but the combination of them was his own: he selected and copied
portions, but he seldom or never painted individual views from nature.
His favourite effects are those of sunrise and sunset, the periods at
which nature puts on her most gorgeous colouring. Beauty and
magnificence are the characteristics of his compositions: he seldom aims
at sublimity, but he never sinks into dulness. Above all he never brings
mean or offensive objects into prominent view, as is so often the case
in the Dutch pictures. His fore-grounds are usually occupied by trees of
large size and noble character, and temples and palaces, or with ruins
august in their decay. Groves and towers, broad lakes, and the
continuous lines of arched aqueducts enrich the middle space; or a
boundless expanse of Arcadian scenery sweeps away into the blue
mountainous horizon. In his admirable pictures of seaports, he carries
us back into antiquity; there is nothing in the style of the buildings,
the shape of the vessels, or the character of any of the accompaniments
which, by suggesting homely associations, injures the general grandeur
of the effect. The gilded galleys, the lofty quays, and the buildings
which they support, all belong to other times, and all have the stamp of
opulence, magnificence, and power.
As Claude’s subjects are almost uniformly those of morning or evening,
it might naturally be supposed that his works possess an air of
sameness. To remove such an impression, it is only necessary to look at
his pictures side by side. We then perceive that he scarcely ever
repeats himself. The pictures of St. Ursula and the Queen of Sheba, in
the National Gallery, are striking instances of that endless variety
which he could communicate to similar subjects. In each of these
pictures there is a procession of females issuing from a palace, and an
embarkation. The extremities of the canvas are occupied by buildings,
the middle space being assigned to the sea and shipping, over which the
sun is ascending. After the first glance, there is no resemblance in
these pictures. The objects introduced in each are essentially different
in character; in that of the Queen of Sheba they are much fewer in
number; the masses are more broad and unbroken, and the picture has
altogether more grandeur and simplicity than its companion. Its
atmosphere too is different: it is less clear and golden, and there is a
swell on the waves, as if they were subsiding from the agitation of a
recent storm. The picture of St. Ursula is characterized by beauty.
Summer appears to be in its meridian, and the whole picture seems
gladdened by the freshening influence of morning. The vapoury haze which
is just dispersing, the long cool shadows thrown by the buildings and
shipping, the glancing of the sun-beams on the water, and the admirable
perspective, all exhibit the highest perfection of art. It was thus that
Claude, although he painted only the most beautiful appearances of
nature, diversified his effects by the finest discrimination. Sea-ports
such as these were among his most favourite subjects; and there are none
in which he more excelled: yet perhaps it is with his pastoral subjects
that we are most completely gratified. The Arcadia of the poets seems to
be renewed in the pictures of Claude.
In the general character of his genius, Claude bears a strong affinity
to Titian. He resembles him in power of generalization, in unaffected
breadth of light and shadow, and in that unostentatious execution which
is never needlessly displayed to excite wonder, and which does its exact
office, and nothing more. But the similitude in colour is still more
striking. The pictures of both are pervaded by the same glowing warmth;
and exhibit the true brilliancy of nature, in which the hues of the
brightest objects are graduated and softened by the atmosphere which
surrounds them. The colours by which both produced their wonderful
effects were for the most part simple earths, without any mixture of
factitious compounds, the use of which has been always prevalent in the
infancy, and the decline of art, administering as it does to that
unformed or degenerate taste which prefers gaudiness to truth.
Claude’s success raised a host of imitators. He was accustomed, on
sending home the works which he had been commissioned to paint to make a
drawing of each, which he inscribed with the name of the purchaser, as a
means by which the originality of his productions might be traced and
authenticated. He left six volumes of these drawings at the time of his
death, which he called his Libri di Verità. One containing two hundred
designs is in possession of the Duke of Devonshire; these have been
engraved by Earlom, and published by Boydell under the title of Liber
Veritatis. Another of these books was purchased a few years since in
Spain, and brought into this country; where it came into the possession
of Mr. Payne Knight, and was bequeathed by him to the British Museum.
Some of Claude’s pictures have been finely engraved by Woollet. There
are twenty-eight etchings extant of landscapes and seaports, by Claude’s
own hand, executed with the taste, spirit, and feeling which we should
naturally expect.
England is rich in the pictures of Claude, some of the finest of which
were imported from the Altieri Palace at Rome, and from the collection
of the Duc de Bouillon at Paris. There are ten in the National Gallery:
the two to which we have adverted, that of St. Ursula especially, he has
perhaps never surpassed. The little picture of the Death of Procris is
also singularly beautiful. The Earl of Radnor’s Evening, or Decline of
the Roman Empire, is one of the most exquisite of Claude’s works. The
Marquis of Bute’s collection at Luton, is also enriched by some of the
finest specimens of this artist in England.
His private history is entirely devoid of incident. From the time of his
arrival in Italy he never quitted it: and though claimed by the French
as a French artist, he was really, in all but birth, an Italian. He
lived absorbed in his art, and never married, that his devotion to it
might not be interrupted by domestic cares. His disposition was mild and
amiable. He died in 1682, aged eighty-two.
For more detailed information we may refer to Sandrart ‘Academia Artis
Pictoriæ.’ It is extraordinary that in Felibien’s elaborate work, “sur
les Vies et sur les Ouvrages des plus excellens Peintres anciens et
modernes,” Claude is entirely omitted. The English reader will find the
substance of the information given by Sandrart, in Bryan and Pilkington.
[Illustration: [From a Picture by Claude.]]
[Illustration:
_Engraved by T. Woolnoth._
LORD NELSON.
_From an original Picture by Hoppner
in his Majesty’s Collection at S^{t.} James’s._
Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge.
_London, Published by Charles Knight, Pall Mall East._
]
[Illustration]
NELSON.
The services of our great naval Captain need no long description. The
recollection of them is still fondly cherished by his countrymen, and
they have been worthily commemorated by Mr. Southey, with whose Life of
Nelson few readers are unacquainted. To that most animated and
interesting work, which by its late re-publication in the Family Library
is placed within the reach of every one, we must refer those who desire
fuller information concerning the hero of the Nile, Copenhagen, and
Trafalgar, than is contained in this memoir.
Horatio Nelson was born at Burnham Thorpe, in Norfolk, September 29,
1758. His father, the rector of that parish, was burthened with a
numerous family: and it is said to have been more with a view to lighten
that burden than from predilection for the service, that at the age of
twelve he expressed a wish to go to sea, under the care of his uncle,
Captain Suckling. Of his early adventures it is unnecessary to speak in
detail. In 1773 he served in Captain Phipps’s voyage of discovery in the
Northern Polar seas. His next station was the East Indies; from which,
at the end of eighteen months, he was compelled to return by a very
severe and dangerous illness. In April, 1777, he passed his examination,
and was immediately commissioned as second lieutenant of the Lowestoffe
frigate, then fitting out for Jamaica.
Fortunate in conciliating the good-will and esteem of those with whom he
served, he passed rapidly through the lower ranks of his profession, and
was made post-captain, with the command of the Hinchinbrook, of
twenty-eight guns, June 11, 1779, when not yet of age. In 1782 he was
appointed to the Albemarle, twenty-eight; and in 1784 to the Boreas,
twenty-eight, in which he served for three years in the West Indies, and
though in time of peace, gave signal proof of his resolution and strict
sense of duty, by being the first to insist on the exclusion of the
Americans from direct trade with our colonies, agreeably to the terms of
the Navigation Act. He had no small difficulties to contend with; for
the planters and the colonial authorities were united against him, and
even the Admiral on the station coincided with their views, and gave
orders that the Americans should be allowed free access to the islands.
Still Nelson persevered. Transmitting a respectful remonstrance to the
Admiral, he seized four of the American ships, which, after due notice,
refused to quit the island of Nevis; and after a long and tedious
process at law, in which he incurred much anxiety and expense, he
succeeded in procuring their condemnation by the Admiralty Court. Many
other ships were condemned on the same ground. Neither his services in
this matter, nor his efforts to expose and remedy the peculations and
dishonesty of the government agents, in almost all matters connected
with naval affairs in the West Indies, were duly acknowledged by the
Government at home; and in moments of spleen, when suffering under
inconveniences which a conscientious discharge of his duty had brought
on him, he talked of quitting the service of an ungrateful country. In
March, 1787, he married Mrs. Nisbet, a West-Indian lady, and in the same
year returned to England. He continued unemployed till January, 1793;
when, on the breaking out of the revolutionary war, he was appointed to
the Agamemnon, sixty-four, and ordered to serve in the Mediterranean
under the command of Lord Hood.
An ample field for action was now open to him. Lord Hood, who had known
him in the West Indies, and appreciated his merits, employed him to
co-operate with Paoli in delivering Corsica from its subjection to
France; and most laboriously and ably did he perform the duty intrusted
to him. The siege and capture of Bastia was entirely owing to his
efforts; and at the siege of Calvi, during which he lost an eye, and
throughout the train of successes which brought about the temporary
annexation of Corsica to the British crown, his services, and those of
the brave crew of the Agamemnon, were conspicuous. In 1795 Nelson was
selected to co-operate with the Austrian and Sardinian troops in
opposing the progress of the French in the north of Italy. The
incapacity, if not dishonesty, and the bad success of those with whom he
had to act, rendered this service irksome and inglorious; and his
mortification was heightened when orders were sent out to withdraw the
fleet from the Mediterranean, and evacuate Corsica and Elba. These
reverses, however, were the prelude to a day of glory. On February 13,
1797, the British fleet, commanded by Sir John Jervis, fell in with the
Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent. In the battle which ensued, Nelson,
who had been raised to the rank of Commodore, and removed to the
Captain, seventy-four, bore a most distinguished part. Apprehensive lest
the enemy might be enabled to escape without fighting, he did not
hesitate to disobey signals; and executed a manœuvre which brought the
Captain into close action at once with four first-rates, an eighty, and
two seventy-four-gun ships. Captain Trowbridge, in the Culloden,
immediately came to his support, and they maintained the contest for
near an hour against this immense disparity of force. One first-rate and
one seventy-four dropped astern disabled; but the Culloden was also
crippled, and the Captain was fired on by five ships of the line at
once; when Captain Collingwood, in the Excellent, came up and engaged
the huge Santissima Trinidad, of one hundred and thirty-six guns. By
this time the Captain’s rigging was all shot away; and she lay
unmanageable abreast of the eighty-gun ship, the S. Nicolas. Nelson
seized the opportunity to board, and was himself among the first to
enter the Spanish ship. She struck after a short struggle; and, sending
for fresh men, he led the way from his prize to board the S. Josef, of
one hundred and twelve guns, exclaiming, “Westminster Abbey or victory.”
The ship immediately surrendered. Nelson received the most lively and
public thanks for his services from the Admiral, who was raised to the
peerage by the title of Earl St. Vincent. Nelson received the Order of
the Bath; he had already been made Rear-Admiral, before tidings of the
battle reached England.
During the spring, Sir Horatio Nelson commanded the inner squadron
employed in the blockade of Cadiz. He was afterwards despatched on an
expedition against Teneriffe, which was defeated with considerable loss
to the assailants. The Admiral himself lost his right arm, and was
obliged to return to England, where he languished more than four months
before the cure of his wound was completed. His services were rewarded
by a pension of £1,000. On this occasion he was required by official
forms to present a memorial of the services in which he had been
engaged; and as our brief account can convey no notion of the constant
activity of his early life, we quote the abstract of this paper given by
Mr. Southey. “It stated that he had been in four actions with the fleets
of the enemy, and in three actions with boats employed in cutting out of
harbour, in destroying vessels, and in taking three towns; he had served
on shore with the army four months, and commanded the batteries at the
sieges of Bastia and Calvi; he had assisted at the capture of seven sail
of the line, six frigates, four corvettes, and eleven privateers; taken
and destroyed near fifty sail of merchant vessels, and actually been
engaged against the enemy upwards of a hundred and twenty times; in
which service he had lost his right eye and right arm, and been severely
wounded and bruised in his body.”
Early in 1798 Nelson went out in the Vanguard to rejoin Lord St. Vincent
off Cadiz. He was immediately despatched with a squadron into the
Mediterranean, to watch an armament known to be fitting out at Toulon;
the destination of which excited much anxiety. It sailed May 20,
attacked and took Malta, and then proceeded, as Nelson supposed, to
Egypt. Strengthened by a powerful reinforcement, he made all sail for
Alexandria; but there no enemy had been seen or heard of. He returned in
haste along the north coast of the Mediterranean to Sicily, refreshed
the fleet, and again sailed to the eastward. On nearing Alexandria the
second time, August 1, he had the pleasure of seeing the object of his
toilsome cruise moored in Aboukir Bay, in line of battle. It appeared
afterwards that the two fleets must have crossed each other on the night
of June 22.
The French fleet consisted of thirteen ships of the line and four
frigates; the British of the same number of ships of the line, and one
fifty-gun ship. In number of guns and men the French had a decided
superiority. It was evening before the British fleet came up. The battle
began at half-past six; night closed in at seven, and the struggle was
continued through the darkness, a magnificent and awful spectacle to
thousands who watched the engagement with eager anxiety. Victory was not
long doubtful. The two first ships of the French line were dismasted in
a quarter of an hour; the third, fourth, and fifth were taken by
half-past eight; about ten, the L’Orient, Admiral Bruey’s flag-ship,
blew up. By day-break the two rear ships, which had not been engaged,
cut their cables and stood out to sea, in company with two frigates,
leaving nine ships of the line in the hands of the British, who were too
much crippled to engage in pursuit. Two ships of the line and two
frigates were burnt or sunk. Three out of the four ships which escaped
were subsequently taken; and thus, of the whole armament, only a single
frigate returned to France.
This victory, the most complete and most important then known in naval
warfare, raised Nelson to the summit of glory; and presents and honours
were showered on him from all quarters. The gratitude of his country was
expressed, inadequately in comparison with the rewards bestowed on
others for less important services, by raising him to the peerage, by
the title of Baron Nelson of the Nile, with a pension of £2,000. The
Court of Naples, to which the battle of Aboukir was as a reprieve from
destruction, testified a due sense of their obligation by bestowing on
him the dukedom and domain of Bronte, in Sicily. From Alexandria Nelson
went to Naples, much shattered in health by the fatigue and intense
anxiety which he had experienced during his long cruise, and suffering
from a severe wound in the head, received in the recent battle. He was
most kindly received by Sir William Hamilton, the British ambassador;
and here commenced that fatal intimacy with the celebrated Lady
Hamilton, which ruined his domestic peace, and led to the only stains
upon his public life. Her influence ruled him in all transactions in
which the Neapolitan Court was interested: and as she sought in all
things to gratify the Queen, to whom she was devotedly attached, the
passions and follies of a court corrupt and childish beyond example,
were too often allowed to warp the conduct of a British Admiral, who
hitherto had sought the welfare of his country, even in preference to
his own honour and prospects of advancement. His best friends saw and
lamented the consequences of his weakness, and remonstrated, but to no
purpose; and he himself, unable to control this passion, or to stifle
the uneasy feelings to which it gave birth, appears from his private
letters to have been thoroughly unhappy. Overpowering that influence
must have been, when it could induce the gallant and generous Nelson to
annul a treaty of surrender concluded with the Neapolitan
revolutionists, under the joint authority of the Neapolitan Royalist
General, and the British Captain commanding in the Bay of Naples, and to
deliver up the prisoners to the vengeance of the court, on the sole plea
that he would grant no terms to rebels but those of unconditional
submission.
The autumn of 1798, the whole of 1799, and part of 1800, Nelson spent in
the Mediterranean, employed in the recovery of Malta, in protecting
Sicily, and in co-operating to expel the French from the Neapolitan
continental dominions. In 1800 various causes of discontent led him to
solicit leave to return to England, where he was received with the
enthusiasm due to his services.
Soon afterwards, still mastered by his passion, he separated himself
formally from Lady Nelson. In March, 1801, he sailed as second in
command of the expedition against Copenhagen, led by Sir Hyde Parker.
The dilatoriness with which it was conducted increased the difficulties
of this enterprise; and might have caused it to fail, had not Nelson’s
energy and talent been at hand to overcome the obstacles occasioned by
this delay. The attack was intrusted to him by Sir Hyde Parker, and
executed April 2, with his usual promptitude and success. After a fierce
engagement, with great slaughter on both sides, the greater part of the
Danish line of defence was captured or silenced. Nelson then sent a flag
of truce on shore, and an armistice was concluded. He bore honourable
testimony to the gallantry of his opponents. “The French,” he said,
“fought bravely, but they could not have supported for one hour the
fight which the Danes had supported for four.” May 5, Sir Hyde Parker
was recalled, and Nelson appointed Commander-in-Chief: but no further
hostilities occurred, and suffering greatly from the climate, he almost
immediately returned home. For this battle he was raised to the rank of
Viscount.
At this time much alarm prevailed with respect to the meditated invasion
of England; and the command of the coast from Orfordness to Beachy Head
was offered to him, and accepted. But he thought the alarm idle; he felt
the service to be irksome; and gladly retired from it at the peace of
Amiens. When war was renewed in 1803, he took the command of the
Mediterranean fleet. For more than a year he kept his station off
Toulon, eagerly watching for the French fleet. In January, 1805, it put
to sea, and escaped the observation of his look-out ships. He made for
Egypt, and failing to meet with them, returned to Malta, where he found
information that they had been dispersed in a gale, and forced to put
back to Toulon. Villeneuve put to sea again, March 31, formed a junction
with the Spanish fleet in Cadiz, and sailed for the West Indies. Thither
Nelson followed him, after considerable delay for want of information
and from contrary winds; but the enemy still eluded his pursuit, and he
was obliged to retrace his anxious course to Europe, without the
longed-for meeting, and with no other satisfaction than that of having
frustrated by his diligence their designs on our colonies. June 20,
1805, he landed at Gibraltar, that being the first time that he had set
foot ashore since June 16, 1803. After cruising in search of the enemy
till the middle of August, he was ordered to Portsmouth, where he
learned that an indecisive action had taken place between the combined
fleets returning from the West Indies, and the British under Sir Robert
Calder.
He had not been many days established at home before certain news
arrived that the French and Spanish fleets had entered Cadiz. Eager to
gain the reward of his long watchings, and laborious pursuit, he again
offered his services, which were gladly accepted. He embarked at
Portsmouth, September 14, 1805, on board the Victory, to take the
command of the fleet lying off Cadiz under Admiral Collingwood, his
early friend and companion in the race of fame. The last battle in which
Nelson was engaged was fought off Cape Trafalgar, October 21, 1805. The
enemy were superior in number of ships, and still more in size and
weight of metal. Nelson bore down on them in two lines; heading one
himself, while Collingwood in the Royal Sovereign led the other, which
first entered into action. “See,” cried Nelson, as the Royal Sovereign
cut through the centre of the enemy’s line, and muzzle to muzzle engaged
a three-decker; “see how that noble fellow Collingwood carries his ship
into action.” Collingwood on the other hand said to his Captain,
“Rotherham, what would Nelson give to be here.” As the Victory
approached an incessant raking fire was directed against her, by which
fifty of her men were killed and wounded before a single gun was
returned. Nelson steered for his old opponent at Cape St. Vincent, the
Santissima Trinidad, distinguished by her size, and opened his fire at
four minutes after twelve, engaging the Redoutable with his starboard,
the Santissima Trinidad and Bucentaur with his larboard guns.
About a quarter past one, a musket-ball, fired from the mizen-top of the
Redoutable, struck him on the left shoulder, and he fell. From the first
he felt the wound to be mortal. He suffered intense pain, yet still
preserved the liveliest interest in the fate of the action; and the joy
visible in his countenance as often as the hurrahs of the crew announced
that an enemy had struck, testified how near his heart, even in the
agonies of death, was the accomplishment of the great work to which his
life had been devoted. He lived to know that his victory was complete
and glorious, and expired tranquilly at half-past four. His last words
were, “Thank God, I have done my duty.”