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1
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31anle Gabriel Rossetti ,panx*

Diiiardm, pbotoa.

VERONICA
Magazine of Art .

?

in

VERONESE

GEMS OF ART
ILLUSTRATED

THELIBRARYOF THE
NOV 7 1934
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

NEW

THE

CASSELL
31

E A S T 17TH

YORK

PUBLISHING
ST. (UNION

SQUARE)

CO.

{Drawn

by R. Anning

Bell.)
PAGE

"AN

AUTUMN D I R G E . "

Poem.

B y Alfred Austin

"AN

E L D E R L Y M A N AT T H E P L A Y , "

Poem.

.

. 415

B y the

" A SONG."

214

N o t e on t h e P i c t u r e b y R. C. W . B u n n y

B y N o r m a n Gale

275

B y P e r c y Anderson

THE

AN HISTORICAL

A R T OF D R E S S I N G

.

.

PLAY.

276

T H E D E C L I N E O F SCENIC A R T I N A M E R I C A .

B y Richard

Marston

TOWARDS

.

.

44

.

113

T H E RESTORATION

BELLS,

A

DISSERTATION

ON F O R E I G N .

By

. 1 6
. 244

W.
.

.

BOOKBINDINGS,

.

B y Aaron Watson

Stephens

212
By

F.

316
By J. M. Gray

Blomfield

.

33

B y A r t h u r L . Salmon

119

" F R O M D A W N TO D U S K . "

Poem.

" FULL

Note on t h e P i c t u r e b y H a n s

SPEED

AHEAD ! "

V o n Bartels

195

G A L L E R Y OF STATUETTES, A.

B y R. Jope-Slade

THE "PUNCH"

OF.

By

T H E MALCOLM

D R A W I N G S AT T H E .

BROWN, PROFESSOR F R E D .

B y D . S. MacColl

.

A STUDY I N E V O L U T I O N

266, 311
397

G O T H I C ARCHITECTURE, A F R E N C H V I E W O F .

G R A F T O N G A L L E R I E S , T H E . B y F . G. S t e p h e n s

By

R. Jope-Slade

127
B y Reginald

Blomfield

By

.

385

DINNER

G O L D M E D A L S O F T H E ROYAL ACADEMY SCHOOLS, T H E .

Will.

Lionel Cust

.

By M. H . Spielmann:—

T H E ARTIST'S " G H O S T " :

80

.

188

EXHIBITION

150

By Reginald

376

INTERNATIONAL

G.

.

387

H. Edmunds
B R I T I S H MUSEUM,

N o t e on t h e

GALLERIES.

F O U L I S ACADEMY AND J A M E S T A S S I E , T H E .

353

BIRCH, T H E LATE CHARLES B E L L , A . R . A . .

AT T H E G R A F T O N

G L I M P S E S OF A R T I S T - L I F E .

Shaw-

Sparrow
BOLTON A B B E Y .

WOMEN

OF T H E V E N U S OF

MELOS, A N . B y J o h n Bell, Sculptor
.
.
" A V E M A R I A I N R O M E . " P o e m . B y Mathilde Blind

284

OF T H E S P A N I S H , A R M A D A . "

F R E N C H V I E W OF G O T H I C A R C H I T E C T U R E , A.

By Mrs. H . L. Postlethwaite

A R T I S T S , SOME R I S I N G .

B y W . Telbin

NEWS

P i c t u r e b y Seymour Lucas, A . R . A
FAIR

163

T H E QUESTION OF R E F O R M .

ATTEMPT

7

By

Canon H . D . Rawnsley
"1588:

By

Seymour Lucas, A . R . A

J.

228

E X E T E R COLLEGE, O X F O R D , T H E G R E A T T A P E S T R Y AT.

70

A R T IN THE T H E A T R E : —

COSTUME ON THE STAGE.

B y the Rev. W .

Loftie

Hon.

Roden Noel
" A PASTORAL."

EMMANUEL H O S P I T A L , W E S T M I N S T E R .

. 4 0 3

33
.

G R E A T TAPESTRY I N E X E T E R COLLEGE, O X F O R D , T H E .

.316
By

.

GREEK

.

B y Walter Armstrong

B Y R O N , SOME P O R T R A I T S O F .

.238
.310
.

By J.

G r a y , F.S.A.Scot
BURTON, S I R F R E D E R I C K .

the R e v . Canon H . D . Rawnsley
.
.
.
.284
" GREAT Y A R M O U T H . "
N o t e on t h e E t c h i n g b y P e r c y
Robertson, A . R . P . - E
250

.

B U R N S , T H E A U T H E N T I C P O R T R A I T S OF R O B E R T .

B y F . G. K i t t o n

M.

VASE

PAINTING,

MYTHS

Jane E . Harrison

253

.

OF T H E D A W N

.

.

CHAVANNES, P U V I S D E . B y P r i n c e Bojidar Karageorgevitch

73
88

GREZ.

ON.

.

By

.

. 5 9

G R E E K VASE PAINTINGS : A REVIEW

" C H R I S T BLESSING L I T T L E C H I L D R E N . "

.

N o t e on t h e P i c t u r e

C L O T H AND T O W N H A L L S OF F L A N D E R S , T H E .

Ansted

422

CONNAL, J U N R . , M i l . W . , COLLECTION OF

COSTUME ON T H E STAGE.

.

.

B y P e r c y Anderson

CURRENT A R T : —
I N S T I T U T E OF P A I N T E R S

IN

.

.

335, 361

.

O I L COLOURS.

.

By

7

. 9 1

T H E R O Y A L SOCIETY OF B R I T I S H A R T I S T S .

By

" HOMEWARDS."

OF SCENIC A R T I N AMERICA, T H E .

By

163
.

.

.

.

DISSERTATION

A.

By

W.

Shaw-

.

.

ON F O R E I G N

.

.

BELLS,

.

.

.

.

.

.

177

DORDRECHT I N 1893, T H E CITY OF. B y W a l t e r A r m s t r o n g

259

D O W N COUNTRY, I N T H E . B y G r a h a m R . Tomson .

206

E A R L Y ITALIAN A R T AT T H E N E W G A L L E R Y .

Phillips
E M I L E WAUTERS : PORTRAIT PAINTER.

By

Claude

BOOKS

282

.

.

.

.347

B y Helen Zimmern

.

.

. 5 3
309

342, 372

OF T H E M I D D L E

ON T H E . B y W i l l i a m Morris
IN

MEMORIAM :

AGES,

.

CECIL

181

GORDON

SOME

Jackson

.

.

.

. 8 3

.

.

.139

LAWSON.

By

Heseltine

.
. . .

I N O I L COLOURS.

.

.

NOTES

.

Owen
.

B y M.

.

INTERNATIONAL E X H I B I T I O N OF BOOKBINDINGS.

.

.

. 1, 64

Phipps

.

. 9 1

By Will H.

Edmunds
I N THE D O W N COUNTRY.
ITALIAN C H I M N E Y - T O P S .

145, 196
B y A. J. Wauters

.

N o t e on t h e P i c t u r e b y F r i t z V o n U h d e

INSTITUTE OF P A I N T E R S

353
.

B y N o r m a n Gale

ILLUSIONS I N A R T . B y T . J . Gullick

Richard

DECORATION OF S T . P A U L ' S , T H E

27

B y M. H . Spielmann .

B y J . E . Hodgson, R . A
ILLUMINATED

94

Marston

Poem.

HILDEBRAND, ADOLPH.

Peter

Macnab

Sparrow

" HARVEST."

A REVIEW.

H o w AND W H A T TO R E A D : ADDRESSED TO A R T STUDENTS.

M.

Phipps Jackson

DECLINE

HANS MEMLING:

B y Alexander

345

B y R. A. M. Stevenson

376
B y G r a h a m R. Tomson
By H . E. Tidmarsh

" L A B E L L E D A M E SANS M E R C I . "

J. W . Waterhouse, A.R.A.

.

.

.

.

N o t e on t h e P i c t u r e

206
.102

by

118

CONTENTS.

IV

PAGE
LAWSON,

CECIL

IN

GORDON :

MEMORIAM.

By

Heseltine

Owen .

1, 64

L I T T L E EOUBILLAC.

B y Austin Dobson

" LORD BYRON'S V I E W : H A R R O W . "

E . Burne-Jones,

.

.

.

N o t e on t h e

by F . Walker, A.E.P.-E. .
" LOVE AMONG THE R U I N S . "

.

Note

.

.

Lionel Cust

.283

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"THE

188

.
A RE>

.

.

.

.

OF T H E D A W N

ON G R E E K

211

Jane E . Harrison

.

.

VASE

.

.

N E W GALLERY, T H E . B y M . Phipps
,,

EARLY

.

306

Jackson
Claude

.

By

.

357

Lionel

Cust
HUMORISTS : — P H I L

MAY.

By

M.

H.

Spielmann

348

O U R ILLUSTRATED N O T E - B O O K

34, 7 1 , 107, 142, 179, 214, 251,

287, 321, 358, 394, 428
BARTERING

WITH

BRITONS."

Note

on

141

N o t e on t h e E t c h i n g b y David L a w ,
168

P O R T R A I T S OF R O B E R T B U R N S , T H E A U T H E N T I C .

By J .

238
B y F . G.

P R I V A T E P I C T U R E COLLECTIONS

SCOTLAND.

B y Robert

.

.

M R . J A M E S R E I D ' S COLLECTION
M R . W I L L I A M CONNAL, J U N R . ' S COLLECTION
" PUNCH " DINNER, T H E . B y M. H .
QUESTION

OF R E F O R M ,

.

221
153
335 361
.

397

Spielmann.

T H E : A R T IN THE THEATRE.

By

W. Telbin

44

R A P H A E L ' S CARTOONS CRITICISED.
R E C E N T ILLUSTRATED

B y J o h n Brett,

A.R.A.

B y Hopkinson

Smith

131
418

" CLIMBING T H E HIMALAYAS "
" COINAGE OF T H E E U R O P E A N CONTINENT, T H E . "

By

W . Carew Hazlitt
' ENGLISH

295

VOLUMES:—

" AMERICAN ILLUSTRATORS."

BOOK-PLATES. "

160

J. W . NORTH, A.R.A.
L. F . D A Y .
M. P H I P P S J A C K S O N .
W. TELBIN.
CAPTAIN W. DE W . A B N E Y .
ROBERT W A L K E R .

By

.

235

.

.

161

B y Sir E d w i n Arnold

.

162

SECESSIONISTS"

415
B y Robert W a l k e r

,.

.

B y Horace Townsend

B y M. H . S p i e l m a n n

O L D MASTERS AT.

153

. 133

217, 271, 289

B y Lionel Cust
By

109

R.

SOCIETY

127
OF B R I T I S H

ARTISTS,

THE.

By

Peter

94
37, 97

T H E O L D MASTERS

19

SALON OF T H E C H A M P D E M A R S , T H E . B y Claude P h i l l i p s

S H R I N E OF S T . SIMEON, T H E .
SINIBALDI, P . J . R .

379

.

B y Lewis F . D a y

SOME N O T E S ON T H E ILLUMINATED

AGES.

325

B y H . M . Cundall, F.S.A.

B y R. Jope-Slade

SIENA, T H E W O N D E R OF.

.

.

.

392

.
.

420

368, 410

BOOKS OF T H E M I D D L E

B y W i l l i a m Morris

SOME P O R T R A I T S OF B Y R O N .

" ST. PAUL'S."

83
.

.

B y Mrs. H . L. Postlethwaite

SOME R I S I N G A R T I S T S .

B y F . G. K i t t o n .

.

113

.

385

B y R. J o p e - S l a d e .

Note on t h e Picture

by Henry

.

253

Dawson.

By J a m e s Orrock, R . I

195

P A U L ' S , T H E DECORATION OF

S T . SIMEON, T H E S H R I N E OF.

177

B y H . M. Cundall, F.S.A.

SWAN, J O H N MACALLAN, A.R.iL

B y Cosmo Monkhouse

TAPESTRY COURT, SOUTH KENSINGTON

" T H E ALHAMBRA."
Raeburn
.

392
. 171

MUSEUM, T H E N E W

T A S S I E , J A M E S , AND THE F O U L I S ACADEMY.

By J. M. Gray

357
150

Note o n t h e E t c h i n g b y H . Macbeth.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 1 5

T H E ARTIST'S " G H O S T " :

A STUDY I N E V O L U T I O N .

B y M.

H . Spielmann
266, 311
" T H E HARBOUR OF R E F U G E . " Note on t h e Picture b y F .
W a l k e r , A.R.A. B y J . W . N o r t h , A.R.A., R . W . S .
12
" T H E W A Y OF THE W O R L D . " Poem. B y Christina G. Rossetti
Poem.

304

B y E d m u n d Gosse . 169

V E N U S OF M E L O S , A N A T T E M P T T O W A R D S T H E RESTORATION

OF T H E . B y J o h n Bell, Sculptor

51

WAUTERS, E M I L E , PORTRAIT PAINTER.

.

WESTMINSTER

235

WILD

235

W O N D E R OF SIENA, T H E . B y Lewis F . D a y

ABBEY

AND I T S MONUMENTS.

Burke-Downing,
NATURE
PAINTER

.

.

. 1 6

B y A. J . W a u t e r s

236

LITERARY CONTRIBUTORS
A U S T I N DOBSON.
WILLIAM MORRIS.
S E Y M O U R L U C A S , A.R.A
D. S. M A C C O L L .
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI.
J O H N B R E T T , A.R.A.
CANON R A W N S L E Y .
PERCY ANDERSON.
F. G. K I T T O N .
JOHN BELL.

.

" T o A C H I L D OF F I F T E E N . "

B y E g e r t o n Castle, M . A . ,

F.S.A. .
' J . B . G R E U Z E . " F r o m Les Artistes Celebres." B y
Charles N o r m a n d
' L E S AUDRANS."
F r o m Les Artistes Celebres." B y
M. Duplessis
.
.
.
.
' L E S CLOUETS E T C O R N E I L L E D E L Y O N . " F r c m " L e s
Artistes Celebres." B y H . Bouchot

E D M U N D GOSSE.
CLAUDE PHILLIPS.
R. A. M. STEVENSON.
J . E. HODGSON, R.A.

.

T H E MODERN PICTURES

ST.

Walker:—
.

.

Macnab
.
.
.
RUSTON COLLECTION, T H E . B y Claude Phillips :—

253

Kitton

I N GLASGOW AND W E S T OF

M R . A N D R E W M A X W E L L ' S COLLECTION

BUTTERFLY"

STATUETTES, A G A L L E R Y OF.

M.

Gray, F.S.A.Scot
P O R T R A I T S OF B Y R O N , SOME.

.

Jope-Slade

the

Sketch b y Sir F . Leighton, P . R . A
" PONT-Y-GARTH."
R.P.-E

.

49

.237

SALON OF T H E C H A M P S E L Y S E E S , T H E . B y Claude P h i l l i p s

109

GRAPHIC

.

H I S L I F E , H I S W O R K , AND H I S T I M E . "

„

ROYAL

. 330

N E W T A P E S T R Y COURT, S O U T H K E N S I N G T O N MUSEUM .

" PHOENICIANS

„

145, 196

O L D M A S T E R S AT T H E R O Y A L ACADEMY, T H E .

.

DE CHAMPAIGNE."

.

R O Y A L ACADEMY, T H E , 1894.

59

.

B y Reginald Blomfield .

.

ROYAL ACADEMY SCHOOLS, G O L D M E D A L S AT T H E .

By

Phillips
N E W SCOTLAND Y A R D .

OUR

"THE

120

.

By

.

R E I D , COLLECTION OF M R . J A M E S .

By

PAINTING.

ITALIAN A R T AT.

.

RICHARDSON, H . I I . , ARCHITECT.

B y Captain W . de W . Abney

..

ET JEAN-BAPTISTE

" T H E L I G H T OF T H E W O R L D . "

221
348

Moss, T H E COLLECTION OF M R . G I L B E R T , L I V E R P O O L .

Alfred T . Story

B y Miss Mitford

A. Gazier

By

.

By Robert Walker

B y M . H . Spielmann

235
B y H i s T h i r d Son

B y Emile Michel: F r o m t h e F r e n c h b y Florence
Simmonds. Edited b y F . W e d m o r e .
.
.129

MUSEUM, T H E .

.

MEASUREMENT OF L I G H T AND COLOUR SENSATIONS :

„

" PHILIPPE

Sir

B y W a r h a m St. Leger

M A X W E L L , M R . A N D R E W , COLLECTION OF.

MYTHS

" OUR VILLAGE."

"REMBRANDT:

Poem.

F r o m ' Les Artistes Celebres."

" M E M O I R OF E D W A R D C A L V E R T . "

Etching

on t h e P i c t u r e b y

MALCOLM D R A W I N G S AT T H E B R I T I S H

VIEW.

202, 231

Bart,

" LOVE E X P E C T A N T . "

MAY, P H I L .

" L E S V A N DE V E L D E . "
B y Emile Michel

By

H.

A . R . I . B.A

IN LONDON :

300

As

SEEN

BY AN

ANIMAL
246

.

.

368,410

TO THIS VOLUME.

COSMO M O N K H O U S E .
MATHILDE BLIND.
P R I N C E KARAGEORGEVITCH
F . G. S T E P H E N S .
R E V . W. J. LOFTIE.
REGINALD BLOMFIELD.
G R A H A M R. TOMSON.

H. M. CUNDALL, F.S.A.
AARON WATSON.

The late J. M. G R A Y ,

181

P.

W A L T E R ARMSTRONG.
NORMAN GALE.
A. J. W A U T E R S .
T h e late H O N . R O D E N N O E L .
J A N E E. H A R R I S O N .
WARHAM ST. LEGER.
LIONEL CUST.
A R T H U R L. SALMON.
C WHYMPER.
M. H . S P I E L M A N N .

{Drawn by R. Aiming

PAGE

Greek Vase

36

G R E E K V A S E P A I N T I N G S :—

Death of Procris
63
Eos and Kephalos
61
Eos carrying Hydrise
59
Eos pursues Kephalos
62
Eos pursues Kephalos a t Sunrise
63
Eos carrying t h e Body of Memnon
60
Odysseus and the Sirens : Three Love Gods (from a Vase
in t h e British Museum)
316
Procne, Philomela, and Itys (from a Cylix in t h e Louvre). 346
ARCHITECTURE : Design for a Central School of Arts a n d Manufactures (by
Design for a Palais Nationale des Societes Savantes (by M.
CHAUSSEMICHE)

35

Design for a Provincial Town Hall (by J A M E S S. S T E W A R T ) . 128
HERBERT

E m m a n u e l Hospital, Westminster
The E n t r a n c e Porch
The Quadrangle

228
229
230

" I T A L I A N C H I M N E Y - T O P S " (by H. E. T I D M A R S H ) :—

At Mantua
Chimneys in V i a Bernardino da Feltre, P a v i a
I n t h e Courtyard S. Paolo, Verona .
.
.
I n the Piazza Pontida, Bergamo
I n t h e Via Anfiteatro, Verona
I n V i a S. Catarina, Verona
.
.
.
.
Near P o r t a Milano, Cremona . . . . .
Near t h e Cathedral, Milan
.
.
.
.
On t h e Dazio a t the Bridge, P a v i a .
.
Some Venetian Chimneys
Jesus Hospital, B r a y

.
.
.
.

.

.
.
.
.

.

.

.
.

. 106
.102
105
103
104
.
104
.
103
.
102
. 102
106
12

.

" N E W SCOTLAND Y A R D " (by R E G I N A L D B L O M F I E L D ) :—

A Doorway, Scotland Y a r d
Mantelpiece, Scotland Y a r d
N e w Scotland Yard, from t h e South-West .
.
T h e Chief Commissioner's Room, Scotland Y a r d
The Staircase, Scotland Yard
The Staircase, Scotland Y a r d
" R I C H A R D S O N , H. H.,

.
•.

331
331
.330
. 333
332
334

ARCHITECT":—

A Signature in Stone
138
Crane Memorial Library, Quincy (drawn by H . T R I N G HAM)
134
Middle Bay, Sever Hall, Cambridge, Mass
135
Porch of L a w School, H a r v a r d University .
.
.
.138
Tower of City Hall, Albany, N.Y. (drawn by H. T O W N S END)
134
Town Hall, N o r t h Euston .
136
Trinity Church, Boston, Mass
137
" T H E C L O T H A N D T O W N HALLS OF F L A N D E R S " ( y
b
A L E X A N D E R ANSTED) :—
Hotel de Ville, Bruges
425
Hotel de Ville, Brussels
. 423
Hotel de Ville, Ghent
427
Hdtel de Ville, Oudenarde
424
Les Halles, Bruges
426
Town Hall, Lou vain
425
Town Hall, Ypres
422
" W E S T M I N S T E R A B B E Y AND I T S M O N U M E N T S " (by H. P .
B U R K E - D O W N I N G , A.R.I.B.A.) :—

Interior of Mr. Pearson's suggested Chapel on Refectory
Site
303
Plan of Westminster Abbey and Precincts, showing suggested Sites for N e w Monumental Chapel
.
.
.301
The Chapter-House, and Approach to Poets' Corner .
. 300
The Chapter-House as now seen from Old Palace Yard . 301
The Cloisters, from t h e Garth
302
The Cloister W a l k
302
DESIGN:Alabaster Chimneypiece (by H. W I L S O N )
. 72
Altar-Table and Reredos, St. Leonard's Church, Wallingford
(designed by G. D. L E S L I E , R.A.)
.
Book-Plate (designed by A L B E R T D U R E R )

.

.

.

.

PAGE
. 5 1
. 5 1

Book-Plate (designed by E. A. A B B E Y )

52

Book-Plate (designed by A L L A N W R I G H T )

52

Book-Plates of Samuel Pepys a n d Thomas Carlyle . . .
Cup, National Gold Medal Design for a (designed by E L E A N O R

52

MERCER)
I N T E R N A T I O N A L E X H I B I T I O N O F B O O K B I N D I N G S :—

428

Calf Binding, with Design in Pyrogravure (designed by
MRS. GRAHAM)
376
Levant Morocco Binding (by Messrs. M O R R E L L ) .
377
Morocco Binding (designed by D. S. MACCOLL ; executed
by M i s s M A C C O L L )

428

(by

.
.

.

377

Vellum Binding, w i t h Black a n d W h i t e Design (by M R S .

A L F R E D RECOURA)

WESTMINSTER"

DESIGN (continued):—
Book-Plate (designed and engraved by T. B E W I C K ) .
Book-Plate (designed b y R A N D O L P H CALDECOTT)

ANCIENT A R T : -

"EMMANUEL
HOSPITAL,
R A I L T O N ) :—

Bell.)

.214
51

H E R B E R T RAILTON)
SIENA, T H E W O N D E R OF:—

376

Detail after Beccafumi, showing Effect of Inlaid Shadows 411
Detail of Border
368
Detail of Ornament—unrestored—showing free Use of
Cement in Joints, &c
413
Elijah Rebuking A h a b (showing earlier a n d severer
m a n n e r of Beccaf umi)
371
Eve, in t h e later and more pictorial m a n n e r of Beccafumi 412
Gothic Figure of Justice
.
.368
P a r t of a Subject representing t h e Emperor Sigismund
Enthroned
369
The Death of Absalom
369
370
The Ship of F o r t u n e (attributed to Pinturicchio)
ST. P A U L ' S CATHEDRAL.

Decoration of the Spandrels :—

St. J o h n (designed by G. F . W A T T S , R . A . ; d r a w n by W.

178
E. F . B R I T T E N )
178
St. L u k e (designed a n d d r a w n by W . E. F . B R I T T E N )
177
St. M a r k
„
,,
„
„
St. M a t t h e w (designed by G. F . W A T T S , R . A . ; d r a w n by
177
W . E. F . BRITTEN)
" T h e Adoration of t h e M a g i " (designed by Sir E. B U R N E J O N E S , Bart.)

.285

DRAWINGS : Botticelli, Sandro—" A b u n d a n c e "
192
Calvert, Edward—A Study
50
Chavannes, Puvis de—
A Study
74
A Study
79
Da Vinci, Leonardo—Bust
of a Warrior, in Silverpoint .
. 191
Frost, A. B.—" The Music for the D a n c e "
132
Greiffenhagen, Maurice,—" A p a m 6 " (from " The Butterfly") . 161
Greuze—" Study of a Young W o m a n " (from " L e s Artistes
Celebres")
236
Harlowe, G. H.—Lord Byron .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.255

Hunt, Holman, W.—
Study of a Head
98
" The Importunate Neighbour" (from " The Light of t h e
World")
182
Khnopff, Fernand—
355
" T h e Belfry, Ghent," " T h e H o u r "
356
Lawson, Cecil G.—
" Down the Stream "
67
" The Hop Gardens of England "
4
Lawson, Wilfred F.—" Cecil G. Lawson (aged 16)" .
.
.
1

Leighton, Sir Frederic, Bart,

P.R.A.—

Studies for " Fatidica "
Studies for " T h e Spirit of the S u m m i t "
.
Study for " S u m m e r Slumber"
Study for " The Bracelet"
McCormick, A. D.—
" Rochester Crags, from the Baltors Valley "

.

.

217,218
.219
220
220

.

.

. 418

May, Phil—
" A Sketch in t h e House " .
"AtNewlyn"
" Choosing a Crucifix "
" I n Paris"
P o r t r a i t of the Artist (by Himself)
TwoSketcb.es

352
350
349
350
348
351

INDEX

VI

TO

ILLUSTRATIONS.

DRAWINGS {continued) :—
PAGE
Messina, Antonello
da—Portrait
of a Man (study for a
picture in the Louvre)
190
Michelangelo (Attributed to)—" The Crucifixion " .
.
.189
Raffaello Sanzio—"St.
J a m e s " (study for " The Coronation of
the Virgin " in the Vatican)
192
Rossetti, Dante G.—" The late Mrs. Lucy M. Rossetti" .
. 321
Sainton,
Charles—
" A Bather"
71
" Brime et Blonde"
71
Sickert, Walter—" Professor F r e d B r o w n "
.
.
.
.403
Skirving—Cray on Drawing of Robert Burns
.
.
.
.242
Thomson, Hugh—" The Carter's Boy "
237
Van de Velde—A " Study of Sheep " .
.
.
,
.
.235
Van Eyck, Jan (Attributed to)—" Philippe Le Bon, Duke of
Burgundy"
189
Wilson, Edgar—Tail-piece
from " The Butterfly " .
.
. 161
ETCHINGS : Rembrandt—" The Angel appearing to the Shepherds" .
. 130
METAL-WORK : Blacksmiths' Company, Exhibition of :—
H a m m e r e d Iron Fire-screen (by CLARENCE STEER) .
. 322
Iron Clock case (by C H A R L E S BUTLER)
322
Iron Lamp-stand (by THOMAS A T K I N S )
323
H a m m e r e d Iron Fire-screen (by J A M E S COOK) .
.
.323
Bronze Doors of the Adelphi Bank, Liverpool (designed by
W . D. CAROE, M.A.; the figure, sculpture, and panels by
J. S T I R L I N G - L E E )

324

Coinage :—
Bavarian Gold Piece (Maximilian I., 1593) .
.
.
Gold Piece of F o u r Ducats (Hildesheim, 1528)
.
.
Scudo of M a n t u a
Schauthaler of A r c h d u k e Maximilian (1479) .
.
.
Early Italian A r t at the New Gallery :—
Door-handle, School of II Riccio, Fifteenth Century .
Enamelled Gold Necklace and P e n d a n t (Cellini work)
Gold Enamelled Pendant Jewels
. . . . . .
P e n d a n t Jewel, Sixteenth Century
Shield of Russet Steel, Sixteenth Century .
.
.
Thurible of Copper-Gilt, Twelfth Century .
.
.
Objects from the Spitzer Collection at Birmingham :—
Chiselled Iron Casket, French, Sixteenth Century .
Bottom of Iron Casket
Holy W a t e r Vessel (Silver), German, Sixteenth Century
Iron Casket, German, Sixteenth Century
.
.
.

.160
.160
160
.161
. 199
. 196
197
198
. 200
.198
. 215
215
. 215
.215

MISCELLANEOUS:A R T I N T H E T H E A T R E :—

Anderson,
Percy—
A Dancing Dress
Dress for Queen, Thirteenth Century
. .
Merveilleuses
Miss Palliser as Rowena in Ivanhoe
. .
Mrs. Beerbohm Tree in Le Passant;
. .
Sketch for Nautch Costume
W a l k i n g Dress, 1830
Lucas, Seymour,
A.R.A.—
Caleb Balderstone
Captain Craigengelt
Hayston of Bucklaw
Moncrieff, an Officer
.
.
.
.* .
.
Sir William Ashton, the Lord Keeper
.
.
Marston, R.—
Byzantine Interior for Act II. of Fatinitza
.
Ground Plan of Stage, Palmer's Theatre, New
Moorish Interior for Act I I . of Fatinitza
.
P o r t of Cyprus {Othello, Act II.)
Telbin, W.—
Stage Lighted by Footlights
Stage Lighted from the Sides
Stage w i t h Contracting Proscenium
Burns's Skull
Clock (from " Les Artistes Celebres ")—" Le3 Boulle "
Duchesse and Point-Lace F a n
Hand-Painted F a n (by F. HOUGHTON)

.

.

.
.

.
.

.
.

9
8
11
7
9
10
10
281
277
279
.280
.276

.
. 165
York . 167
.
.166
167

.

,47
46
45
243
. 237
360
360

ILLUMINATED BOOKS OF T H E M I D D L E A G E S : —

F r o m a Psalter written in the Midland Counties of
England, 1225
88
Letter in Red and Blue Scroll W o r k
83
Page from a Book of Hours, 1290
86
Page from a Breviary, 1380
.87
Page from a Psalter, circa 1260
84
Initials from Punch Table :—
Horace Mayhew
. 402
John Leech .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
402
Mark Lemon
402
Thackeray
. 402
Tom Taylor
402
Ivory Carving, " Pope Sixtus V. " (by I I FIAMMINGO)
.
. 201
Map of Mayence and the A r m s of Bruges
283
Punch Dinner Card, adopted in 1870
400
Shrine of St. Simeon, The
393
South Kensington, The New Tapestry Court
.
.
.
.357
Statuette of Carved Wood, Flemish, late Sixteenth Century . 215
" The Plough :" Wood Engraving by E D W A R D CALVERT
. 49
Urbino Ewer
201
PAINTINGS : Allan, David—"The

Cottar's Saturday N i g h t " .

.

.

.243

PAINTINGS (continued) :—
PAGE
Alma-Tadema,
L., R.A.—"Autumn"
.
.
.
.
.
.227
Aumonier, J., R.I.—" On the South Downs "
.
.
.
.289
Bell, John Z.—" Cardinal Bourchier urges the Widow of
E d w a r d IV. to let her Son out of Sanctuary " . . .
179
Benjamin-Constant,
M.—" Black Diamonds " .
326
Beraud, Jean—" The Procession to Calvary " .
.
.
.380
Besnard, M.—" Horses "
382
Bogle, Lockhart—" The Cateran's Courtship " .
.
.
.273
Bonnat, L.—" The Prince of Monaco"
326
Borgognone—" St. Augustine with a Donor"
.
.
.
.147
Bough, Sam, R.S.A.—" A Blast o' Januar' W i n " ' (Burns's
Birthplace)
157
Bought on, G. H.,
A.R.A.—
" Evangeline"
.
308
"Hesitation"
337
Brewtnall, E. F., R.W.S.—"The
Baron's Pond, Gunnersbury"
.
93
Brown, Ford Madox-"Christ
Washing Peter's F e e t " .
. 288
Brown, Professor Fred—
" A Portrait"
404
A Study
407
A Study
408
" R e d , Blue, and Gold"
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
409
" Rural England "
405
Brozik, V.—" Communion of the Two Elements among the
Early Protestants of Bohemia "
. . . .
Facing 428
Bundy, Edgar—" Gay Dogs at the ' D r a g o n ' " .
.
.
. 9 5
Bunny, R. C JF.—" Intruders " . . . . . . .
96
Burgess, J. B., R.A.—" The Old H e r o "
141
Burne- Jones, Sir E., Bart.—
" Idleness and the Pilgrim of Love "
339
" Love among the Ruins "
Facing
48
" The Bath of Venus "
341
" T h e H e a r t of the R o s e "
339
Carriere, E.—" Alphonse D a u d e t "
. . . .
Facing 356
Carpentiers, Adrien—" Louis Francis Roubillac" .
.
. 203
Chalmers, George P.—" The Monk "
224
Chartran, T.—" St. Francis of Assisi "
329
Chavannes, Puvis de—
" A r d e u r Artistique"
381
" A Vision of Antiquity "
76
" Homage of Victor Hugo to the City of Paris " .
.
. 7 5
" I n t e r Artes et N aturam "
78
"Winter"
77
Chelminski, Jan V.—" The Outpost (Crimea) " . . . .
92
Clark, James—" The Ameer's Heir "
93
Constable, J, R.A.—" Scene on the River Stour—The W h i t e
Horse"
321
Corot—
" Morning by the Sea "
227
" Pastorale - S o u v e n i r d'ltalie"
154
Cosimo, Piero di - " Departure of the Argonauts " .
.
.145
Cot man, F. G., .R./.—" Leidschiedam "
92
Dagnan Bouveret—" A Vendor of Tapers " .
. . . .
379
Dawson, Henry—" St. Paul's "
193
Dill, L.—" An Ostend Fisherman "
415
Dow, Gerard—
' A n n a Maria van S h u r m a n n "
429
"Old W o m a n Peeling Apples"
26
" T h e Flute-Player"
.
.395
Duncan, Edward, R. W.S.—" W r e c k on the Goodwin Sands " 123
Dyce, W., R.A.—"PegwellBay"
323
Eastlake, Sir C,
P.R.A.—
"IppolitaTorelli"
252
" Mrs. C. H. Bellenden Ker "
180
Ellis, Edwin,
R.B.A.—
" After Three Days' Gale"
. 107
"Full Summer"
.107
" Off Flamborough Head "
124
Faed, T., R.A.—" In Time of W a r "
.
.
. . .
.
.108
Fielding, Copley—" A Rough Sea "
120
Forbes, Stanhope A.,
A.R.A.—
" By the Fireside "
307
" Forging the A n c h o r "
359
Fowler, Robert, R.I.—" A Sweet Wild Creature of the Sea " . 91
Fra Angelico—"The
Annunciation"
.360
Giampetrino—" Virgin and Child"
148
Gilbert, Sir John, R.A.,
P.R.W.S.—
" Falstaff Reviewing His Ragged Troops " .
.
.
.122
" The Return of the Victors "
34
Glazebrook, H. de T.—" J. Forbes-Robertson, Esq." .
.
.307
Goodall, F.,R.A.—"The
W a t e r of the Nile" .
.
.
.143
Haag, Carl, R.W.S.—" Amphitheatre, Athens"'
.
.
.123
Hacker, Arthur,
A.R.A.—
" Alfred East, R.I. "
113
"Maude"
293
Portrait of the Artist, by Himself
115
Herdman, R., R.S.A.—" A n t i g o n e "
. 341
Herkomer, Professor,
R.A.—
" H e a d of an Old W o m a n "
100
" H . H. Richardson"
153

INDEX

TO

PAINTINGS (continued):—
PAGE
Hofmann, L. V.— 'On the Sea Shore"
116
Holbein, H.—"Christina,
Duchess of M i l a n " .
.
. .317
Hunt, A. W., Z2.J>F.#.-'<SchlossEltz-Moselle".
.
. -121
Israels, Josef—
" The Frugal M e a l "
153
"The Pancake"
223
Jacque, Charles—"A P a s t o r a l "
159
Japy, L.—" The End of Summer "
328
Kay—" Miniature of Lord Byron at the Age of Seven " .
. 253
Lawrence, Sir T., P. R.A.—" Lord Byron (1816)"
.
. .258
Lawson, Cecil G.—
" A Chelsea Pastoral "
6
" A Hymn to S p r i n g "
68
" D o n S a l t e r o ' s Walk, Old Chelsea"
.
.
.
.
. 65
" In the Valley : A P a s t o r a l " . . . . . . .
69
"Marshlands"
3
" The Hop-Gardens of E n g l a n d "
. -.
.
. . .
4
" The Minister's Garden "
5
Lawson, Wilfred F.—" Cecil G. Lawson "
2
Leighton, Sir Frederic, Bart.,
P.R.A.—
" Head of a Girl "
Facing
96
"Phoenicians Bartering with Britons" .
.
. Facing 140
Leroux, J. M. A.—"Judith
showing the Head of Holophernes
to the People of Bethulia "
429

Lewis, J. F, R.A.—
"Edfou"
322
" The Encampment in the Desert" .
.
.
.
. .125
Linnell, John —
"Arcadian Shepherds"
39
" Downward Rays "
155
Lorimer, J. H.—" Benedicite: Fete de Grand'mere"
.
. 358
Lotto, Lorenzo —" Lucrezia "
316
Lucas, Seymour,
A.R.A.—
" Mrs. Samuel Butler "
292
"1588: News of the Spanish A r m a d a " .
.
. Facing 212
Luini, Bernardino—"
St. Alexander "
19
Luminais, E.—" Norman Pirates of the Ninth Century" .
. 327
Mabuse —" Virgin and Child" .
.
24
Maris, James— " T h e Canal B r i d g e "
221
Maris, Matthew—" L'Enfant Couchee "
225
Meissonier, J. L. E.—"A Cavalier"
.
.
.
,
.
. 99
Memling, Hans - " Martyrdom of St. Sebastian "
.
. .282
Mitrecey, Theodore—" Samson a t the Mill"
.
.
.
. 35
Moore, Albert "Midsummer"
. . .
o .
.
.
.
.
. 361
" Pale M a r g a r e t " .
362
"Reading Aloud"
365
"Rose Leaves"
364
Study for " T o p a z "
363
" White Hydrangeas " .
363
" William Connal, J unr. "
. 335
Moore, Henry, R.A.—" The Launch of the Lifeboat"
.
. 108
Moreelse, Paul—
" D i r c k Alewyn D i r c k z "
22
" M a r i a Schurmans, Wife of Dirck Alewyn D i r c k z "
. 23
Morland, Henry R.—" The Laundry M a i d "
.
.
. .287
Midler, William-"
The Via M a l a "
38
Murray, David, A.R.A.—"Meadow
Sweets" .
.
. .143
Nasmyth, Alexander— Portraits of Robert Burns .
. 239,240
Nasmyth, Patrick-"
Landscape"
155
Normand, Ernest—" An Eastern I d y l l "
.
.
.
.
. 306
Opie, John, R.A.—" Portrait of a Boy"
396
Orchardson, W. Q., R.A.—"Don
Csesar de Bazan " .
. .222
Pettie, John, R.A.— " Two Strings to Her Bow "
.
.
. 112

Phillips, J, R.A. " Lord Byron " (1814)
.254
" L o r d Byron in Albanian Costume " (1810) .
.
. .256
Pickering, J. L.—" A Cloud-Rift"
.309
Pille, H.—" Puritans and Cavaliers '' .
.
.
. Facing 284
Pisano, Vittore—" Vision of St. H u b e r t "
149
Plimer, Andrew—"The
Misses R u s h o u t " .
.
.
.
. 319
Poynter, E. J., R.A.—" Cupid and P s y c h e "
.
. 367
Raphael—
" Ananias Struck D e a d " .
.
.
.
.
.
.
. . 296
" Elymas the Sorcerer "
297
" La Vierge a la Legende "
„ Facing 152
" Paul and Barnabas a t L y s t r a "
.
.
.
.
.
299
" Paul Preaching on Mars Hill "
299
" The Beautiful Gate of the Temple "
297
" The Charge to Peter "
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
296
" The Miraculous Draught of Fishes "
295
Reinike, Rene—" A Duet "
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
417
Rembrandt —
" An Old W o m a n Cutting Her Nails "
129
" Christ before Pilate "
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
252
" Nicholas Ruts "
395
" Noli Me Tangere "
131
" Young Woman at a W i n d o w "
131
Rembrandt, School of—" Christ Blessing Little Children " . 89
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, P. R.A —
" Sir JefFery (afterwards Earl) A m h e r s t "
.
.
.
. 109
" Lady Betty Delme and her Children "
430
" The Hon. Miss Monckton "
430

ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAINTINGS (continued) :—
Rieder, Marcel—"Dante
Mourning for Beatrice"
Roberts, David, R.A.—" The Ruins of Baalbec "
Robinson, F. Cayley—"Suzanne"
Rochegrosse, 6r.—"Knight of the F l o w e r s "
.
Romney, G.—" Portrait of a Lady "
.
.
.
Ross, Sir W., R.A — " H e r Majesty the Queen"
Rossetti, D. G.—" La Ghirlandata "
Roussel,
Theodore—
" After a Storm—The Thames "
" Repose"
Sanders, G.—" Lord Byron (1807)"
. . .
Sargent, J. S., A.R.A.—"Miss
Ellen Terry as Lady

vn
PAGE
. Facing 384
.
. .108
94
.
.
. 325
.
.
. 37
.
. .320
43

396
. 396
. . . 254
Macbeth "
320
Facing
Schmalz, Herbert—" A Gift for the Gods "
308
Segantini, Signor—" The Punishment of Luxury " .
.
. 142

Sinibaldi, P. J. R.—
"Night"
419
"Spring"
.
421
Snyers, Pieter " A Study of Still-Life"
288
Somerscales, T.—"A Man Overboard"
143
Speed, Harold -" Joseph Interpreting Pharaoh's Dream " . 127
Steen, Jan—" Interior with Figures "
110
Stone, Marcus, R.A.—" I n Time of P e a c e "
156
li
Stothard, T., RA.—
The Canterbury P i l g r i m s "
.
. .111
Swan, J. M., A.R.A.—
" Lioness Defending Her Cubs "
173
Study for "Liones-5 Defending Her C u b s " .
.
. .172
"Thirst"
176
Two Studies of a " Lioness "
174, 175
Taylor, Peter - " P o r t r a i t o f Robert B u r n s "
.
.
. .238
Ter Borch, Gerard—" Portrait of a Gentleman "
.
.
. 251
Topham, F W. W., R.I. - " The Story of Boaz and R u t h " . 271
Turner, J. M. W., R.A.—"Modern
Italy " .
.
.
.
. 158
Vhde, Fitz Von—" The Flight into Egypt " .
.
.
. . 3 820
3
Unknown
"St. Mary Magdalene with D o n a t r i x " (French 251
School)
25
Van Aach—" An Old W o m a n Sewing"
395
Vandyck, A— " T h e Blenheim M a d o n n a "
180
Velasquez —" Philip IV. of Spain "
127
Vernet, Claude J.—" A Mediterranean Seaport "
Waite, Harold - " Moonrise before Sunset"
.
.
.
.
13
394
272

Walker, F, A.R.A.—
" The Harbour of Refuge "
Sketch for " The Old Gate "
Walton, F., R.I. — " W h e r e Late the Sweet Birds Sang " .

340
41
40
336
269

Watts, G. F, R.A.—
" Artemis "
"Bianca"
r*
"Hope"
" Orpheus and Eurydice "
" The late Sir Andrew Clark, Bart., M.D. " .

Wauters, Emile—
Portrait of the Artist, by Himself
" La Comtesse Louis de Montesquiou-Fezensac "
.
" Madame de Schoen "
" Madame Sassoon de Rothschild "
"Mademoiselle de Brantes (Vicomtesse A r m a n d ) " .
" Mademoiselle Blanche Tarislowsky " .
.
.
.
" M i s s Carroll, of Baltimore"
" Miss Dora Bell"
" Miss Henriette Bell"
Westall, R., RA.—"Lord
Byron (1813)"
POEMS AND PICTURES : " A n Autumn Dirge " (by L E S L I E L. BROOKE) .
" An Elderly Man a t the Play " (by R I C H A R D SAVAGE)
" A Song " (by H E R B E R T D R A P E R )

" Ave Maria in R o m e " (by J O H N FULLEYLOVE, R.I.)
" From Dawn to Dusk " (by H. J. STOCK, R.I.) .
" H a r v e s t " (by R U P E R T C. W . B U N N Y )

181
. 183
182
.184
. 183
. 186
185
186
187
257

.
.
.
244,
.
.
.
.
.

414
213
275
245
119
347
18
305
169

" L o v e E x p e c t a n t " (by H E R B E R T J. D R A P E R )
" The Way of the World " (by W. E. F. B R I T T E N ) .
" To a Child
PORTRAITS :— of Fifteen " (by H E R B E R T J . D R A P E R ) .
Adam, Robert, Architect (by J A M E S TASSIE)
.
.
. .150
Amherst, Earl of (by Sir J. REYNOLDS, P . R . A . ) .
.
. .109
Armitage, E., R.A
251
Bell, John
. 1 6
Beyaert, The late M
216
Birch, The late Charles Bell, A.R.A
.
. 72
Bodmer, The late Karl
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
107
Bramley, Frank, A.R.A
179
Brangwyn, F r a n k
114
Brown, The late Ford Madox
72
Brown, Professor Fred (by W. SICKERT)
403
Burns, Robert (by A L E X A N D E R NASMYTH) .
.
.
. 239, 240
Burns, Robert (from Crayon Drawing by SKIRVING)
.
. 242
Burns, Robert (from " The Cottar's Saturday Night ") .
. 243
Burns, Robert (Miniature in t h e Scottish National Portrait
Gallery)
211
Burns, Robert (Silhouette in t h e Scottish National Portrait
Gallery)
211
Burns, Robert (by P E T E R TAYLOR)
.
.
.
.
.
. 238
Burton, Sir Frederick
310
Byron, Lord (by G. H. H A R L O W E ) . . . . . . .
255
Byron, Lord (1816) (by Sir T. LAWRENCE) .
.
.
. .258
Byron, Lord, aged seven (by K A Y )
253
Byron, Lord (1814) (by T. P H I L L I P S , R.A.)
254

viii

INDEX

TO

ILLUSTRATIONS.
SCULPTURE (continued):—
PAGE^
Hildebrand,
Adolf—
" Design for a Fountain "
.
. 5 6
" Design for a Fountain "
58
" Portrait B u s t "
. . . 57
" P o r t r a i t Group".
.
. 5 4
" Sleeping Shepherd Boy "
53
McGill, David—"lone
Removing t h e Body of St. Sebastian
after his Martyrdom "
128
Octobre, M.—" The Golden Age "
34
Pomeroy, F. TV.—
Alabaster Chimneypiece
72
" Love the Conqueror "
. 142
Roubillae, Louis
Francis—
" D e a n Swift"
205
"Dr. Mead"
234
"Hogarth"
233
"Pope"
204
" The Nightingale Monument, Westminster Abbey "
. 232
Rouleau, M.—" Joan of A r c "
36
Roux, C. A. A.~ "Achilles Putting on his A r m o u r " .
.
. 429
Stevens, Alfred—" The Wellington Memorial, St. Paul's
Cathedral"
144
Stevenson, TV. Grant,
A.R.S.A.—
"Robert Burns" .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. .216
" Tarn o' Shanter "—Panel for Pedestal of Burns' Statue . 216
Swan, John Macallan, A.R.A.—" A Young Malayan Tiger" 171
Thorwaldsen—fi
Bust of Lord Byron "
258
Venus of Melos, a n d t h e Suggested Restoration
. . .
16
TOPOGRAPHICAL : -

PORTRAITS (continued):—
PAGE
Byron, Lord (1810) (by T. P H I L L I P S , R.A.)
256
Byron, Lord (1807) (by G. SANDERS)
. . . . . .
254
Byron, Lord (1817) (Bust by THORWALDSEN)
.
.
. .258
Byron, Lord (1813) (by R. W E S T A L L , R.A.)
257
Cain, Auguste
.
.
. .428
CaveJier, The late G. P
216
Chavannes. Puvis de
73
Clark, T h e late Sir Andrew, Bart, M.D. (by G. F . W A T T S ,
R.A.).
269
Connal, Junr., William (by A L B E R T M O O R E )
.
.
. .335
Cunliffe-0 wen, The late Sir Philip
251
Daudet, Alphonse (by E. C A R R I E R E )
.
.
.
. Facing 356
East, Alfred, R.T. (by A R T H U R H A C K E R )
113
Ellis, Edwin
107
Farrel, T., P.R.H.A
107
Flameng, The late Auguste
72
Forbes, Mrs. Stanhope
114
Forbes-Robertson, J . (by H. de T. GLAZEBROOK)
.
. .307
Foulis, Robert (from the Medallion by J A M E S TASSIE) .
. 150
Frampton, George, A.R.A. (by Himself)
179
Gray, J . M., The late
. 287
Hacker, Ar(bur (hy Himself)
115
H e r Majesty t h e Queen (by Sir W . Ross, R.A.)
.
. .320
Hitchcock, George (by J. J. SHANNON)
115
Jacque, The Jate Charles
„ . 359
Lawson, The late Cecil G.
64
Lawson, The late Cecil G. (by F . W I L F R I D LAWSON)
.
. 1, 2
Madrazo, Don Frederico, The late
359
Marqueate, T. H
360
Marshall, The late W . Calder, R.A
359
May, Phil (by Himself)
348
Mercer, Eleanor
428
Moore, The late Albert
34
Miiller, The late Carl
36
Philippe Le Bon, Duke of Burgundy (attributed to J A N V A N
EYCK)

" B O L T O N A B B E Y " (by J . M A C W H I R T E R , R.A.) :—

189

Prince of Monaco (by L. BONNAT)
Prinsep, Val C , R.A

"Bolton Abbey"
" Bolton Abbey a n d the W h a r f e "
"Bolton Abbey, from H a r t i n g t o n s S e a t "
.
" L o o k i n g Down t h e Wharfe "
" The Stepping-Stones, from the High Road "

326
323

Richardson, H. H. (by P R O F E S S O R H E R K O M E R , R.A.)

.

.

Robison, Professor John (by J A M E S TASSIE)
.
.
.
Rossetti, The late Mrs. Lucy M. (by D A N T E G. ROSSETTI)
Roubillae, Louis Francis (by A D R I E N C A R P E N T I E R S )
.
Sainton, Charles P . (by Himself)
Seymour-Haden, Sir F., P.R.P.-E
Shannon, J . J . (by P R I N C E T R O U B E T Z K O Y )

.
.
.

.

.
.
.
.

.
.

.

391
387
. 389
390
. 388

.
.

" G R E Z " (by E R N E S T P A R T O N ) :—

"Autumn"
" Moonlight on t h e Plain "
" The Bridge, from the Meadows "
" T h e Church a n d Castle"
" T h e Cross"
" The Village a n d t h e River, from t h e Meadows "
" The Village S t r e e t "

117

Shurmann, A n n a Maria van (by G E R A R D D o w ) .
.
Solomon, Solomon J. (by Himself) . . . . . .
Steell, The late Gourlay
.
Swan, John M., A.R.A
.
Tassie, James (by W I L L I A M TASSIE)
Troubetzkoy, Prince (by J. J, SHANNON)
Wauters, Emile (by Himself)
Yvon, The late Adolphe
SCULPTURE : Beguine, M. A.—" La Charmeuse "
Bell, John—Suggested
Restoration of Venus of Melos
Bernier—" The Barye Monument, P a r i s " .
.• .
Birch, Charles Bell,
A.R.A.—
" A Water Nymph "
"LadyGodiva"
"Mazeppa"
" The Last Call "
" The Lieutenant Hamilton M e m o r i a l "
.
.
Coulon, M.—ilMusic"
Dagonet, ikf.—" A u r o r a "
Fontaine, A.—"Ala
Riviere"
Fremiet, M.—" The Raffet Memorial, Paris " .
.
Gilbert, R.A.,
Alfred"Dr. Joule"
.
" T h e H o w a r d Memorial Bedford"

133

.151
. 321
. 203
116
360

.

.429
116
.216
.179
151
117
181
36

"IN

"THE

CITY OF DORDRECHT

.

. 206
207
211
209
208
210

.

I N 1893" (by G E O . C. H A I T E ,

R.B.A.) :—
" A Footbridge, Dort "
" A Timber-Pool, D o r t "
"Head-piece"
" Saw-Mills on t h e Northern Dyke, D o r t "
"Shipping off D o r t "
" The Church, from t h e Fish-Market" .
" The Old Church, D o r t "
" The Quays, D o r t "

80
. 82
82
81
. 81
.142
385
386
.144

.

T H E D O W N C O U N T R Y " (by A R T H U R TOMSON) :—

" 'Tis all before t h e plough the fat oxen go slow "
" Harrowing near Cuckmere Haven "
" M a r s h l a n d s by Hindover D o w n "
" Stack-Making on Hindover "
" The Market-Cross, Alfriston "
. . . . .
" The Star Inn, Alfriston "

386
. 17
.321

32
31
27
28
30
. 2 9
30

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

•

262
260
259
. 265
261
.263
264
260

" W I L D N A T U R E I N L O N D O N " (by C. W H Y M P E R ) :—

" Gulls on t h e Thames "
"Head-piece"
" Migrating Birds passing over L o n d o n "
"Tail-piece"
" The Vendor of Squirrels "

. 252
288

.

247
246
.249
250
248

LIST OF ETCHINGS AND PHOTOGRAVURE PLATES.
VERONICA VERONESE
T H E ALHAMBRA
A PASTORAL
CHANT D ' A M O U R
LA

B E L L E D A M E SANS M E R C I

By Dante Gabriel Rossetti
By H. Macbeth-Raeburn .
Painted by R. C. W . Bunny
By Sir E . Burne-Jones, Bart.
.

.

.

By J. W . W a t e r h o u s e , A.R.A.

PONT-Y-GARTH

By David Law, R.P.-E.

FULL SPEED AHEAD !

By H a n s von Bartels .

THE FAN
GREAT YARMOUTH

By Albert Moore .
By Percy Robertson, A.R.P.-E,

LORD BYRON'S V I E W , HARROW

HOMEWARDS
T H E SONG E N D E D
T H E LOVERS
G I R L AND F L O W E R S

.

.

By F r a n c i s W a l k e r , A.R.P.-E.

By Fritz von Uhde
By G. H . Boughton, A.R.A.
. By Albert Moore .
By C. Ulrich .

.

.

.

Photogravure by Dujardin
.
Frontispiece
Original Etching
To face
Photogravure by Dujardin
.
.
,,
Photogravure by Dujardin .
.
,,
Etched by H . Macbeth-Raeburn .
,,
Original Etching.
.
.
.
.
„
Etched by W . R o h r .
. . .
„
Photogravure by T. and R. Annan & Sons „
Original Etching.
.
. . .
„
Original Etching
„
Etched by Wilhelm Unger .
.
„
Photogravure by T. a n d R . A n n a n & Sons „
Photogravure by T. and R. Annan & Sons ,,
Photogravure by Berlin Photo. Company ,,

32
70
100
118
168
194
220
250
282
308
340
360
416

THE MAGAZINE OF ART.
IN MEMOEIAM: CECTL GOKDON LAWSON.
IN TWO PARTS.-PART ONE.
BY HESELTINE OWEN.

H

In Mr. Gosse's " Life of Cecil Lawson" there is
OW well I remember my dear friend Cecil
Lawson as I first saw him when, with his no trace of the fact that it was the artistic work
of his brother Wilfrid which
family, he came to Oakley
chiefly influenced him in
Street, Chelsea, some twenty
those early days. But so
years ago. He was then a
it was. Cecil then looked
mere boy. The first of the
up to and admired Wilfrid
Lawson brothers I knew
as a master. He never
was Malcolm, with whom I
allowed a block of his
had struck up a musical
brother's to go to the pubfriendship. Malcolm Lawlisher's without studying
son, who was about two
every detail of it. I t was
years older than Cecil, was
far more the work of Wilfrid
then beginning to develop
that influenced him and
his fine musical talent, and
helped to rouse his latent
had just received an apgenius even than that of
pointment as organist in
Pinwell or Walker, though
Chelsea. I t was this that
for the work of both these
led to the Lawson family
great draughtsmen he almigrating from Doughty
ways expressed the greatest
Street in the Central Disadmiration.
trict to Chelsea, and consequently I became intimate
Wilfrid Lawson had,
with Wilfrid Lawson, Cecil,
perhaps, too much of the
and the rest of the family.
painter about him to make
At that time Wilfrid, who
a first-rate draughtsman
was about eight years older
on wood. All his woodthan Cecil, was one of the
drawings were finished up
leading draughtsmen on
to get the effect of paintwood. He was then doing
ing, quite regardless as to
his drawings for Cassell's
whether the engraver would
CECIL G. LAWSON (AGED 16).
Child's Bible and for the
be able to render it. The
Comhill Magazine, and he
effects he got on his blocks
{Drawn from Life by F. Wilfrid Lawson.)
used to ask me from time to
were m a r v e l l o u s — s u c h
time to come and see his blocks before they were light and shade and semblance of colour!—too
sent off for engraving. For these particular draw- often, alas ! beyond the power of the engraver who
ings, the Bible ones more especially, Cecil Lawson cut for him to carry out. I t was this work that
used to express the most unbounded admiration. delighted Cecil, and made him long to draw on wood
Wilfrid would often be out when I called, or too busy also. Wilfrid Lawson did all he could to help his
to see me; Cecil would then show me the blocks, brother on, and it was with his assistance and guidand enlarge on their merits. This it was that ance that Cecil drew and perfected his first blocks.
first actually brought me into contact with him. The story told in Mr. Gosse's Life about Cecil
853

2

THE MAGAZINE

Lawson taking his first drawings on wood to a publisher to whom he was unknown is doubtless true
with regard to the special ones mentioned. It gives,
however, a wrong impression, as it is a fact that
from the first time Cecil Lawson did any work on

CECIL G. LAWSON.
{From a Water-Colour Drawing by F. Wilfrid

Lawson.)

wood his brother Wilfrid introduced him to Messrs.
Cassell and several other publishers with whom he
was connected. Both the brothers, however, longed
beyond everything to become painters, and it was
only the necessity of having to support themselves
that made them draw on wood at all, and all their
spare time was spent on painting and studies in
colour. Wilfrid Lawson was then making a large
income with his drawings on wood. No draughtsman, in fact, was at that time more run after by the
publishers, or commanded larger prices. Being the
chief support of the family, he was compelled to
work at this. What it cost him no one can tell.
He knew that he was a born painter, and that
therein lay his strength. He knew that his drawing
on wood hindered, if it did not prevent, his developing into a painter. He found that the close wTork
it required (often keeping him at work by gaslight

OF AKT.

half the night) severely tried his eyesight and
affected his health. And yet, with noble unselfishness, he worked on at it, and thus enabled Cecil
to devote his time mainly to painting. That Cecil
Lawson himself appreciated what he owed to his
brother Wilfrid in this respect, as in
others, I know from what he has said
to me.
It was from their father, a really
sound portrait-painter, who had gained
a considerable reputation, especially in
his native country, Scotland, that Wilfrid
Lawson and, through him chiefly, Cecil
received all the instruction they ever had
in the technique of painting. The value
of Mr. Lawson's experience to both the
brothers could not well be over-estimated.
Not only was he a painter of ability, but
he had acquired a thorough scientific and
practical knowledge of the chemical properties of the different pigments and mediums,
and of the various methods of painting.
The result in his own case is that the
portraits (at least, all I have seen) painted
by him when a young man are now,
after the lapse of some forty or fifty
years, in a state of the most perfect preservation. His portraits are also remarkable for their fine feeling for tone, a quality
which is to be found in the pictures of
both Cecil and Wilfrid Lawson, and which
is not often seen in the work of painters of
the present day.
In those early days the painters Cecil
Lawson was most interested in, and whose
work he was constantly discussing, were
Millais and Walker. But it can hardly
be said that either of these great artists
greatly influenced his work. Probably there never
was a painter who was less affected by contemporary
work than Cecil Lawson—bearing in mind, however,
that he was no recluse, as some people seem to fancy,
burying himself from the world, and wrapped up in
his own art alone; but a man who took a most vivid
interest in all that was passing around in the world
of art. There was not a painter or a draughtsman
who showed the least originality or talent with
whose work he was not thoroughly acquainted.
The draughtsmen on wood whose work he was
most fond of quoting—besides his brother—were
Millais, Walker, Pin well, and Small. The drawings
of Millais and Walker in the Cornhill Gallery and in
Once a Week he was never tired of praising. There
was a drawing later on, too, of Small's, in The
Graphic, " The Ploughing Match," which, I remember, made a great impression on him. He always

IN MEMOEIAM:

CECIL GORDON

anticipated a great career for Small as a painter,
which would doubtless have been realised had the
latter devoted himself entirely to the higher art.
I remember well a visit I paid with Cecil Lawson,
about the year 1871, to Pinwell's studio. Pinwell
was then in failing health. We spent there a most
delightful hour. Pinwell showed us his sketches
for wood drawings ; his magnificent water-colour,
" Gilbert-a-Becket's Troth," which he had then ftut

LAWSON.

3

Christmas-time. It was in four pieces, and he was
so delighted with it that he pasted it carefully together, and put it over the staircase at Cheyne Walk
leading to the studio. The effect it produced there,
especially at night, was most weird and impressive.
Soon after I knew Cecil Lawson at Oakley Street
the family moved to Carlton House, Cheyne Walk,
next door to Rossetti's. Those were the days before
the modern embankment, when the river washed up

MAKSHLANDS.
(From the Painting by Cecil G. Lawson.

By Permission of Messrs. Boussod, Valadon and Co.)

just completed; and a large unfinished picture in
oils, two figures seated in a landscape. Lawson
admired the water-colour immensely, telling Pinwell
it was a "masterpiece," but at the same time he
urged him to "go in for oils," as being by far
the finest field for such talent as his. Pinwell, I
remember, spoke in rather a depressed way of the
small prices he got for his water-colours (though
he was then in the very first rank of water-colour
painters) in comparison with the enormous prices
which men of far inferior talent were then receiving
for their oils.
A design of Walker's for the play of the Woman
in White—heroic size—which was placarded all over
the.town as an advertisement, Lawson talked of so
much that with considerable trouble I obtained a
copy of it from a bill-sticker, and sent it to him at

to the roadway in front of Cheyne Walk. Wilfrid
Lawson had a quaint old studio constructed out of
the top room of the house; and there it was that
Cecil and he,
rule, used to work. The studio,
however, was small, or rather of an awkward shape,
and Cecil did not, therefore, always paint with
Wilfrid, but sometimes in other rooms. Working as
they thus did, under the same roof, and generally in
the same studio, the brothers naturally influenced
each other not a little. Wilfrid Lawson, with his
remarkable power of composition, draughtsmanship, perspective, and knowledge of light and shade,
and the experience he had even then gained as a
painter in oils, helped much to direct and develop
his brother's genius as a painter.
What Cecil owed to the sympathy and companionship of the other gifted members of his family,

4

THE MAGAZINE

OF ART.

especially to his sister Kate, with her deep poetic wonderful memory. His conversational powers were
nature and fine artistic power, is so well known that brilliant; but though ever ready to take the lead, he
I do not touch on it here, save to bear testimony, as always tried to draw out others, and had the rare
he was himself ever ready to do, to what he owed to talent, in a man of genius especially, of being a good
his mother. All great men,
listener. What struck one,
it has been said, have had
however, about him more
remarkable mothers. That
than anything else was his
is only another way of saynever-failing flow of spirits.
ing how large a share in
To be with him seemed to
forming their children's chardo one good—it was like
acters and directing their
basking in the sunshine.
powers is exercised by woAlmost every day, then, I
men of talent. Cecil Lawused to be round at the
son's mother was a striking
studio for hours together.
instance of this truth.
While his brother Wilfrid
Those were indeed deand he were working, Cecil
lightful days. Anyone who
was very fond of picturing
only knew Cecil Lawson as
the time when he and WilTHE HOP-GAEDENS OP ENGLAND.
the successful painter of his
frid would be old worn-out
(From a Pen-and-ink Sketch by Cecil G. Lawson.)
later years (when his health
RA.'s, sitting in judgment
was beginning to fail, and the cares of his profession on the works brought before them, and ruthlessly
to weigh him down) can have no idea of what he turning out anything which contrasted with their
was when I first knew him—full of wit and anecdote, effete productions and showed the least merit.

iw&ws
THE HOP-GAEDENS OP ENGLAND.
(From, a Water-Colour Study by Cecil 0. Lawson.)

and as a mimic perfectly inimitable! He seemed to
have read everything, and must have possessed a

" Take it away," he would say, looking at his own
work, which he would pretend was that of a young

THE

MINISTER'S

GARDEN.

(From the Painting by Cecil G. Lawson, in the Manchester Corporation Art Gallery. Engraved by 0. L. Lacour.

Reprinted from "The Magazine of Art," 1884.)

6

THE MAGAZINE OF ART.

genius of the future; and, imitating Wilfrid's voice,
grown old and musty with good living and success,
" We can't stand that, Pott! "
I may here explain that Wilfrid Lawson, Cecil,
and I used to suppose ourselves to be three generals
carrying on a campaign against the Academy. I

Tunbridge, as proposed by the allied powers; the
plan of battle now being to bombard Wrotham, and
in case of victory the General will then press forward at the beginning of August to Billborough,
where, it is hoped, by that time quarters for the
camp will be found. Of the generous and gallant

was sometimes considered an aide-de-camp carrying
out their orders, sometimes the general directing the
campaign. Cecil Lawson used always to address me
as " the General," and speak of himself as " General
Pott," or, more familiarly, " Pott."
In one of his letters to me, dated from Wrotham,
July, 1874, he writes : " For the present the army
under General Pott is quartered as above, accommodation for the troops not having been obtained near

assistance afforded by foreign powTers we shall speak
gratefully hereafter." (This last sentence referred
to the kindness of some friends of mine at Tunbridge, who had put us up, lent us their trap to
survey the country, &c. &c.) " If General Hess could
be more loved and esteemed by his fellow-soldier,
it would be by running down to the camp here at
once! Come and settle the plan of war ! Love
from the camp.—CECIL G. LAWSON."

• ^»*««a~ •

7
AET IN THE THEATRE: COSTUME ON THE STAGE.
BY PERCY ANDERSON.

T

HE late Lord Lytton, in an article which ap- costumes for an opera written by a friend of mine,
peared two or three years ago in the Nine- the consciousness that one may worship art at so
teenth Century, made objections to the use of correct many different shrines makes me less reluctant to
archaeological costumes on the stage, and suggested accept an invitation to say something about a
that dresses which were merely beautiful in them- branch of the painter's profession which Leonardo
selves should be worn, and that they should be da Vinci himself was not ashamed to wrork at.
made without any atThe old-fashioned idea
tention being paid to
that all stage glitter is
correctness of period,
meretricious, and all stage
material, or detail.
finery tinsel, is no longer
an acceptable axiom.
Mr. Oscar Wilde reThoroughness of detail
plied that it is absurd
and indifference to exto attack archaeology,
pense may sometimes
which, being a science,
have diminished the prois neither good nor bad,
fits which accrue to the
but a fact simply, that
managerial pocket, but
its value depends enthey have undoubtedly
tirely on how it is used,
raised the standard and
and that only an artist
tone of many of our
can use it. And surely
theatres.
anyone who takes any
For instance, in the
interest, or feels any
production of Sir Arthur
pleasure, in the stage as
Sullivan's Ivanhoe at the
an artistic medium, must
now unfortunately debe on the side of those
funct
English
Opera
who would let the drama
House, the very minutest
have the assistance of
attention was paid to
the sister arts—as acarchaeological accuracy,
cessories possibly, but
and I visited the catheas accessories which, by
drals of Hereford, Shrewscare and completeness,
bury, and Canterbury,
give to the drama a
and there found many
fuller and more compreinteresting details of
hensive significance. Of
MISS P A L L I S E R AS R O W B N A I N
IVANHOE.
armour, draperies, coifs,
course, we know that
and ornaments among
the ancient Greeks went
{Drawn by Percy Anderson.)
the brasses and effigies.
to the theatre to listen
rather than to see, and that the Elizabethan plays For, although I tried to follow Sir Walter Scott's dewere not helped to any appreciable degree by cos- scriptions as much as possible, even my admiration
tume or surroundings, and that there are still great for the great novelist could not hide from me the
actors and actresses in Paris who think that the art fact that in archaeology he was at times a little inof acting can rise so superior to all the others that accurate. The cloth for the green surcoats worn
it needs no help from them. But in England at by the merry men of Sherwood Forest was dyed,
the present time we are greedy to experience all washed, and dirtied repeatedly in order to obtain
the emotions ; and author, actor, and audience wish realistically the effect of material long exposed to
for a play to be adequately surrounded by scenes wind and weather. So also Wamba's dress, which
and dresses that have the effect of giving a helping was probably not even noticed, was bemired and
besmirched and torn to pieces when it came to the
tonic to the imagination.
And though it was with regret that I put aside theatre from the shop of the conscientious costumier.
for a time my ambitions as a portrait- and subject- A book of drawings in the British Museum of early
painter to accept the commissions for stage-work Limoges enamels was of great use, and the design
which resulted from the fact of my having designed for the cloak worn by King Eichard was borrowed

8

THE MAGAZINE

from the pattern on the effigy on the tomb of his
mother, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, which still
exists in Fontevraud.
The designs in the dresses of the women may
have been thought by some to have been too fantastic for the period, but there are still extant in the
Museum at Munich embroideries manufactured in
the West of Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries; some of these are not altogether unworthy
to be compared with the superb silks and satins
made in France in the reign of Louis XVI. The
Eastern nature of much of the embroidery of the
time of Kichard I. and John is easily explained by
the fact that the Crusaders, on their return home,
brought Oriental stuffs as presents for their ladyloves, some from Palestine, and some from the
Cyclades and Byzantium.
In the procession of Fairy Tales at Drury Lane

OF AKT.

conceivable hue, and now that the enormous value of
black and neutral tints as tone-givers are realised,
there is no excuse for bad taste or hideous contrasts
and combinations. The eye can be trained to appreciate colours as well as the ear can be taught to
understand harmony. A colour ugly in itself is soon
tolerated, and even honestly liked, if Dame Fashion
decrees that it shall be worn; and I have met many
people whose eyes play them tricks of wilfulness in
making them detest a certain tint, often beautiful
in itself, for a while. After all, Nature, whom many
are pleased to belittle nowadays, is always with us
to give us ideas. Any artist who has been in the
East or among the islands of Greece, and seen the
sun setting behind purple mountains amid a glory of
crimson and saffron, and who has watched a pale
green moon rise at the same time on the opposite
side of the horizon in a sky tinted with shades of

DEESS FOE QUEEN, THIETEENTH CENTUEY.
(Drawn by Percy Anderson.)

last year there was, of course, a certain leaven of
phantasy; but historical accuracy was aimed at as
much as possible, and splendid materials were used.
The use of exotic colours and tints is only of
comparatively recent growth; not many years ago
an opera or burlesque was considered well mounted
if only there were sufficient crude yellows and reds,
and the favourite, if obvious, combination of pink
and blue. The dresses were then described as being
" all that could be desired." But now that we appreciate, and can obtain, cloth and dyed silks of every
•

the most delicate violet, sapphire, and topaz, can
never be at a loss for ideas; and in England f the
simple facts of town and country scenery—poppies
in a wheat-field, or sulphur-coloured chimney-pots
on a slate roof—suggest innumerable possibilities to
him who cares to look for them. The discussion as
to the exact relations between Art and Nature, and
the assertions as to the supremacy of one over the
other, have given materials to many pretty phrasemakers : would it not be better to wed the two
great forces and let them, working together, be of

AET IN THE

9

THEATER

infinite help to each other and to ourselves?
Nature, as well as the stage costumier, is often
handicapped by an unsuitable background;
and certainly not enough attention is paid
in our theatres to the desirable harmony of
dresses and scenery. No matter whether the
scene-painter is subservient to the costumier,
or vice versd, it is, at any rate, certainly desirable that there should be a distinct understanding between them. Scenes are generally
painted quite irrespectively of the colourscheme of the characters. In the accompanying sketch, made for Mrs. Beerbohm Tree
in an adaptation of Musset's Le Passant, the
suggestion of background, which unfortunately
cannot be properly seen in black-and-white,
seemed to me necessary to explain the dress,
and to point out that its tones were only
meant to be seen in a moonlight effect.
Only once have I been given the opportunity of having the entire stage at my command as to costume, subject, and scenery. The
scheme was a symbolical procession of the Arts
and Sciences—a subject which gives one large

A DANCING DRESS.
(Drawn by Percy Anderson.)

MRS. BEERBOHM TREE IN LE PASSANT.
(Drawn by Percy Anderson.)
854

scope and is peculiarly suggestive. My idea wTas
that the scene itself should be of two colours which
would harmonise with all others brought into contact with them. The two which seemed to me to
be the safest, as well as the most distinctive, were
gold and amethyst; and I found that I was not
mistaken, for every colour in the procession not
only harmonised, but was actually helped by the
background. Some day I hope this procession, the
working out of which was a keen pleasure, will
be adequately staged, and be itself the proof of
my colour theories, if, indeed, there be anyone so
far interested in them as to cast doubt upon them.
One great difficulty and annoyance to me is
the unwillingness of many inartistic actresses to
wear anything that they imagine is unbecoming
to them, and the carelessness of " supers" and
chorus-women in the matter of wearing a dress
correctly. The prevailing fashion always holds
absolute sway over feminine minds, and they
will always contrive to introduce a suggestion of
it—either by altering the shape of a wig, the fulness and position of a sleeve, or generally trying
to modernise their appearance. Yet the stage

10

THE MAGAZINE

OF AKT.

sometimes has an appreciable influence on the part, and in which the movement of the whole
fashions of real life. That particular kind of body is studied as well as the waving of the
fashion called the " accordion pleat" was shown arms or the pirouetting of the feet. The muchto the milliners, and they, with unanimity, re- talked-of "Serpentine" dance is in essence neither
fused to have any- more nor less than one form of the Indian Nautch
thing to do with dance.
When designing the dresses for Mr.
it. I introduced it Edward Solomon's opera The Nautch Girl, for the
into the dresses of Savoy Theatre, I was hunting for facts in the
the dancers in the Indian Museum. There' I came across an Eastern
" Pas-de-Quatre " in dancing dress, which I copied as accurately as
Faust-up-to-Date at the conditions of comic opera and our stage would
the Gaiety, and allow. The great quantity of material used, in
afterwards designed order that the dancers might envelop themselves
a white peignoir in in billowy folds of drapery, seemed to be an
the same material obstacle, but the result was curiously graceful.
for Miss Letty Lind A clever American dancer, who was engaged at
in Ruy Bias. Im- the Gaiety Theatre, saw that the idea might be
mediately one saw even further developed ; so, with the practical
it on every side, instincts of her race, she sped across the ocean
and the " accordion and appeared at the New York Casino Theatre
pleat" soon became in the now famous " Serpentine" dance which
as vulgar and ob- has set the impressionable Parisians frantic with
jectionable as the delight and suggested to Sir Augustus Harris, ever
barbaric instrument Titanic in his methods, a whole ballet in imiof music from which tation of Miss Loie Fuller. And all this was the
it derived its name. result of one dress, which is lying hidden in the
And when Miss security (or obscurity) of the India Museum.
Ellen Terry appeared, as Lady
Macbeth, with a
gown embroidered
WALKING DRESS, 1830.
with Indian beetles,
(Drawn by Percy Anderson.)
which made a splendid foil to the auburn tresses of her hair, many
ladies of fashion appeared with their dresses jauntily
decorated with the iridescent insect in
question. And, in two instances in my
own experience, the style of dress on
the stage has created or suggested a
different kind of dance. When I first
tried to do away with the unsightly
short skirt which was always considered
suitable for burlesque or comic opera,
the critics, in the case of Miss Letty
.•
Lind, said that she was hindered and
encumbered by her voluminous and ungraceful skirts. Yet now, what has
become of the short skirt ? Surely the
sketch on page 9 of what I think
a dancing dress ought to be is preferable, in grace of line at any rate, to the
Italian ballet-dress, or to the extremely
abbreviated skirts of French opera
comique ? And consequently a new form
of dance was introduced, in which the
SKETCH FOE NAUTCH COSTUME—WHICH SUGGESTED THE
swing of the drapery plays a prominent
" SERPENTINE " DANCE.
(Drawn by Percy

Anderson.)

ART IN THE
"With regard to the method of working out a
scheme of colour, one has to remember every
possible shade that will have to come into collision. Starting with the crowd of supernumeraries
and minor characters, I find it advisable to leave
out certain strong and prominent colours, and to
design the less important dresses in such tones

THEATEE.

11

of that which is essentially feminine. And here,
knowing that I risk being accused of Puritanic
Impuritanism, I feel bound to add a note of
wonder at the fascination which a woman dressed
in masculine garments exercises over many of the
public. We do not find it a joy to see men in
women's clothes; why then should we delight in

MERVEILLEUSES.
(From an Original Colour Design for the Costumier.

as form a sort of background for the principal
characters. In the accompanying sketch of "Merveilleuses," which is in a measure fanciful, as
it was done for a comic opera to be produced in
New York, one design was drawn for several
characters, and a certain number of shades were
chosen, all of which were used in each dress;
then, by varying the actual position of any one
colour in the different details of the costumes, the
latter appeared to be quite unlike each other
while at the same time they of course harmonised
perfectly. It is naturally important to avoid anything that is unbecoming to a. woman's figure,
and long graceful perpendicular lines are always
satisfactory in result, for the reason that they
neither accentuate nor detract from the beauty

Drawn by Percy Anderson.)

the antithesis, and think an actress charming
when she abandons the becoming costume which
custom and the evolution of countless fashions
have chosen for her sex in favour of a dress
which can never be suitable to the lines of her
figure ?
Some two years ago there was produced at
the Court Theatre a play by Mr. Clyde Fitch,
the period of which was laid in the year 1830.
The dresses of the women characters in that
year suggested the fashion which prevails at the
present time; but, in the play, thj men's dresses
seemed to harmonise with them, whereas nowadays
male costume certainly does not, and it seems
a pity that some attempt cannot be made to
induce the tailors to try and introduce a fashion

12

THE MAGAZINE

for men which would not be so incongruous.
(See p. 10.) There is a certain tendency in that
direction, as shown, for instance, by the long
full-skirted overcoats and bell-shaped hats; but
it would be very easy to go a little further and
make the change more complete. At any rate,

OF AET.

whether the stage has any effect on the dress of
modern life or not, it is a pity that a little more
of the consistency which is aimed at by the
theatrical costume designer does not obtain among
and influence our latter-day tailors and dressmakers.

" T H E HAEBOUE OF EEFUGE.
PAINTED
~

BY FEED.

WALKER,

A.K.A.

B Y J. W. NORTH, A.R.A., R.W.S.

f P H I S picture, acquired lately by the nation, is,
-L I think, the most complete of Walker's oil
pictures; it has great strength and beauty of colour,

We must speak of colour when we criticise a
picture, but unfortunately it is the element most
difficult to describe, most impossible to suggest to

JESUS HOSPITAL, BRAY.
(From a Photograph by Marsh Brothers, Maidenhead.)

l
and is equal in noble conception to any. Its system those without intuitive love of it. In the en1
of colouring may well be compared and contrasted deavour one is forced to fall back upon mere
b
with that of his "Vagrants," for some years past assertion (which is hateful), or upon a reference to
1
in the National Gallery (No. 1,209), which will the work of some great acknowledged colourist and
3
appear by comparison poor and superficial in this make comparison with that. Yet this may be unrespect. The glow and richness of colour so per- fair, and may be especially so to the most original
;,
ceptible in " The Harbour of Eefuge " is no accident, man; for colour is infinite, the variety of harmony
but is the intentional result of intelligent under- and contrast inexhaustible. If one really delights
i
painting; this glow will increase in charm with in colour irrespective of other qualities—in the
age, and the picture might even stand direct com- " Bacchus and Ariadne " of Titian, the " St. George "
t
parison with the " Bacchus and Ariadne"—but of Tintoret, the "Ulysses" of Turner, the "Alexander " of Veronese—he may be grateful for a sense
"The Vagrants," in this respect, never.

THE
{From the Painting in the National Gallery by Fred. Walker, A.R.A.

HARBOUR

OF

REFUGE.

Engraved by J. M. Johnstone.

By Permission of Messrs. T. Agnew and Sons, the Owners of the Copyright.)

"THE

ALHAMBEA."

no man more honestly worked in open air, more
determinedly, more appreciatively. I have known
him working under circumstances of physical discomfort which would have made painting impossible to most men. On " The Plough," for instance,
he worked some windy days with the canvas
lying on the uneven earth, with great stones and
lumps of wood on its corners to keep it steady.
Once it was carried into the stream which is its
foreground, by an extra-strong blast, and floated
down some way—luckily, face up. This he took
very calmly, saying, " I have noticed that unfinished
pictures never come to harm from accidents."
The title, " The Harbour of Befuge," a singularly
good one, was suggested to the painter by Mr. John
K. Clayton, of Clayton and Bell.
There is a curious appearance of failure to
carry through the intention of the young woman's
face in this picture. It is impossible to me to
believe that this arises from want of power of
drawing—rather, I think, from an ideal in the
painter's heart beyond his power completely to
express. Strange as it is, I fancy that an actually
better drawn and painted face of more ordinary
character is difficult to imagine in its place without the poetry of the picture suffering. What is
poetry ? Is it not an unintentional emphasis or exaggeration of some part of a subject which appeals
to our finite capacities more than the whole ?
" Will Agnew spoiled Freddy Walker," said a
picture-dealer of some note to me once—meaning,
I suppose, that Mr. Agnew was unprofessionally
generous to the young painter. However this may
be, it will remain to Mr. Agnew's credit through
the centuries, that he gave us this picture, and
it cannot be his fault that the age had no
" Southampton" for Walker among the English
Lords.

capable of exquisite gratification without alloy—a
sense not too common, be it observed, or we should
not find intelligent and sincere men writing of
William Hunt without appreciation of his feeling
for colour, and praising for that quality the curious
and pretentious falsity of Hobbema or Buysdael's
birch-broom dipped in whitewash waterfalls backed
by tin fir-trees.
The landscape setting of Walker's picture is only
slightly altered from its original (the almshouses
at Bray near Windsor). I remember his saying
that the door on the left by the black cat was
that in and out of which his picture went. The
main liberty taken is the imaginary terrace and
the shifting of the little belfry to one side of the
roof. The little man in black with his hands on
his knees pleased the painter much; he had a
whimsical notion that he might himself become
just such a little figure in old age. The statue introduced (studied from one of Charles.II. formerly
in Soho Square) was a happy afterthought; but it
is scarcely correct to say this, for all the more
important of Walker's pictures were the outcome
of long consideration, the original idea, the centre
subject, being turned over and over in his brain,
forming itself gradually, very gradually as a rule,
into a complete pictorial dream. When it was
sufficiently clear in his brain he would go to Nature
direct, with an absolutely open mind as to receiving suggestions from fact which he would thresh
and winnow upon his actual canvas until he fairly
satisfied himself that all was pictorially harmonious,
and yet told the story with which he started. A
very rapid worker from Nature, he yet spent much
time upon his pictures, destroying by razor and
benzine without hesitation the work of months
when he was dissatisfied with the result.
Walker did not invent out-of-door painting, but

"THE

ALHAMBBA."

ETCHED BY H.

I

15

MACBETH-RAEBURN.

N his etching of "The Alhambra"—the great
Moorish palace of Granada, which was founded
by Mohammed I. six hundred and forty years ago—
Mr. Macbeth-Baeburn has rather sought to realise
for the spectator its extent and situation than
give any hint of its magnificence. Its impregnable
position, its place in the landscape, its dazzling
brightness in the setting sun in relation to the
sombre quietness of the limb of the city at its feet—
these have attracted the artistic eye of the etcher,
and led him away from the oft-repeated views of
the gorgeous interior with which we are so familiar.

The Alhambra, the Windsor Castle (and something more) of Spain, was, as its commanding
situation suggests, a fortress of great strength, vast
in size, and as extremely romantic and picturesque
in appearance in its military days as later, when
it was regarded rather as a palace than as a
citadel. It is the beautiful towers of the Alhambra,
which "sparkle like stars among the leaves"—as
Alka-Tib exclaimed—which forms the subject of
Mr. Macbeth-Baeburn's plate, and which he has
been successful in rendering, while retaining the
spirit of the place and country.

16

AN ATTEMPT TOWARDS THE RESTORATION OF THE VENUS OF MELOS.
BY JOHN BELL, SCULPTOR.

T

HIS celebrated ancient work of sculpture was
discovered in 1820 on the site of the ancient
city in the island of Melos, in Latin, Melus, now
Milo, the southwestern of the
group of the Cyclades, and about
sixty miles round.
It was bought by
M. de Beviere, then
French Ambassador
at Constantinople,
and presented by
him to the Museum
of the Louvre. The
French consider it
their finest example
of ancient sculpture, and it is displayed in a special
JOHN BELL.
apartment with
{From a Photograph by W. H. Grove.)
every advantage of
light, position, and harmonious background.
Much as it is prized, it is without arms, and
has lost its left foot, in which condition it was
found, some 500 paces from the ruins of the Amphitheatre at Melos, and no search has brought
the fragments to light. No mention appears of it
in the ancient records of Art, and there has been
much discussion as to what personage or deity it
may have been intended to represent. A number
of designations have been suggested, among which
are the following: she has been entitled a Venus
Victrix, and one of her lost hands is supposed to
have held the apple, the award of Paris, while
another speculation has been that she formed part
of a group with Mars; according to another idea,
she represented a sea-nymph, the special protecting Nereid of the isle; by some she has been said
to be a Nemesis, in connection possibly with the
Athenian massacre of the islanders, about the time
of the Peloponnesian war; by others she has been
adopted as a Nike or Victory;. others have assigned
to her the names of Sappho, Phryne, or a mourning
Electra, while yet another version has been that she
was a lyre-playing Muse. The most general idea,
however, has been that she was an Aphrodite or
Venus, which is highly probable from the almost
universal worship of that goddess throughout the
coasts and islands of the iEgsean Archipelago, and
it has been suggested that she held a harp in her

left hand while she played on it with her right,
which the position of the torso and the remains of
the arms admit of. But the most favoured, and at
the same time the least dignified, of the floating
speculations, is that she is coquettishly holding and
looking in a mirror. The only argument, if argument it is, in favour of this, is that a bronze
statuette has been discovered in Pompeii, which
much resembles it, and it is holding and gazing
in a mirror. I have not seen this statuette, but
even supposing that it might have been partly
copied from the statue of Melos, what proof is
there that the artist did not alter and adapt it to
suit his own purpose, which might have been to
form it as a decoration for the toilet table of a
Pompeian lady, for which such a rendering would
have been appropriate ? When, however, one con-

THE VENUS OP MELOS, AND THE SUGGESTED EESTOEA.TION.
{From a Photograph by W. H. Grove.)

templates the magnificent style of the torso and
features of this great work, of which the contours

T H E

A L H A M B R A .

Origina.1 Etching hy H.Ma.cheZk-I2.zelur<i.
MagaisiaeafArt.

AN ATTEMPT TOWAKPS THE EESTOEATION OF THE VENUS OF MELOS.
possess the noble and severe majesty of the Phidian
school, it seems scarcely possible to accept the
idea that this was its motivo. I own myself incapable of entertaining it, arid this is one cause
of my having addressed my thoughts to seek some

SUGGESTED

RESTORATION

OF

THE

VENUS

Now under this aspect what species of motivo
is open to us for the restoration of this noble
work consonant with its grand form and majestic
presence ? She stands with the utmost firmness
and dignity, and a benign smile is on her face as
she slightly bends forward. The principal fractures
indicate that her left arm and hand was raised,
and her right advanced before her. The amphitheatre, in which I assume her to have stood, was
no doubt the accepted site for the holding of
high public festivals, and for the bestowal of the
insular honours for public services, and for literature, philosophy, poetry, music, and the drama,
and for victories in athletic games, which formed
so integral a part in the culture of the Greek
race. From the above considerations has sprung
my conception of what it is possible she may
have represented, and the mode in which the
lost arms and hands may have been held and
employed.
Following this course, I have invested my attempt at restoration with the character of a great
goddess conferring honours. The right arm and
hand are advanced in this act bestowing a wreath

OP MELOS.

mission for this grand production of Greek art
which might be more worthy of it, and this I
have attempted to do by following the inspirations
of its lofty character and the intimations afforded
by its shoulders, the fractures of its arms, its pose,
and the situation in which it was found.
Melos, although a small island, seems to have
been at one time very populous, and it wTas famous
for its catacombs, the Cyclopean ramparts of its
vast harbour, and for its amphitheatre, near the
ruins of which, in a cave-grotto, this noble figure
was discovered in the mutilated condition in which
alone we know it. What was its original situation ?
Why not in the amphitheatre itself, near which
it was found, in which it may have posed as the
Deity of the island and the genius loci of the
structure, from which it may have been removed
to the grotto for concealment and protection at
some time of popular commotion or invasion ? Methinks I see her there, in the vast amphitheatre
thronged with admirers of the great goddess, the
central object at some high festival.

855

17

SUGGESTED

RESTORATION

OF

THE

VENUS

OF M E L O S .

of glory, while in and on the left hand and arm
are others held in reserve; and I have ventured to
call this attempt at restoration a Venus Donatrix.

mR
/ / V

=r =s L« -?m^ig;

#S§S

TOVE
FXPE
ANT
^HE
music to the Silence clings
Like Love, that will not woo in vain
Nor die, when countered by Disdain ;
And still the tuneful Silence sings
Around the unresponsive strings,
Waiting till they are touched again.
So in your calm and gracious breast
Love softly played a prelude rare,
And now the echoes haunt the air
Like Cupids hovering round your rest,
Soft-whispering and soft-footed, lest
You wake, and chide them being there.
Ah, that your girdle could reveal
The rhythm of that breast divine !
If, though your eyes ne'er answer mine
Some love should there unchidden steal
When at your feet I dare to kneel,
Although your sweet face gives no sign.
(Poem by Warham St. Lerjer. Drawing by Herbert J. Draper.)

19

' THE HUSTON COLLECTION: THE OLD MASTERS.
B Y CLAUDE PHILLIPS.

T

HOSE who, like myself, watch with dismay the extraordinarily rich collection of pictures, repregradual melting away of the famous private senting chiefly the English masters of the eighteenth
collections which have been one of the greatest century, but containing also among its most envied
treasures some celeglories of England;
brated masterpieces of
who have seen in quite
the Dutch and Flemish
recent years Blenheim
schools in their prime.
following in the wake
Of t h e collection
of Hamilton Palace
formed by Mr. Tate,
and Dudley House,
and generously offered
scattering to the four
by him to the nation
quarters of the globe
as the foundation for
its most precious treaa gallery of British
sures ; who have looked
art, it is unnecessary
on at the inevitable
to speak again in
but none the less rethe columns of THE
grettable dispersion of
M A G A Z I N E OF A E T .
special groups of works
Even though the site
such as the William
now finally agreed
Graham and Leyland
upon for it is the most
collections, must rejoice
ill - situated and the
to watch the formamost depressing that
tion, as it were, on the
could well be imagined,
ruins of these famous
we must rejoice that
galleries, of certain
some bright jewels
other collections, which
comprised in the galwill, it may be hoped,
lery—such as notably
in time afford some
Sir J. E. Millais'
compensation for their
"Ophelia" and "Vale
loss.
of Rest "—should be
Thus Sir Francis
placed beyond the
Cook's vast and rich
possibility of further
series of Italian masters
vicissitude, and that
(founded many years
a nucleus may be
ago) has continued to
formed round which
grow until it literally
may, and will, gather
overflows his Richin time other treasures
mond mansion. Many
freely offered to the
masterpieces of Italian
nation by her children.
art have lately passed
The collection of
into the possession of
which I have now to
Mr. Ludwig Mond, an
speak is that of Mr.
e n t h u s i a s t i c worALEXANDEK.
Joseph Ruston, of
shipper and keen con{From the Painting by Bernardino Luini.)
Monk's Manor, Linnoisseur of the Italian
coln, late M.P. for that city. It has been brought
schools of the Quattrocento and Cinquecento. The together at various times and from various sources,
choice and rapidly-growing collection of Mr. R. but has advanced with giant strides during the
Benson very completely illustrates the schools of last few years; so much so, indeed, that to it must
Venice and North Italy generally, while it includes already be conceded an important place among the
also many noteworthy examples of English Pre- galleries of England, in virtue more particularly
Raphaelites. In another direction we find Lord of its English pictures of the present century.
Iveagh bringing together within a very few years an

20

THE MAGAZINE

Further progress at the same rate and in the same
direction would soon enable it to challenge all
rivalry in the same special field. If the collection
is not as remarkable for its Old Masters as for its
works of the British school, it nevertheless contains

ST. MAIIY MAGDALENE WITH DONATEIX.
{French School.)

some notable examples of Italian, Flemish, and
Dutch art, and some interesting names not often
met with in English galleries,
Italy is for once not on equal terms with the
Netherlands; but that this is at present the case is
due rather to accident than to any lack of sympathy
on the part of the collector, who, as will presently
be. seen, has shown in British art an enthusiastic
admiration for those painters who may be termed
the Italianising English masters of the century.
The series opens with 9. "Virgin and Child,"

OF AET.

attributed to Francesco Francia, and exhibited as
such at Burlington House in the winter of 1892,
at which time it formed part of the recently
dispersed collection of the Earl of Dudley. Next
may be mentioned four brilliantly-coloured and
highly decorative panels by Bernardino Luini, which came from the
Passalacqua collection of Milan, and
originally formed part of an altarpiece, in the central compartment of
which was represented the Nativity,
while in the predella Luini showed,
with a delightful naivete free from all
self-consciousness, various episodes
in the lives of three youthful saints,
and finally their martyrdom. This
central picture, with the predella, is
now the property of Mr. Charles
Butler, and was by him lent to the
"Old Masters" in 1891, where it
excited an admiration proportioned
to the rarity of the Milanese Eaphael's
sacred works in England.
Mr.
Euston's four panels present St.
Catherine of Alexandria; a female
saint, holding a book, but otherwise
so bare of attributes that her
identity remains doubtful; the protomartyr St. Stephen; and the warriorsaint St. Alexander, holding a spear
to which is attached a long white
pennon, on which the cross stands
out woven in red. In this lastnamed panel the execution is finer,
the colour more carefully harmonised
yet not less brilliant, than in the
remaining three, and altogether in
the gentle yet virile figure of the
saint Luini's finest art appears. It
is the type which he has still further elaborated and elevated in the
" Christ Disputing with the Doctors,"
of the National Gallery, and in other
examples, too numerous for mention,
which are to be found in his great
works at Milan, Saronrio, Lugano, and elsewhere.
From the Dudley collection again conies a large
" Pieta," bearing the name of Andrea del Sarto. This
is a repetition—or, to speak more frankly, an old
copy—of the famous Florentine's " Pieta " in the
Imperial Gallery of Vienna—a work painted, like
the " Caritas" of the Louvre, in 1518, and, also like
it, bearing marked traces of the influence of Michelangelo. The repetition in the Euston collection is
a very precise and literal one, too hard in outline
and texture to be from the hand of the impeccable

THE POJSTON COLLECTION: THE OLD MASTERS.
Andrea, and lacking that sfumato and delicacy of
colouring, which are, it is only fair to add, less
apparent in the original, in its present state, than
in many of the master's works. I may mention
here, though perhaps a little out of its right place,
a charming little copy by David Teniers of Vincenzo
Catena's "Portrait of a Canon," now No.'220 in
the Imperial Picture Gallery of Vienna. This is
one of the large series of similar copies made by
Teniers from works, chiefly Italian, in the splendid
collection of his patron, Archduke Leopold William,
which was afterwards removed from Brussels to
Vienna; the copies formerly constituted a special
collection by itself at Blenheim Palace.
That this picture of Catena's must have struck
the fancy of the facile and brilliant Fleming is
further proved by the fact that in a canvas, now
No. 1,226 in this same Vienna Gallery—in which
Teniers has represented a saloon in the palace of
his patron, adorned with fifty paintings still to be
found among the treasures of the Imperial Austrian house—the easily-recognisable " Portrait of a
Canon" of Catena appears placed against a chair,
in front of it being the Archduke with his painterin-ordinary, Teniers himself.
It will, no doubt, be remembered that the
National Gallery contains two of the finest works
of Catena — the " Adoration of the Virgin and
Child by a Knight" and the famous " St. Jerome
in his Study"—both of these being given by the
catalogue, with a safe vagueness, to the "School of
Giovanni Bellini."
Mr. Ruston's collection contains three other
specimens of these curious copies, in which, notwithstanding the evident effort to give a faithful
interpretation, the Flemish realist unconsciously
shows himself in amusing fashion behind the Italian
master whom he seeks to transcribe. Among these
is a miniature repetition of the large "Virgin and
Child with Saints," by Bonifazio Veronese, now
No. 261 in the Vienna Gallery.
To the latter half of the fifteenth century
belongs a very remarkable panel of French, or,
it may be, of Burgundian origin, showing, as she
kneels in prayer, an elderly donatrix richly habited
in dark crimson velvet, with a very characteristic
hood of the period, and wearing at her waist a
rich chain of gold and pearls, from which depends
a medallion relief of the Virgin and Child curiously
wrought in enamel and gold. Erect by her side
stands her patron, St. Mary Magdalene, carrying
the precious vase of unguent which is her distinguishing characteristic, and wearing magnificent
robes, with a singular and charming head-dress.
(See p. 20.)
The French and Burgundian schools of the

21

fifteenth century are so scantily represented in
extant samples by comparison with those contemporary ones of the Netherlands and Germany, and
are as yet so imperfectly defined and understood,
even by the French critics and art-historians themselves, that any premature attempt definitely to
localise this very interesting and well-preserved
panel must appear presumptuous. All that can
at present be attempted is to make the broad
distinction between the French and the FlemishBurgundian schools, on the one hand, and the
parent Netherlandish on the other; to notice
the differences between the tone and modelling
of the flesh, the general colouring and execution,
and the costume—more especially the head-dress—
of the women.
The " Virgin and Child" bearing the name of
Mabuse (Gossaert of Maubeuge) is unquestionably
by that famous Fleming whose name has so often
been taken in vain in England and elsewhere, and
to whom until quite recently were given so many
important works really painted by the prolific and
as yet anonymous Meister cles Tocles der Maria, who,
a Netherlander in style and technique, practised
his art at Cologne. This is an example of Gossaert's
later, but not most advanced, manner, when his
characteristic Northern style appeared softened, but
not radically altered, by Italian influences. The
general tone, as is the case with most of Mabuse's
panels, is somewhat cold, but admiration must ungrudgingly be accorded to the extraordinary finish
and delicacy of the execution, and especially to the
singularly complete modelling of the heads and
hands, and the flesh generally. While the infant
Christ, softened as are its contours and pleasing its
outline, descends in a straight line from the more
uncompromisingly Flemish types of the Van Eycks,
the Virgin is already of a more Italianised aspect,
the modelling of her face—as, indeed, many points
in the picture—recalling the Milanese school, and
more particularly, if wTe may hazard the guess, Cesare
da Sesto. (See p. 24.)
Very interesting, in virtue rather of their
peculiar and unusual subject, than of any great
technical excellence or finish, are two large panels
attributable to a Netherlander or German of the
first half of the sixteenth century, now forming
together a diptych, though they more probably constituted originally the wings of a triptych. On
one of these is depicted the Magdalene in the
heyday of her youth and splendour, mounted on
a milk-white palfrey, and preparing to go ahawking; in the background the fair sinner is
seen again, listening to the preaching of Christ.
In the companion panel, she stands on a little
eminence under the shadowy trees of a wood, meek

22

THE MAGAZINE

of aspect and robed with much greater simplicity
than in the days of her folly, in the act of
preaching to a mixed congregation of men and

DIECK ALEWYN DIECKZ.
(From the Painting by Paul Moreelse.)

wTomen, much after the fashion which we usually
associate with St. John the Baptist.
Attributed to Lucas van Leyden is a little
"Descent from the Cross," which is certainly a
production of the Dutch school of about his time.
An interesting panel represents three richly-robed
female saints enthroned side by side, and is here
attributed to the school of Van Eyck; it is, however, in all probability a product of that of Colmar,
revealing as it does very strongly the influence of
Martin Schongauer.

OF ART.

Very characteristic of Van Dyck's second Flemish
manner—that in which he shows a return to
Rubens, tempered by Italian influences undergone
during his four years' residence
at Genoa, Rome, and elsewhere
in the Peninsula—is the large
canvas from the Blenheim
Palace collection, sometimes
called "The Blenheim Madonna." (See p. 25.) Here the
Virgin, sad and dreamy of
aspect, heavily draped in the
'orthodox red and blue robes,
supports on a balustrade or
parapet the finely - modelled
figure of the infant Christ; in
the background, to the right, is
a marble column with its base.
Another original, brought from
the Diisseldorf Gallery, exists in
the Alte Pinakothek of Munich,
in which, however, there is
added a figure of the infant St.
John with the scroll; another
(not seen by the writer) is
stated to exist in Earl Spencer's
collection ; and yet another,
with some variations, belongs
to Mr. Edward Smith-Barry,
M.P. The Blenheim example
is apparently the one which
was engraved in mezzotint by
Valentine Green; the Munich
picture has been lithographed
by F. Piloty and photographed
by J. Albert and Hanfstangl.
We come now to an important group of Dutch portraits
of the seventeenth century by
Michiel Jansz. Mierevelt, Paul
Moreelse, and Jan Ravensteyn
—all of them masters who, notwithstanding their high repute,
are in England little more than
names, seeing that they are not
represented in the National Gallery or, I believe,
in any public collection. It is well known that
Mierevelt, or rather the school working under him,
was extraordinarily prolific, and that some of his
followers turned out very inferior and mechanical
performances, which pass under his name. The companion pictures in this collection, showing in threequarter length the portraits of Dirk van Bleyswyck,
a magistrate of Delft, and of his wife, Margaretha
van Eyck, do not come within this category, being
emphatically very fine productions from the master's

MARIA SCHURMANS, WIFE OF DIRCK ALEWYN

DIRCKZ.

(From the Painting by Paul Moreelse. Engraved by J. M. Johnstone.)

24

THE MAGAZINE

own brush, in a perfect state of preservation. They
bear the arms of the sitters and the signature
"M. Miereveld," and are dated 1624; they are
painted on panel. Still finer in execution, and as

VIEGIN AND CHILD.
(From the Paintiiig by Mabuse.)

perfect in preservation, are a pair of similar portraits
by Mierevelt's pupil and assistant, Paul Moreelse,
of Utrecht, who, at his best, surpassed his master
in variety and charm. These were acquired direct
from the Alewyn family, in whose possession they
had uninterruptedly remained ever since they had
been painted. The personages represented are
Dirck Alewyn Dirckz, a rich merchant established
at Amsterdam, and his wife, Maria Schurmans, of
Erankfort-on-the-Main. (See pp. 22 and 23.) It
would be difficult to overpraise the finish and
strength of modelling in the heads, the spirited
yet thoroughly detailed execution of the high

OF AET.

white ruffs, and the rich sober costumes. Moreelse
has here more strongly and less coldly expressed the
personality of his sitters than has Mierevelt in the
pair of portraits just referred to. By the side of
these works may be placed a powerfullymodelled, grave, and simple " Head
of a Man," by Jan Eavensteyn, of The
Hague, acquired in Milan at the Passalacqua sale. And again, in this collection,
unusually rich in Dutch portraiture of
the seventeenth century, we find a
couple of anonymous portraits in fine
preservation, by Paulus Hennekyn, of
Amsterdam—a name not found in the
catalogue of the Eyks Museum of that
city. These last-named presentments
of personages whose dress and air betray their aristocratic origin are good
examples of a second-rate painter.
It is, perhaps, in the masters of this
group—Mierevelt, Eavensteyn, Moreelse
—that we find most faithfully reflected
—because with an objective truth which
takes little from the individuality of the
painter himself—the real character of
the haute bourgeoisie of Holland, so virile,
so stiff-necked, and, with all their outward exuberance, so self-contained. The
greater masters of portraiture, Erans
Hals, De Keyser, Eembrandt, carry you
away with them by the very force of
their artistic idiosyncracy; the first
sweeping all before him by that irresistible joie de vivre which bursts through
everything he does; the second interposing less between his sitters and the
beholder, yet leaving upon all he does
the impress of his strong, sympathetic
individuality; the third casting an indefinite veil of mystery and sadness
over his counterfeit presentments of
fellow-citizens, and thus tempering by
a personal element the objectiveness of
his characterisation. Van der Heist has, however, all
the undoctored truthfulness of the first mentioned
group, and he has with it a charm of freshness
and unquestioning naivete which is all his own.
The Euston collection affords to students of Eembrandt and his entourage another of the numerous
puzzles which prove how imperfect is as yet our
knowledge of the large group which surrounded
and followed the great master of Leyden and
Amsterdam. Here is a. large half-length Eembrandtesque " Portrait of an Old Lady," of which
no one would now assert that it is by the master
himself, while it is, nevertheless, difficult to do

THE KUSTON COLLECTION: THE OLD MASTEES.
more than approximatively guess at its true authorship.
Prominent among the examples of those who
might, with only seeming paradox, be termed the great
"small masters" of Holland is an "Old Woman peel-

"THE

25

us to his mastery of draughtsmanship and execution
in his own peculiar fashion. This is a somewhat
unusual subject for Mieris, an inveterate genrepainter, chiefly occupied with the modish and futile
side of the contemporary Dutch life; but by his

BLENHEIM

MADONNA.'

(From the Painting by Vandyck.)

ing Apples," by Gerard Dou, remarkable for extraordinary finish and a perfect preservation, marred only
by the yellow quality of the varnish which covers the
picture. Not less noteworthy than the unobtrusive
accuracy of all the homely accessories is the happy
characterisation of the old woman's head and the
truthfulness of her action.
Typical, too, of its
author, the follower and the rival in popularity of
Gerard Dou, is the very curious "Visit of Jeroboam's
Wife to the Blind Prophet Ahijah" (1 Kings xiv.),
by Frans van Mieris, the smoothness of whose
finish—more in accordance with obsolete artistic
fashions than with modern notions—must not blind
856

unemotional, genre-like treatment, markedly different from that larger and more passionate style
which would have been adopted by a painter of
the Eembrandt circle, he has brought it well within
his own means.
By Thomas Wyck is a bambochade with peasants
of the South playing cards and carousing, characterised by the sharp lights which render his work
so easily distinguishable.
To Gabriel Metsu is attributed an " Interior,"
with a young man seated at a table, which I am
unable unreservedly to accept as his. Another
" Interior," with boors carousing, formerly given to

26

THE MAGAZINE OF ART.

Adrian van Ostade, is now, I know not on what
authority, transferred to Van Vliet; it appears to
me to resemble the work of Pieter de Bloot. Here
is a first-rate example of Jan Davidz de'Heem, the

OLD WOMAN PEELING APPLES.
(From the Painting by Gerard Don )

most consummate of the elder Netherlandish flowerpainters, as Jan van Huysum and Rachel Ruysch
were the most accomplished of a considerably later
generation. This admirable piece shows, painted in
the master's best style and witli his characteristic
brilliancy of local colour and crisp perfection, a
huge garland of roses, peonies, plums, cherries,
oranges, figs sliced in half so as to reveal the delicate
pulp inside, and grapes tied at either extremity by a
bow of azure satin, the bright cool tint of which
greatly enlivens the harmony of the whole. By
Jacob Eillig—another Dutchman not to be found

in the Amsterdam catalogue — is a sober-lmed,
skilfully painted still-life piece, the chief elements
of which are a group of silver river-fish and a
brass-lined kitchen utensil. Two admirable examples
of Jan van Os, the founder,
and by far the finest painter,
of the numerous family of that
name, are the two pieces from
the Dudley collection, with
groups of flowers and fruit.
They show the artist a successful follower of Van Huysum,
while two similar decorative
performances, painted by a
younger member of the Van 4
Os family, who practised his
art far into the present century, serve to illustrate the
decadence of this peculiarly
Netherlandish art.
Reference may further be
made to an elaborate " Fair
Scene," which is a genuine
production of Karel du Jardin's
brush, and to an unusually
mellow and charming example
of the landscape art of Antonie Waterloo, a painter of
considerable celebrity in his
own time, and even better
known by his etchings and
drawings than by the productions of his brush. The
picture is the more welcome
here because the collection
at present includes, with the
exception of one Cuyp, no
specimen of the greater landscape art of Holland.
I have already hinted that
the chief riches of the Monk's
Manor collection—those which
already entitle it to take a
special place among English
private galleries—consist of paintings of the English
school. Here, while Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough, Romney, and Hoppner are represented
pour la forme, and Turner by at least two superlative
examples, the sympathies of the collector are evidently with Mr. Watts, with Rossetti, with Mr. E.
Burne-Jones, many of whose most famous works he
possesses and cherishes. But to the description of
these, as of the remaining works of the English
school, and the few but choice examples of modern
Continental art, I must address myself in my
succeeding notices.

THE

BRIDGE,

FROM

(Drawn

THE

MEADOWS,

by Ernest

GREZ.

Parton.)

GEEZ.
BY R. A. M. STEVENSON.

I

T is by no means my object to describe the life
of the French painting colonies where more than
half of the ideals of the nineteenth century have
been hatched. English people would condemn the
manners without understanding the qualities or
sympathising with the purposes of such a society.
A whole theory of life would be necessary before 1
could venture to be honest; and honesty was virtue
in those places. Hypocrisy scarcely recommended
itself to men whose mental work lay in facing their
own impressions of things and accepting their consequences in art. Many writers could tell you that
they found those colonies as fitted for the study of
the human heart as for that of trees and rocks. You
saw the very bones and muscles of the passions laid
bare. But such anatomy disgusts the true Englishman. He dislikes this want of reserve no less than
the old woman who said: " Don't tell Mary Jane

about her inside—it does her no good; besides,
it's rude." This is my excuse for not writing in
a popular magazine the account of a life so very
different from any other. I cannot explain the
politics of a colony, nor tell how, as Grez rose,
Barbizon declined, and became a place where diamonds glinted among blouses and the cabotin was
seen in his glory. Such a lurid sunset ushers in the
night of the outer world; the artist fades, and out
conies an innumerable host of twinkling tourists,
Hitting past with guide-books and ready silver
in their hands. Colonies arise in a village remote
from the sophistication of the " maison bourgeoise."
English villages are almost always under paternal
government. They hang on to a town, a big house,
an industry, or something worse. The real hamlet
in France is simply a group of small cultivators
whose houses are collected in a centre, instead of

28

THE

MAGAZINE

dotting a countryside. They are governed by " Us
plus imposes"—those who pay the most taxes.
The artist of the earlier part of the century had few
wants and was easily pleased, except professionally.

THE

CHURCH

OF AET.

went to Barbizon. Grez looks as if it had crept
down from the forest upland, drawing a long tail of
tall poplars after it across a mile or two of rolling
plain till it finally settled in a hollow by the sluggish

AND

CASTLE,

GREZ.

(Draivn by Ernest Partem.)

Imposing neither in dress, conversation, nor manners,
the painter soon propitiated the peasant at the
blacksmith's or the carpenter's, at the inn and the
village fetes. Profit, too, attended the sojourn of the
stranger, who was shaved, dressed, and supplied with
picture-cases, stretchers, easels, and other necessaries.
Customs went on as usual, without grandeur or
formality. Anything like a duty or a bore the
denizens dodged with the instinctive zeal with which
game avoids the hunter. The bonds and the circumspection of society kill enjoyment of Nature
and aptitude for landscape art. For the intolerable
pastime duties of town life which were made to
create work and amusement for people in society,
there is no room in a life already well stocked
with both.
Colonies have sprung up on various soils—in the
forest, on the Seine, and by the sea. Grez is one of
the lesser dependencies of Fontainebleau. Barbizon
and Marlotte are the greatest, though it was reported
that the men of 1830 favoured Grez before Rousseau

stream that drains the Gatinais. But for a square
in the middle and a stray house or two, the village
consists of a single street, a strand running along the
Loing—a river about as large as the Cam. Old
gardens run down to the wTater, and give each house
its port or marine approach. Fronting the street, of
course, all is stern stone, bare gable-ends, and big
yard-doors. As in the East, all the life and amenity
lie behind in the large courtyards and ample old
terraced gardens. Tradition and the ruins of a castle
are all that speak of a former existence greater and
busier than the present. Grez, once a large fortified place, fell long ago before the English. The
peasant admits old history, but all remains of it are
of one convenient date, " il y a longUmps." At
Vernon, however, a man was more explicit when he
adjudged a ruin to the English Wars, " aux temps
des Romains, quoi ? "
As a painting colony, Grez has hardly escaped
vicissitude. Corot and those of his day frequented
the place. Then it fell into disuse, or was visited

GEEZ.
for a season of tranquillity by one of the natural
hermits who fled from the seclusion of Barbizon
or Marlotte to brood forty days in the wilderness
of Chailly, Franchard, Eecloses, Montigny, or Grez.
When I first knew Grez, the Chevalier G. Palizzi,
one of the old men of 1830, lived in a pavilion
on the terrace of the ancient inn garden. He
was the patriarch of the place, and much visited
by men of letters and painters. Himself no mean
painter, and a man of age and distinction, he was yet
the most genial comrade you could wish. Entirely
free, like most French painters, from stiffness and
any affectation of superiority, he placed his wit, his
knowledge of life, and his advice on art at the service

THE

VILLAGE

AND

RIVER,

(Drawn

draught that scarcely excites but never cloys.
Round him were a few middle-aged painters—
" snoozers," we used to call them—people who
tinkered at little pictures from Nature, neither
studying their impressions sincerely nor making art
boldly, but falling between two stools with a certain
old-fashioned grace. To avoid this sprawl before
Nature seems to me one of the objects of later art.
Parties of painters often came to Grez, from
Barbizon or elsewhere, to pass two or three days in
tranquil festivity. A knot of men, chiefly English,
intending to stay a couple of days, settled down
permanently, and the casseroles of the old inn
began to clink to the tune of a new life. The

FROM

by Ernest

of the youngest and most obscure beginners. Eobust
in figure, with wide-tossed white hair, large-faced,
full of humour and fine smiles, he reminded me of
Corot, with whom he had been much associated in
the past. Though a great talker, his conversation
was not what is called stimulating. We hear of
talk that effervesces like champagne, or warms like
Burgundy. His rather spouted perennially, like
clear spring water—a sparkling and refreshing

29

THE

MEADOWS,

GREZ.

Partem.)

colony became mainly foreign—English, American,
Swedish, Spanish, Italian, Russian, but very slightly
French. Amongst the Anglo-Saxons were Enfield,
O'Meara, W. H. Low, Bloomer, Jameson; and, later,
B. Harrison, Ernest Partem, J. M. Swan, Edwin
Ellis, William Stott, and Alexander Harrison. I
mention painters, but our society was not without
architects, sculptors, writers, and a singer or two.
Presently Grez overflowed, the old house fell dowTn,

30

THE MAGAZINE

a larger one was built, and a new inn opened. The
fame of the place became bruited abroad ; it was

OF AET.

transition—this protestantism, so to speak—was
too often regarded as the proper frame of mind of
the artist. At Barbizon it was especially difficult
to get away from the old men wdio had made it
their own, and yet do anything like art. Forest
interior composes with difficulty otherwise than as
Rousseau, Diaz, and Courbet imagined it. Even
nowadays, when Impressionistic art is better understood than Romantic, the " Sous-bois" rebels against
modern treatment. Shut in, full of forms, lit in
one way, deprived of sky, of space, of air, of the
effect of large simple planes, it was no fitting
nursery for the new school of painters. As a
matter of fact, it was with the large horizons of the
sea under Boudin and Butin, and the blue hills and
water of the Seine under Manet, that the later art
developed; while men drowsed beneath the canopies
of the forest in Barbizon and Marlotte, or wore
Millet's spectacles on the plain of Chailly, already
Manet had changed the face of painting. Early in

T H E CROSS, GREZ.
(Drawn

by Ernest

Part on.)

spoken of in American papers. Then it underwent further change, as might be expected.
People run after a thing for its strangeness,
and so make it common; after a seaside place
for its beauty and solitude, and so get a wateringplace with its villas and a pier; after a man for
his simplicity, and so flatter him into a bad imitation of themselves. Grez remains in this phase
—it is " not bad, but different." I speak from hearsay : it is fourteen years since I saw the place.
As the Empire fell, a change was imminent
in art. The so-called Romantic School wras
scarcely possible to younger painters; Troyon
and Rousseau were dead and canonised; Courbet,
Millet, Corot, Diaz, Jacque, Dupre, were old men
whose works were become well-known formulas
for expressing certain emotions about Nature.
It appeared nerveless in a man to repeat the
record of another's feelings while the very
Nature in which he dwelt prompted thoughts
of a different kind. The terms "chic," "ficelle,"
"pastiche," were used in disdain of the work of
those who took a short cut to art over the ground
of 1830. So far so well, but this attitude of

T H E V I L L A G E S T R E E T , GREZ.
(Drawn

by Ernest

Parton.)

the seventies Manet's views began to affect the
painters of landscape, marine, and open-air figures.

GKEZ.

'

Barbizon was deserted for places with water, buildings, boats, coloured costumes—places that offered
definite planes to the eye.
Grez was a half-way between the forest and
the Seine. Lodged on a tributary with less formal
banks than the big river, it showed a greater

MOONLIGHT

ON

former favourite haunt, supplies some illustrations
of the character of the scenery.
You may see,
amongst other things, a view of the famous bridge
which has appeared in every large exhibition for .
the past thirty years. Undoubtedly this place,
and the ideals fostered there, have considerably

THE

(Drawn by Ernest

variety of view in a small length, slenderer and
more elegant tree-forms, but narrower horizons and
less evident construction in the distance.
Corot
seemed to be the genius of the place. His spirit
of grace hung about the slim supple stems, the
bowery foliage, the shaded pools, the long grasses,
the waving reeds, and all the cloudy vaporous
growths of river-banks, swamps, and fields. Mr.
Ernest Parton, who has never quite deserted his

31

PLAIN,

GKEZ.

Parton.)

influenced Anglo-Saxon art.
Barbizon, Marlotte,
and Oernay remained French, while the colonies of
Brittany and that of Grez became filled with
Anglo-Saxons. As to the Scandinavians, everyone
knows how ardently and with what successful daring
they have worked on French principles. They frequented more or less every place. I can remember
Kroyer at Cernay, where I think he painted his
first successful picture. But long before his date

32

THE MAGAZINE

there was Hills, who died a prey to the exhausting
eagerness of the true Northern mind. He never
passed through the stage of photographic realism.

OF AET.

having adopted white, went to Nature to find an
apology for his practice. Such an attitude of
mind, common enough now, was rare twenty years

AUTUMN, GREZ.
(Drawn by Ernest Partem.)

He never forgot art in Nature, always counting with
a palette and canvas, and remembering keys of
colour, modelling, and composition. At Barbizon I
knew him, and wondered at him as one who buried
his picture in bitumen and himself in the depths of
the forest. Then I saw him one day at Grez : from
afar his canvas attracted me no less than his point
of view. The first was white, the second was a hilltop. To my expressions of surprise he answered, " I
have experimented all winter in the studio with
white."
Having thought of gravity, Newton's
labours began when he would prove it. So Hills,

ago, when all pursuit of style was suspicious as
insincerity and disrespect to Nature. Of course, I
speak of the many; it has been the merit of the few
to have seen all along that mere love of Nature
need not imply love of art. Very often the lover
of Nature rebels against the narrow fixed point of
view, the depressing scale of values, the apparent
handling, the suppression of detail, the translation
of light into colour, and so forth, so necessary to
the lover of art. Five or six great men have seen
in Impressionism a natural excuse for style and
the cult of beauty on the flat.

33

A FEENCH VIEW OF GOTHIC AECHITECTUEE.*
BY REGINALD BLOMFIELD.

M

COEEOYER undertakes in a handbook of
• some 380 pages, profusely illustrated, to give
a comprehensive view of the origin and development
of Gothic architecture, and he does not diminish the
burden of his enterprise by starting with a very
bold theory. It has been generally supposed that
Gothic architecture, which is the architecture of
distributed weights and the equilibrium of forces,
sprang from the intersection of the Roman vaults
which suggested the diagonal rib, and ultimately
the system of rilling in the vaulting on a skeleton
of groining ribs. M. Corroyer maintains, on the
contrary, that Gothic architecture developed out
of the cupola and its pendentive, and that we are
to find in the Church of St. Front at Perigueux,
and the half-dozen Aquitaine churches that were
built on their model, the real source of Gothic
architecture. The idea which inspired this construction was that of concentrating the thrust of
the vault upon four points of support: this was
done by means of pendentives; and when the Aquitaine architects had learnt to look upon the pendentive as a segment of an arch, they took the next
step forward by completing the arch, and thereby
produced the intersecting rib. Having laid down
this position, M. Corroyer returns to the ordinary
view of the development of Gothic, points out
how the thrust of the vault necessitated buttresses,
and how from the single nave grew the nave with
side aisles, how the nave was heightened in order
to get light above the aisles, the flying buttress
invented in order to avoid interference with the
light, and so develops the well-known story of the
gradual elaboration of the system of vaulting by
equipoise, which ultimately reduced a church to
a skeleton of stone with glass walls, and led to
the extinction of Gothic architecture by simple
inanition. The sequence, according to M. Corroyer,
is from Aquitaine to Anjou, and thence to the He
de France. As for the Gothic architecture of other
countries, it is summarily dismissed as a matter of
little account, being no more than a feeble reflection
of French art.
The boldness of M. Corroyer's assertions, and the
inadequacy of his evidence, are equally astonishing
—perhaps they are cause and effect. His main
position is disproved alike by documentary evidence
and the evidence of the buildings themselves. He
contends that the intersecting rib was derived from
the pendentive and the cupola on the ground of
* "Gothic Architecture." By E. Corroyer. Translation
edited by Walter Armstrong, M.A. (Seeley and Co., London.)
857

their identity of function, and that the honour of
this discovery belongs to the builders of Aquitaine.
As to the identity of function, as M. Camille
Eulart has pointed out in an able review of the
book, the weight of the spandrels of the cupola
might also be transferred to the points of support
by corbels; yet M. Corroyer would hardly argue in
such a case that the intersecting arch was derived
from corbels.
Moreover, the evidence goes to show that the
pendentive was not considered as the section of
an arch, but as the section of a second and lower
cupola. The evidence of dates is still more damaging. M. Corroyer gives no dates—perhaps for the
excellent reason that they spoil his theory. For
instance, he assumes the cupola of St. Front to be
eleventh century work, whereas it is pretty well
proved that the cupola was built after 1120. Again,
he asserts that the architects of the He de France
took their ideas from the Angevins, more especially
from the Churches of Angers, Laval, and Poitiers.
It is proved by documentary evidence that the
Church of Angers was not begun till 1150, Laval
was copied from Angers, and the probable date of
Poitiers is about 1160. Anyhow, the date of Angers
is 1150, whereas the choir of St. Denis was consecrated in 1144, six years before the beginning of the
work on which it is supposed to have been modelled.
This is unfortunate for M. Corroyer's theory.
Mr. Armstrong, in his editorial note, warns
his readers against the complete Chauvinism of
M. Corroyer's attitude. Everything, according to
M. Corroyer, comes from France; the greater part
of Lincoln was designed and executed by Frenchmen (here he is in direct opposition to his master,
Viollet-le-Duc); Seville, Toledo, Barcelona and
Burgos, Milan and Sienna, the cathedrals of Belgium,
even the Norse churches, all alike owe their inspiration to France. This sort of thing stultifies itself.
If the Cathedral of Burgos is inspired by France, it
is amazing to suppose that of Lincoln can also be,
for the two are as different as St. Paul's and the
Great Pyramid.
The account of military architecture is more
satisfactory, though, as usual, almost entirely confined to French examples; and the general impression
left by the book, though it is very readable, is that
it is an inadequate and hasty account of a very large
subject—a subject, moreover, which is too familiar to
students and travellers to admit of such a hasty
treatment. The book has been well translated by
Miss Simonds.

THE EETUEN OP THE VICTORS.
(From the Paintituj by Sir John Gilbert, R.A., P.R.W.S.

Presented to the City of Birmingham Art Gallery)

OUE ILLUSTEATED NOTE-BOOK.

B

Y the death of Mr. Albert Moore, English art
has been deprived of one of its most original
exponents. Adopting a ' style that appealed only
to the few, he persevered in it with
untiring devotion,
p r o d u c i n g work
which is almost unequalled for delicacy
of colour and decorative effect. As we
recorded last month,
in connection with
the decease of his
eldest
brother,
Edwin Moore, he
belonged to an essentially
artistic
family.
Born in
York on September
4, 1841, he studied
THE LATE ALBEET MOOEE.
for his profession
(From a Photograph by F. Hollyer.)
in London at the
Langham life-classes, and from 1863 he was a
regular exhibitor at the Academy, and, until its
untimely end, at the Grosvenor Gallery. For a full
review of his life and work we must refer the
reader to THE MAGAZINE or ART for 1885.
The gift of Sir John Gilbert, RA., of his works
to the Birmingham Art Gallery has been already
referred to in our pages. We reproduce at the

head of this article one of the most important
of the pictures comprised in it.
On this and the opposite pages are represented

THE GOLDEN AGE.
(By M. Octobre. Awarded the Prix de Rome, Paris.)

OUE ILLUSTKATED

NOTE-BOOK.

35

the works which have gained the Grands Prix de Carl Miiller, of Diisseldorf, the celebrated painter
Borne at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. The subject of religious subjects. Born at Darmstadt in 1818,
for painting was "Samson at the Mill," and the he studied under his father and afterwards at
the Academy of
first prize was
awarded to M.
Diisseldorf under
Maurice TheoProfessor Sohn.
dore Mitrecey.
After
visiting
The artist was
Italy he was apborn at Paris in
pointed, at the
1869, and studied
age of forty, to
under Lefebvre,
the professorship
Thirion, and Tony
at the academy
Eobert - Fleury.
where he had
In sculpture the
studied.
His
subject was " The
works are well
Golden Age,"
known by means
and the award
of
engravings,
was made to M.
one of the most
Octobre, a pupil
popular
being
of MM. Cavelier
the " Annunciaand
Gauthier.
tion,"
which
He is a native
hangs in the
of
Angles-surGallery at DiisAnglin, and was
seldorf. He has
SAMSON AT THE MILL.
bom in 1868.
{From the Painting by M. ThSodore Mitrecey. Awarded the Prix de Rome, Paris.)
exhibited at the
In architecture
Boyal Academy,
the prize was carried off by M. Chaussemiche.
having two pictures there in 1876—"The Virgin
A valuable addition to the Greek section at and Child Before a Grotto" and "The Virgin,
the" British Museum is the beautiful vase of which Infant Christ, and St. Joseph with an Angel."
a reproduction appears on p. 36. It is of about The Church of St. Apollinaris at Bernagen conthe same date as the Parthenon frieze, and is a tains a series of frescoes from his brush.
magnificent example of the ceramic art of the
Another well-known artist who has recently died

OSW^eC^'

DESIGN FOE A PALAIS NATIONAL DES SOCTETES SAVANTES.
(By M. Chaussemiche.

Awarded the Prix de Rome, Paris.)

period. The lecythus is of most graceful proportions, and bears upon its surface a representation
of a tumulus, on each side of which stands the
figure of a youth.
Wc have to record the death of Professor

is M. Adolphe Yvon, a painter of those gigantic
battle-scenes so dear to the patriotic Frenchman.
Born at Esch wilier in 1817, he was destined for a
clerkship under the Government; but at twentytwo years of age he decided for art and entered

36

THE MAGAZINE OF AET.

the studio of Paul Delaroehe. He exhibited at the
Salon for the first time in 1842 with a portrait
of Mdme. Ancelot. The next year he went to

afterwards " The Battle of Magenta." A collection
of his works was hung in the great exhibition of
1867, and secured him the officership of the Legion

THE LATE ADOLPHE YVON.
(From a Photograph by Chalot, Paris.)

THE LATE CARL MULLER.
(From a Photograph by Haarstick-Luck,
Busseldorf.)

Eussia, and gained attention
at succeeding Salons with his
pictures of the Napoleonic
campaigns in Eussia, receiving the ribbon of the Legion
of Honour for "Marshal Ney
Supporting the Eear-Guard,"
which, together with several
others of his
pictures,
are
treasured in the
Battle
Gallery
at Versailles. He
was the only
artist sent officially to
the
Crimea
during
the great war,
and was awarded
the
MSdaille
d'Honneur for his
representation of
" The Capture of
the Malakhoff."
When the war
broke out between France and
Austria he was
again sent as the
official artist, and
in 1860 exhibited
" The Battle of
Solferino," and

GREEK VASE.
{Recently acquired by the British

Museum.)

JOAN OP ARC.
(From the Statue by M. Rouleau, recently erected at

of Honour. He was subsequently appointed professor to
the evening classes at the
Ecole des Beaux Arts, and in
1883 professor at the Ecole
Polytechnique, in - the place
of Leon Cogniet. One of his
most recent efforts, a fulllength portrait of President
Carnot, is now at Chicago.
The colossal
statue of Joan
of Arc, which
has recently been
placed in position at Chinon,
is the work of
M. Eouleau. The
statue was exhibited at the
Champs Elysees
for some time,
and in spite of
its
undeniable
vigour and quaint
spirit, was severely criticised
for the impossible attitude of
both horse and
rider, as well as
for the inaccuracy of several
important
details.
Chinon.)

37

THE

BUSTON

COLLECTION.

THE MODERN PICTURES.—I.
BY CLAUDE PHILLIPS.

A ES

I have already hinted, it is not in the
paintings representing the English school of

manner, has a certain engaging charm, and shows
that characteristic vitality, that bright restlessness

POETEAIT OF A LADY.
{From the Painting

the last century that lies the chief strength of
the Euston collection.
To Sir Joshua Eeynolds are given an anonymous " Portrait of a Gentleman" and a somewhat
heavily painted study, " A Sprite." A "Portrait
of a Lady," for which the same master is answerable, is for him somewhat dry in texture. The
"Sir Eichard Jodrell," of Gainsborough, though
not precisely a prominent example of his finer
858

by Romney.)

of glance, which are peculiar to the master. A
Gainsborough portrait seems on equal terms with
the beholder, returning his investigating glance
with interest, and repressing, as one finds oneself
imagining, an intense desire to burst into life and
movement.
Here, too, are to be found a " Portrait of a
Lady," beautiful, if hardly in Eomney's happiest
vein; a "Eichard Brinsley Sheridan," by Hoppner;

38

THE MAGAZINE

and an anonymous portrait of the English school
in this same late eighteenth-century period, showing a young gentleman, wearing a plain but smart
dark-blue coat, sparingly laced with gold. This
has the attraction which is sometimes imparted

THE VIA MALA.
(From the Painting by William Mutter.)

to works not of commanding excellence, by a
transparent sincerity and a genuine naivete of
conception.
An important Turner is the lovely rainbowhued study in oils, " The Falls of the Clyde"
—one of those dazzling, yet for some indefinable
reason infinitely sad dreams, in which semi-transparent vapours, battling with the sun's rays, are
made to assume those prismatic hues of which
the master, in his third manner, had the monopoly.

OF ART.

The present example is, unlike many similar works
in the national collection, finely preserved.
The same vast subjective mode of conception,
in which the outward aspects of Nature are
modulated so as to become in the first place
symbols of the overpowering passion
of the artist, and in a secondary
degree only transcripts of scenes as
they actually strike the outward
vision, is apparent in the " Heidelberg," which, when it formed part
of the Quilter collection, was in
one of the series of Turner watercolours brought together by the
Royal Academy at Burlington House.
This splendid specimen of the third
manner shows picturesque Heidelberg transfigured in a flood of amber
sunset light, balanced by great masses
of blue- shadow; it has a tragic
solemnity; it contains, somehow, an
element of foreboding and supernatural awe, which are altogether in
Turner's own strange personality, and
in no degree in the subject itself.
With this drawing may be mentioned,
though in excellence far behind it,
two others from the same brush;
" Plymouth "—the one with the rainbow—and "The Lake of Thun"—
again, fantastic, lyrical presentments
of subjects which in other hands
might easily have become prosaic.
The great period of English watercolour painting is further illustrated
by a landscape from the brush of
David Cox, and by the celebrated
" Rivaulx Abbey " of Copley Fielding
—also, if I mistake not, from the
Quilter collection. It has become a
little too much the fashion of late
years to pooh-pooh this artist—
most unwarrantably omitted from an
historical series illustrating English
water-colours, brought together a
year or two ago at the Royal Academy.
True, his eclecticism, a certain cheapness and supers
ficiality of conception, and his tardiness in evolving
a distinctive artistic personality, deprive him of
the right to occupy a place in the first rank; yet
in technical achievement, in finish and decision of
execution, he must be allowed to stand very high
indeed.
Out of five works by William Miiller I may
select two important landscapes in oils—"The Via
Mala" and " The Spliigen Pass," both of these

THE KUSTON
being animated and dramatic in conception, broad
if somewhat superficial in execution; both being
enlivened by combats of armed men, romantic
rather than vraisemUable or composed with any
view to convince the beholder. Here we have,
indeed, a genuine, if by no means the very highest
phase of romanticism, perhaps the nearest approach
to the style of the contemporaneous movement'in

COLLECTION.

39

of two famous works of the romantic period—the
" Paolo and Francesca" of Ary Scheffer, and the
" Enfants d'Edouard " of Paul Delaroche. This
version of Scheffer's once so popular illustration
of the most moving episode in the Inferno seems
to me darker in tonality, broader in execution than
the large original, or originals—for there are at
least two. By those who love to have defined for

AKCADIAN SHEPHEKDS.
{From, the Painting by John

France. I must not omit to mention five paintings by Edmund John Memann (1813-1876), a
landscape-painter represented in the Sheepshanks
collection at South Kensington, as well as in the
national collection of water-colours there. By far
the best of these are two views of Eichmond, Yorkshire, of which the more elaborate is of its kind
a remarkable piece of work. Here, too, is to be
found the "Arcadian Shepherds"—of which a reproduction appears on this page—a good example
of the art of John Linnell in its finer and less
mannered phase.
French art of the earlier part of this century
is represented in the collection by but few examples, among these being small original reductions

Linnell.)

them in concrete shape the awful visions of the
poet, Scheffer's version has long been accepted as
the definitive one; and though the painter is
now completely demode, his " Paolo and Francesca,"
his " St. Monica with St. Augustine," and his
" Christ Vanquishing Satan," have retained, and
probably will continue to retain, their influence in
certain quarters. Mr. Watts's version of the same
episode is far grander, more poignant, more moving,
yet as an illustration of the mighty subject it
has never taken a deep hold of the public. The
little "Enfants d'Edouard" is, again, a reduced
version of, rather than a preparatory sketch for,
the large version, which from the Luxembourg
has passed into the Louvre. The luckless sons of

40

THE MAGAZINE

Edward IV. are here seen in the Tower awaiting
in gloom and foreboding the doom which is so
swiftly to envelop them. A good example this
of the colder and : more deliberate side of romanticism, of which IJelaroche — standing midway

1 -M

i

H

i

1
HOPE.
(From the Painting by G. F. Watts,

R.A.)

between Delacroix and Ingres, and inclining more
towards the latter than is now conceded—was the
protagonist. The influence of Delaroche on what
might be termed rather the costume art than the
romantic art of the century—on that ob France,
of Belgium, of Bavaria, and Germany generally,
and indeed on our own—has been enormous, and
though it has now utterly declined, its traces
have by no means been entirely eradicated, even
in the productions of to~day. It is he and not

OF ART.

Delacroix who is answerable for the stage romanticism of Louis Gallait, of Carl Piloty and his
following in the Munich school. Still, the master
to whom we owTe the great Hemicycle of the Nicole
des Beaux-Arts, and canvases of such dramatic
import as the masterly " Charles
I. after Sentence/' in the gallery
at Bridgewater House, is entitled
to something better than the
contemptuous
neglect
with
which it is to-day the fashion
to pass him over, especially in
his own country.
I now come to the most
substantial section of the Huston collection—to those English
pictures which give their own
peculiar colour to the whole
ensemble. We at once recognise
the collector who has, like some
few of his predecessors—like the
late Mr. William Graham, the
late Mr. Ley land, like Mr. Rae
of Liverpool — been peculiarly
touched by the English art of
the last thirty or forty years,
in its most literary, its most
romantic and Italianising phase.
Still, love of the art of painting
for itself is indicated by the
circumstance that we here see
Rossetti, Mr. Watts, and Mr.
Burne-Jones as painters first,
poets afterwards — represented
by works in which force of
immediate visual impression
has not been wholly sacrificed
in favour of poetic or purely
literary import.
I can call to mind no finer
series of paintings by Mr. Watts
than the present, in which his
poetic genius stands forth in all
its passionate striving after the
higher truth, in all its ardent
sympathy with humanity; yet
before the didactic moralist had somewhat overpowered the artist, before the brush chose to hesitate in expressing the burning thoughts, the always
noble though not always pictorial conceptions of
the poet-painter.
Mr. Buston has the " Hope," the first original
of this exquisite subject, subtler in colour, as
it appears to me, and more crisply touched in
the white diaphanous draperies, than the example placed by the master himself in the South

THE EUSTON COLLECTION.
Kensington Museum. This creation, with all
its supreme distinction, is marked by a beauty
which is one rather of thought than of pictorial

41

Hope appears as a lovely genius, who, seated on
the summit of the globe and enwrapped by the
blue, starlit" firmament, still strives to sound her

BIANCA.
(From the Painting by G. F. Watts, R.A.

realisation. One can imagine Mr. Watts, if he
had the technical skill, the word-power of the
singer, expressing his high and original conception more completely through the medium of the
Miltonic or . Wordsworthian sonnet than, as he
has here done, with the brush. In this allegory

Engraved by Jonnard.)

maimed lyre, to which but a single string remains ; she sounds it blindfold and worn with woe,
but not yet in doubt or despair. How subtly is
here suggested that overmastering sympathy with
the dolorous yet—as Mr. Watts would teach—not
hopeless struggles of humanity, which will perhaps

42

THE MAGAZINE

be the distinguishing mark of this century to
those who later on look back and necessarily
overlook a vaster horizon than we can now command.
The true painter, however, is revealed in
" The Eve of Peace," to my thinking one of the
artist's completest achievements. The outwardly
simple motive is this: A knight of noble, virile
aspect—no youth, but a warrior of middle age,
with dark locks shot with grey — stands bareheaded, wearing over his chain-mail a surcoat of
warm russet-brown. Wearied with victory, he gazes
sadly down at the helmet of burnished steel,
strangely decked with peacock's feathers (for pomp
and vanity ?), which he holds in his left hand,
while his right grasps a sword of antique design.
He counts the cost; he estimates the vanity of
war. The illumination is that of evening;, the
background one of sombre large-leaved foliage,
broadly indicated. Here Mr. Watts has bethought
himself above all of his beloved Venetians, and
has painted what is in the first place a beautiful
picture. We shall not, under such circumstances,
quarrel with him if he has unobtrusively suggested,
to those who may choose to read, a secondary
and less obvious meaning, which let each one
unravel for himself as he likes.
A painter pure and simple, the master again
appears in the beautiful portrait-study " Bianca,"
the inspiration of which may again be traced back
to the Venice of the golden time. This lovely
blonde, of full outline and sensuous type, faces the
spectator clad in black velvet, with white lace and
white aiguille ttes; she appropriately holds pink and
white roses, the background being furnished by a
green curtain partly revealing a grey and cloudy
horizon. Bianca reminds us of the lovely donne of
Palma Vecchio, of the Bonifazio group, of Cariani
and Paris Bordone; and yet she has a certain
reticence, a certain quite English charm of personality which agreeably tempers the full-blown
splendour of her beauty. To be noted also is
a beautiful " Hebe "—the study of a fair woman
with averted profile and ruddy hair flowing over
her shoulders, and just an indication of classical
white draperies—the hands being somewhat large
and inexpressive. A portrait sketch, " Lady Lilford," contains an echo of the art of Eomney
—no common thing with this artist, who is rarely
in sympathy with the eighteenth century, whether
at home or abroad.
It is surely unnecessary to refer in detail to
compositions so wTell known as the "Love and
Life " and " Love and Death," of which Mr. Euston
possesses reduced versions from the hand of the
master. The originals, lent by Mr. Watts to the

OF AET.

nation, hang at present on the great staircase of
the South Kensington Museum. They have, moreover, been seen in many an exhibition, both in
the east and west of London, and, in the present
year, have been included in a collection of the
artist's works brought together at the Munich
International Exhibition of Fine Arts. The series
of paintings by Mr. Watts is appropriately crowned
by his own portrait painted in 1867, and signed
in red letters on a sombre ground. This differs
altogether in design from the likeness executed for
the Painters' Gallery at the Uffizi; it represents
the artist with a dark beard shot with silver,
wearing a vest of his favourite brown and a soft
black hat; the background is of brown wainscoting, with an opening showing a peep of blue.
Dante Gabriel Eossetti's art is shown in three
important examples of his later style, all of them
well known to the group of Eossetti-worshippers
in particular, and to the art-loving public of
England in general. As yet nothing in the Euston
collection stands for the period of the painter's
noblest and most strenuous endeavour, if not in
all respects of his highest accomplishment—nothing of the class to which belong the " Ecce
Ancilla Domini" (National Gallery), the " How
They Met Themselves," the " Paolo and Francesca,"
the first version of the " Beata Beatrix," the
"Llandaff Triptych," which may be said to close
the period.
The " Veronica Veronese " is, with all its characteristic drawbacks—upon which at this stage it
seems unnecessary to dwell—a noble example of
Eossetti's ripe, and not yet over-ripe style, already
thoroughly quintessence in motive, already seeking
its inspiration not at all from the outer world, but
entirely from the imagination of the poet. (See
frontispiece to THE MAGAZINE OF ART for November.) A beautiful white-skinned woman, with that
rippling red-blonde hair which is rather the rule
than the exception in Eossetti's types of loveliness, stands self-absorbed, gazing not without but
within, as she listens to the notes of a canary,
and with a touch of her fingers repeats them
on the strings of a violin suspended near at
hand. She wears a dress of dead-green velvet,
with a girdle of crimson "and yellow, and holds
a fan of pheasant's feathers. All the accessories,
the furniture of her chamber, and especially both
the motive-giving bird perched aloft and the
answering violin, are painted with unusual care.
The quotation (?) which the artist himself painted
or caused to be painted on the frame indicates
the peculiar motive and tendency of the work
better than any words of ours could do, and shall
accordingly be allowed to speak for itself.

THE BUSTON
" Se 'penchant vivement, la Veronica jefa les
premieres notes sur la feuille merge. Ensuite elle
prit son violon pour realiser son rive; mais avant
de dScrocher Vinstrument suspendu elle resta quelques
instants immobile, en 4coutant I'oiseau inspirateur,
pendant que sa main gauche errait
sur les cordes, cherchant le motif
supreme encore doigne.
Cetait
le mariage des voix de la nature
et de I'dme, I'aube d'une creation
mystique."

COLLECTION.

43

the picture. He supposes that the purpose was
to indicate youth, beauty, and the faculty for art
worthy of a celestial audience, all shadowed by a
mortal doom. This version goes certainly some
way towards explaining the deliberately emphasised

( L E T T R E S DE GIROLAMA KIDOLEI.)

" Veronica Veronese " was
painted as a commission from
the late Mr. Leyland, and we
may infer that the fastidious
Eossetti wras himself well satisfied with it; since in a letter
addressed to a friend" he says,
referring to the " Siloth " painted
for the same collector: " I have
made it, I think, a complete
success, quite worthy to hang
with ' t h e fiddle-picture"' (W.
M. Eossetti's " Dante Gabriel
Eossetti").
To the year 1873 belongs
" La Ghirlandata," a characteristic
and important work which on the
sale of the William Graham collection passed into the possession
of the present owner. The Lady
of the Wreaths, robed in green,
appears seated, playing on a harp
of strange design—carved with
swans, painted with azure wings,
and heavily garlanded with roses
—while on either side peer forth
above the heads of youthful
angels listening. At her foot,
in the immediate foreground, are
some great spikes of monkshood,
intentionally exaggerated, possibly
with the intention of emphasising
their baleful, mysterious character.
Here are already apparent the
germs —indeed more than the germs—of that exaggeration in the presentment of sensuous female
loveliness, of that monotony of type, which were
so terribly to disfigure the gifted artist's latest
works. The flesh tints in the three heads are
neither natural nor harmonious, while the blue of
the eyes seems over-accentuated and hardly in
keeping with the rest. Mr. William Eossetti
remarks on the " Ghirlandata" that he never heard
his brother explain the underlying significance of

LA GHIRLANDATA.
{From the Painting by D. G. Rossetti.)

contrast between the heavenly elements of the
picture, supplied by the angels' heads above; the
earthly represented by the fair Lady of the
Garlands herself; and the destroying' power,
symbolised by the dim threat of the poisonous
plant growing rankly at her feet.
The history of the " Dream of Dante," of
which Mr. Euston owns the smaller version, from
the William Graham collection, is a somewhat
curious one. Eossetti had already treated the

44

THE MAGAZINE

subject in an early water-colour in the year 1856 ;
but this composition was materially different from
the matured design as it was afterwards worked
out for the great painting in oils—by far the most
important in dimensions that ever came from the
artist's studio. The subject, as I need hardly
point out, is that passage in the Vita Naona in
which Dante describes his vision of the imminent
death of Beatrice—himself led by Love to gaze
and mourn at the couch whereon her fair form
lies stretched out, watched by two ladies, who
are about to place a pall over it. It may not
be very generally known that the head of the
adolescent Love, who, bending over the dead
Beatrice, kisses her lips, was studied from that
of the well-known and distinguished actor Mr.
Johnston Eorbes-Kobertson—then a very youthful
student of art.
The large version was painted as a commission
from the late Mr. William Graham, who, finding
it too much for his house in Grosvenor Place,
was compelled, much to his discomfiture, to hang
it on a staircase. He therefore, in the latter
part of 1873, arranged with Bossetti to relinquish

OF AET.

it and take in its stead a smaller but still toleriably large replica, to which, by way of distinction,
was to be added, at the suggestion of the purchaser,
;a predella in two divisions. Bossetti then took
the large " Dante's Dream" back to his house in
'Cheyne Walk, and from it prepared the repetition
now to be found in Mr. Buston's collection. The
isubjects of the predella are: (1) " Dante, being
\sick and crying out in a dream of his lady's death,
is mourned over by his near kinswoman, whom
<other ladies lead thence, by reason of her grief,
\and awaken him." (2) " Dante, recalling the inicidents of his sorrowful dream, recounts them to
the ladies who have awakened him, whereto his
\grieving kinswoman also hearkens apart."
Mr. Buston's version is perhaps more delicately
if less forcibly harmonised in colour, more homo\geneous in tone, than its prototype; but it lacks in
Ja great measure the subdued intensity of expres:sion that characterises the original work, on which
the brain and the brush worked together step by
istep. It is hardly necessary to recall the fact that
the larger and earlier work is now one of the chief
«ornaments of the Walker Gallery at Liverpool.

AET IN THE THEATEE: THE QUESTION OF EEFOEM.
BY W. TELBIN.

rriBADITIOK, it is said, clings more to the theatre
JL than to any other institution, and hampers its
progress, but I think not more than conservatism as
a break checks too hasty and ill-considered advancement in politics. In the art of painting, does not
tradition forbid the too hasty recognition of a new
school ?
In music, how coldly in many countries was the
work of Wagner received for many years, and still
how little cared for are some of his " lyric dramas "
whose inspiration draws least nourishment from the
soil of tradition. The force that directs forward
Nature herself is eternally the same. She can take
her spring onward only from the terra firma of the
past. And the theatre, as indeed it could not
otherwise do, has moved forward in all arrangements concerning it.
The appliances connected with the stage have
within the last twenty years been greatly changed.
The stage is now in most theatres a big box, in
which you can set a picture up in any way you
please at any angle. The grooves, the flats, the
wings made by the dozen pairs, are all gone—electricity has taken the place of gas, as gas did that
of the oil-lamp. In the auditorium stone, marble,

brick, concrete, and iron are now used instead of
timber, which became a harbour for dirt and dust,
and greatly added to the possibilities of fire.
To say that much is yet to be improved, and will
be improved in its turn, is to say that which needs
not saying; but I fancy in the complication of businesses and professions that constitute the theatre that
reform must be directed from within. Suggestions
from without are generally neither practicable nor
new. A few remarks of that most capable painter
and versatile artist, Professor Herkomer,* I propose
to take as texts for what further I have to say upon
the subject; but I find it difficult to commence
a critical analysis of his review of our branch of
art — the art of the theatrical painter (or fulfilling
all demands made upon us in the " large order "—
that of the "artful dodgers") without repeating him
or repeating myself. But, as notwithstanding his
disavowal of an intention to pose as a reformer, it
is in that role that his suggestions have been recorded, not because he " does things in his own way
in his own place," but because he publicly demonstrated before a large audience composed of influential
members of the theatrical profession, with whom the
* See

T H E MAGAZINE OF A E T , 1892,

pp. 259,

316.

AET I N THE THEATEE : THE QUESTION
power would rest to give effect to his suggestions.
In the first place, I am impressed with the feeling
that Prof. Herkomer, though more than up to date in
some cases, is never quite up to scale. Effects that
such an artist as he might produce in a very small
theatre, and that theatre his own, would be impossible of realisation in a large
house where the artist possessed none of the advantages
of proprietorship. With his
remark upon the design apart
from the construction of our
theatres I most cordially agree;
but what they are they are,
and I should think will be
for many years, for the very
sufficient reason that he suggests—namely, the great cost
of ground in the larger cities
of London, Paris, Berlin, New
York, and the rest.
The necessity of seating so
many people—accommodating
them on so many shelves,
one above another-—accounts
for the many faults in the
arrangements in the- great
majority of our theatres, and
the singularly unfavourable
point of view from which fifty
per cent, of the audience view
the stage and all thereon.
Under the circumstances the
arrangement is tolerated, for
though our efforts completely
fail to impress those occupying
the most elevated positions,
the voice and the tale it tells
reaches the ears, interests the
mind, and touches the heart of
those so situated. Therefore,
the chief senses are provided
for, but not all of them; and the extraordinary
height of many of the prosceniums suggests to the
credulous a possibility of the gratification of the
other sense—the eye. If this is not the sinister
motive of the architect, I know not what is—for, unsightly, it is also useless; indeed, with the exception
of the Haymarket, no theatre can show a scene with
the proscenium as a frame to it. A stage to do
so would have to be more than twice the height
of the proscenium. Want of funds often checks
the growth of the stage, and " ancient lights " have
cut short many others very much in their infancy.
The moral force of that silent protest, "ancient
lights," i&useldom challenged.
859

OF EEFOEM.

45

Professor Herkomer says that "practically'* the
means at the command of the scenic artist are unlimited in their scope and possibilities; should it not
rather be theoretically ?
The reseating of the theatre upon the plan of
the Wagner Theatre is simply impossible, so that

STAGE

WITH

CONTRACTING

PROSCKNIUM.

{Drawn by W. Telbin.)

it is useless to consider aught but what can and may
be, under the present conditions,' improved. These
are the conditions under which we work, but none
of which, I presume, intruded themselves perforce
upon the manager, dramatist, musician, and painter.
His lot was cast in pleasanter places.
Think of the very advanced line of the spectator
to the stage, the great width and height of the opening through which the scene is viewed, the extensive
range of the sight above and at the sides, raking the
subject fore and aft, the very limited. space at the
sides and above the amount of material that has to
be hung, perhaps (as frequently at the Lyceum) the
greater portion of fifteen or sixteen scenes hanging

THE MAGAZINE

46

from the girder roof some thirty feet down, and the
lower edges of all this mass of material to be screened
from the sight of the spectator! In the case of a
forest or a landscape, where foliage can be introduced, or an interior, some contrivances can be hit
upon which more or less effectively conceal the
object they are designed to hide. But when the

OF AKT.

is capable of producing admirable effects when hung
perpendicularly, it is most difficult of introduction,
and where the scenes have to be changed frequently
during the evening its use is altogether impossible.
To have an arrangement to draw up from the
stage, and open out like a huge hood to a bathingmachine, would, I think, be impracticable; the
quadrant of a
circle whose radius
might be thirty
feet, with a width
say of from fortyfive to sixty feet,
would mean much
framework, made
in iron as the
strongest and the
slightest. But this
framework must be
taken into account.
Then the covering,
if made of gauze
or cotton, would
tear, and if of wire
it would not fold
up, and if of either
it would become
opaque after two
or three weeks'
run of a piece.
Much t h a t is
charming, suggestive,' and practicable on a small
scale would be
impossible of application to a big
.
theatre; and in deSTAGE LIGHTED FEOM THE SIDES.
velopment all the
difficulties would
{Drawn by W. Telbin.)
grow.
subject represented be an open expanse of country
Prof. Herkomer suggests the maddening limitaor the far-stretching plane of the sea, with a treeless, tion of time, and the necessity of avoiding all exrocky foreground, why then we fall back upon that periments, for the traditional lines on which we
bete noire of critics, the sky border—bad and unsatis- work. Much more might be done by experiment,
factory enough, I admit. I have never seen anything no doubt, but such experiments must be tried on
done which has been less palpable. Fechter during the stage of the theatre and would be impossible of
his management of the Lyceum introduced in the testing in our studios. Now, though we are in many
platform scene of Hamlet an arrangement very much cases given ample time for the consideration and
like a large Dutch oven painted blue. At the Savoy the painting of a scene, our occupation of the stage
Theatre, where, as in the Pinafore, the opera was is reduced to a minimum. Therefore, as he says,
enacted in one scene, all borders were removed, and "to save our lives, we must run no risks."
the finely-constructed ship stood in a blue box, the
Through the witchery of light, I read, do we get
edges of the canvas not apparent, but the angles at the semblance of nature on the stage. Does Prof.
and the corners of the theatre were. The Professor Herkomer not rather mean the witchery of comsuggests the use of gauze, but although this material parative darkness ? Do we arrive at the mystery of

r sit/ K

AET I N THE THEATRE:

THE QUESTION

OF EEFOEM.

47

nature by the concealment of the mechanism of our important item in scenic work. I t can make or
work ? No doubt many of the best effects obtain- ruin a well-constructed and painted scene; but with
able on the stage are those where gloom and trumpery material, which is thin and purposeless
obscurity are required : sunset, twilight, early dawn. stuff, I take it, lighting can never be judicious.
In the splendid atmospheric conglomerate that conA few words in defence of the time-honoured
stitutes a London
sunset sky all appears at its best.
Seldom does a
steeple or tower,
chimney - shaft or
block
of
model
lodging-houses, however bad in outline
or unsatisfactory in
detail, look ill. The
s w e e t g r e y and
purple shades that
conceal the approach
of coming night
idealise all. But on
what an infinity of
work does this veil
hang! Prof. Herkomer says that often
the most trumpery
materials when properly illuminated—
(can trumpery material be judiciously
illuminated ?) — will
beat the most skilful touch of the
painter. Sometimes
bad work will be
just
suggestive
enough to excite the
STAGE LIGHTED BY FOOTLIGHTS.
imagination, but the
(Drawn by W. Telbin.)
i m a g i n a t i o n will
bear no fruit; too
early it strikes a sterile bottom, and dies. In the footlights. Lights, we are told, must not come from
best work of the best painters on what a sea of the ground; then why in a sunlit room are not our
labour the mystification seems to rest. Many of ceilings black ? The greater light comes from above,
Turner's water-colour drawings command first your but reflection with a most powerful light illumines
attention, then stimulate your imagination and all from below, and in some countries is only less
thoroughly satisfy your judgment. The mystifying powerful than the direct light. Gaslight or electric
in the works of this great painter is the toning light gives no reflection, or none to speak of, for
down with light of the scene-painter; but before the the purposes of illumination; in fact, the higher
smoke rose and the shadows were cast over the city the light the deeper the shade. Footlights and
on the canvas or paper, the city was planned, the ground lights, subdued and made secondary to the
streets were traced ; St. Paul's rose into the clearer greater light, act as reflection—the sun's reflection.
air, looking every inch its own height, and the river When and where has Prof. Herkomer ever seen on
—wandering in its true course as traced by nature— the stage anything approaching the effect in the
carried with it in a forest of ships the merchandise able drawing of a "face lighted by the footlights"?
of the world. All this tale is told in "London It is a face lighted by the bedroom candle. (THE
from One-Tree Hill." Lighting, indeed, is a most MAGAZINE OF ART, 1892, p. 263.)

48

THE MAGAZINE

One other and perhaps greater purpose is served
by the footlights than that of a substitute for
reflection, in my opinion. The footlights spread a
curtain of light between the auditorium and the
stage, filming over and softening all in front of it;
indeed I always felt that kindly service rendered by
the footlights. But never did I feel so assured of it
as when for a time, a very short time, they were set
aside by Mr. Carte in the New English Opera House,
and the side lights suggested by Prof. Herkomer were
tried, some ten feet above the stage and perhaps eight
feet in front of it. It was a somewhat impromptu
arrangement, but there the light was, and the effect
was certainly far from satisfactory. The stage on
either side was much more brilliantly lighted than
the centre ; the auditorium seemed only to end
where the scenery blocked the way, and the singers
appeared to form part of the audience. Perhaps
the illustrations with and without footlights will
assist the reader in understanding my contention,
and by comparing the effect will be able to form
his own opinion.
From one more suggestion of Prof. Herkomer must
I dissent. The contracting proscenium would be, I
feel assured, a mistake. If the spectators w7ere badly
placed to see the larger picture, at how much greater
disadvantage would they witness a smaller one contracted to the proportions of a garret in width ? The
scene must be reduced in depth, or the side-boxes
would see nothing; and all the action must take
place in front of the scene, as it does in the drama of
Punch and Judy. Or suppose the deck of a yacht or
galley of fifteen feet beam—Covent Garden proscenium is 42 feet by 42 feet; at that theatre I saw
a short time ago Tristan und Isolde, and the deck
of the galley was reduced to something like reasonable proportions by the advancement towards the
centre of the side of painted draperies about ten to
twelve feet beyond the proscenium. In previous
productions in which a ship had been represented,
the exaggeration struck me as being very ridiculous.

OF AET.

In EAfricaine the vessel's beam measurement was
about sixty feet more than that of an Atlantic liner;
but really the later arrangement was little improvement, for within the gold frame you had so many
square feet of drapery and so many representing
a ship—two subjects instead of one, as in the more
general and not more unsatisfactory arrangement.
Prof. Herkomer, in fact, proposes to add to the
fallacy of the high arch of the proscenium, to
which he particularly takes exception, some fifteen
or twenty feet in certain scenes, and several feet on
either side. Whether this were covered with Liberty
silk or a more substantial arrangement of panelling
would little matter.
Is not this literalness in small matters mistaken?
I avoid saying truthfulness, for truth in art has
no fixed point; in art, that is true which conveys to
the mind best the impressions aimed at. The mind
magnifies the subject upon which its interest is
centred, and therefore cares nothing for the footrule or yard-measure evidence. At one time an
apartment, however large, has the confinement of a
prison cell; at another time one no bigger than the
cell is capable of holding all we love and treasure.
Hamlet says that "Denmark is a prison," but on
being told by Kosencrantz that he " thinks not so,"
replies, " W h y then 'tis none to you, for there is
nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so; to
me it is a prison." These remarks are made in support of my contention that the size of the garret
or of the ship's deck is not of vital importance, and
that the imagination if healthfully employed will
not shy at the discrepancy between the man and
his material surroundings. So far I have argued
against the innovation only from the point of view
of the audience and the small artistic results to be
gained by the arrangement; but, lastly, the greatest
opposition would be that of the actor and actormanager, who would resent such a curtailment of
his premises. That opposition would alone make
the introduction of such a change impossible.

"LOVE AMONG THE EUINS.

T

HE news that Mr. Burne-Jones's masterpiece,
" Love Among the Euins," had received great
damage has been made public by the daily papers;
we therefore have the pleasure to place an engraving
of it before our readers. At the same time we are
precluded from commenting upon the circumstance
as the whole matter is sub judice, and the question of
damages, if any, is yet, at the time of writing, to
be settled. We may point out, however, that the
picture, which took the better part of three years

to complete, was first exhibited at the Grosvenor
Gallery, and was at once recognised as touching
the highest point of poetic tragedy to which the
artist had attained, while the curious simplicity of
execution greatly impressed the admirers of Mr.
Burne-Jones's art. What may be the ultimate fate
of the present picture we do not know ; but we
may announce that the painter has decided upon
executing a replica as closely as he can—though
he admits that the handling will not be the same.

LOVE

AMONG

THE

RUINS.

(From the Painting by E. Burne-Jones, recently destroyed. Engraved by M. Dormoy. By special Permission of the Artist, from a Photograph by F. Hollyer.)

49

SOME EECENT ILLUSTEATED VOLUMES.
MEMOIE OF EDWARD CALVERT.*
BY M. H. SPIELMANN.

"VTOW that the Eoyal Academy has recognised
JLi in Calvert sufficient interest and sufficient
talent to admit him to the charmed circle of the
Old Masters, and the British Museum has bought
examples of his work, and the Luxembourg Museum
in France has honoured him with a similar compliment, it was high time that a biography should

of "quality" which defies description, Calvert was
distinguished above nearly every other artist of his
time; and by these very excellences he has indicated
the position claimed for him by his friends. It is, of
course, unfortunate that these qualities are not those
which can be best translated by mechanical process,
however skilful, but it is truly remarkable to observe
how fine a suggestion of delicacy of tone, and beauty
of colour, as well as skill in the management of

THE PLOUGH.
{From a Wood-Engraving by Edward Calvert.)

be devoted to his art. This has been done in sumptuous form by Mr. Samuel Calvert in such a way
as to erect a worthy monument to the memory of
the artist, and to place before the public a volume
attractive in every detail of its production.
A recent private exhibition of Calvert's work,
together with the public display of certain drawings
bought by the British Museum, and more particularly the collection brought together at the Old
Masters exhibition last year, revealed to the artloving public that a man had lived among us, and
had passed away, who for certain qualities of his art
was second to none in modern times. For delicacy
and refinement of design, and for subtle appreciation
of exquisite colour, and, above all, for that sweetness
* "Memoir of Edward Calvert, Artist, Friend of William
Blake." By his third son. With many illustrations and facsimile reproductions. Limited Edition. (London: Sampson
Low, Marston and Co.)

design, is conveyed by many of these admirable
plates. At the same time the defects of Calvert's
style are more candidly revealed by them than
would become evident by an examination of the
original pictures; for, unmoved by the glamour of
colour, we see the more clearly the lack of vigour
in his drawings, and oftentimes the lack of life in
his figures. His flocks are often not flocks at all,
but congregations of individual sheep, which are
beautifully placed in position in a landscape but do
not move across it. But what matters that—we are
tempted to exclaim—when the artist can give us the
glow of the waning sunshine, the moist scent of the
air, the heaviness of the dew, the very repose of the
evening twilight, as few, very few, other artists can ?
What matters it that archaism, unaffected and refreshing to behold, taints his early religious drawings
when the very spirit of them breathes from their surface—that surface graved by him with such striking

50

THE MAGAZINE

OF AET.

skill on wood and copper. His goddesses are like his his writings were of good-for-nothing in particular
shepherdesses, and his shepherdesses simply types of in themselves—which I am far from asserting—
pure and beautiful womanhood, distinguished though they prove him possessed of a powerful pen and
hardly elegant—and surely not so much "Greek" (as of a philosophic mind which, occupied a little less
the artist thought they were) as graceful examples with religious thoughts, might have led him to
of simple idealism. And so it is that his female do more for his fellows. But he devoted years
figures, though nude, are never naked. They are to discovering Titian's lost system of colour—the
secret of his mastery which
clothed in the fine sentiment
died with him; and in the
of the artist, and at once
•^^~zz?m^^^^^
v
result of his labours there
impress the spectator, if he be
may perhaps be the germ
sensitive at all to artistic imby the development of which
pression, with an appreciation
we may arrive at scientific
of how very much depends
excellence of colour, just as
in art upon that mysterious
scientific excellence may be
factor, Style, and upon the
attained in music. What was
poetic sensibility of the
this system of chromo-notapainter.
tion, of music-colour, I need
An ethereal George Mason,
not here stop to show. The
a rudimentary Blake (if I
reader must follow up this
may call him so), a Diaz in
topic in the book itself, and
flesh-painting, but with more
see how Calvert came at last
true grace and feeling for the
to " score" a picture, as a
nude in one finger than the
musician " scores " an opera,
Frenchman had in his whole
and would apply the same
composition, Calvert in his
system to the criticism of a
later years, when he gave up
painting.
But, like Titian,
the subjects though not the
Calvert has taken his secret
tone and spiritual philosophy
with him, leaving too little
of Blake, assumed in England
behind him to unravel the
a taste which was adopted
mystery of his discoveries.
by Hamon in France. But
Yet that he was not a mere
his colour was far superior.
hare-brained inventor, his own
Hamon painted chiefly in
works remain to prove. greys; so much so, that TheoA pastoral and religious
phile Gautier in his criticism
.... painter by irresistible instinct,
wrote of him: " We wish that
Calvert was one of the band
when M. Hamon paints he
who consisted chiefly of Blake,
would put a little colour on
Samuel Palmer, John Linnell,
the end of his brush." But
and Mr. George Eichmond,
Calvert's, when he would
A STUDY
between whom a life-long
show it, at once charmed the
(By Edward Calvert.)
friendship, cemented by rebeholder, and it is solely
owing to the modesty, one might truly say the shy- ligious harmony and sympathy, prevailed to the very
ness, of the painter—no less than his fastidious taste, end. I t is quite natural, therefore, to find Calvert rethrough which he destroyed the vast proportion of signed to semi-obscurity—nay, eager for it, according
what he did, both paintings and writings—that his to a maxim in his own proverbial philosophy: "To
position has not long since been recognised in the those whom most Apollo loves no effort is required,
world of art. During his life, which lasted from no straining after originality, no affectation, no am1799 to 1883, he was ever at work. Serious almost bition, however disguised." That such a man should
to solemnity, he continuously devoted his facile hand have shrunk from the prevailing spirit of the day is
to the production of his drawings, engravings, re- not surprising; that he should have been content to
searches into the colour theory, and his criticisms. work away from the world, its struggles, and its conBut the harvest is small, for he chose to destroy tests—not in a spirit of hatred of worldly ways, but
it for its lack of perfection—the wheat along with in the gentler mood of quiet practice of his art and
the straw and chaff. But enough has been left of religious meditation—this is in complete harmony
behind to claim our respect and recognition; and if with his life, and finds ample reflection in his art.

SOME EECENT ILLUSTEATED
"EX LIBEIS."*
HE study of book-plates—" ex libris," as collectors, following Continental usage, prefer to
call them—has until quite recently lacked a literature of its own. Such
omission would probably hardly surprise
those people who still
regard book-plates as
scarcely more deserving serious consideration than postagestamps, c r e s t s , or
monograms. Yet the
fact that first the
Hon. Leicester Warren
(Lord de Tabley), and
now
Mr.
Egerton
(Book-plate Designed and
Castle, both men of
assured literary position, deemed the subject worth scientific classification and research, renders further apology needless.
Hitherto the heraldy of the book-plate has attracted

T

VOLUMES.

51

certain English plates of almost every period fall
distinctly within the category of works of art; but,
to be candid, the majority of designs past and
present are too tamely mechanical to be interesting.
True, some graceful
pictures like those by
Mr. Stacy Marks, E.A.,
from the accident of
an added legend help
to redeem the otherwise low average of
the modern plate; but
they are not essentially
" book-plates."
To-day the heraldry
of such a " little master " as Mr. C. W.
Sherborn
(four of
Engraved by Bewick.)
whose delicate copperplates appear in the
volume under notice), or the allegorical devices of
Messrs. Walter Crane, Charles Eicketts, and a few
others, show distinctly that the ideal plate, while entirely suitable to its purpose, may—indeed, must—be
a work of art. Elsewhere the intention has been too

(Book-plate Desiyned by Bandolph Caldecott.)

(Book-plate Designed by Albert Diirer.)

most attention; Mr. Castle—who, as constant passages show, is a very respectful student of blazonings
and genealogies—has here given equal prominence
to its artistic possibilities. Many old German and

often held sufficient, and more or less happy conceits
rendered without technique, and with entire disregard
of decorative quality; so that to collect such childish
or merely commercial designs for their intrinsic
worth seems abject folly to an outside person.
In the earliest example of those reproduced here
we have a reduced facsimile of the large plate

* " English Book - Plates : " an Illustrated Handbook for
Students of Ex Libris. By Egerton Castle, M.A., F.S.A.
(London: George Bell and Sons.)

THE MAGAZINE

52

designed by Albert Diirer for the last prior of
St. Laurence, Nuremberg, which is a fine example
of black-and-white decoration, and suited to its intended use.
Mr. E. A. Abbey's graceful sketch for Mr. Edmund
Gosse proves that new types may be created which
also admirably fulfil their purpose ; yet the bold line

CABLYLE'S BOOK-PLATE.

employed by Mr.. Walter Crane, by Randolph Caldecott (in. the plate lent by Mr. Henry Blackburn),
the " Igdrasil" design by Mr. Ricketts, and others
of the hundred and fifty Mr. Castle has chosen,
keep to the style which Mr. William Morris would
have us believe is alone possible for the decoration
of the printed volume. Extraneous interest makes
the delicate convention of Samuel Pepys's plate
worth regard ; but as a book-plate it records mere
ownership, and might be- as fittingly employed

(Book-plate Designed by Alan

Wright.)

upon silver, or for a hundred other purposes. The
label that bears Carlyle's name has not even beauty
to recommend i t ; yet the suspicion it raises
that the modern Ecclesiastes was a customer of the

OF ART.

advertising heraldic stationer will delight those
enemies Mr. Froude's indiscretions provoked. The
label by Bewick—an instance of everything to avoid
in shape, style, or treatment—as a piece of wood-engraving, is of some artistic and more historic interest.

(Book-plate Designed by E. A. Abbey.)

Although one might criticise the majority of
plates, yet the pictorial designs by Sir John Millais,
Mr. John D. Batten, Mr. Alan Wright, and others,
equally with heraldic devices both of the older styles
and those by Mr. Erat Harrison, show varied types,
each one fitted for its purpose.
The orderly chapters of Mr. Castle and his
generally accurate information will leave the reader
well equipped for the quest of collecting. If only
artists of repute, attracted by the growing craze,

SAMUEL PEPYS'S

BOOK-PLATE.

should be tempted thereby to study the essentials of
the " ex libris," and create new masterpieces, the
passing fancy would justify its right to such an
admirable handbook as the one under notice.

53

ADOLF

HILDEBRAND.

By HELEN ZIMMERN.

T

HAT sculpture is a lost art, a science that is and academical traditions, so pervaded with that
dead, is a remark daily reiterated, spoken in spirit and harmony of form which distinguishes the
all sincerity by hundreds of lips that would gladly antique in sculpture. Above all, this excellence is
• see the grandest and most
vital of the fine arts revived
again in m o d e r n days.
Sculpture does seem at
times to be an art that
has had, like many another
human development of the
past, to make way for
the changed exigencies of
modern times, for divergent
demands and requirements;
but every now and then
there uprises some artist
who disproves the melancholy contention, who shows
that sculpture can still be,
and is, a living art adapted
to latter-day requirements,
combining with them many
of the best qualities that
distinguished it in the
past.
Notable among these is
Adolf Hildebrand, a German
settled since long years in
the Medici city by the
Arno, a town in which his
particular art leanings find
full inspiration amid the
treasures from Donatello's
chisel and from the other
Quattrocentisti who followed
and preceded him.
Born
in 1847 at Marburg, he
studied
at
Nuremberg,
Munich, and Borne under
SLEEPING SHEPHEED BOY.
the guidance and inspira(From the Statue by Adolf Hildebrand.)
tion of Kreling, Kaspar,
Zumbusch, and Hans von Marees, and for a short notable in the " Sleeping Shepherd Boy." The lines
while worked in the studio of Siemering at Berlin. of the whole composition, the animated softness
In 1872 he went to settle in Florence, and thence and suppleness, especially shown in the modelling
sent the following year to the exhibition of Vienna of the body, cause the statue almost to rival the
his life-size marble statue of a sleeping shepherd best works of classic times. We feel that in this
boy, and a bronze statuette of a boy drinking nude statue, as in his others of the same class, Hilout of a cup which he holds in his right hand, debrand has striven to reveal to us the beauties of
while his left, hanging lightly by his side, grasps the human body, and this more in the manner that
a bunch of grapes. Both works created an im- antiquity revealed them than by the methods of the
mense sensation. It had become rare in modern Eenaissance. The " Shepherd Boy" is executed in
art to find works so free from all theatrical posing marble, the " Drinking Boy " in bronze.
860

54

THE MAGAZINE OF ART.

The remarkable point about these two early
works of the artist is that they betray no immaturity. Though they show all the fresh spontaneous
character of youthful work, the beautiful aroma of
bloom, of unweariedness, that early works from
the hands of great artists evince, they are, nevertheless, mature and complete both in technique
and conception. Neither is imitation either servile
or conscious; both works show a strong element
of independent thought and observation. Indeed,

POETEAIT
(By Adolf

a strongly-marked individuality of treatment and
conception is Hildebrand's dominant characteristic.
Adolf Hildebrand is an artist in the truest sense
of that much-abused word, a master of the craft.
He works himself in the mass; he does not follow
the modern convenient methods of making his
models in clay and in small size, and leaving it
chiefly to skilful workmen to enlarge in the plaster
and to point in the stone. His model does not die
and rise again, as has been said of the clay model
of the modern sculptor. It never has died, and it
never will. It is a strange and subtle quality this
gift of being able to give life to artistic creations;
it is so easy to feel, so impossible to analyse, that
it strikes the beholder dumb with admiration and

despair. It is the quality that makes the distinction
between works of talent and works of genius; and,
alas! that I must say so, in most modern sculpture
it is entirely wanting.
Yet another of Hildebrand's earlier works reminds one of the bronzes of Herculaneum. It is the
lovely figure of a faun "piping songs of pleasant
glee." The model of this, which has never reached
completion in bronze, stands in the yard of Hildebrand's house. Beholding the young, agile figure

GROUP.
Hildebrand.)

as it sits there in the loggia of the old convent in
which Hildebrand has made his lovely home, the
green garden behind him, with its tall dark cypresses,
its olives, its flowering trees, its showers of roses, it
seems as if, could we but stay still long enough, we
should hear him make his music.
Exquisite too, tender and delicate, is a boy carrying a jug. He balances himself carefully with his
arm, and we are made to feel the full weight of the
water his ewer is supposed to contain. Here, too,
the contours are beautifully modelled and moulded.
Belonging to the same category of work is a bronze
high-relief of a reed-crowned flute-player. His attitude is careless and unaffected, and is effective in its
very simplicity. Not less remarkable is a fountain,

ADOLF

HILDEBEAND.

the bronze figure of a sitting youth, who holds with
both hands and rests against his protruding right
leg the flagon whence he pours the clear, crystal, refreshing stream. (See p. 56.) This work, which is
placed in the private house of a connoisseur of art
of Munich as an indoor niche-fountain, has been put
into position by the artist himself. The niche, after
the Pompeian fashion, is filled in with coloured
mosaic, whose chaste, deep-toned colour-harmonies
form a rich relief to the delicate patina of the bronze.
Seen in its place, as I had the good fortune to
view it, it reads an instructive lesson of how plastic
works, without demanding for themselves aught else
but their natural material, can be brought into yet
higher effectiveness by being placed in attractive
coloured relations with their surroundings. A boy
throwing a ball, executed in marble, is another
graceful work, betokening Hildebrand's sure knowledge of the human form. In all his works there
is the same intensity of attention, of striving after
perfection and due expression, which constitutes the
great attraction of this master. His marble is
always warm, always alive. At times he colours it,
but this colour is of the most delicate tone, such
as we hope the Greeks employed upon their polychrome statues, not the cruder colours laid upon
his " Venus " by Gibson. It is rather a breath than
a colour.
In all Hildebrand's earlier works we see the strong
fascination which the ancients exercised upon him,
especially the later Greeks. His Philoctetes, his
Piping Faun, his small figure of Cupid, a Mercury,
of which the casts may be seen in his studio, might
be placed among the sculptures of Herculaneum in
the Naples Museum, and be taken for works of that
period. There is the same slightness of build, the
same apparent airy agility, if we may use such a
word with regard to sculpture, the same fulness
of life, and, except in Philoctetes, the same joyous
placidity of expression. The simple character of the
subjects, the complete absence of all literary intention in the work, is exactly like that of the
Greeks.
In the artist's later productions the influence of
his sojourn among the Florentine masters makes
itself felt. There is something more marked and
emphatic in its character. Thus a boy driving an
unwilling pig (see p. 58), which he holds with one
hand by its tail, with another by its ear, fixing it
yet further with his legs, beneath which the animal
strives to escape, avenging itself for its detention by
spouting forth water from its nostrils, is intended by
him for the fountain of a slaughter-house or farmyard.
This is a work of the most downright naturalism;
the choice of theme is audacious in the extreme.
The boy's face is an ordinary one—the face of a

55

peasant, and not of a very high type of peasant
either—the pig is as ugly as most pigs. At first
sight it does not seem a beautiful work from any
point of view, and yet it is a strong one, one to
which we return in spite of ourselves, recognising
that in modelling this its creator, in some respects,
has but imitated Donatello, the character of whose
genius seems to be in many ways typically identical
with his own. There is such a reality, such spirit
about the whole group, which may be called perhaps
the most original of all his works, that it might
certainly be considered as that which marks the
transition from what I have called his Greek period
to his Florentine. After seeing it we are glad to
think that the sculptor is at last, in the fountain
which he is making for the Maximilian Platz of
Munich, to have an opportunity of showing us the
work of his genius in a larger field, where he will
have power to throw out all his energy, and to impress his will upon a powerful mass of material.
Hildebrand's artistic creations fall into two divisions : ideal groups and portrait busts; and his
execution is sharply diverse in the two forms. While
in his figures he generalises, in his busts he individualises. The versatility of the man is impressed
upon us rather in the latter than in the former
section. We feel how the character of the person
to be portrayed has been studied, and how material
and treatment are carefully adapted in order to
express this to full advantage. His portrait busts
refresh us by their width of conception, their boldness, their freedom. They evince artistic realism
of the noblest kind. Strangely imbued with old
Florentine impressions is a terra-cotta bas-relief
semicircular tympanum built up on an ornamental
architectural base, and half surrounded by a garland
of flowers and fruit of Delia Kobbia character. It
depicts a family group—a mother and three young
children, one of whom she holds on her breast, while
the others are enfolded by her protecting arm.
This composition represents the artist's own wife
and three of his six children. It hangs in the
dining-room of his house, once a refectory; for Hildebrand has pitched his tent in the disused convent
of San Francesco di Paolo, of which the upper floor
serves him as dwelling-rooms and the lower as
workshops. It stands on the slopes of Bellosguardo,
and they who pass the green, silent piazza where
stands the strange old statue of the saint—the
miracle-working taumaturgo as he is called in the
inscription on the base—know nothing of the statues
within the building, are ignorant how fair a home
lies behind that blank wall, and what a noble homelife makes the place an oasis in the howling desert
of this noisy, jingling age. Kuniour has it that
visitors are not welcome in this house, and, indeed,

56

THE MAGAZINE OF AET.

Hildebrand, unlike most Florentine artists, does not
throw his doors open to indiscriminate guests. When
one remembers that he does all the finishing work
in the marble himself, this objection to. visitors is

DESIGN FOE A FOUNTAIN.
(By Adolf Hildebrand.)

perhaps not difficult to understand. Even if it were
convenient, which it is not, to be interrupted by
curious and often unsympathetic people, the conditions of his work make many of its phases unintelligible to the uninitiated—those, for example, of
the type of the young American lady who sneered at
the round Madonna, the one with the child reading
at its mother's knee, and on being told that Michelangelo had made it, replied, " I don't care who made
it; it is not finished ! "
In Hildebrand's studio stand casts of all his
works, as well as an unfinished work—a man carrying a heavy bag on his shoulders—which is still strug-

gling out of the marble after the manner of Michelangelo. An alto-relievo figure of a baby, one of his
own children, is most exquisite; the soft firmness of
infant flesh and the sweet childish look are rendered
to perfection. Among the casts in
his studio there are all the portrait
busts he has ever modelled. A later
work is one of Buonamici the pianist,
to be executed in terra-cotta. It is a
marvellous likeness of a face familiar
to every lover of music, a genial,
kindly visage, whose head is covered
with rings of curly hair. This bust
is perhaps the most modern thing
in the studio. Hildebrand's- portraits
of women are distinctly individual and
very refined. They are entirely free
from any of that appearance of pose
which so often ruins the work of
modern sculptors. His portraits,
generally reliefs, of his own family,
are very lovely; a true domestic
character informs them, from the
" dear lumpish baby" to the group
of children with their mother, which
has something holy about it. Hildebrand is very German in temperament
and character, and these domestic
works are quite Teutonic in expression of sentiment and feeling.
What strikes us chiefly after a
review of Hildebrand's portraits is
that we hardly feel the material
nor the workmanship more than we
feel them in Mino da Fiesole. It is
the strong, pulsating life that pervades them, and shines through them,
that attracts us, their uncompromising and yet tender truthfulness. It
is not the striving of a certain
modern school to represent their
models in such a wise as though
they were impressions taken direct
from the living flesh. The spiritual and inner character of the person depicted has not been lost sight
of ; their idiosyncrasy, as it reveals itself through the
envelope of the flesh, has been studied as carefully
as the enclosure that holds it. Some of Hildebrand's
portraits are almost startling in their life-likeness.
Thus the bust of an elderly lady, with head slightly
inclined to one side, giving her the appearance of
listening to what someone is saying, and holding her
prompt reply in readiness, is so naturalistically conceived that few workmen of the Italian Eenaissance
would have been ashamed to sign it. That the bust
has been modelled down to the arms so that the lightly

ADOLF

HILDEBRAND.

57

folded hands appear but adds to the amazingly life- great clearness his attitude towards the Florentine
like character of the whole, which is scarcely en- Quattrocentisti in a letter to a friend. He writes:—
hanced through the circumstance that the terra" I strive to attain to the plastic positivism of their
cotta is faintly tinted throughout in natural colours. modelling and their direct examination of Nature, in order
As full of truth and vitality is
the marble bust of a young English
girl, Miss Clotilde Brewster, described as " architecture alumna,"
and as being in her fifteenth year.
The bust is modelled on the background of a niche, which is covered
with a light gold surface, from
which the shining marble head,
softly tinted in warm flesh-colour,
stands out with vivid force. Repose, simplicity, and truth to life
are here combined with admirable
harmony.
Hildebrand, like his Italian
prototypes, is not afraid of being
true and exact. He does not fear
even to depict angularity when
it is requisite, as in his old
lady's bust. In this case, as, indeed, often with Hildebrand's work,
no preliminary sketch was made.
The portrait was worked, in Michelangelo's manner, direct out of the
stone. Yet another reason, why this
sculptor's work bears such a lifelike
character, for Hildebrand maintains,
and with justice, that every plastic
work that grows by degrees out of
the stone after the pattern of a
plaster cast is no longer an original,
but a copy. When we consider how
even the best copy fails to render
the vigour of the original, we can
grasp what is lost by the system
of small squeezes, mechanical enlargement, and mathematical pointing. Hildebrand's workmen are
POETRAIT BUST.
very proud of never being allowed
(By Adolf HUdebrand)
to go beyond a certain point in
the work. " After we get there," they say, " he says to issue from the approximate, the more indicative method
' stop,' and does all the rest himself." ' Work done of the modern treatment of form. As it is possible to
in this way is a perpetual exercise for the imagi- follow more clearly their individual activity than we are
able to do with the antiques, of which there are so few origination, that noblest of human possessions which nals extant, I found that Florence furnished me with a
seems to be so much neglected in these days. The better guide than Rome. It is not that in which the
many modern appliances for making art easy seem works of the quattrocentisti differ from the antique, but
rather that in which they show us the antique as their
to bid fair to extinguish it altogether.
direct working inspiration, which appears to me to form
I have said that Hildebrand's work is no their instructive and valuable character. It is not the
slavish imitation of the old Florentine. He does nature of their fancy, but the distinctness thereof, without
not coquette with archaism; wThere our age knows which I cannot conceive of any plastic activity having
better and can model more accurately, he does not value."
Certainly the great thing about Hildebrand's
hesitate to let it speak. He has formulated with

58

THE MAGAZINE OF AKT.

work is that it begins with life, and, therefore, cannot
do otherwise than grow, and in the works themselves one sees that it is for Art herself he lives and
works, and not for money or for fame. His life on

hour, and the struggle for existence is sharp ; but it
is possible to live as Hildebrand lives,
" F a r from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,"

possible to live and create, if artists would but be

DESIGN FOB A FOUNTAIN.
(By Adolf midebrand.)

the slopes of Bellosguardo, amid all that beauty and
quiet, proves that the hurried habits of mind of the
present hour have taken no hold of him. Standing
among his works, we feel that we are in another,
calmer world. Here is none of that vile trading
spirit that is the blight and bane of so much of
modern art.
Art must be free if she would be true, and no
spectre of market value should stand between her
and the light. This to many in these days is a
hard saying, for " We must live " is the cry of the

contented to place their demands on a lower plane,
and not seek to vie with the empty-headed, fullpursed parvenu. All honour to the man who can
make his own environments, who can say to strife
and greed " Procul o procul este," can hear through
all the tumult of the age the silver pipe of the faun,
and work with his own hands and not other men's,
can choose to wait, and not make haste to be rich.
To such belong the Laureate's golden words:—
" To him who works and feels he works
That same grand year is ever at the doors."

59

MYTHS OF THE DAWN ON GEEEK VASE-PAINTINGS.
BY JANE E. HARRISON.

M

ODES in mythology are swift to change. What
may be called nature-myths are now out of
fashion. Apollo is no longer explicable to us as the
sun-god; Pan is no more resolvable into " a little
damp cloud." Shy though the modern mythologist
undoubtedly is of a sun or a moon myth, there yet
remain some figures in
Greek legend that are
intelligible only after
this method. Eos has
many a human function,
as will be later seen;
but, for all that, she remains, she always must
remain, from first to
last, Goddess of the
Dawn.
Her name was, to
ancients as well as
moderns, associated for
the most part with the
sad story of her rival,
Procris—

of Achilles prevailed. And the heroes fought a
long time amid the whirling dust, and terribly
rang their harness.
" Then the Dawn shuddered on her golden throne,
And called unto the West Wind, and he blew
And brake the cloud asunder; and alone
Achilles stood, but Memnon, smitten through,
Lay beautiful amid the
dreadful dew
Of battle, and a deathless
heart was fain
Of tears, to gods impossible,
that drew
From mortal hearts a little
of their pain."

And to Eos, for that
she was a goddess, was
granted this boon : that
she should take the body
of her son and bear it
away to the immortals.
The picture's meaning
needs no commentary;
it is the mother and her
" Poor jealous Procris, in the
dead son, the Pieta of
Cretan fold,
Slain by the very hand of
antiquity. It is a rare
love at last."
combination of decorative and expressive art.
But she had other and
For decoration I might
less tragic functions.
cite a hundred designs
On a red-figured lekyas perfect on Greek
thos in the Louvre
vases, but we have little
(Fig. 1) we see her
FIG. 1.—EOS CARRYING HYDRIDE.
else so expressively fine
in her simplest aspect
(From a Lekythos in the Louvre.)
as the fallen head and
as nature goddess. In
either hand she holds a hydria, a water-vessel; as dead stark arms and hands. It is odd to notice how
she floats through the air she pours the dew on the the charm of these stark, straight lines has so got
thirsty land beneath; she has drawn it before the hold of the designer that he makes impossible use
rising of the sun from the fountains of the night. of them to get a pattern out of the legs. The date
Eos is always winged, for Dawn, except in the chilly of the cup is easy to fix ; style and the signature of
Duris alike point to the first half (and not late in
misty north, is swift.
From the Louvre also comes the second picture the first half) of the fifth century B.C.
(Fig. 2), a work of quite another order, indeed,
Perhaps one of the hardest things for anyone
one of the finest things Greek ceramography has beginning to study Greek ceramography to realise,
left us. It is the work of the artist Duris, known and harder still to gauge, is the effect of the art
to us by many another lovely design. The pic- type on mythological tradition. An instance lies
ture is taken from the centre of a cylix. It was to hand not by our summoning. We have just
fated that Memnon, the son of Eos, Memnon, the seen the picture of Eos, the strong-winged goddess,
most goodly man in all the world, should contend bearing her son, passive, dead. We turn to Fig. 3 and
with Achilles, son of Thetis. And the two mothers find a design widely different in character and sigprayed to Zeus, each for her son; and Zeus weighed nificance, but the same in type. The elements are
the lives of the heroes in his balance, and the life the same, though diverse, the draped, winged woman

60

THE MAGAZINE

bearing the nude, passive man. It would take too
long to consider the evidence, but in the present
case undoubtedly we have reversed (for purposes
of the story) the correct chronological sequence.
The art type of Eos carrying Kephalos, for such
is the subject of Fig. 3, suggested, not was suggested

OF ART.

she followed Artemis, and right well could she draw
the bow and hurl the spear ; but love came to her,
and she was wed to beautiful Kephalos, and for a
while she laid aside her bow and spear and they
dwelt together in peace and trust. But not for long.
Kephalos was over fair, and it came to pass that one

FIG. 2.—EOS CARRYING T H E BODY OF M E M X O N .
{From

a Cylix by Duris

by, the art type of Eos carrying Memnon. I do
not mean that it created the story, but rather
that it made it easy, even possible, for the artist to
embody it.
The story of Eos, Procris, and Kephalos is
familiar enough, if from no ancient source, at least
from the lovely "Death of Procris," by Piero di
Cosimo, in the National Gallery. But that its lines
may be clearly before us, we must recall it. Procris
was the daughter of King Erechtheus, of Athens, and
dwelt in the deme Thoriciis, whither it may be
Cretan ships brought the story. In her maiden days

in the

Louvre.)

morning he went forth to hunt at the dawn, and
Eos saw him and loved him, and she bore him away;
and though he would fain have returned to Procris,
he might not, for the strong goddess held him. And
Eos, in her cruelty, because she could not prevail
over his love, sowed in his heart cruel mistrust of
Procris. And Kephalos disguised himself
stranger, and went a-wooing desolate Procris, and
prevailed with her by his great beauty, and thereafter he disclosed himself. And Procris, in her
shame and confusion, fled to Crete, and betook her
in the sorrow of her heart to the chase. And Artemis

MYTHS OF THE DAWN

ON GREEK

loved her as before, and gave her the trusty dog
Lailaps, and two spears that should never miss their
aim, and counselled her in like manner to make trial
of her husband. And she too disguised herself, and
she landed at the coast of Thoricus, and there she
met Kephalos still at his hunting; and when he
saw her exceeding beauty, and the trusty dog, and
the sharp spears, he would fain have her to wife ;
and so thus he too fell into the snare. And when
they knew that they wrere each guilty
of the like fault, they forgave one
another, and there was peace. And
Procris, in token of her new love,
gave to Kephalos the dog Lailaps and
the spears that never miss their aim.
But ever in the heart of Procris
was the old pain-aching. Still Kephalos wrent forth in the dawn to
hunt, and Procris for awhile abode
at home, sick with jealousy and hate.
But one morning she could endure
no longer, and she followed Kephalos,
and hiding behind the bush she
waited; and Kephalos seeing the
boughs move thought he espied a
fawn, and hurled his spear; and
thus it came to pass that with the
spear she had given him he slew
her whom he loved. And men say
that, in his despair, he fled ever westward, till, worn and weary, he flung
himself down from a rock, and so
perished.
Elsewhere I have tried to show
something of the real mythological
significance of this sad and complex
tale; something of its relation to
ancient cultus and tribal relations. Here our concern is with art, and its attitude to a story so
lovely. Let us return to Fig. 3.
At the first glance, after reading the story of
Eos and Kephalos, the picture strikes us as strange,
unexpected. What of poor, jealous Procris ? There
seems no hint of reluctance, no raising of a question in the mind of Kephalos. The wooing of
the strong goddess is after a drastic fashion that
seems to admit no refusal.
Such was at first
the ancient view.
" They know how, on a time,
Fair shining Eos Kephalos caught up
For love's sake to the gods ; and yet they dwell
In heaven, nor shun the converse of the gods,
And still endure—handselled methinks by Fate."

The rape is unquestionably forcible, and so inconsistent with the notion of the jealousy of Procris;
in fact, it is clear enough that it was only in later
861

VASE-PAINTINGS.

61

days that the story of Procris was woven together
with that of Eos.
In the next picture (Fig. 4), also from the centre
of a cylix—signed by the noted painter Hieron—
some show of reluctance is made by Kephalos. He
is pursued, overtaken, he will be rapt to heaven;
but still he flies, still Procris does not appear; her
existence is not even necessarily implied.
Procris, indeed, so far as at present known,

FIG. 3.—EOS AND KEPHALOS.
(From a Cylix at Berlin.)

appears but once in ancient ceramography. It is
curious to note the attitude of mind of the Greek
vase-painter towards the story's close, charged as
it is with so complex a pathos. On a late krater
with columnar handles in the British Museum
(Fig. 5) is the death of Procris seen. The drawing
is somewhat coarse, and the painter seems to be
struggling with a subject that is expressively too
much for him. Procris sinks in death in an odd,
ill-drawn attitude; her soul escapes in the form
of a bird. Kephalos smites his head in despair, the
dog Lailaps watches concerned. Erechtheus, the
old king-father, is at hand to sympathise; the curt
archaic symbolism of attitude, the utterance of
mere gesture, is at fault here. The story was pregnant with modern suggestion. It had to wait, so
to speak, for the delicate imagination of the Eenaissance painter, Piero di Cosimo, to make us feel the
contrast between the dead woman, over-sentient,

62

THE MAGAZINE

passion-slain, and the shaggy faun, kindly perplexed,
and the dumb, faithful dog; between the soft slack
peace of the woodland and the terrible tension of
humanity. It had to wait yet longer for the modern
poet to sound, through a discord so harsh, the one

OF AET.

somewhat florid, but the whole composition is such a
fine and detailed instance of nature personification
that it merits close attention. To the right the
sun-god Helios is uprising in his chariot, with
four winged horses, just as he rises in the east

FIG. 4.—EOS PURSUES KEPHALOS.
{From a Cylix Painted by Hieron.)

note of comfort, that to Procris only by the hand
of her lover could come Death's healing—
" The cruel goddess and the twofold test,
The breaking heart of hate, the poisoned hours—
All these have faded out in utter rest
Amid the Cretan flowers.
" O, wrap her body in its fluttering lawns,
'Tis Kephalos' own hand that hath made cease
The passion of her breast. Hush ! foolish fauns,
Hush! for her end was peace."

Of all this, our modern heritage, the Greek vasepainter knew nothing; he fixes our attention on a
simpler fashion of love and sorrow.
In all the vase-paintings I have yet dealt with,
there is no hint of the time of the rape of Kephalos.
Eos, the Dawn-goddess, takes him, and therefore
we fancy it is morning, but that is all. In one vase
(Fig. 6) a late red-figured krater of the Blacas collection in the British Museum, we have the scene very
curiously and fully represented with all the pomp and
circumstance of its cosmic setting. The drawing is

pediment of the Parthenon. To the extreme left
—again somewhat as in the Parthenon pediment—
the moon goddess, veiled and tranquil, rides silently
away, sinking behind the hill. The figure of Helios
is interesting, because it is of the kind of halfway presentation, common at that date (end of
the fifth century B.C.). Helios is wholly human,
but to make the meaning clear, an actual sun surrounds his head, as halo. In front of the horses
the sea is represented by a succession of curled lines,
somewhat more realistic than the conventional wave
pattern. Very curious are the four little naked boys
who plunge and swim below the horses' hoofs; they
are unquestionably stars in human shape. Familiar
though the idea of a human sun-god is to us, it takes
some time to get used to the thorough-going anthropomorphism, that sees in the stars a troop of swimming boys. One dives headlong; another—it may
be the morning star—stands upright and steadfast;
two more, already in the water, strike out to swim.
For the rest, Pan is already awake, alert behind the

MYTHS OF THE DAWN

ON GEEEK

mountain top. The woodland scene is indicated by a
single tree. As part of the very being of the sunrise,
Eos pursues the hunter Kephalos. In one hand he
holds his darts, in the other a stone which he is

VASE-PAINTINGS.

63

After his time, it became the fashion to represent
even scenes which have nothing whatever to do
with sun and moon as taking place at dawn. The
battle of the gods and the giants is so* represented

FIG. 5.—DEATH OF PEOCEIS.
{From a Vase in the British Museum.)

about to hurl at the oncoming goddess. There is no
question but that here is he unwilling. Some have
seen in the dog an allusion to the gift of Procris,
swift Lailaps; but the dog is so usual and natural
an accompaniment of the hunter in vase-paintings,
that it does not do to press the point. A more
important question is, does Eos appear here as a
definite and integral part of the sunrise scene, or
is the setting accidental ? Pheidias, in more than
one of his works, set the fashion of this cosmic frame,
so to speak, as a background to his compositions, e.g.,
in his birth of Athene and his birth of Aphrodite.

on the Pergamos altar, the presentation of Theseus
to Amphitrite on a krater at Bologna, more than
once on late vases the Judgment of Paris. There is
no question that the story of Eos and Kephalos lent
itself admirably to this treatment, but because the
setting is cosmic, and Eos is the dawn goddess, it
does not follow that Kephalos is the impersonation
of the shadow of night, or that his rape by Eos
is the dawn chasing the darkness. One thing is
certain that we have here a charming picture, direct
and even naive, of the sunrise seen through the
fancy of the Greek vase-painter.

FIG. 6.—EOS PUESUES KEPHALOS AT SUNEISE.
{From a Krater in the British

Museum.)

64

IN MEMOEIAM: CECIL GOKDON LAWSON.
IN TWO PARTS.-PART TWO.
BY HESELTINE OWEN.

T

HE time when Cecil Lawson especially shone
was at the Sunday evening " At Homes" at
Carlton House. Who that was ever present could
forget those delightful gatherings ? A few talented
painters and writers—some of whom have since
become famous — would
drop in and enlarge the
family party, and the life
of the whole affair was
Cecil. He always acted
sort of Master of the
Ceremonies, finding seats
for everyone as they
dropped in, and arranging
us round the hospitable
table. Not for a moment,
however, would he sit
down until everyone was
provided for. He would
hover round the table,
making himself generally
useful, and at the same
time leading and spurring
on t h e c o n v e r s a t i o n .
Every now and then,
when an opening came,
he would relate some
story, touched with his
own brilliant fancy, often
in such a way that one
would hardly, perhaps,
recognise an old friend.
CECIL G.
Then he would give us,
(From, a Photograph
for instance, the description of a strolling company of actors (or marionettes) he had seen, and he would imitate them so
ridiculously as to convulse us all with laughter.
After we had all pretty well finished supper, and
none were left to be attended to, then, and not till
then, would Cecil consent to sit down and take
something himself. After supper, when we generally had music, he would recite for us. As a reciter
he was equally good in such diverse pieces as Tennyson's " Lady of Shalott," Poe's " Eaven," or " Browning's " Pied Piper." To show the power he had
as a reciter, I remember his giving the " Baven"
at a musical evening I took part in with him at
the Brompton Hospital for the amusement of the
patients there. With so much power did Lawson
recite this, that the then chaplain, who was a very

strict Evangelical, and objected to anything savouring of the stage, left the room before it was finished,
saying that he could not stand it, it was " almost
as bad as being at the play" ! Lawson was much
amused at this, and the more so when I heard
afterwards by chance, and
told him, that only a few
weeks before the "Baven"
had been read at an
entertainment given at
the Hospital by some
mild ecclesiastic, at which
the chaplain was present,
but failed to realise how
d r e a d f u l a piece t h e
" Baven" was, until he
heard it given again thus
dramatically.
As Cecil Lawson began
to image in his mind
the great works which he
hoped to paint, he used
to delight to describe
them to me. Great as is
the work he accomplished
in his but too short life,
I cannot hold with some
that he had done the
finest work of which he
was capable. Had he
lived to work out some
of these splendid conLAWSON.
ceptions, formed when he
by Elliott and Fry.)
was struggling into fame,
with nothing to think of but his art, and carried
out, as they would have been, with the maturity of
his powers, he would, in my judgment, have surpassed anything he has left behind him. Many of
these great conceptions, unhappily never carried out,
I can call to mind; but as their impressiveness
entirely depended on his powers of description, I
will not attempt to recall them here.
As an oil-painter, Cecil Lawson began to build
up his fame among the few who in these early days
recognised his genius by his Cheyne Walk pictures.
I believe he painted more than a dozen of these, not
counting studies. He used in the most amusing
way to announce his intention (which he partially
carried out) of going on painting Cheyne Walk
under every aspect, until the Council of the Academy

DON

SALTEROS

WALK,

OLD

CHELSEA.

(From the Painting by Cecil G. Lawson, in the Possession of A. J. Kirkpatrick, Esq. Engraved by Jonnard.)

IN" MEMOKIAM:

CECIL GOEDON

would get so sick of having his pictures submitted
to them every year, that, like the judge in the
parable, they would yield to him at last. He would
imitate the groans and ejaculations of the different
members of the Council on having " Cecil Lawson's
Nineteenth Picture of Cheyne Walk " submitted to

67

LAWSON

twenty-one years old. I remember well his bringing it up from Wales in the autumn of that year.
It was then loaded all over with colour; but, excepting the distant landscape, which was partly made
out, it gave but little sign of the great work it was
ultimately to become. As a general rule, Lawson

DOWN THE STREAM.
Drawn on Wood by Cecil G. Lawson.

Engraved by Pannemaker.

them. Between the earlier and the later of his
Cheyne Walk pictures came the " Hymn to Spring "
(a drawing on wood of which subject Cecil did for
the Dark Blue, a magazine which started with high
promise of success, but lived only a few months)
and the "Pastoral," the latter, to my mind, with
perhaps the exception of "The Minister's Garden,"
his masterpiece.
This picture, the " Pastoral," was begun in the
summer of the year 1872, when Lawson was but

Reprinted from " CasselVs Family

Magazine.")

produced his pictures with the greatest ease : at a
very early period it was possible—especially when
helped by the imaginative description he was so
fond of giving—to form a pretty accurate idea of
what they would be when finished. But this was
not so with the " Pastoral." From the time he
began to work on it'at the studio, it was to him one
long struggle. He would often tell me of the sleepless nights, and the many " battles," to use his own
expression, he had over it. It was not until the

THE MAGAZINE

OF ART.

picture was well advanced that he drew in the beau- Kentish refrain which he used as a motto to this
tiful silver birches in the foreground, through which picture :—
the landscape is seen, and which form so striking
" ' Let Frenchmen boast their straggling vine,
a feature. I remember dropping in on him at the
Which gives them draughts of meagre wine ;
studio one day when this idea had just occurred to
It cannot match this plant of mine
When autumn skies are
him; and in order to
blue.'
test it, he had fastened
Thus said the jovial man
strips of brown paper
of Kent
As through his golden
across the picture to
hops he went."
represent these trees,
so that he might be
Iii 1877 Cecil
able to some extent
Lawson, his brother
to judge of the effect.
Malcolm, and I, had
It was not until after
a most delightful run
much anxious condown into Surrey
sideration, and after
together. We went
getting all the opinby train to Gomshall,
ions he could, that
and walked
from
he made up his mind
there by St. Martha's
to make the alterato Guildford.. It was
tion.
a lovely day, though
somewhat warm; and,
In the early sumas our walk took us
mer of 1873 I went
through some of the
to spend a few days
most lovely scenery
with some friends of
in Surrey, it was
mine near Tunbridge
most enjoyable. Cecil
in Kent. The hopwas by no means a
fields were then in
good walker, and soon
their greatest beauty.
began to tire. He
Though just returned
started in the best of
from Italy, I was conspirits; but, unlike
firmed in the opinion
most people, the more
that, beautiful as are
tired he got the more
the vineyards of Italy,
his spirits rose, and
they are equalled, if
the more delightful
not surpassed, by the
became his talk, the
hop-fields of England.
more amusing his
I remember pressing
A HYMN TO SPRING.
anecdotes. At Guildthis on Lawson, and I
(From the Painting by Cecil G. Lawson.)
ford we took the
urged him to try his
hand. So we arranged a little trip into Kent to- train to Sandhurst, where Cecil was staying with
gether. We went down by coach from London to our mutual friend, Mr. Alfred Deacon. There
Tunbridge. The day was brilliant, and Lawson—who, he showed us the point from which he proposed
as far as I can remember, had never been in Kent painting " The Minister's Garden," and he then
before, or, at all events, among the hop-fields—was described to us the idea that he had in his mind.
deeply impressed. We were put down by the coach We discussed it together, and I remember well
at my friends' place, and, after lunching with them, we unanimously agreed that, if painted on a large
spent the afternoon together, driving about in a dog- scale, it would probably make his name. I could
cart they lent us, stopping at any points which he- not help remarking then, as always, how Cecil
thought might help in his picture, and generally Lawson seemed to be encouraged and helped by the
planning and arranging the campaign. Later on he keen artistic insight of his brother Malcolm, who
settled down with his sisters at Wrotham, and in certainly possessed a critical knowledge of painting,
a quaint old barn, which (vermin apart) made an which, as far as my experience goes, few musicians
excellent studio, he began his great picture, "The have.
Hop-Gardens of England."
It was about this time that Lawson painted the
It may be interesting here to recall the old beautiful water-colour, " A Pastoral Trafalgar Square,

IN MEMORIAM:

CECIL GOEDON

Chelsea "—as far as I know, the only finished watercolour he ever did.
The last occasion when I spent any time with
Cecil Lawson was in the early autumn of 1879, after
his marriage. I stayed with him then for nearly
a week at his charming little house in Haslemere.

LAWSON.

69

I believe that he felt himself unequal to grappling
with them successfully as portraits, so he attempted
a compromise, and endeavoured to treat them (as he
himself said) as though they were but a part of the
landscape. That the picture was a mistake I think
his most appreciative admirers will now admit. He

IN THE VALLEY: A PASTOKA.L.
(From the Painting

Living as he did in one of the quaintest of
Surrey villages, with its beautiful surroundings, and
helped by the most devoted of wives—herself an
artist—everything then seemed to promise for Lawson
a brilliant future. It is sad to reflect he had but
three short years of life before him.
He was then struggling to complete the portraitfigures in his large picture, at first spoken of as the
" Dragon Flies," afterwards called the " Voice of the
Cuckoo." The landscape was then nearly finished,
and was as grand as anything that ever came from
his brush. But he was in difficulty with his figures.
862

by Cecil G. Lawson.)

did his best to achieve success; but, painting the
figures on the scale he did, success was not possible
with him. That he did not altogether fail, that
the picture cannot be called a fiasco, seems to me
to show how many-sided and how great his talent
really was.
Mr. Gosse's high authority notwithstanding, I
think that Lawson had a power of dealing with
the human figure that for a .pure landscape-painter
was remarkable. He was at that time full of his
projected picture "The August Moon," now in the
National Gallery. Nothing would satisfy him but

70

THE MAGAZINE

OF ART.

that we should drive over together to see the tiful. She seemed to be moving in the landscape.
moon rise over Blackdown, close to the Laureate's In the studies for this figure Cecil was a good deal
place, the point his picture was chiefly studied from. helped by his brother Wilfrid ; but the charm of the
By the time we reached Blackdown, close on mid- painting was all his own. No more poetic work was
night, the moon was high in the heavens. I re- ever painted by him. Sad to relate, however, this
member Lawson enlarging on the colour there was once beautiful picture is now a mere wreck. It was
always in a landscape in such moonlight. He said bought direct from the studio, before it was submitted
that no great painter had yet fully grasped this to the Academy, by Mr. J. T. Godfrey-Faussett, of
truth, but that he intended to attempt to show Lichfield.
This was at a critical period of Cecil
it out. Before the picture was exhibited in the Lawson's career^ before he commanded any sale for
Grosvenor, he had painted, perched on a branch his works—at any rate, for the more important ones.
in the foreground, an owl, life-size, with glistening He was naturally, therefore, very grateful to Mr.
eyes. The critics came down, however, and dis- Faussett (who was not a regular picture-buyer) for
approved of the weird bird; and so Cecil painted recognising the worth of his work at a time when
it out, to my sorrow, and, I believe, not a little few others did so. When Lawson heard that the
to his own.
Academy had rejected this picture he was very much
In 1876 the Eoyal Academy, which in the hurt, and offered (though he was himself quite satisprevious year had rejected the " Hop-Gardens/' re- fied with it) to keep it at his studio until he had
considered their verdict. Yielding — as Lawson time to touch on it again, and would be able to send
himself told me they did—to the outspoken opinion it for exhibition, with the assurance that it would be
of Sir Frederic Leighton, the Council of that year well hung. This he undertook to do, to satisfy Mr.
accepted the picture, and it was hung in the Great Faussett, and not, as I have said, that he was himself
Boom. As a set-off to this, however, the two im- in any way dissatisfied with the picture as it then
portant landscapes, each in its way a masterpiece, was. Time slipped by, however; and it was not
which he had just completed, were rejected; or, until just before his death that he took the picture
perhaps it is more fair to say, were not hung. One in hand, with the sad result before mentioned. One
of these, a rich river-scene, with great interlacing cannot but deplore that the Academy had been so
trees, was the landscape which has been so splen- blind as to refuse to hang a work of such unquesdidly reproduced in photogravure by Messrs. Goupil, tionable merit.
under the title of " Marsh Lands." The other, an
On Saturday,the 10th of June, 1882, Cecil Gordon
effect of early morning, was thus described at the Lawson died, at the age of thirty years and six
time: " A warm white day about the end of Sep- months, leaving a widow (the daughter of Mr. J.
tember; a flock of sheep, driven by a woman, are Birnie Philip, the sculptor who designed and exestraggling from a dusty bramble-lined road, through cuted some of the beautiful reliefs on the Albert
a fallen gate, presided over by a lofty willow, into Memorial in Hyde Park) and an infant son.
cool green pasture-land stretching out to marshy
How much English art has lost by his early death
country, where cattle are plashing, and edged in far is becoming more evident every day. To those who
distance by hills blending green into the white knew him intimately his loss was far mpre than
cloudy sky; a tall, motionless birch-tree in mid- this; for, besides being possessed of the highest
distance adds to the still effect of the picture." The talent, he was a most delightful companion, had a
figure of the woman driving the sheep, studied from most affectionate nature, and was himself one of the
his sister Kate, was especially suggestive and beau- most lovable of men.

A

PASTOKAL."

R. C.
T is not often that we have to record any striking
development of Australian art, still less any
single work of remarkable achievement, so that we
have the greater pleasure in placing before our
readers the picture which forms our frontispiece.
This work is not quite new to the Old World, for
it appeared in this year's Salon, and there attracted
unusual attention. This " Pastoral"—oddly enough
named, seeing that it is, above all, a sea-shore picture
BY

I

W. BUNNY.

of ideal nymphs—is from the hand of Mr. B. C. W.
Bunny, whose upward rise has before now been noted
in England. Many persons will observe to what extent Mr. Bunny has been indebted for subject and
treatment to M. Gerome—though not, of course, unduly; but it is impossible not to appreciate in this
picture a quality of atmosphere and a tenderness of
treatment and handling that were strikingly absent
from the canvas of the moi distinguished artist.

W '

|

7*

\ A--

i

•"•"•JH&Zk

*

ISWSBP^ir
^SfcflgJ

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A
Magazine of Art.

.

i ?ih

Dujardin, photog

Rupert C .W. B uirmj, pins*

P A S T O R A L

A BATHEB.
{From the Silver-Point by Charles Sainton.)

OUE ILLUSTEATBD NOTE-BOOK.
HE exhibition of a collection of Mr. C. Sainton's comparatively early age of sixty-one. As we intend to include a full
works in silver-point
notice of the deceased
was so successful last year
sculptor and his work in
that the artist has made
our next issue, only a
a second venture in the
brief outline of his career
same direction at the
need be given here. He
Burlington Art Gallery,
was born at Brixton in
Old Bond Street. A notice
1832, and commenced his
of the exhibition will be
art studies at the age of
found on p. vii of our
twelve, continuing them
" Chronicle of Art." We
in Germany—whence his
reproduce on this page two
family removed—until he
examples of this daintily
was twenty. He then
beautiful work, which,
returned to England and
though much reduced in
entered at the Royal
size, will serve to show
Academy Schools, gaining
somewhat of the charm
two medals. He was
of Mr. Sainton's art.
elected an Associate of
To the lamented death
the Academy in 1880.
of Mr. Ford Madox Brown
A statue of General
reference was made in
Gordon—the gift of the
last month's "Chronicle
mayor—has been placed
of Art," and also to that
in the Eecreation Ground
of M. Auguste Flameng.
at Gravesend. Designed
I t is with great regret
and modelled by Mr.
. that we ; have to record
John Broad (of Messrs.
the death of Mr. C. B.
BBUNE ET BLONDE.
D^ulton's), the statue,
Birch, A.HA., at the
{From the Silver-Point by Charles Sainton.)

T

72

OUE ILLUSTRATED

which is of terra-cotta of a warm buff colour,
was produced at the celebrated Lambeth Potteries,

in English alabaster, inlaid with green marble and
mother-of-pearl. The carvings are intended to

THE LATE CHARLES BELL BIBCH, A.E.A.
(From a Photograph by Fradelle and Young.)

THE LATE FORD MADOX BROWN.
(From- a Photograph by W. Pae, Newcastle-on-Tyne.)

One of the most striking features at the Arts
and Crafts Exhibition is the chimneypiece destined
for the private library of the Duke of Portland at
Welbeck Abbey. Designed by Mr. H, Wilson, the
work has been executed by Mr. F. W. Pomeroy

GENERAL GORDON.
(From the Statue by Messrs. Doulton, recently erected
at Gravesend.)

NOTE-BOOK.

illustrate the story of " Eapunzel," from Mr.
William Morris's poem ; the frieze representing a
tangled wood, while on the keystone is the figure
of the witch. The whole structure stands eleven
feet high, and is ten feet six inches in width.

ALABASTER CHIMNEYPIECE.
(Designed by H. Wilson, and Executed by F. W. Pomeroy, for Welbeck Abbey.)

73

PUYIS

DE

CHAVANN'ES.

BY PRINCE BOJIDAR KARAGEORGEVITCH.

F noble birth, with rank and wealth, Puvis de
Chavannes had not, at the outset of his experience as a painter, to meet sordid difficulties or
struggle for the necessaries of life.
Having had such an education as
fitted him for any career, he
chose that of art, with a view
to producing in the forms of
beauty so essentially his own the
numerous
masterpieces
with
which he has enriched the
world.
Though he found no difficulty
in the initiatory stages, it was
not at first so easy to win, I
will not say the admiration, but
the intelligent sympathy, of the
public, though now they cannot
be loud enough in their praises.
For a long time it was the fashion
to writhe before the noble works
he sent to the Salon, and to ask
what his figures were meant to
represent, with the obvious reply
that great idiocy could easily
gain a great following.
But the master, unmoved by
mockery, did not change his way
of seeing and expressing things.
By degrees the excitement cooled
down; he ceased to be laughed
a t ; and now that he has won
the highest marks of distinction,
the same public loudly admires
the work of Puvis de Chavannes
—not, I fear, fully appreciating
all its beauty, for it is too supremely poetical to be understood
of the many ; only choice spirits,
perhaps, can really feel the genius of Puvis de
Chavannes.
"When, in 1881, Puvis de Chavannes exhibited
his picture of "The Poor Fisherman," I was still
very young; the work attracted me irresistibly. I
gazed at it open-mouthed, capable even then of discerning that I stood before a wonderful work, though
I did not understand what it was in this picture
which could so completely fascinate me. It was not
till later that I solved the mystery, when I was more
familiar with art. It is that each canvas from the
hand of Puvis de Chavannes is a work so complete
that it contains in itself the utmost achievement of

O

863

art, of learning, and of poetry that is possible in a
painting; all so perfectly subdued to the idea the
master intended to express that the picture seems

PIERRE

PUVIS

DE

CHAVANNES.

conscious of it. And few artists are such masters of
drawing or of the brush as to compare with Puvis
de Chavannes. But he does not aim at dazzling
the spectator by an astonishing bit of technique—to
strike the eye in the midst of his picture. What
he tries to do—what he has always succeeded in
doing—is to express his thought in its purest and
most ideal form, using painting simply as a means.
"The Poor Fisherman" was exhibited at the
time when the painter was as yet misunderstood,
and floods of ink flowed in jests at his expense.
A gloomy sky, a waste of waters, grey, heavy,
stagnant as it would seem, a flat coast. A boat

74

THE MAGAZINE

moored to the shore; at its bow "The Poor Fisherman," dressed only in his trousers and a shirt thrown
open, exposing the almost naked torso; with folded
arms he is waiting to draw the net which lies in the

A.,_*—

tPr

OE AET.

Fisherman," which the newspapers cried down for
years as being neither drawn nor painted, is simply
a magnificent work—one of the three or four
which do honour to the Luxembourg Gallery.

Jam

:

-

A STUDY.

(By Puma de Chavannes.)

water close at hand. On the strand an unswaddled
baby lies sleeping on the bare ground; a little way
off a woman is gathering flowers. The whole is
admirably executed, and yet with a determined
greyness that is hardly pictorial at all—pictorial, I
mean, in the sense of illusion. The picture leaves
an impression on the mind as of a tale that has
been told, unsubstantial, almost unreal. This " Poor

What Puvis de Chavannes has here aimed at
rendering is man's earthly mission, his subjection
to life. The sleeping child shows us the calm indifference of infancy; the woman gathering flowers
suggests the charm of life for the poor as for the
rich ; and the whole is encompassed—embraced, as it
were—in the passive life of nature. These are the
ideas he has intended to express, and with so much

PUVIS DE
subtlety, so little display, that it is hardly fair to
blame those who did not apprehend them.
The master's work is vast—not only as a lofty
outcome of artistic expression, but for its mere
quantity, more especially of decorative painting.
Puvis de Chavannes has, in fact, devoted himself
chiefly to mural decoration; his easel pictures are
few. However, I know of others besides " The Poor
Fisherman": three women of life-size on the seashore, and a series of studies of the nude, exhibited

CHAVANNES.

75

how to simplify both line and colour so as to achieve
such harmony as leaves the thought, the purport,
untrammelled; to simplify them to such a point that
the unthinking spectator is led to fancy that he could
not, even if he would, carry the technique of painting
to its utmost limits.
In fact, all this painter's work is done in and
by the brain. I saw in his studio sketches, finished
sketches, for all his pictures—some in charcoal,
others in colour, but all exactly like the pictures

HOMAGE OF VICTOR HUGO TO THE CITY OP PAEIS.
(From the Painting by Puvis de Chavannes in the Salon of the Champ de Mars, 1893. Photographed by Braun.)

some years ago at Durand-Ruel's rooms. The
memory of those feminine carnations dwells in my
mind with some of Correggio's finest pieces, or some
examples of another modern painter, Henner.
At the exhibition there was another exquisite
work—a little girl sitting in an archaic landscape
holding a flower; and no words can describe the
grace of the child as she leans on one hand, and the
freshness of her colouring in contrast with the dim
old-world landscape. There was, too, a capital
pastel: the back of a woman in the act of doing her
hair—to me unforgettable ; and a very small canvas,
" The Death of Orpheus," impressed me deeply.
His drawings are unfortunately scarcely more
numerous, and I cannot but regret that there should
not be more of them in our galleries, public and
private, for they are certainly among the finest
things I know. They display the consummate learning of a great master, who, in decorative work, knows

to be painted after them. Nothing is ever altered
from the first design till the work is finished and
complete. What Puvis de Chavannes paints is his
idea, his vision. He transfers it to the canvas as he
has conceived of it, works it up first in monochrome
to a perfect harmony of melting tone, and then
gives it the delightful colouring which hitherto
was the specialty of the old masters.
The living model intrudes itself into the master's
labours merely as an accessory, as a help, indeed,
but of no more importance than a note for information—information, indeed, to which he is
strictly faithful, but of which he is never the slave.
Of course, only the highest imaginative ideal,
seconded by perfect knowledge, admits of such a
method of work; but how far preferable is this
subservience of matter to mind, to the hideous
tricks of technique, ugly and vulgar, which some
painters—and those not the least cried up—try to

76

THE MAGAZINE

impose on us as the outcome of sincerity and realism
in art.
Puvis de Chavannes never gives his figures the
look of models who sit by turns as a river-god or
a drunkard. They are the exact embodiment of the
idea they represent; they are born of the painter's

OF ART.

or when by an attitude, or by some unimportant
accessory, they personify an abstract idea—such as
Geometry and Astronomy, in the Sorbonne picture.
Still these figures are truthful, living even,
when, as in " Ludus pro Patria," they cast their
javelins, or cut down trees, or reap the harvest, as

A VISION OF ANTIQUITY.
(From the Painting by Puvis de Chavannes in the Museum at Lyons.)

brain, and not the offspring of patient toil devoted
to a study of the spots and warts given by
" Nature."
The sketch for the Sorbonne picture in the
master's studio is fully coloured, the precise duplicate of the great decorative work in the amphitheatre of the college. The sketch, as has been
said, is final; it undergoes no change even in the
minutest detail till the picture is finished. Still,
nothing is left to chance ; everything is thought out,
considered, and full of purpose; above all, in these
vast decorative paintings, intended to serve as a
background on the wall where they are placed, and
to " pull together" the architectural features of
the room, there is nothing to disturb the mind;
they display the unity of tone and feeling which
characterises all the painter's work.
The rather conventional air of some of his figures
is quite intentional, particularly when, as in the
sacred grove, the personages are floating in the air;

in " Winter " and " Summer "—two pictures exhibited at recent Salons.
As to his colouring, that wonderful colouring
which so many artists are now endeavouring to
imitate, it is the great charm of the master's work :
so sober that the other decorations of a room in
which one of his pictures is placed, far from being
crushed and eclipsed, are thrown into relief and
gain in beauty. And this, as it seems to me, is the
highest quality of decorative art—a quality not
given, alas! to every painter.
Puvis de Chavannes does not paint in fresco, but
he gives a remarkable softness and unity of tone to
his decorative work. This unity of tone is amazingly
effective when the paintings are in their place, and
his decorative genius is seen at its best at the
Pantheon in Paris, when we compare his " Sainte
Genevieve" with the other very fine, but more
blatant, works which furnish the walls. These
panels, full of elegance and charm, as simple as

C3

s

78

THE MAGAZINE

possible in composition, show us first the Saint as a
child praying at the foot of the Cross, her parents
admiring her youthful and ardent faith. Next we
see Saint-Germain d'Auxerre and Saint-Loup de
Troyes, who, on their way to England to combat
the heresy of Pelagius, have reached the town of
Nanterre. Among the crowd who come forth to
meet them Saint-Germain observes a child on

OF ART.

From the rock flows the life-giving stream. Youth
drinks of it eagerly; old age, with trembling hands,
dips a cup into the waters. In the fragment here
reproduced we see, on the right of the spring,
Lyric Poetry; leaning on a tree hard by, Eclogue
stands, pan-pipes in hand. Next comes Astronomy,
with one hand resting on a celestial globe. Further
on comes Fable, with a crow on her shoulder, as

.. INTER AETES ET NATURAM.
(From the Painting by Puvis de Chavannes in the Amphitheatre of the Sorbonne, Paris.)

whom he discerns the stamp of the divinity. He
questions her, and predicts the high destiny to which
she is called. This child became the patron saint
of Paris. The colouring of the whole picture, the
exactitude of the landscape—where we can trace,
the Paris of the future, of to-day—the delightful
harmony of the various groups of attentive spectators, all combine to make this mural painting
one of the masterpieces of modern art.
At the Sorbonne, again, Paris possesses a
splendid work by this master, decorating the great
amphitheatre. In a glade of some sacred grove,
on a block of marble in the centre, sits a figure
symbolical of the Sorbonne. On each side of her
stands a genius, laden with palms and crowns—an
offering to the living and to the glorious dead.

making animals discourse, and at her feet a child
holds a file at which the serpent is gnawing.
The painter was at work on this great canvas
when I was so happy as to be introduced to him by
a common friend, and during the half-hour I spent
in admiring his work he never ceased explaining the
composition, painting all the time to show us that
we were not in his way. I have seen Puvis de
Chavannes since that day, and my first impression
has been constantly confirmed. Very tall and very
upright, he suggests a modern Henri IV.; and has,
too, not only the lofty spirit and noble sentiments
that characterised that king, but his jovial humour
and love of life
Though he does not lead a retired life, he is
not a man of fashion. With a hearty contempt for

PUVIS DE
honours and prizes, he avoids the so-called world of
art, and is social only with his friends, who are all
devoted to him.
As an exact biographer, I must mention that
Puvis was awarded a Medal of Honour
at the Salon of 1882 for his "Ludus pro
Patria," and that he is Commander of
the Legion of Honour; but I do not
think that these distinctions count for
much in his estimation.
The Legion of Honour was bestowed
at the Sorbonne, in the presence of his
great picture; as to the medal, he told
me himself how he learnt that it had
been awarded to him. On the day when
the distribution of such prizes is arranged
by vote, Puvis de Chavannes, going out
of his house, saw on the Boulevard a man
performing a pyrrhic dance of a very
pronounced character. This was his
friend Vernier, the marine painter, who,
having just heard that the medal was
adjudged to Puvis de Chavannes, came
to express his joy and announce the
news in this rather eccentric fashion.
Lyons—his native town—possesses an
important series of decorative paintings
by this master.
One represents the
" Eiver Saone "—a supple, serpent-like
figure of a woman at the foot of a
willow, framed in water-lilies and other
aquatic plants. Further off, the Ehone
forms a companion figure. A rivergod, muscular and stalwart, is about
to capture her in a net he stands
ready to throw over her. In the
entrance to the museum, in the
same gallery as the " Saone," are
three of the painter's finest compositions—" The Sacred Grove," " A
Vision of Antiquity," and " Christian Inspiration." I particularly remember this last. Never, I believe,
did any picture produce such a sensation in the world of thought as this masterpiece
by Puvis de Chavannes: the inspired rapture of
the young painter-monk, Fra Angelico, in an ecstasy
before his fresco—the scene is laid in a cloistered
nook—the monk, two assistants, and in the background a group of figures contemplating the fresco.
The sobriety of the composition, the "religious"
colouring, the execution of the painting—all are as
perfect in their way as can be conceived of.
At the museum at Marseilles there are two of
his great decorative works—" Massilia, the Phocean
Colony " and " The Port of Marseilles." There are

CHAVANNES.

79

also fine decorative compositions by him in the
museums at Eouen and Amiens.
I asked Puvis de Chavannes under whom he
had studied: " When I came to Paris," he said,

">w
A STUDY.
(By Puvis de Chavannes.)

" I was recommended to work with Signol, but he
had no studio for pupils. He advised me to go to
H. Scheffer, brother of Ary Scheffer; who has left
some very fine portraits in the style of Holbein.
However, he again did not take pupils, and confined
himself to giving me advice from time to time, for
about a year; so I might almost say that I never had
a master."
Puvis de Chavannes, in point of fact, follows no
one. He serves art, and art alone, without limitations, and without troubling his head about schools
and styles.

80

THE LATE CHAELES B. BIECH, A.E.A.

F

OR versatility and dexterity in many branches
of the jfine arts the late Charles Bell Birch had
probably no equal in this country. Ideal sculpture,
portrait statues, busts, and, indeed, every form of

works were throughout life marked by the style
that was more or less common to. the pupils and
successors of that master.
On leaving Berlin, Birch worked in the schools
of the Royal Academy, where he competed for the
gold medal. The first wave of naturalism had, however, not yet reached these shores, and his group,
"The Good Samaritan," though incomparably the
best, was dressed in Eastern costume, so the prize
went to a work that had but one merit, but that
was overwhelming—it was Greek.
Birch's first success came through the judgment
of laymen, shockingly indifferent to the particular
" ism" that happened to be the prevailing fashion
among artists. Thus he won the £500 prize offered
by the Art Union of London for " the best ideal
work" with his sketch of "The "Wood Nymph."
Again the keynote of his group, as compared with
other contemporary works, was " naturalism." After
this he won several competitions, and it was in a

THE LATE CHAELES BELL BIECH, A.E.A.
{From a Painting in Costume by Seymour Lucas,

A.R.A.)

sculpture came from his hands with surprising
facility. Moreover, in his early life, with its long
intervals during which commissions were rare, or
came not at all, he supported himself by painting
portraits, by water-colour drawing, and by various
forms of draughtsmanship and design. The type of
man that can excel in so many branches of art is
not characteristic of this country's artists, and Birch
was looked upon by his brethren in early life as
somewhat of a phenomenon.
Birch received a good deal of his training in the
Academy of Arts at Berlin, just at the moment when
the dawn of naturalism was making its first struggles against the rigid classicism of the times, upheld
in that city by Christian Ranch. It was under these
conditions that he received the artistic impressions
that stamped his future career; and although he
left Berlin at an early age never to return, his

A WATER-NYMPH.
{From a Fountain at Sydney,

N.S.W.)

great measure through them that he obtained the
bulk of his commissions.
Wholly devoid of the shopkeeping faculty

THE LATE CHAELES B. BIECH, A.E.A.

81

placing it on the top of the pedestal without its
indispensable brother dragon. Birch had simply
the commission to model the "beast," which he
carried out faithfully and well, and was in no wise
responsible for that unfortunate crime against good
taste.
Birch was eminently a realistic artist, and his
aim was always to " do " our own times as they are.
This idea led him to attack the difficult problem
of representing current incidents and events in
groups of sculpture, the most successful of which
from an artistic point of view was the " Lieutenant
Hamilton Memorial." Unfortunately in such pronounced realism the shortcomings are more easily
seized upon, and the boldness of the attempt and
difficulties of the task are neither considered nor
realised.
On the whole, of all his various work his portrait
statues are the least open to criticism, and they may
be fairly ranked as being probably the best of those
of his day. His portrait bustsVeret fine likenesses,
beside being skilfully modelled, but they w6re not,
so " naturalistic" as the best busts of our younger
men; the naturalism of his times being little more
than a veneer upon a classic foundation. .
Birch had an exuberant fertility of invention,
THE LIEUTENANT HAMILTON MEMORIAL.

indispensable to a sculptor who will
make a career in this country, Birch
spent many of his best years "devilling"
in all manner of ways, and during this
period he produced little or no sculpture.
But a turn came in the tide, and at
last, though late—perhaps too late—he
obtained important commissions which
gave him means and opportunity to
work out some of his designs for ideal
subjects, and he executed "The Eagle
Slayer," "The Last Call," and the
" Lieutenant Hamilton," which finally
gained him the title of "Associate of
the Boyal Academy."
A goodly number of public works
of sculpture came from Birch's studio,
among them the memorable " Griffin,"
at Temple Bar, and upon his head was
poured the storm of furious and scornful criticism that the " monster" evoked.
The real facts of the case were that
the Temple Bar Memorial was designed
by the City architect, who made the
inexcusable blunder of treating the
"Dragon" supporters of the City arms, or
rather one of them, as if it had been the
portrait of some illustrious personage,
864

THE LAST CALL.

82

THE MAGAZINE

LADY GODIVA.

(At the Crystal Palace.)
and many of his designs never passed the sketch
or small model stage. Some of these may rank

OF AET.

as being superior to any of the designs that he carried to completion.
The "Mazeppa," the "Adam and
Eve," and the statuette of Hervey
the physician, are among the best
examples of his art, and are all
conceived in the true spirit of
modern idealism, which, according
to the opinion he had formulated,
is the proper goal of the modern
artist.
Failing health had for many
years enfeebled his powers, and
latterly was the cause of a serious
falling-off in the quality of his work;
he had on this account ceased to
retain that measure of the esteem
from his brother artists to which
by a just consideration of his whole
career he was entitled.
Sculpture has made a complete
revolution since Birch surprised us
with his " Wood Nymph" thirty
years ago; and, viewed from the
present standpoints of art, there is
much reason for the indifference
that was latterly felt towards even
his best work. Artists to whom le
travail des morceaux is the beginning
and end of art may find little to
admire in his works; he, nevertheless, possessed much of the real science of sculpture, which the modern school has never learnt.

MAZEPPA.
(From the Sketch Model for a large Work.)

83

SOME NOTES ON THE ILLUMINATED BOOKS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
B Y WILLIAM

MORRIS.

FT1HE Middle Ages may be called the epoch of but these books are mostly well equipped with
JL writing par excellence. Stone, bronze, wooden actual ornament, as carefully executed as the writing
rune-staves, waxed tablets, papyrus, could be —in fact, marvels of patient and ingenious interlacewritten upon with one instrument or another; ments. This ornament, however, has no relation in
but all these—even
any genuine Irish
the last, tender and
book to the tradifttmfls nipwcuxifvt&imic ttnmtcflutti
brittle as it was—
tional style of Bywere but makeshift
z a n t i u m , b u t is
materials for writing
rather a branch of a
on; and it was not
great and widespread
ttonnm-qutnonmrADi
until parchment and
school of primal de4piccerlittcinecalirpnietit^mmsuut
vellum, and at last
coration, which has
rag - paper, became
little interest in the
common, that the
r e p r e s e n t a t i o n of
true material for
humanity and its
writing on, and the
doings, or, indeed, in
quill pen, the true
any organic life, but
instrument for writis contented with
ing withy wTere used. t
the convolutions of
ttncnite-fmm
From that time till
abstract lines, over
the period of the
which it attains to
general use of printtf
great mastery. The
ing must be conmost obvious exsidered the age of
ample of this kind
written books. As
of art may be found
in other handicrafts,
in the carvings of
so also in this, the
the Maoris of New
I^Wuscmip action
great period of genuZealand; but it is
ine creation (once
tntctrtibttTD <xmxmnA$tttjXp\tt)rm\(>i{\£common to many
called the Dark Ages
races at a certain
by those who had
stage of development.
forgotten the past,
The colour of these
and whose ideal of
Irish ornaments is
the future was a
not very delightful,
LETTER IN EED AND BLUE SCROLL WORK,
comfortable prison)
and no gold appears
(From a Bible written in North France, 1280.)
did all that was
in them."*
This Irish caligraphy and illumination was taken
worth doing as an art, leaving makeshifts to the
period of the New Birth and the intelligence of up by the North of England monks; and from them,
though in less completeness, by the Carlovingian
modern civilisation.
makers of books both in France and even in GerByzantium was doubtless the mother of mediaeval caligraphy, but the art spread speedily through many ; but they were not content with the quite
the North of Europe and flourished there at an elementary representation of the human form curearly period, and it is almost startling to find rent in the Irish illuminations, and filled up the
it as we do in full bloom in Ireland in the gap by imitating the Byzantine picture-books with
seventh century. No mere writing has been considerable success,-)- and in time developed a very
done before or since with such perfection as that beautiful style of illumination combining ornament
of the early Irish ecclesiastical books; and this with figure-drawing, and one seat of which in the
caligraphy is interesting also, as showing the de- early eleventh century was Winchester.^ Gold was
velopment of what is now called by printers
" lower-case" letter, from the ancient majuscular
characters. The writing is, I must repeat, positively beautiful in itself, thoroughly ornamental;

* Example :
f Examples:
Boulogne, &c.
% Example:
chester, British

" T h e Book of Kells," Trinity College, Dublin, &c.
D u r h a m Gospels, British Museum, Gospels a t
C h a r t e r of f o u n d a t i o n of N e w m i n s t e r a t W i n Museum.

PAGE FROM A PSALTER, WRITTEN IN SUFFOLK, CIRCA 1260.

SOME NOTES ON THE

ILLUMINATED

used with some copiousness in these latter books,
but is not seen in the carefully-raised and highlyburnished condition which is so characteristic of
mediaeval illumination at its zenith.
It should be noticed that amongst the Byzantine
books of the earlier period are some wdrich on one
side surpass in mere sumptuousness all books ever
made; these are written in gold and silver on
vellum, stained purple throughout. Later on again,
in the semi-Byzantine-Anglo-Saxon or Carlovingian
period, are left us some specimens of books written
in gold and silver on white vellum. This splendour
was at times resorted to (chiefly in Italy) in the
latter half of the fifteenth century.
The just-mentioned late Anglo-Saxon style was
the immediate forerunner of what may be called the
first complete mediaeval school, that of the middle
of the twelfth century. Here the change for the
better is prodigious. Apart from the actual pictures
done for explanation of the text and the edification
of the " faithful," these books are decorated with
borders, ornamental letters, &c, in which foliage
and forms human, animal, and monstrous are
blended with the greatest daring and most complete
mastery. The drawing is firm and precise, and it
may be said also that an unerring system of
beautiful colour now makes its apj)earance. This
colour (as all schools of decorative colour not more
or less effete) is founded on the juxtaposition of
pure red and blue modified by delicate but clear and
bright lines and "pearlings" of white, and by the
use of a little green and spaces of pale pink and
flesh-colour, and here and there some negative greys
and ivory yellows. In most cases where the book
is at all splendid, gold is very freely used, mostly
in large spaces—backgrounds and the like—which,
having been gilded over a solid ground with thick
gold-leaf, are burnished till they look like solid
plates of actual metal. The effect of this is both
splendid and refined, the care with which the gold
is laid on, and its high finish, preventing any impression of gaudiness. The writing of this period
becoming somewhat more definitely " Gothic," does
not fall short of (it could not surpass) that of the
previous half-century.
From this time a very gradual change—during
which we have to note somewhat more of delicacy
in drawing and refinement of colour—brings us to
the first quarter of the thirteenth century; and here
a sundering of the styles of the different peoples
begins to be obvious. Throughout the twelfth
century, though there is a difference, it is easier to
distinguish an English or French book from a
German or Italian by the writing than by the illumination ; but after 1225 the first glance on opening
the book will most often cry out at you. German,

BOOKS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

85

Italian, or French-English. For the rest, the illuminations still gain in beauty and delicacy, the gold
is even more universally brilliant, the colour still
more delicious. The sub-art of the rubricator, as
distinguished from the limner and the scribe, now
becomes more important, and remains so down to
the end of the fifteenth century. Work of great
fineness and elegance, drawn mostly with the pen,
and always quite freely, in red and blue counterchanged, is lavished on the smaller initials and other
subsidiaries of the pages, producing, with the firm
black writing and the ivory tone of the vellum, a
very beautiful effect, even when the more solid and
elaborate illumination is lacking.
During this period, apart from theological and
philosophical treatises, herbals, " bestiaries," &c., the
book most often met with, especially when splendidly ornamented, is the Psalter, as sung in
churches, to which is generally added a calendar,
and always a litany of the saints. This calendar, by
the way, both in this and succeeding centuries, is
often exceedingly interesting, from the representations given in it of domestic occupations. The great
initial B (Beahis vir qui non) of these books affords
an opportunity to the illuminator, seldom missed, of
putting forth to the full his powers of design and
colour.
The last quarter of the thirteenth century brings
us to the climax of illumination considered apart
from book-pictures. Nothing can exceed the grace,
elegance, and beauty of the drawing and the loveliness of the colour found at this period in the bestexecuted books ; and it must be added that, though
some work is rougher than other, at this time there
would appear, judging from existing examples, to
have been no bad work done. The tradition of the
epoch is all-embracing and all-powerful, and yet
no single volume is without a genuine individuality
and life of its own. In short, if all the other art
of the early Middle Ages had disappeared, they
might still claim to be considered a great period of
art on the strength of their ornamented books.
In the latter part of the thirteenth century we
note a complete differentiation between the work of
the countries of Europe. There are now three great
schools : the French-Flemish-English, the Italian,
and the German. Of these the first is of the most,
the last of the least, importance. As to the relations between England and France, it must be said
that, though there is a difference between them, it
is somewhat subtle, and may be put thus: of some
books you may say, This is French; of others, This
is English ; but of the greater part you can say
nothing more than, This belongs to the FrenchEnglish school. Of those that can be differentiated
with something like certainty, it may be said that

86

THE MAGAZINE

the French excel specially in a daifity and orderly
elegance, the English specially in love of life and
nature, and there is more of rude humour in them
than in their French contemporaries ; but he must
be at once a fastidious and an absolute man who
could say the French is better than the English or
the English than the French.
The Norwich Psalter, in the Bodleian Library;
the Arundel, Queen Mary's, and Tennison Psalters,
in the British Museum, are among the finest of
these English books: nothing can surpass their
fertility of invention, splendour of execution, and
beauty of colour.
This end of the thirteenth century went on producing splendid psalters at a great rate; but between
1260 and 1300 or 1320 the greatest industry of the
scribe was exercised in the writing of Bibles, especially pocket volumes. These last, it is clear, were
produced in enormous quantities, for in spite of the
ravages of time many thousands of them still exist.
They are one and all beautifully written in hands
necessarily very minute, and mostly very prettily
illuminated with tiny figure-subjects in the initials
of each book,
For a short period at the end of this and the
beginning of the next century many copies of the
Apocalypse were produced, illustrated copiously
with pictures, which give us examples of serious
Gothic design at its best, and seem to show us what
wall-pictures of the period might have been in the
North of Europe.
The fourteenth century, the great mother of
change, was as busy in making ornamental books as
in other artistic work. When we are once fairly in
the century a great change is apparent again in the
style. It is not quite true to say that it is more
redundant than its predecessor, but it has more
mechanical redundancy. The backgrounds to the
pictures are more elaborated; sometimes diapered
blue and red, sometimes gold most beautifully
chased with dots and lines. The borders cover
the page more; buds turn into open leaves: often
abundance of birds and animals appear in the
borders, naturalistically treated (and very well
drawn); there is more freedom, and yet less individuality in this work ; in short the style, though it
has lost nothing (in its best works) of elegance and
daintinesss—qualities so desirable in an ornamented
book—has lost somewhat of manliness and precision;
and this goes on increasing till, towards the end of the
century, we feel that we have before us work that is
in peril of an essential change for the worse.*
* In France " Bibles Historiaux," i.e., partial translations of
the Bible, very copiously pictured, were one of the most noteworthy productions of the latter half of the century. The Bible
taken in the tent of the French King at the battle of Poitiers,
now in the British Museum, is a fiae example.

OF ART.

The differentiation, too, betwixt the countries
increases ; before the century is quite over, England
falls back in the race,f and French-Flanders and
Burgundy come forward, wThile Italy has her face
turned toward the Renaissance, and Germany too
often shows a tendency toward coarseness and

PAGE FROM A BOOK OF HOURS, WRITTEN IN NORTHERN
FRANCE, 1290.

incompleteness, which had to be redeemed in the
long last by the honesty of invention and fitness
of purpose of her woodcut ornaments to books.
Many most beautiful books, however, were turned
out, not only throughout the fourteenth, but even
in the first half of the fifteenth century. J
The first harbinger of the great change that was
to come over the making of books I take to be the
production in Italy of most beautifully-written copies
t Though we have in the British Museum some magnificent
examples of English illumination of the end of the fourteenth
and beginning of the fifteenth centuries, e.g., " The Salisbury
Book;" a huge Bible (Harl. i., e. ix.) ornamented in a style very
peculiarly English. The Wyclifite translation of the Bible at
the Museum is a good specimen of this style.
% "The Hours of the Duke of Berry " (Bibliotheque Nationale,
Paris), and the "Bedford Hours," in the British Museum, both
French, are exceedingly splendid examples of this period.

SOME NOTES ON THE ILLUMINATED
of the Latin classics. These are often very highly
ornamented; and at first not only do they imitate
(very naturally) the severe hands of the eleventh

BOOKS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

87

in the fifteenth century that space quite fails me to
write of them as their great merits deserve. In the
middle of the century an invention, in itself trifling,

ommu$ffl&tCfua
immuittnturat
|lmatn$tft& agate
It^tetxuwtampitect
6 fOMicbitcJureft'COipufi.
jr^iwmtaaa&^aotf^tr
"laugebttguag^aft
_JtDipiismtftttutm
igtiuuacp^cffifiauff
itpjmu fiuanaitftt

r(

ftummnoucfolicmpni
tnns co:p)2ts uutr^i ffletm
Jrfmgiis auntsfc-\>*pt
tmuuuqiiva&vfe & *•

[8(KUn»ft^TCto!tC?

mutj^gifcis taws nob
nstii&n uaaimmojtnr
etui mania conti4am& fpi
fount fcrnutr uu mmas i
«BGK muadaufttodft.
[.hfiq^cniriunroiir
febmaiataumrt
/ttatmUsaifiutitai obftr
' uamiqpj)UnrtditstI($i
iDaiUr^Trtnruiis.R
Ww turnttuftoufltnu'ft
-ntoSioJ If(fur* tt&tfi
mrftuB niautb)|p3[ht)
(tflftmrnfauflnfiiftil
rampmem uoii uto rat*
nnntf&atfttaAibngiiis
KiJYkitm famtfuiSflmp»fi?
xptmaitm ctfi fa<fik it
& rifltabftrmBnbJt©!«ni?
Steady
iifflf
J -nnntolafifes fttffiat•t~
3fmicnim cigo laoBtnc
ntn(t^m^Taknnfi£^y
y
uniihintmtirammT
mtofliiuftomtcnmnemo
itJwnnu |»rtlitftitsfitp

I

PAGE FROM A BBEVIABY, WEITTEN IN NOETHEEN FEANCE, 1380.

and twelfth centuries, but even (though a long way
off) the interlacing ornament of that period. In
these books the writing, it must be said, is in its
kind far more beautiful than the ornament. There
were so many written and pictured books produced

was forced upon Europe by the growing demand for
more and cheaper books. Gutenberg somehow got
hold of punches, matrices, the adjustable mould, and
so of cast movable type; Schoeffer, Mentelin, and the
rest of them caught up the art with the energy and

THE MAGAZINE

OF AET.

fell quite so low as that, though as ornament it is
not very "distinguished," and often, especially in
the latest books, scarcely adds to the effect on the
page of the miniature to which it is subsidiary.
But besides these late-written books, in the first
years of printing, the rubricator was generally, and
the illuminator not seldom,
employed on printed books
themselves. In the early days
of printing the big initials
were almost always left for the
rubricator to paint in in red
and blue, and were often decorated with pretty scrollwork by him; and sometimes
one or more pages of the book
were surrounded with ornament
in gold and colours, and the
initials elaborately finished in
the same way.
The most complete examples
of this latter work subsidiary
to the printed page are found
PKOM A P S A L T E R , W B I T T E N I N T H E M I D L A N D C O U N T I E S OP E N G L A N D , 1225.
in early books printed in Italy,
produced in great numbers after printing had be- especially in the splendid editions of the classics
come common; by far the greater number of these which came from the presses of the Eoman and
were Books of Hours, very highly ornamented and Venetian printers.
much pictured. Their style is as definite as any of
By about 1530 all book illumination of any
the former ones, but it has now gone off the road value was over, and thus disappeared an art which
of logical consistency; for divorce has taken place may be called peculiar to the Middle Ages, and
between the picture-work and the ornament. Often which commonly shows mediaeval craftsmanship at
the pictures are exquisitely-finished miniatures be- its best, partly because of the excellence of the work
longing to the best schools of painting of the day; itself, and partly because that work can only suffer
but often also they are clearly the work of men from destruction and defacement, and cannot, like
employed to fill up a space, and having no interest mediaeval buildings, be subjected to the crueller
in their work save livelihood. The ornament never ravages of "restoration."

skill so characteristic of the mediaeval craftsman.
The new German art spread like wildfire into every
country of Europe; and in a few years written books
had become mere toys for the immensely rich.
Yet the scribe, the rubricator, and the illuminator died hard. Decorated written books were

dttf (iwf'toro axdiwbo inrcromme.
Sttmmci ds qniMulMtucmcboino:
die impiigitanf tnbulauic mc.
onwlcaucrc mc tmmtct tnei rotable:
cfm mulri Mtomcf atmerfum me.
l>ahiwt)wcdtatiinclt)'/eQpmtttcipato.
nh»laudabofainoncsniro(^wtto^ani.n

CHBIST

BLESSING

LITTLE

CHILDBEN."

(SCHOOL OF EEMBRANDT.)

"VTOT more than eight-and-twenty years ago a
ll
storm raged about this picture which has
rarely had its equal at any other moment in the
history of the National Gallery. Sir William Boxall,
E.A., had just been appointed director, and signalised
his advent (and proved"-the general truth of the
theory that practising artists do not make the fittest
judges of Old Masters) by the purchase of this work
from Herr Suermondt at a cost of £7,000. Sir
William had no doubt it was a Eembrandt, and
there were some to support him in the view; but
the opinion of the majority was strongly against the
ascription. Their contention was so swiftly and

absolutely confirmed by wider and more expert
judgment, that the wonder is how those who were
directly responsible for the absurd blunder were not
made to pay the penalty. Meanwhile, the picture
remains unfathered. That it is the work of one
of Kembrandt's pupils there is little doubt. It has
some of the master's characteristics, but little of
his vigour; that it is worthy of a place in a great
gallery, however, has never been denied. We would
direct the attention of the reader to the interesting
technique of Professor Berthold's engraving, and
remark with what success he has retained the thin
quality and mellow tone of the canvas.
S.

CHRIST BLESSING LITTLE

CHILDREN.

(From the Painting in the National Gallsry. School of Rembrandt. Engraved by Professor Berthold.)
865

" A SWEET WILD CREATURE OP THE SEA."
[From the Painting by R. Fowler, R.I., at the Institute of Painters in Ott-Colours.)

CURRENT
INSTITUTE OF PAINTERS IN

OIL-COLOURS.'

Br M. PHIPPS JACKSON.

T

HE present exhibition of the Institute has little
to distinguish it from the ten preceding ones.
It would be impossible to get together nearly six
hundred pictures by living artists without finding
among them those that are good, bad, and indifferent.
What one has a right to expect is, that the contents
of the various galleries should justify the special
motive of the society's existence, and, in a general
sense, fairly represent pictorial art in its different
branches. Not historical design, for that is pretty
well a dead letter in this country; nor higher class
idealistic and imaginative work, to which the same
remark, in somewhat more restricted sense, applies.
But there are still social genre subjects—landscapes,
portraiture, and presentments of the lower animals
finding favour with the public; and these should
therefore be presented to us in such a guise as to
do credit to their authors, and satisfy the prevailing
taste.
Landscapes and sea views are rather a characteristic of the present collection at the Institute, many
of them being of marked excellence. Sir James
Linton, whose departure from the figure-painting
with which he was formerly wont to delight us one
perhaps regards with some little jealousy, continues
his more recent role of landscape with a couple of
viaws in *" Afternoon "—a picturesque old cottage,
seen in the tender light of gradually declining day

ART.

—and " Caught"—a bridge over a stream, on the
banks of which two lovers are seated, who may be
scarcely pleased at having their sweet communings
disturbed by an ardent piscator with his just hooked
prey. Both pictures are delightful in their sense
of harmony and refined treatment—they could not
be otherwise from the President's pencil—but, as
suggested before, they hardly appear to fully satisfy
as examples of Sir James's special powers. A
spreading English landscape with fields of thick
grass ready for the scythe, a distant view, and
hay-makers busy at their task, is a work the artist,
Mr. Frank Walton, describes in the lines—
" Mists in May, and heat in June,
Make the harvest come right soon."

Another not less beautiful study from the same
brush, " Just the Last Leaves of the Dying Year,"
shows us a winding roadway through a plantation,
with partially bare trees, and fallen foliage rich in
wealthy tints of russet, gold, and brown. " The
Baron's Pond, Gunnersbury," by Mr. Edward E.
Brewtnall, is a corner of Baron Eothschild's estate,
and has for motive a brilliant effect of sunset,
illumining a road and partially a pool, otherwise
in shadow from a clump of trees. Broadly painted,
and yet sensitive in touch, "Governor's House from
Newly Bridge" is a landscape delightful in tone of
colour, by Mr. Alfred East.
Mr. Edwin Hayes is a learned student of the

92

THE MAGAZINE OF ART.

ocean in its ever-changing moods, and his northern
coast view in " Wreckage off Bamborough Castle,
Northumberland," is impressive in sense of stern

many other noteworthy landscapes are, " Through
the Fields," a fair pastoral, in which the shadows
of coming night are creeping up over the scene,
by Mr. Ernest A.
Waterlow, A.RA.;
" Between
the
Showers : a Mill
near Dordrecht,"
wherein the motive
is a wonderful old
mill, in grey, rainy
atmosphere, by Mr.
George C. Haite;
" New-mown Hay,"
small, but in its
way a gem, by Mr.
E. Thorne Waite;
"GatheringWhelks,"
women and children collecting the
_wd
familiar shell - fish
on the shore at low
of Painters in Oil-Colours.)
tide, by Mr. Robert
W. Allan ; " Ehine Salmon-fishers," a spirited study
of fishermen on rafts, by Mr. Hamilton Macallum;
and " The Water Meadows," by Mr. E. M. Wimperis.
Turning to works of a different order, attention
is arrested, whilst interest is perhaps scarcely sustained, by the figure of a white-robed girl in bed,
with a black cat perched upon her breast, "A Witch,"
by the Hon. John Collier. I have seen much finer
•

THE OUTPOST (CRIMEA).
{From the Painting by Jan V. Chelminski, at the Institute

and rather desolate grandeur. The men at work
stripping the remains of some ill-fated ship are in
unison with the idea of the grey, sombre atmosphere
succeeding a recent tempest. Not far from this
masterly production is one in all respects its antithesis—"Joyous Summer," by Mr. Ernest Parton,
in flowery meadows, winding river, and trees in
full luxuriance of foliage, speaks of Nature in
her happiest guise;
and on the opposite
wall the view of
"The Lynn, North
Devon," by
Mr.
Yeend King, whilst
it deals with deep,
dark pools, and mosscovered stones in
the river-bed, is still
full of that gracefully
picturesque
treatment marking
the artist's
best
work. Mr. F. G.
Cotman arrests one
with his poetically
beautiful
" Leidschiedam," in the
Central Gallery. A
warm, hazy scheme
of colour blends to(From the Painting by F.
gether harmoniously
a great sheet of wTater, in which the town, with its inevitable windmills, and the sky are reflected. Among

LEIDSCHIEDAM.
O. Cotman, R.I., at the Institute of Painters in Oil-Colours.)

work from this artist's brush, particularly as regards
colour. The girls and children round a great vase into

CURRENT ART.

93

which water is playing, " The Fountain of Youth," other, marching through a village at the head of a
by Mr. C. N. Kennedy, is one of the few idealistic number of peasants—variously armed with pitchforks,
designs in the collection, and it is not without reaping-hooks, rusty muskets, and similar primitive
its value, both technically
and as exhibiting imaginative faculty. " The Ameer's
Heir," by Mr. James Clark,
represents the important
little personage
resting
upon cushions at a window,
attended upon by a slave
and a singularly pretty girl,
who is holding a tambourine and a feather fan. Mr.
Edgar Bundy is a young
artist whose progress is
marked and unmistakable.
He has two pictures here
that are both excellent.
One, " T h e Coffee-house
Orator," is a large and mixed
group of customers in a
tavern parlour, listening to
THE BABON'S POND, GUNNEBSBUBY.
an old gentleman who, with
(From the Painting by E. F. Brewtnall, B.W.S., at the Institute oj Painters in Oil-Colours.)
back to the fire, is holding
forth, apparently much to his own delight. The
varied character in the different faces, grouping of
the figures, and the management of the light and
shade are excellent. Mr. Bundy's other contribution,
" For King Monmouth," is perhaps more of a study,
but it is singularly vivacious, and full of masterly

weapons of offence—on their way to do battle for
the unworthy and unhappy Duke of Monmouth.
The younger painters figure rather conspicuously
in the exhibition. " Love's Pleadings," in most
respects a highly creditable production, by Mr. John
A. Lomax is a well-told and carefully worked out
incident. Mr. Jan V. Chelminski, with whose painting
we are now all so well acquainted, sends a spirited
study in " The Outpost
(Crimea)," a cavalry charge
during the Russian War;
and Mr. Talbot Hughes has
a delightful cabinet picture,
finished like a miniature, of
"The Secret Panel," a young
lady finding a hiding-place
from the Puritans for a
Cavalier. Placed somewhat
too high upon the walls to
be seen to advantage is
a picture by Mr. Robert
Fowler, which he entitles
" A Sweet Wild Creature
of the Sea," a golden-haired
mermaid, who by some misTHE AMEER'S HEIR.
chance finds herself stranded
(From the Painting by James Clark, at the Institute of Painters in Oil-Colours.)
upon the sea-shore, where
drawing. The subject pictures a fanatical preacher, she is discovered and curiously interrogated by
with Bible raised in one hand and sword in the some lads who are bathing. It is a pity that a

94

THE MAGAZINE

design of this class is not placed in a position where
it might be properly examined and appreciated.
Any notice of this collection, however brief, would
be extremely incomplete that made no reference at
all to the works of a class of contributors—the
lady artists—forming a rather distinct feature of
the exhibition. The very first picture on the walls,
" Good-bye," by Miss Edith M. Gregory, is the
strongly-painted head of a girl, whose black hair

OF AET.

back of a chair, by Miss Evelyn Pyke-Nbtt, are
noticeable; and remarkable, two studies of cats by
Mine. Henriette Eonner.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF BRITISH ARTISTS.
BY PETER MACNAB.

Amid much that is commonplace and a little
that is objectionable, the current exhibition of
the Eoyal Society of British Artists includes many
pictures which are interesting as revealing the permeating influence of the
more recent phases of artistic expression. And this
is all the more noticeable
as it was in these galleries,
but two or three years ago,
that the Partington-like
decision was arrived at to
resist and mop back the
rising tide.
The tide has risen notwithstanding. Its influence
is to be found not only in
the traces of escape from
conventional treatment in
many pictures, but also in
the decreasing number of
silly and trivial subjects
taken from the British
nursery.
Among the figure-picSUZANNE.
tures, a prominent place
(From the Picture by F. Cayley Robinson, at the Royal Society of British Artists By Permission
must be assigned to Mr.
of Messrs. Graves and Co.)
F. Cayley Eobinson's " Suis bound up with a red handkerchief; and " Me zanne," who sits before an old square piano, on
Loves 'oo " is one of Miss Maude Goodman's popular which two candles burn as before a shrine, lighting
child-studies of a very small lady saluting her own up the gold background of a triptych hanging on the
fair presentment in the looking-glass. " Capri wall behind. The rapt expression of the girl, the
Shadows," by Miss Mary E. Swan, is a bright powerful and solid painting of the accessories, and
sunshine effect in Capri, with tree shadows in gentle the rich harmonious colouring of the whole, render it
movement on a white wall. A pretty little girl in many ways a notable picture. Near it is " Eoses,"
reading a book, with her face in reflected light, by Mr. F. H. A. Parker, the head and bust of a girl
" Once upon a Time," credits the skill of Mrs. in white fichu, with a couple of roses at her breast,
Mariquita J. Moberly; and "Sunny Hours," a suc- which is tender and refined in colour and treatment.
The convivial picture still has its admirers, and to
cessful illustration of brilliant light, with children
them Mr. Edgar Bundy appeals in his " Gay Dogs
in a field eating fruit, is by Miss Ida Lovering.
A French girl laden with flowers, " La Fillette at the ' Dragon,'" which is reproduced on the
aux Chrysanthemes," by Miss Euth Garnett, is opposite page. The picture is clever and dexteranother of the best works by lady contributors; ous in execution, although the effect of the whole
and among the specimens of portraiture, " A Be- is marred by a certain patchiness and flicker of
miniscence of a Hundred Years Ago," by Miss lights.
Millicent Phelps; " Mabel," a profile head in life"Idle Moments" and "Hesitation," by the late
size, by Miss Whitacre Allen; a lovely female figure L. C. Henley, are two little costume-pictures which
in wrhite satin costume, " A Study," by Miss Maud show all the scrupulously neat execution and carePorter; " Deceivers Ever," a girl leaning on the ful rendering of detail which were ever present

CURRENT
in his work. With these may be classed " Interrupted Studies"—a costume version of " Guess
My Name"—and "Soft Whispers," by Mr. J. A.
Lpmax.
The tendency of art just now, however, is not
towards the production of costume-pictures; each
exhibition shows a decreasing number of them. Nor
is this a matter of much regret, as, owing no inspiration to the life
around him, the
pa-inter of such subjects is apt to move
in a very prescribed
circle; it is to the
painter whose work
is more directly influenced by the evervarying aspects of
nature
that one
must look for freshness and vitality,
where intense admiration of scene or
atmospheric effect
has moved hand and
heart to its sympathetic rendering.

AET.

95

giving harmonious rendering to the vivid green of
grass and tree in full summer-time; but in this instance the result is less happy than usual. Another
picture of this aspect of nature, " By Cooling
Stream," by Mr. Adam E. Proctor, is a pleasant
harmony in grey-green, with flecks of yellow sunlight, and sheep in the cool shade. It is, perhaps,
more, an example of how to skilfully avoid the

Traces of influences of this kind
are to be found in
Mr. G. C. Haite's
" Under the Lindens,
Dordrecht," with its
GAY DOGS AT THE " DRAGON."
picturesque canal(From the Painting by Edyar Bundy, at the Royal Society of British Artists.)
boat moored alongside the quay, and where basket on basket of gay difficulties of tone and texture of grass and tree than
flowers throw out gleams of colour from under the of triumphantly overcoming them; but the result is
shade of leafy lindens. Two little water-colours by agreeable, and shows a distinct advance. A sober
the same artist have all the suggestive charm of breadth of treatment and massive dignity of cloudthe spontaneous sketch. The work of Mr. John R form distinguish "Evening," by Mr. J. Olsson, who
Eeid is always interesting, although sometimes a seems never unmindful of the great importance of
little disappointing in its result; it has stamped on the sky in a picture, as too many painters often are.
it evidence of a keen observation of nature, shows
Affording scope for the combined treatment of
virile handling and a sense of purity of colour which figure and of landscape, it is natural that the toilers
charm us; but these qualities are too frequently of the field and of the shore should be favourite
accompanied by an over-assertion of strength, the themes of the painter. Millet, Jules Breton, Bastiendistant objects fighting, as it were, for prominence Lepage have shown us how grand and poetic treatwith the nearer, which is somewhat jarring and de- ment can be given to them without abating one jot
structive of that repose which is such an essential of naturalness. Their influence and example have
quality in art. These conflicting qualities are to be gradually but surely eliminated that note of affected
found in " A Happy Family ;" but the small picture, artificiality which was the bane of the pictorial
" A n Old Sea Dog," is simply delightful in its purity treatment of peasant-life in English art.
of colour and breezy freshness.
The "Mussel Gatherers, Normandy," by Mr.
"The Kennett Old Eiver" is the only con- Terrick Williams, work at low tide on the shore, near
tribution of Mr. Yeend King, who has frequently, Villerville presumably, in the soft sunny haze of a
with much success, attempted the difficult task of summer morning; the aerial effect is given with

96

THE MAGAZINE

considerable success, but the green on the ground is
more suggestive of grass than of the slimy, silken
filaments which swathe the mussel-beds. Two small
pictures of ploughing—"Gladman Willard Ploughs,"
by Mr. J. E. K. Duff, and "When the Men are
at the War," by Mr. Walter West—are worthy of
notice; while in " Ploughing the Headland," by

OE AET.

curiosity and remark, without necessarily evoking
admiration. "The Intruders," by Mr. E. C. W.
Bunny, reproduced on this page, fulfils these conditions thoroughly.
What we see is this : a blue sea under a blue
sky, against which rise tall white cliffs in flaring
sunlight; under their shelter float two galleys of
antique form, vermilion-prowed and
green-hulled, while from the nearer
a net stretches shoreward, upheld
by two figures, mid-high in water,
one in sunlight, the other in shadow.
The latter is confronted by two
beings of ghastly, livid hue—mermen or some such strange creation,
who lean over a low rock and examine him inquiringly. Here is no
dreamy, vague suggestion; no vaporous environment softens the crude
green and red of the boats, or tempers
the blinding glare of the white cliffs
against the deep blue sky; all is made
out with startling vividness, and not
a little power is shown in the relations
of flesh in sunshine and shadow; but
even with execution so deliberate
the artist's intention remains an
unsolved enigma, and the result is
more startling than satisfactory.
There are many small pictures of
considerable excellence, among which
may be mentioned as worthy of notice
a poetic pastoral, "The End of the
Day," by Mr. H. Harwood; " Evening," by Mr. Gwilt Jolly; "An
Autumn Afternoon," by Mr. Arnold
Priestman, with luminous tone of sky
and water; " St. Valery-sur-Somme,"
by Mr. Walter Bayes; and the dainty
" Cleaning Day," by Mr. G. Sheridan
INTRUDERS.
Knowles.
(From the Painting by R. C. W. Bunny, at the Royal Society of British Artists.)
Two of the rooms are devoted to
Mr. F. W. Jackson, a fairly good picture is some- water-colours, but few call for any special remark.
what spoiled by a disproportionate amount of A clever low-toned "Interior of Grand Cafe," by
foreground.
Hans Hansen, well deserves the central position
The pictures of Dutch life by Mr. G. Sherwood assigned to it. In "A Knotty Point at the Parish
Hunter have a certain quaint individuality in cha- Council" Mr. W. J. Morgan has anticipated legisracter and colour; but he seems to have failed in lation ; but the scale of the figures seems uncomgiving any special distinctive quality to the Spanish fortably large for the surrounding works. There
subjects by which he is represented here, and to are well-selected views of English landscape by
have missed altogether the glow and charm of the Mr. Leopold Eivers and of Highland landscape
southern atmosphere.
by Mr. James Macculloch, a clever sketch of
It is a good thing for an exhibition to have on its "Careening" by Mr. Herbert J. Finn, and a conwalls one picture which arrests the attention, excites siderable number of works of fair average excellence.

HEAD OF A GIRL.
iFrom the Painting by Sir Frederic Leighton, Bart., P.R.A.

In the Possession of Joseph Ruston, Esq.

Engraved by M. Dormoy.}

97

THE

EUSTON
THE MODERN

COLLECTION.
PICTURES.-II.

BY CLAUDE PHILLIPS.

!JO many the chief attraction of the Ruston
collection
will
be
found in the four
widely - known
and
c h a r a c t e r i s t i c examples which it contains of the art of
Mr. E. Burne-Jones.
All four of these—•
the famous " Chant
d'Amour," the ' ' M i r ror of Venus," the " Day," and the " N i g h t " — a r e
examples of the master's art when he had ceased to
be directly influenced by Rossetti, and owed allegiance to no other predecessors than his beloved
Florentines, Paduans, and Venetians of the fifteenth
century. All four, too, were in the recent memorable Burne-Jones exhibition at the New Gallery,
where not only the out-and-out worshippers of
the Pre-Raphaelite clief-d'ecole, but the art-loving
public in general had an unequalled opportunity
of summing up his artistic personality, of weighing
his characteristic excellences against his no less
characteristic mannerisms and limitations. The collection now under discussion does not contain any
example of the relatively fiery and h u m a n period in
which, bathed as it were in the reflected rays of
Rossetti's passionate and living romanticism, Mr.
Burne-Jones has felt—or shall I say has imaginatively
conceived ?—and has, moreover, known how to communicate to others, a thrill of passion such as is
conspicuously wanting in the more purely archaistic
and decorative art of his maturity. I refer to such
productions as the semi-sacred and wholly mystical
subject, "The Merciful Knight," so great a surprise to
those who did not know the artist in this mood of
passionate pity, and the wholly Rossettian " Merlin
and Mmiie," the design of which is so much more
truly pictorial in its naturalness, the flaming colour
of which is so much more suggestive, than t h a t of
the more famous " Beguiling of Merlin," in which
Mr. Burne-Jones has laboriously and with many
beauties of detail expressed a conception literary
and jorecieux rather t h a n genuinely seen with the
comprehensive and synthetic vision of the painter.
The " Chant d'Amour "—which is reproduced as
the frontispiece—(formerly in t h e William Graham
collection) dates back as far as 1865, and yet it
represents an ideal of art from which the painter
has rarely since departed.
866

Something of the Giorgionesque ideal of beauty
and luxuriousness, tempered by a sad reflectiveness
—as we find it in the so-called " C o n c e r t " of the
Louvre—has been aimed at in this " Sons of Love."
o

I n the foreground of a landscape, the rich green
tints of which are gilded by the rays of the sinking sun, on a greensward made gay with summer
flowers, a beautiful impassive damsel, robed in satin
of a greyish-white, plays on a small organ, gazing
the while dreamily into space; to the left a young
knight, bare-headed, but still clad in mail of burnished steel, lies on the grass, entranced by the
music and the player. Unseen by the lovers, none
less than Eros himself, myrtle-crowned, with purple
wings tipped with gold, with crimson draperies blown
by the zephyr, works the bellows. The background
is one of castellated tower and battlement, with a
small quasi-Gothic chapel irradiated by the setting
sun. This same Eros is one of the painter's loveliest and most characteristic conceptions, descending
in as straight a line from Florence and Botticelli
as does the rest of the picture from Venice and
Giorgione. I t may fairly be taken as typical of the
love-passion as Mr. Burne-Jones conceives of i t ; its
key-note is a pessimistic sadness, a foreboding, a
satiety before fruition, which communicates itself to
the listless personages who here enact the drama
of love, despairing even before they have hoped.
Technically this is one of the artist's most vigorous
and beautiful pieces of colour; unlike some of his
later works, it shows not only tints of rare subtlety carefully juxtaposed, but genuine beauty and
unity of tone enveloping and connecting the passages of brilliant local colour. The method of the
execution shuts out, however, t h a t peculiar inner
radiance of colour shining through semi-transparency of glazes which is the chief magic of the
Venetians and the Netherlanclers.
To the year
1877 belongs the not less typical •" Mirror of
Venus " (formerly in the Leyland collection), which
exemplifies a lighter and more purely decorative
key of colour, even more distinctive of the master's
a r t t h a n t h a t of the work we have just been discussing.
I n the foreground of a bare, quasiUmbrian landscape, which, notwithstanding its
nakedness, has an august beauty, is a silent pool
thickly fringed on its lips with forget-me-nots.
Round this has gathered a whole company of fair
nymphs or mortals, clad in rainbow-hued filmy robes
of lilac, amber, violet, green, blue—all these tints
shot through with gold and kindred tints—and

THE MAGAZINE

98

chapleted with flowers.
Standing, bending, or
kneeling in the most varied attitudes on the margin
of the mirror-like pool, these fair women—all too
absolutely of the consecrated Burne-Jonesian type—
admire their reflections in nature's looking-glass.
The defects of the picture are this same monotony

STUDY OF A HEAD.

(Drawn by W. Holman

Hunt.)

of type, from which the painter so seldom vouchsafes
to depart, and the relentlessly formal, the literal
repetition in the clear surface of the pool of
tlie beauties therein mirrored ; the centre of the
interest being thus shifted, and the otherwise
harmonious lines of the composition disturbed.
The manifest charms are the general grace of
the design, notwithstanding the drawback to which
I have referred, and the atmospheric quality of
the landscape, although this is not extended to

OF ART.

the environment of the figures. Highly effectivo
from the standpoint of pure decoration are tlie
brilliant, exquisitely assorted tints of the draperies,
so well matched with the delicate airiness of the
landscape.
A deep esoteric meaning may possibly be
evolved from the work by those who
profess to interpret the Pre-Raphaelite
painter with authority. Not being myself in his confidence, I must frankly
confess that I fail to perceive any
special or distinctive motive in it—•
that is, if I am asked to consider
it as more than an outwardly lovely
piece of decoration in the higher mode.
To the uninstructed beholder all that
is here depicted is the first discovery
of their loveliness by women lovely
indeed according to one pattern, but
seemingly not unconscious of what it is
they gaze at, and, gazing, so languidly
admire. Of any other than an external
and decorative unity there are here
not many traces. The garb and type
of the damsels are not such as to give
an added significance to the main motive
of the picture, while the landscape,
again, beautiful as it must be allowed
to be as a revival of one of the old
Italian modes, has no special connection
with the figures which it holds or with
the subject in its essence.
The companion wTater-colours, "Day "
and " Night," belong to a class of even
more avowedly decorative work than the
picture to which reference has just been
made. They were both painted in 1871,
and are among the best of a whole
number of similar single figures, including the four " Seasons," the " Caritas,"
the " Temperantia," the " Fides," two
"Sibyls," &c.—all of these having been
painted at various dates, ranging between 1870 and 1877. " D a y " is a
Mantegnesque male figure, completely
nude—Mantegnesque, however, without
the grimness or the strength of the Paduan master.
It bears a long, slender torch, the flame of which
curiously typifies the blazing orb of day, and stands
erect with blown hair against a background in which
is seen a seaport with its walled harbour, jutting
boldly out into the sea, " Night," a beautiful bluerobed female figure, appears framed in the embrasure
of a classical window or door open to the heavens,
beyond which is perceived a space of clear starlit
sky and blue rippling sea. There is here to be

THE RUSTON

COLLECTION".

99

noted a fine and appropriate serenity of conception,
In concluding my remarks on this section of
a scheme of colour which is not only lovely in the Huston collection I must not omit to menitself, but expressive of the subject in its essence. tion two very fine heads in coloured chalks by
The long classical draperies wholly cover, yet they Mr. Holmaii Hunt; remarking en passant that
too much reveal a shape which in its characteristic the gallery can show no example of Sir J. E.
and, as we may assume, wilful deficiencies, carries Millais' early practice—of that period when, in
us back to the fifteenth century, and rather to the his way, hardly less a poet than Rossetti, and a
meagre,
attenuated
much more complete
grace of Botticelli
painter, he produced
than to the force of
his noblest and most
the Pollajuoli or the
enduring works. Mr.
vigorous realism of
Holman Hunt's two
Signorelli.
heads were studied
Though the name
direct from the living
of M a n t e g n a
has
model in the East, the
occurred to me in
one bearing, besides
connection with the
the monogram, the
" Day," it is perhaps,
description, " Jerusaafter all, with the
lem, July 2nd, 1876,"
creations of Florentine
the other the similar
art that these decoraindication* " A Bethtions have the greatest
lemite, August 11th,
affinity. Their fellows
1877." These studies
—the "Caritas," the
are not only marked
" Fides," the "Temperby the earnestness
antia" (all shown at
and pathetic character
the Burne-Jones exhiwhich are rarely wantbition)—belong to the
ing in this artist's pertwo great series of the
formances ; but they
Theological and the
preserve a measure of
Cardinal Virtues rethat vitality, of that
spectively, in giving
personal c h a r a c t e r ,
concrete shape
to
which the slow and
which both Tuscan
laborious
treatment
sculptors and Tusapplied by him to
can painters during
finished works often
the fourteenth and
effaces. The columnar
fifteenth
centuries
throats, the modelling
evolved some of their
of the features genernoblest
and
most
ally, recall distinctly
touching conceptions.
the
artist's
friend
What lover of FlorenRossetti, while the
tine art needs to be
spirit is entirely Mr.
A CAVALIER.
reminded of the great
Holman Hunt's own.
(From the Water-Colour Drawing by J. L. E. Meissonier.)
gates of the Baptistery
"4
We find ourselves
on entirely different ground with Sir Frederic
at Florence—the first of the three pairs in order*
Leighton's " Borneo and Juliet," an early work
of date—by the G-iottesque Andrea Pisano; of the
still recalling by the strength of its local colour
figures in the Tabernacle of Andrea Orcagna in the
and the sombre depth of its shadows the painter
Church of Orsanmichele; of the triumphant fashion
of the "Procession of Cimabue's Rucellai Main which Donatello, Luca della Bobbia, Matteo
donna;" still showing the President in his ro^
Civitali, and many others have dealt with similar
mantic as distinguished from his purely aesthetic
subjects ?
phase. What we have here is romanticism of the
Among the painted series of Virtues, the most
Delaroche-Gallait rather than the true Delacroix
important that occurs to me is that done by Piero
type; it was in the air at the time when Sir
Pollajuolo and Botticelli, and now in the galleries
Frederic was pursuing his artistic studies (if I
of the JJffizi.

100

THE MAGAZINE

OF ART.

that death, not love, should greet him. Around
are grouped Friar Laurence, the Nurse, and the
subordinate personages of the tragedy which has
magnetically attracted, by its infinite passion and
its infinite pathos, the romantic painters and the
romantic musicians of the nineteenth century from
its beginning to its end.
The beautiful portrait-study of a
young Italian girl wearing an olivegreen dress, with a red rose in her
hair, is well known from a popular
reproduction; it is a very characteristic example of the President's art
in that later and more sesthetic phase
which is the one most familiar to
this generation.
As Mr. Logsdail is a Lincolnshire
man, of whom his town and county
are justifiably proud, it is most fitting
that his art should be copiously represented in the most important of
Lincolnshire's art collections; and
this is undeniably the case. Here is
the large " Piazza S. Marco," wdiich
was in the Eoyal Academy, and subsequently in the Loan Collection of
the Guildhall (1892). It is a picture which cannot fail to strike the
beholder, even though it may not
altogether succeed in charming him.
In it the painter appears as an uncompromising partisan of what may,
for the sake of convenience, be called
the Neo-Venetian school, although it
is Venetian not by reason of its
method, but in virtue of its subjects
taken from the Venetian life of today. This is the school of which
Herr Van Haanen is the most consummate and the most sympathetic
exponent, and to which belong M. de
Blaas, the late Favretto, Sig. Nono,
Mr. Luke Fildes, Mr. Henry Woods,
HEAD OP AN OLD WOMAN.
and many others. Mr. Logsdail is
{From the Water-Colour Drawing by Professor HerJcomer, R.A.)
easily distinguishable by reason of
has undeniable dramatic qualities and an earnest- his broad, heavy touch, acquired in the Antwerp
ness which may wTell be set off against the school, and his bold realism in dealing with the
fastidious grace, the over-polished refinement, of types and aspects of modern life. The gay, garish
the later years.
scene, in which those most unrefined of mortals,
The episode depicted is that in which we see the Italian bourgeois of to-day, are shown taking
Juliet in her bridal attire, apparently bereft of life, their pleasure al fresco on the Piazza S. Marco, is
after she has drunk the potion of the helpful Friar. painted with undeniable power, but in too photoLady Capulet embraces the lifeless form in pas- graphic and literal a fashion. The artist evidently
sionate grief, the white-haired Capulet kneels in awe, thinks all the component parts of his subject of equal
while the County Paris, clad in the long festal robes pictorial importance, and will sacrifice, as he will
that were to grace his wedding, starts back in affright suggest, nothing. The large composition," Boat on

mistake not) in Germany, and might very probably
have been derived by him from a German source.
Here it might be objected that the colouring is
rusty—roussdtre, as our neighbours better put it
—that the Juliet who lies outstretched in a deathlike trance is too small, that the crowded composition lacks atmospheric depth and relief. Still it

&n
S >

Co

^ >

£ o

^s

THE

KUSTON

a Venetian Canal," has the same merits and is
open in a measure to the same criticisms as the
foregoing. The big Venetian boat, with its closelypacked occupants, is too near the spectator—too absolutely the picture, and the whole of the picture. A
certain heaviness, too, is apparent in the treatment
of the " Ca' D'Oro," that so-called Golden House of
the Canal Grande, which has tempted so many
painters before Mr. Logsdail, and will tempt so many
more. More to our taste, and showing a tendency to
less insistent and more sympathetic treatment, are
three agreeable studies from coast scenes on the
Eiviera, which were among the series exhibited not
long since by the same artist in the galleries of
the Fine Art Society.
By Prof. Hubert Herkomer, and in his best
manner, is a powerful " Head of an Old Woman," of
full life-size, painted in water-colours. The head of
the aged dame, whom I take to be one of the
painter's favourite Bavarian peasants, is boldly
blocked out and modelled, and rendered, too, with
a sympathetic truth to which the artist by no
means in his latest performances invariably attains.
The technical method is much the same as that
employed in the well-known portrait of Kicharcl
Wagner, which now, with many and various presentments of the deceased master, hangs in the
Villa Wahnfried at Bayreuth.
A little out of their right place, I must now
mention one or two works by foreign artists.
By M. Fantiii-Latour are three of his loveliest
and most silvery " Groups of Flowers "-.—things delightful to contemplate, to live with, but which
can hardly, save by the deftest of word-painters,
be so described as to evoke any of their charm. A
large water-colour by Sig. C. Bisco depicts, in that
broad, massive style which is proper to the modern
Eoman school in using this medium, the fantastically-attired figure of an Oriental or rather pseudoOriental woman, wearing as one of her chief draperies
a white burnous. Last, but by no means least,
comes a water-colour by Meissonier, one of those
Louis Treize cavaliers in whom the deceased master
so much delighted. This one stands warming himself near a stone chimneypiece carved in the style
of the late French Renaissance, dressed in a grey
doublet with a loose scarlet cloak, and wearing the
long supple leather boots of the period. The workmanship shows all the breadth, the masterly incisiveness of this great rival of the seventeenth-century
Dutch masters, and, at the same time, much of that
peculiar hotness and rustiness which are charac-

COLLECTION.

101

teristics of his colour. In the quality of extraordinary finish, combined with real breadth and
freedom of handling on the smallest scale, Meissonier is, it must be admitted, at least the equal
of Terburg and Gabriel Metsu, the painters among
the Dutchmen of the golden prime with whom lie
is most often compared. He has not, however,
the intuitive gift of the colourist, the subtly
fused execution of the former; while he must yield
to the latter in truth of observation, and in the
power to seize upon the human as distinguished
from the tragi-comic side of the subjects which he
interprets. Meissonier astonishes and delights by
the marvels of his execution, by his command over
facial expression, by his dramatic power when he
chooses to put it forth; yet he is never genuinely
in sympathy with his own time, and cares only for
those aspects of humanity which lend themselves
to what he considers pictorial treatment. Man to
interest him must either be decked in the trappings
of a former day, or in those military uniforms which
are ever full of tragic suggestion; he must be
seen either with these adventitious attractions, or
under circumstances which render him useful from
a dramatic, a scenic point of view. Were it possible
—I am far from suggesting that it would be desirable—to suppress at one stroke Meissonier's entire
life-work, the world would lose an exquisite, in his
peculiar way a unique artist, but no link in the continuity or the onward development of modern art
would be broken; no phase of it, whether the
romantic, the realistic, the naturalistic, or the
impressionistic, would suffer material diminution.
Meissonier was an isolated phenomenon; his art
was one of the most precious, the least easily attainable luxuries of modern man; it was by no
means an essential of its period, which lacking,
that period would have been materially the poorer.
I cannot more appropriately bring these remarks on the Buston collection to a close than by
a reference to the fine portrait painted by the late
Frank Holl of its owner. It is an excellent example
of the art of the regretted portraitist in its mature
and . definitive shape. Its lighting is according to
the sombre and sharply-contrasted mode peculiar to
him ; its execution broad and decisive, yet neglectful
of no important fact. Holl had not the subtle
intuition of character or the loving sympathy of a
Watts; he had not all the vitality of a Millais;
but he possessed a measure of all these qualities,
together with a virile and unaffected style of
presentment which was essentially his own.

102

ITALIAN
BY

CHIMNEY-TOPS.
H. E. TIDMARSH.

I

T is only a trained sightseer
who sees half the objects
that are hourly before him.
This is not only because the
casual passer-by does not grasp
all that the object means and
tells, but because many things
quite within view are absolutely
unseen by him ; for, in addition
to the want of mental training
as lo what to look for, we are
accustomed to look only around
us, having learnt that within
our natural line of vision all
the objects we have ordinarily
to deal with are found, and we
ON T H E DAZIO AT T H E
thus miss any elevated but unB1MDGE, P A V l A .
{Drawn by H. E. Tidmarish.) presuming object.
For this cause the upper
parts of picturesque architecture suffer much
neglect, and the doors and windows, terraces and
porches, are better known and more frequently
illustrated than the less seen but often charming
roofs and chimneys.
The present paper deals especially with the
treatment of this subject in Italy, which country,
in this as in so many other matters, stands pre-

CHIMNEYS

IN

VIA
(Drawn

eminent. The way in wdiich
often burst forth into beauty
smoke-shafts above the roof
their taste and power and,

sent-day productions, a. sign of our
Elizabethan houses, indeed, have
chimney-stacks, but these are very
found on lowly habitations. The

^m
1W*

$&**'-Aff•''•£.•'*;}£?-Aft

NEAR

THE

(Drawn

CATHEDRAL,
by H. E.

MILAN.

Tidmarsh.)

cottages of the date which remain to us, containing
the huge chimneys where our grandfathers dozed
away their declining years, often show very handsome red-brick piles rising from the centre of the
roof;; and they are still somewhat common in many
of the less " improved " parts of the country. But
the whole of our towns have for generations been
hopelessly barren and poverty-stricken in sky-line.
The classic revival in architecture, as it grew in re-

BERNARDINO
by H. E.

the old builders there
in the designs of their
is a great evidence of
by contrast with pre-

decadence. Old
most delightful
rare and seldom
few old country

DA

PELTRE,

PAVIA.

Tidmarsh.)

finement, slowly killed the fine Gothic and Jacobean
chimneys, and was itself quite unconcerned in such
objects, for " Have the Greeks left us any rules on
the subject ?" Now, the upward prolongation of

ITALIAN

103

CHIMNEY-TOPS.

the ' party-wall" for a few feet, on the top of which
a row of little cylinders, varying in number from

IN THE PIAZZA PONTIDA, BERGAMO.
(Drawn by II. E. Tidmarsh.)

five to twenty, is placed, is taken by us as the
normal and quite satisfactory state of things. A
few people have from time to time raised a great
outcry against a variation of this monotony in the
shape of a tall zigzag or cowled zinc interloper, but
the great majority appear to think that the smaller
the chimneys are, and the less they obtrude themselves upon our notice in any way, the more
satisfactory to our aesthetic sense.
The modern revival in domestic
architecture has brought us back
some very pretty studies above the
roofs, but these are, of course, only
found on good-class dwellings, and
the great dreary miles of street in
all our large towns are still given
over to unbroken monotony. This
is probably the case in all the
larger towns of the civilised world,
and, in fact, wherever men have
not. built their own houses. The
coldest countries, and as a consequence those using the most fuel,
especially where the fuel is of the
dirty nature of coal, ought, by inference, to pay the most attention

to the smoke-shafts, and in the case of a cultured
community one would look to such for a considerable display of beauty of form as well as a study of
utility. This is not as one would expect, for in
Italy, where fires are but little used, or at any rate
are almost smokeless, it is quite common to see,
even upon the wrinkly old roofs of the meanest
houses, as well as on the well-kept tiles of the
palaces, the most delightful sprinkle of little structures, shaming by contrast the monstrous horrors
with which we crowd our roofs in such unnecessary
profusion. Indeed, the great majority of the examples shown here, which are typical instances, are
from poor men's roofs, and rather point the moral
that we must not look to the architect for ornamental chimneys, but rather trust to the practical
builder who feels a pride in his work to put a
finishing touch of love upon it in the shape of a
handsome finale.
During a recent tour in North Italy my
attention was. first drawn to the beauty of these
house-tops by a little row of dirty houses in the
south-west corner of Pavia, inhabited by many families, where washing was hanging in usual fashion
out of every window. (See opposite page.) These
chimneys I sketched just as they stood, in spite of a
semi-tropical downpour of rain, against whose drops
the flat tops of the chimneys fortunately preserved
any cooking operations going on over the charcoal
fires beneath. They are evidently a survival of days
of better taste, and have many companions in the
town, but generally upon the poorer houses. Though

NEAR PORTA MILANO, CREMONA.
(Drawn by H. E.

Tidmarsh.)

THE MAGAZINE

104

IN VIA S. CATARINA, VERONA.
(Drawn by H. E.

Tidmdrsh.)

frequently and usually in company, like the pigeons
which haunt their blackened tops—and then forming
beautiful groups—yet sometimes a solitary veteran
rears his weather-worn head, as in the case of one
I sketched on the Dazio by the bridge at Pavia.
In spite of the remark that the large towns
are so uninteresting, there are few, especially in
Italy, which do not well repay a diligent search
for the picturesque. Milan is rich in all good
things, and, in spite of much recent rebuilding, it
still presents to the artist many choice bits. Some
of these are found, even yet, close to the cathedral,
and I drew a small group of chimneys starting
from the roof of a palazzo just at the back of the
cathedral, almost seeming to parody the beautiful
marble pinnacles and finials so liberally scattered
on the mighty, world-renowned neighbour, but
forming a veritable oasis in the monotonous wilderness of little square chimneys just protruding their
flat tops so plentifully all over the great tile roofs
around. (See p. 102.) These latter, howrever, probably partook much of the same character as those
illustrated before the modern restorer came, and with
his ideas of utility left this dearth as our inheritance. To find such subjects in any profusion one
must turn to the less "improved" places, and hunt up
such towns as Bergamo, with its many unchronicled
delights, amongst which are some charming housetops. In the Piazza Pontida, in the lower part of
the town, there is one of the most grimy, florid old
monsters Italy yields in the way of chimneys (p. 103),
which overlooks the old women nodding over their
fruit and vegetables in the shady arcades below,
and which the natives, when they found me taking
its portrait, were greatly surprised to see existed
amongst them. Whether the spiral form, somewhat

OF ART.

frequent' in Bergamo, was suggested
to the builders by the steep slope of
the road winding to the upper town
I cannot say, but before the days of
the funicular railway they doubtless
had daily cause in their toilsome
journeys to work out some such
design for their chimneys, if not
for other objects, and their hands
might come intuitively to form such
upward curves.
The want of uniformity in design is most remarkable, and on one
house you may find the spindly
pepper-box, the capped pyramid,
the cemetery urn, and the stork'snest types. All these I found on
one building—but a small shop—by
the Porta Milano, Cremona (p. 103).
One may safely surmise that the
builder was his own architect for this group, if

IN THE VIA ANEITEATRO, VERONA.
< Drawn by H. E. Tidmarsh.)

ITALIAN

CHIMNEY-TOPS.

not for most of the other groups, because from
all time the orthodox architect has made great
sacrifices for uniformity, and has never gone in
for such vagaries as this group displays. That the
builder followed his fancy alone in these structures
is quite manifest in the smaller specimens, and in
these it is also very noticeable how simple was the
material of which they were built. Two which I
sketched on little adjoining shops in a back street
in Verona seemed to be entirely constructed of
common round and flat tiles with bricks and mortar,
and yet, by taste in arrangement, they
have all the richness and beauty of
regularly designed mouldings and ornament (p. 104). All the chimneys illustrated here are built up in
the same way—of rough brick,
tile, and plaster, with occasional
bits of stone. If the workman were now allowed and
i
encouraged to put his own
ideas into his work, and not
merely supplied with precise
drawings or ready-manufactured details, his growing taste
and knowledge of art, already
seen, would soon work a wonderful change in the appearance
of all our common objects.
Thought and individuality
would then be evident in
those things, which are now
but one of ten thousand
others, and we should soon
be approaching the condition
which produced those famous
works of domestic art in Italy, and might reasonably
hope to see a revival of such beauty in common life.
It is necessary to allow local forms, traditions,
and materials to have full play in their influence
and necessity, and not attempt to teach uniformity
of pattern or style. Given these things, we may
yet eclipse the best results of bygone days.
The Y-shaped battlement is almost a monopoly
of Verona, to this day surmounting its wide encircling walls, and it has naturally crept into their
chimney designs. On this page is a drawing of a fine
circular monster, erected on a Veronese battlement
which dominates the little courtyard S. Paolo, off
the Via S. Paolo, like a turret on a battle-ship,
with six grimy embrasures, out of which curl the
tender blue wreaths of smoke from the wood fire
beneath. Unlike the works of fine art we so carefully shelter indoors, these rough, little-valued productions of the builder-artist are most beautiful
when thoroughly old and grimy.
867

105

This I found by comparing two on a palazzo in
the Via Anfiteatro in Verona. One is shown in the
sketch (p. 104). The other, its companion, and the
same in design, was just completing a beautiful
course of restoration, and in its new paint and

THE

COURTYAKD
{Drawn

S. PAOLO,

by H. E.

VEIJONA.

Tidmarsh.)

faultless mouldings was distressingly or, compared
with its brother, ludicrously commonplace and
obtrusive. Yet it was proudly surveyed by the
plasterer and painter, who both came down to have
a look at me, wondering at my selecting the old and
dirty one for a subject.
In many of the older parts of each town the
sky-line formed by the chimney-pots and roofs is
very happy. A sketch in a quiet back street in
Mantua, though containing ho fine specimens, gives
a very pleasing and characteristic blot against
the sunset sky, and is a good illustration of this
unpremeditated architectural grouping. Were a
little more attention paid to our house-tops, there
is no reason why any country town, suburban street,
or city thoroughfare, should not give as good a
silhouette as any cathedral roof or college top,
and to the city toiler every homeward walk be
filled with varied pictures of fancy and beauty
against the deepening sky.

106

THE MAGAZINE

OF AET.

Venice—unique in its situation, its art, and its kinds of shipwright's trades flourish. Eound an old
attractions — stands alone also in the matter of yard these patched-up chimneys are ranged like the
stumps of giganchimney-pots.
tic masts from
The old stone
their
ancient
and mortar fungalleons,
and
nels, so promimixed up with
nent in many
old gables and
pictures of the
old vines, washancient city, still
ing, and fleecy
surmount many
white
clouds,
of the houses,
they make a
and greatly help
delightful subin giving that
ject. From a
old-world look
barge or raft
to the place
one may sketch
which is such a
them at leisure,
charm to the
and learn to
Western. They
keep one's temfrequently apper unruffled as
pear in old picAT MANTUA.
the frequent
tures and plans
(Drawn by H. E. Tidmarsh.)
wash from the
of the city, and
the visitor to the Academy will have noticed a fine steamers tosses the craft, and the splash from great
show of them in the background to Gentile Bellini's logs, pitched off a neighbouring timber-boat, soaks
picture of the " Miraculous Finding of a Fragment one with the dirty sea-water.
The old German cities, while so replete with
of the ' True Cross.'"
These chimneys, where they still exist, are not interest to the lover of the picturesque, are badly off
generally so well preserved or clean-looking. They
usually display some excrescence or deformity, which
later hands have added to their ruins. There is a
most charming group of such, which all steam-boat
passengers
from
the Piazza to the
Giardini Pubblici
must have noticed.
This
neighbourhood is very like

SOME VENETIAN CHIMNEYS.
(Drawn by H. E.

the London Eotherhithe. Old ships are being
patched or broken up, and some few new ones
built. Bafts of timber line the shore, and all

Tidmarsh.)

for handsome chimneys. Provincial France makes a
very poor show in this direction, while Switzerland
and Scandinavia have only squat stone-slab chimneys.

107

OUR ILLUSTRATED NOTE-BOOK.

T

HE recent loan collection of pictures at the Not- whose great white cliff stands out towards the sea,
tmgham Art Museum was especially interesting the whole scene glistening in the summer sun. Mr.
for the remarkEdwin Ellis is a
able
gathering
powerful painter,
of works by Mr.
with a clear conEdwin Ellis,
ception of what
E.B.A., an artist
he wishes to do,
whose
talent
and always knowshould count for
ing the exact
something in the
way of doing it,
sum of English
preserving with
landscape art.
singular felicity
In the exhibition
the invigorating
of
eighty-four
effects of the sea,
pictures by Mr.
which he paints
Ellis were some
with so much exAPTEE THREE DATS' GALE.
of the painter's
cellence if with
{From the Painting by Edwin Ellis. By Permission of Dr. John Fox.)

EDWIN ELLIS.
{From a Photograph by A. W. Cox.)

earlier works as
well as his more
mature paintings,
such as " After
Three
Days'
Gale." This picture, with its fine
running sea and
rushing clouds,
is illustrative of
the artist's imp e t u o s i t y and
daring. The subject of "Eull
Summer" is on
. the
coast
at
Flamborough,

T. EAEEELL, P.E.H.A.
{From a Photograph by Werner and Son.)

THE LATE KAEL BODMEE.
{From a Photograph by Nadar, Paris.)

FULL SUMMEB.
{From the Painting by Edwin Ellis.

By Permission of Henry Seebohm, Esq.)

some degree of
sameness.
A
native of Nottingham, and the
son of a lace
manufacturer,
Mr. Ellis, when
he left school at
the age of fifteen,
worked for five
years at lacedesigning,
and
then took to
painting as a
profession.
He
had the benefit
of whatever in-

108

THE MAGAZINE

struction Henry Dawson could give him, and subsequently went to France to complete his artistic
education.
Mr. Thomas Farrell, who has succeeded the late Sir T. A. Jones as
the President of the Royal Hibernian
Academy, comes of an artistic family,
his father having been a sculptor as
well as his four brothers. His regular

OF ART.

Patrick's Cathedral; Lord O'Hagan and R. L. Shiel
in the Four Courts; Dr. Dease in the College of

THE LAUNCH OF THE LIFEBOAT.
{By Henry Moore, R.A.

Recently acquired by the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.)

Surgeons; Sir John Grey, Mr. William Smith O'Brien, Sir
Alexander McDonnell, and Lord Ardilaun, which adorn the
streets of Dublin.
We refer in the obituary on page xii of the "Chronicle
of Art" to the death of M. Karl Bodmer.
We reproduce three pictures which have recently been
acquired by the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. " The Ruins
of Baalbec," by David Roberts, R.A, and " In Time of War,"
by Mr. Thomas Faed, R.A, were presented by the sons of the
late Ralph Brocklebank, Esq. For " The Launch of the Life-

THE RUINS OF BAALBEC.
(By David Roberts, R.A. Recently acquired by thz
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.)

art-training commenced in 1843,
when he entered at the schools of
the Royal Dublin Society. Here he
gained several prizes. In 1853 he
received the commission for the
public statue of Archbishop Murray,
and when the model of it was
finished he spent some time in
Rome and Florence. Elected to the
Academy in 1861, he has been since
that time closely connected with that
institution, acting for many years as
?.
•"&»,
treasurer, and as visitor in the Livingstone Model School. Among his more
IN TIME OF WAR.
important works are the Waterloo
{By T. Faed, R.A. Recently acquired by the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.)
relievo on the Wellington Memorial
in Phoenix Park—commissioned in 1860—statues boat," by Mr. Henry Moore, R.A., painted in 1876,
of Archbishop Whately and Captain Boyd in St. Liverpool is further indebted to Mr. Henry Tate.

109

THE "OLD MASTERS" AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY.
BY LTONEL OUST.

T

HERE need be no hesitation in saying that the
twenty-fifth exhibition of works by the "Old
Masters " now open at the Royal Academy is one of
the most interesting that has ever been held there.
This exhibition is an annual event, as
eagerly awaited—if I may hazard
the comparison—as the Drury Lane
pantomime. Each appeals to a large
section of the public, and in each
case it is always said that there
must be a falling-off some day for
lack of new material. The Royal
Academy has before now shown how
it can falsify such predictions ; but
never so successfully as this year,
when its supremacy has been directly
challenged by the directors of the
New Gallery, with their well-planned
and deeply-interesting exhibition of
early Italian art. It is true that in
foreign schools, especially the Italian,
the exhibition at Burlington House is
hardly so strong as usual; but this
only enhances the interest and importance of the British school. Such
a row of chefs-d'ceuvre on one wall
as those by Reynolds, Gainsborough,
and Turner in the third, or Great,
Gallery is seldom seen, and should
not be missed by any student or
amateur; but it is not only on these
popular painters that the exhibition
relies, for other British artists are
adequately represented, from Hogarth
to Frederick Walker.
By Sir Joshua Reynolds there are
eleven canvases, painted at different
periods of his life, the dates being in
most cases discoverable by the entries
in his note-books. Attention is naturally drawn to
the four fine full-length portraits of "Lady Frances
Marsham," "Mrs. Powys and her Daughter," "Mrs.
Carnac," painted in the years 1776—1778, and
"Lady Sunderlin," painted in 1788. They rather
cast in the shade the smaller paintings, including
the masterly portrait of " Sir Jeffery (afterwards
Earl) Amherst," in armour, painted in 1765, shortly
after his return to England from the conquest of
Canada. In spite of a somewhat cold and faded
exterior, this portrait of Amherst may be regarded
as the finest work of Reynolds in this exhibition.
The rather damaged picture of ." Venus Disarming
868

(or Chiding) Cupid," lent by Sir James Linton, is
familiar from one or two pretty sugary reproductions in stipple-engraving by Bartolozzi.
It is Gainsborough, however, to whom all visitors

SIR JEFFERY (AFTERWARDS EARL) AMHERST.
{From the Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds,

P.R.A.)

will award the victor's wreath at this exhibition.
Many eyes will be ravished and many hearts
touched by the full-length portrait of the fair, frail,
and ill-fated "Perdita Robinson," a well-known
picture from Hertford House. The portrait of
" Queen Charlotte" shows the painter's skill in
tackling a difficult subject; those of " Mrs. Thicknesse" and " Charles Frederick Abel," the viol-digamba player, recall the earlier years of Gainsborough's life, and hjs passionate devotion to music.
Nothing could be iiiore dignified than the pose of
Abel, with his viol-di-gamba against his knee; and
it is noteworthy that the same white Pomeranian

110

THE MAGAZINE OF ART.

dog appears here which is such an attractive and
graceful feature in the portrait of Mrs. Robinson.
Again Gainsborough's power of painting children
is admirably illustrated by the fascinating " Miss
Haver field," from Hertford House, and " A Page,"
a boy in a blue dress, resembling the famed " Master
Buttall" at Grosvenor House, and recently exhumed

INTERIOR WITH FIGURES.
(From the Painting by Jan Steen. The Property of Samuel Montagu,

from the Earl of Egremont's former collection in
Devonshire.
Romney is not well represented here, except in
the well-known portrait of "Lady Hamilton as
Sensibility." There is, however, a charming Hoppner, " Master White," a boy in a dark-blue jacket,
with a bow; and another boy's portrait, " Master
Smith," by Francis Cotes, in a plum-coloured dress,
with a kite, shows how nearly that painter at his
best could approach the great Reynolds himself.
The solid, straightforward art of Sir Martin Shee
is well exemplified by the portrait of " Miss Blake,"
and there is much sober dignity in the two historical portraits, lent by Mr. John Murray, of
the poets Campbell and Crabbe, both by Thomas
Phillips, R.A. In British landscape Turner has it

all his own way. The pictures lent by the Earl
of Yarborough, Lord Leconfield, and Mr. Orrock are
too well known to need criticism, and fairly illustrate every phase of his career. Less known,
but not less remarkable, are the two dream-impressions of water and sunshine, lent by Sir Donald
Currie. There is not space for comment on the
landscapes of Stark, Crome, Cotman,
Nasmyth, and David Cox, all of which
merit attention. Places of honour are
given to two of the chief productions
of Frederick Walker; "The Wayfarers"
is one of the least satisfactory of his
works, and " The Plough," despite its
ambitious colour, is garish and overcharged with sentiment and affectation.
It is pleasant to turn from it to its
neighbour, " The Last of the Harvest,"
by the ill-starred George Paul Chalmers,
a painting full of pathos and delicate
refined feeling, which, with its sombreness and subdued effects, is more suggestive of the modern Dutch school
than of the British school of the time
at which the painter lived. Chalmers
has still to meet with his due meed of
appreciation, and this is a picture which
I should like to see in the National
Gallery or the new Gallery of British
Art. Of other pictures, note may be
taken of the well-known picture by
John Phillip, R.A., " The Early Career
of Murillo," and " The Sleeping Nymph
and Satyrs," the diploma picture by
William Etty, R.A., a far superior production to his "Pluto and Proserpine."
A very interesting picture by Hogarth,
" The Marriage of Mr. Beckingham and
Miss Corbett, in Bishopsbourne Church,"
Esq., M.P.)
sent by Mrs. Deedes from Sandling
Park, Hythe, is, I believe, now exhibited for the
first time, and has remained hitherto unnoticed,
even by the vigilant eyes of Mr. Austin Dobson.
It was painted in 1729, about the same time as
" The Wollaston Family" and other well-known
conversation pieces.
The Dutch school is, at first sight, by no means
so strongly represented as in last winter's exhibition.
This is most conspicuous in the case of Rembrandt,
whose work here is only seen in three small and
unattractive examples. There are, however, two
fine Albert Cuyps, two Hobbemas, .some good
Ruysdaels, especially " A Yiew of Katwyk," from
the Glasgow Gallery, and " The Windmill," from
Buckingham Palace. A good Frans Hals is lent
by Earl Amherst, and there are two excellent

THE "OLD MASTERS" AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY.
Pieter de Hooghs, one being the charming and
well-known " Garden Scene " belonging to Mr. John
Walter. Jan Steen is well represented by four
pictures, one being a touching picture of domestic
life, " Saying Grace;" another, a jovial party,
" Dutch Family Merrymaking," from Glasgow; and
a third, a curious picture, here only named as
"Interior with Figures," but known elsewhere as
"Les Amours de Jan Steen," and stated to contain a portrait of the painter himself paying his
addresses to a woman whom he sought to make
his second wife. This last picture appears to be
identical with one engraved in mezzotint by S.
Paul, and then in Mr. Blackwood's collection. A

Ill

Conspicuous among them is a fine picture by Paris
Bordone, " Christ among the Doctors," which will
instantly recall to all visitors to Venice the
famous picture of "The Fisherman and the Ring
of St. Mark " in the Accademia there. Sebastiano
del Piombo is represented by the Earl of Northbrook's fine " Holy Family." A very attractive
picture is " The Flute-player," by Savoldo, a littleknown painter of Brescia, delighting in silver-greys
and other quiet tints, of whose work there are
good examples at Hampton Court. A fine portrait
of " A Senator," ascribed to Raphael, suggests the
hand of Parinigiano, who, in his portraits, shows
nothing of that false, pernicious affectation of which

THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS.
(From the Painting

charming " Dutch Interior," by Pieter Codde, is
one of Mr. Walter Armstrong's recent happy acquisitions for the National Gallery of Ireland.
Last, but by no means least, should be noticed
" The Lady at a Spinet," by Jan Yermeer, of Delft,
lent by Mr. Humphry Ward, a good example of
this now highly-prized painter, but not so attractive
as others which have in former years been seen on
these walls.
The far end of the Great Gallery has seldom been
filled with greater dignity than it is now by the
wonderful portrait by Yandyck of "Andrea Spinola,
Doge of Genoa," a picture which was seen here in
1879. The magnificent effects of the red robes
and the dignity of the sitter's pose testify to the
extraordinary power shown by Yandyck in what
is known as his Genoese period. It quite overshadows the later, but fine, dignified full-length
portraits of "Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick," and
" James Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox,"
both lent by the Earl of Leicester from Holkham.
I have already alluded to the comparative
poverty of the exhibition as regards Italian schools
of painting. There are several pictures here which
are of great interest to the connoisseur, even should
they prove less attractive to the general public.

by T

Stothard,

R.A.)

" The Holy Family " is so good an illustration.
Two pictures by Bernardo Bellotto, the nephew of
Canaletto, whose name he assumed, representing
views of " Dresden," evidently belong to a series,
many of which are in the Royal Gallery at Dresden;
they are faithful topographical reproductions, with
something of the picturesqueness of Guardi about
them.
Among the early Italian pictures the most
noticeable, and the largest, is the interesting group
from Windsor Castle, representing Federigo di
Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, and his son, Guidobaldo, listening to a dissertation. This picture
belongs t o ' a series painted by Melozzo da Forli
for the Ducal Palace at Urbino, and, though sadly
damaged, has a special interest for an English
public, since Federigo wears the robes of the Order
of the Garter, conferred by Edward IY., the only
instance, we believe, of a person being painted in
these robes by a foreign painter in a foreign
country. The Royal Academy has stolen a march
on the New Gallery by securing the two fine oblong
panels by Sandro Botticelli representing the life
and miracles of S. Zenobio, Bishop of Florence,
wThich excel all the pictures bearing Botticelli's
name in the latter exhibition. Special interest

112

THE MAGAZINE OF ART.

attaches to the two pictures by Vincenzo Catena,
whose merit is gradually being discerned and appreciated. One, an early picture, " The Virgin and
Child wdth Saints and Donors," is signed in
dialect; but the other, " Christ Giving the Keys
to St. Peter," though thoroughly characteristic, does
not appear to be in an immaculate condition.
Notice should also be taken of the charming little

examples of his drawings for these here. The
collection" of paintings by him gives a good idea
of his somewhat weak and facile, yet graceful
and pleasing style. Perhaps the most familiar
picture is " The Canterbury Pilgrims," so well
known from the engraving, begun by L. Schiavonetti and finished by James Heath, A.E.
The small room allotted to William Blake con-

TWO STE1NGS TO HEE BOW.
{From the Painting by the late John Pettie, R.A.

By Permission of the Committee of the Corporation Art Gallery, Glasgow.)

"Tobias and the Angel," by Filippino Lippi; the
" Story of Narcissus," by Franciabigio; and the
two small but interesting pictures by the rare
master, Niccolo Giolfino, of Verona.
The collection of early Flemish pictures consists
mainly of works from the Earl of Northbrook's
collection, which were seen quite recently at the
Burlington Fine Art Club, and require no further
notice here.
In the Great Gallery care should be taken not
to overlook Lord Windsor's small but beautiful
"Tobias and the Angel," by Claude Lorraine.
Three separate rooms are allotted to works of
Thomas Stothard, B.A., William Blake, and the late
John Pettie, E.A. Stothard is known chiefly for
his illustrations of books and almanacks, which he
produced in countless profusion; there are good

sists of a set of drawings for " The Book of Job,"
being duplicates of the illustrations so well known
and popular from his engravings. They afford a
better estimate of his genius and character than
the rather grotesque " Dante " series shown in the
same room last year.
The collection of paintings by the late Mr.
Pettie suffers by coming at the end of a long and
varied series of paintings by divers painters in
divers styles. They reveal the deceased Academician as a man of strong, if somewhat limited
ideas, who had something to say and knew how
to say it. There are a life and vigour about his
pictures which prove him thoroughly worthy of
his academical honours; and these qualities have
procured, and will probably maintain, for him
a considerable popularity with the British public.

113

SOME

RISING

ARTISTS.

BY HELENE L. POSTLETHWA1TE.

I

T has often been said by scoffers and by the
ignorant that English art has no independent
existence. Whatever justification there may have
been for this statement in the immediate past, it
cannot be denied that
within the last few years
a group of young painters
have been gradually working their way up the ladder
of fame and public estimation by no sacrifice of
artistic principles, by no
pandering to conventionality, but by sheer merit
and the determination to
educate their public to the
higher and more subtle appreciation of the beautiful.
Although it may be said
that those dealt with in
this article owe something
to the teachings of foreign
schools, they have one and
all struck out independently
in lines of their own with
a sturdiness which justifies
their country—by birth or
by adoption—in l a y i n g
claim to their merits as
being peculiarly her own.
The following sketch
does not profess to be by
any means exhaustive, and not to mention many
others, two still youthful artists, who each in his
particular line stands head and shoulders above his
fellows, may only be represented by their portraits
—Mr. Stanhope Forbes, A.E.A., because he has
already been exhaustively dealt with in this Magazine, and Mr. Alfred East, who will soon be the
subject of similar attention.
Although of Welsh parentage, Mr. Frank Brangwyn first saw the light in Belgium six-and-twenty
years ago. Of art instructors, in the ordinary sense
of the term, he has had none. In early life he used
to assist his father, and in the copying of thirteenthcentury embroideries and tapestries he first obtained
that knowledge of colour and perception of the
beautiful which is essential to the true artist. At
sixteen he started to see the world alone, and during
his first struggles he painted sign-boards, copied designs, and helped house decorators indiscriminately.
Arrived in Loudon, he attracted the attention of

William Morris and was easily induced to join his
staff. The close restraint of the studio, however,
proved too irksome for him, and his love of adventure
led him to ship as a common sailor on board the

ALFRED BAST, E.I.
(From the Portrait by Arthur

Hacker.)

Laura Ann, a small coaster. Hard as his life on
board ship must have been, it was, perhaps, as a
practical piece of artistic education unrivalled. No
one can see the vivid realism of his sea pictures
without feeling that the painter is thoroughly at
home in his subject, and has learnt what seafaring
life is as no ordinary marine painter or dilettante
yachtsman could. His first Academy picture was
received into the safe harbour of Burlington House
when he was eighteen; but it was at the British
Artists' that he made his first hit with "Ashore."
His " Burial at Sea," shown in the same gallery
the next year, and at the Salon in 1891, would
have been bought by the Minister of Fine Arts
had it not already passed into the hands of an
English collector, who refused to part with it. In
1891 he had two sea pieces at the Academy—
"Salvage" and "Assistance;" and although in 1892
he" was only represented by one, " The Convict
Ship," that one was sufficient of itself to entitle its

114

THE MAGAZINE

OF AET.
as Miss Elizabeth Armstrong.
A
Canadian by birth, Mrs. Forbes studied
chiefly at the Art Students' League of
New York. Her first pictures, however, were, like her husband's, of
Brittany, and for the last few years
she, too, has gained inspiration from
" the long and equable moods of .grey"
—so typical of Newlyn light and
atmosphere. Her pictures, which excited much admiring notice in 1892,
were " The Minuet," in the Academy,
and "Jean, Jeanne et Jeanette"—a
boy, girl, and goat—a trio painted
at Cancale, and shown at the New
Gallery.
Mr. Arthur Hacker, on leaving
school, went at once to the British
Museum to do the necessary probation
drawing for admission to the Academy
school.
He was so successful in
this that his first drawing from the

•*•«*•*
MRS. STANHOPE FOEBES.
(From a Photograph by C. Vandyk.)

author to be recognised as a man of
the year. In the last Academy he exhibited a slave market as an excuse
for a canvas of glowing colour, and
concurrently at the New Gallery a
low-toned painting of the Nativity of
Christ, called " Gold, Frankincense, and
Myrrh," showing the impression left
upon him by his early colour training
in the copying of old tapestries. He
has also been the hero of two separate
one-man shows. The first, at the
Arcade Gallery, consisted of a series
of bold sketches illustrating a- voyage
from the Thames to the mouth of the
Danube. The second, which took place
last spring, consisted of pictures of
South Africa, at the Japanese Gallery,
whose proprietors had especially commissioned him to paint them.
One woman at least should figure
in this sketch, and no better type of
the " rising woman" could be found
than the wife of Mr. Stanhope Forbes,
whose first pictorial laurels were won

FBANK BBANGWYN.
(From a Photograph by J. F. Farrar,

Esq)

SOME RISING
antique justified his admission into the school,
where he worked for some time, winning the silver
medal for a cartoon, and in 1878 exhibiting, at
the age of nineteen, his first Academy picture,
since which time he has been a constant contributor. At twenty-one he crossed the Channel,
and entered the studio of Bonnat, and in Paris
painted " Her Daughter's Legacy"—exhibited at
the Academy in 1880. His next work, " Eelics
of the Brave," was the first of a series of cottage interiors, the most important of which were
"The Mother," "The Wonder Story," "The Fisherman's Wife," " The Cradle Song," and " The
Children's Prayer." In the winter of 1881 he
travelled through Spain to Tangiers, where he
painted an Arab merchant selling a boy slave
and various chattels in the street. This work
secured for him, at the Adelaide Jubilee Exhibition, a first award. In 1887 he painted " Pelagia/'
which was purchased by the Liverpool Corporation.
The next year he excited much notice by "The
Waters of Babylon," and in 1889 "The Return
of Persephone " did not reduce the .young painter's
reputation. In 1890 and 1891 "Vae Yictis" and
" Christ and the Magdalene" were among the
most noticed of their respective years' exhibits.
The Academy set the seal of its approval on
Mr. Hacker's efforts by purchasing his " Annunciation " under the terms of the Chantrey bequest,
and the Manchester Corporation hastened to secure
" Syrinx," which has been enthusiastically described
as the perfection of refinement in the nude.
It was in Mr. George Hitchcock's Dutch garden

j£ •'*

K ML^^^B

*d

P

p

tTit-

1

' 1

^l^ ^
^^B

M
IV

GEORGE HITCHCOCK.
(From the Painting by J J.

Shannon.)

115

ARTISTS.

ARTHUR HACKER.
(From a Portrait by Himself.)

at Egrnond Hoef that Mr. Shannon painted the portrait of his friend, here reproduced, the garden in
which so many of the flower pictures which have
earned him the sobriquet
of "Tulip" Hitchcock first
came into existence. It was
" La culture des Tulipes,"
hung on the line in the
salle d'honneur of the Salon,
which began to make him
famous; and this work,
with " The Annunciation "
jH 4
and " Maternite," earned
for him a first-class medal
at the Paris Exhibition in
1889. The gold medal of
the American Art Association was awarded to him
m
for his " Toilers of the Sea."
In the Academy he has
generally been hung on the
line; but what is known
as a " wretched hang,"
Uj
which skipped " La Maternite "—a work hors concours in Paris—and the

116

THE MAGAZINE

OF ART.

idealists. Last year Mr. Hitchcock had nothing
to show in England, for of the twenty-six canvases
which he took to New York at the end of 1892
not one remained unsold.
Mr. Charles P. Sainton, in reviving the use of the
medium known as " silverpoint" wThich was much
affected by the old masters, was clearly inspired to
adapt it to the delineation of airy, delicate subjects.
His first exhibition at the Burlington Gallery caused
some sensation. Before the collection had been on
view a week, everything was sold, and Mr. Sainton
was a man to be envied. Previous to this he
had attracted much notice by an exhibition* held
at the Dowdeswell Galleries, illustrative of the incidents of a caravan journey from Dieppe to Nice.
These consisted variously of oils and silverpoints,
but it is by the latter that the exhibition is best
remembered. Another exhibition consisted of portraits of beautiful women, drawn in silverpoint.
His last, and, as it was announced, the final exhibition of works in this medium, was no less successful than his first, but the work is far too trying
for the artist's eyes, and has had to be abandoned.
If there be anything in the principles of heredity,
it is small wonder that Mr. Sainton is talented, for
CHAELES SAINTON.
(From a Pencil Drawing by Himself.)

peculiar hanging of " The Scarecrow" the
year before last brought to our notice once
more the ignoble fact that they do some
things better in France. The " Scarecrow"
represented a red-cloaked girl sitting in a
field of red poppies. It is in painting the
sand dunes of Holland that Mr. Hitchcock is
seen at his very best. " La Maternite " is one
of these, and shows us a woman in the sea
dunes returning from work with her children.
Born in America, "Tulip" Hitchcock is descended from the old English Puritan stock
which sailed to America in the Mayflower.
His early life was spent at Providence, in
the United States; and here he was educated
for the law, but, abandoning this profession
for the more pleasing paths of paint, he
crossed the Atlantic to study in Paris under
Boulanger and Lefebvre. It was Mesdag,
however, whom he found at the Hague, who
left the final impression on the painter, and
from that time he has remained faithful to
that land of dykes and dunes, blue china and
black tulips, working all through the summer
at Egrnond aau Zee, elaborating all the winter
in Paris, London, or Madrid—a truly ideal
existence for an artist who is at one and the
same time a realist and the most ardent of

SOLOMON J. SOLOMON.
(From a Crayon Sketch by Himself.)

SOME RISING

ARTISTS.

117

he is the son of parents gifted in no
ordinary way in the sister art of music.
His father was Prosper Sainton, the
violinist, and his mother was Madame
Sainton-Dolby, the popular singer Mr.
Sainton first exhibited a portrait at the
Academy in 1886. This was followed by
" A Rag-picker's Home " in Paris; then
by a picture called " Dawn," showing
workpeople on their way to their work;
and in 1888 a large canvas called
" Doves" excited considerable attention.
Mr. Sainton studied in Paris and Florence, and in London under Professor
Legros at the Slade School.
The portrait-painter whose work is
most fashionably in demand is Mr. J. J.
Shannon, who at twenty-nine years of
age finds himself among the foremost
exponents in this branch of art, and
is without exception the most dashing.
Mr. Shannon is American-Irish. He
came as a lad, in 1878, to England, and
entered the South Kensington schools,
where for three years he studied under

PRINCE TROUBETZKOY.
{From a Portrait by J. J.

J. J, SHANNON.
{From a Portrait by Prince Troubetzkoy.)

869

Shannon.)

Mr. Poynter and Mr. Sparkes. At the
end of two years he had won the gold
medal for painting from the life, and the
next year he exhibited (at the age of
nineteen) at the Academy a portrait of
the Hon. Horatio Stopford—painted by
command of the Queen. Since then he
has painted the Duchess of Portland
and the Duchess of Sutherland, and
more lovely women than any portrait
artist in the same space of time. His
portraits of older ladies and men also
have added to his fame. Two successive principals of Somerville Hall have
sat to him—Miss Shaw-Lefevre and
Miss Clough—and among men sitters
may be mentioned Sir Alfred Lyall and
Sir Edward Green.
Mr. Solomon J. Solomon seems almost
to have acquired a vested right in the
dominating position in Gallery VIII. of
Burlington House which the Hanging
Committee allot to him. The year before
last from the vestibule we saw at the
end of the three last rooms the picture of

118

THE MAGAZINE OF ART.

"Orpheus;" the year before it was " Hippolyta;" before that it was the less daring " Judgment of Paris;"
and before that " Mobe " and " Cassandra," in their
various years. Mr. Solomon was born in 1860, and
at sixteen began to study at Heatherley's, afterwards
going through the Academy schools. At twenty
he entered Cabanel's studio ; and from Paris went
to Munich, where, however, he made but a short
stay, not caring for the German methods of teaching. He next travelled through Italy, returning
to Paris, where he took a studio, and once more
worked under Cabanel at the Beaux-Arts. It was
there he painted "The Convalescent," which was so
successfully exhibited at the Salon. After wandering through Spain and Morocco, Mr. Solomon finally
settled down in a large studio in St. John's Wood.
Prince Pierre Troubetzkoy is physically something of a giant; artistically, he may perchance become one also. There is very little that can be said
of him, as with characteristic modesty he asserts
that his claims to distinction are still in the future;
and as one swallow does not make a summer, so one

or two successes do not make a career. Born in 1864
at Milan, and descended from an ancient Russian
family, Prince Troubetzkoy, whose father was
Russian and whose mother was Italian, was almost
immediately taken to Lake Maggiore, where his
childhood was spent. He began to paint at nine
years of age, and received instruction in that direction for three years. Since he was twelve, however,
he has worked under no master and in no school or
atelier. He came less than four years ago to London.
His study of sunlight, shown at the New English
Art Club, set people talking at once; and in October, 1892, an exhibition of his work at Dowdeswell's convinced the severest critics that the future
held great possibilities for the painter who showed
as studies such excellent likenesses and such admirable atmospheric effects. Prince Troubetzkoy's
characteristics are chiefly contradictory. A Russian,
he speaks not one word of his father's language, but
speaks fluently French, Italian, and English. As all
his work shows, he revels in sunshine, yet he adores
our grey sky of London.

»•<••«-<•—

" LA BELLE DAME SANS MEKCI."
BY J. W.

WATE'RHOUSE,

W

A.R.A

HEN Mr. J. W. Waterhouse's "Belle Dame
Sans Merci" was exhibited last year at the
Royal Academy, it could neither be properly seen
nor appreciated, owing to the unfortunate hanging
of which it was the victim—and not it alone, for
its neighbour, with which it disagreed, was quite
as great a sufferer.
The visitor to the exhibition
will remember the juxtaposition of this canvas
and Mr. G. F. Watts's gorgeously-coloured Cupidpicture of " Promises"—scarlet this, while the
prevailing colours of Mr. Waterhouse's picture were
lake and cold green; so that what the one unfairly
gained in garishness the other lost in quality of
tone. Nevertheless, the artistic and poetic mystery
and tenderness of " La Belle Dame Sans Merci"
were widely, though not fully, acknowledged, and
the work was held to mark another step forward
in the career of its accomplished author.
Several versions of this subject have of late
years appeared in the Royal Academy; but it has
usually been the aim of painters to utilise it as
an opportunity for painting the nude. We need
hardly point out to the reader that Mr. Waterhouse's rendering is justified, not only by the text
of Keats's immortal poem, but by its spirit. In
a similar way the artist has not chosen to illustrate
any particular verse, unless it be perhaps—
" * * • ' L a Belle Dame Sans Merci'
Hath thee in thrall 1 "

ETCHED BY H.

MACBETH-RAEBURN.

—but has rather sought to breathe the sentiment of
the poem on to the canvas. There is something of
the well-known ideal head of Mr. Burne-Jones in this
weird, yearning face of this " faery's child," whose
" • * hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.
" She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna dew,
And sure in language strange she said—
' I love thee true.'
She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore."

This is the central idea which the painter has
sought to impress on the beholder; and it is
impossible to refuse to him the credit—whether
or not his realisation correspond with yours and
ours—of having produced a richly poetical work,
alike in sentiment and design, excellent in colour,
and graceful in conception.
The collection from which we have been permitted to draw this picture is that of Mr. G.
Woodiwiss, J.P., a gentleman who is the purchaser
of many popular works from the walls of the
Royal Academy. Among them are Mr. Waterlow's
" Friends or Foes," which has already been engraved
in this Magazine; a couple of M. Fantin-Latour's
exquisite flower pieces; and pictures as well by
Mr. Sidney Cooper, R.A., Mr. Brett, A.R.A., Mr.
Leader, A.R.A., Mr. S. J. Solomon, and others.

•mi-.

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J.W.Waterhouse. AKA.pinx'r

LA BELLE
ermission,
*•••••'- n e of- A r t

DAME S A N S

MERCI.

of' G.Woodiwiss Esq. J. P. the ovmer of the Picture* and.

Copyright]

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Jf)AWN;
and young angels of the morningtide
Gather around the babe, whose wondering
eyes
Have caught the glory of the great sunrise,
Have seen the secret haunts where blossoms
hide.
Cannot this gladness of the dawn abide ?
Ah no ! earth's promise lives, mans promise
dies;
The summer noon floods land and sea and
skies
With joy that mocks the dead flower at his
side.
Then come the weary autumn and the night :
Sad spirits wail behind—birds sing no
more;
Back to the past reverts the lingering sight,
Rather
than to the strange unknown
before—
Back to that dawn of so much hope and light,
Whose fruit we yet may see when years are
o'er.

(Poem by Arthur L. Salmon.

Drawing by II. J. Stock, R.I.)

A ROUGH SEA.
{From the Water-Colour Drawing by Copley Fielding.)

THE COLLECTION OF MR. GILBERT MOSS, LIVERPOOL.
BY ALFRED T. STORY.

M

R GILBEET MOSS, of Aigburth, near Liverpool, in the same wTay as his father and his
brother, the late Sir James Moss, Bart., has all his
life been associated with the great entrepot of the
Mersey and its business; yet, with the exception
of a bank-directorship, he has now relinquished
all connection with commerce, being content to
spend the remainder of his days quietly in his
country home—almost within sight of the life and
bustle of Liverpool, although as retired behind its
garden elms as though twenty miles from the busy
town. His delight is in his roses, his chrysanthemums (in their season), his orchids, and his watercolour painting; for Mr. Moss handles the brush
himself, and many of his drawings exhibit a firmness of touch and a breadth of treatment that
evince a keen love of Nature and a true eye for
effects. One might say more of his gifts in this line,
but that his collection, rather than his works, is the
subject under consideration. However, it seemed
necessary to refer to his practice in the art, because
it explains to some extent the judgment which he
has displayed in getting together his collection.

This is very largely the accunfulation of his
earlier years, when a different school was in the
ascendant to the one which now rules, and when
other methods prevailed. Consequently his collection is largely composed of the works of men whom
it is to-day the fashion to designate as of the old
school—that is, men belonging to the first half of
the century, such as David Cox, Copley Fielding,
Peter De Wint, and others, to whom is so largely
due the present pre-eminence of English water-colour
art. Doubtless advances have been made in the
art since these men wrought; bolder methods have
been adopted here, and more striking—one might
perhaps fitlier say, more startling—effects produced
there; but it w~ould be hard to find anywhere
work exhibiting more delicate handling, greater
facility with the brush, or more subtle effects,
than may be seen in the pictures on Mr. Moss's
walls by men of this old school and their contemporaries.
Judged by numbers, David Cox would appear to
be Mr. Moss's favourite painter. Of this artist's
work he counts some seventeen admirable specimens,

THE

COLLECTION" OF M R

not one of which is of inferior quality, while
several of them are equal to anything that proceeded from his brush. It must suffice to refer to
two or three only. One, " The Haystack," is a
perfect gem, delicate and refined in treatment,
exquisite in finish, and yet the whole obtained with
such ease and freedom that it is a marvel to look
upon. But this even, beautiful as it is, must give
place to "Going to the Hayfield," a drawing of quiet
aerial charm, breezeless, but full of cool light, which
is accentuated by the presence of a white pony in
the foreground—surely as masterly a thing as Cox
ever painted. This was one of Mr. Moss's first
purchases, and he tells with amusement how he
bought it from Old Grundy, the dealer, originally
of Manchester, but afterwards of Liverpool, who

GILBERT MOSS, LIVERPOOL.

121

Strikingly in contrast with these two, though
not less admirable in its way, is a drawing in his
broader and rougher manner, entitled " Going to
Market." It is on rice-paper, the lights and darks
thrown in with rough vigour, but with consummate
effect, and the whole showing a mastery that is
astonishing in its force and rapidity. It is not
always that Cox dates his pictures, but this bears
the figures 1851.
Almost an equal favourite wdth Cox is Copley
Fielding—an artist who wielded a brush not quite
perhaps so strong and versatile as Cox, but of
subtle power and broad grasp nevertheless, as may
be seen in two such contrasts as "'A Rough Sea"
and "Loch Lomond." The latter had better have
been called " Ben Lomond," as the collection

SCHLOSS ELTZ—MOSELLE.
(From the Water-Colour Drawing by A. W. Hunt.)

had such an admiration for Cox that he kept the
portfolio containing his drawings under his bed,
and would not let anybody see them. He used to
say, " Buy all the Coxes you can;" and Mr. Moss
followed his advice. Ten times the price they were
then to be had at would be cheap now.

numbers two other " Loch Lomonds " by the same
artist, and the mountains constitute the chief
feature in the picture. But the sea-scape is the
nobler drawing. It is an excellent example of
Fielding's treatment of the running tide under a
stiff breeze, with the curving wave broken and

122

THE MAGAZINE

sprayed by the wind. All the Fieldings (nine in
number) are admirable specimens; but none of
them is more pleasing than the " Arundel Castle "
—a little gem, pearly and fresh in colour, every
line and touch telling, and interfused with a serene
idyllic charm. One of the notable features of the

OF AET.

Of the three De Wints it must suffice to
mention " The Hayfield," a long narrow drawing,
somewhat sombre in tone, but beautifully composed
and admirable in its distance. Of the Samuel
Prouts (of whom there are four samples), all that
need be said is that they are of his best. Alike

FALSTAFF REVIEWING HIS RAGGED "TROOPS. "
(From the Water-Colour Drawing by Sir John Gilbert, R.A.)

Copley Fieldings, as of the Coxes, is the absence
of body-colour, which was held by some of the
masters of the art, and not without warrant, as
being but a poor expedient to hide deficiency.
This canon cannot, however, apply to Turner,
whose daring individuality led him, out of sheer
bravado, to overstep all rule; and well it is
that we have from time to time such personalities. In Mr. Moss's collection, however, the only
Turners are two small but very beautiful drawings
from the Biblical series, " The Dead Sea " and the
" Israel in Horeb," both possessing that freshness of
atmosphere and delicate opalescence of colouring so
characteristic of Turner's work. They are in excellent preservation, not the slightest indication of
fading of colour being visible. Indeed, this may be
said of all Mr. Moss's pictures; he takes such care
that they shall not be exposed to the light a
minute more than is necessary, the rooms always
being kept in semi-obscurity when not in actual use.

praiseworthy for architectural detail, though inferior
to Prout in the quality of rendering sunlight in
time-bitten stone, is the " Malaga" of David
Eoberts. William Hunt is represented by nine drawings, four of which are figure subjects. Amongst
the works gracing Mr. Moss's walls are the wellknown companion pictures, " The Attack" and
"The Defeat," as well as "The Fly Fisher."
In Mr. W. L. Leitch, of whom Mr. Moss has three
specimens, we see a bond between the older and
newer school of water-colour painters. There is
something freer, if not more assured, in his touch.
The two best here are perhaps the " Isola Bella,"
beautifully composed and very sweet in colour, and
" Glen Shee" (Aberdeenshire), with cattle in the
foreground, very poetical, and a finely-expressed
aerial distance; although for choice one would
single out the " Salerno," a drawing with a certain
indefinable charm, partly composed of warmth,
partly of light, and in part the result of the well-

THE COLLECTION

OF ME, GILBEET MOSS, LIVEEPOOL.

balanced composition, which is a strong point with
the late teacher of the Eoyal children.
Although Mr. Moss's collection is strongest in

123

which his later manner is noted. Mr. Euskin
might have had this work before him when he
wrote in " Modern Painters": " There are few

WRECK ON THE GOODWIN SANDS.
(From the Water-Colour Drawing by Edward

landscapes, he is not lacking in subject pictures,
Two of the most notable have been selected as
illustrations; they are " The Encampment in the
Desert," by J. F. Lewis, E.A., and " Falstaff Eeview'ing his Eagged Troops," by Sir John Gilbert, E.A.

Duncan.)

drawings of the present day that bear evidence of
more labour bestowed, or more complicated means
employed, than those of John Lewis. The result
does not, at first, so much convey an impression
of inherent power as of prolonged exertion, but the

AMPHITHEATRE, ATHENS.
(From the Water-Colour Drawing by Carl Haag,

The former is one of Lewis's most striking works,
and is painted in his large, bold manner, with the
minuteness of detail and brightness of colour for

R.W.S.)

result is complete. Water-colour drawing can be
carried no farther; nothing has been left unfinished
or untold,"

124

THE MAGAZINE

This picture was painted in 1856, and was
exhibited in the Academy that year as " A Frank
in the Desert of Mount Sinai "—the Frank being
the late Lord Castlereagh. Lewis travelled for
some time with his lordship in the East, and a
story is told of how the artist, falling short of

OF AET.

best works, and in the " Milan Cathedral" by
Louis Haghe, almost gorgeous in its splendour of
colour. Nor should I forget " The Sheik's Grave,"
by Mr. Fred. Goodall, K.A., a very careful piece of
work in the artist's best manner.
Not less worthy of note are the A. W. Hunts

OFF FLAMBOROUGH HEAD.
(From the Water-Colour Drawing by Edwin Ellis,

money, and wishing not to return to England just
then, gave a lot of his drawings in pawn to the
nobleman for the means of prolonging his stay;
and when, on being again in funds, he desired to
redeem them, Lord Castlereagh refused to give
them up, saying his, transaction had been a veritable purchase.
In " Weighing the Deer " and " Expectation "
we have two good examples of Fred. Tayler's work.
The former, which is well known from the engravings of it, suffers somewhat from the appearance
of having been suggested by Landseer's "Bolton
Abbey." Of two exceedingly good representatives
of Mr. Carl Haag, " The Temple of Jupiter Tonans,
Borne," and the " Amphitheatre, Athens," the latter
is chosen for reproduction here.
Mr. Moss appears to have a fondness for the
rich contrast of colour afforded by Southern scenes
when placed in juxtaposition with the colder tones
of our Northern clime, as seen in the " Card
Players " by Mr. F. W. Topham, one of the artist's

R.B.A.)

and the Bernard Evanses that grace the collection.
Of the five of the former, the most noteworthy are
the exquisite "Wind of the Eastern Sea—Whitby,"
and " Schloss Eltz—Moselle," in which there is a
fine free play of light among the clouds which fill
the sky, very suggestive of the open air. The
works by Mr. Evans include the "Upper Wharfedale," given in THE MAGAZINE OF ART in August,
1892, two Bolton Abbeys, and a fine though rather
dark " Durham Cathedral," painted during last summer. It is impossible, however, to do full justice
to all those represented in the collection—to Samuel
Austin, a contemporary of Cox and Copley Fielding;
to T. J. Watson, whose "After-glow" in particular,
with its evening sky illumined by a tender fading
light, is a very striking piece of work; to Clarkson Stanfield, E.A.; to Edward Duncan, of whom
there are four good examples ; to Mr. Birket Foster,
whose "The Market Cart" is strikingly good; and
to Mr. Edwin Ellis, by whom there is an early and
forceful " Off Flamborough Head."

THE

ENCAMPMENT

IN

THE

{From the Water-Colour Drawing by J. F. Lewis, R.A.

DESERT.
Engraved by J. M. Johnstone.)

127,

THE GOLD MEDALS OF THE EOYAL ACADEMY SCHOOLS.
BY R. JOPE-SLADE.

T

HE second week of December is always one
of excitement to the students of the Eoyal
Academy. The work of the year is brought to

Sir Frederic Leighton has consistently followed one
line of investigation—enquiry into the relation of
art to the conditions of clime, time, and race under
which it has been evolved. Last year German
art presented itself for consideration, and a distinct
change in tone was observed in the presidential
oration. There were the same evidences of severe
original research; the same felicitous elegance of
phrasing, delightful balance of syllable and sentence, and vivid picturesqueness of style. But
the dominant note was no longer one of eulogy.
Sir Frederic conceived the Germans as without
the native instinct for art; as having for long
centuries laboured with patient want of discernment in a style alien to their nature; as deficient,
when compared to the Latin races, in the appreciation of form, proportion, and colour; and as
prone to surcharge art with didactic message.
His meaning was adroitly summarised in the sentence, " It is not on the waves of light, but on
the waves of sound that it has been given to the
Germans to carry us into the regions of purest
aesthetic delight." In short, Sir Frederic Leighton
seemed to think the volume of Teutonic art richer
in warning than example.
Interest always centres in the historical painting. The subject in this competition was " Joseph
Interpreting Pharaoh's Dream;" and it produced

JOSEPH INTEEPEETING PHAEAOH'S DEEAM.
(From the Painting by Harold E. Speed.)

a close by a series of competitions
in the various branches; and success means scholarships, prizes, and
medals to the fortunate. But every
other year the three great Travelling Studentships of £200—one for
historical painting, one for sculpture,
and one for architecture—also come
up for decision. On these occasions
the awards are made with pomp
and state. The Academicians and
Associates formally assemble in the
Central Gallery; the President reads
a set address on some subject drawn
from the philosophy of art; and the
students, one by one, are summoned
before him to receive the recognitions of their talents and diligence.
1893 was one of these greater
years. In the course of his addresses,

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MOONEISE BEFOEE SUNSET.
(From the Painting

by Harold

Waite.)

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128

THE MAGAZINE

the most satisfactory work of the year, marking a
distinct advance since 1891. The Studentship was
carried off by Mr. Harold Edward Speed, an award

IONE REMOVING THE BODY OP ST. SEBASTIAN
HIS MARTYRDOM.
(From the Group by David McGill.)

AFTEE

which met with such very general approval as
does not always crown the decision of the judges
in this case. Mr. Speed, who is just twenty-one
and has only spent three years in the Schools, is
the son of an architect living at Streatham. The
composition itself is perhaps a little cramped. That
Mr. Speed is an admirer of Mr.
Waterhouse is undeniable; but he
is no mere imitator. Close by hung
the essay of Mr. Spencer Watson,
whose success was, until the last
moment, considered assured; but the
fact that this was Mr. Watson's last
chance seemed to have weighed on
his invention, his Pharaoh especially
lacking importance. Mr. Snowman's
attempt was full of promise; and he
had ventured on accuracy to the extent of presenting us to a Joseph with
a shaven head. The subject was somewhat ill-chosen, as it necessarily provoked a great deal of book archaeology,
and the artificial painting of Oriental
light never seen by the students.

OF AKT.

The landscapes fell far short of the figure
pictures. For this there is small cause to wonder.
Less can be taught in the schools of the face
and beauty of Nature than of other matters.
Both the Landscapes, the Turner Gold Medal and
£50 Scholarship, and the Creswick prize of £30,
fell to Mr. Harold Waite, the son of a Blackheath
clergyman, whose work, the result of out-of-door
experience, stood quite alone in this competition.
The subject "is "Moonrise Before Sunset."
A
sentiment of rest and unity holds the scene; and
the quiet and sustained green, which brightens to
gold as the slanting rays of the sun catch the
upper branches of the " shock-headed willows " and
the trees across the mere, is, in its way, admirable.
The Travelling Studentship for sculpture passed
to Mr. David McGill. The subject was the removal
of the still miraculously living St. Sebastian after
his first martyrdom. The group shows the careful
judgment of a skilled modeller, Mr. McGill, who
entered the Schools before the present age limit
of twenty-three was imposed, having enjoyed long
experience of a Parisian atelier. Much admiration
was. bestowed on the spirited and artistic, if less
matured, contribution of Mr, Thomas Poole, whom
we are glad to congratulate on winning the competition for a model for a design illustrating "The
Death of the First-born."
Mr. James S, Stewart, whose design for a provincial town hall carried off
the Architectural Studentship, will be seen to have
discovered the happy compromise between the demands of art and of municipal utility. His plans are
pre-eminently such as might
be put into execution.

DESIGN FOR A PROVINCIAL TOWN HALL.
(By James 8. Stewart.)

129

SOME EBCENT ILLUSTBATED VOLUMES.
REMBRANDT.*
EMILE MICHEL has so far written the book
upon Eembrandt. He is familiar with the
authorities. He has corresponded with Herr Bode
and the connoisseurs. He
has travelled Europe up
and down in search of the
master's drawings; indeed,
what he does not know
of R e m b r a n d t is not
knowledge. Yet the two
splendid volumes, now
translated into English,
are not wholly satisfactory. That Rembrandt was
a great painter, an even
greater etcher, is by this
time acknowledged; but
all that can be told of
his life might have been
packed into a narrow
space. But M. Michel
was intent upon the production of a great work
upon the master, and he
reveals his method at the
very outset. "No record
of
Rembrandt's
early
youth," thus he writes,
" has come down to us."
And yet he is sure that
"his religious instruction
was the object of his
mother's especial care."
We are all so sure of
this too that it need not
have been stated; and it
would be just as reasonable to insist that the
painter grew in stature
between the ages of eight
and fourteen.
When you are concerned with art, you need not go behind the painted
canvas to work off either emotion or philosophy.
That method may serve for those who are suddenly
called upon to contrive a catalogue, but it is conspicuously unworthy the serious critic; and unfortunately M. Michel has to some extent adopted

M.

EI

* " Rembrandt: His Life, his Work, and his Time." By
Emile Michel. From the French by Florence Simmonds.
Edited by F. Wedmore. (London: Heinemann.)

it. And yet he who would dig in this vast
quarry of sentiment may find all the facts he
needs for the comprehension of a great career;
and M. Michel might, with a proper reticence,

OLD WOMAN CUTTING HEE NAILS.
Painting by Rembrandt in the Kann Collection.)

have produced a still more serviceable and permanent monograph.
As a critic he is for the most part sound and
fair-minded. He displays, as he should, a fine
enthusiasm for the master's triumphs. It would
be easy to compress from his seven hundred pages
a small -octavo volume of excellent service. Yet,
in one instance, when he arrives at the crucial
point he misses it. The "Anatomy Lesson," at the

130

THE MAGAZINE

Hague, befogs his judgment. This work, boomed
from the first, has been so monstrously bepraised
that there is no room left for the admiration of
the real Eembrandt. M. Michel is half inclined

OF ART.

composition, is a perfect triumph of art. True, it
is a fragment; but Reynolds himself most wisely
praised it, and the depreciation of its latest critic
does not induce us to falter in our allegiance.
Rembrandt, said Mr.
Buskin, painted all " the
foul things he could see
by rushlight." And if
only as an antidote to
this severe judgment, M.
Michel's monograph is
welcome. For, though he
does at times praise his
hero upon false grounds,
his praise is at once frank
and free, nor does his
fidelity ever falter. He
recognises
the
incomparable finesse of the
etchings, and he reproduces for your delight that
magnificent drawing of an
elephant wherein there is
no line which is not expressive, no touch that
does not suggest form
and movement. Of course,
when he writes, "We
need not go into the
question (a particularly
unprofitable one in our
opinion) as to whether
the picture is, or is not,
an absolute masterpiece,"
you disagree with him,
because you are conscious
that he shirks the one
p o s i t i v e d u t y of t h e
critic. But you forgive
him when you reflect that
THE ANGEL APPEABING TO THE SHEPHEEDS.
he has given you a noble
{From, the Etching by Eembrandt.)
selection of drawings and
to recognise its limitations; but he finds in it a paintings, and that here you may form such a
dozen admirable qualities which have nothing what- judgment of the painter's work as black and white
ever to do with art. " His work," says M. Michel, permits.
" ably suggests the idea of scientific teaching as it
The printing and illustration of the book are
was then understood." Here approval is expressed for the most part excellent; it is a book to
upon a side issue. The picture has no more to do read and to admire. If you prefer not to read
with science than with sport. On the,other hand, it, you may at least turn the pages with profit;
the hard, dry handling, the forced expression, are and the student will find in the appendices a
not worthy the master, and it is only the neigh- perfect storehouse of well-arranged and valuable
bourhood of " that chef-d'oeuvre of vulgarity," Paul information. Wherefore the book, with its limitaPotter's "Bull," that makes the celebrated "Anatomy tions, is to be confidently recommended; and there
Lesson" welcome. And there is an " Anatomy is at least a chance that, in spite of its beauty,
Lesson" at Amsterdam, dismissed by M. Michel it may stray from the drawing-room table into the
with scant courtesy, which, both in design and library.

SOME RECENT ILLUSTRATED
AMERICAN ILLUSTRATORS *
HERE is a common notion that artists are a
jealous race; but whoever knows the profession intimately is aware that generosity is its
leading vice, and that of jealousy there is so little
it may be almost ranked with the rare virtues.
And this is particularly true of American artists.
It is told by one of "the boys" in the art circle
in Rome of some years back, which consisted largely
of young Americans, who took their matutinal coffee
in the covered-in backyard of the Gaffe Greco, and
dined at the Lepre next door, that the enthusiasm
the American " boys" displayed for each other's
work was very refreshing. There was no stinting
appreciation. The usual form of studio criticism,
no matter what the value or quality of the work,
was—"Well, old man, you have done it this time;
I call that just 'great,'" and in that delightful
mutual admiration society nothing that anyone did
was anything but "just great." The spirit of the
little community was most delightful.
That the spirit is not dead may be seen in
"American Illustrators," a most beautifully executed

T

YOUNG WOMAN AT A WINDOW.
(From the Painting by Rembrandt, in the Berlin Museum.)

work, with exquisite paper, lovely margins, fine
type, beautiful illustrations in colour, photogravure
* " American Illustrators."
Unwin.)

By Hopkinson Smith.

(T. Fisher

VOLUMES.

131

and other processes, all perfectly printed and issued
in a limited edition. The author, who is himself

" NOLI MB TANGERE."
(From the Painting by Rembrandt in the Brunswick

Museum.)

an illustrator, simply carries on the tradition of
the old Roman art students, and tells each of the
illustrators he writes about that he is "just great."
There is no doubt he means it, and that his enthusiasm for his brother artists is perfectly genuine.
The author takes his readers to the Century
Guild Club and the Tile Club, and other places
of artistic resort, and there introduces them to
various artists, their friends, and their little ways,
while enjoying the genial freedom such places
afford. "The Doctor," the great talker of the set,
is the mouthpiece of the author and leads the
conversation. Of course, in the discussions English
art and artists fare badly at the hands of "the
Doctor." In an English exhibition of 600 pictures,
we are told, there are twelve painters, each of
whom has forty-nine imitators. There is no originality in England; but in America there are no
copyists, no imitators; everybody is original. The
Americans are all art sponges, who absorb wherever they go, and then give out only originality.
But there is just a little discrepancy about the
Doctor's talk, for one of his great men is so great
that even Americans cannot help imitating him. We
are told Mr. Gibson has his imitators, and so, by
a little slip, we learn that even American illustrators
are human, and have weaknesses like Englishmen.
But it is too young, too generous a book to find
fault with; and, moreover, the praise of the men
is in great part well deserved, for if they are not
all in the first rank there is no doubt that Edwin
Abbey, A. B. Frost, R. Blum, Joseph Pennell, and
Howard Pyle are amongst the first illustrators of
the day in any country.

VS. . " ^ V
THE MUSIC FOR THE DANCE.
(From the Photogravure in "American Illustrators," after the Drawing by A. B. Frost.)

H. H. RICHARDSON.
{From the Portrait by Professor Herkomer, R.A.)

H. H. EICHAEDSON, AECHITECT.
BY HOKACE TOWNSEND.

I

T was early in the eighties that it was my good
fortune while, making a temporary stay in
Boston to meet the remarkable man who during
his all too short lifetime represented all that was
noblest, most original, and most hopeful in American
architecture. Though I was with him but for the
space of a brief autumn day, the most lasting
impression left upon me by this burly, bearded
man, with his brusque but not unpolished manners,
his quaintly attractive stutter, and his almost
boyishly effervescent animal spirits, was that of
one who took delight in life for the sheer pleasure
of living, of one to whom his art was the one
thing in the world worth regard. So when, some
years later, the news of his death was flashed into
the great New York newspaper office where I sat
at work, I felt as though I not only shared the
universal loss of one of the foremost artists of
the time, but almost as though one near and dear
to me had passed away.
Henry Hobson Eichardson was born in Louisiana,
the almost representative State of that lately arisen
South, which some of us think is in generations to
871

come to supply to the all too vapidly clever and
technical correctness of Northern art the salt of
fiery originality and exuberant imagination. He
came of good English stock, and on his mother's
side traced back his descent to that Dr. Priestley
who was the discoverer of oxygen gas, and whose
advanced opinions brought about the wreckage of
his laboratory in Birmingham and his own emigration to the freer air of America. Born in 1838,
young Eichardson, the son of wealthy parents, found
his lines during the first twenty years of his life
cast in very pleasant places. Displaying at an early
age the conjunction of the two special gifts, which
he was afterwards to turn to so striking account—
namely, a decided talent for drawing and a strong
bent towards applied mathematics, his studies were
turned at first, by his father's advice, in the direction of civil engineering. He went, as did in his
day the majority of rich southern planters' sons, to
Harvard University, where he is not on record as
having achieved any particular success, except so
far as a proficiency in mathematics, well-remembered
by his class-mates to-day, may, serve to denote.

134

THE MAGAZINE

0F

AKT.

In 1859, having decided by this time to make
It was not until October, 1865, when the war
architecture, and not civil engineering, his profes- was over,' and the wheels of American business
sion, the youngster was sent by his
were beginning to run smoothly
father, much to his delight, to finish
again, that young Richardson rehis studies in Paris, where, a year
turned to his native land; and it is
later, in November, 1860, he was
somewhat characteristic of him that,
admitted
member of the Ecole
instead of seeking for the necessarily
des Beaux-Arts. Here, until the
small provincial practice which he
lamentable Civil War broke out, he
could have found ready to his hand
worked hard and faithfully, prosecutin New Orleans, instead even of
ing his studies in the studio of M.
throwing in his lot among the many
Andre\ and endearing himself by
friends he had made in Cambridge
his buoyant spirits to those of his
and Boston, he preferred to plunge
fellow-students with whom he was
boldly into the great commercial
brought into frequent association.
stream of New York, where, accordNaturally, however, with the investiingly, though without any resources
ture of New Orleans, and the subsave his talent, he took an office, and
sequent disasters to the Southern
struck out for himself. It was over a
forces, Richardson's pecuniary supyear before he received his first complies from home became more and
mission, and Richardson alone knew
more irregular, and finally ceased
what that year of apparently hopeless
altogether; but, though thus thrown
longing and constantly checked ensuddenly on his own resources, he
deavour meant to one of his essendid not waste time in useless regrets,
tially masterful disposition. At last
but set himself bravely to the selfcame " the chance, which," as he said,
appointed task of following out his
"was all he wanted," and the shape
original plan of study at the Ecole
it took was the commission for a
TOWER OF CITY HALL,
des Beaux-Arts by means of the
Unitarian church at Springfield. He
ALBANY, N.Y.
salary he earned as draughtsman in
gained this in competition, and it is
(Drawn by Horace Town/send.)
a Government architect's office. This
curiously suggestive of the low level
naturally entailed the severest sort of labour on to which ecclesiastical architecture in America had
the young man, with the result that, though his as yet remained (I will not say sunk, for it was
object was attained in a satisfactory manner, he never high) that this piece of work should have been

1

•

-

%

CRANE MEMORIAL LIBRARY, QUINCY.
(Drawn by Holland

left Paris with his constitution undermined, and
with a life shortened in the interests of art.

Tringham.)

sufficiently admired to have laid the foundation of
the designer's fortunes. Truth to tell, it is a feeble

H. H. RICHARBSON, ARCHITECT.
reminiscence of English Gothic, which, though pleasing in its grouping, is painfully inadequate in detail,
and bald as to its interior. None of his next commissions, for of these he soon had several, call for
particular remark save that they attest the originality and strong personality of their
creator in that, though fresh from
seven years' of academic study in
Paris, there was hardly a trace of
the French vernacular in any of his
work, while his instinctive reliance
on the effect of material, as material
alone, is shown by his choice of the
common rounded boulders of the neighbourhood to form the walls of the
second church the design of which was
entrusted to him. In October, 1867,
Richardson entered into partnership
with Mr. Charles Gambrill, a connection which lasted for eleven years, but
which wras of a more purely businesslike character than such associations
usually are, for each member of the
firm seems to have gone his own
artistic way, and to have executed
his own work in accordance with his
own individual idea. The first work
which really forced the clever young
architect into prominence was the new
Brattle Square Church in Boston, or
perhaps I should rather say the tower
of that church, for that was the feature
which chiefly earned the widespread
commendation given to the remarkable building as a whole. There was
a boldness and self-reliance altogether
characteristic of the man in thus bestowing upon the home of one of the
staidest and most conservative of
New England Congregational bodies
a campanile which, while it was no
slavish copy of any one example, could
not fail to suggest the thoroughly
humanistic rather than religious fervour of Cinque
Cento Italy.
The body of the church itself calls for little
remark; it was an admitted mistake, from both
practical and sesthetical points of view, and its
wretched acoustical properties caused its abandonment by the body for whom it was originally built,
and for many years it remained empty and deserted.
At one time it was proposed to pull down the main
edifice and leave the tower standing alone as a mere
ornamental feature of the purely residential part of
the city in which it stands, but the erection of
galleries so far improved the interior for practical

135

purposes that the church is now used once more for
public worship. Few, if any, young architects of the
present day could at Richardson's age improve on
the up-soaring shaft of mottled yellow stone, capped
with its bold frieze of trumpeting angels, and gaining

' "|*V

'

• ^>'**^4T4*4£WPWM

MIDDLE

BAY,

SEVER

HALL,

C A M B R I D G E , MASS.

a touch of needed colour in its red-tiled roof and
louvre boards, and, as a matter of fact, this tower
is actually more a source of municipal pride to
Bostonians than even the more ambitious Trinity
Church, which was Richardson's next ecclesiastical
work of importance.
So remarkable was the impression made upon
the cultured Boston public, eager as the Athenians
for "something new" as well in art as literature
and ethics, that it is easily intelligible how when
the rich Trinity parish determined to erect an important new church for themselves they should have
without much question placed their commission in

136

THE MAGAZINE OF AET.

young Eichardson's hands. The site was an awkward one for treatment in any of the vernacular
forms of Gothic, while the pronounced " lowness"
of the service which was to be conducted therein
left the architect still further at liberty to depart
from ecclesiastical conventionalities. It was this

TOWN HALL, NOKTH EUSTON.

combination of circumstances, doubtless, which led
Eichardson to turn his attention to the forms of
Southern Eomanesque, which were ever after to
exercise so potent an influence on his style.
As Trinity Church rose slowly upward from its
foundation the artistic nature. of the man expanded
and ripened, for it had at last found the only soil
which was thoroughly suitable to it. This development may even be traced in the many changes he
introduced from time to time into his design, casting aside the more tamely conventional features of
Northern Gothic, with which he began, and all the
time broadening and making more purely personal
the original conception. Trinity Church, though by
no means Eichardsoii's most remarkable work—it
yet remains for any American architect to build
a thoroughly satisfactory church—is still worthy of
especial notice in that it is, perhaps, his best known
production on the one hand, while on the other it
exhibits in a marked degree both the excellences

and the demerits which were to prevail in his future
performances. We have the impressionistic insistence on a single feature—generally the singlecentre arch—but in this case the wonderful tower,
which in all lights and from all points of view
is equally pleasing, the skill in grouping, and the
reticence which never allows an
approach to vulgarity, while we have
also the tameness of detail, arising
not so much from poverty of invention as from lack of accurate
knowledge and specialised study;
the concealment, as to the interior,
of the lines of construction, and in
especial the want of that mystery,
which in work of the highest genius
allows one exquisite feature after
another to grow into view, and steal
into one's consciousness by degrees.
One sees Eichardson's work, and
understands his meaning at a glance,
here as elsewhere.
With the creation of Trinity
Church Eichardson stepped into the
forefront of his profession, and the
years that follow present a record
of continuous and increasingly important work, the results of which
are to be seen as far west as
Chicago, though his first great public
commission was as near home as
the legislative capital of New York,
Albany—namely, where, with another architect, he was called in to
continue the construction of the
State Capitol, on which enormous
sums had already been lavished with but poor
result. So many were the limitations imposed on
him, however, by such portions of the work as
had already been completed, and so harassed was
he by the political authorities, that it would be
unfair to judge of the results he produced purely on
their merits. It may be said, however, that the
Senate Chamber is beyond any question the most
imposing hall of legislature in America, though one
may, perhaps, cavil as being somewhat out of scale
at the scheme of wall-decoration, opulently gorgeous
as it is with its masses of jewel-like Mexican onyx,
set in bands of Siena marble. This is a fault to be
found not only in the huge ceiling-beams of the
same place, but also in not a little of Eichardson's
work in general. It is in the same city that what,
to my mind, is one of the architect's most faultless
creations—the City Hall—is to be found. This,
with its picturesque tower and generally restrained
treatment, is altogether to be praised.

H

H. EICHAEDSON,

Taking at random those of his later works which
exhibit him at his best, we may, in the first place,
for expediency's sake class them into two groups:
public buildings, residences, and minor works such
as railroad stations and so forth, in the first group;
while in the second we may place his Harvard
buildings, Sever Hall, and the well-known Law
School. The former, through its very simplicity,
has been put forward by some of the architect's
admirers as perhaps his most notable work, though
this is, I think, due to an entire misapprehension
of his peculiar genius. It is true that in America
to-day restraint in design is a quality which, from

TRINITY

CHURCH,

its lamentable infrequencv, is one of which the
most is to be made; but this simple brick structure,
with its note of unostentatious refinement and
Puritanism, betrays not so much the man of genius
as the architect of refinement. Of the latter we
have a sufficiency here, as well as abroad; but of
the former, alas! none, or all too few. So it is
that in the Law School or, better still, in the

ARCHITECT.

137

Ames Memorial Building, which is to me his most
thoroughly satisfying creation, we find evidences of
his remarkable personality.
Eichardson went far from his home state as his
name grew in potency, and in the West we find
much of his most notable work. The Field Building
in Chicago—a successful attempt to grapple boldly
with the square "packing-box" form, entailed on
him by utilitarian reasons, and to fashion it into a
monumental form; the picturesque and bold outfines of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce; the
wonderfully beautiful tower of the Pittsburg Court
House, all linger in the memory of those who have

BOSTON,

MASS.

had the good fortune to see them, and, seeing,
the sense to admire. Nearer home he elevated the
modern warehouse into a worthy bearer of the
patent of nobility conferred on their homes by
the Flemish guilds of the fifteenth century; and
until it was wiped out of existence by a disastrous
fire the Ames Building was one of the most striking
edifices in Boston.

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It would be ungracious to an eminent artist who
has done much to render the name of Eichardson
known in English art circles were I to refrain from

POBCH

OP LAW SCHOOL,

mentioning the only work on this side of the
Atlantic, by which the genius of the architect may
to some extent be gauged. When Professor Herkomer visited the United States he was attracted by
the personal charm as well as the artistic power of
the Boston architect, and the result of the friendly
intercourse was that Herkomer painted the architect's portrait, and Eichardson made a sketch-elevation of the artist's future house, following the
existing plan already designed by the owner.
"Take the sketch," said Eichardson when he gave
it to his friend, ''and play all over it yourself.
Then I can take it up again." But this friendly

A SIGNATURE

OF AET.

co-operation was marred by death. Herkomer's
house was almost the last work of Eichardson's
pencil, and the building just finished at Bushey

HAEVAED

UNIVERSITY.

is either Eichardson plus Herkomer or Herkomer
plus Eichardson. However, the artistic prompting
of the dead architect is visible throughout, so
thoroughly has the artist informed himself with
his friend's vigorous style. The noble front, with
the bold arch and dignified tourelles, the simple
but effective Eomanesque carving,, the touch of
playful but not too insistent colour in the upper
portion of the gable, all breathe the true spirit
of that style which the American architect has
so stamped with his own personality that his
fellows refer to it, not as neo-Eomanesque, but as
Eichardsonian.

IN

STONE.

139

ILLUSIONS

IN

AET.

BY T. J. GULLICK.

ANY pictures of illusion, as gener- increase of knowledge, although there may and
ally understood, would perhaps there should be a permanent acquisition of unmore properly be described as alloyed truth, there may also spring from the brain
pictures of deception. They new illusions, like Athene, full-grown and armed.
deceive the senses of ordinary The fays and the fairies are replaced by sirens and
observers. The reasons why bacchantes, satyrs and centaurs, griffins and dragons,
they do this are so well known the Furies and the Fates.
In simple truth, it is frequently not so much
that I need not discuss them.
But I submit that the word " illusion " should have what is in the picture, but wThat we bring to it, that
a wider application in art than it usually receives, generates illusions, some helpful, others most hurtful.
in accordance with its extended employment by And, relatively speaking, the measure of the illusion
will be the measure of the spectator's clearness of
physiologists in recent mental science.
I suspect we are too apt to think only of illusions vision, his perceptive powers, his knowledge and
that arise from causes in the outer world, forgetting memory of nature, his artistic education; and all
those of more mischievous order—often " chimeras these backed by fancy and imagination, as well as
dire "—which haunt our inner microcosm. Yet, for abetted or perverted by his wishes and the prea single instance, what more prolific source of illusion judices already touched upon. Therefore, the more
is there than preconceived belief ? While the fre- he brings to the picture, the greater, the more
quent cause of ignorance, is it not also often shaped numerous, may be his illusions. As a full appreby egotism, self-interest, friendly partiality, and the hension of this may explain many phenomena of
many-headed monster prejudice—sheltering itself art-criticism, I would borrow some sidelights from
under authority, tradition, and fashion—surely to be science, even at the risk of darkening counsel by
excess of light.
personified as a lady with a cornucopia of illusions ?
Illusions of this great class, coming as they do
Well, an illusion arises from the falsifying of a
from within, would seem to warrant—nay, demand, perception, partially, if not to the point of complete
a little introspection. I venture, then, to ask, have deception. The falsifying of the perception occurs
none of us stifled a still small voice within when through incomplete or inaccurate sensation; also
before some work that fashion or authority has told through mental defect, inattention, stimulation, or
us we ought to admire, or before the last example in other interference, or all these combined. Upon the
the exhibition of our favourite master, or before a perceptions so falsified are founded those same misperformance of our particular friend ? And you, conceptions of belief which so often harden into
art-critic, professional or amateur! have you not obstinate bigotry, and are accountable for a vast
contradicted yourself ?—well, pace, peccavi ! say at proportion of all the error and wrong throughout
long intervals, and in rare lapses of memory, like human history. If the process goes on, then the
Mr. Buskin himself. Nor is the artist, who " should mind is preoccupied more and more with its preknow," and whose opinions we naturally would conception, and," when in the attitude of expectancy,
respect, to be exempted from the inquiry. How it it is irresistibly inclined to project its own wishes,
happens that his judgments upon his fellows are hopes, and ideas outward, until at length outward
often more severe, not to say savage, than the things may become a mere reflection" of what we
rascally critiques in the press which sometimes bring to them, and what the eye presents is pracoffend him ? And the young painter, on seeing tically unseen. Thus is formed an hallucination,
his first picture in the Academy, did he not find which, unlike an illusion, loses in our consciousness
the rest of the stuff there ridiculously insignificant ? all discoverable basis of fact; and thus we pass the
and did he not, in his heated fancy, topple a few bounds of sanity.
of the Forty off their pedestals ? As for the artAfter these definitions, let us see if we are in
student, I dare not question him. I stand in awe a better position to understand the mystery that
of the youngster, for he is infallible. Besides, he attaches to a simple ordinary sketch. To many
is cutting his teeth, and may be fractious. Ah, knowing eyes, even the slightest of sketches or
well, those illusions of youth—who cares to part etchings, and even if done by a tyro (provided we
with them ? And is not the very ignorance of the are not aware of the fact), have often inexplicable
innocents a blessed thing ? For it seems to me illusiveness. It seems desirable, therefore, to attempt
that in art, more than in anything else, with every to analyse this a priori surprising phenomenon.

140

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Assuredly, then, illusion is singularly apt to increase,
at least at first sight of a sketch, in the ratio of the
beholder's knowledge. Indeed, the sketcher counts
much, in executing his work, upon the observation
and memory to be afterwards brought to it, whether
he paints for himself or others. The stenographic
notes he makes may help his memory to recall much
more than he has recorded, but he will be deeply
conscious of their present inadequacy as a representation of his subject—until, at least, he has quite
forgotten wThat he has seen. To the unobservant
ignoramus the notes will, of course, be hieroglyphics,
although he may be acquainted with the subject.
But, even to a fairly good, albeit unimaginative
observer, the sketch may appear but the baldest of
statements. A third person, an artist, or welltrained amateur, however, will find the sketch recall
its subject to his mind, or a similar one, very vividly.
More than this, much more: it may evoke whole
classes of broad, grand, generic truths, and rare,
transcendent beauties learnt from nature and art,
and treasured up in his memory. To say that this
happens through the operation of the laws in mental
science of association and co-ordination, would be
almost an. impertinence, so rudimentary are they.
Nor will I venture too curiously to inquire how
much of all that which, in a gush of gratitude, we
credit to the sketcher, is due to his unconscious
flattery in affording us occasion for indulging in
vanity of our quick penetration, and pride in our
own vast store of knowledge and lofty aesthetic
attainments.
Another surprise, however, of an opposite kind
awaits us in regard to sketches, and, in truth, slight
work generally. Fascinating as sketches may be
at first, we soon tire of them, with few exceptions,
and these exceptions will probably be those mostly
which properly should be ranked as " studies." The
equation of their lessening illusion is no less largely
determined by the spectator's attainments and endowments. If these be great, he feels more and
more how much has been omitted; and he cannot
thrive on, he cannot live with, mere symbols.
Much that is here said applies also to the picture
of the impressionniste. Old ideas, by the way, are
constantly being put forth by the Parisian mutualadmiration society of painters and writers, and under
one of the new-fangled, plausible designations that
our neighbours so ingeniously invent reappears
what is essentially in the nature of a sketch. The
impressionniste aims at (besides indispensable chic
in the execution) a more immediately illusive verisimilitude to nature, or, what is the same thing, our
impressions of her. But to this end, no more must
be attempted than to seize the visual aspect of the
subject or view under conditions of such precise

OF AET.

differentiation of lighting, atmospheric effect, and
colour, as yield the aspect at a given moment, as
nearly as possible, in order to convey an impression
received as a whole, and rendered at a blow, as
nearly as may be, since (the conditions being transient) continued or renewed impressions would rarely
exactly accord or coalesce with the first impression.
But how can the result be more than that attained
in the sketch, " done quickly, while the effect lasts ?"
Upon this hit-or-miss principle much of the work
must be left, as in the sketch, in more or less empty
breadths; in other words, much of the detail must be
"left to the imagination." Such impressions must
be superficial; whereas those of a close, patient
observer are derived not solely from a sudden glance,
but from long-continued and repeated examination
and comparison. Consequently, the whole nexus of
the facts composing his completed impression do
not admit of very summary statement. Nor should
painting be confined to a patchwork of taches and
valeurs. Most important, indeed, is it, if we would
have a just and catholic judgment in art, to entertain
the belief that aesthetic illusion, legitimate and desirable, may be found and enjoyed through methods
and means the most dissimilar; in all the schools;
in works of the most varied characteristics, by artists
the most opposite in temperament and idiosyncrasy;
those who seem all spontaneity, or those who take
infinite pains. Nature will not hinder us. Both
eye and mind are endowed with marvellous, virtually
automatic adaptability to receive all kinds of presentative and representative illusion. By this adaptive
facility, adjustment may rapidly be made to the
standpoint of the artist, so as to receive the myriads
of diverse illusions sought to be conveyed by the
works of art thronging exhibitions.
I may cite a few instances of works which afford
legitimate and desirable illusion, though having
nothing else in common. First, let us take a picture
by a luministe whose principles (the last nouveauU
in Paris) do not essentially differ much from those
of Turner—our neighbours having, let me say en
passant, always been more apt to follow British landscape-painters than is commonly supposed. Well,
such a picture will be apt to prove in a little
time, if not now, a mirage of opaque paint and
yellowed oil; but it may suggest light, " holy light,
offspring of heaven," and iridian splendour. Analogously, Corot will suggest poetic dreams of tranquil
light and limpid atmosphere. But take a Eembrandt, where light is largely suppressed, or qualified
by shadow, and who shall say that the glamour of
his chiaroscuro is not one of the most magical illusions in art ? The head of Christ in Leonardo da
Vinci's " Last Supper," despite its obscuration by
time and repainting, has an expression of sorrow

PHOENICIANS BARTERING WITH BRITONS.
(Sketch of a Design for a Panel at the Royal Exchange, by Sir Frederic Leighton, Barti, P.R.A.)

PHOENICIANS BARTERING WITH
that is illusively touching; and still more illusively
pathetic is the study for the head, in chalks merely,
in the Ambrosian Library, Milan. Again, look at pictures not less truthful of boors carousing, by Teniers
and Jan Steen. Or take the minutely elaborated
still-life pictures of the same Dutch school, and turn
from them to pieces in the same genre by Velasquez
or Snyders, done in large magistral strokes-^a sketch
merely, it may be, but showing a justness of selection,
and therefore conveying a veritably illusive suggestiveness which only a master can compass.
What is it that enshrines these and other pictures
in the memory, wThile the mass are forgotten, but
some illusion worthy and noble, however different
in kind ?—some illusion that may be produced by
imitative and realistic work, on the one hand, or, on
the other, by work that is indicative, interpretive, or
suggestive, or wholly ideal. The last cannot dispense
entirely with even sensory illusion, for, after all said,
what is the ideal but a readjustment of realistic
elements, correlatively to nature's principles, by the
highest co-ordinating faculties ? Otherwise, it would
be a fantastic, eviscerate hallucination. Doubtless,
also, illusion was the aim of the great painters of
classical times, but generally of much higher character than Pliny indicates, as it clearly was of the
unsophisticated Dutch masters, and not less, if unconsciously, of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo
da Vinci. Raphael's imitative instinct impelled
him to render the very grasses and flowers in his
pictures with closer reference to nature than his
predecessors gave. Michelangelo painted factitious
architectural members on the Sistine ceiling, not
with any approach to conventional "flat treatment,"
but, frankly, to deceive the eye, by looking like
reliefs of stone. Leonardo made a thousand studies
to secure scientific as well as artistic accuracy in
his work, and lingered over a picture for years to

BRITONS."

141

isecure perfect vraisemhlance. Depend upon it, all
1
the greatest and truest artists imitate loyally, and
^without arri&re pensee, the models before them, or,
iin default of these, the images in their memory;
iand I submit that it may be said correctly that
1
they sought to convey illusively alike a lofty con<ception, a divine sentiment, a subtle expression.
How is the living artist to excite the absorbing
iinterest in his work that the great dead still secure ?
How, but by working with the same single-minded
\sincerity ? The picture is best, I conceive, when
nothing prevents the cultivated beholder from yielding to his own illusion—when he need think little,
if at all, of the painter or of the habiliments he
wears, but may think of nature in the subject before
him, or of nature and art combined, as the artist
<can fuse them together by his virtually poetic
;alchemy. But when the painter obtrudes himself,
or his master, or his manual skill, or mere technique ; when we see him masquerading in a foreign
:garb that hides all that is his birthright; when
he addresses us in the argot of Parisian ateliers,
or flaunts the chic of some French brush-work, or
prattles in the monosyllables of impressionism; when
he pirouettes in the prismatic colours of an Italian
arlecchino, or stalks with German ponderosity,
brown or black-frocked; when he besmears himself
with dirt or varnish as of long ages, or consciously
reproduces the unconscious shortcomings of archaic
art; whenever, in fine, he attempts to see with
another's eyes, or goes to the rear to tread in
another's footprints, then, and in all such cases, he
dims the illusive medium he seeks to spread between
nature and our eyes, or between nature and our
imagination through our eyes. Does not the same
thing obtain in histrionic art ? The actor is surely
best when he makes us forget his separate personality
in the illusion of a veracious impersonation.

• •;—»>o*

" PHCENICIANS BAETEEING

WITH

BY SIR FREDERIC LEIGHTON, BART.,

HEN the Gresham Committee announced their
intention of decorating the panels of the
ambulatory at the Royal Exchange, Sir Frederic
Leigh ton almost immediately offered to prepare
and present one of the designs. Of this we reproduce the first sketch, executed in the President's
usual way—on brown paper. The figures in the
finished work will be life-size, and a decorative
border will enclose the design. The difficulty
connected with the great height of the panel has
been overcome by the introduction of a cartouche
(which will be gilt) to contain a description of the
872

BEITONS."

P.R.A.

subject depicted. It is hoped that other artists of
note will follow the example of Sir Frederic Leighton, for while the work when complete will be in a
sense a national one, the funds at the command of
the Gresham Committee are very limited. When it
is pointed out that on this account only one panel
can be completed in a year, and that there are
twenty-four panels to be decorated—the execution
of which will cost £500 each—the magnitude of
the undertaking and the paucity of the means
available will be appreciated. The second pane]
has been entrusted to Mr. R. W. Macbeth, A.R.A.

THE PUNISHMENT OP LUXURY.
(From the Painting by Signor Segantini.

Recently acquired by the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.)

OUB ILLUSTBATED NOTE-BOOK.

W

E recorded last month the list of works purchased from their autumn exhibition by the
Committee of the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool;

MUSIC.
(By M. Coulon. Presented to the Victoria Hall, Geneva,
by D. P. F. Barton, Esq.)

we now have pleasure in placing reproductions of
them before the reader.
Geneva, the birthplace and stronghold of

LOVE THE CONQUEROR.
(By F. W. Pomeroy. Recently acquired by the Walker
Art Gallery, Liverpool.)

OUE ILLUSTRATED
Calvinism, has been greatly agitated
over the vexed question of the nude
in art. It has been brought before
them by the placing on the Victoria
Hall of a beautiful ideal figure of
"Music"—the splendid concert hall
and its embellishments being the
gift to the town of Mr. D. P. F.
Barton, the munificent British Consul. We reproduce the model for
the figure—the work of M. Coulon
—as it was exhibited at the Salon
two or three years ago, from which
the beauty and refinement of the
design may be seen. The arrangement of the background has been
slightly altered to accommodate the
statue to its position as well as to
a more ideal treatment; but the

NOTE-BOOK.

143

A MAN OVERBOARD.
(By T. Somerscales. Recently acquired by the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.)

THE WATER OP THE NILE.
(By F. GoodaU, R'A.

(By David Murray, A.R.A.

Recently acquired by the City of Manchester Art Gallery. By Permission of the Art Gallery Committee.)

MEADOW-SWEETS.
Recently acquired by the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.)

main figure appears as it is represented here, and this it is that
has shocked the sensibilities of
Geneva the Prude !
The permanent collection of the
City of Manchester Art Gallery
has recently been extended by the
addition of Mr. F. Goodall's "Water
of the Nile." The picture—which,
it will be remembered, was exhibited in last year's Eoyal Academy
—was purchased by Mr. F. Smallman, of Manchester, for the sum of
£1,575, and presented by him to
the Gallery. It is to Mr. Smallman, too, that Manchester is indebted for the possession of Mr.
Aumonier's " The Silver Lining of

144

THE MAGAZINE

OF AET.

the Cloud," added to the collection
in 1890.
The monument to Raffet, recently unveiled at Paris, is the work
of M. Fremiet, the distinguished
author of the well-known equestrian statue of " Joan of Arc." The
work now illustrated, which is of
novel design, has been erected in
the garden of the Louvre, facing
the Pont des Arts, and fully re-

{By J. B. Burgess, R.A.

THE OLD HERO.
Recently acquired by the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.)

at Paris in 1804, and published his first album of lithographs
when he was twenty-two. He studied under Charlet and Gros,
and almost at the outset of his career determined to be a military
painter. His lithographic work, however, was so much sought after
that painting was to a large extent neglected, but his water-colour
sketches serve to show his power in delineating the heroic, pathetic,
tumultuous, and sad elements which made up a soldier's life in the
days when Raffet set himself the task of recording them.
The Wellington Memorial in St. Paul's Cathedral has at length
been placed in the position intended for it by Alfred Stevens. It
now only remains to complete the monument according to the designs of the artist by adding to the summit the equestrian figure
of the Duke. The work can now be adequately examined and appreciated, a matter which in its former position was an impossibility.

THE RAEFET MEMORIAL, PARIS.
{By M. Frimiet.)

presents the character of the
work of the artist it commemorates. The bust rests on
a granite pillar, at the base of
which is a drummer in bronze,
of the Fusiliers of the Guard
of 1806, and a trophy of three
flags represents the First Republic, the First Empire, and
the reign of Louis Philippe.
Surrounding the staves of the
flags are a wreath of laurel and
a shot-riddled cuirass. DenisAuguste-Marie Raffet was born

THE WELLINGTON MEMORIAL, ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.

DEPARTURE OF THE ARGONAUTS.
(From the Painting by Piero di Cosimo (?). Ascribed in the Catalogue to Filippino Lippi.

The Property of the Earl of Ashburnham.)

EARLY ITALIAN ART AT THE NEW GALLERY.—I.
BY CLAUDE PHILLIPS.

T

HE student of Italian art in the periods of ceptions, attached to the works lent to them the
its rise, its development, and its climax will names provided by the owners, these being in a
certainly look back to this exhibition as a memor- very great number of instances manifestly erroable one, though its attraction lies chiefly in the neous, the usefulness of the exhibition, as a whole,
number of interesting works now publicly brought and its value in advancing the scientific study of
forward for the first time, and not in the exact- Italian art are thereby greatly diminished. Now,
ness of their classification or arrangement. The however, let me have done with fault-finding, and try
scheme of the directors includes Italian art between to give some general idea of the pictorial treasures
the limits of 1300 and 1550, with the omission, which constitute the chief display. A small collection
however, of the all-important branches of Venice, of triptychs and panels such as is here gathered
Padua, Verona, Bologna, and Ferrara, which are together cannot, whatever its quality, give any
reserved for a separate exhibition next year. The adequate idea of the great monumental art of the
barriers thus voluntarily established have, how- Trecento, which in both its main branches—the
ever, been broken down in every direction, with Florentine and the Sienese—was essentially an art
the result, it must be owned, of enriching the col- of fresco. The vastness and dramatic passion of
lection with some of its most interesting pictures, its conceptions, its synthetic power on the one hand,
while, on the other hand, to a great extent im- and on the other its leaning towards that excessive
pairing its value as an exposition of certain schools scholastic symbolism which was the leading charand styles of Italian art. Thus Venice, though acteristic of the age, can be adequately appreciated
officially absent, is represented by Jacopo de . only in the churches of Florence, Padua, and Assisi,
Barbari, and two portraits ascribed to Antonello in the Palazzo Publico of Siena, in the Campo Santo
da Messina; its offshoot, Brescia, by a portrait of Pisa. Nearest to Giotto, and worthy of him in
ascribed to Romanino; Verona, though reserved the simple dignity of its design, is "The Presentafor next year, shines with an exquisite panel of tion in the Temple " (Henry Willett, Esq.), strongly
Pisanello, and with another of Liberale; Bologna, recalling in composition one of the master's fresthough in like manner outside the scheme, is coes in the church of S. Croce, Florence. Not
represented by Francesco and Giacomo Francia, by Giotto, to whom it is ascribed, but a beautiful
and Innocenzo da Imola. Moreover, although the production dating from a period later in the fourdirectors on the Executive Committee cannot fairly teenth century, and more in the style of Orcagna,
be blamed because they have, with very few ex- is the " Coronation of the Virgin " (C. Ionides, Esq.).
873

146

THE MAGAZINE

The noble but still half-Byzantine art of Duccio di
Buoninsegna of Siena is represented by " Two Scenes
from the Life of Christ" (R. H. Benson, Esq.).
Among the Giottesque painters Giottino, Taddeo
and Agnolo Gaddi, Bernardo Daddi, and others
appear in the catalogue; but in few, if any, cases
are the attributions to them more than conjectural.
Much the same remark applies to the Sienese group,
comprising such familiar names as Simone Martino,
Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Berna da Siena, Bartolo di
Fredi, Taddeo di Bartolo, and others.
To Verona belongs, as has already been pointed
out, one of the great rarities of the collection—the
wonderfully elaborate miniature-like " St. Hubert"
(Earl of Ashburnham), which is not only a Pisano
above suspicion, but the best-preserved example of
his art as a painter that has come down to us. (See
p. 149.) The only other panel pictures, among those
ascribed to him, that can safely be accepted as
absolutely authentic are the " Virgin and Child
with St. Anthony and St. George," in the National
Gallery; the "Leonello d'Este," in the Morelli Collection at Bergamo; and the " Cecilia Gonzaga,"
recently placed in the Salon Carre of the Louvre.
I should be inclined to add to this short list the
small predella "Presentation in the Temple," No.
170 in the Louvre, where it is officially ascribed to
Gentile da Fabriano. A vast number of altar-pieces,
panels, cassone-fronts, decorations, and portraits represent the Florentine art of the Quattrocento, and it
is here that the a peu pres in attributions, and often
not even that, is the rule. A genuine Fra Filippo
Lippi is the beautiful " Coronation of the Virgin "
(Marquess of Lothian), in which the figure of Christ
is almost identical with that in the famous " Coronation " at the Accademia of Florence. Above the
main group are two angels drawing aside crimson
curtains, in wrhose fluttering draperies, in the passion
of whose movement—as, perhaps, in some other portions of the picture—I think the hand of the Frate's
pupil, Sandro Botticelli, may be traced. Attributed, also, to Fra Filippo, and occupying a place
of honour, is a large and very curious " Virgin
and Child with St. Clare and St. Agatha" (Mrs.
Austen). A closer examination reveals, however,
that though the colour en sourdine has much of his
charm, the picture is not only not his, but is hardly
pure Florentine at all. The treatment of many
portions—the Virgin's type, the head of the rosecrowned angels, the striated blue sky—speak of
another school, and I prefer to call the picture,
until further notice, Umbro-Florentine of the last
quarter of the fifteenth century. That most Florentine of Florentine painters, Pesellino, is well represented—first, by a " Flying Angel" (Countess
Brownlow), put down to Masaccio, but ascribed

OF AET.

by me to Pesellino when the panel appeared last
year at the Old Masters; and then by two noble
decorative panels, " The Triumph of Love, Chastity,
and Death," and "The Triumph of Fame, Time,
and Keligion" (Mrs. Austen), in the design of
which the imaginativeness and virility of this
painter are unusually well seen, though the workmanship is not throughout of equal excellence.
The ascription of these decorative designs to Piero
di Cosimo is more than usually inappropriate, since
they have not even the remotest analogy with his
style. Exquisite as is the miniature "Virgin and
Child with Saints," attributed to Pesellino (Captain
Holford), closely as it is related both to him and
to Fra Filippo, I find some difficulty in agreeing
with the ascription. The conception has a formality, a sedateness, which is not his; while the
modelling of the heads, the break of the draperies,
does not exactly correspond to the style of any
Pesellino with which I am acquainted.
Nowhere is it more evident than here how great
a fascination Botticelli exercised over his pupils and
minor contemporaries. Almost all the very numerous productions attributed to him bear the impress
of his power, and many undoubtedly issue from his
bottega, but hardly one is throughout from his own
hand. The Botticelli colour and execution are most
clearly recognisable in "The Holy Family and St.
John the Baptist," No. 108 (Wickham Flower, Esq.),
though even here there are unequal passages; while
in the " Portrait of Esmeralda Bandinelli," long the
property of Bossetti, the hands and the transparent
draperies more strongly recall the favourite master
than does the head in its present condition. Absolutely Botticelli's in the feverish passion, the restlessness of the design, but too dull and opaque in
colour to be entirely his in execution, is " The Death
of Lucretia " (Earl of Ashburnham), which resembles,
both in dimensions and in general aspect, the finer
and more carefully executed " Death of Virginia,"
in the Morelli collection at Bergamo. No. 156 (G.
Donaldson, Esq.) is familiar as one of the Nastagio
degli Onesti series formerly in the Ley land collection. It is the best preserved of the four, and, as
to its design, clearly referable to Botticelli; but the
execution is that of a journeyman or pupil having
considerable personal character of his own. Much
the same description would apply to the gayer and
more animated panel, "The Argonauts in Colchis,"
ascribed to Benozzo Gozzoli, save that here it is
more than doubtful whether even the design is referable to Botticelli; the colour is not his in harmony,
and other Florentine influences are more easily discerned. The companion panel, " The Departure of
the Argonauts " (same collection—see p. 145), is perhaps the finest example of early Florentine art in

EAELY

ITALIAN AET AT THE NEW GALLEEY.

-

147

the exhibition; it was formerly given to Mantegna (!), being that, dated 1505, which is in a chapel of
and is now ascribed to Filippino Lippi, which is, Santo Spirito, in the same city. This painter should
of course, much nearer the mark, though still not not be confounded with Filippino's pupil, Eaffaelinq
accurate. The beautiful enamel-like execution, the del Garbo, a genuine example of whose art is the
inspiriting colour, in which splendid reds, greens, " Virgin and Child with St. John " (lent by E B.),
and yellows make bold, brilliant harmonies appro- while the " Virgin and Child with Angels" (Sir
priate to the heroic subject, the curious Leonard- Bernard Samuelson), also attributed to him, is the
esque types of the women
reduced version of a picture
with their elaborately
in the Berlin Gallery.
tressed coiffures, at first conTwo genuine examples
stitute a puzzle. A closer
of Fra Bartolommeo, the
study has convinced me
one among the great masters
that the panel is the work
who is most rarely found
of the gifted but eccentric
in English collections, are
Piero di Cosimo, and one
the large " Holy Family"
of his best productions. I t
and the miniature "Nativity"
bears the date 1487, at
(both Ludwig Mond, Esq.);
which time he would have
the former not being combeen about
twenty-five
parable, however, to the
years of age. The peculiar
great "Vierge au Palmier"
male and female types, the
in Lord Cowper's collection
striking chord of colour, the
at Panshanger, but to be
blue-green seascape with its
classed rather with the
peculiar rocks, are all his,
" Holy Family" in Sir
though they are not familiar
Francis Cook's collection at
to us in this early state of
Eichmond. Less in the
d e v e l o p m e n t . F r o m the
style of the Frate than of
same artist's studio, but too
the Sienese Beccafumi, who
rough to be from his own
at one time imitated him,
hand, is the curious " Hylas
is the "Holy Family and
and the Nymphs" (E. H.
St. J o h n " (Duke of WestBenson, Esq.). A " Virgin
minster) ; and I must also
and Child with Angels"
contest the attribution to
( C h r i s t c h u r c h , Oxford)
the former master of the
worthily represents, notunfinished " Holy Family
withstanding the fading of
and St. John," which, powerthe flesh-tones, the noble
ful as it is in drawing and
art of the Umbro-Florentine,
modelling, recalls not Fra
Piero della Francesca, or
Bartolommeo, 'but some able
Dei Franceschi. The hand
painter of the early sixof Domenico Ghirlandajo is
teenth century, trained in
only to be traced in the
the Ghirlandajo school. The
much-restored " Portraits of
chain of Florentine masters
Count Sassetti and his Son"
is continued with Andrea
(E. H. Benson, Esq.), from
del Sarto, to whom belong
the William Graham colleca "Virgin and Child and
ST. AUGUSTINE WITH A DONOK.
tion ; the good " Portrait of
John the Baptist" (Leopold
(From the Painting by Borgognone. The Property of Henry
a Lady" (Earl of Crawde Eothschild, Esq.), and
Hucks Gibbs, Esq.)
ford), ascribed to him, being
"St. Mary Magdalen".
clearly not his, and apparently of North Italian (Charles Butler, Esq.)—neither of them works from
origin. An authentic work of the scarce Eaffaele which the power of Andrea senza errore can be
de Karlis is the "Mass of St. Gregory" (No. 265); adequately estimated. The former painting, though
it is signed and dated 1501. His typical perform- it shows his unerring science of composition and
ance is the richly coloured " Madonna with Angels correctness of draughtsmanship, is more than usually
and Saints," dated 1502, in the Corsini Palace at empty and uninspiring.
When we come to the group of so-called
Florence; another altar-piece attributable to him

148

THE MAGAZINE

Raphaels all sorts of questions at once arise, and
I may at once declare, at the risk of being
anathematised by owners, that, in my opinion,
the hand of the divine Sanzio himself is nowhere
to be traced—which does not prevent the pictures
shown under his name from being of high interest,
The "Christ Bearing the Cross" (Lord Windsor)

OF ART.

less well-preserved " Madonna di Casa Tempi" of"
the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. At the root of the
picture is, no doubt, a Raphael drawing, and it
may even have been commenced by the youthful
master, but in the main the execution cannot
be his. I cannot bring myself to agree with
those connoisseurs who, assigning it to Timoteo
Viti, assume that it was the outcome
of an influence of Raphael on his
senior, exercised when in 1504 he
temporarily returned to Urbino. The
"Portraits of Ferry Carondelet and
His Secretaries " (Duke of Grafton),
which has long passed under the
name of the Urbinate, is, even in its
present injured condition, a work of
surpassing interest and beauty; but
no connoisseur will after this its reappearance in public venture any
longer to class it
Raphael. It
is evidently one of the series of
masterly portraits painted by Sebastiano del Piombo in that intermediate
Raphaelesque phase in which he
managed to combine the beauties of
his master Giorgione with those of
Sanzio. Even apart from the treatment of the figures, the Venetian and
specifically Giorgionesque landscape
would be convincing. The " Carondelet " belongs to the same series as
the so-called " Fornarina" of the
Tribuna; the "Violin-Player," until
recently in the Sciarra Palace at
Rome; the " Dorothea," which from
Blenheim has passed to Berlin; and,
perhaps, the so-called " Portrait of
Raphael" in the Czartoryski Palace
at Cracow.
VIEGIN AND CHILD.
No division of Italian art is, on
{From the Painting by Giampetrino. The Property of A. Hallam Murray, Esq.)
the whole, so well represented as the
is the main section of the predella to the great Milanese school in both its main ramifications. The
"Madonna of the Nuns of S. Antonio," now at indigenous school—that of which the caposcuola is
the South Kensington Museum, other portions Vincenzo Foppa, of Brescia—is represented by a
being in the collections of the Baroness Burdett- splendid profile " Portrait of a Man " (Alfred MorCoutts, Mr. Whyte, of Barron Hill, and Dulwich rison, Esq.), attributed, not without good cause, to
College. The general design is no doubt attributable that master himself ; by the " Virgin and Child with
in each case to Raphael, but the execution is too Angels" of Bernardino Buttinone (Colonel Jekyll);
'hard and empty to be his, and even thus early in and, last and best, by the profoundly earnest " St.
his career (1505) we must assume that he was Augustine with a Donor " of Ambrogio Borgognone
assisted by some Umbrian painter, a pupil, like (H. H. Gibbs, Esq.)—a panel which must have formed
himself, of Perugirio. Very Raphaelesque in con- one wing of an important altar-piece, of which the
ception and design is Lord North brook's well-known corresponding wing is the " St. Peter Martyr with
"Virgin and Child," and very closely related to a Donatrix," No. 85 in the Louvre. (See p. 147.)
two paintings dating from about 1504—the famous Some of the Milanese artists here represented
Madonna del Gran Duca " of the Pitti, and the issued originally from the elder school of Foppa, but

EAELY ITALIAN ART AT THE
came ultimately within the influence of Leonardo
da Vinci when he established himself at Milan.
Among these must be counted the interesting
portrait-painter Ambrogio de Predis, resuscitated
by Giovanni Morelli, and to whom we may confidently ascribe the so-called " Beatrice d'Este"
in the Ambrosiana, long considered one of the

NEW GALLERY.

14£

attraction. Though not a Luini of quite the first
rank, "The Nativity" (lent by E. B.) is full of
charm, and in dimensions one of the most important of his productions to be found in England.
Of an exquisite naivete is the predella (same contributor) called "The History of Three Martyrs
in Three Pictures;" and very characteristic, too,

VISION OP ST. HUBEBT.
(From the Painting by Vittore Pisano.

few authentic originals of Leonardo himself. Nothing finer from the brush of the lesser master
exists than the " Portrait of a Young Man," dated
1494 (W. Fuller-Maitland, Esq.)—a curious type,
with wide-open eyes, olivastro complexion, and
tawny wig. To Bernardino Coiiti, another artist
belonging to this intermediate group, must certainly
be given the fine and unusually well-preserved
" Portrait of a Lady" (Alfred Morrison, Esq.)
ascribed to Beltraffio. It is, indeed, Conti's finest
extant performance, of the kind. Although it is
the fashion to class Luini absolutely and entirely
among Leonardo's followers, he issued originally
from the Foppa-Borgognone school, and only when
he matured, came within the circle of Leonardesque

The Property of the Earl of Ashburnharn.)

are the panels "St. Catherine" and "St. Stephen"
(J. Ruston, Esq.). I need not seriously discuss,
on the question of correctness of attribution, any
of the paintings put forward here as by Leonardo
da Vinci himself—not even the interesting cama'ieu
" Study of a Head" (Captain Holford). There is
hardly anything, moreover, in the exhibition that
can with any probability be attributed to Andrea
Solario. The "Virgin and Child" (Rev. W. H.
Wayne) is of his school, but not good enough to
be from his own hand; while the " St. Mary Magdalen " (Wickham Flower, Esq.) is, to my thinking,
by a Flemish imitator of Giampetrino (Giovanni
Pietro Ricci).
CTo be continued.)

150

THE FOULIS ACADEMY AND JAMES TASSIE.
BY J. M. GRAY.

I

N the middle of the last century, Eobert Foulis,
the well-known printer, conceived the patriotic
idea of establishing in Scotland an academy for
instruction in the Fine Arts. A barber in his
early days, Foulis had been befriended by Professor
Francis Hutcheson, who, observing the young man's
eager desire
for learning
and self-improvement,
directed his
education,
and advised
him to become a bookseller a n d
publisher. He
began business in 1741,
in partnership with his
brother AnKOBERT FOULIS.
drew. For a
(From the Medallion by James Tassie.)
time, Eobert
Ure printed his publications, but soon he established
a press of his own. In 1743 he was appointed
printer to the University of Glasgow, and in the
same year issued his Demetrius Phalerus de Elocutione, the first Greek book printed in that city,
which was followed by the beautiful editions which
have made his name famous among bibliophiles,
including the "immaculate" octavo Horace of 1744,
the folio CaJlim.achus.oi 1755, the octavo Anacreon
of 1757, and Virgil of 1758, and, above all, the
four-volume folio Homer of 1757-58, the crowning
triumph of the firm.
In company with his brother, Foulis made
frequent expeditions to the Continent to collect
manuscripts and fine editions of the classics; and,
so early as his first visit to Paris in 1738, he had
been impressed by observing the " influence of
invention in drawing and modelling on many
manufactures."
Gradually the scheme of his
academy took shape, till in 1753, aided by three
Glasgow merchants, and having sent home " a
painter, an engraver, and a copper-plate printer"
from abroad, he began his classes-in a set of rooms
provided by the university. Works of art that
he had brought from the Continent furnished
ample means of study, and paintings like Eubens'
"Daniel in the Lions' Den" at Hamilton Palace,
and Gheeraedt's " Conference of English and Spanish

Plenipotentiaries in 1604," formerly in the same
collection, now in. the National Portrait Gallery,
were copied by permission of their owners. Views of
Glasgow and its environs were drawn and engraved
in the school; works of sculpture were modelled,
and casts were taken from moulds of foreign workmanship. We have an interesting glimpse of the
academy in full operation in an etching by David
Allan, wThich shows a spacious interior with a row
of engravers at work beneath the shaded light of
the lofty windows, the scholars drawing from casts
of the antique, and, in the foreground, Foulis
himself standing criticising an ample canvas which
is displayed on an easel.
The difficulties that beset the academy were
many. Competent teachers were hard to find,'
there was little public patronage for native talent,
the cost of obtaining examples and of sending
promising students abroad to study was great.

EOBERT ADAM, ARCHITECT.
(From the Medallion by James Tassie.)

But looking at Tassie's medallion of Eobert Foulis,
with its strong, round, compact head, and its
countenance of bull-dog tenacity and resolution,
we can well believe that he was not a man to

THE FOULIS ACADEMY
be easily daunted by difficulties. For more than
twenty years he maintained the school, and then
retired, sold off his art collection, and died a few
weeks later, 22nd of June, 1776, a ruined man.

AND JAMES

TASSIE.

151

Andrew Geddes, in which the sitters are portrayed
in a familiar interior, amid their everyday surroundings, and the charm of genre is united to the
interest of portraiture. As a teacher, too, Allan
certainly exercised a marked influence for good
upon the course of art in Scotland during the ten
years that he was head master of the Trustees'
Academy, Edinburgh, which, in 1760, had undertaken, with adequate aid from Government, the
duty of art-training in Scotland that had previously
been attempted by the private enterprise of Robert
Foulis, and has ever since furnished instruction
to the most distinguished artists of the country.
James Tassie was a native of Pollockshaws, a
suburb of Glasgow, the year of his birth being
1735. While working as a stonemason he visited
Glasgow on a holiday, and saw the Foulis art collections, probably at one of the exhibitions held
yearly on the king's birthday, when, as depicted
in an etching by Allan, the pictures were displayed
in the open air, hung round the inner court of
the University. The sight decided him to become
an artist, and he was admitted as a student of the
Foulis Academy. Having completed his studies,

JAMES TASSIE.
{From the Medallion by William Tassie.)

The time was not yet ripe for such a scheme
as the good printer had devised, and the. immediate
results of his school were inadequate and disappointing. Few of the students trained within
its walls became distinguished; the names of
William Cochrane and Archibald M'Lauchlane, the
painters, of Robert Paul, William Buchanan, and
James Mitchell, the engravers, are far from famous.
There were, however, two pupils of the Foulis
Academy who deserve to be remembered as artists
of note and individuality—a painter and a modeller,
David Allan and James Tassie.
Allan, after leaving Glasgow, became a distinguished student and member of the Academy
of St. Luke, Rome, where, in 1773, he carried off
the gold medal for the best painting of an historical
subject. On his return to Scotland, he executed
illustrations to the " Gentle Shepherd" of Allan
Ramsay, and to the songs of Robert Burns, which
entitle him to be regarded as the father of genre
in Scotland, and the precursor of David Wilkie.
His cabinet-sized full-lengths and full-length groups
led the way to the works of a similar kind by

PROFESSOR JOHN ROBISON.
(From the Medallion by James Tassie.)

he crossed to Dublin, seeking employment as a
sculptor and modeller; and here he was so fortunate
as to attract the attention of Dr. Henry Quin,

152

THE MAGAZINE

OF AET.

who had been amusing himself by casting gems, was works of this class that gained a premium
and imitating the precious stones in pastes. He just after his arrival in London. In his early
became this gentleman's assistant in his laboratory, productions, however, the heads and busts only
and the result of the experiments that ensued were in white enamel, and these were fixed, like
was the discovery of that vitreous enamel, "which cameos, upon oval sheets of ground glass, coloured
emits fire when struck with steel, takes a fine by tinted glass placed beneath. But by 1774, Tassie
polish, and shows every stroke and touch of the had succeeded " by labour and perseverance," and
artist in higher perfection than any other sub- evidently after repeated efforts and experiments, in
stance;" afterwards used, variously coloured, for casting the whole medallion, both the head and
his reproductions of gems, and, coloured uniformly bust and also its background, in one piece of hard
white, as the permanent form of his medallion white enamel; and the works of this kind are his
portraits, modelled in wax.
finest productions.
His medallions are executed with great skill,
By Dr. Quin's advice Tassie removed to London,
in 1766, to seek a larger field for his artistic labours. precision, and thoroughness of modelling, and, as
Soon after his arrival he received a bounty of ten works of art alone, they are well worthy of the
guineas from the Society for the Encouragement study of the artist and connoisseur; while their
of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, for " Speci- historical value, as an addition to our national
mens of Profiles in Pastes;" but he was diffident, portraiture, is equally great, for they present auand little fitted for forcing his way into public thentic portraits of a very large proportion of the
notice, and he had a hard struggle before the ex- distinguished personages of the second half of the
cellence of his productions came to be known. eighteenth century. Considering that Tassie spent
So early as 1769 we find him supplying moulds to practically the whole of his working life in London,
Wedgwood and Bentley, and, indeed, the majority it is curious how many of his medallions have
of the cameos and intaglios included in the 1773 Scotsmen for their subjects. Among philosophers
catalogue of that firm were furnished by Tassie. we have renderings of David Hume, Adam Smith
Gradually the high quality of his reproductions —his only authentic likeness, Joseph Black, and
was recognised, the finest collections were opened Dugald Stewart; among physicians and surgeons,
to him, and the London jewellers began to intro- James Gregory, William Cullen, and William Cruikduce his gems as settings for seals, rings, and shank; among the clergy, William Eobertson, John
other trinkets. He published the first catalogue Erskine, and Hugh Blair; among generals and
of his works in 1775, a slim octavo, including 310 admirals, Lord Heathfield, Lord Duncan, and Sir
items. Eight years later he supplied a complete Archibald Campbell; among connoisseurs and antiseries of his reproductions to the Empress Catherine quaries, Sir William Hamilton, David, Earl of
of Eussia, arranged and catalogued by Eudolph Eric Buchan, and John Pinkerton; among poets, James
Easpe, a learned German archaeologist and geologist, Beat tie and John Home; among members of the
who seized the occasion of the completion of his bench and bar, Lord Presidents Sir Thomas Miller
labours to publish, in 1786, an "Account of the and Eobert Blair, Lord Abercromby and " Harry "
Present State and Arrangement of Mr. James Erskine; while among artists, Eobert and John
Tassie's Collection of Pastes and Impressions from Adam and James Byres represent the architects,
Ancient and Modern Gems," a collection then and John Paxton and David Allan the painters.
numbering over 12,000 examples, and increased to
The examples by which James Tassie's work
15,800 items by 1791, when Easpe issued his great as a portrait modeller is here represented are the
final catalogue raisonne of Tassie's works in two smaller and finer of his two medallions of Eobert
large quarto volumes of 800 pages.
Foulis; one of his three varying portraits of
It is, however, not his careful and accurate Eobert Adam, the celebrated architect; and John
reproductions from the antique, but his original Eobison, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the
portrait medallions, modelled in wax, in most cases University of Edinburgh, probably, in artistic
directly from the life, and afterwards cast in his hard, quality, the finest of all the medallions of the
white, vitreous enamel, that entitle Tassie to rank as artist. The portrait of James Tassie himself, which
a capable original artist, as a worthy successor of the is also reproduced, is an example of the work of
gem-engravers of Greece, of the medallists of fifteenth- William, his nephew, who succeeded to his business
and sixteenth-century Italy, of men like Dupre and after his death, on 1st June, 1799, and modelled
David d'Angers in France, like Thomas and Abraham portraits in wax in the manner of his uncle, but
Simon and Isaac Grosset among ourselves.
with distinctly less of artistic skill. He bequeathed
He must have practised portrait modelling a large collection of his own and his uncle's works
before he left Scotland; for, as we have seen, it to the National Gallery of Scotland.

THE FRUGAL M E l L .
{From the Painting by Josef Israels.)

PEIVATE PICTUEE COLLECTIONS IN GLASGOW AND WEST OE
SCOTLAND.
I.—MR. JAMES KEID'S COLLECTION.
B Y ROBERT

I

T is within comparatively recent times that
Glasgow has earned for itself a reputation as
an art-centre. During many an arduous year the
mere struggle for existence gave full employment
to the energies of its citizens. The insignificant
church settlement on the banks of the Molendinar
became by slow degrees one of the world's most
noted emporiums of commerce and industry. The
development and fluctuations of trade, and the
pressing necessities of the passing hour, occupied
the attention of the people, and they had little
leisure left in which to think of art and the graces
of life. Eembrandt was an unknown name to Bailie
Mcol Jarvie and to a long line of his successors;
and for the great mass of the population the importation of tobacco and sugar and the deepening of
the Clyde had charms that far outweighed, in the
direction of solid comfortable results, any satisfaction
that could be extracted from the sight of paint
upon canvas. Moreover, the dour Presbyterianism
that kept for long its chosen home in the west
of Scotland looked upon the painter's art much as
it did upon " play-acting"—as altogether a vain
874

WALKER.

thing, unworthy of the attention of the seriousminded. But inevitably, in the course of years,
increased wealth brought in its train increased culture and refinement, and men's thoughts widened
with the process of the suns. The celebrated
Foulis brothers started the Glasgow Academy of
Fine Art in 1753—fifteen years before the foundation of the Royal Academy. The Glasgow Academy had, however, only a few languishing years
of life.*
After Foulis's death, a love of art never died out
of Glasgow. The times grew more propitious to
an extended appreciation of the beautiful as distinguished from the merely useful. Art follows
money; it is only a wealthy community that can
afford to take an interest in aesthetics. As Glasgow's prosperity became firmly established, and
men had leisure to look about them, a wider and
better-instructed interest in art began to be taken
by the cultivated classes of the community. Early
in this century societies were formed for the encouragement of art and artists, and by the aid of
* See Mr. G r a y ' s a r t i c l e in t h i s P a r t . — E D .

154

THE MAGAZINE

Dilettante societies and a West of Scotland Academy
the good cause was promoted in a more or less
efficient manner. So far as the general public and
modern art are concerned, the work of education

OF AET.

affected : their deepest joy is still in brass bands
and fireworks. Perhaps it is the same in all large
cities. " The masses" elevated and purified by a
burning love of art exist only in " the devout imaginings" of the speakers
at young men's debating
societies,
Nearly all the important private collections
.in Glasgow have been
formed during the last
twenty - five years. We
have in the municipal
art gallery- several magnificent examples of
early masters—too much
neglected
by
the
people; but our private
collectors, with one or
two exceptions, have not
of late years bought old
masters. The modern
Dutchmen, Corot and
the other French Eomanticists, last - century
English artists, some
modern Scotsmen, Turner, Constable, and a few
other modern English
landscapists and figure
painters, have engaged
most of their attention.
The influence of academies and of merely
academical names is felt
not at all in Glasgow*.
As our professional
artists are sometimes
said to form a school of
their own, so may our
PASTORALE—SOUVENIR D'lTALIE.
collectors be said to stand
(From the Painting by Corot)
quite apart in their likes
for the last thirty-three years has been carried on and dislikes from the average collectors in English
by the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, and its provincial centres. Personal influence, exerted at
annual exhibitions have been of incalculable benefit a time when art-taste took a sudden development
in educating the community. But much yet re- within our borders, determined the future character
This influence
mains to be done. In Glasgow we have a body of Glasgow picture collections.
of connoisseurs and collectors who, in knowledge spread from two or three men of singular insight
of pictures and refinement of taste, will hold their and true artistic sympathies, partly natural, partly
own against amateurs anywhere, but their numbers cultivated. The names of some of these will appear
are comparative!}* limited. Our professional painters in the articles of this series. Just now* I shall
are showing themselves keenly alive to the move- mention only one, Mr. John M'Gavin, who died
ment and spirit of the time, and is their praise about twelve years ago. He gave a distinct bias
not in the mouths of the critics of Europe ? There to taste in Glasgow*, of which we feel the effects
is an ever-growing interest in art-matters among even yet. Mr. M'Gavin himself was strongly inthe middle classes. But " the many " remain un- fluenced by the late George Paul Chalmers—a

MR. JAMES

RELD'S

COLLECTION.

155

genius lost too soon
to Scotland—whose
heart was with Renibrandt and Corot and
the modern Dutchmen. The loan pictures shown at the
Glasgow
Institute
exhibitions, and the
efforts of one or two
enlightened dealers
quick to appreciate
the tendency of the
times, have contributed to keep the
current of opinion
flowing in a very
satisfactory direction.
In this series of
notices we begin with
the collection belonging to Mr. James Reid,
President of the GlasDOWNWARD BAYS.
gow Institute of the
(From the Painting by John Linnell.)
Eine Arts. Mr. Reid,
who is the proprietor of the Hyde Park Locomotive picture, "Pastorale—Souvenir d'ltalie," which was
Works near Glasgow, one of the largest engineer- first exhibited in the Salon of 1872, and is
ing works in the world, is well known in the generally regarded as one of Corot's most characwest of Scotland for the interest he takes in the teristic canvases. Here we have Corot at his best,
fine arts. This collector possesses Corot's famous and has the world much better to give us, as a
landscape - painter, •
than Corot at his
best ? His distinction is always undeniable ; his grace
and
tenderness
never
degenerate
into sentimentality.
He idealises, of
course;" but his
idealism is ba'sed
on a close observation of nature, and
generally of nature
in her gentlest,
most s u g g e s t i v e
moods. The " Souvenir" is a poem,
full of romance and
the joy of life, and
yet strongly imbued
with the classic
spirit that kept its
hold on Corot —
Romanticist as he
LANDSCAPE.
was—to 'the end of
(From the Painting by Patrick Nasmyth.)

156

THE MAGAZINE

his days. The trees and the foreground are painted
with consummate skill. Mr. Eeid also owns a small
Corot—" Le Lac "—a delightful little canvas, charming in its expression of calm poetic feeling.
Josef Israels works in the spirit of the great
Dutch painters of the seventeenth century, with
a difference due to the influences of the present
day. "The Frugal Meal" (p. 153), once the property of the late Mr. John M'Gavin, is a striking

OF ART.

the less lucrative branch of art on which he had
set his affections—namely, landscape-painting. His
touch is powerful, his colour rich, and his rolling
clouds often impressive; but there is mannerism
in his style, and we are apt to weary of his repetitions. Mr. Reid's " Downward Rays " is a splendid
example of John Linnell's mastery over cloud effects. "We have in it a wide expanse of russet
Surrey heath, but the striking features of the pic-

IN TIME OF PEACE.
{From the Painting by Marcus Stone, R.A.)

example of Israels' truth, skill in arrangement,
and natural, unforced feeling. The scene is put
before us with no insistence on repulsive details
of squalid poverty. Israels dwells frequently on the
pathetic side of human experience; he paints what
he sees, and, as life is hard for the most of us,
he feels himself constrained to depict its hardships
with sympathy and reverence. Yet in even his
most sombre pictures there is generally some touch
of sunshine, some suggestion of compensation and
solace. The colour-tone of " The Frugal Meal" is
most harmonious, and the shadows are full of
revelations and suggestions.
Known to the present generation chiefly as a
landscapist, John Linnell acquired his early reputation as a portrait-painter, and he kept on painting
portraits for years, simply to make money in order
that he might be at liberty to devote himself to

ture are the contrasts-in cloud-forms and colours
and the splendid atmospheric effect of the "downward rays" breaking through the gloom of the
storm-clouds, brightening up the foreground of the
heath, and touching part of the distance with
patches of golden light. Mr. Reid has two small
Linnells—" Abraham and the Three Angels " and
the "Oak of Mamre."
The well-known picture of ." The Farmer's
Daughter"—a girl feeding pigeons—by Mr. W. Q.
Orchardson, a delightfully sweet, cool, and graceful
work, has also found its way into this collection, and
Mr. Marcus Stone is represented by " I n Time of
Peace," painted in 1873. There is more force in
it than in many of the sweetly-pretty garden lovescenes he has given us of late years. The scheme of
colour, in its greys, yellows, and light browns, akin
to that we associate with Mr. Orchardson, is very

158

THE MAGAZINE

harmonious. The collection also includes two examples of Charles Jacque, one of which is reproduced on the opposite page. The subject is one
which Jacque has made familiar to us—a French
peasant and his sheep. Within his own limits
Jacque always paints these truthfully, and with
great skill in arrangement.
Patrick Nasmyth—an important name in the history of Scottish art—has in the eyes of the judicious
somewhat suffered in reputation because too partial

OF ART.

of his work, the largest of which is " Carisbrook
Castle."
Turner's " Modern Italy" was at one time in
the Novar collection, and was bought by Mr.
Eeid at the Price sale about two years ago. The
picture was painted in 1838, and was therefore
produced during " the period of Turner's central
power," which, according to Mr. Ruskin, " entirely
developed and entirely unabated, begins with the
' Ulysses' and closes with the ' Temeraire.' " The

MODERN ITALY.
(From the Painting by J. M. W. Turner,

admirers would insist on calling him " the Scottish
Hobbema." It is cruel to give, with even kindly
intentions, a good man a nickname, and Nasmyth
was a good painter, a sincere lover of nature, and
a very earnest student. He was not capable of
doing sublime things, but what he attempted he
'did " excellently well." He had delicacy of touch
and a natural appreciation of the quiet rich beauty
of English landscape. Scotsman as he was, the
ruggedness of Scottish scenery had little attraction
for him. In spite of this weakness in his nature,
we are told that he died sitting up in bed, watching
the passing glories of a thunderstorm ! He and his
father, Alexander, are links in the development of
Scottish art. Mr. Reid possesses three examples

R.A.)

picture is a poet-painter's dream fixed on canvas.
It may be, as Mr. Ruskin himself says, "purely
English in its near foliage;" it may even " be
composed from Tivoli material, enriched and arranged most dexterously, with the look of a rich
arrangement, and not the virtue of the real thing;"
but we know, as we look at it, that only a true artist,
out of his impressions, recollections, and imagination,
could have so vividly conjured up for our delight so
fair a scene. Who wants to bother about topography : " the light that never was on sea or land "
is there ! Look at the splendid distance (Ruskin
declares " the treatment of the masses of mountain
in . . . 'Modern Italy' is wholly without precursorship in a r t " ) ; look at the lovely shimmer of light

MR

JAMES

EEID'S

COLLECTION.

159

everywhere, the skilfully composed masses of build- been engraved by Forster, and there is an etching of
ings, the pellucid, liquid river, with the bathers' it by Guido in the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris.
Sam Bough had not very much in common
figures refracted through its transparent waters,
the tranquil, cloud-flecked sky, and then confess with Eaphael, but in his own way he was a true
that this is indeed the work of a great master. artist, whose work had a distinction and style of its
One of the best criticisms
I ever heard passed on a
picture was in the words
of an old man as he gazed
at " Modern Italy" in last
year's Glasgow Institute exhibition—"Eh man, just see
what white leed and common
paint can dae in the hand
o' genius!" "Modern Italy"
I should add, is in a state
of admirable preservation.
I have not left myself
space to more than mention
some of the other important
pictures in Mr. Eeid's collection—such as " The Sculptor's
Studio" and Mr. Eeid's own
portrait, by Mr. Alma-Tadema;
a flower-piece by Diaz, a delight in colour; and works by
Harlamoff, Herdman, Copley
Fielding, Horatio Maceulloch,
and Mr. Colin Hunter.
Part of Mr. Eeid's collection is in his town house,
Glasgow; part of it at his
country residence, Auchterarder House, Perthshire. The
most important picture at
Auchterarder
is Eaphael's
" La Vierge a la Legende," or
" La Vierge cle Novar." This
beautiful work is believed to
have belonged to Charles L,
and was once in the collection
A PASTOKAL.
of Lord Gwydir. It passed
(From the Painting by Charles Jacque.)
into the Novar collection, then
into the late Earl Dudley's, ana was purchased owrn, especially his water-colour work. At Auchby Mr. Eeid at the Dudley sale in 1892. Some terarder House there is a fine example of his oilauthorities, when it was in Lord Gwydir's possession, painting—" A Blast o' Januar Win'," representing
ascribed it to Giulio Eomano, but the consensus of the cottage in which Burns was born—on the wild
opinion now is that it is by Eaphael himself. The winter night, too, when " the waly boy" first
Holy Child and the infant St. John have between opened his eyes on this world of tears and laughter.
them a scroll (hence " a la legende"), on which
Among the other pictures at Auchterarder House
are seen portions of the words " Ecce Agnus Dei." are Mr. Colin Hunter's well-known " Funeral of the
The carnations are fresh and clear, and the blue Macdonalds;" a very good example of Isabey, a
of the drapery on the Virgin's knees is of charm- cathedral interior, with a procession; an excellent
ing quality and tone. In the background, only portrait of Mr. Eeid himself, by Sir George Eeid,
dimly seen, is St. Joseph leading an ass and carry- P.E.S.A.; and examples of David Eoberts, Erskine
ing a lighted lantern. This celebrated work has Nicol, and Munger.

160

KECENT ILLUSTKATED VOLUMES.
THE COINAGE OF EUROPE*

M

E. CAEEW HAZLITT, so long known to us
voluminous writer and bibliographer,
proves himself, by his last work, to be a numis-

•r-"

§nt

%

*0

•'

\rJ\

i'.jt

{

A^
' <.

i

:

provoked by the inferior style and workmanship
of the Jubilee coinage has not been entirely allayed by the appearance of the issue of last year;
though it has generally been considered that Pistrucci's design of St. George and the Dragon, revived for the occasion on some of the
pieces of both issues, redeemed the otherwise
general want of artistic vigour. Our author,
however, by no means assents to this, and
\
contends, perhaps too strongly, in his Introduction that any other Government in
'
Europe would have dismissed the artist from
its service " for such a wretched abortion."
In his descriptive outline of the coinages
of Europe (p. 446) he illustrates a scudo of
Mantua, which bears on its reverse a very
superior rendering of the same tradition.
According to Mr. Hazlitt, the early
"moneyer" derived his inspiration, in common with
the printer and engraver, from Northern Germany

. 4 WW.,* ZH
SUIUO Ui' MANTUA.

matist of no mean order. He has for many years
quietly and patiently devoted his attention to the
collection and study of Continental types of coins,
and practically gives the result of his labours in
the volume under notice. His book will be valuable
to all those'Who take an interest in. numismatics,
particularly as it contains in a condensed form
very full catalogues of mints, denominations, and
rulers. In these is included a large variety of
facts and details, which are otherwise only to be
found scattered through a whole library of books.
The illustrations are reproduced exclusively from
pieces in the author's collection, and are significative of its extent both as to number and quality.
To the student of art the earlier coins are naturally
more interesting than those degenerate productions

GOLD PIECE OF POUE DUCATS (HILDESHEIM, 1528).

which have during late years issued from most
of the European mints. In this country the outcry
* " The Coinage of the European Continent.' By W. Carew
Hazlitt. With 250 Illustrations. (Swan Sonnenschein and Co.)

BAVARIAN GOLD PIECE (MAXIMILIAN I., 1598).

or Holland. Some of us would be disposed to trace
back such inspiration to more classical sources, but
that there were noteworthy productions in
mediaeval times in those northern parts
is indisputable. Of the Hildesheim mint
we have an illustration of a gold piece
of four ducats of the year 1528, with a
remarkable portrait of Charles V.
The space which Mr. Hazlitt is
enabled to devote to each country is so
small that it would be scarcely fair to
comment on the numerous omissions of
important matter and of sufficient explanations of many of the types and
legends. There are naturally also, in a
work covering so vast a ground, very
many small errors and imperfections which it
would be neither useful nor gracious to point
out in detail. The author does not pretend to
give more than what is amply sufficient to create

RECENT ILLUSTRATED
a healthy impetus to the study of coins, useful
handmaids to history, as they have been termed,

161

VOLUMES.

months ago. This very unconventional periodical—
novel in shape, and altogether admirable in regard
to type, paper, and printing—professes to
be only "humorous and artistic." Humorous
and artistic it is, and, moreover, dramatic at
times, and always fresh and entertaining.
The editors, Mr. Raven Hill and Mr. Arnold
Golsworthy, are the backbones of the work
—the art of the former, the literature of
the latter, and the fun of both, reaching a
high level of excellence. Mr. Raven Hill,
indeed, has enormously improved of late;
and he who began admittedly as an imitator of Charles Keene, has become an

SCHAUTHALER OF ARCHDUKE MAXIMILIAN (1479).

and not less instructive indices of art in its
various stages. No artist can view without
interest and admiration the Bavarian gold
piece of Maximilian I., of the year 1598, with
the effigy of the canonised Emperor Henry
II., or the Schauthaler of the Archduke
Maximilian and his wife Mary of Burgundy,
bearing the date 1479.
The whole subject of the coinages treated
of is a large one, but enough has been said
to show that the author has succeeded in
his effort to popularise the study in which
he is interested. He has been worthily preceded by several Continental writers, such
as Lelewel, Serrure, and Engel, Adrien Blanchet, and others, but hitherto no work in
our own language had covered the same
ground.
H. MONTAGU, F.S.A.
ArAME.
(Drawn by Maurice Greiffenhagen.

TAILPIECE PROM " THE BUTTERFLY.
(Drawn by Edgar Wilson.)

A

CORDIAL welcome is to be accorded to the
first volume of " The Butterfly"
(Walter
Haddon), the birth of which we recorded a few
875

From "The

Butterfly.")

artist of independent talent, whose work is often
brilliant. Similarly, Mr. Golsworthy is proving
himself worthy of much wider recognition than
he has yet obtained
humorist and a versifier.
Chief among the artistic contributors is Mr.
Maurice Greiffenhagen.
His illustrations to Mr.
Graves's " Apame " are masterpieces of their kind.
At once decorative and full of observation, they
reveal the talent the artist has sometimes shown
to the public. Decoration, indeed, gives the note to
the publication, and the embellishment of the pages
has been chiefly undertaken by Mr. Edgar Wilson,
with inexhaustible fancy and invention, and with remarkable success. Mr. Eckhardt is another prolific
contributor, but his work is very unequal, ranging
from excellent to indifferent. The comic verses of
Mr. Godfrey-Turner should alone go far to make the
fortune of the new periodical. It is to be regretted
that no index is provided to " The Butterfly."
S.

162

THE MAGAZINE

T

HE new edition of Sir Edwin Arnold's " Light
of the World," recently issued by Messrs.
Longmans, has a special interest on account of its
illustrations, which are entirely the work of Mr.
Holman Hunt.
In addition to new drawings
made by him specially for this edition, reproduc-

OF ART.

original painting, and the engraving has not lent
itself kindly to an autotype reproduction. Of the
other pictures by the artist the book contains " The
Triumph of the Innocents," "The Finding of the
Saviour in the Temple," reduced from the fine line
engraving, and "The Shadow of the Cross," called

THE IMPORTUNATE NEIGHBOUR.
{Drawn by Holman Hunt.

From, "The Light oj the World.")

tions of four of his most important and best
known pictures accompany the text. There is a
special appropriateness in making Holman Hunt's
"Light of the World" the frontispiece to a poem
of the same title on the same subject by Sir
Edwin Arnold, but it is unfortunate that the
reproduction of this picture—one of the richest
in decorative character, and about the most complete and satisfactory picture ever produced- by
the artist—should be the least satisfactory in the
set. Probably access was not to be had to the

here, for the first time, "The Shadow of Death."
Of the new illustrations the most interesting are
certainly "The Importunate Neighbour," which, by
permission of the publishers, we are able to reproduce, and a very charming study of early morning
sunlight, " Christ and Mary Magdalene;" but all
of them have that special personal quality which
Mr. Holman Hunt always gives to his drawings
in black and white. The book with its new accompaniment should prove very attractive to the
admirers of Sir Edwin Arnold's poem.
E. B.

163

AET IN THE THBATEE: THE DECLINE OF SCENIC AET IN AMEEICA.
BY RICHARD MARSTON.

0 form a fair understanding of the position of
scenic art in America
involves some consideration of the general
development of the fine
arts in the youngest
wealthiest, and
least
conservative country in
the world. It is truly an important subject for consideration, but one in which it is
far more difficult to arrive at
just conclusions than the casual
observer might suppose. A
mere visitor, in a short stay,
upon seeing that there are four thousand theatres
equipped with scenery, often very good indeed,
scattered all over the country to the very outskirts bordering the savage Indian territory; upon
seeing the houses of the wealthy loaded with
masterpieces of foreign art, and decorated in the
most costly manner ; and upon seeing the homes of
even very humble classes tricked out with all
imaginable fancifulness of adornment, might easily
rush into writing a book after a month's experience
(as so many do), and utter the opinion that the land
of the Stars and Stripes was artistic from San Francisco to New York, from New Orleans to Chicago,
and declare it to be a paradise for the painter, the
sculptor, and the decorator. The cynical observer
of the world's great Tom Tiddler's scramble ground
may evolve the opposite extreme out of years of
experience, and say that it is the paradise of the
picture-dealer rather than the painter, and that the
taste for art is nothing more than the purchased
manifestation of wealth, and one form of the ostentatious display so gloried in by those who have
acquired riches by wholesale application of commercial or mechanical abilities, and who are wholly
lacking in the qualities of hereditary learning and
refinement.
Neither of these conclusions would be just, for
even the ignorant patronage of the fine arts by the
wealthy is an unconscious tribute to their value,
and to their influence as factors in an ever-increasing civilisation. Such patronage is an element
which insensibly helps to educate a succeeding
generation to a more refined taste and a sounder
judgment.
There are things below the surface which must
be taken into account; the thing is more complex

than it seems. America, which should take the
lead in scenic art, is not only far behind European
countries, but is degenerating with a rapidity bidding fair to reduce it to the position it was in before
the war. This is a tendency growing out of the
commercial spirit of managers, and the blind persistency with which every other aim than moneygetting is put aside. To the bulk of managers
scenery is scenery, whether good, bad, or indifferent
—mere goods to be bought for masking the stage
walls because the public demands the decoration.
They are bought as goods, literally, from the factories wThich have recently sprung up, and to do the
purchasers impartial justice, it must be admitted
that, with very few exceptions, the managers would
not be competent to tell whether the goods wTere
artistic or not. Notwithstanding the number of fine
productions which have taken place in America, it
is certain that far greater importance is attached
in older countries to the artistic completeness of
a play, and works are judged in accordance with
that aim. The players must suit their parts, their
elocution and their action must be consistent,
scenery must be accurate, and costumes appropriate. European audiences demand entireties; you
cannot put them off with a three-legged race-horse.
He must have four, though he may not carry off
the prize. The American idea is well expressed
by the recent observation of one of the bestknown and most successful operatic managers in
the country, who is usually content, even in NewT
York, with " fake " scenery : " To h—11 with the
scenery if the opera goes !" He only gave expression to the feeling which hundreds of other
managers act upon in silence.
Here in a nutshell is the sentiment which has
brought about the destructive position of cheapness being the first question, artistic quality quite
secondary, in providing scenery for theatres. This
spirit has reached quarters which might be supposed far above it. Only a season or two ago a
management which, perhaps, above all in the Union
has been indebted to scenery for success, and been
most celebrated for it, having occasion to get a
scene painted outside the theatre staff by contract,
was seeking the artist who would do it " cheapest,"
until reminded that what the prestige of the house
required was the best work obtainable.
What is the present result ? What will be the
future consequence ? The present result is the
establishment of scenery factories conducted on
the same principles as tea-board workshops. The

164

THE MAGAZINE

materials are bought wholesale, which is an item
to the prejudice of the competing individual artist.
Cheap colours are used instead of expensive ones, to
the serious prejudice of artistic results. Take, for
example, only three colours out of the palette—
indigo, cobalt, and maroon lake, which cost respectively 60, 80, and 160 cents per pound. In the
factories celestial blue, Vandyke brown, and rosepink, at 18 to 25 cents per pound, have to do duty
for them. Now, for artistic effects especially, in
exterior subjects there are probably no three colours
more important and more indispensable to the scenic
palette than cobalt, indigo, and maroon lake. They
have certain qualities for which there are no known
substitutes, and no matter how skilful the hand may
be which uses the substitutes, the work must be of
an inferior grade.
A third element of prejudicial import exercised
by the factory system is the cessation of new design.
The proprietor gets hold of a number of stencil
patterns and designs, often by the inexpensive
process of copying from the work of artists of
established repute; all the novelty of design that
then takes place is to vary the combinations of those
patterns. The scenery manufacturer saves the
trouble and expense of getting new designs; the
genuine artist must invent on every occasion with
mental effort and with expenditure of time. The
factory employs, at cheap rates, boys who are just
experienced enough to execute mechanical copying;
the artist must devote personal labour to the perfecting of his original invention. But where will
the art be when the artist has been undercut out
of the profession and the manufacturer and his boys
have run through the combination of designs he
possesses ? As it is, even in exterior work, the same
designs are repeated. It is a fact that in one
factory the same picture was reproduced three times
in one day to be shipped to different parts of the
country. The factory to which I allude has a
repertory of, say, two dozen drapery drop-curtain
designs with centres for a landscape, and, say, two
dozen landscapes to go in the centre.
The immediate result most disastrous to the
cause of art is that the artist cannot compete in
price with the mechanical reproducer. Only recently
an artist in New York was asked to give an estimate
for a travelling company's stock, the manager to
purchase the canvas. When the quantity of canvas
was named the manager went to the linen importer.
He returned to the artist with the exclamation,
" Why, Messrs. So-and-So offer to supply the whole
scenery painted, for less money than the canvas will
cost here." Where is art in such an unequal strife ?
What is the future consequence ? Simple
enough. The best artistic talent of the nation will

OF ART.

leave either the scenic profession or the country,
and there will be no prizes in it to tempt new
comers. Then, when too late, it will dawn upon
managers that they have only unoriginal tea-board
work to rely on, and for important pieces artists
will have to be imported at enormous expense from
Europe to fill up the gap.
For in a rising country the scene-painter cannot
be altogether dispensed with; he is a necessary
adjunct to the progress of the drama. The scenepainter is like a doctor; he is called in either to
build up the constitution of a robust drama or to
save a weak one from sudden death. It is admitted
that, in the case of a poor play, the more attractive
the scenic illustrations the better the chance of
success, and, therefore, in the case of a play owing
its prosperity to its being a picture gallery, there
can be manifestly no conventional limit to the
artistic excellence which may be put in it. But it
is said that when a play is good and the acting good,
the scenic interpretation may be a mere background.
The inconsistency of the proposition is best disposed
of by reductio ad absurdam. If the scene-painter's
function be that of showing the natural circumstances of time and place of a play with as much
accuracy and beauty as will at once explain and
adorn its action, his work must be done according to those certain rules of drawing, perspective,
and laws of colour which constitute the basis of
art and which cannot be violated. The painters
who aim at no higher work than decoration are
the merest frescoers, and the managers who provide no more ideal mounting have themselves no
other ideal in the consideration of art than as a
business item in the profit-and-loss account. The
overwhelming influence of the commercial spirit is
crushing scenic art out of the theatre and fostering
scenery factories, the products of which will in turn
be superseded by the use of wall-paper. The public
taste, however, has some effect in counteracting the
penny-wise economies of the box office, and is even
unreasonable enough at times to demand more than
the most skilled artist can supply.
Great injustice is often done by critics, who at
times condemn the incompleteness of scenic work
without knowing to what extent the artist is fettered
by the question of expense. Artists are frequently at
a great disadvantage in this respect. Canvas, lumber, paint and labour cost money, and managerial
economies come in at that point. The enormous
size of more important stages often renders the
question of cost very serious. " Thus far shalt thou
go and no farther," is the inexorable edict of the
treasury, and the artist is then limited in very deed.
His ideas may have been replete with glory, but
his work must be stinted for want of materials.

THE DECLINE

OF SCENIC ART IN AMERICA.

The scene-painter, too, is at a disadvantage, from
the ephemeral nature of his work; no matter what
thought he brings to bear upon a scene (and there
are some men whose work is as worthy of preservation as that of Claude, among whom may be named
Henry Hoyt in America,Telbin, Ryan, Hawes Craven,
and the late W. R, Beverly in England, Lavastre
and Robecchi in Erance), the artist may have his
finest work primed out in a few weeks if the piece
is not successful, while the other alternative is as

165

must shrug his shoulders at the injustice done to
his profession and reflect that scenic art will be
neglected until its high order be recognised. He
must smile and wait, in the spirit of Oliver
Wendell Holmes:
" Art is wondrous long ;
Yet to the wise its paths are ever fair,
And patience smiles, though genius may despair."

He cannot, however, help the pessimist forebodings
which strike all acquainted with the subject, that

BYZANTINE INTEEIOE FOB ACT II. OP

FATINITZA.

(From the Model designed by li. Marston.)

bad; if the play is a hit, the dirty fingers of the
" grips," quickly take off all the freshness.
Another of the disadvantages under which artists
labour is the abominable disregard of their requirements shown by managers and architects. Any
cellar, cockloft, or back wall does for the artist.
One of the most important and historic theatres in
New York has a paint-bridge sixty-five feet from
the ground, with no protection but the artist's own
vigilance against fatal falls, while it is approached
by a dark staircase of seventy steps, so intricately
twisted that it is unsafe for strangers. The paintframes are so badly hung that they require two men
to work them. The paint-room of the Metropolitan
Opera House, New York, though large and well
equipped, has its light coming in from a skylight
some sixty feet overhead, a great stumbling-block to
good work.
The scenic artist must remain philosophic. He

the encouragement by managers of cut-rate cheap
scenery mills is bringing artists to the condition referred to by an old English poet:
" Yet when the task is done, he finds his pains
Sought but to fill his belly with his brains.
Is this the guerdon due to liberal arts—
T' admire the head, and then to starve the parts ?"

The wondrous capabilities of distemper-painting
are so great, that if it were better understood by the
general public; if there were a school of scenic art
which should have a definite standard; if it were
raised to its proper dignity, we should probably have
heroic work rise up amongst us. It can hardly be
doubted that if scenic painting had been in vogue in
the time of Michelangelo, that spirit of gigantic conceptions would have advanced the cause of the drama
by a hundred years. The conditions of a built-up
picture seen through an opening, as on the modern
stage, admit of such occult application of perspective

166

THE MAGAZINE

that, given a certain height and depth, most subjects, however vast, can have an adequate feeling
of their vastness imparted to the scene. More
heroic work would be shown if there were more
painters willing to dare adverse criticism for the
sake of propounding artistic principles and more
managers broad enough to endorse their, efforts.
The possibilities of giving the feeling of vast-

OF

ART.

imaginary standard of great height is created, from
which all the rest of the scene, when modelled in
true perspective proportion, takes the effect of the
full natural size. In this way effects of magnitude
grand beyond conception may be obtained, but the
preparation of the mere model of such a scene may
easily consume a week of the most arduous labours,
in the calculation of the precise heights, sizes, and

MOORISH INTERIOR FOR ACT III. OF

FATINITZA.

{From the Model designed by Richard Marston.)

ness to scenes upon stages seen through an opening
depend upon the scientific application of problems
of perspective which are beyond the reach of the
factory artist. Even presuming that the cheapworking and inexperienced factory artist has a
profound knowledge of perspective—a somewhat
strained presumption—his prices preclude his being
able to give the time necessary to make accurate
perspective models, such as those from which the
illustrations to this paper are taken. One very
grand effect of height and space may be given, say,
in the representation of such a scene as an Egyptian
interior for Antony and Cleopatra. If the front
wings representing columns or architecture be
painted the full actual size of the original and
carried up out of sight under the proscenium, an

positions upon the ground plan. Now, let us consider how many out of the four thousand managers
of America have the moral courage to pay an artist
a week's salary for a preliminary model. It is difficult to recall more than four, namely, A. M. Palmer,
Augustine Daly, Eudolph Aronson, and Edmund
Stanton, the director of the Metropolitan Opera
House, and these men are not typical of the average
American manager, but stand out in contradistinction from the class by reason of their culture, their
artistic feeling, their broad views, and their statesmanlike powers of administration, which have caused
their names to be known in Europe almost as
familiarly as in the United States. A scene into
which perspective enters as an integral part of the
design must be modelled. It is a matter of pure

THE DECLINE OF SCENIC AET I N AMEEICA.

167

mathematics and cannot be accomplished by any stage instead of the centre, the apparent depth of
rule of thumb—the perspective of the ground plan the stage will be the hypothenuse of a rectangle
must accord with that of the heights and dimensions, instead of the side. This is shown clearly in the
POINT

OP SIGHT.

GROUND PLAN OF STAGE, PALMER'S THEATRE, NEW YORK.

Any guess work would defeat the intention. In the
shallow, ill-contrived stages of the bulk of American
theatres the easy-going old-fashioned way of setting

view of the Port of Cyprus when compared with its
ground plan. The stage of Palmer's Theatre, New
York, is only 33 feet deep, yet the line upon the

PORT OP CYPRUS (OTHELLO, ACT I I . ) .
{From the Model for a Scene by Richard Marston.

Designed for Salvini's Production of the Play in New York.)

scenes at right-angles to the curtain line naturally
shows the shallowness to the spectator. Now, by
placing the point of sight to the left or right of the

ground plan which represents the line of perspective retirement is 44 feet, and it is along that line
that the eye of the spectator is naturally carried.

168

THE MAGAZINE

Effects of this kind are greatly heightened when a
double perspective occurs, as in the Byzantine Palace
interior, where it will be seen that the chamber seen
beyond the steps crosses the remainder of the scene
at right angles, having, therefore, a second set of
retiring lines occupying the place of a hypothenuse,
and giving the spectator a second apparent line of
increased distance on the opposite side of the stage.
It would need a volume only to hint at what can be
done wTith problems of this character; but let me
ask, what high-class artist can afford to compete
such work against the meretricious rule of thumb
turned out by the factory at a price less than the
artist can begin to buy the canvas for. There are
no new men of genius entering the profession, for
the simple reason that it no longer offers any adequate
reward. The men who can do the finest work find
more thanks and profit in other fields; for instance,
the celebrated Matt Morgan found it more to the
purpose to design lithographic bill posters than to
paint scenery.
The removal of scenic painting from the sphere
of art to that of manufacture is demoralising to the
individual artist who follows it. There is a striking
instance of this in New York City at the present
moment.
A well-known artist, of pronounced
ability while he was in charge of a theatre upon
a salary, always produced work which was ad-

OF AET.

mired, and built himself a wide reputation. He has
recently started a factory in this city, from which
he supplies a very large amount of work. The
quantity of work undertaken precludes all possibility of any but the smallest percentage of it
bearing the artist's name being actually executed
by him. The consequence is that the work of his
factory has never yet approached his own standard
of excellence.
The profession in America is indebted to Henry
Irving for a partial arrest of the downward progress. The beautiful work of Hawes Craven and
other fine artists awakened attention to the advanced
views and practice of Irving, who must be regarded
as the great exponent of the principle of completeness in mise-en-scme. Some American managers did
perceive that handsome appointments meant increased profits, but up to the present nobody has
had the financial courage to follow the brilliant
manager of the Lyceum. It may be that a reaction
will take place. The drama in America is receiving
the very serious attention of the most cultivated
literary men, and a taste for luxury grows apace
among the classes who most patronise the theatre,
and the influences of the splendid scenery brought
over from England from time to time by such companies as Irving's, Kendal's, and Wilson Barrett's must
be beneficial. At present the pathway is all downhill.

" PONT-Y-GAKTH."
AN ORIGINAL ETCHING BY DAVID LAW.

0 those who only casually concern themselves with the
affairs of art—and they are
many—the kingdom of the
etcher appears but a limited
province, since of all forms
of art it is probably etching which is t h e most
specialised in its appeal,
and which demands the most culture and refinement
in those who appreciate its subtleties. But the few
who cross its confines with studious and observant
eyes know that it is the country of almost infinite
variety, and that the range and scope of the needle
are no narrower than those of the brush. There
are as many theories, styles, techniques, and schools
amongst the etchers as amongst the painters ; and
the war of clashing ideas is conducted with at least
as much intensity as in the more popular fields of

art. There are those who claim that the work of an
etcher, whether dealing with figures or landscapes,
should be a statement of the irreducible minimum
necessary to convey to the initiated the significance
and charm of the subject depicted, and who thus
give an all-paramount value to the beauty, force, and
suggestiveness of pure line. The methods of Mr.
David Law produce much the effect of mezzotint,
and at times even of washes in sepia or Indian ink.
The etching, which accompanies this part, is an exceedingly characteristic plate. Mr. Law is perhaps
happiest in his own land, in the home of Burns;
but next in his affections to Scotland comes the
country of the bards. In " Pont-y-Garth," which
is admirable in the simplicity and strength of its
composition, and excellent in its tonality and atmospheric effect, the artist makes us feel the underlying picturesque tenderness of nature even in the
presence of wild and barren surroundings.
E. J.-S.

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CHILD
^FIFTEEN.
o

ASMINE
of girlhood,
thou
whose
star—
Unlike those crystals poised afar—•
Jtf Hangs near, as thou art, sweet and pure
In household foliage, warm, demure ;
Take this dusk heart beneath thy sway I
Bend, graceful Jasmine,
Thy trumpet-note

of perfume

Across the path
Too dry would

bend my way !

by which

blow

I go.

be the dust, too harsh

The herbage of the holt and

marsh,

Were there no bowers, the dewy
Of homely-scented

stars like

shrine

thine.

Then let me by thine innocence
Be weaned from too-sagacious sense ;
Let him on whom thy flower hath smiled
Grow milkier-hearted
than a child.
(Poem by Edmund Gasse. Drawing by Herbert J. Draper.)
876

A YOUNG MALAYAN TIGER.
{From the Sketch Model by J. M. Swan,

AM.A.)

JOHN MACALLAN SWAN, A.E.A.
BY COSMO MONKHOUSE.

I

X the Memorial Catalogue of the Loan Collection of French and Dutch pictures exhibited
at Edinburgh in 1886—a volume remarkable alike
for the vigour of Mr. W. E. Henley's text and
the beauty of Mr. Hole's etchings—will be found
(in twelve lines) the longest and most authentic
biography of Mr. John Macallan Swan that has,
I believe, been published down to this year. I t is
not my intention to add to this most admirable—
most succinct—account, but I would draw attention
to two striking facts in connection with it which,
at first sight, would appear somewhat contradictory:
(1) Mr. Swan is placed among French artists; (2)
he. is said to have been born at Old Brentford in
1847. Moreover, we are told that he commenced his
art-education at the Worcester School of Art, that
he wTas a pupil of Mr. Sparkes at Lambeth, and
afterwards a student at the Eoyal Academy. So
far he was clearly English. But in 1874 he went
to Paris. It was then, I presume, that the supposed
transformation began. Four or five years' painting
under Gerome, followed by study with the sculptor
Fr^miet, the painters Bastien-Lepage, Henecker,
and last, not least, Dagnan-Bouveret, made him
perhaps as French as an Englishman could well be
—about as much as Claude was Italian. What
reputation he earned during these years was on

the other side of the Channel. He had gained an
Honourable Mention at the Salon of 1885, and had
been for four years a member of the Dutch WaterColour Society, before he made his mark at the
Academy by "The Prodigal Son" of 1889.
That mark was a very distinct one. The Eoyal
Academy, as Trustees of the Chantrey Fund, have
never had a choice of theirs more unanimously
approved by both critics and public than ' that
which fell upon this picture of " The Prodigal Son;"
and they have now recognised his genius in the
most unmistakable manner by electing him an
Associate of their own body. So though "lost to
sight" and not even " dear to memory," in his
native land, during the period when most painters
are trying hard to win the appreciation of their
fellow-countrymen, Mr. Swan has no reason to
regret his unusual course. In 1889 he stepped
into favour at once with a wide circle as a
painter, with a small but choice one as a
sculptor. The statuette of a " Young Malayan
Tiger" exhibited the same year was, like the
picture, a work not so much of promise as accomplishment. The truth of the animal's construction was not more apparent than the fine style
of its design, in which an almost Egyptian severity
was combined with the grace and freedom of life.

THE MAGAZINE
Though these works were the first of his which
attracted much attention in England, it must not
be supposed that the year 1889 was the first in
which Mr. Swan contributed to the Royal Academy's
exhibitions ; but he had not exhibited for four years,
and his works previously shown at Burlington House
amounted to four only—one in each of the years
1878, 1879, 1882, and 1884. They were named
" Dante and the Leopard," " A Fugitive," " A
Shepherd Boy," and " Poached Eggs" respectively.

OF ART.

they exist in the world of fancy. It is doubtful
whether in Mr. Swan's case the imagination is not
exercised as strongly in the one class of subject
as the other. To take the Polar bears from the
Jardin des Plantes and make us see them swimming
among the Arctic ice blocks, to show us the panthers
of the Zoological Gardens watching antelopes from
African sandhills, or to depict a South American
jaguar defending its young from the jaws of a
cayman in a swamp of mangroves, is to " treat

STUDY FOE "LIONESS DEPENDING HER CUBS.;
(By J. M. Swan,

If to these be added the " Piping Fisher Boy "
and the " Lioness Defending Her Cubs" of 1890,
the " African Panthers " of 1891, and the " Thirst"
and " Lions Drinking—Sunset" of 1892, the list
of his pictures exhibited at the Royal Academy
will be complete; and if the further addition be
made of the two small bronzes of the same year,
" African Panther " and " Lioness Drinking " (Royal
Academy), the large picture of " Maternity" (a
lioness suckling her cubs) at the Grosvenor in
1890, the portrait of Mrs. Ian Hamilton at the
New Gallery in 1891, and the " Storm Siren" at
the same place the year before last, we shall
pretty well exhaust the works of the artist that
are well known to the English public; but some
will remember, as their first introduction to Mr.
Swan, a photogravure of a picture of "Orpheus"
fascinating some long thin lions with his music,
after a picture too unlike what they had seen
before not to fix itself in their memory.
If we except the portrait, the pictures and
statuettes enumerated belong evidently to two
distinct classes, both poetical, but one treating of
animals as they exist in nature, and the other as

A.R.A.)

animals as they exist in nature," but it is a very
different task from taking the portraits of these
animals through the bars -of a cage. But even in
portrait-taking there is imagination, and the mere
sketches which Mr. Swan makes almost daily at
the Zoological Gardens are instinct with a life and
motion which is far from prose.
Of the masterly quality of these sketches there
can be but one opinion. Whether they are made
with black chalk on grey-brown paper, as is the
artist's usual custom, or whether with two or three
coloured chalks, or pastels, on dark-blue paper,
which is also a frequent habit, the swift and certain
power of indicating exactly what he aims at, and
the skill in the use of material so as to get every
possible advantage from the tone and colour and
texture of the paper, are alike remarkable. The
charge, too truly brought against many modern
artists, of carelessness in the preparation of their
compositions, of neglect of accurate draughtsmanship and preliminary studies, of contempt of the
construction of things provided the surface appearance of them is fairly suggested, cannot be
brought against Mr. Swan. His drawings at the

LIONESS

DEFENDING

HER

CUBS.

{From, the Painting by J. M. Swan, A.R.A.

174

THE MAGAZINE

OF ART.

vision of a more than usually ample meal, it is
hard to assert with anything approaching to conviction.
Sketches like Mr. Swan's are often so fresh
and beautiful in themselves, so alive with the
artist's own life, that
they produce a vivid
were numerous, some
sensation of pleasure
of them doubtless not
which is seldom comonly useful for this
municated by more
particular picture.
elaborated design. But
Among them are studies
until what has hitherto
of construction, to be
been honoured CIS Hi
utilised also for statu" picture "—the realisaettes, studies of gesture
tion of a conception
and movement from
organised in the artist's
different points of view
mind—ceases to charm
which will possibly
the human soul, they
serve as suggestions for
must be regarded as
other compositions; but
f r a g m e n t s —brilliant,
besides these there are
captivating,
perhaps,
some of special beauty
but yet as only aids
for the maculation of
to the artist in working
STUDY OF A L I O N E S S
t h e a n i m a l s when
out something greater
(By J. M. Swan, A.R.A.)
crouching and seen
and more complete.
from behind, as in the
In any case, when a picture has justified its existence,
picture. In these drawings we see the artist's mind the sketches and studies which have been like bricks
and fingers in motion, the sculptor, as well as the in its building will always have a special interest, if
painter, in full activity, as he records his impressions for no other reason, for the light they throw on the
with a swiftness only to be attained by years of process of the artist's thought. By means of our
slower though not less careful labour. If there is illustrations some notion can be gathered of the
one quality which is the most remarkable in these genesis of one of Mr. Swan's more important comsketches it is their vitality, their movement, and in positions, the " Lioness Defending Her Cubs." Of
this they reflect the spirit and aim of the artist him- the studies made for it we give two of the head of
self. While appreciating the monumental dignity, a lioness, one in repose, the other in anger, and
and even rigidity, of sculpture designed for archi- the sketch of the whole picture as at first contectural "decoration, and seeking the quality of repose ceived by the artist.
even in the most animated work, there must be spirit
As an animal painter Mr. Swan is alone at the
even in convention, and life beneath the skin of
present time in the British school. Of all British
the stillest creature, or his work fails to satisfy
painters it is James Ward who most nearly aphis sense of what is vital in art.
proaches him in sentiment—or in the absence of
To study the motion of animals one must oneself
it. It is the animal with which he is concerned,
be still; to note their excitability needs an endless
not with its human affinities. That attractive vein
stock of patience—stillness and patience in watching,
of sentiment so fancifully, so humorously, and so
but swiftness and passion in taking advantage
poetically worked by Sir Edwin Landseer, through
of a sudden action or momentary return to the
which he drew the smiles and tears of the public
desired position. To study animals at the Zoo
by an appeal as sure as though his subjects were
as Mr. Swan does, an artist must have qualities
men and women, Mr. Swan leaves severely alone.
akin to those of a sportsman; he must wait as
He does not wish to draw either our smiles or
quietly as the deerstalker, and take his shots with
our tears, but to make us admire the marvellous
the pencil almost as rapidly as if it were a rifle.
structure, the fine action, the essential character of
The result is, indeed, of less importance to the the beast. His interest in him is mainly artistic—
creatures, and they regard Mr. Swan's operations realistic if you please to call it so—but the art and
without concern. With some of them, notably with the realism of it are inspired by a sense of the
two of the tigers, he appears to have established wonder and beauty of subtle and complicated organrelations amounting to interest; but whether this isations, miracles of design and workmanship, each
interest is of a friendly character, or based on a

Zoo alone fill drawers and portfolios by the dozen,
and no animal (it might be said no limb of any
animal) introduced into any of his pictures has not
been the subject of sedulous attention. For the
not very large picture of the " African Panthers"
of 1891 the studies

JOHN

MACALLAN

moved with its separate life, and perfectly adapted
to its own end. This view of the brute, as a being
interesting and worthy of all the most searching
and reverent study for its own sake, is essentially
" modern;" it is as remote from the art of Eubens
and Snyders on the one hand as from that of
Landseer and his followers on the other ; it delights
neither in presenting animals as " savage monsters "
nor as " fellow-creatures," but yet as creatures
" fearfully and wonderfully made" almost as ourselves, and by the same hand. Such a simple,
unsophisticated view of the animal is not only
consistent with the highest poetry, but is itself
highly poetical, and invests creation with a romance
and a mysticism of the purest kind.
But if Mr. Swan has had few forerunners in
England it cannot be said that he has had none
elsewhere. The influence of Barye and Fremiet
is evident enough in his work—of Barye, when
grandeur of form and dignity of movement are the
aim; of Fremiet, in its elegance and preference for
slender types. There is
something of both of these
artists in the statuettes of
the year before last—in the
lithe and sinuous panther,
the very embodiment of
stealth
and
suppressed
agility, and in the massive
lion assuaging his thirst;
but it is only that something which all artists must
retain of their master's
example, and the conception, and to a great extent
the style also, are his own.
In life and movement, in
the combined tensity and
elasticity of the muscles,
there are few, if any, works
of the kind which excel
the panther; but the lion
was in some respects finer,
though its execution did
not take as many days as
STUDY OF
the panther took months.

SWAN,

A.E.A.

175

he does not distinguish very clearly the essential
qualities of both methods of artistic expression. As
a painter his training has been thorough, and he
has made so many experiments on his own account
that there are few artists more conversant with all
the tricks and subtleties of technique. His feeling
for colour, and his choice of general schemes and
individual tints, are more continental than English.
His greys especially are French or Dutch greys,
somewhat starchy when bluish, somewhat clayey
when inclined to yellow; but most of his exhibited
works have been in a low key, and, with the exception of his portrait of Mrs. Ian Hamilton, give
little indication of those rare gifts
colourist
which he undoubtedly possesses.
But in colour, as it may be said in most other
matters, Mr. Swan has not yet shown his full
power. He does not hurry the development either
of his pictures or himself. Yet there was never
an artist more wholly devoted to this development,
though he seems to leave, it so completely to nature,
undisturbed by any such
worldly considerations as
the lapse of time and the
policy of keeping himself
in evidence before the
public. His studio and its
contents are thoroughly
characteristic of the man
who is never idle, and yet
seems quite indifferent to
the degree of progress he
is making. They provide
an atmosphere in which
his genius can breathe and
grow, and are one more
proof that the conditions
necessary to put in motion
the mental faculties of an
artist differ greatly with his
idiosyncrasy. If he be an
artist with the pen, he may,
like Balzac, prefer a bare
room with nothing to distract ; or, like Mr. Hall
A LIONESS
Caine, seek some solitude
(By J. M. Swan, A.R.A.)
It is difficult to say
where not even the society
whether Mr. Swan's preference is for painting or of friends may disturb the operations of the creative
sculpture. If you look inside his cupboards and see faculty. Others are less dependent on their surthe number of wax sketches of various animals, from roundings, and can write anywhere, even in a room
cats to kangaroos, you would fancy sculpture was his full of children and visitors. Painters differ also in
favourite art; but in his studio the canvases on easel this respect. To some the entourage is a matter of
and against the wall in all states of progress produce great moment. Some studios are almost as bare as
a different impression. He is as expert at one branch Balzac's writing-room, some as crowded as Leigh
of the art as at the other, and if his sculpture shows Hunt's study. In some you will find, perhaps, a
a leaning to the picturesque, it cannot be said that few casts and sketches only; in others enough

176

THE MAGAZINE

Japanese screens, Persian carpets, mediaeval armour,
and richly coloured pottery to set up a "shop in
Wardour Street.
It depends, of course, partly on the amount of
suggestiveness which a temperament requires to
facilitate the operations of his artistic faculty,
partly on the kind of suggestiveness which he finds
most fertilising. In Mr. Swan's case there is an
evident desire to be surrounded by objects which
reach a high standard of art—things which are
" fine " in colour, or form, or workmanship. The
heterogeneous collection of beautiful items in his
studio appears to have been gathered rather for
study than for imitation ; to set a standard at which
to aim rather than to stimulate the imagination;
to discover principles more than to suggest effects.
It is a collection formed by a man who is still
and will ever remain a student, but is cultivating
the growth of his own faculty by absorbing whatever he finds most nourishing to it. Of course,
the sculptor of animals, the pupil of Eremiet, has
fine bronzes by his master and by Barye, but he
has also choice specimens of Japanese and Chinese
metalwork, and in that little box on the mantelpiece
you will find a little seal on which an Egyptian
artist has incised a cobra with a style so fine and
a hand so unerring as to excite more wonder and
admiration than it is easy to express without
seeming to exaggerate.
Mr. Swan's studio is in some respects more like
a laboratory than a studio. Something is, so to
speak, " going on " in every corner of it. Here, a
statuette of Orpheus, roughly set up, giving the
just poise and proportion of the figure, with a tentative action of the arm; there, a wax panther's
head modelled, for structure only, from a skeleton;
there another, experimental in its planes. On a
chair is the last shot, in coloured chalks, at a tiger
showing his teeth, and against the wall a study of
a boy for a projected picture, in which the artist
with much trouble has solved some problem in
colour: say of brown flesh in the sun, relieved

OE AET.

against aerial blue. With their faces to the wall
stand some dozen or more pictures in different
stages of completion. Sirens upon sands, yellow
jaguars in jungles of tropical luxuriance, a python
whose innumerable coils and brilliant scales has
just been studied at the Zoo from a serpent which
has recently cast his skin; a life-size sketch of
Elisha rushing to reanimate the widow's son—all
waiting for the moment of leisure, or inspiration,
to be forwarded a stage towards completion, or to
be ruthlessly painted out to make way for a
brighter (or what seems at the moment to the
artist a brighter) conception. Truly a laboratory
rather than a studio, though the "chemicals" which
work the changes are not kept in stoppered bottles,
but in the artist's brain.
"Without hurry, without rest" would seem to
be the motto of Mr. Swan. The signs of mental
activity in varying directions are a little bewildering, but the artist stands undisturbed in the midst,
without a trace of anxiety or confusion. It does
not seem to matter to him how many irons he has
in the fire; they are all getting hot and will be
ready for use when wanted. Some will be wanted
to-day, some next week, some never, perhaps.
What does it matter ? There is life, there is movement, sufficient or more than sufficient for the day.
The mere pleasure of experiment, of struggle, of
victory (when it comes), is enough. The question of
time seems to enter not into his calculations. He
works not only for posterity, but as if he were to
be one of them. He will spend months over some
small figure, or finish off another in a few days. It
is all equal so long as he masters his difficulties, so
long as he works under direct impulse of his own
mind, so long as he makes progress, however slowly,
in the path of his development. Admirers may
be impatient and friends may shake their heads,
but it is all of no use: he will paddle his own
canoe, and at his own pace—which, if you please,
is swift enough at times, and has already enabled
him to distance most of his contemporaries.

THIRST.
(From the Painting by J. M. Swan, A.R.A.~)

LA

VIERGE

A LA

LEGENDE.

(From the Painting by Raphael, in the Collection of James Reid, Esq., Glasgow. Engraved by A. Knesing.

See p. 159.)

177
THE DECOBATION OF ST. PAUL'S.
have
than one occasion drawn atWE tentiononto moredecoration of St. Paul's, which
the

eight spandrels between the arches, just beneath
the Whispering Gallery, should first be decorated,

has just proceeded to its end
with the approval of .
everyone at all interested in the embellishment
and completion of our Metropolitan Cathedral. We do not,
for the moment, refer to the eastern
portion of the fabric, which by some
strange fate is entirely in the hands
of the cathedral authorities, and was a
year or two ago given over to its reredos
and other internal "improvements." The
dome and the western part of the church
are, so to speak, held in trust for the nation,
on whose behalf the beautifying of

and suitable
s u b j e c t s were
found in four of the
.£/' Prophets and four Evang e l i s t s . Of course t h e
difficulty has been that the
form of the spandrel lends itself
so ill to decoration—a difficulty not
unknown to any artist, however
great, and from which few, indeed,
ive entirely escaped. In the case of
St. Paul's, the authorities were well
advised in selecting quite the best artists
that England has produced for the execution
of the work. To the late Alfred Stevens were
confided the four Prophets; and
,
,
,
,
(Designed by G. F. Watts, R.A
though he did not live to complete
the space beneath the dome—the
Drawn by w. E. F. Britten.)
the work, his designs were happily
chief feature in the building—has
Mr. Watts, who divides with Mr. W.
lately been intelligently carried out. Since Sir available.
J. Thoriihill's days fitful attempts have been made E. F. Britten the honour of the work in respect

,.-£$U

to develop
"^1
to the four
a s c h e m e , and
f'
Evangelists, has
also shown his bigseveral artists of high
ness of conception in
repute have prepared
his St. Matthew and St.
designs more or less fitted
John, leaving to the younger
for the purpose. Sir Frederic
painter St. Mark and St. Luke.
Leighton's fine design of "And
The wise decision was come to
the Sea gave up the Dead which
not to have the paintings in the
were in it"—which is included in
form of frescoes, but reproduced in
Mr. Henry Tate's gift to the nation—
glass mosaic, and with the happiest rewas prepared for one of the sections
sult. The most casual observer can judge
of the dome itself, but it was hardly on
for himself how much better the colours
sufficiently large a scale to be amply and
can be seen, and how much more brilliantly
fully effective. Mr. Poynter, too, has equally
the designs stand out and fill their places
exercised his pencil in the same direction. It
than any other medium—tempera
was, however, decided, and manifestly With much fitness, that the (Designed and Drawn E. F. Britten.) colour or oil—could do.
by W.
877

178

THE MAGAZINE

Mr. Britten is an artist who yields to none in
England for his fine sense of decoration, and his

OF AET.

work is divided up among half a dozen artists.
Challenged at once whether he would be willing

grace and
to u n d e r dignity of contake ,any such
ception ; but he is of
enterprise himself, he
such a mood that his
partially assented ; and
name and his personality
to Mr. Bodley's assurance
are rarely obtruded upon the
that if he would prepare a set
public. His selection by th
of designs he would lay them
recommendation of the hi^
before the cathedral authorities, he
authorities to superintend the
responded in due course with the
isation of Alfred Stevens' ai
production of the necessary series of
Watts' designs, as well as for
a wings. These were duly discussed
tribution of his own, may be put down
by the powers in conjunction with the
as one of the satisfactory steps in connecartist, when the latter undertook the work,
tion with this long-delayed work. It seems
which, it was understood, would occupy a
that the indifference in respect to the emterm of years, at an annual sum which we
bellishment of St. Paul's according
do not at present feel justified
to the intention of the architect, (Designed and Drawn by w. K F. Britten.) in announcing. We may, at least,
which has reigned so profoundly in
say that in undertaking this work
London hitherto, has at length ceased to exist, now Mr. Eichmond has shown himself willing to sacrifice
that " the man and the hour " are here, and that those the major part of his income for the public good.
in office have actually been able to appreciate the fact. Certain of the drawings themselves were recently
To the work in the choir, now proceeding under exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition; but
the hand of Mr. Eichmond, A.E.A., we hope soon it is only fair to say that they give little idea of

**o.
^fc

the vigour
to be able
and opulent richto call attention.
ness of the designs
Particular
interest
as - they appear from the
attaches to the circum
scaffolding in the cathedral
stances under which it was
itself.. The painter, it may
undertaken.
It originated,
be ' added—who has here such
we believe, in a chance, con
an opportunity for immortality as
versation between Mr.- Eichmond
has: fallen to the lot of few artists
and Mr. Bodley, the architect to
in England—with sound faith in the
the cathedral, in the course of which
genius and the artistic feeling and ability
the former maintained that the choir
of the British workman, has employed
should be decorated by a single hand
English labour, as far as possible, in preferin a single decorative scheme, so as to
W ence to Italian, i n the assistance he has reobtain unity of conception and harmony of
quired for the translation of his designs into
colour, to which might perchance be added
the glass mosaic which is now being
a breadth of handling which can
.
by G. F.
hardly be looked for when a single
Drawn by W. E. Watts R.A.
F.BHtten.)
fixed
to the vault of the choir. S.

179

OUE ILLUSTEATED NOTE-BOOK.

T

HE incidents relating to the election of five
Associates of the Koyal Academy are referred
to fully in our Chronicle of the month's ar,t. We
have pleasure in giving portraits of three of the
latest successful candidates
for academical honours on
this page. A notice, with
portrait, of Mr. Arthur

in winning his Associateship; indeed, in the last
election, when the final choice fell upon Mr. J. W.
North, he it was who came in second", thus proving
the high' position he has held in the estimation of the
academic body. Mr. Bramley
received his early art training
from Mr.Tay lor,the South Kensington art-master at Lincoln,

JOHN MACALLAN SWAN, A.B.A.
(From a Photograph by 0. Allen Robinson,
. Hawick, N.B.)

(From a Photograph by Walery, Regent
Street.)

Hacker, A.E.A., was published in THE MAGAZINE after which he went to Antwerp,
OF ART last month on page 115; while, in accord- in the exhibitions of the Academy
ance with the
wish of Mr. J. S.
Sargent, A.E.A.,
we omit his likeness. On page
171 of this part
an article dealing
with the life and
work of Mr. J.
M. Swan, A.K.A.,
is published, so
that no further
reference to his
career is necessary here.
Mr. F r a n k
Bramley, A.E.A.
has not been very
much
behind
his colleague of
CABDINAL BOUBCHIEB UBGBS THE WIDOW OF EDWAED IV.
Newlyn,
Mr.
LET HEE SON OUT OP SANCTUABY.
Stanhope Forbes,
(By John Zephaniah Bell. Recently acquired by the National Gallery.)

He first appeared
in 1884, when he
contributed some
Venetian scenes;
but it was with "A
Hopeless Dawn,"
exhibitedinl888,
that he met with
his first success,
the picture being
purchased under
the terms of the
C h a n t r e y Bequest.
By the election
of Mr. John S.
Sargent another
American artist
is added to the
roll of the Eoyal
A c a d e m y , already containing
upon its list the
respected names

180

THE MAGAZINE

of Benjamin West, John S. Copley, and Washington
Allston. Mr. Sargent studied in France and Italy;
in the former as a pupil of M. Carolus-Duran, whose

A MEDITEEEANEAN SEAPOET.
(From the Painting by Claude Joseph Vernet.
National Gallery.)

Recently acquired

style and treatment in portraiture especially he
has adopted, and, as we think, surpassed. He, too,
is represented in the Chan trey collection by his
" Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose," which was purchased in 1887, and is one of the most striking
pictures in the gallery at South Kensington.
Mr. Sargent's election is certainly indicative of
that wider catholicity of spirit in art which is
influencing what has hitherto been considered
as our most conservative of institutions.
Mr. George Frampton, A.R.A., was born in
1860, and began his art studies at an early age
at the Lambeth schools, being a pupil of Mr.
W. S. Frith for sculpture, and of Professor Brown
for drawing. In 1882 he entered the Royal
Academy Schools, and, five years later, secured
the gold medal and the £200 travelling studentship. The same year he went to Paris, becoming
a pupil of M. Mercie and M. Dagnan-Bouveret;
he gained a medal at the Salon of 1889 for his
" Angel of Death," and since that year he has
been a regular contributor to the Burlington
House annual exhibition. He is a decorative
sculptor of a very high order, as his finelydesigned and coloured cornice at the recent
Arts and Crafts Exhibition sufficiently testified.
One of his principal works is the terra-cotta
frieze on the exterior of the Constitutional
Club, Northumberland Avenue. Other of his

OE ART.

works have been duly illustrated year by year
in the summer supplement of this Magazine—
" Eoyal Academy Pictures."
The British section of the National
Gallery has recently been extended
by the addition of some interesting,
if not very important, works, two of
which are reproduced herewith. A
third—a good example of Romney
—" Mr. and Mrs. Lindon," is unfortunately placed in such a position
in the entrance hall of the gallery
as to preclude the possibility of
photographing it. " Cardinal Bourchier Urging the Widow of Edward
IV. to Allow her Son Out of Sanctuary " is the work of the late
John Zephaniah Bell, and was presented to the gallery by the artist's
widow. A portrait of " Mrs. C. H.
Bellenden Ker," by Sir Charles
Eastlake, P.R.A., was bequeathed by
the subject of the portrait. A further acquisition is " A Mediterranean
by the

MES. C. H. BELLENDEN KEE.
Recently acquired

{From the Painting by Sir C. Eastlake, P.R.A
by the National Gallery.)

Seaport," by Claude Joseph Vernet, which has been
presented by Mrs. Tarratt.

181

EMILE WAUTEES :
BY A. J. WAUTBRS, PROFESSOR

POETEAIT-PAINTEE.

OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS OF BELGIUM.

I

T was one evening last winter, in one of the fine an accompanying play of flickering light from diahouses in the quarter of the Pare Monceau at monds, rubies, and emeralds. Involuntarily, then, I
Paris. On entering the apartments, already thronged thought of the " Triumph of Venice," and of its glowwith a crowd of guests,
ing beauties in' the costume
my eyes were dazzled by
of the time, with their brothe light and colour, the
cades and shot silks cut
splendour and gaiety and
low and square, on whom
movement, and a vision of a
Veronese has poured suebj.
modern Titian or Veronese
lavish sunlight in the ceiling
rose suddenly before me.
of the Doge's Palace;
The decoration was magniA sudden hush fell when
ficent ; all that the most
Massenet took his seat at
refined artistic taste could
the piano, and Miss Sander^
imagine was gathered into,
son, superb in a low-cut
one h a r m o n i o u s whole.
dress of pure, white silk,
Pictures by master-hands,
the tight-fitting body trimancient Italian busts, Flemmed with gold, sang the
ish tapestries of the best
valse from Romeo.
period serving for porti&res,
Then Jean Rameau reVenetian mirrors in their
cited " The Oxen " :—
great crystal
frames,
" Ce sont des bceufs tres doux aux
bronzes, embroideries, silken
deux cornes en lyre
Avec de ces yeux bous ou le
hangings of countless hues,
penseur croit lire
ancestral portraits, furniDes pogmes mysterieux;
ture carved in every style,
De ces boeufs bien-aimes qu'aux
plaines opulentes
damascened armour flashing
Conduisaient autrefois, avec des
with gleams of gold and silEMILE WAUTEES.
chansons lentes
ver. And on sofas adorned
{From the Portrait by Himself in the Dresden Gallery.)
Mes simples et nobles aieux."
with Oriental textiles, culled
from among the rarest in the bazaars of the Mouski, While the poet, with a rhythmic swaying of his
groups of women, young and joyous, gossiping in the body, recited his sweet and sounding verses in a
shadows of tremulous palms and ornamental foliage. voice mournfully musical, to which a marked
At the foot of a twisted column, belonging once Proven gal accent added a strange charm, I,
to some Roman palace, on a sofa covered with a with half-closed eyes, sight and hearing alike dedeep blue and crimson Persian carpet, a splendid lighted, enjoyed the living picture spread out
princess was enthroned, arrayed in sea-green silk, before me.
This marvellous setting, this fashionable society,
embroidered with silver lilies. Her hair, golden as
ripe wheat, arranged like a diadem, crowned her these groups of pretty women and sparkling of eyes
aristocratic head. Around her an animated circle and jewellery, these carnations and satin whiteof other women, in the bloom of youth, listened in ness, these silks and velvets, gorgeous materials
plentifully besprinkled with gold and silver,
various attitudes, fluttering their feathered fans.
One, in a dress of ivory white, relieved by gold, these perfumes, the music and the poet's song,
high in the wTaist and flowing loosely at the back, all this display of luxury, of elegance, of beauty
revived the fashion of the Empire with just a touch and pleasure, called up within me subtle and
of modernity. A second was in brocaded satin of rare sensations and irresistibly aroused ideas on
the Louis XVI. period, maize colour, with a closely- art, evoking a conception of the typical highfitting bodice of sky blue, her figure partly shrouded bred Parisian beauty in 1893.
by a gauzy cloud of Alen^on lace. The others beside
her were attired with equal richness. Every head
Next day, in my brother's studio, before a series
enriched with pearls and blossoms; necks and the of unfinished portraits set out upon the easels, I
soft curves of gleaming white shoulders rose above beheld the realisation of these visions. Ten reprethe bodices, and were in ceaseless motion, with sentations of women more especially caught my
• *

878

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*

*

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attention. Dressed as for some festivity, beautified and transfigured by the strong magic of art,

MADAME DE SCHOEN.
(From the Painting by Emile Wauters.)

they were symbols of the fashionable society of
Paris, with its tasteful luxury and overwhelming
glamour.
First came Madame Lambert de Rothschild,
standing at full length by a Louis XVI. table, on
which lies a fur-trimmed mantle of violet velvet.
The somewhat faint carnations of her face, with
its melancholy air, the bare arms and white hands,
harmonise exquisitely with the lemon-yellow
dress, its swelling sleeves, cut with wide slashes,
from which escape long waves of tawny Brussels
lace. As an accessory, there is a long-haired blackand-white Japanese dog. This keynote of yellow
satin, with its vivid sparkling tones broadly and
freely rendered, is a precious morsel, the startling
colour scheme being subtilised and. accentuated by
a skilful opposition of the shades of blue-black

OF AET.

in the hair of the beautiful subject, of the dead
blacks of the dog's fur, and of the violet tints of
the velvet mantle.
Miss Carroll, of Baltimore, is
depicted in melancholy mood
on the sea-shore. The delicate
head, crowned with a white
straw hat, shaded by a large
veil of rnousseline-de-soie, stands
out in relief against a grey sky
and distant green-clad hills.
The robe is heavy silk of a
bright mauve, decorated with a
knot of ribbons of the same hue
upon the shoulder; the fichu of
the bodice and the sleeves are
edged with lace, waves of which
fall also over the long Suede
gloves. (See p. 185.)
The Comtesse Louis de Montesquiou - Fezensac reclines in
elegant comfort, as one might
say, against the back of a gilded
chair covered with blue-flowered
material; the smiling, handsome
face resting lightly on her folded
hands, subtle in drawing and
pearly in tone, combines with
the olive-green background, the
dark indigo velvet corsage, a
white boa, and a tulle scarf
sprinkled with gold in forming
an attractive kakemono - like
Japanese harmony.
The Comtesse de la ForestDivonne, in a dress of mauve
satin under a light blue muslin
wrapper, is relieved against an
audacious green background. A
girdle of sky-blue satin is contrived to reconcile
these unusual harmonies, and produces with them
a rich combination of heterogeneous colours as
successful as it is daring.
Mrs. Deacon is seen in full face, posed rather
than seated on a sofa with a very feminine bend of
the body. Her pretty head, slightly bowed, looks
at you with a faint, cold smile. The attitude and
expression are characteristic. A toilet of conspicuously simple style, but rich from the choice and
juxtaposition of colours, gives this portrait a remarkable fascination. The high lights of a satin
dress of the tone of old ivory, with large stiff tulle
sleeves, delicately enhance the tender greys and
flesh-tints of the throat, the neck, and head, on
which a full illumination plays.
Here, side by side, are the two young nieces of

EMILE WAUTERS:

|

1

PORTRAIT-PAINTER.

183

the character of each of the pretty models is
unhesitatingly revealed, more so, perhaps, than
in any other of this series of portraits.
The Chevalier de Steurs, Minister for Holland at Paris. A head and shoulders in threequarter face, coloured in low tones, stands out
in tender half-light against a curtain of broken
violet. The heavy, freely-handled dull blacks of
the dress-coat are lightened by the blue note of
the grand cordon of the Order of Charles III.
of Spain ; and this strong but well-subordinated
line of pale colour, supported by the white of
the tie and shirt-front, with the rich tonality
of the background, sounds a thrilling and original
passage in thirds.
Miss Lorillard, of New Jersey, wears a dress
of yellowish rose-coloured satin, with a fichu of
white mousseline-de-soie crossed upon the breast.
The full-coloured face is purposely surrounded
by black—black hair, black straw hat with black
feathers.*
Mademoiselle de Brantes, now Vicomtesse
Armand, is attired in all the colours of a refined
* Reproduced, t o g e t h e r w i t h t h e p o r t r a i t of M a d a m e L a m b e r t de R o t h s c h i l d , in t h e i l l u s t r a t e d s u p p l e m e n t of T H E
M A G A Z I N E O P A R T (" E u r o p e a n P i c t u r e s of t h e Y e a r 1893 " ) .

LA COMTESSE LOUIS DE MONTESQUIOU-EEZENSAC.
(From the Painting by Emile Wauters.)

Mr. Gordon Bennett. What a captivating
differentiation in these two children's portraits—in the presentation of these two
sisters, wThose dissimilarities the painter has
underlined by happy distinctions of expression, attitude, costume, and colouring! Miss
Dora Bell tries to assume a dignified pose,
but a latent roguery lightens and animates
her countenance. Her sister, Henriette, is
genuinely serious, and the wealth of nutbrown hair which frames her face, in the
fashion of the seventeenth century, serves to
intensify her reflective air.
By a skilful contrast the severe Miss
Henriette wears a white dress drawn close
to the figure by a sky-blue girdle; while
her light-hearted sister Dora has a solemn
garment of black silk, the open sleeves lined
with white, and a low black tocque with
grey pompons. The portrait of Miss Dora
reminds us of Holbein by its garb; that of
Miss Henriette, by its air and character, of
Velasquez. The two youthful faces are wTell
expressed; the drawing conveys, with a firm
touch, the nostril and the curve of the lips;
the expression of the eyes rivets our gaze;

MADEMOISELLE DE BKANTES (VICOMTESSE AEMAND).
(From the Painting by Emile Wauters.)

184

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palette. Hangings of dull violet; dress, corsage, and
satin bows of mauve; light tulles and lace; mantle
of grey cloth, with Thibet goat's fur trimmings; a

MADAME SASSOON DE EOTHSCHILD.
{From the Paintiwj by Emile Wauters.)

gilt chair, with pea-green covering—a symphony
of delicate tones, combined with singular taste.
Madame de Schoen is silhouetted against a
background of faded light sea-green, wThich defines
a delicate profile, its warm rose-colour crowned
by a chignon of bright golden hair dressed in
Empire fashion, and a. dress of white silk, with
golden ears of wheat, the corsage trimmed with
Brussels lace.
The Princess Ernest de Ligne, fresh and fair, is
painted on a scheme of tender rose-colour. Before
a panel hung with violet-rose satin, adorned with
golden fleur-de-lis, she sits in a resplendent dress
of rose-pink velvet garnished with filmy lace, setting off the rosy carnations of her complexion.
This masterpiece of the colourist and virtuoso is

OF ART.

executed with marvellous facility by a skilled hand
and trained eye without over-elaboration, apparent
effort, or charlatanism.
Madame Sassoon de Eothschild is
reclining at ease in a gilt Louis XVI.
arm-chair on a cushion of scarlet
and gold brocade against a background
of dark red-ochre curtains. She is
dressed in mousseline-de-soie over a
cream-coloured satin. Under her left
arm a Scotch setter thrusts out his
muzzle. The great display of power
in this work arises in the main from
the interpretation of the carefullystudied head, almost living in its
actuality, and carried out in pearly
half tones; from the enigmatically
expressive glance; from the curious
treatment of the mouth, which, with
the peculiar outline of the face, remotely recalls the smiling yet disquieting heads of Lionardo. Erom
the point of view of " character"
this portrait is perhaps the best of
the collection; I have left it for that
reason as a tit-bit for the last.
During the fifteen years in which
I have been writing criticisms for the
Brussels papers I have rigorously abstained from speaking of my brother.
At each exhibition I have deliberately
passed by in silence his name and
work. This was intentional. Nowadays, more sure of myself, more
experienced and more confirmed in
my beliefs, less apprehensive, moreover,
of what the world may say, the idea
of setting down just what I think of
his talent has smiled upon my fancy.
I do so here in all honesty, considering only the
question of art in the face of works by an artist
to whom no one, I believe, will deny one of the
first places among contemporary portrait-painters,
both as executant, colourist, and interpreter.
With respect to his handling, of brush as well
as of pencil, Einile "Wauters need envy no other
living master. No one has a hand more expert,
more skilful, more ready, or more free. It never
fails to show perfect training, a finished education, a
delicate and unfaltering taste. It has never verged
upon the commonplace, still less upon the vulgar.
It endures no carelessness, no incompleteness.
The touch is light and inspired, interesting
to examine and analyse. Is it final from the
start? It would seem so. Are there retouchings,

MISS

CARROLL,

OF

BALTIMORE.

{From the Painting by EmUe Wauters.)

THE MAGAZINE OF AET.

186

material, which the masters of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries knew not. He
makes the most excellent use of it for
draping, softening, and rejuvenating his
sitters. Under full sleeves of this light
tissue the outlines of arms and shoulders
fade away and vanish, to reappear again
below. These are the stratagems of art by
which a rare and precious grace may be
lent to a bust or figure or attitude.
Whether he works in oil or pastel his
method remains broad and supple. His
chalk is as good as his brush. Observe his
handling of flesh, of materials, and of accessories. In his dresses, often even in his
flesh-tints, we can follow the touches of the
crayon, applied bluntly with all its breadth
without hesitation or re-working. With the
chalk he expresses the shadow or light upon
a fold, the high lights of the hair, the down
upon a cheek or an arm with as much
freedom as if he had a large brush full
of paint. The black robe of Miss Dora

MADEMOISELLE BLANCHE

TARISLOWSKY.

(From the Painting by Emile

Wauters.)

over - paintings ? We find no trace
of them. Are there, here and there,
signs of fatigue or boredom ? NowThere
can we perceive any such. If now and
then, in the carnations and modelling
of the heads, we come across some
exaggerated detail, a certain finikin
affectation, some touches which are not
of the best, put them down to the
striving after a likeness. And these are
exceptions. Take, for example, the portrait of M. Daye.* Strongly conceived,
laid out in broad plains, with fine
impasto, it will bear comparison with
the highest. The artist has a highly
developed sense of arrangement; and it
is less easy than one might think to
place a hat upon a head simply and
naturally, to dispose a dress or a coat,
to draw in a waist, to put a glove
upon a hand and arm. He dresses
his figures superbly. Eor his women
he loves tulles and gauzes, above all
mousseline-de-soie — a purely modern
* Paris Exhibition, 1889.

MISS DOEA BELL.
(From the Painting by Emile Wauters.)

EMILE WAUTEES:
Bell, the yellow satin of that worn by Madame
Lambert de Eothschild, are as solidly painted in
pastel as are the portraits of Madame la baronne
Goffinet, Madame Somze, and Madame Alphonse
Vanderborght in oils. As a colourist he has a
marvellously gifted eye. For a long
time, at the beginning of his career,
he saw " grey." Thus his " Battle of
Hastings," his " Van der Goes" in
the Brussels Museum,* his " Jean
IV." in the Hotel-de-Ville at Brussels,
are entirely carried out in quiet,
sober tones of subtle grey. He had
not then discovered that his palette
included the whole range of strong
and brilliant colours. Now he is no
longer ignorant of this. Witness the
violets, the mauves, the blues, pinks,
greens, and yellows which he combines and harmonises with perfect
ease. He employs in his silks and
velvets violets and mauves peculiar
to himself, which he weds excellently
with blues and rose colours.
Another harmony which finds
favour in his eyes is that of skyblue satin, with silks and velvets of
green. The fine full-length portrait
of Madame Somze,f.which won for
him, ten years ago, the Grand Medal
of the Berlin Salon and the Grand
Prix in 1889 at the Exposition Universelle of Paris, shows with what
thorough success he achieves this
exquisite amalgamation, thus giving
the lie to the saying, " blue and green
fight together." In it a satin dress,
with a train of sky-blue, of brilliant
workmanship, attained by thin painting in the
shadows and heavy impasto in the lights, stands
out in the fullest splendour against a curtain of
strong green velvet.
He is an adept, furthermore, in the art of
displaying and draping rich materials, of folding
satins, of depicting their streaky high-lights in
loaded touches swiftly laid on. His greatest work
in this respect, as also in that of the character
of the face, is the portrait of Madame la baronne
Goffinet +—a severe figure of a great lady, gravely
dignified, in a robe of strong violet. All these
elements of colouring are essentially his own.
Carnations transparent, dull and pale, pearly white* Paris Exhibition, 1878. Reproduced in T H E MAGAZINE OP
ART for October, 1887.
t Paris Exhibition, 1889.
% Paris Exhibition, 1889.

POETBAIT-PAINTEE.

187

ness of unfailingly aristocratic hands, precious stuffs
and hangings lavishly employed, their numberless
tints used with refined selection and delicate taste
—all these are his, and his alone. He is the inventor of them. Fashionable society at this century's

MISS HENRIETTE BELL.
(From the Painting by Emile Wauters.)

end could not wish for an interpreter more faithful
and at the same time more fascinating. After so
many predecessors he has still managed to discover
a purely individual manner of representing the
human form. He belongs to his period by virtue
of the new formula, free from all convention, which
he has created. His present art is no longer indebted for anything to the old masters, neither
to Van Dyck, nor Velasquez, to Holbein, Antonio
Moro, or Eranz Hals. If, at long intervals, with
rare discretion, he arouses memories of one or
other of these ancestors in genius by some faint
echo, regard it rather as an intentional homage
than as unconscious imitation.
He appeared first as a painter of subjects, of
historical pictures. They were not, in fact, even
then much more than compositions of portraits.
Placed before the single model, on the solid ground

THE MAGAZINE OF AET.

188

of contemporary reality, face to face with individual truth, he felt springing up within him a respect
for that individuality and for characteristic likeness.
His portraits are faithful, his attitudes real,
his poses natural, easy, and varied. The gesture
is simple and true. The portraits of General
Goffinet/* aide-de-camp to the King of the
Belgians, of M. Alexandre Jamar,f Governor
of the Belgian National Bank, and of M. Xavier
Olin,^ formerly Minister of Justice, are in this
respect three examples to note. But it is woman
who in his work is especially attractive; he reveals
her movements, her graces, her fascination, her
charm, and her luxury. He loves best, in short,
* Paris Exhibition, 1889.
A E T for November, 1889.
f Paris Exhibition, 1889.
X Paris Exhibition, 1889.

to present with elegance the elegancies of his
time, leaving to others the task of rendering its
virile forces and its more brutal power.

NOTE.—It may be convenient here to add, as a biographical
fact of interest, what Monsieur A. J. Wauters has omitted from
his article, doubtless from a fraternal sense of modesty—the
chief honours of which Monsieur Emile Wauters has been the
recipient. He has been awarded no fewer than six " medals of
honour," namely, at the International Exhibitions of Paris, 1878
and 1889, of Munich in 1879, of Antwerp in 1885, and of Vienna
in 1888, as well as at the Salon of Berlin in 1883. He is a
member of the Eoyal Academy of Arts of Belgium, an honorary
member of the Academies of Vienna, Berlin, and Munich, and a
" corresponding member" of the Institut de France and of
that of Madrid. He is besides a member of the much envied
Order of Merit of Prussia, Commander of the Orders of Leopold
of Belgium, and of St. Michael of Bavaria, Officer of the Legion
Keproduced in T H E MAGAZINE OF of Honour, and of several other foreign orders of distinction.
This, we believe, is a record hardly equalled by any other living
artist, and the more remarkable in one who has scarcely yet
reached middle life.—[EDITOR.]

«0*«E^» —

•

THE MALCOLM DRAWINGS AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
BY LIONEL CUST.

O

N the recent death of Mr. John Malcolm, of
Poltalloch, much curiosity and no little apprehension were aroused as to the fate which might
be in store for his renowned collection of drawings
by the Old Masters. It was already known that
there was no hope of the collection being bestowed
on or bequeathed to the nation, although but shortly
before his death Mr. Malcolm had shown his goodwill by presenting to the trustees of the British
Museum the famous Sforza " Book of Hours." As it
turned out, Mr. Malcolm bequeathed his collection
unconditionally to his son and heir, Colonel John
Wingfield Malcolm, now of Poltalloch, expressing
the hope that it might not be found necessary to
disperse it. Colonel Malcolm, in order to carry out
his father's wish, decided to offer the collection on
loan to the trustees of the British Museum, that it
might be accessible to the public. This offer was
gratefully accepted by the trustees, and the whole
collection has been deposited under the charge of
Mr. Sidney Colvin in the Department of Prints and
Drawings, where it can be seen by students and
visitors, under the same regulations which govern
access to the many similar treasures preserved in
that department.
Artists and amateurs have competed eagerly for
the possession of drawings by the Old Masters since
the days of Charles I. and the Earl of Arundel. As
the number of genuine sketches or studies by great
artists is necessarily limited in number, it has frequently happened that the dispersal of one collection
has proved the foundation of another, and that many

of the best and most famous drawings have passed
through the hands of successive collectors, whose
marks or signatures on them are invariably suggestive of authenticity, although they cannot always
be considered as convincing. Such collections in
former days were those of Sir Peter Lely, Jonathan
Richardson, Thomas Hudson, Sir Joshua Reynolds,
Padre Resta, John Barnard, Thomas Dimsdale, E.
Jabach, Crozat, Wicar, Mariette, and many others.
Through the agency of the brothers Woodburn,
the famous art-dealers, the choicest part of all the
collections in England, and also much that was
interesting and valuable on the Continent, were
brought together in one single collection—that of
Sir Thomas Lawrence. On Lawrence's death this
collection, which recent experience has shown to
have been almost priceless, was offered to the
nation for the sum of £18,000. Over the negotiations which preceded the refusal of the Government authorities to provide this sum, it were best
to draw a veil. The collection was dispersed at
a sum vastly in advance of that mentioned. Only
a spasmodic effort of quasi-patriotism secured a
large portion of the drawings by Raphael and
Michelangelo for the University of Oxford, where
they form a highly esteemed but little appreciated
addition to the opportunities for culture in a
university education. Such a collection as that of
Sir Thomas Lawrence can never be formed again,
but several fine specimens from it have found
their way through the cabinets of Dr. Wellesley and others into that of Mr. Malcolm, where,

THE MALCOLM DRAWINGS AT THE
it is to be hoped, they may find their final restingplace.
It is , however, but in recent times that drawings

BRITISH

MUSEUM.

189

on the Continent. The interest of the Malcolm
collection is enhanced by the catalogue compiled
for Mr. Malcolm by so able a critic and connoisseur
as Sir J. C. Robinson.
The Malcolm collection is particularly rich in
drawings of the Italian school, especially by the
great masters of the earlier periods. Among the
earliest in date is a highly-finished pen-drawing on
vellum, tinted with purple, representing David as a
prophet. This drawing, from the rubricated portion
of a psalm which is on the reverse, would seem to
have belonged to one of the celebrated psalters
illuminated by Era Angelico for use in the worldrenowned monastery of San Marco at Florence.
A curious leaf from a sketch-book, containing
six studies of three dead men hanging by the neck,
recalls Vasari's story how, in 1478, after the conspiracy of the Razzi and the murder of Giuliano
de Medici in the cathedral of Florence, the Signoria
of Florence wished to commemorate the event in a
series of paintings on the facade of the Ralazzo
Vecchio, and employed Andrea del Castagno for that
purpose, who executed them with such skill that he

PHILIPPE LE BON, DUKE OF BUPGUNDY.
(From the Drawing attributed

to Jan Van Eyclc.)

by the Old Masters have come to be regarded not
only as objects of virtu, but chiefly as indispensable
aids to the critical study of art. No critic or teacher
has insisted on this more strongly than the late
Senatore Morelli, who, in the introduction to his
study of the Italian paintings in the galleries at
Munich and Dresden, asserts that it is chiefly in
drawings that an artist's real individuality can be
perceived, this being often, in the case of paintings,
obscured by the mere act of painting, by restoration, or by the ravages of time. Moreover, says
he, it is in drawings that the most salient differences between one school and another are the most
evident, and he recommends his readers to study
when possible the drawings themselves, and, failing these, the admirable series of reproductions
by Messrs. Braun, to which may be added in
more recent times those of the Reichsdruckerei at
Berlin, Alinari of Florence, and others. The bringing; together of the Malcolm collection with that
already existing in the British Museum provides
that institution for the time being with a joint
cabinet of drawings which is on a level with, if
not beyond, the greatest collections of the kind
879

THE CRUCIFIXION.
(From the Draiving attributed to Michelangelo.)

was afterwards called Andrea degl' Iinpiccati. Sir
J. C. Robinson therefore attributes this drawing to
Andrea del Castagno, as taken from the bodies
of the criminals hanging outside the palace walls.

190

THE MAGAZINE

OF AET.

The drawing, however, obviously belongs to a sketchSome of the drawings by Michelangelo are of
book of Pisanello or his school, other leaves from great interest with regard to the personal history of
it, with similar studies, being preserved at Berlin the artist. Condivi, the biographer of Michelangelo,
and elsewhere.
says that Michelangelo made two drawings for
Among other Florentine artists Domenico Ghir- Vittoria Colonna, Marchesa di Pescara; one of
landajo is represented by two studies for his these was a "Jesus Christ upon the Cross," not
frescoes in the choir of Santa Maria Novella, and with the aspect of one dead, as is the common wont,
Fra Bartolommeo by a
but in a divine attitude,
great number of drawwith face raised to the
ings, including one for
Father, seeming to exhis celebrated picture of
claim, " E l i ! E l i ! " In
" La Vergine della Miserithis drawing the body
cordia " at Lucca.
does not appear to fall,
Masaccio,
Filippino
like an abandoned corpse,
Lippi, Lorenzo di Credi,
but, as though alive, to
Donatello are all reprewrithe and quiver with
sented ; but one of the
the agony it feels. A
chief treasures is a tinted
letter exists from Vittoria
drawing by Sandro BottiColonna to Michelangelo,
celli, called "Abundance,"
which goes some way to
representing a fascinating
show that a drawing in
female figure, clad in
the Malcolm collection
l i g h t filmy d r a p e r y ,
may be the one alluded
holding a cornucopia, and
to by Condivi.
attended by cupids. This
She writes (as transdrawing is strongly related by Mr. J. A. Syminiscent of the famous
monds): " Your works
picture of " Spring " in the
forcibly stimulate the
Uffizii Gallery at Florence
judgment of all who look
(p. 192). A picture of
at them. My study of
the same subject, now in
them made me speak of
the collection of the Due
adding goodness to things
d'Aumale, is stated, howperfect in themselves,
ever, by Morelli to be but
and I have seen how
P O R T R A I T O F A MAN ( S T U D Y F O R A P I C T U R E I N
a pupil's handiwork.
that all is possible to
THE LOUVRE).
him who believes. I had
The collection would
(By Antonello da Messina.)
the greatest faith in God
be sufficiently remarkable
if it contained nothing more than the drawings by that he would bestow upon you supernatural grace
the three great triumvirs of Italian art—Leonardo for the making of this Christ. When I came
da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Eaphael. Perhaps the to examine it, I found it so marvellous that it surmost characteristic drawing by Leonardo is the passes all my expectations: wherefore, emboldened
" Profile Bust of a Warrior, in a fanciful richly- by your miracles, I conceived a great desire for that
I
ornamented cuirass and helmet." The type of face which I now see marvellously accomplished.
in this drawing is a favourite one with the artist, mean that the design is in all parts perfect and conand suggests one of the famous condottieri of the summate, and one could not desire more nor could
time. One of Mr. Malcolm's most recent acqui- desire attain to demanding so much. I tell you that
sitions was a tinted drawing of a horseman in action, I am mightily pleased that the angel on the right
from the Durazzo collection, which claims to be hand is by far the fairer, since Michael will place
a fragment of Leonardo's great cartoon of the "Battle you, Michelangelo, upon the right hand of our
of the Standard." Of greater interest to some Lord at that last day. Meanwhile I do not know
students will be the sheets of studies : one for a pic- how else to serve you than by making orisons
ture of "Victory and Fame; " another, possibly, for to this sweet Christ, whom you have drawn so
his picture of "The Adoration of the Magi;" and well and exquisitely, and praying you to hold me
the third a drapery study, with indications of the yours to command as yours in all and for a l l ! "
principal figure, for the much-discussed picture of Another letter from Vittoria Colonna on the same
" The Kesurrection " in the picture-gallery at Berlin. subject is preserved in the British Museum. An

THE MALCOLM DRAWINGS AT THE BRITISH

MUSEUM.

191

engraving from the drawing was made by N. Bea- two exquisite sketch-studies, one of a " Virgin and
Child," formerly in the Ankaldi collection, which
trizet.
Another drawing, also engraved by Beatrizet, is reputed to have been that of Timoteo Viti,
represents the fall of Phaethon ; and an autograph and the other a group for a "Pieta," of which
inscription by the artist on it shows it to have been an engraving exists by Marcantonio.
done for Michelangelo's friend, Tommaso Cavalieri,
Among other great artists of the Italian school,
whose relations with the artist have lately been so Perugino, Andrea del Sarto, Correggio, Guercino,
carefully elucidated by Mr. J. A. Symonds.
Salvator Rosa, Daniele da Volterra are all well reConspicuous in size, if not in merit, among the presented. Of special interest are two drawings by
Michelangelo drawings, is a huge cartoon of " The Melozzo da Forli, whose drawings are of the greatest
Holy Family and Saints." This cartoon has been rarity. There are fine examples of the Venetian
presented to the nation by Colonel Malcolm, and, school, especially of Sebastiano del Piombo, Titian,
as it originally came from the Casa Buonnaroti and Domenico Campagnola. The most interesting
at Florence, it has some claim to authenticity. drawing of this school, however, is the striking porAlthough it has great affinity to the paintings ac- trait-drawing of a man by Antonello da Messina, of
cepted as being from Michelangelo's hand, it may be which the finished painting hangs in the Salon Carre
doubted whether it is
of the Louvre.
not the work of a pupil
Mr. Malcolm's inworking under the artist's
terests we're by no means
immediate influence.
confined to the artists of
the Italian school. All
Among the drawother schools except the
ings by, or ascribed to,
English are represented
Raphael, there are some
by precious examples; in
of great beauty and inthe Spanish school of
terest.
Pre-eminent
Velazquez, Murillo, and
among these is a drawing
Alonso Cano; in the
of Raphael's earlier days,
French school of Clouet,
a study of the head of St.
Claude, Nicolas Poussin,
James in the picture of
and Watteau; in the
the " Coronation of the
early German school of
Virgin " in the Vatican.
Albrecht Diirer and HolAccording to Morelli, this
bein ; in the Flemish
drawing, the beauty of
school of Jan van Eyck,
which would seem to
Rubens, and Van Dyck;
insist on originality, was
and in the Dutch school
adapted by the young
of Goltzius, J. de Gheyn,
Raphael from a drawing
Bakhuyzen,
Berchem,
by Pinturicchio in the
Albert Cuyp, Karel du
much-debated "Raphael"
Jardin, Nicolaas Maes,
sketch-book, preserved in
A d r i a e n van Ostade,
the Accademia at Venice.
Paul Potter, and RemTwo beautiful studies
brandt.
of female busts, done in
BUST OF A WAEEIOE.
black chalk, have long
It would be difficult
(Silver-Point Drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.)
been of repute as portraits
to select from these those
of the sister of Raphael; and a third, drawn in silver- drawings which are pre-eminently of greater interest
point, has had a similar baptism. The subject, how- than the others, so choice is the selection in the case
ever, of the three drawings is evidently of an age of the artists in each school. Special mention may,
beyond that of the sister of Raphael at the date however, be made of the two drawings attributed
when these drawings appear to have been executed. to Velazquez, one being of a pope riding in proA study of four male figures, two seated and two cession on a mule; the portrait of the Due de
kneeling, ascribed to Raphael, has been recently Rohan by Clouet; the study of an English soushown to be undoubtedly a study by Timoteo Viti brette by Watteau; the drawings in water-colour
for a picture of St. Thomas of Canterbury and St. by A. Diirer; the portrait of his uncle, Sigismund
Martin, which still remains at Urbino.
Holbein, and that of the Duchess of Suffolk by
Among Mr. Malcolm's recent acquisitions were Hans Holbein the younger; and, above all, the

192
highly-finished
Bon, Duke of
no less a hand
an illustration

THE MAGAZINE
portrait-drawing of Philippe
Burgundy, which is ascribed
than that of Jan van Eyck.
of the ever-increasino; value

le
to
As
of

OF AET.

belonged to M. Galichon, but also a precious
volume entitled " De Sibyllis," by J. P. de Lignamine, which contained twelve early impressions of
the famous set of Sibyls by the Florentine engraver,
conjecturally known as Baccio Baldini. This set
of the Sibyls, which has been removed from the
volume, and separately mounted, is recognised to
be the finest existing, and as such it has been recently reproduced in the publications of the Chalcographical Society. Students of engravings of the
German school in the fifteenth century will find here
two well-known prints, " The Three Living and the
Three Dead Kings," by the " Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet "—of which the only other impression
known is at Stuttgart—and the " Armorial Bearings
of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy," a unique
copy from the unique original in the Royal Library
at Brussels. The collection also contains a brilliant
series of engravings by Martin Schongauer and Albrecht Diirer, and some important examples of Lucas
van Leyden, including the rare " Eulenspiegel."
Enough has been said to convince students of
the importance and value of Mr. Malcolm's col-

7
ST. JAMES (STUDY FOE " THE COBONATION OP THE
VIBGIN," IN THE VATICAN).
(By Raffaello Sanzio.)

drawings such as these, it may be mentioned that the
last-mentioned drawing, which belonged formerly to
that most excellent amateur, the late M. Emile
Galichon, was sold at the sale of his collection in
1875 for 6,000 francs (£240) to Mr. William
Mitchell, and at the sale of Mr. Mitchell's collection
of drawings at Frankfort in 1890 it was purchased
by Mr. Malcolm for no less a sum than 14,500
marks (£725).
In addition to his collection of drawings Mr.
Malcolm possessed a small but exceedingly important
collection of engravings and etchings, which are
deposited in the print-room under the same conditions. They include some interesting prints in the
early maniere criblee, and several impressions from
nielli, one of these being a duplicate of " The Coronation of the Virgin," the discovery of which by the
Abbe Zani in the Bibliotheque at Paris, exercised
for so long a time so powerful an influence on the
early history of copper-plate engraving.
Mr. Malcolm was fortunate enough to obtain
not only the important set of original impressions
of the so-called "Tarocchi Cards," which formerly

ABUNDANCE.
(By Sandro Botticelli.)

lections, to enhance his reputation as a collector and
connoisseur, and to intensify the patriotic generosity
of Colonel Malcolm in placing them at the disposal
of students. What will be their ultimate fate ?
Suggestions would be premature. We can but hope.

*(MA

ST. PAULS.
(From the Painting by Henry Dawson in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Engraved by Jonnard.)

EAELY ITALIAN ART AT THE NEW GALLEEY. .
better studied than just now at the New Gallery,
where both his earlier Florentine and his later
Milanese styles are illustrated. The opportunity is
a rare one, too, for establishing what is and what is
not Leonardo, since side by side with the genuine
examples are many which are only of the great
master's school, and not from his own hand. Thus a
whole series of pen-and-ink studies
for the head of Leda in a picture
of "Leda and the Swan" show the
handling not of Leonardo himself,
but of Sodoina, who, as has already
been pointed out, was his pupil before
he went to Siena. An ancient copy of

197

which those who know the collections of Berlin,
the South Kensington Museum, and the Louvre, or
the private collections of M. Gustave Dreyfus, M.
Edouard Andre, and Mr. Drury-Fortnum can learn
little or nothing. The name of Donatello is many
times used at random, though nowhere in the exhibition is his master-hand to be traced. Not even
in the famous and often-reproduced
"St. Cecilia" (Earl of Wemyss), which,
notwithstanding its reputation, is too
lifeless, too empty in execution to
be more than a school-piece. Certainly not in the " Bronze Bust of a
Girl" (Duke of Westminster), the

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GOLD ENAMELLED PENDANT JEWELS.
{The Property of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, if.P.)

the picture by this last-named artist, for which these
studies may very probably have been made, exists in
the Borghese Gallery. Michelangelo is represented,
among other things, by the famous " Baccanale dei
Putti," the " Shooting at a Mark," and a large
" Study for a Figure of Christ," one of the many
preparations for a picture of the Eesurrection
carefully thought out but never executed. Eaphael
shines with the preparatory study for the cartoon
of the " Charge to Peter," the " Study for the Figure
of Poetry" on the ceiling of the Camera della
Segnatura, and the sketch for the cartoon of the
" Miraculous Draught of Fishes." Among the drawings of the earlier masters there are especially to be
noted the beautiful " Study of a Head," one of the
finest extant drawings by Fra Angelico, and the
"Hercules and Antaeus," a masterpiece of Luca
Signorelli.
The series of sculptures in marble and terracotta is a very weak and incomplete one, from
880

modelling of which shows none of the realistic accuracy, none of the virile accent of the greatest of
Florentine sculptors. The " Virgin and Child " (G.
Donaldson, Esq.), a high relief in marble attributed
to him, is a fair second-rate work of the latter, half
of the fifteenth century, revealing mainly the influence of Verrocchio, though the general ordonnance
is indirectly derived from Donatello. No work here
from the Delia Eobbia bottega has any claim to be
attributed either to Luca della Eobbia himself or
to the hardly less gifted Andrea. The " Bronze
Bust of a Bishop " is simply a copy in partly-gilt
bronze of the marble " Bishop Salutati" by Mino
da Fiesole, which crowns the monument of that
prelate in the cathedral of Fiesole.
The collection of majolica forms a rich and
varied group, comprising as it does examples from
the noted collections of Mr. Salting, Mr. Henry
Pfungst, Mr. David Currie, and others; but it contains no surprises for those who know the collections

198

THE MAGAZINE

of the British and South Kensington Museums, and
Mr. Salting's collection at the latter establishment, of
which the most remarkable pieces still remain
there. The curious sgraffiato ware of the Quattrocento is entirely absent
from the New Gallery,
where Urbino of various
periods predominates,
although Gubbio, Castel
Durante, Faenza, Caffagiolo, and Diruta are also
represented.
The finest
example of Gubbio lustred
ware, both in design and
colour, is Mr. David
Currie's plate No. 1105,
dated 1515. Mr. Salting's
plate by Maestro Giorgio,
No. 834, is also a choice
example of lustre, though
of a more ordinary type.
His interesting plate, No.
835, with white-and-blue
grotesques on a lustred
ground of very pale yellow,
is probably not Gubbio
but Diruta. The Urbino
Ewer, No. 1,100 (Henry
Pfungst, Esq.), is a piece
of unusually delicate and
s p i r i t e d execution, in
which, as the catalogue
justly observes, the mask
under the handle is modelled with singular power
and completeness.
The
Faenza Tazza (same collection), showing after
Raphael's fresco in the
Stanze of the Vatican the
" Poets on Mount Parnassus," is a curious, unlovely
example dated 1531, and
apparently a late product
of the Casa Pirota.
The Ecclesiastical Plate
THURIBLE OP COPPER-GILT
is not of the highest finish
(TWELFTH CENTURY).
or importance, although it
[The Property of the Right Rev. the
comprises some few fine
Bishop of Southwark.)
specimens. The most remarkable of these is, perhaps, the rare and admirably
wrought Thurible in copper-gilt, a work of the twelfth
century, found in a church of Pavia, and contributed
to the exhibition by the Bishop of Southwark. This

OF ART.

noble piece of Romanesque work is, however, at least
as likely to be of French or German as of Italian
origin. Quite recently an Italian savant has gone
far to prove that the celebrated Paschal Candlestick of bronze in Milan Cathedral—undoubtedly
the most perfect piece of decorative metal-work on
a large scale of the twelfth century—is of French,
not Italian workmanship.
The smaller bronzes are legion, and a good many
among them are of very fine quality. The important statuette of "David" (G. Salting, Esq.) is a
splendid nude figure very finely cast, the design of

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PENDANT JEWEL (SIXTEENTH CENTURY).
(The Property of the Marquess of Clanrikarde.)

which bears a certain family resemblance to Michelangelo's colossal "David" in marble, at the Accademia of Florence. Still this is hardly a sufficient
reason for attributing it to the mighty sculptor
himself, and thus crushing it under so exalted a
name. True, we hear of a bronze " David " executed
by Buonarroti for Florimond Robertet, the treasurer
of Louis XII. of France. But then this was no
doubt a statue, not a statuette; and, moreover,
Condivi, who mentions it, speaks of a "David with
Goliath under him." A "Figure of a Youth," No.
1,090 (T. Witcombe Greene, Esq.), is a genuine
example of North Italian work of the fifteenth
century, of charming motive, but not very finished
execution. The "Door-handle," from the collection
of bronzes brought together by Mr. H. Pfungst, is of

EARLY ITALIAN ART AT THE NEW
most original design.1 It shows a Fury or a Discord,
with outspread wings and dolphin-like extremities,
an invention so uncanny that it is rather calculated
to scare the unwelcome than to greet the welcome
visitor. It is attributed, with much probability, to
the school of II Riccio of Padua. Another fine
specimen from the same collection is a writing-case
of.cast and wrought bronze attributed to the great
medallist and sculptor Caradosso. A little " Bronze

GALLERY.

199

Mantegna—himself more Roman than the very
Romans themselves. Other masters of this special
branch, unusually well represented here, are Giovanni
delle Corniole of Florence, Giovanni Bernardi di
Castel Bolognese, and Valerio Vincentino, the lastnamed being the artist who wrought the famous
casket of rock-crystal in the Uffizi.
Again, we find the exhibition extraordinarily
rich in the finest medals of the fifteenth and six-

DOOR-HANDLE.
(School of II Riccio, Fifteenth Century.

Head of a Boy," No. 568 (Isaac Falcke, Esq.), with
an even green patina, is put forward
Quattrocento imitation of the antique, which it may well be.
On the other hand certain indications, such as the
silver eyes, point to the possibility of its being a
genuine Roman work. Superb in its abandon, and
a characteristic example of the full Renaissance, is
the "Bronze Inkstand," No. 859 (Earl of Wemyss),
showing two naked fauns supporting a receptacle in
the form of a wine-bowl.
To enumerate the bronze plaquettes of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries would require a
separate article. It must suffice to point out that
in no previous exhibition have there been seen
together in England such complete series of the
best known masters who practised this captivating
minor art. Especially prominent are the plaquettes
of Moderno and II Riccio of Padua, two North
Italian artists, of whom the former in his splendid
vigour inclines to Greek or Grseco-Roman art, the
latter to pure Roman types, got at no doubt through

The Property of H. Pfungst,

Esq.)

teenth centuries; almost all the most celebrated
masters being represented by well-chosen examples
in admirable preservation. To discuss the medals
of Pisanello, Matteo de' Pasti, Sperandio, Marescotti,
Niccolo Fiorentino, and Caradosso, would only be
to go over again what every student of Italian art,
interested in this branch, now knows. Among
those not so universally known, but highly prized
by collectors, are the medals of Melioli of Mantua,
by whom we find here, among other things, the
" Ludovico III., Gonzaga," and a noble " Christian I.,
King of Denmark," done on that monarch's visit to
Rome in 1474. Very powerful in its rugged highrelief is the " Lorenzo il Magnifico" of Niccolo
Fiorentino, and singularly quaint in its realistic
accuracy the anonymous " Francis I. of France "—
an Italian work, showing the art-loving monarch
in youth, beardless and with long hair. The great
medallists of the Cinquecento, skilful as they are, must
be placed far below their predecessors of the Quattrocento ; and this appreciation, or depreciation, applies

200

THE MAGAZINE

even to such masters as Benvenuto Cellini, Leone
Leoni, and Jacopo da Trezzo. The Venetian sculptor,
Alessandro Yittoria, has, in No. 1,013, admirably
portrayed the brilliant, infamous Aretino, with the

OE AET,

smith's art. Of the most fantastic design, and carried
out with all the maestria, all the profuse splendour
of the time, are the five Pendant Jewels contributed
by Baron Ferdinand de Eothschild. Yet no one

SHIELD OF EUSSBT STEEL (SIXTEENTH OENTUEY).
(The Property of David M. Currie, Esq.)

delightfully naive inscription, " Divus Petrus Aretinus."
Of dazzling brilliancy is the case containing the
jewellery, the works in enamelled gold and rockcrystal of the mature Eenaissance; the splendour
is, however, de bon aloi, and by no means akin to
that of a jeweller's window in the Eue de la Paix
or New Bond Street. The "Pendant Enseigne or
Eeliquary" (William Boore, Esq.) is of such elaborate and minute workmanship that it is impossible
to appreciate it where it hangs. The "Enamelled
Gold Necklace of Cellini Work" (Captain NaylorLeyland) takes high rank among the most exquisite
examples of its kind; in particular, the central
pendant, which, by the way, from its colouring does
not appear to have been originally made for the
necklace, is a wonderful achievement of the gold-

of these quite equals the Marquess of Clanrikarde's
similar example—a bellicose triton armed with
sword and shield—in which the enameller's and the
jeweller's art is carried to the highest point; the
head of the triton and the monster on his shield
being especially remarkable as examples of enamelling on modelled surfaces.
When we come to the ivories we must reproach those who are responsible in the matter
with having admitted by far too great a number
of seventeenth-century objects. Among these is
the large and very ugly "Bust of Cosimo di
Medici" (!!) attributed to Algardi. Seeing that the
personage supposed to be represented died in 1574,
and that Algardi was born some twenty years later,
the attribution is, to say the least, a strange one.
It is in the highest degree unlikely, too, that the

EARLY ITALIAN ART AT THE NEW
charming little carving in ivory, "Medallion
with Bust of Pope Sixtus V." (William Boore, Esq.)
really represents that evergreen old pope, if, as the
catalogue states, it is by II Fiammingo, who was born

GALLERY.

201

called " A Roman Emperor and a Soldier outside
a Tent," probably represents the ghost of Hector
—the mcestissimus Hector of Virgil—appearing to
iEneas to announce that Troy is in the hands of
the Greeks.
It is a curious fact that three-quarters, at
least, of the exhibits contained in the attractive
case of Embroideries are of the full seventeenth
century, so that they have no real right to make
an appearance here. One of the exceptions is the
celebrated cope made in Florence for Henry VII.
(Rector of Stonyhurst College). This is made of
cloth of gold, with badges of red roses and portcullises brocaded in crimson velvet, and belongs to
the end of the fifteenth century.
The most important pieces of furniture here
are a "Cabinet of Milanese Work," circa 1540
(James Gurney, Esq.); the imposing "Residenza or

IVORY CARVING, " P O P E SIXTUS V."
(By II Fiammingo.

The Property of W. Boore, Esq.)

two years after his death. The ivory is clearly a
work of the seventeenth century, and if not by
II Fiammingo, is at any rate in his style. The
Florentine caskets in ivory of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries are a very interesting series, and
as of exquisite quality stands out the " Ivory
Statuette of a Huntress " (Dr. J. Lumsden Propert),
which is a work of the fifteenth century imitating
the antique.
The " Ebony Writing-Desk" (F.
Davis, Esq.), inlaid with the loveliest, the most
minute arabesques in ivory, is far more probably a
German than an Italian work.
One very interesting section of the exhibition
with which I find it impossible to deal adequately
on the present occasion is that of the Arms and
Armour. It is impossible, however, not to make an
exception in favour of the magnificent " Shield of
Russet Steel," No. 1,177 (David Currie, Esq.), a
Milanese work in repousse damascened in gold,
which is of unsurpassed beauty both of design and
execution. The invention, especially in the two
terrible Satanic masks, is as fine and original as the
execution is complete. The central composition,

URBINO EWER.
(The Property of Henry Pfungst,

Esq.)

Ceremonial Throne of Giuliano de' Medici" (G.
Donaldson, Esq.), a work which appears to us to
have undergone considerable restoration; and the
beautiful Venetian " Spinet of Pentagonal Form"
(G. Donaldson, Esq.), signed by Giovanni Celestini,
and dated 1593.

202

" LITTLE

EOUBILLAC."

IN TWO PARTS.-PAKT I.
BY AUSTIN DOBSON.

KEN, circa 1760, Goldsmith's
Chinese Philosopher visited
this country, he made it
part of his duty to seek
out famous living men,
and in one of his letters
he records the result. He
looked for them in the
bookshops, and they were not there: he looked for
them in the windows of the printsellers, and neither
were they there. They were, in short, nowhere discoverable:—"eo clariores quia imagines eorum non deferebantur," says this accomplished Oriental, quoting
Tacitus, and thereby unkindly anticipating the " conspicuous by their absence" of a latter-day Prime
Minister. Failing of the living, he fell back upon
the dead, and repaired to Westminster Abbey. But
at that time the national Valhalla was not more discriminating than the popular voice. He discovered,
indeed, numerous monuments to notabilities of
whose existence he was totally ignorant, and whose
names he speedily forgot; although he afterwards
well remembered that Eoubillac was the statuary
who carved them. " I could not help smiling at two
modern epitaphs in particular; one of which praised
the deceased for being ortus ex antiqua stirpe; the
other commended the dead, because hanc cedem suis
sumptibus reoedificavit: the greatest merit of one
consisted in his being descended from an illustrious
house; the chief distinction of the other, that he
propped up an old house that was falling down.
Alas, alas, cried I, such monuments as these confer
honour, not upon the great men, but upon little
Eoubillac."
This passage from the Citizen of the World,
written a few months before Eoubillac's death, is
almost too ambiguous to prove much in the way
of an acquaintance between Goldsmith and the
sculptor.* It has been called a friendly mention,
but it might also be explained as a contemptuous
one. Yet, with a line in the poems of Churchill's
friend Lloyd, and a reference in Foote's farce of
Taste, it apparently makes up the sum of what
eighteenth-century belles-lettres has consecrated to
the most popular artist in stone who flourished
under the second George. Lord Chesterfield, whose
bust Eoubillac modelled, is said to have declared
that he was the only statuary of his day, and that
all the rest were merely stonecutters. But Pope,

whom he carved far better than Bysbrack, never
enshrined his name in the amber of a couplet; nor
did Hogarth, wThom he equally immortalised, work
him into the accessories of a picture. He seems,
in short, to have suffered, with more than usual
severity, that frequent fate of the transplanted
artist—to be neglected in the land of his adoption,
and forgotten in the land of his birth. He was
the contemporary of Horace Walpole, yet Horace
Walpole—perhaps because of Eoubillac's connection
with his untuneable brother Edward—is culpably
perfunctory in his account of him. Allan Cunningham's sketch in the Lives, on the other hand, is
palpably padded; and beyond these, nothing now
remains but a stray paper in a magazine, a few dispersed dictionary articles, and a brief essay in biography. The story of this last is curious enough.
Ten years ago, M. Le Eoy de Sainte-Croix, a French
art-critic of some achievement, who, like Eoubillac,
was a native of Lyons, resolved to rouse his countrymen generally, and his townsmen in particular,
into some recognition of their distinguished compatriot. With a view to the erection of a statue,
he set about the preparation of a life. His book,
which is entitled " Vie e-t Ouvrages de L. F.
'Eoubillac, Scidpteur Lyonnais (1695-1762), par Le
Roy de Sainte-Croix" (du " Journal des Artsv),
purports on its title-page to be published by P.
Ollendorff, 28 bis, Eue de Eichelieu, and its date
is 1882. It was set up in type by an English firm
of printers now no longer existent; and it was no
doubt intended that the sheets should be sent to
Paris. But, for some obscure reason, this was not
done, and M. Ollendorff (we are credibly informed)
never even beheld a copy of the book which bears
his name as "Editeur." In 1882 the author died;
and I have failed, after much patient inquiry, to
find any copy of his work except in the Art Library
at South Kensington. This is to be regretted, because, though scarcely extending beyond the limits
of a pamphlet, M. Sainte-Croix's essay is distinctly
what Montaigne calls "un livre de bonne foy."
The author must have diligently ransacked many
sources for material; and, unlike some French
writers, must have studied his subject on the spot.
In spite of much needless repetition, his work, though
of necessity incomplete and tentative, remains the
sole existing attempt at any separate and systematic
account of Eoubillac's career.

* There is a popular anecdote connecting the pair; but its
authenticity is not above suspicion.

His full name was Louis Francis Eoubillac,
afterwards phonetically Anglicised into Eoubiliac;

LITTLE

ROUBILLAC.':

203

and he was born at Lyons in 1695. He is supposed and connoisseur, and he recommended Eoubillac
to have studied under his townsman Nicolas, the elder to Henry Cheere, whose stone-yard, with its once
of the Coustous, and he was subsequently a pupil popular leaden figures for gardens, is often referred
of Balthazar, sculptor to the Elector of Saxony. to in eighteenth-century literature. Cheere is " the
By the earlier authorities
he is said to have found
his way to England as
early as 1720; but as he
is not definitely heard of
here until eighteen years
later, and as in 1730 he
gained the second Grand
Prix of the Academie
Royale de Peinture et de
Sculpture with a group
representing
"Daniel
saving the chaste Susanna
at the moment when she
was being led to death," it
is highly probable that his
settlement in this country
has been antedated. According to Northcote, his
first employment in England was that of journeyman to Jervas's jproUge,
Thomas Carter of Knightsbridge, who a f t e r w a r d s
executed a bas-relief for
Colonel Townsend's monument
in
"Westminster
Abbey, and who divides
with Bird's assistant, Delvaux, a somewhat doubtful
claim to the authorship of
the leaden lion which was
once so prominent an
object on old Northumberland House. It is to be
feared that Eoubillac's first
function in Carter's establishment was little more
than that of a " botcher "
LOUIS FRANCIS EOUBILLAC.
(From the Portrait by Adrien Carpentiers, in the National Portrait Gallery.)
or repairer of antiques, for
Smith, in his "Life of
Nollekens," gives the ingredients of a cunning paste man at Hyde Park Corner " of whom Lord Ogleby
compacted of porter grounds, yolk of egg, Gloucester speaks in the Clandestine Marriage; and it is
cheese, and plaster-of-Paris with which the new obviously to Cheere's collection that Robert Lloyd
recruit was wont to renovate the battered bustos refers in the Cit's Country Box:-—
of gods and goddesses. Some time after 1732,
" And now from Hyde-Park Corner come
however, he had the good fortune to find a pocketThe gods of Athens, and of Rome.
book in Vauxhall Gardens belonging to Edward
Here squabby Cupids take their places,
With Venus, and the clumsy Graces:
Walpole, Horace Walpole's brother; and, returning
Apollo there, with aim so clever,
it with commendable promptitude to its owner,
Stretches his leaden bow for ever;
was also fortunate enough to find a life-long proAnd there, without the pow'r to fly
Stands fix'd a tip-toe Mercury."
tector. In his way, Edward Walpole was a virtuoso

204

THE MAGAZINE OF AET.

How long Eoubillac laboured in Cheere's leaden
Pantheon is uncertain; but with Cheere tradition
definitely connects what is reputed to be his
first original work in England.
In or about
the year 1738, Jonathan Tyers, the proprietor of
Vauxhall, who seems to have been very much at
the mercy of his friends (he had already been
persuaded by the painters Hayman and Hogarth

plates, crockery, and tickets of the gardens. It
was erected in May, 1738; and Tyers is said to
have given Mr. Cheere's nominee £300 for his
pains. J. E. Smith professes to have derived the
particulars of this transaction from the memoranda
of his father, who had been one of Eoubillac's
pupils; but seeing that the journals of the day
represent Eoubillac as carving the statue in his
own studio at Peter's Court, St.
Martin's Lane (the room afterwards
occupied by the St. Martin's Academy), it must be assumed either
that he set up for himself upon
obtaining Tyers' commission, or that
he had previously done so. Handel's
statue was not his only contribution
to the beauties of the Surrey paradise, The old guides to Vauxhall
mentiou, and attribute to his hand,
a further statue of Milton modelled
in lead, and " seated on a rock, in an
attitude listening to soft music," as
he is described in his " II Penseroso."What has become of this, history
has not related. It may, from its
material, have been really anterior
to the Handel, which, after many
vicissitudes, ultimately fell into the
hands of the Sacred Harmonic Society. The model, once the property of Nollekens, was last in the
possession of Hamlet the silversmith.
With the completion of the
Handel statue, the life of Eoubillac
passes once more from the datable
to the conjectural. That he had set
up for himself we know. But—
observes Walpole in a passage which
most probably refers to this period
—"he had little business till Sir
POPE.
Edward Walpole recommended him
(From the Bust by Roubillac. By Permission of A. Ilallam Murray, Esq.)
for half the busts at Trinity College,
to decorate his gardens with paintings), applied Dublin." Of these M. Sainte-Croix says nothing;
to Cheere for his suggestions. Cheere, in duty but one of them must certainly have been the bust
bound, regarded sculpture as an indispensable adorn- of Swift which is copied for the frontispiece of Mr.
ment. He was also so friendly as to hint that, Henry Craik's admirable biography; and which,
in such a musical resort, nothing could be more moreover, is mentioned in Wilde's account of Swift's
appropriate than a statue of Handel as Orpheus; closing years. As Swift never returned to England
and having gone thus far, he went on to recommend after 1727, it is scarcely possible that the bust can
that the work should be entrusted to his clever have been modelled from life; and it is probably
French assistant. This was the origin of the well- based upon Jervas's portrait. But with the bust of
known sitting statue of Handel, once so familiar Pope executed for Bolingbroke in 1741, we are
to Vauxhall visitants, not only in its proper place, on firmer ground, as it is expressly stated to be
an arch decorated with a figure of St. Cecilia from nature, and consequently represents the Pope
Hanked by Harmony and Genius, but upon the of the " New Dunciad." The original clay model,

LITTLE

EOUBILLAC.

205

which was exhibited at the Pope Commemoration of most successful when the artist has worked ad
1888, is in the possession of A. Hallam Murray, Esq., vivum; and the superior excellence of Folkes and
of Newstead, Wimbledon. It once belonged to Eogers, Mead and Chesterfield is conspicuous when they are
at whose sale it was purchased by the late - Mr. contrasted with Cromwell and Milton and Charles
John Murray; and it bears every evidence of that the First.
strong marking of the facial muscles, especially
But to the year 1743, or thereabouts, is to be
about the mouth,
attributed the first
which Eeynolds had
datable specimen of
observed to be charthat "sculpture monuacteristic of deformed
mentale et liistoriqiie"
persons. The sculptor
which Eoubillac is
himself, in an anecgenerally regarded as
dote preserved by
having been mainly
Mai one, went further
instrumental in introstill. He found, in the
ducing into England.
contracted appearance
In 1743 departed this
of the skin between
life a soldier rated by
the eyebrows, proof
some as second only
permanent of that
to Marlborough him" aching head " to
self, and moreover a
which the poet so
statesman and an oraf r e q u e n t l y refers.
tor to whom Pope had
The bust, which is
consecrated a couplet
without the wig and
in the "Satires." This
shows the natural
was that favoured
hair, is one of Eoubilchild of fortune, John
lac's most successful
Campbell, Duke of
efforts. It of course
Argyll, and first (and
fails to reproduce the
only) Duke of Greenmagic of the wonderwich. An admiring
ful eye; but it is full
friend having by will
of courage, keenness,
supplied the funds for
and alert intelligence.
a sumptuous monuOther commissions
m e n t , t h e design,
no doubt followed.
through the interest
Indeed, it is not imof Edward Walpole,
probable that to this
was e n t r u s t e d to
period belong the
Eoubillac. Thus came
terra-cotta models and
about the remarkable
casts now decorating
performance in the
the cases of the Glass
South Transept of
and Ceramic Gallery
Westminster Abbey,
DEAN SWIFT.
in
the
British
where History (dis(From the Bust by Roubillae, at Trinity College^ Dublin.)
Museum, to which
creetly pausing at
institution they were presented, soon after the that title of Greenwich which died with him) insculptor's death, by Lord Chesterfield's biographer, scribes his grace's deeds upon a pyramid, while
Dr. Maty. They comprise, among others, in addition Britannia mourns sympathetically at the side, and
to several confessed copies from the antique, studies Eloquence, a figure which won extravagant praise
of Shakespeare, Milton, Cromwell, Mead (of the from John Bacon and Canova, illustrates by her
library), Martin Folkes the antiquary, Chesterfield, speaking posture that gift of oral " persuasion"
Eichard Bentley, and the naturalists Eay and Wil- with which the duke is credited by the author of
loughby. Many of the finished marbles are now in " The Seasons " :—
the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. Speak"From his rich tongue
ing generally, these busts are, as might be expected,
Persuasion flows, and wins the high debate."

206

IN THE DOWN

COUNTRY.

BY GRAHAM R. TOMSON.
;

"lis all before the plough the fat oxen go slow,
But the lads and the lasses to the sheep-shearing go."

(Drawn by Arthur

F all the pleasanter and less-known
corners of Sussex, that portion
running inland between Eastbourne and Seaford is surely one of the most
picturesque. Wild, yet not barren, remote, yet
not desolate, this region of the Down Country
possesses a variety of charms peculiarly its own,
together with an individuality entirely apart from
that of its surrounding neighbourhood. The place
is full of ancient habitations and forgotten landmarks, investing with a strangely antiquated feeling
the scattered hamlets—some of which, indeed, are
but survivals, or metamorphoses rather, of the large
monasteries of time past. We may still see the
monks' ponds and fish-stews, and not infrequently
can trace the fretted stonework of chapel windows
in the wall of a barn. In one large homestead the
finely-carven beams of walnut-wood that formed the
ceiling of a refectory now look down upon the
rites of the "wash-house."
The whispering seas of corn ripple close beside
the gorse-bush and the elder; the pearl-coloured
sheep browse over the barrowTs of the mighty dead ;
broad-winged gulls come sailing up from the cliffs
to settle among the fresh-cut furrows, and the
burly speckled thrush bustles from cover to cover
with short, satisfied interjections. Save for a few
very unimportant details, everything is to-day as
it must have been almost from time immemorial.
The downs have taken care of t h a t : their very
steepness and the occasional suddenness of their
inclines forbid the villa, and protect, as with
fortifications, their pastoral beauty from that
disenchanting presence.
The methods of agriculture, too, can have altered
here but little: they seem still to hold something
of the simple old-world spirit that pervaded English
country-life aforetime—the homely rusticity which
we see every now and again in Morland's paintings.

Tomson.)

By far the greater portion of the tillage is
performed by the aid of oxen—majestic black or
rust-coloured animals as a rule, though sometimes
an iron-grey pair finds its way into a team. You
could hardly see a more imposing spectacle than
is presented by these quiet beasts of burden stepping slowly forward before the plough, against a
background of grey sea and" sky, their huge horns
sweeping outward in generous curves, their stately
heads bending rhythmically to the movement of
their feet, that tread, as it were, in unison with
some solemn measure. Scarcely less impressive is
their appearance at harvest-time, when they toil up
and down to the cornfields, dragging behind them
the lumbering, faded-blue waggons heaped high with
amber sheaves, or stand immovable beside the rapidly
rising stacks. Under such circumstances it is easy
to understand the tribute of superstitious veneration
yielded to the ox among peoples of an older civilisation than our own. The impressive dignity, the
air of beneficent mystery and kindly strength that
characterise the working oxen, do, in fact, produce
an impression as of something sacred—an impression
that custom does not stale or familiarity tarnish.
Here, too, the illusion is assisted by the scriptural
simplicity of their harness, or, to speak more
exactly, their yoking. Not, as in Kent, is this
object accomplished by such incongruous means
as straps and collars, but by the primitive heavy
wooden yoke and the bent ashen " bow," which
passes under the throat of the animal, and fits its
two ends into holes provided for that purpose
through the yoke above, on either side of the
neck. A long iron chain, fastened by means of
hooks to the underneath centre of each yoke,
connects one with another, and the last of all to
whichever machine may be in use. Something of
the character of the earth they till, something of
the individuality of the downs themselves, seems

IN THE DOWN

COUNTKY.

207

to animate these dark patient creatures, who might the sea and withering untimely the tender green
ght
well be, to all appearance, the incarnated genii. of of the sycamores. Within, the sheltered garden is
of
the place, as, at nightfall, they come homewards a drowsy, pleasant place enough, perhaps all the
,rds
down the grassy slopes with noiseless feet, the only more attractive for being given much its own way
nly
sound of their progress being the soft sough of now. The clipped yew has not yet lost its artiof
their breathing and the not unmusical cadence of ficial contours, but the grass is long on the straight
of
the swinging chain, invisible in the velvet dusk: of lawn, and the antirrhinums and wallflowers begin
of
the hills.
to trespass over the box-borders; while on the
Of indigenous legends there is no lack, but, so lichened walls the delicate china-roses climb and
, so
far as I have been able to discover, no known blossom in trailing luxuriance.
»wn
romance attaches to Exceat Farm, an old grange
nge
Fortunately, it would need to be a very radical
which stands looking over the salt-marsh to the kind of a change that could exorcise the sentiment
the
sea, on the eastern side of the green-paven valley of romance from Alfriston.
Lley
of the Cuckmere Grange. A broad bend of the
the
It is an old town, older than the Domesday
river, in the shape of a horseshoe, flows past it, Book, and as one ascends the crooked street, so
where a crazy little wooden stage with a rail on unlike the generality of English villages, it is imon
either hand, and a few stakes standing up out of possible not to be sensible of the weirdness of the
; of
the water at irregular distances, betoken their place. A n indescribable atmosphere clings about
leir

HARROWING,

NEAR

CUCKMERE

(Drawn by Arthur

purpose, and here the sheep from miles around are
are
brought to be washed before shearing-time. The
The
row of sycamores that stands near the entrance
tnce
on one side of the white road leading across the
the
marsh from the bridge even in summer shows
ows
leafage tanned and crisped wTith the sea wind; but
but
the grey-walled garden in front of the house} is
is
protected by an outpost of large ilex trees far older
Ider
than the building itself, stretching their twisted
sted
arms and sombre glossy foliage all around it. These,
ese,
with their gnarled grey stems and hard, shining
ling
leaves, defy those blasts that come sweeping along
ing
the valley bringing great pillows of cloud up from
com

HAVEN.

Tomson.)

that quaint double row of houses, with hardly two
alike together; some low-roofed and rough-cast,
with hollyhocks and flowering creepers showing
sharply against the light-toned walls; others of
more formal architecture, built of dark-red brick and
standing farther back from the road. There are
cottages which must be entered by climbing a tall
flight of brick steps; front-doors a step below the
level of the pavement; blind-looking houses with
entrance round a corner; jutting bow-windows, and
elaborate attempts at ornamentation after lastcentury Doric models, though the greater part of
Alfriston is of far earlier date. The mutilated

208

THE MAGAZINE OF AET.

market-cross, that, overshadowed by a large horsechestnut, stands out, grey and crumbling, where the
street widens before a block of low, yellow-washed
buildings, once the witness of bustling activity, now
looks round only on a few sleepy shops, well-nigh
too languid for commerce. The grass does not grow

THE MARKET-CROSS, ALFRISTON.
(Drmvn by Arthur

Tomson.)

in the market-place because it is used as a playground by the children ; but as a centre for buying
and selling it no longer exists.
Picturesque as are the uses of adversity, in this
instance no town in the heyday of commercial
prosperity could achieve such an air of uncanny
distinction. However that may be, no town on the
Sussex coast has had more cause to regret the final
defeat of Napoleon ; for with the battle of Waterloo
vanished the fair fortunes of Alfriston. Until then
the place was busy and flourishing, boasting a large
tanyard and a brewery ; while rope-weavers, glovers,

shoemakers, coopers, soap-boilers, candle-makers,
and even master-builders, practised successfully
their several avocations. Soldiers and volunteers
helped to swell the custom of the two inns, and
barges, " either for to buy ware or sell," plied
constantly up and down the Cuckmere, carrying on
a brisk trade between
Alfriston and Newhaven.
If it be an ill wind
that blows good to no
one, the converse holds
equally true; and thus
it was that the rejoicings
over the famous victory
ushered in bad times for
Alfriston and ruin to
some of its traders. By
swift gradations the town
reached its present condition of inertia. The
cooper's hammer was
silenced, and the tannery
fell into ruins; the disused brewery became the
haunt of vagrants, human
and four-footed; the army
of craftsmen melted away
by degrees, until the only
prosperous pursuit still
spared to the good folk
of Alfriston was their
time-honoured custom of
smuggling, and it was
long ere this was abandoned. It would seem
to have been always a
lawless little town, even
in its palmy days, ready
to share in rebellion and
to r e s e n t a u t h o r i t y .
There is chronicled a
goodly list of its inhabitants who were pardoned
for their share in Cade's
rising in 1450 ; and the " Alfriston gang" of smugglers maintained their desperate reputation until
very recently. It is only of late years that the
contraband traffic indulged in by the bulk of the
townspeople has died away. While it is interesting
to observe how the traces of it still survive in
other forms among some of the present generation,
who, if outwardly more law-abiding than their
fathers, have at heart much the same hatred of
reform and impatience of restraint. Smuggling, like
wrecking, gets into the blood, and it is not always
easy to calculate as to when it may be outworn.

209

IN THE DOWN COUNTRY.
Half-way up the village street is the Star Inn,
a Tudor building dating from 1520, once, it is said,
an ecclesiastical refuge for such as were forced to
take sanctuary, and also a halting-place for the
companies of pilgrims on their way to Chichester.
If the Star were nearly as pleasant a hostelry
then, under sacerdotal control, as it is now, I can
imagine the pious processions fabricating endless
excuses for lingering there. The steep roof overhangs a yellow-washed front, elaborately orna— . — - — . — . . . . ,

,

preservation; and in the vaults beneath exists
a murky nook (which I did not explore) where
Charles II. (so the story goes) was on one occasion
fain to hide.
The church lies a little to the right of the
village, across a green meadow called " The Tyghe,"
the recreation-ground of the people of Alfriston.
Here it was that all the matrons and maids would
assemble once a week to play stoolball. Of the
building of this church there is a legend to the

i

i

i

•••••

i

i

. . .

!•

STACK-MAKING ON HINDOVER.
(Drawn by Arthur

mented with carvings in dark wood; the upper
storey, with its small bow-windows, juts out above
the lower, and every available beam and corner is
carved with figures or symbols. On one side of
the doorway there is a graven image of St. George
overcoming the Dragon, while the other is guarded
by St. Julian, the patron saint of wayfarers. But
the grotesque red lion at the left-hand corner of
the house, is of modern addition, having been the
figurehead of a Dutch vessel that was wrecked
near Cuckmere Haven nearly a hundred years
syne. The mantelpiece in the kitchen is, like
the rest of the house, in an excellent state of

Tomson.)

effect that the foundations were at first laid in
a field, called the Savyne-Croft, on the other side
of Alfriston, but always at night removed by
some unseen power to the Tyghe. How long this
supernatural Box and Cox went on is not stated;
but the end of it was that " a certain wise man,"
passing through the Tyghe one morning, observed
" four oxen lying asleep rump to rump, in the form
of a cross," and thus the site, as well as the cruciform plan of the edifice, was arrived at. This story
is all the more interesting because it affords the
only English instance I have yet chanced upon
of recognition of the sacred attributes of the ox.

210

THE MAGAZINE

Close beside the church, which is dedicated
to St. Andrew, is the old priest-house, or preBeformation Vicarage, a beautiful example of postand-panel work. At one time this relic of priestly
days was in danger of falling into irremediable
ruin, and of being carried away as rubbish by order
of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners; but, thanks
to the energy and perseverance of the present vicar,

THE

STAR I N N ,

(Drawn by Arthur

ALFRISTON.

Tomson.)

who is a keen archaeologist, it has been temporarily
rescued from decay and is now used as a readingroom.
Old usages die hard in this out-of-the-way nook
of Down Country ; still, at Christmas-time the
mummers go from house to house in masks and gay
trappings, performing the same play, but slightly
varied, that Mr. Thomas Hardy has immortalised
in his "Keturn of the Native."
The observance of the poetic old custom of laying
a wreath of white flowers upon the coffin of every
young girl who died unmarried, and hanging it up
in the church to crumble away, like the body of the
maiden it symbolised, has only lately disappeared.
Two or three of these virgin garlands were to be
seen in Alfriston Church not long ago, the last of
their kind. But although this practice has been
discontinued, other sepulchral ceremonies remain

OF ART,

unaltered, the most markedly so with the yeoman
and agricultural classes, among whom all those of
riper years make a point of choosing, either from
their farm-servants or friends, four men to " carry "
them. A long, white smock-frock ornamented with
fine needlework is the appropriate garment reserved
for the bearers on these occasions; my friend the
oldest inhabitant, while showing me his own,
observed that he had
" carried over fifty in
dis here frock," and
commenced dreamily
to enumerate a few
others who, for the
sake of a n c i e n t
fellowship, might probably require the like
service of him in
due season.
From this same
patriarch, with his
air of shrewd kindliness and his marvellous memory, I
heard the story of
the White-way ghost,
that, from the time
of
the
discovery
(made in widening
the road) of a crouching skeleton with
skull and jaw both
shattered, had ceased
to haunt the solitary
• ••
highway between
Burnt House and
Alfriston. A stately
mansion must Burnt
House have been in its day, to judge by the fragment that is all the destroying fire of nearly a
century ago has left of it.
Never was a better place than this Down
Country for flowers. Every dyke in the green
water-meads that pave the Cuckmere valley is
thronged with mallows—tall silvery plants like fairy
hollyhocks, with clusters of pale greyish-pink
blooms; while innumerable delicate marshflowers
spring in the grass around. Then the crisp turf
above is chequered with eye-bright, all the world
like those dainty sprigged tea-services admired of
our grandmothers; purple rampions, like miniature Japanese chrysanthemums, hold their graceful
heads high over the thyme; and yellow vetchlings
and rock-cistus creep out of the wind's way, close to
the ground. The hedgerows run wild with knapweed
and honeysuckle, and later on with blackberries

MEASUEEMENT

OF LIGHT AND COLOUR SENSATIONS—A REVIEW.

and ivy blossom, red rose-berries, hawTs, dusky
sloes, and the black jewels of the privet.
It
is a severer charm that autumn brings hither, but

solemnity of a grey one. When the elm-tops are
tipped with bronze, and the ash-tree keys are all
grown rusty; when ploughing and sowing have

MA.ESHLANDS BY HINDOVEE
(Drawn by Arthur

,to me,this happy hunting-ground is never better
worth lingering in than when the black oxen come
looming through a veil of milky mist, or the burnished glory of a chill, clear day, or the*brooding

211

DOWN.

Tomson.)

begun again, and the couch-fires fill the air with
their pungent fragrance; then, if ever, it is hard to
turn town wards, leaving behind the ever active
farm life, the broad hills and open sky.

MEASUEEMENT OF LIGHT AND COLOUR SENSATIONS-A REVIEW.
BY

CAPTAIN W. DE W. ABNEY.

r p H I S volume* should be called " Ye Booke of ye
-L Tintometer and its Marvels," for it is nothing
else than a description of an excellent practical
instrument, and of the method employed with it,
for producing an imitation of the hue and intensity
of a colour. This is accomplished by looking at a
white surface through coloured glasses of varying
absorptive powers. If anything, Mr. Lovibond, the
inventor of the instrument, is an essentially practical man, and as such he has adapted his colourmeasuring apparatus for practical purposes. With
it he can measure and record the depth of dyes,
of brewing products, and the like, in times of
* " Measurement of Light and Colour Sensations." By J. W.
Lovibond. (George Gill and Sons.)

empyric standards; and so long as he is describing
these adaptations he is perfectly trustworthy, and
can be followed with pleasure. When, however, he
travels beyond these practical uses for his apparatus,
he is apt to get a little beyond his scientific depth,
and to lead the reader astray in some particulars.
In his general remarks, for instance, there are
claims put forward for the discovery of a good many
new points. Thus the instrument itself, with its
glass colour scales and their colour equivalence, and
the scheme of notation and colour nomenclature, are
claimed as new, and the author is to be congratulated on them; but there are other points wrhich
he claims as new, which may be so, but which
are doubtful of acceptance. Thus he says that the

212

THE MAGAZINE

limitation of the number of separate colour sensations appreciable by the vision is twelve, six being
simple and six compound. As to the simple colours
being six may well be doubted ; and as to the distinguishable colours being limited to twelve, no
artist, probably, would admit it. This, however,
has no doubt been arrived at by the author, because
in no case has he been dealing with colours which
are anything but impure; in fact, his coloured
glasses are as impure as the pigments which the
painter uses in his colour-box, but which they know
how to use to give the idea of purity. It was due to
his use of pigments as colour standards that led
Brewster to propound the theory that there were
three primary colours—red, yellow, and blue—for
he found that all other colours could be made by a
mixture of these. When, however, at a later date,
the pure colours of the spectrum were used, these
three primaries had to be changed to red, green,
and the deep blue of the spectrum, which is often
called violet, though it is essentially a cold colour.
It was then proved that red and green when
mixed together gave a perfect yellow, whilst no
mixture of yellow and blue would give a green.
If yellow was a compound colour, it evidently could
not be a primary, hence the green had perforce to
take the place of the yellow in the theory of colour.
Artists still hold that yellow is a primary because
yellow and blue pigments when mixed make a
green. If, however, we trace the reason of this to
its source, we shall see that the fact that a green
is so obtained is almost evidence in favour of replacing the green for the yellow as a primary. If the
colour of a yellow pigment be analysed by means of
the spectroscope, it will be found that it is composed
of red and green, as well as yellow (and it may be
remarked that the red and green being both present,
on the newer and usually accepted scientific theory,
a fresh production of yellow is caused by their
mixture). The blue of a pigment, it will be found,
is composed of blue and green, and no yellow, but
possibly just a suspicion of red. If we mix these
two pigments on a palette, we have some particles of
one of these colours lying over or under some of the
other. The light passing through the yellow par-

"1588: NEWS

OF THE

OF ART.

ticle is a mixture of yellow, red, and green, and when it
reaches and endeavours to pass through the underneath blue particle, the yellow is almost entirely
stopped, and a large preponderance of green light
passes through, and a trace of red, and these two are
reflected back on the eye, and the surface appears
green. Now Mr. Lovibond's tintometer is a counterpart of the pigments, only the colours are purer,
owing to the fact that there is no reflected white
light, which in some measure pales the resulting
hue of pigments.
He places red, yellow, and blue glasses of various
depths of hue and number between a white surface
and the eye of the observer, and naturally his yellow
and blue glasses give him green as the result of the
passage of light through them. Had he used pure
colours—that is, colours which are monochromatic—
he would have found the mixture of the two would
have given a bluish-white, a white, or a yellowishwhite, according to the amount of each present. It
is thus apparent that in working out his theory of
primaries we must be cautious in following him. He
tells us that orange is structurally monochromatic,
and for this reason wishes to substitute it for red in
the red-green-violet triad of the newer theory. That
orange is structurally monochromatic is disproved
directly an orange colour is looked at through a
pocket spectroscope, whilst red, of all colours of the
spectrum, is certainly monochromatic.
It may, however, be remarked that the value of
the instrument for practical work is by no means
vitiated by the theory adopted. The means of obtaining uniform scales of colour-shade have been
worked out with an elaboration and completeness
which is most praiseworthy ; and it is believed that
the units of colours which have been adopted could
be recovered from the data given even if every
standard were lost or broken. This in itself is
valuable; and observations recorded in terms of
these units ought to be comparable one with another
for all time.
All the experiments have been carefully and
honestly made, and from these it is open for a
reader to draw his own conclusions, which need
not necessarily be those of the author.

SPANISH

S a painter of historical genre Mr. Seymour Lucas
- has probably no superior in England at the
present day, and as with Sir Frederic Leighton and
others, Mr. Lucas's studies often surpass the finished
pictures in quality of colour, though with due consideration he invariably enhances the dignity and

A

ABMADA."

A.B.A.
significance of the composition, So it is with the
study for " Philip "—the picture which appeared at
last year's Academy exhibition, and which, calling
Mr. Lucas to Spain in search of details and atmosphere of the chapel in the Escurial, involved him
in the terrible railway accident at Burgos.

BY SEYMOUR LUCAS,

1588 : NEWS OF THE SPANISH ARMADA.
'It affected Philip so much that he shut himself up in the Escurial, and no one dared to speak to him."—FROUDB.
(From the Study for the Picture by Seymour Lucas, A.R.A.)

AN

ELDERLY

MAN

AT

THE

PLAY.

(Drawn by Richard Savage. . Poem by the Hon. Roden Noel. See next page.)
882

\

214

$n (Bf&tfy (Man si tfy. $ %
BY THE HON. RODEN NOEL.

J?ED

buds her night of hair illume,
Her cheek the •peaches downy bloom,
She sang so sweetly 'mid the flowers,
She looked so like his early love,
'The while she danced among the bowers
And with blithe laughter cheered the grove
He felt that when she left the stage,
He would but need to turn the page
From this dull twilit faded prose
To yestermorning's verse that glows,
And Loves illumination
would
With youth and hope the warm air flood.

OUR

W

ILLUSTRATED

This maiden from the sunny shore
In rapturous kisses will restore
All he was and lost of yore!
He starts ! the mirror shows grey hair;
How long since that beloved was fair ?
Full well he knows he did but rave,
There falls a shadow from the grave;
Nay, leave young maidens to young men,
The Past may never rise again !
But he would give fame, pelf, and power
For vanished youth, the faded flower.

NOTE-BOOK.

E have pleasure in reproducing herewith an Steell, B.S.A., we referred in our obituary column
altar-table and reredos—the work of Mr. last month.
Probably no city in the world owes more to a
G. D. Leslie, E.A.—which have recently been completed at St. Leonard's Church, Wallingford. The single architect than Brussels to the late M.
former has been presented entirely by the artist, Beyaert, whose portrait is presented on p. 216.
The architect of
while of the latmany of
the
ter he furnished
most admirable
the design.
modern buildings
Mr. W h i t in Brussels, and
worth Wallis and
numerous public
the Committee of
monuments, has
the Birmingham
• been called the
Corporation Art
Haussmann
of
Gallery
and
Brussels. To call
Museum are to
him so is to debe congratulated
grade his work
upon the acquiand insult his
sitions made at
memory. Haussthe dispersal of
mann set out
the Spitzer ColParis in beautiful
lection.
The
boulevards, it is
Museum has protrue, but at the
bably now the
same time he enfinest collection
dowed her with a
of art metal-work
ALTAR-TABLE AND EEEEDOS, ST. LEONARD'S CHURCH, WALLINGFORD.
monotonous sucin the kingdom.
(Designed by G., D. Leslie, R.A.)
cession of streets
The objects we
of no particular
r e p r o d u c e are
style, which display his paucity of imagination and
but a small selection from those purchased, but
they will serve as examples of the work repre- x his poverty as an architect. Beyaert, on the contrary, had great architectural knowledge—original
sented.
To the deaths of M. Cavelier and Mr. Gourlay and for the most part delightful, an excellent taste,

OUE

ILLUSTEATED

NOTE-BOOK.

215

CHISELLED IRON CASKET.
{French, 16th Century.)

STATUETTE OP CARVED WOOD.

BOTTOM OF IRON CASKET.

(Flemish, late 16th Century.)

(German, 16th Century.)

"^Sj*

IRON CASKET.

HOLY-WATER VESSEL (SILVER).

(German, 16th Century.)

(German, 16th Century.)

OBJECTS

FROM

THE

SPITZER

(Acquired by the City Museum and Art Gallery,

COLLECTION.
Birmingham.)

216

THE MAGAZINE

and a wide catholicity of spirit, varying the Romantic
style with Gothic, and Renaissance with Flemish,
according to the necessities of the case. He was an

Paris.)

prize for architectural designing at Brussels. At
the time of his death he was a Municipal Councillor
of Brussels and Commander of the Order of Leopold.

THE LATE GOURLAY STEELL, R.S.A.

THE LATE M. BEYAERT.

(From a Photograph by J. Moffat, Edinburgh.)

(From a Photograph by Geruzet Freres, Brussels.)

THE LATE J. P. CAVELIER.
{From a Photograph by Eug. Pirou,

OF ART.

architect of great ability—a good builder and a
sincere artist, who practically restored architecture
to its proper place in Belgium. Born at Courtrai

The statue of Burns, destined for Chicago, has
been successfully modelled by Mr. W. Grant Stevenson, A.RS.A. The sculptor's design was selected in
an open competition from among twenty or thirty
sent in by British and American artists. The statue
is ten feet high, and will be placed on a granite
twelve-foot pedestal. The latter will contain las-

"TAM O' SHANTER"—PANEL FOR PEDESTAL OF BURNS STATUE.
(By W. Grant Stevenson,

ROBERT BURNS.
(By W. Grant Stevenson, A.B.S A.)

in 1823, he became a pupil at the Academy of
Design at that place, and in 1846 gained the first

A.R.S.A.)

reliefs in bronze of subjects taken from the poet's
works. We reproduce one of these, illustrating Tarn
o' Shanter pursued by the witch :*—
"For Nannie, far before the rest
Hard upon noble Maggie prest."

217

THE

EOYAL ACADEMY, 1894.—I.
BY

T p H E cloud of adversity which has
-L hung for so long a time over
trade and commerce, and which, as is

M. H.

SPIELMANN.

enthusiasm is chilled, or his enterprise, at the least, stifled
by prudence; for without the wings of prosperity and encouragement, Pegasus will not fly. On the other hand, the
winter has been almost uninterruptedly fine; few fogs have
come to baulk the painter, or tricks of light to defeat his
efforts. In these circumstances, colour should be better than
usual; and as portraits must be painted, statues commissioned,
houses built, and black-and-white work demanded by the
publishers, sufficient is forthcoming to constitute a collection
of high quality of execution, even though elaborateness of
composition, elevation of subject, and " importance" in size
be absent. But even though there were nothing but " potboilers" in the exhibition, the public would have no right t|o
complain, seeing how little they do nowadays to keep the pot
a-boiling for the artist without his special solicitude. It ma|,
possibly, be declared that the exhibition is "only an average
Academy;" just as people have sagely affirmed every succeeding year from its second volume that "Punch is no longer
what it was." Seventy years ago, as recorded by Hazlitt,
ISTorthcote remarked, iii explanation of this annual verdict,
" They say the exhibition is worse every year, though it ijs
just the same; there are the same subjects, and the sarnie
painters. Admiration is a forced tribute, and to extort it
from mankind, they must be taken unaw r ares;" to which his

STUDY FOE "FATIDICA."
(By Sir Frederic Leighton, Bart.,

P.R.A.)

its wont, has reflected its darkest
shadows on the community of
artists, has lifted but little since
the Academy last closed its doors.
The consequence of this heavy
gloom is obvious. It cannot be
expected that the exhibition of
1894 will be overrich in what are
commonly known as "ambitious
works," especially from men whose
position, commercially speaking,
•. is not absolutely
assured. With unfavourable prospects
of sale—while such
collectors as t h e
financial crises have
yet left to us fix
their eyes on Christie's and its bargains
rather than on the
galleries and their
ablest contributors
— the
painter's
883

friend, acquiescing, replied, " I t is the same with
books; if an author is only equal to himself, he
is said to have fallen off. The blow to make the
same impression must be doubled."

THE

218

MAGAZINE

If anything could contribute to the advancement
and amelioration of the Eoyal Academy Exhibition
(which to some extent is synonymous with the state

OF AKT.

radical sort were introduced into the schools, which,
although they have not perhaps as yet justified their
adoption, constituted a first step in the direction of
common-sense change. A short time later, concessions were made in respect to the Press-day, in
response to the representation of the critics. The
appeal of the lady students in favour of the use
of the semi-nude model—a privilege, with more
prudence than sense, has hitherto been denied them
—is already conceded. And the rules governing
the " sending-in" of pictures—for years past a
grave scandal in the administration of the Academy—are being seriously, if timidly, considered.
We who stand outside of the great society, and are
not too much swayed by its conservative traditions
and its exaggerated sense of prudence, can only
wonder that improvements so obvious and so little
radical, should receive attention at once tardy and
grudging. Still, we need but recognise that these
matters have involved more real reform, and betokened more malleability of temper and character
in a few months, than the Academy had previously

STUDY FOR " FATIDICA."
(By Sir F. Leighton, Bart,

P.R.A.)

of the arts in England), it is the singular disposition
towards progress which the Academy has evinced of
late—a tendency to reform which will mark the
year 1893 as a red-letter epoch in its calendar. This
spirit of revision, if it but continue, will bring it as
much abreast of the times as so conservative an
institution is ever likely to come. Academies and
such-like corporate bodies, in the opinion of Northcote—one of the wittiest and most intelligent
members the Koyal Academy ever had—" are no
worse than other bodies; they all began well, and
ended ill. . . . They very soon degenerate. It is
the same with all human institutions. The thing is,
there has been no way found to keep the Devil out."
But it would really seem as if the General Assembly
and the Council which now rule over the fortunes
and direct the destinies of the ancient confederation,
had discovered the great open secret of exorcism,
and by adopting a line of progress so long and so
urgently pressed on them, had determined to keep
in touch with the necessities of the hour, and the
demands of the immediate future.
It is not long since technical alterations of a

FINAL BOUGH SKETCH FOE " FATIDICA."
(By Sir F. Leighton, Bart., P.R.A.)

betrayed any disposition of in twice as many years,
to realise to what extent the institution has changed
and promises to go on changing for the better.
But the most conclusive proof of the onward and

219

THE ROYAL ACADEMY.
upward tendency of which I write is to be found in
those solemn dynastic (I would almost say, if I may
do so without offence, those sacramental) functions

of its acts during the past quarter of a century;
and in saying this, I have, I am convinced, understated, if anything, the general feeling of the community.
It is not merely that one who
has ever been regarded
Eadical
in art has been called, so to speak,
into a Conservative artistic Ministry;
the real significance lies in the probable effect, now and hereafter, upon
the art of the country through the
imprimatur affixed to Mr. Sargent's
brilliant art and methods by the
institution which is supposed to set
the standard to the general public.
Had the Academy not elected him,
the artist's influence would, of course,
have made itself felt very nearly as
much; but as the institution has
exercised greater courage and justice
in respect to Mr. Sargent than did
the Roman Academy of St. Luke

PRELIMINARY STUDIES FOR " T H E SPIRIT OF THE SUMMIT."
(By Sir F. Leighton, Bart,
P.R.A)

—the elections of Associates. Within the past year six such
appointments have been extended to six outsiders of the first
rank. Against these elections not the socialists, not even the
anarchists among our art-writers, have had much to urge, for
ten years ago not one of these artists would have been called
conventional or academic. But the art-world revolves fast
nowadays, and that Newlyn school whose " greys," and " tones,"
and " values" were voted all but revolutionary when they were
introduced to the Englishman's astonished gaze, is now regarded
as altogether antiquated and demode1 by the more advanced of
our aesthetic Radicals. Mr. Bramley and Mr. Hacker may give
us subjects which as subjects are sometimes rifacimenti a
hundred times seen and a thousand times felt; but their point
of view and their method of execution are equally modern.
Mr. North is neither new nor old. He is himself: an impassioned student of nature, and as free from the taint of classicism
or formality, as he is untouched by the ephemeral influences
of the more experimental " schools " of the day. It is, however,
in the choice of Mr. J. M. Swan and Mr. Sargent that the
complete emancipation of the Academy has been made manifest—in their election lies the full significance of the new
Liberalism. The Academy might have reformed itself as it
would; it might have acceded to every request formulated by
the distressful Outsider; yet it would not have made so
genuine and so successful an assault upon his affections and
his artistic beliefs, as it has by this triumph of happy and, we
would fain hope, of sincere diplomacy. The opinion has already
been recorded in these columns that the Academy has in this
matter done more to reinstate itself in public esteem, and to
gain the confidence of the younger generations of artists, and
of the more " advanced" schools generally, than in any other

STUDY FOR " T H E SPIRIT OF THE SUMMIT."
(By Sir F. Leighton, Bart.,

P.R.A.)

in so obstinately rejecting Salvator
Rosa, a more immediate result may
be expected, not only in the temper
of the new generation of artists,

220

THE

but without delay in the exhibitions
in Burlington House itself.
Yet notwithstanding that the

STUDY FOE '• THE BRACELET."
(By Sir F. Leighton, Bart.,

P.R.A.)

MAGAZINE

OF ART.

Of late years, wall-space of a limited sort has been found for
examples of the arts in question, but now, as ever, not one of
those who practise them has been thought worthy of election
as Member of the Academy, or even as Associate. This neglect
is so flagrant as universally to be resented-as a scandal. It is
an outrage on our sense of the fitness of things that Turner,
David Cox, and the great school of water-colour painters were
; not qualified as water-colour artists to be members of that
Academy of Arts, which from the beginning has unavoidably
counted the merest nonentities among its members; that MrWhistler and Mr. Seymour Haden—nay, even Eembrandt
: himself—are unworthy as original etchers to meet on equal
footing the more mechanical reproducers with the burin of
other men's pictures ; and that Charles Keene, John Leech,
and Sir John Tenniel, who have moved nations to admiration
by their art, have been adjudged to stand outside the pale
' of recognised art by the representative art-institution of the
kingdom. It is quite intelligible that when painter, sculptor,
architect, or engraver dies or retires from the active list of
the Academy, there is a natural disposition, which has become
almost a religion, to elect another of- his own order in his
place. But has the time not come when the Academy should
create one, or perhaps two, new Memberships (or, at the
worst, Associateships) for each of these artistic Cinderellas
—especially at a time when no professor sufficiently accomplished in the art of line-engraving presents himself to fill
the existing vacancy ? And may it not further be understood
that when a woman-artist worthy of the distinction attracts
the attention of the Seventy—there are few enough now, it
must be admitted—her sex shall not stand in the way of her
election ? Not until these reforms are frankly recognised as
desirable, and are carried into effect, will the Academy be
accomplishing the full measure of its duties to the Art it was
established to foster, nor justify the position it now virtually
occupies as a great public department. That the time is ripe

Academy has thus been bringing itself into line with the more modern
qanons of the painter's art, it has
undeniably neglected other divisions
far exceeding the point of justice
and fairness. Just as there are
some, who acknowledge no " professions" beyond those of the Church,
the Services, and the Law, so the
Academy at its very inception ,
recognised no Arts but those of
Painting, Sculpture, and Architec- I
tiure. In course of time engraving
was, through agitation, added to the '
list, though such a professor of it as !
Sir Eobert Strange was never a j
member of the _body. But the great
arts of water-colour, etching, and
black-and-white were consistently
ignored, Until each division was
driven by this cold and utterly unjustifiable neglect
to found a Society of its own, in order to lay its
achievements properly and fairly before the public,

STUDY FOR "SUMMER SLUMBER."
(By Sir F. Leighton, Bart., P.R.A.)

for them all few, I imagine, will be disposed to
deny. That the Academy is equally mature is
hardly a matter for argument.

6

THE CANAL BEIDGE.
{From the Painting by James Maris.)

PEIVATE PICTUEE COLLECTIONS IN GLASGOW AND WEST OE
SCOTLAND.
II.—MR. ANDEEW MAXWELL'S COLLECTION.
BY ROBERT

AS I have already pointed out in my first article
-LJL on Glasgow and West of Scotland private
picture collections, the particular direction that the
cultured art-taste of Glasgow has taken during the
last twenty years or so has been mainly determined
by the personal influence of a few men who, with
decided opinions, have been always ready to give
reasons for the faith that is in them, and to express
their convictions in their practice. One of these
leaders, Mr. Andrew Maxwell, with whose collection
we have now to deal, has been for some time of
considerable importance in the art-world of Glasgow.
A friend of and a sympathiser with the late Mr.
John McGavin, he was for several years associated
with that gentleman on the Council of the Glasgow
Institute of the Fine Arts, and succeeded him as the
Institute's honorary secretary, an office from which
he has since retired, although he still takes a lively
interest in all local art-matters. His own collection
includes some fine examples of good men. His taste
is pretty severe. I can imagine Mr. Maxwell not

WALKER.

approving of a picture that really had merit, but
not his approving of a picture that was bad or in
any way meretricious.
His example of George Paul Chalmers, the "Monk's
Head " (see p. 224), while not one of the most typical
works of this artist, is admirable for its flesh tints
and effects of light and shade. I t is painted in a
strong masculine style. The memory of Paul
Chalmers will long be affectionately cherished by
those who had the privilege of knowing him, and
who, understanding somewhat of the art-history of
their country, can appreciate the quiet power he has
been for good. His was a lovable nature, bright
and kindly—with its times, too, of depression and
doubt—and utterly free from narrowness, spite, or
envy. His enthusiasm and heartiness were sometimes almost boyish in their fervour. He was an
artist to his finger-tips—too much of an artist to be
in any way a man of the world. One of the pupils
of Robert Scott Lauder, who served so usefully the
cause of art-education in Scotland, he soon gave free

222

THE MAGAZINE

play to his own natural instincts, and, as a painter,
ranked himself on the side of Rembrandt. His
colour was often splendid; he never lacked feeling
or expression. He could not paint what he did
not sympathise with; he loved mystery and suggestiveness, luminous shadows and tender half-tones.

DON C^SSAE DE BAZAN.
(From the Painting by W. Q. Orchardson, M.A.)

While many of his canvases looked slight in their
results, he was in truth a laborious worker. The
inspiration might come suddenly, but the patient
embodying of it was another matter. He was never
satisfied with what he had himself accomplished.
Israels says that the painter is in a perilous state
indeed who sits comfortably down before his canvas,
and twirling his thumbs, murmurs, "Behold, how
good a thing I have done !" But it would have
been better for art and for Chalmers's self had he
possessed less fastidiousness, less self-distrust. His
mysterious and sudden death in 1878 came as a
shock to all who knew the charm of his companionship. It is pleasant to remember that almost the last
words he spoke were in the Edinburgh Artists' Club,

OF ART.

in praise of Corot, and if I mistake not, in praise
of the particular picture, the " Souvenir d'ltalie,"
which appeared in THE MAGAZINE OF ART for March,
p. 154. The exhibition of his collected works in
the Glasgow Institute Galleries, in 1880, showed the
variety, the breadth, the quality, the quick-seeing,
artistic instinct of this true painter.
At his death, at the age of forty-four,
his powers seemed to be ripening to
maturity, but the harvest was not to be !
Chalmers exercised no small influence
over Mr. McGavin in art-matters, hence
we in the west have reason to be thankful to him. One of Chalmers's finest
portraits is that of Mr. McGavin, which
now hangs in the Corporation Galleries,
Glasgow. For this portrait the artist is
said to have had over ninety sittings!
Chalmers's pictures were seldom seen
during his lifetime in the Royal Academy
exhibitions. He loved not exhibitions
at the best, and contributed mainly,
although not profusely, to the Royal
Scottish Academy. There was a fine
work by him, " The End of the Harvest," in the recent " Old Masters " Exhibition, at Burlington House.
In " L'Enfant couchee " (p. 225) Mr.
Maxwell is fortunate in possessing a
beautiful example of Matthew Maris.
The three brothers Maris are all artists
in the best sense of the word, each with
his own outlook and distinctive style,
but Matthew is surely the greatest of
the three.- He may be, as one most accomplished critic terms him, " a painter
of dreams," but when the same authority
declares that there is a tinge of morbidity
in his work, we are not required to agree
with the critic. His tone and colour are
generally superb—not, be it understood,
in any wray gorgeous—and his self-restraint admirable. His every touch tells, frequently from its
very simplicity. He never puts on paint for the
mere sake of display: he is absolutely without
affectation. "We see this in his small landscapes,
in such a picture as " He is coming!" and in this
" Enfant couchee." If he do6s take us into a world
that is not like the real world of to-day, all compact
of hard and strong facts; if he gives us glimpses of
a beautiful land where the conditions of existence
are gentler and more gracious than they are here,
are our thanks not due to the poet-painter ? He is
one of the most unworldly of men and artists : he
lives only for his art, and is unwearied in hei
service. For art he counts no sacrifice too great,

MR

ANDKEW MAXWELL'S

and all his own attainments as nothing. A sweeter
little soul than " L'Enfant couch6e " " never looked
through human eyes." The eyes are gray and
tender; the expression is singularly wistful and
winsome, and yet full of childish innocence. Wordsworth's " Lucy " must have been just such a little
maiden — " the swTeetest thing that ever grew."
Matthew Maris's beautiful colour is all over the
picture ; in the hair, the dress, the blossoms,
the butterflies we have exquisite harmony of tone.
Another characteristic work by Matthew Maris,
owned by Mr. Maxwell, is " The Lady of Shalott,"

COLLECTION.

223

gradation and colour, and the grey sky excellent.
In skies and clouds James Maris seldom fails.
Mr. Maxwell's " Morning by the Sea," by Corot
(p. 227), is one of that master's finest works, displaying
all his characteristic merits. The trees are painted
with an absolute knowledge of their forms, and yet
with a grace and tenderness and intense sympathy
that come direct from the heart of the great painter.
The aerial effect is splendid; both sky and landscape are full of light and distance and the freshness
of morning. The bay, shimmering in the early
sunshine, stretches to the headland, crowned with

THE PANCAKE.
(From the Painting by Josef Israels.)

as we have her in the first part of Tennyson's poem.
The weird suggestiveness of the figure—half revealing, half concealing all the artist would have us
understand from his conception, the tone and quality
of the colour, give this picture distinction and individual character.
James Maris is, in his own way, about as great
as his brother. In his many notable landscapes, his
rendering is marked by keen insight, directness, and
strength. We have in " The Canal Bridge " (p. 221)
a Dutch scene by a hand that knows exactly how
much to give us, and how much to leave out. The
composition is natural, the distance charming in

a domed building—a favourite touch of Corot's.
The light glances off the dancing leaves and
brightens up the delicate tints of the dresses of the
children, who frolic as befits the morning of thenlives. We have dignity and repose in the picture;
we have also the joy and hope that come to earth
and to men with the opening of a new day.
Mr. W. Q. Orchardson's harmonious scheme of
colour, grey and yellow, with light red introduced here
and there, is shown to good purpose in " Don Caesar
de Bazan." The figure is both easy and dignified.
The accomplished painter's knowledge and his
mastery of his material are strongly shown in the

224

THE MAGAZINE

dainty water-colour of "Autumn," by L. AlmaTadema. The textures are, of course, admirable,
and the colour throughout is sweet and pleasant.
The landscape of trees and the glimpse of undulating ground to the right give value and
variety to the composition. With the daintiness

OF AET.

ordinary beings whom we encounter in the daily
round of life. They never existed in this work-aday world, and more's the pity! I shall have to
deal at length with, Moore in connection with
another Glasgow collection, so I shall only say
that in Mr. Maxwell's " The Fan" (reproduced as

THE MONK.
{From the Painting by George Paul Chalmers.)

in general treatment there is combined dignity of
arrangement.
There is seriousness, but no sadness, in " The
Pancake," by Josef Israels. It is a pleasant little
scene in the life of a poor family, and the enjoyment
of the children will be none the less deep because
the elements of their happiness are of the simplest
kind. The painting is broad, with rich shadows,
and fine tone and quality in the background. This
example of the Dutch painter is altogether wholesome in both spirit and technique. It is a convincing answer to those who would have us believe
that he can paint nothing but melancholy scenes.
Albert Moore moved in a world of his own.
His creations of grace and beauty must be judged of
by other standards than those we apply to the

the frontispiece to this Part), the graceful attitudes
of the girls, their languorous ease begotten of the
drowsy summer day, the diaphanous draperies, the
delicacy of colour, leave, on the score of beauty,
little to be desired. We sigh only because no Act
of Parliament can ever make reality out of Mr.
Moore's dreams of " things as they might be."
It was found impossible to reproduce properly in
black and white Mr. Maxwell's Monet, "Effet de
Neige." Its varied play of colour cannot be rendered in monotone. The effect, to. appearance, is
simply got—so simply that it, at first, deceives you
with its seeming easiness, and then bewilders and
puzzles you as to how it has been done. Light
blues and. greens and yellows in separate touches
make, on the canvas, wonderful combinations with

884

ME. ANDBEW

{From the Water-Colour Drawing by L. Alma-Tadema,

R.A.

MAXWELL'S

227

COLLECTION.

AUTUMN,
By Special Permission of Mr. H. L. Lefevre, the Owner of the Copyright.)

white, and, as the result, the picture—" winter"
though it be—positively lights up the wall on which
it hangs. The cold blue sky with the yellowish
clouds is a noteworthy bit of work. Everything
is done in the most direct manner, and, at the
right point of view, each stroke or dash or touch
falls into its proper place and combines to produce the general effect. Impressionism such as
Monet's in this picture is verily good. We have
here the expression of the artist's own nature, of
what he really saw, undistorted by conventionalism,
unspoilt by any idolatry of tradition. Monet is not

always so fine as this, but he must be blind who
would deny the beneficial influence he and his
fellows—at least the best of them—have had upon
latter-day art. Only we must beware of imitations :
through foolish imitations, the daring innovations—
or reforms if you like—of to-day, grow into the
rigid conventionalisms of succeeding years. And a
man must feel like an impressionist before he can
paint as one. He must be fashioned that way.
Among Mr. Maxwell's other pictures, I can
mention now only a clever canal scene by Tholen,
with striking effects of artificial light.

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MORNING BY T H E SEA.
(From the Painting by Corot.)

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B Y REV. W. J. LOFTIE.

L

ILLUSTRATED B Y H E R B E R T

OOKING at Mr. Eailton's sketches of Emmanuel
Hospital is but a melancholy pleasure. Eegret
at the destruction—the needless and wanton destruction—of the old buildings leaves a feeling of
pain, almost of indignation. We perceive that we
have been robbed of part of our inheritance. Mr.
Eailton has done all he can to leave a memorial in
black and white. For the colour we must now go
to the " Harbour of Eef uge," by Frederick Walker.
Great efforts were made; money which might,
as it turns out, have been better spent, was subscribed, even a kind of arbitrator was appointed,
with a view to saving the building, if not the
institution. But the case was prejudged. Time,
trouble, and money were alike wasted, for greed was
lord of all. A few pounds might be obtained for
the sale of the site—a few pounds which, if any
should be left when a contractor had been paid
to clear away the old hospital, might be added to
the charity, already so wealthy. Meanwhile we
and our posterity are robbed. Such a place as
this formed a national heirloom—something which,
though not very valuable in itself, cannot be replaced for any number of millions. In Westminster
for some time past there has been a crusade going on
against everything venerable—everything picturesque.
The school, with its date 1688, which stands at the
other side of the street—what the street is called
we can only guess—is surrounded with hoardings,
and will soon disappear, and what used to be almost
an oasis in the wilderness of miserable and magnificent architecture will have finally retired in favour
of brown brick and commonplace vulgarity.

RAILTON.

A last sad visit, paid during the winter, while
something remained of the old almshouses, though
much had been destroyed and removed, still left on
the mind a strong sense of beauty—in decay, it is
true, but unquestionably of beauty such as is not
to be found anywhere in the neighbouring Victoria
Street. The almshouses were built at a very good
period—a period when architects gave their minds
to making a small or poor building look dignified.
Ornament, the only resource of the modern builder,
will never do that; but Emmanuel Hospital, small
as it was, showed everywhere design and forethought, and skill in using commonplace details so
as to combine them into a picturesque whole. The
wings contained the houses of the twenty inmates.
In the centre, marked by a turret, was a chapel,
reached by a flight of steps, over which was the
only bit of ornament in the whole place, a pediment
carved with the founder's arms. The date of the
building was plain from the most cursory glance.
It was in the style which we hear much talked
about nowadays, but wThich architects seldom really
practise—the style of the time of Queen Anne.
The history of the Dacres " of the South," as
they were called, is full of interest, yet extremely
difficult to unravel. Some time toward the end of
the reign of Henry VIII. crime and calamity overwhelmed the old Sussex family of Fienes of Herstmonceux. One of the family, Eichard Fienes, married Joan, the daughter of Thomas Dacre, the eldest
son of the Lord Dacre of that period—namely, the
middle of the fifteenth century. There was much
litigation between the Fienes family and the heirs

EMMANUEL HOSPITAL, WESTMINSTER
male of the Dacres, which was eventually settled by
the apparent partition of the barony between the
Lords Dacre of the North and the Lords Dacre of
the South. At Herstmonceux the latter family
might have nourished in honour till the present day
—for the title is not even
now extinct—but for the
terrible event to which I
have alluded.
A couple of miles to
the north of Herstmonceux is Hellingley, and a
field in the parish, not far
from the parish church,
is still known as Pickhay
Field. Here one fine night
in 1541 Lord Dacre and
some wild young friends,
i n t e n t on r o b b i n g t h e
deer-park of Sir Nicholas
Pelham, close by, met a
gamekeeper named John
Busbridge. Him they
smote so severely that he
soon after died, and so
Lord Dacre and three
others were tried and beheaded—or, according to
some authorities, hanged
—at Tyburn in the same
year. The law must have
been strained. Few people
have ever been put to
death in England for what
is called constructive murder. Dacre was not even
in Pickhay Field when the
"- >«~*
affray took place, and there
were not wanting those
who thought his great
wealth—which, it was supposed, would escheat to the
Crown—had more to do with his death than his
part'in an unlawful expedition in which somebody
else fatally assaulted a gamekeeper. In this expectation the greedy courtiers of Henry VIII. were
disappointed. The estates were so strictly entailed
that in spite of the forfeiture of this third lord
of the Fienes family they passed to his brother
Gregory, who lived at Herstmonceux with his wife,
Anne Sackville, until better days came. In 1558
Gregory was " restored in blood." In 1573 he
was summoned to Parliament in the barony of his
ancestors as Lord Dacre of the South, and in 1576
his wife succeeded her mother and stepfather in
possession of the house at Chelsea long occupied

229

by Sir Thomas More, the ill-fated Chancellor of
Henry VIII.
Lord and Lady Dacre had no children. The old
race of Fienes wTas destined to become extinct, and
the entailed estates to pass to the family of a sister.

They resolved, however, that their memory should
be kept alive in some better way than by titles and
honours. Lord Dacre died in 1594, but his widow,
whose wealth was in no way affected by the settlements of the Fienes family, decided to carry out
his wishes. She only survived him till the beginning of the next year, but had meanwhile made a
very careful will, by which, eventually, Westminster
came into the possession of the almshouses called
Emmanuel Hospital, certain presentations to which
were left to the parish of Chelsea, on condition of
her monument and that of her lord being kept in
repair. This monument is still in existence, and
is one of the principal ornaments of the old church.

230

THE MAGAZINE

OF AET.

It stood at first in Sir Thomas More's chapel, but
was afterwards removed to its present position in
the south aisle.
Six years elapsed after Lady Dacre's death,
while lawyers and others took their toll of her
bequest, before her wishes were completely carried
out. The parishes to be benefited were those of
Westminster, Chelsea, Hayes in Middlesex, and
Brandesburton near Beverley in Yorkshire. The
whole manor of Brandesburton was bequeathed, for
the purposes of the trust, to the executors. In 1601
a charter was obtained from Queen Elizabeth, and
the house in Tothill Fields was constituted a
hospital for the poor under the name of Emmanuel
Hospital. A kind of school formed part of the

course quite contrary to the reforming tendencies
of this enlightened age. Lady Dacre's school was
the first upon which the newly-appointed Endowed
Schools Commission pounced, and when we heard
of it last sixty-three children were being fed, clothed,
and taught—but whether in " virtue or in good and
laudable acts " who can say ?
The Hospital remained in Tothill Fields. The
site was part of a little estate which had belonged
to Loi'd and Lady Dacre, who, before the inheritance
of Chelsea, had lived close by, at Stourton House,
the site of which, with its surrounding " compound,"
is still marked by Stourton (corrupted into Strutton)
Ground. In 1794, a hundred years ago, leases at
Brandesburton and other places fell in, and the

original scheme, under which, apparently, each poor
man and each poor woman who could do it undertook the charge of an orphan child. Such inmates
were to instruct the child " in virtue and in good
and laudable acts." Lady Dacre probably did not
contemplate reading, writing, and arithmetic as of
much use in the class for which her charities were
designed. A school was, nevertheless, eventually
established in 1735. This arrangement was of

charity was greatly extended. The Lord Mayor
and Aldermen of London had become the governors. Those who admired the old buildings used
to think that with such guardians they were safe.
But no; the house agent element in the present
Corporation rendered it no more trustworthy than
a committee of the Endowed Schools Commission,
and Emmanuel Hospital, in spite of vehement efforts
to save it, is a thing of the past.

231

" LITTLE

KOUBXLLAC."

IN TWO PARTS.—PART II.
BY AUSTIN DOBSON.

HE monument of the Duke have been of an imperative character, since her
of Argyll, referred to in the husband, not many months after his marriage, went
previous article—with one on a Continental tour and left his wife behind.
exception the finest of Eou- When, in October, 1752, Eeynolds was hastening
billac's monumental efforts— homeward from Italy he met Eoubiliac, Arthur
was followed by three others Pond, and his old master Hudson, on their way to
in the nave of Westminster Eome—Eoubiliac going for the first time. Of this
Abbey, conceived in the belated exploration of the Ancients, accounts vary.
same allegoric pattern—that " He staid but three days in Eome," said Flaxto Marshal Wade, and those man contemptuously, "and laughed at ancient
to General Fleming and General Hargrave. It is at sculpture." But Northcote tells a different tale.
these last-named mural medleys, and at General According to him Eoubiliac expressed himself
Hargrave's in particular, that Goldsmith is sup- rapturously to Eeynolds about what he had seen
posed to glance when he speaks of the memorials abroad. The key to this apparent contradiction
which dignify their designer rather than the dead. probably lies in the fact that what Eoubiliac
Neither General Fleming nor General Hargrave praised to Eeynolds was, not so much those timehad done anything deserving either of a sculptor honoured antiques that Flaxman loved, but the
or a vates sacer. The former, indeed, had been more modern masterpieces of a sculptor whose
wounded as a captain under Marlborough at Blen- work appealed more directly to his own personal
heim, and had been present at Falkirk and Culloden. taste and traditions. What chiefly attracted EouBut to the exploits of the latter, not even the all- biliac in the Eternal City was the transitory work
embracing " Dictionary of National Biography " has of Bernini. And it was no doubt Bernini whom
vouchsafed a line, although he has an earthquake he had in mind when, on his return, he hurried
nervously to Westminster to inspect his own
to himself in Westminster Abbey.
In the year 1750 History, not prodigal in the efforts by the light of his latest experiences. The
minor details of Eoubillac's life, records that Tyers result (he told Eeynolds sadly) was profoundly
lent him twenty pounds—a painful reminder that humiliating. All he had done seemed " meagre
even costly tributes to rich men do not always and starved, as if made of nothing but tobaccoensure opulence. In the following year he executed pipes."
a monument at Oxford to Henry Chichele, the
From this date his story becomes more than
founder of All Souls. Then, at the beginning of ever the record of his work, and of that work it
1752, being himself of the mature age of fifty-seven, is only necessary to specify the more successful
he married. Of this fact there can be no doubt, pieces.
In 1753 he completed another great
as it was " in all the papers;" and Mr. Justice sepulchral trophy, the monument to Admiral Sir
Fielding copied it from the General Advertiser, Peter Warren, which includes a brawny Hercules
with other fashionable intelligence, into Number (with thews carefully studied from the watermen
4 of his own newly established Covent Garden and chairmen of the period) and a justly praised
Journal. " A Few Days since [the date of this figure of Navigation. The Warren monument is
veracious record is January 11, 1752] was married in the North Transept of the Abbey. Five years later
Mr. Eoubiliac, an eminent Statuary in St: Martin's he executed for Garrick, and, in a measure from
Lane, to Miss Crosby of Deptford, a celebrated Garrick, who posed as his model, the well-known
Beauty, with a Fortune of ten Thousand Pounds." figure of Shakespeare, which, after long decorating
Here, it should seem, in the conventional phrase its special temple in the actor's villa at Hampton,
at which Fielding was so fond of poking fun, were now, under his will, decorates the British Museum.
"all the Accomplishments necessary to render the For this statue Garrick gave Eoubiliac three
Marriage State truly happy." But, unluckily, this hundred guineas, and he also gave him an infinity of
is absolutely the only reference to the circumstance trouble. By ill luck, the marble turned out streaked,
which has survived. The " Fortune of Ten Thou- and the actor complained that Eoubiliac had carved
sand Pounds " (if it ever existed) must have vanished him a Shakespeare marked with mulberries, upon
like fairy gold, for, ten years later, Eoubiliac died which the compliant sculptor removed the head, and
poor; while the charms of the lady can scarcely substituted another.
After Shakespeare came a

232

THE MAGAZINE

second but not very successful statue of Handel
above his grave in Poets' Corner; and, lastly, what
may be regarded as Eoubillac's masterpiece in this
line, the well-known monument to Mr. Nightingale
and his wife, Lady Huntingdon's sister. Death,
shrouded and terrible, bursts through the black doors

OF AET.

tion, who, having entered the Abbey on a moonlight
night with felonious intent, was so startled by Death's
minatory gesture that he decamped at once, leaving
his professional "jemmy" or crowbar of office
(" oppositis foribus minax") on the pavement in
front of the tomb. It was, according to Dean
Stanley, piously preserved as a
testimony to his terror.
The above examples by no means
exhaust the list of Eoubillac's successes. At Trinity College, Cambridge, there is a justly famous
statue, the—
" Newton with his prism* and silent face,
The marble index of a mind for ever
Voyaging through strange seas of thought,
alone "—

which Wordsworth used to watch,
on moonlight nights, from his window at St. John's; in Worcester
Cathedral there are notable monuments to Bishops Hough and Hurd.
Another much-praised performance
is that in the church of Waltonupon-Thames to the last Lord
Shannon—a further compilation in
the Hargrave and Fleming manner
of allegorical figures, guns, drums,
and standards in stone. Besides
these, scattered about in public
institutions and private galleries,
there are a number of busts, like
the Hogarth in the National Portrait Gallery, the Wilton in the
Eoyal Academy, and the Garrick
at the Garrick Club, which only
need a patient and conscientious
chronicler. After the Nightingale
monument, however, which was
erected in 1761, Eoubillac can have
done little, for early in the following year, on the 11th of January,
he died, and was buried four days
later " in St. Martin's Churchyard,
under the window of the Bell
THE NIGHTINGALE MONUMENT, WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
Bagnio." His funeral was attended
(By Roubillac. From a Photograph by Messrs. York and Son, Notting Hill, W.)
by Hogarth, Eeynolds, Hayman, and
the leading members of that St. Martin's Lane Acaat the base of the monument, and threatens with his
dart the failing figure of the young wife (she was demy which, when he moved his studio from Peter's
Court, had entered upon his vacated premises. He
but six-and-twenty!) who sinks dissolving on her
need not, one would think, have died poor, for a
husband's arm. The group which, like the Warren
receipt in the Morrison collection of autographs for
monument, suggests the influence of Bernini, is the
£500 for the Lynn monument in Southwick Church,
tie plus ultra of the Eoubillac manner—a manner
Northamptonshire, shows that his prices were by
theatric, fantastic, artificial if you will, but extrano means contemptible. Yet, according to Smith's
ordinarily dexterous and clever; and one almost feels
inclined to sympathise with the burglar of tradi* He holds a prism in his hand.

'IPIillT llllffllW!•:!iSIHIilillill(:ll'M,,"'

PURITANS AND CAVALIERS.
(From the Painting by H. PUle at the Salon of the Champs Elysies. Engraved by A. Bellenger.)

LITTLE

" Nollekens," he left this world so seriously in debt
that his effects, when all necessary expenses were defrayed, paid no more than eighteenpence in the pound.
At the Spring Gardens Exhibition of May,
1761—that second exhibition to the catalogue of
which Hogarth contributed its most effective decorations—there was a portrait in oil of Eoubillac,
purporting to be executed by himself. To infer
its value from the fact that it only fetched
three-and-sixpence at the sale of his property would be unwise, since, at the same
sale, a copy by Eeynolds of the Chandos
Shakespeare realised, with seven other
pictures, no more than a paltry ten shillings. But seeing that the Spring Gardens
catalogue expressly describes the portrait
as the artist's " first attempt," it is probable
that its merits were not obtrusive. Fortunately, its loss is more than atoned for
by the very characteristic half-length—also
in the same exhibition, and now at Bethnal
Green—which was painted by his Swiss
friend, Adrien Carpentiers. This, the blackand-white aspect of which is familiar in
the mezzotint of David Martin (1765),
shows Eoubillac at work upon a statuette
of Shakespeare, the head of which he is
delicately touching with his modelling tool.
The portrait is that of a spare-fleshed,
keen-featured little man, with red lips and
bright eyes, full of vivacity and nervous
energy. His dark-skinned Gallic face is
closely shaven; he wears a grey, frogged
coat, artistically open at the throat, and
in place of his wig, a greenish-looking cap.
From the scattered anecdotes which
have been recorded of him, taken in connection with his likeness and his work, it
is comparatively easy to construct his character. Though he lived here for a quarter
of a century, he remained a foreigner, preserving the characteristics of his race, and
to the last speaking English "as she is
spoke" (for Frenchmen) in the pages of
Fielding and Smollett. An enthusiast in his art, and
an unwearied worker, his pleasures—at all events
during his bachelorhood—seem to have been confined
to an evening look-in, for chess or draughts, at Old
Slaughter's, or some of the other friendly hostelries
of St. Martin's Lane, where, at that time, " most did
congregate" the literary and artistic notabilities
of the neighbourhood: Isaac "Ware the architect
(whose bust Eoubillac modelled); Hogarth and
Hudson; Parry, the blind harper; McArdell and
Luke Sullivan, the engravers; Hubert Bourguignon,
otherwise Gravelot, the book-illustrator; and Moser,
885

233

EOUBILLAC."

more familiarly known as Old Moser, the keeper
of the St. Martin's Lane Academy. In such a
company, one must, imagine Eoubillac passing briskly
to and fro, and energetically " piecing the imperfections" of his English by his emphatic gestures.
When absorbed by his work, he was often absentminded, and perhaps not without the affectation
of a greater eccentricity than he really possessed.

HOGARTH.
(From the Bust by Eoubillac, in the National Portrait Gallery.)

Once, while he was engaged on the Nightingale
monument, a messenger found him plunged in a
fit of abstraction before one of the kneeling figures
in the adjacent tomb of Sir Francis Vere. "Hush!"
—he whispered mysteriously, when his attention
was at length aroused,—" hush! he vil speak
presently."
Upon another occasion, being preoccupied with his own conception of Mr. Nightingale, he suddenly dropped his knife and fork at
dinner, and flung himself into an attitude of horror
which almost petrified the luckless serving boy at
whom his looks appeared to be directed. Something

234

THE MAGAZINE

of the same restless and impulsive extravagance
no doubt passed into and exaggerated his manner of speaking. There is a story that when he
wanted an inscription for one of his Westminster
efforts, Eeynolds accompanied him to Johnson's
famous Gough Square garret. Eoubillac straightway
began a full-blown and highly-seasoned harangue in
order to explain his errand. But the big man was
down upon him instanter, bidding him bluntly (in
Falstaff phrase) " deliver himself like a man of this
world."
" Come,
come, sir," said he
in his most magisterial manner, "let
us have no more
of this bombastic,
ridiculous rhodomontade. Let me
know, in simple
language,
the
name, character,
and quality of the
person whose epitaph you intend to
have me write."

OF ART.

tratus. Like the lover in the old song, "it is not
Beauty he demands "—at all events it is not Beauty
exclusively; it is Character first. One can understand how opposed his "tormented" and dramatic
manner must have been to the restrained and stately
style of Flaxman—Flaxman who could see in him
nothing but conceits and epigrams of the chisel.
One can understand also how infinitely Eoubillac
would have preferred to Flaxman's Greek severities
what Northcote calls " the captivating and luxuriant
splendours of Bernini." Eoubillac,
in short, besides
being a Frenchman
in grain, which was
much, was also an
eighteenth-century realist, which
was more.
He
delighted in the
seizure of fugitive
e x p r e s s i o n , the
fixing of momentary gesture, the
indication
of
moods of mind,
As a sculptor,
the ingenious reEoubillac retains
production of costhe traces of his
tume, detail,
foreign training as
texture, surface.
markedly as he
He
copies the
retains the immarks of smallpress of his foreign
pox, the traces of
nationality.
To
ancient scars, the
the last he is the
petty folds and
pupil of Coustou
trivial wrinkles of
and
Balthazar;
material. In his
and he had little
work it is idle to
temptation to be
look for repose,
otherwise. Neither
for gravity, for digfrom E y s b r a c k
nity. But he will
nor Scheemakers,
give you action,
aliens like himself,
even to gesticulaand schooled upon
DE. MEAD.
tion ; expression,
alien models, was
(From the Terra-Cotta Bust by RoubUlac, in the British Museum.)
even to grimace.
he likely to learn
He is most successful in his busts; and these again
anything, even if they had been his superiors in
are best of their kind when, like those of Pope and
ability, which they certainly were not; and there
Hogarth, they are modelled from the life. Of his
was no English master of sufficient importance to
elaborate monumental and sepulchral efforts, the day
influence him in any way. Indeed, to define him
is past. Those to whom the Nightingale tomb now
accurately, one has to go back to the old distinction
seems bizarre and exotic may nevertheless take
between Greek and Eoman art—between the type
pleasure in remembering that it was once admired
and the individual. It is not to the school of Phidias
by a great authority on the Sublime and Beautiful
or Praxiteles that Eoubillac belongs; it is to the
—by the critic and orator, Edmund Burke.
school of Lysippus, or rather of his brother Lysis-

. y.-.
STUDY

OF

SHEEP.

(By A. Van de Velcle. From " Les Artistes Celebres"—" Les Van de Velde.")

SOME EECENT

I

ILLUSTBATED

N the series of " Les Artistes Celebres " (Librairie
de l'Art, Paris) we have the monograph by
Monsieur A. Gazier on " Philippe et Jean-Baptiste
de Champaigne." The feature of this biography—
which, though it is confessedly addressed to the
greater public, is yet a serious contribution to the
literature of art—is that uncle and nephew are
placed in their proper position and surroundings, and
appear as the painters-in-ordinary to the celebrated
monastery of Port-Eoyal. The story of these painters
of fashion and priesthood is an interesting one,
and the omission of Ste.-Beuve is remedied, by the
adequate maimer in which Port-Eoyal and its position are dealt with. The illustration of the volume
is profuse, but being for the most part reduced, not
from the original pictures, but from the engravings of them (mostly by Morin and Edelinck), it
is not as satisfactory in its results as it might be.
In the same series M. Duplessis, the keeper
of the print-room at the National Library of
Prance, has devoted a volume to " Les Audrans,"
small, but excellent in its matter, and sufficiently
learned to make it the most important essay yet
issued on the work of the famous engravers. The

VOLUMES.

art of line-engraving has rarely run so persistently
in families as in that of the Audran, of whom
the first, Charles, was born in 1594, and the last
Prosper - Gabriel, died in 1819. M. Duplessis
chronicles no fewer than thirteen of the family,
and gives examples of the work of most of them.
His colleague, M. Henri Bouchot, deals with the
more interesting and more important artists, " Les
Clouets et Corneille de Lyon." Jean Clouet, better
known in England perhaps as Janet, and his rival
Corneille de la Haye, have, of course, become
absorbed by Prance in its list of masters; but, in
point of fact, they both came from Flanders, and
it was only Francois Clouet who could at all be considered a Frenchman. M. Buchot's treatise is quite
up to the level of the majority of the series. It is
in no sense a compilation, but a work of original research ; and the author claims that the illustrations
(some of which are good) show for the first time indisputable works of Clouet and Corneille " de Lyon,"
after originals in national museums of France,
hitherto unknown. At greater length, for much
more is known of them, has M. Emile Michel—the
eminent biographer of Eernbrandt—dealt with " Les

236

THE MAGAZINE

Van de Yelde." As in his former work, we have the
rare taste, the scholarship, and the critical acumen
which are distinctive of the author. He deals with
each of the Van de Veldes in turn and almost
with equal thoroughness—Jan the First (the writing

OF ART.

the " J. B. Greuze," by M. Charles Normand. The
story of this painter—the vainest, the most successful,
the most superficial (in a sense), and now the most
ill-considered though among the highest praised of
all the more eminent artists of the French school—is

STUDY OP A YOUNG WOMAN.
(By Greuze. From " Les Artistes Celebres"—" J. B. Greuze.")

master); Esaias; Jan the Second (the engraver),
William the elder and his two famous sons, William (the marine painter and first " special war
artist") and Adrian (the animal painter). A large
selection of their works is reproduced, for the most
part with greater care than is usual in this series,
while the book itself is written with a lighter pen
than is commonly devoted to scholarly monographs.
Another volume of this rapidly-produced series is

told in the greatest detail, and much that has hitherto
been little understood is clearly set forth. M.
Nbrmand renders full justice to his subject; but he
is no hero-worshipper, and seeks no more credit for
Greuze than he rightly may. Yet it cannot be denied
that Greuze has suffered overmuch for his affectation
and sickly sentiment and bon-bon prettiness ; and
that the public in its displeasure has neither made
allowance for the demands made upon the painter

SOME EECENT ILLUSTRATED VOLUMES.
by the age and fashion in which he lived, nor given
credit for the often fine quality of his paint. M. Nor-

237

M

ESSES. MACMILLAN" have struck a good
vein in their series of Old English classics,
and have done well to follow the " Vicar of Wakefield " and "Cranford" with Miss Mitford's "Our
Village." Is it a sign that our country is growing
old, it takes so much pleasure in looking back
upon itself when it was younger ? These stories
of a bygone day, of a simple life which has well-

THE CAETEE'S BOY.
{Drawn by Hugh Thomson.

CLOCK.
(From "Les Artistes Cttehres"—"Les

v

Boulle.")

mand has carried out his task excellently well, and
his book is rendered the more valuable for the inclusion of many brilliant studies by the artist, as well
as reproductions of all his better-known pictures, g

From " Our Vilt

nigh passed away, have a charm to-day greater
than ever. Our fathers and mothers loved them,
it is true; but the quiet, simple life was not so
far from them, and could not have seemed so
unattainable as to us.
To those who are not acquainted with the
story of Miss Mitford's life—a quite pathetic one
—Mrs. Ritchie's delightful introduction to the book
will be most welcome. Mr. Hugh Thomson has
never done better work than in these illustrations.
He is a man to be envied. For months he must
have been living in " Our Village," and that he
loves the inhabitants is shown by his sympathetic
version of them. Now and then he seems not
quite to realise his characters—as, for instance,
in his " Recruiting Sergeant" (page 15) and his
" Joseph White Carrying Off the Fair Rachel"
(page 51). These are caricature rather than character ; but his women and his ploughboys, not to
mention their lovers, are nature itself. The book
is a dear old friend, and we welcome it warmly in
its new form.

-238

THE AUTHENTIC PORTEAITS OF EOBEET BUBNS : A SKETCH.
BY

J. M. GRAY, F.S.A. SCOT.

course, can possibly be more intimate, more deeply
personal, than his authentic portraits: these must
always rank among the best-valued treasures of
the Burns collector. Portraits of Burns
have been called for ; pictures ostensibly portraits of Burns have promptly
answered the call. But such of these as
possess any claim to be regarded as firsthand portrayals of the poet's features, by
artists who knew him in life, or worked
under other circumstances specially
favourable to authenticity, are few indeed.
It is with these few that I propose to
deal, all but exclusively, in the present
brief paper.
Most of the authentic portraits of
Eobert Burns owe their origin to the
period of his earliest visit to Edinburgh,
that triumphant time when—his first
poetic devoir done—he began to taste
the delight of mingling with his peers,
or at least with those of his contemporaries who approached nearest to his own
intellectual stature.
There is reasonable ground for believing that the earliest of his portraits
painted in Edinburgh was the cabinetsized half-length, executed by Peter
(known also as Patrick) Taylor, at present deposited in the Scottish National
Portrait Gallery by Mr. W. A. Taylor;
and that this portrait was taken from
EOBEET BUENS.
life during December, 1786, Burns having
(From the Engraving by John Horsburgh after the Portrait by Peter Taylor,
arrived in Edinburgh in the end of the
in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.)
previous month. An interesting letter
by Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, reprinted in the
has so widely and powerfully stirred a distinctly
personal enthusiasm, as Eobert Burns. He has no Edinburgh Literary Journal, 5th December, 1829,
moderate admirers, no readers that are merely " a records a visit which the writer paid in 1812 to
little loving;" your heart must gush forth spon- the widow of the artist, in company with Gilbert
taneously towards this singer, or else you are for Burns, Mr. Gray, Mr/Ainslie, and other of the poet's
ever incapable of feeling his spell. And it is just surviving friends. Mrs. Taylor singled out Gilbert,
because the enthusiasm for this poet is something as being Kobert's brother. When the portrait was
more — and deeper — than a mere literary pre- produced, Mr. Gray was enthusiastic in its praise,
ference, just because he is admired not simply as and on Mr. Ainslie making some remarks about
a writer skilled in his craft, but rather as a rich the mouth, Gilbert Burns expressed his opinion:
human personality whose exuberant humanity " I t is particularly like Eobert in the form and
came to overflow in verse, that all personal relics air; with regard to venial faults, I care not."
relating to Burns are so peculiarly prized by his Mrs. Taylor then related how the portrait had
devotees. They are treasured like the relics of a been executed by her late husband during three
personal friend; they are cherished like the ribbons morning sittings, at the last of which she had herself been present.
and the flowers of an " ensky^d" mistress.
This quotation establishes the fact that the
And among such relics of the poet none, of

I

SUPPOSE there is no poet, ancient or modern,
who has called forth so intimate and homely a
human interest, such a sense of ardent brotherhood,

THE AUTHENTIC

PORTRAITS

portrait was executed direct from life ; and in 1830,
when the engraving from it by John Horsburgh was
first published, its substantial accuracy as a likeness
was vouched for by Burns's widow, John Syme,
Peter Hill, Mrs. Dunlop, and " Clarinda," with
others of those who had
known the poet most intimately, as well as by Sir
Walter Scott, who, when a
boy, had seen him " unforgetably." On the other
hand, it must be taken into
account that, as recorded by
Mr. W. Hall in a letter dated
27th April, 1851, printed in
the " Burns Chronicle " for
1893, various persons who
remembered Burns in life
failed to recognise the likeness.
The fact is that Taylor
was not a professional painter
of portraits, but a house- and
coach-painter, who occasionally executed likenesses. I
have examined one other by
his hand, a portrait of himself, more artistic in treatment than his rendering of
the poet. But while he
possessed too little subtlety
of touch to portray Burns's
face in its grand totality
and with a uniformly convincing veracity, he has yet
been able, spite of the exaggerated look of age which
his picture presents, and of
all other shortcomings, to
catch such characteristics as
rendered the print from his
(From the Portrait
painting a valued possession
to those who had known the poet most intimately.
If the Taylor portrait cannot rank very highly in.
the list of authentic representations of Burns, it is
certainly a deeply-interesting Burns relic, an intimate memorial of those morning meetings between
poet and painter.
In the second illustration we have the best
known and most widely-accepted portrait of Burns.
It was painted by his friend Alexander Nasmyth,
to be used as the frontispiece of the Edinburgh
edition of his " Poems," and, as we learn from one
of the poet's letters to a friend in Ayr, it was in
the engraver's hands by the 24th of February, 1787.
The artist presented it to the poet's wife; her son,

OF ROBERT BURNS.

230

Colonel William Burns, bequeathed it to the Board of
Manufactures, Edinburgh ; and it now hangs in the
National Gallery of Scotland. On the back it is
authenticated by an inscription in Nasmyth's hand:
"Painted from Mr. Robert Burns by his friend

BOBEBT BUBNS.
by Alexander Nasmyth, in the National Gallery of Scotland.)

Alexrr Na«myth,-Edrnr.,'1787," and another by the
poet's eldest son certifies it as the original, and, in
his opinion, " the only authentic portrait of him in
existence, or at least the only Portrait of the Poet
whose authenticity is indisputable."
The picture has been painted with a careful and
a loving hand. It renders the ripe contours of cheek
and chin, the fine arching of the eyebrows, the rippling lines of the lips and the exquisite dimples that
end them ; and it seems to catch not a little of what
must have been the normal look of the poet's rich
brown, widely-opened eyes, which were so memorable a feature in his face, and which, when an
impassioned moment arrived, actually "glowed"—

240

THE MAGAZINE

" I say literally gloived"—as Sir Walter Scott has
so emphatically recorded. Yet we feel here that
the kindly painter has a little softened down the
actual man ; we miss something of the rustic strength
that must have been visible in the peasant-bard.

ROBERT BURNS.
(From the Painting by Alexander Nasmyth, in the National Galleiy

Nasmyth executed two replicas of this bustportrait. One of these, painted for George
Thomson, compiler of the musical " Collections"
in which so many of Burns's lyrics first appeared,
is now in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
As originally executed, its canvas showed a painted
representation of sculptured stonework surrounding
the figure; and it varies in some slight details of
costume from the original picture. It has been
regarded, on the testimony of Thomson's son, as

OF AET.

the joint work of Nasmyth and Raeburn; but
James Nasmyth claimed that it was wholly by his
father, and certainly, if any touches were added
by Raeburn, it can only have been on very unimportant parts of the canvas.
The other replica is that now
at Auchendrame, Ayrshire, the
property of the Misses Cathcart,
whose mother had been a pupil
of Alexander Nasmyth, from whom
her husband, Elias Cathcart, purchased the portrait. It is authenticated by the artist's seal and his
inscription, dated 1824, stating it
to be " one of the three pictures,
painted by him," and specifying
Mrs. Burns and George Thomson
as owners of the other two. Compared with its original, this picture
shows some slight .variations in
the forms of the costume; but
more remarkable are the differences
in the shape of the face, which
appears rounder than in either of
the other versions, and in the form
of the head, which is less lofty in
front above the forehead, and fuller
in the back portions above the ear.
Two of the engravings from the
Nasmyth portraits possess especial
authenticity. The engraving in
stipple by John Beugo, which first
appeared as the frontispiece of
the 1787 Edinburgh edition of the
"Poems," was executed with the
advantage of three' sittings from
the poet; and the results of this
study from life are visible in the
more compact form of the head,
the greater massiveness of feature,
and the firmer and more resolute
expression which characterises the
print. Thirty-six impressions on
India paper were thrown off for
the poet himself, and these he
of Scotland.)
was in the habit of presenting to
fair ladies, reverend doctors, and other favoured
friends.
The fine stipple and mezzotint engraving by
William Walker and Samuel Cousins is the other
most important transcript from the Nasmyth bustportrait. It emphasises the ideal aspects of the
face, and it received the highest praise from the
painter, because "it conveys to me a more true
and lively remembrance of Burns than my own
portrait of him does; it so perfectly renders the

THE AUTHENTIC PORTRAITS OF ROBERT BURNS.
spirit of his expression, as well as the details of
his every feature."
Nasmyth painted one other portrait of the poet,
the cabinet-sized full-length (reproduced on the opposite page), of which the original is now deposited

241

formed quite a collection of them. Silhouettes of
Dr. Blacklock, Lord Glencairn, and Robert Ainslie,
were to decorate the chimneypiece of his Ellisland
farmhouse, as he tells us in a letter. Clarinda, too,
went " to Miers alone; 'tis quite a usual thing, I
hear," at Burns's ardent request; and the fine
silhouette that was the result was preserved by
Burns " in the sanctum sanctorum of my most
anxious care."
The original life-size shade of Burns himself
existed, so lately as 1854, in the possession of Field,
Miers's successor in the Strand; and from this
both Cunningham and Hogg obtained the reduced
transcripts given in their editions of " Burns."
Cunningham's reproduction is practically a reversed version of that in our illustration, from
an original in the Scottish National Portrait
Gallery, and substantially agrees with the other
authentic heads of Burns. That published by
Hogg is curiously altered, both in details and
general expression, the head being raised, the
upper lip become long, narrow, and protruding,
and the nose thin, bridged, and pointed at the
end, which is retrousse rather than merely "toptilted," as in the Nasmyth and other authentic
portraits.
The beautiful life-sized head in crayons—reproduced on p. 242 through the kindness of its owner,

EOBEET BUENS.
(From a Silhouette in the Scottish National Portrait

Gallery)

in the National Gallery of Scotland by Sir Hugh
Hume Campbell. The first suggestion for this work
seems to have been a sketch made at Roslin, during
a summer morning spent there by the poet and the
painter, after a convivial evening in Edinburgh. A
pencil drawing also exists, done in 1828, for William
Miller to engrave for Lockhart's "Life of Burns,"
the face being blank, and marked to be " taken
from the print by Beugo;" but the work in colour
was done independently, to embody the painter's
memory of his friend's figure, and is invaluable
as the record of one who had seen the actuality.
Burns is here clad in a coat of reddish madder,
the striped vest that appears in the bust-portrait,
buff breeches, and long boots with brown tops;
and the face—with a curious proportionate smallness of the nose—shows more of the well-knit
firmness and shrewdness that appears in the Beugo
print than is visible in the bust-portraits.
During the poet's first residence in Edinburgh,
J. Miers, the silhouettist, was at work there, and
was largely patronised by the Burns circle. The
poet, with his genius for friendship—prized the
black "shades" of' his acquaintances' faces, and
886

EOBEET BUENS.
(From the Miniature in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.)

Sir Theodore Martin—has always enjoyed a high
reputation. There is no proof that Skirving ever
saw the poet, as has been so frequently affirmed—
indeed, Allan Cunningham asserts that the artist

242

THE MAGAZINE

OF AET.

in Nasmyth's portrait, and one of the figures in the
drawing was intended for the poet. Burns, in acknowledging the present, wrote (May, 1795): " My
phiz is sae kenspeckle, that the very joiner's
apprentice whom Mrs. Burns employed to break
up the parcel (I was out of town that day) knew
it at once. . . . Several people
think that Allan's likeness of me
is more striking than Nasmyth's,
for which I sat to him half a dozen
times."
It may be interesting to some
readers to have an enlarged version
of this head, so curiously interesting
in connection with the above extract. Manifestly it is a rude
reversed copy from the Nasmyth
bust-portrait, and though its aspect
is much more boyish, though the
nose assumes a false and ignoble
form, and there is a coarsening in
every part, it is undoubtedly a contemporary portrait, which possessed
enough likeness to be unmistakable
to the poet himself and his homely
neighbours in Dumfries.
The miniature of Burns, reproduced, for the first time, on p. 241,
is of singular interest. It was bequeathed by Mr. W. F. Watson to the
Scottish National Portrait Gallery,
and undoubtedly portrays the poet's
face; quite obviously, too, it has
been painted from life, and owes
nothing to any other existing portrait, though its details are in substantial agreement with the most
authentic of these. There is no
information as to its previous history, except what is suggested by
the fact that it bears on the back
the armorial book-plate of John
ROBERT BURNS.
Mitchell, Burns's friend, and his
(From the Crayon Drawing by Skirving. By Permission of Sir Theodore Martin.)
chief in the Excise at Dumfries. It
ductions, has enabled him to turn to good account shows a thin cheek, and catches an anxious expresthe fraternal memory while it was still fresh and sion in the compressed mouth, which might well be
vivid. It is wonderful how happily Skirving has the result of failing health. The eye is particularly
preserved the refinement of Nasmyth's bust-portrait, dark, brilliant, and striking ; and we have a homely
in combination with the strength which is the touch of intimate reality in a grey shadow on the chin,
from the strong, closely-shaven beard. The costume
dominant note of the Beugo print.
The illustration at the top of the opposite page is a dark-blue coat, with brass buttons, a yellowishreproduces a water-colour drawing by David Allan, green vest striped with red, and a white cravat.
In the letter to Thomson just quoted, Burns
sent in 1795 as a present from George Thomson to
Bobert Burns, and still in the possession of the poet's refers to the painting of a miniature—" the most
grand-daughter, Mrs. Hutchinson. Neither artist remarkable likeness of what I am at this moment
nor donor had met Burns, but they knew his face that I think ever was taken of anybody;" and it is

himself told him he never did. Doubtless Skirving
was aided by Gilbert Burns, who was in charge
of a farm in the painter's county of East Lothian
within about four years of Bobert's death; and
basing his work on Nasmyth, the artist's admirably
keen sense for character, visible in his best pro-

THE AUTHENTIC

PORTRAITS

probably the same work, still unfinished, which he
again mentions, under date 29th January, 1796, as

OF ROBERT BURNS.

243

miniature of Burns, and that we have here the latest
of the authentic likenesses of Scotland's greatest poet.

THE COTTAR'S SATURDAY NI&HT.
(From the Water-Colour Drawing by David Allan.

by " Reid, of this town " (Dumfries). This artist has
been identified as Alexander Reid of Kirkennan, near
Dalbeattie, who for a time had a studio in Dumfries.

H E A D OP BURNS, FROM " T H E COTTAR'S
SATURDAY NIGHT."

Examples of Alexander Reid's work as a miniaturist
have been compared with the present portrait, and
there is good reason for believing that this is his

By Permission of Mrs.

Hutchinson.)

The skull of Burns was cast in plaster on the
31st of March, 1834, at the time of the burial of
his widow, and it forms an interesting test for the
accuracy of the existing portraits. It may be noticed that all the portraits give the appearance of
higher temples than are" suggested by the proportions of the skull; and, indeed, Mr. M'Diarmid, in

BURNS'S SKULL.
(From the Cast in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.)

his account of the exhumation, notices that " the
forehead struck everyone as beautifully arched, if
not so high as might have been reasonably expected."

vt (Maria in (Rome*
Br MATHILDE BLIND.

ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I.

TpAR away dim violet mountains
Fade away from
sight;
Flashing from fantastic
fountains
yets the liquid light
Where from Nymph or Triton's lip
Bubbling waters drip and drip,
Bubbling day and night.

Pealed from tower to answering tower
Ger the city swells,
Ringing in the hallowed hour
Rhythm of bells on bells;
And on wings of choral song
Confluent hearts to Mary throng
From dim cloistered cells.
On the golden ground of Even—
Like a half-way home
On the pilgrim road to heaven —
Floats St. Peter s dome:
High, high, in the air alone—
Mans dread thoughts transformed to stone,
Pinnacled der Rome*

(Drawn by John Fulleylove, JR.I.

See Poem on opposite page.)

A S SEEN

BY

AN

ANIMAL P A I N T E R .

KNOW of nothing more absolutely sad to the
true lover of nature than that gratuitous exhibition provided for the public, in a shop
window in one of London's leading streets,
of poor shivering new-fledged chicks which
have been hatched by a patent incubator.
Through each terrible winter, exposed to view, are
relays of chicks always of about the same size, wandering aimlessly in their enclosure, a picture of misery;
somel^mes they seek warmth by pressing their poor
naked bodies against a hot tin pipe surrounded with
rags—this is facetiously called their artificial mother.
What an infernal parody of the hen gathering her
brood under her warm wings ! Surely this is a
violation of that unwritten law which all chivalrous
souls must hold, that life and love, even of the brute
creation, must be respected, and if it be not respected
there will be a corresponding loss of one's own selfrespect. There can be no real need to hatch chickens
in December or January.
By many this will be regarded as mere mawkish
sentimentality; but this does not trouble me. The
world is steadily losing that right appreciation of,
and enthusiasm for, simple life and love ; it is even
ashamed of letting its tongue shape the word
" love;" when once he or she has got out of its
teens, and when that word has finally been lost,
and is no longer used at all, what a world it will be,
what a complete hell here on earth! 'Tis the love
of bird and flower, 'tis the love of child and home
that keeps this world from utter rot; it is the salt

ILLUSTRATED B Y C.

WHYMPER.

that keeps all fresh and pure; abolish it, and decay
sets in.
This protest, then, is timely, being needed; and
my object now in this paper is to stir up interest in,
and love for, the animal world around us, and in
particular for the wild animal life of this London of
ours. During the last few winters London has been
visited by large flocks of gulls; flying up and down
the river, backwards and forwards, from Greenwich
to Hammersmith; they were constantly going,
sometimes resting on the water, sometimes dashing
head foremost down into the river as they detected
some fish or other food floating down. Their advent was nearly simultaneous with the stoppage of
the river steamers ; but there is no doubt that the
real cause of their coming and of their remaining
was hard weather. My own first sight of them,
three or four years ago, was on one morning in
March when walking along the Thames Embankment. It was a wretched morning, cold and cheerless ; I could barely see the banks of the opposite
shore, the fog and mist being dense, and everything was a dismal slatey-grey, when, suddenly,
in the direction of St. Paul's Cathedral, the sun
peeped out, a great red ball in a golden mist; soon
it gained more and more power, and then I saw,
circling round and round, high above the gilded ball
and cross that surmount the dome, a great flock—
certainly some thirty to forty—of gulls. Slowly
round and round they went, sailing in mid-air, hardly
moving a wing, simply floating round in lovely

WILD

247

NATUKE I N LONDON*.

circles; then the mist came in clouds again, and the
sun got more dim, and I lost all sight of the birds
for a time. An hour later the day got much brighter,
and I was delighted to see black-headed gulls, herring
and common gulls, all happily disporting themselves
on the river. All the time, however, there was this great flock
high up in air, circling their magic
circles with never-tiring wings.
What species they actually were
I could not say, but they were
clearly a very large sort, and not
the same kind as flew jauntily
over the muddy river. At London Bridge enthusiastic people
were throwing bits of bread for
them; and 1 heard of one City
man who was so charmed with
the sight that he, though as
regular in his hours at office as
if he had had clockwork dominating his limbs, even he got so
excited that he turned back from
his regular course, and, retracing
his steps, went to a baker's he
knew of, and bought Sally Lunns,
which he then threw to the gulls,
and so spent a full half-hour on
London Bridge—a thing he had
never done in his life before.
Now, why should not there always be gulls and other sea-birds
about this port of London ?—it is
sometimes forgotten that London
is a port, with its broad waterway right to the sea. Why should
there not be always at Billingsgate, as there are attending the
fish-markets at Botterdam and
other places, a regular brigade
of gulls ? They would all the
year round find food in plenty
from the fish refuse which is
only too patently plentiful there; and, acting as
scavengers, they would be on that score alone a
very welcome presence ; and as they flitted from
point to point, or sat perkily on the water, or
digested their dinners on Billingsgate's roof, they
would alike add one dash of the picturesque to a
part of London that greatly needs improving.
Now, the reason why there are not gulls there,
and why, even in the future, I fear for some time to
come there will not be any there, is because of this
utterly hateful national characteristic, so cleverly
summed up by our Continental critics when they
make an Englishman say, " Come, as it is a fine day,

let us go out and kill something." As long as the
Englishman goes on, as soon as he can purchase
a gun, firing at whatever fur or feather he can cast
eyes on, no animal's or bird's life is safe, which
they, as a whole, seem to know, and, unless driven

GULLS

ON

THE

THAMES.

(Engraved by C. Carter.)

here by severe weather or contrary winds, eschew
us—especially us of cities. But, come, I hear
you say, guns can't be fired off in London streets:
which in the main is true. But that is not what
I mean. London sends out a part of its enormous
population to sleep each night in the suburban
regions, and the larger-sized ones even farther out
still to their seats and estates in the home counties.
For any bird to reach the heart of London he has to
pass through this big district encircling our city,
inhabited by the well-to-do butchering classes, all
having their guns and their desire to kill; and so
it comes to pass but very few birds bigger than

248

THE MAGAZINE

sparrows ever manage to get through this fatal
cordon.
But I must not paint the picture too black, for,
as I said at starting, there is a fair sprinkling of
resident birds always here in our midst, but they
lead rather a sneaking sort of existence: live as if in

THE VENDOR OF SQUIRRELS.

terror, hiding themselves as far as they can. The
few colonies of rooks in London are becoming, for
the most part, smaller and smaller, and it does seem
likely as if within a measurable distance of time
there would be none at all. Still at present there
are rookeries in many parts of town, and later on I
shall enumerate some of the other resident birds
with us. We cannot hope for many of our most
charming species ever to find London a congenial
place to live in; but the list of English birds is a
long one, and there is a great number that might
very readily be acclimatised here—the gulls I have
mentioned, all the crow tribe, might find London a
suitable region in which to live, and would be of
considerable use as aerial scavengers. There are
already rooks, jackdaws, and starlings, but I should
like to see all more common. The handsome
magpies might be induced to invade our parks as
they do in Dublin. Carrion crows and the grey
Eoyston crows, both would always find plenty along

OF AET.

the river's banks, and so you might have representatives of the whole family.
It is really wonderful how now and again some
of nature's wild children do get into London—not
only birds, but beasts. An otter was killed not very
long ago on the Eegent's Canal, near Maida Yale.
(Squirrels have been seen in our parks, but these,
I expect, had been probably turned out, and no
more came by choice than those poor unfortunates
which are hawked about by fictitious countrymen in
our fashionable streets.) Weasels have been several
times noted in the suburbs. I myself have seen a
large falcon circling over Camden Town, and not so
very long back a kite was seen right over the very
City itself. In the winter of 1886, in Eegent's Park
might have been seen the extraordinary sight of
many sorts of pheasants and doves and pigeons
stalking majestically about over the snow. The
preceding night there had been a heavy fall of damp,
wet snow. This falling all night through made such
a weight that it broke in many of the cages in the
Zoological Gardens, and when morning came the
birds took advantage of the destruction and walked
and flew out of their prisons ; for the most part the
pheasants did not go far, and finding nothing to eat,
were soon tempted back by grain being thrown to
them. The doves also were re-captured, but the
stronger-flying pigeons, rejoicing in their strength,
circled about for a few hours, and then made their
way to the country. The Zoological Gardens on
more than one occasion has had visits from wild
birds whilst migrating, which have been attracted by
the calls of their imprisoned brothers; they have,
however, generally shown sense enough to decamp
at once on morning light showing them to what sort
of place they rested in.
Some years ago a woodcock, tired and weary with
his long journey, fell exhausted down from mid-air
right into the middle of London. Nearly all birds
migrate at night, so it was dark as, half-stunned,
he found himself lying in Albemarle Street. A
woodcock's first impulse is always to hid« himself,
to steal under something, to crouch down; in nature
wild he would choose some bracken, or some low
shrub holly it particularly loves, and there it wrould
nestle down and doze the hours away. But here,
poor bird, in rural Piccadilly he could find none of
these, and so he finally nestled up to a lamp-post,
and, stunned and stupefied, fell asleep, and was so
found by the early-morning milkman on the next
day. All sorts of birds at migration time (that is, in
autumn and spring) do pass over London, in spite of
what I have said of the encircling cordon of guns—
but, let it be marked, always at night. It is probable
that birds have chosen the hours of darkness not only
to avoid man, but also to avoid the raids of eagles,

WILD

NATURE

and hawks, and falcons. Nearly each year I have
noted, since I have lived in London, the occurrence
of great flocks of birds passing overhead at nightfall.
Sometimes it has been thrushes that have gone over
in a rush, sometimes I have heard golden plover

IN

LONDON.

249

Africa's great continent, resting and recruiting in
warmth and safety.
These visitants may be classed either as regular
or accidental; a full half come here more by mistake
than anything else. The wind blew them here, or in

„^ii^^

""'"^TSEI^S

MIGRATING

B1EDS

PASSING

calling one to another out of the darkness; one night
I heard, shrill, clear, and unmistakable, the weird
cry of a curlew; chaffinches and other small birds I
have frequently noticed; and it is certain that under
the sheltering curtains of the night many an unsuspected rare visitant safely passes right over the heads
of London's sleeping millions, and by the time
London wakes it will be far away, perhaps on
887

OVER LONDON

BY

NIGHT.

the sea mists they lost their way, and so strayed
here. It stands to reason it must be; how else can
you explain the incident I have just given of the
poor woodcock ? for if he had been able in any way
to help it, he would not have fallen down in such a
place. And in this division must also be put the
storm-petrel that flew blindly against a man's face
and then dropped dead at his feet in the Edgware

250

THE MAGAZINE OF AET.

Eoad, Paddington, and that poor snipe which was
found fluttering about in the gutter by the roadside
in the busy Strand. These all were purely accidental
visitors, and with them I do not propose to deal;
what I do want to dwell upon is that other half of
the list of birds who come to London quite regularly.
Swallows and martins, thrushes and blackbirds,
wagtails, warblers, finches, and wood-pigeons, all
arrive quite regularly every spring in countless hundreds, and for the most part pass on to the outermost
suburbs and far distant country. A few stay, and it
is with this few, and how to make this few into an
army, that I am mainly concerned. In St. John's
Wood there has always been a fair sprinkling of
summer visitors; blackcaps have been heard warbling as sweetly as if a hundred miles away from
Bow Bells; the delicate slim willow warbler goes
creeping in and out the vegetation, whilst the whitethroat and flycatcher can be seen springing into midair, chasing their little winged prey all the day long.
Kensington Gardens is noted for the number of
various birds it has, and, more or less, there is a

narrow fringe all round London of fixed bird life.
I want to see that narrow fringe grow and grow till
the whole great City, with St. Paul's as its centre, is
leavened with bird life. We can all help on to this
end. Any house that distinctly sets itself to work
to let the birds know that they are welcome can
in a few months do so, and it is extraordinary how,
when once birds have been accustomed and enticed
to a place—say by hanging up a fat bit of pork for
the tomtits, and by placing out crumbs and a saucer
of water for the sparrows and finches—they cling to
that place, may always be looked for there; and
moreover, they attract other sorts of birds as well.
If each house were to do what it might in this
matter, soon we should have gulls and other sea birds
all the year round fishing in the river or soaring
over the city. The fast-diminishing rookeries would
be re-stocked, our parks and gardens would be full
of sweet songsters, whilst from church steeple and
public building would come the merry twitter of
the swallows and the house-martins as in and out
they dart.

"GKREAT YARMOUTH."
ORIGINAL ETCHING BY PEECY EOBEETSON, A.E.P.-E.

^MONG the members of the Eoyal Society of
Painter-Etchers there are a few whose work
appeals to the wide public. One of these is the
author of the etching which appears opposite p. 248.
Mr. Eobertson has devoted his special attention to
landscape-etching in a popular form, and many are
the daintily-executed plates of picturesque spots
which have come from his hand. "Great Yarmouth"
is a characteristic example of his wrork, although

not so fully elaborated as usual The view of the
town is that which is seen from the railway on the
approach from Norwich, the tower of the Town
Hall showing high above the other buildings.
Mr. Eobertson studied under his father, the late
M. W. Eidley, and for a short time under Professor
Fred Brown at Westminster. He was elected an
Associate of the Eoyal Society of Painter-Etchers
in 1887.

Y A R M O U T H .
jiriaZ Eiohznc/ by Percy Robertson, R. P. E.,
Magazine of Art.

251

OUE ILLUSTEATED NOTE-BOOK.

B

Y the retirement, at the age of seventy-seven, of Caesar," sent to the Westminster Hall competition
Mr. E. Armitage, E.A., the Eoyal Academy in 1843, he received a prize of £300, and in 1847
loses one of its he gained a
oldest a c t i v e prize of £500
members. For for his "Battle
Meanee,"
the past fifty of
years he has t h e p i c t u r e
*
been a contri- being subsebutor to the quently purannual exhibi- chased by the
tion at Bur- Queen. Two
lington House, of the frescoes
receiving his in the Houses
1
Associateship of Parliament
in 1867, and are from his
the full mem- brush.
*
To the death
bership seven
years
l a t e r . of Sir Philip
jr?<£
For his cartoon Cunliffe-Owen
THE LATE SIR PHILIP CUNLIPFE-OWEN.
E. ARMITAGE, E.A.
of " The Land- and his work

f

.

Mr

(From a Photograph by Elliott and Fry.)

illg

of

Julius

in

Connection

PORTRAIT OP A GENTLEMAN.
{From the Painting by Gerard Ter Borch.)

(From a Photograph by Elliott and Fry.)

AN OLD WOMAN SEWING.
(From the Painting attributed to Van Aach.)

(Recently acquired by tha National Gallery.)

THE MAGAZINE

252

OF ART.

CHEIST BEFOEE PILATE.

IPPOLITA TOBELLI.

(From the Paintinc/ by Sir C. Eastlalce, P.R.A.)
(From the Painting by Rembrandt.)
(Recently acquired by the National Gallery.)

with South Kensington
reference is made in
the columns of our
Chronicle of Art.
The National Gallery has recently had
several interesting acquisitions, four of which
are reproduced here.
They will be followed
by others in our next
issue. In the British
section has been added
another of Sir Charles
L. Eastlake's paintings,
" Ippolita Torelli" (No.
1,398), bequeathed by
the late Lady Eastlake.
In the Dutch section
are " A Portrait of a
Gentleman," by Gerard
Ter Borch (No. 1,399),
purchased from the
executors of the late
Lady Eastlake at the
same price—a remarkably low one — that
was paid for it by Sir

W ^& .. 1 M
_____ _ J\
-•--_
frmt^jmif

^

v /ifl

________^^_-)

H

It J 1
* • '

•

•

.

_

_

_

_

_

DE. JOULE.
(From the Statue in the Town Hall, Manchester.
By Alfred Gilbert, R.A.)

Charles Eastlake; " An
Old Woman Sewing,"
attributed to Jan van
Aach (No. 1,397), and
"Christ before Pilate,"
by Rembrandt (No.
1400).
There has recently
been placed in position in the vestibule of
the Manchester Town
Hall a statue by Mr.
Alfred Gilbert, R".A., of
the late Dr. J oule, the
eminent scientist. Dr.
Joule was born at Salford, and his connection
with Manchester was
a close one all through
his life. It is fitting,
therefore, that Manchester should honour
his memory in the way
that she has done.
Our reproduction is
made by special permission of the Corporation of Manchester.

253

SOME POETEAITS OF BYEON.
B Y F . G. KITTON.

R

EMEMBERING the brief, though brilliant,
1
career of Lord Byron, it is somewhat surprising to find so many portraits extant of the
distinguished poet. The earliest of these is a miniature by Kay, of Edinburgh, painted in 1795,
when the future bard was between six and
seven years old. The boy's amicable disposition
induced him to present this curious little drawing, as a mark of gratitude, to his devoted
nurse, Mary Gray, on her leaving his mother's
service; and at her death, in 1835, it passed
into the possession of Dr. Ewing, of Aberdeen,
an enthusiastic admirer of Byron.
The young peer began his school-life at
Aberdeen before he was five years old, and
was removed from thence to Harrow in 1801;
where, from being (as he himself said) " a most
unpopular boy," he eventually became a leader
in all school sports and mischievous pranks,
notwithstanding the deformity of his right foot,
caused by an accident at birth. He is described
as being a fat, bashful boy, with his dark hair
combed straight over his forehead, greatly
resembling a miniature picture that his mother
had, painted by M. de Chambruland. In after
years Byron wrote: " I differed not at all from
other children, being neither tall nor short, dull
nor witty, of my age, but rather lively—except
in my sullen moods, and then I was always a
devil!" Further details concerning the Chambruland miniature are not forthcoming; but
there exists in the collection of an American
gentleman another miniature of Byron belonging
to this period. It is a painting on ivory by Sir
Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A., and represents him clS Si
boy of about twelve years old, with brown hair,
blue eyes, and a very clear complexion.
In 1805 he left Harrow to continue his studies
at Trinity College, Cambridge, and it was during
his residence there that his portrait was taken by
Gilchrist. This drawing, executed in water-colours,
represents his lordship in the gown worn by noblemen at Trinity College on festive occasions. The
picture was long in the possession of Mr. Litchfield, of Cambridge, with whom Lord Byron lodged,
and to whom it was given on the poet leaving
the University.
In 1807 the poet's portrait was painted by G.
Sanders—a full-length in oils, reproduced on the next
page. It was concerning this portrait that Byron
wrote to Rogers: " If you think the picture you saw
at Murray's worth your acceptance, it is yours; and
888

you may put a glove or mask on it, if you like."
Apparently it never became the property of the
banker-poet, but eventually went into the possession
of Lady Dorchester. Of this picture (afterwards

LORD

BYRON,

AT

THE

AGE

OP

SEVEN.

(From the Miniature by Kay.)

beautifully engraved by Finden) Sanders produced a
miniature copy, which Byron thought so unlike the
original, and in every w^ay discreditable to the artist,
that he requested Mr. Murray to destroy the plate
that had been engraved from the miniature, and on
no account to prefix this portrait to the contemplated
edition of his poems. A replica of the larger painting may be seen in the Armenian monastery on the
island of San Lazaro, Venice, where Byron went
daily for some months to study the Armenian language with the friars of the convent.
On Byron's arrival in Turkey, the Albanians and
their dress produced an immediate effect on his
imagination. He so much admired the splendid
colouring that he donned the Albanian dress
when he first sat for his portrait to T. Phillips,
R.A. (circa 1810), who produced a half-length in
oils, of the size of life. (See page 256.) The
painting formerly belonged to Lady Milbanke,
but is now in the possession of Lord Leigh, of

254

THE MAGAZINE OF ART.
Sanders's is not a good one, you will probably
prefer the other." Murray was then contemplating the publication of an illustrated
edition of "Childe Harold," and R. Westall,
B.A., had agreed to provide the designs, the
portrait referred to being intended for the book.
It was not exhibited in the Royal Academy
until 1825, when it was purchased by Sir
Francis Burdett, from whom it descended to
his daughter, the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, the
present owner. A beautiful mezzotint by Turner
was published by Murray in 1814. The Countess Guiccioli considered this picture superior
to the others, although it did not do justice to
the subject; but of the engraved reproductions
she speaks most disparagingly, as deserving
the appellation of caricatures. Byron wrote
in his journal concerning i t : " I happen to
know that this portrait was not a flatterer,
but dark and stern—even black as the mood
in which my mind was scorching last July,

LORD BYRON (1807).
(From an Engraving by Finden, after the Painting
by G. Sanders.)

Stoneleigh Abbey. A replica is
included in the collection at the
National Portrait Gallery, and a
reduced copy, painted at the same
time as the original, is owned by
Mr. John Murray.
In 1812 the poet made the acquaintance of Lady Caroline Lamb,
which soon ripened into friendship,
which, however, was of short duration. Before this amicable relationship ceased, Lady Caroline painted a
miniature of Byron—a profile to the
left—of which a mezzotint by C.
Turner wTas published in 1825. Embittered by the neglect of her former
admirer and against his then recent
marriage, she gave vent to her spleen
by caricaturing Byron and his wife
as they walked arm-in-arm together.
This curious pen-and-ink sketch was
recently reproduced and published
in the "Memoir and Correspondence
of the late John Murray."
On April 21st, 1813, Byron wrote
to John Murray: " I am to sit to
Westall for a picture, at the request of a friend of mine; and, as

LORD BYRON (1814).
(From the Portrait by T. Phillips,

R.A.)

SOME PORTEAITS OP
when I sat for it. All the others of me, like
most portraits whatsoever, are, of course, more
agreeable than nature." Another half-length by
Westall (differing entirely from this) was sold
by Messrs. Graves, of Pall Mall, to the Earl of
Beaconsfield in 1875, and is probably still at
Hughenden.
A more pleasing presentment of Lord Byron
is to be found in the painting by T. Phillips,
E.A., 1814 (See page 254.) The original painting
was exhibited in the Royal Academy
in 1815, and is now in the possession
of Mr. John Murray. Phillips made
two replicas of it, one of which adorns
the saloon at Newstead Abbey, and
the other is at Stoneleigh. The portrait has been frequently engraved,
the principal reproducers being Agar,
T. Lupton, and R. Graves, A.R.A.
In 1815, a miniature of Byron was
painted by T. Holmes, of which the
poet said, " It is a picture of my upright self, done for Scrope B. Davis,
Esq." The face is turned to the left,
and here again is the cloak and Vandyke collar; although his lordship was
then five-and-t wenty, he certainly looked
younger, judging by this portrait—
which, by the way, is believed to be the
last he sat for in England. The original
miniature (of which a replica was made)
was afterwards transferred to the Hon.
Mrs. Leigh, and is now the property of
Mr. Alfred Morrison; it was engraved
by R. Graves in 1825.
Por some little time before the
separation from his wife in 1816,
Byron had practised sparring with
Jackson, a well-known professor of
pugilism, by means of which he
considerably improved his physical
condition. There is a curious little
{From a
etching by Pierce Egan, junr., representing him (in his dressing-gown) thus engaged in
the art of self-defence; and Mr. Frank T. Sabin possesses a small oil-sketch by Sir T. Lawrence, P.R.A.
—a half-length—portraying him with hands encased
in boxing-gloves in readiness for a pugilistic encounter. After Byron's final departure from his
native country, we find that (with one exception)
the portraits of him were executed by foreign
artists, the first of these being the now historical
bust by Thorwaldsen.
This was considered the best portrait in existence of Byron, and even that severe critic, the
Countess Guiccioli, said: " Thorwaldsen alone has,

BYROK

255

in his marble bust of him, been able to blend the
regular beauty of his features with the sublime
expression of his countenance." The original bust
became the property of Mr. Hobhouse, afterwards
Lord Broughton, and is now in the possession of
his daughter, Lady Dorchester. It was repeatedly
executed in marble by the sculptor, and a great
number of plaster-casts were sent to England—
one of the latter being included in Mr. Murray's
collection; there are also replicas at Chatsworth,

LORD BYRON.
Drawing by G. H. Harlowe.

In the Possession of John Murray, Esq.)

at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana at Milan,* and in
America, the order for the last-named being coupled
with these words: "Place the names of Byron and
Thorwaldsen on it, and it will become an immortal
monument."
Mr. John Murray possesses a very interesting
drawing from the life, by G. H. Harlowe, delicately
executed in black chalk, touched here and there
with red, and with white on the collar. Although
Byron was in his thirty-first year when this portrait
* This replica was made for a Milanese shoemaker named
Konchetti, whose son eventually sent it to the Ambrpsian
Library (vide Koies and Queries, October 28th, 1882).

256

THE MAGAZINE

was produced, he looks much younger; the face is
in profile to the left, and the wavy hair is much
longer than he usually wore it. The drawing bears
the autograph of Byron, wTith the date, "Venezia,
A* 6,1818 ;" it was engraved in stipple by E. Scriven
in 1820, and again (much reduced) by E. Finden, for

LORD BYRON, IN ALBANIAN COSTUME (1810).
{From the Painting by T. Phillips,

R.A.)

Moore's "Life of Byron" (1838 edition). Mr.
Richard Edgcumbe has recorded in Notes and
Queries another by the same artist, but I have
not succeeded in tracing its present destination.
It has been engraved by Meyer (1816), Holl, and
Scriven, and (on wood) by W. Linton.
A silhouette of Byron, cut in paper by Mrs.
Leigh Hunt, represents the poet as he appeared
after his daily ride at Pisa and Genoa (1821-22).
It is a full-length, in profile to the left, portraying him seated on a chair, on the back of which he
rests his right arm, while he holds a riding-whip.
This, curious presentment of Byron was engraved
(as a white figure on a black ground) by S. Freeman

OF ART.

in 1828 for the first edition of Hunt's " Byron and
his Contemporaries," with the following intimation
inscribed underneath: " The above likeness is believed to be the only genuine one of the noble poet
ever taken at full length, and was recognised by
those who knew him in Italy with that laughter
of delight common upon seeing
the expression as well as features
happily caught." In the Print
Room, British Museum, there is
another silhouette, a life-size representation of the facial contour only,
which was published by Ackermann. In the same collection I
find a well-executed lithographic
copy of a painting from life by
M. Gaci, the print having been
issued by Messrs. Colnaghi in 1819.
It is a head and bust, the face
turned to the right, and the
shoulders classically draped.
In 1822 Byron wrote to Murray
from Pisa, saying that Bartolini, of
Florence, desired to take his bust,
to which he consented. On completion of the model, he said : " It
is thought very like what I now
am, which is different from what I
was, of course, since you saw me.
The sculptor is a famous one; and,
as it was done by his own particular
request, will be done well, probably."
The bust, which was executed in
marble, shows the slight whiskers
to which Moore alluded.
In the same year at Montenero, near Leghorn, Byron gave
sittings to Mr. W. E. West, an
American artist, in compliance with
a wish expressed by some Transatlantic admirers, Mr. West being
the last painter to whom the poet
sat for his portrait in Italy. Byron, being obliged
to leave Montenero suddenly, could only give
West two or three sittings; and, although invited
to his lordship's residence at Pisa in order to complete the picture, the artist practically finished it
from memory. This portrait, though destined for
America, was, it appears, never sent thither; a few
copies were afterwards painted by West, the purchaser of the original being Mr. Joy, of Hartham
Park, Wilts, but it is now (I believe) in the possession of Mr. Horace Kent, of Plumstead, Kent.
There are three crayon sketches by Count Alfred
d'Orsay, belonging to the period of 1823, which exactly correspond with Lady Blessington's description

SOME PORTRAITS

OF

BYROft.

257

of Byron's general appearance, and, in fact, were by this sculptor in 1817, as already described.
executed for the Countess; although varying in Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, the British
detail, the same pose is preserved in each drawing. Museum, and the National Gallery were each in
One is a half-length, in profile to the left; the turn considered as appropriate places for its resecond drawing is similar, with the exception of a ception ; but all refused to receive it, and the
cap being added; and the third presentment is a statue remained for several years unpacked in the
full-length, with head uncovered and the forehead vaults of the Custom House. Its exclusion from
more receding. This drawing, which is very slight in
treatment, is in the South
Kensington Museum. In the
collection of Byron portraits
at the British Museum, there
is an engraving from a picture
by the versatile Count—a
presentation proof from the
artist to Sir W. Ross. The
engraving is by F. C. Lewis,
and was published by Graves
in 1845 ; of the original painting I can obtain no further
particulars.
Varying statements have
been made concerning the
appearance of Byron, especially
with respect to the colour of
his hair and eyes; but the
admirable pen-portrait by his
personal friend and biographer,
Thomas Moore, certainly bears
the stamp of authenticity. He
says that the poet's beauty
was of the highest order; his
eyes, a light grey; his head,
remarkably small; the forehead, though a little too narrow, was high, and appeared
more so from his having hair
shaved over his temples; his
curly hair was dark-brown
and glossy; his nose, though
handsomely was rather thickly
shaped; his teeth, white and
r e g u l a r ; his complexion,
LOED BYKON (1813).
colourless; his hands were
{From a Painting by It. Westall, R.A. In the Possession of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts.)
very white and small; and his
limbs somewhat long, to which he attributed his the Abbey naturally led to an animated controbeing a good swimmer. I may mention that Disraeli versy, and the statue was eventually accepted
had Byron in his mind wrhen describing, in his gift by Trinity College, Cambridge, and now stands
"Venetia," the beauty of Hubert.
in a prominent position in the College library. In
Lord Byron died in 1824 Of the posthumous addition to a small sketch of the statue, there are
portraits, the noble statue in marble by Thorwaldsen two plaster-models in the Thorwaldsen Museum at
takes precedence. A number of Byron's admirers Copenhagen.
raised by subscription the sum of £1,000 for this
In 1876 there was a proposal to erect a memostatue, which was begun in 1829 and sent to England rial bronze statue of Byron in Piccadilly, and the
in 1834. The head is a repetition of the bust made accepted design was that sent in by Richard Belt,

THE MAGAZINE

258

LOED BYBON (1816).
(From a Portrait

by Sir T. Lawrence, in the Possession of
Frank T. Sabin, Esq.)

a pupil of J. H. Foley, E.A., and a student of the
Eoyal Academy, whose name figured prominently
in subsequent causes cSlebres. The statue, which, on
completion, was placed in Hyde Park, represents
Byron on a rock in a contemplative attitude, with
right elbow resting on knee, and the cheek reposing on the palm of the right hand; the poet's
favourite dog, "Boatswain," nestles at his feet,
looking wistfully upwards into his master's face.
A writer in Notes and Queries (April 7, 1883)
makes mention of a portrait of Byron by Gericault, bequeathed by M. Bruyas to the Fabre
Museum at Montpellier. There are also, a curious
painting of him by F. Sieurac (engraved by J. T.
Wedgwood), a portrait by Gandellini (engraved by
E. Cooper), and a drawing by Deveria, 1824 (engraved by Lacour). Other posthumous presentments include two busts by E. H. Bailey, E.A.
(exhibited in the Eoyal Academy, 1826, and Suffolk
Street, 1827, respectively), and a bust (exhibited
in 1828 at the latter gallery) by W. K. Tate.
Apropos of Byron's attempt to restore Greece to
her ancient freedom, some curious lithographic
portraits of him were published in London and
Paris in 1825-27, one of which (" from a sketch
in possession of the Compte Demetrio Deladezina,
in Cephalonia") represents him wearing a helmet ,

OF AET.
of the proper classical shape, gilt, with his motto,
" Crede Byron," upon it; two other helmets of
a like character were made for his comrades,
Pietro and Trelawny. A full-length portrait by
" Croquis " (D. Maclise, E.A.), published in Parry
and Gamba's "Account of the Last Days of Lord
Byron," was accepted by Leigh Hunt as an excellent likeness. A bronze medal was executed
by A. J. Stothard in 1824, having on the obverse
a profile portrait of Byron, and the reverse three
laurels surmounted by clouds and lightningflashes, with a legend in Greek, " Ever Immortal;" round the edge is the dedication, also
in Greek. Another medallic portrait, by William Woodhouse (an apprentice of Mr. Halliday,
of Birmingham, who afterwards made several
important medals), is interesting from the fact
that it was his first essay at his profession, and
gained for him the silver medal of the Duke of
York from the Society of Arts. The reverse
has an ancient Greek warrior resting at a tomb,
which bears the words, "Byron, Nat. Jan. 22,
1788, Mort. Apl. 19, 1824," the motto being
" Nonien Fasti Miscet Suis Grsecia Memor," and
in the exergue, " Missolonghi." And lastly must
be mentioned Mr. J. W. Wyon's " Collas process" medallion, which is an excellent presentment of Britain's famous bard.

LORD BYBON (1817).
(From the Bust by Thorwaldsen.)

E

YEEY time
I go to
Holland
my
wonder grows at
want of popularity with
English holiday-makers. It
lies close to our own doors.
The journey to the Hague is pleasanter than that
to Paris, and not much longer, while it costs a
great deal less. Once at the Hague, you can live
in a hotel looking out on a deer-park, and thence,
day by day, you can overrun all the main body,
so to speak, of Holland. Amsterdam, in the north,
is only fifty minutes away, while strung on the
line between it and the political capital are Haarlem and Leyden. Westwards you can go by the
Ehine Railway to Gouda, with its cheese-market
and its wonderful stained glass, to Utrecht, and
to such picturesque and little-visited places as
Nimeguen, Arnhem, and Bois-le-Duc. Five miles
to the south the spires of Delft, with their
memories of William the Silent and of De Hooch
and Yermeer, rise above the level fields. Fifteen
minutes in the train take you to Eotterdam through
the distilleries of Schiedam; another twenty minutes,
and you arrive at the jewel of South Holland—
the fascinating little city on the Maas which was
the birthplace of Cuyp. Each of these places can
be visited—and seen as holiday-makers see things
—between breakfast and dinner at your Hague
hotel; and on your passage in the trains you
will never want to read. Between April and
October the Dutch landscape is delightful. The
sky is high, and the eye roams for leagues across
the luscious flatness of the pastures, picking up
all sorts of charming detail on the way. In the

foreground the storks and herons, and flocks of
plover, help the piebald cows and the high-crested,
leggy horses to give an aspect at once familiar
and strange to the scene. The wide stretches of
verdure are helped in their perspective by the red
sails of the barges on the invisible canals, and by
the windmills—or, rather, wind-pumps—in their
unbroken sequence out to where they dip below
the horizon. And the farmhouses, with their roofed
hayricks, their clumps of trees, and the embracing
ditch which serves as a private defence to each,
are still much as they were painted by Paul Potter
two centuries and a half ago. Nowhere, not even
in Touraine, or in the Highlands of Scotland, or
on the line between Nuremberg and Yienna, is
the eye more glued to the window than it is on
the "Hollandsche Staats Spoorweg." The country
is a continuous picture. One element of its charm
lies in its visibility, in the wideness of the panorama, and in the magnificence of the great perspective of white cloud and blue sky unrolled above
it. Another lies in the happy groups into which
things sidle as you rush past them on the level.
A third element is the delicious colour. The
green fields, interlaced with strips of blue where
the ditches reflect the sky; the purple-brown
cottages, with their red-and-green shutters; the
red roofs; the white and green palisades; the yellow
sails of the barges; the black bodies and restless
white arms of the windmills; the black-and-white
cows, relieved here and there with a red one—
all these make up a palette used by Nature for
harmony in her own mysterious way; and the
impression is not broken when you enter a town.
The colour follows you into the streets. Rotterdam
and Amsterdam are monotonous, but the other old

260

THE MAGAZINE

OF ART.
and Dordrecht, you can still walk round
the beautiful gardens which have replaced the old walls and have little
outside you in the way of bricks and
mortar. These cities lie like islands in
the surrounding verdure, which seems to
lap on their fringes like the sea on a
coast.
Perhaps, in spite of what I began
by saying, those who go to Holland for
the first time should commence with
Dordrecht, for the characteristics of the
country are summed up in it as they
are in no other town; and they should
go there by the Maas, which is simply
the tidal Rhine. You arrive at Rotterdam
from Harwich in good time for breakfast. Directly afterwards you can go on
board the boat, which starts from near
the Rhine Railway terminus, and in
about two hours you are at your destination. The arm of the JVTaas navigated
by the steamer is about as wide as the
Thames at Putney. You stop continually
at little wayside piers, and you have, as
a rule, to dance a sort of chass4 croise

IwHtftli

-.
T H E QUAYS, DORT.

Dutch cities are like so many trays of
varied fruits. Lively contrasts, tuned by
the limpid air, meet you at every turn.
De Hoochs are all about you. The seventeenth century has persisted into the
nineteenth, and innumerable vistas open
before your eyes, which want nothing
except one slight change in costume to
be true to the pictures of Van der Heyden and Vermeer.
Within the last ten or fifteen years,
indeed, the jerry-builder has started operations on a large scale. Round Amsterdam,
the Hague, and Rotterdam regiments of
mushroom houses have sprung up. The
author of " God's Fool" gravely declares
that their flimsiness seriously affects the
sale of newspapers and books! The walls
are so thin that three families club together to take in a newspaper or to buy
a novel. These are read aloud in the
middle house, while those on each side
listen! So the publishers are going to
law; but, so far, this kind of thing is
practically confined to the three chief
towns. At Haarlem and Leyden, at Delft

.
A

TIMBER-POOL,

DORT.

THE CITY OF DOEDEECHT.
with the fleets of sailing barges making their way
to Eotterdam. When you have gone eight or ten
miles you will see, rising over the flats to your
right, a square mass, in which, if you are a student
of pictures, you will recognise a friend. The church
tower of Dordrecht is apparently unchanged since the
days of Cuyp. Its simple
lines are still crowned with
the four dials in their clumsy
frames, and the brick buttresses below are just as they
were left by the vicissitudes
of the Spanish occupation.
Half an hour after you first
catch sight of this landmark
the channel you are following suddenly opens almost at
right angles into one much
wider. On the farther side,
lying low upon the water,
Dort appears embosomed in
trees. A dome of emerald
copper, the church tower, a
few gigantic windmills, and
the masts of shipping rise
above the roofs; but the
whole seems dwarfed by the
huge bowstring girders of the
railway bridge on the right.
This bridge, with its sister
at Eotterdam and its big
brother over the Hollandsche
Diep, is a great deal less
hideous than most iron viaducts, but its size knocks
everything out of scale. We
feel we have parted from a
disagreeable companion when
we get out of its sight. The
steamer threads its way across
the wide, ship-dotted channel,
and comes to beneath the copper dome. The bell
rings, and you land among a crowd of thin, widetrousered, silk-capped men, and of women with the
flowing caps and improbable cork-screw, defences of
the South Hollander. The best hotel in Dort is just
before you, and after you have taken a room and
deposited your bag you can sally out into streets
as paintable as the Venetian canals.
The first thing you will notice, if you do not
put your visit off too long, will be the people's
civility. Many of the. better-dressed men, and all
the wearers of any sort of uniform, will salute
you as a visitor to be made welcome. When I
first went to Dordrecht, some twelve years ago,
889

261

this custom was universal, and my hand had to
be constantly at my hat. Now it is less general,
and in a few years, I suppose, will be a thing of
the past. Not long ago the same pleasant custom
survived in the smaller show-places at home.

SHIPPING OFF DORT.

Hawthorne was charmed by it at Lichfield. Its
growing disuse in a town like Dort comes not so
much, I fancy, from the number of travellers, who
are still few and far between, as from their neglect
to return the salaams. It is inconvenient to be
always touching one's hat, and convenience is a
modern god.
Dordrecht has two long sinuous streets—one
runs from the quay to the station, the other from
the quay to the church. The chief difference
between them and a street at the Hague, for
instance, lies in the rarity of vehicles. Along one
a tramcar jingles every twenty minutes or so;
along the other nothing passes except hand-carts,

262

THE MAGAZINE

and now and then a wedding or a funeral. The
rest of the town is all bridges and grachts, with
their lining quays. The population on the water

OF 'AET.

the Black Forest, for wines from the Ehine, for
the manufactures of every city to be reached
by the multitudinous arms of the Maas. And

•r *.

A

FOOTBRIDGE,

must be almost as dense as in the houses. The
inner harbours are connected with each other and
with the longer canals by frequent short channels,
and the whole is crowded with every sort of canal
and river craft. Ever since the Middle Ages Dordrecht has nourished. Thanks to her easy communication with the sea, with Holland and Belgium,
and with all the countries served by the Ehine,
she has been a point of collection for timber from

DOET.

so her quays are scenes of never-ending bustle.
Nothing in Europe is more picturesque than the
view south-westwards across the harbour which
lies in her bosom. This should be enjoyed twice
in the day. You should go there at high noon,
when the sun is beating down—not from a cloudless sky—on the gaily-painted barges and the
swarm of people busied about them; on the cooks
who chaffer at the gunwales of the floating shops;

THE CITY OF DOEDEECHT.
on the porters unloading the gigantic lighters
which have been crawling hither, perhaps for
months, from the other end of France; on the

THE

CHURCH,

PROM

sparkling line of water, which is all we see of
the harbour itself; on the low houses, each with its
crane and its gaping grenier above, and its housewife
washing or knitting below; on the circle of grateful
trees; and on the great church at the end, rising highshouldered against the sky like a watchful mother.
Under the sun all this gives an extraordinary
picture of gaiety and life; but the scene is even
more fascinating when the dusk comes on. In

263

colour lies the supreme charm of Dort; and colour
does not tell as colour while the sun is still high
above the horizon. It is afterwards, when the

THE

FISH-MARKE'tf.

last rays are just gilding the tower of the Groote
Kerk, that the red roofs, the groups of tawny
sails, the patches of sombre scarlet where sailors'
under-garments hang out to dry, the green sides
of the barges, with their gay top-hamper, the
brilliant notes of brass, the dark verdure of the
trees, and the backgrounds of weather-beaten,
purple brick, put on a deep transparency, and
sing together in a rich symphony of colour.

264

THE MAGAZINE

Some of the houses in Dordrecht tempt fortune
most extravagantly in their dealings with their
own centre of gravity. It is quite common to
see an ordinary house three feet out of the perpendicular. Just behind the hotel there are two

OE ART.

from the centre of the town up to the church.
Houses back on to it on either side, the water
laps against their walls, and the tradesmen deliver
their wares from boats just as they do in Venice.
Here and there a bridge leads from a lane on

*kWJ

l
THE

OLD

CHURCH,

which show a dislocation of more than a yard at
the top, measured by newer buildings beside them.
Such an appearance reminds one of the legend
which declares that when the Maas burst its
dykes on the night of the 18th of November,
1421, the city was carried en bloc from its site,
and that the neighbours had some trouble in finding it next morning ! The curious situation of the
town is due to this same flood. It lies at the
northern apex of a triangular island, surrounded
by arms of the Maas, and is the capital of an
archipelago called the Biesbosch.
Some of the Dort waterways are very like a
Venetian canal. One such long water-street leads

DORT.

the one hand to a twin lane opposite, and gives a
point of view. Here, again, the charm lies almost
entirely in colour. Coat these purple houses, with
their bright roofs, their gay shutters and balustrades, in the soot of Manchester, and you will
have something hardly more picturesque than the
Irwell.
;
'
The edges of Dort have a charm of a different
kind. In the summer evenings a military band
plays at the railway station, and there the people
promenade. All/ round the city, on the line of the
old enceinte, runs a grove—a sinuous band of trees,
with a ditch on either side. Little bridges are
thrown across the waters at every few yards, and

THE

CITY OF DOKDKECHT.

each bridge leads up to some coquettish retreat
with a fancy name—" Mijn Lust," " Alwijsheid,"
" Als Ikh Kan," are among those I remember—
painted over the door. Now and then a gigantic
windmill—for sawing wood,
rule—breaks into

265

the pages of Motley; but something must be said
of Dort's chief claim to remembrance in a periodical dealing with art, It is the birthplace of
Albert Cuyp. He lived chiefly at a maison de
campagne—we could not call it a country house

I

SAWMILLS ON T H E NORTHERN DYKE, DORT.

the row, a relic of the day when the city rampart
still stood high above the plain. As you near the
Maas the mills become more frequent and the
houses humbler, until at last you debouch on the
tail end of the quay, where little wooden shops
face the water and the people about have the listless
roll and the lack-lustre eye of the seaman ashore.
This is scarcely the place to talk of the historical glories of Dort, of the first meeting of
deputies from the United Provinces in 1572, of
the famous Synod which settled the form of the
national religion, or of other events chronicled in

—on the outskirts, called "Dordwijk." He is
supposed to have painted only as an amateur, and
to have been by trade a brewer. His forerunner
and exemplar was Jan Van Goyen, whose frequent
choice of Dordrecht as a subject proves the two
men to have had many opportunities of meeting
and of affecting each other's work. The tower of
Dordrecht appears in countless Cuyps and Van
Goyens, so do various bits still to be identified in
the neighbourhood, such as the ruins of the tower
of Merwede. Cuyp died in 1691, and was buried
in the Groote Kerk.

266

GLIMPSES OF ABTIST-LIFE.
THE ARTIST'S "GHOST:"-A STUDY IN EVOLUTION.—I
B Y M. H.

I

N lifting the corner of the veil to glance into
the least reputable of all the scenes of artistlife, I am doubtless undertaking an unsavoury and
ungrateful task Without personal risk, without
danger from the bravoes in whose land he strays,
no man can tread the path that leads across that
slum. Not that the territory is in these later
days of great extent or thickly populated. The
unhappy genus of the "artist's ghost" is on the way
to being as extinct as the ichthyosaurus or the dodo:
and might be quite so wTere the matter properly
faced. But the question bristles with risks and
perils; and as the venturesome historian of this
seamy side of artistic inner life advances along the
Cloacula, its denizens, resentful of such temerity and
fearful as to its results, turn and strike at his
Achilles' heel. Not the "ghosts" themselves, be
it understood—they stand aside with far less
personal interest in their concealment; or they may
even abscond should complications threaten to arise.
Their employers it is who lie in wait for him
who has the hardihood to expose their methods
and seeks to lay the illicit wraith; and between
Frankenstein and his Monster he who would do
the work must accept the anxiety that falls to
him who has a wholesome dread of slander in the
spoken word, or of libel in the written.
For the reputation, the very artistic life and
commercial career of the employer of the "ghost"
depends upon a reputation unsullied in the public
estimation. He must pose as an original artist
of talent. And as the onus of proving artistic
fraud must necessarily fall on him who brings
a charge, nothing more than a little harmonious
swearing would be required to keep that fair
name superficially sweet and clean. And why
should he whose sense of honour may be already
dulled, hesitate to stretch a point when so great
an interest is at stake ? For this reason it is,
perhaps, that I find myself the first who has
ventured to treat frankly of this subject in its
wider bearings. Others before have explored, and
fully, the selfsame region of human frailty and
human folly; but none of them, so far as I can
ascertain, has ever proceeded to the point of setting
fully forth the result of his investigations.
It is, I admit, with some hesitation that I
have included the talented though luckless spook
in these glimpses of that honourable profession of
which he is but the mercenary. But, regarded as

SPIELMANN.

a subject for investigation and examination, he is
certainly interesting in himself as a type. His
existence up to quite recent times cannot seriously
be denied; and though the experienced and the
worldly-wise would naturally shrink from the task
of crushing him in a court of law, his undoubted
existence is a matter of common knowledge and of
common talk in circles of judicious men, with bated
breath and whispering cautiousness.
Thus far I have carefully refrained from specifying the industrial spirit as the " sculptors
ghost." " Ghosts " there have been, and " ghosts "
there are in the other branches of the arts.
They are the camp-followers alike of painter,
architect, sculptor, and engraver, reminding one
of Mrs. Eouncewell's respectfully conservative view
in " Bleak House " that " ghosts are the privilege
of the upper classes." Wherever, indeed, you find
men of more ambition in their profession than
talent and of more commercial ability than honour,
whether in art, in literature, or in any other profession, there you may expect to find the "stubborn unlaid ghost," who walks at night, or secretly
by day, in his employer's study or his studio, executing the work to which his master complacently
affixes his own name : " Pecksniff fecit."
I should make it clear at once what I understand by an " artist's ' ghost' "—if only because those
who use this term are not altogether in harmony
on the precise shade of its signification. The
"ghost," as an artist's confederate, is the logical
successor to the " devil," just as the " devil" is
the corrupted " assistant," and the assistant the
full-fledged version of the " disciple" or the " apprentice." In the old days, as I shall amplify
further on, an artist took many pupils who, as
they progressed in their art, were permitted for
their own advancement to assist the Master, until
this assistance was often less for their good than
for the master's convenience. Then, if these pupils
saw little likelihood of coming themselves to the
front and beating or competing with their teacher
on his own ground, they would be content to
remain in his service in the same capacity, as
willing drudges of a skilful kind.
Before long the over-shrewd painter, or sculptor—for the best artists have nearly always been
capital men of business — perceived that with
" assistants" of high ability, of ability, perhaps,
equal to his own, but with less opportunity of

267

THE AKTIST'S GHOST.
establishing their fame, or maybe with less of the
personal and persuasive charm of the born salesman, he could undertake a far greater number
of commissions than with the inferior help of
even the more advanced among his pupils. So
the " devil" arose, and set the mark of his hoof
on this traffic between artists—a traffic, however,
of which the public was not habitually kept informed.
By degrees, however, the public awoke
to the little trick, and took a higher view of the
matter; with the result that the employment of
the " devil" was kept quieter than ever. But at
the same time a state of things still worse and
more dishonourable came slowly about: the commercial-minded assistant of the old days turned
the tables on his master; and we find the less
competent man employing an artist of greater
ability than himself to do work of which he
is incapable, but which he is glad to sign. Why
not ? he asks; his ability lies in the direction
of obtaining commissions either by courtliness of
manner, genius for intrigue, or talent for advertisement—without which all the artistic power in
the world may be useless in these degenerate
days. So he remains the middle-man in complete
commercial harmony with his spiritual partner;
but as the public still harbours quaint superstitions as to an artist's talent and the charm of
character and individuality in his work—has not
yet, in short, been educated into the idea that a
bust made by a Firm or a picture painted by
a Limited Company is all that is necessary,
even though it be turned out " in the best style "—
the existence of the degraded master and his sad
plight of position and honesty were kept studiously secret: and the " devil" developed into the
spectral body known nowadays as the "ghost."
It thus appears to me that a clearly-defined
line may be drawn between the respective practices of employing a " devil" or a " ghost." In
either case, the signing by an artist of a work of
art not from his hand is clearly dishonest; but
whereas in the former case the employer is really
competent to do the work himself and, in point of
fact, may ease his conscience with the reflection
that had the work been deficient he would have
put it right could he have found the time, in the
latter the fraud appears in all its infamy, for the
signatory is himself quite unable to do work of
the same standard—he is obtaining credit for and
building up a reputation on the work of another
and a better artist whom he holds in thrall—and
is enjoying the emoluments and the credit which,
but for his secret assistant, would have gone to
a better man. Though the moral obliquity be much
the same thing in both cases, the delinquency is

vastly greater when the "devil" is turned out-ofdoors and a " ghost" regularly called in.
•*

-x-

•*

-jf

-*

•*

The extent to which the Old Masters availed
themselves of the services of their assistants is
familiar to all who have made any study of the
history of art. But that assistance up to the time
of Eubens had not yet developed into anything so
extensive and peculiar as to call forth any particular
remonstrance. Baphael, it will be remembered, who
had "assisted" Pinturicchio as a lad, employed a
little army of clever assistants, among whom were
Penni, Giovanni da Udino, Giulio Eomano, Eodolfo
Ghirlandaio, Pierino del Yaga, and Andrea Sabbatini.
The name of the first mentioned artist should be
especially dear to Englishmen, for it is probable
that there is far more of his work than of Eaphael's
on the great cartoons we boast at the South Kensington Museum; while the handiwork of the others
in the Loggie and on canvases of the master has
done much to establish their reputation, though it
was hardly required to sustain that of their overworked employer. Wynants, too, employed many
for the insertion of figures into his pictures: men
whose names have descended honourably to us
on their own merits—Ostade, Wouvermans, Linglebach, Van Tulden, and A. Van de Velde among the
rest. The last-named, not confining his assistance
to his master Wynants, worked similarly for Euysdael, Hobbema, and Van der Heyden, and his kinsman, Esaias Van de Velde, placed his brush at
the disposal of whoever would employ it. Adrian
Van Utrecht did the same. Van der Werff in his
youth devilled for Van der Neer, and Theodore
Van Tulden, in the matter of small figures, for
Neefs, Steenwyck, and others. So Peter de Wit
worked for Vasari, Weenix for Waterloo, Dionysius Vidal for Velasco, Curradi and Balducci for
Battista Naldini, Eondani for Correggio, Antonio
Eossi for Franceschini, Giovanni Euggieri for Francesco Gessi, Cornelius Schut for Daniel Segers (and
for many more besides, especially in the way of
painting in the bas-reliefs into the flower-pieces
which were so fashionable in his day), Franck
for Verhaecht, and Tideman for Lairesse. When
Gasparo settled in England, he " assisted " both Sir
Peter Lely and Sir Godfrey Kneller. Parent Appleman painted backgrounds for John de Baan; Hans
Graaf and Van Bredael inserted the figures into
the landscapes which Faistenberger painted for the
Emperor in Vienna; and Audran and Genoels helped
Lebrun in his "Battle of Alexander." J. F. De
Fries was a great employer of artistic labour; and
the mighty Titian did not disdain external contributions of help. Eubens, Snyders, and Jordaens
would reciprocate courtesies on the others' pictures,

268

THE MAGAZINE

each in his own particular line, and our own Sir
Thomas Lawrence would employ Harlow, Howard,
Pegler, the Simpsons, Etty, and others, nominally as
" drapery-painters," but really as a good deal more.
The "drapery and hand-painters," indeed, were
the journeymen painters who executed a considerable proportion of their employers' pictures. Though
Van Aachen probably confined himself to the draperies on Hudson's pictures, John Wycke painted in
the " battle-backgrounds" on those of Sir Godfrey
Kneller (as in his "Duke of Schomberg on Horseback") and Yergazon added what Wycke left untouched. For the heads, apart from the first
general design, were what monopolised the attention and execution of the more distinguished artists.
The " drapery-painters " were formal to a degree in
their arrangements; and the story is well known
that when an artist insisted on his assistant varying
the cast-iron rule of painting the figure with a hat
under the arm and painted it in himself upon the
head, the intelligent drapery-man still adhered religiously to the convention and painted a second
hat in the usual manner in the accustomed place.
I have kept back reference to the custom of
Eubens, as to the open and extensive practice of
that artist is due the first revolt of the painters'
client that I know of. Not that it was he who
instituted "devilling" on a big scale. Coignet,
better known to some as " Giles of Antwerp," had
long before begun by employing Cornelius Molenaer
to paint his landscape and architectural backgrounds,
and ended by establishing a school which was to be
not so much an academy for young painters as a
factory for the production of " Coignets." These
his employees painted in considerable numbers, to
which, after a slight re-touching, the patron signed
his name. Now, Eubens' work is estimated to consist of more than a thousand undisputed works—
many of great size, and elaborateness of subject and
of conception. Though so great a master had no
need of "ghosts," he had many "devils"—about a
couple of hundred, from the beginning to the end,
most of whom are known, and of whom Teniers the
elder, Peter van Mol, Erasmus Quellin, Van Egmont,
and the Chevalier Jacques Eouquieres are perhaps
the worthiest. These men were all educated in
the Eubens manner; and on receiving a sketch
from the employer's hand would carry it so far on
the canvas that merely a few touches were all
that it received to give it the final stamp of the
master's individuality. The practice was well known
—and objected t o ; for we find Eubens making
solemn engagements that such-and-such a picture
which he sold as his must be painted by himself.
And again, the correspondence is extant between
Eubens and Sir Dudley Carleton, the British am-

OF AET.

bassador at the Hague, from which it appears that
the diplomatist returned a " Lion H u n t " upon the
painter's hands as experts declared that "the picture was not by him, or at least not worthy of him."
The facts, as displayed in Her Majesty's State
Paper Office, throw so much light upon the practice,
that I deem it sufficiently interesting and important
to set the matter forth more fully by quoting from
the original documents, edited by Mr. Saintsbury.
Sir Dudley Carleton was really acting for the
Prince of Wales (afterwards Charles I.), and he
employed more than one person as his agent in his
dealings with the painter. One of the principal
was Master W. Trumbull, to whom Eubens wrote :—
"Antwerp, January ig-, 1620-1.
" SIE,—The picture that I have painted for my Lord Ambassador Carleton is quite ready and securely packed. . . .
If
the picture had been painted entirely with my own hand, it
would well be worth twice as much. It has not been gone over
lightly by me, but touched and retouched everywhere alike by
my own hand."

Moreover, the picture was known to be a copy,
for Master Toby Matthew, another intermediary of
the Ambassador, and a man alike of shrewdness
and humour, wrote to Sir Dudley that
" t h e originall was a rare thinge and sold to y e Duke
of Bavaria for a hundred pound starlinge. . . . Eubens
confesses in confidence y* this is not all of his owne doing, and
I have thanked him for this confession, for a man who hath but
halfe an eye may easily discern it."

The picture was forwarded to London, and wTas
instantly repudiated. On May 27 Lord Danvers
wrote from St. James's to Sir Dudley Carleton:—
" But now for Ruben; in every paynters opinion he hath
sent hether a peece scarse touched by his own hand, and the
postures so forced, as the Prince will not admitt the picture into
his galerye. I could wishe, therefore, that the famus man
would doe soum on thinge to register or redeem his reputation
in this howse,"—.

for it was certainly true that the Prince of Wales,
for whom the Ambassador had ordered it, and who
was well known to be a fine judge of art, would
have nothing of Eubens that the painter himself
would not declare a " masterpeece."
So in good time "Eewben," as Trumbull called
him, wrote to the latter, under date Antwerp, September yV, 1621:—
" SIE,—I am quite willing that the Picture painted for my
Lord Ambassador Carleton be returned to me and that I should
paint another Hunting piece less terrible than that of the Lions,
making abatement as is reasonable for the amount already paid,
and the new picture to be entirely of my own hand without
admixture of the work of anyone else, which I will undertake
for you on the word of a gentleman. I am very sorry that there
should have been any dissatisfaction on the part of Mons.
Carleton, but he would never let me understand clearly, though
I often entreated him to do so, whether this picture was to ~be an
entire Original or merely one toicched oy my own hand.* I wish
for an opportunity to put him in a good humour with me,
although it should cost me some trouble to oblige him," &c.
*In the original: ". . . .
si ceste piece devoit estrc un
vray Original entieremVou seulemfc touchee de ma main."

THE LATE SIR ANDREW CLARK, BART., M.D.
(From the Painting by G. F. Watts, R.A., in the Royal Academy Exhibition. Engraved by Jonnard.)
890

TI1E STOEY OP JJOAZ AND RUTH.
(From the Painting by F. W. W. Topham,

R.l.)

THE ROYAL ACADEMY, 1894.—II.
B Y T H E EDITOR.

I

T is only the disease of the unskilful to think
rude things greater than polished." With
these words, printed in the preface to The Alchemist, Ben Jonson threw down the gauntlet to
the impressionists of his day; and with the same
words—now exalted by time into an aphorism—
the Boyal Academy proclaims to the world the
attitude it has assumed, and still maintains, in
relation to the modern "schools" that subscribe
not to all the articles of the orthodox creed. But
a careful examination of the contents of this
year's Academy exhibition reveals the fact that
the academic profession of faith is more dogmatic,
more intolerant even, than its practice; and that
whatever may be its own opinions, its respect
for those of others is at once more generous and
more genial than has hitherto been the case.
For the first time in the history of the institution
a luministe, working frankly according to one
method of his sect, has been admitted; and the
older stagers rub their eyes as they gaze and ask
if this-r-this, which would have been wildly impossible here in Monet's own clay—is the forerunner

of stranger times to come, when tt*e fumistes will
take shelter beneath the sacred roof-tree of Burlington House, and prepare the way for their latest
and wildest offspring that may claim kinship with
the arts—the pipistes.
Eegarded as a whole, the Academy exhibition
has many points of special interest, many features
of novelty. In the first place, it has happily no
work which the public can acclaim " the picture
of the year." We say happily, as the ordinary
popular " picture of the year" has the usual effect
of dazzling the critical eye of the public and
blinding it to the merits of other works of equal,
if not of greater, technical excellence. In the
second place, as we have pointed out, a luministe,
Mr. Tom Griffiths, has been accorded wall-space
for his clever rendering of "The Shepherd." In
the third, a painting entirely decorative in plan,
scheme, design, and colour, has been included
among the pictures; tacit admission being thus
accorded to the claims of decorative art which
aspires to an equal place beside oil-paintings—
as they are generally understood by that public

272

THE MAGAZINE

for whom the Academy so specifically caters. It
is true that this is not the first time that a
ceiling-painting, or a frieze either, has played its
part among what were once so curiously called
" pictures of art and n a t u r e ; " but no contribution of Sir Frederic Leighton's has ever departed
so far from the likeness of anything that is in

"WHERE LATE THE SWEET BIRDS SANG.
(From the Painting by F. Walton,

R.I.)

the heavens above or in the earth beneath as
this contribution of the new Associate, Mr. J. S.
Sargent. His lunette and portion of a ceiling
for the Public Library of Boston, U.S.A., at
first sight runs riot in idea in a great glory of
gold and harmonious colour; but a little study
of it shows with what thought and consummate
skill the artist has rendered the 106th Psalm,
and symbolised the many false shrines at which
the people had worshipped, and the many nations
to whom they were forced to bend the knee; and
all this olla podrida of Egyptian and Assyrian
art, Buddhist, Mahomedan, and the rest, with
gold and mock jewels and modelled ornamentation,

OF AET

resolves itself into a whole that is simple enough in
idea, for all its revelry of gorgeous pigment and
its apparent recklessness of composition. Other
features there are in 'this exhibition which- shall
be dealt with as the occasion arises, the present
order of notice being that adopted in previous
years, portraiture—in some respects the bonne
louche—being kept till the last.
The best of the single-figure subjects are this year more than usually
noticeable; and it is remarkable that
mental retrospection of the whole exhibition brings back the memory less of
the important efforts at composition
and movement, than simpler, and, as
it happens, more dignified examples of
arrangement. Sir Frederic Leighton's
four main contributions are practically
single-figure subjects, two of them warm
and joyous in key (the " Summer
Slumber," most happily imagined and
carried out, and " The Bracelet"—both
charming and tender pieces of colour),
and the other two relatively colourless.
In the latter the artist has sought to
inspire our more elevated emotions,
hushed sympathy, and unutterable longing for the calm and unattainable in the
" Spirit of the Summit;" and a cold
respect for "Fatidica," who, in superb
attitude, decorates a canvas of silver
and grey, in which the sole touch of
dry colour is in the faded bay-leaves
at her feet. A world of meaning lies in
Mr. Watts's picture of a man's back view
—a back clad in splendid attire, " For he
had great possessions;" and the whole
m
composition, simple as it is, is eloquent
of the reason why " he turned sorrowful
away." The technique and quality of
this small canvas are far finer than at
first appear, so reserved is it in manner.
Some years ago Mr. Waterhouse gave us " The
Lady of Shalott" floating down the stream. Beturning to the subject, he paints her now before
the loom, her face full of wonder mixed with fear,
while at her feet are the fallen balls of wool—balls of
lake, green, blue, and yellow—which give the colour
to the picture, a lovely harmony that pervades the
whole canvas and fits superbly the sentiment of
the poem. Mr. Dicksee's mediaeval clairvoyante in
" The Magic Crystal" is sitting in a scene of
Byzantine splendour, the colour rich, the draughtsmanship irreproachable, and the imitation complete.
All the same, the figure strikes us as being somewhat too large for the frame. Mr. Tadema is much

THE EOYAL
the same as usual in a deft and tender little canvas
in which the marble-painting is again the chief
attraction; but among the younger men it is Mr.
Goteh who succeeds in impressing the spectator
most with his sincerity and intensity of feeling.
It may well be objected that "The Child Enthroned " is too obviously a girl; but the refinement of the drawing, the almost Gothic conviction
of feeling carries it in triumph over
the dangers that always threaten such
conventions as these. Mr. Stott's
" Awakening of the Spirit of the
Rose" is an attempted repetition of
his success at Suffolk Street a few
years ago; but what the picture has
gained in drawing it has lost in feeling and colour. Nevertheless, we are
always ready to greet such individual
works as this.
It must not be supposed that the
imagination of our painters has been
stagnant during the past year, although
—as we have pointed out—the public
has done so little to stimulate it by
encouragement. In one case at least,
however, we must confess to a little
disappointment, precisely because the
painter, by his superb talent, has
earned total independence of popular
favour, even though his own ideal he
never achieved. We refer to Mr.
Swan, from whose " Orpheus " so much
was hoped. That this work contains
many passages of the greatest beauty,
whether of draughtsmanship or colour,
none will deny—that sky, and beasts,
and trees, and foreground are all
admirable is beyond question. Yet it
appears to us that the painter produced the picture while his artistic
views were in a state of transition, the
background and the figure being conceived in his earlier manner and the
animals in the later. Nor is the figure of Orpheus
himself—especially about the neck—entirely clear ;
nor the artist's view quite manifest in making so
dignified and mournful a lover execute a sort of
egg-dance among the panthers. Yet in spite of all
this the picture is a fine one—for Mr. Swan with
blemishes is worth most of the other exhibitors
without.
Another work of remarkable ability, but in
quite another direction, is the work of a young
painter who has lately made rapid strides in his
profession. This is " The Sea Maiden " of Chastelard's poem, by Mr. H. J. Draper. In its own

ACADEMY.

273

way the picture, with the clear working out of
the subject, is a triumph. Nevertheless, Mr.
Draper has failed to make the best use of contrast
at his command. The splendid blues and greens
of the sea are not balanced by the characterless
drapery that is meant to balance them, nor is
the swarthiness of the men's flesh insisted on in
relation to the brilliant and dazzling skin of the

THE CATERAN's COUETSHIP.
{From the Painting by Lockhart Bogle.)

elf-like woman they have caught in their net.
This figure is, of course, the eye of the picture,
and, in spite of somewhat faulty drawing of a limb,
is in itself a distinct creation. Mr. Bunny, the
Australian painter, and Mr. Moira both strike the
fanciful note, the former tenderly, the latter more
vigorously; and Mr. Arthur Hacker, with the "Morte
d'Arthur" for a subject, revives for us in Sir Percival, who is here halting between the fair witch's
spell and the cross of the sword, the recollection
of Sir Galahad, of chivalrous and holy memory.
The tender qualities of Mr. Boughton's " Ordeal
of Purity," tenderer in colour even than is the

274

THE MAGAZINE

artist's wont, are as obvious in his paint as in his
subject-matter; and there is, besides, a touch of
humour in the group of Backbiting, Folly, and
Vice, as they point at the saint-like figure that
passes by in sanctity and devout indifference.
Sentiment of a wider range is given by Mr. Alfred
Goodwin in his "First Christmas Dawn." The
idea is not new. The composition is a reminiscence
of the vast conceptions of Gustave Dore and John
Martin, but if only for the ingenuity of the combination, the artist wrould deserve praise. He has
certainly realised the vastness of vaulted space
upon his canvas ; but it is in our admiration for
the subtle beauty of the blue which pervades it
that he would doubtless seek his reward. In Mr.
John Bacon's " Confession of Love," too, we are
glad to recognise a vast improvement in this
clever painter's colour-sense, an improvement which
attends on a departure from the usual domestic
scenes hitherto affected by him. There is passion
in it as well, of a kind; though necessarily of a
different sort from that which distinguishes Mr.
George Hitchcock's " Mary at the House of Elizabeth "—one of the two or three religious pictures
of the year. Indeed, the absence of religion from
the wralls is one of the most striking and significant features in this year's Academy.
Once more we prove our enormous inferiority
to the French as battle-painters. Messrs. Crofts,
Wollen, Stanley Berkeley, Woodville, and Charlton
are equal masters of action and " g o ; " but in
every case their pictures are in fact illustrations
on a large scale. To this two exceptions must be
made : the first, the beautifully drawn " God Save
King James," by Mr. Andrew Gow—a party of
mounted Jacobites clandestinely met—wdrich may
be called Meissonier-like for firmness of pencil and
excellence of draughtsmanship and expression; and
the second, Mr. Seymour Lucas's splendid " Call
to Arms"—a scene of all the pomp and circumstance of war, full of vigour, expression, colour, and
invention.
Scenes of life are less striking than usual,
especially those of the dramatic order. Mr.
Langley is, perhaps, as successful as any with
" Never morning wore to evening, but some heart
did break;" but we have seen this heart-broken
girl and her sympathising mother many and many
a time before. At the same time we admit that
we are glad to welcome the couple once again,
seeing with what genuine power and feeling they
are rendered. Miss Henrietta Eae contributes a
large canvas of " Psyche Before the Throne of
Venus," which is very remarkable in its conception
and execution.
This elaborate composition, full

OF ART.

without being crowded, graceful in the drawing of
its figures, dainty in its appreciation of feminine
beauty, delicate in its tones and tints, is a work
we hardly expected from a woman. But we instinctively feel that the painter has never quite
grasped the greatness of this scene of classic
mythology—the figures, with all their charm, are
not inhabitants of Olympos, but denizens of an
ungodly earth. The composition would be benefited
by the removal of the dove in the foreground.
A new note, new in its grimness, is struck by Mr.
John Hassall in a scene in which a despairing
widow is about to drop the curtain on her weary
life. The charcoal fire is already glowing on the
floor, and the wretched woman makes ready for
the verdict of " Temporary Insanity."
The last of the subject-pictures—though in
many respects one of the most important—to
which we call attention, is Mr. Abbey's "Fiammetta's Song."
This is a beautiful piece of
decoration, entirely Italian in conception and
atmosphere, full of space and breadth, so happy
in its composition and in the true Italian character
of its mediaevalism that we willingly forgive the
exaggerated height of all his upright figures.
Numerically speaking, the nude is more satisfactorily represented than usual; but among the
greater number of skilful studies there is no particular point calling for special attention. Professor Herkomer's ambitious effort in this direction
is studied with great care, but we are not sure
but that the lovely landscape background of •" All
Beautiful in Naked Purity" does not secure much
of the admiration that was intended for the figure.
Monsieur Bouguereau sends one of his pretty little
effeminate Cupids, " Amour Pique," which, although
it is nude, can hardly be called a serious study of
flesh-painting. Mr. Altson also gives us the nude
in his " Golden Age," but ideally, after the style of
Puvis de Chavannes, but in the manner rather of
Aublet. There is here no suggestion of flesh; it
is merely for outline and its value in a large
composition that the artist has cared. Mr. Tuke,
on the other hand, in his brilliant picture of
" August Blue"—naked boys bathing in a magnificently painted sea—has looked for colour rather
than for form (it is a great pity the sky prevents
this notable work from being a complete success);
while Mr. Harcourt's "Psyche: Farewell!" a fine,
columnar-like figure of Eossettian inspiration, is
used chiefly to reflect the orange light of the
S e t t i n g SUn.

(To

u continued.)

Most of the pictures here referred to will be found in
ROYAL ACADEMY PICTURES (the Academy supplement of this

Magazine), now in course of publication.

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When ©lack-Ms I M M for Ivealkst SWj,]
J met a. Welly Covin W S i l l ^
.

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'Xi$ *T>me. a.^one ttut lives © SMi&S.
n
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(Poem by Norman Gale. Drawinq by Herbert J. Draper.)

276

AET IN THE THEATEE.
THE ART OF DRESSING AN HISTORICAL PLAY.
B Y S E Y M O U R LUCAS, A.R.A.

T

HE adequate " dressing" of a play is now considered by all theatrical managers of first rank
to be a matter of the highest importance. It was

SIR

WILLIAM

ASHTCW,

THE

LORD

KEEPER.

not always so. It is now generally known that in
the days of the early renaissance, the golden
age of the drama so far as literary excellence is
concerned, performances wrere conducted without
scenery, and with but little attempt on the part
of the performers to dress the part. A curtain
for a background, conveniently divided to allow
* We are indebted to Mr. Henry Irving for permission to
reproduce these sketches for the costumes for Ravenswood.

I L L U S T R A T E D BY T H E A U T H O R . *

for the entrance and exit of the players, labelled
with placards on which, in order to assist the
imagination of the spectator, the scene of the
incident was written or printed
in bold letters, a few wigs and
beards, a pasteboard crown or
two, and a few changes of trunk
hose with vests to correspond,
would nearly complete the list
of " properties" recognised as
essential, until Davenant and
Betterton, in the reign of
Charles II., made a complete
change in this respect, and introduced from France and Spain
those newer and more satisfactory methods of stage representation which have ever since
prevailed.
The playgoer of to-day expects that his enjoyment shall
be enhanced by correct pictorial
presentment; and the expectation is likely to grow. The
public is even now in a position
sufficiently to appreciate artistic
excellence; and the conditions
under wThich plays are produced
are consequently such as are
likely to afford still greater opportunity to the artist and the
antiquary. It is, then, from the
point of view of the latter that
it is proposed to deal with the
subject of this article.
It must surely be to everyone a source of genuine delight
to watch the performance of a
play well mounted and carefully
dressed. Well-painted scenery
and accurate costume not only
assist the imagination of the
onlooker, they cannot fail to be
a very real help to the actor. On the other
hand, garish and inharmonious colouring, bad
grouping, inaccurate costume, and all sorts of
historical and antiquarian anachronisms inevitably
tend to weaken in the minds of the educated the
illusion produced by the very highest histrionic
talent. As it has been my good fortune, in the
course of the last few years, to assist in the production of four plays, the Editor has sought the result

THE ART OF DRESSING AN HISTORICAL
of my experience. One of these plays, Werner,
was not submitted to the test of continuous presentment; the other three will probably be well
known to most of the readers of this Magazine.
Two of them have been Shakesperian revivals—
Richard III., by Mr. Mansfield
in 1889, and Henry VIII., by
Mr. Irving in 1892. The third
was a dramatic version of Sir
Walter Scott's novel, " The Bride
of Lammermoor," which was
produced by the latter at the
Lyceum Theatre under the title
of Ravenswood.
The first concern of an artist
is naturally in respect of colour
effect. In the painting of a picture, it will be readily understood,
the scheme of colour must be in
sympathy with the idea which it
is intended to express. In a
good painting there is no jarring
note. The sentiment of colour,
if it may be so expressed, should
correspond with that of the incident depicted. It is the same
with theatrical tableaux. As a
rule a play will assert with
unmistakable clearness its own
claims in this respect—it will
suggest its own colour. Ravenswood, for instance, calls for a
treatment in sombre greys, whilst
Henry VIII. at once suggests
gold and brilliant reds. It is of
importance in arranging scenes
to contrive that both principal
and subordinate actors should be
dressed with an eye to relative
c h r o m a t i c value. I t should
always be the endeavour, therefore, to make the costumes of
the leading characters the salient
points of colour in any scheme.
On the score of dignity as well
as of artistic effect it is well to keep those
points at once simple and strong. A costume
designed in several colours, which is much cut up
with trimmings and rich jewels, or kept too low
or too neutral in tone, however beautiful it may
be considered as a thing apart, loses immensely
in dignity when it is placed in juxtaposition with
those of the rest of the players in the scene. Good
acting and strong dramatic situation are wonderfully enhanced by attention to this simple rule.
An instance of this, which will be as well re891

PLAY.

277

membered as any, is the hunting scene in Ravenstoood, in which the strong point of colour is the
red habit worn by Miss Terry, a dress which
acquires force by its very simplicity; whilst the
whole scene gains in subtlety and dignity by the

_*^*v^&^
CAPTAIN

CRAIGBNGELT.

harmonious blending of the colours which take
their tone from this clear key-note. It must
not, however, be considered that the use of positive
colours for the principal dresses is alone to be
advocated. The same artistic laws govern the making of fine stage tableaux as the painting of good
pictures. Fine colour is rarely, if ever, positive;
and it must always be remembered that the strong
lights employed on the stage have the effect of
making even subdued colour brilliant. This was
particularly noticeable in the Lyceum revival of

278

THE MAGAZINE

Macbeth, which was dressed by Mr. Charles Cattermole. There was abundance of fine colour, but
admirably controlled, and managed, it may truly
be said, with considerable skill.
From the point of view of the actor, it is a
misfortune to be dressed in garish and spotty colour.
Good acting involves much subtle facial play; but
much of this is lost when the spectator's attention is violently diverted in another direction. Of
course it is not always possible to do just exactly
as one would like. Absolute freedom is sometimes restricted by the regard which must always
be paid to historical accuracy; but a little contrivance within lawful limits will do much to
lessen the inconvenience.
The art of skilful
dressing is to combine fine colour results with
archaeological consistency. There is much more
scope for the indulgence of artistic fancy in the
case of a romantic play, or in that of an
historical one whose motive is found in remote
mediaeval episode, such as Beclcet, than in one like
Henry VIII., for which there is ample and
accessible authority. But in all cases a certain
amount of artistic licence, always within legitimate
limits, is not only permissible but essential.
In devising colour effects in any given scene
a good plan is generally this: Obtain as many
pieces of silks and stuffs as you can possibly get
from the costumier of the kind which you are likely
to want, in yard lengths or thereabout; and then
placing that which represents the keynote, or
those which constitute the salient points of colour
if there be more than one, in the middle of your
studio floor, dispose selections of the rest in
various wTays about it (or them) with a view to
obtaining various accidental harmonies, and keep
changing, altering, and rearranging them until you
succeed in getting a really fine effect.
From the purely artistic point of view of
course colour is the main thing; but the quality
of realism, that subtle suggestiveness of actuality
which pervades a first-rate production, is infused
by care in another and still more important
direction. To produce the finest results it is
necessary that regard should be paid to even the
smallest matters of archaeological detail. It need
hardly be said that this involves infinitely more
labour than the other. Few people would imagine
the amount of careful research which is involved
in the production of a play like Henry
VIII
It is very far from sufficient for even a good
archaeologist to rely on his own unaided knowledge. The artist, on being entrusted with the
book of any proposed play, must read it carefully
through; and then, from his own acquaintance
with the period, decide generally on the character

OF ART.

of the costume to be worn by the principal actors.
Then he goes to whatever sources of information
are open to him, which afford contemporary
evidence upon the points on which he requires
particular enlightenment.
He does this in order
that he may ensure absolute accuracy in everything, down to the very smallest and least important point of detail. In the case of Henry VIII
valuable assistance was derived from contemporary
paintings by Holbein, and from the State Papers:
of the period. For a judge's robes the only
evidence that could be obtained was that of h
monumental effigy on a tomb which was sculptured
in that reign. , Not unfrequently long journeys
had to be made in order to obtain the necessary
information. One of the most reliable pieces of
evidence for King Henry's costume was a portrait
in Belvoir Castle, of which the Duke of Rutland
kindly permitted a copy to be made. For the
dresses of the pages, heralds, and gentlemen-atarms reference was made to the illuminations in
the celebrated "Warwick Boll" at the Heralds'
College, from which the officials courteously allowed
the necessary drawings to be made. The Tower
of London is always available for information
about armour; but when Mr. Mansfield was producing Richard III, it was necessary to send to
Warwick to make a facsimile copy of the armour
on the magnificent brass effigy in the Beauchamp
Chapel of St. Mary's Church. The Spanish
Ambassador to the British Court in the days of
Henry VIII. was an observant and industrious
scribe. He wrote long letters to his master,
Charles V., accurately describing the manners,
customs, costumes, and even the furniture of the
English. To what extent the information compiled
by him has been of service to others in the
course of the intervening centuries it is hard to
say; but there is no doubt that it was of the very
greatest possible assistance to me at the latter end
of the nineteenth. His descriptions of the everyday
costumes of men and women of the period were particularly valuable. For accurate observation and
careful and vivid description his account of the
dresses of the women would be hard to beat.
" Their usual vesture is a cloth petticoat over the
shift, lined with grey squirrel or some other fur.
Over the petticoat they wear a long gown lined
with some choice fur. The gentlewomen carry the
train of the gown under the arm. The commonalty
pin it behind, or before, or at one side. The
sleeves of the gowns sit as close as possible, are
long, and unslashed throughout, the cuffs being
lined with some choice fur.
Their headgear is
of various sorts of velvet, cap-fashion, with lappets
hanging down behind over their shoulders like two

THE AET OF DRESSING
hoods; and in front they have two others lined
with some other silk. Their hair is not seen.
Others wear on their heads muslins, which are
distended and hang at their backs, but not far
down.
Some draw their hair from under a
kerchief, and wear over their
hair a cap, for the most part
white, round, and
seemly.
Others, again, wear a kerchief
in folds on their heads. But
be the fashion as it may the
hair is never seen. Their
stockings are black, and their
shoes doubly soled of various
colours; but no one wears
' choppines,' as they are not
in use in England." This description is confirmed in every
particular by a contemporary
painting in Hampton Court
Palace of the embarking of
Henry VIII. on the occasion
of his leaving England to attend the meeting with Francis
on the Field of the Cloth of
Gold.
In designing the costumes
for Havensivood, the Print Room
of the British Museum was of
the greatest possible service.
The prints and drawings in
pencil and water-colour of the
time are fairly numerous, though
often crude and ill-executed.
These are, however, amply
suggestive, and quite sufficient
to enable anyone conversant
with costume to obtain perfectly clear and accurate information. The collection of
hunting and sporting prints
and drawings was particularly
helpful.
Having filled many sheets
of paper and several sketchbooks with archaeological and artistic notes, the
artist's next step is the preparation of the necessary
cartoons for the costumier's use. It is always well
to make finished drawings in chalk of the principal
characters in the play, in their various changes of
costume, and outline drawings of those of lesser
importance and the supers. In the preparation
of Henry VIII. no fewer than 138 of these were
made for the various costumiers employed. Seeing how difficult it is for tradesmen, however
skilful they may be in business technique, to

AN" HISTORICAL

PLAY.

279

translate fine colour into corresponding material,
patterns should be obtained and the stuffs selected
to be used in every instance. These are invariably
chosen in a room darkened so as to exclude daylight, and illuminated as strongly as possible with

HAYSTON

OV

BUCKLA.W.

artificial light. Small snippings from these are
glued securely along the border of each drawing,
and pencil lines are run from the pattern selected
to those parts of the dress which are to be made
from the pieces of which these small cuttings
are the samples. It will generally, however, be
found expedient to visit the costumiers oneself to
see that the translation of the drawings into
costume has been accurately effected. This necessarily involves the expenditure of a considerable
amount of time and trouble, which some would

280

THE MAGAZINE

MONCEIEPF, AN OPFICEE.

possibly think unnecessary. But by this means
one is enabled to ensure absolute control of all
those factors which are essential to successful
picturesque representation.
The only difficulty experienced is later on with
the wearers. In spite of all one's careful instructions and strict injunctions, some of them will persist in wearing wigs, coifs, and dresses with a view
to the most effectual display of personal charms. It
is sometimes only after repeated protests that some
of the characters—the females in the subordinate
parts being the greatest sinners—can be persuaded
to confine themselves within legitimate bounds. It
is necessary to insist on the observance of this,
because such limitation is prescribed by that
historical accuracy which imparts the quality of
realism, invests the scene with an atmosphere

OF AKT.

redolent of the age represented,
and carries the spectator involuntarily back to the very
period itself by process of artistic and very justifiable illusion.
Oh, the trouble to persuade
some of them to wear heelless
boots, to cover up their ears
with wigs, to induce nuns and
such-like to conceal pretty fringes
beneath wimples and coifs ! But,
indeed, women are not the only
sinners; nor is vanity the only
obstacle which the artist has to
overcome. Sheer ignorance is responsible for some very comical
results. Who that saw it will
forget the grotesque appearance
of some armed supers in Richard
III., who appeared at rehearsal
with breastplates on their backs,
back-plates on their breasts, and
helmets worn in such fashion
that the ocularium, or eye-hole,
ventilated the back of the wearer's
head, whilst the guard for the
neck and shoulders was utilised
as a sort of peak or shade for
the eyes in front, after the
fashion of the old cheesecutter
caps for boys ? Again and again
it has been necessary to point
out how the entire character of
an important piece of costume,
such as a hat, has been altered
by the ignorant way in which it
has been put on. Nor was it
less amusing on one occasion to
overhear one of the supers in
Bavensivood, a young gentleman with strong stage
proclivities and a fondness for dressing up, express
an ardent desire to make the artist feel a tergo the
weight of some heavy and ungainly jack boots which
he had perforce to put on.
Small matters, these, you say. Yes; but it is
only by attention to these small matters that
perfect illusion is obtained. It is not by broad
outline; but by those numberless artistic subtleties,
of which the majority know and suspect nothing,
that that quality is secured which invests a wellmounted play with its peculiar and indefinable
charm.
It is no part of my duty here to enter into
any detailed account of the scenery, though I
may perhaps be permitted to express my own
feeling of indebtedness to Messrs. Hawes Craven,

THE AET

OF DEESSING

Telbin, and Harker for their sympathetic and
altogether admirable treatment of the historical
plays with whose production I was personally concerned. But there are still some matters which
need to be carefully considered, not the least important of which is the relative proportion of the
actor to those more solid structures in the foreground with which he is brought into immediate
juxtaposition. An abbey gateway, for instance, has

AN HISTOEICAL

PLAY.

281

dignified and realistic if the extent of the view were
circumscribed, and only a portion of the massive
stonework represented. In the old days of flatpainted scenery this did not so much matter; the
perspective corrected all such contrasts. Now that
it has become the fashion to build up the scenery
solidly and in detail, the exigencies of proportion
demand a bolder and less expansive treatment. The
scene-painter should, so far as possible, work in

*^v~%^
CALEB

BALDEKSTONE.

been seen through which some of the characters
have had to pass, of such utterly inadequate proportions that it had the appearance of a rather big
doorway of a fancy doll's-house. The scene-painter
is no doubt influenced by his desire—a very legitimate one, if controlled and kept within reasonable
limits—of making a fine picture. But one cannot
help thinking that the effect would be far more

conjunction with the artist who dresses the
play, and the picture which he conceives in his
imagination should be one in which the grouping,
proportion, and costume of the players should be
allowed their full value. In point of fact, the
picture should be made with due regard to all its
constituent elements, as seen by the spectator at
the time of presentation.

282

HANS MEMLING: A KEVIEW.*
S E V E R A L times during the
KJ past two years we have referred in these pages to the interesting researches which were
I being patiently prosecuted by
Monsieur A. J. Wauters, Professor
Law of Art History at the Brussels
Ecole Royale des Beaux-Arts, into
the life and works of Memling. The results of those
researches are now lying before us; and if it fails
to satisfy us conclusively on every point which the
author has set down for our consideration, it must
unquestionably be acknowledged to place him in the
front rank of our artistic investigators. M. Wauters
belongs to the modern school of experts and critics,
who set out in a judicial spirit, without prejudice
or parti pris, to analyse and examine, to test and
establish, carefully following a scent so long as it
seems to direct the inquirer along the path of truth,
but abandoning it at once, without remorse or regret,
as soon as it appears to lead him astray. There is
no attempt to justify unduly a preconceived idea,
no taint whatever of the special pleader.
The most obvious merit of M. Wauters' work is
its frankness and lucidity; and the various stages of
his inquiries, the various links he established in the
chain of evidence with something of the shrewdness
of an artistic Sherlock Holmes, will satisfy most
men as to the correctness of his first point. This is
nothing less than the solution of the mystery of
Memling's birthplace—hitherto accepted, with a sort
of half-doubt, nevertheless, as being Bruges, where,
to the city's undying honour, he lived and worked
—and maybe resumed in the author's own words:
" Memling was a native of Memelingen, a village
which at one time formed part of the principality
of Mayence—the name under which he is known
to history being merely an alteration of the name
of his natal village." For the convincing nature
of the proof and the piled-up evidence on which
it stands, we refer the reader to the book itself.
The next point is of minor importance, but it is
of singular interest to the student of Memling. In
the background of no fewer than nineteen of the
artist's panels a tiny figure of a knight mounted on
a white horse is to be seen; and M. Wauters noting
the fact for the first time submits, however, but without insistence, that this for some years was Memling's
mark—in the author's favour a good deal, it may be
*" Sept Etudes pour servir a l'Histoire de Hans Memling."
Contenant 70 Illustrations. Par A. J . Wauters. (Bruxelles :
Dietrich et Cie., 1893.)

urged, seeing that such a " monogram" is by no
means inconsistent with the practice at that time,
when the fashion of signing pictures with the name or

MARTYRDOM OF ST. SEBASTIEN.
{From the Painting by Memling in the Louvre.)

initials of the man who painted them—though those
of the donors were often inscribed on the frames—
had not yet been introduced. And, furthermore,
the reader will remember that in other of Memling's
works the man and the white horse sometimes

L O R D BYROIT'S
Magazine of A r t .

YIEW-HARROW.

LOED BYRON'S VIEW, HARROW."
appear in a manner far more obtrusive than that
of the little mannikin now riding into a wood, now
turning a street-corner, entering or emerging from
castle-gates, or disappearing, half-ashamed, into the
distant background.
Next follows a delightful chapter on the musical
instruments painted by Memling into his pictures,
and placed in his
angels' hands.
In
the fifteenth century
Bruges was the centre
of a great musical
movement of more
than exceptional brilliancy, and it is interesting to observe
how the artist has
reflected that movement in his painting,
and how he has rejoiced in making his
art do homage to the
art of Obrecht, of
M A P OP
Binchois, and many
others of his musical friends. But this is all introductory to the gros morceau of the book—nothing less
than the discovery by M. Wauters of the magnificent
triptych of " Christ and His Angels," which, for four
hundred years, had lain forgotten and unrecognised
in the Monastery of Najera, in Castille ! The author
makes no pretence of indifference in speaking of this
most notable discovery; indeed, he reaches the point
nearest to enthusiasm which is to be found in his
book. Upon this great work—not only great, M.
Wauters claims, as a masterpiece, but literally so,
having a total length of something like twenty-one
feet—he may be said to have stumbled when it was
in the unrecognised hands of M. Charles Stein of
Paris. How the clues were followed up, establishing the place whence it was rescued, for whom it was

283

painted, how it probably got to Spain—all this reads
a good deal like romance, and justifies the writer in
his proud exclamation: " after four hundred years
of absolute oblivion, this grand chef-d'oeuvre is here
restored by me to art and to history."
The remaining portion of the book is hardly less
interesting, seeing that there is

MAYENCE A N D THE AEMS OF BRUGES.

little there of recapitulation and much of original
research. How Memling worked for the Court of
Burgundy, and at the request of Charles le Temeraire
he executed a portable oratory on which he painted
the portrait of the duke; how, in M. Wauters'
opinion, the two Mendings in the Louvre were
painted for the celebrated Guild of Archers of
St. Sebastian of Bruges; and how the artist's property in Bruges was ultimately disposed of by the
judge's order, occupy the rest of the book. A
catalogue raisonne is included, and the illustrations
are numerous and admirably selected. But it is
impossible to see why a picture of a very modern
child by M. Leon Frederic should have been included. It is very clever and very pretty, no doubt,
mais que diable allait-il /aire dans cette gaUre ?

"LOBD BYBON'S VIEW, HABBOW."
ORIGINAL ETCHING BY FRANCIS WALKER,

E

ROM Harrow churchyard is presented one of
the most charming views that can possibly
be seen, extending on a clear day to a distance of
fifty miles. Immediately below is Harrow Weald,
and away in the middle distance Uxbridge and
Windsor, and a wide expanse of landscape, including in its scope portions of the counties of Bucks,
Oxfordshire, and Herts. This it is that forms
the subject of our frontispiece—a subject closely
allied with the memory of Lord Byron, for here,

R.H.A., A.RP.-E.

it is said, the poet, stretched out on the tomb in
the foreground, composed the lines, "Written
Beneath an Elm in the Churchyard of Harrow."
It may be said, in explanation, that Mr.
Walker's plate is a combination of etching and
mezzotinting, the lines being first etched with a
view to receiving a mezzo-ground, the* final result
being one that cannot be obtained by either
method singly. The etching is in the exhibition of
the Royal Academy.

284

THE GEEAT TAPESTEY IN EXETEE COLLEGE CHAPEL, OXFOED.
BY CANON H. D. RAWNSLEY.

wm

IT is a little remarkable to
find that at Oxford,
which has been described by a brilliant
writer of modern time
as being " like the Isle
of the Macrseones, a
IOTA ^ S £ r a F :
l^SjB^feS lumber-room of ruinous
philosophies, decrepit
L*°^V^_^^^"'*i> "aiHmTrtffiHhSj
religions, forlorn beliefs," there should be evidence of such an attempt
to set the lumber-room at any rate in order; to
make the outside show of things architectural
so fair; and to prove by deeds that its belief
in Art as a fair handmaid of God, whether it
take the form of architecture, music, or the stage,
is neither decrepit nor forlorn. No one who,
after hearing the sound of the singers of the
Psalm in the cool dim Chapel of Magdalen, will
go forth into the strong light and pause and
look at the new buildings hard by, glance at the
new Schools, or half dare to ring the bell of the
portal of the palace of the Principal of Brasenose;
no one who will pass on to be present at a choir
festival in the Balliol Hall, or at a performance in
the Oxford Theatre, will doubt for a moment that
a revival is going forward, and that the wave of
a wishfulness to know and profit by some of the
many things that the artists of old and modern
time have to tell us, is breaking over the Oxford
vale. But one does not realise all of a moment
that quite silently and quietly the teachers who
man the College ships, have been storing them
with the art-treasures of the nineteenth century,
and that with a purpose. They know these arttreasures have tongues of angels—tongues that
will, with their own flame, kindle fire in the
hearts of the beholders, young and old.
What the man who sits—perhaps without much
thought—at meat in Keble Hall gets insensibly
from Holman Hunt's great picture of the " Light
of the World," the same man, grown to years, will
feed on with full knowledge and grow strong in
the process. And now another College has determined that the men who break holy bread in its Hall
of Prayer shall have a light to lighten their eyes
and a lamp to which their faith also may look for
its reward. There hangs now in its solemn place
at the right hand as one goes up to the altar in
Exeter College Chapel, a work of art, a masterpiece. It is neither in chief, work of the pencil
nor the needle; it is the work of a holy spirit of

faith and true deep feeling, that has dipped its
brush in colours that seem of purest dye, and set
the hand-loom to body-forth the poet and the
painter's mind, with patience and a glory hardly
dreamable of. That bit of tapestry—a representation of the adoration of the Magi—is the work
of two master-minds in love with the subject,
with one another, and with the old University
city, that have chosen to enshrine their highest,
noblest effort.
There has not been produced in England—I
think not on the Continent in this century—
any master-work of the kind so glorious. BurneJones drew the cartoon in plain black-and-white ;
William Morris transferred it to the loom and
chose and arranged the colours. " The idle singer
of an empty day " has sung here a song neither
of emptiness nor idleness—he has told England a
strange new thing, and told it in such tones as
can never be forgotten—namely, that England,
poor machine-murdered England, has hands and
can learn to use them; eyes, and can be taught
to see; and still has faith in gentleness, meekness,
and truth, still honours the King of all the earth.
It is a gift to the world as well as to England,
this wondrous work of colour and weaving; and
though I found to my sorrow that the great
breathing broidery-picture had been hung in a
place in which no eyes could rightly see it, to do
fair justice to i t ; still, to the ill-lighted Oxfordian
" Sainte Chapelle," as the guide-books delight to
call Exeter College Chapel, the men from far
countries will come to look, to love, to wonder,
and to learn.
Some day, who knows, the donor of the glass
window opposite may see that the same window
can, without cost, be removed to a position further
west and on the same side. Some day a kind
of shade may be fixed between the head of the
tapestry and the sill of the window immediately
above, and so by cutting off the light enable us
to get a fairer glance at the wonderful work.
Some day an earthquake may shock into a thousand
fragments the terrible great east window and
some others. When that happens the tapestry
will lose dust perhaps, but will suffer no great
change, for it is meant for the ages.
It is not cold. The flowers are springing all
about the skirts of the dark woodland, as if already
they felt the winter of Hate had passed and a new
season of Joy and Love were here : daisies, columbine, bluebell, and the red poppy half-awakened out

THE

ADORATION

OF

(From the Tapestry at Exeter College Chapel, Oxford.

THE

MAGI.

Designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Bart.)

286

THE MAGAZINE

OF ART.

of sleep at the sound of the strange new-comers.
Gaze at the faces of the three Kings: what eagerness is there! how forgetful of the very gifts
they bring; how forgetful of the very star that
guided them, are these three men! The old, turbannecl, grey-bearded sheik bends first before the
Baby King, for in the East old age has precedence. One looks on his face, and realises how
many a night he has searched the heavens, and
in vain; how many a weary year, for the Star that
should tell of a truer King, he has waited in love
and loyalty. Perhaps one wishes his little casket of
gold were not lined with blue silk and cotton-wool.
It is not Oriental enough, it is too Parisian, this
casket's finish; but the patch of blue was needed
just where it is in the picture, and the other matter
is but of minor import, after all.
But one's eyes go from the Magi to the face of
the infant Saviour. Old Giles Fletcher's words rise
to mind :

for it among the star-depths or seek it in tin flowers
of the field. It is the Star of Prayer, of burning
aspiration, of fiery thought and steady desire that
kindles the soul, of devotion that cannot be quenched.
And there stands the angel—or, rather, swims in
aether than stands, for the quiet, closed, and restful
feet hang above the grass and the dew, and are so
gracious, so tender, so peaceable, that the dew pearl
falls not, and the flower is not shed beneath.
Let us look at the weird, dark background.
The picture scene is painted on the margin of a
wood; the forest is full of blue, twilit shade, and
within its heart is set a sleeping water-pool. It
was not for nothing that the forest background,
with its whispers of the dark world that was,
and the dark forest-worlds that still are, unlit by
the lamp of God, and uncheered by the rays of
Hope, should thus have been wrought upon the
poet's loom. It is well to observe how accurately
true to Nature the painter was, who gave the poet
" See how small room my infant Lord doth take,
his great design. Eor where but at the edges of the
Whom all the world is not enough to hold."
wood do the flowers leap up and the birds delight to
Then our eyes are caught upwards to the angel face sing; and lo! how the flowers are brightening all
that seems wrapt in deepest devotion above the the ground outside the grim and terrible wilderness;
head of the infant Saviour and the head of the aged how from the rose-bush, that serves as a background
Eastern King. Pearls, or daisies, or stars, are in the for the Eose of all the world, the birds sing loud:
angel's locks, and the glory round his head almost " Eejoice ! rejoice !"
burns with the green wonder of his folded wings.
As we rise and leave the dim-lit Exeter Chapel,
He has swept through the stars of broken worlds we think of wondrous Gobelin tapestries we have
to lead men to the Day-star of a world as yet un- seen at the Louvre, at the Tuileries, in the island
broken, and the dust of that great journey is in his halls of the Bonomeo's; but these fade before the
hair ; but in his folded hands, his hands in attitude marvel that has here been revealed. We thank
of prayer, is a strange, new thing—a light that the College that has done this good thing for the
lightens and does not consume a bit more than old men who will ever dream dreams, or the young
that light winch Moses saw, when the great I AM men who will ever see visions, in Oxford Term.
was revealed. In his hands of prayer, there is a And out into the tumble and strife of common life
glory nothing shall put out: it is the light of Love we go; but the peace and the rest and devotion
that leads to the higher life and the nobler, and of that woven picture are around us; its colours
brings us to the innocence of prime; it is the lamp will never lose themselves in the common light of
of Truth, Truth with the many-coloured rays twisted day. Our duties now lie scattered at our feet like
into purest, whitest light; the lamp that goes flowers, and behold ! the Star of Prayer is in our
before the seekers after Truth, whether they search 1 lands.

{Drawn by C. Ricketts.)

287

OUR ILLUSTRATED NOTE-BOOK.

R

EFEBENCE was made in our obituary column two pictures by Henry R Morland, entitled "The
' last month to the death of Mr. J. M. Gray, Laundry-Maid " (Nos. 1,402-3), of which reprofor many years curator of
ductions are given here. " A
the Scottish National Portrait
Study of Still Life" (No.
Gallery at Edinburgh.
1,401), by Pieter Snyers, has
By the addition to the
also been recently acquired
National Collection of the
for the Dutch section.
late Ford Madox Brown's
Bedford now possesses a
picture, " Christ
Washing
worthy memorial of John
Peter's Feet" (No. 1,394),
Howard, the great philanpainted in 1852, the nation
thropist, who for many years
is now possessed of one at
lived at the village of Carleast of this artist's repredington, near by, and was
s e n t a t i v e works. This is
closely associated with the
owing to the generosity of
county, of which he was
a few, the picture having
High Sheriff in 1773. The
been purchased by subscripmonument, unveiled by the
tion for the purpose of preDuke of Bedford, stands in
sentation to the National
the market-place of the town,
Gallery. To the British secTHE LATE J. M. GRAY.
and, as may be seen from
tion has also been added the
the illustration, consists of a
(From a Photograph by W. Qrooke, Edinburgh.)

THE LAUNDRY-MAID.
(From the Paintings by Henry R. Morland.

Recently acquired by the National Gallery.)

288

THE MAGAZINE OF ART.

A STUDY OF STILL LIFE.
(By Pieter Snyers.

THE HOWARD MEMORIAL, BEDFORD.
(By Alfred Gilbert, R.A. From a Photograph by Blake
and Edgar, Bedford.)

Recently acquired by the National Gallery.)

figure of Howard on a richly designed pedestal,
The memorial is the work of Mr. Alfred Gilbert,
R.A., and is intended to commemorate the centenary

of Howard's death. It is executed in bronze, and
the cost, amounting to £2,000, was defrayed by
public subscription.

CHRIST WASHING PETERS FEET.
(From the Painting by the late Ford Madox Brown.

Recently acquired by the National

Galley.)

ON THE SOUTH DOWNS.
(From the Painting by J. Aumonier,

R.I.)

THE KOYAL ACADEMY, 1894.—III.
B Y T H E EDITOR

W

HAT is the sum-total of the Academy this
year ? or, rather, what is the condition of
Art in England as indicated by the Academic
gauge ? Of any absolutely transcendent work in
Burlington House there is practically none. The
figure and subject-pictures, brilliant as many of
them are, do not surpass as complete works of art the
best that we have seen in the recent past; the landand sea-scapes of fine quality are fewer; the animal
pictures less numerous still; the nudes for the most
part are not serious; and the " sacred" element is
all but non-existent. In the portraits—many of
them of extraordinary skill—we may perhaps find
the greatest satisfaction; yet in the Academy itself,
though there is much to interest us powerfully,
there is little to arouse enthusiasm, whatever there
may be to impart satisfaction or inspire hope.
Why is this ? It is, I believe, the natural outcome of the general art-tendency of to-day ; it is the
result of the teaching and of the deliberate aim of
the artist during the last twenty years. It is, in
fact, the logical consequence of that education of
the hand at the expense of the head and the heart
which has so carried away the majority of students
893

into the impasse of mere dexterity. It is only the
few, the very few, who have understood that the
cultivation of the emotions must accompany the development of hand and eye if the painter is to be
also an artist, and who have realised the sole means
by which their craftsmanship is elevated into art.
Talent there is on the walls of the Academy far
more than ever was seen before, but of genius
probably less; and while many a student can draw
and paint, and impart a sense of style, with a
facility quite unknown thirty years ago to many
men who at that time -stood unchallenged at the
head of their profession, there is yet a curious reduction in that individuality and grasp which
happily at no time has been entirely absent from
English art.
Nowadays wTe see miracles of foreshortening,
which is good for nothing—or good for very little—
when it is done. We see landscapes, occasionally
fine in tone, which yet appear to be views in Noah's
Ark-adia. We have portraits well-nigh unsurpassable in modelling, yet suggestive only of a blank
and often soapless humanity. And we have battlepieces, some with more " g o " than drawing, and

290

THE MAGAZINE

OF ART.

others with more formality than either. But among Dalziel's " nocturnes," contribute greatly to the mark
them all, hardly one single wTork which by its com- made by the outsiders; while of the members of
pleteness lays claim to being a fine work of art—fine the Academy, Mr. Hook, Mr. MacWhirter, and
alike in drawing, in colour, in composition, in tech- Mr. Herkomer (with his background already alluded
nique, in sentiment, and in what our forefathers used to) provide the rest of the landscape element. Mr.
to call in " keeping." Yet the men are not wanting. David Murray's work can hardly be considered up
It is not in the nature of things that there should to his level of last year, and Mr. Gregory's charming
be many such worthy and capable of ministering to little water-colour, "Run Dry," is a reminiscence
their goddess; but some there are, and many more rather of Fred Walker than of himself. M. Fantin's
who can and doubtless will do work better deserving flower-pieces always make it difficult for one to
of the name of Art. But it is impossible not to see admire other works of the same class in an exhibithat the world of art is, in this country, still in a tion ; and his " Roses" in the " big room," and his
transitional state. England, having suddenly real- " Sweet Peas" in the " gem room," fully maintain
ised her comparative inferiority in the painter's their painter's great reputation.
If the sea-painting is, as a whole, less imposing
craft, still devotes the best of her attention and the
most strenuous of her efforts to the remedy; and than usual, it is chiefly owing to the fact that
it is assuredly true that if she pays no heed to the Mr. Henry Moore has given us no great canvas
narrow view that mere technique—soulless, skilful of superlative merit which he has for years led us
technique—is the end-all and be-all of Art, salvation to expect. Nevertheless, there are several smaller
pictures from his incomparable brush—incomparwill be at hand when it is sought.
I have already dealt with the chief subject-pictures able in its drawing of waves, which has the effect of
in the Academy. The landscapes of real excellence putting his skies into the shade. Skies, indeed, as
are fewer still. The successful rendering of sunlit Mr. Claude Phillips has pointed out, too often mar
scenery has not been attempted by many, but instead the landscapes of the Moderns; and this is nowhere
freaks and " effects " in numbers. Mr. Alfred East's more noticeable than in Mr. Tuke's otherwise brilliant
clever " Sunlit Harbour" is perhaps the best of a painting of bathing boys, " August Blue." Figures,
class to which Mr. Davis's precise," God-fearing," but sunlight, and sea are altogether admirable; but the
less pictorial works belong. Of a more gem-like sky, excellent as it is in colour, is deficient in perkind is Mr. North's "Mill-pond in a Blossoming spective, and is more like an upright screen than the
Land "—a work of exquisite beauty, hardly showing spreading vault of heaven. Mr. Hook and Mr. Peter
to full advantage among the criards canvases in- Graham repeat once more their well-known successes
separable from an open exhibition. Mr. Clausen's —the latter's " Head of the Loch " showing the same
" Turning the Plough" is another work of great mastery, and virtually the same subject and arrangeexcellence—a little picture of a man and a plough ment, as in previous years. Mr. Hayes renders the
and a couple of horses in a field lit by a hot low form of the sea with his ancient unerring truth,
sun, full of fine drawing, fine sentiment, and fine though, in critical slang, he "pitches his key in a
colour. A few more canvases like these, and the bluer note." Mr. Somerscales, too, fairly maintains,
Academy would touch a standard far higher than it though he hardly advances on, his last year's
attains at present. Just opposite is a little snow- achievement; and Mr. W. L. Wyllie, in " At Evenscene of great refinement and skill—M. Albert Gos' tide there shall be Light," gives us a Mersey version
" Premiere neige: aux Avants;" but for truth of of " Toil, Glitter, Grime, and Wealth on a Flowing
snow and ice effect it cannot compare with Mr. Tide," which years ago brought him his first notable
Briton Riviere's "Beyond Man's Footsteps," which, success. Mr. Frank Dicksee breaks out afresh in an
for truth of colour and effect of an almost unpain table extremely refined little " Summer Sea;" but Mr.
subject, has not for many years been equalled in the Brett is harder than ever in his marble seas.
Academy exhibition. Among those who have seen Strange that so much feeling for form and line
nature with an extremely poetical yet truthful eye, should be accompanied with such adamantine treatand have rendered her darker moods, with driving ment.
clouds, and heavy winds, with vigorous—though with
The examples of animal-painting can scarcely be
something of melodramatic—effect, is Mr. T. Hope treated of as a separate section, so insignificant are
McLachlan, whose " Winter Comes " is an admirable they in number. Mr. Riviere and Mr. Swan, to
example of his sympathetic art. The strength of whom we always look for the best representations
Mr. Austen Brown's work ("Returning from Pas- of animals, have thrown their beasts into subjectture "), the tenderness of Mr. John Barlow's (" Moon- pictures, and do not challenge criticism on the
rise "), the breadth of Mr. Robert W. Allen's (" The narrower platform. Nevertheless, it is impossible
North Ford, Uist"), and the mystery of Mr. Herbert not to regard Mr. Swan's felines on their own

THE EOYAL ACADEMY,
merits, so learned, yet so modest, are they. In comparison with them Mr. Nettleship's beasts, in his
cheaply named "Come if you dare," are theatrical
enough. On the other hand, Mr. H. Dixon, thanks to
the influence of Mr. Swan, has made rapid progress,
and his " Tiger Resting" is not only excellent in
drawing and character, but admirable in colour.
In this section, perhaps, should fall Mr. Stanhope
Forbes' large picture of " The Quarry Team "—four
horses pulling a heavily-laden stone-waggon along a
Cornish road—which proclaims the artist as skilful in
the painting of horses as of all else. Mr. Charlton's
and Mr. Berkeley's big canvases are rather remark-,
able for drawing and spirit than for painting; and
Madame Bonner once more shows us the only
kittens in the exhibition worth looking at.
If the portraits appear to be more numerous
than usual, it is by reason of their interest, for, as a
matter of fact, fewer of them are to be seen than
in recent years. Mr. Sargent maintains his great
position as a portraitist by his picture of " Miss
Chanter "—a picture, however, which at first sight
may be disappointing to the spectator, but which improves prodigiously upon acquaintance. Mr. Sargent
has not acquired, or at least does not cultivate,
the art of flattery, and, as he has himself declared,
every new portrait he paints makes him at least one
enemy. In this case we are shown a young lady of
much sternness of mien, much of whose sternness,
however, is probably due to the nervousness of the
sitter, duly recorded by Mr. Sargent's inexorable
skill. Notwithstanding the black dress and white
skin, there is plenty of subtle colour and subtler
drawing in this canvas, the " reserved force" of
which is in the most powerful contrast with the
Oriental pomp of the artist's great decorative-piece.
In many respects, Mr. Luke Filcles' portrait of the
Princess of Wales is the direct antithesis of Mr.
Sargent's "Miss Chanler." Deliberate alike in design, in execution, and in colour, there is no hint of
Mr. Sargent's rapid and impulsive touch. It is, in
fact, a " Court portrait," and conforms with great,
even with unusual, success to the demands of such
productions. Full of dignity and grace, it shows us
the Princess not only as she is, but as she should
be; not only a work of art, but an historical document for the benefit and satisfaction of posterity.
Other female portraits there are in most interesting variety. Mr. Alma-Tadema's portrait of Mrs.
Theyre Smith shows how much better his art is
adapted to rendering the gentleness of age than
the vigour of youth, especially when that youth
involves strength of character. In contrast with it
is the more modern rendering, full length, of Mrs.
Newton-Robinson by Mr. J. W. Waterhouse, who
has concealed his dexterity of modelling under a

1894.

291

veil of smoothness which harmonises happily with
the tender tones of the picture. Another work, not
so full of sentiment, yet of remarkable skill, is Mr.
Lavery's " Lady in Brown "—a full-length portrait
of a young lady in hat and cloak, a more than usually
pleasant revival of the Whistlerian tradition. In
this same tradition, Mr. Maurice Greiffenhagen has
painted a " Portrait of a Lady," equally pleasing and
nearly as skilful, which would certainly not have
found a place in the Academy a few years ago. It
must, however, be recognised that the Council does
well in limiting this class of work, which, if generally
adopted by the younger students, would undoubtedly
tend to reducing seriously the thoroughness of flesh
and figure-painting. The appreciation of outline
and of sentiment is to be markedly found in
Mr. J. J. Shannon's portrait of Mrs. Claude Magniac
and Mr. Peacock's "Miss Brignall," profiles delicately
felt and as delicately drawn. Mr. Orchardson's
" Portrait of a Lady," a likeness of his daughter, has
style, and is a masterful canvas, but it is somewhat
marred by that mannerism of outline which, until
time softens it—as it undoubtedly will—will militate against its full effect. And, finally, we have
Mr. Solomon J. Solomon's portrait of Mrs. Patrick
Campbell as "Paula Tanqueray," at the moment
when the unhappy woman determines upon selfdestruction. The whole pose, aspect, and sentiment
of the picture are theatrical in the right sense—
for the subject itself is theatrical; and the picture
comes as near being a great portrait as its sitter does
to being a great actress. It is not only that Mr.
Solomon has reproduced admirably the intensity of
the climax of the play; it is not merely that he has
given us an excellent portrait of a sitter in whom
expression, movement, attitude, are all instinct with
palpitating excitement; but he has gone further in
conveying to his canvas the effect of the footlights
and theatrical conditions, and filled it with lamplight with singular ability. The painting is free,
and in manner well adapted to its subject—almost
as well adapted to the psychological (or, as it is
now called, the " problem " ) qualities of the modern
play as Reynolds' " Mrs. Siddons " was fitted to the
" sublime passion " of five-act tragedy.
Among male portraiture, too, there is a good
deal to approve. Mr. Orchardson's quiet portrait of
Professor Dewar, painted for Peterhouse College,
makes no pretence of "Academy pitch." It- is a
subtle portrait of a subtle face and mind, and the
head, stretching over the table which bears a bottle
of bluish liquid—that famous liquefied oxygen—is
characteristic of the man to whom such achievements have been possible. Two portraits, both noble
heads, come from Mr. Gr. F. Watts. The first is that
of Mr. Passmore Edwards, the philanthropist, who

THE MAGAZINE

292

devotes all his profits from his paper, the Echol to
the establishment of libraries, schools, hospitals, and
so forth; the second, that of the late Sir Andrew
Clark. Both are fine works—the latter, I think,

MES. SAMUEL

BUTLEE.

(From the Painting by Seymour Lucas,

A.R.A.)

the more pleasing of the two in colour; the former,
in likeness. They prove that Mr. Watts's skill has
not abated; and it is a satisfaction to know that,
through the generosity of the painter, they are to
become the property of the nation. Sir George
Eeid's half-length of Professor Blackie is a brilliant
example of the Scottish President's art. I t appears
a little dry in colour; but in all else—characterisation and execution—it is a portrait which in its own
way can hardly be surpassed. Professor Herkomer's
numerous portraits of the year include two or three
of our most prominent men; but, as is sometimes
the case with this extraordinarily vigorous painter,
his lesser-known sitters are better treated than his
"personages." An exception must be made of his
"Marquess of Salisbury"—a life-size full-length of
the statesman in his peer's robes. The picture is

OF AET.

intended for the Carlton Club, and is one of the
strongest likenesses ever produced by the artist. His
" Marquess of Papon " is hardly so happy ; but " Mr.
P. W. Harris" comes in its own way near to the
high-water mark of his achievement. Mr. Solomon's portrait of
Mr. I. Zangwill is a powerful
sketch, and Mr. A. Hacker's " E .
Onslow Ford, Esq., A.E.A.," is both
faithful as a likeness and ingenious
in its charming arrangement. Mr.
Furse has entered on a new stage.
Hitherto he has given us reminiscences of Mr. Whistler, but never
failed to let us feel that he was
worthy of something better. This
year he has gone to Velasquez, the
fountain-head, for inspiration, and
painted "Eobert Bridges, Esq."—
an exceedingly clever picture in
which the old-world colour is still
a little dirty; and the little equestrian " Lord Eoberts of Candahar."
It is difficult to say whether the
painter has aimed more directly at
Velasquez or—as the technique
and the drawing of the horse half
suggest — at Stubbs and Ward.
The " fat" painting and the method
are theirs, though the colouring is
the Spaniard's. The result is a
tender harmony of grey-greens,
yellows, and flesh pink, with a
charming sky and a delicate relief
in the red flag carried behind—the
whole like a bit of tapestry that
directly brings a charge of vulgarity
against the surrounding canvases.
The hope is encouraged by this
year's exhibit that in the near future Mr. Furse
may go further still, and from memories of Whistler,
Stubbs, Ward, and Velasquez he may soon arise as
Mr. Furse's self.
It is hardly necessary to draw attention to the
able work of Mr. Ouless, Mr. Sant, Mr. Wells,
Mr. Lucas, and others among the Academicians, or
Mr. Cope, Mr. Carter, Mr. Longstaff, and the rest
among the outsiders. Good as it is, it gives no
special distinction, no peculiar significance to the
present exhibition, though it faithfully gives us
what we expected from them, and helps to make
up the better quality of the general work.
[For reproductions of nearly all the principal pictures and
sculptures in the Eoyal Academy, see " KOYAL ACADEMY
PICTUEES, 1894"—the supplement to T H E MAGAZINE OP A E T

—now published in five parts.]

MAUDE.
{From the Painting by Arthur Hacker, A.R.A.

In the Royal Academy Exhibition. Engraved by Madame Jacob Bazin.)

295

EAPHAEL'S CAETOONS CBITICISED.*
BY JOHN BRETT, A.R.A.

A MONGST the works of art of the sixteenth
-E\~ century that have come down to us, there are
few that have a greater reputation than Eaphael's
cartoons, and I want to inquire into the origin
and to trace the development of this reputation,
and, if possible, to justify and endorse it.
Hitherto the tendency of modern sentiment has
been to rake up notorious names on
which the dust of centuries has
settled and obscured their brightness,
to drag them into the light of clever
criticism, and to whitewash them.
It is a less grateful, but, in some
cases, not less necessary task to attempt the opposite course, to whisk
away the glittering nimbus with
which the superstitions of centuries
have surrounded the heads of some
of the heroes of the Kenaissance.
Amongst the names most famous in
the estimation of succeeding generations, none has been more uniformly
cherished than that of Eaphael. He
may fairly be described as the pet
of the modern age. He seems to
have risen radiant upon the world '
without an effort, and the leading
people of a cultivated age seem to
have straightway fallen down on
their knees, and vied with each other in the offering of incense. He was, indeed, a very singular
person, for, from beginning to end of an illustrious
career, he is reputed never to have known adversity;
but in estimating this extraordinary history, it
should not be overlooked that Eaphael set out richly
endowed with two of nature's most precious gifts—
viz., great personal beauty and an irresistibly fascinating manner.
Eaphael was the son of an artist of modest pretensions but fine qualities,.and the pupil of another
artist who was probably the most accomplished of
his age; so that he started fair. He soon came
forth into the full glare of success and popularity,
and for four centuries up to the present day his
name has never known the chill of even a passing
cloud. Fortunately his works remain to us in almost perfect preservation, for which we probably
owe our thanks to the teaching of the great master
* This Paper was read before the Art-Workers' Guild,
November 3rd, 1893. The Editor desires to reiterate the
general principle that he does not necessarily identify himself
with the views of all Contributors.

Perugino, and they may be said to form the source
from which all modern schools had their traditions.
I am afraid it ill becomes one of your more
sceptical contemporaries to thrust upon you his
own views as to the merits of one whose greatness is thus universally recognised; but I must at
once admit that the choice of subject arose out of

THE MIEACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES.

my own deliberate opinion that the cartoons are,
in the first place, not chargeable against Eaphael;
in the second place, that their renown is far in
advance of their merits; and, thirdly, that considered, as they have to be, merely as designs for
tapestry, they are thoroughly bad.
Doubtless it is impossible altogether to separate
them from Eaphael, and to scrape his name clean
of them; so we ought not to grudge the time required to investigate, not exactly their history, for
that is well known, but the history of their renown.
I must at the outset ask your permission to speak
of them from a purely pictorial point of view, and to
disavow any intention to deal with them as sacred
art, or as endowed in any degree with religious
sentiment. Indeed, if I had to express my opinion
broadly on the art of the Eenaissance, I should say
that it is quite irreligious, and that the absence 6f
serious devotional sentiment is nowhere more obvious
than in the pictures of Eaphael. If I were asked
what art I do regard as sacred or inspired rather
by religious than by merely artistic genius, I should
point to the works of the early Florentines, and,

THE MAGAZINE OF ART.

296

above all, to those of Era Angelico. In speaking
critically of any work of art, it is, of course, impossible to ignore the subject which it is intended

THE

CHARGE

TO

PETEE.

to illustrate, but we claim to be allowed to treat
that subject as merely historical, and not at all
connected with religious sentiment, so that any
disparagement of the picture will refer only to the
artistic presentment, and not be even remotely
related to the idea embodied.
In studying the cartoons of Raphael, the earliest
critic we have to consult is, of course, Vasari, the
first of that long list of mountebank critics who
hang on to the skirts of contemporary celebrities in
order to be lifted out of obscurity, and to shine as
luminaries in the eyes of the ignorant of later date.
The ridiculous Vasari, whose book is
nevertheless of great value to us in
some ways, speaks of them as follows :—" The Pope also desired to
have certain very rich tapestries in
silk and gold prepared, whereupon
Raphael made ready the cartoons,
which he coloured also with his own
hand, giving them the exact form
and size required for the tapestries.
These were then despatched to Flanders to be woven, and when the
cloths were finished they were sent
to Rome (in 1519). This work was
so admirably executed that it
awakened astonishment in all who
beheld it, as it still continues to do;
for the spectator finds it difficult to
conceive how it has been found possible to have produced such hair and beards by
weaving, or to have given so much softness to the
flesh by means of thread, a work which certainly

seems rather to have been performed by miracle
than by the art of man, seeing that we have here
animals, buildings, water, and innumerable objects
of various kinds, all so well done
that they do not look like mere
texture woven in the loom, but like
paintings executed with the pencil."
Thus does Vasari's infantile admiration condemn them almost as
emphatically as I should do myself
by applying to them the simple
English word bad. The tradition of
artistic appreciation thus begun is
continuously recorded for more than
three centuries, and is complete
without any break up to our own
day. We have the testimony of
the following long list of artists and
critics; but it is to be noticed that
most of them have merely condoned Vasari, and only one or two
have expressed any enthusiastic
admiration for the cartoons. Here is the list:—
Vasari, Rubens, Sir P. Lely, Riley, Carlo Maratti,
Richardson, Hudson, Sir J. Reynolds, Eastlake,
Leslie, R. Wornum, Prof. Middleton.
The tapestries are said to have cost 70,000
crowns, and Raphael received for the ten cartoons, of
which we possess seven, the sum of 434 ducats, or
about £150. A very significant circumstance connected with the tapestries is that when they were
completed the cartoons were never inquired after,
but remained in utter neglect, lying at the factory
in Brussels. Now these cartoons were the property

ANANIAS

STRUCK

DEAD.

of that very enlightened Pope, Leo X., who was
Raphael's great patron. If they were regarded as
Raphael's work, it is to the last degree unlikely

RAPHAEL'S

CARTOONS

that they would have been overlooked, as they
were, for about a hundred years. At some period
during that interval Rubens got wind of them.

THE BEAUTIFUL GATE OF THE TEMPLE.

About this time he was deeply engaged in diplomatic affairs, chiefly concerning Spain, England, and
the Netherlands. Rubens knew King Charles I.
well: knew him to be enthusiastic about art, and
by no means close-fisted about cash, and it is not
unlikely that he saw his way to doing "good business" about these cartoons. "Whether he played off
the foreign kings, Philip and Charles, against each
other, after the manner of a modern dealer, is not
recorded; but two circumstances are very significant
—first, that he did not acquire them
for himself nor for Philip of Spain,
who knew much more about pictures
than did Charles; and, second, that
they were not appropriated for the
city of Brussels, where they were
already shelved.
It is well known that Rubens
wTas a famous collector of works of
art on his own account; and on one
occasion, when a good customer
turned up, he did not hesitate to
sell his whole collection for more
than double what it cost. I think
this little group of facts can only
point to one conclusion—viz., that
Rubens himself had not a high
opinion of the merits of these cartoons. 1 have not yet ascertained
exactly what passed between king
and painter, though I still hope to
do so; but the upshot was that
Charles bought them. They were imported cut
up in strips, packed in boxes, and stowed away
894

291

CRITICISED.

at Whitehall about the year 1630. At the sale
of Charles's effects in 1649 they were, through the
influence of that highly artistic Protector, Cromwell,
bought for the nation for £300.
Later on William III. ordered Sir
Christopher Wren to build a gallery
for them at Hampton Court, where
we all saw them only a few years
ago.
In tracing the history of their
reputation, I am sorry not to be
able to quote the opinion either of
Sir Peter Lely, or of John Riley, his
successor as Court painter, though
that, perhaps, is of little value;
but that of Riley's pupil is both
well known and important. Riley
died in 1691. Next in order of
date we come to Carlo Maratti,
whose opinion of Raphael should
be noticed because he was employed
by Pope Clement XI. to restore
Raphael's frescoes. He was not an artist of the first
or even the second rank, but he was well to the front
in his time, being president of the Academy of St.
Luke. He said that " if he had been shown a picture
by Raphael and, not having ever heard of him, had
been told it was the work of an angel, he would
have believed it." This interesting paragraph,
although it does not touch the cartoons, shows us
clearly how weak a man Carlo Maratti was. The
fact that Raphael's frescoes had to be restored

ELYMAS T H E

SOECERER.

within a few years of their completion, and whilst
in the safe seclusion of the Vatican, throws a sinister

298

THE MAGAZINE

OF ART.

light on the permanence of that odious method
of painting, and on the affectation of those critics
who profess to admire it.
At the close of the seventeenth century there
flourished in England a portrait-painter of the
name of Jonathan Eichardson. He was the pupil
of Riley, to whom I have referred. This artist is
now best known to the world as a critic and writer
upon art, and he fills, I suppose, the most important
niche in criticism since Vasari. Eichardson had a
pupil, who became his son-in-law, and his name was
Hudson. This Hudson afterwards had a pupil, and
his name was Joshua Reynolds. Now you know
whereabouts in history the figure of Richardson
stands. He was a highly-accomplished man, and
an admirable writer of English. The book in which
he deals with the cartoons is called " An Essay on
the Theory of Painting," and was published in 1715.
His enthusiastic admiration carries him nearly as
far as Carlo Maratti, who was twenty years older,
and whom he quotes; but in one place he reluctantly admits that "Raphael's colouring, especially in his shadows, is blackish," and, further on,
that " though the cartoons are some of the last of his
works, it must be confessed, the colouring of them
is not equal to the drawing." Under the heading
"Grace and Greatness" he sets out naively to explain his own principles, thus: " Common nature is
no more fit for a picture than plain narrative is
for a poem." (I am afraid poor Richardson had
forgotten the Book of Job, or he would not have
written that.) He goes on to say : "A painter must
raise his ideas beyond what he sees, and form a
model of perfection in his own mind which is
not to be found in reality, but yet such an one
as is probable and rational." . . . "When a
man enters into that awful gallery at Hampton
Court, he finds himself amongst a sort of people
superior to what he has ever seen, and very probably
to what those really were. Indeed, this is the principal excellence of those wonderful pictures, as it
must be allowed to be that part of painting which
is preferable to all others." I have not found that
Hudson's opinion was ever recorded; but it is to
be noticed that Sir Joshua, who was an ardent
admirer of the Renaissance, was never enthusiastic
about the cartoons.
After this date, until we come to our own day,
we do not find any original criticism except that of
Ralph Wornum, the late keeper of the National
Gallery. All other commentaries, such as Sir C.
Eastlake's and Leslie's, have been merely reflections
of Yasari or of Richardson.* The most recent

critic of any authority is Professor Middleton, of
Cambridge, and he dismisses the subject summarily
in these words: "The cartoons were painted by
pupils from Raphael's designs." Thus endeth the
history of criticism, so far as it is traceable to
persons of importance.
Allow me now to deal individually with these
works, making one or two brief remarks, and
to ask an unbiassed opinion. The first is the
" Miraculous Draught of Fishes." Here you will
notice that the story is fairly well told, and that,
indeed, is the only merit I can find in the whole
series. The realistic treatment, however, is so
thoroughly pronounced that the effect is grotesque
and produces such amusement as to mask entirely
any seriousness that might properly belong to the
subject. There is not much fault to be found with
this as a composition, except that it would be better
if the central figure were not made to carry the
distant country on his »head. I do not remark on
the boats, because they are too childish, and no
one can refrain from laughter. The gentle Richardson, amid much enthusiastic admiration, remarks
here, " how infinitely and divinely great and genteel
is the Christ in the boat!" He also says: " The
large fowl that are seen in the foreground have
a good effect; there is a certain sea-wildness in
them that contributes mightily to express the affair
in hand, which was fishing. They are a fine part
of the scene." I will venture to suggest that, if you
want an expression of sea-wildness in connection with
fishing, you had better go to Napier Hemy, whose
pictures of such scenes have never been equalled; but,
of course, painting and tapestry are two different
arts, and Raphael's attempt to combine them can
only be described as a complete failure, and the Pope,
who commissioned them, as an ignorant and foolish
critic. The ostentatious insistence on light and
shade is conspicuous in this picture, and testifies
strongly to the 'prentice hand.
" Charge to Peter." This is a representation of
Peter being told to feed the sheep. You see it is
meant to be thoroughly realistic, and represents
an accumulation of carpets and counterpanes with
heads on the top, very coarsely drawn, tolerably
grouped, but individually hideous. There is no
doubt about this cartoon being designed by Raphael,
as the original sketch, I am told, exists at Windsor,
and shows that Raphael cut out the separate figure,
and replaced it by another. Richardson waxes wild
with Raphael for having introduced a house on fire
in the distance, and some linen drying on the hedges.
I daresay these were some of Francesco Penni's

•* The elder Leslie (1855) speaks of the cartoons with
reverence and a trace of tenderness which betrays the deep
hold that early associations had on his mind.- So it has

been all along with the passing generation of painters. The
finger of the teacher was directed to the cartoons as the
embodiment of every sound precept and every sacred tradition.

EAPHAEL'S

CARTOONS

embellishments; but Richardson says they " degrade
a really serious episode."
The next scene is "Ananias struck Dead." Here
the composition is tolerably good, but the individual

PAUL

AND

BAENABAS

AT

LYSTRA.

figures are all hideous. All the drawing is bad,
and the gesticulations repulsive. The forty thieves
performing on the platform have no redeeming merit.
"Beautiful Gate of the Temple." This is, I
think, on the whole, the worst of the series. Its
chief features are sixteen childish
columns evidently made of crockery
after the South Kensington pattern,
the ground plan whereon they
stand measuring about eighteen feet
square. Crowded amongst these
columns are twenty sound figures
and two revolting cripples. Draperies of drugget as before. Peter
is singularly hideous, but the women
are rather graceful, Richardson is
somewhat taken aback by the architecture, but vindicates it thus : " Nor
were those kind of pillars known
even in antique architecture in any
nation; but they are so nobly invented by Raphael, and so prodigiously magnificent, that it would
have been a pity if he had not
indulged himself in this piece of
licentiousness, wThich undoubtedly
he knew to be such." Further on
he says: " There are certain little circumstances
that contribute to the expression. Such an effect

299

CRITICISED.

the burning lamps have in this cartoon; one sees
the place is holy as well as magnificent."
"Elymas the Sorcerer."
Here everybody is
ostentatiously showing his ill-drawn, brutal hands.
Every figure equally ugly and undignified ; clothing as before, and all
the drawing grossly bad.
"Paul and Barnabas at Lystra."
The most absurd design of the
series. It represents a crowd of
hideous people wildly excited about
a man ill-using an ox with a
hatchet, and an unconscious little
boy playing on a whistle. Paul,
you see, is struggling to get out
of his drugget in order to join
in the "rag."
" Paul Preaching on Mars Hill."
This, I think, is the least objectionable of the series. The audience
are well grouped and expressive,
but marred greatly by the fool
in the foreground with his hands
stuck out. Paul is rather good but for his
drapery.
I have tried to review these works as seriously
and dispassionately as I could. I take leave of
them without regret, except that I have to say

PAUL

PREACHING

ON M A E S

HILL.

I think them the greatest "plant" that was ever
foisted on the gullibility of the artistic world.

300

WESTMINSTEB

ABBEY AND ITS

B Y H. P . B U R K E DOWNING, A.R.I.B.A.

T

HE ever-increasing difficulty in finding room
within the Abbey for the graves and memorials
of those to whom this honour has been awarded has

THE

CHAPTER-HOUSE

MONUMENTS.

W I T H ILLUSTRATIONS BY T H E A U T H O R .

changed, as it must be, if it should prove impossible
to find means to prolong through our own and
coming ages the line of historical monuments which

AND APPEOACH

TO POET'S

CORNER.

. (Showing the Effect of the Removal of the Old Palace. Yard Houses.)

in recent years become almost insuperable, the still
vacant space within the walls having been reduced
to the most inconsiderable limits. Either, therefore,
a custom which has been the silent growth of many
centuries must come to an end, or new space, or a
new place, must be found wherein it may be continued. It is one of the redeeming circumstances of
our age and country, both too often stigmatised as
being eager for nothing but the piling up of wealth,
that the crown of the very highest ambition is
nothing more than a grave or memorial in Westminster Abbey ; and no one would wish to see this

are the heritage preserved to us within the walls o|
Westminster Abbey.
k£*
Doubtless the monumental roll is imperfect'; for
while On the one hand we cannot say " whether the
best of men be known, or whether there be not
better forgot than any that are remembered," on
the other we may feel quite sure that there are
many remembered that might better be forgot. To
expect perfection, indeed, in a record extending as
does this over some eight centuries of our history,
would be to credit our forefathers with a more than
human capability of judging of their contemporaries,

WESTMINSTER

ABBEY AND

ITS MONUMENTS.

301

necessarily limited space at their disposal, and in the,
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries many burials
were permitted of persons with no
distinction beyond, as Goldsmith puts
it, the distinction of being buried in
Westminster Abbey. Hence our present difficulty, which, if due care had
been taken in these earlier periods,
might have been deferred for a very
long time. As it is, the facts, as
elicited in evidence before the recent
Royal Commission, which sat to inquire into the means for providing
additional space for such memorials,
are that there is still sufficient room
for burial within the nave and transepts for all the probable requirements
of the next one hundred years—or
even more, considering that the deserts
of all for whom the honour is claimed
are subjected to an examination of
ever-increasing severity; but for memorials there is practically now no
space at all left in the parts of the
PLAN OP WESTMINSTER ABBEY AND PRECINCTS, SHOWING SUGGESTED SITES
church hitherto devoted to this purFOR NEW MONUMENTAL CHAPEL.
pose. And it is, of course, memorial
A, The Refectory Site, B, The " New North Aisle." c, The Palace Yard Site, D, The Cloisters.

and a more than human impartiality in their judgment; but defective as the series may be in some

respects and redundant in others, it is still an unique
possession which it behoves us both to preserve and
to extend.
Gathering at first round the shrine of Edward the
Confessor, as the number of the tombs of kings,
princes, and nobles increased it became necessary to
resort to places ever more remote from that which
was traditionally the most sacred spot, until gradually
all the chapels at the east end of the church became
filled with tombs and memorials. Down to the time
of the Reformation the church, which had been built
by Edward the Confessor close to his own royal
palace, for the purpose of receiving his body, and
refounded by Henry I I I . with a similar object, was
regarded in the double light of royal chapel and
convent church; and besides the heads of the conventual fraternity few were buried here, except
members of the Royal Family and favoured courtiers.
It j s not until after the Reformation, viz., in the time
of Elizabeth (by whom the Abbey was reconstituted
as the Collegiate Church of St. Peter), that we meet
with a case of burial here granted expressly in recognition of merit—Spenser's burial was such a c a s e but it was long before all other burials were excluded.
Indeed, notwithstanding how highly the honour was
prized, it was not until the beginning of the present
century that those on whom fell the responsibility
for granting or withholding burial within the Abbey
appear to have made any attempt to economise the

••

'1

DVRr.e DOWNING

y

THE CHAPTER-HOUSE, AS NOW SEEN FItOM
OLD PALACE YAED.

302

THE MAGAZINE

space which is most wanted, many more illustrious
persons being commemorated in this way than are
actually buried in the Abbey.
The necessary space, it might be suggested, could

OF AET.

any rate, it may appear at least as much one with
and part of the Abbey as Henry VII.'s Chapel does
to us. It must not, of course, interfere with or
damage the existing building, and it must be of
sufficient importance, both for its object and to form
a worthy adjunct to the Abbey, while yet not presumptuously dominating the building to which it is
intended to be annexed.
Several schemes were laid before the Commission
for providing a new building, for every one of which
these advantages were claimed. The possible sites
are, practically, three—one to the east and south of
the Chapter-House, which is now occupied by certain
houses in Old Palace Yard, and is shown on the plan
which I give by the letter c ; the second, the Abbey
Green, adjoining the north aisle of the nave, and
shown on the plan by the letter B ; and the third, a
plot of ground south of and adjoining, the cloisters,
marked on the plan by the letter A upon which
^
formerly stood the Eefectory of the Convent. The
first two sites are sufficiently spacious to admit of
choice in the actual position of the building, and
alternative schemes for treating them were put
•

— — — •

THE CLOISTERS, FROM THE GARTH.

possibly be found elsewhere than at the Abbey—at
St. Paul's, for instance—but no such suggestion is
likely to find favour. Even supposing that what we
are contemplating were the establishment of some new
institution, no place would be so appropriate for the
purpose as Westminster, which has for ages been the
seat of Government and Justice, and of the Abbey
which has witnessed the coronations of our Sovereigns
from the time of the Conqueror. It is, however, a
question not of establishing a new but of maintaining
a very ancient institution; and to separate the future
memorials from the past has this capital objection—
that by so doing we should create two incomplete
series, a record of ancient worthies and a record of
modern, an arbitrary distinction which has no existence in fact. To preserve the continuity of the
series of monuments, the place assigned for the new
ones must be in close and direct connection with the
building which shelters the ancient ones—in fact, in
such connection that to succeeding generations, at

before the Commission. In their final report the
Commissioners recommended the pulling down of the
houses in Old Palace Yard, which are a source of

WESTMINSTER

ABBEY AND

danger to the Abbey from fire, but as to the site for
the new building which they considered necessary
they were equally divided, Mr. Plunket, Mr. Jennings, and Mr. Waterhouse favouring the Refectory
site; while Sir A. H. Layard, Sir Frederic Leighton,
and Dean Bradley advised that preference should be
given to the site lying south-east of the ChapterHouse.
The question is still, consequently, an open one,
but every indication points to the probability that
the site which will ultimately be preferred is that to
the south-east of the Chapter-House; and then it
becomes a question how far to the south the actual
position of the building shall be taken. In Mr.
Somers Clarke's scheme the proposed Monumental
Chapel would occupy a position directly to the east
and in front of the Chapter-House, its east front
level with that of Henry VII.'s Chapel.
Other
schemes, including that of Messrs. Seddon and
Harvey, and that of Mr. Pearson—the latter of
which is the one to which Mr. Yates Thompson has
recently offered to contribute a sum of £38,000—
have had regard to the desirability of leaving open
to view as much as possible of the Chapter-House.
At present this, which is one of the most interesting
parts of the Abbey both artistically and historically
is almost entirely hidden from our view by some
uninteresting houses in Old Palace Yard, and, as the
sketch on page 301 (taken from the most favourable
point of view) shows, only the most meagre glimpses
of its structure can be obtained. It appears that the
Government intend shortly to lay before Parliament
a scheme for the acquisition and destruction of these
houses. The space so gained could easily be treated
in such a way as to form an immense improvement
to the surroundings, and when once the ChapterHouse has been so revealed, as I have shown it on
page 300—in which I have treated the site at
present occupied by these houses
garden—I
think we shall not willingly suffer it to be again
taken from our sight. Indeed, the hiding of the
Chapter-House is such an interference with an historic
portion of the ancient structure as should, I think,
be a fatal objection to any proposal for a new building. Yet this objection attaches to every one of the
schemes which propose the utilisation of this site.
And this is not all. The means by which it is proposed to secure for a chapel upon this site the
requisite connection with the Abbey appear quite
inadequate, taking the form of a low corridor, or
cloister, winding under the buttresses of the ChapterHouse, and communicating with the Abbey by an
entrance at Poets' Corner. Is this such an intimate
connection as is essential for the new Monumental
Chapel ? We should find it difficult, under such circumstances, to persuade ourselves that the place was

ITS MONUMENTS.

303

one with the Abbey. Besides all this, the new
chapel will have to be a large building, and if it is
put upon this site there will be great risk that it
will be either so low as to be insignificant and unworthy of its purpose, or of such an altitude as to
rival, instead of being in subordination to, the
Abbey.
Two suggestions were put forward by Mr. Pearson for the utilisation of the Abbey Green site, the

I N T E R I O R O F M E . PEARSON'S S U G G E S T E D C H A P E L ON
REFECTORY SITE.

one taking the form of a proposal to build here a
new glazed cloister, communicating with the Abbey
by two entrances in the north aisle of the nave, the
other suggestion being that of building here an additional north aisle communicating similarly. This last
clearly offers a close connection and feeling of unity
with the Abbey, and it is a method which in an
earlier age would probably have been adopted without hesitation. In our own, however, such an
interference with the ancient fabric would probably
be felt to be unwarrantable. Moreover, the Abbey
Church is hemmed in on the southern side to such
an extent by the conventual buildings, that it is on
the north side only, as was pointed out by the Archbishop of Canterbury, that we are able to get such a

THE MAGAZINE

304

view of the building as enables us to grasp the
general plan of the church, and to build upon this
site would seriously interfere with that view.
"We shall find it hard, in any case, to look upon
any new chapel with the same sentiments with which
we regard the Abbey; but of all sites that which
was amongst the last suggested, and which, although
it was finally adopted as one of the alternative recommendations of the Commission, did not appear
at the time to evoke much enthusiasm, appears to be
in every way the most satisfactory—I mean the
Kefectory site. The chapel proposed to be put here
would be smaller than those proposed for other sites,
but would still be of considerable dimensions—about
130 ft. by 30 ft.—and would offer all the accommodation that we need provide. It would be situated
in the very heart of the Abbey precincts; its north
wall would be the ancient south wall of the cloisters,
and it would be approached, directly from the Abbey
by the cloister walk, a path already sharing all the
venerable associations and regarded with the same
affectionate sentiments as the Abbey itself. So far
from interfering with the plan of the monastery, a
building upon this site would restore it, and would
have that attribute which belongs to no other of the
proposed new chapels, namely, that it would be entirely unobtrusive. We should hardly be aware of
its existence until we came beneath its roof, for from
the exterior it would be scarcely visible. Yet it
might be a building in every way worthy of its high
purpose, as was sufficiently proved by the design
prepared by Mr. Pearson, a sketch of the interior of
which I give; and if any new chapel is to be built,
this would be the very best position for it.
Actual incorporation with the Abbey it is impossible to obtain, and without it we may safely say
that, whatever position may be found for the new
Monumental Chapel, it would not be regarded as
anything but a substitute for the Abbey; burial
within it would not be esteemed as burial within the

OF AET.

Abbey, and in this respect, costly and beautiful as it
might be, it would run such risk of being a failure
as might reasonably deter us from the enterprise.
Moreover, it is yet by no means clear that any
new chapel is necessary. For burials, as has already
been said, there is room within the nave and transepts for the requirements of more than a hundred
years to come, and both for burials and memorials
there is room within the ancient cloisters and the
cloister garth for a much longer period. Time is a
powerful factor in such matters, and may provide an
ultimate solution of the difficulty. At any rate, we
are not called upon to provide for the wants of such
very remote descendants. The cloisters have been
much marred by the neglect from which they have
suffered, and their present state is a grave reproach
to us. A small fraction of the cost of a new Monumental Chapel expended in cleansing, repairing, and,
if necessary, glazing them, would restore them once
more to their former beauty, and make them in every
way worthy to shelter the monuments of the noblest.
Already the cloisters contain many monuments which
are not to be distinguished from the memorials
within the church, and, although not part of the
church, they share all its associations and inspire us
with the same sentiments of reverence. Structurally
the cloisters are curiously interwoven with the
church, the east walk occupying the position of the
western aisle of the south transept and being covered
by its roof, and so, in fact, within the church itself.
No new building can hope for so close a connection,
and to no new building could we transfer those sentiments with which we regard the Abbey, and the
existence of which makes burial or memorial within
its sacred walls so distinguished an honour. To be
buried in some new chapel in Old Palace Yard would
not be to be buried with the illustrious men of the
past—in fact, it would be a distinct separation from
them—but a grave in the east walk of the cloisters
would be side by side with those in Poets' Corner.

•^=*+©4«^.

Z$t lX>w of tt>t Tfcotfb,
A

BOAT
Sails far

that sails upon the sea,
and far

and far

away :

Who sail in her sing songs of glee,
Or watch

and

pray.

A boat that

drifts

upon the sea,

Silent and void to sun and air :
Who sailed in her have ended glee
And watch

and

prayer.
CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI.

THE

WAY

(Drawn by W. F. F. Britten.
s<ir>

OF

THE

WORLD.

For Miss Rossetti's Poem see opposite Page.)

AN
(From

THE

EASTEUN

the Paiiiiiinj

Xormand.)

N E W GALLEEY.
B Y M. P I I I P P S

W

IDYLL.

by Ernest

JACKSON.

I T H a reputation founded solely on the enlightL. Alma-Tadema, B.A., sends one, but that a little
ened manner in which endeavour lias been gem, in " T h e Benediction," a priestess, at the top
made to spread knowledge of a r t in its broader sense of a flight of brazen stairs, blessing a newly-married
among the people, the directors of the New Gallery couple, with t h e congregation around. The picture
continue t h e series of summer exhibitions with a is quite a small one, b u t is replete with t h e
fairly representative show of work by artists of scholarly, artistic learning to be found in t h e
repute, as well as examples of t h e more tentative artist's best work. On t h e opposite wall is a reelTorfs of those striving to win their way to t h e plica by Sir Edward Burne-Jones of his singularly
front. I t is impossible, however, to ignore the signs beautiful " L o v e Among the Euins," the original of
of t h e times, and a r t is just now somewhat under a which, in water-colours, was destroyed, it will be
cloud. W o r k m e n in t h e different branches of the remembered, through a singular system of " r e p r o craft are only too numerous, b u t t h e necessary en- duetion " last year. Memory rather seems to recall
couragement for their labour is not forthcoming,
the former painting when at the Dudley Gallery
This is not the occasion on which to inquire into many years ago, and although the present work is
reasons w h y painting, sculpture, and kindred crafts
full of that subtle harmony of colour of which the
are a t a low ebb, or explanation would not be painter is so great a master, t h e background looks
difficult; b u t meantime that lack of generous sym- a little spotty, and as if it might be improved by
pathy with those devoting their lives to the higher massing t h e foliage and effect. Mr. G. Y. W a t t s ,
arts of design is making itself felt in production
E.A., contributes a semi-classical design in a group
that is deteriorating in quality. This is apparent
of girls bathing in the sea among the rocks, " A
in all our picture exhibitions, where mere technique . Greek Idyll," with children disporting themselves
is evidently taking t h e place of mental effort, and around them ; and an altogether delightful head
the transparent desire to produce something that
of " George Meredith," which reminds one in some
will sell ousts a n y higher motive. I n t h e various respects of the artist's inimitable portrait of " W a l t e r
rooms a t t h e New Gallery are just two hundred
C r a n e " which was in this gallery some seasons
and fifty-one paintings, drawings, sculptures, and ago. " A Gift for the Gods," a leading attracminiatures.
The Eoyal Academicians and Asso- tion of the South Eoom, is by Mr. Herbert
ciates do not appear much to affect t h e exhibition,
Schmalz, and pictures an extremely dark, handonly about a dozen of them contributing.
Mr. some maiden with black hair, carrying a bowl of

THE

NEW

301;

GALLERY,

grapes, oranges, and other fruit as she
advances towards the spectator. (See
p. 308.) Deep blue sea in the background and a range of mountains aid
a wealthy scheme of colour and the
general sense of beauty in the design.
A girl driving calves through
the
meadows, " I n the Dawn of the Year,"
by Mr. George Wetherbee, is at least
noticeable for clever atmospheric effect
and tender grey light of very early
spring. The usually strong work of
Mr. H. H. La Thangue finds illustration
in " The Woodman," a rugged-looking
countryman trudging his way homewards with his load of faggots after his
day's work. Intensely brilliant gleams
of the setting sun striking through the
trees upon his figure, enhance the effect.
The " E v a n g e l i n e " of Mr. G. H. Boughton, A. L.A. (see p. 308), is a, wholesome
healthy-looking lass, in white cap, blue
jacket, and apron :
" When in the harvest heat she bore to the
reapers at noontide
Flagons of home-brewed ale."

J. FORBES-ROBERTSON, ESQ.
(From the Painting by II. de T. Glazebroole.)

I t is needless to stay to consider whether
the artist's ideal of the character is the
usually accepted one, as his study is at least
h a p p y — t h e girl modest of mien and redolent
of quiet country life. There is a grand sense
of power in the lion Mr. -J. T. JSTettleship
has depicted, stealing through the forest in
the moment before springing upon his prey.
H e calls it " Stealthy Fate," and well one
feels that nothing may withstand the charge
of the mighty, muscular beast. Mr. Ernest
Normand is an artist who charms one witli
the sincerity of his work.
H e has in the
Eoyal Academy a perhaps more ambitious,
but scarcely more successful, design than his
" Eastern Idyll " in this gallery (reproduced
on the opposite page). The composition is
a simple one, but it is carefully studied and
thoroughly worked out. " Ophelia," by Mr.
J. W. Waterhouse, A.H.A., is a new version
of Shakespeare's heroine. W i t h pale, sorrowful face, and long ruddy brown locks, the
unhappy lady is represented seated upon a
bough overhanging the river. She is hand©

BY THE FIRESIDE.
{From the. Painting by Stanhope A. Forbes,

A.R.A.)

©

©

somely attired, as befitted her rank, has her
hands raised to her head in a pitiful, hopeless

308

THE MAGAZINE OF AKT.

way, and is pictorially a strong reading of the
character. There is little subject, but a good deal

by Mr. Hugh de T. Glazebrook, is not only strong
in its resemblance to the original, but has otherwise some of the best qualities of the limner's art
(p. 307). Other noticeable works of this class are
the lovely profile of "Miss Amy Gaskell," by Sir
Edward Burne-Jones; " Mrs. Charles Crutchley,"
one of the best heads the artist, Mr. C. E. Halle
has yet produced; " George Matthews Arnold,"
which bears the impress of being an excellent
likeness, by Mr. J. Haynes-Williams; and a wholelength of "Lady Eidley," in figured yellow satin
dress, by Mr. Hubert Herkomer, E.A.
Among the landscapes, one of the most remarkable is " A Lonely Farm," by Mr. Alfred Parsons,
who shows us in the midst of fields, in which are
swedes, beetroot, and the rougher farm produce,
the solitary-looking building giving a title to his
work. The sky is red with fiery glowing sunlight
—a light that renders the whole atmosphere lurid;
and it is in rendering this unusual, but perfectly

A GIFT FOR THE GODS.
(From the Painting by Herbert Schmalz. By Permission of
Mr. L. H. Lefevre, the Owner of the Copyright.)

of nature, in the old dame wearing a shawl and
black bonnet seated "By the Fireside," in her
cottage, by Mr. Stanhope A. Forbes, A.E.A., and
as regards the firelight, nothing could be better.
{See p. 307.)
The portraits in the collection are numerous,
some of them interesting, and a few very good.
One of the best essays in female portraiture is
"Miss H. M. Jones," Mistress of the Notting Hill
High School, by Mr. J. J. Shannon. She is seated
facing the spectator, with hands resting on her
lap, and, whilst the figure is easy in posture, the
face is instinct with quiet, refined intelligence.
There is a capital likeness of " Edwin Hayes,"
the artist, palette and brushes in hand, by Mr.
John Parker; and "Johnston Forbes-Eobertson,"

EVANGELINE.
(From the Painting by G. H. Boughton,

A.R.A.)

truthful, aspect of nature that the artist has concentrated his strength. It is a curious contrast

"W.UrLger, sculp?

F, v,Uhde, p i n x l

T.i O M E W A R D S .

" HOMEWAKDS."
to turn from his work to Mr. Alfred East's
comparatively cold and rather misty "Morning
Sun." A small landscape, but painted with infinite

309

There are some bright and clever pictures by
female artists in the exhibition, among which may
be mentioned Miss Clara Montalba's view of "San

A CLOUD-BIFT.
{From the Painting by J. L. Pickering.)

tenderness, "Evening on the South Downs," is by
Mr. J. Aumonier; another scene, a threatening
sky, with a peep of light on the horizon, " A Cloudrift," by Mr. J. L. Pickering; and "Aldeburgh,
Suffolk," by Mr. Ivystan Hetherington.

Marco;" " Faun and Squirrel," a quaint and
talented example of Mrs. Marianne Stokes; Miss
Blanche Jenkins' portrait of "Ethel, Daughter of
Herbert D. Cohen," and Mrs. Perugini's presentment of " Poppy, Daughter of Richard E. Jennings."

»$=^»©>«E=5»

"HOMEWABDS."
BY FRITZ VON UHDE.

F

ETCHED BY WILHELM UNGEE.

OREMOST among living German painters stands
Fritz von Uhde, the painter par excellence of the
peasant life of his country, whose work has attracted universal attention by its pathos and deeply
religious sentiment. " Homewards," the subject of
our frontispiece, while not being one of his important
works, shows some of his characteristic treatment.
Born in 1844 at Wolkenburg, in Saxony, von
Uhde entered early in life as an art student at
Dresden; but in 1867 joined the cavalry branch
of the army of Saxony, and later on took part as
an officer in the Franco-German War. In 1877

he returned once more to his art studies—first at
Munich and afterwards at Paris under Munkacsy.
In 1880 he exhibited his first work at the Salon
—" La Chanteuse "—and in 1882 he returned to
Munich. The first of the religious pictures by
which he has become so widely known—"Let the
Little Children come unto Me"—was shown at
the Salon in 1885.
Wilhelm Unger is one of the greatest of latterday etchers, and we hold ourselves fortunate in
being able to present to, our readers the combined
work of two of Germany's leading artists.

310

SIR FREDERICK BURTON.
IR FREDERICK BURTON was appointed Direc- yet among his additions are many chefs-d'oeuvre
tor of the National Gallery in March, 1874, so of Italian art. His first acquisitions were thirteen
that when he gave up the reins last March he had pictures from the Barker collection; a year later
held the post for exactly one-fifth of a century. He Mr. Burton induced Mr. Disraeli to buy one of the
succeeded Sir William Boxall, who resigned after most unequivocally delightful pictures in the whole
holding office for rather more than seven years. collection — I mean Andrea Solario's "Venetian
Boxall's predecessor, Sir Charles Eastlake, was the Senator." In 1876 he was enabled to acquire the
four famous portraits
first director, for the
from the Casa Fenaroli
office was only created in
at Brescia. But owing
1855. Eastlake's reign
to limitations of space I
lasted for little more than
must be content simply
a decade, so that we may
to remind the reader that
fairly consider the Nathe " Madonna Among
tional Gallery, as it now
Rocks," of Leonardo; the
exists, more the creation
" Circumcision," of Sigof Sir Frederick Burton
norelli; the " Portrait,"
than of any one else.
of Antonello da Messina ;
Frederick William
the " Samson and DeliBurton is an Irishman. He
lah," of Mantegna; the
was born in Co. Limerick
"Ansidei Madonna," of
in 1816, and belongs to
R a p h a e l ; t h e small
an old Irish family. He
" Nativity" and
the
s t u d i e d p a i n t i n g in
" Mars and Venus," of
Dublin, and became an
Botticelli; and the fine
Associate of the Royal
triptych of Borgognone,
Hibernian Academy at
are all among the acquithe age of twenty-one.
sitions of Sir Frederick
He chose water-colour
Burton.
for his medium, and in
For some reason or
it painted many subjectanother, the purchasing
pictures which, as enSIR FREDERICK BURTON.
authority in Trafalgar
gravings, enjoy a great
(From a Photograph by Chancellor, Dublin.)
Square has always, until
popularity on the other
side of St. George's Channel. In 1855 he became lately, shown itself a little afraid, or disinclined,
an Associate of the Society of Painters in Water- to buy Dutch pictures. By his acquisition of a
Colours, and in 1856 a full member. In 1870 good Vermeer, a first-rate Ruysdael, a series of
he resigned, and in 1886 accepted an honorary five splendid specimens of Gonsalez Coques, and a
membership. From about 1850 he had been an few things of less importance, Sir Frederick broke
enthusiastic student of the Old Masters, and so, through what had almost become a tradition. Putto those who knew, it was no surprise when Mr. ting aside four included in the Angerstein and Peel
Gladstone, acting, it was understood, mainly on collections, only nine English pictures were bought
the advice of Sir William Boxall, placed him at during the fifty years which elapsed between the
the head of what was rapidly becoming one of foundation of the Gallery and Mr. Burton's appointment, but since 1874 the British collection has been
the great museums of the world.
While Sir Charles Eastlake was director, Italy increased by about fifty purchases. In the Spanish
was still the happiest hunting ground in Europe and French sections the expansion has, no doubt, been
for pictures. By the time Mr. Burton went to slight, but then opportunities are strangely few.
The efficiency and dignity with which the post
Trafalgar Square, it had become much more difficult
to find things worthy of the Gallery south of the of director has been filled for the last twenty
Alps, and soon afterwards to that initial difficulty years will always make the name of Sir Frederick
was added one still mQre troublesome, in the Burton illustrious in the history—and a somewhat
barriers set up in the way of exportation. And chequered history it is—of the National Gallery.
W. A.

S

311

GLIMPSES OF ARTIST-LIFE.
THE ARTIST'S "GHOST:" A STUDY IN EVOLUTION.-II.
B Y M. H.

WN another occasion, the
Chapter of the Metrop o l i t a n C h u r c h at
Mechlin ordered from
Rubens a " Last Supper," and, for fear of
damage in transit, stipulated that it should
be painted on the spot.
He sent Yan Egmont,
according to his practice, with a sketch.
The assistant worked
with vigour and rapidity, carried his labour so far, that the Chapter
wrote to Rubens to protest that they " had
ordered the picture from the master and not
from the pupil;" but all the reply they obtained
was that the painter had adopted this means
of satisfying all those who applied for his work;
and that his pupils, if necessary, altogether completed the picture, "to which he then gave the
brilliancy of his personal talent by the last touches
of the brush." When it wTas Yandyck who painted
the pictures—especially the church backgrounds—
the master's clients had not so much to complain
of; but that the w7hole principle of " devilling"
was vigorously protested against is obvious enough.
That Yandyck himself adopted the same system
is equally certain, and the names of his assistants
—David of Delft, Jan de Reyn, and our own
James Gandy and William Dobson — explain,
perhaps, howT it was that Yandyck could paint fulllength equestrian portraits of the King for £200
a-piece, and then cheerfully accept a reduction of
fifty per cent, when he pressed for his account.
It wras this rampant commercial system of
" assistance " that was soon to give birth to barefaced and open " devilling." The " master," whose
artistic supremacy was the sole excuse for the
introduction of stranger hands, ceased to exist, and
in the absence of all sense of mastery the crude
cynicism of the cash system stood self-confessed.
In this case, as it now developed, it became, of
course, more and ever more difficult for the actual
painter to catch the spirit and imitate the touch of
his employer; but many there are nowadays whose
talent lies wholly in this direction. Some of the
examples that have been vouched for, display a lack
of principle that is positively humiliating to read of
—a practice which was the worthy forerunner of

SPIELMANN.

the ghostly audacity of these present days of grace.
Reinagle, himself no shining light of virtue, being expelled from our own Royal Academy in his eccentric
old age for a curious want of scruple, declared in
the Literary Gazette that what he had done was the
practice of many in his profession—aye, even among
the highest; that many of Lawrence's whole-lengths
wTere entirely painted by Mr. Munday, all but the
heads; that Ramsay's ninety pairs of his wholelength portraits of the King and Queen—for which
he was paid two hundred guineas a pair—were sublet
to Reinagle, senior, for fifty guineas the pair; that
Sir William Beechey accepted a certain commission
from Queen Charlotte for a picture which he gave
Reinagle to paint, receiving £126 for it and paying
£84 to the " devil"—though he strenuously desired
to pay no more than £20 ; that Sir Francis Chan trey,
before he was knighted, employed Reinagle to make
for him a set of drawings which the versatile
sculptor published with his owTn name attached—an
oversight which in after-years Reinagle "forgave,
though he could not forget; " that the famous group
of two sleeping children by the same sculptor now
in Lichfield Cathedral was entirely conceived,
designed, modelled, and carved by a poor Italian in
his employ (a statement, I may add, which Mr.
Woolner confirmed to me out of his own knowledge,
a few years ago); that Hoppner employed Reinagle
to copy some of his royal portraits and then sold
them as his own handiwork at greatly increased
prices, even signing certain of them on demand;
and that Constable, his pupil, allowed him to paint
cattle into a landscape and made no acknowledgments of the service or the authorship in the
catalogue. The last charge may readily be believed,
for I have in my possession a letter from Gilpin
(1802), asking that Turner may touch up his picture.
Such wras apparently the practice of the day ; and
may be contrasted with the conduct and principles
of Frank Stone, A.R.A., who, when Landseer visited
his studio and painted a dog into his picture as an
act of kindness to his friend, quietly thanked the
great animal-painter, and then scraped off the work
with his palette-knife.
But with the wonderful rise which has taken
place in the status of the artist within the present
century the whole tone of the community has
changed; the " devil" has been driven underground
by artistic public opinion, and not daring to show
again the cloven hoof even in those circles which
once welcomed him, he has taken refuge in the

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THE MAGAZINE

greater mystery that surrounds the "ghost." The
pupil and the assistant, of course, remain; the
perspective-man now works for painters just as
Agostino Tassi did for Salimbeni three hundred
years ago. Mr. Frith explained, long since, how
he always had his perspectives set out for him;
for it is hardly to be expected that eminent
painters would waste weeks of their time over
a perfectly mechanical process that any mathematician besides themselves might do, or spend a
month or two on any similar labour while there
was a person within call to carry out so tedious
and relatively so unintellectual an operation. Assistants such as these take rank with the colourgrinder and canvas-primer, and exist only in relation to the trade, not the art, of painting. Their
labour may be regarded as legitimate as that of
the banker's clerk who keeps his master's books,
or the stationer who engrosses a legal document.
But he is a man of very different aim and stamp
and artistic capacity who deliberately turns to
"devilling," and who is ready, under the pressure
of a little more self-interest or of sorer need, to
turn "ghost"—selling himself to innate a bladder
and deceive the public—devoting his superior
talents, as Wordsworth says, to " kindle false
fires."
But though painting and engraving may both have
had their " ghosts" (John Pye, it is said, acted in
that spiritual capacity to Heath), architecture and
sculpture have always been the chosen stalking-field.
The reason is obvious. In painting and engraving
the man of talent may nowadays assert himself in
the exhibitions without much difficulty—he need
play " ghost" to no one, and bolster up no man's
name but his own. In the other directions, however, it is vastly more difficult. Architecture and
sculpture are arts that require a connection, a
clientele to practise, and a certain amount of cash
capital to work; and many a man whose artistic gifts
outweigh his business capacity, his opportunities for
asserting himself, or even his " presentableness"
before clients and committees, is content—-faute
cle mieux—to sell his genius to a not wholly incompetent middleman, and to see another man's name
attached for ever to his own creations.
Architecture presents many examples of this
detestable system of devilry and ghostliness, and
it is commonly reported that at least one of our most
respected and respectable architects of to-day acted in
this capacity for years—for " a man must live "—until
a happy chance released him from the hateful yoke.
But " architecture " has long since become a mere
trade with many who consider that surveying is
part and parcel of the art they claim to practise;
persons who necessarily delegate to " specialists "—

OF AET.

otherwise " devils " and " ghosts "—all that major
part of their work which they are themselves incapable of doing, but to which, when it is done, they
deliberately put their own names, and of which they
claim the entire credit. There is an old story,
generally current and piously believed some years
ago, how one of the competitors for the designing of
the Law Courts, having a fee of £500 for competing, simply sublet the work for £150. He saw
the design and put his name to it, and pocketing
the £350 difference thought he had made a good
bargain, until he found that his employee had
actually himself sublet the work to yet another
for £75 ! In a paper read before the first National
Art Congress, which was held at Liverpool in
1888, Mr. T. G. Jackson, A.E.A., told a number of
similar ghost-stories collected from contractors and
others under seal of secrecy as to names and other
fatal particulars.
It. is not, I believe, seriously denied that the
surveyor-architect is, generally speaking, a deviland-ghost-employer, relegating the design of his
drains, as of his constructive iron-work, his architectural detail as his decorative wood and plaster
and colour ornamentation, to men who are capable
of doing what he is not. He may call them
" experts ;" but that is exactly what we others mean
by " ghosts." It is the fact, I further believe, that
when the vigorous newspaper controversy — "Architecture—a Profession or an Art ?"—was raging
a few years ago in the columns of the Times, no
one ventured to reply on the point of "ghostliness," although the charge was brought against
the surveyor-architect, distinctly and without any
sort of subterfuge. It was, indeed, carefully evaded
—because, as it seemed, the facts were so well established and notorious. The " custom of the trade"
may be held to justify it; but, philosophically considered, the practice is a scandal in itself and a
disgrace to the art upon which it is foisted.
It
is, some consider, a fraud upon the public, for which
there is, I believe, but one remedy—the distinct
separation of the surveyor's occupation from that
of the architect, the divorce of mere professionalism
from art. The present condition of things should
never be forgotten by whoever has need of an
architectural adviser; least of all by those corporations and public bodies who contribute so
powerfully towards sustaining and maintaining
the "ghost" by accepting unquestioned the superstition that an architect who is engaged in surveyor's work for them all day long can do his own
architecture and his own designing.
But if the obtrusion of the "ghost" is offensive in the art of architecture—which, after all,
is so closely allied to the building trade in the

THE ARTIST'S
estimation of the general public, that unthinking people may be forgiven for not clearly seeing
where the one ends and the other begins—among
artists and art-lovers it is regarded as an aesthetic
crime and an outrage when a sculptor inflates
himself into public notice and obtains personal
recognition on the merits of his assistant. Examples of this system have not been wanting; but,
as I said before, the man who is audacious enough
to enter upon the traffic must be satisfied of his
courage to sustain his part, and desperate enough
to defend himself if he is exposed. Cunning and
effrontery are his stock-in-trade; his mask, sufficient sculptural ability or practice to impose upon
the public, and more particularly upon those most
inartistic of all mortals — the gentlemen of the
legal profession.
With the recollection of a famous libel case
in my mind, I avoid names—nay, I dismiss persons and particular cases from my thoughts altogether—and take merely an ideal instance. Endowed with a certain taste for modelling, and
confident in his commercial instinct, a person of
energy, let us suppose, determines to tread a Royal
Road to fame and fortune—that spurious Eoyal
Road which lies not by the way of genius. He
engages as his assistants men of undoubted talent
and skill, who have been trained in the studios
of sculptors of great repute, or who have otherwise developed great artistic ability. He chooses
them, too, for their poverty, and comes to the
necessary understanding. He is to "boom the
show" while they do the best part of the work.
They may be engaged to work either in sight or
out of sight of the visitors to the studio—be these
sitters or fellow-artists. The "sculptor " obtains the
commissions, he makes little models for big monuments, little sketches without much knowledge,
which are to be worked up by more competent
hands, and he does his best to execute the busts
or statues of those who come to his studio for the
purpose. His visitors, whose knowledge of sculpture, as a rule, is infinitesimally less than their
knowledge of painting, are thus transformed unconsciously into partisan witnesses, upon whom the
sculptor can depend for their evidence to the effect
that "they saw him do the work." But all the
while the ghost is at work. There is the notorious
case of Noble—the great " ghost " man par excellence, to whom we of a later day, it is said, owe
the very style and title of "Sculptor's Ghost." It
is commonly asserted that his assistant, Joseph
Edwrards, came to him nearly every night for
sixteen years or so, arriving in the evening after
the other assistants had gone, and leaving in the
early hours of the morning, having worked up the
896

"GHOST.

313

busts chiefly from photographs taken by Watkins,
with the result that he rarely failed to make an
excellent portrait; that Noble always accounted
for the advance made in his work by suggesting
that he had been engaged upon it all night; that
Edwards also attended nearly every Sunday for
the purpose of overhauling statues and other work
in progress in the general studio and carving
shop; and that his assistants, who were constantly
shifted from one work to another so that any individual character might be suppressed, pretended
to accept the explanation, though they laughed
in their sleeves at the idea of the nightly labours
—always referring to Edwards amongst themselves
as "the ghost." Such, it is said, is the origin of
the term, the precise expression being the invention of Bursill, one of Noble's " devils." And in
much the same way, M. Verheyden himself declared,
in the trial of Belt v. Lawes, that he occupied
precisely similar relations towards Richard Belt.
I return to my impersonal narrative.
The
work of art, being finished, is sent in to one of
the exhibitions. Whether it be a bust or an ideal
design, the work has possibly been the original
conception in its general arrangement of the
ghost-employer.
So far he is safe. But he is
immediately confronted with a difficulty.
The
reader will easily imagine that the handling and
technique of a painter of any individuality is as
immediately recognisable to an artist or an experienced critic, as the handwriting of his relations or his friends. To the general gallery-visitor
the methods of the sculptor are not so apparent,
even if they are apparent at all; yet to other
sculptors, and to those who have made sculpture a
study, they are so unmistakable that he who sees
them can hardly be deceived. Touch and manipulation are absolutely individual, and as much studied
by other sculptors as design and general arrangement. It would be as absurd for Mr. Orchardson
to sign the work of Sir Erederic Leighton, or for
Mr. Watts to claim the authorship of a picture by
Mr. Alma-Tadema, as for a sculptor to seek to
impose upon his brother-artists. The handiwork of
the ghost is often perfectly well known, for he has
probably not arrived at his degree of skill without
having gained the recognition of his fellow-sculptors.
So when the beholder of the work looks at the
exhibition catalogue, and instead of finding the
name he expects, he reads that of a man notoriously his inferior—even if he is well known to fame
—what conclusion is the inquirer to draw ? And
if he subsequently discovers that he whom he expected to find entered as the author of the work,
is actually working with the signatory as an assistant, what further opinion is he likely to form ?

314

THE MAGAZINE OF AET.

"Why is it that in this country talent should
get no better opportunity than to exhibit under
someone else's name, and that "gentlemen" should
not have the common honesty to do their own
work, or admit the collaboration ? I have more
than once heard it stated for a fact that a certain
sculptor, whose style of execution was perfectly well
known, and whose name is not yet forgotten in the
land, went one day to Koine, and suddenly began
producing finished Italian work !
Now, should any sculptor give expression to
the opinion he had formed, in the circumstances
which I have suggested, he would be probably
met with the ready cry of "Professional Jealousy!"
and the heart of the generous British public and
the verdict of the gullible British jury would as
likely as not go forth at once to the persecuted
child of genius. Dirt is industriously thrown
about so that the black spot may not be observed,
or, at least, may be obscured, and the real offender
and his friends cry " Scoundrel! scoundrel!" to
drown the charge brought plainly against themselves.
In 1892 a statement appeared to the effect that
" after an absence of ten years or thereabouts the
sculptor's ghost has resumed his walk in the exhibition-rooms of the Boyal Academy," and some
strong remarks intended to be of an entirely
impersonal nature were directed against the principle. Thereupon a gentleman, a sculptor of not
very wide reputation, came forward and announced through a morning newspaper* that he
believed the article was meant to be directed
at him, but added that "he only had a limited
number of gentlemen to help him." The affair
was sufficiently "boomed" to render the assumed
parties easily recognisable, and to suggest that
the assistants were persons of long-standing experience and skill. Sir Frederic Leighton (who
was challenged to formulate some definite charge
against " the sculptor in question") was interviewed, when he simply gave it as his general
opinion that an assistant must be only a mechanical
being, to carry out the orders of the sculptor—
he must be to the artist what the type-writer is
to the author. "If that point is passed," he said,
"trouble is bound to follow. The actual work a
sculptor is bound to do himself may be put under
three heads. First: designing; second: form (beauty
and artistic grace); and third: executive charm
and beauty. In short, not only the drawing, design of the framework, and making the model, but
all that meets the eye of the public, must be
done by the sculptor, if he in honesty wishes to
call the work his own. By this means alone do
* The Morning, July 30, et seq

the 'manner' and peculiarities of the sculptor
become manifest. If the assistant possesses 'artistic merit/ the three points are not disassociable
in first-class men, and the 'ghost,' to all intents
and purposes, is the author or co-author of the
work which the sculptor with a name puts
his signature to. The use of a genuine assistant
is a necessity to the sculptor, and an honest
worker in art will not abuse the employment of
them. I perhaps ought to tell you that most
artists and sculptors of any note have a certain
distinguishing ' manner' which characterises their
work, and it is easy for a fellow-artist to tell
almost at a glance who has painted such and such
a picture, or executed a certain bust or 'group.'"
The late Mr. Birch, Associate of the Eoyal
Academy, contributed to the controversy, and supported the sculptor who had come forward on the
ground that he was a man who, in his own line,
"had not a superior in London," and that the presumed attack was caused by jealousy on the part of
the profession. Now, granting all that Mr. Birch
declared of the gentleman in question, we all
know that ordinary assistance is necessary when
an artist has already acquired a reputation, and
has a number of commissions on hand for impatient purchasers; -f and we are surely all of
us willing—nay, more, we are eager—to recognise
genius when it raises its divine front. But, speaking generally, and independently of the sculptor
of 1892, the genius that employs only a limited
number of gentlemen to assist him, whether on
ideal work or portraiture, and who is himself,
maybe, a comparative beginner, or a sculptor with
his reputation still to make, we have a. chronic
difficulty in recognising. And have we not, to revert to this special case, a right to examine the
value of the critic's testimony in the light of his
own views upon ghostliness ? Can we forget that,
in an action brought by the notorious Eichard
Belt against a railway company for damage done
to one of his statuettes, Mr. Birch gave evidence
that the statuette was a good one, and that Belt
was a good artist; that subsequently, in the celebrated libel case of Belt v. Lawes, Mr. Birch swore
that Belt was no artist, and that he, Mr. Birch,
had done the statuette in question; and that it
also appeared in evidence that Belt also took a
studio and requested Mr. Birch and Mr. Kunimer
to work for him and execute works of art that
Belt was to call his own? It is much against my
own feelings to bring this matter forward in
f Such men were Foley, Boehm, and other popular sculptors,
who have employed large staffs, but upon all of whose work there
is the impress of their own individuality and their own handiwork.

THE ARTIST'S " GHOST."
respect to one whose personal charm, geniality,
and ability caused his friends to ignore the quaintness or confusion of his philosophic views, but it
is well that this question should be laid once for
all fairly and squarely before the public to judge
of and mayhap to pronounce upon; and I surely
do not judge him too unkindly when I say that
his opinions on the matter are neither of intrinsic value nor of great weight.
In all that I have said I have directed my
criticism not so much against the ghost as against
the art-tradesman who battens upon his talent, and
his indifference or distress. It would be unjust to
lay too much of the blame upon the "willing
spirit" who haunts the studio. " H e is generally
an artist of real talent, to whom the opportunity
has never come of standing before the public in
his own right, and who has never known —
sometimes, indeed, who never cares to know —
the joy of public appreciation and popular acclaim.
His means too small to enable him to combat
with his genius the indifference of the public, and
in the fulness of time to bear down neglect by
the sheer weight of his merit, he accepts with
gratitude the certainty that attaches to the post
of a paid permanent ' assistant' to one whose
work he executes in part, at the very least, and
to whom he supplies the 'artistic merit.'
Our
condemnation is reserved for his exploiter, the socalled l architect' or ' sculptor/ who buys his brains
and genius, perhaps, and certainly his executive
power, and who does not hesitate, for the part
he plays as employer and middleman, to assume
credit and accept emoluments which should rightly
belong to another. These advantages may perhaps
be claimed by him in a spirit crudely commercial,
and be recognised as an ordinary business transaction by an ignorant public; but the artistic
aspect is too indefensible and too contemptible to
need further exposition at our hands. The artistworld has long since detected and pronounced
upon the trick, and needs no enlightenment as to
what has occurred in the past—an absence of
artistic intelligence and common honesty—a seeking by questionable and impudent manoeuvres to
acquire the honours and emoluments that come
so hardly to many a genuine artist, with his
patient life of unrequited toil, of neglected talent,
and unmerited poverty."
Is it necessary to remind those artists—sculptors,
more particularly—who may be indifferent in the
matter, that if they were staunch and true to their

315

art and to one another, the task of the exploiter
would be rendered more difficult and vastly more
disagreeable ? But with the effective launching of
the middleman-sculptor or middleman-architect there
is often mixed up some petty squabble or jealous
feud between little cliques. Of this the exploiter
in question is quick to take advantage, and by
securing the support of one camp against another
he successfully confuses the issue to the general
damage and disgrace of a great and guiltless community. In respect to the architect and his craft,
more especially, it is surely obvious that no man can
hope to turn out good work as an artist who undertakes more commissions than he is able to fulfil by
his own unaided talent. No architect can be expected to make all his own drawings: that is to say,
to do all the mechanical draughtsmanship—though
it may be added that nearly half of these might be
dispensed with entirely as superfluous and little
more than display, inasmuch as the work of the
architect lies in the direction not of drawing but of
designing. But when his work gets so far ahead of
his power of attention that there is even a moulding
on a door-panel not designed by his own hand, then
it is time for him to restrain his enterprise and to
limit the amount of work he undertakes to do within
a given time.
I have said enough.
" Vex not his ghost: O, let him pass ! he hates him much
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer."

But I would fain hope that this exposure, such
as it is, will open the eyes of the many whose
ears have not caught the whispered indignation
that spreads from time to time through the artistworld. Their duty as patrons is clear enough. As
far as possible they should satisfy themselves, before
they grant commissions, as to the fair name and
fame of the sculptor or architect to whom they
may address themselves—remembering, in a general
way, that the latter is far more often suspecte
than the former, for the reasons I have adduced.
Not until the public takes the matter in hand,
earnestly and sincerely, can we be satisfied that
" t h ' extravagant and erring spirit" is laid for
ever. Ghostliness, like other forms of trickery
and dishonesty, will not depart out of the land so
long as opportunity and occasion serve; and it
behoves the public to lend their honest aid in
stamping out the mean and cunning pest that
sullies the artist's name and fouls his fair repute.

LUCBBZIA.
{From the Painting by Lorenzo Lotto.)

THE GBAFTON GALLEBIES.
B Y F. G. STEPHENS.

W

ITH the extremely attractive title of " Fair
Women," the managers of the handsome
galleries which extend from Grafton Street to
Bruton Street, New Bond Street, have done what
the " Grosvenor" ought to have achieved long ago.
It is true that, so far as the charms of the ladies
represented by the nearly two hundred and fifty
pictures in oil which adorn the exhibition are
concerned, there is much to be desired in the
"fairness" of a very considerable number of them,
including a certain category which it would be
juster to call hideous, or guys incarnate. Of the
" miniatures, &c," which comprise in the total
of five hundred and thirty-eight entries in the
catalogue a goodly proportion of " etceteras," such
as bags, Tanagra figures, and combs, I have not
space to write about, although the concourse of

comely maids, wives, and widows is greater than
those the oil painters had to do with. So much
the better for the former, who have always,
however, been notorious flatterers of their sitters.
It would have been apter to have called this a
collection of fine pictures of ladies, and to have
said nothing about beauty; the committee, restricted
to ladies of very distinguished rank, who complete
the staff of the exhibition (an arrangement which is
not without a soiopgon of humour) would doubtless
have been satisfied with such a title.
As to the pictures proper, the collection really
commences with the beginning of portraiture—that
is, with Grseco-Roman paintings in distemper of two
of those wide-eyed and intelligent brunettes, whose
likenesses have recently turned up in tombs of the
period of Hadrian and his immediate successors,

THE GRAFTON
than which no older portraits
now survive in this method.
Only gems and sculptures remain of the class that are older
than these. The sequence of
ladies painted and drawn " from
ye quicke," or otherwise delineated, is continued from the
second or third century of our
era to the present day, and
terminates with whole-length
life-size nudities by Albert
Moore, lately deceased, and M.
Bouguereau ; charming outlines
of lovely, still living ladies,
drawn in pencil or silverpoint
by that accomplished draughtswoman the present Marchioness
of Granby, and the superb
" Veronica Veronese," by Rossetti, which is really a portrait
as well as a poem in colour
and sentiment, and of beauty
all compact.
Between those widely separated limits the student, amateur,
idler, and more or less well-read
observer will find an embarrassment of riches which is only
too wealthy of charms, anecdotic
treasures, and other attractions,
historical and pictorial—a hoard
of fine things which not one nor
half a dozen visits will suffice
for the ransacking; relics of
fine art and beauty from many
private collections, a considerable number of which have been
lately exhibited at the Academy
and South Kensington, and the
Grosvenor, New, and National
Galleries. From the last-named
institution the Duke of Norfolk
has, for the time only let us
hope, withdrawn his famous
"Duchess of Milan," by Holbein;
and Baron Hirsch has taken
from the same place his voluptuous " Jeune Veuve," by Greuze.
The former of these pieces is
one of the few perfect Holbeins
of which there is, too, a perfect
history, from the time when the
artist was sent to take the
lady's portrait on King Henry's
behalf, an incident which has

GALLERIES.

317

CHRISTINA, DUCHESS OF MILAN.
(From the Painting by Holbein.

Engraved by W. Biscombe Gardner.)

318

THE MAGAZINE

been a sort of focus of fibs, including that apocryphal
bon-mot, according to which the lively young widow
(Henry's preference for widows was marked and
well known) said that had she more than one neck
she would gladly " be at his Highness's service,"
whereas the fact is she was only too anxious to succeed to the place of Anne Boleyn. Another capital
picture attributed to Holbein is Lord Lothian's
" Margaret Tudor," thus named with manifest incorrectness, which, having been slightly rubbed, is
not quite so perfect as the likeness of that other
much less fair widow of Francesco Sforza, Henry
VIIL, Margaret's brother, declined to marry. No. 2
looks paler (can it have been exposed to sunlight?)
than when I saw it at Kensington in 1866, at
the Academy later, and lastly at the New Gallery
in 1889. That Sir F. Cook's so-called "La bella
Simonetta," lately at the Academy, really represents
that charming and passionate young blonde, is by no
means so certain as that it is one of Botticelli's very
finest works—a masterpiece of fifteenth century art,
much older than "Margaret Tudor," and much
more animated and picturesque than either of the
Holbeins. How brilliant were its original coloration and lighting let experts affirm, while the
quaint action of the damsel in pressing her tense
bust has need to be explained. We do not for a
moment believe it represents the lovely Simonetta,
who, by the way, was, to use a modern phrase, a
decidedly " fast" young lady. It was more likely
to have been a realisation of the great Sandro's
idea of Mary Magdalen before she entered upon
sainthood. Such a reading of the subject was quite
in the master's vein. That the small full-length
"Lady Jane Grey" still retains that preposterous
name is one of the curiosities of English connoiseurship. Since Earl Spencer lent this picture (as
No. 183) to the National Portrait Exhibition of
1866, it has been pointed out again and again that
the highly finished picture of a very exuberant
Flemish jungfrmc, who, in the tightest of red velvet
bodices, sits reading near a window, with a tall
covered hanap of gold on a table at her side,
represents, according to Low Country lights of
the sixteenth century, Mary Magdalen. I am of
those who recognise in this curious picture more
of Bernard Van Orley than of the older Lucas de
Heere, although the present and every other catalogue has given it to Lucas, whose work it hardly
resembles at all.
The high-bred face of "Isabella d'Este" obtained noble and apt recognition at the hands
of Pordenone, whose flesh-painting is of the first
class. It is a picture replete of harmonies of all
sorts, and practically intact. Not nearly intact
is the Palma which hangs above and is styled

OF AET.

" Flora;" the face is that of II Vecchio's beautiful
daughter, a veritable Venus of the Lagoons, but
the flesh has lost a good deal of the rosy gold and
grey of Palma's palette. Captain Holford has lent
his noble Lorenzo Lotto, called " Lucretia," which is
a sort of pictorial enigma, with a face full of tragic
passion ; and in that respect, as well as in the action
of holding out a drawing of an old man, noteworthy;
her curious jewellery should not escape the studious
visitor's attention. "Violetta Palma," a capital
Paris Bordone, has suffered more from over-varnishing than from over-cleaning, in regard to which
the picture has not escaped. Close to it hangs the
brilliant and beautiful Titian from the Holford
Collection of " Catarina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus,"
which was at the Academy a few years since.
The undergold of her flesh, pure, rich, and deep
as its rosy carnations are, illustrates Vecellio's
best manner; her quaint, half-Turkish headdress,
with a pendent veil, is noteworthy. This is one
of a few curious portraits in which the lady carries
a marmoset or squirrel; in this instance the animal
is chained to her bracelet. There is a similar pet
in the hand of Mr. Benson's very fine " Portrait
of a Lady," ascribed, with much probability, but
not convincingly, to B. Luini, which was recently at
the New Gallery. The much darkened shadows of
the flesh attest a radical and almost constantly occurring error of the School of Milan, from Leonardo
himself to the least renowned of his pupils.
No. 14 is most certainly not a portrait of
"Mary Queen of Scots," nor at all like her, nor
of her period. Neither is No. 17, by C. Vroom,
a likeness of " Queen Elizabeth as ' Diana.'" The
Vermeer, "A Lady Playing the Guitar," is a somewhat inferior, but quite genuine, example of the
" Delftische" master; but it is a representative
one in respect to the peculiar " embonpoint" (to
use Leigh Hunt's capital phrase) of her white
satin dress, which is trimmed with ermine, and
the opacity of the much-darkened shadows of
her face; the framed landscape (an invariable
element in a Vermeer) hanging on the wall behind
the figure, and the curiously bad composition, or
no composition, of the work at large. That
" Diane de Poitiers " had a curious, if not questionable, proclivity for being painted naked and sitting
in her bath, as in No. 20, which is a very interesting Clouet, better known as Janet, is not to be
affirmed on the evidence of the picture which
thus bears her name. It may be observed that
her more estimable predecessor in the highest
ranks of French royal harlotry, the beautiful Agnes
Sorel, herself condescended to be painted in a
similar, but even more complete, negation of
clothing.
Witness, likewise, Cellini's renowned

THE GKAFTON GALLEKIES.
"Nymph of Fontainebleau," which is in the
Louvre, and has a similar history. We must pass
Sir Antonio More's (?) " Elizabeth de Yalois,"
a noble piece, noteworthy for the characteristic
negroid forms of her features. She is the heroine
of Schiller's very " unhistorical" drama, Don

319

Jennings, Duchess of Marlborough," in all the
fulness of those insouciant and piquant charms
which subdued the Great Captain, her dainty head
balanced on the neck like a flower on its stem.
Bound about her head is bound the superb
abundance of fair brown tresses of which she was

THE MISSES RTJSHOUT.
(From the Miniature by Andrew

Carlos. The beautiful dress, most elaborately
painted and wrought, of Coello's " Isabella Clara
Eugenia," is charmingly embroidered in silver on
brown.
If Eembrandt had painted nothing more than
her Majesty's "Lady with a Fan," standing with
her hand at the side of a window, which was
lately at Burlington House, that stupendous master
of masters would have been placed in the highest
grade of the portraitists. This noble piece is in
a bad light now. Next to it hangs one of the
best versions, by Kneller, of his "Sarah, born

Plimer.)

so proud and he so fond, that, while they were
both still young,, and to spite him because he
would not let her have her own way, she, in a
furious tantrum, cut them off and threw them at
his feet. She flew out of the room (it could not
have been long before she sat to Sir Godfrey for
this picture) and left Marlborough alone. When
she returned the tresses were nowhere to be seen,
nor were they heard of for many a year, till,
when after his death, she, rummaging the most
private of his cabinets, found the missing ringlets
carefully wrapped in silk and sealed with his seal.

320

THE MAGAZINE

Vixen as she was, the discovery touched her
heart, and it was with floods of tears and sorrowful
cries that she told the story.
Mr. Smith-Barry has lent the good Zurbaran,
"Portrait of a Spanish Lady as St. Elizabeth of

HEK MAJESTY THE QUEEN.
(From the Painting

by Sir W. Ross.

Engraved by R. Heath.)

Hungary," which, despite her lean form in a most
rigid corset, has a charming girlish and ingenuous
air ; but it has suffered in the darkening of the flesh
shadows, which exceed even the wont of Zurbarans,
and the fading of her blue bodice. Vandyck himself, who, although. he painted some of the fairest
of women, is not worthily represented here, never
reproduced the shoulders and bust of a beauty with
more thorough appreciation of their fine morbidezza
and irresistible colour than Lely when he gave them
in the " Comtesse de • Grammont," justly called " La
belle Hamilton," one of the famous " Beauties " of
Windsor which came here from Hampton Court. I t
bears Sir Peter's rare monogram of " P . L." We

OF AET.

doubt much, the flesh being rather hard and opaque,
if Lord Lothian's " Lady Tufton" has much of
Vandyck's own handiwork in it, though, doubtless,
it came from his workshop at Blackfriars. She is
dressed in black, and it may as well be noticed that
the jewTelled buttons, which are shaped
like cherubs, with crystals at their breasts,
employed to keep together the edges of
her gown, are identical with similar ornaments which appear on the dresses of
some of Vandyck's many portraits of
Henrietta Maria. Perhaps they were gifts
to the lady who is painted before us. A
quite genuine Vandyck is Lord Wantage's
" Henrietta Maria," in her favourite white
silk dress, embroidered with silver, and
trimmed with rose-coloured ribbons. Notice
the black bracelet on her Majesty's left
wrist, with suspended from it a heavy
gold thumb-ring, containing a very large
diamond; each pearl of her necklace is
worth a prince's ransom. "The Countess
of Sunderland" is Waller's " Sacharissa,"
and not a beauty. I t looks more like a
Dobson than a Vandyck, and, as she was
only twenty-three years of age when Sir
Anthony died in December, 1641, while
this is the likeness of a lady much older
than that, it is, to say nothing of the
costume, which seems to affirm the same
thing, much more probable that Dobson, if
not Lely, painted this work than that it
is rightly ascribed to the greater painter,
to whose standard it hardly approaches.
Eamsay's "Lady Susan Strangways" is a
pleasing surprise to those who do not know7
how well Hogarth's Scotch rival could, on
occasion, paint. She appears in white silk,
and probably in the very bodice the visitor
will find in one of the vitrines in the
gallery, and which she wore as one of
Queen Charlotte's bridesmaids. Not far
from this hangs Eeynolds's " Nymph," the best of
his nudities, and his much repainted " Snake in the
Grass," a mere wreck. Most welcome are, Sir
Joshua's " Elizabeth Foster, Duchess of Devonshire,"
the equally famous " Collina," " Miss Jacobs," and
"Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire," by the same.
Mr. Watts's " Miss Prinsep " and " Mrs. Langtry," Sir
J. E. Millais' "Miss E. Tennant" and "Cinderella,"
Mr. Herkomer's "Miss Grant," M. J, Lefebvre's "Pandora," M. Bouguereau's " Biblis," and more of less
fine but very enjoyable examples add to the value
of this collection of pictures of "Fair Women."
NOTE.—The illustrations on pp. 316, 317, and 319 have been
reprinted from previous issues of T H E MAGAZINE OF AKT.

MISS

ELLEN

TERRY

{From the Painting by J. S. Sargent, A.R.A.

AS "LADY

MACBETH."

Engraved by C. Carter. By Permission of Henry Irving, Esq.)

321

OUB ILLUSTBATED NOTE-BOOK.

T

HE purchase by Mr. Agnew of Constable's " Scene , which were cast, together with the other metalon the Eiver Stour : ' for the large sum of work of the memorial, by Leblanc-Barbedienne.
6,200 guineas has been one of the sensations of
Among recent additions to the British section

SCENE ON THE E1VEE STOUR—" THE WHITE HORSE."
(By John Constable, R.A.

the art season. The picture — generally known
as " Constable's White
Horse "—was painted in
1819, the year in which
the artist was elected an
Associate of the Academy, and at its last
appearance at Christie's,
about twenty years ago,
was sold for 800 guineas.
We refer in the
obituary column of our
" Chronicle of A r t " to the
lamented death of Mrs.
Lucy Madox Eossetti.
There has recently
been unveiled on the
He de St. Louis, Paris,
an elaborate monument
to the memory of Barye.
Designed by Bernier,
the memorial, as will be
seen from our illustration, consists chiefly of
reproductions of the great
sculptor's own works,
897

From the Mezzotint by D, Lucas.)

THE BARYE MONUMENT, PARIS.
(Designed by Bernier.)

THE LATE LUCY M. ROSSETTI.
(From a Drawing in Coloured Chalks by Dante
Gabriel Bossetti. 1874.)

of the National Gallery
are the two pictures
here reproduced. "Pegwell Bay, Kent, 1858"
(No. 1,407), by William Dyce, E.A.—exhibited at the Academy
in 1860—was purchased
at the Brand sale at
Christie's for £535 10s.
" Edfou," by J. F. Lewis,
E.A. (No. 1,405), is a characteristic example of
this artist's work, purchased from the Francis
Clarke fund.
The B l a c k s m i t h s '
Company is not one of the
foremost of the London
guilds, but it is doing
good work by encouraging its craftsmen to turn
their attention to the
decorative treatment of
ironwork. At the last
exhibition held in the
Ironmongers' Hall some

THE MAGAZINE

322

excellent work in this direction was to be seen, the
high order of which may be judged from the prize
works of which we give reproductions.
Mr. Valentine Cameron Prinsep has been elected

OF AET.

and later in Paris. His first work seen at the
Academy was " How Bianca Capello Sought to
Poison the Cardinal de Medici," in 1862.
He
has the questionable distinction of having exhibited

EDFOU.
(By J. F. Lewis, R.A.

Recently acquired by the National

to fill the vacancy in the membership of the Royal
Academy caused by the retirement of Mr. Armitage.
Mr. Prinsep was born in India in 1836, and studied
art first in England under Mr. G. F. Watts, R.A.,

HAMMBEED IRON FIRE SCREEN.
(By Clarence Steer.

First Prize (&15 and Medal) at Exhibition of
Blacksmiths' Company.)

Gallery.)

the largest picture ever hung at Burlington House
—the representation of the Great Durbar when
the Queen was proclaimed Empress of India. He
was elected an Associate in 1879.

IRON CLOCK-CASE.
(By Charles Butler. Second Prize (£10) at Exhibition
of Blacksmiths' Company.)

OUR ILLUSTRATED
The Liverpool Banking Company are to be commended for the spirit which prompted them to

NOTE-BOOK.

323

David. 2. The Dioscuri (as clouds) guarding and
guiding the Argonauts. 3. Achilles mourning Patro-

$

'

•-

4*
LL
PEGWELL BAY.

VAL. C. PRINSEP, R.A.
(From a Photograph by the London Stereoscopic
Company.)

{By W. Dyce, R.A.

enrich that city with such a building as their
new Adelphi Bank. Its finest feature is the
beautiful doorway with its bronze
gates, designed by the architect,
Mr. W. D. Caroe, M.A.
In
special reference to the bank's
name, the. subjects were chosen
to illustrate representative incidents of brotherhood from great
historic periods. 1. Jonathan's
stratagem to aid the escape of

IKON LAMP STAND.
(By Thomas Atkins. Third Prize (£5) at
Exhibition of Blacksmiths' Company.)

Recently acquired by the National Gallery.)

clus. 4. Orlando (Roland) rescuing Oliver. Upon
either side of each of these low-relief panels are

HAMMERED IRON FIRE SCREEN.
(By James Cook. Special Prize (£75) and Certificate of Highest Merit at Exhibition of
Blacksmiths' Company.)

324

THE MAGAZINE OF AET.

statuettes of the subject figures. These are in design and details of the doors were given by Mr.
niches somewhat freely worked into the face of the W. D. Caroe, M.A., the figures and panels being
pilasters which form the chief architectural motif finely executed by Mr. Stirling Lee. With the

BEONZE DOORS OW THE ADELPHI BANK, LIVERPOOL.
(Designed by W. D. Caroe, M.A.

The Figure Sculpture and Panels by J. Stirling Lee. From a Photograph by Bedford Lemere and Co.)

of the design. A frieze of Putti—used decoratively in other parts of the building in playful
reference again to the name " Adelphi"—completes
the ornamental treatment of the doors, which are
surmounted by a rich grille, also in bronze. The

exception of the figure subjects, which w£re cast
by the are perdue process by Mr. Buhrer, of Chelsea,
the doors and grille were admirably executed by
Mr. Starkie Gardner, the well-known metal-worker
of Lambeth.

KNIGHT OF THE FLOWERS.
(From the Painting

by G. Jtochegrosse.)

THE SALONS.
SALON OF THE CHAMPS ELYSEES.
B Y CLAUDE PHILLIPS.

I

T is with regret and misgiving that the friends of
French art find themselves compelled to own
that the present Salon is the least interesting, the
least satisfactory in its illustration of any school or
schools of painting, whether retrograde or innovating,
that has been seen of late years. With the extravagance, all the vigour and all the genuine enthusiasm for
progress, or at any rate advance, of the French school
in its most modern branches seems to have taken
refuge in the New Salon of the Champ de Mars.
The art-lover who should confine his visit to what is
now known as the Old Salon might take a gloomy
view, indeed, of the immediate future, as regards the
art of France, the parent of all the most modern
European schools, except the English, which is,
however, rapidly succumbing to its influence, and
paying for its enormous increase in technical
dexterity with a corresponding loss of the national
colour. There should be, of course, no such thing as
Chauvinism in art, and every European school, if it
is to be understood, should be judged as far as possible from its own basis, and according to its own
standard. Still, as we have never shown ourselves
unduly tender to the English painters when they
seemed to lay behind in the race, it appears only
bare justice to record that on the present occasion
a considerable number of the best canvases at the
one and the other Salon are British, the English
school, as a rule, affecting the Champs Elysees, the
Scotch preferring that temple of advanced art, the
Champ de Mars.

Nothing in the Old Salon is so manifestly the
work of a master as Mr. W. Q. Orchardson's
" Portrait of Walter Gilbey, Esq.," which is so well
known over here as to need no further praise or
comment; while the " Evening" of Mr. J. H.
Lorimer—here called " Benedicite—Fete de Grandmere," has been fully as much appreciated as it
was last year at the Academy. Another success
of last year's Academy, which makes a good figure
here, is Mr. J. H. F. Bacon's " Young Widow,"
than which there are few better or more solid
pieces of execution in the Palais de l'lndustrie.
The direction in which the current of French
art sets just now is well indicated by the change
which has come over the style of M. Bochegrosse. The painter who revelled in the bloodiest
and the most voluptuous scenes in history and
legend, the author of the " Mort de Vitellius," the
" Mort d'Astyanax," the " Baby lone," has thrown
himself with enthusiasm into the diaphanous idealism, or pseudo-idealism, which is the fashion of the
hour with the French, though they play with it
merely, and have it not in the blood like ourselves.
His " Le Chevalier aux Fleurs" is manifestly but
a variante of the scene in Wagner's Parsifal, in
which the boy-hero victoriously resists the allurements of the flower-maidens. M. Bochegrosse's
hero, whose dreamy, ascetic type recalls that of
Memling's male saints, advances in a flowery
meadow saturated with sunlight, bare-headed, but
otherwise completely clad in shining silver mail—

326

THE MAGAZINE OF AET.

a very Sir Galahad or Sir Perceval. He passes
on with abstracted gaze, untempted by the antic
graces of a bevy of living flowers, nude maidens,
whose fair locks are crowned with the gayest and

de l'Art," is like its predecessor, the "Decollation
de St. Eemi" (in the Pantheon), an example of
what to avoid rather than what to follow. The
famous painter redeems himself, however, with
his simple, powerful " Portrait de S. A. S. le
Prince de Monaco." Of M. Bouguereau, too, the
cold colourist, the draughtsman senza errore, nothing new remains to be said. " L'Innocence " and
" La Perle " contain no surprises either for his admirers or his detractors. M. Jules Lefebvre confines himself this year to portraits, the finer of
which, that of Monsieur C. Clerc, is drawn with the
utmost mastery and sculpturally modelled, but remorselessly hard and metallic. M. Benjamin-Constant has the attractive portrait-study of an agreeably mysterious, dark-eyed damsel, under the title
of " Diamants Noirs," and a very gracefully designed
and distinguished full-length "Portrait de Mme.

THE PRINCE OF MONACO.
{From the Painting by Lion Bonnat.)

most unusual of ornaments—wreaths or helmets
of hydrangea, purple clematis, iris, rose peonies,
orchids, poppies, and other blooms, stranger and
more uncanny even than they are fair. Great
skill and audacity are shown in maintaining an
even tone without diminishing all this clear
brightness of local colour; and not less in the
uncompromising truth of the coloured reflections
cast upon the nude bodies of these land-sirens
by the flowers and tall grasses. There is, however, something thin and poor, something factitious about the whole conception which is less
easily defined than perceived. Is it not that we
have here the skilled executant schooling himself to fill a new part, to play the poet-painter a
la mode du jour before an admiring gallery ?
Among the professors of light and leading,
whose contributions, though the ardent innovator
may vote them old-fashioned, still constitute the
mainstay of the Old Salon, there is this year
nothing very special to note. The very merits of
M. Bonnat's vigorous style prevent him from ever
achieving complete success in purely decorative
work, and accordingly his great ceiling, " Triomphe

BLACK DIAMONDS.
From the Painting by Benjamin-Constant.)

X.," much marred, however, by the flimsiness and
want of sincerity of the handling. M. Henner's
return to the domain of male portraiture, in which
in former years he achieved one or two striking
successes, is not crowned with wholly satisfactory results. His " Portrait de M. E." has relief, richness of
colour, and the painter's own peculiar envelopment

SALON OF THE CHAMPS
of contours; but it is stolid, and lacks life and incisiveness of characterisation. M. Hebert's Italian
study "La Lavandara"—amusingly misnamed in
the catalogue " Sahavandara:" as if, forsooth, she
were an Indian divinity or heroine, instead of an
Italian washerwoman—is but the enfeebled echo of
a former great success, "Youth and Age." What
can be said, too, of that overlauded performance
" Les victimes du devoir," in which M. Detaille has
depicted with surprising accuracy in all local detail
the burning of a block of buildings in a
Parisian street ? Photographic truth is,
however, not all-in-all, and we want it
here even less than melodramatic exaggeration. One might, in respect of this canvas,
paraphrase Marshal Leboeuf's too famous
declaration at the outbreak of the FrancoPrussian war, and say that there is not
wanting a button on the firemen's tunics
or a fitting to their engines and hose.
But this is about all; for who shall say
that the essence of the terrible scene is
conveyed,, or that M. Detaille has been
more than outwardly and superficially true
to his subject?
We must honour in a veteran and a
master like M. Jules Breton the determined
effort to keep pace with the times which
is shown in his "La fin de la r^colte"
and "La Louchez a Courrieres." His gifted
daughter Mme. Virginie Demont-Breton has
attempted on a vast scale a semi-historical
subject " Jean-Bart," and presents the great
French sea-captain enlisting fishermen to
serve under his orders on board the galiot
Boy-David.
Her mannerism in the modelling of the human face is too great, her
power of dramatic suggestion too limited,
for complete success to be possible in this
new field. M. Adrien Demont-Breton is
one of the few landscape-painters left in
France who combine a measure of realistic
truth with the genuine power of poetic suggestion. The very merits of his delicate reticent
style unfit him to treat a vast epic subject like
" Le Deluge," but his " Eurydice ! Eurydice !" is
one of the most beautiful things in an exhibition which certainly does not abound in beauties.
In a strangely desolate though green and undulating region Orpheus wanders naked and forlorn, calling upon his Eurydice. Whether he is
here seen issuing from the Infernal Eegions, or
before his descent into the realms of Dis to entreat the return to earth of his beloved, does not
clearly appear.
M. Fantin-Latour, who knows how to be as

327

ELYSfe.

tender as he is fearlessly true to his time in his
portraits, amuses himself by remaining delightfully
unreal and dixhuit-cent-trente in his romantic
figure-subjects, which are chiefly founded on
motives in the great myths of music-drama, and
especially in that of Wagner.
Having pretty
well exhausted the Ring des Nibelungen, the accomplished artist now attacks Berlioz's Les
Troyens d Carthage, but, it must be owned, in
no very convincing fashion, though his opposing

NORMAN PIRATES OP THE NINTH CENTURY.
(From the Painting by E.

Luminais.)

passages of bright, sharp colour in the draperies
are cleverly brought into harmony.
We must not omit to mention M. Luminais's
vast canvas " Pirates Norman ds au IX. siecle,"
since it narrowly missed carrying off the muchcoveted distinction of the Medaille d'Honneur,
which was this year ultimately accorded to
neither painter nor sculptor. It is a scene of
violence in barbaric Carlovingian times, such as
by this time leaves the frequenters of the Salons
pretty cold. Another scene of the same type,
painted with an equally frigid deliberation, and
therefore little moving, is " Fin de la reine Brunehaut." M. Luminais knows how to realise such scenes

.328

THE MAGAZINE

with all due vigour and completeness: he is an excellent draughtsman, if a cold and timid colourist.
But is it conceivable that a painter of distinction
should nowadays devote the whole of his artistic
career to the rendering of subjects so far removed
from any point of contact with the humanity of our
time, its passions, and its sympathies ? It is hardly
ever, by the way, the finest picture of the year that

THE END OF SUMMEE.
{From the Painting by L. Japy.)

obtains the Medaille d'Honneur. It must, in the
first place, be one of the largest, and one based on a
subject interesting .to the gros public; it must halt,
moreover, between the two conflicting currents, and
be neither too uncompromisingly academic, nor too
audaciously modern. The result is often not unlike
that of an election to the Presidency of the United
States . of America: capable mediocrity, giving a
measure of satisfaction to all parties, in many cases
unites the votes of those who cannot carry their own
candidates, and thus gains the day.
M. Chartran is not immoderately in love with
the modern methods or the modern standpoint,
and he is, therefore, just the man to paint an
official portrait. His " M. Carnot, President de
la Republique," is a finished performance, as little
uninteresting as such a subject can well be. The
large " St. Francois d'Assise chantant au labour"
shows the saint guiding his plough in a mountainvalley of the Apennines, singing, as 5 he follows his
yoke of large Italian oxen, the famous " Hymn to
the Sun." The design formed by the central group
is a masterly one, almost classic in its synthetic
simplicity and concentration. The canvas as a
whole would, however, be much more effective were

OF ART.

its cold grey tonality enlivened by that atmospheric
vibration which most modern Frenchmen know
how to impart to their open-air scenes. I must
quarrel with M. Chartran for perverting the
exquisite legend, and depicting here a St. Francis
whom privations and hallucination have driven
to the verge of absolute insanity. Through all his
ecstacies, and his self-imposed mortifications of
the flesh, the great founder of the
1
Franciscan order remained both
:
sane and joyous to the very end.
Atmospheric vibration brings us
to M. Henri Martin, the head of
the professional vibristes, who seek
to express, by this too-mechanical
proce'de, poetic fantasies as thin in
conception as they are diaphanous
in texture. The charming " Les
Troubadours" of last year conquered even those who, on principle,
object to the school and the style;
I
but the " Douleur " of this Salon by
no means fulfils the hopes excited
by that fascinating performance.
M. Eoybet's large canvas, "La
Main Chaude," will not long detain
us, for it shows but too-conclusively,
by a repetition of the Jordsens-like
types of last year's " Les Propos
Galants," the limited nature of his
art and its eclectic character.
The best and most virile of all the portraits
here, next to that by Mr. Orchardson, which has
already been mentioned, is M. Henri Cain's
"Portrait de Mgr. le Due d'Aumale" (in pastel).
This is remarkable, no less for vigorous and straightforward execution, than for the happy expression
of a strong sympathetic personality; it will constitute an important record of the royal Maecenas
to whom France owes so much. Next to this
we place what is to all intents and purposes a
portrait: Mr. Gilbert's " Le Joallier." The artist
has here, with admirable decision, and a happy
choice of the right moment, depicted a masterjeweller in the act of picking out diamonds for
a brilliant ornament, in the shape of a dragonfly, which he holds in his hand. The height, or
the depth, of the ridiculous is attained in M.
Edouard's "Le Poete et la Muse—de Lamartine"
(sic), showing the great lyric poet, who wears
modern attire of the most literal kind, floating
in mid-air, upborne by the genius of poetry. The
incongruities of Dosso Dossi's "Muse Inspiring a
Poet," in the National Gallery, and of Ingres's
"Muse Crowning Cherubini," in the Louvre, are
here left far behind.

SALON OF THE
That consummate master of the brush, M.
Vollon, indulges, in his brilliant still-life called
" Fruits," in an unusual amount of violence and
exaggeration; it might almost be said that he is
here imitating his own imitator, M. Fouace,
whose " A la Cuisine " and " A l'Omce " are showy
and attractive yet rather superficial performances.
The more promising and innovating of the modern
landscapists have transferred themselves to the
rival establishment, and we need not, therefore,
be overmuch surprised to find that at the Champs
Elysees the success is with the few veterans who
still assert their ascendency, still valiantly uphold
the banner of poetic realism in landscape. M.
Francois has " Vue de Cannes," and " Une Vanne
au Bord de l'Eaugronne." M. Harpignies' "Soiree
d'Automne" and "Souvenir d'ltalie" are both
marked by the austere beauty which is peculiar
to this master. M. Pointelin continues to excel
in the pathetic but too monotonous style which
he has made his own. The landscapes of M.
Japy have constructive as
well as atmospheric beauty •
and, although in another
key, recall, longo intervallo,
those of Corot. The Alsatian painter, M. Zuber,
shows a measure of his
usual mastery of subject
and material, of his usual
seriousness and reticence,
in " Les Chataigniers de
Mcuidaz" and
" Soiree
Orageuse." A plein air,
bold and successful in the
sustained lightness of its
tonality, is " En Octobre—
Bords de Seine," by M.
Mario Carl-Eosa. M.Nbzal's
landscapes are marked by
his usual breadth and vigour
of handling, but they are
much marred by the peculiarly greasy, sticky touch
which he continues to affect.
M. Camille Dufour, in " Le Palais des Papes a
Avignon" and "Antibes," proves once again that
if he can do but one thing, he can do that one
supremely well.
It is unnecessary to describe in detail the
meritorious productions of Mr. Stanhope-Forbes,
A.B.A., Mr. William Carter, Mr. Titcomb, Mr.
H. W. B. Davis, E.A., Mr. John Brett, A.E.A.,

CHAMPS ELYSEES.

329

and the other English artists represented, since
these have already been noticed when they
appeared at the Eoyal Academy. By Mr. E. P>
Fox, an Australian artist, is, however, a portrait-study of great excellence and charm, which
has not, unless I am much mistaken, been seen
in London; this is entitled " Portrait de ma
Cousine."
It is proposed to deal with the sculpture in
a separate article, which will also include that of
the Champ de Mars and our own Eoyal Academy.
The departments of architectural drawing, and of
engraving in all its branches, it is unfortunately
impossible to touch upon in so summary a notice
as is inevitably the present one. It would be a
crying injustice not to,call attention, all the same,
to the magnificent series of drawings by M.
Chedanne, illustrating, and completely analysing,
in its past and present state, the Pantheon of
Eome. This " Etude sur le Pantheon de Eome,
son etat actuel, sa restauration par Septime Severe

ST. FRANCIS OP ASSISI.
{From the Painting by T. Chartran.)

et Caracalla, en l'an 202," is the result of the
very elaborate investigations carried on in Eome
by this brilliant young architect during the last
two winters. It was a foregone conclusion that
it would obtain the M^daille d'Honneur, and this
has now been unanimously accorded to it; so that
it takes official rank above any painting or piece
of sculpture of the year.

HEW SCOTLAND YAED FROM THE SOUTH-WEST.

NEW SCOTLAND YABD.
By R E G I N A L D

I

T was a happy inspiration which moved the
Government to invite Mr. Shaw to design,the
new buildings at Scotland Yard. The nation has
not always had its money's value in its public
buildings. The House of Commons is considered
to be one of the worst ventilated rooms in the
kingdom, and the Houses of Parliament as a whole
are only partially redeemed from failure by Pugin's
genius for ornament. The absurd internal arrangements of the Foreign Office almost tempt one to
think that Scott was playing a huge practical joke
on the Minister who mauled his design. The Law
Courts are a conspicuous instance of design quite
unsuited to its purpose, and yet the late Mr. Street
was a very able man, and was instructed by a committee of legal experts. One might multiply
instances from the provinces to show that in the
manipulation of our public buildings we very
seldom go to work the right way. Either there is a
public competition and the good men will not go in,
or there is a limited competition and the assessor

BLOMFIELD.

makes a wrong award. Moreover, no architect of
genuine power of design is at his best in a competition ; the conditions of the case compel him
to think of matters which are quite irrelevant to
fine architecture, and there is the permanent difficulty of red tape.
At Scotland Yard, however, for once in a way,
none of these blunders were made. The able
draughtsmen of the police department prepared
plans showing approximately what was wanted.
Mr. Shaw was then invited to undertake the design
of the building, and, after the usual battledore and
shuttlecock of departmental routine, was allowed a
comparatively free hand. The result is the most
convenient and impressive public building erected in
London since the days of Somerset House.
The new Scotland Yard buildings were begun in
1886, and practically completed in 1890. Mr. Shaw
may have caught a hint from one of the great continental castle barracks of the seventeenth century;
but whatever the source of the motive, he has made

NEW

SCOTLAND

YAED.

331

interior. It is iron construction, however, of a
massiveness and solidity likely to be as permanent
as brick or stone, not the niggardly use of it which
may satisfy a scientific formula, but leaves no
margin to cover the risk of the unascertainable
treachery of iron itself. Mr. Shaw has clearly
thrown overboard the familiar fad of the Gothic
revivalists, that every scrap of the constructive
skeleton is to be shown in all its naked hideousness.
Whether or not the construction is to be shown is a
question primarily to be settled by purely artistic
considerations ; but there is a strong practical inducement not to leave constructive ironwork exposed in
that it is not fireproof, unless it is enclosed in
plaster or some other non-conducting material. So
again in regard to the chimneys. Instead of insignificant chimneys, all the flues of this building are
brought together into some eight great chimneystacks, of which the larger stacks measure nine feet
square and contain thirty-six flues. These chimneystacks are in some ways the most striking feature
of the whole building. In spite of their meanderings, every flue is said to draw, and the various
expedients necessary to bring the flues together
take their place in the design naturally and without
effort.

A

DOOKWAY,
{Drawn

SCOTLAND

by Reginald

YAED.

Blomfield.)

it completely his own by the originality
and masterful freedom of his treatment.
The building stands four-square to all the
winds, with a rectangular inner court
about seventy feet by fifty-seven; the
north and south facades are one hundred
and sixty feet long, the east and west one
hundred and twenty-eight feet. Thus the
general idea of the place is very simple,
and the same simplicity characterises the
internal arrangements; broad and well-lit
corridors without any breaks or abrupt
transitions give access to the various
rooms. Every inch of space from the
basement to the roof is brought into use,
and there is not a dark corner in the
building; but the difficulty of this work,
the skill and ingenuity required to reduce
to order and symmetry the multitudinous
requirements of a great police office, can
probably only be realised by a practical
architect. To reach this well-ordered
result, considerable constructive difficulties had to be met, and Mr. Shaw has
used iron construction largely in the

MANTELPIECE,
(Drawn

SCOTLAND

by Reginald

YAED.

Blomfield.)

332

THE MAGAZINE

The walls, both on the outside and on the side
to the court, are built of Dartmoor granite as far as
the third storey, worked by the Dartmoor convicts on
the whole extremely well. Indeed the workmanship
throughout is very good, and Mr. Grover, the contractor, and Mr. Eraut, the resident clerk of the works,

THE

STAIRCASE,

SCOTLAND

YARD.

have succeeded in carrying out one of the best-built
buildings in London. Above the granite the wall
continues in red brick, with Portland-stone dressings,
without break or moulding, till it reaches the great
cornice at a height of seventy feet above the ground
level outside. The total height from the basement
floor to the top of the chimney-stack is one hundred
and thirty-seven feet. Certain critics have objected
to the absence of any moulding to mark the transition
from the grey granite to the brickwork. I t has
been urged that at least a string-course should have
been built in to finish up the granite and let the
brickwork make a fresh start, that the plain wall

OE APT.

surface is bare and unattractive in its absence of
ornament. "We are reminded of the Commissioners
for the rebuilding of St. Paul's, who, as Wren said,
" like the ladies, thought nothing well without an
edging." This criticism misses the essential intention of the design. In a building intended for the
headquarters of a great police administration—that is, for a department
of the State which has to deal with
the harsher side of modern civilisation—it is surely unreasonable to
expect the elegance and futility of
a lady's boudoir. It is a commonplace of architectural criticism that
a building should express its purpose,
and to our mind the complex purpose
of Scotland Yard is very admirably
suggested in this design, at once
masculine and unaffected without any
loss of graciousness. It is evident
that the architect of set purpose aimed
at a certain precipitous quality in the
walls, at a sheer simplicity of surface,
and any continuous moulding or projection would have exactly destroyed
this quality and very much weakened
the impression of height. The strength
of the design, its extreme impressiveness in mass and outline, rest as much
as anything on its resolute avoidance
of any of the familiar recipes of conventional architecture.
There are here no string-courses,
or pilasters, or recessed wall surfaces,
or oversavings, or terra-cotta panels
turned out by the yard, or any of the
multifarious devices whereby the commercial architect seeks to conceal the
poverty of his imagination. Of all
modern buildings New Scotland Yard
is the least capable of being copied,
because it is the individual expression
of an original idea; and whatever the
copyist may do with tricks of manner, individuality
is beyond his grasp.
Above the cornice is a steep-pitched roof of
Westmoreland slates, with dormers, terminating on
the north and south in somewhat elaborate gables,
with broken pediments and obelisks—a bold semicircular-arched window lighting the store-rooms in
the roof. These pediments and obelisks have been
assailed with some assiduity. The broken pediments
are said to be illogical, because a pediment is supposed to be a form of roof, and therefore should be
closed in at the top; and an obelisk is said to be
out of place anywhere except on the ground. The

NEW

SCOTLAND YABD.

same critics would probably consider Sir Christopher
Wren a dishonest person for having carried up the
side walls of St. Paul's above the aisle-roof; and we
come here to a point of fundamental importance in
the criticism of architecture. I t is urged that no
architectural feature is tolerable that cannot give
a logical account of itself as based on some constructive necessity, and the architect is to keep
within the iron limits of this pedantic formula even

THE

CHIEF

COMMISSIONEE'S

architecture; they are neither good nor bad in
themselves, objectionable or unobjectionable. I t is
only when the architect comes behind them, when
he combines and separates them, that it is possible
to say that they are good or bad. No mere abstract
formula will meet the case. The question has to be
decided in each fresh instance on its own merits;
and if the result is beautiful, if it fulfils its purpose
by taking hold of the imagination, we are not to be

ROOM,

{Drawn by Reginald

if it cuts his range of expression in half. This is the
result of the fatal desire of the critic who is not also
an artist to reduce the arts to certain formulae which
admit of ready application, and lead to convenient
and easily intelligible classifications. Such a process
would make criticism a very much easier affair than
it is. I t would enable the critic to transmute his
personal likes and dislikes into scientific statements,
and the critic would at length be able to assume the
role, which he has always proposed for himself, of
the high priest and oracle of art. But his logic is
too narrow. There is a higher logic of architecture
than this. All these architectural features, obelisks,
pediments, whether complete or broken, finials,
cornices, dentils, modillions, and all the other details of ordinary architectural equipment, constitute
not architecture, but the words of the language of
899

333

SCOTLAND

YARD.

Blomfield.)

deterred by any pedantry of logic from saying that
the architect is a great artist, and has given us
something for which we are grateful.
Whether
seen in clear detail under the light of the morning
sun, or blocked out in silhouette against the golden
haze of the west, these gables entirely justify themselves as the fit termination of a very remarkable
design.
The details of the building throughout are
very simple. There is little or no carving; only
in the " Chief Commissioner's" room is there any
departure from the rigorous severity which prevails
throughout the rest of the design. This room
has a plain handsome mantelpiece of black and
white marble, and a very charming bay in the
south-east circular angle-turret, with an outlook
ranging from the clock-tower, past Somerset House

334

THE MAGAZINE

to St. Paul's, and the masts of the shipping in
the Pool. The main entrance is under an archway flanked by rusticated columns with a broken
pediment over. There is a slight deviation from
orthodox models in the projection of the cushion
frieze beyond the line of the column underneath.

THE

STAIRCASE,

This may or may not have been intended to lead
up to the massive granite pediment; it will probably
offend the purist, but it is not out of keeping
with the rugged strength of the whole composition
of this entrance. In a building so instinct with
individuality as New Scotland Yard one is not
called on to be over-nice in regard to unusual
methods of expression. A solecism which would
be intolerable in a design dependent for its justification on absolute orthodoxy becomes a vigorous
phrase in its use by a great artist; but we would
again remind the ingenious copyist of the fate
of the suitors who tried to draw Ulysses' bow.

OF AET.

It is not possible or necessary to attempt to
label Newr Scotland Yard as either Gothic or
Eenaissance. Mr. Shaw moves freely in his
armour, and makes his point this way or that
as best suits his purpose. In its general character,
however, this work is thoroughly English, not so

SCOTLAND

YARD.

much in particular detail as in its sobriety and
breadth of treatment, and in its entire reasonableness. Each part falls naturally into its place
without straining or affectation.
As in Wren's
best work, such as Hampton Court, one finds in
it an almost contemptuous indifference to violent
effect and lavish ornament, the result of that
conscious reserve of strength and cool reasonable
humour which makes the Englishman appear
insouciant and slow to more emotional persons.
It is in this spirit, and without regard to mere
imitation, that Mr. Shaw has resumed the great
English tradition of Inigo Jones and Wren.

335

PBIVATE PICTUEE COLLECTIONS IN GLASGOW AND WEST OF
SCOTLAND.
III.—THE COLLECTION OF MR. WILLIAM CONNAL, JUN.
BY

ROBERT

WALKER.

rTlHE collection formed by Mr. William Connal, general public. He was already known to the
-L jun., is one of special distinction. It stands by few who had eyes and understanding, as an exhibitor
itself, with a character all its own, and cannot at the Eoyal Water-Colour Society, and as a
be compared with any
very occasional exhibitor
other collection in Scotat the Dudley Gallery.
land, probably with no
His reputation, in adother collection in this
dition, as a designer and
country. This arises, not
decorative artist, a refrom the fact, as Mr.
putation won by many
Connal would himself
quiet busy years of
allow, that it contains
earnest toil, already stood
the greatest pictures in
high with all whose
the world, but because
opinion was of weight.
it is the direct outcome
That the " rascal many "
of the collector's own
took no count of him
personal tastes and symwas for the artist himpathies, which in art
self a burden easy to
run strongly in one
be borne. Born in Birdirection; and in that
mingham, which, fifty
one direction we have in
years ago (it is different
it examples that are unnow), was not the most
surpassed in excellence.
genial of nursing-mothers
Mr. Connal has not been
for young artists, he was
at all attracted by the
at first intended for the
merits of either the
Church, and studied at
Early English or the
Oxford. But the brush
later French and Dutch
was mightier for him in
schools. His admiration,
its attractions than the
however, for
Burnesurplice. He and his
Jones and Albert Moore
WILLIAM CONNAL, JUN.
fellow-student at Oxford,
is hearty and unreserved ;
William Morris, took
(From the Portrait by Albert Moore.)
it is a part of his nature,
sweet counsel together,
and fortunately he has been enabled by circum- and the result for the two young men was the
stances to allow this admiration to have free scope. foundation of a lifelong friendship, and for the world
His collection is dominated, coloured, by the work at large the creation of much noble art-work. Burneof these artists. The other chief pictures—some Jones became early a worshipper of Dante Bossetti.
of them very important—that form part of it, are For several years Rossetti's influence was strong
all in tone and keeping with the magnificent ex- upon him, and, both in the direction of his method
amples of the two masters.
of study and in the work he produced, not always
Mr. Connal was an intimate personal friend for the best. But Burne-Jones' strong individuality
of the late Albert Moore's; he is on similar asserted itself in the end. If he continued to be
pleasant terms with Sir Edward Burne-Jones. somewhat of an eclectic, finding hints and sugHe has thus been in the best of positions for gestions in many varied quarters, from the early
acquiring, at first hand, characteristic and repre- Italian masters' canvases as well as from the
sentative pictures by both painters. His collection pre-Baphaelitism of Bossetti and his friends, he
of Albert Moores is especially valuable and interest- " assimilated his information," and gave it forth
ing. I hope next month to give an account of it. to the world formed and coloured by the impress
In the year 1877, when the first exhibition and tone of his own nature. Most of us remember
of the Grosvenor Gallery took place, the work of the interest awakened by the Grosvenor Exhibition
Edward Burne-Jones came as a surprise to the of 1877; the wonderment it caused; the high-

336

THE MAGAZINE

strung admiration of some, the contemptuous verdict
of the multitude. Yet it may safely be said that
of the many who went away scoffing not a few
have come back to reverently admire. BurneJones, unmoved by either the scoffing or the

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admiration, has quietly kept on his own way.
He has survived the jibes of the smart critic;
more wonderful still, he has survived much unreasoning adulation, and has continued for years
to produce work that has more than fulfilled the
promise of his beginning. "The Six Days of
Creation," " The Beguiling of Merlin," " The Mirror
of Venus," showed the • world that a new painter
had appeared upon the scene, who, whether we
agreed with his methods and outlook or no, yet

OF ART.

commanded our respect for his knowledge, his
earnestness, and his high aims. Since 1877, if
Burne-Jones has lost something in richness of
colour, he has gained in precision of draughtsmanship and in his command over both his material
and his own powers. Last year, in the
exhibition of his collected works in the
New Gallery, we had splendid evidence
of his untiring power of work, of his
infinite capacity for taking pains, of
his patient study of nature, of his
grace in composition, of his lofty ideals,
and of his wonderful skill in embodying the spirit of a myth, and of
personifying the visions of the poets.
a
He is of the school of those who, as
Ruskin says, "seek to teach you the
spiritual truth of myths." In all
things Burne-Jones is sincere and true
to himself and his own aims. If the
beautiful maidens he puts upon canvas
are not " of the earth earthy," it is
because their abode is not on this
earth. They belong to the world of
dreams, where the poet's divine imaginations make the laws and impose the
conditions of existence. You cannot
judge Burne-Jones by the standard
you apply to Corot, nor Corot by the
standard you apply to Burne-Jones.
There is surely room for both. " W e
are all going to heaven, and Vandyck
is of the company."
It would be useless to write a mere
catalogue of the works of Burne-Jones;
"Laus Veneris," "The Annunciation,"
"The Golden Stairs," "The Wheel of
Fortune," " Cophetua," " The Briar
Rose," are enough to justify us in
ranking him as a great artist, as a
master, in fact, who, dwelling apart
from other men, has left his impress
on his time and for all time. For
himself, Burne-Jones has never put
forward any claim in words. He is a
silent man, and allows his pictures
to tell their own tale. If there is any moral in
them we must gather it for ourselves.
Mr. Connal possesses several important pictures
by Burne-Jones. There are two that seem to
me of special value—" The Sea Nymph " and " The
Wood Nymph "—both pretty well known to picture
lovers, by their having been exhibited in the
Grosvenor and the New Galleries. The two nymphs
are quite remote from everyday life—from either
the sea at Margate or the forest at Epping—and

HESITATION.
(From the Painting by G. H. Boughton, A.R.A.

Engraved by Madame Jacob Bazin.)

THE COLLECTION
yet they are absolutely true to the
poet-painter's conception of the existence each would
naturally live. We
never saw, mayhap,
waves in such forms
as we have them in
the " Sea Nymph,"
but did ever mermaid on canvas look
more joyous and
buoyant ? The effect
is obtained some way!
Look at the fish—
they squirm and
q u i v e r all o v e r !
"The Wood Nymph"
is also one with her
surroundings. She is
part of the greenery
about her—a Hamadryad such as Landor loved to rhyme
about. In " The Sea
Nymph" we have decorative lines,
effect of undulating liquid motion
in "The Wood Nymph" we have
shyness that seems in keeping

OF ME. WILLIAM

CONNAL, J U N

339

IDLENESS AND THE P1LGEIM OP LOVE.
(L'rom the Painting by Sir E. Burne-Jones,

subserving the
and lusty life ;
repose, and the
with woodland

THE HEART
{From the Painting by

Bart.)

lights and shadows and the mysterious depths of
forest glades.
" The Tower of Brass" was first exhibited in
the New Gallery Exhibition of 1888.
It is
altogether a beautiful
picture, whether we
look merely to its
general arrangement
or to its details. The
wistful expression in
Danae's face, as from
her secluded corner
she w a t c h e s t h e
building of the tower
that is to immure
her beauty
from
longing eyes ; the
graceful folds of her
red robe, the pose of
her figure, the action
of the workmen, the
finely painted blue
lilies in the foreground, all go to
make up a splendid
composition — with
soul in it—the soul
that shines through
the wondering, sorOP THE EOSE.
rowful eyes of the
Sir E. Burne-Jones, Bart.)

340

THE MAGAZINE

girl who has " to dree her weird," and has not yet
learned that the way to happiness lies through
suffering.
Two companion pictures by Burne-Jones, belonging to Mr. Connal, are of great distinction

AETEMIS.
{From the Painting by G. F. Watts, R.A.)

and importance — " Idleness and the Pilgrim of
Love," first exhibited by Mr. Connal, if I am not
mistaken, in the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts
about 1886, but since then repainted and much
altered; and "The Heart of the Eose," first exhibited, together with the picture of "Idleness," in
the New Gallery, 1893. These are illustrations of
incidents in the world-renowned fourteenth-century poem, the " Romance' of the Eose "—part of
which Chaucer translated into English and incorporated for ever into English literature. " Idleness " and " The Pilgrim " figure in the portion of
the romance with which Chaucer dealt. The lines
in the New Gallery catalogue which followed the
titles of both pictures were by William Morris.
The dignity in these pictures is worthy of all
praise; you see also that they are the direct
expression of the artist's feeling. The grace of
the drawing, the beauty of the colour, the careful

OF AET.

attention to detail—never, however, obtruded—
mark the master-hand. In subjects such as these
Burne-Jones is an accomplished interpreter of
Chaucer. I do not think he would be so much
at home with the Miller or the Wife of Bath.
The large water-colour of the " Bath
of Venus," by Burne-Jones, is perhaps
one of the finest nude pictures that any
artist of late times has produced. The
graceful lines of the figure, the absolute
purity of the whole conception—naked
and unashamed—the chastened colour,
show the work of an artist-hand inspired by a simple love of beauty.
We all know the " Wheel of Fortune."
Mr. Connal has a magnificent watercolour drawing of part of the big picture
—robust and splendid in colour.
In
many respects this is one of the strongest
things in the collection.
Mr. Connal possesses two beautiful
examples of G. H. Boughton, A.E.A.—
"Hesitation" and "The Song Ended."
In "Hesitation" we have a graceful girl,
muffled up against winter's rigours and
with skates in her hand, looking at the
surface of a frozen pond, as if doubtful
whether the ice be strong enough to
bear her fresh young beauty. In " The
Song Ended" (see the frontispiece)
there is in the costume delightful tones
and variations of red. The girl looks
with tender sympathetic eyes on a dead
robin which she holds in her warm hand,
and which she has probably picked up
from among the snow-wreaths that surround her. There is pathos here of a
most natural unforced kind. Both pictures are
dainty, and redeemed from commonplace by a
genuine touch of poetry. Subject, well chosen, is
after all something in the hand of a master who
knows how to deal with it.
The "Antigone," by Bobert Herdman, E.S.A.,
is one of the strongest works painted by this
artist, who had a keen sense of beauty both of
colour and form, but did not always throw pith
and " devilment" enough into his work.
His
delicate touch was shown to great advantage in
his water-colours. Antigone is stately and impressive, and the colour of the red robe comes
with telling effect.
" Artemis," " huntress, chaste and fair," and
"Orpheus and Eurydice," by G. F. Watts, E.A., are
full— especially the latter-—of this great artist's
imaginative power. Here we have no striving after
garish colour, but we have a poet-painter, thoroughly

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Collection

ENDED.

of William, CorvnahJSsq.KJriF/

THE COLLECTION

OF ME. WILLIAM

in sympathy with his subject, placing before us
the actors in the myths of bygone days. These
old-world stories have a lesson for us yet, if we

CONNAL, JUN.

341

Dance," by Eobert Blum, of New York, a spirited
group of figures, piping and dancing; a delightful
symphony in " silver and grey," by Whistler; a
" Study of a Head of Christ," by Munkacsy;
" Grey Stirling," a well-toned landscape, by A. K.
Brown, A.B.S.A.; a " Crucifixion," by Monticelli;
a delicate seascape, " Yachts," by Sir Francis
Powell, P.E.S.W.; and one or two good examples
of Madox Brown, Poynter, Philip Burne-Jones,
Miss Pickering, and Stanhope. Old Masters are
represented, too, such as Cranach, and various
disciples of the Flemish and German schools;
but, as I have already said, the colour is giveii

THE BATH OP VENUS.
{From the Painting by Sir E. Burne-Jones,

Bart.)

had only ears to hear. What living man has
done more to interpret their lessons and woo
our attention to them than Watts ?
Dante Gabriel Eossetti confessed to his brother
that he always felt himself to be more of a poet
than a painter. He was right. " Jenny " is worth
all the canvases he ever painted, noble and highintentioned and well thought-out as many of
these are. Mr. Connal's most important example
of Eossetti is " Mnemosyne," massive, heavy-haired,
rather ponderous.
Mr. Connal's collection is a large one, and I
cannot even mention every picture it contains.
Among some of the more notable are "The
900

ANTIGONE.
{From the Painting by R. Herdman,

R.S.A.)

to the collection by the works of Burne-Jones
and Albert Moore, and of those who have worked
in a like spirit.

342

HOW AND WHAT TO READ: ADDRESSED TO ART-STUDENTS.—I.
B Y J. E. HODGSON, R.A.

|E have heard of a certain
Magliabecchi, librarian
to some Grand Duke of
Tuscany, who could not
only quote any passage
from any book you
liked to mention, but
could call up a sort of
vision of its printed
characters before his
mind's eye, and tell you
whether it was at the
top, or the middle, or
the bottom of a page, and whether the page was to
the right or to the left. If there was any connection
between knowledge and usefulness, this Magliabecchi,
this monster of erudition, ought to have been a
great benefactor to mankind; as it is he was only a
curiosity, and we remember him as a sort of bogey,
a creature made up of parchment and printer's
ink, who lived inside a labyrinth composed of all the
sentences ever written or printed since the world
began. This writer himself knew, in days gone by,
a very worthy man who had trunks stuffed full of
notebooks and references made by himself in the
course of prodigious reading, and which would have
supplied materials for a history of the world, but
who was never heard to make an original remark, or
one particularly worth listening to.
Clearly it is not the multitude of books a man has
devoured which makes him " a full man ; " in fact, I
have come to the conclusion that reading is of no
use whatever without a certain habit; it is not
method, because it operates unconsciously—a trick
of the mind, which sifts the matter taken in at once
and distributes it into the pigeon-holes of the brain.
It proceeds with the utterest disregard of the
author's meaning and intention, it wrenches postulate from predicate, fact from conclusion. The
author's reasoning may be just and profound, but
it does not interest me; yet the fact is curious,
and I put it away amongst other curious facts I
have collected. The conclusion is conveyed in a neat
epigrammatical sentence; I stow that away in the
pigeon-hole for style.
In fact, profitable reading, as it appears to me,
is not an accumulation of knowledge en bloc, book
piled upon book like a pyramid; it is rather a process which reduces books to a state of solution, and
re-deposits the sediment, forming a sort of alluvium,
where all the good, interesting things one has ever

read are mixed up, while all that appears useless or
uninteresting has been allowed to float away into
the ocean of oblivion.
Matthew Arnold somewhere (probably in the
preface to his edition of the " Lives of the Poets," but
I have not the book by me) alludes to certain foci
in our minds—rallying-points on which knowledge
leans, and which hold it together. These he calls
pointes de repdre, borrowing a French term connected
with building. By mere chance I have borrowed a
metaphor from the science of geology, and the same
science suggests another, which illustrates the fact
alluded to by Mr. Arnold.
The chalk cliffs of Albion are composed of
minute particles of lime deposited by water. They
are seamed by beds of flints. In the core of each flint
can be traced the remains of a defunct antediluvian
sponge. Sponges contain silex, and in the course of
ages have gathered to themselves all the silicious
particles in their neighbourhood, and formed nodules
of silex or flints—bundles of fortuitous atoms
drawn together by affinity. A precisely analogous
process goes on in the structure of the human mind.
All we learn from experience or from the study of
books is, in the first place, fluid matter, which gradually settles down, and then, by the laws of affinity,
facts and ideas gather together in clusters and form
nodules. One of the most active as well as the most
subtle of our faculties, that of association of ideas, is
at work unceasingly, binding these nodules together,
arranging and distributing facts and ideas in a
sort of unconscious classification; and idiotcy and
insanity may possibly be caused by the absence or
loss of that binding power. The cohesive element
destroyed, facts and impressions are jumbled together in confusion. Connected with this intuitive
classification there is also a seeing faculty; it exists
in a greater or less degree, but is, I suppose, never
absent entirely.
Bidder explained his extraordinary calculating
feats by what he called a power of mental registration : he saw the figures before him. And the equally
astounding exhibition of a blindfolded player working with four or five separate antagonists at the
game of chess, is explained in the same wTay—he
sees the boards in his mind's eye.
The process by which facts and ideas are grouped
together into nodular accretions seems to act quite
capriciously, and the nucleus is often as insignificant
as it is unexpected. There is, for instance, no apparent connection between a difficulty and Alexander

HOW AND WHAT TO BEAD.
the Great; and yet to me the word suggests that
name. There is an old English word, " dulcarnon,"
supposed to be still in use in some districts, It
occurs in the following passage from Chaucer's
" Troilus and Cresseid," iii.:—
" I am, till God me better minde send,
At dulcarnon, right at my wittes end.

It means a difficulty; to be in dulcarnon is to be
nonplussed, and this is its origin: Alexander the
Great was represented on some Greek coins with
two horns: those coins were known to the Arabs
by the name. of zulkarnein, two horned (from
(zoodj, a pair; and karn, in the dual, a horn).
They also gave the name to the 47th proposition of
Euclid, from its similarity of form. The light of
Euclid, like that of several other things, was shed
over benighted Europe by Arabs, and the tough
solution of the 47th proposition made zulkarnein an
equivalent for a nonplus. Here is a strange instance
of nodular accretion.
He who remembers the facts will find a whole
host of ideas and associations, apparently having no
connection with each other, clinging round the word
" difficulty." He will think of Euclid, and with him,
of his miseries as a fourth-form boy, which will incidentally connect him with the science of botany
through the medium of the birch twig; then of
the Arabs, of the Moslem invasion, and with it will
come a host of picturesque associations—the scenery
of Spain, the Alhambra, the Mosque of Cordova, will
pass before his mind's eye; he will catch a glimpse
of the embalmed body of Eodrigo Diaz de Bivar,
the Cid, seated, with his sword Tizona on his knee;
then will come the great Arab doctors, the pioneers
of science. Averrhoes will be a new point of departure, and he will glance at early Florentine art, at
the quaint cloisters of Pisa; he will think of Dante
and Petrarch, of the primitive ages, when the name
of Averrhoes was a bugbear. Next he will think of
the beautiful coinage of Greece, of Alexander, of the
Hydaspes, the Oxus, and the Indus—regions teeming
with romantic history; and these will be connected
in his mind by a mysterious link with Geoffrey
Chaucer and John of Gaunt, with Shakespeare, with
the city of Canterbury and Stothard's print of the
pilgrims; specially, at least in this writer's case, his
thoughts will revert to the deserts of Central Asia,
to Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, to Venice, and to
Marco Polo. " And why Marco Polo ?" the reader
may ask. Because it was in a note to Colonel Yule's
edition of Marco Polo's " Travels " that he read the
definition and history of the word " dulcarnon."
Here we have a vast number of subjects, numismatics, history, poetry, biography, mathematics,
geography, philology, anthropology, and any number

343

of other " ologies," connected by a mysterious tie of
association with a single word.
This process is going on incessantly in our minds,
and, in the humble opinion of this writer, the true
art of reading consists in facilitating and furthering
this process; in so reading that facts acquired shall
work in with those already there, that idea shall be
linked to idea, and the whole systematised and
grouped, so as to be made readily available.
These considerations apply to general reading, a
subject as wide as the confines of human thought,
whose extent can be inferred in a vague way by
remembering that there are some 2,000 bookshelves,
filled with books, open to the public round the
reading-room of the British Museum; and they do
not represent a twentieth part of what the building
contains : a subject so vast can obviously by no hocus
pocus, be conjured into the limited space of a magazine article or series of articles, and it is assuredly
not

the intention of THE MAGAZINE OF ART to

wander so far out of its prescribed path.
Beading, as bearing on the study of art, narrows
the field considerably no doubt; but new difficulties
arise; we have escaped from the vaguenes of the
infinite to find ourselves hemmed in by the restrictions of the special and peculiar. Draw in the
limits as we may, there is a suggestiveness in the
subject which opens paths into the great world of
books outside. When we speak of the study of art,
we may mean a variety of things.
We may propose to study the monuments of art
that exist in different countries, or we may propose
to study the source of artistic inspiration; and,
again, we may propose to study its influence and the
part it plays in civilisation; and for each of these
points of view we may find exponents. There are
authorities who explain the masterpieces, others who
urge us to go and do likewise, and others, again, who
point out what the effect on the world of such things
was and always will be.
Every department of human knowledge tends to
describe a circle, and to conform to the wide orb of
universe outside it; as much as we see before us, so
much is there also behind us, and art, though its importance and the influence it has had on the progress
of humanity may possibly have been exaggerated
(the present writer, who aspires to be a humble student of history and literature, as well as an artist,
would rather burn pens and paper than assert that
such has been the case, ex cathedra of THE MAGAZINE OF ART), yet, circumscribing it as the reader
chooses, it occupies a vast field, it touches human
nature all round; it has its moral, its intellectual,
its social, its industrial, and its educational bearings.
It clasps hands on the one side with science—with
the consideration of certainties; on the other, it

344

THE MAGAZINE

spreads its open palms into the infinite, into the
nebulous region which no philosophy has ever penetrated—into the region of unformed boundless hope,
and glorious anticipations.
All the monuments of art yet discovered, the
product of nations which could not possibly have
had any intercourse with each other, have a certain
family resemblance, and yet it is never precisely the
same during two generations. It is a thing that
always has been ; as surely as individuals have congregated and generated, so surely has art in some
shape sprung up among them, if it is only in the
rude shape presented by the sculptures of Easter
Island; and always and in every place it seems to
have suggested something mysterious and alien to
the ordinary scenes of human life. It is a subject
so full of interest that we are grateful to the author
who gives us a bare exposition of it, a full explanation we cannot expect, as much of the world's art
must remain unintelligible. We cannot now decipher the meaning of the sculptures of Yucatan or
Cambodia, or of the ISTew Zealanders, we can only
feel certain that they represent some supersensuous
ideas, that in the imagination of those people human
life was invested with some sort of solemnity, that it
was enacted in a vast temple, from whose walls and
ceilings the dim forms of some mysterious and
irresistible forces were supposed to look sternly down
upon the shuddering crowds below. What nightmare visions haunted them we cannot tell, but their
art was, no doubt, an attempt to embody them. Its
study is of no practical utility to the student,, as it
has only a speculative interest; but the case is different when we consider the monuments of Egypt,,
of Assyria, and Greece. Here we discern how the
modern theory of art, the only consistent and intelligible one to us, was gradually formulated and perfected. We perceive how the multiplicity of natural
phenomena ceased to perplex these ancient peoples,
how the sublime idea of unity brought order and
clearness into their conceptions. The veil is lifted
and art is seen to be what it really is: man's tribute of imitation to the Almighty Artificer of the
universe, and an acknowledgment of the completeness and perfection of universal order and design.
In late days, very late days when compared with
all time, and since the advent of Gerard Dow4sm,
art has become mainly literal, and no longer symbolical ; but for all that the student is bound to make
himself acquainted with the early history of a r t ;
there is no heat or force in literalism to develop the
artistic temperament: that has been perfected, not
by straining after the obvious, but the impossible; it
has been generated in the vain struggle to attain
perfection, and requires a more powerful stimulus
than is given by the every-day and the familiar; so

OF AET.

that the student who loses himself in the contemplation of past times, and of a condition of things
which appears to him so entirely favourable to art,
is in a better case and more likely to develop his
imaginative powers than he who only studies the art
of his day. In this matter Messrs. Perrot and
Chipiez may be recommended as reliable guides.
But the young reader must bear in mind that
art is a thing of profound import, that it touches
human nature all round, and expresses a wide cycle
of ideas and impressions, and that consequently there
is no special branch of reading exclusively adapted
to it. Everything which goes to make a man, which
tends to give breadth to his understanding and
dignity to his character, tends also to improve him
as an artist, so that he who should prescribe the
course of reading best suited to him would find
himself constrained to point to the example of such
a man as Sir William Hamilton. Some studies are,
however, more stimulating than others, and in this
quality I think biography is supreme; human nature
is so completely the same in all ages that, in reading
the lives of artists of bygone times, we forget the
lapse of years, the past is merged in the present, and
the present is imbued with the past. Costumes disappear, the pallium and the toga, the hood and the
gown, the ruff and the doublet, the bobwig and
cocked-hat, all vanish away, and we see only the
man who, without his frippery, is much like ourselves, only an inch or two taller: we profit by his
example, and we learn prudence by his mistakes.
The lives of great men are very imposing; as a
popular poet puts it, they have left " footprints on the
sands of time;" but it is no detraction to their merit,
and an encouragement to us, to find that they did
not plump down from the skies upon the yielding
sand, that they had many weary trudges and purposeless wanderings before they got there.
Theory and criticism are also important studies
to the artist; but here the young student must be
cautious.. A theorist without a crotchet and a critic
without a bias are as rare as black swans were once
supposed to be, and it is time enough for sectarianism when we get older. There is nothing more
distressing to a young enthusiast than to have
unpalatable doctrines propounded to him by a
learned and philosophical critic ; he feels he cannot
gainsay his conclusions, and he has not learnt to
dispute his premises. It is bewildering to a young
student to be told by a serious writer like Kio that
the Italian Eenaissance was not a progress, but the
reverse, that it was a relapse into paganism and
materialism. He is only anxious to know what is
good art and what is bad; and when another serious
writer tells him that it was not Michelangelo or
Eaffaelle who produced the best art, but a most

GBEEK

VASE

holy monk of Fiesole, he does not quite know what
to think or what to be a t : in which condition I
would humbly advise him to drop his book and to
go to the National Gallery.
Books abound, as a venerable female relative of
this writer's used to remark, " they are as thick as
thieves in Vallambrosa." In the library of the Eoyal
Academy there are upwards of five thousand volumes
of various character, all of them, from the " Hypnerotomachia" of Poliphile, to Dibclin's " Decameron
of Bibliography/' bearing more or less directly upon
art, and all written with the best intentions to
interest and instruct, though perhaps not meeting
with equal success in attaining those objects. I do
not profess to be a guide through such a maze, and,
indeed, none is necessary, as I shall explain in the
next paper. The surest guides to learning are
interest and curiosity, which are resources within
ourselves, independent of extraneous aid.
Let the reader only bear in mind that ingenious
distinction, first drawn by De Quincey, between the
literature of knowledge and the literature of power.
When we read to acquire facts, almost any book
will do, that is if the author has taken pains to
collect them; it matters not how awkwardly those
facts are strung together, not even if there is little
connection between them, the reader himself will
supply the rallying-points. In this matter the
reader can suit his own taste, as books are not
wanting. I myself do not mind a dry book: dryness

PAINTINGS.

passes; but when an author, having no style of his
own, must perforce affect one because he is writing—
must use another language and other words than he
would use if speaking, and that only for the purpose of imparting facts, then I refuse to read him,
and look for another more to my taste.
But when we come to the literature of power we
have to do with a very different category. No one
can mistake it. The essential difference there is
between the writings of Dr. Doran and Thomas
Carlyle is felt intuitively by everyone, and with the
literature of power we may not choose and discard
at will, lest our choice condemn us; we must live
up to it, as Eeynolds did up to Eaffaelle's frescoes.
The author who is able to launch the winged word,
which falls like seed upon the mind, may not always
find the soil prepared for him; and if an author of this
class does not appeal to us, we must put the book
down, and return to him later on—perhaps again and
again, until such time as we are ready for him, and
then the sentence which carried no definite meaning
will suddenly be found to assume the importance of a
revelation, which makes light what before was dark,
and puts order where all was confusion. Those
are the supreme moments in a reader's life, and a
serene joy, a temperate exultation, suffuse his mind,
and, as he lays down his book to reflect, he feels that
he has crossed another hill in the arduous road—that
thenceforth other beacons will guide him onwards,
and newer and keener interests will enliven his path.

GKEEK VASE PAINTINGS:
OTTEKY is about the
oldest of all industries,
xlTwlr
*^L
and the potter's-wheel
Sr
'^^Q \^J^**fll
SJ$?^H§
the oldest of mechaniafe 'itJ
cal appliances. The
r*> iH
i
fragile nature of the
iwrM sj?®p5p
work, and its consequent demand for careful tending, has appa[Bfi^!er^S^-»S£S^j^tevtoTJI
rently contributed to
its preservation, so
that, paradoxical as it may seem, the pottery of
most ancient peoples has found its way into
the hands of us moderns, and to-day one of the
most interesting subjects of study is this same
ancient pottery with its painted legendary histories.
The myths of ancient Greece, as recorded by
^Sftll&B

Hfl

EE

* " Greek Vase Paintings." A Selection of Examples. With
Preface, Introduction, and Description, by J. E. Harrison and
D. S. MacColl. (Fisher Unwin.)

345

A BEVIEW,*

the paintings on its vases, have formed the subjects of several articles by Miss Jane Harrison in
THE MAGAZINE OF AKT, whose readers have been
made familiar with the Greek painters' idea of
" The Judgment of Paris," "Ulysses and the Sirens,"
and other similar themes. This gifted writer on
classic art has just now given to the world a book
in which she has looked at this subject from
another point of view, and has dealt with the art
of making and of painting the pots which have
handed on to us the Greek ideal of the myths.
The book is, properly speaking, not a history
of Greek pottery painting. The large plates in it
represent the decorations of some of the best-known
pieces in European museums, and the text of the
work has reference to these particular specimens.
As the author says in her introductory note: " It
is an attempt to tell simply how vases were
made and painted, something of their shapes and
uses, the subjects with which they are decorated

THE MAGAZINE

346

OF AET.
The potter's difficulties and risks
were as great as or greater in
ancient days than now, and burning was the trying ordeal. According to one of their poets, " the
demons of Crackage and Splitage
and Wreckage" haunted the fiery
oven to ruin the artist's work wherever chance permitted.
For the most part the clay
used by the Greeks was a red one,
and on this in the early days
figures were painted in black, but
later on the figures were left red,
and the background painted black,
and, as is the case with all forms
of art, this pottery painting grew
less simple with time, and the
artists added other colours, not
always to the improvement of the
ware. Into the methods of the different potters, and the various shapes
of their vases and their uses, of
the methods of the painting and
their inscription, the authors give
an interesting account, and the illustrations are large and clear. We
are glad to be able to give on a reduced scale specimens of the latter.

ODYSSEUS A N D

THE

SIEENS:

THEEE

(From a Vase in the British

LOVE

GODS,

Museum.)

and their inscriptions, the methods by
which we are able to date them.
Above all, it is an attempt to put together what is known as to the
methods and even mannerisms of the
several artists who made the selected
examples, what traditions they followed,
their influence on each other, and their
general attitude towards literature and
popular tradition."
And then the author gives the
most interesting story of how the
Greek vases were roughed out by
hand, and turned on the wheel and
stood to dry; of how they were then
painted and fired in the kiln or oven,
and an illustration is given of the
whole process, taken from a blackfigured vase in the Pinakothek at
Munich, in which is shown every
stage of the work—turning, drying,
painting, firing, until at length the pot
is in the hand of the connoisseur.

PEOCNE,

PHILOMELA,

AND

ITYS.

From a Cylix in the Louvre.)

{Poem by Norman Gale. Drawing by Rupert C. W. Bunny.

348

OUE GEAPHIO HUMOKISTS.
PHIL MAY.
B Y M. H. SP1ELMANN

D

WITH

ICKENS, said his great and generous rival, quietly
came and took his place modestly at the head
of English literature. And in such a manner into
the front rank of graphic
humorists there one day
stepped a youth—a young
provincial, unknown in the
Great City, little known
out of it, penniless, and
nearly friendless. His
talent was little known,
for very few had seen his
work; but those who had,
recognised in it at once
that unmistakable quality
of excellence which appeals not less to the public
than to the artist.
The story of Mr. Phil
May's life—there is not
much of it to tell, and in appearance at least he is still
little more than a youth
—is as simple and clearly
marked as one of his own
designs. He was born in
1864 at Leeds. His father
was not in good circumstances ; and when the
PHIL
child was twelve years old
(Drawn by
he was taken from school
and put in the way of earning his own living.
He had always loved to draw. Paper and pencil
were his greatest joy, and battle-scenes his favourite
subjects. It is true that these battle-scenes foreshadowed but little of future excellence in figuredrawing, for—granted all the suggestion of action
and " go "—they contained little else than smoke,
imposing in their great volumes of driving cloud,
with bayonets sticking out bravely in every direction. The boy loved all this circumstance of war,
and imagined not only figures, but whole regiments of them, behind the great rolling curtain;
yet it cannot be denied that the difficulties of the
figure, artistically speaking, were as yet unattacked.
So, observing the lad's devotion to art, his father
sent him, with curious inconsequence, to an architect's, to learn the art and mystery of scheming
plans and drawing elevations. It at once became
apparent that it was not by architecture that the
boy would build up his fortune and carve his way

S K E T C H E S BY P H I L

MAY.

to fame; and after a couple of weeks he turned
his back upon the office in despair, exchanging that
reposeful and highly respectable profession for one
far more Bohemian in its
character and customs.
He joined a company of
strolling players at a
salary of not less than
twelve shillings a week,
and at once took up a
unique position in the
company. He had, indeed,
newdy discovered a strange
facility for caricature, the
result of great power of
observation and penetration into character, combined with a keen sense
of humour and a rapidly
improving excellence with
the pencil. His duties
then consisted, secondarily,
of playing small parts,
such as pages and the
like, sometimes rising to
inform the principals that
their
carriages
waited
without.
But primarily
he had the making of
MAY.
caricatures of the chief
Himself.)
actors of the troupe for
display in the shop windows of the towns through
which they toured. The practice thus afforded
him was invaluable; and of hardly less assistance
was the encouragement shown to his budding art
by the applause of his companions. But the life
he led was a hard one, hard enough to be keenly
felt by the boy, who yet had never known what
luxury might be, and had enjoyed but little even
of the barest comfort. But for four years he persevered, travelling, drawing, and acting. In 1878 his
first public appearance in the press was made in
the now extinct Yorkshire Gossip; and when he was
sixteen years of age he returned to Leeds. Here
he left the stage behind him, as he had originally
left the architect's, and he devoted his energies to
such work as he was lucky enough to find to do.
And so far did he succeed in challenging recognition that that very autumn he was employed to
design the costumes for the great Leeds pantomime.
The same year—1882—Mr. May determined to

OUR GRAPHIC

HUMORISTS:

PHIL

MAY.

349

try his fortune in London town. He came pro- tastes as well) led him to lavish on the theatre, the
vided with an introduction to Mr. Bancroft's racecourse, and the prize-ring. He saw all there
manager, and he quickly proved his powers as a was to be seen, both in town and in the bush,
caricaturist by making coloured character-sketches and then set sail for Europe, stopping on his
of Mr. Bancroft and one or two other theatrical way home at Rome to study the Old Masters,
celebrities for a paper called
and practise oil-painting.
Society, together with a
In 1889 he came back to
couple of Christmas number
England to make drawings
cartoons that were crowded
for his old paper, the St.
with portraits. For these
Stephen's Review, of Colonel
caricatures he never was
North's famous ball (Colonel
paid, but they led to an
North being a proprietor of
introduction to the editor of
the paper); and then he
the St. Stephen's Review, for
pitched his tent in Paris,
which he began by contriwhither he went to study
buting a sketch of Mr. Toole;
art and life—not among the
and so rapidly did he espainters' studios, however,
tablish himself as a popular
nor within the shadow of
favourite in its pages that
the liicole des Beaux-Arts,
within a few weeks he was
but in the streets and public
commissioned to illustrate
places of that kaleidoscopic
throughout the Christinas
capital.
number of that journal,
On his return to town
which, under the title of
Mr. May made drawings for
" The Coming
Paradise,"
the Graphic, for Black and
attracted considerable attenWhite, the English Illustrated
tion. This work, varied with
Magazine, the
Illustrated
theatrical costume designing,
London Neius, and the Daily
and occasional drawings for
Graphic, as well as for those
the Penny Illustrated Paper,
inimitable " annuals " which,
continued for two years,
known by his name, have
when Mr. May was tempted
taken the town by storm.
to go to Australia to join
It was in 1892, while still
the staff of the Sydney
an occasional contributor to
Bulletin—a paper which its
the Sydney Bulletin, he proadmirers declared to be the
duced his " P a r s o n and
funniest paper in the world,
Painter" (republished from
a quarry of humour worked
the St. Stephen's Review),
by the comic papers of other
which created a veritable
countries in search of fun
furore.
Then followed a
If, t_'l_U
and originality. It was here
projected journey round the
that he threw off the tramworld via Chicago and San
mels of other artists by whose
Francisco ;
and notwithCHOOSING A CKTJCIFIX
influence he had allowed his
standing that that journey
genius to be guided, and, by
came to a premature close
force of circumstances to be recounted later on, when the latter city wTas reached, it was fruitful,
adopted that style of draughtsmanship of which in sketches, admirable as works of art as they are
he is now the accomplished master.
exquisite as studies of character. Mr. May now
It is, I believe, generally conceded that those divides his time between Paris and London, prowho are minded to " see life," lack neither subject ducing as much as he chooses for the Graphic
nor opportunity in Australia. Of both Mr. May and the Sketch, and rejoicing, too, at having retook full advantage. During 1885 and the three ceived his blue ribbon as comic draughtsman at
years that followed, circumstances threw him a the hands of Mr. Burnand of Punch.
good deal among " men about town," and to them
Such, in a few words, are the main facts of
he devoted as much attention, as much keen Mr. May's artistic life; but that his art may be
analytical study, as his duties (and perhaps his understood, it is necessary that something should
901

350

THE

MAGAZINE

be said on the subject of his artistic temperament.
If Mr. May has a fault—and he unquestionably
has—it is the excessive generosity of his character.
Generous in all things, he is generous
most in this, that
his admiration is at
all times ready to
gush forth on the
good points of any
good work
that
m a y come to his
notice, and his
praises are
loud
and unselfish to a
degree of magnanimity rarely exceeded even by that
most magnanimous
of all classes—the
class of artists. A n
example I call to
mind is when I
took him, on his last
r e t u r n to London,
into the National
Gallery to bring
him
before
the
great Fred W a l k e r
—' : The Harbour of
Refuge"— newly
acquired. H e gazed
at it speechless at
first, then smiling
and beaming with
cheeks and eyes, as
he recognised its
IN PAius.
splendid qualities;
and when at last
he consented to be drawn away, he muttered
" Scorcher!" under his breath, and would talk
of little else on the way home. J u s t as frankly
appreciative is he of the work of contemporaries,
even of so-called rivals.
And yet, with all his
admiration, he appears to have permitted himself
to be influenced by no artist whatever, save at
the beginning, while still a lad, by Mr. Linley
Sambourne. But even t h a t influence—assumed, no
doubt, by t h a t strong feeling for line, or instinct
for essentials, which distinguishes both artists—soon
wore off, and Mr. May now stands alone in his
own l i n e : a man of barely t h i r t y years, without
a master, yet with many disciples and more
imitators.
His power of selection is instinctive
and innate.
For all t h a t he left school when
most boys are still thinking of their games, his
taste in literature, as in art, is by nature refined

OF

ART.

and just, however much his choice of subject, for
the sake of his own drawings, may depart from
the life of the upper classes; and yet in this
refinement, this power of selection, even this
method of drawing which he invented for himself,
he is always wholly original and powerfully individual.
I have said that Phil May was, to some degree,
influenced by Mr. Linley Sambourne, and so, it
cannot be doubted, was he also guided by the example of Randolph Caldecott. For not only does
he seize the essential lines of a design somewhat
in the manner of the latter artist, but his method
of suggesting character and humorous expression
are in several respects similar to what we find
in t h e best of Caldecott's immortal " toy books."
B u t if Mr. May owes something to Sambourne
and Caldecott, it is certain t h a t — c o n t r a r y to what
has been written with some show of authority—he

AT K E W L Y N .

has been in no way moved by the example of
Vierge, for the unanswerable reason t h a t until
the recent exhibition of Vierge's work was held

OUR GRAPHIC

HUMORISTS:

in London, the young caricaturist had never seen
a single example of his pencil.
I say " caricaturist;" but in truth it is hardly
correct to call him so. There is, indeed, little of
that fierce quality of conception about his work,
little of that subject-matter which makes you think,
little of that sardonic appeal
x
to head and heart at once,
^L
which make up the sum of
j^v
true caricature. " Caricature,"
sa s
m'^Mk
y Carlyle, in his essay on
""":•.**
Burns, "is drollery, not huJBL_.
mour;" and Mr. May is,
Jm
* K
above all things, a humorist,
*^m
* jfc.
and neither a politician nor
w
a re
' "' " *3f
f ° r m e r J n o r even, if prol^f ' i
perly understood, a satirist.
His aim is to show men
and things as they are, seen
M
: |
through a curtain of fun and
raillery—not as they might
or ought to be. Yet the
essence of his work is truth, inexorable truth;
and his version of life is depicted to a grateful
public with the unerring pencil of a laughing philosopher. And, moreover, his greatest quality is
the astounding excellence of his draughtsmanship;
and such excellence, so far from being germane
to caricature, is not only unnecessary to it, but
sometimes even a hindrance.
Mr. May then, correctly speaking, is a humorist;
and not only a humorist in his choice of subject
and in his way of seeing things, but emphatically so
in the method he employs in setting them before
us. His drawing, his very lines, are often funny.
As you look in admiration, and sometimes in
amazement, at the consummate artistry of this
draughtsmanship, you become instinctively aware
how genuinely comic are the lines themselves.
You can often cover up the heads of his figures,
yet find plenty to laugh at in the mere realisation and drawing of their limbs and clothes,
the humour appearing not only in the twist of
an arm or the cut of a pair of trousers, but
in the very lines which compass them round
about.
And this is one of the secrets of Mr. May's art.
Two leading characteristics, it will readily be seen,
distinguish his work: the first, the extreme economy
of means by which his effects are produced; and
the second, the extraordinary quality of those
means—that is to say, of the lines he employs.
As regards the former, as I have already hinted,
he was originally driven to his present style
through force of circumstances. This consisted in
nothing more poetic than the badness, or unsuit-

PHIL

MAY.

351

ableness, of printing-machines. Mr. May had,
indeed, always placed due value on the importance of line as against light and shade—
seeking rather to suggest chiaroscuro than to express it. But it was the printing-machines of the
Sydney Bulletin that led him to suppress more and
more every line that was not absolutely necessary,
so that the drawings might be fairly well reproduced by a rotary printing press, which prints
and throws off' an issue, at the rate of heavenknows-how-many copies per hour, on paper little
adapted to fine-art purposes.
Pleased with the artistic result of a method
which at first was really devised as a self-protection
against indifferent fate and callous machine-minders,
Mr. May set about perfecting himself in a method
which promised so well both artistically and
practically; and he exercised himself with untiring
zeal and perseverance until he arrived, presumably, at expressing what he had to express in
the minimum of lines.

But it must not be supposed that these sketches
—so simply achieved and so free from effort—are
obtained with the ease they proclaim. It is the

352

THE MAGAZINE

attribute of all great art, this absence of effort in
the execution of it. Yet as a matter of fact the
" lightning " character of Mr. May's work is as
deceptive as Monsieur Kenouard's. Mr. May, in
spite of appearances, is a slow worker—slow and
desperately serious, for all the bubbling fun and

OF AKT.

And when it is done ? Well, then the artist
has before him a finished pencil drawing of considerable elaboration—a drawing laboriously worked
up from life studies, accurate in form, and light
and shade ; and constructed from studies of landscape
or city backgrounds and from figure studies, in chalk
and pencil, on paper
and in sketch-books
innumerable, as well
as in the great collection of black chalk on
brown paper, heightened with touches of
white, something of the
sort we have a score
of times admired from
Sir Frederic Leigh ton's
hand. Then it is that
^11,mi in i
the artist begins to
x ^
^ X . wmlVilliIII//
make his pen-drawing,
and to eliminate every
^e==^
u n n e c e s s a r y touch,
J^
^^^
^0^
every Hue that has
not its own mission to
serve, its own tale to
tell. In short, he pulls
down all the elaborate
scaffolding by the aid
""""Vs.*. Wk*/
°f which he has built
\
!/^»/ •
up his work, and the
drawing stands revealed—complete in its
simplicity and simple
in its completeness,
A S K E T C H I N T H E H O U S E , 1893.
giving no hint of the
labour that evolved it,
constant flow of wit and humour that render him and extorting from the casual observer the innocent
one of the joiliest and most amusing of companions. tribute, " Fine, isn't it ? Wonderfully good ! And
If he has to introduce into a drawing the portrait evidently, as you see, just knocked off in, five
of some particular person from whom he is unable minutes ! " Five minutes !
to obtain a sitting, he will watch his victim and
It is hard, I am aware, for one who has not
sketch him with the most deliberate care and seen the method of Mr. May's working, to realise
conscientiousness ; he will even " get him in bits " how much conscientious labour he lavishes upon
if it is necessary, and, not infrequently, when he his pictures of life and character. In subtlety the
returns to his studio the artist will find that he best of them are surpassed by few productions of
has the nose on one page of his note-book, the the present day, and may, indeed, be compared
eye on another, and the muscles about the mouth with the work of Charles Keene—especially in the
on a third; and to obtain a likeness, these must masterly ease and certainty in his studies, and the
all be pieced together. And then models are sense of beauty and of feeling revealed in records
procured—for there is little chic in Mr. May's of landscape and figure alike. A main characterphilosophy, for all the appearance of it—and the istic, of course, differentiates the younger and
whole composition is as carefully and accurately cruder master from the elder—his final devotion
worked out as if the design was for a great to line as opposed to "lining," and his willing
historical painting, instead of a sketch of just a sacrifice of effect obtainable by a less heroic method.
holiday crowd for the Daily Graphic or a " social
In this connection a peculiar practice of primary
cut " for Punch
importance must be mentioned. When Mr. May

A DISSEKTATION

ON" FOKEIGN

puts pen to paper and starts upon a line, he continues that line without lifting his hand until he
finds himself in danger of going ivrong. He thus
obtains a continuity of line which to him is of
infinite value—combining something of the dignified sweep which distinguished Cruikshank's earliest
etchings, and which is one of the chief beauties of
Mr. Sambonrne's work, with the unerring rightness
and instinctive perception which were specially
characteristic of Charles Keene's. This it is that
gives to Mr. May's portrait-drawings the appearance of facility which makes truth of likeness
all the more startling and amusing. Examine the
portrait of Mr. Gladstone on the opposite page,
a portrait-sketch taken in the House of Commons,
and afterwards redrawn in ink. There is here
little trace of caricature, yet it is hard to suppress
a smile at the life-like veracity of the sketch. It
is as serious as can be; as serious and as successful
as Mr. McClure Hamilton's famous painting; and
it may be said that fewer truer character-portraits
of the unsuspecting sitter have ever been produced.
The folded arms are suggested to perfection, not
expressed ; and the whole pose is as characteristic
of Mr. Gladstone, though perhaps a little too robust,
as it is admirable from the point of view of art.

A DISSEBTATION
B Y W. SHAW-SPARROW.

I

BELLS.

353

It is impossible not to recognise that we have
here an artist who, far as he has already gone, is
destined to go much farther still. Whether he
adheres to his summary method of execution or
modifies it in the direction of a greater appearance
of finish; whether circumstances will induce him
to divide his favours more evenly between upper
and lower classes; or whether, again, he continues to
devote himself more particularly to the humours
of the broader side of life-—he will find his
reputation more and more firmly established in
the very front rank of our comic draughtsmen.
But I, for one, believe he will far exceed this
point, and that, as Cruikshank did before him,
and Eobson on the stage, he will extend his field
and prove his power as much in tragedy as in
comedy; and that, if he is not led away, he will
vindicate his position as one of our undoubted
masters, whose rare good fortune it is (unlike
Charles Keene) to be accepted equally by artists,
who appreciate the beauty of his eclectic technique,
and by the great public, who, caring little for
artistic excellence, hail every new creation of
Phil May's with the applause and laughter that
are the sincerest tribute to the genuine humorist,
the artist, and man of the world.

ON F O E E I G N

BELLS.

ILLUSTRATED B Y F E R N A N D K H N O P F F .

HAVE somewhere
read of an eminent
French divine, an authority on all questions
relating to campanology,
who entertains a strong
opinion that all good
old church bells, hung
in a faultless set or
suite, are more or less
intimately associated with nearly all the arts.
And without doubt, if we reflect on this matter,
we shall meet with many observations to lead us
to the same opinion.
It may be said, for example, without any great
extravagance, that such good old bells are in
perfect touch with drawing, not only through
their grace of line, but also through the nice,
the minute balance of their huge proportions; and
in the next place we may observe, with the utmost
confidence, that their quaintly worded legends or
inscriptions, and the varied bas-reliefs of a fine
pictorial character, with which they are adorned,
bring them into near association with engraving.

I will make mention now of their alliance with
the arts mechanical, that was happily brought
about by the first successful inventors of intricate
bell machinery; while a knowledge of their most
careful tuning in concordance with the diatonic
scale, and a knowledge of the fact that they are
unisons to each other, ought surely to convince
any reasonable deaf person of their pleasing concord with music. Nor ought it ever to be forgotten, though it often has been, that the influence
of church bells on architecture is not less noteworthy, for to them indirectly we probably owe all
the venerable towers in the Christian world. Mind!
I say Christian world, for the minaretted mosque
appeared long before the high, the imposing bell
tower; and when it is remembered that Mohammedans were originally taught by their religion to
cherish a pious fear of bells, whose ringing sounds
were believed to distress the myriads of happy
spirits wandering unseen in space, it will be owned,
I feel sure, that the minaret was added to the
mosque, not for the sake of bells, but for the sake
of its own beauty.
Even in the seventh century, in the age of

354

THE MAGAZINE

Mohammed and of Caliph Abd-el-Malek, certain
Byzantine architects thought out, planned, and
brought to completion a famous minaretted mosque,
the Mosque of Damas; whereas the towers of our
Christian places of worship scarcely rose above the
roof until about the tenth century, being simply
intended, not for the harbouring of bells, but as
lanterns for the admission of light. Francis Grose,
an invaluable authority on all questions connected
with the antiquities of his country, expresses a
belief that an addition to the height of those
stunted towers " was in all likelihood suggested on
the more common use of bells;" and several French
authorities, too, having expressed the same belief,
observe that no high and massive belfries were
erected till the pristine custom of hanging bells
in little campaniles separated from the church had
begun to be more honoured in the breach than
the observance.
According to this, therefore, the first belfry
towers owed their origin entirely to a utilitarian
want, while the first minaret seems to have been
a happy, spontaneous expression of strong artistic
feeling.
The invention of bells is attributed by some of
the best foreign campanologists to the Egyptians,
who are credited with having made use of such
percussion instruments to announce the sacred fetes
of Osiris. In China they are said to have been
known nearly 3,000 years before the birth of Christ.
The Greeks and the Romans, it is said, never
used bells of a lame size. Yet the hour of bathing
and the opening of the market-places were advertised daily by ringing bells, and it appears to
me that small ones would scarcely have answered
the purpose. In the time of Thucydides, 400 B.C.,
the patrols who went the midnight rounds in
garrisons and camps had a hand-bell or codon, by
which the sentinels were kept wide awake in their
sentry-boxes. You may read, too, in Theocritus,
how the priests of Cybele, the delirious Corybantes
or Galli, always jingled bells during the wild celebrations of their festivities; and also that the priests
of the Cabiri did the same whilst performing their
obscene rites. Tydeus, one of the seven chiefs of
the army of Adrastus, put bells on the handle
of his shield; and Rhesus, a King of Thrace, and
a warrior of "difficult and ravaging hand," used
them to decorate the harness of his swift and
noted horses.
But to come nearer to our own times. According to Pliny, who died in the seventy-ninth
year of the Christian era, each of the pinnacles
ornamenting the monument of Porsena was circled
with bantling bells; and Juvenal, the last of the
Roman poets, ventures to discern a resemblance

OF ART.

between the chattering of women and the ceaseless
bickering of what the French call clochettes. Then
again is Lucian to be cited, from whom we learn
that the slaves were awakened every morning
by sound of bell, just as we were at school, and
that a a n instrument (Clepsydra) mechanically constructed with water, which rang a bell as the
water flowed to measure time."
St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola in Campania, A.D,
409-431, is said to have been the first to employ
these sonorous agents in the Christian church:
" hence nola and campana, the names of certain
bells." But these assertions will scarcely bear
investigation, being founded on the bad interpretation of a sentence written by Isidore of Seville.
At all events, church bells were extremely rare
two hundred and ten years after the date assigned
for their adoption by the clergy of the West, for
by merely ringing those of St. Stephen's Church,
at Sens, the proved troops, of Clotaire II. were
put to headlong flight, nor did they return another
day to vindicate the truth of the proverb. It has
also been maintained that Pope Sabinianus (604606) was the first to apply bells to churches; but
we have abundant proof that two or three were
heard in France as early as 550. In the seventh
century, says Anastasius the Bibliothecary, Pope
Stephen II. had three placed in a campanile built
on the basilic of St. Peter at Rome; and about
a hundred and fifty years later, in the time of
Charlemagne, the monk Tauchon was reckoned a
master in the almost sacred art of bell-founding,
and some metal songsters were credited with divine
intelligence. For example, the monk of St. Gall
speaks of a certain founder who had received
from Charlemagne a large quantity of good copper
and a hundredweight of pure silver, with which
materials the artist had promised to cast a bell
of exceeding beauty and sweetness of tone; but
the devil taking entire possession of his heart,
he used tin as of yore, and kept the silver for
himself. And upon an appointed day, when the
new bell had been safely lodged in a new campanile, a great crowd of distinguished persons
assembled to applaud its music; but lo! the
strongest arms tugging at the rope produced not
a sound so loud as the buzzing of one thrifty
bee, and when the enraged artist seized the rope,
and desperately added his own weight and nervous
strength, the heavy clapper, unfastened by divine
will, fell down upon his head and killed him.
Here let me relate three more legendary instances
of the bell's self-expression of religious fervour.
The well-known bell of the Villela is reputed
to have rung without human assistance whenever Spain was menaced with some misfortune.

A DISSERTATION" ON FOREIGN
It was thus that it made its funereal " voice"
heard to announce the death of Ferdinand the
Catholic, that too pious king who introduced the
inquisition into Spain. Since that day, however,
its prophetic faculty has never once asserted itself,
and now sturdy ringers find in the Yillela bell
a good excuse for tippling. One reads also how
St. Eloi cut off a church from the enjoyment of
religious privileges, and how the interdicted priest
tried to ignore the prohibition of his bishop, but
that the wise bell, more docile than he, steadily
refused to summon the congregation. Again, near
Rome, in the Alban Hills, there lies a quaint little
town, Gennazano by name. " There is an interesting shrine there," says one writer, "and a
wonderful image of the Virgin Mary. This image,
so the story runs, was originally sent direct from
Paradise to Scutari, in Albania. When the Turks
came to Scutari, the image took to itself wings
and flew to Gennazano. When it arrived, all the
bells of the town began ringing of their own accord,
and miraculous visions of holy angels were noticed
in the sky."
As we have seen, India and China had very
large bells long before the rest of the world.
Two Arabs who journeyed through China in the
ninth century have delivered down to us an
interesting account of the great popular justice
bells, then in use throughout the whole of that
country. In each town there was a bell of a
large size fixed to the wall above the head of
the Prince or Governor, and to it was attached a
rope a mile or so in length, and laid so temptingly
along the main thoroughfare that the humblest
sufferer from injustice seldom hesitated to tug at
it without fear. As soon as the bell sounded,'"the
Governor sent for the petitioner, and " serious
business, craving quick dispatch," met with instant
and honest recognition.
And even above the
head of the Emperor himself there was such a
noisy friend to the people, but he who rang it
without sufficient cause—and his Celestial Majesty
was often v difficult to please in this particular—
was switched in a very lively manner. As for
the celebrated quartette of monster bells at Nankin,
one is nearly twelve English feet high, with a
diameter of seven and a half, and a circumference
of twenty-three; its metal about the edges is seven
inches thick, its weight is computed at 50,000
pounds, and its shape, but for a bulging in the
middle, would be cylindrical. Father Le Compte
adds there are seven others in Pekin, cast in the
time of Joula, and' weighing 120,000 pounds each;
but being struck with wooden clappers their tone
is feeble.
Immanuel of Paris was the first large bourdon

BELLS.

355

cast in Europe. Given by Jean de Montaigu, in
1400, to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, and named
Jacqueline after the donor's wife, this noteworthy
bell started its evolutional life with a weight
of 15,000 pounds. The first evolutional change
happened in 1680, when the fair Jacqueline was
new cast and made much plumper by John
Thiebaut, and Florent de Lagay repeated the twofold operation a year later. The benediction, a
solemn and lengthy rite of a baptismal character,
which is reputed to have
been inaugurated in the
tenth century by Pope
John XIIL, took place on
the 29th day of April,
1682, and Jacqueline became " Emmanuel Louise
Therese." But in 1685 she
was broken once more into
bits, recast, and made even
more matronly in appearance.
She now stands
eight feet high, weighs
32,000 pounds, and no fault
can be found with her exploratory tone.
The history of George
\?bM ^'ffj*YfVM
Amboise, of R o u e n , is
equally eventful.
George
was named after the giver,
Cardinal d'Amboise, and
was cast on the 2nd of
August, 1501. Two months
later he was raised into
the famous Tour-de-Beurre,
, whose construction
was
paid for out of a sum of
money collected by a certain archbishop, who, one
year when oil was very
scarce in Lent, permitted
the inhabitants to use butter THE BELFRY OF GHENT.
on each paying sixpence
for the indulgence. When George was rung for
the first time—February 16th, 1502—it was found
that 36,364 pounds of metal had been employed
" pour former un son qu'on n'entendrait pas, si
Ton ne vous avertissait que la cloche sonne;"
but the founder, Jehan le Machon, was happily
beyond reach of the indignation called forth by
this expensive failure, having died of joy twentyseven days after the casting. George, despite his
defects, had a long life. I find he was cracked
when the ill-starred Louis XVI. visited Rouen in
the June of 1786. Once preparations were made
for a recasting, but the Revolution interfered, and

356

THE MAGAZINE

OF ART.

in 1793 the great bell was carried in fragments proved beyond all doubt in his " Verzamelde
to Eomilly and there made into cannon.
Prozaschriften."
Of Eoland's personal history
I conclude with a sketch-history of the great campanologists appear to know nothing. But I
think the following citocsin Eoland, the alarm
tation from a Flemish
bell of Ghent, respecting
historian of the sixwhich some good poets
teenth century, Marcus
have written like bad hisvan Vaernewyck by
torians, and some good
name (1518-1568), will
historians like bad poets.
put us in possession
But we must make exof some noteworthy
ception in the case of
facts:—
Motley, from whom I
" In the belfry hangs
take
the
following
a large bell, named
quotation :—" The well' Boelandt,' that weighs
known belfry, where
11,000 lbs. It was cast
for three centuries had
in 1343, and placed
perched the dragon sent
three years after as an
by the Emperor Baldalarm bell. Upon it one
win of Flanders from
reads the following inC o n s t a n t i n o p l e , and
scription :—
where swung the famous
Boland, whose iron
' Meester Jan van Roosbeke,
clock-meester.
tongue had called the
Ick heete Roelanclt:
citizens, generation after
Als men my slaet, dan is*t
generation, to arms,
brandt;
Als men my luyd, is't zegen
whether to win battles
of storm in Vlaenderland.
over foreign kings at
"On the 4th of Det h e head of t h e i r
cember, 1554, when Sir
cavalry, or to plunge
Gillis de Baenst was
the sword into each
chief magistrate of the
others' breasts, were all
city, the bell was raised
conspicuous in the city
into the new lantern
and celebrated in the
crowning the belfry.
land. Especially the
And under the same
great alarm bell was
magistrate on the 2nd
the object of the burof May, 1544, the great
ghers' affection, and,
copper dragon was regenerally, of the sovegilded and replaced. . .
reign's hatred; while
The people of Bruges
to all it seemed, as it
possessed this ancient
were, a living historical
monument during a cerp e r s o n a g e , endowed
tain period, and it fell
with the human powers
then into the hands of
and passions it had so
the Ghent burghers,
long directed and inwho put it above their
flamed."
communal tower." On
Now, in point of
the 29th of April, 1540,
fact, the copper dragon
when Charles the Fifth
which crowns the belfry
decided the fate of
of Ghent was not brought
Ghent, "the great bell
from Constantinople by
Eoland was condemned
the Flemings after the
THE HOUE.
and sentenced to imfourth crusade, as has
But history does not say
been believed till now on the faith of a pleasing mediate removal."
legend, but was made at Ghent at the close of the whether he was restored to power before the 4th
fourteenth century, as M. Julius Viiylsteke has of December, 1554.

ALPHONSE

DAUDET.

{Engraved by Franck Baudoin, after the Painting by M. Carriere. Exhibited at the Salon of the Champs Elysies.)

THE NEW TAPESTKY COUET, SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM.

L

AST Easter two of the courts in the South
Kensington Museum, which had been closed
for some little time for rearrangement, were reopened to the public. The two courts are those

THE

NEW

TAPESTRY

COUET,

which contained the textile fabrics, Flemish tapestries, and the plaster reproductions from the
antique. The casts were formerly in the large
court, whilst the tapestries were hung along the
wall of the long court, where also the textile
fabrics were arranged. The large court is now
devoted to the tapestries and specimens of old
furniture, whilst the casts from the antique are
being arranged in the long court. Space for the
stands and frames of textiles will be found elsewhere. This change has been effected in order to
give due prominence to the really fine collection
of tapestries, which could not be well seen before,
owing partly to defective lighting and partly to
the rows of stands which stood in front of them.
902

The large court has been divided into three
rooms by large partitions or screens to take some
of the hangings. On entering from the Architectural Court, the visitor will see in front of

SOUTH

KENSINGTON.

him on the west, wall one of three tapestries,
each representing one of the six Triumphs which
formed the subject of one of Petrarch's poems. To
the left, on the partition, is a recently acquired
tapestry with subjects of the Courts of Love,
Religion, and War. On the other side of the
central door leading into the second room is hung
a tapestry belonging to Mr. George Salting. On
the east wall is a very interesting but somewhat
worn example, the property of Sir Henry Austen
Layard. On the remaining wall is hung the very
choice tapestry of the Adoration of the Infant
Saviour, which was probably worked at Bruges or
Antwerp about 1510. It was doubtless made for
the domestic chapel of. some wealthy person. The

358

THE MAGAZINE

warp is of wool and the weft is also of wool,
with silk for the high lights; gold and silver
threads have been freely introduced. Next to it
is Mr. David M. Currie's hanging of the Eesurrection, also enriched with gold and silver thread.
In the second room, on the partition to the
left, is a small fragment from a large tapestry
which formed part of a set of the Seven Deadly
Sins; there is a perfect tapestry at Hampton
Court with the same subject. The figures are old,
but the landscape background is new. The next
tapestry—namely, the one on the east wall—came
from the Chateau of the Chevalier Bayard at
Grenoble, and is covered with figures representing
a scene from the siege of Troy. On either side
of the door leading into the third room are two
hangings workted with the story of Esther. The
west wall is filled with the great tapestry of the
Triumph of Death over Chastity and the remaining
partition has a hanging with the subject of Susanna
and the Elders, surrounded by a broad Gothic border.

OF AET.

The third and last room has in front on
entering a very large and wonderful piece of
needlework, executed by the nuns of Heningen in
Hanover, and dated 1516. On the right is one of
the choicest tapestries in the collection; it represents the Fates: the three sisters, Clotho, Lachesis,
and Atropos, clothed in beautiful garments, have
their attributes, and at their feet lies the dead
body of a lady, likewise richly clad. The ground
on which they stand is covered with flowers, and
by the side of the lady is placed a white lily with
broken stalk. The west wall has the third tapestry
of the Triumphs—namely, the Triumph of Chastity
over Love.
The arrangement of the plaster casts from the
antique is not quite finished, but when complete
they will be in historical order, beginning with
the Lion Gate of My cense, over the door of the
Science and Education Library, down to the
Grseco-Boman works of the period of the Eoman
Empire.

OUB ILLUSTRATED NOTE-BOOK

W

E reproduce in these pages Mr. Lorimer's already been recorded in our obituary column.
" Benedicite : Fete de Grand'mere," and Mr. On page xl of the " Chronicle of A r t " in this
Stanhope
Forbes's
number notice will be
" Forging the Anchor,"
found of the death of
which, as we stated in
Don Frederico Madrazo,
last month's " Chronicle
whose likeness appears
of Art," have been purhere.
chased by the French
The little group of
Government
for the
Honorary Retired AcaLuxembourg. We redemicians has been referred also to a third
duced to five by the
picture, " Before the
death of Mr. William
Setting Sun," by Mr.
Calder Marshall, the
Denovan Adam, E.S.A.,
sculptor. He was born
as having been inat Edinburgh in 1813,
cluded in the purchase.
and studied his art
This, however, we find
under Bailey and Chanis not the case. Mr.
trey, finishing his trainAdam was asked to sell
ing in Italy, whither he
the picture for the
went in 1836. He was
Luxembourg collection,
elected an Associate in
but as it was the pro1845, and a full member
perty of the Eoyal Scotof the Academy in 1852.
tish Academy — being
He was one of the comthe artist's
diploma
petitors for the Wellingpicture—he was unable
ton Monument for St.
to accede to the proPaul's, and gained a
posal.
prize for his designs, as
The death of M.
well as several awards
BENEDICITE : FETE DE GRAND MERE.
Charles Jacque
has
from the Art Union—
(By J. H. Lorimer. Purchased by the French Government.)

OUR ILLUSTRATED
his best known works in this direction being " The
Broken Pitcher" in 1842, and "The Dancing Girl

THE
(From

L A T E DOST F R E D E R I C O
MADRAZO.

a Photograph

by M. Uuarta,

Madrid.)

THE

LATE

(A Character

NOTE-BOOK.

359

been holding an interesting exhibition of fans in
Regent Street, at. which examples were shown of

CHARLES
Sketch

by E.

JACQUE.
Losvy.)

T H E L A T E W . C A L D E R MARSHALL, R.A.
(From a Photograph
by W. and D.
Newcastle-on-Tyne.)

Botaney,

Reposing." The " Peel" statue at Manchester is his every class of fan, from the ordinary Japanese paper
work, also the " Sir Robert Jenner " statue at Ken- one to the most ornate and expensive sort. We resington—originally placed in Trafalgar Square—and produce two characteristic examples of the latterone of silk gauze
the panels on the
with a lace border
walls of the Conbearing a copy
sistory Chapel at
of Cabanel's "La
St. Paul's, where
N a i s s a n c e de
the "Wellington
Venus," the work
Monument
reof Mr. F. Houghc e n t l y stood,
ton; the "sticks"
were executed by
consist of slips of
him. He ceased
carved motherexhibiting at the
of - pearl. This
Academy a few
artist was reyears ago, but it
sponsible
for
was only in 1892
many of
the
that he retired
h a n d -painted
from
active
designs, adapting
membership.
them in most
We
have
cases
from
pleasure in repaintings of this
producing
the
character,
and
portrait of Sir
producing results
Francis
Seywhich are charmmour-Haden, the,
ing and graceful
President of the
and entirely apRoyal Society of
propriate for fan
Painter - Etchers,
decoration. The
the most recent
same can hardly
recipient among
be said of the
our artists of the
reproductions of
honour of knightthe works of old
hood.
Dutch masters,
Messrs. Liberty
F O R G I N G T H E ANCHOR.
which lend themand Co. have
(By Stanhope Forbes, A.R.A.
Purchased by the French
Government.)

360

THE MAGAZINE

selves but ill to such a purpose. Our other illustration is made from a beautiful white duchesse

SIR F. SEYMOUR-HADEN, P.R.P.-E.

AND POINT - LACE

FAN.

(From Liberty and Co.'s Exhibition.)

(By Fra Angelica.

THE ANNUNCIATION.
Recently acquired by the National

HAND-PAINTED PAN.
(By F. Houghton.

AET.

He won the Prix de Eome in 1871, a first-class
medal in 1876, and the gold medal in 1889.

DUCHESSE

(From a Photo, by GuteJcunst, Philadelphia.)

and point - lace
fan mounted on
plain mother-ofpearl sticks.
M. Laurent
Honore
Marqueste has been
elected to fill the
chair of the late
Jules
Pierre
Cavelier at the
A c a d e m i c &"es
Beaux-Arts. M.
Marqueste was
born at Toulouse
in 1850, and
studied sculpture
under
Jouffray
and
Ealcmiere.

OF

From Liberty and Co.'s Exhibition.)

Among his public
works are a figure
of " A r c h i t e c ture " for the
pediment of the
Palace of the
Liberal Arts, and
at the New Sorbonne a statue
representing
" Geography."
" The Annunciation," by Fra
Angelico (1,406),
is one of the last
pictures bought
for the National
Collection by Sir
F. Burton.

L. H. MARQUESTE.
(From a Photo, by Albert Capelle, Paris.)

Albert Moore. pm:

T H E
Macrazine of A r t .

L O V E R S .

fJn i;Jie< Cjlls&cticn- of WhlHa^riy Gazna2'3£scf.

JnZ'j

361

PEIVATE PICTUBE COLLECTIONS IN GLASGOW AND WEST OF
SCOTLAND.
MR WILLIAM CONNAL'S COLLECTION OF WORKS BY ALBERT MOORE.
BY ROBERT WALKER.

AS I have already remarked, the collection of
-OL Mr. William Connal is especially rich in
examples of Albert Moore. Mr. Moore and Mr.
Connal \vTere *for years
on terms of intimate
friendship—a friendship
closed only by the artist's
death. Mr. Connal had,
therefore, the best opportunities of buying good
work direct from the
painter's studio, and of
these opportunities he
was not slow to avail
himself. I do not know
where the results of
Albert
Moore's riper
years can be seen and
studied to more advantage than in Mr. Connal's
collection.
I am much indebted
to Mr. Henry Moore,
R.A., our distinguished
sea painter, for some particulars of his brother's
career. Albert was born
at York on 4th September, 1841. His father
was William Moore, for
many years resident in
York, and his mother's
name was Sarah Collingham. Albert was the
fourteenth child and the
thirteenth son, there being one daughter. The
home atmosphere was,
fortunately, conducive to the development and
nursing of the boy's innate artistic proclivities.
In his endeavour to work out his own artistic
salvation he had to encounter no fanatical prejudices against the vanities of life. His father
and four of his brothers were students of art, and
in every possible way encouraged and aided him
in his first stumbling steps. Not often has a
youthful artist such kindly guides.
His genius was early shown. Friends still
living remember him at three years of age drawing,
from recollection, flowers that had caught his baby
903

fancy. Yet he was no poor little infant prodigy,
puffed up with a sense of his own achievements.
Once when a lady visitor had admired a drawing

MIDSUMMER.
(From the Painting by Albert Moore.)

by him of a Christmas rose, he went away declaring
" I will do a better next time." For ordinary school
education he attended the old school of St. Peter's
(founded in 1557), and, being an all-round clever
boy, he took several prizes. When not twelve
years of age, in May, 1853, he was awarded a South
Kensington medal for a drawing done at the York
School of Design. This medal is now in Mr.
Henry Moore's possession.
Some of his brothers had already gone to
London, and he followed them at Christmas, 1853.
For nearly three years he was a pupil at the

362

THE MAGAZINE

Kensington Grammar School, where he repeated
his prize-taking, and in May, 1858, he entered
the Eoyal Academy Schools. It has been said
by some knowing people, who "know everything,"
that young Moore did no work in the schools;
but this assertion rests on no foundation of truth.
His brother, Mr. Henry Moore, possesses drawings

OF AET.

the part of the young painter, and shows, too,
that he was, when it was produced, only growing
into a knowledge of his own powers and a command
of his resources. There is a stiffness in the
grouping which is conspicuously absent from all
his later work. It is juvenile in both its virtues
and its defects, and therefore full of promise.
The colour is tawny, without the
clearness of Moore's later flesh
tones; but it must be borne in
mind that the models were sunburnt Eoman figures, innocent of
all dainty pinks and whites.
The chronicle of Albert Moore's
later career in England is simply
the story of a painter, who, devoted
heart and soul to his art, kept his
affections centred in his studio, and
lived only to dream of, and to
create, new forms of beauty. Year
by year the record of his achievements was inscribed in the catalogues of the Academy, the Grosvenor,
and the New Galleries; and all
who loved the simple expression of
beauty upon canvas, and could
value the efforts of an artist—who
neither imitated nor had imitators
—to deliver the soul that was in
him, and to utter his own thoughts,
came to acknowledge the witchery
of his power in sweet colour, graceful line, and poetical suggestiveness.
The land in which his fancy dwelt,
and the women he imaged for us,
have little in common with the
hurly-burly of to-day and the
human beings we meet upon the
streets. It is a land of languorous delights and soft airs, where no
PALE MARGARET.
jarring note is ever struck, and the
(From the Painting by Albert Moore.)
shadow of death is quite unknown.
It is perhaps an impossible land; but, when we
done by him there, and signed " Charles Landseer"
—Landseer being then visitor in the Antique are "weighed upon with heaviness, and utterly
consumed with sharp distress," there may be, for
School.
a few among us at least, some power of healing
Our artist first exhibited in the Eoyal Academy
in 1857, when he was sixteen years of age. and distraction in the poet-painter's beautiful
The subject was a " Goldfinch." In 1859 he went imaginings. They preach no moral—and let us be
to Eome with his brother, the late J. Collingham thankful for it—but under any circumstances, and
Moore, and there, a year or two later, he painted at all times, they are pleasant and restful to the eye.
All Albert Moore's work is decorative. I write
"Elijah's Sacrifice," which was shown in the
the word " decorative" with great reluctance; in
Eoyal Academy in 1865. This picture, now the
these latter days it has been spoilt with " all
property of James Leathart, Esq., was included in
ignoble use," and stinks in the nostrils of every
the admirable collection of the artist's works exhonest critic. When a picture has in it neither
hibited last spring (1894) in the Grafton Galleries.
correct drawing nor good colour; when its most
It evidences considerable imaginative power on

MR
pronounced quality is its
banal and brainless, there
friends in abundance to
it is decorative !"
Once upon a time a

WHITE

WILLIAM

CONNAL'S

eccentricity ; when it is
are always good-natured
declare, "Well, at least
bad old Scotsman died,

COLLECTION.

363

the principal of which are, I think, a ceiling at
Shipley (1860), another at Cronleth, a wall-painting
at Coombe Abbey (1863), "The Last Supper" on
the east end of St. Alban's Church, Rochdale, and
on the side walls various subjects from the life
of Christ (1865), the Hall at Claremont (1867),
the proscenium, Queen's Theatre, Long Acre, and
the famous Peacock frieze, executed for Mr. F.
Lehrnann in 1872. Mr. Henry Moore informs
me that these are all in existence, and that he
has seen some of them comparatively recently.
Not long ago another of the " knowing" men
asserted in an American magazine that the Queen's
Theatre proscenium was the only work of the kind
which Albert Moore had ever done, and that as
it had been burnt, no proof of his power as a
decorative artist now remained ! This proscenium

HYDKANGEAS.

(By Albert

Moore.)

and, as is the custom, some acquaintances assembled
round the coffin to look at " the remains." The
man had been so bad, that no one there was
hypocrite enough to be able to utter one word
in praise of the dead. But custom demanded some
scrap of commendation, and one old greybeard
got out of the difficulty by asserting that " Onyway,
Tarn is a rale quiet corpse." So when a picture
is in every way bad, it seems the fashion now to
say, " Onyway, it's decorative!" The phrase does
not necessarily mean anything.
But there is decorative work and decorative
work, and Moore's is decorative in the true sense
of the word. His lines and his composition
have always grace in them and quiet dignity of
style. Apart from his general pictures, he has
executed some important special decorative pieces,

STUDY

FOR

(By Albert

"TOPAZ.
Moore.)

would have been at the Grafton Galleries, but
the canvas was too large and too tender from
the heat of the theatre gas, &c, to bear removal.
" The Loves of the Winds and the Seasons "—

364

THE MAGAZINE

the property of J. McCulloch, Esq., and exhibited
at the Grafton—wTas the last picture he painted.
Mr. Connal has his second last. He was very ill
before he finished " The Loves," and it was only
his determined will that enabled him to complete
the task to which he had resolutely set himself.

ROSE LEAVES.
(From the Painting by Albert Moore.)

He had had occasional attacks of illness before,
but he w7as not what could be called a delicate
man. From an internal malady he suffered much
towards the end, but he bore his burden with
patient and characteristic cheerfulness. He died
on 26th September, 1893.
Albert Moore was not a man who wore his
heart on his sleeve, and he took little or no
delight in society distractions and vanities. He
lived his own life, but to those with whom he

OF AET.

chose to be intimate he was a most delightful
and social companion, looking at the world and
its ways with his own eyes, forming his own judgments, and expressing them in a very happy and
original manner, quite unbiassed by convention.
A careful and conscientious painter, he paid the
most anxious attention to all
the details on the canvas. He
never painted " over ;" if what
he had done did not please him,
he removed the paint before it
was dry with bread — a loaf
always stood ready to his hand
—and began again. He took
pure delight in his work, and
his studies were innumerable.
The Grafton Gallery collection
contained many charming
examples of these preliminary
exercises. More than an hour
daily was spent by him in washing his brushes, of which he
used about two hundred.
Mr. Connal's first purchase
from Moore took place in 1877,
when he bought two studies for
" Topaz/' little pictures in which
the scheme of colour is delightful. "Eose Leaves" and "Yellow
Marguerites" come next in the
order of acquisition. These pictures are examples of Moore's
love of naming his pictures after
some comparatively trifling detail
in the composition. The colour
of both is very refined, but the
figure in the " Marguerites" is
by far the more graceful of the
two. In the studio Mr. Connal
saw a small preliminary study
for a picture to be called " Beading Aloud;" the result was a
commission for the large canvas,
one of the most important Mr.
Connal possesses. The completed
work varies in colour, although
not much in design, from the study, which is also
on Mr. Connal's walls. It was three years on hand,
and while it was in progress Mr. Moore took his
first severe illness. The scheme of colour is predominantly pink and exceedingly delicate. The
three figures are beautifully posed, especially the
one on the right. The curious owl-decorated jar
in the right corner was copied from an antique
at the British Museum. The place of the jar in
the picture was originally occupied by a cat. At

9

•*

2 2

MR

WILLIAM

CONNAL'S COLLECTION.

one time Moore, who was fond of animals, possessed
a perfect bevy of cats; of late years his pet was
a dachshund.
" Midsummer" is a striking picture, in many
respects one of the strongest Moore ever painted.
The reproduction on p. 361 cannot of course suggest
the colour of the original. Orange red, greys, and
greens are splendidly blended and contrasted. The
expressions, especially that of the centre figure,
are exceedingly beautiful, and the impression of
heat and drowsy summer days admirably conveyed.
The details on the chair and the background
claim our sincere admiration for the patient skill
they display. This picture was exhibited in the
Eoyal Academy, and it is understood that had it
not been purchased by Mr. Connal it would have
been acquired by the Chan trey Fund. "White
Hydrangeas," a nude figure at the door of a bath,
is charming in its simplicity and the sweetness of
the flesh-colour. It was this painting that some
malicious person damaged by scratching during
its exhibition in the Academy. It took Moore a
week's hard work to repair the mischief. It is
not in Glasgow only that " the nude" agitates
Mrs. Grundy and others into evil thoughts and
evil deeds.
Immediately after his first severe illness, Albert
Moore stayed for a month with Mr. Connal at
Solsgirth, in Perthshire, for the benefit of change

3G7

of air and scene. While there he painted Mr.
Connal's portrait, an excellent and characteristic
likeness reproduced in last month's MAGAZINE OF
ART. In " Pale Margaret" we have a beautiful
head, wTith hair crisply and deftly painted. The
composition, the tone, and the details of " The
Lovers," which is reproduced
photogravure
herewith, are all admirable. The flowers are both
tenderly and strongly painted—the red spike of the
tiger-lily telling well against the yellow draperies
in the background.
As I have already pointed out, Albert Moore
stands by himself. His work is the outcome of
his own individuality. His virtues and his defects
are personal, and his pictures sign themselves. He
was restricted in his aims. " The Land Beautiful,"
over which he wandered at his own sweet will,
was, in truth, no wide stietching continent, but
simply an enchanted island, cut off by fairy seas
from contact with the rough, rude world. There
he was sole monarch, and is not likely to have
a successor in his peculiar province. Such fairy
seas are perilous to rash adventurers, who know
not their secret soundings and mysterious tides.
If Albert Moore had a definite message for us at
all—and he himself would have been the last to
pretend to it—it is this—
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty; that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

AUTUMN.
(From the Painting by Albert Moore.)

DETAIL OP BOEDER.

THE WONDBE OF SIENA.
IN TWO PARTS.—PART I.
B Y L E W I S F . DAY.

ILLUSTRATED B Y T H E AUTHOR.

r P H E wonder of Siena is the pavement of its
JL cathedral—and no wonder.
In Italy the flooring of the churches is often
remarkable; inlaid marble is more or less the rule.
You find there not only ingenious and delightfully

GOTHIC FIGURE OP JUSTICE.

intricate geometric pattern work, but designs of
free and flowing arabesque, and even figure subjects of some importance. The extraordinary thing
about the pavement at Siena is, in the first place,
the extent and completeness of the scheme of
decoration, and, in the second, the point of elabora-

tion to which composition and figure draughtsmanship are there carried.
The period of its execution extends, roughly
speaking, from about the beginning of the fifteenth
century to the middle of the sixteenth; or, if we
take into account the perpetual restoration which has
been going on ever since, we
may say down to the present
day. The work is accordingly of various periods and
of various styles; the idea of
completing a monument in
the style in which it was
begun never having occurred
to the artists of the Eenaissance, revivalists though they
were, in a sense. The result
is at first rather bewildering.
It is not until one has puzzled
out the order in which the
work was done, that one
begins to see any method in
the apparently mad confusion
of severe and florid treatment ; and it is the purpose
of this paper to review the
work in that order, and so to
trace the art of the Siennese
inlayer from its somewhat
rude foundations to the perilous pinnacle of fame on
which the painter Beccafumi
set it.
" The oldest work," according to the guide book, "was
simply engraved on white and filled in with
black stucco; grey and other marble was then
introduced for shading, and eventually the graffito
developed into elaborate mosaic."
That is all wrong. There is in the whole
pavement only one bit of ornament in outline,

THE WONDER OF SIENA.
clearly not by any means the earliest
work, and used, it would appear, by
way of makeshift for the moment. Nor
is there, in the strict sense of the term,
any " mosaic " at all, except in the little
cluster of medallions with the badge of
Siena and its allied towns towards the
west end of the nave, seven of which
(as one may see in the Opera del Duomo)
were originally in tessera? and only one
inlay of the broader kind. (In the
modern restoration in the cathedral the
badges are all in mosaic, but of a kind
infinitely neater, more careful, and less
interesting than the original work.)
What little mosaic there is belongs to
the earliest work done; and perhaps the
eighth badge marks the new departure
in the direction of inlay. Anyway, the
earliest subjects are shown in silhouette,
white marble figures cut out against a
black marble ground, additional drawing
lines, such as the features of the face and
the folds of drapery, being incised in the
white marble and filled in with cement.
To this early
period belong
the "Wheel of Fortune"
at the east end of the
nave, restored out of all
knowing, and the seated
figures of Temperance,
Fortitude, Justice, Prudence, and Piety, around
the choir, which are in a
comparatively good state
of preservation. The severity of the drapery,
apart from the Gothic
cusping of the medallions
containing these emblematic figures, would indicate
that they belong to a period
not later than the very
beginning of the fifteenth
century; and they are ascribed, indeed, to a period
between 1380 and 1406.
They are treated with a
simplicity and breadth
which reminds one of
Gothic brasses. Temperance, which is said to be
the earliest in date, has
PAET OF A SUBJECT B E P B E been restored and looks
SENTING THE EMPEEOB
SIGISMUND ENTHBONED.
newer than the others.
904

THE

369

DEATH

OF

ABSALOM.

Fortitude is not very strong, but Justice and
Wisdom, which remain much what they always
were, are firmly and boldly drawn, and have a
certain nobility of design becoming the virtues.
The same firm drawing is seen again in the
medallion just in front of the altar steps, where
sits King David with his musicians about his
throne; in the figures of David the shepherd and
of Goliath flanking this medallion (1423); in the
figures of Joshua and Moses, and in the two
subjects on a line with these—the one depicting
Joshua and the corpses of the five kings he has
defeated, the other Samson with the ass's jawbone belaying the Philistines (1426). These designs
are still Gothic; and it must be confessed that
it is rather by reason of their naivete than of
any great skill in draughtsmanship or beauty of
design that they charm us.
Much the same may be said of the very droll
representation of Absalom hanging by his hair
from the fatal tree, whilst his horse escapes out
of the picture (1447); but in the interval of
twenty years the artist has learnt to aim more
distinctly at decorative effect: the armour of the
soldiers looking on is elaborately designed, and the
trees are conceived quite in the spirit of ornament.
In all these subjects the design is mainly in white
and pale grey, well defined against a dark ground.
In the last-mentioned subject, for example, the

370

THE MAGAZINE OF ART.

figures are all white, the foreground is red, the
sky black. A subject showing the Emperor Sigismund enthroned under a canopy of Renaissance
design is ascribed to the year 1434; but is distinctly
in advance of the work mentioned hitherto. It
is far superior, both in design and draughtsmanship, to the Absalom, said to be later. There is
no longer anything of grotesqueness, nor even of

THE SHIP OF FORTUNE.

line, and lack the definition of the earlier work.
This seems to have been recognised by the artists
who some ten years later schemed the two other
great subjects, right and left of the pavement
under the dome, in which are depicted the Massacre
of the Innocents (1481) and the story of Jephtha
(1483)—these mark a new departure.
Already it had been the custom to introduce

(ATTRIBUTED TO FINTURICCHIO.)

archaic stiffness, about the figures, which are simple,
severe, and dignified, and not in any sense Gothic.
This subject stands by itself, so far as style is
concerned.
The huge composition balancing the two lastmentioned subjects in the left transept, in which
is represented the Liberation of Bethulia (1473),
is fuller and more elaborate in design, but
scarcely better drawn. The technique is still the
same—that is to say, figures, landscape, and predominating architecture are, practically speaking,
all in white. The effect, however, is here less
satisfactory than before. The figures being for the
most part white against white, backed, that is to
say, by other white figures or by white architecture,
and not picked out against a ground of different
colour, appear, of course, to be drawn only in out-

here and there a bit of grey or yellow marble by
way of local colour or what not; but now for
the first time the design began to be looked upon
deliberately clS Bi colour scheme. This is very
noticeable in the first-mentioned of these subjects.
The upper half of the space is occupied by an
arcade of white marble, inlaid with ornament and
decorated with figures in red, yellow, and black,
supported on yellow columns, the shadow ,in the
groining of the arches being represented by shades
of red and grey. The background between the
arches is black, and against this the figures appear
mainly in white, but with enough of yellow, grey,
and black in the draperies, &c, to carry the
colour through—more especially as there is, towards
the lower part of the subject, a sort of dado of
red behind the figures, holding them, as it were,

THE WONDER

OF

SIENA.

371

together. This is a most satisfactory instance of return to a simpler and more archaic manner, as
inlay: it is more emphatically colour than what though the thought of economy had crept in at
went before or came after it. The manner of de- last; but they are not so rude but that the coarse
sign, too, is decorative. There are nowhere any bare chequers surrounding them seem, by comparison,
spaces; the drapery has folds
clumsy and out of scale.
enough and the armour detail
The subject in the centre
enough to be quite interesting;
aisle just facing the great
but there is no attempt at
entrance
door,
" Hermes
shading, and one feels that
Trimegistus" (1488), fills its
there is no occasion for it.
panel better, although still
It would not, perhaps, be
scarcely up to the level of
quite fair to say that there
the work in the transepts.
is any falling off in the comBut there is a subject nearer
panion subject (Jephtha);
the dome, " The Ship of Forbut there the landscape part
tune," attributed to Pintuof the background lends itself
ricchio (1506), which reaches
less distinctly to decorative
in some respects a higher
effect. There is in it, perpoint of achievement. This
haps, rather more indication
is a design full of ingenuity ;
of shading, but it is not much
touches of colour are intro—a few lines used with disduced just at the happy point
cretion to help the drawing,
where the composition reand no cross hatching; and
quired them, yet so as to
everywhere the lines of
seem always as if it was
cement tell for a good deal
only by accident that a big
in the design. The regard to
patch of black background
colour is shown in the choice
happened to be relieved by
of lighter or darker tints of
a man's red cap; that a
red and yellow, as the comblack headdress had a yellow
position required. To the
turban between it and the
same period and the same
white face; that white feet
style belongs the subject to
were
distinguished
from
the left of the dome, the
white ground by sandals of
Expulsion of Herod, which
red or yellow, and so on.
is only less interesting in
It is cleverly contrived that
colour than the Massacre of
the whole of the figures shall
the Innocents upon which it
be relieved, some against the
follows.
grey sea, some against the
The group of small medalred rock, some against the
lions occupying a correspond- ELIJAH REBUKING AHAB. (SHOWING THE EARLIER black sky, whilst a certain
AND SEVERER MANNER OP BECCAFUMI.)
ing position to this on the
amount of white herbage
right-hand of the church,
connects the groups. The
illustrating the Seven Ages of Man, &c, are mere detail is here less rich than in some of the prerestorations of no artistic interest.
ceding work; but the style is, perhaps for that
In the nave, again, the restorer has worked his very reason, broader and more dignified. The
will to lamentable purpose. It is to him, perhaps, colour scheme is admirable, and the artist never
that must be attributed the rather poor and loses sight of it. He never disturbs the surscratchy lines of shading in the Sibyls (1432-3), face of the material with shading, merely tracing
occupying, but by no means satisfactorily filling, the quiet folds of his draperies in firm sweeping
the comparatively empty-looking panels in the lines. It is refreshing to find a painter so accomnave aisles. These figures are frankly in white plished, content to subdue his cleverness and subon red and black ; and there is in them a distinct mit himself to architectonic and technical conditions.

372

HOW AND WHAT TO BEAD : ADDRESSED TO ART-STUDENTS.—II.
B Y J. E. HODGSON,

RE

title of this paper
might cause the reader
to think that its author
is a more pretentious
person than he really
is. I have not intended,
and I do not think
myself qualified, to give
advice on general reading. I have not learnt
the cabbala, the " open sesame,"
which reveals the treasurehouse of thought, fact, and
feeling contained in books : or
rather, I should say, since we
cannot conceive of so vast a
house, I am not licensed as a
guide into the world of knowledge; and a great
world it is indeed—as great as the material sensuous
world in which we live and move. I am awestruck
by such books as Coleridge's " Biographia Literaria ;"
when I turn to the index at the end of the sixteenth volume of De Quincey's works, the vast
mass of subjects he treated spreads over my mind
a dull sense of utter ignorance, and yet I learn
nothing of the building of such a stupendous
edifice of knowledge. That was, and is, to me a
mystery; an early beginning, loving, patient industry
long drawn out, and some vigorous method must
explain i t ; but what that method was I know
not. What I am writing is addressed solely to
art-students—men whose time is taken up, or
should be, in the mechanical practice of their
art; to them, as to many of the busy workers
of the world, ignorance is the appointed lot—
ignorance, that is, as compared with the attainments of the literary student. Something, however, they must learn outside the mechanical
practice of their art, that teaches them how to
do; but what to do is directed by a mental process,
a theory, and that needs culture to make it right.
The highest function of their art is to express
ideas, and they do not grow on hedgerows—they
are garnered from books. There are things transitory and things immutable; the history of art
teaches us to distinguish them; and, moreover,
without books we are alone in the w7orld, we have
to trust to casual friends to give us advice and
encouragement, whereas in books we have the
wisest of the human race lending us their counsel
and stimulating our enthusiasm by their example;
and this is perhaps the most important function

R.A.

of books. The reader is of no age or country ; he
has friends in the flesh—Brown, Jones, and Robinson
—who are dear to him; but dearer far and more
reliable are his friends in the spirit—Horace,
Seneca, Tacitus, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Milton,
Goethe, Burke, and a host of others. It does not
matter a straw to him where and when they
were in the flesh; they are alwTays in his study,
ready to give advice and to cheer him on.
And yet another plea, and that a practical
one, in favour of culture will I urge on the artstudent. Let him cast up in his mind, and call
in his five fingers to his aid, to determine how
many illiterate and uncultivated artists have risen
to eminence and have made headway in their profession. Many such there have been, and many
there are now, who have attained great technical
skill, who can paint as few know better how to
paint; and yet, as it seems to some, through the
capriciousness of fate and fortune, they get no
further, do what they will; and this is an insoluble
enigma to them, but not an enigma to the wise.
They are at the foot of a great barrier as impassable as the wall of China; Nature, and the
immutable order of things that be, have placed
it there. Nature, speaking in her deep thunder
tones, has issued the fiat: " So far shalt thou
get and no farther; rave not, it is useless ; yes,
thou art better than such a fortunate one, technically more accomplished, a better workman; but
it avails thee not—he is book-learned and his art
is the better for i t ; it imposes more; he gets more
credit; such is the way of the world, and thou
art of the world and livest in it and by i t ; for
ever shalt thou remain there in the wilderness,
and from the wide rampart of the great wall the
Celestials shall look down upon thee, compassionate
but powerless to lift thee up."
Pardon me, 0 cynical reader! I guess the
import of that smile of yours. Yes, I am quiteaware that a few ideas and quotations borrowed
from the poets, a technical knowledge of the use
of encyclopaedias, may deceive the world; but for
how long ? In the long run does it not work
out as I have stated it ? A specious talent cannot
raise a man; and in the arts, when the glare of
novelty and the glamour of fashion have faded,
it is with the man himself we have to deal—we
want to know how he saw and felt. This subject,
however, I will drop abruptly, as trending away
from my present purpose. I have tried to prove
what was perhaps sufficiently patent already—

HOW AND WHAT TO EEAD.
that general culture is indispensable to the artist
in a wide sense. Taking a more restricted view,
it will be found that there is an equal necessity
for a special form of culture; and if the reader
admits that it will fare better with the artist
who is conceiving the subject and scheme of a
picture if he is familiar with the conceptions of
great poets, that reader must also admit that,
when the painter is at work in the studio, with
palette and brushes in his hand, it will be better
for him to have read the works of Cennini, Mrs.
Merrivale, and Sir Charles Eastlake.
There is a special knowledge which belongs to
the artist's craft, without which his labour would
be purely mechanical. He must know the history
of his art; how it came to be, and how it grew
up to its present aspect and stature. The great
men who practised it before him must represent
to him something more tangible than a mere
name; they must assume an individuality which
he can recognise; he must be able to discern in
the varying fashions of each succeeding age what
was vital and worthy of imitation, and what was
only whimsical and therefore meet to be forgotten.
Much of this he can learn in picture galleries,
but still not quite unaided; a thoughtful critic at
his elbow will smooth the way considerably. And
as for the history of art, it is inexplicable without
its context, and that lies hidden under various
coverings of vellum, russia, or morocco, buried
with all the other ashes of the past in the niches
of libraries, in those columbaria of dead men's
thoughts, which are made sacred by illustrious
names, and still tenanted by living spirits, speaking with an audible voice and appealing to the
dull hearts of men.
How to begin is the problem. First steps
are proverbially hard; but as I take it, since
knowledge runs in a circle, it is immaterial at
which point in the circumference we make our
first plunge.
At the outset I fenced myself about with
caution; I disclaimed any knowledge of method
in reading, and I pleaded for the artist's inability
to follow one. His reading must perforce be
desultory. To him at least, if not to everyone,
interest in the subject is the only reliable guide.
That interest must widen as it goes; by its nature
it will gather to itself all that bears any relation;
it is the river which, as it flows onwards, will
absorb all subsidiary streams and rills. Let it
only be started, it matters not with what insignificant tricklings, the waters will gather of
themselves, bearing with them the silt upon which
the loud breakers of the far-off ocean shall eventually quench themselves in unavailing foam.

373

We see and we love things differently. Let
us say that, to a certain art-student, bare facts
are irksome; that he hates old Dryasdust, for
all his learning; that he yearns in his soul for
communion with a living spirit. Then let him
begin with biography, and take up " Yasari's
Lives." He must be dull indeed, and stolid beyond
the reach of excitement, who can follow the great
biographer through those pages of lucid narrative
without interest; who can remain unmoved by
that fire of enthusiasm wdiich smoulders under
every sentence and bursts at intervals into uncontrollable flames. From this one book the
wonderful outburst of Italian art in the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries will become intelligible;
it will supply the student with a long row of
portraits of art-workers, to which he will be
anxious to supply appropriate backgrounds. He
will wish to know something of the history of
the times in which they lived, and the origin of
their race; and he will turn to Sismondi's " History
of the Italian Eepublics in the Middle Ages " as
the text-book. This may, however, as he is a
young reader, appear too formidable (my edition
is in twelve volumes); he will get bewildered
by those interminable plots and counterplots, those
invasions and sieges, and that objectionable old
Dryasdust will meet him at every turn. Let him,
therefore, take up some good primer, such as the
school " History of Italy," by W. Hunt, which
will give him a clear sketch of the origin and
history of the Italian people; and then let him
read carefully the 25th, 41st, 57th, 91st, and
126th chapters of Sismoiidi. He will then have
got some length; he will know something of the
time, place, and surroundings—how, where, and
by whom Italian art grew into splendour.
He
wTill wish to know more about the great men,
and will take up the works of other biographers—
Miintz, Passavant, and Quatremere de Quincy for
Eaffaelle and Michelangelo, Mrs. Heaton for Correggio, Crow and Cavalcaselle for Titian, and
so on, one by one, as he finds references in the
catalogue of his library. These books will introduce him to a host of new characters and a wider
range of scenery, which will excite his interest.
He will be curious about the story of those times,
and excited by their picturesqueness.
He will
turn eagerly to such books as J. Addington
Symonds' " Eenaissance in Italy," Hare's " Italian
Cities," Yriarte's " Venetian Patrician" and his
" Life of a Condottiero," to Eoscoe's " Lives of
Leo X. and Lorenzo the Magnificent." When in
a less serious mood he will take up George Eliot's
" Eomola " and read it with avidity, and gradually
the picture of that land of beauty of its stirring

374

THE MAGAZINE

history, of the deeds of glory, and the deeds of
shame wrought in it, will grow clearer and clearer
in his mind. Such books as I have indicated
will feed his appetite for the picturesque, will
help him to build up those mental pictures in
which men of imagination delight; but as an
art-student he will feel dissatisfied; as he goes
on reading he will become more and more conscious
of a void in his mind, an uneasy feeling he first
became aware of when reading Yasari will have
grown stronger and stronger. He will see that his
critical faculty makes no progress. Then perhaps
he will plunge into Bio's and Lord Lindsay's
histories of Christian art, to find that he fares
no better, that he has shifted his standpoint without enlarging his horizon; all the descriptions of
pictures he has read, when he sums them up in
his mind, will amount only to a vast conglomeration
of adjectives, most of them in the superlative
degree, which, however, convey no visual presentment whatever of the pictures described, much
less will he be able to discern the kind and degree
of difference between them. This is a defect inherent in writing on art, which cannot be mended.
Words are symbols of things we know ; they are
utterly powerless to present to us any image of
things we do not know. The poet stirs up the
imagination by a vague suggestiveness; but the
sort of picture he conjures up in our imaginations
is immaterial to him—there is no reality in the
matter; it is all a dream; whereas the writer who
endeavours by words to raise up in our minds
a visual presentment of an actual existing picture
fails hopelessly. We must see it before we can
call it up. Words cannot supply the place of
lines, forms, and colours. The terms are untranslatable, and it is no exaggeration to say that all
the word-painting possible, all the subtlety of
definition and nicety of description imaginable,
would fail to convey to anyone ignorant of both,
the difference between a picture by Baffaelle and
one by D. Teniers—a difference which anyone
would seize in a minute when he saw them.
Hence it is that the art-student, to profit by
his reading, when he is reading of works of art
should endeavour to obtain reproductions of them
else he cannot understand his author; and these,
luckily, are plentiful in our day; photographs of
all the great pictures of the world can be had
for very little outlay, and in all great libraries
there are the galleries of Europe reproduced by
engravings and etchings.
The foregoing remarks are meant to serve as an
illustration of what I last month called the process of nodular accretion which takes place in the
mind round centres of interest. They refer to a

OF AET.

restricted field of interest, and the core of the
nodule is supposed to be the lives of Italian painters
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as related
by Vasari. "Vixerunt fortes ante Agamemnonen."
There were great men before and great men after,
and round each one of them there is a circle of
interest which we can expand indefinitely. It is
imaginable that this process can be carried on until
all the circles merge, and resolve themselves into one
vast sphere of universal knowledge; a result which
might possibly reveal to us strange radiations piercing
through all time upon which phenomena were arranged symmetrically—phenomena no longer strange
and unexpected, but of a piece with all the rest.
Who knows, gentle reader ? I do not pretend to ; I
only guess in my blundering way, and wonder. The
world in which we live is a marvel and a mystery.
The infinitely little stands contemplating the infinitely great, dimly conscious of it, and feebly
testifying to it. Presses travail with books, good, indifferent, and bad, each one of them in its degree
bearing testimony of things we cannot define, but
of which we are in some way aware. And so with
art; it runs through its phases century after century,
and at the bottom of it there is discernible a vague,
unformulated aspiration, which reflects the mystery
of the Universe.
But I have been dreaming; I have wandered
from the straight path, the practical purpose with
which I started—to teach art-students how to read
and what to read. It is easy to go astray on such
a quest. There are highways and byways, footpaths and tracks; and before us, behind us, and on
every side, is the wilderness stretching away into
blue distance. I can devise no surer compass, nor
supply the student with a better road-map, than
that of interest—let that be his guide. Bad and
stupid books he will necessarily have to read; they
are sure to waylay him, as Mr. Worldly-Wiseman
did the Pilgrim; but if they begin to bore him, let
him shake them off and have done with them, and
seek for others more to his taste.
I know that this is not scientific or systematic,
but this manner of reading is the most likely to
rouse curiosity. The passion for knowledge—the
sacred flame once kindled, we may feed it as we
please; and when it burns fiercely it will consume
everything that comes in its way.
The free libraries which are scattered throughout
the country have placed books within the reach
of almost everyone. In each of these libraries
there is a librarian ready to give information; but
in reality he is not needed for that work; it has
been done more thoroughly than he can do it. The
books of reference we possess are marvels of labour
and erudition, and in the proper use of these lies

HOW AND WHAT TO READ.
the secret of profitable reading. They are invaluable as guides ; but, like fire, they are admirable
servants but bad masters. Nothing is more contemptible, and more certain to be found out, than
to trade on knowledge picked up from encyclopaedias;
and my readers may remember a very humorous
instance related by the " Autocrat of the Breakfasttable." He met a man who seemed very learned;
he knew all about the Andes, the Apennines, and
the Appalachian Mountains; about agriculture, about
anthracite, and about the air-bladder in fishes; but
presently it appeared that he had nothing to say
of Mount Ararat or Ben Nevis, of horticulture, of
coal, or of natural history in general, and it turned
out that he took in a new encyclopaedia which had
only got as far as Araguay. This sort of tiling
happens. It is a risky process to parade knowledge
picked up in scraps; there is pretty sure to be
some autocrat about whose lynx eyes will pierce
the imposture.
To a young student, a novice in a library, I
would give the following advice: if there is some
subject he wishes to know about, let him take up
the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," where he will find
an article upon it; that article will give him a
general outline; and at the end of it he will find
a list of authorities who have treated it; these he
can take up one by one, and make himself master
of the subject; but he may go further than that;
the encyclopaedia will not give him a complete list;
for that he must have recourse to some such book
as Brunet's "Librarian's Manual." He has read,
let us say, Eio's " Christian Art," and he wishes
to know what others have said; let him look up
Bio in " Brunet," and against the " History of
Christian A r t " he will find a number, 9,178 ; then
let him look up that number in the last volume,
or table methodique, where, in company with Eio,
he will find the other authors who have written on
Christian iconography, with the titles of their
works—such as Boudard, Grriinhault, De la Fosse,
Gravelot, Eichardson, Pistrucci, Borromaeus, Durand,
Didron, Laforge, &c.—and he will be referred

375

further to No. 18,561, where, under the heading
" Symboles, Emblemes, Devises et Enigmes," he will
find a vast mass of bibliography. It is obviously
impossible to compress a complete guide to art
literature into the limits of a magazine article.
All I have attempted is to explain what aids to
learning we possess, and to supply the student
with directions as to the best manner of proceeding.
I may think it the best because it is the one I
have myself adopted; but we can only testify of
the things that we do know. I have at times
tried systematic reading, but always given it up
as too utterly wearisome. In many cases I have
not finished the book I was reading; there has come
over me a firm conviction that I had had enough
of it, and got as much good out of it as I should
ever get, and I have turned to another. This, I
know, is very wrong; I do not recommend it. I
sincerely hope, in fact, that my example will not
be followed by any of my young readers ; that when
they take up a book—let us say Spenser's "Faery
Queen"—they will go through with it to the end,
though I, who pretend to teach them, have failed
to do so myself. That they will read all Shakespeare, all Milton, all Dry den, and all Walter Scott
at least once; that when they take up an author,
they will go through with him. I ask it; but as
I only read by snatches, and am incorrigibly flighty
and desultory, I do not believe in their doing it.
I will not venture to say how far such a method
of reading is profitable or the reverse; I can only
testify that it is very amusing, that it makes reading
a delight and a relaxation. And in the end, what
does it matter how we set about it ? A strong,
imperious curiosity takes hold of us; we must
know about a certain thing, and nothing else will
satisfy the capricious mind ; it is all alive to receive
information on that subject, and, if gratified, it
grips it fast and never looses hold. Curiosity and
interest have prepared the way, all the channels of
receptivity are open, facts, thoughts, and imagery,
all strike home and leave an indelible impression;
and surely we are the richer for that.

376

INTEBNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF BOOKBINDINGS.
By WILL H. EDMUNDS.

A

CHARMING little exhibition of the work of
the best known bookbinders in all parts of
the world was held during July at the Caxton
Head, High Holborn, nearly all the principal forms
of binding being represented. The book chosen
for proofs of the binder's skill was William Morris's

Cashmire, as no binder could be found; one was
lost in the earthquake in Greece, and one was
destroyed by fire in Altenburg, Saxony. • The
result of this happy thought of Mr. and Mrs.
Tregaskis is the opportunity for a fair and impartial comparison of the value for money given
by the various craftsmen in the execution of their
work, and of their skill and originality in design,
which should be the chief feature in all work
capable of artistic treatment.
Over the Oriental specimens I need not
linger longer than to say that Japan contributes
two pretty covers—one in grotesque and the
other in court style, the latter being a fine
example of close and compact embroidery. Persia
sends one of those pretty painted patterns on
silver leaf for which that country has so long
been noted, and the specimen is fairly up to the
usual standard of excellence. From India come
two embroideries, one a show piece and one a good

VELLUM BINDING WITH BLACK AND WHITE DESIGN.
{By Mrs. Herbert Railton.)

translation of "The Tale of King Floras and the
Fair Jehane," a thirteenth century French romance,
printed at the Kelmscott Press, in itself a beautiful
little book, and one which it might be fairly considered would afford the binder sufficient motive
for original treatment. The order to each was
identical and free from restriction, except as to
price—" for about £ 2 ; " and as to edges, that they
were not to be cut. Some of them, especially the
Eastern craftsmen, were, however, asked for examples
of native and characteristic workmanship; that
was the only departure from the identical note
to binders. A few copies were also sent to special
artists for embroidery and other forms of art
work, which did not fall within the province of
the ordinary binder. Out of the seventy-six
copies sent out, seventy-three were returned safely,
clad in very varied garbs; one came back from

CALF BINDING WITH DESIGN IN PYBOGBAVUEE.
(By Mrs. Graham.)

example of domestic art, and one Ulwar binding
by the grandsons of Abdul Rahman, whose particular
style is but little known in Europe, though there
are a few fine pieces in the Royal Library at

INTERNATIONAL

EXHIBITION

OF

BOOKBINDINGS.

377

"Windsor and in the
South K e n s i n g t o n
Museum. Several
books are bound in
the style peculiar to
Mohammedan nations,
with a flap, the decoration being beatenin corner and centre
pieces of arabesque
work, w i t h gold
affixed by means of
moulak, or paste made
of the ground roots
of wild asphodel, and
finished off with a
p a i n t e d e d g i n g of
water gold.
The Colonial bindings are more curious
than beautiful, the
LEVANT MOEOCCO BINDING.
prevailing motive ap(Designed and Executed by Messrs. Morrell.)
pearing to have been
to give something representative of the country vanguard of a new movement in art bindings,
of their origin; so we get buckskin, with birch No new school is observable, the best effort being
bark linings, and a book-marker made of the merely a crib, the reverse of the title page, the
tag of a moccasin, with Indian bead work, from black being cut out, and the white figuring in
Canada; a cover of the skin of a carpet snake gold. The doublures are very poorly put in, and
from Sydney; and an ornamental wood of Gipps- the forwarding is anything but perfect.
land from Melbourne binders.
European specimens afford ample proof that
The United States has no remarkably brilliant the art of binding, and the craft, are nowhere so
specimen of art craftsmanship, although her binders finely rendered as in Paris and London. In the
have for the last few years tried to impress her technique of binding—that is to say, of forwarding,
book collectors with their own importance as the or all those parts of the work which precede the
decoration of the cover
—Germany, Holland,
Belgium, Austria, Italy,
Russia, Spain, Sweden,
Denmark, and Switzerland are all more or less
behind the two great
centres of the trade;
the example from Geneva
being about the best of
the others. No example
from Germany gives any
proof of the present
ability of the German
binders to compete seriously w i t h our own
people ; most are clumsy
in technique and devoid
of interest in design.
The Spanish binding is
of interest, as being a
MOKOCCO BINDING.
fair copy of the old style
(Designed by D. S. MacColl. Executed by Miss MacColl.)
905

378

THE MAGAZINE

of Saragossa in the early sixteenth century; and
others, as those of Venice, follow old models in
style, but without the old fidelity to the best
methods of production—being merely commercial
imitations.
Of the French examples it is possible to speak
only in terms of the highest praise as regards the
beautiful and exact workmanship. In some of the
Paris books it would be scarcely possible to find
a fault, if design were to be shut out from consideration, both forwarding and finishing being as
perfect as hand workmanship may ever be expected to be. But originality in design must be
looked for, else is art in bookbinding dead; and
we find it dead and perished in France, at least,
if these examples may be taken as evidence. The
majority are of sixteenth century French or Italian
style, almost exact copies of well-known works;
and no French binding gives indication of a
modern thought bestowed upon it.
The majority of English bindings are little
better, the greatest names figuring merely as
reproducers of past works. In point of technique
they run closely beside the French. There is in
several the evidence of most careful treatment
so far as the workmanship is concerned, and with
it a conscientious effort at exact copying; but
alas! few have thought out any new form of
decoration, and of the few, only one is a binder
by profession. The gem of the collection is that
by Messrs. Morrell, in green crushed levant
morocco, with front side composed of a leafy
border, and centre panel showing a tall flowering
fritillary treated conventionally, the flowers inlaid
white; the reverse side diapered with leafy work
woven through crowns, and the back with interlaced design, powdered with gold dots similar to
the front side. The design is extremely appropriate,
it appeals at once to the understanding, without
partaking of anything akin to illustration; it is
free and graceful, and, although very full, is extremely light. Messrs. Morrell are therefore to be
congratulated upon their happy blend of appropriate ideas with fine workmanship, which has
won for London the award of highest merit.
In the same class of work I must notice the
somewhat peculiar production of Miss MacColl,
designed by Mr. D. S. MacColl. I do not know
who is responsible for the binding, but it is
the design which needs attention. The reproduction will help to a general understanding of its
intent with this explanation, that it presents the
husband of the fair Jehane riding—with his wife
behind disguised as his squire—by the sea shore,

OF AET.

with a large rock in the immediate rear of the
squire, and roses interspersed about the scene. It
may be difficult to discern the roses, or the sea,
the rock, or the horizon, but that they are all
there we are credibly assured.
Of vellums tooled and vellums painted there
are several; but the best is that bearing a design
in black and white by Mrs. Herbert Eailton, a
charming female nude, floating across a black
disc. The drawing is bold and yet delicate;
startling for a binding, yet appropriate; neither
overcrowded nor overdone.
Pyrogravure, or, as commonly called, pokerwork, finds a delightful exponent in Mrs. Graham,
whose work is free and chaste. The effect of the
burning on calf, pleasing in itself, is improved
by tiny colourings in the border resembling inlaid
gems; and the painted female head and the
beautiful metal clasps give an additional grace to
a rare piece of artistic cover decoration.
One other binding deserves special mention—
a mosaic, coming from the land where leather
inlaying was perhaps first conceived and carried
out—namely, Denmark. The fine example by Imm.
Petersen, of Copenhagen, inlaid in thirteen colours,
presenting the bust of the fair Jehane surrounded
by Scandinavian ornament, and on the reverse side
an inlaid border with centre panel diapered, and
containing alternate crowned J's and F's, shows
that Denmark has not forgotten its old traditions.
Its recent exhibit at Chicago was a surprise, and
before long Danish binders may be expected to be
in the forefront with a branch of bookbinding
generally deemed too expensive for ordinary book
lovers.
The stimulus thus given to one of the most
ancient of the art handicrafts can scarcely be fully
appreciated at the present moment, especially so
far as it concerns the work of our own country.
In the struggle for supremacy so many factors
are now keenly appraised that its ultimate effects
cannot be gauged. Viewing the question, however,
from the broadest point of view, and carefully
comparing the bindings of nations which have experienced the blessings supposed to be connected
with technical education for some years past, as
against our own, where technical education is at
present a very limited experiment, few would hesitate to declare in favour of the English examples.
The one exhibit from a technical school at Gera,
some 35 miles S.S.W. of Leipzig, is a barbarous
specimen of how not to do it, and should afford an
object lesson of what we, as a nation, should beware
of in our own enthusiasm for technical education.

379

THE SALONS.
SALON OF THE CHAMP DE MARS.
B Y CLAUDE P H I L L I P S .

rpHOU-GH the tendencies of the secessionist Salon,
-L which is avowedly representative of extreme
views, and the march onwards quand meme in art,
were certainly not this year in the direction of

a vast amount of mediocre and some positively
bad stuff, produced by those fiimistes or mystifiers
who abound and flourish more in France than elsewhere. The residuum, however, consisted of very

A VENDOR OF TAPEES.
(From the Painting by P. A. J.

moderation or of "settling down," the display
made on the occasion of the fifth annual exhibition was—whatever the over-conservative and the
over-prejudiced may say—a very strong one. In
order to enjoy, we must eliminate and pass over

Bagnan-Bouveret.)

remarkable work, thoroughly characteristic, not
only of the art but of the manners and the
literature which stand for the peculiar period of
transition through which we are passing. Those
whose cult is exclusively for the great art of the

380

THE MAGAZINE

past, and who hold fast without compromise to the
canons of that past, very naturally feel a certain
repulsion for the extreme phases of modern art
as were there exemplified. This easily explicable
repulsion makes them unjust to the brilliancy,
the inventiveness, the strenuous effort to go ahead,

OF ART.

of the master's colour redeem the too daring
simplification of the drawing and the weaknesses
of detail which were criticised on the first appearance of the design. The decoration as a whole
may be described as a camaieu in tones of the
mauve family, relieved on a turquoise-blue diaper

THE PROCESSION TO CALVARY.
(From the Painting

which is shown in the more sincere performances
of the representative men, and oblivious of the
truth that here, as elsewhere, there must be
perpetual onward motion; that to stand still even
in excellence is to retrograde. Like literature,
though in a different fashion, art must, in order
to have any permanent and representative value,
reflect, express, and interpret its own time—not
necessarily in costume and externals, but in spirit.
It is thus manifestly unfair to charge the art
alone with the elements of un healthiness, with
the fierce excess in realism, the cheap and insincere
idealism, the sinister ingredient of sensuality—the
more destructive when it lurks hidden—which,
it must be owned, colour many, though by no
means all, of the most remarkable productions of
the moment.
M. Puvis de Chavannes exhibited in its complete state the great decorative ensemble which is
destined to adorn the Staircase of the Prefect at
the Hotel de Yille, of which the central portion,
"Victor Hugo offrant sa lyre a la ville de Paris,"
was seen as a cartoon in last year's exhibition.
The magic delicacy and decorative effectiveness

by Jean

Beraud.)

ground. The finest portions are the four ceiling
compartments—" Patriotisme," "Charity," "Ardeur
Artistique," and " Foyer Intellectuel." The two
latter especially are suave and noble compositions,
giving synthetic, yet, in the higher sense, perfectly
truthful expression to modern life in its more
aspiring phases. Though it is impossible to refrain
from expressing the wish that M. Puvis would
consent to carry out with a greater measure of
firmness and accuracy in essential detail those
poetic and thoroughly modern conceptions which
he puts before us with so much breadth and purity
of style, with so genuine an inventiveness of colour,
it cannot be allowed that these drawbacks to his
art constitute a sufficient ground for withdrawing
from him the allegiance owed to the noblest and
most serene of modern French painters.
M. Carolus-Duran again showed his unsurpassable brush-power and happy audacity
colourist, and in one or two instances something more than this. His large landscape with
figures, " La derniere heure du Christ," is of
powerful and suggestive scenic effect, though
higher praise cannot be accorded to it. In several

SALON OF THE CHAMP DE MAES.

381

of the female portraits there was the usual in- attempted to make mock of this singularly interesttensity of visual impression, the usual absence of ing performance, ignorant both of what Mr. Whistler
that inner characterisation which serves to dif- aims at in art, and more especially of what he here
ferentiate one human being from another. An aims at in portraiture. M. de Montesquiou-Fezensac
unusual tenderness colours, on the other hand, the is the pontiff of eestheticism whom the Faubourg
finely-painted " Poete a la Mandoline," a portrait St. Germain delights to honour, both the versifierin which physical deficiencies have not been glossed in-chief and the designer of " unutterably precious "
over, yet are shown in the transfiguring light of things in furniture and vertu to that exclusive
a loving sympathy. With that of M. Carolus- section of Parisian society. The quintessential
Duran the name of Mr. J. S. Sargent, A.E.A., at type of such a super-subtle personality as this is
once suggests itself as that of a pupil who has just such as this painter's art and his alone can
overtopped his master in virtue of a higher origin- adequately render, and he has rendered its main
ality and a more complete power of expressing characteristics, physical and mental, in masterly
the essential characteristics of his own day. He fashion. All that can be said is that his exewas represented by the " Mrs. Hugh Hammersley," cution has not all the mysterious refinements of
which will be well remembered as the central former times, but more openly reveals its secrets
attraction of the New Gallery last year. Less to the beholder. A quite opposite type of the
advantageously hung than on that occasion, it, modern portrait is the sunny plein air " Portrait
nevertheless, again asserted itself as one of the de Mme. K.," of the Danish painter, M. Kroyer.
most brilliant of recent portraits, as a masterpiece The lady portrayed stands with her dog at
of swift and dexterous execution, and an embodi- the very edge of a calm sea, illumined with the
ment of modernity in its brightest and most peculiar rosy light of the late northern sunset.
engaging phase.
The envelopment of the figure with the invisible
With a number of sea studies—" symphonies " garment of the pure, light atmosphere is admirable;
in violet and silver, blue and silver, and blue and the whole has a delightful freshness, both of concepviolet, which were seen this winter at the Grafton tion and execution.
Gallery—Mr. Whistler exhibited a large canvas,
M. Jean Beraud's group of paintings is always
" Portrait du Comte Eobert de Montesquiou- one of the attractions of the Champ de Mars to the

AEDEUR AETISTIQUE.
(From the Design by Puvis de Chavannes.)

Fezensac," which is certainly the most remarkable
oil-painting produced by him of late years.
Some unwise persons, indulging in a style of
criticism which, as regards the consummate AngloAinericau artist, is now surely quite dSmodS, have

general public, although he is far less a painter than
a satirical raconteur, and (more lately) an interpreter
according to ultra-modern notions of the great
sacred drama of the Gospels. His ugly, slatey
colour, his peculiar execution, will always detract

382

THE MAGAZINE

from his claims in the eyes of those who judge
painting primarily as such; while his keenness
of vision, his agreeable and not too pungent satire,
will nevertheless firmly maintain him in his present
position as a Parisian among Parisians. Somehow,
pathetic and closely studied as are not a few of the

OF ART.

best productions, one of the most agreeable of the
pleinairistes. His " Louise Cattel, nourrice," is a
fitting pendant to the "Wanda Lametrie, laitiere,"
wThich has now found its way into the Luxembourg.
His " Exode " may, as the spectator pleases, be taken
either as the forced departure from home of a

HOESES.
(From the Painting by A. Bernard.)

incidents in his "Chemin de la Croix," one finds
oneself quite unable to take it seriously as a whole.
It is not altogether that the sacred personages—
the Magdalene, St. John, the Virgin herself—are
audaciously modernised, and entirely French; for
Herr Fritz von Uhde, to whom this movement so
eagerly taken up by French artists is avowedly due,
has caused us to accept as seemly, and even as
deeply moving, conceptions at least as unconventional as this. It is that the latest version of the
" Procession to Calvary" is so evidently a thing
laboriously thought out, rather than genuinely
conceived; it is that the desire to " astonish the
citizen" is so unmistakably at the root of the
whole effort. Nothing could be more humorous
than M. Beraud's " Les deux Muses (portrait
d'Armand Silvestre)," showing the well-known poet
and romance-writer inspired on either side by a
muse; the one presiding over poetry and the
higher realms of thought, the other too evidently
the lively and irrepressible goddess to whom are
due those scatological productions which fall in
showers from the boulevardier poet's pen, and
certainly do not constitute his greatest claim to
immortality.
M. Roll has regained in a great measure that
freshness and simplicity which rendered him, in his

modern artisan and his family, or as the " Flight
into Egypt," presented according to the modernised
fashion in religious art, to which reference has
just been made.
Herr Fritz von Uhde himself was there, with
"Les Pelerins d'Emmaiis" and " La Fuite en Egypte,"
treated in just this style, but with a restrained
intensity of pathos which carries conviction.
M. Dagnan-Bouveret has nothing as striking in
excellence as the beautiful " Dans la Foret" of last
year, but the single life-size figure, " Marchande de
Cierges," is in his best and most moving manner,
still revealing, however, very strongly the influence
of Bastien-Lepage. The much-admired " Christ a
GethsemaneV' with all its appealing beauty of facial
expression, is too self-conscious. The delicately
stippled portrait of Mile. Bartet of the Comedie
Franchise presents her in modern garb, but with
half-fantastic surroundings and a curious background, which add, not altogether appropriately,
just that suggestion of fantasy and imaginativeness
which is the one quality that this most exquisitely
polished of modern actresses can least claim to
possess.
That accomplished artist, M. Besnard, continues
to waste his powTers in the endeavour to present abnormal eccentricities in illumination. His

SALON OF THE CHAMP DE MARS.
" Chevaux" is a superbly designed group of two
life-sized horses in a stable, disfigured by the
wilful improbability of the colour. It is by no
means as impossible as most people seem to think,
that M. Besnard may for one fleeting moment have
seen his horses in the clash of conflicting lights
in which he has deliberately painted them; but
that would be no sufficient reason for presenting
them thus. Pardon may be granted for any
extravagance in art provided it really adds significance to the thing which it is sought to depict;
but here the contrary is the case.
M. Louis Picard has rare gifts
colourist
and executant, but really he tries our patience too
far in thus ringing the changes for ever on one
imperfect and uninteresting model. Whether the
artist calls his picture " Au Bord de la Mer,"
or " Melancholia," or " Femme a la Fenetre," it
is always one and the same blonde, with the
familiar blue eyes and short nose, that is put forward. M. Aman-Jean is, that rare thing, an
imaginative portraitist; he is, however, an apostle
of the modern diaphanous movement, and it is
clear that the English Pre-Eaphaelite school has
influenced him not all for good. His figure-studies

383

The portraits of M. Jacques Blanche—among
them the " Lady Eden "—show more and more the
influence exercised over him by Gainsborough; but
it is to be wished that he could exchange his peculiar
and far from pleasant colour for the silveriness of
the English master. M. Gandara fails in his fulllength " Princesse de Chimay," which appears at
once gigantic in stature and wanting in substance.
Mr. Alexander, whose clever full-lengths have
been seen at the Grafton Gallery, sent a whole
series of canvases to the Champ de Mars, among
them some capital portraits of men. M. Friant
is skilful and unemotional as usual, and it is just
this coldness which renders his cynical " Premier assaut," notwithstanding the cleverness and the subtle
power of observation which it displays, intolerably
offensive. Among the landscapes, which took up
so large a proportion of the wall-space were many
remarkable productions in the most various styles.
M. Montenard's vast " Panneau decoratif destine
a 1'Amphitheatre de Mineralogie de la Sorbonne "
is a splendid decoration, which will literally light
up with its sunlight and sparkle the lecture-room
for which it is destined. M. Rene Billotte momentarily abandons the lanlieue, which he has done

THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT.
{From the Painting by Fritz von Uhde. By Permission of II. L. Neumann,

are beautiful in silhouette and arrangement, but
flat and inclined to sink into the canvas rather
than to stand out from it: the best and most
personal of the series contributed by the artist
this year is the " Portrait du Sculpteur Dampt."

Munich.)

so much to poetise, and gives most original and
attractive pictures of the Albanian coast, still,
however, in the same silver-grey tonality which
he almost exclusively affects. " La cote d'Albanie—le soir a Butrinto," is certainly the most

384

THE MAGAZINE

OF ART.

interesting French landscape of the year. Mr. sense of the word, is required, he must be said
Henry Moore, R.A., who is a regular contributor to have failed, though he has failed honourably.
to the Champ de Mars, has never been represented He is at his best where he has been able to give
by anything finer than " Calme avant l'orage," a to his personages a thoroughly realistic embodiment
study, with the all-pervading tonality of the grey and a frankly oriental colour; and in those terrible
pearl, which is more than equal to any of the Eng- final scenes, which he has treated with a passionate
lish' painter's familiar blue wave-pictures. A word sincerity akin to that which marks the Flemings
of special mention is due to the wonderful little of the fifteenth century and such German painters
landscapes with figures of M. Ivan Pranishnikoff, of the sixteenth as Matthaus Grriinewald. The
as highly finished as those of Meissonier himself, hypercritical might point out that, notwithstanding
and yet vibrating throughout with atmospheric M. Tissot's evident desire for the most absolute
effect. Most remarkable are his blue skies, abso- accuracy in matters of environment and local
lutely pure and cloudless, and to which he never- colour, he not unfrequently produces a mise-en-scdne
theless succeeds in imparting the sense of depth which is rather Byzantine of the fifth or sixth
and gradation. Fine landscapes, to which I should century than classicised Oriental of the first. He
have been glad to devote more space, were also is weakest in such subjects as "The Agony in
contributed by the Belgian master, M. Courtens, by the Garden," in which, pushing too far in the
M. Thaulow, M. Le Camus, M. Helleu, the veteran striving after originality, he shows Christ lying
impressionist M. Sisley, M. Muenier, M. Adolphe prone on the ground, surrounded by numberless
Binet, the Franco-Swedish painter M. Wahlberg, visionary forms of angels, evidently inspired by
M. Jettel, Mr. Alexander Harrison, and some others. Blake. Best of all is the procession of the
I have reserved for final mention, as being Wise Men mounted on camels, which is shown
in the Salon of the Champ de Mars, but not winding its way solemnly across the stony desert.*
precisely of it, the great series of water-colours— Terrible in its audacious realism, but at the
some two hundred and fifty in number—in which same time infinitely pathetic, is the " Christ
M. James Tissot has depicted the entire life of Leaving the Pretorium." More terrible still are the
Christ, from the Annunciation and the Nativity "Flagellation," the "Calvary," the "Crucifixion"—
to the culminating scenes of the Passion, the presented in several designs, at various moments,
Crucifixion, the Resurrection.
The enthusiasm, and from various points of view—and the "Descent
the absolute sincerity, with which the French from the Cross." I t is very probable that an
artist—whom we all know chiefly as the skilful opportunity will be afforded to London ere long
painter of modish scenes in modern life—has of seeing and judging this very remarkable colapproached his arduous task are beyond praise. lection in its entirety.*
In those sections of the great sacred drama in
* This remarkable series of designs is to form the subject
which soaring imagination, invention in the higher of a special article in T H E MAGAZINE O F A R T . — E D .

{Drawn by W. E. F. Britten.)

DANTE
(From the Painting by Marcel liieder.

MOURNING

FOR

BEATRICE.

Exhibited at the Champs Elysees Salon.

Engraved by Madame Jacob-Bazin.)

385

A GALLERY OF STATUETTES.
BY R. JOPE SLADE.

rpHEKE is no feature more marked in the groups and figures which find a better resting-place
JL tendency of the day, and certainly none in the state galleries and antechambers of a more
more commendable, than the growing endeavour formal fashion of life. To meet this demand we
to adapt art to the beautifying of our domestic have the much and justly-vaunted movement
known as the British Sculptural
life. Men there are who are
Kenascence, its leaders, Messrs.
building big galleries and fillGeorge Frampton, Harry Bates,
ing them with the more heroic
Swynnerton, Pegram, and others
forms ; but the general feeling is
towards such art as lends itself
among the new generation of
to the enrichment of the rooms
younger men, all manifesting a
in which we actually pass the
strongly decorative tendency.
greater part of our lives. This
With the chamber itself, its
explains the increasing number
walls, its panellings and fittings
of small canvases produced, and
beautiful, the desire is natural
the painting of the pictures espethat its minor decorative details
cially designed to blend with,
as a furnished room should be
or crown, a defined and prein harmony. There is nothing
determined scheme of decoration.
lovelier, nothing more decorative,
The movement is especially to be
than the statuette; nothing of
noted amongst sculptors; whilst
which the owner grows fonder, or
a great change has come over
around which associations more
their patrons during the century
easily entwine. I t can be diswhich now speeds to its close.
posed so that all its beauties
In the days of our ancestors
are seen to the best possible
these were mostly men of family
advantage. There is no need to
as well as of wealth, who, in
go seek it, to look at in certain
their youth, had made the " grand
lights or certain attitudes. I t
tour," and in the cities of Northmay be always accessible. But
ern Italy acquired a taste for
such Lares and Penates are by
the more severely classical exno means easily acquired; and
pressions of art. What relics of
cire perdue from the hands of
the glorious past were available
great masters are treasures in
they acquired; what they could
which the rich man may invest
not obtain they caused to be
his gold. But we are not all
copied; and the halls and corrich men ; and yet we long
ridors of their country seats and
for something very much better
town houses were peopled with
and more precious than the
the gods of Greece and Eome.
ordinary bronzes of commerce,
To-day the art patron is oftener
poor often in design, cheap in
the man of commerce. The peer
manufacture, indifferent in colour,
sells, the brewer buys. Hardand multiplied to the verge of
ware, engineering contracts, the
valuelessness. Nor a r e we
Stock Exchange, and the like—
always ready to bow to the
AURORA.
not acres—go to the founding of
(By M. Dagonet.)
reigning fashion, and draw on
the contemporary gallery. These
the limited resources of old
men having followed their own judgment to fortune Japan, a policy which daily grows more costly,
are inclined to trust their own taste in art. They
It is here that such exhibitions as that now
have few memories and reminiscences of Italy; and held by Messrs. Bellman, Ivey and Carter prove
to the extent that they support the sculptor they so delightful and helpful. Visiting all the greater
like it to be in the direction of commissions for exhibitions and studios of Europe, they acquire
panels in low or high relief, friezes, mantelpieces, the right of reproduction in miniature of many
and such decorative details, rather than for the of the best things of the season; and every spring
906

386

THE MAGAZINE

OF ART.

we find the pieces of statuary we have most
admired during the previous year in the noble
open spaces of the Champs Elysees or the Champ
de Mars, or in the cramped rooms vouchsafed to
art in marble, bronze, and plaster at the Hoyal
Academy, reappearing at this gallery in diminished stature but undiminished charm, and often
gems of perfect casting.
I have specially selected for the first illustration "The Aurora" of M. Dagonet—designed
to carry a cluster of electric lights, because I am
anxious that there should be recognised the
splendid potentialities in the way of a decorative
art opened out by the new illuminant with its
invisible wires, minute globes, and total absence
of clumsy paraphernalia. It is hardly possible
to conceive a more graceful torch-bearer to the
treasures of a beautiful room than this delightfully - modelled awakening figure. " La Charmeuse," by M. A. Beguine, won golden criticisms
in the Salon of a few seasons ago by reason of
the felicity of pose and roguish witchery of the
figure; though it is possible the artist might
have permitted himself certain modifications of
the throat and arms of his model without loss of

LA CHAKMEUSE.
(By M. A. Beguine.)

A LA E I V I E R E .
{By A. Fontaine.)

refinement. M. Larche's bust of the statuette
of "Christ devant les Docteurs" is distinguished
by the tender intelligence of the expression, and
the beauty of the colour of the metal used.
" Phoebe," the ivory figure by M. Delacour, stood
in a prominent place in the Salon last year;
though the crowd of portrait-busts left no spare
pedestal for it this year at Burlington House.
It would perhaps have been better had the
silver-starred and purple-enamelled hemisphere,
on which the figure stands, been of plain ivory.
In his " Serpolette " and " Madame Sans Gene,"
M. Van der Straeten invests the bronze with a
vivacity which amounts to pertness. From the
studios of MM. Fremiet, Moreau, Desbois,
Grevin, Gerome, and others come many charming reproductions. The lad and dog bounding
towards their al fresco bath in M. Fontaine's "A
la Riviere " are alive with joyous realism. English art is chiefly represented by the late Associate Mr. C. B. Birch's dramatic figure of the
dying bugler, " The Last Call," and Miss
Brown's "The Pearl," from the Eoyal Academy, whilst from America comes Mr. William
Couper's dignified bust of " The Princess"—of
Tennyson's poem—all in the original marble.

:

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7.y.

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BOLTON A B B E Y A N D T H E W H A E F E .

BOLTON ABBEY.
BY AARON WATSON.

W

ILLUSTRATED BY J. M A C W H I R T E R , R.A.

HEN a thing has been done supremely well, threads between the separate pebbles of shingle, and
and by a great master, any attempt to do it eddying in soft golden lines towards its central
over again becomes an impertinence. Wherefore, in currents, flows out of amber into ebony, and glides
approaching Bolton Abbey—Bolton Priory is the calm and deep below the rock on the opposite
more correct but less popular designation—I turn shore."
to the fourth volume of "Modern Painters," well
One descends to the Abbey from the high road
knowing that I shall find there this superb by means of a steep, winding path, sheltered among
vignette:—" The Abbey is placed, as most lovers trees. Arriving at that promontory of level parkof our English scenery know well, on a little pro- land of which Mr. Euskin speaks, the ruins lie to
montory of level park-land, enclosed by one of the the right hand, with Bolton Hall to the left. Imsweeps of the Wharfe. On the other side of the mediately in front, and between these two, there is
river the flank of the dale rises in a pretty wooded *a snug and solid-looking parsonage, which is rather
brow, which the river, leaning against, has cut into an accessory to the beauty of the scene than an
two or three somewhat bold masses of rock, steep to intruder on its quiet. With what nice discriminathe water's edge, but feathered above with copse tion the monks of the earlier centuries chose the
of ash and oak. Above these rocks the hills are scenes of their prayers and meditations ! You may
rounded softly upwards to the moorland, the entire approach Bolton Abbey from Skipton, or, as once
height of the brow towards the river being perhaps happened to myself, from the Bronte country, by
two hundred feet, and the rock parts of it not above- way of Keighley, leaving Ilkley to the right, and
forty or fifty, so that the general impression upon catching a glimpse of the Wharfe as it winds quietly
the eye is that the hill is little more than twice the through level meadows. From either starting-place
height of the ruins, or of the groups of noble ash the drive is sweet and pleasant, and the air is of
trees which encircle them. One of these groups is that pure and invigorating sort which has swept
conspicuous above the rest, growing on the very over miles and miles of heather-covered moor; but
shore of the tongue of land which projects into the the country has more sternness than beauty, and
river, whose clear brown water, stealing first in mere has the charm of wide views rather than of that

388

THE MAGAZINE OF AET.

landscape sweetness which one associates with so
much of the broadest of our English shires. It is
with a delighted astonishment that, after leaving the
high moorlands or the long expanses of cultivated
soil, one looks downward on Bolton and its woods,
and the Priory walls rising high out of the trees, and
the bending Wharfe glittering in the sunlight, and
the distant blue hills beyond Barden Tower.
Concerning Turner, Mr. Buskin has declared

downwards towards the waving leafage of the
dale. " One of the most delicious and paradisiacal
scenes which the heart of England holds," exclaims
William Howitt. It is pleasant to be able to say
that all this lovely space is free to the rambler—
that, indeed, the Duke of Devonshire, its owner,
maintains in good order many scores of miles of footpaths for the sole advantage of the people at large.
I have spoken of the choice made by the

THE STEPPING STONES, FROM THE HIGH ROAD.

that he could never visit the shores of Wharfe
without 'tears, or speak of them without a break
in his voice. What he found there most to charm
him was the association of power and border sternness with sweet peace and tender decay. The
valley of the Wharfe in the neighbourhood of Bolton
Abbey is, in truth, one of the most rarely beautiful
and transcendently touching pieces of English land-**
scape. There is an exquisite picture before the eyes
in whatever direction one may chance to turn. It
is not the Abbey solely, or even mainly, that is the
attraction of this portion pf Wharfedale. Fountains
is a ruin incomparably more magnificent; but, fine
as are the trees which surround it, the situation is
tame in comparison to the bewildering loveliness
of Bolton woods, with pathways climbing hither
and thither up the steep hill-sides; with the
Wharfe singing over the pebbly shallows which
surround an island; with the tumbling waters of
the " Strid," hemmed in by rocks, and shadowed by
ancient trees; with the stern, deserted tower of
Barden looking far out across the moors, and

monks wThen they settled in this happy valley.
Tradition, however, would have it that they
exercised no choice at all. The popularly accepted
story is that of the poem in which Wordsworth
has made the long-past tragedy of the Strid
familiar to all readers of English verse:—
" ' What is good for a bootless bene ?'
The Falconer to the Lady said ;
And she made answer, ' Endless sorrow,'
For she knew that her son was dead.
She knew it by the Falconer's words,
And from the look of the Falconer's eye,
And from the love that was in her soul
For her youthful Eomilly."

The Lady Alice, or Adeliza (for the name is
variously given), was daughter of William de
Meschines, and became the mother of the Bomillys.
When her son, dragged backward by his leashed
hounds, was drowned in his attempt to leap the
Strid, she selected a site for a priory which should
be a memorial of that sad event, and brought
thither the monks of Embsay, from the house
which her father had founded for Augustinian

0
M

te+Jr-b
h'M

*mM£,

t J, i. >

BOLTON

ABBEY,

FROM

HARTINGTON'S

(£y y. MacWhirter,

R.A.)

SEAT.

390

THE MAGAZINE

Canons in 1121. So tradition has it, insisting,
as usual, on the most romantic version of the
event. But tradition is oblivious of charters, which
nevertheless exist. It appears from one of these
that the site of the Abbey was obtained in fair
exchange, and that the victim of the Strid, "the
boy of Egremond," was then alive and well, being,
in fact, one of the parties to the bargain. What
is clear, therefore, is that the Augustinian Canons
of Embsay made a deliberate choice of the situation
of their new priory, abandoning the bleak neighbourhood of Skipton in order to settle down in this

LOOKING DOWN THE WHAEFE.

OF ART.

lovely and sheltered vale, where they might live,
the world forgetting, by the world forgot. There
is, not far beyond the Abbey, in close proximity
to a pathway which winds beside the Wharfe, a
sort of high-backed seat, or "grandfather's chair,"
cut out of the solid rock. It is called, I think, " The
Prior's Seat." One likes to think that it was used by
the whole of the monks indifferently, and that they
came here to meditate, or to sleep, it may be, at one
of the most lovely bends of the Wharfe, because
they took a real and loving delight in the scene.
There are red deer on the hills above Barden
Tower, and that the monks
liked venison is at any rate
assumed by Sir Edwin Landseer, whose " Bolton Abbey in
the Olden Time" is clear indication of his belief concerning the nature of monastic
fare. The room represented
in Landseer's picture is, one
may observe in passing, the
ancient gateway of the
Priory, now the entrance
chamber of Bolton Hall, one
of the occasional residences
of the Duke of Devonshire.
But there are other reasons
than a painter's revivification
of the past for believing that
the monks of Bolton were
not altogether a sad or an
ascetic race. They gave to
each other such names as
"Adam Blunder," "Drunken
Dick," " Tom Nowt," and
"Botch Bucket," as their
books record.
" Rado the
Sad" must have been exceptional in his melancholy,
or wherefore a name
so indicative of temperament ?
Turbulent, too, were the
monks of Bolton at
times. In 1274 the
whole convent conspired against the
prior, declared the sub-prior
to be old and useless, broke
away from all discipline,
and in general made such
a stir that a Commission
must needs be appointed to
inquire into their conduct
and reduce them to order.

BOLTON
Bolton Abbey was never a completed structure.
The last of the priors, Eichard Moon, was engaged
in building the tower when the Dissolution came to
put an end to his labours. The style of the Abbey
is so various in character as to indicate that the
work progressed in a very leisurely fashion between

ABBEY.

391

With the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the
history of Bolton Abbey becomes interwoven with
some of the most romantic passages of the history
of our country. "Bluff King H a l " gave the place
to Henry Clifford, the first Earl of Cumberland.
This was that " shepherd lord" whose father was

.

dn<(r« i •:v«ii,t

BOLTON

the twelfth and the sixteenth centuries. The Early
English diverges by clear stages into the Perpendicular style. Curiously enough, one of the older
portions is in present use. The nave, which is Early
English, has been roofed over for divine service, and
is, indeed, the parish church of Bolton. I t is to this
fact that Wordsworth alludes in " The White Doe of
Eylstone " :—
" I n the shattered fabric's heart
Kemaineth one protected part—
A rural chapel, neatly dressed,
In covert like a little nest;
And thither young and old repair
On Sabbath-day for praise and prayer."

v

Prior Moon's Tower, which forms the western
entrance, is, despite its incompleteness, a very
beautiful piece of work, with a fine receding arch,
a window of exquisite tracery, and embellishments
of shields and statues.

ABBEY.

killed on the eve of the battle of Towton, and who
was reared among the sheep of the Cumberland fells.
He had been restored to his own when Henry VII.
became king. In the following reign he led the
young men of the district round Bolton Abbey
to victorious Flodden Field. It was he who built
Barden Tower, where for many years he lived in
happy loneliness, studying astronomy and alchemy,
and possibly speculating after the manner of King
Alphonso of Castile. As many of the monks of
Bolton had been among his friends, one wonders,
perforce, what the feeling was between them and
him when they were routed out and he became
the possessor of their church and monastery. It
seems to have been an unhandsome thing to accept
such a gift, but the Lord Clifford's studies among
the stars may have taught him that it would be
wise, without being inhumane, to make his profit
out of the inevitable.

392

THE MAGAZINE

Looking back at the Abbey in the deepening
twilight, one may easily see in imagination the white
doe of Eylstone moving about the ruined walls.
One thinks, too, of that grim legend of how the
Mauleverers of Beamsley were buried in a vault

OF AET.

beneath the chantry, each Mauleverer standing on
his feet:—
" Pass, pass, who will yon chantry door,
And through the chink in the fractured floor
Look down and see a grisly sight—
A vault where the bodies are buried upright."

THE SHEINE OF ST. SIMEON: ELECTEOTYPED FOE SOUTH
KENSINGTON MUSEUM.
BY H. M. CUNDALL, F.S.A.

Z

AEA, the chief town of Dalmatia, situated on
the shores of the Adriatic, is chiefly famous
for the liqueur called maraschino, made from the
cherries which grow in the neighbourhood. It is,
however, also noted for a relic of considerable
interest. In one of its churches is a silver-gilt
shrine which is said to contain the body of St.
Simeon, the prophet who sang the " Nunc Dimittis."
It is not exactly known when the body of the
saint was brought to Zara, but tradition says
that it was conveyed there by sea from Palestine
by a knight on his return from the Crusades.
According to tradition, the devil raised a storm
and attempted to sink the ship, but the Crusader,
by throwing all his property overboard, managed
to keep it afloat, and when the gale ceased, the
ship was drifted, in a dilapidated condition, into
the port of Zara. Whilst staying there for repairs
to be made to the vessel, the knight was taken
ill, and was conveyed to the hospital of the monks,
situated on the outskirts of the town. He gave
out that the corpse was that of his brother, and
caused it to be buried in the cemetery belonging
to the monastery. Gradually becoming worse, the
knight, when on the point of death, divulged to the
monks that the body was that of St. Simeon, and
all necessary proofs would be found amongst his documents. The monks, pleased at their good fortune in
obtaining such a valuable relic, determined to keep
the body of the saint; but the same night on which
the Crusader died a celestial being appeared in a
dream to the three governors of the town of Zara,
and announced to each of them that the body of
St. Simeon had been buried in the cemetery of the
monks, and bade them go and search for it. On
the following morning, being bent on their mission,
they met and narrated their dreams to one another.
They then went to the cemetery, where they found
the monks already digging for the corpse. The
governors told their dreams, and easily persuaded
the monks to allow the body to be taken into
the town,, where it was exhibited in one of the
churches, and, many miracles being wrought by means
of it, its fame soon spread throughout Dalmatia.

In the year 1371 Queen Elizabeth, the wife
of Louis I. of Hungary, visited Zara, and, wishing
to possess some relic of the saint, she broke off
the forefinger from the left hand. No sooner had
she done so than she lost her sight, and was
unable to find her way out of the church.
Prostrating herself before the altar, the Queen
openly confessed her sin. and replaced the finger,
which immediately united again to the hand, and
the Queen's sight was restored, but her own hand,
touching the body of the saint, became withered.
For a second time the Queen craved pardon from
the saint, and offered, as a penalty for her sins, to
present him with a silver shrine to replace the
wooden one in which his body was then encased.
Her. prayer being heard, the Queen commissioned
five noblemen of Zara to have the shrine made;
and they entrusted Francesco da Milano, son of a
Milanese silversmith named Antonio, living at Zara,
to execute it. Francesco completed the shrine in
1380, and received 28,000 ducats for his labour.
The shrine, which at the present time stands
behind the high altar in the church of St. Simeon,
is of silver-gilt, and measures six feet six inches
in length, five feet in height, and two feet three
inches in width. It is said formerly to have
stood upon four silver figures of angels, but these
have disappeared, and it is now supported by four
kneeling angels, two in bronze and two in marble.
The two former, which are at either end of the
shrine, were cast from guns captured from the
Turks in the seventh century by the Venetians.
The whole of the shrine is elaborately decorated
with repoussd and chased panels, representing
incidents principally connected with the saint.
The roof is pointed ; on the front of it is a fulllength figure of St. Simeon in an elaborately
decorated robe, and on the other side three panels.
In the centre one is represented Francesco at work
and two persons in the act of adoration. On the
right panel a monk is taking hold of one of the
saint's legs, with others watching him; and the left
one probably represents a man struck dead for
mitting an act of sacrilege.

THE

SHRINE

On the back of the shrine, in the centre, is
the following Latin inscription:—
"Symeon hie Justus, Jesum de Virgine natum
Ulnis qui tenuit, hac archa pace quiescit.
Hungarie regina, potens illustris ed alta
Elyzabet junior, quam voto contulit almo
Anno milleno trcceno octuageno.
Hoc opus fecit Franciscus d. Mediolano."

I t notifies that the just St. Simeon, who held

OF ST. SIMEOK

393

right is the arrival of King Louis of Hungary at
Zara in 1358, after the war with the Venetians,
and his reception by the bishop and nobles; on the
walls of the town are the arms of Hungary. To
the left are the monks digging for the body of
the saint, whilst the three governors are narrating
their dreams to each other.
At either end of the shrine are heraldic devices,
with the arms of Hungary on an escutcheon

THE SHRINE OF ST. SIMEON.

in his arms the infant Jesus, born of the Virgin,
rests in peace in this shrine, which Elizabeth the
Younger, the high and illustrious Queen of Hungary, gave in the year 1380, in fulfilment of her
vow through which her health was restored, and
that it was made by Francesco da Milano. The
inscription is surrounded with bands of floral
scroll work, and a shield of the arms of Hungary
in each corner. To the left of the inscription is
the Queen and her three daughters presenting
the shrine to the saint; on the right is the saint
performing a miracle. The centre panel on the
front of the shrine represents the presentation of
the infant Saviour to St. Simeon, with Anna the
prophetess standing near. On the panel to the
907

empaled with the lilies of France, as Louis I. was
descended from the House of Anjou. The crest
above is also that of Anjou. Beneath the arms
at one end is Queen Elizabeth instructing the
nobles to have the shrine made, whilst at the other
is a representation of the ship, with the body of
the saint, in the storm. Some of the crew are
appealing to the saint to protect them, whilst
others are throwing the cargo overboard.
The front is on hinges and opens downwards.
On the inside of it are also similar panels, with
illustrations of various miracles performed by the
saint. At the back of the interior of the shrine
are also silver-gilt panels, representing the presentation of the Saviour to St. Simeon, with

394

THE MAGAZINE

figures of the patron saints of Zara in vaulted
niches on either side—namely, St. Donato, St.
Crysogono, St. Stephen, and St. Anastasia. These
panels, however, are of later date than the others,
and are good specimens of Italian Renaissance
work of the fifteenth century. It is not known
when they were inserted ; but it is probable that
the shrine was originally flat at the top, and that
when it was altered the three panels now on the
roof were removed from the interior, and new
ones inserted in their place.
The body of the saint is embalmed, and is
still in a good state of preservation. It lies on
a rich piece of velvet of the fourteenth century.
The head rests on a wooden pillow, on which is
a silver crown with precious stones. The waist
is covered by a piece of black fabric richly embroidered with pearls and guipure lace of golden
thread. Over the legs is a white linen napkin,
also embroidered with gold and coloured silks,
worked in a geometrical pattern, and with very

OF ART.

interesting figures and monsters. On the forefinger are numerous rings, some of which belong to
the best period of mediaeval goldsmiths' work. It is
recorded that they were the rings of the courtiers
of Queen Elizabeth, who placed them there when
the finger was miraculously rejoined to the hand.
About 1630 the shrine underwent some repairs, and the silver plates were taken off and
sent to Venice to be regilt, when they were found
to weigh 11,200 ounces. In addition to the panels
described, which are separated by spiral columns,
the shrine is richly decorated with bands of silver
ornamented with fleur de lys and conventional
designs, beautifully executed.
This interesting example of Italian silversmiths'
work of the early Renaissance period has recently
been reproduced by the electrotype process, under
the supervision of'Monsieur E. Radisics de Kutas,
the Director of the Hungarian Industrial Art
Museum at Buda-Pest, and a copy of it is in the
South Kensington Museum.

OUE ILLUSTBATED NOTE-BOOK.

T

HE Trustees of the City Museum and Art closely resembles the finished work, which became
Gallery of Birmingham are to be congratu- familiar to the picture-loving public in London
lated upon the acquisition of such a charming when exhibited at the Guildhall two years ago.
example of Fred
Those who reWalker's work
member the picas the sketch for
ture will observe
"The Old Gate."
that the figures
Mr. Whitworth
in the sketch are
Wallis, the enernot posed in pregetic curator,
cisely the same
brought the fact
way, while the
that the picture
labourer on the
was obtainable
right is only
before the Trusfaintly outlined.
t e e s , and t h e
The colour of
opportunity
to
the whole is perenrich their colfect, and the
lection
was
upper part of
eagerly
seized
the picture is
upon. Thus Birevidently in a
mingham,already
nearly finished
fortunate in its
state ; but alart possessions,
though
the
becomes more so
figures are only
SKETCH FOB " T H E OLD GATE."
in being able to
sketched in, they
(By Fred Walker, A.R.A.
Recently acquired by the Birmingham Art Gallery.)
add this interest
sh©w the exquiing picture to its permanent collection. The study
is painted on a canvas measuring 48 in. by 36 in.,
and was last offered for sale at the dispersal of
the Walker collection in 1875. In composition it

site grace of outline which is so characteristic of
Walker.
One of the most important art sales of the
year was that of the collection formed by the late

OUR ILLUSTRATED
Mr. Adrian Hope. Consisting of seventy-five
"lots," the majority of
which were works of
the old Dutch masters,
the total amount realised was £49,880. This
result was disappointing, being far below the
estimate based upon
the importance of the
pictures. One of the
gems of the collection
was the little picture
by Gerard Dow, " The
Flute-Player," of which
a reproduction is here
given. Painted on a
panel measuring 1.4 in.
by 11^ in., the work
is in a most brilliant
condition, and there
was c o n s e q u e n t l y a
brisk competition for
its possession. The
picture was sold for
£3,675, this being a

THE

NOTE-BOOK.

FLUTE-PLAYER.

(By Gerard Dow. Recently in the Adrian Hope Collection.)

PHILIP IV. OF SPAIN.

395
large increase upon the
prices paid for it at
former sales. Its last
appearance was at the
Saltmarsh sale in 1846,
when it went for £320,
or £130 less than the
sum paid for it at the
Kleynenbergh sale at
Leyden in 1841.
A good Rembrandt
(a portrait of Nicholas
Ruts), which fetched
£283 at the King of
Holland's sale in 1850,
was bought for 4,700
guineas, while another
portrait by the same
artist (of Joncker Petronella Buys) went for
1,300 guineas.
The other picture
we reproduce (a portrait of Philip IV. of
Spain), attributed to
Velasquez—there is an
authentic one of this,

NICHOLAS RUTS.

(From the Painting by Velasqxiez.)
(From the Painting by Rembrandt.)
(Recently in the Adrian Hope Collection.)

396

THE MAGAZINE OF AET.

about the same size, in the National Gallery—was £158 lis., 1,500 guineas; and a beautiful example
sold for 100 guineas only. Nicholas Maes was re- of Pieter de Hooch, which sold for 2,150 guineas.
presented by three works, one of which, depicting a A painting by Paul Potter of " Pour Oxen in
a Meadow," realDutch domestic
ised the extrascene, with a
ordinarily
low
young
woman
price of £945,
working a pump,
and the Corporaran up to 2,860
tion of Glasgow
guineas, the two
acquired a magothers realising
nificent
" Boar
£945 and £315
H u n t " by Eurespectively. A
bens for the comfine example of
paratively small
Greuze, a head
sum of 1,660
of a. girl, sold for
guineas.
2,900 " guineas ;
The " Portrait
and among the
of a Boy," by
other
pictures
John Opie, E.A.,
for which good
has
recently
prices were paid
been hung in
were " The DeEoom 21 at the
parture for the
AFTER A STORM—THE THAMES.
N a t i o n a l GalC h a s e " — for
{From the Painting by Theodore Roussel.)
which £577 10s.
lery (No. 1,408),
was paid at the Saltmarsh sale—which went for having been presented by Mr. Edward Opie.
£2,100; a curious work by Melchior de HondeWe also reproduce two of the works by Mr.
coeter, called " Long Live the King," and represent- Theodore Eoussel, which are in the exhibition
ing a concert of birds, which was sold in 1857 for referred to in the "Art Notes."

PORTRAIT OF A BOY.
{By John Opie, R.A.

Recently acquired by the National Gallery*)

REPOSE.
(From the Painting by Theodore Roussel.)

397

GLIMPSES

OF

AETIST-LIFE.

THE PUNCH
BY

M. H.

I

N the Parliaments of Wits and the Conclaves of
Humorists, the weekly convention known as
" the Punch Dinner" holds highest rank, if import-

DINNER.
SPIELMANN.

cutting alike—it follows that the weekly gathering;
which has brought these things about claims attention and respect among the Diets of the world, and

T H E EARLY " P U N C H " D I N I N G - R O O M , CROWN I N N , V I N E G A R YARD, DRURY LANK.
(Drawn

by E. II.

ance is to be judged by results, and pre-eminence by
renown. For three-ancl-fifty years have these illustrious functions been held, fifty to the year. And
those two thousand six hundred and fifty meals
mark off, week by week, the advance of English
humour during the Victorian era—not the humour
of literature alone, but the humour, as well as the
technical excellence, of one of the noblest and
most vigorous and delightful of all the sections of
English art.
For this reason I have included the solemn
festivity among the scenes of artist-life. If it be
conceded, as I think it must, that Punch has been
for half a century an effective, even a glorious, school
of art—of drawing in black-and-white and of wood908

Fitchew.)

demands a first place in virtue of public service and
by right of artistic performance.
But it is not in the spirit nor with the fashionable view of the Eoyal Academicians and their imposing banquet that the members of the Punch staff
hold their weekly junket. " We English," said
Douglas Jerrolcl, " would dine to celebrate the engulfing of England." Yet if " the Punchites " share
the feeling of old Timon that " we must dine together," it is neither for purposes of self-congratulation, nor yet of hospitality. Though good-fellowship is near the genesis of the institution, work
and serious" aim are at the root of it all, and, in
the midst of all the merry-making, are never for a
moment forgotten.

398

THE MAGAZINE

Nevertheless, conviviality, you may be sure, was
for something in the arrangement when the reign
was young. Clubs not a few there were around
Fleet Street and the Strand, where the men who
founded Punch, their friends and enemies alike in
similar walks of life, would hob-nob together, and
where the sharp concussions of their diamond-cutdiamond wit would emit the sparks and Hashes that
were remembered for such and such a comic paper
as they happened to be connected with. In those
early days the flow of soul was closely regulated by
the flow of liquor, and the most modest of dinners
was food at once to body and to mind. "What things,"
wrote Beaumont in his Letter to Ben Jonson—
What things have we seen
Done at the Mermaid! Heard words that have been
So nimble and so full of subtile flame,
As if that every one from whom they came
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest,
And resolved to live a fool the rest
Of his dull life."

As in Elizabethan times, so in the days of
Victoria. The Punch dinners of the last few decades
would, in their excellence and refinement, have
astonished the merry crew of old ; but the entertainment is now but the prelude to business, and
not, as in the earlier struggling months, the powder
that served to fire off the great guns of humour.
The weekly dinner was evolved from the gatherings
that were held nearly every evening, as well as
Saturday-nightly, in the anxious days that preceded,
and immediately succeeded too, the laboured birth
of Punch. The first of these—the very first "Punch
dinner," strictly so-called—was held at La Belle
Sauvage, Ludgate Hill, on the spot now occupied by
the great house of Cassell & Company. Mr. Hine,
V.-P.B.L, was actually present at this historic feast,
having been impressed by Mr. Landells, part proprietor of Punch, into the service of the paper. I
may add, as a matter of minor history, that Mr.
Price, the owner of the hostelry, advertised his
house in the early numbers of Punch—a fact which
suggests (perhaps unjustly) a mysterious financial
understanding on the score of his bill. These
tavern repasts were soon divided up between those
who wished to work and those who wished to play ;
and the Punch Dinner and the "Punch Club" were
in due course established as separate institutions.
For all that, they both were held in the Crown
Inn in Vinegar Yard, just off Drury Lane, and
the " Club" was not long after (1843) celebrated
in the pages of Punch itself by the " Professor,"
Percival Leigh, in his choicest dog-Latin—his most
elegant Latin cle cuisine—or, as he himself called it,
" Anglo - Graeco - Canino - Latinum."
The lines, a
parody of Goldsmith's " Eetaliation," begin thus :—

OF AET.

" Sunt quidam jolly dogs, Saturday qui nocte frequentant
Antiqui ^T^cpavov qui stat prope mcenia Druri,
Bov\6fi€voi saccos cum prog distendere rather,
Indulgere jocis, necnon Baccho atque tobacco . . ."

—lines which, with a few of the succeeding ones, may
be rendered thus—the spirit and the text being
followed as closely as may be :—
" Some jolly dogs on Saturdays at fall of night are fain
To visit the ' Crown' beside old Drury, hard by Drury Lane;
Their object, to expand themselves with dainties of the feed
And give the hour to jest and wine, and smoke the fragrant
weed.
Such fellows, sure, ne'er graced before that jovial mundane
hole.
To them I sing this song of praise—those mighty men of soul,
Whose fame henceforth shall spread abroad so long as time
shall roll.
" The * Crown' stands in a quiet yard, yet near the noisy
street ;
'Tis their local habitation—in its dining-room they meet.
The massive table, brightly spread, groans with the mighty
feast.
The viands change. To-day 'tis beef with Yorkshire puddingdressed ;
Next week perchance the dish that Hodge will grinningly
define
As ' leg of mutton, boiled, with trimmings.' Heartily theyxline.
Here flows the Double X, and flows the Barclay-Perkins brew;
Nor does there lack the modern sack that best is known to you
When waiters call it ' off-n-off '—which waiters mostly do."

Here it was that the wits of pen and pencil first
laid their heads together in the service of Mr. Punch ;
and when they left for more private, if not more
venerable, quarters, the room was occupied by " The
Reunion Club "—a coterie which, in 1857, was to
become far more widely known under the style and
title of the " Savage Club." It was situated next
door to the " Whistling Oyster," and faced a side
entrance to Drury Lane Theatre—a fairly large
first-floor room, looking larger by reason of its low
ceiling, but well lighted by its three high windows.
"When I visited it the wooden staircase had been
replaced by a steep stone-way; but the approach
and the ascent were still steep enough to make one
wonder how the portly Mark Lemon could, without
difficulty or fear of accident, scale the classic heights,
and twist his body to the needful turns.
Although, as I have said, conviviality and convenience were essentially identified with the Punch
dinner, especially in its embryonic stage, when
frequent interviews were necessary and the daily
occupations of many of the staff precluded an earlier
attendance, it was quickly seen that the chief practical use and effect of the dinner was to broaden
the men's view of things, to produce harmony of
tone and singleness of aim, to keep the editor constantly in touch with his whole staff, and to secure
the fullest advantage which their combined wit and
counsel could afford. When the transfer of the paper
was completed from Ebenezer Landells to the great

THE PUNCH
publishing house of Bradbury & Evans, the regular
dinners were soon established at their offices at
No. 11, Bouverie Street, E.G. At first, these repasts
were held on Saturday night, when the paper was
made up and sent away to press. But when the
true value of the meetings became apparent the
day was changed to Wednesday, the dinner was
established ostensibly for the discussion and determining of the "big cut," and the function
became as exclusive and esoteric as a masonic
initiation. From that day to this it has, with few
exceptions, been held januis clausis; and beside
it the Literary Ladies' Dinner and Bluebeard's
Chamber are as open to the world and free from
mystery as the public streets at noon.
The room in which it was held, so long the
Temple of the Comic Muse, had little in itself to
command the attention of the superficial observer.
The stairs which Thackeray trod, and which resounded to the quick, light step of Jerrold and to
the heavier tread of Leech, exist no longer; but
the classic shrine is practically as it was when the
"Fat Contributor," pushing roughly past the young
'prentice engraver who opened the door to his ring,
gave no thought to him who was soon to make the
name of Birket Foster famous in the land.
To-day, a large—I might say an imposing—
apartment on the first floor looking upon the street
is approached, as most front offices in London city
are approached, from a landing leading through an
open office. Upon the table are a water-jug and
a couple of goblets of cheap and distinctly unbeautiful Bohemian glass. A tobacco-box, hardly
less ugly (coeval, one would say, with the room
itself), a snuff-box, and long pipes serve to recall
that respect for the past and for tradition which
is one of the most delightful, as it is one of the
most successful, elements in Punch's composition.
Here you may see Sir John Tenniel's long churchwarden with his initials marked upon it, and
Charles Keene's little pipe—for these two men
would ever prefer a stem between their teeth to
a cigar-stump. Statuettes in plaster of John
Leech and of Thackeray, by Sir Edgar Boehm, as
well as a bust of Douglas Jerrold, decorate the
mantelpiece or the dwarf-cupboard, and on the
walls are many frames of abiding interest. Here
you have the portraits of the four editors—that of
Mark Lemon painted by Fred Chester, while the
likenesses of Shirley Brooks, Tom Taylor, and Mr.
Burnand are in photography. The portraits of the
staff, taken by Bassano three years ago at Mr.
Agnew's request, to the number of fourteen or
fifteen, hang separately in their dark frames. The
original of one of Tenniel's Almanac designs; a
masterly drawing two feet lorn? by Keene, bought
%J

©>

©'

t/

'

©

DINNER.

399

by the late Mr. Bradbury at a sale ; the (unused)
cartoon of Disraeli leading the principal financiers
of the day in hats and frock coats across the Bed
Sea (" Come along, its getting shallower"); the
original of Leech's celebrated " Mr. Punch's Fancy
Ball," and a series of the enlarged coloured prints
of his hunting sketches ; a caricature of Mr. Furniss
by Mr. Sambourne, made in Paris ; another of Mr.
Sambourne by Mr. Furniss; and a third of Mr.
Sambourne by himself; a caricature in pen-and-ink
and colour of the Punch staff marching along in
Paris by Mr. Furniss; a black-and-white sketch
by the same artist of the same distinguished
company in the train on the return journey; and
another souvenir of the Paris trip by Mr. du
Maurier, including the portraits of himself, Mr.
Burnand, Mr. Arthur a Beckett, and Mr. W. Bradbury. The trophy frame of specimen proofs of
some of the finest of Swain's cuts of the artistic
staff's best work, gathered together for show in one
of the great exhibitions, has been removed to make
room for photographs of Gilbert a Beckett, "Ponny"
(Horace) Mayhew, Charles Keene, Tom Taylor,
Percival Leigh, Charles H. Bennett, F. Sketchley,
John Henry Agnew, Thomas Agnew, and William
Bradbury, Mr. Fred Evans and Mr. William Agnew;
while photographic groups of the staff and a fine
autotype of Thackeray complete the wall decoration
of one of the most interesting apartments in London
City. And in the corner on the locker farthest
from the street, besides a little papier-mache' figure
of a Japanese Punch, sent from an admirer in the
Land of the Eising Sun, and a group charmingly
modelled from Sir John Tenniel's beautiful cartoon
of "Peace and the New Year," stands the statue
of the Great Hunchback himself, which in a fit
of enthusiasm a young German sculptor, named
Adolph Fleischmann, wrought and presented to the
object of his admiration. It is a work of no little
grotesqueness and ingenuity (well modelled and
coloured, and fitted with springs permitting of the
working of arms and eyes and head), which has
played its part in the decoration of the publishing
office on certain occasions of public rejoicings, and
during the blocking of Fleet Street has been utilised
in the direction of comic self-advertisement. Such
is the room with its pleasant decoration of red
and black and gold, with its large windows and its
sunlight gaselier; but take it for all in all it is
about as unlike Mr. Sambourne's classic representation of the Eoman atrium in his Jubilee
drawing as well could be imagined.
And the table itself—the table—the famous
board of which we all have heard and none, or
but very few, have seen — but I, me felicissime,
among the number ! As a piece of furniture this

400

THE MAGAZINE

OF ART.

hospitable, but rather primitive, piece of joinery is at Harrow, and sometimes at Purfleet, Windsor,
not of much account, the top being of plain deal and Kosherville. Sometimes, when occasion has de{pace Thackeray's " Mahogany Tree"), oblong in manded—in the " dead season," may be, when the
shape, with rounded ends. But its associations attendance at the table has dwindled, though for
render it a treasure among treasures, a rich and no sustained period (it is upon record that the
priceless gem; for at this table nearly every man " dinner " has consisted of a tete-a-tete between Sir
upon the staff has
John Tenniel and Mr.
F. C, BlJRNAND.
from the day it was
Arthur a Beckett)—
made sat and carved
not more than three
his initials upon it
or four consecutive
with a penknife, when
weeks, certainly—the
officially elevated to
Sussex or, more often,
Punch's peerage. As
the old Bedford Hotel,
each has died, his
or latterly the First
successor has taken
Avenue, has been the
his place, just as the
scene of the feast;
Immortals of the Inwhile "special dinners"
stitut de France are
(and they have been
called to fill the chairs
many) have been held
of departed genius ;
in special places. And
10, IBojjvcne Sticet, Z.&.
and he has cut his
not invariably has the
initials or his mark
weekly repast been a
v/Tfie pftiaaure c\ ijotu Company u jtcqueateD
close by those of the
" dinner " at all, be it
oti IfVedueaDaif next, tlic
.j&^^^ct^jL..
men who occupied the
observed; for on cerat fiaff-paat Six afiat]
place
before
him.
tain rare occasions,
Jin atttwer, if tuialU'e to come, wiff oGl'iqe
There they are, starwhen some important
ing at you from the
Parliamentary matter
table like so many
has intervened, a lunPUNCH
D I N N E R CARD A D O P T E D I N 1870.
abecedarian skeletons
cheon has been held
at the feast; and if
instead.
you take a furtive and hasty peep from the doorThe places at table, once occupied by the
way and lift the green protective cloth you catch members of the Staff, are nowadays regarded as
sight nearest you of a " D. M." in close company much their seignory as Ministers regard theirs on
with a beautifully-drawn " W. M. T.," and a mono- the Treasury-bench. But this has not always been
grammatic leech inside a bottle flanked by a J. the case; indeed, in earlier days the places were
and an L., and you gaze with deep interest on often shuffled as at a game of " general post." Proof
the handiwork of them and of the rest, many of of it may be had from the following plans of " the
whom have carved their names, as on that table, table " between 1855 and 1865—perhaps the most
deep into England's roll of fame ; and of others, interesting years in the history of Punch, as demontoo, who, with less of genius but equal zeal and strating the transitional stage, when the ancient
effort, have yet strong claim on the gratitude and order of things was rapidly developing to the
the recollection of a kindly and laughter-loving modern as we know them to-day.
people.
In 1855, then, the order was as follows:—•
For more than forty years, then, this table has
W I L L I A M BRADBURY*
week by week, with few exceptions, been surDOUGLAS JERROLD
JOHN LEECH
rounded by the Staff of the day; and the chair,
TOM TAYLOR
W. M. THACKERAY
the self-same old-fashioned wooden editorial armGILBERT A BECKETT
SHIRLEY BROOKS
HORACE MAYHEW
MARK LEMON
chair, has been filled by the reigning editor. With
PERCIVAL L E I G H
JOHN TENNIEL
few exceptions, I said; for Bouverie Street has not
F. M. EVANS*
invariably been the hatching-place of the Cartoon,
nor have its walls resounded with absolute regu- —only two artists and a half (Thackeray being a
larity to the laughter and the jests of the merry- commixture of writer and draughtsman) to seven
makers. During the summer the dinner has been, writers and a half!
Five years later—in 1860—the places had
now and again, and still is, held at Greenwich, at
Bichmond, or elsewhere — Hampton Court and
* Proprietors.
Pulwich rather frequently of old, as well as once
S H I R L E Y BROOKS.

CHARLES K E E N E .

T O M TAYLOR.

. F . SKKTCHLEY. F E R C I V A L L E I G H .

HORACE M A Y H E W .
JOHN TENNIEL.
G. DU M A U R I E R .

THE

PUNCH

changed, partly through death, partly through r e arrangement :—
WILLIAM BRADBURY
W. M. THACKERAY (when he

JOHN LEECH

TOM TAYLOR

HENRY SILVER

[came)

HORACE MAYHEW

CHARLES KEENE

SHIRLEY BROOKS

JOHN TENNIEL

PERCIVAL LEIGH

MARK LEMON
F. M. EVANS

H e r e the artistic element is seen to be asserting
itself to some extent, t h e proportion between artist
and writer being further readjusted after t h e lapse

DINNER

401

MR. F. C. BURNAND
JOHN TENNIEL
MR. ANSTEY GUTHRIE
LINLEY SAMBOURNE
MR. HENRY LUCY
ARTHUR A BECKETT
MR. E. T. BEED
B. LEHMANN
MR. BERNARD PARTRIDGE
HARRY FURNISS (until Dec.
MR. DU MAURIER
[1893)
MR. E. J. MILLIKEN
MR. WILLIAM AGNEW (sometimes)
MR. LAWRENCE BRADBURY or
MR. PHILIP AGNEW

SIR
MR.
MR.
MR.
MR.

I n t h e decade or so following t h e death of
Douglas Jerrold—roughly corresponding with t h e
period within which t h e arrangements varied as I
have shown—six new appointments were made to

THE PRESENT " PUNCH'' DINING-ROOM, BOUVERIE STREET.
(Drawn by E. H. Fitchew.)

of another five y e a r s : for in 1865 t h e constitution
of " the table " became—
F. M. EVANS
TOM TAYLOR
G. DU MAURIER
W. H. BRADBURY (his
HENRY SILVER

father seldom came now)

H. MAYHEW
CHARLES KEENE
F. C. BURNAND
PERCIVAL LEIGH

CHARLES H. BENNETT
F. M. EVANS, JR.

SHIRLEY BROOKS
JOHN TENNIEL
MARK LEMON

— t h e editor for t h e first time taking his proper
place a t t h e table, although, it is true, i t was only
at t h e foot.
To-day, t h e number of t h e Staff h a s been increased, and t h e right proportion struck between
the p e n a n d t h e pencil—the editor, too, presiding.

" the table." These w e r e : Mr. H e n r y Silver, in
August, 1857 ; Charles Keene, February, 1860 (after
a nine years' probationership); Mr. F . C. Burnand,
J u n e , 1863 ; Mr. G. du Maurier, November, 1 8 6 4 ;
Charles H . Bennett, February, 1865 (though illhealth prevented h i m from taking his place until
the following J u n e ) ; and Mr. R F. Sketchley (now
a t South Kensington Museum), J a n u a r y , 1868.
The present staff, I m a y add, since Mr. d u
Maurier's accession, have taken their places a t t h e
table in t h e following order: Mr. A r t h u r a Beckett,
Mr. E. J . Milliken, Gilbert a Beckett, M r . Anstey
Guthrie, Mr. H e n r y Lucy, M r . R Lehmann, M r . E.
T. Reed, and Mr. Bernard Partridge.
As M r . P u n c h approached man's estate, and

402

THE MAGAZINE

arrived at years of artistic discretion, he cultivated a
pretty taste in epicurism ; until to-day, if report be
true, the dinners (prepared and sent in by Spiers &
Pond), the Ayala, and the cigars, are all worthy of
the palates of the men whose wit it is theirs to
stimulate and nourish. To summon the Staff to
these feasts of reason it was in later years the
practice to issue printed notices which, after 1870, were
superseded by invitation cards
drawn by Mr. du Maurier—
the design representing Mr.
Punch ringing his bell, while
the faithful fly hurriedly to
respond to the behest; but
TOM TAYLORS
owing to the number of
INITIALS.
portraits it contained of old
(Cut in the "Punch" Table.
friends now departed, and
the painful recollections it consequently aroused, its
later use has been discontinued.
But when our Democritus boasted fewer years
there was not so much ceremony in his banquet,
neither was there so much state; and the friendship
was as keen and the intimacy as great in Leigh's
humbler days of " off-noff." A wonderful company : a brilliant company ; with flashing wit
and
dazzling sallies,
MARK LEMON'S MONOGRAM.
sharp attack and keen
(Cut in the "Punch" Table.)
retort from a few bright,
trenchant spirits, with many " a skirmish of wit
between them." From more, the quieter flow of
genial humour. And among the rest, the listeners;
men—some of them—who prefer to attend than to
talk, even to the point of reserve and almost of
taciturnity. Such men
were
John
Leech,
Richard Doyle, and
Charles Keene—whose
silence,
however,
masked subtle minds
that were teeming with
droll ideas, and as appreciative of humour
HOBACE MAYHEW'S INITIALS
as the sprightliest.
(Cut in the "Punch" Table.)
What jokes have been
made, what stories told that never have found their
wTay into print! What chaff, what squibs, what
caricatures—which it surpasses the wit of a Halsbury or a MacNeill to imagine or condone!
Thus, for half a century has Wednesday evening
been passed in the editorial-office of Punch, just
when its readers are discussing the merits of the
previous week's issue; and according to the verdict

OF ART.

of those readers was attuned the merriment of the
Staff. It is on record how Douglas Jerrold would go
radiant to the dinners as " Mrs. Caudle " was sending
up Punch's circulation at
a rapid rate; "and was
one of the happiest among
them all."
Thackeray,
too, first tasted the delights of wide popularity
in the success of his
" Snob Papers," and he
showed the pleasure he
felt in his demeanour
at the board. At one
time these two men sat
side by side, and there
was as little love as
space between them; but
with that good-humoured
philosophy which is a
THACKERAY S MONOGRAM.
tradition of that institu(Cut in the "Punch" Table.)
tion, the occasional differences of opinion, and the harder knocks of wit, and
sometimes, even, the still sharper encounters of
temper, were all glossed over. As Thackeray so
truly remarked himself—" What is the use of
quarrelling with a man if you have to meet him
every Wednesday at dinner ?" Nevertheless, in
course of time he changed his seat from between
Jerrold and Gilbert Abbot a, Beckett, and crossing
over, faced his friend the enemy, while Mark Lemon,
watchful and alert beneath the cloak of geniality,
was quick to cast a damping word on inflammable
conversation and—so far as he could persuade them
to listen to a man so greatly their inferior in
genius and intellect—to stem the threatened outburst.
As a matter
of fact, Jerrold always
regarded Thackeray as
a bit of a snob and
viewed his entrance
into Society—against
which Jerrold had for
years been hurling his
bitterest darts — with
very grave suspicion.
JOHN LEECH'S INITIALS, ETC.
"I
have
known
(Cut in the "Punch" Table.)
Thackeray," he would
say, " for eighteen years, and I don't know him
yet"—almost in the despairing words in which I
have heard a distinguished Academician speak of
his still more distinguished President. On the
other hand, Mr. Arthur a Beckett has declared to
me, " I never knew my brother so well as when I
met him at the Punch table."
(To be continued.)

403

PKOFESSOK BEOWN : TEACHEE AND PAINTEB.
BY

D.

S.

MACCOLL.

r P H E appointment of Mr. Fred Brown to the told him was the b e t t e r ; and the same straightJL
Slade Professorship in University College at ness of character has given a growing weight to
the beginning of last year was an act of good his influence as a teacher. Next to a very great
painter, the best teacher
sense s o m e w h a t unis an honest and intellicommon in the records
gent painter who is himof art patronage ; for the
self a student.
This
new professor had done
honesty and intelligence
little to recommend himare brought out strikself to popular or official
ingly by a fact in Mr.
favour. As a painter he
Brown's career—namely,
was associated with the
that he began as a painter
sturdiest enemies of the
of popular pictures, hung
Academy and its w a y s ;
and sold at the Acaas a teacher in enforced
demy, and that, with
connection with South
this sort of success in
Kensington he had, in
his power, he definitely
disregard of the system
gave up painting such
cherished and rewarded
pictures, and ranged
there, trained his pupils
himself among the artists
to draw ; and by general
who do not
perhaps
repute he was stamped
very often sell but try
a wild impressionist, in
to paint.
ludicrous enough contradiction to the actual
Of M r .
Brown's
modesty and restraint
pupils there must be a
of his methods of work.
very large number. H e
It is no easy thing for
has been teaching now
a scholastic body with
for t h e last fifteen or
the best will in the
sixteen years. The beworld to do the right
ginning was made with
thing, to decide what
a night class for workthe right thing is in a
ing men. One class was
matter that lies outside
added to another till, in
P E O P E S S O B P E E D BROWN
their own province. But,
the end, the school was
with the same judgment
(Draivn by Walter Sickert.)
crowded to its limits
and independence that
with all sorts and ages
secured t h e m the services of Mr. Brown's dis- of students, women as well as men. The place
tinguished predecessor, M. Legros, the Council in which the classes were held—a somewhat fanchose the man whom the voice alike of disinterested tastic building in a Westminster slum, known as
artists and of grateful pupils would have named the Royal Architectural Museum—was something
for the post, and whom a long and assiduous c areer of a makeshift for its purpose, but was picturesque
of teaching had qualified to hold it. A man does beyond the ordinary style of drawing-school, with
not lightly win the esteem t h a t Mr. Brown was its background of mediaeval casts.
Angels and
found to possess; and when, at the invitation of chimeras from half the temples of Europe looked
the editor of T H E MAGAZINE OF ART, I attempt down on the reinstated divinity whose t u r n it was
to explain to his readers the qualities that won to be copied in charcoal by the gaily-pinafored
this reputation, I find myself putting in the first art-student.
The charcoal itself was mislaid on
place the sincerity of Mr. Brown's character both the feet of recumbent crusaders; a skeleton, with
as a teacher and as a painter.
If he has not the names of his bones on a blackboard beside
proved himself yet a great painter, he has shown him, dangled in front of the history of the
himself an honest one in refusing the cheaper Creation and Redemption; and an idol from India
successes, and trying for what his intelligence squatted in meditation before an Assyrian relief

404

THE MAGAZINE

generally supposed to represent the triumph of
Barnum and Jumbo.
A sober figure on this
fantastic background, Mr. Brown, concurrently
with M. Legros at the Slade, taught drawing
on the sensible system customary in Parisian

A PORTRAIT.
(By Professor Fred Brown.)

studios. Let me explain in what way this, system
differed from the official system of the Academy
and South Kensington. The idea of the latter is
to require of the student at the very outset a
highly-finished copy of some antique figure. He
is required, that is to say, to finish before he has
learned to begin. He is encouraged in that vice
of the beginner which is to notice the little things
and to be blind to the large things. The business
of a real teacher of drawing may be summed up
in the effort to make the beginner attend to the
large fact first, the smaller next, and the smallest
last. The effect of the official idea is the exact
contrary to this, and keeps the beginner's eye

OF . ART.

glued to some tiny fact of superficial texture,
while everything important remains unperceived.
It is to put the -cart before the horse, and spend
all day in polishing the harness in the hope of
moving the load. For let the untechnical reader
consider. Supposing one has to draw
the figure of a man standing with
outstretched arms: the main, the
elementary fact in that figure, the
fact on which all its action depends,
is expressed by two lines crossing
one another, the line of the body
and that of the arms. Note that
angle correctly, hit the characteristic
swing of these two lines, and you
have set up a scaffolding on which
all the smaller facts can be correctly hung, the smaller contours of
the single limbs, the still smaller
contours of the several muscles, and
so forth. But miss the elementary
fact and no smaller fact can be
rightly stated because of this mistake at the outset.
Now these largest facts that control all the others are the last to be
appreciated by the beginner.
He
sees the flaw in the surface of the
marble, but he does not see the
statue; he sees the separate hairs,
but not the head; he sees the twigs
but not the forest. Surely it is a
waste of time to allow him to state
those facts with which he is perfectly familiar, and which he has
no difficulty in stating, and which
he states with such insistence that
the twig becomes more important
than the tree, when he ought to
be learning, ought to be encouraged
and urged by every device of teaching, t to attend to the big things
first and let the 'small come in their order. Instead of that, he is induced to sit worrying for
months over the texture of the "Theseus" before
he has seized the character of its forms, and falls
into the habit of this brainless industry, this pestilent practice of a kind of graining, ugly in itself
as well as futile.
In place of this deplorable waste of time,
the practice at the Westminster school was to
allow the student to make a sufficient number
of studies from the antique to familiarise him
with his. materials and give him. some control
over his hand. These were made in charcoal on
Michelet paper, so as to be easily obliterated and

909

PROFESSOR

BROWN: TEACHER

recommenced, and were never allowed to proceed
when some radical point of drawing had been
missed so as to invalidate what followed. After this
preliminary practice the student was sent to the
life-room, and drew from the living model in the
same fashion. It is probably a sound view that
the antique will be
better appreciated after
a study from life, and
it is a wholesome discipline in alertness of
observation to draw a
form that is always
insensibly altering in
pose, and is only available for a limited time.
Painting is a more
difficult thing to teach
than drawing, because
of its g r e a t e r complexity; and the temptation for the teacher
is to adopt some easy
a n d effective compromise, such as leaving out the colour.
He sees the beginner
hopelessly floundering
with colour, and tone,
and quality of paint,
and drawing with the
brush, all tugging at
his attention, and he
knows that the pupil
will have to work out
some sort of balance for himself among all those
claims if he is to be a painter. But in these
days, when all the world goes to drawing-schools,
when all the women of Great Britain and most
of the men study art, the hopeless beginner is
only too anxious to be shown " how it is done"
and the teacher frequently too ready to show
him. Mr. Brown was always on his guard
against anything of the sort; he did not show
people how to paint, severely snubbed the effective trick, but pointed out evident faults, as
when over-modelling was spoiling colour, or the
colour of a part asserting itself too much. On
the whole, he took the judicious line of wishing
the pupil success on a very dubious enterprise,
where most of the exploration must be his own
work. His open mind in the matter of paintingwas somewhat unusual in a teacher, and its secret,
no doubt, was the fact that as a painter he was
himself casting about, dissatisfied with his own
early work and determined to better it; for Mr.

AND

PAINTER.

407

Brown in his younger days caught something of
the infection of one of those popular school methods
of painting. In common with many of the brilliant
students of his time—like Mr. La Thangue, Mr.
Clausen, Mr. Stanhope Forbes—he took up that
style whic^ has come to be known in England

A STUDY.
{By Professor Fred Brown.)

by the name of Newlyn. In Paris it is associated
with the ateliers of Julian, and it may be traced
back to a caricature of the mannerisms of BastienLepage. In its extreme form this painting may
be recognised by a swaggering way of painting
across forms, by a choppy rendering of planes,
and by an attention to values at the expense of
colour. Incidentally associated with this manner
in the painting itself is a prosaic and photographic taste in the choice and rendering of subjects, thinly disguised, if at all, by the sentiment
with which they are labelled, and in illustration
of which the picture is staged. In a word, it was a
cheap way of looking at things, but attractive to the
student, because of the obvious and imitable nature
of the technique, and because of the ease with
which, given a model and a landscape or a model
and an interior, a picture could be constructed.
That lazy industriousness, which is the commonest
human habit of mind, is pleased in the drawingschool to learn and practice a manual dexterity

408

THE MAGAZINE

inspired by no real sentiment of vision. Such a
sentiment cannot be given by any teacher; but
even the pupil who is capable of such a sentiment
runs the risk in the drawing-school of a kind of
forcing, of acquiring a technique before he has
seen anything it corresponds to. The technique
appeals to him because it is cleverer than any he
can immediately invent or master to express what
he does see; and the unfortunate result is that
he is doomed now to see in accordance with this
cheap technique until he can shake it off and
slowly build up a method of painting which fits
and follows the sentiment of his vision. The inconvenience I refer to has affected more than one
brilliant painter; and Mr. Brown, among others,
suffered from the Anglo-French studio fashion.
The illustrations to this article will help the
reader unversed in recent fashions of painting to

OF AET.

seem rather put in because they were there than
because the painter was pleased to find them there.
In the " Eed, Blue, and Gold," on the contrary,
the colour is there for the pleasure of colour,
indeed the picture is there at all for that pleasure.
In the one case the painter had a certain sentiment about rural England, and an admiration for
the scene before him which he connected with
that sentiment; but he could not yet disentangle
what it was that was beautiful in the scene, or
did not venture to put that down.
A picture
was to be made. He took out his school palette
and described the scene in terms of the greys he
had been taught to use. The beauty, therefore,
escaped, and the judicious heart remains untouched
by the sentiment attributed to the scene by its
title. In the other case the picture springs directly
from the sentiment of vision which has disen-

A STUDY.
(By Professor Fred Brown.)

follow me here. The picture called " Eural England" is an example of Mr. Brown's early work;
the other four illustrations are recent work. The
most striking difference does not, of course, come
out in these reproductions. I mean that the
" Eural England" is colourless as compared with
the rest.
It is blackish or greyish, and the
differences of colour within this grey envelope

tangled a paintable subject and controlled the
method of presenting it. But not only is colour
wanting in the first picture, the same distance
and detachment from the beautiful thing seen
comes out in the drawing and handling. The
forms are cut out, the planes are aggressively noted,
so that, instead of things flowing into one another
as they do in the continuity of natural light, they

PROFESSOR BROWN: TEACHER AND PAINTER.
stand by themselves, and the effect is thin, papery,
and flat. Compare with this the modelling of the
girl standing at the piano, where there is a sense
of roundness and atmospheric depth wanting in
the other picture; or compare with
the more choppy painting of the
hands in " Rural England" the soft
contours of the hands of the girl
on the sofa. The consistency of the
paint, too, has altered, and the
meagre and horny texture of the
early style has given place to a
richer quality and more nervous
touch.
But another point, and a vital
one, remains. The look of the group
of figures posed in the " Rural
England" is of rather painful fixity,
of people set up to be photographed
rather than of those caught in
natural action ; and this copying of
the constraint of a posed model results not only in constraint, but in
a loss of the sense of relative value
in the things copied. In all those
photographic pictures the less important is apt to be better painted
than the more important—the boot
is easier to copy than the face, and
the leading impression, accordingly
that such a picture leaves on the
mind is that of boot.
I have no doubt pressed my
comparison a little in the direction
of caricature to make a real distinction plain ; but everyone will appreciate the naturalness of movement in
the girl at the piano as compared
with the stiffness of the children, and
the unity of motive in the one picture
as compared with the scattered collection of the other.
The painter begins, as all must, with a vague sentiment not yet closely bound up with the act and
pleasure of sight. To illustrate this, he makes a
rather fumbling collection of things, and renders
them in a school formula, so contrived as to leave
out all their beauty. Sentiment, subject, technique,
all remain obstinately detached.
In the later
work he has shaken himself free of the school
technique, he has studied and begun to comprehend the Masters, and to see things pictorially,
and the result is work in which technique is less
distinguishable from sentiment; for good technique,
of course, is simply a way of seeing and feeling,
and follows indistinguishably upon that impulse
when the seeing has become clear.

409

If I have pressed the facts too hard, I have at
least, I hope, explained how it is that Mr. Brown
is well qualified to teach. He has himself struggled
through the dangers that beset the drawing-

R E D, B L U E ,
(By Professor

AND
Fred

GOLD.
Brown.)

school, has refused to stick at a stereotype that
would serve, and has steadfastly made for everything that is sincere in the practice of painting.
I shall not delay on his personal qualities as a
teacher further than to say that he has the art of
ruling a school without appearing to use any means
of discipline, and that teaching itself would appear
to be a pleasure to him, from the steady and equal
attention he bestows on his least promising pupils.
He is less fettered at the Slade than he was at
Westminster, and we may hope to see there under
his hand an English school of drawing built up, on
the foundations laid by Professor Legros.
NOTE.—Professor Brown's " Hard Times," now in the Walker
Art Gallery, Liverpool, was engraved on page 52 of T H E MAGAZINE OF A R T , 1889.—EDITOR.

IN TWO PARTS.-PART II.
B Y L E W I S F . DAY.

O

ILLUSTRATED BY T H E AUTHOR.

F Beccafumi one hears in Siena nothing but
praise, or rather over-praise. With him there
is at once a break in the continuity of tradition.
He seems, indeed, at first, in designing the four
hexagon-shaped scenes from the lives of the prophets (1517), to have felt himself under the necessity of conforming, in some degree, to the fashion
of the work already done ; but he conforms with an
ill grace—at any rate, he misses the point which his
predecessors had all along so clearly kept in view.
His attempt at severity is limited to a certain
severity of line; and in this severe line he soon
indulges to an extent destructive of all the quality
of marble. These subjects look, indeed, very much
like enlarged woodcuts of the period, plus certain
washes of colour, or, rather, like magnified pencil
drawings, emphasised here and there with a pen;
for, not content with the grey lines of cement,
he has introduced here and there occasional black
lines inlaid in marble. A further step in the
pictorial direction is indicated by the attempt to
render distance by means of figures and landscape
retreating on a gradually diminishing scale. Already
in the earlier compositions it had been found convenient to represent sometimes two or three phases
of an incident on as many different planes of a
single picture; but there had been till now no
attempt at perspective. That is, perhaps, a failing
more or less belonging to the period. To the man
himself must be attributed a defective appreciation
of breadth in treatment, apparent in the frequent
use of jewelled borders to the draperies, inlaid with
pearls, and such-like frivolities of design. Still,
notwithstanding a certain fuss about the effect,
these figures of his are often nobly drawn, and the
pictorial manner is kept within some bounds.
In the frieze-like subject (just beyond the
limits of the great hexagon which marks on the
pavement the area of the dome above), in which
Moses has just struck the rock and the Israelites
are slaking their thirst, and again in the great
composition beyond it, where the disappointed lawgiver hurls the tables of the la\v to the ground,

Beccafumi is himself—not merely a painter, that
is to say, but a chiaroscurist—about the very last
man in the world to be let loose upon the decoration of a floor.
The conviction as to Beccafumi's unconcern
about colour is strengthened at the " Belle Arti,"
where are to be seen the cartoons of several of
these subjects. One would never gather from
these drawings that they were designs for inlay
at, all. They might as well, and better, have been
designed for mural painting. They are carefully
drawn and very deliberately shaded in chalk, with
just a wash of what is now yellowish-brown tint
over the parts in shadow. So far as one can see
there appears never to be any special emphasis
in the outline, nor any insistence upon it. It is
of much the same strength as the shading lines,
which are the ordinary lines of academic chalk
drawing, not in the least suggesting that the
draughtsman had any thought of the inlayer. And
these, to judge by internal evidence, are not among
the latest of the artist's designs.
Nevertheless, although we have not yet reached
the extent to wThich a great draughtsman could
misapply his undoubted powers, we have arrived
already at an unfortunate confusion of cast shadow
with local colour most detrimental to decorative
effect. The fact is, the cast shadows, now for the
first time introduced, defeat their end and confuse
the drawing hopelessly. The attention is continually
distracted from the lines of the composition to
the strange shapes resulting from some accidental
effect of light and shade. Forms half in shadow,
for example, do not explain themselves at all.
One man's face has the effect of a mask; the shade
about the eye of another suggests that he has
been fighting; in another case there seems to be
a deep cavity in the flesh; the arm of a man
whose muscles are indicated by jagged lights intersecting the dark, looks as if it had been spliced
and a new limb of different colour inserted; a
hand in shadow appears to be gloved; the highlight on a man's knee goes for a patch on his hose;

THE WONDER

OF

SIENA.

411

and so on. Some attempt is made to bridge the line he began by using degenerates into a delibersudden transition from light to dark by lines of ately broken touch, which ends in something like
engraving, but without success; the change is often rottenness.
grotesquely sudden. "When the scratched lines get
In some of his latest work, among which must
worn away, which they soon do, the design has be included the "Sacrifice of Isaac," there are little
somewhat the appearance of a huge chromo-litho- islands of inlay which represented once, no doubt,
graph in process of execution, and sadly in want some slight difference of shade, but which are now
of another printing or two.
indistinguishable in colour from the sea of greyishOne can see very plainly in the work itself, white marble around them : there is just a faint
apart from the corroboration of the cartoons in edging of dirt sufficient to call attention to them.
the Belle Arti, how
Beccafumi went to
work. His method
was to block in his
figures and then lay
in t h e shadows,
broadly, with a flat
wash
of
colour,
much
sculptor
would naturally do
to enable him to
foresee the effect of
his composition in
relief ; and then,
failing tints enough
DETAIL AFTER BECCAFUMI, SHOWING EFFECT OF INLAID SHADOWS.
in the marble to
enable him to get the variety he sought in the The surface of the marble is further pimpled
shadows (in which, by the way, one feels always over with spots of engraving more or less tadpole
the want of reflected light, since the intention is shaped, which may once have explained themselves,
so realistic), he has recourse to hatching them as the thick ends of lines varying very suddenly
over with lines and cross-lines, effacing by that in strength; they are now mere blemishes on the
means the quality of the marble and the purity flesh or wherever they happen to occur. Some
of its colour. In the figure of Eve, for example, of the lines of engraving not worn away are very
the shading lines are far too many and the outlines much in the nature of penman's flourishes.
It is safe to say that the limits of variety in the
not strong enough. The excessive use of cement
lines by way of shading led, almost as a matter thickness and quality of line desirable in engraved
of course, to the employment, not only of occasional inlay are soon reached. The designer's business is
black lines, as before said, but to the introduction clearly to translate his ideas into forms which can
of touches of black, by way of shadow among the be expressed by the broad plough of the graver.
foliage and in the draperies, with the result that This is what Beccafumi, with all his remarkable
the drawing lines generally look rather too grey ability, could not, or would not, do. It is a
thousand pities he was not compelled (say by a
by contrast.
The later work of the artist, as it approaches vow, since taskmasters are not at the best inspiritthe altar (the " Sacrifice of Abraham," that is to ing) to work in the more temperate and really
say, and the smaller subjects from the Old Testa- more effective, though less pictorial, manner of
ment flanking it), aims more and more at the the early masters. Did he perhaps feel that he
picturesque. The painter puts tint against tint, had no gift in the direction of applied design, and
and relieves figures in shadow against lighter wilfully adopt the manner natural to him, pavefigures in the distance; he depends upon subtleties ment or no pavement ? His manner is distinctly
of shade impossible to render accurately in marble, that of the chiaroscurist. He may use marble of
and at the same time his drawing becomes more various colours, but it is either by way of shading
elaborate; in the endeavour to get modelling he or of realism, possibly in some trifling detail,
uses finer and more finikin lines of shading. Clearly not for its value as colour; and he arrives rather
the main consideration with him at last is the at elaboration of tint than at what can be called
engraving, and inlay counts for very little. His colour.
In his failings, as in his effects, he is extradrawing also becomes more florid. The firm out-

412

THE MAGAZINE

ordinarily modern—so modern that one might
attribute many of his figures to a much later
period than the middle of the sixteenth century.
That is perhaps his charm in the eyes of the
tourist, who finds here at last something old which
is yet quite according to his taste. The very

OF ART.

if he had conceived his subjects in a way that
appealed either to the imagination or to the
religious sense. But what is to be said for the
sentimental young lady, for example, who poses in
most inappropriate drapery for his " Eve " ? The
fig-leaves lose their raison d'etre, except that, but
for this poor device, no one would ever
have guessed that this was the mother of
mankind.
The art of inlay, then, pursued for about
a hundred years—covering, broadly speaking,
the fifteenth century—an even course from
silhouette to colour, and deviated in the
sixteenth into chiaroscuro. The Sienese
flooring was executed at first only in black
and white marble, helped out with grey
lines of incising; then red marble began
to be used by way of a change in the background ; then grey marble by way of something like local colour; then yellow marble;
and eventually two or three shades of each
colour, but used always either to express
the design, or for colour's sake—never with
a view to giving roundness and relief to
the forms. With the use of inlaid shadows
began the decline of the art. It takes,
pei'haps, a great artist to lead a school
astray.
In the ornamental detail of the famous
pavement there is great variety both of
design and of merit. There are geometric
patterns, of course, from elaborate frets to
mere chessboard squares, not to mention
those unfortunate combinations of diamonds
or what not in three shades of marble,
which inevitably suggest that the pattern
is set on end. There is foliated ornament
besides, and a vast number of delightful
arabesques enlivened with beasts, griffins,
chimeras, and other grotesque monsters.
The process of restoration is going on,
however, and how long it will be before
all this is " as good as new" is doubtful.
The new work is to be recognised at once
EVE, IN T H E LATER AND MOEE PICTORIAL MANNER O P BECCAPUMI
by the mechanical accuracy with which
the black and white marble is fitted tocleverness of the painter is of the modern stamp, gether, by the comparative absence of grey cement,
and he has no hesitation in sacrificing all other and by the poverty of the engraved lines filled
considerations to it. He is as incapable as his in with . hard Uack-^-and this notwithstanding the
brother brush of this Jin cle stick of understanding obvious beauty of the old work with its grey lines,
that it might fairly be expected of him to think frankly confessing the cemented joints, as if to
rather of the enrichment of the cathedral floor point out the way to a success which the rethan of showing how uncommonly well he could storer invariably misses.
draw a man's back or the grace he could put into
Apart from mere restoration, the work is carried
a woman's pose. There would have been more down to our own day by Professor Franchi, who
excuse for his neglect of decorative considerations is responsible, more or less, for the designs of the

THE WONDEK

OF

SIENA.

413

three remaining hexagons under the dome and those that came after him have not done. They
the small diamond-shaped divisions round them. prove themselves—nay, they protest themselves—
Whether in designing or adapting, he has worked absolutely insensible to its charms, if only by the
somewhat in the manner of Beccafumi's earlier reckless manner in which they hatch it over with
work adjacent, only with a poorer and scratchier engraving, until it is only by chance that a clear
line, and with most ill-advised hatching in the space of marble remains to tell you what it is.
" Worthy of a place on the wall" is the comshadows. His drawings are academically good,
and there is a certain dramatic effectiveness about mendation commonly passed upon Beccafumi's work.
them. In the Opera del Duomo are two at least There is condemnation in that too, seeing that
of the originals from which he has borrowed his it was designed for another purpose, for which it
composition (Elijah and the ravens, and another), is not fit; but even for a wall it would have been
where the incised lines are all worn away, leaving the first thought of the artist in marble, to make
the design only just " laid in," as it were, in tints much of the marble itself. Whether as designs
of grey, grey-green, drab, yellow, red, and black, for pavement, therefore, or as designs for inlay,
upon the white. These ghosts are very suggestive, Beccafumi's compositions, masterly as the drawing
but Signor Franchi has not taken the hint of may be, are distinctly inferior to those of the
colour that was in them. There are other frag- artists immediately preceding him, some of whose
ments of the old work in the same museum, well designs would have made well-nigh perfect wall
worth the attention of those interested in the panels—always, it must be allowed, somewhat out
subject technically. It is there that one can best of place upon a floor.
appreciate the wholesale destruction which is done,
This pavement, then, which should have been
wall decoration—this pavement which has to be
and being clone, in the name of restoration.
In a report issued some few years ago by protected from the footprints of the faithful by
Consul-General Colnaghi, it is stated officially that unsightly boarding hiding it from sight—this pave" the constant need of restoration has made that ment may be the wonder of Siena, but it is not
art {i.e., the art of inlaying) hereditary among the beauty of Siena. That lies in the town and
Sienese artists." That is perhaps sufficient (though its surroundings, in its Palazzo Publico, its Sala
unconscious) condemnation of the idea of such a Piccoloinoni, its cathedral, and all that therein is,
pictorial pavement ab initio. But, given the idea of which the pavement is only one wonderful item.*
of an inlaid pavement, the business of the artist
* The time
see
should have been (as at one time it was) to make it is exposed totoview. the pavementit isisduring September, when
Ordinarily
covered over, for prothe most of the quality of the beautiful material tection, with boards, which the custodian removes two or three
employed.
That is just what Beccafumi and at a time to show you portions of the more famous pictures.

DETAIL OF OBNAMENT—UNBESTOBED —SHOWING PBEE USE OF CEMENT IN JOINTS, ETC.

910

AN

AUTUMN

DIRGE.

(Drawn by Leslie L. Brooke. For Alfred Austin's Poem see opposite page.)

415

Qjtn QKutumn ©ircj^
ATO W the last load hath dipped below the brow,
A nd the last sheaf been piled and wheeled away
The pheasants glean among the stubbles gray,
That wait the coming of the wintry plough,
And Memory sits and sighs, contrasting Then
with Now !

In sylvan spaces der the dewy grass
Creepeth the shadow of a coming grief,
And now an acorn falls, and now a leaf
The seeded sedges shiver and sigh, "Alas !
Fruit, like to flower, is doomed to perish and
to pass."

Stripped is the last straight hop-pole, and the long
Green loops of bine, with clustering fruitage
crowned,
Lie in brown leafless coils upon the ground.
Gone from the scene the many-coloured throng,
And Silence waits in vain for sound of shout or song.

The creeper crimsons on the garden wall,
The last pale rose upon the gable gray,
Fair but funereal, decorates decay.
The rounded apple reddens to its fall,
And Autumn winds her mist, to weave the wintry

ILLUSTEATED
' f THE

pall.

ALFRED AUSTIN.

EEVIEWS.

evident at the Universal Exhibition of 1867. For
some years afterwards that fashion of painting in a
ECESSION", as may be gathered from the sub- brown key, practised by such men as Munkacsy or
title,* is a publication in portfolio form de Paal, used to be associated in Paris with the
school of Munich
of photogravures
and with the
from p i c t u r e s ,
name of Piloty.
with a preface,
At Barbizon, in
from the pen of
the first half of
Herr Otto Julius
the Seventies, a
Bierbaum, which
c e r t a i n clique
tells in a few
used to consider
words the reason
bitumen almost
of this collection
as the necessary
of photogravures,
medium of landand of the tie
scape; the greater
which binds togen u m b e r were
ther the authors
f o r e i g n e r s—
of the pictures
Swedes, Hungarifrom which they
AN OSTEND FISHERMAN.
ans and Germans,
are taken. These
(By L. Dill. Reproduced from the Photogravure in "Secession.")
amongst others
illustrations
show, as far as black-and-white may, the work Max Liebermann, now one of the chief leaders of
of the latest movement in that well-known centre the new movement illustrated by " Secession."
Paris, the Eome of this century, has attracted
of art—Munich. Of all German centres of painting,
Munich is the least isolated and the most European students from every country; but after Paris, Antin its character and influence. No country has werp and Munich claim a large share of popularity.
altogether escaped the sway of France in the arts, From all parts of the world men have flocked to
but Munich, whilst taking much from Paris, has the schools of Munich, and paintings by Munich
not passed the lesson on unaltered to Europe. A students have been hung in almost every exhibition
Munich school of painting existed and made itself of the world. The Bavarian town offers to painters
stimulating artistic society, a neighbourhood of fine
* " Secession" (Eine Sammlung von Photogravuren nach
landscape, and an annual exhibition of the first imBildern und Studien von Mitgliedern des vereins "Bildender
portance. But vogue in art and power of initiative,
Kiinstler Miinchens "). Berlin : Photographische Gesellschaf t.

SECESSIONISTS."

B Y R. A. M.

S

STEVENSON.

THE MAGAZINE OF AET.

416

far from tending to agreement, have always led to
discord in the history of painting. No less than
Paris, Munich has had its divided camps; could
it be otherwise in a city where art has come to
be considered an expression of personal feelings
and ways of seeing ? Let attention be called to
art in any country, by the successful venture of
one or two men, and straightway individual enterprise is deadened by the machinery of encouragement and discipline which men are accustomed to
apply, with some success, to the regulation of the
less attractive businesses of politics and commerce.

ON THE SEA. SHORE.
(By L. V. Hofmann.

Reproduced from a rhotogravure

Law, custom, authority, state interference, and redtape are not made for art unless it has ceased to
be vital, and then they may keep it just breathing a while longer in a lingering death. As tradition freezes into custom, as knowledge hardens into
science, art rebels, seeking freer elbow-room and
more mysterious surroundings. Hence, continual
changes of front and sudden flights of the spirit
into wild places whenever you would attempt to
domesticate art in bureaus or in the padded chairs
of academies. The secession of Munich is only one
of the effects of the painter's shyness of regulation.
Law and order may be the life of some kinds of
human action, but the blood of art must flow, or
what once was nourishment becomes poison by stagnation. Certain painters, who feel that a bulwark
of the past has become a danger of the present,
that art is being strangled by its fosterers, revolt
and combine, less for government than for freedom;
but they, too, must develop rules and formulas which
will become in their turn encumbrances and the
root of dangerous abuses. Meantime these associa-

tions serve their purpose and benefit art; for this
reason no country, not even England, is altogether
without them. In Paris the Society of the Champ
de Mars split from the old Salon of the Champs
Elysees, doubtless in great part because of dangers
springing from an abuse of good ideals of education.
The Salon became a place to showT just two works of
every painter, whether he were made by genius or
by the organised machinery of education. Advertisement and the commercial element filtered into
ateliers; the paying ateliers began to tout for pupils;
the Salon became filled with the works of crammed
dunces, and the Jury
with the producers of
the greatest number of
machine-made draughtsmen. In a word, commonplace began to stifle genius
in the Champs Elysees,
hence the New Salon.
The new movement
in Munich was akin to
the New Salon in Paris,
and the question one
asks about a new society of this kind is, Has
it strength, individuality,
and some s p a r k s of
genius ? To those who
know Munich, who know
only Paris, to those even
who study this book
" Secession," I think it
in " Secession.")
will appear that the new
Munich society contains, like the old, the names of
some men who are in the front of art, and who will
make a reputation based on more than mere mercantile astuteness in adopting a novelty of fashion. Although little intercourse takes place between France
and Germany, yet Frenchmen have taken an interest
in the art of Munich; and between the advanced
party of both cities there is some community of
feeling on matters of art. Of the group of artists
represented in "Secession," several men have been
recompensed officially in Paris—as Liebermann, F.
Stuck, Ankarcrona, Skarbina, H. Olde, G. Kuehl,
Trubner, Zuegel, Miiller, von Kalckreuth, Keller, and
Strutzel. Liebermann and Kuehl are Societaires at
the Champ de Mars; they, and other men of the same
clique, exhibit in the annual exhibitions of Paris.
Impressionistic naturalism, treated in a poetic
style, forms a great part of the movement, and is seen
best perhaps in Liebermann's " Potato Gatherers,"
in wThich the figures bear that proportion and relative importance to the landscape surroundings
that J.-F. Millet gave them in his epoch-making

Charles Ulrich.pimcfc

Beriin Photographic C?,photocjravure.

"GIRL
Magaime of Art

WITH

FLOWERS.

ILLUSTRATED
canvases. Pictures more decidedly landscape in
feeling, but of broad, modern, impressionistic quality,
illustrate the work of G. Ankcarcrona, W. Triibner,
H. Olde, L. Dettmann, G. Kampmann, 0. Striitzel,
and others, to whi'ch we may add the reproductions
of a pastel by T. Mayer-Basel, and a charcoal drawing by L. Wenban. As in Paris, so in Munich, we
find amongst the younger men a desire to mark their
work with the cachet of strangeness, which
comes from a modern treatment of legendary, Biblical, mystic, or symbolic subjects.
Among such men Franz Stuck deserves remark for his strength and versatility of
imagination. He has made a success in
illustration as well as in painting; and his
work in the first branch of art is full of a
characteristic humour, sometimes quaint,
sometimes farcical, and at times sombre and
terrible. To make fantastic imaginings real
and convincing by sane naturalistic treatment
charmed him as it charmed Arnold Bocklin
before him. "Temptation," or Eve offering
Adam the apple, shows something of Stuck's
painting of the nude. To those interested in
F. Stuck it may be useful to know that the
author of the preface to " Secession" has
written a book entirely on this pairiter's
work. Other pictures of a mystic or symbolic
kind come from Hierl Deronco, L. von Hofmann, T. T. Heine, and perhaps Max Klinger.
Landscape with animals by H. Ziigel and V.
Weishaupt are decidedly French in character,
and by their arrangement recall Troy on and
Jacque. French, too, in style are the excellent
figures in landscape, "Winter Evening," by
0. Eckmann ; and " The Walk," by Graf von
Kalckreuth. Interiors, scenes lit by artificial
light, crowded streets, and the rus in urbe,
generally constitute a large bulk of modern
subjects ; but it is a mistake to believe these
motifs, as some do, in any way specially allied
to impressionism, because they happened to
please Manet and Whistler. The only truth
is that more Impressionists, as more human beings,
live in towns than in the country. Anyway,
" Secession" has its share of photogravures from
pictures of busy life, as the interior of a caf£, called
"De quoi ecrire," by Skarbina; " A Street Scene,"
by F. Wahle, showing a dirty suburb in the slush of
a half-thaw; and " A Street in Schwauthal," by KellReutlinger. Portraiture and portrait studies of the
figure are represented in " Secession " by photogravures from pictures by Liebermann, Ankcarcrona, von
Kalckreuth, A. Keller, Fritz von Uhde, L. Samberger,
C. Ulrich (see Frontispiece), H. Borchardt, J. Block,
and others. Of these I think I prefer those in the

REVIEWS.

417

slighter medium of crayon or pastel, as " My Wife,"
by Liebermann, and " Pastel-head," by F. Stuck,
partly, no doubt, because they reproduce more
successfully. Nevertheless, on its intrinsic merits,
Stuck's pastel of this strong, imposing, black-eyed
woman would captivate individual attention; it has
that emphasis of choice accents in the face and that
omission of trivial definitions which charm one so

A DUET.
(From the Painting by Rene Reinike.)

much in drawings by Old Masters, such as Holbein,
Watteau, and the early French crayonistes.
It may be noted that this collection of German
work comprises the art of men of quite different
aims and styles. The difference is greater, moreover,
than I can show in words, even if I could speak of
all the pictures in the collection. But the movement at Munich which " Secession " illustrates is
not the work of any one clique, nor does it desire
to advance only one form of painting; its object is
rather to develop the individuality of its adherents.
NOTE.—An article on " Munich as an Art-Centre " is in preparation.—EDITOK.

418

THE MAGAZINE

"CLIMBING THE HIMALAYAS."
KIOE to the publication by Mr. Eisher Unwin
of Mr. W. M. Conway's splendid volume on
" Climbing the Himalayas," we enjoyed the opportunity of seeing Mr. A. D. McCormick's original

OF ART.

is an ideal illustrator to have accompanied an explorer into a new country. The secret of his success
in indicating what most men would have found the
perfectly unpaintable vastness and grandeur of the
regions traversed lies in the brilliant suggestiveness of his work, and an ability
to imply the vague and inexpressible so wonderfully that—though
it may seem fanciful to say it—
his vigorous, dexterously dashedoff sketches in black-and-white
seem to us to furnish truer indications of the local colour and
atmosphere than even his clever
water-colour transcripts. To these
qualities he joins a singular alertness in seizing impressions, the
power to recognise instantly essential facts and reject all others,
accuracy of eye for forms and
distance, genuinely humorous appreciation of incident and character, and the gift of rapid precision
of execution. The opportunities
of the expedition were exceptional
in the extreme. The ground
trodden was virgin to the foot of
Europeans nearly the. whole way.
Eighty-four days were spent on
snow or glacier ; the three longest
known glaciers in the world, outside the Polar regions, were traversed from end to end, and an
altitude of 23,000' feet was at one
time attained. It was amid surroundings of such splendid novelty
but terrible rigour that many of
the sketches were made. In his
chief, Mr. W. H. Conway, the
artist found no mere pedantic
scientist or bag-making sportsman, but a man of keenly artistic
sympathies, who saw with the eyes
of a painter, and whose delightful
chronicle is written throughout
largely from the point of view of
art, and constantly brightened by
EOCHESTEE CEAGS, EEOM THE BALTOES VALLEY.
shrewdly pleasant aesthetic obser{Drawn by A. D. McCormiclc. From "Climbing the Himalayas.'')
vation. Indeed, Mr. Conway has
made some sacrifice for the sake of artistic effect.
sketches on their exhibition at Clifford's Inn Hall. We The opening chapters, dealing with the journey across
are, therefore, better able to judge of how they have the plains of civilisation, to use his own term, are
fared in reproduction and reduction, and must gene- written in a " flamboyant style of set purpose," that
rally congratulate the artist on the result, especially the reserved diction of the more important passages
in the case of the drawings in charcoal and pen-and- may emphasise the difference between "the luxury
ink, some of those in wash having suffered by the of the plains and the barrenness of the hills."
partial extinction of the half-tones. Mr. McCormick

P

NIGHT.
(From the Painting by P. J. R. Sinibaldi.

Engraved by Fred Juengling.

See next page.)

420

PAUL JEAN EAPHABL SINIBALDI.
PAUL JEAN RAPHAEL SINIBALDI, two of whose works
are here reproduced, is an artist famous in Paris—which,
despite his name and parentage, is his native city; but to
all intents and purposes he
is unknown in Great Britain.
None of his works, so far as we recollect, have ever
been publicly exhibited on this side of the Channel;
and we are not aware that any example of his art is
to be found even in the Scottish private collections,
which so very generally anticipate, in their recognition of distinguished Frenchmen, those of the south
of the Tweed. In the studios of M. Alfred Stevens
and M. Cabanel he graduated in art, and since 1881
has been an exhibitor at the Salon in the Champs
Elysees. He seems, broadly speaking, to limit
himself in choice of subject to two themes—women
and flowers. But both of these are worlds in themselves, and the painter need seek no wider range
for the manifestation of all the potentialities of his
art. M. Sinibaldi takes them in conjunction, but
under the most varied conditions; sometimes the
treatment being realistic, at others almost purely
decorative. Sometimes his work is an artistic
statement of topical Parisian facts, sometimes it is
imaginative, symbolic, and allegorical; but women
and flowers are nearly always the motive. In " Roses
and Pinks," one of his earliest exhibited works, he
presents us with a leader of Parisian society—a tall
brunette in faultless ball dress of rose, with long
black gloves reaching to the elbows, standing erect
in a bower of flowers in an attitude of which the
elegance and repose mark the woman of distinction. "Field Flowers" gives us a more rustic type
painted in the open air beneath a blossoming fruit
tree; and somewhat similar in treatment is " White
Lilac and Apple-blossom "—a girl standing in the
fresh spring sunlight under an apple tree, a line of
linen drying and fluttering in the breeze and strong
light offering opportunity for a vigorous exercise in
the treatment of white, and a descending flock of
starlings striking black notes against the girl's-light
dress, quickening the sense of movement and giving
point to the sentiment of the composition. " Camellias and Azaleas" is once again a hothouse composition—a lady seated amidst palms, azaleas, and
exotics, wearing an. elaborate tea-gown, with a little
lad in a sailor dress, of British suggestion, lying on
the white skin of a huge polar bear at her foot.

" In the Country " takes us back to the green grass
and open country, and gives us a simple little maiden
stretched at full length on the herb, an open parasol
by her side supplying vividity of colour.
Amongst the painter's earlier works we should
mention "The Defile" and "The Daughter of Lesbos."
Last year he contented himself with a single canvas
at the Salon—" Aurora;" but this May sent two—
" Holy Mistletoe " and a characteristic portrait of a
man. The former of these represented a daughter
of the Druids in robes of spotless white, more or
less classical in their amplitude and delightfully
hanging folds. In her arms the girl carried a bunch
of sacred mistletoe, and in one hand the golden
sickle with which the hallowed parasite has been
struck off from the dark trees at the back. It is
held to be one of the leading pictures of the year.
Honours, of course, have fallen to M. Sinibaldi,
in orthodox French manner. His name will be
found in the fourth class, the Mention Honourable,
for the Salon of 1886, and two years later he took
the Travelling Purse. At the great exhibition of
1889, the Exposition Universelle, he was awarded a
medal of bronze; and he is a member of the Societe
des Artistes Francois. Amongst his more famous
Salon works we may cite "A Marriage," "A Daughter
of the Rajahs," a delightfully sympathetic " Manon
Lescaut" in 1891, and " Claire, Sing us Your Song"
in 1892.
The two works we have chosen for reproduction
are eminently representative. The stream which
flows along the rear of the old French village, with
the tiled roofs and scant poplar trees, and the other
details of the background in " Spring," form perhaps
a little more definite setting than M. Sinibaldi
generally employs in his plein air effects; but in the
joy of the half-kneeling maiden who picks her fill
of the blossoms which star the meadows, we have
brought before us the artist's own delight in flowers
and the gay plentifulness of nature. " Night" shows
the artist in his more poetic and idealistic mood—•
but even in the night he must have flowers. A
black cat, excellently painted, half encircles the
neck of the virgin with the sad and meditative
eyes, who passes dreamily through the land, the
poppies of sleep falling from her as she goes. The
draperies are handled with consummate skill, not
only as to the grace of their folds and their tender
treason to the form they cover, but as to the texture and tone, the diaphanous and semi-diaphanous
gauze being treated with exquisite skill.

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CLOTH H A L L AND H O T E L DE V I L L E ,

YPRES.

THE TOWN AND CLOTH HALLS OP FLANDERS.
BY

ALEXANDER

ANSTED.

HOTHIC halls standing in wide
market squares, with tall cathedral towers overlooking them ;
canals lined with profusely decorated houses and narrow streets
of quaint gables—these constitute
the main features of the Belgian cities. But of all
these, their pride lies in their secular halls. Ecclesiastical structures disclose the influence of neighbouring States rather than any national originality;
first that of Germany, later of France. The French
mark is impressed more especially upon Flanders
and Brabant; and we have in Brussels, Antwerp,
Ghent, Bruges, and in other cities, Gothic cathedrals,
stately in themselves, in which the characteristics
of France are strongly evident. The same cannot,
however, be said of the Town and Cloth Halls, which
possess a character entirely their own.
It will be found on examination that certain
features are common to all these secular buildings.
The Cloth Halls for the most part display the
simplicity of the earlier Gothic Age, while the

ILLUSTRATED

BY T H E AUTHOR.

Hotels de Ville are more ornate, and are usually
covered with that wealth of ornament which the
later style had learned to indulge in. Each marks
the spirit of its era. The first, that of pure commerce, when business was entirely paramount, and
while yet the Government was practically autocratic ; the second, that of a natural self-governing
period, resulting in a knowledge of power which
brought out in the Netherlander a certain passion
for architectural display. And in the first wre
naturally find the elements out of which the second
was begot.
Simplicity is the characteristic quality of the
early style; and true to this feeling the horizontal
line is often very prominent. It will be observed
here that in one school of modern thought the halls
of Flanders must, in this respect, be at fault. We
are not, for the moment, concerned with the province of Gothic design, nor the right or wrong of
the horizontal line in Gothic buildings; but it is
important to notice that in these structures it is
brought out strongly; and in some cases, as, for

THE TOWN AND CLOTH HALLS OF FLANDEP.S.
example, at Ypres, it seems to constitute the
feature of the design. There, for instance, an unbroken sky-line, parapets, and prominent stringcourses all tend to express the same feeling; while
the extremely bold manner in which the vertical
lines of the tower cut the horizontal suddenly in
half rather impresses us with the value attaching
to the latter.
Next among common features is the high-pitched
and spacious roof, sometimes retiring at the extremities as a pavilion. Its form is universal,
though it serves in various instances a different
artistic purpose. Dormer windows are to be noticed
in the majority of the examples here shown, and
these will be found to have multiplied in rows, as
time went on, to an almost unlimited extent. The
pitch of the roof may or may not be the result of
German influence: it appears to have been so; but
as developed in Flanders it takes both a character
and a use to itself. Its lower portion is concealed
always behind a parapet — the delight of the
Flemings; and this parapet, though varied to an
infinite degree, follows the same general design,
even into the latest Gothic period. And with the
parapet and roof are to be associated the hexagonal
or octagonal corner turrets, which are seldom absent
either in early or ]ate examples. In the Cloth
Halls they begin by being lightly battlemented;
soon, however, they become deeply panelled ; and
lastly, we find them highly decorated and finished
with graceful pinnacles.
With the Town Halls, as already remarked, we
enter a developed rather than a different style.
Theirs is the age of display.
A wealth of ornament adorns
the wall surface ; statues are
crowded together in niches
and under canopies, for which
there is often bare holding
room ; turrets . and pinnacles
become profusely ornamented ; spires are brought
to perfection; windows and
doorways are set often under
ogee headings cut into florid
mouldings. But chief among
the points of beauty in these
later buildings are the arcaded lower halls which, it is
not impossible, may be but a
development of the rows of
arched doorways occasionally
to be observed in the earlier
Cloth Hall. They are brought
to such elegance in a few
cases that the superstructure

42'}

appears to stand upon a system of slender legs;
the basement of the Hotel de Ville at Oudenarde
is quite spider-like. It is but natural then that
the striving after ornament which distinguishes
this age should have spread its hand over everything within its reach ; and we find, accordingly,
that the Cloth Halls were often restored and
altered, and considerably decorated, after the erection of the Hotels de Ville, as though to bring them
into harmony with those more ornate structures—a
practice unfortunate from an archaeological point
of view, for their original character has often by
this means been almost obliterated.
A tour of inspection of these Halls will amply
repay the visitor; for it will open up to his view
much of the ancient prosperity of the dead cities,
and convince him of the unquenchable artistic
resources of the Netherlanders even through the
most degrading period of their history. If we

HOTEL DE VILLE. BEUSSELS.

THE MAGAZINE

424

enter Flanders at Ostend, half an hour's journey
will take us into Bruges. Thus we are plunged at
once in medicts res, and quickly find ourselves in
the Grande Place, opposite that fine old building
which supports on its sturdy shoulders the famous
Belfry of Bruges. This ancient Cloth Hall, now the
municipal chambers and the " Boucherie," is of the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but was partly

J\ltx* pnbltd
HOTEL DE VILLE,

OUDENAEDE.

restored, or altered rather, after designs by Master
Peter Dierucx, of Brussels, in the sixteenth centuryOn each side of the central piece, which contains the
great entrance, are two storeys of pointed and one
of square-headed windows ; and immediately above
the last runs the truly Flemish parapet, ending at
each extremity in corner turrets. The ground floor
consists of a row of pointed openings, almost an
arcade, on each side of the tower base; and this
feature should be examined closely for comparison
with the Town Halls of the later style.
At some distance from the Belfry square, in the
" Place du Bourg," stands the Hotel de Ville of
Bruges. It is an earlier building than most of its
class, having been begun about 1875. Within the
present century it has been completely and tastefully restored in the old style. Six narrow-pointed
windows are carried with much grace up to the

OF APT.

parapet, which is supported on an elaborate corbel
table and embellished with elegant turrets, three
in the front and three behind. The interior is
possessed of a very fine wooden roof of the fourteenth century. From here the Counts of Flanders
took the oath, on their accession, to maintain the
rights of the citizens of Bruges. Forty-eight niches
containing modern statues of these princes are
crowded, in pairs, about
the facade. On one
side of the Hotel de
Ville stands the Chapelle du Saint Sang,
in two storeys, the
lower dating from the
middle of the twelfth
century. It is in its
newer parts a marvel
of modern restoration.
Turning now to
Ypres, which is within
easy reach of Bruges,
we find in its vast
market square
the
most important Cloth
Hall of Belgium—the
triumph, indeed, of the
style. It is difficult to
describe the grandeur
of this extensive building, or of the " Place "
to which it forms so
imposing an ornament.
Few secular Gothic
structures in Europe
are to be compared
with it. The earliest
portion of the hall is
its tower, the foundation of which was laid in the
year 1200 by Baldwin IX., Count of Flanders.
The entire structure occupied in building the
whole of the thirteenth century. The facade, of
free-stone, which is over 150 yards in length,
is pierced by two long rows of very elegant
pointed windows, all of the same pattern; and further adorned with forty-four statues of the counts
and their consorts. A corner turret of handsome design, and surmounted with a crocketed
pinnacle, flanks each of its extremities, and in the
centre the massive square belfry, also with corner
turrets, and a pyramidal spire, rises to a height of
230 feet. The one striking feature in this building
is the long straight line of pointed windows, which
is broken only by the tower. It is relieved slightly
by the courses w7hich divide the storeys, and these,
naturally, by repetition in the sky-line, which is

THE TOWN AND

CLOTH HALLS OF FLANDERS.

softened by a graceful coping. And this boldly
asserted line, the main feature of the design, is, as
one would suppose, the great point of contention
with those who regard the horizontal as opposed to

H O T E L D E V I L L E , LOUVAIN.

Gothic principle. It remains, nevertheless, as a
perfectly successful treatment of that which, in
constructive architecture, is certainly one of the
most difficult and rarely accomplished tasks.
Attached to the east end of the Cloth Hall is the
Hotel de Yille, a building in the twisted Eenaissance
style. It can hardly be said to harmonise with the
Gothic edifice, nor does it seem to contrast with it
for any settled purpose. But
it is not unpleasing; indeed,
from a picturesque point of
view it is decidedly taking.
Two main storeys and an
attic compose its body, which
is supported on a graceful
colonnade of round arches
forming an open hall.
In these two towms then
we become familiar with the
style of the Cloth Halls. In
Bruges we find the Gothic
town hall, and in Ypres that
of the Flemish Eenaissance.
It remains now to make acquaintance with the flamboyant at Oudenarde, and
with the COD junction of this
with the classic at Ghent.
The Hotel de Yille of
Oudenarde is probably the
most highly ornate in Belgium.

425

The basement, which constitutes an open hall, consists of a pointed arcading of much beauty, its open
colonnade being repeated again in the storeys of the
belfry. One can but be charmed with the two rows
of mullioned and transommed windows
and the richly ornamented attic gables
which flank the towrer on either side;
these also being repeated, as is so commonly the practice, by lesser dormers
high up in the roof. Minaret-like turrets
rise from the corners of the facade and
from the side gables, which last are further embellished with tiny pinnacles.
The tout ensemble, it must be admitted,
is hardly lacking in florid magnificence.
And, indeed, if there is a fault to be
found with this little marvel of decoration, it is that that very decoration has
been carried just too far. We miss a
' *
•
certain quietude of effect ; it is as if
something in this highly wrought-up
conception had been wasted. A work of
art is capable, under certain conditions,
of giving itself away; we should hardly
seek for the method by which an effect
has been obtained, so much as for that effect in
itself.
As a specimen of architecture, it is sometimes
claimed that the Gothic portion of the Hotel de
Yille of Ghent is the most beautiful thing in
Belgium; and though this is placing rather too
definite a limit upon popular taste, it certainly
possesses features which are hardly to be met with

H O T E L D E V I L L E , BEUGES-

426

THE MAGAZINE

elsewhere. Long rows of heavily cusped and richly
ornate windows run down the northern facade, and
are interrupted about half-way by a handsome bay
or semi-tower rising up to the parapet. But though
the wealth of decoration which adorns the wall
surface is so great, and though there is little or no
space to speak of without something to give it a

THE HALLS, BRUGES.

high finish, it would be difficult to say that anything
is over-done. The corner, which is the chief point
of interest, is worthy of the closest inspection; and,
fortunately, a better view of it is to be obtained
than of any other portion ; the whole, so narrowly
do the streets close in on every side, being extremely difficult to comprehend in one view.
To this culminating effort of the Gothic era—in
somewhat grotesque contrast to it, or as it were to
establish once and for ever the infinite gulf which
divides the two great schools of art—has been
attached the hardly less remarkable facade of pure
Eenaissance design. Three tiers of pilasters, between each of which is recessed a plain window,
the whole surmounted by a heavy cornice, form the
main features of this front, which is entered through
a shallow portico reached by two flights of side
steps. Above, in the gabled windows of the roof,
a trifle more play of fancy has been indulged in;
and there are traces of the more generally recognised Flemish style. The combination of these
styles, though by no means pleasing, is undeniably
striking.
Passing on now to Brussels, the Hotel de Yille

OF APT.

immediately faces us as we enter its place, and the
coujp-cVwil is most impressive.
The hotel is
quadrangular in plan. Its length is about 200
feet, its depth 110 feet. The rich facade was
begun in 1401, and forty years later the tower was
raised up at the northern extremity of the building, which was then regarded as finished. But at
length another wing was added to the northern side
of the tower, in a style not absolutely following
that already erected, but so nearly like it that in
a casual survey no great difference is to be noticed.
This materially altered the original design, and as
the new wing was only carried to about half the
length of the old, it comes
about that the tower is out of
the centre; eleven of the arches,
which form a shallow basement
hall, occupy its southern or
right-hand side, while only six
run from it towards the left—
a peculiarity which, however,
detracts nothing from the exquisite beauty of the whole.
Above the basement arches run
two long rows of windows, with
a central storey on the older
portion of the building, almost
too profusely decorated with
modern statues of the Dukes
of Brabant. A battlemented
parapet surmounts these; while
the steeply-pitched roof is occupied by four lines of dormer lights. The tower
was built about 1440 to 1454 by Master Jan van
Buysbroeck, who is said to have spared neither
pains nor money in rendering his work as solid as
it is artistic. The spire rises to some 370 feet,
and is surmounted by a large gilded figure of St.
Michael and the Dragon, the work of Van Proed
(1451). It is to be distinguished among all those
of Belgium for its elegance of design, its grace of
line, and its lightness of construction—"pereee a
jour et decoupee comme une dentelle;" a fitting
ornament, indeed, in the centre of the lace-making
industry.
Immediately opposite stands the Maison du Koi,
where, in earlier days, was stationed the guard of
the princes, from whence its name. It was erected
at the end of the sixteenth century, and to-day
displays something both of the Gothic and Eenaissance—the result of recent restorations—though the
design is distinctly Gothic. A restoration was
effected in the seventeenth century, but so badly was
the work done that it was resolved to remodel the
whole in its original state ; and this was begun in
1877 and continued for six years or more. Since

THE TOWN AND

CLOTH HALLS OF

then considerable embellishments have been added,
which are only just, if indeed they are yet, completed. It is a very handsome building, if not in
the best of taste.
There is still another Town Hall to be noticed—
viz., that of Louvain. Here three storeys of ten
pointed windows between niched statues, standing
upon brackets, each of which is a piece of grotesque
mediaeval sculpture in itself, compose into the main
facade, which is flanked by corner turrets. The
topmost row of figures represents the sovereign lords
of Louvain, the central and lowest various citizens
of the city. The building forms a delightful centrepiece in the square; but it lacks a tower. And
opposite stands the church of St. Pierre, with only
half a tower, so that if anything is wanting
in the picture it is the upright line.
We have now seen the Gothic halls in
their prime; in conjunction, sometimes, with
the Renaissance, but—except in Ghent, and
even there departing to a very limited extent—always Flemish. Turning to Marines
we are confronted with another element,
totally foreign in style as in feeling —
namely, the German. The old Cloth Hall
in the Grande Place, to-day a police-station
—a building of many dates, of peaks and
gables, of tawny colour and rich texture,
yet one but little regarded by visitors to
the town, and seldom if ever considered beside the more important halls of the country
—is not the less one of the most interesting,
for it marks definitely a limit of German
influence. It is originally of the fifteenth
century, having been begun in 1430, but left
incomplete; and to it a superstructure was
added a century later. It is a long, somewhat low, building of curious form—one portion being Gothic, another of the Flemish
Renaissance, and a third of a nondescript
German pattern. There are ample evidences
of the earlier building; the ground floor is
occupied wTith a long row of pointed doorways,
those on the north side of the entrance having
been built up and repierced with openings of
no interest ; the traces of the arches are,
however, still to be seen. The hall is altogether a mixture of details of various dates
and countries ; none in themselves of particular interest, but which, united together, and in this place,
are of no little archaeological importance.
A short run by rail across a flat country leads
us through the great suburb of Berchem into
Antwerp, essentially a city of architectural interest.
But full as it is of antiquities such as are hardly to
be met with elsewhere, yet it is without a Gothic

FLANDERS.

427

hall. The Hotel de Ville, in the Grande Place, has
length and the solidity of the classic school; nor is
it without a certain grandeur. But it is entirely
unlike those now under consideration; and, with
all its size and imposing effect, is altogether unworthy to be placed beside them.
We have now seen the plain Gothic of Bruges,
the magnificent breadth of Ypres, and the more
modern Renaissance Hotel de Ville attached to its
Cloth Hall. We have been able to gather, to a
very limited extent, how far Gothic ornament may
be carried, and where it should stop, in buildings
so ornate as the Town Hall of Oudenarde, and the
more chaste, though still highly decorated, front of
Ghent; and at the latter place we have seen the

jUexOnsCed.
H O T E L D E VILLE,

GHENT.

Gothic in its last effort superseded by the Renaissance in its coldest and most realistic garb. We
have walked round that grandest of squares at
Brussels; Louvain has showed to us the last of the
style; Malines its absorption. And finally at
Antwerp we discover it—possibly under the influence
of the painter politician and his school—to have
become completely extinct,

DESIGN FOE A CENTRAL SCHOOL OP AETS AND MANUFACTURES.
(By Alfred Recoura.

Awarded the Prix de Rome.)

OUE ILLUSTBATED NOTE-BOOK.

W

E have pleasure in reproducing in these pages
the portrait of Miss Eleanor L. Mercer, the most
successful student in connection with South Kensington this year. The prizes which she has gained
are two gold medals one for a modelled design for
a gold cup, and the
other for a sheet
of designs of silversmith's work—two
national books for
modelling animals
and figures in

in repousse work. In 1891 she gained the scholarship— only then founded — of £52 per annum
offered by the Council of the Sheffield School of
Art for designers; this she has held for three
years. In that period she won several awards,
both
local
and
national, by her
designs — one
of
which, to the value
of £21, was given
by the Duke of
Norfolk for the cup

MISS ELEANOR MERCER.
(From a Photograph by O. V. Yates,
Sheffield.)

THE LATE AUGUSTE CAIN.
(From a Photograph by Pirou, Rue
e, Paris.)

relief, and the Princess of
Wales's Scholarship—
awarded to the lady who
takes the highest award in
the national competition of
the year. Miss Mercer has
had an exceptionally brilliant career as an art
student, and promises to
take a high place in the
ranks of designers. Born
in 1871, she entered the
Sheffield School of Art
at the age of fifteen, and
devoted her attention to
designing for silver-work.
For this purpose she went
through a course of training

which this year gains the
national gold medal. This
cup is modelled in wax
on a shape made by Miss
Mercer herself, and is two
feet in height. The other
work, which want of space
prevents our reproducing,
consists of designs for a
silver bell in repousse* work,
and a chatelaine set; the
latter of which especially
show a high degree of delicacy and taste.
"We have to record the
death of Auguste Cain, the
distinguished French animal
sculptor. He was the son

NATIONAL GOLD MEDAL DESIGN FOE A CUP.
(By Miss Eleanor Mercer.)

COMMUNION

OF

THE

TWO

ELEMENTS,

AMONG

THE

EARLY

PROTESTANTS

OF

BOHEMIA.

(From the Painting by Vacslav Brozik, exhibited at the Salon of the Champs Elysies, 1S94. Engraved by Jonnard.)

OUR ILLUSTRATED NOTE-BOOK.
of a poor soldier, and was born in 1822. At the
age of ten he was apprenticed to a furniture manu-

429

pupil in Barye's drawing class at the Jardin des
Plantes. There his talents found a congenial outlet;

JUDITH SHOWING T H E H E A D OF HOLOPHERNES TO T H E PEOPLE OF BETHULIA.
(By J. 3f. A. Leroux.

Awarded the Grand Prix de Home.

facturer, and six years later obtained admission to
the studio of Rude. After some time he became a

ANNA MARIA VAN SHURMANN.
(By Gerard Dow. Recently acquired by the National
Gallery.)
912

Photograph by Bernaudat and

Avon.)

and after Barye had introduced him to the manufacturers of bronze statuettes, &c, he was always

ACHILLES PUTTING ON HIS ARMOUR.
(By C. A. A. Roux. Awarded the Grand Prix de Rome.
Photograph by Bernaudet and Avon.)

430

THE MAGAZINE OF ART.

fully employed. His ambition led him to higher
flights than the designing of mere ornament, and
he turned his attention to animal groups. In
1852 Cain became the son-in-law of Mene\ the

Bethulia." M. Leroux is twenty-three years of age,
and was born in Paris. He studied under Bonnat.
For his figure of "Achilles Putting on His Armour after the Death of Patroclus," M. Constant
Antoine Ambroise Eoux takes the Grand Prix for
sculpture. He was born at Marseilles in 1865,
and is a pupil of MM. Oavelier and Barrias. The
successful architectural student is M. Alfred Becoura.
He was born at Grenoble in 1864, and is a pupil of
M, Pascal. We publish the perspective elevation
of his design for " A Central School of Arts and
Manufactures."
The Dutch section at the National Gallery has
been added to considerably of late, and one of the
recent acquisitions is the portrait of " Anna Maria
Van Shurmann," the work of Gerard Dow, which
is hung in Boom X. (No, 1,415).
The purchase of Beynolds's " Lady Betty Delme
and her Children " for the enormous sum of eleven
thousand guineas at the Fountaine sale was referred
to in last month's " Chronicle of Art." Our reproduction is from the mezzotint by Valentine Green.
At the same sale another picture by Reynolds—

THE HON. MISS MONCKTON.
(By Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A.

Recently sold at Christie's.)

sculptor, and was associated with him in the sale of
their joint works. In 1864 he obtained a medal for
the figure of a lioness, and from that time his position as an animal sculptor was assured, commissions
following in quick succession. He was looked upon
as the rightful successor to Barye, and Paris
showed her appreciation of him by placing his
works in prominent positions in her public places.
His groups of animals—the lions of the H6tel de
Ville, and of the Tuileries; " The Lion and Ostrich,"
of the Luxembourg; " The Tiger strangling a
Crocodile," also in the Tuileries gardens—are well
known to all visitors to Paris for their vigour and
force. One of his other most important works—
a group of dogs—is over the entrance at Chantilly.
Cain was created an officer of the Legion of Honour
in 1882.
We reproduce the successful works in the competition for the Prix de Eome at the Ecole des
Beaux-Arts. In painting, the prize was awarded to
M. J. M. A. Leroux, for a representation of " Judith
showing the Head of Holophernes to the People of

LADY BETTY DEUME AND HEE CHILDREN.
{By Sir J, Reynolds, P.R.A.

Recently sold at Christie's.)

the " Portrait of the Hon. Miss Monckton "—was
sold for £7,500. This we reproduce from John
Jacobe's mezzotint of the picture.

{Drawn by B. Anning Bell.)
Aach, J a n Van, " A n Old W o m a n Sewing,"
252
Abbey, E. A., " Fiammetta's Song," 274
Academy of Fine Arts for Women, Proposed,
xl
Adam, Denovan, " Before the Setting Sun,"
bought for the Luxembourg, x x x v
Adelphi Bank, Liverpool, 324
Agii, A. Cordelle, " V i r g i n a n d Child with
St. J o h n Baptist a n d St. Catherine,"
xxxvii
Alexander, John W., a t t h e Salon of t h e
Champ de Mars, 383; " P o r t r a i t in Grey,"
xvii
Alfriston Village, 207; The Star Inn, Legend
of t h e building of t h e Church, 209; t h e
Priest-House, old usages, 210
Allan, David, student at the Foulis Academy,
Glasgow, student a n d member of the
Academy of St. Luke, Rome, gains gold
medal, illustrations to the " Gentle Sheph e r d " a n d songs of R. Burns, Headmaster of the Trustees Academy, Edinburgh, 151; " The Cottar's Saturday
Night," 242
Allan. R. W . , " G a t h e r i n g Whelks," 92;
" The North Ford, Uist," 290; " Crossing
the Ford," " S t r e e t in Syracuse," x i i i ;
" Syracuse," xxix
Alma-Tadema, L., R.A., " T h e Sculptor's
Studio," " J a m e s Reid, Esq.," 159;
" A u t u m n , " 221; a t the Royal Academy,
273; " Mrs. Theyre Smith," 291; " T h e
Benediction," 306; Engravings ' a n d
Etchings from the artist's works, xviii ;
Large gold medal a t Vienna Salon,
x x x i i ; Medal of Honour a t A n t w e r p ,
xlviii
Aman-Jean, M., " P o r t r a i t d u Sculpteur
Dampt," 383
Antwerp, Hotel de Ville, 427
Armitage, E., R.A., becomes Honorary Retired Academician, 251, xxiv
Armorial Bearings of Charles the Bold, Duke
of Burgundy, E n g r a v i n g of, 192
A r t and the Pulpit, ii
A r t in Brussels, xxxiii
A r t in Parliament, xli, xlv Artists and Baronetcies, x x i
Artist's " Ghost," The, 266, 311, xlv
Artists' Palettes, Bequest of, v
Arts a n d Crafts Exhibition Society, The,
see Exhibitions, Lectures at, ix
A r t s and Crafts Guild a t Sheffield, xxxii
A r t Union and the Law, The, xli
Atkinson A r t Gallery, Southport, The, see
Exhibitions
Aumonier, J., R.I., " T h e Silver Lining of
the Cloud," 143; " E v e n i n g on the South
Downs," 309; " T h e Moon j u s t peeps
above t h e Brow," " T h e Rising Moon,"
Bacon, John, "Confession of Love," 274;
" Young Widow," 325
Bartolini, Bust of Lord Byron, 256
Bartolommeo, F r a , " H o l y Family," " N a tivity," " Holy Family a n d St. John,"
attributed to, unfinished, " Holy Family
and St. J o h n " attributed to, 147
Bazzi, Giovanni (Soeloma), " St. Jerome," 198
Beccafumi, W o r k on P a v e m e n t of Siena
Cathedral, 410—12

Bells, Invention and early use of, 354
Bell, John J., " Cardinal Bourchier urging
the widow of E d w a r d IV. to let her son
out of Sanctuary," 180, xii
Bellotto, Bernardo, Two views of Dresden,
111
Belt, R., Statue of Lord Byron, 257
Belt v. Lawes, 313, xlv
Bengo, John, Engraving of Portrait of
Robert Burns by A. Nasmyth, 240
Benjamin-Constant, M., " Diamants Noirs,"
" P o r t r a i t de Mme. X.," 326
Beraud, M., " Chemin de la Croix," " L e s
Deux M u s e s " (portrait d'Armand Silvestre\ 382 ; Portrait Groups, vi
Berkheyden, Gerrit, " A View in Haarlem,"
xxxvii
Bernier, M., The Barye Monument, 321
Besnard, M., " Chevaux," 382
Billotte, Rene, " L a Cote d'Albanie," 383
Birch, Charles B., A.R.A., studies in Academy of Arts, Berlin, in t h e Royal
Academy Schools, " The Good Samaritan," gains Art Union Prize with " T h e
Wood N y m p h / ' 80; " The Eagle Slayer,"
"The Last Call," "Lieutenant Hamilton,"
elected Associate of the Royal Academy,
" T h e Griffin, Temple Bar," 8 1 ; " Mazeppa," " Adam and Eve," 82; " The Last
Call," 386; a n d Artists' Ghosts, 314,
xlv
Birmingham Corporation A r t Gallery, The,
Acquisitions at, 34, 214, 394; see Exhibitions
Biscombe-Gardner, Engraving of G. W .
W a t t s ' Portrait of Mr. George Meredith,
xxiv, xxxii
Blackburn, New Art Gallery at, xl
Blake, William, a t the "Old Masters," 112
Boberg, F . , elected Associate of Royal
Society of Painter-Etchers, x x
Bonheur, Rosa, Engravings of works by,
xviii; created a n Officer of the Legion of
Honour, xxxii
Bonnat, L., " Triomphe de l'Art," " Portrait
de S. A.S. le Prince de Monaco," 326
Book-bindings, 376
B O O K S R E V I E W E D :—

" A Jacobite Exile," By G. A. Henty, xi
" A Journey through t h e Yemen," by
W a l t e r B. Harris, F.R.G.S., xix
" American Illustrators," by Hopkinson
Smith, 131
An Architectural Account of the Churches
of Shropshire, P a r t i . , " T h e Hundred of
Brimstree," by D. H. S. Cranage, M.A.,
xlvii
" Animals in Ornament," by G. Sturm,
xxiii
" Arts and Crafts Essays," by Members of
the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society,
with a Preface by William Morris, xi
" Book-Plate Annual a n d Armorial YearBook, "issued by J. Leighton.F.S.A., xxxi
"Catalogueof Bookbindings and Rubbings
of Bindings in the National A r t Library,
South Kensington," xlvii
" Catalogue of the Collection of F a n s a n d
F a n Leaves Presented to the Trustees of
t h e British Museum by Lady Charlotte
Schreiber," by Lionel Cust, xxxi
"Chronology of t h e Cathedral Churches
of France, The," by Barr Ferree, xliii

BOOKS R E V I E W E D

(continued):—

" Complete Plays of Richard Steele," t h e
" M e r m a i d " Series, edited by G. A.
Aitken, xxxi
Curtice's Index to " The Times," xlvii
"Drawing-room Duologues," by Fred. M.
Simpson, xliv
" Elements of Handicraft and Design," by
W . A. S. Benson, xxiii
" E n g l i s h Book-Plates: A n Illustrated
Handbook for Students of E x Libris,"
by Egerton Castle, M.A., F.S.A., 51
" G a m e Birds and Shooting Sketches," by
J. G. Millais, xlvii
"Gold, Gold in Cariboo," by Phillips
Wolley, xi
"Gothic Architecture," by E. Corroyer,
translation edited, by Walter Armstrong,
33
" Greek Vase P a i n t i n g s : A Selection of
Examples," with Preface, Introduction,
and Descriptions by J . E. Harrison and
D. S. MacColl, 345
"Handbook for Painters a n d Art-Students," by W. Muckley, xxiv
"Hazlitt's Conversations with Northcote,"
edited by E. Gosse, xxxv
" Home Life of t h e Ancient Greeks," by
Dr. Blumner, translated by Alice Zimmern, xxxi
" Index of Artists Represented in t h e
Department of Prints a n d Drawings in
the British Museum," by Lionel Cust, iii
" Index to the Periodical Literature of the
World," xlvii
" Inigo Jones a n d Christopher W r e n ; or,
the Rise and Decline of Modern Architecture in England," by W. J . Loftie, x v
" I n t e r n a t i o n a l Annual of Anthony's
Photographic Bulletin for 1894, The,"
xxxi
" J a m e s and William Tassie: A Biographical and Critical Sketch," by J. M. Gray,
xxxix
" J a p a n , " by David Murray, Ph.D., LL.D.,
xliii
"Jerusalem, t h e Holy City," by M r s .
Oliphant, xxiv
" L'Art," xix, x x
"Lead-work," By W. R. Lethaby, xxiii
" L e s Artistes Celebres" Series:
" Charlet," by M. F . Lhomme, vi
"Michiel v a n Miervelt et son gendre,"
by H. Havard, x x x v
" J . B. Greuze," by Charles Norm and,
236
" Les Audrans," by M. Duplessis, 235
" Les Boulle," by Henry Havard, xlvii
" Les Clouets et Corneille de Lyon," by
H. Bouchot, 235
" L e s Coclins," by M. Rocheblanc, xlvii
" Les Freres V a n Ostade," by Mile. Marguerite Van de Wiele, xlvii
" Les Moreau," by Adrien Moureau, xlvii
" Les Van de Velde," by Emile Michel,
235
"Philippe et Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne," by A. Gazier, 235
"Raffet," by M. F. Lhomme, vii
" L e t t e r s to Marco," by George D. Leslie,
R.A., xv
" L i g h t of t h e World," by Sir E d w i n
Arnold, New Edition, 162

I
" Lucas Vorsterman : Catalogue Raisonne
de son CEuvre," by Henri Hymans, xxii
" Measurement of Light and Colour Sensations," by J. W. Lovibond, 211
" M e d i t e r r a n e a n W i n t e r Resorts," by
Reynolds Ball, viii
" M e m o i r of E d w a r d Calvert, Artist,
Friend of William Blake," by His Third
Son, with m a n y illustrations and facsimile reproductions, 49
" M e t h o d e Pratique de Dessin," by MM.
Rapilly and Vilette, xix
" Monograph on the Birthplace of Memling," by A. J. Wauters, xii
"National Museum of the Louvre, The,"
edited by MM. Lafenestre and Richlenberger, x x x v
" Our Village," by Miss Mitford, 237
" P e i n t r e s de genre Contemporains," viii
" P o e m s from the German," translated by
A r k m a n , viii
"Portfolio," x x
" P r a c t i c a l Essays on Art," by J o h n
Burnett, x v
" Rembrandt.: His Life, his Work, and his
Time," by Emile Michel, from the French
by Florence Simmonds, edited by F .
Wedmore, 129
" Repertoire detaill6 des Tapisseries des
Gobelins," by E. Gerspach, xxxi
"Reproductions of the Woodcuts in the
Dream of Poliphilus (Hypnerotomachia
Poliphili)," printed at Venice by Aldus
in 1499. A new edition, reprinted for the
Science and A r t Department in PhotoLithography by W . Griggs (1893), xix
" R i c h a r d Jefferies: A Study," by H. S.
Salt, xxxi
" S a n d r o Botticelli," by Dr. H. Ulmann,
xxxix,
" S e p t Etudes pour servir a l'Histoire de
Hans Memling," par A. J. Wauters, 282
" Somersetshire : Highways, Byways, and
W a t e r w a y s , " by C. R. B. Barrett, xliv
" Songs in Spring-time, The Passing of
Lilith, and other Poems," by John
Cameron Grant, viii
" St. Bartholomew's E v e : A Tale of the
Huguenot W a r s , " by G. A. Henty, xi
"Tennyson and his Pre-Raphaelite Illustrators," by George Somes Layard,
xxxix
" Tennyson's Heroes and Heroines," viii
" Text-book of Elementary Design, A," by
Richard G. Hatton, xxiii
" The Butterfly," first volume, 161
" T h e Coinage of t h e European Continent,"
by W . Carew Hazlitt, 160
" T h e Little Mermaid, and Other Stories,"
by Hans Christian Andersen, translated
by Nisbet Bain, xi
" Theory and Practice of Design," By F.
G. Jackson, xliv
" T h e Studio," xxiii
" The W h i t e Conquerors of Mexico," by
Kirk Munroe, xi
" The Wild Garden," by W . Robinson,
xlviii
" T h e W r e c k of the Golden Fleece" by
Robert Leighton, xi
" The Year's Art," xix
" T h r o u g h the Sikh War," by G. A. Henty,
xi
" To Gipsyland," by Elizabeth Pennell,
xv
" Tourist's A r t Guide to Europe, The," by
Miss Nancy Bell, viii
"Transactions and Proceedings of the
J a p a n Society of London, Vol I., 1892-3,"
xxxix
" Venetian Painters of the Renaissance,
The," by Bernard Berenson, xlii
" W i t h Thackeray in America," by Eyre
Crowe, A.R.A., xi
(
Bordone, Paris,
" Christ among
the
Doctors," 111; " Violetta Palma," 318
Borgognone, Ambrogio, " St. Augustine
w i t h a Donor," 148; " Virgin and Child,
the building of the Certosa a t P a v i a in
the Background," xxxvii
Botticelli, Sandro, two panels representing
the Life and Miracles of St. Zenobia, 111;
" T h e Holy Family and St. J o h n the
Baptist," " P o r t r a i t of Esmeralda Bandinelli," " The Death of Lucretia," panel,
one of the Nastagio delli Onesti series,
146; " A b u n d a n c e , " 190; " L a Bella
Simonetta," 318
Bough, Sam, R.S.A., " A Blast o' J a n u a r
Win'," 159
Boughton, G.H., A.R.A., "Ordealof Purity,"
273; " E v a n g e l i n e , " 307; "Hesitation,"
" T h e Song Ended," 340; " A Vision at
t h e Martyr's Well," x x x : see Exhibitions
Bouguereau, W. A., " A m o u r Pique," 274;
" Biblis," 320; "L'lnnocence," " L a
Perle," 326
Bramley, F r a n k , A.R.A., elected Associate
of the Royal Academy, studies at Lincoln

GENERAL

INDEX.

and Antwerp, first exhibits at Royal
Academy in 1884, " A Hopeless D a w n "
purchased with the Chantrey Fund, 179;
" After Fifty Years," x x x
Brangwyn, Frank, born in Belgium, joins
staff of W. Morris, goes to sea, first
exhibits at the Royal
Academy,
"Ashore," " B u r i a l at Sea," " Salvage,"
"Assistance," " T h e Convict Ship," 113;
" S l a v e Market," "Gold, Frankincense,
and Myrrh," exhibitions at the Arcade
Gallery and Japanese Gallery, 114
Breton, Jules, " L a fin de la recolte," " L a
Louchez a Courrieres," 327
Brett, John, A.R. A., at the Royal Academy,
290 ; P a p e r on the Raphael Cartoons, 295
Brewtnall, E d w a r d F . , R.W^.S., " T h e B a r o n ' s
Pool, Gunnersbury,"91; "Dragon'sCave,"
xx viii; " The Poacher," xxix
British Museum, Malcolm Drawings a t the,
188; Report of the Print Room at the, iv
Bronze Gates at Adelphi Bank, Liverpool,
328
Brown, Ford Madox, " C h r i s t Washing
Peter's Feet," 287; at the " A r t s and
Crafts," i i i ; A Portrait, v i ; Will of,
xxxii
Brown, Professor Fred, Appointed to Slade
Professorship in University College,
began Night-class for Working-men,
the French Method of Teaching, 403;
" Rural England," 408
Brown, T. Austen, " Returning from Pasture," 290 ; " Weed-burning," xxvi
Bruges, Ancient Cloth Hall, Hotel de Ville,
424
Brussels, Hotel de Ville, Maison du Roi, 426
Bundy, Edgar, " T h e Coffee-house Orator,"
" F o r King Monmouth," 93; " Gay Dogs
at the ' Dragon,' " 94
Bunny, R. C. W., " A Pastoral," 70; " I n
t r a d e r s , " 96; at the Royal Academy, 273
Buoninsegna, Duccio di, " Two Scenes from
the Life of Christ," 146
Burchett, Arthur, New Method of Photography discovered by, xx
Burgess, J. B., R.A., " T h e Old H e r o / ' iii,
x i i ; " Trouble," xxx
Burne-Jones, SirE.,Bart.," Chant d'Amour,"
" M i r r o r of Venus," 97-99; Design for
Tapestry, " The Adoration of the Magi,"
284-5 ; " L o v e Among the Ruins," 48, 306;
"Miss A m y Gaskell," 308; Reputation
as a Designer, Friendship w i t h W .
Morris, Influence o£ Rossetti, Exhibition
of 1877 at the Grosvenor, 335 ; " The Sea
Nymph," " T h e Wood Nymph," 336;
" The Tower of Bras3," 339; "Idleness,
and the Pilgrim of Love," " T h e Heart
of the Rose," " T h e B a t h of Venus,"
" The Wheel of Fortune," 340; at the
" A r t s and Crafts," i i i ; elected Hon.
Member of the Munich Academy
of Arts, v i i i ; Studies in Charcoal,
Pencil and Red Chalk, xiii ; Baronetcy
conferred, Designs bought for the
Luxembourg, x x ; " T h e Hesperides,"
x x x ; First Class Medal at Antwerp, xlviii
Burns, Portraits of Robert, by Peter
Taylor, 238; by Alexander Nasmyth,
engravings from Nasmyth's Portraits,
239-40; SiJhouette by J. Miers, Crayon
Head by Skirving, 241; H e a d by David
Allan in " The Cottar's Saturday Night,"
Miniature by A. Reid, 242; Skull, 243
Burrington, A., elected Member of the
Institute of Painters in Oil Colours, xii
Burton, Sir F., born in 1816, studies in Dublin,
Associate of Royal Hibernian Academy,
Associate of Society of Painters in W a t e r Colours in 1855, Full Member 1856, resigned 1870, appointed Director of National Gallery in 1874 ; Acquisitions for
National Gallery, 310; vacates the office of
Director of the National Gallery, xxvii,
x x x i i ; Resolution passed by Trustees of
the National Gallery, xl
Byron, Some Portraits of:—Miniature by
Kay, Miniature by Chambruland, Painting on Ivory by Sir Thoma3 Lawrence,
Portraits by Gilchrist and G. F . Sanders,
Miniature and Replica from Sanders'
Portrait, Portrait by T. Phillips, R. A.,
253; Replica, Portrait and Pen-and-ink
Sketch by Lady Caroline Lamb, Portrait by R. Westall, R.A., Mezzotint by
Turner, 254; Half-length by R. Westall,
R.A., Portrait by T. Phillips, R.A.,
Replicas and Engraving3 from, Miniature by T. Holmes, Engraving of, by
Graves, Etching by Pierce Egan, junr.,
Oil Sketch by Sir T. Lawrence, Bust by
Thorwaldsen and Replicas, Drawing
by G. H. Harlowe, 255; Engravings from,
Silhouette by Mrs. Leigh Hunt, Engraving from, Silhouette, Lithograph from
Painting by Gaci, Bust by Bartolini,
Painting by W . E. West, Crayon
sketches by Count d'Orsay, 256; Engrav-

ing by F. C. Lewis, Statue by Thorwaldsen, Statue by R. Belt, 257; Portraits by Gericault, T. Sieurac (engraved
by J. T. Wedgwood), Gandellini (engraved by R. Cooper), Deveria (engraved
by Lacour), Busts by E. H. Bailey, R.A.,
and W . K. Tate, Lithographic portraits,
Portrait by D. Maclise, Medals by A. J.
Stothard, W . Woodhouse, and J. W .
Wyon, 258
Caffieri, H., elected Member of the Institute
of Painters in Oil Colours, x i i ; at the
Royal Institute of Painters in WaterCol ours, xxvi
Cain, Henri, " P o r t r a i t de Mgr. le Due
d'Aumale," 328
Calderon, Philip, R.A., " Elizabeth Woodville parting with her Younger Son," iii
Calvert, Edward, Painting by, added to the
Luxembourg, x x
Cameron, D. J., Second Class Medal at Antwerp for Engraving, xlviii
" Cardiff Raphael," The, x x x v
Carnot, M., Sculptured Monuments to, xlviii
Carolus-Duran, M., " L a Derniere Heure du
Christ," 380; " P o e t e a la Mandoline,"
381; " Beppino," v
Casimir-Perier, M., Portraits of, xlviii
Castagno, Andrea del, Leaf from a Sketchbook attributed to, 189
Catena, Vincenzo, " Adoration of the
Virgin and Child by a Knight," " St.
Jerome in his Study," 21; " T h e Virgin
and Child with Saints and Donors,"
" Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter,"
112
Cellini Work, Enamelled Gold Necklace of,
200
Chalmers, George P., " The Last of the
Harvest," 110; " T h e Monk's Head,"
221; Sketch of the Artist's Life, 221
Chantrey Bequest Purchases for 1894, xxxvi
Chartran, M., " M . Carnot, President de la
Republique," " S t . Frangois d'Assisi
chantant a u labour," 328
Chaussemiehe, M., Grand P r i x de Rome
at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts for Architecture, 35
Chavannes, Puvis de, " The Poor Fisherman," 73; " D e a t h of Orpheus," Method
of work, 75; Decorative Pictures, 76-8;
Medal of Honour at the Salon, 1882,
Commander of the Legion of Honour,
Series of Decorative Paintings a t Lyons,
at the Museums at Marseilles, Rouen,
and Amiens, 79; " Victor Hugo offrant
sa lyre a la Ville de Paris," 380; " T h e
Prodigal Son,",xxxiii
Chedanne, M., " E t u d e sur le Pantheon de
Rome, son etat actuel, sa restauration
par Septime Severe et Caracalla, en
Tan," 202; Medaille d'Honneur at the
Salon, 329
Chicago Exhibition, Medals and Diplomas
for Sculpture at, i ; Awards at, iv, v
Chinese Bells, 355
Christie, Robert, elected Member of Royal
Society of;British Artists, xxxii
Chambruland, M. de, Miniature of Byron,
253
Claude, " Tobias and the Angel," 112
Clausen, George, " T u r n i n g the Plough,"
290; " The Potato Digger," x
Clouet, " T h e Due de Rohan," 191; " D i a n e
de Poitiers," 318
Collier, Hon. John, " A Witch," 92; " A . N.
Hornby, Esq.," presented to Blackburn,
xl
Colonna, Vittoria, Letter to Michelangelo,
190
Combe, The late Mrs., Bequest of works of
art to Oxford University, xxviii
Connal, William, junr., The Collection of
Pictures of, 335
Constable, John, R.A., 321; " Hampstead
Heath," xviii; " S c e n e on the River
Stour," xxxii
Conti, Bernardino, " P o r t r a i t of a Lady,"
149
Cope made for Henry VII., 201
Corot, " Pastorale—Souvenir d'ltalie," 155;
" Le Lac," 156 ; " Morning by the Sea,"
223, x x x v i i ; at the Glasgow Institute,
xxvii
Correggio, " Christ taking leave of His
Mother," " Virgin," [xxxiv ; see Exhibitions
Cosimo, Piero di, " The Departure of the
Argonauts," " H y l a s and the Nymphs,"
after, 147
Costumes on the Stage, in Ivanhoe, 7; the
Accordion Pleat, the " Serpentine " Draperies, 10
Cotman, F . G., "Leidschiedam," 92;
" S t e a m i n g into Lincoln," xxvi
Coulon, M., "Music," 143
Cousins, Samuel, Engraving of Portrait of
Robert Burns by A. Nasmyth, 240

GENERAL
Cox, David, "Landscape," 38; " T h e Haystack," " Going to the Hayfleld," " Going
to Market," 121; " H a r l e c h Castle,"
" Scene in Wales," xxviii
Crane, Walter, at the " Arts and Crafts," iii;
Plaster Decoration and
"Summer
Chintz " paper, xxvii
Craven v. Boussod, Valadon & Co., xxxvi
Cuyp, Albert, at the "Old Masters," 110;
" Fine Day in Winter on the Maas," xxx
Dagnan-Bouveret, M., " M a r c h a n d e de
Cierges," " Christ a Gethsemane," "Mile.
Bartet," 382
Da Vinci, Leonardo, " S t u d y of a Head,"
149; Studies for " V i c t o r y and Fame,"
" T h e Adoration of the Magi," " T h e
Resurrection," 190; "Profile Bust of a
Warrior," " A Horseman," Series of
Studies for Head of Leda, 197; Alleged
discovery of Frescoes by, iv
Davis, H. W . B., R.A., " S u m m e r Time,"
selected by the A r t Union of London as
the Presentation Plate for 1894, x v i ;
Large gold medal at Vienna Salon for
"Dusk," xxxii; First Class Medal at
Antwerp, xlviii
Dawson, Henry, " St. Paul's," 195
Delaroche, Paul, " Enfants d'Edouard," 39
Delia Robbia, L. and A., W o r k wrongly attributed to, 197
Del Sarto, Andrea, "Pieta," 20; "Virgin and
Child and St. John the Baptist/' " S t .
Mary Magdalen," 147
Demont-Breton, Mme., Created Knight of
the Legion of Honour, xlviii
Detaille, M., " L e s Victimes du devoir," 327
De Wint, P., " T h e Hayfleld," 122
Dicksee, F., R.A., " T h e Magic Crystal," 272;
" Summer Sea," 290
D'Ogionno, Marco, " V i r g i n and Child with
St. John," 196
Donatello, W o r k s wrongly attributed to, 197
D'Orsay, Count A., Crayon Sketches of Lord
Byron, 256
Dossi, Dosso, Portraits, " Circe," " J o h n the
Baptist," xxxiv, 328
Dow, Gerard, "Old Woman peeling Apples,"
25 ; " The Flute Player," 395; Portrait of
Anna Maria Shurmann, 430, xxxvii
Drawings, Celebrated Collections of, 188
Diirer, A., Drawings in Water-Colour, 191;
Engravings by, 192
Dyce, W., R.A., " P e g w e l l Bay," 321, xxviii
Dying Alexander, Porphyry Bust of the, xl,
xliv
East, Alfred, R.I., "Governor's House from
Newly Bridge," 91; " Sunlit Harbour,"
290; "Morning Sun," 309
Eastlake, Lady, The Will of, xx
Eastlake, Sir Charles, P.R.A., " M r s . C. H.
Bellenden Ker," 180; " Ippolita Torelli,"
252, xx
Egan, Pierce, junr., Etching of Lord Byron,
255
Ellis, Edwin, R.B.A., " A f t e r Three Days'
Gale," " F u l l Summer," 107; "Off Flamborough Head," 124
Elsheimer, "Tobit and the Angel," xlviii
Ercolo de'Roberti, " M e d e a and her Children," xxxiv ; " The Adoration of the
Shepherds : Christ, St. Jerome, and St.
Francis with the Crucifixion—a Diptych,"
xxxvii
Etty, William, R.A., " The Sleeping Nymph
and Satyrs," 110
E X H I B I T I O N S :—

Allingham, Mrs., at the Fine A r t Society,
xxxviii
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, iii
Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport, x x x
Ball, Wilfred, at Messrs. Agnew's, xiv
Beadle, J. Prinsep, " M i l i t a r y England,"
xxxiv
Bellman, Ivey and Carter, Messrs., Statuettes at, 385
Berlin Photographic Society, The, xxxvii
Birmingham Corporation A r t Gallery,
The, xxvii
Blacksmiths' Company's Exhibition, 321
Bough ton, G. H., A.R.A., at the Fine Art
Society, xxxvii
Burlington Fine Arts Club, xxvi, xxxiv
Cassell & Co., Limited, Messrs., Twelfth
Annual Exhibition of Black and W h i t e
Drawings, xxxiv
City and Guilds of London Institute for
the Advancement of Technical Education, The, at the Skinners' Hall, xxxiv
City of London Art Galleries, The, x x x
Collins, William W., Exhibition of WaterColour Drawings, xxxiv
Continental Gallery, The, vi, x x x v
Correggio, Exhibition at Parma, xliv
Dunmore, Lord, at the Fine A r t Society,
xix
Dutch and French Romanticists at
Messrs. Obach's, xxxvii

m

912

INDEX.

E X H I B I T I O N S {continued) :—
Early Italian A r t at the New Gallery, 145
Ellis, Tristram, a t the Japanese Gallery,
xviii
Emslie, A. E., " P a s s i n g to Eternity," at
the Fine A r t Society, xxxiv
French Gallery* The, xviii
Fulleylove, John, R.I., at the Fine A r t
Society, xxii
Furniss, Harry, at the Fine A r t Society,
xxvi
Gialina, Count Angelo T., at Messrs.
Graves', xxxiv
Glasgow Art Club, The, x
Glasgow Institute, The, xxvii
Goff, Colonel R., at the " Rembrandt Head,"
Vigo Street, x
Goodall, F., R.A., at the Fine Art Society,
xxxviii
Goodwin, Albert, R. W.S., at the Fine Art
Society, xiii
Grafton Gallery, The, ix
Greenaway, Kate, at t h e Fine A r t Society,
xix
Hand-made Linens from the Cottage
Looms of Ireland, xlii
Hayes, E d w i n and Claude, at Messrs.
Dowdeswell's, xviii
Hemy, T. M., at Mr. Mendoza's, xxxviii
Home Arts and Industries Association,
The, xxxviii
International Exhibition of Bookbinders
at the " Caxton Head," 376
Jeffrey & Co., Messrs., xxvii
Lawrie & Co., Messrs., xiv
Leigh, Miss R. J., at 9, Conduit Street, xix
Lines, Samuel, at the Birmingham Corporation A r t Gallery, xxvii
Liberty, Messrs., Exhibition of Fans, 359;
Exhibition of Embroideries, xxxi
Liverpool Society of Painters in WaterColours, The, xxxviii
Ludby, Max, R.I., a t Messrs. Dowdeswell's, x
Manchester W h i t worth Institute, xlvi
Marshall, Calder, R.A., W o r k s of, xlii
MacColl, D. S., at t h e Goupil Galleries, xiv
McCormick, A. D., at the Japanese
Gallery, xxvi
McLean, Messrs., W i n t e r Exhibition, x ;
Engravings of Works of Rosa Bonheur
and Alma-Tadema, R. A., xviii
Menpes, Mortimer, at Messrs. Dowdeswell's, xxxviii
Metropolitan Sketching Clubs' Competition, vii
Moore, Albert, at Messrs. Lawrie's, xxxviii
New English Art Club, The, x
Northampton, Exhibition of
WaterColour Drawings at the Town Hall, vii
Nottingham Art Museum, xlii
Parsons, Alfred, Indian-ink Drawings, xix
Photographic Salon, The, vi
Pritchett, R. T., a t Mr. Ackermann's,
xxxviii
Quilter, Harry, at the Dudley Gallery,
xviii
Rimington, Wallace, R.P.-E., at the Fine
A r t Society, xiv
Roussel, Theodore, at Messrs. Dowdeswell's, xli
Royal Academy, The, 217, 271, 289
Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, The,
xxx
Royal Female School of Art, xiv
Royal Institute of Painters in WaterColours, The, xxvi
Royal Scottish Academy, The, xxii
Royal Society of British Artists, The, xxix
Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, The,
xxv
Royal Society of Painters in WaterColours, xiii, xxix
Sainton, Charles, Silver-point Drawings
at the Burlington Gallery, 71, vii
Salon of the Champ de.Mars, 379
Salon of the Champs iSlysees, 325
School of Handicraft, The, xlvi
Scottish Artists, Society of, v
Seitei, W a t a n a b e , at the Japanese Gallery,
vi
Societe des Aquarellistes Francais, xxx
Society of Lady Artists, The, xxxviii
South Wales Art Society, The, vi
Steer, Wilson P., at the Goupil Galleries,
xxx
Sydney (New South Wales) A r t Society,
The, Annual Spring Exhibition, x
Thornycroft, Helen, at the Studio of Mr.
Hamo Thornycroft, R.A., xxx
Tomson, Arthur, at the Dutch Gallery, xiv
Troubetzkoy, Prince Pierre, Portrait of
Mr. Gladstone, atMessrs. Graves', xxxviii
Tuxen, Laurits, " Marriage of the Duke of
York," at Mendoza's, xxxiv
Varley, John, at the Japanese Gallery,
xiv
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, The, i i i ;
Spring Exhibition, xxvii

li
E X H I B I T I O N S {continued) :—
Watson, Charles J., at the " R e m b r a n d t
Head," Vigo Street, x
Weedon, A. W., R.I., at the Fine A r t
Society's, xiv.
Wehrschmidt, D. A., " Peace, be still," at
the Fine Art Society, xxxiv
Wyllie, W . L., A.R.A., at Messrs. Dowdeswell's, xxxviii
Faed, Thomas, R.A., " I n Time of W a r , " 108
Fantin-Latour, " Groups of Flowers," 101;
"Roses," " S w e e t Peas," 290; at the
Old Salon, 327; at the Glasgow Institute,
xxvii
Farrell, Thomas, W o r k s by, 108
Fehr, H. C , " P e r s e u s rescuing Andromeda,"
bought with the Chantrey Bequest, xxxvi
Fielding, Copley, " Rivaulx Abbey," 38; " A
Rough Sea," " L o c h Lomond," 121;
" Arundel Castle," 122
Fildes, Luke, R.A., " H . R . H . the Princess of
Wales," 291; J u d g e at Metropolitan
Sketching Clubs' Competition, vii
Forbes, Stanhope A., A.R.A., " T h e Quarry
Team," 291; " B y the Fireside," 308;
" F o r g i n g the Anchor," bought for the
Luxembourg, xxxv
Forbes, Mrs. Stanhope, born in Canada,
studies at the " A r t Students' League of
New York," " T h e Minuet/' " J e a n ,
J e a n n e et Jeannette," 114
Forli, Melozzo da, "Federigo di Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, and his son
Guidobaldo," 111; Two drawings, 191
Foulis, Robert, begins life as a bookseller
a n d publisher (1741), appointed printer
to University of Glasgow, commences
his Academy of Fine Arts, 150; dies
(1776), 151; Influence of Foulis upon
Glasgow, 153
Fowler, Robert, R.I., " A Sweet Wild Creat u r e of the Sea," 93 ; " The Temptation,"
"Sleep," i i i ; " S p i r i t of Morning," v i ;
" Lilies," xxvi
F r a Angelico, Pen-and-ink drawing on
vellum, attributed to, 189; Drawing. 197;
Diptych of " T h e Annunciation," 360,
xxviii
Frampton, George, A.R. A., enters the Royal
Academy Schools, gains Gold Medal and
Travelling Studentship, " T h e Angel of
Death," Terra-cotta Frieze, 180; Plaster
sketch for frieze, i i i ; elected Associate
of the Royal Academy, xvii
Francesca, Piero della, " Virgin and Child
with Angels," 145
Francia, Francesco, "Virgin and Child," 20;
a t the New Gallery, 145; "Nativity,"
xxxiv
F r a n k s , A. Wollaston, Sir, receives knighthood, xxxiii
Fremiet, M., the Raffet Memorial, 144
Furse, C. W., " Robert Bridges, Esq.," " L o r d
Roberts of Candahar," 292
Gainsborough, Thomas, R.A., " S i r Richard
Jodrell," 37;
"Perdita
Robinson,"
"Queen Charlotte," " M r s . Thicknesse,"
"Charles Frederick Abel," 109; " M i s s
Haverfleld," " A Page," 110; " R u s t i c
Courtship," xviii
Ghent, Hotel de Ville, 425
Ghirlandajo, D., "Portraitsof Count Sassetti
and his Sons," 147; " Portrait of a Lady,"
unauthentic, 147; Studies for Frescoes in
S. Maria Novella, drawing for " L a
Virgine della Misericordia," & c , 190
Giampetrino, " Virgin and Child," 196
Gibson, John, R.A., " S i r Charles L. Eastlake," x x
Gilbert, Alfred, R.A., " D r . Joule," 252; the
Howard Memorial, 287
Gilbert, Sir John, R.A., "Falstaff Reviewing
his Ragged Troops," 123
Glasgow Corporation, Purchases by the,
xxxii
Glasgow Nudes and Mr. Whistler, The,
xxxiii
Glasgow, P r i v a t e Collections in, 154; Mr.
J a m e s Reid's, 155; Mr. A n d r e w Maxwell's, 221; Mr. W. Connal's, junr., 335
Goodall, F., R. A., " The Sheik's Grave," 124;
" T h e W a t e r of the Nile," 143; Chicago
Exhibition medal awarded, x x
Goodwin,Albert,R.W.S., " W h i t b y , " "Salisbury," x x i x : see Exhibitions
Gotch, T. C , " T h e Child Enthroned," 273;
" M y Crown a n d Sceptre," x x x
Gozzoli, Benozzo, " The Argonauts in
Colchis," ascribed to, 146
Greek Vase Painting, Myths of the Dawn
on, 59
Greuze, Head of a Girl, 396
Gubbio Lustre Ware, 198
Haag, Carl, R.W.S., " T h e Temple of
Jupiter Tonans, Rome," " Amphitheatre,
Athens," 124

lii
Hacker, Arthur, studies at the BrltisTi
Museum and Royal Academy Schools,
exhibits first picture in 1878, studies in
Paris under Bonnat, " H e r Daughter's
Legacy," "Relics of the Brave," & c ,
goes to Spain and Tangiers, first a w a r d
at
Adelaide
Jubilee
Exhibition,
" Pelagia," & c , " A n n u n c i a t i o n " bought
by the Chantrey Bequest, " S y r i n x "
bought by the Manchester Corporation,
115 ; " M o r t e d ' A r t h u r , " 273 ; " E. Onslow
Ford, A.R.A.," 292; " M . Tomkinson,
Esq.," " Christ and the Magdalen," x x x
Haden, Seymour F., Sir, " A F r a g m e n t , " x x v ;
receives Knighthood, xxxiii
Hals, Frans, at the "Old Masters," 110;
Statue of, to be erected at Haarlem,
xlvii
Hanfstaengl v. Empire Theatre Co., Limited,
xxi
Harlowe, G. H., Chalk Drawing of Lord
Byron, 255
Hartley, A., elected Associate of Royal
Society of Painter-Etchers, x x
Hayes, Edwin, R.I., " Wreckage off Barnborough Castle, Northumberland," 92;
at t h e Royal Academy, 290 ; " Sunset
at Sea, Harlyn Bay, Cornwall," bought
for the Chantrey Bequest, xxxvi
Heere, Lucas de, " Lady J a n e Grey," 318
Helleu, M., " E t u d e , "
"Les
Dessins
de W a t t e a u au Mus6e du Louvre,"
" F e m m e a la Tasse," xxvi
Herkomer, Professor, R.A., " Head of an
Old Woman," 101; " A l l beautiful in
Naked Purity," 274; "Marquess of
Salisbury," "Marquess of Ripon," " F .
W . Harris, Esq.," 292; " L a d y Ridley,"
308; " M i s s Grant," 320; " A r o u n d the
Old Cross," xiii; elected Member of the
Royal Society of Painters in WaterColours, x x i v ; re-elected President of
Royal Birmingham Society of Artists,
x x v i i ; Portraits, " Daphne," xxix ; " On
Wood-engraving," xxxiii; Lectures, x l ;
"Castle G a r d e n ' ' bought for Leipzic,
xliv
High Prices at Auctions, xliv
Hildebrand, Adolf, born 1847, studies at
Nuremberg, Munich, Rome, and Berlin,
settles in Florence, "Sleeping ShepherdBoy," " Drinking Boy," 53; Home at
Bellosguardo, 55
Hitchcock, George, " La Culture des
Tulipes," " The Annunciation," " Maternite," First Class Medal at the Paris
Exhibition,
Gold
Medal
of
the
" American A r t Association," " Toilers
of the Sea," 115; " The Scarecrow,"
educated for the law at Providence,
U.S.A., studies in Paris under Boulanger
a n d Lefebvre, at the Hague under
Mesdag, 116; " M a r y at the House of
Elizabeth," 274; " The Rising Moon," xvii
Hobbema, M., at the " Old Masters," 110
Hodgson, J. E., R.A., " R u r a l England,"
xxx
Hogarth, William, " The Marriage of Mr.
Beckingham and Miss Corbett in
Bishops bourne Church," 110
Holbein, H., " The Duchess of Milan," 3L7 ;
" M a r g a r e t Tudor," 318
Holbein, Hans, t h e Younger, "Sigismund
Holbein," " Duches3 of Suffolk," 191
Holford Sale, Report of the, iv
Hoogh, Pieter de, " Garden Scene," 111, 396
Hope, Adrian, Sale of Collection of, 394
Hoppner, J., " Richard Brinsley Sheridan,"
37 ; " M a s t e r White," 110
Hunt, A. W., R.W.S., " Wind of the Eastern
S e a - W h i t b y , " " Schloss Eltz-Moselle,"
124; " Niagara," xxix
Hunt, Holman, Heads in Coloured Chalks,
99; Rlustrationsto " L i g h t o f the World,"
162; " T o w e r of David, Jerusalem," v i ;
" T h e Sleeping City," "Canon Jenkins,"
x x v i i i ; " Pin ling of Christ in the
Temple," " S t r a y e d Sheep," x x x ; on
Sunday Opening, xxxvii
Hunt, William, " T h e Attack,"
"The
Defeat," " The Fly Fisher," 122
Illumination, Irish Caligraphy and, 83; late
Anglo-Saxon Style, Complete Mediaeval
School, Differentiation between the
W o r k of the European Countries, 85 ;
Psalters, 86 ; Invention of cast Movable
Type, 87; Books of Hours, 88
Immanuel, Bell in Notre Dame, 355
Israels, Josef, " T h e Frugal Meal," 156;
" The Pancake," 224
Jackson, J., R.A., " James Northcote, R.A.,"
xxviii
Jacque, Charles, " A Pastoral," 158
Jewellery at the New Gallery, 200
King, Yeend, " The Lynn, North Devon,"
92 ; " The Kennett Old River," 9b

GENERAL

INDEX.

Kneller, Sir G., " S a r a h , born Jennings,
Duchess of Marlborough," 319
Langley, Walter, " Never morning wore to
evening, but some heart did break," 274 ;
"After the Storm," xxvi
Lavery, John, " L a d y in Brown, 291; " A
Lady in Black," " Le Soir/' x v i i i ; Portrait Group, xxvii
Lawrence, Sir T., P.R.A., Miniature of
Byron, 253 ; Sketch of Byron, 255; " Portrait of Mrs. Graham, afterwards Lady
Calcott," x x
Lawson, Cecil Gordon, Drawings on Wood,
1, 2; " A Hymn to Spring," "Pastoral,"
67 ; Visit to Kent, " T h e Hop Gardens of
England," " The Minister's Garden," " A
Pastoral, Trafalgar Square," 68; " Voice
of the Cuckoo," " The August Moon,"
69 ; " Marsh Lands." Death of the artist,
70
Layard, Sir H. A., The Will of, xlviii
Legros, Professor, elected Associate of Royal
Society of Painter-Etchers, x x
Leighton, Sir F., Bart., P.R.A., " Romeo and
Juliet," 99; " H e a d of a Girl," 100;
Address to the Students in the Royal
Academy Schools, 127; "Phoenicians
Bartering with Britons," 141; " A n d the
Sea gave up t h e Dead which were in
it," 177; " S u m m e r Slumber," " T h e
Bracelet," " Spirit of the Summit,"
"Fatidica," 272; Plaster Sketches of
" G a r d e n of the Hesperides" and
" A n d r o m e d a , " "Rispah," i i i ; Two
drawings bought for the Luxembourg,
x x ; awarded Royal Gold Medal of the
Institute of British Architects, x x i v ;
"Hit," x x v i i ; Gold Medal at Vienna
Salon for " Perseus and Andromeda,"
x x x i i ; Degree of D.C.L., xl
Lely, Sir Peter, " Comtesse de Grammont,"
320
Lewis, J. F., R.A.., " T h e E n c a m p m e n t in
t h e Desert," 123; Anecdote of, 124;
" Edfou," 321; Water-Colours Purchased
for South Kensington, xlvi
Linn ell, John, " Arcadian Shepherds," 39 ;
" Downward Rays," " Abraham and the
Three Angels," " Oak of Mamre," 156
Linton, Sir James D., P.R.I., "Afternoon,"
"Caught," 91; " M i s s Wardour," v i ;
" Katherine," xxvi
Lippi, Filippino, " Tobias and t h e Angel,"
112 ; " The Departure of the Argonauts "
ascribed to, 146 ; " Virgin and Child and
the infant St. John," xxxvii
Lithography and t h e Royal Academy, xli
Logsdail, W., " P i a z z a S. Marco/' " B o a t on
a Venetian Canal," 100; " Ca' D'Oro,"
101
Louvain, H6tel de Ville, Church of St.
Pierre, 427
Lucas, Seymour, A.R.A., " C a l l to Arms,"
274; " N e w s of the Spanish Armada,"
iii
Luini, Bernardino, Four panels, representing
St. Catherine of Alexandria, 20; " The
Nativity," " The History of Three
Martyrs in Three Pictures," " St.
Catherine," " S t . Stephen," 149; " P o r trait of a Lady," 318
Luxembourg, Acquisitions at the, xxxv
Macbeth, Robert, A.R.A., Etching of " S u m mer T i m e " by H . W. B. Davis, R.A.,
xvi
MacWhirter, J., R. A., " View of Edinburgh
from the Queen's P a r k , " xxii
Majolica, Collection at the New Gallery,
197
Malines, The Old Cloth Hall, 427
Manchester A r t Gallery, Additions to the
permanent collection, 143, xxvii
Maris, M. J., " L'Enfant Couchee," 222;
" T h e Lady of Shalott," 223; " T h e Windmill," xviii
Massey, H. G., elected Associate of Royal
Society of Painter-Etchers, xx
May, Phil, born at Leeds, 1864, joins company
of strolling players, draws for Yorkshire
Gossip,
348; Character-sketches for
Society and St. Stephen's Review, '' The
Coming Paradise," works, for
fenny
Illustrated
Paper, goes to Australia,
joins staff of the Sydney
Bulletin,
returns in 1889, Punch, 349
McGill, David, Travelling Studentship for
' Sculpture at Royal Academy Schools,
12§
McL^cvhlan, Hope, " W i n t e r Comes," 290;
"Marshlands," xxvi
McTaggart, " Ocean," xxvii
Medals at the New Gallery, 199
Medici, Cosimo de, Bust of, 200
Meissonier, J. L. E., " A Cavalier," 101
Melioli of Mantua, Medals of "Ludovico III.,
Gonzaga" and "Christian I., King of
Denmark," 199

Merce-r, Eleanor, Two Gold Medals and
Princess of Wales Scholarship at South
Kensington, 428
Mesdag, M., " D e p a r t u r e from Scheveningen," vi
Messina, A. da, Two Portraits, 145; " P o r trait of a Man," 191
Metsu, Gabriel, "Interior," 25
Michelangelo, " J e s u s Christ upon the
Cross," 190; " T h e Fall of Phaethon,"
Cartoon of " T h e Holy Family and
Saints," 191; "Baccanale dei Putti,"
"Shooting at a Mark," " S t u d y for a
Figure of Christ," 197
Mieris, Frans van, " Visit of Jeroboam's
Wife to the Blind Prophet Abijah," 25
Millais, Sir J. E., "Miss E. Tennant,"
"Cinderella," 320; " M r . J o h n Hare,"
iii; Three portraits, v i ; " V i c t o r y , O
Lord," x x v i i ; " The Return of the Dove
to the Ark," xxviii; "Lorenzo and
Isabella," " T h e Idyll," x x x ; Medal of
Honour at Antwerp, xlviii
Mitrecey, Maurice T., Grand P r i x de Rome
at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, 35
Monk, W., elected Associate of Royal
Society of Painter-Etchers, xx
Montalba, Clara, " S a n Marco," 309
Montenard, M., " P a n n e a u decoratif," 383
Monumental Chapel, Westminster, Proposed Sites for new, 302
Monvel, Boutet de, " Le3 Paons Blancs,"
" L e Conte de Fees," xxx
Moore, Albert, " The Fan," 224, 335 ; Born in
1841, goes to London in 1853, 361; Enters
Royal Academy Schools, " The Goldfinch," "Elijah's Sacrifice," 362; Decorative pieces, paintings in St. Alban's
Church, Rochdale, and Hall at Claremont, Proscenium, Queen's Theatre,
Peacock Frieze, 363 ; " The Loves of the
Winds and the Seasons," "Topaz,"
" Rose Leaves," " Yellow Marguerites,"
" R e a d i n g Aloud," 364; " M i d s u m m e r , '
" W h i t e Hydrangeas," " P o r t r a i t of W.
Connal, Esq.," " P a l e Margaret," " O n e
of the Audience," " T h e Lovers," 367;
and the Royal Academy, i ; at the Grafton Gallery, xvii: see Exhibitions
Moore, Henry, R.A., " T h e Launch of the
Lifeboat," 108 ; At the Royal Academy,
.. 290; " C a l m e avant forage," 384; Two
Water-colours, v i ; " S u n s e t after a
Storm," xxx ; First Class Medal at Antwerp, xlviii
Moreelse, Paul, " D i r c k Alewyn Dirckz,"
" Maria Schurman," 24
Morland, George, " Fen Farm," xviii
Morland, Henry R., Two pictures entitled
" The Laundry-Maid," 287
Morris, William, Arras designed by Sir E.
Burne-Jones, Bart., i i ; Exeter College
Tapestry, 284
Moss, Gilbert, The Collection of, 120
Miiller, Professor Carl, " W o m a n Clothed
with the Sun," " Holy Family," vi
Miiller, William, " T h e Via Mala," " T h e
Spliigen Pass," 38
Munkacsy, " Study of a Head of Christ," 341
Murillo, " D e a t h of St. Clara," xlviii
Murray, David, A.R.A., " M e a d o w Sweet,"
iii, x i i ; "Season of Mists and Mellow
Fruitfulness," x x x ; " F i r Faggots,"
xxxii
Nasmyth, Alexander, Portraits of Robert
Burns, 239, 240, 241
Nasmyth, Patrick, "Carisbrook Castle," 158
National Gallery and the Government
again, The, x x v ; English Pictures at the,
i v ; Statistics of 1893, x x i ; Recent Acquisitions at the, 180, 287, 321, 396, 430, xx,
xxviii, xxxvii, xl, xlviii
National Portrait Gallery, The, Recent Acquisitions, 252, xx
Niemann, Edmund J., Two views of Richmond, Yorkshire, & c , 39
Normand, Ernest, " A n Eastern Idyll," 307;
" Saul and David," xxx
North, J. W., A.R.A., "Mill-pond in a
Blossoming Land," 290 ; " Sweet Water
Meadows of the West," viii; " A n d so
the ever-running year follows," xxix ; at
the Royal Birmingham Society of
Artists, xxx
Nude, The, xxxvii
Oakes, J. W., A.R.A., " The W a r r e n , " xviii
OBITUARIES:—

Albano, Salvatore, viii
Barthelemy, Pierre-Emile, xlviii
Beyaert, M., 214
Birch, C. B., A.R.A., 71
Bodmer, Karl, xii
Bokelmann, Ludwig, xxxvi
Bonheur, Ferdinand, viii
Bracony, Armand Etienne, xxiv
Bramtot, Alfred Henri, xl
Brown, Ford Madox, i

GENERAL
OBITUARIES (continued) :—
Cain, Auguste, 428
Cardon, Louis, xxviii
Cavelier, Jules Pierre, xx
Cheret, Joseph, xl
Cordeau, Vincent, xvi
Cousin, Gustave Victor, xl
Cugnot, Louis Leon, xlviii
Cunliffe-Owen, Sir Philip, 251, xxv
Dael, Auguste, xl
Dibdin, Thomas Colman, x x
Doyle, Charles A., viii
Eastlake, Lady, iv
Ewert, P e r John Tage, xxxvi
Ferrari, Luigi, xl
Flameng, Marie Auguste, iv
Francheschi, Jule3, iv
Gautier, Arnaud-Desire, xxxii
Gray, John Miller, xxviii
Hardinge, Viscouut, xlviii
Hart, William, N.A., xl
Hartland, Albert, xvi
Hasenauer, Baron Carl, x x
Hebert, Emile, viii
Holland, L. G., iv
Inness, George, Senr., xlviii
Jacque, Charles Emile, xxxvi
Keppler, Joseph, xxiv
Kerry, W . L., viii
Lacroix, Gabriel, xl
Lansyer, Emmanuel, viii
Lejeune, Eugene, xxxvi
Loustav, M., xl
Madrazo, Frederico, xl
Maillet, Jacques Leonard, xxiv
Marshall, W. Calder, R.A., 358
Matejko, J e a n Aloysius, xii
Montalba, Henrietta, iv
Moore, Albert, 34
Mousset, Pierre Joseph, xl
Miiller, Professor Carl, 35
Mutrie, Annie F., viii
Miitzel, Gustav, viii
Muzioli, Giovanni, xlviii r
Newcome, Frederick Cliv e, xxiv
Nibbs, Richard Henry, iv
Papworth, Wyatt, F.R.I.B.A., xlviii
Pater, Walter, xlviii
Piglhein, Bruno, xliv
Raemakers, J. A., xxxii
Renouf, Emile, xxxvi
Rimmer, Alfred, viii
Rosa, Ercole, viii
Rossetti, Mrs. Lucy, x x x v i
Sain tin, Jules Emile, xliv
Setchel, Sarah, xxiv
Slingeneger, A. Ernest, xxxvi
Stanton, Clark, R.S.A., xx
Stiell, Gourlay, R.S.A., x x
Tschaggeny, Charles, xl
Vannutelli, Scipione, xl
Wallace, Robert Bruce, iv
Woodington, William Frederick, A.R.A.,
xvi
Yvon, Adolphe, 35
Octobre, M., " T h e Golden Age," Grand
P r i x de Rome at the J&cole de3 BeauxArts, 35
Old Masters at the Royal Academy, The,
109
Opie, John, R.A., " Portrait of a Boy," 396
Orchardson, W. Q., R.A., " T h e Farmer's
Daughter," 156; " Don Csesar deBazan,"
223 ; " Portrait of a Lady," " Professor
Dewar," 291; " W a l t e r Gilbey, Esq.,"
325 ; " The Young Duke," x ; Small Gold
Medal at Vienna Salon for " M a s t e r
Baby," xxxii
Oudenarde, Cloth Hall, Hotel de Ville, 425
Ouless, W . W., R.A , "Sir Charles Tennant,"
x x v i i ; Gold Medal at Vienna Salon
(large) for Portrait of Cardinal Manning,
x x x i i ; Medal of Honour at Antwerp,
xlviii
Palmaroli, Vicente, Appointed Director of
the Madrid Museum, xliv
Parochialism and the Nude, xxix
Parsons, Alfred, " A Lonely F a r m , " 308;
Two Japanese Pictures, v i ; Small Gold
Medal at Vienna Salon for " Young
Cherry Trees," x x x i i ; see Exhibitions
Parton, Ernest, " J o y o u s Summer," 92;
J u d g e at Metropolitan Sketching Clubs'
Competition, vii
Pendant Enseigne or Reliquary, 200
Pesellino, " F l y i n g Angel," " T h e Triumph
of Love, Chastity, and Death," " T h e
Triumph of Fame, Time, and Religion,"
" Virgin and Child with Saints," ascribed
to, 146
Pettie, J., R.A., Collection of Paintings a t
the "OldMasters," 112; "J. CouttsMichie,
Esq.," vi ; " A Fayre Ladye," xxii
Philipp, John, R.A., " T h e Early Career of
Murillo/' 110
Philipps, Thomas, R.A., " Campbell,"
" Crabbe," 110; " Lord Byron," 253 ; Replica, 254; " Lord Byron," Replica, 255

INDEX.

Picard, Louis, " A u Bord de la Mer,"
"Melancholia," " F e m m e &la Fenetre,"
383
Piombo, Sebastiano del, " Holy Family," 111
Pisano, V., " St. Hubert," Authentic panel
pictures by, 146
Pordenone, " Isabella d'Este," 318
Pott, C. M., Elected Associate of Royal
Society of Painter-Etchers, xx
Potter, Paul, " Four Oxen in a Meadow," 396
Powell, Sir Francis, P.R.S.W., " Y a c h t s , "
341; " Essex Windmill," xiii
Poynter, E. J., R.A., Designs for St. Paul's,
177;'' Diadumene," x x x ; Elected Director
of the National Gallery, xxxii, xxxvi
Prinsep, Val C , R.A., Elected a Royal
Academician, 322
Prout, Samuel, in the Gilbert Mos3 Collection, 122
Punch Dinner-Table, 400
Rae, Henrietta, " P s y c h e before the Throne
of Venus," 274
Raffet, Denis A. M., 141
Raphael, " A Senator" (ascribed to), 111;
" C h r i s t Bearing the Cross" (ascribed
to), " V i r g i n and Child" (ascribed to),
" Portraits of Ferry Carondelet and His
Secretaries" (ascribed to), 148; " L a
Vierge a la Legende," 159; Study of the
Head of St. James, Portrait Studies in
Black Chalk, Silverpoint, Study of Four
Male Figures (ascribed to), " Virgin and
Child," " Pieta," 191; Study for Cartoon
of " Charge to Peter," Study for the
Figure of "Poetry," Sketch for Cartoon of
the " Miraculous Draught of Fishes," 197;
The Cartoons, 295—299; Alleged Masterpiece by, ix ; Story of the Finding of the
Original Cartoons by, xxxvi
Ravensteyn, Jan, " Head of a Man," 24
Havenswood, Costumes for Lyceum Production of, 277, 279
Read, E. H., Elected Member of Royal
Society of British Artists, xxxii
Recoura, A., Grand Prix de Rome, 430
Reid, Alexander, Miniature of Robert
Burns, 212
Reid, Sir George, P.R.S.A., " J a m e s Reid,
Esq.," 159; "Professor Blackie," 292;
" L o r d Mountstephen," " D r . Walter
Smith," "Professor Grainger Stewart,"
" A Highland Pastoral," x x i i ; "Montrose," xxvii
Reid, Sir George. P.R.S.A., and the Royal
Scottish Academy, ix
Reid, James, The Collection of, 153
Reid, J. R., " A Happy Family," " A n Old
Sea Dog," 95
Reinagle, His W o r k for Sir W. Beechey,
Chantrey, and Hoppner, 311
Rembrandt, " C h r i s t before Pilate," 252;
" Nicholas R u t s / ' 395
Reunion Club, The, 398
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, P.R.A., " P o r t r a i t of
a Gentleman," " A Sprite," " Portrait of
a Lady," 37 ; " L a d y Frances Marsham,"
" Mrs. Powys and Her Daughters,"
" M r s . Carnac," " L a d y Sunderlin," " Sir
Jeffery (afterwards Earl) Amherst/'
" Venus Disarming (or checking) Cupid/'
109; " N y m p h , " "Elizabeth Foster,
Duchess of Devonshire," " Collina,"
"Miss Jacobs," "Georgina, Duchess of
Devonshire," 320; " L a d y Betty Delme
and her Children," " T h e Hon. Miss
Monckton," 430
Richard III., Costumes for Production of,
278
Richardson, H. H., Born in Louisiana, U.S.,
Studies at Harvard^ 133; Goes to Paris
in 1859, Enters the Ecole des Beaux-Arts,
1860, Returns to America, Gains First
Commission, 134; Trinity Church, Boston,
135; State Capitol, Albany, City Hall,
Albany, 136 ; Harvard Buildings, Sever
Hall, L a w School, Ames Memorial Building, The Field Building, Chicago, Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, Pittsburg Court-House, 137
Richmond, W . B., A.R.A., Original Suggestions for Interior Decoration of St. Paul's,
178, iii, x x v i i ; " A Maid of Athens," xxx
Riviere, Briton, R.A., "Beyond Man's Footsteps,"'290 ; " The King's Libation," i i i ;
" Beyond Man's Footsteps " bought with
the Chantrey Bequest, xxxvi
Roberts, David, R . A , " T h e Ruins of Baalbec,"108; "Malaga," 122
Rochegrosse, G., " L e Chevalier aux Fleurs,"
325 ; At the Hanover Gallery, xxxi
" Roland," the Alarm Bell at Ghent, 356
Roll, M., "Louise Cattel, Nourrice," " E x ode," 382, xvii
Romney, G., " P o r t r a i t of a Lady," 37;
" L a d y Hamilton as Sensibility," 110;
" M r . and Mrs. Lindon," 180
Ronner, Mme. Henriette, Studies of Cats,
94; At the Royal Academy, 291

liii
Rossettij Dante G., " Veronica Veronese,"
" L a Ghirlandata," " T h e Dream of
Dante," 43; " Mnemosyne," 341; Designs
for Stained Glass"; iii; " D a n t e ' s Celebration of Beatrice's Birthday," xxviii
Roubillac, Louis Francis, Life of, by M.
Sainte-Croix, 202; Born at Lyons, 1695,
Studies under Balthazar, Gains 2nd
Grand Prix in 1720, Statues of Handel
and Milton at Vauxhall, Busts of Swift
and Pope, 204; Terra-cotta Models and
Casts in the British Museum, Monuments in Westminster Abbey, 205;
Visit to Rome, the W a r r e n Monument,
Statue of Shakespeare, 231; the Nightingale
Monument,
Monuments to
Bishops Hough and H u r d and to Lord
Shannon, Busts of Hogarth, Wilton,
and Garrick, Funeral, 232
Roussel, T., A Portrait, x v i i i ; see E x h i bitions
Roux, Constant A. A., Grand Prix de Rome
for Sculpture, 430
Royal Academy, The, 217, 271, 289; Old
Masters at, 109 ; Elections at, xvii ; Proposal for " C r o w d e d out" Pictures at,
xxxii ; Proposed Reforms, xxviii
Royal Academy Schools, Gold Medals, 127
Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours, The New Regulations for Lady
Members, xx
Rubens, P . P., Correspondence with Sir
Dudley Carleton, respecting the " Lion
Hunt," 268; anecdotes of, 311; " Boar
Hunt," 396
Russell, J., R.A., Caricature Portrait of
Sheridan, xlvi
Ruston Collection, The, 19, 37, 97
Ruysdael, J., " A View of Katwyk," " T h e
Windmill," 110
Sainton, Charles, a Caravan Journey from
Dieppe to Nice, Two Exhibitions of
Silverpoints, 116; First Exhibits at
Royal Academy in 1886, " A Ragpicker's Home," " D a w n , " ' ( 'B-° v e s '"
Studies in Paris, Florence, and at the
Slade School, 117
Salon of the Champ de Mars, The, 379
Salon of the Champs Ely sees, The, 325
Sanders, G*. F., Miniature of Lord Byron,
Replica, 253
Sargent, J o h n S., A.R.A., Elected Associate of the Royal Academy, 179;
Studies in France and I t a l y ; Pupil of
Carolus-Duran, "Carnation, Lily, Lily,
Rose " in the Chantrey Collection, 180;
Lunette and Portion of a Ceiling for
" T h e Public Library, Boston, U.S.A.,"
272; " M i s s Chanler," 291; " M r s . Hugh
Hammersley," 381, xvii
Scheffer, Ary, "Paolo and Francesca," 39
Schmalz, Herbert, " A Gift for the Gods,"
306
Sculptor's Ghost, The, 313-15
Segantini, G., " T h e P u n i s h m e n t of Luxury,"
iii, xii
Shannon, J. J., Studies at South Kensington
Schools, W i n s Gold Medal, Portraits,
117 ; " M r s . Claude Magniac," 291; "Miss
H. M. Jones," 308; " H e r r Pognanski,"
x v i i i ; Small Gold Medal at Vienna
Salon, xxxii
Shaw, Norman, R.A., " The New Buildings
for Scotland Yard," 330-34
Shee, Sir Martin, " Miss Blake," 110
Siena Cathedral, Floor of, " Wheel of
Fortune," Medallion or: King David,
" D e a t h of Absalom," 369; " W o r k of
Beccafumi, 410-18
Sinibaldi, P . J. R., Studies under Alfred
Stevens and Cabanel, Mention Honorable at the Salon of 1836, Bourse de
Voyage, Bronze Medal at the Exposition
Universelle, Member of the Societe des
Artistes Francais, "Spring," " L a Nuit,"
422
Skirving, Crayon Portrait of Robert Burns,
241
Smythe, Lionel, R.W.S., " B u i l d i n g R i c k s P a s de Calais," x i i i ; elected Member of
the Royal Society of Painters in WaterColours, x x i v ; at the Royal Society of
Painters in Water-Colours, xxix
Society of Illustrators, The, xxiv, x x x v
Sodini, Dante, "Gladstone
Scrittore,"
" Fede," xxxviii
Solario, Andrea, "Virgin and Child" a n d
" St. Mary Magdalene," attributed to,
149
Solomon, S. J., Studies at Heatherley's
Royal Academy Schools, in Paris, under
Cabanel, "Orpheus, "Hippolyta," etc,
118; " M r s . Patrick Campbell as Paula
Tanqueray," 291; " I. Zangwili," 292
South Africa, Art Prospects in, xii
South Kensington, A w a r d s at, i v ; Funds
of, v ; Delia Robbia W a r e , lent hv,
to Liverpool, x x v i i ; Substitution of

liv

GENERAL

Tapestries for Casts in the Great Hall, 35,
x x x i i ; Report of the Science and A r t
Department, x l v i ; Bequest of J. Hill,
Esq., xlviii
South London Fine A r t Gallery, viii
Speed, Harold E., Travelling Studentship
at Royal Academy Schools, 128
Spenlove-Spenlove, F., elected Member of
Royal Society of British Artists, xxxii
Spitzer Collection, Division of, among
European Museums, xii
Steen, J a n , " Saying Grace," " D u t c h F a m i l y
Merrymaking," "Interior with Figures,"
111
Stevens, Alfred, The Wellington Memorial,
St. Paul's, 114; Designs for the Four
Prophets, 177
Stevenson, W . Grant, Statue of Robert
Burns, 216
Stewart, Allan, " M a r y Stuart's last look of
Scotland," v i ; " A Fragment of the
A r m a d a , " xxil
Stewart, James S., Travelling Studentship
for Architecture at Royal Academy
Schools, Des'gn for a Provincial Town
Hall, 128
Stone, Marcus, R.A., " I n Time of Peace,"
156; W o r k purchased for Blackburn, xl
Stothard, A. J., Bronze Medal of Lord
Byron, 258
Stothard, Thomas, R.A., at the " Old
Masters," 112
Stott, of Oldham, " A w a k e n i n g of the Spirit
of the Rose," 273 ; " Summer Day," xxvii
St. Paul's Cathedral, Decoration of, 177, 178,
xxvii
Strang, William, " J a n Strang," " Mr.
Blomfle'd," x x v
St. Simeon, The Shrine of, 392-94
Swan, John M., A.R.A., Biographical notice
of, Studies under Gerome, Fr6miet,
Bastien-Lepage, and Honourable Mention at the Salon in 1885, " T h e Prodigal
Son " bought by Chantrey Fund, 171;
Influence of Barye and Fremiet, 175 ;
" T h e Studio," 176; "Orpheus," 273; at the
Royal Academy, 290; elected Associate
of t h e Royal Academy, xvii; "Thirst,"
Tapestry, in the New Courts at South Kensington, 357. 358; at Exeter College, Oxford, 284
" Tarocchi Cards," The, 192
Tassie, James, born at Pollockshaws, 1735,
Admitted a Student of the Foulis
Academy, 151; Discovery of Vitreous
Enamel, Specimens of Profiles in Pastes,
Supplies Moulds to Wedgwood, Portrait
Medallions in W a x , 152
Tassie, William, Nephew of J a m e s Tassie,
Portraits Mod elled in W a x , Bequeathes
Collection of his own and J. Tassie's
W o r k s to National Gallery of Scotland,
152
Taylor, J. E., Gift to South Kensington, xlvi
Taylor, Peter, Portrait of Robert Burns, 238
Teniers, David, Copy of Vincenzo Catena's
" P o r t r a i t of a Canon," v ; Miniature
repetition of " V i r g i n and Child with
Saints " by Bonifazio Veronese, 21

INDEX.

Ter Borch, Gerard, " P o r t r a i t of a Gentleman," 252
Thorwaldsen, Bust of Lord Byron, Replicas,
255 ; Statue of Lord Byron, 257
Throne of Giuliano de Medici, 201
Thurible in Copper-Gilt, 198
Tissot, M., Water-Colour Drawings Illustrating the Life of Christ, 384
Titian, " C a t a r i n a Cornaro, Queen of
Cyprus," 318
Tringham, Holland, Elected Member of
Royal Society of British Artists, xxxii
Tuke, H. S.," August Blue," 274, 290: " Mending the Mainsail," x x v i ; The Chantrey
Bequest, x x x v i ; " Sailors Playing Cards,"
Bought by the State of Bavaria, xl,
xliv
Turner, J . M. W., R.A., " T h e Falls of the
Clyde," "Heidelberg,"
"Plymouth,"
" T h e Lake of Thun," 38; At the "Old
Masters," 110; " T h e Dead Sea," " I s r a e l
in Horeb," 122; " M o d e r n Italy," 158;
" Trout Stream," iii; Water-Colour a n a
Pencil Drawings at the National Gallery,
iv ; " The Marriage of the Adriatic," xxx;
" A n c i e n t Italy," xxxvii, xliv
Uhde, Professor von, " Let the Little Children Come unto M e / ' " Homewards,"
" L a Chanteuse," 309; "Les Pelerins
d'Emmaiis/' " La Fuite en Egypte," 382 ;
" The Sermon on the Mount/' xvii
Unger, Wilhelm, Etching of F . von Uhde's
" Homewards," 309
Urbino Ewer, 198
V a n der Straeten, M., "Serpolette," " M a dame Sans Gene," 386
V a n Dyck, A., " T h e Blenheim Madonna/'
22; " Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick,"
" J a m e s Stewart, Duke of Richmond
and Lennox," 111; Assistance given by
Pupils, 311; " H e n r i e t t a M a r i a / ' " T h e
Countess of Sunderland, Lady Tufton,"
320; " Andrea Spinola, Doge of Venice,"
i i i ; Pictures by, Acquired by Belgian
Government, xxiv
V a n Eyck, Jan, "Philippe le Bon, Duke of
Burgundy," 192
Velasquez, Two Drawings, 191; Philip of
Spain, 395
Venetian Spinet, 201
Venice, Proposed Biennial International
Exhibitions at, x x x v ; Chimneys at,
152
Venus of Melos, Discovery of, Suggested
Designations of, 16, xiii
Vermeer, Jan, " The Lady at a Spinet/' 111;
" A Lady Playing the Guitar," 318
Vernet, Claude J., " A Mediterranean Seaport," 180
Villela, Bell of the, 354
Waite, Harold, The Turner Gold Medal and
£50 Scholarship and Creswick Prize at
Royal Academy Schools, 128
Waite, R. Thorne, R.W.S., "New T Mown
H a y / ' 92, xiii
W a l k e r Art Gallery, Liverpool, Additions to
permanent Collection, 108,142, iii, xii

Walker, Fred, A.R.A., " T h e Harbour of
Refuge/' 12; " T h e Wayfarers," " T h e
Plough," 110; " The Old Gate," 394; At
the Royal Birmingham Society of
Artists, xxx
Walker, William, Engraving of Portrait of
Robert Burns by A. Nasmyth, 240
Waterhouse, J. W., A.R.A., " L a Belle
Dame Sans Merci," 118; " The Lady of
Shalott," 272; " M r s . Newton-Robinson,"
291; "Ophelia," 307; At the Glasgow
Institute, xxvii
Waterlow, E. A., A.R.A., " T h r o u g h t h e
Fields," 92, xiii; Elected Member of
the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, x x i v ; " The Evening Hour,"
xxx
Watteau, A., Study of an English soubrette,
191
W a t t s , G, F., R,A., " H o p e , " 40; " T h e E v e
of P e a c e / ' "Bianca," " H e b e , " " L a d y
Lilford," " L o v e and Life," " L o v e and
D e a t h / ' Portrait of the Artist, 42;
Designs for two Spandrels in St. Paul's,
177; " For he had great possessions," 272;
" P a s s m o r e Edwards, Esq.," 291; " S i r
Andrew Clark," 292; " A Greek Idyll,"
" George Meredith," 306; "Miss Prinsep,"
"Mrs.
Langtry," 320;
"Artemis,"
" Orpheus and Eurydice," 340 ; " Endymion," i i i ; Honorary Member of the
Munich Academy of Arts, " L o v e and
Life," v i i i ; Gift of Portraits to the
Nation, x i i ; Baronetcy refused, xx, x x i ;
" L o v e and Life" added to the Luxembourg, x x ; " L o v e and Life" for
America, xxviii; "Marchioness of
Gran by," xxxiii
W a u t e r s , Emile, " M m e . Lambert de Rothschild," "Miss Carroll of Baltimore,"
"Comtesse Louis de Montesquiou-Fezens a c / ' 182; " M i s s Dora Bell," " M i s s
Henriette Bell," "Mademoiselle de
Brants (Vicomtesse Armand)," 183;
" M m e . de Schoen," " M m e . Sassoon
de Rothschild," 184; Method of work,
His Colour, His Portraits, 188; Medals
and Honours, 189
Weguelin, J. R., Elected Associate of the
Royal Society of Painters in WaterColours, x x i v ; " T h e Battle of the
Roses," xxix
Welbeck Abbey, Chimney-piece for, 72
West, W. E., " L o r d Byron," 256
Whistler, J. M., " Symphony in Silver a n d
Grey/'341; " P o r t r a i t du Comte Robert
de Montesquiou-Fezensac," "Symphonies," 381; " Miss Alexander," x x x
Whitechapel Exhibition, xxxii
Wimperis, E. M., " T h e W a t e r M e a d o w s / '
92; Landscape, x
Wirgman, Blake, Small Gold Medal at
Vienna Salon for " Lord Hannen," xxxii
Wood Engraving, The State of, xxxiii
Woodhonse, W., Medal of Lord Byron, 258
Woolner, T., R.A., Bust of Lord Tennyson,
viii; Bust of Combe, xxviii
Wyon, J. W., " Collas process" Medallion of
Lord Byron, 258
Ypres, Cloth Hall, 424 ; Hotel de Ville, 425

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