ILLUSTRATED
ART HAND-BOOKS
T A i> ^T^
ENGLISH AND
AMERICAN PAINTERS
W1LMOT BUXTON & S.R.KOEHLER .
Pte
m
ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOKS OF ART HISTORY.
ENGLISH PAINTERS
BY H. J. WILMOT-BUXTON, M.A.
WITH A CHAPTER ON
AMERICAN PAINTERS
BY S. R. KOEHLER.
ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOKS OF ART
HISTORY OF ALL AGES.
Crown Svo, cloth extra, per volume, 5s.
Architecture : Classic and Early Christian. By Profes-
sor T. ROGER SMITH and JOHN SLATER, B.A. Comprising the
Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Early Christian.
Illustrated with 212 Engravings, including the Parthenon, the
Erechtheum at Athens, the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, the
Colosseum, the Baths of Diocletian at Rome, Saint Sophia at
Constantinople, the Sakhra Mosque at Jerusalem, &c.
Architecture : Gothic and Renaissance. By Professor T.
ROGBR SMITH and EDWARD J. POYNTER, R.A. Showing the Progress
of Gothic Architecture in England, France, Germany, Italy, and
Spain, and of Renaissance Architecture in the same Countries.
Illustrated with more than 100 Engravings, including many
of the principal Cathedrals, Palaces, and Domestic Buildings
on the Continent.
Sculpture : A Manual of Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, and
Roman. By GEORGE REDFORD, F.R.C.S. With 160 Illustrations
of the most celebrated Statues and Bas-reliefs of Greece and Rome,
a Map of Ancient Greece, Descriptions of the Statues, and a Chrono-
logical List of Ancient Sculptors and their Works.
Painting: Classic and Italian. By EDWAKD J. POYNTER,
R.A., and PERCY R. HEAD, B.A. Including Painting in Egypt,
Greece, Rome, and Pompeii ; the Renaissance in Italy ; Schools of
Florence, Siena, Rome, Padua, Venice, Perugia, Ferrara, Parma,
Naples, and Bologna. Illustrated with 80 Engravings of many of
the finest Pictures of Italy.
Painting : German, Flemish, and Dutch. By H. J.
WiLMOT-BuxTON, M.A., and EDWARD J. POYNTER, R.A. Including
an Account of the Works of Albrecht Diirer, Cranach, and Holbein ;
Van Eyck, Van der Weyden, and Memlinc ; Rubens, Snyders, and
Van Dyck ; Rembrandt, Hals, and Jan Steen ; Wynants, Ruisdael,
and Hobbema; Cuyp, Potter, and Berchem ; Bakhuisen, Van de
Velde, Va.n Huysum, and many other celebrated Painters. Illus-
trated with 100 Engravings.
Painting: English and American. By H. J. WILMOT-
BUXTON, M.A. Including an Account of the Earliest Paintings
known in England ; the Works of Holbein, Antonis More, Lucas de
Heere, Zuccaro and Marc Gheeraedts ; the Hilliards and Olivers ; Van
Dyck, Lely, and Kneller ; Hogarth, Reynolds, and Gainsborough ;
West, Romney, and Lawrence ; Constable, Turner, and Wilkie ;
Maclise, Mulready, and Landseer; and many other celebrated
Painters. With 80 Illustrations.
Painting : French and Spanish. By GERARD SMITH,
Exeter Coll., Oxon. Including the Lives of Ribera, Zurbaran,
Velazquez, and Murillo ; Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Le Sueur,
Chardin, Greuze, David, and Prud'hon ; Ingres, Vernet, Delaroche,
and Delacroix ; Corot, Diaz, Rousseau, and Millet ; Courbet, Reg-
nault, Troyon ; and many other celebrated Artists. With 80 Illus-
trations. \Nearly ready.
THE VALLEY FARM. By CONSTABLE. A.D. 1835.
In the National Gallery.
r
ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOKS OF ART HISTORY
ENGLISH PAINTERS
BY H. J. WILMOT-BUXTON, M.A.
WITH A CHAPTER ON
AMERICAN PAINTERS
BY S. R. KOEHLER
LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON
CROWN BUILDINGS, FLEET STREET
lC8 3
(All rights
PREFACE.
THIS brief sketch of the rise and progress of Painting in Eng-
land has been drawn from a variety of sources. The little
that can be traced of artistic work previous to the end of
the fifteenth century does not fill many pages. Ignorance,
carelessness, and " iconoclastic rage " all contributed to the
defacement of paintings which we have every reason to believe
at one time abounded in our churches and public buildings,
as they did at the same period in Italy; and there is good
evidence that some of our early English artists are not to be
despised.
Our forefathers were too much engaged in the rough contests
of war to care much for the arts of peace. In the sixteenth
century several foreign artists of more or less celebrity were
induced to visit and stay in England. Foremost of these was
Holbein, and to his example English artists are deeply indebted.
In the next century there were a few excellent miniature pain-
ters, whose work is not to be surpassed at the present day, and
then came a succession of foreigners Rubens and Van Dyck
from Flanders, Lely and Kneller from Germany, and a host
Vlll PREFACE.
of lesser men, who seem to have in a great measure mono-
polized portrait painting then in vogue among the nobility
for more than a hundred years.
Early in the eighteenth century came Hogarth, followed by
Reynolds, Gainsborough and Romney, and from that time to
the present, Art has year by year progressed, till now English
Painters have become a recognised power in the state, and con-
tribute, in no small degree, to the enlightenment, pleasure and
refinement of the age.
H. J. W.-B.
November, 1882.
CONTENTS.
PAINTING IN ENGLAND.
CHAPTER T.
Early English Art
CHAPTER II.
English Art in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries .
CHAPTER III.
English Art in the Eighteenth Century William Hogarth
CHAPTER IV.
The Royal Academy and its influence ....
CHAPTER V.
The Progress of English Art in the Eighteenth Century
CHAPTER VI.
Book Illustrators Miniature Painters
PAOK
1
60
85
X CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
TAOR
Painters in Water Colours . .100
CHAPTER VIII.
English Art in the Nineteenth Century Sir Thomas Lawrence
and his contemporaries .116
CHAPTER IX.
Landscape Painters . . . .127
CHAPTER X.
Historic Painters 148
CHAPTER XI.
Suhject Painters 163
PAINTING IN AMERICA.
Introduction . 187
First, or Colonial Period 190
Second, or Revolutionary Period . . . . . . .195
Third Period, or Period of Inner Development . . . .201
Fourth, or Present Period 217
INDEX OF NAMES 223
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. THE VALLEY FARM
Constable . . Frontispiece
2. AGE OP INNOCENCE .... Reynolds
3. FROM ST. ETHELWOLD'S BENEDICTIONAL Godeman
4. ARTHUR, PRINCE OF WALES (Miniature)
5. HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES (Miniature}
6. NICOLAS KRATZER .... Holbein
7. EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES (Miniature) Holbein
8. A DUTCH GENTLEMAN .... More .
9. COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE . . . Hilliard(?)
10. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (Miniature) . . Isaac Oliver
11. JAMES I. (Miniature) . . . . Hoskim
12. COUNTESS OF DEVONSHIRE . . . Van Dyck .
13. OLIVER CROMWELL . . ... Lely .
14. GRINLING GIBBONS .... Kneller
15. WILLIAM HOGARTH AND HIS DOG TRUMP Hogarth
16. MORNING ...... Wilson
17. MRS. BRADYLL ..... Reynolds
<18. MRS. SIDDONS . . . . . Gainsborough
19. TlTANIA AND BOTTOM .... Fuseli .
20. DEATH OF WOLFE .... West .
21. DEATH OF MAJOR PEIRSON . . . Copley
FAGE
xiv
7
10
12
14
18
21
23
24
27
29
33
39
49
53
57
63
65
68
xii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
22. MERCURY INVENTING THE LYRE .
Barry
70
23. MARQUIS OF STAFFORD
Romney
. 73
24. CHARITY
Northcote .
. 77
25. THE WATERING-PLACE
Morland
82
26. FROM DANTE'S INFERNO
Blake
. 86
27. THE DREAM
Stothard .
. 88
28. THE PORTRAIT
Smirke
. 90
29. THE WOODCOCK
Bewick
. 92
30. TAIL-PIECE ......
Bewick
93
31. MORNING WALK .....
Chalon
. 98
32. EVENING
Turner
. 106
33. THE TOMB OF THE SCALIGERS AT VERONA
Prout
. 109
34. BERNCASTLE, ON THE MOSELLE .
Harding
. Ill
35. THE VIEW FROM RICHMOND HILL
De Wint .
. 113
36. OLD ENGLISH HOSPITALITY .
Cattermole .
. 115
37. MASTER LAMBTON ....
Lawrence .
. 118
38. TRIAL OF QUEEN CATHERINE
Harlow
.122
39. Swiss PEASANT GIRL .
Howard
. 124
40. THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE
Turner
. 128
41. TRENT IN TYROL ....
Callcott
. 132
42. THE FISHERMAN'S DEPARTURE .
Collins
. 134
43. ST. GOMER, BRUSSELS ....
Roberts
. 136
44. FRANCIS I. AND HIS SISTER .
Boning ton .
. 138
45. BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST ....
Martin
.. .140
46. TERMINATI MARINA ....
Stanjield .
. 144
47. THE PLEASANT WAY HOME
Creswick
. ' . 146
48. THE RAPE OF EUROPA
Hilton
. 149
49. THE DANGEROUS PLAYMATE
Etty .
. 153
50. GREEK FUGITIVES ....
Eastlake ,
. 155
51. JOASH SHOOTING THE ARROWS OF DE-
LIVERANCE
Dyce .
. 157
52. HAROLD PRESENTS HIMSELF TO EDWARD
THE CONFESfOR
Maclise
. 159
53. THE MAID OF SARAGOSSA . .-
Wilkie
. 165
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Xlll
54.
CHOOSING THE WEDDING GOWN .
Mulready .
PAGE
. 168
55.
SANCHO PANZA AND THE DUCHESS
Leslie
. 171
56.
CAPTAIN MACHEATH ....
Newton
. 174
57.
PEACE . . . . . ...
Landseer
. 177
58.
THE ARAB SCRIBE ....
Lewis
. 181
59.
OUR VILLAGE
Walker
. 183
GO.
DEATH ON THE PALE HORSE
West .
. 194
61.
GENERAL Kvox ...
Stuart
. 196
62.
DEATH or MONTGOMERY IN THE ATTACK
Trumbull .
. 198
63.
JEREMIAH AND THE SCRIBE .
Alls ton
. 203
64.
A SURPRISE
Mount
. 210
65.
DESOLATION ......
Cole .
. 214
66.
NOON BY THE SEA-SHOREBEVERLY
BEACH
Kensett
. 216
67.
SUNSET ON THE HUDSON
Gi/ord
- 21 8
68.
LAMBS ON THE MOUNTAIN-SIDE
Hunt .
220
AGE OF INNOCENCE. By SIR J. REYNOLDS.
In the National Gallery.
PAINTING IN ENGLAND
BY H. J. WILMOT-BUXTON.
ENGLISH PAINTERS.
CHAPTER I.
EAELY ENGLISH ART.
THE current English school of art is a creation of a com-
paratively modern date. It is a mistake, however, to
assume that there were no native painters in England under
the Plantagenets, and that we were entirely dependent on
foreigners for such art as we possessed. The little care which
has been taken of early English pictures and their destruction,
sometimes accidental, sometimes wilful, have led many to
imagine that ancient England had no art of her own. It has
been customary to imagine that in Italy alone, in the thirteenth
century, existed the Renaissance and growth of modern design.
Later research has, however, shown that the Renaissance in
painting was not the sudden creation of Giotto, nor that of
sculpture the work of Niccola Pisano. The Renaissance in
B
2 ENGLISH PAINTERS.
Italy was a gradual growth, and there was in England and in
other countries a similar Renaissance, which was overlooked
by those whose eyes were fixed on Italy. It has been shown
that there were English artists, contemporaries of Giotto and
Pisano, whose works were as good as any paintings or sculptures
which the Italians produced in the thirteenth century. It is
quite true that we know very little of these Englishmen. Some
gave themselves to illumination, and produced delicate represen-
tations of human beings, as well as of animals, leaves, and
flowers. In the British Museum there are several manu-
scripts of a very early date, which are ornamented with
paintings undoubtedly by English artists. The Duke of
Devonshire possesses a manuscript, the Benedictional of St.
Ethelwold, written between A.D. 963 and 970, and illuminated,
with thirty drawings, by a monk of Hyde Abbey, named
GODEMAN, for Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester. It is a folio
of 119 leaves of vellum, ll inches in height by 8^ in width.
Other artists painted and gilded the images of wood or stone by
their brother craftsmen, and were classed in the humble category
of Steyners. They devoted much of their time to heraldic
devices, and by degrees passed from the grotesque to the natural,
and produced what were styled portraits on board. Painting
on glass was a favourite art in this early period, and, although
the artists had no more noble title than that of Glaziers, some
of their works survive to prove their merits. Many of these
craftsmen combined the arts of the painter, sculptor, or
" marbler," and architect. Among these obscure pioneers of
English art was WILLIAM TORELL, a goldsmith and citizen of
London, supposed to be descended from an English family
whose name occurs in Domesday Book. Torell modelled and
cast the effigy of Henry III. for his tomb in Westminster Abbey,
as well as three effigies of Eleanor of Castile, about A.D. 1291.
These latter works were placed in Westminster Abbey,
Blackfriars' Monastery, and Lincoln Cathedral. The figures
FROM ST. ETHELWOLD'S BENEDICTIONAL. By GODEMAN, A MONK OP
HYDE ABBEY. A.D. 970.
An Illuminated MS. in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire.
B X
4: ENGLISH PAINTERS.
in Westminster Abbey show the dignity and beauty of the
human form, and are masterpieces of a noble style. The
comparison between the effigy of Margaret of Richmond,
executed for Henry VII. 's Chapel by the Florentine Torrigiano,
and the figures by Torell, is decidedly in favour of the latter.
No work in Italy of the thirteenth century excels in beauty
these effigies by the English sculptor. At an earlier period than
this, during the life of Henry III., some English artists, as well
as foreigners, were employed to embellish the cathedrals and
palaces of the King. These native craftsmen, who seem to
have been at once artists, masons, carvers, upholsterers, or
sometimes tailors,* are mostly forgotten, but we can trace the
names of MASTER EDWARD of Westminster, or Edward Fitz Odo
probably the son of Odo, goldsmith to Henry III. MASTER
WALTER, who received twenty marks "for pictures in our Great
Chamber at Westminster," and MASTER JOHN of Gloucester,
who was plasterer to the King. The names of the "imagi-
nators " of Queen Eleanor's Crosses are also well known. The
early pictorial art of England has been so neglected or forgotten,
that it is commonly said to have commenced with the portrait
painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Ignorance, indifference, and bigotry have destroyed, or suffered
to perish, the paintings which adorned the walls of almost every
church, and the panels of nearly every rood-screen, hundreds of
years before the date assigned to the English school. In
Kempley Church, Gloucestershire, the walls appear to have
been painted early in the twelfth century with large figure
subjects. Those in the chancel are in a good state of preser-
vation, and represent the vision in the Apocalypse, and Christ in
majesty, attended by the twelve apostles and the saints, painted
in life size. In Chaldon Church, Surrey, the chancel walls are
* At least, like most of the great Italian masters before and after their
time, and like Clouet the Frenchman, they designed garments, and painted
banners of state ; they decorated coffers and furniture, book covers, and,
like Holbein and Cellini, made designs for jewellery.
EAELY ENGLISH AET. 5
ornamented with subjects illustrating the Scala human Salva-
tionis, works apparently of the twelfth century, which, though
necessarily rude, are as good as any Italian examples of the same
period. In Westminster Abbey there is an important series of
small paintings by an English artist contemporary with Cima-
bue. These pictures once formed the chief ornaments of a
frontal, and belonged to the high altar.* The work in ques-
tion consists of a rectangular piece of framed and richly panelled
wood-work, about eleven feet long by three feet high. The
general design consists of three central figures painted under
canopies. On each side are four star-shaped panels filled with
painted groups of figures ; beyond these on each side is another
single figure under a canopy. The wood is covered with fine
stucco, or gesso, to the thickness of cardboard, as is always the
case with old paintings on panels, and generally when on stone.
The pictures still extant on the frontal comprise, in the centre,
a figure of Christ in the act of benediction, holding an orb in
His left hand. At the right hand is the Virgin Mary, bearing
her emblem of the lily ; on our left is St. John, with a
book ; on our right is St. Peter, with the keys. In the star-
shaped panels we find the miracles of the raising of Jairus's
daughter, the loaves and fishes, and the restoration of the blind
man. These figures, though somewhat like those of the early
Florentine school, possess a character of their own, and are
undoubtedly English. The well-known portrait of Richard II.
(died 1400), now in the Abbey at Westminster, is believed to
have been painted by an English artist of the fourteenth century.
The figure of the King is of large life size, seated in a coro-
nation chair. . He is in royal robes, with the globe in one hand
and sceptre in the other. This picture for many years hung
near the altar.
* When we discover that the whole frontal has been used as the top
of a cupboard, we need not wonder at the present scarcity of specimens o
early English art.
6 ENGLISH PAINTERS.
The history of art in England during the reigns of Edward I.
and Edward II. is a blank ; probably men were too busy with
swords and bucklers to turn to the gentle arts of painting and
sculpture. The reign of Edward III. shows a revival in art and
letters, and the patron of Chaucer adorned the Chapel of St.
Stephen, Westminster, with the best works of native artists.
The fire of 1834, which destroyed the old Houses of Parlia-
ment, almost obliterated these interesting relics. The walls
of the chapel were painted in oil colours with scriptural and
historic episodes on the prepared surface of the stonework.
There seems to have been at this period a method, peculiar to
London, of producing a blue colour, which is mentioned in a
German MS. of the fourteenth century as " the London
practice." It is noticeable that a blue colour can still be
traced in the relics saved from St. Stephen's. The Society of
Antiquaries has published coloured copies of the paintings which
adorned the chapel. When we recall the state of England at
the period which succeeded the death of Edward III., the
turbulence of the feudal barons, the constant lawlessness and
blood-shedding, and the ignorance which prevailed even among
the upper classes, we cannot wonder that art made little pro-
gress. Some advance doubtless took place, but we look in vain
for originality among the artists who were alternately employed
to decorate a baron's pageant, or adorn an altar.
There is a good portrait of Henry IV., removed from Hamp-
ton Court, Herefordshire, and now at Cassiobury.
To the reign of Henry V., or at latest to the early days of
Henry VI., belongs the earliest authentic specimen of historical
portraiture in England. It represents Henry V. and his
Eelations, painted on wood, less than life size, and was at one
time the altar-piece of Shene Church. The portraits which were
attempted in the troublous period of the Wars of the Eoses,
though unlovely and ghastly to look upon, show that art was
gradually emerging from the fetters of monastic teaching, where
EAELY ENGLISH ART.
bad pupils copied bad masters, and reproduced saints and
angels, whose want of form and symmetry was atoned for by a
liberal allowance of gilding. A fairly expressive portrait of
ARTHUR, PRINCE OF WALES. [B. 1486. D. 1502.]
From a Miniature at Windsor Castle.
Richard III., which must have been painted about this time by
a very capable artist, is among the treasures of Knowsley. In
the well-known tapestry in St. Mary's Hall, Coventry, there
8 ENGLISH PAINTEKS.
is a representation of King Henry VI. kneeling before the altar,
attended by Cardinal Beaufort, the Duke of Gloucester, and
many courtiers, in which the drawing will bear comparison with
similar work executed in Italy or Flanders at the same time.
This tapestry was probably made at Arras, from English designs.
The gradual spread of knowledge at this period induced the
English nobility to promote the adornment of manuscripts,
chiefly Missals and Romances of Chivalry. These pictures
comprise the best specimens of English later mediaeval art, and
in richness and delicacy of colour they closely approach oil
paintings. With the discovery of printing came a check to the
art of illuminating manuscripts, and the wild fanaticism of the
first Reformers led them to burn at once the religious manuals
of Rome, and the wit and wisdom of poet or philosopher. To
these ruthless iconoclasts we owe the obscurity in which early
English pictorial art remains. It must have been during the
later years of the reign of Henry VII. that two miniatures, now
at Windsor Castle, were painted, probably for the King. One
represents Arthur, Prince of Wales, who, at the age of fifteen,
married Catherine of Aragon ; the other is his brother, who
became Henry VIII. (See Engravings.)
In the reign of Henry VI. there was an artist of note, un-
doubtedly an Englishman, who may not be passed in silence.
This was William Austen, sculptor, to whom we owe the
monument (" in fine latten," i.e. brass) of Richard, Earl of
Warwick, in the Church of St. Mary, Warwick, a work which
Flaxman somewhat courageously considered equal to the produc-
tions of Austen's Italian contemporaries, Ghiberti and Donatello.
CHAPTER IT.
ENGLISH AET IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.
THE period of the Renaissance found all eyes directed to
Italy, and presently England welcomed a number of
foreign artists who became the teachers, more or less worthy,
of our countrymen. Henry VII. was fonder of money than of
art, yet he invited several of these strangers to England ; but
there are no grounds for supposing, though it is frequently
stated, that Mabuse was among the number. Among the
foreign artists of this period who visited England, were GERHARD
LUCAS HOREBOUT, or HORNEBOLT, of Ghent (1475 1558), who
was employed by Henry VIII., and probably by his prede-
cessor ; and SUSANNAH HOREBOUT, daughter of Gerrard Lucas,
a miniature painter, is said to have married an English sculptor
named Whorstley. Diirer, in his journal, says of her, " it is a
great wonder a woman should do so well." Henry VIII. was as
lavish as his father had been careful of money ; naturally fond of
display, and jealous of the magnificence of Francis I. and Charles
V., the King became a liberal patron of artists. He is said to
have invited Raphael, Primaticcio, and Titian to visit England,
but if so, the invitations were declined. Among lesser names,
however, we find that of ANTONIO TOTO, who came here in 1531,
and was appointed Serjeant-Painter to the King. None of his
10
ENGLISH PAINTERS
works is now recognised. GIROLAMO DA TREVISO is sup-
posed to have designed the historic painting of the Field of
the Cloth of Gold, formerly at Windsor, and now in the pos-
session of the Society of Antiquaries at Burlington House.
HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES. [B. 1491. r. 1547.]
KING HENRY VIII.
From a Miniature at Windsor Castle.
AFTERWARDS
LUCAS CORNEUSZ of Leyden (1493 1552), son of Cornells
Engelbrechtsen, came to England and entered the service of
the King. It is said that he taught Holbein in some branches
IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 11
of art, and, as he survived the - great painter of Augsburg for
nine years, it is jwssible that some of the works attributed to
Holbein after 1543 were painted by him.
Henry VIII. seems to have had two other Serjeant-Painters
besides Antonio Toto, and previous to the coming of Holbein.
These were ANDREW WRIGHT and JOHN BROWN, whose names
proclaim them to be natives. These artists or craftsmen had
positions of trust and honour, wore a special dress, and
received a weekly wage. Jan van Eyck had a similar post as
varlet de chambre to Philippe le Bon. It was the age of pageants,
and one great duty of the King's artists was to adorn these
singular spectacles. Among the archives of the Church of
St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, is the following curious notice of a
religious pageant held at a somewhat earlier date :
" Memorandum : That Master Cumings hath delivered, the 4th day
of July, in the year of Our Lord 1470, to Mr. Nicholas Bettes, Vicar of
Eadcliffe, Moses Couteryn, Philip Bartholomew, and John Brown, procu-
rators of Eadcliffe, beforesaid, a new sepulchre, well gilt, and cover
thereto ; an image of God rising out of the same sepulchre, with all the
ordinance that longeth thereto : that is to say Item, a lath, made of
timber, and iron work thereto. Item, thereto longeth Heaven, made of
timber and stained cloth. Item, Hell, made of timber and iron work,
with devils in number thirteen. Item, Four knights, armed, keeping the
sepulchre, with their weapons in their hands, that is to say, two axes, and
two spears. Item, Three pair of angels' wings ; four angels, made of
timber, and well painted. Item, the Father, the crown, and visage ; the
ball, with a cross upon it, well gilt with fine gold. Item, the Holy Ghost
coming out of heaven into the sepulchre. Item, Longeth to the angels
four chevelers."
It is not surprising that art made little progress whilst it was
mainly directed to the painting and gilding of timber angels
and of solid devils for a hell of iron and wood-work. Things
were not much better in the reign of Henry VIII. His love
of ostentation made him fond of pageants, and the instructions
which he left for his own monument are curious. " The King
shall appear on horseback, of the stature of a goodly man
NICOLAS KEATZER : ASTRONOMER TO HENRY VIII. By HANS HOLBEIN. DATED 1528.
In the Louvre.
ENGLISH PAINTERS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 13
while over him shall appear the image of God the Father hold-
ing the King's soul in his left hand, and his right hand extended
in the act of benediction." This work was to have been
executed in bronze, but was never finished. Elizabeth stopped
the necessary payments, and the uncompleted figure was sold
by an unsentimental and Puritan Parliament for 600. The
influence of the Keformation was decidedly antagonistic to art
in England and elsewhere. In attempting to reform, the leaders
tolerated destruction, and whilst pretending to purify the
church they carried away not only the " idols," but much that
was beautiful. They literally " broke down the carved work
thereof with axes and hammers." Pictures and altar-pieces
were ruthlessly destroyed. Fortunately a considerable number
of old paintings still exist in our churches. A little work on
"Wall Paintings in England," recently published by the Science
and Art Department, mentions five hundred and sixty-eight
churches and other public buildings in England in which wall
paintings and other decorations have been found, all dating
from an earlier period than the Reformation, and there are
doubtless many not noticed. The branch of art which suffered
least from the iconoclastic Reformers was that of portrait-paint-
ing, and this received a great impetus in England by the oppor-
tune arrival of
HANS HOLBEIN, the younger, of Augsburg (1497 1543),
who came, in 1526, with a recommendation from Erasmus
to Sir Thomas More, by whom he was welcomed and enter-
tained at Chelsea. Unlike Albrecht Diirer, the other great
German painter of the Reformation epoch, Holbein was a literal
painter of men, not a dreamer haunted by visions of saints
and angels. His ideas of heaven were probably modelled far
more on the plan of the Bristol pageant, than on that of the
Italian masters. Such an artist came exactly at the right
moment to England, where Protestantism was becoming
popular. Holbein's wonderful power as a colourist and the
14
ENGLISH PAINTERS
fidelity of his likenesses exercised a lasting effect on English
art. He founded no school, however, though he had many
imitators among the foreign artists whom Henry had invited.*
EDWARD, PRINCE or WALES, AFTERWARDS KING EDWARD VI.
By HOLBEIN.
From a Miniature in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire.
In 1532 Holbein was made Painter to the King, with a salary
of 34 a year, in addition to the payment given for his works.
* Many pictures executed during the ten years after his death, some
even in the Windsor collection, have been attributed to Holbein.
IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTUEY. 15
The chief pictures painted by Holbein in England are portraits ;
and tradition says that Henry specially employed him to de-
lineate the features of any fair lady on whom he had cast a
favourable eye. Among the portraits we may mention those of
Nicolas Kratzer, Erasmus, Anne of Cleves, and Sir Richard
Southwel (in the Louvre) ; Archbishop Warham (Lambeth
Palace) ; Sir Henry Gruildford, a Merchant of the Steelyard,
and Lady Rich (Windsor) ; Lady Vaux and John Reskimer
(Hampton Court) ; Henry VIII. ; the Duchess of Milan *
(Arundel Castle) ; Sir William and Lady Butts (Mr. W. H.
Pole Carew) ; The Ambassadors, a most important work, and
Erasmus (Lord Eadnor, Longford Castle). There is at Windsor
a series of eighty portraits of the English nobility, drawn by
Holbein in black and red chalks, which are of infinite value as
works of art ; and at Windsor likewise, and in other galleries,
are many carefully painted miniatures ascribed to him, of the
greatest artistic and historic value.
Hans Holbein, like most artists of his age, could do more
than paint portraits. At Basle are noble subject pictures by him.
He was an architect, a modeller, and a carver. He was
specially gifted in designing wood-blocks for illustrating books,
and in the ornamentation of sword-hilts, plate, and the like.
A book of designs for jewels, by Holbein, once the property
of Sir Hans Sloane, is now in the British Museum. Holbein
died of the plague, in London, between October 7th and Novem-
ber 29th, 1543.
Another painter in the service of King Henry VIII. at this
time was the above-named GIKOLAMO PENNACCHI, who was born
at Treviso, in 1497. He was an imitator of Eaphael, and
painted portraits chiefly at Genoa, Faenza, Bologna, and
Venice, and in 1542 came to England. He was killed by a
* Now lent to the National Gallery. She was the youthful daughter
of the King of Denmark, and widow of the Duke of Milan. Holbein
was sent to Brussels to paint her portrait for his royal master.
16 ENGLISH PAINTEES
cannon-ball while acting as a military engineer in the King's
service near Boulogne, in 1544. There is an altar-piece
by him, signed IERONIMVS TREVISIVS P (No. 623 in
the National Gallery.) In the "Old Masters" Exhibition
of 1880, was a portrait of Sir T. Gresliam (No. 165), a fine
whole-length, standing, life-size picture of the famous mer-
chant, with a skull on the pavement at our left. This work
is dated 1544, the year of Sir Thomas's marriage, in his
twenty-sixth year, and, as we have seen above, of Treviso's
death. It is the property of the Gresham Committee of
London, and every expert has accepted it as a work of the
Italian painter, engineer, and architect, who was important
enough to be honoured with a separate biography by Vasari in
his " Lives of the Painters." Girolamo's salary from the
English King was 400 scudi per annum. Much likeness exists
between the art of Gresham's portrait and that of the masterly
life-size, whole-length picture of the Earl of Surrey, with
his motto, Sat super est, which is one of the chief ornaments of
Knole, and almost worthy of Velasquez himself. This picture
(which is dated 1546) is attributed to the undermentioned
GWILLIM STRETES (or STREET). It is much more like an Italian
production than a Dutch one, and so fine that Da Treviso might
have painted it at his best time. It is not like the beautiful por T
traits of Edward VI. at Windsor and Petworth, which are
exactly such as we attribute to a man in Stretes's position, and
which, while differing from the productions of Holbein, are, tech-
nically speaking, by no means unworthy of him. The charm-
ing Windsor portrait of Edivard VI. was No. 172 in the
National Portrait Exhibition of 1866. In the same collection
were more works of the same period, including the portrait of
Henry VIII., No. 124, lent by the Queen.
The following are among the painters who flourished at this
time of whom records exist and are more or less confused, yet
are so valuable that they deserve to be sifted in comparison with
IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 17
the large numbers of pictures. The artists' names are important
because they prove how many of the owners were English-
men. These persons were all employed by Henry VIII. They
were JOHN BROWN, who received a pension of 10 a year;
ANDREW WRIGHT, died 1543; VINCENT VOLPE, who translated
his name into "Fox" and died 1529. He, c. 1529, was paid
at the rate of 20 a year, a great sum in those days,
when Holbein himself had but 30 a year. ANTONIO TOTO
succeeded Wright as Sergeant-Painter to the King, a dignity
which afterwards fell to Sir James Thornhill and Hogarth
successively. GERRARD LUCAS HOREBOUT, or HORNEBOLT (1475
1558), and LUCAS HOREBOUT (died 1544), his son, Flemings, were
painters of distinction here and abroad, whose works have been
added to those of Holbein. Their wages were more than 30
per annum each. SUSANNA HOREBOUT was a painter of minia-
tures, much employed by the King and his courtiers. A pic-
ture of Henry VIII. at Warwick Castle has for centuries borne
the name of Lucas of this family. It is doubtless rightly
named, and may some day furnish a key to the style of the
distinguished owner himself. It was No. 99 in the National
Portrait Exhibition of 1866, and No. 471 of the Manchester Art
Treasures of 1857. A somewhat similar picture is now in the
National Portrait Gallery. We may, in future, recognise in
some of the beautiful miniatures of this period, which are now
ascribed to Holbein, the much-praised works of Susanna Hore-
bout. Doubtless some of the works of Lucas have been be-
stowed on Lucas de Heere, who is mentioned below. BARTHO-
LOMEW PENNI, and ALice CARMILLION succeeded in honour.
LAVINIA TERLING (born Benich), " paintrix," as they called her,
had for quarterly wages 10, and was mentioned by Vasari
as of Bruges.
In the reign of Edward VI. GWILLIM STRETES was made
Painter to the King. Strype records that he was paid fifty marks
for two pictures of the King, and one of Henry Hoicard, Earl
18 ENGLISH PAINTERS
of Surrey, who was beheaded in 1547. KATHERINE MAYNORS
and GERBACH FLICK evidently a Dutchman, one of whose
PORTRAIT OF A DUTCH GENTLEMAN. By SIR ANTONIS MORE.
drawings belonged to Richardson and is dated 1547 were here
at this time ; Flick's likeness of Cranmer (signed GERBARUS
FLTCIUS), painted in 1546, is now in the National Portrait
IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTUKY. 19
Gallery. They continued the practice of art in this country. At
Irnham is a fine full -length portrait of Lord Darcyof Chirke, dated
1551. NICHOLAS LYZARDI was second painter to King Edward,
and succeeded TOTO, as Sergeant-Painter to Elizabeth. JOHANNES
CORVUS painted the likeness of Fox, Bishop of Winchester, which
belongs to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and which was at
the National Portrait Exhibition, 1866, No. 46. Corvus has
been identified by Mr. Scharf as the artist of a fine portrait,
dated 1532, of Mary Tudor, wife of Louis XII., and the
Duke of Suffolk. WILLIAM KEY, or CAIUS, as he called him-
self, was born at Breda in 1520 and died 1568. Some of his pic-
tures were, as Mr. Scharf has noticed, in the collections of Charles
I., and the Duke of Buckingham. A carver, and probably painter,
well known at this period in England, whose works are, how-
ever, no longer to be identified, was NICHOLAS OF MODENA., who
made lectures, possibly small coloured statues, of Henry VIII.
and Francis I. It is worth while to mention that one P.
OUDRY, apparently a Frenchman, was busily employed in this
country about 1578, and painted various portraits of Mary, Queen
of Scots, one of which is in the National Portrait Gallery, while
others are at Cobham, Hard wick, Hatfield, and Welbeck.
In the reign of Mary I. we find art represented by SIR
ANTONIS MOR, MORO, or MORE (1512 1576-78), a native oi
Utrecht, who had painted and studied in Italy, Spain, and
Portugal. Philip II. was his especial patron, and gave him
a gold chain for the portrait of his gloomy Queen. He came
to England in 1553, was made painter to the Court, and received
very large prices for his pictures. He remained till the Queen's
death, in 1558, when he returned to Madrid. He afterwards
established himself at Brussels, under the protection of the
Duke of Alva, but in 1572 removed to Antwerp, where he died.
His portraits of Jeanne cVArcliel, in the National Gallery, and
of Sir T. Gresham, in the National Portrait Gallery, are
excellent examples of his skill. JOOST VAN CLEEF (1500
c 2
20 ENGLISH PAINTERS
1536 ?), a native of Antwerp, also painted portraits at this
time with considerable success. From his overweening con-
ceit, which led him into furious quarrels, he was called Zotte
(foolish) Cleef. His^portrait, by himself, is in the Althorp Gallery.
It has been said of Elizabeth, that although she had not
much taste for painting, she loved pictures of herself. Her
court painter was a Fleming, LUCAS DE HEERE (1534 ? 1584),
who had also been employed by Queen Mary, whose portrait
(dated 1554) by him belongs to the Society of Antiquaries, and
was at the " Old Masters," in 1880, No. 202. He painted, in 1570,
the gallery of the Earl of Lincoln, describing the characteristics
of different nations. With a sarcastic wit, which Elizabeth
doubtless appreciated, he represented the typical Englishman as
naked, with a pair of shears, and different kinds of clothes
beside him, unable to decide on the best fashion. DE HEERE
painted Elizabeth in full state, as she loved to be depicted,
attended by Juno, Minerva and Venus. This picture remains at
Hampton Court (No. 635), and is dated 1569. Mr. Wynne Finch
has a capital picture of small figures, representing Frances
Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, and her second husband Adrian
Stokes, dated 1559, by this able painter. Many other works by
him exist in English seats. Other foreign artists of this reign
were CORNELIS VROOM, who drew designs for tapestry, repre-
senting the victory of Lord Howard over the famous " Armada"
of the Spaniards (these tapestries were burnt with the Houses
of Parliament in 1834); FEDERIGO ZUCCHERO (16431609),
whose portrait of the Queen in a fantastic dress is in the
possession of the Duke of Devonshire, and was No. 229 in
the National Portrait Exhibition, 1866 ;. and MARC GHEERAEDTS,
or GARRARD (1561 1635), of Bruges. There are three portraits
ascribed to Gheeraedts in the collection of the Marquis of Exeter,
and others were exhibited in the first (1866) National Portrait
Exhibition. The most important of all the works -attributed to
Gheeraedts is the group of eleven English and Spanish States-
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
men assembled at Somerset House, which has been recently
acquired for the National Portrait Gallery at the Hamilton
Palace sale.* A very fine little example, signed " M. G.," is a
COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE. "SIDNEY'S SISTER, PEMBROKE'S MOTHER."
By NICHOLAS HILLIARD (?).
From a rare Engraving.
full-length portrait of Queen Elizabeth, standing, holding a branch
of olive, with a sword and a little shock dog at her feet. It
belongs to the Duke of Portland, and was long lent to the
* See The Athenaum, August 19th, 1882.
22 ENGLISH PAINTERS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUEY.
South Kensington Museum. A head of Camden, in the Bodleian,
is signed with the artist's name in full. A very fine full-length
portrait is at Woburn Abbey ; other signed specimens are at
Barron Hill and Penshurst.
More interesting than these foreign artists is the name of
NICHOLAS HILLIARD (1547 1619), an Englishman, and the
first native artist of importance, whose fame remains to the
present time. The " Old Masters " Exhibition of 1879 con-
tained many likenesses said to have been painted by Hilliard ;
among these was one of Queen Elizabeth. Hilliard's skill was
specially shown in his miniatures, of which that of Jane Sey-
mour, at Windsor, is a crowning piece. The Duke of Buccleuch
has a noble series of Hilliard's and Oliver's paintings of this
kind. Dr. Donne says of the former
" An hand or eye
By Hilliard drawn is worth a historye
By a worse painter made."
The influence of Holbein is traceable in the works of Hilliard,
and in those of his successor, and, probably, pupil, Isaac Oliver.
One of the most able painters of this age was SIR NATHANIEL
BACON, half-brother to the great Sir Francis Bacon, whose life-size
portrait of himself, belonging to the Earl of Verularn, has been
engraved in Walpole's "Anecdotes." Sir N. Bacon died in 1615.
The miniatures of ISAAC OLIVER (1556 1617) are considered
by some critics to rival those of Holbein. Both Isaac and
his son PETER OLIVER (1601 1660) painted in the reign of
James I., who, if not a great patron of Art, yet encouraged
foreign portrait painters to work in England. Most famous
among these were DANIEL MYTENS, PAUL VAN SOMER, and
CORNELIS JONSON. Van Somer, a Fleming, is specially noted
for his fidelity, Mytens for the spirit and dignity of his like-
nesses and his landscape backgrounds, and Jonson for the
accuracy of his portraits. JEAN PETITOT (1607 1691), of
Geneva, also came to England and painted portraits in enamel
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY AT PENSHURST. ^y ISAAC OLIVER.
From a Miniature in Windsor Castle.
24 ENGLISH PAINTERS
for Charles I. But native art was not altogether unrepresented.
Nicholas Stone, the sculptor, flourished ; and JOHN HOSKINS,
who died in 1664, was celebrated as a miniature painter. The
special art of miniature painting was at this time lucrative to its
professors, as it was the fashion to wear pictures of friends, set
in gold and precious stones. There were symptoms of a grow-
ing taste for art in England, and men were learning that it was
possible to paint a good picture without living on the Continent.
PORTRAIT OF KING JAMES I. By HOSKINS, AFTER VAN SOMER.
From a Miniature in Windsor Castle.
The first Englishman of high degree who collected works of
art in the manner to which we apply the phrase, was the Earl
of Arundel, who was followed by Prince Henry, son of James I.
The accession of Charles I. marks a new and bright period in
the history of English painting. Walpole, in his " Anecdotes of
Painting," speaking of Charles L, says, not very accurately,
" The accession of this Prince was the first era of real taste in
England. As his temper was not profuse, the money he ex-
pended on his collections, and the rewards he bestowed on men
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUEY. 25
of true genius, are proofs of his judgment. He knew how and
where to bestow." The King was not only a patron of art, but
an artist. We are told by Gilpin that Charles " had singular
skill in limning, and was a good judge of pictures." Another
authority states that he often amused himself by drawing and
designing. Charles inherited pictures which had been collected
by Henry VIII. and Prince Henry, all of which were scattered
in the different royal palaces. To these works, one hundred and
fifty in all, the King added a vast number of valuable examples.
The manuscript catalogue, left incomplete by Vanderdoort, the
keeper of the royal galleries, mentions 497 pictures at White-
hall, including 28 by Titian, 9 by Eaphael,!! by Correggio, 11
by Holbein, 16 by Giulio Romano, 7 by Parmigiano, 7 by
Rubens, 7 by Tintoretto, 3 by Rembrandt, 16 by Van Dyck, 4
by Paolo Veronese, and 2 by Leonardo da Vinci.* 1 ' 4 Charles
bought, in 1627, the collection of paintings belonging to the
Duke of Mantua for 18,280 12s. 8d. ; and many foreign courts
made presents of rare and valuable pictures to the King of Eng-
land. The good example of their master was followed by some
of the nobility, and the Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of
Somerset, the Earl of Pembroke, and the Earl of Arundel were
liberal patrons of art. The last made a noble collection of
statues and drawings ; some of the latter are in the British
Museum ; many of the sculptures are at Oxford. Charles vainly
invited Albani to visit England, but in 1629 RUBENS arrived
as a confidential diplomatic representative of the Archduchess
Isabella, Infanta of Spain, and was induced to remain for about
nine months. The King delighted to honour the great painter,
and made him a knight. During his stay in England, Rubens,
* This is Dallaway's summary, note to p. 265 of Walpole's " Anec-
dotes," as above, 1849. Of course, all the pictures were not really by
the artists whose names they bore. There must have been more than
sixteen Van Dycks in the Royal collection. The above are Whitehall
pictures only. The entire gatherings of King Charles were far more
numerous.
26 ENGLISH PAINTERS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUEY.
among other works, painted his allegoric picture of Peace and
War (National Gallery) ; St. George (Buckingham Palace) ; the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, for the Earl of Arundel ; and
the designs for the ceiling of Whitehall. The influence from
this brief sojourn was very marked, and it was followed by
that of
ANTHONY VAN DYCK (1599164.1), a native of Antwerp,
after a brief and unsatisfactory visit to England, returned
here and was created Court Painter in 1632. Charles I.
knighted him in 1632. His influence affected the portrait
painters who lived a century after him, and survived till the
advent of Reynolds. The best of Van Dyck's pictures are in
the possession of the Crown and private collectors in England.
There is one famous Portrait of Charles I. in the Louvre, and
another in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg. The Three Chil-
dren of Charles I. is among his pictures in Windsor Castle.
In the National Gallery the best specimen of Yan Dyck's art
is the Emperor Theodosius and St. Ambrose, No. 50. The Ge-
vartius, No. 52, is probably by Rubens. There are magnificent
portraits by Van Dyck in many private galleries.
GERARD VAN HONTHORST (1590 1656), a native of Utrecht,
passed some years in England, painting portraits for Charles I.
and his courtiers, and giving lessons to his daughter Elizabeth,
afterwards Queen of Bohemia.
WILLIAM DOBSON (1610 1646), a dwarf, was apprenticed to
Sir Robert Peake, an obscure painter and picture dealer, and
learnt to copy Van Dyck so accurately, that he attracted the
notice of the great master, who introduced him to the King. He
became, after his patron's death, Serjeant-Painter, and Groom
of the Privy Chamber. His career, like himself, was brief. When
the Civil War broke out, Dobson was a prisoner for debt, and
he died three years before the execution of his ro)*al master.
His portraits are often mistaken for those of Van Dyck. At
Hampton Court is a fine picture of the painter himself with
THE COUNTESS OF DEVONSHIRE. -Z?y VAN DYCK. From the Engraving by P. Lombart.
28 ENGLISH PAINTERS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
his wife. The Beheading of St. John the Baptist, which resembles
a Honthorst, is at Wilton House ; and a portrait of Cleveland,
the poet, is in the Ellesmere collection. Several of Dobson's
portraits have been exhibited in the National Portrait Exhibi-
tion, and in the collections of works by the " Old Masters" at
Burlington House.
GEORGE JAMESONE (1586 1644), the son of an Aberdeen
architect, is styled by Cunningham "the Scottish Van Dyck."
He studied abroad under Rubens, in the company of Van
Dyck, and in 1628 commenced a prosperous career in Scotland.
He painted the portrait of Charles I., in 1633, when the King
visited that country. Jamesone also painted historic pic-
tures, landscapes, and subjects from the Bible. During the
contest of the King with his Parliament, the arts could not
but languish. Some of the great collectors fled to the Continent,
where more than one of them existed by the sale of portable
works of art, such as medals. The Parliament ordered the
furniture of the royal palaces and the contents of the picture
galleries to be sold by auction, and the proceeds to be applied
to the expenses of the war in Ireland and the North. By an
order of the House of Commons, 1645, all such pictures and
statues at York House as bore the image of the Virgin Mary
were to be forthwith destroyed as gendering superstition. Al-
though art, as represented in England at this time, had been
devoted to any but religious purposes and many of its mani-
festations were grossly indecent and infamous, or, at best, shock-
ing to unaccustomed eyes these orders were not obeyed univer-
sally. Many pictures were bought by foreign princes, some
by Cavaliers, others by the Puritans, among whom Colonel
Hutchinson was an extensive purchaser. Cromwell, on becoming
Protector, stopped all the sales of royal paintings and property.
To him we owe the preservation of Raphael's cartoons. They
were valued by the Commissioners at 300 and ordered to be
OLIVER CROMWELL. % SIR PETER LELY. In the PMi Palace, Florence.
30 ENGLISH PAINTERS
sold, but Cromwell stopped the sale. In the reign of Charles
II., these cartoons would have been lost to England ; the King
had offered to sell them to Barillon, minister of Louis XIV., and
it was only by Lord Danby's means that the sale was prevented.
Cromwell employed as his portrait painter
EGBERT WALKER, who died in 1658. The Protector in-
sisted upon having the warts and pimples on his face faithfully
portrayed, and gave strict injunctions both to Walker and Sir
Peter Lely not to flatter him. One of Walker's portraits of
Cromwell is at Warwick Castle. Some capital examples of his
skill are in the National Portrait Gallery. The Restoration was
not favourable to design. Charles II. had neither taste for art,
nor money to encourage painters. The unbridled license of the
Court denied the studio as it did the stage ; and the most popu-
lar pictures were the portraits of the rakes and wantons who
clustered round the King.
Sir PETER LELY (1618 1680), originally named Van der
Faes, was the very accomplished painter of the Court, some
of whose better works may be compared with Van Dyck's. He
came to England in 1643, and profited by his art under
Charles I., the Protectorate, and Charles II. Walpole said of
Lely's nymphs that they are " generally reposed on the turf,
and are too wanton and too magnificent to be taken for any-
thing but Maids of Honour."
The well-known collection of Lely's portraits at Hampton Court
includes, among others, those of the Duchess of Richmond; the
Countess of Rochester ; Mrs. Middleton the celebrated beauty ;
the Countess of Northumberland; the Duchess of Cleveland^
as Minerva; the Countess de Grammont, and Jane Kellaway,
as Diana (misnamed Princess Mary). Mrs. Middleton, in the
National Portrait Gallery, by Lely, is remarkably good. Lely
fell dead before his easel, while painting a portrait of the
Dowager Duchess of Somerset^ November 30th, 1680.
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 31
Several English astists practised in this reign.
HENRY ANDERTON (1630 after 1665) was a portrait painter
employed at Court. ISAAC FULLER (1606 1672) painted por-
traits and allegoric pieces. He is described as extravagant and
burlesque in his tastes and manners, and his works bear the
mark of this character. An epigram on a "Drunken Sot" is
to this effect :
' ' His head doth on his shoulder lean,
His eyes are sunk, and hardly seen ;
AVho sees this sot in his own colour
Is apt to say, ' 'twas done by Fuller.' "
JOHN GREENHILL (1649 1676) was the most celebrated of
Lely's pupils. ROBERT STREATER (1624 1680) was made
Serjeant-Painter to Charles II., and painted landscapes and
historic works. His work still survives in the Theatre at
Oxford, but we cannot echo the praise accorded to it by a
rhymester who says
" That future ages must confess they owe
To Streater more than Michael Angelo."
That most delightful of gossips, Samuel Pepys, has much to
say about art, of which he was no mean critic. Writing on
February 1st, 1688, Pepys said : "I was carried to Mr.
Streater's, the famous history-painter, whom I have often heard
of, but did never see him before ; and there I found him and
Dr. Wren and several virtuosos, looking upon the paintings
which he is making for the new Theatre at Oxford ; and in-
deed they look as if they would be very fine, and the rest
think better than those of Rubens in the Banqueting-house
at Whitehall, but I do not fully think so. But they will
certainly be very noble ; and I am mightily pleased to have
the fortune to see this man and his work, which is very
famous, and he is a very civil little man, and lame, but lives
very handsomely."
SAMUEL COOPER (1609 1672) was a miniature painter of a
32 ENGLISH PAINTEKS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
high order, whose art attested the influence of Van Dyck ; the
Duke of Buccleuch has the two famous unfinished portraits of
the Protector by him, and a galaxy of other works of this class.
Pepys, speaking of a portrait-painter named JOHN HAYLS, of
whom he thought highly, said : "He has also persuaded me to
have Cooper draw my wife's picture, which though it cost
over 30, yet I will have it done." He called Cooper " a
limner in little," and referred to him several times in his Diary.
On the death of Sir Peter Lely, another foreigner became the
popular painter of the Court. This was
Sir GODFREY KNELLER (1646 1723), a native of Liibeck,
who came to the Court of Charles II. in 1674, and maintaining
his popularity during the reign of James II., William III., and
Anne, lived to paint the portrait of George I. Kneller's works
are chiefly portraits. Of these the famous Kit-Kat series of
likenesses of distinguished men is invaluable. His portrait of
his fellow-countryman, Gnnling Gibbons, is one of his best
paintings. He was the fashionable painter of the age, and
kings and fine ladies, wits and statesmen, are embodied in
his art. Dryden was amongst his sitters, and the poet has
left the following praises of the painter : -
" Such are thy pictures, Kneller ! such thy skill,
That nature seems obedient to thy will;
Comes out and meets thy pencil in the draught,
Lives there, and wants but words to speak the thought."
The popularity of allegoric painting did much to hinder the
progress of English art. Nature gave place to naked gods and
impossible shepherdesses, t who were painted on walls and
ceilings at so much a square foot. Charles II. had probably
acquired a taste for such painting abroad, and it retained its
popularity for a considerable period. Fuseli said : " Charles II.,
with the Cartoons in his possession and the magnificence of
Whitehall before his eyes, suffered Verrio to contaminate the
walls of his palaces, or degraded Lely to paint the Cymons and
GRINLING GIBBONS, THE SCULPTOR. By GODFREY KNELLER.
D
34 ENGLISH PAINTEKS
Iphigenias of his Court, while the manner of Kneller swept com-
pletely away what might be left of taste among his successors.
It was reserved for the German Lely and his successor Kneller
to lay the foundation of a manner which, by pretending to unite
portrait with history, gave a retrograde direction for nearly a
century to both ; a mob of shepherds and shepherdesses in
flowing wigs and dressed curls, ruffled Endymions, humble
Junos, withered Hebes, surly Allegros, and smirking Pensierosos
usurp the place of propriety and character." We can see the
triumphs of allegory over nature fully illustrated in Hampton
Court Palace. Chief among painters of this class of art was
ANTONIO VEKBIO (1634 1707), who received from Charles II.
10,000 for the decoration of Windsor Castle. Louis LAGUERRE
(1663 1721) was associated with Verrio, and carried on
similar work after Verrio's death. His best works are at
Blenheim. In his later years Laguerre found a coadjutor in SIR
JAMES THORNHILL (1676 1734), whose decorations are superior
to those of Verrio or Laguerre. His chief productions are in
the cupola of St. Paul's Cathedral, the Great Hall of Greenwich
Hospital, an apartment at Hampton Court, and a saloon in
Blenheim Palace. Thornhill was knighted by George I., being
the first English artist who receveid that honour, and he sat
in Parliament for his native place, Melcombe Regis. Perhaps
the most enduring fact about him is that he was the father-in-
law of Hogarth. Walpole said of the reign of George I. :
" No reign since the arts have been in any estimation produced
fewer works that will deserve the attention of posterity." It
was not only in England that art slumbered. The Flemish,
Dutch, and Spanish schools had passed from the brilliance of
their seventeenth-century period. In Italy art had shrivelled
with the last of the Bolognese school. France possessed some
original painters, but not of the highest order.
Before passing on to the period of Hogarth and the creation
of the English school, we may mention a few names of painters
IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. 35
in England. These were JOHN RILEY (1646 1691) ; JAMES
PARMENTIER (16581730) ; WILLIAM AIRMAN (16821731) ;
MARY BEALE (16321697) ; JOHN CLOSTERMANN (16561713) ;
MICHAEL DAHL (1658 1743) ; GERARD VON.SOEST (16371681) ;
JOHN VANDERBANK (1694 ? 1739) ; WILLIAM WISSING (1656
1687) ; JOSEPH MICHAEL WRIGHT (1625 ? 1700 ?), a pupil of
Jamesone; JONATHAN RICHARDSON (1665 1745), a pupil of
Riley; CHARLES JERVAS (16751739), a follower of Kneller,
and the friend of Pope, who, with the fulsome flattery of the
day, compared him to Zeuxis. GEORGE KNAPTON (1698 1778)
was famous for crayon portraits ; a large group, in oils, repre-
senting the Princess of Wales and her family, hy his hand, is at
Hampton Court.
In the middle of the eighteenth century, THOMAS HUDSON
(1701 1779) became the fashionable portrait painter. His
chief remaining claim to fame is that he was the first master of
Joshua Reynolds. FRANCIS HAYMAN (1708 1776) lived long
enough to write himself R.A. among the earliest members. His
Finding of Moses may be seen at the Foundling Hospital ;
and his own portrait in the National Portrait Gallery. He
seems to have been highly esteemed, and, among other works,
executed some for Vauxhall Gardens. His fame is now almost
as extinct as the lamps of that once famous place of entertain-
ment.
v 2
CHAPTER III.
ENGLISH AKT IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUEY
WILLIAM HOGAKTH.
HITHERTO we have seen painting in England confined
to foreign artists, or to natives who more or less
slavishly copied them. We have seen, likewise, that many of
the English painters of the latter days of the seventeenth
century were decorators rather than artists, who, forsaking all
truth and nature, covered the walls and ceilings of houses with
simpering shepherdesses and impossible deities. The time of
change came, however, and with it the man who was to be the first
original painter of his country. It is to plain William Hogarth,
the son of the Cumberland schoolmaster, the apprentice of the
silver-plate engraver, Ellis Gamble, that we owe the origin of
the English school of painting. The term "school of painting"
is, however, hardly correct, as Hogarth founded no school, nor
has there existed one in England till very recently. We should
rather say that Hogarth was the first English artist who forsook
exhausted conventionalities for large truthfulness and original
thought, and thus paved the way to a new life in art. A man
who laughed at the " black masters," as he called the painters
ENGLISH PAINTEKS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 37
of the most popular works of the period ; and who declared that
copying other men's pictures was like pouring wine from one
vessel to another, a process which did not increase the quality,
and allowed the flavour to evaporate, was naturally regarded as
an innvoator of a monstrous order. Like all reformers, Hogarth
had to defeat opposition and ridicule. But he dared to think for
himself, and in that courage lay the secret of success.
WILLIAM HOGARTH was born in 1697 in Ship Court, Old
Bailey, hard by Ludgate Hill, in a house which was pulled
down in 1862. His father, who had received a good educa-
tion at St. Bees, kept a school in Ship Court, and sought work
from booksellers. But, like many another poor scholar, he
could not make a living, and died disappointed. After spend-
ing some time at school, William Hogarth, warned by the
example of his father, determined to pursue a craft in pre-
ference to literature, and was apprenticed, probably in 1711,
to Ellis Gamble, a silversmith in Cranbourne Alley. Here,
though his drawings and engravings were mostly confined to
heraldic devices and the like, the young artist gained accuracy
of touch, to which he added truthfulness of design, and prepared
himself to delineate that London life which was to furnish him
with models for his art. He tells us how he determined to enter
a wider field than that of mere silver-plate engraving, though at
the age of twenty to engrave his own designs on copper was
the height of his ambition. The men and women who jostled
him in London streets, or rolled by him in their coaches, were
his models. Besides the keenest powers of observation, and a
sardonic, sympathizing, and pitying humour, he possessed a
wonderfully accurate and retentive memory, which enabled him
to impress a face or form on his mind, and reproduce it at
leisure. Occasionally, if some very attractive or singular face
struck his fancy, he would sketch it on his thumb-nail, and
thence transfer it. Hogarth tells us that " instead of burdening
the memory with musty rules, or tiring the eye with copying
ENGLISH PAINTERS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
dry or damaged pictures, I have ever found studying from
nature the shortest and safest way of obtaining knowledge of
my art." Thus, whether he was watching "society" on its
way to court, or mingling in the midnight orgies of a tavern,
Hogarth was storing portraits which were to appear, some in
silks and satins, as in the Marriage a la Mode, others among
the humours of Beer Street and the misery of Gin Lane.
Hogarth's apprenticeship ended probably in 1718 ; we find him
studying drawing from the life in the Academy in St. Martin's
Lane. In 1721 he published An Emblematical Print on the
South Sea (Scheme), which was sold at one shilling a copy,
and though defective in the sardonic humour which marked his
later works, shows promise of what was to come. In the same
year The Lottery was published. In 1724 he engraved Masque-
rades and Operas, a satire, which represents " society " crowding
to a masquerade, and led by a figure wearing a cap and bells
on his head, and the Garter on his leg. This engraving
delighted the public whom it satirised, and Hogarth lost much
through piracies of his work. He was employed by the book-
sellers to illustrate books with engravings and frontispieces. In
" Mottraye's Travels " (1728) there are eighteen illustrations
by Hogarth, seven in the "Golden Ass of Apuleius" (1724),
and five frontispieces in " Cassandra" (1725). Walpole says,
somewhat too severely, that " no symptoms of genius dawned
in those early plates." In 1726 was published, besides his
twelve large prints, which are well known, an edition of
"Hudibras," illustrated by Hogarth in seventeen smaller plates.
Of this Walpole says, " This was among the first of his works
that marked him as a man above the common ; yet in what
made him then noticed it surprises me now to find so little
humour in an undertaking so congenial to his talents." The
designs of Hogarth are not so witty as the verses of Butler,
but we must remember that the painter had never seen men
living and acting as they are described in the poem ; they were
WILLIAM HOGARTH AND HIS DOG TRUMP. By HOGARTH.
In the National Gallery.
40 ENGLISH PAINTERS
not like the men of whom he made his daily studies. At this
period he who dared to be original, and to satirise his neigh-
bours, had much trouble. The value set upon his work in
those early days may be estimated when we read that J.
Bowles, of the Black Horse, in Cornhill, patronised Hogarth
to the extent of offering him half- a- crown a pound weight for
a copperplate just executed. In 1727, we find a certain up-
holsterer named Morris refusing to pay thirty pounds to the
artist, because he had failed, in Morris's opinion, to execute
a representation of the Element of Earth, as a design for
tapestry, "in a workmanlike manner." It is on record that the
verdict was in favour of Hogarth, who was paid 20 for his
work and 10 for materials. In 1730, Hogarth made a secret
marriage at old Paddington Church, with Jane, only daughter
of Sir James Thornhill, Serjeant-Painter to the King. He had
frequented Thornhill's studio, but whether the art of the court
painter, or the face of his daughter was the greater attraction
we know not. There is no doubt that Hogarth's technique
was studied from Thornhill's pictures, and not from those of
Watteau or Chardin, as has been supposed. Hogarth was
painting portraits years before 1730. Mr. Redgrave, in his
" Century of Painters," describes some wall pictures in the
house No. 75, Dean Street, Soho, which is said to have been a
residence of Sir James Thornhill. Some of the figures here
are thoroughly of the Hogarth type, especially that of a black
man in a turban, a familiar form in the Marriage a la Mode.
For a time after his marriage Hogarth confined himself to
painting portraits and conversation pieces, for which he was
well paid, although Walpole declares that this "was the most
ill-suited employment to a man whose turn was certainly not
flattery." Truthfulness, however, is more valuable in a por-
trait than flattery, and we surely find it in Hogarth's portraits
of himself, one in the National Gallery, and in that of Captain
Coram, at the Foundling. In 1734, Hogarth published the
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 41
first of those wonderful unspoken sermons against vice and
folly, A Harlot's Progress, which was followed immediately
by A Rake's Progress, issued in 1735. A Harlot's Progress,
in six plates, met with an enthusiastic reception; it was a
bold innovation on the cold stilted style of the day, and its
terrible reality stirred the hearts of all beholders. A Pake's
Progress, in eight plates, was scarcely so popular, and the
professors of the kind of art which Hogarth had satirised found
many faults with the reformer. Hogarth was now a person
of consequence, and the once unknown and struggling artist
was the talk of the town. The Sleeping Congregation is a satire
on the heavy preachers and indifferent church-goers of that
period. The Distressed Poet and A Midnight Modem Conversation
soon followed. The latter, in which most cf the figures are
actual portraits, is considered in France and Germany the best
of this master's single works. In due course appeared The
Enraged Musician, of which a wit of the day observed that " it
deafens one to look at it," and The Strolling Actresses, which
Allan Cunningham describes as " one of the most imaginative
and amusing of all the works of Hogarth."*
One of the best of Hogarth's life stories is the Marriage a la
Mode, the original paintings of which are in the National Gallery ;
they appeared in prints in 1745. These well-known pictures
illustrate the story of a loveless marriage, where parents
sacrifice their children, the one for rank the other for money.
Mr. Redgrave (" A Century of Painters") tells us that "the
novelty of Hogarth's work consisted in the painter being
the inventor of his own drama, as well as painter, and in the
way in which all the parts are made to tend to a dramatic
whole ; each picture dependent on the other, and all the details
illustrative of the complete work. The same characters recur
again and again, moved in different tableaux with varied
* His painting of this subject, for which he received only twenty-six
guineas, was destroyed by fiie in 1874.
42 ENGLISH PAINTERS
passions, one moral running through all, the beginning rinding
its natural climax in the end." Some of the most striking
points in the satire of Hogarth's picture are brought out in
the background, as in the first picture of Marriage a la
Mode, where the works of " the black masters " are repre-
sented ludicrously, and the ceiling of the room is adorned
-with an unnatural picture of the destruction of the Egyptians
in the Ked Sea. In 1750 appeared The March of the Guards
to Finchley, which is " steeped in humour and strewn with
absurdities." It was originally dedicated to George II., but,
so the story goes, the King was offended by a satire on his
Guards, and he declared " I hate boetry and bainting; neither
one nor the other ever did any good." Certain it is that
Hogarth was disappointed by the reception of his work, and
dedicated it to the King of Prussia. The painting of The
March to Finchley, on publication of the print, was disposed
of by lottery, and won by the Foundling Hospital. We cannot
do more than mention some of the remaining works by which
the satirist continued " to shoot Folly as she flies." Beer
Street, and Gin Lane, illustrate the advantages of drinking
the national beverage, and the miseries following the use of
gin. The Cockpit represents a scene . very common in those
days, and contains many portraits. The Election is a series
of four scenes, published between 1755 and 1758, in which
all the varied vices, humours, and passions of a contested
election are admirably represented. The pictures of this series
are in Sir John Soane's Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Hogarth's last years were embittered by quarrels, those with
Churchill and Wilkes being the most memorable. The publi-
cation in 1753 of his admirable book, called " The Analysis
of Beauty," in which Hogarth tried to prove that a winding
line is the Line of Beauty, produced much adverse criticism
and many fierce attacks, which the painter could not take
quietly. He was further annoyed by the censures passed
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
on his picture of Sigismunda, now in the National Gallery,
which he had painted in 1759 for Sir Richard Grosvenor,
and which was returned on his hands. Two years previously
Hogarth had been made Serjeant-Painter to the King. He
did not live to hold this office long; on October 26th, 1764,
the hand which had exposed the vices and follies of the day
so truly, and yet with such humour, had ceased to move.
Hogarth died in his house at Leicester Fields ; he was buried
in Chiswick Churchyard, where on his monument stands this
epitaph by Garrick ;
"Farewel, great Painter of Mankind!
"Who reached the noblest point of Art ;
Whose pictured Morals charm the Mind,
And through the Eye correct the Heart.
If Genius fire thee, Reader, stay ;
If Nature touch thee, drop a Tear ;
If neither move thee, turn away,
For HOGARTH'S honour'd dust lies here."
And yet it is of this man that Walpole says, that "as a
painter he has slender merit." Charles Lamb remarks wisely,
in his fine essay on " The Genius and Character of Hogarth,"
that his chief design was by no means to raise a laugh." Of his
prints, he says, " A set of severer satires (for they are not so
much comedies, which they have been likened to, as they are
strong and masculine satires), less mingled with anything of
mere fun, were never written upon paper, or graven upon
copper. They resemble Juvenal, or the satiric touches in Timon
of Athens."
CHAPTER IV.
THE ROYAL ACADEMY AND ITS INFLUENCE.
HOGARTH was the first original painter of England,
and he was too original either to copy or to be copied ;
but he founded no school. What he did was to draw aside
the curtain and show the light of nature to those who had been
hitherto content to grope amid the extravagances of allegory, or
the dreams of mythology. Two circumstances specially stood
in the way of the progress of English art the absence of a recog-
nised academy, where a system of art-study could be pursued,
and where rewards were offered for success ; and the want of a
public exhibition where painters could display their works, or
learn from one another. There were no masters, properly speak-
ing, in England, and therefore no pupils. Instead of gathering
around them students on the atelier system of the Continent,
painters in England had apprentices, who were employed to
grind their colours, clean their brushes, and prepare their
canvas. Such apprentices might become mechanical copyists
of their employers. Nevertheless, such was the system under
which all the pupils of all the great Italian Masters, some
of whom became great masters in their turns, were trained.
Several attempts to supply the want of a recognised system of
art-teaching in London had been made from time to time. Sir
THE ROYAL ACADEMY AND ITS INFLUENCE. 45
Balthasar Gerbier had a drawing school in Whitefriars so long
ago as the days of Charles I. ; Van Dyck promoted studies
of this kind at his house in Blackfriars ; the Duke of Richmond
in 1758 endeavoured to form a school at the Priory Garden,
Westminster ; Sir Godfrey Kneller supported an academy for
drawing and painting at his house in Great Queen Street, till
his death in 1723; another society existed in Greyhound Court,
Arundel Street, Strand, till 1738, when the members joined the
St. Martin's Lane Academy. These, like the following, were
drawing and painting schools, under recognised teachers, but
neither honour-bestowing, benevolent, nor representative bodies.
Each pupil paid for the use of the models and premises, except
those which were supplied by the Duke of Richmond to his
guests. In 1724 Sir James Thornhill had opened an art
academy at his house in James Street, Covent Garden ; it
existed till his death in 1734 ; he suggested to the Prime
Minister, Lord Halifax, the idea of a Royal Academy. Vander-
bank for a time had a school with living models in a disused
Presbyterian chapel. William Shipley maintained an art
academy in St. Martin's Lane for thirty years, and we know
that Hogarth studied there. But none of these schools had a
prescribed system of teaching. The absence of a public exhi-
bition was felt as a great misfortune by the artists of this
period. Hogarth, however, who regarded the painters of his
country from a gloomy point of view, had no belief in the
regenerating power of academies or paid professors.
Apart from the Exhibitions of the Society of Artists in
1760 and 1761, for which Hogarth designed the frontispiece
and tailpiece to the catalogue, the first public exhibition of
pictures was that of sign boards, promoted by Hogarth
and B. Thornton in 1762. The impetus which Hogarth's
success gave to native art, however, was soon visible ;
and the Society of Arts and the Dilettanti Society encour-
aged young painters by giving prizes, and by suggesting
46 ENGLISH PAINTERS.
the formation of a guild or confraternity of artists. The
first private exhibitions of pictures were held in the Foundling
and St. Bartholomew's Hospitals, to which Hogarth and some
of the leading painters of the day presented their works. This
happened in 1746. In 1761 the Society of Artists was rent in
two, and a new body, the Free Society, remained in the
Adelphi. The Society of Artists removed to Spring Gardens,
and in 1765 obtained a charter of incorporation : it was
thenceforward called the Incorporated Society. Owing to the
mismanagement and consequent dissensions in this body arose
the Koyal Academy of Arts, established by George III. on
December 10th, 1768, though without a royal charter of incor-
poration. This institution, which was to exercise so marked
an influence on the art of England, supplied two wants a
definite system of teaching, and an exhibition of meritorious
works.
Before noticing the three eminent painters who mark a new
era in English painting, and who became members of the new
Academy, we must speak of others who were not without their
influence on the world of art. ALLAN RAMSAY (1713 1784)
was considered one of the best portrait painters of his time. He
was the son of Allan Ramsay, the poet, and was born at Edin-
burgh. After studying in Italy he came to London and esta-
blished himself there, frequently visiting Edinburgh. Walpole
specially praises his portraits of women, even preferring some
of them to those of Reynolds. In 1767 Ramsay was made
painter to George III., and his portraits of the King and Quern
Charlotte are still at Kensington. As a man of literary
tastes and great accomplishments, Allan Ramsay received the
praises of Dr. Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds. In the
Exhibition of 1862 was exhibited a portrait of the Duke of
Argyll, by Ramsay. Portrait painting was still the popular
branch of art in England, and the influence of Hogarth had
produced no advance towards the study of landscape. Among
THE EOYAL ACADEMY AND ITS INFLUENCE. 47
those, however, who attempted it was GEORGE LAMBERT (1710
1765), a scene-painter, and founder of the " Beefsteak Club."
This latter distinction makes him remembered, whilst his land-
scapes, after the manner of Poussin, are forgotten. WILLIAM
SMITH (17071764), GEORGE SMITH (17141776), JOHN SMITH
(1717 1764), usually known as the SMITHS OF CHICHESTER, were
very popular in their day. They painted landscapes from the
scenery round Chichester, but gave it a foreign and unnatural
air by copying Claude and Poussin. Though they exercised
considerable influence on English landscape-painting, we cannot
wonder at the popularity of these painters when we remember
how utterly barren this branch of art still remained in England.
PETER MoNAMY(1670 ? 1749) was a marine painter of the school
of the Van de Veldes, whose pupil he may have been. A Sea piece
by him at Hampton Court (No. 915) shows that he was an
artist of a high order. Portraits of Monamy and his patron are
in a picture by Hogarth at Knowsley. SAMUEL SCOTT (1710 ?
1772) was a friend of Hogarth, and a marine painter after the
mode of the Van de Veldes. Walpole considered him " the first
painter of his age, one whose works will charm in any age."
They have, however, ceased to do so in this. Another marine
painter was CHARLES BROOKING (1723 1759), one of whose
productions is at Hampton Court. He occasionally worked in
concert with DOMINIC SERRES (1722 1793), a Royal Academician
(a native of Gascony), whose four large pictures of The Naval
Review at Portsmouth, painted for George III., are likewise at
Hampton Court. The works of Dominic Serres have been
confounded with those of his son, JOHN THOMAS SERRES (1759
1825), who was a far superior painter to his father.
We pass on to speak of three celebrated painters, who when
already famous became members of the Royal Academy
Wilson, Reynolds, and Gainsborough. The story of RICHARD
WILSON (1713 1782) is the story of a disappointed man.
Born at Pinegas, Montgomeryshire, the son of the parson
48 ENGLISH PAINTERS.
of that place. Wilson's early taste for drawing attracted the
attention of Sir George Wynne, by whom he was introduced
to one Wright, a portrait painter in London. Following the
popular branch of art in his day, Wilson in due course became
a portrait painter, and although nothing remarkable is known
of his portraits, he managed to make a living. In 1749 he
visited Italy, and whilst waiting for an interview with the
landscape painter Zuccarelli he is said to have sketched the
view through the open window. The Italian advised the
Englishman to devote himself henceforth to landscapes, and
Wilson followed his advice. After six years' stay in Italy,
during which period he became imbued with the beauties of
that country, Wilson returned to England in 1755, and found
Zuccarelli worshipped, whilst he himself was neglected. His
Niobe, one version of which is in the National Gallery, was
exhibited with the Society of Artists' Collection, in Spring
Gardens, 1760, and made a great impression, but, in general,
his pictures, infinitely superior to the mere decorations of
the Italian, were criticised, and compared unfavourably with
those of Zuccarelli, and it was not till long after Wilson's
death that he was thoroughly appreciated. He was often
compelled to sell his pictures to pawnbrokers, who, so it is
said, could not sell them again. Poverty and neglect soured
the painter's temper, and made him irritable and reckless.
He had many enemies, and even Sir Joshua Keynolds treated
him with injustice. Wilson was one of the original thirty-six
members of the Royal Academy, and in 1776 applied for and
obtained the post of Librarian to that body, the small salary
helping the struggling man to live. The last years of his life
were brightened by better fortune. A brother left him a legacy,
and in 1780 Wilson retired to a pleasant home at Llanberis r
Carnarvon, where he died two years later. Mr. Redgrave
says of him: "There is this praise due to our countryman
that our landscape art, which had heretofore been derived from
MOKNING. By RICHARD WILSON.
E
50 ENGLISH PAINTERS.
the meaner school of Holland, following his great example,
looked thenceforth to Italy for its inspiration ; that he proved
the power of native art to compete on this ground also with
the art of the foreigner, and prepared the way for the coming
men, who, embracing Nature as their mistress, were prepared
to leave all and follow her." Wilson frequently repeated his
more successful pictures. The Ruins of the Villa of Maecenas,
at Tivoli (National Gallery), was painted five times by him. In
the same Gallery are The Destruction of Niobe's Children, A
Landscape with Figures, three Views in Italy, Lake Avernus with
the Bay of Naples in the distance, &c. In the Duke of Westmin-
ster's collection are Apollo and the Seasons and The River
Dee. Wilson, like many another man of genius, lived before
his time, and was forced one day to ask Barry, the Royal
Academician, if he knew any one mad enough to employ
a landscape painter, and if so, whether he would recommend
him.
Singularly unlike Wilson in his fortunes was a painter of
the same school, named GEORGE BARRET (1728? 1784), an
Irishman, who began life by colouring prints for a Dublin pub-
lisher, and became the popular landscape painter of the day,
receiving vast sums for his pictures, whilst Wilson could hardly
buy bread. Patronised by Burke, who gained him the appoint-
ment of Master-Painter to Chelsea Hospital, and receiving for
his works 2,000 a year, Barret died poor, and his pictures,
once so prized, are neglected, whilst the works of Wilson are
now valued as they deserve. Another artist who derived his
inspiration from Wilson was JULIUS CJESAR IBBETSON (1759
1817), who painted landscapes with cattle and figures and
rustic incidents with much success.
JOSHUA REYNOLDS (1723 1792) was born at Plympton,
Devon, the son of a clergyman who was a master in the gram-
mar school. His father had intended him for a doctor, but
nature decided that Joshua Reynolds should be a painter. He
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 51
preferred to read Richardson's " Treatise on Painting " to any
other book, and when his taste for art became manifest he was
sent to London to study with Hudson, the popular portrait
painter of the day. Before this time, however, the young
Reynolds had studied "The Jesuit's Perspective" with such
success that he astonished his father by drawing Plympton
school. There is at Plymouth a portrait of the Rev. Thomas
Smart, tutor in Lord Edgcumbe's household, which is said
to have been painted by Reynolds when twelve years old.
It was in 1741 that Joshua Reynolds began his studies
with Hudson, and as that worthy could teach him little or
nothing, it is fortunate for art that the connection only
lasted two years. On leaving Hudson's studio Reynolds re-
turned to Devonshire, but we know little about his life there
till the year 1746, when his father died, and the painter was
established at Plymouth Dock, now Devonport, and was paint-
ing portraits. Many of these earlier works betray the stiffness
and want of nature which their author had probably learnt from
Hudson. Having visited London, and stayed for a time in St.
Martin's Lane, the artists' quarter, Reynolds was enabled, in
1749, to realise his great wish, and go abroad. His friend Com-
modore Keppel carried him to Italy, and Reynolds, unfettered
and unspoilt by the mechanical arts of his countrymen, studied
the treasures of Italy, chiefly in Rome, and without becoming
a copyist, was imbued with the beauties of the Italian school.
Michelangelo was the object of his chief adoration, and his
name was the most frequently on his lips, and the last in
his addresses to the Royal Academy. A love of colour was
the characteristic of Reynolds, and his use of brilliant and
fugitive pigments accounts for the deca}^ of many of his /
best works ; he used to say jestingly that " he came off with
flyiny colours." Doubtless the wish to rival the colouring'
of the Venetians led Reynolds to make numerous experiments
which were often fatal to the preservation of his pictures. It
52 ENGLISH PAINTERS.
has been said of him that " he loved his colours as other men
love their children." In 1752 Keynolds returned to England,
and settled in London, first in St. Martin's Lane, then in
Newport Street, and finally in a grand house in Leicester Fields.
His course was one of brilliant success. At his house, wit and
wisdom met together, and the ponderous learning of Dr. Johnson,
the eloquence of Burke, and the fancy of Goldsmith, combined
to do honour to the courteous, gentle painter, whom all men
loved, and of whom Goldsmith wrote :
" His pencil was striking, resistless, and grand ;
His manners were gentle, complying, and bland.
Still, born to improvs us in every part
His pencil our faces, his manners our heart."
Most of the leaders of the rank and fashion of the day sat for
their portraits to the painter who " read souls in faces." In
1768 Joshua Reynolds was chosen first President of the Royal
Academy, and was knighted by George III. He succeeded, on
the death of Ramsay, to the office of Court Painter. His " Dis-
courses on Painting," delivered at the Royal Academy, were
remarkable for their excellent judgment and literary skill. It
was supposed by some that Johnson and Burke had assisted
Reynolds in the composition of these lectures, but the Doctor
indignantly disclaimed such aid, declaring that " Sir Joshua
Reynolds would as soon get me to paint for him as to write for
him." A lesser honour, though one which caused him the
greatest pleasure, was conferred on Reynolds in 1773, when he
was elected Mayor of his native Plympton. In the same year
he exhibited his famous Strawberry Girl, of which he said
that it was " one of the half dozen original things " which no
man ever exceeded in his life's work. In 1789 the failure of
his sight warned Sir Joshua that "the night cometh when no
man can work." He died, full of years and honours, on
February 23rd, 1792, and was buried near Sir Christopher
Wren in St. Paul's Cathedral.
MRS. BRADYLL. By REYNOLDS.
In the possession of Sir Richard Wallace, Bart.
54 ENGLISH PAINTEKS.
Eeynolds was a most untiring worker. He exhibited two
hundred and forty-five pictures in the Royal Academy, on an
average eleven every year. In the National Gallery are
twenty-three of his paintings. Amongst them are The Holy
Family (No. 78), The Graces decorating a Terminal Figure of
Hymen (79), The Infant Samuel (162), The Snake in the Grass
(885), Eobinetta (892), and portraits of himself, of Admiral
Keppel, Dr. Johnson, Boswell, Lord Heathfield, and George IV.
as Prince of Wales. Mr. Ruskin deems Reynolds "one of
the seven colourists of the world," and places him with Titian,
G-iorgione, Correggio, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Turner. He
likewise says, " considered as a painter of individuality in the
human form and mind, I think him, even as it is, the prince
of portrait painters. Titian paints nobler pictures, and Van
Dyck had nobler subjects, but neither of them entered so
subtly as Sir Joshua did into the minor varieties of heart and
temper."*
It is as " the prince of portrait painters " that Sir Joshua will
be remembered, although he produced more than one hundred
and thirty historic or poetic pieces. Messrs. Redgrave,
speaking of his powers as an historic painter, declare that
" notwithstanding the greatness of Reynolds as a portrait
painter, and the beauty of his fancy subjects, he wholly fails
as a painter of history. Allowing all that arises from 'colour
harmony,' we must assert that, both as to form and character,
the characters introduced into these solemn dramas are wholly
unworthy to represent the persons of the actors therein." They
argue that the Ugolino fails to represent the fierce Count shut up
in the Tower of Famine, on the banks of the Arno, and that the
children of the Holy Family " for all there is of character and
holiness, might change places with the Cupid who fixes his
* Northcote, "Conversations," 1830, p. 32, said, "Sir Joshua un-
doubtedly got his first idea of the art from Grandy." James G-andy (1619
1689), who painted in Ireland and Devonshire, was the last represen-
tative of the art of Van Dyck, whose pupil he was.
GAINSBOROUGH. 55
arrow to transfix his nymph." The child who represents The
Infant Samuel, delightful as it is, in common with all Sir Joshua
Reynolds's children, has nothing to distinguish it as set apart
to high and holy offices. We may mention as among the best
known of the historic and poetic subjects of this master :
Macbeth and the Witches, Cardinal Beaufort, Hercules strangling
the Serpents, painted for the Empress of Kussia, and The Death
of Dido. Famous, too, as portraits, are Mrs. Siddons as the
Tragic Muse (Duke of Westminster's and Dulwich Gallery),
Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy, The Strawberry Girl, The
Shc2)herdBoy, The Little Girl in a Mob Cap (Penelope Boothby),
The Little Duke, and The LittU Marchioness; many others
which are scattered in the galleries and chambers of the English
nobility and gentry, and which are now frequently seen on the
walls of Burlington House as each " Old Masters " Exhibition
passes by.
THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH (1727 1788), the son of a clothier,
was born at Sudbury, in Suffolk. He early showed taste for
art, and would linger among the woods and streams round
Sudbury to sketch. Nature was his model, and to this fact we
owe the pictures which make him and Wilson the founders
of our school of landscape painting. The details of this
master's life are few and uneventful. When between fourteen
and fifteen years of age, his father sent Thomas Gainsborough
to London to study art. His first master was Gravelot, a
French engraver of great ability, to whose teaching Gains-
borough probably owed much. From him he passed to Hayman
in the St. Martin's Lane Academy, a drawing school only.
Gainsborough began as a portrait and landscape painter in
Hatton Garden, but finding little patronage during four years of
his sojourn there, returned to his native town, and presently
married Margaret Burr, who had crossed his line of sight when
he was sketching a wood. The lady's figure was added to the
picture, and in due course became the wife of the artist. For a
56 ENGLISH PAINTEKS.
man so careless as Gainsborough, an early marriage was good,
and we owe the preservation of many of his works to the thought-
fulness of his wife. Settling in Ipswich, he began to make
a name. Philip Thicknesse, Governor of Landguard Fort,
opposite Harwich, became his earliest patron, and officiously
maintained a friendship which was often trying to the painter.
Gainsborough, at his suggestion, painted a view of Landguard
Fort (the picture has perished), which attracted considerable
attention. In 1760 he removed to Bath, and found a favourable
field for portrait-painting, though landscape was not neglected.
Fourteen years later Gainsborough, no longer an unknown
artist, came to London and rented part of Schomberg House,
Pall Mall. He was now regarded as the rival of Reynolds
in portraiture, and of Wilson in landscape. Once, when
Reynolds at an Academy Dinner proposed the health of his
rival as " the greatest landscape painter of the day," Wilson,
who was present, exclaimed, " Yes, and the greatest portrait
painter, too." One of the original members of the Royal
Academy, Gainsborough exhibited ninety pictures in the Gallery,
but refused to contribute after 1783, because a portrait of his
was not hung as he wished. A quick-tempered, impulsive man,
he had many disputes with Reynolds, though none of them
were of a very bitter kind. Gainsborough's Blue Boy is
commonly said to have been painted in spite against Reynolds,
in order to disprove the President's statement that blue ought
not to be used in masses. But there were other and worthier
reasons for the production of this celebrated work, in respect
to which Gainsborough followed his favourite Van Dyck in
displaying " a large breadth of cool light supporting the flesh."
It is pleasant to think of the kindly minded painter enjoying
music with his friends ; and, rewarding some of them more
lavishly than wisely, he is said to have given The Boy at the
Stile to Colonel Hamilton, in return for his performance on
the violin. It is pleasant, too, to know that whatever soreness
MKS. SIDDONS. By GAINSBOROUGH. A.D. 1784.
In the National Gallery.
58 ENGLISH PAINTEKS.
of feeling existed between him and Sir Joshua, passed away
before he died. When the President of the Eoyal Academy
came to his dying bed, Gainsborough declared his reconciliation,
and said, "We are all going to heaven, and Van Dyck is of
the company." This was in 1788. Gainsborough was buried at
Kew. The Englishness of his landscapes makes Gainsborough
popular. Wilson had improved on the Dutch type by visiting
Italy, but Gainsborough sought no other subjects than his own
land afforded. Nature speaks in his portraits or from his
landscapes, and his rustic children excel those of Reynolds,
because they are really sun-browned peasants, not fine ladies
and gentlemen masquerading in the dresses of villagers.
Mr. Ruskin says of Gainsborough, "His power of colour
(it is mentioned by Sir Joshua as his peculiar gift) is capable
of taking rank beside that of Rubens ; he is the purest colourist
Sir Joshua himself not excepted of the whole English
school ; with him, in fact, the art of painting did in great part
die, and exists not now in Europe. I hesitate not to say that
in the management and quality of single and particular tints, in
the purely technical part of painting, Turner is a child to
Gainsborough."
Among the most popular pictures by this great master
are The Blue Boy, The Shepherd Boy in the Shower, The
Cottage Door, The Cottage Girl uith Dog and Pitcher, The
Shepherd Boys with their Dogs fighting, The Woodman and
his Dog in the Storm (burnt at Eaton Park, engraved by
Simon, and copied in needlework by Miss Linwood). There
are thirteen pictures by Gainsborough in the National Gallery,
including The Market Cart, The Watering Place, Musidora,
Portraits of Mrs. Siddons, and Orpin, the Parish Clerk of Brad-
ford-on-Avon. In the Royal Collection at Windsor are seven-
teen life-size heads of the sons and daughters of George III.,
of which, say the Messrs. Redgrave, "it is hardly possible to
speak too highly."
HUGH ROBINSON, -59
We may here fittingly mention a contemporary of Gains-
borough, HUGH ROBINSON (about 1760 1790), who only gained
a tardy though well-merited right to rank among England's
portrait painters by the exhibition at the " Old Masters," in
1881, of his Portrait of Thomas Teesdale, which was followed in
the next exhibition by the Pipiny Boy. The remainder of the
works of this talented young Yorkshireman who exhibited but
three pictures at the Royal Academy (in 1780 and 1782), and
who died on his way home from Italy, whither he had gone to
study art are chiefly family portraits. The two mentioned
above best display his happy blending of landscape and portrai-
ture, and, though somewhat recalling the manner of Gains-
borough, are full of natural talent.
CHAPTER V.
THE PEOGRESS OF ENGLISH ART IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
IT will here be convenient to notice briefly some foreign
painters who worked in England in the middle of the
eighteenth century.
GIOVANNI BATTISTA CIPRIANI, R.A. (1727 1785), a Florentine,
came to London in 1755 and remained here, gaining a great
reputation as an historic painter at a time when foreign artists
were specially popular. He was one of the original members
of the Royal Academy, and designed the diploma of that body.
To Cipriani the English school owes some refinement tempering
the rough originality of Hogarth, but his art, " the worn-out and
effete art of modern Italy," left few permanent traces on that of
England.
ANGELICA KAUFFMAN, R.A. (1740 1807), a native of
Schwartzenberg, in Austria, came to London in 1765, and, aided
by fashion and the patronage of Queen Charlotte, became
prominent in the art world. Her romantic and sad fortunes
added to her popularity. " Her works were gay and pleas-
ing in colour, yet weak and faulty in drawing, her male
figures particularly wanting in bone and individuality."
(Redgrave.) Her pictures were often engraved in her own
days, but they are now thought little of. A specimen of
PROGRESS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. Gl
Angelica Kauffman's work may be seen in the ceiling of the
Council Chamber of the Royal Academy, of which she was a
member ; another is in the National Gallery.
JOHANN ZOFFANY, R.A. (1733 1810) , was born at Frankfort,
and on his first arrival in England met with little success. He
was, however, one of the original Royal Academicians, and was
patronised by George III., whose portrait he painted, together
with those of many members of the Royal family. As a portrait
painter Zoffany was truthful, natural, and unaffected, and his
influence for good was not lost on the art of his adopted
country. In 1783 he went to India, where he remained
fifteen years, painting pictures of incident, of which The Indian
Tiger Hunt is an example ; works produced after his return
to England are less interesting than these.
FRANCESCO ZUCCARELLI, R.A. (1702 1788), born in Tuscany,
has already been mentioned as advising Wilson to cultivate
landscape-painting. After becoming famous abroad, he came to
London in 1752, and secured a fortune, whilst Wilson, his
superior, was too poor to buy a canvas to paint on. Zucca-
relli's landscapes and rural villages are of the stage rather than
nature. He was the last of that artificial school of painters
who tried to paint a beautiful world without looking out of
doors.
PHILIPPE JAMES DE LOUTHERBOURG, R.A. (1740 1812), a
native of Strasburg, studied in Paris, under Casanova, the
battle-painter. He acquired fame by delineating landscapes,
battles, and marine subjects, and was already a member of the
French Academy when he came to England in 1771. For a
time De Loutherbourg was employed as a scene-painter at
Drury Lane, receiving a salary of 500 a year from Garrick.
His scenery was extremely meritorious, effective, and popular,
but he too frequently obtruded scenic characteristics into his
other pictures. He was elected an Associate of the Royal
Academy in 1780, and a full member in the following year.
62 ENGLISH PAINTERS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Becoming somewhat deranged in his latter days, he assumed
the gift of prophecy, and pretended to cure diseases. He was
buried at Chiswick, near Hogarth. De Loutherbourg was a
clever draughtsman, but neglected nature. Peter Pindar laughed
at his "brass skies, and golden hills," and his "marble bullocks
in glass pastures grazing." Nevertheless Turner owned great
obligations to him, and he succeeded in varying the aims of
landscape painters, and gave what may be called animation and
dramatic expression to their art. His best-known works are,
Lord Howe's Victory on the 1st of June, The Fire of London,
The Siege of Valenciennes, A Lake Scene in Cumberland (National
Gallery), Warley Common (Windsor Castle). The Eidophusicon
was a moving diorama in Spring Gardens, painted by De
Loutherbourg, which " all the world went to see."
HENRY FUSELI, or more correctly, FUESSLI (1741 1825),
born at Zurich, exercised very considerable influence on
English art by his pictures and lectures. He was a scholar
as well as a painter, and had been educated for the church.
On first coming to England Fuseli turned his attention to
literature, but was advised by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who had
seen his sketches, to cultivate art. When nearly thirty years
old he went to Italy, where, like Reynolds, his chief devotions
were paid to the shrine of Michelangelo. Returning to
England after eight years' absence, Fuseli made his first
decided mark by The Nightmare, painted three years after his
return. It is said that fully to realise the horrors of this
subject the enthusiastic Swiss supped on raw pork ! In 1786,
Alderman Boydell, a successful engraver and art publisher,
proposed a Shakespeare Gallery, with the view of proving
that England contained really good painters of history. Fuseli
executed nine out of the eighty-six examples in this gallery.
His studies of the works of Michelangelo fitted him for the
just treatment of the subjects, including Hamlet and the Ghost,
and Lear and Cordelia. It has been objected that his men
64: ENGLISH PAINTERS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
are all of one race, whether in reality classic, mediaeval, or
Scandinavian, and that Shakespeare's women are, in his
pictures, all alike, too masculine and coarse. Shakespeare
is thoroughly English in taste and character, and his men
and women, even if represented in Verona, or Prospero's Isle,
are still English in heart. Fuseli was scarcely able to enter
into this characteristic of our greatest poet. He was more at
home with the majestic creations of Milton, to which he next
turned his thoughts. He projected a Milton Gallery of forty-
seven large pictures, which, however, was not a financial
success, therefore in 1780 Fuseli complained that the public
would feed him with honour, but leave him to starve. He
became a Royal Academician, and Professor of Painting, a post
which he held till his death.
In proceeding to speak of artists of the English school, we
must remember that we have not to deal with men gathered
round a great master, as is the case with many foreign painters.
Each English artist has originality, and stands by himself. It
will be most convenient therefore to treat them according to the
special branch of art which they severally followed, i.e.
Historic, Portrait, Landscape, or Animal painting. HISTORICAL
PAINTING had hitherto found little favour in England, nor were
the pictures produced in that line worthy of much regard.
Reynolds attempted it in Ugolino and the Infant Hercules, but it
is not by means of such pictures he will be remembered. There
were others who devoted themselves to what they styled high art,
with earnestness worthy of greater success than they achieved.
BENJAMIN WEST (17381820) was born at Springfield, Penn-
sylvania, and of Quaker parents who descended from a Bucking-
hamshire family of the same persuasion. He early showed
signs of artistic genius, and strange stories have been told of the
precocity of the child. West received his first colours from
Indians, and made his first paint-brush from a cat's tail. A box
66 ENGLISH PAINTEKS
of colours, given by a merchant when he was nine years old,
encouraged him to persevere ; and we know that the donor of
the box introduced him to a painter named Williams, of Phila-
delphia, from whom he derived instruction. West started in
life at eighteen as a portrait painter ; first at Philadelphia, then
at New York. In 1760, he visited Italy, and, after remaining
there three years, proceeded to England. He had intended
to return to America, but became so successful that he settled
in London. In Rome the young American created a sensation,
and the blind Cardinal Albani, whose acquaintance with
Americans must have been limited, asked if he was black or
white. In London West was greatly sought after, and in 1766,
three years after his arrival, he finished Orestes and Pylades
(National Gallery) ; his house was besieged by the fashionable
world, eager for a glimpse of the picture. West now found
many patrons, among them the Bishops of Bristol and Worcester,
and Drummond, Archbishop of York. The Archbishop was so
charmed by Agrippa with the Ashes of Germanicus, that he
introduced West to George III., who became a warm and faithful
supporter of the artist. From 1767 to 1802 West was almost
exclusively employed by the King, and received large sums of
money. He was one of the original members of the Royal
Academy, and on the death of Reynolds, became President.
His inaugural address, which, like all he did, was highly praised,
had two subjects the excellence of British art and the gracious
benevolence of his Majesty. The illness of George III. put an
end to West's attendance at Court, and he proceeded into a
wider field of art, choosing that of religion. Here he was more
successful than in many of his former pictures, as in Christ
healing the Sick (National Gallery), Christ rejected, and Death on
the Pale Horse. He died on the llth of March, 1820, aged
eighty-two. West, so popular in the days of George III., is
utterly neglected now. If he aimed at being great, he succeeded
only in the size of his pictures. A cold, passionless mediocrity
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUKY. 67
was the highest point to which he attained, and of his pictures
we may say as the old Scotsman said of Rob Roy, that they
are " too bad for blessing, and too good for banning." Redgrave
says: "His compositions were more studied than natural, the
action often conventional and dramatic ; the draperies, although
learned, heavy and without truth. His colour often wants
freshness and variety of tint, and is hot and foxy." We owe
to West, however, the example of courage in attempting great
religious subjects, and in departing from the absurd custom
of representing the warriors of all nations clad like ancient
Romans. In his Death of Wolfe, West insisted, contrary to the
advice of Reynolds, in painting his soldiers in their proper dress.
JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY, R.A. (1737 1815), was born at
Boston, America, then one of our colonies, his father being
English and his mother Irish. Boston in those days could
offer no facilities for art-education, but Copley went to Nature
the best of teachers. He commenced with portraits and
domestic life, and between 1760 and 1767 sent pictures to
London, where they excited considerable interest. In 1774,
he visited the Old World, first England, then Italy, and
finally settled in London in 1775. In the following year he
exhibited a "conversation" piece at the Royal Academy,
and was elected an Associate in 1777. In 1778, William Pitt,
Earl of Chatham, whilst speaking in the House of Lords against
the practice of taxing our colonists without their consent,
was seized with a fatal illness. This incident, specially
interesting to an American, suggested The Death of. the
Earl of Chatham (National Gallery), which at once raised
the painter to a high place" in the ranks of British artists.
The popularity of Copley was greatly owing to his choice
of subjects. Instead of dealing with ancient history or classic
fables, with which the general public was but imperfectly
acquainted, he selected events of the day, or of modern times,
and contrived to combine portraiture, ever popular in England,
F2
ENGLISH PAINTEKS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUKY. 69
with the dramatic incidents of his pictures. Copley was made
a full member of the Royal Academy in 1779, and maintained
his popularity by The Death of Major Peirson (National Gallery)
which represents an attack of the French on St. Helier's,
Jersey, in 1781, and the fall of young Major Peirson in the
moment of his victory. Following the path thus wisely selected,
Copley produced Charles I. ordering the Arrest of the Five
Members, The Repulse of the Spanish Floating Batteries at
Gibraltar by Lord Heathfield (painted for the City of London,
now in the Guildhall), The Assassination of Buckingham, The
Battle of the Boijne, &c. He exhibited only forty-two works in
the Royal Academy, all of which were portraits except The
Offer of the Crown to Lady Jane Grey, and The Resurrection.
In sacred subjects, Copley was far less successful than in the
particular style of art to which he mainly adhered. His
son became famous as Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst.
JAMES BAKKY, R.A. (1741 1806), who was a contemporary of
Benjamin West, and, like him, aimed at high art, formed a marked
contrast to the favourite painter of George III. Whilst West
was well fed and well clothed, rich, easy-tempered, and happy,
Barry was often ragged, sometimes starving, always poor, and
seldom out of a passion. He was born at Cork, the son
of a small coasting trader who kept a tavern. From such un-
congenial surroundings Barry made his way to Dublin, and
exhibited The Baptism of the King of Cashel by St. Patrick.
This work attracted considerable notice, and secured for the
artist the patronage of Burke, who sent him to Italy. This
was in 1765, but previously to this date Barry had already
visited London, and lived by copying in oil the drawings of
"Athenian Stuart," the Serjeant-Painter who succeeded Ho-
garth. Barry's studies in Italy confirmed his ambitious design
to become a painter of high art subjects. With characteristic
boldness he entered the field against the greatest masters, and
whilst at Rome painted Adam and Eve, which he thought
70
ENGLISH PAINTERS
superior to Eaphael's masterpiece of the same subject. Re-
turning to England in 1770, Barry exhibited this picture, and
began Venus rising from the Sea, which was exhibited in 1772 ;
he was elected a R.A. in the following year. His undisciplined
MERCURY INVENTING THE LYRE. By BARRY.
temper ensured him many enemies, and estranged his few friends ;
he even quarrelled with Burke. His pride and courage were in-
domitable, and he worked on through good and ill reports, never
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUKY. 71
swerving from the course he had marked out, and contemptuously
dismissing any chance sitter for a portrait to " the fellow in
Leicester Square," as he styled Sir Joshua Reynolds. In 1777,
Barry undertook to paint in the Great Room of the Society of
Arts at the Adelphi a series of pictures illustrating Human
Culture. He had previously offered to decorate the interior of
St. Paul's. He began to work at the Adelphi with sixteen
shillings in his pocket, and toiled there during seven years,
being often in absolute want. The Society provided him with
models and materials only, and Barry was to receive the pro-
ceeds of exhibiting his work in return for his unpaid labours.
The hope of fame enabled "the little ordinary man with the
dirty shirt " to support himself through the long years of want
and semi- starvation, whilst he was working for the glory which
never came. Barry finished the pictures at the Adelphi in 1783,
and called them severally The Story of Orpheus; A Thanksgiving
to Ceres and Bacchus; The Victors of Olympia; Navigation, or
the Triumph of the Thames ; Distribution of Premiums in the
Society of Arts; and Elysium, or the State of Final Retribution.
The luckless artist had been appointed Professor of Painting
at the Royal Academy in 1772, but outbursts of passion and
furious attacks on his brethren led to his removal from the post,
and, in 1779, to his expulsion from the Academy. He died
miserably, in 1806, at the wretched house he called a home,
and the honours which had never blossomed for the living man
were bestowed on the corpse, which lay in state at the Adelphi,
surrounded by the work of his hands. He was buried in St.
Paul's. "There he rests side by side with the great ones of
his profession. Posterity had reversed the positions of West
and his competitor, the first is last, and the last first ; but it
was hardly to be expected that the young would be anxious to
follow Barry in a line of art in which neither ability nor perse-
verance seemed to succeed, or to start in a career for which
not even princely patronage could obtain public sympathy, nor
72 ENGLISH PAINTERS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
innate genius, with life-long devotion, win present fame, hardly
indeed a bare subsistence." (Redgrave.)
Returning for a moment to Portrait Painters, we find two of
that class who were contemporary with Sir Joshua Reynolds, and
of whom the first nearly equalled the president in popularity.
GEOKGE ROMNEY (1734 1802) was born near Dalton-in-Fur-
ness, North Lancashire, and for some years followed his
father's craft of cabinet-making. The story of his life is one
of marked success and singular selfishness. He first studied art
with Edward Steele, of Kendal, a portrait painter of some skill
and reputation, who had painted Sterne. Whilst assisting his
master to elope with his future wife, Romney fell ill, and was
nursed by young Mary Abbot. He rewarded the devotion of
his nurse by marrying her, and when she was the mother of
two children, by leaving her at home poor and alone, whilst he
was rich and famous in London. During a long and successful
career Romney only visited his family twice, to find on the
second occasion his daughter dead, and his son grown up and
in Holy Orders. The painter's strange, selfish life ended in
imbecility, and the patient wife who had nursed the youth
of twenty-three, soothed the last hours of the man of seventy,
whose fame she had never shared. Romney was as eccentric
in life as in his genius. Shunning the society of his fellow
artists, he complained of their neglect, and refused to enter
the Royal Academy. It was said of Sterne that " he would
shed tears over a dead donkey whilst he left a living mother
to starve." In like manner Romney wrote gushing words of
sympathy for the widow of another man, whilst his own wife
had been practically widowed for more than thirty years. Of
the intercourse of Romney with the fair and frail Emma Lyon,
who, as Lady Hamilton, exercised an influence for evil over him
and over Nelson, it is not our province to speak. The fitful
temper of the painter led him to begin numerous pictures he
never finished, cart-loads of which were removed from his
MARQUIS OF STAFFOKD. By ROMNEY.
In the possession of the Duke of Sutherland.
74 ENGLISH PAINTERS
house at Hampstead. Koinney's want of steadfastness often
compelled him to abandon works of which the conception was
greater than the power to carry it out. There was a want of
thoroughness about him, and even the pictures which he finished
seemed incomplete to those who did not understand them.
Noteworthy among these are Ophelia, The Infant Shakespeare,
and The Shipwreck, from " The Tempest." His portraits, how-
ever, form the greater class of his productions. In the National
Gallery are Study of Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante, and The
Parson's Daughter. " We may sum up all that is to be said of
Eomney in this : that whatever he did Reynolds had done much
better ; that his art did not advance the taste of the age, or the
reputation of the school, and that it is quite clear, however
fashion or faction may have upheld him in his own day, the
succeeding race of painters owed little or nothing to his teach-
ing." (Redgrave.) A harsh and unsympathizing judgment.
Truer is it that he never offended the finest taste in art,
that he was a very fair draughtsman, a sound and accom-
plished painter, who delineated ladies with the taste of a Greek,
and children with exemplary sweetness.
JOSEPH WEIGHT (1734 1797) is, from his birth-place,
commonly known as WRIGHT OF DERBY. Quitting his native
town, where his father was an attorney, he reached London
in 1751 and became a pupil of Hudson, the portrait painter.
Wright aimed at historical painting, but his works are chiefly
single portraits, and conversation pieces. After revisiting
Derby, he returned to Hudson's studio for a while, and then
settled in his native town, where he practised his art with
success. He often represented candle-light and fire-light effects,
as may be seen in The Orrery, The Iron Forge, and The Experi-
ment with the Air-Pump (National Gallery). Marrying in 1773,
Wright went with his wife to Italy and remained there two
years. He witnessed an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and
painted that event with success, as well as the display of fire-
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 75
works at the Castle of St. Angelo, at Home, which is known
as the Girandola. Returning to England, Wright painted at
first at Bath ; but being unsuccessful, he returned to Derby,
where he died in 1797. He contributed a few works to the
Royal Academy after quitting Italy ; Vesuvius, and the Girandola
were exhibited there in 1778. Wright was elected an Associate
in 1782, but removed his name from the Academy books two
years later. This step was taken either because Edmund
Garvey, a landscape painter, was elected a R.A. before him,
or because Wright had refused to comply with one of the
Academy rules, and present works to the society before
receiving his diploma. He was said to be a shy, irritable man,
always ill, or fancying himself so, and ready to take offence
easily. Such are the unconfirmed statements of the advocates
of the Academy. He painted landscapes in his latter days,
The Head of Ullesicater was his last picture. Best known
among his works are The dead Soldier, Belshazzar's Feast,
Hero and Leander, The Storm (from " Winter's Tale"), and
Cicero's Villa. Wright's most remarkable fire-light effects are
The Hermit, The Gladiator, The Indian Widow, The Orrery,
and, already mentioned, the Air- Pump. Like Hogarth and
Copley, he painted in that solid old English method which
insured the preservation of his works. " On the whole it
cannot be said that Wright's pictures have added much to the
reputation of the British school. As a portrait painter he is
hardly in the second rank." His portraits have a heavy look ;
of his landscapes it has been averred that " they are large and
simple in manner, but heavy and empty."
THE SUCCESSOES OF SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
Portrait-painting, always popular in England, continued to
flourish after the deaths of Reynolds and Gainsborough.
Although the magic touches of these masters cannot be found
in the art of their immediate followers, their influence pro-
76 ENGLISH PAINTERS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
duced several original and independent artists, who, though
successors, were not imitators.
NATHANIEL DANCE (1734 1811) studied art under Frank
Hayman, R.A., and visited Italy with Angelica Kauffman.
Returning to England he achieved success as a painter, both of
portraits and historic pieces. He was one of the original
members of the Royal Academy, from which he retired in
1790, on marrying a wealthy widow : he took the name of
Holland and was made a baronet ten years later. His best-
known works are the Death of Virginia, Garrick as Richard III.,
Timon of Athens (Royal Collection) and Captain Cook (Green-
wich Hospital).
JAMES NORTHCOTE (1746 1831), the son of a watchmaker
of Plymouth, spent seven years as an apprentice to his father's
craft, all the while longing to be a painter. He was a man
of indefatigable industry, who, in spite of a defective education
and few opportunities for improvement, made his mark both as
an artist and a writer on art. He was the favourite pupil of
Sir Joshua Reynolds and his first biographer. Leaving Reynolds
in 1775, Northcote returned to Devonshire, and for two years
successfully painted portraits. From 1777 to 1780 he was in
Italy studying the old masters, especially Titian. He settled
in London on returning home, and maintained himself by
portrait-painting. He was, however, ambitious to succeed with
historic pictures, though compelled to confine himself to more
saleable subjects, such as A Visit to Grandmamma, and similar
domestic scenes. Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery gave North-
cote a new opening in the line he yearned to practise. Among
nine pictures produced for this series, that of the Murder of the
Young Princes in the Tower, painted in 1786, brought the artist
prominently into notice. The Death of Wat Tyler, now in
Guildhall, London, is one of his best works. His Diligent
and Dissipated Servants, a series suggested by Hogarth's Idle
and Industrious Apprentices, falls very far below the standard of
CHARITY. By NORTHCOTE. A.D. 1783.
78 ENGLISH PAINTERS
the original series. Noteworthy facts in Northcote's historic
pictures are the incongruity of the dresses, and frequent gross
anachronisms. Thus we have Sisera lying on a feather bed and
attired like a trooper of Cromwell's Ironsides, and Jael dressed
like a modern maid-of-all-work. In the Shakespearian pictures
Hubert of the thirteenth century, and Richard III. of the
fifteenth century, alike wear the dress of Elizabeth's day. Wat
Tyler and the murderers in the Tower wear the same armour,
which belongs to the Stuart period. Such mistakes, however,
were common among all painters of his time.
JOHN OPIE (1761 1807), the rival and friend of Northcote,
was like him a West countryman, and like him rose from the
ranks. Born at St. Agnes, near Truro, the son of a carpenter,
Opie early showed intelligence and quickness in acquiring
knowledge which marked him out for a higher sphere than a
carpenter's shop. After evincing taste for art, and disgusting
his father by decorating a saw-pit with chalk, he found patrons
in Lord Bateman and Dr. Wolcot, the famous Peter Pindar.
Some biographers have described Opie as becoming the doctor's
footboy, but this is a mistake. Walcot brought the young
painter to London and introduced him to Sir Joshua Reynolds,
but the selfish patronage of the doctor soon came to an end,
Opie was at first vigorously advertised in London as " the
Cornish Wonder"
" the Cornish boy, in tin-mines bred,
Whose native genius, like his diamonds, shone
In secret, till chance gave him to the sun."
Reynolds told Northcote that Opie was "like Caravaggio and
Velasquez in one." In 1782 the painter married his first wife,
from whom he was subsequently divorced owing to her mis-
conduct. Although Opie was no longer the wonder of the hour
in fickle London, he was achieving more enduring fame. His
defective education, both in literature and art, left much to be
learned, and he set himself to supply his defects with a laborious
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUEY. 79
zeal which finally affected his brain and prematurely ended his
life. His earliest works in London were studies of heads and
portraits. In 1786, he produced the Assassination of James I.
of Scotland, a Sleeping Nymph, and Cupid stealing a Kiss. Next
year saw his Murder of David Rizzio. He was elected an
Associate of the Royal Academy in 1787, and a full member
within a year. In the next seven years he exhibited twenty
pictures, all portraits. Opie was engaged to paint for Boydell's
Shakespeare Gallery, and contributed five pictures, which
improved as they progressed. Portrait-painting continued to
be, however, the most lucrative pursuit, and having been
introduced to some patrons at Norwich, Opie saw and married
Amelia Alderson, who afterwards wrote Memoirs of her husband,
and described the hard struggles which he had at times to
encounter. His love for art and untiring industry remained
to the last. Even when dying, and at times delirious, he gave
advice about the finishing of pictures which he wished to send
to the Academy. It was said of him, that "whilst other artists
painted to live, he lived to paint." He was buried in St. Paul's.
Opie wrote several works on art, and was Professor of Painting
in the Royal Academy. His answer to a troublesome inquirer
truly expresses the character of his work. " What do I mix my
colours with ? Why, with brains." Two of Opie's pictures are
in the National Gallery a Portrait of William Siddons, and
Troihis, Cressida, and}Pandarus. Of his art generally it may be
said that he possessed considerable powerand breadth of treat-
ment. His handling was often coarse, and his colouring crude,
especially in female portraits ; in fact, coarseness was the leading
characteristic of works which were never tame or spiritless.
Sm WILLIAM BEECHEY (1753 1839) was a portrait pajnter
who received a considerable share of Court favour. He is
variously stated to have begun life as a house-painter, or as a
solicitor's clerk. He devoted himself to the study of art at the
Royal Academy. He lived for a time at Norwich, produced
80 ENGLISH PAINTERS
conversation pieces in the style of Hogarth, but finally settled
in London as a portrait painter, and practised with considerable
success. In 1793 Beechey was elected A.R.A., and executed
a portrait of Queen Charlotte, who was so well pleased with
it that she appointed him her Majesty's portrait painter.
Thus introduced to Court, Beechey trod " the primrose path"
of success, and in 1798 painted an equestrian portrait of
George III., with likenesses of the Prince of Wales and Duke of
York at a review in Hyde Park. The painter was knighted,
and elected a Royal Academician. The picture of George III.
Reviewing the 3rd and Wth Dragoons is at Hampton Court.
His Portrait of Nollekens, the sculptor, is in the National
Gallery. Beechey's chief merit is accuracy of likeness.
JOHN HOPPNER (1759 1810) was another portrait painter
who prospered at Court. At first a chorister in the Chapel
Royal, he studied art at the Academy schools, became an
Associate in 1793, and was elected full member in 1795. He
enjoyed vast popularity as a portrait painter, finding a rival only
in Lawrence. Many of Hoppner's best works are at St. James's
Palace. Three of them are in the National Gallery William
Pitt, " Gentleman " Smith, the actor, and the Countess of Oxford.
Three of his works are at Hampton Court; among them is
Mrs. Jordan as the Comic Muse.
Examples of the work of nearly all the above-mentioned
portrait painters may be consulted in the National Portrait
Gallery at South Kensington.
ANIMAL PAINTERS.
The first animal painters in England were willing to win
money, if not fame, by taking the portraits of favourite race-
horses and prize oxen for the country squires, who loved to
decorate their walls with pictures of their ancestors, and their
studs. The first to make a name in this branch of art was JOHN
WOOTTON, a pupil of John Wyck. He became famous in the
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 81
sporting circles of Newmarket for his likenesses of race-horses,
and received large sums for pictures of dogs and horses. Later,
he attempted landscapes, chiefly hunting scenes. His works
are in country mansions, especially at Blenheim, Longleat, and
Dytchley. Wootton died in 1765.
JAMES SEYMOUR (1702 1752) was famous also as a painter
of race-horses and hunting-pieces ; he is best known by the
engravings after his works.
GEORGE STUBBS (1724 1806) was the son of a Liverpool
surgeon, from whom he probably inherited his love for anatomy.
He worked at painting and conducted anatomic studies with
equal zeal throughout his life, and is said to have carried, on one
occasion, a dead horse on his back to his dissecting-room.
This story is more than doubtful, though Stubbs was a man of
great physical strength. He was the first to give the poetry of
life and motion to pictures of animals, and to go beyond the
mere portrait of a Newmarket favourite or an over-fed ox. The
Koyal Academy elected him an Associate in 1780, but as he
declined to present one of his works, he was never made a full
member. Among his works are a Lion hilling a Horse, a Tiger
lying in his Den, a noble life-size portrait of the famous racing-
horse Whistle-jacket, which is at Wentworth Woodhouse, and
The Fall of Phaeton. The last picture he repeated four times.
He published The Anatomy of the Horse, with etchings from
his own dissections.
SAWREY GILPIN (1733 1807) attained considerable success as
an animal painter. He was born at Carlisle, and was sent to London
as a clerk. Like many others he preferred the studio to the office,
and having obtained the favour of the Duke of Cumberland at
Newmarket, Gilpin was provided with a set of rooms, and
soon became known as a painter of horses. In 1770 he ex-
hibited at Spring Gardens Darius obtaining the Persian Empire
by the Neighing of his Horse, and next year Gulliver taking
Leave of the Houyhnhnms. Gilpin was elected a B.A. in 1797.
82
ENGLISH PAINTERS
GEOEGE MORLAND (17631804), though not exclusively an
animal painter, is best known in that branch of art. His life's
story describes wasted opportunities, reckless extravagance, and
misused talents. Brought up with unwise strictness by his
father, HENRY ROBERT MORLAND (died 1797), a portrait painter
THE WATERING PLACE. By MORLAND.
of note, George Morland no sconer escaped from home disci-
pline than he began that course of riotous living which ended in
a dishonoured grave, for which he prepared the epitaph :
" Here lies a drunken dog." It is a mistake to suppose that
Morland was a self-taught genius, since, although his father
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 83
objected to his entering the Academy schools, he himself was
his teacher, and so assiduously kept the boy at his studies that
he learned to hate the name of work.
As early as 1779 young Morland was an honorary exhibitor of
sketches at the Academy. At nineteen he had thrown off home
ties, and was living a reckless life of debauchery. Like most
prodigals who think themselves free, Morland became a slave.
His task-master was a picture dealer, who made money by the
genius of the youth whose ruin he promoted. Leaving him,
the artist went to Margate, and painted miniatures for a time,
going thence to France. He would settle to no regular work,
although his necessities compelled him at times to labour lest he
should starve. The next scene in Morland's life is his sojourn
with his friend William Ward, the mezzotint-engraver, where
an honourable attachment to Nancy Ward for a time induced him
to work. The pictures he painted at this time were suggested
by Hogarth's works, and had subjects with which Morland was
only too well acquainted. The Idle and Industrious Mechanic,
The Idle Laundress and Industrious Cottager, Letitia, or
Seduction (a series), were studied from the life. In 1786
Morland married Miss Ward, but there was no improvement in
his manner of life. Sometimes he was surrounded by eager
purchasers, and using his popularity as a means for greater
extravagance. At one time we see him keeping ten or twelve
horses, and cheated right and left by profligates who combined
horse-racing, betting, and picture dealing. The luckless Morland
was the ready victim of these associates. His pictures were
copied as he painted them, during his temporary absence from
the studio. In 1790 Morland was at his best, The Gipsies being
painted two years later. His last days were dark indeed.
Loaded with debt, and dreading arrest, he laboured like a
slave, seldom leaving his studio, where his pot-companions
alternately rioted and acted as his models, and dogs, pigs, and
birds shared the disorderly room. In 1799, he was arrested, and
G2
84 ENGLISH PAINTEES IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
lived within the Rules of the Fleet, amid all the debaucheries
of that evil place and time. Freed by the Insolvent Act in 1802,
the painter, broken in health and ruined in character, was once
again arrested for a tavern score, and ended his life in a
sponging-house on October 29th, 1804. His wife died of grief
three days later, and was interred with her husband in the
burial-ground of St. James's Chapel, Hampstead Road.
Morland chiefly painted country scenes, the memories of
happier days, and introduced animals, such as pigs and asses,
to his works. Produced for existence, and in a fitful, uncer-
tain manner, his pictures were hastily conceived, and painted
with little thought or study. He did much to bring the simple
beauty of English scenes before the eyes of the public, and to
teach Englishmen that they need not go to Italy in search of
subjects for their art. Morland loved low company, even in his
pictures, and was at home in a ruined stable, with a ragged
jackass, and tl dirty Brookes," the cobbler. In the National
Gallery are : The Inside of a Stable, said to be the White Lion
at Paddington, and A Quarry with Peasants, by him. In the
South Kensington Museum is an excellent example of his art,
called The Reckoning ; and in the National Portrait Gallery is
his own portrait, painted by himself at an early age.
CHAPTER VI.
BOOK ILLUSTKATOKS.
THE earliest book illustrations in England were illuminations
and repetitions of them on wood. Frontispieces followed,
in which a portrait was surrounded by an allegory. Of this
branch of art WILLIAM FAITHORNE (1616 1691) and DAVID
LOGGAN (about 1630 1693) were practitioners. Topographical
views, subjects from natural history, and botany followed.
Hogarth's designs for "Hudibras" were among the earlier
illustrations of a story. FRANCIS HAYMAN (1708 1776), his
friend, illustrated Congreve's plays, Milton, Hanmer's Shake-
speare, and other works. He was followed by SAMUEL WALE
(died 1786), and JOSEPH HIGHMORE (16921780), who illus-
trated "Pamela." Towards the close of the eighteenth century,
book illustrations had become a recognised class of art-works.
Bell's " British Poets," commenced in 1778, the British Theatre,
and Shakespeare, opened a wide field for artists of this order.
Cipriani, Angelica Kauffman, William Hamilton, and Francis
Wheatley, all members of the Royal Academy, were employed
to illustrate Bell's publications. Famous among book illus-
trators was
WILLIAM BLAKE (1757 1827). Though born in no higher
grade than that of trade, and in no more romantic spot than
Broad Street, Golden Square, William Blake, a hosier's son,
was a poet, a painter, an engraver, and even a printer. His
86 ENGLISH PAINTERS.
genius was of an original, eccentric kind, and there were many
who believed him crazed. During his long life he was "a
dreamer of dreams " and a poetic visionary. Now he was
meeting "the grey, luminous, majestic, colossal shadows" of
Moses and Dante ; now believing that Lot occupied the vacant
chair in his painting-room. Anon he fancied that his dead
brother had revealed to him a new process of drawing on
copper, which he practised with great success. Neglected
FROM DANTE'S INFERNO. By BLAKE.
and misunderstood, Blake was always busy, always poor, and
always happy. He lived beyond the cares of every-day life, in
a dream-world of his own, occasionally " seeing fairies' funerals,
or drawing the demon of a flea." In spite of poverty and
neglect, the poet-painter was contented. Rescued from the
hosier's business, for which he was intended, Blake at the age
of fourteen was apprenticed to the younger Basire, an engraver.
Throughout his life he worked not for money but for art,
BOOK ILLUSTEATORS. 87
declaring that his business was " not to gather gold, but to
make glorious shapes, expressing godlike sentiments." Hard
work with the graver gave him bread, and when the day's toil
was over he could illustrate teeming fancies in pictures and
in verses. He worked at first chiefly at book illustrations.
Marrying in his twenty-fifth year, his wife, named Katherine
Boucher, proved a faithful and useful helpmeet, one who con-
sidered her husband's excursions to be dictated by superior
knowledge. Blake's courtship was brief and characteristic. As
he was telling his future wife of his troubles, caused by the
levity of another damsel, she said, "I pity you." "Do you
pity me?" answered the painter; "then I love you for it!"
And they were married. It is not wonderful that Blake's con
temporaries thought him mad, as he often did strange things.
In 1791 Blake designed and engraved six plates to illustrate
" Tales for Children " by Mary Wollstonecraft, and later,
his "Book of Job," Dante's "Inferno," Young's "Night's
Thoughts," Blair's " Grave," and other series. Many of his
designs show majestic and beautiful thoughts, a bizarre, but
frequently soaring and stupendous invention, great beauty of
colour, energy, sweetness, and even beauty of form ; they were
rarely otherwise than poetic. Some are natural and simple,
with occasional flashes, such as belonged to all Blake's produc-
tions. The process of drawing on, or rather excavating copper,
which he declared had been revealed to him by his brother's ghost,
furnished a raised surface, from which Blake was able to print
both the design and the verses he composed. By this process
he produced his own " Songs of Innocence and of Experience,"
sixty-eight lyrics, of which it has been said that " they mi^ht
have been written by an inspired child, and are unapproached
save by Wordsworth for exquisite tenderness or for fervour."
Then followed "America, a Prophecy," and "Europe, a Pro-
phecy," irregularly versified, imaginative, and almost unin-
telligible productions. He was illustrating Dante when he
88
ENGLISH PAINTEKS.
died, and, happy to the last, passed away singing extempora-
neous songs.
THOMAS STOTHARD (1755 1834) began life as a designer for
brocaded silks, but, on finding the true bent of his genius, he
made designs for the " Town and Country Magazine," and the
THE DREAM. By STOTHARD.
"Novelist's Magazine," " Ossian," and Bell's "Poets." His
works deal with the gentler and sweeter side of human nature,
and we can trace the quiet, simple character of the man in them.
His eleven illustrations of " Peregrine Pickle " appeared in 1781,
and are excellent examples of his truthfulness and grace.
He was essentially a quietist, and scenes of passion and tumult
BOOK ILLUSTEATOES. 89
were foreign to his genius. Trunnion and Pipes became living
men under his pencil, and " Clarissa" and others of Richardson's
romances gained from him an immortality which they would
never have acquired by their own merits. In 1788 Stothard
produced illustrations of the ''Pilgrim's Progress," which, though
possessing sweetness and beauty, deal with subjects beyond his
grasp. His designs for " Robinson Crusoe " are among his best
works. Stothard was made an A.R.A. in 1791, and a full
member of the Royal Academy in 1794. His best known
painting is Intemperance, on the staircase of Burghley House,
in Northamptonshire. There are eight works by him in the
National Gallery, including the original sketch of Intemperance.
One of his most popular, though not the best of his pictures,
is the Procession of the Canterbury Pilgrims. A collection of
Stothard's designs is in the British Museum.
JOHN HAMILTON MOETIMEE (1741 1779), a native of East-
bourne, came to London, and made a promising beginning in
the world of art. He gained' the Society of Arts's premium of
a hundred guineas with St. Paul converting the Britons, and
painted other large historic pictures. Mortimer, however, fell
into extravagant habits, and neglected art. His oil paintings
are " heavy and disagreeable in colour ; " his drawings are
better. He drew designs for Bell's "Poets," "Shakespeare,"
and other works, choosing scenes in which bandits and monsters
play conspicuous parts.
THOMAS KIEK (died 1797), a pupil of Cosway, was an artist
of much promise. His best works were designs for Cooke's
"Poets."
RICHAED WESTALL (1765 1836) was a designer for books as
well as a water-colour painter. He made designs for Bibles
and Prayer-books, which were very popular. His best-known
works are illustrations of the " Arabian Nights." His brother
WILLIAM WESTALL (1781 1850), was a designer of consider-
able note, especially of landscapes.
90
ENGLISH PAINTERS.
EGBERT SMIRKE (1752 1845), a native of Wigton, in Cumber-
land, is chiefly known by bis illustrations of Shakespeare and
Cervantes. He came early to London, and, as an apprentice
to an heraldic painter, decorated coach panels. He studied
THE PORTRAIT. By SMIRKE.
at the Academy, and in 1786 exhibited Sabrina, from "Comus,"
and Narcissus. When chosen a full member of the Academy
Smirke's diploma picture was Don Quixote and SancJw. In
the National Gallery are twelve illustrations of " Don
BOOK ILLUSTRATORS. 91
Quixote," three representing scenes of the same story, and
a scene from the " Hypocrite," in which Mawicorm, Dr. Cant-
well, and Lady Lambert appear.
THOMAS UWINS (1782 1857) began life as an apprentice to
an engraver, entered the Koyal Academy schools, and became
known as a designer for books, as well as a portrait painter.
His book designs were chiefly frontispieces, vignettes, and title-
page adornments. Uwins for a time belonged to the Society
of Water-colour Painters from 1809 to 1818. In 1824 he
visited Italy, and, after seven years' sojourn, returned to win
fame and honour by oil paintings. He was elected an A.R.A.
in 1833 ; a Eoyal Academician in 1839, and subsequently
held the offices of Librarian to the Academy, Surveyor of her
Majesty's Pictures, and Keeper of the National Gallery. Among
his best pictures are Le Chapeau de Brigand, and the Vintage
in the Claret Vineyards (National Gallery) ; The Italian Mother
teaching her Child the Tarantella, and a Neapolitan Boy
decorating the Head of his Innamorata (South Kensington
Museum).
Before quitting this branch of art mention must be made of
one who, though an engraver and not a painter, occupies an
important place among book illustrators :
THOMAS BEWICK (1753 1828), born at Cherryburn, near
Newcastle-on-Tyne, adopted a fine mode of wood-engraving.
Hitherto many illustrations of books had been engraved on
copper, and were necessarily separate from the letterpress.
Bewick's process allowed the cut and the words it illustrated
to be printed at the same time. In this way he adorned
" Gay's Fables," a " General History of Quadrupeds," and his
most famous work, "The History of British Birds" (1797),
in which he showed the knowledge of a naturalist combined
with the skill of an artist. His last work was the illustrations
of JEsop's Fables, upon which he was engaged six years. He
92
ENGLISH PAINTERS.
was assisted by his brother John Bewick, who founded a
school of wood-engravers, and by some of John's pupils, among
whom were Robert Johnson and Luke Clennell.
We have already seen that modern English art began with
portraiture, which always has been, and always will be, popular.
We have noticed some miniature painters, or " limners in little,"
who flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when
miniature painting had among its greatest masters Samuel
Cooper, who has never been surpassed.
THE WOODCOCK. From "History of British Birds," by THOMAS BEWICK.
THOMAS FLATMAN (16331688), an Oxford man and a bar-
rister, who deserted the Bar and became a painter, obtained
great success in miniature.
ALEXANDER BROWNE, his contemporary, painted portraits of
Charles II. and other members of the Court. He was also an
engraver and published, in 1699, a work entitled "Ars
Pictoria," with thirty-one etchings.
MINIATUBE PAINTEES.
93
LEWIS CROSSE (died 1724) was the chief miniature painter
of Queen Anne's reign.
CHAELES BOIT, a Swede by birth, practised at this period
as a miniature painter. Failing in his business as a jeweller,
he left London in order to teach drawing in the country.
Here he is said to have induced a pupil, daughter of an
officer, to promise him marriage, and the intrigue having been
discovered, the expectant bridegroom was thrown into prison
for two years, where he employed himself in acquiring the
art of enamel-painting. Miniature painting is of two kinds
portraits in water colour on ivory and in enamel on copper,
Tailpiece by BEWICK.
the latter being the more complicated mode. Boit on his
release practised miniature -painting in London, and gained
high prices for his works, although his colouring is by no
means pleasant. He was in favour at Court, but, while
attempting to prepare a plate larger than ordinary to contain
portraits of the Royal family and chief courtiers, Queen Anne
died, and Boit, having borrowed money for the plate, was
left without hope of being able to pay his creditors. Escaping
to France, he again succeeded in his art, and died at Paris
in 1726.
94 ENGLISH PAINTERS.
CHRISTIAN FREDERICK ZINCKE (1684 1767), though a
native of Dresden, identified himself with art in England. He
was a pupil of Boit, but soon outshone his master. His enamel
painting was simple yet refined, his drawing graceful, his colour
pleasing. George II. was among his numerous patrons.
Several of Zincke's enamels are in the Royal Collection.
JAMES DEACON succeeded Zincke as a tenant of his house in
Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, and bid fair to succeed to his
place as a miniature painter, when he caught gaol fever at a
trial at the Old Bailey, and died in 1750.
JARVIS SPENCER, who had been a domestic servant, gained
by his talent and perseverance a high place among minia-
ture painters of this period. Indeed, after the death of
Deacon, he was the fashionable painter of his class. He died
in 1763.
Other artists combined the skill of a jeweller and goldsmith
with that of an enameller. It was the fashion to decorate
watches, brooches, snuff-boxes, and other trinkets with portraits
of friends and lovers of the owner., and thus the work of the
goldsmith and the miniature painter were allied.
GEORGE MICHAEL MOSER, E.A. (17041783), the son of a
sculptor at St. Gall, in Switzerland, came to England in his
early days, and first gained notice as a chaser of brass-work,
the favourite decoration of the furniture of that period. As
an enamel painter he was justly celebrated, and employed to
decorate the watch of George III. with portraits of the two
elder Princes. He designed the Great Seal. Moser was a
member of the St. Martin's Lane Academy, and in 1766
joined the Incorporated Society of Artists. He was a founder
of the Eoyal Academy, and its first Keeper.
NATHANIEL HONE (1718 1784) stands next to Zincke as a
miniature painter, although there is a wide gulf between
them. He was self-taught, and on quitting his native Dublin,
spent some time in the provinces practising as a portrait
MINIATURE PAINTERS. 95
painter, and afterwards achieved great success in London.
He was one of the foundation members of the Eoyal Academy,
but brought himself into disgrace with that body by lampooning
the President in a picture which he sent for exhibition.
JEREMIAH MEYER (1735 1789) is said to have been a pupil
of Zincke, but this is probably an error. Passing from the
St. Martin's Lane Academy, Meyer, a native of Wiirtemberg,
became Enamel Painter to George III., and Miniature Painter
to the Queen. Careful study of Keynolds is apparent in his
works. He was one of the original members of the Royal
Academy.
KICHARD COLLINS (1755 1831), a pupil of Meyer, held the
post of Miniature Painter to George III., and his works formed
important elements in the Academy exhibitions.
SAMUEL SHELLEY, though born in Whitechapel, surely an
inartistic locality, and having little art education, became a
fashionable miniature painter. He studied Reynolds with ad-
vantage, and treated historic incidents in miniature. He was
one of the founders of the Water-Colour Society, and died in
1808.
JAMES NIXON, A.R.A. (about 1741 1812), was Limner to the
Prince Regent, and a clever designer of book illustrations.
OZIAS HUMPHREY (1742 1810) commenced miniature-
painting at Bath, after being a pupil in the Academy in St.
Martin's Lane. He returned to London at the invitation of
Reynolds. A miniature exhibited by him in 1766 attracted
universal notice, and gained for him patronage from the King.
Compelled by ill health to go abroad in 1772, Humphrey studied
Italian art, and came back in five years fired with a desire to
attempt historical painting. Here he failed, and neither by
historic subjects nor portraits in oil could he gain the success
attending his miniatures. Disappointed, he went to India in 1785,
and painted illustrious natives of that country. Three years
later Humphrey was re-established as a miniature painter in
96 ENGLISH PAINTERS.
London, where he was elected a Koyal Academician in 1791.
Six years later his eyesight entirely failed. It is said of his
miniatures that they are the nearest to the pictures of Eeynolds.
Humphrey was also successful in crayons.
GEORGE ENGLEHEART, who exhibited miniature portraits at
the Royal Academy as early as 1773, was, in 1790, appointed
Miniature Painter to the King. He painted on both enamel
and ivory. He exhibited until 1812.
EICHARD COSWAY (1740 1821) was famous for skill in minia-
ture-painting, in which no one of his day could approach him,
and for vanity, extravagance, and eccentricity. A specialize
of his was the composition of small whole-lengths, the bodies
of which were executed in pencil, the faces in colour. No
beauty of the day was happy unless her charms had been
delineated by Cosway ; the fair companions of the Prince
Regent were among his warmest patrons, and the Prince was
a frequent visitor to the artist. Cos way's wife, Maria, was a
clever miniature painter, and worked for Boydell's Shake-
speare and Macklin's " Poets." Of the scandals concerning her
and her husband we need not speak. In his latter years Cosway
professed to believe in Swedenborg, and in animal magnetism,
pretended to be conversing with people abroad, claimed to have
the power of raising the dead, and declared that the Virgin
Mary frequently sat to him for her portrait. He was elected
Associate of the Royal Academy in 1770, and full member in
1771.
HENRY BONE (1755 1834) commenced life as an apprentice
to a porcelain manufacturer at Plymouth, where he painted
flowers and landscapes on china, and secured success as an
enameller. Passing from the manufactory, Bone began work
in London by enamelling small trinkets. He first came into
general notice in 1781, by means of a portrait of his own wife.
Bone's success was rapid. He was made an Academician in
1811, and was Enamel Painter to George III., George IV., and
MINIATURE PAINTERS. 97
William IV. His most famous works were miniatures after
Keynolds, Titian, Murillo and Raphael. Remarkable also are
his portraits of the Russell family from Henry VII. 's reign,
the famous royalists of the civil war, and eighty-five likenesses
of Elizabethan worthies.
HENRY EDRIDGE (1769 1821) was another miniature painter,
who owed some of his success to careful following of Reynolds.
He painted miniatures on ivory, and for a time on paper, using
the lead pencil over Indian ink washes. He was also highly
successful as a landscape painter in water colours.
ANDREW ROBERTSON (1777 1845), the son of a cabinet-maker
at Aberdeen, came to London on foot in 1801, and gained
the patronage of Benjamin West, the President, whose portrait
he painted. Robertson became, in due course, a very successful
miniature painter, and practised his art for more than thirty
years. His likenesses are truthful, but do not stand in the
first rank of miniature-painting.
ALFRED EDWARD CHALON (1781 1860), born in Geneva, and
of French extraction, holds a high place in the history of English
art as a portrait painter in water colours ; his miniatures on
ivory are full of life, vigour, and originality. He was elected
R.A. in 1816. As a painter in oils, Alfred Chalon achieved a
high degree of success. Hunt the Slipper, Samson and Delilah
(exhibited for the second time at the International Exhibition
in 1862), and Sophia Western deserve notice among his oil
paintings. Chalon could not only paint with originality,
but could catch the manner of the old masters with such
accuracy, that some of his works were attributed even by the
skilful to Rubens, Watteau, and others. His elder brother,
JOHN JAMES CHALON (1778 1854), obtained celebrity as a
landscape painter.
WILLIAM ESSEX (1784 1869) painted in enamel, and
exhibited a portrait of the Empress Josephine, after Isabey, at
the Royal Academy in 1824. In 1839 he was appointed
MORNING WALK. By ALFRED E. CHALON.
ENGLISH MINIATURE PAINTERS. V\)
painter in enamels to the Queen, and in 1841 to the Prince
Consort. He was one of the last of the painters in enamel.
WILLIAM DERBY (1786 1847) was celebrated for his careful
copies in miniature of celebrated portraits. He was largely
employed on Lodge's " Portraits of Illustrious Persons."
With SIR WILLIAM CHARLES Boss (1794 1860) ends the
school of deceased miniature painters. Ross was an artist
even in the nursery. He became an assistant to Andrew
Robertson, and although his forte was miniature-painting,
he longed for the higher flight of historic art. His Judgment
of Brutus, Christ casting out Devils (exhibited in 1825), and
The A.ngel Raphael discoursing with Adam and Eve (to which
an additional premium of 100 was awarded at the Cartoon
Exhibition in 1843), are specimens of his power in this
branch of art, at different periods. It is as a miniature painter
that he will live in the history of art. He was elected to the
full rank of R.A. in 1839, and was knighted in the same year.
The Court smiled upon him. He painted miniatures of the
Queen and Royal Family, the Saxe-Gotha Family, and the
King and Queen of Portugal. The late Emperor of the French,
when Prince Louis Napoleon, was among his numerous sitters.
CHAPTER VII.
PAINTEKS IN WATER COLOURS.
(17501875.)
WATER-COLOUR painting is in one sense the most
ancient mode of pictorial art. We find examples of
it in the tombs of the Egyptians, in the Roman catacombs,
and in the houses of Pompeii. Oil painting is, in comparison,
a modern process, though the statement that it was only
discovered by the Van Eycks in the beginning of the fifteenth
century, is now known to be a mistake. The earliest pictures
were produced with colours soluble in water and mixed with
certain ingredients necessary to fix them. In this way wall
paintings were executed in tempera, a process familiar to us
as painting in distemper. Raphael's cartoons are specimens
of tempera-painting on paper, and Mantegna's Triumph of
CcBsar (Hampton Court) furnish examples of the like process on
canvas. The art of water-colour painting was practised by the
early Italian and German artists, and by those of the Flemish
and Dutch schools. In most of the illuminations of missals,
in this and other countries, water colours were used, mixed
extensively with body white. Such was the case with the early
miniature painters of England, who began by using opaque
colours, and gradually advanced to transparent pigments.
Notwithstanding the antiquity of painting in water colours,
the creation of a School of Water-Colour Art, in the sense
in which that term is now understood, belongs to this
ENGLISH PAINTEBS IN WATER COLOURS.
101
country. It was not to the tempera painter, nor to the illumi-
nator of missals, nor to the early miniaturist that we owe this
modern school. We must look for its germ in the practice
of the topographer, who drew ruins, buildings, and landscapes
for the antiquary. The earliest of such works were executed
in outline with a reed pen. Examples are to be seen in some
small pictures by Albrecht Diirer, in the British Museum. The
pigments used were transparent, and applied on paper. The
earliest of these pictures are in monochrome, black or grey ;
next, colour was added here and there, and the whole effect
was something like that of a coloured print. Such were "the
tinted," or " steyned " drawings in which our modern water-
colour paintings originated. The early method prevailed for a
long time, as may be seen in the historic collection of water-
colour paintings at South Kensington, but gradually the art
developed, better pigments were used, and, as early as 1790, a
marked improvement accrued, which led to the triumphs of
Girtin and Turner, and the more brilliant examples of later
days. One great advantage belongs to the modern school
of water colours it started from nature, untrammelled by
conventional rules or traditions. The early topographers
were brought face to face with nature ; some of them, like
Webber and Alexander, extended their observations to foreign
lands ; others, finding out the beauties of their own country,
were content to copy nature. " It remained to our artists
towards the end of the last, and early in the present century,
to give a new and higher character to water-colour art,
which from obscure beginnings has risen to be a purely
national and original school. Practised by a succession cf
men of great genius, a distinct branch of art has been created,
taking rank with works in oil. M.ore luminous, and hardly
less powerful than pictures in that medium, it has lent itself,
in skilled hands, to the fullest expression of nature, and
perfect rendering of the ideal.
102 ENGLISH PAINTERS
PAUL SANDBY (1725 1809) has been called " the father of
water-colour art ; " but as he never advanced beyond the tinted
mode, and to the last used Indian ink for shadows, and the pen
for outlines, the title is unmerited. Sandby was a native of
Nottingham, and having served in the Drawing Office in the
Tower, he settled at Windsor in 1752, and became instructor
in drawing to the children of George III. He was one of the
original members of the Royal Academy in 1768, and at the
same time was made drawing master in the Military School
at Woolwich. He painted many scenes in the neighbourhood
of Windsor, and for Sir Watkin W. Wynn and Sir Joseph
Banks landscapes in Wales. Specimens of his art in body-
colour and tinting are in the South Kensington collection,
including An Ancient Beech Tree, which is painted in body-
colour ; The Round Temple is in Indian ink, slightly tinted ;
Landscape ivith Dog and figures, is in the fully tinted
manner.
THOMAS HEARNE (1744 1817) came early from Wiltshire to
London, and was intended for trade. He was, however, appren-
ticed to Woollett, the engraver. In 1771, he went to the Lee-
ward Isles as draughtsman to the Governor, and this new
occupation induced him to abandon engraving for topography.
He tinted landscapes, with local colour largely used. His
Village Alehouse, View of Richmond, two shipping scenes after
Van de Velde, and Caistor Castle are at South Kensington.
WILLIAM PAYNE, who at one time held a civil appointment in
Plymouth dockyard, came to London in 1790. He had pre-
viously exhibited tinted pictures of Devonshire scenery, which
attracted the notice of Reynolds. He is best known as the
introducer of a neutral colour, styled Payne's Grey.
ALEXANDER COZENS (died 1786), a natural son of Peter the
Great, was born in Russia. After studying art in Italy he came
to England in 1746, and practised as a teacher of drawing.
Gifted with a fine poetic feeling, and having a noble sense] of
IN WATER COLOURS. 103
breadth, this artist made a deep impression on those who
followed him.
JOHN WEBBER (17521793) travelled in Italy, France, and
Switzerland, and made numerous drawings. He was draughts-
man to Captain Cook in his last voyage, and a witness of his
death.
JOHN ROBERT COZENS (1752 1799), son of Alexander Cozens,
was one of the earliest who practised water-colour painting in the
modern sense of the term. His works in the tinted manner are
full of poetic beauty, and exhibit a marked improvement on
those of his predecessors. At South Kensington may be seen
his Ckigi Palace near Albano. Constable, who was much im-
pressed by Cozen's art, said that he was " the greatest genius
who ever touched landscape." He was the first to go beyond
topography, and to impart pathos to his pictures. Although he
worked mainly in the received method of tinting, there are
signs in his pictures of a noble progress, which was soon to
become more marked.
JOHN SMITH (17491831), called " Warwick Smith," pro-
bably because he travelled in Italy with the Earl of Warwick,
or on his behalf. Six of his Italian sketches are at South
Kensington. Gainsborough said " he was the first water-
colour painter who carried his intention through." In 1816
he was President of the Society of Painters in Water Colours.
We must here briefly mention THOMAS ROWLANDSON (1756
1827), who is best known by caricatures, including illustrations to
"Doctor Syntax," "The Dance of Death," and "Dance of Life."
WILLIAM ALEXANDER (1767 1816) accompanied Lord
Macartney to China, in 1792, as draughtsman to the Mission.
He was afterwards made Keeper of Prints and Drawings in the
British Museum. He illustrated many books of travel.
JOSHUA CRISTALL( 1767 1847), one of the foundation members
of the Water-Colour Society, of which he was more than once
President. He usually painted classic figures with landscape
104 ENGLISH PAINTERS
backgrounds, and genre subjects. His Young Fisher Boy and
Fish Market on Hastings Beach are at South Kensington.
HENRY EDRIDGE, who made excellent drawings in Paris and
in Normandy, we have already mentioned among the miniature
painters.
EGBERT HILLS (1769 1844) represented animal painting in
water colours, and may be styled the father of this branch of
art. He frequently worked in conjunction with other artists ;
as in Deer in a Landscape (South Kensington), where the deer
are painted by Hills, and the landscape is by Barret.
MICHAEL ANGELO ROOKER (1743 1801) originally practised
as an engraver, but, having been instructed in painting by Paul
Sandby, forsook the graver, and worked as a student at the
Royal Academy. Subsequently, he became principal scene-
painter at the Haymarket Theatre. He used much local colour
in tinted drawings, as may be seen in St. BotolpJis Priory,
and Boxgrove Priory Church (South Kensington Collection).
Conspicuous among those artists who showed that the power
and richness which were supposed to belong to oil painting
only, could be produced in water colours, was
I THOMAS GIRTIN (1773 1802), who entirely revolutionised
the technical practice of his forerunners, by laying in a whole
picture with the local colours of its parts. Girtin found a friend
and helper in Dr. Monro, who possessed many fine drawings,
and allowed the young painters of the day free access to them.
In the riverside scenery visible from the Doctor's house at the
Adelphi, Girtin found congenial subjects for his art, as well
as amid the old-world spots about Chelsea and Wandsworth.
Later, he extended his travels, choosing cathedral cities in
England, and visiting the Lake district, Scotland, and Wales.
Girtin loved to depict scenes of gloom and grandeur, such as
the melancholy Cumberland hills, and the sterner scenery of
Scotland, whilst Turner, his friend and fellow-worker at Dr.
Monro's house, depicted light, even when treating similar
IN WATER COLOURS. 105
subjects to those which his friend affected. Girtin spent a great
deal of valuable time in painting a panorama of London, which
was much admired. He died at the age of twenty-nine, but he had
lived long enough to make a great advance in water-colour
painting, and to add power of effect, of colour, and of execution
to the poetry with which Cozens had invested it. Favourable
specimens of Girtin's art may be seen in a View on the Wharfe
and Rievaulx Abbey (South Kensington).
GEORGE BARRET the younger (1774 1842) was one of the
foundation members of the Water-Colour Society. He especially
delighted in sunset effects.
WILLIAM DE LA MOTTE (1780 1863) was originally a pupil
of President West, but abandoned oil for water colours. He
painted landscapes in the style of Girtin, but more chiefly
architecture and marine pieces.
Of JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER (1775 1851), we
shall speak hereafter as a painter in oils ; here we must
describe his influence in water-colour art, which was greater
even than that of Girtin. " Many date the perfect development
of water-colour painting from Girtin, but it is far more due to
Turner, who, while he could paint in that medium with the
power and strength of Girtin, added to that strength, delicacy
and quality " (Redgrave). Turner is famous as a painter both in
water colour and in oil, and as the artist of " Southern Coast
Scenery," "England and Wales," " Rivers of France," Roger's
"Italy" and "Poems." His Liber Studiorum is a collection
of valuable studies in monochrome, now in the National Gallery.
His etchings from them are very celebrated. Mr. Redgrave
says of him, " If ever writer dipt his pen in poetry, surely
Turner did his facile pencil, and was indeed one of nature's
truest poets." His water-colour drawings are well represented
in the National Gallery.
In spite of the marked progress of water-colour painting, )
there was as yet no adequate accommodation for the exhibition of /
103
ENGLISH PAINTERS
drawings produced in that mode. The room assigned to works
in water colour at the Koyal Academy exhibitions was described
as "a condemned cell." The general public still believed in
the superiority of oil painting, and worshipped a big, indifferent
EVENING. " Datur hora quieti" From a Drawing by TURNER.
picture in that mode, whilst they allowed gems of art to hang
unnoticed in the water-colour room. To remedy this the
Water-Colour Society was founded on November 30th, 1804, ]
the originators being Hills, Pyne, Shelley, Wills, Glover and
IN WATER COLOURS. 107
Varley. William Sawrey Gilpin was the first President. This
society gave new and increased vigour to water-colour art,
and a second body, the Associated Artists in Water Colours,
was formed in 1808. The older society exhibited the works
of members only, the new association was less exclusive : the
career of the latter was brief. The Water- Colour Society also lost
popularity after a while, and in 1813 the members determined
to dissolve it. Twelve of their number, however, were averse
to this course, and maintained the annual exhibition during a
few years, with small success. Meanwhile, the other members,
in 1814, opened an exhibition in New Bond Street, and invited
contributions from British water-colour artists who belonged
to no other society. This effort failed. The original body
styled itself " The Society of Painters in Oil and Water
Colours," for a time admitted oil paintings, and made other
alterations in its rules, but in 1821 returned to its original
constitution. In 1823 it was established in its present
premises in Pall Mall East, since which date it has flourished.
In 1881 it became The Royal Society of Painters in Water
Colours.
In 1831 The New Water-Colour Society was formed, a body
which two years later changed its title to that of The New
Society of Painters in Water Colours. In 1863 it became the
Institute of Painters in Water Colours, a title it still retains.
The great increase in the numbers of artists of this class
rendered the formation of the second society necessary. A
third exhibition of water colours was formed in the Dudley
Gallery, which has recently undergone a reorganization in
its Committee of Management.
JOHN VARLEY (1778 1842) was at first the assistant of a
silversmith, then of a portrait painter, and subsequently of an
architectural draughtsman. After a time he found his true
vocation in landscape-painting with water colours. He was
as we have seen, one of the founders of the Water-Colour
108 ENGLISH PAINTERS IN WATER COLOURS.
Society. His works are noteworthy for simplicity and pathos,
but his later productions, owing to the necessity of working
against time, are very slight. Varley chiefly painted Welsh
scenes, many of which are at South Kensington, e.g. Beddgel-
lert Bridge and Harlech Castle.
WILLIAM HAVELL (1782 1857), another of the foundation
members of the Water-Colour Society, was a constant exhibitor
till 1817, when he visited India. On his return he chiefly con-
tributed oil paintings to the Eoyal Academy. Havell was one
of those who aided to carry water-colour painting beyond mere
topography, and in later works he adopted the " sunny method "
of Turner.
SAMUEL PROUT (1783 1852) is best known by his sketches
of continental scenery, e.g. Wilrzburg, the Arch of Constantine
at Rome, and the Porch of Batisbon Cathedral (South Kensing-
ton). He excelled as a painter of cottages and ancient ruins,
but rarely succeeded with foliage. He published drawing-books,
containing studies from nature.
DAVID Cox (1783 1859), the son of a blacksmith, was born
at Birmingham. He was a weakly child, and amused himself
with drawing instead of the rougher sports of his companions.
Instructed by a local artist, he found employment in painting
lockets, and as a scene-painter at the theatre at Birmingham
and at Astley's Amphitheatre in Lambeth. Devoting himself to
landscape, and assisted by John Varley, Cox soon became one
of the most eminent artists of his school, remarkable for the
truthfulness of his colouring, the purity and brilliancy of the
light in his pictures. He was elected a member of the Water-
Colour Society in 1813. His style may be studied at South
Kensington. His works are now highly prized.
THOMAS MILES RICHARDSON (1784 1848), a native of New-
castle-on-Tyne, is said to have been seized with a desire to
become a painter on seeing a landscape by Cox. He began as
apprentice to a cabinet-maker. Exchanging this vocation for
THE TOMB OF THE SCALIGERS AT VERONA. By PROUT.
110 ENGLISH PAINTERS IN WATER COLOURS.
that of a schoolmaster, he finally accepted art as his calling,
and became a distinguished landscape painter.
ANTHONY VANDYKE COPLEY FIELDING (1787 1855) proved
worthy of the names he bore. He was a pupil of Varley, and
contributed his first picture to the Water- Colour exhibition of
1810. From that time his success was assured. Duriu his
life his works commanded very high prices. He was elected
President of the Water-Colour Society in 1831, and held that
office till his death. Fielding executed some excellent oil paint-
ings. " He delights in distances, extensive flats, and rolling
downs. It is true that while space is often obtained, the result
is emptiness." An example of this is The South Downs, Devon,
at South Kensington. Marine pieces are among Fielding's best
works, but even these are mannered.
PETER DE WINT (17841849) was born in Staffordshire,
and of Dutch origin. A constant contributor to the Water-
Colour Society, painting scenes direct from nature, he chose
the northern and eastern counties of England. Corn-fields and
hay-harvests are among his favourite subjects. He is very
largely represented in the South Kensington collection.
GEORGE FENNEL ROBSON (1790 1833), after leaving his
native Durham, exhibited many pictures at the Royal Academy,
but his best works appeared at the exhibitions of the Water-
Colour Society. He illustrated many books, and painted in
conjunction with Hills, who contributed animals. Three of his
works are at South Kensington.
THOMAS HEAPHY (1775 1835) was born in London, and
having been, like many other artists, apprenticed to an uncon-
genial craft, left it to pursue the art of an engraver. This,
however, gave place to painting, and he commenced with por-
traiture. He exhibited at the Royal Academy for the first time
in 1800, and was admitted an Associate Exhibitor of the
Water-Colour Society in 1807, and a member in 1808. For a
time he accompanied the English army in the Peninsula, and
112 ENGLISH PAINTERS IN WATER COLOURS.
found patrons among the officers. At South Kensington are
two of his figure subjects, Coast Scene, icith figures, and The
wounded Leg.
WILLIAM HENRY HUNT (1790 1864) was one of the most
original as well as the most versatile of the water-colour school.
Starting as a landscape painter, he, in later years, excelled in
rustic figure subjects, whilst as a painter of fruits and flowers
he was without a rival. Hunt was a pupil of Varley, and had
the advantage of Dr. Monro's friendship. The varied character
of his art may be seen at South Kensington, in Boy and Croats,
and a Brown Study (a negro boy puzzling over an addition sum),
which illustrate his figure subjects, whilst Hawthorn Blossoms
and Bird's Nest, Primroses and Birds' Nests, and Plums, are
examples of another side of Hunt's genius. His humorous
pictures The Attack, The Defeat, The Puzzled Politician, and
The Barber's Shop are well known.
JAMES DUFFIELD HARDING (1798 1863), the son of an artist,
was intended for a lawyer, but chose to become a painter. At
the age of fifteen he was a pupil of Samuel Prout, and at first
his works owed much to that artist. Like his master he
not succeed in foliage. Harding gained the silver medal of
the Society of Arts for a water-colour drawing, and became
very popular as a drawing-master. He published many lesson
books, in which he called in lithography to his aid. His visit
to France and Italy resulted in numerous studies, which are
embodied in The Landscape Annual. He is represented at
South Kensington by A Landscape with Hovels. Harding is
described as the first water-colour artist who used, to any
extent, body-colour mixed with transparent tints. His example
was almost always injurious.
GEORGE CATTERMOLE (1800 1868) was a native of Dickie-
burgh, Norfolk. He started in life as a topographical draughts-
man, and studied architectural antiquities. This fitted him for
the mediaeval and romantic subjects in which he delighted
114 ENGLISH PAINTERS IN WATER COLOURS.
Brigands, robbers, and knights figure largely in his works.
His travels in Scotland bore fruit in illustrations to the
Waverley novels. His pictures were due to his memory,
rather than to new inspirations, and as he advanced in years
they became tame. Among Catterrnole's principal works are Sir
Walter Raleigh witnessing the execution of Essex in the Tower,
Hamilton of JBothwellhaugh preparing to shoot the Regent Murray,
The Armourer's Tale, Cellini and the Robbers, Pirates at Cards,
which are all at South Kensington.
JAMES HOLLAND (1800 1870) began as a flower painter and
teacher of that branch of art. He found a wider sphere, and is
known as a painter of landscapes and sea subjects. In his
works high colouring is remarkable. His Nymwegen, in
Holland, is at South Kensington, where there is also a series of
sixteen of his drawings made in Portugal.
SAMUEL PALMER (1805 1881) first exhibited, at the British
Institution, in 1819. In 1843 he was elected an Associate of the
Water Colour Society, and became a full member in 1855 ; and
it was at the exhibitions of that society that his works were
most often seen.
His paintings are chiefly pastoral scenes, treated in an ideal
manner, and display imaginative and poetic genius of a
high order. He drew inspirations for his paintings from the
writings of Milton and Virgil, with which he was very familiar.
He was influenced in his art by the work of William Blake, and
to some extent by that of his father-in-law, John Linnell.
Samuel Palmer executed a few highly-prized etchings.
EDWARD HENRY WEHNERT (1813 1868), FRANCIS WILLIAM
TOPHAM (18081877), AARON EDWIN PENLEY (18061870),
EDWARD DUNCAN (1803 1882), GEORGE SHALDERS (1826
1873), GEORGE HAYDOCK DODGSON (1811 1880), were all
members of one or other of the Water-Colour Societies, and
attained fame in their various walks of art.
CHAPTER VIII.
ENGLISH ART IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. SIR THOMAS
LAWRENCE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.
IN tracing the progress of British painting, we have seen that
early in the eighteenth century the English public thought
most of foreign artists. There was no belief in the power
of Englishmen to create original works, and therefore no
encouragement was given against the " slavery of the black
masters." No one dared to hang a modern English painting
which aimed at being original. If a portrait was desired the
artist considered it necessary to imitate Kneller. If a land-
scape were needed, it was thought right to seek it in Italy.
If a painter desired to prosper, he was forced to be more of
a house-decorator than an artist. 'We have seen also how this
spell was broken, first by Hogarth, who had the courage to
abide by his originality, although but one purchaser appeared
at a sale of his pictures ; next by Reynolds, who painted
portraits like living persons, and not mere dolls. We have
seen Wilson and Gainsborough create a school of English land-
scape-painting, and show the hitherto neglected beauties of our
own land. We have marked historic painters bravely strug-
gling against neglect, like Barry uncared for, believing in his
art ; and like Copley, who treated history with freshness and
ENGLISH PAINTEKS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTUEY. 117
truth. To West we owe an attempt to depict scenes from
Scripture, and a bold stand against the ridiculous fashion which
represented any warrior, even a Red Indian, attired as a soldier
of ancient Rome. And we must not forget the poetic fancies of
Romnejr, the dramatic force of Opie, the grace of Stothard,
the great inspiration of Blake, and the wild nightmare illustra-
tions of Fuseli. We have seen art too long wedded to litera-
ture, and yet making great advances under the treatment of
those who turned their attention to book illustration and minia-
ture-painting, rising to a high pitch of popularity. We have
observed how the Royal Academy improved the social position
of English painters, who had previously been regarded as
representing a better kind of house-decorators, and how the
establishment of the Water- Colour Societies promoted a branch
of art which, starting from the topographer's sketch, has
attained high excellence and beauty.
Among the foremost men of the beginning of the nineteenth
century was
THOMAS LAWRENCE, who was born, in 1769, at Bristol ; his
father, trained as a lawyer, being at that time landlord of an
inn. At an early age the future painter was removed with
the rest of the family to the " Black Bear " at Devizes, whither
the fortunes of the elder Lawrence led him. The inn was
a well-known posting-house on the way to Bath, and young
Thomas had abundant opportunities for displaying his pre-
cocious talents to the guests who stopped there. His father
had given him desultory lessons in reading and recitation.
Nature furnished him with a wonderful gift of art ; and
when only five years old the beautiful child, with long flow-
ing hair, was introduced to all customers, and would recite
Milton and Collins, or take their portraits, according to their
several tastes. We are told of his drawing a remarkably truth-
ful likeness of Lady Kenyon at this early age. Of regular
MASTER LAMBTON. i/ LAWRENCE. A.D. 1825.
In the possession of the Earl of Durham.
ENGLISH PAINTERS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 119
education Lawrence had little or none beyond two years'
schooling at Bristol, but he learnt much from the conversation
of distinguished patrons and friends in early life. In 1779 the
Lawrence family moved from Devizes to Oxford, where the boy
drew, many portraits. Leaving Oxford and settling at Bath,
Lawrence contributed to the wants of the family by drawing
portraits in crayons for a guinea and a guinea and a half each.
His fame rapidly spread. Mrs. Siddons sat to him, so did the
Duchess of Devonshire, and, in 1785, the Society of Arts
awarded him their silver pallet, " gilded all over," for a
crayon copy of the Transfiguration by Raphael, executed when
Lawrence was only thirteen. London was the fittest place for
the development of such talents as his, and accordingly the
elder Lawrence went thither with his son in 1787, and the
latter was entered as a student in the Royal Academy. He
contributed seven works to the exhibition of the same year,
was introduced to Sir Joshua Reynolds and kindly treated ;
the great painter encouraged the youthful genius, and advised
him to study nature instead of the old masters. Lawrence
took this advice, and avoided the temptation to try processes
of colouring, which proved fatal to many of Sir Joshua's
works. The course of the youth was one of unvarying success.
The King and Queen were interested in him. In 1791, he was
elected an Associate of the Academy, and a year after was
appointed Principal Painter-in-Ordinary to the King, a post
rendered vacant by the death of Reynolds. The Dilettanti
Society broke its rules to make Lawrence a member, and
painter to the society ; in 1794, when nearly twenty-five years
old, the artist was elected a Royal Academician. Never,
perhaps, did painter rise so rapidly and from such slight
foundations, and never was studio more crowded by sitters
than that of Lawrence. Messrs. Redgrave, in criticising his
portraits, say, "After Reynolds and Gainsborough, Lawrence
looks pretty and painty ; there is none of that power of uniting
120 ENGLISH PAINTERS
the figure with the ground that melting of the flesh into the
surrounding light which is seen in the pictures of the first Pre-.
sident. Lawrence's work seems more on the surface indeed,
only surface while his flesh tints have none of the natural
purity of those by his two predecessors ; we think them pretty
in Lawrence, but we forget paint and painting in looking at a
face by Reynolds or Gainsborough." The same critics remark
of Lawrence's portraits of children that Sir Joshua was greatly
his superior in this branch of art, and that the former " had no
apparent admission into the inner heart of childhood." On the
other hand, Fuseli, his contemporary, considered Lawrence's
portraits as good or better than Van Dyck's, and recom-
mended painters to abandon hope of approaching him. In
1797, Lawrence exhibited his Satan calling his Legions, now the
property of the Royal Academy. Various and conflicting are the
criticisms on this picture, a fair specimen of the painter's powers
in history. A contemporary critic says of it, " The figure of
Satan is colossal, and drawn with excellent skill and judgment."
Fuseli, on the other hand, characterizes the principal figure
briefly and strongly as " a d d thing, certainly, but not the
devil." Lawrence himself rightly thought Satan his best work.
On the death of West, in 1820, Lawrence was unanimously
chosen President of the Royal Academy. Five years earlier
the Prince Regent had knighted him. Foreign Academies
loaded him with honours. He made a foreign tour at the
request of the Government to paint portraits of the various
illustrious persons who had engaged in the contest with
Napoleon I. Ten years after his accession to the President's
chair Lawrence died. The best critics declare that no high
place among painters may be accorded to him. Much of his
popularity was due to the fact that he flattered his sitters, and
led the artificial style of the day. He lost in later years the
fresh vigour of his prime. It must be allowed, however, that
he was no copyist of Reynolds, nor of any one, but treated his
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 121
subjects in a style of his own. He is accused of introducing
"a prevailing chalkiness " into his pictures, derived from his
early studies in crayon. When he died there was no one to
take his place. The Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle
contains the pictures of Pius VIL, the Emperor Francis,
and Cardinal Gonsalvi. Famous among his portraits of chil-
dren are Master Lambton, Lady Peel and Daughters, and Lady
Gower and Child', for the last he received 1,500 guineas. In
the National Gallery are nine of his works, including Hamlet
with Yorick's Skull, and portraits of Benjamin West and Mrs.
Siddons. The contemporaries of Sir Thomas who practised
portraiture were all indebted to Reynolds.
GEORGE HENRY HARLOW '(1787 1819) emerged from a
childhood, in which he was petted and spoilt, to a brief man-
hood which the society of actors and actresses did not improve.
He was, for a time, a pupil of Lawrence, and it is supposed
that if he had lived Harlow would, as a portrait painter,
have been his successful rival. After a foreign tour, he, like
many of his brethren, longed to succeed in historic painting.
His Queen Catherine's Trial, in which Mrs. Siddons appears as
the Queen, does not prove that he would have succeeded in this
branch of art. It was at the " Old Masters " Exhibition, 1882.
WILLIAM OWEN (17691825), the son of a bookseller at
Ludlow, came to London in 1786, after receiving a good educa-
tion at the Ludlow Grammar School. He became a pupil of
Charles Catton, landscape and animal painter, and of the
Academy. In 1792 he exhibited a Portrait of a Gentleman,
and a View of Ludford Bridge. He is chiefly known as a
portrait painter, and found that branch of art remunerative,
but his real tastes appeared in Blind Beggar of Bethnal
Green, The Fortune Teller, The Village Schoolmistress, and
other simple stories of country life. A picture of two
sisters gained him one of the two as a wife; and portraits
of Pitt, Lord Grenville, the Duke of Buccleuch, and other
ENGLISH PAINTERS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 123
noteworthy persons brought him into fashion. Owen was
elected full member of the Academy in 1806, and appointed
portrait painter to the Prince of Wales in 1810. He was an
unwearied worker, and his subject-pictures commanded an
interest which does not continue. In the National Gallery
is The Dead Robin. His William Croker and Lord Lough-
borough are in the National Portrait Gallery.
MARTIN ARCHER SHEE (1770 1850), a native of Dublin,
commenced art studies in the Dublin Academy. In Dublin
he became known as a portrait painter. He came to London
in 1788, where he was introduced to Burke, and by him to
Keynolds, who advised the young painter to study at the
Royal Academy, advice which he somewhat unwillingly
followed. Gradually winning his way, he became a success-
ful portrait painter of men. In 1800, he was made a R.A.
Though devoting himself to portraiture Martin Shee turned ever
and again to subject-pictures, of which Belisarius, Lavinia, and
a Peasant Girl are specimens. A more ambitious work was
Prospero and Miranda, exhibited in 1806. Shee owed his elec-
tion to the Academy to his position as a portrait painter, and he
justified the choice by his defence of the institution against
those who attacked its privileges. In 1830, he was elected
President, and knighted. Three of his works are in the
National Gallery, The Infant Pxicchus, and portraits of Morton
the comedian, and Lewis as the Marquis in the ( Midnight Hour. 7
The first illustrates Shee's later style ; the picture of Lewis,
painted in 1791, his early method. Besides paintings, Sheo
was the author of several literary productions, including a
tragedy, a novel, " Rhymes on Art," and art criticisms.
HENRY HOWARD (1769 1847), though not intended originally
for an artist, early showed a talent for drawing, became a
pupil of Philip Reinagle and the Academy, where, two years
later, he gained the silver meda] of the Life School, and the
gold medal in the Painting School for Caractacus rccognisiiKj
Swiss PEASANT GIKL. By HOWARD.
ENGLISH PAINTERS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 125
the dead Body of his Son, which Reynolds, then President,
warmly praised. From 1791 to 1794 Howard travelled in
Italy, and painted The Death of Abel for the travelling student-
ship of the Academy, which he did not obtain. The promise
of his youth was not fulfilled. " His works are graceful and
pretty, marked by propriety, and pleasing in composition ;
his faces and expressions are good, his drawing is correct,
but his style cold and feeble." (Redgrave.) Most of Howard's
works are small : he selected classic and poetic subjects, such
as The Birth of Venus, The Solar System, Pandora, and
The Pleiades, and occasionally he painted portraits. He
was Secretary and Professor of Painting to the Royal Academy.
In the National Gallery is The Flower Girl, a portrait of his
own daughter.
JAMES WARD (1769 1859) began life as an engraver, and
was thirty-five years old before he devoted himself to painting.
He selected animal portraiture, and bulls and horses were his
favourite subjects. His most famous, but not his best picture
is A Landscape, with Cattle (National Gallery), produced at
the suggestion of West to rival Paul Potter's Young Bull, at
the Hague, which Ward had never seen. Ward's cattle were
all painted from life. Morland was a brother-in-law of Ward,
and his influence is obvious in the latter 's pictures. The life-
size cattle in the before mentioned picture are an Alderney
bull, cow, and calf in the centre, another cow, sheep, and goat
in the foreground. In the National Gallery, too, is his large
landscape of Gordale Scar, Yorkshire.
THOMAS PHILLIPS (17701845) was a native of Dudley,
and began as a glass painter at Birmingham. Coming to
London, he was assisted by West, then President of the
Academy, and in 1792 exhibited a View of Windsor Castle,
and next year The Death of Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, at the
Battle of Chatillon. Phillips was more successful as a portrait
painter : his likenesses are faithful, his pictures free from faults,
126 ENGLISH PAINTERS.
and possess a pleasant tone, though as a colourist he does not
occupy a high place. He was Professor of Painting in 1829.
In the National Gallery are a portrait of Sir David Wilkie, and
a Wood Nymph. The latter looks more like a young lady fresh
from a drawing-room.
HENRY THOMSON (17731843), the son of a purser in the
Navy, was born at Portsea, or, as some say, in London. His
works consist of historic and fancy subjects, and portraits.
His first picture exhibited at the Academy was Daxlalus fasten-
ing wings on to Ms Son Icarus. Thomson was, in 1825, appointed
Keeper of the Academy in succession to Fuseli. He exhibited,
from 1800 to 1825, seventy-six pictures, chiefly portraits. The
Dead Robin is in the National Gallery.
JOHN JACKSON (1778 1831) rose from the simple home of
the tailor, his father, to a high place in the world of art.
He was freed from the craft of his father by Lord Mulgrave
and Sir George Beaumont. The latter encouraged him to
visit London, and allowed him 50 a year and a room in his
house while he studied in the Academy. The young painter
soon obtained success as a portrait painter, and in 1817 was
elected a full member of the Academy. In 1819, he visited Rome
with Sir F. Chantrey, and painted for him a portrait of Canova.
A portrait of Flaxmam, painted for Lord Dover, is considered
Jackson's masterpiece. Leslie, speaking of the subdued rich-
ness of his colouring, said that Lawrence never approached him;
and Lawrence himself declared that the portrait of Flaxman was
" a great achievement of the English school, one of which
Yan Dyck might have felt proud to own himself the author."
Three portraits by Jackson are in the National Gallery the Rev.
W. H. Carr, Sir John Soane, and Miss Stephens, afterwards
the late Countess of Essex. Jackson's own portrait, by him-
self, is in the National Portrait Gallery.
CHAPTER IX.
LANDSCAPE PAINTERS.
JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER (17751851)
J stands at the head of English landscape painters. It has
been said that though others may have equalled or surpassed
him in some respects, " none has yet appeared with such versa-
tility of talent." (Dr. Waagen.'] The character of Turner is a
mixture of contradictory elements. He possessed a marvellous
appreciation of the beautiful in nature, yet lived in dirt and
squalor, and dressed in a style between that of a sea-captain and
a hackney coachman. The man who worked exquisitely was
sometimes harsh and uncouth, though capable of a rude
hospitality ; disliking the society of some of his fellow-men, he
yet loved the company of his friends, and though penurious in
some money transactions, left a magnificent bequest to his
profession. Turner owed nothing to the beauty or poetic
surroundings of his birth-place, which was the house of his
father, a barber in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. But as Lord
Byron is said to have conjured up his loveliest scenes of Greece
whilst walking in Albemarle Street, so the associations of
Maiden Lane did not prevent Turner from delineating storm-
swept landscapes, and innumerable splendours of nature. The
barber was justly proud of his child, who very early displayed
ENGLISH LANDSCAPE PAINTERS. 129
his genius, and the first drawings of Turner are said to have
been exhibited in his father's shaving-room. In time the boy
was colouring prints and washing in the backgrounds of archi-
tects' drawings. Dr. Monro, the art patron, extended a helping
hand to the young genius of Maiden Lane. " Girtin and I,"
says Turner, "often walked to Bushey and back, to make
drawings for good Dr. Monro at half-a-crown a piece, and the
money for our supper when we got home." He did not, of
course, start from London.
In 1789, Turner became a student in the Academy, and
exhibited a picture in the next year at Somerset House, View of
the Archbishop's Palace at Lambeth. He was then only fifteen.
From that time he worked with unceasing energy at his
profession. Indeed, the pursuit of art was the one ruling
principle of his life. He frequently went on excursions, the
first being to Kamsgate and Margate, and was storing his
memory with effects of storm, mist, and tempest, which he
reproduced. In 1799, when made A.R.A., Turner had already
exhibited works which ranged over twenty-six counties of
England and Wales. In 1802 he was made full Academician,
and presented, as his diploma picture, Dolbadarn Castle, North
Wales. In this year he visited the Continent, and saw France
and Switzerland. Five years later Turner was appointed Pro-
fessor of Perspective to the Royal Academy. We are told his
lectures were delivered in so strange a style, that they were
scarcely instructive. Of his water-colour paintings and of the
Liber Studiorum it is impossible to speak too highly ; he created
the modern school of water-colour painting, and his works in oil
have influenced the art of the nineteenth century. He visited
Italy for the first time in 1819 ; again ten years later, and for
the last time in 1840. His eccentricity, both in manner and
in art, increased with age. Though wealthy, and possessing a
good house in Queen Anne Street, he died in an obscure lodging
by the Thames, at Chelsea, a few days before Christmas, 1851,
K
130 ENGLISH PAINTERS.
Turner bequeathed his property to found a charity for male
decayed artists, but the alleged obscurity of his will defeated
this object. It was decided that his pictures and drawings
should be presented to the National Gallery, that one
thousand pounds should be spent on a monument to the
painter in St. Paul's, twenty thousand pounds should be
given to the Koyal Academy, and the remainder to the next
of kin and heir at law. The National Gallery contains more
than one hundred of his pictures, besides a large number of
water-colour drawings and sketches. In his earlier works
Turner took the old masters as his models, some of his best
pictures showing the characteristics of the Dutch school, as
The Shipwreck, and The Sun rising in a Mist. In The Tenth
Plague, and The Goddess of Discord, the influence of Poussin
is visible, whilst Wilson is imitated in JEneas with the Sibyl, and
A View in Wales. Turner was fond of matching himself
against Claude ; and not only did he try his powers in rivalry
with the older masters, he delighted to enter into honest com-
petition with painters of the day, and when Wilkie's Village
Politicians was attracting universal notice, Turner produced his
Blacksmith's Shop in imitation of it. In his later pictures
Turner sacrificed form to colour. " Mist and vapour, lit by the
golden light of morn, or crimsoned with the tints of evening,
spread out to veil the distance, or rolled in clouds and storms,
are the great characteristics of Turner's art as contrasted with
the mild serenity of the calm unclouded heaven of Claude."
(Redgrave.) Turner in his choice of colours forsook convention-
ality, and ''went to the cataract for its iris, to the conflagration
for its flames, asked of the sea its intensest azure, of the sky its
clearest gold." (Paiskin.) The same critic considers Turner's
period of central power, entirely developed and entirely
unabated, to begin with the Ulysses, and to close with the
Temeraire, a period of ten years, 1829 1839.
JOHN CONSTABLE (1776 1837) was born at East Bergholt, in
LANDSCAPE PAINTERS. 131
Suffolk, June llth, 1776, and the sunny June weather in
which the painter first saw the light seems to pervade all his
pictures. Constable's father was a miller, and intended that his
son should succeed to his business ; it has been said also that
it was proposed to educate him for holy orders. Constable,
however, was meant for a painter, and became one of the
best delineators of English scenery. In 1800, he became
student in the Royal Academy. In 1802, he exhibited his
first picture. In 1819, he was elected A.R.A., and became a
full member ten years after. Constable's earlier efforts were in
the direction of historical painting and portraiture, but he found
his true sphere in landscape. He was thoroughly English.
No foreign master influenced him, and rustic life furnished all
he needed. He said, " I love every style and stump and lane
in the village : as long as I am able to hold a brush, I shall
never cease to paint them." To this determination we owe
some of the most pleasant English pictures, full of fresh, breezy
life, rolling clouds, shower-wetted foliage, and all the greenery
of island scenes. He loved to paint under the sun, and im-
part a glittering effect to his foliage which many of his critics
could not understand. Indeed, Constable was not appreciated
thoroughly till after his death. He seems to have known that
this would be the case, for early in his career he wrote, " I feel
now more than ever a decided conviction that I shall /^onae time
or other make some good pictures pictures that shall be valu-
able to posterity, if I do not reap the benefit of them."
Constable did not attempt bold or mountainous scenery, but
loved the flat, sunny meadows of Suffolk, and declared that
the river Stour made him a painter. In the National Gallery
are his: Tlie Corn-field, The Valley Farm (see Frontispiece),
(a view of " Willy Lett's House," on the Stour, close by Flat-
ford Mill, the property of the painter's father), A Corn-field with
figures, and On Barnes Common.
SIR AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT (1779 1844) has been styled
K 2
ENGLISH LANDSCAPE PAINTEKS. 133
the English Claude. He was born at Kensington Gravel Pits,
then a pretty suburban spot. He was, for some years, a
chorister at Westminster Abbey, but early adopted painting
as his profession. Callcott was a pupil of Hoppner, and
began as a portrait painter. He soon devoted himself to
landscape, with an occasional attempt at history. He became
a full member of the Academy in 1810, his presentation picture
being Morning. His best pictures were produced between
1812 and 1826, during which period he produced The Old
Pier at Littlehampton (National Gallery), Entrance to the Pool
of London, Mouth of the Tyne, Calm on the Medway (Earl of
Durham). Callcott married in 1827, and went to Italy.
On his return in the following year he soon became a fashion-
able painter. " His pictures, bright, pleasant of surface,
and finished in execution, were suited to the appreciation of
the public, and not beyond their comprehension; commissions
poured in upon him." (Redgrave.) The Queen knighted him
in 1837, and in the same year he exhibited his Raphael and
the Fornarina, engraved for the Art Union by L. Stocks,
which, if it possesses few faults, excites no enthusiasm. In
1840 appeared Milton dictating Paradise Lost to his Daughter,
a large picture, which overtaxed the decaying powers of the
artist. .Among Callcott's later pictures are Dutch Peasants re-
turning from Market, and Entrance to Pisa from Leghorn.
As a figure painter he does not appear at his best. Ex-
amples of this class are Falstaff and Simple, and Anne Page
and Slender (Sheepshanks Collection).
WILLIAM COLLINS (1788 1847) was born in London, where
his father carried on business as a picture dealer, in addition to
the somewhat uncertain calling of a journalist. The future
painter was introduced to Morland, a friend of his father, and
learnt many things, some to be imitated, others to be avoided,
in that artist's studio. From 1807 he exhibited at the
Academy, of which he became a full member in 1820. He
ENGLISH LANDSCAPE PAINTEES. 135
exhibited one hundred and twenty-one pictures in a period
of forty years, specially devoting himself to landscape, with
incidents of ordinary life. Now he would paint children swing-
ing on a gate, as in Happy as a King (National Gallery);
children bird-nesting, or sorrowing for their play-fellows, as
in The Sale of the Pet Lamb. Collins was also specially
successful in his treatment of cottage and coast scenery, as
in The Haunts of the Sea-fowl, The Prawn Catchers (National
Gallery), and Fishermen on the look-out. After visiting Italy,
Collins forsook for a time his former manner, and painted the
Cave of Ulysses, and the Bay of Naples ; but neither here nor
in the Christ in the Temple with the Doctors, and The two
Disciples at Emmaus, do we see him at his best. He wisely
returned to his first style.
WILLIAM LINTON (1791 1876) was employed in a merchant's
office in Liverpool, but quitted it to begin an artist's career in
London. In 1821, he exhibited his first picture, The Morning
after the Storm. After visiting the Continent, Linton returned
to England, and produced pictures of the classic scenes he
had studied. After a second foreign tour, in which he visited
Greece, Sicily, and Calabria, he exhibited The Embarkation of
the Greeks for Troy, The Temples of P&stum (National Gallery),
and several works of a like character.
PATRICK NASMYTH (1786 1831), son of a Scotch landscape
painter, was born in Edinburgh, and came to London. His first
exhibited picture at the Academy was a View of Loch Katrine,
in 1811. In the British Institution Gallery of the same year
his Loch Auchray appeared. It is by his pictures of simple
English scenery that Nasmyth is best known. He took Hob-
bema and Wynants as models, and chose country lanes, hedge-
rows, with dwarf oak-trees, for his subjects. Nasmyth was
deaf in consequence of an illness, and having lost the use of
his right hand by an accident, painted with his left. In the
National Gallery are a Cottage, and The Angler's Nook; at
ST. GOMER, BRUSSELS. % DAYID EGBERTS.
ENGLISH LANDSCAPE PAINTERS. 137
South Kensington are Landscape ivith an Oak, Cottage by a
Brook, and Landscape with a Haystack.
DAVID ROBERTS (1796 1864), a native of Stockbridge, near
Edinburgh, began life as a house-decorator, and, becoming
a scene-painter, found employment at Drury Lane in 1822.
Marked success in this capacity led him to attempt a higher
flight in architectural landscape. He exhibited Rouen Cathedral
at the Academy in 1826, and very often contributed pictures to
the British Institution and Society of British Artists ; of the last-
named body he was a foundation-member. Roberts made a tour
in Spain for materials of pictures and sketches ; noteworthy
among the results of this journey are The Cathedral of Burgos,
an exterior view, and a small Interior of the same, now in the
National Gallery. Extending his travels to the East, Roberts
produced The Ruins of Baalbec, and Jerusalem from the South-
East. He was made a full member of the Academy in 1841, and
lived to see his pictures sold for far higher prices than he had
originally assigned to them. David Roberts is well known by
" Sketches in the Holy Land, Syria, and Egypt."
RICHARD PARKES BONINGTON (1801 1828) passed most of
his life abroad. He studied in the Louvre when a child,
and gained his knowledge of art exclusively in Paris and Italy.
His influence on the French school of genre and dramatic art
was very great indeed, almost equal to that which Constable
produced on the French artists in landscape. He died, aged
twenty-seven, from the effects of a sunstroke received while
sketching in Paris. Bonington excelled in landscape, marine,
and figure subjects. He exhibited in the British Institution,
among other pictures, two Views of the French Coast, which
attracted much notice, and The Column of St. Mark's, Venice
(National Gallery). Sir Richard Wallace possesses several of
his best works, notably Henri IV. and the Spanish Ambassador.
WILLIAM JOHN MULLER (1812 1845) was another landscape
painter whose career was brief, and who chiefly painted foreign
138 ENGLISH PAINTEKS.
scenery. He travelled in Germany, Italy and Switzerland,
.FRANCIS I. AND HIS SISTEK. My BONINGTON.
In the possession of Sir Richard Wallace, Bart.
and for a time practised as a landscape painter at Bath, though
with little success. In 1838 Mu'ller visited Greece and Egypt,
LANDSCAPE PAINTEKS. 139
and in 1841 he was in Lycia. He had previously settled in
London. His pictures were chiefly of Oriental scenes, and his
fame was rapidly growing when he died. His works now com-
mand high prices. In the National Gallery we have a Land-
scape, ivith two Liijcian Peasants, and a River Scene.
JOHN MARTIN (1789 1854) held a distinguished place as a
painter of poetic or imaginative landscapes and architectural
subjects. He was born near Hexham, and began the study of
art in the humble field of coach painting at Newcastle. Coming
to London, Martin worked at enamel painting, and in 1812
exhibited his first picture at the Academy, Sadak in Search of
the Waters of Oblivion, which is one of his best works. This
was followed by Joshua commanding the Sun to stand still
(1816), The Death of Moses (1838), The Last Man (from
Campbell's poem), The Eve of the Deluge, Destruction of Sodom
and Gomorrah, &c. Martin's most famous works were not
exhibited at the Academy, e.g. Belshazzar's Feast, The Fall of
Babylon, and The Fall of Nineveh. Many of his compositions
were engraved, securing for them a wide circulation. Mr. Red-
grave said: "We can hardly agree with Bulwer, that Martin
was * more original, more self-dependent than Raphael or
Michael Angelo.' But if in his lifetime Martin was over-
praised, he was unjustly depreciated afterwards. Many of
his brother artists and the public, when the first astonish-
ment his pictures created had passed away, called his art a
trick and an illusion, his execution mechanical, his colouring
bad, his figures vilely drawn, their actions and expressions bom-
bastic and ridiculous. But, granting this, wholly or partially,
it must be remembered that his art, or manner, was original ;
that it opened new views, which yielded glimpses of the
sublime, and dreams and visions that art had not hitherto
displayed; and that others, better prepared by previous study,
working after him, have delighted, and are still delighting,
the world with their works.
^^^LJCr-*
ENGLISH LANDSCAPE PAINTERS. 141
THE NOEWICH SCHOOL.
We must now speak of a provincial school of landscape
painters which was founded by JOHN CEOME (1769 1821).
The father of the Norwich Society of Artists is generally
known as " Old Crome," to distinguish him from his son,
who was likewise a painter. Crome, the son of a journey-
man weaver, born in a small tavern at Norwich, was in due
course apprenticed to a house and sign-painter. The young
house-painter spent his spare time in painting something more
attractive than the walls of houses, and chose the scenery round
Norwich for his subjects. The flat, sunny landscapes, dotted
with farms and cottages, through which the sleeping river glided
slowly, and the Norfolk broads, with their flocks of wild fowl,
remained to the last the frequent subjects of Crome's pencil.
Determining to be a painter in good earnest, Crome, when his
apprenticeship was over, eked out his scanty resources by giving
lessons in drawing and painting. At the Royal Academy he
exhibited only fourteen pictures, but in his native town one
hundred and ninety-six. With the exception of The Black-
smith's Shop, all the works shown at the Academy were land-
scapes. " He wanted but little subject : an aged oak, a pollard
willow by the side of the slow Norfolk streams, or a patch of
broken ground, in his hands became pictures charming us by
their sweet colour and rustic nature." " Crome seems to have
founded his art on Hobbema, Ruysdael, and the Dutch school,
rather than on the French and Italian painters ; except so far
as these were represented by our countryman, Wilson, whose
works he copied, and whose influence is seen mingled with the
more realistic treatment derived from the Dutch masters."
(Redgrave.) In the National Gallery are his Household Heath,
View of Chapel Field, and Windmill on a Heath : all views near
Norwich. A Clump of Trees, Hautbois Common (Fitzwilliam
Gallery, Cambridge), is another favourable specimen of his art.
142 ENGLISH PAINTERS.
JAMES STARK (1794 1859) was a pupil of Crome, and
takes rank next to him in the Norwich school. In 1812,
he was elected a member of the Norwich Society of Artists.
In 1817, he came to London, and became a student in the
Royal Academy. There appeared some of his best works :
Boys Bathing, Flounder Fishing, and Lambeth, looking towards
Westminster Bridge. Illness obliged Stark to return to Nor-
wich, where he produced his "Scenery of the Pavers Yare
and Waveney, Norfolk ; " a series of illustrations engraved by
Goodall and others. Stark lacked the vigour of Crome in
colour and drawing.
GEORGE VINCENT (1796 about 1831) is best known for his
View of Greenwich Hospital, shown from the river. It was
painted for Mr. Carpenter, of the British Museum, and was in
the International Exhibition of 1862. Vincent was specially
fond of sunlight effects or clouds in his pictures.
JOHN SELL COTMAN (1782 1842) having escaped the life of a
linen-draper's shopman, devoted himself to art, and coming to
London found a friend and patron in Dr. Monro. From 1800
to 1806 Cotman exhibited pictures at the Academy, and, re-
turning to Norwich, was made a member and secretary of the
Society of Artists there. In the year 1808 he contributed to
the Norwich exhibition sixty-seven works. Cotman paid many
visits to Normandy, and after 1834 was Professor of Drawing
in King's College School, London. He was more successful as
a water-colour artist than a painter in oils. He painted chiefly
landscapes, marine pieces, and executed many engravings of
architecture.
The Norwich school no longer exists as a distinct body.
FRANCIS DANBY (1793 1861) excelled Martin in the poetry
of landscape art. He was born near Wexford, and gained his
first knowledge of art in Dublin, where, in 1812, he exhibited
his first picture, Evening. In 1813, he was established at Bristol
LANDSCAPE PAINTEES. 143
as a teacher of drawing in water colour. He became known to
the artistic world of London by his fyws Tree of Java, which
was at the British Institution of 1820, an intensely poetic
work, now in the National Gallery. His Sunset at Sea after
a Storm, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1824, was
purchased by Sir Thomas Lawrence. A year later Danby
exhibited The Delivery of Israel out of Egypt, for which he
was elected an A.R.A. He is most famous, however, for
quiet scenes, calm evenings at sea, sunset effects, combined
with some poetic incident, and always remarkable for great
brilliancy of colour, among which are The Artist's Holiday and
The Evening Gun. In the National Gallery is The Fisherman's
Home, Sunrise. He never became a R.A.
WILLIAM CLARKSON STANFIELD (1793 1867) holds one of the
highest places among English landscape and marine painters.
Beginning life as a sailor in the Royal Navy, he sketched
vessels as they passed his own. A severe fall compelled
retirement from the navy. He began his art career as a
scene-painter in the Old Royalty Theatre, Wellclose Square,
and later became scene-painter to Drury Lane Theatre. His
first exhibited picture was A Elver Scene in the Academy,
1820. In the same year A Study from Nature was at the
British Institution. He exhibited Ben Venn, and A Coast Scene,
at the Institution in 1822. In 1824, he was a foundation-
member of the Society of British Artists, and sent five pictures
to their first exhibition in that year. Stanfield's large Wreckers
off Fort Houfje, was exhibited at the British Institution in 1828.
In 1827 appeared A Calm, in the Royal Academy. From
that time Stanfield's success was assured. His truthfulness in
reading nature, whether in naval battle scenes, views of foreign
sea-ports, or mountain and river scenery, has seldom if ever
been surpassed. He became a full member of the Academy in
1835. Ah unwearied worker, he exhibited one hundred and
thirty-two pictures at the Royal Academy. We may mention
ENGLISH LANDSCAPE PAINTERS. 145
The Battle of Trafalgar ; The Victory, inili Nelson's Body on
board, towed into Gibraltar ; Entrance to the Zuyder Zee ;
Lake of Como, and The Canal of the Giudecca, Venice (all in
the National Gallery). Among his earlier works are Mount St.
Michael, Cornwall; A Storm; A Fisherman off Honfleur, and
The Opening of New London Bridge.
JAMES BAKEK PYNE (1800 1870), born in Bristol, began life
in a solicitor's office, which he quitted to make a precarious
subsistence by painting, teaching, or restoring pictures. He
went to London in 1835, where a picture exhibited a year
after at the Academy attracted notice, and opened the way of
success. He became famous as a delineator of lake scenery,
and for ps<mcZo-Turner-like treatment of sunlight effects.
THOMAS CKESWICK (1811 1869), one of the most pleasing
modern English landscape painters, was born at Sheffield. He
came to London when only seventeen, and his pictures were
exhibited by the British Institution and the Royal Academy
in that year, 1828. Having settled in London, he delighted
lovers of landscape with views in Ireland and Wales, and, later,
turned his attention to the North of England, the rocky dales
and rivers of which furnished subjects for his finest works. In
1842, he was elected an Associate of the Academy, and received
a premium of fifty guineas from the British Institution for
the general excellence of his productions. In 1851, Creswick
became a full member of the Academy, and somewhat later
executed pictures into which Frith and Ansdell introduced
figures and cattle. There is a charm in his paintings, the
character of which may be gathered from The Old Foot
Eoad, The Hall Garden, The Pleasant Way Home, The Valley
Mill, The Blithe Brook, Across the Beck. In the National
Gallery is The Pathway to the Village Church. " He painted
the homely scenery of his country, especially its streams, in all
its native beauty and freshness ; natural, pure, and simple in
his treatment and colour, careful and complete in his finish,
L
THE PLEASANT WAY HOME, By CBESWICK. Exhibited in 1846.
ENGLISH LANDSCAPE PAINTEKS. 147
good taste prevailing in all his works, and conspicuously so in
his charming contributions to the works of the Etching Club, of
which he was a valued member, and also in his many designs
on wood." (Redgrave.)
JOHN LINNELL (1792 1882) the son of a carver and gilder
in Bloomsbury, was at first brought up to his father's trade,
and had many opportunities of studying pictures. At eight
years of age he copied Morland so well that his versions were
often taken for originals. Soon afterwards he became a pupil of
John Yarley, and in his studio met Mulready and W. H. Hunt,
with whom he frequently went on sketching tours. In 1807,
when only fifteen years of age, Linnell sent his first pictures, A
Study from Nature, and A View near Pleading, to the Royal
Academy Exhibition, to which for more than seventy years he
was a regular contributor. He frequently painted portraits,
and was particularly successful in landscapes with many trees.
Mr. Ruskin says, "The forest studies of John Linnell are
particularly elaborate, and in many points most skilful." For
many years towards the close of his life he lived at Redhill, with
his two sons and his son-in-law, Samuel Palmer, all landscape
painters, near him.
During his long life he painted many hundred pictures, which
are now for the most part scattered in private galleries in
England. Two of his works are in the National Gallery, Wood
Cutters, and The Windmill; and three at South Kensington,
Wild Flower Gatherers, Milking Time, and Driving Cattle.
EDWARD WILLIAM COOKE (1811 1880), the son of an en-
graver, was intended for his father's profession ; but he pre-
ferred the brush to the graver. In 1851 he was made an
associate and in 1864 a full member of the Royal Academy, to
whose exhibitions he was a most constant contributor : he also
exhibited at the British Institution. His works are, for the
most part, coast and river scenes, generally in England, and fre-
quently on the Thames or Medway. Paintings by him are in
the National Gallery and the South Kensington Museum.
L2
CHAPTER X.
HISTORIC PAINTERS.
MANY of our painters who aspired to high art in the
field of history were forced to abandon these ambi-
tious designs, and confine themselves to the more lucrative
branches of their calling. It was not so with
WILLIAM HILTON (17861839), who, although chilled and
saddened by neglect, and generally unable to sell his pictures,
maintained his position as a history painter, and suffered neither
poverty nor the coldness of the public to turn him aside. Few de-
tails are known of his life ; he was a gentle, silent, and retiring man,
who knew much sorrow and shunned publicity. Rescued from
a trade to which he was destined, Hilton was allowed to learn
drawing, and became a pupil of J. Raphael Smith, the mezzotint
engraver. He entered the Academy schools, and paid special
attention to the anatomy of the figure. His earliest known
productions were a series of designs in oil to illustrate " The
Mirror," and "The Citizen of the World." Hilton's early exhi-
bited works had classic subjects, such as Ceplialus and Procris,
Venus carrying the wounded Achilles, and Ulysses and Calypso.
In 1810, he produced a large historic painting, called Citizens
of Calais delivering the Keys to Edward III., for which the
British Institution awarded him a premium of fifty guineas.
150 ENGLISH PAINTERS.
For the Entombment of Christ he received a second premium,
.and for Edith discovering the Dead Body of Harold a third of
one hundred guineas. Nevertheless, the public did not appre-
ciate his works, and they were unsold. The Directors of the
British Institution, who had already marked their sense of
this painter's ability, purchased two of his sacred pieces,
Mary anointing the Feet of Jesus, which was presented to the
Church of St. Michael, in the City, and Christ crowned . with
Thorns, which was given to that of St. Peter's, Eaton Square,
but which has since been sold. In 1819 Hilton became a full
member of the Academy, and was appointed Keeper in 1827, a
position for which he was specially fitted, and where he gained
the affection of the students. In the next year he married. The
death of his wife, in 1835, crushed his energy and hope. He
saw himself painting for a public which did not value his
art.
In addition to the above examples, we may mention Hilton's
Serena rescued by the Red Cross Knight, Sir Caprine, and
The Meeting of Abraham's Servant icith Eebekah (National
Gallery), and a triptych of The Crucifixion, which is at Liver-
pool. Most of Hilton's works are falling to decay through the
use of asphaltum.
BENJAMIN EGBERT HAYDON (1786 1846) was the son of a
bookseller at Plymouth, and his " fitful life " marked by
"restless and importunate vanity" was ended by his own
act. Hay don refused to follow his father's business, and
insisted on becoming a painter. Of his thoughts, hopes, and
dreams, we have been well informed. He was in the habit
of writing in an elaborate diary all that concerned himself. He
came to London in 1804 with 20 in his pocket, entered the
Academy schools, and worked there with vigour and self-
reliance. Northcote did not encourage his enthusiastic country-
man when he told him that as an historic painter "he would
starve with a bundle of straw under his head." We admire
HISTORIC PAINTERS. 151
the courage of Haydon in holding fast to the branch of art he
had embraced, but his egotism fulfilled the prophecy of North-
cote. When twenty-one, Haydon ordered a canvas for Joseph
and Mart/ resting on the Road to Egypt, and he prayed over the
blank canvas that God would bless his career, and enable him
to create a new era in art. Lord Mulgrave became his patron,
and this may have added to the painter's hopes. He painted
Dentatus, and, intoxicated by flattery, believed the production
of this his second work would mark " an epoch in English
art." Dentatus, however, was hung in the ante-room of the
Royal Academy, and coldly received. In 1810, he began Lady
Macbeth for Sir George Beaumont ; quarrelling with his patron,
he lost the commission, but worked on at the picture. Although
deeply in debt, he quarrelled with those who would have been
his friends. His Judgment of Solomon, a very fine picture,
was painted under great difficulties and privations. West, the
President, whom the painter accused of hostility to him, is
said to have shed tears of admiration at the sight of this work,
and sent Haydon a gift of 15. Solomon was sold for 600
guineas, and the British Institution awarded another hundred
guineas as a premium to its author. In 1820 Haydon produced
Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, and during its progress he, as he
recorded, " held intercourse only with his art and his Creator."
This picture was exhibited at the Egyptian Hall. Piccadilly,
and brought a large sum of money to the painter. Unsold
in England, the work of which Haydon had expected much
was purchased for 240, and sent to America. He established
an Art school, where several able painters were trained, but the
master was constantly in great pecuniary difficulties. In 1823,
he exhibited the The Raising of Lazarus, containing twenty
figures, each nine feet high, which is now in the National
Gallery. Of this work Mr. Redgrave says: "The first im-
pression of the picture is imposing ; the general effect powerful,
and well suited to the subject ; the incidents and grouping well
152 ENGLISH PAINTERS.
conceived ; the colouring good, and in parts brilliant. The
Christ is weak, probably the weakest, though the chief figure
in the picture." Misfortune still dogged the painter. He was
thrown into prison for debt ; released, he worked in poverty,
afraid of his "wicked-eyed, wrinkled, waddling, gin-drinking,
dirty-ruffled landlady." The closing scenes of his life grew
darker and darker. In 1826, he painted Venus and Anchises,
on commission, began Alexander taming Bucephalus, and Euclus,
and was once more in prison. An appeal in the newspapers
produced money enough to set him again at liberty. Then
appeared the Mock Election, and Chairing the Member, the
former being purchased by the King. No success, however,
seemed to stem the tide of Haydon's misfortunes. He lectured
on Art with great ability in 1840, continued painting for bread,
and finally,, disgusted by the cold reception of Aristides, and
Nero ivatching the Burning of Rome, the over-wrought mind
of the unfortunate man gave way, and he committed suicide,
leaving this brief entry in his journal " God forgive me !
Amen. Finis. B. R. Haydon. Stretch me no longer on
the rack of this sad world.' Lear." A sad finish to his
ambitious hopes ! Of Haydon's art generally Mr. Kedgrave
says: "He was a good anatomist and draughtsman, his colour
was effective, the treatment of his subject and conception were
original and powerful ; but his works have a hurried and in-
complete look, his finish is coarse, sometimes woolly, and not
free from vulgarity."
WILLIAM ETTY (17871849), the son of a miller at York,
had few advantages to help him on the road to fame. His edu-
cation was slight, and his early years were spent as a printer's
apprentice in Hull. But he had determined to be a painter ;
and his motto was, as he tells us, " Perseverance." In 1806, he
visited an uncle, in Lombard Street, and became a student at
the Academy, though his earliest art-school was a plaster-
cast shop in Cock Lane. Through his uncle's generosity, he
HISTORIC PAINTERS. 153
became a pupil of Lawrence, who had little time to attend to
him. Though overwhelmed with difficulties Etty persevered
bravely. He laboured diligently in the " Life School," tried
in vain for all the medals, sent his pictures to the Academy only
to see them rejected ; unlike Haydon, he never lost heart. In
1820 The Coral Finders was exhibited at the Academy, and
in the following year Cleopatra. His patience and diligence
were rewarded ; henceforth his career was one of success. In
THE DANGEROUS PLAYMATE, tiy ETTY. A.D. 1833.
In the National Gallery.
1822, he visited Italy, and in 1828 became a full member of
the Academy. His art was very unequal. He chiefly devoted
himself, however, to painting w r omen, as being the embodi-
ments of beauty. As a colourist few English painters have
rivalled him, and as a painter of flesh he stands high. As
showing the different forms of his many-sided art, we may
mention Judith and Holofernes, Benaiah, The Eve of the
154 ' ENGLISH HISTORIC PAINTERS.
Deluge, Youth on the prow and Pleasure at the Helm, The
Imprudence of Candaules, The dangerous Playmate, and The
Magdalen (all in the National Gallery). Etty died unmarried,
and the possessor of a considerable fortune.
HENRY PERRONET BRIGGS (1792 1844), distinguished as
an historic and portrait painter, began his art studies at the
Academy in 1811, and was made a full member of that body in
1832. His best-known works are Othello relating his Adventures,
The first Conference between the Spaniards and Peruvians, and
Juliet and her Nurse ; the two latter are in the National Gallery.
This master in his later years forsook historical painting for
portraiture.
CHARLES LOCK EASTLAKE (17931865), son of the Solicitor
to the Admiralty in that town, was born at Plymouth, and
educated first in Plympton Grammar School, where Reynolds
had studied, and afterwards at the Charterhouse, London.
Choosing the profession of a painter, he was encouraged,
doubtless, by his fellow-townsman, Haydon, who had just
exhibited Dentatus. Eastlake became the pupil of that erratic
master, and attended the Academy schools. In 1813, he ex-
hibited at the British Institution a large and ambitious picture,
Christ raising the Daughter of the Ruler. In the following year
the young painter was sent by Mr. Harrnan to Paris, to copy
some of the famous works collected by Napoleon in the Louvre.
The Emperor's escape from Elba, and the consequent excite-
ment in Europe, caused Eastlake to quit Paris, and he returned
to Plymouth, where he practised successfully as a portrait
painter. A portrait of Napoleon, which Eastlake enlarged
from his sketch of the Emperor on board the Bellerophon
when bound for St. Helena, appeared in 1815. This picture
now belongs to Lord Clinton. In the same year he exhibited
Brutus exhorting the Romans to avenge the Death of Lucretia.
In 1819 Eastlake visited Greece and Italy, and spent fourteen
years abroad, chiefly at Ferrara and Rome. The picturesque
m
156 ENGLISH HISTORIC PAINTERS.
dress of the Italian and Greek peasantry so fascinated him
that for a long period he forsook history for small genre
works, of which brigands and peasants were the chief sub-
jects. A large historical painting, Mercury bringing the Golden
Apple to Paris, appeared in 1820. Seven years later, The
Spartan Isidas, now in the possession of the Duke of Devon-
shire, was exhibited at the Academy, and procured for the
painter the Associateship. It illustrates the story told by
Plutarch, in his " Life of Agesilaus," of the young warrior
called suddenly in his bath to oppose the Thebans. Rushing
forth naked with his sword and spear, he drove back the
Thebans and escaped unhurt. In 1828, Eastlake produced
Italian Scene in the Anno Santo, Pilgrims arriving in sight
of St. Peter's, which he twice repeated. In 1829 Lord
Byron's Dream, a poetic landscape (National Gallery), was
exhibited, and Eastlake becoming an Academician, returned
to England. Then followed Greek Fugitives, Escape of the
Carrara Family from the Duke of Milan (a repetition is in
the National Gallery), Haidee (National Gallery), Gaston de
Foix before the Battle of Ravenna, Christ blessing Little Chil-
dren, Christ weeping over Jerusalem (a repetition is in the
National Gallery), and Hagar and Ishmael. To his labours
as a painter Eastlake added the duties of several important
offices, and much valuable literary work. He was Secretary
to the Royal Commission for Decorating the New Palace of
Westminster, Librarian of the Royal Academy, and Keeper,
and afterwards Director of the National Gallery. In 1850, he
succeeded Sir Martin Shee as President of the Royal Aca-
demy, and was knighted. From that time till his death, at
Pisa, in 1865, he was chiefly engaged in selecting pictures
to be purchased by the British Government. He was editor
of Kugler's " Handbook of the Italian Schools of Painting,"
and author cf " Materials for a History of Oil Painting."
WILLIAM DYCE (18061864), a native of Aberdeen, com-
ft
158 ENGLISH HISTORIC PAINTERS.
menced his art studies at the Royal Scottish Academy.
Visiting Italy he studied the old masters, and their influence
had a lasting effect upon his style. In 1827 Dyce exhibited
at the Royal Academy Bacchus nursed by the Nymphs. In
1830, he settled in Edinburgh, and achieved marked success.
The Descent of Venus appeared at the Academy in 1836. Hav-
ing removed to London, Dyce exhibited, in 1844, Joash shooting
the Arrows of Deliverance, and was elected an Associate. In
1847, he produced the sketch of a fresco executed at Osborne
House, Neptune assigning to Britannia the Empire of the Sea.
Dyce was chosen, in 1848, to decorate the Queen's Robing-Room
in the Houses of Parliament, and commenced, but did not quite
finish, a large series of frescoes illustrating The Legend of King
Arthur. He produced other historic works, chiefly of Biblical
subjects, and of great merit.
GEORGE HARVEY (1805 1876) was born at St. Ninian's,
Fifeshire, and apprenticed to a bookseller at Stirling. He
quitted this craft at the age of eighteen, and commenced his
art career at Edinburgh. In Scotland he gained a wide
popularity. He took an active part in the establishment of
the Royal Scottish Academy, and was knighted in 1867.
His favourite subjects were Puritan episodes, such as Cove-
nanters' Communion, Bunyan imagining his Pilgrims Progress
in Bedford Gaol, and The Battle of Drumclog.
THOMAS DUNCAN (1807 1845), a native of Perthshire, first
attracted notice by his pictures of a Milkmaid, and Sir John
Faktaff. In 1840, he exhibited at the Royal Academy his
historical painting, Entrance of Prince Charlie into Edinburgh
after Preston Pans, and next year produced Waefu 1 Heart, from
the ballad of "Auld Robin Gray," which is now at South
Kensington.
DANIEL MACLISE (1811 1870) was born at Cork, and was
intended for the unromantic calling of a banker's clerk. Fortu-
nately for the world he soon left the bank stool for the
160 ENGLISH PAINTERS.
studio of the Cork Society of Arts. In 1828, he transferred
his attention to the Academy schools in London, and soon
obtained the gold medal for the best historic composition,
representing The Choice of Hercules. He had previously ex-
hibited Malvolio affecting the Count. In due course appeared,
at the British Institution, Mokanna unveiling his features to
Zelica, and Snap- Apple Night, which found a place at the
Eoyal Academy. Maclise became a full Academician in 1840.
His latter years were chiefly occupied with the famous water-
glass pictures in the Houses of Parliament, The Interview of
Wellington and Blucher after Waterloo, and The Death of Nelson
at Trafalgar. The noble cartoon (bought by subscriptions of
artists, who likewise presented the designer with a gold port-
crayon) of the former is now the property of the Koyal
Academy. Maclise executed many book illustrations, includ-
ing those for " Moore's Melodies," and "The Pilgrims of the
Rhine." He executed a noble series of designs delineating The
Story of the Norman Conquest. A collection of his drawings
has been bequeathed to the South Kensington Museum by Mr.
John Forster. Maclise painted a few portraits, among them that
of Charles Dickens, who spoke thus of the dead painter, " Of his
prodigious fertility of mind and wonderful wealth of intellect,
I may confidently assert that they would have made him, if he
had been so minded, at least as great a writer as he was a
painter. The gentlest, and most modest of men ; the freest as
to his generous appreciation of young aspirants ; and the frank-
est and largest-hearted as to his peers. No artist ever went to
his rest leaving a golden memory more free from dross,
or having devoted himself with a truer chivalry to the goddess
whom he worshipped." The most remarkable works of Maclise
we Macbeth and the Witches ; Olivia and Sophia fitting out Moses
for the Fair ; The Banquet Scene in Macbeth ; Ordeal by Touch ;
Hobin Hood and Cwur de Lion; The Play Scene in Hamlet
(National Gallery); Malvolio and the Countess (National Gallery).
HISTOKIC PAINTERS. 161
CHARLES LANDSEER (1799 1879), the elder brother of the
more famous Sir Edwin Landseer, was a pupil of Hay don and
the Royal Academy Schools. In 1836 appeared his Sacking of
Basing House (now in the National Gallery). He was elected
an A.R.A. in the following year, became a full member in
1845, and Keeper in 1851. Amongst other good works by him
are Clarissa Harlowe in the Spunging House (National Gallery),
Charles II. escaping in disguise from Colonel Lane's House, and
The Eve of the Battle of Edgehill.
CHARLES LUCY (1814 1873) began life as a chemist's
apprentice in his native town of Hereford. He soon forsook
the counter, and went to Paris to study painting. Coming
to London, he exhibited Caractacus and his Family before
the Emperor Claudius, a work which formed the introduction
to a long 'series of historic pictures, noteworthy among
which are The Parting of Charles I. ivith his Children, The
Parting of Lord and Lady Russell, and Buonaparte in dis-
cussion with the Savants, all of which were exhibited at the
Academy. Lucy established a great reputation in Europe
and America.
JOHN PHILLIP (1817 1867) was one of the best colourists of
the English school. He was a native of Aberdeen, began life as
an errand boy to what the Scotch call a " tin smith," and after-
wards became an apprentice to a painter and glazier, and seems to
have had instruction in his early pursuit of art from a portrait
painter of his native town, named Forbes, who was very generous
to him. A picture by Phillip secured him the patronage of Lord
Panmure, who sent him to London. In 1837 the young painter
entered the Academy Schools. He exhibited two portraits
in 1838, and two years later returned to Aberdeen, exhibiting
in the Royal Academy Tasso in Disguise relating his Persecu-
tions to his Sister. Once more returning to London, Phillip ex-
hibited The Catechism, and several pictures of Scottish life, as
The Baptism, The Spae Wife, The Free Kirk. Illness com-
M
162 ENGLISH HISTOKIC PAINTERS.
pelled him to visit Spain in 1851, and here he produced many
excellent pictures of Spanish life, which greatly added to his
reputation, and gained for him the sobriquet of " Don Phillip of
Spain." A Visit to Gipsy Quarters, The Letter-writer of Seville,
and El Paseo are examples of his Spanish pictures. In 1857
Phillip was elected Associate of the Royal Academy, and
exhibited the Prison Window in Seville. Elected a full member
in 1859, he painted next year The Marriage of the Princess
Royal, by command of the Queen. La Gloria, one of his most
celebrated works, appeared in 1864. His pictures combine
correctness of drawing with boldness, if not refinement, of
colouring which is seldom met with in the works of our best
painters.
ALFRED ELMORE (1815 1881), an Irishman by birth, won
for himself fame as a painter of historic scenes and genre
subjects. Among his works are Rienzi in the Forum; The In-
vention of the Stocking Loom and The Invention of the Combing
Machine ; Marie Antoinette in the Tuileries ; Marie Antoinette in
the Temple ; Ophelia ; and Mary Queen of Scots and Darnley.
He was elected a R.A. in 1857.
CHAPTER XI.
SUBJECT PAINTEKS.
/
DOMESTIC subject, or genre, painting in England may be
said to have originated with Hogarth, but it made slow
progress after his death till the commencement of the nine-
teenth century. Historic pictures of a large size were neither
popular nor profitable. Corporate bodies did not care to spend
money on the adornment of their guild halls, and ordinary
householders had no room for large pictures. Englishmen are
essentially domestic, and pictures small enough to hang in small
houses, and illustrative of home life, suit their necessities, and
appeal to their feelings far more strongly than vast canvases
representing battles or sacred histories. In genre painting
the Dutch school has ever been prominent ; to it we doubtless
owe much of the popularity of this branch of art in England,
where our painters have chosen familiar subjects, without de-
scending to the coarse or sensual incidents in which some old
Dutch artists delighted. The genre painters of this country
have mainly drawn their subjects from our national poets and
prose writers and the every-day life of Englishmen, sometimes
verging on the side of triviality, but on the whole including
pleasing works, which, as it has been well said, " bear the same
relation to historic art as the tale or novel does to history."
M 2
164 ENGLISH SUBJECT PAINTERS.
DAVID WILKIE (1785 1841) was born in his father's manse
at Cults, Fifeshire. It was fully intended that Wilkie should
follow in his father's steps, and become a minister of the
Scottish Kirk, but it was not to be so. He was placed, at
his own earnest desire, in the Trustees' Academy, at Edin-
burgh, and there in 1803 justified the wisdom of this choice
by gaining the ten-guinea premium for the best painting of the
time, the subject being Callisto in the Baths of. Diana. Next
year young Wilkie visited his home, and painted Piltassie Fair,
which he sold for 25. He painted portraits, and with the
money thus acquired went to London in 1805. Having entered
himself as a student at the Academy, Wilkie soon attracted
attention by the Village Politicians, which was exhibited at
the Royal Academy in 1806. One hundred of his paintings
appeared from time to time on the Academy walls ; each suc-
ceeding early work added to its author's fame. All his earlier
works were genre pictures. His favourite subjects are shown
in The Blind Fiddler, Card-Players, The Rent Day, The Jew's
Harp, The Cut Finger, The Village Festival, Blindmaris Buff,
The Letter of Introduction, Duncan Gray, The Penny Wedding,
Heading the Will, The Parish Beadle, and The Chelsea Pensioners,
the last painted for the Duke of Wellington. Wilkie was elected
A.R.A. in 1809, and a full member in 1811. He went abroad
in 1814, and again in 1825, when he visited Germany, Italy,
and Spain. The study of the old masters, especially Correggio,
Rembrandt, and Velazquez, had a marked effect on Wilkie, who
changed both his style and subjects. He forsook genre for
history and portraiture, and substituted a light effective style
of handling for the careful execution of his earlier works. John
Knox Preaching (National Gallery) is a good specimen of this
second period of Wilkie's art. He succeeded Sir Thomas Law-
rence in 1830 as Painter in Ordinary to the King, and was
knighted six years later. In 1840 Wilkie visited the East, and
painted the portrait of the Sultan Abdul Medjid. Next year,
166 ENGLISH PAINTERS.
whilst far from home, on board a steamer off Gibraltar, he
died, and found a grave in the sea. There are eleven of his
pictures in the National Gallery. Her Majesty possesses
most of the pictures ^painted by Wilkie in Spain, such as The
Guerilla Council of War, and The Maid of Saragossa. Another
Spanish picture, painted in England, is Two Spanish Monks
in the Cathedral of Toledo, belonging to the Marquis of Lans-
downe. In it we notice the painting of the hands, which are
full of life and action, a characteristic in which Wilkie ex-
celled. " His early art certainly made a great impression
on the English school, showing how Dutch art might be
nationalized, and story and sentiment added to scenes of
common life treated with truth and individuality. As to his
middle time, such pictures as the John Knox also had their
influence on the school, and the new mode of execution as sup-
ported by Wilkie's authority, a very evil influence, bringing
discredit upon English pictures as entirely wanting in perma-
nency. His methods and the pigments he used were soon dis-
carded in England, but at the time they influenced, and have
continued to influence, his countrymen long after his death.'*
(Redgrave.)
WILLIAM FEEDERICK WITHEBINGTON (1785 1865) combined
landscape and subject painting in his art. He exhibited his
first picture, Tintern Abbey, in 1811, and his succeeding works
were principally landscapes and figure subjects in combination.
Witherington was elected A.E.A. in 1830, and became a full
member ten years later. Favourable specimens of his
thoroughly English and pleasing pictures are The Stepping
Stones and The Hop Garland in the National Gallery, and The
Hop Gardenia the Sheepshanks Collection at South Kensington.
ABRAHAM COOPER (1787 1868), the son of an inn-keeper,
was born in London, and early snowed singular skill with his
pencil. The inn stables furnished his first and favoured sub-
jects, and the portrait of a favourite horse belonging to Sir
SUBJECT PAINTERS. 167
Henry Meux gained him his first patron. In 1814 Cooper
exhibited at the British Institution Tarn o' Shanter, which was
purchased by the Duke of Maiiborough,. In 1817 The Battle
of Marston Moor secured his election as an Associate of
the Academy : he became a R.A. in 1820. There is little
variety in the subjects of this painter's works. The best known
are The Pride of the Desert, Hawking in the Olden Time, The
Dead Trooper, Richard I. and Saladin at the Battle of Ascalon,
and BothweWs Seizure of Mary, Queen of Scots.
WILLIAM MULREADY (1786 1863), the ablest genre painter
in England except Wilkie, was born at Ennis, in the County
Clare. Although his works are familiar to most of us as
household words, few details of his life are known. We know
that his father was a maker of leather-breeches, and that
he came to London with his son when the latter was about
five years old. The child is said to have shown very early
the artistic power which was in him. He sat as a model for
Solomon to John Graham, who was illustrating Macklin's Bible
and probably the surroundings of the studio stimulated young
Mulready's artistic instincts. By the recommendation of Banks,
the sculptor, he gained entrance to the Academy Schools ;
at the age of fifteen he required no further pecuniary aid
from his parents. Mulready worked in the Academy Schools,
as he worked through life, with all his heart and soul. He
declared he always painted as though for a prize, and that when
he had begun his career in the world he tried his hand at every-
thing, "from a caricature to a panorama." He was a teacher
all his life, and this accounts, perhaps, for the careful complete-
ness of his pictures. Mulready married when very young, and
did not secure happiness. He began by painting landscapes,
but in 1807 produced Old Kasper, from Southey's poem of
' The Battle of Blenheim," his first subject picture. The
Rattle appeared a year later, and marked advance. Both
pictures bear evidence that their author had studied the Dutch
fi I
o
o
o s
M S
O
170 ENGLISH SUBJECT PAINTERS.
masters. In 1815 Mulready was chosen A.R.A., but before his
name could appear in the catalogue he had attained to the rank
of a full member. This was in 1816, when he exhibited The
Fight interrupted (Sheepshanks Collection). From this time
he was a popular favourite, and his pictures, of which he
exhibited on an average scarcely two a year, were eagerly
looked for. We may specify The Wol/ and the Lamb, The
Last in, Fair Time, Crossing the Ford, The Young Brother,
The Butt, Giving a Bite, Choosing the Wedding Gown, and The
Toyseller (all in the National Gallery or in the South Kensing-
ton Museum). " With the exception perhaps of some slight
deterioration in his colouring, which of late years was obtrusively
purple, he was in the enjoyment of the full powers of his great
abilities for upwards of half a century. * * * He was distin-
guished by the excellence of his life studies, three of which
in red and black chalks, presented by the Society of Arts, are
in the Gallery." (National Gallery Catalogue.)
ALEXANDER FRASER (1786 1865), a native of Edinburgh,
exhibited his first picture, The Green Stall, in 1810. Having
settled in London, he became an assistant to his country-
man Wilkie, and for twenty years painted the still-life de-
tails of Wilkie's pictures. The influence of his master's art
is visible in Eraser's pictures, which are usually founded upon
incidents and scenes in Scotland, as, for example, Interior of a
Highland Cottage (National Gallery) and Sir Walter Scott
dining ivith one of the Blue-gown Beggars of Edinburgh. Other
examples are The Cobbler at Lunch, The Blackbird and his
Tutor, and The Village Sign-painter.
CHARLES ROBERT LESLIE (1794 1859) was born in London,
probably in Clerkenwell, of American parents. His father was
a clockmaker from Philadelphia, who returned with his family
to America when the future painter was five years old. The
boy was apprenticed to a bookseller, but his true vocation was
decided by a portrait which he made of Cooke, the English
172 . ENGLISH PAINTERS.
tragedian, who was performing in Philadelphia. This work
attracted so much notice among Leslie's friends that a sub-
scription was raised to send him to England, the bookseller,
his master, liberally contributing. In 1811, Leslie became a
student of the Royal Academy, and received instruction from
his countrymen Washington Allston and Benjamin West.
Leslie, however, considered teaching of little value. He said
that, if materials were provided, a man was his own best
teacher, and he speaks of " Fuseli's wise neglect" of the
Academy students. Influenced, probably, by the example of
Allston and West, Leslie began by aiming at classic art. He
mentions that he was reading " Telemachus," with a view
to a subject, and among his early works was Saul and the
Witch of Endor. Even when he commenced to draw sub-
jects from Shakespeare, he turned first to the historic plays,
and painted The Death of 'Eutlaml and The Murder Scene
from " Macbeth." Unlike Wilkie and Mulready, Leslie did
not strive to create subjects for his pictures. He preferred
to ramble through literature, and to select a scene or
episode for his canvas. Wilkie invented scenes illustrating
the festivities of the lower classes, Mulready chose similar
incidents ; it was left to Leslie to adopt " genteel comedy."
Like his countryman and adviser, Washington Irving, he had
visited, doubtless, many scenes of quiet English country life,
and one of these is reproduced in his well-known picture of
Sir Eager de Coverley going to Church, which was exhibited
in 1819. He had previously shown his power in humorous
subjects by painting Ann Page and Slender. Leslie had dis-
covered his true vocation, and continued to work in the de-
partment of the higher genre with unabated success. The patron-
age of Lord Egremont, for whom he painted, in 1823, Sancho
Panza in the Apartment of the Duchess, was the means of pro-
curing him many commissions. The picture in the National
Gallery, of which we give an illustration, is a replica with slight
SUBJECT PAINTERS. 173
alterations, executed many years later. He married in 1825,
and became a full member of the Academy a year later. In 1831
he exhibited The Dinner at Page's House, from " The Merry
Wives of Windsor " one of his finest works. No painter has
made us so well acquainted with the delightful old reprobate,
Falstaff, with Bardolph, and the merry company who drank
sack at the Boar's Head in Eastcheap. There is a repetition
of The Dinner at Page's House in the Sheepshanks Collection,
slightly varied from the first, and bearing traces of Constable's
influence. In 1833, Leslie was appointed teacher of drawing at
the American Academy at West Point, and with his family he
removed thither. It was a mistake, and the painter returned
to England within a year. He illustrated Shakespeare, Cer-
vantes, Goldsmith, and Sterne, the latter furnishing him with
the subject of Uncle Toby and the Widow W adman. In 1838,
Leslie, by request of the Queen, painted Her Majesty's Coro-
nation which is very unlike the usual pictures of a state
ceremonial. In 1841 he was commissioned to paint The
Christening of the Princess Eoyal. The domestic life of Leslie
was peaceful and prosperous, till the death of a daughter gave a
shock from which he never recovered. He died May 5, 1859.
Mr. Redgrave says of his art, "Leslie entered into the true spirit
of the writer he illustrated. His characters appear the very in-
dividuals who have filled our mind. Beauty, elegance, and
refinement, varied, and full of character, or sparkling with sweet
humour, were charmingly depicted by his pencil ; while the
broader characters of another class, from his fine appreciation
of humour, are no less truthfully rendered, and that with an
entire absence of any approach to vulgarity. The treatment of
his subject is so simple that we lose the sense of a picture, and
feel that we are looking upon a scene as it must have happened.
He drew correctly and with an innate sense of grace. His
colouring is pleasing, his costume simple and appropriate."
GILBERT STUART NEWTON (1794 1835), connected with
ENGLISH SUBJECT PAINTERS. 175
Leslie by friendship and similarity of taste, was a native of
Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1817, when travelling in Europe,
Newton met with Leslie at Paris, and returned with him to
London. He was a student of the Academy, and soon
attracted attention by The Forsaken, Lovers' Quarrels, and
The Importunate Author, which were exhibited at the British
Institution. Newton began to exhibit at the Academy in
1823, and delighted the world with Don Quixote in his
Study, and Captain Macheath upbraided by Polly and Lucy.
In 1828 he surpassed these works with The Vicar of Wake-
field reconciling his Wife to Olivia, and was elected an A.R.A.
Yorick and the Grisette, Cordelia and the Physician, Portia
and Bassanio, and similar works followed. In 1832 Newton
became a full member of the Academy, and visiting America,
married, and returned with his wife to England. The brief
remaining period of his life was clouded with a great sorrow ;
his mind gave way, and having exhibited his last picture,
Abelard in his Study, he became altogether insane.
AUGUSTUS LEOPOLD EGG (1816 1863) was born in Picca-
dilly, and on becoming a painter chose similar subjects to those
of Leslie and Newton. He had not the humour of Leslie ;
indeed, most of Egg's subjects are melancholy. His first
works were Italian views, and illustrations of Scott's novels,
which attracted little notice. The Victim promised better. Egg
showed pictures in the Suffolk Street Gallery, and, in 1838,
The Spanish Girl appeared at the Royal Academy. Failing
health compelled him to winter abroad, and on the 23rd of
March, 1863, he died at Algiers, and was buried on a lonely
hill. Three years before his death Egg had become a full member
of the Academy. He is described as having a greater sense of
colour than Leslie, but inferior to Newton in this respect. In
execution he far surpassed the flimsy mannerism of the latter.
His females have not the sweet beauty and gentleness of
Leslie's. In the National Gallery is A Scene from " Le Diable
176 ENGLISH SUBJECT PAINTERS.
Boiteux" in which the dexterity of Egg's execution is visible.
He partially concurred with the pre-Raphaelites in his later
years, and their influence may be traced in Pepys' Introduction
to Nell Crwynne, and in a scene from Thackeray's "Esmond."
Other noteworthy pictures are The Life and Death of Bucking-
ham ; Peter the Great sees Catherine, his future Empress, for
the First Time; The Night before Naseby; and Catherine and
Petruchio.
EDWIN HENRY LANDSEER (1802 1873) was eminent among
English animal painters. No artist has done more to teach
us how to love animals and to enforce the truth that
" He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small."
Not only did Landseer rival some of the Dutch masters of the
seventeenth century in painting fur and feathers, but he depicted
animals with sympathy, as if he believed that "the dumb,
driven cattle " possess souls. His dogs and other animals
are so human as to look as if they were able to speak. The
painter was the son of John Landseer, the engraver, and was
born in London. He received art lessons from his father,
and, when little more than a baby, would sketch donkeys,
horses, and cows at Hampstead Heath. Some of these
sketches, made when Landseer was five, seven, and ten
years old, are at Kensington. He was only fourteen when
he exhibited the heads of A Pointer Bitch and Puppy. When
between sixteen and seventeen he produced Dogs fighting,
which was engraved by the painter's father. Still more
popular was The Dogs of St. Gothard rescuing a Distressed
Traveller, which appeared when its author was eighteen.
Landseer was not a pupil of Haydon, but he had occasional
counsel from him. He dissected a lion. As soon as he
reached the age of twenty-four he was elected an A.R.A., and
exhibited at the Academy The Hunting of Chevy Chase. This
was in 1826, and in 1831 he became a full member of the
178 ENGLISH PAINTERS.
Academy. Landseer had visited Scotland in 1826, and from
that date we trace a change in his style, which thenceforth
was far less solid, true and searching, and became more free and
bold. The introduction of deer into his pictures, as in The
Children of the Mist, Seeking Sanctuary, and The Stag at Bay,
marked the influence of Scotch associations. Landseer was
knighted in 1850, and at the French Exhibition of 1855 was
awarded the only large gold medal given to an English artist.
Prosperous, popular, and the guest of the highest personages of
the realm, he was visited about 1852 by an illness which com-
pelled him to retire from society. From this he recovered,
but the effects of a railway accident in 1868 brought on a
relapse. He died in 1873, and was buried in St. Paul's
Cathedral. On the death of Sir Charles Eastlake, in 1865, he
was offered the Presidentship of the Eoyal Academy, but this
honour he declined. In the National Gallery are Spaniels of
King Charles's Breed, Low Life and High Life, Highland Music
(a highland piper disturbing a group of five hungry dogs, at
their meal, with a blast on the pipes), The Hunted Stag, Peace
(of which we give a representation), War (dying and dead horses,
and their riders lying amidst the burning ruins of a cottage),
Dignity and Impudence, Alexander and Diogenes, The Defeat of
Comus, a sketch painted for a fresco in the Queen's summer
house, Buckingham Palace. Sixteen of Landseer's works are
in the Sheepshanks Collection, including the touching Old
Shepherd's Chief Mourner, of which Mr. Ruskin said that
"it stamps its author not as the neat imitator of the texture
of a skin, or the fold of a drapery, but as the man of mind."
WILLIAM BOXALL (18001879), after study in the Royal
Academy Schools and in Italy, exhibited at the Royal Academy
in 1829 his first picture Milton's Reconciliation with his Wife
and continued to contribute to its exhibitions till 1866.
Though his first works were historic and allegoric, he finally
became famous as a portrait painter, and reckoned among his
SUBJECT PAINTERS. 179
sitters some of the most eminent men of the time poets,
painters, writers on art, and others, e.g. Copley Fielding,
David Cox, Coleridge, Wordsworth. In 1852 Boxall became an
associate, and in 1864 a full member of the Royal Academy ;
he was Director of the National Gallery from 1865 to 1874 ;
and received the honour of knighthood in 1871, in recognition
of the valuable services which he rendered to art.
PAUL FALCONER POOLE (1810 1879), a painter of high class
of genre pictures as well as of history, exhibited his first picture
at the Academy in 1830, The Well, a Scene at Naples. In 1838
he produced The Emigrant's Departure. Other pictures are
May Queen preparing for the Dance, The Escape of Olaucus and
lone, The Seventh Day of the Decameron. Among the historic
works of this artist are The Vision of Ezekiel (National Gallery)
and others. Poole became a full member of the Academy in 1860.
GEORGE HEMMING MASON (1818 1872), a native of Witley,
Staffordshire, found art to be surrounded by difficulties. His
father insisted .on his following the profession of medicine, and
placed him with Dr. Watts, of Birmingham. A portrait painter
having visited the doctor's house, young Mason borrowed his
colour-box, and, unaided, produced a picture of such promise
that the artist advised him to follow art. Mason left the
doctor's house, made his way to Italy, and, without any
teacher, developed an original style which is marked by
simplicity of design, refinement of colour, delicacy of chiaros-
curo, and pathos of expression. He was elected A.R.A. in
1868, but died of heart-disease before becoming a full mem-
ber. Mason's best-known works are Campagna di Roma,
The Gander, The Return, from Ploughing, The Cast Shoe, The
Evening Hymn, and The Harvest Moon, unfinished.
ROBERT BRAITHWAITE MARTINEAU (1826 1869), son of one
of the Masters in Chancery, nephew of Miss Martineau, com-
menced life as an articled clerk to a solicitor. After four years'
study of the law he forsook it for the brighter sphere of art,
N2
180 ENGLISH SUBJECT PAINTERS.
and entered the Academy Schools. In 1852 Martineau ex-
hibited at the Academy Kit's Writing Lesson, from " The Old
Curiosity Shop," which indicated the class of subjects which
he delighted in. His Last Day in the Old House, and The
Last Chapter, by their originality of conception, and exquisite
painting, won the artist a renown which he did not long live
to enjoy. He died of heart-disease.
JOHN FREDERICK LEWIS (1805 1876), the son of an eminent
London engraver, began his career in art by painting studies of
animals, and in 1828 was elected a Member of the Society of
Painters in Water- Colours. He afterwards travelled in Spain
and Italy, painting many subjects, such as a Spanish Bull-
fight, Monks preaching at Seville, &c., and thence went to the
East, where he stayed some years. He returned to England in
1851, and four years afterwards was made President of the
Water-colour Society. In 1856 he exhibited A Frank En-
campment in the Desert of Mount Sinai, which Mr. Ruskin called
" the climax of water-colour drawing." In the same year he
began to paint in oil colours, and frequently exhibited pictures
of Eastern life, such as The Meeting in the Desert, A Turkish
School, A Cafe in Cairo, &c. In 1859 he was made an Asso-
ciate of the Royal Academy, and in 1866 a full member. In
the South Kensington Museum there are two of Lewis's water-
colour drawings, The Halt in the Desert and Peasants of the
Black Forest, and a few. of his studies from nature.
EDWARD MATTHEW WARD (1816 1879) became a student
at the Academy by the advice of Wilkie, who had seen his
first picture, a portrait of Mr. 0. Smith as Don Quixote. In
1836 W T ard was a student in Rome. Thence he proceeded
to Munich, and studied fresco-painting with Cornelius. In
1839 he returned to England, and exhibited Cimabue and
Giotto. Joining in the competition for the decoration of
the Houses of Parliament, he produced Boadicea, which was
commended, but did not obtain a premium. Dr. Johnson
182 ENGLISH SUBJECT PAINTERS.
reading the MS. of Goldsmith's " Vicar of Wakejield" first
brought him to notice. It was followed by Dr. Johnson in
Lord Chesterfield's Ante-Room, and the painter was elected
an A.R.A. This work as well as The Disgrace of Lord
Clarendon, The South-Sea Bubble, and James II. receiving
the news of the landing of William of Orange, are in the
National Gallery. In 1852 and later Ward executed eight
historic pictures in the corridor of the House of Commons.
He was elected a Royal Academician in 1855. His pictures
are too well known to need description ; most popular among
them are Charlotte Cor day led to Execution, The Execution
of Montrose, The Last Sleep of Argyll, Marie Antoinette parting
with the Dauphin, The Last Moments of Charles II., The Night
of Rizzio's Murder, The Earl of Leicester and Amy Robsart,
Judge Jeffreys and Richard Baxter.
FREDERICK WALKER (1840 1875) died just as he had
fulfilled the promise of his youth. After spending a short
time in the office of an architect and surveyor, he left this
uncongenial region to practise art. He occasionally studied
in the Academy Schools, and began his artistic career by
illustrating Thackeray's " Philip " in the " Cornhill Magazine,"
thus winning much praise. He became a member of the
Old Water-Colour Society, and an A.R.A. A career full of
promise was cut short by death at St. Fillan's, Perthshire,
in 1875 : the young painter was buried at his favourite
Cookham, on the Thames. His chief works are The Lost
Path, The Bathers, The Vagrants, The Old Gate, The Plough,
The Harbour of Refuge, and The Right of Way. Mr. Red-
grave said, " His genius was thoroughly and strikingly original.
His works are marked by a method of their own ; the drawing,
colour, and execution, alike peculiar to himself. They are at
once refined and pathetic in sentiment, and novel in their
conception of nature and her effects. His figures have the
true feeling of rustic life, with the grace of line of the
antique."
184 ENGLISH SUBJECT PAINTERS.
GABRIEL CHARLES DANTE ROSSETTI (1828 1882), poet, and
painter of sacred subjects and scenes inspired by the writings
of Dante, was the son of an Italian patriot, a political refugee,
who became Professor of Italian in King's College, London.
He exhibited at the Portland Gallery his first picture, The
Girlhood of the Virgin, in 1849, and became the founder of
the pre-Raphaelite school, which included Millais, Holman Hunt,
and other artists now celebrated. Kossetti's best-known pic-
tures are Dante's Dream (now at Liverpool), The Damosel of
the Sancte Graal, The Last Meeting of Lancelot and Guinevere,
The Beloved (an illustration of the Song of Solomon), and Proser-
pina. He seldom exhibited his paintings in public, but they
were seen by art-critics, one of whom wrote (in 1873) "Ex-
uberance in power, exuberance in poetry of a rich order,
noble technical gifts, vigour of conception, and a marvellously
extensive range of thought and invention appear in nearly every-
thing Mr. Rossetti produces."
He was equally celebrated as a writer of sonnets and a trans-
lator of Italian poetry.
It is not within the province of this work to include notice of
living artists. To give an account of all the celebrated painters
would require another volume. During the past decade Art
has advanced with steady progress, and we can confidently say
that at no time have the ranks of the Royal Academicians and
the two Water- Colour Societies been filled more worthily than at
the present day. The last quarter of the nineteenth century is
likely to be a golden era in the history of British Art.
PAINTING IN AMERICA
BY S. R. KOEHLER.
PAINTING IN AMERICA-
INTRODUCTION.
THE history of art in America is in reality the record
only of the dying away of the last echoes of movements
which had their origin in Europe. Although the western
continent has given birth to new political ideas and new forms
of government, not one of its States, not even the greatest of
them all, the United States of North America, to which
this chapter will be confined, has thus far brought forth
a national art, or has exercised any perceptible influence, except
iu a single instance, on the shaping of the art of the world. Nor
is this to be wondered at. The newness of the country, the
mixture of races from the beginning, and the ever-continuing
influx of foreigners, together with the lack of educational facili-
ties, and the consequent necessity of seeking instruction in
Europe, are causes sufficient to explain the apparent anomaly.
Even those of the native painters of the United States who
kept away from the Old World altogether, or visited it too late
in life to be powerfully influenced, show but few traces of
decided originality in either conception or execution. They
188 AMERICAN PAINTERS
also were under the spell, despite the fact that it could not
work upon them directly. The attempt has been made to
explain this state of things by assuming an incapacity for art on
the part of the people of the country, and an atmosphere hostile
to its growth, resulting from surrounding circumstances. These
conclusions, however, are false. So far as technical skill goes,
Americans native as well as adopted have always shown a
remarkable facility of acquisition, and the rapidity with which
carpenters, coach-painters, and sign-painters, especially in the
earlier period of the country's history, developed into respectable
portrait-painters, almost without instruction, will always remain
cause for astonishment. Of those who went abroad at that time,
England readopted four men who became famous (West, Copley,
Newton, Leslie), and she still points to them with satisfaction
as among the more conspicuous on her roll of artists. Nor has
this quality been lost with the advance of time. It has, on the
contrary, been aided by diligent application ; and the successes
which have been achieved by American students are recorded
in the annals of the French Salon. There is one curious
trait, however, which will become more and more apparent as
we trace the history of art in America, and that is the absence
of a national element in the subjects treated. If we except a
short flickering of patriotic spirit in the art of what may be
called the Revolutionary Period, and the decided preference
given to American scenes by the landscape painters of about the
middle of the present century, it may be said that the artists of
the country, as a rule, have imported with the technical
processes also the subjects of the Old World; that they have
preferred the mountains of Italy and the quiet hamlets of France
to the hills of New England and the Rocky Mountains of the
West, the Arab to the Indian, and the history of the Old World
to the records of their own ancestors. Even the struggle for
the destruction of the last vestiges of slavery which was the
great work entrusted to this generation, has called forth so few
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 180
manifestations in art (and these few falling without the limits of
the present chapter), that it would not be very far from wrong
to speak of it as having left behind it no trace whatever. All
this, however, is not the fault of the artists, except in so far as
they are themselves part of the nation. The blame attaches to
the people as a whole, whose innermost thoughts and highest
aspirations the artists will always be called upon to embody in
visible form. There is no doubt, from the evidence already
given by the painters of America, that they will be equal to the
task, should they ever be called upon to exert their skill in the
execution of works of monumental art.
The history of painting in America may be divided into four
periods : 1. The Colonial Period, up to the time of the Revo-
lution ; 2. The Revolutionary Period, comprising the painters
who were eye-witnesses of and participators in the War of Inde-
pendence ; 3. The Period of Inner Development, from about the
beginning of the century to the civil war ; 4. The Period of the
Present. It will be seen that the designations of these divisions
are taken from the political rather than the artistic history of
the country. And, indeed, it would be difficult to find other
distinguishing marks which would allow of a concise nomencla-
ture. As to the influences at work in the several periods, it
may be said that the Colonial and Revolutionary were entirely
under the domination of England. In the earlier part of the
third period the influence of England continued, but was supple-
mented by that of Italy. Later on a number of American
artists studied in Paris, without, however, coming under the
influence of the Romantic school, and towards the middle of the
century many of them were attracted by Diisseldorf. A slight
influence was exercised also by the English pre-Raphaelites, but
it found expression in a literary way rather than in actual
artistic performance. In the fourth or present period, finally,
the leadership has passed to the Colouristic schools of Paris and
190 AMERICAN PAINTERS
Munich, to which nearly all the younger artists have sworn
allegiance.
FIRST, OR COLONIAL PERIOD.
The paintings which have come down to the present day from
the Colonial Period, so far as they relate to America, are almost
without exception portraits. Many of these were, as a matter of
course, brought over from England and Holland ; but that there
were resident painters in the Colonies as early as 1667, is shown
by a passage in Cotton Mather's " Magnalia," cited by Tucker-
man. It is very natural that these " limners," to use a favourite
designation then applied to artists, were not of the best. The
masters of repute did not feel a call to dwell in the wilderness,
and hence the works belonging to the beginning of this period
are for the most part rude and stiff. Several of these early
portraits may be seen in the Memorial Hall of Harvard Univer-
sity, at Cambridge, Mass.
The first painters whose names have been preserved to us
were not born to the soil. The honour of standing at the head
of the roll belongs to JOHN WATSON (1685 1768), a Scotchman,
who established himself at Perth Amboy, N.J., in 1715. Of
his portraits none are at present known, but at the Chrono-
logical Exhibition of American Art, held in Brooklyn, N.Y., in
1872, there was shown an India ink drawing by him, Venus and
Cupid, executed on vellum. A better fate was vouchsafed to
the works of JOHN SMYBERT, another Scotchman, who came to
Rhode Island in 1728 with Dean, afterwards Bishop, Berkeley,
in whose proposed college he was to be an instructor probably
the first movement towards art education made in the Colonies.
Smybert settled and married in Boston, where he died in 1751
or 1752. He was not an artist of note, although his most impor-
tant work, The Family of Bishop Berkeley, a large group, in which
he has introduced his own likeness, now in the possession of Yale
College, at New Haven, Conn., shows him to have been coura-
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 191
geous and not without talent. Not all the pictures, however,
which are attributed to him, come up to this standard. A very
bad example to which his name is attached may be seen in the
portrait of John Lovell, in the Memorial Hall of Harvard Uni-
versity. The influence exercised by Smybert on the develop-
ment of art in America is due to an accident rather than to
actual teaching. He brought with him a copy of the head of
Cardinal Bentivoglio, by Van Dyck, which he had made in Italy,
and which is still preserved in the Hall just named. It was
this copy which first inspired Trumbull and Allston with a
love of art, and gave them an idea of colour. Of the other
foreigners who visited the Colonies during this period, the more
prominent are BLACKBURN, an Englishman, who was Smybert's
contemporary or immediate successor, and is by some held to
have been Copley's teacher ; WILLIAMS, another Englishman,
who painted about the same time in Philadelphia, and from
whose intercourse young West is said to have derived consider-
able benefit ; and COSMO ALEXANDER, a Scotchman, who came to
America in 1770, and was Stuart's first instructor.
The earliest native painter who has left any lasting record is
ROBERT FEKE, whose life is enveloped by the mystery of romance.
Sprung from Quaker stock, and separated from his people by
difference of religious opinion, he left home, and was in some
way taken a prisoner to Spain, where he is said to have executed
rude paintings, with the proceeds of which he managed to return
home. Feke painted in Philadelphia and elsewhere about the
middle of the last century, and his portraits, according to
Tuckerman, are considered the best colonial family portraits
next to West's. Specimens of his work may be seen in the
collections of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me. ; the Redwood
Athenaeum, Newport, R.I. ; and the R. I. Historical Society,
Providence, R.I.
Nearest to Feke in date although his later contempo-
raries, West and Copley, were earlier known as artists, and
192 AMERICAN PAINTERS
the first named even became his teacher in England is
MATTHEW PRATT (1734 1805), who started in life as a sign-
painter in Philadelphia. Pratt' s work is often spoken of
slightingly, and does not generally receive the commendation
it deserves. His full-length portrait of Lieutenant- Governor
Cadwallader Colden, painted for the New York Chamber of
Commerce in 1772, and still to be seen at its rooms, shows
him to have been quite a respectable artist, with a feeling for
colour in advance of that exhibited by Copley in his earlier
work. Still another native artist of this period, HENRY BEM-
BRIDGE, is chiefly of interest from the fact that he is said to have
studied with Mengs and Battoni, which would make him one of
the first American painters who visited Italy. He seems to have
painted chiefly in Charleston, S.C., and his portraits are de-
scribed as of singularly formal aspect.
The most celebrated painters of this period, however, and the
only ones whose fame is more than local, are John Singleton
Copley and Benjamin West. But as both of them left their
country at an early age, never to return, they belong to England
rather than to America.
COPLEY (1737 1815) was a native of Boston, and did not go
to Europe until 1774, when his reputation was already esta-
blished. In 1760 he gave his income in Boston at three
hundred guineas. He first went to Italy and thence to London,
where he settled. Some speculation has been indulged in as to
Copley's possible teachers. He must have received some aid
from his stepfather, Peter Pelham, a schoolmaster and very
inferior mezzotint engraver ; and it has also been supposed that
he may have had the benefit of Blackburn's instruction. This
does not seem likely, however, judging either from the facts 01
from tradition. Copley was undoubtedly essentially self-taught,
and the models upon which he probably formed his style are
still to be seen. Several of them are included in the collection
in the Memorial Hall of Harvard University. One of these
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTUEY. 193
portraits, that of Thomas Hollis, a benefactor of the university,
who died when Copley was only six years of age, is so like the
latter's work, not only in conception but even in the pale-
ness of the flesh tints and the cold grey of the shadows, as to
be readily taken for one of his earlier productions. In England
Copley became the painter of the aristocracy, and executed a
considerable number of large historic pictures, mostly of
modern incidents. He is elegant rather than powerful, and
quite successful in the rendering of stuffs. His colour, at first
cold and rather inharmonious, improved with experience,
although he has been pronounced deficient in this respect even
in later years. Copley's most celebrated picture is The Death of
the Earl of Chatham. Many specimens of his skill as a portrait-
painter can be seen in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston,
and in the Memorial Hall of Harvard University, the latter
collection including the fine portrait of Mrs. Thomas Boylston.
The Public Library of Boston owns one of his large historic
paintings, Charles I. demanding the Five Members from Parlia-
ment.
BENJAMIN WEST (1738 1820) was born of Quaker parentage
at Springfield, Pa., and was successfully engaged, at the age of
eighteen, as a portrait-painter in Philadelphia. In 1760 he went
to Rome, and it is believed that he was the first American
artist who ever appeared there. Three years later he removed
to London, where he became the leading historic painter, the
favourite of the King, and President of the Royal Academy.
His great scriptural and historic compositions, of which com-
paratively few are to be seen in his native country (King Lear,
in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston ; Death on the Pale Horse
and Christ Rejected, at the Pennsylvania Academy, Philadelphia),
show him in the light of an ambitious and calculating rather
than inspired painter, with a decided feeling for colour. His
influence on art in general made itself felt in the refusal to paint
the actors in his Death of Wolfe in classic costume, according
o
AMERICAN PAINTERS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 195
to usage. By clothing them in their actual dress, he led art
forward a step in the realistic direction, the only instance to be
noted of a directing motive imparted to art by an American, but
one which is quite in accordance with the spirit of the New
World. West's influence upon the art of his own country was
henceforth limited to the warm interest he took in the many
students of the succeeding generation who flocked to England to
study under his guidance.
SECOND, OR REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
The Revolutionary Period is, in many respects, the most
interesting division, not only in the political, but also in the
artistic history of the United States. It is so, not merely
because it has left us the pictorial records of the men and the
events of a most important epoch in the development of man-
kind, but also because it brought forth two painters who, while
they were thoroughly American in their aspirations, were at the
same time endowed with artistic qualities of a very high order.
Gilbert Stuart and John Trumbull, the two painters alluded to,
have a right to be considered the best of the American painters
of the past, and will always continue to hold a prominent place
in the history of their art, even if it were possible to forget the
stirring scenes with which they were connected.
GILBERT STUART was born in Narragansett, E.I., in 1755, and
died in Boston in 1828. He was of Scotch descent, and it has
already been mentioned that Cosmo Alexander, a Scotchman,
was his first teacher. After several visits to Europe, during the
second of which he studied under West, Stuart finally returned
in 1793, and began the painting of the series of national por-
traits which will for ever endear him to the patriotic American.
Among these his several renderings of Washington, of which
there are many copies by his own hand, are the most celebrated.
The greatest popularity is perhaps enjoyed by the so-called
o 2
GENERAL KNOX. By GILBERT STUART.
[Copyright, 1879, by Harper and Brothers.']
AMEEICAN PAINTERS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 197
Athenasum head, which, with its pendant, the portrait of Mrs.
Washington, is the property of the Athenaeum of Boston, and by
that institution has been deposited in the Museum of Fine Arts
of the same city. The claim to superiority is, however, con-
tested by the Gibbs Washington, at present also to be seen in
the museum alluded to. It was painted before the other, and
gives the impression of more realistic truthfulness, while the
Athenaeum head seems to be somewhat idealized. Stuart's
work is quite unequal, as he was not a strict economist, and
often painted for money only. But in his best productions
there is a truly admirable purity and wealth of colour, added to
a power of characterization, which lifts portraiture into the
highest sphere of art. It must be said, however, that he con-
centrated his attention almost entirely upon the head, often
slighting the arms and hands, especially of his female sitters,
to an unpleasant degree. Many excellent specimens of his work,
besides the Washington portraits, are to be found in the Museum
of Fine Arts at Boston and in the collection of the New York
Historical Society, the latter including the fine portrait of Egbert
Benson, painted in 1807. His chef-d'oeuvre is the portrait of
Judge Stephen Jones, owned by Mr. F. G. Richards, of Boston,
a remarkably vigorous head of an old man, warm and glowing
in colour, which, it is said, the artist painted for his own satis-
faction. Stuart's most celebrated work in England is Mr.
Grant skating. When this portrait was exhibited as a work by
Gainsborough, at the " Old Masters," in 1878, its pedigree
having been forgotten, it was in turn attributed to all the great
English portrait-painters, until it was finally restored to its true
author.
Still more national importance attaches to JOHN TRUMBULL
(1756 1843), since he was an historic as well as a portrait-
painter, took part in person as an officer in the American army
in many of the events of the Revolution, and was intimately
acquainted with most of the heroes of his battle scenes. Ame-
AMEEICAN PAINTERS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 199
rica enjoys in this respect an advantage of which no other coun-
try can boast that of having possessed an artist contempora-
neous with the most important epoch in its history, and capable
and willing to depict the scenes enacted around him. Colonel
Trumbull, the son of Jonathan Trumbull, the Colonial Governor
of Connecticut, studied at Harvard, and gave early evidences
of a taste for art. At the age of nineteen he joined the Ame-
rican army, but in 1780, aggrieved at a fancied slight, he threw
up his commission and went to France, and thence to London,
where he studied under West. Trumbull must not be judged
as an artist by his large paintings in the Capitol at Washington,
the commission for which he did not receive until 1817. To
know him one must study him in his smaller works and sketches,
now gathered in the gallery of Yale College, where may be seen
his Death of Montgomery, Battle of Bunker Hill, Declaration of
Independence, and other revolutionary scenes, together with a
series of admirable miniature portraits in oil, painted from life,
as materials for his historic works, and a number of larger
portraits, including a full-length of Washington. As a portrait-
painter, Trumbull is also represented at his best by the full-length
of Alexander Hamilton, at the rooms of the New York Chamber
of Commerce. The most successful of his large historic pieces,
The Sortie from Gibraltar, painted in London, is at .the Museum
of Fine Arts in Boston. Goethe, who saw the small painting
of The Battle of Bunker Hill while it was in the hands of
Miiller, the engraver, commended it, but criticized its colour and
the smallness of the heads. It is true that Trumbull's drawing
is somewhat conventional, and that he had a liking for long
figures. But his colour, as seen 'to-day in his good earlier
pictures, is quite brilliant and harmonious, although thoroughly
realistic. In his later work, however, as shown by the Scrip-
ture pieces likewise preserved in the Yale Gallery, there is a
marked decadence in vigour of drawing as well as of colour.
Owing to an unfortunate concatenation of circumstances, Trum-
200 AMERICAN PAINTERS
bull has not received the full appreciation which is his due, even
from his own countrymen. Thackeray readily recognised his
merit, and cautioned the Americans never to despise or neglect
Trumbull a piece of advice which is only now beginning to
attract the attention it deserves.
Among the portrait-painters of this period, CHARLES WILSON
PEALE (1741 1827) takes the lead by reason of quantity rather
than quality. Peale was typical of a certain phase of American
character, representing the restlessness and superficiality which
prevail upon men to turn lightly from one occupation to another.
He was a dentist, a worker in materials of all sorts, an orni-
thologist and taxidermist, rose to the rank of colonel in the
American army, and started a museum of natural history and
art in Philadelphia. But his strongest love seems, after all, to
have been for the fine arts. Among the fourteen portraits of
Washington which Peale painted, according to Tuckerman, is
the only full-length ever done of the father of his country: it
shows him before the Revolution, attired as an officer in the
colonial force of Great Britain. A large number of Peale's
portraits may be seen in the Pennsylvania Academy and in
Independence Hall, Philadelphia. The New York Historical
-Society owns, among other works by his hand, a Washington
portrait and a group of the Peale family comprising ten figures.
Much of Peale's work is crude, but all of his heads have the
appearance of being good likenesses.
Among a number of other painters of this period we can select
only a few, whose names receive an additional lustre from their
connection with Washington.
JOSEPH WRIGHT (1756 1793) was the son of Patience Wright,
who modelled heads in wax at Bordentown, N.J., before the
Revolution. While in England he painted a portrait of the
Prince of Wales. In] the year 1783 Washington sat to him,
after having submitted to the preliminary ordeal of a plaster
mask. Tuckerman speaks of this portrait as inelegant and un-
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 201
flattering, and characterizes the artist as unideal, but consci-
entious. Wright's portrait of John Jay, at the rooms of the
New York Historical Society, authorizes a more favourable judg-
ment. It is, indeed, somewhat austere, but lifelike, well posed,
and cool in colour.
E. SAVAGE (1761 1817) seems to have been nearly as versa-
tile as Peale, emulating him also in the establishment of a
museum, at first in New York, then in Boston. His portrait of
General Washington, in the Memorial Hall of Harvard Univer-
sity, is carefully painted and bright in colour, but rather lifeless.
His Washington Family, in the Boston Museum (a place of
amusement not to be confounded with the Museum of Fine Arts),
which he engraved himself, has similar qualities. A little pic-
ture by him, also in the Boston Museum, representing The
Signers of the Declaration of Independence in Carpenters' Hall,
is interesting on account of its, subject, but does not possess
much artistic merit. The portrait of Dr. Handy, on the con-
trary, which is assigned to him, at the New York Historical
Society, is a very creditable work, good in colour, luminous in
the flesh, and simple in the modelling.
WILLIAM DUNLAP (1766 1839), finally, may also be men-
tioned here on account of his portrait of Washington painted
when the artist was only seventeen years old although he
belongs more properly to the next period, and is of more im-
portance as a writer than a painter. He published, in 1834, a
" History of the Arts of Design in the United States," a book
now quite scarce and much sought after. A group of himself
and his parents, painted in 1788, is in the collection of the New
York Historical Society.
THIRD PERIOD, OR PERIOD OF INNER DEVELOPMENT.
The example of Trumbull found no followers. The only other
American painter who made a specialty of his country's history
202
AMERICAN PAINTERS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
seems to have been JOHN BLAKE WHITE (1782 1859), a native
of Charleston, S.C., who painted such subjects as Mrs. Motte
presenting the Arroivs, Marion inviting the British Officer to
Dinner, and the Battles of Neiv Orleans and Eutaw, placed in
the State House of South Carolina. White's fame is quite local,
however, and it is impossible, therefore, to judge of his qualities
accurately. Had there been more painters of similar subjects,
a national school might have resulted ; but neither the people
nor the Government took any interest in Colonel Trumbull's
plans. It was necessary to employ all sorts of manoeuvring to
induce Congress to give a commission to the artist, and the
result was disappointment to all concerned ; and when, later,
the further decoration of the Capitol at Washington, the seat of
government, was resolved upon, the artist selected for the work
was CARLO BRUMIDI (1811 1880), an Italian artist of the old
school. The healthy impetus towards realistic historic painting
given by Trumbull thus died out, and what there is of historic
and figure painting in the period now under consideration is
mainly dominated by a false idealism, of which Washington
Allston is the leading representative. To rival the old masters,
to do what had been done before, to flee from the actual and
the near to the unreal and the distant, to look upon monks
and knights and robbers and Venetian senators as the embodi-
ment of the poetic, in spite of the poet's warning to the
contrary, was now the order of the day ; and hence it was but
natural that quite a number of the artists who then went to
Europe turned to Italy. It was in this period, also, that the
first attempts were made to establish Academies of Art in Phila-
delphia and New York attempts which, while they were laudable
enough in themselves, inasmuch as these institutions were in-
tended to provide instruction at home for the rising generation,
still pointed in the same direction of simple imitation of the
expiring phases of European Art.
WASHINGTON ALLSTON (1779 1843) was a native of South
JEREMIAH AND THE SCRIBE. By WASHINGTON ALLSTON. At Yale College.
[Copyright, 1879, by Harper and Brothers.]
204 AMEEICAN PAINTERS
Carolina, but was sent to New England at an early age, and
graduated from Harvard College in 1800. The year following
be went to England, to study under West, and thence to Italy,
where he stayed four years, until his return to Boston in 1809.
After a second absence in Europe of seven years' duration, he
finally settled in Cambridge, near Boston. Allston's art covered
a wide range, including Scripture history, portraiture, ideal
heads, genre, landscape, and marine. It is difficult to under-
stand to-day the "enthusiasm which his works aroused, if not
among the great public, at least within a limited circle of
admiring friends. He was lauded for his poetic imagination,
and called "the American Titian," on account of his colour;
and this reputation has lasted down to our own time. The
Allston Exhibition, however, which was held two years ago at
the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, has somewhat modified the
opinions of calm observers. Allston was neither deep nor very
original in his conceptions, nor was he a great colourist. One
of his most pleasing pictures, The Tivo Sisters, is full of reminis-
cences' of Titian, and it is well known that he painted it while
engaged in the study of that master. In the case of an artist
upon whose merits opinions are so widely divided, it may be
well to cite the words of an acknowledged admirer, in speaking
of what has been claimed to be his greatest work, the Jeremiah
and the Scribe, in the Gallery of Yale College. Mrs. E. D.
Cheney, in describing the impression made upon her by this
picture after a lapse of forty years, says: "I was forced to
confess that either I had lost my sensibility to its expression, or
I bad overrated its value The figure of the Prophet is
large and imposing, but I cannot find in it the spiritual grandeur
and commanding nobility of Michel Angelo. He is conscious of
his own presence, rather than lost in the revelation which is
given through him. But the Scribe is a very beautiful figure,
simple in action and expression, and entirely absorbed in his
humble but important work. It reminds me of the young
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 205
brother in Domenichino's Martyrdom of St. Jerome." The same
lack of psychological power, here hinted at, is still more apparent
in the artist's attempts to express the more violent manifesta-
tions of the soul. In The Dead Man revived by touching Elislms
Bones for which he received a premium of 200 guineas from the
British Institution, and which is now in the Pennsylvania Aca-
demy the faces of the terrified spectators are so distorted as to
have become caricatures. This is true, in a still higher degree,
of the heads of the priests in the great unfinished Belshazzar's
Feast, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The unnatural
expression of these heads is generally explained by the condi-
tion in which the picture was left; but the black-and-white
sketches, which may be examined in the same museum, show
precisely the same character. The unhealthy direction of the
artist's mind is apparent, furthermore, in his love of the terrible
shown in his early pictures of banditti, and in such later
works as Saul and the Witch of Endor and Si^alatro's Vision of
the Bloody Hand; while, on the contrary, it will be found,
upon closer analysis, that the ideality and spirituality claimed
for his female heads, such as Rosalie and Amy Robsart, resolve
themselves into something very near akin to sweetness and lack
of strength. In accordance with this absence of intellectual
robustness, Allston's execution is hesitating and wanting in
decision.
A somewhat similar spirit manifested itself in the works of
John Vanderlyn (17761852), Rembrandt Peale (17871860),
Samuel F. B. Morse (1791 1872), and Cornelius Ver Bryck
(18131844).
JOHN VANDERLYN is best known by his Marius on the Ruins
of Carthage, for which he received a medal at the Paris Salon of
1808, and his Ariadne, which forms part of the collection of
the Pennsylvania Academy. Vanderlyn, as the choice of his
subjects, coupled with his success in France, shows, was a very
good classic painter, trained in the routine of the Academy. The
206 AMERICAN PAINTERS
Ariadne is a careful study of the nude, although somewhat red
in the flesh, placed in a conventional landscape of high order.
A large historic composition by him, The Landing of Columbus,
finished in 1846, fills one of the panels in the Rotunda of
the Capitol at Washington. As a portrait painter Vanderlyn
was most unequal.
REMBRANDT PEALE the son of Charles Wilson Peale, best
known through his portraits deserves mention here on ac-
count of his Court of Death, in the Crowe Art Museum of
St. Louis, and The Roman Daughter, in the Boston Museum.
Technically he stands considerably below his leading contem-
poraries.
S. F. B. MORSE, whose fame as an artist has been eclipsed
by his connection with the electric telegraph, was a painter of un-
doubted talent, but given somewhat to ostentation both in
drawing and colour. . Good specimens of his style are found in
his Dying Hercules, Yale College, New Haven, and the rather
theatrical portrait of Lafayette in the Governor's Room of the
City Hall of New York. Morse essayed to paint national sub-
jects, and selected for a theme the interior of the House of
Representatives, with portraits of the members ; but the public
took no interest in the picture, although it is said to have
been very clever, and the artist did not even cover his expenses
by exhibiting it.
CORNELIUS YER BRYCK painted Bacchantes and Cavaliers, and
a few historic pictures, with a decided feeling for colour, as evi-
denced by his Venetian Senator, owned by the New York Histori-
cal Society. He stands upon the borderland between an older
and a newer generation, both of which, however, belong to the
same period. Thus far the influence of Italy had been paramount ;
in the years immediately following Diisseldorf claims a share in
shaping the historical art of the United States. The only names
that can be mentioned here in accordance with the plan of this
book, which excludes living artists, are Emmanuel Leutze
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTUKY. 207
(18161868), Edwin White (18171877), Henry Peters
Gray (18191877), W. H. Powell (died 1879), Thomas
Buchanan Bead (18221872), and J. B. Irving (18261877).
LEUTZE was a German by birth, and his natural sympathies,
although he had been brought to America as an infant, carried
him to Diisseldorf. The eminence to which he rose in this
school may be inferred from the fact that he was chosen
Director of the Academy after he had returned to America, and
almost at the moment of his death. Although of foreign
parentage, he showed more love for American subjects than
most of the native artists, but the trammels of the school in
which he was taught made it impossible for him to become a
thoroughly national painter. His most important works are
Washington crossing the Delaware, Washington at the JBattle of
Monmouth, and Washington at Valley Forge ; the two last named
are at present in the possession of Mrs. Mark Hopkins of Cali-
fornia. In the Capitol at Washington may be seen his Westward
the Star of ~Empire takes its Way ; The Landing of the Norsemen
is in the Pennsylvania Academy ; The Storming of a Teocalle,
in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
EDWIN WHITE, an extraordinarily prolific artist, who studied
both at Paris and Diisseldorf, also painted a number of American
historic pictures, among them Washington resigning his Com-
mission, for the State of Maryland. The bulk of his work,
however, weakly sentimental, deals with the past of Europe.
H. P. GKAY'S allegiance was given, almost undividedly, to the
masters of Italy, and his subjects were mostly taken from anti-
quity. In his best works, such as The Wages of War, he
appears in the light of an academic painter of respectable attain-
ments ; but there is so little of a national flavour in his produc-
tions, that the label " American School " on the frame of the
picture just named is apt to provoke a smile. Gray's Judgment
of Paris is in the Corcoran Gallery at Washington.
W. H. POWELL is best known by his De Soto discovering the
208 AMERICAN PAINTERS
Mississippi, in the Rotunda at Washington, a work which is on
a level with the average of official monumental painting done in
Europe, in which truth is invariably sacrificed to so-called
artistic considerations. As a portrait-painter he does not stand
very high. T. B. BEAD, the " painter-poet," enjoyed one of
those fictitious reputations which are unfortunately none too
rare in America. Without any real feeling for colour, and with
a style of drawing which made up in so-called grace for what it
lacked in decision, he attained a certain popularity by a class of
subjects such as The Lost Pleiad, The Spirit of the Waterfall,
&c., which captivate the unthinking by their very superficiality.
Several of his productions, among them his Sheridan's Ride,
may be seen at the Pennsylvania Academy. J. B. IRVING, a
student at Diisseldorf under Leutze, was a careful and intelli-
gent painter of subjects which might be classed as historic
genre, including some scenes from the past history of the United
States.
Among the foreign artists who came to America during this
period must be named CHRISTIAN SCHUSSELE (1824 1879), a
native of Alsace, who has exercised some influence through his
position as Director of the Schools of the Pennsylvania Academy,
in Philadelphia. His Esther denouncing Haman, in the collec-
tion of the institution just named, shows him to have been an
adherent of the modern French classic school, in which ele-
gance is the first consideration.
A place all by himself must finally be assigned to WILLIAM
RIMMER (1816 1879), of English parentage, who spent much
of his life in the vicinity of Boston. Dr. Rimmer, as he is
commonly called, since he began life as a physician, is of greater
importance as a sculptor than as a painter. He, nevertheless,
must be mentioned here on account of the many drawings he
executed. To an overweening interest in anatomy he added a
somewhat weird fancy, so that his conceptions sometimes remind
one of Blake. His most important work is a set of drawings
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 209
for an anatomical atlas, in which special stress is laid upon the
anatomy of expression. His oil-paintings, such as Cupid and
Venus, &c., are marred by violent contrasts of light and dark,
and an unnatural, morbid scheme of colour, which justifies the
assumption that his colour-vision was defective. But Kimmer
will always remain interesting as a brilliant phenomenon,
strangely out of place in space as well as in time.
The same absence, in general, of a national spirit is to be
noticed in the works of the genre painters. Among the earliest
of these are to be named CHARLES ROBERT LESLIE (1794
1859), many of whose works may be seen in the Lenox Gallery,
New York, and at the Pennsylvania Academy, Philadelphia ;
and GILBERT STUART NEWTON (1794 1835), a nephew of
Stuart, the portrait-painter, who is represented at the New
York Historical Society and in the Museum of Fine Arts in
Boston. These two artists are, however, so closely identified
with the English school, and draw their inspiration so exclu-
sively from European sources, that they can hardly claim a
place in a history of painting in America.
The one American genre painter par excellence is WILLIAM
SYDNEY MOUNT (1807 1868), the son of a farmer on Long
Island, and originally a sign-painter. No other artist has
rivalled Mount in the delineation of the life of the American
farmer and his negro field hands, always looked at from the
humorous side. As a colourist, Mount is quite artless, but in
the rendition of character and expression, and the unbiassed
reproduction of reality, he stands very high. His Fortune Teller,
Bargaining for a Horse, and The Truant Gamblers, the last named
one of his best works also as regards colour, are in the collection
of the New York Historical Society ; The Painter's Triumph is
in the gallery of the Pennsylvania Academy ; the Corcoran
Gallery, Washington, has The Long Story. Several inferior
artists have shown, by their representations of scenes taken
from the political and social life of the United States, how rich
t
AMERICAN PAINTERS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 211
a harvest this field would offer the brush of a modern Terriers.
But in spite of the popularity which the reproductions of their
works and those of some of Mount's pictures enjoyed, the field
remained comparatively untilled.
Of other painters of the past, HENRY INMAN (1801 1846),
better known as a most excellent portrait-painter, executed a few
genre pictures based on American subjects, such as Mumble the
Peg in the Pennsylvania Academy ; and KICHARD CATON WOOD-
VILLE (about 1825 1855), who studied at Diisseldorf, became
favourably known, during his short career, by his Mexican News,
Sailor's Wedding, Bar-Room Politicians, &c. ; while among the
mass of work by F. W. EDMONDS (1806 1863) there are also
several of specifically American character ; but the majority of
artists preferred to repeat the well-worn themes of their Euro-
pean predecessors, as shown by W. E. WEST'S (died 1857) The
Confessional, at the New York Historical Society's Kooms, or
the paintings of JAMES W. GLASS (died 1855), whose Royal
Standard, Free Companion, and Puritan and Cavalier, are drawn
from the annals of England.
The Indian tribes found delineators in GEORGE CATLIN (1796
1872) and C. F. WIMAR (18291863), while WILLIAM H.
KANNEY (died 1857) essayed the life of the trappers and
frontiersmen. None of these artists, however, approached
their subjects from the genuinely artistic side. As an ornitho-
logical painter, scientifically considered, JOHN JAMES AUDUEON
(1780 1851), the celebrated naturalist, occupied a high rank.
The animal world of the prairies and the great West in general
was the chosen field of WILLIAM J. HAYS (18301875). A
large picture by him of an American bison, in the American
Museum of Natural History at New York, shows at once his
careful workmanship, his ambition, and the limitation of his
powers, which was too great to allow him to occupy a promi-
nent place among the animal painters of the world.
The skill in realistic portraiture, eminently shown by the
p 2
212 AMERICAN PAINTERS
American painters of the preceding century, was fully upheld
by their successors of the third period. Most of the historic
painters named above were well known ateo as portraitists, and
their claims to reputation are shared with more or less success
by J. W. JARVIS (17801851), THOMAS SULLY (17831872),
SAMUEL WALDO (1783 1861), CHESTER HARDING ((17921866),
WILLIAM JEWETT (born 1795), EZRA AMES (flourished about 1812
1830), CHARLES C.INGHAM (17961863), J.NEAGLE (1799
1865), CHARLES L. ELLIOTT (18121868), JOSEPH AMES (1816
1872), T. P. ROSSITER (18181871), G. A. BAKER (1821
1880), and W. H. FURNESS (18271867). Specimens of the
work of most of these artists, several of whom were of foreign
parentage, will be found in the collections of the New York
Historical Society, the Governor's Room in the City Hall of
New York, the Pennsylvania Academy, and the Museum of Fine
Arts at Boston. The most prominent among the later names is
Charles Loring Elliott, who was born and educated in America,
but whose work, when he is at his best, nevertheless shows the
hand of a master. E. G. MALBONE (1777 1807), whose only
ideal work, The Hours, is in the AthenaBum, at Providence, R.I.,
is justly celebrated for his delicate miniatures, a department in
which R. M. STAIGG (1817 1881) likewise excelled. As a
crayon artist, famous more especially for his female heads, SETH
W. CHENEY (18101856) must be named.
The most interesting, however, because the most original,
manifestation of the art instinct in this period is found in
landscape. In this department also it seemed for a time as if
the influence of the old Italian masters would gain the upper
hand. But the influence of Diisseldorf, aided by that of
England, although not through its best representatives, such as
Constable, gave a different turn to the course of affairs, and in a
measure freed the artists from the thraldom of an antiquated
school. Although, naturally and justly enough, the landscape
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTUKY. 213
painters of America did not disdain to depict the scenery of
foreign lands, they nevertheless showed a decided preference for
the beauties of their own country, and diligently plied their
brushes in the delineation of the favourite haunts of the Cats-
kills, the Hudson, the White Mountains, Lake G-eorge, &c., and,
at a later period, of the wonders of the Rocky Mountains and
the valley of the Yosemite. It has become the fashion in certain
circles to speak rather derisively of these painters as " the
Hudson River School," a nickname supposed to imply the
charge that they preferred the subject to artistic rendering and
technical skill. There is no denying that there is some truth in
this charge, but later experience has taught, also, that a more
insinuating style is apt to lead the artists to ignore subject alto-
gether. It is precisely the comparative unattractiveness of the
methods employed which enabled these painters to create what
may be called an American school, while, had they been as much
absorbed in technical processes, or in the solving of problems of
colour, as some of their successors, they would probably have
rivalled them also in the neglect of the national element. It is
worthy of note that the. rise of this school of painters of nature
is nearly contemporaneous with the appearance of William
Cullen Bryant, whose " Thanatopsis" was first published in
1817, and who is eminently entitled to be called the poet of
nature.
The first specialist in landscape of whom any record is to be
found is JOSHUA SHAW (1776 1860), an Englishman, who came
to America about 1817. The specimens of his work preserved
in the Pennsylvania Academy show him to have been a painter
of some refinement, who preferred delicate silvery tones to
strength. In the same institution may also be found numerous
examples by THOMAS DOUGHTY (1793 1856), of Philadelphia,
who abandoned mercantile pursuits for art in 1820, and who may
claim to be the first native landscape-painter. His early work
is hard and dry and monotonous in colour, but nevertheless
.>
I
AMEKICAN PAINTERS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 215
with a feeling for light. As he advanced, his colour improved
somewhat. ALVAN FISHER (1792 1863), of Boston, also ranks
among the pioneers in this department, but he was more active
as a portrait-painter.
The greatest name, however, in the early history of land-
scape art in the United States is that of THOMAS COLE (1801
1848), who came over from England with his parents
in 1819, but received his first training, such as it was, in
America. Cole spent several years in Italy, and remained
for the rest of his life under the spell of Claude, Salvator Rosa,
and Poussin. He aspired to be a painter of large historic, or
rather allegoric landscapes, and some of his productions in
this line, as, for instance, The Course of Empire (New York
Historical Society), a series of five canvases, showing the career
of a nation from savage life through the splendours of power
to the desolation of decay, will always secure for him a respect-
able place among the followers of the old school. He therefore
shared, with most of his American colleagues, the fatal defect
that his work contained no germ of advancement, but was con-
tent to be measured by standards which were beginning to be
false, because men had outlived the time in which they were set
up. Cole did not, however, confine himself to such allegoric
landscapes. He was a great lover of the Catskills, and often
chose his subjects there, or in the White Mountains. But in
the specimens of this kind to be seen at the New York Histo-
rical Society's rooms, he shows himself curiously defective in
colour, and mars the tone by undue contrasts between light
and dark. He is at his best in the representation of storm
effects, such as The Tornado, in the Corcoran Gallery at
Washington.
Among the ablest representatives of the " Hudson River
School " were J. F. KENSETT (18181873), and SANFORD R.
GIFFORD (18231880). For Kensett, it may indeed be
claimed that he was the best technician of his time, bolder in
216
AMEBICAN PAINTERS
treatment than most of his colleagues, and with a true feeling
for the poetry of colour. Gilford, who divided his allegiance
about equally between America, Italy, and the Orient, loved to
paint phenomenal effects of light, which often suggest the studio
rather than nature. One of the principal works of this very
successful and greatly esteemed artist, The Euins of the
NOON BY THE SEA-SHORE : BEVERLY BEACH. By J. F. KENSETT.
{Copyright, 1879, by Harper and Brothers. ,]
Parthenon, is the property of the Corcoran Gallery, which also
owns several pictures by Kensett.
As one of the leading lights of the little cluster of American
pre-Raphaelites, we may note JOHN W. HILL (died 1879), who
painted landscapes chiefly in water-colour.
The United States being a maritime power, it would be quite
natural to look for a development of marine painting among her
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 217
artists. Until lately, however, very little lias been done in this
branch of art, and that little mostly by foreigners. THOMAS BIRCH,
an Englishman (died 1851), painted the battles between English
and American vessels in an old-fashioned way in Philadelphia,
while Boston possessed an early marine painter of slender merit
in Salmon. A. VAN BEEST, a Dutch marine painter, who died in
New York in 1860, is chiefly of interest as the first teacher of
several well-known American painters of to-day. JOHN E. C.
PETERSEN (1839 1874), a Dane, who came to America in 1865,
enjoyed an excellent reputation in Boston. The leading name,
however, among the artists of the past in this department is that
of JAMES HAMILTON (1819 1878), who was brought to Phila-
delphia from Ireland in infancy, and went to England for pur-
poses of study in 1854. In many of his phantastic productions,
in which blood-red skies are contrasted with dark, bluish-gray
clouds and masses of shadow, as in Solitude, and an Oriental
landscape in the Pennsylvania Academy, the study of Turner is
quite apparent. But he loved also to paint the storm-tossed
sea, under a leaden sky, when it seems to be almost mono-
chrome. One of his finest efforts, The Skip of the Ancient
Mariner, is in private possession in Philadelphia. His Destruc-
tion of Pomrpeii is in the Memorial Hall, Fairmount Park, in the
same city. Hamilton, whose somewhat unsteady mode of living
is reflected in the widely varying quality of his work, very
properly closes our review of this epoch, as he might not inap-
propriately be classed with the artists of the period next to be
considered.
FOURTH, OR PRESENT PERIOD.
It has been remarked already that the American students
who went to England up to the middle of the present century
were not influenced by those painters who, like Constable, are
credited with having given the first impulse towards the develop-
ment of modern art. This is true also of those who went to France.
218
AMEKICAN PAINTERS
They fell in with the old-established Classic school, and were
not affected by the rising Eomantic and Colouristic school until
long after its triumphant establishment. Within the last ten or
fifteen years, however, the tendency in this direction has been
very marked, and the main points of attraction for the young
American artist in Europe have been Paris and Munich. One
of the results of this movement, consequent upon the prepon-
fciUNSET ON THE HUDSON. JJi/ IS. K. GiiTORD.
[Copyright, 1879, by Harper and Brothers.]
derating attention given to colour and technique, has been an
almost entire neglect of subject. What the art of America has
gained, therefore, in outward attractiveness and in increase of
skill, it has had to purchase at the expense of a still "greater de-
Americanisation than before. The movement is, however, only
in its inception, and its final results cannot be predicated. Nor
will it be possible to mention here more than a very few of its
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 219
adherents, as, self-evidently, the greater part of them belong to
the living generation.
One of the first to preach the new gospel of individualism and
colour in America was WILLIAM MORRIS HUNT (1824 1879),
who, after his return from Europe, made his home in Boston.
In 1846 he went to Diisseldorf, which he soon exchanged for
Paris, where he studied with Couture, and later with Millet.
Hunt was in a certain sense a martyr to his artistic convictions,
and his road was not smoothed by his eccentricities. Had he
found a readier response on the part of the public, he might
have accomplished great things. As it was, those to whom he
was compelled to appeal could not understand the importance of
the purely pictorial qualities which he valued above all else, and
instead of sympathy he found antagonism. As a fact indicating
the difficulties which stood in his way, it is interesting to know
that the first idea for the mural paintings, The Flight of Night
and The Discoverer, which he executed in the new Capitol at
Albany, shortly before his death, was conceived over thirty years
ago. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that his mind was
embittered, and his work even more unequal than that of so
many of his older colleagues. But even so he has left a number
of works, as for instance the original sketch for the Flight of
Night, several portraits, and a View of Gloucester Harbour, which
will always be counted among the triumphs of American art.
Prominent among the American students in the French school
was EGBERT WYLIE, a native of the Isle of Man, who was
brought to the United States when a child, and died in Brittany
at the age of about forty years in 1877. His Death of a Breton
Chieftain, in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, and
Breton Story-Teller, in the Pennsylvania Academy, two very
fine pictures, although somewhat heavy in colour, show him to
have been a careful observer, with a power of characterisation
hardly approached by any other American painter.
As a remarkable artist, belonging also to the French-American
LAMBS ON THE MOUNTAIN-SIDE. By WILLIAM MORRIS HUNT.
AMERICAN PAINTERS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 221
school, although he never left his native land,, we must mention
R. H. FULLER, of Boston, who died comparatively young in 1871 .
Fuller had a most extraordinary career and displayed extra-
ordinary talent. Originally a cigar-maker, and later a night
watchman, he was almost entirely self-taught, his study
consisting in carefully looking at the French landscapes on
exhibition at the stores, and then attempting to reproduce them
at home. The knowledge thus gained he applied to the render-
ing of American landscapes, and he had so assimilated the
methods of his French exemplars, that his creations, while they
often clearly betrayed by what master they had been inspired,
were^yet thoroughly American.
This sketch of the history of painting in America is neces-
sarily very fragmentary, by reason of its shortness, as well as
by the limitation imposed by the plan of this book, which
excludes all living artists. Many prominent representatives of
the various tendencies to which the reader's attention has been
called, have, therefore, had to be omitted. It is believed, never-
theless, that, while the mention of additional names would have
made the record fuller, the general proportions of the outline
would not have been materially changed thereby. Nor is the
apparently critical tone, the repeated dwelling on the lack of
originality in subject as well as method, to be taken as an
expression of disparagement. A fact has simply been stated
which admits of a ready explanation, hinted at in the intro-
ductory remarks, but which must be kept steadily in view if
American Art is ever to assume a more distinctive character.
The painters of America, considering the circumstances by which
they have been surrounded, have no reason to be ashamed o
222 AMERICAN PAINTEKS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
their past record. They have shown considerable aptitude in
the acquisition of technical attainments, and the diligence and
enthusiasm in the pursuit of their studies on the part of the
younger artists, promise well for the future. It rests altogether
with the nation itself whether this promise shall be fulfilled.
INDEX OF NAMES.
Aikman, William .
PAGE
35
Carmillion, Alice .
PAGE
. 17
Alexander, Cosmo .
191
Catlin, George
. 211
Alexander, William
103
Cattermole, George
. 112
Allston, Washington .
202
Chalon, Alfred Edward
. 97
Ames, Ezra ....
212
Chalon, John James
. 97
Ames, Joseph
212
Cheney, Seth W. .
. 212
Anderton, Henry .
31
Cipriani, Giovanni Battista
60
Audubon, John James .
211
Cleef , Joost van .
. 19
Clostermann, John
. 35
Bacon, Sir Nathaniel
22
Cole, Thomas
. 215
Baker, G. A.
212
Collins, Richard .
. 95
Barret, George
50
Collins, William .
. 133
Barret, George, the younger .
105
Constable, John .
. 130
Barry, James
69
Cooke, Edward William
. 147
Beale, Mary.
35
Cooper, Abraham .
. 166
Beechey, Sir William .
79
Cooper, Samuel
31
Bembridge, Henry
Bewick, John
192
92
Copley, John Singleton
Cornelisz, Lucas .
67, 192
. 10
Bewick, Thomas .
91
Corvus, Johannes .
19
Birch, Thomas
217
Cosway, Maria
. 96
Blackburn ....
191
Cos way, Richard .
96
Blake, WiUiam .
85
Cotman, John Sell
. 142
Boit, Charles
93
Cox, David .
. 108
Bone, Henry
96
Cozens, Alexander
. 102
Bonington, Richard Parkes .
137
Cozens, John Robert .
. 103
Boxall, Sir William
178
Creswick, Thomas
. 145
Briggs, Henry Perronet
154
Cristall, Joshua
. 103
Brooking, Charles.
47
Crome, John
. 141
Brown, John
11,17
Crosse, Lewis
. 93
Browne, Alexander
92
Brumidi, Carlo
202
Dahl, Michael
. 35
Danby, Francis
. 142
Caius (Key) ....
19
Dance, Nathaniel .
- 76
Callcott, Sir Augustus Wall .
131
Deacon, James
. 94
224
INDEX OF NAMES.
De Heere, Lucas .
PAGE
20
Greenhill, John
PAGE
31
De la Motte, William .
105
De Loutherbourg Philippe
Hamilton, James .
. 217
James
61
Harding, Chester . . .
. 212
Derby, William
99
Harding, James Duffield
. 112
De Wint, Peter
110
Harlow, George Henry.
. 121
Dobson, William
26
Harvey, George .
. 158
Dodgson, George Hay dock .
114
Havell, William .
. 108
Doughty, Thomas
213
Haydon, Benjamin Robert
. 150
Duncan, Edward.
114
Hay man, Francis .
35, 85
Duncan, Thomas .
158
Hays, William J. .
. 211
Dunlap ....
201
Heaphy, Thomas .
. 110
Dyce, William
156
Hearne, Thomas .
. 102
Highmore, Joseph
. 85
Eastlake, Sir Charles Locke .
154
Hill, John W.
. 216
Edmonds, F. W.
211
Billiard, Nicholas
. 22
Edridge, Henry . . 97
, 104
Hills, Robert
. 104
Edward, Master .
4
Hillton, William .
. 148
Egg, Augustus Leopold
175
Hogarth, William .
. 37
Elliott, Charles Loring .
212
Holbein, Hans
13
Elmore, Alfred
162
Holland, James
. 114
Engleheart, George
96
Hone, Nathaniel .
94
Essex, William .
97
Hoppner, John
. 80
Etty, William
152
Horebout, Gerrard Lucas
. 9, 17
Horebout, Lucas .
17
Faithorne, William
85
Horebout, Susannah
. 9, 17
Feke, Robert
191
Hoskins, John
. 22
Fielding, Anthony Vandyke
Howard, Henry .
. 123
Copley ....
110
Hudson, Thomas .
. 35
Fisher, Alvan
215
Humphrey, Ozias .
. 95
Flatrnan, Thomas .
92
Hunt, William Henry .
. 112
Flick, Gerbach . .
18
Hunt, William Morris .
. 219
Fraser, Alexander
170
Fuller, Isaac . !
31
Tbbetson, Julius Caesar .
. 50
Fuller, R. H.
221
Ingham, Charles C-
. 212
Furness, W. H. .
212
Inman, Henry
. 211
Fuseli, Henry
62
Irving, J. B.
. 208
Gainsborough, Thomas .
55
Jackson, John
. 126
Garvey, Edmund .
75
Jamesone, George .
28
Gerbier, Sir Balthasar .
45
Jarvis, J. W.
. 212
Gheeraedts, Marc
20
Jervas, Charles
. 35
Gifford, Sandford R. .
215
Jewett, William .
. 212
Gilpin, Sawrey
81
John, Master
4
Girtin, Thomas
104
Jonson, Cornelis .
22
Glass, James W.
211
Godeman ....
2
Kauffman, Angelica
. 60
Gray, Henry Peters
207
Kensett, J. F.
. 215
INDEX OF NAMES.
225
PAGE
Key, William . . .19
Oliver, Isaac
PAGE
22
Kirk, Thomas
89
Oliver, Peter
22
Knapton, George .
Kneller, Sir Godfrey .
35
32
Opie, John ....
Oudry, P
Owen, William .
78
19
121
Laguerre, Louis .
Lambert, George .
Landseer, Charles .
Landseer, Sir Edwin Henry .
Lawrence, Sir Thomas .
34
47
161
176
117
Palmer, Samuel .
Parmentier, James
Payne, William .
Peale, Charles Wilson .
Peale, Rembrandt .
114
35
102
200
206
Lelv, Sir Peter .
Leslie, Charles Robert . 170,
Leutze, Emmanuel
Lewis, John Frederick ,
Linnell, John.
Linton, William .
Loggan, David
Lucy, Charles
30
209
207
180
147
135
85
161
Penley, Aaron Edwin .
Penni, Bartholomew
Petersen, JohnE. C. .
Petitot, Jean .
Phillip, John
Phillips, Thomas
Poole, Paul Falconer .'
Powell, W. H. .
114
17
217
22
161
125
179
207
Lyzardi, Nicholas
19
Pratt, Matthew .
192
Prout, Samuel
1C8
Mabuse ....
9
Pyne, James Baker
JLji5~
Maclise, Daniel
158
J *
Malbone, E. G. .
212
Ramsay, Allan
46
Martin, John
139
Ranney, William H. .
211
Martineau, Robert Braith-
Read, Thomas Buchanan .
208
waite ....
179
Reynolds, Sir Joshua .
50
Mason, George Hemming
179
Richardson, Jonathan .
35
Maynors, Katherine
18
Richardson, Thomas Miles .
108
Meyer, Jeremiah .
95
Riley, John ....
35
Modena, Nicholas of
19
Rimmer, William .
208
Monamy, Peter .
47
Roberts, David .
137
Mor, Sir Antonio .
19
Robertson, Andrew
97
Morland, George .
82
Robinson, Hugh . .
59
Morland, Henry Robert
82
Robson, George Fennel
110
Morse, S. F. B. .
Mortimer, John Hamilton .
206
89
Romney, George .
Rooker, Michael Angelo
72
104
Moser, George Michael
94
Ross, Sir William Charles .
99
Mount, William Sydney
Miiller, William John .
209
137
Rossetti, Gabriel Chas. Dante
Rossiter, T. P. .
184
212
Mulready, William
167
Rowlandson, Thomas .
103
Mytens, Daniel ,
22
Sandby, Paul .
102
Nasmyth, Patrick
Neagle, J.
135
212
Savage, E
Schiissele, Christian . . .
201
208
Newton, Gilbert btuart 173
, 209
Scott, Samuel ^
47
Nixon, James
95
Serres, Dominic .
47
Northcote, James .
76
Serres, John Thomas .
47
226
INDEX OF NAMES.
PAGE
Seymour, James . . . 81
Shalders, George . . .114
Shaw, Joshua . . .213
Shee, Sir Martin Archer . 123
Shelley, Samuel ... 95
Shipley, William . . ,45
Smirke, Robert ... 90
Smith, George (of Chichester) 47
Smith, John ,, . 47
Smith, William .47
Smith, John (of Warwick) . 103
Smybert, John . . .190
Soest, Gerard von ... 35
Spencer, Jarvis ... 94
Staigg, R. M. . . . 212
Stanfield, William Clarkson . 143
Stark, James . . .142
Stothard, Thomas . . .88
Streater, Robert . . .31
Stretes, Gwillim . . 16, 17
Stuart, Gilbert . . .195
Stubbs, George . . .81
Sully, Thomas . . .212
Terling, Lavinia . . .17
Thomson, Henry . . .126
Thornhill, Sir James . . 34
Topham, Francis William . 114
Torell, William ... 2
Toto, Antonio . . . 9, 17
Treviso, Girolamo da . 10, 15
TrumbuU, John . . .197
Turner, Joseph Mallord Wilr
liam .... 105, 127
II wins, Thomas . . .91
VanBeest, A. . . .217
Vanderbank, John . .35
Vanderlyn, John . . . 205
Van Dyck, Sir Anthony . 26
Van Honthorst, Gerard . 26
Van Somer, Paul ... 22
Varley, John
Ver Bryck, Cornelius .
Verrio, Antonio .
Vincent, George .
Volpe, Vincent .
Vroom, Cornelis .
Waldo, Samuel
Wale, Samuel
Walker, Frederick
Walker, Robert .
Walter, Master .
Ward, Edward Matthew
PAGE
107
206
34
142
17
20
212
85
182
20
4
180
Ward, James . . .125
Watson, John . . .190
Webber, John . . .105
Wehnert, Edward Henry . 114
West, Benjamin . . 64, 193
West, W. E. . . .211
Westall, Richard ... 89
Westall, William . . . 89
White, Edwin . . .207
White, John Blake . . 202
Wilkie, David . . ' .164
Williams, . . .191
Wilson, Richard ... 47
Wimar, C. F. . . .211
Wissing, WiUiam ... 35
Witherington, WiUiam Fred-
erick . . . .166
Woodville, Richard Caton . 211
Wootton, John ... 80
Wright, Andrew . . 11, 17
Wright, Joseph . . .200
Wright, Joseph (of Derby) . 74
Wright, Joseph Michael . 35
Wyck, John .... 80
Wylie, Robert . . . 219
Zincke, Christian Frederick . 94
Zoffany, Johann . . .61
Zuccarelli, Francesco . . 61
Zucchero, Federigo . . 20
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