A.R.A. in 1868, but died of heart-disease before becoming +a full member. Mason's best-known works are _Campagna di Roma_, _The +Gander_, _The Return from Ploughing_, _The Cast Shoe_, _The Evening +Hymn_, and _The Harvest Moon_, unfinished. + +ROBERT BRAITHWAITE MARTINEAU (1826--1869), son of one of the Masters in +Chancery, nephew of Miss Martineau, commenced life as an articled clerk +to a solicitor. After four years' study of the law he forsook it for the +brighter sphere of art, and entered the Academy Schools. In 1852 +Martineau exhibited at the Academy _Kit's Writing Lesson_, from "The Old +Curiosity Shop," which indicated the class of subjects which he +delighted in. His _Last Day in the Old House_, and _The Last Chapter_, +by their originality of conception, and exquisite painting, won the +artist a renown which he did not long live to enjoy. He died of +heart-disease. + +JOHN FREDERICK LEWIS (1805--1876), the son of an eminent London +engraver, began his career in art by painting studies of animals, and in +1828 was elected a Member of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours. +He afterwards travelled in Spain and Italy, painting many subjects, such +as a _Spanish Bullfight_, _Monks preaching at Seville_, &c., and thence +went to the East, where he stayed some years. He returned to England in +1851, and four years afterwards was made President of the Water-colour +Society. In 1856 he exhibited _A Frank Encampment in the Desert of Mount +Sinai_, which Mr. Ruskin called "the climax of water-colour drawing." In +the same year he began to paint in oil colours, and frequently exhibited +pictures of Eastern life, such as _The Meeting in the Desert_, _A +Turkish School_, _A Cafe in Cairo_, &c. In 1859 he was made an Associate +of the Royal Academy, and in 1866 a full member. In the South Kensington +Museum there are two of Lewis's water-colour drawings, _The Halt in the +Desert_ and _Peasants of the Black Forest_, and a few of his studies +from nature. + +[Illustration: THE ARAB SCRIBE. _By_ JOHN FREDERICK LEWIS. A.D. 1852.] + +EDWARD MATTHEW WARD (1816--1879) became a student at the Academy by the +advice of Wilkie, who had seen his first picture, a portrait of Mr. O. +Smith as Don Quixote. In 1836 Ward was a student in Rome. Thence he +proceeded to Munich, and studied fresco-painting with Cornelius. In 1839 +he returned to England, and exhibited _Cimabue and Giotto_. Joining in +the competition for the decoration of the Houses of Parliament, he +produced _Boadicea_, which was commended, but did not obtain a premium. +_Dr. Johnson reading the MS. of Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield"_, +first brought him to notice. It was followed by _Dr. Johnson in Lord +Chesterfield's Ante-Room_, and the painter was elected an A.R.A. This +work as well as _The Disgrace of Lord Clarendon_, _The South-Sea +Bubble_, and _James II. receiving the news of the landing of William of +Orange_, are in the National Gallery. In 1852 and later Ward executed +eight historic pictures in the corridor of the House of Commons. He was +elected a Royal Academician in 1855. His pictures are too well known to +need description; most popular among them are _Charlotte Corday led to +Execution_, _The Execution of Montrose_, _The Last Sleep of Argyll_, +_Marie Antoinette parting with the Dauphin_, _The Last Moments of +Charles II._, _The Night of Rizzio's Murder_, _The Earl of Leicester and +Amy Robsart_, _Judge Jeffreys and Richard Baxter_. + +FREDERICK WALKER (1840--1875) died just as he had fulfilled the promise +of his youth. After spending a short time in the office of an architect +and surveyor, he left this uncongenial region to practise art. He +occasionally studied in the Academy Schools, and began his artistic +career by illustrating Thackeray's "Philip" in the "Cornhill Magazine," +thus winning much praise. He became a member of the Old Water-Colour +Society, and an A.R.A. A career full of promise was cut short by death +at St. Fillan's, Perthshire, in 1875: the young painter was buried at +his favourite Cookham, on the Thames. His chief works are _The Lost +Path_, _The Bathers_, _The Vagrants_, _The Old Gate_, _The Plough_, _The +Harbour of Refuge_, and _The Right of Way_. Mr. Redgrave said, "His +genius was thoroughly and strikingly original. His works are marked by a +method of their own; the drawing, colour, and execution, alike peculiar +to himself. They are at once refined and pathetic in sentiment, and +novel in their conception of nature and her effects. His figures have +the true feeling of rustic life, with the grace of line of the +antique." + +[Illustration: OUR VILLAGE. _By_ FREDERICK WALKER. _Exhibited at the +Water-colour Society's Exhibition._ A.D. 1873.] + +GABRIEL CHARLES DANTE ROSSETTI (1828--1882), poet, and painter of sacred +subjects and scenes inspired by the writings of Dante, was the son of an +Italian patriot, a political refugee, who became Professor of Italian in +King's College, London. He exhibited at the Portland Gallery his first +picture, _The Girlhood of the Virgin_, in 1849, and became the founder +of the pre-Raphaelite school, which included Millais, Holman Hunt, and +other artists now celebrated. Rossetti's best-known pictures are +_Dante's Dream_ (now at Liverpool), _The Damosel of the Sancte Graal_, +_The Last Meeting of Lancelot and Guinevere_, _The Beloved_ (an +illustration of the Song of Solomon), and _Proserpina_. He seldom +exhibited his paintings in public, but they were seen by art-critics, +one of whom wrote (in 1873)--"Exuberance in power, exuberance in poetry +of a rich order, noble technical gifts, vigour of conception, and a +marvellously extensive range of thought and invention appear in nearly +everything Mr. Rossetti produces." + +He was equally celebrated as a writer of sonnets and a translator of +Italian poetry. + + * * * * * + +It is not within the province of this work to include notice of living +artists. To give an account of all the celebrated painters would require +another volume. During the past decade Art has advanced with steady +progress, and we can confidently say that at no time have the ranks of +the Royal Academicians and the two Water-Colour Societies been filled +more worthily than at the present day. The last quarter of the +nineteenth century is likely to be a golden era in the history of +British Art. + + + + +PAINTING IN AMERICA. + +BY S. R. KOEHLER. + +[Illustration] + + + + +PAINTING IN AMERICA. + +INTRODUCTION. + + +The history of art in America is in reality the record only of the dying +away of the last echoes of movements which had their origin in Europe. +Although the western continent has given birth to new political ideas +and new forms of government, not one of its States, not even the +greatest of them all, the United States of North America, to which this +chapter will be confined, has thus far brought forth a national art, or +has exercised any perceptible influence, except in a single instance, on +the shaping of the art of the world. Nor is this to be wondered at. The +newness of the country, the mixture of races from the beginning, and the +ever-continuing influx of foreigners, together with the lack of +educational facilities, and the consequent necessity of seeking +instruction in Europe, are causes sufficient to explain the apparent +anomaly. Even those of the native painters of the United States who kept +away from the Old World altogether, or visited it too late in life to be +powerfully influenced, show but few traces of decided originality in +either conception or execution. They also were under the spell, despite +the fact that it could not work upon them directly. The attempt has been +made to explain this state of things by assuming an incapacity for art +on the part of the people of the country, and an atmosphere hostile to +its growth, resulting from surrounding circumstances. These conclusions, +however, are false. So far as technical skill goes, Americans--native as +well as adopted--have always shown a remarkable facility of acquisition, +and the rapidity with which carpenters, coach-painters, and +sign-painters, especially in the earlier period of the country's +history, developed into respectable portrait-painters, almost without +instruction, will always remain cause for astonishment. Of those who +went abroad at that time, England readopted four men who became famous +(West, Copley, Newton, Leslie), and she still points to them with +satisfaction as among the more conspicuous on her roll of artists. Nor +has this quality been lost with the advance of time. It has, on the +contrary, been aided by diligent application; and the successes which +have been achieved by American students are recorded in the annals of +the French Salon. There is one curious trait, however, which will become +more and more apparent as we trace the history of art in America, and +that is the absence of a national element in the subjects treated. If we +except a short flickering of patriotic spirit in the art of what may be +called the Revolutionary Period, and the decided preference given to +American scenes by the landscape painters of about the middle of the +present century, it may be said that the artists of the country, as a +rule, have imported with the technical processes also the subjects of +the Old World; that they have preferred the mountains of Italy and the +quiet hamlets of France to the hills of New England and the Rocky +Mountains of the West, the Arab to the Indian, and the history of the +Old World to the records of their own ancestors. Even the struggle for +the destruction of the last vestiges of slavery which was the great work +entrusted to this generation, has called forth so few manifestations in +art (and these few falling without the limits of the present chapter), +that it would not be very far from wrong to speak of it as having left +behind it no trace whatever. All this, however, is not the fault of the +artists, except in so far as they are themselves part of the nation. The +blame attaches to the people as a whole, whose innermost thoughts and +highest aspirations the artists will always be called upon to embody in +visible form. There is no doubt, from the evidence already given by the +painters of America, that they will be equal to the task, should they +ever be called upon to exert their skill in the execution of works of +monumental art. + + * * * * * + +The history of painting in America may be divided into four periods:--1. +_The Colonial Period_, up to the time of the Revolution; 2. _The +Revolutionary Period_, comprising the painters who were eye-witnesses of +and participators in the War of Independence; 3. _The Period of Inner +Development_, from about the beginning of the century to the civil war; +4. _The Period of the Present_. It will be seen that the designations of +these divisions are taken from the political rather than the artistic +history of the country. And, indeed, it would be difficult to find other +distinguishing marks which would allow of a concise nomenclature. As to +the influences at work in the several periods, it may be said that the +Colonial and Revolutionary were entirely under the domination of +England. In the earlier part of the third period the influence of +England continued, but was supplemented by that of Italy. Later on a +number of American artists studied in Paris, without, however, coming +under the influence of the Romantic school, and towards the middle of +the century many of them were attracted by Duesseldorf. A slight +influence was exercised also by the English pre-Raphaelites, but it +found expression in a literary way rather than in actual artistic +performance. In the fourth or present period, finally, the leadership +has passed to the Colouristic schools of Paris and Munich, to which +nearly all the younger artists have sworn allegiance. + + +FIRST, OR COLONIAL PERIOD. + +The paintings which have come down to the present day from the Colonial +Period, so far as they relate to America, are almost without exception +portraits. Many of these were, as a matter of course, brought over from +England and Holland; but that there were resident painters in the +Colonies as early as 1667, is shown by a passage in Cotton Mather's +"Magnalia," cited by Tuckerman. It is very natural that these "limners," +to use a favourite designation then applied to artists, were not of the +best. The masters of repute did not feel a call to dwell in the +wilderness, and hence the works belonging to the beginning of this +period are for the most part rude and stiff. Several of these early +portraits may be seen in the Memorial Hall of Harvard University, at +Cambridge, Mass. + +The first painters whose names have been preserved to us were not born +to the soil. The honour of standing at the head of the roll belongs to +JOHN WATSON (1685--1768), a Scotchman, who established himself at Perth +Amboy, N.J., in 1715. Of his portraits none are at present known, but at +the Chronological Exhibition of American Art, held in Brooklyn, N.Y., in +1872, there was shown an India ink drawing by him, _Venus and Cupid_, +executed on vellum. A better fate was vouchsafed to the works of JOHN +SMYBERT, another Scotchman, who came to Rhode Island in 1728 with Dean, +afterwards Bishop, Berkeley, in whose proposed college he was to be an +instructor--probably the first movement towards art education made in +the Colonies. Smybert settled and married in Boston, where he died in +1751 or 1752. He was not an artist of note, although his most important +work, _The Family of Bishop Berkeley_, a large group, in which he has +introduced his own likeness, now in the possession of Yale College, at +New Haven, Conn., shows him to have been courageous and not without +talent. Not all the pictures, however, which are attributed to him, come +up to this standard. A very bad example to which his name is attached +may be seen in the portrait of _John Lovell_, in the Memorial Hall of +Harvard University. The influence exercised by Smybert on the +development of art in America is due to an accident rather than to +actual teaching. He brought with him a copy of the head of Cardinal +Bentivoglio, by Van Dyck, which he had made in Italy, and which is still +preserved in the Hall just named. It was this copy which first inspired +Trumbull and Allston with a love of art, and gave them an idea of +colour. Of the other foreigners who visited the Colonies during this +period, the more prominent are BLACKBURN, an Englishman, who was +Smybert's contemporary or immediate successor, and is by some held to +have been Copley's teacher; WILLIAMS, another Englishman, who painted +about the same time in Philadelphia, and from whose intercourse young +West is said to have derived considerable benefit; and COSMO ALEXANDER, +a Scotchman, who came to America in 1770, and was Stuart's first +instructor. + +The earliest native painter who has left any lasting record is ROBERT +FEKE, whose life is enveloped by the mystery of romance. Sprung from +Quaker stock, and separated from his people by difference of religious +opinion, he left home, and was in some way taken a prisoner to Spain, +where he is said to have executed rude paintings, with the proceeds of +which he managed to return home. Feke painted in Philadelphia and +elsewhere about the middle of the last century, and his portraits, +according to Tuckerman, are considered the best colonial family +portraits next to West's. Specimens of his work may be seen in the +collections of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me.; the Redwood Athenaeum, +Newport, R.I.; and the R. I. Historical Society, Providence, R.I. + +Nearest to Feke in date--although his later contemporaries, West and +Copley, were earlier known as artists, and the first named even became +his teacher in England--is MATTHEW PRATT (1734--1805), who started in +life as a sign-painter in Philadelphia. Pratt's work is often spoken of +slightingly, and does not generally receive the commendation it +deserves. His full-length portrait of _Lieutenant-Governor Cadwallader +Colden_, painted for the New York Chamber of Commerce in 1772, and still +to be seen at its rooms, shows him to have been quite a respectable +artist, with a feeling for colour in advance of that exhibited by Copley +in his earlier work. Still another native artist of this period, HENRY +BEMBRIDGE, is chiefly of interest from the fact that he is said to have +studied with Mengs and Battoni, which would make him one of the first +American painters who visited Italy. He seems to have painted chiefly in +Charleston, S.C., and his portraits are described as of singularly +formal aspect. + +The most celebrated painters of this period, however, and the only ones +whose fame is more than local, are John Singleton Copley and Benjamin +West. But as both of them left their country at an early age, never to +return, they belong to England rather than to America. + +COPLEY (1737--1815) was a native of Boston, and did not go to Europe +until 1774, when his reputation was already established. In 1760 he gave +his income in Boston at three hundred guineas. He first went to Italy +and thence to London, where he settled. Some speculation has been +indulged in as to Copley's possible teachers. He must have received some +aid from his stepfather, Peter Pelham, a schoolmaster and very inferior +mezzotint engraver; and it has also been supposed that he may have had +the benefit of Blackburn's instruction. This does not seem likely, +however, judging either from the facts or from tradition. Copley was +undoubtedly essentially self-taught, and the models upon which he +probably formed his style are still to be seen. Several of them are +included in the collection in the Memorial Hall of Harvard University. +One of these portraits, that of _Thomas Hollis_, a benefactor of the +university, who died when Copley was only six years of age, is so like +the latter's work, not only in conception but even in the paleness of +the flesh tints and the cold grey of the shadows, as to be readily taken +for one of his earlier productions. In England Copley became the painter +of the aristocracy, and executed a considerable number of large historic +pictures, mostly of modern incidents. He is elegant rather than +powerful, and quite successful in the rendering of stuffs. His colour, +at first cold and rather inharmonious, improved with experience, +although he has been pronounced deficient in this respect even in later +years. Copley's most celebrated picture is _The Death of the Earl of +Chatham_. Many specimens of his skill as a portrait-painter can be seen +in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and in the Memorial Hall of +Harvard University, the latter collection including the fine portrait of +_Mrs. Thomas Boylston_. The Public Library of Boston owns one of his +large historic paintings, _Charles I. demanding the Five Members from +Parliament_. + +BENJAMIN WEST (1738--1820) was born of Quaker parentage at Springfield, +Pa., and was successfully engaged, at the age of eighteen, as a +portrait-painter in Philadelphia. In 1760 he went to Rome, and it is +believed that he was the first American artist who ever appeared there. +Three years later he removed to London, where he became the leading +historic painter, the favourite of the King, and President of the Royal +Academy. His great scriptural and historic compositions, of which +comparatively few are to be seen in his native country (_King Lear_, in +the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; _Death on the Pale Horse_ and _Christ +Rejected_, at the Pennsylvania Academy, Philadelphia), show him in the +light of an ambitious and calculating rather than inspired painter, with +a decided feeling for colour. His influence on art in general made +itself felt in the refusal to paint the actors in his _Death of Wolfe_ +in classic costume, according to usage. By clothing them in their +actual dress, he led art forward a step in the realistic direction, the +only instance to be noted of a directing motive imparted to art by an +American, but one which is quite in accordance with the spirit of the +New World. West's influence upon the art of his own country was +henceforth limited to the warm interest he took in the many students of +the succeeding generation who flocked to England to study under his +guidance. + +[Illustration: DEATH ON THE PALE HORSE. _By_ WEST. A.D. 1817. +_In the Pennsylvania Academy, Philadelphia._ + +_Copyright_, 1879, _by Harper and Brothers_.] + + +SECOND, OR REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. + +The Revolutionary Period is, in many respects, the most interesting +division, not only in the political, but also in the artistic history of +the United States. It is so, not merely because it has left us the +pictorial records of the men and the events of a most important epoch in +the development of mankind, but also because it brought forth two +painters who, while they were thoroughly American in their aspirations, +were at the same time endowed with artistic qualities of a very high +order. Gilbert Stuart and John Trumbull, the two painters alluded to, +have a right to be considered the best of the American painters of the +past, and will always continue to hold a prominent place in the history +of their art, even if it were possible to forget the stirring scenes +with which they were connected. + +[Illustration: GENERAL KNOX. _By_ GILBERT STUART + +_Copyright_, 1879, _by Harper and Brothers_.] + +GILBERT STUART was born in Narragansett, R.I., in 1755, and died in +Boston in 1828. He was of Scotch descent, and it has already been +mentioned that Cosmo Alexander, a Scotchman, was his first teacher. +After several visits to Europe, during the second of which he studied +under West, Stuart finally returned in 1793, and began the painting of +the series of national portraits which will for ever endear him to the +patriotic American. Among these his several renderings of Washington, of +which there are many copies by his own hand, are the most celebrated. +The greatest popularity is perhaps enjoyed by the so-called Athenaeum +head, which, with its pendant, the portrait of _Mrs. Washington_, is the +property of the Athenaeum of Boston, and by that institution has been +deposited in the Museum of Fine Arts of the same city. The claim to +superiority is, however, contested by the _Gibbs Washington_, at present +also to be seen in the museum alluded to. It was painted before the +other, and gives the impression of more realistic truthfulness, while +the Athenaeum head seems to be somewhat idealized. Stuart's work is quite +unequal, as he was not a strict economist, and often painted for money +only. But in his best productions there is a truly admirable purity and +wealth of colour, added to a power of characterization, which lifts +portraiture into the highest sphere of art. It must be said, however, +that he concentrated his attention almost entirely upon the head, often +slighting the arms and hands, especially of his female sitters, to an +unpleasant degree. Many excellent specimens of his work, besides the +Washington portraits, are to be found in the Museum of Fine Arts at +Boston and in the collection of the New York Historical Society, the +latter including the fine portrait of _Egbert Benson_, painted in 1807. +His _chef-d'oeuvre_ is the portrait of _Judge Stephen Jones_, owned by +Mr. F. G. Richards, of Boston, a remarkably vigorous head of an old man, +warm and glowing in colour, which, it is said, the artist painted for +his own satisfaction. Stuart's most celebrated work in England is _Mr. +Grant skating_. When this portrait was exhibited as a work by +Gainsborough, at the "Old Masters," in 1878, its pedigree having been +forgotten, it was in turn attributed to all the great English +portrait-painters, until it was finally restored to its true author. + +[Illustration: DEATH OF MONTGOMERY IN THE ATTACK OF QUEBEC. _By_ J. +TRUMBULL. _At Yale College._ + +_Copyright_, 1879, _by Harper and Brothers_.] + +Still more national importance attaches to JOHN TRUMBULL (1756--1843), +since he was an historic as well as a portrait-painter, took part in +person as an officer in the American army in many of the events of the +Revolution, and was intimately acquainted with most of the heroes of his +battle scenes. America enjoys in this respect an advantage of which no +other country can boast--that of having possessed an artist +contemporaneous with the most important epoch in its history, and +capable and willing to depict the scenes enacted around him. Colonel +Trumbull, the son of Jonathan Trumbull, the Colonial Governor of +Connecticut, studied at Harvard, and gave early evidences of a taste for +art. At the age of nineteen he joined the American army, but in 1780, +aggrieved at a fancied slight, he threw up his commission and went to +France, and thence to London, where he studied under West. Trumbull must +not be judged as an artist by his large paintings in the Capitol at +Washington, the commission for which he did not receive until 1817. To +know him one must study him in his smaller works and sketches, now +gathered in the gallery of Yale College, where may be seen his _Death of +Montgomery_, _Battle of Bunker Hill_, _Declaration of Independence_, and +other revolutionary scenes, together with a series of admirable +miniature portraits in oil, painted from life, as materials for his +historic works, and a number of larger portraits, including a +full-length of _Washington_. As a portrait-painter, Trumbull is also +represented at his best by the full-length of _Alexander Hamilton_, at +the rooms of the New York Chamber of Commerce. The most successful of +his large historic pieces, _The Sortie from Gibraltar_, painted in +London, is at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Goethe, who saw the +small painting of _The Battle of Bunker Hill_ while it was in the hands +of Mueller, the engraver, commended it, but criticized its colour and the +smallness of the heads. It is true that Trumbull's drawing is somewhat +conventional, and that he had a liking for long figures. But his colour, +as seen to-day in his good earlier pictures, is quite brilliant and +harmonious, although thoroughly realistic. In his later work, however, +as shown by the Scripture pieces likewise preserved in the Yale Gallery, +there is a marked decadence in vigour of drawing as well as of colour. +Owing to an unfortunate concatenation of circumstances, Trumbull has +not received the full appreciation which is his due, even from his own +countrymen. Thackeray readily recognised his merit, and cautioned the +Americans never to despise or neglect Trumbull--a piece of advice which +is only now beginning to attract the attention it deserves. + +Among the portrait-painters of this period, CHARLES WILSON PEALE +(1741--1827) takes the lead by reason of quantity rather than quality. +Peale was typical of a certain phase of American character, representing +the restlessness and superficiality which prevail upon men to turn +lightly from one occupation to another. He was a dentist, a worker in +materials of all sorts, an ornithologist and taxidermist, rose to the +rank of colonel in the American army, and started a museum of natural +history and art in Philadelphia. But his strongest love seems, after +all, to have been for the fine arts. Among the fourteen portraits of +_Washington_ which Peale painted, according to Tuckerman, is the only +_full-length_ ever done of the father of his country: it shows him +before the Revolution, attired as an officer in the colonial force of +Great Britain. A large number of Peale's portraits may be seen in the +Pennsylvania Academy and in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. The New +York Historical Society owns, among other works by his hand, a +Washington portrait and a group of the Peale family comprising ten +figures. Much of Peale's work is crude, but all of his heads have the +appearance of being good likenesses. + +Among a number of other painters of this period we can select only a +few, whose names receive an additional lustre from their connection with +Washington. + +JOSEPH WRIGHT (1756--1793) was the son of Patience Wright, who modelled +heads in wax at Bordentown, N.J., before the Revolution. While in +England he painted a portrait of the Prince of Wales. In the year 1783 +Washington sat to him, after having submitted to the preliminary ordeal +of a plaster mask. Tuckerman speaks of this portrait as inelegant and +unflattering, and characterizes the artist as unideal, but +conscientious. Wright's portrait of _John Jay_, at the rooms of the New +York Historical Society, authorizes a more favourable judgment. It is, +indeed, somewhat austere, but lifelike, well posed, and cool in colour. + +E. SAVAGE (1761--1817) seems to have been nearly as versatile as Peale, +emulating him also in the establishment of a museum, at first in New +York, then in Boston. His portrait of _General Washington_, in the +Memorial Hall of Harvard University, is carefully painted and bright in +colour, but rather lifeless. His _Washington Family_, in the Boston +Museum (a place of amusement not to be confounded with the Museum of +Fine Arts), which he engraved himself, has similar qualities. A little +picture by him, also in the Boston Museum, representing _The Signers of +the Declaration of Independence in Carpenters' Hall_, is interesting on +account of its subject, but does not possess much artistic merit. The +portrait of _Dr. Handy_, on the contrary, which is assigned to him, at +the New York Historical Society, is a very creditable work, good in +colour, luminous in the flesh, and simple in the modelling. + +WILLIAM DUNLAP (1766--1839), finally, may also be mentioned here on +account of his portrait of _Washington_--painted when the artist was +only seventeen years old--although he belongs more properly to the next +period, and is of more importance as a writer than a painter. He +published, in 1834, a "History of the Arts of Design in the United +States," a book now quite scarce and much sought after. A group of +himself and his parents, painted in 1788, is in the collection of the +New York Historical Society. + + +THIRD PERIOD, OR PERIOD OF INNER DEVELOPMENT. + +The example of Trumbull found no followers. The only other American +painter who made a specialty of his country's history seems to have +been JOHN BLAKE WHITE (1782--1859), a native of Charleston, S.C., who +painted such subjects as _Mrs. Motte presenting the Arrows_, _Marion +inviting the British Officer to Dinner_, and the Battles of _New +Orleans_ and _Eutaw_, placed in the State House of South Carolina. +White's fame is quite local, however, and it is impossible, therefore, +to judge of his qualities accurately. Had there been more painters of +similar subjects, a national school might have resulted; but neither the +people nor the Government took any interest in Colonel Trumbull's plans. +It was necessary to employ all sorts of manoeuvring to induce Congress +to give a commission to the artist, and the result was disappointment to +all concerned; and when, later, the further decoration of the Capitol at +Washington, the seat of government, was resolved upon, the artist +selected for the work was CARLO BRUMIDI (1811--1880), an Italian artist +of the old school. The healthy impetus towards realistic historic +painting given by Trumbull thus died out, and what there is of historic +and figure painting in the period now under consideration is mainly +dominated by a false idealism, of which Washington Allston is the +leading representative. To rival the old masters, to do what had been +done before, to flee from the actual and the near to the unreal and the +distant, to look upon monks and knights and robbers and Venetian +senators as the embodiment of the poetic, in spite of the poet's warning +to the contrary, was now the order of the day; and hence it was but +natural that quite a number of the artists who then went to Europe +turned to Italy. It was in this period, also, that the first attempts +were made to establish Academies of Art in Philadelphia and New +York--attempts which, while they were laudable enough in themselves, +inasmuch as these institutions were intended to provide instruction at +home for the rising generation, still pointed in the same direction of +simple imitation of the expiring phases of European Art. + +[Illustration: JEREMIAH AND THE SCRIBE. _By_ WASHINGTON ALLSTON. _At +Yale College_. + +_Copyright_, 1879, _by Harper and Brothers_.] + +WASHINGTON ALLSTON (1779--1843) was a native of South Carolina, but +was sent to New England at an early age, and graduated from Harvard +College in 1800. The year following he went to England, to study under +West, and thence to Italy, where he stayed four years, until his return +to Boston in 1809. After a second absence in Europe of seven years' +duration, he finally settled in Cambridge, near Boston. Allston's art +covered a wide range, including Scripture history, portraiture, ideal +heads, _genre_, landscape, and marine. It is difficult to understand +to-day the enthusiasm which his works aroused, if not among the great +public, at least within a limited circle of admiring friends. He was +lauded for his poetic imagination, and called "the American Titian," on +account of his colour; and this reputation has lasted down to our own +time. The Allston Exhibition, however, which was held two years ago at +the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, has somewhat modified the opinions of +calm observers. Allston was neither deep nor very original in his +conceptions, nor was he a great colourist. One of his most pleasing +pictures, _The Two Sisters_, is full of reminiscences of Titian, and it +is well known that he painted it while engaged in the study of that +master. In the case of an artist upon whose merits opinions are so +widely divided, it may be well to cite the words of an acknowledged +admirer, in speaking of what has been claimed to be his greatest work, +the _Jeremiah and the Scribe_, in the Gallery of Yale College. Mrs. E. +D. Cheney, in describing the impression made upon her by this picture +after a lapse of forty years, says:--"I was forced to confess that +either I had lost my sensibility to its expression, or I had overrated +its value.... The figure of the Prophet is large and imposing, but I +cannot find in it the spiritual grandeur and commanding nobility of +Michel Angelo. He is conscious of his own presence, rather than lost in +the revelation which is given through him. But the Scribe is a very +beautiful figure, simple in action and expression, and entirely absorbed +in his humble but important work. It reminds me of the young brother in +Domenichino's _Martyrdom of St. Jerome_." The same lack of psychological +power, here hinted at, is still more apparent in the artist's attempts +to express the more violent manifestations of the soul. In _The Dead Man +revived by touching Elisha's Bones_--for which he received a premium of +200 guineas from the British Institution, and which is now in the +Pennsylvania Academy--the faces of the terrified spectators are so +distorted as to have become caricatures. This is true, in a still higher +degree, of the heads of the priests in the great unfinished +_Belshazzar's Feast_, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The unnatural +expression of these heads is generally explained by the condition in +which the picture was left; but the black-and-white sketches, which may +be examined in the same museum, show precisely the same character. The +unhealthy direction of the artist's mind is apparent, furthermore, in +his love of the terrible--shown in his early pictures of banditti, and +in such later works as _Saul and the Witch of Endor_ and _Spalatro's +Vision of the Bloody Hand_; while, on the contrary, it will be found, +upon closer analysis, that the ideality and spirituality claimed for his +female heads, such as _Rosalie_ and _Amy Robsart_, resolve themselves +into something very near akin to sweetness and lack of strength. In +accordance with this absence of intellectual robustness, Allston's +execution is hesitating and wanting in decision. + +A somewhat similar spirit manifested itself in the works of John +Vanderlyn (1776--1852), Rembrandt Peale (1787--1860), Samuel F. B. Morse +(1791--1872), and Cornelius Ver Bryck (1813--1844). + +JOHN VANDERLYN is best known by his _Marius on the Ruins of Carthage_, +for which he received a medal at the Paris Salon of 1808, and his +_Ariadne_, which forms part of the collection of the Pennsylvania +Academy. Vanderlyn, as the choice of his subjects, coupled with his +success in France, shows, was a very good classic painter, trained in +the routine of the Academy. The _Ariadne_ is a careful study of the +nude, although somewhat red in the flesh, placed in a conventional +landscape of high order. A large historic composition by him, _The +Landing of Columbus_, finished in 1846, fills one of the panels in the +Rotunda of the Capitol at Washington. As a portrait painter Vanderlyn +was most unequal. + +REMBRANDT PEALE--the son of Charles Wilson Peale, best known through his +portraits--deserves mention here on account of his _Court of Death_, in +the Crowe Art Museum of St. Louis, and _The Roman Daughter_, in the +Boston Museum. Technically he stands considerably below his leading +contemporaries. + +S. F. B. MORSE, whose fame as an artist has been eclipsed by his +connection with the electric telegraph, was a painter of undoubted +talent, but given somewhat to ostentation both in drawing and colour. +Good specimens of his style are found in his _Dying Hercules_, Yale +College, New Haven, and the rather theatrical portrait of Lafayette in +the Governor's Room of the City Hall of New York. Morse essayed to paint +national subjects, and selected for a theme the interior of the House of +Representatives, with portraits of the members; but the public took no +interest in the picture, although it is said to have been very clever, +and the artist did not even cover his expenses by exhibiting it. + +CORNELIUS VER BRYCK painted Bacchantes and Cavaliers, and a few historic +pictures, with a decided feeling for colour, as evidenced by his +_Venetian Senator_, owned by the New York Historical Society. He stands +upon the borderland between an older and a newer generation, both of +which, however, belong to the same period. Thus far the influence of +Italy had been paramount; in the years immediately following Duesseldorf +claims a share in shaping the historical art of the United States. The +only names that can be mentioned here in accordance with the plan of +this book, which excludes living artists, are Emmanuel Leutze +(1816--1868), Edwin White (1817--1877), Henry Peters Gray (1819--1877), +W. H. Powell (died 1879), Thomas Buchanan Read (1822--1872), and J. B. +Irving (1826--1877). + +LEUTZE was a German by birth, and his natural sympathies, although he +had been brought to America as an infant, carried him to Duesseldorf. The +eminence to which he rose in this school may be inferred from the fact +that he was chosen Director of the Academy after he had returned to +America, and almost at the moment of his death. Although of foreign +parentage, he showed more love for American subjects than most of the +native artists, but the trammels of the school in which he was taught +made it impossible for him to become a thoroughly national painter. His +most important works are _Washington crossing the Delaware_, _Washington +at the Battle of Monmouth_, and _Washington at Valley Forge_; the two +last named are at present in the possession of Mrs. Mark Hopkins of +California. In the Capitol at Washington may be seen his _Westward the +Star of Empire takes its Way_; _The Landing of the Norsemen_ is in the +Pennsylvania Academy; _The Storming of a Teocalle_, in the Museum of +Fine Arts, Boston. + +EDWIN WHITE, an extraordinarily prolific artist, who studied both at +Paris and Duesseldorf, also painted a number of American historic +pictures, among them _Washington resigning his Commission_, for the +State of Maryland. The bulk of his work, however, weakly sentimental, +deals with the past of Europe. + +H. P. GRAY'S allegiance was given, almost undividedly, to the masters of +Italy, and his subjects were mostly taken from antiquity. In his best +works, such as _The Wages of War_, he appears in the light of an +academic painter of respectable attainments; but there is so little of a +national flavour in his productions, that the label "American School" on +the frame of the picture just named is apt to provoke a smile. Gray's +_Judgment of Paris_ is in the Corcoran Gallery at Washington. + +W. H. POWELL is best known by his _De Soto discovering the +Mississippi_, in the Rotunda at Washington, a work which is on a level +with the average of official monumental painting done in Europe, in +which truth is invariably sacrificed to so-called artistic +considerations. As a portrait-painter he does not stand very high. T. B. +READ, the "painter-poet," enjoyed one of those fictitious reputations +which are unfortunately none too rare in America. Without any real +feeling for colour, and with a style of drawing which made up in +so-called grace for what it lacked in decision, he attained a certain +popularity by a class of subjects such as _The Lost Pleiad_, _The Spirit +of the Waterfall_, &c., which captivate the unthinking by their very +superficiality. Several of his productions, among them his _Sheridan's +Ride_, may be seen at the Pennsylvania Academy. J. B. IRVING, a student +at Duesseldorf under Leutze, was a careful and intelligent painter of +subjects which might be classed as historic _genre_, including some +scenes from the past history of the United States. + +Among the foreign artists who came to America during this period must be +named CHRISTIAN SCHUeSSELE (1824--1879), a native of Alsace, who has +exercised some influence through his position as Director of the Schools +of the Pennsylvania Academy, in Philadelphia. His _Esther denouncing +Haman_, in the collection of the institution just named, shows him to +have been an adherent of the modern French classic school, in which +elegance is the first consideration. + +A place all by himself must finally be assigned to WILLIAM RIMMER +(1816--1879), of English parentage, who spent much of his life in the +vicinity of Boston. Dr. Rimmer, as he is commonly called, since he began +life as a physician, is of greater importance as a sculptor than as a +painter. He, nevertheless, must be mentioned here on account of the many +drawings he executed. To an overweening interest in anatomy he added a +somewhat weird fancy, so that his conceptions sometimes remind one of +Blake. His most important work is a set of drawings for an anatomical +atlas, in which special stress is laid upon the anatomy of expression. +His oil-paintings, such as _Cupid and Venus_, &c., are marred by violent +contrasts of light and dark, and an unnatural, morbid scheme of colour, +which justifies the assumption that his colour-vision was defective. But +Rimmer will always remain interesting as a brilliant phenomenon, +strangely out of place in space as well as in time. + +The same absence, in general, of a national spirit is to be noticed in +the works of the _genre_ painters. Among the earliest of these are to be +named CHARLES ROBERT LESLIE (1794--1859), many of whose works may be +seen in the Lenox Gallery, New York, and at the Pennsylvania Academy, +Philadelphia; and GILBERT STUART NEWTON (1794--1835), a nephew of +Stuart, the portrait-painter, who is represented at the New York +Historical Society and in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. These two +artists are, however, so closely identified with the English school, and +draw their inspiration so exclusively from European sources, that they +can hardly claim a place in a history of painting in America. + +The one American _genre_ painter _par excellence_ is WILLIAM SYDNEY +MOUNT (1807--1868), the son of a farmer on Long Island, and originally a +sign-painter. No other artist has rivalled Mount in the delineation of +the life of the American farmer and his negro field hands, always looked +at from the humorous side. As a colourist, Mount is quite artless, but +in the rendition of character and expression, and the unbiassed +reproduction of reality, he stands very high. His _Fortune Teller_, +_Bargaining for a Horse_, and _The Truant Gamblers_, the last named one +of his best works also as regards colour, are in the collection of the +New York Historical Society; _The Painter's Triumph_ is in the gallery +of the Pennsylvania Academy; the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, has _The +Long Story_. Several inferior artists have shown, by their +representations of scenes taken from the political and social life of +the United States, how rich a harvest this field would offer the brush +of a modern Teniers. But in spite of the popularity which the +reproductions of their works and those of some of Mount's pictures +enjoyed, the field remained comparatively untilled. + +[Illustration: A SURPRISE. _By_ MOUNT. + +_Copyright, 1879, by Harper and Brothers._] + +Of other painters of the past, HENRY INMAN (1801--1846), better known as +a most excellent portrait-painter, executed a few _genre_ pictures based +on American subjects, such as _Mumble the Peg_ in the Pennsylvania +Academy; and RICHARD CATON WOODVILLE (about 1825--1855), who studied at +Duesseldorf, became favourably known, during his short career, by his +_Mexican News_, _Sailor's Wedding_, _Bar-Room Politicians_, &c.; while +among the mass of work by F. W. EDMONDS (1806--1863) there are also +several of specifically American character; but the majority of artists +preferred to repeat the well-worn themes of their European predecessors, +as shown by W. E. WEST'S (died 1857) _The Confessional_, at the New York +Historical Society's Rooms, or the paintings of JAMES W. GLASS (died +1855), whose _Royal Standard_, _Free Companion_, and _Puritan and +Cavalier_, are drawn from the annals of England. + +The Indian tribes found delineators in GEORGE CATLIN (1796--1872) and C. +F. WIMAR (1829--1863), while WILLIAM H. RANNEY (died 1857) essayed the +life of the trappers and frontiersmen. None of these artists, however, +approached their subjects from the genuinely artistic side. As an +ornithological painter, scientifically considered, JOHN JAMES AUDUBON +(1780--1851), the celebrated naturalist, occupied a high rank. The +animal world of the prairies and the great West in general was the +chosen field of WILLIAM J. HAYS (1830--1875). A large picture by him of +an American bison, in the American Museum of Natural History at New +York, shows at once his careful workmanship, his ambition, and the +limitation of his powers, which was too great to allow him to occupy a +prominent place among the animal painters of the world. + +The skill in realistic portraiture, eminently shown by the American +painters of the preceding century, was fully upheld by their successors +of the third period. Most of the historic painters named above were well +known also as portraitists, and their claims to reputation are shared +with more or less success by J. W. JARVIS (1780--1851), THOMAS SULLY +(1783--1872), SAMUEL WALDO (1783--1861), CHESTER HARDING (1792--1866), +WILLIAM JEWETT (born 1795), EZRA AMES (flourished about 1812--1830), +CHARLES C. INGHAM (1796--1863), J. NEAGLE (1799--1865), CHARLES L. +ELLIOTT (1812--1868), JOSEPH AMES (1816--1872), T. P. ROSSITER +(1818--1871), G. A. BAKER (1821--1880), and W. H. FURNESS (1827--1867). +Specimens of the work of most of these artists, several of whom were of +foreign parentage, will be found in the collections of the New York +Historical Society, the Governor's Room in the City Hall of New York, +the Pennsylvania Academy, and the Museum of Fine Arts at Boston. The +most prominent among the later names is Charles Loring Elliott, who was +born and educated in America, but whose work, when he is at his best, +nevertheless shows the hand of a master. E. G. MALBONE (1777--1807), +whose only ideal work, _The Hours_, is in the Athenaeum, at Providence, +R.I., is justly celebrated for his delicate miniatures, a department in +which R. M. STAIGG (1817--1881) likewise excelled. As a crayon artist, +famous more especially for his female heads, SETH W. CHENEY (1810--1856) +must be named. + + * * * * * + +The most interesting, however, because the most original, manifestation +of the art instinct in this period is found in landscape. In this +department also it seemed for a time as if the influence of the old +Italian masters would gain the upper hand. But the influence of +Duesseldorf, aided by that of England, although not through its best +representatives, such as Constable, gave a different turn to the course +of affairs, and in a measure freed the artists from the thraldom of an +antiquated school. Although, naturally and justly enough, the landscape +painters of America did not disdain to depict the scenery of foreign +lands, they nevertheless showed a decided preference for the beauties of +their own country, and diligently plied their brushes in the delineation +of the favourite haunts of the Catskills, the Hudson, the White +Mountains, Lake George, &c., and, at a later period, of the wonders of +the Rocky Mountains and the valley of the Yosemite. It has become the +fashion in certain circles to speak rather derisively of these painters +as "the Hudson River School," a nickname supposed to imply the charge +that they preferred the subject to artistic rendering and technical +skill. There is no denying that there is some truth in this charge, but +later experience has taught, also, that a more insinuating style is apt +to lead the artists to ignore subject altogether. It is precisely the +comparative unattractiveness of the methods employed which enabled these +painters to create what may be called an American school, while, had +they been as much absorbed in technical processes, or in the solving of +problems of colour, as some of their successors, they would probably +have rivalled them also in the neglect of the national element. It is +worthy of note that the rise of this school of painters of nature is +nearly contemporaneous with the appearance of William Cullen Bryant, +whose "Thanatopsis" was first published in 1817, and who is eminently +entitled to be called the poet of nature. + +The first specialist in landscape of whom any record is to be found is +JOSHUA SHAW (1776--1860), an Englishman, who came to America about 1817. +The specimens of his work preserved in the Pennsylvania Academy show him +to have been a painter of some refinement, who preferred delicate +silvery tones to strength. In the same institution may also be found +numerous examples by THOMAS DOUGHTY (1793--1856), of Philadelphia, who +abandoned mercantile pursuits for art in 1820, and who may claim to be +the first native landscape-painter. His early work is hard and dry and +monotonous in colour, but nevertheless with a feeling for light. As he +advanced, his colour improved somewhat. ALVAN FISHER (1792--1863), of +Boston, also ranks among the pioneers in this department, but he was +more active as a portrait-painter. + +[Illustration: DESOLATION. _From the "Course of Empire."_ _By_ THOMAS +COLE. + +_In the possession of the New York Historical Society._ + +_Copyright, 1879, by Harper and Brothers._] + +The greatest name, however, in the early history of landscape art in the +United States is that of THOMAS COLE (1801--1848), who came over from +England with his parents in 1819, but received his first training, such +as it was, in America. Cole spent several years in Italy, and remained +for the rest of his life under the spell of Claude, Salvator Rosa, and +Poussin. He aspired to be a painter of large historic, or rather +allegoric landscapes, and some of his productions in this line, as, for +instance, _The Course of Empire_ (New York Historical Society), a series +of five canvases, showing the career of a nation from savage life +through the splendours of power to the desolation of decay, will always +secure for him a respectable place among the followers of the old +school. He therefore shared, with most of his American colleagues, the +fatal defect that his work contained no germ of advancement, but was +content to be measured by standards which were beginning to be false, +because men had outlived the time in which they were set up. Cole did +not, however, confine himself to such allegoric landscapes. He was a +great lover of the Catskills, and often chose his subjects there, or in +the White Mountains. But in the specimens of this kind to be seen at the +New York Historical Society's rooms, he shows himself curiously +defective in colour, and mars the tone by undue contrasts between light +and dark. He is at his best in the representation of storm effects, such +as _The Tornado_, in the Corcoran Gallery at Washington. + +Among the ablest representatives of the "Hudson River School" were J. F. +KENSETT (1818--1873), and SANFORD R. GIFFORD (1823--1880). For Kensett, +it may indeed be claimed that he was the best technician of his time, +bolder in treatment than most of his colleagues, and with a true +feeling for the poetry of colour. Gifford, who divided his allegiance +about equally between America, Italy, and the Orient, loved to paint +phenomenal effects of light, which often suggest the studio rather than +nature. One of the principal works of this very successful and greatly +esteemed artist, _The Ruins of the Parthenon_, is the property of the +Corcoran Gallery, which also owns several pictures by Kensett. + +[Illustration: NOON BY THE SEA-SHORE: BEVERLY BEACH. _By_ J. F. KENSETT. + +_Copyright, 1879, by Harper and Brothers._] + +As one of the leading lights of the little cluster of American +pre-Raphaelites, we may note JOHN W. HILL (died 1879), who painted +landscapes chiefly in water-colour. + +The United States being a maritime power, it would be quite natural to +look for a development of marine painting among her artists. Until +lately, however, very little has been done in this branch of art, and +that little mostly by foreigners. THOMAS BIRCH, an Englishman (died +1851), painted the battles between English and American vessels in an +old-fashioned way in Philadelphia, while Boston possessed an early +marine painter of slender merit in Salmon. A. VAN BEEST, a Dutch marine +painter, who died in New York in 1860, is chiefly of interest as the +first teacher of several well-known American painters of to-day. JOHN E. +C. PETERSEN (1839--1874), a Dane, who came to America in 1865, enjoyed +an excellent reputation in Boston. The leading name, however, among the +artists of the past in this department is that of JAMES HAMILTON +(1819--1878), who was brought to Philadelphia from Ireland in infancy, +and went to England for purposes of study in 1854. In many of his +phantastic productions, in which blood-red skies are contrasted with +dark, bluish-gray clouds and masses of shadow, as in _Solitude_, and an +Oriental landscape in the Pennsylvania Academy, the study of Turner is +quite apparent. But he loved also to paint the storm-tossed sea, under a +leaden sky, when it seems to be almost monochrome. One of his finest +efforts, _The Ship of the Ancient Mariner_, is in private possession in +Philadelphia. His _Destruction of Pompeii_ is in the Memorial Hall, +Fairmount Park, in the same city. Hamilton, whose somewhat unsteady mode +of living is reflected in the widely varying quality of his work, very +properly closes our review of this epoch, as he might not +inappropriately be classed with the artists of the period next to be +considered. + + +FOURTH, OR PRESENT PERIOD. + +It has been remarked already that the American students who went to +England up to the middle of the present century were not influenced by +those painters who, like Constable, are credited with having given the +first impulse towards the development of modern art. This is true also +of those who went to France. + +They fell in with the old-established Classic school, and were not +affected by the rising Romantic and Colouristic school until long after +its triumphant establishment. Within the last ten or fifteen years, +however, the tendency in this direction has been very marked, and the +main points of attraction for the young American artist in Europe have +been Paris and Munich. One of the results of this movement, consequent +upon the preponderating attention given to colour and technique, has +been an almost entire neglect of subject. What the art of America has +gained, therefore, in outward attractiveness and in increase of skill, +it has had to purchase at the expense of a still greater +de-Americanisation than before. The movement is, however, only in its +inception, and its final results cannot be predicated. Nor will it be +possible to mention here more than a very few of its adherents, as, +self-evidently, the greater part of them belong to the living +generation. + +[Illustration: SUNSET ON THE HUDSON. _By_ S. R. GIFFORD. + +_Copyright_, 1879, _by Harper and Brothers_.] + +One of the first to preach the new gospel of individualism and colour in +America was WILLIAM MORRIS HUNT (1824--1879), who, after his return from +Europe, made his home in Boston. In 1846 he went to Duesseldorf, which he +soon exchanged for Paris, where he studied with Couture, and later with +Millet. Hunt was in a certain sense a martyr to his artistic +convictions, and his road was not smoothed by his eccentricities. Had he +found a readier response on the part of the public, he might have +accomplished great things. As it was, those to whom he was compelled to +appeal could not understand the importance of the purely pictorial +qualities which he valued above all else, and instead of sympathy he +found antagonism. As a fact indicating the difficulties which stood in +his way, it is interesting to know that the first idea for the mural +paintings, _The Flight of Night_ and _The Discoverer_, which he executed +in the new Capitol at Albany, shortly before his death, was conceived +over thirty years ago. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that his +mind was embittered, and his work even more unequal than that of so many +of his older colleagues. But even so he has left a number of works, as +for instance the original sketch for the _Flight of Night_, several +portraits, and a _View of Gloucester Harbour_, which will always be +counted among the triumphs of American art. + +Prominent among the American students in the French school was ROBERT +WYLIE, a native of the Isle of Man, who was brought to the United States +when a child, and died in Brittany at the age of about forty years in +1877. His _Death of a Breton Chieftain_, in the Metropolitan Museum of +New York, and _Breton Story-Teller_, in the Pennsylvania Academy, two +very fine pictures, although somewhat heavy in colour, show him to have +been a careful observer, with a power of characterisation hardly +approached by any other American painter. + +[Illustration: LAMBS ON THE MOUNTAIN-SIDE. _By_ WILLIAM MORRIS HUNT.] + +As a remarkable artist, belonging also to the French-American school, +although he never left his native land, we must mention R. H. FULLER, of +Boston, who died comparatively young in 1871. Fuller had a most +extraordinary career and displayed extraordinary talent. Originally a +cigar-maker, and later a night watchman, he was almost entirely +self-taught, his study consisting in carefully looking at the French +landscapes on exhibition at the stores, and then attempting to reproduce +them at home. The knowledge thus gained he applied to the rendering of +American landscapes, and he had so assimilated the methods of his French +exemplars, that his creations, while they often clearly betrayed by what +master they had been inspired, were yet thoroughly American. + + * * * * * + +This sketch of the history of painting in America is necessarily very +fragmentary, by reason of its shortness, as well as by the limitation +imposed by the plan of this book, which excludes all living artists. +Many prominent representatives of the various tendencies to which the +reader's attention has been called, have, therefore, had to be omitted. +It is believed, nevertheless, that, while the mention of additional +names would have made the record fuller, the general proportions of the +outline would not have been materially changed thereby. Nor is the +apparently critical tone, the repeated dwelling on the lack of +originality in subject as well as method, to be taken as an expression +of disparagement. A fact has simply been stated which admits of a ready +explanation, hinted at in the introductory remarks, but which must be +kept steadily in view if American Art is ever to assume a more +distinctive character. The painters of America, considering the +circumstances by which they have been surrounded, have no reason to be +ashamed of their past record. They have shown considerable aptitude in +the acquisition of technical attainments, and the diligence and +enthusiasm in the pursuit of their studies on the part of the younger +artists, promise well for the future. It rests altogether with the +nation itself whether this promise shall be fulfilled. + + + + +INDEX OF NAMES. + + +PAGE + +Aikman, William, 35 + +Alexander, Cosmo, 191 + +Alexander, William, 103 + +Allston, Washington, 202 + +Ames, Ezra, 212 + +Ames, Joseph, 212 + +Anderton, Henry, 31 + +Audubon, John James, 211 + + +Bacon, Sir Nathaniel, 22 + +Baker, G. A., 212 + +Barret, George, 50 + +Barret, George, the younger, 105 + +Barry, James, 69 + +Beale, Mary, 35 + +Beechey, Sir William, 79 + +Bembridge, Henry, 192 + +Bewick, John, 92 + +Bewick, Thomas, 91 + +Birch, Thomas, 217 + +Blackburn, 191 + +Blake, William, 85 + +Boit, Charles, 93 + +Bone, Henry, 96 + +Bonington, Richard Parkes, 137 + +Boxall, Sir William, 178 + +Briggs, Henry Perronet, 154 + +Brooking, Charles, 47 + +Brown, John, 11, 17 + +Browne, Alexander, 92 + +Brumidi, Carlo, 202 + + +Caius (Key), 19 + +Callcott, Sir Augustus Wall, 131 + +Carmillion, Alice, 17 + +Catlin, George, 211 + +Cattermole, George, 112 + +Chalon, Alfred Edward, 97 + +Chalon, John James, 97 + +Cheney, Seth W., 212 + +Cipriani, Giovanni Battista, 60 + +Cleef, Joost van, 19 + +Clostermann, John, 35 + +Cole, Thomas, 215 + +Collins, Richard, 95 + +Collins, William, 133 + +Constable, John, 130 + +Cooke, Edward William, 147 + +Cooper, Abraham, 166 + +Cooper, Samuel, 31 + +Copley, John Singleton, 67, 192 + +Cornelisz, Lucas, 10 + +Corvus, Johannes, 19 + +Cosway, Maria, 96 + +Cosway, Richard, 96 + +Cotman, John Sell, 142 + +Cox, David, 108 + +Cozens, Alexander, 102 + +Cozens, John Robert, 103 + +Creswick, Thomas, 145 + +Cristall, Joshua, 103 + +Crome, John, 141 + +Crosse, Lewis, 93 + + +Dahl, Michael, 35 + +Danby, Francis, 142 + +Dance, Nathaniel, 76 + +Deacon, James, 94 + +De Heere, Lucas, 20 + +De la Motte, William, 105 + +De Loutherbourg, Philippe James, 61 + +Derby, William, 99 + +De Wint, Peter, 110 + +Dobson, William, 26 + +Dodgson, George Haydock, 114 + +Doughty, Thomas, 213 + +Duncan, Edward, 114 + +Duncan, Thomas, 158 + +Dunlap, 201 + +Dyce, William, 156 + + +Eastlake, Sir Charles Locke, 154 + +Edmonds, F. W., 211 + +Edridge, Henry, 97, 104 + +Edward, Master, 4 + +Egg, Augustus Leopold, 175 + +Elliott, Charles Loring, 212 + +Elmore, Alfred, 162 + +Engleheart, George, 96 + +Essex, William, 97 + +Etty, William, 152 + + +Faithorne, William, 85 + +Feke, Robert, 191 + +Fielding, Anthony Vandyke Copley, 110 + +Fisher, Alvan, 215 + +Flatman, Thomas, 92 + +Flick, Gerbach, 18 + +Fraser, Alexander, 170 + +Fuller, Isaac, 31 + +Fuller, R. H., 221 + +Furness, W. H., 212 + +Fuseli, Henry, 62 + + +Gainsborough, Thomas, 55 + +Garvey, Edmund, 75 + +Gerbier, Sir Balthasar, 45 + +Gheeraedts, Marc, 20 + +Gifford, Sandford R., 215 + +Gilpin, Sawrey, 81 + +Girtin, Thomas, 104 + +Glass, James W., 211 + +Godeman, 2 + +Gray, Henry Peters, 207 + +Greenhill, John, 31 + + +Hamilton, James, 217 + +Harding, Chester, 212 + +Harding, James Duffield, 112 + +Harlow, George Henry, 121 + +Harvey, George, 158 + +Havell, William, 108 + +Haydon, Benjamin Robert, 150 + +Hayman, Francis, 35, 85 + +Hays, William J., 211 + +Heaphy, Thomas, 110 + +Hearne, Thomas, 102 + +Highmore, Joseph, 85 + +Hill, John W., 216 + +Hilliard, Nicholas, 22 + +Hills, Robert, 104 + +Hillton, William, 148 + +Hogarth, William, 37 + +Holbein, Hans, 13 + +Holland, James, 114 + +Hone, Nathaniel, 94 + +Hoppner, John, 80 + +Horebout, Gerrard Lucas, 9, 17 + +Horebout, Lucas, 17 + +Horebout, Susannah, 9, 17 + +Hoskins, John, 22 + +Howard, Henry, 123 + +Hudson, Thomas, 35 + +Humphrey, Ozias, 95 + +Hunt, William Henry, 112 + +Hunt, William Morris, 219 + + +Ibbetson, Julius Caesar, 50 + +Ingham, Charles C., 212 + +Inman, Henry, 211 + +Irving, J. B., 208 + + +Jackson, John, 126 + +Jamesone, George, 28 + +Jarvis, J. W., 212 + +Jervas, Charles, 35 + +Jewett, William, 212 + +John, Master, 4 + +Jonson, Cornelis, 22 + + +Kauffman, Angelica, 60 + +Kensett, J. F., 215 + +Key, William, 19 + +Kirk, Thomas, 89 + +Knapton, George, 35 + +Kneller, Sir Godfrey, 32 + + +Laguerre, Louis, 34 + +Lambert, George, 47 + +Landseer, Charles, 161 + +Landseer, Sir Edwin Henry, 176 + +Lawrence, Sir Thomas, 117 + +Lely, Sir Peter, 30 + +Leslie, Charles Robert, 170, 209 + +Leutze, Emmanuel, 207 + +Lewis, John Frederick, 180 + +Linnell, John, 147 + +Linton, William, 135 + +Loggan, David, 85 + +Lucy, Charles, 161 + +Lyzardi, Nicholas, 19 + + +Mabuse, 9 + +Maclise, Daniel, 158 + +Malbone, E. G., 212 + +Martin, John, 139 + +Martineau, Robert Braithwaite, 179 + +Mason, George Hemming, 179 + +Maynors, Katherine, 18 + +Meyer, Jeremiah, 95 + +Modena, Nicholas of, 19 + +Monamy, Peter, 47 + +Mor, Sir Antonio, 19 + +Morland, George, 82 + +Morland, Henry Robert, 82 + +Morse, S. F. B., 206 + +Mortimer, John Hamilton, 89 + +Moser, George Michael, 94 + +Mount, William Sydney, 209 + +Mueller, William John, 137 + +Mulready, William, 167 + +Mytens, Daniel, 22 + + +Nasmyth, Patrick, 135 + +Neagle, J., 212 + +Newton, Gilbert Stuart, 173, 209 + +Nixon, James, 95 + +Northcote, James, 76 + + +Oliver, Isaac, 22 + +Oliver, Peter, 22 + +Opie, John, 78 + +Oudry, P., 19 + +Owen, William, 121 + + +Palmer, Samuel, 114 + +Parmentier, James, 35 + +Payne, William, 102 + +Peale, Charles Wilson, 200 + +Peale, Rembrandt, 206 + +Penley, Aaron Edwin, 114 + +Penni, Bartholomew, 17 + +Petersen, John E. C., 217 + +Petitot, Jean, 22 + +Phillip, John, 161 + +Phillips, Thomas, 125 + +Poole, Paul Falconer, 179 + +Powell, W. H., 207 + +Pratt, Matthew, 192 + +Prout, Samuel, 108 + +Pyne, James Baker, 45 + + +Ramsay, Allan, 46 + +Ranney, William H., 211 + +Read, Thomas Buchanan, 208 + +Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 50 + +Richardson, Jonathan, 35 + +Richardson, Thomas Miles, 108 + +Riley, John, 35 + +Rimmer, William, 208 + +Roberts, David, 137 + +Robertson, Andrew, 97 + +Robinson, Hugh, 59 + +Robson, George Fennel, 110 + +Romney, George, 72 + +Rooker, Michael Angelo, 104 + +Ross, Sir William Charles, 99 + +Rossetti, Gabriel Chas. Dante, 184 + +Rossiter, T. P., 212 + +Rowlandson, Thomas, 103 + + +Sandby, Paul, 102 + +Savage, E., 201 + +Schuessele, Christian, 08 + +Scott, Samuel, 47 + +Serres, Dominic, 47 + +Serres, John Thomas, 47 + +Seymour, James, 81 + +Shalders, George, 114 + +Shaw, Joshua, 213 + +Shee, Sir Martin Archer, 123 + +Shelley, Samuel, 95 + +Shipley, William, 45 + +Smirke, Robert, 90 + +Smith, George (of Chichester), 47 + +Smith, John " ", 47 + +Smith, William " ", 47 + +Smith, John (of Warwick), 103 + +Smybert, John, 190 + +Soest, Gerard von, 35 + +Spencer, Jarvis, 94 + +Staigg, R. M., 212 + +Stanfield, William Clarkson, 143 + +Stark, James, 142 + +Stothard, Thomas, 88 + +Streater, Robert, 31 + +Stretes, Gwillim, 16, 17 + +Stuart, Gilbert, 195 + +Stubbs, George, 81 + +Sully, Thomas, 212 + + +Terling, Lavinia, 17 + +Thomson, Henry, 126 + +Thornhill, Sir James, 34 + +Topham, Francis William, 114 + +Torell, William, 2 + +Toto, Antonio, 9, 17 + +Treviso, Girolamo da, 10, 15 + +Trumbull, John, 197 + +Turner, Joseph Mallord William, 105, 127 + + +Uwins, Thomas, 91 + + +Van Beest, A., 217 + +Vanderbank, John, 35 + +Vanderlyn, John, 205 + +Van Dyck, Sir Anthony, 26 + +Van Honthorst, Gerard, 26 + +Van Somer, Paul, 22 + +Varley, John, 107 + +Ver Bryck, Cornelius, 206 + +Verrio, Antonio, 34 + +Vincent, George, 142 + +Volpe, Vincent, 17 + +Vroom, Cornelis, 20 + + +Waldo, Samuel, 212 + +Wale, Samuel, 85 + +Walker, Frederick, 182 + +Walker, Robert, 20 + +Walter, Master, 4 + +Ward, Edward Matthew, 180 + +Ward, James, 125 + +Watson, John, 190 + +Webber, John, 103 + +Wehnert, Edward Henry, 114 + +West, Benjamin, 64, 193 + +West, W. E., 211 + +Westall, Richard, 89 + +Westall, William, 89 + +White, Edwin, 207 + +White, John Blake, 202 + +Wilkie, David, 164 + +Williams, ----, 191 + +Wilson, Richard, 47 + +Wimar, C. F., 211 + +Wissing, William, 35 + +Witherington, William Frederick, 166 + +Woodville, Richard Caton, 211 + +Wootton, John, 80 + +Wright, Andrew, 11, 17 + +Wright, Joseph, 200 + +Wright, Joseph (of Derby), 74 + +Wright, Joseph Michael, 35 + +Wyck, John, 80 + +Wylie, Robert, 219 + + +Zincke, Christian Frederick, 94 + +Zoffany, Johann, 61 + +Zuccarelli, Francesco, 61 + +Zucchero, Federigo, 20 + +PRINTED BY J. S. VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD, LONDON. + + + * * * * * + + +Illustrated Biographies of the Great Artists. + +_Each Volume is strongly bound in Cloth, Crown 8vo, price 3s. 6d. unless +marked otherwise._ + +=SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.= By F. S. PULLING, M.A. With Engravings of Penelope +Boothby--Strawberry Girl--Muscipula--Mrs. Siddons--Duchess of +Devonshire--Age of Innocence--and 11 other paintings. + +=WILLIAM HOGARTH.= By AUSTIN DOBSON. With Reproductions of Groups from the +Rake's Progress--Southwark Fair--Distressed Poet--Enraged +Musician--March to Finchley--and 11 other subjects. + +=GAINSBOROUGH= and =CONSTABLE=. By G. BROCK-ARNOLD, M.A. With Engravings of +the Blue Boy--Mrs. Graham--Duchess of Devonshire--and 5 others, by +Gainsborough; and Salisbury Cathedral--The Corn-field--The Valley +Farm--and 5 others, by Constable. + +=SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE= and =GEORGE ROMNEY=. By Lord RONALD GOWER, F.S.A. With +Engravings of the Duchess of Sutherland--Lady Peel--Master Lambton--and +Nature, by Lawrence; the Parson's Daughter--and other Pictures, by +Romney. Price 2s. 6d. + +=TURNER.= By COSMO MONKHOUSE. With Engravings of Norham Castle--The +Devil's Bridge--The Golden Bough--The Fighting Temeraire--Venice--and 12 +others. + +=SIR DAVID WILKIE: a Memoir.= By J. W. MOLLETT, B.A. With Engravings of +Groups from the Rent Day--Penny Wedding--Blind Man's Buff--Duncan +Gray--and 6 other Paintings. + +=SIR EDWIN LANDSEER: a Memoir.= By F. G. STEPHENS. With 17 Fac-similes of +Etchings--Low Life--A Shepherd's Dog--Four Irish Greyhounds--Return from +Deerstalking--Sheep and Lambs, &c. + +=GIOTTO.= By HARRY QUILTER, M.A. At Padua, Florence, and Assisi. With +Engravings of various Frescoes--Bas-reliefs on the Campanile, +Florence--and a Coloured Plate of the Madonna at Assisi. + +=FRA ANGELICO=, =MASACCIO=, and =BOTTICELLI=. By C. M. PHILLIMORE. With +Engravings of the Resuscitation of the King's Son, by Masaccio--Adoration +of the Kings, by Fra Angelico--Coronation of the Virgin, by +Botticelli--and 14 other Paintings. + +=FRA BARTOLOMMEO=, =ALBERTINELLI=, and =ANDREA DEL SARTO=. By LEADER SCOTT. +With Engravings of the Enthronement of the Virgin--St. Mark--Salvator +Mundi, by Fra Bartolommeo; The Virgin and Saints, by Albertinelli; The +Madonna del Sacco, by Del Sarto--and 10 other Paintings. + +=GHIBERTI= and =DONATELLO=. By LEADER SCOTT. With Engravings of the Marble +Pulpit of Pisano--Gate of Baptistery at Florence, by Ghiberti (4 +pages)--St. George, by Donatello--and 10 others. 2s. 6d. + +=DELLA ROBBIA= and =CELLINI=. By LEADER SCOTT. With Illustrations of the +Singers, by Luca della Robbia--Perseus, by Cellini--Mercury, by Giovanni +da Bologna--and 20 others. 2s. 6d. + +=MANTEGNA= and =FRANCIA=. By JULIA CARTWRIGHT. Illustrated with Engravings +of Lodovico Gonzaga and his Son--Part of the Triumphs of Caesar--The +Madonna della Vittoria, by Mantegna; The Virgin and Saints--The +Deposition--A Pieta, by Francia--and 8 other Paintings. + +=LEONARDO DA VINCI.= By Dr. J. PAUL RICHTER. Illustrated with Engravings +of the Last Supper--The Virgin and St. Anne--Mona Lisa--The Vierge aux +Rochers--and 11 others. + +=MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI.= By CHARLES CLEMENT. With Engravings from +Frescoes of the Last Judgment--Prophet Isaiah--and of the Statues of +Moses--Lorenzo and Giuliano de'Medici--and 12 others. + +=RAPHAEL.= By N. D'ANVERS. With Engravings of Lo Sposalizio--La Belle +Jardiniere--Madonna di Foligno--St. Cecilia--Madonna della Sedia--The +Transfiguration--and 17 other Paintings. + +=TITIAN.= By R. F. HEATH, M.A. With Engravings of La Bella di Tiziano--The +Tribute-Money--The Assumption of the Virgin--St. Peter Martyr--Titian's +Daughter--and 9 others. + +=TINTORETTO.= By W. R. OSLER. From recent Investigations at Venice. With +Engravings of the Marriage at Cana--The Entombment--The Crucifixion--The +Betrothal of St. Catherine--and others. + +=CORREGGIO.= By M. C. HEATON. With Engravings of La Notte--Il +Giorno--Marriage of St. Catherine--The Madonna of Francis at +Dresden--and 5 other Paintings. Price 2s. 6d. + +=VELAZQUEZ.= By E. STOWE, M.A. With Engravings of Isabel of Spain--Duke of +Olivarez--Water-Carrier--The Topers--Surrender of Breda--Maids of +Honour--and 9 other Paintings. + +=MURILLO.= By ELLEN E. MINOR. With 8 Engravings of the Immaculate +Conception--The Prodigal Son--The Holy Family (with the _scodella_), at +Madrid--and others. Price 2s. 6d. + +=ALBRECHT DUeRER.= By R. F. HEATH, M.A. With Engravings of the Conversion +of St. Eustace--Great White Horse--Knight, Death, and the Devil--Christ +taking Leave of his Mother--and 15 others. + +=LITTLE MASTERS OF GERMANY.= By W. B. SCOTT. An Account of Altdorfer, Hans +Sebald Beham, Bartel Beham, Aldegrever, Pencz, Bink, and Brosamer. +Illustrated with many Engravings. + +=HANS HOLBEIN.= By JOSEPH CUNDALL. With Engravings of the Meyer +Madonna--Archbishop Warham--Family of Sir Thomas More--Hubert +Morett--The Dance of Death--The Bible Cuts--and many others. + +=OVERBECK.= By J. BEAVINGTON ATKINSON. Comprising his Early Years in +Luebeck, Studies at Vienna, and Settlement at Rome. Illustrated with many +Engravings. + +=REMBRANDT.= By J. W. MOLLETT, B.A. With Engravings of the Lesson on +Anatomy--The Night Watch--Burgomaster Six--The Three Trees--Ephraim +Bonus--and other celebrated Etchings. + +=RUBENS.= By C. W. KETT, M.A. With Engravings of Rubens and Isabella +Brandt--The Descent from the Cross--The Chateau de Steen--Le Chapeau de +Poil--and 12 other Paintings. + +=VAN DYCK= and =HALS=. By P. R. HEAD, B.A. With Engravings of Charles I. +and the Marquis of Hamilton--Henrietta Maria, with Princes Charles and +James, &c., by Van Dyck; and Hals and Lisbeth Reyners--The Banquet of +Arquebusiers--A Cavalier, &c., by Frans Hals. + +=FIGURE PAINTERS OF HOLLAND.= By Lord RONALD GOWER, F.S.A. With Engravings +of Paternal Advice, by Terborch--Hunchback Fiddler, by Ostade--Inn +Stable, by Wouwerman--Dancing Dog, by Steen. + +=WATTEAU.= By J. W. MOLLETT, B.A. With Engravings of Fetes Galantes, +Portraits, Studies from the Life, Pastoral Subjects, &c,. Price 2s. 6d. +_Nearly ready._ + +=VERNET= and =DELAROCHE=. By J. RUNTZ REES. With Engravings of the +Trumpeter's Horse--The Death of Poniatowski--The Battle of Fontenoy, and +5 others, by Vernet; and Richelieu with Cinque Mars--Death of the Duc de +Guise--Charles I. and Cromwell's Soldiers--and the Hemicycle, by +Delaroche. + +=MEISSONIER.= By J. W. MOLLETT, B.A. With Engravings from the Chess +Players--La Rixe--The Halt--The Reader--The Flemish Smoker--and many +Book Illustrations. Price 2s. 6d. + +London: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, + +Crown Buildings, 188, Fleet Street. + + * * * * * + +The following typographical errors were corrected by the etext +transcriber: + +Several English astists practised in this reign.=>Several English +artists practised in this reign. + +the first English artist who receveid=>the first English artist who +received + +an innvoator of a monstrous order=>an innovator of a monstrous order + +Durin his life=>During his life + +Like his master he not succeed in foliage=>Like his master he did not +succeed in foliage + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] At least, like most of the great Italian masters before and after +their time, and like Clouet the Frenchman, they designed garments, and +painted banners of state; they decorated coffers and furniture, book +covers, and, like Holbein and Cellini, made designs for jewellery. + +[B] When we discover that the whole frontal has been used as the _top of +a cupboard_, we need not wonder at the present scarcity of specimens of +early English art. + +[C] Many pictures executed during the ten years after his death, some +even in the Windsor collection, have been attributed to Holbein. + +[D] Now lent to the National Gallery. She was the youthful daughter of +the King of Denmark, and widow of the Duke of Milan. Holbein was sent to +Brussels to paint her portrait for his royal master. + +[E] See _The Athenaeum_, August 19th, 1882. + +[F] This is Dallaway's summary, note to p. 266 of Walpole's "Anecdotes," +as above, 1849. Of course, all the pictures were not really by the +artists whose names they bore. There must have been more than sixteen +Van Dycks in the Royal collection. The above are Whitehall pictures +only. The entire gatherings of King Charles were far more numerous. + +[G] His painting of this subject, for which he received only twenty-six +guineas, was destroyed by fire in 1874. + +[H] Northcote, "Conversations," 1830, p. 32, said, "Sir Joshua +undoubtedly got his first idea of the art from Gandy." James Gandy +(1619--1689), who painted in Ireland and Devonshire, was the last +representative of the art of Van Dyck, whose pupil he was. + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's English Painters, by Harry John Wilmot-Buxton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH PAINTERS *** + +***** This file should be named 39265.txt or 39265.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/2/6/39265/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images available at The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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