ENGLISH ART IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.
The period of the Renaissance found all eyes directed to Italy, and
presently England welcomed a number of foreign artists who became the
teachers, more or less worthy, of our countrymen. Henry VII. was fonder
of money than of art, yet he invited several of these strangers to
England; but there are no grounds for supposing, though it is frequently
stated, that Mabuse was among the number. Among the foreign artists of
this period who visited England, were GERRARD LUCAS HOREBOUT, or
HORNEBOLT, of Ghent (1475--1558), who was employed by Henry VIII., and
probably by his predecessor; and SUSANNAH HOREBOUT, daughter of Gerrard
Lucas, a miniature painter, is said to have married an English sculptor
named Whorstley. Duerer, in his journal, says of her, "it is a great
wonder a woman should do so well." Henry VIII. was as lavish as his
father had been careful of money; naturally fond of display, and jealous
of the magnificence of Francis I. and Charles V., the King became a
liberal patron of artists. He is said to have invited Raphael,
Primaticcio, and Titian to visit England, but if so, the invitations
were declined. Among lesser names, however, we find that of ANTONIO
TOTO, who came here in 1531, and was appointed Serjeant-Painter to the
King. None of his works is now recognised. GIROLAMO DA TREVISO is
supposed to have designed the historic painting of the _Field of the
Cloth of Gold_, formerly at Windsor, and now in the possession of the
Society of Antiquaries at Burlington House.
[Illustration: HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES. [B. 1491. D. 1547.] AFTERWARDS
KING HENRY VIII.
_From a Miniature at Windsor Castle_.]
LUCAS CORNELISZ of Leyden (1493--1552), son of Cornelis Engelbrechtsen,
came to England and entered the service of the King. It is said that he
taught Holbein in some branches of art, and, as he survived the great
painter of Augsburg for nine years, it is _possible_ that some of the
works attributed to Holbein after 1543 were painted by him.
Henry VIII. seems to have had two other Serjeant-Painters besides
Antonio Toto, and previous to the coming of Holbein. These were ANDREW
WRIGHT and JOHN BROWN, whose names proclaim them to be natives. These
artists or craftsmen had positions of trust and honour, wore a special
dress, and received a weekly wage. Jan van Eyck had a similar post as
_varlet de chambre_ to Philippe le Bon. It was the age of pageants, and
one great duty of the King's artists was to adorn these singular
spectacles. Among the archives of the Church of St. Mary Redcliffe,
Bristol, is the following curious notice of a religious pageant held at
a somewhat earlier date:--
"Memorandum: That Master Cumings hath delivered, the 4th day of
July, in the year of Our Lord 1470, to Mr. Nicholas Bettes, Vicar
of Radcliffe, Moses Couteryn, Philip Bartholomew, and John Brown,
procurators of Radcliffe, beforesaid, a new sepulchre, well gilt,
and cover thereto; an image of God rising out of the same
sepulchre, with all the ordinance that longeth thereto: that is to
say--Item, a lath, made of timber, and iron work thereto. Item,
thereto longeth Heaven, made of timber and stained cloth. Item,
Hell, made of timber and iron work, with devils in number thirteen.
Item, Four knights, armed, keeping the sepulchre, with their
weapons in their hands, that is to say, two axes, and two spears.
Item, Three pair of angels' wings; four angels, made of timber, and
well painted. Item, the Father, the crown, and visage; the ball,
with a cross upon it, well gilt with fine gold. Item, the Holy
Ghost coming out of heaven into the sepulchre. Item, Longeth to the
angels four chevelers."
[Illustration: NICOLAS KRATZER: ASTRONOMER TO HENRY VIII. _By_ HANS
HOLBEIN. DATED 1528.
_In the Louvre_.]
It is not surprising that art made little progress whilst it was mainly
directed to the painting and gilding of timber angels and of solid
devils for a hell of iron and wood-work. Things were not much better in
the reign of Henry VIII. His love of ostentation made him fond of
pageants, and the instructions which he left for his own monument are
curious. "The King shall appear on horseback, of the stature of a goodly
man while over him shall appear the image of God the Father holding
the King's soul in his left hand, and his right hand extended in the act
of benediction." This work was to have been executed in bronze, but was
never finished. Elizabeth stopped the necessary payments, and the
uncompleted figure was sold by an unsentimental and Puritan Parliament
for L600. The influence of the Reformation was decidedly antagonistic to
art in England and elsewhere. In attempting to reform, the leaders
tolerated destruction, and whilst pretending to purify the church they
carried away not only the "idols," but much that was beautiful. They
literally "broke down the carved work thereof with axes and hammers."
Pictures and altar-pieces were ruthlessly destroyed. Fortunately a
considerable number of old paintings still exist in our churches. A
little work on "Wall Paintings in England," recently published by the
Science and Art Department, mentions five hundred and sixty-eight
churches and other public buildings in England in which wall paintings
and other decorations have been found, all dating from an earlier period
than the Reformation, and there are doubtless many not noticed. The
branch of art which suffered least from the iconoclastic Reformers was
that of portrait-painting, and this received a great impetus in England
by the opportune arrival of--
HANS HOLBEIN, the younger, of Augsburg (1497--1543), who came, in 1526,
with a recommendation from Erasmus to Sir Thomas More, by whom he was
welcomed and entertained at Chelsea. Unlike Albrecht Duerer, the other
great German painter of the Reformation epoch, Holbein was a literal
painter of men, not a dreamer haunted by visions of saints and angels.
His ideas of heaven were probably modelled far more on the plan of the
Bristol pageant, than on that of the Italian masters. Such an artist
came exactly at the right moment to England, where Protestantism was
becoming popular. Holbein's wonderful power as a colourist and the
fidelity of his likenesses exercised a lasting effect on English art. He
founded no school, however, though he had many imitators among the
foreign artists whom Henry had invited.[C]
[Illustration: EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES, AFTERWARDS KING EDWARD VI.
_By_ HOLBEIN.
_From a Miniature in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire._]
In 1532 Holbein was made Painter to the King, with a salary of L34 a
year, in addition to the payment given for his works. The chief
pictures painted by Holbein in England are portraits; and tradition says
that Henry specially employed him to delineate the features of any fair
lady on whom he had cast a favourable eye. Among the portraits we may
mention those of _Nicolas Kratzer_, _Erasmus_, _Anne of Cleves_, and
_Sir Richard Southwel_ (in the Louvre); _Archbishop Warham_ (Lambeth
Palace); _Sir Henry Guildford_, a _Merchant of the Steelyard_, and _Lady
Rich_ (Windsor); _Lady Vaux_ and _John Reskimer_ (Hampton Court); _Henry
VIII._; the _Duchess of Milan_[D] (Arundel Castle); _Sir William_ and
_Lady Butts_ (Mr. W. H. Pole Carew); _The Ambassadors_, a most important
work, and _Erasmus_ (Lord Radnor, Longford Castle). There is at Windsor
a series of eighty portraits of the English nobility, drawn by Holbein
in black and red chalks, which are of infinite value as works of art;
and at Windsor likewise, and in other galleries, are many carefully
painted miniatures ascribed to him, of the greatest artistic and
historic value.
Hans Holbein, like most artists of his age, could do more than paint
portraits. At Basle are noble subject pictures by him. He was an
architect, a modeller, and a carver. He was specially gifted in
designing wood-blocks for illustrating books, and in the ornamentation
of sword-hilts, plate, and the like. A book of designs for jewels, by
Holbein, once the property of Sir Hans Sloane, is now in the British
Museum. Holbein died of the plague, in London, between October 7th and
November 29th, 1543.
Another painter in the service of King Henry VIII. at this time was the
above-named GIROLAMO PENNACCHI, who was born at Treviso, in 1497. He was
an imitator of Raphael, and painted portraits--chiefly at Genoa, Faenza,
Bologna, and Venice, and in 1542 came to England. He was killed by a
cannon-ball while acting as a military engineer in the King's service
near Boulogne, in 1544. There is an altar-piece by him, signed IERONIMVS
TREVISIVS P (No. 623 in the National Gallery.) In the "Old Masters"
Exhibition of 1880, was a portrait of _Sir T. Gresham_ (No. 165), a fine
whole-length, standing, life-size picture of the famous merchant, with a
skull on the pavement at our left. This work is dated 1544, the year of
Sir Thomas's marriage, in his twenty-sixth year, and, as we have seen
above, of Treviso's death. It is the property of the Gresham Committee
of London, and every expert has accepted it as a work of the Italian
painter, engineer, and architect, who was important enough to be
honoured with a separate biography by Vasari in his "Lives of the
Painters." Girolamo's salary from the English King was 400 scudi per
annum. Much likeness exists between the art of Gresham's portrait and
that of the masterly life-size, whole-length picture of the _Earl of
Surrey_, with his motto, _Sat super est_, which is one of the chief
ornaments of Knole, and almost worthy of Velasquez himself. This picture
(which is dated 1546) is attributed to the undermentioned GWILLIM
STRETES (or STREET). It is much more like an Italian production than a
Dutch one, and so fine that Da Treviso might have painted it at his best
time. It is not like the beautiful portraits of _Edward VI._ at Windsor
and Petworth, which are exactly such as we attribute to a man in
Stretes's position, and which, while differing from the productions of
Holbein, are, technically speaking, by no means unworthy of him. The
charming Windsor portrait of _Edward VI._ was No. 172 in the National
Portrait Exhibition of 1866. In the same collection were more works of
the same period, including the portrait of _Henry VIII._, No. 124, lent
by the Queen.
The following are among the painters who flourished at this time of whom
records exist and are more or less confused, yet are so valuable that
they deserve to be sifted in comparison with the large numbers of
pictures. The artists' names are important because they prove how many
of the owners were Englishmen. These persons were all employed by Henry
VIII. They were JOHN BROWN, who received a pension of L10 a year; ANDREW
WRIGHT, died 1543; VINCENT VOLPE, who translated his name into "Fox" and
died 1529. He, _c._ 1529, was paid at the rate of L20 a year, a great
sum in those days, when Holbein himself had but L30 a year. ANTONIO TOTO
succeeded Wright as Sergeant-Painter to the King, a dignity which
afterwards fell to Sir James Thornhill and Hogarth successively. GERRARD
LUCAS HOREBOUT, or HORNEBOLT (1475--1558), and LUCAS HOREBOUT (died
1544), his son, Flemings, were painters of distinction here and abroad,
whose works have been added to those of Holbein. Their wages were more
than L30 per annum each. SUSANNA HOREBOUT was a painter of miniatures,
much employed by the King and his courtiers. A picture of _Henry VIII._
at Warwick Castle has for centuries borne the name of Lucas of this
family. It is doubtless rightly named, and may some day furnish a key to
the style of the distinguished owner himself. It was No. 99 in the
National Portrait Exhibition of 1866, and No. 471 of the Manchester Art
Treasures of 1857. A somewhat similar picture is now in the National
Portrait Gallery. We may, in future, recognise in some of the beautiful
miniatures of this period, which are now ascribed to Holbein, the
much-praised works of Susanna Horebout. Doubtless some of the works of
Lucas have been bestowed on Lucas de Heere, who is mentioned below.
BARTHOLOMEW PENNI, and ALICE CARMILLION succeeded in honour. LAVINIA
TERLING (born Benich), "paintrix," as they called her, had for quarterly
wages L10, and was mentioned by Vasari as of Bruges.
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF A DUTCH GENTLEMAN. _By_ SIR ANTONIS MORE.]
In the reign of Edward VI. GWILLIM STRETES was made Painter to the King.
Strype records that he was paid fifty marks for two pictures of the
King, and one of _Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey_, who was beheaded in
1547. KATHERINE MAYNORS and GERBACH FLICK--evidently a Dutchman, one of
whose drawings belonged to Richardson and is dated 1547--were here at
this time; Flick's likeness of _Cranmer_ (signed GERBARUS FLICIUS),
painted in 1546, is now in the National Portrait Gallery. They
continued the practice of art in this country. At Irnham is a fine
full-length portrait of _Lord Darcy of Chirke_, dated 1551. NICHOLAS
LYZARDI was second painter to King Edward, and succeeded TOTO, as
Sergeant-Painter to Elizabeth. JOHANNES CORVUS painted the likeness of
_Fox, Bishop of Winchester_, which belongs to Corpus Christi College,
Oxford, and which was at the National Portrait Exhibition, 1866, No. 46.
Corvus has been identified by Mr. Scharf as the artist of a fine
portrait, dated 1532, of _Mary Tudor_, wife of Louis XII., and the Duke
of Suffolk. WILLIAM KEY, or CAIUS, as he called himself, was born at
Breda in 1520 and died 1568. Some of his pictures were, as Mr. Scharf
has noticed, in the collections of Charles I., and the Duke of
Buckingham. A carver, and probably painter, well known at this period in
England, whose works are, however, no longer to be identified, was
NICHOLAS OF MODENA, who made _pictures_, possibly small coloured
statues, of Henry VIII. and Francis I. It is worth while to mention that
one P. OUDRY, apparently a Frenchman, was busily employed in this
country about 1578, and painted various portraits of _Mary, Queen of
Scots_, one of which is in the National Portrait Gallery, while others
are at Cobham, Hardwick, Hatfield, and Welbeck.
In the reign of Mary I. we find art represented by SIR ANTONIS MOR,
MORO, or MORE (1512--1576--78), a native of Utrecht, who had painted and
studied in Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Philip II. was his especial
patron, and gave him a gold chain for the portrait of his gloomy Queen.
He came to England in 1553, was made painter to the Court, and received
very large prices for his pictures. He remained till the Queen's death,
in 1558, when he returned to Madrid. He afterwards established himself
at Brussels, under the protection of the Duke of Alva, but in 1572
removed to Antwerp, where he died. His portraits of _Jeanne d'Archel_,
in the National Gallery, and of _Sir T. Gresham_, in the National
Portrait Gallery, are excellent examples of his skill. JOOST VAN CLEEF
(15001536?), a native of Antwerp, also painted portraits at this time
with considerable success. From his overweening conceit, which led him
into furious quarrels, he was called Zotte (foolish) Cleef. His
portrait, by himself, is in the Althorp Gallery.
It has been said of Elizabeth, that although she had not much taste for
painting, she loved pictures of herself. Her court painter was a
Fleming, LUCAS DE HEERE (1534?--1584), who had also been employed by
Queen Mary, whose portrait (dated 1554) by him belongs to the Society of
Antiquaries, and was at the "Old Masters," in 1880, No. 202. He painted,
in 1570, the gallery of the Earl of Lincoln, describing the
characteristics of different nations. With a sarcastic wit, which
Elizabeth doubtless appreciated, he represented the typical Englishman
as naked, with a pair of shears, and different kinds of clothes beside
him, unable to decide on the best fashion. DE HEERE painted Elizabeth in
full state, as she loved to be depicted, attended by Juno, Minerva and
Venus. This picture remains at Hampton Court (No. 635), and is dated
1569. Mr. Wynne Finch has a capital picture of small figures,
representing _Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, and her second
husband Adrian Stokes_, dated 1559, by this able painter. Many other
works by him exist in English seats. Other foreign artists of this reign
were CORNELIUS VROOM, who drew designs for tapestry, representing the
victory of Lord Howard over the famous "Armada" of the Spaniards (these
tapestries were burnt with the Houses of Parliament in 1834); FEDERIGO
ZUCCHERO (1643--1609), whose portrait of the Queen in a fantastic dress
is in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, and was No. 229 in the
National Portrait Exhibition, 1866; and MARC GHEERAEDTS, or GARRARD
(1561--1635), of Bruges. There are three portraits ascribed to
Gheeraedts in the collection of the Marquis of Exeter, and others were
exhibited in the first (1866) National Portrait Exhibition. The most
important of all the works attributed to Gheeraedts is the group of
eleven _English and Spanish Statesmen_ assembled at Somerset House,
which has been recently acquired for the National Portrait Gallery at
the Hamilton Palace sale.[E] A very fine little example, signed "M.G.,"
is a full-length portrait of _Queen Elizabeth_, standing, holding a
branch of olive, with a sword and a little shock dog at her feet. It
belongs to the Duke of Portland, and was long lent to the South
Kensington Museum. A head of _Camden_, in the Bodleian, is signed with
the artist's name in full. A very fine full-length portrait is at Woburn
Abbey; other signed specimens are at Barron Hill and Penshurst.
[Illustration: COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE. "SIDNEY'S SISTER, PEMBROKE'S
MOTHER." _By_ NICHOLAS HILLIARD (?). _From a rare Engraving._]
More interesting than these foreign artists is the name of NICHOLAS
HILLIARD (1547--1619), an Englishman, and the first native artist of
importance, whose fame remains to the present time. The "Old Masters"
Exhibition of 1879 contained many likenesses said to have been painted
by Hilliard; among these was one of _Queen Elizabeth_. Hilliard's skill
was specially shown in his miniatures, of which that of Jane Seymour, at
Windsor, is a crowning piece. The Duke of Buccleuch has a noble series
of Hilliard's and Oliver's paintings of this kind. Dr. Donne says of the
former--
"An hand or eye
By Hilliard drawn is worth a historye
By a worse painter made."
The influence of Holbein is traceable in the works of Hilliard, and in
those of his successor, and, probably, pupil, Isaac Oliver. One of the
most able painters of this age was SIR NATHANIEL BACON, half-brother to
the great Sir Francis Bacon, whose life-size portrait of himself,
belonging to the Earl of Verulam, has been engraved in Walpole's
"Anecdotes." Sir N. Bacon died in 1615.
[Illustration: SIR PHILIP SIDNEY AT PENSHURST. _By_ ISAAC OLIVER. _From
a Miniature in Windsor Castle._]
The miniatures of ISAAC OLIVER (1556--1617) are considered by some
critics to rival those of Holbein. Both Isaac and his son PETER OLIVER
(1601--1660) painted in the reign of James I., who, if not a great
patron of Art, yet encouraged foreign portrait painters to work in
England. Most famous among these were DANIEL MYTENS, PAUL VAN SOMER, and
CORNELIS JONSON. Van Somer, a Fleming, is specially noted for his
fidelity, Mytens for the spirit and dignity of his likenesses and his
landscape backgrounds, and Jonson for the accuracy of his portraits.
JEAN PETITOT (1607--1691), of Geneva, also came to England and painted
portraits in enamel for Charles I. But native art was not altogether
unrepresented. _Nicholas Stone_, the sculptor, flourished; and JOHN
HOSKINS, who died in 1664, was celebrated as a miniature painter. The
special art of miniature painting was at this time lucrative to its
professors, as it was the fashion to wear pictures of friends, set in
gold and precious stones. There were symptoms of a growing taste for art
in England, and men were learning that it was possible to paint a good
picture without living on the Continent.
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF KING JAMES I. _By_ HOSKINS, AFTER VAN SOMER.
_From a Miniature in Windsor Castle._]
The first Englishman of high degree who collected works of art in the
manner to which we apply the phrase, was the Earl of Arundel, who was
followed by Prince Henry, son of James I. The accession of Charles I.
marks a new and bright period in the history of English painting.
Walpole, in his "Anecdotes of Painting," speaking of Charles I., says,
not very accurately, "The accession of this Prince was the first era of
real taste in England. As his temper was not profuse, the money he
expended on his collections, and the rewards he bestowed on men of true
genius, are proofs of his judgment. He knew how and where to bestow."
The King was not only a patron of art, but an artist. We are told by
Gilpin that Charles "had singular skill in limning, and was a good judge
of pictures." Another authority states that he often amused himself by
drawing and designing. Charles inherited pictures which had been
collected by Henry VIII. and Prince Henry, all of which were scattered
in the different royal palaces. To these works, one hundred and fifty in
all, the King added a vast number of valuable examples. The manuscript
catalogue, left incomplete by Vanderdoort, the keeper of the royal
galleries, mentions 497 pictures at Whitehall, including 28 by Titian, 9
by Raphael, 11 by Correggio, 11 by Holbein, 16 by Giulio Romano, 7 by
Parmigiano, 7 by Rubens, 7 by Tintoretto, 3 by Rembrandt, 16 by Van
Dyck, 4 by Paolo Veronese, and 2 by Leonardo da Vinci.[F] Charles
bought, in 1627, the collection of paintings belonging to the Duke of
Mantua for L18,280 12s. 8d.; and many foreign courts made presents of
rare and valuable pictures to the King of England. The good example of
their master was followed by some of the nobility, and the Duke of
Buckingham, the Earl of Somerset, the Earl of Pembroke, and the Earl of
Arundel were liberal patrons of art. The last made a noble collection of
statues and drawings; some of the latter are in the British Museum; many
of the sculptures are at Oxford. Charles vainly invited Albani to visit
England, but in 1629 RUBENS arrived as a confidential diplomatic
representative of the Archduchess Isabella, Infanta of Spain, and was
induced to remain for about nine months. The King delighted to honour
the great painter, and made him a knight. During his stay in England,
Rubens, among other works, painted his allegoric picture of _Peace and
War_ (National Gallery); _St. George_ (Buckingham Palace); the
_Assumption of the Blessed Virgin_, for the Earl of Arundel; and the
designs for the ceiling of Whitehall. The influence from this brief
sojourn was very marked, and it was followed by that of--
ANTHONY VAN DYCK (1599--1641), a native of Antwerp, after a brief and
unsatisfactory visit to England, returned here and was created Court
Painter in 1632. Charles I. knighted him in 1632. His influence affected
the portrait painters who lived a century after him, and survived till
the advent of Reynolds. The best of Van Dyck's pictures are in the
possession of the Crown and private collectors in England. There is one
famous _Portrait of Charles I._ in the Louvre, and another in the
Hermitage at St. Petersburg. The _Three Children of Charles I._ is among
his pictures in Windsor Castle. In the National Gallery the best
specimen of Van Dyck's art is the _Emperor Theodosius and St. Ambrose_,
No. 50. The _Gevartius_, No. 52, is probably by Rubens. There are
magnificent portraits by Van Dyck in many private galleries.
GERARD VAN HONTHORST (1590--1656), a native of Utrecht, passed some
years in England, painting portraits for Charles I. and his courtiers,
and giving lessons to his daughter Elizabeth, afterwards Queen of
Bohemia.
WILLIAM DOBSON (1610--1646), a dwarf, was apprenticed to Sir Robert
Peake, an obscure painter and picture dealer, and learnt to copy Van
Dyck so accurately, that he attracted the notice of the great master,
who introduced him to the King. He became, after his patron's death,
Serjeant-Painter, and Groom of the Privy Chamber. His career, like
himself, was brief. When the Civil War broke out, Dobson was a prisoner
for debt, and he died three years before the execution of his royal
master. His portraits are often mistaken for those of Van Dyck. At
Hampton Court is a fine picture of the painter himself with his wife.
The _Beheading of St. John the Baptist_, which resembles a Honthorst, is
at Wilton House; and a portrait of _Cleveland_, the poet, is in the
Ellesmere collection. Several of Dobson's portraits have been exhibited
in the National Portrait Exhibition, and in the collections of works by
the "Old Masters" at Burlington House.
[Illustration: THE COUNTESS OF DEVONSHIRE. _By_ VAN DYCK. _From the
Engraving by P. Lombart._]
GEORGE JAMESONE (1586--1644), the son of an Aberdeen architect, is
styled by Cunningham "the Scottish Van Dyck." He studied abroad under
Rubens, in the company of Van Dyck, and in 1628 commenced a prosperous
career in Scotland. He painted the portrait of Charles I., in 1633, when
the King visited that country. Jamesone also painted historic pictures,
landscapes, and subjects from the Bible. During the contest of the King
with his Parliament, the arts could not but languish. Some of the great
collectors fled to the Continent, where more than one of them existed by
the sale of portable works of art, such as medals. The Parliament
ordered the furniture of the royal palaces and the contents of the
picture galleries to be sold by auction, and the proceeds to be applied
to the expenses of the war in Ireland and the North. By an order of the
House of Commons, 1645, all such pictures and statues at York House as
bore the image of the Virgin Mary were to be forthwith destroyed as
gendering superstition. Although art, as represented in England at this
time, had been devoted to any but religious purposes--and many of its
manifestations were grossly indecent and infamous, or, at best, shocking
to unaccustomed eyes--these orders were not obeyed universally. Many
pictures were bought by foreign princes, some by Cavaliers, others by
the Puritans, among whom Colonel Hutchinson was an extensive purchaser.
Cromwell, on becoming Protector, stopped all the sales of royal
paintings and property. To him we owe the preservation of Raphael's
cartoons. They were valued by the Commissioners at L300 and ordered to
be sold, but Cromwell stopped the sale. In the reign of Charles II.,
these cartoons would have been lost to England; the King had offered to
sell them to Barillon, minister of Louis XIV., and it was only by Lord
Danby's means that the sale was prevented. Cromwell employed as his
portrait painter--
[Illustration: OLIVER CROMWELL. _By_ SIR PETER LELY. _In the Pitti
Palace, Florence._]
ROBERT WALKER, who died in 1658. The Protector insisted upon having the
warts and pimples on his face faithfully portrayed, and gave strict
injunctions both to Walker and Sir Peter Lely not to flatter him. One of
Walker's portraits of _Cromwell_ is at Warwick Castle. Some capital
examples of his skill are in the National Portrait Gallery. The
Restoration was not favourable to design. Charles II. had neither taste
for art, nor money to encourage painters. The unbridled license of the
Court defiled the studio as it did the stage; and the most popular
pictures were the portraits of the rakes and wantons who clustered round
the King.
Sir PETER LELY (1618--1680), originally named Van der Faes, was the very
accomplished painter of the Court, some of whose better works may be
compared with Van Dyck's. He came to England in 1643, and profited by
his art under Charles I., the Protectorate, and Charles II. Walpole said
of Lely's nymphs that they are "generally reposed on the turf, and are
too wanton and too magnificent to be taken for anything but Maids of
Honour."
The well-known collection of Lely's portraits at Hampton Court includes,
among others, those of the _Duchess of Richmond_; the _Countess of
Rochester_; _Mrs. Middleton_ the celebrated beauty; the _Countess of
Northumberland_; the _Duchess of Cleveland, as Minerva_; the _Countess
de Grammont_, and _Jane Kellaway, as Diana_ (misnamed Princess Mary).
_Mrs. Middleton_, in the National Portrait Gallery, by Lely, is
remarkably good. Lely fell dead before his easel, while painting a
portrait of the _Dowager Duchess of Somerset_, November 30th, 1680.
Several English artists practised in this reign.
HENRY ANDERTON (1630--after 1665) was a portrait painter employed at
Court. ISAAC FULLER (1606--1672) painted portraits and allegoric pieces.
He is described as extravagant and burlesque in his tastes and manners,
and his works bear the mark of this character. An epigram on a "Drunken
Sot" is to this effect:--
"His head doth on his shoulder lean,
His eyes are sunk, and hardly seen;
Who sees this sot in his own colour
Is apt to say, ''twas done by Fuller.'"
JOHN GREENHILL (1649--1676) was the most celebrated of Lely's pupils.
ROBERT STREATER (1624--1680) was made Serjeant-Painter to Charles II.,
and painted landscapes and historic works. His work still survives in
the Theatre at Oxford, but we cannot echo the praise accorded to it by a
rhymester who says--
"That future ages must confess they owe
To Streater more than Michael Angelo."
That most delightful of gossips, Samuel Pepys, has much to say about
art, of which he was no mean critic. Writing on February 1st, 1688,
Pepys said: "I was carried to Mr. Streater's, the famous
history-painter, whom I have often heard of, but did never see him
before; and there I found him and Dr. Wren and several virtuosos,
looking upon the paintings which he is making for the new Theatre at
Oxford; and indeed they look as if they would be very fine, and the rest
think better than those of Rubens in the Banqueting-house at Whitehall,
but I do not fully think so. But they will certainly be very noble; and
I am mightily pleased to have the fortune to see this man and his work,
which is very famous, and he is a very civil little man, and lame, but
lives very handsomely."
SAMUEL COOPER (1609--1672) was a miniature painter of a high order,
whose art attested the influence of Van Dyck; the Duke of Buccleuch has
the two famous unfinished portraits of the Protector by him, and a
galaxy of other works of this class. Pepys, speaking of a
portrait-painter named JOHN HAYLS, of whom he thought highly, said: "He
has also persuaded me to have Cooper draw my wife's picture, which
though it cost over L30, yet I will have it done." He called Cooper "a
limner in little," and referred to him several times in his Diary. On
the death of Sir Peter Lely, another foreigner became the popular
painter of the Court. This was--
Sir GODFREY KNELLER (1648--1723), a native of Luebeck, who came to the
Court of Charles II. in 1674, and maintaining his popularity during the
reign of James II., William III., and Anne, lived to paint the portrait
of _George I._ Kneller's works are chiefly portraits. Of these the
famous Kit-Kat series of likenesses of distinguished men is invaluable.
His portrait of his fellow-countryman, _Grinling Gibbons_, is one of his
best paintings. He was the fashionable painter of the age, and kings and
fine ladies, wits and statesmen, are embodied in his art. Dryden was
amongst his sitters, and the poet has left the following praises of the
painter:--
"Such are thy pictures, Kneller! such thy skill,
That nature seems obedient to thy will;
Comes out and meets thy pencil in the draught,
Lives there, and wants but words to speak the thought."
[Illustration: GRINLING GIBBONS, THE SCULPTOR. _By_ GODFREY KNELLER.]
The popularity of allegoric painting did much to hinder the progress of
English art. Nature gave place to naked gods and impossible
shepherdesses, who were painted on walls and ceilings at so much a
square foot. Charles II. had probably acquired a taste for such painting
abroad, and it retained its popularity for a considerable period. Fuseli
said: "Charles II., with the Cartoons in his possession and the
magnificence of Whitehall before his eyes, suffered Verrio to
contaminate the walls of his palaces, or degraded Lely to paint the
Cymons and Iphigenias of his Court, while the manner of Kneller swept
completely away what might be left of taste among his successors. It was
reserved for the German Lely and his successor Kneller to lay the
foundation of a manner which, by pretending to unite portrait with
history, gave a retrograde direction for nearly a century to both; a mob
of shepherds and shepherdesses in flowing wigs and dressed curls,
ruffled Endymions, humble Junos, withered Hebes, surly Allegros, and
smirking Pensierosos usurp the place of propriety and character." We can
see the triumphs of allegory over nature fully illustrated in Hampton
Court Palace. Chief among painters of this class of art was ANTONIO
VERRIO (1634--1707), who received from Charles II. L10,000 for the
decoration of Windsor Castle. LOUIS LAGUERRE (1663--1721) was associated
with Verrio, and carried on similar work after Verrio's death. His best
works are at Blenheim. In his later years Laguerre found a coadjutor in
SIR JAMES THORNHILL (1676--1734), whose decorations are superior to
those of Verrio or Laguerre. His chief productions are in the cupola of
St. Paul's Cathedral, the Great Hall of Greenwich Hospital, an apartment
at Hampton Court, and a saloon in Blenheim Palace. Thornhill was
knighted by George I., being the first English artist who received that
honour, and he sat in Parliament for his native place, Melcombe Regis.
Perhaps the most enduring fact about him is that he was the
father-in-law of Hogarth. Walpole said of the reign of George I.:--"No
reign since the arts have been in any estimation produced fewer works
that will deserve the attention of posterity." It was not only in
England that art slumbered. The Flemish, Dutch, and Spanish schools had
passed from the brilliance of their seventeenth-century period. In Italy
art had shrivelled with the last of the Bolognese school. France
possessed some original painters, but not of the highest order.
Before passing on to the period of Hogarth and the creation of the
English school, we may mention a few names of painters in England.
These were JOHN RILEY (1646--1691); JAMES PARMENTIER (1658--1730);
WILLIAM AIKMAN (1682--1731); MARY BEALE (1632--1697); JOHN CLOSTERMANN
(1656--1713); MICHAEL DAHL (1656--1743); GERARD VON SOEST (1637--1681);
JOHN VANDERBANK (1694?--1739); WILLIAM WISSING (1656--1687); JOSEPH
MICHAEL WRIGHT (1625?--1700?), a pupil of Jamesone; JONATHAN RICHARDSON
(1665--1745), a pupil of Riley; CHARLES JERVAS (1675--1739), a follower
of Kneller, and the friend of Pope, who, with the fulsome flattery of
the day, compared him to Zeuxis. GEORGE KNAPTON (1698--1778) was famous
for crayon portraits; a large group, in oils, representing the Princess
of Wales and her family, by his hand, is at Hampton Court.
In the middle of the eighteenth century, THOMAS HUDSON (1701--1779)
became the fashionable portrait painter. His chief remaining claim to
fame is that he was the first master of Joshua Reynolds. FRANCIS HAYMAN
(1708--1776) lived long enough to write himself R.A. among the earliest
members. His _Finding of Moses_ may be seen at the Foundling Hospital;
and his own portrait in the National Portrait Gallery. He seems to have
been highly esteemed, and, among other works, executed some for Vauxhall
Gardens. His fame is now almost as extinct as the lamps of that once
famous place of entertainment.
[Illustration]