L.r' wn Ti| j| r i " , ' r ' t 1 " i ' r i i i i i |i ii i ii i m i t-i|- i y i i| i |i ' n i'i|i' i| j n mh^ i fin i I Mm m mm I ART TEXT-BOOKS EDITED BY E.J.POYNTER.R.A % * 1 8 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING § IN ENGLAND BY GILBERT. R. REDG Si 7f to: ILLUSTRATED HAND-BOOKS OF ART EDITED BY EDWARD J. POYNTER, R.A.. AND OTHER WRITERS ON ART. WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. BY GILBERT R. REDGRAVE. ILLUSTRATED HAND-BOOKS OF ART. EDITED BY EDWARD J. POYNTER, R.A., AND OTHERS. Each in crown 8vo, cloth extra, per volume, 5s. PAINTING ; CLASSIC AND ITALIAN. By Edward J. Poynter, R.A., and Percy R. Head, B.A. Including Painting in Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Pompeii; the Renaissance in Italy ; Schools of Florence, Siena, Rome, Padua, Venice, Perugia, Ferrara, Parma, Naples, and Bologna. Illustrated with 80 En- gravings of many of the finest Pictures of Italy. GERMAN, FLEMISH, AND DUTCH. By H. J. Wilmot Buxton, M.A., and Edward J. Poynter, R.A. Including an account of the Works of Albrecht Diirer, Cranach, and Holbein ; Van Eyck, Van der Weyden, and Memlinc ; Rubens, Snyders, and Van Dyck ; Rembrandt, Hal-;, and Jan Steen ; Wynants, Ru-sdael, and Hobbema ; Cuyp, Potter, and Berchem ; Bakhuisen, Van de Velde, Van Huysum, and other celebrated Painters. Illustrated with 100 Engravings. SPANISH AND FRENCH. By Gerard Smith, Exeter Coll. Oxon Including the Lives of Ribera, Zurbaran, Velazquez, and Murillo : Pou < ft PQ o 3 DAVID COX JOHN LINNELL. 135 watery sun, when the shower and the sunshine chase each other over the land, have never been given with greater truth than by David Cox." He used at times a coarse straw paper, and on this he freely employed body-colour and scratched away the surface for high lights. It was in this manner that some of his largest and most important drawings such as the Welsh Funeral were produced. Respecting his choice of subjects, as we have pointed out in a memoir of this artist, he saw pictures on all sides, and could produce half-a-dozen sketches in a single field. " How slight is the subject of many of his most charming drawings ! A wide expanse of sky which we can almost fancy in motion; a grey undulating moorland whose colouring would seem to be indicated by one sweep of a well-filled pencil ; a few peasants according admirably in character with the landscape, and the whole so perfect that we feel that another touch would spoil it, and the least attempt to finish would destroy all the charms of its effect." Towards the close of his life Cox as we have stated painted much in oil, though his works in this medium were rarely seen in London. He still continued, however, to exhibit with the "Water-Colour Society. We have chosen to illustrate this artist's work a small sketch from the British Museum, Pont Aber, Wales. In the foreground is some rock work covered with heath, round which winds a road ; the back- ground has a glimpse of blue mountains. The handling is extremely sketchy, and it is difficult to say for what the figures are intended — a figure originally placed beside the pony (?) has apparently been sponged out. John Linnell, whose name is more famous for his works in oil than as a water-colour painter, was one of those to join 136 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. the reconstructed society. He was born in London in 1792. He studied art under Varley, and his first drawings were most probably in water-colours. During his early life he worked chiefly as a portrait-painter. It is interesting to note that when the final change excluding oil paintings from the exhibitions of the Oil and Water-Colour Society was made and Linnell resigned his membership, he withdrew his fourteenth share of the surplus fund, on the ground, as stated by Roget, " That the Society had altered their plans, so as to prevent him from continuing with them whilst following oil painting, his present branch of the art." After his severance from the Society he worked but little in water-colours, and was mainly employed for some years in copying at the National Gallery. He acquired a handsome fortune by his profession, and settled at Redhill, Surrey, where he died at the age of eighty-nine in 1882. Frederick Mackenzie, born 1787, was a pupil of Repton, the architect, and excelled in his drawings of Gothic architec- ture. He was one of the artists who took part in the recon- struction of the Water-Colour Society in 1812, but having given up his membership he was again elected an associate exhibitor in 1822, a member in 1823, and became the treasurer in 1831. He generally painted the interiors of cathedrals and churches with a few well-introduced figures subordinated to the architecture, and he published several treatises on drawing and painting, among which we may mention Etchings of Landscapes in 1812, and in conjunction with Pugin Specimens of Gothic Architecture in 1825, He was in constant employment for Ackermann's publications and he assisted Britton in many of his works. He died in 1854. We have reproduced a sketch by this artist of Antwerp ANTWERP CATHEDRAL. In the Print Boom, By Frederick Mackenzie. British Museum. JAMES HOLMES HENRY JOHN RICHTER. 139 Cathedral, which is little more than a delicate pencil outline slightly washed with sepia, but which serves to show the facile touch with which he indicated the details of Gothic architecture. James Holmes, born in 1777, was apprenticed to an engraver and subsequently adopted water-colour painting as his profes- sion. He delineated rustic subjects with much skill and humour and his works took the public fancy. His subject pictures were of a popular and, Roget says, even of a vulgar type, but he soon took to portrait painting, and as early as 1815 many of his contributions to the exhibitions of the Water-Colour Society were miniatures, the beauty of which speedily gained him fashionable sitters. Holmes was likewise a clever musician and gained the patronage of George IV., who delighted in his singing and playing. He is best known by his miniatures of the celebrities of his day. In the latter part of his life he retired into Shropshire, where he died February 24, 1860. Henry John Richter was of German extraction, and painted figure subjects chiefly of a domestic character. He belonged in the first instance, as we have seen, to the Associated Artists, of which Society he was for a time the president. His connection with the Water-Colour Society was of an extremely uncertain nature ; he appears to have resigned his membership, shortly after election in 1813 and to have become a member again in 1821. In the interval he remained an occasional exhibitor. He, however, again resigned his membership and in 1823 was an "associate exhibitor," in 1825 a member, and in 1828, having the year before again resigned, he is an " associate." This was not the last change, but we cannot record all the fluctuations in his position. His pictures were very popular in their day and many of them 140 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. were engraved. One of his works, Christ giving Sight to the Blind was purchased by the Directors of the British Institu- tion for five hundred guineas. Richter was of a philosophic temperament ; he published a work with a strange title, on the philosophy of the Fine Arts in 1817, and at the time of his death he was engaged in the translation of a work on Metaphysics by Beck. He died in Marylebone in 1857, aged eighty-five. Harriet Gouldsmith, also a member of the Water-Colour Society on its reconstruction, was a constant contributor of landscapes until 1820. Her drawings w r ere pleasing and w r ell- esteemed, she was likewise an expert etcher and she drew on stone for Hullmandel. After her marriage with Captain Arnold, about 1839, she continued to exhibit in her married name. Mrs. Arnold's death took place at the age of 76 in 1863. Henry C. Allport after exhibiting for some years with the Water-Colour Society and at the Academy was, as already stated, on the retirement of Glover, elected a member in 1818. He painted landscape scenery with great delicacy and a high degree of finish. Some of his later subjects were from places in Italy. He ceased to exhibit in 1823, when according to Dr. Percy he is reported to have gone into the wine trade. Iloget adds — " His surname was one to give colour to the rumour." A few of the names found in the catalogues of the Oil and Water-Colour Exhibitions are those of artists who painted solely in the former medium and who do not therefore enter the scope of the present work. Some of them attained the rank of Associates in the Society, but are lost sight of when the original intention to exclude oil paintings was reverted to in 1821. CHAPTER X. Richard Parkes Boning ton — Francois LLuet-Villiers — Samuel Owen — Francois Louis Thomas Francia — Andrew Robert- son — William Wood — Walter Henry Watts — Thomas Barker (of Bath) — John Laporte — James Green — Mary Green — Andrew Wilson — William Walker — Thomas Rowlandson — Henry Edridge — Luke Clennell — John Sell Cotman — George Vincent. We have hitherto dealt mainly with the careers of those artists who threw in their lot with the Old Water-Colour Society, and have thus left unnoticed several eminent men who practised the art about this date, but who either exhibited at the Academy or joined one of the rival societies to which we have referred. Foremost among this group we must place Richard Parkes Bonington, who was endowed with talents which his early death prevented him from exercising to their best advantage- He was born at Arnold, near Nottingham, October 25, 1801. His father was the governor of the county gaol, but lost his appointment and struggled to maintain his family by portrait- painting. In consequence of failing fortunes the family fled to France and made their way to Paris. Here young Boning- ton studied in the Louvre, and becoming a pupil of the 142 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. Institute, drew in the atelier of Baron Gros. It is somewhat difficult to account for the quality of his art from this French training, but Mr. Monkhouse points out that it was doubtless from Francia, who had studied water-colour painting in England, and who associated with Girtin and Turner at Dr. Monro's, that he gained his grand and impressive manner of viewing Nature. About 1822 he went to Italy, and under the influence of its sunny skies he produced some w T orks which attracted much notice. On his return to Paris his art was greatly admired, and some pictures which he sent to London received in this country the cordial recognition due to their high merit. His works were now much esteemed in both capitals, and he obtained many commissions. As early as 1822 he had exhibited at the Paris Salon and obtained a premium from the Societe des Amis des Arts. While impru- dently sketching in the sun in Paris he brought on an attack of brain fever and subsequent severe illness, upon which rapid consumption supervened. He came for advice and treatment to London, but without avail, and died September 23, 1828. His art was strikingly original, large and grand in manner like that of David Roberts, but his colouring was more truth- ful and his masses of light and shade were broad and simple. It is well said of him in the Century of Painters, that in his work he united the best features of the methods of execution of the French and English schools. His works since his death have increased amazingly in popular estimation. In 1870 one of his pictures, Henry III. and the Ambassador, was sold in Paris for £3,320, and at the Novar sale two of his pictures fetched £3,500 a-piece. This sale took place at Christie's in 1878. Francois Huet- Villi ers, the son of an animal painter, SAMUEL OWEN — FRANCOIS LOUIS THOMAS FRANCIA. 145 born in Paris, came to England at the outbreak of the French revolution as a refugee and practised chiefly as a portrait- painter. He was very successful in his miniatures, and was perhaps one of the best known men belonging to the Asso- ciated Artists in Water-Colours founded in 1808. He made some drawings of Westminster Abbey, which were after- wards published. He exhibited chiefly at the Royal Academy, and was appointed miniature-painter to the Duchess of York. Villiers died July 28, 1813, aged 41. Samuel Owen, who was born in 1768, likewise became a member of the Society of Associated Artists. He appears to have confined himself to marine subjects, which he painted very carefully and with a high degree of finish. His works possess also much charm of colour ; the shipping is accurately drawn and well introduced. His illustrations to Bernard Cooke's book of The Thames, 83 in number, have great merit. We represent his art by a study entitled Dutch Vessels and Boats, which forms part of the Historical Collection at South Kensington. There is a breezy motion about this little picture which lovers of the sea will appreciate. The wind fills the sails and the shipping rides well in a rough sea. Owen died at an advanced age at Sunbury on Thames, December 8, 1857. Another French painter of note, Francois Louis Thomas Francia, settled in England and exhibited with the Associated Artists. He was born at Calais in 1772 and came to London while very young. We hear of him towards the close of the century at the house of Dr. Monro. He sent a picture to the Royal Academy as early as 1795, and contributed regularly to the annual exhibitions until 1821. He returned to France about 1816 and resided at Calais until his death which took place in 1839. Francia did not confine himself to marine sub- L 146 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. jects, though he excelled in this branch of art. He had a great feeling for colour, and his drawings possess much power and breadth of treatment, resembling in some respects the works of Girtin. He is said to have made many drawings for the Duchess of York, having been appointed " painter in water-colours " to H.R. Highness. He published in 1810 Studies of Landscapes, imitated from the originals by L. Francia, and four Marine Studies by him were published by Messrs. Rod well and Martin, of New Bond Street, in 1822. He was in considerable repute as a drawing-master. Andrew Robertson, the secretary of the Society of Associated Artists, was the son of a cabinet-maker in Aberdeen, and was born October 14, 1777. He was for two years a pupil of Alexander Nasmyth, and took his M.A. degree at Aberdeen University in 1794. In 1801 he came to London and attracted the notice of West, who sat to him for his portrait. After studying in the schools of the Royal Academy he made great progress as a portrait-painter and gained many distinguished sitters. His miniatures, which were his best works, were well finished but were somewhat too powerful in colour. Robertson was an accomplished musician, and was throughout life actively engaged in the management of several charitable institutions with which he was connected. He died at Hampstead, December 6, 1845. William Wood, likewise a miniature-painter, took a promin- ent part in the establishment of the Society of Associated Artists in Water-Colours and became its first president. His works were greatly appreciated for their pleasant colouring and fidelity of drawing. He is credited with many improvements in the stability of the pigments used for painting on ivory, and he was distinguished as a landscape gardener* Wood published WATTS — BARKER — LAPORTE GREEN. 147 in 1808 An Essay on National and Sepulchral Monuments. He died at his house in Golden Square, November 15, 1809, at the early age of 41. Walter Henry Watts, a third miniature painter, is found in the ranks of the Associated Artists in 1808, and he after- wards contributed frequently to the Royal Academy until 1830. We have no record of the date of his death. Thomas Barker (known as Barker of Bath) was born in 1769 near Pontypool, Monmouthshire, and was the son of an artist who excelled in his drawings of animals. He showed in early years a considerable talent for art, and was enabled by a friend to visit Italy. He contributed on his return many rustic subjects to the London galleries, and some of his groups w T ere reproduced on china and textile fabrics and became very popular. One of his pictures, The Woodman, was sold for five hundred guineas. All his principal works appear to have been painted in oil. He also published some of his sketches as Rustic Figures after Nature, and he drew on the stone a series of lithographic illustrations. He died at Bath, "De- cember 11, 1847. John Laporte, who was one of the masters at the Military Academy at Addiscombe, contributed many landscapes in water-colours to the Academy exhibitions, and was a member of the Society of Associated Artists. He died in London in his 78th year, July 8, 1839. He published in 1799 Characters of Trees, probably for teaching purposes, and Progressive Lessons sketched from Nature. He had a large and fashionable connection as a teacher. James Green, as also his wife, Mrs. Mary Green, belonged to the Society of Associated Artists in Water- Colours. He was the son of a builder at Leytonstone, and was born in 1771, L 2 148 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND, his wife, the daughter of the well-known engraver, W. Byrne, was borne in 1776. Green was early distinguished for his water-colour portraits, but he subsequently painted chiefly in oil, and exhibited at the Royal Academy. He died at Bath in 1834. Mrs. Green was eminent as a miniature painter ; she was a pupil of Arlaud, and also was a frequent exhibitor at the Academy. She died in 1845. Andrew Wilson, born in Edinburgh in 1780, was a pupil of Alexander Nasmyth. He subsequently proceeded to Italy where he was employed to collect works by the old masters. He remained for some years at Genoa, and on his return to London in 1806 he took up water-colour painting, and ex- hibited with the Associated Artists of which he was a member. He afterwards became a master at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, but he resigned in 1818 and returned to Edin- burgh. His inclinations, however, led him to pay frequent visits to Italy, during which he painted many fine pictures which were agreeably composed and highly finished in trans- parent colours. He died after a paralytic stroke in 1848. William Walker, born July 8, 1780, at Hackney, was a pupil of Robert Smirke, and in 1813 he was sent to Greece to make drawings of its architecture and antiquities. Some of these were published on his return. He joined the Associated Artists, but subsequently became an associate exhibitor of the Water-Col our Society, and remained in this rank until 1846. His works were generally marine subjects, many of them taken from the shores of the Mediterranean. Towards the close of his career he painted in oil, and sent pictures to the Royal Academy. He died at Sawbridgeworth, September 2, 1868. It is scarcely possible to trace the lives of the less well-known PORTRAIT OF GEORGE MORLAND. By Thomas Rowlandson. In the Print Boom, British Museum. THOMAS ROWLANDSON. 151 painters of this period, and the mere enumeration of their names would be wearisome. Some of them, who at first stood aloof from the Water-Colour Society, were willing to participate in its success when it became securely established at Pall Mall, and not a few of them continued to send their works to the Royal Academy. Somewhat of a free lance among the artists but a notable figure in his day was Thomas Rowlandson, the caricaturist, who was the son of a London tradesman, and was born in 1756. He studied drawing in the schools of the Royal Academy and subsequently in Paris, and drew the figure with knowledge and freedom. In consequence of the failure of his father's business he was compelled to maintain himself at an early age, and but for the assistance of an aunt he would have been reduced to great straits, for he was careless and dissipated. On the death of this aunt, he inherited a considerable fortune, which he squandered in a few years on the gaming table and had again to take up art for his support. He now turned his attention to caricature in which he had excelled in his school clays, and for many years worked incessantly for Ackermann and other publishers. He drew with great rapidity in a style replete with humour but not free from vulgarity and coarseness. It suited in every respect the tastes of the day, and his works are an accurate reflex of the tone of society at the close of the last century. Rowlandson was formed for better things and could when he was so minded draw with much grace and refine- ment. Some of his early portraits are excellent. We have chosen a slight sketch of George Morland which will show the freedom of his touch and recall the features of another unfortu- nate but talented artist. Rowlandson died in the Aclelphi, April 22, 1827. 152 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. The school of caricaturists at the close of the last century had a busy time of it to supply the popular demand for their wares, and in those days, before the advent of the comic and other illustrated papers, there seems to have been an unlimited sale for the rudely-coloured broadsheets with etched outlines, designed by Bunbury, Rowlandson, and their contemporaries. Many of the productions were of a very coarse and obscene character, though the best known men did not generally lend themselves to this class of work. The art of caricature, even at its most debased period, had some considerable share in directing public opinion to the fine arts. This seems a fitting place to introduce a notice of Henry Edridge, A.R.A., who was greatly distinguished as a minia- ture-painter, but obtained Academy honours late in life chiefly in consequence of his clever landscapes. He was born in 1768, and was the son of a tradesman in Westminster, who dying left his family in struggling circumstances. At the age of fourteen, Edridge was articled to Pether, the engraver, and he subse- quently studied in the schools of the Royal Academy. After gaining the silver medal in 1786 he gave up engraving and established himself as a portrait-painter, working at first chiefly in black-lead pencil or Indian ink, but ultimately finishing the face in water-colours. He had a great fondness for landscape painting, which he appears to have practised rather for his diversion and during absences from home. In the Somerset House Gazette he is said to have "occasionally relaxed from his ostensible graphic labours in the more amusing pursuits of landscape." In the course of some visits to France in 1817 and 1819 he made many picturesque sketches which when exhibited at the Academy in 1820 were much noticed and gained him the associateship. Some of these landscapes were LUKE CLENNELL 155 highly praised by contemporary writers, though such of his works as we have seen are somewhat slight and sketchy in style. Edridge died soon after his election on April 23, 1821, chiefly owing to the shock produced by the loss of his two children. He was buried by his friend, Dr. Monro, at Bushey. Our illustration of Singer's Farm, near Bushey, which is dated 1811, is a charming specimen of his simple and natural treat- ment of rustic subjects. This drawing forms part of the British Museum collection. Luke Clennell, the son of a farmer near Morpeth, was born at Ulgham, April 8, 1781. He was at first appren- ticed to a grocer, but his friends yielding to his love of art, allowed him to become a pupil of Bewick, after having been for a short time in the interval with a tanner. He made rapid progress in wood-engraving, learned to draw correctly on the wood and was occupied with the designs of his fellow- pupil Johnson. In 1804 he came to London and found full employment and carried off the gold medal of the Society of Arts for his engraving of the Diploma of the Highland Society from the designs of West. Having gained the highest honours in his art, he determined about this time to abandon it for water-colour painting, in which he had already attained con- siderable proficiency. He sent several works to the Water- Colour Exhibition, and in 1814 was commissioned by the Earl of Bridgewater to paint a large picture in commemoration of the dinner to the Allied Sovereigns at the Guildhall. It is thought that owing to the worry and anxiety caused in col- lecting the portraits for the work, he lost his reason. He spent several years in an asylum and lapsed ultimately into harmless imbecility. The latter years of his life were passed among his friends in Newcastle, where he died Feb. 9, 1840. 156 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. He had much talent as a landscape-painter, and excelled in the depiction of rustic scenes which are true to nature and pleasant in colouring. We here reproduce a little sketch by him entitled Newcastle Ferry, from the Print Room of the British Museum, probably one of his early works. In the account of the lives of the artists of this period we constantly find how the best men gravitated to London ; but there arose in several provincial towns about this time art societies, some of which attained to considerable importance. Among these local schools we must assign a prominent place to that of Norwich, which under Crome and his pupils deserves a high rank in the history of English art. Crome was a painter whose merit was scarcely understood during his lifetime, and his reputation has increased rather than diminished by efflux of time. John Sell Cotman was a most distinguished member of the Norwich school, who belongs undoubtedly to the ranks of the water-colour painters though he was a skilful etcher and produced many fine pictures in oil. He was the son of a linen- draper at Norwich, and was born June 11, 1782. He was originally intended for his father's business, but his inclina- tions for art proved too strong for him and he came to London to study, and soon joined the group to which we have so often alluded who met at the house of Dr. Monro. In his early days in London he seems to have worked now and then for Britton, and in 1800 he received the Honorary Palette from the Society of Arts for a drawing. He returned to Norwich in 1806 and in 1807 became the Secretary of the Norwich Society of Artists founded by Crome. In 1809 he married the daughter of a farmer at Felbrigge near Cromer, and in 1811, while still living at Norwich, he became the President of the JOHN SELL COTM A.N. 159 local Society. He was then much engaged on topographical work, and he instituted a sort of circulating library of drawings for the use of his pupils, on a payment of one guinea per quarter as a subscription. This idea seems not unworthy of revival at the present clay. He began life as a portrait- painter, but from and after 1811 he seems to have been principally engaged upon the etchings for his numerous pub- lications. He joined the Associated Artists in 1810, but only exhibited with them on one occasion. In 1812 he removed to Southtown, a suburb of Yarmouth, at the instance of Mr. Dawson Turner, the antiquary. From this period onwards, though he was much in request as a teacher, he produced his famous Norfolk etchings entitled, Specimens of the Architectural Antiquities of Norfolk and his Engravings of the Sepulchral Brasses of Norfolk and Suffolk. In 1817 he visited France, and the outcome of this and subsequent journeys was The Architectural Antiquities of Normandy, published in 1822. In 1825 he was elected an associate exhibitor of the Water- Colour Society, and became a constant contributor to their exhibitions, still residing in Norfolk. On his appointment as drawing-master to King's College School, in 1834, he came to London, where he remained until his death, which occurred in 1842. He was skilful in his treatment of his sub- jects, many of which were taken from the barges and shipping of the Norfolk, rivers and the fishing boats of Yarmouth where he spent so much of his early life, and his landscape compositions were admirably arranged. His prevailing colour is apt to be hot, and he was careless about the completion of his sketches. He frequently outlined the details with a reed pen, and was particularly happy in the choice of his figures and in the architectural features of his drawings. A sketch 160 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. in the Historical Collection at South Kensington, The Wind- mill, will give an excellent idea of the tones of colouring he affected and of the broad and massive rendering adopted in his best works. George Vincent was the son of a weaver and was born at Norwich, June 27, 1796. He studied under " Old Crome," and was a frequent contributor to the Norwich Exhibitions. He came to London about 1818, where he experienced many diffi- culties and vicissitudes, and though at first working chiefly in water-colours and exhibiting for some years with the old Water-Colour Society, he ultimately painted chiefly in oil. The date of his death is uncertain, but it probably took place about 1831. He has been claimed as the last member of the " Norwich School." THE WINDMILL. By John Sell Cotman. In the South Kensington Museum. CHAPTER XI. George Fennell Robson — James Stephanoff — Francis Philip Stephanojf — Samuel Front — Opening of the Gallery in Pall Mall Fast — William Henry Hunt. During the interval that elapsed between the reconstruction of the Water-Col our Society and its establishment in Pall Mall, the beginning of what we have termed the later period of water-colour painting, the ranks of its members were re- inforced by several artists of well-deserved reputation, and taking these in the order of their election we may now treat of the life and activity of George Fennell Robson, the eldest of a family of twenty-five children, who was born at Durham, October 4, 1788. Even in his school days he evinced a great fondness for art, and at sixteen he came to London and earned his living as an artist. In 1808 the profits obtained by him on his drawing entitled A View of Durham, which he published, furnished the requisite funds for a journey to Scotland, where he spent many weeks in persevering study. His Scotch sketches were, some of them, published by him under the title of Outlines of the Grampians. He exhibited from 1807 onwards at the Academy, and after contributing to the Water-Colour Exhibition as an outsider in vi 2 164 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 1813 he was elected a member in the following year. Through- out his life he remained one of the most active supporters of the Society, of which he was the president in 1820. It was owing to the action of Robson that the rooms in Pall Mall were secured for the exhibitions, and he was one of the most energetic of the members, sending no less than 653 drawings during the nineteen years following his election. For some time he lived in the same house with Hills and the two friends painted many of their works in concert. During a trip on a fishing smack to the north of England, in 1833, he was taken violently ill, landed at Stockton-upon-Tees, and died a few days afterwards at his house in Golden Square, aged only 45. He himself believed that his death was due to poison. The art of Robson was founded on a sincere admiration of the beauties of our native scenery, of which he was an apt and truthful interpreter. He excelled in his delineations of mountain landscapes, and caught in a manner peculiar to himself the richness and glow of luminous mists and sunshine. He was a fine colourist, and dying at the time he did was a distinct loss to the English school. He was at one time commissioned by Mrs. Haldimand to form a representative collection of water-colour drawings for an album. He got together for this purpose one hundred works which were exhibited in the Gallery, and sold after that lady's death for £1,500 by Messrs. Christie. We represent his work by a drawing of Durham Cathedral, the property of Mrs. R. Redgrave. A landscape entitled Durham — Evening realized £282 105. in the Allnut sale in 1886. James Stephanoff, who had for some years contributed to the exhibition, became a member of the Society in 1819. He was the son of a Russian painter, who settled in London about 1788> o Xfl w o P3 ft w EH o ft? w A o 5^ JAMES STEPHANOFF SAMUEL PROUT. 167 the date of the birth of his son, but shortly afterwards com- mitted suicide. Young Stephanoff, who was one of two artist brothers, between whom it is not always easy to distinguish, began at an early age to practise art, and from 1810 to 1845 frequently exhibited at the Royal Academy. He painted both in oil and water-colours and made several of the drawings, as already stated, for Pyne's work on the Royal Palaces. There is a large collection of his drawings at South Kensington, representing the Coronation of George IY. He was appointed Historical Painter in Ordinary to H.M. King William IY. He had a good feeling for colour and a facile touch. His works though popular were not of a high class. They were, how- ever, admirably adapted for coloured illustrations, and in this branch of art he excelled. He produced a series of historical drawings, The Field of the Cloth of Gold, perhaps his most ambitious work. After 1860, owing to increasing infirmity, Stephanoff ceased to exhibit, and his death took place at Bristol, in 1874, at the age of 86. His brother, Francis Philip Stephanoff, died at West Hanham, in Gloucestershire, May 15, 1860. Next in order of election was Samuel Prout, who was born at Plymouth, September 17, 1783. Early in life he was smitten with a sunstroke, from the effects of which he never wholly recovered. He was encouraged in his art proclivities by Dr. Bidlake, the master of the Plymouth Grammar School, where he was educated, and had as a fellow pupil the ill- fated B. R. Hay don. In 1801, when he had already gained some insight into drawing, he made the acquaintance of Britton and accompanied him into Cornwall. His first attempts at sketching were very discouraging ; but on his return he sent Mr. Britton some drawings which showed such a marked improvement that he received an invitation to 168 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. London to reside with Britton, and to help him in his work. Here he remained for about two years, but in 1805 he returned to Plymouth in consequence of ill-health. For some years he painted the scenery of his native county, and in 1810 he ex- hibited with the Associated Artists, and subsequently at the Royal Academy. In 1811 we find him back in London, where he resided at Stockwell, and remained there for a long period. He became an exhibitor in 1815 with the Water-Colour Society, and in 1820 was elected a member. About this time he was much employed as a teacher, and published some of his studies. He also put his theories upon paper, and issued several small treatises on landscape painting. Rudiments of Landscape, in 1813, ^4 New Dravring Booh, in 1819, and Easy Lessons in Landscape Drawing, in 1820, all of these publica- tions being in the nature of copies for students. Some of the illustrations were soft ground etchings executed by himself. His first works were mostly produced with a view to aid him in his teaching as he had a large and fashionable connec- tion. His earliest visit to the Continent took place in 1819, and he found his chief success in sketching the pic- turesque houses and market-places of Normandy and the north of France. His work with Britton had given him a taste for architectural studies, but though he realized the grandeur and magnificence of the Gothic cathedrals on the Continent he did not pay sufficient attention to accuracy in his details. Some of his critics have objected to the warm shadows he affected, which were obtained by tinting over brown. This practice proved in many of his drawings a real defect, render- ing them foxy and untrue to nature, for the artist must rely on his shadows for the cool grey tints in his work. Prout's sketches are chiefly remarkable for the groups of peasants and countrywomen in their bright costumes, and for the SAMUEL PROUT. 169 boldly-drawn architectural features, frequently put in with a broad-pointed pen. Poget points out that Edridge shares with Prout the merit of having brought into prominence the picturesque aspects of foreign buildings-, but Edridge did not visit France until quite the end of his career, and he made his fame, as we have seen, as a miniature painter. Later in life Prout extended his tours to Germany and Italy, and published many of his sketches in lithography. For a while the art of Prout was in great request in the schools of this country for copies, and his free and graceful studies of continental buildings doubtless fostered the love of our countrymen for foreign travel. In early life he painted marine subjects with considerable power, and though his success in depicting the scenery he observed abroad turned his thoughts into another channel, he from time to time produced some fine sea pictures. He was highly esteemed both as artist and teacher in his clay, and his works will not fail to charm future generations by their originality and the freedom of their execution. Towards the close of his career, Prout's health failed, and he had for a time to reside at Hastings. However, in 1845, he was back again in London painting small works, rather, we fear, as pot-boilers, for his charge to dealers varied from five to ten guineas. Poor Prout, after long years of suffering, died of apoplexy in February, 1852, at the age of 68. His drawings were sold at Sotheby & Wilkinson's later in the same year, and realized £1,788. One of his best works, the Nuremburg, was sold in 1868 for £1,002 15s. Poget tells us that Prout " had a regular mechanical system in preparing his drawings, laying them in in sepia or brown and grey, the outlines gone over with a pen, in which a warm brown colour was used. His system was evidently founded on the practice of the early water-colour painters, only substituting brown for the Indian 170 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. ink used by the early draughtsmen in the foregrounds of their drawings. His brown and grey he kept in bottles in a liquid state." We are enabled to represent him by a most charac- teristic drawing from the Historical Collection at South Ken- sington, the Porch of Ratisbon Cathedral, the gift of Mrs. Ellison — a grand example of Gothic architecture filled with devotional figures, while in the market-place beyond we catch a glimpse of the busy life of a German city, drawn in his happiest style. The pen has been freely used in the outlines, and the colouring is rich and effective. We have now followed the fortunes of the Water-Colour Society, and chronicled the accessions to its ranks down to the time of the removal to Pall Mall. Shortly before this period the gallery was closed to all works not painted in water- colours, and the members withdrew the privilege hitherto conceded to outsiders of exhibiting with the Society. The wisdom of this change soon became apparent ; their exhibition gained in popularity, and several of their earlier members returned to them, notably Hills, De Wint, and Havell. Yery shortly after they took possession of their new gallery, which ushers in what we have termed the later period of water-colour painting, they acquired in the person of William Henry Hunt a strong addition to their ranks. Hunt was born in Old Belton Street, now Endell Street, Long Acre, in 1790. His father was a tinplate worker, and he is said to have been strongly averse to the boy's desire to study art, but he ultimately gave way and bound his son in apprenticeship to John Yarley. Mixing with the rising artists in Yarley's house, and availing himself of the hospitality of Dr. Monro, Hunt made rapid progress, and at seventeen years of age became an exhibitor at the Academy. While staying with Dr. Monro near Bushey, he became known to the Earl of Essex and was THE PORCH, RATISBON CATHEDRAL. By Samuel Prout. In the South Kensington Museum. W. H. HUNT. 173 invited by him to paint at Cashiobury Park. At this date young Hunt was working chiefly in oil, and though as early as 1814 he was an exhibitor at the gallery of the Water-Colour Society, it is most likely that the pictures then contributed by him were in oil. We learn from Roget that when Hunt first became a candidate for election into the Old Water-Colour Society in 1823 he was rejected, and that it was due to the per- suasion of Robson that he was induced to try a second time, when he was successful. From the date of his election in 1824 until his death he was a constant exhibitor, sending as one of his latest drawings his own portrait. In his earlier years he contributed landscape subjects only, but it was as a painter of rustic figures that he first became known among his brethren of the Water-Colour Society. He affected studies of poachers, gardeners, and gamekeepers, and later — drawings of game, flowers, and fruit. Some of the most successful of the works of his earlier period were candle-light effects. He was very fond of the seaside and of subjects suggested there, and for thirty years in succession he is said to have visited Hastings. Roget describes his maturer works as those in which the " humorous element became conspicuous," his school-boy studies, &c. Towards the close of his career he was incessantly engaged upon smaller and more minute drawings of flowers, fruit, and birds. For many years he resided at Hastings, but he died in London of a fit of apoplexy in 1864. The works of Hunt illustrate a remarkable change in the practice of water-colour painting— the return to the use of body colour and opaque pigments. We have seen that some of the most eminent painters of the early part of the century eschewed the use of white, and obtained all their effects by means of transparent colour, making the white ground when required serve for the high lights. Hunt began to paint when 174 WATER COLOUR PATNTTNO TN ENGLAND. the use of transparent colours was still in full force, but he soon found the facilities in execution afforded by semi-opaque pigments, and in later life he relied upon them more and more for certain classes of effects, notably the bloom on his fruit and the bright touches in his flower subjects. He combined the tints of transparent and opaque colour with great delicacy and skill, and he often made use of the knife with consummate ability. His best works are wonderful examples of technical executive power, and it has been observed of him in the Century of Painters, that "even his objects of still life were raised almost to the dignity of fine art by the taste with which he rendered them." He drew the figure with much success, and his rustic groups were humorous and well chosen. We represent his art by a work in the Historical Collection at South Kensington, The Monk, which serves as our frontispiece, a finely modelled head in which body colour is freely used, though the grey hairs have been largely produced by the point of the penknife. We have here regarded Hunt as the exponent of the changed methods of painting which have sprung up among the artists of the modern school, and few will deny that the influence of his example was of paramount importance in this respect. White was doubtless at first used, as De Wint used it, for touches of high light, but when the artist was placed in posses- sion of a white pigment upon which he could rely, and which would mix well with his other colours, he used it in his skies, in his distances to give the sense of mist and air tint, in his figures and cattle, when added subsequently as these accessories so often are, and wherever he required sharp and well-defined forms in his work. As we shall see subsequently the process of working in opaque colours in the hands of certain artists of recent times led to the use of coloured paper and to the almost total suppression of transparent colours. CHAPTER XII. The New Society of Painters in Water -Colours —The Dudley Gallery — William Andrews Nesfield — Henry Gastineau — Francis Oliver Finch- — John Masey Wright — John Whichelo—Penry Williams — Alexander Chisholm— Richard Hamilton Essex — John Britton, F.S.A. — Charles Wild — James Sargant Storer — Henry Shaw, F.S.A. — David Roberts, R.A. The rise and progress of the new school, the success of many of the leading water-colour painters as teachers, and the great stimulus that was given about this time to art work generally, speedily led to the demand for increased facilities for exhibition. For many years the Old Water-Colour Society, as we shall in future term the original body, had admitted outsiders to their gallery, and this privilege was conferred annually on some fifty or sixty artists. After 1821 they restricted their exhibition, as we have already mentioned, to the works of their own members. The available space at the Eoyal Academy for water-colour drawings still remained a very limited one, and as the artists outside the ranks of the society grew in numbers and gained in influence, a time arrived when the provision of another gallery seemed to have become a matter of impera- 176 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. tive necessity. A meeting of artists was convened and steps were taken to form a new society, " not necessarily," as we are told, "in rivalry and opposition to the existing body, but in the interests of their own art, as essential to the sale of their pictures, and indeed in self defence." The outcome of this movement was the establishment of the New Society of Water-Colour Painters, which w^as founded in 1831, and held its first exhibition in Exeter Hall, Strand, in the following year. The chief difficulty en- countered in launching this new scheme seems to have been the financial one. This was temporarily met by levying a contribution from each member, and the amount thus provided, aided by some donations and annual subscriptions, proved sufficient for the very modest requirements of the undertaking. It was also found possible to raise by the same means a small prize fund, and this proved a valuable incentive in attracting works to their gallery. In 1833, in order probably to avoid any appearance of clashing with the original society, the title of the younger body was altered to " The Associated Painters in Water- Colours." In the first instance the gallery was freely opened to outsiders, subject to the verdict of a committee of selection. But this plan had its drawbacks, for the non-members, while they enjoyed all the advantages of the exhibition, took no share in the pecuniary liabilities, and as early as 1834 the expenditure exceeded the receipts. In the following year therefore the society determined to receive only the works of its own members with the addition of four outsiders, whom they elected as "Exhibitors." A move was made in 1838 to No. 38 Pall Mall, and here in time the society became firmly established and erected for itself the excellent gallery which 177 it occupied until 1883, when the amalgamation with the Dudley Gallery took place. The number of members, which on the reconstruction of the society in 1835 was fixed at twenty-eight, was gradually increased until in 1846 they reached fifty, and ten years later the number was fifty eight. At first the new society had an uphill fight and incurred many losses. These they wisely determined to make good before any accruing profits were divided. The decision gave offence to some of the foundation members, who seceded from the body, and the load of debt doubtless caused certain of the rising members of the profession to stand aloof from them. In 1847 as the results of dissensions respecting the management of the Society, some of the more in- fluential of the members, including Dodgson, Duncan, J enkins, and Topham seceded, and in the course of the next few years they were received into the older society. From time to time other of the members migrated in a similar way, and Roget enumerates no less than fifteen names of those who were transferred from the New to the Old Water-Colour Society. Certain minor changes in the constitution of the New-Water- Colour Society were made in 1857. It was then divided into thirty members, ten lady members, and eighteen associates, and thus it continued until 1863, when it was re-named " The Insti- tute of Painters in Water-Colours." The constitution was then again re-modelled. The number of members was at that time forty-four; but the "Associates," from which body alone the members were to be selected, were not limited as to number. The funds were vested only in the members : these funds arose from the amount received for admission to the exhibi- tions and from the sale of catalogues and of exhibited works, a commission of five per cent, on the value being charged to N 178 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. members, and ten per cent, to associates ; the latter have no share in the responsibilities of the society. In order to provide for out- standing liabilities any member or associate desiring to withdraw from the body incurs a fine of £2. The number of members and associates did not remain sta- tionary; in 1876 there were forty-nine members, eight honorary members, thirteen lady members, and sixteen associates, and in 1884, after absorbing in the previous year the Dudley Gallery, the numbers were ninety one members, ten honorary members, and nine lady members \ the class of associates having disappeared in 1880. In the year 1883 the Gallery was thrown open to all workers in water-colours outside their own member- ship and the experiment was a great success as upwards of 500 works by non-members were hung. For a long series of years the exhibitions of the New Society have enjoyed public favour, and the Royal Institute shares with the older body the prestige due to the high attainments of its members. The two Water-Colour Societies, though they might suffice to provide exhibiting space for the senior members of the pro- fession, did not encourage rising talent, or enable the younger men to come before the public, and this led eventually to the establishment of yet another body, formed for the exhibition of water-colour art. A committee was nominated of artists and amateurs in 1864, who were supported by a list of guarantors, and who opened a so-called " General Exhibition of Water-Colour Paintings " in the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, in the spring of 1865. The aims of this body, as stated in their prospectus, were declared to be " to establish a gallery which, while exclusively devoted to drawings in distinction from oil paintings, should not, in its use by exhibitors, involve membership of a society." This gallery supplied a recognized ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PAINTERS IN WATER COLOURS. 179 want, and from the very outset it enjoyed a fair measure of success. It was at first under the management of a Committee of twenty-six artists and amateurs, and no less than 1,700 works were sent up in answer to the invitation to contribute. Of these 579 were selected which proved to be of a class which fully justified the promoters in their attempt to bring together the display. Under the title of the " Dudley Society " its annual exhibitions were continued with increasing popularity until 1883, when, as we have seen, an amalgamation with the New Water-Colour Society took place, and the two bodies moved to the fine gallery erected near St. James's Church in Piccadilly, called the Prince's Hall, the title of the joint un- dertaking being henceforth the Royal Institute of Painters in Water-Colours. Having taken possession of their spacious premises and thrown open their Exhibition to outsiders, the Royal Institute added to their usefulness by the establish- ment in 1884 of a free school for water-colour painting, at which the members in turn give their services gratuitously as teachers. For many years past exhibitions have been on the increase ; not only do we have constantly recurring international exhibitions in one country and another, in many of which our English artists take an important and well- recognized position, but many of the chief provincial towns, in their permanent galleries and local displays, hold out strong inducements to artistic participation. It would be almost impossible in such a work as this to record a tithe of these exhibitions ; and having thus briefly described the establishment of the principal societies founded for the furtherance of water-colour art, we may now devote our remaining chapters to a short account of the lives and work of those distinguished members of the Old n 2 180 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. and the New Societies who have passed away, leaving a small space in conclusion for a notice of the water colour drawings in our national collections, and for the consideration of the recent report on the permanence of water-colour paintings, a subject which lately has again received a large share of public attention. The reconstitution of the Old Water-Colour Society in 1821 attracted many new members to its ranks, some of the more eminent of whom we have already noticed, and though we do not propose to enumerate the members in the strict order of their election, there was a group of men who joined the society about this time to which we may now very briefly refer. William Andrews Nesfield, son of the rector of Brancepeth, Durham, w T here he was born in 1793, was educated at Winchester and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was destined for a military career, and became a cadet at Woolwich in 1809. His first regi- ment was the old 95th, now the Eifle Brigade, but after taking part in the operations in the Pyrenees and being present at St. Jean de Luz, he exchanged into the 89th, then stationed in Canada, where he also saw active service and became junior A.D.C. to Sir Gordon Drummond. On the conclusion of the general peace he retired on half-pay, and turned his attention to painting, for which he had already shown considerable taste. In 1823 he was elected an associate exhibitor, and only three months later a member of the Old Water-Colour Society, of which he remained for upwards of thirty years a prominent sup- porter, contributing many excellent Swiss and Italian scenes to this exhibition. His drawings of landscapes and waterfalls were greatly admired, and Buskin says of him in Modern Painters — " He has shown extraordinary feeling both for the colour and the spirituality of a great waterfall; exquisitely delicate in his management of the changeful veil of spray or W. A. NESFIELD — H. GASTINEAU. 181 mist, just in his curves and contours, and rich in colour, if he would remember that in all such scenes there is much gloom as well as much splendour, and relieve the lustre of his attractive passages of colour with more definite and prevalent greys, and give a little more substance to parts of his picture unaffected by spray, his work would be nearly perfect. His seas are also most instructive, a little confused in chiaroscuro, but refined in form and admirable in colour." Nesfield retired from the society in 1852, and took up landscape-gardening as his profession. In this capacity he was constantly consulted in the improvement and alteration of the London parks and Kew Gardens, and he acquired an extensive practice. He likewise planned the recently-demolished Italian gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at South Kensington. He died March 2, 1881, in his eighty-eighth year. Henry Gastineau, born 1793, studied at the schools of the Royal Academy, and became an associate of the Old Water- Colour Society in 1821, gaining his membership in 1823. He was in his youth placed under an engraver and at first painted in oils. In 1822 he furnished eighteen drawings for a little book, entitled Excursions in the County of Kent, He was a prolific exhibitor, sending on an average twenty-five works annually to the gallery of the Water-Colour Society. Throughout life he was constantly engaged in teaching. He de- lighted in sketching wild and romantic scenery, both in this country and abroad ; the rocky beds of rivers with falling water and rushing streams were subjects which he painted with a true sense of colour, and in which he excelled. He was fond also of painting moonlights. He contributed the landscape illustrations for a variety of works. Gastineau' s death took place in Camberwell, January 17, 1876. He was then the 182 WATER-COLOUR TAINTING IN ENGLAND. oldest surviving member of the Water Colour Society, to whose gallery he had contributed for fifty-eight years in succession. Francis Oliver Finch, born November 22, 1802, was the son of a merchant in Cheapside. He would seem to have passed his boyhood near Aylesbury, and showing a taste for art he was placed under John Yarley, where he was the fellow pupil of Linnell, Hunt, and Mulready. He first attempted oil- paiutiog and produced a few portraits, but subsequently, on his election to the Old Water-Colour Society (as associate in 1822 and in 1827 as member), he worked chiefly in water-colours. He found but little encouragement in his art, and had to depend largely upon teaching. The landscapes of Finch were mainly compositions of an elaborate character, rather in the style of. Barret with sumptuous architecture, palaces, and stately gardens. He frequently painted twilight and moon- light scenes in the pure transparent style. He was a survival of an earlier art period. Samuel Palmer, his life-long friend and admirer called him " The last representative of the old school of landscape painting in water-colours. " He had a poetical mind, and published a collection of sonnets entitled An Artist's Dream. At an early period in his career he became a convert to the doctrines of Swedenborg and his religious opinions gave a strong tinge to his after life. He died after a long illness, August 27, 1862. John Masey Wright was born in London in 1777 ; he was chiefly known as a book illustrator and first exhibited at the Eoyal Academy in 1817. He made the acquaintance of Thomas Edward Barker and aided him with his panorama in Leicester Square, and he was sometimes employed in painting scenery for the theatres. Boget tells us that in 1820 he was earning £8 per week at the Panorama and £6 per week at PENRY WILLIAMS ALEXANDER CTITSHOLM. 183 His Majesty's Theatre. He had a good connection as a teacher. Wright became an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society in 1824 and he was elected a member in the same year. In his old age he fell into distressed circumstances and he w T as granted an annuity by the Royal Academy. He died in May, 1866, at the age of 89. He must not be confounded with J. W. Wright also a member of the Old Water- Colour Society whom he survived for many years. Among those artists who joined the Water-Colour Society in its early days as associates and never attained full member- ship we must not omit John Whichelo, who was elected in 1823. We have no record of the year of his birth but he died in 1865. He is said to have been employed at one time in making drawings at five shillings apiece to illustrate Pennant's Tours. At first his contributions to the Society's gallery were mainly sea-pictures, but later in life he painted many land- scapes chiefly of English scenery. His drawings were sold at Christie's in 1866. Penry Williams, who, during his long residence at Rome, made a great reputation by his bright and clever sketches of its scenery and public edifices, became an associate in 1828 of the Old Water-Colour Society but did not long remain in con- nection with that body. He died in 1885 aged about 87. His works are skilfully composed and attractive in point of colour, but are somewhat mannered and conventional. Alexander Chisholm, born at Elgin about 1792, was an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society for nearly twenty years but never became a member. His subject pictures were very popular and he worked frequently for the annuals. He died after a long illness at Rothesay in 1847. Richard Hamilton Essex was a frequent exhibitor at the Old Water-Colour Society from the date of his associateship in 184 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 1823 ; he never passed to full membership. He depicted our ancient Gothic buildings with great skill, and chose his subjects from the church architecture of this country and the Continent. He exhibited also at the Royal Academy and at Suffolk Street and made a series of drawings of the architecture and stained glass of the Temple Church, published in 1845 by Weale. He died in 1855 at Bow in his fifty-third year. We may here pause to notice a group of artists who, like Essex, laboured in the field of antiquarian research, and kept alive the traditions of the topographers long after their methods had been superseded by the improved processes of water-colour painting. John Britton, F.S.A., was born at Kington St. Michael, Wilts, in 1771, and coming to London in 1787, found employ- ment as cellarman in a tavern, and afterwards worked with a hop-factor. He seems to have been fond of literary pursuits, and after spending some time in a printing office, was engaged by Brayley to assist him with his publications. In 1799 he first exhibited architectural drawings at the Academy, and from this time he devoted all his energies to antiquarian research. In 1805 he commenced his Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain, and in 1814 his Cathedral Antiquities of England. His published works were extremely numerous and important, and the close of his long career found him still engaged upon his autobiography. The writings and the illustrated works of this author had an undoubted influence on the architecture of the Gothic revival. Eastlake says of him, " He helped, and successfully helped, to secure for mediaeval remains that kind of interest which a sense of the picturesque and a respect for historical associations are most likely to create." He died in London, January 1st, 1857. Charles Wild, born in London in 1781, was another artist HENRY SHAW — DAVID ROBERTS. 185 who devoted himself to architecture, and after being for many- years an associate exhibitor of the Old Water-Colour Society, he was in 1820 elected a member, and subsequently filled the offices of secretary and treasurer. He retired from the Society in 1833. He drew with great refinement all the principal cathedrals of this country, and travelled much on the Continent to sketch the chief foreign buildings, which sketches he afterwards published. His last work, issued in 1837, was entitled Select Examples of Architectural Grandeur in Belgium, Germany, and France. For the latter part of his life he was afflicted with loss of sight. He died in London, August 4, 1835. James Sargant Storer, born in 1781, likewise studied with great success the ancient architecture of this country, and engraved many of his own drawings. He resided chiefly at Cambridge. In 1814 he commenced his History and Antiquities of British Cathedrals, and he also wrote on the Principles of Gothic Architecture. He died in London, December 23, 1853. Henry Shaw, F.S.A., born in London, July 4th, 1800, was one of the fellow- workers of Britton who did much to further the study of ancient buildings, and devoted the latter part of his life to the production of an unrivalled series of illuminated works. He was a skilful artist, and had a true sense of colour, and though latterly he did not attempt the higher walks of his profession, he accomplished a vast amount of useful and meritorious work. He died June 12, 1873. With a more powerful sense of its artistic capabilities, the architecture of this country and of the Continent was rendered by David Roberts, R.A., who was born in humble circum- stances at Stockbridge, near Edinburgh, October 2, 1796. After having been apprenticed to a house-painter at Edinburgh, he worked as a scene-painter, and in 1822 came to London and 186 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. gained employment at Drury Lane Theatre, where he remained for many years. In 1826 he first exhibited at the Eoyal Academy, of which he was elected an associate in 1839, and a fnll member in 1841. He travelled much in foreign lands in pursuit of his art, and produced many finely painted Eastern scenes, some of which were published by him. He worked w T ith equal skill in oil and water-colours. His treatment was broad and bold, and thoroughly scenic. He cared little for realistic imitation, and his colouring, though it charms us, can scarcely be considered true to nature. The authors of the Century of Painters have thus well described his art : " He had no sympathy with the imitative or realistic school ; in all the hundreds of sketches by his hand there is not one that indicates an attempt at individualized realization. Broad, simple, and very conventional, with the details suggested rather than given, his pictures charm us by their onceness, their direct appeal to the eye, and the extreme ease with which they are executed. The colour is agreeable though not like nature, but generalized to what he thought best suited for the scenic display of the class of subjects he loved to paint ; so that whether his buildings are on the banks of the Clyde or the Thames, the Nile or the Tiber, there is a sameness of tint and hue pervading them, which is quite independent of the dingy tones of our own city, the damps of Venice, or the clear sharpness of the dry atmosphere of the East." While painting some large views on the Thames, he was struck down with apoplexy in the street, and died the same day — November 25, 1864. "We have chosen to represent his art by a small picture in the collection at the British Museum — a View of Mont St. Michel, a subject in every way suited to his pencil, and which he has treated in his usual vigorous and characteristic style. MONT ST. MICHEL. By David Roberts, R.A. In the Print Room, British Museum, CHAPTER XIII. George Cattermole — Joseph Nash — James Duffield Harding— William Evans {of Eton) — George Chambers — John Wil- liam Wright — James Holland — Octavius Oakley — John Burgess — Samuel Jackson — Charles Branwhite — Charles Bentley — Arthur Glennie — J %mes W. Whittaker — David Cox, Junior — John Callow — William James Midler — Frank Stone, A.R.A. — Foreign Artists — Egron S. Lund- gren — Otto Weber. Though trained among the topographers, to whom we have briefly referred in our last chapter, George Cattermole, born at Dickleburgh, near Diss, in August, 1800, early marked out for himself an independent career and preserved a strong and distinct individuality among the rising water-colour men of his time. He was the youngest of a family of seven. His elder brother, Richard, who became a dignitary of the church, and was in turn the rector of St. Martin's in the Fields, and of Little Mario w, Bucks, was also at first a painter and an exhibi- tor in London as early as 1814. The younger brother was first- employed in drawing for Britton's English Cathedrals, working with the elder Pugin, and in 1822 was elected an associate exhibitor of the Old Water-Colour Society. In 1830 he travelled into Scotland in order to visit the localities described 190 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. by Scott in his novels, which subsequently were illustrated by Cattermole and rendered his art so widely known. For many years he was a contributor to the Water-Colour Society's exhibi- tions, but he did not become a member until 1833, from which time he sent numerous works to their gallery, until 1850, when he seceded from the society, and resigned his membership in 1852. His knowledge of architecture and costume was turned to good account in his pictures, which were chiefly drawn from romantic subjects. He painted the figure with ease, and intro- duced his armed robbers, knights, and brigands with excellent effect. Cattermole worked chiefly from memory, without the intervention of a model, and this facility of execution gave much freshness and vigour to his compositions. His art w r as essentially dramatic and pictorial, and he tells his story well, and surrounds his characters with abundance of carefully selected accessories. Throughout his life he was largely employed for the publishers, and he designed the illustra- tions for the Waverley Novels, and for many works of the same class. Perhaps his best drawings were made for the Historical Annual, devoted to the scenes of the Civil War. After his retirement from the Water-Colour Society he essayed painting in oil and sent some works to the Royal Academy. He was of a peculiarly sensitive disposition, and much disliked the restraint of any regular duties ; he had the reputation of not being strict in carrying out his engagements. Cattermole was a wonderfully well-read man, versatile in his accomplish- ments, and one whose company was sought after by the fashionable society of his time. He was also a good amateur actor and a clever mimic. His death took place in London, July 24, 1868. At the Paris Exhibition of 1855 the art of Cattermole greatly delighted the French critics, and he was JOSEPH NASH. 193 awarded a grande medaille d'honneur ; a distinction conferred also upon Sir Edwin Landseer, but upon no other English artist. Cattermole used opaque colours with the utmost freedom and even employed toned or tinted paper to give greater effect and brilliance to the body colours. The papers he affected were specially prepared for him by Messrs. Winsor and Newton, and are known by his name. We are enabled to re- present his art at its best period by a most characteristic specimen from the Historical Collection at South Kensington ; one of the pictures presented by Mrs. Ellison, Cellini and the Robbers, the subject being the well-known story of some brigands who offer their booty for sale to the silversmith who recognizes his own handiwork. The greater part of this picture is painted with opaque colour. Another water-colour painter who began life as an architect and who rendered excellent service to his art, was Joseph Nash, the son of a clergyman at Croydon. He must not be confounded with an earlier namesake, whose Christian name was Frederick, and whose career we have described at p. 115. He was born in 1803, and studied under the elder Pugin, becom- ing in course of time an expert draughtsman. He strove to do more than the topographers attempted, and he made his archi- tecture picturesque and interesting by the insertion of appro- priate and well-selected groups and figures. He painted the interiors of our fine old English houses, and excelled in the magnificent architecture of the Stuarts. Many of his drawings of the buildings of this period were published in lithography. His drawings on stone resemble much in their method and treatment those of J. D. Harding. We may mention as his chief works of this character The Mansions of England in the o 194 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. Olden Time, and his Views of the Exterior and Interior of Windsor Castle, 1848. Nash became an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society in 1834, and a member in 1842, and throughout life was a constant exhibitor. He died, after long illness and much suffering, at Bayswater, December 19, 1878, having been granted a civil service pension of £100 in the very year of his death. We have chosen, to represent his art, the fine interior of Speke Hall, Lancashire, another of the works presented to the Historical Collection at South Kensington by Mrs. Ellison. It shows us the squire, seated in his grand old Elizabethan hall, enriched with characteristic carving, hearing a charge of deer-stealing. Nash made free use of body colour, especially in his figures, and in the bright touches of high lights. This work is signed and dated 1850. A painter who like Nash was strongly impressed with the picturesque aspect of his subjects was James Duffield Harding. He was the son of an artist, and was born at Dept- ford in 1798. He was at first articled as an engraver to John Pye, or according to a writer in the Art Journal, to Charles Pye. Pie subsequently made perspective drawings for archi- tects, and began to exhibit landscapes at the Royal Academy as early as 1811. Some drawings by him from Swiss scenery were engraved in line and published in 1822 ; these were reproduced by Harding from sketches by an amateur. After exhibiting for several years with the Old Water- Colour Society, Harding was in 1820 elected an asso- ciate exhibitor, and the following year a member. He would seem from these dates to belong to an earlier chapter, but in 1846 he withdrew from the society and was not re-elected until 1856. He was in constant request as a teacher of drawing, and enjoyed a large and lucrative practice. Pie likewise wrote J, D. HARDING WJLLIAM EVANS. 197 many works on drawing and painting, and produced some excellent lithographic studies of continental scenery. He is said, in the course of a visit to Italy in 1830, to have made sketches upon coloured paper, which on his return to England were greatly admired, and were the means of bringing this class of work into fashion. Was this the period when the practice of working on tinted mounts came into vogue 1 We mean that description of cardboard drawing where high lights were removed from a coloured ground by erasing the surface with a knife? He published in 1836, Sketches at Rome and Abroad, and in 1861, Selections from the Picturesque. Harding's drawing copies shared with those of Prout, the chief place in public estimation. Many of his works were avowedly intended for his pupils, such as the Lessons on Art, 1849, Lessons on Trees, 1852, and Drawing Models and Their Uses, 1854. The last of these publications described the well known solid models, which he prepared and sold for teaching purposes. He effected many improvements in tinted drawing paper, and contributed greatly to the advancement of lithography. He was a skilful and rapid draughtsman, though somewhat mannered in his style, and rarely rising above the commonplace. Harding died at Barnes, December 4, 1863, and was buried in Brompton Cemetery. William Evans, son of the drawing-master at Eton College^ was born at Eton, December 4, 1798, and succeeded his father in 1818. He became an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society in 1828, and gained his membership in 1831. He contributed chiefly landscapes, many of them from Scotch scenery, to the Exhibitions. He was the frequent guest of the Duke of Athole and there painted his Highland scenes. He died December 31, 1877. 198 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. George Chambers, born at Whitby in 1803, was the son of a seaman and was apprenticed to the master of a trading brig. He relinquished a seafaring life to take up art and became a house-painter as a step in the road to the fine arts. Somewhat late in his career he turned his attention to water- colours, and in 1834 he was elected an associate exhibitor and the year following a member of the Old Water-Colour Society. He painted chiefly marine views, battles, and coast scenes, but though truthful and correct, his works have a tendency to coldness and a lack of colour. He was for a time engaged in painting at the Colosseum in Regent's Park, and he also worked as a scene-painter. He died prematurely October 29, 1840, leaving a family on whose behalf a sub- scription was raised. John William Wright, son of J. Wright the miniature- painter, was born in London in 1802, and studied under Thomas Phillips, It. A. He was elected an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society in 1831, became a member in 1841, and was appointed the secretary in 1844. He generally painted figure subjects of a domestic character, and was a constant contributor to the exhibitions. Many of his subjects were taken from Shakespeare and he worked indefatigably for the Keepsake and the Booh of Beauty. He was also an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy. He suffered much from ill- health, and succumbed to an attack of influenza, January 14, 1848. His works were sold by auction in London in the following spring. James Holland passed his youth at Burslem, where he was born October 17, 1800, He was at first engaged as a china- painter, but in 1819 he came to London and for a time sup- ported himself by teaching and flower-painting. Making JAMES HOLLAND — OCTAVIUS OAKLLY. 199 some progress in his art he became an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, and in 1835 we find him an. associate exhibitor at the Old Water-Colour Society. The same year he travelled in Italy and painted the interior of Milan Cathedral, and a scene on the Rialto, Venice. In 1837 he visited Portugal to execute a series of views for the Landscape Annual which were engraved in 1839. In 1841 he went to Paris and sub- sequently travelled to many parts of the Continent. He seceded from the Water-Colour Society in 1842, but was re- elected in 1856, and in 1857 he became a member. He paid many visits to the Continent, and painted the scenery of Italy and the Peninsula with glowing colour and great brilliancy of effect, His Venetian pictures were among the most success- ful of his productions. He was fond of peopling his land- scapes with brilliant groups of figures. He was mucli employed in book illustration and supplied many designs for the Annuals. He probably painted as many works in oil as in water-colours. He sent pictures to the Academy as also to the British Institution and to the Suffolk Street Gallery. His death took place February 12, 1870, shortly after which there was a sale of his works at Christie's. Octavius Oakley, born in April, 1S00, began life as a portrait-painter at Leamington, where he enjoyed a consider- able practice. Painting later at Derby he produced some admirable rustic scenes and excelled in his groups of gipsies. About 1842 he came to reside in London and soon after joined the Old Water-Colour Society, of which he became a member in 1844. He painted latterly picturesque landscape scenery into which the figures were introduced with good effect, but his drawings were weak in colour and wanting in light and shade. He continued to produce occasional portraits and was an 200 WATER COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. exhibitor at the Royal Academy from time to time until 1860. He died at Bayswater, March 1, 1867. John Burgess, the son of an artist, born about 1814, at first practised as a teacher at Leamington. He was elected an associate of the Old "Water-Colour Society in 1851, the pick of sixteen candidates. He painted picturesque buildings and street scenes in Normandy and Brittany and in various parts of the Continent. His drawings are brilliant and sunny, and he was a rapid and skilful sketcher. He affected tinted drawing papers. He died June 11, 1874. Samuel J ackson, son of a merchant in Bristol, became at the age of thirty a pupil of F. Danby, A.B.A., and having formed the friendship of Prout and Pyne, he was in 1832 elected an associate exhibitor of the Old Water-Colour Society, and ex- hibited many landscape, and views of Welsh scenery until his retirement from the society in 1848. He never attained to full membership. Towards the close of his life he travelled in Switzerland, and produced some of his most successful works He died in 1870, at the age of seventy-five. Charles Branwhite was also born in Bristol about 1818, and studied first under his father, a local artist of some repute in that city. He seems to have proposed at first to become a sculptor and only took to painting in oil at a later date. He was the intimate friend of W. Miiller, and worked much with him. In 1849 he became an associate of the Old Water- Colour Society, but he never passed to full membership. He greatly affected winter scenes, and though he was a brilliant and facile draughtsman he did not give evidence of much originality. He loaded his drawings with body colour to such an extent as to render them liable to be considered as works in tempera. He died February 15, 1880, aged sixty-two. BENTLEY GLENNTE WHITTAKER COX. 201 Charles Bentley, born in Tottenham Court Road in 1805, was the son of a builder, and owing to his fondness for art he was placed under Fielding to study engraving. He became an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society in 1834 and in 1843 was elected a member. He painted marine subjects and con- tributed frequently to the Annuals. His works are spirited but show a large and free use of body colour. He died of cholera in September, 1854. Arthur Glennie, who was the son of Dr. Glennie of Dulwich, was born in February, 1803, and after beginning life in a merchant's office, took somewhat late to art. and in 1837 joined the Old Water-Colour Society as an associate, becoming a full member in 1858. He painted mainly foreign landscapes and passed all the latter years of his life in Borne, where he died in January, 1890. His bright and sunny drawings, refined and accurate from the topographer's point of view, were much admired. James W. Whittaker began life as an engraver, but having a taste for drawing he gave up this profession as soon as he was able to make his way as a painter. He took a little cottage at Bettws-y-Coed and painted Welsh scenery, selling his drawings for small sums to a Manchester dealer. He was elected an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society in 1862, and two years later he became a full member. He was acci- dentally drowned at Bettws in September, 1876, falling off a rock into the Llugwy. David Cox, Junior, the only child of the eminent painter of the same name, was born near Dulwich in 1809, had his early schooling at Dulwich and studied under his father. When the elder Cox retired to Harborne his son took over his ex- tensive teaching connection. In 1848 he was elected an 202 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. associate of the Old Society, but never attained full member- ship. He had previously been a member of the New Water- Colour Society, but he resigned in 1845. His style greatly resembled that of his father, and the younger Cox's works have sometimes been sold in his father's name. He died at Streatham, December 6, 1885. John Callow was born July 19, 1822, and was indebted to his elder brother for his art education. Elected a member of the New Water-Colour Society in 1845 he resigned three years later, and in 1849 became an associate of the Old Water- Colour Society. His subjects were generally coast scenes and shipping. He was much engaged in teaching and produced some well-known drawing-books. His death took place April 25, 1878, at New Cross. William James Muller was the son of a German clergyman, who was the Curator of the Museum at Bristol, in which city young Miiller was born in 1812. Some of his first instruction in art was received from J. B. Pyne, his fellow townsman, but he soon left him and commenced to study from nature by him- self. In 1833-34 he travelled on the Continent for the purpose of improving himself in his art, visiting Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, and returning subsequently to Bristol to practice his art with scant success, sending many works to the London Galleries. In 1838 after wandering, sketch-book in hand through Greece and Egypt he came back to his native city, but not to stay, for we find him in 1839 settled in London. Here his Eastern subjects found many admirers, and he published in 1841 his Picturesque Sketches of the Age of Francis I. He subsequently accompanied the government expedition to Lycia, and stored his portfolios with numerous sketches, but he was disheartened by the way in which his works were hung at the W. J. MULLER FRANK STONE. 205 British Institution and at the Academy. About this time he was painting much in oil, in which medium many of his best works were produced. Owing to failing health he retired to Bristol and died there, September 8, 1845. When David Cox had made up his mind to paint in oil it was to Miiller that he turned for instruction and he was greatly impressed by his extraordinary facility of execution. Miiller' s sense of colour was very fine, and his compositions were large and grand in conception, but his aerial perspective was defective. Some of his best works remind us of the scene-painter. We represent his art by the sketch of Mod Siabod, given by Mr. C. T. Maud to the Historical Collection at South Kensington. A small study of rockwork and falling water, with mountains in the background, which will serve to show his vigorous execution. During the more recent period of water-colour art not a few painters of eminence began their career in connection with one or the other of the Societies and subsequently, on attaining Academy honours, either abandoned water-colour painting alto- gether or exhibited but little in this medium. Prominent among them we may mention Frank Stone, A.R.A, who is best known by his oil paintings, but who joined the Old Water-Colour Society as an associate in 1833, and became a full member in 1843. He was the son of a Manchester cotton- spinner, and was born in 1800. Though at first intended to follow his father's business, he was compelled by his love of art to sacrifice his position, and at the age of twenty-four to become a painter. He came to London in 1831 and at first practised in water-colours, and for some time worked for Heath's Book of Beauty. Subsequently he painted subject- pictures, engaged in book illustration, and joined the Etching 206 Club. About 1837 he began to paint in oil. In 1846 he re- signed his membership of the Water-Colour Society, and in 1857 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy. He was at this time much in the company of eminent literary men, the friend of Dickens, and taking part with him in amateur performances, for Stone was very fond of acting. He died in 1859, and was buried at Highgate Cemetery. Several foreigners attracted to this country have practised the art of water-colour painting with much success. Among these we may mention Egron S. Lundgren, a native of Sweden, born in 1815, who was educated in Paris, where he entered the studio of Leon Coignet and subsequently spent four years in Italy and five years in Spain. He likewise travelled in Egypt and in the East. Meeting J ohn Phillip, P. A., at Seville, in 1851, he was invited by him to London, and he visited this country in 1853. It is conjectured that he was for a time employed as a draughtsman on wood, and in 1857 he accompanied the staff of Lord Clyde in the Oudh campaign. On his return to England he painted several subjects for the Queen, among others the Marriage cf the Princess Royal. In 1864 he was elected an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society, and two years later he became a member. His works were characterized by their fine colouring and rich tone. He painted chiefly figure subjects, and many of his drawings were acquired by the Queen. His sketches in India to the number of 217 were sold by auction at Christie's in 1875 for 3,050 guineas. He was a man of many accomplishments, an excellent linguist, and the author of several works published at Stockholm. He died at Stockholm, December 16, 1875, in the sixtieth year of his age. Otto Weber, the son of a merchant in Berlin, was born OTTO WEBER. 207 October 17, 1832, and received the first part of his art educa- tion in his native city. He afterwards settled in Paris where his animal paintings were greatly admired. At the outbreak of the Franco-German war in 1870 he went to Rome, and in 1872 finding that Italian subjects were distasteful to him, he visited London and here he remained until his death in 1888. He sent many pictures to the Royal Academy, and in 1876 became an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society. He excelled as a painter of animals in the midst of charming land- scape scenery. His remaining drawings were sold by Messrs. Christie in 1889. CHAPTER XIV. New Water- Colour Society — Louis Haghe — Edward Henry Wehnert — Henry F. Tidey - — Henry Warren — Aaron Edwin Penley — Thomas Miles Richardson — Thomas Sew ell Robins — William Henry Kearney — G. H Laporte — John Chase — Henry Parsons Riviere — H. Clark Pidgeon — William Lee — George B. Campion — John Wylceham Archer — William Leighton Leitch — Henry John Johnson — James Fahey — Benjamin R. Green — John Skinner Prout — Michael Angelo Hayes — Henry Bright — Charles Vacher — John Henry Mole — George Shalders — Frederick John Skill — Augustus Jules Bouvier — Thomas Leeson Rowbotham — The Lady Artists — Mary Harrison — Elizabeth Murray — Fanny Corbaux — Eliza Sharpe — Louisa Sharpe — Mrs. Brookbank — Nancy Rayner — Margaret Gilles — Mrs. H. Criddle — Helen Cordelia Angell — Mary Lqfthouse. We have collected in this chapter some brief notices of the deceased members of the New "Water-Colour Society, and here also we have brought together the memoirs of some of the more distinguished ladies who have practised the art. Louis Haghe, born at Tournay, in Belgium, in 1806, came to England while quite a youth, and was elected in 1837 a member of the New Water-Colour Society, serving in turn the office of vice-president and president of the society, to which latter office he was elected on the retirement of Warren in LOUTS HAGHE — EDWARD HENRY WEHNERT. 211 1873. He was a skilful lithographer, and produced many works illustrating the picturesque towns and scenery of the Continent. His paintings are powerful and vigorous in their matter and treatment, and his historical subjects are dramatic and full of incident. He delighted to represent the fine old architecture of the Belgian cities, the halls of Louvain and Courtrai, and his armed soldiers and townspeople are admir- ably introduced and excellent in drawing. Haghe painted entirely with his left hand. His art has undoubtedly exerted considerable influence on his contemporaries, and he was throughout life one of the bulwarks of the Institute. We are permitted to reproduce a small work by him in the Historical Collection at South Kensington, A Guard-Room, No. 522, which shows his skilful handling of a group of soldiers who smoke and gossip ; it is signed and dated 1853. Haghe died in London, March 9, 1885. Edward Henry Wehnert was the son of a German tailor in a large w T ay of business, who settled in London and sent his boy to be educated in Germany. He studied at Gottingen and on his return to England devoted himself to art. He passed two years in Paris where he made great progress, and afterwards resided for some time in J ersey. Coming back to London in 1837 he became a member of the New Water-Colour Society, and was throughout life a constant and important contributor to its exhibitions. His chief works were figure subjects, the drawing and execution being careful and conscientious, but his sense of colour was scarcely pleasing and his light and shade badly defined. He died in Kentish Town, September 15, 1878, aged 54. A collective exhibition of his works was made in the Gallery of the Institute of Painters in Water-Colours in the following Spring. p 2 212 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. Henry F. Tidey, the son of a schoolmaster at Worthing was born January 7, 1815. He first worked as a portrait-painter, and after exhibiting for some time at the Academy, he was, in 1858, elected an associate, and the year following a member of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours. He was a most industrious and clever artist, and painted figure subjects, many of them of a large size. In 1859 his drawing, entitled The Feast of Roses, was purchased by Her Majesty. His numerous contributions to the exhibitions of the New Water- Colour Society added much to the attractiveness of the gallery. He died in 1872. Henry Warren, K.L., was educated as a sculptor and studied under Nollekens. After passing through the Academy School he began to paint in oil, but subsequently joined the New Society of Painters in Water-Colours, of which he ulti- mately became the President. He was an able artist and worked extensively for the publishers. Warren was also him- self an author, and issued the Artistic Anatomy of the Human Figure. He lived to a great age, and on his retirement became the Honorary President of the Society. He died at Wimbledon, December 18, 1879, aged 85. The reputation of Aaron Edwin Penley will rest chiefly on his art writings and his fame as a successful teacher. He at first practised as a miniature painter at Manchester. After exhibiting for some time at the Academy, he was in 1838 elected a member of the New Water-Colour Society, but from this he withdrew in 1856. He was the professor of drawing first at the East India College, Addiscombe, and subsequently at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He died suddenly at Lewisham, January 15, 1870, in his 64th year. His best known works are The English School of Painting in Water- RICHARDSON — ROBINS — KEARNEY — LAPORTE. 213 Colours, published in 1861, and Sketching from Nature in Water - Colours, which appeared in 1869. Penley was appointed painter in water-colours to King William IV. and Queen Charlotte. His drawings were sold at Christie's after his death in 1871. Thomas Miles Richardson, born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, May 15, 1784, after being some time the head master of the St. Andrew's Grammar School, resigned his appointment in order to devote himself wholly to art. He drew both in oil and water-colours, and exhibited at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and the New Water-Colour Society, of which he was a member until 1843. He published several engraved works, and died March 7, 1848. His landscapes were treated in a bold and original manner, and he excelled in sunset effects. His son, a member of the Old Society, died in 1890. Thomas Sewell Robins, born at Devonport in 1811, was an original member of the New Water-Colour Society, and studied art under Mr. Ball, a Plymouth artist. He subsequently came to London, and worked at the Schools of the Royal Academy. After travelling on the Continent, and visiting Rome and Venice, he turned his attention to marine subjects, upon which his reputation chiefly depends. Failing health compelled him to retire from the Institute in 1865. He died at Kensington, August 9, 1880. William Henry Kearney was one of the foundation mem- bers and a Vice-President of the New Water-Colour Society. He exhibited principally landscapes, with now and then a figure subject, which were pleasant in colour and painted in the earlier transparent manner. His death took place in his 58th year, on June 25, 1858. G. H. Laforte, after exhibiting for some time at the 214 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. Suffolk Street Gallery, became an original member of the New Water-Colour Society, to whose exhibitions he was a constant contributor. He painted chiefly animal subjects with groups of costume figures, hunting subjects, military groups, and Arab scenes. He died October 23, 1873. John Chase, born in 1810, became one of the earlier mem- bers of the New Water-Colour Society, to which Society his daughter, an expert flower painter, also belonged. He delighted to paint old ivy-clad buildings, and chose many subjects from Haddon Hall. He died in London, January 8, 1879. Henry Parsons Riviere, born August 16, 1811, after studying at the Schools of the Royal Academy, became a member of the New Water-Colour Society in 1834, but afterwards joined the older Society in 1852. He painted chiefly genre and subject pictures, and spent nearly all the latter part of his life in Rome, but died in London in May, 1888. H. Clark Pidgeon, born March, 1807, and educated at Reading, was destined for the Church, but his natural inclinations led him to the pursuit of art. He was for a time the editor of the Berkshire Clironicle. He went to Paris in order to study art, and eventually became the master of the Drawing School at the Liverpool Institute. He was from the year 1846 a member of the New Water-Colour Society. He died August 6, 1880. William Lee, born 1809, contributed in the early part of his career compositions introducing rustic figures, and in later life French coast scenery and figure subjects to the exhibitions of the New Water-Colour Society, of which he was a member. His death took place in London, January 22, 1865. George B. Campion was elected a member of the New J. W. ARCHER — W. L. LEITCH. 215 Water Colour Society in 1837, and was a prominent contri- butor of views, some of them rather hasty in point of execution to their exhibitions. He was also a writer of considerable repute on art and other subjects. He was the author of The Adventures of a Chamois Hunter. He died at Munich, where he had long been resident, April 7, 1870. John Wykeham Archer, born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, August 2, 1808, was articled to Scott, the engraver, and after practising engraving in Newcastle and Edinburgh he came to London and worked for Finden. He, however, abandoned his art for topographical work, and was much employed in drawing ancient buildings for the publishers. He was an associate of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours, and contributed several of his most important works to their exhibitions. Archer published Vestiges of Old London, drawn and etched by himself, in 1851. He died suddenly in London, May 25, 1864. Archer had some taste for authorship and con- tributed papers on antiquarian subjects to the Gentleman 's Magazine. He also wrote for Douglas Jerrold's magazine Recreations of Mr. Zigzag, the Elder. His collection of draw- ings is in the British Museum. William Leighton Leitch was the son of a manufacturer in Glasgow, and was born there in 1804. He early showed a taste for drawing, but was articled to a lawyer, and in time threw up his articles in order to study art in London. He worked with Roberts and Stanfield, and studied in Italy for five years. Leitch became a member and subsequently a Yice- President of the New Water-Colour Society. He painted chiefly classic landscapes, and was drawing-master to the Queen and to many members of the Royal Family. He died April 25, 1883. 216 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. Henry John Johnson, born in Birmingham in April, 1826, was the son of an artist and received his early training in Birmingham. He afterwards was placed under Wm. Miiller and travelled with him to the East. He sent many works to the British Institution and to the Royal Academy, mostly land- scapes from foreign countries. He likewise sketched in Wales and Scotland, and was the frequent companion of David Cox. He became a member of the New Water-Colour Society in 1870, and died in London, December 31, 1884. James Fahey, the energetic Secretary of the New Water Colour Society for so many years, was trained as an engraver under his uncle, John Swaine. He was born at Paddington, April 16, 1804, and when he had adopted painting as his profession became a pupil of Scharf, of Munich. He joined the Institute in 1835, and became its Secretary in 1838. When the Society reformed itself and became the Royal Institute in 1874, he resigned. He was for many years the drawing-master of the Merchant Taylors' School, and throughout life devoted himself to landscape painting. He died December 11, 1885. Benjamin B, Green was a member of an artistic family, both his father and mother being well known as portrait painters. He studied at the Schools of the Boyal Academy, and painted landscape and figure subjects, which he contributed principally to the gallery of the New Water-Colour Society, of which he was a member. He was for the best years of his life the Secretary of the Artists' Annuity Fund. He died in London, October 5, 1876, aged sixty-eight. John Skinner Prout who was born in Plymouth in 1806, was the nephew of Samuel Prout. To a large extent he was self-taught, and he first practised the study of ancient M. A. HAYES — H. BRIGHT. 217 buildings, publishing certain of his drawings. He resided some time in Bristol, and there, together with Miiller, whose acquaintance he had formed in early youth, he prepared the sketches for his work on The Antiquities of Bristol. He lived for many years in Australia, and on his return to England painted a Panorama of the Gold Fields, which was exhibited with much success. Prout was elected a member of the New Water-Colour Society, and continued to exhibit subjects of an architectural character, more refined in treat- ment than those of his uncle, until his death, which took place at Camden Town, August 29, 1876. Michael Angelo Hayes was the son of Edward Hayes, the water-colour painter, and was born at "Waterford, July 25, 1820. For several years previous to his election to the associateship of the New Water-Colour Society he contributed paintings in oil and water-colours to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy. He was subsequently elected a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, of which institution he was for many years the Secretary. He is best known by his subject pictures in oils, and for his military sketches in water- colours. His death, the result of an accident, took place December 31, 1877. Henry Bright was born at Saxmundham in 1814, and was apprenticed to a chemist. He afterwards became dispenser to the Norwich Hospital, and found time to acquire a knowledge of art for which he had always shown a great inclination. In 1839 he became a member of the New Water-Colour Society, but afterwards seceded from it and sent his works in oil to the Academy. His art was bold and vigorous, and he painted landscapes showing a true feeling for nature. When his health failed he retired to Ipswich, and died there September 21, 1873. 218 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. Charles Vacher, the son of a London stationer, studied art in the Schools of the Royal Academy, and travelled through Germany, France, and Italy, where he made numerous sketches, which furnished the materials for his pictures. These works were elaborately finished compositions, excellent in colour, and very artistic in treatment. He joined the New Water- Colour Society in 1846, and was always a large contributor to their exhibitions. He died July 21, 1883, aged sixty-five years. John Henry Mole was born in 1814 at Alnwick, and at first worked in a solicitor's office at Newcastle-on-Tyne. His love of art prompted him to forsake the law and to adopt miniature painting as his profession. He became an associate of the New Water-Colour Society in 1847 and removed to London. He painted at that time landscape and figure pictures, and in 1884 he was elected Yice-President of the Society. He died December 13, 1886. George Shalders, after exhibiting for some time at the Royal Academy, was in 1863 elected an associate, and two years later a member of the New Water-Colour Society. He painted chiefly landscapes with sheep and cattle. At the comparatively early age of forty-seven he was attacked with a paralytic seizure, and died, after a few days' illness, January 27, 1873. He had not been able to make provision for his wife and family, so his artist friends raised a subscription and formed a collection of drawings, which were sold at Christie's on their behalf in the year following his death. Frederick John Skill w T as born at S waff ham, in Norfolk, July 12, 1824. He studied under Cotman, and subsequently in Paris. He lived for several years in Brittany, where he painted many of his most important drawings. In 1871 he A. J. BOUVIER — T. L. ROWBOTHAM. 219 became a member of the New Water Colour Society, and died in London, after a lingering illness, March 8, 1881. He was much employed as a book illustrator, and executed many drawings for the Illustrated London News. His works, which display considerable power and exhibit a fine sense of colour, were pleasing and well drawn. Augustus Jules Bouvier, who was born in London in March, 1825, first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1852, and in the same year was elected an associate of the New Water Colour Society. He became a member in 1865. He painted figure subjects with great skill, his work entitled Lesbia having been bought by the late Prince Consort in 1861. He died, after a long illness, January 20, 1881. Thomas Leeson Rowbotham, born May 21, 1823, a native of Dublin, was the son of an artist who practised at Bath. Young Rowbotham studied art under his father, and after a sketching tour in Wales visited in turn Germany, France, and Italy. He delighted in warm sunny pictures, and excelled in his marine subjects painted under bright Italian skies. He was much engaged as a teacher, and succeeded his father as drawing-master at the Royal Naval School, New Cross. He became a member of the New Water-Colour Society in 1858, and contributed many works to its exhibitions. His health was always indifferent, and he died, at the age of 52, on June 30, 1875. Many distinguished lady artists belonged during this period to the Water-Colour Societies, and the Institute, as we have seen, set apart a special class for their lady members. Our space will scarcely enable us to do more than mention the names of a few of them. Mary Harrison, born in Liverpool in 1788, was one of the 220 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. foundation members of the New Water-Colour Society, and was throughout life a constant contributor of gracefully painted flower pictures to its exhibitions. After her marriage to Mr. Harrison, in 1814, she was for a time in easy circum- stances, but on the ruin of her husband by a disastrous partnership she maintained and educated a family of twelve children by the proceeds of her art. She died November 25, 1875. Elizabeth Murray, a daughter of T. Heaphy, who was likewise a member of the New Water-Colour Society, died in 1882. Fanny Corbaux, born in 1812, was an excellent writer as well as an artist of acknowledged ability. She was a member of the New Water-Colour Society, and contributed largely to its gallery. Miss Corbaux died at Brighton, February 1, 1883. The sisters Eliza and Louisa Sharpe belonged to the Old Water-Colour Society. The latter afterwards became Mrs. Seyffarth, and her contributions to the exhibitions were much admired; she died in Dresden in 1843. Her works were as a rule subject pictures dramatically rendered and highly finished in point of execution. Her sister Eliza survived her for many years, and died in Chelsea, June 11, 1874, at the age of seventy-eight. Mrs. Brookbank whose maiden name was Scott, was for some years an exhibitor at the Old Water-Colour Society, of which she was elected a member in 1823. She painted tasteful groups of flowers and fruit, but shortly after her marriage she appears to have relinquished art. Nancy Rayner, an artist of much promise, after having been elected an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society in 1850, died of decline in 1855 at the early age of 28. She was GILLIES — CRIDDLE ANGELL — LOFTHOUSE. 221 the daugliter of Mr. Samuel Rayner, the water-colour painter. She contributed picturesque and rustic figures and carefully painted interiors to the exhibitions. Margaret Gillies, who was born in Edinburgh, August 7, 1803, became an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society in 1852, and was at first very successful as a portrait painter and in her family groups. Subsequently she depicted scenes from Shakespeare and the poets. She died at Crockham Hill, Kent, July 20, 1887. Mrs. H. Criddle, elected a lady member of the Old Water- Colour Society in 1849, for thirty years sent charming draw- ings of birds' nests, flowers, and fruit to the Exhibition. She died at the age of seventy-five, December 28, 1880. Helen Cordelia Angell, whose maiden name was Cole- man, was born in 1847, studied under her brother, W. S. Coleman, and painted flowers and plumage with rare skill. She was, moreover, a brilliant colourist, and her drawings at the Old Water-Colour Society, of which she was a member, were highly appreciated. She at first joined the Institute, but she resigned her membership in that body in 1878, and was elected, in 1879, an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society. She died, after a long illness, at the early age of thirty-seven, March 8, 1884. Mary Lofthouse, whose maiden name was Forster, was born in 1853 and was the daughter of an artist; in 1884 she became a member of the Old Water-Colour Society. She had a delicate feeling for colour, and painted old buildings with excellent taste. Her death took place less than a twelvemonth after her marriage, at the age of thirty-two, on May 2, 1885. CHAPTER XY. Francis William Topham — Edward Duncan — Joseph John Jenkins — George Hay dock Dodgson — William Colling wood Smith — George John Pinwell — Arthur Boyd Houghton — Frederick Walker, A.R.A. — John Frederick Lewis, R.A. — Samuel Palmer — Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti — Samuel Read — Alfred Pizzey Newton — Henry Brittan Willis — Thomas Danby — Randolph Caldecott — Philip Henry Delamotte — Thomas Miles Richardson — Walter Goodall — Frederick Tayler — Paul Jacob Naftel — Maud Naftel. We have still to glance at the careers of many eminent masters of the art, some of whom belong almost to the pre- sent day, and who have contributed by their works to bring water-colour painting to the proud position which it now occupies in the art of this country. Francis William Topham, born in Leeds, April 15, 1808, was a self-taught artist, who at first practised as an engraver, in which art he became very proficient. He subsequently in 1843 became a member of the New Water-Colour Society, but quitted this body in 1847, shortly before his election into the Old Water-Colour Society, of which he became a member in E. DUNCAN J. J. JENKINS. 223 the following year. His figure subjects, many of them drawn from the foreign countries he visited, attained a high reputation, and his art was greatly appreciated. His colour- ing was remarkable for its depth and intensity and he made free use of body colour. He died at Cordova, in Spain, March 31, 1877. Edward Duncan was born in London in 1803, and having shown a taste for art from his earliest childhood, was articled to Robert Havell, the engraver. While working here he copied and studied many of the fine drawings of William Havell, and he was thus led to abandon engraving and to take up painting as a profession. He, too, first joined the New Water-Colour Society, but shortly after withdrew from it, and in 1848 was elected an associate of the Old Society, and in 1849 he be- came a full member. His marine views were greatly esteemed, and he was an indefatigable contributor to the exhibitions. He also worked for the illustrated papers and drew on wood for the publishers. He died at Haverstock Hill, after a short illness, April 11, 1882. Another artist who was brought up as an engraver and who was induced subsequently to try his fortune as a water-colour painter was J oseph J ohn J enkins. He was born in London in 1811, and in 1849 became an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society, and a full member in 1850. He, too, had previously belonged to the New Water-Colour Society. His subject pictures and landscapes were very popular, he drew the figure well, and his work was harmonious and pleasing. He was for many years the Secretary of the Society, and devoted much time to its interests. At the period of his death Mr. Jenkins was gathering materials for the history of the Society, which work has recently been ably completed by Mr. J. L. Roget and 224 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. has been constantly consulted by us for authentic records of the early days of water-colour art. Mr. Jenkins retired from the secretaryship in 1864, and died, after a short illness, March 9, 1885. At his death he bequeathed £1,000 to the Society, to which he had made many liberal donations. George Haydock Dodgson, born in Liverpool in 1811, was educated as a civil engineer under George Stephenson, but finding the work too laborious for his health, he gave up his employment and settled in London as an architectural colour- ist. He worked also for the Illustrated London News, and found his services so greatly in request that he was unable to devote himself so much as he wished to drawing from nature. Dodgson was at first a member of the Institute, but resigning his connection with the younger Society, he was in 1848 elected an associate, and in 1852 a full member of the Old Water- Colour Society. He died in London, June 4, 1880. His land- scapes are fresh and brightly-coloured interpretations of nature, and charm by their vividness and truth. In the winter exhibition of the year in which he died there w&s a loan collection of his works to the number of fifty-two in the Old Water-Colour Gallery. His remaining drawings were sold at Christie's in 1881. William Collingwood Smith, born at Greenwich in 1815, after working many years as an oil painter, was elected an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society in 1843, and in 1849 became a full member. On joining the Society he discontinued entirely his oil-painting. He served the office of treasurer for upwards of twenty-five years, and was most devoted to the best interests of the Society. He painted lake and mountain scenery with great technical dexterity and breadth of effect. His drawings are occasionally somewhat G. J. PINWELL A. B. HOUGHTON. 225 garish in colour, and his landscapes do not impress one with truth to nature, being somewhat scenic in character. He used in his later works but little or no body colour, but painted transparently over a grey or neutral ground. He had a large connection as a teacher. He died at Brixton, March 15, 1887, aged seventy-one. George John Pinwell, born in London, December 26, 1842, received his art education at Hatherley's School. He first came into notice as a successful book-illustrator, and ex- hibited at the Dudley Gallery. He became an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society in 1869, and was elected a member two years later. Many of his subject pictures were greatly admired, and his reputation was already firmly estab- lished when he was too early lost to art at the age of 33. His death took place in London, September 8, 1875. Pin well's drawings were much appreciated on the Continent, notably at the Paris Exhibition in 1878, and he was elected an honorary member of the Belgian Society of Painters in Water-Colours. He was a brilliant draughtsman and a good colourist, though he almost eschewed the use of transparent colours. The com- position of his pictures was carefully studied, and some of his works, such as The Pied Piper of Hamelin and Gilbert a Beckers Troth, are well known by the etchings. His art made much impression on his contemporaries, and his influence for good can be traced in the work of several of his followers. Arthur Boyd Houghton, born in 1836, was the son of a Captain of H.M. Indian Navy. He at first painted in oils, but on subsequently obtaining an engagement to draw on wood for Messrs. Dalziel, Brothers, he devoted himself almost entirely to this branch of art. He worked occasionally for the illustrated papers, but his designs are not characterized Q 226 WATER-COLOUR PATNTING IN ENGLAND. by great accuracy or elegance. He was a rich and powerful colourist, though he painted but little. He became an Asso- ciate of the Old Water-Colour Society, in 1871, and died November 22, 1875. Frederick Walker, A.RA., was born in Marylebone in 1840, and commenced the study of art by drawing at the British Museum. He afterwards worked at Leigh's School and at the Royal Academy. About this time he began to draw on wood, and remained for three years with a wood- engraver to perfect himself in this branch of art. An intro- duction to Thackeray procured him work for the Cornhill Magazine, and he was much engaged on the illustrations for periodical literature. In 1864 he was elected an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society, and in 1866 became a member. He had already begun to paint in oil, and in 1863 he sent to the Academy The Lost Path, a pathetic work representing a poor woman carrying an infant through the snow. Many of his finest drawings were executed about this time and Walker was the only English artist who received a medal for water-colours at the Paris Exhibition in 1867. In 1871 he became an associate of the Royal Academy, being the first painter who attained Academy honours while still a member of the Water-Colour Society. Towards the close of his career he painted many fine works in oil, and these are well known by the admirable etchings of R. W. Macbeth. Walker's art was sui generis, and he seems to have evolved, both in drawing, colouring, and execution, a method peculiarly his own. Ruskin speaks thus of his works in a letter to H. S. Marks : — " Their harmonies of amber colour and purple are full of exquisite beauty in their chosen key; their composi- tion always graceful, often admirable, and the sympathy they FREDERICK WALKER — JOHN FREDERICK LEWIS. 227 express with all conditions of human life most kind and true ; not without power of rendering character, which would have been more recognized in an inferior artist because it would have been less restrained by the love of beauty." Walker died of consumption, June 5, 1875, at St. Fillan's, Perthshire, and was buried at Cookham-on-the-Thames, a spot he loved. John Frederick Lewis, RA., was the eldest son of the eminent engraver, and was born in London, July 14, 1805. He studied at first under his father, and devoted himself chiefly to animal painting, and later tried his hand at etching. He first exhibited at the age of fifteen, when one of his pictures at the British Institution was bought by Mr. G. Garrard, A. P. A. At this time he was engaged by Sir Thomas Lawrence, as assistant draughtsman, and a few years later his works having attracted the attention of King George TV. he was commissioned by His Majesty to paint deer and sport- ing subjects at Windsor. As early as 1825 he published a collection of his etchings. In 1827 he was elected an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society, in 1829 he attained full membership, and ultimately in 1855 he became the President. This office he retained only for tw T o years, as his retirement took place early in 1858. He travelled much on the Continent, visiting Italy and Spain, and producing during his absence many fine works painted in water-colours in a large and bold manner, rich in colour, and very varied in handling. His Spanish drawings were subsequently lithographed and published in 1836 as Sketches in Spain. Aided by J. D. Harding he also produced by means of lithography his Sketches and Drawings of the Alhambra, and some Illustrations of Constanti- nople from drawings by Coke Smith were arranged and drawn on stone by Lewis in 1838. In 1843 he proceeded to Cairo, Q ^ 228 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. and remained in the East until 1851, when he married and settled at Walton-on-Thames. His style of work about this period was greatly altered ; he adopted a most minute and elaborate finish, combined with great depth and intensity of colouring. He painted many Eastern subjects, and his works attracted great attention. About 1854 he recommenced paint- ing in oil, arid in 1858 was elected an associate, and in 1865 a full member of the Royal Academy. Early in 1876 he requested, in consequence of failing health, to be placed on the retired list; and on the 15th of August of the same year he died at Walton. His works which even in his lifetime com- manded high prices have in recent years sold for very large sums. One of his drawings, School at Cairo, was bought for £1,239 in Mr. Quilter's sale in 1875. We have been enabled to reproduce his characteristic work entitled A Halt in the Desert, one of the Ellison pictures in the Historical Collection at South Kensington [No. 532]. Here we have a caravan resting in the desert. Two camels are standing in the foreground, the others are lying about ; the train of finely painted animals and figures extends into the distance. This is a good example of his later and more minute style of execution, and shows how carefully he studied Nature on the spot, it is dated 1853. Samuel Palmer, born in 1805 in Newington, studied under John Yarley, and first exhibited as an oil painter at the Eoyal Academy in 1819. He early made the acquaintance of John Linnell, whose daughter he married in 1837, and he was shortly after introduced by him to Blake, for whom he con- ceived the most profound veneration. He lived for a time at Shoreham, near Sevenoaks, painting rural scenes, being at that period in delicate heath. He subsequently spent two years in SAMUEL PALMER — G. C. D. R03SETTI. 231 Italy, and in 1843 was elected an associate of the Old Water- Colour Society, and full member in 1855. He had a fine sense of colour, and excelled in glowing effects of sunshine. He was a great admirer of Yirgil and of Milton, and drew many of his themes from those poets' works. He was a member of the Etching Club, and produced some highly-prized works. Palmer resided for the latter part of his life at Reigate, and died there on the 24th of May, 1881. He was one of the most poetical painters of the modern water-colour school, and though he rarely worked from Nature he had so stored his mind with her varied aspects that he could represent her divers phases from the resources of his memory. He chose the same class of sub- jects in which Barret delighted ; but Palmer's sunsets differ wholly from those of Barret, owing to their greater warmth and glow. He produced great richness of effect by his method of contrasting warm and cool colours throughout the surface of his pictures, and he paid special attention to the selection and preparation of his colours, so that they might properly assort together and not injure one another by juxtaposition. During the last years of his life he was engaged upon a series of etch- ings to illustrate Yirgil' s Eclogues which he had himself trans- lated. These have since been completed and published by his son. An important place, though not among the members of the Societies, is justly due to — Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti, the eldest son of an eminent Italian poet, who was born in London in 1828. He studied at Cary's, and later at the Schools of the Royal Academy. His art, which was distinctly original, was known chiefly to his immediate circle of admirers, as he rarely exhibited, and lived in great retirement owing to ill- 232 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. health. Rossetti was the mainstay of the Pre-Raphaelite school. He was a splendid colourist, and affected a peculiar method of drawing, but he had a strong sense of the beautiful, and many of his works are imbued with deep poetical feeling. Rossetti was, indeed, himself a poet of no mean order, and some of his poems, such as The Blessed Damozel, are well known. His first exhibited work is said to have been The Girlhood of the Virgin, painted in 1849. For many years his pictures were sent to the Hogarth Club. His favourite subjects were taken from early Italian poetry and legendary lore. His works in water-colours belong to his maturer years, dating from 1862 onwards. Certain of his later designs were distinguished by mannerisms, which have been attributed to ill-health. He died after a lingering illness at Birchington-on-the-Sea, April 8, 1882. Many of his works were exhibited at the Royal Academy in the following winter. Samuel Read was born at Needham Market, Suffolk, in 1815 or 1816, and was destined for the legal profession, but he early turned his affection to art, and at five-and-twenty he came to London and worked as a draughtsman on wood. In 1844 he was engaged on the staff of the Illustrated London News, and acted as their special artist in the Crimea in 1853. He occasionally sent works to the Royal Academy, and in 1857 was elected an associate and in 1880 a member of the Old "Water-Colour Society. He painted at first chiefly the fine old buildings on the Continent, and was a most skilful architectural draughtsman, but latterly he produced many admirable landscapes. His death took place at Sidmouth, May 6, 1883. Alfred Pizzey Newton painted Scotch landscape scenery with great ability, and was on more than one occasion en- H. B. WILLIS— THOMAS DANBY — RANDOLPH CALDECOTT. 233 trusted with commissions by Her Majesty the Queen. He became in 1858 an associate and in 1879 a full member of the Old Water-Colour Society. His death occurred at Rock Ferry, near Liverpool, on September 9, 1883. Henry Brittan Willis, the son of an artist, was born in Bristol about 1814. He first studied under his father, who, finding art unremunerative, advised his son to enter a merchant's office in New York. Young Willis however had to relinquish his post owing to ill-health, and again took up art. He practised first as a portrait painter in Bristol, but came to London in 1843, and contributed to the Academy and other exhibitions until 1862, when he joined the Old Water-Colour Society, becoming a full member in the following year. His best works were his drawings of animals, in which branch of art he was highly proficient. He published in 1849 Studies of Cattle and Rustic Figures. Willis died at Kensington, January 17, 1884. Thomas Danby, the son of the well-known Irish artist of this name, was born, it is believed, at Bristol, and early dis- tinguished himself as a landscape painter of great power and originality. Many years during his youth were spent on the Continent, whither he had gone with his father in 1829. In 1841 the family returned to London, and young Danby, though he at first painted in oil, afterwards made a name as a water-colour painter. In 1867 he became an associate and three years later a full member of the Old Water-Colour Society. His Welsh somewhat ideal landscapes, with their quiet lakes and mountain scenery, were his happiest themes. He died March 25, 1886. Few artists of the modern school have more speedily established a reputation than Randolph Caldecott, who was 234 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. born at Chester in 1846, and educated at King Henry VII. 's School in that city where he became head boy. He was at first employed as a bank clerk at Whitchurch, Salop. From thence he went to another bank at Manchester, and at that time he began to draw for a local periodical. He settled in London in 1872. He is said never to have had any art educa- tion, and his talents as a book-illustrator first became widely known when he published in 1875 his admirable drawings for Washington Irving's Sketch-Book. A year or two later he at once gained the fancy of the public with his children's picture-books, John Gilpin, The House thai Jack Built, kc. He also supplied many designs for the Christmas numbers of the Graphic, wherein his drawings of animals are inimitable. He exhibited but rarely at the public galleries, and devoted nearly all his time to book-illustration. He was however a member of the New Water-Colour Society. He was an expert modeller, and at the Royal Academy in 1876 he exhibited a bas-relief of a Horse Fair in Brittany. His huntiug scenes in water- colours are admirably drawn, and he was also an excellent colourist. A small collection of his drawings has been secured for the Historical Collection at South Kensington. He struggled bravely throughout life with an affection of the heart which ren- dered movement, other than horse exercise, a matter of great difficulty to him. He died in Florida, whither he had gone to seek relief from his ailment, February 12, 1886, at the early age of forty. Philip Henry Delamotte, a son of William Delamotte, mentioned in an earlier chapter, was the author of several excellent works on water-colour painting, and was for thirty- five years Professor of Drawing at King's College, London. He also taught drawing to the daughters of the Prince of T. M. RICHARDSON W. GOODALL — F. TAYLER. 235 Wales. He was born at Sandhurst, April 17, 1821, and died at Bromley, Kent, February 24, 1889. Thomas Miles Richardson was a son of the water-colour painter of the same name, whose memoir will be found on page 152. He was born in 1813, and came to London after painting for a while both in oil and water-colours in New- castle, his birthplace. He was elected an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society in 1843 and a full member in 1851. He was a prolific contributor of landscape scenery to the Gallery, painted at home and on the Continent. This he treated in a bright and attractive style, with well-placed groups of figures and animals. He died, after being for some years in feeble health, on January 5, 1890. Walter Good all, born November 6th, 1830, studied at the Government School of Design and at the Royal Academy, and after exhibiting water-colour drawings at the Academy, he was in 1853 elected an associate and in 1861 a member of the Old Water-Colour Society. He painted scenes from rural life with much taste and his colouring was simple and effective. After being seized with paralysis about 1875 he had to give up painting almost entirely, and his death took place at Clapham, near Bedford, in 1889. Frederick Tayler, who was born at Barham Wood, near Elstree, on the 30th of April, 1804, was educated for his pro- fession in Sass's Academy in Bloomsbury, became a student of the Royal Academy, subsequently proceeded to Paris to work under Horace Yernet, and went also to study in Rome. While in Paris he shared a studio with his friend and companion Bonington, which had belonged to Vernet. His first picture, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1830 — The Band of the 2nd Life Guards — was in oil, but in the 236 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. following year he became an associate of the Old Water- Colour Society, and in 1834 was elected a member. He was made President of the Society, in succession to Lewis, in 1858, and filled the office with distinction until 1871, when he resigned in favour of Sir John Gilbert, but still continued to paint with rare skill. After spending some time, as we have seen, in France and Italy, he went to Scotland, and produced some excellent pictures of Highland subjects. He was a good horseman and a keen sportsman, and depicted animal subjects with knowledge and enthusiasm. His dogs and horses were admir- ably drawn, and his work elicited high praise from Ruskin, who wrote in his Modem Painters : — " There are few drawings of the present day that involve greater sensation of power than those of Frederick Tayler. Every stroke tells, and the quantity of effect obtained is enormous in proportion to the apparent means." Though the context somewhat justifies these very laudatory remarks, there can be no doubt that this master of art criticism entertained a high opinion of Tayler' s ability. We are fortunate in being able to represent him by one of the most vigorous of his studies of animals, The Otter Hounds, a group of four dogs, probably portraits. This fine work was presented by Mrs. Ellison to the Historical Collection at Kensington [No. 544]. The brush-work deserves to rank with that of Landseer, and the drawing is executed, mainly in transparent colour, with a power and directness which speak the hand of a true artist. Tayler delighted in hawking and hunting scenes, he clothed his figures in the gay and ap- propriate costumes of the past, and he was most happy in his landscape backgrounds. His colouring is delicate and pure, and he was able with apparently slight effort to give great breadth of effect. He was a valued member of the Etching Club, and he PAUL JACOB NAFTTCL. 239 worked diligently as a book-illustrator. Many of his pictures have been engraved. Tayler died June 20, 1889, and was buried in Hampstead Cemetery. His collection of etchings and engravings, and also his remaining drawings and sketches were sold at Christie's in the following year. Paul Jacob Naftel, born in 1815, was a native of the Channel Islands, and did not come to this country to reside until 1870, previous to which time he had worked mainly as a teacher. He became an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society in 1850 and was elected a member in 1859. He was much employed in teaching, but found time also to send numerous drawings to the Exhibition. He delighted in the landscape scenery of the Channel Islands, and he was greatly addicted in his drawings to the use of body colour. His death took place at Strawberry Hill in September 1891. His only daughter, Miss Maud Naftel, was also an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society. CHAPTER XYI. Collections of Water Colour Drawings in England — The South Kensington Museum — Drawings by Constable and Mul- ready — The Sheepshanks Collection — The Ellison Bequest — The William Smith Bequest — The Historical Collection of Water-Colour Drawings — The Print Room of the British Museum — Water-Colour Drawings in the National Gallery — Turner's " Liber Studiorum " — Drawings by De Wint and Cattermole — The Gallery of British Art. It may be useful, before we bring this concise account of the art of water-colour painting to a close, to glance at the principal collections of drawings in this country available for public study, and to point out the nature of their contents, and the manner in which they have been brought together. We think that in this special branch of art we shall be justified in giving the first place to the collections at the South Kensington Museum. The founder of this section of the Art Museum was Mr. John Sheepshanks, who in 1857 presented his magnificent gallery of pictures to the nation. A few drawings and sketches were included with the oil paintings, and certain of these studies are of peculiar interest to the art student, SHEEPSHANKS COLLECTION AT SOUTH KENSINGTON. 241 because in many cases they indicate the steps by which the painter thought out his subject and combined the various incidents into a perfect whole. We have drawings of figures, blots of colour to show the masses of light and shade, studies of extremities, some of them carefully finished to serve the artist when painting at the easel, and minute drawings to show arrangements of drapery and other details. The collec- tion of water-colour drawings by J ohn Constable affords many examples of these artists' studies, some of them of the utmost value. From the facility with which water-colours can be handled, artists have always shown a preference for this medium for their preliminary studies, and many of our most eminent oil painters made an invariable practice of beginning their more important works by a series of small sketches of this kind- The author's father, in his introductory notes to the Catalogue of the Water-Colour Paintings, says : " In view of the interest which thus attaches to such studies it is to be hoped that opportunities may hereafter occur of still further increasing in this direction the value of Mr. Sheepshanks' gift by obtain- ing as far as possible all the sketches and drawings for at least a few of the principal pictures comprised in this national collection." Some such sketches were obtained from Mr. Mulready and others, and from time to time the collection was added to, but shortly after it was transferred to South Kensington it was ' decided to form an historical series of paintings in water- colours, to illustrate the progress of the art. That such should be the case was indeed Mr. Sheepshanks' expressed intention in presenting during his lifetime his pictures to the nation. His wish was that they should form the nucleus of a national collection of works both in oil and water-colours. R 242 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. He did not desire that his pictures should in any way be kept apart, but that they should be merged into an " Historical Series of Pictures by British Artists." The first important donation of water-colour drawings was the gift of Mrs. Ellison, of Sudbrooke Holme, in 1860, of fifty-one fine works. This collection was expressly stated to have been presented for public instruction and for the forma- tion of the contemplated historical series, as also in order to comply with the wishes of her late husband, who was a well known connoisseur. At the death of Mrs. Ellison in May, 1873 the number was raised to 100 drawings by the selection of forty- nine additional works, all of them of the greatest value and importance. This series of drawings by Barret, Cattermole, De Wint, Duncan, Copley Fielding, Haghe, Hunt, Lewis, Mackenzie, Nash, Prout, Robson, Tayler, Topham, and others, was rich in those masters whose works occupied a prominent place in public estimation. They were without exception large and highly finished works, purchased in most cases from the artists, and thus presented an admirable illustration of the more recent practice of the art. Following the acquisition of the first portion of Mrs. Ellison's drawings came the liberal offer in 1871, by the late Mr. William Smith, F.S. A., to allow a selection to be made from his collection of water-colour paintings of any works produced prior to 1806, as a gift towards the completion up to that date of the historical collection. In this way eighty-six rare and early drawings were added to the series, and by his will, dated July 23rd, 1872, a further number of works were re- ceived, raising the total donation to 222 drawings. Mr. Smith's death took place in 1876, and during the last few years of his life he rendered most valuable services in the arrangement and selection of the water-colour collections, his ELLISON BEQUEST WILLIAM SMITH BEQUEST. 243 knowledge of the works of the early masters being always available to the officers of the department. Among the most prominent of the artists whose works were represented in the " William Smith Gift and Bequest " were Atkinson, Callow, Chambers, Cleveley, Cotman, Cox, Cristall, Daniell, Dayes, Edridge, Copley Fielding, Francia, Girtin, Gresse, Grimm, Hearne, Hills, Holland, Malton, Marlow, Mortimer, Nichol- son, S. Prout, Hooker, Rowlandson, Turner, J. Yarley, Wheatley, and C. Wild. Coming at the time it did this collection was of the greatest possible service in securing a continuity of the series of drawings, and in enabling the visitor to obtain a correct impression of the art from its origin in this country down to the most recent times. The Dixon bequest of water-colour drawings, to the number of 170, was specially made to the Bethnal Green Branch Museum, and it is not therefore included in the historical series. Mr. Dixon died on December 7th, 1885. The works were mostly of the more modern period, covered by the dona- tions of Mrs. Ellison, but many fine drawings by artists not represented at South Kensington may be studied with ad- vantage at the East London Museum. On the death of Miss Isabel Constable in 1888 the Ken- sington Museum acquired no less than 403 sketches in water- colours, Indian ink, pencil, &c, by John Constable, B.A., her father. These are studies from nature, embracing a wide variety of subjects, and most interesting as showing the methods in which a most distinguished painter and one of the greatest masters of landscape in the English School was wont to prepare himself for his more important pictures by the careful observation of minute details, out of doors. The latest and by no means the least valuable acquisition to this branch of the museum is a collection of fifty water-colour R 2 244 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. drawings bequeathed by the late Sir Prescott G. Hewett, Bart., himself an amateur of no mean skill, and a great admirer of the art. At the time we write these works have not yet been publicly displayed at South Kensington. We should not omit to mention that in the munificent bequest in 1868 by the Rev. Chauncy Hare Townshend of his library and art works there were many important English and foreign water-colour drawings. Some fine water-colours are comprised in the Jones collection, and the bequest of Mr. J. M. Parsons in 1870 contained forty-seven water-colour drawings, some of them by eminent artists. The series of works, made up to a great extent of the fore- going benefactions has been from time to time supplemented by the judicious purchase of representative drawings, both of the earlier masters and also of contemporary artists, and the " Historical Collection " displayed in the three galleries of the South Kensington Museum furnishes the student with a com prehensive view of the art in all its different phases, from the tempera painting of Zuccarelli in the early part of the last century to a small but interesting selection of the works of the recently deceased Randolph Caldecott. The drawings are arranged grouped together under the names of the painters as far as possible in strict historical sequence, and seen in this way it is easy to trace the development of this branch of art from its origin in the early tinted works of the topographers down to the richly-coloured drawings of the present day. There is perhaps a certain want of scale and proportion in the representation, due in some degree to the manner in which the collection has been brought together, but this is an evil which time will dispel, as the superabundant drawings are being gradually handed over to the section of the museum entrusted with the circulation of art works to the provincial PRINT ROOM OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. galleries, and the gaps are being steadily filled by means of purchases or donations. Second only in importance to the collections we have just described is the department of drawings and sketches attached to the Print Room of the British Museum. The foundation of that collection is due to the successive bequests of Sir Hans Sloane, the Rev. C. M. Cracherode, and Mr. Payne Knight, and the gift of Mr. W. Fawkener. Among the donations of more recent date are the invaluable drawings of David Cox, Muller, and Turner, presented by Mr. John Henderson, the large series of works by her father, John Constable, R.A., bequeathed by Miss Isabel Constable, and benefactions by Miss Moore, Mrs. Roget, Mr. S. Calvert, and others. In Mr. Sidney Colvin's preface to the recently issued Guide to the Exhibition of Drawings and Sketches it is pointed out that — " In developing and maintaining the collection by pur- chase, the principle adopted has been to make it as complete for purposes of historical study as means and opportunities allowed. With that view there have been added from time to time specimens by the chief masters of the Continental Schools at all periods of their history, and particularly by every hand of note in the British School ; so that no name mentioned in the annals of our native art, or at any rate as few as possible, may remain unillustrated. As a general rule these specimens are in the form of direct studies from, nature, or first sketches for compositions in which the artist's individuality often most intimately reveals itself, rather than in that of finished works ; but this rule is subject to exceptions, especially in the cases of British water colour painters. " The catalogue of the collection is in manuscript, and includes all the engravings, prints, and drawings of the English School, 246 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. so that the student of water-colour art has to select the names of masters dispersed through many folio volumes, no special classification of water-colour drawings having as yet been attempted. The water-colour drawings belonging to the Print Room of the British Museum are contained in large book boxes arranged round the upper part of the gallery. The boxes are placed in a horizontal position, and as a rule contain from fifteen to twenty-five drawings, mounted on cardboard and carefully named and labelled. They are thus preserved from all dangers of fading and are very accessible for purposes of study, though they cannot be seen by the public so readily as they would be if framed and arranged on the walls of a picture gallery. This is to some extent atoned for by the display of a small selection of the works in the so-called " Print and Drawing Gallery.' ' Here a representative series of works have been placed behind glass in wall and desk cases, giving an apergu of the entire subject " from the period of the revival of the art of painting in Europe, i.e., about 1400 a.d. until our own day, the art of living artists being excluded.' ' A considerable section of the works here shown belong to continental schools, or to a period prior to that of which we have undertaken to treat, but the student having in his hand the excellent Guide, to which we have already referred, will here find a most valuable illustra- tion of the art, conveniently displayed for the purpose of reference and study. More especially is the art of the end of the last century to be here seen to advantage in the works of Flaxman, Stothard, Downman, Ibbetson, Rowlandson, Mor- land, James Ward, Chinnery, Hearne, and Edridge. Passing on to the modern period we find a comprehensive series of sketches by P. S. Munn, Constable, Eeynolds, De Wint, Prout, Cox, J . F. Lewis, Calvert, and others ; the group of book illus- WATER-COLOUR PAINTINGS IN NATTONAL GALLERY. 247 trators — H. K. Browne, Doyle, Leech, and Caldecott — being here well represented. Though water-colour drawings have not been made a special feature at the National Gallery, the mere fact of the posses- sion of the grand series of sketches bequeathed by Turner will render this collection most attractive to the student of this branch of art. We wish we were able to state that the Turner drawings were well seen and well lighted in the galleries at Trafalgar Square, but it is only on a fine bright day that they can be properly studied in the four small rooms devoted to them in the eastern basement — we beg pardon, " ground-floor rooms." Foremost in importance among these works are the fifty-one drawings in sepia for the Liber Studiorum. This work, as is well known, was undertaken by Turner to emulate Claude's Liber Ver (talis. The drawings here shown were after- wards outlined on soft plates and aqua-tinted, many of them by Turner himself, and were published in numbers from the year 1807 until 1819. With these works are exhibited a number of early sketches, arranged as far as practicable in chronological order and classified under three periods. More than 200 sketches are here shown, ranging from finished drawings to the merest pencil outlines, some of them on both sides of the paper. In the rooms on the western side of the building are the twenty-three drawings by De Wint and ten by Cattermole, bequeathed by the late Mr. John Henderson, and with them is placed the fine drawing by Louis Haghe, the Council of War at Courtray, the only water-colour, we believe, in the Yernon Collection. The De Wint drawings are for the most part sketches, but three or four of them are highly finished works, notably the Bray on the Thames, for which also the first sketch is here preserved, the Bridge over the 248 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. Wytham, and Lincoln Cathedral. In a second room are some studies by Gainsborough, Cattermole, Stothard, and others, and a few drawings recently presented by Miss Gordon. This completes the record of our national treasures of this art, so peculiar to our own country, but even while we write there are rumours of yet another Gallery of British Art ; a sort of Luxembourg Palace, in which are to be brought together under one roof the collections now dispersed over so wide an area. The plan has on the face of it many advantages and much to commend it, but it is we fear not likely to see fruition. Some of the collections would not be parted with to any foreign body, however constituted, without a struggle, and some of the works of art cannot be dissociated from their present habitat without doing violence to the express direc- tions of generous donors. If Parliament were willing to inter- fere and to set aside the wishes of a Sheepshanks or a Townshend, it would not be likely to produce a good effect in the minds of other possible donors of art treasures, and in our opinion it is better to let well alone and to leave matters as they are. Still we hope that before long steps may be taken to strengthen and improve the representation of British art in our national collections. Much has been done in the past by private liberality, but much remains to be done by the State if the fine arts of this country are to be adequately represented. Other nations have shown us what is possible, and wealthy England ought not to be worse off in this respect than are her neighbours. It must be remembered that each year of delay means increased difficulty and increased cost in obtaining fine examples of the art of the masters of our earlier School. Let us hope that ere the present century comes to an end the works of English painters may be fairly studied in a truly " National Gallery," specially set apart for the purpose. CHAPTER XVII. Materials used by Water-Colour Artists — Permanence of Water- Colour Drawings — Experiments made —Reports from a Committee of Experts — The Stability of Single Colours and Mixed Colours — General Conclusion. Having in the foregoing account of the rise and progress of water-colour painting attempted to describe the development of the art, and to give a few particulars concerning the lives of some of its chief exponents in this country, we propose in this final chapter to glance at the materials used by artists in the past, and to discuss very briefly the vexed question of the permanence of water-colour drawings, a matter of vast importance to all who are interested in this branch of painting. The artist's palette in the time of Hilliard was an extremely limited one, and consisted of certain pigments, which Salmon, in his Polygraphice, writing, it is true, much later — sums up as seven in number, " white, black, red, green, yellow, blue, and brown," but he proceeds to show many varieties of each colour. Thus he tells us the chief whites are " spodium, ceruse, white lead, Spanish white, egg-shells burnt'' ; in blacks he distinguishes " hartshorn burnt, ivory burnt, cherrystones 250 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. burnt, lamp-black, charcoal, sea-coal, verditer burnt, mummy burnt " ; he enumerates eight reds, six greens, eight yellows, four blues, viz. " ultramarine, indico, smalt, and blue bice," and six browns. Salmon points out, however, that " Ver- million, verdigriese, orpiment, and some others are too coarse and gritty to be used in water-colours unless they be purified and prepared, and turnsole, litmose blue, roset, brasil, logwood, and saffron are more fib for washing prints than curious limning. " Salmon wrote about the close of the seventeenth century, and his directions for limning and painting are very precise. It is clear that at that date the painter had to rely upon the home preparation of all his colours, and if he followed the instructions given in the Polygraphice, in the eighteenth chapter of the second book, for each of them, he must have spent a great part of his time in the work. Here, for instance, is the mode of preparing " blue bice : grind it with clean water as small as you can, then put it into a shell, and wa sh it thus : put as much water as will fill up the vessel or shell, and stir it well, let it stand an hour, and the filth and dirty water cast away ; then put in more clean water ; do thus four or five times. At last put in gum- arabick water, somewhat weak, that the bice may fall to the bottom ; pour off the gum- water and put more to it ; wash it again, dry it, and mix it with weak gum-water (if you would have it rise of the same colour), but with a stiff water of gum-lake if you would have it a most perfect blue ; if a light blue, grind it with a little ceruse ; but if a most deep blue, add water of litmose." In the third book of this curious treatise are very minute directions for " washing landskips," and concerning the necessary colours for the work. MATERIALS USED BY WATER-COLOUR ARTISTS. 251 Thus we are told : " For the saddest hills use umber burnt ; for the lightest places put yellow to the burnt umber ; for other hills lay copper green, thickened on the fire or in the sun. For the next hills farther off mix yellow berries with copper green : let the fourth part be done with green verditure ; and the furthest and faintest places with blew bice, or blew verditure mingled with white, and shadowed with blew verditure in the shadows indifferent thick.' ' Similar rules follow for highways, rocks, water, buildings, &c. In the Art of Drawing and Painting in Water-Colours, published in 1770, the writer still keeps to the traditional seven colours, and names them as " white, yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, and black"; he also gives rules for their pre- paration, almost as cumbrous as those of Salmon ; but it has been pointed out that in 1776, Mat Darley, the well-known engraver and print-seller, included in his advertisements, " Transparent colours for staining drawings." This is, we think, the origin of the artists' colourman's trade. A few years later, the Messrs. Reeves took in hand the preparation of colours in cakes for artists' use, and in 1781 the greatei silver palette of the Society of Arts was awarded to Messrs. Thomas and William Eeeves for their "improved water-colours." These early cake colours were very hard and difficult to rub, but the French manufacturers soon found that by grinding up the colours with honey, a soft pigment could be produced, which they termed " couleur de miel" and which could be preserved in this condition for a lengthened period, and thus arose the so-called "moist colours" of our English makers. We believe that the Messrs. Eoberson, of Long Acre, were the first to introduce these colours, but for many years the cake colours of Messrs. Eeeves held their 252 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. own, and were used by the whole fraternity of artists in this country. About 1832, Messrs. Winsor and Newton employed metal tules for the moist colours, similar to those used for oil paints, and numerous improvements in the preparation and manufacture of colours took place. Many artists introduced special tints, and as new colouring matters were discovered the range of the palette was greatly extended. In some recent experiments, noted in the Re/port on the Action of Light on Water-Colours, thirty-nine separate pigments are enumer- ated, and by the mixture of these to produce secondary tints an almost infinite gradation can be secured. The mixture with sugar and honey gave rise to certain inconveniences, especially for sketching out of doors from Nature, as it exposed the artist and his work to the attention of flies, 1 and the adoption of this vehicle, and even the employment of gum for consolidating the cakes, rendered the painting liable to suffer from damp and mould. In recent times the use of glycerine in place of sugar has, we believe, rendered the colours free from this danger. In the early days of the art the only paper obtainable was of very inferior quality and in small sheets. For large and important works it was therefore necessary to join several sheets together, and this led to the need of unsightly seams. Most of the paper was of the quality known as "wire-laid," prepared for writing in ink, and folded into quires, and here again the mark of the fold was often a cause of disfigurement to the drawing, as it caused the colour to soak in more abundantly, and thus produced a dark stain. Girtin, as we have 1 To guard against this the author of Art's Companion, publisher! in 1749, advocated the use of coloquintida. PAPER USED BY WATER COLOUR ARTISTS. 253 seen, used this kind of paper, and Turner also employed a somewhat similar paper in his earlier work. Subsequently a common white cartridge paper was prepared for artists' use, and was largely employed ; but the size on this description of paper yielded to the washing process advocated by Paul Sandby, and the surface was speedily destroyed. Early in the present century very considerable improvements in the manu- facture of paper were introduced by Messrs. Creswick, Messrs. Whatman, and other makers, and a hand-made " vellum paper," with a good rough surface and abundance of size, capable of being supplied in large sheets, furnished the artist with a reliable material on which to work, and did excellent service to the progress of the art. This paper would " take the colour " well as it flowed from the brush, and retain it until it dried with lustre and sharpness at the edges of the wash. There was none of the absorbency, due to a deficiency of size, inherent in the earlier descriptions of paper, and the artist could lay in his skies with bold washes and work with a freedom impossible in the case of cartridge paper. Messrs. Creswick moreover pro- duced sheets of uniformly toned paper, and papers in various qualities and textures to suit the requirements of the pro- fession. The earlier papers suffered much from defects in the rags and other substances employed in their manufacture ; spots of iron-mould gave rise to ugly stains and blotches, some of which did not become manifest until the work was com- pleted, and the artist was, so to speak, at the mercy of the paper-maker. So much was this the case, that Ruskin, in one of his Manchester lectures, advocated that the Government should undertake the manufacture of a perfectly pure paper made from linen rags of the highest possible quality, and should stamp each sheet so made. 254 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. Harding had a certain description of hard-grained cartridge paper specially made for him by Messrs. Whatman, and this was marked with his initials J. D. H., impressed at one corner in cursive handwriting, but generally the water-mark of one of the makers we have named is regarded as a sufficient proof of excellence. The beautiful art of the water-colour painter is thus, as we have seen, liable to many risks from defective pigments and imperfectly made paper, though in both respects the materials have in recent times been vastly improved ; but within the past few years grave doubts have been publicly expressed concerning the durability of water-colour paintings, and to allay public apprehension, as also to elicit the best scientific evidence upon this question, the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education, in April, 1886, requested Dr. Russell, F.R.S., and Captain Abney, R.E., F.R.S., to carry out an exhaustive series of experiments on the action of light on water-colour drawings. Shortly afterwards a resolution of the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours was received, urging " the desirability in the interests of water-colour painters of the appointment of a water-colour painter in association with Dr. Russell and Captain Abney in the work of investigating the effects of light of various kinds upon water-colour pigments.' ' On receipt of this memorial, a committee of artists was appointed to act with these gentle- men, which committee consisted of Sir F. Leighton, Bart., P.R.A., Mr. L. Alma Tadema, R.A., Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Sidney Colvin, Mr. Frank Dillon, Mr. Carl Haag, Sir James D. Linton, Mr. E. J. Poynter, R.A., and Mr. Henry Wallis. These gentlemen held four meetings previous to the issue of the first Report in June, 1888. REPORT ON THE PERMANENCY OF WATER-COLOURS. 255 This first Report deals with the physical effects of light on water-colour paintings, the investigation of the nature of the chemical changes involved being deferred to a second Report. The Blue-book is divided into three sections. Part L, intro- ductory, deals with the optical properties of pigments and the different characters of light to which they may be exposed. The quality and character of the light in a picture gallery is discussed, and compared with the light from a clouded sky and with direct sunlight. It is pointed out that pictures are as . a rule protected from direct sunlight but the greater part of the light which enters a room is reflected sunlight from the clouds. Of course a considerable proportion of the illumination of a gallery is due to the sky and this light is bluer than reflected or diffused sunlight. In top-lighted galleries more of this blue light reaches the pictures than in side-lighted apartments. The artificial illumination may consist either of gaslight or electric-lighting (arc or incandescent). The character and effect of each variety of light had to be carefully ascertained. As the result of photometric experiments, the nature of which is fully described, the Reporters tell us that " when the sun was shining for 500 hours the pigments (used as tests) received blue light equal to 1,875 hours of that of a blue sky fully illuminated when the sun shone on them. Besides this, the pigments received 200 hours of blue sky towards sunset when the colours were in the shade which may be taken as about equal to 50 hours of aver- age sky-light illumination" . . . Making certain deductions for degraded sunlight and adding for the hours of light when the sun was not shining, it is estimated that "the pigments received a total illumination equivalent to 2,225 hours of average blue sky, which is made up of the 1,875 hours, the 50 hours and the 300 hours," The experiments were carried on 256 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING IN ENGLAND. until the pigments tested had received the equivalent of 10,800 hours of the blue sky-light. Measurements were then under- taken to estimate what amount of this blue sky-light would have penetrated to pictures hanging on the walls of a top- lighted gallery, and it was decided that by " the exposure of a picture inside the gallery," it would receive "about T ~ of that given to the pigments during the same time." But after making allowance for diminished light in the autumn and winter (the experiments took place from May to August), it is estimated that " it would have taken 100 years in the gallery in question to have arrived at the same degree of fading as that to which the pigments had arrived up to August, 1886." Further in order to secure the same bleaching effects as were obtained in the whole period of these colour tests, it would be necessary to expose the pigments for 480 years in the South Kensington galleries. To obtain corresponding effects from gaslight they must have been exposed continuously for 9,600 years. The Second Part contains the description and results of ex- periments with various colours. For this purpose the moist colours of one firm were employed ; the colours were used singly and as a mixture of two or more colours. The paper used was that of Whatman. The colours were applied in super- imposed washes, eight in number, giving a scale of shades from 1 to 8. The test slips were eight inches long and two inches wide, and were introduced into glass tubes open at each end. Two strips cut from the same sheet were introduced into each tube, the lower one being protected from the light by a piece of American cloth tightly bound round the tube. The exposure lasted from August 14, 1886, to March, 1888. Certain colours vanished completely, such as carmine, crimson EXPERIMENTS ON WATER-COLOURS. lake, and scarlet lake ; others faded or changed. The following table shows approximately the order of instability of the single colours : — Carmine. Crimson Lake. Purple Madder. Scarlet Lake. Payne's Grey. Naples Yellow. Olive Green. Indigo. Brown Madder. Gamboge. Vandyke Brown. Brown Pink. Indian Yellow. Cadmium Yellow. Leitche's Blue. Violet Carmine. Purple Carmine. Sepia. Aureolin. Pose Madder. Permanent Blue. Antwerp Blue. Madder Lake. Vermilion. Emerald Green. Burnt Umber. Yellow Ochre. Indian Red. Venetian Red. Burnt Sienna. Chrome Yellow. Lemon Yellow. Raw Sienna. Terra Verte. Chromium Oxide. Prussian Blue. Cobalt. French Blue. Ultramarine Ash. The thirteen colours in the third column showed no change. In addition to the single colours 34 sets of mixtures were tested, and of these only three remained from first to last un- changed, although six of the mixtures which contained Prussian blue regained their original colours on being placed in the dark for six weeks. Similar experiments, the results of which are given, were con- ducted with slips in absolutely dry air-tight tubes, in tubes filled with moist air, and in an atmosphere of moist hydrogen gas. Investigations were also carried out with the colours in vacuo ; in this latter case nearly all the colours remained un- changed. Experiments were further made on the effect of the electric arc light and on the action of heat ; also concerning the results of exposure to the products of combustion, at a temperature of 82° Fahr. Mixtures with Chinese white were likewise tested in various ways, and certain colours were exposed to the effects of light passing through red, green, and blue glasses. A few selected colours were also mixed with s 258 WATER-COLOUR FAINTING IN ENGLAND. oxgall to ascertain its effect, but in no case did it appear to have any any injurious action. The colours were also sub- mitted to the action of the ordinary diffused light of a dwelling-room, when the fading action was of course much less apparent. In their general conclusions the authors of the Report state that mineral colours are far more stable than vegetable colours, and that the presence of moisture and oxygen is in most cases essential for a change to be effected. " It may be said that every pigment is permanent when exposed to light in vacuo, and this indicates the direction in which experiments should be made for the preservation of water-colour drawings." It is pointed out that " the effect of light on a mixture of colours which have no direct chemical action on one another is that the unstable colour disappears and leaves the stable colour unaltered appreciably." The authors state that since it is the blue light which causes the fading, it might be thought that for the glazing of sky- lights a glass of a slightly yellow tint should be adopted, but it is pointed out that in ordinary diffused sunlight this would entail an alteration in the brilliancy of the blues in a picture and a change in their tone. The Third Part of the Report treats of the measurement of the intensity of light reflected from pigments — a subject of incidental importance in these investigations — and it contains several other appendices, and graphic diagrams. The results of the inquiry may be regarded as, upon the whole, reassuring and satisfactory to the admirers of the art of the water-colour painter. If ordinary precautions are taken to protect the drawings from direct sunlight, they are at any rate quite as permanent as the works of the oil-painter, and they NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS. 259 are in truth exposed to fewer risks than his from treacherous vehicles or defective varnishes. Rejecting a few colours which have long been known to be unstable, and restricting himself to those whose permanence has stood the test of time, the water-colour painter can produce works which will endure for ages to delight the future art lover and bear evidence of his skill as an artist. Having thus very briefly traced the history of the rise and progress of water-colour painting in this country, and having brought before our readers a few brief details of the lives of some of the principal artists who have practised it ; and having further attempted to show the changes which have from time to time occurred in the methods of working, we may conclude with the hope that the success of our English artists in the past may induce many generations of painters in the future to emulate their example and to enrich our collections with specimens of this beautiful art. INDEX INDEX Abney, Captain, his Report on Colour, 254 Ackermann, R., 86, 109, 136, 151 Alexander, W,, 10, 16 Accompanies Lord Macartney's mission, 15 Airport, Henry 0., 73, 74, 140 Angell, Helen Cordelia (Miss Cole- man), 221 Antiquarian researches and their in- fluence on water-colours, 9 Antwerp Cathedral, by F. Mackenzie, 136 Archer, John Wykeham, 215 Arnold, Mrs. (H. Gouldsmith), 140 Associated Artists in Water -Colours, 75, 119 Change in title of the Society, 75 Atkinson, John Augustus, 69, 117, 243 Backhuysen, 7 Ball, Plymouth artist, 213 Barber, Charles, 69, 118 Barker, Robert, 114 Barker, Thomas (of Bath), 147 Barker, Thomas Edward, 182 Barnard, F. P., 38 Barralet, artist, 90 Barret, George, 66, 68, 72, 73, 78, 101, 231, 242 Basire, engraver, 51 Beckford, Mr., patron of art, 15, 25 Beechey, Sir W., 48 Bennett, W. J., 74, 75 Bentley, Charles, 201 Bettes, 3, 5 Bewick, Thomas, 155 Blake, William, 51, 76 Blaremberg, his palace garden, 8 Bleaching effect of sunlight on water- colours, 255-258 Bone, H. P., 75 Bonington, Richard Parkes, 141, 235 Bouvier, Augustus Jules, 219 Bowles, publisher, 46 Branwhite, Charles, 200 Bright, Henry, 217 British Luxembourg, 248 Museum Collection, 245, 24(5 National Gallery, 247 Britton, John, F.S.A., 167, 184, 189 Brookbank, Mrs. (Miss Scott), 220 Brooks (assumed name of Turner), 50 Browne, H. K. (Phiz), 247 Bunbury, 152 Burgess, John, 200 Byrne, Anne Frances, 70, 106 Byrne, John, 107 Byrne, William, 106, 148 Caldecott, Randolph, 233, 244, 24/ Callow, John, 202, 243 Calvert, 246 Campagna, View in, by Cozens, 27 Campion, George B., 214 Carisbrook Castle, by Hearne, 23 Cattermole, George, 189-193, 247,248 Cattermole, Richard, 189 Cattle in a Meadow, by Chalon, 111 Cellini and the Robbers, by Catter- mole, 191 Century of Painters, 5, 29, 60, 106, 132, 142, 174, 186 Chalon, Alfred Edward, R.A., 75, 110 Chalon, John James, R.A., 68,69, 71, 109,118 Chambers, George, 198, 243 Chase, John, 214 Chinese Canal Scene, by Alexander, 20 Chinnery, 246 Chisholm, Alexander, 183 Cipriani, 48, 50 Classic Composition, by Barret, 82 Claude Lorrain, 59 Clennell, Luke, 69, 155 Cleveley, John, 47, 243 264 INDEX. Clevely, Robert, 48 Coleman, Miss H. C., 221 Coleman, W. S , 221 Colour, lack of, in early drawings, 11 tests, 258 remains unchanged in vacuo, 257, 258 measurements of, 256 Colvin, Sidney, his Guide to the British Museum collections, 245 Constable, John, R.A., 26, 58, 245 His Bequest, 58, 245, 246 Constable, Miss Isabel, 243, 245 Cooke, Bernard, 145 Cooper, miniatures by, 5, 9 Corbaux, Fanny, 220 Cotman, John Sell, 156, 218, 243 Cottage at Corwen, Monmouth, by Dayes, 23 Cox, David, 69, 72, 75, 76, 128, 205, 216, 245, 246 _ Cox, David, junior, 201 Cozens, Alexander, 25 Cozens, John R., 12, 15, 25, 30, 53, 58 Creswick's, Messrs., drawing papers, 253 Criddle, Mrs. H., 221 Cristall, Joshua, 66, 68, 72, 73, 74, 81, 99, 126, 243 Crome, John, 156, 160 Danbt, F., A.R.A., 200 Danby, Thomas, 233 Daniell, W., 243 Darley, Mat., 251 Dayes, E., 10, 12, 20, 29, 30, 243 Describes early methods of paint- ing, 12 Dean, Hugh, 98 Deer in Knowle Park, by Hills, 85 Delamotte, Philip Henry, 234 Delamotte, William, 68, 110 De Wint, Peter, 69, 119, 170, 241, 246, 247 Dixon bequest to the Bethnal Green Museum, 243 Dodgson, George Haydock, 177, 224 Dorrell, Edmund, 69, 71, 117 Dorrell, Miss Jane, 118 Downman, 246 Doyle, R., 247 Drawings at the British Museum, 246 Dudley Gallery, 179 Duncan, Edward, 177, 223, 242 Durham : Evening, by Robson, 164 Du Sart, Dutch painter, 7 Dutch School represented in British Museum, 8 Dutch Vessel and Boats, by S. Owen, 145 Dyce collection at South Kensington, 25, 26 Early methods of painting, 9 Edridge, Henry, A.R.A., 30, 152, 169, 243, 246 Effects of light on colour, 255-257 Ellison bequest, 242 Essex, Richard Hamilton, 183 Evans, William, 197 Exhibition of Paintings in Water- Colours, 76 Fahey, James, 216 Field, Mrs. T. H., 74 Fielding, A. V. Copley, 69, 71, 72, 74, 126, 242, 243 Finch, Francis Oliver, 182 Fisher, 30 Fitzgibbon, Lord, 43 Flatman, 5 His method of working, 6 Flaxman, 246 Francia, Francois Thomas Louis, 30, 141, 143, 146, 243 Freebairn, Robert, 68, 113 Frossley, court painter, 6 Fyt, Dutch painter, 7 Gainsborough, Thomas, R.A., 248 Gallery of British Art, New, 248 Garrard, G., A R.A., 227 Gastineau, Henry, 74, 181 General Conclusions in the Official Report on Water Colours, 258 General Exhibition of Water-Colour Paintings at the Egyptian Hall , 178 Carried on by the Dudley So- ciety, 179 George Morland, portrait of, by Row- landson, 149 Gilbert, Sir John, R.A., 236 Gillies, Margaret, 221 Gilpin, Rev. W., 44 Gilpin, Sawrey, R.A.,43 Gilpin, William Sawrey, 44, 66, 68, 70, 73, 90 INDEX. 265 Girtin, John, 34, 37 Girtin, Thomas, 11, 30, 31, 52, 53, 113, 146, 245 Cartridge-paper preferred by him, 33 Travelled with Mr. James Moore, 34 Glennie, Arthur, 201 Glover, John,<36, 68, 70, 71,72, 105, 125 Goodall, Walter, 235 Gouldsmith, Harriet (Mrs. Arnold), 72, 140 Green, Benjamin E., 216 Green, James, 75, 147 Green, Mrs. Mary, 75, 147 Gresse, John Alexander, 48, 243 Grimm, S. H., 46, 243 Gros, Baron, 142 Guard Eoom,hy Louis Haghe, 209,211 Guash drawing on Continent, 8, 46 Guide to Exhibition of Drawings and Sketches at British Museum, 245 Haghe, Louis, 208, 242, 247 Haldimand, Mrs., her album, 164 Halt in the Desert, by J. F. Lewis, 228, 229 Hamilton, William, R.A., 43 Harding, J. D., 74, 193, 194, 227, 254 Harrison, Mary, 219 Havell, Robert, 223 Havell, William, 66, 68, 72, 101, 170, 223 Haydocke, R., 1, 4, 5 His Tract on Fainting, 1 His description of tempera paint- ing^ Haydon, B. R., 167 Hayes, Edward, 217 Hayes, Michael Angelo, 217 Heaphy, Thomas, 68, 69, 71, 108, 220 Hearne, Thomas, 23, 58, 243, 246 Heath, James, engraver, 118 Henderson, John, 123 Bequest to British Museum, 247 Hewett, Sir Prcscott G., his bequest of water-colour drawings, 244 Hilliard, N., 1, 3, 5, 6, 249 Hills, Robert, 66, 68, 72, 82, 164, 170, 243 Hilton, W., R.A., 120 Historical collection at South Ken- sington, 244 Hogarth Club, 232 Holland, James, 200, 245 ^ Holland, Water-colour painting in, 7 Holmes, J., 72, 74, 139 Holworthy, James, 66, 68, 72, 102 Houghton, Arthur Boyd, 225 Hudson, 44 Huet-Villiers, Francois, 75, 142 Hunt, William Henry, 170, 242 Ibbetson, J. C, 16, 49, 246 Institute of Painters in Water- Colours, 179 Jackson, Samuel, 200 Jenkins, Joseph John, 177, 223 Johnson, Henry John, 216 Kauffman, Angelica, 50 Kearney, William Henry, 213 Landseei?, Sir Edwin, R.A., 193,236 Landscape with Lake, by Varley, 95 Laporte, G. H., 213 Laporte, John, 75, 147 Lawrence, Sir Thomas, P.R.A., 227 Lee, William, 214 Leech, John, 247 Leitch, William Leighton, 215 Leslie, C. R., R.A., 25, 26 Lewis, John Frederick, R.A., 227, 242, 246 Limming, a species of tempera paint- ing, 4 Linuell, John, 72, 135, 228 Little Gleaners, by Wheatley, 40, 41 Liverpool Institute of Art, 118 Llangollen Bridge, by Gresse, 49 Lofthouse, Mary (Miss Forster),221 Lunclgren, Egron S., 206 Macbeth, R. W., 226 Mackenzie, Frederick, 72, 136, 242 Macready, 128 Magdalen Bridge and Tower, by Turner, 63 Malton, T., 12, 243 Eleanor Cross at Waltham, 12 Mantegna, A., Triumphs of Julius Ccssar, 4 Mailow, AY., 46, 243 Miniature painting, 9 The Elizabethan School, 9 Miniature room at the Royal Aca- demy, 65 266 INDEX. Mixtures of colours tested, 257 Moel Siabod, by Miiller, 205 Mole, John Henry, 218 Monk, The, by W. H. Hunt, 174, Frontispiece Monkhouse, W. 0., 38, 142 Monro, Dr., aids Girtin and other young artists, 23, 30, 93, 100, 126, 142, 145, 155, 156, 170 Mont St. Michel, by D. Roberts, 186, .187 Mounts for water-colour drawings, 11 Morland, George, 50, 151, 246; Mortimer, J. H., A.E A, 40, 44, 243 Miiller, William James, 200, 202, 216, 217 Mulready's studies at South Ken- sington, 246 Munn, Paul Sandby, 68, 71, 107, 118, 246 Murray, Elizabeth, 220 Naftel, Matjd, 239 Naftel, Paul Jacob, 239 Nash, architect, 109 Nash, Frederick, 69, 76, 115, 242 Nash, Joseph, 193 Nasmyth, Alexander, 146, 148 National Gallery Collections, 247 Drawings by Cattermole and De Wint, 247 Liber Studiorum, 247 Turner drawings, 247 Nattes, John Claude, 66, 68, 69, 98 Neale, Hugh, 98 Nesfield, William Andrews, 180 New Society of Water Colour Pain- ters, 176 First exhibition in Exeter Hall, 176 Takes title of Associated Painters in Water Colours in 1833, 176 Removal to Pall Mall in 1838, 176 Increase in number of members, 177 Renamed the Institute of Pain- ters in Water Colours in 1857, 177 Amalgamated with the Dudley Gallery in 1883, 177 New Water Colour Society, 108 Newcastle Ferry, by L. Clennell, 156, 157 Newton, Alfred Pizzey, 232 Nicholson, Francis, 66, 68, 72, 76, 90, 124, 243 Norwich Society of Artists, 156 Oakley, Octavitjs, 199 Old London Bridye, by Turner, 61,63 Oliver, J., 3, 5 Ostade, A., 1, 7, 8 His method of working, 7, 9 Otter Hounds, by F. Tayler, 236 Owen, Samuel, 75, 145 Palmer, Samuel, 182, 228 Paper used by earlier artists, 252 Papworth, J., 75 Pars, W., A.R.A., 16, 45 Parsons, J. M., his bequest, 244 Payne, William, 69, 71, 106, 107 Penley, Aaron Edwin, 212 Percy, Dr., 140 Permanence of certain colours, 258 Pether, engraver, 152 Phillip, John, R.A., 206 Phillips, Thomas, R.A., 198 Pidgeon, H. Clark, 214 Pinwell, George John, 217 Pocock, Nicholas, 66, 68, 70, 89 Pont Aber, Wales, by David Cox, 133, 135 Porch of Batisbon Cathedral, by Prout, 170, 171 Print Room, British Museum, 82, 246 Prout, John Skinner, 216 Prout, Samuel, 73, 167, 216, 242, 243, 246 Pugin, Augustus, 69, 71, 109, 136, 189 Pyne, J. B., 202 Pyne, William Henry, 66, 68, 70, 85, 167 Pyne's Somerset House Gazette, 91 ; his Pise and Progress of Water- colour Painting, 100 Raphael, Cartoons, of, 4 Rayner, Nancy, 220 Rayner, Samuel, 221 Read, Samuel, 232 Reeves, Thomas and William, 251 Reinagle, Philip, R.A., 114 Reinagle, Ramsey Richard, 68, 69, 70, 114 Report by Dr. Russell and Captain Abney, 254 INDEX. 267 Results of the Inquiry on Colours, 258 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, P.R.A., 246 Richardson, Thomas Miles, 213 Richardson, Thomas Miles (junr.),235 Richter, Henry John, 72, 74, 139 Rigaud, Stephen Francis, 66, 68, 76, 105 Ripon Cathedral, by Girtin, 35, 37 Riviere, Henry Parsons, 214 Roberson, Messrs., 251 Roberts, David, R.A., 142, 185, 215 Robertson, Andrew, 75, 146 Robins, Thomas Sewell, 213 Robson, George Fennell, 73, 74, 101, 163, 173, 242 Roget, J. L., his History quoted, 66, 68, 74, 86, 92, 105, 136, 139, 140, 169, 173, 177, 223 Rooker, M. A., A.R.A., 45, 243 Rossetti, Gabriel Charles Dante, 231 Rowbotham, Thomas Leeson, 219 Rowlandson, Thomas, 151, 243, 246 Royal Academy, its influence on water-colour painting, 24 Hibernian Academy, 217 Institute of Painters in Water- Colours, 179 Ruskin, John, 38, 127, 180, 226, 236, 253 Russell, Dr., his Report on Water- colours, 254 Rustic Landscape, by Pyne, 87, 89 Salmon's Polyr/raphice, 250, 251 Salvator Rosa, 44 Sandby, Paul, R.A., 10, 15, 45, 47 Sandby, Thomas, 15 Scene in the Campagna, by Cozens, 25 Scharf, G., 216 Scott, friend of Hogarth, 46 Scott, William, 69, 71, 74, 118 Seyffarth, Mrs. (Louisa Sharpe), 220 Shalders, George, 218 Sharpe, Eliza, 220 Sharpe, Louisa (Mrs. Seyffarth), 220 Shaw, Henry, F.S.A., 185 Sheepshanks collection at the South Kensington Museum, 240 Shelley, Samuel, 66, 68, 70, 89 Shoote, 3, 5 Singer's Farm, near fiushey, by Edridge, 153, 155 Sketching Society, 101, 109, 118 Skill, Frederick John, 218 Smirke, Robert, 148 Smith, Coke, 227 Smith, John (Warwick), 15, 26, 68, 69, 72, 76, 108 Smith, Miss E., 75 Smith, Raphael, 120 Smithy William, F.S.A., 242 His drawings and bequest to South Kensington, 242, 243 Smith, William Collingwood, 224 Society of British Artists, 108 Society of Painters in Water- Colours — Its foundation due to the efforts of W. Wells, 65 The first meeting of the mem- bers in 1804, 66 Roget's History, 66 Rules for the administration of the society, 67 First exhibition in 1805, 67 Sales and profits, 67 Average price of each drawing, 68 Fellow exhibitors, 68 Second exhibition, 68 Subsequent exhibitions, 69 Mode of dividing profits, 70 Lady members, 71 Declining popularity of the exhibitions, 71 Decision to admit oil-paintings, 71 Dissolution of first society, 72 Reconstruction of the society, 72 Society of Painters in Oil and Water-Colours, 72 Ninth exhibition in Spring Gardens, 73 The indifferent success of the society, 73 Moves to Egyptian Hall, 73 Reversion to original scheme to confine the exhibition to water-colours only, 73, 74 Alteration in constitution of the society, 74 Removal to Pall Mall, 74 Somerset House Gazette, 31, 86, 91, 152 South Kensington Museum, Histor- ical collection of water-colour drawings, 240 et seq. 268 INDEX. Speke Hall, Lancashire, by J. Nash, 194 Stability, relative, of water-colours, 257 Stanfield, 0., R.A., 215 Stephanoff, Francis Philip, 86, 167 Stephanoff, James, 73, 164 Stevens, Francis, 68, 69, 71, 118 Stone, Frank, A.R.A., 205 Storer, James Sargant, 185 Stothard, Thomas, R.A., 50, 51, 246, 248 Swaine, John, 216 Tayler, Frederick, 81, 235, 242 Thompson, W. J., 75 Thurston, John, 68, 118 Tidey, Henry F., 212 Topham, Francis William, 177, 222, 242 Topographers and their art, 10 their restricted aims, 11 Topography, its influence on water- colour painting, 9 Torksey Castle, by De Win t, 121, 124 Townshend, the Rev. 0. H., his bequest, 244 Turner, Dawson, 159 Turner, J. M. W., R.A., 26, 30, 37, 38, 50, 52, 90, 243, 247^ Works with Girtin at the house of Dr. Monro, 53 Studies under Hardwick, 53 His early drawings, 53 His sketches at the National Gallery, 54 His method of painting, 54 Discards white as a pigment, 57 The three periods of his art, 58 Copies Cozens and Hearne, 58 Produces the Liber Studiorum, 59 His death and burial, 59 His bequests, 60 Account of his art, 60 Turner, William, 69, 72, 116 Uwins, Thomas, 69, 72, 102, 115 Vacher, Charles, 218 Vol d'Aosta, by John Smith, 29 Value of Italian travel to artists, 11 Yanderdort, his catalogue of pic- tures, 6 Van Eyck, use of oil as medium, 4 Varley, Cornelius, 66, 68, 72, 73, 97 Varley, John, 30, 66, 68, 72, 93, 116, 124, 126, 131, 136, 170, 228, 243 Vasari, 3, 4 Vernet, Horace, 235 View of Ben Lomond, by Copley Fielding, 128, 129 Vincent, George, 160 Walker, Frederick, A.R.A., 226 Walker, William, 74, 75, 148 Ward, James, 246 Warren, Henry, K. L., 208, 212 Water-colour painting, divided into three periods, 2 Watts, Walter Henry, 75, 147 Webber, J., R.A., 10, 20 Weber, Otto, 206 Wehnert, Edward Henry, 211 Wells, William Frederick, 65, 66, 68, 70, 90 West, Sir B., P.R.A., 110 Westall, Richard, R.A., 119 Westall, William, A.R.A., 69, 75, 119 Whatman's, Messrs., drawing paper, 253 Wheat-ley, Francis, R.A., 39, 243 Whichelo, John. 183 Whittaker, James W., 201 Wild, Charles, 69, 71, 74,86, 184, 243 Williams, H. W., 75 Williams, Penry, 183 Willis, Henry Brittan, 233 Wilson, Andrew, 75, 148 Wilson, Richard, R.A., 59, 113 Windmill, by Cotman, 160, 161 Windsor Castle, by Havell, 102, 103 Winsor & Newton, Messrs., 252 Wood, William, 75, 146 Woollett, engraver, 45 Wright, J., miniature painter, 198 Wright, John Masey, 182 Wright, John William, 183, 198 ZUCCARELLI, 48 Zucchi, 43 RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BUNGAY. ILLUSTRATED HAND-BOOKS OF ART HISTORY OF ALL AGES AND COUNTRIES. EDITED BY E. J. 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John and Peter — SS. Paul and Mark — Christ taking Leave of" His Mother — and 12 other Paintings, Eng avings, and Woodcuts. THE LITTLE MASTERS OF GERMANY. By W. B. Scott. Altdorfer, Hans Sebald Beham, Bartel Beham, Aldegrever, Pencz, Bink, and Brosamer. Illustrated with Engravings of the Emperor Charles V., by Bartel Beham — The Madonna of the Crescent Moon, by Aldegrever — and several examples of Decorative Ornament. HANS HOLBEIN. By Joseph Cundall. Illustrated with Engravings of the Meyer Madonna — Archbishop Warham— The Family of Sir Thomas More — Hubert Morett — Henry VIII. — and Examples of the Woodcuts in the Praise of Folly — The Dance of Death— The Bible Cuts, &c. OVERBECK : A Memoir. By J. Beavington Atkinson. Comprising his Early Years in Liibeck, Studies at Vienna, and Settlement at Rome. Illustrated with Engravings of Christ Blessing Little Children— Christ Bearing the Cross — The Ei.tomb- ment— The Holy Family with the Lamb, &c. FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTERS. REMBRANDT. By J. W. Mollett, B.A. Illustrated with Engravings of the Lesson on Anatomy— lhe Descent from the Cross — Saskia — The Night Watch — Burgomaster Six — lhe Three Trees -Ephraim Bonus — and other celebrated Paintings and Etchings. RUBENS. By C. W. Kett, M. A. Illustrated with Engravings from Rubens and Isabella Brandt — The Descent from the Cross — Rubens's Two Sons — Henry TV. and Marie de Medicis — The Chateau de Steen— Le Chapeau de Poil — and 10 other Paintings. VAN DYCK AND HALS. By P. R. Head, B.A. Illustrated with En- gravings of the Syndic Meerstraten — Ecce Homo — Charles I. and the Marquis of Hamilton — Henrietta Maria, with Princes Charles and James, &c, by Van Dyck ; and Hals and Lisbeth Reyners — The Banquet of Arquebusiers — A Cavalier, &c., by Hals. THE FIGURE PAINTERS OF HOLLAND. By Lord Ronald Gower, F. S.A. Illustrated with Engravings of Paternal Advice, by Terborch — The Hunchback Fiddler, by Adrian van Ostade — Inn S able, by Wouwerman — Dancing Dog, by Steen— Vegetable Market, by Metsu— Dutch Family, by Ver Meer, &c. FRENCH PAINTERS. WATTEATT. By J. W. Mollett, B.A. Illustrated with Engravings of Fetes Galantes, Portraits, Studies from the Life, Pastoral Subjects, and Designs foi Ornament. Price 2s. 6d. VERNET AND DELAROCHE. By J. RuUTZ Rees. Illustrated with En- gravings of the Trumpeter's Horse — The Death of Poniatovvski — The Battle of Fon- tenoy, and 5 others, by Vernet ; and Richelieu with Cinque Mars and De Thou — Death of the Due de Guise— Charles I. and Cromwell's Soldiers — and a large Engraving of the Hemicycle of the Palais des Beaux-Arts, by Delaroche. MEISSONIER: a Memoir. By J. W. Mollett, B.A. Illustrated with Engravings from the Chess Players— La Rixe — The Halt— The Reader — The Flemish Smoker — and Examples of M. Meissonier's Book Illustrations. Price 2s. 6d. . From the Times: — "Few things in the way of small books upon great subjects, avowedly cheap and necessarily brief, have been hitherto so well done as these biographies of the Greai Masters in painting. They afford just what a very large proportion of readers in these hurry ing times wish to be provided with — a sort of concentrated food for the mind." New edition, introduction by Professor Roger Smith, with 76 new engravings, cr. 8vo, 696 pp., ior. 6d.; half morocco, gilt edges, suitable for prizes, &c, 12s. This work may also be had in two parts, in plainer binding : — ELEMENTARY HISTORY OF ART. By N. D'ANVERS. I. Architecture^and Sculpture. II. Painting : ancient and modern LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & Co., Ld.