English Painters Part 3

FRANCESCO ZUCCARELLI, R.A. (1702--1788), born in Tuscany, has already been mentioned as advising Wilson to cultivate landscape-painting. After becoming famous abroad, he came to London in 1752, and secured a fortune, whilst Wilson, his superior, was too poor to buy a canvas to paint on. Zuccarelli's landscapes and rural villages are of the stage rather than nature. He was the last of that artificial school of painters who tried to paint a beautiful world without looking out of doors.

PHILIPPE JAMES DE LOUTHERBOURG, R.A. (1740--1812), a native of Strasburg, studied in Paris, under Casanova, the battle-painter. He acquired fame by delineating landscapes, battles, and marine subjects, and was already a member of the French Academy when he came to England in 1771. For a time De Loutherbourg was employed as a scene-painter at Drury Lane, receiving a salary of 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 a.s.sociate of the Royal Academy in 1780, and a full member in the following year. Becoming somewhat deranged in his latter days, he a.s.sumed 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 "bra.s.s skies, and golden hills," and his "marble bullocks in gla.s.s 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 c.u.mberland_ (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 are all of one race, whether in reality cla.s.sic, mediaeval, or Scandinavian, and that Shakespeare's women are, in his pictures, all alike, too masculine and coa.r.s.e. 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: t.i.tANIA AND BOTTOM. _By_ _Fuseli_. _In the possession of Mr. Carrick Moore._]

In proceeding to speak of artists of the English school, we must remember that we have not to deal with men gathered round a great master, as is the case with many foreign painters. Each English artist has originality, and stands by himself. It will be most convenient therefore to treat them according to the special branch of art which they severally followed, _i.e._ Historic, Portrait, Landscape, or Animal painting. HISTORICAL PAINTING had hitherto found little favour in England, nor were the pictures produced in that line worthy of much regard. Reynolds attempted it in _Ugolino_ and the _Infant Hercules_, but it is not by means of such pictures he will be remembered. There were others who devoted themselves to what they styled high art, with earnestness worthy of greater success than they achieved.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DEATH OF WOLFE. _By_ WEST. _In the possession of the Duke of Westminster._]

BENJAMIN WEST (1738--1820) was born at Springfield, Pennsylvania, and of Quaker parents who descended from a Buckinghamshire family of the same persuasion. He early showed signs of artistic genius, and strange stories have been told of the precocity of the child. West received his first colours from Indians, and made his first paint-brush from a cat's tail. A box of colours, given by a merchant when he was nine years old, encouraged him to persevere; and we know that the donor of the box introduced him to a painter named Williams, of Philadelphia, from whom he derived instruction. West started in life at eighteen as a portrait painter; first at Philadelphia, then at New York. In 1760, he visited Italy, and, after remaining there three years, proceeded to England. He had intended to return to America, but became so successful that he settled in London. In Rome the young American created a sensation, and the blind Cardinal Albani, whose acquaintance with Americans must have been limited, asked if he was black or white. In London West was greatly sought after, and in 1766, three years after his arrival, he finished _Orestes and Pylades_ (National Gallery); his house was besieged by the fashionable world, eager for a glimpse of the picture. West now found many patrons, among them the Bishops of Bristol and Worcester, and Drummond, Archbishop of York. The Archbishop was so charmed by _Agrippa with the Ashes of Germanicus_, that he introduced West to George III., who became a warm and faithful supporter of the artist. From 1767 to 1802 West was almost exclusively employed by the King, and received large sums of money. He was one of the original members of the Royal Academy, and on the death of Reynolds, became President. His inaugural address, which, like all he did, was highly praised, had two subjects--the excellence of British art and the gracious benevolence of his Majesty. The illness of George III. put an end to West's attendance at Court, and he proceeded into a wider field of art, choosing that of religion. Here he was more successful than in many of his former pictures, as in _Christ healing the Sick_ (National Gallery), _Christ rejected_, and _Death on the Pale Horse_. He died on the 11th of March, 1820, aged eighty-two. West, so popular in the days of George III., is utterly neglected now. If he aimed at being great, he succeeded only in the size of his pictures. A cold, pa.s.sionless mediocrity was the highest point to which he attained, and of his pictures we may say as the old Scotsman said of Rob Roy, that they are "too bad for blessing, and too good for banning." Redgrave says: "His compositions were more studied than natural, the action often conventional and dramatic; the draperies, although learned, heavy and without truth. His colour often wants freshness and variety of tint, and is hot and foxy." We owe to West, however, the example of courage in attempting great religious subjects, and in departing from the absurd custom of representing the warriors of all nations clad like ancient Romans. In his _Death of Wolfe_, West insisted, contrary to the advice of Reynolds, in painting his soldiers in their proper dress.

JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY, R.A. (1737--1815), was born at Boston, America, then one of our colonies, his father being English and his mother Irish.

Boston in those days could offer no facilities for art-education, but Copley went to Nature--the best of teachers. He commenced with portraits and domestic life, and between 1760 and 1767 sent pictures to London, where they excited considerable interest. In 1774, he visited the Old World, first England, then Italy, and finally settled in London in 1775.

In the following year he exhibited a "conversation" piece at the Royal Academy, and was elected an a.s.sociate 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 cla.s.sic fables, with which the general public was but imperfectly acquainted, he selected events of the day, or of modern times, and contrived to combine portraiture, ever popular in England, with the dramatic incidents of his pictures. Copley was made a full member of the Royal Academy in 1779, and maintained his popularity by _The Death of Major Peirson_ (National Gallery)--which represents an attack of the French on St.

Helier's, Jersey, in 1781, and the fall of young Major Peirson in the moment of his victory. Following the path thus wisely selected, Copley produced _Charles I. ordering the Arrest of the Five Members_, _The Repulse of the Spanish Floating Batteries at Gibraltar by Lord Heathfield_ (painted for the City of London, now in the Guildhall), _The a.s.sa.s.sination of Buckingham_, _The Battle of the Boyne_, &c. He exhibited only forty-two works in the Royal Academy, all of which were portraits except _The Offer of the Crown to Lady Jane Grey_, and _The Resurrection_. In sacred subjects, Copley was far less successful than in the particular style of art to which he mainly adhered. His son became famous as Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DEATH OF MAJOR PEIRSON. _By_ COPLEY. A.D. 1783. _In the National Gallery._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MERCURY INVENTING THE LYRE. _By_ BARRY.]

JAMES BARRY, R.A. (1741--1806), who was a contemporary of Benjamin West, and, like him, aimed at high art, formed a marked contrast to the favourite painter of George III. Whilst West was well fed and well clothed, rich, easy-tempered, and happy, Barry was often ragged, sometimes starving, always poor, and seldom out of a pa.s.sion. He was born at Cork, the son of a small coasting trader who kept a tavern. From such uncongenial surroundings Barry made his way to Dublin, and exhibited _The Baptism of the King of Cashel by St. Patrick_. This work attracted considerable notice, and secured for the artist the patronage of Burke, who sent him to Italy. This was in 1765, but previously to this date Barry had already visited London, and lived by copying in oil the drawings of "Athenian Stuart," the Serjeant-Painter who succeeded Hogarth. Barry's studies in Italy confirmed his ambitious design to become a painter of high art subjects. With characteristic boldness he entered the field against the greatest masters, and whilst at Rome painted _Adam and Eve_, which he thought superior to Raphael's masterpiece of the same subject. Returning to England in 1770, Barry exhibited this picture, and began _Venus rising from the Sea_, which was exhibited in 1772; he was elected a R.A. in the following year. His undisciplined temper ensured him many enemies, and estranged his few friends; he even quarrelled with Burke. His pride and courage were indomitable, and he worked on through good and ill reports, never swerving from the course he had marked out, and contemptuously dismissing any chance sitter for a portrait to "the fellow in Leicester Square," as he styled Sir Joshua Reynolds. In 1777, Barry undertook to paint in the Great Room of the Society of Arts at the Adelphi a series of pictures ill.u.s.trating _Human Culture_. He had previously offered to decorate the interior of St. Paul's. He began to work at the Adelphi with sixteen shillings in his pocket, and toiled there during seven years, being often in absolute want. The Society provided him with models and materials only, and Barry was to receive the proceeds of exhibiting his work in return for his unpaid labours. The hope of fame enabled "the little ordinary man with the dirty shirt" to support himself through the long years of want and semi-starvation, whilst he was working for the glory which never came. Barry finished the pictures at the Adelphi in 1783, and called them severally _The Story of Orpheus: A Thanksgiving to Ceres and Bacchus_; _The Victors of Olympia_; _Navigation, or the Triumph of the Thames_; _Distribution of Premiums in the Society of Arts_; and _Elysium, or the State of Final Retribution_.

The luckless artist had been appointed Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy in 1772, but outbursts of pa.s.sion 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 compet.i.tor, the first is last, and the last first; but it was hardly to be expected that the young would be anxious to follow Barry in a line of art in which neither ability nor perseverance seemed to succeed, or to start in a career for which not even princely patronage could obtain public sympathy, nor innate genius, with life-long devotion, win present fame, hardly indeed a bare subsistence." (_Redgrave._)

Returning for a moment to _Portrait Painters_, we find two of that cla.s.s who were contemporary with Sir Joshua Reynolds, and of whom the first nearly equalled the president in popularity.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MARQUIS OF STAFFORD. _By_ ROMNEY.

_In the possession of the Duke of Sutherland._]

GEORGE ROMNEY (1734--1802) was born near Dalton-in-Furness, North Lancashire, and for some years followed his father's craft of cabinet-making. The story of his life is one of marked success and singular selfishness. He first studied art with Edward Steele, of Kendal, a portrait painter of some skill and reputation, who had painted Sterne. Whilst a.s.sisting his master to elope with his future wife, Romney fell ill, and was nursed by young Mary Abbot. He rewarded the devotion of his nurse by marrying her, and when she was the mother of two children, by leaving her at home poor and alone, whilst he was rich and famous in London. During a long and successful career Romney only visited his family twice, to find on the second occasion his daughter dead, and his son grown up and in Holy Orders. The painter's strange, selfish life ended in imbecility, and the patient wife who had nursed the youth of twenty-three, soothed the last hours of the man of seventy, whose fame she had never shared. Romney was as eccentric in life as in his genius. Shunning the society of his fellow artists, he complained of their neglect, and refused to enter the Royal Academy. It was said of Sterne that "he would shed tears over a dead donkey whilst he left a living mother to starve." In like manner Romney wrote gushing words of sympathy for the widow of another man, whilst his own wife had been practically widowed for more than thirty years. Of the intercourse of Romney with the fair and frail Emma Lyon, who, as Lady Hamilton, exercised an influence for evil over him and over Nelson, it is not our province to speak. The fitful temper of the painter led him to begin numerous pictures he never finished, cart-loads of which were removed from his house at Hampstead. Romney's want of steadfastness often compelled him to abandon works of which the conception was greater than the power to carry it out. There was a want of _thoroughness_ about him, and even the pictures which he finished seemed incomplete to those who did not understand them. Noteworthy among these are _Ophelia_, _The Infant Shakespeare_, and _The Shipwreck_, from "The Tempest." His portraits, however, form the greater cla.s.s of his productions. In the National Gallery are _Study of Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante_, and _The Parson's Daughter_. "We may sum up all that is to be said of Romney in this: that whatever he did Reynolds had done much better; that his art did not advance the taste of the age, or the reputation of the school, and that it is quite clear, however fashion or faction may have upheld him in his own day, the succeeding race of painters owed little or nothing to his teaching." (_Redgrave._) A harsh and unsympathizing judgment. Truer is it that he never offended the finest taste in art, that he was a very fair draughtsman, a sound and accomplished painter, who delineated ladies with the taste of a Greek, and children with exemplary sweetness.

JOSEPH WRIGHT (1734--1797) is, from his birth-place, commonly known as WRIGHT OF DERBY. Quitting his native town, where his father was an attorney, he reached London in 1751 and became a pupil of Hudson, the portrait painter. Wright aimed at historical painting, but his works are chiefly single portraits, and conversation pieces. After revisiting Derby, he returned to Hudson's studio for a while, and then settled in his native town, where he practised his art with success. He often represented candle-light and fire-light effects, as may be seen in _The Orrery_, _The Iron Forge_, and _The Experiment with the Air-Pump_ (National Gallery). Marrying in 1773, Wright went with his wife to Italy and remained there two years. He witnessed an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and painted that event with success, as well as the display of fire-works at the Castle of St. Angelo, at Rome, which is known as the _Girandola_. Returning to England, Wright painted at first at Bath; but being unsuccessful, he returned to Derby, where he died in 1797. He contributed a few works to the Royal Academy after quitting Italy; _Vesuvius_, and the _Girandola_ were exhibited there in 1778. Wright was elected an a.s.sociate in 1782, but removed his name from the Academy books two years later. This step was taken either because Edmund Garvey, a landscape painter, was elected a R.A. before him, or because Wright had refused to comply with one of the Academy rules, and present works to the society before receiving his diploma. He was said to be a shy, irritable man, always ill, or fancying himself so, and ready to take offence easily. Such are the unconfirmed statements of the advocates of the Academy. He painted landscapes in his latter days, _The Head of Ulleswater_ was his last picture. Best known among his works are _The dead Soldier_, _Belshazzar's Feast_, _Hero and Leander_, _The Storm_ (from "Winter's Tale"), and _Cicero's Villa_. Wright's most remarkable fire-light effects are _The Hermit_, _The Gladiator_, _The Indian Widow_, _The Orrery_, and, already mentioned, the _Air-Pump_. Like Hogarth and Copley, he painted in that solid old English method which insured the preservation of his works. "On the whole it cannot be said that Wright's pictures have added much to the reputation of the British school. As a portrait painter he is hardly in the second rank." His portraits have a heavy look; of his landscapes it has been averred that "they are large and simple in manner, but heavy and empty."

THE SUCCESSORS OF SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.

Portrait-painting, always popular in England, continued to flourish after the deaths of Reynolds and Gainsborough. Although the magic touches of these masters cannot be found in the art of their immediate followers, their influence produced several original and independent artists, who, though successors, were not imitators.

NATHANIEL DANCE (1734--1811) studied art under Frank Hayman, R.A., and visited Italy with Angelica Kauffman. Returning to England he achieved success as a painter, both of portraits and historic pieces. He was one of the original members of the Royal Academy, from which he retired in 1790, on marrying a wealthy widow: he took the name of Holland and was made a baronet ten years later. His best-known works are the _Death of Virginia_, _Garrick as Richard III._, _Timon of Athens_ (Royal Collection) and _Captain Cook_ (Greenwich Hospital).

JAMES NORTHCOTE (1746--1831), the son of a watchmaker of Plymouth, spent seven years as an apprentice to his father's craft, all the while longing to be a painter. He was a man of indefatigable industry, who, in spite of a defective education and few opportunities for improvement, made his mark both as an artist and a writer on art. He was the favourite pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds and his first biographer. Leaving Reynolds in 1775, Northcote returned to Devonshire, and for two years successfully painted portraits. From 1777 to 1780 he was in Italy studying the old masters, especially t.i.tian. He settled in London on returning home, and maintained himself by portrait-painting. He was, however, ambitious to succeed with historic pictures, though compelled to confine himself to more saleable subjects, such as _A Visit to Grandmamma_, and similar domestic scenes. Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery gave Northcote a new opening in the line he yearned to practise. Among nine pictures produced for this series, that of the _Murder of the Young Princes in the Tower_, painted in 1786, brought the artist prominently into notice. The _Death of Wat Tyler_, now in Guildhall, London, is one of his best works. His _Diligent and Dissipated Servants_, a series suggested by Hogarth's _Idle and Industrious Apprentices_, falls very far below the standard of the original series. Noteworthy facts in Northcote's historic pictures are the incongruity of the dresses, and frequent gross anachronisms. Thus we have Sisera lying on a feather bed and attired like a trooper of Cromwell's Ironsides, and Jael dressed like a modern maid-of-all-work. In the Shakespearian pictures Hubert of the thirteenth century, and Richard III. of the fifteenth century, alike wear the dress of Elizabeth's day. Wat Tyler and the murderers in the Tower wear the same armour, which belongs to the Stuart period. Such mistakes, however, were common among all painters of his time.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHARITY. _By_ NORTHCOTE. A.D. 1783.]

JOHN OPIE (1761--1807), the rival and friend of Northcote, was like him a West countryman, and like him rose from the ranks. Born at St. Agnes, near Truro, the son of a carpenter, Opie early showed intelligence and quickness in acquiring knowledge which marked him out for a higher sphere than a carpenter's shop. After evincing taste for art, and disgusting his father by decorating a saw-pit with chalk, he found patrons in Lord Bateman and Dr. Wolcot, the famous _Peter Pindar_. Some biographers have described Opie as becoming the doctor's footboy, but this is a mistake. Walcot brought the young painter to London and introduced him to Sir Joshua Reynolds, but the selfish patronage of the doctor soon came to an end. Opie was at first vigorously advertised in London as "the Cornish Wonder"--

"the Cornish boy, in tin-mines bred, Whose native genius, like his diamonds, shone In secret, till chance gave him to the sun."

Reynolds told Northcote that Opie was "like Caravaggio and Velasquez in one." In 1782 the painter married his first wife, from whom he was subsequently divorced owing to her misconduct. Although Opie was no longer the wonder of the hour in fickle London, he was achieving more enduring fame. His defective education, both in literature and art, left much to be learned, and he set himself to supply his defects with a laborious zeal which finally affected his brain and prematurely ended his life. His earliest works in London were studies of heads and portraits. In 1786, he produced the _a.s.sa.s.sination 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 a.s.sociate of the Royal Academy in 1787, and a full member within a year. In the next seven years he exhibited twenty pictures, all portraits. Opie was engaged to paint for Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery, and contributed five pictures, which improved as they progressed. Portrait-painting continued to be, however, the most lucrative pursuit, and having been introduced to some patrons at Norwich, Opie saw and married Amelia Alderson, who afterwards wrote Memoirs of her husband, and described the hard struggles which he had at times to encounter. His love for art and untiring industry remained to the last. Even when dying, and at times delirious, he gave advice about the finishing of pictures which he wished to send to the Academy. It was said of him, that "whilst other artists painted to live, he lived to paint." He was buried in St.

Paul's. Opie wrote several works on art, and was Professor of Painting in the Royal Academy. His answer to a troublesome inquirer truly expresses the character of his work. "What do I mix my colours with?

Why, with brains." Two of Opie's pictures are in the National Gallery--a _Portrait of William Siddons_, and _Troilus, Cressida, and Pandarus_. Of his art generally it may be said that he possessed considerable power and breadth of treatment. His handling was often coa.r.s.e, and his colouring crude, especially in female portraits; in fact, coa.r.s.eness was the leading characteristic of works which were never tame or spiritless.

SIR WILLIAM BEECHEY (1753--1839) was a portrait painter who received a considerable share of Court favour. He is variously stated to have begun life as a house-painter, or as a solicitor's clerk. He devoted himself to the study of art at the Royal Academy. He lived for a time at Norwich, produced conversation pieces in the style of Hogarth, but finally settled in London as a portrait painter, and practised with considerable success. In 1793 Beechey was elected A.R.A., and executed a portrait of _Queen Charlotte_, who was so well pleased with it that she appointed him her Majesty's portrait painter. Thus introduced to Court, Beechey trod "the primrose path" of success, and in 1798 painted an equestrian portrait of George III., with likenesses of the Prince of Wales and Duke of York at a review in Hyde Park. The painter was knighted, and elected a Royal Academician. The picture of _George III.

Reviewing the 3rd and 10th Dragoons_ is at Hampton Court. His _Portrait of Nollekens_, the sculptor, is in the National Gallery. Beechey's chief merit is accuracy of likeness.

JOHN HOPPNER (1759--1810) was another portrait painter who prospered at Court. At first a chorister in the Chapel Royal, he studied art at the Academy schools, became an a.s.sociate in 1793, and was elected full member in 1795. He enjoyed vast popularity as a portrait painter, finding a rival only in Lawrence. Many of Hoppner's best works are at St. James's Palace. Three of them are in the National Gallery--_William Pitt_, _"Gentleman" Smith_, the actor, and the _Countess of Oxford_.

Three of his works are at Hampton Court; among them is _Mrs. Jordan as the Comic Muse_.

Examples of the work of nearly all the above-mentioned portrait painters may be consulted in the National Portrait Gallery at South Kensington.

ANIMAL PAINTERS.

The first animal painters in England were willing to win money, if not fame, by taking the portraits of favourite race-horses and prize oxen for the country squires, who loved to decorate their walls with pictures of their ancestors, and their studs. The first to make a name in this branch of art was JOHN WOOTTON, a pupil of John Wyck. He became famous in the sporting circles of Newmarket for his likenesses of race-horses, and received large sums for pictures of dogs and horses. Later, he attempted landscapes, chiefly hunting scenes. His works are in country mansions, especially at Blenheim, Longleat, and Dytchley. Wootton died in 1765.

JAMES SEYMOUR (1702--1752) was famous also as a painter of race-horses and hunting-pieces; he is best known by the engravings after his works.

GEORGE STUBBS (1724--1806) was the son of a Liverpool surgeon, from whom he probably inherited his love for anatomy. He worked at painting and conducted anatomic studies with equal zeal throughout his life, and is said to have carried, on one occasion, a dead horse on his back to his dissecting-room. This story is more than doubtful, though Stubbs was a man of great physical strength. He was the first to give the poetry of life and motion to pictures of animals, and to go beyond the mere portrait of a Newmarket favourite or an over-fed ox. The Royal Academy elected him an a.s.sociate in 1780, but as he declined to present one of his works, he was never made a full member. Among his works are a _Lion killing a Horse_, a _Tiger lying in his Den_, a n.o.ble 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 c.u.mberland at Newmarket, Gilpin was provided with a set of rooms, and soon became known as a painter of horses. In 1770 he exhibited at Spring Gardens _Darius obtaining the Persian Empire by the Neighing of his Horse_, and next year _Gulliver taking Leave of the Houyhnhnms_. Gilpin was elected a R.A. in 1797.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE WATERING PLACE. _By_ MORLAND.]

GEORGE MORLAND (1763--1804), though not exclusively an animal painter, is best known in that branch of art. His life's story describes wasted opportunities, reckless extravagance, and misused talents. Brought up with unwise strictness by his father, HENRY ROBERT MORLAND (died 1797), a portrait painter of note, George Morland no sooner escaped from home discipline than he began that course of riotous living which ended in a dishonoured grave, for which he prepared the epitaph:--"Here lies a drunken dog." It is a mistake to suppose that Morland was a self-taught genius, since, although his father objected to his entering the Academy schools, he himself was his teacher, and so a.s.siduously 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_, _Let.i.tia_, 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 a.s.sociates. His pictures were copied as he painted them, during his temporary absence from the studio.

In 1790 Morland was at his best, _The Gipsies_ being painted two years later. His last days were dark indeed. Loaded with debt, and dreading arrest, he laboured like a slave, seldom leaving his studio, where his pot-companions alternately rioted and acted as his models, and dogs, pigs, and birds shared the disorderly room. In 1799, he was arrested, and lived within the Rules of the Fleet, amid all the debaucheries of that evil place and time. Freed by the Insolvent Act in 1802, the painter, broken in health and ruined in character, was once again arrested for a tavern score, and ended his life in a sponging-house on October 29th, 1804. His wife died of grief three days later, and was interred with her husband in the burial-ground of St. James's Chapel, Hampstead Road.

Morland chiefly painted country scenes, the memories of happier days, and introduced animals, such as pigs and a.s.ses, to his works. Produced for existence, and in a fitful, uncertain manner, his pictures were hastily conceived, and painted with little thought or study. He did much to bring the simple beauty of English scenes before the eyes of the public, and to teach Englishmen that they need not go to Italy in search of subjects for their art. Morland loved low company, even in his pictures, and was at home in a ruined stable, with a ragged jacka.s.s, and "dirty Brookes," the cobbler. In the National Gallery are: _The Inside of a Stable_, said to be the White Lion at Paddington, and _A Quarry with Peasants_, by him. In the South Kensington Museum is an excellent example of his art, called _The Reckoning_; and in the National Portrait Gallery is his own portrait, painted by himself at an early age.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER VI.

BOOK ILl.u.s.tRATORS.

The earliest book ill.u.s.trations in England were illuminations and repet.i.tions 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 pract.i.tioners.

Topographical views, subjects from natural history, and botany followed.