MARRIES. PAINTS SMALL CONVERSATIONS, WHICH SUBJECTS HE QUITS
FOR FAMILIAR PRINTS. ATTEMPTS HISTORY; BUT FINDING IT IS NOT
ENCOURAGED IN ENGLAND, RETURNS TO ENGRAVING FROM HIS OWN DESIGNS.
OCCASIONALLY TAKES PORTRAITS LARGE AS LIFE, FOR WHICH HE INCURS
MUCH ABUSE. TO PROVE HIS POWERS AND VINDICATE HIS FAME, PAINTS
THE ADMIRABLE PORTRAIT OF CAPTAIN CORAM, AND PRESENTS IT TO THE
FOUNDLING HOSPITAL.
"I then married, and commenced painter of small conversation
pieces, from twelve to fifteen inches high. This having novelty,
succeeded for a few years. But though it gave somewhat more
scope to the fancy, was still but a less kind of drudgery; and
as I could not bring myself to act like some of my brethren, and
make it a sort of a manufactory to be carried on by the help
of background and drapery painters, it was not sufficiently
profitable to pay the expenses my family required. I therefore
turned my thoughts to a still more novel mode, viz. painting and
engraving modern moral subjects, a field not broken up in any
country or any age.
"The reasons which induced me to adopt this mode of designing
were, that I thought both writers and painters had, in the
historical style, totally overlooked that intermediate species of
subjects which may be placed between the sublime and grotesque;
I therefore wished to compose pictures on canvas, similar to
representations on the stage, and further hope that they will be
tried by the same test, and criticised by the same criterion. Let
it be observed, that I mean to speak only of those scenes where
the human species are actors, and these I think have not often
been delineated in a way of which they are worthy and capable.
"In these compositions, those subjects that will both entertain
and improve the mind bid fair to be of the greatest public
utility, and must therefore be entitled to rank in the highest
class. If the execution is difficult (though that is but a
secondary merit), the author has a claim to a higher degree
of praise. If this be admitted, comedy in painting as well as
writing ought to be allotted the first place, as most capable
of all these perfections, though the sublime, as it is called,
has been opposed to it. Ocular demonstration will carry more
conviction to the mind of a sensible man, than all he would find
in a thousand volumes; and this has been attempted in the prints
I have composed. Let the decision be left to every unprejudiced
eye; let the figures in either pictures or prints be considered
as players dressed either for the sublime,--for genteel
comedy,[15] or farce,--for high or low life. I have endeavoured
to treat my subjects as a dramatic writer: my picture is my
stage, and men and women my players, who by means of certain
actions and gestures are to exhibit a dumb show.
"Before I had done anything of much consequence in this walk,
I entertained some hopes of succeeding in what the puffers in
books call the great style of history painting; so that without
having had a stroke of this grand business before, I quitted
small portraits and familiar conversations, and with a smile
at my own temerity, commenced history painter, and on a great
staircase at St. Bartholomew's Hospital painted two Scripture
stories (the 'Pool of Bethesda' and the 'Good Samaritan'), with
figures seven feet high. These I presented to the charity,[16]
and thought they might serve as a specimen to show that were
there an inclination in England for encouraging historical
pictures, such a first essay might prove the painting them more
easily attainable than is generally imagined. But as religion,
the great promoter of this style in other countries, rejected it
in England, I was unwilling to sink into a portrait manufacturer;
and, still ambitious of being singular, dropped all expectations
of advantage from that source, and returned to the pursuit of
my former dealings with the public at large. This I found was
most likely to answer my purpose, provided I could strike the
passions, and by small sums from many, by the sale of prints
which I could engrave from my own pictures, thus secure my
property to myself.
"In pursuing my studies, I made all possible use of the
technical memory which I have before described, by observing and
endeavouring to retain in my mind lineally such objects as best
suited my purpose; so that be where I would, while my eyes were
open, I was at my studies, and acquiring something useful to my
profession. By this means, whatever I saw, whether a remarkable
incident or a trifling subject, became more truly a picture
than one that was drawn by a camera-obscura. And thus the most
striking objects, whether of beauty or deformity, were by habit
the most easily impressed and retained in my imagination. A
redundancy of matter being by this means acquired, it is natural
to suppose I introduced it into my works on every occasion that I
could.
"By this idle way of proceeding I grew so profane as to admire
nature beyond the first productions of art, and acknowledged I
saw, or fancied, delicacies in the life so far surpassing the
utmost efforts of imitation, that when I drew the comparison
in my mind, I could not help uttering blasphemous expressions
against the divinity even of Raphael Urbino, Correggio,
and Michael Angelo. For this, though my brethren have most
unmercifully abused me, I hope to be forgiven. I confess to have
frequently said, that I thought the style of painting which I had
adopted, admitting that _my_ powers were not equal to doing it
justice, might one time or other come into better hands, and be
made more entertaining and more useful than the eternal blazonry
and tedious repetition of hackneyed, beaten subjects, either from
the Scriptures or the old ridiculous stories of heathen gods; as
neither the religion of one or the other requires promoting among
Protestants, as it formerly did in Greece, and at a later period
in Rome.[17]
"For these and other heretical opinions, as I have before
observed, I was deemed vain, and accused of enviously attempting
what I was unable to execute.
"The chief things that have brought much obloquy on me are:
First, the attempting portrait-painting; Secondly, writing
the _Analysis of Beauty_; Thirdly, painting the picture of
'Sigismunda;' and, Fourthly, publishing the first print of 'The
Times.'
"In the ensuing pages it shall be my endeavour to vindicate
myself from these aspersions, and each of the subjects taken in
the order they occurred shall be occasionally interspersed with
some thoughts by the way on the state of the arts, institution of
a Royal Academy, Society of Arts, etc., as being remotely, if not
immediately, connected with my own pursuits.
"Though small whole lengths and prints of familiar conversations
were my principal pursuit, yet by those who were partial to
me I was sometimes employed to paint portraits as large as
life, and for this I was most barbarously abused. My opponents
acknowledged, that in the particular branches to which I had
devoted my attention I had some little merit; but as neither
history nor portrait were my province, nothing but what they were
pleased to term extreme vanity could induce me to attempt either
one or the other; for it would be interfering in that branch of
which I had no knowledge, and in which I had therefore no concern.
"At this I was rather piqued, and, as well as I could, defended
my conduct and explained my motives. Some part of this defence
it will be necessary to repeat; and it will also be proper to
recollect, that after having had my plates pirated in almost
all sizes, I, in 1735, applied to Parliament for redress, and
obtained it in so liberal a manner as hath not only answered
my own purpose, but made prints a considerable article in the
commerce of this country; there being now more business of this
kind done here than in Paris, or anywhere else, and as well.
"The dealers in pictures and prints found their craft in danger
by what they called a new-fangled innovation. Their trade of
living and getting fortunes by the ingenuity of the industrious
has, I know, suffered much by my interference; and if the
detection of this band of public cheats and oppressors of the
rising artists be a crime, I confess myself most guilty.
"To put this matter in a fair point of view, it will be necessary
to state the situation of the arts and artists at this period.
In doing which, I shall probably differ from every other author,
as I think the books hitherto written on the subject have had a
tendency to confirm prejudice and error, rather than diffuse
information and truth. My notions of painting differ not only
from those who have formed their opinions from books, but from
those who have taken them upon trust.
"I am therefore under the necessity of submitting to the public
what may possibly be deemed peculiar opinions, but without
the least hope of bringing over either men whose interests
are concerned, or who implicitly rely upon the authority of a
tribe of picture dealers and puny judges that delight in the
marvellous, and determine to admire what they do not understand;
but I have hope of succeeding a little with such as dare to think
for themselves, and can believe their own eyes.
"As introductory to the subject, let us begin with considering
that branch of the art which is termed _still life_--a species of
painting which ought to be held in the lowest estimation.
"Whatever is or can be perfectly fixed, from the plainest to the
most complicated object, from a bottle and glass to a statue
of the human figure, may be denominated _still life_. Ship and
landscape painting ought unquestionably to come into the same
class; for if copied exactly as they chance to appear, the
painters have no occasion of judgment; yet with those who do not
consider the few talents necessary, even this tribe sometimes
pass for very capital artists.
"'Well painted, and finely pencilled!' are phrases perpetually
repeated by coach and sign painters. Merely well painted or
pencilled is chiefly the effect of much practice; and we
frequently see that those who are in these particulars very
excellent cannot advance a step further.
"As to portrait-painting, the chief branch of the art by which
a painter can procure himself a tolerable livelihood, and the
only one by which a lover of money can get a fortune; a man
of very moderate talents may have great success in it, as the
artifice and address of a mercer is infinitely more useful than
the abilities of a painter. By the manner in which the present
race of professors in England conduct it, that also becomes
_still life_ as much as any of the preceding. Admitting that the
artist has no further view than merely copying the figure, this
must be admitted to its full extent; for the sitter ought to be
still as a statue, and no one will dispute a statue being as much
_still life_ as fruit, flowers, a gallipot, or a broken earthen
pan. It must, indeed, be acknowledged they do not seem ashamed
of the title, for their figures are frequently so executed as to
be _as still as a post_. Posture and drapery, as it is called,
is usually supplied by a journeyman, who puts a coat, etc. on a
wooden figure like a jointed doll, which they call a layman, and
copies it in every fold as it chances to come; and all this is
done at so easy a rate, as enables the principal to get more
money in a week than a man of the first professional talents can
in three months. If they have a sufficient quantity of silks,
satins, and velvets to dress their layman, they may thus carry on
a very profitable manufactory without a ray of genius. There is
a living instance well known to the connoisseurs in this town,
of one of the best copiers of pictures, particularly those by
Rubens, who is almost an idiot.[18] Mere correctness, therefore,
if in still life, from an apple or a rose, to the face,--nay,
even the whole figure, if you take it merely as it presents
itself,--requires only an exact eye and an adroit hand. Their
pattern is before them, and much practice with little study is
usually sufficient to bring them into high vogue. By perpetual
attention to this branch only, one should imagine they would
attain a certain stroke--quite the reverse; for though the whole
business lies in an oval of four inches long, which they have
before them, they are obliged to repeat and alter the eyes,
mouth, and nose, three or four times before they can make it what
they think right. The little praise due to their productions
ought, in most cases, to be given to the drapery-man, whose pay
is only one part in ten, while the other nine, as well as all
the reputation, is engrossed by the master phiz-monger for a
proportion which he may complete in five or six hours; and even
this, little as it is, gives him so much importance in his own
eyes, that he assumes a consequential air, sets his arms akimbo,
and, strutting among the historical artists, cries, 'How we
apples swim!'
"For men who drudge in this mechanical part merely for gain, to
commence dealers in pictures is natural. In this, also, great
advantage may accrue from the labour and ingenuity of others.
They stand in the catalogue of painters; and having little
to study in their own way, become great connoisseurs, not in
the points where real perfection lies, for there they must be
deficient, as their ideas have been confined to the oval; but
their great inquiry is, how the old masters stand in the public
estimation, that they may regulate their prices accordingly,
both in buying and selling. You may know these painter-dealers
by their constant attendance at auctions. They collect under
pretence of a love for the arts, but sell, knowing the reputation
they have stamped on the commodity they have once purchased, in
the opinion of the ignorant admirer of pictures, drawings, and
prints, which, thus warranted, almost invariably produce them
treble their original purchase money, and treble their real
worth. Unsanctioned by their authority,[19] and unascertained
by tradition, the best preserved and highest finished picture
(though it should have been painted by Raphael) will not, at
a public auction, produce five shillings; while a despicable,
damaged, and repaired old canvas, sanctioned by their praise,
shall be purchased at any price, and find a place in the noblest
collections. All this is very well understood by the dealers,
who, on every occasion where their own interest is concerned,
are wondrously loquacious in adoring the mysterious beauties!
spirited touches! brilliant colours! and the Lord knows what, of
these ancient worn-out wonders! But whoever should dare to hint
that (admitting them to be originally painted by Raphael) there
is little left to admire in them, would be instantly stigmatized
as vilifying the great masters, and, to invalidate his judgment,
accused of envy and self-conceit. By these misrepresentations,
if he has an independent fortune, he only suffers the odium; but
if a young man, without any other property than his talents,
presumes boldly to give an opinion, he may be undone by his
temerity; for the whole herd will unite and try to hunt him down.
"Such is the situation of the arts and artists at this
time. Credulity,--an implicit confidence in the opinions of
others,--and not daring to think for themselves, leads the whole
town into error, and thus they become the prey of ignorant and
designing knaves.
"With respect to portrait-painting, whatever talents a professor
may have, if he is not in fashion, and cannot afford to hire
a drapery-man, he will not do; but if he is in vogue, and can
employ a journeyman and place a layman in the garret of his
manufactory, his fortune is made, and, as his two coadjutors are
kept in the background, his own fame is established.
"If a painter comes from abroad, his being an exotic will be
much in his favour; and if he has address enough to persuade the
public that he had brought a new discovered mode of colouring,
and paints his faces all red, all blue, or all purple, he has
nothing to do but to hire one of these painted tailors as an
assistant, for without him the manufactory cannot go on, and my
life for his success.
"Vanloo,[20] a French portrait-painter, being told that the
English were to be cajoled by any one who had a sufficient
portion of assurance, came to this country, set his trumpeters to
work, and by the assistance of puffing monopolized all the people
of fashion in the kingdom. Down went at once *,--*,--*,--*,--*,--
etc. etc. etc.,[21] painters who before his arrival were highly
fashionable and eminent, but by this foreign interloper were
driven into the greatest distress and poverty.
"By this inundation of folly and fuss, I must confess I was much
disgusted, and determined to try if by any means I could stem the
torrent, and 'by opposing end it.' I laughed at the pretensions
of these quacks in colouring, ridiculed their productions as
feeble and contemptible, and asserted that it required neither
taste nor talents to excel their most popular performances.
This interference excited much enmity, because, as my opponents
told me, my studies were in another way. You talk, added they,
with ineffable contempt of portrait-painting; if it is so easy a
task, why do not you convince the world by painting a portrait
yourself? Provoked at this language, I one day at the Academy
in St. Martin's Lane put the following question: Supposing any
man at this time were to paint a portrait as well as Vandyke,
would it be seen or acknowledged, and could the artist enjoy the
benefit or acquire the reputation due to his performance?
"They asked me in reply if I could paint one as well? and I
frankly answered, 'I believed I could.'[22] My query as to the
credit I should obtain if I did, was replied to by Mr. Ramsay,
and confirmed by the president and about twenty members present:
'Our opinions must be consulted, and we will never allow it.'
Piqued at this cavalier treatment, I resolved to try my own
powers; and if I did what I attempted, determined to affirm
that _I had done it_. In this decided manner I had a habit of
speaking; and if I only did myself justice, to have adopted half
words would have been affectation. Vanity, as I understand it,
consists in affirming you have done that which you have not
done, not in frankly asserting what you are convinced is truth.
"A watchmaker may say, 'The watch which I have made for you is
as good as Quare, or Tompion, or any other man could have made.'
If it really is so, he is neither called vain nor branded with
infamy, but deemed an honest and fair man for being as good
as his word. Why should not the same privilege be allowed to
a painter? The modern artist, though he will not warrant his
works as the watchmaker, has the impudence to demand twice as
much money for painting them as was charged by those whom he
acknowledges his superiors in the art.
"Of the mighty talents said to be requisite for portrait-painting
I had not the most exalted opinion, and thought that, if I
chose to practise in this branch, I could at least equal my
contemporaries, for whose glittering productions I really had not
much reverence. In answer to this there are who will say with
Peachum in the play, 'All professions be-rogue one another;' but
let it be taken into the account that men with the same pursuits
are naturally rivals, and when put in competition with each
other must necessarily be so,--what racer ever wished that his
opponent might outrun him? what boxer ever chose to be beat in
pure complaisance to his antagonist? The artist who pretends to
be pleased and gratified when he sees himself excelled by his
competitor must have lost all reverence for truth, or be totally
dead to that spirit which I believe to be one great source
of excellence in all human attempts; and if he is so polite
and civil as to confess superiority in one he knows to be his
inferior, he must be either a fool or an hypocrite, perhaps both.
If he has temper enough to be silent, it is surely sufficient;
but this I have seldom seen, even amongst the most complaisant
and liberal of the faculty.
"Those who will honestly speak their feelings must confess that
all this is natural to man. One of the highest gratifications of
superiority arises from the pleasure which attends instructing
men who do not know so much as ourselves; but when they verge
on being rivals, the pleasure in a degree ceases. Hence the
story of Rubens advising Vandyke to paint horses and faces, to
prevent, as it is said, his being put in competition with himself
in history-painting. Had either of these great artists lived in
England at this time, they would have found men of very moderate
parts--mere face painters--who, if they chanced to be in vogue,
might with ease get a thousand a year, when they with all their
talents would scarcely have found employment.
"To return to my dispute with Mr. Ramsay on the abilities
necessary for portrait-painting: as I found the performances
of professors in this branch of the art were held in such
estimation, I determined to have a brush at it. I had
occasionally painted portraits; but as they required constant
practice to take a likeness with facility, and the life must not
be rigidly followed, my portraitures met with a fate somewhat
similar to those of Rembrandt. By some they were said to be
nature itself, by others declared most execrable; so that time
only can decide whether I was the best or the worst face painter
of my day, for a medium was never so much as suggested.
"The portrait which I painted with most pleasure, and in which
I particularly wished to excel, was that of Captain Coram, for
the Foundling Hospital; and if I am so wretched an artist as my
enemies assert, it is somewhat strange that this, which was one
of the first I painted the size of life, should stand the test
of twenty years' competition, and be generally thought the best
portrait in the place, notwithstanding the first painters in the
kingdom exerted all their talents to vie with it.[23] To this
I refer Mr. _Rams-eye_[24] and his quick-sighted and impartial
coadjutors."
CAPTAIN THOMAS CORAM
was born in the year 1668, bred to the sea, and passed the first part
of his life as master of a vessel trading to the colonies. While he
resided in the vicinity of Rotherhithe, his avocations obliging him
to go early into the city and return late, he frequently saw deserted
infants exposed to the inclemencies of the seasons, and through
the indigence or cruelty of their parents left to casual relief or
untimely death. This naturally excited his compassion, and led him to
project the establishment of an hospital for the reception of exposed
and deserted young children; in which humane design he laboured more
than seventeen years, and at last, by his unwearied application,
obtained the Royal Charter, bearing date the 17th of October 1739,
for its incorporation.
He was highly instrumental in promoting another good design, viz.
the procuring a bounty upon naval stores imported from the colonies
to Georgia and Nova Scotia. But the charitable plan which he lived
to make some progress in, though not to complete, was a scheme for
uniting the Indians in North America more closely with the British
Government, by an establishment for the education of Indian girls.
Indeed, he spent a great part of his life in serving the public, and
with so total a disregard to his private interest, that in his old
age he was himself supported by a pension of somewhat more than an
hundred pounds a year,[25] raised for him at the solicitation of Sir
Sampson Gideon and Dr. Brocklesby, by the voluntary subscriptions of
public-spirited persons, at the head of whom was the late Frederick
Prince of Wales. On application being made to this venerable and
good old man to know whether a subscription being opened for his
benefit would not offend him, he gave this noble answer: "I have
not wasted the little wealth of which I was formerly possessed in
self-indulgence or vain expenses, and am not ashamed to confess that
in this my old age I am poor."
This singularly humane, persevering, and memorable man died at his
lodgings near Leicester Square, March 29, 1751, and was interred,
pursuant to his own desire, in the vault under the chapel of the
Foundling Hospital, where an historic epitaph records his virtues, as
Hogarth's portrait has preserved his honest countenance.
Hogarth thus resumes his narrative:--
"For the portrait of Mr. Garrick in Richard III. I was paid two
hundred pounds[26] (which was more than any English artist ever
received for a single portrait), and that, too, by the sanction
of several painters who had been previously consulted about the
price, which was not given without mature consideration.
"Notwithstanding all this, the current remark was, that portraits
were not my province, and I was tempted to abandon the only
lucrative branch of my art, for the practice brought the whole
nest of phiz-mongers on my back, where they buzzed like so
many hornets. All these people have their friends, whom they
incessantly teach to call my women harlots, my 'Essay on Beauty'
borrowed,[27] and my composition and engraving contemptible.
"This so much disgusted me, that I sometimes declared I would
never paint another portrait, and frequently refused when applied
to; for I found by mortifying experience, that whoever would
succeed in this branch must adopt the mode recommended in one
of Gay's fables, and make divinities of all who sit to him.[28]
Whether or not this childish affectation will ever be done away,
is a doubtful question: none of those who have attempted to
reform it have yet succeeded; nor, unless portrait-painters in
general become more honest, and their customers less vain, is
there much reason to expect they ever will."
Though thus in a state of warfare with his brother artists, he was
occasionally gratified by the praise of men whose judgment was
universally acknowledged, and whose sanction became an higher honour,
from its being neither lightly nor indiscriminately given. The
following letter from the facetious Mr. George Faulkner notices the
estimation in which the author of _The Battle of the Books_ held the
painter of "The Battle of the Pictures:"--
_To Mr. William Hogarth, at his house in Leicester Fields, London._
"SIR,--I was favoured with a letter from Mr. Delany, who tells me
that you are going to publish three prints.[29] Your reputation
here is sufficiently known to recommend anything of yours, and I
shall be glad to serve you. The duty on prints is ten per cent.
in Ireland. You may send me fifty sets, provided you will take
back what I cannot sell. I desire no other profit than what you
allow in London to those who sell them again. I have often the
favour of drinking your health with Doctor Swift, who is a great
admirer of yours, and hath made mention of you in his poems with
great honour,[30] and desired me to thank you for your kind
present, and to accept of his service.--I am, Sir, your most
obedient and most humble servant,
"GEORGE FAULKNER.
"DUBLIN, _Nov. 15, 1740_."
Hogarth about this time painted the portrait of Dr. Benjamin Hoadley,
Bishop of Winchester, which, though rather French, is in a grand
style. Concerning it, Dr. John Hoadley wrote the following whimsical
epistle to the artist:--
_To Mr. Wm. Hogarth._
"DEAR BILLY.--You were so kind as to say you would touch up
the Doctor if I would send it to town. Lo! it is here. I am at
Alresford for a day or two, to shear my flock and to feed 'em
(money, you know, is the sinews of war); and having this morning
taken down all my pictures, in order to have my room painted,
I thought I might as well pack up Dr. Benjamin, and send him
packing to London. My love to him, and desire him, when his wife
says he looks charmingly, to drive immediately to Leicester
Fields (Square I mean, I beg your pardon), and sit an hour or
two, or three, in your painting-room. Do not set it by and forget
it now,--don't you. My humble service waits upon Mrs. Hogarth,
and all good wishes upon your honour; and I am, dear Sir, your
obliged and affectionate
"J. HOADLEY."
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