OF ACADEMIES. HOGARTH'S OPINION OF THAT NOW DENOMINATED ROYAL;
AND OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF ARTS, MANUFACTURES,
AND COMMERCE, GIVING PREMIUMS FOR PICTURES AND DRAWINGS.
Among Hogarth's loose papers I found the rough draft of a
letter (addressed but not directed) to a nobleman, declaring
his disapprobation of a scheme by which certain projectors were
endeavouring to establish a Royal Academy, and stating that he had
a plan which would be much more useful. I do not know that he ever
sent the epistle, or admitting he did, that it was honoured with an
answer. But as I think it probable he had given the subject some
consideration, with the hope of bringing his project to bear, and
that in the following pages relative to the Royal Academy he has
stated what he meant to have said to the Peer, I have inserted it:--
"MY LORD,--Mr. Martin has informed me that when some of my
thoughts relative to the establishment of a public academy are
put into writing, you will peruse them. I have made a rough
sketch, but to fit it for inspection will require much time,
which it will be needless to take till I have your Lordship's
opinion on two or three leading points on which the whole will
turn, and which I cannot with propriety commit to paper. A verbal
statement of them will not take up more than half an hour; and
if, when known, they are not concurred in, I will not take up
your Lordship's time by arguing on their propriety. But I am
vain enough to think, that though I must say strong, and perhaps
startling things, with regard to myself and others, I can prove
every position which I shall advance.
"I have reason to believe that another project is in hand: this
the author will naturally defend in opposition to mine, but it
shall not create controversy; for being now upwards of sixty
years of age, and in a very poor state of health, I would rather
lose a favourite point than break a night's rest.
"Mr. Ramsey, if I judge right, is no stranger to the plan I
allude to, and I know his opinion differs from mine, and am
firmly persuaded his interest will induce him to support it.--I
am, my Lord, etc.,
"W. H."
"Much has been said about the immense benefit likely to result
from the establishment of an academy in this country; but as I
do not see it in the same light with many of my contemporaries,
I shall take the freedom of making my objections to the plan on
which they propose forming it; and as a sort of preliminary to
the subject, state some slight particulars concerning the fate of
former attempts at similar establishments.
"The first place of this sort was in Queen Street, about sixty
years ago; it was begun by some gentlemen-painters of the first
rank, who in their general forms imitated the plan of that in
France, but conducted their business with far less fuss and
solemnity; yet the little that there was, in a very short time
became the object of ridicule. Jealousies arose, parties were
formed, and the president and all his adherents found themselves
comically represented as marching in ridiculous procession round
the walls of the room. The first proprietors soon put a padlock
on the door; the rest, by their right as subscribers, did the
same, and thus ended this academy.
"Sir James Thornhill, at the head of one of these parties,
then set up another in a room he built at the back of his own
house,--now next the playhouse,--and furnished tickets gratis
to all that required admission; but so few would lay themselves
under such an obligation, that this also soon sunk into
insignificance. Mr. Vanderbank headed the rebellious party, and
converted an old Presbyterian meeting-house into an academy,
with the addition of a woman figure, to make it the more inviting
to subscribers. This lasted a few years; but the treasurer
sinking the subscription money, the lamp, stove, etc. were seized
for rent, and that also dropped.
"Sir James dying, I became possessed of his neglected apparatus;
and thinking that an academy conducted on proper and moderate
principles had some use, proposed that a number of artists should
enter into a subscription for the hire of a place large enough to
admit thirty or forty people to draw after a naked figure. This
was soon agreed to, and a room taken in St. Martin's Lane. To
serve the society, I lent them the furniture which had belonged
to Sir James Thornhill's academy; and as I attributed the failure
of that and Mr. Vanderbank's to the leading members assuming
a superiority which their fellow-students could not brook, I
proposed that every member should contribute an equal sum to the
establishment, and have an equal right to vote in every question
relative to the society. As to electing presidents, directors,
professors, etc., I considered it as a ridiculous imitation of
the foolish parade of the French Academy, by the establishment of
which Louis XIV. got a large portion of fame and flattery on very
easy terms. But I could never learn that the arts were benefited,
or that members acquired any other advantages than what arose
to a few leaders from their paltry salaries, not more I am
told than £50 a year; which, as must always be the case, were
engrossed by those who had most influence, without any regard
to their relative merit.[31] As a proof of the little benefit
the arts derived from this Royal Academy, Voltaire asserts that,
after its establishment, no one work of genius appeared in the
country: the whole band, adds the same lively and sensible
writer, became mannerists and imitators.[32] It may be said in
answer to this, that all painting is but imitation. Granted;
but if we go no further than copying what has been done before,
without entering into the spirit, causes, and effects, what are
we doing? If we vary from our original, we fall off from it, and
it ceases to be a copy; and if we strictly adhere to it, we can
have no hopes of getting beyond it; for 'if two men ride on a
horse, one of them must be behind.'
"To return to our own academy. By the regulations I have
mentioned of a general equality, etc., it has now subsisted near
thirty years, and is, to every useful purpose, equal to that in
France, or any other; but this does not satisfy. The members,
finding his present Majesty's partiality to the arts, met at the
Turk's Head in Gerard Street, Soho, laid out the public money in
advertisements to call all sorts of artists together, and have
resolved to draw up and present a ridiculous address to King,
Lords, and Commons to do for them what they have (as well as
it can be) done for themselves. Thus to pester the three great
estates of the empire, about twenty or thirty students, drawing
after a man or a horse, appears, as it must be acknowledged,
foolish enough; but the real motive is, that a few bustling
characters, who have access to people of rank, think they can
thus get a superiority over their brethren, be appointed to
places, and have salaries as in France, for telling a lad when an
arm or a leg is too long or too short.
"Not approving of this plan, I opposed it; and having refused
to assign to the society the property which I had before lent
them, I am accused of acrimony, ill-nature, and spleen, and held
forth as an enemy to the arts and artists. How far their mighty
project will succeed, I neither know nor care; certain I am it
deserves to be laughed at, and laughed at it has been.[33] The
business rests in the breast of Majesty, and the simple question
now is, whether he will do what Sir James Thornhill did before
him, _i.e._ establish an academy with the little addition of a
royal name, and salaries for those professors who can make most
interest and obtain the greatest patronage. As his Majesty's
beneficence to the arts will unquestionably induce him to do that
which he thinks most likely to promote them, would it not be more
useful if he were to furnish his own gallery with one picture by
each of the most eminent painters among his own subjects? This
might possibly set an example to a few of the opulent nobility;
but even then it is to be feared that there never can be a
market in this country, for the great number of works which, by
encouraging parents to place their children in this line, it
would probably cause to be painted. The world is already glutted
with these commodities, which do not perish fast enough to want
such a supply.
"In answer to this and other objections which I have sometimes
made to those who display so much zeal for increasing learners,
and crowding the profession, I am asked if I consider what the
arts were in Greece, what immense benefits accrued to the city
of Rome from the possession of their works, and what advantages
the people of France derive from the encouragement given by
their Royal Academy? It is added, why cannot we have one on the
same principles? That we may not be led away by sounds without
meaning, let us take a cursory view of these things separately,
and in the same order that they occurred.
"The height to which the arts were carried in Greece was owing
to a variety of causes, concerning some of which we can now
only form conjectures. They made a part of their system of
government, and were connected with their modes of worship. Their
temples were crowded with deities of their own manufacture, and
in places of public resort were depicted such actions of their
fellow-citizens as deserved commemoration; which, being displayed
in a language legible to all, incited the spectator to emulate
the virtues they represented. The artists who could perform such
wonders were held in an estimation of which we can hardly form an
idea; and could we ascertain the rewards they received, I think
it would be found that they were most liberally paid for their
works, and might therefore devote much more time than we can
afford to rendering them perfect.
"With all this, even there, the arts had but a slow rise; and
when they had attained their highest state of perfection, the
Romans (having previously plundered and butchered their own
neighbours) attacked and conquered the Greeks, and robbed them
also of their portable treasures, particularly their statues
and pictures.[34] To sculpture and painting, war is a most
destructive enemy; the rage of conquest, civil broils, and
intestine quarrels, necessarily put a stop to the exercise of
the imitative arts, which lay in a dormant state until they
were revived by the introduction of a new religion; this, in
the magnificent style it was there brought forward, called upon
sculpture and painting for their auxiliary aid. The admirable
specimens that during the perturbed period above alluded to
had been hidden in the earth, were now restored to light,
eagerly sought for, and in some cases appropriated to purposes
diametrically opposite to their pagan origin.[35] Even those that
were mutilated were held in the most enthusiastic admiration.
The 'Torso,' and many other inimitable specimens, prove that
their admiration was just. The contemplation of such works would
naturally produce imitators, who in time rivalled, but never
could equal, their originals. These remains of ancient grandeur
being thus added to their new productions, and both interwoven,
forming a sort of ornamental fringe to their gaudy religion, Rome
became a kind of puppet-show to the rest of Europe; and, whatever
it might be to their visitors, was certainly very advantageous
to themselves. The arts are much indebted to Popery, and that
religion owes much of its universality to the arts.
"France, ever aping the magnificence of other nations, has in its
turn assumed a foppish kind of splendour sufficient to dazzle
the eyes of neighbouring states, and draw vast sums of money
from this country. We cannot vie with these Italian and Gallic
theatres of art, and to enter into competition with them is
ridiculous; we are a commercial people, and can purchase their
curiosities ready made, as in fact we do, and thereby prevent
their thriving in our native clime. If I may be permitted to
compare great things with small, this nation labours under
similar disadvantage to the playhouse in Goodman's Fields, which,
though it might injure, could never rival the two established
theatres, so much more properly situated, in any degree material
to itself.
"In Holland, selfishness is the ruling passion; in England,
vanity is united with it. Portrait-painting therefore ever
has, and ever will succeed better in this country than in any
other.[36] The demand will be as constant as new faces arise; and
with this we must be contented, for it will be vain to attempt
to force what can never be accomplished, or at least can never
be accomplished by such institutions as Royal Academies on the
system now in agitation. Upon the whole, it must be acknowledged
that the artists and the age are fitted for each other. If
hereafter the times alter, the arts, like water, will find their
level.
"Among other causes that militate against either painting or
sculpture succeeding in this nation, we must place our religion;
which, inculcating unadorned simplicity, does not require--nay,
absolutely forbids--images for worship, or pictures to excite
enthusiasm. Paintings are considered as pieces of furniture,
and Europe is already overstocked with the works of other ages.
These, with copies countless as the sands on the sea-shore,
are bartered to and fro, and quite sufficient for the demands
of the curious, who naturally prefer scarce, expensive, and
far-fetched productions to those which they might have on low
terms at home. Who can be expected to give forty guineas for a
modern landscape, though in ever so superior a style, when he
can purchase one which, for little more than double the sum,
shall be sanctioned by a sounding name, and warranted original
by a solemn-faced connoisseur? This considered, can it excite
wonder that the arts have not taken such deep root in this soil
as in places where the people cultivate them from a kind of
religious necessity, and where proficients have so much more
profit in the pursuit? Whether it is to our honour or disgrace,
I will not presume to say, but the fact is indisputable, that
the public encourage trade and mechanics rather than painting
and sculpture. Is it then reasonable to think that the artist,
who, to attain essential excellence in his profession, should
have the talents of a Shakspeare, a Milton, or a Swift, will
follow this tedious and laborious study merely for fame, when his
next-door neighbour, perhaps a porter-brewer or an haberdasher of
smallwares, can without any genius accumulate an enormous fortune
in a few years, become a lord mayor or a member of Parliament,
and purchase a title for his heir? Surely no; for as very few
painters get even moderately rich, it is not reasonable to expect
that they should waste their lives in cultivating the higher
branch of the art until their country becomes more alive to its
importance, and better disposed to reward their labours.
"These are the true causes that have retarded our progress; and
for this shall a nation, which has in all ages abounded in men
of sound understanding and the brightest parts, be branded with
incapacity by a set of pedantic dreamers, who seem to imagine
that the degrees of genius are to be measured like the degrees on
a globe, determine a man's powers from the latitude in which he
was born, and think that a painter, like certain tender plants,
can only thrive in a hothouse? Gross as are these absurdities,
there will always be a band of profound blockheads ready to adopt
and circulate them, if it were only upon the authority of the
great names by which they are sanctioned.[37]
"To return to our Royal Academy. I am told that one of their
leading objects will be sending young men abroad to study the
antique statues, etc. Such kind of studies may sometimes improve
an exalted genius, but they will not create it; and whatever has
been the cause, this same travelling to Italy has, in several
instances that I have seen, seduced the student from nature, and
led him to paint marble figures,--in which he has availed himself
of the great works of antiquity, as a coward does when he puts
on the armour of an Alexander; for with similar pretensions and
similar vanity, the painter supposes he shall be adored as a
second Raphael Urbino.
"The fact is, that everything necessary for the student in
sculpture or painting may at this time be procured in London.
Of the 'Venus' and the 'Gladiator' we have small casts; and
even the 'Torso,' by which Michael Angelo asserted he learned
all he knew of the art, has been copied in a reduced size, and
the cast, by which the principle may be clearly seen, is sold
for a few shillings. These small casts, if quite correct, are
full as useful to the student as the originals; the parts are
easier comprehended, they are more portable to place in different
lights, and of an even colour, while the old Parian marbles are
apt to shine, dazzle, and confound the eye. If this be doubted,
let a plaster figure be smoked and oiled, and the true dimensions
of the muscles can be no more distinguished than those of a sooty
chimney-sweeper.
"After all, though the best statues are unquestionably in parts
superlatively fine, and superior to nature, yet they have
invariably a something that is inferior.
"As to pictures, there are enough in England to seduce us from
studying nature, which every man ought to do if he aims at any
higher rank than being an imitator of the works of others; and to
such servile spirits I will offer no advice.
"In one word, I think that young men by studying in Italy have
seldom learnt much more than the names of the painters; though
sometimes they have attained the amazing power of distinguishing
styles,[38] and knowing by the hue of the picture the hard name
of the artist,--a power which, highly as they pride themselves
upon it, is little more than knowing one handwriting from
another. For this they gain great credit, and are supposed
vast proficients because they have travelled. They are gravely
attended to by people of rank, with whom they claim acquaintance,
and talk of the antique in a cant phraseology made up of half
or whole Italian, to the great surprise of their hearers, who
become gulls in order to pass for connoisseurs,--wonder with a
foolish face of praise, and bestow unqualified admiration on the
marvellous bad copies of marvellous bad originals which they have
brought home as trophies, and triumphantly display to prove their
discernment and taste.
"Neither England nor Italy ever produced a more contemptible
dauber than the late Mr. Kent; and yet he gained the prize at
Rome, in England had the first people for his patrons, and, to
crown the whole, was appointed Painter to the King. But in this
country such men meet with the greatest encouragement, and
soonest work their way into noblemen's houses and palaces.[39]
"To conclude, I think that this ostentatious establishment
can answer no one valuable purpose to the arts, nor be of the
least use to any individual, except those who are to be elected
professors and receive salaries for the _kind superintendence_
they will exercise over such of their brethren as have not so
much interest as themselves.[40]
"Many of the objections which I have to the institution of
this Royal Academy apply with equal force to the project of
the Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and
Commerce, for distributing premiums for drawings and pictures;
subjects of which they are totally ignorant, and in which they
can do no possible service to the community.
"It is extremely natural for noblemen, or young people of
fortune who have travelled and seen fine pictures and statues,
to be planet-struck with a desire of being celebrated in books,
like those great men of whom they have read in the lives of
the painters, etc.; for it must be recollected that the popes,
princes, and cardinals who patronized these painters, have been
celebrated as creators of the men who created those great works:
'Shar'd all their honours, and partook their fame.'
"The 'Dilettanti' had all this in prospect when they offered
to establish a drawing-school, etc. at their own expense; for
here they expected to be paramount. But when those painters who
projected the scheme presumed to bear a part in the direction of
the school, the 'Dilettanti' kept their money, and rejected them
with scorn,--the whole castle fell to the ground, and has been no
more heard of.[41]
"This society of castle-builders have a similar idea. They wish
first to persuade the world that no genius can deserve notice
without being first cultivated under their direction, and will
ultimately neither foster nor encourage any artist that has not
been brought up by themselves.
"The sounding title of a society for the encouragement of arts,
manufactures, and commerce, with two or three people of rank
at their head, attracted a multitude of subscribers. Men when
repeatedly applied to were unwilling to refuse two guineas a
year; people of leisure, tired of public amusements, found
themselves entertained with formal speeches from men who had
still more pleasure in displaying their talents for oratory.
Artificers of all descriptions were invited, and those who were
not bidden strained every nerve to become members, and appear
upon the printed list as promoters of the fine arts. By this
means they were consulted in their several professions, and happy
was he who could assume courage enough to speak, though ever so
little to the purpose.
"The intention of this great society is unquestionably laudable;
their success in subscriptions astonishing. How far their
performances have been equal to their promises, it is not my
business to inquire; but as, while I had the honour of being a
member, my opinion was frequently asked on some points relating
to my own profession, I venture to lay it before the reader with
the same frankness that I then gave it.
"When the society was in its infancy they gave premiums for
children's drawings, and for this--'Let children lisp their
praise.'[42] It was asserted that we should thus improve our own
manufactures, and gravely asked by these _professed_ encouragers
of the commerce of their country, if the French children being
instructed in drawing did not enable that people to give a
better air to all the articles they fabricated. I answered
positively, NO; and added, that thus trumpeting their praise was
a degradation of our own country, and giving to our rivals a
character which they had no right to. Were this point debated,
French superiority would be supported by fashionable ladies,
travelled gentlemen, and picture-dealers. In opposition to
them, would be those who are capable of judging for themselves,
the few that are not led away by popular prejudices, and the
first artists in the kingdom. These, I am conscious, would be
a minority, but composed of men that ought to have weight, and
whose opinion and advice should have been taken before the plan
was put in execution.
"Of the immense improvement that is to take place in our
manufactures from boys of almost every profession being taught to
draw, I form no very sanguine expectations.
"To attain the power of imitating the forms of letters with
freedom and precision in all their due proportions and various
elegant turns, as Snell has given them, requires as much
skill as to copy different forms of columns and cornices in
architecture, and might with some show of propriety be said to
demand a knowledge of design; yet common sense and experience
convince us that the proper place for acquiring a fine hand is
a writing-school. As measuring is but measuring, I do not think
that a tailor would make a suit of clothes fit better from
having been employed twice seven years in taking the dimensions
of all the bits of antiquity that remain in Greece.[43] How
absurd would it be to see periwig-makers and shoemakers' boys
learning the art of drawing, that they might give grace to a
peruke or a slipper! If the study of Claude's landscapes would
benefit the carver of a picture-frame, or the contemplation
of a finely-painted saucepan by Teniers or Bassan would be an
improvement to a tinman, it would be highly proper for this
society to encourage them in the practice of the arts. But as
this is not the case, giving lads of all ranks a little knowledge
of everything is almost as absurd as it would be to instruct
shopkeepers in oratory, that they may be thus enabled to talk
people into buying their goods, because oratory is necessary at
the bar and in the pulpit. As to giving premiums to those that
design flowers, etc. for silks and linens, let it be recollected
that these artisans copy the objects they introduce from
nature,--a much surer guide than all the childish and ridiculous
absurdities of temples, dragons, pagodas, and other fantastic
fripperies which have been imported from China.
"As from all these causes (and many more might be added) it
appears that a smattering in the arts can be of little use except
to those who make painting their sole pursuit, why should we
tempt such multitudes to embark in a profession by which they
never can be supported? For historical pictures there never can
be a demand:[44] our churches reject them; the nobility prefer
foreign productions; and the generality of our apartments are too
small to contain them. A certain number of portrait-painters, if
they can get patronized by people of rank, may find employment;
but the majority even of these must either shift how they can
amongst their acquaintance, or live by travelling from town to
town like gipsies. Yet, as many will be allured by flattering
appearances, and form vague hopes of success, some of the
candidates must be unsuccessful; and men will be rendered
miserable who might have lived comfortably enough by almost any
manufactory, and will wish that they had been taught to make
a shoe, rather than thus devoted to the polite arts.[45] When
I once stated something like this to the society, a member
_humanely_ remarked, that the poorer we kept the artists, the
cheaper we might purchase their works."
These two societies, of whose projects and practice Hogarth seems to
have entertained very similar opinions, became for a short time so
far connected, that where one held their meetings the other exhibited
their pictures. The donations in painting which Hogarth and several
other artists had made to the Foundling Hospital had much engaged the
public attention; and the painters finding the effects they produced,
determined to try the fate of an exhibition of their work; in
consequence of which, on the 27th of February 1760, Mr. Hayman, then
chairman of the committee of artists, wrote a letter to the society
for encouragement of arts, requesting permission for the painters
to exhibit at their great room opposite Beaufort Buildings in the
Strand; and in the following May they accordingly made their first
Exhibition. This proved very attractive; and, from the money paid for
admission, they were soon enabled to relieve not only the indigent of
their own body, but also aliens; and to establish themselves into a
regular institution by the name of "A Society of Artists, associated
for the relief of the distressed and decayed of their own body, their
widows, and children." For these humane purposes they agreed to form
a fund. As far as this plan went it had Hogarth's approbation; and
for their Exhibition Catalogue of 1761 he made two designs, which
were engraved by Mr. Charles Grignion, and of which the following are
copies:--
FRONTISPIECE
TO THE CATALOGUE OF THE ARTISTS' EXHIBITION, 1761.
"Et spes et ratio studiorum in Cæsare tantum."[46]--JUV.
[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE TO ARTISTS' CATALOGUE]
Erected in the cleft of a rock, we have here a building intended
for a reservoir of water; and by the bust of his present Majesty
being placed in a niche of an arch, which is lined with a shell and
surmounted by a crown, we must suppose it a royal reservoir. The
mouth of a mask of the British lion is made the water-spout for
conveying a stream into a garden-pot, which a figure of Britannia
holds in her right hand, and, with her spear in the left, is employed
in sprinkling three young trees, the trunks of which are entwined
together, and inscribed, "Painting, Sculpture, Architecture." These
promising saplings are planted upon a gentle declivity. Painting is
on the highest ground, and Sculpture on the lowest. It is worthy
of remark that the fructifying stream which issues from the
watering-pot falls short of the surface on which is planted the
tree inscribed Painting, and goes beyond the root of that termed
Sculpture; so that Architecture, which is much the loftiest and
most healthy tree, will have the principal benefit of the water.
If the tree of Painting is attentively inspected, it will be found
stunted in its growth, withered at the top, and blest with only one
flourishing branch, which, if viewed with an eye to what the artist
has previously written, seems intended for portrait-painting. The
tree which is the symbol for Sculpture appears to bend and withdraw
itself from the reservoir;[47] one branch from the centre of the
trunk is probably funereal, and intended to intimate sepulchral
monuments. The top, being out of sight, is left to the imagination.
Those who wish to inquire how far this allegorical and sylvan symbol
has proved prophetic of the unequal encouragement now given to the
different branches of the arts, may go to Somerset House, contemplate
the building, pay their shilling, and walk through the rooms of the
Royal Academy during the time of their annual exhibition!
TAIL-PIECE
TO THE ARTISTS' CATALOGUE.
"Esse quid hoc dicam? vivis quod fama negatur!"[48]--MART.
[Illustration: TAILPIECE TO ARTISTS' CATALOGUE]
As a contrast to Britannia nurturing the trees that are introduced
in the last print, a travelling monkey in full dress is in this
industriously watering three withered and sapless stems of what
might once have been flowering shrubs, and are inscribed "Exotics."
These wretched remnants of things which were, are carefully placed
in labelled flower-pots: on the first is written, "_Obiit_ 1502;" on
the second, "_Obiit_ 1600;" and on the third, "_Obiit_ 1606." Still
adhering to the hieroglyphics in his frontispiece, Hogarth introduces
these three dwarfish importations of decayed nature to indicate the
state of those old and damaged pictures which are venerated merely
for their antiquity, and exalted above all modern productions, from
the name of a great master, rather than any intrinsic merit. To
heighten the ridicule, he has given his monkey a magnifying glass
that will draw forth hidden beauties, which to common optics are
invisible.
So great was the demand for the catalogues with the illustrative
prints of Hogarth, that the two first done were soon worn down, and
Mr. Grignion was employed to engrave others from the same drawings.
Beneath those that were first made there are no mottoes; and the word
_obiit_ is written _obit_. This was perhaps a mistake of either the
painter or writing engraver, though I think it barely possible that
the former might mean to pun on the connoisseurs being bubbled by
dealers in old pictures--O! BIT.
The opinion Hogarth has, in the preceding pages, given of the
taste and judgment of the public in his own day may at first sight
seem rather harsh, but was in a degree justified by the scandalous
inattention with which the town received his six inimitable pictures
of "Marriage à la Mode;" they were, on the 6th of June 1750, sold
by a kind of auction to Mr. Lane of Hillingdon for one hundred and
twenty guineas! Being in Carlo Maratt frames that cost the artist
four guineas each, his real remuneration for painting this admirable
series was but a few shillings more than one hundred pounds.[49] Such
are the rewards of genius. Low as this sum was, a Mr. Perry, being
eleven months afterwards erroneously informed that still less had
been the highest sum offered, and that they were not sold, wrote the
following letter with an increased bidding. This gentleman's name is
inserted in Hogarth's subscription book as a subscriber for four sets
of "The Elections," with this remarkable memorandum:--"_4th April
1754._--The whole eight guineas paid at the time of subscribing."
Out of near six hundred names, I find only two (viz. Henry Raper,
Esq., and Mr. Perry) who paid more than half the money in the first
subscription.
_To Mr. Hogarth._
"DEAR SIR,--I was this day informed by a friend of mine in the
city that seventy-five pounds only was bid for your pictures of
'Marriage à la Mode;' and this I hope will excuse my bidding you
so small a sum as one hundred and twenty pounds for them; so much
are they worth of my money; with a promise never to sell them
to any picture-trader or connoisseur-monger so long as you or I
shall live.
"If in this foolish and grossly-imposed on generation there
should not be found one man wiser than myself, I must insist on
having this bidding deposited in your cabinet.--I am, dear Sir,
your most obedient servant,
CAR. PERRY.
"_May 15, 1751._"
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