was enforced; the youth was constantly locked up in the Vatican with
his work cut out for him,—to copy Raphael, Michael Angelo, or the
antique the whole day long, with a loaf of bread and a pitcher of
water. On the days passed at home, the father kept his son a prisoner
in the same manner, and would go out for hours on his own concerns,
with the key of the room in his pocket. These early lessons of
industry and application bore ample fruit in the future life of this
indefatigable painter. Returning to Dresden, the young man’s miniature
copies of Raphael, and some excellent portraits in pastel, pleased
King Augustus so much that he appointed Raphael Mengs his
Painter-in-Ordinary, with a considerable salary. To his Majesty’s
surprise, and the great displeasure of Count Brühl, Raphael declined,
on the plea that he was too young for such a post. Rome had great
attractions for him, and thither he returned. He painted a ‘Holy
Family,’ which gained him much credit, the original of Our Lady being
a beautiful girl, Margaret Guazzi by name, the child of poor parents,
and as good as she was beautiful. The young painter became a proselyte
to the Roman Catholic faith, and married his lovely model, nor had
ever cause to repent his choice. He remained at Rome several years,
painting assiduously, and studying in the Hospital of San Spirito; it
was in obedience to his father’s wishes that he returned to Dresden,
with much regret, and was obliged by so doing to forfeit many
advantageous commissions. Old Ismael, whose nature was violent and
cruel, repaid his son’s devotion by turning him, his wife, and infant
child into the streets on some trifling disagreement. The story came
to the King’s ears, and he once more offered the rejected post to
young Mengs, with an increased salary, a house, and carriage. This
time the Royal bounty was accepted with gratitude, for Raphael was now
a husband and a father. The King was at that time employed in building
the Catholic church at Dresden, where the Royal Family still carry on
their separate worship,—it being one of the few (is it not the only?)
capitals where the Court and the subjects profess a different creed.
Raphael Mengs painted the lateral altars, and had a commission for the
high altar-piece; but the longing was upon him, in no way singular, to
return to Rome, and he pleaded that he would execute the order far
better in Italy. He repaired thither, and, after making a copy of the
school of Athens for the Earl of Northumberland, he began his
altar-piece for Dresden. ‘The Seven Years’ War now broke out, and
Augustus was deprived of his electorate, and found himself unable to
continue Mengs’s salary. The failure of this income, added to his own
improvidence, plunged our artist into poverty; he was obliged to take
any orders that offered, and accept any terms proposed, in order to
keep the wolf from the door. The fresco which he executed for the
monks in the Church of Sant’ Eusebio brought him little pay indeed,
but great increase of popularity. He did not carry out a commission he
had received from King Augustus to go to Naples and paint the Royal
Family, supposing the order to be cancelled; but the Duke of Censano,
Neapolitan Minister to the Papacy, urged him to fulfil it, and wrote
to Naples, specifying the prices which the now popular painter had
received in Saxony. Just as he was starting for Naples, rumours were
set afloat which troubled Mengs exceedingly; he was assured that a
picture which had been ordered for the Chapel-Royal at Caserta was not
required, and that the King and Queen declined to sit to him on
account of his prices being reckoned exorbitant. He was perplexed how
to act, when the arrival of the Polish Minister from Naples set his
mind at rest. Count Lagnasco assured him that the altar-piece for
Caserta was daily expected, and that the King and Queen had never
demurred at the prices, but were only displeased at the delay. He
therefore hastened to Naples, but, on his arrival, found the King and
Queen on the eve of embarkation for their new kingdom of Spain, and
too much engrossed by their preparations to give him sittings. They,
however, commanded a portrait of their son Ferdinand, about to ascend
the vacant throne of Naples. The jealousy of his brother artists made
the fair city insupportable to Mengs, and he again took his way to
Rome, where he was very popular, and had plenty of work. He adorned
the beautiful Villa Albani with classical frescoes, and painted
numerous pictures, chiefly for English and Neapolitan patrons. Charles
III., King of Spain, hearing him highly spoken of, now proposed to
Raphael Mengs to enter his service, with a large salary, a house, and
carriage, and all materials for painting provided; also a free passage
for himself and family on a Spanish vessel sailing from Naples.
Mengs accepted, and was kindly received by the King, but soon found he
had to encounter the bitter hatred of all the artists in the Spanish
capital. Giaquinto, an Italian, who had hitherto enjoyed the Royal
favour, was so disgusted at the success of Mengs, that he abandoned
the field, and, leaving Spain in dudgeon, returned to his own country.
Mengs was now employed in the decoration of the new palace, and
painted the Gods of Olympus in the bedchamber of the King, Aurora in
that of the Queen, and Morning, Noon, Evening, and Night in the
apartments of the Infanta, besides numerous easel pictures.
He was also appointed honorary member of the Academy of St. Ferdinand,
where, being desirous of instituting new regulations and bringing
about reforms, he provoked much ill-will, and being himself of a hot
and hasty temper, bickerings and disagreements ensued without number.
Altogether, Raphael Mengs was far from happy during his sojourn at
Madrid; the climate was most injurious to his health, which declined
daily, yet he never slackened in his toil, but worked unremittingly
from dawn till dusk, and often far into the night. He had already
despatched his wife and family to Rome, and now asked permission to
join them. Suffering and melancholy, he proceeded on his solitary way,
and was delayed some time at Monaco by increased illness; at length he
arrived in his beloved Rome, where the affection of his dear ones and
the warmth of the climate partially revived him. He now turned his
attention chiefly to sacred subjects, and in loving memory of his
favourite Notte di Coreggio in the Dresden Gallery, executed a
Nativity on the same plan, where all the light emanated from the Holy
Child; introducing his own portrait as one of the adoring shepherds.
Pope Clement XIV. gave Mengs a labour of love to perform, and in that
light he considered it, for he stipulated that he should receive no
payment: this was to decorate the walls of the hall destined for the
reception of the papyrus rolls in the Vatican. To work beneath the
same roof which his illustrious namesake had sanctified, was indeed a
glory!
Although enfeebled in health, Mengs was comparatively content, both in
the matter of his residence and his work; but he received a warning
from Madrid that his leave of absence had been too long exceeded, and
it required all the kind intercession of Don Joseph de Azara, Spanish
Envoy at Rome, and Mengs’s great friend, to intercede with the King on
this score. At last there was a compromise, Mengs agreeing to go to
Naples to paint the portraits of the reigning King and Queen for the
gallery at Madrid. But his industry seemed on this occasion to forsake
him; when in Naples he was very dilatory over his commission, and
spent his time in buying coins and vases to add to his collection; and
on his return to Rome he had only finished the heads. Then he had to
conclude his work in the Vatican, and take leave of the Pope, who gave
him a rosary of lapis-lazuli and a set of medals struck during his
Pontificate. So little was Mengs in haste to reach Spain that he
stopped by the way at Florence to paint the Grand Duke and Duchess,
with many other portraits.
He arrived at Madrid, and recommenced his labours in the palace, to
the great satisfaction of King Charles; went to Aranjuez, where he
worked both in the palaces and the churches; but relapsed into bad
health, and became so ill that the kind-hearted monarch would no
longer detain him, and sent him back to Rome,—‘with,’ says Sir William
Stirling, ‘a stipend far beyond his requirements, and a fame far
beyond his merits.’ Charles also settled dowries on the daughters of
Raphael Mengs; but alas! he had not been long at home before his good
and beautiful wife died; and he strove to console himself by working
harder than ever.
The winter was unusually severe, his studio was overheated, and the
bad air increased his malady. His frame became emaciated, and his
features so ghastly as to attract the notice of every one. One of his
pictures, purchased by an Englishman, met with a strange fate:
despatched to England by sea, the vessel was taken by a French
cruiser, and the picture sent to Paris. Eventually Louis XVI. sent it
as a present to the Empress Catherine of Russia.
In spite of the expostulations of his children, Mengs now put himself
into the hands of a German quack, and, to follow his directions
without opposition, took a lodging by himself, first in Via Condotti,
and then in the Gregoriana.
A nun at Narni had lately gained great popularity by selling a
decoction of holy jessamines, by which she worked miraculous cures. To
a strong dose of this medicine the quack doctor added a still more
efficacious dose of antimony, and thus indeed relieved the poor
painter from all further suffering, physical or mental. He worked to
the last, and died in June 1779, being buried at San Michele, on the
Janiculan Hill, followed by the Professors of the Academy of St. Luke.
Don Joseph de Azara, knowing his friend’s tastes, erected a cenotaph
to his memory, adorned with a bronze portrait, close to the monument
of his illustrious namesake and idol, the divine Raphael. By nature
Mengs was choleric and melancholy, more prone to be ruffled by the
petty ills of life than satisfied by his success, which is generally
allowed to have been far above his deserts. He was self-willed even to
arrogance in his opinions. Finding fault with some Venetian pictures
Pope Clement had bought, his Holiness remarked they had been much
admired by other artists. ‘Ah,’ replied Mengs, ‘they praise what is
above their powers; I despise what is below mine.’
He was severe on other Art writers, and especially on the works of Sir
Joshua Reynolds; Azara said he was very truthful, and tells how on one
occasion Mengs declared he had never taken a pinch of snuff, though in
so doing he would have redeemed a collection of valuable snuff-boxes,
the presents of many grandees, from the clutches of the Custom-House
officers, who seized them as merchandise. Yet he practised a hoax on
his friend Winckelman, and allowed him to publish in his book the
description of a ‘Ganymede’ by Mengs, which the painter had passed off
on the Professor as an antique. He was a faithful and affectionate
husband, a tender and loving father, and gave his children a good
education,—but little beside, for, with all the riches he had
acquired, he was both extravagant and improvident, and at his death he
only left his collections of coins and casts, bequeathed to the King
of Spain, and a number of engravings, which were bought by the Empress
of Russia. Mengs’s eldest daughter, Anna Maria, was a successful
portrait-painter; married to Manuel Salvador Camoni, a member of the
Academy of San Fernando, she died at Madrid in 1798. He would not
allow his sons to become painters, ‘for,’ said he, ‘if they were
inferior to me, I should despise them; if superior, I should be
jealous of them.’ One of his sons became a soldier in the service of
Spain. Mengs wrote much on the subject of Art, had great command of
language, and was a good linguist.
This picture was painted expressly for the third Earl Cowper.
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_No. 6._
CHARLES JAMES FOX.
_Dark coat. White cravat._
BY HOPPNER.
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_No. 7._
FATHER OF JAMES NORTHCOTE THE PAINTER.
_Dark coat. White hair. Red curtain._
BY HIS SON.
NOTWITHSTANDING that he exercised the modest trade of a watchmaker in
his native town of Plymouth, Northcote boasted of a long pedigree, and
maintained that his family was of very good standing in the county.
But his pride did not prevent his wishing his son James to follow the
same trade, while the young man had set his heart on being a painter.
In the notice of the future Royal Academician’s life, we shall find
every particular connected with James’s rise to eminence. Among his
numerous works, he painted the portrait in question of the father who
had done all in his power to thwart his son’s artistic proclivities.
This picture was bought at Northcote’s sale by the fifth Earl Cowper.
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_No. 8._
SARAH, DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH.
_Red gown, bordered with white fur._
BORN 1658, DIED 1744.
BY SIR GODFREY KNELLER.
THE youngest daughter of Richard Jennings, Esq. of Sundridge, near St.
Albans, by the daughter and heir of Sir Gifford Hornhurst. When quite
young she went to Court, where her sister Frances (afterwards Lady
Tyrconnell) was already remarkable, as much for the laxity of her
conduct as for her beauty. Sarah’s features may not have been as
regular as those of her sister, but her countenance was most
expressive, her complexion beautiful, and the profusion of her fair
hair, formed a most attractive combination. Amidst her crowd of
adorers, the young, handsome, and insinuating Colonel Churchill stood
pre-eminent; he was poor, and by many accused of avarice already, yet
he preferred the portionless girl to a rich heiress with a plain face,
when the match was suggested to him.
Sarah Jennings was a woman of inordinate ambition and iron will, and
she made use of her close friendship with the Princess (afterwards
Queen) Anne to rise in the world and push her husband’s fortunes, even
before his own distinguished talents had insured his eminence. The
tyranny which the high-spirited, hot-tempered Lady of the Bedchamber
exercised over her Royal mistress for many years are matters too well
known to be here recapitulated. The romantic correspondence between
‘Mrs. Morley’ and ‘Mrs. Freeman,’ showing the manner in which Queen
Anne, even after her marriage, gave herself up to the dominion of her
favourite, until the self-imposed yoke became intolerable, and was
suddenly and completely severed, are historical facts bound up with
public events. The Duchess of Marlborough was supplanted by her own
_protégée_, Mrs. Masham, and peremptorily dismissed, in spite of
‘rages, prayers, and scenes.’ Voltaire says: ‘Quelques paires de gants
qu’elle refusa à la Reine, un verre d’eau qu’elle laissa tomber sur la
robe de Madame Masham, changèrent la face de Europe!’—alluding to the
political changes which followed the downfall of Sarah. In her latter
days her temper became ungovernable; she quarrelled with her husband,
her son-in-law, her grandchildren; and on one occasion, when the Duke,
wishing to pacify her rage, complimented her on her long fair hair,
which was still luxuriant, the furious lady cut it off, and flung it
in her husband’s face! At his death a long coil of golden tresses was
found in the Duke’s drawer. Sarah survived her husband twenty years,
and, in spite of her age (it must be remembered she was very rich),
had many suitors, amongst them the Duke of Somerset and Lord
Coningsby. To the latter, after reminding him she was sixty-three, she
replied: ‘Were I only thirty, and you could lay the world at my feet,
I would never bestow on you the heart and hand which belonged
exclusively to John, Duke of Marlborough.’
Lady Cowper (the Chancellor’s wife) saw a great deal of the Duchess at
Court; they exchanged constant visits, and corresponded, but Lady
Cowper had no opinion of her Grace; she describes her trying to make
mischief by repeating ill-natured speeches, and goes on to say: ‘She
is certainly an ill woman, and does not care what she says of anybody,
to wreak her malice or revenge.’
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_No. 9._
CHARLOTTE, COUNTESS FAUCONBERG.
_Peeress’s robes._
SHE was the only daughter of Sir Matthew Lamb, and sister to Peniston,
first Viscount Melbourne. Married in 1766 Henry Belasyse, second Earl
Fauconberg, a Lord of the Bedchamber, and Lord-Lieutenant of the North
Riding of Yorkshire. They had four daughters, co-heiresses; but the
title is extinct.
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_No. 10._
PORTRAIT. UNKNOWN.
_Man in blue velvet coat, braided._
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_No. 11._
UNCERTAIN.
_Dark coat. White cravat._
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_No. 12._
ROBERT HARLEY, EARL OF OXFORD.
_Black and gold dress._
BORN 1661, DIED 1724.
STUDIED under the famous Dr. Birch (who boasted of the number of
statesmen he had educated), and showed great promise. In 1688 he
raised a troop of horse for the service of William of Orange, whom he
joined, but who showed him no particular favour. Harley sat in
Parliament, but waited for office till 1704, when Queen Anne gave him
a seat in the Council, and made him Secretary of State. He was much
opposed to Godolphin and Marlborough, and made common cause with the
Queen’s new favourite, Mrs. Masham, to overthrow the power of the
Whigs.
The Ministers insisted on his dismissal, but Anne stood by him as long
as she could; when Harley was compelled to resign, the Queen said to
him: ‘You see the unfortunate condition of monarchs,—they are obliged
to give up their friends to please their enemies;’ but so high was
Anne’s opinion of Harley, that she constantly consulted him on public
affairs, when out of office.
On the downfall of the Whig Administration, he was made Chancellor of
the Exchequer, and Treasurer.
He was much censured, even by his own party, for some of his financial
measures, by which, however, he enriched the Royal coffers. In March
1711, an event happened that made a great noise, and rendered Harley
the hero of the day. A French adventurer, called Bourlie, or the
Marquis de Guiscard and Langalleve, was a shifty individual, who acted
first as a spy of England against France, and then of France against
England, being in the pay of both. His intrigues were discovered, and
he was brought before the Privy Council. Believing that Harley had
been instrumental in his detection, he resolved to be revenged. While
waiting his turn for examination, he found means to secrete about his
person a penknife which was lying on the table, among some papers. No
sooner was he brought forward than he rushed in a fury upon Harley,
and stabbed him several times, the Minister falling senseless on the
ground, covered with blood. A scene of confusion ensued, and the Duke
of Buckingham, drawing his sword, wounded the assassin, who was
conveyed to Newgate, where he died in a few days, either from the
effect of the sword-thrusts, or by his own hand.
The event seemed to have revived Harley’s popularity: both Houses
presented an address to the Queen, assuring her that Harley’s loyalty
had brought this attack upon him, etc. etc., and when he reappeared in
the House, a brilliant reception awaited him; and a Bill was passed
making an attempt on the life of a Privy Councillor a felony which
deprived the offender of benefit of clergy. In the same year, Robert
Harley, being then Lord High Treasurer, was created Baron Wigmore, and
Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, and next year he received the Garter, and
became Prime Minister of England.
Lords Oxford and Bolingbroke at first worked together to withstand the
power of the Opposition, and to bring about the pacification of
Europe; and the Peace of Utrecht added to the popularity of the
ministerial party. But dissensions arose between Bolingbroke and the
Premier, and recriminations and fresh intrigues, in which Mrs. Masham
was implicated, all of which belong to England’s political history.
Oxford was deprived of all his offices, and accused of plotting in
favour of the Pretender. The Queen died, and in 1715 he was sent to
the Tower, on an accusation of high treason. He was imprisoned for two
years, and on his release gave himself up to the enjoyment of art and
literature; he formed a magnificent library, which cost him a fortune,
not only from the splendour of the works themselves, but on account of
their sumptuous binding. His collection of MSS., called after him the
Harleian MSS., which was afterwards greatly increased by his son, is
now one of the glories of the British Museum; it was purchased by the
Government after the second Lord Oxford’s death.
Few men have been more eulogised on the one hand, and reviled on the
other, but he has been unanimously described as a kind patron of men
of letters.
It was Harley who brought into operation the measure known to
posterity as ‘The South Sea Bubble,’ which entailed ruin on numbers;
and in spite of much opposition he also established State lotteries.
Lord Oxford was twice married: first to Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas
Foley, of Whitley Court, county Worcester, by whom he had one son and
two daughters; and secondly, to Sarah, daughter of Thomas Myddleton,
Esq., who was childless.
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_No. 13._
FIELD-MARSHAL HENRY OF NASSAU, LORD OF AUVERQUERQUE.
Father of the first Earl of Grantham, grandfather of
Henrietta, wife to the second Earl Cowper.
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_No. 14._
LADY ANNE COLLETON.
_Blue gown, trimmed with white lace._
DIED 1740.
BY SIR GODFREY KNELLER.
SHE was the second daughter of the first Earl Cowper, by his second
wife, Mary Clavering. She married, in 1731, James Colleton, Esq. of
Haynes Hill, county Berks, grandson of Sir James Colleton, Bart.
------------------
_No. 15._
LADY MILBANKE.
_White gown. Holding a pink scarf._
She was the daughter and heir of John Hedworth, Esq., M.P., wife of
Sir Ralph Milbanke, of Halnaby, M.P., and mother of the first
Viscountess Melbourne.
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_No. 16._
ELIZABETH, WIFE OF THE FIRST VISCOUNT MELBOURNE.
_Light-coloured gown. White veil. Scarf. Coaxing her baby, who is
seated on a cradle beside her._
DIED 1818.
BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
She was the only daughter of Sir Ralph Milbanke, of Halnaby Hall,
county York. In 1769 she married Sir Peniston Lamb, Bart., M.P., who
was created Viscount Melbourne in 1770. She was a beautiful young
woman of twenty when she first went to London, and took the town by
storm. She was as much admired for her vivacity as her beauty, and Sir
Joshua Reynolds speaks of her as figuring at one of the fashionable
masquerades of the day in domino and tricorne hat, as ‘a pretty
fellow’ or maccaroni, with the Duchess of Ancaster and Lady Fordyce,
and a charming portrait, in possession of Lord Southampton, represents
her in this costume. Lady Melbourne persuaded her husband to buy a
house in Piccadilly from Mr. Fox (father of Charles James), who had
been a friend of Sir Matthew Lamb, next door to Burlington House,
which cost a large sum. Lady Melbourne called it after her husband’s
title, and took the greatest delight in furnishing and adorning the
interior, on which work she employed Cipriani, Wheatley, the humorous
designer Rebecca, and all the best decorative artists of the day. The
society was as brilliant as the walls which encircled them; and
Royalty, fashion, beauty, and talent flocked to the receptions at
Melbourne House, whose master, bent on pleasing his beautiful wife,
threw open his gates with lavish hospitality. Sir Joshua was an
intimate, as well as a general guest, and thus had many opportunities
of studying the form and features which he afterwards immortalised in
the picture that heads this notice. It was painted in 1770, just after
Sir Peniston Lamb’s elevation to the peerage and the birth of his
eldest son.