The Best Portraits in Engraving Part 2

[Sidenote: Muller.]

[Sidenote: Vangelisti.]

[Sidenote: Anderloni and Jesi.]

Especially eminent was Wille as a teacher. Under his influence the art a.s.sumed a new life, so that he became father of the modern school. His scholars spread everywhere, and among them are acknowledged masters.

He was teacher of Bervic, whose portrait of Louis XVI. in his coronation robes is of a high order, himself teacher of the Italian Toschi, who, after an eminent career, died as late as 1858; also teacher of Tardieu, himself teacher of the brilliant Desnoyers, whose portrait of the EMPEROR NAPOLEON IN HIS CORONATION ROBES is the fit complement to that of LOUIS XVI.; also teacher of the German, J.

G. von Muller, himself father and teacher of J. Frederick von Muller, engraver of the SISTINE MADONNA, in a plate whose great fame is not above its merit; also teacher of the Italian Vangelisti, himself teacher of the unsurpa.s.sed Longhi, in whose school were Anderloni and Jesi. Thus not only by his works, but by his famous scholars, did the humble gunsmith gain sway in art.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NAPOLEON I.

(Painted by Francois Gerard, and Engraved by Auguste Boucher Desnoyers.)]

Among portraits by this school deserving especial mention is that of KING JEROME OF WESTPHALIA, brother of Napoleon, by the two Mullers, where the genius of the artist is most conspicuous, although the subject contributes little. As in the case of the Palace of the Sun, described by Ovid, _Materiam superabat opus_. This work is a beautiful example of skill in representation of fur and lace, not yielding even to Drevet.

[Sidenote: Longhi.]

Longhi was a universal master, and his portraits are only parts of his work. That of WASHINGTON, which is rare, is evidently founded on Stuart's painting, but after a design of his own, which is now in the possession of the Swiss Consul at Venice. The artist felicitated himself on the hair, which is modelled after the French masters.[7]

The portraits of MICHAEL ANGELO, and of DANDOLO, the venerable Doge of Venice, are admired; so also is the NAPOLEON, AS KING OF ITALY, with the iron crown and finest lace. But his chief portrait is that of EUGENE BEAUHARNAIS, VICEROY OF ITALY, full length, remarkable for plume in the cap, which is finished with surpa.s.sing skill.

[Sidenote: Morghen.]

Contemporary with Longhi was another Italian engraver of widely extended fame, who was not the product of the French school, Raffaelle Morghen, born at Florence in 1758. His works have enjoyed a popularity beyond those of other masters, partly from the interest of their subjects, and partly from their soft and captivating style, although they do not possess the graceful power of Nanteuil and Edelinck, and are without variety. He was scholar and son-in-law of Volpato, of Rome; himself scholar of Wagner, of Venice, whose homely round faces were not high models in art. The AURORA, OF GUIDO, and the LAST SUPPER, OF LEONARDO DA VINCI, stand high in engraving, especially the latter, which occupied Morghen three years. Of his two hundred and one works, no less than seventy-three are portraits, among which are the Italian poets DANTE, PETRARCH, ARIOSTO, Ta.s.sO, also BOCCACCIO, and a head called RAFFAELLE, but supposed to be that of BENDO ALTOVITI, the great painter's friend, and especially the DUKE OF MENCADA on horseback, after Vandyck, which has received warm praise. But none of his portraits is calculated to give greater pleasure than that of LEONARDO DA VINCI, which may vie in beauty even with the famous Pompone. Here is the beauty of years and of serene intelligence.

Looking at that tranquil countenance, it is easy to imagine the large and various capacities which made him not only painter, but sculptor, architect, musician, poet, discoverer, philosopher, even predecessor of Galileo and Bacon. Such a character deserves the immortality of art. Happily an old Venetian engraving reproduced in our day,[8] enables us to see this same countenance at an earlier period of life, with sparkle in the eye.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO

Firenze presso Luigi Bardi e C'Borgo degli Albizzi N^o 460]

Raffaelle Morghen left no scholars who have followed him in portraits; but his own works are still regarded, and a monument in Santa Croce, the Westminster Abbey of Florence, places him among the mighty dead of Italy.

[Sidenote: Houbraken]

Thus far nothing has been said of English engravers. Here, as in art generally, England seems removed from the rest of the world; _Et penitus toto divisos...o...b.. Britannos_. But though beyond the sphere of Continental art, the island of Shakespeare was not inhospitable to some of its representatives. Vandyck, Rubens, Sir Peter Lely, and Sir G.o.dfrey Kneller, all Dutch artists, painted the portraits of Englishmen, and engraving was first ill.u.s.trated by foreigners. Jacob Houbraken, another Dutch artist, born in 1698, was employed to execute portraits for Birch's "Heads of Ill.u.s.trious Persons of Great Britain,"

published at London in 1743, and in these works may be seen the aesthetic taste inherited from his father, author of the biography of Dutch artists, and improved by study of the French masters. Although without great force or originality of manner, many of these have positive beauty. I would name especially the SIR WALTER RALEIGH and JOHN DRYDEN.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.

(Painted by Federigo Zuccaro, and Engraved by Frances...o...b..rtolozzi.)]

[Sidenote: Bartolozzi.]

Different in style was Bartolozzi, the Italian, who made his home in England for forty years, ending in 1807, when he removed to Lisbon.

The considerable genius which he possessed was spoilt by haste in execution, superseding that care which is an essential condition of art. Hence sameness in his work and indifference to the picture he copied. Longhi speaks of him as "most unfaithful to his archetypes,"

and, "whatever the originals, being always Bartolozzi." Among his portraits of especial interest are several old "wigs," as MANSFIELD and THURLOW; also the DEATH OF CHATHAM, after the picture of Copley in the Vernon Gallery. But his prettiest piece undoubtedly is MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, with her little son James I., after what Mrs. Jameson calls "the lovely picture of Zuccaro at Chiswick." In the same style are his vignettes, which are of acknowledged beauty.

[Sidenote: Strange.]

Meanwhile a Scotchman honorable in art comes upon the scene--Sir Robert Strange, born in the distant Orkneys in 1721, who abandoned the law for engraving. As a youthful Jacobite he joined the Pretender in 1745, sharing the disaster of Culloden, and owing his safety from pursuers to a young lady dressed in the ample costume of the period, whom he afterwards married in grat.i.tude, and they were both happy. He has a style of his own, rich, soft, and especially charming in the tints of flesh, making him a natural translator of t.i.tian. His most celebrated engravings are doubtless the VENUS and the DANAe after the great Venetian colorist, but the CLEOPATRA, though less famous, is not inferior in merit. His acknowledged masterpiece is the MADONNA OF ST. JEROME called THE DAY, after the picture by Correggio, in the gallery of Parma, but his portraits after Vandyck are not less fine, while they are more interesting--as CHARLES FIRST, with a large hat, by the side of his horse, which the Marquis of Hamilton is holding, and that of the same Monarch standing in his ermine robes; also the THREE ROYAL CHILDREN with two King Charles spaniels at their feet, also HENRIETTA MARIA, the Queen of Charles. That with the ermine robes is supposed to have been studied by Raffaelle Morghen, called sometimes an imitator of Strange.[9] To these I would add the rare autograph PORTRAIT OF THE ENGRAVER, being a small head after Greuze, which is simple and beautiful.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JOHN HUNTER

(Painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Engraved by William Sharp.)]

[Sidenote: Sharp.]

One other name will close this catalogue. It is that of William Sharp, who was born at London in 1746, and died there in 1824. Though last in order, this engraver may claim kindred with the best. His first essays were the embellishment of pewter pots, from which he ascended to the heights of art, showing a power rarely equalled. Without any instance of peculiar beauty, his works are constant in character and expression, with every possible excellence of execution; face, form, drapery--all are as in nature. His splendid qualities appear in the DOCTORS OF THE CHURCH, which has taken its place as the first of English engravings. It is after the picture of Guido, once belonging to the Houghton gallery, which in an evil hour for English taste was allowed to enrich the collection of the Hermitage at St. Petersburgh; and I remember well that this engraving by Sharp was one of the few ornaments in the drawing-room of Macaulay when I last saw him, shortly before his lamented death. Next to the Doctors of the Church is his LEAR IN THE STORM, after the picture by West, now in the Boston Athenaeum, and his SORTIE FROM GIBRALTAR, after the picture by Trumbull, also in the Boston Athenaeum. Thus, through at least two of his masterpieces whose originals are among us, is our country a.s.sociated with this great artist.

It is of portraits especially that I write, and here Sharp is truly eminent. All that he did was well done; but two were models; that of MR. BOULTON, a strong, well-developed country gentleman, admirably executed, and of JOHN HUNTER, the eminent surgeon, after the painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, in the London College of Surgeons, unquestionably the foremost portrait in English art, and the coequal companion of the great portraits in the past; but here the engraver united his rare gifts with those of the painter.

[Sidenote: Mandel.]

In closing these sketches I would have it observed that this is no attempt to treat of engraving generally, or of prints in their ma.s.s or types. The present subject is simply of portraits, and I stop now just as we arrive at contemporary examples, abroad and at home, with the gentle genius of Mandel beginning to ascend the sky, and our own engravers appearing on the horizon. There is also a new and kindred art, infinite in value, where the sun himself becomes artist, with works which mark an epoch.

CHARLES SUMNER.

WASHINGTON, 11TH DEC., 1871.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Discourses before the Royal Academy, No. IV.]

[Footnote 2: De Groote Schonburgh der Nederlantsche Konctschilders en Schilderessen.]

[Footnote 3: This rare volume is in the Congressional Library, among the books which belonged originally to Hon.

George P. Marsh, our excellent and most scholarly minister in Italy. I asked for it in vain at the Paris Cabinet of Engravings, and also at the Imperial Library. Never translated into French or English; there is a German translation of it by Carl Barth.]

[Footnote 4: Les Hommes Ill.u.s.tres, par Perrault, Tome ii., p.

97. The excellent copy of this work in the Congressional Library belonged to Mr. Marsh. The prints are early impressions.]

[Footnote 5: Panegyrique Funebre de Messire Pompone de Bellievre, Premier President au Parlement, p.r.o.nounce a l'Hostel-Dieu de Paris, le 17 Avril, 1657, par un Chanoine regulier de la Congregation de France. The dedication shows this to have been the work of F. Lallemant of St. Genevieve.]

[Footnote 6: _La Calcografia_, p. 176.]

[Footnote 7: _La Calcografia_, pp. 165, 418.]

[Footnote 8: Les Arts au Moyen Age et a l'Epoque de la Renaissance, par Paul Lacroix, p. 198.]

[Footnote 9: Longhi, _La Calcografia_, p. 199.]