“15 July, 1798.--Sir William Beechey, with his young son, called; he
was lately knighted. Speaks best on painting, the subject on which
we chiefly conversed. Said that a notion prevailed in Italy, that
pictures having a brown tone had most the hue of Titian; and that the
picture-dealers of Italy smeared them over with some substance which
communicates this tone. Of this I doubt. Repeated a conversation at
which he was present, when Burke endeavoured to persuade Sir Joshua
Reynolds to alter his picture of ‘The Dying Cardinal,’ by taking away
the devil, which Burke said was an absurd and ridiculous incident, and
a disgrace to the artist. Sir Joshua replied, that if Mr. Burke thought
proper, he could argue _per contra_; and Burke asked him if he supposed
him so unprincipled as to speak from anything but conviction. ‘No,’
said Sir Joshua; ‘but had you happened to take the other side, you
could have spoken with equal force.’... Beechey praised my portrait,
painted by Opie, but said the colouring was too foxy; allowed Opie
great merit, especially in his picture of ‘The Crowning of Henry VI. at
Paris;’ agreed with me that he had a bold and determined mind, and that
he nearest approached the fine colouring of Rembrandt.”
[Illustration]
_CHANTREY (SIR FRANCIS), R.A._
Sir Francis was born on the 7th of April, 1782, at Norton, in
Derbyshire. He was early apprenticed to a carver, with whom he served
three years. In the year 1816, at the early age of eight-and-twenty, he
became an Associate of the Royal Academy, and after two years’ close
study he was elected an Academician. It has been justly said of this
artist, that all his statues proclaim themselves at once the works of a
deeply-thinking man. His most celebrated sepulchral monument, entitled
“The Sleeping Children,” is known all over Europe by engravings. It was
erected in memory of two children of the late William Robinson, Esq.
Chantrey died at his house, in Pimlico, on the 25th of November, 1841.
_CHANTREY’S PRICES._
In 1808 Chantrey received a commission to execute four colossal busts
for Greenwich Hospital:--those of Duncan, Howe, St. Vincent, and
Nelson; and from this time his prosperity began. During the eight
previous years he declared he had not gained five pounds by his labours
as a modeller; and until he executed the bust of Horne Tooke, in
clay, in 1811, he was himself diffident of success. He was, however,
entrusted with commissions to the amount of £12,000. His prices at this
time were eighty or a hundred guineas for a bust, and he continued to
work at this rate for three years, after which he raised his terms to
a hundred and twenty, and a hundred and fifty guineas, and continued
these prices until the year 1822, when he again raised the terms to two
hundred guineas; and when he modelled the bust of George IV., the King
wished him to increase the price, and insisted that the bust of himself
should not return to the artist a less sum than three hundred guineas.
_HORNE TOOKE._
Horne Tooke had rendered Chantrey many important services, for which
the latter through life took every opportunity to show his gratitude.
About a year previous to Horne Tooke’s death, he desired the artist to
procure for him a large black marble slab to place over his grave,
which he intended should be in his garden at Wimbledon. This commission
Chantrey executed, and went with Mrs. Chantrey to dine with Tooke
on the day that it was forwarded to the dwelling of the latter. On
the sculptor’s arrival, his host merrily exclaimed, “Well, Chantrey,
now that you have sent my tombstone, I shall be sure to live a year
longer,” which was actually the case.
_EQUESTRIAN FIGURES._
When George IV. was sitting to Chantrey, he required the sculptor to
give him the idea of an equestrian statue to commemorate him, which
Chantrey accomplished at a succeeding interview by placing in the
sovereign’s hand a number of small equestrian figures, drawn carefully
on thick paper, and resembling in number and material a pack of cards.
These sketches pleased the King very much, who turned them over and
over, expressing his surprise that such a variety could be produced;
and after a thousand fluctuations of opinion, sometimes for a prancing
steed, sometimes for a trotter, then for a neighing or starting
charger, His Majesty at length resolved on a horse standing still, as
the most dignified for a King. Chantrey probably led to this, as he
was decidedly in favour of the four legs being on the ground; he had
a quiet and reasonable manner of convincing persons of the propriety
of that which from reflection he judged to be preferable.... When
he had executed and erected the statue of the King on the staircase
at Windsor, His Majesty good-naturedly patted the sculptor on the
shoulder, and said, “Chantrey, I have reason to be obliged to you, for
you have immortalized me.”
_CANDID OPINION._