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 landscape 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 landscape-painting, and show the hitherto neglected beauties of our own land. We have marked historic painters bravely struggling against neglect, like Barry uncared for, believing in his art; and like Copley, who treated history with freshness and 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 Romney, the dramatic force of Opie, the grace of Stothard, the great inspiration of Blake, and the wild nightmare illustrations of Fuseli. We have seen art too long wedded to literature, and yet making great advances under the treatment of those who turned their attention to book illustration and miniature-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.

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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 precocious 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 flowing 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 truthful likeness of Lady Kenyon at this early age. Of regular 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 the figure with the ground--that melting of the flesh into the surrounding light which is seen in the pictures of the first President. 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 recommended 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 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 VII._, the _Emperor Francis_, and _Cardinal Gonsalvi_. Famous among his portraits of children 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 manhood 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 (1769--1825), the son of a bookseller at Ludlow, came to London in 1786, after receiving a good education 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 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 Loughborough_ 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 Reynolds, who advised the young painter to study at the Royal Academy, advice which he somewhat unwillingly followed. Gradually winning his way, he became a successful 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 election 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 Bacchus_, and portraits of Morton the comedian, and _Lewis as the Marquis in the 'Midnight Hour.'_ The first illustrates Shee's later style; the picture of Lewis, painted in 1791, his early method. Besides paintings, Shee 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 medal of the Life School, and the gold medal in the Painting School for _Caractacus recognising 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 studentship 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 (1770--1845) 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, 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 (1773--1843), 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 _Daedalus fastening wings on to his 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 L50 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 _Flaxman_, painted for Lord Dover, is considered Jackson's masterpiece. Leslie, speaking of the subdued richness 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 Van 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 himself, is in the National Portrait Gallery.