Painting of the Nineteenth Century in England, Scotland and America

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Painting of the Nineteenth Century in England, Scotland and America

Author(s): Frank F. FrederickReviewed work(s):Source: Fine Arts Journal, Vol. 34, No. 7 (Aug., 1916), pp. 313-335Published by:Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25587409 .

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LITTLE MRS. GAMP, BY SIR JOHN TMILLAIS.Fromn original painting, property of Ml. Knoedler & Co., New York.


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THE SCIENCES. COX. (SEE P. 693.

Painting of the Nineteenth Century inEngland, Scotlan-d and AmericaBY

FRANK F. FREDERICK,PROFESSOR OF ART AND DESIGN, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

T HE CENTURY IN ENGLAND.~~~~(I)While itmay be true that art hasno nationality, yet the art of every

strong race can be easily distinguished. Anation having no individuality in its art cannot be regarded as upon a high plane intellectually. The art of Greece, of Italy, ofSpain or of Holland is the art of theirmostindependent and individual periods-not ofthose periods when foreign influence waspreeminent.

England is independent and individual andquite unlike her neighbors upon the continent. The traveler sees littlemore contrast in crossing from France to Algiersthan from France to England. Habits,customs, morals, language, art-all aredifferent. In these days of rapid intercommunication and increased knowledge ofthe work of distant countries, when NewYork knows more of the work of Paris thanEdinburgh knew of London a few years ago,one is hardly prepared to find a people witha fully developed art quite unlike the art of

the rest of the world. To dismiss this art,as many writers do who are interested inthe art of the continent, as inferior becauseit does not conform to the accepted canonsof the art of the Latin races, shows eitheran unfair spirit, or the lack of that breadthwhich is supposed to be the first and greatestrequisite of the critic or historian.English painters have never felt the pictorial beauty of color and line as have theLatin races. The "literary element," or,in other words, a meaning in addition to themere pictorial qualities of thework, must bepresent in order to appeal to the English

mind. A picture which igno7 es the literary element or subject beconr.es a groupingof lines, tones and colors wh;,:h we associatewith Persian rugs, while a picture ignoringall but the subject becomes a productionwhich might just as wtellbe expressed byanother form of art, namely literature.There is a middle ground in the art ofpainting where each holds its true relation,but what their relation should be dependsupon individual opinion. In France thebalance tips in favor of "art for art's sake";


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314 PPAITING OF THE NINETEENTHin England in favor of the thought or thesubject, and there the "literary picture"holds sway. To appreciate the formerrequires one temperament, and the latteranother. The points of view of the Frenchand of the English have ever been different,and few are thewriters who do j ustice to both.

English poetry has existed from theearliest times, but English painting is ofcomparatively recent origin. Before theeighteenth century it can hardly be said tohave existed. Foreign artists came occasionally, and a fewmade permanent homeson English soil, but of native talent therewas little or none. In the eighteenth century suddenly arose a group of portraitpainters whose pictures were not excelledby any then being produced the names ofReynolds and Gainsborough stand preeminent, and have long since been added to theworld's roll of Old Masters.England's famous group of portrait painters died in the eighteenth or very early in;the nineteenth century, and no one, at theopening of the nineteenth century,. exceptLawrence, seemed able to continue thestandards of the past. Names destined laterto influence the art of the world were thennot known even in England. Constablewas just entering the schools of the RoyalAcademy, Crome was painlting quietly andunknown at Norwich, and Turner, thoughelected to the Royal' Academy in I802, wasthen but an artist of promise.*Unhampered by artistic traditions, thesemen, with others, were destined to create adistinctive national art 'in one short century. By the end of the firstquarter cen-turymatters artistic seemed to be in a fairway to produce this national art at once,but the influence of the Italian masterscame in and itwas not till themiddle of thecentury that Rossetti and the Preraphaelitemovement brought England back to its ownin art. Then followed theRealism ofHunt,Millais and Brown which prepared the wayfor the idealism of Burne-Jones and Watts.This brings us to the last quarter of thecentury in which we see, in addition to th*eliterary element-always the chief characteristic of English painting-a new strengthadded by the younger men who have studied

in the Continental studios and introducedinto the conservatism of English art someof themore modern ideas.Historical Painters.-At the opening ofthe century many English artists went toItaly, and there became so interested in andso much under the influence of the oldItalian masters that upon their return homethey attempted to force upon the Britishpublic a grand style of painting based uponthe vast decorations of the Italians. "WhatEngland produced in the way of 'great art'in the beginning of the century could beerased from the complete chart of Biitishpainting without any essential gap being

made in the course of its development"(Muther). Yet these men were the far-offforerunners of the classicists, and, whilethey were unsuccessful in transplantingItalian art to England, they make an interesting chapter in the story of English art.Among others James Barry (I74I-I806), atthe close of the eighteenth century, believedthat he surpassed the Italians themselves,and returned to London with the avowedintention of providiing England with a classicart that would forever outrank in interest theportraiture, landscape and genre, the formsof painting ever popular in England. Benjamin Robert Haydon (I786-i846), thougha lifelong friend of Wilkie, thought it a sinto devote artistic talent -which is a Divinegift to anything but biblical subjects, orsubjects of ancient history, upon a scalesuggesting, by its vastness, the importanceof the subject. He was the most importantof this group. Of Haydon's art, Redgravesays: "He was a good anatomist anddraughtsman, his color was effective, thetreatment of his subject and conceptionwere original and powerful, but his workshave a hurried and incomplete look." Inspeaking of the Raising of Lazarus, exhibited in I823, which contains twenty figureseach nine feet high, the same writer says:"The first impression of the picture isimposing;. the general effect powerful, andwell suited to the subject; the incidents andgrouping well conceived; the coloring goodand in parts brilliant." Sir Charles Eastlake (I793-i865), for many years presidentof the Royal Academy and director of the


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CENTURY IN ENGLAND. 315DNational Gallery, painted many portraits andgenre pictures, but is chiefly noted forworks of the character of Brutus Exhortingthe Romans to Avenge the Death of Lucretia-large, cold compositions arousing littleinterest at the present time. William Etty(1787-I849), a thoroughly good colorist, didnot con fine himself to historical painting,and is chiefly noted as a painter of women.Briggs, Maclise, Lucy and Charles Lawrence, the elder brother of the animalpainter, a pupil of Haydon, are names to bementionied in this connection.

R EALISM IN ENGLAND: THEPRERAPHAELITES. (2)About the middle of the century a number of young artistsfailing to find instructors from whomn

they could secure profit, and not being insympathy with the art of the time, organized, in I848, the Preraphaelite Brotherhood, Rossetti, Millais and Hunt being theleaders. This proved to be one of the mostimportant movements in English art, andfor some years the spirit of a Renaissanceseemed to influence many painters. Manyvolumes have been written upon thismove

ment, but no one has summed up itsmotivesin fewer words than Mr. J. C. Van Dyke inthis History of Painting:"It was an emulation of the sincerity, theloving care, and the scrupulouis exactnessin truth that characterized tne Italian painters before Raphael. Its advocates, including Mr. Ruskin, the critic, maintained thatafter Raphael came that fatal facility in artwhiclh, seeking grace of composition, losttruth of fact, and that the proper course formodern painters was to return to the sincerity and veracity of the early masters. Hencethe name Preraphaelitism, and the signatures on their early pictures, P. R. B.-Preraphaelite Brother. To this attempt togain the true, regardless of the sensuous,was added a mnorbidity of thought mingledwith mysticism, a inoral and religious pose,and a studied simplicity. Some of thepainters of the Brothernood wvent even sofar as following the habits of the early Ital

ians, seeking retirement from the world andcarrying with themn Gotlhic earnestness ofair. There is no doubt about the sinceritythat entered into this movement. It wasan honest effort to g'ain the true, the good,and as a result, the beautiful; but itwas noless a striven-after honesty and an imitatedearnestness. "Ruskin, who was himself an artist of nomean order (see "Studio," vol. I9, and"Magazine of Art," I900), espoused the

t-,. .. - . -. ..- 'X,"

ElIZABETH IN THE TOWER. MILLAIS.

cause of the strugglinog youno painters, andthrough his writings the principles of theBrotherhood became very widely known anddiscussed. Just how much the realism ofthis time has influenced English art, it isperhaps too soon to estimate, but its influence was not so great as the later work ofRossetti and the new group of whichi heformed the center-another movement,which, forwant of a better name, has beencalled the "New Preraphaelitism." TheBrotherhood did not long continue its


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316 PAINTING OF THE NINETEENTHorganization. The members drifted apart.Rossetti became the center of the new circle,while Hunt, Millais and Brown, who,though not a member of the Brotherhood,is said to have almost "out-P. R. B.'d theP. R. B," continued true to the originalprinciples and purstued realism until each inturn and in different measure found how farremoved from art it was.

Sir John Everett Millais (1829-I896) wasthe "prince of Realists," and though he laterlooked back to his connection with the movement as to a bit of youthful folly, the conscientious study put upon his work at thattime, gave him, with his later freer treat

FINDING CHRIT IN TE Te - 4HNFINDINTG CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE. HUNT.

ment, a power over his subject and hismaterials hardly equaled by any Englishpainter of the closing year of the century."Rather make him a chimney-sweep thanan artist," said Shee, then president of theRoyal Academy, when the parents ofMillaisasked him his advice about their son'swork-advice soon changed when he sawthe work, for Millais early gave evidenceof his great ability. In I846, at the age ofseventeen, Millais exhibited his first picture, and soon after joined with his friendsRossetti and Hunt in protest against the"debased generalization of the art of theday." Then followed a series of worksillustrating the Preraphaelite principles-a

union of spirituality with the closest andmost accurate rendering of all, even themos, unimportant, details of the. picture.So far did realism go at this time that, inthe endeavor to reproduce exactly all thatcame within the limits of the canvas, itseemed as if art was really the "reflectionof nature as in a-mirror."For ten years, or until I859, though thepublic jeered, and the "Times" talked about"that morbid infatuation," Millais went onwith his friends trying to unite the actualtruth with the beautiful, and produced, withthe aid of the poetry of Rossetti and theintellectual help of Hunt and Brown, a number of pictures

which laid thefoundation of hisfuture succ-esses.For thirty yearsand more he continued the broadgenre of a character suggested byElizabeth in theTower, St. Bartholomew's D ay,The Rescue, TheEscape of a Heretic, etc., interspersed with landscapes and themost powerfulportraits executedsince the days ofReynolds andGainsborough. "As a landscape-painterMillais can assuredly be compared, with lossneither of dignity nor place, with the greatest masters living or dead. I do not meanto compare him with Turner in the com

bined glory of artistic knowledge and thescience of landscape, as I would call it, aswell as themagic of the romantic palette.But as a respectful translator of an actualscene, painted simply as it stands-as themournful Chill October- Millais has had nosuperior in this country" (Spielman). Holman Hunt (I837-) has been most consistentin keeping to the principles of the Preraphaelites. "Microscopic fidelity to nature,which formed the firstprinciples in the pro


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CENTURY IN ENGLAND. 317gram of the Brotherhood, has been carriLedbyHolman Hunt to the highest possible point"(Muther). To all of this he added a trulyreligious feeling and a depth of sentimentquite new to English art. Ford MadoxBrown (I82I-I893), the eldest of the group,was a most forceful realist. Before the Preraphaelite moveinent he was the onlypainter of English genre of themid-centurywho did not make trivial scenes and incidents the subjects of his pictures. Hepainted detail with a vigor, and presentedhis subjects with a disregard to the rules ofacademic composition that delighted theyoung Preraphaelites who were looking forthe truth as they felt it; and he exerted,through such pictures as Christ WashingPeter's Feet, and Lear and Cordelia, a powerful influence upon the art of the time.We are accustomed, now-a-days, to seeartists undergoing privations and hesitatingat nothing that will aid them in theirwork.

We are not surprised that Mr. Stokes shouldgo to the polar seas and work in a temperature in which oil paint froze in order topaint icebergs; but fifty years ago a devotion to realism that took Hunt to the DeadSea to paint his Scapegoat, Brown to thecliffs of the seashore to paint the bit ofdistance in The Last of England, that ledMillais to build a house where a landscapecould be seen to the best advantage wasquite rare.To the realism of England at this timea movement which very soon spent itself,for nature and art are not one-we can tracethat quality of modern English art which isso characteristic of it, its sincerity.

R OSSETTI AND THE NEW PRERAPHAELITISM: IDEALISM. (3)When Rossetti, in the middle ofthe century, brought before the

eyes of the British public new visions ofbeauty, he was, after the usual number ofyears of neglect and ridicule, acclaimed agenius and his way the only true path in art.Before Rossetti, William Blake made excursions into the "unknown and unattainable,"producing a series of weird visions of heaven

and hell something in the spirit, though notin imitation of Michelangelo. Dying in theyear of Rossetti's birth, itwould seem thathis spirit passed to the young poet to appearin the latter's pictures free from the awful,but more mysterious than ever.

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BLESSED DAMOSEL. ROSSETTI.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born in I828and died in I882. His fatherwas an Italianrefugee, at that time a professor inKing'sCollege, London. At the age of seventeen,a pale, strange youth, he began his studiesof a fewmonths at the Royal Academy, andquite as much the poet as the painter, tookhis place at the age of about twenty as afully established professional artist, havingalready published several poems. Aboutthis time, I850, he became fascinated withhis model, who afterwards became his wife,a woman of unusual and striking beautywhose face forever after appeared in hiswork. After her death he shut himself awayfrom theworld and became a recluse, suffering from ill health and the intense strain ofhis artistic nature.His life naturally divides itself into threeperiods. In his earlier work he selectedbiblical subjects, of which Ancilla Domini,and Girlhood of Mary Virgin are the bestexamples. In the happy year just preced


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31 PAINTING OF THE NINETEENTH!

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HOP- BURNEaJONES

ing and after his marriage hie crave his attention to more imaginative and ronanticsubjects, such as Beata Beatrix, Lady Lilith,

Sibylla Palmifera, Monna Vanna, VenusVerticordia, The Beloved, and The Salutation of Beatrice on Earth and in Eden. Heselected many of his subjects from Danteand was greatly influenced by that poet.In the third and most fruitful period heoccupied himself with pictures of separatefigures each illustrating some thought alsooften embodied in his poetry. Many ofthese were dedicated to his wife, as TheBlessed Damosel, Proserpine, and AstarteSyriaca. As Dante immortalized his Beatrice, so Rossetti honored his wife in hispoems and his pictures. "He painted heras The Blessed Damosel, with her gentle,saint-like face, her quiet mouth, her flowinggolden hair and peaceful lids. He represented her as an angel of God standing atthe gate of heaven and thinking of the timewhen she will see her lover in heaven"(Muther).Rossetti was not a good draughtsman, andhis knowledge of anatomny was faulty.Many of the matters that seem to come tothe most ordinary art student as secondnatUre were not known to him. Yet incolor he is one of the world's masters. Ijispictures glow with the perfection of hiscolor-harmonies, an effect, of course,entirely lost in the black and white repro.ductions. He seemed to revel in brilliantred, green and violet that in other handswould have become gaudy, but in his werelike chords of music. Rossetti's color hasbeen called "music set in pigment," andhe was one of the earliest of the modernlyricists of color of whom Whistler is nowthe chief inspiration. What explains Rossetti's success is purely the condition ofspirit which vent to themaking of his work-"that nervous vibration, that ecstasy ofopiumi, that combination of suffering andsensuousness, and that romanticism drunkwith beauty, which go through hiis paintings" (Muther).Around Rossetti, or rather around hiswork, gathered a circle of artists who, feeling on the one lhand the romantic chord inold English poetry and themodern application of classic story, and on the other tllebeauty of Italian art, united the twvo nd theEnglish "New Idealism" or "iNew Pre


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CENTURY IN ENGLAND. 319raphaelitism " as it is variously called, isthe result.Sir Edward Burne-Jones (I833-I898) wasthe greatest painter of this school. Whenhe died in i898 the French artists and artcritics, as well as the English, with one voicedeclared him the most distinguished and themost representative painter of England.Burne-Jones was reading theology at Oxford while Rossetti was executing themuralpaintings for the Union. Attracted by thealmost mesmeric influence of Rossetti,Burne-Jones adopted art as a profession andpursued it with the greatest diligence fornearly half a century. His earlier workswere ridiculed, later they weretolerated, and he lived to findhimself the head of a school, lhisname a watchword, and his workadmired the world around. Heexecuted an incredible amountof work with a very wide rangeof subject which he found intheBible, in Christian and heathenstory, and in the legends of thedays of Kingr Arthur. ChristCrucified upon the Tree of Life,Mirror of Venus, MIerlin andVivien, The Golden Stairs aretypical subjects. His work resembles that of the fifteentlh centuryItalian painters, though stampedwith themost vivid and brilliantindividuality; and completelytakes one away from the realities of the nineteenth century.He had a faculty of reading into his

work, though even a story of ancient da-s,sentiments that the most modern couldappreciate. Hence the popularity of hiisworks around which, as in I877, whenhe first exhibited after a sliglht-realcr imaginary-from the Royal Academy,crowds gathered and gazed spellbound. Inother pictures lhe did not attempt a storybut combined beautiful figures to secure, bylilnes, forrns, and colors the nmostbeautifulcompositions. "I love to treat my pictures," to use his own words, "as a goldsmith does his jewels. I slhould like everyinch of surface to be so fine that if all wereburned or lost, all but a scrap from one of

them, the man who found it might say:'Whatever this may have represented, it isa work of art, beautiful in surface and quality and color.' And my greatest reward

would be the knowledge that, after tenyears' possession, the owner of any pictureofmnine,who had looked at it every day, hadfound in it some new beauty he had not seenbefore. "A lifelong friend of Burne-Jones wasWilliam Morris (1834-I866). While bothwere imbued with the spirit of the NewPreraphaelitism, their aim was quite distinct. Burne-Jones followed the Italiansin producing poetry in pictorial form; while

CUPID AND PSYCHF. BURNE-JONES.

Morris, more Gothic in feeling, devoted hislife, as did the artists of the fifteenth century, to handicraft and the union of finewith industrial art. As a result, everything connected with industrial art in England received a newv lease of life, and he,with his followers, produiced a new style ofdecoration.

R. Speiicer .Stanhope belongs to thisgroup, producing delicate and poetic pictures very like those of Burne-Jones, butless successful than those of his master. JM. Strudwick (I849-), a pupil of bothStanhope and Burne-Jones, "was more consistent in his fidelity to the Preraphaeliteprinciples. His pictures have the same


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320 PAI[TING OF THE NINETEENTHdelicate, enervated mysticism, and the samethoughtful, dreamy poetry, as those of hiselders in the school" (Muther). WalterCrane (I848-) represents a most healthfultendency in art and has been said to be themost sane among this group of artists. Inearly life, influenced by Millais, he paintedincidents of Round-table days in Englandsuch as The Lady of Shalott. About theyear I875 he forsook the romantic forantique subjects, and still later he turnedto mural painting in the style of BurneJones, influenced by the Greek rather thanthe Italian. Crane is a leader in the artsand-crafts movement, and is one of themostsuccessful all-around designers living.

GEEORGE FREDERICK WATTS.(4)

"The end of Art must be theexpression of some weighty prin

ciple of spiritual significance, the illustrationof a great truth.'" This principle, expressedin his-own words, has governed the life of atruly great man, George Frederick Watts(I820-). He stands alone in his generation, a personality in himself, a master ofthe fifteenth century returned to earth torepresent, after centuries of study of humanity, the greater truths of existence, andagain the words which are his own-" to divest the inevitable of its terrors, and to showthe Great Power rather as a friend than asan enemy."

Nature made Watts a poet as well as apainter. He differs from his contemporaTies in art-from the lights of theNew Preraphaelitism-in that he invents allegoriesof his own instead of accepting those alreadygiven out by the poets. "The record ofgreat thoughts and great men has been hisprincipal object, and love of humanity andhis country the unfailing source of hisenergy" (Monkhouse). The English areproud of him, not only as an artist, but as aman who has done much to raise the nation'sstandards of artistic work and artisticendeavor. Of the greatness of his work, the-majesty of his compositions, and the loftiness of his thought there can be no question.

Muther considers him "a master of contem.porary painting and of the painting of alltimes."

Watts was born in London in I820, and isstill at work with the vigor of youth and inthe full enjoyment of life. The Elginmarbles in the British museum were his firstteachers, -a few months in the Royal Acad

LOVE AND LIFE. WATTS.

emy Schools having no influence upon him.At the age of twenty-three he won a competitive commission for a fresco in the Housesof Parliament, and went to Italy to study.Here he was powerfully influenced by Titianand others of the Venetian school. "Thepupil of Phidias became the worshipper ofTintoretto." In Italy his firstnotable work,


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CEN TURY IN ENGLAND. 321Fata Morgana was painted. With wonderful visions of reviving the splendor ofthe palmy days of mural painting in Italy,he returned to England, and with otheryoung artists endeavored to interest theBritish public, but without avail. PossessIng a fortune large enough to make himindependent, he began, entirely free fromthe influence of the public, the execution ofa long series of allegorical pictures. Ofthese he has painted nearly three hundred,

most, if not all of which, are still in hispossession or have been given to the nation.Among those hanging in the National Gallery of British Art are The Court of Death,with the attendant pieces: Silence, andMystery; The Messenger (who summonsthe aged to their rest); Death CrowningInnocence; Time, Death and Judgment;Love and Death; and finally its tender companion, Love and Life. Then came Faiththemilitant faith of the church-awakeningto the folly of the persecutions she has practiced; Peace and Goodwill; For He HadGreat Possession; The Spirit ofChristianity-said to be "a somewhat sarcastic commentary on schismatic discord"; Jonah; TheMinotaur, as sensualist; Mammon, the godof vulgar avarice and insolent cruelty;Hope; and Sic Transit, the end of all things.These canvases are all true masterpieces;for they not only have spiritual quality, butthat sense of style, color, line and composition which, though indescribable, is alwaysfelt in amasterpiece., Concerning Love andDeath, Muther writes, "And amongst livingpainters I should find it impossible to namea single one who could embody such a sceneas that of Love and Death so calmly, so entirelywithout rhetorical gesture and all thetricks of theatrical management." (See thefull page reproduction on p. 642.)Watts is also one of England's strongestportrait painters, as seen notably in his portrait of Walter Crane; and in landscaperivals Turner. For the portraiture seefurther lesson 6.It is easy to tell how thework ofWattsdiffers from that of other painters, but it isnot easy to characterize his style. It has,in addition to the intensity of Rossettiand the gracefulness of Burne-Jones, an

Couertesyof Berlin Plhoto. Co.BATH OF PSYCHE. LEIGHTON.


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322 PAINTING OF THE NINETEENTHelement of mysterious suggestiveness thatarouses the very deepest feelings in theonlooker, and along lines not immediatelyassociated with the subject of the picture.

We speak of him as coming to us directfrom the Renaissance, and yet his worksare as little reminiscent of that period asthey are influenced by the momentary tendencies of the art of to-day. He is himself,as independent as Michelangelo or Titian.He has created new types and a new art ofa simple grandeur of its own.As amanipulator of pigment he ought notto be judged by the canvases he has produced of late years. Possessed of a technique in which every touch is as clear andconfident as in a Gainsborough or a Sargent,he has deliberately laid it aside in his recentwork, holding that painting should be usedfor the satisfaction of cravings higher thanthe merely sensuous delight in dexterity,and that brilliancy inhandling distracts attention from the more elevated intellectualqualities of the work.

T HE CLASSIC PAINTERS.(5)The "grand art" of the historicalpainters came to an end with thePreraphaelite revival; but interest in classic story and the "academic tra

ditions" of art continued, and a school ofclassic painters developed, the members ofwhich have always found an appreciativepublic and liberal patrons. These classicpainters have been the "official" painters ofEngland, and have from the first controlledthe Royal Academy. Whether this controlhas been to the advantage of English art asa whole is a debatable question.Lord Frederick Leighton (I830-I896) wasthe most distinguished of this group ofClassicists. For years he was president ofthe Royal Academy, and filled the officewith a dignity and grace never beforeequaled. "He was a Classicist throtugh andtlhrouigh-in the balance of composition, therhythmical flow of lines, and the confessionof faith that the highest aimiiof art is the

Courtesy of theBerlin Photo. Co.A VISIT TO ESCULAPTTJS. BOYNTON.


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CENTURY IN ENGLLDA.D. 323

Courtesy of theBerlin Photo. Co.READING FROMfHOMER. ALMA-TADEMA.

representation of men and women of immaculate build" (Muther).Leighton decided to be an artist at theage of nine. Among the cultivated Englishmen of the time the profession of artistwas generally considered synonymous witlhthat of "loafer, " yet the elder Leightongave his son every opporttunity to study,and the schools of Florence, Frankfort andParis in turn enrolled him as a student. InI852 he went to Rome and there finislhedthe picture that made him known at home,Cimabue's Madonna Carried in Processionthrough the Streets of Florence. From thistime on Leighton made London his home,though he traveled extensively, and produced a long series of works the characterof which can be guessed from their titles:Helen of Troy, Orpheus and Eurydice,Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon, andVenus Disrobing for the Bath. These andmany others have been very popular inEngland, and are, according to Muther,''amongst the most refined although themost frigid creations of contemporary English art."The present president of the Royal Academy, Sir Edward Poynter (1836-) is another

example of English Classicism inwhom the

up-to-date French and American critic cansee nothing fine, yet both Leighton andPoynter are true artists; "'academic," it istrue, but academic in the right sense."Both sought out an ideal beauty," to quotefrom an editorial appearing in the "Magazine of Art" at the time of Poynter's election, "each in his own way. Both aimed atthe perfection of Greek art; the art of bothwas decorative rather than realistic. Toboth perfection of drawing was a goal-inchief; and although Leighton most WGrshipped Raphael of all the inasters of trueRenaissance, and Mr. Poynter bent theknee to Michelangelo, both painters wereheart and soul for classic beauty."Laurens Alma-Tadema (I836-),- though aClassicist, stands a little apart from thepainter just mentioned. He has madeantique life a real thing. He has rebuilt thecities and refurnished the homes of twothousand years ago and peopled them withliving figures. A inan of great archaeological learning, he knows his antique worldas thoroughly as he does the English menand women who appear in his pictures.Born in I836 in Dronrijk, Friesland, hebegan the study of drawing at a very early'age. The discovery of some Merovingian


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324 PAINTING OF THE NINETEENTH

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e

SAPPHIRES. ALBERT MIOORE.

antiquities near his home seemis to havegiven direction to his future studies; and inthe studios of the leading historical andarchaeological painters of the day he laid thefoundation of his reputation as the "greatapostle of pictorial archaeology of our daythroughout the length and breadth of theworld of art." No one can paint marble orthemyriad details of the house furnishingsof wealthy Greeks and Romans as canAlma-Tadema. He does this very rapidlyand almost by instinct; and this very dexterity blinds many to the other excellencesof hiis work. The chief characteristic ofAlma-Tadema's work is its conscientiousness, which should be considered a creditrather than a reproach. He may not be apoet in the sense that Rossetti or BurneJones were poets, but he certainly uniteswith his archaeological knowledge an imagination at once powerful and picturesque."His originality, his easy confidence andknowledge of effect, the brilliancy of hiscolor, his scholarship which while alwayslearned is never pedantic, his skill in imitation of textures, his daring which sometimesalmost amounts to audacity, and his perfection of finish are a sufficient justication ofthe pinnacle on which he has been placed"(Spielmann).The best painter of this group of artistswas Albert Moore (I 84 I - 892). His picturestake us back to classic times; but, unlikethemen just mentioned, he never attempted to reconstruct, as an archaeologist, theantique world. He was influenced by hislove of Greek sculpture from which helearned the beauty of line, and the charmof dignity, and by the Japanese fromwhomhe learned the beauty of harmonies of colorand the charm of simplicity. He was aprophet in art, a forerunner, a man bornout of his time, destined never to receivethe appreciation of his contemporaries.Could- he have lived ten years longer (hedied in I892) he would have seen the principles he followed for forty years made themotive of much of the strongest work executed at the end of the century. He wascalled a painter of "pot boilers," of prettygirls who knew little and meant less, while,in fact, he was an artist whose aim was dis


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CEN TUR Y IN ENGLAND. 325tinct and whose methods were scientific. Hefelt that the interest of each picture hepainted was included within the four sidesof the frame enclosing it. To him eachcanvas was complete in itself, depending-upon nothing external for its right to exist,affected by nothing beyond itself, and, infact, frankly and simply decorative. Heproved that without motive, or subject,without passion or dramatic action, a picturemay be a work of art in itself. "He showedthat beauty of form, color, design, and-draughtsmanship, exquisite balance of linearrangement, and consummate skill of handling, are all possible in a canvas that tellsno story, records no gossip, nor teaches anymoral" (Baldry). This is the point of viewof many painters of to-day who use figures,landscapes, etc., merely as so many opportunities to express beauty of line, color andmass. Some of the younger English painters are influenced by this phase of art, and-certain painters of Scotland-the "Glasgow,School"-are among its chief exploiters.

E NGLISH PORTRAIT, ANIMALAND LANDSCAPE PAINTERS.(6)

Portrait painting is a serious thing-with the English. Their character admitsof only the most straightforward represen-tation of themselves; and the character represented always takes precedence of the wayhe is represented. Almost all English painters have occasionally turned to portraiture,-ashave Leighton the figure and Landseer theanimal painter; but only among the young-men of to-day do we find the portrait used-as an opportunity for "art for art's sake."*Sargent is the leader of the school to-day.Millais and Watts, in the opinion of theEnglish themselves, are the two greatest*portrait painters of the century, and Millais's portrait of Gladstone is said by Benjamin Constant (member of the Institut deFrance) "to hold its own as a work of art bythe side of the greatest masters of the past.Rembrandt himself could not injure it byjuxtaposition. Never has life been set on,canvas with greater power, nor so large an

r.J

PORTRAIT OF Xi-NISELF. LEIGMTON.

existence been presented with a touch, asweep - f the brush." Opinions of theexcellence ofMillais's pictures differ widely,but of his portraits even the most anti-English art critic of the American press isobliged to admit that they represent thesitter. "His likenesses are all of them asconvincing as they are actual. Millais isperhaps the firstmaster of characterizationamongst the moderns" (Muther).In the portraits he has painted Watts hasbeen the historian of the past half century,having painted nearly all leading men of allprofessions, perhaps fiftyin all. The chiefquality of this series of portraits of greatmen is their sympathy with the sitters. Heexpresses the real man just as he actually is,as an individual, and not as a type. Mutherwrites: " But few likenesses belonging tothis century have the same force of expression, the same straightforward sureness ofaim, the same grandeur and simplicity."After Watts the painter most able to expresscharacter was Frank Holl (I845-i888).Some of his portraits in their unconventional pose and thoughtful characterizationhave scarcely been surpassed in the por


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326 PAIPIINNG OF THE NINETEENTH

r-

PORTRAIT OF HINISFLF. WATTS.

traiture of any people. After Holl, perhapsHubert Herkomer (I849-) may be mentioned. His portraits of Ruskin, ArchibaldForbes and Miss Grant can well stand comparison with any executed upon English soil.The story of Herkomer's life reads like aromance. Against conditions which wouldhave discouraged any but the most indomitable nature, hc has risen to an enviableposition inEnglish art. Like many painterswho become famous, much of his later workis not equal to that executed when unknownand in poverty.Walter Ouless (I848-) and James Sant(I 820-) are typical English painters deserving of study. Of the former, to quote againfrom M uther, "Ouless will probably meritthe place of honor immediately after Wattsas an impiressive exponent of character.Orchardson was represented at the ParisExposition last year by a portrait which wasone of the strongest exhibited in the Britishsection. Among the younger men, andthere are many whose work deserves mention, Shannon occupies a conspicuous placeon account of the thorough excellence ofhis work. "I strive," he writes, "to be anartist first and a portrait-painter afterwards;" and yet he keeps to the good old

tradition of the English school that a portrait should be the representation of the soulas well as the body of the man. As freeand vigorous in his handling as any disciplc,of Carolus Durail (Sargent, of course, excepted), Shannon also puts into his picturesthat poetry, that human quality, that"delightful aroma" which next to its idealism is the chief characteristic and joy ofEinglish art, and which, if not appreciated,makes of English art a sealed book.The animal painters of the eighteenth century did little more than paint the portraitsof prize-winning horses and oxen. Theworks of Wooton and Seymour, still hanging inmany country houses, are of this class.Stubbs, who died in i8o6, went a stepfurther, and was the first to give life andmotion to his portraits of animals. Gilpin,who survived Stubbs but one year, was afamous painter of horses, and branched outinto such subjects as Darius Obtaining thePersian Etnpire by the Neighing of HisHorse. George Moreland (I763-I804) wasthe most celebrated animal painter of histime. He was the son of a portrait painterwho early instructed his son in the rudi

PPORTRAIT OF HIMISELF. 'MILLAIS.


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CENTURY IN ENGLAND. 327ments of his art; but treated him with suchstrictness and lack of sympathy that theyoung man, when he became of age, enteredupon a life of riotous living that sadly interfered with his art. He generally selectedstable yards, or the interiors of stables, forthe setting of his animal pictures. Heloved low company, painted with littlethought or study, generally to secure freedom from some debt; but would doubtlesshave been, under different circumstances,one of England's greatest artists. As itwashe produced some finework, as The Gipsies,and did much to show Englishmen thebeauty of their own land and prove to themthat it was not necessary to go to Italy forthe picturesque. A brother-in-law ofMoreland, named Ward, wvasa verv conscientiouspainter of cattle.Sir Edwin Landseer (I802-I873), whobegan drawing at the age of five, and forthree score years caused the British publicto alternately laugh and shed tears over hisanimal pictures, is the most celebratedpainter of this class of subjects. Buxtonwrites: "Not only did Landseer rival solmeof the Dutch masters of the seventeenthcentury in painting fur and feathers, but hedepicted animals with sympathy, as if hebelieved that 'the dumb driven cattle'possess souls. His dogs and other animalsare so lhumiian s to look as if theywere ableto speak." His works have been wonderfully popular in England, and reproductionsof them have encircled the globe.The greatest though not the most popularpainter of animals of the century is BritonRiviere (i840-). He paints them in all the

majesty of their wildness, but as part of acomposition lhaving human interest. UnlikeLandseer he never represents his animalswith human passions; and, unlike almostevery animal painter, he does not represelnthis subjects as endowed with a consciousnessof their own characteristics. His first impGrtant picture, Circe, exhibited in I87i, represented the comrades of Ulysses, changed toswine, crowdin g around the enchantressCirce. This was followed by Daniel in theLions' Den, Persepolis, where lions roamat will over the ruins of temples and palaces,and other works of similar character. He

ALEXANDER AND DIOGENES. LANDSEER.

has also painted pictures illustrating thefriendship of animals for men in a mannerrecalling Landseer without humanizing theanimals.Some of the younger men show greatpromise in the field of animal painting. J.M.Swan is not suirpassed as a delineator ofwild animals for their own sake by any living painter. The illustrations of the Boerwar appearing in the London illustratedpress during the past year prove that thehorse is still loved in England, and thatworthy descendants of the earlier men usehim to good advantage in pictorial art. Awoman, Miss Lucy Kemp-Welch, a memberof Herkomer's art colony at Bushey. pro.duces notable pictures of horses. She oftenpaints the wild ponies of the New Forest,and is quite as well able to represent the"poetry of motion" in the moving horse asany aniinal painter of the century.George Mason (I8I8-I872) and FredWalker (I840-1875) exerted an influenceupon English art quite distinct from that ofother painters. Following the genre oftrivial anecdote and the tiresome details ofRealism, of which the English had becomewearied, came a poetic genre that introducedsomethiing of the feeling that is seen in thelandscapes of Gainsborough and Moreland,and other early painters, and which isentirely lacking in later genre or in thelandscapes of the Preraphaelites. "As thePreraphaelites wished to give exquisite precision to the world of dream, Walker andMason have taken this precision from the


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ORPHEUS. SWAN.

world of reality. Their pictures breatheonly of the bloom and essence of things"(Muther). Mason's home was in a smallcountry village, and there he spent a quietlife similar to that lived by the painters whoare now classed as the Barbizon group. Hepainted farm life with a strong sense of itspictorial quality, fully appreciated by theEnglish who have always loved poetry. Hehad also a feeling for decorative quality,and Returning from Plowing, and theHarvest Moon belong quite to themodern decorative school in their dispcsition of lineand mass, and in general treatment.Walker illustrates even more fully thequalities that made Mason one of the leading idealists of modern English painting.Walker's pictures put one instantly in thatquiet receptive mood when memory playsfreely, but only upon the "might havebeens" of life. While all that has been donewith the brush influences what is now doing,while the influence of the Classicists, of thePreraphaelite Brotherhood, of Constableand Crome and the portraitists can be seen

in the current English exlhibitions, perhapsno twomen will be thought of so often whenthe student of art movements glances overthe walls, and looks for the influence of thepast as Mason and Walker.

OTTHER CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH PAINTERS. (7)Many familiar names will bemissed from the preceding pages,

but it is thought that themen most prominentin the various movements making the arthistory of the century have been mentioned.Space must be found for a few additionalnames now seen in currenit exhibitions.Great advances has been made in the artof painting in England in the last twodecades. American students were not the

only foreigners in the Parisian studiosduring the past quarter century. Englishpainting has received new life through theexertion of these young men who have traveled widely and studied wherever they could


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CENTURY IN ENGLALD. 32Qlearn; but the independent and individualquality of English art fortunately remains.Grafting their knowledge of the art of paintIng upon the old growth of poetry, itmaycome about that the story-telling picturemay be so well told that English paintingmay surpass that of other nations whosepainting occupies a narrower field. Walkerand Mason represent the essence of Englishpainting, and, as has already been said, theirinfluence is widely felt in contemporarywork. The influence of Reynolds, Gainsborough, Wilkie, Constable, Turner, Leighton and Burne-Jones, and all the strongmen of the past, is also seen; but, while itmay be true of "official art," it is certainilynot true that all Englishpainting simply repeatsitself by giving variationsof the airs first sung bythe masters.The landscape paintingof the closing years of thecentury worthily sustainsthe best traditions of theEnglish landscape school.Walker and Mason unitedlandscape so fully withtheir figure pictures, andtreated it with so muchpoetry, that all Englishlandscape painting sincetheir day has been greatlyinfluenced; and yet English landscape of to-dayseems to f o ll o w onlyslightly the "thought impregnated" trendof other branches of art. Even the expression of the strength and power of landscapeis left to the Scotch, the English painterscontenting themselves with the delicate andlovelvy the homelike landscape of contentedEngland. A. D. Peppercorn sees the beautyof the afterglow when themasses unite withthe gathering darkness and grow moreindistinct until the landscape becomesnothing but the silhouette of foliage againsta fading sky, though he by no means confines himself to these subjects. Peppercorn.s work appeared during the eighties, ata time when landscape art was at a lowebb in England, and gave it a new direction

suggested by theBarbizon School. Indeed,Peppercorn has been called the "EnglishCorot." His works, in this respect resembling those of Edward Stott, are not portraits of landscapes, but reminiscences ofmany landscapes that are made completeand satisfactory by the artist's feeling fornature. He is not a painter of subjects, buta painter of nature's poetic moods, and infull sympathy with the Romantic movementin French landscape. Alfred East (I849-)is one of themost popular of men now prominent in the exhibitions. He paints, witha graceful touch, the joys of springtime,with blossoming trees and springy leaves,and "Opulent Autumn'5 in wonderfully

SUNNY DAY. PEPPERCORN.

rich and glowing color. Thomson, Allan,Aumonier and Waterlow are other namesconnected with this movement. Ernest A.Waterlow (I850-), an indefatigable landscape painter of the past twenty-five years,is now reaping the reward of long endeavor,For awhile under the influence of Mason andWalker, with whose sentiment he still showshimself inharmony, he later felt nature withConstable and Corot. The practice of painting landscapes in the studio from sketchesand studies made from nature is now almosta thing of the past; but this is the methodof Waterlow., and his pictures certainlypossess a beauty of composition hardlyequaled in contemporary landscape painting.


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330 PAINTING OF THE NINE TEENTHIn genrel the field always well filled byEnglish painters, the century's end canshow no work of the character ofWilkie's,or of Millais's Northwest Passage, or St.

Bartholomew's Day. The genre of the lastdecade of the century is influenced by Bastien-Lepage, Dagnan-Bouveret, and others ofthe French School, and presents a newmovement in English painting. For wantof a better name, perhaps, the followers ofthismovement are classed as theNaturalistic School, the fundamental idea being truthfulness to nature, not in the sense of detail,but of truth of tone and color, in the gloryof sunlight and the envelope of atmosphere.It is the plein-air school, the school. ofNewlyn and St. Ives, where many of thesepainters have worked. These ideas havedominated the rising English artists for thepast few years; and are, in fact, an application to genre of the principles of landscapefollowed formany years. The painter goesto his subject rather than tries to bring thesubject to himself.-Simple subjects are selected, the plowmanis painted in his own field. The old fisherman is posed not in the corner of a studio,but in his own cottage. The reaper iscaught in the act. What will be the ultimate influence of "Naturalistic painting"upon English art it is perhaps too early toventure to decide.

OTTHER CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH PAINTERS-Concluded.(8)Among others, La Thangue,Clausen, Brangwyn, Edward

Stott, and Forbes represent thismovement.H. H. La Thangue has been identified withthe movement from the first. Its fundamental idea, truthfulness tonature, "has init an overwhelming attraction to a large classof painters, men of the observant rather thanthe imaginative type ofmind. The naturalistic men are painters emphatically, anddesigners quite in a minor sense." GeorgeClausen and Edward Stott are the "painters of the English peasant, Frank Brangwyn, ofWelsh descent, is one of those artistswho occasionally appear with an individuality

so strong that their work shocks both theprofession and the public. Brangwyn'sintense blue skies and Oriental splendor ofcolor, applied with freedom and lack ofgradation-in which drawing frequentlysuffers-was a new thing to English eyes,but his work has brought freshness of colorinto many gloomy London studios. A.Stanhope Forbes (1837-), one of themostversatile of modern English artists, alsolooks upon nature with the eyes of theFrench, and often subordinates the poeticthoughts to the broad, semi-naturalistic andsuggestive treatment which is the chiefcharacteristic of modern French and American landscape and genre. The older formof genre is still popular in England and isquite as often seen in exhibitions as themore "up-to-date" work just referred to.Marcus Stone (I840-) still "represents apretty girl, seated in a corner of an oldgarden, waiting for a lover who is seenapproaching." The title, Welcome Footsteps, gives the cue to the story and explainsthe expectant attitude of the maiden. FrankDicksee (I853-), who has so long illustratedShakespeare, recently exhibited a Courtshipin which a maiden with copper-colored hairand holding a pink fan, accepts a gift froma kneeling lover. But all genre has not thesentimentality of these: Yeend King (I855-)puts themilkmaid in his Milking Time intoa landscape beautiful in color and filled withair; and Frank Bramley (I857-), also, in hisfree and direct painting, gives something inaddition to his story. In another field HaynesWilliams (I834-) and H. S. Marks (I829 )closely resemble Hogarth, though the lattersees the ridiculous side of lifemore often thanthe former. Walter Denby Sadler (I854-)barely escapes being the equal of Orchardson. Instead of the formal occasion so oftenselected as subjects by his Scotch contemporary, Sadler choses homely incidents ofthe dailv life of a century ago. Amongtour rising young artists, " to quote a phrasefrequently seen in the English press, Herbert Draper is one of the strongest. Herepresents the classic traditions in Englishpainting, and Leighton is his artistic ancestor. It has been said that- "Draper isfrankly taking up the part which was played


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CENTURY IN ENGLALD. 331wvith such consummate skill by LordLeighton, and is fitting himself tocarry on the work to which the latePresident devoted his life." Thenude has seldom appeared in English painting. In portrait and landscape it of course found no place,and in genre its use would havebeen abh orrent. In classic painting the nude was used, but alwaysmore or less reminiscent of Greeksculpture. But recently the huimanfigure as the highest form of physical beauty has been appreciated andhas made its appearance inEnglishexhibitions. To Draper, though oneof the youngest English painters,belong,s part of the credit for thiswidening of the painters' field.Solomon J. Solomon (i86o-) isanother young artist to returnfrom Continental s t u d y a s afigure draughtsman able to occupythis new and difficult field with credit.In thework ofWaterhouse, Stokes, Slhawand Williain Stott, to menition but a fewwho represent in contemporary paintingthe ideal current running through Eniglishart, the idealism of Rossetti and of BurneJones is worthily upheld. John W. Waterhouse (I849-) may perhaps be called themost English of the contemporary Englishpainters. In his first choice of pictorialmotives he was greatly influenced by AlmaTadema; and though classic genre is a inuchworked tlheme in English painting, he introduces into it something of themodern spirit,and less of the old coniventions of the followers ofRossetti. After many experimentshe has found a field in a certain picturesquemysticism which could appear onily in England. In addition there is about his work asense of reality that makes one feel that hisidyls really occurred in nature and could beexperienced by any one fortunate enoughto get near enough to Nature's heart tohave her reveal her secrets. In thework ofShaw idealism goes far beyond even a suggestion of probability, and takes us intoanother world. Shaw, a pupil of Waterhouse, is classed among the followers of thePreraphaelite Brotherhood- but he differs

,~~~~~~~~~~~~~-Sp

THE MOCKER. BRANGWYN.

frommany-perhaps most-of the youngercontemporary followers ofRossetti, in choosing the beautiful instead of themorbid anddreadful. Mystery there is in his work, butthe mystery of cool wood interior and fogshrouded seas rather than themystery of thehuman soul. This air of mystery is seen inthe work of Adrian Stokes (I854-), who,though he constantly varies his art, is notedfor pictures of mystery and stuggestion, andalso in the work ofWilliam Stott, one of thebest painters of the nude in England.Among marine painters Henry Moore(I831-) has been for malny years the undisputed monarch of this province of art, andthis in a land where the sea plays an important part in art. Mluther writes: "Nowhereelse does there live any painter who regardsthe seas so much with the eyes of a sailor,and who combines such eminent qualitieswith this objective and cool, attentive observation." Moore's seascapes have beenlikened to views of the sea obtained froman open window, they are so true and so fullof the spirit of the sea. W. Wyllie (I857-)is the painter of theThames at London. Noone knows better than he the constructionof vessels and their appearance under different circumstances. His pictures not only


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332 PAINTING OF THE NINETEENTHdisplay this knowledge, but give as well themeaning of this great river-purt with all itsteeming life and seemingly endless traffic.Charles N. Henry (I84I-), another painterof the ocean, does his work from the deck ofhis own yacht. In a catalogue oI worksexhibited in the Royal Academy in I898 isthe followiiig description of Henry's Wreckage: "Wreckage is a great record of stormon the Cornish coast, a vehement expressionof Nature in her grimmest mood. The subject chosen is a group of fishermen salvingthe remains of a ship that has been cast uponthe rocky shore. They are busy haulingout of reach of the angry sea great timbersand fragments of the wreck, struggling withthewinds and waves to save what they can.The picture is full of action and vigorousmovement"The amount of labor required to producea work of this description: study of the seain storm, study of the figures as a group andindividually, and the study of the wreckage,represent an amount of labor almost incredible to the spectator who sees the finishedcanvas in its franme upon thewall of a gallery. Yet it is juist this kind of picture thatis bringing new life into English painting.The old idea that even the realism ofMillais' time did not dispel, that the art ofpainting is for the dilettante alone, that pictures are the products of the studio'(preferably a studio littered with accessories) andexecuted by. an asthetic individual (preferably with long hair) has passed away. Theart of painting in England is a healthy art,still holding to its old individuality, and inno sense decadent.

HE CENTURY IN SCOTLAND:EARLY PAINTERS. (g)Painting may be said to have hadits formal beginning in Scotland in

1729 when the Guild of St. Luke wasfounded in Edinburgh, and when the firstlarge and important exhibition of pictureswas held, a few years later- (176I), in Glas.gow. There were painters before this time,but their work was of little consequence.Since the middle of the eighteenth century

Scotland has had a distinct and national art,but, on account of the inaccessibleness ofthe country, little was known of it till theopening years of the nineteenth century,

when the never-ceasing migration of Scotchartists to London began. These men introduced fresh influences into English art, andmany of the strongest men in the Englishschool then as now could claim Scotland ashome. Many equally strong men remainedat home and assisted in the development, inlandscape, genre, and in less measure inportraiture, of the distinctive characteristicsof Scotch art; and since the middle of thenineteenth century there has been a stronggroup of painters who could worthily upholdthis national character. Scotch paintingnever had the delicate refinement and graceful poetry of English painting, but isvigorousand intense in its deep color-harmonies, andits poetry is derived, directly from naturerather than from the verses of the poets.The attention which the work of the youngermen of to-day has attracted, work whichhas given richer color, a more just regardfor tone, a more expressive technique anda new sense of the decorative qualitieseverywhere in painting, is proof that painting is a living art in Scotland, and that th&%forerunners of these painters must havebeen men of power. If with the best ofthe work to-day we put the mid-centurypainting-that executed in England as wellas that in Scotland,-and add thework ofthe older men, we could form an exhibitionof Scottish art that would compare veryfavorably with the century's work of anypeople.The century opens, as in England, with aportrait painter, and but one, supreme in theworld of art. But before his work ismentioned several earlier artists should be noted.Allan Ramsey (I 7 I3- I784), a portrait painterwhose work had the "bloom of Reynolds."The brothers Runciman who painted in verystrong and rich tones highly imaginativeillustrations of Homer and Shakespeare,were a strong band of Scotchmen who diedjust before the opening of the century.William Allan (x802-i850) should also benoted. He was a historical painter of greatEuropean reputation, was elected president


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CENTURY IN SCO TLAND. 333of the Scottish Academy in I838, and continued the traditions of classicism in thatbody.The most prominent painter in Scotlandat the opening of the century was HenryRaeburn (I756-I823). At a time whenLawrence in England was painting superficial prettiness, Raeburn in Scotland wasexecuting a series of portraits that can becompared with Velasquez for strength andimpressiveness. "In Henry Raeburn,"writes Muther, "Edinburgh possessed theboldest and most virile of all British portrait painters; while Reynolds composed hispictures in refined tones reminiscent of theold masters, Raeburn painted his modelsunder a trenchant light from above.4' Hewas a great colorist, placing together themost brilliantly colored Scotch costumes inareas and intensities so carefully disposedand graded that all harmonized. Not untilthe end of the century, in the work of Guthrie, -tomention but one of several contemporary Scotchmen, did painters appear tocarry on portraiture upon the lines laid downby Raeburn.David Wilkie was without a peer, in genre,but he, in common with many other painters, went to London-then farther fromEdinburgh than New York is now-so earlyin the century that his influence was exertedupon the English rather than upon his contemporaries at home. See further nextlesson.Landscape painting in Scotland beganwith Alexander Nasmyth (I 758-i8I4), whosework, in. some respects, resembles that ofCrome in England. A son, I atrickNasmyth, is more celebrated, and executedwork far superior to that of his father. In fact,his paintings compare very favorably withthose of the old Dutch masters of landscape.He followed the principles and practice ofHobbema and Wynants; and, after takingup his abode in London. became famous forhis pictures of simple country lanes. It isto be regretted that he did not remain inScotland and continue painting the lochs ofhis native land, for his earlier works: Viewsof Loch Katrine, and Loch Auchray gavewonderful promise.Crawford was the Scotch Constable. "His

works," among Scotch landscapes, "are theearliest which showed emancipation fromthe tone of the old masters, the earliestwhich displayed vigorous observation of thenature of the atmosphere" (Muther). Horatio Macculloch (I805-I867) discovered thepictorial quality of his native land, and calledattention to the beauities of Scotch mountainlandscape. In his work he exaggerated colors and contrasts of light and shade, but asthis influenced later painters to brilliancy ofcolor and richness of tone, characteristicsof later Scotch painting, Macculloch may beconsidered an important member of thatband of early painters who remained athome and kept the vigorous Scotch art independent of English influence.

COTCH PAINTERS IN LONDON.(I 0)

SC We claim as American painters anyof the profession who chanced to beborn upon these shores, even if they haveresided so long abroad, and become sofilled with the spirit of the people amongwhom they live, that their work cannot bedistinguished from that of the artists of-their adopted country. To be consistentwe must claim as Scotch- painters themenof the North who went to London and therewon name and fame, but they should beconsidered separately from the painters whoremained at home and assisted in the development of the Scotch artof to-day. Themost prominent-Scotch artist in London inthe first quarter of the century was SirDavidWilkie (1775-I84I). Muther conisidershim "the chief genre painter of the world"at this time. After studying in the Edinburgh Academy a few years he went to London (in I805) and entered theRoyal AcademySchool, where he became the friend of Haydon, at that time also a student. Wilkie'sfirst picture, the Pitlessie Fair, from thesale ofwhich he secured the- funds necessaryfor journeying to London, is characteristicof all of his best work. He selected for subjects the English, and more often the Scotchpeasants at the country fair, or at- homegatherings . nga,ed in all the :innocent


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BLIND MAN' S BUFF. WILKIR.

"horseplay" of the period, all good naturedand full of animal life and spirits. Wilkiehimself was one of the best natured, thoroughly whole-souled men that ever wieldeda brush; and this character influenced hiswork, which was immensely popular in England and Scotland, and was more widely circulated by means of engravings than thatof any artist of the firsthalf of the century.He made his first great success withi TheVillage Politicians, painted in i8o6, and forthe next twenty years produced genre pictures of which Leslie and Eaton write:"Wilkie's extraordinary ability in the composition of groups of figures and accessories,is seen at its best in these earlier works: lnopainter has, perhaps, ever exceeded him inthe deftness with which he could expressthe twinkle of an eye or the quiver of a lip."Ignorant of the art outside of his circle, hewas an artist of individuality, and will bejudged by his pictures of the home lifewhichsurrounded him in his youth. After a journey to Spain in 1825 be clhanged his methodand became a historical painter. In this hisknowledge of composition and skill as atechnician enabled him to paint strongworks; but it is as the painter of BlindMan's Buff, and The Penny Wedding thatWilkie will not only be judged but remembered.John Faed (I820-), with his brotherThomas, followed in Wilkie's footsteps,and brought his style down to the present.

William Dyce (I8091864), a native ofAberdeen, became one ofthe best of the Englishs c h o o l of historicalpainters. BacchusNursed by theNymphs,and the Descent of

Venus are titles givinga good idea of his rangeof subject. John Pettie(I839-) left his Edinburgh home in I862,and worked in Londonuntil his death in 1893.He selected his subjects from the manyromantic incidents inthe lives of the English cavaliers of the

seveinteenth century, and gained great popularity. He was a thoroughly good colorist,painting now with strong tones and againin delicate silver-greys and buffs (Orchardson's early color). In his picture of theClhallenge, in which one man dressed in yellow silk gives the message to another in silver-grey, the color harmony, to quote fromMuther, "is perhaps the most delicate workproduced in England since Gainsborough'sBlue Boy. But superior to Pettie isWilliamQuilter Orchardson (I835-), one of the foremost painters of the English School, and oneof the few living Englishmen whose work isappreciated equally at home and abroad.He left Scotland to try his fortunes in London with Pettie, but was not so immediatelysuccessful. For several years he painted ina quiet, reticent manner, and it was not till

NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA DICTATING THE ACCOUNT OlHIS CAMPAIGN. ORCHARDSON.


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CEANTURY ZiV SCO TLAND. 333as late as I88i that he became prominent.Orchardson is the painter of the aristocraticlife of a century ago, though he often introduces the modern man and woman of societyilto his pictures. The Queen of Swords,and The Salon de Madame Recamier aretitles suggestive of much of his work. Noartist of the English School can group figures with better sense of a well orderedcrowd, or place them in architectural settings as can Orchardson. His success inportraiture is noted elsewhere. A luminouscombination of light grey and delicate yellowwas Orchardson's favorite color scale. Asort of buff, a tawny yellow, rather tryingtill one becomes accustomed to it, dominatesthe color schemes ofhis recent work.

Peter Graham(I836-) has, to use hisown words when writing to a painter whohad applied to him foradvice, "a strong loveof and admiration forwhatever in heaven orearth is beautiful, orgrand in form, color,and effect." He maybe said to be the directartistic descendant ofMacculloch, and is apopular painter in thathis work appeals aliketo the shepherd whosemoors and cliffs Graham loves to paint and to themost exactiingcritic who haunts the galleries of the RoyalAcademy. Graham was born in Edinburgh in I836, and studied under thefamousLauder. (Seep. 666.) Atanearly period in his career he went toLondon, but didnot, as so many Scotch artists have done,lose his identity as a Scotcn painter. Hehas painted Scotland, its wild moors, itsdesolate crags, its sea birds and picturesquecattle, and its wild ocean shores, and verylittle else; and now spends halE of each yearat the old university town of St. Andrewsand half in London. He began life as a figure painter, and attributes much of his suc

cess in his chosen branch of art to theexacting study given the figure in his earlyprofessional life and to the antique in hisstudent days.When Graham reached London he tookthe town, literally, by storm, and the picture with which he made his debut at theRoyal Academy, A Spate in the Highlands,was the means of sweeping away much ofthe prejudice in theAcademy against landscape painters which even Crome, Constableand Turner had failed to break Jown. Thetitles of the following pictures among othersexhibited during the past ten years will givean idea of the subjects he selects: Sea Worn

MIORINING MIISTS. GRAHAM.

Rocks, The Head of the Loch, The SeaWill Ebb and Flow, Lashed by theWild andWasteful Ocean. "While scrupulouslyaccurate as tomaterial effects and details,Mr. Graham cannot be classed among therealists of landscape art. He belongsrather to those who believe that every greatlandscape is a record not of sight but ofinsight" (Gilbert). His pictures do not follow the painstaking method of Millais orHunt or other Realists, or the broad suiggestive treatment of Constable and Turner, and

much modern landscape, but occupy thatmiddle ground which the great public canappreciate and enjoy.

Painting of the Nineteenth Century in England, Scotland and America

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