By ROBERT KEMPT.
The oldest picture, known at present, painted in oil colors on
wood, is preserved in the Imperial Gallery at Vienna. According to
Beckmann’s “History of Inventions,” it was executed in the year 1297
by a painter named Thomas de Mutuia, or de Muttersdorf, in Bohemia.
Two other paintings, in the same gallery, are of the year 1357; one is
by Nicholas Wursnser, of Strasburg, the other by Thierry of Prague.
It appears, therefore, that painting in oil was known long before
the epoch at which that invention is generally fixed; and that it is
erroneously ascribed to Hubert Van Eyck and his brother and pupil John
Van Eyck, otherwise called John of Bruges, who lived about the end of
the fourteenth century, and not the beginning of the fifteenth century,
as is commonly supposed. It is pointed out, however, that there is
evidence in the books of the Painters’ Company, under the date of the
eleventh year of the reign of Edward I. (1283), that oil painting was
in use at that time. _Vide_ a communication from Sir Francis Palgrave,
in Carter’s “Ancient Sculpture and Paintings in England.” It may
be added that the art of wood engraving seems to be older than the
invention of printing, to which, perhaps, it gave rise. The names of
the first engravers on wood are, however, not known. In the _Athenæum_
for 1845, page 965, is given a fac-simile of a wood engraving bearing
date 1418, which was discovered at Malines in 1844, and is now
preserved in the public library at Brussels.
Old paintings naturally lead to inquiries about old art schools, one
of the most venerable and interesting of which is to be found in the
quaint old Devonshire borough of Plympton, England. Here the greatest
of English painters, Sir Joshua Reynolds, learnt the first principles
of drawing. Here, too, Northcote, his clever and eccentric pupil,
acquired his education. This was also the first school of Sir Charles
L. Eastlake, P.R.A., and the _alma mater_ of poor Benjamin Haydon.
A few months before his tragic death Haydon visited the old grammar
school, and wrote his name in pencil on the wall, where it may still be
seen:
“B. R. Haydon,
Historical Painter, London,
Educated here 1801,
Rev. W. Haines (Master)
Head boy then.”
Nor must it be forgotten that Plympton had the honor of being
represented in Parliament by the greatest of English architects, Sir
Christopher Wren, who was elected in May, 1685, and was the first
architect ever returned to the House of Commons. To return to Reynolds.
He was born in the Master’s house adjoining the school, and some rough
sketches drawn by him in his youth on the walls of the bed-room in
which he first saw the light were to be seen when Haydon and Wilkie
visited the house in 1809, but have since been obliterated by some
barbarous whitewasher. In 1772 Sir Joshua was elected to the aldermanic
gown of his native town, and in the following year he was chosen mayor
of the borough. To show his appreciation of what he deemed a high
honor, Reynolds presented to the town his own portrait, painted, as it
seems, expressly to commemorate his mayoralty. It was placed in the
corporation dining-room, but the common council had the effrontery to
sell the picture for £150 when Plympton was disfranchised in 1832.
It need hardly be added that Sir Joshua Reynolds’s tomb (adorned by one
of Flaxman’s best works) is almost close to that of Sir Christopher
Wren in the crypt of St. Paul’s, both in life connected with the little
Devonshire town, though by different ties and at different periods of
its history, and both resting from their labors in the great temple
which Wren built, and which Reynolds sought to adorn with his matchless
pencil.