THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
GIFT OF
C. G. Roberts
Great Portraits
THE LAUGHING CAVALIER
Great Portraits
As Seen and Described
by Great Writers
EDITED AND TRANSLATED
BY ESTHER SINGLETON
AUTHOR OF " TURRETS, TOWERS AND TEMPLES," " GREAT PIC-
TURES," "WONDERS OF NATURE," "ROMANTIC CASTLES AND
PALACES," " FAMOUS PAINTINGS," HISTORIC BUILDINGS,"
" FAMOUS WOMEN," " GOLDEN ROD FAIRY BOOK," " PARIS,"
" LONDON," " VENICE," " RUSSIA," " JAPAN," " LOVE IN
LITERATURE AND ART," AND " A GUIDE TO THE OPERA "
With Numerous Illustrations
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
1905
Copyright, iqof
BY DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
Published October, 1905.
GIF!
A/7S7S"
Preface
IT is hard for us in this day of photographs to realize
what portrait-painting meant to the world even as late
as a century ago. The only way to record the features and
figure was by means of pencil or brush ; hence the art of
portraiture became a most important and lucrative branch
of painting. The greatest masters excelled in it, and some
of them are remembered chiefly, if not solely, by their por-
traits.
It is impossible within the limits of a small volume
adequately to represent all of the great masters of portrai-
ture ; but I have endeavoured to present as many styles of
treatment and varieties of subject as possible, besides includ-
ing certain portraits of renown. The book will, therefore,
offer many interesting points of study ; for many of the
selections describe the canvas briefly and dwell at length
upon the artist's method of work and his peculiarities of
touch and treatment. The reader can, therefore, study the
many styles from the realistic works of Frans Hals, as ex-
emplified in The Laughing Cavalier, Maria Voogt, Hille
Bobbe and others, Van Eyck's Man with the Pinks, Titian's
Infant Daughter of Roberto Strozzi, Raphael's Maddalena
Doni, Julius II., Balthazar Castiglione and Young Man,
Velasquez's Philip 17., Holbein's Jane Seymour, Raeburn's
John Tait and his Grandson and Clouet's Elizabeth of
104
VI PREFACE
Austria, to the idealized and graceful studies of Lely,
Nattier and Drouais, reaching at length the daring feat of
painting ideas that lie outside the realm of portraiture as
Whistler has done in the portrait of his mother and Rossetti
in the Beata Beatrix. The latter, described by Mr. F. G.
Stephens as a " spiritual translation " of the features of the
artist's wife, perhaps, carries portraiture beyond its limits
into a mystical world.
The omission of some of the most celebrated portraits
such as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Guido Reni's
Beatrice Cenci, Holbein's Georg Gisze, De la Tour's
Madame de Pompadour, Velasquez's Innocent X., Titian's
La Bella, Bellini's Doge Loredano, Gainsborough's Mrs.
Siddons, Moroni's Tailor, Van Dyck's Charles II. of the
Louvre, Luini's Columbine, and Reynolds's Lady Cockburn
and her Children will be noticed ; but these have already
appeared in Great Pictures and Famous Paintings of this
series. E. S.
NEW YORK, July, 1905.
Contents
THE LAUGHING CAVALIER . . Frans Hals . . I
GERALD S. DAVIES.
THE TRAGIC MUSE . . . Sir Joshua Reynolds . 6
CLAUDE PHILLIPS.
PORTRAIT OP A YOUNG MAN . . Raphael . . .14
F. A GRUYER.
SOPHIE ARNOULD . . . Greuze ... 20
M. H. SPIELMANN.
DON BALTHAZAR CARLOS . . Velasquez . . 23
SIR WALTER ARMSTRONG.
MRS. SHERIDAN .... Gainsborough . . 28
LORD RONALD GOWER.
CHARLES I. .... Van Dyck . . 34
H. KNACKFUSS.
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GIRL . . Boucher ... 43
CH. MOREAU-VAUTHIER.
THE DONNA VELATA . . . Raphael ... 46
JULIA CARTWRIGHT.
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN . . Andrea del Sarto . 50
COSMO MONKHOUSE.
THE DAUGHTER OF ROBERTO STROZZI Titian . . -53
J. A. CROWE AND J. B. CAVALCASELLE.
THE AMBASSADORS . . . Hans Holbein . . 56
SIR WALTER ARMSTRONG.
NELLY O'BRIEN .... Sir Joshua, Reynolds . 6 1
M. H. SPIELMANN.
Vlll CONTENTS
THE MAN WITH THE PINKS . . John Van Eyck . 64
FRANCIS C. WEALE.
THE THREE SISTERS . . . Palma Vecchio . . 71
CH. MOREAU-VAUTHIER.
JOHN TAIT AND His GRANDSON . Raeburn ... 74
R. A. M. STEVENSON.
SOME PORTRAITS OF HELENA FOUR-
MENT Rubens ... 83
EMILE MICHEL.
PHILIP IV Velasquez . . 95
CARL JUSTI.
LA BELLE FERRONNIERE . . Leonardo da Vinci . 99
F. A. GRUYER.
STUDY ..... Fragonard . .104
CH. MOREAU-VAUTHIER.
LAVINIA FENTON AS POLLY PEACHUM Hogarth . . .107
AUSTIN DOBSON.
PORTRAITS OF SASKIA . . . Rembrandt . . 112
MALCOLM BELL.
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN . . Holbein . . .123
SIR WALTER ARMSTRONG.
LA BELLA SIMONETTA . . . Sandra Botticelli . 1 26
JULIA CARTWRIGHT.
MARIA VOOGT AND ELIZABETH BAS, Frans Hals and Rembrandt 1 40
GERALD S. DAVIES.
LAVINIA VECELLI . . . Titian . . .146
J. A. CROWE AND G. B. CAVALCASELLE.
BALTHAZAR CASTIGLIONE . . Raphael . . .152
F. A. GRUYER.
THE HON. MRS. GRAHAM . . Gainsborough . .162
I. LORD RONALD SUTHERLAND GOWER.
II. CH. MOREAU-VAUTHIER.
CONTENTS IX
LA DUCHESSE DE CHARTREs AS HEBE Nattier . . . 1 70
LADY DILKE.
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON (" NA-
TURE ") .... Romney . . .177
HUMPHREY WARD.
THE SIBYL AND THE LADY WITH A
FAN ..... Velasquez . .190
CARL JUSTI.
MRS. SIDDONS .... Sir Thomas Lawrence 199
LORD RONALD SUTHERLAND GOWER.
CHARACTER PORTRAITS . . Frans Hals . . 209
GERALD S. DAVIES.
PORTRAIT OF MY MOTHER . . Whistler . . .219
CH. MOREAU-VAUTHIER.
MARIE ANTOINETTE AS HEBE . Drouais . . .224
F. A. GRUYER.
PHILIP II. OF SPAIN . . Titian . . .234
J. A. CROWE AND G. B. CAVALCASELLE.
MRS. SCOTT MONCRIEFF . . Sir Henry Raeburn . 241
JAMES L. CAW.
THE CHILDREN OF CHARLES I. . Van Dyck . . 249
H. KNACKFUSS.
JANE SEYMOUR .... Holbein . . .252
ALFRED WOLTMANN.
HIERONYMUS HOLZSCHUHER . . Durer . . .258
GUSTAVE GRUYER.
BEATA BEATRIX .... Rossetti . . . 264
F. G. STEPHENS.
MADDALENA DONI . . . Raphael . . .271
JULIA CARTWRIGHT.
PHILIP IV. OF SPAIN . . . Velasquez . . 276
CLAUDE PHILLIPS.
X CONTENTS
LUCREZIA TORNABUONI . . Botticelli . . .283
ALPHONSK DE CALONNE.
PORTRAIT OF BERTIN THE ELDER . Ingres . . . 290
GUSTAVE LARROUMET.
MADAME HENRIETTE DE FRANCE . Nattier . . . 297
ANDRE PERATE.
*
ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA . . Clouet . . .302
SAMUEL ROCHEBLAVE.
MADAME VIGEE LE BRUN AND HER
DAUGHTER .... Vigee Le Brun . . 307
ANDRE MICHEL.
ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA . Honthorst . .314
WILLIAM CHAMBERS LEFROY.
THE COUNTESS DE GRAMMONT . Lely . . .322
I. MRS. JAMESON.
II. WILLIAM SHARP.
POPE JULIUS II Raphael . . .331
H. KNACKFUSS.
THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE . Gainsborough . . 338
MRS. ARTHUR BELL.
Illustrations
HALS . . .
REYNOLDS .
RAPHAEL . .
GREUZE . .
VELASQUEZ .
GAINSBOROUGH
VAN DYCK .
BOUCHER . .
RAPHAEL . .
A. DEL SARTO
TITIAN . . .
HOLBEIN . .
REYNOLDS
J. VAN EYCK .
P. VECCHIO .
RUBENS
The Laughing Cavalier Frontispiece
London
The Tragic Muse
FACING PAGE
6
Dulwich
Portrait of a Young Man 14
Paris
Sophie Arnould 20
London
Don Balthazar Carlos 24
Madrid
Mrs. Sheridan and Mrs. Tickell 28
Dulwich
Charles I. 34
Dresden
Portrait of a Young Girl 44
Paris
The Donna Velata 46
Florence
Portrait of a Young Man 50
London
The Daughter of R. Strozzi 54
Berlin
The Ambassadors 56
London
Nelly O'Brien 62
London
The Man with the Pinks 64
Berlin
The Three Sisters 72
Dresden
Helena Fourment with Her Children .... 84
Paris
Helena Fourment 90
St. Petersburg
Xll
VELASQUEZ . .
L. DA VINCI . .
FRAGONARD . .
HOGARTH . . .
REMBRANDT . .
HOLBEIN . . .
BOTTICELLI
F. HALS AND
REMBRANDT
TITIAN ....
RAPHAEL . . .
GAINSBOROUGH .
ROMNEY . . .
VELASQUEZ . .
LAWRENCE
F. HALS
WHISTLER . .
DROUAIS .
ILLUSTRATIONS
Philip IV. of Spain 96
Dulwich
La Belle Ferronniere 100
Paris
Study
Paris
104
Lavinia Fenton as Polly Peachum 108
London
Saskia holding a Pink 112
Dresden
Portrait of a Young Man 124
Vienna
La Bella Simonetta 126
Florence
La Bella Simonetta as Pallas 134
Florence
Maria Voogt 140
Elizabeth Bas 144
Amsterdam
Lavinia Vecelli -with Fruit 146
Berlin
Balthazar Castiglione 152
Paris
The Hon. Mrs. Graham 162
Edinburgh
Emma Lady Hamilton (" Nature"} . . . . 178
Parts
The Lady with a Fan 190
London
Mrs. Siddons 200
London
The Jester
210
Amsterdam
Hille Bobbe 214
Berlin
The Gipsy 216
Paris
Portrait of My Mother 220
Paris
Marie Antoinette as Hebe 224
Chantilly
ILLUSTRATIONS
Xlll
TITIAN ....
RAEBURN . . .
VAN DYCK . .
HOLBEIN . . .
DURER ....
ROSfETTI . . .
RAPHAEL . . .
BOTTICELLI . .
INGRES ....
CLOUET . . .
VIGIE LE BRUN
HONTHORST . .
LELY ....
GAINSBOROUGH .
Philip II. of Spain 234
Madrid
Mrs. Scott Moncrieff 242
Edinburgh
The Children of Charles 1. 250
Dresden
Jane Seymour
Vienna
252
H. Holzschuher 258
Berlin
Beata Beatrix 264
London
Maddalena Doni 272
Pitti
Lucrezia Tornabuoni 284
Frankfort
Bertin the Elder . .
Elizabeth of Austria
Paris
Paris
290
302
Madame Vigee Le Brun and Her Daughter . 308
Paris
Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia
London
3'4
The Countess de Grammont . HamptonCourt 322
Palace
The Duchess of Devonshire 338
THE LAUGHING CAVALIER
(Frans Hals)
GERALD S. DA VIES
i
A SURVEY of the portraits which Frans Hals painted
will disabuse the mind of at least one prejudice con-
cerning the great painter. It will go far to put an end to
the view, which has been expressed by many writers, that
Hals was a mere painter of externals ; one who caught the
surface peculiarities of a man and could present them to us
with astonishing verve and vraisemblance much, indeed,
like Charles Dickens in literature but who did not pene-
trate beneath the surface, or read the inner man very
subtly. One may fully grant that Frans Hals was not a
thinker in the sense in which Rembrandt, Velasquez, and
even Van Dyck, were thinkers ; and there are, I dare say,
very few of us who have not at some time or other, in
standing before one of Hals's brilliant, dashing bits of rapid
character-catching, found ourselves expressing the inward
doubt whether Hals realized that his sitters had souls at all.
The injustice is due, I am persuaded, to the fact that few
people have ever taken the trouble to view Hals as a whole.
For some reason, there has been an unconscious conspiracy,
both among picture-lovers and writers, to think of him
through one OF two of his most astonishing, and, indeed, in-
comparable achievements as a rapid setter-down of facial
2 THE LAUGHING CAVALIER
expression. But anyone who has stood long before the
gentleman and his wife of the Cassel Gallery ; the Jacob
Olycan and Aletta Hanemans of the Hague ; the Albert
Van der Meer and his wife of Haarlem ; the Beresteyn pair
of the Louvre ; the old housewife of the same gallery, and,
above all, the consummate portrait of Maria Voogt, 1639,
at Amsterdam, not to speak of many others, will have to
reconsider his verdict. Hals has shown himself in these to
be as perfectly capable of handling a worthy face with quiet
dignity and full insight remember that his sitters were
Dutch, who do not carry their souls upon their faces, nor
their hearts upon their sleeves as he was capable of setting
down the rapidly-passing expression of his Laughing Cav-
alier, his Jester at Amsterdam, his Gipsy Girl of the Louvre,
and his Hille Bobbe of Berlin. The fact that he painted
these latter, and more like them, has no business to rob
him of his great reputation as a great translator of the more
worthy moods of man, which is due to him on the evidence
of a far larger body of witnesses. For if the list of his
portraits be perused, it will be found that these laughing
drinkers and jesters, by which the world has insisted on
judging him, are in quite a small minority. The minority
would be probably far more strikingly small, if anything
like the tale of his output had survived to us.
And I shall make no separate classification for one kind
of portrait and the other. As I have already said, his
jesters, his gipsies, his mountebanks, his fisher-boys or his
fishwives, are just as much portraits as the others. The
fact that he very likely picked some of his models up in his
THE LAUGHING CAVALIER 3
pothouse, and others in the street, and others by the road-
side, or by Zandvoort dunes, or in the Haarlem fish-market,
and carried them off in triumph to his studio, does not make
them a whit less portraits. These were the only kind of
sitters who would consent to have their portraits painted to
go down to posterity with a face convulsed with laughter,
or contorted with some passing expression. He must
either use that kind of sitter not but what I quite admit
that Hals probably got great amusement from their com-
pany or abandon that field of art facial expression under
rapid change, which was the problem he was mastering.
They are not an edifying set of sitters ; far from it ; but
the artist who wants to get a model who will sit to him
with a broad grin on his face will not find his man among
the high-bred, the serious, the refined. The man who will
sit in a studio with a stoup of ale on his knee and laugh
boisterously at little or nothing at all, between the drains, is
not a refined person. But he gets the lines of his face into
the shapes which express laughter more frequently than the
doctor of laws or the professor of mathematics, and Hals
can get what he wants from him, and perhaps a rough joke
or two into the bargain.
One year before Hals had completed the Olycan pair, 1
he .had painted his Portrait of an Officer known as The
Laughing Cavalier of the Wallace Collection, 1624. Of
Hals's work accessible in public galleries of England, no
more striking specimen exists. Here, indeed, we have the
painter rejoicing in the interpretation of a phase of charac-
1 Jacob Olycan and his wife, 1625, both at The Hague.
4 THE LAUGHING CAVALIER
ter which had particular attractions for him. The cavalier
is a young, well-fed, well-kept soldier, quite satisfied with
himself, and evidently quite untroubled by any of those
deeper searchings of the mind which are apt to leave their
print upon the face. The smile upon his face is certainly
one of the most irresistible things that ever was painted.
It is not a laugh, nor a leer, nor a grin, but a smile which
seems ready to burst into a laugh, and, as you watch the
face, it takes slight and rapid variations of expression, so
that you seem to see the look which has just passed and
that which is just to come. No doubt there is a certain air
of swagger, a characteristic which Hals always enjoyed the
rendering of. But this is no mere swaggerer or swashbuck-
ler. On the contrary, there is a force and even a fineness
about the handsome brows that tell you this would be a bad
man to have to meet in an encounter, and a good man to
have to follow to one. Stand before this man's portrait,
and you can weave for him a history. There is something
more than mere swagger in that self-assertive smile. He
looks out at you with an air of supreme contempt at one
moment, of supreme good-nature at another ; but the ex-
pression is full of changefulness, full of that electric current
which plays over the human face and tells you while you
look at it at one moment, what to expect from the next.
This was not a reader or a thinker, but he was not a
mere vapourer or a mere braggart, like the Merry Toper of
the Amsterdam Gallery. A fighter you may make oath
upon that, and a man of action when he is wanted.
Technically it is the highest merit, and is nearly, if not
THE LAUGHING CAVALIER 5
quite, as it left the painter's hands. Even as it hangs on
that wall in the company of Rembrandt, of Van Dyck, of
Velasquez, it yields to none in that particular. It is for a
man's portrait more highly wrought than is his wont. The
handling is not so fierce, if one may use the expression, as,
for example, in his Doelen pictures. It represents the half-
way between the St. Joris of 1616 and the St. Joris of
1627. Viewed close, the detail is somewhat more exact
and less the production of summarized knowledge than is
often the case. Even the lace collar is, for a man's portrait
by him, highly wrought.
There is no strong colour in the picture. The elaborate
broidery is all in low-tone orange-yellow on a cloth of blue
gray. There is not a bit of pure vermilion, or crimson, or
blue in the picture. And yet the impression left by the
picture certainly is that its scale is somewhat higher than
many of Hals's individual portraits. The explanation lies
doubtless in the fact that the picture is slightly wanting in
atmosphere, and does not go behind its frame.
THE TRAGIC MUSE
(Sir 'Joshua Reynolds)
CLAUDE PHILLIPS
IT was in this year (1783) that Sir Joshua first came into
a closer intimacy with Mrs. Siddons, and painted that
famous portrait of the actress as the Tragic Muse, which,
if possible, enhanced his own reputation with his con-
temporaries, and certainly conferred a new immortality on
the great performer whose features and aspect it per-
petuated.
As far back as 1775, she had appeared in London, in
Garrick's last season, as Portia in The Merchant of Venice,
and as Lady Anne to his Richard III., but made then no
particular mark, either because she was overpowered by the
sunset radiance of the sinking luminary of tragedy, or
more probably, because her powers were not yet mature.
Returning to town in 1782, when there was none to divide
the public favours with her, she carried all before her in
such parts as Almeria in Congreve's Mourning Bride, Jane
Shore, Calista, Belvedera, and Mrs. Beverley ; and, a little
later on, in those mightier ones of Isabella in Measure for
Measure, and Constance in King John. Not yet, undis-
puted queen of tragedy as she was, had she ventured upon
parts so tremendous as that of Lady Macbeth then sacred
to the memory of her predecessor, Mrs. Yates, whom, it
may be remembered, Romney had already, some ten years
THE TRAGIC MUSE
THE TRAGIC MUSE 7
previously, painted as the Tragic Muse. Under this title,
too, Russell, the author of a History of Modern Europe^ had
sung Mrs. Siddons in verse ; and his panegyric may very
probably have suggested to Reynolds the subject, or, at any
rate, the name of his picture. There is some doubt as to
the exact time in 1783 when the great actress began her
sittings, but, on the whole, the most probable period would
appear to be the autumn of that year. The history of the
picture is given by Mrs. Jameson, on the authority of Mrs.
Siddons herself. We can imagine Sir Joshua, in his courtly
fashion, taking the stately woman by the hand, and leading
her to the sitter's chair, with the sonorous Johnsonian com-
pliment : " Ascend your undisputed throne ; bestow on
me some idea of the Tragic Muse." " Upon which," she
added, " I walked up the steps, and instantly seated myself
in the attitude in which the Tragic Muse now appears."
There is little reason to doubt the authenticity of the anec-
dote, and the less when we reflect that Melpomene, some-
what staid and stolid in private life, was not inventive
enough to have devised or elaborated the compliment just
quoted, or that further and still more splendid one which he
laid at her feet when he was putting the last finishing
touches to the work. " I cannot," he said, " resist the
opportunity for going down to posterity on the edge of your
garment." Whereupon he then and there painted his name
in ornate letters, together with the date 1784, along the
Muse's skirt, so that it did duty as a decorative adornment
much as he had done in the case of The Lady Cockburn
with her Children.
8 THE TRAGIC MUSE
With regard to the influence that the beautiful sitter her-
self exercised, or deemed that she exercised on the evolu-
tion of the design one of the most carefully elaborated of
all Sir Joshua's there seems to have been some uncon-
scious exaggeration on her part, such as is often generated
by successive repetitions of a story at a certain distance
of time. Thus, she said to Mrs. Jameson that she at once
seated herself in the attitude in which the Muse now ap-
pears. But she told Thomas Phillips, R. A., "that it was
the production of pure accident ; Sir Joshua had begun
the head and figure in a different view j but while he was
occupied in the preparation of some colour, she changed
her position to look at a picture hanging on the wall of the
room. When he again looked at her and saw the action
she had assumed, he requested her not to move ; and thus
arose the beautiful and expressive figure we now see in the
picture." And again she told Martin Arthur Shee that " Sir
Joshua would have tricked her out in all the colours of the
rainbow had she not prevented him." No doubt the
great tragedienne was unfamiliar with the first states of an
oil picture, and the courtly Sir Joshua may have allowed
her to run on uncontradicted, content to receive her recla-
mations with a seeming acquiescence.
It must be pointed out, however, that the master's
Twelfth Discourse, delivered only a few months after the
completion of the picture, contains in the following pas-
sage, a striking though indirect corroboration of Mrs. Sid-
dons's statement that she had suggested the attitude of the
Muse : " And here I cannot avoid mentioning a circum-
THE TRAGIC MUSE 9
stance in placing the model, though to some it may appear
trifling. It is better to possess the model with the attitude
you require, than to place him with your own hands : by
this means it often happens that the model puts himself in
an action superior to your own imagination. It is a great
matter to be in the way of accident, and to be watchful
and ready to take advantage of it : besides, when you fix
the position of a model there is danger of putting him in
an attitude into which no man would naturally fall."
It may be alleged that Mrs. Siddons's story in its entirety
cannot altogether be reconciled with the undoubted fact that
the general conception of the Tragic Muse is coloured with
a strong reminiscence of Michelangelo's Isaiah, in the ceil-
ing of the Sixtine Chapel a fact the less difficult to accept
when it is remembered how Sir Joshua had saturated him-
self with the master in the contemplation of the frescoes in
the Cappella Sistina, and had throughout his career main-
tained his enthusiasm for him at its original high level.
Still, the two versions of the genesis of the picture are by
no means radically irreconcilable.
It is not in the least likely that so great an artist, and one
so various in portraiture as Sir Joshua, would have ham-
pered himself, and handicapped his sitter, by a premed-
itated adherence to all the lines of a figure of which the
guiding motive was one essentially different from that of
his idealized portrait. There is little doubt that he had
generally in view Buonarroti's great invention ; yet, to ob-
tain a pose correct and natural in all particulars, and, above
all, to infuse true significance and true dramatic charac-
10 THE TRAGIC MUSE
terization into the outlines of the composition as conceived
by him, it is easy to believe that he may have relied to a
great extent, on the heroic instincts of the greatest tragic
actress of her time. He may as we know that he did in
many cases have even taken inspiration from her changes
of posture, and revised his conception accordingly.
A detailed description of the composition is rendered un-
necessary by the reproduction here given. It is in fine pres-
ervation, the sombre magnificence of the colouring being
much less due to darkening in this instance than to pre-
meditation on the part of the painter. There can be little
doubt that the unity of tone obtained by the deep purple
and the tawny brownish-yellow of Melpomene's robes gives
a greater ideality, a more unbroken repose to the general
aspect of the work than could have been obtained by a
higher key, a more varied splendour in the hues of the
draperies. For once Sir Joshua attains to his ideal and
achieves what all through his life he has sighed for and
written about high, or shall we not rather say great, art.
As great art, and to say the least, on a level with the work
now discussed, must rank several of the finest male portraits.
But those were great in virtue of a certain heroic realism,
of a certain informing enthusiasm, while greatness is here
attained in the more accepted fashion, by splendid dignity
of conception, by majesty and rhythmical grace of out-
ward aspect, by impressiveness and significance of colour-
ing.
The least touch of bathos would have brought the picture
down from its high level, and placed it on that of the Gar-
THE TRAGIC MUSE II
rick between Tragedy and Comedy and the numerous portraits
of some one irrelevantly masquerading as some one else,
which cannot be unreservedly accepted, even by the
master's most fervent admirers. But even the attendant
figures variously described as " Pity and Terror," " Pity
and Remorse," and with more probability as " Crime and
Remorse," are sufficiently impressive, especially the one
which the master studied from his own features. The
figure of Mrs. Siddons herself is unique in the life-work of
the master, as combining a more portrait-like fidelity than
Reynolds often achieved in female portraiture with a gen-
uinely tragic ideality of mien and gesture, due, it must be
owned, as much to the natural personality of the sitter as
to the conceiving power of the artist.
The original work was bought by the noted amateur,
M. de Calonne, for the then very considerable sum of 800
guineas, and, after some intermediate sales, was finally ac-
quired by the first Marquis of Westminster for 1,760
guineas. It remains one of the chief ornaments of the
Duke of Westminster's rich collection, and has by him
been lent on several occasions to public exhibitions to the
Old Masters in 1870; then for a considerable space of
time to the South Kensington Museum ; then to the
Reynolds Exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery ; and lastly
to the Guelph Exhibition. The inferior replica at the
Dulwich Gallery was painted by Score, one of Sir Joshua's
assistants, in 1789, and sold to M. Desenfans for 700
guineas ; but, for all its inferiority, it had, as Sir Joshua's
own note and the price show, the imprimatur of the
12 THE TRAGIC MUSE
Reynolds studio. The best replica would appear to be
that at Langley Park, Stowe, given by Sir Joshua to
Mr. Harvey, in exchange for a boar-hunt by Snyders
which the painter much admired. Another repetition,
of the upper part of the figure only, is, or was, in the
possession of Mrs. Combe of Edinburgh ; and yet another
one of the complete picture in the gallery of Lord
Normanton.
As by Sir Joshua was exhibited at the Guelph Exhibition
an imposing full-length, belonging to the Earl of Warwick,
showing Mrs. Siddons in a black satin gown, with a white
scarf wrapped turban-wise round her head, holding in one
hand a mask, in the other a dagger. This, however, has,
on the high authority of Mr. George Scharf, the Director
of the National Portrait Gallery, been restored to Sir
William Beechy.
It was in 1784 that Gainsborough painted his famous
Mrs. Siddons^ en toilette de i)ille, now in the National Gal-
lery, and, though the conditions of the two pictures are as
absolutely different as they could possibly be, the same
serious and a little ponderous personality makes itself felt,
even as interpreted by Gainsborough's sprightly brush.
No better description has been left us of the Tragic
Muse, as she appeared in private life, preserving, in a
lower, quieter key, all the idiosyncrasies of her stage in-
dividuality, than that one of Miss Burney's which so per-
fectly comments and explains the painted portraits as to de-
serve quotation in its entirety :
" I found her, the Heroine of a Tragedy sublime, ele-
THE TRAGIC MUSE 13
vated, and solemn. In face and person, truly noble and
commanding; in manners, quiet and stiff; in voice, deep
and dragging; and in conversation, formal, sententious,
calm, and dry. I expected her to have been all that is
interesting; the delicacy and sweetness with which she
seizes every opportunity to strike and to captivate upon the
stage had persuaded me that her mind was formed with
that peculiar susceptibility which, in different modes, must
give equal powers to attract and to delight in common life.
But I was very much mistaken. As a stranger, I must
have admired her noble appearance and beautiful counte-
nance, and have regretted that nothing in her conversation
kept pace with her promise ; and as a celebrated actress I
had still only to do the same. Whether fame and success
have spoiled her, or whether she only possesses the skill of
representing and embellishing materials with which she is
furnished by others, I know not ; but still I remain disap-
pointed."
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN
(Raphael)
F. A. GRUYER
Portrait of a Young Man carries us to the
Rome of Julius II., about the year 1510, at the mo-
ment when Raphael, in the full ebullition of his genius is
about to take possession of the Vatican. This was per-
haps the most fortunate moment of his life. He had that
view of a happy and productive life to which nothing is
any longer refused. For him the years were to succeed
one another ever fuller of activity and ever fuller of glory,
full of works and full of happiness. In thirty months he
was to compose and paint the Dispute of the Holy Sacra-
ment, the School of Athens, the Parnassus, the 'Jurisprudence,
the Pandectes, the Decretals, the allegorical figures of the
vault, all the complementary figures of that admirable
decoration, and he even found time to paint another por-
trait which alone would suffice to place him in the first
rank of the great masters. This portrait represents a young
man, almost a youth, handsome of countenance, of natural
charm and grace, and richly exhaling the springtide perfume
of life. What is his age ? About sixteen years. What
was his name ? We do not know. What was his condi-
tion of life ? That is also unknown. He leans his elbow
familiarly upon a stone balustrade, his head supported by
his right hand, his left arm lies horizontally along the sup-
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN 15
porting bar. His long hair, of a bright blonde, is covered
with a black baretta, and is parted in the middle, falling
down over his cheeks and flowing over his shoulders. One
of his locks, raised by the hand that supports the head, covers
the right cheek and caresses it, giving him a somewhat mis-
chievous expression. The broad open brow is of medium
height. The eyes of a bluish gray, look towards the left
with a bright glance. The nose is delicately formed. The
lines of the mouth reveal amiability and humour. The
chin is finely accentuated. The cheeks are in the full
blossoming of youth. As for the costume, it is summarily
dismissed : a white shirt leaving the throat bare so as to
show it in all its lightness ; a blackish blue tunic, the right
sleeve only of which is visible; and a cloak of sombre
green negligently thrown over the left shoulder. Finally,
the right hand is merely indicated. Everything shows to
what a degree this painting was improvised ; but this does
not interfere with its enchantment. The shade and chiaros-
curo are distributed with an art that is so much the greater
on account of its dissimulation. There can be nothing in
which we feel less effort, nothing can be less natural nor
more spontaneous ; nothing can seem less calculated nor
reaching after effect ; nevertheless, everything here is or-
dered by a master as sure of his hand as of his thought.
This handsome face, set between the black baretta and the
dark tones of his vestments, is like the brightness of a
beautiful day. It is youth personified, without make-up or
adjustment, in all the charm of its reality and all the poetry
of its dreaming. Moreover, it would be vain to analyze
1 6 PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN
such a portrait, or to seek whence arises its enchantment.
We cannot tell. The poet says : " Ask of the nightin-
gale its secret for making itself beloved."
This painting came to us from the gallery of Louis XIV.;
and Bailly in his inventory thus describes it in 1709 : "Pic-
ture attributed to Raphael representing his own portrait."
At that period, therefore, people regarded this as the por-
trait of Raphael at the age of fifteen or sixteen, without
asking themselves if it were possible whether so strong a
work could be produced by a painter as young as that.
Twenty years later, Mariette, with greater insight, con-
sidered this impossibility. He says: "This portrait is
worthy of deep consideration on account of its beautiful
brush-work and its masterly mingling of colours. The
head looks alive ; the character of the design is great and
finely felt with much firmness and precision. One would
say that Raphael painted it rapidly at the first attempt. On
that account, it is more piquant than any other that we
possess by this great man. Some people regard it as the
portrait of this painter f but it is hard for us to persuade
ourselves that at so tender an age as that of the youth
represented in this picture, Raphael had so far departed
from his first manner as appears in the picture of which
we are speaking." In 1752, Lepicie, taking Mariette's
opinion into account, wrote below this painting simply :
" Portrait of a Young Man." This however did not pre-
vent Emeric David, whose opinion was authoritative fifty
years ago, from holding to Bailly's version. It was easy
however to make sure of two things : first, that there is
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN 17
not the least resemblance between the authentic portraits
of Raphael and this " Portrait of a Young Man " ; and
next, that Raphael at sixteen years of age was painting
after Perugino under the very eyes of Perugino, keeping
with docility within the shadow of his master ; and that,
even at twenty years of age, it was still Perugino whom
he was striving to copy, witness the Sposalizio^ and the
Christ in the Garden of Olives. In 1499, a portrait such
as the Portrait of a Young Man would have been considered
an act of rebellion in the School of Perugi. Moreover,
this portrait exhibits all the qualities of a past master in
painting. If there are one or two things in it that are not
quite correct, they are matters not of inexperience but of
improvisation. In order to paint a picture of such appar-
ent carelessness, to produce such a work with such lavish-
ness, to adorn what is familiar with such delicacies, a man
must have long submitted to the respect for style, to the
devotion to form and reason. As Boileau says, he must
have learned " with difficulty to make easy verses." Never-
theless the error endorsed by Emeric David persisted, and
Forster, when he engraved this portrait in 1843, wrote
under his engraving : Raphael Sanzio at fifteen years of age.
As a reaction from this point of view, people now want
to refer this Portrait of a Young Man to the closing years
of Raphael's life. " This picture must have been painted
between 1515 and 1520," says M. Villot ; and M. Both de
Tauzia repeats the same date. In our opinion, this is an-
other error. After having gone too high up, people come
too low down. Why not stop half way, between 1509 and
1 8 PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN
1511 ? This portrait, although of masterly execution, does
not show the character of Raphael's last productions. On
the contrary, everything in it recalls the first works that he
painted in Rome. If we compare this Portrait of a Young
Man with the frescoes of the Segnatura^ we shall see that
they are painted in the same manner, and have the same
youth, the same freshness and the same style of beauty,
in a word, that they belong to the same date. The draw-
ing throughout has the same incomparable grace, and the
colour, in spite of the difference in the material processes,
produces the same impression. Has not the colouring of
the Portrait of a Young Man, blonde, fluid and diaphanous,
something of the limpidity of fresco, and particularly of the
frescoes of the first of the Vatican Chambers? More-
over can we not see remarkable analogies between this
charming countenance and the no less charming faces of the
disciples gathered around Archimedes in the School of
Athens? Archimedes being no other than Bramante, is it
not probable that his disciples are also some of the painter's
contemporaries ? Before executing his fresco, might not
Raphael have painted rapidly and in the sense of studies
some portraits among which was this Portrait of a Young
Man ? (It was thus that he painted the portrait of the
Duke of Urbino which also figures in the School of Athens.)
Are not the enthusiasm of the idea, the spontaneity of the
execution and the inspired spirit of the artist in the presence
of the living model so many proofs in favour of this
hypothesis ? We therefore think that this portrait was
painted between the years 1509 and 1511. Place it in the
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN 1 9
chamber of the Segnatura and it is at home, it seems to be
with its own family. Place it aside in the Heliodorus room
which was painted from 1512 to 1514, and it already looks
almost exiled. Why? Because from 1512 on, Raphael
was influenced by the paintings of Giorgione and Sebastiano
del Piombo, and he preserved in his own works something
of the impression caused by those warm colourists. How-
ever this may be, let us hail a masterpiece in this portrait.
SOPHIE ARNOULD
(Greuze)
M. H. SPIELMANN
THE extraordinary popularity of Greuze is based, not
upon the excellence of his painting, but upon his
pretty faces ; for not only are his best pictures the least
liked by the public, but among those which are most en-
joyed are the most insincere, the most affected, and, in in-
tention, the most u suggestive." Some of his best work is
naturally that which makes the least appeal to the senti-
mentality of the spectator : that is to say, he is strongest in
genuine portraiture.
In the portrait of Mile. Sophie Arnould, there is, no doubt,
a touch of the poseuse there is the affectation of the pretty
woman, who, with all her consummate wit and self-
command, could not quite lose her self-consciousness when
standing before the easel of the painter. Greuze shows
her for what she is. The jaunty pose of the hat, the quiet
confidence of the sitter, the grace, half-studied, half-natural,
the lack of " that" as the French say, which gives the per-
fect grace of the well-bred woman, all proclaim the attributes
of the actress who sprang into the dazzling light of the
joyous world in Eighteenth Century France, and fizzled
out at the end of it.
That Sophie Arnould was a great artist none will deny.
Garrick himself showered his approval upon her, and yet it
SOPHIE ARNOULD
SOPHIE ARNOULD 21
was not as an actress merely that she gained universal
celebrity, but as an opera-singer. She was singularly gifted
by nature, graceful in presence, perfect in figure, admirable
alike as actress and singer ; she dominated her world of art
for heaven knows how many years, and Carlyle somewhere
says that she was the greatest lyric and dramatic artist of
her day: that is to say, for twenty years from 1757. As
Thelaire in Castor and Pollux, as Ephise in Dardanus, as
Iphigenie in Aulide, and in a score of other parts, Sophie
enchanted all Paris year after year, and Dorat celebrated
her in his poem La Declamation, and she triumphed in the
world, on the stage, and at Court.
Mile. Arnould, herself, held not the public in such high
esteem as that with which they honoured her. She had
little belief in either their taste or their sense. She knew
that, as to-day, not the love of art, but of vogue, attracts
the public to the playhouse, and cuttingly remarked :
" The best way to support the opera is to lengthen the
ballets and shorten the skirts." Indeed, of all her gifts
that of extempore wit was, perhaps, the most remarkable
for she would say the cleverest and bitterest things without
giving offence. There, indeed, is the wonder of wonders
a pretty woman, an^actress, " the idol of the opera-goers,"
and queen of the stage, witty, cynical, even biting and yet
without an enemy ! And when she retired, it was amidst a
chorus of praises and regrets among which was heard no
discordant cry. Perhaps she was so successful in flavouring
her wormwood with sugar that the taste of bitterness was
unnoticed. Thus, when a pretty but very stupid woman was
22 SOPHIE ARNOULD
complaining that she was pestered with the attentions of men
whom she could not escape, Sophie sweetly replied : " But,
surely, my dear, you need but speak to them ! " It was so
natural. And again, on being told that a certain popular
singer, now grown old and husky and raucous, had been
received with hisses, she said : " But she possesses the voice
of the people ! " Some of the inventions of her subtle wit
are used to this day in the press of Paris.
Such was the woman whom Greuze has painted here,
making as a painter should, the best of a not very beautiful
face for her large mouth, her bad teeth, her dark skin have
been commented on by contemporaries. But these, per-
haps, are not free from suspicion of entertaining ill-will
towards her. Her life is full of interest, a curious com-
mentary on French Society of the Eighteenth Century.
She has been fortunate in her biographers, the de Gon-
courts and Mr. Douglas : but above all she has been
fortunate in her painter, Greuze, whose picture, more fa-
vourably than the portraits of others, will keep alive for all
time the memory of her attractive personality.
DON BALTHAZAR CARLOS
(Velasquez)
SIR WALTER ARMSTRONG
THE equestrian portrait of the young prince is one of the
finest things painted by the master for Buen Retiro.
The boy rides an Andalusian pony and flourishes his baton
with an engaging mimicry of his father. In decorative
brilliancy of colour Velasquez never excelled this picture.
A positively dazzling effect is produced by the richly-
dressed little horseman, in his green velvet doublet, white
sleeves, and red scarf against the iridescent landscape.
Don Balthazar is said to have delighted his father by his
skill and courage in the riding-school ; the King makes
frequent allusions to his progress in letters to Don Fer-
nando, who encouraged his little nephew by presents of
armour, dogs, and a pony described as a " little devil," but
warranted to go like " a little dog " if treated to some half-
dozen lashes before being mounted. The prince's horse-
manship was probably acquired under the direction of Oli-
vares, one of the best horsemen in Spain, who appears in
one of two sketches ascribed to Velasquez, showing the
child preparing for a lesson with the lance. Both are in
English collections. The Duke of Westminster owns that
with Olivares in the arena, and the king and queen look-
ing on from the balcony of the building which is now the
24 DON BALTHAZAR CARLOS
Royal Armoury j the other, a composition with more fig-
ures, is at Hertford House.
Never in his whole career did Velasquez equal this pic-
ture in spontaneous vitality or in splendour of colour. The
design, too, has a freshness and felicity which we miss from
the Olivares, and, to a less extent, from the Philip and Isa-
bella. Intellectually the motive is absolutely simple. The
boy gallops past at an angle which brings him into the hap-
piest proportion with his mount. His attitude is the natural
one for a pupil of Philip and Olivares, two of the best
horsemen in Europe ; his look and gesture express just the
degree of pride, delight and desire for approval which charm
in a child. Through all this Velasquez has worked for
simplicity. He has been governed by the sincere desire to
paint the boy as he was, with no parade or affectation.
That done, he has turned his attention to aesthetic effect.
The mane and tail of the Andalusian pony, the boy's rich
costume and his flying scarf, and the splendid browns, blues
and greens of the landscape background make up a decora-
tive whole as rich and musical as any Titian. Not that it
is in the least Titianesque. Its colour is, in a way, a better
answer to the famous dictum of Sir Joshua than the Blue
Boy itself, for although the tints are all warm and trans-
parent, the general effect produced is cool and blue. Ve-
lasquez was afterwards to paint many pictures in which the
more subtle resources of his art were to be more fully dis-
played than here, but he was never again to equal this Don
Balthazar Carlos in the felicity with which directness and
truth are clothed in the splendours of decorative colour, and
DON BALTHAZAR CARLOS
DON BALTHAZAR CARLOS 25
that without drawing upon the more sonorous notes
of the palette. Only once in after-life does he seem
to have let himself go in the matter of colour and to
have tried what he could do, so to speak, with the
trumpet. The extraordinary portrait of the Infante
Margarita in rose-colour against red was the result, but
wonderful as it is, it leaves us cold beside the delicious
tones, like those of a silver flute, of this Balthazar
Carlos.
Don Balthazar was born during the absence of Velasquez
in Rome. The master painted him first at the age of two,
as we learn from a reference to such a portrait in a docu-
ment of 1634. The picture at Castle Howard (once
ascribed to Correggio !) shows him at about the same age,
or a little older. He stands somewhat insecurely, support-
ing himself by means of a baton, while a dwarf rather more
in the foreground seems to encourage him to walk by hold-
ing out a silver rattle and an apple. This is, perhaps, the
earliest of a fine series of portraits which chronicle the
various stages of the prince's short career. Several were
sent to foreign courts as preliminaries to demand for the
hand of this or that princess, the prince's marriage having
been a subject of anxious consideration almost from his
birth. A portrait in Buckingham Palace, representing him
in armour, with golden spurs, lace collar and crimson scarf,
is supposed to be the picture spoken of by the Tuscan en-
voy in 1639. "A portrait of the Crown Prince has been
sent to England, as if His Highnesses marriage with that
Princess were close at hand." Such a picture figures in the
26 DON BALTHAZAR CARLOS
catalogue of one of the sales under the Commonwealth as
" The Prince of Spain."
A more important example of this class is a full-length
at Vienna in a black velvet dress embroidered with silver,
sent to the Austrian Court when a betrothal with the Em-
peror Ferdinand's daughter, Mariana, was under discussion.
In 1645, tne Infante went with his father to receive the
homage of the provinces of Aragon and Navarre, an event
commemorated by Juan Bautista del Mazo-Martinez,
commonly known as Mazo, in his fine View of Saragassa
(No. 788 in the Prado) ; the figures in which, representing
the royal party, have been ascribed to Velasquez himself.
In June of the following year, the prince's betrothal 10
Mariana was officially announced, and shortly afterwards he
accompanied his father to the seat of war in Aragon, where
his beauty and spirit excited great enthusiasm. A chill
taken at Saragossa cut short the young life on which such
high hopes had been built, on October 6, 1646. With
characteristic self-control, Philip to whom policy and affec-
tion alike made this loss the most cruel of disasters, an-
nounced the boy's death to the Marquis of Legafies in the
following letter : ,
" Marquis We must all of us yield to God's will,
and I more than others. It has pleased Him to take my
son from me about an hour ago. Mine is such grief as
you can conceive at such a loss, but also full of resignation
in the hand of God, and courage and resolution to pro-
vide for the defence of my lands, for they also are my
children. . . . And so I beseech you not to relax
DON BALTHAZAR CARLOS 27
in the operations of this campaign until Lerida is re-
lieved."
The latest portrait of the prince ascribed to Velasquez
is probably the full-length numbered 1,083 * n tne Prado,
representing him at about the age of fifteen, in a black
court suit.
MRS. SHERIDAN
( Gainsborough)
LORD RONALD GOWER
IT is inevitable to compare Gainsborough with Reynolds,
but the comparison is unprofitable, since, although both
painted the portraits of the same generation, they were
distinctly different in style and feeling. When compared
with the output of Reynolds, who for some years painted
over a hundred portraits a year, Gainsborough's total of not
many over three hundred seems small. But whilst Reyn-
olds had many pupils and assistants, Gainsborough had no
assistants, and only a very few pupils. At no period of his
life did Gainsborough emulate the industry which enabled
the President to create a world of portraits. Gainsborough
also lacked Reynolds's confidence of touch, his psycholog-
ical grip and marvellous variety. Sir Joshua's portraits of
Lord Heathfield, of Laurence Sterne, and of Mrs. Siddons
as the Muse of Tragedy, are the very greatest portraits any
English painter has created; unapproachable in dignity,
intellect and force. But in delineating the grace and
sweetness of womanhood Gainsborough claims an equal
place with his great rival, and as a painter of landscape
he stands on a far higher level.
It is to Gainsborough's credit that he never attempted the
so-called u grand style " in painting as did Romney with
such doubtful success ; in that province Reynolds holds the
MRS. SHERIDAN AND MRS. TICKELL
MRS. SHERIDAN 29
highest rank of the artists of his day. Gainsborough in
some respects was like a child ; and this gives his character
a certain attraction. He probably never opened a book for
the sake of study or information, I doubt whether he ever
read a play of Shakespeare's, or a dozen lines of Milton.
When not at work he would pass hours with his friends,
playing some musical instrument or listening to their per-
formances. A man is judged by his friends, and whilst
Reynolds loved to be in the society of Burke or Johnson,
Gainsborough liked those better who could play upon the
fiddle or the flute ; to hear music pleased him more than to
hear great minds discuss great subjects.
It has been truly said by the German art critic, Richard
Muther, that, what with Reynolds was sought out and un-
derstood, was felt by Gainsborough ; whence the former is
always good and correct, where Gainsborough is unfortu-
nate and often faulty, but in his best pictures with a charm
to which those of the President of the Academy never
attained . . . but what distinguishes him from Reyn-
olds, and gives him a character of greater originality, is
just his naive independence of the ancients, to which he
was led by the difference in his method of study.
During the fourteen years Gainsborough had passed at
Bath, he had become known throughout England as one
of the greatest artists of the day ; when he had arrived
there his name had not been heard outside his native coun-
try. His portraits were now as eagerly awaited on the
walls of the Academy as those of the President, and to-
gether with his beautiful landscapes always called forth the
30 MRS. SHERIDAN
keenest interest and admiration, so that he was sure of a
warm welcome in London, and a position in the world of
art only second to that of Sir Joshua.
But before we take leave of our painter at Bath, there
are some of the portraits he painted there which must not
be overlooked. Among the many beautiful women he
painted there was not one more refined, more purely
featured than Elizabeth Linley, the eldest daughter of the
musician, Thomas Linley, born in 1754 at Bath. Gains-
borough must have often seen her as a child of nine stand-
ing with her little brother at the entrance to the Pump
Room selling tickets for her father's benefit concerts ; and
later also, when she had become the acknowledged beauty
of the town " The Fair Maid of Bath," as she was
called, and from whom Foote took the title of one of his
plays, The Maid of Bath surrounded by admirers and
courted by the rich and titled. The old miser, Walter
Long, offered to lay his thousands at her feet, regardless of
the expense of a prospective wedding ; when she sang at
Oxford the whole University went wild over her, and later
when she sang in one of Handel's oratorios at Covent
Garden in the Lent of 1773, even that most virtuous of
sovereigns, George the Third, is said to have publicly ex-
pressed his admiration, and, if Horace Walpole is to be
believed, " ogl'd her as much as he dares do in so holy a
place as an oratorio." Her fate was to marry, when eight-
een, the most brilliant, if not the most reputable man of
the day, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who had proved his
devotion to Miss Linley by fighting two duels, of which
MRS. SHERIDAN 31
she, like Helen of Troy, was the cause of battle. Their
married life, although it commenced with a runaway wed-
ding and was short, was a happy one.
Gainsborough painted several portraits of this beautiful
woman, the most beautiful of them all being the one at
Knole, where she appears as a child of thirteen or fourteen
with her little brother Tom peering over her shoulder.
This portrait is but a sketch, and was probably painted at
one or two sittings, but nothing more beautiful can be
imagined than these two heads of the girl and boy. She
has that pathetic expression so strongly marked in all her
portraits, and a look of subdued awe is on the boy's face
which reminds one of the head of the Infant Saviour in
Raphael's great picture of the Madonna at Dresden.
There is a life-size group of Elizabeth Linley with her
sister, who afterwards became Mrs. Tickell, in the Dul-
wich Gallery, but it is a less beautiful likeness than her
head at Knole, or the full length, portrait of her seated on
a bank, belonging to Lord Rothschild, which was painted
by Gainsborough in 1783, and was formerly at Delapre
Abbey.
Even ladies admired Mrs. Sheridan, which is an uncom-
mon thing for ladies to do; and they said so, which is more
uncommon still. Madame d' Arblay writes in 1779 that
"the elegance of Mrs. Sheridan's beauty is unequalled by
any I ever saw, except Mrs. Crewe." Macaulay has
called her " the beautiful mother of a beautiful race " ; her
grandchildren were famous for their beauty, and three of
her granddaughters were the famous trio of sisters all
32 MRS. SHERIDAN
gifted with brains as well as good looks the Duchess
of Somerset, Mrs. Norton, and Lady Dufferin, the mother
of the well-known statesman and diplomat, Lord DufFerin,
who wrote thus of his great-grandmother. "For Miss
Linley I have not words to express my admiration. It
is evident, from the universal testimony of all who knew
her, that there has seldom lived a sweeter, gentler, more
tender or lovable human being." Wilkes said of her :
" She is superior to all I have heard of her, and is the most
modest, pleasing and delicate flower I have seen for a long
time." Dr. Parr said she was "quite celestial." A friend
of Rogers, the poet, wrote " Miss Linley had a voice as of
the cherub choir. She took my daughter on her lap and
sang a number of childish songs, with such a playfulness of
manner and such a sweetness of look and voice as was
quite enchanting." Garrick always alluded to her as " the
saint"; one bishop called her " the connecting link be-
tween a woman and an angel " j and another said, " to look
at her when singing was like looking into the face of a
seraph." Evidently kings and bishops were great admirers
of the peerless Eliza of Bath.
Sheridan must have had some good in him to have been
so loved by this saint-like woman. In a letter to a friend
she writes : " Poor Dick and I have always been struggling
against the stream, and shall probably continue to do so until
the end of our lives ; yet we would not change sentiments
and sensations with for all his estates."
Gainsborough not only painted Miss Linley, but he
also modelled a bust of her beautiful head and shoulders.
MRS. SHERIDAN 33
He had been to one of the concerts at which she sang he
never missed one where her beautiful voice was to be
heard and on his return to the Circus he got some clay
out of a beer-barrel and in a few minutes had made a little
bust, which, when dry, he coloured. Thicknesse declared
that it was better than any portrait he had ever painted of
her; but the next day the bust disappeared; no doubt it
had been " dusted " by the maid, and had come to pieces in
the process, as so many fragile objects do in similar cir-
cumstances. Leslie is said to have had a cast taken from
another bust Gainsborough made of Miss Linley, but that
also perished, probably in the same way as the first one.
Mrs. Sheridan died when eight-and-thirty ; her brother
Tom, the beautiful bright-eyed lad who appears on the
^me canvass with her at Knole, was drowned whilst still a
youth when on a visit with his sisters to the Duke of An-
caster at Grimsthorpe. Another of her three brothers, who
was in the Navy, was lost at sea; all were remarkably
handsome, as one can see by the portraits by Gainsborough
at Dulwich.
CHARLES I
(Fan Dyck)
H. KNACKFUSS
HOWEVER highly one may value many of the so-
called historical pictures, particularly those of relig-
ious subjects, which Van Dyck produced in the years 1626
to 1632, his best works even in this period of his life,
which must be regarded as his prime, lay in the field of
portrait-painting. He had an extraordinary talent for por-
traying people with convincing resemblance to life and at
the same time in a most attractive pose, and turning such
portraits into real works of art, perfect both in form and
colour, true pictures, as artists use the word. This talent
was generally appreciated, and hardly a person of any con-
sequence who lived at Antwerp, or stayed there on a pass-
ing visit, omitted to have himself painted by Van Dyck.
The French Queen Marie de Medicis visited him at his
studio when she travelled through Antwerp in 1631, and
sat to him for a portrait. Van Dyck had a skilful hand in
painting the likenesses of illustrious people, but he was
almost more successful in recording the appearance of art-
ists. The number of masterly portraits which he painted
before his thirty-third year expired, in addition to the very
considerable quantity of other works, proclaim a rapidity of
production not inferior to that of Rubens.
In the course of 1631 negotiations were carried on with
CHARLES I
CHARLES I 35
Van Dyck from England in order to induce him to settle
in London. King Charles I. had received the picture of
Rinaldo and Armida by the agency of his gentleman-in-
waiting, Endymion Porter, in the spring of the previous
year. What induced him, however, to attach the Flemish
master to his court, according to the statement of an Eng-
lish historian, was not this charming composition, but a
portrait. A gentleman of the King's court, the painter and
musician, Nicholas Lanier, had had himself painted by
Van Dyck. He had sat for the portrait, as is particularly
mentioned, morning and afternoon for seven days in suc-
cession, without being allowed by the painter to see the
picture. All the greater was his joy and satisfaction at the
sight of the finished work. This was the portrait which
was shown to Charles I., and occasioned Van Dyck's jour-
ney to England.
At the beginning of April, 1632, Van Dyck was in Lon-
don, and he was immediately taken into the service of
Charles I. The King furnished the painter with the means
of living in a very handsome style. He assigned to him a
town-house in Blackfriars and a country-house at Eltham
in Kent, and gave him a very considerable income, which
was counted at first by the day and afterwards as a yearly
salary, quite independently of the payments for each sepa-
rate picture. A few months later, on the 5th of July, 1632,
he conferred on him the highest mark of appreciation by
making him a knight, presenting him on this occasion, as a
special mark of favour, with a golden chain and his portrait
set in diamonds. Van Dyck's chief task at the English
36 CHARLES I
court was to paint the King himself and his Queen, Hen-
rietta Maria of France. His portraits of the English royal
pair are numerous; besides those in England there are
several specimens also in continental collections. Van
Dyck, not only an admirable painter but a charming man,
enjoyed the highest personal favour of the King from
the commencement of his residence in England. When
Charles I. wanted to escape from the burden of affairs of
state, he would often take boat on the Thames from his
Palace of Whitehall to Blackfriars, to seek refreshment in
unconstrained and animated conversation with his painter.
There was bound to be a keen competition among the
nobility who frequented the court, to show favour to the
artist whom the King valued so highly.
There was, probably, never a painter anywhere who had
such numerous commission for portraits as Van Dyck in
England. He sometimes had to paint a number of portraits
of the same people. For instance there are said to be nine
portraits by his hand of the Earl of Straffbrd, the King's
most influential adviser at that time, who went to Ireland
in that year, 1632, as Lord Lieutenant, and laid his head on
the block nine years later as the first victim of the incipient
revolution. Among the first portraits which Van Dyck
painted, next to those of the royal couple, were, probably
those of his special patrons, the enthusiastic lovers of art
who had brought about his invitation to England. The
Earl of Arundel, whom he painted seven times, holds the
most distinguished position among these. Endymion Porter,
to whom he owed his first connection with Charles I., was
CHARLES I 37
painted in one picture together with Van Dyck himself.
This joint portrait is now in the Prado Gallery at Madrid.
In the spring of 1634 Van Dyck obtained leave of absence
to visit the Netherlands, where he remained till some way
into the following year.
In all probability it was only in the year 1635 that Van
Dyck returned to England. Charles I. had himself and his
family painted over and over again by the master. The
most celebrated portrait of the King is that in the Louvre
which displays him in riding costume, standing at the edge
of a wood, as if he had just dismounted from the hunter,
impatiently pawing the ground, which a groom holds behind
him. It is a splendid piece of colouring. The King, in a
white satin jacket, red hose and light yellow jack-boots,
with a wide-brimmed black hat on his long, brown hair,
stands out against a piece of wooded country, sloping away
to the seacoast, with a distant view of the sea and a sunny
sky with white clouds. The horse, a grey, is relieved
effectively by the deep brownish-green of the forest trees
and the dull red of the groom's dress. By the side of the
groom, and partly hidden by his figure, we also perceive a
page who carries the King's short cloak of light silk. A
number of stately equestrian portraits show the King in
armour, but bare-headed, with a master of the horse by his
side, who carries his gilt helmet for him. Then he appears,
in full face, riding through a gateway which looks like a
triumphal arch, in a majestic picture at Windsor. We see
him in profile in a small picture at Buckingham Palace,
which seems to be the sketch for a large picture formerly
38 CHARLES I
at Blenheim Palace and now in the National Gallery.
Here the King rides a creamvcoloured horse; in the
Windsor picture it is grey. In another picture, also at
Windsor, the King is represented in his royal robes of
ceremony. Another portrait in the same collection shows
him as the head of a family group, with the Queen and
their two sons.
There are said to be altogether about three hundred por-
traits by Van Dyck in England, the majority of which are
in the mansions of the nobility, still in possession of de-
scendants of the persons represented.
Van Dyck could not possibly have contrived to grapple
with the multitude of orders which reached him, had he not
employed several gifted pupils whom he trained as assist-
ants : Jan de Reyn of Dunkirk, whom he had brought with
him from Antwerp ; David Beeck of Arnhem whose rapidity
in painting excited amazement, and James Gandy, who was
also highly esteemed as an independent portrait-painter and
lived afterwards in Ireland, are especially mentioned. The
master must have called in the help of pupils extensively in
the numerous cases in which replicas were required ; that
was frequently done, for the sake of making valuable
presents at weddings or other festal occasions among the
circle of relatives and acquaintances of the person in ques-
tion. We have detailed information about Van Dyck's
method of working, from quite a trustworthy source ; it
rests on the declaration of a man who stood in close
personal relations with the artist. The writer De Piles
relates in his treatise on painting, which appeared at Paris
CHARLES I 39
in 1708 : "the celebrated Jabach (of Cologne), well-known
to all lovers of the fine arts, who was on friendly terms with
Van Dyck and had had his portrait painted by him three
times, informed me that he spoke to that painter one day
of the short time which the latter spent on his portraits,
whereupon the painter replied that at first he used to exert
himself severely, and take very great pains with his portraits
for the sake of his reputation, and in order to do them
quickly, at a time when he was working for his daily bread.
Then he gave me the following particulars of Van Dyck's
customary procedure. He appointed a day and hour for
the person whom he was to paint, and did not work longer
than one hour at a time on each portrait, whether at the
commencement or at the finish ; as soon as his clock
pointed to the hour, he rose and made a reverence to his
sitter, as much as to say that this was enough for the day, and
then he made an appointment for another day and hour ;
thereupon his serving-man would come to clean his brushes
and prepare a fresh palette, while he received another per-
son who had made an appointment for this hour. Thus he
worked at several portraits on the same day, and worked,
too, with an astonishing rapidity. After he had just begun
a portrait and grounded it, he made the sitter assume the
pose which he had determined for himself beforehand, and
made a sketch of the figure and costume on grey paper with
black and white chalk, arranging the drapery in a grand
style and with the finest taste. He gave this drawing
afterwards to skilled assistants whom he kept employed, in
order to transfer it to the picture, working from the actual
40 CHARLES I
clothes which were sent to Van Dyck at his request for
this purpose. When the pupils had carried out the
drapery, as far as they could, from nature, he went over it
lightly and introduced into it by his skill in a very short
time the art and truth which we admire. For the hands he
employed hired models of both sexes." It is clear that this
account refers to the later period of this busy portrait-
painter. In his earlier portraits Van Dyck unmistakably
carried out not only the nude, but also all the drapery and
all accessories with his own hand entirely. As for the
hands it is true that they show, even in the earlier portraits
at Genoa, a uniform delicacy which does not correspond
with the speaking and individual characterization of the
faces. Still there are many portraits by him, too, in which
the character of the hands is just as ably and closely studied
as that of the face ; this is always the case, in particular,
with the portraits of artists.
We are further informed that Van Dyck was fond, at
the end of his day's work, of inviting the persons whom
he was painting to dine with him, and that at these repasts
the style of entertainment was no less sumptuous than that
adopted by the highest classes of society in England.
After his work was done, Van Dyck lived like a prince.
His earnings were immense, and he spent them freely.
It is thought that a certain decline of artistic power is
observable in the portraits which Van Dyck painted after
1635. It is certainly possible that in many of them the
great haste of production and the collaboration of pupils
are all too visible. In any case, however, the master pre-
CHARLES I 41
served to the end one peculiarity of his portraits which he
had displayed even in those painted at Genoa in his youth ;
that is, the incomparable nobility of treatment which ap-
pears in every face and every form and in the whole char-
acter of the pictures. It is impossible that all the persons
of rank whom Van Dyck painted should have possessed
that distinction of character and that aristocratic grace
which makes them appear so attractive in their likenesses.
But Van Dyck saw in the souls of his models, as reflected
in their features, nothing but the winning qualities of a noble
nature ; not only everything common, but everything which
bore the stamp of passion, lay outside the range of his artistic
vision. Thus he filled the figures which he portrayed with
an aristocratic and harmonious tranquillity of soul, of which
the noble and peaceful beauty of the colouring a marvel
of art in itself seems merely the natural expression in
painting. These figures stand before us in so strikingly
natural and almost lifelike a shape, that the qualities afore-
said tell all the more effectively in the result. There is a
quite peculiar charm in a portrait by Van Dyck. It always
gives one the feeling of being in very good society, and
makes one think that it would have been a treat to converse
with the original of the portrait. That is why one is never
tired of looking at such a portrait, even though the person
represented may be entirely unknown.
It is curious though there are many parallel cases
that Van Dyck never felt permanently satisfied with his
occupation as a portrait-painter, by which he earned such
imperishable fame, but fancied that he saw his true voca-
42 CHARLES I
tion, spoilt by the force of circumstances, in the production
of grand historical pictures. The more completely the
multitude of portraits to be painted occupied his time, the
more intensely did he crave to be doing something great in
another sphere of work.
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GIRL
(Boucher)
CH. MOREAU-VAUTHIER
A PORTRAIT of an unknown female is always
illuminated with a halo of mystery and intrigue.
We make research into the life of the painter, we delve
among his years of youth and adventure ; we consult his
friendships, relationships and connexions; we are guilty
of many indiscretions, and often of many bold judgments.
We are determined to find out something.
But when we find ourselves obliged to give up all hope
of discovering anything, when the veil remains impene-
trable, the charm becomes transformed and is enhanced.
When the ties binding us with elapsed centuries are once
broken, when the past is once dead, the phantom of colours
that dreams upon the canvas glows with a new life. We
have the illusion that it sees us, that it is looking at us, and
that in its eyes are gleaming replies to our thoughts. And
an enthralling friendship comes into existence between the
masterpiece and its admirer. Perchance such attachments
are the happiest as well as the purest of all. In any case,
they are not to be laughed at : who can tell us that our
sympathy is the dupe of our imagination ? or who can say
that the soul does not love to hover around images that
represent its old dwelling-places ?
It may be that this delightful unknown is the amiable
44 PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GIRL
Murphy, who was the favourite model of the master during
his youth, and was represented in a picture ordered by
Louis XV., and had the honour of attracting the attention
and even the interest of the King.
We cannot admit the belief that a canvas of this kind,
in which the execution demands more truth than fancy,
could have been executed without a model, as was Bou-
cher's custom towards the end of his life. Reynolds tells
us that during his travels in France he went to pay a visit
to the master and found him occupied in painting a picture
of great importance without the aid of a model or other
material suggestion of any kind. And when the English
painter expressed his astonishment, Boucher replied that he
had paid sufficient attention to models in his youth to
be able to do without them henceforth. The little Murphy,
having taken flight in the direction of the gallant horizons
of Watteau's Departure for Cytbera^ had, as we see, left
the master without either embarrassment or regret.
This procedure, though one of the most dangerous in art,
did not hinder Boucher from producing such works as the
Rising and the Setting of the Sun (Wallace Collection), Rinaldo
and Armida (Louvre), Venus asking Vulcan for arms for
Mneas (Louvre), the pictorial effect and the tender and
unctuous brushwork of which are very charming. Diderot
himself, a severe judge, who criticised him vigorously,
sometimes could not prevent himself from admiring his
talent, although with an amusing rage at finding himself
conquered in spite of himself: " He attaches you to him-
self; you have to go back to him. He was born to turn
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GIRL
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GIRL 45
the heads of the two kinds of persons, society people and
artists. The artists who can understand to what degree
this man has surmounted the difficulties of painting, a
merit that is known to scarcely any one but themselves,
bow the knee before him, he is their god."
Theophile Gautier says : " He possessed the true
painter's temperament, an inexhaustible invention, a pro-
digious facility, and an execution which is always that of
an artist even in his most careless works. Without doubt
he abused these precious gifts, but prodigality is permitted
only to the rich, and in order to throw gold out of the
windows we must first possess it."
David was the head of the reaction against the facile exu-
berance of this style of painting.
Protected by Madame de Pompadour, who appreciated his
delightful, picturesque and graceful talent, which was alto-
gether to the taste of the period, Boucher enjoyed a career
as happy as it was fruitful, and left to his admirers the rich
heritage of more than a thousand pictures and ten thousand
drawings.
THE DONNA VELATA
(Raphael)
JULIA CARTWRIGHT
ONE more portrait belongs to this period (1516) the
Donna Velata of the Pitti, which, long labelled as a
copy by a Bolognese artist, is now universally admitted to
be a masterpiece of Raphael's art. The picture is of rare
interest. It is the only woman portrait of his Roman days,
and represents, there can be little doubt, the face of his be-
loved. The fables of the painter's love for the baker's
daughter have long been rejected as a modern invention,
and the portraits that formerly went by the name of the
Fornarina, are now known to have no connection with
Raphael. The Improvisatrice of the Tribune and the
Doretea of Berlin are the work of Sebastian del Piombo,
and the Fornarina of the Barberini Palace was painted by
Giulio Romano. This half-naked woman, with the bold,
black eyes, is plainly some handsome model who sat to
Raphael's scholars. There is no reason whatever to as-
sume that she was the painter's mistress, and as careful in-
spection will show, the bracelet bearing the words, " Raphael
Urbinas," which is commonly supposed to be a proof of
this theory, was added by another hand and formed no part
of the original work. This picture is a coarse and vulgar
one, with none of the peculiar characteristics of Raphael's
drawing, and utterly lacking the distinction that is the su-
THE DONNA VELATA
THE DONNA VELATA 47
premc quality of his art. Again, Vasari's stories of the
master's excesses may be dismissed as idle calumnies, of
which no evidence is to be found in contemporary records,
and which are not even mentioned in Sebastian del Piombo's
malicious letters.
Raphael, judged by the standard of his own times, led a
blameless life, wholly devoted to his art, and too much ab-
sorbed in the work of creation to be eager to form new ties.
Maria Bibbiena, the wife whom his friend the Cardinal
wished to give him, died before the wedding-day, and lies
buried by his side in the Pantheon. But the story of the
woman whom he loved remains wrapt in obscurity. In
two sonnets which he wrote on the back of his studies for
the Disputa, now in the British Museum, he addresses the
lady of his love as one far above him, and vows that he
will never reveal her name. And Vasari tells us that he
loved one woman to his dying day, and made a beautiful
and living portrait of her, which Matteo Botti, of Florence,
kept as a sacred relic. Cinelli, writing in 1677, mentions
this portrait as still in the house of the Botti, but soon after-
wards it must have passed with the Medici Collection,
where it remained, at the Grand Duke's villa of Poggio
Reale, until 1824. It is painted on canvas, like the por-
traits of Castiglione and the two Venetians in the Doria
Palace, with the same pearly shadows and the same warm
golden glow. The maiden is of noble Roman type, her
features are regular, her eyes dark and radiant. The white
bodice that she wears is embroidered with gold, and the
sleeves are of striped yellow damask. A veil rests on her
48 THE DONNA VELATA
smoothly parted hair and a string of shining black beads
sets off the whiteness of her finely modelled neck. Here,
then, we have the woman whom Raphael loved to the end.
Whether she was the lady of the sonnets, and his verses
are written in the book that she clasps to her heart, or the
Mamola bella whom he mentions in the letter to his uncle
we cannot tell. But we know that the same beautiful, face
meets us again in the royal- looking Magdalen, who stands
at St. Cecilia's side in the Bologna altar-piece, and in that
most divine of all his Virgins, the Madonna di San Sisto.
Both of these were painted at this period. The first
was ordered, towards the end of 1513, by Cardinal de'
Pucci, for his kinswoman, Elena Duglioli, but only finished
in 1515. This noble Bolognese lady had heard a voice
from heaven, bidding her raise a chapel to St. Cecilia, and
it is this incident which is recorded in Raphael's picture.
He has painted the Virgin-martyr holding an organ in her
hand and standing in a woodland landscape with four other
saints. On the right, the Magdalen holds her vase of
precious ointment. Behind them, St. Augustine and a youth-
ful St. John listen for the organ melodies that will soon fill
the air, but St. Cecilia herself has caught the sound of other
voices, and her own instrument drops from her hand, as,
lifting her rapt face to heaven, she sees the golden light
breaking in the sky and hears the angel-song. Unfor-
tunately, this fine picture was taken to Paris in 1798, and
there transferred to canvas and entirely re-painted, so that
the design is now the only part of Raphael's work remain-
ing.
THE DONNA VELATA 49
The Madonna di San Sisto was painted entirely by
Raphael's hand, in the same transparent colour, with
the same light and rapid touch as the portraits of this
period. We notice the same silvery tones, the same ab-
sence of dark shadows, as in the Castiglione and the Donna
Velata. No studies for this picture are known to exist,
and the red chalk outline on the canvas itself was probably
the artist's sole preparation for the work. It was painted
for the friars of San Sisto of Piacenza, possibly at the re-
quest of Antonio de' Monti, Cardinal of S. Sisto, and sold
by the same community, in 1753, to Augustus III. of Saxony
for 9,000.
The surface has been damaged by the restorer's hand,
the colour has peeled off in places and St. Barbara's face
has been badly injured, but still the picture retains a certain
sublime beauty which makes it unlike all other Madonnas.
The Child cradled in His mother's arms and looking out
with grave wonder on the world, has less of innocent mirth
than Raphael's other babies and more of the majesty of the
Incarnate God. This Virgin's face, with the calm broad
forehead and the mystery about the eyes, is that of the un-
known maiden whose features sank so deeply into Raphael's
heart, but raised and glorified above all earthly thoughts.
And, as before, old memories are mingled with the new.
The pure line and flowing drapery, the perfect rhythm of
the whole, recalls the Madonna of the Gran Duca, and
recollections of the earliest and fairest of his Florentine
Virgins come to blend with this immortal dream of his last
Roman years.
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN
(Andrea del Sarto)
COSMO MONKHOUSE
ANDREA DEL SARTO, who painted the beautiful
portrait, No. 690, once supposed to be his own, was
the pupil of Piero, but went far beyond his master in grace
and technical skill. The cool, sweet colour of the picture,
and its silvery tone, distinguish it from all its surroundings,
and the contrast is increased by its free but sure handling,
the soft modulations of the flesh, and the broad scheme of
chiaroscuro, which now begins to take its place as a prom-
inent element in the composition of a picture. It was from
Leonardo da Vinci that he learnt, perhaps, so to merge the
lights into the shadows by subtle gradations, that the point
of fusion is imperceptible, and outlines are lost without des-
troying either shape or substance; but it is doubtful
whether Leonardo himself ever succeeded so well in ren-
dering the shadowed softness of nature as Andrea does in
this picture. It is not fair to compare it in this respect with
Leonardo's exquisite Madonna of the Rocks^ where the light-
ing is evidently arbitrary and artificial ; for the bent of
Leonardo's mind was more experimental than impulsive, his
aim rather the definition of form than truth of illumination.
He had more of the sculptor in his composition than Andrea
del Sarto, but less of the painter. Both of them, however,
attempted to resolve the same physical difficulties of their
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN 51
art ; both, in their portraits, were interested, not only in the
bodies, but in the minds of their sitters.
Whoever this handsome, melancholy man may have been,
he, in Andrea's portrait, at once engages our interest in him,
and his character, and his lot in the world. It is a face
with a history. It is, moreover, a face which fits in so
well with the traditions of Andrea del Sarto, the weak man
with the beautiful, wilful wife, the perfect artistic tempera-
ment, the man of finest impulses, cursed by fate, the being,
indeed, as drawn for us in Browning's famous poem, that it
is not without a struggle that one gives up the cherished
notion that this is not his own presentation of himself.
At all events it is an exquisite picture, and thoroughly char-
acteristic of the master. It is conjectured that it may be a
portrait of a sculptor, and that the curious block which he
holds in his sensitive hands is a brick of modelling clay.
We may now be said to have reached the highest point
of Florentine art, for Andrea del Sarto (1486-1531) was the
last of the great painters of Florence, younger by thirty-four
years than Leonardo da Vinci, eleven years the junior of
Michaelangelo, both of whom greatly advanced the de-
velopment of his genius. Like both these artists his pre-
cocity was extraordinary ; for he was scarcely twenty when
he commenced the famous frescoes in the court of S. Annun-
ziata at Florence, which would alone suffice to raise his
fame, if not to the level of these artists, at least above
nearly all the rest of his generation. Those who have the
greatest claims to dispute his place are Fra Bartolommeo
and Albertinelli. Of the former the National Gallery pos-
52 PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN
sesses no example, of the latter it has only one very small
work, The Virgin and Child. Fortunately these deficiencies
are not of great importance in connection with Andrea del
Sarto, who gained his inspiration from greater men, and
whose perfect perception of the natural graces and un-
affected charms of human beauty, whose fine but simple
style and personal feeling for colour, were born in himself.
Though his genius, despite our beautiful portrait, is scarcely
felt in our Gallery, yet this work distinguishes him by per-
haps his most essential characteristics, as the most purely
artistic and the most simply human of the great painters
of Florence. He was neither a philosopher nor a devotee,
a scientist nor a scholar, but only a painter and a man. If
we add that he was a great painter but not a great man, we
shall get a rough approximation to a true estimate of him.
There are, however, few personalities more fascinating than
his, and there are few greater pleasures in the National Gal-
lery than to trace the links which attach him more or less
remotely to other artists.
THE DAUGHTER OF ROBERTO STROZZI
(Titian)
J. A. CROWE and G. B. CAVALCASELLE
FILIPPO STROZZI is remembered in Florentine his-
tory as the great party chieftain who went into exile
with those of his countrymen who refused to acknowledge
Alessandro de' Medici. He led the gallant but ill-fated
band of patriots which strove in 1537, to prevent the ac-
cession of Duke Cosimo. He took his own life in prison
when informed that Charles the Fifth had given him up to
the vengeance of the Medici. His sons Piero and Leo
fought with the French for Italian supremacy, whilst
Roberto spent his life partly at Venice, partly in France
and at Rome, consuming some of the wealth of "the
richest family " in Italy in patronizing painters and men of
letters. 1 His daughter was a mere child when she sat to
Titian ; but the picture which he produced is one of the
most sparkling displays of youth that was ever executed
by any artist, not excepting those which came from the
hands of such portraitists as Rubens or Van Dyck. The
child is ten years old, and stands at the edge of a console,
on which her faithful lap-dog rests. Her left hand is on
1 Francesco Sansovino dedicated to Roberto Strozzi his translation of
Berosus, for which Roberto made him a present of a gold cup, which he
left by will to his widow. Strozzi was also well known to Michelangelo,
and negotiated with him for an equestrian statue of Henry II., of France,
in the name of Catherine de' Medici.
54 THE DAUGHTER OF ROBERTO STROZZI
the silken back of the favourite. Her right holds a frag-
ment of the cake which both have been munching. Both,
as if they had been interrupted, turn their heads to look
straightway out of the picture a movement seized
on the instant from nature. It is a handsome child,
with a chubby face and arms, and a profusion of
short curly, auburn hair; a child dressed with all the
richness becoming an heiress of the Strozzi, in a frock and
slippers of white satin, girdled with a jewelled belt, the
end of which is a jewelled tassel, the neck clasped by a
necklace of pearls supporting a pendant. The whole of
the resplendent little apparition relieved in light against the
russet sides of the room, and in silver grey against the
casement, through which we see a stretch of landscape, a
lake and swans, a billowy range of hills covering the bases
of more distant mountains, and a clear sky bedecked with
spare cloud. The panelled console against which she
leans is carved at the side with two little figures of dancing
Cupids, and the rich brown of the wood is made richer by
a fall of red damask hanging. One can see that Titian
had leisure to watch the girl, and seized her characteristic
features, which he gave back with wonderful breadth of
handling, yet depicted with delicacy and roundness equally
marvellous. The flesh is solid and pulpy, the balance of
light and shadow as true as it is surprising in the subtlety
of its shades and tonic values, its harmonies of tints rich,
sweet, and ringing ; and over all is a sheen of the utmost
brilliance. Well might Aretino, as he saw this wondrous
piece of brightness exclaim : " If I were a painter, I
THE DAUGHTER OF R. STROZZI
THE DAUGHTER OF ROBERTO STROZZI 55
should die of despair . . . but certain it is that
Titian's pencil has waited on Titian's old age to perform
its miracles."
The picture is on canvas ; the figure of life-size. On
a tablet high up on the wall to the left we read ANNOR x.
MDXLII., and on the edge of the console to the right,
TITIANVS F. Old varnish covers and partly conceals the
beauty of this picture, which is retouched on the girl's
forehead and elsewhere ; but the surface generally is well
preserved. At the beginning of the present century the
portrait was in the palace of Duke Strozzi at Rome.
THE AMBASSADORS
(Hans Holbein)
SIR WALTER ARMSTRONG
CT^ffE Ambassadors is the most important of all Holbein's
existing portraits. Even when his ceuvre was still
intact, it can only have been excelled by the group of kings
and queens who perished with old Whitehall. In charm
it may yield to the Darmstadt Madonna or to the Duchess
of Milan, in perfection of artistic unity to such things as the
Morette at Dresden, the Gisze at Berlin, or even the Duke
of Norfolk at Windsor ; but in colour so far as its colour
is visible through the perished varnish and in that extra-
ordinary instinct which enabled Holbein to give his work a
look of subordination when in fact it has none, it yields to
nothing he ever did.
Of the two " Ambassadors," one is vastly more im-
portant than the other. His costume of crimson silk,
white fur, and some black stuff, the exact texture of which
cannot be determined in the present condition of the sur-
face, makes a brave show, and overwhelms the modest
richness of the younger man's robe of greenish-brown
brocade. His cap is the flat beret, of which traces re-
main in the hats of our Yeomen of the Guard, and in
those which should be worn by an Oxford D. C. L. The
badge dependent from his neck is said to be that of the
French Order of St. Michael; it should be remembered,
THE AMBASSADORS
THE AMBASSADORS 57
however, that the St. Michel had an elaborate collar, the
omission of which is not in accordance with Holbein's
usual habit. On the sheath of his dagger appears the
inscription, " JET. SVJE 29." The accessories arranged
on his left include a terrestrial and a celestial globe, and
various instruments used in astronomy. The younger
man wears a doctor's cap, but the rest of his costume does
not seem to belong to any particular office or degree. The
attributes of this second figure seems to proclaim him a
musician. A lute, a joined flute, an open book with the
words and music of a popular German chorale, lie upon
the lower shelf of the what-not. The words of this
chorale, and those legible in the other open book, are given
in Woltmann's Holbein^ p. 360 (English edition).
On the upper shelf the only thing that belongs to him is
the book on which his right elbow rests. This bears on its
edges the words "JETATIS SVJE 25." Low down, behind
the principal figure, appears the inscription " JOANNES HOL-
BEIN, PINGEBAT, 1533." The background is a curtain of
green silk brocade. After the old varnish is removed this
ought to turn out as fine as the similar background to the
Dresden Morette. With the deep blue-green of the celes-
tial globe and the crimson sleeve beside it, it makes up the
finest colour passage in the picture.
The history of the panel is obscure. It is known to
have belonged in the last century to Jean Baptiste Pierre
Lebrun, the husband of the lady we know as Madame
Vigee-Lebrun. From him it seems to have come into
the hands of Buchanan, the Napoleon of picture-dealers,
58 THE AMBASSADORS
who sold it to the Lord Radnor of the day for a thousand
guineas. In his Gallerie des Peintres Flamands^ Hollandais,
et Allemands (1792), Lebrun declares Holbein's sitters to
have been two French diplomats, MM. de Selve and
d'Avaux, who were in the service of Francis I. As Mr.
J. Gough Nicholls (Archesologia^ 1873), has pointed out,
this identification is spoilt by dates. In England the two
portraits have passed for those of Sir Thomas Wyat and his
friend John Leland, the antiquary. Wyat was born in
1503, so that his age would do at a pinch. The year of
Leland's birth is unknown. Unfortunately, the heads do
not in the least correspond with more authentic portraits of
these two worthies, while neither the one nor the other is
suited by the attributes Holbein has so carefully piled up.
In the Times of September the eleventh (1900), Mr.
Sidney Colvin started a theory which fits in exactly with
some of the facts. He suggests that the chief ambassador
is Jean de Dinteville, who was in London as the represent-
ative of Francis in 1533. This conjecture is supported by
the traditional title of the picture, by the absence of any
English records connected with it, and by dates, for Dinte-
ville was born on September 2ist, 1504, while it meets with
little that has to be explained away. Since he wrote his
letters to the Times, Mr. Colvin, as I gather from a private
communication he has been kind enough to send me, has
discovered evidence to connect the second figure with
Nicholas Bourbon. Bourbon was a friend of Dinteville,
and what we know of his character agrees with the picture.
He was born, however, in 1503, which seems a difficulty.
THE AMBASSADORS 59
Mr. Colvin lays stress upon the similarity of the chief
ambassador's costume to that worn by the Dresden Morette
(whose identity with a Piedmontese noble sent to England
as a hostage by Francis I. seems now to be placed beyond
dispute), as a proof that our ambassador was also French.
His argument loses some of its force, however, when we
recollect that similarities just as significant occur between
both of these portraits and the cartoon, for instance, at
Chatsworth, for the Whitehall Henry Fill. The family
likeness between Morette's poignard and tassel and those of
our " ambassador," also finds its explanation in the more
than probability that both were invented by the painter
himself.
In some ways the solution sent by " C. L. E.," trans-
parent initials to the Times of October the seventh (1900),
fits the problem better. In the more imposing figure he
sees George Boleyn, Viscount Rocheford, the brother of
Anne Boleyn, who was sent both in 1529 and in 1533 on
missions to the French Court ; and, in his companion,
the humbly-born William Paget, who afterwards became
such an important person and was raised to the peerage as
Lord Paget. All that is known of Rocheford's age is that
he was born before 1507. Of Paget's nothing positive can
be said, but the two men may easily have been twenty-nine
and twenty-five respectively in 1533. Many things seem
to confirm this theory. Paget was a protege of the Boleyn
family. Both he and Rocheford were sent on missions to
the Continent in 1533. Paget was strongly attracted by the
doctrines of the German reformers. Rocheford may very
60 THE AMBASSADORS
probably have received the Order of St. Michael from the
French king. The disgrace into which he fell, and his
tragic end, would explain the disappearance of his picture
from England, while the fact that he and his companion
were only known beyond the seas as English envoys would
account for its traditional title. The skull may have been
inserted afterwards by Holbein in allusion to Rocheford's
death, or it may be a rebus on the painter's own name
Ho(h)l-bein. This latter theory seems to me infinitely
more probable. That it is no after-thought seems, indeed,
to be proved by the fact that the strong lines of the mosaic
floor do not show through it, as they certainly would by this
time had it been painted above them even so late as the
last century.
NELLY O'BRIEN
(<SVr 'Joshua Reynolds)
M. H. SPIELMANN
A LTHOUGH this portrait of Nelly O'Brien is not,
/JL perhaps, the prettiest of Reynolds's several (at least
four) versions of the famous actress, it is one of the most
perfect examples of his art remaining perfect for us at the
present day. It is, indeed, extremely fine alike as to quality
and colour, and has probably not much changed since it
was painted in 1763. Yet this picture, which some believe
to be the very finest of all his masterpieces, was sold by
auction in the lifetime of the painter for ten guineas (Mr.
Taylor said three); and in 1793 it had risen to twenty-one
pounds at the Hunter sale, when it was knocked down to
Sir Watkin Williams Wynn. In 1810, it was acquired by
the Marquess of Hertford for sixty-four pounds. The
picture was exhibited for the first time at the Old Masters
Exhibition at Burlington House in 1872, when its brilliant
condition created a good deal of sensation.
Seated full face in a landscape, with a white poodle (or is it
a spaniel ?) in her lap, the famous courtesan, her face in
delicate shadow, wears what was called a Woffington hat
upon her head. The quilted petticoat beneath the muslin
dress, the black lace mantilla, and the pearl necklace are all
painted with extraordinary brilliancy, yet with perfect
62 NELLY O'BRIEN
realism. The picture was not engraved during her life-
time. The lady died in 1768, in Park Stre<=*% Grosvenor
Square, and two years later appeared Charles Phillips's
mezzotint, with (in the second state), some verses by
Dryden beneath the title. J. Wilson, J. Watson, and
C. Spooner also immortalized the lady in their plates.
It is remarkable that, in spite of her notoriety, Nelly
O'Brien has received little notice of the biographers and the
writers on the by-ways of the life of the town. She has
been described as " a young lady of the Kitty Fisher
School." A writer in Blackwood exclaimed when the
picture was exhibited at Bethnal Green : " Bless her ! how
friendly her eyes look as she sits there bending forward !
listening is she ? with arch half-smile, slightly amused at
the long stories we are telling her, but all in the most
genial neighbourly way. By-and-by surely a mellow Irish
laugh will burst into the silence. Who was she, this sweet
Nelly ? We do not know, nor what became of her, nor
whom she made happy with those smiles of hers." In his
Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds^ Mr. Claude Phillips refers to
the frequency of the visits of Nelly O'Brien to the studio,
from which has been supposed that she sat to the cold-
hearted Reynolds for the figures of his portraits of ladies,
and he quotes from his pocketbook for 1762, an entry:
"With Miss Nelly O'Brien in Pall Mall, next door to this
side the Star and Garter" What she was is hinted at in
Leslie and Taylor's Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds :
" She was the chere amie of Lord Bolingbroke, as well as
everybody else (see Walpole's letter to George Montague,
NELLY O'BRIEN
NELLY O'BRIEN 63
March 29, 1766)." She was indeed one of the most
fascinating women of the day, and entangled a great
number of high-born persons in her net at the same
time.
THE MAN WITH THE PINKS
(John van Eyck)
FRANCES C. WEALE
THE Berlin Gallery possesses a portrait known as The
Man with the Pinks, which was probably painted
about the year 1436, and represents an elderly individual of
by no means prepossessing appearance. His face is deeply
wrinkled, his eyes have a puffy line of flesh beneath them,
his mouth droops at the corners and is of a hard, somewhat
coarse type, while his ears are specially hideous, being large
and prominent : altogether he has a very unpleasant cast of
countenance. But John van Eyck has been faithful to his
love of veracity not a feature is softened down he has
portrayed the man as he was in the most lifelike manner
conceivable. He wears a dark grey coat with fur collar
and cuffs, which is sufficiently low in the neck to allow the
brocaded tunic beneath to appear, and a large broad-
brimmed beaver hat. Around his neck is a silver chain
i
from which hangs a tau cross with the bell of Saint Anthony
attached thereto. In his right hand, on the third finger of
which he carries a fine ring, he holds three wild pinks.
The picture is unsigned, and so far it has not been dis-
covered who this person was.
It is as a painter of portraits that John van Eyck has
given us the greatest proofs of his genius, and undoubtedly
he merits to be considered one of the foremost in this re-
THE MAN WITH THE PINKS
THE MAN WITH THE PINKS 65
spect that the world has ever seen. His men and women
seem to be living realities, so strongly does the personality
of each appeal to us, for Van Eyck not only correctly de-
lineated the features of his patrons, but studied them until
he grasped and could transfer to his panel the characteristics
of each one. Flattery was beneath him ; we see each as
he or she was in life, plain or well-featured as the case
might be every wrinkle, every mole or hair has been care-
fully noted but more than this John van Eyck strove
faithfully to convey the imprint of the mind upon the
countenance as far as it had been indelibly traced by the
hand of time. Faults as well as virtues are set down with
perfect frankness. We can see that The Man with the
Pinks was unamiable in disposition as well as unattractive
in feature; Arnolfini, in the National Gallery picture, is
too sanctimonious for our English taste, and his wife is a
somewhat insipid creature ; nevertheless there is an unmis-
takable stamp of genuineness about the quaintness of this
couple ; while, on the other hand, the painter's wife is de-
cidedly a woman of strong character, intelligent and sympa-
thetic ; and the other two portraits in the National Gallery
and that of Jan De Leeuw in the Vienna Gallery show us
men of intellect, differing widely in many respects, but all
straightforward and manly.
In all his pictures of religious subjects regarded from the
point of view of the ideal, John van Eyck is disappointing.
He never rose above material things he painted what was
before him with exquisite skill, rendering even the most
minute details in a marvellous manner, but beyond that he
66 THE MAN WITH THE PINKS
could not go. He seems to have been devoid of the
imaginative faculties, the deep reverence and contemplative
spirit essential to the production of works of a true devo-
tional type. Therefore it is not surprising that his Madon-
nas are excellent portraits of the homely Flemish women
whom he chose as his models, comely at least according to
his idea if not according to ours, but utterly lacking the
dignity, the refinement, purity and intense spirituality which
belong to the Mother of Our Lord. With his saints it is
the same there is nothing in his representation of them to
raise the mind above the things of earth ; in fact in some
instances they have the contrary tendency, and are rendered
ridiculous by the sharp contrast which they present to our
ideals.
John did not succeed in harmonizing his colour as well
as his brother did, nor yet in producing such rich mellow
tints; where he excelled was in the accuracy and minute-
ness with which he rendered detail, and in the marvellous
finish which he gave to his paintings a finish so carefully
manipulated that sometimes not a stroke of the brush is
visible. Perhaps the best examples of his skill in this re-
spect are the portraits of Timothy, and of John Arnolfini
and his wife in the National Gallery, which one may ex-
amine with a strong magnifying-glass, and yet only reveal
with greater distinctness the tiniest details therein depicted.
At times his colour is so faulty in tone as to be even un-
pleasant take, for instance, the Van der Paele picture in
the Bruges Academy, in which the flesh tints are hard and
red. His drawing of the hand is another noticeable point :
THE MAN WITH THE PINKS 67
often, though not always, it is too small and weak, with
fingers that taper unduly; his draperies, too, are voluminous,
angular, and stiff, contrasting unfavourably with the grace-
ful flowing lines to be seen in Hubert's work.
The date of John van Eyck's birth is unknown. He
was several years younger than Hubert ; Van Mander as-
serts this and the portraits in the Ghent altar-piece, tradi-
tionally known as Hubert and John, show a great difference
in their age. It is generally assumed that John was born
about the year 1382, but it is probable that his birth took
place some years earlier. He was no doubt educated and
instructed in the art of painting by Hubert. The great
improvements made about the commencement of the Fif-
teenth Century in the method of painting have been at-
tributed to discoveries made by John, but it is far more
likely that they were the joint work of the two brothers,
though no doubt John in later years carried his technical
skill to greater perfection. The change thus brought about
has erroneously been described as the " discovery of paint-
ing in oil." Now it is well-known that oil was used in the
process of painting sculpture even in much earlier times ;
and that in the Fourteenth Century tempera paintings were
often coated with an oily varnish in order to preserve them
and to give depth and vigour to the colour, especially to
that of the draperies. Once, so the story runs, John van
Eyck, after having expended much time and labour on a
certain picture, placed it when it had been varnished, to
dry in the sun, and, either owing to some defect in the
panel or to the excessive heat, it warped and was of course,
68 THE MAN WITH THE PINKS
ruined. He therefore set to work to find a varnish that
would dry in the shade and thus obviate such mishaps ; his
experiments must first have been directed towards discover-
ing which oils possessed the most drying properties 5 having
decided that they were linseed and nut oils, he aimed at
rendering these more siccative by mixing with them certain
resinous substances, and thus he obtained a varnish that
dried easily. Next he found that by mixing his colours
with these oils he greatly increased their vigour, gave them
a lustre of their own independent of varnish, and what was
of still greater importance, caused them to mingle far better
than tempera. His final effects must have been directed
towards rendering his medium as colourless and liquid as
possible.
This wonderful improvement must have cost both
brothers much patient labour. Of the various steps by
which they arrived at perfection, of the repeated failures
which probably they had to put up with ere success crowned
their efforts, of the exact materials used by them in the
process, we know nothing. What is so vexatious to the
student and to all interested in the subject, is that none of
the earlier works of Hubert and John, none of those be-
longing to the period when the change was actually taking
place, remain or at least are known to us. We cannot
trace the gradual improvement, but must needs be content
with examples of their skill after they had brought their
new method to a fairly finished stage of perfection. It is
an event which stands unparalleled in the history of art,
that suddenly, from the inferior tempera panels of the earlier
THE MAN WITH THE PINKS 69
schools, we pass to such a masterpiece as the Adoration of
the Lamb. The inscription on this picture tells us that it
was undertaken by Hubert at the desire of Jodoc Vydt.
Hubert died on the i8th of September, 1426, and was
buried in the Vydts's chapel in Saint Bavon, Ghent. Con-
cerning John van Eyck we possess far more information.
He entered the service of John of Bavaria at the Hague on
October 22nd, 1422, and from that day until his death in
1440, we have a fairly complete account of his movements.
He was employed by John of Bavaria at the Hague until
the nth of September, 1424. At Bruges on the iQth of
May in the following year he was appointed official painter
to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, a patron and lover
of art, who treated him with much kindness and confidence,
even intrusting to him secret and important missions in for-
eign countries. He remained at Bruges for three months
after this appointment and then by order of the Duke re-
moved to Lille, where he resided until 1428, though in the
interval he was sent on his first secret journey. From
October, 1428, till January, 1430, he was again absent,
having accompanied John de Roubaix and Baldwin de
Lannoy, on an embassy to the Portuguese court, their ob-
ject being to treat for the hand of the Infanta Isabella,
whose portrait John painted and sent to Philip.
In 1431, John van Eyck bought a house at Bruges,
married and settled there. From this time until his death
he went on producing fresh works every year, save in 1435,
when he was again sent by Philip on a journey, the object
of which, as usual, was secret j so tnat we have a complete
70 THE MAN WITH THE PINKS
series of paintings, signed and dated, by which to judge the
progress of his talent. He died on the Qth of July, 1440,
and was buried in the churchyard of Saint Donatian's
Church at Bruges; but on March 2ist, 1441, at the re-
quest of his brother Lambert, his body was removed into
the church and placed in a vault near the font.
THE THREE SISTERS
(Palma Fecckio)
CH. MOREAU-VAUTHIER
THE ideal of beauty in woman is submissive to the in-
fluence of the prevailing fashion. The Gothic masters
and the early Italians were fond of the frail silhouettes that
bespoke ardent natures ; the Renaissance on the contrary,
appreciated ample forms in which shone all the attractions
of carnal loveliness.
Certain words reach us through the centuries like a faint
echo of extinct manners. The name virago, taken in a bad
sense in our pacific days, in old times was uttered in vows
of passionate admiration, and young ladies of massive form
and stature, such as our heroines, accepted this merited in-
cense with great satisfaction. Since the manners and cus-
toms of the period were still marked with violence, it was
necessary that woman should know how on occasion to
raise her weakness to the level of manly virtues, and, fol-
lowing the example of Catherine Sforza, who was pro-
claimed " Prima Donna d'ltalia," should show herself
capable of successfully defending a stronghold. Never-
theless, that epoch of transition so fertile in contrasts, the
Italian Renaissance, enervated itself with literature, art and
science, and demanded that woman should receive an edu-
cation that would enable her to taste the delights of learned
conversation. Elegant and refined circles formed in high
72 THE THREE SISTERS
society, and in them letters reigned even more authoritatively
than the great ladies themselves.
Painting could not help reflecting to some extent the
dilettanteism of these fashionable gatherings. Palma
Vecchio has the reputation of being the first to put
into his pictures personages represented in their natural
size and figure. In a world that glitters with lavish intel-
lectual talk, the head is interesting above everything else ;
it is useless to figure the rest of the body. These pictures
called " Conversations " enjoyed an enormous vogue. The
pious world of religious pictures even had to bow to this
craze, and, after his profane "Conversations" Palma pro-
duced his " Holy Conversations," like the Madonna with
St. Peter (Colonna Palace), and the Madonna with Saints
(Naples Museum).
It is probable that a single person, the painter's daughter,
served as the model for these three young women. We
are assured that she was very beautiful, and frequently
posed as a model for her father's pictures ; and the reports
we possess of her great beauty, her full cheeks and large
eyes fully agree with the type of the Three Sisters. Titian,
Palma' s friend, who had a most lively admiration for his
colleague's daughter, was in the habit of calling her
Violante, in memory of a woman whom she resembled,
and with whom he had been in love. Legend has even been
guilty of the indiscretion of adventuring into romantic sup-
positions, with absolutely insufficient justification, whither
we decline to follow.
Palma's talent, characteristically Venetian, that is to say
THE THREE SISTERS 73
seeking after splendour rather than style, insists on warmth
of flesh tints and richness of vestment, with a strength of
tone which without equalling Titian yet often recalls the
latter's splendour ; and this to such a degree that a certain
canvas by Palma called Titian's Beauty has been attributed
to Titian. The taste of the painters for magnificent stuffs
was favoured by the usages of the day. The liberty allowed
in matters of the toilette permitted of fancies that were often
of happy effect, but in which we should be wrong to seek
examples of general styles similar to those of our own day.
In our life of activity, equality and practicality, we prefer
to adopt uniform costumes, quite as much on account of
economy of time as of dread of seeming singular. The
great lords and great ladies of the Renaissance, on the con-
trary, gloried in making a splendid display of themselves
both to the outside world and to one another, in luxurious
parades, with a splendour which we are no longer familiar
with.
JOHN TAIT AND HIS GRANDSON
(Raeburri)
R. A. M. STEVENSON
JOHN THOMSON of Doddington, Puvis de Cha-
vannes, Corot, Manet, Sargent and Raeburn are a few
out of many artists of the Nineteenth Century whose
private means have enabled them to live without painting,
or rather to live for painting and not for bread. They are
all men who have added to tradition and increased the
possibilities of expression in their art.
The six or seven years following his marriage Rae-
burn spent in the practice of portraiture, living quietly
in his house at Deanhaugh and in his studio in
George Street. During this period of his young life,
he painted several persons of note ; he mixed with
genial and intelligent people ; he joined in the sports of
the day and the country. Self-criticism and the con-
sequent desire for improvement never left him, and he had
means enough to allow him to follow his own course.
When he had lived about six years at Deanhaugh, a sense
of his deficiencies sent him travelling. He went to
London and consulted the President of the Academy.
Sir Joshua Reynolds received the young man well, and
permitted him, so it is said, to work for a month or two
under his guidance. But, of course, in those days the
burden of advice was " Go to Rome." In this case, Sir
JOHN TAIT AND HIS GRANDSON 75
Joshua with the advice, offered also the wherewithal to
follow it money and introductions to men of note in
Italy.
Money was not necessary to Raeburn, but he thankfully
accepted introductions which might forward his studies
abroad. He remained scarcely more than two years in
Rome ; but he made the most of his time, for the friend-
ship of men like James Byers and Gavin Hamilton must
have saved him trouble, mistakes, and misapplication of
energy. Upon his return, he set to work with fully-
matured powers upon that long career of portrait-painting
which he sustained till his death. Almost at once he be-
came the most admired of his profession, both as a man and
as a painter. Sir John and Lady Clerk of Penicuik were
amongst his earlier patrons, doubtless through the offices of
the painter's early friend John Clerk (Lord Eldin), who
belonged to the Penicuik family. Principal Hill, of St.
Andrew's, and John Clerk himself, were painted also in
these comparatively early days. Burns Raeburn must have
seen when the poet ran his short race of fame at Edinburgh
dinners and receptions; yet until lately, it was unhesitat-
ingly asserted that, if the painter saw him, he never
painted his portrait. Sir Walter Scott, John Wilson,
Kames, Mackenzie, Hume, Robertson, Dugald Stewart,
Hutton, Ferguson to cut it short, everybody sat to
him, except, perhaps, the greatest of all, Robert Burns.
The slow growth of his fame since he died, the excellent
preservation of his canvases to-day, the confirmation of
his simple, direct method of work by the practice of
76 JOHN TA1T AND HIS GRANDSON
succeeding schools, do more to establish his reputation
in our minds than any honours or titles he received during
his lifetime. The official stamp of merit, however, was
set upon him none too soon. The year after his knight-
hood, the year in which he received the title of " His
Majesty's Limner for Scotland," was the year of his
death. Of all who have held the title he was undoubtedly
the greatest.
Now we know Raeburn's way of using paint, and it is
one which would be perfectly acceptable to-day. Indeed,
it scarcely differs from that once taught in the studio of
M. Carolus Duran. But before describing Raeburn's
habits at the easel as they have been told by us by several
of his sitters, it may not be amiss to run over the account
of his education. Compared with theatrical, mystical,
academic, and mannered artists, Raeburn learnt more
from observation than he did from tradition. He received
little formal teaching ; his early practice of portrait minia-
ture was untaught copying of nature. His acquaintance
with Martin meant simply copying that artist's pictures.
His work for the jeweller Gilliland consisted in designing
for metal-work. When he went to Italy the art critic
Byers counselled him never to work except from nature,
even on the smallest accessory, a piece of advice quite
agreeable to the painter's own feelings and confirmatory
of his life-long habit. Indeed, if one looks generally at
English portraiture from Van Dyck onwards, the most of
it, the best of it, appears mannered in comparison with the
work of Raeburn. Raeburn was the pupil of Nature;
JOHN TAIT AND HIS GRANDSON 77
but to learn from this master one must first know enough
to understand one's lessons, and without doubt Racburn
had been taught something of drawing, perspective, and
the common use of oil-paint. From his early masters he
had learnt his craft and the use of his tools ; his art and
his direct style came from his own personal intercourse
with Nature. The methods of work adopted by Raeburn
were not unlike those of such men as Carolus Duran or
Manet, who consciously taught themselves to seek for
manner in a way of looking at nature. Neither the
Frenchman nor the Scot copied or imitated a manner ; they
merely returned to that broad observation of real light
which had produced both the style of Velasquez and the
style of Rembrandt.
The likeness between the practice of Raeburn and that
of recent French artists may be seen from the following
particulars of his method : (i) He seldom kept a sitter
more than an hour and a half or two hours. (2) He
never gave more than four or five sittings to a head or bust
portrait. (3) He did not draw in his subject first with the
chalk point, but directly with the brush on the blank can-
vas. (4) Forehead, chin and mouth were his first touches.
(5) He placed the easel behind the sitter, and went away
to look at the picture and poser together. (6) A fold of
drapery often cost him more trouble than the build or ex-
pression of a head. (7) He never used a mahl-stick.
Now, these were the habits of the French painters a premier
coup^ a term which does not signify that each touch laid
was final, but merely means that the work was searched out
78 JOHN TAIT AND HIS GRANDSON
and finished in one direct painting. This painting might
take minutes, hours or weeks j but it passed only through
one stage, gradually approaching completion by a mould-
ing, a refining, a correcting of the first lay-in. In fact the
general effect was planted entire from the beginning, and was
not arrived at by drawing stages, chiaroscuro stages and colour
stages, brown, red, or green. If a long time were required for
search and finish, either the picture was kept fluid by paint-
ing in poppy oil, or, if allowed to dry, was started again by
such dodges as scraping, sand-papering, oiling-out, etc.
These habits characterize not only Raeburn and the later
Frenchmen, but naturalists all the world over, and perhaps
you might say the painter in oil as distinguished from the
draughtsman the men who look and shape by the mass,
the interior modelling, the smudge, the gradation of light,
as distinguished from those who imagine and construct by
conventional lines.
If any painter of the Eighteenth Century in these isles
used paint after the sanest and most enduring traditions it
was Raeburn. We have seen that his practice agreed with
that of the best men before and after his time, so we may
claim that he followed the true path of art. The excel-
lence of his straightforward method has caused his colour
to stand much better than that of Reynolds. The greater
part of Sir Joshua's work has changed almost as much as
the later pictures of Turner.
One can hardly resist comparing Reynolds with Raeburn,
and Turner with that other Scotsman, Thomson of Dud-
dington. While one admits the greater imaginations of
JOHN TAIT AND HIS GRANDSON 79
the two Englishmen, one prefers the views of nature, that
is to say, the qualities of imagination and the consequent
ideas of treatment, of the two Scotsmen. Not only does
Raeburn's solid square painting last better than Sir Joshua's
cookery after Italian receipts, but one believes that when
they were painted only the greatest pictures by Reynolds
were above Raeburn's work. If Thomson had been a pro-
fessional, probably he would have surpassed Turner and
forestalled Theodore Rousseau. Sheer fervour of imagina-
tion led Raeburn and Thomson to anticipate by thirty years
the ideals of the Frenchmen.
Raeburn was not often tempted to set his figures against
the unreal scenic background so much used in England by
Reynolds, Gainsborough and other portrait-painters. When
he yielded for a while to this fashion, it was against his will
and better judgment. The habit agreed ill with his direct
and honest style of work, with the bold square touch by
which he emphasized the light on the variously inclined
planes of the flesh. His own style, in fact, was incompati-
ble with pretty elegance, spotty colouring, and theatrical
disposition of the canvas. It went best with the solemn
natural simplicity of Velasquez, the Dutchmen and the
Flemings. Sometimes, however, his handling was accom-
panied by a cold, rather vicious greyness of colouring, as
in the wonderful John Talt and his Grandson, a picture
highly characteristic of Raeburn's brushwork. Its colour,
which is well preserved, makes one question whether the
glow of other pictures may not often be the result of time
or varnish. John Tait and his Grandson was painted about
8o JOHN TAIT AND HIS GRANDSON
1798-9, and stands in the strongest contrast to a certain
fine but rather artificial three-quarter-length portrait of a
man in a green coat and buff breeches, holding a gun in a
nerveless hand and standing beneath a* decorator's tree.
The paint is thinly smeared, the modelling of the face
subtle, delicate, but unaccentuated, the accessories flat and
unconventional, yet not quite unlike in their superficial as-
pect to those of Velasquez in his early middle style, when
he painted the Three Royal Sportsmen in the Prado. But
everywhere in this portrait (Sinclair of Ulbster, I believe)
by Raeburn you miss the fine shapeliness of the Spaniard's
realization of form.
The simpler portraits of Raeburn are his best. His in-
terest was centred on human faces ; not even hands re-
ceived due consideration in his portraits. We find R. L.
Stevenson saying in Virginibm Puerisque, " Again, in spite
of his own satisfaction and in spite of Dr. John Brown, I
cannot consider that Raeburn was very happy in his hands."
Although he had painted it from nature, in his youth Rae-
burn cared little for landscape. Faces, too, he must see
whilst he was painting. He was no historical painter, de-
vising expressions, gestures and dramatic groupings. He
was stimulated by real people and real light, as Mr. Sargent
is in the present day. Yet it was said that he "ennobled
unworthy faces," which might mean that he idealized their
shapes. This is improbable. Possibly it means that the
broad simplicity of his style gave them plastic dignity which
storm, night, mist, or other effects of light can impose on
objects without any actual alteration of their structure. Sir
JOHN TAIT AND HIS GRANDSON 8 1
Walter Armstrong says : u Technically his chief faults are a
want of richness and depth in his colour, and an occasional
proneness to over-simplify the planes in his modelling of a
head." As in sculpture, so in painting, the simplification
of planes tends to grandeur ; and we may take it that this
was all the ennobling which Raeburn consciously em-
ployed. In colour he certainly lacked richness, but in com-
parison with his contemporaries scarcely depth. We note
in his portraits another cause of nobility, or perhaps we
should say vitality, which, considering the empty apathy of
expression produced by posing, may be called a certain kind
of idealization. We shall state it in the words of R. L.
Stevenson : " He was a born painter of portraits. He looked
people shrewdly between the eyes, surprised their manners
in their face, and had possessed himself of what was essen-
tial in their character before they had been many minutes
in his studio. What he was so swift to perceive he con-
veyed to the canvas almost in the moment of conception."
In the common meaning of the term Raeburn was not
an idealizer. Painting with him was the direct sensuous
perception of nature. The words u imitation of nature "
would not have frightened this enthusiastic and ardent lover
of reality. He knew the beauties of nature too intimately
to despise them unless tricked out in the adornment of an
artificial style.
Raeburn belongs to the strong naturalistic school which
strips off .accessory graces that the solemn fashion of light
may prevail. In conclusion I will quote Mr. W. E. Hen-
ley's words, which seem to me to sound the tonic of my
82 JOHN TAIT AND HIS GRANDSON
discourse : " He came at the break between old and new,
when the old was not yet discredited and the new was still
inoffensive; and, with that exquisite good sense which
marks the artist, he identified himself with that which was
known and not with that which, though big with many
kinds of possibilities, was as yet in perfect touch with noth-
ing in active existence. ... He was content to
paint what he knew and that only, and his conscience was
serviceable as well as untroubled and serene."
SOME PORTRAITS OF HELENA FOURMENT
(Rubens)
EMILE MICHEL
WITH his invariable prudence and wisdom Rubens
paid no heed to the suggestions of those who
wished him to make the brilliant marriage to which his
great position allowed him to aspire, a marriage which
would have " fixed " him at court. He wisely feared to
enter a society that might have entailed the loss of his inde-
pendence, the renunciation of his friends, and of the practice
of his art. But he did not tell Peiresc that for all his wis-
dom and his fifty-three years, he had fallen passionately in
love with a girl of sixteen. The girl whose freshness and
youthful beauty had so completely charmed him was Helena
Fourment.
He had known her family for a long time, and was even
connected with it. Helena's brother, Daniel Fourment
he bore the same Christian name as his father married on
September 22, 1619, Clara Brant, a sister of Isabella, Ru-
bens's first wife. Helena was the youngest of Daniel's ten
children ; she was baptized on April I, 1614, at the church
of St. Jacques. The artist had often seen her in her
parents' house, for he painted numerous portraits of Su-
sanna, one of her seven sisters, married to Arnold Lunden,
the Master of the Mint, notably the celebrated picture in
the National Gallery, known as the Cbapeau de PoiL
84 SOME PORTRAITS OF HELENA FOURMENT
About 1624-25, he painted magnificent portraits of another
sister, Clara Fourment and her husband, Pieter van Hecke.
Those pictures, which belong to Baron Edmund de Roths-
child, are in marvellous preservation, and their brilliant
colour and life-like rendering cause them to be reckoned
among the strongest and best of the master's works. One
of Helena's brothers-in-law, Nicholas Picquery, who lived
at Marseilles, had always assisted Rubens to send parcels
to Peiresc, and Rubens had recommended his kindly inter-
mediary to the favour of the Provencal scholar.
The large dowry that her parents gave Helena, in spite
of their numerous family proves that the Fourments were
well off: they belonged to the upper middle class and bore
a coat-of-arms. They overlooked the disproportion in age
on account of the advantages such a marriage offered their
daughter. Attracted by the master's fame and high posi-
tion, and perhaps touched by his ardent love, she accepted
his hand. His passion did not deprive Rubens of his prac-
tical good sense, and before the wedding, he carefully settled
his sons' affairs. On November 29, 1630, he presented his
accounts to the guardians, and obtained a discharge for the
maternal inheritance reverting to the two minors. On
December 4th, the marriage settlements were signed in
the presence of the members of the family, before the
notary Toussaint Guyot. In the deed Rubens is described
as " Knight Secretary to His Majesty's Privy Council and
Gentleman of the Household of her Serene Highness the
Princess Isabella." The young girl's parents, Daniel Four-
ment and Clara Stappaert, gave her a dowry of " 3,000
HELENA FOURMENT WITH HER CHILDREN
SOME PORTRAITS OF HELENA FOURMENT 85
Flemish pounds income, and promised to pay besides 129
Flemish pounds, 12 escalins income inherited by her
from the late dame Catherine Fourment, her sister, and
also to provide her with a handsome trousseau. If the
wife survived the husband, she was to retain and keep all
her clothes, jewels, woollen and linen goods, unreservedly,
as well as a jointure of 22,000 caroli, paid once for all, to
be deducted from the property of the future husband." If
Helena predeceased her husband, Rubens was to receive as
jointure on his part 8,000 caroli, paid once for all. As if
to emphasize the concord of the two families, all the
members present signed with the couple and Helena's
parents. Two days after, on December 6, 1630, the mar-
riage was celebrated at the Church of St. Jacques, with all
the splendour and ceremony befitting the position of the
couple. By the deed of contract, the bride's parents had
promised " to defray the expenses of the wedding-cere-
mony in such a way as to deserve honour and thanks."
A new life, filled with love of the young girl who was
henceforth the light of his home, began for Rubens, with
his marriage. She brought the animation and gaiety of
youth to the big house, and supplied her husband with the
most charming model he could have desired. He took up
his brushes again for her sake, and the girl's freshness and
brilliant complexion were well calculated to enchant him.
Each year had seen him increasingly occupied with
problems of light and movement ; but his wife gave a new
brilliance to his palette, and his portraits of Helena, the
numerous compositions of which she was the inspiration
86 SOME PORTRAITS OF HELENA FOURMENT
resemble a hymn of life and joy. Till the end of his life
he never tired of multiplying her image, and she appears in
her portraits wearing the most varied and sumptuous
costumes, that well set off the charm of her almost in-
fantine face. As she matures, we follow the radiant de-
velopment of her beauty in many exquisite works.
A fine picture in the Munich Gallery represents both
husband and wife in the early period of their marriage,
walking in the garden of their house. The artist wears a
broad-brimmed felt hat, and a black doublet striped with
grey. The refined, intelligent head, the proudly turned-up
moustaches, the attractive countenance, the distinguished
bearing, incline us to regard him as a young man ; a few
silver threads in the fair beard show us our mistake. His
arm is in Helena's ; she is painted almost full face, and her
pink complexion is protected from the sun by a large straw
hat. Her hair, with its golden reflected lights, is cut in a
fringe over the forehead like that of a boy, and escapes
round her face in fair curls. Her black bodice opens over
a chemisette ; her dull yellow skirt is turned up over a grey
petticoat, and a white apron falls over both. She holds a
feather fan in her hand, and a pearl necklace sets ofF the
whiteness of her throat. She half turns towards a young
page, entirely dressed in red, who follows her bareheaded.
The couple approach a portico, beneath which a table is
spread beside the statues and busts which decorate it ; some
bottles have been set to cool in a large basin on the ground.
The building, so fantastic in its architecture, which is an
eccentric mixture of Italian style and Flemish taste, is the
SOME PORTRAITS OF HELENA FOURMENT 87
pavilion the artist erected in his garden not far from the
house, and often introduced in his pictures. Near at hand
an old woman feeds two peacocks ; a turkey-cock struts
about with his spouse, and a friendly dog runs after their
young ones. The air is warm, the lilacs are in bloom ; the
young orange-trees have been released from their winter
quarters, and the flower-beds are gay with many-coloured
tulips. At the side, the waters of a fountain, likewise
found in many of Rubens's pictures, fall into a basin.
The pair are about to seat themselves under this portico,
surrounded by these domestic animals, with the blue sky
and the flowers before their eyes, wholly given up to a
happiness which is echoed in the holiday mood of surround-
ing nature.
When we have thoroughly enjoyed this beautiful pic-
ture, our eyes involuntarily turn to the other canvas in the
same room of the gallery, in which, on an equally fine
spring day, Rubens painted himself in a honeysuckle
arbour with his wife Isabella, whom he had so affection-
ately loved, who was so intimately associated with his life,
and whose loss he deplored four years earlier. In the
same involuntary fashion it occurs to us that the former
marriage was better assorted ; the intellectual sympathy
must have been greater than it could have been with a
young girl who passed so suddenly from the seclusion of
her father's house to so conspicuous a position. It would
be interesting to learn something of Helena's character,
of her culture and education, of her influence on the great
man who loved her. But no information on these points
88 SOME PORTRAITS OF HELENA FOURMENT
is to be found either in the acts of her life, in Rubens's
correspondence, or in the testimony of contemporaries.
But the large number of portraits of her that Rubens
painted bear eloquent witness to the strength and persist-
ence of his love. There is scarcely a gallery of impor-
tance without a portrait of her, and at Munich there are
four. The little enchantress seems to have adapted her-
self very quickly to her new position; the perfect ease
with which she wears her magnificent costumes furnishes
proof of this.
One of the Munich portraits is a full length; she is
painted full face, in sumptuous attire, and is seated in an
arm-chair on a terrace. Her feet rest on an eastern
carpet, and above her head a violet curtain hangs between
two columns. Her dress is of the richest material ; a
black satin gown opens over an underskirt of white silk
brocade embroidered in gold. The bodice is low enough
to reveal the curve of the bust ; a high lace collar rises
behind the fair hair which frames her face. Her figure
has improved, and her beautiful, delicate hands are longer.
She seems perhaps a little astonished at herself; but her
smiling expression preserves something of the ingenuous-
ness of innocent candour. We wonder whether the spray
of orange-blossom in her hair was placed there by the
painter with intention. The execution is admirably
delicate, easy, and sure, and the flesh tints, the freshness
of which is set off by the blue of the sky, have what
De Piles so rightly called "the virginity of Rubens's
tints . . . those tints which he employed with so
SOME PORTRAITS OF HELENA FOURMENT 89
free a hand without mixing them much for fear of cor-
rupting them, and so causing them to lose their brilliance
and truth, apparent from the very beginning of the work."
The master excels here in giving his work the lightness,
spontaneity, and charm which accord so perfectly with the
youth of the sitter.
Not to speak of other pictures at the Hague, Amsterdam,
and Munich, in which Helena is painted half-length, a full-
length portrait in the Hermitage, almost full-face, well shows
the suppleness of Rubens's talent, and the varied but always
picturesque methods that he invented when he repeated a
subject dear to him. In this picture the young woman
stands in a natural attitude, her hands crossed ; she holds a
feather fan in one of them, as in the Munich portraits.
The figure, relieved against a low landscape background,
is very elegantly posed ; the bluish tones of the horizon,
the dull sky, brightened only in the upper part by a glimpse
of blue, and the black of the costume guiltless of orna-
ment save for the lilac ribbons on the bodice and sleeves
afford a wonderful accompaniment to the bright, clear notes
of the flesh tints. Here again Rubens painted the young
woman in the springtime, 1 celebrating her beauty anew in
this masterpiece, which is of remarkable brilliance and in
fine preservation. It is only equalled by two other large
portraits of Helena, formerly in the Blenheim Collection,
which now royally adorn the rooms of Baron Alphonse de
Rothschild.
The repeated absences forced on Rubens by his various
1 Young fern shoots and a tuft of violets bloom beneath her feet.
90 SOME PORTRAITS OF HELENA FOURMENT
diplomatic missions only increased his fondness for the
home where his work and his loved companion awaited
him. These frequent interruptions made it impossible for
him to undertake works that required much time, but he
had always at hand a charming model whom he could turn
to account in his brief leisure moments. Houbraken,
speaking of her beauty, called her a new Helen, and said
that she was a valuable possession for the artist, " since she
spared him the expense of other models." His portraits of
her painted at this period are both numerous and varied.
The finest of them are the full length portraits formerly at
Blenheim, and now in the possession of Baron Alphonse
de Rothschild. 1 In one, Helen turns three-quarters face
to the spectator; she wears a velvet hood in Spanish fashion,
and a black satin dress, the slashed sleeves ornamented with
lilac ribbons. The bodice is trimmed with lace, and partly
reveals the bosom ; the figure set off by the architecture of
the background is superbly vivid and animated. The
young girl is thinner, and seems to have grown taller;
her manner is more assured, as befits the dignity of the
mistress of her famous husband's house. Thus arrayed,
Madame Rubens is about to go out, for we see a carriage
harnessed with two impatient horses at the bottom of the
steps she is descending. The facade of her fine house is
seen in perspective by the side of the colonnade of the stair-
case, and farther off still is a gabled house ; both of these
appear in Harrewyn's engraving. Helena is accompanied
1 They were purchased from the Duke of Marlborough for the respect-
able sum of .55,000.
HELENA FOURMENT
SOME PORTRAITS OF HELENA FOURMENT 9 1
by a boy dressed in red, holding his hat in his hand. We
cannot determine if he is the little page of a similar type
we have already seen in a similar costume in the Munich
Walk in the Garden^ or, as M. Max Rooses thinks, one of
Rubens's sons. In any case, although the children of the
second marriage were somewhat late to arrive, when they
came they followed each other in quick succession. The
first, a girl, Clara Joanna, was baptized on January 18, 1632,
in the church of St. Jacques, already sacred to the artist by
so many memories ; and, as if to prove the good understand-
ing that still existed between the families of his two wives,
her godfather was Jan Brant, Isabella's father, and her god-
mother Clara Fourment, Helena's mother. Next came
Frans Rubens, also baptized at St. Jacques, with the
Marquis d'Aytona, Don Francesco de Moncade, and Chris-
tina du Parcy as sponsors ; then Isabella Helena, baptized
on May 3, 1635 ; and on March 1st, 1637, a second son,
Peter Paul, whom Philip Rubens, the artist's nephew,
stood godfather.
The other portrait in Baron Alphonse de Rothschild's
collection, Rubens and his Wife teaching one of their Chil-
dren to walk, was, doubtless, painted somewhat earlier ; it is
finer than the other, and is, in our opinion, one of Rubens's
masterpieces. Helena is in profile ; her bright hair floats
loosely over her bare neck, and she wears a black velvet
dress that sets off her brilliant complexion. In her left
hand is a fan, and with the other she holds that of a de-
lightfully plump pink and white baby. The child, dressed
in a Holland frock, with a broad blue sash, tries to walk,
92 SOME PORTRAITS OF HELENA FOURMENT
and, as if proud of its courage, looks up smiling at the
young mother. Rubens, standing a little aside, contem-
plates the scene ; he wears a very elegant costume, consist-
ing of a violet cloak thrown over a black doublet slashed
with white, black silk breeches and stockings. An expres-
sion of sadness seems to overshadow his parental joy ; it is
as if he foresaw that his happiness was not to be of long
duration. The great artist has grown older, and although
only a few years had elapsed since he painted the Walk in
the Garden, his features are worn, his face thin, and his
complexion faded. The difference in age between the hus-
band and wife begins to show itself cruelly, inexorably.
Nevertheless, a spirit of calm, of repose, and inward joy
presides over this fine work. Everything about the house-
hold speaks of cheerfulness, of an easy, comfortable life, of
the wealth and distinction proper to persons of importance.
Climbing plants twine round the pillars of a portico, with
a glimpse of blue sky between ; a rose-bush grows against
the wall, and among its flowers a red and blue parrot flut-
ters with outspread wings above a basin into which falls
the water of a fountain. It is impossible to imagine a
more pleasing picture, brighter and more delicately varied
colours, broader and more supple execution, a more ex-
quisite feast for the artist's eye, than is offered by this ad-
mirable panel, so lovingly brushed in by Rubens in the
best days of his glorious maturity.
Rubens's beloved companion continued to be the constant
object of his preoccupations, and the chief inspirer of his
works. He never tired of dressing her in the richest and
SOME PORTRAITS OF HELENA FOURMENT 93
most varied costumes, in those that seemed to him best
calculated to display her beauty. In placing his establish-
ment on a more expensive footing, he was only adopting a
style of living suitable to his position, the rank he held at
Antwerp through his fame as a painter, his office of secre-
tary of the privy council, and his large fortune.
Occasionally, when fatigue or pain became excessive,
Rubens felt more imperiously the need of rest, and he
sought some relief from his sufferings at Steen, glad to find
there the well-known scenery, his animals, his tenants, the
peaceful atmosphere, the solitude and quiet charm of which
he so much loved. But even then he did not long remain
idle. He spent the summer of 1638 there with his family,
leaving the care of his Antwerp house and its treasures to
his pupil the sculptor Lucas Faydherbe.
But he had to adapt his tastes to his strength, and only
painted works of small dimensions, abandoning the execu-
tion of large canvases, since his health no longer permitted
the toil they entailed.
The wife and children, who were always at hand, sup-
plied him with charming models. It was doubtless at
Steen that he brushed in one day when he was in the vein,
the spirited portrait of Helena and her three children, the
delightful panel in the Louvre, " the admirable sketch, the
scarcely indicated dream, left unfinished either by chance or
on purpose." The young woman seated on a chair, wears
a felt hat with large feathers, and a white dress. On her
lap is her youngest child, an infant who plays with a bird
tied by a string, and holds its little perch. On the left
94 SOME PORTRAITS OF HELENA FOURMENT
stands a little girl, who looks at her mother ; on the right a
younger child represented fully, no doubt, in the original
work, though the arms are now cut by the frame stretches
its hands towards her. The individual expression of the
faces is intelligently characterized by a few strokes with
extraordinary life and freshness; Helena's head, especially,
is softly touched in with a caressing, liquid brush, as is also
her breast, which is in a warm, transparent penumbra.
The execution, an exquisite mixture of vague forms and
firm touches, reveals Rubens's pleasure in painting, and is a
sort of reflection of the domestic happiness which he still
enjoyed in his rare moments of freedom from pain.
PHILIP IV
(Velasquez)
CARL JUSTI
SINCE the outbreak of the Catalonian revolt (June 9,
1640), a general desire had been expressed that the
King should proceed to the seat of war. As this was also
his own ardent wish, he at last set out from Buen Retire
on April 26, 1642, amidst the universal acclamations of the
public.
But their hopes were dashed from the first. Olivares,
following in the King's wake, managed to detain him in
Saragossa, where the round of festivities was resumed with
an " abyss of expenses." Philip took no interest in the
operations, while the French General Lamotte was entering
Barcelona to the mutterings of the ominous cry, " Espana
se pierde " (Spain is being lost).
When Perpignan fell, torn with Roussillon, from the
monarchy for ever, he wept jointly with Olivares, who on
the arrival of " Job's Messengers " craved leave to throw
himself from the window. And when he really fell, the
King endeavoured to rouse himself to a sense of the
situation. " In one matter alone," he said in the State
Council of January, 1643, " I te ^ 7 OU tnat vou
shall not stand in my way ; that is, my set resolution
to enter the field and be the first to risk my blood and
life for the welfare of my vassals, to reawaken their old
96 PHILIP iv
energy which has greatly fallen off during the events of
these years."
On the journey to Aragon the King was accompanied by
his Court painter ; in this there was nothing remarkable, it
being usual at that time for commanders to have artists at
hand in order to take sketches of sieges and battles.
During the journey of 1644 Velasquez painted at Fraga
a portrait of the King. A bundle of accounts from the
Journals de Aragon has been found bearing on this trans-
action. First of all the carpenter Pedro Colomo had to
prepare an easel for six reals, and also to put a window in
the Court painter's windowless room. During the three
sittings, reeds were spread on the ground, and at last a door
put in, " for people were unable to get in." The King
was kept amused by his dwarf, El Primo, who was also
taken on this occasion. For both pictures cases were then
made to send them forthwith to Madrid. The King wore
the dress in which he usually appeared before his army as
commander-in-ch ief.
From the figure itself it is evident that it was taken far
from the atmosphere of the Alcazar. It is freer than those
tall figures in black, which are perpetually receiving de-
spatches, and which are the incarnation of unrelenting
monotony, of the weariness of etiquette. To this effect the
colour contributes much for the picture is all light and
brightness. The legs seem to stand in profile but the body
and head face to the right ; the white baton in the right hand
is planted against the hip ; the elbow of the left, which holds
the hat, rests on the hilt of the sword, and curiously
PHILIP IV OF SPAIN
PHILIP IV 97
enough both arms are disposed in a somewhat parallel
position.
The lines of the King's features, now in his thirty-ninth
year, are firmer, the colour fresher than hitherto. The
otherwise inseparable golilla is here replaced by a broad
lace collar falling on the shoulders ; the hands are white in
unison with the white sleeves, the most luminous parts of
the whole picture well-nurtured, royal hands, ringless,
but by no means " washed out," as has been supposed by
those unacquainted with the master's habit of dispensing
with shade to indicate the fingers.
Philip wears a rich light red doublet with hanging
sleeves, the narrow opening showing the leather jerkin un-
derneath. Of like colour and also covered with silver em-
broidery are the bandolier and hose. The only patch of
gold is the golden fleece, all else collar, sleeves of jerkin
(" pearl tone "), lace cuffs, lace ruffle of boots, silver sheath
being white. This white on the red produces the well-
known effect of a lighter or "camelia red." The hat
alone is black, which is not in keeping with the costume,
and may probably be due to licence on the part of the art-
ist, who here wished to avoid white on white, and who
reeded a dark part in softening contrast to the silvery red
of the whole. At the same time the red of the bandolier
and plume on the red of the doublet shows the painter's in-
difference to such matters.
To all this must be added the full flood of daylight,
which even projects an oblique shadow from the mustachios
on to the cheek. The stupendous relief is effected by the
98 PHILIP iv
empty dark grey surface of the ground, and by the spare
brown shadows, which help to bring out the collar, arm and
hat.
This picture was still in the palace when Palomino wrote
under Philip V., but before the middle of the Eighteenth
Century it had already found its way to Paris. It probably
passed from Bouchardon's estate to the Tronchin collec-
tion, thence to King Stanislaus's agent, Desenfans, and
lastly to the Dulwich Gallery.
LA BELLE FERRONNIERE
(Leonardo da Vinci)
F. A. GRUYER
THE portrait known by the name of La Belle F'erron-
niere represents a young woman with brown hair
parted in the middle, combed flat, brought down over the
ears, and kept in place by a black cord around the head
having a diamond at the centre of the forehead ; whence
arose the name ferronniere, afterwards given to every kind
of hair-dressing similar or analogous to this one. The fig-
ure, cut across the middle and halfway down the arm, by a
transverse supporting bar, is clothed with a red bodice with
gold stripes and ornamented with black embroidery. A thin
necklace wound four times around the neck falls down
over the chest, which is exposed, the bodice being cut rather
low and square. The head, held three-quarters left, is
beautiful, because it is of absolutely correct form and pro-
portion, but it is lacking in charm, or at least that is the
way we consider it. It has an expression of strong will,
and perhaps even sheer obstinacy, and a suggestion that
can scarcely be explained of hardness and scowling. The
features, perfectly in accord with one another, are very
strongly accentuated. The eyes, which are turned towards
our right, inversely to the direction of the head, are deeply
set, endowed with fire, and capable of passion ; the outer
world seems to be reflected darkly in them. The nose is
100 LA BELLE PERRON NIERE
small and delicately formed ; the mouth is also small, with
a sort of moue that completes the expression of the eyes.
The strongly moulded chin is marked with a small dimple.
The cheeks have the solidity of marble. In this painting
there is somewhat of the quality of plasticity. The painter
and the sculptor have mingled, so to speak. One is aston-
ished rather than captivated ; and one is particularly struck
with the relief and the singular character presented by this
portrait. It imposes itself upon one with such authority
that after having once looked at it one can never after-
wards forget it. It belongs body and soul to a period
about which there can be no possible mistake. The
Fifteenth Century in Italy, especially the end of the
Fifteenth Century in Milan, lives again in it. Above all, it
is Leonardo who here pierces us with his genius and all that
is robust and spontaneous in it, and the manner in which
he takes possession of art and humanity in order to fashion
them in his own way. How far the mind may travel
in imaginings while gazing on this strange personality !
What a crowd of speculations she has already given rise
to, and how many more will she yet prompt? Many
names have already been given to her; but will anybody
ever know the true one ? What date does she belong to ?
How can we fix it exactly ? Nothing is more obscure than
the chronology of Leonardo's works.
On account of this portrait having belonged to Francis I.,
people have regarded it as the King's mistress, who was called
La Ferronniere, after her husband whose name was Feron.
Now Feron's wife was dead before Leonardo arrived in
LA BELLE FERRONNIERE
LA BELLE FERRONNIERE IOI
France. But what does that matter! That legend was
not imagined till a century and a half at least after the death
of the persons interested. In 1645, Father Dan, in the
Tresor des merveilles de Fontainebleau, gives this portrait as
that of the Duchess of Mantua; and in 1709, Bailly, in
the Inventaire general des tableaux du Roi, says that it is
commonly called La Belle Ferronn'iere. This picture at that
time was at Versailles in the picture gallery. So that this
invention does not go back farther than the second half of
the Seventeenth Century. To-day, people regard it as
Lucrezia Crivelli, one of the mistresses of Louis the
Moor. Leonardo is supposed to have painted it in 1497,
when the Duke of Milan, who had broken away from her
in a momentary fit of devotion, returned to her after the
death of Beatrice D'Este. It was then that Louis the
Moor had a son by her, who was the founder of the Mar-
quisate of Caravaggio. It is difficult for me to acquiesce
in this opinion, because the date indicated does not appear
to me to be admissible. In 1497, Leonardo, in the pleni-
tude of his powers (he had just finished the Last Supper
for the Graces monastery) was in full possession of that
suppleness, that modelling and that inimitable sfumato
which are at once the despair of painters, and of which no
trace is to be found in this portrait. If it were necessary
to find a date for it, I should go back much farther and
look for it about the year 1482, towards the period of the
arrival of Leonardo in Lombardy. In the life of the
painter, and during his stay in Milan, this picture brings
me closer to the point of departure than to the point of ar-
102 LA BELLE FERRONNIERE
rival. Throughout the picture, we feel the Florentine in-
fluence, even that of Verrocchio. In this, Leonardo has
not yet been subjected to the yoke of the school. The
harshness of the contour and a certain crudity of colour
belong almost to a quattro-centista, and are not the work of
the sovereign master he afterwards developed into. Where
are those researches and that great labour which Leonardo
was soon going to push further and further in advance
without ever succeeding in satisfying himself? Here there
is nothing enigmatical. Everything is written out and even
underlined with frankness and rigidity. At that date,
Leonardo did not strive to dissimulate whatever was com-
pressed in his design and what was vigorous in its relief.
He saw his goal very clearly, and, when he had once at-
tained that goal, he stopped, apparently wanting to apply
the principle put into the sonnet that Lomazzo has preserved
for us : " He who cannot do what he wants to do ought
to wish for what he can do, for it is foolish to want what
is impossible."
(Chi non pub quel che vuol, quel che pub voglia;
Che quel che non si pub, folle e voter e.
Adunque saggio fuomo e da tenere,
Che da quel che non pub suo voler toglia.}
Leonardo did not lose himself at that time in the realms
beyond the possible. When he painted a portrait, he satu-
rated himself with his model. He saw it by day, and
dreamed of it by night. He says : " I have often ex-
perimented when I found myself in bed in the obscurity of
LA BELLE FERRONNIERE 103
night, how important it is to go over again in imagination
the minutest contours of the models studied and drawn
during the day. By this means, we greatly strengthen
and preserve the meaning of the things collected in our
memory." When this work of internal assimilation was
once accomplished, Leonardo represented Nature in entire
truthfulness, without attempting to transfigure it, but im-
pressing his own thoughts and his own style upon it. This
thought and this style vibrate with singular intensity in the
portrait of La Belle Ferronmere and leave an indestructible
impression upon our minds.
As for the name La Belle Ferronniere^ it is probable that,
notwithstanding the efforts of the erudite, it will always
remain beneath this painting. It is vain to fight against
legends, they become rooted in the memory of mankind
and nothing can clear them away. And then, in default
of certainty for another name, why not keep this one ?
The masses made it, and are contented with it. As for
those who reason and search, while waiting for something
better, they will see there certainly not the woman whose
husband was named Feron, but a woman who wears on her
brow a special jewel the name of which she preserves. It
is true that it is she who has given its name to this jewel.
By a permissible inversion, it will be this jewel which, in
its turn, will have given its name to her.
STUDY
(Fragtnard)
CH. MOREAU-VAUTHIER
" TT^XTRICATE yourself from the affair as well as you
J ' can, Nature said to me on pushing me into life ! "
Such was Fragonard's reply on being interrogated re-
garding his start in life. These words ring with a tone
that is at once alert, joyous and careless, which is Fragonard
himself, the artist of the facile and brilliant talent, the
painter of the pictures brushed in with such amazing
agility that, astonished and enchanted with himself, he
sometimes amused himself by writing on the back in fa-
miliar terms :
" Frago painted this in one hour."
Like all improvisers whose charm evaporates as soon as
they insist, Fragonard is especially remarkable when he has
not had time to lose the freshness of his enthusiasm. For
connoisseurs, his drawings and sketches in black and white
are his masterpieces. His brush flies, grazes the surface
and raises on the canvas vapours that give birth to capricious
figurines, a whole world of grace, fantasy and pleasure.
Paul de Saint-Victor has said : " Fragonard's touch re-
calls those accents which in certain tongues give a melodious
sound to dumb words. His scarcely indicated figures live,
breathe, smile and enchant us. Their very indecision has
STUDY
STUDY 105
the attraction of a tender mystery. They speak in low
tones and glide along on tiptoe. They might be called the
voluptuous manes of the Eighteenth Century."
His most celebrated pictures are in accordance with this
idea of seductiveness and facility, whether it is the Fountain
of Love, Love's Vow, the Contract, or the popular Bolt.
It is quite possible in the present case that Fragonard, as
is usual with him, has produced nothing more than a work
of fancy. Perhaps this young lady was only half real,
partly inspired by some pretty model of his acquaintance,
perhaps even his own daughter. Perhaps, also, he may
have seen a young woman in a corner of his studio engaged
in turning over the leaves of an album of sketches, and
wished by means of this accessory to show the cultivated
mind of his model.
In that century, woman wielded a sovereign influence in
art and literature. Colle writes in his journal : " Women
have so much assumed the upper hand with the French
that the men are completely subjugated so that they no
longer think nor feel except after the women."
The young Duchess of Chaulnes, being saddened at not
being able to understand anything about the learned works
of her husband, and not being able to comprehend the con-
versations of the Academicians, colleagues of the Duke, set
herself in six months to learn everything she could, and
succeeded in collecting such a bundle of odds and ends that
she was able to hold her own with all the Academicians, so
that Madame du DefFand, impatient with this rage for sound-
ing the depths of all things, said of the Duchess :
IO6 STUDY
" She is always wanting to know who has laid an egg and
who has hatched."
Some women like Madame Geoffrin, whose salon was
open to men of letters and artists, finally succeeded in
effacing their husbands. One day a stranger asked Madame
Geoffrin what had become of that old gentleman who used
to be present so regularly at her dinners, and who was never
to be seen now.
Madame Geoffrin imperturbably replied : u That was my
husband. He is dead now ! "
On looking at the smile and the gaze of the pretty per-
son painted by Fragonard on this canvas, we can have no
doubts regarding the independence of this fresh child. She
does not look in the slightest degree disposed to submit to
the conjugal yoke. Perhaps even, being more anxious to
please by her smiles than by her intellect, she is indifferent
to the weighty matters of the mind.
Moreover, Fragonard's delightful technique makes no
pretence to superior intentions ; here we feel only the ex-
clusive joy of creation. The light brush spreads the fluid
paste as it runs. It is graceful butterfly work, a coquetry,
and a flirtation with Nature.
LAVINIA FENTON AS POLLY PEACHUM
(Hogarth)
AUSTIN DOBSON
IN his autobiographical notes of Hogarth, published by
John Ireland in 1798, there is a bitter and disparaging
account of contemporary portrait-painting. Vanloo, Ho-
garth says, was all the rage ; and in defect of Vanloo, the
market was monopolized by native and foreign impostors
who, with the aid of a u drapery-man " and an empiric sys-
tem, puffed and flattered themselves into fashion. " By
this inundation of folly and fuss, I must confess I was much
disgusted, and determined to try if by any means I could
stem the torrent, and by opposing end It. I laughed at the
pretensions of these quacks in colouring, ridiculed their
productions as feeble and contemptible, and asserted that it
required neither taste nor talents to excel their most popu-
lar performances." To this it was not unreasonably re-
plied that he had better prove his words by excelling them
without delay ; and he seems to have set about it with the
conviction that what men had done, man might do, and
that William Hogarth was to the full as good as Anthony
Van Dyck. But although one of his first life-size por-
traits, that of Captain Coram, fairly held its own against the
Shackletons, and Hudsons and Cotes and Highmores, his
pretensions, urged, no doubt, with an uncompromising
candour which damaged his cause, found little favour with
his colleagues of the St. Martin's Lane Academy. He was
108 LAVINIA FENTON AS POLLY PEACHUM
thus tempted to abandon the only lucrative branch of his
art, because, to use his own energetic language, it " brought
the whole nest of phizmongers on my back, where they
buzzed like so many hornets/' Portraits it was decided
nem. con. " were not his province."
It is probable that the scattered biographical memoranda
from which the above quotations are derived were more or
less manipulated by their editor. But they were drawn up
late in Hogarth's life, and no doubt reflect with tolerable
accuracy his view of portrait-painting in so far as he him-
self had practised it. We must, therefore, infer that his
success, even in his own eyes, was but qualified. " Time
only," he says, " can decide whether I was the best or the
worst face-painter of the day ; for a medium was never so
much as suggested." Hence examples of his work in this
way are not very numerous. Those, indeed, which are to
be found in public collections scarcely amount to a dozen.
At the Foundling Hospital is the fine full-length of Captain
Coram, its brave old founder, whose honest, sea-beaten face,
hard lined as a ship's figure-head, is softened by the painter
into a kindly dignity. The Royal collection, again, boasts
the admirable portrait of Garrick and his wife, which repre-
sents the actor writing the prologue to Taste^ while the
lady, like Gibber's daughter in Vanloo's picture, stands
archly behind his chair to draw his pen from his hand.
In the National Gallery is the artist's own likeness, which
vies with Captain Coram for the honour of being his master-
piece, and has made his Montero cap, his bright-eyed, open
countenance, and his pug-dog Trump familiar as household
LAVINIA FENTON AS POLLY PEACHUM
LAVINIA FENTON AS POLLY PEACHUM 109
words. This was executed in 1745, and engraved by him-
self in 1749. In the little green-coated full-length in the
National Portrait Gallery at South Kensington, where he is
painting the Comic Muse, he looks older and more worn.
At this date he had published the ill-fated Analysis, though
the worst misfortune of his latter days, the painting of
Sigismonda, was still to come. This portrait he also en-
graved in 1758, making, however, considerable variations.
With exception of a head of his sister Mary, some con-
versation-pieces, and three portraits, these are the chief ex-
amples of Hogarth's work as a " face-painter " which are to
be found in collections accessible to the public.
We are, however, enabled to present our readers with the
charming portrait of Miss Fenton purchased by the nation
from the Leigh Court collection. As she wears the costume
of " Polly Peachum " in the Beggar's Opera, the part in
which she first became famous, it cannot be placed earlier
than 1728; and, though it may, of course, have been pro-
duced much later, probably dates with the several replicas
of scenes from Gay's Newgate Pastoral, which Hogarth
executed for Mr. Rich, of Covent Garden, and others.
One of these gives a good idea of the costumes and original
cast at Lincoln's Inn Fields. In the centre, with folded
arms, stands the Coryphaeus of the highway (Walker), who
apparently has just finished his solo :
" Then farewell, my love dear charmers, adieu,
Contented I die 'tis the better for you.
Here ends all dispute the rest of our lives,
For this way at once I please all my wives."
110 LAVINIA FENTON AS POLLY PEACHUM
To the left Lucy (Mrs. Egleton) pleads for him to Lockit ;
to the right Polly (Miss Fenton) is on her knees to
Peachum. Among the favoured lookers-on are the Duke
of Bolton, with his ribbon and star, Gay, Rich, Anthony
Henley, and a number of less well-known notabilities.
In the National Gallery portrait of Miss Fenton (her real
name was Beswick), she wears much the same costume as
she does in Mr. Murray's picture, which, by the way, was
afterwards engraved by one William Blake. Her dress is
green, with shoulder-bands and facings of brownish red.
She has dark sparkling eyes and red lips ; but a certain want
of regularity in her features suggests that her charm must
have been chiefly in her voice and expression. This is
confirmed by Joseph Warton, who knew her. He says she
never could have been called a beauty, but that she was
"agreeable and well made," and much admired for her
conversational powers. When she made her great hit in
Gay's ballad-opera (it was her rendering of
" For on the rope that hangs my dear
Depends poor Polly's life,"
which settled the at first doubtful fate of the play), she was
but eighteen. She had hitherto taken no higher part than
that of Cherry in the Beaux' Stratagem^ and was glad to
come to Rich for fifteen shillings a week, a sum afterwards
magnificently doubled on account of her success. Her
vogue was, in truth, enormous. Her portrait was in all
the print-shops ; her life was written ; her jests were col-
lected ; and she was so besieged by admirers that her friends
LAVINIA FENTON AS POLLY PEACHUM III
had to guard her home. Finally, she ran away with the
Duke of Bolton, who afterwards married her. She died in
1760. Hogarth's picture of her was exhibited in the
British Gallery in 1814, being then in the possession of
Mr. George Watson. In 1875, Sir Philip Miles, its last
owner, exhibited it at Burlington House. It was en-
graved by C. Apostool in 1797, and again in 1807 by
T. Cook.
PORTRAITS OF SASKIA
(Rembrandt)
MALCOLM BELL
AMONG the pictures of the year 1630, and, according
to M. Michel, even of 1628 and onwards we find a
series of portraits of a fair-haired girl with a round full fore-
head, and rather small eyes and mouth, which Dr. Bode
believes to be portraits of the painter's sister Lysbeth,
while M. Michel considers that some of the later ones are
really portraits of Saskia, urging the objection that many of
them were undoubtedly painted after his removal to Amster-
dam, whither there is not the slightest reason to suppose
that Lysbeth accompanied him, what evidence there is
pointing directly to the contrary. On the other hand,
M. Michel admits that the type which is known to be Saskia
blends almost indistinguishably with that supposed to be
Lysbeth, and offers the distinctly dubious explanation that
Rembrandt was, so to speak, so imbued with the features
of his sister that he unconsciously transferred them to a
large extent to the girl he loved. If, however, as we may
quite reasonably suppose, Rembrandt had met and admired
Saskia during his first stay in Amsterdam, and continued to
do so during his after visits, the occurrence of her features
in his work would be what we ought to expect.
It was inevitable that so great and, at one time, so popu-
lar an artist should sooner or later, gravitate to the capital
SASKIA HOLDING A PINK
PORTRAITS OF SASKIA
of his country ; for, since the decay of Antwerp, Amster-
dam was without a rival in the world for prosperity the
head-centre of commerce, the hub of the trade-universe.
Some time then in 1631 the die was cast, and the re-
moval accomplished. There is reason to believe that he
first went to stay or lodge with Hendrick van Uylenborch,
a dealer in pictures and other objects of art. Among his
first proceedings on his arrival, was one sufficiently charac-
teristic of him and destined to be repeated only too often in
the future. He lent Hendrick money, one thousand florins,
to be repayable in a year with three months' notice. Soon
after, if not before, this indiscreet financial operation, as it
proved later, he found the suitable residence he had mean-
while been seeking, on the Bloemgracht, a canal on the
west side of the town, running north-east and south-west
between the Prinsen Gracht and the Lynbaan Gracht, in a
district at that time on the extreme outskirts of the town
known as the Garden, from the floral names bestowed upon
its streets and canals.
Here he settled to his work, and here in a short time for-
tune came to him. The enthusiasm aroused by The
Anatomy Lesson^ when it was finished and hung in its predes-
tined place in the little dissecting-room or Snijkamer of the
Guild of Surgeons in the Nes, near the Dam, was immediate
and immense. The artist leapt at once into the front rank,
and became the fashionable portrait painter of the day.
From three portraits, other than those of his own circle,
painted in 1631, and ten in 1632, the number rose to forty
between that year and 1634 ; or, taking all the surviving
114 PORTRAITS OF SASKIA
portraits between 1627 an( * I ^3 I i we have forty-one, while
from the five following years, from 1632 to 1636, there are
one hundred and two. Commissions, indeed, flowed in
faster than he could execute them, so Houbraken assures
us, and not the infrequent occurrence of a pair of portraits,
husband and wife, one painted a year or more after the other,
tends to confirm this ; so that those who wished to be im-
mortalized by him had often to wait their turn for months
together, while all the wealth and fashion of the city flocked
to the far-off studio in the outskirts, the more fortunate to
give their sittings, the later comers to put down their names
in anticipation of the future leisure. From the beginning,
too, pupils came clamouring to his doors, Govert Flinck
and Ferdinand Bol, Philips Koninck, Geerbrandt van den
Eeckhout, Jan Victors, Leendeert Cornelisz, and others
eager to pay down their hundred florins a year, as Sandrart
says they did, and work with and for the lion of the
day.
Not Fortune alone, however, with her retinue of patrons,
and Fame, with her train of pupils, sought him out : Love,
too, came knocking at his portal, and won a prompt admis-
sion. To the many admirable works produced at this time,
three call for notice. One is an oval picture, belonging to
Herr Haro of Stockholm, representing the half-length fig-
ure of a girl in profile, facing to the left, fair-haired, and
pleasant-looking rather than pretty ; the second, in the
Museum of Stockholm, shows us the same girl in much the
same position but differently dressed ; while the third, in
the collection of Prince Liechtenstein at Vienna, is a less
PORTRAITS OF SASKIA 115
pleasing representation of her in full face, wherein the tend-
ency to stoutness and the already developing double chin
detract from the piquancy of her expression and make her
look more than her actual age, which we know to have
been twenty at the time that these were painted.
We have heard her name casually already, in connection
with Rembrandt's marriage, for this is Saskia van Uylen-
borch, a cousin of his friend Hendrick, which fact may
haply have had something to do with that ready loan of a
thousand florins. Saskia was born in 1612, at Leeu warden,
the chief town of Friesland in the north, across the
Zuider Zee, and at the time when Rembrandt met her was
an orphan, her mother, Sjukie Osinga, having died in 1619,
and her father, Rombertus, a distinguished lawyer in his
native place, in 1624. The family left behind was a large
one, consisting besides Saskia, of three brothers, two being
lawyers and one a soldier, and five sisters, all married, who,
as soon as the worthy Rombertus was laid to rest, seem to
have begun wrangling among themselves concerning the
estate ; the quarrel, chiefly, as it appears, being sustained
by the several brothers-in-law, and leading shortly to an ap-
peal to law.
Among the less close relations was a cousin Aaltje, who
was married to Jan Cornelis Sylvius, a minister of the Re-
formed Church, who, coming from Friesland, had settled in
Amsterdam in 1610, and with them Saskia was in the habit
of coming to stay. Where and when Rembrandt first met
her we do not know. Probably at the house of Hendrick ;
it may have been in 1628, or earlier, for, if the acquaintance
Il6 PORTRAITS OF SASKIA
began in 1631, it ripened rapidly. Without accepting un-
hesitatingly all M. Michel's identifications of her, not only
in portraits, but in subjects, such as that one which is
known as The 'Jewish Bride y now in the collection of Prince
Liechtenstein, there is no question that she sat to him
several times during the two years 1632 and 1633. The
attraction was mutual ; Rembrandt soon became a welcome
visitor to the Sylvius household, and, in token, doubtless
of the kindness and hospitality which he there met with, he
etched, in 1634, a portrait of the good old minister.
The course of true love in this case ran smoothly enough ;
the young people soon came to an understanding ; no dif-
ficulties were raised by Sylvius, who acted as Saskia's guard-
ian ; and the marriage was only deferred till Saskia came of
age. The union, indeed, from a worldly point of view, was
unexceptionable. Saskia, it is true, was of a good family,
while Rembrandt sprang from the lower middle class, but
he had already carved out for himself a rank above all pedi-
grees. Saskia was twenty, and he, with all his fame, was
only twenty-six. The wedding then was decided on, and
Rembrandt, painting Saskia again, put into her hands a sprig
of rosemary, at that time in Holland an emblem of be-
trothal. It was possibly even fixed for some date late in
1633, when Saskia would have passed her twenty-first birth-
day.
There was nothing, when Saskia was once of age, to ne-
cessitate longer delay in the completion of his happiness,
but in the autumn she was peremptorily called away to
Franeker, a town in Friesland., between Leeuwarden and
PORTRAITS OF SASKIA 117
the sea, where her sister Antje, the wife of Johannes Mac-
covius, professor of Theology, was lying ill, and where, on
November the ninth, she died. This untoward occurrence
put an end to the possibility of an immediate marriage, and
Saskia went to spend the winter with another sister, Hiskia,
who was married to Gerrit van Loo, a secretary of the gov-
ernment, and lived at Sainte Anne Parrochie, in the ex-
treme north-west of Friesland ; while Rembrandt, discon-
tentedly enough, no doubt, toiled through the long winter
months in his studio at Amsterdam.
In the spring of 1634, however, the sunshine returned
again into his life, and he commemorated the advent ap-
propriately enough, by painting the bringer of it in the
guise of Flora. The period of mourning was now at an
end, and some time in May, probably, Saskia once
more returned to Hiskia's to make preparation for the
approaching day ; while Sylvius, as her representative, and
Rembrandt began to arrange the more formal business
matters.
On June loth, as recorded by Dr. Scheltema, Sylvius, as
the bride's cousin, engaged to give full consent before the
third asking of the banns; while Rembrandt, on his part,
promised to obtain his mother's permission. Whether he
merely wrote to Leyden for this, or whether, as is more
probable, he went in person, we do not know ; but in either
case he wasted no time, for on the fourteenth he produced
the necessary documents, and prayed at the same time that
the formal preliminaries might be cut as short as possible.
His appeal was evidently received with favour, for eight
Il8 PORTRAITS OF SASKIA
days later, on June 22nd, at Bildt, in the presence of Gerrit
and Hiskia van Loo, he was duly married, first by the civil
authorities, and afterwards by the minister Rudolphe Her-
mansz Luinga in the Annakerk.
As far as domestic happiness depending upon their rela-
tions with one another went, there is every reason to sup-
pose that this union was a thoroughly successful one ; but
we cannot help, nevertheless, feeling some doubts as to
whether it was altogether the best that might have been for
Rembrandt. Frank and joyous, but strong-willed, not to
say obstinate, recklessly generous and prodigal, and without
a thought for what the future might bring forth, he needed
some firm yet tender hand to check, without seeming too
much to control his lavish impulses. Impossible to drive,
yet easy enough to lead, a giant in his studio, a child in his
business relations with the world outside its doors, he
should have found some steady practical head to regu-
late his household affairs and introduce some order and
economy into his haphazard ways. Such, unfortunately
for him in the end, Saskia was not. Devoted to him, she
yielded in everything, and his will was her law. As her
love for him led her to let him do always as he would, so
his passion for her led him to shower costly gifts upon her
pearls and diamonds, gold-work and silver-work, bro-
cades and embroideries ; nothing that could serve to adorn
her was too good or too expensive. She would have been
happy in plain homespun, as long as he was there ; but to
give largely was the nature of the man, and the very for-
tune that she brought with her was an evil, even at the
PORTRAITS OF SASKIA 119
time, in that it led him to further extravagances while in
the future it proved a still more serious one.
One birth and three deaths mark the year 1640. The
first, of another daughter, on July 2Qth, who was also
christened Cornelia, the elder child bearing that name hav-
ing died in the meantime. The name, however, seems to
have been an ill-omened one, for its second bearer did not
survive a month, its burial being recorded in the Zuider-
kerk on August 25th. Of the other deaths the first was
that of an aunt of Saskia, who was probably also her god-
mother, as she bore the same name, and certainly left her
some property, since Ferdinand Bol was sent on August
3Oth to Leeuwarden with formal authority to take posses-
sion on her behalf. The other death must have been to
Rembrandt at any rate a far heavier blow, for by it he lost
in September or October, his mother, to whom he was cor-
dially attached, and from whom his residence in Amster-
dam had only partially separated him, since we know by
various portraits, painted subsequent to 1631, that either he
visited her or she him with considerable frequency.
At this very time he was cheerfully accepting security
for considerable sums of money lent, in addition to the orig-
inal one thousand florins to Hendrick van Uylenborch;
and in later years, when his affairs came to be inquired
into, Lodewyck van Ludick and Adriaen de Wees, dealers
both, swore that between 1640 and 1650 Rembrandt's col-
lections, without counting the pictures, were worth 11,000
florins, while a jeweller Jan van Loo, stated that Saskia had
two large pear-shaped pearls, two rows of valuable pearls
120 PORTRAITS OF SASKIA
forming a necklace and bracelets, a large diamond in a ring,
two diamond earrings, two enameled bracelets, and various ar-
ticles of plate. Finally, Rembrandt also, at a later date, esti-
mated that his estate at the time of Saskia' s death amounted
to 40,750 florins ; and though the estimate was made under
circumstances calculated to incline him to exaggerate rather
than diminish the amount, it must be considered as approxi-
mately correct.
Poor Saskia was not destined to enjoy much longer her
plate and jewellery. Death having entered the family, was
thenceforth busy. Titia died at Flushing on June i6th,
1641 ; and Saskia herself, after the birth of Titus in Sep-
tember of that year, possibly never enjoyed really good
health again. By the following spring she was unmistak-
ably failing, and at nine in the morning of June 5th, 1642,
she made her will. She was not even then without hope
of recovery for there are express stipulations as to any
further children she might bear, but the pitiful irregularity
of her signature at the end of the document shows how
forlorn this hope was ; and, in fact, she died within the
following fortnight and was buried on the igth of June in
the Oudekerk, where Rembrandt subsequently purchased
the place of her sepulture.
Upon what this loss must have meant to Rembrandt,
with his affectionate nature and almost morbid devotion to
home-life I need not dwell, nor did Fate rest content with
dealing him this single blow. The great picture, which
forms the chief ornament of the Rijks Museum at Amster-
dam, The Sortie of the Company of Banning Cocq^ better
PORTRAITS OF SASKIA 121
known under the inaccurate title of The Night-Watch,
was no sooner completed, in the course of the same year,
than it aroused a storm of vituperative criticism.
Once satisfactorily established in Amsterdam, Rembrandt
increased his annual production marvellously. The number
of pictures known, or believed to belong to each of the four
preceding years, are, in succession, four, nine, twelve, and
twenty, the numbers for the four succeeding years are re-
spectively forty-two, thirty, twenty-six and twenty-seven ;
or, taking the average of each period, we find that the first
would give a little more than eleven pictures per annum,
the second, very nearly thirty, 1632, in especial, when he
was new to Amsterdam, was a year of extraordinary energy.
So engaged was he on portraiture, that he only found
time for three small figure subjects, if, indeed, they were
painted that year, for none is dated.
Portraits again took up much of his time in 1633, among
them the two companions to the portraits of the year before
and another pair, Willem Burchgraeff, at Dresden, and
Margaretha van Bilderbeecq his wife, in Frankfort. The
painter's masterpiece, however, in matrimonial groups is
the Shipbuilder and his Wife at Buckingham Palace.
There are thirteen other signed portraits of that year,
including one of Jan Herman Krul, at Cassel, two of
Saskia one at Dresden ; one called, however, Lysbeth
van Rijn, which belonged to the late Baroness Hirsch-
Garenth and two of himself, one, the oval portrait in the
Louvre, and the other in the collection of M. Warneck at
Paris.
122 PORTRAITS OF SASKIA
There are eighteen works dated 1634, and no less than
seven of them are, or are called Portraits of Himself. One
at the Louvre and two at Berlin are unmistakably so, and
one now in America, a companion to a Portrait of Saskia,
would seem to be ; but the portrait of Rembrandt as an
Officer, at the Hague, which, however, bears no date, and
one in a helmet at Cassel, bear only the most general re-
semblance to him. He furthermore painted a portrait of
Saskia disguised as Flora, called The Jewish Bride, in the
Hermitage at St. Petersburg, a very similar picture in the
collection of M. Schloss, Paris, and a third at Cassel.
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN
(Holbein)
SIR WALTER ARMSTRONG
THE Holbein we reproduce is thus described : A
beardless young man stands against a table covered
with a green cloth and looks out at the spectator. A round
black hat rests upon his short hair ; over his coat of reddish
violet silk lies a black furred mantle ; a bit of his shirt
shows in front. The left hand grasps a glove, the right
rests on the table and holds a half-open book. Rings
adorn both hands. To the right stands a desk. Upon the
grey background appears this inscription : " ANNO. DNI.
1541. ETATIS. SUJE, 28." In design this is one of the
most successful of all Holbein's portraits. Nothing could
well be simpler, nothing could be more complete and co-
herent. The turn of the body, the outlook of the face,
the action of the hands, the placing of every line, of every
tint, of every step from light to shadow, lead to that abso-
lute unity which is the aim of art. The flesh tones are
unusually brown, a detail which has induced some critics to
refer the picture to Holbein's early maturity which was
marked by a tendency to brown carnations in spite of the
date upon the panel. Few painters, however, if any, have
given so much attention to their sitters' complexions as
Holbein. A notable instance is to be seen in our Am-
bassadors in the National Gallery. There he has clearly
124 PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN
taken the utmost pains to render the peculiar sallowness of
the less important of his two employers. The variation in
his complexions is much more likely due to a change in the
class and nationality of his patrons than to modifications
of his own practise. When he first arrived in London, he
found employment chiefly among his fellow-countrymen,
the embrowned South German members of the Steelyard.
Afterwards he became painter to the Court, and had to de-
vote his skill to the imitation of the well-protected cuticles
of high-born English ladies and their lords. The Vienna
portrait represents the latest stage of his evolution. There
is a play and freedom about it not to be found in the thor-
ough but more stiffly conceived works of twelve years
before. Nothing is known to the young man's identity ;
no tradition, even, has survived to our day.
Holbein's three sojourns in this country lasted from 1526
to 1528, from 1532 to 1538, and from 1539 to his death in
1543. It has lately been contended, not for the first time,
that in 1533, he was away from England in Germany. It
may be as well, perhaps, to note the evidence which refutes
that idea, especially as it has some bearing on the question
which still excites so much interest, that of the identity of
our Ambassadors. In 1532, the Burgomaster of Basle,
Jacob Meier, had addressed the following letter to " Master
Hans Holbein, the Painter, now in England " :
" We, Jacob Meier, Burgomaster, and the Council of
the city of Basle, send greeting to our dear citizen, Hans
Holbein, and let you herewith know that it would please us
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN 125
if you would come home as soon as you can. In that case,
in order that you may the more easily stay at home and
support your wife and children, we will provide you with
thirty pieces of money per annum until we are able to do
better for you. We have wished to tell you this, in order
that you may do what we desire. Sept. 2, Anno 32."
There seems to be abundant evidence that Holbein did
not obey this summons. The portraits of German mer-
chants, members of the Stahlhof, or Steelyard, cover the
years 1532-1536. They possess certain features in com-
mon. They are mostly half-lengths. Accessories and im-
plements are introduced and painted with great care. As a
rule, the name of the sitter is given in German, on the
backs of letters, with his address in the London steelyard.
The sitter's age, the date of the painting, a motto, and a
verse or two in Latin, are often added, and in no case does
the painter sign his own name. These portraits, then, may
fairly be called a series, and some of the finest among them
belong to the year in dispute. Is it not reasonable to sup-
pose that they were all painted in London, one commission
leading to another ?
LA BELLA SIMONETTA
(Sandro Botticelli)
JULIA CARTWRIGHT
BOTH as the favourite pupil of Fra Filippo Lippi, that
spoiled child of the Medici, whose talents had been
held in such high esteem by Cosimo and his sons, and as
the skilled assistant of Antonio Pollaiuolo, who was so con-
stantly employed by three generations of the house of
Medici, Sandro needed no introduction to Lorenzo's notice.
Already, towards the close of 1473, l ^ e master had received
an order to paint a St. Sebastian for this august patron. In
the following year, after he had returned from his unsuc-
cessful visit to Pisa, he received a new commission from
the Magnifico's brother, Giuliano dei Medici.
The second son of Piero was four years younger than
Lorenzo, and was endowed with those personal attractions
which his elder brother lacked. Tall and handsome, active
and muscular, he excelled in all knightly exercises, in
riding and wrestling, throwing the spear and tilting. While
Lorenzo was decidedly plain with weak eyes, a broad nose,
large mouth and sallow complexion, Giuliano's fine black
eyes, curling dark hair, olive skin and animated expression
gave him a distinctly attractive and picturesque appearance.
Although inferior to Lorenzo in ability and intellect, he in-
herited the refined taste of his family, was fond of music
and painting, and wrote poetry which Poliziano describes
LA BELLA SIMONETTA
LA BELLA SIMONETTA 127
as full of thought and feeling. From his boyhood Giuliano
had been the darling of the people, and his reckless cour-
age in the chase or tournament, his gay manners and cour-
teous bearing made him a favourite with all classes. Polizi-
ano and Machiavelli both teil us that he was the idol of the
Florentines, and Paolo Giovio speaks of him as the prince
and leader of the gilded youth of his day. But he was
always loyal and affectionate to Lorenzo, and no shadow
of jealousy or suspicion ever seems to have clouded the ex-
cellent understanding that existed between the brothers.
While the elder of the two devoted his time and attention
to the management of public affairs, the younger hunted
and jousted and wrote verses in praise of fair ladies, and
took a leading part in those pageants and amusements which
delighted the eyes of Florence.
As Lorenzo's Tournament had been given in fulfilment
of a promise which he made to the beautiful Lucrezia
Donati, when she gave him a wreath of violets at Braccio
Martelli's wedding-feast, so now Giuliano held a Giostra
in honour of another fair lady, " la bella Simonetta," the
young wife of his friend Marco Vespucci. This daughter
of a noble Genoese family, who at sixteen became the bride
of Piero Vespucci's son, one of the most faithful followers
of the Medici, had inspired the handsome Giuliano with a
romantic devotion, similar to that of Dante for Beatrice or
of Petrarch for Laura. He composed verses in praise of
her beauty and goodness, invoked her name when he rode
in the lists, and made her the object of the Platonic passion
which Poliziano celebrates in his famous poem. Giuliano's
128 LA BELLA SIMONETTA
Tournament was held on the 28th of January, 1475, on the
same Piazza di Santa Croce where Lorenzo's Giostra had
taken place six years before. Then Piero had been alive
but now his two sons were the representatives of this illus-
trious house, and the stately pageant which gratified the
hearts of the Florentines, afforded a fitting opportunity for
celebrating the glories of the Medici brothers and their ac-
cession to supreme power.
Nothing which could add beauty or splendour to the
show was neglected. Signer Poggi has recently published
a document, which he discovered in the Magliabecchiana
Library, giving several interesting details of the combatants
who took part in the Giostra, and of the armour which they
wore and the banners and devices that were borne before
them. Seven youths of the noblest families of Florence,
clad in richest apparel, resplendent with silks and jewels,
with pearls and rubies, entered the lists that day ; Pagolo
Antonio Soderini, Piero Guicciardini, the cousin of the his-
torian, who left his books, sorely against his inclination, and
joined in the tournay, at Lorenzo and Giuliano's urgent
entreaty, Benedetto dei Nerli, Luigi della Stufa, Piero degli
Alberti, and Giovanni Morelli. Each rider was accom-
panied by twenty-two youths in jewelled armour, and fol-
lowed by a troop of men-at-arms, while a page in sumptuous
attire bore a standard with his chosen device before him.
As in Lorenzo's tournament, each cavalier had the image
of his lady-love represented on his banner, so on this occa-
sion Giuliano and his rivals each had the effigy of his mis-
tress borne before him. The best artists in the city were
LA BELLA SIMONETTA 1 29
employed, and there was quite a stir in the workshops along
the banks of the Arno. Giuliano's armour and helmet were
exquisitely wrought by Michele Bandinelli of Gaiuole, a
talented goldsmith who served the Medici during many
years, and whose wife, Smeralda, had her portrait painted
by one of Botticelli's assistants about this time. A still
more illustrious artist, Andrea del Verrocchio, painted the
banner of another of the competitors, Giovanni Morelli.
The figure which he was desired to represent was that of
a maiden robed in white on a crimson ground, with a
" spiritello " or winged sprite the boy Cupid armed with
his bow, and holding a pot of flowers in his hand, standing
on the rock above. Other ladies in the forms of nymphs
and goddesses, clad in bright and varied hues, and bearing
the mottoes of the respective knights, were represented on
the different banners. Only Piero Guicciardini, who pre-
ferred humanist studies to the society of fair ladies, chose
Apollo slaying the Python for his device. But Giuliano's
mistress was represented in a singularly beautiful and elab-
orate style.
" The banner of Giuliano," we read, " was of blue
taffeta (canvas), with the rising sun in the heavens, and in
the centre a large figure of Pallas, wearing a vest of fine
gold, a white robe and blue buskins, with her feet resting
on the flames of burning olive branches. On her head she
wore a helmet, under which her rippling locks flowed loose
on the breeze. In her right hand she held a jousting lance,
and in her left the shield of Medusa. Her eyes were fixed
on the sun, and in the meadow of flowers where she stood,
130 LA BELLA SIMONETTA
was the god of love, bound by golden cords to the trunk of
an olive tree. On the boughs of the tree was written this
motto : " La sans pareille."
This description of Giuliano' s banner agrees closely with
the imagery of Poliziano's famous verses in honour of the
Giostra. The poet speaks of the dream which comes to
Giuliano in his sleep, and tells us how the hero sees a
vision of his lady, Simonetta, wearing the armour of
Minerva and the shield of Medusa, while behind her he
sees Cupid bound to the green column of Minerva's happy
plant.
" Pargli veder feroce la sua donna . . .
Legar Cupido alia verde colonna
Delia felice pianta di Minerva"
And, in his verse, Cupid bids Giuliano look up at the rising
sun on his lady's banner, the emblem of the glory which he
is to win in the fight :
" Alza gll of chi t alza Julio a quello fiamma
Che come un sol col suo splendor /' adombra"
But for us, it is of still greater interest to find how
exactly the description of the banner corresponds with
Vasari's statement, that " Botticelli painted a life-sized
figure of Pallas standing on a device of burning branches,
in the Medici Palace." From this we may safely conclude
that Giuliano's banner bearing the figure of his mistress in
the form of Pallas was painted by Sandro Botticelli in the
last months of 1474. That it was preserved among
Lorenzo's most precious treasures we further learn from the
LA BELLA SIMONETTA 13!
following entry in an Inventory of the works of art in the
Medici Palace, that was taken after the Magnifico's death
in 1492, and copied in a similar list bearing the date of
1512 : "In the room of Piero a cloth (panno) set in a gold
frame, about four braccia high by two wide, bearing a figure
of Pa \Pallas\ with a burning shield and an arrow, by
the hand of Sandro da Botticelli."
This Pallas is not to be confounded with the picture of
Pallas Subduing the Centaur by Sandro's hand that was
painted some years later, after Lorenzo's return from
Naples, to celebrate the triumph of the Medici over their
enemies, and was discovered in 1895 by Mr. Spence in the
Pitti Palace. For, as M. Miintz proceeds to show, this
work of Botticelli's is mentioned in two other Inventories
of the contents of the Medici Palace, which were taken at
a later period, and in both cases is described as Minerva
and a Centaur. The word panno, in the entry of 1512,
clearly refers to the banner carried in front of Giuliano in
the Giostra, and this conclusion is further borne out by the
following entry which comes just below in the same In-
ventory : " A gilded jousting-helmet with a figure of
Cupid bound to a tree of laurel or olive."
The helmet in question was, no doubt, that which was
worn by Giuliano himself in the Tournament, which is
said to have been a marvel of the goldsmith's art. Unfor-
tunately the banner has shared the fate which has befallen
the great majority of the works that were painted by Sandro
for the Medici and preserved for several generations in the
palace of the Via Larga,
132 LA BELLA SIMONETTA
The Giostra was celebrated with triumphant success,
Giuliano made a splendid figure as he rode into the lists
that day in his flashing armour, mounted on the warhorse
" Orso," which had been presented to him by Constanzo
Sforza, the lord of Pesaro. There, before the eyes of his
adored mistress, the gallant youth vanquished all his rivals,
and bore off the prize, amidst the acclamations of the
assembled multitudes. Botticelli's share in the day's
festivity naturally brought him into close relations with
the Medici brothers, and prepared the way for the future
commissions which he received from Lorenzo and the
members of his immediate circle. Vasari mentions two
" most beautiful profile heads of women," which must
have been executed in those early days, and which he had
seen among the treasures of the Medici Palace, in the reign
of Duke Cosimo. There was the likeness of Lucrezia
Tornabuoni, the admirable mother to whom Lorenzo was
so deeply attached, and whose death in 1482 he lamented
so truly. The other, Vasari tells us, was said to be the
portrait of the " innamorata di Giuliano di Medici" that
Bella Simonetta, who, as we have already seen, was the lady
of his heart and the Queen of his Tournament. The
Vespucci, we know, were among Botticelli's earliest and
most constant patrons. Their palazzo was in the same
parish as Sandro's home, and they had a country house at
Peretola, where the Filipepi also owned property. Vasari
tells us that the artist helped in the decoration of their
palace, and painted a series of subjects full of beautiful and
animated figures set in richly carved frames of walnut wood.
LA BELLA SIMONETTA 133
And a few years after Simonetta's death he was employed
by her kinsman, the ecclesiastic Giorgio Antonio Vespucci,
to paint a fresco in the parish church of Ognissanti, where
the family had their burial-place. So that nothing is more
likely than that Sandro should have painted the portrait of
Marco's fair wife, whose features he had already reproduced
in the Pallas of the standard which Giuliano had proudly
borne to the fray on the great day of his Giostra. Two
portraits which bore the names of these ladies and were not
without a certain relationship in style and execution, were
formerly ascribed to the master and supposed to be the
works described by Vasari. One is the profile bust of a
pleasant-looking, fair-haired lady clad in the simple everyday
dress of a Florentine citizen's wife, with an honest, sensible
face, such as we should expect to belong to Lorenzo's wise
and large-hearted mother. But although the picture which
Rumohr bought in Florence for the Berlin Gallery, may
possibly represent Lucrezia Tornabuoni, its execution is too
inferior to be from the hand of Botticelli, and it can only
be a school work. The profile of Simonetta in the Pitti
has more affinity with Sandro's work, and the features
agree with Ghirlandajo's portrait of Marco Vespucci's
work in his Ognissanti fresco ; but the lack of grace in the
figure and the exaggerated proportions of the long, narrow
neck, make it impossible to believe that he was its author.
Yet there is character as well as refinement in the clear-cut
features, and undoubted charm in the slender girlish form,
with its quiet, simple dress of Puritan simplicity, the plain
white cap and white slashed sleeve of the dark, square-cut
134 LA BELLA SIMONETTA
bodice, which in shape and hue so closely resembles the
Berlin picture. Mr. Berenson has ascribed this much
discussed portrait to the unknown assistant and imitator
whom he styles Amico di Sandro, and who may have exe~
cuted this picture in his master's bottega. A halo of
romance surrounds this Florentine beauty whose charms
made so profound an impression on Lorenzo and his com-
panions, and whose early death was so deeply lamented by
the members of that brilliant circle. Poliziano describes
her as " a simple and innocent maiden, who never gave cause
for jealousy or scandal," and says that " among other ex-
cellent gifts she had so sweet and attractive a manner that
all those who had any familiar acquaintance with her, or to
whom she paid any attention, thought themselves the
object of her affections. Yet no woman ever envied her,
but all gave her great praise, and it seemed an extraordinary
thing that so many men should love her without exciting
any jealousy, and that so many ladies should praise her
without feeling any envy."
Lorenzo himself was sincerely attached to Marco Ves-
pucci's charming young wife, and speaks and writes of her
with brotherly affection and sympathy. His intimate friend-
ship with the Vespucci brothers brought him into frequent
relations with her, and he was deeply concerned when, in
the spring of 1476, only a year after Giuliano's Tourna-
ment, she was attacked by the fatal disease which put an
end to her life. He sent his own doctor, Maestro Stefano,
to attend to her, and when he went to Pisa in April,
charged her father-in-law, Piero, to let him have the latest
LA BELLA SIMONETTA AS PALLAS
LA BELLA SIMONETTA 135
reports of her health, On the i6th Piero wrote : "La
Simonetta is much the same as when you left. There is
but little improvement in her condition. She is attended
by Maestro Stefano and every one about her in the most
assiduous manner, and this, you may be sure, will always
be the case." On the i8th Piero was able to send better
news. u A day or two ago," he writes to Lorenzo, " I
told you of Simonetta's illness. Now by the grace of God
and the skill of your physician, Maestro Stefano, she is a
little better. She has less fever and oppression in her
chest; eats and sleeps better. From what the doctors
say, we quite hope that her illness will not last long.
Little can be done for her in the way of medicine, but
great care is necessary. Since Maestro Stefano's good
advice has been the cause of her improvement, we all of
us thank you exceedingly, and so does her mother, who is
now at Piombtno, and feels most grateful for the light which
he has thrown upon her illness." Piero goes on to beg
Lorenzo to recall the doctor, and tell him what fees he
ought to receive, adding that he is unwilling to detain the
physician longer, and fears that he may be unable to satisfy
his claims. But the improvement in the patient's condition
proved only temporary, and four days later Piero wrote again
to inform the Magnifico that his daughter-in-law was grow-
ing rapidly worse. The two doctors, Maestro Stefano and
her habitual physician Maestro Moyse evidently as most
doctors were in those days, of Jewish race held a con-
sultation and did not agree as to the cause of the illness.
" Maestro Stefano maintains that it is neither consumption
136 LA BELLA SIMONETTA
nor phthisis, and Maestro Moyse holds the contrary opinion ;
I know not which of the two is right. They have, how-
ever, agreed to give their patient a certain medicine which
they both hold to be an efficacious remedy. I know not,"
adds Piero sorrowfully, " what the result may prove. God
grant that it may have the desired effect ! " And he begs
Lorenzo to allow Maestro Stefano to remain another week,
by which time it will be easier to see the course of events.
Before the week was over, poor Simonetta had breathed
her last, and Lorenzo's trusted servant, Bettini, wrote to his
master of the sad event : " The blessed soul of Simonetta
has, I have just heard, passed into Paradise. Her end, it
may be truly said, was another Triumph of Death, and, in-
deed, if you had seen her lying dead, she would have
seemed to you no less beautiful and attractive than she was
in life. Requiescat in pace."
On the following day the funeral took place, and
Simonetta was borne to her grave with her fair face
uncovered "that all might see her beauty, which was
still greater in death than it had been in life." In Pe^
trarch's words :
" Morte bella parea net suo be I vo/to."
Bettini describes the tears and lamentations of the crowds
who followed the funeral train from the house of the Ves-
pucci to Sandro's own parish church of Ognissanti, where
Marco's dead wife was laid in the burial vault of his family.
Lorenzo has told us how the news reached him at Pisa on
that sweet April evening, and how as he walked in the garden,
LA BELLA SIMONETTA 137
thinking sadly of the beloved dead, a bright star rose sud-
denly above the horizon, and he knew that it was the
blessed Simonetta's spirit which had been transformed into
this new constellation. " All the learned Florentines," he
goes on to say, " were grieved for her, and lamented the bit-
terness of her death, in prose and verse, seeking to praise
her each according to his faculty." Lorenzo himself wrote
sonnets in her memory, Poliziano composed his famous
Latin epigram :
" Dum pulchra effertur nigro Simonettaferetro"
and inspired by Giuliano, who had been present at his
adored lady's deathbed, turned with full confidence to
God. Pagan conceits and Christian hopes are blended,
in the same strange manner, in the beautiful elegy which
Bernardo Pulci composed on this occasion, and dedicated
to the sorrowing Giuliano. He calls on the nymphs and
goddesses, who endowed Simonetta with rich beauty, to
have pity on sad Genoa and the mourning banks of the
Arno, and tells how the blessed spirit " felice alma beata"
has fled from the trouble of this life to the eternal realm
where Laura and Beatrice wait to welcome her. In a son-
net, which has a prophetic strain, he paints the happy soul
bending from heaven to bid her lover weep no more, lest
his tears should mar her bliss, and tells him that all her
thoughts are still of him, on that blessed shore where she
awaits his coming.
If Simonetta's name lives in the immortal verse of these
Florentine poets, tradition has associated it no less inti-
138 LA BELLA SIMONETTA
mately with the art of Botticelli. A whole group of
portraits, in which this gentle maiden is represented with
the golden curls, bright eyes and " dolce riso" of which
the poets sing, are to be found in public and private col-
lections, all alike ascribed to Sandro. Chief among these is
the beautiful portrait at Chantilly, inscribed with the
words " Simonetta Jannensis Vespuccia," in which the
best modern critics now recognize the hand of Piero di
Cosimo, the no less attractive bust in Sir Frederick Cook's
collection at Richmond, and a somewhat similar profile at
Berlin, which originally came from the Medici Palace.
All of these have the same fair, rippling hair, the same
animated expression, the same rich costume, and ornaments
of pearl and gold, in marked contrast to the Puritan
simplicity of the Pitti portrait. Whether they came from
Botticelli's workshop or are copies of some lost original,
they all have certain distinctive features which reappear in
Sandro's conceptions. This has led some writers, notably
Mr. Ruskin, to see in the peculiar types which recur in his
paintings the long throat, tall slender form and angular
features, reminiscences of Giuliano's lost love, the fair
mistress whose fame lives in Poliziano's verse and
Lorenzo's Sonnets. It is Simonetta, Mr. Ruskin tells
us, in a note to his Ariadne Florentine who was the model
of all Sandro's fairest women. He paints her as Venus
rising new-born from the waves and holding court in the
bowers of spring ; or Abundance, light of foot and glad
of heart, scattering her treasures of plenty as she walks ;
as Zipporah at the well, where Moses waters her father's
LA BELLA SIMONETTA 139
flock ; or as Truth, rejected of men, calling on heaven to
bear her witness and teach Florence the lesson which her
children refused to learn. The theory, interesting and
ingenious as it appears, will hardly bear too strict an ex-
amination, but the tradition which ascribes the authorship
of these numerous portraits of Simonetta to Botticelli
affords another proof of the painter's close connection
with the Medici house.
Unfortunately, the other portraits which Sandro painted
for the Medici have shared the same fatality which has
attended his pictures of Simonetta. Two portraits of
Giuliano, with the olive skin and thick locks framing his
strongly-marked features and lively black eyes, are still,
it is true, in existence, and were during many years the
subject of an animated controversy between Italian and
German critics. Morelli contended that the portrait at
Bergamo was the original work by Sandro, while Dr. Bode
stood out stoutly in defence of the Berlin picture. As a
matter of fact both of these lack the life and vigour of
Botticelli's art ; and Mr. Berenson maintains that, like the
bella Simonetta of the Pitti, which it resembles strongly in
the hardness of outline and in the modelling of the face,
the portrait of Giuliano, in the Morelli collection at
Bergamo, is by the hand of an assistant whom he styles
Amico di Sandro.
MARIA VOOGT AND ELIZABETH BAS
(Frans Hals and Rembrandt)
GERALD S. DA VIES
WHEN we come to the superb portrait of Maria
Voogt, who is also sometimes called Madame Van
der Meer, in the Van der Hoop collection in the Rijks
Museum at Amsterdam, we are, it is true, set thinking of
Rembrandt. It is exactly the same type of the old Dutch
lady which Rembrandt loved to paint. She wears the
same costume naturally enough, as Rembrandt's old ladies
in the same station of life, and she sits in the same simple
and quiet pose. But these are traits common to both men,
which neither has derived from the other. It is warmer in
its shadows and its half-tones, and has more gold in its
lights than is usual with Hals. Perhaps it has. But walk
two rooms off and look at Rembrandt's portrait of Eliza-
beth Jacobs Bas, the widow of Admiral Swartenhont.
You will see at once that Hals's picture is in cool day-
light compared with the artificial golden light with which
Rembrandt's picture is suffused. If the two pictures
could be hung side by side, what one would at once notice
would be that all the apparent similarity had vanished, and
the points of difference seemed multiplied. The experi-
ment would, in one way, be eminently unfair to Hals.
The golden light of the Rembrandt would make the quiet
and true, I must claim to be allowed to say truer, though
less fascinating daylight of Hals look very cold indeed.
MARIA VOOGT
MARIA VOOGT AND ELIZABETH BAS 14!
He would suffer misjudgment at the hands of all save the
most cool-headed and judicial of critics.
But one can find no single point which helps to make a
great portrait, in which Hals need, in this Maria Voogt or
Madame Van der Meer, fear comparison either with that
masterpiece of Rembrandt's or, to set the claim plainly,
with any portrait that ever has been painted. That is, of
course, not the same thing as saying that it is delightful as
some portraits that have been painted, and yet it is very
enjoyable.
The face is a quiet, shrewd, penetrating face, with more
refinement than most Dutch women of the day possessed.
She was built in a less masterful mould of mind and body,
for instance, than the kindly, solid, hard-bitten admiral's
wife. Hals has given one here the inner life of his sitter
that which at times one is tempted to declare he cannot
give : and that inner life, one may safely say, one which
was hardly akin to his own. That brown, Dutch-bound,
silver-clasped Bible there has got itself well into the life
of the clear-eyed old dame. It is no hypocrisy you may
swear it from her face that made her choose to be painted so.
As we have said, she is cast in a less stern and also in a
lest sturdy mould than the grand old Dutchwoman whom
Rembrandt painted. She did less of the housework with
her own hands look at them and see than Dame Eliza-
beth Bas. As one looks at the admiral's wife, one feels
the conviction that, whatever happened at sea, it was she
who commanded the ship at home. There is strength in
every line of the shrewd, homely face, and in the quiet
142 MARIA VOOGT AND ELIZABETH BAS
ease of the strong hands which lie folded upon one another.
The hands of Hals's portrait are fully as expressive of
character but the character is different. There is quiet,
firm decision in them, but they do not belong to a per-
sonality of the same rugged and robust strength as the
other housewife. Yet I take it that she knew her own
mind as well in her quiet decided way, and that there was
little that was contrary to sound order in the Haarlem home
of the Van der Meers.
As a piece of insight into character this picture by Hals
stands in the very highest order of portrait-painting. As a
piece of mere painting, apart from any such consideration,
it may be set side by side with any portrait from any hand
and will be found to have no superior. We have dis-
claimed, on behalf of Hals, any attempt to paint in the
manner of Rembrandt, or to follow his influence ; but it
may, on the other hand, very well be the case that the
growing fame of the younger man had set him on his
mettle and that he felt himself, about this period, answer-
ing a challenge. And in this portrait he has answered it
u so that the opposer may beware of him." Always in my
experience, and I have sat many hours at different times
before both pictures, you will find a dozen persons who
are attracted by Rembrandt's Elizabeth Bas, and who will
sit before it, as it deserves to be sat before, for a consider-
able time, as against one who gives even a short five min-
utes to the colder, less overmastering, but quite as masterly,
and even more true, portrait of Dame Van der Meer.
The face is painted with the simple directness which al-
MARIA VOOGT AND ELIZABETH BAS 143
ways marks him. Very noticeable, indeed, is the manner
in which he has dealt with the shadow at the side of the
forehead. It is laid on in flat mass almost blocked in,
after the practice followed in laying in in modern French
studio work and it is joined to the higher flesh tones ap-
parently by no subtle modulations or passages of half-tone,
as Velasquez would have done it, nor yet is it blurred and
softened, as Rembrandt would have given it, but it seems
at first sight almost to have a straight edge to it, so firm,
definite, and decided it is. And yet there is here given to
us by this simple and direct means all the transparency and
the modelling of the concave shadow at the side of the
forehead. The same directness of simplicity and oneness
of handling are visible everywhere in the face. He has
seen it all once for all, and set it down once for all, the
modelling being everywhere obtained by overlappings of
colour laid on somewhat liquid in masses. I do not mean
by this to imply, as it might be construed, that Hals's sur-
face is painty. It is so far otherwise that the thing seems
to have come of itself, and the manner of its doing does
not enforce itself upon you. When you compel yourself
to try to find out how it is all achieved, you discover the
absolute simplicity of the means employed. The magic of
the thing lay in the " knowing how."
I have already spoken of the painting of the hands from
the point of view of the rendering of character. It is inter-
esting to regard them also from the point of view of mere
technique. It will be doubly interesting to compare them
with Rembrandt's hands in the Elizabeth Bas close by.
144 MARIA VOOGT AND ELIZABETH BAS
How absolutely different the means by which the two men
obtain their results, and how absolutely right each man is
in his own method ! Hals gets his hands, in all his portraits,
by direct sweeps of the brush, full of very liquid colour, fol-
lowing down the lines of the bones, and obtaining the artic-
ulations of the joints with almost imperceptible changes of
colour in the onward passage. There is very little loading
of paint or dragging across the lines of the anatomy, except
here and there to give the modelling of the back of the hand
or of the muscle between the first finger and the thumb.
It is interesting, by the way, to notice an often employed
device of Hals, by which he makes the round parts of the
hand, seen against the dress, go round, as it were, instead
of presenting a solid flat edge against the dark. It will be
found that he draws a film of very thin colour beyond
the edge of the hand in places, through which the colour of
the dress or other background shines. Now seen close, this
sort of film, or blurred second outline, seems to have no
meaning or to be even the result of careless haste. The
restorer usually removes it, one may observe, as his first
duty to his author ; but retire a pace or two, and you find
that you have got, in mysterious fashion, the sense of the
soft flesh going round as it does in nature, towards the dress.
And all this apparently shapeless and incoherent set of
sweeps and patches becomes, at the proper distance, a liv-
ing human hand, and moreover the living human hand of
the person to whom it belongs, and as full of character as
the face itself.
Now go to a Rembrandt hand and you will find it as full
ELIZABETH BAS
MARIA VOOGT AND ELIZABETH BAS 145
of character and wrought with the same magician's power
and knowledge as a hand by Hals ; but the result is got by
a wholly different technique. Rembrandt loads his colour
on with a heavy impasto, into which he can even dig his
brush it is sometimes almost like a piece of modelling
rather than paint and he drags his colour athwart the lines
of the fingers and of the bones, and rarely in a following
line with them. This too, seen close smelt, as Rem-
brandt himself would have said is a shapeless patch of
blurs and blotches. It is a living expressive human hand
only when you go to the distance at which the painter
meant it to be seen.
I have already spoken of the consummate skill with which
in the Van der Meer portrait Hals has painted the book,
and indeed every accessory of this masterpiece. That book,
indeed, is so matchless a piece of still-life painting, that it
would be open to the charge of being too interesting in it-
self, and too little of an accessory, if it were not kept entirely
in its place by the interest of the face itself. One does not
turn to think of such a detail till one has taken in the true
purpose of the picture first. When one does so, it is to be-
come aware once more that Hals has answered the chal-
lenge that any still-life painter of them all might issue.
Indeed, if Hals were called upon to choose one single
work of his wherewith to take his stand against all comers,
he might well select his portrait of the lady of the house of
Van der Meer, which he painted in 1639, at the age of
fifty-nine the halfway date, as we have consented to call
it in his artistic career.
LAVINIA VECELLI
(Titian)
J. A. CROWE and G. B. CAVALCASELLE
IN quiet hours when undisturbed by any but purely artis-
tic considerations, Titian threw more soul and feeling
into his work, and this is more particularly true of a con-
temporary portrait in the Dresden Museum, the features of
which are apparently those of Lavinia Vecelli. Scanelli, the
author of the Microcosmo, has preserved the substance of a
letter in which Titian announced to Alfonso of Ferrara the
despatch of a picture " representing the person dearest to
him in all the world." He then describes " the figure of a
young girl, of life-size, gracefully walking with her face at
three quarters, and looking out brightly as she waves her
fan the time, a summer afternoon, when the girl, one
might think, was courted by her exalted lover." The por-
trait admired by Scanelli is no doubt that of the young girl
in white at the Dresden Museum. But it would be a mis-
take to suppose that this lovely maid was painted for Al-
fonso, a fortiori a mistake to believe that she was the mis-
tress of a prince who died in 1534, nor can we believe that
Titian portrayed the person dearest to the duke, since it is
apparent that he meant to immortalize the face and form
of his own daughter. We shall presently see that he often
painted Lavinia, whose real name was curiously changed to
Cornelia by writers of a later age. Though unfortunate in
his eldest son Pomponio, who disgraced the priest's cas-
LAVINIA VECELL1 WITH FRUIT
LAVINIA VECELLI 147
sock and squandered his father's means in debauchery,
Titian was happy in the affection of two children worthy
of his love, Orazio, who accompanied him to Rome and
gave numerous proofs of pictorial skill, and Lavinia, a
beauty who married Cornelio Sarcinelli of Serravalle in
1555. Ridolfi refers to Lavinia when he describes " a
maiden carrying a basket of fruit," by Titian, in possession
of Niccolo Crasso, and " a girl holding a basin with two
melons," by the same hand, in the collection of Giovanni
d'Uffel of Antwerp. Of both he writes "that they were
said to represent the painter's daughter Cornelia." We
remember the adventures of Covos with the lady in waiting
of Countess Pepoli, and pardon the error which confounded
the maid of Bologna with that of Biri Grande. The girl
with the fruit is still preserved in the Museum of Berlin,
and is probably that which was claimed as a portrait of La-
vinia by Argentina Rangone in 1549. There were rela-
tions of friendship between the Rangones and Titian in
that year, and Argentina proposed to take one of her de-
pendents as an apprentice into his workshop at Venice. In
the letter which she wrote upon this matter she refers to
Lavinia's portrait, which she begs Titian to complete ; and
we can easily fancy that the master instantly attended to
the wish of a lady who was godmother to one of his chil-
dren. The counterparts of the canvas at Berlin are the
portrait of a lass with a casket in Lord Cowper's collec-
tion, and Salome in the gallery at Madrid, both of which
display with more or less resemblance the features of the
girl at the Dresden Museum.
148 LAVINIA VECELLI
Titian at eighty-two wrote to Philip the Second begging
him to accept the portrait of a lady whom he described as
" absolute mistress of his soul," but Garcia Hernandez, the
Spanish Secretary at Venice, explains in another letter that
the mistress of Titian's soul is " a fanciful representa-
tion of a Turkish or Persian girl." Yet what Titian de-
scribed so fondly to the Duke and to the King may have
been the face of Lavinia, in the first case portrayed from
nature, in the second idealized to suit the fancy of Philip.
Scanelli, it is more than probable, erred in stating that
Titian wrote to Alfonso, when it is obvious that the girl
with the leaf-fan at Dresden is a creation of the time when
Titian returned from Rome. From the first stroke to the
last this beautiful piece is the work of the master, and there
is not an inch of it in which his hand is not to be traced.
His is the brilliant flesh brought up to a rosy carnation by
wondrous kneading of copious pigment, his the contours
formed by texture and not defined by outline ; his again the
mixture of sharp and blurred touches, the delicate modelling
in dazzling light ; the soft glazing, cherry lip, and spark-
ling eye. Such a charming vision as this was well fitted to
twine itself round a father's heart.
Lavinia's hair is yellow and strewed with pearls, showing
a pretty wave and irrepressible curls in stray^ locks on the
forehead. Earrings, a necklace of pearls, glitter with grey
reflections on a skin incomparably fair. The gauze on the
shoulders is light as air, and contrasts with the stiff richness
of a white damask silk dress and skirt, the folds of which
ieave and sink in shallow projections and depressions,
LAVINIA VECELLI 149
touched in tender scales of yellow or ashen white. The
left hand, with its bracelet of pearls, hangs gracefully as it
tucks up the train of the gown, whilst the right is raised no
higher than the waist, to wave the stiff plaited leaf of a pal-
metto fan. Without any methodical strapping or adjust-
ment of shape, nay with something formless in the stiff
span and lacing of the bodice, the figure is the very re-
verse of supple, and yet it moves with grace, shows youth
and life and smiling contentment, and a stirring grandeur
of carriage, combined with ladylike modesty. 1
Subsequent repetitions of the same person as a girl bear-
ing fruit and flowers, or a Salome raising on high the head
of the Baptist, merely served to fix a type which, whether
it issued from Titian's own hands or those of his disciples,
preserved always the aspect of youth.
As depicted in the broad manner characteristic of Titian
about 1550, Lavinia, at Berlin, is full-grown but of robust
shape, dressed in yellowish flowered silk with slashed sleeves,
a chiselled girdle round her waist, and a white veil hanging
from her shoulders. Her head is thrown back, and turned
so as to allow three-quarters of it to be seen as she looks
from the corners of her eyes to the spectator. Auburn hair
1 This portrait came, with the rest of the Dresden pictures, from Modena,
and is an heirloom of the Estes. On canvas three feet eight inches high
by three feet one inch, it was transferred to a new cloth in 1827, and looks
fairly preserved. The brown ground is darker on the left than on the
right side. A free copy on canvas ascribed to Titian is in the Cassel
Museum. But the features are not the same as those of the Dresden can-
vas, and the hand is not that of Titian, though the copyist may have been
an Italian. More Flemish in type is a copy by Rubens in the Museum
of Vienna. A study for the original at Dresden, in black and red chalk,
is in the Albertina Collection at Vienna,
150 LAVINIA VECELLI
is carefully brushed off the temples, and confined by a jew-
elled diadem, and the neck is set off with a string of pearls.
A deep red curtain partly concealing a brown-tinged wall to
the left, to the right a view of hills, seen from a balcony at
eventide, complete a picture executed with great bravura^
on a canvas of coarse twill. Fully in keeping with the idea
that Titian had before him the image of his child, is the
natural and unconstrained movement, the open face and
modest look. The flesh, the dress, are coloured with great
richness, yet, perhaps, with more of the blurred softness
which the French cally?0#, than is usual in pure works of
Titian. It may be that excessive blending and something
like down or fluff in the touch was caused by time, restor-
ing, or varnish. It may be that these blemishes are due to
the co-operation of Orazio Vecelli, who now had a share
in almost all the pictures of his father, as he had his con-
fidence in all business transactions. But in the main this is
a grand creation of Titian. 1
Of equal richness of tone, but inferior in modelling, and
too marked in its freedom to be entirely by Titian, Lavinia
with the casket, in Lord Cowper's London collection, is
still interesting as showing the well-known features of the
painter's daughter in fuller bloom than at Berlin. The
1 This example of Lavinia is No. 166 in the Berlin Museum, and meas?
ures three feet, three and a-half inches by two feet, seven and a-half inches.
A tawny film of old varnish lies over the whole surface, and there are
clear signs of retouching in the shadows of the face, the wrists, and right
hand, and the sky. A strip of canvas has been added to the right side of
the picture, which was bought in 1832 from Abbate Celotti, at Florence,
for 5,000 thalers. The Abbate affirmed it was identical with that men-
tioned by Ridolii as painted for Niccol6 Crasso,
LAVINIA VECELLI 151
casket here also lies on a silver dish, there is a distance of
landscape too, but the balcony is wanting, the dress is
green, the veil yellow, and the face is cut into planes of
more decided setting, whilst the frame is stronger and more
developed than before. There is more ease of hand, but
also more laxity in the rendering of form than we like to
welcome in a picture all by Titian. But again in this, as
in the Berlin example, much of the impression produced
may be caused by restoring.
Younger again, but with naked arms, a white veil and
sleeve, and a red damask dress, the Salome of Madrid carries
the head of the Baptist on a chased salver. But this piece
is by no means equal in merit to the girl with the casket,
and is certainly painted by one of Titian's followers, from
the Lavinia of Berlin.
BALTHAZAR CASTIGLIONE
(Raphael)
F. A. GRUYER
THIS is one of the finest portraits that a painter ever
made. I don't know of one that is more natural and
less laboured, or that has more truth and less pose. We
will give it a place of honour in the Salon carre of the
Louvre.
Among the great minds who surrounded Leo X. and
with whom Raphael was on terms of intimacy, there is no
more sympathetic personality than that of Count Balthazar
Castiglione. Birth, honours, wit, beauty, fortune he
possessed them all. An able politician, a warrior on occa-
sion, a brilliant diplomatist, a poet, a man of erudition, a
moralist, a passionate lover of the arts, an honest man and
a perfect gentleman, he has come down to us as the su-
preme type of the great noble and the courtier.
Balthazar Castiglione, of the Mantuan branch of the
Castiglione family, was born on the sixth of October, 1478,
in the castle of Casatico in Mantua. His ancestors went
back to the ancient days of Lombard feudalism and derived
their name from the castle of Castiglione, which the church
of Milan had given to them at the end of the Tenth
Century. His coat of arms bore gules a lion rampant argent
supporting a castle or dexter, with this device : POUR NON
FAILLIR. His father, Cristoforo Castiglione, had been one
BALTHAZAR CASTIGLIONE
BALTHAZAR CASTIGLIONE 153
of the heroes of the battle of Taro, where he was slain ;
and his mother, Luigia Gonzaga, was quoted as one of the
most remarkable women of her age. Philippo Beroaldo,
the elder, directed his education ; Giorgio Merula taught
him Latin and Demetrius Calchondyle instructed him in
Greek. In 1499, we find him in the suite of Francisco
Gonzagua, coming from Milan to congratulate Louis XII.
In 1503, he behaved valiantly at the battle of Garagliano,
and retired to Rome after that day's disaster. In 1504, in
accordance with the desire of Julius II. and with the per-
mission of the Marquis of Mantua, he passed into the serv-
ice of Guidobaldo de Montefeltro, and remained, till 1516,
either at the court of Urbino, or in the embassies confided
to him by the Duke, in England, France, and particularly
in Rome. These were the twelve most brilliant years of
his life. He was at Rome in 1516 when Leo X. took the
duchy of Urbino away from Francisco Maria Delia Rovere
in order to give it to Lorenzo II. de' Medicis. Notwith-
standing the wishes of the Pope and the supplications of
Sadolet, Beroalde, Bibbiena and Navagero, he retired to
Mantua, where the Gonzagas married him to Hippolita
Torelli, who died on the twentieth of August, 1520, on
bringing her third child into the world Castiglione was
inconsolable. The four years of this union had been for
him four years of happiness, four years of concentration
and literary production. This was the time when he wrote
the best of his Latin poems and the Cortegiano, the book of
the Courtier, which has made him famous. From the year
1520, politics again takes charge of his life and brings
154 BALTHAZAR CASTIGLIONE
him scarcely anything but disappointments. In 1524,
Clement VII. sent him to Madrid to plead a cause that
was irrevocably lost in advance. Charles V. gave the am-
bassador a warm reception but remained none the less in-
flexible. The sack of Rome in 1527, and the captivity of
Clement VII. struck poor Castiglione a mortal blow.
Clement VII., who could only blame himself for his own
mistakes, accused his ambassador, who could not bear this
disgrace. The friendship of Charles V. served only to
soften his last moments. Balthazar Castiglione died at
Toledo on the second of February, 1529, in his fifty-ninth
year. " I assure you that death has deprived us of one of
the best noblemen in the world." (To vos dlgo ques es
muerto uno de la mejores cavalleros del mundo) said
Charles V. to the youthful Louis Strozzi, Balthazar's
nephew. Castiglione, brought back to Italy sixteen
months later, was buried in the church of the Minor
Friars, where his mother erected a monument to him after
designs by Giulio Romano. Aloysia Gonzaga contra votum
superstes filio bene merito posuit, are the last words of the
epitaph composed by Bembo.
It was about 1515, without doubt, that Raphael painted
this intimate and familiar portrait in which he put not only
his genius but his heart also. The letter written in 1514
by Raphael to Castiglione, on the question of the Galatea
shows what idea of perfection the artist and the great lord
were then pursuing in common. " As for the Galatea, I
should consider myself a great master if even half the
things that Your Lordship writes to me on this question
BALTHAZAR CASTIGLIONE 155
were really true; but I recognize in your words the affec-
tion that you bear for me, and I assure you that, in order to
paint a beautiful woman, I need to see several, on condi-
tion that Your Lordship is with me so as to help me to
select. But lacking good judges and beautiful women, I
must avail myself of a certain ideal that is in my mind. I
do not know whether this ideal possesses any excellence,
but that is what meanwhile I am trying to attain."
Balthazar Castiglione was then thirty-seven years old
and looked his age. He was already attacked by a slight
corpulency, and seemed to be fitted thenceforth for the coun-
cil rather than for the field of action. Raphael has repre-
sented him seated, almost with full front and face, visible
down to the waist, the face slightly turned towards the
left, and hands clasped with a sense of abandonment and
familiarity. The costume, rich without being startling,
would not suggest the warrior in the slightest degree were
it not for the hilt of a sword that is visible above the left
wrist. A white shirt, ruffled rather than folded, covers the
chest. This shirt is covered by a robe of black velvet,
open in front and furnished behind with a high collar.
Ample sleeves, of heavy greyish plush, flow over the
upper arms, while the black velvet sleeves of the robe
reappear on the forearms. The head is full of warm
colour. The brow is broad and the baretta leaves it fully
displayed. This baretta, of black velvet, consists of a
lower cap adorned with embroidery also black. It is
surmounted by a wide toque of the same material and
hue. It is raised over the right and falls over the left ear.
156 BALTHAZAR CASTIGLIONE
A medal is fixed on the right side of it. The eyes, sur-
mounted by heavy blonde brows are of a very intense blue
and are admirable in drawing; the lids fully open veil
nothing of their brightness. The great charm of this
head is in its gaze which is at the same time gentle and
firm, loyal and sincere to the highest degree. The nose is
not irreproachable in form. The mouth, with lips some-
what strongly accented, is small, full of humour, amiable
and benevolent. The cheeks, partly covered with heavy
blonde whiskers, are strong of hue and full of health.
We feel attracted with strange force towards this per-
sonage who is all frankness, goodness and virtue. This
painting is masterly in execution. There is nothing dry in
the drawing, and it is remarkable in its purity ; the con-
tours, imprisoned in the colour and merged in the model-
ling of the flesh are ungraspable, so to speak. In the
presence of a model whose intimate qualities he knew so
well, Raphael painted with enthusiasm, with a sure hand,
rapidly, and without the slightest hesitation. This is one
of those portraits that it does us good to live with. " To
be with people we like," says La Bruyere, " is sufficient,
to dream, to speak or not to speak to them, to think of
them or of more indifferent things, with them it is all the
same." Among his contemporaries, Balthazar Castiglione
was that kind of person ; and he lives again for us in his
portrait.
May we be allowed to enter the Salle des Sept Metres for
a moment to compare Raphael's portrait of Castiglione
with a picture by Lorenzo Costa, representing Isabella
BALTHAZAR CASTIGLIONE 157
D'Este crowned by Love. The scene passes in the midst
of one of those mythologies accommodated to the taste of
the Renaissance, and Vasari says that for the most part
the figures of which this picture is composed are portraits.
This is what reveals the individual character with which
each is endowed. Examine, in the foreground to the left,
the young hero, who, after having cut off the head of the
legendary dragon, leans upon the halberd which he has
used to accomplish his exploit ; compare it with Raphael's
portrait of Balthazar Castiglione, taking into account the
difference of age, and you will find a singular resemblance
between them. Is not the head similarly constructed ? Is
there not the same development of brow ? Do we not
find the same eyes and the same gaze, the same medium-
sized nose with a somewhat defective line, the same small
and amiable mouth, and finally the same beard of the same
colour, similarly worn and of similar cut ? The execution
alone differs. For the mannered grace of a quattrocentista
and the languor of expression demanded by the subject
treated by Lorenzo Costa, Raphael has substituted the
freedom of line of a real master and the natural simplicity
of a veritable portrait. Moreover, there is nothing surpris-
ing in meeting Balthazar Castiglione in the picture of the
painter from Ferrara. This picture was executed about
1506, and placed in the palace of St. Sebastian in Mantua.
Castiglione, then twenty-eight years of age had left the
court of Mantua for that of Urbino ; but Francisco
Gonzagua had very unwillingly resigned himself to this
separation, and he had great hopes of some day recapturing
158 BALTHAZAR CASTIGLIONE
the eminent man of whom he had been deprived. Would
it not be flattering to the secret desires of the prince to
place Balthazar Castiglione in the foreground of a romantic
scene in which Isabella d'Este is the central figure ? Was
it not a reminder that Castiglione had belonged to the
Marquis of Gonzaga, and even saying that he was still
regarded as belonging to him ? Historic agreement here,
therefore, is in accordance with the pictorial appearances.
What a delightful prelude that forms to the portrait painted
by Raphael ! Beside the man who has arrived at the
maturity of his age and the pinnacle of his station, beside
the personage represented in the reality of his life and of his
daily costume, there is the young man in the charm of his
springtide beauty, transfigured by allegory, accoutred with
mythological accessories and playing one of the most im-
portant parts in one of those courts that doated on literary
pretensions and classic erudition. Must he not have ap-
peared like this in 1505, when he recited before the
Duchess of Urbino his dialogue octaves of the drama of
Tirsis? Castiglione was then at the beginning of his
literary vocation. In 1515, he had reached its apogee, and
his marriage, by exalting his poetic faculties, was about to
inspire him with those Latin elegies that Scaliger and Paul
Jove declared, although quite wrongly, to be superior to
those by Propertius.
One of them is too closely connected with our subject
for us not to refer to here; that is the one that Count
Balthazar gives to his wife, Hippolita Torelli, in the pres-
ence of the portrait painted by Raphael. " Thy image,
BALTHAZAR CASTIGLIONE 159
painted by Raphael's hand can alone alleviate my cares.
That image constitutes my delight ; to it I direct my smiles ;
it is my joy ; I speak to it, and I am tempted to believe that
it is going to reply to my words. This portrait often
seems to want to say to me something of thy sentiments
and of thy will, and to speak to me in thy name. Thy
child recognizes thee, and tries to utter his earliest words
before thee. It is thus that I console myself and cheat the
days of their length." Could any one better express the
resemblance of this portrait, and what a speaking likeness
it was ?
When Balthazar Castiglione went to Spain as the
ambassador of Clement VII. at the court of Charles V.,
he took his portrait with him. After his death, this pre-
cious painting was brought back to Italy and entered the
cabinet of the Duke of Mantua, where it remained till the
beginning of the Seventeenth Century. Thence it passed
into the collection of Charles I. of England, and later was
bought by Van Usselen. Taken to the Low Countries,
it was successively copied by Rubens and Rembrandt.
(The latter is in the Albertina collection, at Vienna.) Put
up for sale on April gth, 1639, Sandrart bid it up to 3,400
florins but was distanced by Don Alfonso de Lopez, a
councillor of His Most Christian Majesty, and it was
knocked down to him for 3,500 florins. From the Lopez
gallery, it passed into the possession of Mazarin, and then
into the collection of Louis XIV. It was finally trans-
ferred from Versailles to the Louvre.
Painted originally on wood, this portrait has been trans-
l6o BALTHAZAR CASTIGLIONE
ferred to canvas. An engraving worthy at the same time
of Raphael and of Balthazar Castiglione has yet to be made
of this picture, which is thus described by Bailly : " A
picture representing a portrait called the Castilian, wear-
ing a sort of turban. Figure natural size, being two feet
five inches high and two feet broad. In its gilded frame,
Versailles, Petite Galerie du Roy." From this description,
we see how ignorant people were at the beginning of the
Eighteenth Century in France regarding the Sixteenth Cen-
tury in Italy. Bailly not only knew nothing of the polit-
ical role or of the literary importance of Castiglione, but he
had not even heard the name pronounced. He sees in the
portrait of this celebrated personage a man named or rather
surnamed the Castilian ; and his head covering (the toque
so characteristic from the point of view of costume in Italy
during the Sixteenth Century) he calls a turban. It is a
wonder that he did not take Castiglione for a Turk. '
Of the first order of painting, this portrait is of excep-
tional importance from the historical point of view. Cas-
tiglione was loyalty itself in an age of profound demoraliza-
tion. He was able to change masters without betraying any
one of them, to serve only good causes, to live in intimacy
with the powerful of the earth without losing anything of
his dignity. The dukes of Urbino, Guidobaldo de Monte-
feltro and Francisco Maria della Rovere cherished a great
affection for him. The Marquis of Mantua, Frederico
Gonzagua, who had been his first lord, considered that he
had come into his most precious possession when he got
him back. Count Balthazar in turn charmed Louis XII.,
BALTHAZAR CASTIGLIONE l6l
Henry VII., and Charles V. ; he deserved the confidence
of Julius II., Leo X., and Clement VII., by showing himself
superior in character to each of them. Great by birth, and
still greater in mind and heart, it is in art and letters that he
has survived till our day through the ages. From whatso-
ever side we regard him, we see a beautiful soul from one
end to the other of a beautiful life. That soul is still vi-
brant in Raphael's portrait.
THE HON. MRS. GRAHAM
(Gainsborough)
LORD RONALD SUTHERLAND GOWER
AS a colourist, Gainsborough can be placed next to
Van Dyck, and in England he created a new school
by his art of making even a lady's petticoat a thing of
beauty, a field of colour as beautiful as one of golden cow-
slips, or as gorgeous as one of scarlet poppies. He could
even throw a halo upon a ribbon or a scarf. Look at Mrs.
Siddons's dress in the National Gallery, or the Blue Boy's
costume at Grosvenor House, or at Mrs. Graham's portrait
in the National Gallery at Edinburgh. You will find there
is no exaggeration. The dresses are part of a perfect
scheme ; only Van Dyck, Rubens and Gainsborough
ever painted such textures in such a manner, and with
such a feeling for the beauty of colour as colour.
Gainsborough claims also a supreme rank amongst por-
trait-painters for the characteristic distinction that he be-
stowed upon many of his sitters. In the portraits, for in-
stance, of the lovely Mrs. Sheridan, first in that lovely
sketch of herself and her brother when children, now at
Knole, she has that pathetic expression which seems to
have grown upon her, for nothing can be sadder or more
beautiful than her look in the full-length seated portrait,
now at Lord Rothschild's, which the artist painted some
years later. In both pictures there is a sad detached ex-
THE HON. MRS. GRAHAM
THE HON. MRS. GRAHAM 163
pression in the eyes, an expression much intensified in the
second, as if she knew that her life was drawing near its
close. When one looks at this later portrait, one can be-
lieve that such a face could hardly be transfigured by any
change, however heavenly that change might be, so perfect
it is in its almost superhuman beauty. It was consistent
with such a face as that of Eliza Sheridan that she should
pass away almost whilst singing Handel's glorious " Waft
her, Angels."
Some of Gainsborough's portraits of ladies have a strik-
ing dignity, a particular distinction found in no other artist.
This is very marked in the portrait at Edinburgh of Mrs.
Graham, and reappears in a portrait of the same lady mas-
querading as a housemaid. It is also seen in the half-
length of Mrs. Siddons, and in many of the heads of hand-
some youths, especially in that of George Canning, painted
shortly after he left Eton, and in those of the Duke of
Hamilton and his brothers, now at Waddesdon : it is also
very marked in the unfinished portrait of the painter him-
self. It is the head of a great gentleman without any at-
tempt at pose, with frank eyes looking straight from the
picture, eyes full of brilliancy. No one could paint eyes
with such success as Gainsborough ; they appear to sparkle
and to see. Yet when you examine the pictures closely,
you find that the effect has been obtained by a few touches
of the brush but those touches could only be given by one
man.
Although we have no portrait of Emma, Lady Hamilton
from Gainsborough's brush, we have more than one by him
164 THE HON. MRS. GRAHAM
of a woman equally beautiful, but of a totally different type
of beauty. This was Mary Cathcart, daughter of Lord
Cathcart, who married Thomas Graham of Balgowan,
afterwards Lord Lynedoch, a distinguished officer, who was
one of Wellingtons most able captains in the Peninsular
War. In her Gainsborough seems to have found the type
of womanly beauty that he most admired, for not only did
he paint that superb life-size and full-length portrait which
is the gem of the National Gallery of Edinburgh, but he
repeated her face in several other portraits, and in one of
his most delightful unfinished works, the portrait of the so-
called Housemaid at Castle Howard, in which we find Mrs.
Graham's lovely features under the pretty cotton cap of a
maid, standing at a cottage door, broom in hand.
There is a pathetic story attached to the portrait of Mrs.
Graham in the Scottish National Gallery at Edinburgh.
When she sat to Gainsborough she was nineteen years old
and had just returned from her honeymoon, which had been
passed upon the Continent. She died when only thirty-
five, after a marriage of such unclouded happiness that her
heart-broken husband could not bear to look upon Gains-
borough's life-like portrait of her as a bride. He conse-
quently had it bricked up at one end of the drawing-room in
which it hung, and there it remained, forgotten until half a
century later, when some alterations being made in the
room it was disclosed as fresh, perfect, and as brilliant as
on the last day when the great painter passed his magic
brush over it.
This portrait was bequeathed to the Scottish National
THE HON. MRS. GRAHAM 165
Gallery by Mr. Graham of Redgorton ; and the public had
their first view of its incomparable loveliness at the Man-
chester Exhibition in 1857. Since this beautiful work
became national property few of Gainsborough's paintings
have had such a popular vogue : it has been engraved,
etched, copied and photographed times beyond number.
Nor is its popularity a matter of surprise. If one were
asked to give one's opinion as to which was the typical
work of Gainsborough's genius, I for one, would give mine
in favour of this portrait of Mary Graham, for it combines
in the intensely high-bred look of this beautiful young
creature in her shimmering silks, her exquisite features, and
even in the plume of ostrich feathers in her hair, all the
artist's finest qualities of distinction in portraiture and
beauty of colouring.
The unfinished life-size portrait of Mrs. Graham at
Castle Howard is said to have been seen in its uncompleted
state by the fifth Earl of Carlisle, who was so delighted
with it that he would not hear of the artist putting another
stroke upon it, and purchased it upon the spot. It is a
most interesting painting, for it shows the manner in which
Gainsborough " laid in " his figures, and the vigorous
brushwork. Some of the accessories are painted in Van-
dyke brown, the only colour besides being a few touches of
carmine in the cheeks and on the lips, but the small amount
of actual performance compared with the immense effect of
beauty is amazing, and to the artist, makes this unfinished
picture one of Gainsborough's most interesting works. It
is seven feet ten inches long, by four feet eleven inches
1 66 THE HON. MRS. GRAHAM
wide. In the portrait of Mrs. Graham at Edinburgh the
dress has been more elaborately painted than is usually the
case with Gainsborough's portraits of women. The upper
portion is creamy white, contrasting very happily with the
pale mulberry skirt, and this stands out in contrast with a
group of massive foliage against a somewhat lurid sky.
Gainsborough, after painting Mrs. Graham, seems to have
been ever haunted by her beautiful, sad young face, for, in
addition to her many portraits he introduced her in the
guise of a peasant into several of his landscapes.
THE HON. MRS. GRAHAM
( Gainsborough)
CH. MOREAU-VAUTHIER
ON the days when he was moved, when the view of
his model awakened the sacred enthusiasm, full of
simplicity and abandon, Gainsborough painted Mrs. Siddons
(National Gallery), Mary Robinson (Wallace Collection),
the Morning Walk (Lord Rothschild's collection), the
Princess Elizabeth of Hesse-Hambourg (Windsor), or Mrs.
Graham (Edinburgh National Gallery).
Burger says : " I fully believe that, after the Miss Nelly
O'Brien by Reynolds, Mrs. Graham is the most enchanting
of all Englishwomen in painting. ... A flower of
the aristocracy and a flower of colouring. One would
willingly say of this painting that it smells sweet.
If this portrait could speak it could relate a love romance
worthy to tempt the pen of an Edgar Allan Poe. The
daughter of Lord Cathcart and wife of General Graham,
Lord Lynedoch, Mrs. Graham died young, leaving a hus-
band inconsolable. When she was gone, her image
painted by Gainsborough remained. I have known poor
hearts that in such a case would have clung with all the
might of their tenderness to this reflection, to this phantom.
I could name an artist who spent hours in contemplation
1 68 THE HON. MRS. GRAHAM
before the portrait of the dead loved one. Seated before
the easel, the altar raised to the absent one, he kept his
gaze constantly fixed upon his spouse, took her for witness
for his words, caused her to share in the conversation like
a present living person, a silent but attentive listener.
This affecting scene finally ended in carrying away even
the visitor ; he surprised himself in mechanically addressing
himself now to one and now to the other member of this
pair who would not consent to be disunited ; and when he
took his leave, moved, troubled and stunned, he felt as if
he were returning from a world which had no knowledge
of the separations of death.
General Graham was not an artist, nor a dreamer, nor
one weakly to indulge tender reminiscences ; he loved with
his senses alone; doubtless he had never thought of a
higher life, perhaps, even, he did not believe in one. His
nature being a material, nervous and practical one, he was
overwhelmed on the first occasion when he saw his wife's
portrait again after her death. That canvas that celebrated
a past gone never to return appeared to him in the light of
a terrible irony, a crushing memory and a menace of eternal
desire. After fleeing from the chamber in which the
phantom reigned, he gave orders to have the windows and
doors sealed up. In that passionate nature, love inspired
the action of a poet. Being persuaded that in the frame
dwelt a sublime and redoubtable power which he must re-
spect, he gave it a tomb.
This masterpiece slept among the shadows for half a
century. When its asylum was finally violated, in the
THE HON. MRS. GRAHAM 169
chamber still intact, the little blue slippers of the portrait
were found beside the picture, the same slippers that the
young woman had worn when she went to pose before
Gainsborough.
LA DUCHESSE DE CHARTRES AS HEBE
(Nattier)
LADY DILKE
IN all portraits by Rigaud and Largilliere, in those even
by lesser men, such as Robert Tournieres, the step-
father of le Moine, whose work in this class may some-
times remind us of Rigaud, we find the practiced habit of
careful individualization of the sitter. This essential
feature of good portraiture never seems to have troubled
Jean-Marc Nattier, the painter who eclipsed Largilliere in
court favour. He entirely lacked the virility that distin-
guished the illustrious portrait painters of the previous gen-
eration. Bachaumont notes his gift for catching likenesses,
his skill in making each likeness flattering when dealing
with women, and adds u ses habillements sont galants, mats
manierez et sentent ce qtfon appelle le mannequin il
ebaucke bien et de bonne couleur et quand il vient a finlr il la
gaste, elle devient livide . . . son gendre M. Tocque, lui est
bien superieur." This desire to please, to flatter, to be
" galant " makes Nattier in some respects the typical por-
trait painter of the reign of Louis XV. ; he has undoubted
charm in spite of mannerisms verging on the absurd, but
his colour, especially in the flesh tints, too often justifies
Bachaumont's criticisms.
The story of his early days vividly reflects the want of
LA DUCHESSE DE CHARTRES AS HEBE 17 1
cohesion and direction from which the younger generation
of artists were then suffering. His godfather, Jean
Jouvenet, would have had him go to Rome (1709), but Nat-
tier found occupation in making drawings from the Rubens
series in the Luxembourg, more or less well, for engrav-
ing. He tried historical painting, but did not decide to pre-
sent himself to the Academy till he was over thirty, and
was then received a year later than his younger rival Jean
Raoux.
He had always inclined to this class of work, for as early
as 1712 we find him quarrelling with Klingstedt, the
miniature painter, for the price of a portrait which he had
painted, and which " ledit Clinchetet " had attempted to re-
move without paying for it. Mme. Tocque also tells us
that the first work produced by her father, after his recep-
tion by the Academy on the picture representing " Perseus
showing the head of Medusa at the wedding of Phyneus,"
which is now at Tours, was a large allegorical portrait of
the family of M. de la Motte, u Tresorier de France." She
adds, however, that the portraits which made his reputation
were those of Marshal Saxe, exhibited on the Place
Dauphine in 1725, of Mile, de Clermont and of Mile, de
Lambesc as Minerva, arming her younger brother, the
Comte de Brionne, which appeared at the Salon of 1737,
and which is now in the Louvre. The Mademoiselle de
Clermont aux eaux de Cbantilly is one of the finest Nattiers
of its class, for the style shows a rare combination of ease
and dignity, and the drawing is less defective than usual.
In the same group may be ranked his admirable portrait of
172 LA DUCHESSE DE CHARTRES AS HEBE
the Duchesse de Chartres en Hebe, deesse de la jeunesse, which,
exhibited at the Salon of 1745, is now at Stockholm. This
remarkable work is signed and dated " Nattier pinxit 1744,"
and he utilized the combination frequently, never, perhaps,
with better success than in the portrait of Louise- Henriette
de Bourbon- Conti, duchesse d* Orleans, painted in 1751. The
Duchess, wearing blue and white draperies, and accom-
panied by the necessary eagle, makes a pleasing picture in
a light scale of colour, the blue employed, as in the portrait
of the Duchesse de Chartres, is of an unusually fine
quality, but it shares the defects common to all Nattier's
work. Even Mademoiselle de Clermont loses that brilliant
vitality and character which Rosalba Camera has recorded
in the pastel still preserved at Chantilly, and wears the same
insipid air, accompanied by the same irreproachable perfec-
tions which Nattier has conferred with unstinted generosity
on all his sitters, whether he travesties the duchesses of the
house of Orleans as Hebes, or depicts as Vestals the less at-
tractive daughters of Louis XV.
Nattier's work, however, especially on a large scale, early
showed itself superior to that of Raoux. A fine official
portrait by him which was painted shortly after the execu-
tion of the Mademoiselle de Clermont, for it is signed and
dated "Nattier pinxit," 1732, figured in 1898 at the exhi-
bition of works of the French school in the Guildhall. It
was described by its owner, M. Bischoffsheim, as the
"Due de Penthievre, born 1725, and youngest legitimate
son of Louis XIV." Here we have a perfect Comedy of
Errors ! For " legitimate," we must, of course, read
LA DUCHESSE DE CHARTRES AS HEBE 173
"legitimized," but in 1732, the due de Penthievre, son
of the Comte de Toulouse, and grandson of Louis
XIV., was only seven years old, and the subject of
Nattier' s portrait is a man of at least seven or eight-and-
twenty. He wears magnificent state robes, and is accom-
panied by an attendant who draws away from the proud
figure, clad in grey and black, the folds of an immense
cloak, heavy with gold embroidery. It is probably the por-
trait of that Duke of Orleans, the son of the Regent, who
was then on the point of retiring to the Abbey of St.
Genevieve, where he spent the latter part of his life. In
any case, the work is so capable that it must have increased
the painter's reputation, and, in the following year, when
Raoux died and the Grand Prior had to appoint another
artist to finish his pictures in the Temple, Nattier was
obviously the proper person to select. There he continued
to receive, in the lodgings attached to his post, that crowd
of sitters whom he depicted under the most fantastic dis-
guises, naiads, nymphs, goddesses, all furnished with
the most appropriate emblems or attributes. u Nul plus
que lui, n'a fait une plus grande consommation cTaigles et ae
colombes" His situation at the Temple and the patronage
of the " plupart des princes et princesses de la maison de Lor-
raine " did not, however, bring him into direct relations with
the Court. It was not until 1740, when the Duchess of
Mazarin brought her two celebrated nieces, the Mademoi-
selles de Nesle, notorious in later years as the Duchesses
de Chateauroux and de Flavacourt, that fortune and favour
came to his doors. The portraits of these two girls, one as
174 LA DUCHESSE DE CHARTRES AS HEBE
" Point du Jour," the other as " Silence," attracted so
much attention that the Queen herself desired to see them,
and ordered of Nattier a portrait of Madame Henriette
" En Flore," which was immediately repeated, with a com-
panion portrait of Madame Adelaide " En Diane " for
Choisy. Both of these pictures have been identified by
M. de Nolhac in the collections at Versailles. That of
Madame Henriette is signed and dated 1742, and is cer-
tainly the original portrait, painted for the Queen, for, after
his reputation was made, it seems to have been Nattier' s
practice to sign only the first example of each of his
works. In this way we are guarded from accepting as his
the numerous repetitions made by his various copyists
Prevost, Coqueret, de la Roche, Hellard and others.
Now began the great period of Nattier's success, during
which he painted that important series of portraits which
includes every member of the royal family and every per-
sonage of note about the Court of Louis XV. and his
Queen. These Court portraits, many of which are
simply treated, are amongst his most honourable achieve-
ments. If his Madame Henriette " En Flore " is a charm-
ing work, his admirable portrait of her mother is even
better, and the Madame Adelaide of the Louvre loses no
attraction from the absence of all fantastic disguise. She
wears her blue velvet and sable with a little touch of digni-
fied formality ; her pretty flesh tints are carried out by the
white leaves of the book on her lap, and the coat of her
little dog and the architectural background- conventionally
helped by a red curtain, divided from the figure by a
LA DUCHESSE DE CHARTRES AS HEBE 175
cushion covered in deep orange has an appropriate and
stately air. The portraits of the " dames de France," all of
whom Nattier painted three times " en grands tableaux et en
pied" were in great favour, and replicas are not uncom-
mon. M. Groult, whose "portrait d'une Inconnue" in
blue and white with a rose in her hair, is one of the pret-
tiest and most individual of Nattier's small portraits, has
also a half-length repeat of the Madame Adelaide of the
Galerie La Caze, which is in a beautiful state, but Madame
Victoire en Vestale at Hertford House, is amongst the more
important. I am inclined though, on the whole, to agree
with Mariette, that his charming portrait of Marie Lec-
zinska, of which there is a version at Versailles, is his best
work. u Celuy qu'il fit de la Reyne, et qu*on a vu expose au
sallon des Tuilleries en 174.8, m*a paru un de ses meilleurs
outrages et que je mets fort audessus des portraits des dames
de France, qui pourtant out en un grand succes" Words
which we may apply to the portrait by him of the Queen,
which is, I believe, the original now at Hertford House.
In the following year, Nattier painted the Frankfort
banker Leerse and his wife, and from the journal of Leerse
we get a glimpse of Nattier's practice. "J'ai ete" he
writes on November 3, 1749, " ckez Nattier, peintre tres
fameux, dout je me suis tirer de meme que mon epouse. Je n'ai
ete assis que trois fois et elle quatre"
Casanova, who saw Nattier in 1750, tells us that "mal-
gr'e son age avance, son beau talent semblait etre dans toute sa
fraicheur" yet in spite of this youthful vigour and appar-
ently continued vogue, Nattier amassed no fortune. He
176 LA DUCHESSE DE CHARTRES AS HEBE
managed his affairs ill, he had a delicate wife and nine chil-
dren ; but he also reproached himself with lending money
too easily, and with spending too much on " curiositez"
an avowal which reminds us of the exquisitely enamelled
gold snuff-box stolen from him when " sortant du spectacle
des danseurs de corde etabli sur le boulevart" It must also
be borne in mind that the irregular and incomplete pay-
ment for Court commissions contributed, in all probability,
to disturb his fortunes.
EMMA LADY HAMILTON
(Romney)
HUMPHREY WARD
ROMNEY had reached his eight-and-fortieth year,
and had been living six years in what he himself
called "this cursed drudgery of portrait-painting," when
there came before him a new sitter, destined to exercise a
real influence upon his life, and, if we may so adapt a
phrase of Mr. Gladstone's " immeasurably to increase his
chances of immortality," and, by his agency, her own
chances too. This was Amy Lyon, or Emily or Emma
Hart, the future Lady Hamilton. In this place it is not
necessary to dwell at any length upon her adventures
before she came to Romney. The truth is that not much
is really known of those years, though there are semi-
mythical accounts in plenty, and we only begin to be
really acquainted with Emma when Romney paints her and
speaks of her, and, still better, when, in and after 1786,
she comes to write those letters to Charles Greville, to Sir
William Hamilton, to Romney, and finally to Nelson,
which are preserved in the late Mr. Alfred Morrison's col-
lection, and which were privately printed by him in two
invaluable volumes. There is one exception : the same
book gives us the letters exchanged between Emma and
Charles Greville in 1781, when her earliest protector, Sir
178 EMMA LADY HAMILTON
H. Featherstonhaugh, of Up Park, Hampshire, had cast
her adrift, and when she turned to Greville almost in
despair for herself and for the child that was about to be
born. Greville, the smiling voluptuary whom Sir Joshua
painted in one of his Dilettanti pictures, was not the man
to refuse such an appeal from a creature so exquisite as
Emma and her mother who passed under the name of
" Mrs. Cadogan " and installed them in a little house in
the Edgeware Road. There, in great retirement, she
passed five years of happiness, seeing nobody but a few of
Greville's friends, and among them his uncle, Sir William
Hamilton, the British Minister at Naples, whose wife was
at that time dying, and who seems to have been already
impressed by the auburn-haired goddess whom Greville
described as his " tea-maker of the Edgeware road." And
in the beginning of 1782 she was brought to Romney to
sit for her portrait. As Greville was brother of Lord
Warwick, several members of whose family had already
been painted by Romney with the greatest success, it was
natural enough that he should bring his mistress to Caven-
dish Square, though he can hardly have suspected that
there would be that pre-ordained harmony as the
Eighteenth Century philosophers would have said be-
tween artist and sitter as quickly proved to be the case.
We know that in later years many painters tried their skill
upon her Reynolds once, Madame Vigee Le Brun at least
twice, Angelica KaufFmann probably, and many an Italian
painter and sculptor to whom she sat in Sir William's
painting room at Naples. But none of these artists, not
EMMA LADY HAMILTON ("NATURE")
EMMA LADY HAMILTON 179
even Reynolds himself, in the well-known Bacchante,
made of " the most beautiful woman in the world " any-
thing that was distinctive, anything that was much removed
from the commonplace. It is Romney alone who has pre-
served the life of those wonderful features, of that radiant
hair, and of the multitudinous phases of expression through
which this born actress, inspired by his suggestions, passed
seemingly at will. Her name remains inseparably bound,
though in very different ways, with the names of two great
men, a hero and a painter. In the Cbronique scandaleuse of
a hundred years ago, Emma belongs to Nelson; in the
history of art she belongs to Romney.
The Diary for the early months of 1782 has a large
number of entries of " a lady at 12," " a lady at 3," " Mrs.
at y 2 past 12," and so on, but it is not till April 20
that we find the entry " Mrs. H* at 1 2," a note frequently
repeated either as " Mrs. H l ," or " Mrs. H." The form
of the entry is significant. It seems to mean that Greville,
conscious of the irregularity of their relations, wished her
to be anonymous at first, and that in a few weeks this had
made way for what is so rare in the Diaries, the familiarity
of an abbreviation. Be this as it may, it is interesting to
learn from John Romney's Memoirs what the first portrait
was. " It was," he says, " that beautiful one, so full of
naivete, in which she is represented with a little spaniel
dog under her arm." This is the picture that was made
popular by Meyer's contemporary engraving called Nature,
coloured impressions of which have often been sold, during
the prevalence of the present craze, for two hundred pounds
l8o EMMA LADY HAMILTON
or more. But what shall we say of the original picture,
for which Greville paid twenty guineas ? It went subse-
quently to Sir William Hamilton, was sold at his sale to a
Mr. Lister Parker, and passed afterwards to Mr. Fawkes
of Farnley, Turner's friend. After the last Romney exhi-
bition Mr. Fawkes's son yielded to the golden importuni-
ties of a buyer, and sold the picture ; and since that time I
believe that it has been sold at least twice, the last time for
something close upon .20,000.
Doubtless Romney himself thought less of the Nature
than of the full-length that he began at the same time,
the Circe with the beasts that should have been painted by
Gilpin, but were not. Always hankering after some mode
of escape from " the cursed drudgery," he found in Emma
not only a woman of perfect beauty both of form and
feature, but a born painter's model a woman who had an
instinct for posing in character, and who could adapt her-
self with the readiness of genius to any part that the imagi-
nation or reading of the painter or his friends might chance
to suggest.
Even his devotion to the adored features could not cure
Romney of that inveterate habit to which Cumberland and
all the other commentators refer his swiftness in begin-
ning, his slowness or indecision in finishing. He finished
the St. Cecilia, the Sensibility ; one, perhaps two, versions
of the Bacchante; Cassandra, which went to the Shake-
speare Gallery ; the Alope, and the Circe ; and above all that
famous Spinstress, which Greville would have so much
liked to keep, but was obliged to forego. Besides these,
EMMA LADY HAMILTON l8l
there were several finished pictures that were actual por-
traits, though some of them bore fancy names. Nature we
have mentioned ; there was also the equally famous Emma
or The Straw Hat, and, besides one or two more, there
was the half-length in a black gown and pink petticoat
" sent to Naples," one of the pictures painted for the in-
satiable Sir William Hamilton, who must fill his house
with pictures of her, good like Romney's, or bad like the
Roman artists'. And finally there were the two pictures
of Calypso and A Magdalen, painted in 1791, for the
Prince of Wales, and therefore of special interest in rela-
tion to the lady herself.
How Romney regarded her departure in 1786, we are
left to infer from a few scattered indications, and from his
known conduct after her return and marriage. Evidently
it made him very miserable. His work went on unabated ;
sitters for 1786 are as numerous as ever, and he is painting
some of his finest pictures, such as the H^ilbraham-Bootle
Boys, the Mrs. Carmhhael Smyth, and the Lady Milner.
But overwork is no remedy for what is really a bereavement,
and it is at this time that we begin to find increasing refer-
ences to the depression of spirits which is to characterize
Romney henceforth, and to lead to hypochondria, and
finally to develop into that sad state into which he sank
soon after his sixtieth year. Sometimes indeed he seeks
consolation in working at the pictures that he has begun
from her. It was in November of this year, eight months
after her departure, that Hay ley " happened to find him one
morning contemplating by himself a recently-coloured head.
1 82 EMMA LADY HAMILTON
on a small canvas. It was the Sensibility, with Emma's
features. Next year BoydelPs great scheme of the Shake-
speare Gallery was projected, Romney having been one of
the first artists consulted (his son claims that the scheme
itself was due to Romney's suggestion) ; and in the three
pictures that he painted for it, The Tempest, The Infant
Shakespeare Nursed by Tragedy and Comedy, and Cassandra,
it was Emma again, though she herself was far away at
Naples, that served as model, the figure of Comedy in the
second picture being taken from her.
Of direct evidence of the state of his feelings towards
Emma during these years of her absence there is but little ;
while on her side we have only one or two perfectly calm
references to him, as when she tells Greville that she has
" wrote to Romney " to send to Naples " the picture in the
black gown."
At last, at the end of May (1791) a great event occurs
that pours new life into him, or, as the pedantic Hayley
puts it, " raises to joyous elevation, the sinking spirits of
the artist." Emma comes home ! She has not announced
herself to appear; and one morning "in a Turkish habit,"
she pays the painter a surprise visit, with Sir William Ham-
ilton in her train. The marriage is determined on ; but
meanwhile it will give pleasure to all three that Emma
should sit daily to her painter. It will gratify her vanity,
give scope to her histrionic talent, increase the pride of her
future husband, and make Romney believe once more that
life is worth living. On June 19, he writes to Hayley :
" At present, and the greatest part of the summer, I shall
EMMA LADY HAMILTON 183
be engaged in painting pictures from the divine lady. I
cannot give her any other epithet, for I think her superior
to all womankind." All the world is following her, talking
of her, " so that if she had not more good sense than van-
ity, her brain must be turned."
But she comes constantly to be painted, and he has put
on record the names of the pictures that he has begun a
Joan of Arc; a Magdalen and a Bacchante for the Prince of
Wales ; a companion to the Bacchante is being planned ;
and a Constance for the Shakespeare Gallery, though in point
of fact, this last was never even begun. The Diaries show
us how frequent were the sittings ; from June 2 " Mrs.
H." comes every second day, being generally the first sitter
at nine in the morning. Soon, however, a cloud comes
over the " sun of his Hemispheer " ; the overwrought painter
yields for a bitter moment, not to jealousy indeed, for he
well knows that she belongs to Sir William, but to the
dread that he is losing her friendship. He goes to see her
act at Sir William's house, admires her prodigiously for
" her acting is simple, grand, terrible and pathetic," and
tells her so, to her great satisfaction. " But alas, soon after
I discovered an alteration in her conduct to me. A cold-
ness and neglect seemed to have taken the place of her re-
peated declarations of regard." The poor man is pro-
foundly miserable, but after a fortnight, when she has
returned from the country, she comes to sit again, and sits
every day ; and " since she has resumed her former kind-
ness," writes the heart-sick painter, " my health and spirits
are quite recovered." Romney even gives a party in her
184 EMMA LADY HAMILTON
honour it is the only occasion on which we hear of his
putting his good house in Cavendish Square to such an ex-
cellent use. " She performed in my house last week, sing-
ing and acting before some of the nobility with most aston-
ishing power. She is the talk of the whole town, and
really surpasses everything, both in singing and acting, that
ever appeared. Gallini offered her two thousand pounds a
year, and two benefits, if she would engage with him, on
which Sir William said pleasantly, that he had engaged her
for life." And finally, in early September come two sig-
nificant entries in the Diary :
Sept. 5. Mon. Mrs. Hart at 9.
Sept. 6. Tues. Lady Hamilton at n.
Early that Tuesday morning Emma had been married to
Sir William Hamilton at Marylebone Church, whence she
must have driven straight back to Cavendish Square to give
one last sitting her first and only one under her new name
and in her regularized position to the devoted painter.
The departure for Naples took place very soon afterwards ;
there was an affectionate leave-taking, and Romney and
Emma saw each other no more. She returned to England
indeed before he died, and spoke kindly of him to Hayley,
apparently making tender inquiries about him, and still more
about the portrait of her that he had promised to give to her
mother, which was duly handed over to her by Hayley on
December 13, 1800; but he was too ill to return to Lon-
don ; the peasant wife was nursing him ; he had no mind
or powers left for the Lady from the land of the Sirens.
EMMA LADY HAMILTON 185
For the first half-century or more after his death his work
was neglected. Hidden in private houses, the public never
saw it; his biographies did not interest people; he had left
no group of influential friends to hand down his memory.
There was no such machinery of celebrity in his case as
had existed so abundantly in Sir Joshua's, who lived not
only by his pictures but by a multitude of lovely engravings
and by the written and spoken word of colleagues, pupils,
and friends. So Romney's fame may almost be said to have
died away during the dark ages between 1820 and 1850;
and Christie's catalogues show that in those days he was
ignored by collectors and by galleries, such as then existed.
In the general revival of aesthetic intelligence which be-
gan about the middle of the century a revival of which
the Pre-Raphaelite movement, the eloquence of Ruskin,
and the growth of a new class of wealthy amateurs were so
many symptoms and conditions, Romney began to emerge
once more. "Old Masters" exhibitions, after 1870,
brought him before the eyes of everybody, at a time when,
strange to say, a couple of pretty but unimportant heads
alone represented him in the National Gallery. It is un-
necessary to follow any further the growth of his popular-
ity, for it is written in a score of Romney publications, in a
hundred new prints, and in the records of a multitude of
exhibitions, culminating in that which was held all through
the year 1900 at the Grafton Gallery. Enough to say that
the world has once more discovered, that a fine Romney is
a fine possession ; while those judges whose interest in art
is wholly non-acquisitive have thought it worth while to
1 86 EMMA LADY HAMILTON
take him seriously, and have on the whole decided, though
discriminatingly and with many reserves, that the amateurs
are right.
The first point on which all the authorities agree is as to
Romney's sincerity. Never was there an artist who lived
more wholly in his art. " In his painting-room," said his
pupil Robinson, " he seemed to have the highest enjoyment
of life, and the more he painted the greater flow of spirits
he acquired." It is true that, by one of the ironies of his-
tory, it was not primarily in portrait-painting that he was
interested, but in those larger schemes and subjects to
which, according to the classification of his time, he gave a
higher place. u His heart and soul," said his friend the
great Flaxman, " were engaged in the pursuit of historical
and ideal painting " the paintings in which he was des-
tined to produce but few finished works, and those failures.
Men and women, in themselves, interested him but little j
and from this fact there came at once his shrinking from
society and his limitations as a portrait-painter. " A new
face," writes one of the keenest and, in Romney's case,
one of the most severe of critics, 1 " set him no new prob-
lem " ; that is to say, he was not a searching investigator
into character, as were the great Florentines, and as Velas-
quez was, and as are the best of the moderns. " He
merely moved the parts of the mask a little about, so that
the features by their spacing might approach to a likeness,"
and hence a superficial mutual resemblance among Rom-
neys, a certain clinging to a pattern in the forms of faces,
1 Mr. D. S. MacColl.
EMMA LADY HAMILTON 187
in the set of the head, in the way the sitter looks out of the
canvas. It is curious that Flaxman, in his studied praise
of Romney, and Gainsborough, in his spontaneous and un-
willing praise of Reynolds, should have happened on the
same word u various." Everybody admits it in the case of
the great President ; but it is not so true of Romney, who
seems to have been constantly thinking, as he posed a sitter,
of form as the antique sculptors whom he loved had taught
him to regard it.
What is it, then, that gives Romney his hold upon this
generation, and will continue to give him a hold so long as
a love of art endures among us ? In part, of course, it is
because he shares with Reynolds and Gainsborough the
good fortune of having kept alive for us a society of which
the fascination is enduring that limited and privileged
society of the Eighteenth Century, which has realized such
a perfect art of living, and with which we can clasp hands
across the gulf, as we cannot with the men and women of
Charles the Second's time, or even of Queen Anne's.
Much more is it because, by temperament and training,
Romney was an artist in love with loveliness ; because he
found it in the women and children of his time, and
stamped it on countless canvases.
To our problem-haunted painters of to-day, it may seem
that his sense of form, as the above-quoted critic has said,
was " generic and superficial " ; they may condemn him
because he did not try to penetrate deep into character, and
because he simplified too much, like the Greek sculptors.
The lover of mere human beauty will care little for such
1 88 EMMA LADY HAMILTON
objections, provided that a portrait gives him the essentials
of a beautiful face
" The witchery of eyes, the grace that tips
The inexpressible douceur of the lips,"
and has blended them with the aristocratic dignity of the
Lady Sligo, or with the melting sweetness of many of the
sketches of Emma. This is what he finds in every first-
rate Romney; and he finds much more. He finds pure
and unfaded colour, the fruit of the painter's knowledge
and of a self-restraint which forbade him to search for com-
plex effects through rash experiments. He finds a quality
of painting which, though it wants the subtlety and " pre-
ciousness " that Gainsborough reached instinctively and Sir
Joshua by effort, is a quality to which nobody but a master
can attain. To be convinced of this, we have only to look
closely at the brushwork of the eyes in any of the National
Gallery Romneys, or the draperies in such pictures as the
Lady Warwick and Children or the Lady Derby. Again,
our lover of beauty finds his satisfaction and here the
most exacting painter-critic will be at one with him in
the u large and unfrittered design " which is the mark of
almost every mature Romney without exception. Of all
his natural gifts this was the greatest ; it was because he
was a born designer that he found such pleasure and stim-
ulus in the Stanze of the Vatican ; that he surrounded him-
self with fine casts from the antique, and " would sit and
consider these in profound silence by the hour " ; and that,
in his happiest moments, he would produce a group like
EMMA LADY HAMILTON 189
the Gower Children^ or such a masterpiece of line as the
Lady Bell Hamilton. Of course he painted too much;
that is agreed. He worked too hard ; in his leisure hours
he was too often alone ; he was unfortunate in the fact that
his principal friend was not a Diderot or a Johnson, but a
Hayley. Hence a certain amount of hasty production, a
chronic surrender to depression, a constant search for sub-
jects not suited to his art, or to any art. But when all is
said, he remains one of the greatest painters of the Eight-
eenth Century, and one of the glories of the English
name.
THE SIBYL AND THE LADY WITH A FAN
(Velasquez)
CARL JUSTI
JEALOUSY formed an ingredient of the Oriental ele-
ment in the Spanish nature. How reluctantly must a
contemporary of Calderon have permitted a being to sit to
a painter, whom nobody could look upon with indifferent
eyes ! Ladies of rank lived in a half monastic, half Ori-
ental seclusion, never appearing on the promenades or at
the Corsi, as in Italy. Their intercourse abroad was
mainly restricted to visits in sedan chairs especially in the
wealthy nunneries ; even Mass was usually attended in the
family oratories.
As, however, European customs had penetrated into the
Court circles, female portrait painting also was tolerated,
but still surrounded with all kinds of precautions. The
originals appear to have been little subject to the amiable
weaknesses of the sex ; those qualities, which, at least ac-
cording to the poets, constituted one half of the feminine
charms, were rigorously banished, and the expression of
dignity or cold pride, became the rule.
Hence it is not very surprising that Spanish galleries
contain so few passable portraits of women, while the
category of "beauties" is scarcely represented at all.
Palomino alludes to the custom in France, Germany, and
Italy (were he writing at present he would have to head
THE LADY WITH A FAN
THE SIBYL AND THE LADY WITH A FAN IQI
the list with England), of exhibiting large and small por-
traits of distinguished ladies " without prudery or disguise,"
adding that in Spain people were much more punctilious.
And this he wrote under the Bourbon regime (1723). No
doubt in the time of Philip II., when the spirit of the
Renaissance was most potent, fine Court ladies were
painted for the Prado Portrait Gallery, but even these are
by the Dutch Antonio Moro. Otherwise, portraits of
" beauties " were imported from Venice, for instance ;
and in the Museum is still to be seen a Courtesan by
Tintoretto, of which several copies have been made. And
Titian himself sent to Madrid that likeness of his fair
Lavinia, adapted, however, to Spanish taste as Herodias
with the head of John the Baptist.
At the Court of Philip IV., also, relieved as it otherwise
was from many prejudices, our master was not called upon
to paint many ladies. Is this to be regretted ? No doubt
that Richard Ford declares that " Velasquez was emphatic-
ally a man, and the painter of men," as if an artist of
such vigorous characterization could have had no vocation
for female loveliness. But even in aesthetic questions how
often is the a priori necessity of a fact demonstrated be-
fore the fact itself is established ! It was forgotten that
his portraits of little girls, such as the Infanta Margaret
and her associates and his own daughter, are unapproach-
able, exciting the unqualified admiration of painters,
connoisseurs, and unprofessionals alike. And such sub-
jects are, to say the least, not easier than full grown
women.
THE SIBYL AND THE LADY WITH A FAN
Still that prejudice is apparently justified by the catalogue
of the master's extant works of this class. The Madrid
Museum has 'only one genuine Spanish female portrait by
him, and although there are numerous royal princesses, they
are merely replicas of a very limited number of originals,
which, moreover, belong to a foreign (Teutonic) stock.
Few of them have sufficient personal charms or mental
endowments to awaken the observer's interest.
In the case of Philip's first Queen, Isabella of Bourbon,
most noble-minded of all contemporary women, the
artist seemed to have lacked full facility for study, as she
was an unwilling subject. The second and very insignifi-
cant Mariana of Austria became yearly more repellent.
To the fundamental principle of suppressing all appearance
of amiability was here added a monstrous style of dress,
which exceeded everything hitherto devised in deforming
the human figure. Even Calderon remarked that the
etiquette and fashion of the times were no improvement to
beauty.
However, our master's love of truth by no means tended
to soften, but rather to accentuate, those elements with a
precision more desirable in the chronicler than in the
artist, and the natural consequence is that his ladies'
gallery is scarcely calculated to evoke enthusiasm. But
was it his business to improve Nature after a fashionable
formula in the manner of the Mignards and Lelys ? In
the presence of such models and of such a rigid etiquette
must not all Art have felt itself helpless ? Even such a
depictor of beauty as Mengs has given us in the Electress
THE SIBYL AND THE LADY WITH A FAN 1 93
Maria Josepha one of the ugliest female heads that ever
wore a crown. With better subjects would not Velasquez
have shown himself in quite a different light ? In my
opinion this question may be answered in the affirmative,
if the facts are weighed and not merely counted that is,
if we carefully consider the few extant portraits of genuine
Spanish women known to be by his hand.
There are three only, and unfortunately all three of un-
known persons.
The only Spanish lady in the Madrid Gallery, and the
earliest of the three is the so-called Sibyl. It is first heard
of in the St. Ildefonso inventory of 1774, where it is de-
scribed as a woman in profile holding a tablet. That it
represents the artist's wife is possible, but not yet shown to
be probable, for a resemblance can scarcely be detected
with any of the women in the Vienna family picture.
The portrait is remarkable as the only instance in which
the painter has selected a profile more of a plastic than
pictorial character. The lineaments of this profile are less
beautiful than interesting, more full of character than
pleasing, but in any case purely Spanish. The clear
straight open brow, such as recurs in all the following
portraits, combined with the large deep-set eye calmly
gazing into the distance imparts to the features the breath
of intelligence. Its serious cast is enhanced by the
shadows over the forehead and eyes caused by the light
coming from behind. Is it the glance of the artist or the
seer ? Unfortunately the tablet which .should have an-
jswered this question is a blank.
194 THE SIBYL AND THE LADY WITH A FAN
The grey gown and yellow mantle are of almost ideal
simplicity. Hence she would seem to have wished her-
self represented in some poetic character, perhaps after the
model of some classic work known to her, just as
Domenichino, for instance, painted his fair Maria Sibylla
as Cecilia or the Cumaean Sibyl. Only one can scarcely
recall a representation of the Sibyl in the severe sculptur-
esque style of this Spanish dame, who seems in the
middle of her twenties, when, according to Lope, Spanish
beauties begin to fail.
But with all this simplicity of treatment special attention
has been paid to the hair, which seems to betray the artist ;
only in this respect what Spanish belle is not an artist ?
The rich black frizzy mass is rolled up above the forehead
like a natural diadem, and covers part of the cheek. Be-
hind, it is gathered up by a kind of netted yellow band
from which a wide green end falls down the back. The
finely-modelled neck is encircled by a string of pearls and
a narrow frill.
The picture is painted on a yellowish-grey ground, with
a free broad touch in smooth, thin colours. The grey
tone, as well as the profile which painters regard as in-
sufficient for the likeness in portraits, agrees well with the
character of reserve impressed upon this noble figure,
which is turned from the light and from the observer.
This enigmatic Sibyl peering into space is followed by a
figure, which, on the contrary, gazes with almost disturbing
effect on the spectator. The Lady with a Fan was sold at
the Lucien Bonaparte sale (1861) for thirty-one pounds,
THE SIBYL AND THE LADY WITH A FAN 1 95
passing afterwards to the Aguado Gallery, where a very
unsuccessful steel engraving was made. At the Aguado
sale (March, 1843), it was bought for 1,275 francs by a
Mr. Moran, apparently acting for Lord Hertford, and it
now adorns the gallery of Sir Richard Wallace; size,
36^x27 inches. "There is no other painting that better
represents both Spain and Velasquez," said Thore, who saw
it at the Manchester Exhibition.
Here are the eyes of a Juno, small, delicately-shaped
snub nose, warm, glowing carnations, well-formed cherry-
red mouth, long full neck with string of dark beads, but at
too obtuse an angle with the bust ; hair brushed back from
the somewhat hard forehead, and then brought round in soft
brown locks to the cheeks. Thus she stands, turned to her
right, looking front, and gracefully holding the hem of the
black lace mantilla high up on her bosom. This manto was
one of the most " killing " articles of the Madrilena's
wardrobe, often cursed by husbands and fathers, once even
denounced by the censure of a royal edict (1639). By its
means they could, with a simple movement of the dainty
little ringers, either completely veil themselves or coquet-
tishly show just one eye, or else, as here, enframe in sombre
black the loveliest of bosoms, thanks to this low cut olive-
brown dress.
Besides the quite dark or deadened contrasts of the attire,
the narrow crimped hem of the chemisette (as Titian recom-
mends) serves to give a still warmer tone to the southern
complexion, the freshness of which is secured by an un-
usually rich impasto.
196 THE SIBYL AND THE LADY WITH A FAN
The hands are concealed in loose light gray leather
gloves, with lace cuffs ; but besides the beaded necklace no
jewels. The right hand holds the fully unfurled fan, which
is turned to the observer like an eloquent hieroglyphic.
On the left arm hangs the many-coiled rosary with its
bluish bow. Thus we have here the three dumb instru-
ments, of which every Spanish belle is a perfect connoisseur,
the mantilla and fan for action, the rosary to mask the
attack, for she is now in her " war paint." The glance of
the brown eyes is proud, almost hard, a strategic glance,
which under outward coldness conceals impatience and
passion. It conveys a question, if not an ultimatum.
Here is the moment for a bold word ; hesitate an instant,
and she will never forgive you.
Who is she and whence comes she ? Probably from
Mass in the Vitoria, the " ladies' parish," as Tirso calls it,
from which it is but a step to the Calle Mayor, " where
love is bartered by measure and weight."
Or she might suit the popular avenue of the Prado;
only the painter has indicated nothing, merely giving her a
greenish-grey background. Is it one of those Circe's, for
whom thejeunesse dor'ee of those days " went to the dogs " ?
or a Toledan flirt of the comedies, one of those who on
receiving the holy water * flashed back a glance that turned
the heads of cavaliers on the eve of their wedding ? A
maze of coldness and fire, of bigotry and worldliness, of
pride and coquetry, or worse ?
1 It was the fashion for gallants to stand at the font and hand the holy
water on the tips of their fingers to the senoras passing in and out.
THE SIBYL AND THE LADY WITH A FAN 197
Of our unknown there is another portrait which seems
more representative and less motived than this. Since the
middle of the Eighteenth Century it has been in the Duke
of Devonshire's Chiswick House collection (size 28x18^
inches). The chief difference lies in the dress, which is of
richer, more costly materials, especially lace of brighter
colour, yet more quiet and aristocratic. The plain black
mantilla has been exchanged for one of rich lace, whose
hem cut in floral pattern encroaches more on the face.
She wears a pearl necklace and a lemon-coloured silk gown,
with black lace volants on underskirt and sleeves. On the
other hand the bosom is covered by a white lace collar, and
instead of the elegant fan the right hand holds a meaning-
less handkerchief. But the large gloves have been forgot-
ten, and yet the hands are by no means " five-leaved lilies."
Although merely sketched, they are strong, which for a
Spanish lady of quality means much.
Possibly this richly-arrayed figure served as an experi-
ment, the results of which were turned to account for the
other portrait. The canvas seems cut very close.
Lastly, an authentic portrait of a very elegant lady is
figured in the third picture, which passed from the Dudley
Gallery to the Berlin Museum. Its pedigree goes no farther
back than the collection of Sebastian Martinez in Cadiz,
although not mentioned by A. Ponz in his description of
that place. In the year 1867 it was purchased by Lord
Ward of Dudley from the Salamanca Gallery for ninety-
eight thousand francs.
The figure stands out very plastically from the light grey
198 THE SIBYL AND THE LADY WITH A FAN
ground, almost in the form of two super-imposed cones,
with the conventional pose and gestures of the portraits of
the royal princesses. The shape of the farthingale and the
hair are also in the same fashion, which lasted from the
third to the fifth decade of the Seventeenth Century. She
has the easy attitude of refined culture, although the proud
bearing, the firm grasp of the arm of the red chair, and the
expression seem to betray more character than is seen in
the royal ladies.
MRS. SIDDONS
(<S/r Thomas Lawrence)
LORD RONALD SUTHERLAND GOWER
TTOLLOWING closely upon the masters of the
* Eighteenth Century Reynolds, Gainsborough and
Romney Lawrence at once stepped into the position of
the foremost portrait-painter in England, a position he
maintained until the day of his death. Like the greatest
artists that the world has ever seen, he expressed the spirit
of his age in his portraits; and if that age was somewhat
lacking in picturesqueness, Lawrence's talent receives an
added lustre from the fact that he has given us the loveliest
women and the most important men of his time, with a
fidelity, a consummate art, and an acute perception of char-
acter that the mere vagaries of fashion can neither conceal
nor trammel.
Thomas Lawrence was a most precocious child, and we
hear that when only five years of age he would stand on
the table and recite Milton and the odes of Collins to an
admiring crowd ; his drawings also at that early age showed
real talent, his portraits being considered excellent. Even
when a child, Lawrence drew eyes most beautifully. " In
the painting of the human eye," writes Cunningham,
" Lawrence became afterwards unrivalled," and in later
years Fuseli, the eccentric Swiss Academician, compared
20O MRS. SIDDONS
Lawrence's painting of eyes to that of Titian. Among
others of the admirers of the infant prodigy was the great
Siddons, who, in her solemn way, declared that young
Lawrence's voice was harmonious and his action just.
It was at Bath that Lawrence commenced his life-work.
At first his sketches and portraits, had been priced at a
guinea, but he now raised them to a guinea and a half.
The great Siddons sat to him in the role of Aspasia in the
Grecian Daughter, and the portrait was considered so suc-
cessful that it was engraved, and proved highly remunera-
tive. Before Lawrence was twelve years of age he became
the rage of all the rank and fashion of the town.
A great misfortune for Lawrence was undoubtedly the
fashion of the dress of the day. The French Revolution
which was then causing the monarchs of Europe to tremble
upon their thrones, had, among vaster changes, obliterated
the picturesqueness of both male and female sitters of the
upper classes. The first effect was the appearance of the
atrocious " high hat " in the place of the shapely tricorne ;
hair-powder went out and pomatum came in ; men wore
pyramidally shaped coats and collars with numerous waist-
coats overlapping each other, Hessian boots, and great-
coats with frogs and lapels lined with fur. Ladies appeared
in voluminous turbans in which were poised Birds of Para-
dise, and had their waists immediately below their bare arms,
up which gloves were loosely drawn till they reached the
shoulder, from which stood puffed-out sleeves, graphically
described as shoulders of mutton. Their hair was arranged in
glossy curls so as to completely hide the eyes and forehead.
MRS. SIDDONS
MRS. SIDDONS 2OI
Such monstrosities of fashion had superseded, in the early
years of the century, the superbly satin-coated and be-
ruffled dandies, and the prodigiously tall dressed-out hair of
the dames of the latter part of the Eighteenth Century, and
all the picturesque pomp and splendour of the "old
regime." The Brighton Pavilion and the u first Gentleman
in Europe " had stepped into the place of Versailles and
Marie Antoinette.
For the next thirty years Lawrence worked assiduously
at painting these preposterously accoutred men and women,
and seems to have revelled in the very ugliness of the
fashion. Although simple in his own attire and always
wearing a black coat, there is hardly a picture by him in
which his sitters were not, even the men, in red or green,
or blue or purple. Lawrence, of course, could not be ex-
pected to alter the fashion of the dress of his day, but he
certainly did not seem to see its ludicrousness. He painted
every one who was celebrated and beautiful, in fact, any one
who paid to be painted, and the consequence of this plethora
of portrait-painting was that he lost much individuality,
getting into a groove, and giving little character to his por-
traits ; and even Kemble as Hamlet, as Rolla, as Cato, or as
Coriolanus, is always Lawrence plus Kemble.
His protrait of Mrs. Siddons herself, whom he almost
idolized, lacks the grandeur that Gainsborough, and the sub-
limity that Reynolds gave to her majestic face ; and the
heavy-browed Thurlow has little of the almost terrific
majesty of judicial wisdom that Romney transferred to his
canvas. Lawrence lacked genius ; he was determined to
202 MRS. SIDDONS
please in his portraiture, and no painter was more successful
in his undertaking. His was the art which was certain to
succeed among princes and fine ladies, high dignitaries and
grand seigneurs ; but contrast, for instance, Reynolds's por-
trait of Heathfield in the National Gallery, with that of
Wellington by Lawrence at Windsor Castle : how feeble
the latter appears ! And yet surely the hero of Waterloo
was a better subject to paint than he of Gibraltar.
Lawrence's method of work was as follows : He al-
ways painted standing; on one occasion he worked all
through the day, through that night, the next day, and all
through the night following. At the first sitting he care-
fully drew in the outline of his sitter's face in pencil on the
canvas. At the second he commenced to colour, but he
always carefully painted in the head before sketching more
than the shoulders of the figure as any art-student may
see in his unfinished portrait of Wilberforce in the Na-
tional Portrait Gallery, or the brilliant sketch of a woman's
head in the National Gallery. Often he kept his sitters for
three hours at a stretch, and sometimes required as many as
eight or nine sittings. All this proved how hard and how
conscientiously he worked. Some of his more rapid por-
traits are better than his more finished and coloured ones.
Haydon, the ambitious painter of historical subjects,
whose writing is so superior to his painting, and whose end
was so tragic, cordially disliked Lawrence and all his works.
He has written of him as follows : " Lawrence was suited
to the age and the age to Lawrence. He flattered its van-
ities, pampered its weaknesses^ and met its meretricious
MRS. SIDDONS
taste. His men were all gentlemen with an air of fashion
and the dandyism of high life his women were delicate but
not modest, beautiful but not natural, they appear to look
that they may be looked at, and to languish for the sake of
sympathy." The portrait-painter Opie said of his great
rival, that Lawrence u made coxcombs of his sitters, and
his sitters made a coxcomb of Lawrence." Both of these
criticisms are unfair to Sir Thomas, but they are, in a cer-
tain measure, true. Richard Redgrave in his work A Cen-
tury of Painters, is more just when he writes that cc many
of Lawrence's faults arose from his courteous weakness to
his sitters; they lived and moved in the atmosphere of
fashionable life, then far more exclusive than at present,
and he submitted to their dictation ; hence it was said that
' his women look the slaves of fashion, glittering with pearls
and ornaments.' Something also must be attributed to his
over-taxed powers, which obliged him to give over much of
the making-up of his pictures to his assistants : backgrounds
and even hands were entrusted to them ; and the numerous
repetitions of public portraits which were called for, were
necessarily the almost entire work of the Simpsons, father
and son, Pegler and others, who were in Lawrence's con-
stant employment."
Wilkie has left an interesting account of the manner in
which Sir Thomas worked : " He wished to seize the ex-
pression rather than to copy the features. His attainment
of likeness was most laborious. One distinguished person,
who favoured him with forty sittings for his head alone, de-
clared he was the slowest painter he ever sat to, and he had
204 MRS. SIDDONS
sat to many. He would draw the portrait in chalk the size
of life, on paper ; this occupied but one sitting, but that
sitting lasted nearly one whole day. He next transferred
this outline from the paper to the canvas : his picture and
his sitter were placed at a distance from the point of view
where, to see both at a time, he had to traverse all across
the room before the conception which the view of his sitter
suggested could be proceeded with. In this incessant
transit his feet had worn a path through the carpet to the
floor, exercising freedom both of body and mind ; each
traverse allowing time for invention, while it required an
effort of memory between the touch on the canvas and the
observation from which it grew."
Both as a man and as an artist Lawrence was impression-
able, and in his work was entirely influenced by the spirit
of his period, a period of affectation that frequently bor-
dered upon vulgarity. If Lawrence's art in portraiture had
been genius instead of talent of the highest order, he would
have created a public taste instead of slavishly following
that set by the Court and Society of his day. As it was,
his work was the ultimate expression of the " curtain and
column " school of portraiture, and his success set a fashion
that was followed for years afterwards by innumerable por-
trait-painters. These, in imitating the style, missed the
spirit and perception by which Lawrence, trammelled as he
was by the absurdities of the dress and conventionality of
attitude and surroundings, was enabled to place upon his
canvases some suggestions of the actual identity of his sit-
ters. And it was not until the advent of George Frederick
MRS. SIDDONS 205
Watts and the late Sir John Everett Millais that the effects
of the imitation of the obvious points of Lawrence's style
finally disappeared from English portraiture.
Lawrence's chief defect was that he turned his art too
much into a trade ; he would have attained a far higher
position had he contented himself with painting half the
people he did, and his name would have stood on a higher
pinnacle in the Temple of Fame. During the last twenty
years of his life he painted but little more as a rule, than
the face of his sitter, the rest of the picture being completed
by his pupils, or rather by his assistants. This practice
has, of course, lessened the value of his portraits. Indi-
vidually I prefer, in most cases, such an unfinished work as
his double portrait oil-sketch of Lady Glengall, or even one
of his beautiful pencil drawings, such as that of the Morn-
ington sisters, to many of his full-length life-size portraits ;
such sketches are worth all the portraits of George IV. put
together. Another of Lawrence's defects was his ruling
passion to be the leading portrait-painter of his day ; and in
order to maintain that place he sacrificed care, finish, and
quality, to quantity. It is owing to these defects that we
find so many unsatisfactory portraits from his too prolific
brush.
These are grave failings ; but on the other side his great
merits are incontestable, and weigh the scale in his favour.
Where, except among the very greatest of those whose
fame chiefly rests on their excellence in the art of portrait-
painting such giants as Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt,
Velasquez and Van Dyck, Reynolds and Gainsborough
206 MRS. SIDDONS
can finer work be shown than in such astonishing likenesses
as those of Lawrence when at his best; and the master
must be judged by his master-works. His style, when once
he had adopted it, had the great merit of being a style of its
own, of much refinement and excellence in drawing ;
although his work was perhaps too smooth in technique
and somewhat affected in feeling. His paintings have
lasted, whereas those of many of his contemporaries are
mere wrecks and shadows of their former selves ; for he
attempted no experiments in glazings and pigments as was
Sir Joshua's wont, and his pictures are, as a rule, as fresh
as when they were painted a century ago.
I believe it only fair to place him immediately beneath
our three greatest portrait-painters, that immortal trio,
Reynolds, Gainsborough and Romney : at a time when
Hoppner, Opie, and Raeburn were all working, this is high
praise. My readers will hardly, I think, gainsay this esti-
mate of the talents of the painter who has left us such
portraits as those of Pius VII., Cardinal Consalvi, Curran,
Scott, Eldon and Wilberforce unfinished though the last
work may be and such presentments of woman's grace,
beauty and refinement as in a score of his portraits of Eng-
land's maids and matrons some with children whose love-
liness almost outdoes that of their mothers.
Bearing these and many others of his works in mind, we
may well agree with Sir Walter Scott who, in a letter to
Wilkie written immediately after hearing of Sir Thomas
Lawrence's death, said : u A star has fallen, a great artist
MRS. SIDDONS 207
The following was the impression made upon Fanny
Kemble by Lawrence as a painter :
Of Lawrence's merit as a painter an unduly favourable
estimate was taken during his life, and since his death his
reputation has suffered an undue depreciation. Much that
he did partook of the false and bad style which, from the
deeper source of degraded morality, spread a taint over all
matters of art and taste, under the vicious influence of the
"first Gentleman of Europe," whose own artistic prefer-
ences bore witness, quite as much as the more serious
events of his life, how little he deserved the name. Hide-
ous Chinese pagoda pavilions, with grotesque and monstrous
decorations, barbarous alike in form and colour ; in mean
and ugly low-roomed royal palaces, without either magnifi-
cence or simplicity ; military costumes, in which gold and
silver lace were plastered together on the same uniform,
testified to the perverted perception of beauty and fitness
which presided in the court of George the Fourth. Law-
rence's own portrait of him, with his corpulent body girthed
in its stays and creaseless coat, and its heavy falling cheeks
supported by his stiff stock, with his dancing-master's leg
and his frizzled barber's block-head, comes as near a cari-
cature as a flattered likeness of the original (which was a
caricature) dares to do. To have had to paint that was
enough to have vulgarized any pencil. The defect of many
of Lawrence's female portraits was a sort of artificial, senti-
mental elegantism. Pictures of the fine ladies of that day
they undoubtedly were, pictures of great ladies, never; and,
in looking at them, one sighed for the exquisite simple
208 MRS. SIDDONS
grace and unaffected dignity of Reynolds's and Gains-
borough's noble and gentle women.
The lovely head of Lady Nugent, the fine portrait of
Mrs. Wolff, the splendid one of Lady Hatherton, and the
noble picture of my grandmother (Mrs. Siddons) are among
the best productions of Lawrence's pencil ; and several of
his men's portraits are in a robust and simple style of art
worthy of the highest admiration.
CHARACTER PORTRAITS
(Frans Hals)
GERALD S. DA VIES
I HAVE already expressed the opinion, which I believe,
must inevitably result to any one who has viewed the
life of Frans Hals as a consistent whole, and realized the
one aim of his chief artistic purpose, which presently ab-
sorbed all others, that we must regard him even in his
so-called genre pictures always as a portrait-painter, always
as one whose prevailing thought was the vivid presentment
of a face at a given moment under a transient expression.
And in this respect, though his brilliant realizations of com-
monplace and sometimes vulgar facial expression did un-
doubtedly give the start to those many Dutch painters who
lived after him, and are sometimes called by the clumsy title
" the genre painters," yet he differs entirely from them in
this, that he is always first and foremost portrait-painter,
never a subject painter who merely uses a model. These
u genre pictures " (I wish I could avoid the title), of jesters,
gipsies, mountebanks, topers, go pan passu all along his
career with his graver portraits. They were necessary to
him because no man pays for his portrait to be painted
while he grins at a half-empty pot, or leers up at a half-
open casement. If Hals were to paint these subjects,
which had the greatest attraction for him because they gave
him his chances of rendering the human face in action, he
210 CHARACTER PORTRAITS
must pay them or reward them in some shape, or attract
them by his talk and his jokes in studio or pothouse to act
as his models. This is the real distinction between the
one class of portrait and the other. His aim, however, was
the same in both, absolute realization of a likeness.
It is in this class of so-called genre pictures, which
tempted imitators great and small, that the greatest wrong
has been done to Hals, and that the greatest number of
works under false attributions hang in many galleries. One
or two recognized copies, indeed, are of value where the
originals are inaccessible or lost. But the tendency to label
all persons who gesticulate over pewter pots, or who play
musical instruments with the suitable contortions, though it
is natural on the part of the owners of pictures and of the
directors of museums, has greatly injured the reputation of
Hals. Nor can it be said that picture-dealers as a body
have put any great strain upon themselves in the endeavour
to oppose this tendency.
That Hals was, in his later days, an unequal painter, is
a position which it is difficult to contest with entire suc-
cess. But that position has been made to seem far stronger
than it is by the large quantity of inferior works which
have been accepted as his merely because their subjects are
such as he painted and the style a colourable imitation of
his. It is often quite easy to say that these works are none
of his. It is generally very difficult or quite impossible to
say from whom else they proceed. But it may be admitted
that Hals would indeed be an unequal painter, if he had
painted the masterpieces which really do belong to him
THE JESTER
'
CHARACTER PORTRAITS 211
and the fatuities which are sometimes labelled with his
name.
In the Rijks Museum at Amsterdam hangs an admirable
old copy, said to be by Dirk Hals, of an original in the
possession of Baron Gustav Rothschild. This is the
Jester, Fool, Mandolin Player, Lute Player, he appears
under different names. The copy has every appearance of
being faithful, the only visible shortcoming being in the
left hand, which is heavy and overloaded and has gone
wrong. It is unsafe to criticise colour from a copy, no
matter how excellent, and it is best therefore to forbear.
But the rendering of facial expression by the copyist may
here be fully trusted ; and, moreover, may be understood
quite fully by an appeal to the reproduction. It is interest-
ing to mention that an old tradition has it that this is a
portrait of the artist's pupil, Adriaen Brouwer. But, who-
ever be the original, it is quite impossible to stand before
the picture without feeling assured that it is a portrait to
the life of some one. Perhaps in the whole range of art
there is nothing more convincingly life-like. It is nothing
to the point for us to inquire, was this thing worth the
doing ? was there no finer subject on which to expend this
astounding force ? It is nothing to the point to say that
the motive is trivial, and that the fellow and his chansons
were probably vulgar. That is apt to be the way of the
jester and of the strolling musician, no doubt, whether he
is met with at Haarlem or at Henley. We need not be at
pains to claim that the Fool of Frans Hals, or the Buffoon
of Velasquez, or the Pierrots of Watteau are exalted sub-
212 CHARACTER PORTRAITS
jects. We have to be content with the art that has raised
even these into the region of classics. It is only necessary
to think what these subjects may and have become in the
hands of the trivial, to make one look at this impudent,
rascally Jester of Frans Hals with something of the respect,
though of a different calibre, that we feel for a Touchstone
or a Launcelot Gobbo. Each is a masterpiece of his kind.
And each becomes a living being unforgettable when once
you have made his acquaintance. There lies the test of
the artist's power as a creator.
No less intimate and unerring is his seizure of the ex-
pression, not quite so momentary and far more pleasing, in
his magically brilliant sketch of a gipsy, La Bob'emienne^ in
the Louvre a model possibly caught at some strolling
show at Haarlem. I call it a sketch advisedly. The artist
who examines it closely and it is for artists, above all
others, a morsel which they cannot afford to pass by will
assert with me that the fact is written on every inch. It is
thinly and lightly, but firmly painted, with a very full and
very liquid brush almost like a very fluid but solid water-
colour, if such a thing could be each tone brought up to
the other and overlapping ; but set there once, and once
for all, with absolute knowledge and certainty, no after-
thoughts, no changes, no happy accidents. It is all seen
unerringly, touched unerringly. So she was, for that hour
or two, so she was painted for that hour or two, and so she
was left. And it has all that delicious freshness and charm
which belong to a first sketch before nature of a great
artist, and belong to that alone. But the sketches of most
CHARACTER PORTRAITS 213
men, even the greatest, for all their freshness and delicious-
ness, are tentative, experimental, demanding concession
and even forgiveness on the part of the sympathizer as
compared with this sketch by Hals. There is nothing, in
the way of technique, or from the point of view of the
artist, to forgive or to have to understand. It is at once
a fresh, first-thought sketch, and a complete and finished
picture, if indeed the true definition of finish in a picture
is the moment beyond which every added touch is a loss.
Whether this picture appeals to all picture-lovers in the
same degree as it will appeal to every artist who examines
it, is another question. I have known some to whom it
certainly does not appeal. On this point I would merely
state it as a matter of my own experience, that it is with
this picture, as with so many of Hals's ; the longer you sit
before it, the more do you see in it, the more do you become
fascinated by it. A superficial view of any of Hals's
pictures reveals to you, I have always found, only the parts
that you do not like, the parts which occasionally come
near to repelling you. No man that I know of needs so
much time. Given that time, no man that I know of so
completely repays it. He is not a man who, on the sur-
face, is exactly loveable, and yet I have rarely gone away
from one of his subjects, which I may have at first disliked,
without a strong feeling of sympathy for this much mis-
understood man.
In this portrait of the poor gipsy girl, handsome, happy-
go-lucky, good-natured hussy that she is, I find once more
in Hals a sympathy for his subject which goes far beyond
214 CHARACTER PORTRAITS
the mere painter's desire, of which he is as often accused,
to paint on to a canvas in imitation of a human face, and to
show how brilliantly he can do it. She is slatternly, care-
less and free, and Hals gives you all that. But he tells you
a little more about the merry-looking creature than that,
and what he tells you, makes you sympathize. She is
greatly amused thinks, indeed, that it is the best joke that
has happened to her for a long time that she should have
her portrait painted. The smile on her face is quite irre-
pressible at any moment it will burst into a laugh, and it
is so full of naturalness that you know you will have
to laugh with her whenever she does. It is more
catching than, though of course not so subtle as, the un-
fathomable smile with which Lisa la Gioconda looks out at
you from the canvas of Lionardo. The one, indeed, is the
smile of sheer good temper and animal spirits, and it calls
out in you something of the same sort of feeling ; the
other is the expression of some set of thoughts deep within,
which makes you, too, look inwards and smile, you don't
know why : and there is magic in either ; and yet how
different are the means which produced the one, and the
means which produced the other : as different, indeed, as the
men themselves, as Hals and Lionardo ; as different as La
Bohemienne herself and Lisa la Gioconda.
After 1641, Hals more and more abandoned the use of
positive colour, and as he did so more and more fell into the
use of greyish, dusky, and finally black shadows. The
well-known Hille Bobbe is at once an example of the as-
tonishing dexterity which he had attained and not lost at
HILLE BOBBE
CHARACTER PORTRAITS 215
the age of seventy of setting down a passing expression,
and also an example of the extreme to which he had al-
lowed himself to go in the use of black upon flesh colour.
Hille Bobbe was a fish-wife of Haarlem, and it would seem
I confess that my historical researches into her personality
are extremely superficial a noted character in her day.
Something in the look of the old hag one day seems to have
tickled Frans Hals, and he sets her down with ruthless
reality there and then in a sketch so rapid and so summary
that one may, by the sabre-like black slashes on the back-
ground at the side of her head, tell the very size of the
brushes that he used (he seems to have used tools of a
medium size, not the largest, as we might have expected).
Colours are scarce and precious to poor Frans at that date ;
he has few at hand. Black and white and yellow ochre and
blue and red, nothing more, and one wishes he had left out
all but the black and white, and given it us without any
colour but what we could have suggested to ourselves.
Then these absolutely black shadows on the flesh, even on
the very old and bloodless flesh of the poor old fishfag,
would have stood in no need of forgiveness. But as apiece
of slashing, instantaneous execution, a superb snapshot with
brushes and colour, nothing can go far beyond it. It is
done you may see it in every single brushmark at light-
ning speed. u Careless, hasty, reckless work," it, and other
of Hals's work of the date, has been called. Nothing of
the kind. It is careful the care of extreme, though habit-
ual, tension and breathless concentration the sort of care
which a first-rate game-shot uses, and which seems like a
2l6 CHARACTER PORTRAITS
kind of jugglery to the looker-on. It is fully considered,
each almost shapeless touch. It is calculated, every splash
of it, and never hasty or reckless, though always at full
speed. The best and Hals's best was good he could do
in the time ; and the time was, one's instinct tells one,
limited by Hille Bobbe's patience ; and that, one's instinct
says again, was in its turn limited by the depth of the pew-
ter of schnapps which she holds in her withered old hand.
Once more perhaps that question : And was it worth
the doing ? a question which once more I take leave not
to discuss. Once more I would remind the reader of the
interpretation which throughout these pages I have set upon
the aim of Frans Hals that he was a portrait-painter first
and foremost, and one in whom at the last almost every
other aim of the painter had given way to the one absorb-
ing aim of drawing and setting down the elusive, momentary
changes of the features.
As a portrait-painter of this specific character, he is fas-
cinated over and over again, by what, but for this single-
ness of aim, should have perhaps repulsed him, and would
have repulsed many another. He has, in this single absorp-
tion, lost both the sense of beauty to some extent, and the
sense of ugliness. He who in his day has painted the
Lady of Cassel, the Olycans of the Hague, the Van der
Meers of Amsterdam, and the little child of Berlin, can
paint now this witch-like cackling old fish fag without
shrinking from her hideousness or even seeming to feel it.
However much we may lament that Hals allowed so
many of his artistic senses to become atrophied as he ad-
,
THE GYPSY
CHARACTER PORTRAITS 217
vanced in life, we must at least allow to him a rare single-
ness of purpose in the development of that one sense
which above all others he valued, the sense of direct seeing
and of unflinching expression of what he saw. He did at
least look his soul, such as it was, in the face all along his
life, and the one he had was at least his own, and never
some one else's at second hand. Poor Hals certainly fol-
lowed his star, whithersoever it should lead. It led him,
indeed, to poverty, for the evidence is plain enough that the
art of Hals was never really popular, and that by 1645 ne
had ceased to be fashionable, and that by 1650 he was out
in the cold.
Hals was indeed no great thinker, and no moralist. He
was not a man with a mission, probably did not recognize
the existence of such a thing in art. But one may claim
for him, as one has claimed before, that he painted up to
the very end as his artist instinct showed him, and, above
all, that he did not step aside, even when the fuel was low-
est in the house of Hals and the pot most needed boiling,
to any of those unseemlinesses which were more and more
the fashion of Dutch Art.
And against Hals the crime can hardly be charged with
much force if, being a portrait-painter, he left untouched
that great field of worthy peasant life which modern men
have seen into. The crime sits heavier against those of
the Dutch School who immediately followed him, and, who
making subject and domestic subject their motive, yet failed
with a few exceptions, such as Nicholas Maes and Pieter
de Hooghe, and even those who did not look very deep to
2l8 CHARACTER PORTRAITS
see the worthier side of the Dutch peasant's home life.
There is at this day no finer and more upright peasantry in
Europe, both physically and socially than the Dutch.
They may lack some of the more loveable and winning
qualities which other peasantries possess, but in the quali-
ties of self-respect and decency of home life there are none
who can be put before them. And there is no reason
whatever to suppose that they were otherwise in the days
of the Dutch painters. Personally I find it impossible to
believe that the besotted, misshapen clowns of Teniers and
Ostade, or the boozing loafers and sluts of Jan Steen, were
typical of the true peasantry of their day. It was to be
left to the men of a later day, to Millet, to Israels, to
Mauve, in this country and that, to show that there was a
side to the life, which, without separation from the pictur-
esqueness of the surroundings, and without losing any of
the opportunities which they loved, would have offered the
Dutchmen a worthier and more moving field than that
which they chose to occupy. But to the great portrait-
painter, in his search for fantastic variation of facial ex-
pression, such a view, from the very nature of the case, lay
outside the range of his art.
PORTRAIT OF MY MOTHER
(Whistler)
CH. MOREAU-VAUTHIER
WITH women, the solitary and dreamy hours of the
hearthside, the feelings of modesty, the desire to
please and the fencing of society talk all combine to rouse
and develop the art of feigning. The most able and pro-
found painter of female portraits, Leonardo da Vinci, has
celebrated the mysteries of woman's character, and stated
the problem of her power. Other painters, while immor-
talizing her features, have expressed nothing but her beauty.
Whilst the portrait of a man will readily reveal to us the
secrets of his mood and humour, and of his life, that of a
woman will evoke thoughts and ideas that are often stran-
gers even to the original.
To be set in the presence of an artist who is applying
himself to perpetuate her features, what more serious oc-
casion could there be for a woman to mask her defects, to
make the most of her good points, to adorn herself with all
her attractions and assume all the virtues ? Before the in-
sistent gaze of that man, the simplest and most modest
natures do not succeed in conquering a secret discomfort
that transfigures them. A certain venerable lady, the
mother of one of our famous painters, cannot pose before
her son without an affected smile. The scrupulous Holbein
220 PORTRAIT OF MY MOTHER
himself was deceived by this when, by the order of Henry
VIII., he went to paint the portrait of Anne of Cleves.
After having been conquered by the portrait, he exclaimed
when he saw the original : " You have made me marry a
Flanders mare."
Among painters of women, Leonardo da Vinci studied
the being of infinite mystery, Raphael was attracted by her
serene and triumphant maternity, Titian displayed her
voluptuousness, and Rubens her fecundity, while the French
masters of the Eighteenth Century, Watteau, Fragonard
and Nattier celebrated her fashionable elegance.
The inexhaustible diversity of nature permitted further
discoveries. Gainsborough, with less style and less science
than those who preceded him, but with more spontaneity,
facility and naturalness translated the exquisite company
of fashionable life and the fireside by painting delicious
female silhouettes in an atmosphere of intimacy and
seductiveness. The boldness of his happy and sym-
pathetic brush was favourable to this task. Among those
painters who were fervent adorers of Woman, ardently
striving to conquer her favours and confidences, Gains-
borough was the Cherubino and the Fortunio : his success
was assured by his conviction, passion, frankness, and his
air of youth and innocence.
Whistler had the honour to be passionately discussed by
critics, and experienced the satisfaction of triumphing over
his detractors. This he accomplished with great wit.
The author of the book, "The gentle art of making
enemies," Whistler, whose friends and admirers are in-
PORTRAIT OF MY MOTHER 221
numerable, in the hour of success collected his principal
works, and took an ironical pleasure in cutting out and
placing under the pictures the old and new criticisms to
which they had been subjected. And the meeting of the
two opinions was most amusing as well as most instructive
for the fine fellows who still harbour any doubts regarding
the versatility of human judgment.
We cannot look at this canvas without experiencing a
feeling of respect and tenderness. In the melancholy of
pale whites and faint blacks, everything fades as in a
dream. That mourning garb, that attitude, that air of
far-away reverie and that lassitude of the arms all unite to
figure the human being of devotion whose tender devotion
the child cannot divine, and whom the man so often loses
and bewails when he begins to be able to comprehend it.
Sitting in profile, she is at that age when, having fulfilled
her duty, she effaces herself and submits without rebellion
to the fatality of her accomplished role. Her feet brought
together, the direct line of her body, her head, and her
gaze, speak of her habits of order, rectitude and dignity,
but the gentle relaxation of her arms reveal merited and
desired repose. With her fingers she crumples a little
lace handkerchief. Is this a slight touching remainder of
coquetry ? Is it not rather for drying a few furtive tears
that have fallen from those eyes whose gaze, scarcely
raised, is so sad and pensive ? Is she not praying for those
who were, for those who still live, for the little ones, for
those who have last come into the family, whom perhaps
she reproached herself for loving too dearly ? For the
222 PORTRAIT OF MY MOTHER
time is approaching when she will have to leave them all.
And there she sits in profile, in her modest and simple cap,
and grey hair 5 she effaces herself, she is fading away, so to
speak, she is already departing in the noble resignation of
her renunciation.
Such a portrait would suffice for the glory of any
painter.
In Whistler's work, however, there are a great number
of other imposing portraits, among which the adorable
image of Miss Alexander, and the magnificent silhouette
of Carlyle (Glasgow Museum), of such proud gravity,
present the same originality of execution and the same
sober and distinguished style.
If this expression had not become vulgar and common
from frequent use, I should say that Whistler was a
painter of the future : he announces a new art outlook and
even particularizes its character. After having exhausted
all the resources of colour and design in order to represent
matter, after also having been an exact imitator of the real
as possible, the artist turns his attention to the beyond.
At the moment when Science itself is preoccupied with
the invisible and is attempting to break down the barriers
behind which the physical world is hiding, it is not aston-
ishing that the painters should desire to show the spirit of
things and bring what is beyond the domain of matter be-
fore our eyes. Certainly the attempt is a bold one, but
why should it be regarded as impracticable ?
The route by which man has laboriously advanced for
centuries leads to the infinite. As soon as we see a new
PORTRAIT OF MY MOTHER 223
light on the horizon, we must rejoice and hope on, and,
like the Crusaders marching towards the Holy City, we
must ask those who lead and guide us : u Is that Jerusa-
lem ? Is that the sacred goal ? Finally, is it the sacred
unknown to which all our efforts are directed ? "
MARIE ANTOINETTE AS HEBE
(Drouais)
F. A. GRUYER
FRANCOIS-HUBERT DROUAIS, son and grand-
son of painters, was born in Paris, Dec. I4th, 1727.
His father, Hubert Drouais, was his first master. Later he
studied under Nonotte, Carlo Vanloo, Natoire and Boucher.
Admitted to the Academy in 1754, at the age of twenty-
seven, he was elected an Academician Nov. 25th, 1758, on
producing the portraits of Messrs. Coustou and Bouchardon.
(The first of these portraits is at Versailles, and the second
at the School of Fine Arts.) For a year past, his fame as
a portrait painter had had him called to Versailles, where he
had made his debut by means of the portraits of the Duke
of Berry and the Count of Provence. Afterwards he
painted the entire royal family. Thenceforth there were
no celebrated personages, nor ladies remarkable for their
beauty, who were not painted by him. The painter of the
king, and the painter of the Dauphin and Dauphine, he
was appointed Councillor of the Academy, July 2d, 1774.
Nothing was then lacking to his glory. This proves that
at the end of the reign of Louis XV. glory, in matters of
art, was a pretty small affair. Drouais was at the pinnacle
of taste of high French society at that decisive moment of
its history. That was at the moment when the court went
MARIE ANTOINETTE AS HEBE
MARIE ANTOINETTE AS HEBE 225
wild over a false love for the fields ; those were the great
days of the Trianon. Drouais shows us Charles Philippe
of France, afterwards Charles X., Count of Artois, follow-
ing the goat on which is mounted Marie Adelaide Clotildc
Xavier of France (afterwards Queen of Sardinia, born in
1759, died in 1802). He is six years of age, and on his
grey satin vest he wears the blue cordon of the Saint Esprit,
The lady is four years -of age; she is clothed in white, with
a rose ribbon round her neck, and affectedly holds a basket
filled with fruit. Both of them, with hair elegantly dressed,
powdered, and cheeks larded with cosmetics, deign to
assume commanding airs in a landscape of wearisome ar-
rangement. It reminds us of the Lesson in Horsemanship.
(This picture is signed and dated: Drouais le fils, 1763.
Its pendant was the Music Lesson^ in which the Count of
Provence was the principal actor. Both pictures have been
engraved by Beauvarlet.) The painter to the king has
arranged his precious models as M. Baudier de Laval, the
dancing-master of the children of the crown of France,
would have done. Pictures of this nature are certainly not
good pictures, but they are historical documents.
Diderot's judgment on the portraits by Drouais is amus-
ing, but it is not absolutely just. " All the faces by that
man are nothing but the most affected vermilion red, ar-
tistically laid upon the finest and whitest chalk. That is
not flesh. It is a mask of that fine skin of which they
make gloves in Strasbourg." In fine, he painted his models
just as he saw them pose before him. If he shows them
plastered with cosmetics and powdered, that is just as they
226 MARIE ANTOINETTE AS HEBE
really were. His fault was in having as clients people
of a world in which such usages were the law. Drouais
died Oct. 2ist, 1775. He had exhibited in the Salons
from 1755 to 1775. His principal portraits are in the
Louvre, and more particularly at Versailles. The portrait
of Marie Antoinette, at the Conde Museum, Chantilly, is
of extreme interest.
Marie Antoinette Jeanne of Lorraine, born in Vienna,
Nov. 2d, 1755, was the youngest daughter of the Emperor
of Austria, Francis I., and Maria Theresa, Queen of Hun-
gary and Bohemia. She was scarcely fourteen years of age
when Louis XV. instructed the Duke of Choiseul to re-
quest her hand for the Dauphin. Maria Theresa, being
anxious to give an accomplished queen to France, took
another year to perfect an education that Metastasio and
the elder Gluck had begun, and which thenceforth confided
to French masters. In addition, she requested the Court
of Versailles to supply her with a learned priest who would
be able to instruct the princess in the manners and customs
of the country over which some day she was to reign. The
Duke of Choiseul's choice fell upon the Abbe of Ver-
mond, who took charge of Marie Antoinette and exercised
a fatal influence upon her by narrowing her mind instead
of enlarging it. The future Dauphine was brought into
France in 1770; she came by way of Strasbourg, and
passed through Nancy, Chalons, Soissons and Reims,
where great rejoicings were given in her honour. King
Louis XV. and the Dauphin came to receive her at Com-
piegne. Two days later, they led her solemnly to Ver-
MARIE ANTOINETTE AS HEBE 227
sailles, where she was married in the chapel of the palace
on May i6th, 1770. In celebration of this event, the
King commanded fetes at Paris as well as at Versailles,
twenty millions of francs to be devoted to the occasion, a
foolish prodigality in the existing poverty of the public
treasury. We all know what happened : the stands con-
structed on the Place Louis XV. collapsed during the fire-
works, with a result of one hundred and thirty-two dead
and twelve hundred injured. A sinister presage for the
Dauphine !
The Court gave a cold welcome to Marie Antoinette :
Madame Adelaide, Madame Victoire and Madame Sophie
regarded her with distrust : Marie Antoinette vainly re-
doubled her conciliatory efforts ; she could not break the
ice. As for Madame Du Barry, she hid her hostility in a
show of respect, in exchange for which the Dauphine ex-
hibited nothing but contempt. The daughter of Maria
Theresa, accustomed to the simplicity that prevailed in the
court of Austria, found herself quite exiled in the midst of
the fatiguing etiquette of Versailles, which was still the
same at the end of the reign of Louis XV. as it had been at
the most solemn moment of the reign of Louis XIV.
The young Dauphine could not accustom herself to it, and
made fun of it at every opportunity ; that was her way of
comforting herself; but all those who lived in it, and Heaven
knows their number was big enough, all those, or rather all
those who owed certain prerogatives they enjoyed to those
old usages, such as certain rights of precedence, to which
they clung as to patrimonies, became hostile to her.
228 MARIE ANTOINETTE AS HEBE
Thenceforth, calumny hung on to her and accompanied her
everywhere. Beautiful, young and adored, she was accused
of all the licence that prevailed in that corrupt court. Her
marriage with the Dauphin had marked a new departure in
French politics; the Duke of Choiseul turned decisively
towards Austria, our constant antagonist. The discontent
that resulted from this was general, and re-acted upon the
Dauphine. The public already called her " The Austrian,"
and this was the name that was to hound her until her final
catastrophe. Unsufficiently protected by a good-humoured
husband, the damaging imputations of the first hours, skil-
fully propagated in the closest surroundings of the Dauphin,
prepared the way, from the close of the reign of Louis XV.,
for the odious insinuations that, twenty years later, were to
cause the queen to lose her head. From the first years of
her abode in France, the Dauphine undoubtedly committed
numerous faults of conduct, but was she not cast amid the
most detestable surroundings in which the education of a
woman and a queen could be completed? Let us read
again that correct judgment formed of her by her brother,
Joseph II. He spoke of his sister in these terms in 1777.
(She had then been queen for two years ; but in her moral as
well as in her physical nature nothing had suffered any
change.) " She is an amiable and virtuous woman, some-
what young and thoughtless, but at bottom she has a fund
of honesty and virtue that at her age is truly worthy of re-
spect. With all this she possesses wit and a just penetra-
tion that have frequently astonished me. Her first impulse
is always the right one ; if she were to give way to it and
MARIE ANTOINETTE AS HEBE 22Q
listen a little less to the people who have her ear, who are
numerous and varied, she would be perfect." Having now
recalled what sort of person the Dauphine was, let us look
at her portrait.
The portrait of the Dauphine which we find in the
Chantilly Gallery is signed Drouais, and dated 1773. The
daughter of Maria Theresa has probably not yet reached
her eighteenth year, and has been in France scarcely three
years. Wanting to have her portrait painted, she applies
to the painter to the king, Drouais, who, in accordance
with a custom that is already superannuated, represents her
as Hebe. In order to give an air of apotheosis to this kind
of portrait, Drouais possessed neither the richness of im-
agination, nor resource as a designer, nor the suave colour-
ing of a Nattier. His painting, " chalky and vermilionized "
generally gave an air of heaviness to what he touched, and
consequently was far from being what was needed for
transporting such a lovely model to Olympus. Till that
date, Marie Antoinette had not been spoiled by her paint-
ers ; and we may even add that she never was. Before the
portrait by Drouais, our iconographic information regarding
this beautiful and touching face is entirely insufficient.
About 1757, Martin de Mytens, in showing us the numer-
ous Imperial family grouped about Francis I. and Maria
Theresa, places in an arm-chair the Archduchess Marie
Antoinette, aged two. We find her again, at ten years of
age, dancing in the forefront of the ballet given at Schoen-
brunn, January 24th, 1765, on the occasion of the marriage
of the future emperor Joseph II. Three years later,
230 MARIE ANTOINETTE AS HEBE
Ducreux came to Vienna to paint her, in order to supply
the court of France with some idea of its future Dauphine.
And then, that is all, until the day when Drouais adorns
with a grace and elegance that is entirely French her who
is soon to be " the little queen." She is still far from being
in the plenitude of her beauty. One might call her a flower
not yet fully blown.
The Dauphine as Hebe, seated among the clouds, holds
in her right hand a ewer of rock crystal, mounted in gold,
and in her left a gold cup, on the rim of which are written
the painter's name and the date of the portrait ; " Drouais^
1773." The eagle is on her right; his eye is shot with
blood, his beak half-open and his tongue looking like a
flame, he grips the thunderbolts and watches over the
daughter of Jupiter and Juno with a jealous eye.
In order to represent the goddess of youth, no woman
could ever have proved a better choice than the youthful
Marie Antoinette. The head, without being exactly
beautiful, is charming; the neck, flexible and admirably
set, carries it with a hauteur that is entirely devoid of
affectation. Abundant tresses, drawn up high from the
forehead, form a double crown on the top of the head, and
because of this arrangement the head, which is naturally
somewhat narrow, looks still narrower and disproportion-
ately tall. Under brown arched brows of very pure line,
almond eyes of a grey that is almost blue and not very large
look out with a gaze of infinite gentleness. The aquiline
nose is long and heavy at the nostrils. The mouth, neither
large nor small, with rather thick lips, shows amiability
MARIE ANTOINETTE AS HEBE 231
and intelligence. The neck and curves of the cheeks are
perfect in form. The ear is mediocre in drawing, but this
is doubtless the fault of the painter. Why is there so
much cosmetic on the cheeks and even on the lips ? Why
hide the freshness of the natural colours of youth under
plasters of vermilion ? As for the body, slender, light,
elegant, and apparently not yet fully developed, it is robed
in a tunic of pale rose gauze, which leaves the neck and
throat entirely bare, falls over the shoulders, covers the
arms almost down to the elbows, leaves the breast un-
covered, and drapes the lower portion of the body which is
cut across at the legs by the frame. A girdle of a stronger
rose is tied at the waist over this tunic, which therefore
has the appearance of a real robe. For the sake of com-
pleteness, let us add a scarf of white tulle rolled around
the left arm which, as well as the hand, is very delicately
drawn, and a long veil of varied hue changing from blue to
grey, violet and rose envelops the whole figure which looks
still that of a virgin rather than already that of a wife.
For the background, we have a blue sky in which
light rosy clouds are floating. The Dauphine was at that
time the very image of youth, and in the mythological
taste in which the court of Louis XV. was still lingering,
there is nothing astonishing in the fact that they should
make a Hebe of her. To give her something aerial in
feeling the painter had only to stick to the truth. Al-
though it lacks character, this painting is very charming.
Before it, imagination and sentiment make themselves ac-
complices of the painter. We cannot look at this young
232 MARIE ANTOINETTE AS HEBE
woman, I was going to say this young girl, without
emotion, and there is only one step from emotion to
admiration.
What is particularly wanting in this picture is the
flame of life, the accent of nature, the characteristic
features of the race ; but what sort of a court painter was
then able to put these into his portraits ? Nevertheless,
the House of Austria could not fail to be recognized in
this Drouais portrait.
Madame Vigee-Lebrun, in her Souvenirs^ has left us a
portrait of Marie Antoinette that has greater resemblance
to the original than any other she made ; for in her painted
portraits her enthusiasm over the queen caused her to lose
sight of the reality. (There are four of her portraits of
Marie Antoinette at Versailles.) Let us read this word por-
trait we shall find the Dauphine there again : u She was tall
and admirably well made. Her arms were superb. Her
hands were superb and of perfect form, and her feet were
charming. She walked more gracefully than any other
woman in France. She carried her head very elegantly
with a majesty that made people recognize the sovereign in
the midst of the whole court, without, however, this
majesty injuring in the slightest all that was gentle and
benevolent in her spirit : it is very difficult to give any
idea of so many graces and so much nobility united. Her
features were not regular; she derived from her family that
long and narrow oval that is peculiar to it. Her eyes were
not large ; their colour was almost blue ; her gaze was
soft and full of intelligence ; her mouth was not too large,
MARIE ANTOINETTE AS HEBE 233
although the lips were rather thick. But the most re-
markable thing about her face was its wonderful com-
plexion ; I never saw one so brilliant is the word, for her
skin was so transparent that it took no shadow. Her
head, held high on a beautiful Greek neck, gave her when
she walked an air so imposing, so majestic, that one might
have taken her for a goddess surrounded by her nymphs.
I allowed myself to express to Her Majesty the impression
that I had received and how greatly the elevation of her
head added to the nobility of her aspect. She replied in a
jesting tone : " If I were not a queen, people would say
that I had an insolent bearing, is it not so ? " Thus we
see that the portrait by Drouet was incontestably a good
likeness. Why was it necessary for this painter to rob us
of the splendour of that incomparable complexion by
covering it with cosmetics ?
This portrait came from the Lenoir collection. Bachau-
mont, in his Memoires speaks of it in referring to the Salon
of 1773.
PHILIP II. OF SPAIN
(Titian)
J. A. CROWE AND G. B. CAVALCASELLE
THE principal object for which Titian was called to
Augsburg was not to sit to Cranach, nor to portray
afresh the Kaiser, or the princes and nobles around him.
The whole bent of Charles's policy and wishes was to
promote his son ; to this end every consideration was made
subordinate and every detail was calculated. As Charles
of old had had to put away the gossiping and friendly man-
ner of a Fleming to take upon himself the starched and
haughty air of a Spaniard, so Philip now had to divest him-
self of the stiffness of a Castilian and not without reluc-
tance we may think to assume the friendly Eiederkeit of
a German. He rode German horses, danced German
dances, and tried his head and stomach at German drinking-
parties. But the days were past when his ancestor Philip
of Burgundy drank an abbot under the table. Philip of
Spain was no more capable constitutionally to bear the
coarse but copious fare of the north than he was able
physically to unbend and ape a jovial manner. He was
not strong nor fond of martial exercise. His chest was
narrow and his legs were spare, and his feet were large
and curiously ungainly. His eyes lay under lids like rolls
of flesh and full of bilious humour, as if the gall which
PHILIP II OF SPAIN
PHILIP II. OP SPAIN 235
gave its olive tone to his complexion was anxious to gush
and show itself. His projecting under-jaw was poorly con-
cealed by a downy chestnut beard, which by its paucity
gave but more importance to a pair of thick and fleshy lips,
the chief characteristic of which was redness. Add to this
an oily smoothness of complexion, and short chestnut hair,
and we have the face of the prince whose form won the
heart of Mary Tudor; whose sensualism was only equalled
by his disregard for all that was good and kind in human
nature ; whose fanaticism sent hundreds of the noblest vic-
tims to the stake or the block ; whose policy dictated the
Armada and lost the Netherlands to Spain. It was for the
purpose of making a likeness of this prince, who was then
twenty-four years old, that Titian was called to Augsburg.
He had not been more than a month at the court when he
finished the preliminary canvas. In the following February
he probably completed the large full-length which hangs in
the Museum at Madrid, and in the course of a few suc-
cessive years he sent forth the long series of copies, the
best of which adorns the gallery of Naples.
That we should enjoy in the case of Philip of Spain both
the original sketch for which he sat, and the parade portrait
for which he did not sit, is an advantage seldom vouchsafed
to admirers of Titian. It is clear that the master's methods
of preparing pictures intended to be finished was different
from that which he practiced in throwing off work at one
painting. In the first case a known process or a series of
processes was systematically carried out, so as to produce
substance, impost and tone. In the second the sole aim of
236 PHILIP H. OF SPAIN
the artist was to determine form and expression during the
curt and rapidly fleeting moments conceded by a royal and
we may believe impatient sitter. The sketch for which
Philip of Spain sat to Titian is one of the Barbarigo heir-
looms now in the house of Count Sebastian Giustiniani
Barbarigo at Padua. The Prince is sitting, large as life,
near an opening through which a landscape and sky are
seen, in front of a brown curtain damasked with arabesques
and white flowers. His face and body are turned to the
left, the axe of the eyeballs facing the spectator. A doublet
of black silk buttoned up to the neck allows the frill of a
shirt to be seen. Over it lies a pelisse of white silk, with
a lining and broad collar of dark fur, and sleeves swelling
into slashed puffs at the shoulder. The chain of the Golden
Fleece falls over the breast. Part of the head shows its
short chestnut hair cropping out from a black berret cap
sown with pearls. The hands are roughly outlined with
the white pigment which serves to colour the pelisse, so as
to give the movement without even an indication of the
fingers. The left, on the arm of a chair, bound in dark
cloth fastened with red buttons, the right holding what
seems to be a baton or the rudiment of a sceptre. Look-
ing carefully at this canvas, which has only been injured in
the least important parts, we discern that the face was struck
off from the life rapidly, almost hurriedly, as if the master
was conscious that unless he lashed himself into a fury of
haste he would not catch quick enough the shape, the
action, the colour, and the characteristic individualism, or
the complexion and temper of the Prince. Like a general
PHILIP H. OF SPAIN 237
in the thick of a fight, who sees through the smoke and
hears amidst the din, and curtly but decisively gives the
orders which secures a victory, Titian rouses himself to
a momentary concentration of faculties, instinctively but
surely gives the true run and accent of the lines, and then
subsides, sure of success, into rest. His whole power was
brought to bear on the head, of which he gave the linea-
ments and modelling with spare pigment on a very thin
smooth canvas, the sallow flesh light merging into half
tones of clear red, the darker shadows, as of eye and nostril,
laid on in black. Who does not see the application of the
old principle, famous for having been enunciated by Titian :
" Black, red, and white, and all three well in hand " ? The
sketch, it is evident, is not such as the master would have
shown even to the Prince if he could help it, being as it
were his own private memorandum, his " pensee intime"
meant for himself and no other, a thing that was neither
drawing nor painting, yet partaking of both, and sufficient
for the reproduction of either ; a surface without the charm
of rich tint or broken modulation, but masterly, as giving
in a few strokes the moral and physical aspect of his sitter.
Being now possessed of the sketch, Titian leisurely used
it as a groundwork to compose his show portraits of Philip,
his first business being to represent the Prince as a captain
in damasked steel, and then to display his form in the dress
of the court and drawing-room. In each of these replicas
he changed the attitude and costume whilst the head re-
mained the same. Of the first the Prince in armour at
Madrid is the earliest, and the one to which an interesting
238 PHILIP II. OF SPAIN
fragment of history is attached. Knowing the type of
Philip's face and the blemishes of his figure, we should
think it hard for a painter to realize a portrait of him true
to nature, yet of elevated conception and regal mien.
Titian overcomes the difficulty with ease. The sallow
ill-shaped face may haunt us and suggest uneasy forebod-
ings as to the spirit and temper of the man, but gloom
here is cleverly concealed in grave intentness, and every
line tells of the habitual distinction of a man of old blood
and high station. The head we saw is the same as in the
sketch. It stands out from the gorget relieved by a frill of
white linen, beneath which the handsome collar of the
Golden Fleece falls to the chest. A breastplate and hip
pieces richly inlaid with gold cover the frame and arms.
The fine embroidery of the sleeves and slashed hose, the
white silk tights and slashed white slippers, form a rich and
tasteful dress. The ringed left hand on the hilt of the
rapier, the right on the plumed morion which lies on a
console covered with a crimson velvet cloth, the whole
figure seen in front of a dark wall all this makes up a
splendid and attractive full-length standing on a carpet of a
deep reddish brown.
When Charles the Fifth preferred the suit of Philip to
Mary Tudor in 1553, n ^ s si ster Mary of Hungary sent
Titian's masterpiece at the Queen's request to Renard, the
Spanish envoy in London, telling him " that it was thought
very like when executed three years before, but had been
injured in the carriage from Augsburg to Brussels. Still, if
seen in its proper light and at a fitting distance, Titian's
PHILIP H. OF SPAIN ^39
pictures not bearing to be looked at too closely, it would
enable the Queen, by adding three years to the Prince's
age, to judge of his present appearance." Renard was
further directed to present the canvas to Her Majesty with
instructions to have it returned when the living original
had been substituted for the lifeless semblance.
Had not Mary been previously flattered at the prospect
of matching herself to a prince so much her junior, she
might have been induced by the mere sight of this piece to
entertain the proposal of Charles the Fifth. As it proved,
her prepossession was betrayed to her courtiers by admira-
tion of the picture, of which Strype reports that she was
greatly enamoured. After the marriage in 1554 this most
important work of art was faithfully returned to Mary of
Hungary, who took it to Spain in I556. 1
A school replica, made by Orazio or Cesare Vecelli,
under Titian's superintendence, is preserved at Chatsworth,
of which there was a poor example in the Northwick Col-
lection.
In March, 1553, Titian sent his second version of the
portrait to Philip, and this version it may be is that
which now hangs in the Museum of Naples, where the
figure is altered so as to bring the right hand to the waist,
and show the left holding a glove, whilst the frame is clad
in a splendid doublet of white silk shot with gold, the puffs
1 This picture, to which a piece has been added all around, is now in
the Madrid Museum, on canvas. There are patches of re-touching on
the right hand and thigh, and here and there a flaw in other parts. But
it is a fine work in the best style of this the broad period of Titian's style.
We find it noted in the inventory of Mary of Hungary (1558).
240 PHILIP n. OF SPAIN
of the sleeves being braced with red bands and the short
mantle lined with dark fur. Of this fine piece, which is
hardly inferior to that of Madrid, numerous repetitions or
copies exist, one of them at Blenheim by some disciple of
the master, another better still at the Pitti, whilst two or
three feebler imitations are shown at Castle Howard, in the
collection of Lord Stanhope and in the Corsini Palace at
Rome.
MRS. SCOTT MONCRIEFF
(Sir Henry Raeburn)
JAMES L. CAW
MORE exclusively, perhaps, than any other artist of
equal talent, Sir Henry Raeburn was a portrait-
painter. But, if he left nothing that he described as other
than a portrait, his pictorial sense was so active that each
of his finer things, vital though it is with biographical inter-
est, is a picture also. At once admirable biography and
great art, his work reveals a range and variety which one
would scarcely expect from the restricted nature of his sub-
jects. His pictures are neither signed nor dated, and his
style matured early and shows no very marked periods.
This, and the fact that any lists of sitters or account books
that he may have kept were destroyed or disappeared im-
mediately after his death make the dating of his pictures;
difficult.
Broadly speaking, Raeburn's career as a painter divides
into two periods, and one was but a prelude, and that a
short one, to the other. He began as a miniature painter,
but was not twenty when he commenced the series of life-
size portraits on which his reputation rests. Miniature-
painting in England was at about its highest when Raeburn
began to paint, but his miniatures have none of the grace
and charm which are the most distinctive qualities of Cos-
242 MRS. SCOTT MONCRIEFF
way or Eldridge. A miniature of Deuchar, the seal en-
graver and etcher, said to be the second portrait done by
him during the time he was apprentice to Mr. Gilliland, an
Edinburgh goldsmith, shows that he was a realist from the
first. If there is little attempt at truth of tone and solidity
of modelling and the local colour is only hinted at, there is
no mistaking the carefulness of the drawing and the direct-
ness of the characterization ; and in the typical miniature
of Andrew Wood, surgeon, painted a year or two later, the
colour has become more definite, the tones have assumed a
greater range, and the reliefs are given by legitimate model-
ling. Moreover, in the placing and lighting of the heads
one may note a similarity to his earliest oil-paintings.
But it is needless to linger over his beginnings ; Raeburn
himself would scarcely look at his miniatures after he had
commenced to paint life-size. Yet it is remarkable that
one with no real training should have passed almost at once
from miniatures like these to such a picture as the George
Chalmers of Pittencrieff. Painted in 1776, when the artist
was no more than twenty, this full length is marked by
many of his most characteristic traits. It has much of his
simplicity of arrangement and appreciation of character ;
it is painted with a fluent brush and shows that simplifica-
tion of planes, which was perhaps the basis of his art.
Indeed in this and other portraits painted before he went
abroad, such as the Dr. Hutton, or the Mrs. Ferguson and
Children, that method was pushed to a degree which he
afterwards modified in the direction of completer modelling.
Thus in the pictures of this period the big masses are un-
MRS. SCOTT MONCRIEFF
MRS. SCOTT MONCRIEFP 243
broken by interior modelling and tend towards emptiness,
while the colour is unmodulated, the clothes and draperies
being rendered by simple tints, and the shadows by darker
markings of the same colour or of black. His style, there-
fore, although it developed greatly afterwards, was practic-
ally formed before he went to Rome in 1785.
Two years later he returned to Edinburgh, and before the
close of 1787 he painted a portrait of the second Lord
President Dundas, which shows in the clearest way the in-
fluence of his Italian sojourn. At first sight it does not
suggest Raeburn at all. Yet, if the arrangement is some-
what reminiscent of Raphael's Julius //., and the handling
is completer and firmer and the colour richer than his ear-
lier work, in certain qualities, and particularly in grasp of
character and simplicity of motive, it shows no marked
divergence from such a portrait as that of Hutton the
geologist. And these are also the qualities which connect
it most distinctly with his matured style. The impasto is
thicker all over than was the case later, but the chief char-
acteristic of the picture, when compared with the ease and
freedom of more typical things, is the carefulness and de-
tail with which it is carried out. This is evident in the
painting of the face and the drawing of the hands, but is
most marked in the rendering of accessories and costume.
Much the same care was expended upon a portrait of the
painter's early friend, John Clerk, afterwards Lord Eldin
and other pictures of this time. But this greater precision
was only a passing phase, for in work dating only a little
later he returns to something more like his earlier style.
244 MRS. SCOTT MONCRIEFF
Many of the pictures painted in the nineties are remark-
able for the way in which form and character are conveyed,
as in Holbein's work, by the drawing and placing of the
features rather than by modelling. Of this, the portrait of
Mrs. McQueen of Braxfield, wife of the famous Scots
judge, and the Mrs! Newbigging may be taken as examples.
Yet almost simultaneously he was producing things of
which the outstanding quality is tone, or light and shade,
neither of which had been notable in his earlier style. A
group of Sir Ronald and Robert Ferguson (circa 1789) at
Raith is particularly interesting for the way in which tone
is managed. The colour is restricted to a harmony of
greys and browns, and the modelling is expressed very
subtly by a delicate range of values. On the other hand
the William Ferguson of Kilrie, and the double three-quarter
length of Sir John and Lady Clerk, both of which were
painted about 1790, are exercises in light and shade of great
refinement and beauty. Raeburn's usual practice was to
paint in a diffused but strong light, which mapping out the
features by clear-cut shadows, marked the construction and
build of the head in a very definite way. But in these and
a few other portraits painted about this time, the faces are
largely in shadow, and the shapes are very fully and tenderly
modelled.
Most of the work of this period tends to greyness of
colour accentuated, now and then, by passages of pure
white, bright yellow or red ; the tone is usually above
medium in pitch ; the impasto equal and rather thin, the
twill of the canvas showing clearly, the technique more
MRS. SCOTT MONCRIEFF 245
marked by swiftness and flow than by power and expressive-
ness of brushing. These qualities are more conspicuous,
however, in pictures of women, for many of his male por-
traits are exceedingly powerful in handling and full in
modelling. The Dr. Nathaniel Spens was painted about
17912, and the remarkable strength and virility there re-
vealed, associated with a fresher and franker use of colour,
make the imposing full-length of the indefatigable Sir John
Sinclair, of four or five years later, a picture, which, in some
respects Raeburn never bettered. With these may be
bracketed the splendid rendering of Admiral Lord Duncan,
commissioned by the Incorporation of Shipmasters, Leith,
in the year following that notable victory off Camperdown
which earned him a peerage and lasting fame. For ease
and vigour and freshness of handling, however, nothing by
Raeburn surpasses the group of Reginald Macdonald of
Clanranald and bis two younger brothers, painted just at the
close of the century.
Raeburn's work had thus been growing steadily, and
with no marked digressions it continued to grow. Fresh-
ness and power of handling dominated his technique more
and more, and soon the simplicity and directness of his
vision were relied on very largely for pictorial result. The
Macnab, which Sir Thomas Lawrence thought the best
representation of a human being he had ever seen, the Mrs.
Stewart of Pkysgill, and the Mrs. Lee Harvey and Daughter,
the last one of the latest of his works and probably never
quite finished, show that he still retained a conventionally
picturesque setting in many full-lengths j but in busts and
246 MRS. SCOTT MONCRIEFF
three-quarter lengths one notices a distinct increase in the
use of plain backgrounds, more evident perhaps in portraits
of women, for in painting men he had always been inclined
to rely upon his personal impressions of actuality. If oc-
casionally, as in the charming Mrs. Gregory (1796), or the
Lady Miller, he had used very simple arrangements, they
became much more frequent during the last twenty years
of his career. Comparison of the plates before and after
that of the Macdonald boys makes this evident at once.
And, with the complete command of technique which he
now possessed, his appreciation of character attained fuller,
more beautiful, and more convincing expression. His por-
traits of both men and women conform less to a type and
are more fully individualized than those of any other painter
of his time or school. Indeed, few painters anywhere have
balanced the claims of pictorial interest and characteriza-
tion so justly as he. But, as insight had always been
strong in Raeburn's art, the qualities which discriminate
his later from his less mature work, are to be found in ex-
pression rather than technique, for his drawing and brush-
work were practically fully developed during the nineties.
In later pictures, however, there is a modification in his
way of concentrating attention. Formerly he had relied
very frequently upon a shadow cast arbitrarily over the
lower part of the picture, as in the Countess of Dumfries and
Lady Elizabeth Penelope Cricbton (1793), or the Admiral
Lord Duncan (1798) ; now, while not discarding that device,
he combines it with the more legitimate one of subordi-
nating the surroundings to the face. Thus in portraits like
MRS. SCOTT MONCRIEFF 247
that of Mrs. Robert Bell, or of a very beautiful unnamed
woman, in the possession of Mr. Schwabacker, the chief
attention is given to the head and bust, the draperies and
backgrounds being carried only as far as necessary to sup-
port the face. In others again, as in the best known and
perhaps the loveliest of Raeburn's works, Mrs. Scott Mon-
crieff, the draperies are cunningly disposed to obtain a sim-
ilar result. And to the freshness and trenchant quality of
handling, which are conspicuous in such things as the
Macdonalds, or the Sir John Sinclair, a greater variety of
impasto, fuller modelling, deeper tone, and richer, if more
sombre, colour were now added. This increased volume
of tone and colour, combined with the simple yet distin-
guished masses, which are the most marked element in his
design, gives his more characteristic works great breadth
and dignity ; and if in some of the pictures of these later
years there is evidence of the hurry almost inseparable from
a* practice, which, in his own words, " cannot admit of en-
largement," the finest of them are, everything considered,
the best he ever painted. The shrewd reading of char-
acter, the simplicity of pictorial conception, the combined
fullness and certainty of modelling, the resonance of tone
and the sombre richness of colour, which mark Mrs.
Cruikshank (1805), or Lord Newton (between 1806 and
lSll),Mrs. James Campbell, or Mrs. Irvine BosweI/(lS2O),
James Wardrop of Torbanbill, or Robert Ferguson of Raith
(1823), to name no more, outweigh and outlast the more
immediate effectiveness of the more conventionally pic-
turesque pictures of his earlier or even of this later time.
248 MRS. SCOTT MONCRIEFP
And as Raeburn worked with undiminished power to the
very end, and these qualities made themselves more evident
with increasing knowledge and power, they may be taken
as characteristic of his gift, as an index of his personal
views and preferences in art.
THE CHILDREN OF CHARLES I.
(FanDyck)
H. KNACKFUSS
THE various groups in which Van Dyck painted the
King's children are among the most charming things
which the master produced during his residence in England.
Whereas many other pictures of his later period betray the
haste with which they were painted, the children are always
treated by the artist as if he loved his work. In the case
of the portraits of the children the date can be more nearly
determined, since the age of the persons represented is a
certain indication to go by, whereas, in the case of the like-
ness of the King and Queen, there is usually nothing to
suggest in what year they were painted. Of these groups
of children there are quite a number. The gem of them
all is in the Turin gallery. It must have been painted in
1635, soon after the master's return to England. It shows
the three eldest children of the King, the Prince of Wales
(born in 1630, afterwards Charles II.), the Princess Mary
(born in 1631, afterwards the wife of William II., Prince of
Orange), and the Duke of York (born in 1633, afterwards
King James II.). The latter can just stand alone, and
even the Prince of Wales still wears a frock and a little cap.
The three children stand side by side without any closer
connection ; the eldest, who already displays a certain
2$0 THE CHILDREN OP CHARLES I.
gravity of demeanour, strokes the head of a long-haired dog.
The charm of the picture lies partly in the delightful roses
in bloom in the background, and the pretty children are
like flowers themselves in their gay silk dresses. We see
the sam^ three children about a year older in the exquisite
picture at Dresden. Here the three brightly coloured
figures the Prince of Wales already dressed as a boy-
stand in front of a quiet, dark background. Two pretty
white and tan spaniels of the breed which were such
favourites at the court of Charles I. that they still go by
his name, sit near the children ; in the place where the
animals are introduced they are of importance both in the
combined effect of the colour and in the lineal structure of
the composition. A group resembling the Dresden picture,
painted a little later again, is at Windsor Castle. The group
is larger and the composition more elaborate in the picture
of 1637 at Windsor, of which the Berlin Gallery contains
a repetition painted in the same year. In addition to the
three elder children, the little Princesses Elizabeth and
Anne are introduced. A glimpse of the park and the bright
sky, afforded by the drawing aside of a dark-green curtain,
and a table with a dull-red cover on which fruits and shin-
ing vessels are laid, bring a lively play of colour into the
background, which harmonizes with the charm of the
children's gay frocks and rosy faces. Princess Mary is
dressed all in white ; the Duke of York, who still wears a
frock and cap, has a little jacket of red shot with yellow
over his white frock ; the Prince of Wales, who stands in
the middle of the picture as the most important figure,
THE CHILDREN OF CHARLES I. 251
wears a light-red suit with slashed sleeves lined with white,
and white shoes with red rosettes; his left hand rests on the
head of a powerful mastiff, whose yellow coat is a splendid
complement to the strongest colours in the picture, the red
worn by the Prince of Wales and a light blue, which is the
colour of the frock of Princess Elizabeth. The youngest
princess, supported by her little sister, sits in her baby-
clothes on a chair, on which a pale red cloth lies across a
dark velvet cushion ; in front of the two little ones lies a
tiny white and tan spaniel.
We can form some idea of the occupation given Van
Dyck by the King, when we learn that an extant account,
settled by order of Charles I. in 1638, after he had dis-
counted considerably some of the prices set by the artist on
his work, enumerates twenty-three pictures then awaiting
payment, which included twelve portraits of the Queen
and five of the King. And, besides these, Van Dyck
painted an incredibly large number of portraits of other
people. He was overloaded with commissions from the
whole aristocracy of the English court, and he managed to
satisfy all his patrons with masterly pictures.
JANE SEYMOUR
(Holbein)
ALFRED WOLTMANN
PREDILECTION for portraiture is perhaps a narrow-
ness in the English taste for art, but it has also its
foundation in the character of the nation. It corresponds
with that estimation of the personal worth of a man, with
that full appreciation of individual independence, which
forms such an important element in the English national
character. Though primarily no artistic grounds may have
produced this estimation of portrait-painting, still we may
assert that in Holbein's time, artistic grounds were also ex-
isting. What must have produced the greatest impression
upon a nation like the English, which was at that time en-
tirely habituated to the artistic style of the Middle Ages, at
the sight of works of art imbued with the modern spirit ?
Naturally that which the art of the Middle Ages most
lacked : not the expression of beautiful feelings and pro-
found thoughts, not the display of a rich imagination, but
the capability of the artist to see a definite natural object
exactly and distinctly as it is, and to hold such a sway over
the artistic power that he can depict everything as he sees
it. History teaches us that portraiture is ever that branch of
art which proves most clearly and surely how an artist or
a whole epoch is master of the means of representation.
JANE SEYMOUR
JANE SEYMOUR 253
From this point of view, therefore, we are well justified
in lamenting that Holbein with all the wealth and versatility
of his mind should have been limited to this one branch ; if,
however, we were to proceed a step further and pity him
on this account, we should be taking a wrong view of the
matter. In a material point of view, he undoubtedly found
most advantage in portrait-painting. In Germany also, it
gained the highest price, and Holbein would assuredly have
pursued it for preference, had there only been more people,
who in these years of scarcity had sufficient surplus-money
to admit of their being painted by him.
We have also no reason to suppose that this sphere of
work was unsatisfactory to Holbein's taste. The most
credible authorities, his works themselves, prove the con-
trary. Even in his youth, Holbein had painted portraits,
which can rank with the best which German portrait-paint-
ing has produced. We have only to recall to mind the
portrait of Amerbach. Since, however, he had come to
England, he made continual progress, and the works which
he executed in the King's service far surpass all his former
productions. Goethe's maxim : " Erst zn's We'ite, dann zu
Scbranken " (" First extension, afterwards limits "), we see
here fulfilled. Holbein had reached the boldest heights of
religious, ideal, and historical painting. Now, at the
period of his utmost maturity, he contented himself with
the narrow sphere of portraiture, but in this limitation he
exhibited all that he possessed, not merely a masterly power
in technical matters and the perfect cultivation of taste in
the spirit of the Renaissance, but also the height of his in-
254 JANE SEYMOUR
tellectual conception and his grand historical style. Por-
traiture is the path to true historical painting in the modern
sense, resting as it does essentially on psychological con-
ception and only able to depict a dramatic incident, when it
represents a definite historical personage in his character,
passions, and will, and makes him the vehicle of the action.
In Holbein's portraits we learn to feel this, for these have
grown, so to speak, as regards ourselves into historical pic-
tures. Holbein conceived the persons whom he painted,
not in any special situation or feeling, but in the calm con-
tinuance and even balance of their nature, but he reveals
this nature to us so significantly that we feel as if we could
see the men whose names are recorded in history, in the
moments in which they most fully established their person-
ality ; in which they conceived their decided resolutions and
accomplished their great deeds. He imbues the portrait
" so thoroughly with that marrow of the historical spirit,
which at once recalls the individual to life, that in these
works history itself breathes and lives, and the portrait be-
fore us opens the speaking mouth with its eloquent lips, and
gathers round us its departed contemporaries, and, as in the
drama, renews the play whose curtain long ago has fallen."
There is a painting of Queen Jane Seymour, a half-
length figure and nearly life-size, in the Belvedere at Vienna.
It accords in the conception and bearing with the Whitehall
painting, and also with a splendid sketch in the Windsor
Collection, and it belongs to the most masterly works
which we possess of Holbein's English period. It is evi-
dently the same picture as that which Carel van Mander
JANE SEYMOUR 255
describes in the following manner : " There was at Am-
sterdam in the Warmoesstraat (Vegetable Street), a portrait
of a Queen of England, admirably executed, and very pretty
and nice ; she was attired in silver brocade, which appears
to be genuine silver with some admixture, and it was de-
picted so transparently, curiously and exquisitely, that a
white foil seemed to lie beneath."
The effect produced by the Viennese picture accords per-
fectly with this description. It shows at the same time,
that in the technical execution and in the background tint
which he chose, Holbein ever accommodated himself to the
subject he was depicting, and that a colder or warmer pro-
portion of light and shade did not merely belong to certain
periods of his artistic progress, but that he at the same time,
allowed sometimes the one, and sometimes the other to
prevail, according to the personage whom he was delineat-
ing-
Jane Seymour was famed for her pure fairness, and
therefore this cold and delicate tint with its faint grey
shadows was suited for her portrait, and Holbein has pro-
duced nothing more beautiful. She appears in the most
splendid costume, an under-garment of silver brocade, over
which she wears a dress of purple velvet. Wherever it was
possible, rich gold ornament was introduced ; her dress and
her cap of the well-known angular form were studded with
pearls, and a chain of pearls was hung round her neck, from
which was suspended a rich jewelled ornament forming the
initials VBS. The whole was executed in miniature-like
perfection 5 and in spite of this splendour, this glittering
256 JANE SEYMOUR
profusion, the countenance of the Queen outshone all the
rest with its wonderfully delicate and clear tint. How soft
and fine are the hands quietly resting in each other, and
emerging from cuffs of exquisitely finished Spanish work !
How beautiful is the form of the face, how delicate is the
effect of the grey shadows, especially on the chin ! The
small shade thrown by one of the points of her cap is very
charming. The countenance is one of regular beauty with
delicate fair eyebrows ; the expression of the closely com-
pressed lips is extraordinarily sweet. Her eyes do not seek
the spectator, but look calmly forth, and the serene trans-
parency of her brow has quite a peculiar effect. It re-
minds us of Ronsard's pretty poem to Francois Clouet,
which begins :
" Pein moy, Janet, pein moy, je tc supplie,
Sur ce tableau les beautez de m* amie."
There we read respecting the main requisites of female
beauty :
" Que son beau front ne soit entre fendu,
De nul sillon en profond estendu :
Mais qu 'il soit tel qu' est 1'eau de la marine
Quand tant soit peu le vent ne la mutine."
Jane Seymour is delicacy itself; her appearance is royal
and noble, and is yet full of genuine womanly gentleness
and modesty. This portrait proves the truth of the de-
scription given of her by Sir John Russell, when he had
observed her in church. The richer Queen Jane was in
JANE SEYMOUR 257
her attire the more beautiful did she appear, while the con-
trary was the case with Anne Boleyn. She merits certainly
all the favour she has experienced ; she is the most modest,
fair and gentle of all the ladies whom the King has had.
And thus the people also extolled her beauty, when in De-
cember, 1536, she passed through London on horseback by
the side of her noble consort, the ice on the Thames having
made the passage by water impossible. All parties paid her
equal honour, but she never became distinguished in his-
tory, and this is the best evidence in her favour. In a
tragic moment the King had demanded her hand, and un-
expectedly she had become his wife, but from the excellence
of her character she won his esteem, and beyond this, an
affection as profound as Henry was capable of feeling. At
his death he wished to be placed by her side.
HIERONYMUS HOLZSCHUHER
(Albrecbt Durer)
GUSTAVE GRUYER
BORN in Nuremberg the 2ist of May, 1471, and dy-
ing in the same city the 6th of April, 1528, Albrecht
Durer was at the apogee of his talent and nearly at the end
of his life when he painted the portrait of Hieronymus
Holzschuher (1526). Inspired by a model of a noble and
pleasing appearance, and stimulated by a friendship of long
standing, he surpassed himself in the execution of this por-
trait, the most beautiful and the most vital of all those that
he has signed. To pass by such a work with indifference
is impossible : it strikes those ignorant of art as forcibly as
it does the connoisseurs ; it has an irresistible attraction and
it leaves an impression in the mind that one likes to have
repeated.
Hieronymus Holzschuher is represented bust length of
life-size, in a robe of black damask trimmed with fur.
The body is slightly turned to the left, but the glance is
directed obliquely towards the right. The clear and bril-
liant eyes shadowed by brows that indicate a very strong
will have a very unusual vivacity ; they allow us to perceive
a very keen intelligence, and a grave, loyal and sincere soul.
The very well formed head is covered with abundant hair
of silvery grey which falls in curls upon the collar of the
H. HOLZSCHUHER
HIERONYMUS HOLZSCHUHER 259
garment while a few wisps partly hide the strongly de-
veloped forehead. The long beard, which is also almost
white, brings out the rosy tones of the skin. The face
stands out from a very luminous background of light green.
To the left, above, you read : "Hieronims Holzschuer,Anno
Doni 1526. Etatis, sue. 57." On the background at the
right you see Diirer's monogram. Notwithstanding his age,
Holzschuher is full of vigour ; yet only a few years were
between him and his end. He died on the Qth of May,
1529, three years after having posed for Diirer, and a year
after the great artist had departed this life.
The execution of the portrait which occupies our atten-
tion, denotes the most minute care. You cannot too much
admire the accuracy and precision jof the contours, the
delicacy of the modelling and the general harmony of the
colours. If the face and figure as a whole present a strik-
ing veracity, the slightest details are prodigies of patience
and skill. What minute and perfect work there is in the
soft hair, in the light and tangled beard, and also in the fur !
In considering these particulars in Holzschuher's portrait,
we are involuntarily reminded of a drawing, in the Alber-
tine collection at Vienna, in which Diirer reproduced in
1521 during a stay in Antwerp, the features of an old man
of ninety-three years. The long wavy beard of this old
man is rendered with the same fastidious perfection and in-
deed almost approaches caligraphy. It would seem that in
executing these portraits Diirer frequently remembered his
habits of an engraver. Holbein the younger (1497-1543),
who, excepting Diirer, was the greatest German painter,
260 HIERONYMUS HOLZSCHUHER
had the opposite idea regarding his portraits ; entirely con-
cerned with the general effect, he never allowed himself to
be distracted or absorbed by the details ; and therefore pro-
duced works by means of a less realistic and more refined
art.
Albrecht Durer, as we have said, had personal relations
with Hieronymus Holzschuher. During his trip through
the Low Countries, on the 5th of May, 1521, he bought
an enormous drinking-horn as a present for him. This
fact is mentioned in his Journal^ which still exists and in
which he inscribed not only his impressions, but notes of
all kinds, and his daily expenses.
The illustrious painter of Nuremberg also counted ad-
mirers among other members of the Holzschuher family.
One of them ordered a picture from him for the chapel of
Saint Maurice in the church of Saint Sebald. This pic-
ture represents the dead Christ mourned by saintly women
and his disciples. It now belongs to the Museum in
Nuremberg. Probably it was Sigismund Holzschuher that
gave Durer this order, for the number of his sons and
daughters corresponds to the children that surround the
donor Sigismund who died in 1499.
We have very little information regarding Hieronymus
Holzschuher. He was born in 1469, two years before
Durer, of Patrician family of Nuremberg whose origin
dates from 1130. But it was owing to his merits far more
than to his birth that he owed the offices with which he
was honoured. In 1499, he became a member of the
council charged with the municipal administration. In
HIERONYMUS HOLZSCHUHER 261
1500, he was placed among the most recently nominated
burgomasters; and in 1509 among the oldest burgomasters.
Finally, from 1514, he was one of the septemvirs. In
1498, he married Dorothea, daughter of the physician
Hieronymus Miinzer. Of this union, three sons were
born. The eldest represented his fellow citizens at the
Diets of Worms, Ratisbon and Augsburg, and on Septem-
ber 28, 1547, the Emperor Charles V. confirmed his title
of nobility.
There is a medal in existence representing Hieronymus
Holzschuher, a medal that bears the date of 1529, the
year of his death. Holzschuher is seen here in profile
turned to the right. This was inspired by Diirer's portrait
and only differs slightly from it. Around the effigy you
read the following inscription : u Holzschuher senior tetatis
suae LX" On the reverse, the Holzschuher arms are ac-
companied by the following words : u Munlficentia amicos,
patientia inimicos vtnce. MDXXIX"
In the Museum at Gotha, a copy of Holzschuher' s por-
trait by Diirer, the same size as the original, is to be found.
It was executed in 1578 by Hans Hoffmann of Nuremberg,
whose monogram it bears. Hans Hoffmann endeavoured
to imitate Diirer, and was particularly fond of copying his
pictures. He was one of the court painters at Vienna un-
der the Emperor Rudolph II., and he died either in 1592 or
1600.
Until Sandrart's time Hieronymus Holzschuher's por-
trait, preserved by the Holzschuher family, was almost un-
known to the public. Sandrart was the first to mention it.
262 HIERONYMUS HOLZSCHUHER
In his Teutscbe Academic, written in 1675, he first speaks
of Durer's portrait painted by himself in 1500 and now ex-
hibited in the Town-Hall of Nuremberg, and then he
adds : " They also show in that town a very much
admired portrait of Jerome Holzschuher, painted on wood.
In 1651, I offered a large sum of money for it on the part
of a very powerful sovereign, 1 but they would not sell it at
any price." After Sandrart's time silence again hovers
around Durer's masterpiece. It only begins to attract at-
tention again at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century.
In 1816, a presumptuous artist dared to substitute for the
light green background one of purplish brown which hid
the inscriptions inserted in the picture almost entirely, and
perfectly self-satisfied he wrote on it : "John Laurence
Rotermundt Bambergensis restauravit." It was in this con-
dition when Mr. Edward Holzschuher, the last representa-
tive of the Holzschuher family, lent Durer's picture to the
German Museum. It was purchased in 1884 by the Ber-
lin Museum from which we need not fear that it will ever
be removed.
Thanks to Mr. A. Hauser of Munich, who proceeded
with as much care as skill, the background the Rotermundt
had painted was removed and the original background cor-
rectly restored and once more contributes to the harmoniza-
tion of the tones. This admirable portrait, so well pre-
served, still remains in its original frame, the movable shut-
ter of which, still in existence, has been replaced by a glass ;
on the shutter the united arms of the Holzschuher and
1 M. Julius Meyer thinks this was Maximilian I., Elector of Bavaria.
HIERONYMUS HOLZSCHUHER 263
Munzer families are painted in the centre of a crown, ac-
companied by the date MDXXVI.
After having executed this portrait of Holzschuher,
Diirer took up his brushes only once more, to paint the
Four Apostles, now in the Pinakothek of Munich, which
he offered to his native town as a u testimony of his patriotic
and religious sentiments."
BEATA BEATRIX
(Rossetti)
F. G. STEPHENS
THE picture now before us is one of the masterpieces
of the leading member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brother-
hood, and was produced in the prime of his powers, imagina-
tive as well as technical. It is among the few examples of
Rossetti's art fit to be compared with the Beloved^ that gem of
Mr. George Rae's collection, and in some respects it is
even more distinctly than that superb achievement a full
and true reflection of the artist's idiosyncrasy of the higher
order. The mysticism and mystery of Beata Beatrix are
due to that which was, so to say, the innermost Rossetti, or
Rossetti of Rossetti. The spirit of Dante never found in
art or otherwise an apter or more subtle expression than
this wonderful vision of that border-realm which lies be-
tween life and death.
If the subject itself taxed the painter and his art, my
humble office of endeavouring to illustrate it in words is,
whether as concerns the means at hand or the fitness of
the writer, commensurately unpromising and difficult. In
such a case the critic is even more unfavourably placed
than the engraver, who, while his original possesses the
charm of colour, must needs dispense with that magical
element, although, as in this instance, above most others,
BEATA BEATRIX
BEATA BEATRIX 265
the sentiment of the picture finds utterance in that which
may be called the poetry of its colouration, and the chro-
matic scheme of the work is not only in harmony with the
pathos of the whole, but an essential portion of the design,
and, as such, was with the utmost solicitude and insight
developed by the poet-painter.
As described in the Vita Nuova^ that most transcendental
of the poet's creations, the Beatrice of Dante's imagina-
tion sits in a balcony of her father's palace in Florence.
We are in the chamber from which it opens, and the
beautiful and spiritual damsel's form is half lost against
the outer light, half merged in the inner shadows of the
place. She is herself a vision, while her corporeal eyes
losing power of outward speculation the heavenly visions
of the New Life are revealed to the eyes of her spirit.
The open window gives a view of the Arno, its bridge and
the towers and palaces of that city in which Dante and
Beatrice spent their lives side by side, so to say, until that
fatal ninth of June, 1290, when she died, and, as the poet
told us, u the whole city came to be, as it were, widowed
and despoiled of all dignity " ; or, as the appropriate motto
on the frame in the National Gallery has it, being Dante's
own verse, uttered when her death was announced to him,
and borrowed from Jeremiah : " ^uomodo sedet sola chitas" l
The outer light which is that of evening when dun vapours
prevail, falls in a still brilliant though subdued flood upon
1 Or at length :
How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people !
How is she become as a widow, she that was great among the nations ! "
Lamentations t I., j.
266 BEATA BEATRIX
the surface of the river, and gives to it a lustre at once
warm and silvery, dashed by reflections, whether dim or
luminous, of the bridge and other buildings on the banks,
and thrown back towards us. Opposed to this sheen the
head of Beatrix is so placed that the light shines among
the outer threads of her dark auburn hair, and thus pro-
duces the effect of a halo, radiant against the vapours of the
twilight distance and diffused in the nearer space, while the
face itself is, to our sight, merged in the dimness caused
by our looking at the splendour of the river. Accordingly,
the figure appears partly outlined against the lustre, partly
lost in the half-gloom of the chamber. It is thus visible
in what may be called a twilight of brilliance and a twilight
of shadow. This contrasting harmony has been, with
ineffable subtlety and care, developed by the painter, and it
enhances the spiritual abstruseness of his design. The
true inspiration of his theme required that the figure of
Beatrix, being an inmate of that border-realm which divides
life from death, should appear occult, and with nothing
defined neither form, nor colour, nor substance, nor
shadow, nor light direct, nor positive elements of any sort
to affirm that she has passed the bourn from which no
traveller returns or lingers in our midst.
Her form is merged, not lost in that shadowy space
which, in Butler's noble phrase, is " of brightness made."
Thus Rossetti happily showed that his subject was a
mystery, yet not without life of this world, nor all unreal.
A woman of exceeding beauty and holiness, his Beatrix is
in a rapture of approaching death, absorbed in a painless
BEATA BEATRIX 267
ecstasy, having knowledge of the world to come ere her
spirit quits its mortal house, so that while her features
attest mortality, the fair mansion is not void of life.
Rossetti made her drooping eyelids veil unseeing eyes,
while her parted lips and slowly-lifted nostrils bespeak a
failing vitality. Thus his intention is manifest, while his
genius leads us into that recondite region where art passes
beyond the reach of words and ordered phrases ; touches,
in truth, upon the very boundary of pictorial representation
and factful resemblance ; and affirms its power to deal with
the subtlest purposes and visions so abstruse that poets,
even while addressing poets, rarely describe them, and
painters, although appealing to painters as poetical as them-
selves have still more rarely ventured to deal with them.
That this is an allegory expressing itself without those
conventions which are the currency of symbolical language,
and thus shows Rossetti venturing in a new poetic sphere,
is a new cause for our admiration.
As to the picture and its spectators, it is obvious that we
remain on the mundane side of things, while Beatrix in a
swoon passes into the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and
the Florence Rossetti painted is the Heavenly City of the
future. Rapt thus, her features look pale in the half
gloom, half light, and her hands, which erst clasped each
other in her lap, have fallen apart to lie supine because their
task is almost done, and this is celestial light which glances
on them. A dove, a heavenly messenger, of deep rose-
coloured and glowing plumage, and, like the bird of the
Annunciation, crowned with an aureole, poises on down-
268 BEATA BEATRIX
ward wings at her knee and bears to Beatrix's hands a
white poppy, /. *., the mystical flower in which Rossetti
meant to combine the emblems of death and chastity. He
gave to the flower a dark heart to indicate death ful mystery,
and to its pallid leaves imparted that pure whiteness which
expresses the stainless life of the lady who, although not
dying, is about to die.
Her face is in some respects a likeness of the painter's
wife, who passed away some years before he designed this
.picture. It is obviously, however, not intended as a por-
trait of that lady, but it may well be called a spiritual
translation, inspiring features which had but a general re-
semblance to those of the Eeata Beatrix who is before us.
Her dress consists of a green outer garment, loosely fitting
above a closer under-robe of purple, the colours of hope
and sorrow as well as of life and death. They likewise
resemble the red and green, or red and blue of the Virgin,
symbolical hues, the significance of which all the world has
recognized. The sundial on the parapet of the balcony
behind the figure, from whose gnomon the celestial bright-
ness projects a shadow, indicates upon the numeral of the
hour (the mystical nine the poet has told us of) that the
time of Beatrix has nearly, if not quite, come. In the half-
gloom behind the swooning lady we see Dante, with book
in hand and in " scholarly gown," exactly as when he met
the living Beatrix in the porch of that famous church of
Florence which he could never afterwards forget. Exactly
as the living poet turned to gaze on his mistress as she
passed on her way, so he now turns and as attentively re-
BEATA BEATRIX 269
gards the figure of radiant Love, the ideal Eros of his ex-
alted vision, who, holding in one hand a flaming heart,
passes on the other side of the picture heavenwards, and
seems to sign to Dante that he should follow in that path.
This vermilion-clad genius is, of course, the eidolon, or spir-
itual Beatrix, the celestial Love whose earthly image was
the Beatrix the poet made immortal in immortal verse, and
met and knew it matters not whether much or little in
Florence street upon that unforgotten day the very record
of which is to Dante's lovers as the echo of a rapturous
sigh.
Rossetti, writing to a friend, thus describes his intention
in this picture : " It illustrates the Vita Nuova, embody-
ing symbolically the death of Beatrice as treated in that
work. The picture is not intended at all to represent
death, but to render it under the semblance of a trance, in
which Beatrice seated in a balcony overlooking the city, is
suddenly rapt from earth to heaven. You will remember
how Dante dwells upon the desolation of the city in con-
nection with the incidents of her death, and for this reason
I have introduced it as my background, and made the
figures of Dante and Love passing through the streets, and
gazing ominously on one another, conscious of the event ;
while the bird, messenger of death, drops the poppy be-
tween the hands of Beatrice. She, through shut lids, as
expressed in the last words of the Vita Nouva, " ghiella
beat a Beatrice che gloriosamente mira nella faccia di colui qui est
per omnia s&cula benedictus" .
Nearly all the frames of Rossetti's pictures were designed
BEATA BEATRIX
by himself, not only for beauty's sake, but to convey spirit-
ual allusions to the subjects they enclosed. In this case he
spent extraordinary pains on the design, which includes,
below the painting, the motto, " ^uomodo sedet sola civitas"
as before quoted, and the fatal date, "June 9, 1290." On
each side of the frame is an emblematic circle enclosing
celestial spaces charged with clouds, stars, and the greater
luminaries, and severally appropriate to the theme of the
picture.
This important work was begun in 1863, and carried on
at intervals for more than two years. In August, 1866, it
was, as the artist's brother has told us, sold to the Hon.
William Cowper-Temple, afterwards Lord Mount-Temple.
There are, at least, besides a drawing in crayons, two ver-
sions, not exactly replicas of it ; but neither of them is so
fine as that now in question. These are in oil. There is
a repetition, if not two, in water-colours. After the death
of Lord Mount-Temple, his widow, partly in regard, it is
said, to his wish, most generously, as a memorial of that
warm and sympathetic admirer of the artist, gave this, the
finest example, to the National Gallery.
MADDALENA DONI
(Raphael)
JULIA CARTWRIGHT
" TN Florence, more than in any other city, men become
* perfect in all the arts, especially in that of painting.
There the fine air makes men naturally quick to praise and
blame, prompt to see what is good and beautiful, unwilling
to tolerate mediocrity. The keen struggle for life sharpens
the wits, and the love of glory is stirred in the hearts of
men of every profession." Such, according to Vasari, were
the words in which Perugino's old Umbrian master urged
him to seek his fortunes in Florence. And now the same
impulse drew his still more gifted scholar to the banks of
the Arno, and at the age of twenty-one Raphael came to
Florence, as a learner, in the words of his patroness per
imparare. The moment was a memorable one. Never,
even in the Magnifico Lorenzo's days, had so brilliant a
company of artists met together within the city walls, as
that which assembled in January, 1504, to decide on the
site of Michelangelo's David. Among the architects
present on the occasion were Cronaca and the brothers
Sangallo; among the sculptors, Andrea della Robbia and
Sansovino ; among the painters, Cosimo, Roselli, Sandro
Botticelli, Filippino Lippi, Piero di Cosimo, Lorenzo di
Credi, Pietro Perugino and Lionardo da Vinci. All of these
272 MADDALENA DONI
were still living when Raphael came to Florence, with the
single exception of Filippino.
The sight of Florence itself of that dome which had as
yet no rival, of the palaces and churches which lined the
streets, of the frescoes that filled chapels and convent-cells
with light and colour, of Delia Robbia's blue-and-white
Madonnas, and angels shining down above the crowded
market-place and in the quiet corners of side alleys might
well delight Raphael's soul. The city and the works of
art he saw there, says Vasari, alike seemed divine to him,
and he asked nothing better than to take up his abode there,
and spend the rest of his days at Florence.
He went everywhere and saw everything. His quick
eye took note of each different object in this new and won-
derful world, and his hand recorded countless forms and
shapes which he could never have dreamt of in his Umbrian
days. He lingered in the dim chapel of the Carmine until
he knew every figure in Masaccio's works by heart, he
studied Ghirlandajo's heads and Donatello's marbles, and
made careful drawings of Michelangelo's David on sheets
which may still be seen in the British Museum. But it
was Lionardo above all others who attracted him by the
science and beauty of his art. u He stood dumb," Vasari
tells us, "before the grace of his figures, and thought him
superior to all other masters. In fact, the style of Lionardo
pleased him better than any which he had ever seen, and,
leaving the manner of Piero, he endeavoured with infinite
pains to imitate the art of Lionardo. From having been a
master he once more became a pupil."
MADDALENA DONI
MADDALENA DONI 273
The letter of La Profetessa does not seem to have
brought him any commission from the Gonfaloniere, who
had already the two greatest living painters in his service,,
and many other excellent artists awaiting his commands.
But the recommendations of his Urbino friends and the
influence of his master Perugino above all, his own charm-
ing nature, brought him many friends, and made him a
general favourite in artistic circles. He was a frequent
visitor at the shop of the distinguished architect Baccio
d' Agnolo, where artists of every age and rank met on
winter evenings to discuss problems connected with their
craft. All the well-known painters and sculptors in Flor-
ence were to be seen at these gatherings in turn, and some-
times, although rarely, the great Michelangelo himself
would look in.
Among the visitors who came to Baccio d* Agnolo's
gatherings was Taddeo Taddei, a wealthy Florentine of
cultivated tastes, who corresponded with Bembo and was a
liberal patron of the fine arts. Baccio d* Agnolo had built
him a palace in the Via de' Ginori, and Michelangelo had
carved one of his finest Holy Families for him in stone.
Taddeo soon made friends with Raphael, and was never
happy unless the young painter were in his house and
at his table. And Raphael, writes Vasari, "who was the
most amiable of men (cb' era la gentilezza stessa), not
to be outdone in courtesy, painted two pictures for him,
which Taddeo valued among his most precious treasures."
u Show all honour to Taddeo, of whom we have so often
spoken," wrote the painter to his uncle Simone, when his
274 MADDALENA DONI
friend was about to visit Urbino, " for there is no man living
to whom I am more deeply indebted." Another noble Flor-
entine who shared Raphael's intimacy was Lorenzo Nasi,
afterwards one of the City priors. Either of these friends
may have recommended him to the wealthy merchant
Agnolo Doni, one of the most discerning and at the same
time one of the most niggardly lovers of pictures in Flor-
ence. This cautious personage, whose palace was a museum
of antique and contemporary art, had lately bought Michel-
angelo's famous Holy Family of the Tribune, after wrang-
ling with Buonarotti for months over the price. Now in
his anxiety to obtain good pictures at the lowest possible
price, he employed the young painter from Urbino, who
was as yet little known in Florence, to paint his own
portrait and that of his wife, a lady of the Strozzi family.
Both of these portraits, which hang to-day in the Pitti
Gallery, are admirable examples of Raphael's close and
faithful study of life. They are painted with the same
minute attention to detail, the same anxious rendering of
each single hair, that we note in the Borghese portrait.
The wealthy merchant in his black damask suit and red
sleeves, with refined features and keen anxious gaze, his
staid, richly-dressed wife in her blue brocades and jewelled
necklace, well satisfied with herself and all the world, are
living types of their class. Yet in the form of the pic-
tures, in the pose of Maddalena Doni's head and of her
placidly folded hands, we are conscious of a new influence.
If from the picture we turn to the pen-and-ink sketch in
the Louvre, we see at a glance that Lionardo's Mona Lisa
MADDALENA DONI 275
was in Raphael's mind when he painted Maddalena Doni's
portrait. The cut of the dress, the ripple of the hair,
the very folds of the bodice are exactly copied from that
famous picture, which Raphael must have seen in Francesco
Giocondo's house in Florence. Only instead of Leonardo's
rock landscape, he has sketched a view of Umbrian hills
and Urbino towers, framed in between the columns of an
open loggia. There is, we must confess, a charm in the
drawing which is lacking in the picture. The maiden with
the dreamy eyes and youthful face was the painter's ideal ;
the other was the actual woman, Maddalena Doni, the rich
merchant's wife, a subject, it may be, not very much to his
taste, but none the less to be painted with perfect accuracy
and truth.
PHILIP IV. OF SPAIN
(Velasquez)
CLAUDE PHILLIPS
EUROPEAN and American connoisseurs have been
much occupied in disputing as to the authenticity of
a full-length of Philip IV. in youth, ascribed to Velasquez,
which was, at the instance of Dr. Denman W. Ross, a
Trustee of the Fine Arts Museum of Boston, purchased
for that museum in September, 1904, at the price of a little
over ; 1 0,000 sterling. The following extract from the
Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin gives succinctly the facts of
the case and the contention of the committee responsible
for the purchase of the much-discussed picture :
" THE NEW VELASQUEZ "
"The Committee on the Museum makes the following
statement with regard to the Velasquez portrait, believed
to represent Philip IV. of Spain, now hung in the First
Picture Gallery.
" The purchase of the picture was authorized by the
Committee by cable of September 2yth, 1904, to Dr. Den-
man W. Ross, a member of the Committee, then in Madrid,
in response to a cable from Dr. Ross, stating the offer of
the picture, and its high quality. The purchase was made
by Dr. Ross, after examination of the picture and com-
PHILIP IV. OF SPAIN 277
parison of it with others by Velasquez in the Prado, upon
the evidence which the painting itself afforded of its beauty
and genuineness.
" An attack on the genuineness of the picture was made
in an anonymous communication received by the Museum
in the month of November. The Committee has endeav-
oured to obtain the name of the writer without success.
" The picture has since been submitted to a number of
painters and critics of painting, both of New York and
Boston, who are entitled to be considered judges in such a
matter, by reason of their familiarity with and study of the
works of Velasquez. Their testimony with a single
exception is unanimous and strong in favor of the genu-
ineness of the work.
" The Committee on the Museum believes the picture
to be genuine, and considers the Museum fortunate in its
possession. It has assigned the picture as a purchase from
the fund bequeathed to the Museum by the late Sarah
Wyman Whitman."
Seldom has the world of art and art-criticism been more
divided on a point of such interest and importance. Senor
Beruete, the latest biographer of Velasquez, and a critic of
the master and his works, in whose judgment many modern
students of the great Spaniard's art place great reliance,
has, as I understand for I have not actually seen the letters
in which his opinions are set forth denied the right of the
picture to be included in the catalogue of authentic works.
Unless I am wholly misinformed, he calls in question the
accuracy of the statements made to the purchasers, as to
278 PHILIP IV. OF SPAIN
the provenance of the new " Philip IV." and states that his
incredulity is based on a careful examination of the picture,
and a comparison of its technique with that of well-
authenticated portraits in the Prado Gallery, of much the
same period in Velasquez' practice. Some dealers and
collectors, both in Europe and the United States, have, as I
am told, followed and approved the latest biographer of the
master in his outspoken expressions of unbelief. On the
other hand, the body of instructed opinion in America, now
that the first scare is over, strongly upholds the authenticity
of the museum's costly purchase. My friend Mr. Roger
Fry, upon whose high competence as a critic it would be
superfluous for me to dilate, has very recently had an
opportunity of carefully scrutinizing the Boston canvas;
and he authorizes the statement that, in his opinion, the
painting is undoubtedly authentic, and a characteristic ex-
ample of Don Diego's early style. It behooves me to give
my opinion in all modesty, since I know the " Philip IV."
in dispute, not in the original, but only in the excellent
photographs executed for the Boston Museum and here
reproduced. I may, however, without imprudence, state
that the impression made upon me by these is an entirely
favourable one. From these reproductions I should take
the Boston " Philip IV." to be one of the first, if not the
very first, of the long succession of portraits painted of the
taciturn, impassive monarch by his Court Painter, between
the years 1623 and 1660 that is, between the date when
Velasquez first became attached to the Court, and the date
of his death. To me and I repeat that I do not assume
PHILIP IV. OF SPAIN 279
to judge, but merely record the impression which results
from a careful comparison of reproductions the Boston
" Philip IV." appears to be, in style and mode of execution,
identical with the famous " Conde-Duque Olivarez," in
the collection of Captain Holford, at Dorchester House,
which Carl Justi, in his noted biography of Velasquez,
describes as " the most important extant picture in the ear-
liest that is, the Sevillian style, and one the authenticity
of which has been questioned, just because that style is not
understood." The carefulness, the incisive strength, even
in this early phase, and, moreover, the hardness of the
touch in the treatment of the hair, in the modelling of
the face and hands these essential characteristics are the
same in both, and such as, with more still of primitiveness,
and nai've reflection of reality, we may trace in the bodegones^
or kitchen pieces, of the Sevillian period, the great majority
of which are now in England.
The same harshness and naive realism reappear in the
famous " Los Borrachos " of the Prado Gallery, but with
something more of flexibility in the rendering of facial ex-
pression and an increased mastery in the modelling of flesh.
The first " Philip IV." of the whole set is very generally
held to be the bust portrait No. 1071 in the Prado, which,
according to tradition, was executed as a preliminary study
for the equestrian portrait painted of the King in August,
1623, of which famous canvas no trace now remains. No
portrait in the group of pictures now under discussion can
well come earlier in date than this lost canvas, seeing that
'n all of these the youthful King already wears the plain
280 PHILIP IV. OF SPAIN
golilla, or stiffened white lawn collar, which by edict of the
nth January, 1623, was made to replace in the Court cos-
tume the elaborate gorguera, or stiffened lace ruff. The
portrait which, of all others, stands in the closest relation to
the Boston " Philip " is the " Full-length with the Peti-
tion," No. 1070 in the Prado, the head of which is almost
a repetition of that in the bust-portrait. At first sight the
Boston and Madrid pictures might be deemed to be prac-
tically identical in design, but a closer examination shows
that this is far from being the case. The Boston " Philip "
stands quite differently, and more like the superb " Don
Carlos, Brother of Philip IV." No. 1073 in the Prado,
which was painted a couple of years later on. The inclina-
tion of the head is slightly different, the doublet less rich,
a collar of wrought gold is worn, over the broad ribbon
which supports the Golden Fleece ; the design of the man-
tle is materially different, the paper held in the right hand
of other form and design. The table in the Boston exam-
ple has a cover more richly laced with gold than that in the
Madrid picture, with which it is now compared. And,
above all, in the latter the expression of the King is less
stolid, more assured, more royal.
Closely related to these two canvases is yet another now
in Boston, in the splendid collection of Mrs. John Gardiner.
This is a " Philip IV.," a full-length of much the same
period, which, as I am informed, came from the collection
of the late Mr. Banks at Kingston Lacy. Infinitely finer
as a work of art than any of these paintings indeed, than
anything that Velasquez had up to that point produced is
PHILIP IV. OF SPAIN 28l
that sober yet sumptuous portrait d*apparat y the " Don
Carlos," mentioned above. In design, at any rate, it hardly
knows a superior, even among the royal portraits coming
later on in the series. I should be strongly inclined to say
that among the counterfeits of members of the royal house
belonging to this, the initial period of Don Diego's Court
practice at Madrid, it knew no rival let alone a superior
did I not bear in mind a masterpiece much nearer at hand
the magnificent " Philip IV." of Dorchester House. If
this last does not quite equal the " Don Carlos " in freedom
and assurance of design, it greatly exceeds not only this,
but all previous works coming within the first period in
concentrated vigour of execution as well as in beauty and
inventiveness of colour.
Philip stands here by the side of the same table and
richly-laced table-cover with which we have made acquaint-
ance in the Boston picture. But he wears a sumptuous
half-military, half-civilian costume : a buff jerkin over
chain-mail, and a costume of brownish-grey, amaranth-
purple and gold, with a rich scarf of the same colour, simi-
larly trimmed. The baton of military command is firmly
though undemonstratively grasped. The King seems here
no longer the colourless being, walled round with an im-
penetrable reserve, that he is in civilian garb, from the very
beginning of his reign ; he stands forth confidently as the
general and leader of men. Though hardly less rigid and
impassive in attitude than in the group of portraits just
now passed in review, he is alert, full of the pride of youth-
ful manhood, without misgiving as to his power to com-
28 2 PHILIP IV. OF SPAIN
mand and his right to receive unquestioning obedience.
Save in the famous equestrian portrait of the Prado, and
the beautiful Dulwich portrait, which must have been de-
signed and schemed out by Velasquez, even though it does
not bear unmistakable traces of his own sovereign brush
save in these two exceptional performances, and perhaps in
the attractive portrait in hunting costume, at the Prado, we
do not find the anaemic and repellent monarch, upon whom
Velazquez has conferred immortality, so galvanized for the
moment into life and virile energy.
It is a pity that, before the " Philip IV." left Europe to
take its place in the Fine Arts Museum of Boston, it should
not have been publicly exhibited at one of the " Old
Masters " shows of Burlington House, or in Paris, where
competent judges of Velasquez are not scarce. As it is,
it may be long before the storm that rages round the new
acquisition in the chief centres of American connoisseur-
ship is allayed by a definitive pronouncement that all con-
cerned may unreservedly accept. It will be remembered
that the Boston Museum acquired a few years ago, for a
sum approaching 20,000 sterling, the " Don Baltasar
Carlos with a Dwarf," an important Velasquez from the
Castle Howard collection, which Londoners had had an
opportunity of seeing in the Spanish Exhibition at the New
Gallery.
LUCREZIA TORNABUONI
(Botticelli")
ALPHONSE DE CALONNE
TOWARDS the end of his notice of Sandro Botticelli,
Vasari, after having enumerated the numerous works
of the painter, adds that he made two portraits in profile of
two illustrious women with different titles, that of the
wife of Piero de' Medici the first of the name, and that of
the mistress of Giuliano. He does not mention the name
of the latter, but it is easy to guess it.
The second portrait is that of the " Bella Simonetta."
In fact, in the Pitti Gallery at Florence there is a bust
length figure with profile turned to the left, clothed in a
brown robe cut open in front and laced over a white linen
chemisette. The neck is of an inordinate length, the nose
large and prominent ; the blonde hair, arranged in careless
bands, is confined upon the head by a white caul. The
costume is one of early morning, if indeed not a night one.
It is difficult to recognize the model, or the hand of the
painter in this portrait. He never exhibited in his treat-
ment of costume and head-dress such a poverty of art and
imagination. As for the model, if it is true that this was
Simonetta Vespucci, the beautiful Genoese, the wife of the
Florentine Cattani, we cannot help being astonished that
she could have inspired Poliziano with so great an admira-
284 LUCREZIA TORNABUONI
tion, and Giuliano de' Medici with so great a passion for
her beauty. It is true that to her charms, she added, says
history, a cast of mind and a literary culture that were
greatly appreciated at this time, especially in Florence.
Still, as we meet with another profile portrait in the Musee
de Conde, at Chantilly, which has a certain analogy with
that in the Pitti Palace, but which is incomparably more
beautiful, which bears all the marks of Botticelli's most
charming manner and at the bottom of which is inscribed
in the paint SIMONETTA JANVENSIS VESPUCCIA, no doubt
is possible ; certainly, we have here a true portrait of
Simonetta, and the other can only be a caricature. If
Giuliano, the son of Piero, was assassinated on her account,
we are not at all surprised. But who painted that portrait
at Chantilly ? Is it by Botticelli, or is it by Pollajuolo ?
The critics disagree. M. Gruyer inclines towards the lat-
ter, M. Reiset, a former owner of the work, does not ques-
tion it. Crowe and Cavalcaselle pronounce in favour of
Botticelli. M. Lafenestre shares their opinion, and Vasari
seems to give them authority.
If we turn to the other portrait, regarding the double
authenticity of the author and his subject, we shall find
nothing to disturb us. It certainly is the beautiful Lucrezia
Tornabuoni, the daughter of Francesco Tornabuoni, the
wife of Piero I. de' Medici, the son of Cosmo the elder,
called u the Father of his Country." We find ourselves in
the full bloom of the Fifteenth Century, in the midst of the
most celebrated quatrocentisti. Florence was at this moment
the focus of the whole intellectual world. The names of
LUCREZIA TORNABUONI
LUCREZIA TORNABUONI 285
her great artists, her opulent merchants, and her literary
celebrities resounded throughout the universe. Even to-
day you cannot take a step in that city without running
against a celebrated monument, or reading a famous name
at the corners of the streets. The Pitti, the Albizzi, the
Strozzi, the Rucellai, the Doni, the Calzajoli, and the
Tornabuoni have left marks and traces of their wealth,
their taste and their generosity everywhere.
This Lucrezia Tornabuoni was not merely the daughter
of an illustrious and rich family, she was the most beauti-
ful of beautiful Florentines and one of those women whose
education was carried to such a high degree that they were
companionable and able to exchange ideas with the greatest
scholars, historians, poets and theologians. A poet herself,
Lucrezia put a portion of the Bible into Italian verse ; and
as Poliziano has extolled her mind and her beauty, as Fran-
cesco Serdonati has placed her in the rank of the illustrious
ladies, and as the historian of Lorenzo de' Medici places a
part of the glory of u the Magnificent " upon her who was
his mother, the malignity of Guicciardini and the venal
partiality of Paul Jove have never been able to destroy
the reputation of that woman whose virtues were so
honoured by Florence. She was an exception to the man-
ners of the age. Perhaps we are too much inclined to con-
sider those manners only by means of the pictures which
the writers of the period have bequeathed to us. However,
in order that opinions should agree regarding a woman who
by means of her position and also her education was
plunged into all the perils of a gay, if not indeed a corrupt,
286 LUCREZIA TORNABUONI
society, her honour must have dominated sufficiently to
silence the voice of calumny.
Botticelli did not paint her undressed as he did the
Simonetta at Chantilly ; his respect for her prevented this,
and he turned her profile to the right. He dressed her
richly, in the fashion of the day, which singularly pleased
his fantastic taste, a fantastic taste that belonged to one
who was familiar with jewelry-work and which he made
very original. None of the quatrocentisti ever handled
materials or treated hair as he did. Here he shows himself
comparatively sober. The dress is almost simple. A
fabric of fine linen, pleated and ornamented with three
rows of open-work embroidery envelops the bust, which is
finely and fully curved. On the shoulders, the light
material is puffed and seems to have inspired the modern
dressmakers with the model of their sleeves. The arrange-
ment of the hair is very complicated, but far less so than
was the painter's custom. Plaited locks of hair are
mingled with plaited velvet ornamented with pearls, and
the latter is carried around the shoulders to form a heart-
shaped garniture for the corsage. Wavy locks float freely
down from the temple, hiding the ear. A wavy lock falls
at the back from a knot of velvet ornamented with pearls.
Another wavy lock descends from the left side of the fore-
head and forms a background for the line of the nose.
The neck, evidently too long, is adorned with a locket, an
antique engraved stone, suspended from a gold chain of six
rows. Finally, upon the top of the head, a golden orna-
ment holds in its place an aigrette slightly inclined from
LUCREZIA TORNABUONI 287
right to left, this only ornament gives a certain cavalier look
to the figure.
This cavalier air is not, however, reproduced in the pro-
file, which is drawn with a correctness worthy of Hellenic
art. The forehead has not the height that Botticelli and
the fashion of the time gave to the elect. One might be-
Jieve that the model imposed her will upon the artist and
forced him to carry his pencil back to the proportions of
the antique.
The drawing of the nose is very delicate and very fine.
It is pure> but it does not follow an absolutely straight line.
It describes a soft curve which sensibly tilts upwards at its
lower extremity. The nostril is modelled to perfection ; the
large eye expressive of infinite gentleness is as it were
haloed by a narrow and long eyebrow. The whole upper
part of this visage is exquisite. The bow-shaped mouth,
which is not wanting in firmness, speaks the same language
as the eye ; but a very slight projection of the lower lip
imprints a kind of sorrowful expression upon it.
The portrait is, moreover, of a very young woman,
almost a young girl. If it were not for the opulence of
the bosom, you would hardly give seventeen years to the
head. Had the wife of Piero de j Medici already known
the troubles of grandeur at the threshold of marriage ?
History says nothing of this. Was the painter the only
one to receive her confidences, or did he devine them ? It
belongs most certainly to the genius of a painter to discover
the secret thoughts that agitate his models. This profile,
so suave and so pure, is certainly more eloquent and true
288 LUCREZIA TORNABUONI
than the most delicate poetry of the writers of the period
could have been. Candour which is spread over the whole
face stops at the mouth. The lips show that the experi-
ence of life has already stifled illusions. Wife of the first
Citizen of Florence, who to-morrow was to become its
master under a title that had become hereditary, a woman
who had the reputation of being virtuous, wise, and
lettered to a wonderful extent, ranking with her most
famous compatriots, she was a mother whom calumny never
attacked, and she died too young even to have foreseen the
unhappy days which were soon to weaken the popularity
of the plebeian and quasi-royal house into which she had
married.
She had five children, two of whom were sons : Lorenzo
the Magnificent, to whom Florence owed half of her glory ;
and Giuliano, that young man, who was the lover of
Simonetta Vespucci and who was assassinated at the age
of thirty-five.
This portrait of Lucrezia Tornabuoni is not only a
masterpiece of painting, but a perfect likeness, the most
perfect, perhaps, that came from the brush of a master
who was too often the slave of his imagination ; it is
really a page from history, one of those works to which an
inquisitive and restless mind turns to question in hours of
study and reflection. We think, on our part, that by
means of its reserve it redeems the painter's mannerisms
and the intentional obscurities of his allegorical works. In
the exuberance of his compositions, you easily notice a
passionate and sometimes violent spirit. When you study
LUCREZIA TORNABUONI 289
his most celebrated compositions, you cannot help being
surprised. We are scarcely astonished to find him a
disciple of Savonarola ; the portrait of Lucrezia does not
evoke the slightest suspicion of this. This work is one
of the pearls of the Frankfort Museum.
PORTRAIT OF BERTIN THE ELDER
(Ingres)
GUSTEVE LARROUMET
THIS superb canvas, an honour to the French School
in a class in which it particularly excells, possesses a
civic interest, related by the historian of art who knew
Ingres best, Count Henri Delaborde. It is important to
transcribe this here :
" The portrait of M. Berlin was the final result of many
attempts and various conceptions by Ingres on several
canvases and in several attitudes before it assumed this
aspect of robust simplicity to which it owes its present
celebrity. At one time even, there was great danger that
the painter, dissatisfied with the constrained poses so far
held by his model, and even more discontented with his
own efforts, might throw up altogether a work that he had
undertaken solely to keep an old promise. An unexpected
incident occurred and saved the situation. Ingres told
M. Reiset that at the height of his troubles and hesitations
he happened to be one evening in M. Berlin's salon.
There was a discussion on political affairs between the
master of the house and his two sons, and whilst the latter
warmly upheld their opinion, M. Bertin listened with the
air and attitude of a man, whom contradiction irritates less
than it inspires him with an increase of confidence in the
BERTIN THE ELDER
PORTRAIT OF BERTIN THE ELDER 291
authority of the words he has already uttered, or in the
approaching eloquence of his reply. Nothing could be
more natural or expressive, nor anything more conformable
to the character of the personage to be represented, than
this appearance of a force that is sure of itself as well as
of a slightly imperious good humour. Thenceforth, the
exact conditions of the portrait were discovered. There-
fore Ingres, greatly delighted at this unexpected conquest,
hastened to take advantage of it, and, on taking leave of
M. Bertin, addressed him as follows : u Your portrait is
done. This time I have you, and will not let you escape."
In fact, on the morrow, the master set to work and soon
succeeded in bringing to life on the canvas the man whose
moral temperament and real habits had been thus fortui-
tously revealed to him."
The portrait of the elder Bertin, painted in 1832, was
exhibited at the Salon of 1833. After that date, it re-
mained in possession of the Bertin family, who presented
it to the Louvre in 1898.
The figure is of life size. Seated in an office chair he
is seen down to the knees. The body is three quarters and
the head full face. The left shoulder is slightly raised and
the head leans a little towards the right shoulder. The
hands are set flat upon the widely separated knees. It is
the attitude of a man who has come to talk, to listen and
to reply. Bertin is dressed in a black frock coat and
trousers with a white neck scarf, and a waistcoat of puce-
coloured silk. A watch key and a seal hang below the
waistcoat over the trousers. The model was sixty-six
2Q2 PORTRAIT OF BERTIN THE ELDER
years of age. Very handsome in his youth, he still ex-
hibits fine features, upon which intelligence and firmness
are imprinted ; his portly figure denotes a vigour that age
has not impaired. He is in the plenitude of his physical
and moral strength. His hair, of a slaty grey and white,
is very thick around his high and full forehead ; his neck
is strong ; in his brown and smooth-shaven face the blood
circulates freely and eyes of a chestnut brown look out
with an open gaze ; beneath the straight nose is a mouth
admirable in its delicacy and firmness.
The execution unites in a very high degree those same
two qualities, delicacy and firmness. It is broad and full
of precision. Besides this, it is harmonious, a merit not
always presented by pictures of Ingres. Both drawing and
colour receive full value here. The sombre tints of the
clothes, the dark or light notes of the face and hands stand
out and are in mutual accord against a light brown back-
ground. The oil in yellowing with age has covered the
canvas with a golden tint that gives it the look of a portrait
by an old master. As if to accentuate the attentive pre-
cision that the painter, here as always, has put into this
work performed with so much enthusiasm, what is more
rare is his employment of a procedure the most celebrated
example of which is offered by the Chase of St. Ursula, by
Memling, now in the Hospital Saint Jean de Bruges, in
which the surrounding objects are faithfully reflected as in
a mirror in the soldiers' cuirasses. On the left arm of the
polished mahogany chair gleams the minute image of a
window.
PORTRAIT OF BERTIN THE ELDER 293
The handsome old man represented in this portrait, Louis
Francois Bertin, always known under the appellation of
Bertin the Elder, and brother of Bertin de Veaux, is a great
name in the French press, one of the three greatest, with
Emile de Girardin and Villemessant, who were so unlike
him, however. He is thus the type of the middle class
Frenchman in the first half of the Nineteenth Century.
He seriously represents, at the moment of its. highest
power, that class of which Emile Augier's Monsieur Poirier
is the comic incarnation.
In order to know him well, we must read a study of him
written by a relative of his, Leon Say^ who in his day was
the great bourgeois that Bertin the Elder was in his. He
was born of a Picardy father and a Brie mother ; that is to
say, he was a combination of tenacity and practical mind,
combative humour and rectitude of judgment. His family
exercised functions of high domesticity, a sort of manage-
ment of a noble family'. He was brought up in the ideas
of constitutional liberty that Montesquieu had formulated
at the beginning of the century, in the love of " philosophy,"
at literature after the manner of Voltaire, with a taint of
the enthusiasm and the " sensibility " with which Diderot
and J. J. Rosseau had warmed up the Voltairian spirit.
He was in favour of the reforms that were to introduce
more justice into the government of France, and particu-
larly into the organization of society. From these reforms,
he expected a legitimate part of influence and the sharing
of power to the profit of the class to which he belonged
and which possessed enlightened ideals, integrity of manners,
294 PORTRAIT OF BERTIN THE ELDER
love of work, and, consequently, the beginnings of
wealth.
He therefore ardently embraced the ideas of the Revolu-
tion when they first appeared, but their excesses soon in-
spired him with horror and terror : like the average of the
French middle classes, he was humane and well balanced.
Robespierre turned him into a Royalist, and in the moder-
ate papers of the day he made courageous war on the
Jacobins. The Ninth of Thermidor was almost a personal
victory. In 1800, he bought a little paper, Le Journal des
D'ebats et Lois du Pouvoir Legislatif et des Actes du Gouverne-
ment. He enlarged and transformed it, and little by little
equipped it with all the organs of a modern newspaper :
leading articles on French and foreign politics, correspond-
ence, literary, dramatic and art criticism. He supported
the opinions of the middle classes in this sheet. This en-
lightened and opulent class was conscious of its victory and
wanted to organize it midway between despotism and
anarchy. It was ready to support any government that
would give it the principal part of power ; it cherished a
preference for the ancient royalty, that doubtless would
return, taught by misfortune, resigned to the constitutional
regime, and more capable of reconciling the present with
the past than any other regime would be. It would reserve
its part in the nobility, a part restricted and without privi-
leges. Having seen the common people, the workmen and
the peasants, it was timid, but it hoped to restrain the
movement, and, by making property the essential condition
for entrance to the Chambers, to keep it out of the govenV"
PORTRAIT OF BERTIN THE ELDER 295
ment for a long time yet. These ideas, these interests and
these hopes have been called the " doctrinaire spirit." It
was going to be incarnated in Royer Collard in the tribune,
and in Bertin the Elder in the press.
But for that, it was necessary to wait till 1815, for the
Imperialism could not accommodate itself to this doctrine.
It confiscated the Journal des D'ebats ; it imprisoned and
banished the Bertin brothers. Having recovered possession
of his family, Bertin supported the Restoration in so far as
it favoured the interests of the middle classes ; he fought
against it in its attempt to return to the old regime. He
had a powerful auxiliary in Chateaubriand, but he made
more use of the great egotist than he rendered service to
him. He was always the master in his own journal and
solely responsible ; the articles not being signed, he modified
them at will, so that they conveyed only his own opinions.
These opinions were those of the most influential and
wealthy class. Bertin was honest and practical, clear-
sighted and able, courageous and tenacious. In 1830, the
D'ebats triumphed, the Revolution of July occurred truly to
the profit of this paper which its director said he produced
" only for five hundred people in Europe."
When he died, in 1841, without having wanted to be
anything but a journalist, without having entered the
Chambers or the Administration, he saw the copy-holding
middle class, under a king of its own choice, mistress of
France. He did not foresee 1848, the logical consequence
of the abuse of power by a class, though less oppressive
than the old nobility, yet as blind and egotistical. If it
296 PORTRAIT OF BERTIN THE ELDER
should ever come, yet he thought it was still far distant,
that arrival of the democracy, which was quite near, and
which opposed, restrained or turned aside, yet ever on the
march, was to pursue its victory through the second half of
the century.
This character of rectitude and adroitness, this fine and
strong nature, this skilful and logical part played have been
grasped by Ingres and fixed in a vision of genius with a
mastery of means in which we know not what most to ad-
mire, the simplicity or the art. With this image he has
truly set up the apotheosis of the French bourgeoisie at the
culminating point of its greatness.
MADAME HENRIETTE DE FRANCE
(Jean Marc Nattier)
ANDRE PERATE
MADAME HENRIETTE died on the loth of Feb-
ruary, 1752, stricken suddenly by a disease of the
chest. She was twenty-four years old ; she was good and
very sweet ; she was considered very beautiful ; and was
tenderly cherished by her father. When her twin sister,
Madame Elizabeth, married the Infant, Don Philip, Duke
of Parma, and left France for Spain, the title of Madame
and the prerogatives of the eldest daughter belonged to
Henriette. This grief overwhelmed the King and the
court; for Louis XV. had already lost three children,
although they were very young, and there was no reason to
anticipate the death of such an amiable princess.
The Museum of Versailles has won for her many sincere
admirers, who pause enraptured before the sumptuous can-
vas by Jean Marc Nattier, one of the purest jewels of the
series of the portraits of the Madames. The reproduction
of this masterpiece cannot express its full brilliancy. A
large piece of blue drapery that floats across the picture half
hides a stone colonnade through which a cloudy sky is visi-
ble. In front of this drapery, Madame Henriette is seated
upon a chair the gilded wooden framework of which frames
a gold cloth. She is dressed in a robe of red brocade with
2g 8 MADAME HENRIETTE DE FRANCE
a pattern of golden branches and the full skirt sweeps over
a carpet of blue tones upon which rest the points of her lit-
tle white slippers. In the centre of this blazing dome rises
the narrow bodice, revealing the white chest. And the
smiling face, framed with light-brown powdered curls,
seems to bow to the rhythm of the lace sleeves from which
protrude beautiful hands : one holds the bow while the other
glides along the strings of the bass viol that is firmly set in
the stiff folds of the brocade skirt. To the right, under a
great draped silk curtain, an open clavecin with carved and
gilded feet shows its ivory key-board edged with green
lacquer. A music book attracts the eye. In a free half-
figure copy that Nattier had made of his picture (this copy
is placed above a door in the Louis XV. chamber) we can
decipher at least the title of the air which the royal musi-
cian is playing, and there we read : Aoust Venus et Adonis,
cantabile.
But the music played to us by the harmonious lines and
colours produced by Nattier has a charm no less powerful
than a cantata by Rameau or Gluck. That dominant note
of red in which the golds rise so splendidly, blazing and
scintillating and then descend and calm down, enveloped in
muted tones, carries away the entire work in its majesty.
On looking a little closer, we notice more delicate plays of
colour, the rose and pale-yellow of the flowers in the pow-
dered hair, the little head carved on the scroll of the viol,
which is tied with a lilac ribbon, and the white satin bows
on the lace sleeves, and the pearl ornaments on the gold
edgings of the bodice. These are some details of the
MADAME HENRIETTE DE FRANCE 299
masterly treatment of this great adjuster of fashionable
raiment whose elegance and graceful fancy has never been
surpassed ; but he is not satisfied with merely a play of
colours in materials, he makes the female face with boldly
painted cheeks bloom with robust health and a wealth of
generous blood.
The picture bears the date 1754; that is to say, it was
finished two years after the death of the princess. Nattier
began it in 1748. The National Archives have preserved
its history for us with great completeness. On February
22, 1752, the Queen sent to ask the artist for it, and
Marigny wrote the following letter to Coypel : " Sir, the
Queen has told me that she would like to have the portrait
painted by M. Nattier of the late Madame playing the bass
viol. Be kind enough, I beg you, to see M. Nattier and
learn in what state the portrait is, whether it is finished or
not. In the former case, it must be sent here immediately ;
in the latter case, you will request M. Nattier to finish it as
soon as he possibly can, because the Queen wishes to have
it. I count upon you to inform me in what state it is, and
to tell me how soon I can receive it here."
The portrait was delivered, 6,000 livres were paid for it,
it was framed by Morissant and placed in the apartments
of Madame Adelaide, from whom Nattier obtained in 1755
through the intercession of Marigny permission to exhibit
it at the Louvre. " Monsieur," the artist wrote, " as you
have given your orders for the exhibition of the pictures
for the Salon, permit me to entreat you to ask Madame
Adelaide if she will be good enough to allow the picture of
300 MADAME HENRIETTE DE FRANCE
Madame Henriette to be exhibited there. As it is one
of my very best works, I am sure it will bring me honour.
Moreover, it is a most interesting picture and will make a
fine figure there. As I have not the slightest doubt that
she will give her consent, I will thank you to give the
order to M. Portail, so that it may arrive in Paris in time
for it to gain a good place on the walls of the Salon."
Madame Henriette had already been painted by Nattier.
She personified Fire in the series of the four Elements, a
mysterious picture which we only know by the engraving.
A lovely Vestal in a court dress with pretty silken bows
she is about to read the Histolre des Vestales ; she is medi-
tating as she sits with her elbow gently resting upon a
marble altar where the sacred fire burns ; a gay altar gar-
landed with roses which Fragonard laughed at. And still
younger, she appears as Flora in one of those studied but
delicious mythological pictures, in which the pupil of the
Graces particularly shines. This Flora which M. Paul
Mantz thought was no longer in existence smiles from the
walls of Versailles under a borrowed title which M. de
Nolhac has recently removed. She is fifteen years of age ;
her plump shoulders, her arms and her bare feet issue from
a white tunic across which a piece of blue drapery is care-
lessly thrown. Seated on a grassy mound at the foot of an
oak beside a clear stream, she is weaving a crown of flowers,
a living flower herself; her youthful complexion is com-
posed of lilacs and roses.
With this delightful work in 1748, Nattier' s fortune
began with the royal family ; he became Madame's painter
MADAME HENRIETTE DE FRANCE 301
by appointment, and the princesses peopled his Olympus ;
a provoking assemblage of goddesses and nymphs in which
the eagle and the dove do not know whom to listen to first.
He said, not without pedantry, to Casanova : " It is a sort
of magic which the god of taste causes to flow from my
mind into my brush. It is the divinity of beauty which all
the world adores and nobody can define because nobody
knows of what it consists. This shows how fugitive is
the shade existing between ugliness and beauty. Neverthe-
less, this shade is immense and striking for those who have
no knowledge of our art." He effaced the fugitive shade
under a red smile, and a brilliant gaze, and a play of colour
over gold embroidered stuffs. An easy and charming art,
doubtless, one that gives the mind in a touch of cosmetic,
and happiness in the caress of the brush.
ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA
{Franfois Clouet)
SAMUEL ROCHEBLAVE
WHICH of us, on visiting the Salon Carre in the
Louvre, in which the canvases of small dimensions
engage sometimes in an unequal combat with their impos-
ing neighbours, has not been nevertheless seized and so to
speak snapped up on the way by a little work of very simple
pretensions but very great import, one of those canvases in
which we devine instinct, and which is imbued with the
essence of an epoch and the formula of an art ? 'The more
this kind of " witness " is reserved, as if careful to keep its
own secret, the more anxious we are to question it, capti-
vated as we are by its perplexing expression, the silence of
its lips and the mystery of its gaze. The less it speaks
the more it says. Its very muteness is eloquent, and its
attitude has something " representative " in it. In fact, it
is in this sort of picture that history is incarnated, history,
that is, seen in the light of art, and settled, in French style,
as though graven with a few sober and concise lines.
Such is the character of this portrait of Elizabeth of Aus-
tria, the wife of Charles IX., which, in spite of importunate
neighbours, yet preserves in the intimacy of its little frame
its value as an inestimable gem. Gentle, fine, small, still
preserving the grace of youth in its gravity of a young wife,
ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA
ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA 303
the daughter of Maximilian II. destined for the throne of
France suddenly appeared at the corrupt court of Catherine
and Charles " like the dove out of the ark." This was in
1570. Did she indeed bring the olive branch with her?
For a moment, one might believe. But the courtiers soon
returned to their vices, and statecraft to its crimes. Two
years had scarcely elapsed before the tocsin of Saint Ger-
main 1'Auxerrois sounded the knell for the massacre
throughout France, and a king of twenty-two years of age
shot his own subjects for sport. And thenceforth, divided
between compassion and horror, a nurse and sister of charity
rather than the wife of a consumptive besieged with night-
mares and bathed in foetid sweats, the daughter of Maxi-
milian prepared in the gloom those widow's weeds that she
put on in 1574 and never took off till the day of her death.
The mystery of this sad destiny already appeared in her
looks when Master Janet (for Francois Clouet himself
signed the drawings of this period with that surname),
seized and fixed in colour the features of the queen on the
morrow of her arrival in France on the eve of St. Bar-
tholomew, or, more exactly, between 1571 and 1572. M.
Henri Bouchot, to whom we must go concerning any ques-
tion dealing with the crayons or portraits of the Sixteenth
Century, and particularly those of Clouet, has recently
thrown new lights on the picture in the Salon Carre by
comparing it with an original crayon drawing dated 1571
and preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale. This shows
us the young woman, frightened and timid, giving, un-
willingly doubtless, a sulky sitting to the great artist who
304 ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA
was already very old and who had twice obtained from us,
by his art and by royal decree his full letters of naturali-
zation. Thus we have the precious sketch in the Bibliotheque
Nationale. In this, the features alone are finished.
The remainder is only summarily indicated, and for cause.
It was a question of catching, on the wing to some extent,
the characteristic, grave and childlike expression of this
charming irregular face, ever ready to hide itself. Follow-
ing his customary procedure, Clouet the Elder sought to
establish once for all in the full truth of nature the masterly
sketch that was to serve as a " document " for painted por-
traits and miniatures, the latter done afterwards and at his
leisure. Therefore, for greater convenience and rapidity,
he first made use of the crayon for the type and then
passed on to the brush. Everything leads us to believe
with M. Bouchot that the portrait in the Salon Carre is the
worked up crayon of the Bibliotkeque Nationals. And in
fact the coif that covers the head in the crayon is the sole
marked difference noticeable. The rest, ornaments and
jewels, may well have been painted without the presence of
the model.
The painted portrait is none the less a masterpiece in
every point, the equal of a certain masterpiece by Holbein
that may be admired close alongside. The French artist
has never been more French, that is to say, more exact,
true and poetic in his own way without effort than in this
little picture painted from life at a date when the bad Ital-
ianism of Fontainebleau had already poisoned our national
school. Here we find ourselves in the presence of a vigor-
ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA 305
ous observation formed after the tradition of Flanders by
his father the first Janet and saturated with the exact psy-
chology of our native artists and writers, who were dry
rather than redundant and less addicted to elegance than
probity. Probity, but in the service of what superior
dexterity ! it shines in this countenance all the features of
which are set down without flattery and with the intention
of accenting their character. Look at that brow that is too
high and slightly bulging towards the roots of the hair >
and those lips pressed together in a kind of grimace that is
not without a certain childish stupidity j and that long nose
broad at the nostrils all so many restrictions of beauty,
whilst the eyes alone, gentle, observant and kind beneath
their still undecided shrewdness, turn towards the corners
of the lids under the very high, pure and almost imposing
arch of the brows. If now we go through the various
parts of the costume, from the pearls of the head-dress to
the rings that adorn the two crossed hands, we shall find
everywhere the same conscientiousness and the same exacti-
tude of disposition. The blonde hair, raised and puffed
over the curve of the temples above the forehead, is then
plaited and brought down over the neck in a net embroid-
ered with pearls and fastened on the top of the head by a
gold ornament. The neck is confined in a ruff of fluted
lace beneath which runs a collar of precious stones, an ad-
mirable piece of goldsmith's work the disposition of which
is repeated along the edging of the bodice, the puffed
chemisette divided into lozenges by a lacing of pearls and
gold buttons is in keeping with the magnificence of the
306 ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA
robe which is all of gold brocade damasked with silver with
a border of rubies and emeralds. Finally, the sleeves
slashed with white sewn with pearls support the splendour
of the rest of the costume, the principal motive of which is
the heavy pendant which is displayed on the breast and ends
with an enormous fine pear-shaped pearl. Just below the
tapering hands resting on something unseen, show only two
rings and look modest in the midst of all this richness. It
would not take much for them to be out of place on this
trapping of royal ostentation, as doubtless the little queen
herself was in her robe of a Valois wife.
And when we think of the brilliant and untruthful vari-
ations which a painter of the showy style would not have
failed to embroider on such a theme (such as a Veronese, a
Rubens, or a Rigaud, in the succeeding age), we taste even
more keenly the intimate flavour of this little portrait, an
authentic masterpiece of our national art; and we repeat
to ourselves Pascal's so French saying : " I want the
agreeable and the real, but I want the agreeable itself to be
derived from the real."
MADAME VIGEE LE BRUN AND HER
DAUGHTER
(Madame Vigee Le Erur^
ANDRE MICHEL
IN.the history of portraiture in France there is a period
between Nattier and Gerard to which belongs the amia-
ble woman whose portrait is the subject of this sketch.
Boucher having died in the odour of damnation, Nattier' s
nymphs and goddesses sought retreat in the depths of the
flowery groves, society of the last years of the old regime
chose for its painter Elizabeth Louise Vigee, already cele-
brated under that name when by an unhappy marriage she
became Madame Le Brun ; and the sympathy between the
painter and her models being so intimate that although she
did not die until March 30, 1842, she remains in French
art the portrait painter par excellence of the Court of Marie
Antoinette. When she suddenly left France at the first
rumblings of the Revolution, terror-stricken before the
Reign of Terror, it might be said that her work was ac-
complished. Her truly important portraits belong to her
youth. If we want to catch in one attitude and look the
moral reflection of a period, or to devine the thoughts or
dreams hatched under the complicated head-dresses of the
great ladies who sheltered behind transparent fichus of
linen sentimental and light hearts, it is Madame Vigee Le
Brun to whom we must go. The truly extraordinary
308 MADAME VIGEE LE BRUN AND HER DAUGHTER
vogue which she enjoyed in her early years continues in
posterity with a discreet and lasting glory. Certainly we
should be rendering her very ill service by raising her on
an unusually high pedestal and in elevating her graceful
figure into a masterly attitude. "Masterpieces" is a very
big word of which her elegant chroniclers have perhaps
somewhat too much accustomed us to be prodigal. She
would be the first to warn us with her bright smile to speak
simply of her and without the abuse of superlatives. Since
she is quite willing with an obliging liberality to give us her
acquaintance and admit us to her intimacy, let us question
her discreetly and let her speak for herself. Thus we shall
find a resume of her amiable talent and a sort of applica-
tion of her aesthetics in portraiture.
It was in 1789 at thirty-four years of age that she painted
this portrait for the Comte d* Angivillers, "the director and
general manager of the buildings, houses, castles, parks,
gardens, arts and manufactures of the King." Two years
before she had painted another one in which we see her also
holding her child in her arms, with her hair scarcely pow-
dered and having on her head " a large twisted muslin
fichu." Here she has entirely suppressed the powder.
She wrote : " I had a horror of the costume that women
then wore ; I made every effort to render it a little more
picturesque and I was delighted when I gained the confi-
dence of my models, so that I could drape them according
to my own fancy. Shawls were not yet worn ; but I
placed broad scarfs lightly interlaced around the body and
over the arms with which I tried to imitate the beautiful
MADAME VIGE'E LEBRUN AND HER DAUGHTER
MADAME VIGEE LE BRUN AND HER DAUGHTER 309
style of the draperies of Raphael and Dominichino. More-
over, I could not bear powder. I induced the beautiful
Duchesse de Grammont-Caderousse not to have any put
on to have her portrait painted j her hair was as black as
ebony; I parted it above the brow arranged in irregular
curls. After my sitting, which ended at the dinner-hour,
the Duchesse made no alteration in her hair and went to
the play in this condition. Such a beautiful woman should
set the fashion ; this mode slowly took and soon after-
wards became general."
The portrait, which we reproduce, was executed a few
months after that of the Duchesse de Grammont; the
arrangement of the hair in it is practically the same, and
since agreement here was easy between the painter and the
model, we may seek in it the exact expression of Madame
Le Brun's intimate preferences with regard to the " pic-
turesque." As we see the influence of the antique pre-
ponderates. Since her brother had read to her the Voyage
du jeune Anacharsis en Greet, from which she took the idea
of that famous Greek supper which made so much noise
and formed a pretext for so much scandal, Madame Le
Brun had displayed an antique spirit. Moreover, she knew
that M. d' Angivillers to whom her portrait was to be
offered had undertaken " to restore all their dignity to the
arts as far as possible," and had prescribed to the pupils at
the Academy "the execution of figures after the antique."
Fashion had already returned to the "grand, severe and
antique taste " ; the young people and women were for
the ancients, and Madame Le Brun was too much a woman
3 1 MADAME VIGEE LE BRUN AND HER DAUGHTER
of her time not to go with the stream. She had a taste for
Vien's " simple and severe style, admired by all true con-
noisseurs " ; she professed that French painting should
engage itself u with a style quite contrary to that which has
caused it to degenerate, and that the man responsible for its
decadence, the man of talent, the great criminal who ruined
it, is Boucher, the boudoir-painter."
Therefore, she applied herself to acquire what she de-
sired, " that beautiful finish of execution," which was one
of the signs of the renascent orthodoxy. She has still
many a souvenir of Greuze at the end of her brush (see
u the shadow of the irregular curls " and " the straying of
the hair " over the brow of her portrait) ; at Antwerp, she
had seen Rubens's Chapeau de Faille in the ecstatic mood
caused her by that picture in which, " what, for want of a
better name, we must call the shadows are light." In-
spired by this, she painted a portrait of herself in a straw
hat with a feather and a garland of field-flowers, with her
palette in her hand (engraved by Miller, who, to her great
chagrin, made the shadows black and heavy) ; but, thence-
forth, it was towards style that she tried to direct her
efforts more and more; she went so far as to regret the
imprudent and ungrateful woman ! being, so to speak, im-
prisoned by her vogue and the flow of orders in the style
of portraiture, and not being able to consecrate her talent to
some great " historical painting."
Fortunately for her and for us, she remained a portrait-
painter and a woman ; her cravings for " grand art did not
go so far as to do violence to her natural leanings, or to
MADAME VIGEE LE BRUN AND HER DAUGHTER 31 1
alter the limpidity of her peaceful and graceful talent. Full
of sentiment, as befitted her day, she never fell into silly
sentimentality or insipidity. In her Souvenirs she writes :
" I tried as much as I could to give to the women I painted
the attitude and expression of their physiognomy ; those
who did not have any, I painted dreaming, nonchalantly
leaning." And in her Advice to the Portrait-Painter:
" Before beginning, converse with your model, try several
attitudes, and select not only the most agreeable, but that
which suits her age and character, that which may increase
the resemblance. With women, it is necessary to use
flattery, telling them that they are beautiful and that they
have a fresh complexion. This puts them in good
humour, and makes them pose with more pleasure." This
good grace with which she sets herself to enter into her
models' secret desire of pleasing, we are not astonished to
find again with complaisant smiles on those occasions when
a circle was formed about her in her promenades and at the
theatres. More than one who was in love with his own
face came to have his portrait painted by her, " in the hope
of making himself pleasing to her." But she added :
" My happiness demanded that I should not yet know a
single romance. The first one I read, Clarissa Harlowe,
which mightily interested me, I did not read till after my
marriage; till then I had only read serious books, the
morality of the Holy Fathers, among others, of which I did
not weary. For that is all, except a few of my brother's
class-books. To return to these gentlemen, as soon as I
saw that they wanted to cast sheep's eyes at me, I painted
3 I 2 MADAME VIGEE LE BRUN AND HER DAUGHTER
them with ridiculous looks, which is quite contrary to what
people consider painting should be. Then, at the slightest
movement that their pupils made in my direction, I said to
them : c I am working on the eyes/ That slightly dis-
concerted them, as you may believe, and my mother, who
did not leave me alone and whom I had taken into confi-
dence, laughed in her sleeve."
When one is thus constituted, one consults one's mirror
without any trouble and, perhaps, some Jansenist censor
may have reproached the bare arm, which is shown to us
here with the shoulder, " for the love of the Greek," for
displaying itself over the form of the little girl, just as over
a cushion, with an abandon that is not sufficiently maternal.
However, it would suffice to look at that bright and frank
face, to show that u Le Brun de la Beaute," the painter and
the model, as La Harpe " sang," had no other coquetry
than that which their very beauty imposes on pretty
women.
Everything is healthy in her. On close examination one
would find something better than carelessness, a fund of
watchfulness in her delicate face. Life certainly has not
spared her deep griefs ; she has been as badly married as an
honest woman can be, but she has preserved intact the
treasure of good humour and gaiety that laughs in her eyes ;
she has painted " with fury," and that " divine passion " of
her beloved painting has been a refuge and a consolation to
her in her hours of difficulty. In spite of her mortifica-
tions, she has always loved life and the world, as these were
understood and enjoyed before the terrible year 1789. She
MADAME VIGEE LE BRUN AND HER DAUGHTER 313
has enjoyed all her successes as a woman and an artist ; and
the few black or melancholy moments that she may have
known let us not pity any more than she allowed herself to
do.
She also took pleasure in her maternity. She has spoken
of that daughter whom she clasps in her arms and of " her
great blue eyes " with true tenderness. And it is precisely
from that daughter, married against her will and, un-
grateful as it seems, that were to come to her, her most
poignant griefs, those against which her habitual optimism
found her least armed. If, on looking at her closely, you
notice in the depths of her gaze, a sort of welling sadness,
that is, perhaps, one of those presentiments which in full
joyousness cloud the brow of anxious mothers. It is, per-
haps, also, the regret for all that she is going to leave ; for
already the storm is rumbling in the distance ; yesterday, on
the Longchamp promenade, she heard terrifying talk ; " the
populace has insulted in the most frightful manner the peo-
ple who were driving in their carriages ; " and scoundrels
" threw sulphur into her cellar." She is marked as a friend
of the Austrian and of Calonne. The first emigree, she is
about to jump disguised into a diligence and abandon every-
thing she loves the most, that Paris where she was so highly
acclaimed, and that brilliant world which is about to end
and, in default of a country, seek places where the arts
flourish and where kind hearts reign.
ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA
(Hontborst)
WILLIAM CHAMBERS LEFROY
^ERARD HONTHORST was born at Utrecht in
VJ 1592, and studied first under Abraham Bloemaert,
and then in Italy under Michael Angelo da Caravaggio,
" to whose style," says Kugler, " he for the most part ad-
hered."
On 5th April, 1628, he came to England, and in the
same year painted the Family of Filliers, Duke of Bucking-
ham, now at Hampton Court. The following August the
Duke was assassinated by Felton. This picture is consid-
ered a good specimen of the artist; and though there is
some coarse work especially in the flesh-tints, the chiaros-
curo has his characteristic strength. Honthorst's bold and
skilful management of light and shade, and love of effects
of artificial illumination, are well known. He is repre-
sented by works of some importance at Hampton Court ;
and though there is nothing from his hand in the National
Gallery, and only four or five specimens in the National
Portrait Gallery, his style should be familiar to Englishmen
when they meet with it elsewhere.
Of the remaining works by Honthorst at Hampton
Court a Joseph and Mary by Lamplight, is evidently a very
curious and clever picture, but is hung so high as to be
ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA
ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA 315
hardly visible. This and Singing by Candlelight are ex-
amples of the style for which Honthorst became famous in
Italy, before his English period, and which earned him the
title of "Gherardo dalle Notti." No. 810 is the large
picture of the King and ghieen of Bohemia^ fifteen feet high
by twenty-two feet wide. It was painted at Utrecht, 1628
to 1630, and is wrongly described by Walpole as an em-
blematic picture of Charles I. and his Queen. At page 167
of Charles's catalogue it is entered as " a very large piece,
which was painted by Honthorst; in the said piece is
painted the King and Queen of Bohemia in the clouds and
the Duke of Buckingham coming to present to the King
the seven Liberal Sciences under the persons of their chil-
dren." The King and Queen, however, are so very de-
cidedly " in the clouds," that I am not able to speak to
their identity with the confidence of personal observation.
This appears not to have been the only fanciful present-
ment of Elizabeth by her favourite painter, for Lady
Theresa Lewis mentions somewhat enigmatically, that the
heads of her Majesty and Lord Craven were painted by
Honthorst " on the design of Titian's Venus and Adonis in
the National Gallery." *
A very interesting full-length of Elizabeth, over the fire-
place in the King's Audience Chamber at Hampton Court,
shows the almost golden glow in her dark hair, and the
sweetness of her tremulous lips and drooping eyelids. The
browns and reds of the picture are not set off to advantage by
1 Lives of the Friends and Contemporaries of Lord Chancellor Claren-
don.
316 ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA
its wooden frame. In the left-hand corner are the words :
u Intra Fortunes Sortem, Extra Imperium " ; and another
inscription on paper at the back helps to identify this with
the portrait mentioned in Sir Henry Wotton's will : " I
leave to the most hopeful Prince l the picture of the elected
and crowned Queen of Bohemia, his aunt, of clear and re-
splendent virtues through the clouds of her fortune."
Portraits similar to the one here reproduced are at Oxford
House, Wimbledon, in the collection formed by the late
Mr. Neuenhuys, and at Combe Abbey. The former col-
lection includes a companion portrait of Frederick, Elector
or King, likewise attributed to Honthorst.
Not only did Elizabeth herself receive lessons from her
favourite painter, but he also taught several of her children,
and especially the Princesses Sophia and Louisa Hollandina,
the former afterwards the mother of George I., and the
latter Abbess of Maubuisson.
Let us pause a moment to note a few among the many
important genealogical facts which centre in Elizabeth of
Bohemia. She was, to go no farther, the grand-daughter
of Mary Queen of Scots, and the grand-mother of George
I., the daughter of James I. and mother of Prince Rupert,
the sister of Charles I., the aunt of Charles II. and James
II. Do we always realize that George I. was Prince
Rupert's nephew ?
In the second compartment of the upper gallery of the
National Collection there is a group of portraits of this
family, viz., three of James I., all more or less repulsive;
Afterwards Charles II.
ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA 317
one of his wife, Anne of Denmark, a showy and not very
refined-looking person ; one of Prince Henry, a poor pic-
ture by an unknown artist ; and one by Mireveldt of
Elizabeth herself. In the next compartment are the por-
traits by Honthorst of Elizabeth, the Queen, and Eliza-
beth, the Princess Palatine, her daughter. Near them
is Prince Rupert, by Lely, and a little farther again the
Electress Sophia, " painted in the school of Honthorst."
The family likeness in the Queen of Bohemia and her two
daughters is very strong, but we are not reminded either
of King James or King George.
The main facts in the life of Elizabeth are well known.
Her happy girlish days among the birds and beasts and
flowers at Combe Abbey are recalled by the traditional
title of a certain curious picture at Woburn Abbey, in
which a girl in a white dress is represented with a mackaw
on a stand at her left shoulder, and a parrot at her right,
two little love birds in her hand, a monkey at one foot and
a dog at the other. It has, however, been conjectured,
both from the details of costume and the fairness of the
hair, that the picture represents the Lady Arabella Stuart.
Be this as it may, we know that Elizabeth appropriated as
a special domain a certain small island at Combe Abbey,
and there established a sort of zoological garden of her
own in which she much delighted. Miss Strickland, in
her Lives of Scottish Queens and English Princesses^ gives a
curious extract from Lord Harrington's accounts as to
charges in relation to his royal pupil. " For cotton to make
her monkey's beds, and for joiners who made her parrot-
318 ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA
cages, and for shearing her great rough dog, and for the
sustenance of an Irish wolf-hound, all belonging to her
Grace." When this young lady was nine, the Gunpowder
conspirators plotted to seize her and make her queen ; and
when she was thirteen, the father of Gustavus Adolphus
sent an embassy to ask her hand in marriage for the future
hero, but in vain. For the present she must live on with
her pets and her girl companions, visited sometimes by her
favourite brother, Prince Henry, and with no deeper cause
of grief than an occasional well-merited rebuke for ex-
travagance from her excellent guardian.
The death of Prince Henry at St. James's Palace in
1612 was, probably, the first great sorrow of his sister's
life. Her efforts to obtain access, even in disguise, to his
infected chamber, were very characteristic. A thin and
safe existence, without love or loss, was neither her desire
nor her destiny.
A few months later, Elizabeth and the Elector Frederick
were married at Whitehall, the first royal couple joined by
the English rite. Anne of Denmark may have sowed the
seeds of more evil than she dreamed of by the contempt
with which she habitually spoke of this union with a
mere Palsgrave ; and the popular feeling was probably re-
flected in Ben Jonson's uncourtly impromptu
" Our King and Queen the Lord God blesse,
The Paltzgrave and the Lady Besse."
And so " The Lady Besse " passed away to captivate with
sweet smiles, and confound by daring horsemanship, the
ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA 319
loyal inhabitants of Heidelberg. In the intervals of trouble
and sport she wrote a hymn which has been preserved ;
but she will be better remembered as the cause of poetry
in others.
For before Honthorst painted her, or an army adored
her as their " Queen of Hearts," or Duke Christian of
Brunswick wore her glove in his helmet, Sir Henry
Wotton wrote of her, as we all know, but can afford to
be reminded :
" Yon meaner beauties of the night
That poorly satisfy our eyes
More by your number than your light,
Yon common people of the skies,
Where are you when the sun shall rise ?
" Yon curious chanters of the wood ;
That warble forth dame Nature's lays,
Thinking your voices understood
By your weak accents, what's your praise
When Philomel her voice shall raise ?
" Yon violets that first appear,
By your pure purple mantles known,
Like the proud virgins of the year,
As if the spring were all your own,
What are you when the rose is blown ?
" So when my mistress shall be seen,
In form and beauty of her mind,
By virtue first, then choice, a Queen ;
Tell me if she were not designed
TV eclipse and glory of her kind ? "
320 ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA
According to most historians, including Mr. Gardiner,
when the fatal offer of the crown of Bohemia was made
to Frederick, he was urged by the pride and ambition of
his wife to accept it. Ranke, however, declares that this
is by no means proved. It was, in any case, a false step,
followed by nothing but misfortune. The Elector was no
leader of men, and his royal father-in-law, on whose aid
Bohemia counted, proved but a broken reed.
Such, however, was the personal devotion inspired by
Elizabeth that James advised, or commanded, the postpone-
ment of her intended visit to England. u It was reserved for
the young lawyers of the Middle Temple to give utterance
to the feelings which the preachers now hardly dared to
mutter. At their Christmas supper, one of them, we are
told, c took a cup of wine in one hand, and held his drawn
sword in the other, and so began a health to the distressed
Lady Elizabeth; and having drunk, kissed the sword, and
laying his hand upon it, took an oath to live and die in her
service ; then delivered the cup and sword to the next, and
so the health and ceremony went round.' '
At thirty-six Elizabeth was left a widow. The chival-
rous devotion of Lord Craven soothed and shielded the later
years of her life ; but we are not, I think, obliged to be-
lieve that they were secretly married. In 1661, she came
to London, where in less than a year she died. Evelyn tells
us how she was buried in Westminster Abbey, and how the
" night of her burial fell such a storm of hail, thunder, and
lightning, as was never seen the like."
When our portrait was painted she was forty-six, and had
ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA 321
been ten years a widow. Probably she was at that time
still given to hunting and shooting, as well as to the bring-
ing up of the survivors of her thirteen children, and the
society of learned men.
In the original of our illustration the square-cut dress is
black with white lace. The ornaments are pearls. The
hair and eyes are quite dark and the complexion pale. It is
a face that might reveal to the merest stranger that she was
a Stuart, that she had been beautiful, that she had been
unhappy; and this is more, I think, than could be as
clearly read in any known portrait of her ill-starred grand-
mother, the Queen of Scots.
THE COUNTESS DE GRAMMONT
(Sir Peter Lely]
MRS. JAMESON
SIR GEORGE HAMILTON, fourth son of James,
first Earl of Abercorn, after distinguishing himself
greatly in the civil wars, retired to France on the death of
the King, his master. He resided abroad for several years,
had a command in the French army, and in France several
of his children were born and most of them educated, which
accounts for the predilection they afterwards showed for that
country. At the Restoration, Sir George Hamilton re-
turned to England with a numerous family of gallant sons
and lovely daughters, among them Elizabeth Hamilton, his
eldest daughter, who being then just of an age to be intro-
duced at court, soon became one of its principal ornaments.
She appeared in that gay and splendid circle with many
advantages. She was of noble descent, allied to the most
illustrious families of England, Scotland and Ireland ; she
was the niece of the Duke of Ormond, her mother being
the sister of that great nobleman ; her eldest brother was
groom of the bedchamber, and a special favourite of the
King ; her two younger brothers were distinguished among
the brave and gay : she herself united to a most captivat-
ing person and manner such accomplishments as few women
of her time possessed, and which she had cultivated during
THE COUNTESS DE GRAMMONT
THE COUNTESS DE GRAMMONT 323
her father's exile. It does not appear that Miss Hamilton
accepted any ostensible office near the person of the Queen
or the Duchess of York ; but she was soon distinguished by
the favour of both, more particularly by that of the Duchess ;
and was habitually included in their most select circles, as
well as in all their balls, masques, banquets and public
festivities of the Court.
It was at this time that De Grammont first met her ; but
it was long after his marriage that he dictated to her brother
Anthony that enchanting description of her which appears
in his Memoirs. The lover-like feeling which breathes
through the whole the beauty, delicacy and individuality
of the portrait show that De Grammont, with all his fri-
volity and inconstancy, still remembered with tenderness,
after a union of twenty years, the charms which had first
touched and fixed his volatile heart.
She was then just arrived at that age when the budding
girl expands into the woman : her figure was tall, rather
full, and elegantly formed ; and to borrow Lord Herbert's
beautiful expression, " varied itself into every grace
that can belong either to rest or motion." She had the
finest neck and loveliest hand and arm in the world :
her forehead was fair and open ; her hair dark and luxuriant,
always arranged with the most exquisite taste, but with an
air of natural and picturesque simplicity, which meaner
beauties in vain essayed to copy ; her complexion, at a time
when the use of paint was universal, owed nothing to art ;
her eyes were not large, but sparkling and full of expres-
sion j her mouth, though not a little haughtiness is implied
324 THE COUNTESS DE GRAMMONT
in the curve of the under lip, was charming and the con-
tour of her face perfect.
De Grammont had hitherto received few repulses, but
" heureux sans etre aime" he began to be weary of pursuing
conquests of little worth. Miss Hamilton was something
new, something different from anything he had yet encoun-
tered in the form of woman. He soon perceived that the
stratagems he had hitherto found all-prevailing flattery
and billet doux^ French fans and gants de Martial 1 would
be entirely misplaced in his present pursuit : he laid aside
his usual methods of proceeding, and, all his powers of
captivating called forth by a real and deep attachment, he
bent his whole soul to please, and he succeeded.
The Countess de Grammont spent the rest of her life at
the French court. Her beauty and elegance charmed the
King, yet she did not universally please : Madame de Main-
tenon thought her "plus agreable qit aimable" perhaps be-
cause she could amuse with her lively wit, she would not
stoop to flatter. When Madame de Caylus called her
"Anglaise insupportable" she probably spoke in the character
of a Frenchwoman and a rival wit and beauty. Madame
de Grammont, soon after her arrival in France, was ap-
pointed Dame du Palais at Versailles ; and, in a few years
afterwards De Grammont became, by the death of his elder
brother, one of the richest and most powerful of the noblesse.
They appear to have lived together on easy terms.
1 Martial was a famous Parisian glove-maker of that time. "Est-ce que
Martial fait les epigrammes aussi bien que les gants ? " asks Moliere's
Comtesse d' Escarbagnas, in allusion to his Latin namesake.
THE COUNTESS DE GRAMMONT 325
Towards the latter part of her life, the Countess de Gram-
mont became very devout, and was extremely scandalized
by her husband's epicurism and infidelity.
The portrait of her is from the picture by Sir Peter Lely.
We are told that, at the time Lely was enchanted with his
subject, and every one considered it as the finest effort of
his pencil, both as a painting and a resemblance. The
dignified attitude and elegant turn of the head, are well
befitting her who was " grande et graciewt dans le moindre
de ses mouvemens " ; we have here u le petit nez delicate" the
fine contour of face, the lovely bust, the open expansive
brow, and the lips, ripe, rich, and breathing sweets at
least to the imagination. A few pearls are negligently
interwoven among her luxuriant tresses, as if on purpose
to recall Crashaw's beautiful compliment to his mistress :
" Tresses that wear
Jewels but to declare
How much themselves more precious are.
Each ruby there,
Or pearl, that dare appear,
Be its own blush, be its own tear."
The countenance has infinitely more spirit and intellect
than Sir Peter Lely's beauties in general exhibit; and
though perhaps a little too proud and elevated in its pres-
ent expression, it must have been, when brightened into
smiles, or softened with affection, exquisitely bewitching.
The neck and throat are beautifully painted, the drapery is
grand and well-disposed, and the background has a rich and
deep tone of colour, finely relieving the figure.
326 THE COUNTESS DE GRAMMONT
There is a slight defect in the drawing of the right arm.
Lely did not, like Van Dyck, paint his hands and arms
from nature : they are in general all alike, pretty and deli-
cate, but destitute of individual character, and often ill-
drawn. In the present instance, this is the more to be
regretted, because Miss Hamilton, among her other perfec-
tions, was celebrated for the matchless beauty of her hand
and arm.
THE COUNTESS DE GRAMMONT
(Sir Peter Lely)
WILLIAM SHARP
ALAS ! there were so many queens of beauty on the
walls, and yet my heart was not lost to one of them !
Then I remembered a favourite couplet, by Campion,
" Beauty must be scorned in none
Though but truly served in one "
and, having thought of and quoted that sweet signer found
I had to go right through three stanzas of his, memorable
even in the ever-new wealth of Elizabethan love-songs.
" Give beauty all her right !
She's not to one form tied ;
Each shape yields fair delight,
Where her perfections bide :
Helen, I grant, might pleasing be,
And Ros'mond was as sweet as she.
" Some the quick eye commends,
Some swelling lips and red ;
Pale looks have many friends,
Through sacred sweetness bred ;
Meadows have flowers that pleasures move,
Though roses are the flowers of love.
328 THE COUNTESS DE GRAMMONT
" Free beauty is not bound
To one unmoved clime ;
She visits every ground,
And favours every time.
Let the old lords with mine compare ;
My Sovereign is as sweet as fair."
There: all that is to be said about Fair Women, or the
Beauty of Woman, is compressed into six short lines.
This intangible beauty is a citizen of the world, and has
her home in Cathay as well as Europe, no one age claims
her, and Helen of Troy takes hands with Aspasia, and they
smile across the years to Lucrezia Borgia and Diane de
Poitiers, who, looking forward, see the lovely light reflected
in la belle Hamilton, and so down to our own day. And
then, once more, Eve individualized for ever and ever;
a challenge to all the world to bring forward one sweeter
and fairer than " my Sovereign."
The familiar canvas was in delightful company. Her
sisters in Lely were there : the Princess Mary, afterwards
Queen Mary II., as Diana ; the winsome Diana Kirke, the
second wife of Aubrey de Vere, twentieth and last Earl of
Oxford, a Fair Woman whom personally I much preferred
to her famous rival; Nell Gwynne, the bonnie free-lance;
the charming but not rigorously virtuous Mrs. Jane Mid-
dleton, whose relative, John Evelyn, has chronicled her
u famous and indeed incomparable beauty," and some of
whose doings are set forth in Anthony Hamilton's cele-
brated Grammont's Memoirs; and the Lady Barbara Gran-
dison, who married the Earl of Castlemaine, found favour
THE COUNTESS DE GRAMMONT 329
in the eyes of Charles II. (who created her Duchess of
Cleveland), and was daring enough to wed once more a
commoner, though, to be sure, he was the fashionable
Adonis of his day, " Beau " Fielding.
Every one knows La Belle Hamilton, the finest of the
Hampton Court Beauties. In common with Nell Gwynne
and the Duchess of Cleveland this masterpiece of Lely's
belongs to the Queen. I wonder how the gossipy Anthony
Hamilton would have moralized if he had been able to
foresee this whim of Destiny. The three ladies themselves
might have been more surprised still, if their thoughts could
cross the gulf that separates the Stuart court from the Vic-
torian. Some readers will recall the saying " The Count
de Grammont's short memory ! " When that courtier left
England he was followed and confronted by the brothers of
"la belle Hamilton," who, with drawn swords, asked him
if he had not forgotten something. " True, true," replied
the Count : who forthwith retraced his steps and, as a
chronicler has it, " repaired the lapse by making the young
lady Countess of Grammont." As a painting, this superb
work is not only the highest achievement of Lely, but
touches the high-water level of Lely's prototype Van Dyck.
Even the finest of the adjacent canvases of the great Sir
Anthony, the Duchesse de Croy, and in particular, Dorothy
Sidney, do not surpass this beautiful picture.
But while it is easy to understand how Elizabeth Ham-
ilton became " la belle Hamilton " at the Court of Charles
II., and had more offers of marriage than the number of
years she had lived, till, in the third year of the Restoration,
330 THE COUNTESS DE QRAMMONT
she gave her hand to the celebrated wit and courtier, the
Comte Philiberte de Grammont, most of us doubtless would
find it difficult to discover that " fundamental charm " we
hoped to find. I could believe all that her brother Anthony
could tell of her beauty and winsomeness, and have no
doubt that Count Philibert was a very lucky man ; but, for
myself, I realized that even had I been a member of that
wicked, laughing, delightful, reprehensible Carolan Court,
and a favourite of fortune in the matter of advantages, I
doubt if I would have been one of the five-and-twenty
suitors of " la belle Hamilton." Alas, there is yet another
charm which allures men when Beauty is only an impossi-
ble star; in the words of the anonymous poet of Tibbie
Fowler o f the Glen,
t( Gin a lass be e'er sae black,
An' she hae the pennysiller,
Set her up on Tinto tap,
The win' 'ill blaw a man 'till her."
It was not the fair Elizabeth's " pennysiller," however,
that was the attraction, though she did have what the Scots
slyly call " advantages."
Nevertheless, it is clear she must have in her beauty
something that appeals to many minds and in different
epochs. The fastidious nobles and wits of the Restoration
admired her; Sir Peter Lely expended his highest powers
in painting her ; his portrait of her has long been the gem
of the famous series known as " the Windsor Beauties,"
and at Hampton Court she is ever one of the most popular
of the ladies of the Stuart regime.
POPE JULIUS II
(Raphael)
H. KNACKFUSS
u T TOW liberal and kindly heaven shows itself some-
JL JL times in bestowing on a single person the infinite
store of its treasures and all those graces and rarest gifts
which it is wont to distribute among many individuals in a
long space of time, may be clearly seen in the no less ex-
cellent than gracious Raphael Sanzio of Urbino, who was
by nature endowed with all that modesty and kindness
which may sometimes be seen in those who beyond others
have added to a refined and gentle nature the beautiful orna-
ment of a charming courtesy, which is wont to show itself
ever sweet and pleasant to all kinds of persons and in all
manners of things. He was nature's gift to the world,
when, vanquished by art in the hands of Michelangelo
Buonarroti, she was willing in Raphael to be vanquished by
art and manners at once."
With these words Giorgio Vasari, who wrote in the
Sixteenth Century the lives of famous Italian artists from
Cimabue to himself, begins the life of the immortal master,
who brought the art of the Italian Renaissance to its utmost
perfection, and who shares with the giant Michel-angelo
this supreme glory, that his works, like the creations of clas-
sical antiquity, count with all posterity as unsurpassable.
Raffaello Santi (or Sanzio) first beheld the light of day
33* POPE JULIUS n
on Good Friday (i8th March) in the year 1483. His
native place, Urbino, situated on the north-east side of the
Apennines in the Marches of Ancona, near the frontiers of
Tuscany and Umbria, was the capital of a small Duchy,
which belonged to the valiant and art-loving family of
Montefeltro. Raphael's father, Giovanni Santi, was a painter
of repute, who painted pictures of saints full of thought-
fulness and reverence. A fresco painted by Giovanni Santi
in the house, still standing, in which Raphael was born,
representing the Madonna with the child asleep, is supposed
to be a picture of his wife Magia with the little Raphael.
Giovanni can only have grounded his son in the first rudi-
ments of his art, for he died on August I, 1494, after mar-
rying a second time in 1492. Raphael's actual teacher,
according to Vasari's account, was Pietro Vannucci, called
"il Perugino" (born 1446, died 1534), the head of what is
called the Umbrian school of painting, whose special char-
acteristic is a tender, poetic feeling combined with a certain
timidity of expression in form and colour. But Vasari is
evidently mistaken in his story that Giovanni Santi brought
the boy to Vannucci at Perugia during his mother's life-
time. Raphael probably entered the studio at the age of
seventeen, for up to the year 1500, the master's engage-
ments kept him almost constantly employed for years to-
gether at a distance from Perugia.
About a day's journey to the north of Perugia, in the
upper valley of the Tiber, lies the little town of Citta di
Castello. Here Raphael was led by several commissions
after the completion of the Coronation of the Virgin.
POPE JULIUS ii 333
While Raphael was working at Citta di Castello, Pintu-
ricchio was engaged in adorning with frescoes the Cathedral
library at Siena, as a commission from Pope Pius III.
Vasari reports that the painter sent for Raphael to Siena to
assist him with the cartoons for these wall-paintings. In
this information there is nothing incredible ; Raphael at the
age of scarcely one-and-twenty might very well consent
with pleasure to act as the assistant of a man from whom
he had learnt so much. It would be a fruitless effort, in-
deed, to endeavour to find the traces of Raphael's co-opera-
tion in the masterly creation of Pinturicchio ; for if an
older painter trusts a younger one so far as to allow him to
help in a great work, yet he does not usually permit him to
introduce anything of his own. At any rate Raphael did
not stay long at Siena. He was anxious to become ac-
quainted with Florence, the chief seat of art in Italy at
that time, where, too, his former teacher had set up his
studio. Before Raphael removed to Florence, he paid a
visit to his native town. Here events of a warlike nature
had taken place in the meantime. Duke Guidobaldo
Montefeltro had been driven out by Cesare Borgia, but had
once more taken possession of his hereditary dominion in
the year 1503, amidst the rejoicings of the population. In
the same year, Giuliano della Rovere, whose brother was
married to the Duke's sister Giovanna, ascended the papal
chair as Julius II. Under the protection of this influential
relationship peace remained secured to the Duchy of Urbino.
That active intellectual life, which has invested the princely
courts of Italy of the period of the Renaissance with so
334 POPE JULIUS n
peculiar a lustre and charm in the memory of the after-
world, unfolded itself without disturbance at the court of
Guidobaldo. Raphael, too, was drawn into the select cir-
cle, the soul of which was the beautiful and talented wife
of the Duke, Elisabetta Gonzaga, the grand-daughter of
a princess of the house of Hohenzollern. Next to the
Duchess Elisabetta, the Duke's sister, Giovanna della
Rovere, was a special patroness of the young artist, whose
first achievements promised already clearly enough that he
would one day prove the glory of his native town. Pro-
vided with a cordial recommendation from the Duchess
Giovanna to the Gonfaloniere of Florence, Piero Soderini,
Raphael, in the autumn of the year, 1504, entered the flour-
ishing capital of Tuscany.
In the year 1506, Raphael painted a St. George for his
Duke, Guidobaldo. He had once already taken the patron
saint of chivalry as the subject of a picture. This older
painting is now to be found as a companion to the still
earlier St. Michael, with which it corresponds exactly in
dimensions in the Louvre. While we see in the archangel
the very embodiment of victory, we behold in St. George,
the human warrior, the stress of conflict. Duke Guido-
baldo had ordered the picture as a present for King Henry
VII. of England, in return for the Order of the Garter
which had been bestowed on him. Accordingly the saint
appears clearly characterized as the patron of this Order by
a blue band under the knee, on which the word " honi " can
be read.
In the summer of 1506 Count Baldassare Castiglione
POPE JULIUS ii 335
travelled to London as envoy of the Duke to deliver the
picture. It is now in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg. A
careful drawing on the scale in which the picture was
carried out, perforated with pin-holes for the transfer to the
panel, is in the collection of the Uffizi at Florence.
It is possible that this picture took Raphael again to
Urbino; in this case it may, perhaps, be supposed that
Pope Julius II., who spent three days with his relative at
Urbino on his progress to Bologna in September, 1506,
may have there first made the acquaintance of the young
artist who was soon afterwards to produce such magnificent
masterpieces in his service.
On the great turning-point in Raphael's life, his sum-
mons to Rome to enter the service of the Pope, Vasari
gives the following information : u Bramante of Urbino,
who was in the service of Julius II., wrote to Raphael,
since he was distantly related to him and came from the
same place, that he had obtained the consent of the Pope,
who had had some new apartments constructed, to let
Raphael display his powers in them. The proposal
pleased Raphael so that he abandoned his work at
Florence and moved to Rome."
Bramante (born at Monte Asdrualdo near Urbino about
1444) had been occupied for several years with the Pope's
gigantic enterprise, the rebuilding of Saint Peter's, Michel-
angelo had been painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
since the spring of 1508. Now Raphael arrived, to make
the third star of the constellation, the splendour of which
would suffice by itself to make the name of Julius II.
336 POPE JULIUS ii
immortal, even if the politician and warrior-pope had done
nothing to secure for himself imperishable renown beyond
setting for these three men their sublime and magnificent
tasks.
Raphael has handed down to us the features of the Pope
who made Rome the capital of the world of art, so that
the former glory of Florence paled beside that of Rome.
The portrait dates from the last years of the life of
Julius II. ; the burden of old age has bowed the mighty
shoulders, the full beard falls white over the breast, the
eyelids have grown heavy ; but the fire is not yet quenched
in the eyes, which rest in deep hollows under the powerful
forehead, and the expression of an iron will and energy
bent on its purpose lies in the contracted brows and closely
shut mouth. The whole personality of the aged man, who
sits with his elbows propped on the arms of his chair is so
convincing, so full of life, that we can well understand the
words of Vasari, that the picture was so true to nature that
it made the beholders tremble, as if Pope Julius were pres-
ent in the body. The magnificent portrait was copied
repeatedly soon after it came into existence, and that, in
some cases, by such skilful hands that it is no longer cer-
tain which is the original ; the two examples in Florence
especially (one in the Tribune, the other in the Pitti
Palace) contend for precedence.
In the autumn of 1508 Raphael was in the service of
the Pope ; he was overwhelmed with work and employed
a number of assistants. The Pope's newly constructed
chambers, of which Bramante wrote to Raphael, are the
POPE JULIUS n 337
apartments of the Vatican Palace known as the " Stanze."
Raphael, who was received with great kindness by the
Pope, began his work at the age of twenty-five in the
" Stanza della Segnatura," which received this name be-
cause the popes were accustomed to sign dispensations in
it. The most famous painters had already exerted them-
selves in rivalry to adorn the apartments of the Vatican,
and a number of masters of established reputation, among
them Perugino, were still employed in doing so. In the
"Stanza della Segnatura" the ceiling had already been
painted by Giovanni Antonio Bazzi (called Sodoma) of
Vercelli. But when Raphael had completed a part of his
work, the Pope had the other paintings stripped off, in
order to transfer the whole to the youth who threw old
masters and new alike into the shade.
THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE
(Gainsborough)
MRS. ARTHUR BELL
IT was Gainsborough who painted the earliest of the
many portraits of the celebrated eldest daughter of the
first Earl and Countess Spencer, who, as the Duchess of
Devonshire, became the leader of fashionable society in
London. In this first portrait she is represented as a
charming little maiden of six or seven years old, giving
promise even then of her remarkable charms. In later
portraits by Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds, with
whom she was a very great favourite, this promise is seen
to be abundantly fulfilled. She was married at the early
age of seventeen to William, the fifth Duke of Devonshire,
when, as Walpole says in a letter to Mann, " She was a
lively girl, natural and full of grace." She very soon be-
came " the irresistible queen of ton," eclipsing all rivals ;
the most brilliant of the gay throng who danced and played
the nights away at the Ladies' Club, masqueraded at the
Pantheon, and promenaded at Ranelagh. On one occasion
the Duchess is said to have won 900 in a day, and on
another to have lost 1,500, when she was handed, literally
sobbing with remorse, into her carriage by Sheridan. In
spite of this weakness, however, Marie Antoinette, but two
years the senior of the Duchess, "had scarcely a gayer,
THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE
THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE 339
more devoted, or more obsequious court." Contemporary
letters teem with allusions to the Duchess from her first
appearance in London Society, as the loveliest bride of the
season, to her death in 1806. A year after her marriage
she is setting the fashion of the addition to the already
absurdly high coiffures of ostrich plumes that Wraxall
says : " Those who wished to have ostrich plumes as
long as the Duchess's, searched London in vain, until an
undertaker was induced to sell feathers from a hearse." In
1776, Fanny Burney, writing to her dear Daddy Crisp,
speaks of having met in the Park, the "young and hand-
some Duchess of Devonshire," and severely criticises her
because " two of her curls had come unpinned
and her cloak . . . was flung half on and half
off. . . ." " Every creature," she adds, " turned back
to stare at her : she has a look of innocence and artless-
ness that made me quite sorry she should be so foolishly
negligent of her person." This severe critic adds that
" the Duke, on whose arm the bride was leaning, was ugly,
tidy, and grave-looking, like a very mean shopkeeper's
journeyman." Truth to tell, the " greatest match in Eng-
land," though he thought himself something of a dandy
and a poet, must have acted very much as a foil to his fair
bride. Mrs. Delany says that the " jewel " her friend the
Duchess had won had not been well polished ; and Wrax-
all remarks that " constitutional apathy formed his most
distinguished characteristic." In the fierce political strug-
gle of 1783 and 1784 when the whole country was
divided into two factions, each hating the other with a
34 THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE
perfect hatred ; and when, as Walpole said, u politics were
all in all, and little girls asked each other before they would
make friends : ' Pray, miss, of which side are you ? ' "
the biographers of Sir Joshua Reynolds tell how difficult it
was for the great artist's sitters, who were most of them on
the popular side, to get to his painting-room through the
fighting-mobs in Leicester Fields ; but that the Duchess of
Devonshire and her friend, Mrs. Crewe, moved about like
beings from another sphere, courting, cajoling, and canvass-
ing on behalf of Fox.
Rowlandson, that keen satirist of both parties to the con-
test, published a print called Political Affections, in which the
Duchess is represented nursing a Fox-cub, whilst her own
child is wailing unnoticed in his cradle. Many, too, were
the coarse, anonymous rhymes, reflecting on the Duchess's
eager advocacy of Fox, which were circulated about the
town. In one, she is even charged with having bought a
vote from a certain Marrowbones, a butcher of Westmin-
ster, with a kiss ; but in spite of all her efforts, all her con-
descensions, all her " thunderings at each door," Fox was
defeated, and Baron Hood, whose portrait Gainsborough
also painted, reigned in his stead.
In 1791, two years before her own marriage to General
D' Arblay, Fanny Burney, fresh from her drudgery as
Keeper of the Robes at Court, met the Duchess of Devon-
shire and her children at Bath, and says of her : " I did not
find so much beauty in her as I expected, but I found far
more of manner, politeness and gentle spirit. She seems
THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE 341
by nature to possess the highest animal spirits, but she ap-
peared to me not happy. I thought she looked oppressed
within, though there is a native cheerfulness about her
which, I fancy, never deserts her." Whilst the two were
conversing in what Fanny calls " a soberly, sensible, and
quiet manner " on various topics, including the then delicate
subject of the King's mental illness and the Queen's dis-
tress, the Duchess's little daughter, Lady Georgiana, who
might have been the original of Gainsborough's first por-
trait of her mother, ran in with a request to be allowed to
go into the garden to see some poor little girls eat a meal
provided for them by her grandmother, Countess Spencer.
No one who saw the Duchess's now worn but still beauti-
ful face light up as she listened to the little maid's pleading,
or who heard her express her fear that " there might be
some illness or disorder amongst the poor things," could
fail to feel how utterly unfounded were the charges brought
against her of being an unnatural mother, or how true it
was that she found her best comfort for the loss of her hus-
band's erratic affections in the care of her little ones.
Of her later portrait by the great Suffolk artist, exhibited
at the Academy in 1778, the story is told that he " drew a
wet pencil across a mouth which all who saw it thought
exquisitely lovely," saying : " Her Grace is too hard for
me," and of which Allan Cunningham says : " The daz-
zling beauty of the Duchess, and the sense she entertained
of the charms of her looks and her conversation, took away
that readiness of hand, that hasty happiness of touch, which
belonged to Gainsborough in his ordinary moments. The
342 THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE
portrait was so little to his satisfaction that he refused to
send it to Chatsworth.
Horace Walpole characterized this portrait, which is
now lost, as bad and washy ; but then his great friend,
Lady Diana Beauclerk, formerly Lady Bolingbroke, also
exhibited a portrait of the Duchess in 1778, and Walpole
was determined that it should be the picture of the year.
A second portrait of the Duchess, also lost, having, it is
said, been cut out of its frame by a thief still undiscovered,
was bought by Messrs. Agnew at the Wynn Ellis sale for
10,605.
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