_From the "Story of the Norman Conquest."_]
DANIEL MACLISE (1811--1870) was born at Cork, and was intended for the unromantic calling of a banker"s clerk. Fortunately for the world he soon left the bank stool for the studio of the Cork Society of Arts.
In 1828, he transferred his attention to the Academy schools in London, and soon obtained the gold medal for the best historic composition, representing _The Choice of Hercules_. He had previously exhibited _Malvolio affecting the Count_. In due course appeared, at the British Inst.i.tution, _Mokanna unveiling his features to Zelica_, and _Snap-Apple Night_, which found a place at the Royal Academy. Maclise became a full Academician in 1840. His latter years were chiefly occupied with the famous water-gla.s.s pictures in the Houses of Parliament, _The Interview of Wellington and Blucher after Waterloo_, and _The Death of Nelson at Trafalgar_. The n.o.ble cartoon (bought by subscriptions of artists, who likewise presented the designer with a gold port-crayon) of the former is now the property of the Royal Academy. Maclise executed many book ill.u.s.trations, including those for "Moore"s Melodies," and "The Pilgrims of the Rhine." He executed a n.o.ble 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 d.i.c.kens, who spoke thus of the dead painter, "Of his prodigious fertility of mind and wonderful wealth of intellect, I may confidently a.s.sert that they would have made him, if he had been so minded, at least as great a writer as he was a painter. The gentlest, and most modest of men; the freest as to his generous appreciation of young aspirants; and the frankest and largest-hearted as to his peers. No artist ever went to his rest leaving a golden memory more free from dross, or having devoted himself with a truer chivalry to the G.o.ddess whom he worshipped." The most remarkable works of Maclise are _Macbeth and the Witches_; _Olivia and Sophia fitting out Moses for the Fair_; _The Banquet Scene in Macbeth_; _Ordeal by Touch_; _Robin Hood and Coeur de Lion_; _The Play Scene in Hamlet_ (National Gallery); _Malvolio and the Countess_ (National Gallery).
CHARLES LANDSEER (1799--1879), the elder brother of the more famous Sir Edwin Landseer, was a pupil of Haydon and the Royal Academy Schools. In 1836 appeared his _Sacking of Basing House_ (now in the National Gallery). He was elected an A.R.A. in the following year, became a full member in 1845, and Keeper in 1851. Amongst other good works by him are _Clarissa Harlowe in the Spunging House_ (National Gallery), _Charles II. escaping in disguise from Colonel Lane"s House_, and _The Eve of the Battle of Edgehill_.
CHARLES LUCY (1814--1873) began life as a chemist"s apprentice in his native town of Hereford. He soon forsook the counter, and went to Paris to study painting. Coming to London, he exhibited _Caractacus and his Family before the Emperor Claudius_, a work which formed the introduction to a long series of historic pictures, noteworthy among which are _The Parting of Charles I. with his Children_, _The Parting of Lord and Lady Russell_, and _Buonaparte in discussion with the Savants_, all of which were exhibited at the Academy. Lucy established a great reputation in Europe and America.
JOHN PHILLIP (1817--1867) was one of the best colourists of the English school. He was a native of Aberdeen, began life as an errand boy to what the Scotch call a "tin smith," and afterwards became an apprentice to a painter and glazier, and seems to have had instruction in his early pursuit of art from a portrait painter of his native town, named Forbes, who was very generous to him. A picture by Phillip secured him the patronage of Lord Panmure, who sent him to London. In 1837 the young painter entered the Academy Schools. He exhibited two portraits in 1838, and two years later returned to Aberdeen, exhibiting in the Royal Academy _Ta.s.so in Disguise relating his Persecutions to his Sister_.
Once more returning to London, Phillip exhibited _The Catechism_, and several pictures of Scottish life, as _The Baptism_, _The Spae Wife_, _The Free Kirk_. Illness compelled him to visit Spain in 1851, and here he produced many excellent pictures of Spanish life, which greatly added to his reputation, and gained for him the sobriquet of "Don Phillip of Spain." _A Visit to Gipsy Quarters_, _The Letter-writer of Seville_, and _El Paseo_ are examples of his Spanish pictures. In 1857 Phillip was elected a.s.sociate of the Royal Academy, and exhibited the _Prison Window in Seville_. Elected a full member in 1859, he painted next year _The Marriage of the Princess Royal_, by command of the Queen. _La Gloria_, one of his most celebrated works, appeared in 1864. His pictures combine correctness of drawing with boldness, if not refinement, of colouring--which is seldom met with in the works of our best painters.
ALFRED ELMORE (1815--1881), an Irishman by birth, won for himself fame as a painter of historic scenes and _genre_ subjects. Among his works are _Rienzi in the Forum_; _The Invention of the Stocking Loom_ and _The Invention of the Combing Machine_; _Marie Antoinette in the Tuileries_; _Marie Antoinette in the Temple_; _Ophelia_; and _Mary Queen of Scots and Darnley_. He was elected a R.A. in 1857.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER XI.
SUBJECT PAINTERS.
Domestic subject, or _genre_, painting in England may be said to have originated with Hogarth, but it made slow progress after his death till the commencement of the nineteenth century. Historic pictures of a large size were neither popular nor profitable. Corporate bodies did not care to spend money on the adornment of their guild halls, and ordinary householders had no room for large pictures. Englishmen are essentially _domestic_, and pictures small enough to hang in small houses, and ill.u.s.trative of home life, suit their necessities, and appeal to their feelings far more strongly than vast canvases representing battles or sacred histories. In _genre_ painting the Dutch school has ever been prominent; to it we doubtless owe much of the popularity of this branch of art in England, where our painters have chosen familiar subjects, without descending to the coa.r.s.e or sensual incidents in which some old Dutch artists delighted. The _genre_ painters of this country have mainly drawn their subjects from our national poets and prose writers and the every-day life of Englishmen, sometimes verging on the side of triviality, but on the whole including pleasing works, which, as it has been well said, "bear the same relation to historic art as the tale or novel does to history."
DAVID WILKIE (1785--1841) was born in his father"s manse at Cults, Fifeshire. It was fully intended that Wilkie should follow in his father"s steps, and become a minister of the Scottish Kirk, but it was not to be so. He was placed, at his own earnest desire, in the Trustees"
Academy, at Edinburgh, and there in 1803 justified the wisdom of this choice by gaining the ten-guinea premium for the best painting of the time, the subject being _Callisto in the Baths of Diana_. Next year young Wilkie visited his home, and painted _Pilta.s.sie 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 succeeding early work added to its author"s fame. All his earlier works were _genre_ pictures. His favourite subjects are shown in _The Blind Fiddler_, _Card-Players_, _The Rent Day_, _The Jew"s Harp_, _The Cut Finger_, _The Village Festival_, _Blindman"s Buff_, _The Letter of Introduction_, _Duncan Gray_, _The Penny Wedding_, _Reading the Will_, _The Parish Beadle_, and _The Chelsea Pensioners_, the last painted for the Duke of Wellington. Wilkie was elected A.R.A. in 1809, and a full member in 1811. He went abroad in 1814, and again in 1825, when he visited Germany, Italy, and Spain. The study of the old masters, especially Correggio, Rembrandt, and Velazquez, had a marked effect on Wilkie, who changed both his style and subjects. He forsook _genre_ for history and portraiture, and subst.i.tuted a light effective style of handling for the careful execution of his earlier works. _John Knox Preaching_ (National Gallery) is a good specimen of this second period of Wilkie"s art. He succeeded Sir Thomas Lawrence in 1830 as Painter in Ordinary to the King, and was knighted six years later. In 1840 Wilkie visited the East, and painted the portrait of the Sultan Abdul Medjid.
Next year, whilst far from home, on board a steamer off Gibraltar, he died, and found a grave in the sea. There are eleven of his pictures in the National Gallery. Her Majesty possesses most of the pictures painted by Wilkie in Spain, such as _The Guerilla Council of War_, and _The Maid of Saragossa_. Another Spanish picture, painted in England, is _Two Spanish Monks in the Cathedral of Toledo_, belonging to the Marquis of Lansdowne. In it we notice the painting of the hands, which are full of life and action, a characteristic in which Wilkie excelled. "His early art certainly made a great impression on the English school, showing how Dutch art might be nationalized, and story and sentiment added to scenes of common life treated with truth and individuality. As to his middle time, such pictures as the _John Knox_ also had their influence on the school, and the new mode of execution as supported by Wilkie"s authority, a very evil influence, bringing discredit upon English pictures as entirely wanting in permanency. His methods and the pigments he used were soon discarded in England, but at the time they influenced, and have continued to influence, his countrymen long after his death."
(_Redgrave._)
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MAID OF SARAGOSSA. _By_ WILKIE. A.D. 1827. _In the possession of the Queen._]
WILLIAM FREDERICK WITHERINGTON (1785--1865) combined landscape and subject painting in his art. He exhibited his first picture, _Tintern Abbey_, in 1811, and his succeeding works were princ.i.p.ally landscapes and figure subjects in combination. Witherington was elected A.R.A. in 1830, and became a full member ten years later. Favourable specimens of his thoroughly English and pleasing pictures are _The Stepping Stones_ and _The Hop Garland_ in the National Gallery, and _The Hop Garden_ in the Sheepshanks Collection at South Kensington.
ABRAHAM COOPER (1787--1868), the son of an inn-keeper, was born in London, and early showed singular skill with his pencil. The inn stables furnished his first and favoured subjects, and the portrait of a favourite horse belonging to Sir Henry Meux gained him his first patron. In 1814 Cooper exhibited at the British Inst.i.tution _Tam o"Shanter_, which was purchased by the Duke of Marlborough. In 1817 _The Battle of Marston Moor_ secured his election as an a.s.sociate of the Academy: he became a R.A. in 1820. There is little variety in the subjects of this painter"s works. The best known are _The Pride of the Desert_, _Hawking in the Olden Time_, _The Dead Trooper_, _Richard I._ and _Saladin at the Battle of Ascalon_, and _Bothwell"s Seizure of Mary, Queen of Scots_.
WILLIAM MULREADY (1786--1863), the ablest _genre_ painter in England except Wilkie, was born at Ennis, in the County Clare. Although his works are familiar to most of us as household words, few details of his life are known. We know that his father was a maker of leather-breeches, and that he came to London with his son when the latter was about five years old. The child is said to have shown very early the artistic power which was in him. He sat as a model for Solomon to John Graham, who was ill.u.s.trating Macklin"s Bible and probably the surroundings of the studio stimulated young Mulready"s artistic instincts. By the recommendation of Banks, the sculptor, he gained entrance to the Academy Schools; at the age of fifteen he required no further pecuniary aid from his parents.
Mulready worked in the Academy Schools, as he worked through life, with all his heart and soul. He declared he always painted as though for a prize, and that when he had begun his career in the world he tried his hand at everything, "from a caricature to a panorama." He was a teacher all his life, and this accounts, perhaps, for the careful completeness of his pictures. Mulready married when very young, and did not secure happiness. He began by painting landscapes, but in 1807 produced _Old Kasper_, from Southey"s poem of "The Battle of Blenheim," his first subject picture. _The Rattle_ appeared a year later, and marked advance.
Both pictures bear evidence that their author had studied the Dutch masters. In 1815 Mulready was chosen A.R.A., but before his name could appear in the catalogue he had attained to the rank of a full member.
This was in 1816, when he exhibited _The Fight interrupted_ (Sheepshanks Collection). From this time he was a popular favourite, and his pictures, of which he exhibited on an average scarcely two a year, were eagerly looked for. We may specify _The Wolf and the Lamb_, _The Last in_, _Fair Time_, _Crossing the Ford_, _The Young Brother_, _The b.u.t.t_, _Giving a Bite_, _Choosing the Wedding Gown_, and _The Toyseller_ (all in the National Gallery or in the South Kensington Museum). "With the exception perhaps of some slight deterioration in his colouring, which of late years was obtrusively purple, he was in the enjoyment of the full powers of his great abilities for upwards of half a century. * * *
He was distinguished by the excellence of his life studies, three of which in red and black chalks, presented by the Society of Arts, are in the Gallery." (_National Gallery Catalogue._)
[Ill.u.s.tration: CHOOSING THE WEDDING GOWN. _By_ MULREADY, A.D. 1846.
_In the Sheepshanks Gallery in the South Kensington Museum._]
ALEXANDER FRASER (1786--1865), a native of Edinburgh, exhibited his first picture, _The Green Stall_, in 1810. Having settled in London, he became an a.s.sistant to his countryman Wilkie, and for twenty years painted the still-life details of Wilkie"s pictures. The influence of his master"s art is visible in Fraser"s pictures, which are usually founded upon incidents and scenes in Scotland, as, for example, _Interior of a Highland Cottage_ (National Gallery) and _Sir Walter Scott dining with one of the Blue-gown Beggars of Edinburgh_. Other examples are _The Cobbler at Lunch_, _The Blackbird and his Tutor_, and _The Village Sign-painter_.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SANCHO PANZA AND THE d.u.c.h.eSS. _By_ LESLIE. A.D. 1844. _In the National Gallery._]
CHARLES ROBERT LESLIE (1794--1859) was born in London, probably in Clerkenwell, of American parents. His father was a clockmaker from Philadelphia, who returned with his family to America when the future painter was five years old. The boy was apprenticed to a bookseller, but his true vocation was decided by a portrait which he made of Cooke, the English tragedian, who was performing in Philadelphia. This work attracted so much notice among Leslie"s friends that a subscription was raised to send him to England, the bookseller, his master, liberally contributing. In 1811, Leslie became a student of the Royal Academy, and received instruction from his countrymen Washington Allston and Benjamin West. Leslie, however, considered teaching of little value. He said that, if materials were provided, a man was his own best teacher, and he speaks of "Fuseli"s wise neglect" of the Academy students. Influenced, probably, by the example of Allston and West, Leslie began by aiming at cla.s.sic art. He mentions that he was reading "Telemachus," with a view to a subject, and among his early works was _Saul and the Witch of Endor_. Even when he commenced to draw subjects from Shakespeare, he turned first to the historic plays, and painted _The Death of Rutland_ and _The Murder Scene from "Macbeth_." Unlike Wilkie and Mulready, Leslie did not strive to _create_ subjects for his pictures. He preferred to ramble through literature, and to select a scene or episode for his canvas. Wilkie invented scenes ill.u.s.trating the festivities of the lower cla.s.ses, Mulready chose similar incidents; it was left to Leslie to adopt "genteel comedy." Like his countryman and adviser, Washington Irving, he had visited, doubtless, many scenes of quiet English country life, and one of these is reproduced in his well-known picture of _Sir Roger de Coverley going to Church_, which was exhibited in 1819. He had previously shown his power in humorous subjects by painting _Ann Page and Slender_. Leslie had discovered his true vocation, and continued to work in the department of the higher _genre_ with unabated success. The patronage of Lord Egremont, for whom he painted, in 1823, _Sancho Panza in the Apartment of the d.u.c.h.ess_, was the means of procuring him many commissions. The picture in the National Gallery, of which we give an ill.u.s.tration, is a replica with slight alterations, executed many years later. He married in 1825, and became a full member of the Academy a year later. In 1831 he exhibited _The Dinner at Page"s House_, from "The Merry Wives of Windsor"--one of his finest works. No painter has made us so well acquainted with the delightful old reprobate, Falstaff, with Bardolph, and the merry company who drank sack at the Boar"s Head in Eastcheap. There is a repet.i.tion 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 ill.u.s.trated Shakespeare, Cervantes, Goldsmith, and Sterne, the latter furnishing him with the subject of _Uncle Toby and the Widow Wadman_. In 1838, Leslie, by request of the Queen, painted _Her Majesty"s Coronation_--which is very unlike the usual pictures of a state ceremonial. In 1841 he was commissioned to paint _The Christening of the Princess Royal_. The domestic life of Leslie was peaceful and prosperous, till the death of a daughter gave a shock from which he never recovered. He died May 5, 1859. Mr. Redgrave says of his art, "Leslie entered into the true spirit of the writer he ill.u.s.trated. His characters appear the very individuals who have filled our mind. Beauty, elegance, and refinement, varied, and full of character, or sparkling with sweet humour, were charmingly depicted by his pencil; while the broader characters of another cla.s.s, 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."
[Ill.u.s.tration: CAPTAIN MACHEATH. _By_ NEWTON. A.D. 1826. _In the possession of the Marquis of Lansdowne._]
GILBERT STUART NEWTON (1794--1835), connected with Leslie by friendship and similarity of taste, was a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1817, when travelling in Europe, Newton met with Leslie at Paris, and returned with him to London. He was a student of the Academy, and soon attracted attention by _The Forsaken_, _Lovers" Quarrels_, and _The Importunate Author_, which were exhibited at the British Inst.i.tution. 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 surpa.s.sed these works with _The Vicar of Wakefield reconciling his Wife to Olivia_, and was elected an A.R.A. _Yorick and the Grisette_, _Cordelia and the Physician_, _Portia and Ba.s.sanio_, and similar works followed. In 1832 Newton became a full member of the Academy, and visiting America, married, and returned with his wife to England. The brief remaining period of his life was clouded with a great sorrow; his mind gave way, and having exhibited his last picture, _Abelard in his Study_, he became altogether insane.
AUGUSTUS LEOPOLD EGG (1816--1863) was born in Piccadilly, and on becoming a painter chose similar subjects to those of Leslie and Newton.
He had not the humour of Leslie; indeed, most of Egg"s subjects are melancholy. His first works were Italian views, and ill.u.s.trations 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 surpa.s.sed the flimsy mannerism of the latter. His females have not the sweet beauty and gentleness of Leslie"s. In the National Gallery is _A Scene from "Le Diable Boiteux_," in which the dexterity of Egg"s execution is visible. He partially concurred with the pre-Raphaelites in his later years, and their influence may be traced in _Pepys" Introduction to Nell Gwynne_, and in a scene from Thackeray"s "Esmond." Other noteworthy pictures are _The Life and Death of Buckingham_; _Peter the Great sees Catherine, his future Empress, for the First Time_; _The Night before Naseby_; and _Catherine and Petruchio_.
EDWIN HENRY LANDSEER (1802--1873) was eminent among English animal painters. No artist has done more to teach us how to love animals and to enforce the truth that--
"He prayeth best who loveth best All things both great and small."
Not only did Landseer rival some of the Dutch masters of the seventeenth century in painting fur and feathers, but he depicted animals with sympathy, as if he believed that "the dumb, driven cattle" possess souls. His dogs and other animals are so human as to look as if they were able to speak. The painter was the son of John Landseer, the engraver, and was born in London. He received art lessons from his father, and, when little more than a baby, would sketch donkeys, horses, and cows at Hampstead Heath. Some of these sketches, made when Landseer was five, seven, and ten years old, are at Kensington. He was only fourteen when he exhibited the heads of _A Pointer b.i.t.c.h and Puppy_.
When between sixteen and seventeen he produced _Dogs fighting_, which was engraved by the painter"s father. Still more popular was _The Dogs of St. Gothard rescuing a Distressed Traveller_, which appeared when its author was eighteen. Landseer was not a pupil of Haydon, but he had occasional counsel from him. He dissected a lion. As soon as he reached the age of twenty-four he was elected an A.R.A., and exhibited at the Academy _The Hunting of Chevy Chase_. This was in 1826, and in 1831 he became a full member of the Academy. Landseer had visited Scotland in 1826, and from that date we trace a change in his style, which thenceforth was far less solid, true and searching, and became more free and bold. The introduction of deer into his pictures, as in _The Children of the Mist_, _Seeking Sanctuary_, and _The Stag at Bay_, marked the influence of Scotch a.s.sociations. Landseer was knighted in 1850, and at the French Exhibition of 1855 was awarded the only large gold medal given to an English artist. Prosperous, popular, and the guest of the highest personages of the realm, he was visited about 1852 by an illness which compelled him to retire from society. From this he recovered, but the effects of a railway accident in 1868 brought on a relapse. He died in 1873, and was buried in St. Paul"s Cathedral. On the death of Sir Charles Eastlake, in 1865, he was offered the Presidentship of the Royal Academy, but this honour he declined. In the National Gallery are _Spaniels of King Charles"s Breed_, _Low Life and High Life_, _Highland Music_ (a highland piper disturbing a group of five hungry dogs, at their meal, with a blast on the pipes), _The Hunted Stag_, _Peace_ (of which we give a representation), _War_ (dying and dead horses, and their riders lying amidst the burning ruins of a cottage), _Dignity and Impudence_, _Alexander and Diogenes_, _The Defeat of Comus_, a sketch painted for a fresco in the Queen"s summer house, Buckingham Palace. Sixteen of Landseer"s works are in the Sheepshanks Collection, including the touching _Old Shepherd"s Chief Mourner_, of which Mr. Ruskin said that "it stamps its author not as the neat imitator of the texture of a skin, or the fold of a drapery, but as the man of mind."
[Ill.u.s.tration: PEACE. _By_ LANDSEER. A.D. 1846. _In the National Gallery._]
WILLIAM BOXALL (1800--1879), after study in the Royal Academy Schools and in Italy, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1829 his first picture--_Milton"s Reconciliation with his Wife_--and continued to contribute to its exhibitions till 1866. Though his first works were historic and allegoric, he finally became famous as a portrait painter, and reckoned among his sitters some of the most eminent men of the time--poets, painters, writers on art, and others, _e.g_. Copley Fielding, David c.o.x, Coleridge, Wordsworth. In 1852 Boxall became an a.s.sociate, 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 cla.s.s of _genre_ pictures as well as of history, exhibited his first picture at the Academy in 1830, _The Well, a Scene at Naples_. In 1838 he produced _The Emigrant"s Departure_. Other pictures are _May Queen preparing for the Dance_, _The Escape of Glaucus and Ione_, _The Seventh Day of the Decameron_. Among the historic works of this artist are _The Vision of Ezekiel_ (National Gallery) and others. Poole became a full member of the Academy in 1860.
GEORGE HEMMING MASON (1818--1872), a native of Witley, Staffordshire, found art to be surrounded by difficulties. His father insisted on his following the profession of medicine, and placed him with Dr. Watts, of Birmingham. A portrait painter having visited the doctor"s house, young Mason borrowed his colour-box, and, unaided, produced a picture of such promise that the artist advised him to follow art. Mason left the doctor"s house, made his way to Italy, and, without any teacher, developed an original style which is marked by simplicity of design, refinement of colour, delicacy of chiaroscuro, and pathos of expression.
He was elected A.R.A. in 1868, but died of heart-disease before becoming a full member. Mason"s best-known works are _Campagna di Roma_, _The Gander_, _The Return from Ploughing_, _The Cast Shoe_, _The Evening Hymn_, and _The Harvest Moon_, unfinished.
ROBERT BRAITHWAITE MARTINEAU (1826--1869), son of one of the Masters in Chancery, nephew of Miss Martineau, commenced life as an articled clerk to a solicitor. After four years" study of the law he forsook it for the brighter sphere of art, and entered the Academy Schools. In 1852 Martineau exhibited at the Academy _Kit"s Writing Lesson_, from "The Old Curiosity Shop," which indicated the cla.s.s of subjects which he delighted in. His _Last Day in the Old House_, and _The Last Chapter_, by their originality of conception, and exquisite painting, won the artist a renown which he did not long live to enjoy. He died of heart-disease.
JOHN FREDERICK LEWIS (1805--1876), the son of an eminent London engraver, began his career in art by painting studies of animals, and in 1828 was elected a Member of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours.
He afterwards travelled in Spain and Italy, painting many subjects, such as a _Spanish Bullfight_, _Monks preaching at Seville_, &c., and thence went to the East, where he stayed some years. He returned to England in 1851, and four years afterwards was made President of the Water-colour Society. In 1856 he exhibited _A Frank Encampment in the Desert of Mount Sinai_, which Mr. Ruskin called "the climax of water-colour drawing." In the same year he began to paint in oil colours, and frequently exhibited pictures of Eastern life, such as _The Meeting in the Desert_, _A Turkish School_, _A Cafe in Cairo_, &c. In 1859 he was made an a.s.sociate 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ARAB SCRIBE. _By_ JOHN FREDERICK LEWIS. A.D. 1852.]
EDWARD MATTHEW WARD (1816--1879) became a student at the Academy by the advice of Wilkie, who had seen his first picture, a portrait of Mr. O.
Smith as Don Quixote. In 1836 Ward was a student in Rome. Thence he proceeded to Munich, and studied fresco-painting with Cornelius. In 1839 he returned to England, and exhibited _Cimabue and Giotto_. Joining in the compet.i.tion for the decoration of the Houses of Parliament, he produced _Boadicea_, which was commended, but did not obtain a premium.
_Dr. Johnson reading the MS. of Goldsmith"s "Vicar of Wakefield"_, first brought him to notice. It was followed by _Dr. Johnson in Lord Chesterfield"s Ante-Room_, and the painter was elected an A.R.A. This work as well as _The Disgrace of Lord Clarendon_, _The South-Sea Bubble_, and _James II. receiving the news of the landing of William of Orange_, are in the National Gallery. In 1852 and later Ward executed eight historic pictures in the corridor of the House of Commons. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1855. His pictures are too well known to need description; most popular among them are _Charlotte Corday led to Execution_, _The Execution of Montrose_, _The Last Sleep of Argyll_, _Marie Antoinette parting with the Dauphin_, _The Last Moments of Charles II._, _The Night of Rizzio"s Murder_, _The Earl of Leicester and Amy Robsart_, _Judge Jeffreys and Richard Baxter_.
FREDERICK WALKER (1840--1875) died just as he had fulfilled the promise of his youth. After spending a short time in the office of an architect and surveyor, he left this uncongenial region to practise art. He occasionally studied in the Academy Schools, and began his artistic career by ill.u.s.trating Thackeray"s "Philip" in the "Cornhill Magazine,"
thus winning much praise. He became a member of the Old Water-Colour Society, and an A.R.A. A career full of promise was cut short by death at St. Fillan"s, Perthshire, in 1875: the young painter was buried at his favourite Cookham, on the Thames. His chief works are _The Lost Path_, _The Bathers_, _The Vagrants_, _The Old Gate_, _The Plough_, _The Harbour of Refuge_, and _The Right of Way_. Mr. Redgrave said, "His genius was thoroughly and strikingly original. His works are marked by a method of their own; the drawing, colour, and execution, alike peculiar to himself. They are at once refined and pathetic in sentiment, and novel in their conception of nature and her effects. His figures have the true feeling of rustic life, with the grace of line of the antique."
[Ill.u.s.tration: OUR VILLAGE. _By_ FREDERICK WALKER. _Exhibited at the Water-colour Society"s Exhibition._ A.D. 1873.]
GABRIEL CHARLES DANTE ROSSETTI (1828--1882), poet, and painter of sacred subjects and scenes inspired by the writings of Dante, was the son of an Italian patriot, a political refugee, who became Professor of Italian in King"s College, London. He exhibited at the Portland Gallery his first picture, _The Girlhood of the Virgin_, in 1849, and became the founder of the pre-Raphaelite school, which included Millais, Holman Hunt, and other artists now celebrated. Rossetti"s best-known pictures are _Dante"s Dream_ (now at Liverpool), _The Damosel of the Sancte Graal_, _The Last Meeting of Lancelot and Guinevere_, _The Beloved_ (an ill.u.s.tration of the Song of Solomon), and _Proserpina_. He seldom exhibited his paintings in public, but they were seen by art-critics, one of whom wrote (in 1873)--"Exuberance in power, exuberance in poetry of a rich order, n.o.ble technical gifts, vigour of conception, and a marvellously extensive range of thought and invention appear in nearly everything Mr. Rossetti produces."
He was equally celebrated as a writer of sonnets and a translator of Italian poetry.
It is not within the province of this work to include notice of living artists. To give an account of all the celebrated painters would require another volume. During the past decade Art has advanced with steady progress, and we can confidently say that at no time have the ranks of the Royal Academicians and the two Water-Colour Societies been filled more worthily than at the present day. The last quarter of the nineteenth century is likely to be a golden era in the history of British Art.