nnnni iMFn. — / J.I- ..I'llmillBi \ > dlaxtuce- ®ng5» UCSB LIBRARY LIBRARY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA PRESENTED BY ERIC SCHMIDT '^yyTiJU "' jBRITISH PAINTERS WITH EIGHTY EXAMPLES OF THEIR WORK ENGRAVED ON WOOD NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY I, 3, & 5, BOND STREET 1881 LONDON PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED CITY ROAD PAINTERS AND ENGRAVINGS. CHAPTER I. ARTISTS BORN IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. PAGE ^ y. M. IV. TURNER, R.A 4 The Guard ship at the Nore. Venice : The Grand Canal. JOHN CONSTABLE, R.A 7 The Lock. The Corn-field. SIR AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A 9 Rotterdam. Raffaelle and the Fornarina. ^ SIR DAVID WILKIE, R.A 12 The Rent Day. The Maid of Saragossa. v) BENJAMIN ROBERT HAYDON. 17 Raising of Lazarus. QuiNTUs Curtius. 4 WILLIAM MULREADY, RA 21 Lending a Bite. Choosing the Wedding Gown. v\ WILLIAM ETTY, R.A 25 Cupid in a Shell. The Combat : Woman pleading for the Vanquished. DA VID COX. 30 Meadows on the River Lugg, Herefordshire. Deer Stalking, Bolton Park. "^SIR CHARLES LOCK EASTLAKE, K.B., P.R.A 34 The Brigand's Wife. Greek Fugitives. iv PAINTERS AND ENGRAVINGS. PAGE DA VID ROBERTS, R.A 38 Portico of the Temple, Edfou, Upper Egypt. Church of St. Gomer, Brussels. CLARKSON STANFIELD, R.A 43 Terminati Marina di Citara. Tilbury Fort— Wind against Tide. CHAPTER II. ARTISTS BORN 1800— 1820. FRANK STONE, A.R.A 48 Bassanio receiving the Letter concerning Antonio. Mated. THOMAS WEBSTER, R.A 51 The Dirty Boy. Il Penseroso. A SIR E. LANDSEER, R.A 55 The Alarm. The Angler's Guard. FREDERICK TAYLER ■ • • • 59 A Highland Gillie. A Fete Champetre of the Time of Charles II. WILLIAM DYCE, R.A 62 King Joash shooting the "Arrow of Deliverance." Jacob and Rachel. CHARLES WEST COPE, R.A 67 "Baby's Turn!" The Life's Story — Othello. THOMAS CRESWICK, R.A • • .71 The Entrance to the Cover. The Pleasant Way Home. RICHARD ANSDELL, R.A 75 IsLA Mayor— Banks of the Guadalquivir. The Spanish Floaver-seller. PAINTERS AND ENGRAVINGS. v rAOB THOMAS JONES BARKER 79 The Return through the Valley of Death. A Sister of IMercy. JOHN CALLCOTT HORSLEY, R.A 83 Henry V. when Prince of Wales. Scene from " Don Quixote." SIR JOHN GILBERT, R.A 87 Sancho Panza. A Troop of Dragoons in a Storm. WILLIAM CHARLES THOMAS DOBSON, R.A 91 The Child Jesus going down with his Parents to Nazareth. The Charity of Dorcas. WILLIAM POWELL FRITH, R.A 95 Scene from the "Bourgeois Gentilhomme." Sancho and Don Quixote. JAMES CLARKE HOOK, R.A 99 Market Morning. Time of the Persecution of the Reformers in Paris. EDMUND GILL 103 On the River Lledr, North Wales. Storm and Shipwreck. F. R. PICKERSGILL, R.A ,07 The Death of Foscari. The Burial of Harold. CHAPTER III. ARTISTS BORN AFTER 1820. THOMAS FAED, R.A 112 The Visit to the Village School. Hide and Seek. FORD MADOX BROWN 116 Haidee and Don Juan. Christ washing Peter's Feet. vi PAINTERS AND ENGRAVINGS. PAGE SIR JOSEPH NOEL PATON, R.S.A 120 MoRTE d' Arthur. " I WONDER WHO LIVED IN THERE ! " RICHARD BEAVIS. 123 Bedaween Caravan on the Road to Mount Sinai. Collecting Wreck on the French Coast — Ambleteuse. HENRY STACY MARKS, R.A 127 The Missal Painter. The Franciscan Sculptor and his Model. WILLIAM FREDERICK YEAMES, R.A 131 The Meeting ob' Sir Thomas More and his Daughter. Stepping-Stones. LAWRENCE ALMA-TADEMA, R.A i35 Greek Festive Scene. The Convalescent. GEORGE HENRY BOUGHTON, A.R.A. 140 The Last of the " Mayflower." IcHABOD Crane. PHILIP RICHARD MORRIS, A.R.A i44 Prison Farf:. Cradled in his Calling. EDWARD y. POYNTER, R.A i47 The Catapult. The Festival. BRITON RIVIERE, A.R.A 151 Apollo. Charity. FREDERICK WALKER, A.R.A 155 The Fireside. The Right of Way. FRANK HOLE, A.R.A 159 Deserted. " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord." BRITISH PAINTERS, CHAPTER I. ARTISTS BORN IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. "Great Art," says Mr. Ruskin, "is the expression, by an Art gift, of a pure soul." The growth of Art must be regarded as founded upon moral development, and it is national morality, considered as the aggregate of individual morality, which must indicate for us the future of human efforts to express what is beautiful. The future of Art is a question of the most engrossing interest, whether we view it as one of the great questions of life, or look upon it as involving so much that is culturing ourselves and our families, pushing forward the education of the world. Within the last few years improved processes of photography and immensely increased facilities for the production of prints have brought a knowledge of pictures into the humblest homes. That portion of human information which relates to works of Art is, and always will be, most popular among studies ; it is a subject on which natural taste comes largely to our aid, and on which each talker or thinker may take up his own ground. We may even suggest that the stock- in-trade of learning required is out of all proportion small. Thus the interest attaching to so abstruse a subject as theology is very great ; but there we are met at the very outset by the need for a great power of accurate reasoning, and the very frontiers are guarded by the hardest of Greek. Yet speculations on the future of Art are not very rife in the present day, and for this reason amongst others — some phenomenal work is required to set people thinking, just as the electric light and other recent discoveries in electricity have directed almost universal attention to that science. If we follow Mr. Ruskin from the "Theseus" of the Athenian School, the most perfect representation of the form of the human figure, to the most perfect expression of human emotion instanced in Raffaelle's " Disputa del Sacra- B 2 BRITISH PAINTERS. mento " of the Florentine School, and then to Veronese's " Marriage in Cana " of the Venetian School ; if, lastly, we pass on to Turner in our own day — Turner who will be more fully appreciated in days to come — it will not, indeed, be hard to trace the working of the great law of progress in Art. A curious, and, we venture to think, a satisfactory feature of the century is the distaste for historical paintings. The realistic movement, which, fed on science, has attacked even theology in her strongholds, is slowly leaving a deep impression on Art too. To the sagacious observer, bent on reading the future of the brush and easel, we can imagine no more profitable or attractive study than a careful examination of the works of the great painters of the century in England and America : in America, the land of progress, where conventionalities are stripped off and torn to rags ; and on the eastern side of the Atlantic, where an hereditary House of Lords is still the figure of a firmness and consistency such as only China can rival. It is impossible to help feeling how great a stride one century has witnessed in the matter of landscape painting. A century ago Richard Wilson was failing to earn his bread in London by this special branch of Art; in the present day the great school of American painters, with such men as Richards and Bristol in their midst, has earned for itself deserved praise for its faithful and original portraiture of the natural wonders of what was so long called the "Afew World." Between the time of Phidias and the date at which the Italian masters flourished, the world advanced many a slow step in progress ; but that advance is nothing compared with what has taken place between the time of Raphael and our own day. Whether the progress of Art shall be identified more or less nearly with either that of civilisation or of human thought is for each man to decide ; but we are not to suppose that because Art progress has been slow, it will therefore be uniform ; on the contrary, we must be fully alive to important and perhaps speedy future developments, which may even now be shadowed forth — dimly perhaps, but not beyond the view of the sagacious and attentive observer. At the time when the Peace of Utrecht was closing the war of the Spanish succession, a remarkable man was working as apprentice to a silversmith in London. William Hogarth (b. 1697, d. 1764) has been justly called the Founder of the British School of Art. For more than a century the SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 3 foreign fashions of the Stuarts, and the political excitement to which their misgovernment had given rise, had choked down strivings after the original and the real in Art. So long as this state of things continued the strength of the national character could not speak through the canvas, and a reallj^ national school of painting was impossible. A powerful combination was needed to dissipate such apathy. Hogarth was two things, a born artist, and an Englishman to the backbone. How the artists combined in London and also in Edinburgh is not a new story to tell : four years after Hogarth's death the Royal Academy was founded in London. True, at the present day it is the fashion to condemn the Academy system of teaching, and unques- tionably a narrow-mindedness, natural where a body of men has been selected entirely from the ranks of one profession, has been at times manifested by the Academicians ; yet second thoughts will remind us how this body, more than sixty years before the Reform Bill was forced on the legislature of the country, by holding out a helping hand to young artists, often enabled them to stand on their own merits ; whereas formerly their success too often depended on the capricious ignorance or vicious taste of some half- foreign nobleman. Next to Hogarth in chronological order comes Richard Wilson (b. 17 14, d. 1782). In his work we may see the new order of things struggling out of the old. Many of his landscapes are very beautiful ; but they are Italian, not English. Wilson was the slave of Poussin and Claude. 'to^ Less than thirty years after Hogarth, and within four years of each other, were born Sir Joshua Reynolds (b. 1723, d. 1792) and Thomas Gains- borough (b. 1727, d. 1788). Reynolds has been accused of devotion to portrait painting as being the most profitable branch of his art, but the excel- lence of his works has long ago rendered it unnecessary to dwell on such a charge. He has been often placed in the position of honour among English painters, and indeed many of his works are entitled to rank with those of Titian and Van Dyck. Portrait-painting at the present time holds a far less conspicuous position than it did ; and that a very inferior man should, as had so often happened, be honoured and held up to notice by being selected as Court painter became an impossibility from the moment that Reynolds accepted the office. BRITISH PAINTERS. Gainsborough won his reputation by painting portraits, and his land- scapes have helped to sustain it up to the present time : it is well known that a picture assigned to him recently fetched over^ 10,000. Benjamin West (b. 1738, d. 1820) and Sir T. Lawrence (b. 1769, d. 1830) deserve passing mention here: the former, by birth an American, an artist whose repute was greatly in excess of his powers ; the latter a fashionable rather than a great painter. Taking up the thread from about the end of the eighteenth centur}', it is with Turner that the present work com- mences ; at this point we leave the reader to gather for himself a more detailed knowledge of the English School of this century. The first efforts towards originality, and the gradual upheaval and penetration through the dense stratum of popular opinion, have been briefly noticed ; we are now to see what has been built on the new foundation.. Few, if any, painters, whether ancient or modern, have caused so much discussion among Art critics as Turner. While some have extolled him as the greatest landscape painter the world has seen, others regard him as little better than an artistic madman : he has been the jest of one party — the idol of another ; nor is this much to be wondered at if we call to mind the peculiarity of his works, as well as their originality, for the whole range of Art history affords nothing analogous to them. Each succeeding year, since his death in 1851, has only served to confirm our opinion : it is no disparage- ment to the many artists whom he has left behind to affirm that we have lost in him the greatest landscape painter of ihe English School ; we shall scarcely say too much if we add, of any other, ancient or modern. We are quite willing to cast in our lot with those who venerate his genius, though by no means, as some do, to the entire exclusion of every other artist. It was truly said by an anonymous writer more than thirty years ago, that " the glorious superstructure of the British School of Landscape, in part erected by the united powers of Wilson and Gainsborough, has now in our times received its final acme of excellence, its triumph of beauty and grandeur, from the genius of Turner." Had Mr. Ruskin, in his ardent and enthusiastic admiration of the works T U R N E R. 5 of this painter, showed a more just appreciation of the talents of his contem- poraries, we believe that Turner would have been a considerable gainer; but the indiscriminate laudation of his idol, at the expense of, and in comparison with, other artists, created, there is little doubt, a widespread feeling of opposition to the opinions and sentiments of the author of "Modern Painters," and through him to the subject of his eulogy. An injudicious friend often inflicts more injury on the cause he advocates than its avowed opponents. Turner was born in 1775, in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, where his father carried on business as a hairdresser ; he had, however, sufiicient discrimination to allow his son to follow the pursuit to which he was most inclined. How and where his earliest studies in Art were carried on we have no precise information ; we only know that he was largely indebted to Dr. Munro, who possessed an extensive collection of water-colour drawings, for permitting him to copy them under his own immediate direction and advice. The doctor's collection was rich in the works of Paul Sandby, Rooker, Cozens, Hearne, and others whose names are now almost lost to the public, and in sketches by Gainsborough. Turner and Girtin, as well as the late John Varley, Francia, Edredge, &c., were among the disciples of the Munro School, as it was called, and " occasionally copied and studied from the same prototypes. From the elaborate and tasteful delineations of Hearne and Rooker they acquired the rudiments of a just and accurate insight into the properties of topographical design ; and from the drawings of Cozens a practical knowledge of breadth and simplicity, united with the charms of aerial perspective." To Turner and Girtin, between whom an honourable rivalry existed — for both seemed equally gifted with genius and perception, and alike endued with executive powers — are we chiefly indebted for the high position which our school of water-colour painters has reached. Girtin unfortunately died at the comparatively early age of twenty-seven, in 1802. Had he lived to the years of his fellow-student, there is little doubt he would have achieved a reputation second only to that of Turner ; for their merits were so equally balanced, and the drawings of one bore so close a resemblance to those of the other, that no one who has not very carefully studied the works of both is able to distinguish between them. We are speaking of those executed when the artists were fellow-pupils, or soon after that time, for Girtin in his latter years launched out into a more free and a bolder style than Turner did at the same period ; while the drawings of Turner during the last thirty or forty years of 6 BRITISH PAINTERS. his life are as unlike his own earlier productions as the}' are to those of any- other painter : latterly " None but himself could be his parallel." Turner exhibited two drawings at the Royal Academy in 1787, when only twelve years old. He entered the schools of that institution in 1789, and in the following year sent a drawing in water colours to the Exhibition — the subject a view on the Thames, taken from the banks of the river, nearly opposite the episcopal palace at Lambeth : three years afterwards he contributed his first painting in oil. Two pictures he exhibited in 1800 attracted great attention — the " Falls of the Clyde " and the " Tenth Plague of Egypt." Though very dissimilar in character, yet both were distinguished by masterly treatment. To show how varied were the subjects painted by him in the early part of his career, we would instance a picture which many years ago was in the collection of Lord de Tabley ; it represented a blacksmith's shop, in which was a butcher, who appeared to be disputing with the owner of the forge his charge for shoeing a pony. All the implements used by the smith were introduced with remarkable truth and firmness of painting, while in the foreground of the picture were groups of poultry, finished almost as highly as if they had come from the pencil of Hondekoeter or Jan Fyt. An Art critic * of some eminence writes in the following terms. " There were two great periods," he says, "in Turner's life — the former, during which he painted what he saw ; the latter, during which he painted what he imagined." The earlier works of this master are less often studied than the productions of his later years. Mr. John Burnet's criticism must be quoted : — " The early compositions of Turner are of a simpler character, and contain fewer parts than his later works : this not only arises from his being engaged on representations of extensive scenery, such as the embellishment of engraved subjects demanded — where a multitude of objects was required to be given in a small space — but also from his changing his conduct of light and shade from a breadth of shadow to a breadth of light, which gradually expanded to almost a want of solidity in his last paintings ; this was also the reason for adopting a more brilliant style of colour^for objects to be rendered sufficiently distinct, without cutting up the breadth of light, could only be produced by the contact of hot and cold colours. In these pictures he more resembles * Mr. S. C. Hall. C O A' STAB I. E. 7 Wilson and Claude than in his later pictures, both on account of largeness of forms and his breadth of shadow." In the year 1800 Turner was elected Associate of the Royal Academy, and two years afterwards, at the early age of twenty-seven, an Academician. Such a raj)id rise to the full honours of the Academy has, we believe, no parallel in its history. The election of the great landscape painter in 1807 to the post of Professor of Perspective was by no means a happy choice. Illiterate and unable to lecture. Turner did not take long to discover his own unfitness. He travelled extensively on the continent. It is scarcely necessary to mention the "Scenery of the Southern Coast," &c., so well is this known. His great work, the " Liber Studiorum," was commenced in 1808. Turner bequeathed a magnificent collection of his works to the nation, and it is now to be found in the National Gallery, London. The fortune of _;^ 200,000, which by his untiring industry he had accumulated, was left for the purpose of founding a home for decayed artists ; but owing to some flaw in his will, his wish could not be carried out. For a complete criticism of Turner's paintings we may refer to the works of Mr. Ruskin. Mr. Walter Thornbury's Life of the artist, published in England some years ago, contains ample information as to his domestic life and personal character. One of the first names that added lustre to our school of painting, after it really merited such an appellation, is that of John Constable, born in 1776, at East Bergholt, in Suffolk. He used to say that " the scenes of his boy- hood made him an artist," and this we can readily believe of any one in whom nature has implanted an intuitive love of Art. We know the country well amid which Constable was reared, and perhaps a more genial locality to create a painter and to foster his inclinations cannot be seen in all England. Constable's father was an opulent miller, and was most desirous that his son John, one of three boys, should enter the Church ; but finding him dis- inclined to this, he proposed to him that he should follow his own business, and for about a year after leaving school the future artist applied himself to the duties of the mill, frequently, however, relieving the monotony of his 8 BRITISH PAINTERS. occupation by studying, to use his own expression, the "natural history of the skies; " for the painter's art was already working- in him, and while yet at school he had become acquainted with the only individual in the parish who could offer him the least assistance in his favourite pursuit — one John Dunthorne, a painter and glazier, and a man rather above his station. With Dunthorne the lad was accustomed to pass much of his leisure time in painting landscapes from nature. Notwithstanding the father's disinclina- tion to an artist's life, Mrs. Constable having procured for her son an introduction to Sir George Beaumont, whose mother resided at Dedham, near Bergholt, John was permitted, in 1795, to come to London, " for the purpose," as Mr. Leslie says, in his " Memoirs of Constable," " of ascer- taining what might be his chance of success as a painter." From that period till February, 1799, he appears to have passed his time alternately in the metropolis and in his native place, sometimes working at his easel and sometimes in the mill, the latter yet seeming to be the point to which his parents wished his energies to be directed ; for at the end of October, 1797, his mother writes thus to a friend in London — Mr. John Smith, the author of the "Life of Nollekens," with whom her son was intimate: — "We are anticipating the satisfaction of seeing John at home in the course of a week or ten days, to which I look forward with the hope that he will attend to business, by which he will please his father, and insure his own respectability and comfort." It was not, however, to be thus, for in 1799 he was admitted a student in the Royal Academy. Yet, notwithstanding the kind and approving words which had been addressed to him, and the associations of friendship he had formed with people of position, he made at first but little progress towards popularity; there was something so new in the style he had adopted, and perhaps, therefore, so unintelligible to those who could only understand what they had been accustomed to, that we can scarcely wonder at the neglect he experienced. From the year 1814 to 1819 the life of this artist presented an "even tenour," though he was certainly advancing in popular favour. In 18 16 he married the daughter of Mr. C. Bicknell, then Solicitor to the Admiralty ; and in 1819 his "View on the River Stour " attracted so much attention as to cause him to be elected an Associate of the Academ.y. In 1829 he was elected a full member, for his reputation had not only circulated through his THE LOCK. From a Painting hy y'uhn C'viistabU', R.yl. THE CORN-FIELD. From a raMlng hy yohn Comtahle, R.A. C A I. L C T T. 9 own countr}', but had extended to France and Germany. From that time his fame increased continuously, even after his death, which took place in 1837. Of the two pictures which we have selected as examples of Constable's style, the engravings by Mr. Lucas are well known. "The Corn-field" is undoubtedly one of the artist's finest works. Time — as Constable said it would — has greatly modified the spotted appearance he gave to his paintings ; those spots have since become "lights" in harmony with the rest of the colouring. We must admit, however, that some of the shadows are now blacker than they were originally, and consequently impart a heaviness to the works. We remember Constable well, having had the honour of his acquaintance when he resided in Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, about the year 1830. He was in person tall ; his countenance was remarkably expressive — full of kindliness and goodness ; in look and manner he was suave, yet manifesting energy and movement, and conveying to the merest observer a conviction of the genius he undoubtedly possessed. If, as with many painters of the past epoch, it was not his destiny to be estimated by his own age according to his worth, his works are now largely valued ; and when any of undoubted authenticity (for forgeries are abundant) are oftered for sale, they realise very high prices : perhaps ten times the amount which the painter received for them. Such is the recompense too often accorded to the artist; the trumpet of fame sounds only when "the ear is deaf to the voice of the charmer." The reader who feels a special interest in this great artist will do well to consult the Life of him which has been left us by C. R. Leslie, R. A. Music and Painting have through a long series of years found their homes in two families allied by marriage, and residing in a locality whose name, to those unacquainted with the spot, would seem to have but little harmonious association with the Arts of any kind. Kensington Gravel Pits — such is the place alluded to — whatever it may have been in days of yore, is now adorned with some venerable mansions, such as in the present day are rarely to be found in the suburbs of London. Here, or in the immediate vicinity, for a period extending to nearly a century, lived, or now live. Dr. Callcott, William Horsley, and William Hutchins Callcott — names well known to every lover of c 10 BRITISH PAINTERS. genuine English vocal compositions — Sir Augustus Callcott, and John Callcott Horsley, the Royal Academician. Sir Augustus Callcott was born in 1779, at Kensington Gravel Pitts, and resided there all his life, a period of nearly sixty-six years. He gave early indication of a taste for the Fine Arts in general, but in consequence, it may be presumed, of his relationship to Dr. Callcott, his brother, he chose music as a profession, and for some years officiated in the choir of Westminster Abbey, under the late Dr. Cooke. Whether or not he employed his pencil during this time we are unable to state, but before he had reached his twentieth year he had studied portrait painting under Hoppner, and had exhibited a portrait which augured con- siderable success in this department of Art ; but he very soon turned his attention to landscape, and frequently was heard to say that he was greatly induced to change his practice from seeing Stothard's charming designs to •' Robinson Crusoe." It was, we believe, in 1803 that Callcott made his debut as a landscape painter, and here he was so successful that, four years afterwards, he was elected an Associate of the Ro3^al Academy. In 18 10 he became a Member, sending his "Morning " as his diploma picture. The highest honour of the profession was thus rapidly attained, and never was it more worthily bestowed ; while the admiration his pictures excited, and his inestimable private character, procured for him the friendship and encouragement of all the distinguished patrons and lovers of Art of his time. In 1827 Callcott married the widow of Captain Graham, R.N., and daughter of Admiral Dundas, a lady whose extensive erudition and writings gave her a distinguished place in public favour. She had formerly resided during two years in India, and for some time in Italy : after her return from the latter country she wrote " Three Months in the Environs of Rome," and " Memoirs of Nicholas Poussin : " her valuable " Essays towards the History of Painting " appeared in 1836. With her he visited Germany, the Tyrol, and Italy, and applied to the scenes of nature and works of Art, to which his travels introduced him, the cultivated perceptions of a mind ever alive to the suggestions derivable from both. It was this habit of constant and watchful observance that gave to his conversa- tion such an interest, and to his criticism so much worth, from its truth and discrimination. In 1837 her Majesty was graciously pleased to confer on Mr. Callcott the honour of knighthood, as an especial mark of his sovereign's recognition of ,1 iiesiiii w aiiliiail iiiiiiiiiiia^^^^^^^^ pi Sj H k S.0 RAFFAELLE AND THE FORNARINA. From a Painting hy Sir Aiigiisliis IJ'a/l Cailcott, R.A. C A L L C O r T. , , his merits as a painter, and of his personal excellencies. In 1843 her Majesty gave another testimony of royal approbation, by appointing him Keeper of the Royal Collections of Pictures, an office then vacant by the death of Mr. Seguier. At the time this appointment was made Sir A. W. Callcott was sinking under the pressure of disease, and, actuated by delicate and honourable feeling, he hesitated to accept so important and onerous a post ; but, as both the Queen and Prince Albert graciously expressed a wish that his state of health should not interfere with the acceptance of the trust, his scruples were removed. In the due arrangement and classification of those treasures of Art which form the Royal Galleries he was sedulously employed till death terminated his labours, after an illness of many years' duration, which was interrupted only by short intervals of comparative health, that excited the hopes, though they scarcely allayed the fears, of his numerous friends and admirers. He died on the 25th of November, 184/I, and was buried at Kensal Green. Callcott was a large and constant contributor to the Royal Academy, \exy frequently sending the total number of eight paintings, to which the rules of the Academy limit every exhibitor, and his pictures were, in general, readily recognised by his pure and delicate colouring. The works of a landscape painter scarcely admit of so detailed a criticism as do those of a painter of history or of genre subjects. The scene of " Rotterdam " is familiar to many a traveller. To an Englishman- crossing from Harwich on his way into Germany, the old Dutch town presents many an amusing or interesting spectacle — canals, market-boats, the quaint dresses of the women and children : Callcott had pre-eminently the power of showing on the canvas the placidity and tranquillity of such a scene. This picture belongs to about 1830. His favourite themes were those wherein water occupied a prominent place ; and many of his most charming pictures were made up of coast scenes : it was Sydney Smith, we believe, who christened him " Seashore Callcott." He very rarely attempted figure subjects, strictly so called; but in 1832 he exhibited a picture of " Italian Girls going in Procession to their First Com- munion," and in the following year " Shepherd Boys with their Dogs." But his most important work of this character was " Raffaelle and the Fornarina," exhibited in 1837, and engraved by the Art Union of London, and which we have introduced here as an example of Callcott's ability to treat the historical class of subject. 12 BRITISH PAINTERS. Callcott has been called the modern Claude ; so also has Turner ; but Callcott's works, both in composition and colour, bear a closer resemblance to Claude's than do those of Turner. His distances are deficient in the space we find in the landscapes of the old master, but the aerial perspective is exquisitely rendered, and the general effect of the distance more pleasing. He was a close imitator of nature, observing her with the eye of a true poet, while he interpreted her with the most exact fidelity. "With a fine feeling," says Dr. Waagen, " for the picturesque in conception, he unites a delicacy of drawing most favourably seen in his figures and animals, which are most tastefully introduced. In his earlier pictures, the colouring is powerful, and often warm ; in his later, rather too uniformly cool, and sometimes almost insipid. His execution is spirited and careful." The critic, when he spoke of " insipidity," was unconscious amid how much personal suffering, and consequent mental prostration, these works were frequently produced. His pictures, many of which were publicly exhibited after his death, are to be found in every English private gallery of any repute. High as Callcott stood in public estimation as an artist, those who had the pleasure of his personal acquaintance held him in still higher regard. His private character exhibited many of the most beautiful traits which pertain to the excellent of the earth — kindness, gentleness, benevolence, uprightness ; he was literally a father to the fatherless, and a man of warm and generous feeling, showing itself in deeds of charity, the result of prin- ciple, not of impulse : his memory is revered by all who knew him. David Wilkie was born November i8th, 1785, at the little village of Cults, near Cupar, Fifeshire, of which place his father was the minister — a good and devout man, whose spiritual teachings "pointed to heaven," while his life and conduct " led the way." At a very early age we hear of the boy's being at school in the neighbouring village of Pitlessie, and of his exhibiting an ardent love of Art : his schoolfellows were sometimes his models, and his studio was the schoolroom. On other occasions he made — unknown, of course, to his excellent father — the church his studio, and some of the most striking figures of the congregation, intent on the minister's sermon, his models. His gatherings were universal, his school everywhere, and his studies indif- ferently the men and things around him ; and in the absence of fitting subjects he even studied from himself W I L K I E. I J At twelve years of age he was removed to the grammar school of Kettle, but here also his preceptor was unable to keep him assiduously to his tasks : after eighteen months his father took him away, and unwillingly consented to allow the boy to follow his self-chosen profession. In 1 779 Wilkie left home for Edin- burgh, taking w'ith him some drawings and a letter of introduction from the Earl ofLeven to Mr. Thompson, then secretary of the "Trustees' Academy." Among his fellow-students there were Sir W. Allen, Alexander Eraser, and John Burnet, the eminent engraver, who often narrated to the writer anecdotes- of Wilkie. Mr. Burnet says of him, with reference to this early period, " In that sort of drawine in which taste and knowledg^e are united he was far behind others who, without a tithe of his talent, stood in the same class. Though behind in skill, he, however, surpassed, and that from the first, all his companions in comprehending the character of whatever he was set to draw." The " Trustees' Academy" was not an institution for education in the Eine Arts, but was rather a school of design for manufacturing purposes : however, young Wilkie appears to have gained, in 1803, the ten-guinea premium for the best painting — the subject, " Calisto in the Bath of Diana." In 1804 he left the academy and returned home ; but before his departure he had made the sketches for his picture of the " Village Politicians." While at home he painted the first of those works by which he earned his great reputation, "Pitlessie Eair." He arrived unfriended and unknown in the great metropolis in 1805, and was compelled, as many other clever young artists have too often been, to adopt the readiest and most simple means of disposing of his productions : the " Village Recruit" was exhibited for sale in the window of a frame-maker at Charing Cross, where it soon found a purchaser at the price of £t. More pictures were disposed of through the same agency, and by these and other means he was enabled to maintain himself while pursuing his studies in the Royal Academy, into the schools of which he obtained admission soon after his arrival in London. Wilkie' s first patron here was the late \Villiam Stodart, the well-known pianoforte manufacturer. Among those to whom Wilkie had been introduced by Stodart was the Earl of Mansfield, who, when he saw the sketch of the " Village Politicians," requested that a picture might be painted from it. The picture was finished, and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1806, where it excited universal admiration. It is said to have had its origin in the " ale caup commentators," introduced by 14 BRITISH PAINTERS. MacNeill in his ballad of " Will and Jean," and excited no little curiosity among- the connoisseurs of the metropolis, and some animadversion among the artists, especially the Academicians : Northcote designated it the "pauper style," and Fuseli, meeting young Wilkie, who was then only in his twenty-first year, said to him, "Young man, that is a dangerous work. That picture will either prove the most unhappy or the most fortunate work of your life: " it turned out to be the latter, and determined the artist's future destiny. Wilkie never was a promising young artist, but came at once before the public a Diastcr, and an originator of a style. It is possible that Wilkie, while in Edinburgh, may have seen pictures by some of the Dutch painters, as Teniers, Ostade, and others of the same class, which may have fixed his purpose, though they never could have created it ; his peculiarity was innate, as his first childish attempts at drawing testify : neither was he in any degree a copyist of those Dutch artists ; in colour, in character, and in feeling his pictures are truly original. The "Village Politicians" was followed by the "Blind Fiddler," painted for Sir George Beaumont in 1806. It was exhibited in 1807, and is now one of the British gems in our National Gallery. Sir George was not only one of Wilkie's earliest patrons, but proved to him a true friend and judicious counsellor till death separated them. The " Rent Day," engraved in this work, was painted for the late Earl of Mulgrave in 1807, for the sum of 300 guineas. After the death of his lordship the picture was, with others, offered for sale at Christie and Manson's, but was bought in by the Earl's family at the price of 750 guineas. "The Card Players," painted for the late Duke of Gloucester in 1808, and for which the artist received 50 guineas, was sold by the Duchess at a subsequent period to Mr. Bredel for 500 guineas. We mention these facts for the purpose of showing what insignificant sums Wilkie received for many of his best pictures, compared with the prices that artists now ask and receive for their works. In 1 809 Wilkie was elected Associate of the Royal Academy : he was then but twenty-four years of age, and had only exhibited four seasons. Two years afterwards he was chosen Academician. In May, 181 2, he opened an exhibition of all his pictures, twenty-nine in number, including sketches, from which he expected to derive considerable profit ; but the expenses of the exhibition exceeded the receipts, so that though it added to his reputation it impoverished his purse. »'//. K I E. IS It is quite impossible, in our allotted space, to enumerate all the pictures he painted of those subjects upon which his fame will ever most firmly rest. We can only point out a few of the more popular: — " Blindman's Buff," painted in 1813, for the Prince Regent; "Distraining for Rent," in 1814, for the Directors of the British Institution; the "Breakfast," in 1816, for the Marquis of Stafford ; the " Penny Wedding," in 1818, for the Prince Regent; in 1820, the " Reading of the Will," for the then King of Bavaria, from whom the artist received 450 guineas as its price : after the death of the monarch it was purchased by his successor, Louis I., at the sum of 1,000 guineas; it is now in the royal gallery at Schleissheim. In 1821 he com- pleted the "Chelsea Pensioners," commenced in 18 17, for the Duke of Wellington. On the death of Sir Henry Raeburn in 1803, Wilkie was appointed " Limner to the King in Scotland." A few years after this he changed both his subjects and his style of execution. In his own peculiar manner he was without a rival ; in that he adopted after the year 1818 he had many superiors. The death of his mother and of one of his brothers in 1824 was a terrible loss to the artist, whose own health was at this period in a very declining state. It was deemed advisable that he should abstain from severe labours, and seek the benefits of change of air and scene. Accompanied by a friend and a relative, he set out, in the summer of 1825, for Paris, and thence pro- ceeded through Switzerland to Italy, where he remained eight months. He then visited many of the chief places in Germany where galleries of Art exist, and returned to Italy for another season. During this second visit to Italy his health began to revive, and he painted three pictures at Rome. From Italy he went through the south of France; entered Spain in October, 1827, and travelled to Madrid, where he painted the " Spanish Council of War" and the " Maid of Saragossa; " and returned to England in the summer of the following year. In 1836 he received the honour of knighthood from the hand of William IV. In the autumn of 1840 he set out upon a tour to the East : he was never to return to England again. Having reached Constantinople, and painted a portrait of the young Sultan, Wilkie left the city and proceeded to Smyrna and Jerusalem, whence he shortly afterwards set out for Alexandria. Here, in spite of an illness which had lasted three months, he commenced a portrait of Mehemet Ali ; but this work was not finished before he embarked on i6 BRITISH PAINTERS. the Oriental steamer for England. He expired on board this vessel, off Gibraltar, on the ist of June, 1841. There are very few of the multitudinous admirers of Wilkie who do not greatly lament the change in his style produced by his long residence on the continent. Had we known nothing but his later works, we might not have " loved them less " for their own merits; but, if weighed in the balance with those that preceded them, they must be pronounced "wanting." Yet in truth the pictures of the two periods ought not to be placed in comparison : comparisons can only properly be made between things that are more or less alike, and Wilkie' s two styles are as dissimilar as if they were the productions of two different heads and hands. The principal characteristics of his latter works are effect of colour and chiaroscuro, which, with breadth and facility, he appears to have now considered the proper objects of high Art, and an advance beyond the truth, simplicity, and character of his earlier works. Writing, when in Spain, to a friend, he says, with reference to this new style, " I have now, from the study of the old masters, adopted a bolder, and, I think, more effective style, and one result is rapidity.'''' The Spanish and Dutch masters seem to have been his types rather than the Italian, for, although he talked of his imitations of Correggio, his colouring and effect are more after the manner of Velasquez and Rembrandt. " Though a whole storm of criticism was poured upon his new pictures," writes his biographer, Cunningham, " and his change of style, Wilkie endured it all with astonishing composure : he had made up his mind in the matter ; he felt that if he continued to work in his usual laborious style of detail and finish, he would never achieve independence, nor add another sprig of laurel to his wreath ; so he resolved on fresh fields and pastures new, in spite of the warnings of friends and the admonitions of critics." The high rank which Wilkie attained in his profession ; the respect in which he was held as a man, and so truly merited ; his upright mind ; his straightforward honesty ; his modest, yet moral courage ; his enduring friendships ; his patient and determined study ; his appreciation of the beautiful ; his honour of the true, show how deserving he was of universal homage, and how talent and industry, when supported by such a character as the son of the Scottish clergyman brought into his profession, must ultimately triumph. Biographies of distinguished men are frequently written, and rewritten, HA YD ON. ,7 till the subject is almost, if not quite, exhausted. Allan Cunningham has done this for his friend and fellow-countrj-man, Wilkie; to Cunningham's volumes, therefore, we must refer those of our readers who desire to know the details of a history of which we can only offer an outline. About the end of the month of June, 1846, the daily papers reported the melancholy intelligence that one long known to the public in connection with Art had, in an hour of temporary insanity, committed self-destruction. The announcement was received by his personal friends with far more sorrow than surprise; and "Poor Haydon ! " was the exclamation which escaped, not only from their lips, but from the lips of all to whom his genius and his conduct through life had made his name perfectly familiar. His is a sad history; yet on that very account it is fruitful of instruction to ever}' man of great intellectual .powers who is striving after true fame, and who fails to reach it, not on account of his unworthiness, but because he seeks it by a crooked and devious path, which the world will not recognise as the right one. There is, perhaps, scarcely a darker page presented in the whole annals of Art than that afforded by the history of this great painter — for such he undoubtedly was — from its commencement to its unhappy close ; and his own pen has written it in the biography he has left behind him. A life so full of sad and strange incident, of turmoil and conflict, of labour and disappointment, would necessarily furnish ample materials for a lengthened notice : our space forbids this ; and, moreover, the subject is of so painful a nature that we feel no desire to say more than is just sufficient for the purpose we have in view. Benjamin Robert Haydon was born at Plymouth in 1786. He displayed at an early age a taste for the art to which he subsequently attached him- self with so much devoted but ill-directed enthusiasm. His father, a book- seller in the town, cared little to encourage the inclination of his son, but at length yielded to his wishes, and sent him in 1804 to London ; not, however, without the hope of soon seeing him return to the family roof In this he was to be disappointed ; nor was It very probable that a young man who possessed the spirit which the following passage from Haydon's autobio- graphy expresses would be easily turned aside from his path. " The Sunday after my arrival," he says, " I went to the new church in the Strand, and In D ,8 BRITISH PAINTERS. humbleness begged for the protection of the Great Spirit to guide, assist, and bless my endeavours ; to open my mind, and enlighten my under- standing. I prayed for health of body and mind ; and on my rising from my knees felt a breathing assurance of spiritual aid which nothing can describe. I was calm, cool, illuminated, as if crystal circulated through my veins. I returned home, and spent the day in mute seclusion." Very shortly after his arrival in the metropolis he entered the schools of the Roj'al Academy — this was in 1804. Fuseli, to whom he had received an introduction, took great interest in him. In 1807 he exhibited his first picture, " The Repose in Egypt," which was purchased by Mr. Hope, known as Anasiaiiiis Hope. In 1809 he exhibited his " Dentatus : " through the intervention of Fuseli it was well placed in the rooms of the Royal Academy, but in consequence of the " hanging committee" removing it from the great room, where it had been first hung, to another, although the picture was equally well seen, Haydon bitterly complained of the injustice done to him. This was the event that cast its shadow over all his after-life, and involved him in an endless contest with the Academy, whom he openly accused of fearing his success as the founder of a new school of Historical Art. The "Dentatus," which was exhibited the following winter at the British Institu- tion, where it gained the first prize of 100 guineas, is a bold and vigorous composition, which would be honourable to any artist, whatever his standing ; Haydon, when he painted it, had not reached his twenty-third year. From the outset of his career Haydon had his own ideas of the grand style of Historical Art, and he persevered in maintaining them, whatever his patrons thought or desired to the contrary : is it a wonder, therefore, that he was comparatively neglected, or at least that he failed to satisfy many who would have befriended him ? Sir George Beaumont, for example, gave him a commission to paint a subject from Macbeth of a certain size, as he required it to occupy a particular place in a room ; Haydon produced a picture three times as large as the limits assigned him, and then was angry with his patron for expressing dissatisfaction with what he had done. The painting of this picture, his quarrels with the Academy, and his literary disputations appear to have occupied Haydon till the spring of 181 2, when he commenced his "Judgment of Solomon:" it was finished in the spring of 18 14, and exhibited in the gallery of the Water-Colour Societ)% a? ■J) >* rJ V C^ ^ 1*1 M < •-; J ta r^ O ^- O -^ 'A ifl ■r ■ ^ "^ < "^ V ci: HA I'D ON. '9 then in Spring Gardens. "The success of 'Solomon,'" he says in his diary, "was so great, and my triumph so complete, that had I died then my name must have stood on record as a youth who had made a stand against the prejudices of a country, the oppressions of rank, and the cruelty and injustice of two public bodies." It was purchased by two Devonshire gentlemen, Sir W. Elford and Mr. Tingecombe, for 600 guineas, though what became of it for many years, till it came into the hands of the late Sir E. Landseer, we know not; but when, in 1827, a public subscription was made to relieve the painter from his pecuniary difficulties, he gave the following account of the disposition of his great pictures: — " My 'Judg- ment of Solomon ' is rolled up in a warehouse in the Borough ; my ' Entry into Jerusalem,' once graced by the enthusiasm of the rank and beauty of the three kingdoms, is doubled up in a back room in Holborn ; my ' Lazarus ' is in an upholsterer's shop in Mount Street ; and my ' Cruci- fixion' in a hayloft at Lisson Grove." This, it must be acknowledged, is a melancholy statement for a painter of genius to be compelled to make, and is anything but creditable to the country that allowed such neglect. Haydon, in his earlier time, had numerous pupils, several of whom have risen to eminence, though in a far different style from his own : among them were Sir C. L. Eastlake, the Landseers, Lance, Prentice, and Harvey. In the month of May, 18 14, Haydon, accompanied by Wilkie, set out for Paris, at that time occupied by the allied armies of England, Russia, &c. Previous to starting, however, Haydon sketched in his " Christ's Entry into Jerusalem ; " it was not completed till 1820, and was then exhibited at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, where it attracted such attention as to realise to the artist the sum of ^ i ,300. He then took it to Edinburgh and Glasgow : the proceeds of the exhibition at these two places amounted to about ,^900 more, exclusive of his expenses, so that it may fairly be stated the artist received little less than ^2,000 for the exhibition of this single picture — by no means a small sum even for its purchase, though, if it be considered that it took him nearly six years to complete, the annual income derived from it would be most inadequate for a painter of Haydon' s talents and requirements. His next work was the "Agony in the Garden," painted for Sir George Phillips, a liberal patron of Haydon, who had advanced him the price of it — 500 guineas — to complete the "Solomon." "I exhibited it," writes the artist, " with my other works. I took a great deal of money at this 20 BRITISH PAINTERS. exhibition, but not enough ; and it was wrong so to strain public enthu- siasm. This particular picture was severely handled. Sir George was disappointed (though he was as much to blame as myself) ; and when the picture was sent home, he so objected to a sacred subject in a drawing- room, that he put it out of view altogether. It was wrong in me to paint it so large; it was wrong to choose such a subject to be hung where quadrilles were danced. It was wrong in every way." But though Haydon could see his errors, he took no pains to amend them : obstinate and self-willed, he disregarded public opinion, vexed his patrons, and then foolishly complained of the injustice he had received. "I have been eight years," he says, "without a commission from the nobility ; and of the thirty-nine years I have been an historical painter, thirty-two without an order of any kind." And yet, notwithstanding his disappointments, he continued to paint pictures which, from their vast dimen- sions, no private individuals could hang up ; and we have not yet learned to decorate our churches with such works of Art. In 1820 he began his " Lazarus." We get an insight into the disposition of the painter from what he has left upon record, and therefore offer no apologies for our extracts. •' I always filled my painting-room to its full extent; and had I possessed a room 400 feet long, 200 feet high, and 400 feet wide, I would have ordered a canvas 199-6 long by 199-6 high, &c. My room was thirty feet long, twenty wide, fifteen high. So I ordered a canvas nineteen long by fifteen high, and dashed in my conception, the Christ being nine feet high. This was a subject and a size which I loved to my very marrow." Can such an act be called by any other name than a mental delusion ? But we have no space for comment, and can only briefly refer to the other pictures of this highly gifted, but infatuated painter. In 1827 he was incarcerated in the King's Bench Prison for debt. Here he painted the "Mock Election" held there, for which George IV. paid him 500 guineas; and "Chairing the Member," bought by Mr. Francis, of Exeter, for 300 guineas. Another work, painted about the same period, "Pharaoh dis- missing Moses," was purchased by a Mr. Hunter for 500 guineas. His subsequent works were — the " Reform Banquet ; " the meeting of the "Anti- Slavery Society;" the "Banishment of Aristides ; " "Nero playing on the Lyre while Rome is burning;" "Curtius;" and "Alexander the Great encountering a Lion." At the time of his death he was employed on another QUINTUS CURTIUS. From a Pai'iting l>y Benjamin Robert Hivdon. M U L R E A D Y. 2, larg-e work — "Alfred the Great and the First English Jury; " but mind and body were worn out — he succumbed before disappointed hopes and enfeebled physical powers. With him the indifference of the public and the opposition of other artists, from a grievance, became a monomania. In his "Lectures on Art" — a work full of sound and valuable instruction — he says, "From the oppression of the authorities in Art, tvi/hoid any cause (?), and my subsequent resistance and opposition to them, I had brought on myself the enmity of all those who hoped to advance in life by their patronage ; loss of employment from their continual calumny brought loss of income ; the rich advanced loans to finish great works they were persuaded not to purchase," and so on. This, there is little question, was but too true ; we stop not to inquire how much his own conduct contributed to such a result ; but it may safely be averred that in few countries besides our own would a painter of his genius, of whatever mental temperament, have met with treatment similar to that experienced by Haydon during a large portion of his career. Can that be called a groundless charge of neglect which he brought against the public, when 12,000 people flocked to see General Tom Thumb in one week, and only 133 visited the pictures of " Aristides " and the "Burning of Rome," exhibited under the same roof at the same time ? Was there not enough in this to excite the anger of a far less sensitive and excitable mind than Haydon's ? and was it not sufficient to urge him to the commission of the awful deed which deprived his country a month or two afterwards of a great and original painter ? Peace to his memory ! His excellence, no less than his failings, will hereafter receive its due reward. William Mulready began life as an Art student; all through his career — that is, for a period extending over sixty years — he confessed himself still a learner ; and when death called him somewhat suddenly from his easel, he felt that he had not even then done all which Art was capable of achieving, though every one else was convinced that he had long since accomplished the end. This was the great secret of his unvarjqng success — his motto was "progression;" and year after year, even to the closing act of his professional life, one could always detect in his works some faculty undeveloped before, some new point of excellence, some evidence of more 22 BRITISH PAINTERS. matured powers of thought or of execution. And no wonder, since he caused his pictures to grow slowly under his hand, allowing sometimes years to elapse from the time when he sketched his first ideas on the canvas till they appeared in a complete form on the wall of the exhibition-room ; he could much more easily please the public, and even the critics, than he could satisfy himself. The life of Mulready is coeval with three generations. He came to England from Ireland about the year 1790, and was introduced to Banks the sculptor, who took him into his studio, and set him to work at drawings from his casts. At the age of fourteen he was admitted a student in the Royal Academy, and shortly afterwards gained the silver palette in the Society of Arts' competition. During some years he earned his living as a teacher of drawing, and by making designs for illustrated books published by William Godwin. His earliest paintings were attempts at the grand style — "Ulysses and Polyphemus," a theme which his contemporary, Turner, sub- sequently rendered with such poetical imagination ; and " The Disobedient Prophet," the subject of one of Linnell's greatest works. These pictures failing in success, Mulready turned his attention to landscape and cottage scenes with figures, his first work exhibited at the Academy being " A Cot- tage at Knaresborough " in 1804. From the year just mentioned till about 1 813 his pictures were of a miscellaneous kind, landscapes, interiors, and "still life" alternating with each other. It is not, however, to be supposed that by this desultory kind of work Mulready was experimentalising on the taste of the public, or that he was uncertain in his own mind in what direction his genius would ultimately lead him ; he was quietly biding his time, and studying the works of the old Dutch masters, Jan Steen and Teniers. Occasionally during his earlier practice he had produced a few figure subjects — "The Rattle " in 1808, and "Returning from the Alehouse" in i8og. But in 1813 he sent to the Academy "Boys playing at Cricket," painted three years previously, and the first of that series of characteristic pictures which have ever since been associated with his name. It is grey-headed men only who can recollect the first appearance of "Punch" in 18 13, of "Idle Boys" in 181 5, of "The Fight Interrupted " in 1816, and of " Lending a Bite " in 18 19. Following these came at intervals " The Wolf and the Lamb," " The Careless Messenger," "The Travelling Druggist," "The Origin of a CHOOSING THE WEDDING GOWN. From a Painting hy William Mulreaily, R.A. M U L R E A D V. 23 Painter," "Boys firing- a Cannon," "Returning from the Hustings," "A Sailing- Match" — a duplicate of this picture -was painted for Mr. Sheepshanks — "The Forg-otten Word," " The First Voyage" — sold for 1,450 guineas — "Giving a Bite," "The Last In," "Bob Cherry," "Fair Time," "The Ford." — all these in the Vernon collection — "Choosing the Wedding Gown," " Burchell and Sophia," " The Butt," with several others of subjects differing somewhat from these. Omitting all allusion to the subject matter of these pictures, there is nothing in the whole range of Dutch or Flemish Art that can be brought into comparison with most of them for truth of drawing, elaborate finish, and splendour of colouring. It has been well said that, " as a painter, Mulready's art is perfection:" by intense study, and by the display of consummate technical powers, he triumphed over all the greatest difficulties of his art. And if we look beyond the mere externals, so to speak, of his paintings, into the materials of which the several subjects are composed, what evidence we find of his intimate acquaintance with the heart and mind, how much of humour, and not un frequently of pathos too ! His earlier works do not reach that richness and beauty of colour seen in his later, but even in those he attained a far higher degree of brilliancy than Wilkie ever did. Note, too, the refined character of his faces, the simple unaffected sweetness of his village girls, the ivholesome, fresh, and unvulgarised countenances of his village urchins ; there is no sentimental prettiness in the former, nothing mean and low in the latter ; stolid and clownish some of these may be, and are required to be, to support the characters assigned to them, but they are not debased in expression, not caricatured to give point to the idea they are intended to con- vey ; it is here we discover Mulready's gentle dealing with the infirmities of human nature, and the reflection of his own cheerful spirit and rightly directed mind. He was a lover of his species, and would not hold even the young- sters up to ridicule, though he set forth their humours, both good and evil. In the work of producing he commenced and continued throughout on the surest and only sound principles ; he studied everything well beforehand, and made very careful drawings of all — even to the most insignificant object to be introduced into the picture. Thus the entire composition was not only preconceived, but he surrounded himself with all the materials he intended to employ in it. And yet with this attention to minutiae and to extreme finish — 24 BRITISH PAINTERS. for even the studies were completed drawings — there is no evidence in any of Mulready's works of pre-Raffaellite elaboration. The two pictures of which we here give engravings represent two different classes of figure subjects. "Lending a Bite," exhibited in 1836, belongs to the humorous class, which forms the majority of Mulready's best-known works. A marvellous faculty he had for developing character in rustic juveniles, and bringing it out in all its varied truthful aspects. Look at the boy who is owner of the apple ; he is evidently not large-hearted ; awed by the threats of the bigger and stronger boy, he allows him to take a " bite," yet how tenaciously he holds the apple in his two hands, his thumbs just indicating the portion to be absorbed, certainly not as a free-will offering ; his elbows are placed close to his side, the better to resist any attempt to get beyond the limits of his assigned generosity; he shrinks from the attack of the devourer on his property ; and his countenance is marked by misgivings and apprehension. The boy who has extorted the unwilling favour is a hungry-looking fellow, his mouth is opened widely, and we may be sure he will make the most of the opportunity. The young girl with the sleepy child looks on to see the result of the operation, and will doubtless have something to joke the donor about when it is ended. A kind of repetition of the incident, reversed, appears in the Savoyard's monkey and the rustic's dog; the latter looks at the ape as if he contemplated giving it a bite, and the little animal shrinks back in terror between the knees of his master, who, like the girl, takes no small interest in the fate of the apple. As an example of Mulready's strictly domestic pictures, "Choosing the Wedding Gown," exhibited in 1846, is admirable; as a specimen of brilliant colouring it is superlatively excellent ; nothing in modern Art — it may be said in the Art of any age, in this class of subject — has surpassed or even equalled it. This splendour is not reached by the free use of positive colour, but by the most subtle and delicate application of tints, both in the lights and shades, worked up from the lowest to the highest scale, culminating in pure red, ultramarine, &c., and all presenting the most perfect harmony, because founded and carried through on well-understood and immutable laws. Then look at the composition ; mark the arrangement of the two principal figures ; how easily and naturally they are placed, and how carefully both attitude and action have been studied to preserve a right balance as well as to LENDINi; A BITK. From a Painting by M'lllkim Miilnudy, K.A. E T T r. 25 support the subject. The extended hand of the silk-mercer, for example, was a necessity to fill up a space which would otherwise have been vacant ; it serves as a counterpoise to the uplifted hands of the lady, and it marks the impressiveness with which the shopkeeper commends his goods. And, lastly, notice the beauty of the fair purchaser's face — the future Mrs. Primrose — and with what earnestness she examines the piece of rich stuff; the kindly solicitude of her affianced husband, the worthy doctor ; and the persuasiveness of the bland and smiling- mercer. In the background is his wife attending to a customer : the artist has bestowed no less pains on the good dame than on the other and more prominent persons in the composition. In fact, whether we look for colour, form, expression, or design, we see each and all exhibited in the most attractive, powerful, and recondite manner. For the information of our readers we may add that in the Vernon and Sheepshanks collections will be found a sufficient number of the works of this artist on which to form a correct judgment of his style and execution, and in Palgrave's " Essays on Art" is a concise statement of his claims to rank high in his profession. An edition of the "Vicar of Wakefield" was published in 1840, with engravings of about twenty of Mulready's drawings. The "Toy Seller," and some other works left unfinished at his death, cannot fairly be pronounced equal to his previous pieces. In Mulready's life and works are materials to fill a volume ; whenever and by whomsoever such may be written, it will be no easy task to do full justice to the genius and skill which characterized the practice of his art. In the Art Journal for 1 849 will be found an autobiography of William Etty, in the form of letters addressed to a relation. Although his straight- forward description of his own upward struggles and disappointments has much interest for the general reader, it is impossible to help feeling that it is artists for whom he is writing, and that many of his words are called forth by a strong sympathy with the younger and less fortunate members of his own profession. To those whom genius has called to give up far more profitable occupations for the brush and easel, while it also elicits the want of appreciation, or even the persecution which is so often its concomitant, every word in these letters speaks sympathy, encouragement, and hope. 26 BRITISH PAINTERS. Etty was born at York in 1787. At the age of eleven and a half years he was apprenticed as a compositor to a letterpress printer at Hull. Him he served " seven full years faithfully and truly, and worked at the business three weeks as a journeyman : but I had such a busy desire to be a painter, that the last years of my servitude dragged on most heavily. I counted the years, days, weeks, and hours, till liberty should break my chains, and set my struggling spirit free Seven long years I patiently bided my time, but the iron tvcnt into my soul ; and I now even sometimes dream I am a captive, but wake and find it luckily but a dream." * In 1805 he came up to London, entered the schools of the Royal Academy, and applied himself diligently to the task of becoming a painter. Eleven years were passed in this effort, but he failed — at least, in the eyes of the critics and Art patrons — of accomplishing his purpose, exhibiting annually, from 181 1, at the British Institution and the Academy, yet unsuccessful in attracting much favourable notice. Still, as his biographer, Mr. Gilchrist, remarks, he was all the while " laying the founda- tion of that extensive knowledge of the human figure, male and female, which the practice of so many years of pains and studies must give In early life, he has been outdone by scores of clever young artists, — just as the early poems of Wordsworth (those previous in date to the 'Lyrical Ballads') are thrown into the shade by the first-fruits of poets not ultimately exerting a tithe of his influence on the hearts of men. There were several causes to account for the extreme slowness of Etty's progress — slowness partly constitutional, partly inevitable (in our time) to his range of Art ; in part attributable to the late commencement of his elementary training, — in part, perhaps, to the false bias it necessarily took under Lawrence. The lesson was begun at the wrong end : felicities of touch were caught before drawing and even colour had been mastered. He had to turn back in search of these." Eleven years thus passed away, resulting in little else, as he acknow- ledges, than the conviction that so much valuable time had been, by comparison with what it might have been, unprofitably spent : he was looked upon by his companions as a worthy, plodding person, with no chance of ever becoming a good painter. "It is a mortifying proof," he notes down in his diary of the early part of 1816, " ' how vast is Art, how narrow human wit ' — to reflect how long I have painted, and that I should have neglected this very essential part of good colouring so long. But now, having my eyes open, I * Autobiography, Art Journal, p. 13. 1841). E T T V. r-j trust I shall ever be alive to its importance ; not s^o on painting- over and over again, every time getting deeper and deeper in error, but endeavour to make every part of my work tell ; nor do over to-night what I did last night." In the autumn of 1816 Etty took a hasty journey into Italy, visiting Bologna, Milan, and Florence : his thoughts, however, were too much occupied with an "affair of the heart" to afford him the opportunity of profiting by even a hurried inspection of the Italian galleries of Art. " I feel so lonely," he writes to his brother Walter, " it is impossible for mc to be happy ; and if not happy, I cannot apply vigorously to my studies I think there are sufficient fine pictures in England to study from." Three more years rolled away, leaving Etty still among the " unknown ; " but a little picture entitled "Pandora," exhibited at the British Institution in the spring of 1820, drew attention to the artist; and another, the "Coral Finders," exhibited at the Academy in the same year, brought him more prominently into notice : the latter was purchased by the late Mr. Tomp- kinson, pianoforte manufacturer, at the artist's modest price of ^30 ; in 1849, at the sale of the collection, by Christie and Manson, of the late Mr. Nicholson, of York, one of Etty's early patrons, it brought 370 guineas. Among other collectors whom the "Coral Finders" had attracted was the late Sir Francis Freeling, who at once commissioned Etty, on finding that this picture was sold, to paint him another similar in subject : the artist selected that of "Cleopatra arriving in Cilicia." It was exhibited at the Academy in 1821, and left the impression on the mind of the public that a great artist was rising up among them. "The price received by the painter," says Mr. Gilchrist, " for his second master-piece, has been stated to have been 200 guineas ; it was, I believe, a much smaller sum." A few years ago Mr. Labouchere paid 1,000 guineas for it. In 1822 another journey to Italy was undertaken. He was absent two years, studying and copying many of the finest pictures of the great masters in the galleries of Naples, Rome, Florence, and especially of Venice, amid difficulties and discomforts sufficient to curb the enthusiasm of anj- but the most earnest and persevering artist. His rapidity of execution, and his masterly translation, of the chcfs-d'' ccuvre of Italy called forth the wonder and admiration of the modern artists of that countr}'. "He paints," one exclaimed, "with the fury of a devil, and the sweetness of an angel." The z8 BRITISH PAINTERS. Academy of Florence elected Honorary Academician the " English Tintoret," a surname the Florentines gave him. One cannot but deeply regret that so poetic a mind as Etty's did not lead him to leave some lasting and instructive record of his foreign travels — some relation of the impressions it received from what he saw both in nature and in Art — some fruits of his experience in the study of the great painters of Italy : he might have given to the world many valuable remarks on them and their works — such information as only one who is a true artist, and imbued with kindred feelings, could give. Unhappily for all but himself, he was unwilling to devote to the pen any portion of the time he had dedicated to the pencil : his object was to paint, not to write. How he would have accom- pHshed the latter, if so inclined, is proved from the few fragments of his correspondence, and from the entries in his diary, which we find in the volumes of his biographer. He was at this time under great depression of spirits, arising from uncertainty as to the result of a love suit. He had, prior to his departure from England, formed a second attachment, which, like the first and others that followed — for Etty was frequently " in love," a weakness he often acknowledged — turned out unsuccessfully : he lived and died a bachelor. Here and there only do we gather from his letters any comments on the Italian galleries. Writing from Florence to Sir Thomas Lawrence, he says, " You, I am sure, must have been much struck with the Tintorets here, in the Academy, Ducal Palace, &c. ; his ' Last Judgment,' ' Crucifixion,' small ' St. Agnes' — a sweet and carefully painted picture. What a glorious group that is we see at the foot of the cross ! Really, for composition, for pathos, appropriate and harmonious combination of hues, and great executive power, I have never seen it excelled, rarely equalled. The poetry of his ' Last Judgment,' the hues, the teeming richness of composition, — figures whirled in all possibilities of action and foreshortening, — excite astonishment at his powers that does not easily subside." Again addressing Sir Thomas from Mantua, he speaks with equal raptures of the works there by Giullo Romano. For this and other like expressions of opinion see Gilchrist's biography of the artist. Such fragments of writing, disjointed and rhapsodical as they are, will serve to show the " inner mind " of the painter, and the character given to it by his observant faculties. His descriptive powers were evidently of no mean E T T y. 29 order, and, with some training in the school of literature, they might have been turned to an account profitable to himself and others. We will now return with him to England, and glance at one or two of the many pictures that resulted from his foreign travel — those especially we have selected for engraving. Who that saw the magnificent collection of Etty's works which the Society of Arts gathered within its rooms at the Adelphi in the summer of 1849, '^ few months only before his death, did not feel almost dazzled and bewildered by the gorgeous display presented to the eye ? Certainly never in the Art history of this country was there a more brilliant exhibition, from the mind and hand of a single painter, offered to our homage and admiration ; and it is very doubtful whether the like was ever seen elsewhere, in any period of time. Among them there was not one which attracted more notice than " The Combat: Woman pleading for the Vanquished," exhibited at the Academy in 1825, the year after his return from the continent. What a noble compo- sition is this ! How finely does it illustrate what the painter aimed at — the "beauty of Mercy!" There, too, the kindred subject — " Benaiah, David's chief Captain;" — "both," to borrow a passage from an excellent article in the Eclectic Rcviciv for September, 1849, upon the exhibition at the Society of Arts — "both equally great in their several kinds: for power, for what may be called the expression, the eloquence of Action, and for general distinctive character ; for grandeur of manner and drawing, and for nobility of colour. The right character of force — quite unexaggerated — in the combatants, in both pictures, and the form, and the appropriateness of form and sentiment, of the woman in the ' Mercy,' with its tender beauty and serious grace, are of pre-eminent truth and effectiveness. The ' Joan of Arc ' somewhat declines before such triumphs as these ; in some degree representing the general variance of attainment from his earlier time, accompanying the painter's latter years of practice." That Etty was a true poet none, we believe, who understand and appreciate the poetry of Art will be disposed to deny ; not, indeed, one of those whose mind loves to trace out and describe, with delicacy of perception, what is minute, secret, and of comparatively minor significance, but as " a conceiver of beautiful and subtile thoughts, sometimes severe and religious — in the large sense of the word — sometimes dreamy, luxurious, vague ; as a realiser of deep true feeling ; as an interpreter of somewhat of the glory of 30 B R I T I S H P A I N T E R S. God's nature; as an achiever of the highest purely artistic greatness, — of design, manner, and, above all, of colour, he must take a rare and elevated rank among painters of all time." As an example — one of the finest, too — • of his poetically constituted mind, we would point out his "Youth and Pleasure," in the Vernon collection, an allegorical conception in which every figure expresses an idea pregnant with meaning. On a much smaller scale, yet exhibiting equally with the other poetic feeling and significance, elevating the picture into a class of works of original thought and purpose, we would instance the "Cupid in a Shell," a subject which the artist painted more than once, but in each case differently treated. Our engraving is taken from a little gem painted by Etty, in 1846, for Mr. Alderman Spiers, of Oxford. Whatever opinion may now be formed by Etty's countrymen of his genius — and we are far from thinking that nationally we estimate it as we ought — a time will most assuredly come when his name and his works will take rank with those of the great men who were before him only by the accident of birth. It has been truly said that "his style is one of exquisite subtlety and delicacy, being a successful effort to graft the beauties of the Italian on the stamina of the English school," David Cox was born at Birmingham, in 1783 ; his father was a smith, and for some time the son, as we have heard him say, worked as a lad in the same business. His constitution, however, was not sufficiently robust for such a pursuit, and having an inclination for drawing, he turned his attention to it, by painting small pictures from prints, and ornamenting some of the manufactured articles for which his native town is famous. His remuneration for such works was scanty, but his wants were very limited, so he persevered in his labours till circumstances should arise when his industry and improving talent might be turned into a more productive channel. Such an opportunity occurred at length. The Birmingham Theatre, at the time referred to, was under the management of the father of Mr. Macready, the eminent tragedian, who was then a boy at Rugby School. The manager wanted a scene painter, and young Cox received the appointment. With Macready's company he visited some of the prin- cipal towns in the midland counties, and at length found his way to London, having thrown up his engagement with his employer. He next entered into X -S t/3 :3 1-1 bo 11 ^5 C O X. 3 ' arrangements with Astley as scene painter to his company, then a migratory one, and with him he travelled into various parts of the country ; but the parents of the artist at length expressing a dislike to the theatrical connec- tion. Cox left his employment, though he always had a predilection for scene painting. "It's capital fun," we have heard him say jocularly, "to go to work with a pailful of colour, and brushes as long and thick as a birch-broom." We know not how Messrs. Grieve, and Telbin, and Marshall may accept such a definition of their beautiful art ; for certainly these painters, with David Roberts, Stanfield, and others, have made scene paint- ing an art that well merits the epithet of beautiful, whatever the instruments or ^oo/s used in its production. Cox, still young, was now once more thrown upon his own resources, but not discouraged : he again set to work to make drawings, disposing of them wherever he could find purchasers. As he walked through the streets to sell his productions, he would stop at the windows where pictures were exposed for sale, study them carefully, if worthy of his atten- tion, and gather hints and ideas from what he saw, which he applied to his own practice. John Varley was at that time in great repute as a painter in water colours, and his works, as might have been expected, attracted the notice of Cox, who went to him, and received a few lessons from the eccentric, but worthy man, and clever artist. We believe this was the only instruction that Cox ever received from any one. At the period referred to, lithography, that useful aid to Art instruction, was unknown, and not a few artists of the day contrived to maintain themselves respectably by making drawings to serve as copies for the pupils of drawing masters who either had no time to work for their own purposes, or had not the ability to do so. Most of these drawings went into the country through the hands of the London dealers, to whom they were first sold. Cox, Prout, and others were among those whose drawings in lead pencil, sepia, and indian-ink found a ready market : we knew an artist some years ago who has told us he used to earn eight and ten guineas a week by this kind of work. While residing at the charming little village of Dulwich, he was sought out by the late Earl of Plymouth, then the Hon. Colonel Windsor, who had seen and admired some of his drawings, and was desirous of taking lessons ; the colonel gave him some good introductions, and he soon began to improve his position. He also obtained an appointment as drawing master to a 3J BRITISH PAINTERS. department in connection with the Military College at Sandhurst, but he could not endure the routine duties, the rigid order, nor the exact punctuality required there, and soon relinquished his post. We now reach a point in the life of Cox to which, perhaps, may be traced back that devotion to Welsh scenery which has characterized so large a portion of the productions of his genius. While occupied in the manner just referred to, he was introduced to a lady who had come up to London from Hereford to seek a drawing master for the pupils in her establishment. An engagement was made, and the artist went down into the country, and resided there some few years, teaching, and making drawings of the pic- turesque scenery round and about Hereford, which he readily disposed of. But the desire to come up to London again was so strong that he threw up his engagements, and once more put his fortune to the test in the great metropolis. In 1 8 13 David Cox exhibited at the British Institution a small oil picture of " A Heath Scene," but his attention was almost wholly given to water colours. He was amongst the early members of the London Water-Colour Society, when it held its annual exhibitions in Spring Gardens ; and, since its removal to the gallery it now possesses in Pall Mall East, the pictures of this artist have been, with those who know and can appreciate good Art, among the most attractive and admired. But Cox's " style," as it is called, did not come within the grasp of the multitude ; they could not see, and therefore could not understand, its beauty and its truth. We have observed the finest of his works passed by with a glance by people who would stand for half an hour before a picture vapid, insipid, and passionless, yet in their eyes deserving of favour, because the qualities it possessed were those rather of patient industry than of genius. Cox was essentially a painter of English landscape : he cared not to travel out of his native land in search of subject, and never went abroad for such a purpose, though he occasionally exhibited something or other evincing that his pencil had not been idle when he was seated on the sands of Calais, or the benches in the gardens of the Tuileries. His love of the scenery of his own country south of the Tweed was maintained throughout his long career, and no artist of his time has done more — few so much — in the way of representing its numerous and varied beauties. His pictures have often reminded us, by their truth and simple heartfelt expression, of the writings cox. 33 of Thomson, the poet of the " Seasons : " the pen of the one and the pencil of the other are equally poetical and alluring in their descriptions. Wander with him where you will, through the green lanes or the meadows, on the purple-clad heath, by the mountain-side or the wooded copse, in the richly timbered park, you are ever sensible that the hand which leads and the eye which directs have been taught in the school of nature, and well taught too. From Mr. Ruskin's "Modern Painters" we will extract two passages in which he speaks of the works of Cox ; both are highly complimentary, except inasmuch as he designates this artist's peculiar execution as loose and blotted. But he goes on to say — " There are no other means by which his object could be obtained : the looseness, coolness, and moisture of his herbage ; the rustling, crumpled freshness of his broad-leaved weeds ; the play of pleasant light across his deep-heathered moor or plashing sand ; the melting of fragments of white mist into the dropping blue above : — all this has not been fully recorded except by him, and what there is of accidental in his mode of reaching it, answers gracefully to the accidental part of Nature herself. . . . The foliage of David Cox is altogether exquisite in colour, and in its impressions of coolness, shade, and mass ; of its drawing I cannot say anything, but that I should be sorry to see it better." Just before his death the merits of Cox were put to the most severe trial possible. An exhibition was held at the "German Caller}'" in New Bond Street, at which 170 of his pictures were shown — a few only of them being paintings in oil. Most conspicuous amongst the pieces in water colours was "Meadows on the River Lugg, Herefordshire," at that time in the collection of Mr. John Allnutt, one of Cox's earliest patrons. We know not the date of the picture, but it must have been quite an early work : it is very unlike his subsequent productions, and even unlike any others we remember from his pencil. He seems to have had the drawings of the late George Barrett in his mind when he painted it : and if, as may not unreasonably be inferred, he desired for once to attempt an imitation, the success could not be more complete. Barrett was frequently called the " English Claude of water-colour painting ; " and those who know the works of Claude, and of Barrett also, can scarcely fail to be reminded of both by this composition : instead of the bold, sharp, and apparently careless touch of Cox's usual handling, there is here the round and studied forms which are characteristic of the foliage of the two painters to whom we have referred. F 34 BRITISH PAINTERS. The surface of the drawing — a large one — is smooth, and the tone throughout warm and golden, as if few other colours but browns and yellows had been used for it : not a hue is visible of the fresh, luxuriant green which Cox loved to represent ; yet it is a charming picture, eloquent of sunshine and quietude. Our second engraving, "Deer Stalking, Bolton Park," is from a large drawing; it may be taken as a fine example of the artist's style at the best period of his career : the whole scene is one of those rich and picturesque woodland views that are rarely seen out of England, and which none treated with more feeling and beauty. It is gratifying to know that a younger David Cox, the son of our artist, is following in his father's footsteps with considerable success: some of his paintings in water colours have already crossed the Atlantic. We have spoken of him as an original artist — original, that is, in manner ; for, unlike another great and original landscape painter. Turner, he never went — nor even appeared to go — beyond the bounds of ordinary nature ; and one proof of the originality of both is, that no painter presumes to copy them : the difficulty of the task is perhaps the safest guarantee against imita- tion. But Cox has exercised a most favourable influence on our school of water-colour painters ; there are many whose works manifest the master whose guiding they followed ; while few have passed from us more admired as an artist, and more loved and respected as a man, than the veteran David Cox. Devonshire, rich in natural scenery, claims as its sons two Presidents of the Royal Academy, Reynolds and Eastlake ; Haydon, too, as we have seen, was born in Plymouth, so that no less than three of the great artists treated of in our present chapter first saw the light in that county. The family of Sir Charles Lock Eastlake had long been settled in Plymouth and its vicinity. Whatever taste he may have evinced, when young, for the Arts, it is clear that his friends did not propose to make a painter of him, for he was sent to Charterhouse School to receive his educa- tion. How long he continued there we know not, but doubtless a sufficient time to acquire so much classical learning and other kinds of knowledge as proved of intimate service to him in after life. EASTLAKE. 35 It was one of those " accidents," as we are apt to call certain circum- stances and events which sometimes determine a man's course of life, that induced Eastlake to become an artist. Haydon was staying in his native town, employed on his really fine picture of "The Death of Dentatus ; " young Eastlake saw it, and was so impressed by the work that he at once made up his mind to be a painter. He accordingly came up to London and entered the schools of the Academy, where he studied for two or three years under the direction of Fuseli ; at the expiration of this term he painted a picture of "The Raising of Jairus' Daughter:" it was purchased by the late Mr. Jeremiah Harman. At the request of Mr. Harman, his young pivfcgc went to Paris to copy in the Louvre, but the return of Napoleon from Elba compelled him to relinquish his occupation earlier than he intended. Eastlake returned home, and commenced portrait-painting in his native town. Among these portraits the most conspicuous was that of the Emperor Napoleon, as he stood in 1815 on the gangway of the Belleroplio)i, in Plymouth Sound — "The last single captive to millions in war." The picture is remarkable as well for the fidelity of the representa- tion, as for its being the last portrait of Napoleon painted in Europe from the life. Two years after this, namely in 181 7, Eastlake set out for Italy. He remained there two years, and then, accompanied by some friends, among whom was Sir Charles Barry, R.A., proceeded to Greece ; in the follow- ing year he made the tour of Sicily, returning to Rome, where he appears to have taken up his residence for some time, for on reference to the catalogues of the Royal Academy we find his pictures marked " C. L. East- lake, Rome," to the year 1829. We are not sure whether he revisited England during the intervening period, and believe he did not ; he therefore must have been absent twelve years. The first two pictures sent home for exhibition of which we have any recollection were "A Girl of Albano leading a Blind Woman to Mass," in 1825, and " Isidas, the Spartan, repelling the Thebans," in 1827 : the latter work is a bold and spirited composition, in a style altogether differing from his more recent works, and one which, on many accounts, we almost wish he had persevered in, notwithstanding the merits which belong 36 BRITISH PAINTERS. to his later productions. The works of the future President had now found so much favour with the Royal Academy, that in this year he was elected Associate : rather an early step into Academical honours, consi- dering how short a time his pictures had been before the public. In 1828 appeared the first of several almost similar compositions on which his pencil was at various times engaged, " An Italian Scene in the Anno Saiifo : Pilgrims arriving in sight of Rome and St. Peter's — Evening." The artist has treated these themes with much poetical feeling, and exceeding grace and refinement : these, in truth, are the prevailing qualities of his style. In 1830 he was elected Academician; his exhibited pictures of the year were " Una delivering the Red Cross Knight," from the " Faerie Oueene," and "A Contadina Family returning from a Festa, Prisoners with Banditti," a subject which the painter repeated on more than one occasion. In 1833 he sent two paintings of "Italian Peasant Girls," and one of "Greek Fugitives : an English Ship sending its Boats to rescue them." One of two small pictures of 1839 showed the artist in a style in which he had not hitherto appeared — one, too, which very considerably increased his reputation ; we wish he had painted more of such works, for we believe his strength lay in them. This picture is "Christ blessing little Children," a subject he treated with infinite sweetness and delicacy in composition and colour. The other, entitled " La Svegliarina," is a gem worthy of the artist's pxire taste and feeling : it is now in Paris. "The Salutation of the aged Friar," painted in 1840, an Italian scene, in which are introduced a number of young females, was one of the great attractions of the year: it represents a touching incident, gracefully illus- trated. In the next year appeared what many consider his masterpiece, " Christ weeping over Jerusalem ; " it has a deservedly world-wide reputation, and has been engraved two or three times. From this date the annual contributions of Eastlake to the Academy may be counted by units, for he has rarely exhibited since more than a single picture ; his various public engagements, especially those connected with the " Royal Commission " on the new Houses of Parliament, to which we shall hereafter refer, added to his literary occupations, absorbed much of the time that would otherwise have been passed at the easel in his studio. A small but elegant composition, exhibited in 1842, and entitled "The Sisters," is in the Royal Collection. The following year Eastlake was « -.1 3 i> > ■i. E A STL A K E. 37 appointed Librarian of the Academy, in the place of G. Jones, R.A., who had resigned the office: his picture of the year was " Hagar and Ishmael ; " a beautiful example of the painter's pure, simple, yet dignified style in com- position, drawing, and colour. The accumulation of public business on his hands compelled Eastlakc, in 1845, '^o relinquish the post of Librarian at the Academy; he was succeeded by Thomas Uwins, R.A. Eastlake's picture this year was a scene from Milton's " Comus," a copy of the fresco, it is believed, which he executed in the summer-house in the gardens of Buckingham Palace for the Queen ; the picture seems to have been painted to test the capabilities of fresco ; but though fanciful and elegant as a composition, it cannot stand comparison with his other works. The death of Sir M. A. Shee, in August, 1850, left vacant the President's chair of the Royal Academy; there could have been no doubt, we apprehend, in the minds of the members — most certainly there was none in the opinion of the public — as to who was the fittest among them in every way to be his successor : the choice, as might have been expected, fell on Eastlake, and none other could with any propriety have been made. One scarcely knows whether to rejoice at or to regret his elevation ; for he seemed from that time almost lost to us as a painter, though the Arts were unquestionably deriving benefit from his labours in their behalf. The first picture exhibited by the new President, now become Sir C. L. Eastlake, was a head and bust, to which was appended the title of " Ippolita Torrelli," suggested by the Poonnta of Castiglione. The following year was a total blank, but in 1853 appeared another picture from sacred history, " Ruth sleeping at the Feet of Boaz." The works of a painter are the reflex of his mind ; and thus, when, as a young painter, Eastlake would naturally feel the impulse of stirring aspira- tions, we see them developed in his " Isidas repelling the Thebans," and " The Brigand's Wife," where energy, action, and strong motives and passions predominate. Such feelings, however, soon softened down to what we must presume to have been more in harmony with his actual nature : his subsequent productions therefore are, almost without an exception, of that soft, gentle, and persuasive character which wins and charms, but never forces attention. A crowded exhibition room, with its various distractions, is not the fittest place — we should rather say not by any means a suitable place — in which to study his works ; they should be examined and thought 38 BRITISH PAINTERS. over in the quietude of retirement ; this is the only way to become acquainted with their true merits, and to feel how large a portion of his own refined and delicate mind is reflected in his pictures. There is a tone of gravity united with purity of feeling that pervades all his compositions, and these qualities are carried out even to a subdued and "reposing" style of colour — which, however, is rarely deficient in warmth and clearness : they are almost invariably appeals to the most tender and compassionate sympathies of human nature. As President of the Royal Academy he not only maintained in a high degree, as a painter, the honour of the school of which he was at the head, but he very materially aided in the education of that school by his contributions to Art literature : and here we find the advantages of that early attention to letters which his school training induced. We desire not, as a rule, to see artists wielding the pen and the pencil alternately — some have done so to their injury ; but as we believe none can write so well upon Art as those who have a practical acquaintance with it, we should be pleased to see every artist so educated as to be able to express his views, even in a book, if he thought proper to write one. The writings of Sir Charles Eastlake must not be forgotten. Most important amongst these are his "Materials for a History of Oil Painting" and "Contributions to the Literature of the Fine Arts." His translations of Goethe's " Farbenlehre," and of Kiigler's "Handbook of Painting" are enriched with valuable notes. Lady Eastlake, too, is well known as an authoress by her " Livonian Tales " and " Letters from the Baltic." Allusion has been already made to the Royal Commission for the new Houses of Parliament ; the important post of Secretary was intrusted to Eastlake. The late Prince Consort, in his capacity of President of this Commission, spoke in feeling terms of the courtesy, refinement, and kindness of the artist. Indeed, it was rather to these than to extreme merit as a painter that the choice of him for the most exalted position in the Royal Academy was due. Sir Charles Lock Eastlake died at Pisa in 1865, in the seventy-first year of his age. David Roberts was born at Stockbridge, near Edinburgh, October 24th, 1796: his early love of Art may in some measure be traced to a mother to ROBERTS. 39 whom he was devotedly attached. She was a native of the ancient episcopal town of St. Andrew's, and often spoke to him of the magnificent remains of the cathedral and monastic edifices of this once celebrated seat of learning. These conversations, together with the legends connected with the locality, made a strong impression upon his boyish mind, and no doubt influenced his taste for Art towards that particular department which he may be said to have made his own, for there was scarcely an old castle or ruined chapel in or around his native town that he did not visit and sketch when a boy. By the advice of Graham, director of the "Trustees' Academy" at Edinburgh, and the master of Wilkie and Allan, young Roberts, at the early age of about ten years, was apprenticed to a house-painter named Gavin Beugo, who, having once followed the business of a herald-painter, probably gave the lad some little instruction in drawing : beyond this, we believe, he was never indebted to a single individual for helping him onwards in the art he practised with so great honour to himself, and so instructively and delightfully for others. His own perseverance and unwearied industry enabled him to overcome difficulties which, even with the aid of the best instruction, are but rarely mastered. After having served a long and wearisome apprenticeship of seven years to Beugo, a harsh and overbearing master, we hear of him, in 1818, as assistant scene-painter at the Pantheon, a second-rate theatre in Edinburgh, under one Dearlove, of whom nothing is known. In the following year he became principal painter at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, and in 1820 and 1 82 1, at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh. Before the latter year expired, his fame had reached the ears of the then lessee of Drury Lane, the celebrated Elliston, who offered him an engagement for three years, in conjunction with his friend Clarkson Stanfield. From this point of time the history of Roberts as a painter in oils really commences, his first picture being exhibited at the British Institution in 1824. It was about this period that the Society of British Artists was instituted ; both Stanfield and Roberts were among its original members : here, as well as at the British Institution and the Royal Academy, both were constant exhibitors. But all who remember the beautiful series of pictures, for they could scarcely be called scenes, which the two artists produced at Drurj^ Lane and Covent Garden Theatres till 1830, must have felt how greatly these pictorial works influenced public taste in what was beautiful in scenic art, and how greatly they were in advance of previously existing performances. 40 BRITISH PAINTERS. The first picture exhibited at the Academy by Roberts was a " View of Rouen Cathedral;" this was in 1826. Notwithstanding the incessant demands upon his time during the early period of his career, he found frequent opportunities for visiting the continent, for many of his exhibited pictures were subjects sketched in France, Germany, and Belgium, while his own native land was not forgotten : every successive year, during the life- time of his parents, did he visit them, and on these occasions he was accustomed to make excursions through various parts of Scotland containing remarkable ancient edifices, of which he made drawings. One of the results arising from these home-travels was a series of etchings on copper, by his own hand, of the antiquities of Scotland, which were carried to a considerable extent ; but from circumstances over which he had unfortunately little control, they were abandoned and never again resumed. As soon as he found himself firmly established in the estimation of the public in a line of Art almost entirely his own, and enjoying the support and friendship of some of the greatest patrons of Art, among whom Lord North- wick claims especial mention, Roberts gradually relinquished painting for the theatres, and restricted his labours within the limits of the studio. With the view of opening up what to him was new ground for operations, he proposed to visit Italy ; but his friend Wllkie advised him to relinquish this plan and explore Spain Instead, as a country less known, and one offering a richer field for his pencil ; this was In 1832. The same year, and before quitting England, he completed, and superintended the engraving of, a series of drawings for Sir E. Bulwer Lytton's " Pilgrims of the Rhine," a work created, so to speak, by those elegant serials, the " Annuals." It is not, we believe, generally known that the drawings alluded to were Intended origin- ally to come out as an "Annual," and the book was actually written for the drawings, instead of the drawings being made to suit the text, as one would naturally suppose In a work of this character. Roberts devoted a portion of 1832, and the greater part of the following year, to his Spanish tour ; and after visiting Burgos, Madrid, Toledo, Segovia, Cordova, Granada, Malaga, Gibraltar, Cadiz, and Seville, settled down for a time In the last-named city, where, acting upon the suggestion of another artlst-frlend, the late Sir William Allan, he painted several pictures in oil, two of the principal of which are the property of Mr. Lewis Lloyd, namely, " The Interior of the Cathedral of Seville during the Ceremony of the Corpus ROBERTS. 4, Christi," and " The Tower at Seville, called 'the Garalda.' " On his return from Spain, in the latter part of 1833, he followed the series of beautiful annuals commenced by Prout, and continued by Harding, which were pub- lished by Jennings under the title of "The Landscape Annual." Roberts's contributions to this work extended over four consecutive years, and with the exception of John Lewis's "Sketches in Spain," they are almost the sole pictorial records we have of that romantic and picturesque country : they have been copied, or rather pirated, again and again. One of the best pictures that have come from his easel is a Spanish subject, " The Chapel of Ferdinand and Isabella, at Granada; " it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1836, and was purchased by the late celebrated connoisseur, Mr. Beckford, of Fonthill Abbey. This work, in all probability, was indirectly, if not directly, the means of his secession from the Society of British Artists — of which, by the way, he was for some time vice-president — and ultimately of his placing himself on the list of candidates for admission into the ranks of the Royal Academy. It was necessary to withdraw from his old colleagues in Suffolk Street to render himself eligible for election into the academical body, for by one of its standing rules no member of any other Art institution in London was allowed to become a candidate for the Academy. Stanfield having led the way already in this move, his friend Roberts qualified himself for following in the same steps by paying the fine provided by the laws of the Society of British Artists in the event of secession by one of its members, amounting to one hundred pounds, and a similar sum for his share of its liabilities. It is not for us to question how far these two pillars of that institution were right in their withdrawal, but certain it is that the interests of the society were materially affected by their absence from its annual exhi- bitions, no less than from its councils. At this time David Roberts had attained considerable renown and position ; he could reckon among his friends Wilkie, Turner, Callcott, and Landseer ; while his works had found place in the collections of Lord Northwick, the Duke of Bedford, Mr. Vernon, Mr. Sheepshanks, and many others of the most liberal patrons of Art. But he was not content to rest on his oars. Supplied with letters of introduction from the Foreign Office to General Campbell, Consul- General for Egypt, Roberts started from England on his great and hazardous expedition in August, 1838, taking the route by Paris and Marseilles. He arrived in Egypt at the period of the year that is termed " high Nile," when G 42 BRITISH PAINTERS. the Delta is under water — a time when that most remarkable country is seen to the greatest advantage, and when each village, mosque, and temple seems to float upon the surface of the water. On reaching Cairo the traveller found the consul ready to afford him every assistance in the prosecution of his object. He shortly afterwards ascended the Nile in a boat fully equipped, pro- vided for him by General Campbell, and though two English gentlemen who accompanied him soon became blind from ophthalmia, we have heard him remark that he never enjoyed better health than during the period he passed on this river. It was not till his return to Cairo, in the month of December, that he heard of his election, during his absence, into the Academy as Associate ; the intelligence reached him at an opportune moment, for he had been left so much by himself and to his own meditations that, as he once told us, he had "begun to take an unfavourable view of most things." In February, 1839, he left Cairo to cross the desert by way of Suez, Mount Sinai, and Petra, with a caravan of twenty-one camels ; one of his companions, Mr. J. W. Kinnear, afterwards published an account of the journey.* He reached Jerusalem at Easter, and after having visited the most remarkable places " from Dan to Beersheba" illustrative of Biblical history, he returned to England in the latter part of 1839 : he had been absent sixteen months. The fruits of this expedition are too well known to require pointing out — Roberts's "Holy Land" has a world-wide reputation; nothing of a similar character has ever been produced that can bear comparison with it. It would be superfluous to attempt to give any analytical description of the works of this artist. His subjects are selected from the finest examples of ancient architecture which Europe possesses, whether ecclesiastical, civic, or domestic : his drawing is truthful, his colouring rich and brilliant, while the interest of the subjects is greatly augmented by the picturesque groups of figures vividly and characteristically introduced. He painted but few imaginary pictures ; his two great works of this class are — "The Departure of the Israelites from Egypt," engraved many years ago by Ouilley, in mezzotint ; and " The Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans," reproduced in chromo-lithography by Louis Haghe; they are both grand compositions — epic poems on canvas, they may be called. At * " Cairo, Petra, and Damascus," by J. W. Kinnear. Published by J. Murray, London. CHURCH OF ST. GOMER, BRUSSELS. From a Painting by David Roberts, R.A. STAN FIELD. 43 the time of his death, which took place in November, 1864, a large collection of his pictures was being exhibited at the Crystal Palace. Many of his old friends whose circumstances were less prosperous than his own had for years experienced the benefit of an unostentatious or even anonymous bounty. We have selected as examples of this artist's work: "Portico of the Temple, Edfou, Upper Egypt," and "Church of St. Gomer, Brussels." Clarkson Stanfield was a native of Sunderland, in the county of Durham ; he was born, we believe, in 1798. The fact of his boyhood having been passed in a seaport town, where everybody, as well as everything, is, or seems to be, impregnated with sea air and salt water, had, no doubt, consi- derable influence in determining him to enter the marine service, in which he passed several years of his early life, and thereby acquired a partiality for the class of Art which he has since so successfully followed, and such an acquaintance with the sea and shipping as enabled him to attain the high position he has reached as a marine painter. He made his first appearance in London as an exhibitor in 1823, at the Society of British Artists, in the formation of which he, with David Roberts and some others who have risen to high distinction, took great interest. But before speaking of the pictures which have passed out of Stanfield's studio, it will be necessary to allude to another branch of Art with which his name is honourably associated, because we are of opinion it laid the foundation for a large portion of his future excellence. While Stanfield was serving at sea, we have heard that he used frequently to amuse himself with painting, employing whatever materials were at his command. On his settlement in London, he engaged himself to paint scenes for one of the minor theatres. Here was an excellent school of practice, from which the artist, no doubt, derived considerable benefit, and through it Stanfield himself was the means of raising scene-painting to the dignity of Art : before his time it was little else than daubing for the stage. We are old enough to remember the beautiful drop-scenes and dioramic views which he subsequently painted for Drury Lane — they were pictures of real beauty, so beautiful as to make it a matter of sincere regret that they should have passed away with the season which called them into existence. To Stanfield and David Roberts must be assigned the honour of rendering the scenery of the British stage what it now is, the best in Europe. 44 BRITISH PAINTERS. The first of Stanfield's easel pictures that attracted marked attention was " Market Boats on the Scheldt," exhibited at the British Institution in 1826 : the picturesque grouping of the boats laden with various commodities, the number and diversity of figures in gay costumes, all reflected in the quiet surface of the water, constituted a representation as agreeable to the eye as it was true to nature. In the following year he exhibited, in the same gallery, the "Wreckers off Fort Rouge, Calais," a work of far greater originality and power than the preceding : many of our readers may probably know the subject from Ouilley's mezzotint engraving; the print, however, conveys but an imperfect idea of the spirit of the original. In the same year (1827) his name first appears in the catalogue of the Royal Academy, appended to a picture entitled "A Calm." On reference to our catalogue of the Academy Exhibition of 1 830, we find sundry " notes " of commendation upon his picture of " Mount St. Michael, Cornwall ; " certainly it is superior to the "Wreckers." It was about this period, we presume, that Stanfield first visited the Continent, for he exhibited at the Academy, in 1831, four pieces, entitled respectively "A Storm," " Strasburg," "Venice," and "A Fisherman of Honfleur;" the three last were drawings. These foreign scenes constituted the advance-guard of that long array of continental scenes which we have seen passing before us, and ever welcome, up to the present time. In 1832 he exhibited at the British Institution "Portsmouth Harbour," a commission from William IV., and in the autumn of the same year he was elected Associate of the Academy. In 1833 he exhibited at the Academy the first of a series of large pictures commissioned by the Marquis of Lansdowne for the banqueting-room at Bowood ; they are ten in number, and are inserted in the panels of the wall : the subjects are all of Italian scenery, — the "Piazza di San Marco," the islands of " Mazerbo " and " Livenza," the " Ducal Palace from the Dogana," "Sta. Maria della Saluta," the island of " Murano," " Citara," &c., &c. This last completed the number ; it was finished in 1840. About this time it was that those charming ephemeral illustrated books called "Annuals" were at the height of their popularity: Stanfield executed a number of drawings, varied in interest and beautiful in character, for the "Picturesque Annual," which were published in the years 1834 and 1835. In the latter year he was elected Academician. riLBURY FORT-WIND AGAINST TIDE. From a Painting by Clarkson Stanfield, R.A. .9 rA N FI E L D. 45 In 1S36 he exhibited his large picture of the "Battle of Trafalgar," painted for the Senior United Service Club. This is generally allowed to be his masterpiece; the original sketch was purchased by the late Mr. Vernon, and now belongs to the nation. We pass over the succeeding two years of Stanfield's life — although they were productive of several admirable works — simply because of our limited space : in 1839 he was absent abroad ; but in 1840 there hung on the walls of the Academy six pictures from his pencil, all of them Italian or French landscapes of a high order of merit. Stanfield was a most prolific painter ; for years after the date we have reached he continued to contribute on the average four or five pictures annually to the Academy. We have not space even to enumerate those which are well known, so popular an artist was he in his time. In 1S44 he left the fair country of Italy and carried us to the shores of Holland, through thfe medium of two pictures — one, " Oude Scheldt, Texel Island," a comparatively small but beautiful example of his pencil; the other, a truly noble composition, " The Day after the Wreck — a Dutch East- Indiaman on shore in the Ooster Schelde," — this work, studied carefully in all its parts, was the greatest triumph the artist had yet achieved ; and although in two or three later productions he may have equalled, he certainly never surpassed it in fidelity to nature and poetical feeling : the masterly treatment of the sea, yet chafing under the effects of the storm that has passed over it, is, perhaps, the most striking passage in the picture. Of three pictures exhibited in 1845, "The Mole at Ancona, with Trajan's Arch ; " " Dutch Boats running into Saardam, Amsterdam in the distance ; " and the " Action and Capture of the Spanish frigate El Gaiiio, by the English sloop Speedy, commanded by the then Lord Cochrane, now Earl of Dundonald," — we can only just refer to the last, as being one of the few sea-fights which the painter has given us : he seems to have caught, in his representation of the action, no little amount of the spirit which the gallant Cochrane showed in the capture of his comparatively gigantic adversary. Amongst the five pictures sent to the Academy in 1849 were "Tilbury Fort — Wind against Tide," painted for Mr. R. Stephenson, M.P., engraved by the Art Union of London, and Introduced as one of our illustrations; "Lugano, Switzerland," a lake scene of exquisite beauty and finish; " Salvator Rosa's Studio," a wild, rocky composition, most true to nature; 46 BRITISH P A IiXTERS. " Lago Maggiore;" "Near Miori, Gulf of Salerno;" and a home scene, " The Reculvers by Moonlight." "The Battle of Roveredo " is one of the four pictures exhibited by Stanfield in 1851 : it was painted for J. Astley, Esq. The engagement was fought in September, 1796, by the French, under Massena and Augereau, and the combined forces of Russia and Austria under Davidowich, who guarded the Tyrol with a force of forty thousand men. The point of the picture is the passage of the French troops over the Adige; but the whole composition, which covers a large canvas, is full of material skilfully disposed as to pictorial effect, while every object is worked up to the closest imitation of nature. In 1853 only two pictures appeared in his name; one of these, however, "The Victory, with the dead body of Nelson, towed into Gibraltar," was among the " stars " of the exhibition ; the other, " An Affray in the Pyrenees with Contrabandistas," is a spirited and powerfully expressed work, but painted with less attention to finish than we ordinarily see in Stanfield' s pictures. Four pictures were exhibited in 1854, one of them being "The Last of the Crew," — a castaway sailor seated on a rock against which his small vessel has been wrecked — the composition tells the tale with touching pathos. " Ilfracombe, Devon," "Dutch Boats entering Harbour, Zuyder Zee," and the "Siege of Sebastian," the companion picture to "The Victory,'" both painted for Sir M. Peto, were in the Academy in 1855. His last few years did not produce any work that can fairly be compared with those we have just named, although the popularity of his pictures has never been interrupted, even to the present time. We have been careful to make our two examples of Stanfield's work both sea-pieces. Mr. Ruskin says, " One work of Stanfield's presents us with as much concentrated knowledge of sea and sky as, diluted, would have lasted any one of the old masters his life." This eminent artist was called away on the i8th of May, 1867. Asa marine painter he has been unrivalled, and great was the blank he left in this branch of Art. < :5 ^ 1 < -s ^ 1? l."^'''-^" CHAPTER II. ARTISTS BORN I 800 182O. We believe it is too much the practice to unfairly criticize and condemn a painter simply because his works are not fashioned according to our taste or in exact harmony with our own feelings, forgetful that to others, as well capable as ourselves of coming to a right decision, they may embody all that is excellent ; and when we do so, how great injustice is committed ! Another ground on which this superstructure of erroneous judgment is raised is, that hastily rejecting, at a glance, perhaps, what is represented, we take no trouble to ascertain what are its merits ; we give to it neither close examination nor patient study ; we are unwilling to recognise and accept the spirit which created and formed it, and consign to neglect, or, worse perhaps, publicly condemn, a work of genius, merely because we chance to have an "unwholesome preference" for some other. Suppose such a principle of feeling and action were transferred from the world of Art to that of Nature, we then should have one man arraigning the wisdom of Providence because the sky is not always blue, and another because the sunshine is frequently dimmed by "fleecy clouds; " one because the surface of the earth is not an unvarying extent of gentle slopes and verdant meadows ; another because it does not exhibit a continued succession of lofty mountains and rugged precipices. The proof of true taste and a right and kindly spirit lies in the desire and ability to discover beauty or excel- lence under every guise, without prejudice or undue partiality. The first effort of the critic should be directed to the divesting himself of every impediment that may hinder his arrival at a just, reasonable, and correct conclusion. Again, we should accept the artist for what he is, and not repudiate him for what he is not, nor pretends to be : the charlatan, who assumes a posi- tion for which every one sees him to be disqualified, is a fair mark for popular indignation ; but the man who so knows himself as to keep within his own 48 BRITISH PAINTERS. proper limits, and to ask from the public sympathy and attention nothing more than what he is entitled to, demands and gains the respect due to him. Mr. Stone is one among several painters we could name who have been the subjects of much unfair criticism ; his merits are too generally over- looked in the sweeping condemnation pronounced on the "sentimentality" of very many of his pictures. No one would declare these works to be significant of great genius ; we confess to set but little value on them as productions of an enlarged and intellectual mind, but still we are not insen- sible to many excellences which they undoubtedly are privileged to claim. Frank Stone, one of the most graceful of English genre painters, is one of those artists whose early years and early efforts are involved in much obscurity. We do not know more of him than that he was born at Man- chester in 1800, and that he did not turn to Art as a profession until the beginning of his twenty-sixth year. In 1832 he became a member of the Old Water Colour Society, and for some years his attention was almost wholly given to work of that class. He made his debut as a portrait painter by sending to the Royal Academy in 1837 two portraits, one of which was the "Lady Seymour." In 1838 he contributed a "Study," and in 1839 three portraits — one of them " Lord Goderich," and another a portrait of the "Hon. Mrs. Blackwood." It would therefore seem that he brought with him to London some good introductions, which his talent enabled him to turn to a profitable account, for a time at least. In 1840 he contributed to the British Institution a graceful little picture of a young girl, under the name of "Louise." Having, it may be presumed, sufficiently tested his powers in portraiture, he now stood forth on a wider field of action, and sent to the Academy in the same year a " Scene from the Legend of Montrose " — the passage which describes Annot Lyle, like David laying with his harp the evil spirit of Saul, soothing the fiery temper of Allan M'Aulay by her song, in the presence of the Earl of Montelth. The picture was an earnest of a talent which, had it not shortly afterwards been diverted into another and far lower channel, would, in our opinion, have placed the artist in a more elevated position than he ever afterwards attained. In 1841 he exhi- bited at the British Institution another picture, a scene from the poetic romance of "Philip van Artevelde," wherein a youthful husband, " ow'r young to marry yet," amuses himself with a hawk, while his neglected bride stands sorrowfully watching him. To the Academy Exhibition of the same ft; Q I FRANK STONE. 4.9 year he sent another most graceful composition — " The Stolen Interview of Charles, when Prince of Wales, with the Infanta of Spain." In 1842 Mr. Stone commenced the series of "love-pictures," which, however popular they have been made by the engraver's art — so popular, or at least so common, as to be seen here, there, and everywhere, wherever a print-shop of any kind exists — were, unhappily, the means of turning his thoughts too often in a direction that certainly did not prove the high road to a good and lasting reputation. The pictures to which we refer possessed that peculiar attractiveness which was almost sure to command a large amount of admiration from those who are readily pleased with pretty faces, elegant figures, and a certain kind of sentiment that is patent to the most casual and careless observer. But such compositions never rise above mediocrity, however well they are put on the canvas — and undoubtedly Stone presented them in a manner which few of his contemporaries could excel, regarding them merely as examples of very careful and brilliant painting. The first of this class of pictures was exhibited at the British Institution, in 1842, under the title of " The Bashful Lover and the Maiden Coy ; " it was followed the same year by another at the Royal Academy, "Admonition," — a work perhaps to which less exception might be taken than to some others, yet partaking of their character : it represents two young girls, one of whom holds a love-letter, it is presumed, in her hand, while the elder is venturing to give her sister a lecture upon the impropriety of receiving such a communica- tion. But a work of a far higher order than any we have yet referred to was hung at the same time, "A Scene from Hamlet''' — Ophelia singing before the queen as the king enters ; a composition that may lay claim to some of the best characteristics of good historical painting. In the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1847 appeared the two pictures, "The Impending Mate," and "Mated." In the former of these the lovers are busy over a game of chess — neither the young man nor his pieces have many more moves to play ; the latter is here introduced as, perhaps, the most agreeable of the artist's compositions of this class. It is also nearly the last of them; in 1848 he struck out a new line by exhibiting at the Academy " Christ and the Sisters of Bethany." In 1850 we find Stone illustrating Shakespeare. This, we need hardly say, he was not fully competent to do, though there is much in the design and n 50 BRITISH PAINTERS. more in the execution of these pictures that will give pleasure or instruction. His first essay was " A Scene from The Taiipcsi'" — Miranda expressing her admiration of Ferdinand. Next year he sent to the Academy the picture here engraved, " Bassanio receiving the Letter announcing Antonio's Losses and Perils," from The Ilfeirhaiif of Venice, one of the most ambitious works attempted by the painter, and certainly not the least successful ; the composition is good, the figures are well grouped, and the heads carefully studied with respect to character, while the whole is painted with a brilliant and delicate pencil. In the autumn of this year Stone was elected Associate of the Academy. Stimulated, perhaps, by the honour paid him by the Academy, he sent to its exhibition in the following year four pictures, the largest number he ever contributed : — " A Scene from Cymbeli)ic^^ a small canvas, presenting half- length figures of Pisanio and Imogen ; a " Country Girl ; " "At the Opera," a title significant of the subject ; and a " Portrait of Dr. Hooker," surrounded by his native collectors, examining plants in the rhododendra region of the Himalaya Mountains, — a subject not of the highest pictorial interest, but treated with considerable skill and judgment. His contributions in 1853 were — "A Nile Flower," a charming study of an Eastern maiden ; " Now I'll tell you what we'll do," an affected title given to a group of country girls in a meadow; and " The Master is come," illustrating a passage in the history of Martha and Mary, as described by the Evangelist St. John : the two females only are introduced, and they are described with much power and truth. In 1856 Stone was absent from the walls of the Academy; and in 1857 he sent one picture only. Two years later he was taken off suddenly, on the 1 8th of November, by an affection of the heart. There is little doubt that, had his life been spared a few years longer, though not a young man, we should have seen from his pencil works which would have justly raised him in the esteem of the Art-critic. The characteristics of Stone's productions may be briefly summed up : his strength lay in his delineation of the female figure, where beauty of expression and delicacy of texture are sought after. He rarely attempted elaborate compositions, aware, probably, of his weakness in the art of grouping masses, either as principals or accessories. His colouring was generally truthful and always brilliant, and his execution careful, even to a high degree of finish in the minutest details of his subjects. His talents will "A O H Z < w (J o u a H H W a H ho (/3 ^ R JO ^^ w /■: n s T E R. SI always command respect, though we do not anticipate they will ever cause him to be classed with the brightest ornaments of the British School. Thomas Webster, R.A., was born on the 20th of March, 1800, in Ranelagh Street, Pimlico : his father, being attached to the household of George III., took his child in its infancy to Windsor, where he remained till the death of the venerable monarch. Young Webster was educated in the choir of the Chapel Royal, St. James's, his father being desirous of making a chorister of him : but like Hoppner, who was in the choir of the Chapel Royal, and Callcott in that of Westminster Abbey, Webster preferred the art of painting to the practice of music. We know not what the world has lost as a vocalist by the preference, but we are sure it has thereby gained an original and most excellent painter. Whether, as a boy, Mr. Webster took more delight in "Going into School," or in "Coming out of School;" whether he stood in awe of the Dominie's "Frown," and laughed at his "Joke;" whether he was one of the party of " Birdcatchers," joined in the "Gunpowder Plot," and was the lucky " Boy who had many Friends" — of these and other matters of like import we are in profound ignorance, and must leave our readers in the same condition ; but we will venture to assert that in all the sports he has so aptly represented on his canvases, he played his part, and from them stored his youthful mind with recollections that have answered the purpose of his after life better than the " Commentaries" of Caesar, if he ever read them, or the distractions of duodecimals and algebraic problems, if he ever worked them out on his oak-framed slate. In 1820 he entered the Royal Academy as a student, and in 1825 obtained the first medal in the School of Painting. Having, in 1825, been fortunate in painting a little picture entitled " Rebels shooting a Prisoner," exhibited at Suffolk Street, it at once brought him into notice, so that the difficulties which many young painters find in early life, and their consequent privations, were alike unfelt by him : these difficulties and privations are arduous and painful enough to check all except the most ardent spirits, but when once surmounted, he who has overcome regards them from his vantage- ground with unqualified satisfaction. The first of his exhibited pictures of which we possess any record, except SJ BRITISH PAINTERS. that just mentioned, was one sent to the Royal Academy in 1827, a portrait- picture, we presume, the "Children of T. Drane, Esq.;" the next year he contributed the "Gunpowder Plot" to the Academy, and in 1829, "The Prisoner," and "A Forag^ing Party roused," to the British Institution. Of these and earlier works which Mr. Webster forwarded to our public galleries, we can only give the titles ; our space does not admit of detailed comment. For the next ten years we find him exhibiting one or two pictures annually, either at the British Institution or at the Academy, the year 1834 only excepted. All this time the artist was gradually winning his way to public favour ; every class saw in his humorous compositions what could not fail to amuse, and therefore to please ; for his humour, like that of all Dickens's droll fellows, is never coarse ; it never touches caricature. His characters are invariably true to nature, though in her most ludicrous aspect— nature which both old and young can understand and appreciate. At the period of which we are writing, it was a common practice with artists — especially such as had achieved a reputation — to send to the British Institution only pictures which had been previously exhibited at the Academy, but we do not find that Mr. Webster followed this plan : he contributed to this society, in 1839, two pictures — one "The Rat-Trap," boys inspecting its contents; the other called "Anticipation," a baker's lad bringing home a pie, for which a hungry-looking boy waits anxiously at the door of his cottage home, standing "like a greyhound in the slip," with a cloth tucked up under his chin, a spoon in his hand, his mouth half-open in "anticipation " of the savoury plateful. His Academy picture of this year, "Football," was considered the best he had yet painted ; a group of village urchins are in the full excitement of the game, which they follow up in the most vigorous manner. Of course Mr. Webster must show some " fun " among the players ; consequently, a boy has received a kick, and in his agony seizes one of his companions by the hair ; another boy has had his cap pressed over his eyes by some mischief-lovers ; while another, who is kneeling in the foreground of the composition, rubs himself to relieve the pain occasioned by a chance blow given in the vielk. The picture is full of animation, the figures are most skilfully grouped, and very carefully finished. In the following year, 1841, the name of Mr. Webster appears in the list of Associates of the Royal Academy, an honour to which he had proved • n. PEXSEROSO. from a Piiinting by Tuoinas IVcbiUr, R.A. If F n s T /■: R. S3 a just claim ; he was elected with Sir Charles Barry and Mr. Redgrave. He exhibited three pictures this year, and they were three which we think he has never surpassed. Two of them, "The Smile" and "The Frown," are well known from the engravings published by the " Art Union of London," while there must be few people whose attention has not been at some time or other drawn to an engraving of " The Boy with many Friends," — the schoolboy with his half-opened package of good things from home, surrounded by his schoolfellows each anxious to lend knife, corkscrew, or anything else that will oblige the owner of the untold treasure. There was a charming little picture by this artist, occupying the " post of. honour," as the position over the fireplace was generally considered, in the British Institution in 1842 ; it was called the " Wanderer," and represented a young Italian boy with a box of white mice, which he is showing to some children at the door of their cottage. The contrast in the faces of " The Wanderer," weary and exiled, and those of the children in humbler but comfortable quarters at home, is very happily expressed — the group all sunshine and delight, the little Italian sorrowful and careworn. Mr. Webster's single picture of the year 1843, we will venture to say, drew forth as many sighs from the spectators as his former productions had elicited smiles ; it portrayed one of those touching incidents which show that the artist's harp is not always tuned to merriment, but that sometimes it hangs upon the willows : the picture is called " Sickness and Health." A young girl on whose features the death-warrant is set is seated propped up by pillows at a cottage door ; before it an Italian organ-grinder is playing his instrument, to the music of which two children, j'ounger than the poor invalid, are dancing : all the characters very ably sustain the intention of the artist, and are full of interest. What would Mr. Webster have done for subjects for his pencil had there been no such folk in the world as incorrigible boys, idle boys, mischievous boys, funny boys, &c. ? Yet in one of his two Academy pictures of 1844, the artist stepped aside from his usual course to pay a tribute of filial affection to his aged parents by painting their portraits to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage; the aged couple are seated side by side. The picture, a small one, is a gem of its class. In the following year Mr. Webster was elected Ro)'al Academician ; his sole contribution to the exhibition was "The Dame's School," now in the Vernon collection; a large engraving of 5+ B R I T I S H P A I N T E R S. this picture has been published by Mr. Hogarth, and a small one appeared in the Art Joiirnal some years ago. An important and most amusing picture was exhibited by Mr. Webster in 1847 ; it was suggested by a description in one of the tales in Washington Irving's inimitable " Sketch-Book," where Frank Bracebridge promises to favour his friends with a specimen of the musical achievement of his cousin Simon in forming a " Village Choir," in the church which did not possess an organ ; Simon, for this purpose, had formed a choir of all the parish vocalists and instrumentalists, selecting "for the bass all the deep solemn mouths, and for the tenor the loud ringing mouths, among the country bumpkins." In the gallery of the church, therefore, is about as motley an assemblage of choristers as can well be imagined : the leader of the choir, a spare figure in an ill-fitting suit of rusty black, is singing most lustily, his open mouth discovering the loss of so many of his teeth as must make his intonation far from distinct ; to the right and left of the leader are ranged the vocalists — anything but "sweet singers of Israel," and the performers on bassoon, violoncello, clarionet, &c., each of whom is unquestionably extracting as much "power" from his instrument as lungs and a strong arm can respec- tively produce. The composition is full of humorous incident, carried out with the careful execution which has always distinguished the style of this painter. It will be seen that we have laid more stress on the artist's earlier works. Our two engravings are both from, pictures painted before 1840. Since the time of which we have just been writing, Mr. Webster has constantly con- tributed to the Royal Academy. Amongst his more recent works we may notice — we have not space for more than the titles — "Politicians," exhibited in 1869; "Volunteers at Artillery Practice," in 1871 ; "An Interested Adviser," in 1873; "The Wreck Ashore," in 1874; "Youth and Age," in 1876; "The Letter," in 1877; a Portrait of Himself, in 1878. He was placed on the list of Honorary Retired Academicians in 1877. A lifetime of such incessant labour may seem to have deserved an evening of calm repose ; yet such is his fondness for Art that the silver-haired octogenarian is even now working in his quiet retreat at Cranbrook, using to the utmost the talents intrusted to his care. Can we say that his "pound" has not produced its ten pounds ? We confess a strong partiality for the inimitable works of this most L A N n S E E R. 55 original painter ; they are pictures affording real pleasure : whether we regard their masterly execution as artistic productions, or the cheerful and amusing subjects he illustrates, they are equally most acceptable. No collection of British Artists would be complete without, at least, a passing notice of Edwin Landseer. Famous for bright originality the British school no doubt is, whether we bring under review the strides it has made in the direction of perfect landscapes, or in the direction of perfect portraits ; but it is in the animal paintings of the great artist of whom we are now to speak that its originality may most fairly be boasted. Without attempting to point out by means of definitions what is high Art and what is not, we may lay stress upon one fact : of his branch of painting Landseer stands out the undisputed head. It is a great question whether talents such as his could find their fulfilment in any but an English-speaking country. Two things which accompany the English language all over the world are, a love of field sports and a love of home ; it is the strength of both combined which attaches us to the horses, dogs, and deer, which speak to us from his canvases. Many years ago a critic did not hesitate to point out, that under other conditions the future of this artist might have been very different. The simple, feeling nature, which was able to portray the emotions of the animal creation so truly, would surely never have forced its way in the world unaided by the careful direction of a kind father, or the approbation of a noble patron.* Edwin Landseer was born in London, March 7, 1S02, being the youngest son of John Landseer, A.R.A., an engraver of some eminence. From his earliest years he displayed a love for his own special branch of Art, and his tastes were very wisely fostered by his father, who used either to accompany him, or send a servant with him, into the fields round the house or on to Hampstead Heath : he would often be out all day sketching cows, sheep, horses, donkeys, dogs, or any other animals that fell in his way. Curiously enough, his favourite open-air studio at Finchley is now occupied by a station on the North London Railway. Some examples of his very early works may now be seen in the South Kensington Museum, some of the sketches there being supposed to belong to * Tlie laic Duke of Bedford. 56 BRITISH PAINTERS. his sixth or seventh year. At the age of fourteen he entered the schools of the Royal Academy, though two drawings of animals had been exhibited there by him in the preceding year. At this time, too, he was engaged on certain subjects for the Sporting Magazine, which were engraved by his brother, Thomas. We also hear of his carefully studying the Elgin Marbles, then at Burlington House. In 1 815 Mr. Landseer took his three sons to the studio of B. R. Haydon ; some interesting relics of their connection with him will be found in the Autobiography of that unfortunate artist ; under his advice Edwin began dissecting animals, and there laid the foundation of that accurate knowledge of all their parts without which no abilities, however striking, can hope to produce a really good animal-painting. In 181 8 we find Landseer exhibiting at the Gallery of the Society of Painters in Oil and Water-Colours, in Spring Gardens, " Fighting Dogs getting Wind," a picture which attracted much notice at the time, and which was engraved by the painter's father. In 1819 there was hung at the British Institution an important work, " Dogs of Mount St. Gothard discovering a Traveller in the Snow; " this was in the possession of the late Mr. Gillott, of Birmingham, and at the sale of his collection realised no less than 1,740 guineas. Soon after this the death of a lion at a menagerie in London gave the artist an opportunity of studying its anatomy ; this event was followed by the production of several such pictures as "A Lion disturbed," "A Lion prowling," &c., &c. " The Larder invaded," sent to the British Institution in 1822, gained from the Directors their prize of ^150. The then Duke of Bedford appears to have afforded much valuable support and patronage at this period. Although Landseer had taken advantage of many opportunities to study deer and their surroundings in English parks, especially at Woburn, he did not make his first visit to the Highlands of Scotland until 1825 or 1826; this was indeed a red-letter day in his life. The immediate result of this visit was " The Hunting of Chevy Chace," exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1826, and now hanging at Woburn Abbey; it gained for its painter admission into the ranks of the Associates of the Ro5'al Academy at the earliest age, twenty-four, when a candidate for honours can be admitted. "An Illicit Whisky Still in the Highlands" appeared in 1829; it was L A N D S E E R. 57 purchased by the late Duke of Wellington. The scene is laid in a High- land hut, and a sportsman, leaning on the deer he has just brought in, is giving his opinion of the spirit to an anxious-looking old woman. The various materials for distilling are scattered about, nor must we omit to mention the poorly-clad young girl who looks sadly on the busy group. Both the composition and the execution of the picture are admirable. In 1 83 1 Landseer, now in the mid-stream of his career, became a Royal Academician; two years afterwards, amongst other pictures, "Jack in Office" appeared at the Academy; and it will not be right to leave unnoticed " Harvest in the Highlands," which also belongs to this date. Of this, the landscape was the work of Callcott, and the animals, &c., were drawn in by Landseer. The owner of this picture on several occasions refused offers of large sums for the right of engraving it, but at length granted that privilege to a society for distributing the knowledge of works of Art. Of all pictures, ancient or modern, there is none so widely known by means of engravings as " Bolton Abbey in the Olden Time." This appeared in 1834. The original belongs to the Duke of Devonshire, on whose property the ruins of the old abbey stand. Should any of our readers be by chance desirous of learning more about this great artist, we must refer them to the numerous collections of engrav- ings from his pictures which have appeared both in England and America; in some of these will be found valuable criticisms on the pictures themselves, in others many interesting details of the artist's life. In this short notice we are merely giving a general outline of his history, taking what notice we can of his principal works. Owing to the munificent bequests of Mr. Sheepshanks, Mr. Vernon, and Mr. Jacob Bell, a very large number of the artist's best pieces are now the property of the nation, and are to be found at the South Kensington Museum or in the National Gallery ; this collection has already been of the greatest use to increasing numbers of Art-students. "The Twa Dogs" was painted in 1822, and is to be found in the Sheepshanks collection: so also is "The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner," one of the eight contributions to the Academy in 1837. "Dignity and Impudence" appeared at the British Institution in 1839. In 1 84 1 Landseer contributed to none of the exhibitions, an attack of illness obliging him to seek rest in travel. He resided for some time at I S8 BRITISH PAINTERS. Vienna, returning to England at the close of the year. We have omitted to speak of "High Life" and "Low Life;" these omnipresent studies belong to 1831, and are in the Vernon Collection. The "Friend in Suspense," too, was exhibited at the British Listitution in 1834, and is to be found among the Sheepshanks pictures. Three very notable works were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1846, viz. "Time of Peace," " Time of War," and " The Stag at Bay; " they have all been too much before the public to need description, but we may remark that the artist is said to have received nearly ;;/"6, 000 for them. In 1850 Landseer received the honour of knighthood; he had for some time been honoured by the personal notice of the Queen and the Prince Consort. His simple, genial disposition seems to have found favour with them, and his almost passionate interest in Highland field sports was fully shared by Prince Albert. Towards the end of 1865 died Sir C. L. Eastlake, leaving vacant the President's chair in the Royal Academy. The office was offered to Landseer, and he, we believe, actually held the post for a week. His speedy resignation was caused by the first taste of the onerous duties of the position. A few words about the much vexed question of the lions in Trafalgar Square. The question of placing a public monument to Nelson in that part of London was first agitated in 1838. The statue of Nelson by E. Baily, and Mr. Rail- ton's design for the column, were early fixed upon; but it was not till 1858 that the public became aware that the work of designing the lions had been intrusted to Sir Edwin Landseer. Considerable surprise was manifested at the great artist thus turning sculptor, and this turned to something like indignation as years rolled on and no lions appeared. All this while, however, Landseer had been engaged in painstaking study of the monarchs of the brute creation. The result of his work appeared in 1867 ; and never has a heavier storm of unjust criticism fallen. We have heard, amongst other cases, of a surgeon of some standing who took serious objection to certain details, alleging ignorance of the anatomy of the animal ; however, on being challenged to prove his statements, the surgeon made some further researches in the leonine anatomy, and was at once led to acknowledge that he had been in error. The later years of Landseer' s life were clouded by ill-health : he was subject to fits of extreme nervous depression. After some days' illness he 'I! Oi i^ Q Si Cd S( < t3 S 1*7 ^*J Ul >. (^ Co ^ in 1^ Z < s- w 'J! B o ,\\> ^ ' . . n < ^ W !=< K ? ^ ^5 r A r L E R. 59 departed this life October 2nd, 1873. A fortniglit later the most popular of all English painters was buried in the crypt of St. Paul's. Of our two engravings, " The Angler's Guard" belongs to the artist's twenty-third year ; at this time he was much on the look-out for fresh or curious subjects for his pencil. The Italian greyhound must have cost him some thought, for, in itself more difficult to draw than many others of its race, the difficulty of assigning it a suitable place in a group is great. " The Alarm " belongs to a much later period ; it is just a sketch from memory of a scene he must have witnessed in the Highlands. Frederick Tayler was born at Barham Wood, Hertfordshire, on April 30th, 1804, and is the sixth son of the late Archdale Wilson Tayler, Esq., of the same place : his father was a sportsman, and the sight of the dogs and guns, which formed a part of the household deities at home, probably laid, in early life, the foundation of that taste for animal painting and sporting incidents which have formed the most prolific and the favourite subjects of his pencil. His parents, however, had no intention to make an artist of him, but proposed to educate him for the Church. With this view, the youth, after leaving school, was placed under a private tutor ; but the love of pictures and painting had obtained such complete mastery over his mind that the clerical project was abandoned, and the would-be artist permitted to follow his inclination. By the recommendation of Northcote — then a very old man — young Tayler was placed at the Art-school of Mr. Sass, now Mr. Gary's, in Bloomsbury Street ; an establishment at which not a few artists who have risen to distinction have received such instruction as has conduced to their future fame. While attending the classes under Mr. Sass, he also entered as probationer at the Royal Academy ; but he had not been thus occupied very long, when he was induced to join his brother, then Ghaplain to the British Embassy at Florence, by a desire to visit Italy and study from the noble collections of works of Art there. On returning, he determined to stop a short time in Paris for study and improvement ; but meeting with every advantage and encouragement there in the profession he had adopted, he resolved to remain. The sight of the works of Gericault, the distinguished French painter, particularly of subjects in which the horse figures prominently, inspired the young Englishman with ardent emulation. Gericault died about 6o BRITISH PAIN TE R S. the time when Mr. Tayler arrived in Paris, and his sketches and unfinished pictures were sold by auction not very long after his death : Mr. Tayler had, therefore, a favourable opportunity of examining them. He began to work incessantly in the study of the horse, purchased heads and limbs of the animal, dissected them, and made careful drawings of the dissections, so as to obtain a thorough knowledge of its anatomy. In Paris he met with the greatest kindness, and received most valuable assistance from Paul Dela- Roche, whose studio was his daily resort, and where he found the most ready help, the best professional advice, and was at all times permitted to avail himself of the privilege of drawing from the models the great French painter had accumulated in his studio for his own pictures. Here, also, he became the intimate friend and associate of Bonington, and we can well believe that the companionship of an artist so rarely endowed as was Bonington was not lost upon his friend. After a residence of nearly four years in Paris, Mr. Tayler returned to England, in 1828, with Prout, and soon after his arrival was elected an associate exhibitor of the Water-Colour Society. From that time to the present, his favourite subjects have been taken chiefly from the glens and mountains of the Highlands of Scotland, over a great part of which he has travelled with his knapsack on his back, his sketch-book in his hand, and a friend by his side ; and still in the herds of wild deer, the shaggy ponies, the goats and sheep, the dogs and game of that romantic land, he finds his greatest delight and his most profitable occupation. On the opening of the Palais des Beaux Arts, at the great French Expo- sition in 1855, Mr. Tayler was accredited to Paris as one of the four jurors of painting for England, and had the mortification to find how few medals the jurors were disposed to award to his countrymen in proportion to the great mass of British talent there represented : the number assigned them was altogether inadequate to the deserts of the exhibitors, and, as a matter of course, a large body of artists well deserving of honours felt keenly the disappointment. For his duties on this occasion the Emperor of the French conferred on him the Cross of the Legion of Honour. When J. F. Lewis resigned the office of President of the Water-Colour Society, Mr. Tayler was unanimously elected to succeed him ; a better choice out of their united body the members could not have made. The earliest of his works in our remembrance is one exhibited in 1839, " King Charles the First conveyed a Prisoner to Hornby House," a remark- TA FL E R. 61 ably clever composition, well studied, and most effective in the arrangement of the figures, but, for a picture of such size and character, too sketchy in manner, and consequently weak ; it looked as if it had been sent in to the gallery in an unfinished state. A scene from " The Vicar of Wakefield," which Mr. Tayler named " Too late for Church," was exhibited, with some others, — sporting subjects, — in 1843: it represents that part of the narrative where the Primrose family, desirous of making a decided impression on their neighbours, resolve to go to church on horseback ; and the moment chosen is that where the animals refuse to proceed, and the vicar, returning from church, discovers his wife and daughters in the midst of their mortification. The subject is treated with much humour, the dismay of the ladies is unequivocally expressed, and the quality of the artist's painting leaves nothing to be desired. One of the largest, if not the largest picture painted by Mr. Tayler, was exhibited in 1848: it is called " Weighing the Stag — Interior of a Highland Larder:" this picture has become familiar to the public by means of the engraving from it ; it is, therefore, unnecessary to offer any explanation or description of the subject, which, as a composition and as a work of Art, will bear comparison with Sir E. Landseer's well-known "Bolton Abbey in the Olden Time." The two prints "pair" admirably; and we can pay Mr. Tayler no higher compliment than to express such an opinion. The picture from which our second engraving is copied, "A Fete Champetre of the Time of Charles II.," was exhibited in 1851 : it is a large work, very brilliant in colour, but somewhat less harmonious in tone than usual ; the incidents are impressively portrayed, while the grouping and drawing show the hand of a master. The general character of Mr. Tayler' s style is that of remarkable freedom, combined with great delicacy ; he paints generally with a very full pencil, and, except in his skies and distances, rarely, we should suppose, uses thin washes ; his colours, especially in his smaller drawings, appear to be laid on at once, or without repetition. His compositions are always exceedingly picturesque and spirited, and attract scarcely less by the interest Englishmen feel in them than by their excellence as works of Art. There is no living artist who throws more, or even so much, grace into sporting scenes as he does. A very elegant edition of " Sir Roger de Coverley" has been illustrated by him, and his pencil has frequently been employed in the work of embellishing 62 BRITISH PAINTERS. literature : a beautiful volume of coloured lithographs has also been published from his drawings and sketches, and he has contributed in his own line of Art to the talented works of the Etching Club. Tayler, like Landseer, was an extremely rapid worker. The one in water- colours, the other in oils, may be associated together, but not compared with each other ; for the one is the artist of the court-kennel and stable, the other of the field. Landseer almost humanises his animals — he makes them think and converse ; Tayler presents them at work, following the duties allotted to them with the instinct and intelligence that is their nature. In conclusion we quote from " Modern Painters :" — " For instance, there are few drawings of the present day that involve greater sensations of power than those of Frederick Tayler. Every dash tells, and the quantity of effect obtained is enormous in proportion to the apparent means. But the effect obtained is not complete. Brilliant, beautiful, and right as a sketch, the work is still far from perfection as a drawing." William Dyce, born at Aberdeen in 1806, was son of the late Dr. William Dyce, F.R.S.E., a physician of local celebrity, and a man of considerable scientific attainments, who, intending his son for one of the learned profes- sions, sent him to the Marischal College and University of Aberdeen, where he took the degree of M. A. at the age of sixteen. Mr. Dyce's early love of Art proved too strong for his father's intentions, so the doctor, after vainly attempting to turn him away from his purpose by opposing every obstacle, consented to his coming to London to enter the Royal Academy as a pupil. Arrived in the metropolis, Mr. Dyce was admitted a probationer, after passing through the customary form of showing his drawings to the authorities of the Academy. These drawings were made at the Egyptian Hall, in the exhibition-rooms of the once well-known Mr. Day, with whom, and with his friend the late Mr. Holwell Carr, the young artist had become intimate. It chanced that Day was then about to visit Rome, and he strongly persuaded Mr. Dyce — his advice being also backed by that of Mr. Carr — to pursue his studies in Italy rather than in England, offering at the same time to be his companion on the journey : the consent of Dr. Dyce was obtained, and the travellers set forth in the autumn of 1825. Mr. Dyce re- mained in Rome for about nine months only, the state of his health requiring D V C E. 63 a return to his native country. During this first visit, his tendencies were chiefly towards classical art ; Titian and N. Poussin, whose works he studied with great ardour, were his idols. Returning in 1826 to Aberdeen, where the winter of that year and the spring of the succeeding year were passed, he occupied himself in the decoration of a room in his father's house with arabesques in the classical manner, for which he entertained an almost enthusiastic admiration ; and in painting a picture representing " Bacchus nursed by the Nymphs of Nyssa," or which may be called "The Education of Bacchus ; " it was sent to the Royal Academy, and exhibited there in 1827 : this was the first appearance of Mr. Dyce in public. He came up to London that year to see the exhibition, and, after a few months' residence with a friend, once more set out for Rome. It was during this second visit that his tendency towards what is termed Pre-Raffaellite Art first developed itself, and he was, undoubtedly, the originator, in the English school of painting, of that movement which has since produced such numerous and varied fruits — whether of good or evil is matter of opinion. In the autumn of 1828 Mr. Dyce returned to his native place, and spent the following year or two partly in Scotland and partly in England, painting Madonnas and subjects of a similar description. So little encouragement, however, did he find for such works, that he became weary of producing them, and actually laid down his pencil for a considerable time, and applied himself to scientific pursuits : one of the fruits of these new labours was the " Blackvvell Prize," awarded to him by Marischal College, Aberdeen, for an essay on Electro-Magnetism. But shortly afterwards, having been requested by the Hon. Mrs. Mackenzie to copy a portrait by Lawrence of her father, Lord Seaforth, his work gave so much satisfaction that he was forthwith induced to turn his attention to portrait-painting. Herein Dyce found ample employment for the next six or seven years, during which he resided at Edinburgh. The catalogues of the Royal Scotch Academy between 183 1 and 1837 show numerous portraits as exhibited by him. During this period he became intimately acquainted with several members of the Board of Trustees for Manufactures, and having often been consulted by them as to the best means of applying design to manufactures, he was led to a thorough consideration of the subject, and at length matured and proposed a scheme for the improvement of their schools, which was printed in the form of a letter to Mr. Maconochie Wellwood, known at that time as 64 BRITISH PAINTERS. Lord Meadowbank, of the Court of Session. This pamphlet having come into the hands of the newly formed Council of the School of Design at Somerset House, the author was sent for, and ultimately was requested by the then President of the Board of Trade, Mr. Poulett Thompson, to proceed to the continent on a mission of inquiry into the working of those schools in Prussia, Bavaria, France, and elsewhere, which had for their object the improvement of taste in manufactures. On his return his report to the Board of Trade was ordered to be printed by the House of Commons ; its statements led to a gradual remodelling of the School of Design, of which Mr. Dyce became director, as well as Secretary to the Council ; these offices he held till the year 1843, when he resigned them on being appointed Inspector of the Provincial Schools, which had been established during his management, and a member of the Council. These latter posts he occupied for about two years, when his connection with the establishment ceased for about as long a period. In 1848 his services were again called into requisition, for he was asked to take part in a new form of government which had been devised as a remedy for the dead-lock into which the affairs of the school had been brought, by the incompetency or mismanagement of those who had the direction of it. We may here state that this matter, during a period of four or five years, occupied much of the attention of her Majesty's Government, of the Houses of Parliament, and of the public interested in the question, and that the discussions relative to it in the parliamentary debates and in the public papers became at length of a very painful nature. During the five years of Mr. Dyce's official connection with the School of Design, his easel and his palette were almost entirely neglected, the only pictures painted by him being a " Madonna and Child," which has never been exhibited; "St. Dunstan separating Edwy and Elgiva ; " two other pictures to be referred to presently; and an architectural design, in the Academy in 1839. It was at this time also that Dyce first turned his atten- tion to church music, a subject in which he afterwards became deeply versed. He was the founder of a society for the study and practice of church music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; it was entitled the " Motet Society," and is now incorporated with the Ecclesiological Society. In 1842-3 he published, in two quarto volumes, the Book of Common Prayer, with the ancient canto fcrvio set to it at the Reformation, and accompanied by two dissertations on that kind of music, and its applicability to English tJ ^^ w ^ H •?; O ■~ £:; q; H e o o s: a << c/5 X [/) •^ r-) 1— 1 CD ■z n r c E. 65 words. He received for this work the Prussian Gold Medal of Science and Art from the King- of Prussia, who was then engaged, with Von Bunsen and the Chevalier Neukomm, in framing a liturgy ivith music for the new Evan- gelical State Church of that kingdom. On resigning the directorship of the School of Design, in 1843, he again applied himself vigorously to Art, and was a regular attendant for a year at Mr. Taylor's life academy, in St. Martin's Lane, sitting generally by the side of his friend Etty. The first result of this new study, one which, in fact, he had never previously undergone, his Art-education having been of the most desultory kind, became immediately apparent in the picture of " King Joash shooting the 'Arrow of Deliverance,' " exhibited at the Aca- demy in 1844, and forming one of our engraved illustrations. The subject is taken from the history narrated in the second book of Kings, ch. xiii., where the prophet Elisha, shortly before his death, directs the King of Israel to "open the window eastward," and shoot "the arrow of deliverance from S)Tia." The composition is as original as it is powerful: the drawing of the two figures show, as we have intimated, the master}^ and skill acquired in the life school of Mr. Taylor, while the costume manifests as distinctly the careful study of the customs and manners of the Easterns at that period, when the males' wore little else than a skirt girded about their loins. The action of the aged prophet is most suitable and impressive, as if with his outstretched hands he would urge the arrow even beyond the limits which the bowman's strength could reach. This picture led, in the early part of the following year, to the election of the painter into the rank of Associates of the Royal Academy. The success of a fresco exhibited in Westminster Hall led to the artist being one of the six artists selected to prepare cartoons for the compart- ments of the House of Lords intended for the reception of frescoes. The subject assigned by the Royal Commissioners to Mr. Dyce was, " The Baptism of King Ethelbert ; " it is throughout treated in a spirit consonant with the sacred character of the ceremony. The monarch is represented kneeling, at his side stands St. Augustine, holding in his hand a basin of water for the administration of the holy rite, the queen, with a number of attendants, forming the background. The arrangement of the figures is most skilful and judicious ; but the chief interest of the composition centres in the half-barbaric and semi-nude monarch, whose truly devotional expres- K 66 BRITISH PAINTERS. sion of countenance seems to be reflected in the faces of all around him, whom the novelty of the ceremony, no less than its solemnity, has filled with deep, earnest attention, as if the light of the new faith was penetrating their own minds and hearts. The cartoon is now at Hampton Court, and was the only one of the six commissions which was selected for execution in fresco ; it met with the unqualified approval of the Commissioners, who, in consequence of the success of the experiment, confirmed their original recom- mendation that the remaining compartments should also be filled in with paintings of a similar kind. Messrs. Maclise, Cope, and Horsley were also among the selected "six." Prior to the execution of the " Ethelbert " in the House of Lords, Mr. Dyce paid another visit to Italy, with the object of studying more specifically the best fresco works in that country, and the manner of painting them. While engaged on these public works Mr. Dyce was employed by the Prince Consort to replace, in the pavilion of Buckingham Palace, a fresco which Etty had painted there, one of eight, the others being the respective works of Sir C. L. Eastlake, Sir E. Landseer, Sir W. Ross, Maclise, Uwins, Leslie, and Stanfield ; the commission to these artists was given so far back as 1843, and all the subjects were to be taken from the " Masque of Comus." Mr. Dyce's illustrates the lines commencing with — • " Noble lord, and lady bright, I liave brought ye new delight," &c. There are few figures in the composition, but these are grouped with much skill, and are most carefully executed. Owing to the circumstance of the picture being painted on lathing, and not, like the rest, on the brick wall, it is now, we have heard, almost the only work in the pavilion which damp and other causes have not almost obliterated. In 1848 he was elected "Academician,'' but exhibited nothing that year in Trafalgar Square. In 1S50 he exhibited " Jacob and Rachel," one of our engravings ; this picture is a masterly production, full of fine feeling, and with- out the least approach to vapid sentimentalism. The draperies are well studied as to truth of costume, and are rich in colour; the work throughout, in treatment and in execution, may not unappropriately be termed Titianesque. Mr. Dyce has, we believe, repeated this subject four times, with minor altera- tions, and differing in size. A commission very much to his taste was shortly afterwards given him — COPE. 67 this was the decoration of the east end of All Saints' Church, in Margaret Street. William Dyce died at Streatham, in February, 1864. His labours on the series of frescoes, illustrating the legend of King Arthur, in the Queen's Robing Room, in the Houses of Parliament, have added in no small degree to his reputation ; but there can be no doubt that his intense application to them accelerated the course of the disease under which he sank. He was an honorary member of the Royal Scottish Academy, a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and Professor of the Theory of the Fine Arts in King's College, London. As a writer, he was known as the author of several pamphlets ; among them may be mentioned a theo- logical work in reply to Mr. Ruskln's "Notes on Sheepfolds," some remarks on "The Management of the National Gallery," and several lectures. Mr. Cope has now been an exhibitor on the walls of the Royal Academy for more than fifty years. It is a long period for any artist to have worked, and one would naturally look to it for a commensurate harvest of production. If in his case the result is not so large in point of numbers — we are referring to exhibited pictures — as might be expected, it is because the commissions he has received from Government have occupied a very large portion of his time. Still the number of pictures Mr. Cope has contributed to the Academy are satisfactory evidence of his industry. Like most other artists, he has, of course, produced works which have gone direct from his studio into the hands of his patrons, without appearing before the public. He was born in 181 1, at Leeds, where his father, who died from an accident at a comparatively early age, practised as a water-colour painter : he was an enthusiast in Art, and greatly contributed by his energy towards the first provincial exhibition, under the name of the " Northern Society of Arts." He was greatly esteemed in the locality, and his premature death was widely and deeply lamented. After receiving a classical education at the Leeds Grammar School, the son came up to London and attended the Art- school in Bloomsbury Street, then under the management of Mr. Sass. From this he entered as a student at the Royal Academy about the time that Messrs. Maclise, J. R. Herbert, and J. Bell, the sculptor, were studying there. Shortly after leaving the schools, in 1831, Mr. Cope went to Paris, where he 68 BRITISH PAINTERS. spent six months, chiefly in making studies from the Venetian pictures in the gallery of the Louvre. A year at home followed his sojourn in Paris, during which, it may be presumed, he painted his first exhibited picture, " The Golden Age," contributed to the Academy in 1833. His next journey was to Italy, for the purpose of studying in the congenial Art atmosphere of that country. He remained there two years ; the first six months in Rome, where the beauty of the sculptures in the Vatican so absorbed his attention that he did very little in the way of copying pictures, but employed himself during the greater part of the winter of 1833-4 in making outline pen-and-ink drawings of the marbles, and in sketching from nature. In the autumn of 1834 he left Naples, and reached Florence by the way of Leghorn, exchanging the life of comparative idleness he had led in the first- named city and its neighbourhood for hard work. In Florence Mr. Cope resided in the same house with his friend Sir W. Boxall, R.A., then, like him- self, an Art student. The winter of 1834-35 was passed in Florence, and was employed less in copying the pictures there than in placing on canvas some of the results of his studies and observations. In the autumn of 1835 he returned to England by the way of the Low Countries, for the purpose of examining some of the treasures of Flemish Art. Before taking leave of Italy he paid a visit to Venice, where he stayed some months, making a few studies of paintings, but passing more hours in gondolas than in picture- galleries. Boating and angling have always been his favourite recrea- tions. It was only natural that after so long an absence from England the friends of the young artist should be anxious to see exhibited some of the results of his continental labours. Accordingly he was persuaded, though somewhat against his will, to send to the British Institution, in 1836, a single picture, "Mother and Child," the precursor of many others of a similar kind which the public has seen from his easel. Much to Mr. Cope's surprise, it was purchased, and on the "private view" day, by one of the most distinguished amateurs of the period, the late Mr. Beckford, of Fonthill Abbey ; a fact that bears testimony to the merit of the work. He contributed to the Academy exhibition of the same year "The Death Warrant," "The Nereids," and " Hagar and Ishmael." The sea-caves of the Bay of Naples suggested the second of these pictures. Henceforth Mr. Cope's paintings were annually seen in the Royal Academy, and frequently in the British Institution ; they COPE. 69 .generally found purchasers, and also led to private commissions. Among these last ma}' be mentioned "The Interior of an Inn (Osteria), Italy," and "The Board of Guardians." Some of his works of this period are in the Lansdowne collection. The appointment, in 1842, of the Royal Commission for decorating- the Houses of Parliament, opened up to him, however, the prospect of a new and encouraging field of labour, and he was induced to enter upon the national competition. In the exhibition of cartoons in West- minster Hall in the following year, one of the three principal prizes of ^300 was awarded to Mr. Cope for his " Trial by Jur}^" From this period may be dated the actual commencement of his career. The Westminster Hall exhibition of frescoes in 1844, to which Mr. Cope contributed " The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel," resulted in his obtaining a commission to prepare a design for one of the six fresco paintings intended for the House of Lords, the subject given to him being " Edward the Black Prince receiving the Order of the Garter from Edward III." The design being approved of, the work was in due course executed in fresco. Numerous paintings for the decoration of the Houses of Parliament followed at different intervals. We may remark here that Mr. Cope's success in the first fresco competition, in 1844, was followed by his being elected Associate of the Academy : in 1848 he was elected Member. The works ordinarily painted and exhibited by this artist may be divided into two classes — historical, and domestic or genre: occasionally sacred Art has engaged his attention, as in " Hagar and Ishmael," exhibited in 1836 ; in the subject for an altar-piece for St. George's Church, Leeds, painted in 1840, suggested by the words " He ever liveth to make intercession for us ; " in " Whosoever shall give to drink a cup of cold water in my name " (1844) ; in "I will rejoice in the Lord," &c. (1847); ^nd in "The Disciples at Emmaus," exhibited in 1868. The first historical oil picture exhibited by him, in 1848, was "Cardinal Wolsey arriving at the Abbey of Leicester." This fine work, a commission from the late Prince Consort, will always rank among the best of Mr. Cope's productions for truth and expressive character, and for the manner in which all the details are carried out. " King Lear," exhibited in 1850, is another composition of profound sentiment and touching interest. The scene is that wherein Cordelia and the physician are attempting to restore the monarch to animation. Here, as in the preceding work, the heads of the figures are admirably rendered. " Laurence Saunders," the 70 BRITISH PAINTERS. second of the Protestant martyrs who suffered in the reign of Queen Mary, appeared in 1851; the subject is painted in three compartments. "Royal Prisoners at Carisbrook Castle, 1650," exhibited in 1855, illustrates the sad story of the death of the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Charles I., "for very grief" at the loss of her father. "The Pilgrim Fathers — Departure of a Puritan Famil}' for New England, in 1620," was the next historical work exhibited by him. in 1857 ; it is a subject which has been painted by several of our artists, but by none with so much impressiveness and real pathos as in Mr. Cope's version. Prominent among his other historical works are " Cordelia receiving Intelligence of the Ill-treatment of her Sisters ; " " The Parting of Lord and Lady Russell ; " " Shylock and Jessica ; " and " The Life's Story "—Othello relating his adventures, engraved here, and exhibited in 1868. This picture is treated very much in the same way as one exhibited by Mr. Cope in 1853 ; but the earlier work is a day, this is a night, scene. In the latter, however, a fourth figure is introduced, that standing behind Brabantio. In both pictures the heads of Desdemona and her father are admirable : the latter listens to the Moor's narrative with dignified and quiet interest; the former, beautiful in expression, is absorbed by the story. Both works are brilliant in colour and forcible in effect. From the circle of Mr. Cope's own immediate family have arisen not a few of those pleasing pictures that, in connection with his name, have long been familiar to the habitues of the Academy: such, for example, as "The Young Mother," " Florence Cope at Dinner-time," " Baby's Turn ! " (1854), which we have engraved, and "Morning Lessons." These, and other pictures of a similar kind, are characterized by elegance of composition, truthfulness of sentiment, and sweetness of colour. One of his best works that come legitimately within the range of goirc is " Reading for Honours in the Country," exhibited in 1864; an original subject, admirably treated. "Yes or No ? " came before the public in 1873, " Taming of the Shrew," in 1874. " Selecting Pictures for the Royal Academy Exhibition," a portrait group, is the property of the Academy; it was at Paris in 1878. In that year, too, was painted " Lieutenant Cameron's welcome Home." Mr. Cope has used the etching-needle with unqualified success, and has exhibited several of the prints taken from his plates. One of the most O Cc; I— J - C ^ K - H I "BABY'S TURN!" From a Painting by Charles West Copt; K.A. C R E S WICK. 71 remarkable is "The Interior of the Life School of the Royal Academy," a rare modern example of this beautiful art. As a painter, Mr. Cope's works will always be estimated by their refine- ment and b}^ simplicity of manner. His feeling is evidently for rich transparent colour and strong- force of character. Totally abjuring what might strike the spectator by daring effort of treatment, or by resistless force of subject, his pictures attract the notice of the intelligent observer by a charm which more ostentatious power often fails to effect to an equal extent, tlis small domestic subjects were, we believe, painted as a kind of recreation during intervals of his laborious tasks of fresco-painting. The name of the artist to whose works we now propose to introduce our readers is closely identified with our school of landscape painters. His biography may be written in a few lines : the stor}^ of his life is on his canvases. Mr. Creswick was born at Sheffield in 181 1 ; of his lineage and his first essays in Art we know little ; but we believe that he acquired some knowledge of painting in Birmingham. However this may be, he soon found his way to London ; for in 1828 he had taken up his abode in the neighbour- hood of St. Pancras, and exhibited two pictures in the Royal Academy. A..S the works of a young artist, especially if he be a landscape painter, admit of little else than a kind of general criticism, we briefly pass over the first few years of Mr. Creswick's appearance before the public, with the remark that he became a regular contributor both to the British Institution and the Royal Academy, each successive year bearing witness to his industry, his progress, and his popularity ; the scenes of his pictures at this time were laid chiefly in North Wales, Yorkshire, Lancashire, and the adjacent counties. In 1836, Mr. Creswick removed to Bayswater, where he had as a neigh- bour another of our distinguished landscape painters, the late Sir A. W. Callcott, R.A. He must have visited Ireland about this time ; for some of his exhibited pictures were views taken in that country, such as " Blackrock Castle, Cove of Cork ; " " Glengariff, County Cork." We have, however, rather an indistinct recollection of a picture painted in 1838, of a very different character from these; it was called "The Wayside Inn — Market- day," a cleverly-painted composition, representing a picturesque Incident of rural life which this age of Iron horses has almost driven off the road. 72 BRITISH PAINTERS. Callcott and Collins were at this period the two artists whose delineations of English scenery were held in the highest respect ; yet it was quite evident there was another rapidly advancing, not to push them from their thrones, but to share in the honours they had acquired. Creswick, however, was no copyist of either ; he followed Nature alone, and so closely, that in many of his early pictures there is such an undue preponderance of the vivid green peculiar to our trees and herbage, as to be painful to the eye on canvas, however welcome it is in the real landscape. There was also some apprehension in the minds of those who were watching his progress, that the delicacy of touch and attention to detail which his works showed would degenerate into pretti- ness — an error that a painter finds difficulty in amending if it once becomes a practice. But the pictures he exhibited in 1841 — five at the British Institution, and three at the Royal Academy — entirely removed whatever apprehension existed : he seems all at once to have struck into a new path, one uniting vigour and boldness of handling with delicacy, and greater variety and harmony of tints with the fresh verdure of Nature. Two of the pictures of this year may be singled out as examples of decided improvement. "A Road Scene" (British Institution), into which a blacksmith's shop is introduced; and "A Rocky Stream" (Royal Academy): these are both most vigorously touched. The former is an evening scene ; the dim light of closing day is very skilfully managed, and the reflection of the blacksmith's fire on the adjacent trees is perfectly illusive. The " Rocky Stream " is a small picture, but — our readers must pardon an unintentional pun — it is a gem of the purest water, boldly and vigorously painted, the strength happily mixed with delicacy. The "reign" of Mr. Creswick may be dated from 1842, when he exhibited two pictures at the British Institution — "Afternoon" and "June" — which surpassed all previous efforts. In the autumn of this year he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. It would be vain to attempt — and, indeed, it is altogether unnecessary — to give a catalogue raisonne, in our limited space, of the works of so productive a painter as Mr. Creswick, we shall, therefore, only just note down a few of his pictures. Where an artist, as he has done, adheres so closely to one range of subject-matter, and with very little alteration of treatment, it is difficult to avoid sameness of description. Welsh glens and mountain- streams, skirts of forests and avenues of lofty elms, luxuriant valleys and THE PLEASANT WAY HOME. From, a Painting by Thomas C'eswick, Ji.A. CUES WICK. 73 winding- rivers, however variedly disposed in nature or in Art, are not the materials on which to comment without hazard of repetition and monotony ; hence the landscape painter taxes the ingenuity of his critic or biographer far more than the painter of historical or genre subjects. A "Welsh Glen" (Royal Academy, 1843) is a picture that those who have once seen will not soon forget. It is a bright summer's day, but the stream, flowing- down between lofty perpendicular rocks, crowned with thick foliage, is in deep shadow, presenting to the eye a solitude of exceeding beauty and solemnity, iinllo pcnetrabilis astro, for the only ray of sunshine that lights it up falls on the crest of the rocks and on the trees. The " Mountain Torrent " (Royal Academy, 1844) is a highly poetical treatment of a similar kind of subject. The scene lies, we should think, in Scotland, the rocks being bolder and more rugged than those generally found in Wales, and the torrent broader and wilder in its impetuous rushings : the tumultuous dashing of the water is finely expressed in this -work. In the British Institution, in 1845, was a picture, not very large in dimensions, which was rather a novelty from the hand of this painter ; the subject was an old water-mill ; so venerable it seemed, that the oldest inhabitant of the parish in w'hich it then stood could scarcely remember to have heard the clicking of the wheel, decayed and w^orn out. Hwerj item in this work is painted with exceeding fidelity, yet it leaves an unpleasant impression on the mind by its truth ; it suggests a thought of bankruptcy, ruin, and distress. Of five pictures exhibited at the Royal Academy this year, two especially deserve to be pointed out for their picturesque composi- tion and freshness of colour — " The River in the Glen," and " Rain on the Hills;" it is impossible to imagine any landscape scenery more beautifully painted than are these subjects. Among his contributions to the Royal Academy in 1846 was "The Pleasant Way Home," a picture in which the subject is particularly well chosen to suit the artist's powers of execution. It is a scene to cause en-vy in those who are compelled to trace their way home through- lines of bricks and mortar, instead of such a noble avenue of green leaves, dancing to the music of the summer's breeze, as we see here. There was a picture exhibited by this artist at the Academy, in 1847, which bore the simple yet comprehensive title of " England; " and certainly our rich and verdant landscape -was never more exquisitely represented than L 74 BRITISH PAINTERS. in this work, the largest we recollect from his pencil ; it is, we imagine, a composition, not a sketch from Nature ; but England boasts many such scenes, — a wide expanse of country, corn-fields, and pastures well watered, homesteads, and distant spires that mark the spots where " The nide forefathers of the hamlet sleep." Indeed, this painter never at any former period came out in such power and general excellence ; while we are quite sure he never afterwards sur- passed his productions of 1847, an anmis miradi/is with, him: let those who can, recall to mind his "Doubtful Weather," and "The London Road a Hundred Years ago," to prove the truth of our assertion. How magically the light plays over the barren heath in the former picture, and how charmingly it alternates with the broad transparent shadows ! — in the latter, the landscape is not only rendered with the most poetical feeling, but there is in the composition a group of figures introduced such as we have never seen from his hand : whoever owns one of these three works possesses a treasure of Art he cannot value too highly. In 1850 the name of Mr. Ansdell appeared, in conjunction with that of Creswick, against a picture exhibited at the British Institution, under the title of " Southdowns ; " the "Downs" or landscape being, of course, painted by the latter, and the " Southdowns," or sheep, by the former. Each did his part marvellously well ; so well, indeed, as to induce them to work together again at various subsequent times. The "Wind on Shore," an Academy picture of the same year, gave another proof of the talent of Mr. Creswick in depicting coast scenery ; it would be hard to say whether in such subjects, or in those with which his name is more frequently connected, he shows greater excellence ; he was elected Academician at the end of this year. We have spoken of the year 1847 as Mr. Creswick' s great year ; a few, perhaps, of his subsequent pictures will bear comparison with it, but certainly not many. He afterwards adopted a low and dingy style of colouring, and in the last few years of his life even his greatest admirers would speak of him as one whose time had gone by. We may, however, note the titles of " A Roughish Road," exhibited at the Royal Academy in i860; " The Village Smithy," which appeared in 1865 ; " A Breezy Day on the English Coast," in which the figures were painted by Ansdell, 1866; "Sunshine and A N S n E L L. 75 Flowers," in i86g, where the figures were the work of J. W. Bottomley. Thomas Creswick died after a lingering illness on the 28th of December, 1869. The year after his death two of his pictures, " Mill near Whitby " and " Afternoon," were exhibited in London. We are not among those who regard landscape-painting as an Art requiring little mental capacity. Callcott was in many respects a highly cultured man, while the roughness of Turner's early surroundings in vain tried to cloud over the fulness of a subtle and refined thought. It is matter for regret that information on Creswick's Birmingham life is not forthcoming : we are unwilling to suppose that his Art studies, close and lengthy though they must have been, were allowed to put out of sight entirely the question of general mental culture. Animal-painting — we refer more especially to the representation of domestic animals, or those which are in some degree of a similar nature — is popular only among a people who take particular interest in the living objects ; hence it finds favour with us in England because, as a nation, we are lovers of horses and dogs, of the tenants of the farmer's straw-yard, of the green meadows dotted over with flocks and herds, of the glens and mountains where the wild deer roam, and of the parks where the stag and the hind shelter themselves beneath the broad oak. We patronise the turf and the hunt, the nobleman keeps his stud, the country gentleman subscribes to the "pack," the poor man is often seen sharing his scanty meal with the faithful dog that bears him company. These predilections, or fancies, or whatever else they may be called, are a part of our nationality, and it is no wonder that the productions of our artists who make such subjects their study have a particular hold on our regard. We place the name of Mr. Ansdell among those animal-painters who have rendered themselves especially conspicuous by the excellence of their productions in this department of Art ; and there are few, we suspect, intimately acquainted with his works, who will be disposed to question the propriety of the position here assigned him. Our story of his Art-life is necessarily brief, for there is little to tell beyond what his pictures point to. He was born in Liverpool in 181 5, and was educated at the Blue Coat School of that town, an institution similar to that in the metropolis. After 76 BRITISH PAINTERS. attempting, but in vain, until he had reached the age of twenty-one, to follow some business or profession apart from that which he was ultimately destined to practise, the love of Art had so firmly taken possession of his mind as to leave no other course but to settle down to painting in earnest. What induced him to turn his attention to that particular class of subjects which has always been identified with his name, it is not easy to determine ; for certainly Liverpool, with its crowded docks and marts of commerce — where he resided till about the year 1847 — is not a place suggestive of droves of cattle at pasture, or herds of mountain deer. Art is, however, independent of localit}^ and oftentimes turns into a channel the very opposite of that in which it might be expected to run. Possibly the works of Landseer may have given the bias to his mind, and rendered him ambitious of treading the same path. Be this as it may, that path was chosen, and neither the artist, nor the public jealous of the credit of the British school, has any reason to regret the decision. Mr. Ansdell's studies were pursued in the place of his birth, nor did he come to reside in London till the year just mentioned. But he must have travelled far beyond Liverpool for subject-matter long ere he quitted it as a place of residence ; for the first pictures he exhibited at the Royal Academy were, "Grouse Shooting," and "A Galloway Farm, the property of the Marquis of Bute;" this was in 1840. "The Death," con- tributed in 1843, would seem to have been suggested by some one or other of Landseer's pictures : a fine stag, hard pressed by the hounds, has taken to the water, but the lake is shallow where he has entered it, and the dogs are on him ; the animals are admirably painted, yet the subject is one of a class that must always give more pain than pleasure to contemplate. In 1846 Mr. Ansdell contributed for the first time to the British Insti- tution; it was by far the best work he had hitherto exhibited, and different in subject from his previous productions. The "Drover's Halt, Isle of Mull in the Distance," is a large picture, showing a numerous group of figures and cattle halting at a roadside bothie in the Highlands ; much study was evidently given to the composition, and great care bestowed on its execution : every object is painted with exceeding delicacy, combined with freedom of handling and force of expression. " The Stag at Bay " was exhibited in the same year at the Royal Academy : an idea of the extent of the canvas may be conceived from the fact that the animals are all life-size. The scene is one of the wildest that can be conceived — the rocky bed of a mountain A N S D E L L. 77 torrent, to which the stag has fled, like Dentatus of old, to defend himself from his assailants, one or two of whom he has already wounded ; but the hunter's rifle appears over the rock, and the noble animal is doomed to fall. The dogs are accurately drawn, and display extraordinaiy vivacity and spirit, while the stag is painted with great power and truth. Landseer has produced a similar subject, but the compositions are wholly different. In the following year Mr. Ansdell sent to the Academy "The Combat," a companion work to that last mentioned : on no former occasion, and we may almost add at no later time, has this artist shown greater power of conception and execution. The combatants, two magnificent stags, are engaged in fierce and deadly struggle ; both are nearly exhausted, and yet the battle rages furiously, while there are few accessories of any kind to draw off the attention of the spectator from the combat : a finer work of the kind has rarely been seen on the walls of our public galleries. Both this and the preceding picture must be well known from Ryall's large engravings from them. At the British Institution in 1850 was a very charming rural picture called *' Southdowns," painted in conjunction with Creswick, which we have already mentioned in our notice of the latter painter. These two artists have frequently since worked together, and with unqualified success. Of the "Southdowns" it is only necessary to say that Mr. Ansdell's sheep are as true to nature as his wilder or swifter animals — wolves, stags, and dogs. " England — a Day in the Country" (British Institution), 1851, was the joint production of Mr. Ansdell and Creswick : the title is significant of the subject ; a beautiful pastoral scene, with a team of horses in the foreground ; it is a charming picture. We find Mr. Ansdell and Creswick once more working together on a picture bearing the title of "The Park," exhibited at the British Institution in 1855. Creswick in this had the lion's share of the labour, and merits the same proportion of the honour, though Ansdell's group of startled deer on the green knoll to the left of the picture adds no little charm to the com- position. In the Academy exhibition of 1855, Mr. Ansdell's name appears against four pictures; "Feeding the Calves" was painted in conjunction with Mr. Frith, who contributed the caterer, a bonnle maiden, in the act of pouring a quantity of milk Into a trough for the young kine. This is a first- rate picture of Its kind, for the two painters appear to have vied with each other to Impart beauty and delicacy to their respective tasks. 78 BRITISH PAINTERS. We have now, though we can do so but briefly, to look at Mr. Ansdell away from the glens and highlands of Scotland, the moors and the pastures of England. In the summer of 1856, accompanied by Mr. Phillip, R.A., and again in 1857, alone, he journeyed into Spain, making the province of Seville his sketching-ground. The results of these several visits have been since manifested in the works of both painters; almost all Mr. Ansdell' s pictures dating from the period of the first journey are of Spanish subjects ; the field was new and fruitful, and if he has not reaped from it additional honours — for he could scarcely surpass what he had previously done — he has given a most pleasing variety to his productions : animals, whether Spanish or English, can only be represented well. Our two engravings are both from Spanish scenes ; not only have they the advantage of novelty, but these two pictures fairly represent Mr. Ansdell' s best style. " Isla Mayor — ^Banks of the Guadalquivir " is at first sight not much more than a study of Spanish cattle ; on a closer inspection, however, the cattle-drivers and their horses are seen to be objects of much interest, while the accuracy of the perspective can scarcely be overrated. "The Spanish Flower-Seller," in accuracy of detail, reminds us of the late J. F. Lewis, R.A. ; it is a pleasant scene enough. These Spanish pictures attracted much public attention on their first appear- ance in 1857 and 1858. Art, as Mr. Ansdell has practised it, cannot be subjected to the criticism which may be applied to historical, or even landscape, painting : commentary must be more general than specific ; for where there exists so great similarity in the materials of the pictures, there is necessarily little room for variety of description or remark. That Mr. Ansdell has closely studied animal life, that he represents it faithfully, vigorously, and picturesquely, and that his productions are among the best of their kind which our school — and, indeed, any other — has brought forward, is to pay him and them no higher compli- ment than is merited. If we had no Landseer, Ansdell would, unquestion- ably, occupy the very foremost place in this department of Art ; but there are some of his pictures that may stand in favourable juxtaposition with those of Sir Edwin : if the latter is unequalled in delineating the intelligent c[ualities of the animal tribes, the former may claim the pre-eminence in delineating their fiercer natures. On three occasions Mr. Ansdell has received the " Hey wood" medal for his works exhibited at Manchester ; and a gold medal was awarded to him t3 Ot . Q ^ H a I ^ O '^ < liSaiEt&Jtiiiiiiil < .5 15 BARKER. yg for pictures in the great Paris Exhibition of 1855 — " The Wolf-Slayer," and "Turning the Drove." In 1861 the artist was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy ; ten years later he became a full Academician. The death of Creswick, in 1869, deprived Mr. Ansdell of an earnest friend and valued fellow-worker. We do not incline to lay any stress on the pictures painted by him while an Associate. In 1871, ho\yever, he was again to the front with " Feeding the Goats in the Alhambra." " The Wandering Minstrel," exhibited in 1876, and "The Home of the Red Deer," in 1877, were again well above the average of his productions. Of another picture, exhibited in 1877, \h^ Art Journal says: "The Goatherds of Granada" is one of the most beautiful representations of a special phase of Spanish rural life Mr. Ansdell has ever painted. The composition of the group is very effective, and the whole subject most pleasing." If England possessed what France has at Versailles, a gallery almost expressly devoted to a pictorial record of her military exploits, the artist whose works would find the most prominent place in such a collection would be Mr. T. Jones Barker, who is certainly the Horace Vernet of England, our principal battle-painter ; but, nationally, we care not to " fight our battles o'er again " — at least on canvas — and we leave them to be memorialised by the pen of the historian rather than the pencil of the artist. With the exception of Maclise's two grand scenic pictures, " The Meeting of Welling- ton and Blucher at Waterloo " and " The Death of Nelson," we do not call to mind a single instance where a painter has received a commission for a picture commemorating a battle, though we have national statues and monuments of successful commanders, erected after their decease. Mr. Barker is the eldest son of Thomas Barker, who settled in Bath towards the close of the last century, and acquired a good reputation as an artist, especially by his famous picture of " The Woodman," which to this day may be seen copied on every conceivable object whereto decorative Art of any kind is capable of being applied, from the lid of a papicr-mdclie snuff-box to the signboard of a roadside or village hostelry, so universally popular did the subject become. His son was born at Bath in 181 5 ; and after receiving an education at Heckingham College, commenced the study of painting under his father; went to Paris in 1835, ^""^^ entered the 8o BRITISH PAINTERS. Studio of Horace Vernet, whose pupil he was for many years. During his residence in France Mr. Barker was a frequent exhibitor at the Salon, and received three gold medals from the Government. He painted several pictures for Louis Philippe, the principal one being a very large canvas representing " The Death of Louis XIV." It was, unfortunately, destroyed, together with one by Horace Vernet and another by Paul Delaroche, at the sacking of the Palais-Royal in 1848. For the Princess Marie, youngest daughter of Louis Philippe, Mr. Barker painted, in 1840, "The Bride of Death," for which he received the decoration of the Cross of the Legion of Honour. After the princess's death the picture was sold with the rest of her Art-works, and bought by the painter, in whose possession it has since remained. When Mr. Barker returned to England, in about 1S45, we find him exhibiting some portraits at the Royal Academy; for example, one, in that year, of Mrs. Campbell, of Islay ; and, in 1847, two single portraits, with a group entitled " Beauties of the Court of Charles II. : Portraits." In 1850 he contributed to the same gallery "News of Battle — Edinburgh after Flodden." Randolph Murray, arrayed In plate armour, having escaped from the disastrous field of Flodden, is seen riding slowly and sadly through the streets of Edinburgh, surrounded by a concourse of people demanding intelligence of the fight, as described in one of Aytoun's " Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers : " — " Round him crush the people, crjnng, ' Tell us all — oh, tell us true ! Wliere are they who went to battle, Randolph Murray, sworn to you ? Wliere are they, our brothers — children ? Have they met the English foe ? Why art thou alone, unfoUowed ? Is it weal or is it woe ? ' Like a corpse the grisly warrior looks from out his helm of steel, But no word he spoke in answer — only with his armed heel Chides his weary steed, and onward up the city streets they ride, Fathers, sisters, mothers, children, slirieking, praying, by his side : ' By the God that made thee, Randolph, tell us what mischance hath come ! ' Then be lifts his riven banner, — and the asker's voice is dumb." The picture was hung so high in the gallery it was not easy to examine it In detail, but one could see sufficient to show that the sentiment of the subject was well sustained. We were Invited by the painter. In 1853, to an incident in the life of Wellington, during his campaign in the Peninsula. Being In the village of Soraulen, near Pampeluna, on July 27th, 1813, he observed a movement BARKER. 8' of the enemy which induced him to dismount instantly from his horse, write a hurried note in pencil on the parapet of the bridge, and send it off to one of his generals by Lord Fitzroy Somerset. The incident is skilfully depicted, and the picture may be considered as the first of those scenes of modern warfare by which Mr. Barker has chiefly made his reputation, and which have become popular by means of the engraver's aid ; many of these pictures have never been exhibited except in the galleries of the printsellers for whom they were painted. Among them may be mentioned " The Meeting of Wellington and Blucher at La Belle Alliance," painted in 1851 for Alderman Sir G. F. Moon, " Lord Nelson receiving the Swords of the Spanish Officers on board the San Josef,'' painted for Messrs. Hay ward and Leggett, and the "Surrender of Napoleon IIL at Sedan," painted from sketches made on the spot by Mr. Barker, the day after the battle. They occupy, for the most part, canvases of very large dimensions. Two pictures, suggested by incidents in the Crimean campaign, were sent to the Academy exhibition of 1855; one was called "An Incident at the Battle of Balaklava," and showed a trooper's horse standing by the side of his dead master, which an eye-witness stated he saw the faithful animal do for upwards of an hour. The other represents the charger of Captain Nolan bearing back his dead master to the British lines. From 1855 to i860 Mr. Barker was absent from the exhibitions of the Royal Academy ; but in the last-named year he sent " The Horse-race at Rome," the first idea of the large engraved picture " II Corso ; " and a portrait of Lieutenant-Colonel Lockhart, M.P., painted for the County Hall, Lanark. Mr. Barker had now laid aside, at least for a time, what may be called his "war canvases," and employed his pencil on subjects of a less exciting nature. Such is his " Studio of Salvator Rosa," exhibited at the Academy in 1865 : he had sent nothing there since 1862. The composition is full of appropriate character ; it shows this wild, weird-like, yet vigorous Italian painter a prisoner among the banditti of the Abruzzi, painting the portraits of these picturesque outlaws, according to what Lady Morgan describes in her " Life of Salvator Rosa; " but for which she seems to have had little if any authority; some later writers, indeed, reject it altogether. Still the story served Mr. Barker for a capital picture. The next year he exhibited a scene from Goethe's Faust, " Margaret in the Cathedral: the Whispering of the Evil Spirit." M 82 BRITISH PAINTERS. When the Royal Academy opened its new galleries at Burlington House, Mr. Barker was there with two pictures ; one of these was a scene between "Dean Swift and Stella," as described by Mrs. Jameson, in her "Women Wooed and Won by Poets," wherein the lady, " broken in heart and blighted in name," pleads with the Dean to acknowledge her as his lawful wife; but to no purpose, though Stella was at the time drawing near to her life's end. The story is told with considerable power and pathos, and especially so if we make allowance for the fact that the artist's strength lies in subjects of a very different character. From the year 1872 Mr. Barker has exhibited nothing but war pictures ; in that year he sent to the Academy " The Melee : Charge of Prussian White Cuirassiers and Chasseurs d'Afrique, near Vionville, 15th August, 1870," — a composition much in common with all such scenes : a few men desperately engaged in the front, and in the background smoke and inextricable confu- sion ; it is almost beyond the ingenuity of any artist to give much variety to subjects of this description. In 1874 appeared " Balaklava : One of the Six Hundred;" a subject which took a wider scope in the year 1876, when he exhibited the picture we have engraved, " The Return through the Valley of Death," representing Lord George Paget, with his brave companions of the I ith Hussars and 4th Light Dragoons, about seventy men out of the " gallant six hundred," forcing their way through the forest of Russian lances vainly interposed to bar their way. We believe that every soldier here introduced is a portrait ; the picture was painted under the supervision of Lord George himself, so that the work has a national historic interest, being in every respect trustworthy. Among those of the artist's pictures which have never been brought before the public is "A Sister of Mercy" — belonging to Mr. Bartrum, of Bath. It is engraved here as an example of really good arrangement in the grouping. We can scarcely pay Mr. Barker a greater compliment than we have already paid, when we spoke of him as " the Horace Vernet of England; " certainly he remains master of the battle-field among our artists ; yet we may express a hope that he may not find subjects for future pictures in the ranks of the British armies, wherever else he may search for them. X H < P fe .- O 5 W I*) 5 ^ K 5 O •■« H !.^ nORSLEY. 83 John Callcott Horsley was born at Brompton in 1817 : at the beginning of our notice of Callcott we referred to the nature of his early surroundings. Of such parentage, and, from the earliest dawn of life, breathing as it were an atmosphere of Art, it would have been strange indeed if a child so circum- stanced had not grown up with some strong predilection in favour of one or other of those professions of which the influences surrounded and filled his home. His taste led him at a very early age towards drawing, and there are now, in the possession of his family, sketches executed by him when only eight or nine years old, that are regarded as very creditable for so young a hand, even considering the advantages which the boy-artist possessed. So soon as his friends determined that he should practise painting as a profession, he was placed, by his uncle's advice, at the academy conducted by Mr. Sass. He next entered the schools of the Royal Academy, where he passed through the usual course of study, and gained a medal for his drawings from the antique. For some little time Horsley was undecided as to the precise point to which his future efforts should be directed ; but a visit paid to a friend in Derbyshire, when he was about sixteen years of age, determined, at least for a considerable period, the matter to his own satisfaction, and that also of his friends. During his stay in that beautiful and picturesque county he made a number of sketches of Haddon Hall — the fine old mansion which has for years past proved as attractive to our "home" painters of every class as the Ducal Palace of Venice has been to our travelling artists. On his return to London, Horsley completed a picture which he called " Rent-day at Haddon Hall in the time of Queen Elizabeth," exhibited at the British Institution. This work was most favourably criticized in the journals of the day ; and being the production of a very young painter, and the first he had exhibited, his name became known in the Art-circles of the metropolis : Wilkie alludes to the picture in a letter published after his death. The scene of Horsley's next work, "Winning the Game," was also laid at Haddon Hall ; it was a view of one of the apartments, in which two or three groups of figures are introduced — some elderly people playing at chess, and some young folk occupied in, to themselves, the more important matter of courtship. After this followed, at the British Institution, "Love's Mes- senger," " Youth and Age," " Waiting for an Answer," and " The Rival Per- formers ; " all in the collection presented by Mr. Sheepshanks to the nation. Having thus far gone through, with unusual success, the ordeal of the 84 BRITISH PAINTERS. British Institution, — then a sort of probationary exhibition-room with young artists, though the works of the veterans were also to be seen there, — Horsley, in 1839, sent his first picture, "The Pride of the Village," to the Royal Academy : it was bought by Mr. Vernon previously to its public exhi- bition, and is now the property of the nation. In 1 84 1 Horsley contributed to the Royal Academy only a single painting — the "Pedlar" — very elaborately executed in all its details. In 1842 he also sent but one picture — "Winning Gloves," a title significant enough of the subject to all who know how gloves are lost and won in moments of unconsciousness : it is a pretty composition, and free from affectation or vulgarity, though the subject is below the powers of this artist. When, in 1842, the Royal Commission of Fine Arts announced their intention of awarding premiums to those artists who should furnish the most suitable cartoons for frescoes for the proposed decoration of the Houses of Parliament, Horsley entered enthusiastically into the arena of honourable artistic rivalry, and almost entirely relinquished his practice in oil-painting. The cartoon exhibition was opened in Westminster Hall in .July, 1843, and to his drawing of " St. Augustine preaching to Ethelbert and Bertha, his Christian Queen," was awarded one of the second-class prizes of ^200 — a distinction rightly earned by the generally effective cha- racter of the composition, and the powerful and truthful expression given to the individual figures. In the following year the exhibition of frescoes took place in the same edifice, when Mr. Horsley contributed two — "Prayer," illustrated by the head and bust of a female figure; and "Peace," a full-length female figure, "white-robed," pressing a dove to her bosom, and offering the olive branch, with a lion and a lamb at her feet — a more beautiful allegorical conception we scarcely remember to have seen, even from the hands of those foreign artists who, in such works, are allowed to have pre-eminence over our own. The merits of this pro- duction induced the Royal Commissioners to select its author as one of the six artists whom they appointed to execute each, respectively, an especial cartoon, with reference to its being reproduced in the House of Lords, and a sum of ^400 was awarded to each painter for his work ; but there was no stipulation that he would, as a consequence, be finally employed on the decorations of the edifice. The subject given to him was " Religion," which, according to the title appended to his work when exhibited, with a large HENRY V. WHEN I'RINCE OF WALES. From a Painting hy John Calkott Horsley, R.A. H O R S L E Y. 8s number of others, in 1845, at Westminster, was, " Exemplified in the Faith and Hope of the Cross of Christ, in the subjection of all earthly power and human distinctions to His Will, and in the common dependence of all estates and conditions of men on His word." It must suffice for us to state that a fresco of this subject ornaments the centre compartment facing the throne in the House of Peers. At this period of Mr. Horsley's history he held for two years the appoint- ment of one of the head-masters of the Government School of Art, to which he was nominated after the retirement of Air. J. R. Herbert, R.A. The announcement of the Royal Commissioners, issued in 1846, that artists were required to prepare pictures in oil, in competition for places in the houses of legislature, once more stirred up Horsley to enter the field : he contributed the fine picture that forms one of our illustrations — " Henr}^V. when Prince of Wales." The subject is supplied from the soliloquy which Shakspere, in the second part of his Henry IV., causes the young prince to utter when, on entering the bed-chamber of his father, he takes the crown from the pillow and places it on his own head, supposing that the sleep into which the monarch has fallen is the sleep of death. One of the three prizes of ^200 each was awarded to Horsley for this work — a distinction which all who saw it admitted it to merit. These national competitions seem to have awakened in the mind of Horsley a desire to employ his time almost exclusively upon historical art adapted to public edifices ; we find him engaged with a gentleman to execute in a parish church in Devonshire, which was being restored, some paintings in fresco of subjects from sacred history. Unfortunately, after the artist had occupied considerable time in designs and preparations, the idea had to be given up owing to the sudden conversion of his patron to the Romish faith. The only other works in fresco of which we have to speak are — " Satan whispering Evil Dreams into the Ear of Eve," in the Hall of Poets, in the Houses of Parliament, and two paintings illustrating passages in the life of Alfred the Great, executed at Summerleyton, the mansion of Sir Morton Peto. Entertaining but slender hope of this department of Art taking deep root in the tastes of the British public, of its being adopted in ecclesiastical decoration, or that it would be carried out by the Government to any considerable extent in the proposed adornment of the houses of legislature, Mr. Horsley turned 86 BRITISH PAINTERS. back reluctantly, yet resolutely, to his easel and canvas and his oils, though he had not altogether relinquished them when occupied with his frescoes. Mr. Horsley's relative, Sir A. W. Callcott, having, at his decease, left unfinished a picture of " Launce reproving his Dog," it was finished by the former, and exhibited under his name at the British Institution in 1850. We must not omit to mention that the eminent engineer I. K. Brunei was Horsley's brother-in-law ; a portrait of him by the artist appeared in the Academy of 1848. The "Scene from 'Don Quixote,'" one of our engravings, repre- sents the picture which gained Mr. Horsley his first step in the honours of the Academy ; it shows how the curate, the barber, the housekeeper, and her niece have entered into a conspiracy to dismantle the shelves of the knight, while he is asleep in an adjoining apartment, of the books which they consider to have been the means of "setting Don Quixote beside his senses." The curate is reading one of the volumes with mock gravity, the barber and the young female take down others and hand them to the housekeeper, who flings them out of the window. In 1863 appeared a firmly painted and very charac- teristic work, " The Morning of St. Valentine." His diploma picture in 1866 was " A Pleasant Corner." A large piece for St. Thomas's Hospital, London, engaged much of his time about 1873 and 1874; he managed, however, to contribute to the Academy " Stolen Glances " in the former year, and "Sunny Effects" in the latter. In 1877 he had in the exhibition " The World Forgetting," and "Critics on Costume — Fashions Change; " in 1878 "Cupboard Love," and "The Salute." He now passes his time between Kensington and his residence at Willesley, near Cranbrook, Kent. His son, Mr. Walter Charles Horsley, has inherited his father's power of careful elaboration and is a constant exhibitor at Burlington House. A careful examination of the works of this artist must convince the observer that he produces nothing on which the utmost care and study has not been bestowed. It is to be regretted that any impediment stood in the way of his devoting his attention to subjects of high historical character, and more particularly to sacred subjects, suited to church decoration. We should not in all probability have seen from his pencil compositions that might vie with those of Cornelius, Bendemann, Vos, Kaulbach, Wach, Begas, and other great masters of the German school ; but we might reasonably have looked for works of great interest, and manifesting high feeling united with skilful execution— works that would evidence a pure mind and a ready GILBERT. 87 pencil. Thrown back upon such subjects as the taste of the public demands, he brings to his labours all those qualities of Art that are calculated to produce the most satisfactory result — pleasing imagination, truthful drawing, vivid colouring, effective chiaroscuro, and, when the subject demands it, great elaboration : his works are comparatively few, but they are valuable. In discussing the life and works of Sir John Gilbert we are about to consider him in his threefold character of an oil painter, a water-colour painter, and an " artist on wood; " that is to say, we shall notice him under each of the divisions into which we have classed his works. John Gilbert was born at Blackheath, in the county of Kent, in 1817. His early love of Art, as well as his proficiency, was manifested when a boy at school by his carrjang off all the prizes for drawing, and, as we have heard him say, by his neglect of all other studies ; for what interest could a lad who was never happy if he had not a pencil in his hand find in geography or grammar, or working out an arithmetical question or geometrical problem ? When school-days were over he was placed in the office of a " man of business" in the City, where he not unfrequently got into trouble with his principals by employing his time in sketching all over the papers in the office, thus giving to the place anything but a commercial aspect. Here he remained two years, in a most uncongenial employment ; at the expiration of this time his friends withdrew him from the office-desk. Having determined to become an artist, he made great exertions to enter the Academy schools as a student, but, notwithstanding the encouragement he received from his kind friend Sir W. Beechey, R.A., all efforts to gain admission were unsuccessful. As many other artists have done when unable to secure whatever benefit schools of Art have to offer, he set to work to teach himself. To aid him in the acquisition of theoretical knowledge, — as, for example, the principles of composition,^ — he studied eagerly and closely Reynolds's "Discourses," and Burnet's "Hints on Painting;" but feeling that colour required other instruction than what books, however excellent, were able to supply, he looked about for some artist whose experience might initiate him into its mysteries ; such a guide he found in Mr. George Lance, the eminent fruit-painter, from whom he received most valuable instruction. These 88 B R I 1 I S H P A I N T E R S. lessons, from one of our greatest colourists, given at a time when the pupil was ripe to receive them, proved of the highest service to the student. Mr. Gilbert must have been about eighteen or twenty years of age when he made his first appearance as an exhibitor by sending to the Suffolk Street Gallery a water-colour painting, the subject of which was " Richard, Duke of Gloucester, arresting Lord Hastings at the Council in the Tower." It met with a purchaser, and the artist's good fortune animated him to future efforts. In 1838 he sent a "Portrait" to the Royal Academy, and in 1841, "Holbein painting the Portrait of Anne Boleyn ; " but the picture which first attracted our attention was one hung at the British Institution in the same year, the subject, " Don Quixote giving advice to Sancho Panza upon entering on his Government." Another subject from Don Quixote was exhibited at the British Institution in 1842, " The Duke promising Sancho the Government of an Island," which quite equalled, if it did not surpass, the former. In 1845 Gilbert quitted for a time the territory of Spanish romance, and turned over the pages of English history as Shakspere has dramatised them. One of his two pictures in the British Institution was a " Scene from King Henry VIII.,'" where the Duke of Norfolk demands from Wolsey the Chan- cellor's seal: in this work red is the ascendant colour, almost to a fault, but the incident is forcibly related in the grouping and expression of the figures. In the Academy we saw " King Henry IV.," a richly-coloured picture representing the monarch repeating the soliloquy — " Canst thou, O partial Sleep ! give thy repose To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude ? " &c. In 1850 he contributed three pictures to the British Institution : — a large composition, wherein are introduced the principal characters of Shakspere, each so faithfully personified that we have no difficulty in recognising them all; another, " A Troop of Dragoons " on their march, in a storm of rain — a clever and most truthful sketch, which we have engraved ; and a study of a negro's head, drawn in profile, to which the artist gave the fanciful title of "Aladdin's Present to the Sultan." In the Academy he had, half hidden in the octagon room, a very beautiful work, careful in detail and finish, " Touchstone and the Shepherd in the Forest of Arden." "Don Sancho Panza, Governor of Barataria," exhibited at the British < t o ■= Pi "f Q .I' 3 § SANCHO PANZA. From a Faulting ly Sir John Gilbert, R.A. GILBERT. 89 Institution in 185 1, is another of the works of this artist, selected by us as examples of his style, — it would have been a positive absurdity to think of "illustrating" a biography of Sir John Gilbert without a specimen of his Quixotic inclinations; his Don Sancho is a capital picture, faithful to the humorous character given by the novelist. Very different in subject and in feeling is " The Destruction of Job's Flock," in the Academy exhibition of the same year, — a picture fully sustaining the reputation of the artist as an original and varied thinker, quite as capable of treating powerfully and appropriately the narratives of Scripture as those of fiction or of the dramatic historian. As if for the purpose of showing his versatility of thought, he sent to the British Institution, in 1852, two paintings which might not unaptly pass, relatively to each other, as emblematic of "Peace" and "War; " one, the "Charge of Prince Rupert's Cavalry at the Battle of Naseby," so full of spirit and movement that we fancy we hear the trampling of the host of iron- heeled chargers as they rush up the high ground ; the other, a small picture, graceful in arrangement and brilliant in display, of " Her Majesty the Queen holding a Drawing-room at St. James's Palace." A picture entitled "A Spanish Landscape and Figures," which was exhibited at the British Institution in 1853, presents a rich combination of colours harmoniously disposed, and a masterly grouping of the figures — a Spanish peasant, his wife and child, the two last mounted on an ass led by the man. This work, we believe, has been reproduced, in chromo-litho- graphy, for the Art Union of Glasgow. In 1854 he sent to the same gallery " Sancho Panza informing his Wife of his coming Dignity, and of his intention to make his Daughter a Countess," a composition in which the assumed gravity of the expectant Governor of Barataria is admirably represented. We should be well pleased to see an illustrated edition of "Don Quixote" from the hand of Gilbert, whose mind, through his pencil, enters so completely into the spirit of the story ; the book could not fail of being popular : why has it never been undertaken ? Noticeable amongst his works contributed to the Royal Academy are : "Rembrandt," in 1867; "Charles I. leaving Westminster Hall after the Sentence of Death had been passed," in 1872, in which year he at last became an A.R.A. ; and the "Field of the Cloth of Gold," in 1874. "Cardinal Wolsey at Leicester Abbey," and " The Doge and Senators of Venice in N go BRITISH PAINTERS. Council," were his contributions in 1877, when he attained the honour of Royal Academician. We now turn to the artist's water-colours. He was elected Associate Exhibitor of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours in 1852, and Member in the year following ; and none can doubt that it gained considerable accession of strength by his election, and especially in a department of Art that required new and vigorous blood infused into it. The identity of Gilbert's water-colour pictures with those he has executed in oil is manifest in the powerful expression of character, brilliant colouring, effective composition, and substantial execution, and in similarity of subject ; but his style of execution differs — it is far more elaborated, and it seems to be the result of his constant occupation in drawing upon wood ; his manipula- tion is characterized by what is known in wood-engraving as " cross-hatching," that is, by intersecting lines. There is, however, no evidence of feebleness of touch, nor of want of vigour in any way; the result is altogether satis- factory. The most important of his water-colour pictures are " Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and his two Murderers " (1852) ; " Richard II. resigning his Crown to Bolingbroke " (1853) ; " The Standard-Bearer," a noble figure, worthy of Velasquez, and " Her Majesty the Queen inspecting the Wounded Coldstream Guards in the Hall of Buckingham Palace" (1856). He was knighted by the Queen in 1872, and has been President of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours for some years. Some of his works appeared at the Paris Exposition of 1878. Having thus noticed the works of Sir John Gilbert in oil and water-colour, it remains for us to speak of him as an "artist on wood." It is necessary to go back several years of his life to acquaint the reader with Gilbert's first essay as "a wood-draftsman;" in fact, to his earliest appearance as an exhibitor. A series of pen-and-ink sketches he had made for his amusement was shown by a common friend to Mr. Sheepshanks, to whom the nation is so largely indebted for his munificent gift of pictures, and who then resided at Blackheath, where the artist also lived. Mr. Sheepshanks suggested to Gilbert the desirableness of his turning his attention to drawing on wood designs for illustrating books. Acting upon the suggestion, he completed a set of drawings to illustrate "Nursery Rhymes; " but his st3'le of pen- cilling differed so much from all preceding and contemporaneous drawings that the engravers were at first puzzled not a little to know how to render D O B S O lY. 91 them ; for we should tell the uninitiated of our readers that it is not every drawing which looks well on the wood that will "cut well," to use a technical term. Gilbert's success in this work brought him into good repute with the book-publishers, and he was soon engaged on a variety of publica- tions; he also undertook and carried through an elaborate series of chrono- logical designs of English history, which were reproduced in lithography. When the Illustrated London News was projected, in 1842, the proprietors applied to Gilbert for his aid ; he commenced with the first number of that paper, by contributing a set of drawings to illustrate the Oweeia' s Bal Masque. We may remark, with reference to these wood-drawings, that, notwithstanding his unwearied industry, he never could have got through the prodigious amount of work placed in his hands, if he had not been exceedingly rapid in his execution. He very rarely makes any previous sketch of his subject, but at once proceeds to draw it on the wood, as if it were a matter he had long thought over and studied. High up in the list of the present historical painters is jNIr. Dobson. He was born in 1 817, in the city of Hamburg, where his father, an English- man, was for many years engaged as a merchant : circumstances, however, compelled him, in 1826, to come to London with his family. Not very long after their return thither, his son commenced the study of Art by drawing in the British Museum, and subsequently was admitted into the schools of the Royal Academy. His first lessons in painting were received from Mr. Edward Opie, of Plymouth, nephew of the late John Opie, R.A. ; but about the year 1835, ^ special introduction to Sir C. L. Eastlake procured for him, during many years, the advantage of the president's instruction and advice : these were given gratuitously, — indeed. Sir Charles, we believe, never took pupils, in the ordinary acceptation of the term ; the assistance rendered to Mr. Dobson was given out of kindness, and from the interest felt in the success of the young artist, who has always expressed himself with gratitude for the favour bestowed on him. In 1843 he accepted the appointment of head master of the Birmingham School of Design. This post he occupied two years, resigning it in order to prosecute his studies in Italy : on his retirement the pupils presented him with a piece of plate, in acknowledgment of the value of his services. 92 BRITISH PAINTERS. Faithful to his Alma Mater, Mr. Dobson's pictures have been contri- buted only to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, except when they were transferred thence to some one or other of the provincial galleries. His earliest exhibited work was a subject from Parnell's poem of "The Hermit;" it belongs to the date 1842. In the following year he sent two portraits, and a scene from "Paul and Virginia," the latter a single figure, but one characterized by considerable taste. In 1845 he went to Italy; the first result of his visit was seen in 1846, when he exhibited " A Young Italian Goatherd." In the following year he was absent from the Royal Academy ; but to the exhibition held in Westminster Hall, under the auspices of "Her Majesty's Commissioners of the Fine Arts," he sent two pictures, one being " Lamentation," a composition evidently suggested by Herod's decree concerning the young Hebrew children. The second picture referred to was " Boadicea meditating Revenge against the Romans:" this also bore evidence of great power of conception, and of skilful and judicious treatment. In 1850 he ventured upon new ground, and commenced that series of pictures which may almost come under the denomination of " Sacred Art; " some of them, indeed, fully justify such a title : it is this class of works which has placed Mr. Dobson in the high position he now occupies. The earliest of these works, exhibited in the year just mentioned, were, a "Portrait of a Lady, as St. Cecilia," "The Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus," and " St. John the Evangelist," all of them productions of great merit, both as regards feeling and artistic execution ; the second of the three named is treated after the manner of the early Italian painters, with some of whom it will bear a very favourable comparison. " St. John leading the Virgin to his Home after the Crucifixion," exhibited in the following year, is a composition distinguished by deep pathos, and shows that the artist's visit to the galleries of Italy had exercised a powerful and beneficial influence on his mind. In 1853 Mr. Dobson exhibited two pictures, one, " Tobias, with Raphael, his Guardian-angel, on their Journey to Medea," is in the possession of Mr. Eden, of Preston. The two figures, habited as pilgrims, are ascending a gentle acclivity : the head of young Tobias is exquisitely tender in expression, but Raphael is scarcely an "angelic vision," though the work approaches the character of those now generally known as Raffaclksque. The THE CHAKllY UF DUKCAS. Fy07n a Painting hy William Charles Thomas DoVscn, R.A. D n S lY. gj artist is quite content to come a//er him of Urbino, and cares not to look farther back in the catalogue of painters for a model of imitation : in doing this he acts wisely and well. The second picture, called the " Chorister," was unfortunately placed in the octagon room, and in a light that precluded any satisfactory judgment upon it. "The Charity of Dorcas," engraved in this work, was exhibited in 1854, and belonged to Mr. Lewis Pocock, one of the secretaries of the Art Union of London. It is a work of an elevated character, perhaps showing a little too much of the appearance of an argumcnium ad miseri- cordiam in the condition of the destitute to be altogether agreeable, yet still it must be regarded as the emanation of a mind seeking to inculcate a holy lesson in a most attractive form ; and the picture is one its owner may well feel proud in possessing. We presume it was in consequence of the Queen seeing this picture in the Academy that Mr. Dobson had the honour of receiving a commission from her Majesty to execute a similar subject : this, which was exhibited in the following year, received the title of " The Alms- deeds of Dorcas." The success attending these two productions induced the artist, in 1856, to exhibit another of a like character ; but this time, instead of Dorcas, the principal personage in the scene is Job, ere the Chaldeans and Sabeans had stripped him of his possessions, the hurricane from the wilderness had left him childless, and the hand of Satan smitten his body with a loathsome disease. The picture, which bears the title of "The Prosperous Days of Job," represents the patriarch, as he describes himself, " a father to the poor," visiting the sick and offering consolation to the afflicted: he is sur- rounded by numerous candidates for his sympathy and benevolence. The grouping is very masterly, and the varied expressions of the faces dis- tinctly declare the sufferings of the necessitous. The colouring is remark- ably rich and brilliant ; too much so, perhaps, in the draperies, for the condition of the wearers : their garments, though tattered, appear made of new material. In another room there hung, at the same time, what we have always considered the most important work this artist has produced : it is called "The Parable of the Children in the Market-Place," and was purchased by Messrs. Henry Graves & Co., we believe for the purpose chiefly of having it engraved — and a very charming subject it is for a print. The whole composition is full of appropriate subject, deeply studied. 94 BRITISH PAINTERS. and most carefully carried out : a picture of undoubtedly high character, and one of the best in the Academy exhibition of that year. "Reading the Psalms" has come into public notice principally through the engraving by S. Cousins, R.A. ; it now belongs, we believe, to the Baroness Burdett Coutts. We know few pictures of modern Art, of the same class, that so powerfully and feelingly express the guilelessness of childhood as does this. " The Child Jesus going down with His Parents to Nazareth," forms one of our illustrations; the purity and sweetness of this work, with its exquisite colour and the chastity of its expression, render it a production of rare excellence. Mr. Dobson became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1859, and at about the same period made a stay of several months in Dresden. Consider- able as the effect of the study of German Art has been on many of his later productions, it is quite an open question whether the alteration has taken place in the best direction. Palgrave, in " Essays on Art," speaking of 1864, says, " Mr. Dobson seems to have shown some advance this year towards a larger style. While prettiness holds, as it always will hold, its place in Art, we can hardly ask for prettier faces and attitudes than his two fiiir damsels with their flowers and their books." The most noticeable of his pictures of late years are, " Train up a child in the way he should go," exhibited in i860 ; " The Child Jesus in the Temple," in 1866; "A Crown to her Husband," in 1S72 ; "Rebecca," in 1876; and "Mother and Child," in 1878. We must also add to the list "Paul at Philippi," a work of considerable power. This last was made over to the Academy on his becoming an Academician in 1873. Besides this he is also a member of the Society of Painters in Water-colours, several of his works in this department appearing in the Paris Exposition of 1878. It is scarcely possible to look at any of Mr. Dobson's productions without a feeling of assurance that he is animated by the highest spirit of Art : his aim is to employ it for the best purposes, not indirectly, as some artists do, but openly and avowedly to make it a great teacher of that which is true and good. He has that within him which ought to lead to higher ground than any he has yet taken, and which would fully justify any pretension of such a nature. Our school is lamentably deficient in painters oi sacred art ; we have an abundance of genre artists, and some few historical ; what is wanted are men who will be to the Protestant faith what Raffaelle, Correggio, the THE CHILD JESUS GOING DOWN WIIH HIS PARENTS TO NAZARETH. From a Painting by William Charles T/wmas Dcbson, R.A. /■• R ] r If. 95 Carracci, and others before and after, were to the faith of the Romish Church. The Pre-Raffaellites of the day are not the men for such work ; the mind of Mr. Dobson, and his style of painting, are adapted to the requirements of the time ; his imagination can take in a wide expanse of pure and noble thoughts, without treading on the verge of eccentricity : his compositions are effective and graceful, and his colouring brilliant, even in a school where this quality is a distinguishing feature. We cannot afford to see such a painter spending even a portion of his time upon the heads of little children, beautiful as these pictures are ; nor can we desire to find, as some of his pictures have shown, the influence of the German school pervading his works. Looking at the histories of the various schools of painting since the revival of Art, it may be affirmed without much fear of contradiction that not one presents a parallel case of rapid improvement to our own. It occupied the Italians three centuries, from the thirteenth to the fifteenth, to develop their school, and another century firmly to establish it. The Spanish school, commencing about the middle of the fifteenth century, reached its climax, in the works of Murillo and Velasquez, towards the close of the seventeenth. That of the Flemings and Dutch, which bear so close a resemblance, and therefore may be coupled together, began in the middle of the fifteenth century, and attained its highest point about the end of the seventeenth. The foundation of the French school was laid early in the seventeenth centur}-; and though it has at present neither a Nicholas Poussin nor a Claude, it can scarcely be said to be on its decline. Fifty years have sufficed to place England on a level with the best Art- epoch of the Continent ; for if we have not produced a Raffaelle, a Guido, or a Leonardo da Vinci, it ought to be borne in mind that we have exhibited a greater diversity of talent and more originality than the most famous schools of Italy ever sent forth. Protestantism effected almost as wondrous a change in Art as in religious forms and ceremonies. It opened a wider field for the talents of the painter ; and as the doctrines of Calvin and Luther soon spread over the Low Countries, there arose in them the numerous classes of land- scape and gcurc painters who have served more or less as models for those of our own school. What sacred and legendar)^ Art suggested to the schools of Italy, the 96 BRITISH PAINTERS. manners and customs of their country to those of Holland and Flanders, our own painters have found, to a very considerable extent, in English literature ; less perhaps in our history than in works of fiction, much of which, however, possesses the character of fact. British Art has drawn largely, though not deeply, from the writings of the dramatist and the novelist — so largely and with such constant repetition as to render it desirable that our artists should seek elsewhere, or in some new channel, for such fountains of inspiration as they stand in need of. Our prose writers and our poets are far from exhausted, nor would we have them neglected, but we should like to see the treasure-hunter looking deeper than the surface, and into springs that have not yet lost all their freshness ; or, in other words, if their reading were more discursive their pictures would exhibit greater originality. Shakspere and Goldsmith, Sterne, Scott, and Byron, have been " on duty " during the last quarter of a century. It is quite time they were relieved. We do not intend these remarks as applic- able especially to the artist whose works we are about to introduce to the reader; they refer to owx genre painters generally, of whom Mr. Frith is one, but one also far less amenable to our strictures than the majority of his compeers. William Powell Frith, R.A., was born in 1819 at Studley, a village near Ripon, in Yorkshire. His father, a man of taste, and an enthusiastic lover of Art, encouraged in his son the earliest indications of the talent which it was evident the boy possessed ; every opportunity was afforded him to copy the best pictures and prints that came within reach, and thus the groundwork of future success was laid without any of those obstacles which so frequently impede the progress of the young artist. The father desired to see his child grow up to be a great painter ; the prospect of his arriving at excellence was the darling hope of the parent, who, unhappily, did not live to witness his success, as he was removed by death when the lad had scarcely reached his sixteenth year. The loss did not, however, affect the career of the young artist; he continued his elementary studies, and in 1835 was placed in the Art academy in Bloomsbury Street, then conducted by Mr. Sass, and now by Mr. F. S. Cary, from whose schools many of our most esteemed painters, and several who have gained distinguished rank at the Royal Academy, have come forth. During the three years Frith continued here, his aim was to perfect himself in drawing and the art of composition, well knowing that these must ever be considered the primary elements of a good artist. To colouring he paid comparatively little attention. In 1839 he exhibited at the British FRITH. 97 Institution his first picture, a small portrait of one of Mr. Sass's children, and to the same gallery, in the following year, "Othello and Desdemona." Mr. Frith made in this year his first appearance within the walls of the Academy by his contribution of a picture representing " Malvolio before the Countess Olivia," a subject which Maclise has so ably portrayed in the picture now in the Vernon collection. Mr. Frith's solitary contribution to the Academy exhibition of 1842 was an illustration of a passage from one of our novelists — Goldsmith, whose " Vicar of Wakefield" has perhaps proved a more profitable mine of wealth to the painters of our school than any other tale that was ever written. The scene he selected is that where, at the suggestion of Mrs. Primrose, Olivia and the Squire are standing up, dos a dos, to ascertain which is the taller. Other characters, the Vicar and the younger members of his family, are also introduced into the work, forming a group of exceeding interest, each one of whom seems to be the veritable personage drawn by Goldsmith. The picture was purchased on the day of opening the exhibition. Of the two pictures sent by Frith to the British Institution in 1843, one — " Dolly Varden," from Dickens's " Barnaby Rudge" — is too well known by the engraving executed from it to require description ; the other, the " Duel Scene," in the play of Twelfth Night, had been exhibited the preceding year at the Gallery of the Birmingham Society of Artists, where it soon found a purchaser. "Sterne in the Shop of the Grisette," is the title of a little picture exhibited at the British Institution in 1845; it offers some valuable artistic qualities, but must not be compared with other works by the same hand. In the Royal Academy he had a " Portrait" of a young lady, sweet and elegant in expression, and the "Village Pastor," which has been engraved on a large scale by F. Holl, and is deservedly a most popular print. The readers of Goldsmith's "Deserted Village" will easily recall to mind the lines selected by the artist for illustration, though the numerous incidents he has introduced into the composition render it rather the epitome of the entire poem than the embodiment of a solitary passage. The picture was the means of placing the artist on the roll of Associates of the Royal Academy, to which he was elected in the autumn of the year. In 1847 he exhibited at the Academy the largest picture, if we recollect rightly, he had hitherto painted — " English Merry-making a Hundred Years o gS BlilTISH PAINTERS. ago," a composition of numerous rustic figures, appropriately costumed In the dresses of the period, and variously engaged in making holiday under and about a huge tree on the village-green. Of all the pictures, however, which this artist has produced, not one in our opinion surpasses, for originality of thought and powerful treatment, the first on the list of three exhibited in 1848 — "An Old Woman accused of bewitching a Peasant Girl," in the time of James I. The scene lies in an apartment of a fine old mansion, in which the owner, who is also the justice, sits to hear the accusation ; the room is filled with numerous individuals assembled either as curious spectators or as persons interested in the case. To describe the composition in detail would occupy far more space than we can allow to it ; it must suffice that we repeat the opinion expressed in a critical report of the year, that it is a work exhibiting "a rare combina- tion of genius and industry." The reader must form his own judgment from the engraving we give of the scene from Moliere's " Bourgeois Gentilhomme," that in which M. Jourdain, dressed in a red coat trimmed with gold lace, is bowing Dorimene out of the room : the costumes and characters of the two figures are painted with undoubted truth and vigour of touch. We admire Mr. Frith's picture of 1849 — "Coming of Age" — beyond many of his other productions ; it carries us back to the era of the " Virgin Queen," and represents the eldest scion of a noble house standing on the steps of a magnificent baronial mansion, his paternal home, and surrounded by his family, to receive the congratulations of his father's tenantry, for whom a substantial repast is being set out in the court-yard. There are upwards of sixty figures introduced into the composition, each one a character carefully studied, and sustaining its individuality no less than its presumed right to be present on such an occasion. Many of our readers have doubtless seen Mr. HoU's fine engraving from the picture, which was presented to the subscribers to the Art Union of Glasgow. In the Academy exhibition of 1850 Frith exhibited a subject from " Don Quixote," the passage of the narrative which describes Sancho as telling a tale to the Duke and Duchess, to prove that the Knight of La Mancha is at the bottom of the table. Sancho is placed with his back to the spectator, consequently the interest of the composition is centred in the figures of the Duke and Duchess and in that of Don Quixote, who is rising from his seat HOOK. 99 as if to address his host. There are other personages introduced into the composition— the Duke's chaplain, and a group of ladies-in-waiting; the faces of the latter, as in all Frith' s pictures, possessing charms enough to woo an anchorite from his cloister. In 1853 Mr. Frith was elevated to the full honours of the Academy; two years afterwards he exhibited no less than five pictures, the most attractive of these being " Life at the Sea-side." This treats a delicate subject very happily, with a clever avoidance of caricature. It was purchased, when on the easel, by Messrs. Lloyd Brothers, the print publishers, but when the Queen saw it on visiting the Academy, Her Majesty at once expressed a desire to possess it. Messrs. Lloyd, hearing of the fact, relinquished their title to the work under conditions not unfavourable to themselves, and the picture is now royal property ; the Queen allowing Messrs. Lloyd to have it for a time, that it might be engraved. The year 1858 witnessed the completion of the "Derby Day," which there can be no hesitation in pronouncing the most popular of the artist's pieces ; some remarks on it will be found in Modern Painters : it is now in the National Gallery, London. For "The Railway Station," exhibited in 1862, he received no less than ^9,000. His " Marriage of the Prince of Wales" was painted for the Queen in 1865, and was sent by her Majesty to the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, 1876. We may also mention two pictures of 1870, " Sir Roger de Coverley and the Perverse Widow," and "At Homburg ; " "Breakfast Time," contributed to the Royal Academy in 1873, a year also marked by two striking pictures of Flower Girls ; and in 1876, "The Lovers' Seat." In addition to working in his own special line, Mr. Frith has painted many portraits, chiefly of popular public performers, such as Mrs. Rousby, Mr. Sothern, and others. His " Road to Ruin," exhibited in 1878, commanded general admiration. The father of Mr. Hook held an important Government post on the coast of Africa, where, we believe, he died ; his grandfather on the maternal side was Dr. Adam Clarke, the distinguished biblical commentator. Mr. Hook was born in London in 1819, and entered the schools of the Royal Academy at an early age, giving proofs of his industry and ability by gaining, in 1843, for the best copy in the School of Painting, the silver medal, with the Lectures 100 BRITISH PAINTERS. of Professors Barry, Opie, and Fuseli, and the silver medal for the best draw- ing from the living- model. In 1846 he had awarded to him the gold medal of the Academy, with the Discourses of the Presidents Reynolds and West, for the best historical painting in oil of " The Finding of the Body of Harold." We are accustomed to hear outcries and complaints against the Academy, as an institution effecting little or nothing for the good of Art : now, admitting that, in comparison with many of the Continental schools, it does not offer such advantages as the country has a right to look for, and also that there is much in it requiring a radical change, it cannot be denied that the majority of our best artists have been educated in its schools, and stimulated to exertion by the rewards and encouragements it holds out to the young student, while there is not an artist in the kingdom who is not emulous of being associated with its members, not because the privilege necessarily stamps its possessor as one among our greatest artists, but because he is presumed to be, by those who are looked upon as the best judges and whose opinion carries weight with the public, worthy of the distinction ; and thus the painter, if a good one, and conscious of his own deserts — for few men are blind to their merits or demerits — feels that his talents are recognised by his professional brethren; if a bad one, the cabalistic letters "R.A." after his name give him a position he would never attain without them, and are at least a sign of presumptive excellence, and bear a proportionate value. Mr. Hook exhibited his first work at the Academy exhibition in 1839, i.e. three years after his admission to the schools of that institution. " The Hard Task " was the title he chose for this earliest essay. In 1842, the year before he gained the silver medals, he exhibited a portrait of a youth, and in 1844 an incident from Boccaccio, " Pamphilus relating his Story." In 1846, the year wherein the gold medal was awarded to him, he exhibited another picture of good promise, "The Controversy between Lady Jane Grey and Father Feckenham, who was sent to her from Queen Mary, two days before her death, to try to convert her to Romanism : " it was unfortunately so ill-placed — in the room usually assigned to architectural subjects — that it was impossible to judge of its real worth. Stimulated no doubt by his success in the competition for the gold medal, Mr. Hook essayed in 1847 a work of a higher order than any he had yet attempted ; for it will scarcely be denied that subjects from sacred history, however much they approximate in character to the ordinary inci- HOOK. loi dents of life, require a more elevated style of treatment than any other class of subject. We can never dissociate from the mind the idea that the commonest event, if such a term may be employed when referring to biblical history, which is therein recorded, is separated by a wide line of demarca- tion from what may occur among ourselves ; and it can only be truly repre- sented by the art of the painter when he feels that he is illustrating a passage of sacred history ; it must be treated religiously no less than artistically. " Rispah watching the Dead Sons of Saul," contributed by Mr. Hook to the British Institution, is a difficult subject for a young painter to grapple with ; Mr. Hook evidently found it so, but the work displays considerable skill in the disposition and foreshortening of the lifeless figures, and a know- led"-e of colourinar in the distinction between the flesh-tints of the dead and those of the living. In 1849 Mr. Hook commenced the series of subjects, for we scarcely can include his picture of 1847 among the number, from Venetian history, real and fabled, with which his name is now closely identified : he sent to the British Institution a painting entitled "Venice — 1550," illustrating a presumed period in the annals of the republic, when, as the poet says, the nobles — " Did please to play the thieves for wives." To the British Institution, in 1850, Mr. Hook sent "The Chevalier Bayard departing from Brescia," a companion picture to one exhibited in the Academy the preceding year : the Chevalier is restored to health, and is preparing to go forth once more in the pursuit of new honours ; his groom is buckling on his spurs, and the ladies to whom he is so greatly indebted for their careful nursing, present him at parting with souvenirs of their companionship during the days of sickness and suffering ; we have always considered this picture one of the most charming works of the artist. In the autumn of this year Mr. Hook was elected an Associate of the Academy. " The Rescue of the Brides of Venice," exhibited in the Academy in 1851, was among the chief attractions of the annual collection : the ladies have been captured by pirates, who are surprised at Caorli, while dividing their spoil, by the young nobles of Venice and their retainers : there is a sharp conflict going on in boats ; the great object of the rescuers, next to the liberation of the captives, is to protect them from the dangers oi the encounter. loz ' BRITISH PAINTERS. The scene is full of excitement ; the grouping of the figures is good, the general design most artistic, and it is carried out in all its details with vigour and great ability. His second picture of this year, " The Defeat of Shylock," is the "pound of flesh " scene from Othello ; the characters here brought into view are presented with a just discrimination of the dramatist's intentions. In 1854, however, Mr. Hook entirely lost sight of Venice, her brides, her cavaliers, her gondolas, the water-gates of her palaces, and her dingy canals, and found something to suit his pencil in the hedgerows and corn-fields of old England. We always like to see a painter of acknowledged ability and genius turning his thoughts into a new channel, especially when, as in this case, the diversion is favourable to the artist : the world is often apt to think — and generally the suspicion is well founded — that, in dramatic phraseology, his powers cannot reach beyond a certain line of characters. We believe the chief reason why artists so rarely attempt novelties is that they are content to wear the laurels gained in one service, united with the apprehension that a failure in another would involve the partial loss of those they have already won. Possibly, too, they may entertain feelings similar to those which, we believe, most actors possess, who would greatly prefer to play the same character over and over again, to undergoing the labour and study of a new one. Of the three pictures exhibited by Mr. Hook in 1854, one, "A Rest by the Wayside," represented a group of noble trees, thickly clustering shrubs, and verdant herbage, the former serving to shelter a gipsy woman and her child resting under their shadow : the foliage is pencilled with truth and delicacy ; we scarcely remember to have seen a better piece of landscape- painting by a professed historical painter. Another owes its origin to the history of the Huguenots ; it is called " Time of the Persecution of the Reformers in Paris;" it forms one of our illustrations: this picture is, without doubt, one of the artist's best productions. It represents a Pro- testant family passing the image of the Virgin in the public streets without paying it the homage which the Catholics required of the passengers, by uncovering the head: a zealous soldier " unbonnets " the recusant with his lance, as no Catholic would pollute his fingers by contact with anything worn by a heretic ; the priest is directing the attention of the chief of the family to the figure which he has passed unnoticed : the earnest look of the wife, and the horror of the young boy are points in the composition which the painter has rendered very expressively. GIL L. ■03 In 1855 Mr. Hook sent to the Academy, amongst other pictures, " Market Morning," a bit of genuine English scenery, exquisitely wrought out; in 1 86 1, when he was made Academician, " Leaving Cornwall for the Whitby Fishing." From this time he seems to have transferred the most part of his attention from historical to marine pieces. Thus we find him accredited with "The Mackerel Take" and "Breton Fishermen's Wives" in 1865; with "Digging for Sand Eels" and "Mother Carey's Chickens" in 1867; in 1871 with some Norwegian pieces, "Salmon-Trappers, Norway," "Market Girls at a Fjord ; " in 1874, with " Under the Lea of a Rock " and " Jetsam and Flotsam;" in 1877, with " Friends in Rough Weather ; " and in 1878 with "The Coral Fisher." We have reserved for special mention "The Samphire-Gatherer " (1875), of which the Art Jounial says, " A seaside piece, representing a lusty lass on the edge of sheer-down cliffs, pursuing her risky calling, while the deep blue sea at foot beats lazily against a long shore-line of perpendicular rock, is a splendid specimen of sea-painting, intensely rich in tint and tone and strikingly illustrative of what has been said of Hook, that he is one of the few artists of the day capable of painting Nature as Nature herself ought to be painted." Were the merits of British landscape-painters estimated by the Academical honours bestowed on them, these artists would hold but a very minor rank in the scale of Art. Yet ignored as they are, almost systematically, by those who might confer due honour, there is no question but that landscape- painting finds as numerous a class of admirers among collectors and the public generally as any other kind of pictorial Art. This is proved by the prices paid for landscape-subjects when obtained either direct from the artist or when offered at public sales ; the works of Turner, Stanfield, the Linnells, D. Cox, and many others who might be named, realising prices as high, if not higher, than do the majority of figure-subjects ; and so long as our painters maintain the excellence they have reached in this department, there is little apprehension of any diminution in the demand for their works. The artist whose name is now before us is one who has been slowly working his way to a good reputation as a landscape-painter. Like many others similarly circumstanced, he has found great difficulties in his onward path ; but diligence and perseverance have enabled him to surmount them, and his productions are now finding a place in the collections of amateurs 104 BRITISH PAINTERS. able to appreciate their worth. Mr. Gill was born at Islington on the 29th of November, 1820, whither his father had come up from Aylsham, near Norwich, to seek employment as a "japanner" in Clerkenwell, a locality where such work was, half a century ago, carried on to a consider- able extent. The natural talent of the elder Gill caused him to find employment in painting designs on Japan ware : but soon feeling sufficient confidence in himself to aim at something higher than this mechanical Art, though he never had any instruction, he quitted its pursuit and commenced practising portraiture and animal-painting. About the year 1823 he left London and travelled through the country following his profession, and ultimately settled at Ludlow, in Shropshire : I find his name as an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy — principally of subjects of " still-life." His son, who early gave indications of inheriting his father's love of Art, was attracted, by the picturesque scenery round about their place of residence, to adopt landscape-painting ; and many of his youthful days were devoted to sketching on the banks of the river that flows past Ludlow; while the evenings were given to drawing the human figure and elementary outlines under the guidance of his father — his only instructor, with the exception of a few months' study with an artist named Thornecraft, who had been a pupil of Glover. After some residence at Ludlow, Mr. Gill's family left the town and settled at Hereford. Here the young artist had a wider and still more picturesque field of study, especially amid the beautiful scenery of the Wye : here, too, he had many kind patrons with whom his early performances found favour ; among whom he mentions particularly the late Mr. Charles Phillips, the barrister, who purchased several of his pictures, and procured him commissions for others: one of these works, " The Village of Tintern, on the Wye," was painted for Mr., now Sir W. H. Bodkin. Furnished with letters of introduction, he came up to London in 1841, taking Birmingham on his route. The exhibition of the Society of Artists was then open in the town ; it was the first display of the kind Mr. Gill had ever seen ; David Cox happened to have several examples in the gallery, and these works of the great landscape-painter, with whom he subsequently had an interview at his residence near Birmingham, made a powerful impression on his mind. Two years after his arrival in London, Mr. Gill was admitted a student of the Royal Academy. The first picture he sent to a metropolitan exhibition was one contributed GILL. '05 to the British Institution in 1842, — "View in Croft Park, Herefordshire," painted for Mr. Charles Phillips. His first appearance as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy was in the same year, when he sent to the gallery " Peasants distressed in a Thunder-Storm." One of three pictures, " Storm and Shipwreck," sent to the Academy in 1845, found a purchaser in Colonel Colby, of Fynone, South Wales. It would prove a monotonous narrative to describe the numerous pictures painted by this artist : with a few exceptions they are drawn from the scener}' of Wales, and chiefly from the northern part of the Principality ; from the rocky sea-coast, the banks of rivers, and from streams having a sufficient volume of water to furnish a cataract on a small scale. While his pencil often realises with due gentleness the quietude of nature, it is equally, perhaps more, successful in representing the storm and the angry strife of the elements ; his more attractive works, perhaps, may be placed under the latter class. "A Storm-Scene at St. Gowan's," a majestic promontory at the southern extremity of Pembrokeshire, exhibited at the Academy in 1846, is a small picture representing the sea dashing furiously upon a rocky shore. The management of the white spray tells powerfully in opposition to the darker objects brought into the composition ; it is thrown high over the rocks, while the whole scene is portrayed with much truth and spirit. "Landscape, with Cattle — Evening" (British Institution, 1857), is a sweet little picture, remark- able for sobriety and truth : the animals are well grouped and carefully drawn. In the " Fall of the Llugwy, Bettvvs-y-Coed " (Royal Academy, 1 860), the artist has employed his materials to good purpose ; the scene is faithfully transferred to the canvas. In the British Institution gallery of the same year was another excellent view on the Llugwy, the "Fall near Pont Gyfyng;" and at the Academy, in 1863, a second version, but differently treated, of the Fall at Bettwys-y-Coed : all these pictures worthily represent the beauties of a certain class of Welsh scenery. " Rhaiadr Du, North Wales," in the Royal Academy exhibition of 1861, may be classed among Mr. Gill's best works of this period. " Hardraw Scar, near Hawes, Yorkshire," and a canvas with the simple title of "Rapids," both exhibited at the British Institution in 1S64, are to be commended for most effective water-expression ; the former as a cascade, the latter as a swiftly flowing river. About this time Mr. Gill must have been taking note of the scenery of p io6 BRITISH PAINTERS. Scotland, passing from the thickly wooded glens and picturesque waterfalls of Wales to the bolder scenery of the north, on the banks of the Clyde ; for we find him exhibiting at the British Institution in 1865, "On the Clyde, Stonebyres, above the Fall," admirably rendered, with more delicacy of colour and better feeling for tree-forms than had hitherto been his wont ; and at the Academy in 1866, " Fall on the River Clyde, Cora Linn; " it shows power of painting and good composition, though the rocks, generally this artist's weak point, lack solidity. "A Storm on the Coast," exhibited with the latter, is a right good picture. Except only as regards the forms of the waves, his picture, " Storm on a Rocky Coast — Wreck of a Merchant Vessel," the ship painted by W. A. Knell, received very favourable notice at the time it was exhibited at the Academy — namely, in 1867. It had as companions, though widely diverse in subject from the other, two charming transcripts of quiet nature ; one, " On the Banks of a River in North Wales — Morning ; " the other, " Cottage Scene on the Banks of a River in North Wales — Evening." We give two examples of Mr. Gill's favourite subjects, which will suffi- ciently show his manner of treating them — one that can scarcely fail to commend itself both to admirers of the picturesque and to those who are able to judge of good landscape-painting. The first, " On the River Lledr, North Wales," was exhibited at the Academy in 1864, and was purchased by Mr. H. Wallis. Here is a well-balanced composition ; the banks on each side of the perpetually moving stream harmonize agreeably to the eye, without any sameness of form, while the tiny river is precipitated in shallow falls between the huge boulders that would fain hinder its course : the play of light and shade on the water Is most effectively managed. A boy Is gathering wood left by the flood on the bank, while a girl and child look on. The second, "Storm and Shipwreck," appeared at the Academy In 1868. The subject seems to have been derived from the rock-bound shores of North Wales ; but wherever it may have been sketched. It is a scene of appalling grandeur ; no vessel In close proximity to such an adamantine coast could possibly outlive a storm ; and the crew of the unfortunate ship, which seems to be going down by the head, have found this out to their terrible cost, for there appears to be but small chance of rescue ; no life-boat Is at hand, and no rocket-apparatus holds out even the smallest chance of relief The picture is a fine example of sea-scape, and most Impressive. X - ^1 r I C K E R S G I L L. 107 There are many other works from the hand of this painter we could point out as peculiarly noticeable; notably his " Rapids," seen in the Academy in 1872 ; luit there is one especially which is far too important to be passed over, "The Waters dividing- from the Dry land," as expressed in the Book of Genesis ; it was exhibited at the Academy in 1869. Original in conception and grand in treatment, this picture could scarcely be surpassed, after its kind, were it more brilliant in colour. An American author, in a work on Art* which has come under the notice of the writer of these biographical sketches, makes the following remarks : the book is dated from Italy, and the opinions are expressed by one evidently acquainted with the ancient and modern Art of Europe: — "The English school has all the healthful love of the German for nature, without its lowness. Such religious Art as it possessed was extinguished by the Reformation. Indeed, Art of all kinds met with a narrow escape at the hands of the Puritans. Under more liberal views of human nature it again rose ; but it has ever maintained a secondary position to science, being considered rather as an accomplishment for the cultivated than a necessity for all classes. As a national passion it does not exist ; yet, probably, there is no country in which there is a better understanding of its principles, as we see in Music, by the few who have given it attention. What they do, they do thoroughly and systematically ; so that it is from England that the world of late has received the soundest criticisms on Art Those sound elements of British character which lie at the bottom of its common life in its deeper meaning, the fruition of which is in English homes, and its pleasure in a sympathy with external Nature in her healthiest action and formations, are now begin- ning to stimulate Art to their real expression ; hence, landscape, domestic life, and national humour have all found able artists to express their vivifying truths. An attempt to revive symbolical Art has been made, but this can live only under the forms of pure Romanism. English Art, as yet, has not essayed to rival Italy in its loftiest expressions ; there is a moral, notwith- standing, in its common form, and but few men, if any, have been found willing to violate the wholesome natural instincts of the nation, as manifested in feeling for animals, manly exercises, and ordinary humanity." * " Art-Hints," by J. J. Jarves. Published by Sampson Low & Co., London. io8 BRITISH PAINTERS. Complimentary as these observations are, both to our national character and to our school of Art, we believe they may be accepted by all, save those whose judgment is warped by prejudice, as founded on truth. So strong is our conviction of the general excellence attained by our artists, that we would hazard a comparison of their works, in all the essentials of true Art, with those of the painters of any country or period, except in the classes of symbolical and religious Art. These remarks would scarcely be out of place as introductory to a notice of any British painter of reputation, but they seem specially to be called for in connection with the career of an artist who has successfully laboured to uphold the credit of his school in a department in which that school has always been considered inferior to those of the Continent. Historical painting has ever, in England, had difficulties to contend with sufficient to deter the most sanguine from adopting it. Till within a few years it was a starving profession, and though now a more genial temperature of patronage invites its cultivation, it is far from thriving luxuriously — from the absence of careful and liberal tending alone — as it did in the latter days of Mediaeval Art, and as it does now, to a considerable extent, on the Continent. Frederick Richard Pickersgill was born in London in 1820, of a family whose names are familiar in the Art-world. His father was an occasional contributor to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy ; his uncle was the distinguished portrait-painter, and a member of the Royal Academy ; and his mother was the sister of the late F. R. Witherington, R.A. ; so that both on the paternal and maternal sides. Art is his inheritance. After he had received an ordinary school education, his uncle, Mr. Witherington, perceiving in the youth a -decided taste for the Arts, undertook to superintend his studies, and some time was passed under the judicious guidance of his relative in drawing the figure from plaster casts. In 1839 he sent a drawing in water-colours to the exhibition of the Royal Academy, the subject of which was " The Brazen Age," as described by Hesiod, and at the end of the same year he entered as a student of the Academy ; but it is singular that one whose after course has been so honourable, should never, during the whole period of his studentship, have succeeded in the competitions for the prizes. Mr. Pickersgill' s want of success is by no means a solitary example. We have known young men — others as well as artists — with talent, industry, and P I C K E R S G I L L. 109 perseverance, yet, from some inexplicable cause or another, behind their fellow-students in the race for honours, though they have afterwards become most distinguished ; and, on the other hand, many who have started most prosperously fail in after life in maintaining the position of their early years. Although, from the first, Mr. Pickersgill determined to adopt historical painting, or that which partakes of its character, he did not follow the beaten track upon which too many young artists are inclined to enter and so unwilling to quit. There is nothing that so distinctly marks independence of thought and self-reliance, especially in Art, as a thorough deviation from the distinctive character of others; but this very desire after novelty, unless controlled by judgment, is apt to lead astray or terminate in eccentricity : of this some of our young painters of the present day unfortunately supply undoubted evidence. In every attempt at originality of subject or treatment, the utmost care and discrimination are necessary to avoid everything offensive to taste, to nature, or to the true end of Art. The first oil picture exhibited by Mr. Pickersgill, in 1 841, at once showed his determination to seek subjects from the best and least hackneyed sources. The " Trachiniae" of Sophocles suggested to him the "Combat between Hercules and Achelous, the river- god, in the form of a bull, for Dejanira." As a first attempt in oil-painting, and of a difficult subject, the work was commendable. During the next two or three years he exhibited in succession " Amoret delivered from the Enchanter," " CEdipus cursing Polynices," " Florimel in the Cottage of the Witch," and " Dante's Dream." The committee of the Art Union of London selected his " Florimel" to engrave for their subscribers — a high compliment to so young an artist. For the first time in the history of the British school of painting, the year 1843 witnessed a desire on the part of the Government to take it under Its paternal care. True It Is that neither then nor since has the State done much for Art, but It was a step gained on Its behalf to have recognised the principle of public patronage. Raffaelle and Da Vinci, Titian and Guldo, Corregglo and the Carracci, Paul Veronese and Tintoretto, Velascjuez and Murlllo, Rembrandt and Rubens, grew mighty under the shadow of crowns and mitres. And why should not the same influences stimulate the labours of the British artist ? When we look back on the century that has passed since we had a school of our own, 110 BRITISH PAINTERS. and remember how it has grown up to its present height simply by the spirit of those who compose it, we cannot but deplore the indifference which has left it to flourish or decay, as chance may happen to it. To the exhibition of car- toons in Westminster Hall in 1843 J^If- Pickersgill contributed "The Death of Lear," which elicited so much favour from the judges, that the artist was in the number of the ten to whom a premium of ^100 each was awarded. The merits of this work stand high. It is distinguished by great breadth of power and execution ; the chiaroscuro is commonplace, but it is the best style of common- place. The costume has been carefully studied ; it is appropriate, and severely shorn of the unmeaning embellishments so highly valued among artists of the present time. In the " fresco competition," the following year, he was not suc- cessful ; the subject was " Sir Calepine rescuing Serena ; " the drawing of the figures was decided and correct, and there was some good colouring in it. We believe Mr. Pickersgill regretted he had sent it in, for he confesses it to have been a failure, so far as the manipulation is concerned : this, however, is scarcely to be wondered at, for the process of fresco painting was then quite new to our artists. This was his first and last appearance in that style. The year 1847 was a kind of Olympiad in Art, and an epoch in the life of this artist. The great exhibition of pictures was opened in Westminster Hall, and Mr. Pickersgill achieved a notable triumph in his contribution of " The Burial of Harold : " it obtained the first prize of ^500, and was purchased by the Royal Commissioners for ^500 more. We have seen it in its place in the Houses of Parliament, and it satisfies us there, as it did in Westminster Hall, as a production most honourable to our school. His contribution of the same year to the Academy was the representation of the performance of divine service by the early Christians of Rome among the Catacombs, showing the persecution to which the converts to the faith were subjected. The picture is full of character. Mr. Pickersgill had now obtained a position which the Royal Academy could not but recognise; accordingly, in November, 1847, they elected him an Associate Member. His pictures of the following year manifest a decided improvement in manipulation. One of his pictures sent to the Academy in 1858 was, "Pluto carrying away Proserpine." His style of colouring, which had a tendency to thinness, though rarely deficient in brilliancy, was now full and substantial. His single contribution of 1854, " The Death of Foscari, Doge of Venice," was purchased by the late Prince < ^ 3 I H - ^ ^ ^ si :^" < ?o U1 \j O •7< IM cC fa O tj 'x' ^ H ■S^ -«; b„ W Q "i; u ■^ H P I C K E R S G I L L. 1 1 1 Consort. It is one of the most important results of the artist's brush. Our engraving presents much of the boldness of the original, and will enable our readers to form a very good idea of the grouping. Mr. Pickersgill became an Academician in 1857 ; his influence in the Academy has always been considerable. In 1874 he was elected Keeper and Trustee. We may mention three amongst his later works — " Ferdinand and Mi- randa" appeared at Burlington House in 1863 ; "Columbus at Lisbon" in 1868; and " Old Letters" in 1875. As a general remark applicable to the works of this artist, we may say that they exhibit sound judgment and good taste in the selection of subject. This is the first, and not an unimportant step, towards excellence. The subjects selected are treated with delicacy of feeling and purity of expression. We do not remember a coarse or unrefined thought in any of his pictures, or anything approaching vulgarity, while they are perfectly free from affectation or prettinesses. His style is altogether good, and the quality of his painting such as will test close observation. CHAPTER III. ARTISTS BORN AFTER 182O. We borrow from Mr. Ottley's supplement to the last edition of Bryan's " Dictionarv^ of Painters and Engravers " the following account of the early life of the distinguished artist who is the subject of this notice : — " Thomas Faed was born at Burley Mill, in the picturesque stewartry of Kirkcudbright, in Scotland, in the year 1826. His father, who was a man of considerable mental powers, and with a genius for mechanical contrivance which he had no opportunity of developing, there carried on business as an engineer and mill- wright. The beauty of the surrounding scenery, and the interesting subjects with which it was peopled, soon caught the attention of the embryo artist, who in the summer months, when the mill was standing and there was no grain preparing in the kiln, was in the habit of converting the smoke-begrimed apartment into a studio, where, like a second Rembrandt, with a fair top- light and a dark background, he painted assiduously from the ragged boys who flitted in the rustic world around him." His father died while the inci- pient painter was yet in his boyhood ; but genius had already marked the family for its own. His elder brother, John, who had achieved eminence as a painter in Edinburgh, recognised the drawing talents of Thomas, and invited him to his house in 1843, where he entertained him for some years, nurturing the gifts which were so apparent in him. Never was family love so happily displayed as in this case, when the Royal Academician of the future might, if he were asked, acknowledge with pride and satisfaction that he owed in great measure his position as an artist to a brother's affectionate solicitude. Our youthful aspirant laboured for some years with assiduity in the Edinburgh School of Design, a very short time under Sir William Allan, but principally under the late Thomas Duncan, and was annually rewarded at the compe- titions for prizes in various departments. The earliest work he ventured to exhibit was a water-colour drawing, " The Old English Baron," but he after- wards devoted himself to oil-painting. o o ^ i X f o ■? H « »— ( l-H ■S > '^ W X H FA ED. 113 Mr. Faed advanced so rapidly in his profession that in 1849, when he had scarcely reached his twenty-third year, he was made an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy. Among the various works he painted at this period of his life was one that has become widely known by the engraving from it, " Sir Walter Scott and his Friends at Abbotsford." He made his appearance in London as an exhibitor in 185 1, while he was still residing in Edinburgh, by sending to the Royal Academy three pictures, " Cottage Piety," " My Father urged me sair," from Au/d Robin Gray, and " The First Step." In 1852 he came to London, where he has since resided. That year he contributed to the Academy Exhibition " Burns and Highland Mar}'," and the " Patron and Patroness's Visit to the Village School," now the property of Mr. Graham, Skelmorley, near Glasgow, and engraved here. As a subject admitting Infinite variety of character these village schools have often been visited — at least mentally — by gaire painters both English and foreign. Mr. Faed's version, though the work of a young artist, will bear favourable comparison with the best. In 1853 there appeared at the Academy from the pencil of Mr. Faed, "The Early Lesson" and "Sophia and Olivia;" the latter very graceful In composition — the heads, draperies, and accessories all painted with the nicest finish. In the following year he contributed to the same galler}% " Morning — Reapers going out," and "Peggy," from Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd : both these pictures were spoken of In \&ry commendatory terms in various reviews of the exhibition of that year. From 1855 may be dated the commencement of the popularity Mr. Faed has ever since held In public opinion; for the year produced "The MItherless Bairn," a composition which the hands of engravers have scattered far and wide over the world ; an engraving from the original sketch was published In the Art Jotirnal in 1 866, under the title of " The Orphan : " and two less important works, " Children going to Market" and "From our own Correspondent;" the latter repre- sents an old woman seated in her cottage and reading the Times. These pictures of single figures are by no means the least valuable of Mr. Faed's impersonations. "Home and the Homeless" — a composition of similar import to "The MItherless Bairn" — and "Highland Mar)%" were hung In the Academy exhibition of 1856. " The First Break In the Family," his solitary contribution in 1857, has never faded from our recollection ever since we saw It on the walls of the Academy : its rich and powerful colouring, the Q 114 BRITISH PAINTERS. various feelings indicated on tlie countenances of the figures, its general poetic treatment, with the rainbow arching over the landscape and lighting up the cottage-door from which the boy has just departed to seek his fortune in the world, all combine to make us envious of the possessor of this most covetable picture. The year following Mr. Faed exhibited four works : " The Sunbeams," "A Listener never hears gude o' himself," "The Welcome," and "The Ayrshire Lassie" — each excellent of its kind. One of the two compositions sent by this artist to the Academy in 1859 has, like many others by him, been brought within the knowledge of thousands by means of engraving: we allude to his " Sunday in the Back- woods," a work of great excellence in its line of subject. The other work was " My ain Fireside." Who does not remember Mr. Faed's semi-nude little urchin seated on a table, waiting the termination of his poor mother's almost interminable task of mending "His only Pair" of trousers, worn by time, and tattered through scrambles amid brake and briars ? the only work Mr. Faed exhibited in i860; but it was quite enough to attract crowds before it, as one of the great features of the gallery. In 1 86 1 Mr. Faed had conferred upon him an honour which, not unjustly, he might have received two or three years previously : he was elected Associate of the Academy. His sole exhibited picture of the year — and it is a noble one — was " From Dawn to Sunset." We could write a page or two about this most instructive picture, one of the very highest class, which has not inappropriately been called " a domestic reading of Shakspere's Seven Ages of Man ; . . . a deep domestic epic, worked out with marvellous skill of Art." So far as relates to size of canvas his contributions to the Academy in 1862 were on a comparatively small scale ; but each one of the four pictures he exhibited would grace any gallery. They were, "Kate Nickleby," "A Flower from Paddy's Land" — both of them single figures — and " New Wars to an Old Soldier:" the last represents a veteran of the army, who is decorated with the medal for Waterloo, half-asleep in a chair, while his daughter reads to him an account of some recent engagement — possibly in the Crimea ; a third figure, a little boy, is at play near his grandfather. With these the artist sent the only portrait we ever remember to have seen from his hand — a capital one of the son of Mr. Hepworth Dixon. Three ^ ^ W s t/2 s Q S3 w Q ^ I FA ED. 115 pictures, also smnll in size, were Mr. Faed's contingent to the Academy in the year following. " Train up a Child" is the text from which Mr. Faed dis- coursed pictorially on one of the first duties of humble housewifery : a mother and young daughter are busy with needles and thread on sundr}'^ articles of wearing-apparel. " The Silken Gown," is a version of the old Scotch song, " An ye shall walk in silk attire." " An Irish Orange-girl " completes the triad of pictures — all admirably painted. "Our Washing-Day" and " Baith Father and Mother" were exhibited in 1864: the former shows some buxom lassies chatting and laughing over their wash-tubs, the latter the interior of a village shoemaker's workshop, whose occupier holds a motherless child on his knees while he prepares her for school by gently putting a pair of gloves on her hands, while her school- fellows wait the completion of the humble toilet. A touching subject this, and worked out with a refinement of feeling and of artistic quality most commendable. The year did not close without seeing Mr. Faed elected a Royal Academician. He is also an Honorary Member of the Royal Scottish Academy. " The Last of the Clan," exhibited in 1865, was, perhaps, the best work which Mr. Faed had put forth since his " From Dawn to Sunset." " A touching story is here told of the last small remnant of a once great and power- ful clan The subject is well chosen for the display of the painter's specialities ; it gives him the opportunity of grouping effectively men stricken in years, aged women bowed in sorrow, maidens melting into tears — cha- racters which dispose into a homely and heartfelt picture of Scottish nationality." The limited space at our command obliges us to rest contented with the mention of "Ere Care Begins" — his diploma work, painted in 1866 — and " Hide and Seek," the .subject of one of our engravings; this latter has never, we believe, been exhibited : it presents an admirable picture of cottage life, and has been introduced to show the style and special powers of the artist. Some few more works must be enumerated: "Homeless," exhibited in 1869; "Violets and Primroses," in 1874; "Little Cold Tootles," in 1877; " Maggie and her Friends," in 1878. We have offered but scanty justice to an artist whose genius and well- deserved popularity merit more ample acknowledgment : yet what can be ii6 BRITISH PAINTERS. done within restricted measurement when so many of his works furnish texts for lengthened discourse ? As a delineator of Scottish life in its more humble phases, he will always rank with his great countryman Wilkie ; and we think Mr. Faed would acknowledge a higher compliment could scarcely be paid him. In largeness of style and manner he has, however, the advantage over Wilkie. The parents of Ford Madox Brown happened to be residing in Calais when he was born, in 1821. His grandfather was a Scotch physician of high repute in the last century, some of whose writings, from the novel theories propounded, caused as much controversy in the medical profession, both here and on the Continent of Europe, as the grandson's pictures have done in the Art-circles of Great Britain. During his early years the future painter was moving about with his parents — sometimes on the Continent, and some- times in England, but always attracted by anything in the form of a picture, and trying to copy whatever came within his reach. This Art-tendency was evidently so strong that it was thought wise to foster it, and at the age of seven a master initiated him into the first principles of drawing ; this was at Calais. Seven years afterwards he was placed at the Academy of Bruges, then under the directorship of Gregorius, who had been a pupil of David ; but his more serious studies commenced a year afterwards at Ghent, under another of David's scholars. Van Hanselaer. At the age of seventeen he removed to Antwerp and entered the studio of Baron Wappers, director of the Academy in that city ; here he remained two years, and painted several pictures, one of which, " The Giaour's Confession," was exhibited at the London Royal Academy in 1841. There can scarcely be a doubt that Mr. Brown's residence in Belgium, where so many of the works of the old Flemish painters are yet to be seen, had considerable influence on his future style, whatever the teachings he received may have been ; but it is Baron Wappers whom he acknowledges as his chief guide and instructor. Leaving Antwerp he came to England for a short time, where he painted several portraits ; he then went to Paris, and stayed there three years. It was at this time that the Royal Commission for decorating the Houses of Parliament with paintings and sculptures issued its invitations for artists to compete. Mr. Brown replied by contributing three cartoons — "Adam and .V .1 n O X D R O W N. 117 Eve," "Finding the Body of Harold," and "The Spirit of Justice." In 1845 he proceeded to Rome for a few months; less for study, however, than on account of the delicate state of health of his young wife, whom he had the misfortune to lose, in Paris, on the homeward journey. While in Rome he designed his picture of "Chaucer reading," subsequently exhi- bited at the Royal Academy. Having reached London once more, he has since made it his residence. The first important painting Mr. Madox Brown exhibited in London was " Wicklift" reading his Translation of the Bible to John of Gaunt in the presence of Chaucer and Gower," which he sent, in 1848, to the new gallery opened at Hyde Park Corner under the title of "The Free Exhibi- tion." The picture was thus spoken of in the An Journal at the time: — " This is a beautiful and valuable production, brought forward in the manner of fresco, with a marked feeling for the style of the early Florentine school." To the same gallery he sent in the following year "Lear and Cordelia; " representing the scene at Dover, where the old king is put to sleep, while Cordelia, with many others, stands watching to see what effect the strains of music may have on his maddened brain. It is a picture of unquestion- able power and most absorbing interest; and, like the other, manifests a Pre-Raffaellite tendency. It is now in the possession of Mr. Leathart, of Newcastle-on-Tyne. With the exception of " The Giaour's Confession," which we have already mentioned, the principal pictures Mr. Madox Brown has exhibited at the Academy are "Geoffrey Chaucer reading at the Court of Edward III.," contributed in 185 1 ; " Christ washing Peter's Feet," and " The Pretty Baa- Lambs," in 1852; and "Waiting," in 1853. The " Chaucer " picture is a very large canvas, showing a numerous assemblage of figures, life-size — " a truly magnificent essay, it has abundance of every quality necessary to constitute excellence in Art ; it is original and independent in everything." The Liverpool Academy awarded to it, in 1859, a prize of /50. "Christ washing Peter's Feet " forms one of our illustrations ; it also gained a similar prize at Liverpool, in 1856. If we remember rightly, when the picture was in the Academy the person of our Saviour was represented nude, in con- formity with the scriptural narrative recorded by St. John, that Jesus, " rising from supper, laid aside his garments." Subsequently the artist worked upon it, altering it in many respects, and clothing the figure of Christ : this change ii8 BRITISH PAINTERS. is far more consonant with our feeling-s in contemplating the work, however opposed it may be to the prevalent notion of the meaning of the Evangelist's words. But the public has not been without an opportunity of forming an estimate of this painter's works, for in the year 1865 he collected nearly one hundred of his pictures — the majority being lent for the occasion by their respective owners — and exhibited them at the Egyptian Hall. Here were gathered the results of more than twenty years' study and labour — historical subjects, sacred and secular, genre pictures, landscapes, and portraits — a diversified gathering, and one which could not be seen without interest being awakened by it, nor without admiration of the man who had worked out so diligently and practically his ideal of Art. In the room hung his " Chaucer," "Wickliff," "Cordelia and Lear," " Christ washing Peter's Feet," "Parting of Cordelia and her Sisters," "Willelmus Conquisator," a duplicate of the cartoon exhibited in Westminster Hall under the title of "The Body of Harold brought before William the Conqueror," " King Rene's Honey- moon," " The Death of Sir Tristram," from the Mort d^ Artlnir, " Parasina's Sleep," "Manfred on the Jungfrau," "The Transfiguration," a cartoon- design for a stained-glass window, " The Infant's Repast," " Oure Ladye of Good Children," "The Pretty Baa-Lambs," "The Last of England," engraved in the Aii Journal for 1870, "An English Fireside in the Winter of 1854 — 55," "The Prisoner of Chillon," "Toothless," &c., &c. Among the landscapes were "Windermere," "An English Autumn Afternoon," "Carrying Corn," " Winandermere," "The Hayfield," "Southend," "On the Brent, Hendon," " Walton-on-the-Naze," with several others. But the picture which attracted, as an individual example, the greatest attention from the mass of visitors, was called simply " Work," a composition so full of material that an entire page might be devoted to description and comment without exhausting the subject: it is in itself a "work" showing a high development of thought combined with most careful execution. Among the numerous criticisms this exhibition called forth, an essay by Mr. W. M. Rossetti, in Frascr's Magazine for May, 1865, takes a most comprehensive view, both philosophically and artistically, of Mr. Madox Brown's genius. He remarks that the painter has passed through the three " successive main currents of influence to which the British school of Art has been subjected within the last thirty or forty years : the first beginning in y. =^ < t3 'A '^ O ■w « ^<, c ^ •< llo w ■Sj w p ^ <1 t-» w •r* A/ A D OX BR O W N. 119 1842, with the exhibition of cartoons and frescoes in Westminster Hall ; the second dating from the introduction of Pre-Raffaellitism, six. or seven years later ; and the third commencing at the time of the Paris International Exhibition in 1855, when the example of foreign schools, and especially that of France, found entrance into the studios of many of our painters." He notes, however, that Mr. Brown has rather led than followed each successive movement ; and all who have studied this artist's works and marked their dates must acknowledge such to be the case. To the list of pictures given above may be added others of more recent date, of which one or two only have been exhibited in London — " The Coat of Many Colours," painted in 1866 for Mr. Rae, of Birkenhead, exhibited at Mr. Gambart's gallery, and also at Leeds; " Cordelia's Portion," a large water-colour picture painted in the same year for Mr. Craven, of Manchester, exhibited at the Dudley Gallery and at Leeds; "The Entombment," " Jacopo Foscari," and " Sardanapalus and Myrrha," all three water-colour drawings, painted for Mr. Craven ; the last was exhibited at Liverpool in 1872 ; it is a small work, but the artist ranks it among his best; " Elijah and the Widow's Son," another commission from Mr. Craven, and painted from the finished sketch exhibited at the Egyptian Hall in 1865; a replica of the "Chaucer" subject, with alterations, painted for Mr. Leyland, of Speke Hall ; for whom also the " Haidee and Don Juan," here engraved, was produced. "Romeo and Juliet" was painted in 1870, for Mr. Leathart. Few, if any, of Mr. Madox Brown's pictures have appeared at the London public galleries for more than twenty years, excepting perhaps one or two water-colours which he has occasionally contributed to the Dudley Gallery. The pictures engraved here are simple compositions, if we compare them with several others where very numerous figures are introduced ; still, the least pretentious of his works must convince any unprejudiced mind that he is an artist of great intellectual grasp, bringing the powers of a thoughtful and vigorous mind to bear upon his subject in a spirit that sets at nought all prettinesses ; a realist rather than an idealist, carrj'ing out his theories in a manner the reverse of conciliating the mere dilettanti, yet commending itself to all who can penetrate through the surface of a picture into its motives and expression, even though irs individual characters are occasionally found to be 120 BRITISH PAINTERS. clothed in a garb of mediaeval quaintness, and personal beauty is sometimes necessarily disregarded. Sir Joseph Noel Paton has taken a high position in the Scottish school, of which, generally, we can scarcely write in terms too commendatory. He was born at Dunfermline, on the 13th December, 1821. Although his Art- education was, so to speak, of the most desultory kind, the circumstances of his childhood and early youth tended in no ordinary way to the development of his artistic perceptions. His father — a Fellow of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, and well known in connection with the damask manufactures of Dunfermline, and as a collector of Scottish antiquities — surrounded his children, from their earliest years, with old books, old prints, old pictures, casts from the antique, and whatever objects could stimulate the imagination and expand the mind. The locality in which the family resided. Wooers' Alley — a small but secluded and singularly picturesque spot, one of the bends of the glen wherein stand the venerable ruins of the Abbey and Royal Palace of Dunfermline, with its burn, rocks, trees, and laurel thickets — was calculated to encourage romantic habits of thought, and to foster a passion for the minuter beauties of inanimate nature, which, it is evident, has to a considerable extent tinged all his productions. Another circumstance may be alluded to as aiding in the developing a constitutional tendency to the more romantic phases of Art. Through his mother, a lady of great nobility and unselfishness of character, who, like most Highlanders of her time, whether male or female, was deeply versed in traditional lore. Sir Noel could claim close kinship with the chiefs of one of the most ancient and chivalrous clans of the North, whose deeds of daring in the Jacobite ranks supplied the earliest subjects for his childish pencil, and a knowledge of whose position as the representatives of the ancient Celtic Earls of AthoU — and, through them, of the family which occupied the throne of Scotland from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, and from whom, through Robert the Bruce, the Stuart race was descended — could scarcely fail to exercise an influence on the character, habits of thought, and feeling of a youth so constituted, and sur- rounded by everything calculated to foster such tendencies. We have in these preliminary remarks somewhat of a key to the after career of this painter. In 1843 Noel Paton came to London and studied for a short time in the schools of the Ro}-al Academy, receiving from NOEL PA TON. 12. Mr. George Jones, R.A., then Keeper, much kindness and courtesy. His artistic teachings began and terminated with the instruction given by Mr. Jones. Before the period just alluded to he had, however, exhibited some proofs of early talent in illustrations, supplied gratuitously, for the Renfrewshire Annual for the years 184 1-2. On his return to Scotland he painted and sent to the Royal Scottish Academy, "Ruth gleaning," his first exhibited painting; this was in 1844, when he also produced a series of designs, in outline, illustrating respectively Shelley's " Prometheus bound," and The Tempest ; these were etched and published through the liberality of Mr. Lewis Pocock, F.S.A. The year 1845 was marked by the cartoon exhibition in Westminster Hall. Young as the artist of whom we are writing then was, he boldly entered into competition with many of the most eminent painters of the day, and not without justification, for the Royal Commissioners awarded to him one of the three prizes of two hundred pounds for his cartoon of "The Spirit of Religion," a work which showed a mind richly endowed with poetic imagination, and, at the same time, evinced an amount of technical attainment which called forth the favourable notice of some of the most distinguished artists of the time. In this year he also executed a series of etchings, illustrating the late James Wilson's poem, "Silent Love," and about this time he made several admirable drawings for Mr. S. C. Hall's " Book of British Ballads." Passing over two charming illustrations of fairy-land — a world with which Sir N. Paton has frequently made us acquainted — "The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania," exhibited at the Scottish Academy in 1846, and " Puck and Fairy," in the same galler}'- the following year, we again arrive at Westminster Hall, where, also in 1847, another competitive display was opened to the public, that of oil-paintings. To this he contributed two works, " The Recon- ciliation of Oberon and Titania," and "Christ bearing the Cross." For these joint productions, so dissimilar in character, yet each with merits peculiar to itself, he received one of the three prizes of three hundred pounds. The former of the two pictures was purchased in the most liberal spirit by the Royal Scottish Academy, and is now in their gallery. In this year he was elected Associate of that institution. To its annual exhibitions he sent, in 1850, the year in which he was enrolled Member of the Scottish Academy, " The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania ; " in 185 1, " Thomas the Rhymer and the Queen of Fairie" (engraved), and " Nimrod the Mighty Hunter;" in R 122 BRITISH PAINTERS. 1852, "Dante meditating the Episode of Francesca da Rimini," "The Eve of St. Agnes ; " " Flight of the Lovers," and a beautiful specimen of sculpture, a basso-relievo representing " Christ blessing Little Children." The " Oberon and Titania" picture just mentioned is a different work from that of 1846, and was bought for the Scottish National Gallery by the Royal Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland. In 1855 he contributed the grand composition of " The Pursuit of Pleasure," now well known from the large engraving of it. Critics — who are not always reliable judges — are sometimes found to express very contrary opinions of the same work ; and this picture was not exempt from such fiery ordeal. But, estimated by results, it found special favour with the public ; for Mr. Hill, the eminent print-publisher of Edinburgh, bought it for one thousand pounds, had it engraved, and cleared a very considerable sum by the prints, which were largely subscribed for ; having previously disposed of it for two thousand guineas to Mr. Graham Briggs, of Barbadoes. Hitherto, with the exception of the works sent to Westminster Hall, Sir Noel Paton had not exhibited in London; but in 1856 he commenced contributing to our Royal Academy, thus affording the English public the opportunity of becoming acquainted with the productions of an artist of whom they knew little, save by reputation. The first of these, " Home," was designated by Mr. Ruskin "a most pathetic and precious picture." "The Bluidy Triste," and "In Memoriam," exhibited in 1858, found less favour with this fastidious critic, but mainly on the ground of the gloominess of the subjects ; and it may be noticed that unless the artist invades fairyland, the themes of his pictures are more frequently sad than cheerful ; even his "Hesperus" (i860), two lovers seated at eventide on a mossy bank, and " Dawn — Luther at Erfurt," have each a tinge of melancholy too obvious to be overlooked; while his "Mors Janua Vitse" (1866), though designed to convey the most cheering doctrines of the Christian faith, is not altogether free from this tinge of sadness. We are reluctantly compelled to pass over many works we should gladly speak of, in order to say a few words on those that form the subjects of our illustrations. Tennyson's noble poem supplied the subject of the first picture, " Morte d' Arthur," engraved here. It is a grand theme, treated with a feeling akin to that of the poet's conception, and with great artistic power. The second of these, " I wonder who lived in there ! " will be remembered a: . s I M Is O -h BE A VIS. 123 by many as in the Royal Academy exhibition of i865. The composition is not an ideal one, but, as we have heard, is the representation of a fact. The scene is the artist's studio, in which, on entering one day, he saw his young son, chin on hand, "glowering" into an old helmet, with eyes full of the stories of chivalry he had been taught or had read. " I wonder who lived in there!" was the boy's remark to his father. The incident could scarcely fail to attract the special notice of a mind so constituted as that of the latter, who saw at once how well adapted it was for a picture both original and pleasing ; the result is before us. These two compositions serve to exhibit the mediaeval and chivalric "groove" in which the painter's mind is found so often to run. His pictures, whatever the subject, are always poetical, yet are realistic in treatment; and he may fairly lay claim to the royal and academic honours respectively which have been awarded him. In 1866 the Queen appointed him her " Limner for Scotland," and the year following conferred on him, at Windsor, the honour of knighthood. But it is not only as an artist that Sir Noel Paton has won reputation; his two published books, " Poems by a Painter," which appeared in 1862, and "Spindrift," in 1866, were both most favourably noticed by the press in England and Scotland. " Oskold and the Ellemaids," exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1874, is the most widely known of the artist's later works. In common with many of his other pictures, it points out how high his aims have been ; in the choice of subjects for painting he has not on a single occasion that we can recall underrated his own abilities ; and if he has sometimes attempted things too hard for him, at others lofty subjects have drawn out powers that could certainly have been manifested in no other way. Oskold is the embodiment of a pilgrim soul fighting his way through the perils of a false world : the Ellemaids are representative of the five senses, beautiful Sirens bent on the cavalier's ruin through their many glittering temptations. The "Good Shepherd," the property of her Majesty the Queen, and " Caliban listening to the Music," were at the Paris Exposition of 1878. Richard Beavis was born, in 1824, at Exmouth, though the early years of his life were passed at Sidmouth. It is possible this residence in a pic- turesque seaside town had considerable influence on the future direction of his 124 BRITISH PAINTERS. art. The childhood of most painters offers very nearly the same features — the struggles of the mind to develope itself everywhere and at all times, in season and out of season. Born, as it were, with a pencil in hand, no oppor- tunity is lost of employing it, and too often to the prejudice of all domestic proprieties. Before little Beavis was eight years old the walls of his bedroom were covered, so far as his childish hands could reach, with a species of hieroglyphics assuming to represent ships and boats, horses and carts, and everything else which suggested itself to the boy's imagination. There were in Sidmouth at that time two booksellers' shops, in the windows of which some engravings were displayed ; these were, of course, very attractive to the embryo artist, who, as we have heard him say, would stand long at the window, studying one of the prints till the subject was tolerably well impressed on his mind, when he hurried home and tried to draw it from memory, repeating his visits till the copy was rendered as complete as the circumstances would allow. But parental authority opposed itself to all such aspirations after Art life : the boy's father had other views for him. And, moreover, held to the opinion that it was a very doubtful mode of earning a livelihood, relating a story, by way of confirmation, that he " once knew a portrait-painter who never had a shilling in his pocket, or a shoe to his foot." No wonder that with such wide experience of artistic life the elder Beavis should seek to nip in the bud every desire the son might have to become a painter. Nevertheless the latter could never relinquish the hope of some day being able to accomplish his wishes ; and so, while following other occupations through the day, he would rise in the morning with the sun and work away with his pencil in the best way he could. Thus matters went on till 1846, when some gentlemen of the town, who had shown him much kindness and encouraged his untaught efforts, suggested to him the advisability of entering as a student in the then School of Design at Somerset House, and they took such steps as were necessary to accomplish the plan. The result was, that in the summer of that year Mr. Beavis arrived in London, with a few pounds and several letters of introduction in his pocket, and with many hearty good wishes of his Sidmouth friends for his success. The day following his arrival in London Mr. Beavis was duly installed as a student at Somerset House. Six weeks after his arrival a premium was awarded to him for outline drawing, which he had studied under the late Mr. Alfred Stevens, then one of the masters. All the Art education Mr. B E A V r S. 125 Beavis received, beyond what he taught hunself, was acquired at that institu- tion : he speaks of the teaching there as being in every way excellent and most conducive to its required purpose. He soon, however, began to find that it was r[uite necessary he should get some employment to enable him to maintain himself: so he managed to turn what little of Art he as yet knew to some profitable account, by painting portraits, putting skies and figures into architectural drawings, and occasion- ally executing some decorative Art work : thus he contrived to keep his head fairly above water till the spring of 1850, when he became artist to Messrs. TroUope, the well-known upholsterers and decorators, of Parliament Street. With them he remained thirteen years, during which time the firm competed successfully in three international exhibitions with works from his designs. It may here be mentioned that the first works Mr. Beavis exhibited at the Royal Academy were, in 1855, ^ design for a boudoir ceiling at Harewood House, Yorkshire; in 1858, a design for a painted ceiling of a drawing-room in the same mansion ; and in i860, a design for decorating a drawing-room ceiling near Sittingbourne, Kent : works which his employers had then on hand. In the early years of his connection with the firm he continued to attend the Somerset House schools in the evening, principally giving attention to those branches of Art most applicable to decorative purposes : in the summer- time he would rise early, get out into the parks or about Kensington to sketch, or perhaps work in his own painting-room at home, till it was time to go to his other studio in Parliament Street. During the latter period of his engagement with the Messrs. Trollope he arranged with them only for a portion of his time ; the remainder he applied to his own improvement in painting, both in oil and water-colours. At the British Institution appeared a few small pictures by Mr. Beavis, painted when thus working at half-time, so to speak. In 1862 he sent two pictures, also small, to the Royal Academy, and both were hung; one was " A Mountain Rill," the other " Fishermen picking up Wreck at Sea," an upright canvas, now in the possession of Mr. Peter Stuart, Seaforth, near Liverpool. Encouraged by the success of these works, he ventured to send in the following year a somewhat larger picture, called only " In North Wales;" it represented a mountain-stream in that part of the Principality, and was bought on the private view day by the late Sir David Solomons. 126 BRITISH PAINTERS. Mr. Beavis now felt himself sufficiently strong to pursue his road without such extraneous help as had hitherto aided his onward progress. His pictures were not only looked at, but inquired for : one of the two works he exhibited at the Academy in 1864, "The Escape," was engraved in the Illustrated London Nam. In the year immediately following appeared the first of that class of works which have done so much to bring this artist into prominence ; it was entitled, "A Military Train crossing the Sands to Elizabeth Castle, Jersey; " it was painted for R. P. Harding, and is now in the collection of that gentleman. In 1866 he sent to the Royal Academy "Drawing Timber in Picardy," which attracted the attention of a prizeholder in the London Art Union Society, who purchased it at the price of ^250: an engraving of it appeared in the Illustrated London News about that time. In 1867 and 1868 Mr. Beavis was living near Boulogne, it may be pre- sumed for the purpose chiefly of sketching the coast scenery of that portion as well as of other parts of the country : and either in those years, or some- what later, he travelled into Holland with the same object. One of the earliest fruits of this foreign sojourn was exhibited at the Academy in the former of the years just mentioned ; its title was " Loading Sand — Pas de Calais — Threatening Weather." In the latter year appeared a Dutch scene, " High Tide— Mouth of the Maas," painted for Mr. R. P. Harding. Of two paintings exhibited in 1872, one bore the same title, "Collecting Wreck on the French Coast — Ambleteuse," as that engraved here, but the design is totally different. Here the treatment is very similar to other compo- sitions of the same kind from the pencil of the artist : a large expanse of stormy sky, broken at intervals by clouds lighted up by the sun ; the lights repeated on certain portions of the landscape, &c. Such management of materials is generally very effective, and is certainly so in the work we have engraved, which was never exhibited. His only contribution to the Academy in 1873 was an exceedingly well-painted picture, " The Shore at Scheven- ingen — Waiting for the Boats," bought at the private view by Mr. T. Taylor, Hyde Park Gardens. Holland also gave to the artist subjects for two out of the three pictures he sent to the Academy in 1874 ; the titles of the two were, "A Ferry-boat in Old Holland " and " Bringing up Nets at Scheveningen." In 1875 we missed the artist from the walls of the Academy. It appears that in the autumn of 1874 Mr. Beavis's health had failed, and he was advised to try a thorough change of air and scene. He had often felt a strong desire M A R K S. >27 to visit the East, and so he resolved to carr^' out his wishes. Accordingly, in the early part of the following year (1875) he set out for Egypt, travelling by easy stages, wa Venice and Brindisi, to Alexandria, and thence to Cairo. After staying a few days in the last-named place he started on a caravan journey across the Desert to Mount Sinai, sketching many objects and places on his way. During his six months' trip he found time to visit Jaffa, Jerusalem and the vicinity, Jericho, the Jordan, and the Dead Sea. On his return home — his health quite re-established — he lost no time in making use of what he had seen and noted down of Arab and Syrian life, as was evidenced in the two pictures he sent to the Royal Academy's exhibition of 1876, one of which we have here engraved. It represents a " Bedawcen Caravan on the Road to Mount Sinai ; " the caravan is descending the high ground at Wady Ghurundel. To the list of his pictures we must add, " Ploughing in Lower Egypt," painted in 1876 ; " Threshing-floor at Gilgal," a memento of his travels in the East, and " In the Forest at Fontaine- bleau," in 1877 ; with " Halt of Prince Charles Edward after the Battle of Culloden," in 1878. Allusion has been made to Mr. Beavis as a water-colour artist: we may remark that in 1867 the Institute of Painters in Water-Colours paid him the compliment of inviting him to join the society without the usual process of competition ; and he has since exhibited many very clever and interesting works in the gallerj^' of the Institute, though his sympathies are far more strongly with oil-paintings. We cannot call Mr. Beavis a disciple of any particular school, nor a follower of any special artist ; he is a close and diligent student of nature alone, and works out his subjects — and they are varied — with taste, judgment, and skilful execution. Henry Stacy Marks was born in London, on the 13th of September, 1829. After receiving an ordinary education at school he assisted his father, who was engaged in the carriage trade. The occupation, however, was but little suited to his tastes, and, at the age of eighteen, he entered the academy of Mr. Leigh, in Newman Street. Three years afterwards Mr. Marks began seriously to study painting with the view of making it his profession : he became a student in the Royal Academy, and also continued his attendance at Mr. Leigh's. In the early part of the year 1852 he went — with his friend, Mr. Calderon, R.A. — to Paris, and .studied for a year in the atilicr of M. ,28 BRITISH PAINTERS. Picot ; and he also gained admission as student to the Ecole des Beaux- Arts ; thus completing the round of technical artistic education, and acquiring knowledge as well from the French school as from that of his own country. In 1853 Mr. Marks made his first appearance in our exhibition galleries. In the spring of that year he had sent to the British Institution a single half- length figure of Shakspere's "Dogberry;" but the "hanging committee" failed to appreciate its merits, and the picture was rejected. Nothing daunted by what, to a young artist especially, could only prove a sad disappointment, he tried his fortune with it at the Royal Academy, where it was received, obtained a good position on the walls, and was favourably noticed by many writers for the press. From that year he has been a regular contributor to the Academy. We will now take a brief glance at some of the principal pictures which Mr. Marks has exhibited at the Academy, where, till within the last few years, they have alone appeared, and in the following order: — Two subjects, " Christopher Sly " and " Bardolph," exhibited in 1854, and " Slender's Courtship," contributed in the year following, were the earnest of the array of humorous subjects which succeeded them. "Tooth- ache in the Middle Ages," exhibited in 1854, represents a suffering old man in the costume of, probably, the time of Richard II. There is no reason to suppose that this irritating malady was less virulent in its tortures five or six centuries ago than it is now; certainly Mr. Marks' s well-painted yet agonized figure would provoke a smile in any one but such as have felt the sharp pangs of a toothache. We have no notes of " Bottom as Pyramus," his solitary contribution to the Academy exhibition of 1857, and pass on, therefore, to " Dogberrj^'s Charge to the Watch," from Much Ado about Nothing, which was exhibited in 1859, and was the means of attracting more general notice to the works of this artist than they had hitherto gained ; not more because the picture was on a larger scale than any of his preceding contributions, than on account of his possessing, from the number of figures, much higher interest. The guardians of the city, a motley group, have mustered to receive the instructions of their officer — " You shall comprehend all vagrom men," &c. One of the " good men and true" stands forward to ask, " How if he will not stand ? " This is a most grotesque figure ; and the whole posse comitatus, with diversified Venetian costumes and weapons of varied date, is full of appropriate character : all are capitally painted. THE FRANCISCAN SCULPTOR AND HIS ISIODEL. From a Fainting hy Ucnry Stacy Marias, R.A. JfATiA'S. 129 With reference to this artist's "The Franciscan Sculptor and his Model," the picture he exhibited in 1861, and which we have chosen for one of our illustrations of his works, we may remark that the subject, so far as we know, is original in thought, and its development may be equally original to the artist. In itself the incident is simple, like that of all really good pictures. A brother of the Franciscan order, combining the professions of monk and sculptor, is bestowing his talent on the ornamentation of one of those ecclesias- tical edifices which, west and north, came through the Church, declined with the Church, and is again reviving under the same influences. A comical- looking old man, holding a bottle, is perched on a scaftbld erected to sustain the model, while the enthusiastic monk plies his vocation with extraordinary energy and earnestness, unmoved by a grotesqueness in his "sitter" which raises the risible faculties of all who look upon this picture, a feeling in which the monks ranged along the flat roof of the edifice appear not unwilling to participate. It need scarcely be said that this clever work was among the most attractive in the gallery. From the life studio of the nascent monaster}' the artist passed, in 1862, to the pleasure-ground of an ancient mansion, where are assembled the family of its owner and a rather numerous company of friends, listening to "The Jester's Text" and the discourse which is founded thereon. The preacher, who is the jester of the household, is placed near a sun-dial bearing the inscription, Horas non nmncro nisi serenas, which forms the text of his sermon ; he lays his hand on the dial, and delivers his discourse with becoming gravity, to the astonishment, if not the edification, of his congregation, which dates back to about the sixteenth century. It is a most attractive picture of its kind. In a picture bearing the title of "How Shakspere Studied," exhibited in 1863, Mr. ]\Iarks represents the dramatist seated within the porch of a house of the poet's period, and looking out upon the busy world passing to and fro in the street, "taking notes" of some whose characters and descriptions are now probably well known to us. There is much of what we may obviously take as literal truth in this composition of many figures, all well studied by the painter, and most carefully put on the canvas. In 1864 Mr. Marks contributed to the Academy three pictures — " Doctors differ; " "Say not to thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to-morrow I will give, when thou hast it by thee ; " and " The House of Pra3'er." The title of the second, and remembering whence it is taken, would almost suggest s ijo BRITISH PAINTERS. the subject to be a sacred one ; but the picture represents the shop-door of a burly-looking baker, whom a poor blind musician endeavours ineftectually to soften into charity by his melodious, or unmelodious, strains. The scene is a French street peopled with various groups of figures, all painted with "a quaint and severe naturalism." "The House of Prayer" differs greatly from the artist's usual subjects, and is a very touching and covetable picture. An old woman with a child by her side is seated in the aisle of an ancient Gothic church, in which the tomb of a mitred prelate forms a prominent feature. The productions of the next )^ear were " Francis Feeble, the Woman's Tailor," a composition from the old nursery song — " Hark ! liark ! the dogs do bark, The beggars are coming to to\vn ; " — a subject affording the artist ample scope for humorous representation allied with the miserable, real or feigned. "My Lady's Page in Disgrace" was exhibited at the Academy in 1866, and in the following year " Falstafif' s Own" — a picture of some repute. In 1 87 1 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, contributing in this year " The Book-worm." This was followed by, amongst others, "A Peep of the Avon," in 1873; "The Latest Fashion," in 1874; " The Apo- thecary," in 1876; and "Convocation," in 1878. Two of his works, "The Ornithologist" and "The Three Jolly Post-boys," were at Philadelphia in 1876; while "The Apothecary," "St. Francis and the Birds," and "The Princess and the Pelican" (water colour), appeared at Paris in 1878. Mr. Marks attained to the full honours of the Academy in 1879. One of our engraved examples, "The Missal Painter," has, we believe, never been exhibited. Seated at his desk, with colours and pencils within convenient reach, the artist-monk — and how much of Art and literature we of the present day owe to those recluses whose cells and cloisters were the studios of all learning ! — has submitted his labours to the inspection of two of the brotherhood, while he indulges in a yawn that shows he must have passed some weary hours over the work. There is a touch of genuine humour in this truly characteristic scene which requires no stretch of imagination to discover. But in addition to the pictures exhibited at the Royal Academy, Mr, Marks has been a valuable contributor to the Dudley Gallery, the com- "V, V" K, ^^r~ ■ 4 H ? !<, VEAMES. iji mittee of which he jouied in 1866. Among his various drawings hung in the gallery may be pointed out "Orpheus charming the Brutes," " Jack o' Lantern," " May-day in the Olden Time," "The Princess and the Pelican," &c. : all of them works of a very high character. In the exhibitions of oil pictures which have been held in the same rooms since 1868 he has appeared in " Tired out," " The Tinker," &c. In the early period of his career Mr. Marks employed much of his time in designing figures and subjects for firms engaged in the production of stained glass. Possibly to this circumstance may be traced the prevalence of medijevalism in his pictures on canvas, &c. And since those early days, and since his fame as an artist has been fully established, he has not for- sworn merely decorative Art. In the Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences he has designed that portion of the frieze in which appear the allegorical designs representing Agriculture, Horticulture, Astronomy, Navigation, &c. ; and he also executed one of the lunettes, "The Study of Anatomy," in the "competition" gallery. South Kensington Museum; the picture of a mediaeval king and queen witnessing a masque, over the proscenium of the Gaiety Theatre ; a somewhat similar decoration, Shakspere surrounded by his creations, for the Prince's Theatre, Manchester; and some clever allegorical figures of the Virtues, on Incised gold ground, for Crewe Hall, Cheshire. Whether birthplace and Art education strictly entitle Mr. Yeames to be regarded as an English painter may be matter of opinion ; but whatever the story of his early life, he is recognised as such, and has every right to be so considered. His native place Is Taganrog, a town situated on the Sea of Azof, in Southern Russia; the date of his birth December i8th, 1835. ^^'s father, a merchant in Taganrog, held the post of British consul there. The family originally belonged to the county of Norfolk. The earliest years of the future artist are associated In his mind with much travelling, not only In his native land, but also In more southern parts of Europe. Before he had reached the age of five, his father, with all the family, started from Taganrog to St. Peters- burg, for the purpose of visiting his mother's relations, who resided in that citv. Two years later the elder Mr. Yeames, who had visited Italy when a 132 BRITISH PAINTERS. young man, and possessed great love of the Fine Arts, determined to renew his acquaintance with what he had before seen, and proceeded thither, accom- panied by his whole family. They took passage from Taganrog in an Italian merchant ship, which, after a month's voyage, arrived at Malta ; thence they proceeded to Sicily, and after seeing whatever was thought worthy of examination there, they journeyed to Naples, Rome, Leghorn, Florence, and Venice: in the latter grand old city Mr. Yeames, sen., died in 1843. The widowed mother and her children subsequently returned to Russia. After spending the winter of 1843-4 in Odessa, Mrs. Yeames, who must have been a lady of great energy, took her children to Dresden, for the purpose of having them educated ; and there her son William first received some slight instruction in drawing. In 1848 the family came to London, where it took up its residence. The following year the subject of this notice began to study drawing, with the view of making Art a profession, under the tuition of Mr. George Scharf ; at the same time he attended at University College to study anatomy, &c. Subsequently he had some instruction from Mr. Sher- wood Westmacott, a sculptor. This appears to be all the Art teaching Mr. Yeames received in England. At the age of seventeen, namely, in 1852, he left England for Florence, and placed himself under Professor Pollastrini, with whom he remained some time, and then entered the studio of Signor Raphael Buonajuti. In the autumn of 1854 he paid a second visit to Rome, where he remained about eighteen months, drawing in the life schools, and studying the slaiizi of the Vatican. During the summer months he employed himself in sketching from nature among the Alban Hills, at Subiaco, and at Tivoli. Three months passed in England in the year 1856, and Mr. Yeames was again in Florence, working under Signor Buonajuti. At this time he painted two small pictures, respectively entitled "Charity" and "The Mandoline Player," which were exhibited in one of our provincial galleries, after the artist's return to England in 1858. Since that year he has permanently resided in London. His first works seen in the metropolitan galleries were a life-size portrait of Mr. B. Whishaw, and a picture called " The Staunch Friend," both exhibited at the Academy in 1859: the latter represents a jester with a monkey ; it is cleverly painted, and shows character. In the following year he was seen only in the British Institution, where his solitary contribution was " Ye Trystinge Houre;" but at the Academy exhibition of 1861 he came w H W < c/2 CeJ o w H O w w w H (/-, .'0 w < 'A •~ O H ^^ .71 ,<3 J3 f— 1 § l-H w CO ^ ^ FEAMES. 133 out with a power that at once indicated him as a painter of mark ; his two pictures were " The Sonetto " and " The Toilet." Passing over, but only from want of space, a rather large picture called " Rescued," a child saved from drowning, exhibited at the Academy in 1862, Mr. Yeames sent to the same galler}' in the following year " The fleeting of Sir Thomas More and his Daughter" after his sentence to death: it forms one of the illustrations engraved here. A quotation from old Roper's " Life of Sir T. More" explains the circumstances of the interview, which takes place at the entrance of the Tower gateway, whither he has been conducted after the trial. " As soone as she sawe him, after his blessings uppon her knees reverentlie received, shehastinge towards him, without consideracion or care of her selfe, pressinge in amongst the midst of the thronge and companie of the garde that with halbards and bills went round about him, hastily ranne to him, and theare openly in sight of them imbraced him and took him about the neck and kissed him. Who well likinge her most naturall and deere daughterlie affection towards him, gave her his fatherlie blessinge and manie godlie words of comfort besides." The composition throughout shows varied incident carefully studied and skilfully portrayed ; but the interest of the whole depends upon the central group, where the Chancellor's daughter has broken through the crowd of sympathizing bystanders, waiting the arrival of the condemned man at the Tower, and rushes forward to throw herself into her father's arms, undismayed by the armed guards, who, however, seem to make but a faint show of resisting her natural affections, now raised to the utmost point of agony ; for the interview was probably the last : the headsman, armed with the fatal axe, preceding More into the Tower, is significant of speedy execution. The story could scarcely be more clearly, pathetically, and strikingly told, and with entire negation of anything approaching to sensa- tionalism. The only picture exhibited by Mr. Yeames at the Academy in 1864, " La Reine Malheureuse," was engraved on steel in the Art Jounial for the year 1869, under the title of "The Peril of the Queen — Henrietta Maria." In 1865 he sent to the French Gallery, Pall RLill, "The Stepping-Stones," of which an engraving is here introduced. The subject is as humorous as it is original. A lady of mediaeval times is crossing a narrow stream carefully and adroitly, on some large blocks of stone, which serve as a kind of bridge connecting a mansion with the town : in her hand she carries a pet lap-dog 134 BRITISH PAINTERS. in somewhat awkward fashion, and the little animal turns up its eyes to her in a most ludicrous way, as if praying to be released. The maiden's train is daintily upheld by a rather ancient serving-man, who performs the duty with a serio-comic expression both of face and figure. The scene is of Flemish character, and the two personages are admirably drawn ; while the picture, viewed simply as an example of painting, shows many excellent qualities. Assuredly no work exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1866 attracted more general attention than Mr. Yeames's " Queen Elizabeth receiving the French Ambassadors after the News of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew." In all essential points it was a marked success ; and it led to the election of the artist as an Associate of the Royal Academy, though he had only exhibited nine works In the gallery of the institution. Of two pictures contributed by Mr. Yeames In 1867, "The Dawn of the Reformation" and "Bread and Water," the former Is by far the more important subject, which was described by an extract appended to the title : "After that Wycllffe had finished the translation of the Bible, he called together ' the poor priests,' his disciples, and giving them copies, bade them make known the Gospel throughout the land." If history has not assumed a leading place in the productions of Mr. Yeames with respect to quantity, it certainly occupies a very prominent position in regard to quality. His "Lady Jane Grey in the Tower," where Feckenham, an emissary of Queen Mary, Is endeavouring to prevail upon her to abjure Protestantism only three days prior to her execution, shows striking delineation of character and considerable depth of thought. This, and a small canvas, "A Chimney Corner in Hever Castle," were Mr. Yeames's contributions to the Academy In 1868. In the following year he also sent two works, each very different in subject from the other, yet each expressing apprehension : " The Fugitive Jacobite " and " Alarming Footsteps." The theme and the quality of Mr. Yeames's paintings, even far more than their number — for he has never been a prolific exhibitor — render a detailed notice of each quite an impossibility within the limits to which this notice is necessarily restricted. We can, therefore, do little more than call attention to "Maundy Thursday" In the Academy exhibition of 1870, and a large canvas exhibited in 1871 under the title of "Dr. Harvey and the Children of Charles I." Harvey, the famous discoverer of the circulation of the blood, was tutor to the young princes, who accompanied their father In his war with A L MA - T A D E M A. '35 the forces of the Parliament. At the commencement of the battle of Edgehill, Harvey took the children to witness the engag-ement, and placing them, as he thought, out of danger, quietly sat down and began to read. " It was only when the bullets whistled about their heads that he became aware of . the danger to which his young charges were exposed." The subject is an excellent counterpart to the artist's " La Reine ATalheureuse." To complete the list of the pictures exhibited by Mr. Yeames at the Academy it is necessary to mention the following: — "Visit to the Haunted Chamber" and " Love's Young Dream," in 1870; " The Prisoner and his Guests," 1871; "The Old Parishioner" and " A Rest by the River-side," in 1872 ; "Pleading the Old Cause," "The Morning Rehearsal," and "The Path of Roses," 1873; "Flowers for Hall and Bower," in 1874; "The Suitor," in 1875; "The Last Bit of Scandal" (since engraved), in 1876; "Waking" and "Amy Robsart," in 1877. In 1878 Mr. Yeames became a Royal Academician, his diploma picture being "When did you last see your father?" Among what may be termed extraneous works executed by him may be pointed out a design, the subject "Architecture," for a portion of the outer frieze of the Albert Hall ; and, for the South Kensington Museum, a lunette which represents " Studying from the Nude," and life-size figures of Holbein and Torrigiano. Considering how much of Mr. Yeames's Art education was received in continental schools, one is surprised to see so little of foreign influence in his pictures. His subjects are essentially English, and his method of treating them is generally analogous to that practised by our own school. He is an earnest, intelligent, vigorous, yet painstaking artist, whose works merit the favour they receive from our best collectors. The great modern Dutch artist, Alma-Tadema, was born on the 8th of January, 1836, at Dronryp, a small village in Friesland, lying between the towns of Harlingen, on the coast opposite Texel Island, and Leeuwarden, situated a few miles inland. He was educated in the Gymnasium of Leeu- warden, where much of his time was spent in the study of Roman and Egyptian antiquities. In 1852, when at the age of sixteen, he went to Antwerp, and entered 136 BRITISH PAINTERS. the Academy there as a student ; subsequently he placed himself with the late Baron Henry Leys, whom he assisted in several of the large pictures with which the Baron's name is associated. Leys' archeeological style, though dealing with a different class of subject, no doubt helped to confirm his young pupil in that he had determined to follow : the medisevalism of the master and the classicism of the scholar had a like origin, though a different result. The first note we have of Mr. Alma-Tadema's appearance as an exhi- bitor refers to the exhibition at Antwerp in 1861, to which he sent "The School for Vengeance — Education of the Children of Clotilda : " a reduced copy of this work many of our readers will doubtless remember to have seen in the French Gallery, Pall Mall, in 1869. The original picture, which belongs to the King of the Belgians, was at the International Exhibition at Munich in the last-mentioned year, and has been engraved. A picture, "Venantius Fortunatus," a subject taken from the early history of the Ger- manic nations, about the seventh century — was exhibited at Amsterdam in 1862 ; and for it the artist received a gold medal, and was elected a member of the Academy of that city. Another picture, also of early European history, " Fredegonda," was exhibited in Antwerp in 1864, and was litho- graphed at the expense of the Ghent Society of Fine Arts. In 1865 he made his first appearance in England as an exhibitor: in the French Gallery hung "Egyptian Games" and "Sortie de I'Eglise." In the next following year there were in the same gallery two pictures, respectively entitled "The Portico of a Roman Theatre" and "A Roman Lady returning from making Purchases : " striking as these paintings are, and novel as were the subjects at that time, they attracted but little attention comparatively from contemporary critics, as if they did not quite understand a style of Art which seemed to have been resuscitated from the dead past of two thousand years ago. But the time was rapidly approaching when the painter's works were to force themselves into notice. " TibuUus's Visit to Delia" has the merit of being a study and feast for the antiquar)', so careful and true are the restorations. The pigments are a little opaque, as if the artist had carried in his mind the ancient practice of tempera. Yet does the painter put forth the full power of his palette, and through contrasts and harmonies gain marvellous results. In the same gallery he exhibited the year following three pictures, of which " A ^'^■'SoaAfe^ ...^ -!& THE CONVALESCENT. From a Painting bj' Lawrence Alma-Tademi, R.A. A L MA - T A D E M A. 137 Roman Dance " is probably the most characteristic expression of the artist's g-enius. " Tarquinius Superbus," in the International Fine Art Exhibition held at Leeds in 1868, was also exhibited at Munich in 1869. Hitherto Mr. Alma-Tadema had made no appearance in our Royal Academy, although, in :868, he had painted a picture which he hoped might find admittance there ; it was, however, bought prior to the time of receiving works for exhibition, by a gentleman who declined to part with it f(^r the purpose desired by the artist; and as no stipulation had been entered into by the latter when he sold it, he was compelled to submit to the disappointment. The picture in question was " Phidias at work in the Parthenon." In 1869 Mr. Alma-Tadema was for the first time represented at the Academy, and by two pictures, " Un Amateur Romain " and " Une Danse Pyrrhique;" the former showing the interior of a dwelling inhabited by a citizen of the Empire, under the Caesars probably, who is surrounded in the apartment by antique sculptures, bronzes, &c. — objects as much valued by the Art lovers of those far-off days as they are by the modern connoisseur. The other painting was more attractive, but only on account of its singular originality. This Pyrrhic dance is performed by a company of warriors who, armed with shield, lance, helmet, and other objects of offence and defence, perform a kind of tournament in the presence of a grave assemblage of spectators clothed in strictly classic costume. The following year this painter — of whom it has been said that he belongs to no school, but is himself a school — contributed three pictures to the exhibition of the Royal Academy. One of them was simply called " Un Interieur Romain," a title, however, that does not adequately describe the artist's intention in the composition, which would be better expressed by that of "The Convalescent:" by this name Mr. Alma-Tadema wished it to be called in our engraving. In the foreground, lying on a couch, is a young Roman girl recovering from illness ; at the foot of the couch a female, possibly intended for her mother, reads from a scroll in her hand ; in front of them is a younger female on her knees, fanning with her breath the dying embers of a fire in a brazen tripod, whereon is a vessel of some kind, containing nourishment for the little invalid. In the immediate back- ground is what, in modern phraseology, would be called the kitchen, where a large table is set out with a variet}' of edibles, and domestics are busy in T ijS BRITISH PAINTERS. culinary preparations. This is a very fascinating- picture after its kind, full of classic adornments enriching the canvas, and affording in the draperies and mural painting ample scope for colour. " Un Jongleur," another work of the year 1870, is vastly clever, but the subject is not inviting. The third and largest of the year's contributions was another " Amateur Romain," differing in some important points from the picture of i86g. Up to this period (1870) Mr. Alma-Tadema had lived in Brussels; but at the end of that year, or early in 1871, he came over to England, and has since made it his residence. Having lost his first wife, a French lady, not very long after marriage, he took for his second a countrywoman of our own, a lady to whose accomplishments as a painter the exhibitions of the Royal Academy have testified. "A Roman Emperor, a.d. 41," is the title of a picture sent by Mr. Alma-Tadema to the Royal Academy in 1871. It represents the murdered Caligula yet lying on the marble floor of his palace, while the Roman soldiers are dragging forth Claudius from behind a curtain to be his successor. "The Mummy — Roman Period" was the only contribution made by Mr. Alma-Tadema to the Academy exhibition of 1872 : it has less real interest than almost any picture we remember from his hand ; the subject, so far as it declares itself, represents the interior of an Egyptian temple, in which some figures are engaged in disposing of a mummy. The three pieces which appeared in this artist's name at the Academy of 1873 were the "Siesta," "Dinner," and "Wine," representing successive periods in the ordinary day-life of an ancient Greek. It has been pointed out in the Art Journal that these subjects may very possibly have been suggested to him by similar works in fresco on the walls of the dining-room of Baron Leys' museum in Antwerp. "The Death of the First-born," exhibited in the same year, may be considered, looking at the combination of high qualities by which it is characterized, as the artist's greatest work. There are still two or three exhibited works not yet spoken of, and for these we must go back to the French Gallery, where, in 1870, appeared "Ancient Roman Wine Merchants," whose heads look out of the canvas with as much of life as if they were the veritable heads of the vintners who supplied Horace and his companions with the famous Falernian. " In the Temple," exhibited in 187 1, shows a portion of an edifice where several priestesses are assembled, one of whom stands on a tripod with incense S a 5 I H ?" I/) S W S Ph M s -^ ft. fe, A L M A - T A n E M A. 139 burning- : the canvas shows the most scrupulous attention to detail in ever}' part. In the Winter Exhibition of the same year was " Pottery Painting-," an antique studio, having for its principal occupant a woman engaged in decorating a vase : this is a very remarkable picture. Also may be mentioned "An Improvisatore," exhibited in 1873; it is a small work, showing the performer before an enthusiastic audience. To complete the list of Mr. Alma-Tadema's pictures we should mention "The Picture Gallery" and "Joseph, Overseer of Pharaoh's Granaries," at the Royal Academy in 1874 ; " The Sculpture Gallery" and " W' ater Pets," in 1875 ; " Cleopatra" and two other pictures, in 1876, when he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy; "The Seasons," in 1877; and "A Sculptor's Model," in 1878. No less than ten of his works appeared at Paris in 1878. In the following year he reached the highest honour of the Academy. To the International Exhibition of 1871 Mr. Alma-Tadema contributed " La Causerie," two Roman ladies conversing in an apartment rich with the furniture, &c., of refined life; and to that of 1872, an Egyptian scene. His fine picture, " A Vintage Festival in Ancient Rome," exhibited in Mr. Gam- bart's rooms. King Street, St. James's, in 1871, has been beautifully engraved by Mr. Blanchard. The Grosvenor Gallery, too, has of late quite teemed with his canvases. The first of the illustrations here introduced is from a picture, " Greek Festive Scene," never exhibited in England. Here are musicians and dancers and others, some of whom appear to have been sacrificing to Bacchus. In the background is a sculptured altar or table, bearing rich vases, and in the front is a tripod with incense burning. The works of this most original artist have a special charm for all who are interested in classic history ; and to those who know nothing of it or care but little about it they make a strong appeal by the novelty of their subjects. They are, moreover, instructive studies, wherein we read how the men and women of Egypt, Greece, and Rome lived and moved, and had their being. Learned in the manners and customs of those bygone nations, he revivifies them with an intensity of realism which is almost marvellous : deep thought and rare learning find expression on his canvases. It was at one time to be feared that in the desire after technical finish and accuracy in what may be considered only the subordinate parts of an historical composition, some HO BRITISH PAINTERS. sacrifice would be made of the real principals — the figures : time, however, has proved such apprehensions to be groundless ; the stoyy of his picture has now become his first thought, and how this may be most effectively ren- dered ; all else is made of secondary importance, yet does it receive the utmost attention. The technical knowledge and consummate skill of the painter are subservient to the subject of his compositions — manifestly the resuscitation of those from whom descended the arts of the world. Mr. Alma-Tadema has received many honours, worthily earned. The following list shows them in chronological order: — 1864, the gold medal at the Paris Salon ; 1 866, Knighthood of the Order of Leopold of Belgium ; 1867, second-class medal at the Paris International Exhibition; 1868, Knighthood of the Lion of the Netherlands; 1869, Knighthood, first class, of the Order of St. Michael of Bavaria ; i 870, Member of the Royal Academy of Munich; 1873, Knighthood of the Order of the Legion of Honour, France; 1874, Member of the Royal Academy of Berlin ; 1879, Member of the Royal Academy of London. George Henry Boughton was born near Norwich in 1834, and when about three years of age was taken to America by his parents, who settled in Albany, the capital of the State of New York. Intended for commercial pursuits, he received an education suitable to the object ; but ledgers, and balance-sheets, and "all other and sundry" matters appertaining to the counting-house were, to the despair of all interested in his future career as a merchant, of far less value in his estimation than sheets of paper whereon he could jot down, with pencil or pen and ink, his ideas of human faces and human figures. Intent on acquiring some knowledge of drawing, he procured a few ordinary lesson-books with examples ; but after exhausting the contents of these he came to a pause, and felt that there was no alternative for him but the counting-house. One day, however, preparing for a fishing expedi- tion, he entered a " variety store " to buy hooks, where he caught sight of some tubes of colour, " the first instalment of Winsor and Newton's brilliant temptations " that, so far as he knew, the town of Albany had ever seen. The money intended for the purchase of fish-hooks was at once invested in five or six of these tubes ; and, leaving the fish for some other angler, he went home to paint a landscape on a small piece of canvas glued on a board. BOUGHTON. 141 The exhibition of this maiden eftbrt to his family cast a gloom over the whole circle : all saw in it the blight of future mercantile prosperity, while it gave the utmost delight to the embryo painter. Mr. Boughton candidly admits that his second performance had less of " originality in it, though he worked it from a more luxuriant palette, and with a larger stock of materials : " this was a copy, made from the engraving in the Art younial, of Callcott's "Crossing the Brook: " it so far " took" that he was allowed to proceed with his labours as he thought proper. Other paintings from engravings followed, with copies of pictures lent by friends, and then he attempted an original subject, which he called " The Wayfarer." It represented an old man seated by the roadside. This he sent to the New York Art Union ; the committee purchased it, sent the proceeds at once, and wrote him a most encouraging letter. Stimulated by this early success, Mr. Boughton did not hesitate to engage a studio in Albany, and start in the world as a painter by profession, and he soon obtained considerable notice in the States. In 1853 he came over to England for the purpose of studying British Art and British scenery, remained a few months in London, and then made a sketching tour to the English lakes, Scotland, and Ireland. With a portfolio well filled he returned to Albany, and for a year or two painted pictures from these sketches, varying them with others of American scenery. In 1858 he sent for exhibition at the New York Academy of Design a work entitled "Winter Twilight," painted out of doors in the depth of winter. It attracted so much attention that he was induced to remove his easel from Albany to New York, where he painted more " winters," and some few figure subjects, all of which proved acceptable to the Art patrons of the country. Two years afterwards he went to France to study the works in the galleries of Paris. While in that countr)' he received good help and advice from E. Frere. Returning homewards in 1862, Mr. Boughton came to London on his route, and was induced by some friends to remain there a few months. Part of the time he employed in painting a picture — a small canvas, which he sent to the exhibition at the British Institution in the following year. It was called " Passing into the Shade," and was favourably noticed in the leading Art periodicals. Since 1863 he has annually exhibited at the Royal Academy, and occasionally at other galleries. The following may be pointed out as his principal pictures : — 142 BRITISH PAINTERS. "Through the Fields" and "Hop-pickers Returning — Twilight," two most carefully painted works^were in the Academy exhibition of 1863. These were followed by " Industry" and " The Interminable Story," in 1864; "A Breton Haymaker" and "Wandering Thoughts," in 1865; "Wayside Devotion, Brittany," and "The Swing, Brittany," in 1866. All these pictures, especially the Breton subjects, show more or less the influence of the French school, being low in colour, and without much attention to elaborate detail ; yet the character of the figures is well maintained. The only picture contributed by Mr. Boughton in 1867 brought him very prominently into notice. It had more of historic property than anything we had as yet seen from his hand, while the subject itself was of great interest as an illustration of life among the primitive settlers in America. It bore for its title " Early Puritans of New England going to Worship armed, to protect themselves from Indians and Wild Beasts," and was suggested by a passage in Bartlett's "Pilgrim Fathers," which runs thus: — "The few villages were almost isolated, being connected only by long miles of blind pathway through the woods The cavalcade proceeding to church, the marriage procession (if marriage procession could be thought of in those frightful days) was often interrupted by the death-shot of some invisible enemy." The party of men are proceeding through the deep snow, each with a Bible in his girdle, and bearing a musket on his shoulder. The picture is painted with a soberness and simplicity quite in keeping with the theme. In 1868 also Mr. Boughton exhibited but one picture, "A Breton Pastoral," an unpretentious work, but very attractive by its truthfulness. In the following year appeared his "March of Miles Standish." "A Wayside Cross, Brittany," was its companion in the gallery. A composition called "Indifference" was in Mr. Wallis's winter exhibition of 1869. It is a subject of satirical humour, and was introduced with four lines from a poem by T. B. Aldrich. " The Rustic Toilet," a very pleasant picture, was exhibited at the same time with " Indifference." His "Age of Gallantry" caused much amusement to the visitors to the Academy in 1870, wherein he indulged his quiet humour by showing a gentleman of rather mature age wading knee-deep into a stream to gather water-lilies for some young girls who stand on the banks, tittering most heartlessly at his endeavours to procure the flowers for them. Not alone, however, as a humorous composition is the picture to be commended, but ^ ' •^ ■^ ^ ( ) h-i f. Uh % ^ r^t - ^" w W PO H fa ^i O ^ H ho r/1 ."^ BRITISH PAINTERS. escort had made for him ; his parents, gazing wistfully on his face, could mark the lines of suffering traced there since the day the Southerns invaded the glen." The picture was in the possession of the late Mr. George P. Bidder, the eminent engineer. From that year till 1864 we hear nothing of the artist, who probably was passing the intervening period In pursuing his studies on the continent. But in the British Institution of the last-mentioned year he exhibited the first of those pictures which partake in some degree of the character of Sacred Art. " Where they Crucified Him" — the title of the work — is the property of Mr. Robert Rawlinson, C.B. ; it was engraved in the Art Journal {or 1868. The comments then made upon it need not be repeated here : suffice it to say that the picture is full of rich poetic suggestion. Mr. Morris exhibited a second work with it, " Cradled in his Calling," of which an engraving is given. The composition shows a novel fancy : a weather-beaten fisherman, having been met by his wife and child as he returns on shore, has placed the sturdy youngster in his fishing-net, and the little one is borne home in the extemporised cradle by the father and a fisher-boy, accompanied by the man's faithful dog. This is a most pleasant picture, both in sentiment and in treatment. In the same gallery appeared, in 1865, " The Battle Scar." In that year he contributed to the Royal Academy " Jesu Salvator," a title given to an incident supplied by the records of the dispersion of the Spanish Armada. " In the year 1588, the Spanish ship Florida, forming part of the Invincible Armada, was lost on the Island of Tobermory, or Well of Mary, near a religious house dedicated to the Virgin The Synod of Argyle allowed the nuns to remain in those islands long after the Reformation in Scotland." " The Knightly Mirror," in the Winter Exhibition at the French Gallery in 1867, has been engraved by H. Simmons. "The Riven Shield," at the Academy in 1866, deserved a much better place than that given to it by the hangers, for it is a work of more than ordinary merit. " Drift Wreck from the Armada," exhibited at the Academy in 1867, is a work original in conception and most spiritedly carried out. Another of his pictures exhibited the same year in the Academy was called "Setting in Glory;" but we are drawing closely to the end of our allotted space, and cannot enter upon any description of this, or of the artist's work exhibited in 1868, " Christening-day of the Infant Heir." In 1869 he sent to the Academy the "Ambuscade," of which it must JlSiFlimlJiiF^^ ■J) 'A J ^ hJ "-» <1 '^ ■■J « ■/) ni ^ ■^ X ^ «^ ^ Q ^0 -^ SI 5 // L L. '50 st}le were occasionally to be noticed, but they were in a great measure redeemed by grace of composition and the expression of a deep and earnest sj'mpathy, kind and true, with every phase and condition of human life : it has been well said of his works that " they tell us over and over again of the manifold beauties, in form and colour, which beset our every-day life, if we have eyes to sec and sensitiveness to appreciate." Frank Holl, a son of the celebrated engraver of the same name, was born in London in 1845, ^"d was educated in the school of University College. Soon after he had passed the fifteenth year of his age his desire to be a painter led him to enter himself as a probationer of the Royal Academy, and a few months afterwards he was admitted a student. At the distribution of prizes in 1862 Mr. Holl received a silver medal for " the best drawing from the antique," and also the premium of ten pounds. A picture, "A Mother and Sick Child," was painted by him about this time, as a commission given by a cotton merchant of Rochdale : the work was never exhibited. In the competition of the students in the following year (1863) Mr. Holl was yet more successful, obtaining the gold medal, books, and a scholarship of twenty-five pounds for two years, " for the best historical painting," and a silver medal for "the second-best drawing from the life." The subject of the picture for which the gold medal, &c., were awarded v\-as " Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac." In 1864 he made his first appearance as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy with two pictures, one being "A Portrait," the other bearing the title of "Turned out of Church." His picture exhibited In 1866, "The Ordeal," shows a tyro submitting a picture he has just executed to a patron, and waiting with no little anxiety for the decision of the latter. There Is considerable point In the composition, so far as it tells the story, while the manner In which it is carried out, though evidencing, as might reasonably be expected, an Inexperienced hand, gave promise of a future which has now been in a great measure fulfilled. The very next year (1867) produced two pictures at the Academy which went a long way towards the realisation of the success foreshadowed In "The Ordeal:" these were respectively entitled "A Convalescent " and " Faces in the Fire." His only contribution to the Academy exhibition of 1S6S was a striking portrait of his father ; but ,6o B RITI SB PA I N T ER S. at the end of that year we find his name at the head of those students of the Academy on whom prizes were bestowed, his award being the " two years' travelling- studentship for painting." The picture which obtained for Mr. Holl this distinction was exhibited at Burlington House in 1869, the year in which the Academy removed to Piccadilly from Trafalgar Square. It had for its title a passage from the Book of Job — "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord : " an engraving from it forms one of our illustrations. On referring to our catalogue of the Academy exhibition in 1869, we find this picture marked as one of the most striking works of its character in the gallery, sad as is the subject, which was suggested by a story wherein is an incident describing the assembling of a family for the first time after the death and funeral of the last and only parent. The eldest son, a young minister, now assumes the headship, and, as such, says grace at the meal, and alludes to the loss in the words adopted for the title of the picture. Another scriptural subject was contributed to the Academy in 1870; it inculcated the duty of loving-kindness as taught by Solomon in the Book of Proverbs — " Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith." The composition is made out in conformity with the first portion of the text, and therefore needs no description ; but the execu- tion throughout is certainly less successful than that of the picture just mentioned, inasmuch as there is an absence of finish in some parts where such a quality seems to be required to give value to the work ; in other words, the execution is too broadly generalised. As a kind of set-off to this, the picture is remarkable for richness of colour. Mr. Holl's works had already arrested the attention of the Queen, and he had the honour of receiving a commission from her Majesty to paint a picture for her: the result was "No Tidings from the Sea," exhibited at the Academy in 187 1, with another entitled "Winter:" the former tells a pathetic story, and the execution is as earnest as the conception. Both works fully maintained the reputation already acquired by the young artist. Founded on the verse of Scripture, " I am the resurrection and the life," and adopting the words for the title of his picture, Mr. Holl sent to the Academy in 1872 a work the subject of which is a village funeral ; the scene represents a procession of mourners following the dead along the churchyard o ►4 O < w X H W Q w t/) W PI \ to H Q O W Q < > o Q ei o f.) w X H H S Pi '^ W JO Q -5 H L L. i6i path. The " pomp and circumstance " of interment find no place amid such an assembly as is gathered here, dressed in habiliments of mourning- which show more the scantiness of the purse than the depth of grief felt by those who wear them. And perhaps it is owing to the absence of so much of the outward and visible manifestation of sorrow that one feels the solemnity of the composition, which is worked out with impressive pathos, and shows much artistic excellence in treatment and manner. With this ver}^ touching picture was exhibited another, but of a different character, simply "A Milk- maid." "Leaving Home," Mr. Holl's solitary contribution to the Academy in 1873, represents part of a railway station, where two or three persons are seated, waiting the arrival of a train to carry them away. Though the subject is not novel, this version of the incident reveals many commendable qualities of painting. To Mr. Wallis's gallery in Pall Mall he sent, in the winter of the same year, "Want — her poverty, but not her will, consents." One of the engravings introduced here is the "Deserted," taken from Mr. Holl's picture exhibited at the Academy in 1874 : it tells its own story perspicuously enough. The scene is presumed to lie on one of the wharfs on the banks of the Thames in Southwark : on it is a crane for landing and shipping merchandise, half visible in the fog ; and it is probable that the infant which the policeman carries so carefully was found concealed behind it. It is early dawn, and a thick dingy mist envelops everj'thing but the nearest group of figures, which alone are seen with any distinctness. The men, judging by their dress, are evidently not yet off day-duty, and the people who are with them were probably about to begin their daily labours when the discovery of the " deserted " one arrested their attention ; and their curiosity, excited by the occurrence, leads them to accompany the officers to ascertain, if possible, what will become of it. The woman in the distance, who furtively watches the whole procedure, knows, it may be presumed, more about the foundling than she cares to disclose except upon compulsion. The subject in itself cannot be considered either pleasing or attractive, but it is truthfully worked out, and its artistic merits are neither few nor insignificant. Another of Mr. Holl's exhibited pictures which remains to be pointed out is " A Deserter," hung in Mr. Wallis's gallery in the winter of 1874. The deserter and his escort, two stalwart Highlanders, have arrived at the door of Y i62 BRITISH PAINTERS. a roadside public-house for rest and refreshment. There is much character in the figures, and vigorous drawing combined with excellent colouring, all contributing to make the picture one of very great interest. In 1875 nothing came from his studio ; we believe he was unable to complete in time the work intended for the Academy exhibition. In 1876 we noticed with much interest "Her First-born;" and in 1877, "Going Home." His diploma picture on election as an Associate of the Academy in 1878 was " Committed for Trial." THE END. PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD, LONDON. (\; Uw-O U L. I u i\rv i\ I