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_ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOKS OF ART HISTORY._
ENGLISH PAINTERS
BY H. J. WILMOT-BUXTON, M.A.
WITH A CHAPTER ON
AMERICAN PAINTERS
BY S. R. KOEHLER.
ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOKS OF ART HISTORY OF ALL AGES.
_Crown 8vo, cloth extra, per volume, 5s._
=Architecture: Classic and Early Christian=. By Professor T. ROGER SMITH
and JOHN SLATER, B.A. Comprising the Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, Roman,
Byzantine, and Early Christian. Illustrated with 212 Engravings,
including the Parthenon, the Erechtheum at Athens, the Temple of Zeus at
Olympia, the Colosseum, the Baths of Diocletian at Rome, Saint Sophia at
Constantinople, the Sakhra Mosque at Jerusalem, &c.
=Architecture: Gothic and Renaissance=. By Professor T. ROGER SMITH and
EDWARD J. POYNTER, R.A. Showing the Progress of Gothic Architecture in
England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, and of Renaissance
Architecture in the same Countries. Illustrated with more than 100
Engravings, including many of the principal Cathedrals, Palaces, and
Domestic Buildings on the Continent.
=Sculpture=: A Manual of Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, and Roman. By GEORGE
REDFORD, F.R.C.S. With 160 Illustrations of the most celebrated Statues
and Bas-reliefs of Greece and Rome, a Map of Ancient Greece,
Descriptions of the Statues, and a Chronological List of Ancient
Sculptors and their Works.
=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
Engravings of many of the finest Pictures of Italy.
=Painting: 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
Duerer, Cranach, and Holbein; Van Eyck, Van der Weyden, and Memline;
Rubens, Snyders, and Van Dyck; Rembrandt, Hals, and Jan Steen; Wynants,
Ruisdael, and Hobbema; Cuyp, Potter, and Berchem; Bakhuisen, Van de
Velde, Van Huysum, and many other celebrated Painters. Illustrated with
100 Engravings.
=Painting: English and American=. By H. J. WILMOT-BUXTON, M.A. Including
an Account of the Earliest Paintings known in England; the Works of
Holbein, Antonis More, Lucas de Heere, Zuccaro and Marc Gheeraedts; the
Hilliards and Olivers; Van Dyck, Lely, and Kneller; Hogarth, Reynolds,
and Gainsborough; West, Romney, and Lawrence; Constable, Turner, and
Wilkie; Maclise, Mulready, and Landseer; and many other celebrated
Painters. With 80 Illustrations.
=Painting: French and Spanish=. By GERARD SMITH, Exeter Coll., Oxon.
Including the Lives of Ribera, Zurbaran, Velazquez, and Murillo;
Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Le Sueur, Chardin, Greuze, David, and Prud'hon;
Ingres, Vernet, Delaroche, and Delacroix; Corot, Diaz, Rousseau, and
Millet; Courbet, Regnault, Troyon; and many other celebrated Artists.
With 80 Illustrations. Nearly ready.
[Illustration: THE VALLEY FARM. _By_ CONSTABLE. A.D. 1835.
_In the National Gallery._]
_ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOKS OF ART HISTORY_
ENGLISH PAINTERS
BY H. J. WILMOT-BUXTON, M.A.
WITH A CHAPTER ON
AMERICAN PAINTERS
BY S. R. KOEHLER
[Illustration]
LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON
CROWN BUILDINGS, FLEET STREET
1883
(_All rights reserved_.)
[Illustration]
PREFACE.
This brief sketch of the rise and progress of Painting in England has
been drawn from a variety of sources. The little that can be traced of
artistic work previous to the end of the fifteenth century does not fill
many pages. Ignorance, carelessness, and "iconoclastic rage" all
contributed to the defacement of paintings which we have every reason to
believe at one time abounded in our churches and public buildings, as
they did at the same period in Italy; and there is good evidence that
some of our early English artists are not to be despised.
Our forefathers were too much engaged in the rough contests of war to
care much for the arts of peace. In the sixteenth century several
foreign artists of more or less celebrity were induced to visit and stay
in England. Foremost of these was Holbein, and to his example English
artists are deeply indebted. In the next century there were a few
excellent miniature painters, whose work is not to be surpassed at the
present day, and then came a succession of foreigners--Rubens and Van
Dyck from Flanders, Lely and Kneller from Germany, and a host of lesser
men, who seem to have in a great measure monopolized portrait
painting--then in vogue among the nobility--for more than a hundred
years.
Early in the eighteenth century came Hogarth, followed by Reynolds,
Gainsborough and Romney, and from that time to the present, Art has year
by year progressed, till now English Painters have become a recognised
power in the state, and contribute, in no small degree, to the
enlightenment, pleasure and refinement of the age.
H.J.W.-B.
_November_, 1882.
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
PAINTING IN ENGLAND.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Early English Art 1
CHAPTER II.
English Art in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 9
CHAPTER III.
English Art in the Eighteenth Century--William Hogarth 36
CHAPTER IV.
The Royal Academy and its influence 44
CHAPTER V.
The Progress of English Art in the Eighteenth Century 60
CHAPTER VI.
Book Illustrators--Miniature Painters 85
CHAPTER VII.
Painters in Water Colours 100
CHAPTER VIII.
English Art in the Nineteenth Century--Sir Thomas Lawrence
and his contemporaries 116
CHAPTER IX.
Landscape Painters 127
CHAPTER X.
Historic Painters 148
CHAPTER XI.
Subject Painters 163
PAINTING IN AMERICA.
Introduction 187
First, or Colonial Period 190
Second, or Revolutionary Period 195
Third Period, or Period of Inner Development 201
Fourth, or Present Period 217
INDEX OF NAMES 223
[Illustration]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. THE VALLEY FARM _Constable_ _Frontispiece_
PAGE
2. AGE OF INNOCENCE _Reynolds_ xiv
3. FROM ST. ETHELWOLD'S BENEDICTIONAL _Godeman_ 3
4. ARTHUR, PRINCE OF WALES (_Miniature_) 7
5. HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES (_Miniature_) 10
6. NICOLAS KRATZER _Holbein_ 12
7. EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES (_Miniature_) _Holbein_ 14
8. A DUTCH GENTLEMAN _More_ 18
9. COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE _Hilliard(?)_ 21
10. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (_Miniature_) _Isaac Oliver_ 23
11. JAMES I. (_Miniature_) _Hoskins_ 24
12. COUNTESS OF DEVONSHIRE _Van Dyck_ 27
13. OLIVER CROMWELL _Lely_ 29
14. GRINLING GIBBONS _Kneller_ 33
15. WILLIAM HOGARTH AND HIS DOG TRUMP _Hogarth_ 39
16. MORNING _Wilson_ 49
17. MRS. BRADYLL _Reynolds_ 53
18. MRS. SIDDONS _Gainsborough_ 57
19. TITANIA AND BOTTOM _Fuseli_ 63
20. DEATH OF WOLFE _West_ 65
21. DEATH OF MAJOR PEIRSON _Copley_ 68
22. MERCURY INVENTING THE LYRE _Barry_ 70
23. MARQUIS OF STAFFORD _Romney_ 73
24. CHARITY _Northcote_ 77
25. THE WATERING-PLACE _Morland_ 82
26. FROM DANTE'S INFERNO _Blake_ 86
27. THE DREAM _Stothard_ 88
28. THE PORTRAIT _Smirke_ 90
29. THE WOODCOCK _Bewick_ 92
30. TAIL-PIECE _Bewick_ 93
31. MORNING WALK _Chalon_ 98
32. EVENING _Turner_ 106
33. THE TOMB OF THE SCALIGERS AT VERONA _Prout_ 109
34. BERNCASTLE, ON THE MOSELLE _Harding_ 111
35. THE VIEW FROM RICHMOND HILL _De Wint_ 113
36. OLD ENGLISH HOSPITALITY _Cattermole_ 115
37. MASTER LAMBTON _Lawrence_ 118
38. TRIAL OF QUEEN CATHERINE _Harlow_ 122
39. SWISS PEASANT GIRL _Howard_ 124
40. THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE _Turner_ 128
41. TRENT IN TYROL _Callcott_ 132
42. THE FISHERMAN'S DEPARTURE _Collins_ 134
43. ST. GOMER, BRUSSELS _Roberts_ 136
44. FRANCIS I. AND HIS SISTER _Bonington_ 138
45. BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST _Martin_ 140
46. TERMINATI MARINA _Stanfield_ 144
47. THE PLEASANT WAY HOME _Creswick_ 146
48. THE RAPE OF EUROPA _Hilton_ 149
49. THE DANGEROUS PLAYMATE _Etty_ 153
50. GREEK FUGITIVES _Eastlake_ 155
51. JOASH SHOOTING THE ARROWS OF
DELIVERANCE _Dyce_ 157
52. HAROLD PRESENTS HIMSELF TO EDWARD
THE CONFESSOR _Maclise_ 159
53. THE MAID OF SARAGOSSA _Wilkie_ 165
54. CHOOSING THE WEDDING GOWN _Mulready_ 168
55. SANCHO PANZA AND THE DUCHESS _Leslie_ 171
56. CAPTAIN MACHEATH _Newton_ 174
57. PEACE _Landseer_ 177
58. THE ARAB SCRIBE _Lewis_ 181
59. OUR VILLAGE _Walker_ 183
60. DEATH ON THE PALE HORSE _West_ 194
61. GENERAL KNOX _Stuart_ 196
62. DEATH OF MONTGOMERY IN THE ATTACK
OF QUEBEC _Trumbull_ 198
63. JEREMIAH AND THE SCRIBE _Allston_ 203
64. A SURPRISE _Mount_ 210
65. DESOLATION _Cole_ 214
66. NOON BY THE SEA-SHORE--BEVERLY
BEACH _Kensett_ 216
67. SUNSET ON THE HUDSON _Gifford_ 218
68. LAMBS ON THE MOUNTAIN-SIDE _Hunt_ 220
[Illustration: AGE OF INNOCENCE. _By_ SIR J. REYNOLDS.
_In the National Gallery_.]
PAINTING IN ENGLAND.
BY H. J. WILMOT-BUXTON.
[Illustration]
ENGLISH PAINTERS.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY ENGLISH ART.
The current English school of art is a creation of a comparatively
modern date. It is a mistake, however, to assume that there were no
native painters in England under the Plantagenets, and that we were
entirely dependent on foreigners for such art as we possessed. The
little care which has been taken of early English pictures and their
destruction, sometimes accidental, sometimes wilful, have led many to
imagine that ancient England had no art of her own. It has been
customary to imagine that in Italy alone, in the thirteenth century,
existed the Renaissance and growth of modern design. Later research has,
however, shown that the Renaissance in painting was not the sudden
creation of Giotto, nor that of sculpture the work of Niccola Pisano.
The Renaissance in Italy was a gradual growth, and there was in England
and in other countries a similar Renaissance, which was overlooked by
those whose eyes were fixed on Italy. It has been shown that there were
English artists, contemporaries of Giotto and Pisano, whose works were
as good as any paintings or sculptures which the Italians produced in
the thirteenth century. It is quite true that we know very little of
these Englishmen. Some gave themselves to illumination, and produced
delicate representations of human beings, as well as of animals, leaves,
and flowers. In the British Museum there are several manuscripts of a
very early date, which are ornamented with paintings undoubtedly by
English artists. The Duke of Devonshire possesses a manuscript, the
_Benedictional of St. Ethelwold_, written between A.D. 963 and 970, and
illuminated, with thirty drawings, by a monk of Hyde Abbey, named
GODEMAN, for Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester. It is a folio of 119
leaves of vellum, 11-1/2 inches in height by 8-1/2 in width. Other
artists painted and gilded the images of wood or stone by their brother
craftsmen, and were classed in the humble category of _Steyners_. They
devoted much of their time to heraldic devices, and by degrees passed
from the grotesque to the natural, and produced what were styled
_portraits on board_. Painting on glass was a favourite art in this
early period, and, although the artists had no more noble title than
that of _Glaziers_, some of their works survive to prove their merits.
Many of these craftsmen combined the arts of the painter, sculptor, or
"marbler," and architect. Among these obscure pioneers of English art
was WILLIAM TORELL, a goldsmith and citizen of London, supposed to be
descended from an English family whose name occurs in Domesday Book.
Torell modelled and cast the effigy of Henry III. for his tomb in
Westminster Abbey, as well as three effigies of Eleanor of Castile,
about A.D. 1291. These latter works were placed in Westminster Abbey,
Blackfriars' Monastery, and Lincoln Cathedral. The figures in
Westminster Abbey show the dignity and beauty of the human form, and are
masterpieces of a noble style. The comparison between the effigy of
Margaret of Richmond, executed for Henry VII.'s Chapel by the Florentine
Torrigiano, and the figures by Torell, is decidedly in favour of the
latter. No work in Italy of the thirteenth century excels in beauty
these effigies by the English sculptor. At an earlier period than this,
during the life of Henry III., some English artists, as well as
foreigners, were employed to embellish the cathedrals and palaces of the
King. These native craftsmen, who seem to have been at once artists,
masons, carvers, upholsterers, or sometimes tailors,[A] are mostly
forgotten, but we can trace the names of MASTER EDWARD of Westminster,
or Edward Fitz Odo--probably the son of Odo, goldsmith to Henry
III.--MASTER WALTER, who received twenty marks "for pictures in our
Great Chamber at Westminster," and MASTER JOHN of Gloucester, who was
plasterer to the King. The names of the "imaginators" of Queen Eleanor's
Crosses are also well known. The early pictorial art of England has been
so neglected or forgotten, that it is commonly said to have commenced
with the portrait painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
[Illustration: FROM ST. ETHELWOLD'S BENEDICTIONAL. _By_ GODEMAN, A MONK
OF HYDE ABBEY. A.D. 970.
_An Illuminated MS. in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire_.]
Ignorance, indifference, and bigotry have destroyed, or suffered to
perish, the paintings which adorned the walls of almost every church,
and the panels of nearly every rood-screen, hundreds of years before the
date assigned to the English school. In Kempley Church, Gloucestershire,
the walls appear to have been painted early in the twelfth century with
large figure subjects. Those in the chancel are in a good state of
preservation, and represent the vision in the Apocalypse, and Christ in
majesty, attended by the twelve apostles and the saints, painted in life
size. In Chaldon Church, Surrey, the chancel walls are ornamented with
subjects illustrating the _Scala humanae Salvationis_, works apparently
of the twelfth century, which, though necessarily rude, are as good as
any Italian examples of the same period. In Westminster Abbey there is
an important series of small paintings by an English artist contemporary
with Cimabue. These pictures once formed the chief ornaments of a
frontal, and belonged to the high altar.[B] The work in question
consists of a rectangular piece of framed and richly panelled wood-work,
about eleven feet long by three feet high. The general design consists
of three central figures painted under canopies. On each side are four
star-shaped panels filled with painted groups of figures; beyond these
on each side is another single figure under a canopy. The wood is
covered with fine stucco, or _gesso_, to the thickness of cardboard, as
is always the case with old paintings on panels, and generally when on
stone. The pictures still extant on the frontal comprise, in the centre,
a figure of Christ in the act of benediction, holding an orb in His left
hand. At the right hand is the Virgin Mary, bearing her emblem of the
lily; on our left is St. John, with a book; on our right is St. Peter,
with the keys. In the star-shaped panels we find the miracles of the
raising of Jairus's daughter, the loaves and fishes, and the restoration
of the blind man. These figures, though somewhat like those of the early
Florentine school, possess a character of their own, and are undoubtedly
English. The well-known portrait of _Richard II_. (died 1400), now in
the Abbey at Westminster, is believed to have been painted by an English
artist of the fourteenth century. The figure of the King is of large
life size, seated in a coronation chair. He is in royal robes, with the
globe in one hand and sceptre in the other. This picture for many years
hung near the altar.
The history of art in England during the reigns of Edward I. and Edward
II. is a blank; probably men were too busy with swords and bucklers to
turn to the gentle arts of painting and sculpture. The reign of Edward
III. shows a revival in art and letters, and the patron of Chaucer
adorned the Chapel of St. Stephen, Westminster, with the best works of
native artists. The fire of 1834, which destroyed the old Houses of
Parliament, almost obliterated these interesting relics. The walls of
the chapel were painted in oil colours with scriptural and historic
episodes on the prepared surface of the stonework. There seems to have
been at this period a method, peculiar to London, of producing a blue
colour, which is mentioned in a German MS. of the fourteenth century as
"the London practice." It is noticeable that a blue colour can still be
traced in the relics saved from St. Stephen's. The Society of
Antiquaries has published coloured copies of the paintings which adorned
the chapel. When we recall the state of England at the period which
succeeded the death of Edward III., the turbulence of the feudal barons,
the constant lawlessness and blood-shedding, and the ignorance which
prevailed even among the upper classes, we cannot wonder that art made
little progress. Some advance doubtless took place, but we look in vain
for originality among the artists who were alternately employed to
decorate a baron's pageant, or adorn an altar.
There is a good portrait of _Henry IV._, removed from Hampton Court,
Herefordshire, and now at Cassiobury.
To the reign of Henry V., or at latest to the early days of Henry VI.,
belongs the earliest authentic specimen of historical portraiture in
England. It represents _Henry V. and his Relations_, painted on wood,
less than life size, and was at one time the altar-piece of Shene
Church. The portraits which were attempted in the troublous period of
the Wars of the Roses, though unlovely and ghastly to look upon, show
that art was gradually emerging from the fetters of monastic teaching,
where bad pupils copied bad masters, and reproduced saints and angels,
whose want of form and symmetry was atoned for by a liberal allowance of
gilding. A fairly expressive portrait of _Richard III._, which must have
been painted about this time by a very capable artist, is among the
treasures of Knowsley. In the well-known tapestry in St. Mary's Hall,
Coventry, there is a representation of King Henry VI. kneeling before
the altar, attended by Cardinal Beaufort, the Duke of Gloucester, and
many courtiers, in which the drawing will bear comparison with similar
work executed in Italy or Flanders at the same time. This tapestry was
probably made at Arras, from English designs.
[Illustration: ARTHUR, PRINCE OF WALES. [B. 1486. D. 1502.]
_From a Miniature at Windsor Castle_.]
The gradual spread of knowledge at this period induced the English
nobility to promote the adornment of manuscripts, chiefly Missals and
Romances of Chivalry. These pictures comprise the best specimens of
English later mediaeval art, and in richness and delicacy of colour they
closely approach oil paintings. With the discovery of printing came a
check to the art of illuminating manuscripts, and the wild fanaticism of
the first Reformers led them to burn at once the religious manuals of
Rome, and the wit and wisdom of poet or philosopher. To these ruthless
iconoclasts we owe the obscurity in which early English pictorial art
remains. It must have been during the later years of the reign of Henry
VII. that two miniatures, now at Windsor Castle, were painted, probably
for the King. One represents _Arthur, Prince of Wales_, who, at the age
of fifteen, married Catherine of Aragon; the other is his brother, who
became Henry VIII. (_See Engravings_.)
In the reign of Henry VI. there was an artist of note, undoubtedly an
Englishman, who may not be passed in silence. This was William Austen,
sculptor, to whom we owe the monument ("in fine latten," _i.e._ brass)
of Richard, Earl of Warwick, in the Church of St. Mary, Warwick, a work
which Flaxman somewhat courageously considered equal to the productions
of Austen's Italian contemporaries, Ghiberti and Donatello.
[Illustration]