'/NT/iRS AND ■ PAINTINGS OF TIJ ^1 THE ART OF PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN BEING A GLANCE AT SOME OF THE PAINTERS AND PAINTINGS OF THE BRITISH SCHOOL DURING THE LAST SIXTY YEARS BY A, G. TEMPLE, F.S.A. DIRECTOR OF THE GUILDHALL ART GALLERY, LONDON tmiitb TRcproSuctfons in Collotype of Sevent'e=Seven ipaintings LONDON CHAPMAN AND HALL. Limited 1897 PRINTED BY IIAZELL, WATSON, AND VINF.Y, LD,, LONDON AND AYLESBURY. THE COLLOTYPES BY MESSRS. FORTESQUE WETHERMAN AND CO. ENFIELD. SUBSCRIBERS. His Grace the Duke of Devon- shire, K.G. His Grace the Duke of Rutland, K.G. His Grace the Duke of West- minster, K.G. The Right Hon. the Earl of North- brook, G.C.S.I. The Right Hon. the Earl of Wharncliffe. The Right Hon. the Viscount de Vesci. The Right Hon. Lord Aldenham. The Right Hon. Lord Armstrong, C.B. The Right Hon. Lord Burton. The Right Hon. Lord Hilungdon. The Right Hon. Lord Iveagh. The Right Hon. Lord Piri; right, P.C., F.R.S. The Right Hon. Lord Wantage, K.C.B., V.C. The Hon. W. F. D. Smith, M.P. Sir J. Whittaker Ellis, Bart. Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. Sir James Joicey, Bart., M.P. Sir James KitsOiN, Bart. Sir Stuart Knill, Bart. Sir Samuel Montagu, Bart., M.P. Sir George F. F.vudel-Phillips, Bart., Lord Mayor. Sir Cutheert Quilter, Bart,, M.P. Sir George Tyler, Bart. Sir James Whitehead, Bart. Sir Frederick Wigan, Bart. Sir Richard E. Weuster, G.C.M.G., Q.C., M.P. Sir Donald Currie, K.C.M.G. Sir Walter Wilkin, K.C.M.G. Sir Henry Doulton. Sir Alfred Searle Haslam. Sir Henry Irving. Sir J. C. Robinson. L. Alma Tadema, Esq., R.A. W. K. D'Arcy, Esq. Benjamin Armitage, Esq. J. J. Baddeley, Esq. W. Y. Baker, Esq. T. J. Barratt, Esq. Mrs. Russell Barrington. James Barrow, Esq. F. A. Bevan, Esq. H. A. Blyth, Esq. Robert H. Brechin, Esq. vi SUBSCRIBERS. Ernest G. Brown, Esq. Abel Buckley, Esq. Charles Butler, Esq. S. N. Castle, Esq. Charles Churchill, Esq. Henry Clarke, Esq., L.C.C. J. J. Colman, Esq. J. M. Cook, Esq. E. M. Denny, Esq. James Dole, Esq. Alfred East, Esq., R.I. H. C. Erhardt, Esq., F.R.G.S. Luke Fildes, Esq., R.A. The Fine Art Society. C. J. Galloway, Esq. Charles Gassiot, Esq. W. Gillilan, Esq. H. H. Goddard, Esq. John Gooch, Esq. George Gurney, Esq. Hugh Hammersley, Esq. Col. T. W. Harding, J. P. C. T. Harris, Esq. Abraham Haworth, Esq. Jesse Haworth, Esq. Alexander Henderson, Esq. J. P. Heseltine, Esq. Stephen G. Holland, Esq. Louis Huth, Esq. r. H. Ism ay, Esq. James Knowles, Esq. B. W. Leader, Esq., A.R.A. E. A. Le.atham, Esq. Mrs. Charles E. Lees. Walter B. Lethbridge, Esq. Leonard C. Lindsay, Esq. J. Manser, Esq., C.E. The Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield. J. Garner Marshall, Esq. George McCulloch, Esq. T. H. Miller, Esq. Joseph Milsted, Esq. J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq. David Murray, Esq., A.R.A. The National Art Library, South Kensington. William Newall, Esq. W. W. OULESS, Esq., R.A. Alfred Palmer, Esq. F. C. Pawle, Esq., J. P. Mrs. Dyson Perrins. Henry J. Pfungst, Esq., F.S.A. John Polson, Esq. George Rae, Esq. Briton Riviere, Esq., R.A. Humphrey Roberts, Esq. W. Graham Robertson, Esq. William Rome, Esq., F.S.A. Alfred C. de Rothschild, Esq. G. N. Stevens, Esq. Robert Strathern, Esq. Henry Tate, Esq. J. Temple, Esq. Mrs. Thwaites. H. J. Turner, Esq. Reginald Vaile, Esq. H. J. Veitch, Esq. T. Humphry Ward, Esq. Mrs. Watney. C. J. Wertheimer, Esq. Robert Wharton, Esq. George Woodiwiss, Esq. Henry Woods, Esq., R.A. Alexander Young, Esq. PREFACE. T T has not been attempted in the present volume to pay much attention to the chronological order of the painters' lives, it being considered more convenient to consolidate the various exponents of art, as far as possible, into sections or groups, according to their respective sympathies or similarities of aim. Nor does the book profess to contain anything ap- proaching an exhaustive survey of the career of any painter to whom reference is made, nor to include the mention of every painter in the realm who is entitled to prominence in his profession. Such an attempt would have demanded far more space than is at my disposal, apart from being foreign to the intention of the work, which purports, as the title indicates, to be but a glance at some of the painters and paintings of the reign. I am deeply indebted to those who have kindly permitted their pictures to be reproduced in illustration of the work. Very many of these pictures have not been reproduced in any way before, and many of them are hedged about by intricate copyright ownership ; but from all who possess any mterest in them, much consideration and kindness have been viii PREFACE. received ; and I desire to cordially acknowledge the valuable support which my work has met with in this direction. I am also much gratified at the kind patronage which the work has received at the hands of those who have subscribed to it, and whose names, by their permission, appear at the commencement of the volume. It is a regret to me that the intermittent leisure in a busy life has not been such as to enable me to mature many ideas which . have suggested themselves in the course of the work, or to bring to my aid a large amount of material which was fairly accessible. The book, however, may be considered sufficiently lengthy for its purpose ; and such shortcomings as may be found in it — and I am conscious that they are legion — will, 1 trust, be met by that indulgence which sincerity of effort may, perhaps, presume to claim. A. G. T. Guildhall, London, July i^th, 1897. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I 49 76 I. Introductory II. Turner, Wilkie, Mulre.^dy, Etty, Collins, Stanfield, Prout, David Roberts, John Linnell, Muller, Willi.am Hunt, Sir Edwin Landseer, and others .... III. C. R. Leslie, Webster, Redgrave, Elmore, Egg, Horsley, Poole, Dyce, Maclise, Herbert, and others . IV. Millais, Madox Brown, Holman Hunt, Rossetti, Burne- Jones V. John Phillip, Goodall, Dillon, J. F. Lewis, Carl Haag, Frith, Henry O'Neil, Sir John Gilbert, Sir Noel Paton, and others VI. Watts, Leighton, Poynter, Tadema, Waterhouse, Dicksee . 165 VII. Creswick, Dawson, The Liverpool School, and other Landscape Painters VHI. Bristow, Riviere, Swan, Davis, and others . . . .236 IX. Mason, Walker, Pinwell, and others X. Hook, Henry Moore, Peter Graham, Brett, and others XI. Calderon, Yeames, Marcus Stone, Pettie, Lucas, and others . 271 XII. Faed, Joseph Clark, Le Jeune, Hardy, and others . . 296 244 259 CONTENTS. XIII. Orchardson, Boughton, G. D. Leslie, Gregory, Woods, and OTHERS . ■ • 3°6 XIV. Arthur Hughes, W. S. Burton, F. K. S.-^ndys, Strudwick, Simeon Solomon, and others 3^5 XV. Ouless, Holl, Herkomer, Fildes, Sargent, and others . 337 XVI. Lady Butler, Gow, Crofts, and others 35^ XVII. Albert Moore, Mrs. Adrian Stokes, S. J. Solomon, Hacker, Robert Fowler, and others 3*^4 XVIII. Whistler, Lavery, Guthrie, Greiffenhagen, The Newlyn School, Clausen, La Thangue, and others . . .376 XIX. Conclusion 3^9 Index •^^S I ^hf^ — "wm ILLUSTRATIONS. Returning from the Ball The Vale of Clwyd BURCHELL AND SOPHIA IN THE HaYFIELD The Abandoned A Hillside Farm The Chess Players The Monarch of the Glen Dulcinea del Tobesco .... autolycus The Banker's Private Room : Negoti- ating A Loan The Seventh Day of the Decameron . George Herbert at Bemerton The Pirates of Istria carrying off THE Brides of Venice .... James U. receiving News of the Land- ing OF THE Prince of Orange . Ferdinand lured by Ariel The Return of the Dove to the Ark . Chill October The Fringe of the Moor. The Last of England .... A Converted British Family shelter- ing A Christlan Missionary from the Persecution of the Druids The Light of the World "EccE Ancilla Domini" The Blue Bower . A Vision of Fiammetta Le Chant d'Amour King Cophetua La Bomba Mater Purissima . The Two Memnons honeywood and the bailiffs The L.ast Moments of Raphael Charles L leaving Westminster Hall after his Trial .... /. r-F. /)/". Ti/mn; R.A. David Cox IV. Mulready, R.A. C. Stanfield, R.A. . John Linncll . IV. MuUer . Sir Edwin Landseer, . C. R. Leslie, R.A. . A. L. Egg, R.A. . J. C. ffors/ey, R.A. P. F. Poole, R.A. . IV. Dyce, R.A. J. R. Herbert, R.A. E. M. Ward, R.A. Sir J. E. Millais, Bart. Sir J. E. Millais, Bart. Sir J. E. Millais, Bart Sir J. E. Millais, Bart. Ford Madox Brown PAGE Frontispiece i/ lo y P. R.A. P.R.A. P. R.A. P.R.A. W. Holman Hunt . W. Holman Hunt . D. G. Rossetti D. G. Rossetti D. G. Rossetti Sir E. Burne-Jones, Bart. Sir E. Burne-Jones, Bart. John Phillip, R.A. F. Goodall, R.A. . F. Dillon, R.I. W. P. Frith, R.A. H. O'Neil, A.R.A. Sir John Gilbert, R.A., P.R.U'.S. i f xii ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Sir J. Noel Paton, R.S.A. . . 1 60 The Rider on the White Horse . G. F. Watts, R.A. . . 168 Alfred Lord Tennyson .... G. F. Watts, R.A. ■ 17- Summer Moon Lord Leighton, P. R.A. . . 176 Antigone Lord Leigliton, P. R.A. . . 1S2 Under the Se.\ Wall .... Sir E. J. Poynter, P. R.A. . 190 Un Jongleur L. Ahna Tadenia, R.A. 192 Joseph, Overseer of Pharaoh's Gr-4n- aries L. Alma Tadema, R.A. ■ 194 Expectation L. Alma Tadema, R.A. . 198 The Lady of Shalott .... J. W. Waterhouse, R..4. . 202 A Sunny Summer Day .... B. W. Leader, A.R.A. . . 216 Spindrift J. McWhirter, R.A. . 218 The Hop Gardens of England Cecil La-ivson .... 222 The Meadow Mirror David Murray, A.R.A. . 226 Autumn Glory Alfred East, R.I. . . 228 A Farm near Dusseldorf. Alfred W. Hunt, R.W.S. . • 230 Sindbad in the Valley of Diamonds . Albert Goodwin, R.W.S. • 234 " In Manus tuas, Domine "... Briton Riviere, R.A. . 238 Tigers at D.awn J. M. Stuan, A.R.A. . . 240 H. W. B. Davis, R.A. . . 242 The Gander . 246 The Bathers ...... Fred Walker, A.R.A. . . 248 The Harbour of Refuge .... Fred Walker, A.R.A. . . 252 The Broken Oar /. C. Hook, R.A. . . 260 The Newhaven Packet .... Henry Moore, R.A. . 262 Our Northern Walls .... Peter Graham, R.A. . 264 Home after Victory . 272 " Le Roi est Mort — Vive le Roi ! " Marcus Stone, R.A. . 278 John Pettie, R.A. . . 280 . 30S ■ 314 . 316 Is IT A Mouse? . 318 La Promessa Sposa Henry Woods, R.A. . 322 The Cavalier and the Puritan W. S. Burton . 328 ■ 332 General Lord Roberts, V.C. . W. W. Ouless, R.A. . ■ 338 "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away" Frank Holl, R.A. . ■ 340 Mrs. Luke Fildes Luke Fildes, R.A. . • 342 Mrs. Hugh Hammersley . . . . J. S. Sargent, R.A. ■ 350 "Scotland for Ever !" . Lady Butler .... ■ 356 Miss Alexander /. M. Whistles ■ 378 Ariadne John Lavery, R.S.A. . 380 The Choice of Paris M. Greiffenhagen . . 382 A Hopeless D.awn Frank Bramley, A.R.A. 384 Painting in the Queen's Reign. ERRATA. Page loo, line i6 : read "rescuing;" for "receiving." P^S^ 153. line 12: read "gracious" for "generous." Page 227, line 8: read "Van Marcke" for "Van Marche." Page 317, line 24: read " CA d'Oro" for " C a d'Or.a." achievements. With the advent of Hogarth, followed closely by Wilson, Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Romney, appeared the elements of a distinct British School at once original and creative. Satirizing the weaknesses and abuses of the age in which he lived, with a strength and prodigality of design fully on a level with his insight into human aims and fallacies, ILL USTRA TIONS. PAGE A Fairy Raid Sir J. Noel Paion, R.S.A. . . i6o The Rider on the White Horse . . G. F. Watts, R.A. . . . i6S Alfred Lord Tennyson . . . . G. F. Watts, R.A. . . .172 Summer Moon Lord Leighton, P. R.A. . . .176 Antigone Lord Leighton, P. R.A. . . .182 Under the Sea Wall .... Sir E. J. Poynter, P. R.A. . . 190 Un Jongleur L. Alma Tadema, R.A. .. . 192 Joseph, Overseer of Pharaoh's Gran- aries L. Alma Tadema, R.A. . . 194 Expectation L. Alma Tadema, R.A. . .198 The Lady of Shalott . . . . J. W. Waterhouse, R.A. . . 202 A Sunny Summer Day . . . . B. W. Leader, A.R.A. . . . 216 Spindrift /. McWhirtei; R.A. . . .218 TAKEN AWAY" Frank Holl, R.A 340 Mrs. Luke Fildes Luke Fildes, R.A 342 Mrs. Hugh Hammersley . . . . J. S. Sargent, R.A. . . . 350 "Scotland for Ever ! " . . . . Lady Butler 356 Miss Alexander J. M. Whistlet . . . .378 Ariadne John Lavery, R.S.A. . . .380 The Choice of Paris M. Greijfenhagen . . . .382 A Hopeless Dawn Frank Bramley, A.R.A. . . 384 ■7^ Painting in the Queen's Reign. CHAPTER I. Before dealing with the main subject of this work, the briefest possible glance will be taken at the footsteps of art in this country before Her Majesty ascended the throne. It has been said that in one notable direction British art differs from that of all other European schools, in that those schools have their root, more or less, in medieval times, whereas British art is modern. The painters of the British School of the eighteenth century had to create the belief that this country was able to produce art, while Italy and the Netherlands, Germany and France, were already in a position to point to past and great achievements. With the advent of Hogarth, followed closely by Wilson, Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Romney, appeared the elements of a distinct British School at once original and creative. Satirizing the weaknesses and abuses of the age in which he lived, with a strength and prodigality of design fully on a level with his insight into human aims and fallacies. PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. Hogarth may truly be said to have held " the mirror up to nature " with a method of practice untraceable to any Foreign School and with an uncaring hand for beauty of expression ; the robust heart of the man being plainly discernible as desiring above all things truth, however distasteful its inter- pretation might at times be, so long as he taught the lesson he felt it within him to teach. Wilson, on the other hand, a man of fine feeling and with the tenderest appreciation for the poetic dignity which lies in the quieter moods of nature, the soft evening sky or tranquil distance, though he excelled in his line, appears to have made small impression on an age that could boast little in the way of taste or feeling, and could not therefore adequately gauge his merits ; but these merits are recognized now, the beauty and value of his work are keenly perceived, and his canvases were at no time more highly prized than they are at the present day. In Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Romney appeared three men of very different type to Hogarth. Possessed, as he was, with a remarkable capacity for the delineation of character, but dominated at all times, as Hogarth seldom was, by a most refined sense of beauty of line and colour, they be- queathed to posterity examples of human grace and loveliness which not only made conspicuous mark at the date they were painted, and expanded that sense and appreciation for the beautiful which was then gradually awakening, but have continued to fascinate, with added charm as each succeeding year has rolled by, and remain at the present day unsurpassed in all the main elements of painting. To the development of men of capabilities such as these ROYAL ACADEMY. 3 men possessed must be attributed the establishment of the first important society for the promotion of the Arts in this country. In 1768, under the patronage of the reigning monarch George III, the Royal Academy of Arts was founded, with Reynolds as President ; and to this Institution, with comparatively few exceptions, the leading painters of the British School have since belonged. The propriety of union was discerned, with the usefulness of examples of the best kind, and teachers of the fixed and permanent principles of the profession, as the best and surest means of developing the talent and advancing the taste of the country. The schools of study, both of the Life and the Antique, which the Academy opened, were quickly filled with ardent students; an annual exhibition was determined upon, the profits of which were to be applied towards the expenses ; and in about the tenth year of the Academy's existence it was enabled to intimate to the King (who had been contributing a thousand a year out of his privy purse towards the maintenance of the In- stitution) that it had so far prospered as no longer to need this aid from the kingly purse, and the grant accordingly ceased, since which time (1778) the Royal Academy has been self-supporting. The rapidity and growth of art in this country, since the Royal recognition of it, and the consolidation of its chief producers and teachers into a corporate body, have in a way made amends for the tardiness of its appearance. For long the English had rested insensible to the charms of the Fine Arts; even Holbein, in Henry the Eighth's reign, and Vandyke, a century later, could be regarded in no other 4 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. light than as exotics on English soil ; no promising shoots appeared from the imported stock, and the work of these two men, liberally patronized by the reigning monarch, and widely admired, communicated no decisive character or even impetus to British art. It was productive of no adherents who could claim more than a third- or fourth-rate reputation ; and on the Continent the impression remained, that the inhabitants of these islands were deficient in those more refined sensibilities of organization which are essential to the attainment of ex- cellence in the Fine Arts. With the appearance, however, of the five illustrious men above referred to, the claims of British genius may be said to have been asserted. It is curious to notice that contemporary almost with these gifted men, or closely following them, a group should arise whose work in their day, far from meeting, as it should have done, with discouragement, was loudly extolled, a group who allowed themselves to be influenced by the early Flemish and Italian Schools to such a degree as to adopt an entirely false conception of historical art when dealing with the events of the past. Working on huge canvases, the greater, as they imagined, to emphasize the " dignity of art," they have left behind them works reckoned now of little account ; and such of the more important members of the group, Benjamin West, Barry, Opie, Northcote, Harlow, and Fuseli, men of con- sequence in their day, and possessing without doubt, and displaying, original powers, have handed down no enduring record that can be permitted to enter into competition, when judged by the higher standards of painting. The canvases of West, apart from their inadequate rendering of the grand heroic. WEST—COPLE Y—LA WRENCE. 5 Scriptural, or historical subjects which he chose, were of such dimensions as to practically prohibit their inclusion in any private collection, and the painter was wont to exhibit them in a large gallery he built in Newman Street, Oxford Street, an interesting engraving of the interior of which can be seen in the Print Room of the British Museum. It must neverthe- less not be overlooked that when events of a contemporary character were attempted, with the readily accessible correct- ness of costume, such as in Copley's case " The Death of the Earl of Chatham," or " The Death of Major Pierson," both now in the National Gallery, the historical painter of the last century, freed from too great a dependence upon his imagina- tion, was able undoubtedly to produce something really fine ; and these two pictures, for example, in costume, grouping, vigorous movement, and truthfulness of emotion, command favourable criticism to this day. With merely a momentary glance at Sir Thomas Lawrence, popular in his time, and gifted with an astonishing facility in portraiture, one instance of several must be noted in which his power is exerted with real charm. This is in " The Calmady Children " (30 X 30), a square canvas but painted in a circle, sold at Christie's in 1886 for / 1,890, a work that retains all its original beauty and lifelike expression of childhood. It is now unfortunately lost to this country, and in the collec- tion of Mr. C. P. Huntingdon of New York. Passing by also with just a word of mention men of distinct note, such as Robert Smirke, Stothard, and Hoppner, we come well into the present century, during the first twenty years of which considerable advance was made in the Arts. The old water- 6 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. colour society was established in 1804, the same as now exists in Pall Mall East, to afford encouragement and opportunities for periodical exhibition, exclusively to workers in that medium ; and some of the most brilliant exponents of this branch of art became consequently banded together — Cotman, Barret, Turner, Varley, De Wint, Prout, David Cox, Copley Fielding, Robson, William Hunt, and others — whose devotion and work, following on the foundation laid by Cozens and Girtin, may be said to have been the means of raising the art of water-colour painting to its true position in the Fine Arts. The Royal Academy during the same period was enrolling amongst its members such eminent men as Turner, Callcott, Wilkie, James Ward, Raeburn, Mulready, and William Collins, all of whom, with the exception of Raeburn, lived to see the Queen ascend the throne ; while outside its charmed circle Thomas Barker of Bath, John Crome (the founder of the Norwich School), Patrick Nasmyth, John Constable, James Stark, Alfred and Joseph Stannard, and George Vincent (of whom Barker and Stark alone were alive in 1837) were pursuing their studious avocation, and leaving such records of leafy dell and tranquil country-side, or Hobbema-like mill and stream and winding path, as to this day command our admiration for the hearty devotion to nature and patient sincerity of aim which they show. Then, in 1823, the Society of British Artists was established, which now holds its exhibitions in Suffolk Street, Pall Mall ; and in the North, in Edinburgh, the Royal Scottish Academy had been formed, its eleventh annual exhibition being held in the year of the Queen's accession, just anterior to which some ADMISSIONS TO ROYAL ACADEMY. 7 half-dozen names were enrolled in the English Academy, the absence of which from the annals of British painting would be a loss not easy to estimate — C. R. Leslie, William Etty, John Constable, Sir Charles Eastlake, Sir Edwin Landseer, and Clarkson Stanfield — four of whom, at least, were destined to achieve, during the present reign, some of their most brilliant triumphs. CHAPTER II. When Her Majesty ascended the throne in 1837, the great landscape painter John Constable had but a few months pre- viously breathed his last. He was represented, however, at the Academy that year, albeit for the last time, in a work entitled " Arundel Mill and Castle." But many men upon whom had rested the landscape art of Great Britain, and to whom passing allusion has been made in the preceding chapter, were still alive, though in most cases their greatest achievements either in oil or water-colour had been already accomplished. The great Turner [1775— 185 1] exhibited four pictures at the Academy in the year of the Queen's accession, his contribution two years later being the well known one in the National Gallery, " The Fighting Timeraire tugged to her Last Berth," a work in which no deficiency of his great power was shown, and the splendid landscape belonging now to Mr. Edward Chapman of " Proserpine ; the Plains of Enna" (27 X 49). i" which he borrowed the lovely scenery of Sicily, with its lofty mountain form and its waterfalls. The following year (1840) the famous " Slave Ship " was exhibited, once owned by Mr. Ruskin, and now in the possession of Thornton K. Lothrop, of Boston, U.S.A.; and in 1843 "The Sun of Venice going to Sea" 8 TURNER. 9 (24 X 36), a fishing fislucca putting to sea amid the blaze of a summer morning. " Venezia's Fisher spreads his painted canvas gay, Nor heeds the demon who in grim repose Expects his evening prey." Through the sparkling yellow and green of the water the vessel is making for the open sea, and the towers of Venice recede in the background. Was the world beginning to understand Turner at this date, 1843 ? The famous " Modern Painters, by a Graduate of Oxford," was published in that year. Most painters who have become celebrated have been said to be before their time, but sooner or later the world has come up with them. It mattered indeed little to Turner: his finest work was done, but he painted on, brilliantly still, for some years ; and in 1846 the beautiful pair, now owned by Sir Donald Currie, were seen on the Academy walls— " Going to the Ball, San Martino, Venice," and " Returning from the Ball, San Martha, Venice." They were both until 1895 in the possession of the late Mr. James Price, of Paignton, South Devon, and neither has been engraved. Each is 24 x 36, and, lustrous ni their illmnination, one of the sunset, the other of the sun's uprising, they picture the gay waters and life of the "fairy city," " Rising Uke water-columns from the sea, Of joy the sojourn, and of wealth the mart," with a power and romantic feeling never, perhaps, in a greater degree displayed than in this, his seventy-first year. From that time onwards, however, the great light began to flicker; works indeed, but of lesser note, came from his hand; 1850 2 lo PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. saw his last appearance on the Academy walls, and towards the end of 1851 he died, finding a resting-place, as many illustrious painters since have done, in St. Paul's Cathedral, but leaving behind him the magnificent bequest to the nation of one hundred and five of his works in oil and an immense number of water-colour drawings. These are all to be seen now in the National Gallery. The best work of Sir Augustus Callcott [1779— 1844], who died seven years after the Queen's accession, was already done, as also was John Sell Cotman's, that most prolific worker at landscape, architectural, and marine pieces, both in oil and water-colour; but in 1837 David Cox [i 773-1859], then in his sixty-fourth year, had twenty-two years to live, and, with a splendid record of work already behind him, was destined to paint during the present reign many notable works. The beautiful "Vale of Clwyd " (oil, 36 X 56. 1849). now in the collection of Mr. T. J. Barratt, was one of if not the, most famous ; and by his kind permission it is here reproduced. It is termed by many the finest pastoral picture in the world, and all the man's sensitive characteristics and seasoned strength is in the work. There are two of this title in oil ; the present one is known as the " Timmins Clwyd," and the other as the " Sharpe Clwyd." It was sold in the Murrieta Sale in 1892 for ^4,725. There is also a water-colour of the same title (27 X 21), which was sold at the late Mr. Quilter's sale in 1875 for ^1,627, and is now in the collection of Canon Sale at Holt Rectory, Worcestershire. Many others of almost equal merit in oil came from his hand, and in water-colour an astonishing number, of which few show a firmer grasp of nature than ,o PAINTTNG IN THE QIJEEX'S REJGX saw his last appearance on the Academy walls, an.l u-. the end of 1851 he died, finding a resting-place, as . . illustrious painters since have done, in St. Paul's Cathedral, but leaving behind him the magnificent bequest to the nation of one hundred and five of his works in oil and an immense number of water-colour drawings. These are all to be seen now in the National Gallery. The best work of Sir Augustus Callcott [1779—1844], who died seven years after the Queen's accession, was already done, as also was John Sell Cotnmn's, that most prolific worker at landscape, architectural, and marine pieces, both in oil and water-colour; but in 1837 David Cox [1773--1 859], then in his sixty-fourth year, had twenty-two years to live, and, with a splendid record of work already behind him, was destined to paint during the present reign many notable works. The beautiful "Vale of Clwyd " (oil, 36 X 56. 1849), now in the collection of Mr. T. j. Barratt, was one of if not the. most famous ; and by his kind permission it is here reproduced. It is termed by many the finest pastoral picture in the world, and all the man's sensitive characteristics and seasoned strength is in the work. There are two of this title in oil ; the present one is known as the " Timmins Clwyd," and the other as the " Sharpe Clwyd." It was sold in the Murrieta Sale in 1892 for ^4,72 5. There is also a water-colour of the same title (27 X 21), which was sold at the late Mr. Quilter's sale in 1875 for /i,627, and is now in the collection of Canon Sale at Holt Rectory, Worcestershire. Many others of almost equal metrit in oil came from his hand, and in water-colour an aston.shmg number, of which few show a firmer grasp of nature than DA VID COX^WILKIE. 11 Mr. Stephen G. Holland's "Fighting Bulls" (loi x 14), or " Carting Home the Plough," owned now by Mr. Alex. T. Hollingsworth, of Belsize Grove, in which the warm brown earth seems to teem with richness and life. No strained effect is ever observable in Cox's work, or any attempt to overstep the modesty of nature, his own natural simplicity of character stamping itself with telling effect, on all that he undertook. It is strange to read of such a man that two drawings of his for which he received only £2^ each were sold, not very many years ago, to a London dealer from the walls of a country house for ^3,500, and resold the same afternoon for 4,000 guineas ; and yet to remember that the honest painter was more than once told to his face that he had mistaken his vocation, and certainly could not paint in oils. The two great genre painters of sixty years ago—Sir David Wilkie, "wee, sunny-haired Davie," as his schoolmates called him [1785— 1840], and William Mulready [i 786— 1 863]— had each touched the height of his fame, the former living but four years after the Queen's accession and the latter twenty-six years. The famous painter of "Blind Man's Buff" and "The Penny Wedding," who once said that "he could draw before he could read, and paint before he could spell," left, however, his impress on the Queen's reign when, as Principal Painter in Ordinary to the Sovereign, he painted in 1837 the picture of the Queen's First Council (60 x 92), now in the Royal Collection at Windsor. This impressive scene, when Her Majesty was but eighteen years of age, took place at Ken- sington Palace, and the picture may be said to be among the t2 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGi^. very earliest notable art productions of her reign. Of the personages represented in that illustrious group. Her Majesty is now the sole survivor. The genius of Wilkie practically founded a school un- known before in this or indeed any other country ; the invention of Hogarth with the pictorial excellence of Ostade or Teniers is in his work ; yet although the attention to art in this country had been, as has been said, considerably aroused by its wide development since the establishment of the Academy, the public were slow in detecting the merits of Wilkie. His works at one time were exposed for sale in a shop window at Charing Cross, and could be purchased for a few pounds ; and one example, for which only ^15 could be obtained, was sold thirty years later for eight hundred guineas. Thus, as an eminent critic once observed, "the work of a great man is not encouraged until the reputation he has made makes it safe to encourage him ; then comes the laudation of the Press, with their astute display of critical lore." James Hogg, the Ettrick shepherd, was once touched by a little work of Wilkie's, long before Wilkie had emerged from obscurity. It was a mere sketch, but true enough to human emotion. In his own words he wrote : " I got only one short look at it, but I saw nature so beautifully displayed that, in spite of all I could do, the tears burst from my eyes. It was a scene from Allan Ramsay's 'Gentle Shepherd," in which the lover is exerting all his power to play his sweetheart's favourite tune with proper effect ; the sweetheart is leaning on her cousin, and asking her ' if she has any guess what tune that is which the puir fellow is trying?' I never," says Hogg, "saw anything equal to WILKIE. it. I have often wondered what became of that Httle picture, or how it was estimated, for there was never anything of the kind made such an impression on me. I never see an interesting figure, or a group, but I uniformly think to myself, ' Oh, if I had but Davie Wilkie here ! ' " This Httle sketch is now in the possession of Mr. Charles Butler, of Connaught Place, where I saw it last December. Wilkie was but twenty-two when he painted the " Blind Fiddler," for which he received but fifty guineas, and scarcely twenty-nine when " Blind IVIan's Buff" left his hand. Brilliant patronage soon surrounded him. Mr. Angerstein gave him £<)00 for the " Village Festival," now in the National Gallery ; and for the Prince Regent he painted " The Penny Wedding," called at first " The Scottish Wedding," into which he seems to have thrown all his power, so engaging is it in its many incidents, its pretty and refined treatment, and its accomplished workmanship. It is now in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace, but was publicly seen at the Guildhall in this year of 1897 as an example, and among the best, of the great Scottish painter. The man of fine feeling was brought a year or two later into close contact with the man of action, the great Duke of Wellington, over the picture of " Chelsea Pensioners reading the Gazette telling of the Battle of Waterloo," now at Apsley House. It is said the Duke arranged with Wilkie as to the grouping in the picture, and when at last appearing satisfied that he should like the painting, wasted never a word, but told the painter to "go on," much as if he had said "March!" The appearance on the scene of such a man as Wilkie might be counted an era in art. His delineation of life and 14 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. character in its various phases was such as the circumstances of the present day enable us to seize upon and appropriate with instant sympathy, while it contains so much of common human nature that it appeals to the feelings of every age and of all countries. Such was the man whose light, once brilliant, burned low in the early years of the Queen's reign. Mulready wjis fifty-one when the Queen ascended the throne, and looking back then over his own studious and academical life, at results sufficient to establish any painter's lasting reputation, was nevertheless destined yet to produce many works which cannot be regarded in any other light than as masterpieces of their kind. Among these must be remembered one that ranks with his best, "The Sonnet" (14 x 12, 1839), bought by Mr. Sheepshanks, and now in the South Kensington Museum ; another is " Train up a Child in the Way he should go" (26 X 31), painted in 1841 for Mr. Thomas Baring, passing thence to the Earl of Northbrook, and from him to the late Mr. Ralph Brocklebank, whose son now owns it. " Choosing the Wedding Gown," from Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield," was painted in 1846. He took his text from those admirable words of the reverend Vicar, " I had scarcely taken orders a year, before I began to think seriously of matrimony, and chose my wife, as she did her wedding gown, not for a fine glossy surface, but such qualities as would wear well." This gem of work was one of Mr. Sheepshanks's purchases, and can conse- quently be seen at any time in the South Kensington Museum. " Burchell and Sophia in the Hayfield " was another subject drawn from Goldsmith's work. It was in the Academy of 1847, iind is a brilliant example — vivid in colour and remark- PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. character in its various phases was such as the circutiistances of the present day enable us to seize upon and appropriate with instant sympathy, while it contains so much of common human nature that it appeals to the feelings of every age and of all countries. Such was the man whose light, once brilliant, burned low in the early years of the Queen's reign. Mulready was fifty-one when the Queen ascended the throne, and looking back then over his own studious and academical life, at results sufficient to establish any painter's lasting reputation, was nevertheless destined yet to produce many works which cannot be regarded in any other light than as masterpieces of their kind. Among these must be remembered one that ranks with his best, " The Sonnet " (14 x 12, 1839), bought by Mr. Sheepshanks, and now in the South Kensington Museum ; another is " Train up a Child in the Way he should go" (26 X 31), painted in 1841 for Mr. Thomas Baring, passing thence to the Earl of Northbrook, and from him to the late Mr. Ralph Brocklebank, whose son now owns it. "Choosing the Wedding Gown," from Goldsmith's " Vicar of Wakefield," was painted in 1846. He took his text from those admirable words of the reverend Vicar, " I had scarcely taken orders a year, before I began to think seriously of matrimony, and chose my wife, as she did her wedding gown, not for a fine glossy surface, but such qualities as would wear well." This gem of work was one of Mr. Sheepshanks's purchases, and can conse- quently be seen at any time in the South Kensington Museum. " Burchell and Sophia in the Hayfield " was another subject drawn from Goldsmith's work. It was in the Academy of 1847, '^'^^ ^ brilliant example — vivid in colour and remark- MULREADY—ETTY. 15 ably clear in the atmospheric effect — of a bright summer day. It belongs to the Earl of Northbrook, by whose kind permission it appears in this work. Without doubt, in his earlier practice, Mulready endeavoured to rival Wilkie in his style, and it was not until the present reign had well set in that his art culminated in those works of originality and colour which are well exampled in the one reproduced. Genrie and industrious, his long life was a busy one, from the time when in youth he became the teacher in drawing of Miss Milbanke (afterwards the wife of the femous poet Lord Byron), until within a few days of his death, when upwards of seventy-six, he attended as usual at the Academy Life School, where, ever a zealous worker as well as an encouraging teacher, so many of his well known life-studies were done. He was one of the few painters, if not the only one, who was elected Associate and Academician in one year, his name never appearing in the Catalogue with the lesser title. Among the many good works done by the Society of Arts was the gathering together in 1848 of a selection of 208 of his works (drawings, sketches, and paintings), which were exhibited in the Society's rooms at the Adelphi. Contemporaneous with Mulready was that eminent colourist William Etty [1787— 1849], who, freeing himself from the dreary prospect of a career in a printer's office, entered the Academy Schools at the age of eighteen, where, though clever and painstaking, he never carried off a medal, and for years his pictures were rejected at the Royal Academy. Of an extremely retiring and sensitive nature, he applied his diligent studies of the nude, in which he took an enthusiastic delight, i6 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. to an end differing widely from Mulready, and in realizing his poetic dreams developed a capacity as a rich and tender colourist unrivalled in the English School. It is idle to deplore that he spent his energy so largely upon unworthy subjects ; in those he chose he clearly demonstrated what art could do with colours ; and his epic pictures show that he was capable at times of rising immeasurably above the subjects by which he is the more widely known. In the twelve years that remained to him after the Queen's accession, many works of fine quality, pure and beautiful in colour, were executed by him, notably "The Bather at the Doubtful Breeze Alarmed" (25 X 19), now in the National Gallery, and the spirited " Pluto and Proserpine " (52 x 78), painted for Lord Northwick and now in the possession of Mr. John Rhodes, of Potternewton House, Leeds. It was formerly in the collection, until 1872, of that notable collector Joseph Gillott, one of the most liberal of art patrons, and who was known in every counting-house in Europe as the greatest manufacturer of steel pens. He had nineteen examples of Etty, seven Collins's, eight Mullers, and seven Turners; and his collection, when sold at Christie's in 1872, realized ^164,530. But while works such as those mentioned may be regarded as instrumental in adding to Etty's fame, it must be on account of earlier work that his name will endure, as, for example, "The Dangerous Playmate," "The Imprudence of Candaules," or, finest of all, " Youth on the Prow and Pleasure at the Helm " (62 x 46), painted in 1832, where "Fair laughs the morn and soft the zephyr blows." Youth and Pleasure here are ostensibly the pilots ; but occupied with lighter matters they allow the boat to drift at will, heedless of ETTY—FROST. 17 the course they pursue. Subjects such as these naturally gave scope for the exceptional power he had for painting the nude human form with the lifelike warmth and grace he could com- mand ; but a firmer stability still was given to his reputation by the ability he displayed on the nine or ten occasions when im- pressive scenes illustrative of the higher attributes of human nature occupied his canvases. These were all large, varying from 108 X 118 to 120 X 157. Three of them represent the history of Joan of Arc, and personify Religion, Valour, and Loyalty, and five of them are in the National Gallery of Scotland, of which three record the life of Judith ; the remaining two are "The Combat" and " Benaiah " (120 x 157). The finest of them all to my mind is the last-named, in which the verse is borne out with irresistible force of form and colour, "He was a mighty man, who had done many acts. He slew two lion-like men of Moab." The strength of the picture can only be realized by standing in front of it. I often wish that its position on the wall could be lowered, so that this truly great work could be seen as it deserves to be. It would be no easy task to find the man at the present day who could do its like. A follower of Etty, but lacking those brilliant capabilities which made Etty famous, was Frost [1810— 1877], who, for- saking portraiture, by which he had begun his career, pursued those subjects of a mythological nature which lent themselves to Etty's style. At an early age he came in contact with the great colourist, who seems to have given him much advice and to have developed in him a sympathy for his own work. But the mastery of colour in the one man is never to be 3 i8 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. found in the other, nor is the dignity of theme at all striking ; yet in dealing with the human form he was often very graceful of line, studiously exact in execution, and pleasing in colour, but never original. " Sabrina," painted in 1845, shows many exquisite beauties of finished work ; and "Una and the Wood Nymphs," 1847, and "The Disarming of Cupid," 1850, both of them in the possession of the Queen, and animated with many figures, must be classed among the best fruits of his work. There is a very beautiful upright work of his entitled " L'Allegro" (38 X 28), said to have been one of the birthday presents of the Queen to the Prince Consort. Three beautiful figures, gay of step, and but semi-clad in their brilliant raiment, are advancing in a well lit landscape. It is drawn with great exactness and care, certainly without the fluency of Etty, but with a greater refinement of line and finish. I have heard it said that it was an enlarged replica of a .section of a large work called " Euphrosyne," painted for Mr. Bicknell in 1848. William Collins [1788— 1847] was Etty's junior by a year, and profited no doubt from the association of his powerful friend, though in outlook and theme he was totally dissimilar. His best work was done before 1837. He loved the open fields and the still country life. Beginning first with landscapes, and then advancing to landscapes with figures or the introduction of simple incidents, which henceforth grew to be the life of his compositions, he gradually drew towards the rendering of coast scenery, the slightest passages of which were given with unexampled sweetness, and finally during the last nine years of his life devoted himself to sacred subjects. Richly wooded places, with happy children at some innocent pastime, or young WILLIAM COLLINS. ig loiterers in green lanes or about cottage doorways, were often his theme ; and perhaps the best examples of this happiest phase of his work could nowhere be better studied than in the collection of Mr. Charles Gassiot, of Upper Tooting, who possesses several, and is himself an ardent and consistent admirer of all Collins's work. "Barmouth Sands" is his, and the fine open scene of " Shrimp-boys at Cromer," and " Borrowdale " (the slightly smaller version of the one now in the Royal Holloway College), with its sweet sense of quiet and its beautiful display of foliage to the right, as fine as Collins ever painted. " The Nutting Party" is another, restful indeed, as most of Collins's are, to the eye of those whose occupations keep them in cities and by whom rustic life in its reality is not often encountered. This latter work could only be equalled by Mr. Humphrey Roberts's " Children playing with Kittens " (30 x 26). Peace and content are m this most quieting picture, English every bit of it. From the group in front the path winds away towards another cottage. Strong but tender shadows lie upon the house-wall and about the homely door, and the dark coat of one of the lads enriches the whole picture. "As Happy as a King," painted the year before the Queen came to the throne, was always a favourite with the public, as was also the charming simplicity of " Rustic Civility," one of his most important pictures, and now in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth. The latter is a pretty idea ; the shadow only is seen of the passer-by for whom the three children are holding open the gate. A smaller version of this work, 18 x 24, is in the South Kensington Museum, where also is one of his best examples of coast scenery, " Seaford, Sussex " (27 x 36), painted in 1844. ^3,780 io PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. was paid for the "Cromer Sands" (40 X 47), fit the Joseph Gillott sale in 1872, the highest price ever bid for a work of his. The price which Mr. Gillott paid the painter for it was /31S. The great sea-painter Clarkson Stanfield [i 793— 1867] was in his prime in 1837. His famous "Mount St. Michael," now in the collection of Mr. W. H. Burns, of Upper Brook Street, had been painted seven years previously ; but the equally famous "Morning after the Wreck," showing a Dutch East Indiaman ashore in the Ooster Schelde, belongs to the present reign. It was painted in 1844 for the late Mr. E. Bicknell, and passed then to Mr. John Brooks, and afterwards to Baron Grant, at whose sale in 1877 it realized 2,550 guineas. It is now in the possession of Mrs. Coope. One of the chief features of this magnificent work is the observance and study which is shown in the treatment of the water, which seems angrily chafing with something of the fury of the day before. The restless waves are seen again in " The Abandoned " (36 X 60), painted in 1856, and belonging to the Earl of Northbrook, by whose kind permission it is reproduced in this work. Painted by one who began life as a sailor, there is no question as to the accuracy of any detail in the impressive scene. The sea must have sunk many times into repose since the ill-fated crew abandoned the vessel, but it now, as if in sport, tosses the helpless hull to and fro. Clusters of shell-fish have fastened on it, and the tangled cordage is mingled now with the long sea-weeds that flaunt at her sides. She is on the crest of a sea, and her riven copper shows as she heels to starboard. Neither on board or around is there sign of life— only the waste of water JO PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S EEIOS. was paid tor the "Cromer Sands" (40 X 47). -^^ the josei^h Gillott sale in 1872, the highest price ever bid for a work ol his. The price which Mr. Gillott paid the painter for it was /3I5- The great sea-painter Clarkson Stanfield [1793— 1867] was in his prime in 1837. His famous "Mount St. Michael," now in the collection of Mr. W. H. Burns, of Upper Brook Street, had been painted seven years previously ; but the equally famous "Morning after the Wreck," showing a Dutch East Indiaman ashore in the Ooster Schelde, belongs to the present reign. It was painted in 1844 for the late Mr. E. Bicknell, and passed then to Mr. John Brooks, and afterwards to Baron Grant_j^t whose sale in 1877 it realized 2,550 guineas. It is now in the possession of Mrs. Coope. One of the chief features of this magnificent work is the observance and study which is shown in the treatment of the water, which seems angrily chafing with something of the fury of the day before. The restless waves are seen again in " The Abandoned " (36 X 60), painted in 1856, and belonging to the Earl of Northbrook, by whose kind permission it is reproduced in this work. Painted by one who began life as a sailor, there is no question as to the accuracy of any detail in the impressive scene. The sea must have sunk many times into repose since the ill-fated crew abandoned the vessel, but it now, as if in sport, tosses the helpless hull to and fro. Clusters of shell-fish have fastened r>n it, and the tangled cordage is mingled now with the long sea-weeds that flaunt at her sides. She is on the crest of a sea, and her riven copper shows as she heels to starboard. Neither on board or around is there sign of life— only the waste of water GEORGE CHAMBERS—E. W. COOKE. 21 — and, surviving many tempests, tlie wreck still remains the plaything of the waves. The sea-pieces of George Chambers also owe their value in no small measure to the practical knowledge of the sea which he gained during his apprenticeship on board a trading sloop. Then, like Stanfield, he engaged in scene-painting. Though his career was short, for he died at the age of thirty-seven, he left an excellent record of work. Whether in calm or in movement his painting of water is invariably true, and his shipping is put in with the eye of the expert. Some of his pieces are very large, such as " The Bombardment of Algiers " and " The Battle of La Hogue," in the gallery of Greenwich Hospital ; but his smaller work, now much sought by the connoisseur, possesses, besides the knowledge of seamanship of which mention has been made, a fine degree of firm finish, without ever losing breadth. One of these — a little larger perhaps than many — is a piece of rough sea entitled " Off Margate," in which the free, strong, and impulsive touch of Muller is recalled. This excellent work is in the possession of Mr. Vaile, of Drayton Gardens. Very different in treatment was E. W. Cooke [i8ii — 1880]. Above all things, form and severe draughtsmanship were his delight. The brush work of Chambers, or even the constrained freedom of Stanfield, was to him a sealed letter. Yet, when not too hard, as unfortunately very many of his pictures are, his work has distinct attraction, and in some instances quite fascinates with its detail and rich colour. He would shirk not an inch of his canvas, but with firm, unimpassioned hand would honestly give you all that he saw. Sir Wager Watson, of 2 2 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. Victoria Street, lias one of the very best of his works, and the late Mr. Snowden Henry had the " Scheveningen Pincks " (24 X 34), painted in 1865, an exceedingly agreeable work of excellent focus and good colour. " The Port of Venice," with trabaccolo, or wine vessels of the Adriatic (17 X 29), an 1861 picture, gives the gaudily coloured sails with admirable effect. This was until recently in the collection of the late Sir Charles Booth, but has passed now to the possession of Mr. C. T. Hams. One of his freest works is in the possession of Mr. Charles Churchill, of Portman Square, " A Strong Breeze off Hastings," painted in 1870. " The Morning after a Heavy Gale— Weather Moderating" was painted earlier— in 1857, I think— and is one of the works that possess spirit. An Indiaman has run on the Goodwins in a gale, and the men in charge of the floating light have fired signal guns, which have been heard by the crews of the lifeboat and pilot-boat, both of which are bearing up for the sinking ship; and the sky falls in its blackness upon the sea. Those painters of imaginative scenes John Martin [1789—1854] and Francis Danby [i793— 1861] were at their best in 1837. They were both under fifty at that date, the former, a constant contributor to the Academy though never a member of it, dealing chiefly with Biblical subjects on a large scale, and with a freedom of design in the rendering of colossal architectural form, as conveyed, in no limited sense, the idea of grand and imposing proportions. Albert Goodwin in England and Rochegrosse in France are not dissimilar to him in this respect in some of their work, but Martin differs from these men in that he astonishes but does not satisfy. I mention MARTIN—DANBY. 23 Albert Goodwin because "The City of Dis " and " The Taking of the Town of Mansoul " suggest some parallel ; but academic truth characterizes both these works, whereas Martin was more frequently than not deficient in this direction, and works, however great in design, that acknowledge this deficiency, must necessarily fail to secure enduring homage. His best works were painted anterior to the Queen's accession, but in about the sixteenth year of her reign they were brought together and publicly exhibited in the Royal Exchange. Such subjects as appealed most to the eye were the " Belshazzar's Feast," the "Eve of the Deluge," and "The Fall of Babylon." But there were others with a grand sentiment of repose in them, "The Spirit of the Lord moved upon the Face of the Waters " and "They heard the Voice of the Lord God walking in the Garden in the cool of the evening " being especially impressive. All of them were pictures of great breadth, many figures, and large size, and yet, despite their size, we find that in 1840 two of them were on the line of the Academy, in so high an esteem were these imaginative pieces held. Francis Danby resembled Martin more particularly in such subjects as " The Opening of the Sixth Seal " and the " Passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea" (now in the collection of the Duke of Sutherland at Stafford House), but he worked on smaller canvases and succeeded in attaining a sounder technique. The Academy admitted him as an Associate at the age of thirty-two. Many of his subjects, however, were widely different from the two just mentioned. Quiet evening scenes, with the sky illuminated richly by sunset glow, came with more enduring satisfaction from his hand ; and at times an 24 PAINTING IN THE QUF.F.N'S REIGN. intense poetic feeling would suffuse the work, as in " Calypso's Island" (33 X 46), which Mr. Sheepshanks gave to the South Kensington Museum, where on a sandy shore, flooded by the setting sun, Calypso, as she paces, grieves for her lost lover. Another important work of his, by which he became widely known, was the " Upas Tree in Java." " The Fisherman's Home " (30 X 42), which represents him in the National Gallery, is amongst his best examples. The architectural work of Samuel Prout [1783—1852], by which he is chiefliy identified in the British School, was painted for the most part before the Queen came to the throne, and always in water-colour ; but his last visit to the Continent was in 1846, and he then brought back from Normandy fresh examples of his extraordinary skill. His earlier practice had led him to picture the scenery of his native country, in which were interspersed occasional examples of shipping, bold and firm in drawing, .such as "Hulks on the Medway " (17 X 22), or an equally fine work similar in character, belonging now to Sir John Fowler ; but it is to the old Continental cities that we must look for the material which inspired him, and in which he found the subjects that came with such facility to his hand, and which have left his name famous. The old Venetian palaces, the time-worn cathedrals of France and Flanders, the streets, the market-places, the porches and bridges, weather-stained and crumbling under the hand of time, are what he has preserved to us with conscientious yet picturesque fidelity. The intricacy of ornament, demanding the closest application, is seldom absent from any of these works, and in none is there ever to be found the evidence of haste. He PROUT—DAVID ROBERTS. ^5 was thirty-six when he first became acquainted with the Conti- nent, and in the subsequent thirty-three years an immense number of drawings were executed by him, yielding the painter comparatively small returns, but now highly prized and of great value; but his practice of never dating his pictures makes it difficult to assign to them the year of their production. "Nuremburg" (21 x 28), now in the collection of Mr. James Mason, is among his best works, but "The Rialto, Venice" (29 X 41), or the "Church of St. Pierre, Caen" (16 x 24), may be instanced as also possessing his finest characteristics. Working also at architectural scenes, but mainly in oils, David Roberts [1796—1864], who was scarcely forty-one at the Queen's accession, had already secured for himself a .sound reputation, and at forty-three was admitted an Associate of the Royal Academy. Evidence of his incessant industry is seen in the enormous number of paintings and drawings, chiefly architectural in subject, which he has left, taken for the most part from the cities of Western Europe, and later from Syria and Egypt. Much of his work, in the form of drawings and sketches in the Holy Land, Syria, Egypt, and Italy, was published in folio size, while much was engraved. Two of his finest works are in the collection of Sir Charles Tennant, in Grosvenor Square, and scarcely any important collection is with- out an example. The late Mr. Ralph Brocklebank, of Childwall Hall, Liverpool, had in his splendid collection the well known work "The Ruins of Baalbec, Portico of the Temple of the Sun" (54 X 72, 1840), and this was generously given to the Walker Art Gallery, in 1893, by his three .sons, in memory of their father, who was associated so long with that city. The 4 26 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. "Interior of the Church of St. Stephen's, Vienna" (36 x 24), belonging to the Corporation of London, is one of his best interiors. While the architectural details in all their intricacy are firmly handled, one is conscious less of the labour and application their execution must have demanded, than of the feeling of space and solemnity which is conveyed ; but in this respect the large upright canvas in the possession of Mrs. Thwaites, of Addison Road (66 X 5 2 J), may be reckoned as among his noblest (1857). This is "The Interior of the Duomo, at Milan." The two great pillars which support the octao-on, with the bronze and silver pulpits by which they are encircled, were the works successively carried out by Carlo Borromeo and the Cardinal Frederick. The bassi-relievi by which they are enriched were executed by Andrew Pelligone, and the caryatides supporting them represent the symbols of the four Evangelists, and the four Doctors of the Church, Saints Gregory, Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine. All this elaborate detail is faithfully delineated by the painter, with no loss of breadth and feeling, while the human incident of the procession ascending the steps leading to the choir, and the visitors and devotees distributed in the nave, aid the impres- siveness of this magnificent interior. The two great water-colour landscape painters De Wint [,784—1849] and Copley Fielding [1787— 1855] had both passed the most brilliant part of their career at the date of the Queen's accession. The former practised sometimes in oil, but he found his subjects, whatever the medium, always on his native soil, the level country of Lincolnshire having a peculiar attrac- tion for him. Excellent examples of his work are plentiful, DE WIiXT—COPLEY FIELDING. 27 and invariably exhibit his keen appreciation of the sensitive effects of nature, executed with deliberate touch, firm and confident. Mr. George Fenton Smith, of Putney Hill, has several fine specimens of his work. " Harvesting " is one (15 X 28), with the gold of the wheatfield fresh as if painted, as It probably was, out of doors and not touched afterwards ; and "Moors with Sportsmen" is another (13 x 28), once in the possession of Mr. Ayscough Fawkes. These are of the more gentle undulating country. His more hilly scenery may be instanced by the two Mr. Stephen Holland possesses " Conisborough Casde, Yorkshire," glowing in the still fulness of colour, and "On the River Dart" (22 x 36), where the coolness of the foliage along the beautiful river is not in the least interfered with by the close attention to detail which the painter has given throughout the work. All the world knows how much he painted and how conscientiously, with a distinct individuality in expression. The surrounding circum- stances of his life appear to have been eminently tranquil, and of a character conducive to the development of a painter's powers— indeed so free was it of disturbing elements that his biographer characterized it as "as uneventful as the course of a Dutch river." He was among the first to institute the now common custom of inviting one's friends and patrons to the studio to see the pictures that were about to be sent in for exhibition. His contemporary Copley Fielding, who survived him six years, painted with lighter touch and with slighter effect ; but the extreme sensitiveness and delicacy of his work enable it to stand by itself as the work of a man of independent outlook. 28 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. His skies in particular revealed a fineness of perception and a capacity to express it that were remarkable, and he, with others also of his time, succeeded in their dexterous handling in reaching, as Mr. Ruskin says, " subtleties of gradation in misty light which were wholly unthought of before their time." Ex- amples of this in Copley Fielding's case are numerous, but equal to any are the "Bow Hill Downs" (19 X 31) in Mr. Abel Buckley's exquisite collection, and " Ben More, Isle of Mull" (15 X 22), in the possession now of Sir James Joicey. The downs of Sussex, " depths of far distant brightness," came with a peculiar aptitude to his hand, but wooded scenery, extended views of coast, and occasionally the wide, open sea, were his subjects, and in 1849 he painted that extremely noble work termed "A Grand Scottish Landscape" (30 X 46), in the collection now of Mr. Jesse Haworth, of Bowden, Cheshire, in which a high range with a snowy peak is introduced. The paintings of Sir Charles Eastlake [1793 — 1865] are not numerous, and indeed during the present reign he was not identified so much with the actual practice of the profes- sion as with literature and occupations of a more or less public character ; but his work is fairly recorded in the National Gallery by some excellent examples, the chief of which was painted in 1850, "The Escape of the Carrara Family from the Pursuit of the Duke of Milan" (50 X 40), a repetition of the work painted in 1834. That astute connoisseur Robert Vernon purchased it, and it is distinctly conspicuous for characteristic grace of design and refinement of touch and expression. Sir Watson Gordon [i 790— 1864], Winterhalter [1806—1873], IVATSOiV GOliVON—WINTERHALTEK—GRAiYT. 29 and Grant [1810—1878] were among the best known as portrait painters when the Queen ascended the throne, and all three at that date were about midway in their career. The first-named was eminent in his practice, and acquired a high reputation as a deHneator chiefly of men of character and distinction, quite taking the place of Raeburn in the Scottish capital after the death of that distinguished portraiturist. Win- terhalter was of foreign extraction, but he became a great favourite at the English Court, and has left much on record as a portrait painter in royal and aristocratic circles. His work, however, cannot be said to rank high. It is pleasing in arrangement, and at times graceful, or rather, polished— for he was quick and skilful in suggesting a certain superficial elegance when picturing some aristocratic sitter ; but his work would never call for high commendation on the score of technique : it was often meretricious, but nevertheless, for at least thirty years, he enjoyed considerable popularity. In the Royal Col- lection are many specimens of his portraiture. Sir Francis Grant, on the other hand, though not in any sense a great painter, nor showing what may be called the highest charac- teristics in portraiture, commanded a sound technique, and was master also of much power of design in the direction of elegance and simplicity, invariably securing at the same time a most striking resemblance in his portraits. He had no regular artistic education, having indeed begun life as a bar- rister, and adopting art not until he was twenty-five. Pictures of sporting character, such as "The Melton Hunt," which attracted considerable attention in 1839, and in which the scarlet coats in less talented hands would easily have made it a mean 3° PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. picture instead of one of importance and even of dignity, or " The Queen's Staghounds," of the year before, were the worlis that brought him earliest into notice ; then portraits of noted huntsmen followed, often equestrian, for he knew well the points of a good horse ; and eventually the portraits of those who moved generally in aristocratic society. Two of his best examples. Lord Campbell and Lord Truro, are in the National Portrait Gallery. Sant closely followed in portraiture, and though known widely as a painter of genre, more particularly when children constitute the main theme, such as " The Children in the Wood," it is by his portraits that his reputation has been established. Among a wide range of sitters have been in- cluded the Queen and many of the Royal Family. Much sense of grace in arrangement is found in his work, whether in portraiture or genre, and this very distinct attribute is witnessed, for example, in the canvas owned by the City of Manchester, "A Thorn amidst the Roses" (42 x 32), where two English girls are pictured with great charm, one en- deavouring to extract from the other's hand a thorn got from the flowering briar that lies across their knees. Portraiture had too an exponent in old John Linnell [1792 — 18S2], pupil of John Varley and fellow-student with Mul- ready in the Academy schools, but he became ultimately a painter of landscape of bold and original characteristics, rendering often with fine poetic strength the rich broken lands that lay close around Redhill, in Surrey, where for the last thirty years of his life he worked contentedly and vigorously ; but though many of his productions were grand and impres- instead of one of importance and i The Queen's Staghounds," of the year bei -orks that brought him -earliest into notice; then portr noted huntsmen followed, often equestrian, for he knew w<,i, the points of a l' nrtd eventually the portraits oi those '"' ' ! ' ' iQcratic society.. Two of his best Lord Truro, are in the Xational Port! Sant closely follow , ortraiture, and though known A', idely as a painter of genre, more particularly when childn ri constitute the main theme, such as "The Children in-tlv- Wood," it is by his portraits that his r* has been esUblished. Ap' -n^; • w' V- r vr'' il oi.gh a small work {20 x 24), it is a rare gem. ' chose for it the happy title of " Children of the Mis! truly they look it in their free mountain home. The possessor of this work is Mr. Jess and Landseer was wont to say of it thai s about this little c^ '"' 'hhs Landseer. It was painted equeathed it i > Mr. Thomas Lloyd, C.E. ; and it was acquired by its present owner, through Christie's, in 1875, for about ^1,200. Chevy" {53 X 82. 1868) showed a deer-hound lying in tiic blood-stained sno the dog Sure's death, Chevy will ne'er leave him." It is said that this pictur-' Landseer being on the scene wi collie dog gave chcise to it, and ou LanUseci obaei .iug iiu,. useless it was, for it would never overtake the deer, the keeper rejoined, "Weel, sir, if the deer ."if rhf liall, sure's deeth, Chevy will no leave him is : the deer had been woimded, and the dt)^, 4 the trail of blood, never left it. und it lying by the deer, as shown in the picture. , ihe work was in the posses- sion of the late Mr. Richard Hemming. It was sold :5t Christie's in 1895 for ;^3,202, and ! -.- ned by ' ■ ■ ' : -.n, of South African fame. rhe most majestic, and probably the I THE MONARCH OF THE GLEN. By Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A. \ 5//e EDWIN LANDSEER. 43 his deer pictures is " The Monarch of the Glen " (64 x 66), painted in 1850. It shows a stag, crowned with its twelve tines, standing among the clouds on an eminence of rock and heather. His quick ear seems to have caught some sound foreign to it, and the sensitive nostrils expand as if scenting danger. This splendid specimen of the master is now in the possession of Mr. T. J. Barratt, of Bell Moor, Hampstead, by whose kind permission it is reproduced in this work. It was intended by Landseer to fill a panel on the wall of the Peers' Refreshment Room in the then new Houses of Parlia- ment, as one of three subjects illustrative of the chase. It was sent on approval to the " Committee of Fine Arts," but was rejected by a vote of the House of Commons, and the painter, being anything but unmoved at the proceeding, the more especially since he had offered the picture to the nation for only £:^oo, sent it to the ensuing Academy Exhibition, 1 85 1, where it evoked universal admiration, and was promptly purchased by Lord Londesborough for ^840, the copyright of it, purchased by Messrs. Henry Graves & Co., bringing a further ^500 to the artist. It has since greatly increased in value. Lord Londesborough sold it to the first Lord Cheylesmore, and at his death, in 1892, it passed to its present owner for upwards of £'],ooo. " When first the daystar's clear cool Hght, Chasing night's shadows grey, With silver touched each rocky height That girded wild Glen-Strae, Uprose the monarch of the glen, Majestic from his lair, Surveyed the scene with piercing ken, And snuffed the fragrant air." 44 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. These were the lines appended to the title in the Royal Academy Catalogue, taken from " The Legends of Glenorchy." The work was engraved first by Thomas Landseer in 1852, an artist's proof of which realized ^120 at Christie's in 1894. It was engraved again in 1893, and very successfully, by J. B. Pratt, and published by Messrs. Leggatt Bros., of Cheapside. Sir Cuthbert Ouilter has the finely finished " IVIidsummer Night's Dream," painted in 1851 for Mr. Brunei, the famous engineer and architect of the Great Eastern steamship, as one of a set of Shakespearian subjects by different artists, the price of each being ^420. Nine years later it was sold at Christie's for ^2,940 to the late Earl Brownlow, from whose son it passed to Mr. Quilter. All the ideas in this work, from the gauze-winged fairy to the exquisitely painted rabbit with Peas- blossom riding on it, derive value from the fine colour and charming e.xecution. "Peace" and "War," "The Maid and the Magpie," and "Shoeing the Bay Mare" are great ex- amples of the power he acquired, and the nation is fortunate, through the munificence of Mr. Jacob Bell, in being the possessor now of all these four works. One great work, entitled "The Otter Hunt" (76 x 60), was painted about the time of the Crimean War for Lord Aberdeen, who loved that particular sport, and who, according to Redford, was wont to point out every hound in the picture by name, so truly were all the portraits of his favourite pack painted, as they bayed around the huntsman who held aloft the speared otter. The picture was purchased by Messrs. Agnew after Lord Aberdeen's death for ^2,500, and it was sold to Mr. Samuel Mendel, at whose sale Messrs. Agnew S/Ji EDWIN LANDSEER. 45 again purchased it, and in 1877 acquired it for the third time for ^5,932 at the sale at Christie's of the collection of Baron Grant, who had given, it is said, ;^9,45o for it. In " Man Proposes and God Disposes " the unusual shape of the canvas — 8 feet in length by only 3 feet in height — was adopted presumably as calculated to give a better idea of the immensity of that lone region stretching right and left into which the daring of the Arctic explorers had led them to penetrate. The great poet's words on the cenotaph to Sir John Franklin in Westminster Abbey, " Not here ! the white North has thy bones," but followed the tribute the great painter paid in this picture to the lost Englishmen of the Erebus and Terror in 1849. Here in a tumbled chaos of ice are two polar bears ; they have come on the remnants of a human expedition — a mast, the skeleton of a man, the rib of a boat, and a telescope ; one has in his teeth what remains of a Union Jack, which he endeavours to drag from the fallen mast ; the other, with uplifted head and closed eyes (an action so natural to the carnivora), is crunching up a bone, from which the flesh has long since disappeared. In the cold air the hot breath coming from the nostrils of the beasts conveys an idea of the enormous vigour of the brutes, and with consummate skill and unfaltering hand are they drawn and painted. A false line or a wrong shadow would have been fatal to the one pulling at the Union Jack, its limbs all huddled together and its bulk straining itself with the novel thing it has got hold of. The picture was sold in 1881 at Christie's for ^6,615, 46 FAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. the highest auction price obtained up to that time for a Landseer, and it now hangs in the gallery of the Royal Holloway College. "The Sick Monkey" was a touching picture, and exhibited the painter's free brush work, apart from the pathetic incident. It belongs to the Earl of Northbrook. One of his latest works was the " Swannery invaded by Sea-eagles," exhibited in 1869, occupying then the chief place in the large room at the Academy on the occasion of that body's first exhibi- tion at their new quarters in Burlington House. It passed into the collection of the Marquis of Northampton, and thence to its present owner. Lord Masham, of Swinton, Yorkshire. It is the largest Landseer painted, being 70 X 108, and was begun many years before its final completion— indeed it has been said that a brother Academician now living was con- cerned in its final touches. Landseer's career from first to last was a highly pros- perous one. It was natural that a man of his genius should have many patrons, and his works were never on his hands. To paint savage animals was never, or rarely, to his taste, but he seldom failed in anything he undertook. Had he not been under the Royal command to paint, for instance, the picture of " Van Amburgh the Lion-tamer," as he appeared with his animals at the London theatres, it is doubtful whether it would ever have been undertaken. He is not happy in it, and the subject is not altogether devoid of degrading effect, but the animals are nevertheless handled as his hand alone could handle them, the tiger especially, whose head, rolled back, is a wonderful piece of drawing and .9/7? EDWIN LANDSEER. 47 brilliant painting. A replica of this work, varied in certain details, is in the possession of the Duke of Wellington, at Apsley House. Perhaps no painter of the British School is so widely known throughout the country as Landseer, and none have been identified in a greater degree with the Queen's reign than he. Four hundred and sixty-one of his pictures, drawings, and sketches were exhibited at the Academy's winter exhibi- tion in 1874, and a most reliable catalogue of his works and engravings has been compiled by Mr. Algernon Graves, the present representative of the house that published nearly all the engravings from Landseer's works. A large number of these engravings were included in the exhibition above referred to, and among them was one for which Mr. Graves had paid Landseer five guineas, and another for which he had paid him ^3,000, the former being the illustration of " Wamba and his Dogs" for the Waverley Novels, and the latter "A Dialogue of Waterloo." England was fortunate in about the middle of this century in having not only many painters of great note, but a growing number of art patrons, among whom there are three who stand out conspicuously from the rest, by reason of their collections, accumulated with great taste and judgment, becoming eventually the property of the nation. Their names are familiar to all — Robert Vernon, John Sheepshanks, and Jacob Bell — all of them men of great wealth, and animated by the desire to elevate the intellectual character and advance that national distinction which is the surest and most endur- ing. So marked an effect had Robert Vernon on British 48 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. art, that the fact of his selecting a picture out of an exhibition went far to establish the reputation of the painter. He boasted of no gallery, but every room in his large mansion in Pall Mall was filled with pictures, to the number of about one hundred and ninety, the most conspicuous feature of the collection being the absence of mediocrity. One hundred and fifty-seven of these works became the property of the nation in 1847. Mr. Sheepshanks' gift in 1857 con- sisted of two hundred and thirty-three works, and Mr. Jacob Bell's in 1859 of eighteen, of which seventeen were notable examples of the British School and the remaining one the famous "Horse Fair" by Rosa Bonheur. CHAPTER III. For the first years of the Queen's reign remarkable works con- tinued annually to appear from the brush of many of those already mentioned, but other painters with promise of eminence were now making- their impress : Leslie, Webster, and Horsley in genre ; Dyce, Maclise, Ward, Egg, and Herbert as exponents of history ; and Poole as exampling subjects imaginative and poetic in character. Charles Robert Leslie [1794 — 1859] was approaching his prime at the date of the Queen's accession, and produced many works which belong to the present reign. Among these may be counted the charming " Florizel and Perdita," the humorous " Who can this be ? " " La Malade Imaginaire," " Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme," etc., the last-named (38 x 24, 1841) showing the spirited servant girl Nicole, a broom in one hand and a foil in the other, fairly vanquishing the good old gentleman ; nor must the second rendering of " Sancho Panza in the Apart- ment of the Duchess" be forgotten, which appeared in 1844. This seems to have been an attractive theme for Leslie. He had dealt with it in 1824, in a work now in the possession of Lord Leconfield at Petworth, and the attractive picture in the National Gallery was a repetition of this, with a few variations 5° PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. in the details and not a few improvements. It is fortunate that very many of his works have come into the National Collections, the gift either of Mr, Vernon or Mr. Sheepshanks, purchased by these wealthy patrons direct from the painter ; and they may be reckoned as among his best — fine in quality, pleasing in composition, and positively captivating in many cases in their theme Poetical painting was by no means Leslie's strong side ; even in painting Shakespeare his level of excellence varies, but his renderings of Cervantes and Moliere are all good and unrivalled in their line. One of the simpler of these latter, belonging to the Sheepshanks gift, is the little picture of the inamorata of Don Quixote, " Dulcinea del Tobesco," painted in 1839, exquisite in finish, and of which a reproduction is here given. Leslie, like Etty, was early in life face to face with an uncongenial career, being bound apprentice to a bookseller, but at the age of nineteen he entered the Academy schools and soon met with success, though it was not until he was twenty- three that he showed his leaning toward those humorous genre subjects which his shrewd views of life and his clever portrayal of character enabled him to achieve, and which, taken generally from the standard authors, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Goldsmith, Moliere, and others, he was promptly able to dispose of and on which his reputation rests. Thomas Webster [1800 — 1882] was six years Leslie's junior, and at the date of the Queen's accession had already been a contributor to the Academy. Like many other painters who have risen to distinction, he had been intended by his parents for another course in life — in his case that of music — but at PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. in the details and not a few improvements. It is fortunate that very many of his works have come into the National Collections, the gift either of Mr. Vernon or Mr. Sheepshanks, purchased by these wealthy patrons direct from the painter ; and they may be reckoned as among his best — fine in quality, pleasing in composition, and positively captivating in many cases in their theme Poetical painting was by no means Leslie's strong side ; even in painting Shakespeare his level of excellence varies, but his renderings of Cervantes and Moli^re are all good and unrivalled in their line. One of the simpler of these latter, belonging to the Sheepshanks gift, is the little picture of the inamorata of Don Quixote, " Dulcinea del Tobesco," painted in 1839, exquisite in finish, and of which a reproduction is here given. Leslie, like Etty, was early in life face to face with an uncongenial career, being bound apprentice; to a bookseller, but at the age of nineteen he entered the Academy .schools and soon met with success, though it was not until he was twenty- three that he showed his leaning toward those humorous genre subjec^ts which his shrewd views of life and his clever portrayal of character enabled him to achieve, and which, taken generally from the standard authors, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Goldsmith, Moliere, and others, he was promptly able to dispose of and on which his reputation rests. Thomas Webster [1800 — 1882] was six years Leslie's junior, and at the date of the Queen's accession had already been a contributor to the Academy. Like many other painters who have risen to distinction, he had been intended by his parents for another course in life — m his case that of music — but at THOMAS WEBSTER. 5, twenty his capacity as an artist so fer declared itself that he was permitted to enter the Academy schools. Those engaging works of his "The Smile" and "The Frown," now in the collection of Mrs. Thwaites, of Addison Road, and called originally, when exhibited in 1841, "The Joke" and "The Frown," were suggested by the familiar lines relating to the schoolmaster in Goldsmith's " Deserted Village." In the latter picture the young school lads trace "the day's disaster in the morning face," and in the former they laugh with counterfeited glee "at all his jokes, and many a joke had he." The effect is inimitable, the countenance of each child telling its story. Replicas of these are in the possession of Colonel H. D. Davies, of Wateringbury Place, Kent. Many others of like character, but probably not of such wide popularity, come well within the productions of the present reign. They all have in them so much of genuine and innocent humour, such touches of character and disposition, so thorough a knowledge of the manners and habits of juvenile life in the humbler classes, that they never feil to convey the spectator with appreciative mind at once into the midst of the scenes depicted. He is excellently represented in the National Gallery, "The Dame's School" (24x45, 1845), formerly in the Vernon Collection, being one of the most beautiful of his works, an inimitable production containing thirty figures, each having assigned to it a part to play according to the lines of the poet Shenstone, from whose verse the picture was conceived. Another version of this subject, but bearing the same tide, is in the possession of the Earl of Northbrook (21 x 35, 1855). In this example the schoolmistress is asleep, and her class of 52 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. seven boys and five girls are, with two exceptions, amusingly diverting themselves in various ways. Two examples among those of Richard Redgrave [1804 — 1888] in the South Kensington Museum suffice to sustain that conscientious artist's reputation as a painter. One was among the half-dozen or so of his works which were purchased and presented to the nation by John Sheepshanks, and represents " Ophelia weaving her Garlands " (30 x 25, 1842). I often think this small work in its earnest aim and substantial and careful finish is much underrated. It is full of pathos, and looking at other works by this sensitive and sincere artist it is not easy to realize that he was the painter of it at all. An intense wofulness is in the delicate face, and expressed also in every line of the slender figure which is thrown into strong relief against the dark-shadowed leafage that borders the fatal brook. The touches of colour in the flowers are possibly a little crude, but it is not difficult to discern that the whole conception was genuinely felt, and carried out in a sound and well trained manner. The other example is "An Old English Homestead" (40 X 54, 1854), an exceedingly pleasing work, and one which artistically would have been more so had its breadth of treatment not been sacrificed to its persistence in detail. It lacks the drawing-together of things of a William Collins ; otherwise the aspect of nature, simple and truly English, is none the less as sincerely aimed at as his. Although he painted much, the works of really coveted merit which he left behind are few ; but other work in the advancement of art fell to his hand : the Directorship of the Art Division at South Kensington Museum, the Surveyorship of the Crown Pictures, and the authorship, with his brother Samuel, of a useful work ALFRED ELMORE. 53 entitled " A Century of Painters," were ail carried out by him with conscientious effort. Alfred Elmore [1815— 1881] and Augustus Egg were both trained by the Academy. The former painted with uneven quality, but selected his subjects more or less from historical in- cident, the quieter pages of history discovering the line in which he was more prominently successful ; such works as " The In- vention of the Combing Machine," now in the possession of Sir Isaac Holden, or " The Invention of the Stocking Loom," being among the works which serve best to sustain his reputation. Both of them are not only most interesting historical records, more especially so to those whose lives are bound up with the industries of the country, but are pictorially good— clever in arrangement, and telling their story, certainly in the latter case, with touching pathos. Sir Thomas Bazley is the owner of this work. It shows the inventor, the Rev. William Lee, watching the movements of his wife's fingers, which first suggested to him the idea of an imitation of the movements which a machine might be made to make. When its construction was sufficiently advanced, he set it up in London, in Bunhill Fields, and it was there that Queen Elizabeth went to see it in action. Alas, poor inventor ! As the great French scientist Arago once said, " The author of a discovery has always to contend against those whose interests may be injured, against the obstinate partisans of everything old, and finally with the envious ; and these three classes form the majority of the public." The work which Lee's machine was able to produce appears in the first place to have been too coarse to captivate the Queen, and in the second place, although improvements were made in it, she 54 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN would not encourage the inventor, as she feared the hand-knitters' industry might be prejudiced thereby. Taking his machine to France, at the invitation of King Henry IV., he set it up in Rouen. Special privileges were promised him, but here again misfortune lay in his path. Ere these privileges could be vouchsafed to him the King died, and very soon after the hand of Death touched too the clever but disappointed man. His workmen returned to England, where they were the means of laying the foundation of the industry in this country ; but neither the luckless inventor nor his family reaped any reward for the years of toil and hope. Elmore lived long into the present reign, dying in 1881. Egg [1816 — 1862] painted, always with careful study, subjects drawn for the most part from Shakespeare, Scott, and Le Sage. He exhibited at the Academy when he was twenty, but through his early death at forty-six the record of the work he left is not a long one. He cannot be said to have been very original. The class of subjects which attracted him was similar to that by which Newton and Leslie had made their reputation. He followed them at no great distance — indeed in harmony and strength of colour, and certainly in decision of line, he often surpassed them. Mr. J. Broughton Dugdale, of Wroxall Abbey, owns two of his best, " The Life " and " The Death of Buckingham," in the former of which is seen the dissipated nobleman surrounded by the equally dissipated beauties of the Court of the Second Charles, at a bounteous board, where, through the open window in the summer night, shmes the placid moon with a modesty strangely in contrast to the gay laughter that quickens and the garish lights that illumine 'imrmc m the ouee v. ...li^: ;,ico.!-.i-L. L^f. ■ Li.uu, , she feared lii industry might be prejudiced thereby. Taking his France, at the invitation of King Henr>' IV., he set it up .Cr Rouen. Speciiil priviie^«^a were promised him, but here again misfortune lay in hi- , Ere these privileges could be \ ouchsafed to hii. soon afier the hand of Death ton ' cic\..i ' ' ' - His workmen ref ., . ■. .gland, wr. ; ^ . , icans oi laying the foundation of the industry in this country ; but neither the luckless inventor nor his family reaped any reward for the veiu-s of toil and hope. Elmore lived long into the present reign, dying in 1881. Egg [1816— 186 iien he was ). forty-six the record of work he left is not a long one. M have been very original. The class of subject , uracted him was similar to that by which Newton and Leslie had made their reputation. He followed them at no great distance — indeed in harmony and strength of ■colour, and ' '■ ' ■ '.■ ! n of line, he often surpassed then). AT' . oi Wroxall Abbey, owns two o! Life " and " Th Death of Buckingh ! which is seen the dissipatt >-be equally dissipated beauties of the Cou Charles, at a bounteous b where, througa uic wpcii ,-.nidow in the summer th" placid moon with a modesty strangely in r. 1' bi^-tutjiu! little poem he wroM The bridal of the earth and sky, I'he dews nhall weep thy fall to-night, For thou must die." A curious sioiy is told of this work. At first the painter had not only George Herbert in the- picture, but Isaac Walton iis well, whom he showed on the bank of the stream, fishing. When told that the two men lived at quite different periods, and thai he must take out one, he decided to take out Isaac Walton, " but," said he, '• I'm if I take out his basket," and in the j-icture the fish-basket remairts, n '1 • ' ' specimen of his clean and finished handiwork, over whic spent much pains. The National Gallery tiot long acquired, through the generosity, I believe, of IVILLIAAf DYCE. 63 a vivid example of the painter's work, " St. John leading the Virgin Mary from the Tomb " (25 x 42), the character of which in its religious aspect resembles several others of about the same size which he produced. A smaller work, " Pegwell Bay " (1858, 24 X 34), was, also in 1894, placed in the National Collection, being purchased at Christie's at the sale of the Brand Collection. The truest possible rendering of a scene familiar to all is given : English chalk cliffs, rocks at low tide, and the cool sea air of a summer evening. In the late Sir John Pender's collection was also a work, about as small as the preceding, showing King Henry VI. during the battle of Towton, a really beautiful specimen of studious work, in which the weak, unwarlike character of Henry has been adequately grasped. The hostile armies of Edward IV. on the one side and Oueen Margaret on the other met at Towton in Yorkshire, and while the battle raged Henry withdrew to a solitary spot, and there brooded over the tumultuous vicissitudes which had hitherto attended him and on the uncertainty of the future: "Would I were dead, if God's good will were so ; for what is in this world but grief and woe ? Oh God ! methinks it were a happy life to be no better than a homely swain." These are the words which Shakespeare puts into the mouth of the unfortunate king. In all Dyce's work there is evidence of deep and matured knowledge of art, and abundant proofs of thought and study. He never painted to become popular, and in presence of many influences he was not to be turned from the manner of execution he adopted, and which was peculiarly his own. A man of greater power of draughtsmanship, but of far less intrinsic poetic force, five years Dyce's junior, but winning 64 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. membership of the Academy eight years before, was Daniel Maclise [i8i I — 1870], a native of Cork. At the age of eighteen he gained the Academy Gold Medal for his " Choice of Hercules" (30 X 44), a work which, when last I saw it nearly twenty years ago, was in the possession of Mr. F. W. Cosens. There is a poetic aspect in it which did not often find its way into his work. The god is wooed by Virtue and Vice, the former a dignified and austere matron, the latter a seductive form who draws him back by allurements hard to resist, and who has with her a troop of joyous amorini. The work is rich in colour, and, if I remember aright, free from that hardness which detracts from so many of his fine designs. His first picture on the Academy walls, 1833, is now in the possession of Mr. Thomas Ashton, of Didsbury, " Mokanna unveiling her features to Zuleika." Large canvases were what he always pre- ferred, and scenes of tragic moment were often successfully seized by him. " The Sleeping Beauty," formerly in the collection of the late Sir John Pender, in Arlington Street, is recorded as having been greatly attractive when it was exhibited in 1841 ; it had fiir more delicacy than one is in the habit of looking for in his work, and presented, as in most of his productions that followed, a copious combination of attributes — invention, imagination, and a singular power of combining and arrang- ing. Happy and humorous was the scene, now in the possession of Mr. T. H. Miller, of " Hunt the Slipper at Neighbour Flamborough's " (36x54, 1841), where the unexpected visit of the fine ladies occurs. These belong to his gentler themes. In the "Play Scene in Hamlet" (60 X 108, 1842), reckoned at the time a chef d^ceuvre of the DANIEL MACLISE. 65 English School, and the " Banquet Scene in Macbeth" (72 x 120), painted two years earlier, his more serious side is seen. The former work was one of those given to the nation by Mr. Vernon, and is now in the National Gallery ; the latter is the property of Mr. F. W. Cosens. Standing before it a few years ago with Mr. Holman Hunt, when it was on sale at Christie's, that sensitive critic and lover of finish was constrained to observe, " Really, you know, that is a very fine picture," and its dramatic force and animation to one fully conversant with the great drama are considerable. Macbeth has risen to speak to the company of the " noble Banquo," and as he turns about to sit down the ghost of the murdered man appears on the chair before him, so that he falls into a great passion of fear, and utters many words by which, when the company came to learn of the murder, they suspected Macbeth. His queen is endeavouring to reassure the guests, telling them the king is often thus, and then turns in rebuke on her husband. The low-pitched, heavy-pillared stone hall, with its semi-barbaric splendour, in which the company are supping, and the flaming torches, give additional strength to the tragic scene. The picture was painted for the late Earl of Chesterfield, and a small replica of it is in the possession of Mr. T. Williams, of St. John's Wood. Mr. William Jessop, of Sheffield, owns his " Actors' Reception of the Author," one of those scenes which occurred after Gil Bias had fallen among the players ; " Othello, Desde- mona, and Emilia" (1867) belongs to Mrs. Coope, of Brentwood, and many others are in private collections I know of throughout the country— one in particular, his last exhibited work, " The Earls of Desmond and Ormond," in the possession of Lady 9 66 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. Dalton Fitzgerald, being one of his finest and most spirited productions. It was sold at Christie's in 1870 while it was still hanging on the Academy walls. The canvas which I believe to be the largest he executed (122 x 199), representing the marriage of Strongbow and Eve, is now in the National Gallery of Ireland, given to that institution in 1879 by the late Sir Richard Wallace. A finished study of this in water-colour (20 X 31-I) is in the collection of Mr. J. Broughton Dugdale, of Wroxall Abbey. His two frescoes in the Royal Gallery of the Houses of Parliament were the work of his later life, and occupied him for several years ; his health, it is said, was impaired by his constant attendance there in all seasons. They are remarkable productions in the rendering of form and the delineation of detail, apart altogether from the capacity shown in the arrangement and grouping. Each is forty-six feet in length and twelve feet in height, and the two great events in English history, Trafalgar and Waterloo, are represented, their full titles being " The Death of Nelson at Trafalgar " and " The Meeting of Wellington and Bliicher at Waterloo." The pair were not finished until 1864, and unfortunately are now far from in the splendid condition in which he left them. Of the Trafalgar picture the Walker Art Gallery at Liverpool possesses the finished study (36 x 138), and both works have been engraved by the Art Union of London for their subscribers. Charles West Cope [181 1 — 1890], trained in the Academy schools and contributing to the Academy annually from 1843 until his death, has left an enduring record in the Queen's reign by the six frescoes he executed in one of the corridors in the Houses of Parliament of historical scenes of the seven- GEORGE CATTERMOLE. 67 teenth century. These are " The Embarkation of the Pilgrim Fathers," "The Burial of Charles I.," "The Trained Bands leaving London to raise the Siege of Gloucester," " The Defence of Basing House," " Expulsion of Fellows from Oxford," "The Parting of Lord and Lady Russell." The collection given to the nation by Mr. Sheepshanks con- tained eight of his works on canvas, all painted during the earlier years of his career, and these are now in South Kensington Museum. George Cattermole [1800 — 1868] made an impression early in the reign by his figure pictures of historical subjects, and of scenes based upon the quaint customs of feudal times, enlivened on occasions by some romantic adventure. With few exceptions he worked in water-colour, his only exhibited work at the Academy, in oil, being in 1862, entitled "A Terrible Secret." It is said that throughout his life he never worked from models, and this perhaps accounts for much that is not quite satisfactory in his productions. Actual inaccuracies in them are not easy to point out, but that they fail in some important direction which it is difficult to define is unquestionable. Most collections, nevertheless, are not considered quite complete without one good example of him. The like observation may apply to Frederic Tayler [1804 — 1889], who worked also in water- colours, and excelled in the painting of animals, which he introduced in subjects associated often with hunting and hawking scenes both of past and present times. He was himself a keen sportsman, and his fidelity to nature was the subject of remark on one occasion by Mr. Ruskin in his " Modern Painters." Sir Walter Gilbey has a considerable 68 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. collection of his works in his London house, at Cambridge Gate, Regent's Park. Indeed, if I remember aright, the walls of one entire room (the drawing-room) are appropriated to Tayler's works. Very little notice appears to have been drawn to John Rogers Herbert [1810 — 1890] until after the Queen's accession. While not being among the most eminent painters of the English School, certain works can be pointed to upon which no mean reputation could rest. He finished his studies in Italy, and began by painting portraits and designing for book illustration, and even in his very latest years resorted again to portraiture. It was at the age of forty-one that he produced a work full of real vigour, the composition of which offered grave difficulties to any artist, every figure on the canvas being in action and revealing a thorough knowledge of anatomy. This was "The Pirates of Istria carrying off the Brides of Venice" (57 X 45), and by the kindness of Lady Truscott it is here reproduced. A body of corsairs have broken into the Church of St. Pietro, at Olivolo, and torn the terrified maidens from the foot of the altar ; lifting them then across the sacred threshold to their barques, they set sail for the island of Istria, where they dwelt. They were well acquainted with the Venetian custom of that time (a.d. 939) of the annual marriage on St. Mary's Eve of twelve poor virgins who had been endowed by the state, and they planned to seize them. They were overtaken the same day in a creek known as the Porto della Donzelle, where, in the conflict that ensued, scarcely an Istrian escaped, and the girls were borne safely back to Venice, where, as the narrative runs, " they endeavoured to forget their fright ■:nG m THE QUEEN'S / of his works, in his London house, Regent's Park. Indeed, if I rememb rills of one entire room (the drawing-room) are appr.v to Tayler's works. Very little notice ap; i iG IN THE QUEEN'S RETGN. examir-' ^ not very long ago, for instance, the picture of his in '■;e National Gallery of "James II. in his Palace at Whitehall receiving the News of the Landing of the Prince of Orange " (47 X 71, 1850). A broader touch, it may be, is observed now among our historical painters, a freer brush-work, the effect naturally of new schools of expression ; but the patient and complete design, the unhurried finish, the many engaging details, and withal the agreeable balance of composition and focus, cannot be said to be always present in their works. This particular picture of Ward's was promptly purchased by Landseer's great patron, Jacob Bell. The hopeless look of the king, who reads ruin to himself and his house in the written lines he has despairingly let fall, is indicated as well as it could be : and the surrounding courtiers and syco- phants of the court, most of them unconcerned in countenance, are in telling contrast to the stricken monarch, who, till the fatal letter arrived, was doubtless as gay as they in the warm and brilliantly lit room that autumn evening. Bending towards him is the Queen (Marie, daughter of the Duke of Modena), who points to the young Prince of Wales, as if to rouse the king to some energetic action by the sight of him whose future is in jeopardy. The artistic skill in rendering these courtly characters, not to speak oi the delicately framed and gently born monarch himself, so as to tell the story, and tell it well, of this momentous passage of English history, should not be overlooked. The situation can be grasped in a moment, as the scene in every good picture should ; and if an additional episode to that within the room were wanting, it is seen just without, where behind the tall screen the lord-in-waiting who has been the EDWARD MATTHEW WARD. 73 bearer of the bad tidings stands listening for any words that may be let fall at its contents, and to observe the effect. This picture may be taken as a very excellent example of Ward^s work, and as such is reproduced in this volume. The notable " Disgrace of Lord Clarendon " (53 x 72, 1846), in the possession now of Lord Northwick, and of which a finished study is in the National Gallery, and " The South Sea Bubble" (51 x 74, 1847), must be classed among his more important works. The latter was a scene in Change Alley in 1720, and was painted no doubt as a satire on the speculating mania of the day. It was a capital picture too of that historical scandal, and counted at the time as one of the best achievements of the modern school. For a few years incidents illustrative of the French Revolution of 1793 and the tragic misfortunes of the Royal House of Bourbon occupied him, and then various historical subjects, distinct events chiefly, based directly upon public narrative or semi-private records. No wonder with his unquestionable natural gift for the portrayal of history he should be chosen by the Royal Commission on the Fine Arts in 1852 to contribute to the decoration of the then new Houses of Parliament. Eight subjects are there dealt with by his hand, among the best being " The Last Sleep of Argyle," " The Landing of Charles H.," and " The Execution of the Duke of Montrose " ; some of them were first painted in oil, but were subsequently executed in fresco, and two were in water glass. They are not advantageously seen, the corridor where they are painted being gloomy most of the day, and even with the electric light little improvement is obtained. The next, and for the present the last, historical painter who 10 H PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. will be noticed is Edward Armitage [i 8 17— 1896]. He was in prominence in the early part of the Queen's reign. Educated in Paris under that careful master Paul Delaroche, he assisted that able painter in his large and famous decorative work " The Hemicycle," in the Theatre of the Palais des Beaux Arts in Paris, the finished study for which is in the Walters Gallery at Baltimore. Armitage when twenty-six years of age gained a prize of ^300, awarded by the Royal Commission on the Eine Arts, for a spirited cartoon of "The Landing of Julius C'Ksar," and two years later another of ^200, for a work representing " The Spirit of Religion," and was among the few who were finally chosen to decorate in fresco the new Houses of Parliament. One of his most attractive oil- paintings was deposited by him in the Diploma Gallery of the Royal Academy, a gallery too little known, but which can be seen at Burlington House at any time, free of charge. The title of this work is " Esther's Banquet," and represents the ill-starred Haman being torn away from the feast by rough guards as, on his knees, he prays the intercession of Esther. His work is usually found to be hard and severely defined in character, more suitable for representation on a large scale in fresco than for the expression of much sensitive feeling on small canvases. The work which he exhibited at the Academy in 1868 was " Herod's Birthday Feast," and when the Corpora- tion of London, seeking an example of his for the Guildhall Exhibition of 1894, expressed a wish for the loan of this work, the painter promptly and very generously said, "Ell give it them," and it now forms part of the permanent collection at the Guildhall. He is represented in the National Gallery by EDWARD ARM IT AGE. 75 " The Remorse of Judas," painted in 1866, and in the Walker Art Gallery at Liverpool by " Julian the Apostate presiding at a Conference of Sectarians," painted in 1875. One interesting work of his was called " A Souvenir of Scutari " (48 x 72). He chanced to be at that place at the time of the Crimean War, and saw much of the sick and wounded who were brought to the hospital there ; but the picture owes its charm not to any association of a military character, but to a group of Turkish women in gaily coloured raiment, abundant of fold but expressive of form, who are reclining on the ground in natural and graceful attitudes in a grove of tall red-barked trees, the dark blue waters of the Bosphorus in view, with purple mountains beyond. This is one of the works that appears to have come spontaneously from his hand, with less than usual of the dry impasto that was a distinct and almost original characteristic of the painter. CHAPTER IV. Sir Charles Eastlake was President of the Academy, and Cope, Dyce, Herbert, Maclisc, Leslie, Turner, and Stanfield among the ruling lights, with Elmore, Frith, Ward, Poole, Hook, and others aspiring for full membership, when the advent occurred of the young artist who was destined to develop into one of the foremost painters of the century. Millais was not seventeen when his first picture was shown on the Academy walls, but he was even then tolerably well known, for he had carried off in the course of his studentship all the best prizes there were to bestow. His earliest remarkable work, " Lorenzo and Isabella," executed in his twentieth year, is one of about twelve conceived and painted under the direct influence of the theories and expressed rules which, when in his eighteenth year, had united a small band of earnest youths, who termed themselves The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood." They were all young men of talent, three at least of them were of un- questionable genius, and all of them were impressed with the conviction that their doctrines, in opposition to all the then canons of art, were the only right and safe ones to adopt, not alone for themselves, but for the future of the art of their country, which they held, and made no secret of holding, was 76 SIR JOHN EVERETT MILL A IS. 77 in danger of sinking, through the various conventionalisms which in their view characterized and stultified it, to ultimate decay. Whether their views so ardently, and one might say so daringly, put forth, supported and illustrated by the wondrous examples of their handiwork, at all affected the practice of those who were then firmly seated in the domain of art is not at all easy to say — presumably not ; but the men themselves made their mark with very little delay on the public mind, whose attention was seriously forced upon their work, sooner perhaps than might otherwise have been the case, by John Ruskin, who, with keen insight, quickly discerned the new era that was dawning in art, and, in spite of the criticism with which they were assailed, stood firmly, and practically alone, against nearly all the press and the greater portion of the profession in his championship of them. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, of whom notice in detail will be given later on, was the spirit of the movement, and the chief tenets of its creed were that whatever was pictured should be repre- sented as nearly as possible as it really appeared and actually happened, that they should go direct to nature for all they desired to portray, and that no production should be under- taken that would not have in it some great and wholesome teaching. The dismay and vexation among artists generally were considerable when one of Millais' capacity, practically bred in the Academy, gave favour to these doctrines, and being probably the best known of the clique, the brunt of hostile criticism and abuse fell upon him. But, however much it may have stung him, it had little effect on his work. The picture of " Lorenzo and Isabella " (known amongst 78 PAINTTNG IN THE QUEEN'S FKIGN artists as " The Kick," from the figure of the brother who is kicking at a hound across the picture) is an astonishing achievement for a youth of nineteen, not alone for its dramatic elements and its colour, but for the poetic appreciation it shows of Keats's verse. There is nothing conventional in it ; the homely party sit with becoming grace and order at the white- clothed table to their midday meal. None know save the two evil ones sitting opposite to Isabella the tragedy that is pending ; the still Florentine day goes by just as days at that time would go by, and all the principles of the new Brother- hood are courageously enunciated in the work. It is well that this picture, historical in art annals, has found a lasting home in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, for it can there be at any time inspected. It was in the collection of Mr. Windus, of Tottenham, until 1862, and then for some time in the possession of Thomas Woolner, the sculptor. It came to its present owners through Christie's in 1883. On the frame of the picture are written the names of the individuals who sat as models for the work. " Christ in the House of His Parents," now in the possession of Mrs. Beer, and " Ferdinand lured by Ariel," the property of Mr. H. F. Makins, appeared in the year following, the latter, an upright arched (23^ x 19I), possessing astonishing attributes of fantastic detail and delicate colouring and finish. To nature surely he went, and remained till it was finished, for the wood from which the amorous Ferdinand is emerging, so truthful is it in its leafy intricacies, and dainty in the tender light that suffuses the scene. It is said that the face of Ferdinand (painted from Mr. F. G. Stephens, himself one of the Brother- irtEO ev ARIEL. . Sir J. K. MiUJVis. Bart. I'.k A 78 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S KEIGN. artists as " The Kick," from the figure of the brother who is kicking at a hound across the picture) is an astonishing achievement for a youth of nineteen, not alone for its dramatic elements and its colour, but for the poetic appreciation it shows of Keats 's verse. There is nothing conventional in it ; the homely party sit with becoming grace and order at the white- clothed table to their midday meal. None know save the two evil ones sitting opposite to Isabella the tragedy that is pending ; the still Florentine day goes by just as days at that time would go by, and all the principles of the new Brother- hood are courageously enunciated in the work. It is well that this picture, historical in art annals, has found a lasting home in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, for it can there be at any time inspected. It was in the collection of Mr. Windus, of Tottenham, until 1862, and then for some time in the possession of Thomas Woolner, the sculptor. It came to its present owners through Christie's in 1883. On the frame of the picture are written the names of the individuals who sat as models for the work. "Christ in the House of His Parents," now in the possession of Mrs, Beer, and " Ferdinand lured by Ariel," the property of Mr. H. F. Makins, appeared in the year following, the latter, an upright arched (23^ x 19I), possessing astonishing attributes of fantastic detail and delicate colouring and finish. To nature surely he went, and remained till it was finished, for the wood from which the amorous Ferdinand is emerging, so truthful is it in its leafy intricacies, and dainty in the tender light that suffuses the scene. It is said that the face of Ferdinand (painted from Mr. F. G. Stephens, himself one of the Brother- sm /0//.Y EVERETT MILLAIS. 79 hood and the able art critic now of the Atheiuciiin) was commenced and finished at one sitting. The work is indeed a veritable gem, and when I saw it recently, in Mr. Makins's house, had undergone no change, brilliant as ever, as on the day it was completed forty-seven years ago. Mr. Richard Ellison, the subsequent donor of a large collection of drawings to South Kensington Museum, was its purchaser for /150, it having been previously thrown back on the painter's hands by a dealer for whom it had been painted at the agreed price of ^100, but who would not hear of taking, to him evidently, so uncommercial a work. The picture that next roused the venom of the critic and brought down upon the painter a torrent of derision was that rich flood of purple and green entitled "The Return of the Dove to the Ark" (34 X 2\\, 1851). Two young women, neither of them either plain or prepossessing, but simply of ordinary type, are represented in the most natural of attitudes. Verily they look inmates of the Ark ; there is an old-world look about them, standing on the straw there with bare feet ; and sensitive to a degree is the tender touch with which they fondle the returned dove as the hearts of their gentle woman- hood go out to it. The extreme simplicity of the composition of this work might have been the outcome of a mind that had done with the attraction that lies in elaboration and detail ; as the work of a youth of one-and-twenty, who had yet to unfold this worid of elaboration and detail, it is extraordinary. " No youth," said Goethe, " can be a master," but it is doubtful whether if Millais had treated this subject forty years later it would have had the elements of a masterpiece in a greater degree. 8o PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. It was acquired by Mr. Combe, of the Clarendon Press, Oxford, on the death of whose widow it passed to the University Galleries of that city, where it now hangs. It is with great delight that, by the kindness of Dr. Magraith, facilities have been given me to reproduce this work, in looking at which let it be remembered that the rich effect of colour is one of purple, white, and green drapery against the dry yellow straw, with a background of dark neutral tint. When exhibited at the Paris Exhibition in 1855 it fairly puzzled the French critics, but whatever was said about it, it was the means of securing for its painter a wide reputation almost throughout Europe. "Mariana in the Moated Grange" (23I x 19I) appeared at the same time (1851). The sad heaviness of the fair inmate of the moated grange is half forgotten in the splendour in which Millais has set her. One is inclined to ask, could colours in their brilliancy be taken further with so completely harmonious a result ? With so striking a dress of the richest blue occupying so large a portion of the surface of the picture, the brightest surroundings were absolutely necessary to sustain uniformity ; but when with all this safely attained we are given to a large extent the spirit of the poem " I am aweary, aweary," so perfectly emphasized by the attitude of the uprisen figure, the work becomes a perfect jewel of painting, and, like " Ariel," deserves a wall to itself, as both these exquisite pieces have in the house of their keenly appreciative owner Mr. Makins, of Queen's Gate. "The Woodman's Daughter" came next, begun, however, before the preceding work, and not in any way behind its predecessors in the new traditions. It received scant courtesy. 8o PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. It was acquired by Mr. Combe, of the Clarendon Press, Oxford, on the death of whose widow it passed to the University Galleries of that city, where it now hangs. It is with great delight that, by the kindness of Dr. Magraith, facilities have been given me to reproduce this work, in looking at which let it be remembered that the rich effect of colour is one of purple, white, and green drapery against the dry yellow straw, with a background of dark neutral tint. When exhibited at the Paris Exhibition in 1855 it fairly puzzled the French critics, but whatever was said about it, it was the means of securing for its painter a wide reputation almost throughout Europe. "Mariana in the Moated Grange" (23^ X 19^) appeared at the same time (1851). The sajd heaviness of the fair inmate of the moated grange is half forgotten in the splendour in which Millais has set her. One is inclined to ask, could colours in their brilliancy be taken further with so completely harmonious a result ? With so striking a dress of the richest blue occupying so large a portion of the surface of the picture, the brightest surroundings were absolutely necessary to sustain uniformity ; but when with all this safely attained we are given to a large extent the spirit of the poem " I am aweary, aweary," so perfecdy emphasized by the attitude of the uprisen figure, the work becomes a perfect jewel of painting, and, like " Ariel," deserves a wall to itself, as both these exquisite pieces have in the house of their keenly appreciative owner Mr. Makins, of Queen's Gate. "The Woodman's Daughter" came next, begun, how .cr, before the preceding work, and not in any way behind its predecessors in the new traditions. It received scant courtesy. SIR JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS. 8i It is destined, I believe, eventually for South Kensington Museum, and in the meantime is in the possession of Mrs. Hodgkinson, in Lower Phillimore Place. That Millais did not feel the criticisms which were passed upon his work at this time is not to be imagined, and he never appeared to be free from the recollection of them. Referring to them in a letter to me as late as 1894, he said, "All my early pictures were universally abused, and now critics say I have not fulfilled their promise. It makes me sad to see them, although they are so much admired now." At last, in 1852, when the painter was but twenty-two, he touched the hard hearts of his adversaries by the work that has allied itself with his name more intimately perhaps than any other. It represented "A Huguenot on St. Bartholomew's Day refusing to shield himself from danger by wearing the Roman Catholic Badge" (36x24, 1852). The theme, the colour, and the execution all commended the work to almost universal notice. The manner in which the picture was con- ceived and worked out may perhaps be told one day by one who was on the spot, and is therefore more entitled than I am to tell it, but the examination of the work plainly shows that the background, with its ivied wall, its grasses and nasturtiums, was painted before the figures were introduced, or possibly even thought of You can see where the background has been filled up to meet the outline of the figures in the space that had doubtless been left for them. The order of the Duke of Guise had said, " When the clock of the Palais de Justice shall sound upon the great bell at daybreak, then each good Catholic must bind a strip of white linen round his arm, and 1 1 Sz PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S RETGN. place a fair white cross in his cap," and the picture shows a Roman CathoHc lady entreating her Protestant lover, with the most moving supplication on her sweet face, to wear the white scarf She endeavours to tie it round his arm, but he gently prevents her. She is in a black figured gown, and her lover in rich purple, with white frill round the neck. The model for the lady was a Miss Ryan (long since dead). Like others of this period, the picture is in admirable condition, and shines in its harmony of colours like a jewel, as it is. Its fortunate possessor is Mr. T. H. Miller, of Poulton-le-Fielde. It was bought from Millais originally by a Mr. D. T. White, a dealer, for a very small sum, under .^200, and passed thence to Mr. Miller's father. When exhibited at the Guildhall in 1892, the painter desired to touch it here and there, but the owner preferred that nothing should be done to it ; experience, however, suggests to me that it is time the canvas was relined, and I know this to have been the opinion too of the late Sir John Millais. The same year saw the noted " Ophelia" (28^ x 43 inches). The floating figure was studied from Dante Gabriel Rossetti's future wife, Miss Siddal, and the intricate leafy background from a spot on the river Ewell, near Kingston. Beautiful as it is in conscientious delineation of leaf and stalk and flower, it is surpassed by the " Ferdinand and Ariel," in which with the same correct drawing and observance of detail the hand of the painter seems to run freer, and nature is not set so im- movably on the canvas as it seems to me to be in certain parts of the " Ophelia." A finely finished pencil study of the face was sold at Christie's on the dispersal of the collection of Sir William Bowman in 1893. The painting was shown at SIJi JOHN EVERETT MILLAlS.- 83 the Guildhall on the same occasion as the " Huguenot," being then in the possession of IN'Irs. W. Fuller Maitland, of Albert Mansions, who parted with it shortly afterwards to IVlr. Henry Tate, through whom it will come to the nation, but it had previously been in the collections of Mr. Windus and Mr. Woolner, and sold in 1868 for ^672, in 1875 for £'&()2, and in 1883 for _;^i,io2. With mention of the foregoing, together with " The Order of Release," " The Proscribed Royalist," and the portrait of Mr. John Ruskin as examples of what may be termed his pure and simple Pre-Raphaelite work, we observe the hand now broadening, and the remarkable work of " The Rescue " (46 x 32, 1855) was produced, showing the exciting incident of firemen saving two children from a burning house, a work which drew enthusiastic praise from Mr. Ruskin. Mr. Holbrook Gaskell, of Woolton Wood, now owns this work, but for long it was in the collection of Mr. Matthews. With a clear command still of detail, and a sympathy with nature bordering on the passionate, the work entitled " Autumn Leaves" (40 X 28, 1856) was the next outcome. Mr. Ruskin seized on this work. " By much the most poetical work," said he, " the painter has yet conceived, and also as far as 1 know the first instance of a perfectly painted twilight." It is a solemn work, and the three sweet girl faces are verily painted aright against the rich glow of the falling day. It was painted at Perth ; the church is the Church of St. Mary, in Perth, and the distant hill Kinnoul. For long it hung in Mr. Leathart's dining-room at Brackendene, Gateshead, but is now in the Permanent Collection of the City of Manchester. Of nothing 84 PAINTING JN THE QUEEN'S UEIGN. like the minute finish of the earlier works, its touch is manlier, its effect broader, and the pathetic feeling accentuated in its relation to nature. Of this class too was " Sir Isumbras at the Ford " (50 X 67, 1857), once in the possession of Charles Reade, the novelist, and then of Mr. John Graham, but now owned by Mrs. R. H. Benson. It is well known and has been frequently seen publicly, the last time being at the Guildhall in 1894. The flood of rich light is given as in "Autumn Leaves." It was partly repainted when it came from the Academy in 1857, but it still remained in the opinion of many somewhat of a silhouette of a horse, and this was remedied in 1893 by the painter relieving the black glossy coat by an increase in the ornamentation of the broad reins and other parts of the harness. " The Vale of Rest" (41 x 67, 1859), in which more tender handling is shown, was the third work that appeared with this effect of evening light, and not the least clever part of this touching work is the manner in which the tall dank grass is painted. The true colour of the harsh green in shadow, so often attempted with questionable results in regard to exact truth of tone, is here obtained. Apart from the eerie story of the coffin-shaped cloud in the sky, which, according to Scotch superstition, foreshadows the approach of death, the picture in its intensity of natural effect is an im- pressive one ; the presence of the two nuns, the younger of whom stands in the half-dug grave throwing up the rich brown earth, augments its solemnity. Other effects and themes now engaged his brush, and I remember how eagerly in the sixties each new development or fresh departure in his work was looked for. That, irrespective Sm JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS. 85 of his productions hitherto, which were ample to establish any painter's lasting repute, he should produce in 1863 a moonlight work like "St. Agnes Eve," imd in 1872 the ready piece of handling, almost defiant in its character, of " Hearts are Trumps," goes far to bearing witness of the strides he had taken in his mastery of painting. The last-named picture was a portrait group of the three Misses Armstrong playing whist in a con- servatory, one of them taking dummy. It was sold at Christie's in 1876 for ;^i,365, but Millais, it is said, received ^2,100 for it three years before. The scene in " St. Agnes Eve " was the interior of a room painted from one at Knowle House, Kent, and showed the figure of Madeline standing phantom-like in the moonlight that floods the apartment with a thousand sensitive tones of pale bluish green. The picture was in the collection of Mr. Frederick Leyland until 1892, when it passed to Mr. Valentine Prinsep, who now owns it. A great discussion arose when it was first exhibited upon the question as to whether the moon, shining through coloured panes of glass, would carry those colours where its light rested. Maclise took the same theme five years later, and whether it were the result of study or not, he made the moonbeams coming through the coloured panes of the high Gothic window throw their amethyst, emerald, and rose clearly defined onto the cold white coverlet of the heroine's bed, but it did not look right, and Millais' rendering appeals to practically all as the correct effect. " My First Sermon " and " My Second Sermon " (each 35i X 2 7i) appeared in successive years, 1863 and 1864. In the former the child, in a position novel to her, is all 86 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. attention ; in the latter she is fest asleep. The second canvas was painted, according to Mr. F. G. Stephens, in consequence of the great popularity of the " First Sermon." Both works are now in the possession of Mr. Charles Gassiot. The pretty and engaging pieces of "Asleep" and "Just Awake" (each 36 x 27, 1867), for which the painter's children were the models, came intervening, as smaller attempts, but none the less captivating in their sweetness and truth, followed by "The Minuet" and "The Sisters" (41 x 42, 1868), the latter being the portraits of the artist's three daughters. The dresses are white, trimmed with blue ribbons, and pink and white azaleas form the background. It was once in the collection of Mr. C. P. Matthews, at the dispersal of whose works in 1892 it was secured by the present owner, Mrs. C. E. Lees. Then came larger works: " Jephthah " (49 x 63), "Rosalind and Celia " (45 x 63, 1868), and "The Boyhood of Raleigh" (46 x 50, 1870) — the last-named the best painted of the three, and seldom publicly seen. It belongs to Mr. James Reiss, who highly prizes it ; it is strong in every way, and glowing with sunlight and colour. In 1 87 1 the world was astonished by his development in another direction — that of a landscape painter. Whatever of landscape had appeared up to then in his pictures had always been painted with the heart and soul of the man, and formed always an integral part of his subject, as an element towards the full and proper interpretation of his work, such as in " The Woodman's Daughter," " Ferdinand and Ariel," "Ophelia," and "Rosalind and Celia"; but here was a landscape pure and simple, dissociated from human incident, and relying for 86 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. attention ; in the latter she is fast asleep. The second canvas was painted, according to Mr. F. G. Stephens, in consefjuence of the great popularity of the " First Sermon." Both works are now in the possession of Mr. Charles Gassiot. The pretty and engaging pieces of "Asleep" and "Just Awake" (each 36 x 27, 1867), for which the painter's children were the models, came intervening, .is smaller attempts, but none the less captivating in their sweetness and truth, followed by "The Minuet" and "The Sisters" (41 x 42, 1868), the latter being the portraits of the artist's three daughters. The dresses are white, trimmed with blue ribbons, and pink and white azaleas form the background. It was once in the collection of Mr. C. P. Matthews, at the dispersal of whose works in 1892 it was secured by the present owner, Mrs. C. E. Lees. Then came larger works: " Jephthah " (49 x 63), "Rosalind and Celia" (45 x 63, 1868), and "The Boyhood of Raleigh" (46 x 50, 1870) — the last-named the best painted of the three, and seldom publicly seen. It belongs to Mr. James Reiss, who highly prizes it ; it is strong in every way, and glowing with sunlight and colour. In 1871 the world was astonished by his development in another direction — that of a landscape painter. Whatever of landsciipe had appeared up to then in his pictures had always been painted with the heart and soul of the man, and formed always an integral part of his subject, as an element towards the full and proper interpretation of his work, such as in " The Woodman's Daughter," " Ferdinand and Ariel," "Ophelia," and " Rosalind and Celia " ; but here was a landscape pure •and simple, dissociated from human incident, and relying for SIR JOHN EVERETT MILL ATS. 87 its charm upon the poetic feehng which the reeds and the water and the low grey sky could of themselves convey. I have been told that he painted it purely for his own gratifica- tion — much, I suppose, as Shelley wrote the "Skylark" — and hence we have in the spirit of the work the very best and highest of the man himself. With what voices she has Nature can speak to those who have the listening ear, and what Tennyson, in the " Dying Swan," expressed in words, " Ever the weary wind went on. And took the reed-tops as it went," Millais expressed in colour when he painted "Chill October" (55 X 73, 1871). By Lord Armstrong's kind concurrence it is reproduced in this work. The picture shows a backwater of the river Tay, at a spot known as Sedgy Den. It will be seen how a bank of willows at the water's brink strikes against the highest lights of the grey October sky, and the whole fore- ground is thickly set with water reeds. " Simple as it was," Millais said (and these words are valuable now), " the scene had impressed me for years before I painted it. The railway between Perth and Dundee passes the spot where I stood, with danger on either side : the tide, which near carried away my platform, and the trains, which threatened to blow my work into the river. I chose the subject for the sentiment it conveyed to my mind, and I am happy to think the tran- scription affects the public in like manner, although many of my friends at the time were at a loss to understand what I saw to paint in such a scene. I made no sketch for it, but painted ever^ touch from nature on the canvas itself under 88 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. irritatino; trials of wind and rain. The only studio work was in connection with the effect." It was bought by Mr. Samuel Mendel, at the sale of whose collection in 1875 it passed to its present owner, at whose seat, Cragside, Rothbury, it now hangs. It has been well reproduced in etching by Brunei Debaines. The public were now stimulated to look each year for an example of this new departure from the hand of the man who had grown to be regarded as the most popular painter of the day, and who in his painting of landscape could infuse into it so much beauty and poetic feeling. Invariably happy in his titles, he produced in the immediately succeeding years charming and varied examples of mountain, stream, and wood ; the realistic pair of "Flowing to the River" and "Plowing to the Sea" were followed by a large upright "Winter Fuel" (76 x 58, 1874), which bore the well known line " Bare ruined choirs where once the sweet birds sang," and had as its com- panion picture "Scotch Firs" (76 x 58, 1874), now in the collection of Mr. James Ma.son. Then came " The Deserted Garden" (48 x 72, 1875), bought by Mr. Thwaites, and ap- pearing on the Academy walls with that breeziest of landscapes " The Fringe of the Moor " (53 X 84), now in Mr. Ismay's collection at Dawpool. Somewhat conventional in its fore- ground, which is nevertheless dexterously managed, though meeting with Mr. Ruskin's disapproval in its composition, the eye is taken " over hill, over dale," till in the far-away purple of the distance it loses itself in the tender atmospheric effects which we recognize at once as true effects. It is kind of Mr. Ismay to allow a reproduction of it to appear in this work. In the footsteps of this came the beautiful vista of Strath 88 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. irritating trials of wind and rain. The only studio work was in connection with the effect." It was bought by Mr. 'Samuel Mendel, at the sale of whose collection in 1875 it passed to its present owner, at whose seat, Cragside, Rothbury, it now hangs. It has been well reproduced in etching by Brunei Debaines. The public were now stimulated to look each year for an example of this new departure from the hand of the man who had grown to be regarded as the most f)opular painter of the day, and who in his painting of landscape could infuse into it so much beauty and poetic feeling. Invariably happy in his titles, he produced in the immediately succeeding years charming and varied examples of mountain, stream, and wood ; the realistic pair of " Flowing to the River " and " Flowing to the Sea " were followed by a large upright " Winter Fuel " (76 x 58, 1874), which bore the well known line " Bare ruined choirs where once the sweet birds sang," and had as its com- panion picture "Scotch Firs" (76 x 58, 1874), now in the collection of Mr. James Mason. Then came " The Deserted Garden" (48 x 72, 1875), bought by Mr. Thwaites, and ap- pearing on the Academy walls with that breeziest of landscapes " The Fringe of the Moor " (53 X 84), now in Mr. Ismay's collection at Dawpool. Somewhat conventional in its fore- ground, which is nevertheless dexterously managed, though meeting with Mr. Ruskin's disapproval in its composition, the eye is taken "over hill, over dale," till in the far-away purple of the distance it loses itself in the tender atmospheric effects which we recognize at once as true effects. It is kind of Mr. Isniay to allow a reproduction of it to appear in this work. In the footsteps of this came the beautiful vista of Strath JOHN E VERETT MILLAIS. Sy Tay, as seen from Birnam, the sloping hills on either side, and the river winding towards the distant range, from the centre of which rises the mountain Ben y Glow. " Over the Hills and far away" (51 x 74, 1876) was appropriately chosen as the title of this worl<, and no happier name could it have had. The dexterous painting of the difficult foreground is very noticeable ; the completeness with which the rugged boulders and flowering rushes are dealt with, and the pools of water encircled with richly coloured mosses, finished as far as breadth and feeling would allow, would have disarmed any such criticisms as Mr. Ruskin had passed on some of the painter's landscapes. "Over the Hills" has also been etched by Brunet Debaines. It was in Mr. Kaye Knowles's collection until 1887, when it came into the possession of Colonel J. C. Williams, who gave ;^5,25o for it at Christie's, the highest price obtained at that date for a Millais. " The Sound of Many Waters," a commission from the late Mr. David Price, the noted collector of Queen Anne Street, appeared in 1876, and eight years later came in 1888 " Murtley Moss," a noble e.xpanse of Scottish moorland, bearing a re- semblance to " Over the Hills," but with a greater delicacy of atmospheric effect. This truly beautiful work is in the distinguished collection of Sir Cuthbert Quilter, in South Audley Street, and is of the same dimensions as "Over the Hills." An upright of singular charm entitled "Christmas Eve" (63 X 52) also appeared in 1888, not at the Academy, but at Mr, Maclean's gallery, and it was acquired by Mr. C. J. Wertheimer, in whose dining-room in Park Lane it now hangs. Not many snow scenes has Millais attempted, this 1 2 go PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. certainly the best of them. To Tennyson one goes for the sentiment that lies in this work, " And the winter winds are wearily sighing." Into the chill air the trees spread their numberless naked branches, and the deep-set windows of the comfortable castle home reflect the sun's last gleams. The broad slope beneath the terrace walk is deep in snow, skil- fully tinged with the thin tender light of the winter sky, and on the drive in the foreground the rooks, old inhabitants of the place, have alighted. " The Old Garden," " Murtley Water," " Lingering Autumn," and others came later without apparent effort from his hand ; the last-named appearing in 1 89 1 , owned now by Mr. George McCulloch, of Queen's Gate, and possess- ing the vast variety of tint and colour which it was his wont to work so ably into unity of expression — "No spring, nor summer beauty, hath such grace As I have seen in one autumnal face." Concurrently with these landscapes were appearing subject pictures of conspicuous note : " Victory, O Lord " (76 X 54, 1871), now in the Manchester Gallery, and the "North- West Passage" (69 X 87, 1874), painted just when the expe- dition to the Arctic Regions, under Sir George Nares, was in preparation, and acting on the public mind as a stimulus to the oft-tried enterprise. The motto the picture bore was " It ought to be done, and England should do it " ; but twenty years have since elapsed, and the secret of the White North has not yet been discovered, its latest and nearest vanquisher being not an Englishman, but a Norwegian. This fine picture (69 X 87) was acquired by Mr. Henry Tate from the collec- tion of C. F. H. Bolchow, and will in due course appear in SIR JOHN EJ'ERETT MILLAIS. 91 the collection he has given to the nation. Another acquisition of Mr. Tate's, from the collection of Mr. C. H. Wilson, M.P., was " The Knight Errant," an upright (72 x 53, 1870), and is distinguished as being the only work of Millais' in which an entirely nude figure is introduced ; but the texture he has acquired in the flesh-painting, the warmth and stir of life, constitute it a great example of the British School. A later example, "An Idyll of 1745" (54 x 74, 1884), is owned by Sir Frederick Wigan, and is a fine piece of colour — careless in finish here and there in its evident impatience, but picturing with striking force the three pretty Scotch children listening to the boy piper who, in the regimental costume of the last century, plays gallantly to them. The painter supposes the incident to have occurred while the English Guards were in Scotland pursuing the Young Pretender. At times from his brush would appear works of much smaller size, of the size, say, of the " Huguenot," but painted in a manner inconsonant with the high finish of that picture ; but yet perfect examples of a free and advanced method, which probably could never have been acquired but for the severe application shown in those early works of his to the .subtleties and possibilities of colour. The best of these is "The Gambler's Wife" (34 x 15, 1869). None but a great artistic mind, severely trained, could have accomplished this. The woman ponders as she lightly touches the cards on the card-table; the end not yet. Mr. Charles Waltner has done an excellent etching of this work. " The Widow's Mite " (46 X 31, 1870) would have made a fitting companion to it had it been painted smaller ; it exhibits also the single 94 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. ceased, impossible to deal with in fuller detail within the limits of this work, but unique in the art annals of this country. Coming before the public as early as 1846 with a picture of remarkable qualities for a boy of seventeen, " Pi- zarro seizing the Inca of Peru," his work during exactly half a century has ranged amid a wide diversity of subject, and whether it be history or poetry. Scripture, landscape or portraiture, he failed in none, and ample evidence exists of his attainment of success in all. With a tendency towards Pre-Raphaelitism, but never one of the Brotherhood, was Ford IVIadox Brown [1821 — 1893], eight years the senior of Millais. His work it was which in 1848 had attracted Dante Gabriel Rossetti, then but nineteen, to seek him as a master. His influence was con- siderable upon the new and courageous clique, his own aims and method of work being to a large extent similar to theirs. He was a man who in his work was distinctly apart from the other painters of the day, and in his original manner of dealing with the subjects he chose, had little regard to the accepted canons of art under which the majority of the painters of his day practised. A close student of history, costumes, and manners he must have been, but with little eye to the beauty of form, and often sadly faulty in his drawing. "Chaucer reading at the Court of Edward HI.," painted in his thirtieth year, at the time Millais was painting " The Huguenot," was among the earliest of his works that brought him into notice. It received the Liverpool prize of .^^50 in the following year, but has since gone to Australia and is now in the Municipal Gallery at Sydney. He seldom exhibited FORD MADOX BROWiY. 95 at the Academy, working out his designs in his own quiet way, conscientiously, and with no small amount of independ- ence of outside criticism. The work that represents him in the National Gallery, " Christ washing Peter's Feet," was painted in 1852, and in it he is seen perhaps not far from his best in regard to strength and form ; it is rich in design and good in colour. When exhibited at the Academy the person of Christ was represented nude, in conformity with the text "rising from supper laid aside His garments," but the painter subsequently clothed the figure. The same year he began a most complicated picture entitled " Work " (53 X 77)- He had seen by that time at the Academy the work of a man who, though younger than himself, knew better how to fill his canvases with detail, and to portray, as the painters before Raphael had been wont to do, a chosen incident in its most comprehensive aspect. This was one of the Brotherhood with whose work he sympathized, Holman Hunt. In taking the subject "Work" he aimed at intro- ducing many phases of work, and chose as the foundation of his picture the excavations which were in progress at Hampstead for the supply of water. It is not a beautiful picture, but it is a work which commends itself to all as a monument of patient labour, thought out in its entirety with great fertility of invention, one of the most interesting of its features being the presence of the portraits of the two great brain-workers of the day, Thomas Carlyle and Frederick Denison Maurice. This picture is eminently suited for a public gallery, for the sake of the practical teaching that lies in it for all who study it in its multitudinous details. It is 96 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. in the Art Gallery of the City of Manchester, having been purchased by the Corporation in 1884. The effect is that of a hot July day, and beneath the burning sun this display of work is seen in all its severity : its chief incidents are the navvies with the heavy earthwork, the ragged chickweed-seller ap- proaching, who has never been taught to work, and the rich people following, who have no need to work. One of the ladies is distributing tracts, and one seems as if her only work in life was to dress and look beautiful ; but throughout, the examination of each portion of the canvas will reveal fresh and copious incident, each having work of some kind or another for its text. In point of technique and well finished work the example in the Birmingham Art Gallery, " The Last of England," here reproduced, could not well be surpassed. It was painted, or rather finished, in 1855. Remarkable is the woman's grey shawl, the very texture of it practically obtained, but only by dint of fine workmanship, and only equalled, to my mind, in the realization of the painting of the texture of things, by the Scotch plaid in Millais' "Order of Release" and the grey gown of the lady in W. S. Burton's " Cavalier and Puritan." The picture is almost circular, and not large, 28 X 25. The pathos of it is striking as, bound to the distant colonies, the man and woman, hand in hand, watch the receding shore, and the wife's eyes are full of tears. Not of such finished workmanship, but extremely original in treatment, is " The Coat of many Colours," which is now in the collection of Mr. William Coltart, of Birkenhead. A word must be said about this very original interpretation of the narrative, " This 96 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. in the Art Gallery of the City of Manchester, having been purchased by the Corporation in 1884. The effect is that of a hot July day, and beneath the burning sun this display of work is seen in all its severity : its chief incidents are the navvies with the heavy earthwork, the ragged chickweed-seller ap- proaching, who has never been taught to work, and the rich people following, who have no need to work. One of the ladies is distributing tracts, and one seems as if her only work in life was to dress and look beautiful ; but throughout, the examination of each portion of the canvas will reveal fresh and copious incident, each having work of some kind or another for its text. In point of technique and well finished work the example in the Birmingham Art Gallery, " The Last of England," here reproduced, could not well be surpassed. It was painted, or rathf-r fiii;sh'..'d, in 1855. Remarkable is the woman's grey shawl, the very texture of it practically obtained, but only by dint of fine workmanship, and only equalled, to my mind, in the realization of the painting of the texture of things, by the Scotch plaid in Millais' " Order of Release " and the grey gown of the lady in W. S. Burton's " Cavalier and Puritan." The picture is almost circular, and not large, 28 X 25. The pathos of it is striking as, bound to the distant colonies, the man and woman, hand in hand, watch the receding shore, and the wife's eyes arc full of tears. Not of such finished workmanship, but extremely original in treatment, is " The Coat of many Colours," which is now in the collection of Mr. William Coltart, of Birkenhead. A word must be said about this very original interpretation of the narrative, " This FORD MADOX BROWN. 97 have we found : know now whether it be thy son's coat or no." Of the four jealous brothers who here stand before their father, one is speaking and pointing to the coloured garment which he holds, but his eye shrinks from meeting his father's ; and another, with a leopard skin and weapons stuck in his belt, and shoes respectfully in his hand, doggedly awaits his father's reception of the news. The aged Jacob occupies a rudely constructed circular dais ; he does not look kindly on his sons —doubt is in his eye and at his heart. The background is exceptional as showing no sky, the land rising steeply. The picture was once in the possession of Mr. John F. Hutton. Many works smaller in size, both in oil and water-colour, came from his hand, the South Kensington Museum having recently secured one of the best of his water-colours, " Elijah raising the Widow's Son" (37 x 24, 1868), formerly in the fine collection of Mr. Frederick Craven, of Thornbridge, Bakewell, who also possessed the water-colour entitled " The Younger Foscari " (36 x 24, 1870), now in the possession of Sir Cuthbert Quilter. The work that involved great research on his part, and which has left a handsome and enduring record of him, is that which he undertook for the Corporation of Manchester. This was a series of twelve large mural decorations for the Town Hall of that city, and the subjects enumerated below testify to the amount of study the undertaking demanded : — The Building of the Roman Fort of Mancunium. l^he Baptism of Edwin, King of Northumbria and Deira, at York, A.n. 627. The Expulsion of the Danes from Manchester. 13 98 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S FEIGN. The Establishment of Flemish Weavers in Manchester. The Trial of VVyclif The Proclamation regarding Weights and Measures. Observation of the Transit of Venus by William Crabtree. Humphrey Chetham's Life Dream. Dalton collecting Marsh Fire Gas. John Kay, Inventor of the Fly Shuttle. The Opening of the Bridgewater Canal. Bradshaw's Defence of Manchester. It is only quite recently that the public has had the opportunity of studying with any approach to completeness his life's work, by the excellent exhibition which was held at the Grafton Galleries early in 1897. Few of his works were absent on that occasion, the most important absentee being undoubtedly the finished picture of " The Last of England." which, however, was seen later in the year at the Guildhall. But Mr. George Rae's beautiful landscape " English Autumn Afternoon " was there, and it was relieving to the eye to turn to it from the many subject-pictures, clever though complicated in design, by which it was surrounded. It was painted in 1852-4, and is oval in shape. Some there are who consider the canvas too crowded ; but is Nature ever meagre of detail ? It .should be remembered, too, when studying it, that we are not looking at the work of an impressionist, but of a man with an iron conscience for the severest truth a devotee of Realism. The rich landscape is doubtless as he saw it — crowded with pleasant occupation of tree and barn, hedgerow and meadow — and has all it wants to perfect it in that beautiful sky that is above it. The rose-coloured clouds FORD MADOX BROWN. 99 over such a landscape should verily strike whatever poetic chord there may be in us ; and we dwell on this truly English picture as on the familiar words that might well be made its text — "When looking on the happy autumn fields, And thinking of the days that are no more." In so far as a painter can truly touch the finer emotion of our nature in a direction such as this may be calculated to do, his work to me seems to become great, and must be lasting. Better would it have been had the same degree of finish been seen in all his works ; but life was too short, labour as he might, to carry to such perfection the whole of his ideas, for he was a prolific designer. He was not a man who courted popularity, and was e.xtremely sensitive to anything which had the appearance of patronage. Many instances are known of his resentment of apparent slights which were never intended. He was left by the Academy unrecorded amongst its members ; and in his own view, and in the view of very many others, his life's work as it went on was not rewarded with that acknowledgment which it was entitled to. Other, and younger, and less talented men stepped forward and took the laurels to which he might reasonably have conceived he had a greater claim. The City of London, in its banquet at the Mansion House to the representatives of Art, in the summer of 1893, invited this distinguished artist ; and the Lord Mayor, Sir Stuart Knill, having been informed beforehand that he was a man to whom the world had left unbestowed the recognition which many felt was 166 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. justly due, placed him at the chief table. That he was recognized in this way by the City was, I afterwards learnt from his intimate friend Mr. Forbes Robertson, a source of no little gratification to him during the remaining months of his life, for he died in the autumn of the same year. Not for many years after the institution of the Pre- Raphaelite movement did the work of Madox Brown's gifted pupil Rossetti come prominently before the world ; but Rossetti's friend and co-worker Holman Hunt had moved step by step with Millais in the arduous path to which reference has been made on a previous page, when the principles of Pre-Raphaelitism first began to manifest themselves on the Academy walls. Holman Hunt, a year or two older than Millais, had already exhibited at the Academy on several occasions, but it was not until 1851, when the picture of " Valentine receiving Sylvia from Proteus " was shown (a scene from Two Gentlemen of Verona), that criticism was fairly roused against him. In the same room was hanging at the time Millais' " Return of the Dove to the Ark," of which mention has been made. Hunt had already the previous year exhibited a work of surprising invention and power, representing " A Converted British Family sheltering a Christian Missionary from the Persecution of the Druids." This scene, apart from its dramatic element, showed great study, at a time when books were not so easily procurable as now, but the picture met with an amount of irate criticism, in which derision was the chief in- gredient, that one wonders that there was found sufficient discernment in the Academy itself to secure the hanging of the picture at all. The subject, we are told, was adopted to illustrate loo PAIA'TJJVC IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. justly due, placed \ m at the chief table. That he was recognized in this w .y by the City was, I afterwards learnt from his intimate fr end Mr. Forbes Robertson, a source of no little gratification to him during the remaining months of his life, for he die< in the autumn of the same year. Not for many years after the institution of the Pre- Raphaelite movem .it did the work of Madox Brown's gifted pupil Rossetti mm prominently before the world ; but Ros.setti's friend and co-w( ker Hoi man Hunt had moved step by step with Millai- in the arduous path to which reference has been made <>n a previous page, when the principles of Pre-Raphaelitism first began to manifest themselves on the Academy walls. Holman Hunt, a year or two older than Millais, had already exh ibited at the Academy on several occasions, but it was no until 1851, when the picture of " Valentine receiving Sylv' from Proteus" was shown (a scene from Two Gentlemen of ^erona). that criticism was fairly roused against him. In th( same room was hanging at the time Millais' " Return of 1 e Dove to the Ark," of which mention has been made. Hun: had already the previous year exhibited a work of surprising, invention and power, representing " A Converted British Fa" dy sheltering a Christian Missionary from the PersecutioF ii the Druids." This scene, apart from its dramatic element, s' iwed great study, at a time when books were not so easily )rocurable as now, but the picture met with an amount c irate criticism, in which derision was the chief in- gredient, .hat one wonders that there was found sufficient discernnn u in the Academy itself to secure the hanging of the picture ; all. The subject, we are told, was adopted to illustrate HOLMAN HUNT. i6t " An Act of Mercy," to be sent in as a competitive painting for the Gold Medal in the Academy schools, but as it developed a larger canvas had to be resorted to, and the competition was abandoned. By the painter's consent, and with the concurrence of the authorities of the Oxford University Galleries, it is here reproduced, and it will be seen by the accompanying notes that nothing is introduced merely to fill up the canvas, but that each figure and each action aids the telling of the story. With wild excitement the Druids are rushing from their temple, resolved on the destruction of two of the Christian missionaries ; one it is evident cannot escape, but the other has found shelter in the rude hut of a converted family, and has sunk down exhausted among its faithful occupants. A woman bathes his hot forehead with a sponge of cold water ; a younger girl, stooping down, draws from his garment the thorny briar he has caught in his hurried flight ; the tall youth at the left glances at the terrible scene outside as he squeezes the juice of some grapes into a cup, which a younger boy holds, to quench the poor priest's thirst. The rude door is guarded by two stalwart men (the models for whom were, I believe, two Life Guardsmen), and a boy has thrown himself on the ground the better to detect the sound of the feet of the pursuers should they approach. The hut is on the river's bank, materials for the study of which were obtained at Lea Marshes, and the fishing net which hangs on the wooden post to the right indicates the manner in which the family gain a livelihood. The former belief in Druidical teaching is shown by the massive stone, upright against the wall of the dwelling, but now with a cross painted upon it. All these points make up a work of great ro2 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. historical interest, and one on which much thou,crht and investi- gation have been spent. A poor idea only can be given of the work by its reproduction in black and white ; its colour is fine throughout, its execution superb, and a lesson to any painter, whatever the style of art may be which he favours. The late Mr. Thomas Combe, of O.xford, bought it for a small sum, and it is now in the Oxford University Galleries, to which it was bequeathed in 1893. Such was the picture which had preceded the "Valentine and Sylvia." Ill-drawing and incorrect perspective was what the Times critic charged the " Valentine and Sylvia " with, finding every possible fault at the same time with the whole motive and scheme of the picture, and this was the tone of by far the majority of the press at the time. Mr. Ruskin, seeing the picture, had discerned its merits, and while it was still on view he wrote a letter to the Times in which he said : " Further examina- tion of this picture has even raised the estimate I had previously formed of its marvellous truth in detail and splendour in colour, nor is its general conception less deserving of praise ; the action of Valentine, his arm thrown round Sylvia, and his hand clasping hers at the same instant as she falls at his feet, is most faithful and beautiful, nor less so the con- tending doubt and distress with awakening hope in the half shadowed, half sun-lit countenance of Julia; nay, even the momentary struggle of Proteus with Sylvia just past is indicated by the trodden grass and broken fungi of the foreground." Ruskin further said " that as studies both of drapery and of every minor detail there has been nothing in Art so earnest or so complete . . . since the days of Albert Durer. This I HOLMAN HUNT. 103 assert generally and fearlessly." There are not many works now of Holman Hunt's outside public galleries, and this work (39 53' 185 1 ), of which the small finished study was owned by the late Sir John Pender, was fortunately acquired by the City of Birmingham, at the sale of the collection of Sir Thomas Fairbairn, at Christie's, in 1887. No one bought it at the Academy; the Eggs and Elmores were preferred at that date ; but at Liverpool it gained a prize, and at the same time found a purchaser, who paid the modest sum the painter asked for it by monthly instalments of ^10. Beauteous in colour, it is as fresh to-day as in 1851, and in a state of perfect preservation. Equally studious was the carrying out of " The Hireling Shepherd," painted at Ewell in Surrey, at a time when Millais was busy there with his "Huguenot" and "Ophelia." The freshness of the newly reaped fields is well indicated in the work, which in its incident is in keeping with the fundamental rules of the new organization, a more consistent disciple of which could not have been than Mr. Holman Hunt. The sheep watched by a hireling, who toys with a foolish girl, are running wild into the ripe corn, the eating of which means death to them. " Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd ? Thy sheep be in the corn ; And for one blast of thy minikin mouth, Thy sheep shall take no harm." These are the lines from King Lear which suggested the picture. Every part is most diligently finished, and the eye dwells on its excellences in this respect with delight and admiration. It was for many years in the collection of Mr. Leathart, of Brackendene, Gateshead-on-Tyne, but has recently 104 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. been acquired for the Manchester Art Gallery ; and there is a small finished study of it which was bought at Christie's in 1893 by Sir William Agnew, who has it in his collection in Great Stanhope Street. Another work with some resem- blance to it in character was exhibited in the following year, 1853, under the title of "Our English Coasts." The painter had been asked by Mr. C. T. Meade to repeat the group of sheep so exquisitely painted to the left of the picture in "The Hireling Shepherd," but an original group being after- wards decided upon, the little work now known as "Strayed Sheep" was painted. It is a small canvas, 17 X 23, but of exceeding brilliancy and accomplished drawing. " It at once achieved," wrote Mr. Ruskin of it, "all that can ever be done in that kind ; it will not be surpassed, it is little likely to be rivalled by the best efforts of the time to come." Mr. George Lillie Craik, of Halkin Place, now owns it. The works of this painter are so few that it would be unwise in any account of the art of the Queen's reign to omit many of them. None of them have been undertaken care- lessly; on the contrary, as may be seen by their construction and execution, the greatest possible care has been patiently bestowed on them all, and not more on one than on the other. I know that when he regards a work it delights him above all things to be able to see what he terms " Time " in the picture. Big brushes or loose handling are not to his mind, and his own mode of workmanship can be con- victed of little variation since he first challenged criticism, now nearly fifty years ago. " Claudio and Isabella," from Shake- speare's Measure for Measure, is a gem of design and THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. By W. IIOLMAN Hint. '04 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN been acquired for the Manchester Art Gallery ; and there is a small finished study of it which was bought at Christie's in 1893 by Sir William Agnew, who has it in his collection in Great Stanhope Street. Another work with some resem- blance to it in character was exhibited in the following year, 1853, under the title of " Our English Coasts." The painter had been asked by Mr. C. T. Meade to repeat the group of sheep so exquisitely painted to the left of the picture in "The Hireling Shepherd," but an original group being after- wards decided upon, the little work now known as "Strayed Sheep" was painted. It is a small canvas, 17 x 23, but of exceeding brilliancy and accomplished drawing. " It at once achieved," wrote Mr. Ruskin of it, "all that can ever be done in that kind : it will not be surpas.sed, it is little likely to be rivalled by the best efforts of the time to come." Mr. George Lillie Craik, of Halkin Place, now owns it. The works of this painter are so few that it would be unwise in any account of the art of the Queen's reign to omit many of them. None of them have been undertaken care- lessly; on the contrary, as may be seen by their construction and execution, the greatest possible care has been patiently bestowed on them all, and not more on on<- than on the other. I know that when he regards a work it delights him above all things to be able to see what he terms " Time " in the picture. Big brushes or loose handling are not to his mind, and his own mode of workmanship can be con- victed of little variation since he first challenged criticism, now nearly fifty years ago. " Claud io and Isabella," from Shake- speare's Measure for Measure, is a gem of design and HOLMAN HUNT. 105 finish, owned now by Mr. Thomas Ashton, of Ford Bank, Didsbury. Its original purchaser was A. A. Egg, the Royal Academician, who bought it for ^^"100, for the purpose of encouraging the painter. It appeared in 1853, and the following year was shown " The Awakening Conscience," painted for Sir Thomas Fairbairn, in which the remembered song " Oft in the stilly night " startles suddenly, with dramatic force, the conscience of a young girl whose evil course of life is too well indicated by her surroundings. With this picture, with its high intention of moral teaching, was ex- hibited that truly great work, without question the most important religious picture of the reign and of the century, " The Light of the World," which had been begun two years previously, when, as the painter tells in his articles in the Contemporary Review of 1888, Millais and he, with Charles Collins (another Pre-Raphaelite adherent), were staying together at a farmhouse in Surrey. In subject, design, execution, and colour this work will assuredly rank as the chief production of the painter. He was but twenty-seven when it was com- pleted. His devotion to the solemnity of the work is strikingly evident ; no painter lacking enthusiasm and the deepest sincerity would have been equal to its production. The majesty of the standing figure is unquestionably imparted ; the tenderness too, and the patience, and the hope of response with which the weed-obstructed door is gently knocked. Beneath the picture were the words, " Behold, I stand at the door, and knock : if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." Fraught with poetic symbolism throughout (which has been 14 io6 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN iions amply analyzed and dealt with in many published descript of the work), one should be reminded of its colour. Against the tender green, purple, and blue shades of the landscape and starlit sky, is the crimson mantle, gold-embroidered, that falls from the shoulders ; and against the bright mellow lioht of the nimbus is the rich brown hair of the darkened head. The stalks of the weedy growth also abound in colour, such as catch the light being streaked with bright red, and the carefully wrought leaves, lit or unlit by the mystical lantern, lie in the nightly stillness of nature. It again fell to Ruskin to point out the exalted character and the deep meaning of this work. "On the left-hand side of the picture is seen the door of the human soul. It is fast barred ; its bars and nails are rusty; it is knitted and bound to its stanchions by creeping tendrils of ivy, showing that it has never been opened. A bat hovers about it ; its threshold is overgrown with brambles, nettles, and fruitless corn, the wild grain ' where- with the mower filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom.' Christ approaches it in the night-time, Christ in His everlasting office of Prophet, Priest, and King. He wears the white robe, representing the power of the Spirit upon Him ; the jewelled robe and breastplate, representing the sacerdotal investiture ; the rayed crown of gold is woven with the crown of thorns— not dead thorns, but bearing the soft leaves for the healing of the nations." The moonlight effect, the painter tells us, was painted by candle-light direct on to the canvas by steady work on such nights as were possible, between nine in the evening and four in the morning. When finished it could only command ^400, and it went to Mr, HOLMAN HUNT. 107 Combe at that price. It was given to Keble College, Oxford, in 1878, by Mrs, Combe, and has, I believe, only once since left the precincts of the College. This was in 1886, when it was exhibited among Mr. Holman Hunt's collected works at the Fine Art Society's Rooms in New Bond Street. For long the picture was suspended, in its frame, in odd corners of the College, and it was so on view in 1893 when I last saw it, being then in one of the recesses of the College Library, where it could only be imperfectly seen ; but it is now fixed in the place originally contemplated for it, in a side chapel with a carefully designed framework of carved oak. By the kindness of the Warden of the College, the Rev. Dr. Lock, facilities have been afforded me of having the reproduction which appears in this work made direct from the painting. The story of the painting of "The Scapegoat" (34 x 53), which was the next religious picture the artist undertook, is amply set out by him in the Contemporary Revieiv of 1888. He went far afield to obtain his realization of the scene. It is the earliest of those studies of his of oriental light, towards evening. The region of Usdum, at the narrow southern end of the Dead Sea, gave the wonderfully painted landscape, the foreground occupied with the salt bed of the evaporated sea, "the pale ashes of Gomorrah," and in the distance, with conscientious delineation of every niche and projection, the sun-stained mountains of Moab, going towards Petra. Here, again, much study and thought were required before the painter touched his canvas. Truly the goat is in a land "not inhabited," whither it has been led and let loose, io8 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. a strip of red cloth being bound between its horns. This red cloth was of immense value to the painter, and is very telling in the picture apart from its significant meaning. It was said in due time to turn white, as an indication that the sins of the people were forgiven, presaging the utterance of Isaiah, " Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow." The work appeared at the Academy of 1856, at the same time as Millais' "Autumn Leaves," and the opportunity was given for noticing how, while one painter was broadening in his treatment, his old fellow-worker was keeping with the most rigid determination to his principle ot con- scientious exactness and high finish. It is now in the collection of Sir Cuthbert Ouilter. The next work was one of much labour and considerable expense to the artist in its carrying out. This was " The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple " (35 x 56). Its develop- ment and execution occupied him for six years, for not until i860 was it ready to be shown. Much difficulty was en- countered by the painter in this work of many figures, but the result, apart from its artistic value, is a most extraordinary monument of labour and research, alike in the observance of ancient Jewish customs and habits and in the costumes and architectural accessories. It was not shown at the Academy, but exhibited by itself, passing afterwards to Mr. C. P. Matthews, whose executors sold it at Christie's for ^3,500 at that gentleman's decease in 1891, and it is now in the Permanent Collection of the City of Birmingham. Birmingham became possessed of it in an interesting way. A wealthy citizen of that energetic city expressed himself to the Director HOLMAN HUNT. 109 of the Museum and Art Gallery as desirous of presenting a picture to the Gallery. The Director had no idea of the amount the proposed donor intended to expend, as he in no way indicated this, and later the Director was told from a side source about ;^i,5oo or so; but a few days after, the donor again called on Mr. Wallis and told him he had been to London and bought a picture on approval, and that if the Gallery would accept it he was prepared to give it. It was this " Finding of the Saviour in the Temple." The sum he had paid for it was ^4,000. It last appeared in London in 1894, when it was shown at the Guildhall Art Gallery. Six years later, in 1866, came " The Festival ot St. Swithin," rendering with striking realism a dovecot and trees with a lowering sky all involved in rain. This was another of those acquired by Mr. Combe and left to the University Galleries at Oxford. Turning at that time again to Keats, the poem of "Isabella" once more supplied a theme. On this occasion the single figure of Isabella was portrayed life-size, and the beauteous Florentine is shown leaning over and clasping the basil bowl in which is buried the head of her lover. This picture was also exhibited separately and not at the Academy. It is now in the possession of Mr. James Hall, of Tynemouth, having been sold at the Johnstone Sale in 1876 for £2fi^o. Between 1867 and 1874 nothing of note came from his hand. " The Shadow of Death " (84 x 66), on which he had been working for several years, was then brought to completion and exhibited by itself in Messrs. Agnew's Gallery in Old Bond Street. Betaking himself to the East the more correctly to work out this subject, he had no PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. succeeded not only in securing accessories of presumably the utmost consistency with the period he was deahng with, but the right type of face as models. It is altogether too wealthy in design and construction to admit of an adequate idea of it being given by a written description. It now hangs in the Permanent Collection of the City of Manchester, the gift to that institution of Messrs. T. Agnew & Sons. Apart from its design and technical attributes, the merits of which cannot fail to impress the beholder and more especially the student, the great import of the work can only be gauged by recalling the observation ot Dean Farrar, who, with discerning eye, at once saw in the picture the epitome of Christ's life. " The gifts of the Magi recall," said he, "His infancy; the carpenter's shop, His youth and manhood; the shadow. His awful sacrifice." Of "The Triumph of the Innocents," completed and exhibited in 1885, two versions are in existence, the first and smaller, at present in the artist's studio, having been begun in Jerusalem in 1876, and set aside for the larger canvas (60 X 99) (the largest, I believe, he has executed) now in the possession of the Corporation of Liverpool in the Walker Art Gallery, purchased for that institution by public subscription in 1891. It shows " The Flight into Egypt," with the spirits of the massacred childrea circling round the hurrying party in its perilous flight to a land of safety. The artist fixes the period as the second April in the life of the Holy Child, and the scene is on the road to Gaza, about thirty miles from their point of departure. While the moon illumines the natural objects in the picture, the embodied spirits of the martyred children are revealed in the unearthly light. The Virgin is on a she-ass of the breed HOLMAN HUNT.- Ill now known as the Mecca race, and the foal follows its mother, as is seen to this clay in the East. Signal fires, still lit in Syria in time of trouble, are burning in distant spots. St. Joseph is watching these fires for signs that may present themselves of a movement of soldiery upon the road. Of the trees that enrich the landscape, the nearest ones shelter a water-wheel used for the irrigation of the land. The more remote group clusters round a sleeping village. As the fugitives advance nearer and nearer to a place of safety, they feel the blessed sense of peace after disturbance and terror. It is at this moment, when the Virgin has been replacing the garments in which the Infant has been hurriedly wrapped, that Jesus recognizes the spirits of His little neighbours of Bethlehem circling round Him and revealing the signs of their martyrdom. The shallow stream over which the procession passes reflects the quiet beauty of the night sky, and is unruffled except by the steps of Joseph. The full symbolism of the work, and the intricacy of thought with which it abounds, can, however, only be perceived by a close examination of the work itself It is well placed in the Walker Art Gallery, and accessible at any time. Scattered over the years we have been traversing, works smaller in size and less important in character (oftentimes too in water-colour) came from his hand. " The Lantern- Maker's Courtship " was one, now in the Birmingham Art Gallery; "Dolce far Niente" was another, and "The After- glow in Egypt," and "A Tuscan Girl" (1867) ; while landscapes of singular impressiveness as records of hallowed spots have found their way into the collections of those who reverently 112 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. value them. Mr. Jesse Haworth has " Jerusalem during Ramazan " (water-colour, 8f X i3f), and his brother, Mr. Abraham Haworth, "Nazareth" and "The Plain of Rephaim from Zion " ; while the University Galleries, Oxford, have the larger Syrian scene taken from the heights above Nazareth, entitled " Over whose Pastures walked those Blessed Feet," commanding a wave of hills, Esdraelon, and broad tracts of fields. Of all who took part in the Pre-Raphaelite movement fifty years ago, none have kept more firmly and consistently to its principles than Mr. Holman Hunt. As he painted then, so he paints now. No influence appears to have shaken him in his conviction that a picture should have in it some high teaching, or had better not exist at all, and that the subject being determined upon there should be no lack of pains or patience in carrying it out. His own example speaks for itself While other painters are turning out canvases annually which contain very often but a meagre portion of the excellence they are capable of attaining to, he is no murmurer if five years pass between the commencement and the completion of a work. The consequence of course is that the record of his work, numerically, is small ; but in quality it has ever been as fine as his utmost capacity could command. The curious part of it all is that an artist of this calibre should go down to posterity unrecorded among that national body which in 1768 was instituted, with Royal patronage, for the purpose of fostering, by union, the growth of art in this country. Not until 1883 did the world in general have the oppor- tunity of seeing and critically forming its judgment upon the DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. "3 work of Rossetti [1828 — 1882] in relation to painting. A favoured few, other than those to whom his purchased works had gone, had of course been familiar with his productions ; and, in regard to his art in verse, the public had been in possession of it for thirteen years, as also of some of his drawings in black and white, which had been published in i860 in an edition of Tennyson's minor poems, and else- where ; but his art in colour was to the many a sealed letter. For some time, early in his life, an Academy student, it was destined for the Academy to collect and exhibit in their rooms the chief portion of the product of his life. This was in January 1883, when eighty-three of his works in oil, water- colour, and in black and white were placed on view. The Burlington Fine Arts Club exhibited at the same time a hundred and fifty-three of his works. To his personality and influence must be attributed that resistance to the accepted canons of art in vogue in 1849, and the formation of that notable body, small in number, but rich in mental endowments, who by pen and pencil enforced their principles against a storm of indignant criticism, opposing themselves vigorously to that kind of teaching which only began after Raphael's time, and terming themselves " The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood."* Millais and Holman Hunt, to whom detailed reference has already been made, constituted, with Rossetti, the formidable * For full record of this Brotherhood see Monograph No. 5, 1894, " Dante Gabriel Rossetti," by F. G. Stephens; the Contemporary Review, June, July, and August 1888, articles on " Pre-Raphaelitism," by W. Holman Hunt ; and "Life and Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti," by William Michael Rossetti, published 1895. 'i'he Brotherhood numbered in all seven members: D. G. Rossetti, Millais, Holman Hunt, James CoUinson, F. G. Stephens, W. M. Rossetti, and Thomas Woolner. 114 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. trio who found arrayed against them the whole force which the critics of the day could bring, linked with the cold antipathy of nearly every brother-practitioner. Ruskin had said of them that they were " destined to lay the foundation of a school in England which the world had not seen for three hundred years, providing they were not driven from their purpose by harsh and severe criticism " ; but another critic had loosely written that, " If they succeed in getting the patronage of the country, all other artists must add more harshness and brightness to their pictures " — which was equiva- lent to admitting that the patronage of the country, the buyer of pictures, was what was sought, and that as long as that convenient commodity could be found, it mattered little what the principles of art were. "The Girlhood of Mary Virgin" (33 X 25), belonging now to Lady Louisa Fielding, shown at the Portland Gallery, Regent Street, in 1849 (he then being in his twenty-first year), was about the first painting Rossetti put forward. Painted on the principles the new Brotherhood had adopted, it was met, as Millais' and Holman Hunt's productions were met, with comment of a bitterness without restraint, the A7't Jotirnal being almost alone in its advocacy of the work. The " Ecce Ancilla Domini," here reproduced (28 X 16), appeared the following year in the Portland Gallery. It remained on his hands for three years, and was then sold for .;^50. Coming eventually into the possession of Mr. William Graham, it was purchased at the sale of that gentleman's collection, at Christie's in 1886, for the National Gallery, for eight hundred guineas. One of the most interesting events of that famous sale was the purchase of this work, and a hearty rilB QUEEN'S REIO' ao found arrayed against th. rce which the critics of the day could bri >'ith the cold itipathy of nearly every brother-prr uskin had said of them that they were "destined Nation of a school in England which the world for three hundred years, provide i- we're - /om their purpose by harsh and criticisn- ;licr critic- had loosely written that, "If they s; ;tting the patronage of the country, all other artist: idd more harshness and brightness to their pictures " — which was equiva- lent to admitting that the patronage of the country, the buyer of pictures, was what was sought, and that as 'ong cis thai Wcud. Fainted on ihe pruicipi-,^s tiie new 'irothcrhood ii.id adopted, it was met, as Millais' and Holnfui Hunt's productions were met, with comment of a bitterr ?ss without restraint, the Art Journal being almost alone i' i s advocacy of the work. The " Ecce Ancilla Domini, cproduced (28 X 16), appeared the following year in the Portii id Gallery. It remained c nds fot, three years, and wa 1 then sold for /50. • ' into the possession of Hr. William Graham, : at the sale of that jentleman's collection, • ■'-'6, for the National 1 "r r "if hi hundred i the most interesti;;'; mous s; jrchase of this work "ECCE ANCILLfl DOMINI." By IJ. (}. Rossr.TTi. DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. round of applause was given when it was announced to the audience the destination of this original rendering of the oft- painted "Annunciation." What a change from the scathing re- marks that had heralded its advent nearly forty years previously ! That a work for which no good could then be said should now be placed actually in the nation's collection, with practically the unanimous sanction of the public, as represented by the variety of artistic opinion and taste frequenting Christie's rooms, showed public development of some kind in art matters. "Found" was a work (36 X 31) he began in 1S53, and touched upon at various dates afterwards, but never wholly finished. Sad beyond description is this scene near to one of the Thames bridges, with the honest young countryman in a smock-frock, and the crouching figure of the fallen girl, to whom he had once been betrothed. It was one of Mr. Graham's collection, but I do not know in whose possession it now is. He appears to have painted but little in oil for some years at this period in his life, but many works of remarkable brilliancy, power, and originality came from his hand in water-colour. They found, it has been said, a readier sale, and were taken in a great measure from Dante, for whom his reverence was great, and who seemed to absorb his thoughts in these times. The " Dante on the Anniversary of Beatrice's Death" (16 X 24, 1853) may well be cited as the finest specimen of the productions in water-colour on this loved theme of his. Mr. Stephens has said in his monograph that no " reproduction in black and white can give an adequate idea of its subtlety, brilliancy, and colour," and he is right. It is full to the brim of the most sensitive attributes of a li6 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. highly strung artistic organization. The very personification of sorrow is in the frail kneeling figure of Dante, and tenderness and sympathy are expressed in the attitude and countenance of the two visitors, who stand as if in fear of intrusion. My recollection of its colour is a rich harmony of purple, green, and scarlet ; but even in its black and white reproduction some impression of its great merits can be obtained. It was painted in 1853, and was acquired by Mr. Combe, under whose bequest it is now in the University Galleries at Oxford. Of other water-colours, of which there are many, colour and intensity of poetic expression are their fundamental attributes. Mr. George Rae, of Redcourt, Birkenhead, has several; Mrs. Leathart has the beautifiil " Paolo and Francesca " (three compartments, in all 13 X 24, 1862); and Mr. William Coltart has three — the "Lady Lilith " (20 X 17, 1867), "The Borgia Family" (1863), and " Lucrezia " (1871). "The Borgia Family," which is the best of them, is a work of six figures. Lucrezia seated on a blue couch plays on a lute, to which two sickly looking children are dancing. An old man. Pope Alexander VI., leans over the couch, and her brother Ca;sar, in red, is blowing the crimson petals from the rose in her fair hair. In its splendour of colour this exceptional example has the further attribute that no position and no action is unintentional ; each has its meaning, and the pulsation of life is in it. Not less under the influence of Dante in 1859, his mind still pondering over the subject, which had never until his time been so treated, with that infusion into it of so much poetic feeling, and which seemed in colour, arrangement, and expression the very echo of the poet's mind, he produced DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. 117 then, in oil, the " Salutatio Beatricis," a picture of two com- partments, each 29 X 32, showing in one the meeting of Dante and Beatrice in a street in F'lorence, and in the other their meeting in Paradise. For long it lent beauty and adornment to the drawing-room of the late Mr. James Leathart, who was an old and close friend of Rossetti's, a great lover of his work, and who owned many examples, particularly in water-colour, all, I believe, obtained directly from the artist. Rossetti's wife had died in 1862, and in 1863 was com- pleted that sad semblance of her, so full of touching sorrow, which he entitled " Beata Beatrix," and which Lady Mount- Temple gave to the National Gallery in 1889, as a memorial of her husband. It is painted on canvas (33 x 26). The grief at Rossetti's heart when the actual painting was in progress is reflected in an impressive way in the picture. It was done from the beautiful dead face itself and portrayed symbolically the death of Beatrice as treated in the "Vita Nuova." The seated figure is life-size, and the balcony in which she is overlooks the city of Florence, which "sits solitary " for the death of the beautiful lady. The colour, sub- dued throughout, is yet rich with a passionate fulness : a plum-coloured robe, with a super tunic of green, clothes the figure ; and the rose-coloured plumage of a bird, that bears in its beak a white poppy, emblem of sleep and purity, seems to lift the work from its otherwise sombre effect, so different when taken in comparison with his later brilliant works. Two other versions of this work were subsequently done by him in oil, and one in water-colour. ii8 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. From 1862 to 1875 may be said to have been the period when the works noted for splendour of colour were produced. Among the earliest of these, which, there is no denying, had a deep intent too in their subject, are "The Beloved" or "The Bride" (33x30, 1865), and "The Blue Bower" (32 X 27, 1865), now belonging to Mrs. Dyson Perrins. The former was repainted eight years later, and is one of his most beautiful exploits in colour, showing the " Beloved " advancing towards the Bridegroom, and in the act of drawing from her face and throat a green veil. The text was illus- trated, "She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework; the virgins that be her fellows shall bear her company." These on either side fill up with radiant coun- tenance and sumptuous draperies this costly canvas. It belongs to Mr. George Rae, on whose walls also hang the splendid "Monna Vanna " (35 x 31, 1866) and the "Sibylla Palmifera " (38 X 34, 1866). Although the works painted at a later date were distinctly fine, these of 1865 and 1866 may be counted as among his very finest in colour, drawing, and spiritual intent. Mr. Rae knew Rossetti, and had all, I believe, direct from him. Following these, but smaller in size, came in 1867 "The Loving Cup" (26x18) and " Joli Caur" (15x12), two gems dazzlingly complete in composition and colour. Mr. F. R. Leyland owned the former, from whom it passed in 1892 to Mr. T. H. Ismay, who now possesses it. It is of singular richness, and realistically shows the tender open face of a beautiful woman, clothed in crimson, and about to drink from a gold cup, the cover of which she holds in her left hand. i VTING IN THE QUEEN'S XEIC V. From 1862 to 1875 may be said to have been the period when the worlds noted for splendour of colour were produced. Among the earliest of these, which, there is no denying,' had a deep intent too i ubject, are ".The Beloved" or "Th<; Bride" (3: ous), and "The Blue Bower" (32 X 27, 1865). •••ig to Mrs. Dyson Perrins. The former was repa years later, and is one of his most beautiful exploits in colour, showing the ' Beloved " advancing towards the Bridegroom, and in the act of drawing from her face and throat a green veil. The text was illus- ■ trated, " She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework; the virgins that be her fellows shall bear her ■■omi„nv" Tb-.r , n fi ,,,, with : radiant voun- . ';j "Monna Vanna" (35 x 31, 1866) and I j8 X 34, 1866). Although the work, v,-er& distinctly fine, these of 186.5 and 1806 may be counted iis among his very finest in colour, drawing, and spiritual intent. Mr Rr,,. !,,„ , v. and had all, I believe, direct from hifii. Following these, but smaller in size, carne in 1867 "The Loving Cup" (26x18) and " Joli Caur" (15 x12), two gems dazzlingly complete in composition and colour. Mr. F, R. Leyiand < ht former, from whom it passed in 1892 to Mr. T. H. J. , . .. who now possesses it. It is of singular richness, and realist; cfvliy shows the tender open face beautiful woman, clothed in crimson, and about to dri a gold cup, the cover of which she holds in her lei. ! r I I DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTL ng The words Rossetti quotes seem to be falling from the lovely lips : — " Douce nuit et joyeux jour, O chevalier de bel amour." " Joli Cceur," a clever and correct piece of difficult draw- ing, and of full and varied colouring, was purchased by Miss Horniman from the William A. Turner collection in 1888. 1870 seeins to have been the year when he completed his largest work (85 X 126), entitled "Dante's Dream," which was acquired eleven years later by the Corporation of Liver- pool for one thousand guineas, and is now in the Walker Gallery. The smaller version (53 x 77), with two Predellas, is in the possession of Mr. Joseph Ruston, of Monk's Manor, Lincoln, who bought it at the sale at Christie's of William Graham's collection in 1886. The figure of Love is leading Dante by the hand to a bier, on which lies the dead Beatrice. Sad are the faces of the women, clad in green, who uplift, that he may see her, the purple covering, full of may-bloom. The face of one of these sorrowing attendants is, I believe, a portrait of Mrs. Stillman, then Miss Spartali. The whole scene seems in dreamland — a chamber of dreams, poppy- strewn : — " These wildering fantasies Then carried me to see my lady dead. Even as I there was led Her ladies with a veil were covering her, And with her was such very humbleness That she appeared to say ' I am at peace.' " It was no small good fortune to Rossetti that there should be living at his time, and ready to serve him with stimulating I ,2o PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. aid, four women of so valuable a type of face to him as Miss Siddal, who afterwards became his wife, Miss Marie Spartali, now Mrs. Stillman, Mrs. William Morris, and Miss Alice Wilding. Not only were they all physically of immense value to him in their type of feature, but they were capable of appreciating to the full the character and meaning of his work, and were therefore to him far beyond any ordinary help of the kind. The two latter ladies appear in many sub- sequent works from 1870 onwards. The splendid half-length single figures that occur from that year until the close of his life constitute a rich record, not, as I previously said, in point of merit of that tender completeness and sensitive beauty of form and colouring which so distinguished " The Beloved " and other works of that slightly earlier time (which may be taken as having been the very best of the man), but works of freer handling and more venturesome exploit in force and colour. They vary in size from 39 X 29 to 73 X 43, and the following are among the best of them : — "Mariana" (43 X 35), 1870. " Pandora " (51X31), 1871. "Veronica Veronese" (43 X 35), 1872. "La Ghirlandata" (45 X 34), 1873. "Proserpine" (49 X 22), 1874. "The Damsel of the Sangrael " (37 X 23), 1874. "La Bella Mano " (62 x 42), 1875. "The Blessed Damozel" (68 X 37), 1876. " Astarte Syriaca" (73 X 43), 1877. "A Vision of Fiammetta" (56 X 35), 1878. "La Donna della Finestra " (39 X 29), 1879. DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. 121 "The Lamp of Memory" (48 x 23), 1880. "The Daydream" (61 x 35), 1880. "The Salutation of Beatrice" (59 x 34), 1880. " La Pia" (42 X 48), 1881. These fifteen of themselves would be a noble record of work. There is not in any of them much evidence of the fresh and wholesome outlook upon life that Millais had. Sug- gestive in them is the inner brooding in which the man's own nature, the physical operating upon the mental, is shaping into poetic form, always in the person of a woman, some dominant idea either in the abstract or of some known character. Pondering very likely, for example, over his own life, and his greatest of all lo.sses, the picture entitled " Pan- dora " (now owned by Mr. Charles Butler) may have owed its origin. Aphrodite adorned Pandora with beauty, Hermes gave her boldness and cunning, and each of the Olympians bestowed on her some power by which she was to work the ruin of man. He was scarcely forty-two when he painted it, and the poet as much as the painter is in the design, as apart from the sinister red garb, and menacing aspect of the face, so ably expressed, there is the casket she holds, from which the issuing fire takes the form, at the painter's dictation, of winged messengers of evil. " La Ghirlandata," or Lady of the Garland, for which Miss Alice Wilding was the model, is now owned by Mr. Ruston ; it was formerly in the collection of Mr. William Graham, and is one of Rossetti's fullest canvases. The lovely figure is set amid a bower of flowers, the harp she holds being adorned with a tangle of roses and honeysuckle ; and on either side 16 122 PAINTING IN THE QUEENS REIGN. of the picture a beautiful face, as of an angel, is seen, looking down at the animated green-clad being. It is indeed a lovely work, and its varied beauties seem not to be all seen at once, but to catch the eye unexpectedly as it travels over the picture. Of the "Proserpine" there are two versions, both highly finished, but one smaller than the other. The larger, belonging to Mr. Charles Butler, is regarded as the finer. Rossetti him- self writing in 1877 to Mr. George Rae in reference to it, said : "The present one was begun before Mr. Leyland's [now Mr. Graham Robertson's, of Rutland Gate] of 1873, and thus had the immense advantage of the first inspiration of nature. . . . It is the very flower of my work." It is indeed a splendid specimen of the man's work. The bitten pomegranate in her hand, by partaking of which she has precluded her return to earth, skilfully tells the fatal secret of her captivity. But the poetic mind of the painter moves all over the canvas, not the least happy touch being the introduction of the ivy branch which symbolizes the clinging memory which this beautiful occupant of Hades has for the bounteous earth she has left. " The Damsel of the Sangrael," one of Mr. Rae's posses- sions, had Mrs. William Morris for its model. It is a holy and beautiful theme reverently rendered, with somewhat a sparing hand for colour, but executed with more than usual care ; it has a look of completeness, as a performance of which the effect aimed at had been attained, and the hand had had control enough to stop. Mrs. Stillman was the model for the last that will be mentioned, " A Vision of Fiammetta," which, by the kindness of Mr. Butler, is reproduced. Taken, of course, from Boccaccio, it shows a figure standing, in red i Ml ^' //V THE QUEEN'S KE/GN picture a beautiful face, as of an angel, is seen, looking .wn at the animated green-clad being. It is indeed a lovely work, and its varied beauties seem not to be all seen at once, but to catch the eye unexpectedly as it travels over the picture. Of the " Proserpine " there are two versions, both highly finished, but one smaller than the other. The larger, belonging to Mr. Charles Butler, is regarded as the finer. Rossctti him- self, writing in 1877 to Mr. Gfiorge Rae in reference to it, said : The present one was begun before Mr. Leyland's [now Mr. Grahapi Robertson's, of Rutland Gate] of 1873, and thus had the immense advantage of the first inspiration of nature. . . . It is the very flower of my work.." It is indeed a splendid . .. .•' , - -•• T''- '.!"'•': i"fgranate in her her return to vitv Rut the .A the ivy branch which symboiiiies ilie ciuigmg memory which this beautiful occupant of Hades has for the bounteous earth she has left. " The Damsel of ' the Sangrael," one of Mr. Rae's posses- sions", had Mrs. William Morris for its model. It is a holy and beautiful theme reverently rendered, with somewhat a sparing hand for colour, but executed with more than usual care; it has a look of completeness, as a performance of which the effect aimed at l\ad been attained, and the hand had had control enough to stop. Mrs. Stillman was the model for the last that will be mentioned, "A Vision of Fiammett:+. which, by the kindness of Mr. Butler, is reproduced. Tak^r- of course, from Boccaccio, it shows a figure standing. A VISION OF FIAMMETTA. By D. G. RossKrn. DAyrE GABRIEL ROSSETTl. 123 drapery, surrounded by apple blossom, and is particularly rich and effective as a work of bold delineation and colouring. All the works that have here been mentioned, and others of lesser note, by this remarkable man, are dealt with much more fully in many places elsewhere, notably in Mr. F. G. Stephens' exhaustive monograph, but for the purposes of the present volume some idea will have been given of the man's work, so far as it regarded painting. While he lived his paintings were for the few, and so far as he was concerned the world could go along without him. Now they are known the circle of his appreciators has been enormously widened. Whether his impress would have been so great as it is had he courted criticism by being throughout his life periodically represented at exhibitions it is not easy to determine. There was a sense of mystery over the man and his work, that doubtless had arisen from the fact of his pictures being not so much seen as heard of and it was under the influence of this interesting secrecy, which has not yet ceased to lend an attractive element to his productions, that his collected works were unveiled at the Royal Academy and at the Burlington Fine Arts Club. A sad want of drawing is in many of them and many instances there are of careless painting, which is not due always to the want of capacity on the painter's part ; but the feeling, the spirituality, the rare gift of the poet's touch is indisputably there. "With echoing feet he threaded The secretest walks of fame : The viewless arrows of his thoughts were headed And winged with flame." 124 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. It was in 1877 that the world in general was first enabled to realize that it had a painter in its midst of the calibre of Sir E. Burne-Jones. The establishment of the Grosvenor Gallery in that year by Sir Coutts Lindsay had for its object the display of works whose aim was the expression of high and poetic sentiment as distinguished from the more popular form of art which claimed its annual place of exhibition on the Royal Academy walls, and the contributions in that and the following years of Burne-Jones were a revelation to many, though of course in artistic circles his work and capacity had long been known, and the public some years before, more particularly in 1873, had had an opportunity of appraising it, but for the most part had undiscernedly passed it by, for in that year were exhibited at the Dudley Gallery the two beautiful water-colours "Love among the Ruins" and "The Hesperides." The former (39 X 61) was long in the possession of the late Mr. Frederick Craven, of Bakewell, and in meaning and execution it is remarkable. Much that can make life lovely is gone, a palatial habitation is in ruins, and the usurping briar flourishes and even flowers, yet human passion and tenderness remain ; this is the theme. The man, darkly clothed and of sensitive frame, takes to his heart with infinite tenderness the frail woman whose heart's fulfilment is in her eyes. She is in deep blue, with one hand in her lover's, the other around his neck. The aim of the painter, successfully attained, is evidently to show that each other's nearness lifts their souls above the sense of earthly calamity. So tender and beautiful was the expression of the two faces that all who remember it are sensible of the loss that was experienced when, SIJi EDWARD BURNE'JONES. 125 in 1893, it was marred, to the point of obliteration, by the accident that occurred to the picture in Paris, whither it had been sent to be reproduced. The beautiful thing was beyond repair, and in 1894 'he painter executed a replica of the same size, but in oil ; but the extreme touch of tenderness that had been in the water-colour was not reached. "The Hesperides" (47x38) showed the three beautiful guardians, not in repose, as in Leighton's well known circular picture, but in a dance hand in hand round the tree with the golden apples. It was last publicly seen at Christie's in 1895 at the sale of Mr. Craven's pictures, and realized the high price of ^2,600. The two chief works seen first at the Grosvenor Gallery were "The Beguiling of Merlin" (72 x 43), now in the possession of Lilian, Duchess of Marlborough, and " The Days of Creation," owned now by Mr. Alexander Henderson, of Prince's Gate. Tennyson's Idyll of Vivien was familiar enough to readers, but never perhaps was it so realized as by the picture of those two by the white hawthorn tree — the long lissome figure, graceful as a bending wand, and the weary and exhausted seer, round whom, as he sinks, she weaves her enchantments. Clustering in profusion about the picture is the bloom of the hawthorn tree. In "The Days of Creation," a decorative set of six panels, each 39 x J 3, a panel is given to each day, and to each succeeding day an angel is added, so that on the sixth panel five beautiful faces are seen in addition to the primary one who holds the globe, on which is depicted the creation of man. It is a work of devotion apart from its poetic and medieval 126 jPAINTING in the QUEEN'S FEIGN. character and inventive attributes, and beautiful in itself, with its serious faces, stately length of limb, and disposition of draperies. With these was also seen " Venus's Mirror " (48 x 78), now owned by Mr. Joseph Ruston, who bought it in the Leyland Sale in 1892 for £^^37°, and of which Mr. Charles Butler has the smaller and original version (30 X 47) painted for Mr. William Graham. " Temperantia " was exhibited at the same time, a beautiful work (60 X 23), in the collection of Lord Wantage. But long before these were painted he had produced a work which must ever rank among his finest, " Le Chant d'Amour " (34x60), belonging to Mr. Joseph Ruston. It is said that he was but thirty-two when he accomplished this truly beautiful work, which is too well known to need description here. Effulgent of colour and more resembling in this respect the rich hues of the later Venetian painters than of any nineteenth-century existence, the picture has a poetic significance as wide as it is intelligible. It is not alone the three figures, so distinct in their occupation and meaning one from the other, but the sense of union of sentiment in the three, which so impresses. Love, with his fire-tinged wings, moves the bellows for the lady's playing, and she, in turn, enthrals the black-armoured handsome knight, and all this is brought into its most telling sphere by the deepening and still effect of evening ; for the lustrous light that falls upon the three and touches the tulips, cloves, and wall-flowers that are ranged in front, reaches only with tenderer hand the grey stone convent and city buildings beyond, and the sheep have left off grazing as the light forsakes the lawn on which they lie, and have •I 126 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S KEIGN. character and inventive attributes, and beautiful in itsflf, with its serious faces, stately length of. limb, and disposition of draperies. With these was also seen •' Venus's Mirror" (48 X 78\ now owned by Mr. Joseph Rustoii. who bought it in the J^eyland Sale in 1892 for £t,,^']o, and of which Mr. Charle, Butler has the smaller and original version (30 X 47) paintea for Mr. William Graham. " Temperantia " was exhibited at the same time, a beautiful work (60 X 23), in the collectif n of Lord Wantage. But long before these were painted he nad produced a work which must ever rank among his fines', " Le Chant d'Amour" (34x60), belonging to Mr. Joseph Ruston. It is said that he was but thirty-two when .le accomplished this truly beautiful work, which is loo weli known to need description here. Effulgent of colour and nore resembling in this respect the rich hues of the later Ve letian painters than of any nineteenth-century existence, the picture has a poetic significance as wide as it is intelligible. It is not alone the three figures, so distinct in their occujjation and meaning one from the other, but the sense of union of sentiment in the three, which so impresses. Love, with h's fire-tinged wings, moves the bellows for the lady's playing, and she, in turn, enthrals the black-armoured handsome kn ght, and all this is brought into its most telling sphere by tl e deepening and still effect of evening ; for the lustrous ligh' that falls upon the three and touches the tulips, cloves, and wall-flowers that are ranged in front, reaches only with tenderer hand the grey stone convent and city buildings beyond, -.nd the sheep have left off grazing as the light forsakes the lawn on which they lie, and have ■ i m 1 1 1 5/7? EDWARD BURNEJONES. 127 nestled down to rest, in token, as the lighted windows also show, that night is at hand. This beautiful work was formerly in the collection of Mr. Graham, but passed at that gentleman's sale in 1886 to its present owner for ^3,307. To its left in the Grosvenor Gallery in 1878 hung the magnificent " Laus Veneris" (47 X 71), the property now of Sir William Agnew, whose drawing-room in Great Stanhope Street it illumines and exalts. It has not been so often seen as " Le Chant d'Amour," and its execution is of later date. The colour is superb through- out, and there is no question that it is one of the greatest masterpieces of the Briti.sh School. The crown on the knees of the sumptuously robed figure denotes she is a queen, her attitude and expression that Love has vanquished her. Her four richly clad maidens sit a little apart from her, but their singing or talk is to little purpose, and none appear to notice the five armour-clad knights who ride past the open window and seem, and no wonder, to be drawing rein as they pass. This was likewise formerly in the possession of that owner of many of his works Mr. William Graham, at whose sale in 1886 it was sold for £2,67-]. Many private buyers bid personally against Messrs. Agnew when these famous works of Burne-Jones were put up for sale. Apparendy as an opportunity of delineating girlish forms in many positions of grace, the design of " The Golden Stairs" (108x46), painted in 1880, was seized, and an extremely attractive work is the result ; but it is devoid of the deep meaning and the distinctly defined sentiment of the two that have just been mentioned. Where do the stairs come from and whither do they lead ? For what occasion 128 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN are the musical instruments ? and would the fair descenders always get safely clown so narrow a stairway without a pro- tecting rail? It is a beautiful vision, but the work has involved too much pains on the painter's part for a theme that, in contrast to most of his subjects, borders on the unmeaning. Painted in his finest manner and with deep intent were the four great works that immediately followed it — " The Tree of Forgiveness," " The Mill," " The Wheel of Fortune," and the "King Cophetua." "The Tree of Forgiveness" (1882) illustrated an ancient legend. Phyllis had been for- saken of Demophoon and turned by the gods into an almond tree, and after as Demophoon passed, consumed with sorrow for her, she became once more visible to him and no less loving than of old, in her utter forgiveness of him, and this was said in the legend to be the first blossom- ing of the almond tree. The figures stand in strong relief The work is one of the small but choice collection of Mr. William Imrie. "The Mill" (36 x 78, 1882) is of a different kind. Here is seen the pensive charm of evening and three girls hand in hand, who dance in time to the piping of a man to the right. A mill stream runs near, and the wheels of a water mill are seen. This fine expression of gentle and beautiful feeling is in the collection of Mr. Constantine A. lonides, of Brighton. " The Wheel of Fortune " appeared with "The Hours" the following year, 1883. There are two versions, one in the possession of Mr. A. J. Balfour in Carlton Gardens (78 x 39), and the other in Mr. R. H. Benson's collection in South Street (59 x 28). The general SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES. 129 design is the same in both, but in feeling and tone of colour there is a difference, and there is a variation in the accessories. The last-named one was begun earlier and finished later than Mr. Balfour's. It is a great subject. Sad but ine.xorable the fateful figure turns the wheel. She stands firm on a platform of rock against a stone-built wall, working the wheel with her left arm and balancing it against her hip. Her purple drapery is disposed in masterly fashion about the matured form. There may be sorrow and regret in the beau- tiful countenance, but there is no indecision. 7"he wheel goes round. The sceptred king, once uppermost on the wheel, is now beneath his slave, whose chained foot presses on the crowned head, while beneath the king is seen the laurelled head of the poet, who, as he disappears, looks ardently and not unreproachfully at the arbiter of his destiny, as if a hope still remained of better fortune. " Wherefore one nation rises into sway, Another languishes, e'en as her will Decrees, from us concealed, as in the grass The serpent train. Against her, nought avails Your utmost wisdom. ... By nece.ssity She is made swift, so frequent come who claim Succession in her favours. This is she So execrated e'en by those whose debt To her is rather praise." The large upright "King Cophetua " (115 x 53, 1884) which now enriches the walls of Wharnclifife House is one of the painter's most noble productions. Put into song by the late Laureate, the story is here told on canvas by the painter best qualified of living men to record it. The designs are few 17 I30 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. from this legend : Holman Hunt made an exquisite one, but simpler in character, in the illustrated volume of Tennyson's poems ; but in the painting of which we are speaking a sense of completeness of composition is given, and with the colour, probably its most potent attribute, the eye is satisfied as it dwells on the shimmering purples and blues, the browns and the violets, of a depth and brilliancy that outweigh indeed the simplicity of garb and aspect of the newly found sharer of the throne, but are themselves outweighed in the king's eyes by the passion she has created and which has placed her there. Further note of the design is not needed, for by the kind permission of Lord Wharncliffe and of Messrs. P. & D. Colnaghi the picture is here reproduced. A full sized cartoon in colours of this picture was sold at Christie's from the Graham Collection in 1886 for £y66. The great achievement of the " Briar Rose " series (or " The Sleeping Beauty "), which had intermittently occupied the painter's mind for some twenty years, was completed and exhibited at Messrs. Agnew's in 1890. Beheld as a com- plete work it was a formidable undertaking, but the ancient legend fascinated the painter, and the best of his power of design with its exuberance of incident is seen on the four beautiful canvases : — " The Briar Wood," "The Council Room," " The Garden Court," and "The Rose Bower." What would such a work have been like had there been any limitation of time in its execution, out of whose patient Ik' KING COPMtTUA I30 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. from this legend : Holman Hunt made an exquisite one, but simpler in character, in the illustrated volume of Tennyson's poems ; but in the painting of which we are speaking a sense of completeness of composition is given, and with the colour, probably its most potent attribute, the eye is satisfied as it dwells on the shimmering purples and blues, the browns and the violets, of a depth and brilliancy that outweigh indeed tbe simplicity of garb and aspect of the newly found sharer of the throne, but are themselves outweighed in the king's eyes by the passion she has created and which has placed her there. Further note of the design is not needed, for by the kind permission of Lord Wharnclifife and of Messrs. P. & D. Colnaghi the picture is here reproduced. A full sized cartoon in colours of this picture was sold at Christie's from the Graham Collection in 1886 for .^766. The great achievement of the " Briar Rose " series (or " The Sleeping Beauty "), which had intermittently occupied the painter's mind for some twenty years, was completed and exhibited at Messrs. Agnew's in 1890. Beheld as a com- plete work it was a formidable undertaking, but the ancient legend fascinated the painter, and the best of his power of design with its exuberance of incident is seen on the four beautiful canvases : — " The Briar Wood," "The Council Room," " The Garden Court," and " The Rose Bower." What would such a work have been like had there been any limitation of time in its execution, out of whose patient SIB EDWARD BURNE-JONES. 131 depths it has come ? As the hundred years of sleep set in, a vast hedge of wild roses sprang up around the Palace, pro- tecting the inmates from harm from without, as the sleepy spell kept it unchanged within. None could come near, for should ever so venturesome a knight break the tangles of the briar, the slumberous enchantment overcame him, and he too sank in sleep. No description of the individual scenes could properly convey an idea of them. They should be seen, and their admirable technique examined, to fully estimate their masterly attributes. The series is the property of Mr. Alexander Henderson, at whose house at Buscot, in Berkshire, they hang. The large work in water-colour (loi x 152) of "The Star of Bethlehem," now in the possession of the City of Birmingham, was a commission from that city to the artist. It shows the Virgin enthroned with the Holy Child, beneath the merest of thatched shelters, and the three kings with their gold, frankincense, and myrrh standing reverently before her. Hither has the star led them, which, with great artistic point, is shown in the hands of the beautiful winged being that hovers near. The symbols of sovereignty are not claimed in the presence of the Child. The foremost king has laid his diadem upon the ground before him ere he presents his gift ; the others, who at present are carrying theirs, will doubtless do the like. In the background the wilderness through which they have journeyed is suggested. Greens, greys, rich blues and purples, with much scintillating jewelry, is the effect which dominates the work. From this production Messrs. Morris executed the tapestry that is now at Exeter College, Oxford. PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. Many other works which have marked his career might be dwelt upon did space permit, as " The Depths of the Sea" of Mr. Benson's, "The Feast of Peleus " (15 X 43) of Mr. Kenrick's, and the earlier one, painted in 1863 (39 x 27), of " The Merciful Knight," to which the late Mr. Leathart, whose collection it adorned, was so much attached. Delicate too and of rare beauty were some of the smaller sized water- colours he did earlier in life. "Green Summer" was one of the best of these, owned now by Mr. Coltart (9 X 11, dated 1864). "Fair Rosamond" of Mr. E. Clifford was painted two years earlier, and the curious " Sidonia," recently in the collection of the late Mr. Leathart, is dated i860. Throughout them the same poetic feeling prevails, with the added strength and advantage which his years of classic study at Oxford gave them. This latter advantage is of course apparent in all his works, and probably the years he accounted lost before he began at twenty-five his artistic career, are the very years which vouchsafed him the power to paint with that assurance which comes only of knowledge, and which became consequently the path to many of his greatest and lasting achievements. CHAPTER V. While the impetus was immense which was given to British art, not only by the works themselves which the Pre-Raphaelite painters produced, but by the attention which was drawn to art generally by the conflict that was engendered upon the principles of painting, it must not be imagined that these were the only men doing good work at that time. All painters are not poetical, nor are all minds capable by nature of being receptive to such doctrines as were newly finding favour, yet may their ability be high and of a character to lead them by their own grooves to the accomplishment of work from which even the most ardent votaries of the fresh-found theories could not conscientiously withhold high praise. In what strange ways genius asserts itself and drives its way through obstacles! John Phillip [1817— 1867], of humble origin, must needs have to come to London as a stowaway in a coasting vessel ; he finds his way to the National Gallery (then only in its tenth year of existence), and by the kindness of friends he is ultimately enabled to follow, by entry into the Royal Academy Schools, the course of life for which he had earlier given evidence of a strong capacity. From over the border many a talented painter has come. The old grey town of 133 134 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. Aberdeen was Phillip's birthplace, but to sunny Seville and its neighbourhood is due the splendid work by which his name is chiefly known, and which earned for him the sou- briquet of "Phillip of Spain." But ere he settled down to these Spanish subjects he had accomplished some excellent work illustrative of his native Scottish life. At the age of thirty- one he exhibited "A Scotch Fair," then " Baptism in Scotland" (40 X 61, 1850), a delightful work with Wilkie-like touches in arrangement and incident, until recently in the collection of the late Sir John Pender, " Scotch Washing," and " The Spae Wife," and also not a few good portraits. His first Spanish subject on the walls of the Academy was in 1853. In 1855 appeared " El Paseo," purchased by the Queen, and the following year a rich and pathetic work, exhibiting much strength, "And the Prayer of Faith shall save the Sick," the small finished study of which is in the collection of Mr. John Gooch, of Addison Road. Then came "The Prison Window, Seville, 1857," in the possession now of that ardent admirer of Phillip Mr. Charles Gassiot, showing the outstretched arms of a swarthy Spaniard, reaching through the prison bars to grasp his child, which is being held up to him by the mother. Mr. Gassiot has other of Phillip's works, but this is undoubtedly the finest in his possession. Succeeding years saw many other pictures of Spanish life from his hand, interspersed with a portrait here and there, and in 1863 he executed a large picture of the House of Commons, in which Lord Palmerston is seen addressing the House, Disraeli, Gladstone, and other eminent statesmen being ably portrayed. This was engraved by T. O. Barlow, and published was Phillip's birthplace, but to sunny S . ighbourhood is due the splendid work by whu Mine is chiefly known, and which earned for him- the sou- briquet of " Phillip of Spain." , But ere he settled down to these Spanish subjects he had accomplished some' excellent work illustrative of his native Scottish life. At the age of thirty- one he exhibited " A'Scotch Fair," then " Baptism in Scotland " (40 X 61, 1850), a delightful work with VVilkie-like touches in arrangement and incident, until recently in the collection of the late Sir John Pender, " Scotch Washing," and " The Spae Wife," and also not a few good portraits. His first Spanish subject on the walls of the Academy was in 185-3. In 18 - red " El Paseo," ptirchasefl b^' cho Owcr. -.irl r!"- ("■■ ' ■ n the , j.,; .;.Mun i'.ow oi tii.ii .u'uLiii ajuiatjr of i'hilJip Air. Charles Gassiot, showing the outstretched arms of a swarthy Spaniard, reaching through the prison bars to grasp his. child, which is being held up to him by the mother. Mv. Gassiot has other of Phillip's works, but this is undoubtedly the finest in his possession. Succeeding years saw many other pictures of Spanish life from his hand, interspersed with a portrait here and there, and in 1863 he executed a large picture of tKc House of Comm'ons, in which Lord Palmerston is seen addressing thr> H- Disraeli, Gladstone, and other eminent statesmen portrayed. This was engraved by T. O. Barlow, and pu! '■■ 136 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. gay dance and other festivity on the rest of the canvas, are all rendered in Phillip's finest manner. No example of the man is yet in the nation's collection, but either this one or " The Early Career of Murillo " (71 x 98), exhibited in the year following " La Gloria," and bought by Mr. James Keiller, of Dundee, in 1886, at Christie's, for ^3,990, would ably represent him. 1866 saw his last picture at the Academy, "A Chat round the Brasero " (36 x 48), now in the well chosen collec- tion of Sir John Fowler, at Campden Hill. Briefly, it shows a priest interspersing the conversation with what is evidently a humorous story, told to a company of brightly clad women ; and it recalls to one's mind the incidents of Venetian life which of late years have been so engaging from the hands of Van Haanen, Henry Woods, Luke Fildes, and others. It is usual to keep in Spanish houses a copa, or metal cup with a piece of live charcoal in it, for fumigating the rooms with lavender, and at this copa the priest is lighting a cigarette. The women have done their work, and with hearty good nature are enjoying the gossip round the comfortable charcoal warming-pan. The work is a most pleasing example of the painter. A small spirited sketch for it (18 x 24) was sold at Christie's as recently as 1884 for ^1,365. Phillip was never a strong man. Spain was resorted to in the first instance of his going there for reasons of health, and he died in 1867 at the comparatively early age of fifty, the year, I believe, that saw the completion of the famous " La Lotteria Nacional" (51 x 66), in the possession now of Mr. Holbrook Gaskell. One of the best of his works left unfinished is " Selling Relics, Cathedral Porch, Seville" (61 x 84), in the collection now of Sir Cuthbert FREDERICK GOODALL. 137 Ouilter. The seller is a woman who has a box of relics in her lap, and round her stand a group of figures. In 1847 the now veteran Frederick Goodall was rapidly growing to distinction. He was then twenty-five, and the highest testimony that could be paid to his work was when Robert Vernon purchased the picture exhibited by him that year entitled " The Village Festival." The picture (40 X 67) is now, of course, in the National Gallery, under the title of " A Village Holiday in the Olden Time." Very much following Wilkie in this production, it was in point of industry and execution, allied to a happy and entertaining theme, an earnest of what was to be expected of him, soundly taught as he had been, and with a distinct capacity for the higher class of genre. " Raising the Maypole " was another work similar in kind to the foregoing, which appeared a few years later, and which illustrated the Restoration of Charles II., which was the signal for the re-erection of Maypoles, so rigidly repressed with many other amusements by the early Reformers. Two historical works of note came later, afterwards engraved and widely known: one of them, " Cranmer at Traitors' Gate," in 1856, when he pictured the venerable prelate entering the gloomy fortress of the Tower ; and the other, " An Episode in the Happier Days of Charles I.," — low-hanging gloom in the former picture, and brightness and gaiety in the latter, where the Royal party is shown in a stately barge, enjoying on a still afternoon the simple pleasures of the lake. Courtiers and attendants are seen on the landing-stage from which the barge has started, awaiting its return. The work exhibits the repose that reigns throughout the land Charles governs, 18 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. ere the shadows which enveloped his later years have begun to gather. When approaching forty Mr. Goodall seems to have entirely changed his subjects, the result of a lengthened tour in the East, where many studies were made which afterwards developed into serious works. Among the earliest of them was a large and important canvas, " Early Morning in the Wilderness of Shur " (48 x 120), now in the collection of Mr. C. T. Harris. True the work was straightforward when once its composition had been arranged, and not subject to difficulty equal to that Holman Hunt, for instance, has some- times encountered in his sacred pictures in the East, but it nevertheless required great artistic attainments to bring it to such pictorial completeness. The foreground is peopled by an Arab tribe encamped at the Wells of Moses, on the eastern shore of the Red Sea, and its Sheikh is addressing the assembly. The headland represented by the painter on the opposite coast is called Djebel Attaka, and is the point from which, according to local tradition, the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. " Rebekah " was also among the first of the Oriental subjects. I remember in the Academy of 1867 being impressed with the broad reach of desert beyond the kneeling messenger and the hesitating Israelitish girl. "And the man wondering at her held his peace, to wit whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not." This was the text which accompanied the picture. The work was engraved by the Art Union of London. A subject of the same name, but a single figure only and different in design, is in the possession of Mr. Bevan, of Trent Park, Herts. The following year, 1868, saw two fine examples of the shadows which enveloped his later yeai-s lo gatht i . When approaching forty Mr. Goodall seems to have entirely changed his subjects, the result of a lengthened tour in the East, where many studies were made which afterwards developed into serious works. Among the earliest of them was a large and important canvas, " Early Morning in the Wilderness of Shur" (48 x 120), now in the collection of Mr. C. T. Harris. True the work was straightforward when once its composition had been arranged, and not subject to difficulty equal to that Holman Hunt, for instance, has some- times encountered in his sacred pictures in the East, but it nevertheless required crreat artistic attJiinments to hrlmr it to to local tradition, the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. " Rebekah " was also among the first of the Oriental subjects. I remember in the Academy of 1867 being impressed with the broad reach of desert beyond the kneeling messenger and the hesitating Israelitish girl. "And the. man wondering at her held his peace, to wit whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not." This was the text which accompanied the picture. The work was engraved by the Art Union of London. A subject of the same name, but a single figure only and differfn- in design, is in the possession of Mr. Bevan, of Tn : iierts. The following year, r868, saw two fine FKEDILKICK GOODALL. modelling from his hand, under tlie titles of " Mater Purissima " and " Mater Dolorosa," three-quarter-length figures, canvas 58 X 40. The execution throughout, especially of the hands, was finely clone, the clasped fingers as in anguish in the black- apparelled figure of the latter work instancing the perfection of training and study. The two pictures, which are companions, are now in the possession of Mr. Lawrence J. Baker, of Ottershaw Park, by whose kind permission the " Mater Purissima " is reproduced. In it is shown a young Israelitish woman with modest downcast eyes and in grey and white vesture, bearing to the door of the tabernacle, in accord;ince with the Levitical law, her offering of two turtle-doves. It is a work of great beauty and dignity, and admirable as an example of finish. The two under the same titles, and in every respect similar to those exhibited in 1868, were replicas, but on a smaller scale, executed for Mr. Gambart, and from these the en- gravings were made by Mr. Samuel Cousins : one of them, the " Mater Purissima," was sold at Christie's in 1894 from the "collection of a nobleman"; the other, the "Mater Dolorosa," is in the possession of Mr. W. K. D'Arcy, at Stanmore. A fine series of studies of Eastern life, in which ease and facility of execution are displayed, were exhibited in a group at the Academy in 1869, on his return from the East. These were acquired by the Duke of Westminster, along whose well lighted corridor at Grosvenor House they are now placed. " Jochebed" was a striking portrayal of the mother of Moses, and as nearly realistic of the oft-painted subject of the bulrushes as it could be. The strong muscular form of the rich-brown-skinned woman looking PAINJING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN anxiously about her, with her child asleep on her arm, is an admirable piece of draughtsmanship and modelling. She is standing in shallow water among the tall Nile reeds, her right hand resting on a rock, and is about to deposit the babe she is holding in the basket which floats at her feet. Evening is closing over the scene, but palm-trees and pyramids are clearly seen beyond the winding river, the unfinished pyramid being full of meaning as suggestive of the labour which has yet to be executed by the Israelitish people before their deliverance. The picture is 71 x 60, and was at the Academy of 1870. It belongs to Mrs. John Bowring, of Windsor Forest, and tender and well painted as is Delaroche's version of the same subject, it seems tame and unsatisfying beside it. Thence onwards the Academy has rarely been deprived in its annual show of one or more examples of Syrian or Egyptian subject, in which is often illustrated the life of the wandering Bedouin, sometimes five works in one year being seen. " The Head of the House of Prayer" (34 X 95), which if I remember aright was side by side with Leighton's beautiful " Summer Moon " in 1872, was sold at Christie's five years later for £1,200 ; but higher prices than this have been reached for his work beneath that roof of true valuations, ^2,089 being bid on one occasion for " The Rising of the Nile," painted in 1865. The landscape portion of his subjects has had a strong fascination for other well trained painters, who from the vestiges of the great nations that have passed have drawn with im- pressive feeling the colossal statues and the massive ruins that still may be seen in the land that Goodall has invested with modern human incident. Frank Dillon, but a year junior to . ,-. PAimiNG IN THE QUEEN'S &E1(, \. anxiously about her, with her child asleep on her arii.. admirable piece of draughtsmanship and modelling. Shu standing in. shallow water among the tall Nile reeds, her right hand resting on a rock, and is about to deposit the babe she is holding in the basket which floats at her feet. Evening is closing over the scene, but palm-trees and pyramids are clearly seen beyond the winding river, the unfinishe' is seen approaching, from the tracery of leaves vaguely seen of the outskirts of a wood. In Mr. Aird's example this effect is not so vividly expressed, but the picture is a pretty piece of work. No fear is seen in the large dilating eyes as they catch sight of the little misshapen appari- tion, but the slight drawing back of the blonder fnrure, ris if in repugnance, is expressed with exquisite all his fairy pictures, each leaf and blade of grass faithluily fmlds its individuality and is finely finished. It was in 1849 that the Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland acquired his canvas (39 X 60), full to the brim with fairy life and symbolical incident, entided " The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania," and it hangs now in the National Gallery of Scotland, near to the " Reconciliation " (30 x 48), which had been pur- chased two years previously by the Royal Scottish Academy. Tine as both these paintings are, they are surpassed, in the opinion of most persons, by the more experienced " Fairy Raid " (37 x 58), exhibited in 1867, and the property of Mr. John Poison, of Paisley. A raid has taken place on human dom;iiiv and has resulted in the capture of a changeling, who is b. .'i^ SIR NOEL PA TON. i6i carried swiftly away on horseback through the entanglements of a wood in direct charge of the Queen of the Fairies. In every nook and corner the elfish sprites are at work, dancing to and fro like fireflies or treading ringlets on the turf They are such minikins they might stand on the point of a needle, or a breath might float them from flower to flower, yet each is drawn anatomically with precision. Foxglove, fungi, woodbine, the dogrose, and the yellow iris luxuriantly grow among the gnarled trunks of the trees, and to the left, where the wood ends, the clear night sky is seen, with Druidical stones rearing themselves into the moonlight ; past these the sparkling cavalcade is being led by the gallant little elfin riders that have gone on before. It is a remarkable piece of painting, but only an inadequate idea of it, on account of its size, may be gathered from the reproduction, which is here given by m. Poison's kind permission. It was exhibited at the Guildhall in 1890, and represents the painter in the exhibition there in the present year, where a selection of the chief paintings of the reign have been brought together. I have never seen the picture of "Thomas the Rhymer and the Queen of Fairie," and can speak of it only from a reproduction, but it is a subject that would undoubtedly be wholly to the mind of such a painter as Sir Noel Paton. Briefly the "Day Starre " of Scottish poetry, as Thomas was called, was lying one summer evening on Huntlie bank, when a lady came riding down by the Eilden tree, her attire and the harness of her horse shining with gold and gems. Her skirt was of grass-green silk, and on her palfrey's mane were silver bells, "fifty and nine"; so lovely was she that Thomas took her for the Queen of l62 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. Heaven, but she told him that she was Queen " of another country," of fair elfland, and that she had come to seek him. The picture shows her approaching, and Thomas lying on the greensward with an open book, It is an arched picture, and the painter is quite unable to say where it is now, having for many years lost sight of it. Pictures more or less of a metaphorical teaching, such as " The Pursuit of Pleasure" and " Mors Janua Vita;," have come frequently from his hand. The first-named work, now, I believe, in the West Indies, was a vividly pictured allegory of the subject Pleasure, which in the form of a beautiful woman keeps just out of reach of a group of ardent pursuers, as she leads them over into an abyss, she herself in seductive beauty floating out into the air. Warrior, poet, priest, statesman, hurry on, a tumultuous crowd ; some nearly touch her, others fall in the pursuit ; and over all, in the dark clouds, is seen the baleful form of Fate. Emblematical too, and painted, one might imagine, some- what under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite company, so many of its characteristic principles has it, was " Luther at Erfurt," an arched picture (36 X 27), and shown in 1861 — a thoughtful and beautiful work in its meaning. On one side of a massive golden crucifix is an hour-glass, emblem of time, and on the other a skull, emblem of mortality ; the open window admits the fresh incoming day, and the dawning light which quenches the lamp hanging near falls upon the hooded monk as he studies the Holy Book, and may be taken as symbolizing the light which he was to herald in by the Reformation. Painted but a few years previously, about 1858, "The Bluidie S/Ji NOEL PATON. 163 Tryst" (28 X 26) showed still more strongly the influence of the new movement upon the artist. In a ferny dell lay the slain body of a youth, and with the faithfulness to nature of Millais in his " Ophelia," every leaf and stalk as in miniature is worked out. All except the figure, in the costume of the fifteenth century, was painted at Monadhmore, in Arran. The story was from "The Hart and Hinde," and tells of a lady who caused unwittingly the death of her lover. Many other works whose charm lies in their poetical significance or allegorical teaching may be noted. " Oskold and the Elle Maids," belonging to Mr. R. F. Bennett, is one of these (44 x 64), suggested by Scandinavian legends of the beautiful and malevolent wood spirits or Elle maids. " Caliban" is another (32 x 49), the property of Mrs. Peter Denny, which shows the burning noonday sun, and the incoming wave spark- ling through the hot mist. Seated on the sand is Caliban, his ear catching the " sounds and sweet airs " that come about him, the embodiments of which float above him in the forms of beautiful women. In " Fact and Fancy," another work of this character (22 X 29, 1865), a pretty child has strayed by the bank of a rocky stream, and is surrounded with rich mosses, delicately standing fungus, bluebell and fern, all thriving in the well watered and sheltered ground. This is fact, which the child and every one else can see ; but a little group of fairies which shines and sparkles in the picture, radiant in their garments, with kindly look and amusing gesture, is the child's fimcy. No sense of loneliness or fear disturbs the beauty of the child's inner vision : the sombre aspect of life is not here in these early 164 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. years ; its innocent enjoyment is all for which there is room in the child's mind. Imagination in all these works plays the part on which their merit and chief attraction rest. Subjects also more or less of a religious character or meaning, often allegorical, have appeared from time to time throughout his career, more particularly perhaps of late years. CHAPTER VI. While the excitement in all artistic circles occasioned by the work of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was prevalent, followed by a more serious attention than had been known for years to the productions of all our foremost representatives in art, one painter, who throughout his career had adopted a walk in art peculiarly his own, and such as in the modern schools has not been seen before, pursued the even tenor of his way with a consistency accounted for in no other way than that it was his very nature to fulfil his task in the world in this distinct and particular manner. Unallured by the telling charm of the elaboration of detail which the exponents of Pre-Raphaelitism presented, and unmoved apparently by any other works, great as many of them were, in history, genre, and portraiture which his contemporaries were annually producing, Mr. G. F. Watts appears from the first to have discerned with quite an original eye the higher revelation of the mind and heart which colours and brush might be made to convey. Purely historical work he embarked on but twice to my knowledge, once when he entered in the 1843 competition for the decoration of the Palace of Westminster, when a spirited cartoon was carried out of " Caractacus being led a Captive i6s PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. through the Streets of Rome," and a second time when he produced at about the same period an equally large canvas entitled "Alfred the Great inciting the Saxons to resist the Danes." The former picture, I am informed, has been divided by its owner into three parts for three panels, but the latter is in its entirety, and is in the possession of H.M.'s Office of Works, and now deposited in Westminster Palace, but not exhibited. The figure of Alfred pointing vigorously with his sword in the direction of the Danish foe predicted well for the painter's power of expression. With the exception of T. Sidney Cooper, he is the only painter now living whose work was on the walls of the Academy in the year of the Queen's accession. He was represented then by " The Wounded Heron " (36 x 28), which is still in his possession, and it was seen with great interest early in the present year at the New Gallery. Portraits here and there then occur, chiefly of ladies, and then, about 1848, appear to have begun those abstract subjects which are purely the outcome of the artist's mind, and owe their origin fre- quently to no source in poetry or prose, from which painters for the most part are wont to draw their inspiration. One of the earliest of these was " Aurora," which in point of poetical expression might rank on a par with much of his later and more experienced work ; it is now in the possession of Mrs. C. E. Lees, of Werneth Park, Oldham. It shows the new day, personified by a figure, floating through lustrous air amid a group of cherubs, that toss and whirl and fly around it. Among the latest of these abstract subjects is the " Sic Transit," and between this earlier and later work may be counted many productions that may be classed under distinct heads, some suggested by the GEORGE FREDERICK WATTS. 167 Scriptures, some by the classic poets, some purely landscape, and others (and not many of these) that may be termed of a miscellaneous character, such as " By the Sea" (in 1876) and " The Rain it raineth Every Day " (1883). Developing and working thus, he has also since 1848, when he painted the famous historian Guizot, down to 1894, when Sir Andrew Clark sat to him, been the painter of many portraits, all of them possessing that rare attribute which impels you to forget the paint in the contemplation of the person, for he appears to have beheld, almost with the eye of a seer, the very natures of the great men of his generation when he has undertaken their portraits. In this particular phase of his art, were their vocation in life statecraft, law, the arts, or literature, in getting at the face he has probed the mind to its depths, no facial resemblance merely being obtained, but the temperament, the inner being, the character of his sitter. If in no other direction, his impress on the Queen's reign in this respect is great, valuable now and inestimable for posterity ; but in the other directions which have been noted his work has been great, and in most instances may be assumed to be lasting, inasmuch as the themes he has taken are applicable to the human mind, in many cases not to the present time only, nor to any particular time. In his dealing with Scripture his effort to give shape to the mysterious has predominated over the aim merely to record a Biblical event. " The Dove that returned in the Evening," beautiful indeed as it is in its world-waste of water and solitary bird, could not possibly take rank, in the metaphysical attributes which they possess, with those four pictures of the Black, Red, White, and Pale Horses of the Revelation. Justice, Destruction, 1 68 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. Conquest, Death, each with its symbohsm, is brought, weirdly indeed, but tangibly to the eye, from the mysterious Biblical page ; each is going at speed, intent on its terrible object ; no weakness is suggested, no slackening of rein. Comparatively simple would it have been to follow the literal record of the verse, but this is just the point at which the painter appears to begin. Then comes the individual scope of the man, and the work becomes invested with a meaning, a wide-reaching truth of interpretation, evolved from an inner world of thought and aim, and in accord entirely with our own mental vision of the subject, the intelligible portrayal of which never before suggested itself to us as practicable. " The Rider on the Black Horse " was painted in 1878, and the remaining three presumably in 18S3 ; the size of each is 26 X 21, and of the "White Horse" a large version exists (60 X 48), in the possession of Gertrude, Countess of Pembroke. The smaller version is here reproduced by the kind permission of Mr. James Knowles. In the impressive figure going away sorrowful, " For he had Great Possessions" (55 X 23, 1894), the features are not seen, being covered by the hand, but the bowed head tells the condition of mind ; effective is the right arm, which falls nerveless at the side, and the great possessions are implied alike by the rich apparel as by the jewelled rings he wears in opulent fancy on his finger. The picture tells its tale and scarcely needs a title. When classic themes have occupied him his brush has found in " Diana and Endymion," " Orpheus and Eurydice," "Ariadne," " Ariadne in Naxos," and " Ganymede," fit and fascinating subject-matter, dealt with in a manner worthy of any age, both THE RIOCn ON THE WHITE HORSE. I'v C. K. W aits. k.A. i68 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. Conquest, Death, each with its symbolism, is brought, weirdly indeed, but tangibly to the eye, from the mysterious Biblical page; each is going at speed, intent on its terrible object; no veakness is suggested, no slackening of rein. Comparatively smple would it have been to follow the literal record of the veise, but this is just the point at which the painter appears to begn. Then comes the individual scope of the man, and the work becomes invested with a meaning, a wide-reaching truth of interpr nation, evolved from an inner world of thought and aim, and in ,\ccord entirely with our own mental vision of the subject, the intelligible portrayal of which never before suggested itself to us as practicable. " The Rider on the Black Horse " was painted in 878, and the remaining three presumably in 1883; the size of e.\ch is 26 X 21, and of the "White Horse" a large version exists f6o X 48), in the (K s'.fSbion of Gert ' '"ountess of Pembroke. The smaller version is here r|. > in- kind permission of Mr. James Knowles. In the imprei;sive figure going away sorrowful, " For he had Great Possessions" (55 X 23, 1894), the features are not seen, being covered by the hand, but the bowed head tells the condition of mind ; effective is the right arm, which falls nerveless at the side, and the great possessions are implied alike by the rich apparel as by the jewelled rings he wears in opulent fancy on his finger. The picture tells its tale and scarcely needs a title. When classic themes have occupied him his brush has found in " Diana and Endymion," " Orpheus and Eurydice," " Ariadne," " Ariadne in Naxos," and " Ganymede," fit and fascinating subject-matter, dealt with in a manner worthy of any age, both GEORGE FREDERICK WATTS. 169 in modelling and colour. The " Ariadne " (60 x 50) is a solitary seated figure, not quite the size of life, in the possession of Mr. Leopold Hirsch ; but in the " Ariadne in Naxos " (37 X 29, the property of Lord Davey) two panthers are introduced, a beast sacred to Dionysus, whose approach they probably symbolize. Ancient gems exquisite in detail and paintings such as those discovered on the walls of Pompeii have celebrated the love-lorn plight of Ariadne, and, ever a theme in the region of art, Ovid's verse was bound at one time or another to touch a man of the capabilities of Mr. Watts:— " To her in loneliness and bitter tears Bacchus brought love and aid, — that she might be Bright with unfading stars, he plucked the crown From off her brow and flung it to the skies ; Through the thin air it flies, and as it flies Sudden the gems are turned to fire and fixed Remain and keep the semblance of a crown." In the collection of his works at the New Gallery, in the early part of 1897, a study of the "Ganymede" was shown (28 X 18), but the excellence of the finished work in the possession of Mr. Makins can scarcely be gathered from it ; it is one of his happiest efforts, and in point of technique and completion of finish among the soundest. The study, of course, resembles it, but is little more than a memorandum of the beautiful possession in Queen's Gate. Taken from more modern sources, the tragic love-story of Paolo and Francesca da Rimini has met with interpretation from him. The scene he selects to portray is the second circle of the Inferno, where carnal sinners are tossed about ceaselessly in the darkness by 22 I70 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. furious winds, and shows the two souls agonized, yet together, " that seem so hght upon the wind." Ary Scheffer selected the same scene, but introduced the figures of Dante and Virgil as spectators ; and to my mind there is perhaps more of passion and anguish in it than in Watts' rendering, though possibly less of heightened dignity ; the raiment is coloured, and the flesh warm and lifelike, whereas in Watts' the faces are ashy and the draperies grey relieved by a dark lurid red. More often has the subject been treated in its earthly aspect, at the m.oment or just before the moment of their death, as in Alexandre Cabanel's beautiful version, now in the Luxembourg ; here the two lovers in a richly panelled apartment are just slain by the infuriated Lanciotto ; but in Rossetti's version, and in Sir Noel Paton's, and just lately in Frank Dicksee's, the two are seated together reading, or having read, from the fatal book, undisturbed, and "no suspicion" near them. Another subject that engaged him was that of " Sir Galahad," of the Arthurian legend. The point he has seized is where the young knight, standing bareheaded by his horse, is about to achieve the quest, reserved for him alone, of the " Holy Grail," and his eyes are rapt on the vision that rises before him in the gloom and solitude of the forest. The owner of this important work (65 x 41) is Mr. Alexander Henderson, of 52, Prince's Gate. In the same year, 1862, as "Sir Galahad," the lovely head appeared entitled " Bianca " (24 x 20). This is now owned by Mr. Joseph Ruston, and is probably the best example of its class. It was once in the possession of the late Mr. C. H. Rickards, of Old Trafford, Manchester, a gentleman who had GEORGE FREDERICK WATTS. 171 fifty-seven of the painter's works. The fresh, beautiful face, turned slightly to the left, against the dull green curtain, is not surpassed in its painting by any work of the artist's. Enhanced by the black dress, the pearl necklace, the lightly held pink and white flowers, this work is a veritable gem, possessing the full strength of the painter at his strongest time. Others of note, too many to mention in detail, have also come from similar sources, such as " Britomart before the Magic Mirror," from Spenser's " Fairy Queen," and " Ophelia," which were both painted apparently in the same year, 1878. Of the abstract subjects which are undoubtedly among the highest achievements of the painter, involving the whole re- sources of his mental capacity in their origination and portrayal, and containing in a high degree the element of poetry, the one we have touched upon as among the earliest, the " Aurora," is of great charm. But growing stronger in treatment as years went by, we have in 1865 the first version of " Fata Morgana" (80 X 41), in illustration really of "Opportunity," which passes in the shape of a beautiful woman, towards whom a man is springing to catch at the lock of hair on her forehead, by which alone she can be captured ; across rock and stream, dale and desert, she is supposed to lead him, for " even thus is man's life the plaything of fortune." Herein then was the lesson endeavoured to be taught, and in this manner the artist claims to teach, more especially in works of this character. A different version, and by far the finer, of this subject, was painted twenty-four years later (65 x 47), and presented by him to the town of Leicester " as a mark of his high regard for Mr. John M. Cook, formerly of Leicester, and especially 172 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. in recognition of his valuable services to English travellers in Egypt." The splendid painting of this latter work is very noticeable. The impersonation of " Hope" is a thrilling work ; the whole fragile frame of the figure seems conscious of its frail chances, and with all the world darkened to the bandaged eyes, the eager ear to catch the music, slight though it may be, is bent low to the instrument she holds, all but one string of which is gone. Two years later, in 1887, appeared " Love and Death," the earliest version of which (60 X 29) is in the possession of Mr. C. J. Galloway, of Thorneyholme, Knutsford ; a repro- duction on a larger scale being afterwards made by Mr. Watts, and presented by him to the Whitworth Institute, Manchester. Mr. Joseph Ruston, in his town house in St. George's Place, also has a small version ; but the largest (99 X 47), which will eventually come to the nation, is at present in the painter's possession. With a power not to be withstood. Death is entering a dwelling-house ; he encounters on the threshold the vigorous boyish figure of Love, who unavailingly strives with all the might at his command to prevent his entry. But the imposing figure pauses not ; he forces aside the slight opposing force, crushing the sun-tinged wings against the portal of the house. Nothing of the actual frame is allowed to be seen beneath the mysterious shroud, excepting the grisly heel and the overpowering, far-reaching arm ; but with Love there is no mystery — he is all seen in the fresh, warm blush of the very fulness of life, and with a coronet of summer roses about his golden hair. The progress of the inevitable but not the LORD TENNYSON llv (;. K. WATTS. K.A 172 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. in recognition of his valuable services to English travellers in Egypt." The splendid painting of this latter work is very noticeable. The impersonation of Hope" is a thrilling work ; the whole fragile frame of the figure seems conscious of its frail chances, and with all the world darkened to the bandaged eyes, the eager ear to catch the music, slight though it may be, is bent low to the instrument she holds, all but one string of which is gone. Two years later, in 1887, appeared " Love and Death," the earliest version of which (60 x 29) is in the possession of Mr. C. J. Galloway, of Thorneyholme, Knutsford ; a repro- duction on a larger scale being afterwards made by Mr. Watts, and presented by him to the Whitworth Institute, Manci f . Mr. Joseph Ruston, in his town house in St. Gee,:. Place, also h;is a small version; but the litr)j;est 199 X 47), which will eventually come to the nation, is at present in the painter's possession. With a power not to be withstood. Death is entering a dwelling-house ; he encounters on the threshold the vigorous boyish figure of Love, who unavailingly strives with all the might at his command to prevent his entry. But the imposing figure pauses not ; he forces aside the slight opposing force, crushing the sun-tinged wings against the portal of the house. Nothing of the actual frame is allowed to be seen beneath the mysterious shroud, excepting the grisly heel and the overpowering, far-reaching arm ; but with Love there is no mystery — he is all seen in the fresh, warm blush of the very fulness of life, and with a coronet of summer roses about his golden hair. The progress of the inevitable but not the GEORGE FREDERICK WATTS, 173 terrible, Death partially but not completely overshadowing Love, was the artist's admitted aim ; and the mystery of Death is truly suggested, as equally the futility of its oppo- sition, in this great work. In "Sic Transit" another lesson is taught. Here is the end of a human life : the figure on its low bier is shrouded away from sight ; the duties and pleasures of life are symbolized by the sword here and the cithern there, with other emblems scattered about the floor, and the sum-total, as it were, of a life is gathered together, worthily spent if it can claim the three mottoes roughly inscribed above the covered form : " What I spent, I had ! What I saved, I lost ! What I gave, I have ! " The veiled is always more solemn than the revealed, more impressive when the imagination of the beholder is left to furnish something ; so in the silent figure, it were best unseen, its earthly course with its joys and vicissitudes, accomplished. In his landscapes, of which there are several, " The Carrara Mountains from Pisa" (31 x 46) and " Sant' Agnese, Mentone" (17 X 22) are among his best, and these are the property of the Viscountess de Vesci. But cloud form has been sometimes a study by itself to him. Mr. C. J. Galloway has a fine example (42 x 18) entitled " Rain passing away," in which a huge mass of white cloud is passing over the darkened earth. In 1891 Mr. Watts wrote of this to Mr. Galloway: "I am glad you have my picture ' The Cumulose Cloud ' ; I con- sider it among the very best things I have done." It was painted about 1884. A large version of this, and slightly varied, I think (84 x 45), is in the possession of Mr. Harry Ou liter, painted also in 1884. 174 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. It will be understood that only a few of the chief works of this eminent painter have been touched upon ; it would be impossible to adequately deal in the present work with all the fruits of his long and steadily busy life, but his deep-set aim to employ his art to the highest and worthiest of ends will have been clearly perceived. When, in addition to the task he set himself in mentally working out and executing subjects such as those to which allusion has been made, he has also been enabled to leave in portraiture men representative of statecraft like Gladstone, Salisbury, and Argyll ; of poetry, Tennyson, Browning, and Swinburne ; of painting, Millais, Leighton, and Calderon ; and of others, such as Carlyle, Max Milller, Stuart Mill, and Martineau, the range of his capacity as a painter of the British School may be readily estimated. The year 1855 witnessed the appearance of a painter who was destined to make a great impression on the reign, both by the works he produced and by his strong personality in the region of art. When the Princess of Wales attached to the wreath she laid upon his coffm, in February 1896, those telling lines, in Her Royal Highness's own handwriting, " Life's race well run, Life's work well done, Life's crown well won, Now comes rest," the survey of Lord Leighton's life in the briefest possible words may be said to have been conveyed, for, from the appearance of " Cimabue " on the old Academy walls in Trafalgar Square in 1855, to the single representation of " Clytie " at Burlington LORD LEIGHTON. 175 House forty-one years later, indefatigable energy, patient study, and singleness of aim in the endeavour, through difficult ways, and amid sensitive and not always unantagonistic surroundings, to raise the art of his country to a higher level than he had found it, were achnittedly his. " Cimabue's Madonna carried through the Streets of Florence to Saint Maria Novella" (87 x 205), bought by the Queen and the Prince Consort, was a work which I have heard him smilingly call a "curiosity"; but it had in it the germ of what was to follow, and though it lacked of course that accomplished technique which was later at his command, it possessed the same types, the same sense of dignity and grace, the same feeling about, as it were, for colour, that afterwards found their full expression, so that, seen as the picture was last January among his more recent productions, no very distinct discordance was observed — the man had simply grown ; and thus we see in his very latest years he hovered round subjects similar to those which had engaged his earliest thoughts, with the same passion for grace of form, but with an added proficiency in execution. Romantic episodes associated with Italy attracted him in his earlier life. He had taken with enthusiasm the favourite theme of Francesca da Rimini, and when he was twenty-eight had found his subject in " Romeo and Juliet " (44 x 68, 1858), dealing with it in a manner not at all in accord with the works that came later from his hand. It was in 1864 that he appears to have found in the classic poets the wide domain which he made peculiarly his own, for the expression of the loftiest feelings that were in him. The exalted Greek ideal of form never before found itself so pictured on canvas. The verse of 176 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. Browning inspired him to the "Orpheus and Eurydice " (49 X 42, 1864) ; but seven years later the poet himself was inspired toward the production of that truly beautiful poem " Balaustion's Adventure " by the masterly painting of " Herakles wrestling with Death for the Body of Alcestis " (57 X 104, 1871). He was forty when he painted this. "There slept a silent palace in the sun, With plains adjacent and Thessalian peace." Thus the poem opens. Arriving at this palace, Herakles hears of the grief for the dead Alcestis, and goes to her tomb, where he encounters Death and compels him to give back his prey. This splendid canvas, with one or two others of its kind, seems to stand apart from his other work, not only in the intensity of its feeling, but in its manner of work : there is less of the deliberate and assured touch, and more of the striving to attain ; the work has a solidity, whether or no secured by this effort to attain matters not ; the effect arrived at is that of substantial richness in keeping with the august dignity of the theme. If any one work more than another rooted more firmly Leighton's reputation, it was this, and by many it is thought, for its collective merits, not to have been surpassed by any subsequent production. There is a spontaneity in its action which cannot be readily pointed to in any other example. The very airs of Thessaly seem coming from over the blue yEgean to the frightened bearers of the beauteous burden. All that Leighton had to go upon was a passage such as this from Euripides : " Yea, I will go and lie in wait for Death, the king of souls departed, with 176 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. Browning inspired him to the " Orpheus and Eurydice " (49 X 42, 1864); but seven years later the poet himseh" was inspired toward the production of that truly beautiful poen\ " Balaustion's Adventure " by the masterly painting of " Herakles wrestling with Death for the Body of Alcestis " (57 X 104, 1 871). He was forty when he painted this. "There slept a silent palace in the sun, With plains adjacent and Thessalian peace." Thus the poem opens. Arriving at this palace, Herakles hears of the grief for the dead Alcestis, and goes to her tomb, where he encounters Death and compels him to give back his prey. This splendid canvas, with one or two otJi< •*! of its kind, seems to stand apart from hi* othrr work, nut only in the intensity of its feeling, 'it i:- ni^tiner of work : there is less of the deliberate and .issured touch, and more of the striving to attain ; the work has a solidity, whether or no secured by this effort to attain matters not ; the effect arrived at is that of substantial richness in keeping with the august dignity of the theme. If any one work more than another rooted more firmly Leighton's reputation, it was this, and by many it is thought, for its collective merits, not to have been surpassed by any subsequent production. There is a spontaneity in its action which cannot be readily pointed to in any other example. The very airs of Thessaly seem coming from over the blue yEgean to the frightened bearers of the beauteous burden. All that Leighton had to go upon was a passage such as this from Euripides : " Yea, I will and lie in wait for Death, the king of souls departed, w th LORD LEIGHTON. the dusky robes, and methinks I shall find him hard by the grave drinking the sacrificial wine. And if I can seize him by this ambush, springing from my lair, and throw my arms in circle round him, none shall snatch his panting body from my grasp till he give back the woman to me." From this he evolved his idea of the scene; fear, beauty, strength, in presence of the deadly foe— there was the drama. In an early design for this work there were no "women wallers in a corner crouched," as Browning writes ; but what an accession of strength to the composition, and loveliness in themselves, these finely expressed forms, 'neath manifold crease of red and purple, bring into the work. Sir Bernhard Samuelson is its owner, and by his public spirit its exhibition has been permitted on many occasions, and in many quarters of the globe, in one instance it having gone as far as Australia. A work, and I think the only one, that strongly resembles it in technique was shown the following year in "Summer Moon" (40 X 52, 1872), here reproduced by the courtesy of Messrs. P. & D. Colnaghi. There have been several accounts as to how the effect in this picture was decided upon and attained, but sufficient that a painting of beautiful quality, grace, and sentiment, that almost stands alone in its superb attributes, was produced, the spontaneous outcome of his great natural gift for beauty of expression. The painting of the raiment of the two sleeping women is of a nature that suggests the inquiry as to how it was done. What had appeared in the " Herakles " was carried nearer to perfection here: it seemed as if the tender light of the moon had been trailed with sensitive edge over every crease of the wine-coloured and purple drapery, PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. and not by the employment of superficial means, but by straightforward method ; and withal, the splendid solidity of the two sleeping figures in the dusk of the southern night was preserved ; no moon is actually seen, only its effect, and this admits of the stars being more clearly discerned with which the deep sky is studded. What stillness ! broken only by the loud-singing bird that haunts the thicket of pome- granate, and exalted by the accomplished portrayal of the hands and feet, the modelling of which, more particularly of the two hands that lie one within the other, far from sug- gesting any laboured effort, points to that command and ease to which his studious application had brought him. The " Dsedalus and Icarus" (53 x 40, 1869) and the " Helios and Rhodes" (65 x 42, 1869) had appeared before the two just mentioned. The former is as accomplished in design as any of his works, and the touch is decided and firm. The personification of manly energy is in the splendid figure of Icarus, who is almost nude, and to whom the wings are being fastened by Dcedalus ; but the position of the two, on the already lofty platform, gives fulness to the air upon which these new pinions are about to spread. In the latter picture, or, as it was sometimes called, " The Birth of the Island of Rhodes," a beautiful idea was personified, and the passion in the work is of greater force than is usual for the painter to display, in the clasped figure of the nymph, fresh from Ocean. The mention of this work recalls a smaller production of beautiful feeling entitled " The Mermaid," which he painted for the fiimous tenor Mario. Still on classic ground the year 1874 saw the " Clytemnestra LORD LEIGH TON. tjg watching from the Battlements of Argos the Beacon Fires that are to proclaim the Arrival of Agamemnon," a picture low in key, but curiously strengthened by the massive per- pendicular bar of dark red that runs from the bottom to the top of the picture. Then a year or two later came the " Daphnephoria " (89 x 204, 1876), a work more decorative in character than those already noticed, and upon which he must have spent, by evidence of the sketches that are left, arduous study and considerable time. His first exhibited picture had been a procession, but here was one with more flow of action, more rapid movement, and, above all, with the extremely difficult adjunct of lips parted in choral song as the troop moves onward. It depicted a festival held every ninth year in Thebes to commemorate the victory over the yEolians of Arne. Its name was derived from the branches of laurel carried by those who took part in the festivity. Preceded by a boy bearing a heavy symbolic standard, indi- cating the sun, moon, and stars, comes the youthful priest in white who is the leader of the procession, shortly behind whom follow the choir of Theban maidens crowned with laurel, and bearing each a laurel branch as they move onward with supple swing in time to their song. In the hot sun below He the white buildings of the town of Thebes. Originally in the collection of Mr. J. Stewart Hodgson, this fine work passed in 1893 to Mr. George McCulloch, in whose house in Queen's Gate it now hangs. The performance which followed it, "The Music Lesson" (36 X 37, 1877), may be said to have reached the painter's highest standpoint in regard to beauty of line, sensitive model- I So PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. ling, and completion of arrangement. There is no part of this beautiful work but what calls for admiration. The intense sincerity and seriousness of it as a work of fine art, the master- ship evinced in the ordered entanglement of the two beautiful forms, the disposition of the feet, the articulation of the hands, its air of lofty refinement as a thing of beauty, made one feel that, if nothing short of this would satisfy him, his claims not only as an executant but as an artist in every sense were indeed many. It is doubtful whether any English School would have led him, whatever his natural instinct might have been, to this refinement of interpretation, instanced best in France by Cabanel and carried by him to a lofty conclusion in his " La Naissance de Venus," painted in 1870 and now in the Luxembourg. " The Music Lesson " was acquired by the late Mr. C. P. Matthews, from whom it passed in 1891 to its present owner, Mr. Edward M. Denny, and it has been well reproduced in photogravure by the Fine Art Society, who have also recently brought out an admirable reproduction by the same method of the " Herakles and Alcestis." In the "Idyll" (42 X 84, 1881), belonging to Mrs. Watney, the theme adopted is more broadly treated. Here, in an open landscape, are two full-length figures, slightly less than life-size, one in amber, the other in white, reclining at the base of a tree and listening to the piping of a dark-skinned shepherd. The effect of afternoon stillness and the peace of an ideal land is pictured with a full warm light prevailing. This was followed three years later by that precious possession of Sir Cuthbert Ouilter's, in which the effect of a hot southern night in the open air was essayed. Many were the studies LORD LEIGH TON. involved in this work of " Cymon and Iphigenia" (64 x 129, 1884). The painter of "The Music Lesson" had ventured a little higher in the scale of excellence, inasmuch as with the same observance of beauty of form and drapery was linked the attainment of the sombre and delicate tones of advancing night, carried to a greater richness, but not to a more impressive sense of tranquillity, than in the " Summer Moon " ; but the work is altogether one of greater splendour, flooded with the warm light of the afterglow and stilled into the deeps of quiet by the white moon that just appears on the horizon. "Captive Andromache" (77 X 160, 1888) was a composition of formidable difficulties, and may be counted among his greatest achievements. After the death of Hector, Andro- mache was taken captive to Argos, where she was sub- jected to the scornful taunts of those among whom she went to draw water at the Hyperian well. In the picture she stands waiting, her jar at her feet, while others, almost as beautiful as she, are thronging the well. More than twenty figures are in the picture, equal care being shown in the portrayal of each, a proud display of his power of delineating form and of his sense of the dignity of colour. For many years he dwelt on this work. The City of Liverpool at one time entertained its purchase, but it was ultimately secured by Manchester. Three years later appeared "The Return of Persephone' (79 X 59i 1891), in which, as in "Helios and Rhodes," and later in the " Clytie," the expression of strong feeling was added to the many technical difficulties that were surmounted. To the welcome sun Persephone returns, and the yearning i82 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN in the floating figure tells the joy that thrills it. It belongs to Leeds, having been generously presented to that city's gallery by Sir James Kitson. The circular picture of " The Garden of the Hesperides " (66 diameter) followed, which, taken merely as a composition, is one of rare attributes, and its bare outline would only the more fully reveal its excellence in this respect. The beautiful guardians of the tree with the golden apples verily " in a golden land were born." Sumptuous is its colour throughout of raiment, flower, strand, and sea, with a touch, as it were, of magnificence in the lovely forms, in the fulness of life, with the sunlit ripening earth in its perfection around them. The picture belongs to Mr. George McCulloch, who acquired it direct from the painter. The works that have been mentioned were among his more important canvases, but scattered among them through the forty years of his public life were many others, testifying to enormous industry and expenditure of time— works of great beauty, most of them. At times he would find a theme in Scripture. " The Star of Bethlehem (60 x 23, 1862) was the single figure of one of the Magi looking at the glorious effulgency, far more than a star could give, which shines its light upon him. " Jezebel and Ahab encountering Elijah " was seen the following year, then much later the large upright work of "Elijah in the Wilderness" (91 X 81, 1879), which now belongs to the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, followed two years after by Mrs. Dyson Perrins's fine example of " Elisha raising the Son of the Shunammite" (32 X 54). Then in 1892 was displayed the large circular work which Mr. Henry Tate acquired, " And the Sea ft figure tells the joy tlias iUr.i^ ;..iving been generously presented to tha . , / Sir James Kitson. The circular picture o: Garden of the Hesperides " (66 diameter) followed, which, taken merely as a composition, is one of rare attributes, and iis bare outline would only the more fully reveal its excellence in this respect. The beautiful guardians of the tree with the golden apples verily " in a golden land were born." Sumptuous is its colour throughout of raiment, flower, strand, and sea, with a touch, as it were, of magnificence in the lovely forms, in the fulness of life, with the sunlit ripening c.-,rth 'f! its perfection around them. The picture belongs McCull. painter. industry and expenditure of time-works of great, beauty, most of them. At times he would find a theme in Scripture. " The Star of Bethlehem (60 X 23, 1862) was the single figure of one of the Magi looking at the glorious effulgerxy, far more than a star could give, which shines its light upon him. " Jezebel and Ahab encountering Elijah" was seen the following year, then much later the large upright work of " Elijah in the Wilderness" {91 X 81, 1879), which now belongs to the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, followed two years after by Mrs. Dyson Perrins's fine example of " Elisha raising the So; Shunammite" (32 X 54)- Then in 1892 was displayed work which Mr. Henry Tate acquired ANTIGONE. By Lord l.Kir;nTON, f'.K.A. LORD LEIGHTON. ,83 gave up the Dead which were in it " (93 diameter), a work that the painter is said to have reckoned highly, but which, full though it may be of the highest merits from an artistic stand- point, is not possessed of those attributes with which he has taught us to identify him, that charm by their beauty and fascinate by their colour. Of great grace and beauty were the single heads he did, always finished with the perfection of refinement. " Atalanta " (26 X 19, 1893) was one of the latest, belonging now to Mr. H. J. Veitch; "Antigone" (24 x 20, 1882) was another, in the collection now of Mr. Charles Churchill, of Portman Square, and by his kind permission here reproduced ; and " Biodina," "Caterina," " Neruccia " (19 x 16, 1879), are all well known. Beauteous too was the fair head in profile called "A Study," which he gave, I believe, as a marriage gift to the celebrated violinist Lady Halle (Norman-Neruda). The very last of these heads, "A Bacchante" (26 x 21, 1896) and "A Fair Persian" (25 x 19, 1896), were left unfinished, in which condition they present a beauty of a different kind, in so far as they show the sudden and spontaneous thought of the man before his exercise upon them of his power of finish, and which further- more reveal in a technical sense the sound foundation which underlies his work. Of other heads of more modern cast the "Moretta" (20 x 14, 1873) and the " Letty " (18 x 15, 1884) are undoubtedly the ones that most charm by their sweetness and beauty. A fuller glance at his productions in this volume would be impossible. Apart from those that have been mentioned, certain of the remaining works stand out beyond others. " Greek Girls picking up Pebbles by the PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. Sea," owned now by Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, was shown the same year as the " Herakles." A Httle later came the beautiful "Moorish Garden, a Dream of Granada" (41 x 40, 1874), belonging to Sir Joseph W. Pease ; then the tender " Whispers " (48 X 30, 1881), Mrs. Bloomfield Morris's; and the "Bath of Psyche" (75 x 24, 1890), bought by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest Fund. Nor should allusion be omitted to his landscapes, more especially to his sketches and studies done on the spot, which exhibit a spontaneity in their spirit, a dignified sympathy with nature, and a command, as it were, of her moods in the deliberately drawn line and the faithful touch of colour. Of his decorative work other than on canvas the two large semicircular frescoes in South Kensington Museum of the Arts of Peace and War best represent him, and these in their elaborate congregation of figures suggest that nothing in the nature of design could daunt him. Onerous as their carrying out must have been, the ideas and incidents illustrating the subjects must not only have involved much studious arranging in their pictorial aspect, but considerable book study. The Arts of Peace are set amid classic surroundings ; those of War show the picturesque garb of the Middle Ages. Leighton, far from avoiding difficulties in drawing, seems to have courted them, only to surmount them with easy line and with the greatest firmness, yet delicacy, of modelling. Of an erring outline or a false shadow who can convict him ? If anything in his work appear suggestive of either, would it not be prudent to pause and to remember the known conscientious devotion he had to form, consecrating his intellectual faculties, it may be said, to its realization, and to reverently conclude that LORD LEIGHTON. 185 what he pictured is in accord with what he saw. And in the spirit which he aimed to convey in his works, study after study, in black and white and in colour, came into being with diligent persistence, each one nearer to his ideal than the last, until the final chord was touched. This may be noted in very many of his works by a due observance of his sketches and studies. The latest, the " Clytie " (61 x 53, 1896), may be instanced. He appears in this work to have got the last expression of it very much as some great composer seeks until he finds, after many ineffectual endeavours, the one right and e.xpressive note : posture after posture, outstretched arms a little more lifted, the glorious head a little farther thrown back, until at last the .spirit of supplication, as far as human embodiment could express it, was reached on that memorable canvas which proved to be his last work at an Academy exhibition. The picture never reached what Leighton woMld call completion, but what it loses in the accustomed fine finish it gains in spirituality, possessing in that direction a rare and almost unrivalled excellence amongst his works, for he gives you form in its most graceful aspects, movement with the most accomplished hand, grouping with the suavity begotten of long experience, but passion seldom. It is well he has left this example behind him, for it shows that he had what he was least suspected of having in any marked degree, and which with a singular reticence he seldom showed. With his accomplished gifts, and immense experience in design, and facility in drawing, his life's work yet bears throughout, if any man's ever did, the humble acknowledgment that no royal road exists to the attainment of excellence; but that patience, time, sincerity, and sustained enthusiasm must 24 i86 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. be the allies of a man, however gifted, who would impress himself upon his age. Doing much good and substantial work before the appear- ance of " Israel in Egypt," it was, however, reserved for that picture (53 X 125, 1867), Sir Edward Poynter being then but thirty-one, to draw universal attention to him. In sight of pleasant villas, with their quiet gardens, in which people are seen taking their walks, a terrible spectacle of human toil is witnessed. According to those most conversant with Egyptian antiquities, the great oppressor of the Hebrews was Rameses II. Seti, his father, may have been the originator of the scheme for crushing them by hard usage ; but it was continued under his son, for monuments show that he erected his buildings chiefly by forced labour; countless structures, excavations, obelisks, colossal statues, sphinxes, and other great works, with which Egypt was adorned from one end to the other, having been constructed during his reign, which lasted for sixty-seven years. The painter had given us nothing before, nor has he given us anything since, at all approaching this work in historical drama, complicated action, and abundant incident. The floor itself over which the huge monumental lion is being drawn, must have been stone of much solidity, laid presumably by the Israelites, or otherwise the enormous weight would assuredly have crushed anything which required so much human effort to move it. The labour of moving was performed, it seems, with processional pomp : a phalanx of Egyptian soldiers marches in attendance, and men in high stations are borne in litters, canopied from the sun's hot rays ; but the oppressed race are not so canopied. In the full heat of the burning noon they SlJi EDWARD POYNTER. ig? pull and push and strain in their effort, as the lash of the Egyptian descends upon them to keep them to their toil. "They made their lives bitter with hard bondage: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour." The spirit of movement is secured in the work ; the animation alike of the persecuted people and of the persecutors is unfalteringly sustained throughout, and each group seems to show the accomplished anatomical knowledge of the painter in its display of the human form. Thirty years have passed since this work was on the Academy walls, but it is unquestionably the work that has identified itself most closely with the painter's name and career. It was acquired by the late Sir John Hawkshaw, from whom it descended to his son Mr. J. C. Hawkshaw, who now owns it. It was last publicly seen at the Guildhall, where it appeared in the exhibition of 1894. "The Catapult" (61 x 72) was painted the following year (1868), but naturally it did not touch as the work of the previous year had touched the popular mind. It recorded with something of parallel the forces at work among the ancients. The catapult, or tormentum, was constructed to shoot heavy bolts and other large projectiles, some of which were ingot- shaped and sharpened at both ends. Those in Greece were often inscribed with a word which signified "receive this," as may be seen on several leaden specimens which have been found in making excavations. In the picture an incident in the siege of Carthage is shown, and the huge machine is being worked by Roman soldiery. The research and study apparent in the work are great, and there is much to gain by a close examination of it, the scene outside the region of the catapult 1 88 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. displaying the walls of the attacked city, and the destruction that has already been effected by the besiegers, whose other catapults can be seen in position, evincing the study which the painting of such a work costs. It is now in the possession of Sir Joseph W. Pease, of Gainsborough, Yorkshire. Shortly after this he accepted a commission from Lord Wharncliffe to decorate the billiard-room at Wortley Hall, Sheffield, and four canvases, each about 56 X 168 inches, were executed: "The Dragon of Wantley," " Perseus and Andromeda," " Nausicaa and her Maidens," and " Atalanta's Race." The first-named is identified with the district in which Wortley Hall is situated, and depicts the fight between More of More Hall and the dragon, as recorded in the Percy Reliques ; the landscape, with its long range of low hills, is said to be a literal rendering of the spot which local tradition states was the roving place of the dragon. The last-named appeared on the Academy walls in 1876, the same year as Leighton's " Daphnephoria." The running figure of Milanion, excellent as it is in its rapid tread, is surpassed in skill by the suddenly arrested form and circling garments of Atalanta, who stays in her course to pick up the golden apple her competitor has thrown down. Many had been the suitors who had failed to outrun her, and had died unrevenged ; but this one, with the help of the golden fruit which Venus had given him, defeats her in the race, and weds her according to the law. The race is seen in its full career, but in the skilful design the goal also is seen, with its semicircle of judges. The picture greatly advanced the painter's reputation, and he was called to full membership of the Academy the same year. SIR EDWARD POYNJ-RR. igg "A Visit to Esculapius " (72 X 96, 1880), in grace of line and quiet harmony of colour, must take high rank among the painter's works. It was purchased by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest Fund, and it is deposited in South Kensington Museum. The refinement and repose in the picture are most marked, and, with its numerous tree trunks and umbrageous leafage, its severe columns and sculptured stonework, it possesses a stately dignity in keeping with the goddess and her three daintily limbed companions, who, in quest of cure, wait on the aged physician. Much patient toil is in the background, which, though admirable in its detail, in no way disturbs, but, on the contrary, enhances, the four gracefully poised figures that stand nude in this quiet space of flowers and white-winged birds. It is said that the subject was suggested to the painter by Mr. J. P. Heseltine, who has a small water-colour drawing of it. His latest work of large size was " The Meeting of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba," which was not exhibited at the Academy, but at Mr. Maclean's in the Haymarket, 1890, and is now in the public gallery at Sidney, New South Wales. Sir Frederick Wigan has the small finished study of the picture which was shown in the Academy of 1891. The spacious and elaborate interior has been built up with its chairs and pillars, steps and statued lions, from the descrip- tions, meagre as they are, in the First Book of Kings. It was a great undertaking, and the result is a gorgeous spectacle. Very many works smaller in size than those which have been noticed, but none the less sincere in aim, have tgo -PAINTIKG IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. marked his career. 1862 was his second appearance on the Academy walls, in one of those Egyptian subjects which culminated in the " Israel in Egypt." A subject was seized when in 1864 the skeleton of a soldier in full armour was reported as having been discovered in the excavations which were being carried on near the Herculaneum Gate, at Pompeii. In the terror which filled the city when the terrible eruption of Vesuvius took place, which involved the total destruction of Pompeii, this Roman sentry, so it was imagined, had been forgotten ; no order had been received by him to quit his post, and while the burning liquid streamed around him, he sought not his safety in flight, but remained at his post. The painter entitled the picture "Faithful unto Death." It is now in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (45 X 29, 1865). " A Suppliant to Venus " was another beautifully finished example, exhibited in 1871, and until recently in the posses- sion of the late Mr. William Brockbank. One of the most charming of his smaller works is the one owned by Sir Cuthbert Quilter, " Under the Sea Wall," and by his kind permission it is reproduced. The innocence and grace, the prettiness and simplicity of maidenhood are in this little gem of work ; and its appreciative possessor at once detected its merit. The cool sea air blowing from over the steps, the sedate contentment in the gentle figure, with the divided pomegranate (two more at hand, should the sweet lips need them), and the stately solidity of the marble surround- ings, all unite in making the picture one of most acceptable attributes. Any room once having this picture in it would miss 190 ■PAINTIKG IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. marked his career. 1862 was his second appearance on the Academy walls, in one of those Egyptian subjects which culminated in the " Israel in Egj^pt." A subject was seized when in 1864 the skeleton of a soldier in full armour was reported as having been discovered in the excavations which were being carried on near the Herculaneum Gate, at Pompeii. In the terror which filled-the city when the terrible eruption of Vesuvius took place, which involved the total destruction of Pompeii, this Roman sentry, so it was imagined, had been forgotten ; no order had been received by him to quit his post, and while the burning liquid streamed around him, he sought not his safety in flight, but remained at his post. The painter entitled the picture " Faithful unto Death." It is now in the Walktr Art Gallery, Liverpool (45 X 29, 1865). '■ A Suppliant to Venus " was another beautifully finished example, exhibited in 1871, and until recently in the posses- sion of the late Mr. William Brockbank. One of the most charming of his smaller works is the one owned by Sir Cuthbert Quilter, " Under the Sea Wall," and by his kind permission it is reproduced. The innocence and grace, the prettiness and simplicity of maidenhood are in this little gem of work ; and its appreciative possessor at once detected its merit. The cool sea air blowing from over the steps, the sedate contentment in the gentle figure, with the divided pomegranate (two more at hand, should the sweet lips need them), and the stately solidity of the marble surround ings, all unite in making the picture one of most accepuble attributes. Any room once having this picture in it would miss UNDER THE SES WALL. By Sir E. J. POYNTER. P.R.A. S/J? EDJVARD POYNTER. 191 it if it went away. " High Noon " is one also that belongs to the category of the best of his small examples, and is a beautiful study of the youthful nude. There is a wonderful charm in the truth of the lissome figure that owes much to the absence of any attempt at idealism. It is just the example which would find its way into such a collection as that of Mr. James Knowles, who is its fortunate possessor. Interspersed with all those which have been mentioned have been others of considerable note, too numerous to specially speak of One of the most remarkable canvases, and one which called for much commendation by reason of the difficulties that were courted in its composition, was " The Ides of March" (59 x 43, 1883), now in the possession of the Man- chester Art Gallery. It shows the house of Julius C:esar the night before his assassination, and pillared court and palatial exteriors are illumined in tragic sort, either by the keen but fitful lamplight, or by the ominous comet, to which the wife of Csesar warningly points. Too little is thought of this picture ; in its architectural details it is one of laborious study, and in its mysterious lighting it seems to portend the coming tragedy. A life of sound study, patient labour, and activity in any direction that might advance the art of the country, pointed to this accomplished painter as the fitting successor to the late Lord Leighton and Sir John Millais in the Presidency of the Royal Academy, and he was elected to that position in November 1896. "The Pyrrhic Dance," exhibited at the Academy in 1869, was the earliest work that brought Tadema prominently into notice in this country, and four years later this eminent 192. PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. Hollander, pupil of Baron Leys, became a British subject, and as such his work appears in the present volume. " The Pyrrhic Dance" (i6 x 32), in the collection of Mr. Charles Gassiot, pointed at something more than painting, something with which the Academy walls were at that time unfamiliar, with which, in fact, art up to that time had not ventured seriously to associate itself There was an element in it separate from painting, an archa;ologicaI knowledge drawn evidently from the earliest authentic sources direct from monument or statue, terra- cotta figures, or antique bronzes, with the result that in place of the conventional garb in which an artist had hitherto been wont to attire the ancients, we saw veritably before us greave and shield, helmet and .spear, together with the dress and headgear of an ancient Greek audience, presum- ably as like the thing itself as deep investigation and study could make it. It was a warlike dance of the Greeks, this Pyrrhic dance, and one of the oldest, performed by several men in armour who imitated the movements of attack and defence. The importance attached to it in Athens is indicated by the fact of the Athenians making Phrynichso commander-in-chief on account of the skill he displayed in dancing it, and Caligula and Nero bestowed the right of citizenship upon those Ephebje who danced it with grace and skill. The painter has caught their action as they pass before some of the chief of the audience. Despite their great bronze helmets and other heavy armour, they move easily, as if they scarcely felt the weight of their accoutrements, their active steps throwing up the sand in small clouds about their feet. Un Jongleur," which appeared (he following year, a small 192 r.MXTIXG AV rUF. QUEEN'S REIGX. Hollander, pupil of Baron Leys, became a British subject, m ■ as such his work appears in the present volume. " The Pyrrhic Dance" {i6 x 32), in the collection of Mr. Charles Gassiot. pointed at something more than painting, something ^\': whii ii the Academy walls were at that time unfamiliar, \ . which, in fact, art up to that time had not ventured serioush to associate itself. There was an element in it separate from painting, an archaeological knowledge drawn evidently from the earliest authentic sources direct from monument or statue, terra- cotta figures, or antique bronzes, with the result that in place of the conventional garb in which an artist had hitherto been wont to attire the ancients, we saw veritably before us greave and shield, helmet and spciir, together with the dress and headgear of an .incient Greek audience, "r- ; ably as like the thing itself as deep investigation could make it. It was a warlike dance o'l' this Pyrrhic dance, and one of the oldest, several men in armour who imitated the attack and defence. The importance attached tu .ens is indicated by the fact of the Athenians making Phr\ aiohso commander-in-chief on account of the skill he displayed in dancing it, and Caligula and Nero bestowed the right of citizenship upon those Epheba; who danced it with grace and skill. The painter has caught their action as they pass before some of the chief of the audience. Despite their great bronze helmets and other heavy armour, they move easily, as if they scarcely felt the weight of their accoutrements, their active steps throwing up the sand in small clouds about their feet. Un Jongieur," which appeared the following year, a small ALMA TADEiMA. 193 upright work, now in the possession of Mr. Stephen Holland, by whose kindness it is here reproduced, possessed also rare characteristics. The painter was scarcely thirty-four when this was painted. The eye is dazzled with the row of brightly lit Corinthian capitals, faultless in contour, and sees not at first the elaborate ceiling to the left, as it spaces itself out with elegant design in the charm of cool shadow. Whence did the ceiling come? for it looks right enough, and is, I doubt not, based on investigated fact. The witnesses of this juggling per- formance are in shadow ; the juggler himself, a lithe and almost nude figure, is in the full light. In 1867, being then but thirty-one, he had conceived and painted that subject which lent itself so much to the dramatic, the Emperor Claudius being found by the Roman soldiery and populace secreted behind a curtain. He entitled it " Claudius." The Marquis de Sauturce became its possessor, but I am not aware who now owns it. The painter applied himself to the subject again four years later, and entitled this version of it "A Roman Emperor." It is 33 x 68, and is now in the Walters Collection at Baltimore. Nine years later, in 1880, a third version came from his hand, about 10 X 20; this he called " Ave Csesar, lo Saturnalia," and it is now in the possession of Mrs. Dyson Perrins, of Cornwall Gardens. There is more active drama in this subject than in any other work that Tadema has undertaken. Having killed Caligula and his family, the Pretorian soldiers have returned to the palace accom- panied by civilians of both sexes, to ascertain if any of the Imperial family have been overlooked, and they discover Claudius ignominiously hiding behind a heavy curtain. A soldier (strange 194 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. to observe, with no weapon in his hand) draws back the curtain and makes an ironical obeisance. Expecting instant death, the affrighted Claudius, to his astonishment, is carried off to Mount Aventinus and proclaimed Emperor, not by the will of the people, but of the soldiers. Instead of making a large display of space, which indeed would have been far from out of accord with so momentous an historical subject, the painter has con- centrated the numerous fine elements of the work into the narrowest limits, and the picture is consequently full to the brim. The assurance that comes of knowledge or of well calculated probability takes from the work any hesitating touch, and it becomes the achievement palpably of a man who knows, one who can learn little from any living man, and who relies for his design and costume entirely on such relics of the past as he can handle or study ; but then again the love and mastery of archjeological detail would carry him very little distance without the high qualities he possesses as a painter, and these are displayed nowhere in a greater degree than in the three portrayals of this subject, the last-named of which, " lo Saturnalia," being perhaps, though the smallest, the most meritorious in this respect. The life of the ancient Egyptians had had a great attraction for him in the earlier portion of his career. " Egyptians Three Thousand Years Ago," painted when he was twenty-seven and suggested by a wall-painting in the British Museum ; " An Egyptian at his Doorway," " The Grand Chamberlain of Sesostris," and "The Death of the Firstborn" were of this class, but they were all surpassed in 1874 by the little work of " Joseph, Overseer of Pharaoh's Granaries." Joseph has 194 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. to observe, with no weapon in his hand) draws back the curtain and makes an ironical obeisance. Expecting instant death, the affrighted Claudius, to his astonishment, is carried off to Mount Aventinus and proclaimed Emperor, not by the will of the people, but of the soldiers. Instead of making a large display of space, which indeed would have been far from out of accord with so momentous an historical subject, the painter has con- centrated the numerous fine elements of the work into the narrowest limits, and the picture is consequently full to the brim. The assurance that comes of knowledge or of well calculated probability takes from the work any hesitating touch, and it becomes the achievement palpably of a man who knows, one who can learn little from any living man, and who relies for his design and costume entirely on such relics of the past as he can handle or study ; but then again the love and mastery of archaeological detail would carry him very little distance without the high qualities he possesses as a painter, and these are displayed nowhere in a greater degree than in the three portrayals of this subject, the last-named of which, " lo Saturnalia," being perhaps, though the smallest, the most meritorious in this respect. The life of the ancient Egyptians had had a great attraction for him in the earlier portion of his career. " Egyptians Three Thousand Years Ago," painted when he was twenty-seven and suggested by a wall-painting in the British Museum ; " An Eg)'ptian at his Doorway," " The Grand Chamberlain of Sesostris," and "The Death of the Firstborn" were of this class, but they were all surpassed in 1874 by the little work of " Joseph, Overseer of Pharaoh's Granaries." Joseph has ALMA TADEMA. often been painted during the last tiiree centuries, but never so near to what he probably was as this. I have tried on more than one occasion to obtain the loan of this picture for the Guildhall, so that people might be shown the effect that fine art and great learning can have one upon another ; but owing on one occasion to the heavy duty payable on its return to America, and on another to the illness of Mr. Vanderbilt, its owner, who, I may say, is not at all averse to lending it, it has never yet been acquired. There sits Joseph, on a small authoritative dais, the conscientious overseer, simple of mien, yet not devoid of dignity ; he is listening to the account of sales which a scribe is reading to him, while the money received for the stored-up wheat lies ready to be counted on the floor, where also are deposited samples of the grain he is about to judge. There is an old-world look about this picture to a degree that can be applied to no other of the painter's works. The deliberative business-like air of Joseph, his straight black hair, curious garb, and staff of office, bring the Scriptural record very realistically home. Joseph was about thirty when he was taken into favour, upon his wise interpretation of the king's dream. During the seven years of plenty and the seven years afterwards of dearth, he was engaged in supervising, first the collection and subsequently the distribution of the grain necessary to feed the people. In the picture he may be taken at about middle age. He had at that time married Asenath, daughter of Poti-Pherah, Priest of On. By the kindness of the owner and the painter I have been permitted to reproduce this gem of work in the present volume. I believe it was the last of his Egyptian pictures. The English people, I fancy I once 196 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. heard him say, did not care for them; but that a great painter with so singular a power of interpreting this fascinating page of ancient history should be led to forsake it is a matter of wonder to many as it is assuredly a loss to art. In 1870, before he had abandoned his Egyptian pieces, he essayed a great processional work, " The Vintage Festival," in which, in garb, headgear, and accessory, a vast amount of solid learning is perceived. Similar somewhat in character there followed "The Picture Gallery" in 1874, "The Sculpture Gallery" in 1875 (now the property of Mr. G. McCulloch), "Hadrian visiting a Romano-British Pottery," 1884 (since divided by its owner, I believe, into three or four separate pictures), and "The Women of Amphissa," 1887-the last- named silvery grey in tone, and of much beauty and tender- ness ; it is owned by Mrs. Thwaites, of Addison Road. Scattered about the market-place are the beautiful women sacred to Dionysus : seized with religious frenzy during the holy war that followed the taking of Delphi, they have unconsciously strayed during the night into the hostile city of Amphissa. Fearing they might suffer insult or injury, the women of the city hastened to the spot, and stood around the sleepers until they awoke, when they tended them, gave them food, and afterwards led them safely from the city to the boundaries of their own land. The market-place of the Grecian city affords scope for the display of the painter's exceptional power of painting marble, its solidity, and the sensitive tones of its surface. Others also of note belonged to this class. "Water Pets," painted in 1874, should be mentioned (26 X 56), once in the collection of the late Arthur ALMA TADEMA. 197 Anderson. This shows a Roman lady, in dark blue tunic and light blue underdress, lying at full length on yellow cushions, feeding some fish in a tank which is let into the floor. Here the tesselated floor, with many tones and designs, is a feature of the picture. Then " After the Dance," which belongs now to Mr. H. F. Makins, and painted in 1876, shows as fine a painting of flesh as Tadema has ever done ; the beautiful indolence of the Bacchante's form against the black skin on which she lies with the seemingly living blood coursing through the veins from the exertion of the recent dance is a triumph alike of idea and of technique. That jewel of the connoisseur "A Hearty Welcome" (12 x 36), owned by Sir Henry Thompson (the happy possessor also of the " Tarquinius Superbus" of 1867), was shown in 1879. Who can forget the cool and airy court of poppies, sunflowers, palms, and vines in which the blue-clad child clasps her mother, whose entry from the burning sun is heartily welcomed ? The rich architectural construction, the sanded walk, the shine and shadow that play about, and the distant buildings white against the intense blue of the noonday sky, seem to speak of the ordered home life prevailing in a restful land. "Is not that enough ? " said Tadema, when, having secured this work for an exhibition at the Guildhall, I wanted another example as well. In 1888 he astonished every one with his daring work "The Roses of Heliogabalus " (52 x 84), the property now of Mr. John Aird. Heliogabalus, Roman Emperor at the age of thirteen, a.d. 218, rendered himself odious and contemptible by his follies and vices. In the picture a heavy canopy has been loosened, and roses in smothering profusion have 1 98 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. descended unexpectedly on a gay company. The scene is one from which any artist might shrink instead of courting. The eye for unity in such a design must be a practised one, and when it is observed that there is no generalization in dealing with the fallen leaves, but that each rose and rose-leaf is dexterously manipulated, the labour involved in the work may be surmised. But the eye, not without a sense of relief wanders from the crimson blooms to the cool and stately marble architecture and the copious incidental touches de- pendent on the painter's imagination, and dwells with admira- tion on the sound knowledge with which the attire, ornaments, and varied dressing of the hair, particularly of the rose- encumbered guests, have been portrayed. He produced about the same time " A Dedication to Bacchus," a large work of many figures. This was not shown at the Academy, but exhibited by itself The classic genre which has come with something akin to profusion of late years from his hand lacks, of course, the learning that characterized his earlier work ; there is little, alas ! of the painter of " Joseph," for instance, in the painter of "Expectation" (12 x 23) or "He loves me, loves me not" (12 X 23), but these and suchlike are charming works, the technique of which, of course, leaves nothing to be desired. The former was in the collection of the late Sir Julian Goldsmid, and realized at his death last year upwards of two thousand guineas. Over the blue water, from the distant town, comes the frail craft which the young girl is expecting ; she sits, in white, in a semicircular marble recess, shading her eyes, and marking with gladness the course the small red sail C98 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S KEIGN descended unexpectedly on a gay company. The scene is one from which any artist might shrink instead of courting. The eye for unity in such a design must be a practised one! and when it is observed that there is no generalization in dealing with the fallen leaves, but that each rose and rose-leaf is dexterously manipulated, the labour involved in the work may be surmised. But the eye, not without a sense of relief, wanders from the crimson blooms to the cool and stately marble architecture and the copious incidental touches de- pendent on the painter's imagination, and dwells with admira- tion on the sound knowledge with which the attire, ornaments, and varied dressing of the hair, particularly of the rose- encumbered guests, have been portrayed. He produced about the same time "A Dedication to Bacchus," a large work of many figures. This was not shown at the Ac:^demy, l>ut exhibited by itself The classic genre which has come with something akin to profusion of late years from his hand lacks, of course, the learning that characterized his earlier work ; there is little, alas ! of the painter of " Joseph," for instance, in the painter of "Expectation" (12 X 23) or "He loves me, loves me not" (12 X 23), but these and suchlike are charming works, the technique of which, of course, leaves nothing to be desired. The former was in the collection of the late Sir Julian Goldsniid, and realized at his death last year upwards of two thousand guineas. Over the blue water, from the distant town, comes the frail craft which the young girl is expecting ; she sits, in white, in a semicircular marble recess, shading her eyes, and marking with gladness the course the small red sail ALMA TADEMA. is taking. It is the property of Mr. T. F. Blackwell, by whose kind permission and with the concurrence of the painter a reproduction is here given. " He loves me, loves me not," is veritably an elegant gem, a little smaller than the "Ex- pectation," and has been most admirably etched by Leopold Lowenstam and published by Mr. Stephen T. Gooden. Its owner is that possessor of gems Mr. James Mason. These classic genre works with some human meaning readily inter- pretative are sometimes, however, on larger canvases ; Mr. Denny, of Bryanston Square, has a beautiful example, and Mr. Alfred Palmer, of Reading, owns the " Earthly Paradise," the mother bending over her babe, "All the heaven of heavens in one little child," as the painter quotes beneath the picture. Prolific in production, the painter's contribution to the art of the present reign is a remarkable one. There are works whose chief example is the "Joseph," others that follow "The Vintage Festival" or "The Women of Amphissa," and others of the type of "He loves me, loves me not," or Mr. McCulloch's most beautiful possession, " Love's Jewelled Fetter" (25 x 18), the red azalea in the foreground of which is an achievement of loving patience and dexterity. In each category beyond those works which have been specifically noticed are others too numerous to mention, but each displays with conscientious industry, if not always the wide archjeological knowledge of the man, the dexterous designer and the sound and accomplished executant. Waterhouse was scarcely thirty-four when " The Favourites of the Emperor Honorius " was produced by him. It showed a very original way of deeding with an historical record, and 200 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. in its search for truth in regard to detail came very near to what might have been expected from Tadema. Honorius, as history tells us, was a man without passions and without talents, incapable alike of discharging the duties of his position- or of enjoying the pleasures of his age. In his early youth he rode and drew the bow, but soon relinquished these occupations as fatiguing, and the amusement of feeding poultry became his serious and daily care. The painter shows him at this occu- pation, with his secretaries standing round, waiting his attention on matters of state, in which he exhibits little concern. What is so pleasing in the picture is the sense of air and space, and yet the whole canvas is amply occupied with interesting features upon which the eye dwells with interest, each pomt holding its own towards the chief figure that sits in the most natural of attitudes to the left of the picture. The relationship to all surrounding objects of this seated figure is cleverly con- ceived and skilfully carried through ; no line jars the eye, and no mass but what falls well into its place. The work made, and properly so, a considerable impression at the Academy m 1883. It is now in the Art Gallery of the City of Adelaide, South Australia. Five years before, attention had been drawn to his picture of an historical subject, "The Remorse of Nero after the Murder of his Mother," and in 1885 the tragic snow picture of " St. Eulalia," now in the possession of Mr. Tate, further emphasized his capacity of dealing with recorded incidents, which received yet a further illustration in 1887, by the "Mariamne" (105 X 72), in the collection now of Sir Cuthbert Quilter. In this work he shows the beautiful wife of Herod JOHN WILLIAM WATEIillOUSE. 20i descending a flight of marble steps on her way to execution. It represented the painter at the Chicago Exhibition in 1893, and at the Brussels Exhibition of the present year. Many works since, however, have had nothing of so definite a character to go upon, and may be said to be of a class peculiarly the painter's own ; one of the earliest of these was "Consulting the Oracle" (48 X 78), painted in the year following the " Honorius." True the painter had read that in ancient times the oracle, or teraph, was a human head cured with spices and fixed to a wall, with lamps lit before it and other rites performed, and that the imagina- tion of diviners was wont to be so excited that they supposed that they heard a low voice speak of future events ; and he portrays a superstitious company of women seated in a semi- circle, and one with timorous poise and eager ear is in the act of consulting the mysterious presence. It is a richly coloured work, apart from the dramatic character of the subject. Being in the collection of Mr. Tate, it will shortly become the property of the nation. Two years later, in 1886, the picture of spirited action and weird conception "The Magic Circle " was seized upon by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest, from which fund it was purchased. It is a fine imaginative work ; the sputtering fire that follows the course of the weapon's point upon the ground is of striking effect, and in entire accord with the aspect of the animated figure, fiercely tragic in its lonely mystery. With "The Lady of Shalott " of 1888 (56 X 78), bought by Mr. Tate, I never thought the painter was wholly at ease; it is the phase of the poem which has been the most frequently treated, the drifting boat with its 26 202 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. love-lorn occupant. It was far surpassed in 1894 by the " Web " scene from the same poem (56 x 32), a subject fraught with difficulty to the artist, but possessing fascinating elements for composition — a loom, a coloured web, a mirror. When Holman Hunt essayed a design for this position, published in the Tennyson illustrated volume of i860, he pictured the lady endeavouring to avert her eyes from look- ing " down on Camelot," but Waterhouse seizes the point of climax, and shows her turning away from the mirrored figure of the passing knight and gazing out upon the very " helmet and the plume." Is not the magic web intended to be the interpretation of the aspect of this world and its affairs as they are mirrored in the mind of an innocent girl, delighting in the weaving of her own thoughts and reflec- tions around the sights she sees, which to her seem magical in their beauty and novelty, until the passion of love dawns, and, " half sick of shadows," she encounters the realities of life ? The painter has not dealt too literally with the loom ; one or two of the magic sights are suggested. Like Holman Hunt, he shows in the glass the passing figure of Sir Lancelot. The composition is greatly aided by the design of the floor. The City of Leeds now possesses this example in its public gallery, having acquired it by purchase, and by the kind permission of the Corporation of Leeds it is reproduced in this work. Two subjects have been painted incident to the sorceress Circe. The one belonging to Mrs. Charles E. Lees (58 X 36, 1891) was shown at the New Gallery ; we see her seated in a golden chair, with head thrown back and both arms uplifted, a cup in one hand and a 202 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. love-lorn occupant. It was far surpassed in 1894 by the "Web" scene from the same poem (56 X 32), a subject fraught with difficulty to the artist, but possessing fascinating elements for composition — a loom, a coloured web, a mirror. When Holman Hunt essayed a design for this position, published in the Tennyson illustrated volume of i860, he pictured the lady endeavouring to avert her eyes from look- ing " down on Camelot," but Waterhouse seizes the point of climax, and shows her turning away from the mirrored figure of the passing knight and gazing out upon the very " helmet and the plume." Is not the magic web intended to be the interpretation of the aspect of this world and its -rs .IS they are mirrored in the mind of tin innocent girl, in the weaving of htr own thoughts and rcf'.i • ■ , . . ! - jiid the sights she sees, which to he'- • '-r^ v. >il in their beauty and novelty, until the passion -wns, and, " half sick of shadows," she encounters the realities of life? Tlje painter htis not dealt too literally with the loom ; one or two of the magic sights are suggested. Like Holman Hunt, he shows in the glass the passing figure of Sir Lancelot. The composition is greatly aided by the design of the floor. The City of Leeds now possesses this example in its public gallery, having acquired it by purchase, and by the kind permission of the Corporation of Leeds it is reproduced in this work. Two subjects have been painted incident to the sorceress Circe. The one belonging to Mrs. Charles E. Lees (58 X 36, 1891) was shown at the New Gallery ; we see her seated in a golden chair, with head thrown back and both arms uplifted, a cup in one hand uid a JOHN WILLIAM U'ATEIillOUSE. 203 wand in the other, and a circular mirror is behind her, from the base of which on either side the swine are seen. The " Circe invidiosa," a narrow upright picture, appeared the year following, and shows her poisoning the sea where Scylla was wont to bathe. Each exhibits the painter's feeling for and power over the variations of deep greens and blues that are characteristically his. Now getting a hint from classic ground and now from English verse, his work ever bears the stamp of enthusiasm and earnestness, and it is never other than his own spontaneous creation. The smaller work of " La Belle Dame sans Merci " (43 x 32, 1893), owned by Mr. G. Woodiwiss, of Bath, is certainly a gem of passionate expression, and a delightful combination of greens, purples, and greys, with just a clever dash of crimson in the knight's scarf Two of his latest works will be remembered perhaps among his greatest, for considerable advance is manifest in both, alike in complicated design and in poetic feeling. The first, " St. Cecilia," in 1S95, is abundantly full of rich and varied colour. He has taken a more broadened view than Rossetti took in that little miracle of design of his in the illustrated Tennyson. The angel is not drawing her backwards in saluta- tion as in Rossetti's, but is kneeling with others before her as she sits " near gilded organ pipes," in a garden plenteous in flowers. The picture became Mr. McCulloch's before it left the painter's studio, and now adorns the dining-room of that well known patron's newly erected house. The other work, the " Hylas and the Nymphs," sagaciously purchased by the City of Manchester last year, appears on the Academy walls in the present season of 1897. It is one of his com- 204 FAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. pletest works, and full of sweetness. The simple look with which one of the nymphs offers some pebbles in her pretty hand as an inducement for Hylas to enter the water has great charm, and the ivory necks and shoulders that are seen above the water in their accomplished modelling shine out against the tangled mass of leaf and water-lily, made all the more beautiful by the sweet and winsome expression that, not without a touch of wonder, is on the countenances of all. Waterhouse's works may be suggested or stimulated by fact or legend, but he has contributed in a distinctly original form to the poetic art of the reign. 1877 was the year in which Frank Dicksee's work first made a distinct impression on the public mind. "Harmony" (64 X 37) was the very appropriate tide which this medieval organ, its fkir player, and its handsome ardent listener bore. Through a high narrow stained-glass window the evening light poured its rich effect, but there was nothing meretricious about the work. The painter was scarcely twenty-four, but the result of sound training was perceived: good drawing and skilful arrangement, and a becoming modesty of theme, set in early Florentine times, entided it to conspicuous notice, and it was promptly secured by the Chantrey Bequest Trustees ; a replica being painted afterwards, I believe, for the Duke of Connaught, who had desired to purchase the original. His scholarly drawing and sound management of colour, united to a marked instinct for grace of composition and completeness of design, have fitted the painter for the achievement of work of a high order ; and one of the elements of beauty in his pictures, to the artistic sense at least, is the evidence of the unhesitating hand, and of FRANK DICKSEE. 205 the self-reliance which only thoroughly good training and experience can give. There is no work of his that does not display these admirable characteristics. " A Love Story," or " Love's Whisper," as it is now called (40 X 59). belonging to Mr. Stephen Holland — a moonlight effect with two lovers seated on a massive stone bench — was painted with great power and feeling. Examine the canvas where you will, you encounter nothing except the most substantial workmanship, no part of it being, as it were, out of his reach, but the deliberate and confident touch being apparent throughout. This is seen with equal force in " The Symbol," painted I think the previous year (73 X 56), and owned now by Mr. T. D. Galpin, the rich costumes of the early Florentines once again serving the painter in his ambition for gorgeous hues and gracefulness of garb. 1884 saw one of the loveliest of his works, " Romeo and Juliet " (66 X 46), belonging now to Mr. Charles Churchill. I believe the first thought of this design was a black and white drawing for Cassells. Its development afterwards in colour, with considerable variations, resulted in one of the most attractive renderings, and certainly one of the most skilful designs, of this oft-painted subject. Far behind it come Gabriel Max's, Ford Madox Brown's, and, one might safely say, any other, in the pure and refined beauty of the slender Juliet's form, and the absence in the work of exaggeration in any particular. The position is a perfectly feasible one : no perilous rope-ladder sways from a dizzy height, no arm is stretched meaninglessly out into the air ; the depiction of passion is undisturbed by any of these things, and the beauteous embracing figures, coq- 2o6 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. scious, as the painter has made us also, of the growing hght, the awakening morn upon the distant hills, are as naturally placed as can be. The entire work is as free from error in design and expression as anything the painter has done, and few of his works have equalled it in beauty. But whether it be "Chivalry" (71 x 53, 1885), owned by Mr. John Aird, or the sweet and pensive " Memories " (20 x 36, 1886), belonging to Mr. Gillilan, or the larger works " The Redemption of Tannhauser" or "The Passing of Arthur," the same facility of design and able handiwork are seen ; while in the more recent "Paolo and Francesca da Rimini" (1895), belonging to Mr. D'Arcy, all the strongest points of his work are pre- sented. Exhaustive in colour, its technique is admirable — no mere semblance of a woman's form beneath that green gown is given, but living flesh and blood, so firmly is the contour rendered and so solid is the modelling. Passion is recorded more finely and with more force in this work than in perhaps any the painter has undertaken, and it tells its tale ; the fatal pages of the small illuminated book lying open on the ground CHAPTER VII. Turning again to the landscape painters, a body more numer- ous than any other section of painters, the most prominent figure in this department whose work was making an impress in the early years of the Queen's reign was Thomas Creswick [1811 — 1869]. It must not be forgotten that, at the time he was coming into notice, Turner, Collins, Linnell, and Stark were still on the scene, and by their long years of successful practice were qualified to be, and probably were, dreaded critics of the rising men. Creswick was twenty-six when the Queen came to the throne. He studied Welsh scenery at first, re- ceiving plenteous encouragement ; quiet inland scenes, with running brooks, woody recesses, and sometimes a rocky ravine (always, however, beautified with bough and foliage), were the subjects he most favoured, and in his later works he was aided by John Phillip, Frith, Goodall, Elmore, and Ansdell for the insertion in his landscapes of figures and cattle. In the National Gallery is only one small example (23I x 19^), entitled " The Pathway to the Village Church " ; but in South Kensington Museum are two important works, " Scene on the Tummel, Perthshire," and "A Summer Afternoon." Lord Northbrook has two very fine examples at Stratton : one is " A Weir on the Severn" (47 X 71); the other a stately avenue, with 207 310 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. None the less sincere in their devotion in this respect were Harding and Willcock. The latter, George Barrett Willcock [1811 — 1852], comparatively little known, studious and true, and only just falling out from the first rank, has in recent years found a place in the National Gallery, in a small work (23 X 19) entided " Chilston Lane, Torquay." From the manner of his work, and the absence in it of any mere- tricious effect, it is easily believed that more often than not he completed his work on the spot. A larger example than the one just noticed, "A Devonshire IVIill " (25 x 30), is in the possession of Mr. Reginald Vaile, and records, but in gentler and tenderer manner, the close application and care of Patrick Nasmyth or Stark. The last-named painter was Willcock's friend, and encouraged him doubtless in this close study of nature. James Duffield Harding [1798 — 1863] had a distinct en- dowment for composition, and as a landscape painter, in the arrangement of his subjects, the delicacy of his touch, and his clever disposition of light and shade, occupied a distinct position. He painted in both oil and water-colour, and by reason of his special characteristics the reproductions of his works in black and white possess attributes of a peculiarly striking kind. Little known, too, comparatively, is F. W. Watts. Here and there his works are met with, but not often. The best I have seen from his hand is one which was until recently in the possession of Mr. Leggatt, about 40 X 52, entitled " A Mill near Winchester," in which the vigour of Constable, but with gentler touch, is shown. "T-^f- THE LIVERPOOLi SCHOOL. Of men who at various times in this country have been led by sympathy of aim to form themselves into groups, and to attach to themselves the name of "school," such as the Norwich School, that most famous of all such groups, the small concourse of painters who identified themselves with Liverpool should not be lost sight of at this point. It was one of the latest survivals of the social state prevailing in England before the introduction of railways, and the early portion of the Queen's reign saw its gradual decline. It iy impossible not to discern at once in the work of the members of this school an enthusiastic devotion to nature, evidence of much study, but of no anxiety for extraordinary effects, the single eye for truth being the dominant factor in the making of their pictures. How closely Nasmyth, Stark, and the Stannards, with the observance, industry, and patience of Hobbema or Wynants, must have worked direct from nature, to have left the record they have! and little less credit is due to the memory of the members of the Liverpool School, notably to Davis, Tonge, and Huggins, for their conscientious delineation, full of tender feeling, of familiar spots in Cheshire and the adjacent counties, which furnished subjects for them. Their work was well patronized by the wealthy collectors of the neighbourhood, and most of their best examples are scattered within a small radius there now. Davis and Tonga confined themselves to landscape, shore scenes, and the like, but Huggins had a distinct gift for animals and went by the name of the " Liverpool Landseer." One of the best specimens of his work is owned by Mr. Albert Wood, of Conway, and Mr. G. Rae, of Birkenhead, 212 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. has one equally good, entitled "Friends," in which the very nature of the horse, apart from the excellent and difficult drawing, has been acquired. William Davis applied himself almost with Pre-Raphaelite precision to his work, one example m particular, which I remember well at Mr. George Rae's, "The Mersey at Runcorn" (26x44), possessing this characteristic in a remarkable degree, and resembling the late Alfred Hunt's care of detail, but not with the least danger to its atmosphere or breadth. Dark vapours are drifting across the long serried lines of white cloud, and throw upon the still river beneath numberless tones, which appeal to the onlooker not only as correct, but as evidence of the sensitive insight of the painter into the delicate tones and radiant hues which are flung over natural scenery in certain stages of the day's course, and which are not only seen, in this particular instance, in sky and water, but in the broken land, and in the wide expanse of lowland, green with market gardens. This work may be taken as a good example of the kind of subject he more generally favoured ; broad expanses and wide stony wastes, terminating on sea-sands, under the effect of a well lit but clouded sky. "Harrowing" (17 X 26), which has been repeatedly put forward to represent him in various exhibitions, has certainly in it the elements of an important work, but I am inclined to think the sky must have lost something with time. The foreground with the horses and harrower and the rich colour of the earth could not be finer, and remain, I doubt not, as when painted, but the sky is very intense, grown brighter and colder, as if painted with body colour, from which the warmer and harmonizing tones had fled. In F. LEE BRIDELL. 213 Mr. Coltart's collection are also three good examples, one in particular showing the irregular shore of a still-lying lake, with the soft white clouds of morning, through which here and there a glimpse of blue is seen. Davis, oddly enough, at the outset of his career considered that his vocation was portraiture, but his failure in that direction quickly resulted in his finding his true path. Robert Tonge, who, curiously, is unmentioned in Bryan's Dictionary, painted with a freer hand than Davis, and pictures usually small in size. He attained a degree of force at times almost of a Constable. Mr. Coltart has one which distinctly calls to mind this great master of the English School, a little work called " A Peep into Shropshire," painted in 1852, the strength yet tenderness of which show the man's capacity. Another, if I remember aright, also hangs near it, called " Eastham," a luminous little work, wherein foliage is brought down to the water's edge, and a landing-stage with a departing steamer is seen. Sincerity marks the efforts of the men of this school, and intrinsic merit is on the face of all their works. In more modern times the painter who most calls them to mind is R. W. Allan, some of whose oil pictures (for he is also a great worker in water-colours) have in their focus and feeling a curious and most commendable similitude, more especially to Tonge. A painter who showed great promise, and whose natural gifts made up in great measure for his lack of training, was F. Lee Bridell [1831 — 1863]; but his early death, at the age of thirty-two, prevented him from leaving any lengthy record of his talent behind him. Such works as exist show him to have had a very independent outlook on nature, and the possession 214 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. of a poetic feeling for landscape in no small degree. His widow, now Mrs. Bridell Fox, presented, like Mrs. Cecil Lawson, one of her late husband's chief works to the nation, and it worthily occupies a place now in the National Gallery. This is " The Woods of Sweet Chestnut above Varenna, Lake Como " (21 X 58). The wooded slope, the blue depths of the lake to the left, and the intensity of fading light are no less studiously achieved in their conscientious interpretation of nature than in such works as Millais' "Autumn Leaves" or "Vale of Rest," which were painted about the same time. Bridell exhibited but little, and is not therefore so widely known as he should be. The value of his works was tested when some forty examples were sold at Christie's after his death. Some of them realized over ^1,000 each. He had one valuable patron, a Mr. Wolff of Southampton, who gave the name of the " Bridell Gallery " to the collection he had formed of his works. A Mr. S. R. Piatt, of Manchester, had a good example, entitled " Lake Como." Though not of the same minuteness of finish, he in many respects resembled Inchbold, more particularly in his accuracy of natural effect and his insistence upon detail. Not many examples remain of Inchbold, a most earnest student, and he is not known so much as he ought to be ; indeed the public have seen far too little of his work. Immense time must have been expended on every picture of his. I am acquainted with but few, but for these I have the greatest regard. One is the exterior of the ancient wall of Bolton Abbey (19 X 27), belonging to Mrs. Leathart, of Gateshead-on-Tyne ; and another is the exquisite work of tenderest touch recently JOHN WRIGHT OAKES. 215 bequeathed to the National Gallery by Sir John Russell Reynolds. It is called " Moorland, the Dewar Stone," and true as can be is the trailing violet of the thread-like cloud on the clear but quickly passing light of evening. Worthy to rank with the best of the Pre-Raphaelite landscapes is this small gem. The later years of the Queen's reign have brought us, in landscape art, Oakes, Leader Vicat Cole, Cecil Lawson, Birket Foster, and McWhirter ; and still later there have come on the scene David Murray, East, Farquharson, Corbet, Parsons, Thorne Waite, Aumonier, and many others of lesser light perhaps, but of admirable gifts. Oakes [1822 — 1887], although the tender effects of natural scenery occasionally came with apparent readiness to his hand, was more alive to the interpretation of mountain scenery, which in his best works is invested with a distinct feeling of loneliness and grandeur. Wales was the chief scene of his work, although many fine examples have come from over the Border. "Glen Muick," in Aberdeenshire (48 x 60), purchased by the Cor- poration of Manchester for their gallery in 1887, may be taken as a sample of his very best work. The deep spirit of the shadows from the drifting clouds, combined with approaching night, and the stormy murmur of the rushing stream, impart both sombreness and grandeur; and one wonders whither the solitary figure that is seen is wending its way along the lone hillside path. No conventional effect is secured, but a clear aspect of nature in its rugged irregularity ; yet the balance of composition is good ; indeed in this respect, as in colour, no painter is more free from mannerism. He had no recipe for 2i6 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN landscape painting, and while his hand is unmistakable in his works, the truth of nature is plentifully there too. " The evening mists, with ceaseless change, Now clothe the mountains' lofty range, Now leave their foreheads bare, And round the skirts their mantles furl. Or on the sable waters curl. Or on the eddying breezes whirl." The spirit of poetry, such as these lines inspire, is seldom absent from his work, and to this, independently of their sound execution, is owing the strong element of attraction that is found in them. Leader too found his element in Wales, and served a long and patient apprenticeship there in the study of its mountain form, its woodland valley and gurgling streams, until at last he was enabled to record the Welsh scenery almost as easily and as quickly as he could write. The quivering tender leaf, the distant mountain range, come with equal facility to him, and he can command in a remarkable way the clear daylight view without disguise, either of mountain or of more rural scenery. His Welsh scenes have of late years given place to those of the ordinary English countryside, but not entirely, for in 1886 appeared a canvas of abundant evidence of his inborn sympathy with the great beauties of North Wales, in " With Verdure clad," showing the slopes of a mountain (Mod Siabod presumably) clothed down to the very stream's banks with the soft verdure that summer brings, and so full of sun and light and skilful arrangement of its parts and distances that it may be counted as among the finest efforts from his hand in this characteristic direction of his ; and the like high 4,6 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. landscape painting, and while his hand is unmistakable in his works, the truth of nature is plentifully there too. " The evening mists, with ceaseless change, Now clothe the mountains' lofty range, Now leave their foreheads bare, And round the skirts their mantles furl, Or on the sable waters curl, Or on the eddying breezes whirl." The spirit of poetry, such as these lines inspire, is seldom absent from his work, and to this, independently of their sound execution, Is owing the strong element of attraction that is found in them. Leader too found his element in Wales, and served a long and patient apprenticeship there in the study of its mountain form, its woodland valley and gurgling streams, until at last he was enabled to record the Welsh scenery almost as easily and as quickly as he could write. The quivering tender leaf, the distant mountain range, come with equal facility to him, and he can command in a remarkable way the clear daylight view without disguise, either of mountain or of more rural scenery. His Welsh scenes have of late years given place to those of the ordinary English countryside, but not entirely, for in 1886 appeared a canvas of abundant evidence of his inborn sympathy with the great beauties of North Wales, in " With Verdure clad," showing the slopes of a mountain (Moel Siabod presumably) clothed down to the very stream's banks with the soft verdure that summer brings, and so full of sun and light and skilful arrangement of its parts and distances that it may be counted as among the finest efforts from his hand in this characteristic direction of his ; and the like high VIC AT COLE. 217 testimony may be paid to the example owned by Mr. Edward M. Denny, entitled " A Sunny Summer Day," and here by his kind permission reproduced. It was in 1881 that " February Fill Dyke " was painted, wherein, as in several others, taken chiefly from his native county of Worcestershire, notably in " At Evening Time it shall be Light" (46 X Si), he courts the difficult effect of the sunset on rich brown agricultural land, whose ploughed furrows greatly aid the composition and enhance its effect. The first-named picture represents him at the Guildhall Exhibition in the present year, and the latter was exhibited there in 1894. It forms one of the collection of the late Sir John Pender, and a church is introduced, tile-roofed and decayed, with ancient graveyard and spreading yew tree, and over the low flat country the sun brightly sets, its light reflected in the water that stagnates in the furrowed land on which the crow alights. English homesteads too have engaged him, and one, "An April Day," exhibited in 1887, the yet leafless trees and bland spring air ably imparted, has unfortunately been lost to this country by its transmission to Australia. The coast of North Wales with its occasional sand dunes has also engaged him, and here he has successfully attempted sea. He is still a full contributor annually to the Academy. Vicat Cole has left his impress on the reign in regard to landscape in many very beautiful examples, the result of close study in the open air at the outset of his career. A sensitive eye to the many gradations that exist in sunlit foliage, and a confident grasp of form when dealing with far reaches of woodland, as in his " Heart of Surrey," his work is always recognized as true, He was particularly successful in his 2,8 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. painting of ripe corn, seen as well as in any example in his <' Ripening Sunbeams," now in the possession of Lord Brassey. But in such scenes as "Abingdon," where the pearly grey water washes the low banks and the church spire rises above the foliage into the well studied sky, he was equally successful. That he could command considerable force in his work was shown in " The Port of London," which was acquired from the Chantrey Bequest Fund, and it was the withholding, or rather the able control of this power, that brought his landscapes, whether cornfields, river scenes, or woodkmd, to the condition which pleased the eye by its very tenderness, and yet left no consciousness of a want of strength. His works are scattered over the country, and most of the fine collections possess an example. Mrs. Thwaites has "A Thames Backwater," Mr. Sandeman "Summer Rain," Mr. Stephen Holland the scene full of autumn beauty entitled "Autumn Leaves," and Mr. James Taylor, of Rendcomb Park, has a very fine example. His compositions were always cleverly focused, and his technique, though thin, was sound and sufficiently expressive for his purpose. In "Spindrift" one of the most successful atmospheric effects that have come from the hand of McWhirter is seen. It was painted in 1876, but for many years previously, both in Scotland and England, many notable works had been produced by him. "Spindrift" (32 X 56), which means the spray of the sea caught up and whirled away by the wind, was painted in the Isle of Arran, near Loch Range. It was suggested, as so many good pictures are, by an accidental circumstance— the wet seaweed carts on a stormy day coming along the wet road. Against the greyness of the general effect 2i8 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. painting of ripe corn, seen as well as in any example in his " Ripening Sunbeams," now in the possession of Lord Brassey. But in such scenes as "Abingdon," where the pearly grey water washes the low banks and the church spire rises above the foliage into the well studied sky, he was equally successful. That he could command considerable force in his work was shown in " The Port of London," which was acquired from the Chantrey Bequest Fund, and it was the withholding, or rather the able control of this power, that brought his landscapes, whether cornfields, river scenes, or woodland, to the condition which pleased the eye by its very tenderness, and yet left no consciousness of a want of strength. His works are scattered over the country, and most of the fine collections possess an example. Mrs. Thwaites has "A Thames Backwater," Mr. Sandeman ".Summer Rain," Mr. Stephen Holland the scene full of autumn beauty entitled "Autumn Leaves,' and Mr. !:im*;s Taylor, of Rendcomb Park, has a very fine example. His compositions were always cleverly focused, and his technique, though thin, was sound and sufficiently expressive for his purpose. In "Spindrift" one of the most successful atmospheric effects that have come from the hand of McWhirter is seen. It was painted in 1876, but for many years previously, both in Scotland and England, many notable works had been produced by him. "Spindrift" (32 X 56). which means the spray of the sea caught up and whirled away by the wind, was painted in the Isle of Arran, near Loch Range. It was suggested, as so many good pictures are, by an accidental circumstance— the wet seaweed carts on a stormy day coming along the wet road. Against the greyness of the general effect JOHN McWHIRTMR. 219 the rich browns of the load of seaweed are very valuable — form the picture practically — but not the least attractive portion of the canvas is the admirable manner in which the betich of shingle to the right is painted, and then the dreariness and loneliness of the shore, over which the mist of spindrift hangs, give it a character as a work of art which to my eye is extremely attractive. It was once in the late Mr. Edward Hermon's collection, at Wyfold Court, but since 1882 has been in the Royal Holloway College, Egham. "Over the Border" was another not unlike in character, which appeared in 1877, in which over a dreary piece of flat moorland and in a wild and windy sunset a man is racing his horse. His mountain work can be instanced by " Loch Coruisk, Isle of Skye " (48 X 74), " Loch Scavaig, Isle of Skye," belonging to Lord Burton, and by " Ossian's Grave." The last-named, a large upright canvas, 82 X 58, was painted in 1882, and imparts the desolate feeling of the mountain range down which the clouds drift and the winds whistle. A large stone rears itself in the foreground, and gives the picture its title. " By the stone of Mora I shall fall asleep. The winds whistling in my grey hair shall not awaken me. Depart on thy wings, O Wind ! Thou canst not disturb the rest of the Bard." It is now in Mr. Benjamin Armitage's collection, at Pendleton. But gentler scenes have occupied this painter ; the quiet woodland has been dealt with by him in a way quite characteristic, with the delicate hand and the sensitive grace of Creswick. " The Three Graces," showing three slender-stemmed trees, and now in the possession of Mr. Henry Mason, is one of these ; and another, a beautiful bending birch tree, entitled 220 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. " The Lady of the Woods," belongs to Mr. Jesse Haworth. These two fairly instance the character of his work in this direction, and show it at its best. With timorous leaf the slender stems stand out of the surrounding wood, just sufficiendy to entitle them to distinction, but in no degree to lessen the importance of the rest of the canvas. Few painters of modern times have brought home to us as Birket Foster has the rural beauties of English country life, beauties not only of hedgerow and woodland, meadow, stream, and lane, but of rustic childhood fitted into all its appropriate surroundings, of the innocent play and simple duties of humble cottage life. Taking literally the scenes he selects, they are recorded by him with marvellous exactness, and one of the many charms of his work is its soundness. Perfectly individual in his touch, he is never to be beaten by any intricacy of nature from pursuing his very deliberate method of dealing with his subject. This consistent mode of workmanship may perhaps be partly accounted for by the somewhat lengthened practice he had as an engraver in the early portion of his life. His water-colour, upon which his name rests, attracted attention immediately it was shown, about i860; but works in oil also exist, in which his manner of dealing with water-colour is very apparent. A large example in oil is in the collection of Mr. George Fenton Smith; but his oil pictures are not to be preferred to his water-colour, of which the examples are almost numberless. Some of them are large in size, 13 X 28, and a very few are as much as 29 X 45, notably one belonging to his brother Mr. John H. Foster, entided " Ben Nevis," which was shown at Chicago in 1893, and again at the Guildhall Exhibition of BIRKET FOSTER— MRS. ALLINGHAM. 221 Water-Colours in 1896. His smaller scenes, such as "The Con- valescent" (9 X 14, 1873), have especial charm. In this picture the outside of a cottage door is where an invalid child is seated, wrapped close for warmth, amid a plenitude of country flowers. The soft airs come against the wan face, from over the fields, into this pleasant bit of garden, crowded with bloom, and the whole little picture sparkles with colour and freshness and hope. Very effective in the picture is the black plumage of the pet magpie that pecks at some scraps on the ground to the right. "The Way down the Cliff" was another engaging subject, in which an expanse of sea is seen from the cliff's edge, and a group of children making their way down. No collection of water-colours would omit an example of his work. Mr. Stephen Holland and Mr. H. P. Gilbey have several, the charming " Birdsnesting " being among the latter's ; and Mr. Jesse Haworth owns the exquisite " Children on the Seashore," while his brother Mr. Abraham Haworth has the fine scene, about 18 X 36, of " Warkburn, Northumberland," in which a group of hunters and dogs is prominent. Nothing of a sketchy nature ever leaves him ; his work is all well finished with an equal nicety, evidence of arduous industry, whatever the subject or the size may be. With a singular tenderness also, and with perhaps less self- consciousness in her skill, is Mrs. AUingham, as unobtrusive in her depiction of nature and as reverent of nature's aspects as a true artist should be. Working always in water-colour, the examples she has produced are many. One of the most important is "The Pensioner's Garden" (15 X 25, 1876), owned by Mr. Charles Churchill, in which many figures appear ; 222 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. but their arrangement in the flower-decked garden, with its ordered beds and gravel walks, is very skilful, and the eye dwells on the work, in its human association and its devotion to nature, as on a Fred Walker. Another well known example by this gifted lady is in Mr. Humphrey Roberts's collection, "The Milkmaid" (1874); but no good collection of modern water-colours is without a specimen of her work. Cecil Lawson [1851-1882], whose brief life of thirty-one years was yet long enough to find its expression in the land- scape art of this country in a degree that many men have endeavoured, unsuccessfully, all their long lives to attain to, gave evidence at the age of twenty-six of his rare capacity, in the exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1878 of "The Minister's Garden" (71 X 107). Not that he had not previously been known ; the Academy had shown his work on several occasions since he was nineteen, but it was reserved to the Grosvenor Gallery to give him the prominence he deserved. "The Minister's Garden," it is said, was four years in progress. It exemplifies his work. He was in touch with nature, whose very airs seemed intelligent to him; and it is easily conceivable that a mind and heart so constituted would find in Oliver Goldsmith, not so much a source of inspiration as a sympathetic power, with whose sweet passages his own capacity of expres- sion in colour could go along hand in hand. He does not profess in "The Minister's Garden" to directly illustrate the poet, or to give a portrait of " Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain"; by his own admission, the work, though in accord with the poet's lines and feelings, was designed as an humble tribute of one ardent lover of nature to the memory .xpressio yree that nv iong lives to twentv-six of his rare CECIL LAWSON. 223 of another. The garden which occupies the foreground was a fortunate discovery about the hillside near the village of Sandhurst. It was an old-fashioned one, with hollyhocks and roses, marigolds and cloves, and the elevated ground on which it stood enabled the painter to connect it with the whole of the pastoral landscape that stretches far away to where the blue hills meet the summer sky. The picture was purchased by Manchester in 1883, and is now in the Art Gallery of that city. Very little behind it in point of merit was the work that the Grosvenor Gallery exhibited in 1883, "The Hop Gardens of England " (60 X 84), a true Kentish scene of hops and orchards and ripe corn, the earth rich with its ripened fruits. The scene of this work is laid in the neighbourhood of Wrotham, on the chalk hills between Bromley and Rochester, a district noted for its hop gardens. Pleasant indeed are the red-tiled roofs and oasts that rise against the preponderating green, and effective the poppies and cornflowers, and the blue- painted plough-like instrument for clearing away the weeds between the hop rows. The time is September, and the hops in abundant and graceful festoons are ready for the pickers. It is a charming work, still in the possession of IVIrs. Lawson, by whose kind consent it is reproduced, and it represents the painter at the Guildhall Exhibition of the present year. "The August Moon" (66 x 120), shown at the Grosvenor in 1880, was presented to the National Gallery, three years later, by Mrs. Lawson, in fulfilment of her husband's wish. The aim of the painter in this picture, which was painted at Blackdown, near Haslemere, was " to produce the effect of the autumn golden moon rising over an English land- 224 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S FEIGN. scape, before the daylight had quite disappeared." Three Scotch firs are in the foreground, and marsh lands beyond, where cattle browse, and then a wooded valley and the distant Sussex downs. Tenderly the clouds give back the gentle light; an illumined gloom, and not a startling brilliancy, is secured. The need of additional wall space at the National Gallery is clearly shown by the position in which this admirable picture has to be placed, owing to its size, instanced again by the excellent and equally large work that hangs opposite to it of "The Temples of Paestum " (58 X 94). by that painter of the ideal school William Linton [1791-1876], who, more precise than Muller in his delineation of sculptured antiquity, has gained a feeling not without resemblance to him in portions of this picture, wherein the ruined Doric columns rear themselves against the blue mountain range and the descending vulture claims the neglected area for its own. On the same wall with "The August Moon" when it was first exhibited was "The Voice of the Cuckoo" (66 X 96), a landscape with reedy water and two children standing listenmg by a silver birch. The year 1882 saw his last contributions, one or two characteristic landscapes, smaller in size to the foregoing, and the best of them not equal perhaps to the "Wharfedale" of the previous year, excepting "The Wet Moon," a beautiful work now in the possession of Mr. Henry Mason The month of June 1882 witnessed the close of this rich and promising life. With a strength of effect of a Constable he had also acquired great dexterity of hand, and consciously or unconsciously drew near in his manner and colour to the DAVID MURRAY. landscapes of Rubens. This may be best illustrated perhaps by comparing some of his works with, say, the " Chateau de Stein " in the National Gallery. But these attributes were dominated at all times by the kinship he seemed to have with nature, in her voices, her aspects, her "living airs," the expression of which on his canvases constitutes their natural and intelligible charm. The man who has struck out in an original mode of dealing with landscape is David Murray, formerly of Glasgow. Truly natural he is at all times, taking infinite pains with his effects, and more especially at times with the distinctly difficult portrayal of full and apparently colourless daylight. The skies that of recent years have come from his brush touch you by their exactness to nature ; one realizes the cloudless day as much in his work as in any man's, and he is especially skilful in trailing his fleecy white cirrus clouds across a clear sky. He appears to have been first seen at the Academy about twenty years ago, and he has made unbroken progress since. The Chantrey Bequest Fund early in his career added one of his works to the collection, " My Love has gone a-sailing," and four years later Manchester purchased his " Britannia's Anchor " for the Corporation Gallery. His work now seems divided between scenes of the Corot-like character of " The River Road," where heavily shadowed trees are skilfully dealt with, and works of the type of " Mangolds," where the effect of much sky is sought. " Fir Faggots " was one of these, which carried the eye, over a pleasant dip of the land, far away into the distance, from the pale pure light of which a square church tower rises. This was bought by the Glasgow Cor- V V 226 PAINTING IN THE QUEENS REIGN. poration, while its pendant in the Academy of 1893, " Meadow- sweets," in the sky of which is a vast cumulus of white cloud, was acquired by the Walker Art Gallery. Liverpool. One, a very pleasing example (48 X 74). " Sweet is Evening's Tranquil Hour," is in Mr. C. T. Harris's choice collection at Denmark Hill, and another different in character, but with tender though pronounced feeling, belongs to Mrs. Charles E. Lees, entitled "The Meadow Mirror" (40 X 60, 1890). His later works, which have as consistently as ever kept the clear practical iew of nature as their primary element, are among the best he has produced. "Thistledown," painted in 1895, belonging to Mr. George McCulloch, must be instanced as possessing his ery finest characteristics; the close attention given to the elaborate foreground and its absolute agreement with the rest of the landscape, which seems to exult in the bright sky above it, make this work an admirable possession. It is skilfully placed on Mr. McCulloch's wall, and looks its best beside Orchardson's "Young Duke," and with, as a pendant to it, Mr. Alfred Parsons' landscape of 1896. This landscape of Parsons is " The Rain is over and gone," a work that positively shines— gorse, and common, and roadway, all drenched with the late-fallen rain, and sparkling with the light that is breaking through. Fresh as the air is after summer rain is the picture ; and helpful and effective and of interest too, as giving to the landscape a joy, are the three light-hearted figures that come, evidently from haymaking, along the wet sunlit road. It is the aim of its owner, a collector of natural intuition in matters of art and now of experience also, to secure, by 226 PAINTING IN THE QUEENS REIGN. poration, while its pendant in the Academy of 189;;, " Meadow- sweets," in the sky of which is a vast cumulus of white cloud, was acquired by the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. One, a very pleasing example (48 X 74). " Sweet is Evenir.g's Tranquil Hour," is in Mr. C. T. Harris's choice collection at Denmark Hill, and another different in character, but with tender though pronounced feeling, belongs to Mrs. Charles E. Lees, entitled "The Meadow Mirror" (40 X 60, 1890). His later works, which have as consistently as ever kept the clear practical view of nature as their primary element, are among the best he has produced. "Thistledown," painted in 1895, belonging to Mr. George McCulloch, must be instanced as possessing his very finest characteristics; the close attention given to the elaborate foreground and its absolute agreement with the rest of the landscape, which seems to exult in the bright sky above it, make this work an admirable possession. It is skilfully placed on Mr. McCulloch's wall, and looks its best beside Orchardson's "Young Duke," and with, as a pendant to it, Mr. Alfred Parsons' landscape of 1896. This landscape of Parsons is " The Rain is over and gone," a work that positively shines— gorse, and common, and roadway, all drenched with the late-fallen rain, and sparkling with the light that is breaking through. Fresh as the air is after summer rain is the picture ; and helpful and effective and of interest too, as giving to the landscape a joy, are the three light-hearted figures that come, evidently from haymaking, along the wet sunlit road. It is the aim of its owner, a collector of natural intuition in matters of art and now of experience also, to secure, by m [.it 1 I i ADRIAN STOKES— ALFRED EAST. 227 waiting if necessary, the finest examples he can of the prominent men of the day. One of the very best of Adrian Stol^es's is in his collection, " The Setting Sun " (47 X 92), seen well in 1 891 at the New Gallery. It does not lend itself well to reproduction, but so skilfully are the sensitive tones managed and brought to harmonious focus that the work, lacking though it may as a painting of cattle the force of a Troyon or a Van Marche, has nevertheless the breadth of either master, with the added fulness of nature that releases the mind from thought of paint and allows it to dwell on the expanse of sea, with the lurid ball of fire casting its reflections on the water, and the milkmaid in her brown dress and sun-bonnet, at her daily employment of milking the cows ; and in all this it must not be forgotten that the principle of a distinct school is enunciated which subordinates the subject to the sentiment or impression intended to be conveyed. " Upland and Sky " was the work secured by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest in 1888 as an example and among the best of this class, and Captain J. Audley Harvey has a work consistent throughout in this principle, entitled " An Avenue in the Marshes." Alfred East, also formerly of Glasgow, works from a stand- point of his own. To him the practical details of a landscape, often very difficult truthfully to render, have a limited interest, and he appeals distinctly in their rendering to the poetic sense. He is not over-mindful, and possibly does not seek to be, of the clearly defined details that meet the eye in full daylight ; but the dim effect of early morn, or midday haze, or the pensive shades of evening, are more to his mind. Of his full daylight effects " The Land between the Locks," belonging to Mr. John ,,8 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN Poison of Paisley, or " Hayle from Lelant" (42 X 67, 1891). belonging to the Birmingham Gallery, in which the bright effect of a low sun in summer-time illumines the scene, are among his best examples. This latter picture, in its management of the sky, is a particularly fine work ; and the expanse of water and sun-touched buildings present peculiar difficulties, which have been admirably surmounted, and a finished unity has been obtained altogether incompatible with any but the n^ost wholesome and painstaking enthusiasm. A more poetic feeling lies in the picture of "Autumn" (40 X 60, 1887), which Manchester acquired for its City Gallery, in which in the prevailing silvery greyness of the work the spirit of the closing year is caught. It is a beautiful work, admirable in composition, nd very fuh of rich low tones that appeal to the sadness which nature in these aspects imparts. One of *e finest among his larger works is in the possession of Mr. George Mcculloch, "An Angry Dawn," which has never, I bel.ve, been publicly exhibited; and the "Misty Mere,' .n_ the New Gallery two years ago, has much feeling and is c everly composed. In "Autumn Glory" (40 X 60, 1897), whi d. s produced, the same poetic view of still, full daylig t is en-timorous yellow against the tender a.ure, t e oneline fa neglected spot where the leaf " ripens and ^^es and rails"; but in "The Arms of Peace," or "A Haunt _ of Ancient Peace >' (18,6). the quieting aspect of -en.ng .t^^ parted; and here, it must not be denied, he appears to be more i his element. The stillness, the sombreness, the mystery of Ipproaching night is clearly what he has distinct powe f interpreting, and he works at subjects of this character with rA/.\'Tf^'a f\ THE QUEEN'S REIGN. Poison, ol Pa>si.:y - ' Hayle from Lehnt ' X 67. .Sqi), belonging to the Birmingham Gallery, in which the bright effect of a low sun in summer-time illumines the scene, are among hi^ best examples. This latter picture, in its management of the sky. is a particularly fine work; and the expanse of w.ter and sun-touched buildings present peculiar difficulties, which have been admirably surmounted, and a finished unity has been obtained altogether incompatible with any but the most wholesome and painstaking enthusiasm. A more poetic reeling lies in the picture of ■■Autumn" (40 X 60. 1887), which Manchester acquired for its City Ciallery. in which in the prevailing silvei^ greyness of the work the spirit of the closing year is caught. It is a beautiful work, admirable in composition, and very full of rich low tones that appeal to the sadness Tb ch nLre in these aspects imparts. One of the hnest among his larger works is in the possession of Mr. George Mcculloch, ■■An Angry iW which has never, I believe been publicly exhibited; and the ■■Misty Mere.' ,n the New composed. I" Autumn Glory " (40 X 60. 18,7)^ wh.c reproduced, the same poetic view of still, full daylight is . en-timorous yellow against the tender azure, t e onelines ^ . leif "ripens and fades and of . neglected spot where J „^ „^„„. „f falls"- but in "The Arms of Peace, or n A„de„t Peace" (.S,6), the quieting aspect of "-"^ parted : and here, it must not be denied, he appears to be mo . Lly in his elcnent. The stillness, the son.breness, the ntyster of pproaching night is clearly what he has d.st.nct power ., nterpeting, and he wor.s at subjects of this character «,.h il CORBET— WATERLO ]]— MACBETH. apparent ease, finding without effort the poetic feeling that lies in them. Of deep poetic force also is Mr. Ridley Corbet, whose fine work, the finest specimen I know of his, " Morning Glory," was acquired from the Chantrey Bequest Fund in 1894. There are also many professed painters of landscape who invariably invest their scenes with human interest of some kind or another. Among the chief of these must be ranked Mr. E. A. Waterlow and Mr. R. W. Macbeth. " Galway Gossips," bought by the Chantrey Bequest Trustees in 1887, and "St. MacDara's Day," or "Wolf, Wolf!" are among the excellent works of the former ; the last-named picture showing a fine breadth of low mountain land, with a babbling brook to the left, by which are a shepherd and shepherdess, who, as in Holman Hunt's " Hireling Shepherd," are neglectful of their flock, and heed not the clamorous cry of the lad who shouts to them that a wolf is among the sheep. It is an admirable composition in its vigour and breadth, and one of the best of the painter's works. " The Cast Shoe," now in the Chantrey Collection, or Mr. McCulloch's powerful e.xample of more recent date, "The Coming Storm" (56 X 96, 1894), shows Mr. Macbeth in his most characteristic phase, akin much to G. H. Mason, and with distinct trace of Fred Walker's influence in his work. I should like to have prolonged this chapter further, had space permitted, so as to have dealt in detail with such admirable exponents of landscape as Joseph Farquharson, whose snow pieces, more especially than others of his landscapes, are remarkable for their careful observance, close application, PAINTING IN THE QL'EEN'S REIGN. and truthful result; or James Aumonier, ardent student of nature, with bis hearty outlook ; or R. Thorne Waite, whose finished water-colour, in its tenderness and dexterity, comes near to rivalling that man of tenderest touch. Copley Fielding, in delineation, breadth, and finish, more particularly when he challenges that eminent aquarellist on his own ground-that of the broad and rolling downs, with their delicate lights and shadows and embarrassing monotony of tone over large, far- reaching surfaces. Sufficient that he gets the air, the distance, the sense of space, with no want of delightful and refined finish. Sir Frederick Wigan has two of the largest and best of his Sussex downs ; Mr. Churchill claims the ownership of -The Shepherds Meet," one of the most enjoyable of his works, a breezy cliff-top, with irregular path and sheep-trimmed sward ; and most of the important private collections of water- colours include examples of his work-an excellent specimen, in this instance a corn-field, with a fine mid-distance and richly foliaged, quite holding its own in the splendid and, I should say, exceptional collection of Mr. Stephen Holland. Not only, however, is space against me to deal more lengthily with landscape, but time also ; and I am quite con- scious that much is due, of detail mention, to the excellent work of such accomplished men as Ernest Parton, Lionel Smythe, C. E. Johnson, J. R. Reid, Robert Allan, Thomas Collier, Yeend King, Frank Walton, and Leslie Thomson, the first four of whom have already had their talent publicly acknowledged in the most enviable of ways-by the purchase of one of their examples from the Chantrey Bequest Fund. There are three, however, whom 1 cannot pass without ,3o rAINTING IN THE QI'EEN'S REIGN and truthful result; or j^mes Aumonier, ardent student or nature, with his hearty outlook ; or R. Thorne Waite, whose finished water-colour, in its tenderness and dexterity, comes near to rivalling that man of tenderest touch, Copley Fielding, in delineation, breadth, and finish, more particularly when he challeng<-s that eminent aquarellist on his own ground-that of the broad and rolling downs, with their delicate lights and shadows and embarrassing monotony of tone over large, far- reaching surfaces. Sufficient that he gets the air, the distance, the sense of space, with no want of delightful and refined finish. Sir Frederick Wigan has two of the largest and best of his Sussex downs ; Mr. Churchill claims the ownership of " The Shepherds Meet," one of the most enjoyable of his works, a breezy cliff-top, with irregular pnih ..r sward ; and most of the important pri%.tu • ■ colours include examples of his work-an excellent sj^ : in this instance a corn-field, with a fine mid-distance and richly foliaged, quite holding its own in the splendid and, I should say, exceptional collection of Mr. Stephen Holland. Not only, however, is space against me to deal more lengthily with landscape, but time also ; and I am quite con- scions that much is due, of detail mention, to the excellent work of such accomplished men as Ernest " Parton, Lionel Smythe, C. E. Johnson. J. R. Reid, Robert Allan, Thomas Collier. Yeend King. Frank Walton, and Leslie Thomson, the first four of whom have already had their talent publicly acknowledged in the most enviable of ways-by the purchase of one of their examples from the Chantrey Bequest Fund. There are three, however, whom I cannot pass w.tbr> : ALFRED HUNT. 23T particularization, Alfred Hunt, North, and Goodwin. The first- named, Alfred Hunt [1830 — 1896], passed from us last year, at the age of sixty-five, and for the last forty years may be said to have been prominently before the public. The exhibition held in the beginning of the present year at the Burlington Fine Arts Club gave an idea of the extraordinary capacity of the man. Although paintings in oil exist in plenty from his hand, it is as a water-colour executant that his name will be enduringly known, for it cannot be questioned that his method in painting in water-colour ran itself into his oil-colour work, and that, for a man of his delicate drawing and sensitive expression, the more robust force of oil came less happily to his hand than water- colour. "Summer Days for Me" (37 X 61), belonging to Mrs. Newall, of Gateshead, and "A Farm near Dusseldorf" (14 X 20), in the possession of Mr. W. S. Caine, may be instanced as among the best of his works in oil ; but in water- colour his great and varied power in the interpretation of landscape is best shown. Here we encounter true yet brilliant colouring, untiring industry in the presentment of detail, no slight imaginative qualities, and undeniable executive skill. One only has to examine carefully a rocky foreground of Hunt's to appreciate his industry, insight, and the total dis- regard of the time he spent upon his works. The mind of the exacting connoisseur is satisfied when it contemplates such works as " Cumberland Fells," belonging to Sir Donald Currie, or " Glen Loch, near Loch Maree," and many others which cannot here be instanced, but which possess to overflowing such characteristics as best become an artist in whatever line his natural instincts may lead him — realism, but not without its 232 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. poetry, sound knowledge, dexterous arrangement, and accom- plished finish. As a painter J. W. North has exhibited original and striking characteristics. What Walker and Mason are in their inter- pretation of human emotion. North is in his interpretation of the varied moods of nature. They were high in their sphere, and so is he in his, with a singular parallel of outlook to theirs. No mere transcript of a scene is given by him, no portrait, as it were, of a given spot, but the very rustle of the leaf, the gurgle of the stream, the very passing airs, sweet-scented they always seem, of that well watered land whose undulations and fruitful soil are set with such accuracy by his hand. It mattered little, I take it, to such a man whether official recognition of his talent came late or early, or even at all. Certainly it could have no influence upon his work, which would never be better or worse, for the simple reason that he cannot paint without putting the best, the fulness of his capacity, into it. The earnestness, therefore, and the surprisingly sensitive tenderness and completeness of every touch that goes towards making one of his landscapes, tell of the intimacy, the sacred link that lies between his own individuality and nature. I remember a youth of fourteen, studious in astronomy and botany, being upbraided for not making more friends, and his answer was, " Mother, I have plenty of friends ; every star is my friend, and every flower," and so it seems with North. Is a primrose ever set except exactly where it ought to be, and where it shines out with a vivid modesty suggestive of no hurried touch or of any exaggerated end? is an intricacy of tangled undergrowth ever smothered away in a confused mass of /. IK NORTH— ALBERT GOODWIN. 233 generalization ? is the hurrying shallow water over the greenest of grass-land done without the most absorbing application to its truth ? No, he paints them all as if he loved them, paints them for their own beauty's sake, and with small heed as to what the world may think of them. And this is well, in this picture-making, money-making age, when many of our landscape painters would paint you fifty pictures in a year, if they could find people to buy them. North is not of these : the solid earth, the sweet tranquillity, the sense of bountiful growth, are not got by dash or to order; they are the outcome, the slow outcome of himself and they are never likely to be anything else. "The Sweet Meadow Waters of the West" (51 x 74), in the collection of the late Colonel North, or Mr. Adamson's beautiful possession— "Seest how my flowers be spread, Dyed in lily-white and crimson red ? " are two among the best of his oil pictures, and I know of another beautiful but smaller example in the collection of Mr. Albert Wood, of Conway, " A Sweet Meadow in England " (35 X 42), while among water-colours what lovelier work could be instanced than Mr. Humphrey Roberts's "Wild Clematis in Early Spring" (ii x 18), or Mr. Caine's "Somersetshire Trout Stream" (25x33, 1875), or what more sensitive in its tender lemon-coloured sky and purple clouds than Mr. Coltart's example "The Bridge," painted in 1881 ? Albert Goodwin's art has developed into something more than mere landscape, and he has prosecuted his talent from a higher platform altogether than that of a painter of the 30 234 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. ordinary aspects of nature. He brings a poetic spirit to bear upon these aspects, and, with unwearied study of nature herself and due regard always to fact, sets vibrating through his work that imaginative touch that at once removes it from the purely practical view of things to the loftier domain of poetic sentiment. His range of subject, like his area of study, is wide. Amid other work drawn from this country, much of the picturesque in our cathedral cities has been treated by him, always in his own original way. Switzerland and the Italian lakes and Venice have also furnished him with subject- matter, and lately he has been as far as India-just the place, one would think, for a man of his oudook, if indeed he needed any new inspiration-exhibiting on his return in 1896 a collection of seventy-two works at the Fine Art Society, entitled " Imaginative Landscape in Europe and Asia." Landscape pure and simple is therefore but the point at which he begins, a good step forward but no more toward the production of a work. In " Sindbad entering the Cavern" (39 X 56), in the Maidstone Museum, one gets, with the stately reach of water and the cavernous cliffs, the very spirit of the Arabian Nights, when he shows, too, the wrecked ship with its costly cargo and the frail raft laden with rubies and emeralds, crystal and gold, which Sindbad is propelhng over the still glassy surface. Again, in "Sindbad m the Valley of Diamonds" (36x56), which, by the kindness of the Trustees of the Maidstone Museum, is here reproduced, the solitary figure pursuing its way over the diamond-strewn ground is what gives the value, the weird interest of fiction, to the far-reaching valley and the silver-grey precipitous rocks PMNTIAC rx THE QUEEN'S REIGN. ordinary aspects of nature. He brings a poetic sp>r,t to bear upon these aspects, and, with unwearied study of nature herself and due regard always to fact, sets vibrating through his work that imaginative touch that at once removes it from the purely practical view of things to the loftier domain of poetir sentiment. His range of subject, like his area of study 1. wide. Amid other work drawn from this country, much of the picturesque in our cathedral cities has been treated by him, always in his own original way. Switzerland and the Italian lakes and Venice have also furnished him with subject- m.tter, and lately he has been as far as India-just the place, ..nc would think, for a man of his outlook, if indeed he needed any new inspiration— exhibiting on his return in 18,,., collection of seventy-two works at the Fine Art Society, entitled "Imaginative Landscape in Europe and Asia." Uindscape pure and simple is therefore but the point at wh; J- he begins, a good step forward but no more toward the production of a work. In " Sindbad entering the Cavern" (j9 X s6), in the Maidstone Museum, one gets, with the statdy^ reach of water and the cavernous cliffs, the very spirit of the Arabian Nights, when he shows, too, the wrecked ship with its costly cargo and the frail raft laden wuh rub.es and emeralds, crystal and gold, which Sindbad is propellmg over the still glassy surface. Again, in "Sindbad m the Valley of Diamonds - (36 X 56), which, by the kindness of the Trustees of the Maidstone Museum, is here reproduced, the solitary figure pursuir.g its way over the diamond-strewn ground is what gives the value, the weird interest of fiction, to the far-reaching valley and the silver-grey precipitous rocks ALBERT GOODWm. 235 that enclose it. This beautiful, this imaginative quality, which is the chief element in his work, sets him apart altogether from other men. It deepens sometimes into very serious phases, such as in " The City of Dis " (49 x 80, 1892), in which the eye can trace the perilous pathway that Dante and Virgil are about to pursue, down steep stairways, along narrow galleries and dizzy viaducts to the red-lit corridor through which their way will lead them, over the bridge with its colossal towers that connects this entanglement of archi- tecture with that other part of the city where the cruel flames are busy. Grandly conceived, the whole subject is grandly carried out, the drifting smoke in heavy clouds across the picture being seized as a great aid to the composition of the work. But gentler scenes also are his. What more sweet and tender than the small example of Mr. Humphrey Roberts's, "And they saw on the other side a pleasant land full of flowers and winding paths, and did hear the song of the singing birds " ? Greater facility he has acquired, no doubt, since this was painted twenty years ago, but not a truer ring. Then in " The Unveiling of the Rhigi," belonging to Mr. C. T. Harris (10 X 14), the force and, at the same time, the delicate manipulation almost of Turner are shown — something more than the Rhigi is there ; and thus through all his work there occurs, with abounding emphasis, the expression that only a rare and vivid imagination could supply, and which of course enriches, as no other attribute can, an experienced technique and a dexterous design. „8 FAmn.vG m the ciueen's reics. bea,K, as Richar.l Friese, in a similar ,he,™, bu. .i,h less of ,ava,e fe,.»r and n,o.e of anatomical display bad pa,n«d bi, ' Brigands of the Desert," a striking e.atnple of reachtng limb and crouching «ire-likc activity, ^ I„ sucb .orks as " His Only Friend " (,6 X 37) or ■ Char.ty Riviere .oucbed a cbord wbieb only a man of very sens.ttve tenrperamen, bi^self conld bave toucbed. In tbe former a po^r clad boy is asleep, tired out, by tbe wayside, and lyng close o bin, is bis dog, weary too, but awake, and keep.ng guard t faitbfulness of the animal told as well as pa,„t could el ,„ -Charity- pathos is emphasized still more, when, hungry herself, the homeless girl is giving a portion of her bread to two stray dogs. In each work the expression m the dogs face 1 contfolling feature of the ptcture: that being defeettve woul bave placed the works, excellent as their arrangement ,s, , t he level, and its attainment Is due altogether to the pa.a.er s atural sympathy with tbe brute creation and to h,s .ncessant observation If tbeir ways. But bis portrayal of dogs ,s nowhere ter than in bis " Poachers." E.ceedmgly difficult must have b tbe gaining of the dogs absolutely truthful att.tude of tening, every muscle strained in its intelligent self control, n r atord ib bis master and dependent on bis s,n, imposition too of this work is »„ng -^^^^^^^ ..Daniel" was shown in .8;= (3S X 59), pictures of the great earnivora, it was at once recog ued that original idea of tbe oft-painted subject bad been g,vem ,/their rush across tbe den the -'^^'^'^Z c T . tn them • they halt, cowering and battled, influence unfamiliar to them , lucy , , , „j "tl touch of the prophet, who stands with his hands bound „S PAINTIXa IN THE QriEX-X KF.IGN teas.,, as Kichard Frie.e. in a si»,il..r .hen,e, b.. «.h le., of " fervour and more of an..on,ica, display had pa.n.ed ht " Brigand, of .he Deserr." a striking example of reach.ng limb and crouching wire-like activity. ,„ .ucl, works a, "His Only Fried ■•(,6X37) or" Char, y Riviere touched a chord which orly a ntau of very sensu.ve tel «ra.e„t hi.self could have touched. In the former a poor crd boy is asleep, tired out, by the wayside, and ly.ng close to t is his dog, weary too. but aw.ke,. and keeping guard t faithfulness of the animal told as well as pamt couid .1 .t^ ,„ ..Charity" pathos is emphasised still more, when, hungry LeK the homeless gir, is giving a portion of her bread to two Zy do„s. In each work the expression in the dogs face , :Ltr;„i„g feature of the p.ctur. that being defect.ve wou have placed the works, excellent as thetr arrangement ,s ^1 level, and its attainment is due altogether to the pa.nt., . „a° ral sympathy with the brute creation and to h,s tncessa. Te^atio. of their ways. But his portrayal of dogs ,s nowhere observafon Exceedingly difficult must have irTaiXo'e dogs absolutely truthful attitude of been uic g ^ • j its intelligent self-control, in ,:-tenine every muscle strained m its inteing r aLrd with his master and -i>e„de„ o„ is s,n. The composition too of '^'^ . J' of his earliest <'D-iniel" was shown in 1872 U» ^ 59;. , ,u ^ . uaniei w recoOTized that a tViP creat carnivora, it was at once recognize rXnir- the offpainted subject had been given c th,^ den the beasts are arrested by an In their rush across the clen tne lufluence unfamiliar to them; they halt, -'""S '^^ Within touch of the prophet, who stands w,th h,s h,u,.„ BRITON RIVIERE. 239 behind him, helpless as far as human aid can come to him, but undaunted. This work, it is said, has been three times purchased by Messrs. Agnew, and each time at a higher price. Another version of the subject was painted a few years later, entitled " Daniel's Answer to the King," now in Mr. Jesse Haworth's collection, in which Daniel has his back to the lions, and is looking up towards the opening whence the light comes. In fiercer action, claws and teeth in use, his lions may be seen well in the " Nimrod" triptych, painted in 1891, one animal clawing at the hunter's chariot, and every limb of the sinewy form at its utmost tension, involving evidently on the painter's part the most troublesome studies ; but the effect of agile strength is reached and rendered in the legitimate way by close and patient attention to the animals themselves. Not the least important point which he gains in the depicting of these animals is the sense of weight ; they look heavy, with the indolent shuffle so habitual to them. Leopards have not so often occupied this painter, but unquestionably his best example of these quadrupeds is Sir Cuthbert Quilter's in the " Magician's Doorway," painted in 1882, the soft cat-like nature, morose look, and rich glossy skins being well given. His range in animals is wide. " The Miracle of the Swine," owned by Mr. Tate, and the painting frequently of geese and sheep, testify to this. In the picturing of the horse, however, he has not been so often seen. The most notable instance is in the "In Manus tuas, Domine," or, as it has been sometimes termed, "The Christian Knight" (57 x 84, 1879), by many considered to be his finest work. Here he has painted a white horse, nearly the size of life, its whole frame quivering with fear as it approaches the shadowed depths of 24° PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. a forbidding cavern, across the entrance to which a bat takes wing The rider, a knight in gilded armour, with plumed casque hanging at his knee, sees beyond the instinct of the animal to the land where rectitude and faith will surely bear him safely, and he sits his horse confidently, but the dogs shrink, like the horse, from going onward. The knighfs sword is ready should he need it, his shield too and his lance, but these are not the weapons for this black abyss ; they are best found in the faith which utters the words, " In Manus tuas, Domine." By the kind permission of Mr. Abraham Haworth, who is its possessor, this fine work is here reproduced. Swan has not been nearly so long before the pubhc as Riviere, but he has made a distinct impression on the Art of the Rei-n. His talent leans unquestionably to the por- trayal of animals in the surroundings where nature has placed them For humour in Swan's work, as we sometimes find it in Landseers, and occasionally in Riviere's, we shall ever look in vain. He is in earnest with his beasts, and to depict them as he does requires all the serious application of a gifted man. There was " A Tigress " he pamted, m the Water-Colour Exhibition at the Guildhall m 1896, belonging to Mr. Ernest Hart (10 X 12, 1895) I the creature crouching there in its jungle lair was simply mad with ferocity; perfectly natural in the disposition of the body, the lurid glitter of the shifting eyes was what gave the work its character. And in the "Polar Bears" (18x36). or, as its more correct title runs, " We were the first that ever burst into that silent sea," a great accomplishment was seen, for after all only three bears' heads are there to tell 24° PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. a forbidding cavern, across the entrance to which a bat ta.-, wing. The rider, a knight in gilded armour, w.th plumed casque hanging at his knee, sees beyond the instinct of the animal to the land where rectitude and faith will surely bear him safely, and he sits his horse confidently, but the dogs shrink, like the horse, from going onward. The kmghts sword is ready should he need it, his shield too and h.s lance, bu these are not the weapons for this black abyss; they are best found in the faith which utters the words, " In Manus tuas, Domine." By the kind permission of Mr. Abraham Haworth. who is its possessor, this fine work is here reproduced. Swan has not been nearly so long before the pubhc a Riviere, but he has made a distinct impression on the Art of the Reign. His talent leans unquestionably toj^e r^r^ trayal of animals in the surroundings where nature has placed • c ^,.rV >s we son^etimes hnd them. For humour m Swans work. =.s wc it in Landseers. and occasionally in Riv.eres, we shall ev r look in vain. He is in earnest with his beasts, .k1 o depict them as he does requires all the ser.ous apphcat.on ^ ^, <■ A Tiaress " he pamted, m of a gifted man. There was 'A 1 igress n p the Water-Colour Exhibition at the Guildhall m 1896, b.onging to Mr. Ernest Ha. (. X ^ crouching there in .ts jungle U.t was s™Py ferocity; perfecdy natural in the disposition of the body, he lurid glitter of the shifting eye, .as what gave the work itschLcter. And in the ^"^ '^Ve its „ore correct title runs, "We were the first tha ev^ hurst into that silent sea/' a great accontphshmen, wa^^ seen, lor after all only three hears heads are there to t . JOHN M. SWAN. 24 1 the tale, but the icy water is in motion with the cumber- some forms beneath, and it is the dreary waste of grey, verily a region still unmastered by human skill and courage, that we are in presence of. It is no mere painting of an mipressionist sea, or portrait of a distant group of icebergs, but the spirit of the "land of mist and snow" which has been got, and evidently not got easily, with the living animal life peculiar to it— its lone occupants, whose black snouts and keen small eyes above the water are all the painter gives of them, but it is enough. The example reproduced is "Tigers at Dawn" (21 x 49), painted two or three years ago, and the property now of Captain J. Audley Harvey, who has kindly consented to its reproduction. The spot overlooks, from an eminence, a broad lake from which the morning mist is not yet lifted ; beyond it the steep hills rise, range above range; until, far away, the eye is lost in the snow-touched Himalayas. The big shuffling tigress with maternal care is keeping her young from the edge of the cliff, for one of them is making forward to where the tiger has placed himself A natural scene enough in this new dawn of an Indian day, presaging a burning noon. The family are having a run while it is yet cool. The sense of immensity and loneliness in the landscape is heightened, of course, by the presence of its fierce denizens, and in these the painter has made us conscious, in the one of litheness, weight, and heavy panting breath, and in the other of the indifference which is nevertheless alert. Subjects in which the human form is the chief object may be best instanced in "The Prodigal Son," bought in li 31 4^4 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest, and " The Piping Fisher Boy" (13 X 17, ^890), belonging to Mr. Humphrey Roberts, or in "The Goatherd" or "The Lionhunter," owned by Captain J. Audley Harvey-works glowing with sensitive colouring and of the finest technique. Davis, in his painting of animals, has kept to those of his own country, associated on all occasions with landscape of a high order. In his painting of deer, "The Road to the Sanctuary" (40 X 7^)- P-n'-l- ^ Relieve, about 1888, and sold at Christies in 1893- is among his best, as expressive of the nature of the animal in its timidity and sensitive action. There are no less than twenty-two of them, and they are crossing a stream. The great French painter Rosa Bonheur took some such scene once, on a canvas of similar shape but larger dimensions, when she painted her " Deer crossing the Lone Rocks at Fontainebleau," but in Davis's there is less monotony of colour, the freshness of the Highlands giving a keen lustre to the landscape. Sheep have appeared very many times in his work, one containing great feeling being now m the possession of Mr. C. T. Harris, entitled "Lost Sheep" (24 X 36, 1S85), in which the loneliness of the landscape in the falling day is employed to give greater weight to the dazed look of the sheep that have strayed from their pasture, and expresses with remarkable accuracy the consciousness that they are lost. By Mr. Harris's kind permission the picture is here reproduced. "Sea and Land Waves," owned by Mr Charles Churchill, is one of the few works in which horses are introduced ; but the striking aim of the painter in this work is to give the effect of the wind passing as it were m rAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest, and " The Piping Fisher Boy" (13 X 17, 1890), belonging to Mr. Humphrey Roberts or in "The Goatherd" or "The Lionhunter.' owned by Captain J. Audley Harvey-works glowmg with sensitive colouring and of the finest technique. Davis, in his painting of animals, has kept to those of his own country, associated on all occasions with landscape of a high order. In his painting of deer, "The Road to the Sanctuary" (40 X 7^)- P-"^-d. I believe, about 1888. and sold at Christies in 1893, is among his best, as expressive ot the n-uure of the animal in its timidity and sensitive action. There are no less than twenty-two of them, and they are crossing a stream. The great French painter Rosa Bonheur took some such scene once, on a canvas of similar shape but larger dimensions, when she painted her " Deer crossmg the Long Rocks at Fontainebleau," but in Davis's there .s less monotony of colour, the freshness of the Highlands givmg a keen lustre to the landscape. Sheep have appeared very many times in his work, one containing great feeling being now m the possession of Mr. C. T. Harris, entided "Lost Sheep" (24 X 36, 188S). in which the loneliness of the landscape m the falling day is employed to give greater weight to the dazed look of the sheep that have strayed from their pasture, and expresses with remarkable accuracy the consciousness that they are lost. By Mr. Harris's kind permission the picture is here reproduced. Sea and Land Waves," owned by Mr. Charles Churchill, is one of the few works in which horses are introduced; but the striking aim of the painter this work is to give the effect of the wind passing as H. W. B. DAVIS. 243 in waves over the tall grasses that grow on the undulating land, off which is seen the fresh blue sea, the wind's effect in waves on that also. Beside the grasses the manes and tails of the horses are seen, blown out by the wind, and the whole aspect is one of pure freshness and living airs. In the portrayal of cattle no better examples exist than "Contentment" or "In Ross-shire" (46 x 83, 1882), the latter belonging now to Mr. W. Y. Baker, but formerly in the collections of Mr. Charles Neck and Mr. Lees. The most careful work is in every portion of the picture, and the natural manner in which he can occupy a landscape with cattle is in no work more conspicuous than in this. Cattle, lake, heather-covered hills, and distant mountains are in this instance set in the warm glow of early evening. Distinct delicacy is shown in the treatment of all his landscapes, each feature, whether near or distant, being worked out with careful nicety. I remember on one occasion, I think at the Academy Soiree of 1878, Millais taking an eminent statesman up to one of Davis's landscapes, and exulting to him over the manner in which the glimpse of a rainbow on a small distant hill had been painted, particular stress being laid by the late great painter on the completeness of this incidental feature of a large canvas. J. S. Noble, Harry Dixon, and J. T. Nettleship have also given assiduous study to animals, usually in the surroundings of their wild state, and more often life-size than other. The scope of the last-named artist was admirably set forth two years ago by the collection of pastel drawings exhibited at Mr. Robert Dunthorne's in Vigo Street. CHAPTER IX. Although Mason [1818-1872] had been industriously worlre being an effectual check artistically to the ruddy light of the evening sky. Beyond, the eye dwells on the darkening land, where other ordinary touches of rural life may be di scerned, more geese and other children. "The Return from Ploughing" (only 10 X 29), belonging to the Queen, 'S another evening piece; but here the twilight is deepened, and the pretty rustic bonnets and frocks of two young gii ^ are but dimly seen ; a little distance away, in the foregrou d, the tired horses are wending their way. Rest and tranquill y are again attained, not alone by the falling light and shad wy land, but by the lUiEDERICK WALKER. ^47 view of a comfortable barn and sunlit cottage window. The time of day is earlier in "Only a Shower" (18 X 36), and in "The Unwilling Playmate," called once "The May of Life" (18 X 35), these being set in the early afternoon. The latter work shows' three children on the borders of a wood, amusing themselves with a donkey, which stands firmly against the vigorous pulling of one of them. The late Lord Leighton, an early friend of Mason's and a warm admirer of his pastoral scenes, had a charming work of his called "Wind on the Wold." When put up at Christie's, in July JS96, it fell to Mr. Henry Tate, and will thus, it is presumed, become eventually the property of the nation. Others smaller in size are in existence, one especially which belongs now to .Sir William Agnew, entitled " The Young Anglers, or Children fishmg" (loi X 17I), painted with great firmness and effect; smiple enough in incident — merely three cottage children on the bank of a stream, their forms clearly reflected in the water, ducks in the foreground, with their orange-coloured bills, being a feature. Most of Mason's works have been etched by R. W. Macbeth, and published by R. Dunthorne, of Vigo Street ; one, however, " The Return from Ploughing," being, I believe, published by Messrs. P. & D. Colnaghi. Of a distinct affinity to Mason, artistic in temperament and aim, but of far finer poetic insight and feeling, was Frederick Walker, whose brief life of thirty-five years, terminating in 1875, yet yielded in water-colours, oil, and black and white a considerable record. The Royal Water-Colour Society may claim to have first encouraged him, and to have perceived the true elements of his work. He was not long in being admitted ,48 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN to membership there, being only twenty-four. "Philip in Church" (.71 X U) and ''Spring" represented him there the year of his admission. The former had been worked out from a design he had executed in black and white for the Cornlnll Ma,a.i.e as an illustration to Thackeray s -Adventures of Philip" It secured the second class medal in the Pans International Exhibition in 1867. a distinction not obtamed by any other exhibited drawing in water-colour. It is now the possession of Mr. Henry Tate. Dignified in character, a .s also impressive in sentiment, and its technique througho^ .s of the finest quality. The ' Spring," belonging now to S.r Wdham Agnew (the companion to the ''Autumn," also his), .s equally ,0 The sweet primrose, clustering lavishly, and the yet leafless but budding woodland, are given, and all the intricate tangle of nature, but with no indecision or embarrassment on the painters part. Light and the freshness of the balmy _ a.r are in the picture, and painting thus at twenty-four what m.ght not have been expected of him had his life been prolonged- touched, though not in any greater degree than Mason was, but .ith a finer instinct, by the beauty of nature, its sprmgs and its skies as they could be made to operate towards a fuller understanding of human emotion-his works, whether m o.l or water-colour, were all from 1864 painted in the open a.r. Lonely and desolate in the driving snow is ^he hurrymg darkly clad figure, sensitive and slight, in " The Lost Path. A new idea this to the Academy, who failed to perceive >ts merUs. It was "Skied" in the exhibition there in 1863, but now it .s gladly called back to be studied and admired. By Us owner, Mr. Makins, it is justly cherished. "The Wayfarers," I have PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN to membership there, being only twenty-four, "Philip in Church" (i7l X 14) and "Spring" represented him there the year of his admission. The former had been worked out from a design he had executed in black and white for the Cornfall Magazine as an illustration to Thackeray's "Adventures of Philip" It secured the second class medal m the Pans International Exhibition in ,867, a distinction not obtamed by any other exhibited drawing in water-colour. It is now m the possession of Mr. Henry Tate. Dignified in character, U .s also impressive in sentiment, and its technique throughout ,s of the finest quality. The " Spring," belonging now to S.r W.lham Agnew (the companion to the " Autumn," also his), is equally so The sweet primrose, clustering lavishly, and the yet leafless but budding woodland, are given, and all the nUr.cate tangle of nature, but with no indecision or embarrassment -n the painters part. Light and the freshness of the balmy a.r .re in the picture, and painting thus at twenty-four what might not have been expected of him had his life been prolonged- touched, though not in any greater degree than Mason was, but .,th a finer instinct, by the beauty of nature, its sprmgs and its skies as they could be made to operate towards a fuller understanding of human emotion-his works, whether m oil or water-colour, were all from 1864 painted in the open air. Lonelv and desolate in the driving snow is the hurrymg darkly clad figure, sensitive and slight, in " The Lost Path, new idea this to the Academy, who failed to perceive us ments. It was "Skied" in the exhibition there in 1863. but now -t .s gladly called back to be studied and admired. By us owner, Mr. Makins, it is justly cherished. "The Wayfarers," 1 have FREDERICK WALKER. 249 read, was not sent to the Academy, the sensitive painter shrinking from its possible treatment there; it was exhibited in 1866 at Mr. Gambart's Gallery in King Street, St. James's, and is now, I believe, the property of Sir W. Agnew ; but in 1867 he again contributed a picture called "The Bathers," one of his largest works, and now in the collection of Sir Cuthbert Ouilter, by whose kind permission the picture is reproduced here. Unfortunately it found no better position than " The Lost Path" on the Academy walls. It too was "skied," but ere twenty years had passed it was sold at Christie's for ^2,625, from the Graham Collection. Walker shortly afterwards came into contact, by a visit to Paris, with several specimens of Fran9ois Millet's work, the effect of which on his mind revealed itself in several instances, notably in a large work he had then in contemplation to be entitled "The Mushroom Gatherers"; a small though very effective study (12 x 20), on paper affixed to a panel, was made, and this belongs to Mr. Somerset Beaumont. The effect of early dawn is faithfully caught, the moon still visible. Moving along the field, basket in hand, goes the searcher for mushrooms, and farther off and still more indistinct is the bended form of a woman. Claude Phillips, in his admirable monograph on Fred Walker,* says it was intended to develop this study into the larger composition, and a large sketch for the landscape portion was found in Walker's studio after his death. He painted in water-colour at this time, 1868, Mr. Humphrey Roberts's beautiful specimen of still-life " Mush- * The Portfolio, Monograph No. 6, June 1S94. " Frederick Walker," by Claude Phillips (London : Seeley & Co.), in which full particulars are given of all of Walker's works. 32 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. room and Fungi" (7 X u), which drew from John Ruskin the frank avowal that it entirely beat his dear old William Hunt in the simplicity of its execution and rivalled him in the subtlest truth. .-Vagrants," exhibited at the Academy in 1868 (32 X 50), was thought worthy of being secured for the nation, and it was pur- chased in 1886 from the sale of Mr. William Graham's collection, out of a fund bequeathed by the late Mr. Lucas Walker. Autumn clothes the hillside, and the fire is welcome on this chill day; its .rey smoke, even where this shelter is sought, is sharp y taken by the wind that eddies round, and the mother draws the ill sufficient garment more closely round the child she carries. The weakness of this admirable work always appears to my mind to be the stooping figure of the lad who is piling twigs on the fire, and unfortunately the highest lights of the picture rest upon this figure. The two pathetic little faces looking on are extremely touching, and full to the brim is the whole landscape with its touch of autumn. Skilful too is the silvery sedcy water brought up to the red gown of the younger woman, handsome of fece and vigorous of form, who stands at the right of the picture, and by whom the grey smoke gustily drifts "The Old Gate" followed in 1869, studied from a gate well known in Somersetshire: alas! now no longer "old "-the draconed pillar has been made dragonless, to conform to its companions appearance, and the time-worn pillars thei.selves and the steps have been cleared of moss and lichen, and by dmt of cement and plaster made verily new. A gentle touch of human pathos is in the figure of the young widow. Children play at the foot of the worn steps that lead up to the gate, Ihrough which the widow is passing, a comely girl with gay FREDERICK WALKER. 251 shawl and busy basket by her side ; and a sturdy young labourer passes along the road, spade on shoulder, who regards the two women ; and over all is the effect of a sunless and chill spring day. The picture (52 x 66) is in the possession of Mr. A. E. Street. An excellent study (36 x 48) for this work was recendy acquired by Mr. Whitworth Wallis, for the Birmingham Corporation Gallery. "The Plough," produced in 1870 (55 x 83), ranks with his chief works. The delicate sensitive touch in " Marlow Ferry," which appeared the same year, and in the " Rainy Day at Cookham," is equally seen all through the large canvas of " The Plough," vigorous as it looks. Two grey horses are drawing a plough through the rich brown earth, beyond which a quarry is seen, its steep side lit up with the red flush of the setting sun. It is an imposing picture. The smaller version of this work — whether it be a study for, or a replica of the large picture cannot now be determined— is in the possession of Mr. Humphrey Roberts, and finely finished, with the full glow and feeling of Walker's work at its best. 1872 saw one of the last of his great works, presumably the greatest, " The Harbour of Refuge " (46 x 77). It was secured, I believe, by Sir William Agnew before it was completed for a very small sum, and after twenty-one years' possession it passed under gift by him to the National Gallery. I saw a very early sketch of this once, the very earliest he made of the almshouses ; it was little more than a suggestion, done on the spot evidently to see how it would come, and no figures were in it. The scene of human life realized in the finished picture has many points. It is not merely an almshouse with PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S KEIGN. Its few poor occupants. Youth and age, vigour and decrep.- tude, are placed in opposition one to the other. The health and bloom of the young girl, strong of frame, are fresh as the blooming may-tree opposite. She turns her eyes towards the vigorous young mower, and thinks it may be, as she gives her support to the bowed and aged inmate who leans upon her arm, of that reaper whose name is Death. 1 he swing of the scythe is heard, and the gentle murmur of engaging talk by the monument, where welcome news to cheer the monotony of the day has just arrived ; and the sunset, acainst which the old roofs darken and the last lights play, lans too the sunset of life for the peaceful souls who have found this harbour of refuge. To what higher teaching could painting be put? Its many pictorial points are excellent , all the chances which lead an artist to fine composition have been perceived and seized, even to the back of the monumental figure, the sharp contour of which against the sky greatly_ tells on the two advancing women. The eye wanders from pomt to point, from light to light, and seems to find nothmg^ con- flicting. A finished replica of this work is in the collection of Mr Humphrey Roberts, but it is in water-colour (22 X 3:,)- The Right of Way " (30 X 44), now in the Antipodes bu formerly in the collection of the late Mr. H^^y/^'"' °^ Brighton, was among the very latest of his finished works, painted m 1875, the year he died. <■ The Sunny Thames L X 59) was left unfinished, and was subsequently bro g t ;! some degree of completion by the painter best ,ua hfied to undertake it. Mr. J. W. North; his touches, however, being, believe, only in water-colour. It was in the collection of William 25' PAINTING IN Tilt. QUEEN'S REION its few poor occupants. Youth and age, vigour and decrep,- tude. are placed in opposition one to the other. The health and bloom of the young girl, strong of frame, are fresh as the bloommg may-tree opposite. She turns her eyes towards the vigorous young mower, and thinks it may be, as she gives her support to the bowed and aged inmate who leans upon her arm, of that reaper whose name is Death. The swmg of the scythe is heard, and the gentle murmur of engaging talk by the monument, where welcome news to cheer the monotony of the day has just arrived; and the sunset, against which the old roofs darken and the last hghts play, lans too the sunset of life for the peaceful souls who have found this harbour of refuge. To what higher teaching could painting be put? Us many pictorial points are excellent; all the chances which lead an artist to fine composition have been perceived and seized, even to the back of the monumental Lure the sharp contour of which against the sky greatly tells on the two advancing women. The eye wanders from pomt to point, from light to light, and seems to find nothmg con- flicting. A finished replica of this work is in the collection of Mr Humphrey Roberts, but it is in water-colour (23 X 35). The Right of Way " (30 X 44). now in the Antipodes but formerly in the collection of the late Mr Henry H.l of Brighton, was among the very latest of his fimshe wor^s, painted in .875. the year he died. "The Sunny lhan.es (49 X S9) was left unfinished, and was subsequently b ought to some degree of completion by the painter best qualified to undertake it, Mr. J. W. North; his touches, ^-ever, being believe, only in water-colour. It was in the collection of WilUam FREDERICK IFALKER. Graham, passing thence in 1886 to Sir Charles Tennant, its present owner, and it shows the high bank of a river, with a group of peasant children ; one of them is lying on the grass fishing, his bare legs overhanging the rich loose earth, whereon grow brambles, foxgloves, and convolvuli. It cannot be con- ceived that in its existing state it at all approaches the condition in which Walker would have left it. The warm colours have it all their own way, and the relieving greys and cooler tones are scarcely even suggested. Several water-colours during these past years had been executed by him, the exact dates of the painting of which it is difficult to fix. Mr. J. P. Heseltine has the delicately wrought "In an Orchard" (lojx 8|). Sir Cuthbert Quilter has the water-colour version of "The Wayfarers" (13I X 19I), and "Summer" (25 X 21); Mr. S. G. Holland, "The Fish- monger's Shop" (14 X 23), " The Ferry " (12 x 18), and "The Girl driving Geese" (9 X 13); while the exquisite painting of a may-tree on the bank of a stream in which water-lilies are flowering, and by the side of which a girl and boy are strolling, called, from the skimming bird on the water, " The First Swallow" (13I X 9), belongs to Mr. Hubert Herkomer, but it was originally, and until a few years ago, the property of Sir William Agnew. The month of June 1875 saw the last of this gifted man, who bid fair, had he lived, to be nearer to Millais than any other British painter. How nearly his feeling approaches Millais can be seen, and seen palpably, in the black and white drawings of each, published contemporaneously in the early sixties, that most brilliant era of black and white — shall we ever PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S KEIGN. again see its like ?-such papers as Once a Week and Gooel Words calling to their aid the best of poetical art the country had, Millais and Walker, Sandys, Lawless, J. D. Watson, and others. The country also lost a man of conspicuous ability m the same year that Walker died, a man some two years Walker's junior, George John Pinwell [1842-1875]. whose similarity of work entitles him to mention at this pomt. J. L. Roget observes: '•It might almost be a question which artist was the originator of their common style. But as in every case Walker led the way and Pinwell followed, in their cor- relative course, it is the former who must be regarded as the master, and the other mainly as an apt and sympathetic disciple." He did little work in oil-colour. Sir Cuthbert Quilter having perhaps his best effort in this medium, "The Village Cross"; his brief life's work was confined almost entirely to water-colour and drawing in black and white. 1872 marks the production of his most important work, dramatic in incident, clever in arrangement, and with an old-world feeling that strangely and most intelligibly connects the times of the Crusaders with the homely life of England on the out- skirts of London. This was "Gilbert k Beckefs Troth" (22 X 43), now in the collection of Sir John Jaffray. The time of day is sundown, and the groups of people variously and quaintly attired are at leisure after the work of a long summer's day. It is just the hour when the greatest amount of attention might be expected to be given to any circum- stance of an unusual character, and the appearance on the high-road of a white-robed figure, sad of aspect, calling GEORGE JOHN PINWELL. 255 aloud the name of her lost lover, "Gilbert! Gilbert!" is an event that draws all eyes and much comment. Children look at her with wondering eyes, old folks stand thoughtfully, some of them are inclined to ridicule, but through all the throng she passes heedlessly, finding at last, by the help mainly of certain traders, the man she had last seen in distant Palestine, who owed his escape from captivity to her, and whose plighted love there ends finally in marriage. The circumstance by itself is a romantic story, but how much the painter has made of it! It has furnished him with a text for his art, that is all ; circling around the incident, he shows the art he is capable of, with happily no limitation to the display of his capacity. " The Elixir of Love," almost as large (18 x 42), painted two years previously, sold in 1871, at Christie's, for £2-]i, and was subsequently etched by R. W. Macbeth, A.R.A. ; "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," painted in 1869; "The Great Lady," painted in 1873; and "The Beggars' Roost, Tangier," belonging to the Rev. C. J. Sale, ably represent his work, and ensure him an undeniable position among the painters of the Reign. Mention of " The Pied Piper of Hamelin " recalls Mr. J. E. Christie's version of more recent years, in the possession of Mr. R. W. Brechin, of Glasgow, a work representing the artist at the Guildhall Exhibition of 1897. The procession of children in this instance is coming towards the spectator, instead of passing by, and has more seriousness and mystery in it than Pinwell's. The half-lighted outskirts of a wood help to make this impression. The fascinated ,56 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. children cluster thickly around the old piper, " with wistful look enchanted," Truly he has them all in thrall as they follow him, their little hearts brimful of delight. For such a congregation the picture is cleverly focused, aided m Us design by the leafless saplings to the right and m its feel- ing by the black-feathered birds of ill omen to the left. This same artists late production of "The Red Fisher- n.an" may also be spoken of here (6i X 48, 1893). It - taken from Mr. Winthrop Mackworth Praeds ballad, and depicts the abbots vision. A fiend seated on a stool and clad in red is " a-fishing with gold [a bag of coins] for the souls of the poor human race." Now he catches a kmght, now a lady, now a mayor comes up, and alas, as dl-fate would have it, an abbot. " All alone, by the side of the pool, A tall man sat on a three-legged stool. Red were the rags his shoulders bore And a high red cap on his head he wore.' Arthur Boyd Houghton [:836-i875] died in the same year as Walker and Pinwell. He painted in oil, but h.s water-colour best identifies him with the Reign. Most o his subjects are of an Eastern character, " Oh, that I ha Wings like a Dove," and suchlike, but there are several .hich touch upon the Far West, among the Indians of Nord. America "The Return of Hiawatha" (30 X 4=), pamted m .860, and belonging to Mr. W. S. Caine, may be regarded as one of his best. The habits of the Indians and the colours that prevail among them commend themselves to us as true in this particular work. Inspired by Longfellow's Imes, ARTHUR BOYD HOUGHTON~P. R. MORRIS. 257 " When he came into the village Found the people in confusion," the painter shows the costly robed Hiawatha walking with free step and unencumbered towards the camp, and Minnehaha at his side heavily laden with the camping materials, following the custom among the race of the women bearing the burdens and doing the menial work. There is much in the sky that resembles Pinwell's " Gilbert a Becket," and the closest attention is paid throughout to detail and finish. His works are few in number; one, until 1894 in the collection of Mr. Reginald H. Prance, "The Transformation of King Bedr" (19 x 24), was painted fifteen years after the " Hiawatha," the year in fact that he died, but the excellent character of its workmanship is the same. It was last publicly seen at the Exhibition of Water-Colour Drawings held at Messrs. Agnew & Sons' early in 1896. Three years before, however, a smaller work which deserves mention, "Useless Mouths" (27 x 18), was painted, in which a procession is shown of medieval figures, men, women, and children, leaving a beleaguered city, a work which in charm and quaint beautiful aim and wholesome feeling differs vastly from some renderings of the same subject. Among the painters of pastoral scenes the author of " The Reaper and the Flowers " (35 x 59), the historical gold medallist of 1858, P. R. Morris, must claim a place here. The flowers are happy peasant children who come gaily along the country road to meet the aged labourer who, scythe on shoulder, is returning from the fields. The light of early evening is over the scene, and there is a sentiment in the work possessed by few others of his. But there are others, The End of the Journey " 33 258 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. (,874) and " Good-bye, God bless you! " (1873) being among the best The latter might almost be Mason's work, so pensive and beautiful is the picture of simple English rural life. An aged woman stands by her cottage door bidding farewell to a young girl who, slender in form, in cotton print dress and sun-bonnet, is about to hurry after the young waggoner whose waggon is already some distance away along the rugged darkening road. The painter, to the regret of many, departed from this very delightful phase of expression to pursue his art in subjects d.ffermg widely from these, but among the best of the subsequent ones must be ranked the large example exhibited in 1878, and until recently in the collection of the late Captain Henry Hill, "■Premiere Communion, Dieppe" (72 X 106). Here young girls are seen on a Sunday morning in white dresses and veils on their way in procession to church to First Communion. Green rushes are on the ground where they step, and they sine as they go, the weather-worn fishermen and women standing aside in reverent admiration as they pass. This work is now in the possession of Mr. A. Hicklin, and it is by many considered, both on account of its animation and excellent workmanship, among the painter's most successful works. CHAPTER X. Better known now as a sea painter, James Clarke Hook had made sufficient impression, by works of a high and romantic class of genre, to gain in 1850 his election as an Associate of the Royal Academy, he being then thirty-one years of age. His earliest work in the Academy appears to have been two years after the Queen's accession, a small unpretentious painting of domestic genre. Scenes from Shake- speare and Boccaccio, with an occasional portrait, marked his way for some years, developing as time went on into serious and complicated compositions, of which one of the best examples is "The Return of Torello," a work of very brilliant yet chastened colour, belonging to the year 1852. It has passed through several collections, and Mr. Albert Wood, of Conway, is its present possessor. Like many works of this class which he has undertaken, he has skilfully seized, as an artist should, the critical moment of this story of Boccaccio's. Signor Torello, an Italian gentleman, has in his journeyings been detained in captivity by the Turks, and returns at last to find his fair young wife about to be re-wedded. He sits as a guest at the marriage feast un- recognized, until, having startled her by a winecup which he has handed to her with a ring he has placed in it, he 259 26o PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN gravely uncovers his head and reveals himself to the as- tonished bride. This work represented him at Paris in 1858 and in the International Exhibition of 1862, and was last seen in public at the Guildhall in 1894. It is a singular thing for a painter who has devoted so much attention to scenes of romantic incident such as this, in which the senti- ment may almost be termed elegant, to somewhat suddenly (presumably by taking up a country life) adopt an entirely new class of subject, and to find in the quiet countryside that employment for his brush for which it would seem, by the work he has since produced, nature had fitted him more conspicuously than for any other. Forsaking the visions of Venetian high life and Shake- spearian incident which had appeared on many of his can- vases we find in 1854 such pictures appearing as "A Rest by the Wayside" and "A Few Minutes to wait before Twelve O'clock," the latter an English scene of a mother and child awaiting in a harvest-field the hour of the reaper s midday rest. The work which the reapers have done and are doing is seen in the picture, and the upland airy, with its bit of sweet pure sky beyond. "The Birthplace o the Streamlet." and suchlike works of more or less poetical character, came from his hand, among the best of very many works of this kind being "The Wily Angler, bought from the David Price Collection in 1892 by Mr. Abel Buckley. The quiet English woodland is shown, with a depth of intensity rarely equalled, and with its welcome stream, m which a lad is fishing, his young sister looking on. Nor must be omitted " The Salmon Pool," a rich and beautiful seen tii S; . imself to the ■ grdveiy uncover-. "-^ - ■ tonished b'-: -rcpresenied him at Paris i„ ,• , Miai Exhibition of 1862, and wfis lasi c at the Guildhall in ^894- is a singular ,1 painter who has devoted so much attention to romantic incident such as this, in which the senti- almost be termed elegant, to somewhat suddenly uably by taking up a country life) adopt an entirely ..lass of subject, and to find in the quiet countryside employment for his brush for which it would seem, by r.e work he has since produced, nature had fitted him mor. conspicuously than for any other. Forsaking the visions of Venetian high life and Shake- spearian incident which ^ vases, we find in i8s4 sucii by the Wayside" and ' a Twelve O'clock," the latter and child awaiting in a harvest-field the hour of the reaper s ..idday rest. The work which the reapers have done and .e doing is seen in the picture, and the "upland a.ry, .v.th its bit of sweet pure sky beyond. <' The Birthplace o Streamlet," and suchlike works of more or less poetical .. „a-.cter, came from his hand, among the best of very' vorks of this kind being -The Wily Angler, rom the David Price Collection in 1892 by Mr. Abel The quiet English woodland is shown, with a depth „r „ rarely equalled, and with its welcome stream, in which a lad is fishing, his young sister looking on. > must be omttted -The Salmon Pool," a rich and b. JAMES CLARKE HOOK. 261 aspect of nature, in which his best work is seen. This is owned by Mr. George Gurney, an ardent admirer of Hook's work, and the possessor of two other excellent examples, "Caller Herrin'" and "The Crabbers." It was in 1854 that his experience of Clovelly led his brush from the countryside to the sea, from which time, with an occasional inland scene (always vividly truthful, with grass- land as cool and fresh as in nature), he has led the public to associate him more with the sea and its shore than with any other aspect of nature. His work cannot be mistaken for that of any other sea painter ; his handling is distinct, and his study of the movement of water must have been close. As early as 1859 one of the most difficult wave- forms to render was shown with wonderful accuracy in a work which for long was in the collection of Mr. J. Stewart Hodgson, "Luff, Boy!" a Devonshire fishing boat running before the wind, its very swing on the waters being palpably given. A bright ruddy-cheeked boy of perhaps eight years old has been told by his grandfather to luff, and looks as he obeys with inquiring eye to learn whether he has done it rightly. All this scene in the boat is pretty enough, but the great skill lies in the following wave, the speed with which the moving water is coming — that curls and hisses, but cannot overtake the swiftly borne craft. An everyday scene so natural on our coasts at once caught the public eye, and the picture became very popular, as also have been many others where the incidents of ordinary human life have been brought by his brush into contact with the sea. Not often does he omit this human element from his work, but sometimes, as in Mr. Humphrey 462 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN Roberts's "Broken Oar" (which by kind permission is repro- duced), we have the sea by itself, where the waves, almost with a sense of savagery, have tossed up the remnant of an oar. Those who buy Mr. Hook's works almost invariably keep them to the last, and having bought one usually acquire others, so fresh and cheery is the impression they impart, a breeze from the sea or the tossing of the free waves being always welcome to the tired eye. Mr. C. P. Matthews had many, Mr. David Price many, and Mr. Charles Gassiot never fails to find something invigorating and new in the four that hang in his well chosen collection. Twelve years Hook's junior, but for long a contemporary with him, was Henry Moore, an ardent student of the sea, not so often in its stormier aspects as in the moods in which it is more familiar to the general eye, the stretch of calm or the quietly agitated waste of waters. The correct modelling of waves and their movements which long years of patient observance enabled him to attain to, and which was honestly and deliberately secured without resort to any trickery of the brush, places him as a sea painter of conspicuous eminence. The Walker Art Gallery at Liverpool has a fine example of his latest and more accomplished style in " Nearing the Needles," but the Birmingham Art Gallery can, I think, boast of a better in "The Newhaven Packet" {37x83), painted in 1885, m which the curling waves seem particularly natural, and a fine feeling of solemn intensity is imparted in an unusual manner, of the power and loneliness and breadth of the moving waters in the English Channel. Smaller than either of these, but 7-v i62 PAINrim IN THE QUEENS REIGN. Roberts's "Broken Oar" {..hich by kind permission is repro- duced), .e have the sea by itself, .'here the .aves, almost .ith a sense of savagery, have tossed up the remnant of an oar. Those who buy Mr. Hook's works almost invariably keep them to the last, and having bought one usually acquire others, so fresh and cheery is the impression they impart, a breeze from the sea or the tossing of the free waves being always welcome to the tired eye. Mr. C. P. Matthews had many. Mr. David Price many, and Mr. Charles Gass.ot never fa.ls to find something invigorating and new in the four that hang in his well chosen collection. Twelve years Hook's junior, but for long a contemporary with him, was Henry Moore, an ardent student of the sea, not so often in its stormier aspects as in the moods m wh.c. it is more familiar to the general eye, the stretch of ca m or the quietly agitated waste of waters. The correct modeUmg of waves and their movements, which long years of pat. t observance enabled him to attain to. and which was hones^ and deliberately secured without resort to any tnckery of the brush, places him as a sea painter of conspicuous emmenc. The Walker Art Gallery at Liverpool has a fine examp^^ of his latest and more accomplished style in " Nearing the Needles but the Birmingham Art Gallery can, I think, boast of a bett in .-The Newhaven Packet" (37 X 83), pamted m 1885, m which the curling waves seem particularly natural, and a fine feeling of solemn intensity is imparted in an unusual manner, of the power and loneliness and breadth of the movmg waters in the English Channel. Smaller than either of these, out PETER GRAHAM. 263 as excellent in every way for strength, motion, and air, is one entitled " Rough Weather Outside Poole." His studious life and contributions to British art were for lono; unrecoo-nized, but at length, when he was fifty-four, he was elected an Associate of the Academy, and a few years later an Academician. He had identified himself with landscape in his earlier life, a good example of which is in the collection of Mr. William Coltart, but his vocation was sea, and in that he has left an enduring impression. Differing from Moore in his painting of the sea, but excelling him as the painter of a wider range of subject, is Peter Graham, whose works in which the sea appears are never unassociated with rocks or cliffs and wild-fowl. One of the first of this kind of a striking character was " The Cradle of the Seabird," in the collection formerly of Mr. Snowden Henry, of Bonchurch, Isle of Wight, a large upright picture, painted in i858, of a perpendicular cliff with thousands of seabirds wheeling or alighting, and at its base the resdess waters. " Our Northern Walls," belonging to Mr. James Houldsworth, and " The Fowler's Crag " of Mr. Gillihan's, are others of this kind, and perhaps the best, but there are many, an extremely attractive one being the rocky cleft known as "Where Deep Seas Moan " (62 x 52, 1879), called originally " The Seabirds' Resting-place," where the very spirit of the deep dark water is given within a cleft of the tall cliffs where the seabirds are at home. But this is only one side of Mr. Graham's work ; his land- scape, often with Highland cattle, is the other, and one of the finest landscapes of the Reign may be said to be his " Highland Spate." It is just over thirty years since this was painted, 264 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. In the present day modern drainage provides a steady escape for the water, but in past times, when there were no such contrivances, it overran the natural river courses and caused terrible danger. The picture shows us the water frae the hills cold, torn, and peat-stained, coming in a torrent and carrying away a portion of a stone bridge. The shadows on the adjacent hills and the lowering clouds are at one with the rushmg «ater, and a kind of angry uniformity is attained. The picture is in the possession of Sir W. Cunliffe Brooks, in Grosvenor Square, and is 50 X 70 inches. One or two smaller versions of the picture are also in existence, one of them 2^ X 41. m another painting (and these different characteristics give a comprehensive idea of his work) his cattle are seen. ' Moorland Rovers " is the title of the work (49 X 73). -d it is owned by Lord Armstrong. A drove of formidable beeves are advancing oL the sedgy land; the outline of the hills behi^;:^ ^^^^ lost in the low hanging mist. So admirably, so lifelike wah their thick shaggy coats, are these sturdy beasts painted that a distinguished lady, no doubt accustomed to stay among the hills, when her eye first caught sight of the picture at the Guildhall in X894, recognizing the truth of the painting, could not restrain herself, but rushed up to it, and in a voice audible to many ejaculated, "Oh, you darlings!" Academical recognition was long withheld from Mr. John Brett, but at length, when he was about fifty-five, he was admitted an Associate. A life up to that time of conscientious study and diligent work had been productive of very original renderings of the sea. a branch of art in which he is more ,,dely known than any other, although he had begun his . ady escape Te were no suci- ourses and caused •^he water frae the orrent and Qllds al rirmity is a :,.•..■■> ■ ( .-nlifle Brooks, in Gr. jne or two smaller versions n existence, one of the nd these dr ihem is t accustomed to stay among ight sight of the picture at the truth of the painting, .t rusht in ^ ^"^"^^ ! from Mr. John ^iftv^five, he- was scientioiis of very originnl svhich he is morn HOUgh he had begur ■MiiiMMil JOHN BRETT— COLIN HUNTER. 2^5 career as a landscape painter, and had exhibited in 185S, when he was twenty-two, a work entitled "The Stonebreaker " (20 X 27), which indicates the sympathy he must have had for the Pre-Raphaelite principles which for some years then had been asserting themselves. Mr. Ruskin was drawn to this work, and he said : " I know of no such thistledown, no such chalk hills and elm-trees, no such natural pieces of far- away cloud in any of their works." It belongs to Mr. James Barrow, of Liverpool, and is exhibited this present year at the Guildhall. But all his work has had in it, from the beginning, the evidence of close application and veneration for detail in his endeavour to attain to truth, and thouo-h o occasionally a little hard perhaps in his delineation of rippling water, the same strong effort to depict nature may be witnessed. Expanses of sea, the rocky Cornish coast, and stretches of wet sand, with advancing waves, are the subjects with which we identify him, and among the best of these may be placed " The Stronghold of the Seison and the Camp of the Kitti- wake," said to be a view of Carnarvon Castle from the sea; "The Grey of the Morning," owned by Mr. McCuUoch ; and "Britannia's Realm," each about 36 X 72, the last-named having been purchased by the Royal Academy out of the Chantrey Bequest Fund. " Their Only Harvest " (42 x 72) was the work which in 1879 brought Mr. Colin Hunter prominently to the front, and the effect which had there been so cleverly conveyed of the moving sea under the influence of the departing day had besides the association of human life and work in the strong-hearted, weather-worn men piling their small boat with 34 i6a FAINTING IN THE QUEENS KEICN se»eed fro„, the water. Such ..n efe. upon .he se. had Tbeen go, before, .he ,hi™«H„g il..n,i„rio„ of .he n,«v,„g ler wi, its dark ™„y.o,oured shadowings being ,n *,lfnl Itelen, wi.h .he .u„,i„ons sky. He had been .oA.ng op o :chieve,»n.s of .hi. kind for »„,e year, „„ .he Academy 1„ „s meri. was a. once recognised, and .he Royal le den,y were .he purchasers of .he pic.ur. for .he Chanrrey B^ues, Many are .he works which he has produced ,„ ,his his decidedly original manner of ,n.erpre.,ng .he sea. He b»= .he gif. of ob.ai„ing i.s freshness as well as ,.s forn, "d depth, f!r i. is always .he ^Meep ^ sea where.n he sh.nes el slch as .he one we have nten.ioned, ■ Fishers of .he Nor.h Sea." and o.h.rs. al.hongh .here are many coas. scenes, realised wi.h .ell.ng effect, bu. always wl.h a plen,.ude of ^ „d often accompanied by some simple human .ncden . such ,s ..Bahers" or Mona Crofters." The Art Gallery a Manches.er has one of his most conspicuous successes ,n Th Herring Market at Sea" („ X y .»4> ^^"^^ '° Lh more in this picture than in any other example > know his. The effect, to begin with, is of so sens.ttve a chara te, .h.,t all the power he possesses seem, to have been caW forth to express it. The time is early morn.ng, and the ch.ll : ter of Loch Fyne has over it the clear and tender m«uenc : the now rapidly growing light. With this de ».e am^ « the same .ime firm handling of na.ure he records a fac. „f mercantile interest, which is no, brought, however so prominendy forward as ,o imerfere wi,h the subhm.ty of s a EDWIN ELLIS— U: L. iVVLLI^. 267 herrings aro taken at once to the markets of Greenock and Glasgow. He is represented at the Guildhall Exhibition of 1897 by this work, in which to me his chief characteristics as a painter of the sea are manifest. The sea painter bearing some resemblance to the fore- going is Edwin Ellis, who appears to grasp the sea with the strong hand of William Muller, but to me he has always seemed to lack that reverent appreciation for the sublime elements of nature which is perceived in Colin Hunter's work. The palette knife united with undue haste is far too evident, and yet in such works as "The Haven under the Hill" (35 X 71), if the idea of vulgar force can be got rid of, there is an accuracy of colouring, a sense of air and freshness, which is at once recognized. A genuine feeling of reality is always encountered in Mr. W. L. Wyllie's work. He took the Turner Gold Medal at the age of eighteen for a picture entitled " A Wreck." The work that brought him to the front was the " Toil, Glitter, Grime, and Wealth " on a flowing tide, followed by a work not dissimilar in character, with the happy and appropriate title " Black Diamonds," showing black barges heavily laden with coal. The work and the money-making of England are both shown with striking effect in these two pictures. The former was added to the Chantrey Collection. They are both massive in their treatment, and exhibit a dexterous force throughout. But other effects are at his command. " Davy Jones's Locker " and " The Phantom Ship " (44 x 54) show poetic feeling and very considerable knowledge of the sea. The latter work pictures a large barque becalmed and drifting towards a rocky coast ; a ,68 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN heavy squall fron. seaward is approaching, and. to the dismay of the crew, the phantom ship appears-the Flying DrUch- .na.u doomed, according to the story, by the blasphemies of her skipper, Philip Vanderdecken, to perpetually sa,l the South Atlantic, in futile attempts to round the Cape of Good Hope. The sense of awe and mystery is well conveyed in th.s mter- estinc^ work. It was painted about 1889. ■ Not less earnest, but working in an entirely different way, .nd with an idea of the sea quite at variance to the foregomg, is C Napier Hemy, who at the age of twenty-two forsook h.s n.onastic life among the Dominicans at Lyons and became a painter Most of his work is excellent in his endeavour faithfully to depict the sea and the ocean, and he gets as few other painters do the lapping of the water. Always breezy and fresh, his effects are in this respect accounted for perhaps by h.s living so constantly on the sea, with a studio, I believe, on his own yacht. Most of his work, both in oil and water- colour, must be painted under these advantageous c.rcum- stances He seldom rises to the high level of his more recent work entitled " Lost." This is of splendid quality, and shows the wild sea in its force and depth and weight of wave washing in to a rocky shore, and a doomed boat already breaking up and half submerged. His excellent and thoro.,gh workmanship is seen well in an example belongmg to Mr. Reginald Bushell, A Silent Adieu." In this example, how- ever a glimpse only of the sea is given, on wh.ch .s a receding ;hip. The picture is mainly of a garden where grow poppies and geraniums, wall-flowers, lavender, and cloves, and by an old box-bordered path is a girl in white apron and CLARA MONTALBA. 269 black and white kerchief whose eyes are bent on the disappearing ship. Clara Montalba, pupil of Eugene Isabey, has a way of her own, in which she may be said to resemble no one, of rendering the sunny depths of light upon the sea. In "A Royal Escort, Venice" (30 X 52, 1891), to this effect in nature are added the towers and buildings of Venice, from which the splendour of a procession of gorgeous barges is seen approaching, the whole scene being steeped in warm sunshine. " A Venetian Ferry " (33 x 59), belonging to Lord Manners, is also a work glowing with the rich effect of the sky upon the water. The painter's strong feeling for this sumptuosity of warm light expresses itself too in landscape, and whether in oil or water- colour is invariably recognized as faithful to nature, with the added charm of sentiment. The flood of golden light into which the pale blue mountains rise in the little picture of "After Sunset, Vincenza " (22 x 15), is expressive enough of the individuality of this gifted lady. Detail in plenty is seen in her work, if you take the trouble to look for it, but it is always dexterously controlled, with an aspect of unity which in effect depicts the essence, as it were, of sea and sky, and leaves the impression of the rich lustre of nature. Edwin Hayes, Sir Francis Powell, and George Cockram are also long-experienced exponents of the sea, and of late years one other painter who has not yet realized the expectations formed of him when his remarkable work was seen on the Academy walls in 1893 is Thomas Somerscales. Of this work, "A Corvette Shortening Sail to pick up a Shipwrecked Crew " (48 x 72), it may be said that nothing hner has come since from his PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN h,nd The sense of weight and depth in the water, of power and immensity in the deep blue silent moving waste, was a splendid expression of the watery element, sailed over so buoyantly by the corvette, and lit by the glowing expanse of an almost cloudless sky. This effect of the aspect of the ocean after sundown was repeated in another work purchased in the same year by the Liverpool Corporation, entitled " A Man Overboard" (48 X 72), but it does not reach the quahty of the previous work, which was purchased by Mr. J. L. Pearson, R.A. CHAPTER XI. A VERY delightful phase of historical art has developed in the group which has in its midst Calderon, Yeames, Lucas, and others. I remember well the interest that was aroused in that entertaining scene of the domestic life of the Middle Ages, shown by Calderon in 1867, "Home after Victory" (49 X 82), an episode familiar enough, one may suppose, in those times. The welcome home is full of heart and energy : the successful warrior, still wearing his armour, is awaited in the courtyard by his relatives and retainers ; his reappear- ance puts an end to the time of uncertainty and anxiety concerning him, and his wife hangs on his arm with delight, while his aged father, with outstretched arms, is overjoyed as, in the pride of health and success, his stalwart son crosses the courtyard. The picture has been for many years in the possession of Mr. Ephraim Hallam, of Stockport, and by his kind permission is reproduced here. It v/as one of the painter's earliest conspicuous successes, and he was elected Royal Academician in the year it was exhibited. From that time many scenes laid in medieval times, or having for their theme some romantic sentiment that we especially attach to that period, have come from him, such as " Sighing his Soul into his Lady's Face" in 1869, and the "Queen of 371 572 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. the Tournament" of 1874; and, coming to a later period, there was one exhibited in 1878, " Removing Nuns from Loughborough, 1643 " (77 X 60), which recorded a plain historical fact with no little charm, and it must be regretted that, owing to contemplated alterations in it, which have not as yet been carried out, the work is still in the painter's hands. Beneath an arched gateway of a nunnery, a waggon, containing some nuns, is about to start. On December 2nd, 1643, Cromwell had written to his friend Squire: "I think I have heard you say you had a relation in the nunnery at Loughborough. Pray, if you love her, remove her speedily, and I send you a pass, as we have orders to demolish it." The nun, Cousin Mary, together with another nun, a Miss Andrews, were promptly got away, and placed at Squire's house at Thrapstone the same night, and in a short space of time the Parliamentary troops rode over and wrecked the nunnery. The daily quiet of the sacred edifice is strangely disturbed in the portrayal the painter gives of the hurried departure, though from the stone portals the glimpse that is given of the countryside is suggestive only of peace. A considerable stir and much unnecessary talk was made in 1 89 1 by the "St. Elizabeth of Hungary's Great Act of Renunciation." That a woman should be pictured nude in the presence of men served to call for disapproval in certain directions, but the picture had the merit of recording an actual fact, and one of devotion and self-sacrifice. "On a certain Good Friday," writes Dietrich, "in obedience to the will of Conrad of Marburg, her spiritual guide, she went into PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIO,\ the Tournament" of 1874; and, coming to a later pervv; there was one exhibited in 1878, "Removing Nuns from Loughborough, 1643" (77x60), which recorded a plain historical fact with no little charm, and it must be regretted that, owing to contemplated alterations in it, which have not as yet been carried out, the work is still in the painter's hands. Beneath an arched gateway of a nunnery, a waggon, containing some nuns, is about to start. On December 2nd. ,643, Cromwell had written to his friend Squire : " I thmk I have heard you say you had a relation in the nunnery at Loughborough. Pray, if you love her, remove her speedily, and I send you a pass, as we have orders to demolish it." The nun. Cousin Mary, together with another nun, a Miss Andrews, were promptly got away, and placed at Squire's house at Thrapstone the same night, and in a short space of time the Parliamentary troops rode over and wrecked the nunnery. The daily quiet of the sacred edifice is strangely disturbed in the portrayal the painter gives of the hurried departure, though from the stone portals the glimpse that is given of the countryside is suggestive only of peace. A considerable stir and much unnecessary talk was made in 1891 by the " St. Elizabeth of Hungary's Great Act of Renunciation." That a woman should be pictured nude in the presence of men served to call for disapproval in certain directions, but the picture had the merit of recording an actual fact, and one of devotion and self-sacrifice. " On a certain Good Friday," writes Dietrich. " in obedience to the will of Conrad of Marburg, her spiritual guide, she .^-nt mto PHILIP II. CALDERON. 273 a small chapel, accompanied by various persons, threw off all her garments, and, kneeling before the altar, solemnly renounced parents, children, friends, and the pomps and pleasures and vanities of the world." The composition is well arranged, and the simple kneeling figure is impressive, in the tender light of the chapel, and in presence of the stern and determinate visage of Conrad and the holy devotion of the two attendant nuns. It should be noticed that all in the picture are absorbed in the contemplation of the great merit of the act, and that the act itself, the nude figure, is not looked at. The picture was acquired by the Royal Academy, from the Chantrey Bequest Fund. One of his most impressive works of late years has been the work of 1893, "Elizabeth Woodville parting with her Younger Son, the Duke of York" (68 x 102). The subject has been often treated ; for a moment we must enter into the mind of the painter as we behold the facts, to entirely appreciate the picture. The Duke of Gloucester had at first proposed to take the boy by force out of sanctuary, but Cardinal Bouchier, the Archbishop of Canterbury, deprecated this act of sacrilege, and persuasion was tried. For a long time Elizabeth was unmovable, shrewdly perceiving that no one would attempt the life of her elder son (who was already in the Tower) so long as the younger, his successor, was in safety. But at length she was prevailed upon to comply, and produced him to the Archbishop ; then on a sudden struck with some presage of evil, she passionately embraced the boy, and bid him what proved to be an eternal adieu. This is the point which the painter has depicted, PUNTING IN THE QUEEN'S KEIGN 274 • distress in the kneeling figure of the ''IT ay tjla Q„», . .o.chi„.,y shown. a, away. ^/^^„ ,,„„, and beyond a„ girl leans agauist a taiien slu y warm shadowed foliage and blue hills. .eademical D W Wynfield, though he never attained to acaden.. • .ed some highly Interesting historical scenes with Honours, ^^^J^^^J^^ ,,,,,,, p..ed and skilfully a smcere aim to sccu ^^^^ ^^^^^ lighted, the " Death of Cromwell (^5 ^o), l a„„„. .»o. »„o„s -e. Knight," painted m tb74. ,^ f^;, oUong) (,S X musttatntg the ^^^'^ constituents presenting hit, »th '> f'"" ^ „„„^ ^ c-f "Whittmgtons banquet approachmg contest ^ Wh ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ .^^^^^^ .^^ latest works, pamted m 1887, pU- . ^^^^.^^ event of Whittington entertaining Kmg Henry Kings own honds, which teptesented - ^ e and certain of the City Companies had lent to the K,n„ SIR JAMES D. LINTON. 275 picture is now in the collection of Mr. James Dole, of Bristol. Similar in his tendencies, but rarely, if ever, recording an historical event, Sir James D. Linton has found subject enough in the life of the Middle Ages, either in distinct scenes, such as the series possessed by Sir C. J. Jacoby, or in single figures, always gracefully and carefully composed ; and although he has of late years practised in oil-colours also, his water-colour, with which he was originally identified, has perhaps a superior attraction to many. Always pleasing in arrangement and satis- fying in colour, no better example of his work could be pointed to than " On Guard," owned by Mr. C. J. Galloway, of Knutsford. The pleasant sense of space in the long room, and the incidents that engage the eye among the figures around the table, give it a value which he is successful in acquiring, though perhaps in a less degree, in very many of his works. The control of the colour in this particular picture results in a gentle and most attractive harmony, and the eye never fails to rest on it with a feeling of contentment. Yeames was thirty-one when he produced that very im- pressive work of his of " Queen Elizabeth receiving the French Ambassador after St. Bartholomew's Day" (41 x 66, 1866), in the collection now of Mrs. O. E. Coope, in her charming country place on the outskirts of Brentwood. Many have been the incidents surrounding that terrible tragedy which have been dealt with by artists ; but this particular event, until touched by Mr. Yeames, had not been noticed. Elizabeth declined altogether at first to receive the Ambassador (La Mothe Fen<^lon), but after three days had passed she granted him V ,^6 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN an Interview. Nothing, it is said, could have been more awful and affecting than the solemnity of this audience, for sdence as in the dead of night, reigned throughout the crowded apartn.ent, and the courtiers and ladies, clad in mourning and ranged on either side, allowed the Ambassador to pass without one' salute or fevourable look. All this the painter has con- veyed with marked success, and to my mind the picture stands a, one of his best historical records. Two years later he painted "Lady Jane Grey m the Tower," now in the Sheffield Corporation Gallery. Quaintly dressed, the ten days Queen demurely regards the zealous priest, Mary's own chaplam Feckenham, who endeavours to unfold his doctrines to her, but bein. a staunch Protestant, his ministrations do not move her. The%ainter has represented her more as the chdd of s.xteen, which was her age then, than as the accomplished young la y that we see in C. R. Leslies picture of her, or m Paul Dela roche's; but at the same time he has scarcely caught the fl.ce of . child who was studious, not to say learned, nor of the mnocent dignity of one who had the character to admit, and to eloquently e;rels. that her offence was not the having laid her hand on crown, but in not rejecting it with sufficient constancy, and .hat she had erred less through ambition than through reverence ,o her parents. In costume and accessories the greatest pams L tak!n by this painter to secure accuracy. ' Dawn the Reformation" was exhibited at the same tn.e as the pre- ceding work, and illustrates the life of Wycliffe, showmg_ h.m .bo was called " the morning star of the f the poor priests "copies of his translation of the B.ble nd bidding them make the Gospel known throughout the land, WILLIAM F. YEAMES. 277 This work has been admirably engraved and published by Messrs. Henry Graves & Co. The Royal Academy, out of the Chantrey Bequest Fund, bought his " Amy Robsart " (108 X 72) in 1877, in which the ill fated girl is seen lying dead at the foot of the stairs in the solitary house of Cumnor. Outside her lofty room (as the theory goes) a trap-door had been placed, which gave way beneath her as she joyously emerged on hearing what she took to be the bugle of Leicester, but in reality was the ruse of the treacherous Forster, who in the picture is seen, with two others, descending the steep stairway and coming towards the prostrate figure. Manchester, in 1883, acquired for its Art Gallery the "Prince Arthur and Hubert" (78 x 48); while Liverpool, for the Walker Art Gallery, had purchased three years previously that incident in the disturbed times of Charles I. entitled "When did you last see your Father?" (78 X 42), which in the expression of the faces exhibited much power of delineating character. The Art Union reproduced this work, by engraving, for its sub- scribers. Yeames has not confined himself to historical work, for domestic genre has occupied him frequently. Among the best of these examples is the one given by Mr. George Schwabe to the City of Hamburg. It is called " The Last Bit of Scandal." An elderly gentleman and a daintily coiffured beauty have met in a fashionable London thoroughfare ; their sedan chairs have been set down in the roadway, and they stand chatting. The idea of Old London is well given, and the whole scene is a touch of the time. Commencing with a very distinct leaning towards history, Marcus Stone, the son of the well known genre painter Frank ,,8 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. Stone is known better at the present day by his own charming genre, in which, on stately terrace or in well ordered garden, he places those dainty scenes illustrative more frequently of Ma belle passion" than of any other sentiment. But before he took to this path, the page of history had a fascmat.on for him, and never before was that gallant court favourite Piers Gaveston so vividly realized as when, m 1872, the painter fixed on this page of English history. He has made him, as history tells us he was, elegant of shape and carriage, and has, at the same time, well imagined the character o the thoughtless sovereign Edward II. in his rich attire and in^politic behaviour. There is action in the picture, for some brilliant sally of wit, in which Gaveston often distinguished himself, and which calls forth the slender King's shallow laugh, has hit its mark among the indignant nobles grouped on the right or among the Queen and her ladies, who are seated at needlework. The sense of room and expanse in the picture is a pleasant feature, accounted for. no doubt, by the broad park-lands which the terrace overlooks, and which is well in its place in relation to the figures. This work (48 X 84) was until recently in the possession of Mr. George Fox, of Elmhurst, Lichfield, and was at the Guildhall in 1894. " Le Roi est mort-Vive le Roi ! " similar in shape to the Piers Gaveston, and once in the possession of Mr. Thomas Taylor of Aston Rowant, but now owned by Mr. Robert Wharton, of Waplington Hall, Pocklington, was painted the following year, 187^ one of the most touching incidents of the picture being the hound which draws away from the bustle of royalty in the room towards his late master's bed and looks with anxious eye PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. Stone is known better at the present day by his own charming genre, in which, on stately terrace or in well ordered garden, he places those dainty scenes illustrative more frequently of "Ma belle passion" than of any other sentiment. But before he took to this path, the page of history had a fascmat.on for him, and never before was that gallant court favourite Piers Gaveston so vividly realized as when, in 1872, the painter fixed on this page of English history. He has made him. as history tells us he was, elegant of shape and carnage, and has, at the same time, well imagined the character of the thoughtless sovereign Edward II. in his rich aH.re and impolitic behaviour. There is action in the picture, for some brilliant sally of wit. in which Gaveston often distinguished himself, and which calls forth th.-, slender Kings shallow laugh, has hit its mark among the u.dignant nobles grouped on the right, or among the Queen and her ladies, who are seated at needlework. The sense of room and expanse in the picture is a pleasant feature, accounted for, no doubt, by the broad park-lands which the terrace overlooks, and which >s well m its place in relation to the figures. This work (48 X 84) was until recendy in the possession of Mr. George Fox. of Elmhurst, Lichfield, and was at the Guildhall in 1894. " Le Roi est mort-Vive le Roi!" similar in shape to the Piers Gaveston, and once in the possession of Mr. Thomas Taylor of Aston Rowant. but now owned by Mr. Robert Wharton, of Waplington Hall, Pocklington, was painted the following year. ,873. one of the most touching incidents of the picture bemg the hound which draws away from the bustle of royalty m the room towards his late masters bed and looks with anxious eye MARCUS STONH. 279 upon the dead King. There have been, of course, many others of an historical character from him, and occasionally from Shakespeare ; but the subjects we are now accustomed to look for are those in which some tender emotion is expressed, in surroundings which greatly aid its interpretation — a stately grove, a broad expanse of lawn, an elegant terrace. In shape they are usually a narrow upright, about 60 X 27, or a long oblong. One of the most attractive of the earlier ones of this character was the single figure of a pretty girl, seated on a long garden bench, in the glow of a sunset, but with signs in bench, steps, and elsewhere of a dilapidated estate. To woo her comes the rich squire of the neighbouring domain, but " II y a toujours un autre," and these words are the title of the work. Then Mr. John Aird's "Fallen Out" and " Reconciled " came a year or two afterwards, simple of theme, and set in quiet woodland. In 1888 "In Love" (43 X 65) was painted, and a very pretty picture it was : she placidly sewing, he on the opposite side of the rustic table gazing intently at her ; the pleasant summer air about the two in the old-fashioned garden. The costume of the times in which these scenes are laid is of course helpful to the pictorial effect — the long thin Empire dress for the lady, and the very picturesque dress of that time for the men. Sometimes only the single figure of a girl is seen, such as "Garden Flowers" of 1890; but more often an incident not without drama is given, as in "A Passing Cloud" in 1891, or, better still, in " Two's Company, Three's None." The handsome young couple are happy enough in their reposeful garden, and sadly thoughtless of the third figure that passes 2go PAINTING IN THE QUEENS REIGN. away from them to the left. No point seems to have been lost in this agreeable composition; in line and colour it is pictorially good, and that publishers eagerly seek to reproduce examples of this kind that come from his hand is very easily understood. His themes are quiet and entertaining, the effects he cets in his garden scenes are most pleasing for their unquestionable grace and delicacy, and his execution has always in it that refinement of touch which gives to his picture a sense of completeness as a work of fine art. John Pettie not so much pictured historical event, which indeed he very rarely embarked upon, as probable incidents ranging over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. "The Disgrace of Cardinal Wolsey " (39x61, 1869) and "The Interview of James II. with the Duke of Monmouth" (1882) are among the very few which recorded a distinct circumstance; but it was rather in "Terms to the Besieged" (42 X 57, 1872), or "A Sword and Dagger Fight" (35 X 53. 1877). or "Dost know this Waterfly?" (1883), all of them of telling force of the ways and life of the period, that we find he employed his art One of the earliest works I saw of his was "Time and Place," a single figure waiting in an out-of-the-way leafy spot, sword in hand, for his opponent, with whom he is about to fight a duel. The ready, determinate face of the n.an plainly tells all that is necessary. This well finished little work has long been and is still in the possession of Mr H J Turner, by whose kind consent it is reproduced. ■■What d'ye lack. Madam? what d'ye lack?" (1861), suggested by "The Fortunes of Nigel," is one of the quaintest works of Pettie. It shows the saucy apprentice of a London 28o PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S KEIGN. away from them to the left. No point seems to have been lost in this agreeable composition; in line and colour it is pictorially good, and that publishers eagerly seek to reproduce examples of this kind that come from his hand is very easily understood. His themes are quiet and entertaining, the effects he gets in his garden scenes are most pleasing for their unquestionable grace and delicacy, and his execution has always in it that refinement of touch which gives to his picture a sense of completeness as a work of fine art. John Pettie not so much pictured historical event, which indeed he very rarely embarked upon, as probable incidents ranging over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. "The Disgrace of Cardinal Wolsey " (39 X 6,, .869) and "The Interview of James II. with the Duke of Monmouth" (.88.) are among the ver>' tew which > but it was rather in ' T.-rms t-. X 57- i'*/^)' or "A Sword and Dagger Fight" (35 X 53- 1877). or "Dost know this Waterfly?" (1883), all of them of telling force of the ways and life of the period, that we find he employed his art. One of the earliest works I saw of his was "Time and Place," a single figure waiting in an out-of-the-way leafy spot, sword in hand, for his opponent, with whom he is about to fight a duel. The ready, determinate face of the man plainly tells all that is necessary. This well finished little work has long been and is still in the possession of Mr H. J. Turner, by whose kind consent it is reproduced. "What d'ye lack, Madam? what dye lack?" (1861), suggested by "The Fortunes of Nigel," is one of the quaintest works of Pettie. It shows the saucy apprentice of a London JOHN PETIIE. 281 mercer standing outside his master's booth, and calHng the attention of the passers-by to the wares for sale. Messrs. Virtue have well engraved this. In the picture of " The Rival Roses" (28 X 41, 1871) he has drawn on Shakespeare, but the way in which he has worked out the various characters on the canvas makes it a work of keen historical interest as a record of the very beginning, as it \'ery possibly might have happened, of those terrible Wars of the Roses which were destined to last for thirty years, and which almost annihilated the ancient nobility. It must be noticed what close attention the painter has given in this picture to the characters of the respective men who are present. The scene is in the Temple Gardens, date about 1458. Richard, Duke of York, standing to the left, plucks a white rose, and calls upon those who are his followers to do the like. The Duke of Somerset, boldly fronting him, and handsome of mien, gathers a red rose and commands the supporters of Lancaster to follow him. Suffolk stands at Somerset's right ; beside him, in thoughtful attitude, is a lawyer, who seems to foresee the calamitous effect on the country of the position taken up by these two haughty and determined men. Next to him and fronting the spectator is Warwick, whose powerful support was given to York — a great weight, for he was one of those mighty barons (but the last of them) who may be said to have been powerful enough to overawe the crown. This group of six so pictori- ally arranged, with a background so simple and dignified, as meet for so momentous an occasion, brings this national struggle nearer to realization, and of itself tells, in its dignity 36 ,8, PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN and bearin,, of the painters true grasp of the times. In such works as " A Tussle with a Highland Smuggler (.OXM, ^868) he shows his great capacity for inchcatmg action, for the greatest possible tension is in the forms of the wild-looking contrabandist and the exciseman who has ,ot hold of him; it is a struggle of muscle, and the pamter has left us in doubt as to which is to come off the v.ctor. But in "The Death Warrant" (1879) he touches a d.stmctly pathetic chord. In a work which may be pronounced hts greatest, King Edward VI. is in council, and the fra.l monarch is having presented to him for signature a warrant for the execution of some criminal or political offender. As the pen is handed to him, ready dipped in ink wherew.th to sicn he turns aside in hesitation, and the leaves of the rose he has been absently plucking fall at his feet. U is a great work, bought by the late Mr. George Schwabe and presented by him, with several other fine examples of the Modern British School, to the City of Ham urg, where , now hangs in the Museum there. A smaller version presumably the finished study, is in the possession of M . Dyson Perrins. Another powerful work wh.ch s ows h m Tt his best is in the possession of Mr. John A.d ent. ed ..The Palmer,'' painted in .88.; and ■■The ,1." (6^ X 45, 1886), owned by Mr. Fitzroy Fletcher, ; teste ; - The Legeld of Montrose,'' is a remarkably clever o rayll of the lurid effect of torchlight. Two Highlanders and each holding aloft a blazing torch. When turnmg to H.hter veins of work, which he occasionally did, he was very SEYMOUR LUCAS. 283 delightful. We need but notice two. "The Step" (31 x 47), painted in 1876, and owned now by Mr. H. J. Turner, is full of the prettiest action. A child, with long blue dress and plenteous fair hair, is dancing before an elderly lady in black, who sits in a high-backed chair, with her left hand resting on a stick. In " Two Strings to Her Bow " a sprightly coquette is coming along a lane, with joyous step, between two young gallants, a hand resting on the arm of each, and her smile evidently as much for one as the other. What is so charming here too is the sense of movement. This work belongs to the Corporation of Glasgow, and those who knew Pettie well do not fail to recognize in it three who were very dear to him. Pettie painted also several portraits, brilliant in quality, and some of them in costume A much loved man was Pettie, and his death in February 1893, at the early age of fifty-three, was a great loss. "A Scotsman among Scots was our lost friend John Pettie." These were Leighton's words at the Royal Academy dinner in the following May. " The Armada in Sight " was one of the chief pictures instrumental in bringing Seymour Lucas to the front as a painter of history. Absolutely correct in his costumes, to which he has devoted unstinted time and application, his pictorial capacity enables him at the same time to put forward a scene, momentous or tranquil, so as to stamp it on the mind as being as near to the fact as it could well be, and it is these attributes which make his historical work so valuable, apart from its interest. It was on July 19th, J 588, that the formidable Spanish armament, extending over a length of 284 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. seven miles, was sighted off the Lizard; and when the news arrived at Plymouth, Drake and some of his officers were amusing themselves with bowls on the Hoe. A great mani- festation of alacrity to put to sea was checked by Drake, who laughingly declared that the match should be played out, as there was plenty of time to win the game and beat the Spaniards too. This touch of character in " the fiery Drake," himself the dread of the Spaniards, and for whose head the King of Spain had offered 20,000 ducats, is well displayed by Lucas in the assured demeanour of the great admiral, who stands, ball in hand, ready to play, and gently repelling at the same time the protest which the aged but less confident officer is making. The work was acquired by the Nationa Art Gallery of Sydney. Some years later, in 1889, appeared another work in which Drake was conspicuous. It was called "The Surrender," and Drake is receiving, on board the Revenge, the sword of Pedro de Valdez, who was in command of one of the ships of the Armada, and who surrendered as soon as he became aware who it was who had him in chase. This work (37 X 60) is in the possession of Mr John Paddon. Another of the Armada pictures showed the Spanish side : the kneeling figure of King Philip in the Escurial, no one daring to speak to him, so affected was he at the dire failure of his enterprise. The Elizabethan period is the eariiest period Lucas seems to have dealt with in English history, of which a quieter scene is intro- duced in <'The Favourite" (54 X 84), painted in 1882. showing the false and ambitious Leicester entering an apartment in which are waiting courtiers, ambitious also, and envious. SEYMOUR LUCAS. 285 too, of the favour he enjoys in Elizabeth's eyes. "A Whip for Van Tromp " (65 X 48), " Charles I. before Gloucester " (1881), and "St. Paul's," showing the King's visit to Wren, ably set forth those of the Stuart period. "After Culloden " (56 X 77), showing a party of soldiers entering a smithy, where stands a well conditioned horse, a picture of vigorous action, belongs to [884, and was acquired by the Royal Academy from the Chantrey Bequest Fund. "Louis XI.," exhibited in 1890, is one of the few in which foreign history is dealt with, but the French peasant, neat in her attire, receiving beneath her humble roof the sinister King, so widely dreaded, and who sits complacently down — the little images of saints, as was his wont, affixed to his cap — is naturally portrayed. He would often, as history tells, enter unaccompanied some simple cottage, talking with its inmates and accepting their hospitality. What pictures for the historical painter the much dreaded and statesmanlike monarch affords of a life never free from vicissi- tude, danger, and momentous political event, yet how seldom a picture illustrative of it is seen on the Academy walls, and he lived, too, at a time when brilliant indeed were the arms and accoutrements of war, the banners and the tapestries, and the dresses, varied in colour and shape, of the ladies of the period. R. Scott Lauder, R.S.A., pictured him once in a work (41 X 53) entitled "Louis XL, Quentin Durward, and the Countess of Croye," and caught admirably the sinister aspect of the monarch. Another painter imbued with historical feeling, and working with the intent to produce a record of past events more interesting than momentous, as like to truth as the most painstaking literary 286 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. study and investigation can enable him, is Eyre Crowe, pupil of the famous Frenchman Delaroche, who was mentioned a page or two back. With him he went to Rome, then into the Royal Academy schools, and his first picture appeared on the walls of that institution half a century ago. All his work is characterized by honesty of effort, which in some of his pictures closely resembles that of his master; and though sometimes dry and hard in his execution, with apparently little delight in colour, his aim in rendering fact is sincere, with consequent valuable results. He has deviated in his career from the purely historical by indulging in occasional work of a domestic genre character ; but the productions by which he is best known, and upon which his reputation will rest, are those to which he has devoted his decided capacity for depicting history. Only the more prominent of his works can be touched on here. His " Defoe in the Pillory," for instance, painted in ,863, owned by Mr. J. L. Newall, of Ongar, gives a record of a period which has been comparatively but litde dealt with by artists, and which is consequently of great interest, being as it also is a litde off the path of familiar historical incident. This picture, with others of that epoch, such as " Whitefield Preaching in Moorfields," doubtless cost the painter much reading of such books as are not always ready at hand, and to this is due several others of his interesting and well thought out works. E. M. Ward, Cope, and Maclise dealt skilfully with events in this country which stand prominently out ; but like John Ashton, the author who delights to dwell on such records as exist of the " Social Life of Queen Anne," so Eyre Crowe, with more resemblance to Elmore and Egg in his EYRE CROWE. 287 designs, has repeatedly found some of his most attractive subjects, not in the highways, but in the byways of history. A man must be somewhat of a reader to thorouglily appreciate him. How many times, I wonder, has the actual scene of the " Execution of Mary Queen of Scots " been pictured .'' But this painter seizes the less terrible, but the more pathetic spectacle connected with that event, which only the more studious would recognize. He shows her, almost with overwhelming solemnity, lying dead in the upper room to which she had been carried after her execution. Absolute truth to history has been sought and recorded in a very realistic way in the picture. Here the Queen lies, dressed as she herself had wished " as for a festival," her robe of black brocaded satin over a gown of crimson velvet, of which costume, with the green billiard cloth with which she was covered, the painter has naturally taken full advantage in his pictorial effect. This picture was painted in 1868, and was exhibited at the Academy under the sufficient title " Mary Stuart, 1587." The poor curate of Hoole, John Horrocks, early in the seventeenth century, was also a subject that had attraction for him, and he has recorded his famous experiment in connection with the transit of Venus in a picture entitled "The Founder of English Astronomy" (30 X 40), now in the Walker Art Gallery at Liverpool, presented to that institution by Mr. C. W. Jones, of that city. Events nearer his own time have also engaged him : " Hougoumont on the Day after Waterloo," painted in 1886 ; " Nelson leaving England for the Last Time," painted in 1888 ; and " The Explosion at the Cashmere Gate," painted in 1881, — his work on the Academy walls of 1896 reverting, however, 288 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. to earlier times in a thoroughly well studied picture of the seven brothers drawing lots for the Guelph succession at Celle, A.D. 1592. Thoroughly investigating every detail of his subject, he resembles in this respect his late distinguished brother Sir Joseph Crowe, to whom the world is indebted for those instructive and serviceable volumes upon early Flemish and Italian painters. One is accustomed to associate humour with Mr. Marks's work ; but, wherever it appears, it is humour of a kind whose very quaintness, set as his subjects in a great part are in medieval times, shows the serious side of the man, his close study of the Middle Ages and the original grasp he has of its characteristics. Like many other painters, one of the works which rank among his best was painted just after he was forty; but, with the gentle humour that animates it, there is associated, in this instance, a touch of saintly devotion. This is " St. Francis Preaching to the Birds," painted in 1870. It is a cunous scene. " My little brothers," said the saint, " you should love and praise the Author of your being, who has clothed you with plumage, and given you wings with which to fly wherever you will. You were the first created of all anmmls. He preserved your race in the Ark, He has given the pure atmosphere for your dwelling-place. You sow not, neither do you reap. Without any care of your own. He gives you lofty trees to build your nests in, and watches over your young. Therefore give praise to your bountiful Creator." The scene is laid in a tranquil landscape, and the earnest monk, m austere garb, talks to the birds as if they were people. The study of birds has occupied the painter to the extent of H. STACY MARKS. 289 identifying him distinctly with them, and he has been the exponent of the feathered tribe in no less a measure than Landseer was of animals. Both in oil and water-colour, when not being pictures in themselves, they have formed an important, and at times (as in the " St. Francis ") a controlling element, in very many of his works. "The Princess and the Pelicans" and " The Lady and the Cranes " are also illustrative of this, and are distinguished for their quiet harmony of colour and medieval spirit. " Convocation " and (coming to more modern times) " An Episcopal Visitation " both display his sympathy with the bird creation ; and in the last-named work he introduces a bishop taking note of a cage of birds at some zoological garden. In neither of these is a touch of humour absent ; and it occurs, but in lesser degree, in Mrs. Holt's "Treatise on Parrots," in Mr. H. J. Turner's "Apothecary," and in "The Ornithologist," belonging to Mrs. Thwaites. In all of these too a vast amount of excellent still-life painting is introduced, in order the more fully to tell the story that attaches to some central figure. The works that are exceedingly interesting to many, from the hand of this painter, are those to which he gives some such title as "A Page of Rabelais" or " Cowper at Olney." To me, his truest and best feeling is shown here. The humour of the figure by the tall hedgerow, in the first-named of these, reading as he walks from the little book over which his imagina- tion bubbles into smiles, is worth much of his studious still-life painting, and shows the human animation with which he can endow his simply garbed figures. You can read the mind of the walking reader just as he reads his book, and withal he 37 29° PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. takes care of himself, for he walks at the side of the road, out of the way of any wheels, for he is palpably engrossed. The "Cowper at Olney " I have often wished to see again. I do not know if any larger version exists of this work : I am acquainted only with one, small in size, about i8 X 20, which I saw at Christies in 1888. It was sold then from the collection of a Mr. S. D. Schloss ; but the trim garden, the old-fashioned arbour, and the touches everywhere that spoke of the appearance a garden would present at the commencement of the last century, were so strikingly in accord with the idea one has of the poet and his surroundmgs that the remembrance of this little work remains pleasantly with me, and I can see now the frail figure, with its curious cap and meditating step. As a painting of history one of the most remarkable of recent works is Abbey's Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and the Lady Anne." His drawings for Harpers and other publishers, more particularly of the Shakespearian series, have made him a ready adept at costume and arrangement, and this has served him well in what appears to be one of his earliest paintings of a direct historical character. Processions are always interestmg pic- torially, but not easy of arrangement, and only an artist with much experience in composition could have dealt so ably with this particular scene. There is immense scope for drama in it. The fair lady's husband has been murdered by the man who now woos her, and he, a marriage ring in one hand, and in the other a sword, with which he would have her slay him if she refuse him, urges his suit as he follows with assured stride the tender crape-veiled figure. The host of followers, EDWIN LONG. 291 an uncountable mass, march solemnly along their way to Chertsey, whither they bear the body of the King, Henry VI., of whose murder this arch-wooer is also gravely suspected. The pageant is a splendid one, as splendid in its ceremonial as the latter years of the fifteenth century would admit. In spite of the number who are clothed in black alone, the two chief characters boast colour enough, that of Lady Anne being dealt with skilfully by the web, as it were, of flimsy mourning which covers most, but not all, of the costly crimson and ermine that attire the slender form, and whose will, despite the small clenched fist with which -he now repels him, is unable finally to resist his advances. This work, difficult to reproduce, has been entrusted to M. Leopold Flameng, the famous French etcher, by the Art Union of London, by whom it will be presented to their subscribers. It may be assumed that it was by " The Babylonian Marriage Market" (68 X 120) in 1875 that Edwin Long [1829 — 1891], pupil of John Phillip, secured his associateship of the Royal Academy the following year. The picture made a considerable stir with the public, not, it may be concluded, for its technical qualities as a high work of art, but for the attraction that lay in the subject. It was a skilfully thought out theme, and it was naturally of wide human interest. It was an ingenious process by which the Babylonians contrived to find husbands for all their young women. " The greatest beauty was put up first, and knocked down to the highest bidder, then the next in the order of comeliness, and so on to the damsel who was equidistant between beauty and plainness, who was given away gratis. Then the least plain was put up and knocked igi PAINTING IN J HE QUEEN'S REIGN. down to the gallant who would marry her for the smallest consideration, and so on till even the plainest was got rid of to some cynical worthy who preferred lucre to looks. By transferring to the scale of the ill-favoured the prices paid for the fair, beauty was made to endow ugliness, and the rich man's taste was the poor man's gain." The scene placed on canvas as we now know it looks simple enough in composition, but the account of it, read from Herodotus, presents difficulties of arrangement for any artist : the rostrum, the platform, the marketable girls, and the purchasing audience have all to be provided for, and this the artist has very dexterously contrived to do ; and should exception be taken, as it certainly was at the time of the exhibition of the picture, to the plain and comely women sitting with their backs to the scene of action, allowance must be made, the more so as it enables the spectator to judge for himself as to the relative beauty of the women. The pamter received, it is said, 1,700 for the work, but seven years later it was sold at Christie's to the Royal Holloway College Egham, for ^6,615. The painter was prompted by the success of this work to produce others similar in character, and " The Gods and their Makers " (57 X 93. '878), " An Egyptian Feast " (74 X 148, 1877), and "An Ancient Custom" (1878) followed. One of his more recent works and among his best is " Diana or Christ?" (96 X 102), belonging to Mrs. Thwaites. Of smaller work, a charming head of a young lady, or rather a portrait sketch, was shown in 1877; it bore simply the initials A. M. F. R. ; and in Mr. Coltart's collection is an example which has more attraction for many than his larger and more popular works. It shows a priest at a bookseller's stall in JOHN BAGNOLD BVRGESS—JAMES ARCHER. 293 Spain. He is depreciating tiie volume which he is being per- suaded to buy. On the wall at the side is a cup of holy- water, and such sunlight as finds its way in effectively reveals a pile of old books. Ably this little work, invested with distinct humour, bears out its title : " ' It is nought, it is nought,' saith the buyer, but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth." Of sounder technique is Mr. Burgess's work, displayed in its best points in the large work, also in the possession of the Royal Holloway College, '' Licensing Beggars in Spain " (48 X 76, 1876). It is full of incident in its record of an old Spanish custom, presumably still in vogue. Apart from Spanish subjects, of which many of his chief works are composed, there are others, such more especially as "The Professor and his Pupil" (37 X 47, 1880), which has great charm : the aristo- cratic boy idly lying back in the deep chair, amusing himself with a large dog, while the professor in forgetfulness of his charge scans on his own account the large globe in geographical research. It is a pretty theme, and among his most engaging works, both in its reasonableness of idea and its manner of depiction. History viewed more or less in the light of romance, and at the same time, as far as may be, in consistence with fact, has occupied many painters. James Archer, of the Scottish Academy, has interpreted with poetic feeling the legendary stories of King Arthur, and in his large work of " Peter the Hermit" (72 X 96, 1883) has most instructively recorded that stirring time in English history ; and Robert Herdman, G. W. Joy, Christian Symons, and E. Blair Leighton have each portrayed with graceful hand such events of the past as lend themselves 294 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. to their instinctive outlook. 1 he admirable Mary Queen of Scots series by Herdman ; the touching representation of "Cordelia" by Joy in the picture owned by the Leeds Corporation ; that vigorous rendering by Christian Symons of " Ivlargaret of Anjou and the Robber " ; and the " Confessional " by Blair Leighton (1886), belonging to Colonel Bindley, or his "Lady Godiva" (50 X 60, J 892), presented to Leeds by Mr. Boston, or that charming idyll of eighteenth-century social life " Launched in Life," show these painters perhaps at their best, the last-named a work in which, in very bright sunshine, the newly wedded pair beneath a silken canopy are being rowed away across the gentle river tide. Robert Hillingford in his military and other pieces has perhaps kept more often to recorded fact, and such works of his as " The Duchess of Richmond's Ball on the Eve of Waterloo," exhibited in 1893, are valuable records apart from their interest- ing character; but Herbert Schmalz is too poetical in vein to be encumbered by the restrictions of historical accuracy, and in his romantic renderings of such subjects as "Sir Galahad" (61 x 48, 1881), "Too Late" (62 x 100, 1884), and, better than either of these^ "Elaine" (26 x 36, 1885), much tender feeling is shown, and the spirit of the theme is invariably there. The like may be said of the work he has done in the East. Some of the scenes he there painted, small and unimportant though he may think them, have their virtue ; and " Rachel's Tomb," or " Bethany, the Home of Mary and Martha," convey much in their artistic portrayal of these sacred spots. When we read in the words of Jacob, " As for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, . . . ROBERT HILLINGfORD. 295 and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath," the plain Saracenic monument which the painter depicts having itself no claim to antiquity, but marking by a consensus of authority the actual site of her grave, is possessed to the full with hallowed associations, which, far from being disturbed by any forced effect on the part of the painter, are emphasized by the skilful repose he has brought into the work. Following religious themes, too, the excellent and studious work done by Mr. T. M. Rooke should not be forgotten. " The Story of Ruth," a work of exquisite care and finish, in three panels, each 26 X 13, bought by the Chantrey Trustees in 1877, and " Ahab's Coveting," belonging to Mr. Merton Russell Cotes, the narrative told in six panels, are among the best of his work, which, it may be said, is always thoughtfully and most diligently worked out, with no regard evidently of the time spent upon it. CHAPTER XII. Genre painters of many tendencies and styles have borne witness in the British School to the effect of Wilkie's art, the two Faeds, Thomas and John (the former a pupil of the latter), Joseph Clark, Le Jeune, Hardy, E. J. Gregory, and many others shining conspicuously in this particular walk. Thomas Faed has been a very popular favourite with the present generation, from the time when in 1853 his " Mitherless Bairn," now in the Melbourne Gallery, attracted attention to him. Some touching human truth has been invariably looked for, and seldom with disappointment, in his canvases, devoid m many instances of actual pathos, but always serious. His larger works of thirty or forty years ago made a wide impression. "Sunday in the Backwoods of Canada" (40 X 60) was one of these in the Royal Academy of 1859. Outside a loghouse on the edge of some Canadian wood two families who have migrated thither are listening to one of the number who is reading from a Bible. The sickly girl who is leaning back in the wooden armchair is referred to in a letter the painter received from Canada, which apparently suggested the picture. It said : " We are all well except Jeannie, and as happy as can be considering the country and ties we have left. Poor Jeannie is sadly changed; her only song now is, 296 THOMAS FAED. 297 'Why left I my hame ? "' The picture ably illustrates the faculty for colonization possessed by the individuals of this country, which has so enormously developed since the Queen came to the throne. With them they carry their home life, habits, and customs, and, save poor Jeannie, the entire group is depicted as energetic and hopeful. It belonged at first to Mr. Houldsworth, and from him went to Lord Cheylesmore, whence it passed to Lord Mount-Stephen, who generously made a gift of it to the Art Association of Montreal. Another work of considerable importance about this time was "From Dawn to Sunset," finished in 1861, and dealing, but in quite a different way from Mulready in his " Seven Ages," with the various ages and stages of life. This work is probably looked upon as showing the painter at his best, in his power, arrangement, technique, and colour. Works always illustrative of the humbler walks in life have come in plenty, with a happy spontaneity, from his hand. "His Only Pair" (14 X 18), which shows the careful mother repairing the stocking of a little lad who sits waiting not too patiently for its completion, is a beautiful piece of painting, owned now, I believe, by Mr. Abel Buckley, and bearing the lines from Burns's "Cotter's Saturday Night": — " The mother with her needle and her shears, Gars auld claes look amaist as weal's the new " ; and Mr. Charles Gassiot has two small pleasing works, full of a pretty play of feeling, one of which is entitled " Too Young to be Married." One will shortly find its way to the nation through the munificence of Mr. Henry Tate, "The Silken Gown" (37^x30), which until 1888 was 38 298 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. in the Merton Hall Collection ; and Mrs. Thwaites owns the example (42x57), entitled "Worn Out," that so im- pressed the public in 1870. A carpenter has watched by the bedside of his sick child through the night, and the grey dawn finds him "worn out" and sunk in sleep, his head on the hard rail of the chair. I remember two factory girls standing by this picture when it was at the Guildhall in 1890, and after reading the description from the catalogue, one of them made the telling comment to her companion as her eyes dwelt again on the work, " It's not always the clothes that shows the heart, is it ? " John Faed, six years the senior of Thomas, has practised entirely in Scotland, but many of his works are scattered among the private collections of England. In sentiment akin to his brother Thomas, he has embarked frequently upon subjects outside the area of domestic genre, and in his " Queen Margaret" (1861), "The Morning before Flodden " {1874), and others of like character has brought historical events vividly and conscientiously before the eye. But his true vem of a homely scene and character of his own time is always a welcome (;njoyment. "Annie's Tryst," painted on panel (20 X 18), apart from being a beautiful piece of workmanship, has in it a ring of genuine poetry, felt in a still greater degree by the lines attached to it : — "Your hand is cauld as snaw, Annie; Your cheek is wan and white : What gars ye tremble sae, Annie ? \Vhat makes your c'e sae bright ? " True Scotsman as he is, Burns has often been the source of his inspiration, THOMAS DUNCAN—JOSEPH CLARK. 299 The thought of " Annie's Tryst " calls to mind that touching work of Thomas Duncan's [1807 — 1845] which Mr. Sheepshanks bought and gave to the nation, " The Waefu' Heart." How thoroughly well painted it is, with a true chord of human feeling — the young heart-stricken wife of Auld Robin Gray seated there by the hearth, an echo, as only a true painter could give, of those lines of Lady Anne Lindsay from which the picture was drawn : — " I gang like a ghaist and I carena to spin ; I darena think of Jamie, for tliat would be a sin." Duncan painted it when he was thirty-four, and four years later his promising life was brought to a close. Simple in manner, and with no startling amount of origin- ality, but often with a sincere touch of feeling at once recog- nized, the work of Joseph Clark constitutes a contribution to the Reign in genre work of much that is admirable. That with the capacity of painting a picture like "The Sick Child" he should have been tempted at times to work of a com- paratively trivial character is so much lost from a painter whose best work delights us. He knows, as well as all other painters, that a lad's knickerbockers and sailor jacket fall ill in a work of art, and though a picture like " Playmates," exhibited in 1891, has its pathetic side in the white little invalid's face and the overhanging tenderness of the mother, it is too neutralized by the remaining element of the compo- sition. In the Academy preceding, however (1890), in "The Cup that Cheers," he has a subject more to his mind, and the three old women by the homely fireside is a true picture of cottage life, pleasant in colour, in no way forced, and of 300 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. sufficient incident to make it an entertaining little work. It must be admitted that it is not easy to find subjects for the genre painter of this class without either appealing to the pathetic or straying into the trivial, but a subject is often encountered when it is least looked for, no more striking instance of this being found than in Horsley's " Banker's Parlour," to which work allusion has been made on an earlier page. The subject, in this case, was given where the painter would never have thought of looking for one — in the interior of a London bank — and which resulted in a work which, if not the best, is among the most successful and agreeable of his productions, and is full of incident and pictorial charm. How "The Sick Child" of Joseph Clark's was brought about it would be curious to know. Possibly, in that case, there was some suggestive incident, but, whether or no, the work is among his best, owned now by Mr. H. J. Turner, and shows the painter's individuality and finer characteristics. Painting in a lighter vein, with a touch of humour, not to say comedy, in his work, Enskine Nicol, showed an early sympathy with the class of genre in which the Faeds, his contemporaries, were developing their talent, but the emotion in his works never reached the depth of theirs. In colour he was vigorous, and in composition broad and effective. He seldom, if ever, touched a chord of deep human feeling, as John Faed did in " Annie's Tryst " or Thomas in " Worn Out." The record of some practical, possibly some stirring event, such as "The Storm at Sea" (1876), which comes as nearly to the pathetic as he could command, or the narration of some incident which admitted of humorous treatment, like ERSKINE NICOL~A. H. BURR. 301 the " Both Puzzled," indicates broadly the range of his subjects, though not unfrequently there was neither pathos nor humour in his work, but the working out merely, yet nevertheless ably, of an everyday fact. An instance of this is the admirable " China Merchant," a display of vigorous humanity in the persons of the comely couple, man and woman ; and the very excellence of modern still-life painting in the crockery- ware they are offering for sale. This work is among the painter's finest efforts. I remember its force and colour well, though I have not seen it since its exhibition at the Academy many years ago. Several of his works are in private collections in America. Mrs. W. H. Vanderbilt has his " Paying the Rent," painted in 1879, and the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, has " Paddy's Mark," that humorous piece of Irish life. Bearing resemblance to Clark was A. H. Burr, who in such work as the scene from " Dora," shown at the Academy in 1863, honestly endeavours to interpret the poet. In the picture he gives the simple cottage room, and the sad old man whose grandson babbles "for the golden seal." Millais, in his two illustrations of the poem, showed in one case the angry contest between father and son, and in the other the heartbreaking finale, when the two women and the old man are reunited. But Burr gives the quieter and intermediate aspect of the poem, where all that the old man has left is his dead son's child, with whom he is playing, when the door-latch is lifted and the figures of Dora and Mary appear. Homely are the surroundings, and natural are the attitudes and expressions, with a true appreciation of the verse. Burr 302 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. occasionally was quite Webster-like, and in his "Caught Napping" found a subject which ably came to his hand; not that it had the feeling that touches some of his other work, but it was true, and had an innocent humour in it that claimed attention. Different in manipulation, and of a mind that recalls to us the gentle disposition of the poet Cowper, the genre painter F. D. Hardy, addicted in early life to music, found later his true vocation in creating with unobtrusive hand those painstaking little compositions that have always in them just sufficient of incident to make them as engaging almost as Wilkie's, and with a breadth and completion of workman- ship, more especially in shadowed rooms, of Van Ostade. He had produced several of excellent character, generously noted by the public, before he painted in 1862 the litde gem which a few years afterwards sold at Christie's for three times the sum he was paid for it. This was " The Sweep," small in size, as all his are, now in the possession of Mrs. James Taylor, of Rendcomb Park, Gloucestershire. The eye is satisfied with the entertainment provided in this little work, the interest in the theme of which is intensified in the artistic view by the sound execution. The peculiar tone of red that in some way falls so well in many of Hardy's pictures is very pleasing in this one, and against the white nightdresses of the startled children the blackness of the mysterious visitor is especially effective. He has not been a painter of many pictures ; their execution must of necessity have demanded time, for he was never careless, and appears never to hjive been content unless he gave his HENRY LE JEUNE-^MRS. A LATA TADEMA. 3°3 best. Mrs, Thwaites, of Addison Road, has an admirable example, "In Memoriam," and Mr. George Gurney, of East- bourne, possesses one that ranks among his finest, " Reading the Will," painted in 1868, and until 1874 in the collection of the late J. W. Eden. This represented the painter in the Guildhall Exhibition of 1897. H(Te the red appears in the tablecloth with characteristic effect, and the figures present in the picture have a degree of refinement and gentleness of character which is very marked. " A Wedding Breakfast " and "A Quartette Party" (Royal Academy, 1872), both some- what larger works, the latter 29 x 40, were in Baron Grant's collection, and are counted among Hardy's best works. Le Jeune, now on the retired list of Associates, began his public career in i S40 ; he was then but twenty, and passing through a phase of Scriptural and Shakespearian art, in which "The Infancy of Moses" (28x36), "The Sermon on the Mount," and " Ruth and Boaz " were characteristic examples, developed into the painter of those quiet domestic scenes by which for the last thirty years he has been known, £idopting subjects the occasional triviality of which has been amply compensated for by their tender feeling and beautiful finish. "The Wounded Robin" was one of these, painted in 1864. Beautiful, too, is the genre work of Mrs. Alma Tadema, charming in theme always, and with a dainty completeness that delights the eye ; gems of work mostly, set frequently in what to the English eye seem quaint surroundings, but picturing with facile hand the more refined side of Dutch domestic life — the tasteful room, elegance without display, com- fort, warmth, and heart in it all. Take, as an example, the 304 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S EEIGN. little work of " Fireside Fancies," painted, I think, about five years ago, in which two children are shown before a large open grate in the most comfortable of rooms. The completeness of purpose in obtaining pictorial effect is marked. Not satisfied with the prettily gowned standing figure, which is a picture in itself, the fulness of accessory is given, and the eye encounters this without being drawn to it, for quite in their places are the heavily carved mantel, the screen, and the bit of window ; and it is the children whom we look at first, and when satisfied with them, we pass to the delightfully painted objects in which the painter has .set them. The aim or principle shown in this work appears in all her others : the figures make wealthy the surroundings, the surroundings reflect their interest and beauty upon the figures ; and with all this no meretricious execution is seen, but a sound and deliberate method of work which adds the one necessary attribute to constitute her designs finely finished works of art. Somewhat resembling Hardy in conception of genre subjects, but not the master of technique as Hardy was, Robert Collin- son, after the production of many e.xcellent works, drew distinct attention by his " Sunday Afternoon," which appeared in the Academy of 1875. An aged woman is reading the Bible in a neat cottage interior, through the open door of which an English landscape is seen. The intention of the work was to render light and reflected light in " old age surrounded by light," the well worn brick floor of the cottage speaking of generations gone. That it succeeded in interesting Mr. Ruskin speaks much for it. " Whatever day it be," said he, " here at all events are peace, light. ROBERT COLLINSON. 305 cleanliness, content ; luxury even, of a kind ; the air coming in at that door must be delicious ; and the leaves outside of it look like a bit of the kitchen garden of Paradise. The management of the luminous shadow throughout is singularly- skilful. All the more so because it attracts so little attention. This is true chiaroscuro ; not spread treacle or splashed mud, speckled with white spots, as a Rembrandt amateur thinks." This admirable work, in size about 22 x 38, is now in the possession of Mr. Morley Pegge. Works of equally conscientious merit had been produced before this picture : in 1871 a beautiful example in water-colour, entitled " Heather," was in the Academy, a commission, I have been told, from the Queen ; with no generalizing, the attention to detail had resulted in no loss of breadth, and the tinge of fre.sh blue sky against the red and purple bloom made this studious work one of peculiar attraction. The soundness of his theories and workmanship led to his being appointed, when he was about thirty-seven, Professor of Painting at the South Kensington Schools, and many painters now in prominence owe much to the tuition they received from him. 39 CHAPTER XIII. Orchardson had produced much interesting work before he settled into that free and accompHshed method the execution of which has in it that element of ease which always carries weight with it. Among the earliest of these, both of them popular in subject, were "The Queen of the Swords" and "Hard Hit"; the former painted in 1877, the latter, in the possession now of Mr. Humphrey Roberts, in 1879. The first is a charming scene, prettily fantastic in idea, taken from Sir Walter Scott's " Pirate," and carried through with a graceful touch of chivalry, the daintily clad figure of Minna Troil leading the ladies that come tripping down the avenue of steel ; the second is a drama, the emotion of which is in no way forced, and as a composition its admirable points are legion. Breadth with detail, space without monotony, is seen in this picture, as it appears with such wonderful effect in so many others. The man who is now making his exit from this handsome room has lost, lost fairly; Georgiana, the famous Duchess of Devonshire, it is said, was sometimes so hard hit that she was handed into her carriage literally sobbing at her losses, and the age she lived in was the age the painter here depicts, and gambling was the rage. The cards on the floor show the extent to which the play has been carried; they 306 WILLIAM QUILLER ORCHARDSOISt. 367 have been flung down till they reach right across the room, but each new pack has brought no luck to the gamester, who now, hand on door, quits the scene. Carefully studied are the three men he leaves ; all look at him, but in a different way : one seems to have pocketed his gains as he throws himself back in his chair; another stops a moment in the shuffling of the cards ; the standing one alone appears to have some com- passion, and he not much. It was the following year, when the painter was forty-five, that the Academy showed their appreciation of his work by acquiring out of the Chantrey Bequest Fund his " Napoleon on Board the Bellerophon." Exposed to the factions which divided France and to the hostilities of the Great Powers, the august disturber of Europe, himself then but forty-six, had voluntarily come on board the vessel to seek the hospitality of the British nation, and was detained a prisoner. There was scarcely a European nation that had not suffered at his hands, and for the previous fifteen years he had been a standing menace to England, at one time having brought his army to Boulogne in readiness to cross the Channel. Such was the man the artist essayed to paint, and the result points to a careful study and examination from many sources of the man's character and physical appearance. The group of officers in the rear hold him still in regard, if not in awe, for who can tell but that this great motive power in the world may not again be in supreme command ? Hope truly recedes with the receding shore, but hope still lives: the self-reliance, the inexhaustible force of personality, the capacity to calculate at a glance, exist still, but they are chained. A 3o8 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. small version of this picture — the finished study, I believe — is in the possession of Mr. Stephen G. Holland. The second Napoleonic picture appeared twelve years later, and shows him at St. Helena, dictating to Count Las Cases the account of his campaigns. On the floor is a large map, over which Napoleon stands, his function as a maker of history being now changed to that of a recorder of it. During the six years of his captivity time must have begun early to weigh heavy on his hands, for the date fixed by the painter of this event is but in the first year of it. The remoteness of the isle on which he was held prisoner, and the vigilance of his captors, made any thought of escape futile, and his spirit was already beginning to quail before the adverse strokes of destiny. One of the painter's greatest pictures appeared in 1883 ; this was " Voltaire." It was purchased by the late Mr. George Schwabe, and was one of the works presented by him to the Museum of Hamburg. A smaller version (30 X 44) is in the possession of Lord Burton at Rangemore. The work is highly dramatic. Great as the sage's power is in France, it does not stead him against the old French nobility, one of whose members he has ridiculed and who now horse- whips him at the door of the Due de Sulli's, whose guest he is. The incident is well told in Carlyle's " Frederick the Great." The date is 1725. "The accomplished Due de Sulli is giving in his hotel a dinner, and a bright witty company is assembled. The brightest young fellow in France is sure to be there, and with his electric corusca- tions illuminating everything and keeping the table in a roar. jo8 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S HEJi^iX. small versioii this picture — the finished study, I believe — is in the jKtssession of Mr. Stephen G. Holland. The second Napoleonic picture appeared twelve years later, and shows him at St. Helena, dictating to Count Las Cases the account of his campaigns. On the floor is a large map, over which Napoleon stands, his function as a maker of history being now changed to that of a recorder of it. During the six years of his captivity time must have begun early to weigh heavy on his hands, for the date fixed by the painter of this event is but in the first year of it. The remoteness of the isle on which he was held prisoner, and the vigilance of his captors, made any thought of escape futile, and his spirit was already beginning to quail before the adverse strokes of destiny. One of the painter's greatest j u .. . i this was "Voltaire." It was purchased by the late George Schwabe, and was one of the works presented by him to the Museum of Hamburg. A smaller version (30 X 44) is in the possession of Lord Burton at Rangemore. The work is highly dramatic. Great as the .sage's power is in France, it does not stead him against the old French nobility, one of whose members he has ridiculed and who now horse- whips him at the door of the Due de Sulli's, whose guest he is. The incident is well told in Carlyle's " Frederick the Great." The date is 1725. "The accomplished Due de Sulli is giving in his hotel a dinner, and a bright witty company is assembled. The brightest young fellow in France is sure to be there, and with his electric corusca- tions illuminating everything and keeping the table in a nvir I VILLI AM QUILLER ORCHARDSON. 309 To the delight of most, not to that of a certain splenetic ill-given Due de Rohan. . . . ' Who is this young man who talks so loud then ? ' exclaims the proud splenetic Due. ' Monseigneur,' flashes the young man back, ' it is one who does not drag a big name about with him, but secures respect for the name he has.' Figure that in the penetrating, grandly clangorous voice and the momentary flash of eyes that attended it. Due de Rohan rose in a sulphurous frame of mind, and went his ways. About a week after, Voltaire was again dining with the Due de Sulli and a fine company as before. A servant whispers him that some- body has called and wants him below. A carriage is in the court, and a hackney coach near it ; at the door of the carriage hands seize the collar of him, hold him as in a vice ; diabolic visage of Due de Rohan is visible inside, who utters ' Voila, now then ' — whereupon the hackney coach opens, gives out three hired bullies; scandalous actuality of horse- whipping descends on the back of poor Voltaire, who shrieks and execrates, but to no purpose, nobody being near. With torn frills and deranged hair he rushes upstairs again in such a mood as is easy to fancy. Everybody is sorry, inconsolable, everybody shocked ; nobody volunteers to help in avenging. ' Monseigneur de Sulli, is not such atrocity done to one of your guests an insult to yourself?' asks Voltaire. ' Well, yes, perhaps, but ' Monseigneur de Sulli shrugs his shoulders and proposes nothing. Voltaire withdrew of course in a most blazing condition, to consider what he could, on his own strength, do in this conjuncture." The spacious apartment and the glittering table, the gestures of the guests. 310 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. the behaviour of the servants, would have made a charming picture were Voltaire seated quietly at the table, but the vacated seat and the gesticulating savant raise the work, m a dramatic sense, to a high level. By Lord Burton's kind consent it is here reproduced. Another, resembling it in character, and with the customary breadth and spaciousness, was painted six years afterwards, in 1889, entitled "The Young Duke" (58 x 96). His guests royally toast him as he leans complacently back, with sufficient sagacity in his look perhaps to take it all for what it is worth. A man of many friends in this his newly inherited estate, the painter has made it a brilliant scene; if the faces some- what resemble one another, the attitudes are varied, and the skilful design provides that no guest's back is towards the spectator. The unanimous acclaim is the point of the picture, with the chivalrous grace and bearing of men who are in every respect their host's compeers. Until recently this important work was in the possession of Mr. Charles Neck, but it is now in the collection of Mr. George McCulloch. It was in 1884 that the starding picture " Mariage de Convenance" (41x60) appeared, followed two years later by its pathetic sequel. In the former the ill adapted couple are at the dinner-table in becoming state: in the latter, "Mariage de Convenance— After " (43x65)- the husband sits alone ; he has just quitted the table, laid for one only, and in his easy-chair dwells on the past, and on the wife whose home now is no longer beneath his roof The face in its sadness is one of the most touching ever rendered in painting, so realistically are all the unfortunate elements of GEORGE H. BOUGHTON. 3" the case concentrated in it. The same year with this appeared the very beautiful work of gently stirring emotion "A Tender Chord." May we take it that the chord is too tender to repeat, that the fair form has risen from the music stool with the utterance the painter quotes, " Have I forgot the words? Faith, they are sadder than I thought they were," and so for very heart's sake quits the instrument? Many prefer to this picture the seated figure at the piano, painted seven years later, in " Music, when Sweet Voices die, vibrates in the Memory," and the figure in that work is indeed of grace, but the shape of the piano is to me disturbing. In 1885 came Mr. Aird's famous possession "The Salon of Madame Recamier," followed by " Her Mother's Voice," owned by Mr. Tate. Nor must be forgotten the charming example, painted in 1882, belonging to Mr. Charles Churchill, " Housekeeping in the Honeymoon," one of his most perfect and pleasing touches of life a century ago; and interspersed among all these notable works have been many portraits— Mrs. Ralli, Mrs. Joseph, Lord Rookwood, Sir Walter Gilbey, James Dewar, and Sir Andrew Walker being among the best of them. It is unfortunate for this country that Mr. Boughton has so close a natural connection with America, for the consequence is that many of his best works go thither, and, seen once here on the Academy walls, are not seen again. America has his chief landscape, together with nearly all those works that relate to the Pilgrim Fathers, the costume of which period accords with his taste and has been rendered so charming and picturesque 312 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. by his dexterous brush. No professedly landscape painter could have given a better idea of the soft beauty of the Isle of Wight than " A Golden Afternoon" shows. The sweet winding paths so telling on the undulating ground, the sheepfold by the quiet homestead, the more distant groups of haystacks, and touch of far-away sunlit white cliff bespeak peace ; and I often wonder if the stile to the left was, in nature, just where he has placed it in the picture; it is wondrously effective, and the whole canvas would feel the deficiency were it absent. The work was painted in 1888, and is 42 X 84. Mr. H. G. Marquand, of New York, is its possessor, and it has been on loan for some time, I believe, to the Metropolitan Museum of that city. It is undoubtedly the best of his landscapes. But many landscapes occur of his in which the figures introduced divide the interest. Mr. Tate's " Weeders of the Pavement," painted in 1882 (36 X 60), or " Muiden, Holland" (42 x 66), both of them scenes on the Zuider Zee, are animated with the honest, busy life in the sleepy little ports of the Lowlanders. In the latter picture "An Exchange of Compliments" was added to the title; two Dutch girls on their way home from marketing are passing two men by a low red-bricked wall, and a greeting takes place. The late Mr. Arthur Anderson once owned this work. The very spirit of the time of the Pilgrim Fathers is in the subject groups or single figures which illustrate New England. "Priscilla" (57 X 27), painted in 1879, was one of the earliest of these latter, and gives the cold, snow-covered ground and wintry sky, and the orphan girl, Bible in hand, as Miles Standish speaks, " going and coming, now to the grave of the dead and GEORGE H. BOUGHTON. 3,3 now to the bed of the dying." The " Evangeline " (50 x 26) followed this in 1880, a work of sensitive greens and greys, and giving, not the snow of winter, but the hot noontide of summer, and the strong figure of the Puritan maiden bearing in either hand " a flagon of home-brewed ale to the reapers." Yet a third work, painted in 1881, and one of the sweetest, " Rose Standish " Beautiful Rose of love that bloomed for me by the wayside ! She was the first to die of all who came in the Mayflower:' This belongs to Mr. Benjamin Armitage, of Pendleton, by whose kind consent it is reproduced. The pretty yet simple dress of the time is well thrown up by the pleasant bit of autumn woodland in which she walks; the gown is appropriately of pale rose-colour, over which is a white apron with deep collar, and the black sash which falls to her right, and the black hood with white frill, greatly enhance the pictorial effect. These single figures are exceedingly attractive, high and pure of theme, and quite the artist's own in their various schemes of colour, low harmonies that seem in themselves suggestive of maiden modesty. He sets these single figures often, too, in the Lowlands. "Winter in Brabam " (48 x 27), exhibited at the New Gallery in 1890, and now in America, is one of the best of them. Truly the Dutch costume in the seventeenth century had its becoming side— the tippet with silver clasps, the white-furred muff and bonnet, and the deeply embroidered skirt. The firmly poised figure in this symphony of greens and greys is trying the ice with her dainty foot, and beyond the snow-covered field is the town from which she has come, standing mistily in the winter air. The "Home Light" 40 314 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. (37 X 59, 1892) and "Evensong" (38 X 46, 1895) both give the cold, comfortless aspect of winter, but with the desirable warmth of indoor life suggested in some glowing pane. The former picture is more or less grey in its effect ; in the latter the depths of the deep blue night sky in winter are shown, with but a dim light on the crisp snow. He imagined and painted once the courtships of the two great writers Shakespeare and Milton, and called them " The Loves of the Poets," and the two canvases, never exhibited in England, are now, I believe, in America. In the " Milton " an exceedingly handsome face is given, recalling, but with more sense of life, some of Terburg's male faces. In each work the woman is depicted with peculiar attraction, the utmost grace being got from the sixteenth and seventeenth century costumes. There is not much to choose between the two; they are both sweetly drawn, Milton's betrothed perhaps having a daintier poise, a freer flow in the lines of the figure and in the fall of the gown. In one of his latest works he takes an un- expected turn, and gives a scene in which most of his attractive characteristics are seen together — dainty figures, skilful grouping, night effect, and a snow-covered ground. It shows a congregation coming away from midnight mass m the fifteenth century. From the cathedral door steps a lady, slender in form and elegantly clad, the flame of torches held expressly for her by red-liveried attendants, shimmering over her light and jewelled attire, as across the snow she treads, groups standing by to see her pass. Others of the con- gregation are emerging, all in quaint and varied costume, that gives the work a beauty of its own, apart from the liop.io glowing pane. i iv- ^.cy in its effect; in the latter ;s ot u.: . . ..-luc night sky in winter are shown, v,u. a 'V ' ':t on the crisp snow. He imagined and f .-.ships of the two great writers Shakespeare ; ... ,alled them "The Loves of the Poets," and ihe two .«nases, never exhibited in England, are now, I !,c!;- nerica. In the " Milton " an exceedingly handsome recalling, but with more sense of life, some of iuale faces. In each work the woman is depirtf^o uliar attraction, the utmost grace being got lench and seventeenth centiin/ co-Jtumes. Ther ■1 to choose between Milton's betrothed }■ tiow in the lines of the figure and in the tail ut. In one of his latest works he takes an un : turn, and gives a scene in which most of his characteristics are seen together — dainty figures, >•;! ■• ', night effect, and a snow-covered ground. It . gation coming away from midnight mass m century. From the cathedral door steps a lady, .■m and elegantly clad, the flame of torches held r by red-liveried attendants, shimmering over her welled attire, as across the snow she treads, .•,ro.-;iJb sec her pass. Others of the con- I' -1 'rJ and varied costuin- svn, apart fron- GEORGE DUNLOP LESLIE. 315 effect of the massive walls of the sacred edifice and the misty midnight winter air. With this there is a breadth, a sense of room, which adds materially to the dignity of the scene. It is in February I am writing this, and the picture is tar from completed ; but I have little doubt that when seen at the Academy it will be recognized as a contribution to art of exceptional value, and of a charm in its medievalism peculiarly interesting to any lover of those times. His work has now ranged over a period of nearly forty years, and the few pictures touched upon will indicate the consistent bent of the painter's mind throughout. The gentle side of life has interest for him, never the startling or momentous. When " School Revisited " (40 X 74) was on exhibition at the Academy in 1875, and popular opinion, independently of Mr. Raskin's favourable notice of it, had warmly expressed itself, its painter, Mr. G. D. Leslie, had been already a constant exhibitor for quite eighteen years. This painter of charming genre made, however, a striking mark with this particular work. The subject is one which would appeal to many, and the manner in which it is treated affords more than one element of attraction. To a schoolgirl the visit of an old scholar is an event ; with rings on her fingers it suggests much. The sweet-faced visitor sits ready apparently to answer any questions as the young pupils gather round her, and the posy of roses she has brought is laid aside on the old-fashioned garden bench. " English girls by an English painter," wrote Mr. Ruskin. " I came upon the picture early in my first walk through the rooms, and was so delighted with it that it made me like everything else I saw that 3i6 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. morning ; it is altogether exquisite in rendering some of the sweet quahties of EngHsh girlhood." The work is now the property of Mr. James Houldsworth, and has been en- graved by Frederick Stacpoole. " Pot Pourri," which is now the property of Mr. Ismay, had been exhibited the year before. "The Convent Garden" (i8 X 24), in which a girl in the dress of the fifteenth century is gathering tulips and a nun in black is coming along a side-path book in hand, was a scene quiet and pleasant enough ; but then this painter never embarks on any subject of serious action. Gentleness and repose, as in "The Convent Garden" or "Fast-day at the Convent," where a pretty girl with an out-of-the-world atmo- sphere around her is fishing, characterize his work, with a wholesome playfulness sometimes, as in "Hen and Chickens" or " This is the Way we wash our Clothes," in which land- scape forms not the least attractive part of the work, subdued and holding its place in perfect sympathy with the figures. There is a pleasant sunniness and a look of De Hooghe about much of Storey's work ; indeed one of his happiest examples, "The Shy Pupil" (35 X 45). owned now by Mr. John W. Slater, drew from the discerning critic of the Athenceum, when it was seen at the Manchester Exhibition ten years ago, the appropriate remark that "it is much to Mr. Storey's credit that it reminds us pleasantly of De Hooghe." Always a buoyant feeling pervades his work, with frequently a touch of humour, that never at any time approaches the trivial, for in all his work there is apparent his leaning towards the seriousness of the Dutch School ; and latterly, in the arrangement of his figures and in the character of his 3i6 P.MNTmG IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. morning ; it is altogether exquisite in rendering some of tht sweet qualities of English girlhood." The work is now the property of Mr. James Houldsworth, and has been en- graved by Frederick Stacpoole. " Pot Pourri," which is now the property of Mr. Ismay, had been exhibited the year before. "The Convent Garden" (i8 X 24), in which a girl in the dress of the fifteenth century is gathering tulips and a nun in black is coming along a side-path book in hand, was a scene quiet and pleasant enough ; but then this painter never embarks on any subject of serious action. Gentleness and repose, as in " The Convent Garden " or " Fast-day at the Convent," where a pretty girl with an out-of-the-world atmo- sphere around her is fishing, characterize his work, with a wholesome playfulness sometimes, as in " Hen and Chickens " or " This is the Way we wash our Clothes," in whirh land- scape forms not the least attractive part of th(; worl and holding its place in perfect sympathy with the figures. There is a pleasant sunniness and a look of De Hooghe about much of Storey's work ; indeed one of his happiest examples, "The Shy Pupil" (35 X 45). owned now- by Mr. John W. Slater, drew from the discerning critic of the Athenaum, when it was seen at the Manchester Exhibition ten years ago, the appropriate remark that " it is much to Mr. Storey's credit that it reminds, us pleasantly of De Hooghe." Always a buoyant feeling pervades his work, with frequently a touch of humour, that never at any time approaches the trivial, for in all his work there is apparent his leaning towards the seriousness of the Dutch School ; and latterly, in the .irrangement of his figures and in the character of his EDWARD JOHN GREGORY. 317 subjects, his veneration for such men as Terburg or Molinaer has found expression. " The Blue Girls of Canterbury," painted in 1874, was a great favourite, as also, three years later, was " The Old Pump Room at Bath." These subjects were in every way to his taste, and he has the capacity to invest such themes as these with a distinct and original charm. "Scandal" was an earlier work of many figures, belonging now to Mr. Pierpont Morgan, and is full of entertaining incident ; while " A Violinist," painted in 1886, a three-quarter figure in blue and white figured dress and fair hair, is an excellent example of straightforward and accomplished technique. This last- named work was purchased by the Goldsmiths' Company, and presented to the Corporation of London's permanent collection at Guildhall. Though recorded in some places as a portrait and land- scape painter, it is as a painter of genre that Gregory can also claim a high place ; indeed it is difficult to exclusively classify him under any head, so versatile is his artistic outlook and capacity. In his own portrait of " A Look at the Model " the finest skill is manifested, both in the composition of the work and its execution ; in " Piccadilly," an example of our own life is seen, the difficulty of accomplishing which, in regard to drawing and management of the light, cannot well be estimated; in " Ca d'Ora " a purely architectural performance is witnessed, in which the delicate tracery of the beautiful Venetian buildings is given with the dexterity of a man accustomed to apply himself solely to this class of subject ; in " Sir Galahad " and " A Fantasie " a poetical vein is touched with equal success ; while in " Dawn," " Is 3>8 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN it a Mouse ? " and others his ability as a painter of domestic genre of the higher class is shown. " Dawn " (59 x 44) aims at showing in a ballroom the conflicting lights of gas illumina- tion and early dawn. The pianist continues to play on, but the dancers are leaving. Two linger by the piano — a lady, over whose gauzy dress the two lights sensitively travel, and a gentleman, who fain would withhold as long as possible from the fair shoulders the furred cloak that speaks of her imminent departure. The frayed tulle of the dress tells of the night of dancing. Dawn is it as of the risen day to both, of life and hope and passion ; and the quenching of the artificial lights that dull, and perhaps for long have dulled, the heart ; and the world going round pretty much as the old pianist's playing, unobservant and indifferent alike to the joys and the tragedies of life. Some such meaning, we think, the painter would have us see, and not merely the skilfully surmounted difficulty of the effect of two lights encountering one another. Again, in " Is it a Mouse ? " the attitude of the slender figure looking into the piano was irresistible to any artist. Whether the painter designed it, or saw it first and seized it, I do not know, but it works with singular grace into an otherwise conventional scene of a grand piano and a dancing cloth. Not that the execution of these is conventional ; the eye has only to look carefully at the square patterns on the cloth to see that, far from being mechanically drawn with a rule, the curves occasioned by the stretching of it, where a rule would have been of no use, are faithfully and industriously indicated. But the charm of the picture is the lavender dress that in many graceful turns and folds fills up at last 3i8 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. it a Mouse?" and others his ability as a painter of domesii: genre of the higher class is shown. "Dawn" (59 X 44) aims at showing in a ballroom the conflicting lights of gas illumina- tion and early dawn. The pianist continues to play on, but the dancers are leaving. Two linger by the piano— a lady, over whose gauzy dress the two lights sensitively travel, and a gentleman, who fain would withhold as long as possible from the fair shoulders the furred cloak that speaks of her imminent departure. The frayed tulle of the dress tells of the night of dancing. Dawn is it as of the risen day to both, of life and hope and passion ; and the quenching of the artificial lights that dull, and perhaps for long have dulled, the heart ; and the world going round pretty much as the old pianist's playing, unobservant and indiftercnt alike to the joys and the tragedies of life. Some such meaning, we think, the painter would have us see, and not merely the skilfully surmounted difficulty of the effect of two lights encountering one another. Again, in " Is it a Mouse ? " the attitude of the slender figure looking into the piano was irresistible to any artist. Whether the painter designed it, or saw it first and seized it, I do not know, but it works with singular grace into an otherwise conventional scene of a grand piano and a dancing cloth. Not that the execution of these is conventional ; the eye has only to look carefully at the square patterns on the cloth to see that, far from being mechanically drawn with a rule, the curves occasioned by the stretching of it, where a rule would have been of no use, are faithfully and industriously indicated. But the charm of the picture is the lavender dress that in many graceful turns and folds fills up at last EDWARD JOHN GREGORY. 319 the left corner of the picture and completes the exquisite little composition. It is here reproduced, by the kindness of Mr. C. J. Galloway. Many works of this fine finish in genre have come from his hand, " Morning News," Last Touches," and " 'Tween Acts" presenting perhaps greater difficulties of accomplishment than others. But a word must be said of his more imaginative pictures, equally devout in design and execution, but higher in their walk than other work of his. "A Fantasie" is one of these. The Italian sky sheds its latest evening depth of effect upon a garden, in which by a large circular stone basin or fountain are two richly apparelled figures; one is a woman reclining against the stonework, and the other a youth leaning over the stonework with murmuring words. Beyond, stone houses are seen here and there among the poplar and other trees, and lilies relieve the foreground. But a richness of colour and a degree of feeling are present which, despite its small size (9 X 13), recall the tranquillity and wealth of " Le Chant d'Amour"; it might do for "Paolo and Francesca," or for one of the romantic stories of Boccaccio, so instilled into it are the richness of effect and the seductive fulness of the warm Italian dusk. It was painted in 1874, and purchased in 1 89 1 at Christies by Mr. C. J. Galloway, who now owns it. One more shall be noticed: the " Sir Galahad" (29 x 17^), of which it is not surprising to learn that it gained the special prize which Mr. G. F. Watts offered at the Royal Institution, Manchester, in 1875, to the painter of "the picture of the most poetic design." Not unlike Watts himself in its expression, the picture shows the mounted figure of the knight. PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. accompanied in his course by the symbols of temptation and obstruction. The light falls on the head and chest of the advancing horse, and catches the breastplate of the kmght, whose head, held high, is in shadow. Shadows seem to envelop him, through which the forms of fancy are but dimly seen. This also is Mr. Galloway's, who can count the possession in all of thirty-seven of the painter's works ; and it may be gathered that a collection of this magnitude, each one of which has been thoughtfully acquired, embraces examples in many directions of Gregory's art. All those that have been touched upon are in his possession, with the exception of "Piccadilly," whose owner is Mr. Humphrey Roberts. It is by his Venetian scenes that Henry Woods is known, and for more than twenty years now he has been in residence in Venice, sending annually to this country pictures chiefly of modern peasant life in that city or in its outskirts. He floods them all with the sunlight of the South, and avails himself to the utmost of the bright and varied costumes of the people, always placing his subject, too, in some picturesque surrounding, of which "the feiry city" affords infinite selection, and working evidently throughout in the open air, for in no other way could he gain that true appearance of sunlight and its effect on persons and buildings. In this respect he differs from many prominent Venetian painters, who trust to get their desired effects in the studio. There is no lack of proper illumination about any of Mr. Woods's outdoor scenes. "Bargaining for an Old Master" (1882) is a complicated but entertaining work, now in the possession of Mr. Holbrook HENRY WOODS. Gaskell; and "Venetian Fan-Sellers" (27 x 39, 1882), belonging to Mr. Barrow, though simpler in design, has its pretty incident in the young passer-by, who trips along with a large basket of fruit on her head, and is the object of regard to the old fan-seller and the groups about him. These were succeeded in 1883 by one full of charming effect and of singular grace of arrangement, " Preparations for First Communion" (39 x 57). Amid a throng of gaily clad Venetians stands a child who is being questioned by a priest. All about her seem interested as they listen to her answers, and two girls in particular, seated to the right of the picture, seem to be freely commenting on what is taking place. Each year has brought about examples of fine workmanship from him, though it is difficult to point to any in particular as being of superior merit to others. They all have in them the true artistic grasp of things, with, if anything, an increasing perception of the beauties of full sunlight. "Cupid's Spell" (1885) and "Saluting the Cardinal" (i888) are splendid pieces of colour, as also of equal brilliance is Mr. Stephen Holland's "On the Steps of the Scuolo, San Rocco " (1890). The same year saw one of his daintiest compositions painted for Mr. George Gurney, "La Promessa Sposa" (36 x 20), and by Mr. Gurney's kind permission it is here repro- duced. One of three Venetian girls is showing a new ring on her finger, which betokens betrothal; the natural attitudes of them all, their richly coloured dresses, and the effective position on the steps of the broad piece of drapery at which the betrothed girl is working, constitute a picture of great charm; nor should be left unnoticed the pieces of 322 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. orange-peel that lie about, their note of bright yellow- suggested, it is said, by the Empress Frederick of Germany- adding much to the richness of the colouring ; the background, showing tall houses with stone balconies and green lattices, and the course of a canal, completes this beautiful composition. "La Friulanella" (36 X 19, 1895) would be a charming companion to the last-named. Here, by a stone balustrade, stands a girl resting her basket of dazzlingly bright flowers on the ground beside her. Full and brilliant sunlight floods the whole scene-the unruffled water, the buildings, and the sky. Mr. George McCulloch is the owner of this work. Another work of his is prominent in my recollection, "The Water-Wheel," belonging now to Mr. Humphrey Roberts. Firmly painted and strong in tone, it shows a thoroughfare of steps with a massive water-wheel to the left; but, finely as these are painted, the picture is beholden for its charm to the tripping figure of the Neapolitan girl who, bare of foot but in bright raiment, is descending towards the spectator. William Logsdail had been for some time in prominence before he produced that extremely vigorous work "The Piazza, Venice" (49 X 87, 1883), in the collection now of Mr. Joseph Ruston. The great public square on the west front of the Cathedral of St. Mark's is represented as thronged with people of all nationalities, who resort there for promenade and refresh- ment, and a concourse of dazzling costumes is pictured. Very clever too was the " Preparation for the Procession of San Giovanni Bathista, Venice," of 1886, the same year as the gay "Venetian Al Fresco" (41 X 66), belonging also to Mr. Ruston. Antwerp in his earlier career occupied his attention, 3" f'AimiNG IN THE QUEEW^ REIGN. „., peel that lie about, their note of bright yellow— .,gested, it is said, by the Empress Frederick of Germany- .idding much to the richness pf the colouring ; the background, showing tall houses with stone balconies and green lattices, and the course of a canal, completes this beautiful composition. .'La Friulanella" (36 X i9> 1895) would be a charming companion to the last-named. Here, by a stone balustrade, stands a girl resting her basket of dazzlingly bright flowers on the ground beside her. Full and brilliant sunlight floods the whole scene-the unruffled water, the buildings, and the sky. Mr. George McCulloch is the owner of this work. Another work of his is prominent in my recollection, "The Water-Wheel," belonging now to Mr. Humphrey Roberts. Firmly painted and strong in tone, it shows a thoroughfare of steps with a massive water-wheel to the left; but. hnely •is these are painted, the picture .s beholden for its charm to the tripping figure of the Neapolitan girl who, bare of foot but in bright raiment, is descending towards the spectator. William Logsdail had been for some time in prominence before he produced that extremely vigorous work " The Piazza, Venice" (49 X 87, 1883), in the collection now of Mr. Joseph Ruston. The great public square on the west front of the Cathedral of St. Mark's is represented as thronged with people of all nationalities, who resort there for promenade and refresh- ment, and a concourse of dazzling costumes is pictured. Very clever too was the " Preparation for the Procession of San Giovanni Bathista, Venice," of 1886, the same year as the gay . Venetian Al Fresco" (41 X 66), belonging also to Mr. Ruston. Antwerp in his earlier career occupied his attent.o.v I I I; r WILLIAM LOGSDAIL. 323. but Venice and its neighbourhood has been the spot from which most of his best work has come. London too has been picturesquely treated by him, with its ever moving traffic— "St. Paul's and Ludgate Hill" (1887), "The Bank" (1887), photographic in their truth and detail, but broad and artistic in arrangement and effect, and with as many difficulties to encounter in their composition and drawing as Gregory's "Piccadilly." "St. Martin in the Fields" was another of his London scenes, purchased in 188S by the Chantrey Fund Trustees, and followed in the next year by a picture of the west front of St. Paul's— people coming away from the Cathedral service, and pigeons about in the roadway, on which no vehicles are seen. This is entitled Sunday in the City," the busy life for a time suspended, and the solidity of the City buildings plainly shown. 1890 saw the difficult composition "The Ninth of November." It depicted the procession on Lord Mayor's Day passing through the City at a point close to the Royal Exchange ; the crowds are cleverly massed and their individual characteristics clearly brought out. Headed by three footmen in rich liveries, the Lord Mayor's cortege is approaching over the wet roadway, where the reflections greatly aid the painter. The actual date of the procession represented IS 1888, and Sir James Whitehead, who is the owner of the picture, has just entered into office. The work might almost be called a ceremonial picture, but it is one which is quite liberated from the trammels by which such pictures are encum- bered. Few things in painting are more difficult and irritating than the execution of work of that class in which the artist is bound down by rules the transgression of which would be 324 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S RSIGN. regarded as fatal to his work. In " The Ninth of November " Logsdail has had a free hand ; no rules were laid down for him : solely with the eye of the artist, and not with the eye of the practical and strict recorder of an event, was the subject approached ; and the Lord Mayor's procession in the heart of the great City, with its massive buildings and throngs of people, is made as picturesque as it could be, and with time will become more so as the more brilliant colours tone down. The subject had never been painted in this way before, and as such is a valuable record apart from its artistic attributes, which are great and which are attainable only by a very few. CHAPTER XIV. The characteristics of Ford Madox Brown and the movement originating in the small company of the Pre-RaphaeHte Brotherhood had many ardent sympathisers in the profession, several of whom, though not keeping with absolute strictness and consistency to the rigid tenets which characterized the work of that body, observed their principles to a large extent, and succeeded in leaving no inconsiderable mark upon the art of the country. Distinctly poetic by nature, and at the same time sincere of aim, they discerned in the adoption of the new principles a mode of expression the most consonant with their own thoughts, and probably the surest for their hand ; and, while not pursuing the new doctrine to the letter, they worked in accord with it, preserving at the same time, in many instances, a greater freedom of touch. Here we encounter painters like Arthur Hughes, W. S. Burton, Lawless, Windus, Sandys, J. D. Watson, F. J. Shields, and others, following a line with some similarity one to the other in this poetical aspect of art ; and another group — Strudwick, Simeon Solomon, Spencer Stanhope, Evelyn de Morgan, and the two pupils of Madox Brown, Marie Stillman and Lucy Madox Rossetti — variable indeed in exact aim, but in accord in so far as that aim or aspect touches the poetical, the imagi- native, the allegorical portrayal of things ; the paramount factor 325 326 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. in all, however, being the thought and the idea conveyed, rather than any exhibition of superior skill in execution or feeling for colour. In 1854 the new movement unquestionably was still impetuous in its course, and to that year belongs the " April Love " (36 X 20) of Arthur Hughes, now belonging to Mr. Boddington ; but ten years later a work equally rich in colouring, and possessed with dramatic incident in a greater degree, came from his hand in "The Eve of St. Agnes." Not content with picturing one event of the beautiful poem, as Holman Hunt had done in his "Flight of Porphyro," or Millais, a year previously, in his Madeline in the moonlit bedroom, he went a step further, and in telling the whole story on a triptych only did what the earlier painters were so addicted to doing, often, however, in their case, on a single panel instead of on three. Hughes's work is rich in colour and with a true echo of Keats's lines ; the awakening scene, which is the centre panel (25 X 22), being of an exceeding beauty and purity in effect, depicting with sensitive skill Madeline's illusion in taking her lover's actual presence for a vision sent by St. Agnes. The left panel (23 X 12) gives the young lover Porphyro approaching the castle where Madeline dwells, and the right shows him escaping with her. The poetic animation in the work is very pronounced, but entirely characteristic of his productions, which, without aspiring to any exceptional power of technique, abound in expressions, similar to "St. Agnes," of refined and beautiful feeling. More severe in treatment and directly and strongly under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites was Mr. W. S. Burton at the time he produced that remarkable picture " The Cavalier IF. S. BURTON. 3*7 and the Puritan," here reproduced by Mr. Albert Wood's kind permission. So entirely apart from all other work does it stand in its many excellences that the painter might almost be termed a " one-picture man," and its merits are such as to constitute it one of the remarkable pictures of the Reign. As is generally known, when sent to the Academy in 1856, the artist's letter got mislaid during the printing of the catalogue, and the picture was exhibited (No. 413) without title or name — an indulgence that probably would not have been accorded but for the exceptional attributes of the work itself The painter brings a Royalist Cavalier and a Roundhead Puritan strangely together : a lady is walking with the Puritan on the outskirts of a wood, and they pass a spot where a fierce combat has taken place, and where one of the com- batants has been left desperately wounded, his pockets being then searched for papers, and the cards falling out which are seen on the right of the picture. In striking a blow at his adversary he has cut deeply into a tree, breaking his sword and leaving part of the weapon in the tree. The time he has lain there is betokened by the web that has woven itself round the sword, on which a butterfly has alighted. The lady compassionately endeavours to do what she can, however late, to tend the terrible Vi^ound ; while her companion, standing by, merely looks on, the cold and bitter spirit felt by him for all Cavaliers showing itself especially in this instance, where the richly apparelled and evidently high-born Royalist av/akens immediate jealousy. Every part is finished as finely as it could be consistently with proper pictorial effect, and in its colour a vivid brilliant harmony Us obtained. There is no part 3,8 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN Of the canvas in which the artist is at a loss ; but faces, costume, and woodland are handled by him with equal dextenty. The painting, for instance, of the woman's grey gown is of a quality that admits of one pronouncing as to its texture, whde the expression of her face is to the full that of womanly tender- ness and sympathy ; then in the background there is no mchna tion shown to generalize the leafy depths and intricacies, but all that could be discerned by the eye, of branch or leaf or trunk, is patiently painted without stint of labour. This interesUng work was in the possession of the late Joseph Arden untd iSyg. Another man, who, however, in this instance died early, n.ay be said also to have identified himself with but one picture of real distinction. This was Matthew James Lawless, whose brief life closed in .864 at the age of twenty-seven. The picture was entitled " The Sick Call." and even m his own view it was the only picture he painted in which he con- sidered he had really succeeded. What suggested the picture it is impossible to say, but a scene of by no means an out-of- the-way character on the Continent has been seized upon for the expression of touching emotion. Doubtless had he developed he would have commanded a freer technique but sufficient is seen to indicate his tendency of aim, and the pathos which, at that comparatively early age, he could command upon his canvas. Upon a broad river ,n a flat Belgian country a boat is seen, in which a priest is seated with his acolytes, who are in white, with scarlet belts. They are on their way to render the last office to a sick person Great scope for colour and pictorial effect lies m the idea with which, the more to emphasize its solemnity, the r^/AT/Vf.. AV THE QVEES'S KJ ii a loss ; but ' of the -.IV..' , , , , .1 bv him with equal dexterity costume, .inle the expression of her iV. < to the full that of womanly tender- ness and sympathy . th.n .n the background there is no mclma- tion shown to p. the leafy depths and intricacies, but all that could 1. .V the eye, of branch or leaf or trunk, is patientK -t stint of labour. This interestmg ^ork was ... of the late Joseph Arden unul 1879. Another man. wi., however, in this instance died early, n,av be ...id also .0 have identified himself with but one picture ot real distinlky white\air and overhanging white eyebrows and moustache; the pale countenance of the fourscore-year-old peer havmg nothing to vie with its aristocratic stateliness but the star that, amid the manifold fulness of robe, proclaimed him a Knight of the Garter. Of Holl's full-length portraits that of the Duke of Cambridge as Commander-in-Chief would undoubtedly take first rank. This was painted in 1883, and throughout was distinguished in line and arrangement, and fluent m colour. He pursued his vocation, as is generally admitted, too closely; in the year that he died his industry was made manifest by no less than eight portraits on the Academy walls, and they were portraits of men of such character and celebrity as could not fail to gravely tax the powers of any painter, however gifted who undertook their production within a given and brief period. They were His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Earl Spencer, Mr. Gladstone, Baron Huddleston, Sir William Jenner, Sir Richard Webster, Sir Andrew Clark, and Mr. Townsend, of New York, PAJXTim IN THE QVEEN'^ KI been the rc..:u . , . of accident than of deliberate, intent, for only at the urgent request of an old and intimate friend did he undertake a certain portrait, that of Samuel Cousins, the eminent .ngraver, and th, excellence of it at once discovered his .t capacity in that direction. This was in 1879. and in the- nine years that were left him (for he died in 1888, at the early age of forty-four) he exhibited on the Academy ^^•alls over fifty portraits, most of them of men of great dis- nnction in public life. There was something approaching to grandeur in the portrait, in 1886, of the late Duke of Cleveland, Mtting back in his deep armchair, with his dishevelled silky white hair and overhanging white eyebrows and moustache; the pale countenance of the fourscore-year-old peer havmg nothing to vie with its aristocratic stateliness but the star that amid the manifold fulness of robe, proclaimed him a Knight of the Garter. Of Holl's full-length portraits that of the Duke of Cambridge as Commander-in-Chief would undoubtedly take first rank. This was painted in 1883, and throughout was distinguished in line and arrangement, and fluent m colour. He pursued his vocation, as is generally admitted, too closely; in the year that he died his industry was made manifest by no less than eight portraits on the Academy walls, and they were portraits of men of such character and celebrity as could not fail to gravely tax the powers of any painter, however gifted who undertook their production within a given and brief period. They were His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Earl Spencer, Mr. Gladstone, Baron Huddleston, Sir William Jenner, Sir Richard Webster, Sir Andrew Clark, and Mr. Townsend, of New York. LUKE FILDES. 341 Not very many large and important subject works have come from Mr. Fildes. It was a happy intuition that prompted him in the first instance toward a theme gay in its view and quiet and reposeful in its effect, for " In Fair, Quiet, and Sweet Rest" the public formed a pleasant idea of him, and were not disposed to give up that idea even in fece of the striking but doleful work which appeared two years later. " The Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward" (56 x 97). exhibited in 1874, converted a passing interest in him into a serious attention. He had done it in black and white some time before for the Graphic, and in working it out in colour (with, of course, certain variations) he perhaps did not realize the effect such a work would have. It was no uncommon scene he was depicting, but an everyday affair in this London life of ours, all the more strongly felt when brought home truly by the earnest mind and the dexterous hand. The picture was not prompted by anything Dickens ever wrote, for the painter had seen some- thing very like it years before near the Portland Road, but a passage from Dickens came to his notice while the work was in progress, and he associated the great author with the work by quoting this passage beneath his picture : " Dumb, wet, silent horrors. Sphinxes set up against that dead wall, and none likely to be at the pains of solving them until the general over- throw." Ranged against the wall, waiting each his or her turn, he has placed these applicants for temporary shelter, brought thither by misfortune or crime. The picture was originally in the collection of Mr. Thomas Taylor, of Aston Rowant, but in 1883 it was acquired by the Royal Holloway College at Egham, and is now in the Gallery of that Institution. " The 342 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN Return of a Penitent" (52 x 100, 1879), belonging to Mr. Holbrook Gaskell ; "The Village Wedding" (1883), the property of Mr. C. Brooks; and "The Doctor" (1891), owned by Mr. Henry Tate, practically complete his large works of this character, and since the appearance of the last-named picture few works other than portraits have come from his hand. But while he was still devoted to genre, many charming pictures, smaller in size, were produced of sound and accom- plished technique, among the best of which is " Playmates." In his spell of Venetian life, now from ten to fifteen years ago, he caught the fine colour and form of the South, with the broad and confident touch of his senior in years. Van Haanen. "Venetian Life" (1884), belonging to Mr. John Aird, is one of the chief of these, as is also "Venetians" (90 X 64, 1885), in the City of Manchester Art Gallery— records of the people and of the place, picturing the easy life and habits of those who, possibly in poverty, yet have the ancient love for colour which has descended to them through generations. Mr. Blackwell, of Harrow Weald, has the fine portrayal of "A Daughter of the Lagunes" (1886); and the beautiful " Al Fresco Toilet" (68 X 42), once the property of the late Mr. Arthur Anderson, but now in Mr. George McCulloch's collection, was, I fancy, the latest of the Venetian pictures. The sense of complete- ness and finish in this work is most agreeably pronounced. A girl is skilfully dressing the rich auburn hair of her hand- some friend, who is seated outside the pillared portico of a house in Venice. Other girls are about, all of them in varied colours, and the incident is just engaging enough as a means of expressing the fine skill of the painter, his sense of bright :r. QUEE.W'S KEIGX ^-niicnf (52 X iOO, !^^79). belonging to Mr. :i ; " The Village Wedding" (1883), the property of M< y.. Brooks; and "The Doctor" (1891), owned by Mr. i .ite, practically complete his large works of this I ter, and since the appearance of the last-named picture works other than portraits have come from his hand. iHit while he was still devoted to genre, many charming jiictures, smaller in size, were produced of sound and accom- plished technique, among the best of which is " Playmates." In his spell of Venetian life, now from ten to fifteen years ago, he caught the fine colour and form of the South, with the broad and confident touch of his senior in years, Van Haanen. "Venetian Life" (1884), belonging to Mr. John Aird, is one of the chief of these, as is also " Veneti.ms ' (90 X 64, 1885), in the City of Manchester Art Gallery— records of the j)' oiji. n i of the place, picturing the easy life and habits of those who, possibly in poverty, yet have the ancient love for colour which has descended to them through generations. Mr. Blackwell, of Harrow Weald, has the fine portrayal of " A Daughter of the Lagunes" (1886); and the beautiful " Al Fresco Toilet" (68 X 42), once the property of the late Mr. Arthur Anderson, but now in Mr. George McCulloch's collection, was, I fancy, the latest of the Venetian pictures. The sense of complete- ness and finish in this work is most agreeably pronounced. A girl is skilfully dressing the rich auburn hair of her hand- some friend, who is seated outside the pillared portico of a house in Venice. Other girls are about, all of them in varied colours, and the incident is just engaging enough as a means of expressing the fine skill of the painter, his sense of bright LUKE FILDES. 343 harmony, and his accomplished management of pictorial effect. The earliest of his undertakings in portraiture, a branch of art with which he has now strongly identified himself, seems to have been that of his wife, in 1887, and it is doubtful whether any subsequent portrait will be found to surpass it in its many excellences. Stability, grace, expression, colour, are all there, called forth with a firmness that has in it also its best concomitant, ease. There is a wonderful suavity in the work, and on examination it is found to be possessed of the soundest technical qualities, the fruit of large experience and conscientious aim. Mrs. Thomas Agnew was another fine three-quarter length portrait, which appeared three years later, followed by Mrs. Lockett Agnew. Then, in 1892, came " Ethel, daughter of T. H. Ismay, Esq.," the founder of the White Star Line of Steamers, in which a similar effect to that he had adopted in "The Sisters" in 1889, of white satin gown, gilded chair, and rich red background, was repeated with singularly pleasing result. A later portrait, of the highest quality in regard to painting, and not excelled by any example of his for sweetness and delicacy, is that of Mrs. Newall (30 X 22, 1893), oval in shape and scarcely half-length. One of his greatest achievements has been the three-quarter- length seated portrait of the Princess of Wales (1894). In this work the hand of a master only could have overcome the numberless difficulties presented. No mere depiction of a face intended to please is here, but a true portrait of Her Royal Highness as she is — a faithful and beautiful record of feature, disposition, and womanly grace. It was not easy to adopt such simplicity of attitude and attire, and at the same time to secure ^44 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. such individual dignity, such sense of importance with so adequate an atmosphere of repose. While his portraits are now regularly looked for, and, apart from their high technical qualities, are in themselves invariably pictures of great tenderness and grace, more especially when dealing with female portraiture, it is not without concern that we miss him as a painter of genre, his latest or one of his latest works in this direction, " The Doctor," showing the possession by him of rare qualities in that direction, the sus- pended exercise of which cannot be regarded but as a loss to the British school of painting. Though practising portraiture from the commencement of his career, it was the picture of " The Last Muster : Sunday at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea" (84 X 63, 1875), which brought Hubert Herkomer into prominence, and no subsequent subject work of his can be said to be equal to it, either in theme, masculine force, or soundness of technique. Like certain other great works, it owed its origin to a drawing made in black and white for the Graphic, entitled " Chelsea Pensioners in Church." The painting is in reality a section of the church adjacent to the hospital at Chelsea, and shows the congregation of veteran soldiers who have quitted active service, and to whom the hospital is a place where they may reside in comfort, and, it may be, peacefully end their days. Side by side, many times possibly, have they stood on the field of battle, and they come at last to muster, as worthy pensioners of the state, at this the weekly service. No separate action or distinct incident of an individual character is encountered in the picture, as in Fildes's work above alluded to, where each HUBERT HERKOMER. 345 figure, it may be said, tells a different story, and in itself suggests inquiry or speculation. Duty done, and now comes rest, is the prevailing sentiment of Herkomer's picture, the solitary note upon which pathetic emphasis is laid being the soldier at the end of the second bench, who is meeting his death, not in the furore of the battle-field, but during the quiet tranquillity of this morning service, and upon whose arm rests the hand of his comrade. The picture is now in the possession of Sir Cuthbert Quilter. "Eventide" (42 x 78, 1878), a group of poor women in a ward of the Westminster Union, and now owned by the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and " Pressing to the West " (56 x S3, 1884), are both realistic records of the humbler spheres of life, the last-named serving to depict the hardships that wait upon the poor. It gives a scene in Castle Garden, New York, a build- ing through which all emigrants have to pass for registration before going on to the West. The majority are poor and unable to pay for lodging outside, and they remain in this building sometimes for a day, sometimes for eight or ten weeks, until suitable situations are found for them by the Commissioners ot Emigration. Painted evidently as he saw it, the painter has massed these people of many nationalities together very skil- fully ; and here again no distinct story is told, of point such as Frank Holl would have devised, but incidents, trivial, it may be, to the ordinary onlooker, are plentifully scattered through the work, which combine in faithfully rendering, without any of the ameliorating glamour of poetic sentiment, an aspect of the times in which we live, in the sense which it conveys of the physical discomfort of this disordered crowd — some lying, some sitting, 44 346 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. some wearily standing-who press to the West, that region of hope to the necessitous. He is a fine painter of mountain form, and grasps its solidity and sublime dimensions as few who are exclusively landscape painters are able to do. In "Found," or "The Gloom of Idwal," or " God's Shrine," a true poetic feeling expresses itself The wild and the desolate in the picture of " Found " are handled in no conventional way. The rugged broken rocks well compose the foreground, and the floating vapour low down to the right serves to heighten the dark mountain mass, itself swathed with a girdle of drifting cloud. The flock of goats advancing over the ridge to the left, and the raven on the right, give point to the central figure of the goatherd, who, staff in hand, cautiously descends through the rugged places in search of the missing man. This fine example was acquired by the Chantrey Fund Trustees. In "God's Shrine" (68 X 96, 1880), in the possession of Mr. Alexander Young, seldom has a granite mass been better recorded ; a high mid-distance throwing up in strong relief its precipitous sides, upon whose silver-grey surface the light crlints and shimmers as it catches each sharp edge or projection. Sound, massive painting this, the solid earth, the weight of rock, evidencing no mean grasp of nature, either in its substantial force or its emotion. If in like degree we look for poetic feeling in his figures, we find it best displayed in such works as "Entranced" (55 X 44, 1887), or in the portrait of Miss Grant (1885), the latter work known once as "The White Lady" and in the possession now of Mr. Hammersley, and the former as " The S/Ji IF. B. RICHMOND. 347 Black Lady," owned by Mr. Abel Buckley— a work of fine lines, ease, and dignity. Though known simply as " Entranced," the appropriate words of its full title are adequately expressed in the work — • " Entranced in some diviner mood Of self-oblivious solitude." In the region of pure portraiture, practical in its outlook, and removed, of necessity, by many degrees from the poetic renderings of the two last-named works, his practice has been wide. Fine as many of these portraits are, chiefly of notable men prominent in public life, they might presumably, in some cases at any rate, have been finer, had less work been under- taken by him in this direction, but in these days of demand a man of such capacity is regrettably liable to be unfairly taxed in this direction. Sir W. B. Richmond, the son of the eminent portrait painter and Academician George Richmond, has himself taken the line of portraiture in a great degree, and all his work in this direction, and more especially in female portraiture, is of a character which mingles gentleness and dignity with a certain air of repose that may be almost said to be peculiar to him. In the portrait of Mrs. W. G. Rawlinson, for example, apart from the admirable fluency of its technique, nothing seems wanting to complete the restful effect, and there is at the same time the sense of vitality upon which the eye dwells with satisfaction. Its completeness, too, as a work of art is also another element in the picture. It is a finished design, fraught with a beauty of line, a picture independent of its portrait, with, above all, the spirit of ease through it, and these characteristics are .,^8 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. almost Invariably prominent in his work. He has, too, painted many distinguished men, one of the most striking of these being the portrait of Prince Bismarck (1888), and the portrait of Charles Darwin, too, may be instanced. Throughout his professional career the painting of classic genre has engaged him, "The Death of Ulysses" (48 x 58, 1889) being among the finest of this class. Latterly the onerous work of the decoration of St. Paul's Cathedral has closely engaged him. He is not new to work of decorative character : twenty-two years have passed since he brought to completion a series of frescoes illustrative of "The Life of Woman"; these were executed in the drawing-room of Mr. J. Stewart Hodgson's residence at Lythe Hill. Whatever pains Sargent may take with his work, there is nothing left in evidence but the distinct accent throughout of spontaneity. A grace of line, a fulness of colour, a touch of vivacity-this is Sargent. If ever any painter were incapable of painting to order or of accepting wholesale commissions for portraits, it is he. Such art as his cannot be taught; the technicalities of it are all that may be said to be within the common reach ; its feeling and invention spring from within. A graceful form moved by a sensitive mind is a subject upon which the fame of Reynolds and Gainsborough may be said to rest, and it is a subject which by nature fits to Sargent's mind, and one in which his capacity has already, and not without considerable vitality, manifested itself A pupil of that distinguished Frenchman Carolus Duran. his term of pupilage, despite the independent latent energy of the American nature, was characterized by close and patient JOHN S. SARGENT. 349 study, and by the absence of any haste, on his part, to distinguish himself. Here, then, was the groundwork laid for the achievement of those high performances which, during the past ten years or so, have come from his hand, and which have served to secure him, with unusual rapidity, the full honours of the Academy. Portraits of undeniable charm, such, for example, as that of Mrs. White in 1884, simple in attitude and not far removed in its gentle grace from the celebrated Mrs. Graham at Edinburgh, or his Lady Playfair of 1885, made distinct mark at the date of their exhibition ; but the painter's poetic feeling was first ably in evidence in 1887, when that confident exploit in grace and colour, "Carnation, Lily; Lily, Rose," appeared. He was about thirty-nine at that time. It was something the like of which had not been seen before. Those tremulous double lights — the chill gloom of the sun-forsaken garden and the ruddy glow of the Chinese lanterns — was task enough to depict truthfully, without the living grace of childhood, sweet in form and feature, " Scarce of earth, nor all divine," to which the picture owes its essential charm. In its soft radiance it was a beautiful creation, and the Trustees of the Chantrey Fund promptly and sagaciously acquired it. Rhythm of line is seldom absent from Sargent's work. The poetry of portraiture may be said to be his ; his portraits are invariably pictures, and stand as such independently of the persons portrayed. He has a faculty for catching the grace of attitude, whether it be in a woman's form, or in the far 3SO PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. more difficult instance, because more rarely occurrent, of a man's. In this latter sphere his most successful example is the portrait of Mr. Graham Robertson (1895), and the eye dwells with satisfaction on the way in which so commonplace a thing as a long great-coat can be made to look in the hands of this painter. The same dignity of line and harmony of sensitive tones which appear in other works are displayed in this remarkable portrait with unabated force, and with a true grasp at the same time of the gentle character and disposition of his sitter. Among his portraits of women, that of Mrs. Hugh Hammersley (1893), which is here repro- duced, must take prominent rank. As near to life as art could make it, grace, colour, and vivacity, one wonders how the picture will look and how it will be regarded when the world is as distant from its painter as we are now from the two great men of the last century ; for who has fixed with such grace since they, the turn of a woman's form, the line of limb and garment, the spontaneous animation, the dignity of sensitive ladyhood? The touch in his work looks impulsive, but is it so ? is it not the outcome, not of the moment, but of long and matured thought ? The satisfying tout ensemble of his work points to its mental completion, in all its effect and detail, or ever the hand approaches the canvas, and this presumably may account for the swift stroke, the deliberate touch, the resolute confidence displayed in his work. H. T. Wells is also one who has made conspicuous mark as a painter of portraits, that of Lady Blomfield in 1893 possessing especial grace, with that quiet dignity which removes the work altogether from the region of the popular portrait 350 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. more difficult instance, because more rarely occurrent, of a man's. In this latter sphere his most successful example is the portrait of Mr. Graham Robertson (1895), and the eye dwells with satisfaction on the way in which so commonplace a thing as a long great-coat can be made to look in the hands of this painter. The same dignity of line and harmony of sensitive tones which appear in other works are displayed in this remarkable portrait with unabated force, and "with a true grasp at the same time of the gentle character and disposition of his sitter. Among his portraits of women, that of Mrs. Hugh Hammersley (1893), which is here repro- duced, must take prominent rank. As near to life as art could make it, grace, colour, and vivacity, one wonders how the picture will look and how it will be regarded when the world is as distant from its painter as we are now from the two great men of the last century ; for who has fixed with such grace since they, the turn of a woman's form, the line of limb and garment, the spontaneous animation, the dignity of sensitive ladyhood? The touch in his work looks impulsive, but is it so ? is it not the outcome, not of the moment, but of long and matured thought ? The satisfying tout ensemble of his work points to its mental completion, in all its effect and detail, or ever the hand approaches the canvas, and this presumably may account for the swift stroke, the deliberate touch, the resolute confidence displayed in his work. H. T. Wells is also one who has made conspicuous mark as a painter of portraits, that of Lady Blomfield in 1893 possessing especial grace, with that quiet dignity which removes the work altogether from the region of the popular portrait I /. /. SHANNON. 35 1 painter. The portrait too of Frank Dicksee (1895) was remark- able for its lifelike resemblance. The latest addition to the Academy ranks has been that of a portrait painter, J. J. Shannon, who in 1889 made a distinct success at the New Gallery, in point of gentle feminine grace, in the portrait he then exhibited of Miss Jean Graham (93 X 29). He is not always good, however. It is said that the men from whom the world receives the best work are the most uneven. There are moments when inspiration has us in thrall, and then, and not at other times, is the best and most enduring work produced. Mrs. Charlesworth (80 x 42, 1894) was beautiful in its original expression of grace : the leaning figure, not indolent ; the disposition of the arms and hands unaffected, and the light that catches the projections in the furniture (a grand piano was it ?) being of great value in the support of the figure in its place. Sound technique, with an inborn aptitude for seizing, and often, one may venture to say, originating positions of grace, are not common characteristics, and to these must be added, in Shannon's case, the rarer capacity of preserving, as a rule, throughout his work a dignity which greatly heightens their merit, and which, united to his sensitive and refined style of work, seems to give the one touch which is wanted to raise the work to that level which we recognize both as of charm and as individual. CHAPTER XVI. Few pictures made greater stir at the time of its exhibition at the Academy in 1874 than "The Roll Call," by Elizabeth Thompson (now Lady Butler), not altogether from the standpoint of a military picture, but from the national sympathy which it called forth, with the touch it had in it of individual suffering and heroism. It is the parade of about fifty men belonging to the left division of the Grenadier Guards. Calling the roll of soldiers on parade in time of peace is one thing, but calling it after the repulse overnight of a sortie from a beleaguered town, and on a snow-covered ground, beneath a cold and lurid winter sky, with evidences close at hand of terrible vacancies, is another; and to this must be added the correctness of accoutrements, the singular dexterity of the drawing of the men as they recede to the right, and the clever rendering of the snow and snow-laden sky. That the painter never imagined it would be responded to by the public sentiment as it was is well known, for she had parted with the work before its public appearance for 120 guineas, to Mr. Charles J. Galloway, of Ktiutsford. It was a commission at the painter's own price, £100, which Mr. Galloway increased to 120 guineas before it left her studio. His only previous relation with this artist's work was at Liverpool eighteen 35Z ELIZABETH THOMPSON {LADY BUTLER), 353 months before, where a small water-colour drawing of hers was exhibited entitled " Watering Horses," which, with dis- cerning eye, Mr. Galloway purchased. The reception " The Roll Call " met with from the Academy itself is recorded in a letter which Mr. J. R. Herbert, R.A., addressed to the artist. He said : " When the picture came before us for adjudi- cation, I was so struck by the excellent work in it that I proposed that we should lift our hats, and give it and you, though as I thought unknown to me, a round of huzzas, which was accordingly done." An enviable mark this to one who had not exhibited at the Academy at all until the previous year, but whose exhibition then of a painting entitled " Missing" had not passed unnoticed, although hung high. Hearty were the congratulations which met the artist on the Private View day, during the course of which she imparted to her kind patron the fact that the Prince of Wales greatly desired to possess the picture. Mr. Galloway, however, owing to his high estimation of the work, felt unable to comply with this request, but in acquainting the painter with this decision generously presented her with the copyright of it, which she afterwards disposed of for .,^"1,000. Within a fortnight he received a telegram from Miss Thompson, stating that the Queen desired to become its possessor at a price above that he had given for it, and requesting a telegraphic reply. Mr. Galloway answered that if he parted with the picture to Her Majesty it must be at the same price he had paid for it, and with the stipulation that the painter should replace it by another of equal importance to be painted for the following year's Academy. This stipulation was agreed to, and the 45 3s6 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN same degree as their two predecessors had done ; the picture that came nearest to this was the famous " Charge of the Scots Greys at Waterloo," which she painted in 1882, but it was not exhibited at the Academy. It is 39 x 76, and represents a cavalry charge from the most difficult of all possible views, coming directly at the spectator. Alexander Wagner, the Hungarian painter, was the first, I believe, to successfully surmount the technical difficulties of drawing the horse coming at full speed towards you, in his picture of " A Chariot Race," painted in 1876 (not to be confounded with Ugolino Checa's, which is similar in character but inferior in the general control of the design). Lady Buder's is not carried to the extreme of mad excitement that Wagner depicts; the horses are perfectly under control, and, though coming fast and furious, are in order. It was on the afternoon of the memorable i8th of June, 181 5, that the 92nd regiment, reduced then to two hundred men, charged a column of two thousand of the enemy. They broke into the centre of the column, and the instant they pierced it the Scots Greys dashed in to their support, cheering and shouting " Scodand for ever!" This is the point Lady Buder has seized. The picture was purchased by Colonel T. W. Harding, J. P., of Leeds, and generously presented by him to the PubHc Art Gallery of that city. It was last seen in London in 1894 at the Guildhall. Messrs. Hildesheimer & Co. were the publishers of the very fine engraving of it, and I am indebted to their courtesy for the privilege of repro- ducing it here. A painter who has attained now to the position of Royal Academician, and has signalized his career by the painting of 356 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S KEION. same degree as their two predecessors had done ; the picture that came nearest to this was the famous " Charge of the Scots Greys at Waterloo," which she painted in 1882, but it was not exhibited at the Academy. It is 39 x 76, and represents a cavalry charge from the most difficult of all possible views, coming direcdy at the spectator. Alexander Wagner, the Hungarian painter, was the first, I believe, to successfully surmount the technical difficulties of drawing the horse coming at full speed towards you, in his picture of "A Chariot Race," painted in 1876 (not to be confounded with Ugolino Checa's, which is similar in character but inferior in the general control of the design). Lady Butler's is not carried to the extreme of mad excitement that Wagner depicts; the horses are perfectly under control, and, though coming fast and furious, ..re in order. It was on the afternoon of the memorable i8th of June, 1 81 5, that the 92nd regiment, reduced then to two hundred men, charged a column of two thousand of the enemy. They broke into the centre of the column, and the instant they pierced it the Scots Greys dashed in to their support, cheering und shouting "Scotland for ever!" This is the point Lady Butler has seized. The picture was purchased by Colonel T. W. Harding, J. P., of Leeds, and generously presented by him to the Public Art Gallery of that city. It was last seen in London in 1894 at the Guildhall. Messrs. Hildesheimer & Co. were the publishers of the very fine engraving of it, and I am indebted to their courtesy for the privilege of repro- ducing it here. A painter who has attained now to the position of Royal Academician, and has signalized his career by the painting of ANDREW GO IV. ™i,i,»,y piece, in a manner indicating literary resear*, k A„Lw Go„ : b„, Ire is by no means confined to .h,s c ass of snbiect: cbarming works in genre, sma.l in size and both ,n „i, and water-colour, have been produced by bin,. w,th .be e»c,- „ess and breadtb of a Meissonier-indeed be bas been ternred En»lisb Meissonier," In the picture of " A Loyal B,rd. which be tahea as a type of these, possessed. 1 belte.e. by Mr W Y. Baker, of S.reathan, Hill, he closely resembles the ,re.. and gifted Frenchntaa, Historical record ha,, however, ! .fly occupied bin,, ranging over the last three centur.es, a n hi Aft r Langside," belonging to Mr. George McCui cb. J . -A Lost Cause." in which he shows the flight „ K.ng LTnry Tate, through whoa, it wifl conre in due course to .e nation, bnt his purely military pieces, whtch are at th an. i„ „,ry respect as exact in arrangement and deta.l as : s udy of liter.ary record can secure, and rangtng from the C o, „ ian period to the Napoleonic era. are of great an Inct interest. The Chaatrey Bequest T™.ees purchas. ..Cromwell at Dunbar." painted ,n ,8S6. ^ ^= ,00k as the text of this picture a ,uotat,on from Car^e !°Cromweirs Letters": ..The Scotch army ,s sh.vered to „,L ruin, rushes in tumultuous wreck, hither, thtther. . T : Lord General made a halt, says Hodgson, and sang th : ;h Psalm. till our horses could gather for the chase and determinate and dangerous force it looks, ranged at r,gh, angl to the spectator and facing the left-wnhout any • . in effect bu, each man with his accoutrements ::::::: dll- la every detail. Mr. Stephen Holland 358 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. secured the following year's production, " The Garrison at Lille marching out with the Honours of War," a work full of fine drawing, of which it has been said, I believe, that Meissonier, who once saw it, remarked, " How valuable it would be were I to put my name to it!" adding immediately afterwards the gratifying but well deserved tribute, " And I should not mind doing so." The " Sauve qui Peut " (48 x 66), exhibited in 1890 and purchased by Mr. George McCulloch, must have entailed an enormous amount of work ; the whole tumultuous cavalcade is pressing forward in its wild rush for safety. To emphasize the detail and yet preserve the action, as is done in this work, is admirable. Infantry, cavalry, artillery, all mingled and jammed together on the narrow road towards Genappe in one dreadful struggle to escape ; all order was at an end, each man endeavouring to escape from the terrible uproar following the defeat of Waterloo. Of late the Peninsular War has been engaging the artist's attention. "The Duke in Spain" was shown in 1893; the Duke is endeavouring to gain infor- mation of the locality he is in : " Local information," said he in one of his famous despatches, "is the safeguard of the general." The blue cloudless sky and the dry sandy soil are effective enough pictorially against the bright uniforms of the Duke and his staff "On the Sands at Boulogne, 1805," appeared in 1895, and recalls to us the time when Napoleon had massed a large army at Boulogne for the invasion of England, and kept it there in readiness to cross the Channel at the first opportunity. No doubt in their gallop along the wet sands, as we see them, this cluster of French generals cast a longing eye over the water to that pale line of coast, AND RE IV GO IE. 359 upon which nevertheless their foot was never destined to rest. The historical truth of these works should be known in the contemplation of them. To the ordinary onlooker the picture, for example, last spoken of means little more than an enjoyable ride by a party of French officers ; but how momentous was the presence of these officers at Boulogne at that date ! Napoleon had already been for five years a standing menace to England, and ere he had been declared Emperor a year his eye was fixed on this country as an object of conquest. The most recent undertaking by this artist, and one for which he is perhaps more eminently qualified than any other British painter, is the depiction of the scene in front of St. Paul's Cathedral on the memorable occasion when the Queen visited the City of London on Jubilee Day, 1897. Sagaciously selecting his position at a point south-west of the cathedral front, he is able to utilize the august pillars of the sacred edifice and the assembled clergy as the background to the brilliant equipage, drawn by the eight Hanoverian cream horses, as it tarries for a brief ten minutes to admit of Her Majesty taking part in the service. This work, fraught with intricacies and difficulties, but safe in the hands of such a painter of conscientious record as Mr. Gow, will not be completed probably before the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1899. It is a commission from Mr. Henry Clarke, who has been for long a member of the Corporation of London and of the London County Council, and it will be deposited ultimately as a gift from him in the Guildhall Art Gallery. Ernest Crofts, another British exponent of military events, has been steadily gaining a reputation since 1874, when he 36o PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. exhibited at the Academy an episode in the Franco-German war called " A Retreat," which, I am told, is now in the town hall at Konigsberg. His three Wiiterloo pictures brought him great notoriety. The first of these was produced in 1876, "The Morning of the Battle of Waterloo" (42 X 73), in which he depicted the French headquarters, with Napoleon seated examining a chart and interrogating a peasant. The next, painted two years later, an important work in design and carried through in a very masterly manner, was fraught with difficulty, and the grouping was extremely skilful. This was " Wellington's March from Ouatre Bras to Waterloo " (43 X 78). The former of these pictures was purchased by Sir Frederick Mappin, and presented by him to the Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield; the latter by the late Mr. John Newton Mappin, by whom it was bequeathed to the same institution. The third has found its way to the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; this is "The Evening of the Battle of Waterloo" (46 X 88), which was purchased by the Liverpool Corporation in 1879. They all record the practical fact of war without much care for its sentiment, but the closest attention is paid to detail, and in uniform and accoutrements the painter may be relied upon as correct. It is the accuracy which makes his pictures such valuable records. He appeals in his work certainly to the head rather than to the heart. The hard events of war, the very business of the battle-field is placed before you on his canvases, which evoke your interest and wonder rather than your compassion and sympathy. The Cromwellian period has also been a source of much study and labour with him. " The Battle of Marston Moor" has as its leading incident the ERNILST CKOFTS—JOHN CHARLTON. 36! alighting of Prince Rupert, who is seated on the ground at supper, but ere much could be done that way the battle had begun. The heavy seventeenth-century coach, towards which the Duke of Newcastle has betaken himself to smoke a pipe, is a feature of the picture, and the uplifted heads of the horses and the starding commotion a little distance off tell of the sudden call to action. The picture belongs to Mr. James Dole, of Bristol, who also owns another illustrative of the same period, " Cromwell at Bootham Bar " ; both works are among the best the painter has done of that eventful period. Crofts was educated in art at Diisseldorf under Emil Hunten, himself a pupil of Horace Vernet. The painters of military events, or scenes in which soldiery constitutes the main element, are few in the British School. Across the Channel, on French soil, we find them much more numerous ; but to the three to whom allusion has been made must be added Caton Woodville and John Charlton, who have identified themselves more or less with the record of war, the latter (not however with so facile a pencil as the former) recording with clear pictorial effect such scenes as " After the Battle, Sedan," or " Ulundi after the Attack." In the last- named it is not difficult to imagine in the long line of down-like hill, extremely well portrayed, the abiding-place of the black Zulu hosts, whose dreaded crescents no sooner appeared against the sky than they were close at hand with their infuriated force and bravery. In the case of Ulundi, owing to the preparations which had been made by the British troops, the dusky warriors never succeeded in getting to close quarters ; they were stayed in their successive charges by the continuous 46 362 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. hail of bullets from the well defended circle of waggons, and were eventually beaten off. In the case of R. Caton Woodville, the smallest hint, the merest sketch or description, is sufficient for him instantly to grasp in his minds eye the panorama of the event, and with ready hand to set down with amazing rapidity his view of the scene. He does not study with microscopic care, as Gow, Crofts, and Lady Butler are wont to do, the details of the events he pictures ; but he leaves an admirable idea of the event itself, with presumably, in point of accuracy, a broad aspect of the actual occurrence. Only in very few cases would it be possible to obtain anything approaching absolute accuracy. Imagine a battle-field: in the thunder and peril of it, how could any position be determined upon by a painter? or far less, even momentary quiet obtained to concentrate his thoughts on the composition of a picture? Battle pictures must therefore almost invariably be the outcome of the painter's imagination, based on descriptions of the general position of things by those who were actually present. The battle pieces of Woodville certainly show a large amount of resource on the painter's part. "Badajoz, 1812," for example, must necessarily have been depicted from written descriptions and old prints, but " The Charge of the Light Brigade," which was in the Academy ■of 1895, might have been described to him by those who were actually in it or who were onlookers. The brilliant torce is going at speed, and the whole scene rings with the note of battle. Certain of the horses are splendidly drawn in the vigour with which they tear onward and in the pace which the painter has suggested. One would have wished that he I{. CATON WOODVILLE. 363 had relied 011 his own idea of the depiction of the speed of a horse rather than upon the eccentric truth of the camera, for of all who engaged in that terrible charge none went faster than its famous leader, Lord Cardigan, and the position in the picture of his horse's legs — more or less it is presumed suggested by photography — may certainly be scientifically accurate, but it has the effect artistically of slackening the animal's speed. Photography can see and seize more than the human eye, and where the painter has shown his horses as the human eye without scientific aid can observe them they appear to the onlooker right and with a splendid sense of movement. In reference to this world-famed charge it is strange to note that its famous commander, who was able to keep a firm seat even when the horse he rode sharply swerved aside at the blazing discharge close in front of it of a Russian gun, should yet owe his death to his horse's sudden stumble in a quiet English country lane. Messrs. Henry Graves & Co. have latterly brought together and exhibited several of Woodville's battle pieces, " Sebastopol, in the Trenches," and " Storming the Redoubt at Alma," being among them ; and the same firm were instrumental in getting the painter to undertake the depiction of the famous raid into the Transvaal early last year. This painting he carried through with wonderful dexterity ; costumes and individual positions, vigour and spirit, were associated as nearly as could be with the truth of the actual scene. CHAPTER XVII. Albert Moore's art (1841 — 1895) restricted itself, one might say, to the purely decorative, and yet his control of colour in the shaping and making of a picture revealed more than the mere decorative appreciation of the subtleties of colour. The gentle harmony, oftentimes the rich unison, the " weaving together of rare tints," as some one said, that prevailed in his work was of a character that engendered a species of wonder that he could so limit his subject as to stop, where he seems contented to have stopped, at the purely pictorial, and not have sought to employ his fine and sensitive powers in illustrating some lofty theme, to which his gift might reasonably and successfully have led him. He did attempt the portrayal of distinct events early in his career — Mr. Charles Moody has his curiously designed "Elijah's Sacrifice" (38 x 70, 1B64), and Mrs. Philip Rathbone "The Shulamite Woman" (1864)— but he is known best by those beautiful visions of colour and arrangement, soft harmonies of line and hue, that have in them neither drama nor emotion, and yet while distinctly decorative are something more, affecting the sensitive onlooker with a sense of fulness, an adequacy of expression, from which, if the spell of emotion be absent to touch the heart, grace is present to delight the eye ; and it is on these works that his individuality as a painter will rest. 364 ALBERT MOORE— MRS. ADRIAN STOKES. 365 Mr. William Connal, jun., of Glasgow, has his beautiful " Mid- summer"; and a small upright picture called "Topaz," a work of great delicacy and finish, is in the collection of Mr. Humphrey Roberts. A little gem called "The Toilet," and once termed "Silver" (16 x 19, 1886), is in the possession of Mr. Graham Robertson, and Mr. Coltart has the well known " Quartette," "a painter's tribute to music," as the artist called it. This is a composition of seven figures, four of whom are men performing to an audience of three women who are clad in white. Above them is a shelf on which a violoncello is placed and two vases of May-bloom. The prevailing effect is that of pink and white, relieved by the pale green floor, and it is as fine an example as an exhibition of Moore's characteristics as there is. Graceful attitudes and gentle movement, where movement occurs at all, mark the designs in his work ; but his colour emphasizes the sense of repose and unobtrusively exalts them. There is a curious touch of devotion about Mrs. Adrian Stokes's work. Content to do little, but to do that little well, is a characteristic of her career. The medieval, one mieht almost say the archaic aspect of her work is its individual charm, a thing apart, as it were, from present-day existence. In schemes of colour she is widely variable, but the figures which she sets in them illustrate times and stories that lend themselves to her manner of thought and to the quaintness of design which seems to come so naturally to her hand. The "St. Elizabeth of Hungary spinning Wool for the Poor" (38 X 24, 1895) is remarkable for its serious severity, both in meaning and execution — a picture one would not be surprised to encounter as a bygone relic in some ancient monastery. In 366 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. this work the prevaiUng colour is a rich red, with accessories and background of sombre tone. It belongs to Mr. Leopold Hirsch. In her succeeding example, "The Page," now in Mr. George McCulloch's collection, a clever harmony of green, white, and purple is reached, but the old-world look is retained, and Heine's pathetic little legend is touchingly interpreted in the daintily stepping young Queen and the enamoured page who bears up her silken gown. A beautiful idea occurred to this artist once, and was carried through in a picture which she entitled "Light of Light" (44 X sO- ^^ere, bending over the cradle, the face of the mother is illumined by the divine aureole around the head of the sleeping Child. The owner of this work is Frau Panizza, of Munich. Passing through his Newlyn experiences, Mr. T. C. Gotch has developed a singular capacity of late years for work of a character whose decorativeness has yet in it the added attribute of meaning. It is more than merely pictorial. "The Child Enthroned" is one of the best of these, owned now by Mr. George McCulloch, and in the quaint ornamentation and set appearance of each fold of garment, as well as in the passive dignity that is conveyed, recalls the Early Flemish painter. A more serious venture in this direction was made in 1896 by the "Alleluia," which was acquired by the Chantrey Fund Trustees, a composition of thirteen figures of children. But, with a truer touch of poetry and with less attempt at decoration, was the work of 1895, " Death the Bride" (50 X 32). Here, with significant regard in the sidelong glance, a slender figure is making its way among thickly growing violet and scarlet poppies. She comes alone— no bridal maids attend her— SOLOMON J. SOLOMON. 3''? but she wears a nuptial wreath of full blossoming Bowers, and from it falls about her a black bridal veil. Sensitive to a degree is the disposition of the hands as they silently part the veil and disclose the face "pale as yonder waning moon." It is a beautiful work in its deep thoughtfulness and in the mystery of its delicate expression. In the realms of the classic and the ideal has S. J. Solomon in the main sought his subjects, but on one occasion he turned to Scripture. There was tremendous dramatic force about his "Samson" (95 X 145, 1887), and not since the days of Etty's " Benaiah," which occupies a slightly larger canvas, has so great an amount of vigorous action been pictorially displayed ; but the painter of "Cassandra" (120 X 60, 1886) had found a theme suited to his mind, and, excellent as the large uprights that followed it have been—" Niobe," " Hippolyta," " The Judgment of Paris," and " Orpheus "—the complicated design of " Samson " and the power evinced of handling such a scene drew wider attention to him than any of these works have done. The drama of the struggle is heightened by the presence of the woman of Sorek, who, in treacherous glee, is shaking the shorn locks before the eyes of the betrayed man, as she shrinks in half-cowering attitude in a corner of the chamber. The picture is strong in colour and firm throughout, and the technique sound. It was purchased by Mr. James Harrison, and presented by him to the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, in 1887, as a Jubilee gift. Of gentler theme, the " Judgment of Paris " (96 X 66, 1 891) was a beautiful vision, approaching the decorative in character, but marked by an admirable fluency of line in the central figure, which, suavely modelled, stands nude before the large masses of blossom of a fruit-tree. 368 FAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. As an artist who excels in figure painting, and who has shown a distinct capacity in the art of painting the nude, exemplified in "Circe" (1893) or "The Sleep of the Gods" (1893), oi" earlier, in 1890, in " Vae Victis," Arthur Hacker has done good work ; but better is to come, for he is capable of much. His latter work is his best so far — the "Daphne" and "The Cloister or the World ? " — while his very latest utterance, highly imaginative in character, has in it a poetic ring in its terrible meaning which strikes at once home. Its very title is a knell, " And there was a great cry in Egypt." In no more impressive way — certainly not by the actual scene itself, so often depicted— could the death of the first-born be illus- trated. With drawn sword, the anger of the Almighty is personified by a dark red-clad figure, that sweeps over the land as over a city of desolation, " for there was not a house where there was not one dead." The low flat roofs against the darkened sky— habitations of the subjects of the stubborn Pharaoh— stand white and solitary, and the very simplicity of the conception adds to its worth and dignity. So easy would it have been to have strayed into the theatrical in such an idea as this, but its solemnity and the serious aim of the painter save it from any suggestion of that. In his examples of the nude, the "Syrinx" (75 X 23, 1892), now in the Man- chester Art Gallery, and the "Daphne" (73 X 27, 1895), are set more poetically perhaps than others ; the last-named is a graceful and beautiful rhythm of limb, the figure, standing among leaves by the water's edge with a cloud of diaphanous drapery about it, has a feeling and finish that add substantially to its charm. HENRIETTA RAE (MRS. NORMAND). 369 Not unlike the last-named painter is Henrietta Rae (Mrs. Normand), one of the most gifted and best trained of our lady- artists. "The Death of Procris " (54 x 78, 1889) disclosed an uncommon capacity for treating classic themes, and the touching story is illustrated as few save our best men could have rendered it. The true feeling in the stricken figure, fallen in its beautiful length within the wooded recess, delights the eye by its shape and the disposition of its drapery, and touches the heart by its agonized action. But over the whole canvas is no sign of neglect or haste ; the tree-trunks, the well delineated leaves, the broad airy glimpse of open land, and Cephalus breaking through the tangled branches, are alike finely arranged and finely painted. Mr. Woodiwiss, of Bath, is the owner of this, one of the painter's most successful works. Her distinct sense of grace expresses itself in more or less de gree in all she undertakes. At times the subjects are serious, as in the "Ophelia" (66 x 90, iS— ), bought by the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool ; but in works more simple, approaching the decorative, such as " Pets" (50 x 23, 1893), or " Flowers plucked and cast aside" (72 x 38, 1893), that charming touch of French feeling is seen, sufficiently good in its art to emancipate itself from the trivial, but yet possessed with that pretty meaning- lessness that allows the eye to dwell on it with pleasure but with no sense of exertion. Her presumably largest work, "Psyche before the Throne of Venus" (78 x 120, 1894), was a commission from Mr. George McCulloch, and one of her latest works, "Summer" (28 x 70, 1896), showed, if anything, an advance upon all her previous efforts, in the air of com- pleteness with which in idyllic aspect she could treat the human 47 37° PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN form — a chaste and sensitive rendering — even to the articulative fashioning of the fingers, and this denotes the true artist of patient, comprehensive mind, who in her work permits not even "the Httle rift within the lute," but finishes with a thoroughness that, so far as her style goes, satisfies and pleases. This classic ideal also embraces amongst its exponents Robert Fowler, of Liverpool, an ardent delineator of the human form who infuses into his work distinct poetic feeling associated frequently with some high and important meaning, as in his picture of " Eve, or the Voices " (30 X 70), which was acquired by the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. In his scheme of colour he is not so pleasing in this work as in many of his others, but the meaning he aims to convey compensates in part for this. The nude figure reclines on the flowered grass listening to the many voices that surround her, chief among which is that of the serpent that lies before her ; her countenance is repeated many times in the background, each repetition getting fainter as it grows more distant, but the image and likeness of the tangible recumbent figure -the mother of many Eves — is plainly discerned in each of them. " The Coming of Apollo " (120 X 60, 1896) emphasizes the painter's individuality, and it is much in these latter days to have individuality at all. Up to a certain point in theme and arrangement he bears re- semblance to other men in his work, but beyond this point he is himself only, and his independence is marked. The dis- position of the figures in the large work just mentioned shows an innate sense of grace, though expressed somewhat con- ventionally ; but in a later work, " Come, enchantment old, whose spells have stolen my spirit " (84 X 36), the expression / IF. GOniVARD—J. D JSATTEN— HERBERT J. DRAPER. 371 of the tender frame is free from conventionality, the daintiness and feeHng have a gentle spontaneity, and the tender embodiment of a thought is presented to the spectator with that most valuable of all attributes to works of this character, poetic touch. J. W. Godward, too, in his straightforward and clear delinea- tion of form so wholesomely academic in its workmanship, has uistanced his uncommon capacity in many examples, of which few are finer than the " Campaspe " of 1896. Good work also is J. D. Batten's, who well knows the effect at which he is aiming, and attains it by a very deliberate method. There is nothing indecisive, for example, cither in the desio-n or colour of " Danae " (36 x 36, 1892); the dark red garment blown by the wind and the huge limpid masses of deeply coloured water, on which the cradle seems each moment in jeopardy, deepen the classic element of the story, and it is noteworthy to observe what a sense of weight and power in its roll is gained by the painter taking the wave's crest above the line of the frame and thus emphasizing the vast and solid bulk. Firm in contour, and with a brilliancy of colour, is Herbert J. Draper's work, especially in that which has come more recently from his hand. "The Sea Maiden" of 1894, vigorous enough in action and cleverly composed in its various parts, was not wholly satisfactory, although its colour left little to be desired ; but in the dark blue waters against the lustrous flesh- painting in The Foam Sprite" (1897), a splendid example was seen of free dexterous handling and the perception of the values of colour. This, and the "Calypso's Isle" (1897), are an astonishing advance upon all his former works in vivid grace and completeness of pictorial effect. Etty in his best days 372 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. could scarcely do better in the depiction of the human form than is seen in the last-named picture ; a more experienced touch it may be, a greater fluency, as it were, of hue, might be discerned in Etty's work, the result of incessant application to the nude, but not a daintier, more delicate expression of the shape and living warmth of a woman's form. Many are the works too, boldly delineated, which have been carried through by the Hon. John Collier. Very ambitious are his designs, almost in their treatment approaching the scenic, but executed always with considerable power and dexterity. The large "Death of Cleopatra" (156 X 120, 1890), now in the gallery at Oldham, though not executed with the superb archaeological knowledge of a Tadema, is courageous in purpose and skilfully arranged in its pictorial effect. It was his " Last Voyage of Henry Hudson " (84 X 72) that was acquired in 1881 by the Chantrey Bequest Trustees, and it is well that this incident of Polar exploration has been placed so ably on record. 161 1 was the date when the great navigator made his last voyage ; his crew mutinied, and set him and his son adrift in an open boat with some of the infirm sailors, and nothing more was heard of them, The painter pictures the heroic man and the few occupants of the boat with much pathos. Comparatively scarce are the men who deal with poetical visions, such as we see exemplified in the work of the higher exponents of this class of work, as Rossetti, Sandys, and others ; but among the few Byam Shaw must have place. His poetic aim of interpretation is very welcome, and the best of him, it may presumably be said, is yet to come. It is very BYAM SHAW. 373 possible for the imagination to run wild until in its depiction of things it becomes involved, and to require too much of an effort on the beholder's part to trace its aims and meanings, as, for example, in the picture of "Whither?" (48 x 84, 1896); though when the imagination is more under control, and can divest itself of all thought of display, then the capacity of a man like Byam Shaw becomes valuable, and possibly of lasting effect in the region of art. A work of his (37 x 72, 1895) was taken from the pages of Rossetti's "Blessed Damozel." Here the concourse of figures in the rear certainly enhances the pictorial richness of the work, but it has the effect of disturbing the beautiful thought which the seated maidens serve to inspire in their interpretation of the exquisite lines — "Circlewise sit they, with bound locks And foreheads garlanded ; Into the fine cloth white like flame. Weaving the golden thread. To fashion the birth-robes for them Who are just born, being dead." One almost wishes the painter had been content to stay his hand at this singularly beautiful group, and to have quieted the background with the stems of trees and woody recesses, bringing into the work the solemnity for which their occupation would seem to call, instead of peopling it with the seventeen figures which, as may be said again, agitate although they beautify. Much may reasonably be expected from this painter, with his uncommon poetic outlook, and with his discernment also of the values of lines and colours. Sir Wyke Bayliss, and also the late Samuel Read, have both made reputations by their poetic treatment of architectural 374 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. form, as met with more particularly in the interiors of the great Continental cathedrals. Mrs. Dyson Perrins has perhaps the finest work of Samuel Read, entitled " Milan Cathedral " (44 X 32), in which all the intricacy of ornament is given, while at the same time the tender lights and shadows lose none of their delicate effect or force. One of the best of Wyke Bayliss's works is that entitled " The White Lady of Nurem- l^'J''g" (57 ^ 40)1 which was purchased by the Liverpool Corporation and is now in the Walker Art Gallery. The lights in this work are very dexterously focused, so that while one is conscious of the wealth of ornament that is abundantly and minutely given, the eye is in no way disturbed by it, but rests on the beautiful piece of sculpture which stands white and stately in the light with a sense of satisfaction, as of a thing complete, with no detracting effects of forced or untrue light, but, on the contrary, a gentle unity of tender shadows which, being true in themselves one to the other, exalt the central theme of the work. The poetic sentiment of this artist's work is but twin sister to his devotion to form, for the mystery of the detail which reveals itself through a dusky atmosphere is always based on well ascertained and laboriously studied fact, on which the individuality of the man dreams and ponders and works. This may also be said, but in less degree, because she is young and scarcely yet out of her studentship, of Miss Catherine Wells, who, in her water-colour drawings, more particularly those of Westminster Abbey, makes no attempt at display, or to trivially please the eye with some taking effect, but, while insistent on truth, as can be seen in the careful draughtsmanship, preserves that halo of romance which hangs CATHERINE WELLS. 375 about the ancient building, its time-worn stonework, its delicate traceries, and its tattered banners. That her effects have been hard to get and have required much diligence makes them all the more valuable as conscientious records, in which sentiment plays a conspicuous part. She has, it would seem, a future, if she will but take care and be patient. CHAPTER XVIII. The distinct phases of art that have manifested themselves in this country during the latter portion of the reign are numerous, and in noticing the more important of them and their chief exponents, one is mindful first of those who have endeavoured to depict scenes or people by their general or most striking characteristics, as they first impress the spectator, and we must point to Mr. J. M. Whistler as the prime originator of this phase, and still, at this present day, undoubtedly its most accomplished, as well as its most gifted, exponent. Among English painters several able men, but not many, with here and there unquestionable evidence of genius, and among Scotch- men others, known chiefly by the group who have identified themselves with Glasgow, have fallen into the rank of those whose natural proclivities have led them to express themselves in this particular way; but however variable they may be in individual aim, and even technical method, their outlook, their broad principles of art, are from the standpoint of Mr. Whistler. He may be said to have followed no one, unless it be the great Spanish master, whose robust technique and magnificent force and power of grouping he admittedly lacks ; but he puts forward as their substitute the tender grace, the evanescent thought, the long dwelt-on, perhaps in many instances even 375 /, M. WHISTLER. 377 laboured-over presentment of an impression. Examined techni- cally his work may not at first glance be satisfying, at any rate to the generality of persons, but it must be regarded entirely in conjunction with an appreciative acceptance of the mental strivings of the artist, for its merit lies not in the technical management of the colours, but in the mental vision that controls them, and that, indeed, without much heed of techni- calities. But instead of being held up to ridicule, as was undoubtedly his fate on the occasion when certain of his works were exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery twenty years ago, and by one who had proved, beyond other men, his power and insight as a critic, might not the painter's methods and aims have been more carefully inquired into, before so summary a judgment was passed, more especially since time has shown not only a sensitive and beautiful development of power on the painter's own part, but has brought forward a number of clever and academically trained followers, not to speak of a widening circle of advocates of his work and views among the intelligent and critical public ? In a work I saw of his quite recently, and then in an unfinished state, of the full-length portrait of a lady in a rose- coloured dress, the cold greys and cool greens and yellows of the celebrated "Miss Alexander" had given place to a subdued radiance of rose and violet, not necessary to follow in its form in order to appreciate its beauty, and possessing a dignity and imparting a feeling on which the eye, far from tiring, dwells with ever new revelations of what pleases and satisfies. The pale violet is brought up to the rose, with the most sensitive expression of unity, and while the full standing figure, modern 48 378 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. in costume, breathes of a still living person, it can claim an added charm in the similitude it has to an early master — a similitude not aimed at, we take it, as a separate attribute of the work, but manifesting itself as the natural result of his form of expression. Of no lines are we conscious, nor of the superior excellence of any particular part, but an impression is left, the essence, as it were, of the subject, of a kind that cannot be forgotten, and which could only exist from a performance of exceptional ability ; and in this the artist's whole mission, high and rare as it is, is fulfilled. The titles themselves of many of his pictures, whether portraits or otherwise, are interestingly original — Harmonies, Arrangements, Symphonies, An Orange Note, A Little Grey Note, and so forth. In the "Miss Alexander" (75x39), daughter of Mr. W. C. Alexander, of Campden Hill, by whose kind permission the painting is reproduced, no warm colours appear. The picture is a diversion of greys and faint greens and yellows, whose united effect has a further articulation by the presence, here and there, of almost pure black. Among his finest portraits is that of Sehor Sarasate, and the famous violinist is seen standing full length, facing the spectator, and in evening dress. Whistler's talent is represented now in the Luxem- bourg by the full-length seated portrait of his mother, and in the City of Glasgow Gallery by his celebrated picture of Thomas Carlyle, painted in 1877, in which the great sage is shown seated, in surroundings of severe simplicity, in accord, it may be taken, with the philosopher's austere outlook on life. Several of Whistler's paintings are in American collections. 3^8 P.ir.VTr.VC fV -^IfE nvEEN'S REIGN. in costume, l>reathes of a still living person, it can claim an added charm in the similitude it has to an early master — a similitude not aimed at, we take it, as a separate attribute of the work, but manifesting itself as the natural result of his form of expression. Of no lines are we conscious, nor of the superior excellence of any particular part, but an impression is left, the essence, as it were, of the subject, of a kind that cannot be forgotten, and which could only exist from a performance of exceptional ability ; and in this the artist's whole mission, high and rare as it is, is fulfilled. The titles themselves of many of his pictures, whether portraits or otherwise, are interestingly original — Harmonies, Arrangements, Symphonies, An Orange Note, A Little Grey Note, and so forth. In the "Miss Alexander" (75x39), daughter of Mr. W. C. Alexander, of Campden Hill, by whose kind permission the painting is reproduced, no warm colours appear. The picture is a diversion of greys and faint greens and yellows, whose united effect has a further articulation by the presence, here and there, of almost pure black. Among his finest portraits is that of Senor Sarasate, and the famous violinist is seen standing full length, facing the spectator, and in evening dress. Whistler's talent is represented now in the Luxem- bourg by the full-length seated portrait of his mother, and in the City of Glasgow Gallery by his celebrated picture of Thomas Carlyle, painted in 1877, in which the great sage is shown seated, in surroundings of severe simplicity, in accord, it may be taken, with the philosopher's austere outlook on life. Several of Whistler's paintings are in American collections, /. M. WHISTLER-JOHN LA VER Y. 379 and his etching in dry-point is a form of art which he has practised with the greatest success throughout his career. The influence of Whisder is seen with varying charm in the productions of Lavery, Guthrie, Greiffenhagen, McTaggart, Alexander Mann, and several others, whose natural instincts permit them, it would seem, to develop their talent in no other way. When applied to such themes as the old mythological story of "Ariadne" or to that romantic exploit in vivid colour "An Idyll," the individuality of the disciple expresses itself, and it is not easy to determine whether, if Whistler had never existed at all, such men as these would have remained silent in their particular spheres. Whistler certainly made their way easier for them, by himself encountering, years before they appeared, the brunt of that hostility which almost invariably awaits the advent of a new theory or a novel practice, so that their appearance before the public, though not hailed with unrestrained delight, was not without its welcome, and Lavery's "Ariadne" prompdy found a place in the well chosen collection of an Edinburgh gentleman, and Guthrie met with liberal patronage, followed quickly by academic honours in the Royal Scottish Academy, while Greiffenhagen's "Idyll" with equal promptitude was secured by those cautious purchasers the Art Gallery Committee of Liverpool, stimulated probably by the perception and insistence of its late chairman, Mr. Philip Rathbone, and is now in the Walker Art Gallery. The " Ariadne " (50 X 40), of which a reproduction is given by Mr. Strathern's kind permission, is an exceptional interpre- tation of the subject. A figure, dexterously modelled and nude, save for the film of white drapery that falls from the waist, 380 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN Stands with arm outstretched toward the deep blue of the /Egean, over which Theseus has been carried in his desertion of her. The harsh green of the coarse grass, the sea's azure, and the grey overcast sky, each help one another in the harmony with which they all sustain the passionately drawn and sensitively toned figure. The introduction of the leopard, the animal sacred to Dionysus, would of course more direcdy have identified the figure with that of Ariadne, and removed it altogether from "an interesting study of the nude," as some are prone to term it ; but given its tide it tells its story and realizes the painter's aim by leaving on the mind the impress of the passionate figure, the separating sea, the loneliness of Naxos. No scholarly exaltation of completed line or finished refinement in the fashioning of a limb must be looked for, such as we encounter in a Leighton or a Poynter ; but an ease of design, with a free and facile management of colour, that nevertheless knows where to stop, are the characteristics one meets in Lavery's work, and these are found in all his pro- ductions, portraits or ideal subjects, that bear the sincerity and individual enthusiasm of the " Ariadne." Greiffenhagen's "Idyll" (62x32) was a subject of un- doubted delicacy, for seldom has the passionate embrace, as he depicts it, been pictorially attempted. He attained first the face and expression of the girl, and then appears to have employed himself in perfecting the composition by graceful lines and by such varied and brilliant colouring as would serve to make yet more beautiful the spectacle of the human emotion of the scene. What added not a litde to the attractiveness of the work was its suggestion of spontaneity, as of a man who ,8o PAINTING IN THE QVEEX'S KIJu.s stands with arm outstretched toward the deep blue of the ^gean, over which Theseus has been carried in his desertion of her. The harsh green of the coarse grass, the sea's azure, and the grey overcast sky, each help one another in the harmony with which they all sustain the passionately drawn and sensitively toned figure. The introduction of the leopard, the animal sacred to Dionysus, would of course more directly have identified the figure with that of Ariadne, and removed it altogether from "an interesting study of the nude," as some are prone to term it ; but given its title it tells its story and realizes the painter's aim by leaving on the mind the impress of the passionate figure, the separating sea, the loneliness of Naxos. No scholarly exaltation of completed line or finished refinement in the fashioning of a limb must be looked for, such as we encounter in a Leighton or a Poynter ; but an ease of design, with a free and facile management of colour, that nevertheless knows where to stop, are the characteristics one meets in'Lavery's work, and these are found in all his pro- ductions, portraits or ideal subjects, that bear the sincerity and individual enthusiasm of the " Ariadne." Cxreiffenhagen's " Idyll " (62 x 32) was a subject of un- doubted delicacy, for seldom has the passionate embrace, as he depicts it, been pictorially attempted. He attained first the face and expression of the girl, and then appears to have employed himself in perfecting the composition by graceful lines and by such varied and brilliant colouring as would serve to make yet more beautiful the spectacle of the human emotion of the scene. What added not a litde to the attractiveness of the work was its suggestion of spontaneity, as of a man who MAURICE GREIFFENHAGEN. 381 must work off this final development of an idea iustanter, and have done, with it. Quick in actual execution and relying less upon the visible models about him than upon his inner per- ception of them, this " Idyll " of his disclosed a striking measure of independence and self-reliance which, curiously enough, has not been so successfully employed since, unless it be in the "Choice of Paris," exhibited at the Academy in 1896, and acquired for the public gallery of Sydney, New South Wales. The grace of the composition only can be estimated in the reproduction of this work, here given ; in colour it had a beauty that claimed a kinship with some of those great expressions of the later Venetian School. His "Eve" (69x27, 1893), owned now by Mr. George Woodiwiss, of Bath, had also much splendour of colour; the soft gloom, as of the inner woods, falls with skilful uniformity on the limbs and the dark auburn hair, and the deep blues against ripe red fruit will suggest the colour that animates the work. Of his portraits there are several. One of the most pleasing, possessing his characteristics at their best, was at the Academy in 1896, a seated figure in white, with broad black hat, entitled "Miss Mamie Bowles." The men who have identified themselves with that little Cornish village, Newlyn, represent another phase of painting, which, instituted some fifteen years ago by a talented few, has claimed many gifted disciples since. Here the vivid and simple study of nature, which had long been in vogue in France, was followed. Colour was not so much sought for as light, and the true depiction of this, whether it fell on the glittering sands, or penetrated, with infinite variety of tone and reflection, into 382 PAINTING IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN. cottage interiors, was sensitively but determinately striven for as the primary aim. Its advocates worked on in comparative obscurity, until that symphony in silver " A Fish Sale on the Cornish Coast" appeared in the Academy of 1885, from the hand of Mr. Stanhope Forbes. The modesty of truth is in this work ; and, in this seemingly simple record, light and the glorious effect of light is attained on sea, sky, and above all, on the fish that lie on the beach in the foreground. Of those working on these principles at that time at Newlyn were several of whom the world has since heard much : Frank Bramley, Walter Langley, Harry Tuke, Frank Brangwyn, T. C. Gotch, Chevallier Taylor, F. Millard, Mrs. Stanhope Forbes, B. A. Bateman, and others, distinct, all of them, from other English painters, and varying of course one from the other by reason of their individual character and oudook, but united in so far as their particular mode of expression was concerned. The chief inducement of making a spot like Newlyn their headquarters was, it is presumed, the opportunity it afforded of painting out of doors almost all the year round, and at the same time affording them no small amount of subject-matter among the honest sailor folk and their cottage home life, and in the aspects of coast and sea effects. The work we have mentioned must take precedence among the many examples executed of outdoor effects; its natural arrangement of things, its silvery sea and glistening sands, and its abundance of light, that brings with it into the picture the invigorating salt airs, are characteristics that claim for it an important place. Walter Langley's " Departure of the Fleet for the North " ■.V 7UE Q,ij£Ly S KEIGN. c.-uawr*- . sensitively but deterniinately striven for Its advocates worked on in comparative . ,ai symphony in silver "A Fish Sale on the •1 appeared in the Academy of 1885, from the • ir. Stanhope Forbes. The modesty of truth is in this and, in this seemingly simple record, light and the giorious effect of light is attained on se , sky, and above all, on the fish that lie on the beach in the foreground. Of those working on these principles at that time at Newlyn were several of whom the world has since heard much : Frank Bramley, Walter Langley, Harry Tuke, Frank Brangwyn, T. C. Gotch, Chevallier Taylor, F. Millard, Mrs. Stanhope Forbes, B. A. Bateman, and others, distinct, all of them, from other F.nglish painters, and varying of course one from the other by reason of their individual character and outlook, but united in so far as their particular mode of expression was concerned. The chief inducement of making a spot like Newlyn their head