Part 1
ART AND ARTISTS.
MEMORANDA
OF
ART AND ARTISTS,
Anecdotal and Biographical.
COLLECTED AND ARRANGED
By JOSEPH SANDELL.
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London: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & Co., STATIONERS’ HALL COURT, E.C. AND FIELD & TUER, 50, LEADENHALL STREET, E.C. 1871.
[_Copyright entered at Stationers’ Hall._]
[Illustration: AI, 718. FIELD & TUER, LEADENHALL ST. LONDON.]
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PREFACE.
The collection of the Anecdotes now offered to the public has been a work of some few years, but it has also been a pleasure. Loving Art, I have taken a deep interest in the light thrown by them on the character and career of the great artists whose works have done so much to elevate and refine mankind. These anecdotes have been culled from various sources; and though many of them have doubtless been several times related, yet some, it is believed, have never before been published in a collected form. Mr. Henry Ottley, in the Preface to his “Supplement to Bryan’s Dictionary of Painters,” remarks that many artists to whom he had applied for materials for biography, did not answer his letters, and that others declined from a feeling of diffidence to give him the required information. I have found a similar difficulty in obtaining anecdotes by applying to the artist friends with whom I have the honour of being acquainted. My work has, therefore, been to seek materials from other sources; to select, arrange, and, in some instances, abridge. Whenever it was possible to give the authority for a story, this has been done. The anecdotes are arranged in groups, according to the artist to whom they relate; and for convenience of reference, the names of artists are given alphabetically. It is hoped that this little volume, while serving to wile away a leisure hour, may at the same time do something to arouse the reader’s interest in the men who have devoted their lives to the service of Art, and so to the instruction and well-being of their fellow-men.
J. S.
WALHAM GREEN, LONDON, 1871.
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CONTENTS.
PAGE
ALLSTON, WASHINGTON 1 His Opinion of his own Painting. 2
BARTOLOZZI, FRANCESCO, R.A. 2 Interview with George III. 4
BEECHEY, SIR WILLIAM, R.A. 5 Interview with Holcroft 5
CHANTREY, SIR FRANCIS, R.A. 6 Chantrey’s Prices 7 Horne Tooke 7 Equestrian Figures 8 Candid Opinion 9 Fashion 9
COLLINS, WILLIAM, R.A. 12 Complaint against the Hanging Committee 14 “The Bird Catchers” 15 Haydon’s “Judgment of Solomon” 16 Samuel T. Coleridge 17 The Painter’s Sympathisers 19
CONSTABLE, JOHN, R.A. 10 Archdeacon Fisher 12 Constable's Pleasantry 12
COPLEY, JOHN SINGLETON, R.A. 20 Portrait Painting 21
DAVID, JACQUES LOUIS 22 His Marriage 22 His Cruelty 24 His Excessive Vanity 25 Danton’s Features 25 David and Napoleon 25 David and the Emperor’s Portrait 26
DENON, DOMINIQUE VIVANT 26 _Naïveté_ of Talleyrand’s Wife 28 Denon’s Curiosities 28
FLAXMAN, JOHN, R.A. 29 His Obliging Disposition 30
FUSELI, HENRY, R.A. 31 His Cat 32 His Gaiters 33 The Drama 33 Noisy Students 34 The Yorkshireman 34 Richardson’s Novels 35 Classical Attainments 35
GAINSBOROUGH, THOMAS, R.A. 36 The Conceited Alderman 36 The Artist’s Independence 37 His Letter to the Duke of Bedford 37 Mrs. Siddons’s Nose 38 Conclusive Evidence 38 The German Professor 39 The Artist’s Retort to the Lawyer 40
GORDON, SIR JOHN WATSON, R.A. 40 Lord Palmerston and the Artist 41
HARLOWE, GEORGE HENRY 42 Taking a Likeness under Difficulties 42
HAYDON, BENJAMIN ROBERT 43 Introduction to Fuseli 46 London Smoke 47 His Description of the British School of Painters 48
HAYMAN, FRANCIS, R.A. 48 Gluttony 49 Marquis of Granby and the Noble Art 50 The Painter’s Friendship for Quin 50
HOGARTH, WILLIAM 51 Wilkes and Churchill 54 Garrick’s Generosity 55 Caricature 56 Wilkes 56 Hogarth’s Conceit 57 An Ugly Sitter 57
HOPPNER, JOHN, R.A. 58 An Eccentric Customer 59 The Alderman’s Lady 60 A Cool Sitter 61
IBBETSON, JULIUS CÆSAR 61 The Toper’s Reply 62 The Recognition 63
INMAN, HENRY 64
JERVAS, CHARLES 70 Reynolds, Sir Joshua 70 Dr. Arbuthnot 70 Vanity 71 Lady Bridgwater 71 The Painter’s Generosity 71 Hints to Pope on Painting 72
KNELLER, SIR GODFREY 73 Royal Patronage 74 Radcliffe, Dr. 74 Origin of the Kit-Cat Club 75 Portrait Painting 76 Cut at Pope 76 A Country Sitter 76 Vandyke and Kneller 76 Tonson, the Bookseller 77
LAWRENCE, SIR THOMAS, P.R.A. 77 Royal Favours 79 Miss Fanny Kemble 80 Hoaxing Lawrence 81 Fuseli’s Envy 82 His Professional Practice 82
LIOTARD, JOHN STEPHEN 84
LIVERSEEGE, HENRY 85 A Dear Model 86
LOTHERBOURG, PHILIP JAMES DE, R.A. 87 Gilray 88 Loutherbourg’s Eccentricity 89 Attitude is Everything 89
OPIE, JOHN, R.A. 89 The Affected Sitter 90
REYNOLDS, SIR JOSHUA, P.R.A. 91 Astley 91 Reynolds on Art 92 Johnson’s Portrait 92 Reynolds’s Sundays 93 Dr. Johnson 93 Garrick’s Pleasantry 94 Duchess of Marlborough 94 Pope 95 Michael Angelo 95 Reynolds’s Study 96 Dr. Johnson’s Opinion of Artists 96 Reynolds’s Discourses 97 Garrick’s Portraits 97 Sir Joshua’s Generosity 97 An Epicure’s Advice 98 Lord Mansfield 98
ROUBILIAC, LOUIS FRANCIS 98 Goldsmith 99 Roubiliac’s Honesty 100 Bernini 100 Lord Shelburne 100 Dr. Johnson 101 Roubiliac’s Poetic Effusions 102
RYLAN, WILLIAM WYNNE 103 Magnanimity 103 Self-Possession 104 Red Chalk Engravings 104
TENIERS, DAVID: FATHER AND SON 105 Teniers at the Village Alehouse 105
WEST, BENJAMIN, P.R.A. 108 Leigh Hunt 109 John Constable 112 William Woollet 112 James Northcote 113 Youthful Ambition 114 Perseverance in Art 115
WILKIE, SIR DAVID, R.A. 115 “Letter of Introduction” 119 Collins’s Reminiscences of Wilkie 119 Arrest at Calais 120 His Opinion of Michael Angelo and Raphael 122
WILSON, RICHARD, R.A. 123 A Scene at Christie’s 124
ZOFFANY, JOHANN, R.A. 124 The Royal Picture 127 The “Cock Fight” 127
MISCELLANEOUS ANECDOTES, ETC.
The Royal Academy, Burlington House 129 Fonthill Collection 130 The Strawberry Hill Collection 132 The Saltmarshe Collection 134 The Stowe Collection 135 The Bernal Collection 136 Sale of Daniel O’Connell’s Library, etc. 138 Holbein 140 Palladio, Andrew 141 Callot’s Etchings 142 The Female Face 143 London in the Seventeenth Century 144 Tardif, the French Connoisseur 146 Paul Potter’s Studies of Nature 147 Fidelity in Portrait Painting 148 Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode 148 Barry’s Contempt for Portrait Painting 149 Barry’s Eccentricity 149 The Royal Prisoner 150 Athenian Stuart 151 Prudhon and Canova 151 Revolution an Enemy to Art 152 Serres and Vernet 153 The Heroic Painter 154 Vernet and Voltaire 155 Pistrucci’s Ready Ingenuity 155 Charles Townley 156 The Townley Marbles 156 Blucher taken by Limners 157 Cost of a Picture 158 Resuscitated Celebrities 158 Two Gormandizers 159 The Artist Illustrated 160 The Double Surprised 161 The Ideal Part of Painting 162 Satan at a Premium 163 Love of the Picturesque 164 The Dutch Painter and his Customers 165 Painting a Sky 166 Variety of Skies 168 Slang of Artists 169 A Picture Dealer’s Knowledge of Geography 170 On Study of Antiquities 170 The Reserve 171 Gallantry of Antiquaries 171 Poets and Painters 172 Freedom of Opinion 173 The Connoisseur Taken In 174 No Connoisseur 175 The Uncourtly Medalist 175 Connoisseurs 176 Old Books 176 Extra Love of Antiquity 176 How to be a Connoisseur 177 The Chandos Portrait of Shakspeare 177 The Felton Portrait of Shakspeare 178 Parisian Caricaturists 179 Italian Pottery and Glass Making 180 The Portland Vase 182 A Lost Art 183 Fans 184 The Trials of a Portrait Painter 192 Seddon’s Picture of “Jerusalem” 194 A Great Picture and its Vicissitudes 196 The Frescoes in the Houses of Parliament 198 The Riding Master and the Elgin Marbles 200 A Hallowed Spot 201
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ART AND ARTISTS.
_ALLSTON (WASHINGTON)._
Washington Allston was born at Charleston, in South Carolina, on the 5th November, 1779, of a family distinguished in the history of that State. He entered Harvard College in 1796, and graduated in 1800. While at college he developed in a marked manner a love of music, poetry, and painting. On leaving college, he returned to South Carolina, having determined to devote his life to the fine arts, and embarked for London in 1801. On his arrival, he became a student of the Royal Academy, and formed an intimacy with his countryman, Benjamin West, who was its president. After three years in London, he paid visits to Paris and Rome, and in 1809 returned to America. Two years afterwards, we find him again in England, where his reputation as an artist was now completely established. In 1818 he returned to America, making Boston his home.
Mrs. Jameson, in her “Memoirs and Essays, illustrative of Art,” says: “At Rome Allston first became distinguished as a mellow and harmonious colourist, and acquired among the native German painters the name of “the American Titian.”
When in London, Allston paid a professional visit to Fuseli, who asked him what branch of art he intended to pursue. He replied, “History.” “Then, sir,” answered the shrewd and intelligent professor of painting, “you have come a long way to starve.”
Allston was the author of several poems, which, with his lectures on art, are edited by R. H. Dana, jun., and published in New York. He died on the 9th of July, 1843.
_HIS OPINION OF HIS OWN PAINTING._
Some years after Allston had acquired a considerable reputation as a painter, a friend showed him a miniature, and begged he would give his sincere opinion upon its merits, as the young man who drew it had some thoughts of becoming a painter by profession. After much pressing, Allston candidly told the gentleman he feared the lad would never do anything as a painter, and advised his following some more congenial pursuit. The friend thereupon convinced him that the miniature had been done by Allston himself, for this very gentleman, when the painter was very young.
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_BARTOLOZZI (FRANCESCO), R.A._
Francesco Bartolozzi was born in Florence, in the year 1728, where his father kept a shop, and followed the business of a goldsmith, on the Ponto Vecchio. Young Bartolozzi was taught drawing by Feretti, a drawing-master in Florence, and instructed in engraving by one Corsi, a very indifferent artist. His earliest attempts in engraving were copying prints from Frey and Wagner, and engraving shop-cards, and saints for friars. His first work, considered of any consequence, was from a picture in the cloisters of Santa Maria Novella, in Florence. When he was about eighteen, by the advice of Feretti, he sent a specimen of his abilities to Wagner, at Venice, which was satisfactorily received; and from that time he became his pupil and assistant, and remained with him ten years. While he was with Wagner, Bartolozzi married and went to Rome, where he remained a year and a half. Among other works, he engraved, while at Rome, several heads of painters for Bottari’s edition of Vasari.
In the year 1762, Mr. Dalton, the King’s agent for works of art, being at Venice, introduced himself to the artist, and took him to Bologna to make two drawings,--a Cupid, from Guido, and the Circumcision, from Guercino, which he afterwards engraved for him.
At Mr. Dalton’s invitation, Bartolozzi started for London in the year 1764, and, on arriving in the metropolis, he found his fame had, through the joint influence of his friend Cipriani and Mr. Dalton, brought many noted personages to his lodgings, desirous to make the artist’s personal acquaintance. For three years and a half he was wholly employed by Mr. Dalton, at a guinea a day. He was one of the twenty-seven artists who memorialized the King to establish a Royal Academy, and was nominated a Royal Academician on its establishment in 1768. After quitting Cipriani’s house, he lived in Broad Street, and in Bentinck Street, Soho; and at last settled in a house at North End, Fulham, where he took great delight in gardening, and where he remained to live till November, 1802, when he went to Portugal; after a residence in England of more than thirty-eight years.
Although Bartolozzi was greatly patronized by the public in this country, and in the receipt of a large income, and his works held in the highest estimation, yet, with a morbid sensibility, he always felt himself to be a foreigner, and never quite at home in England. At Lisbon he gave his attention to the superintendence of a school of engraving recently established, from which he received the sum of £200 yearly for his services.
The week before he left England, Lord Pelham sent his private secretary to inform him that he was authorized by His Majesty to make him an offer of £400 a year to remain in England, and more, if that was not sufficient; but this munificence Bartolozzi respectfully declined.
He died in the year 1815, in the eighty-fifth year of his age.
_INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE III._
“I was shaving myself in the morning,” says Bartolozzi, “when a thundering rapping at the door announced the glad tidings, and I cut myself in my hurry to go to Buckingham House, where I was told His Majesty was waiting for me in the library. When I arrived, I found the King on his hands and knees on the floor, cleaning a large picture with a wet sponge, and Mr. Dalton, Mr. Barnard, the librarian, and another person standing by. The subject of the picture was the ‘Murder of the Innocents,’ said to be by Paul Veronese, and I was sent for to give my opinion of its originality. Mr. Dalton named me to the King as a proper judge, as I had so lately come from Venice; and I suppose he intended to give me some previous instructions; but when delay was proposed, the King said: ‘No; send for Mr. Bartolozzi now, and I will wait here till he comes.’ On my entering the room, the King asked me whether the picture was an undoubted original by Paul Veronese; to which I gave a gentle shrug, without saying a single word. The King seemed to understand the full force of the expression, and, without requiring any further comment, asked me how I liked England, and if I found the climate agree with me; and then walked out at the window which led into the garden, and left Mr. Dalton to roll up his picture; and here ended the consultation. The picture was an infamous copy, and offered to the King for the _moderate_ price of one thousand guineas.”
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_BEECHEY (SIR WILLIAM), R.A._
William Beechey was born at Burford, in Oxfordshire, in the year 1753. It is recorded of this painter that the circumstance of a portrait of a nobleman which he had painted being returned by the hanging committee of the Exhibition led to his rapid advancement in life. The picture found its way to Buckingham House, was much admired by the royal family; and so led to his receiving the patronage of His Majesty. In 1798 he was commissioned to paint George III. on horseback reviewing the troops. Beechey excelled in portrait-painting. Though neat and delicate in his colouring, his portraits want that dignity and grace so well shown in those of the great master, Reynolds. He died in the year 1839.
_INTERVIEW WITH HOLCROFT._
In Holcroft’s diary occurs the following reference to this painter:--
“15 July, 1798.--Sir William Beechey, with his young son, called; he was lately knighted. Speaks best on painting, the subject on which we chiefly conversed. Said that a notion prevailed in Italy, that pictures having a brown tone had most the hue of Titian; and that the picture-dealers of Italy smeared them over with some substance which communicates this tone. Of this I doubt. Repeated a conversation at which he was present, when Burke endeavoured to persuade Sir Joshua Reynolds to alter his picture of ‘The Dying Cardinal,’ by taking away the devil, which Burke said was an absurd and ridiculous incident, and a disgrace to the artist. Sir Joshua replied, that if Mr. Burke thought proper, he could argue _per contra_; and Burke asked him if he supposed him so unprincipled as to speak from anything but conviction. ‘No,’ said Sir Joshua; ‘but had you happened to take the other side, you could have spoken with equal force.’... Beechey praised my portrait, painted by Opie, but said the colouring was too foxy; allowed Opie great merit, especially in his picture of ‘The Crowning of Henry VI. at Paris;’ agreed with me that he had a bold and determined mind, and that he nearest approached the fine colouring of Rembrandt.”
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_CHANTREY (SIR FRANCIS), R.A._
Sir Francis was born on the 7th of April, 1782, at Norton, in Derbyshire. He was early apprenticed to a carver, with whom he served three years. In the year 1816, at the early age of eight-and-twenty, he became an Associate of the Royal Academy, and after two years’ close study he was elected an Academician. It has been justly said of this artist, that all his statues proclaim themselves at once the works of a deeply-thinking man. His most celebrated sepulchral monument, entitled “The Sleeping Children,” is known all over Europe by engravings. It was erected in memory of two children of the late William Robinson, Esq. Chantrey died at his house, in Pimlico, on the 25th of November, 1841.
_CHANTREY’S PRICES._
In 1808 Chantrey received a commission to execute four colossal busts for Greenwich Hospital:--those of Duncan, Howe, St. Vincent, and Nelson; and from this time his prosperity began. During the eight previous years he declared he had not gained five pounds by his labours as a modeller; and until he executed the bust of Horne Tooke, in clay, in 1811, he was himself diffident of success. He was, however, entrusted with commissions to the amount of £12,000. His prices at this time were eighty or a hundred guineas for a bust, and he continued to work at this rate for three years, after which he raised his terms to a hundred and twenty, and a hundred and fifty guineas, and continued these prices until the year 1822, when he again raised the terms to two hundred guineas; and when he modelled the bust of George IV., the King wished him to increase the price, and insisted that the bust of himself should not return to the artist a less sum than three hundred guineas.
_HORNE TOOKE._
Horne Tooke had rendered Chantrey many important services, for which the latter through life took every opportunity to show his gratitude. About a year previous to Horne Tooke’s death, he desired the artist to procure for him a large black marble slab to place over his grave, which he intended should be in his garden at Wimbledon. This commission Chantrey executed, and went with Mrs. Chantrey to dine with Tooke on the day that it was forwarded to the dwelling of the latter. On the sculptor’s arrival, his host merrily exclaimed, “Well, Chantrey, now that you have sent my tombstone, I shall be sure to live a year longer,” which was actually the case.
_EQUESTRIAN FIGURES._
When George IV. was sitting to Chantrey, he required the sculptor to give him the idea of an equestrian statue to commemorate him, which Chantrey accomplished at a succeeding interview by placing in the sovereign’s hand a number of small equestrian figures, drawn carefully on thick paper, and resembling in number and material a pack of cards. These sketches pleased the King very much, who turned them over and over, expressing his surprise that such a variety could be produced; and after a thousand fluctuations of opinion, sometimes for a prancing steed, sometimes for a trotter, then for a neighing or starting charger, His Majesty at length resolved on a horse standing still, as the most dignified for a King. Chantrey probably led to this, as he was decidedly in favour of the four legs being on the ground; he had a quiet and reasonable manner of convincing persons of the propriety of that which from reflection he judged to be preferable.... When he had executed and erected the statue of the King on the staircase at Windsor, His Majesty good-naturedly patted the sculptor on the shoulder, and said, “Chantrey, I have reason to be obliged to you, for you have immortalized me.”
_CANDID OPINION._
Mr. Leslie relates the following anecdote:--
“Chantrey told me that on one of his visits to Oxford, Professor Buckland said to him ‘If you will come to me, you shall hear yourself well abused.’ He had borrowed a picture of Bishop Heber, from the Hall of New College, to make a statue from; and having kept it longer than he had promised, the woman who showed the Hall was very bitter against him. ‘There is no dependence,’ she said, ‘to be placed on that Chantrey. He is as bad as Sir Thomas Lawrence, who has served me just the same; there is not a pin to choose between them.’ She pointed to the empty frame, and said, ‘It is many a shilling out of my pocket, the picture not being there; they make a great fuss about that statue of----’ (mentioning one by Chantrey, that had lately been sent to one of the colleges), ‘but we have one by Bacon, which, in my opinion, is twice as good. When Chantrey’s statue came, I had ours washed; I used a dozen pails of water, and I am sure I made it look a great deal better than his.’ He took out a five-shilling piece, and putting it into her hand, but without letting it go, said, ‘Look at me, and tell me whether I look like a very bad man.’ ‘Lord, no, sir.’ ‘Well, then, I am that Chantrey you are so angry with.’ She seemed somewhat disconcerted; but quickly recovering herself, replied, ‘And if you are, sir, I have said nothing but what is true,’ and he resigned the money into her hand.”
_FASHION._
On one occasion, at a dinner party, he was placed nearly opposite his wife at table, at the time when very large and full sleeves were worn, of which Lady C. had a very fashionable complement; and the sculptor perceived that a gentleman sitting next to her was constrained to confine his arms, and shrink into the smallest dimensions, lest he should derange the superfluous attire. Chantrey, observing this, addressed him thus: “Pray, sir, do not inconvenience yourself from the fear of spoiling those sleeves, for that lady is my wife; those sleeves are mine, and as I have paid for them, you are at perfect liberty to risk any injury your personal comfort may cause to those prodigies of fashion!” Also, noticing a lady with sleeves curiously cut, he affected to think the slashed openings were from economical motives, and said, “What a pity the dressmaker should have spoiled your sleeves! It was hardly worth while to save such a little bit of stuff.”
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_CONSTABLE (JOHN), R.A._
John Constable, born in Suffolk, in the year 1776, passed his infancy in a beautifully rural country, the scenery of which he was in love with to the day of his death. His predilection for the art was developed before he reached the age of sixteen. Mrs. Constable procured for her son an introduction to Sir George Beaumont. Sir George had expressed himself much pleased with the youth’s pen-and-ink copies. He was sent to pursue his studies in London; and in 1799, writing to a friend, he says:--
“I paint by all the daylight we have, and there is little enough. I sometimes see the sky; but imagine to yourself how a pearl must look through a burnt glass. I employ my evenings in making drawings and in reading, and I hope by the former to clear my rent. If I can, I shall be very happy. Our friend Smith has offered to take any of my pictures into his shop for sale. He is pleased to find I am reasonable in my prices.”
Again, in Leslie’s memoirs of the artist we have the following memorandum of Constable:--