THE ROYAL ACADEMY AND ITS INFLUENCE.
Hogarth was the first original painter of England, and he was too
original either to copy or to be copied; but he founded no school. What
he did was to draw aside the curtain and show the light of nature to
those who had been hitherto content to grope amid the extravagances of
allegory, or the dreams of mythology. Two circumstances specially stood
in the way of the progress of English art--the absence of a recognised
academy, where a system of art-study could be pursued, and where rewards
were offered for success; and the want of a public exhibition where
painters could display their works, or learn from one another. There
were no masters, properly speaking, in England, and therefore no pupils.
Instead of gathering around them students on the atelier system of the
Continent, painters in England had apprentices, who were employed to
grind their colours, clean their brushes, and prepare their canvas. Such
apprentices might become mechanical copyists of their employers.
Nevertheless, such was the system under which all the pupils of all the
great Italian Masters, some of whom became great masters in their turns,
were trained. Several attempts to supply the want of a recognised system
of art-teaching in London had been made from time to time. Sir
Balthasar Gerbier had a drawing school in Whitefriars so long ago as the
days of Charles I.; Van Dyck promoted studies of this kind at his house
in Blackfriars; the Duke of Richmond in 1758 endeavoured to form a
school at the Priory Garden, Westminster; Sir Godfrey Kneller supported
an academy for drawing and painting at his house in Great Queen Street,
till his death in 1723; another society existed in Greyhound Court,
Arundel Street, Strand, till 1738, when the members joined the St.
Martin's Lane Academy. These, like the following, were drawing and
painting schools, under recognised teachers, but neither
honour-bestowing, benevolent, nor representative bodies. Each pupil paid
for the use of the models and premises, except those which were supplied
by the Duke of Richmond to his guests. In 1724 Sir James Thornhill had
opened an art academy at his house in James Street, Covent Garden; it
existed till his death in 1734; he suggested to the Prime Minister, Lord
Halifax, the idea of a Royal Academy. Vanderbank for a time had a school
with living models in a disused Presbyterian chapel. William Shipley
maintained an art academy in St. Martin's Lane for thirty years, and we
know that Hogarth studied there. But none of these schools had a
prescribed system of teaching. The absence of a public exhibition was
felt as a great misfortune by the artists of this period. Hogarth,
however, who regarded the painters of his country from a gloomy point of
view, had no belief in the regenerating power of academies or paid
professors.
Apart from the Exhibitions of the Society of Artists in 1760 and 1761,
for which Hogarth designed the frontispiece and tailpiece to the
catalogue, the first public exhibition of pictures was that of sign
boards, promoted by Hogarth and B. Thornton in 1762. The impetus which
Hogarth's success gave to native art, however, was soon visible; and the
Society of Arts and the Dilettanti Society encouraged young painters by
giving prizes, and by suggesting the formation of a guild or
confraternity of artists. The first private exhibitions of pictures were
held in the Foundling and St. Bartholomew's Hospitals, to which Hogarth
and some of the leading painters of the day presented their works. This
happened in 1746. In 1761 the Society of Artists was rent in two, and a
new body, the Free Society, remained in the Adelphi. The Society of
Artists removed to Spring Gardens, and in 1765 obtained a charter of
incorporation: it was thenceforward called the Incorporated Society.
Owing to the mismanagement and consequent dissensions in this body arose
the Royal Academy of Arts, established by George III. on December 10th,
1768, though without a royal charter of incorporation. This institution,
which was to exercise so marked an influence on the art of England,
supplied two wants--a definite system of teaching, and an exhibition of
meritorious works.
Before noticing the three eminent painters who mark a new era in English
painting, and who became members of the new Academy, we must speak of
others who were not without their influence on the world of art. ALLAN
RAMSAY (1713--1784) was considered one of the best portrait painters of
his time. He was the son of Allan Ramsay, the poet, and was born at
Edinburgh. After studying in Italy he came to London and established
himself there, frequently visiting Edinburgh. Walpole specially praises
his portraits of women, even preferring some of them to those of
Reynolds. In 1767 Ramsay was made painter to George III., and his
portraits of the King and _Queen Charlotte_ are still at Kensington. As
a man of literary tastes and great accomplishments, Allan Ramsay
received the praises of Dr. Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds. In the
Exhibition of 1862 was exhibited a portrait of the _Duke of Argyll_, by
Ramsay. Portrait painting was still the popular branch of art in
England, and the influence of Hogarth had produced no advance towards
the study of landscape. Among those, however, who attempted it was
GEORGE LAMBERT (1710--1765), a scene-painter, and founder of the
"Beefsteak Club." This latter distinction makes him remembered, whilst
his landscapes, after the manner of Poussin, are forgotten. WILLIAM
SMITH (1707--1764), GEORGE SMITH (1714--1776), JOHN SMITH (1717--1764),
usually known as the SMITHS OF CHICHESTER, were very popular in their
day. They painted landscapes from the scenery round Chichester, but gave
it a foreign and unnatural air by copying Claude and Poussin. Though
they exercised considerable influence on English landscape-painting, we
cannot wonder at the popularity of these painters when we remember how
utterly barren this branch of art still remained in England. PETER
MONAMY(1670?--1749) was a marine painter of the school of the Van de
Veldes, whose pupil he may have been. A Sea piece by him at Hampton
Court (No. 915) shows that he was an artist of a high order. Portraits
of Monamy and his patron are in a picture by Hogarth at Knowsley. SAMUEL
SCOTT (1710?--1772) was a friend of Hogarth, and a marine painter after
the mode of the Van de Veldes. Walpole considered him "the first painter
of his age, one whose works will charm in any age." They have, however,
ceased to do so in this. Another marine painter was CHARLES BROOKING
(1723--1759), one of whose productions is at Hampton Court. He
occasionally worked in concert with DOMINIC SERRES (1722--1793), a Royal
Academician (a native of Gascony), whose four large pictures of _The
Naval Review at Portsmouth_, painted for George III., are likewise at
Hampton Court. The works of Dominic Serres have been confounded with
those of his son, JOHN THOMAS SERRES (1759--1825), who was a far
superior painter to his father.
We pass on to speak of three celebrated painters, who when already
famous became members of the Royal Academy--Wilson, Reynolds, and
Gainsborough. The story of RICHARD WILSON (1713--1782) is the story of a
disappointed man. Born at Pinegas, Montgomeryshire, the son of the
parson of that place. Wilson's early taste for drawing attracted the
attention of Sir George Wynne, by whom he was introduced to one Wright,
a portrait painter in London. Following the popular branch of art in his
day, Wilson in due course became a portrait painter, and although
nothing remarkable is known of his portraits, he managed to make a
living. In 1749 he visited Italy, and whilst waiting for an interview
with the landscape painter Zuccarelli he is said to have sketched the
view through the open window. The Italian advised the Englishman to
devote himself henceforth to landscapes, and Wilson followed his advice.
After six years' stay in Italy, during which period he became imbued
with the beauties of that country, Wilson returned to England in 1755,
and found Zuccarelli worshipped, whilst he himself was neglected. His
_Niobe_, one version of which is in the National Gallery, was exhibited
with the Society of Artists' Collection, in Spring Gardens, 1760, and
made a great impression, but, in general, his pictures, infinitely
superior to the mere decorations of the Italian, were criticised, and
compared unfavourably with those of Zuccarelli, and it was not till long
after Wilson's death that he was thoroughly appreciated. He was often
compelled to sell his pictures to pawnbrokers, who, so it is said, could
not sell them again. Poverty and neglect soured the painter's temper,
and made him irritable and reckless. He had many enemies, and even Sir
Joshua Reynolds treated him with injustice. Wilson was one of the
original thirty-six members of the Royal Academy, and in 1776 applied
for and obtained the post of Librarian to that body, the small salary
helping the struggling man to live. The last years of his life were
brightened by better fortune. A brother left him a legacy, and in 1780
Wilson retired to a pleasant home at Llanberis, Carnarvon, where he died
two years later. Mr. Redgrave says of him: "There is this praise due to
our countryman--that our landscape art, which had heretofore been
derived from the meaner school of Holland, following his great
example, looked thenceforth to Italy for its inspiration; that he proved
the power of native art to compete on this ground also with the art of
the foreigner, and prepared the way for the coming men, who, embracing
Nature as their mistress, were prepared to leave all and follow her."
Wilson frequently repeated his more successful pictures. _The Ruins of
the Villa of Maecenas, at Tivoli_ (National Gallery), was painted five
times by him. In the same Gallery are _The Destruction of Niobe's
Children_, _A Landscape with Figures_, three _Views in Italy_, _Lake
Avernus with the Bay of Naples in the distance_, &c. In the Duke of
Westminster's collection are _Apollo and the Seasons_ and _The River
Dee_. Wilson, like many another man of genius, lived before his time,
and was forced one day to ask Barry, the Royal Academician, if he knew
any one mad enough to employ a landscape painter, and if so, whether he
would recommend him.
[Illustration: MORNING. _By_ RICHARD WILSON.]
Singularly unlike Wilson in his fortunes was a painter of the same
school, named GEORGE BARRET (1728?--1784), an Irishman, who began life
by colouring prints for a Dublin publisher, and became the popular
landscape painter of the day, receiving vast sums for his pictures,
whilst Wilson could hardly buy bread. Patronised by Burke, who gained
him the appointment of Master-Painter to Chelsea Hospital, and receiving
for his works L2,000 a year, Barret died poor, and his pictures, once so
prized, are neglected, whilst the works of Wilson are now valued as they
deserve. Another artist who derived his inspiration from Wilson was
JULIUS CAESAR IBBETSON (1759--1817), who painted landscapes with cattle
and figures and rustic incidents with much success.
JOSHUA REYNOLDS (1723--1792) was born at Plympton, Devon, the son of a
clergyman who was a master in the grammar school. His father had
intended him for a doctor, but nature decided that Joshua Reynolds
should be a painter. He preferred to read Richardson's "Treatise on
Painting" to any other book, and when his taste for art became manifest
he was sent to London to study with Hudson, the popular portrait painter
of the day. Before this time, however, the young Reynolds had studied
"The Jesuit's Perspective" with such success that he astonished his
father by drawing Plympton school. There is at Plymouth a portrait of
the _Rev. Thomas Smart_, tutor in Lord Edgcumbe's household, which is
said to have been painted by Reynolds when twelve years old. It was in
1741 that Joshua Reynolds began his studies with Hudson, and as that
worthy could teach him little or nothing, it is fortunate for art that
the connection only lasted two years. On leaving Hudson's studio
Reynolds returned to Devonshire, but we know little about his life there
till the year 1746, when his father died, and the painter was
established at Plymouth Dock, now Devonport, and was painting portraits.
Many of these earlier works betray the stiffness and want of nature
which their author had probably learnt from Hudson. Having visited
London, and stayed for a time in St. Martin's Lane, the artists'
quarter, Reynolds was enabled, in 1749, to realise his great wish, and
go abroad. His friend Commodore Keppel carried him to Italy, and
Reynolds, unfettered and unspoilt by the mechanical arts of his
countrymen, studied the treasures of Italy, chiefly in Rome, and without
becoming a copyist, was imbued with the beauties of the Italian school.
Michelangelo was the object of his chief adoration, and his name was the
most frequently on his lips, and the last in his addresses to the Royal
Academy. A love of colour was the characteristic of Reynolds, and his
use of brilliant and fugitive pigments accounts for the decay of many of
his best works; he used to say jestingly that "he came off with _flying
colours_." Doubtless the wish to rival the colouring of the Venetians
led Reynolds to make numerous experiments which were often fatal to the
preservation of his pictures. It has been said of him that "he loved
his colours as other men love their children." In 1752 Reynolds returned
to England, and settled in London, first in St. Martin's Lane, then in
Newport Street, and finally in a grand house in Leicester Fields. His
course was one of brilliant success. At his house, wit and wisdom met
together, and the ponderous learning of Dr. Johnson, the eloquence of
Burke, and the fancy of Goldsmith, combined to do honour to the
courteous, gentle painter, whom all men loved, and of whom Goldsmith
wrote:--
"His pencil was striking, resistless, and grand;
His manners were gentle, complying, and bland.
Still, born to improve us in every part--
His pencil our faces, his manners our heart."
Most of the leaders of the rank and fashion of the day sat for their
portraits to the painter who "read souls in faces." In 1768 Joshua
Reynolds was chosen first President of the Royal Academy, and was
knighted by George III. He succeeded, on the death of Ramsay, to the
office of Court Painter. His "Discourses on Painting," delivered at the
Royal Academy, were remarkable for their excellent judgment and literary
skill. It was supposed by some that Johnson and Burke had assisted
Reynolds in the composition of these lectures, but the Doctor
indignantly disclaimed such aid, declaring that "Sir Joshua Reynolds
would as soon get me to paint for him as to write for him." A lesser
honour, though one which caused him the greatest pleasure, was conferred
on Reynolds in 1773, when he was elected Mayor of his native Plympton.
In the same year he exhibited his famous _Strawberry Girl_, of which he
said that it was "one of the half dozen original things" which no man
ever exceeded in his life's work. In 1789 the failure of his sight
warned Sir Joshua that "the night cometh when no man can work." He died,
full of years and honours, on February 23rd, 1792, and was buried near
Sir Christopher Wren in St. Paul's Cathedral.
[Illustration: MRS. BRADYLL. _By_ REYNOLDS. _In the possession of Sir
Richard Wallace, Bart._]
Reynolds was a most untiring worker. He exhibited two hundred and
forty-five pictures in the Royal Academy, on an average eleven every
year. In the National Gallery are twenty-three of his paintings. Amongst
them are _The Holy Family_ (No. 78), _The Graces decorating a Terminal
Figure of Hymen_ (79), _The Infant Samuel_ (162), _The Snake in the
Grass_ (885), _Robinetta_ (892), and portraits of himself, of _Admiral
Keppel_, _Dr. Johnson_, _Boswell_, _Lord Heathfield_, and _George IV. as
Prince of Wales_. Mr. Ruskin deems Reynolds "one of _the_ seven
colourists of the world," and places him with Titian, Giorgione,
Correggio, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Turner. He likewise says,
"considered as a painter of individuality in the human form and mind, I
think him, even as it is, the prince of portrait painters. Titian paints
nobler pictures, and Van Dyck had nobler subjects, but neither of them
entered so subtly as Sir Joshua did into the minor varieties of heart
and temper."[H]
It is as "the prince of portrait painters" that Sir Joshua will be
remembered, although he produced more than one hundred and thirty
historic or poetic pieces. Messrs. Redgrave, speaking of his powers as
an historic painter, declare that "notwithstanding the greatness of
Reynolds as a portrait painter, and the beauty of his fancy subjects, he
wholly fails as a painter of history. Allowing all that arises from
'colour harmony,' we must assert that, both as to form and character,
the characters introduced into these solemn dramas are wholly unworthy
to represent the persons of the actors therein." They argue that the
_Ugolino_ fails to represent the fierce Count shut up in the Tower of
Famine, on the banks of the Arno, and that the children of the _Holy
Family_ "for all there is of character and holiness, might change places
with the Cupid who fixes his arrow to transfix his nymph." The child
who represents _The Infant Samuel_, delightful as it is, in common with
all Sir Joshua Reynolds's children, has nothing to distinguish it as set
apart to high and holy offices. We may mention as among the best known
of the historic and poetic subjects of this master:--_Macbeth and the
Witches_, _Cardinal Beaufort_, _Hercules strangling the Serpents_,
painted for the Empress of Russia, and _The Death of Dido_. Famous, too,
as portraits, are _Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse_ (Duke of
Westminster's and Dulwich Gallery), _Garrick between Tragedy and
Comedy_, _The Strawberry Girl_, _The Shepherd Boy_, _The Little Girl in
a Mob Cap_ (Penelope Boothby), _The Little Duke_, and _The Little
Marchioness_; many others which are scattered in the galleries and
chambers of the English nobility and gentry, and which are now
frequently seen on the walls of Burlington House as each "Old Masters"
Exhibition passes by.
THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH (1727--1788), the son of a clothier, was born at
Sudbury, in Suffolk. He early showed taste for art, and would linger
among the woods and streams round Sudbury to sketch. Nature was his
model, and to this fact we owe the pictures which make him and Wilson
the founders of our school of landscape painting. The details of this
master's life are few and uneventful. When between fourteen and fifteen
years of age, his father sent Thomas Gainsborough to London to study
art. His first master was Gravelot, a French engraver of great ability,
to whose teaching Gainsborough probably owed much. From him he passed to
Hayman in the St. Martin's Lane Academy, a drawing school only.
Gainsborough began as a portrait and landscape painter in Hatton Garden,
but finding little patronage during four years of his sojourn there,
returned to his native town, and presently married Margaret Burr, who
had crossed his line of sight when he was sketching a wood. The lady's
figure was added to the picture, and in due course became the wife of
the artist. For a man so careless as Gainsborough, an early marriage
was good, and we owe the preservation of many of his works to the
thoughtfulness of his wife. Settling in Ipswich, he began to make a
name. Philip Thicknesse, Governor of Landguard Fort, opposite Harwich,
became his earliest patron, and officiously maintained a friendship
which was often trying to the painter. Gainsborough, at his suggestion,
painted a view of _Landguard Fort_ (the picture has perished), which
attracted considerable attention. In 1760 he removed to Bath, and found
a favourable field for portrait-painting, though landscape was not
neglected. Fourteen years later Gainsborough, no longer an unknown
artist, came to London and rented part of Schomberg House, Pall Mall. He
was now regarded as the rival of Reynolds in portraiture, and of Wilson
in landscape. Once, when Reynolds at an Academy Dinner proposed the
health of his rival as "the greatest landscape painter of the day,"
Wilson, who was present, exclaimed, "Yes, and the greatest portrait
painter, too." One of the original members of the Royal Academy,
Gainsborough exhibited ninety pictures in the Gallery, but refused to
contribute after 1783, because a portrait of his was not hung as he
wished. A quick-tempered, impulsive man, he had many disputes with
Reynolds, though none of them were of a very bitter kind. Gainsborough's
_Blue Boy_ is commonly said to have been painted in spite against
Reynolds, in order to disprove the President's statement that blue ought
not to be used in masses. But there were other and worthier reasons for
the production of this celebrated work, in respect to which Gainsborough
followed his favourite Van Dyck in displaying "a large breadth of cool
light supporting the flesh." It is pleasant to think of the kindly
minded painter enjoying music with his friends; and, rewarding some of
them more lavishly than wisely, he is said to have given _The Boy at the
Stile_ to Colonel Hamilton, in return for his performance on the violin.
It is pleasant, too, to know that whatever soreness of feeling existed
between him and Sir Joshua, passed away before he died. When the
President of the Royal Academy came to his dying bed, Gainsborough
declared his reconciliation, and said, "We are all going to heaven, and
Van Dyck is of the company." This was in 1788. Gainsborough was buried
at Kew. The Englishness of his landscapes makes Gainsborough popular.
Wilson had improved on the Dutch type by visiting Italy, but
Gainsborough sought no other subjects than his own land afforded. Nature
speaks in his portraits or from his landscapes, and his rustic children
excel those of Reynolds, because they are really sun-browned peasants,
not fine ladies and gentlemen masquerading in the dresses of villagers.
Mr. Ruskin says of Gainsborough, "His power of colour (it is mentioned
by Sir Joshua as his peculiar gift) is capable of taking rank beside
that of Rubens; he is the purest colourist--Sir Joshua himself not
excepted--of the whole English school; with him, in fact, the art of
painting did in great part die, and exists not now in Europe. I hesitate
not to say that in the management and quality of single and particular
tints, in the purely technical part of painting, Turner is a child to
Gainsborough."
[Illustration: MRS. SIDDONS. _By_ GAINSBOROUGH. A.D. 1784.
_In the National Gallery._]
Among the most popular pictures by this great master are _The Blue Boy_,
_The Shepherd Boy in the Shower_, _The Cottage Door_, _The Cottage Girl
with Dog and Pitcher_, _The Shepherd Boys with their Dogs fighting_,
_The Woodman and his Dog in the Storm_ (burnt at Eaton Park, engraved by
Simon, and copied in needlework by Miss Linwood). There are thirteen
pictures by Gainsborough in the National Gallery, including _The Market
Cart_, _The Watering Place_, _Musidora_, _Portraits of Mrs. Siddons_,
and _Orpin, the Parish Clerk of Bradford-on-Avon_. In the Royal
Collection at Windsor are seventeen life-size heads of the sons and
daughters of George III., of which, say the Messrs. Redgrave, "it is
hardly possible to speak too highly."
We may here fittingly mention a contemporary of Gainsborough, HUGH
ROBINSON (about 1760--1790), who only gained a tardy though well-merited
right to rank among England's portrait painters by the exhibition at the
"Old Masters," in 1881, of his _Portrait of Thomas Teesdale_, which was
followed in the next exhibition by the _Piping Boy_. The remainder of
the works of this talented young Yorkshireman--who exhibited but three
pictures at the Royal Academy (in 1780 and 1782), and who died on his
way home from Italy, whither he had gone to study art--are chiefly
family portraits. The two mentioned above best display his happy
blending of landscape and portraiture, and, though somewhat recalling
the manner of Gainsborough, are full of natural talent.
[Illustration]