That Tenterden Steeple was the cause of Goodwin Sands does not appear a
whit more strange than that in the Foundling Hospital originated the
Royal Academy of Arts. Yet, such was the case. The Hospital was
incorporated in 1739, and in a few years the present building was
erected; but, as the income of the charity could not, with propriety, be
expended upon decorations, many of the principal artists of that day
generously gave pictures for several of the apartments of the hospital.
These were permitted to be shown to the public upon proper application;
and hence became one of the sights of the metropolis. The pictures
proved very attractive; and this success suggested the annual Exhibition
of the united artists, which institution was the precursor of the Royal
Academy, in the Adelphi, in the year 1760. Thus, within the walls of the
Foundling, the curious may see the state of British art previously to
the epoch when King George the Third first countenanced the historical
talent of West.
Among the earliest “governors and guardians” of the Hospital we find
William Hogarth, who liberally subscribed his money, and gave his time
and talent, towards carrying out the designs of his friend, the
venerable Captain Coram, through whose zeal and humanity the Hospital
was established. Hogarth’s first artistical aid was the engraving of a
head-piece to a power-of-attorney, drawn for the collection of
subscriptions towards the Charity; Hogarth next presented to the
Hospital an engraved plate of Coram.
Among the early artistic patrons of the Charity, we find Rysbrach, the
sculptor; Hayman, the embellisher of Vauxhall Gardens; Highmore, Hudson,
and Allan Ramsay; and Richard Wilson, the prince of English
landscape-painters. They met often at the hospital, and thus advanced
charity and the arts together; for the exhibition of their donations in
paintings &c. drew a daily crowd of visitors in splendid carriages; and
a visit to the Foundling became the most fashionable morning lounge of
the reign of George the Second. The grounds in front of the Hospital
were the promenade; and brocaded silks, gold-headed canes, and laced
three-cornered (Egham, Staines, and Windsor) hats, formed a gay bevy in
Lambs’ Conduit Fields.
A very interesting series of biographettes of “the artists of the
Foundling,” with a _catalogue raisonnée_ of the pictures presented by
them, will be found in Mr. Brownlow’s “Memoranda; or, Chronicles” of the
Hospital. Among the pictures by Hogarth, are--“Moses brought to
Pharaoh’s Daughter,” the “March to Finchley,” and a “Portrait of Captain
Coram.” Here are, also, “The Charterhouse,” by Gainsborough; “St.
George’s and the Foundling Hospitals,” by Wilson; “Portrait of Handel,”
by Kneller; “The Earl of Dartmouth,” by Reynolds; The Cartoon of “The
Murder of the Innocents,” by Raphael; the altarpiece of the chapel,
“Christ presenting a Little Child,” by West; Portrait of the “Earl of
Macclesfield,” by Wilson; “Dr. Mead,” by Allan Ramsay; “George the
Second,” by Shackleton; “the Offering of the Wise Men,” by Casali;
crayon portrait of “Taylor White,” by Cotes; “A Landscape,” by Lambert;
“A Sea-piece,” by Brooking, &c.