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DAK MACLISE, Pv.A.PUiX' 
 
 F. JOUBERT, SCULPT 
 
 § ALVA^ 
 
 LONDOH", VIRTUE & C? 
 
PICTURES 
 
 BY 
 
 DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 
 WITH DESCRIPTIONS 
 
 A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE PAINTER 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES DAFFORNE 
 
 LONDON 
 
 VIRTUE, SPALDING, AND DALDY 
 
 IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW 
 

 h^l 
 
 Z-501 
 
LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 SALVATOR ROSA AND THE PICTURE-DEALER Frontispiece 
 
 A SCENE FROM THE BURLETTA OF "MIDAS" to face page 12 
 
 GIL BLAS AT PENNAFLOR 14 
 
 A SCENE FROM "TWELFTH NIGHT" 18 
 
 THE PLAY SCENE IN "HAMLET" 22 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE HARP 24 
 
 THE NYMPH OF THE WATERFALL 26 
 
 UNDINE 28 
 
 ORLANDO ABOUT TO ENGAGE WITH CHARLES, THE DUKE'S WRESTLER. . 42 
 
 THE BALLAD-SINGER 5° 
 
 THE WARRIOR'S CRADLE . . 52 
 
DANIEL MACLISE. R.A. 
 
 I HERE are few European countries in which painting has reached 
 any eminence where the department of history, or historical sub- 
 jects, has been less in demand than in England. Until the Royal 
 Commissioners for erecting the Houses of Parliament had determined 
 to decorate the edifice with works of this class, or of one somewhat 
 analogous to it, historical painting owed nothing to State patron- 
 age, and what it now owes is little enough. In the earlier annals 
 of the British School, whatever success this branch of Art achieved was mainly due 
 to private enterprise and liberality. Boydell, the publisher, did more for it, in his 
 Shakspere Gallery, than any Government this country has seen till within the last thirty 
 years. But it never has been thus in foreign lands where painting has flourished : 
 Italy and France, Spain, and the Low Countries (as Holland and Belgium were 
 called), are filled with pictures commissioned either by the chief Government of the 
 respective countries or by the local authorities ; and their public halls and galleries 
 bear witness to the genius of their artists and to the liberal patronage bestowed on 
 them, not alone in years that are long past, but in our own time. And why should 
 it not be the same with us ? Parliament every year votes a sum of money for the 
 purchase of pictures by the old masters of renown, to add to the National Gallery,, 
 and it is right to do so ; but why should not also a vote be asked for to encourage 
 native talent, and commissions given to our own painters for historical and other 
 pictures ? These should be placed in a separate room of the National Gallery — one 
 dedicated to British Art. 
 
 Then, too, looking beyond the metropolis to the cities and chief towns of the 
 provinces. There is scarcely one of these which is not associated with some important 
 event in the history of the country ; and as most of them, if not all, possess a town- 
 hall of more or less pretension, it would be a wise and worthy act on the part of the 
 municipal authorities to decorate their building with pictures of subjects interesting 
 
 B 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 to the inhabitants, because connected with the place in which their lot is cast. In 
 these and in a variety of other ways an impetus would be given to the highest, branch 
 of Art'which would do honour to the country and stimulate the genius of its painters. 
 
 These remarks are not made with any special reference to the artist whose life' and 
 works I am about to bring under notice. He was not an historical painter, properly 
 so termed; but he possessed those qualities which, if called into action and. encouraged, 
 would have rendered him a great one. His powers and his style of working were 
 eminently fitted for large canvases, and stirring incidents which constitute the leading 
 points of the annals of a nation. His pictures which have any tendency towards 
 historical compositions are full evidence of this. 
 
 Ireland claims Daniel Maclise as one of her gifted sons, and justly so, as far as 
 birth is concerned; for he was born at Cork on the 25th of January, 181 1. It has 
 been stated by some writers in the local Irish papers that this event occurred in 1 806 ; 
 but Maclise himself always affirmed that he was born in the former year. Yet, though 
 Cork was his native place, he came of Scotch descent ; his grandfather, Daniel Mac- 
 leish — so he wrote his name — ^being a true Highlander, and one of three brothers, 
 mill-owners, living near Callander, in Perthshire. He joined the famous " Highland 
 Watch," afterwards the 42nd Regiment, with which he served in Flanders, and 
 was wounded at the battle of Fontenoy, in 1745, when the Duke of Cumberland was 
 defeated, with considerable loss, by the French under Marshal Saxe. Macleish's two 
 brothers were at the same time serving at home, having mounted the white cockade 
 of Prince Charley, the "Young Pretender." Macleish's son, also Scottish born, 
 joined the Elgin Fencibles, and went into Ireland with his regiment. While quartered 
 in Cork he married a lady of the name of Clear, whose family were eminent merchants 
 in that city, and, retiring from the army, entered into business — one, moreover, which 
 was altogether new to him : the consequences, as might rationally be expected, were 
 that the speculation turned out unsuccessful. From the union with Miss Clear sprang 
 four sons and two daughters : among the former was Daniel Maclise. 
 
 From an excellent biographical sketch* written by an intimate friend of Maclise, 
 I am able to give more details of the painter's early life than without it I should have 
 had it in my power to do. The book will often be referred to in this brief notice of 
 the artist and his works,' for it contains much interesting material. 
 
 When quite a young boy Maclise was placed in one of the best schools in Cork ; 
 but as it was necessary, from the altered circumstances of his family, that he should, 
 even at the comparatively early age of fourteen, endeavour to do something towards 
 his own support, he was removed from school, and entered the banking-house of 
 
 * " A Memoir of Daniel Maclise, R.A." By W. Justin O'DriscoU, M.R.I.A. Published by Longmans and Co. 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 Messrs. Newenham, where, however, he did not remain long. A love of Art had 
 already shown itself so unmistakably that he was permitted to attend the Cork- School 
 of Art, where he made rapid progress as a student, exhibiting a power of drawing and 
 an aptitude for the acquisition of every kind of artistic knowledge beyond all his 
 compeers. Among other gentlemen who took special interest In the progress' of the 
 young student was the late Mr. Sainthill, a learned ' antiquarian and a great lover of 
 the fine arts. He saw that the drawings executed by Maclise bore certain evidence 
 of genius, and he became his warm friend and wise counsellor, giving him free access 
 to a library well stored with books of many kinds, and especially with works on anti- 
 quarian and legendary subjects. As a youth Maclise showed a love of literature^ had 
 read carefully the writings of many of the best English authors, and was not deficient 
 in classical attainments : all this tended to educate his intellect, while it enriched 
 his mind with a vast fund of information, of which he made profitable use in future 
 years. He also attended the school of anatomy conducted by Dr. Woodrooffe in 
 Cork, and occasionally dissected, thereby acquiring a knowledge of the structure of 
 the human frame, and laying the foundation for that accuracy of drawing the figure 
 which is one of the great charms of his pictures. 
 
 The next step in the early life of Maclise, with reference to his art, is very 
 similar to that I related with regard to Leslie, when writing of him In a pre- 
 ceding volume. He first attracted notice by stealthily making a sketch of Cooke, 
 the actor, when in Philadelphia; and Maclise adopted the same surreptitious 
 course to get a portrait of Sir Walter Scott. The incident is thus related by 
 Mr. O'DriscoU :— 
 
 "In the autumn of 1825 Sir Walter Scott made a hasty tour of Ireland, accompanied by 
 Mr. and Mrs. Lockhart and Miss Edgeworth. Amongst other places he stayed a short time 
 at Cork, and, whilst there, he visited the establishment of Mr. Bolster, an eminent bookseller. 
 The presence of the illustrious author attracted crowds of literary persons there. Maclise, 
 then a mere boy, conceived the idea of making a sketch of Sir Walter ; and having placed 
 himself unobserved in a part of the shop which afforded him an admirable opportunity, he 
 made in a few minutes three outline sketches, each in a different position. He brought them 
 home, and having selected the one he considered the best, worked at it all night, and next 
 morning brought to Bolster a highly-finished pen-and-ink drawing, handled with all the 
 elaborate minuteness of a line engraving. Bolster placed it in a conspicuous part of his shop, 
 and Sir Walter with his friends having again called during the day, it attracted his attention 
 when he entered. He was struck with the exquisite finish and fidelity of the drawing, and 
 at once inquired the name of the artist who had executed it. Maclise, who was standing in 
 a remote part of the shop, was brought forward and introduced to Sir Walter. The great 
 author took him kindly by the hand, and expressed his astonishment that a mere boy could 
 have achieved such a work, andT predicted that he would yet distinguish himself. Sir Walter 
 then asked for a pen, and wrote ' Walter Scott ' at the foot of the sketch. Maclise was advised 
 by Bolster to have it lithographed. That branch of Art was only then in its infancy. There 
 was no lithographic press in Cork, and only one in Dublin. Maclise himself prepared the 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 tracings for transferring the drawing to the slate.* Five hundred copies were struck oS, and 
 were sold as rapidly as they were printed." 
 
 The marked success of this venture on the part of the boy-artist induced him, at 
 the instigation of his friends, to open a studio for portraiture ; and he soon got into 
 full practice. His price for a portrait, in pencil, was a guinea and a half. His 
 biographer speaks in glowing words of Maclise's popularity in his profession at this 
 time. " As his marvellous skill of hand became every day more extensively known 
 and conspicuous, men of genius, wealth, and eminence were to be found in his atelier 
 sitting for their portraits, or glancing over the last creations of his magical pencil. 
 Drawing was then the business of his life. His enthusiasm for Art subdued every 
 other thought, and yet he contrived to steal moments from the easel which were 
 appropriated to lighter pursuits— music and athletic exercises. * * * He was 
 then a singularly fine and muscular lad, and rather famous for feats of agility and 
 strength. Many of his leisure moments were passed on board the yacht of his friend 
 J. L. ; and as the little craft, wafted by the evening breeze, glided down the river Lee, 
 Maclise might be seen sitting in the stern, with pencil in hand, transferring to his 
 portfolio sketches of the charming scenery with which the banks of that beautiful river 
 so abound." 
 
 Apropos of these sailing excursions, an anecdote is told by Mr. O'DriscoU too good 
 
 to be omitted here : — 
 
 " An egregious coxcomb, named R., was the owner of a yacht called the Gazelle. He was 
 extremely vain of her graceful build and her sailing qualities. She was moving down the 
 river one evening, with her owner at the helm, and in all the pride of a new coat of paint for 
 the regatta which was to take place next day. Maclise was steering a friend's yacht, and by 
 some accident the boats came into contact. Mr. R. became exceedingly rude and uncivil. 
 He insisted that the accident was caused by the steering of Maclise, who, he said, * knew no 
 more about a paint-brush than a rudder.' Maclise resolved to make reprisal in an appropriate 
 
 way. Accompanied by , he proceeded at night in his friend's punt, armed with two pots 
 
 of paint and brushes, to the part of the river where the gay Gazelle lay at her moorings. 
 He got under the stern, and having deliberately painted it over with a coat of white, 
 obliterating the name Gazelle, he drew on the stern the figure of a tortoise in black paint, 
 placing under it the words, 'Le Noir Faineant.' Mr. R., wholly unconscious of what had 
 taken place, got his yacht under weigh next morning, and sailed down the river, her white 
 canvas set and a gaudy pennant flying from her masthead. When he arrived amongst the 
 other boats, the ludicrous figure on her stern attracted the notice of every one, and excited 
 great merriment. At length Mr. R. discovered what had occurred ; great and stormy was his 
 indignation, and he uttered threats of vengeance on the person who disfigured his boat. 
 Maclise, who was in his friend's yacht beside the Gazelle, said to Mr. R., ' I hope you are 
 now convinced that I can use the paint-brush.' Mr. R. thought he had been made sufficiently 
 ridiculous, and there the matter ended." 
 
 Query— j^(7«^. — [Ed.] 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 But new labours and new scenes were soon to present themselves to the young 
 artist. He was now fifteen years of age, and was receiving five guineas for his three- 
 quarter-length portraits, and had his hands full of commissions at that price ; and yet 
 success, almost unheard of in a boy fifteen years of age, only seemed to stimulate his 
 ambition for greater things : at present it did not go beyond the desire of studying in 
 the schools of the Royal Academy. As a necessary preliminary step to attain this 
 end, he devoted much time to the execution of an elaborate drawing, to be submitted 
 to the Council of the Academy as a test of qualification for studentship. It was 
 accepted; and in July, 1827, Maclise arrived in London from Cork, furnished with 
 letters of introduction from his friend Mr. Sainthill to Crofton Croker, Leslie, and 
 several others well known in literary and artistic circles. Mr. S. C. Hall had made 
 the lad's acquaintance in Cork, at the School of Art. Crofton Croker exerted himself 
 greatly to make the talents of the young artist known among those who had influence 
 enough to help him onwards ; and at his own house, at that of Mr. Hall, and also at 
 Jerdan's, who then edited the Literary Gazette, Maclise met with many whose good 
 opinion encouraged him and helped him onwards. 
 
 At the commencement of the session of the Academy, in the autumn of the year 
 of his arrival in London, he began his labours in the schools ; but his pecuniary 
 means were limited, and he was far too independent to accept assistance from those 
 who would gladly have given it. He was not, however, disposed to resort again to 
 portraiture — of the kind, at least, he practised at Cork. Yet a chance incident led 
 him to have recourse to it once more for a time. On the night of the first appearance 
 of the younger Kean on the stage — at Drury Lane, in the character of Norval, on 
 October i, 1827 — Maclise was present in the pit, and seized the opportunity of making 
 a sketch of the juvenile actor in one of his most impressive scenes : a finished drawing 
 was immediately produced from it, which Mr. Croker caused to be lithographed and 
 published. The print had such an extensive sale as to put a considerable sum into 
 the pocket of the artist. But this was not the only result. The portrait was so much 
 admired as a work of art that it brought to Maclise numerous commissions of a like 
 nature ; and he soon began to be favourably known as a rising artist — in a special 
 department, the only one he had hitherto tried. 
 
 On his arrival in London he took lodgings at the house of a carver and gilder, in 
 Newman Street, Oxford Street, at that time the locality in which artists were accus- 
 tomed to congregate. I merely mention this comparatively insignificant circumstance 
 to introduce a story related by Mr. O'DriscoU : — 
 
 " The owner of the house, with a taste peculiar to his trade, had inserted plates of looking- 
 glass in the back of the drawing-room door, and all the panels of the window-shutters. 
 However, as the glare and glitter disturbed Llaclise" — the room was his studio — "and 
 distracted the attention of those who sat for their portraits, he devoted some of his leisure 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 hours to adorning all the panels with beautiful drawings in burnt Sienna, which had a 
 charming effect. When he was leaving his lodgings, this Vandal (the landlord) claimed 
 compensation in damages for the desecration of his door and windows, not calculating that 
 the period might arrive when these panels, like the doors which inclose the altar-pieces in the 
 Belgian Crypt (and which the artists, as a part of their contract, painted gratuitously), would 
 become of great value : he would have tried to enforce his claim if a friend of Maclise had not 
 expressed a determination to take the offending panels bodily out, and insert new looking- 
 glass instead. Many years after this, and when the artist had reached the zenith of his fame, 
 Newman Street was searched for the dwelling of the carver and gilder, but he had long 
 ' shuflaed off his mortal coil,' and the painted panels had disappeared." 
 
 Maclise' s course in the Academy's schools was a series of triumphs, First, he. 
 gained the medal for the best drawing from the antique ; then, the medal for the best 
 copy of a painting by Guido ; and finally, in 1829, he won the gold medal, the highest, 
 prize the Academy has to offer to students, for the best historical painting : the subject 
 proposed by the Council being " The Choice of Hercules." This last and crowning 
 success, as might naturally be assumed, quite elated the young painter; and in a 
 characteristic letter to a friend, Dr. MacEvers, then a medical student, whose 
 acquaintance he had made in London, he refers to the evening when the distribution 
 of prizes took place. Lawrence was at that time President of the Academy, but Shee 
 appears to have acted as his locum tenens on the occasion. Maclise thus describes 
 the gathering : — 
 
 « On Saturday night Sir Martin Archer Shee took his chair, and there were present an 
 overwhelming number, more than on any other previous occasion, for Sir Thomas Lawrence 
 made it a private concern ;* the Duke of Sussex, Lord Brougham, the Bishops of London and 
 Llandaff, and all the noble and distinguished patrons and lovers of art, artists, members, 
 associates, and students. Well, as I was saying, he took his chair, and began to address the 
 . successful candidate ; but who that was, or for whoni the eulogy he poured forth was intended, 
 was a matter of the most anxious doubt to the trembling seven that sat on the seat before him. 
 Never was a full quarter of an hour's praise felt to be more momentous ; for my part, I don't 
 recollect one word but my own name, which completed it. Heretofore they have been more 
 merciful, and have immediately made the announcement, and taken time for the display of 
 their eloquence in commendation afterwards. I, however, do not affect to forget certain 
 piquant words he used : e.g., ' fancy, taste, originality, industry, having taken the highest 
 honour in the University of Art,' &c." 
 
 It would, perhaps, surprise those who have given no thought to the matter to find 
 how few, comparatively, of those who succeed in gaining honours in the schools of 
 the Academy ever rise to be men of mark in the profession ; some, in fact, are rarely 
 heard of afterwards. It seems as if they had reached the extreme limit of their powers 
 within the walls of the institution ; had shown that the curriculum of studentship 
 
 * This remark is scarcely intelligible. — [Ed.] 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 sufficed to exhaust all their talents ; and that then they had become absorbed into 
 the great mass of artists who can only be designated as mediocrities, if not something 
 lower. But this was not the case with Maclise. 
 
 The award of the gold medal of the Academy confers on its possessor the privilege 
 of studying three years on the Continent at the expense of that institution ; at least, 
 a sufficiently adequate sum for the purpose is allowed. Maclise, however, with that 
 spirit of independence which animated him through life, refused to avail himself of 
 the advantage he had gained, and was determined that whatever success he achieved 
 should be the result of his own unaided efforts. He subsequently visited Paris and 
 other foreign cities, but whatever he saw in no way affected his own style. 
 
 In 1829, the year in which he received the gold medal, he made his first appear- 
 ance in the exhibition-rooms of the Academy, by sending his " Malvolio affecting the 
 Count," from Shakspere's Twelfth Night. The scene lies in Olivia's garden, where 
 Malvolio " has been yonder i' the sun, practising behaviour to his own shadow, this 
 half-hour." The subject was a bold one for a young artist to undertake, but his 
 treatment of it gained him great credit. In the following year he contributed seven 
 pictures to the Academy-exhibition, the majority consisting of small-sized portraits 
 of the Princess Sophia, Mrs. S. C. Hall, L. E. L. (Miss Landon), and the poet 
 Campbell; the remaining three bore the respective titles of "The Trysting-Place," 
 "A First Sitting," and "Isabella's Favourite." In the summer of that year (1830) 
 he set out with a friend for Paris, whence, after staying a few days, they started with 
 the intention of visiting Spain, to see the works of the great masters of that country. 
 They set out to make the journey on foot ; but when the travellers were nearing the 
 Pyrenees Maclise was attacked with illness, and both were obliged to return home. 
 The indisposition soon passed away, and he was again at work preparing for the 
 following year's display at the Academy, where he exhibited several small portraits, 
 the most conspicuous being that of Lord Castlereagh; and one ideal composition, 
 "The Sleeping Page." In 1832 he also exhibited some portraits of small size, with 
 a picture of considerable dimensions — the most ambitious subject the artist had 
 hitherto attempted — "Puck disenchanting Bottom; Oberon and Titania reconciled; 
 Messrs. Peach-blossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustard-seed bringing Gifts." I chanced 
 to get a. glimpse, but scarcely more, of this picture in the rooms of Messrs. Christie 
 and Co., in 1 871, at the sale of some pictures belonging to Messrs. Agnew and Co., 
 of Manchester, when it was disposed of for ;^ 162; a sum that appeared to me far 
 below its value. 
 
 Maclise made a vast stride in popular favour — became, in fact, an artist of mark — 
 by the picture he exhibited at the Academy in 1833. Mr. O'Driscoll, in his 
 "Memoir," gives its history. In the autumn of the preceding year Maclise paid a 
 visit to his native city : it was the first time of his going there since he left it five 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 years before to seek his fortune In London. At the period of his visit, says his 
 biographer, " there lived in the village of Blarney (a very few miles from Cork) the 
 Rev. Matthew Horgan ; he was the parish priest, a genial old gentleman, famous for 
 his antiquarian research and his profound acquaintance with the literature of Ireland ; 
 
 * A man he was to all the country dear,' — 
 
 the arbiter to whom all disputes and differences that sprang up in the parish were 
 invariably referred ; in fact, he claimed to possess a kind of feudal jurisdiction over 
 his tractable parishioners, and 'he had his claim allowed.' It was the invariable 
 custom of the good old priest to invite a large party on ' All-Hallow Eve : ' it was 
 a social gathering, where persons of superior position in society were to be found 
 unaffectedly mingling with the poorest peasantry of the parish. Crofton Croker and 
 Maclise were invited to this entertainment ; and while the young artist, charmed with 
 the novelty of the scene, surrendered himself heart and soul to the enjoyments of the 
 night, and joined in the harmless hilarity that prevailed, he contrived to sketch every 
 group in the 'Barn.' " Such was the origin of Maclise' s "Snap- Apple Night, or 
 All-Hallow Eve, in Ireland," which, having been engraved, on a scale of com- 
 mensurate size, many years ago, has long become widely known. The picture was 
 the largest in oils the artist had ever undertaken ; and the originality of the subject, 
 combined with its interest, attracted every visitor to the gallery of the Academy. 
 Some lines of an old ballad were appended, as a kind of motto, to the title of the 
 
 subject : — 
 
 " There Peggy was dancing with Dan, 
 While Maureen the lead was melting, 
 To prove how her fortunes ran. 
 
 With cards that old Nancy dealt in. 
 
 " There was Kate and her sweetheart Will, 
 In nuts their true loves burning, 
 And poor Norah, though smiling still, 
 She'd miss'd the snap-apple turning." 
 
 Mr. O'DriscoU says the principal characters in the composition are portraits ; the 
 artist having introduced those of Sir Walter Scott, Crofton Croker, his own sisters, 
 Perceval Banks (who married Anne, his younger sister), and the old parish priest; 
 the last appearing in the background, " compelling two of his ' boys,' who had been 
 trying their shillelahs on each other's heads, to shake hands and be friends." 
 
 Two pictures Maclise exhibited at the British Institution early in the same year 
 (1833) were much admired : these were "A Love-Adventure of Francis I. with Diana 
 of Poictiers," and " Mokanna unveiling his Features to Zelica," taken from Moore's 
 " Lalla Rookh." 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 Though much occupied in painting portraits at this period of his career, he found 
 opportunity to execute another large picture of Irish character, " The Installation of 
 Captain Rock," exhibited at the Academy in 1834. It represents a scene in 
 " Tipperary Tales :" — " Amid the tears and lamentations of women, Delaney advanced 
 to a tomb on which the murdered man was laid ; and, placing his right hand upon the 
 body, swore to revenge his death. Ere his solemn vow was thrice repeated, a hunch- 
 back mendicant had elevated himself upon the shoulders of one of the heterogeneous 
 assemblage ; and, with the old military cap worn by the former leader of the faction, 
 crowned Delaney as ' Captain Rock,' muttering, ' Upon this Rock I will build my 
 church ; ' while the Buccough, unbuckling his wooden leg, flourished it with a deep 
 shout that for a moment stilled the groups which had collected within the ruins of the 
 abbey, and, to use the words of Cowper, were agitated like 
 
 ' The workings of a sea 
 Before a calm that rocks itself to rest.' " 
 
 Were this picture the work of a veteran artist it could not fail to add to his laurels ; 
 as the production of a painter who had scarcely reached his twenty-third year, it may 
 be considered a really marvellous production, for the power it shows as a composition 
 and the expression thrown into the characters. The "Installation" takes place at 
 midnight, among the ruins of an old abbey : in the foreground is the corpse of the 
 dead man lying on a tomb ; the body is bared from the waist upwards, and standing 
 by its side is the newly-elected chief, to whom a member of the brotherhood adminis- 
 ters the oath. "The felicitous arrangement of the several groups, the drinking-party, 
 the village orator, the excited crowd around the tomb, the stately ruins of the old 
 abbey, the skilful disposition of light and shade, the moonbeams struggling through 
 the groined arches and carved muUions, falling on the pallid features of the dead 
 man," are each and all points which form a combination most striking and dramatic. 
 The picture, Mr. O'Driscoll says, is in the possession of Mr. Hawker, of Birmingham. 
 
 It shows the versatility of Maclise's genius, and also the varied sources to which 
 he would turn for subject-matter, when we find such a contrast to the latter picture 
 in "The Chivalric Vow of the Ladies and the Peacock," exhibited at the Academy 
 in 1835. A gorgeous scene of early mediaeval times is this composition, rich in 
 design and gorgeous in colour. The subject is taken from the " Histoire de 
 Chevalerie:" — "Between the courses of the repast two damsels entered the hall, 
 advancing to the sound of solemn minstrelsy, and bearing the peacock roasted in its 
 feathers, in a golden dish, to each knight in succession, who made his vow, and sanc- 
 tioned his resolution by appealing to God and the Virgin Mary, the ladies and the 
 peacock. The dish was then placed on the table, and the lord of the festival deputed 
 some renowned knight to carve it in such a manner that each might partake." One 
 
 c 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 10 
 
 has only to know the exuberance of Maclise's imagination to form some appreciative 
 idea of the manner in which he would deal with a theme so suggestive of pictorial 
 splendour as this. At the close of the year he had reached the first step in honours by 
 being elected Associate of the Royal Academy, at the early age of twenty-five. 
 
 Looking through my catalogue of the Royal Academy exhibition of 1836, I find 
 marks of commendation against his two pictures then hanging in the Gallery : one, 
 "Macbeth and the Weird Sisters "*— the heath-scene in the drama— Mr. Macready 
 represented as Macbeth ; the other, f' An Interview between Charles I. and Oliver 
 Cromwell," illustrating one of the meetings which took place after the surrender of 
 the King, by the Scotch, to the English Commissioners. The persons represented 
 in this picture are Charles, the young Duke of York, and the Princess Elizabeth— the 
 only members of the Royal Family then left in England— Cromwell, Ireton, Fairfax, 
 and several officers. 
 
 In 1837 he sent seven pictures to the Academy, of which three were portraits; the 
 others were " A Lady at a Casement," " A Lady at her Embroidery "—probably both 
 portraits also— " The Conversazione," and "Bohemian Gipsies." This last I have 
 always considered Maclise's finest work, as a "gallery-picture:" grand in design, 
 masterly in grouping, rich and harmonious in colour ; a composition, in fact, reminding 
 me of Nicholas Poussin, so antique is the feeling (If such an expression is admissible) 
 it shows. I have had several opportunities of examining this noble picture since it was 
 first exhibited, and, while fully appreciating all that Maclise subsequently produced, I 
 should yet point to his " Bohemian Gipsies" as possessing qualities which no other 
 of his works can claim. At the sale, in i860, of the collection of the late Mr. Wells, 
 of Redleaf, this picture was bought in — by his executor. It was said — for the sum of 
 1,030 guineas. It afterwards got into the hands of Messrs. Agnew, of Manchester; 
 and, on the death of the eldest member of that firm, was sold, in 1871, for ;^420 only : 
 a striking instance of the fickleness of public taste, or judgment, in matters of Art. 
 
 " Salvator Rosa painting his Friend Masaniello " is one of five pictures hung in 
 the Academy in 1838 ; but I am unable to recall it to mind. Another was " Olivia 
 and Sophia fitting out Moses for the Fair," from the " Vicar of Wakefield :" — 
 
 " The next morning I perceived his sisters mighty busy in fitting out Moses for the fair ; 
 trimming his hair, brushing his buckles, and cocking his hat with pins. 
 
 " With a deal box before him, to bring home groceries in, he had on a coat made of that 
 cloth they call 'thunder and lightning,' which, grown too short, was much too good to be 
 thrown away. His waistcoat was gosling green, and his sisters had tied his hair with a broad 
 black ribband." 
 
 A clever picture, undoubtedly; but cold in colour, and rather "chalky." The 
 
 * This picture was in the recent exhibition of the Birmingham Society of Artists, when it was marked to 
 be sold at tlie price of 800 guineas. The owner's name was not given. — [Ed.J 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. ti 
 
 girls, too, are over-dressed ; yet the Vicar's two boys are admirably placed on the 
 canvas, while all the accessories are rendered perfectly : but the composition, as a 
 whole, seems to require bringing together and harmonising. A third picture, and by 
 far the most important of the year's productions, was " Merry Christmas in the 
 Baron's Hall," of which the following description appeared, under the title, in the 
 catalogue : — 
 
 " Descending the staircase, towards the centre of the picture, the ceremony of bringing in 
 the boar's head is represented after the best antiquarian authorities. * A fair and large boar's 
 head was served in upon a silver platter with minstrelsye, crowned with bays and sweet rose- 
 mary,' borne by a serving-man with green scarf, chosen for his height and lustiness ; preceded 
 by the master of the revels, or Lord of Misrule, chanting a carol in its praise, accompanied by 
 * two pages in tafatye sarcenets,' each with a ' mess of mustard, and followed by the woodman 
 with his boar-spear, the huntsman with his drawn sabre, choristers, musicians, &c.' In the 
 background, on the dais, are seated the baron, his kindred, and guests, watching the cere- 
 monial ; on the extreme left, by the hearth where the yule-log burns, an old woman tells, by 
 cards, the fortunes of a girl who stands near her ; part of the augury is just about to be fulfilled 
 beneath the mistletoe-bough, which was not only openly suspended from the centre of the 
 ceiling, but also lurked in concealed places by the hearth and over doorways. To the left, in 
 the foreground, is a group of damsels and pages, in holiday dresses, hunting the slipper. The 
 group on the right, in front, is chiefly composed of the Christmas mummers and masquers 
 regaling : one of the principal is Father Christmas, with his false beard, dressed in fur, and 
 crowned with holly ; he is mingling the wassail in a bowl ' garnished with ribbons ;' St. Distaff 
 attends him with the roasted pippins peculiar to this beverage. 
 
 " Perhaps the old play of St. George is about to be enacted, for that hero and the dragon 
 are seated together. There is also the Turk and other masquers for the game ; and there, too, 
 the hobby-horses, 'without whom it were not Christmasse.' All are regaling. On the 
 extreme right are various figures, among whom a conjurer and his associates are conspicuous." 
 
 In this representation of a "merry Christmas," as it was kept by our forefathers 
 some centuries ago, the artist has contrived to introduce about one hundred figures, 
 each of whom is a study of costume and character; and the several groups^ are studies 
 equally valuable for arrangement and general effect ; while the management of light 
 and shade is as skilful as it is forcible in its results. At the sale, in 1856, of the 
 collection of Mr. Birch, of Birmingham, the "Baron's Hall" was bought in at the 
 price of 1,000 guineas. 
 
 Following the course of Maclise's appearance in the galleries of the Royal 
 Academy, we find him exhibiting, in 1839, fo^'^ pictures, of which one wds a portrait. 
 A second was "A Scene from the Burletta oi Midas,'' of which an engraving is here 
 given. Such a singular combination of fact and fiction is to be found in this picture 
 as to render a rather lengthened description necessary to understand its meaning. 
 Had the figure with a guitar been habited as some modern strolling player or musi- 
 cian, the composition would have been perfectly intelligible ; but in his semi-classic 
 costume, however harmonious may be the music he produces from his instrument, he 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 himself is certainly not in harmony with his audience, nor with the place in which all 
 are assembled. 
 
 The author of the amusing but not most refined play, Midas, was K. O'Hara. It 
 was written and first performed in Dublin, more than a century ago ; was intro^ 
 duced at Covent Garden Theatre two or three years afterwards ; and, I think, was 
 produced at the Haymarket Theatre about sixteen or seventeen years since. The 
 characters who appear in the scene presented in the picture are Sileno, an old farmer, 
 in whose house they now are ; Mysis, his wife ; their two daughters ; and Apollo, in 
 the guise of a shepherd. The last, having offered some offence to Jupiter, is cast down 
 from Elysium, and descends on the farm belonging to Sileno. A shepherd, seeing him 
 fall, runs off alarmed, leaving behind him his coat, hat, and guitar, which the banished 
 culprit picks up, and appropriates to his own use. In this condition he is encountered 
 by the old farmer, who immediately enlists him into his service, and to divert his wife 
 and daughters with his instrument ; telling him — 
 
 " You can help to bring home harvest, 
 
 Tend the sheep, and feed the hogs ; 
 * * * % 
 
 Come, strike hands, you'll live in clover. 
 
 When we get you once at home ; 
 And, when daily labour's over, 
 
 We'll all dance to your strum-strum." 
 
 Apollo is accordingly brought to the farmer's house, and is introduced to his wife 
 and daughters : — 
 
 " Now, dame and girls, no more let's hear you grumble 
 At too hard toil : I chanced just now to stumble 
 On this stout drudge, and hired him, fit to labour." 
 
 The old lady regards the musician with anger and contempt, and rails at her husband 
 for what he has done : — 
 
 " Fine rubbish to bring home ! a strolling thummer, 
 What art thou good for ? speak, thou ragged mummer ! " 
 
 The girls, anticipating, no doubt, much amusement from his musical attainments, and 
 pleased with the stranger's good looks, " so modest, so genteel," offer him as kindly 
 a welcome as bright, smiling, and coquettish faces can present. Apollo, to soften the 
 wrath of Mysis, touches his guitar, and begins to sing a song, which, with the play- 
 going public of her time, is always identified with Madame Vestris, when she appeared 
 in the part of Apollo, one of her most successful characters : — 
 
 " Pray, goody, please to moderate the rancour of your tongue ; 
 Why flash those sparks of fury from your eyes ? " &c. 
 
GO 
 
 M 
 
 Q 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 13 
 
 The dramatis persona in the scene are well sustained throughout : the boldness and 
 assurance, not unmixed with vexation, of the young Apollo; the cynical contempt 
 expressed in the looks and gesture of the farmer's wife ; the remonstrating action of 
 her husband; and the arch coquetry of the buxom daughters, are all admirably 
 rendered. The work is painted with the utmost attention to detail and finish in all 
 its parts, and has less of the hard, dry manner visible in many of Maclise's paintings ; 
 the colouring, however, is more subdued than usual, yet sufficiently brilliant to pro- 
 duce richness of effect. It was purchased by the Queen from the Academy, and now 
 hangs at Osborne House. 
 
 But the picture which arrested most attention — it was, indeed, one of the great 
 features of the Academy's exhibition that year — was " Robin Hood," the simple title 
 given to it, though an elaborate composition containing a large number of figures. 
 The scene will be best described by the quotation that appeared in the catalogue : — 
 
 " Robin Hood and his merry men entertain Richard Cceiir de Lion in Sherwood Forest. 
 Robin is represented according to the old ballads — 
 
 •Yclad in Scarlette Redde, 
 His men in Ljmcohie Grrene,' 
 
 drinking a ' Healthe unto the K3mge,' whom as yet he does not know, — 
 
 * The Kynge himself drank to the Kjmge, 
 And round about it went.' 
 
 On the left is Littlejohn, who was seven feet high, bringing in ' two pr3mie fallowe bucke ;' 
 Will Scarlett is next to him, and Fryar Tuck. The minstrel AUan-a-Dale accompanieshim, 
 while George-a-Greene, Much, the miller's son, and others of the ' merrye men ' are reclining 
 around. Maid Marian sits in her bower close to the trysting-tree. Behind the King are two 
 of his Eastern attendants, as he is new from the Holy War." 
 
 As a composition bold and original in design, and vigorous in execution, this work 
 must occupy a high position : it shows prodigality of talent, but it lacks concentration 
 of effect. Each figure taken separately is admirable in itself, and where they are 
 seen in groups they come well together ; but, casting the eye over the whole canvas, 
 the entire composition is too much broken up into parts, and undue prominence is 
 given to what should be subordinate — a heap of gold and silver utensils. The artist 
 appears to have revelled in the individualities of his subject, and, engrossed by them, 
 forgot that unity which is essential to render a picture effective as a whole. It 
 was in the gallery of the late Lord Northwick. When his lordship's large and 
 varied collection was sold, in 1859, after his decease, "Robin Hood" was bought by 
 Mr. Eckford for the sum of 1,305 guineas. In 1867 it was sold in the rooms of 
 Messrs. Christie, Manson, and Woods for 480 guineas ; and two years later, in the 
 same rooms, for 360 guineas. 
 
 There is yet another work exhibited in 1839 that must not be passed over, " The 
 
14 - DANIEL MACLISE, R.A'. 
 
 Secoftd' Adventtfire of Gil Bias," or, as it is called in the/annexed engraving, ''Gil 
 Blas'at Pennafloi-." 'With some of our artists Le Sage's humorous -fiction; yields in 
 popularity only to Goldsmith's graver story of the '.'Vicar of Wakefield "^both of which 
 halve proved almost. inexh9,us'tible sources of subjectrmatter ; and one can scarcely feel 
 surprlseci that they should^ be so frequently applied, to, for Goldsmith's tale, abounds 
 with amusing and aSfecting incident, and-the histoiy of Gil Bias contains many faithful 
 portra!its of human nature. Few books have beeii so often quoted asthe latter, " as 
 affording happy illustrations of general manners, and of the common caprices and 
 infirmities' incident to man," 
 
 ^' The lesson taught in the riarrative- that, supplied Maclise - for-- this ~ picture is a 
 Warning' against flattery. - GiP Bias, on the first evening after his departure from 
 Oviedo" for "^Salamanca, reaches Pennaflor, and seeks a night's lodging at some 
 'hc^telry-: — - ■:■ ' ' '- t/ '-•-■■■ 
 
 .... ,'""*._■ 
 
 ' " When I afrive'd at the inn I called for suppier, and, it being a meagre day, was fain to put 
 
 up witia eggs ; which, while they got ready, I 'made up to my landlady, whom I had not seen 
 
 before ;^,she; appeared handsome enough,' arid withal so^ sprightly and gay, that I should have 
 
 concluded, even if .her husband had not. told me so, that her hpuse was pretty well frequented. 
 
 . When ftie omelet 1 had'.bespoke was ready, I sat down to table by mysejf ; and had not yet 
 
 swallovired the first morsel, when the landlord came in, followed by the man who had stopped 
 
 him' in the street. Thjis (Javalier, who wore a long sword,^ and seemed to be about thirty years 
 
 9f age, advanced toward^' me with an eager air, saying, 'Mr. Student, I am informed that you 
 
 are that Signer Gil Bias of Santillane, who is the link of philosophy, and ornament of Oviedo. 
 
 Is it possible that you 'are that mirror of learning, 'that sublime genius, whose reputation is so 
 
 great in this couii try ? You know not,' continued' he, addressing himself to the innkeeper and 
 
 his'wifei ' you know not what you possess ! You have a treasure in your house. Behold," in 
 
 this young gentleman,, the eighth wonder- of the world ! ' ' Then, turning to me, and throwing 
 
 his arms about my neck-j 'Forgive,' cried. he, ' my transports ! I cannot contain the joy that 
 
 your""pfese'nce' crfeates ! ' ^ ^ " . 
 
 '. -- " I could..nofr answer, for.feome tipie, because he locked me so close in his arms that I was 
 
 almost suffocated: for wanttjf -hreath ; and it was not till I had disengaged my head from his 
 
 embrace that I replied,- * Signer Cavalier, I did not think my name was known at Pennaflor.' 
 
 * How ! 'known,' resumec? he, iif' his "former strain; *we keep a' register of all the celebrated 
 names withift twenty leUgUes of us': you, in particular, are ^looked upon as a prodigy,' and I 
 don't at all doubt. that 'SpaiA will one Iday b.e as proud, of ypu as Greece was of her seven sons.' 
 
 * * * My admirer, appeared,to,nie .so much ,of a, gentleman, that I invited him to take a 
 share of niy supper. _'Ah! with all my soul,' cried he; 'I am too much obliged to my kind 
 stars for having thrown me in the way of the' illustrious Gil Bias not to enjoy my good fortune 
 as long as I can : T have iio grea:t appetite,' pursued' he, 'but will sit down to bear you com- 
 pany, and eat a mouthful, 'jpurely: put of complaisance.' . ; . 
 
 " So saying, my panegyrist 'took his place right over against me, and, a cover being laid 
 for him, attacked the omelet as voraciously as if he had fasted three whole days. By his 
 complaisant beginning. I foresaw that our dish would hot last long, and therefore ordered a 
 second ; which they dressed with such despatch that it was served just as we, or rather he, 
 had" made an end of the first.-- He proceeded on this" with the same' vigour, and found means, 
 
(=4 
 
 
 1=^ 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 15 
 
 without losing one stroke of his teeth, to overwhelm me with praises during the whole repast, 
 which made me very well pleased with my sweet self. He drank in proportion to his eating : 
 sometimes to my health, sometimes to that of my father and mother, whose happiness in 
 having such a son as me he could not enough admire. In the meantime, he plied me with 
 wine, and insisted upon my doing him justice, while I toasted health for health— a circumstance 
 which, together with his intoxicating flattery, put me into such good humour that, seeing our 
 second omelet half-devoured, I asked the landlord if he had no fish in the house. Signor 
 Corcuelo, who, in all likelihood, had a fellow-feeling with the parasite, replied, ' I have a 
 delicate trout, but those who eat it must pay for the sauce ; 'tis a bit too dainty for your 
 palate, I doubt.' 'What do you call too dainty?' said the sycophant, raising his voice; 
 •you're a nuisance, indeed! Know that there is nothing too good for Signor Gil Bias de 
 Santillane, who deserves to be entertained like a prince.' 
 
 " I was pleased at his laying hold of the landlord's last words, in which he prevented me, 
 who, finding myself offended, said, with an air of disdain, ' Produce this trout of yours. Gaffer 
 Corcuelo, and give yourself no trouble about the consequences.' This was what the innkeeper 
 wanted : he got it ready, and served it up in a trice. At sight of this new dish I could per- 
 ceive the parasite's eyes sparkle with joy ; and he renewed that complaisance, I mean for the 
 fish, which he had already shown for the eggs. At last, however, he was obliged to give over, 
 being crammed to the throat. Having, therefore, eaten and drank to the full, he thought 
 proper to conclude the farce by rising from the table, and accosting me in these words : — 
 ' Signor Gil Bias, I am too well satisfied with your good cheer to leave you without offering 
 an important advice, which you seem to have great occasion for : henceforth, beware of praise, 
 and be upon your guard against everybody you do not know. You may meet with other 
 people inclined to divert themselves with your credulity, and perhaps to push things still 
 farther; but don't be duped again, nor believe yourself (though they should swear it) the 
 eighth wonder of the world.' So saying, he laughed in my face, and stalked away." 
 
 It would be impossible fully to appreciate Maclise's most humorous picture without 
 a knowledge of the incident it illustrates. The story is told with admirable point : Gil 
 Bias, even to his very attitude, is the embodiment of a silly dupe, "beguiled with 
 enticing words;" the effrontery and easy bearing of the rogue who seasons each 
 mouthful he takes with honeyed phrases addressed to his victim, and who seals them 
 with an affectionate embrace at the sight of the dainty trout ; the assumed independent 
 look of the host, and the smiling face of his pretty wife, who is preparing to dress 
 the fish, for which she knows she will be paid; the spectators of the operation of 
 victimising, as they see what is going on through the open doorway— are respectively 
 examples of well-studied character. All the details of the picture are carried out 
 with minute exactness, while the light and shade are distributed in a way that brings 
 the whole composition into effective harmony. The painting is in the possession of 
 the Queen. 
 
 In the following year (1840) Maclise was elected to the full honours of the Royal 
 Academy^ when he exhibited in the gallery one of his finest works, " The Banquet 
 Scene in Macbeth." All who have seen the tragedy well put on the stage will under- 
 stand what material this especial incident of the drama affords to the artist for exciting 
 
1 6 .DA.NIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 and powerful representation ; and perhaps there has been no painter of our time so 
 competent to deal with it. The half-barbaric splendour of the banquet-room, with its 
 royal and noble occupants, even were there nothing to disturb the harmony of the 
 feast, would in itself constitute a very attractive picture ; but the peculiar circum- 
 stances that attend the gathering of the Scottish chieftains invest the scene with a 
 most powerful interest. Macbeth discovers the ghost of Banquo seated in the chair 
 he should fill ; and the self-convicted murderer, horror-stricken at the sight, 
 
 exclaims — 
 
 "Thou canst not say, I did it ; never shake 
 
 Thy gory locks at me." 
 
 Lady Macbeth, alarmed at her husband's speech, and knowing to what it refers, tries 
 vainly to quiet him, and addresses the guests, who have risen from their chairs in 
 surprise and consternation : — 
 
 " Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus. 
 And hath been from his youth ; pray you, keep seat ; 
 The fit is momentary : upon a thought 
 He will again be well ; if much you note him 
 You shall offend him, and extend his passion ; 
 Feed, and regard him not. — Are you a man ? " 
 
 The horror of Macbeth at beholding the apparition is depicted with amazing force ; 
 the muscles of the hands tell it no less than the features of the face. His wretched 
 wife, tenfold more of an assassin than himself, stands up, with at least an affectation 
 of bold assurance and innocence, to calm her guests, who number nearly seventy 
 persons, all distinctly made out, and with every variety of countenance, expression, 
 and attitude. The triumph of the picture, however, most spectators will consider to 
 be the figure of the blood-stained Banquo, which is indicated rather than actually 
 personified : the human form is there, darkly shadowed forth ; obscure, but terrible 
 from its ghastly indistinctness. The imagination had here full scope, and Art has 
 never conveyed more truthfully the realities of an appalling scene. The accessories, 
 too, have all been closely and authoritatively studied, from the jewelled crown of the 
 usurper to the goblet of red wine flung, in the agony of the moment, upon the floor. 
 This picture was painted expressly for the Earl of Chesterfield, who, on the application 
 of the Royal Commissioners for the International Exhibition of 1862, allowed it to be 
 sent to the gallery. Mr. O'DriscoU says it is now the property of Mr. Cozens, of 
 Clapham Park. A small replica of it is in the possession of Mr. T. Williams, Elm 
 Tree Road, St. John's Wood. 
 
 Another scene from "Gil Bias" was the subject of a second picture sent by 
 Maclise to the Academy in 1840: it was called "Gil Bias dresses en Cavalier.'' 
 Having arrived at Burgos, Gil Bias takes counsel with himself as to his future course 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 17 
 
 in life, and at length decides that he " will turn gentleman, and endeavour to make 
 his fortune in the world." Being in the possession of a hundred ducats presented to 
 him by Donna Mencia, a lady whom he had assisted to escape from the clutches of 
 a gang of robbers, he sends one of the waiters at the inn where he stayed for a broker, 
 or, in plain terms, a dealer in second-hand clothes. The man soon makes his appear- 
 ance, followed by two apprentices, each carrying a large green bag on his shoulders : — 
 
 " He saluted me with great civility, saying, 'Signor Cavalier, you are very happy in having 
 applied to me rather than to any other body. I don't choose to disparage my brethren ; God 
 forbid that I should prejudice their reputation in the least ! but, between you and me, there is 
 no conscience among them. They are all as unbounded as Jews : I am the only honest broker 
 in town. I confine myself to a moderate profit, being satisfied with a pound in the shilling — 
 I mean, a shilling in the pound. Thank Heaven ! I deal upon the square with all mankind.' 
 
 " The broker, after this preamble, which I took for gospel, ordered his men to untie the 
 bundles, and showed me suits of all colours. Some which were of plain cloth I rejected with 
 disdain, as being too mean ; but they made me try one that seemed to have been made exactly 
 for my shape, and which struck my fancy, although somewhat worn. It consisted of a doublet 
 with slashed sleeves, a pair of breeches, and a cloak, the whole of blue velvet embroidered 
 with gold. Fixing on this, I cheapened it, and the broker, perceiving I was bent upon it, 
 observed that I had an excellent taste. ' Odds bodkms ! ' cried he, ' one may see you know 
 what you're about. I can teU you that suit was made for one of the greatest lords in the 
 kingdom, who never had it three times on his back. Examine the velvet, nothing can be 
 finer ; and as for the embroidery, you must confess the work is exquisite.' " 
 
 The point of this picture is the selection of the dress, or rather the fitting it on the 
 person of Gil Bias : the contrast between the bedizened youth and the broker's appren- 
 tices, one of whom holds up a looking-glass to the former to enable him to judge of 
 his appearance in the suit of "blue velvet embroidered with gold," is capital. The 
 whole composition is thoroughly humorous, without the least exaggeration. 
 
 There is yet another picture of the same date (1840), of which an engraving is 
 introduced into this volume. The artist simply entitled it, "A Scene from Twelfth 
 Night:'' a somewhat similar subject has already been noticed as one of the very 
 earliest of Maclise's works. Here the scene, as in the other, lies in the garden of 
 Olivia, where she and her attendant, Maria, are waiting an interview with the lady's 
 steward, Malvolio : — 
 
 " Oliv. Where is Malvolio ? 
 
 Mar. He's coming, madam, 
 But in strange manner. He is sure possessed. 
 
 Oliv. Why, what's the matter P does he ravo J 
 
 Mar. No, madam. 
 He does nothing but smile ; your ladyship 
 Were best have guard about you, if he come ; 
 For, sure, the man is tainted in his wits. 
 
 D 
 
1 8 DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 Oliv. Go, call him hither. I'm as mad as he, 
 
 If sad and merry madness equal be. 
 Enter Malvolio. 
 
 How now, Malvolio ? 
 Mai. Sweet lady, ho, ho. [Smiles fantastically^ 
 Oliv. God comfort thee ! why dost thou smile so, 
 
 And kiss thy hand so oft ? " 
 
 Malvolio presents himself before his mistress in yellow stockings, cross-gartered — 
 " a colour she abhors, and a fashion she detests." The vanity and self-sufficiency 
 of the would-be suitor are unequivocally expressed in his ridiculous assumption of the 
 airs and manners of the gentleman — an art he has long studied. Nor are the relative 
 positions of the other characters, and the feeling by which each is respectively 
 animated, less forcibly rendered — the half-angry, half-amused countenance of the 
 lady; and the thorough enjoyment with which the maid contemplates a scene she has 
 been mainly instrumental in getting up. The plot is undoubtedly working to her 
 entire satisfaction : the deceit she has practised to induce Malvolio to play the 
 cavalier is intended to have a double result — in curing his vanity, and in producing 
 the more important denouement of the drama. 
 
 In the summer of 1840 Maclise made a second journey to Paris, accompanied by 
 his sisters. In a long letter addressed to his friend, Mr. John Forster, which appears 
 in Mr. O'DriscoU's book, he gives his views of Parisian society and sights in a very 
 characteristic manner :* — 
 
 "Put up at Hotel Montmorency, Boulevard des Italiens, in the merriest part, and had 
 petits appartements fraichement decores et Men meublis, of three rooms en suite, very much 
 bemirrored, and crowded with sofas, and slippery with waxed floors ; balconies looking over 
 the heads of thousands sipping their cafe and petit verre ; this au troisieme, and yet expensive 
 to me, fifteen francs a day ; however, we made the most of the situation, for we were, with 
 our elbows squared, at our windows whenever at home, and always amused by the throng 
 beneath and opposite. Two days I hired a carriage and showed them all distant places, such 
 as Bois de Boulogne, Longchamps, Champ de Mars, Invalides, and some of the outer 
 boulevards. Gobelins, P^re La Chaise, Jardin des Plantes ; but generally we omnibussed it, 
 and for a few sous each you can get any distance along and athwart the city. * * * I 
 sketched at the Louvre — not the pictures, but some of the artistes at work ; but one day an 
 
 * Mr. O'DriscoU has e%'idently committed an error in placing 1840 as the date of this communication. 
 Maclise refers in it to a letter given to him by Mr. Millais to convey to a friend in Paris ; but in that year 
 Mr. Millais, who was bom in 1829, could not have been more than eleven years of age; and could, therefore? 
 scarcely have been even known to Maclise. Again, Mdlle. Rosa Bonheur, whose picture in the Luxembourg 
 Gallery is spoken of, did not paint it till 1849 : in 1840 she was but eighteen years old, and had scarcely 
 made herself known in the Art-world. And yet, once more, Murillo's picture of the " Immaculate Conception," 
 which must be the one to which allusion is made, did not come into the possession of the French Government 
 till 1852. Yet, notwithstanding the chronological mistake made by Maclise's friend and biographer, I have fol- 
 lowed the order in which he has placed the letter, simply because I am unable to determine its true date. — [Ed.] 
 
M g 
 
 ^ 
 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 19 
 
 attendant, who had stood rather smiling at my performance, at length, but with great 
 courtesy, told me it was ' difendu d'itudier d'apres nature^ which fully accounts (though deeply 
 and sarcastically) for the state of Art-study here. There is a considerable forest of easels 
 around the * Murillo,' exaggerating its merits, which, to me, are of the insipid sort. I felt as 
 if I had seen it from my cradle ; with her little Spanish face and upturned eyes, and robe of 
 pink and blue, and a garland of Cupids on clouds below. These are freshly painted, as if ' fed 
 on roses.' * The classification now in the Long Gallery is admirable. You can limit yourself 
 and walk straight to the department you want; firom early Italian to the French time of 
 Jouvenet ; you have all the schools. With what real mortification one thinks of the dome of 
 Trafalgar Square and its petty possessions ! f There is a soul and a spirit ever evidenced by 
 the numberless students and copyists that conveys the idea that Art is alive and stirring, and 
 really liked by the people. It is the same at the Luxembourg ; a most admirable paysage by 
 Rosa Bonheur, a beautiful girl, that is the finest thing I ever saw — oxen ploughing in the 
 sunlight, over a great cloddy tract ; it is purchased for the collection. * * • What a hunt 
 for Scripture painting is here — ^works presented to the churches by the Ville de Paris — and what 
 admirable style of decoration adopted recently by a few ; St. Germain des Pr6s and St. Vincent 
 de Paul, beautiful and stately works by Flandrin in both, with the figures relieved, and the some- 
 what shady places compensated for by a gleaming gold ground. One day, as we went into the 
 coiirt of the Ecole des Beaux Arts, we met a group of all the members, who had been at a 
 council to judge of the students' works for the ' prix de Rome.' The porter showed me the 
 back of Paul de la Roche as he passed, a little behind the rest ; so that I saw, as it were, all 
 the artists without seeing one." 
 
 Of four pictures exhibited by Maclise in 1841, two were single figures of females, 
 each contrasting widely with the other: one, called "An Irish Girl," who is occupied 
 in "burning nuts" by a turf-fire — a famous charm in Ireland, by which young maidens 
 test the constancy of their lovers ; for accordingly as the nuts burn quietly together, 
 or start from beside one another, the course and issue of the courtship will be. The 
 other was a lady in the costume of a Hindoo, characterised by rich and powerful 
 colouring. But that which attracted most notice — and it was one of the magnets of 
 the exhibition — was " The Sleeping Beauty," a picture that would serve as a most 
 suitable companion to the artist's "Chivalrous Vow of the Peacock." The fairy 
 legend that suggested the subject appeared thus in the catalogue : — 
 
 " So the princess, having fallen into a deep sleep for a hundred years, was placed in the 
 finest apartment in the palace, on a bed embroidered with gold and silver, &c. 
 
 " So the good fairy touched with her wand all that was in the palace — maids of honour, 
 
 * The picture referred to is Murillo's famous " Immaculate Conception," which Marshal Soult acquired 
 when in command of the French army in Spain during the Peninsular War. He took it to Paris, and 
 after his death it was sold by auction to the French Government for the sum of ;^ 23,440, and placed in the 
 Louvre. — [Ed.] 
 
 t This is scarcely just to our National Gallery, which, in proportion to the number of its contents, contained, 
 even at the assumed date of Maclise's letter, more really fine pictures than the Louvre, or any other public col- 
 lection on the Continent. However deficient it may be in quantity, there is no lack of quality. This opinion 
 is, I know, that of many sound judges of Art who are fully acquainted with the great European Galleries. — [Ed. J 
 
20 DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 gentlemen-ushers, grooms of the bed-chamber, lords-in-waiting, waiting-women, governesses, 
 stewards, cooks, scullions, guards, porters, pages, and footmen, &c. 
 
 " Even little Bichon, the princess's favourite lap-dog, who lay on the bed by the side, all 
 fell fast asleep, &c. 
 
 " At the expiration of a hundred years, the prince arrives. 
 
 " He approached the castle by a long avenue : he crosjsed a large courtyard paved with 
 marble ; he ascended the staircase, entered the guard-room, where the guards were snoring 
 away most lustily ; he passed through several rows of ladies and gentlemen, some sitting, 
 some standing, but all asleep. 
 
 " At length he came to an apartment gilded all over with gold, and saw on a magnificent 
 bed, the curtains of which were open all round, a princess more beautiful than anything he 
 had ever beheld," &c. &c. 
 
 This picture, which, in a sense, may come under the denomination of "still life," 
 possesses in a high degree the qualities of invention, imagination, combined with 
 most effective arrangement, and greater delicacy of handling than we are accustomed 
 to see in paintings by this artist. And it is absolutely wonderful what a variety of 
 material he has introduced into the subject. From the "Beauty" sleeping on her 
 richly-embroidered couch, to the small goblet held in the hand of the unconscious 
 waiting-maid, every object is finished with the most consummate skill. The gorgeous 
 array of the chamber positively glitters ; it seems easy to count a thousand objects, 
 each one of which is so elaborately wrought as to suggest the idea that the artist had 
 made it his special work. The attitudes of the numerous sleepers are all perfectly 
 natural, yet presented in infinite variety. It is, indeed, a triumph to have achieved 
 a victory over obstacles that would have proved insurmountable in ordinary hands — 
 such obstacles exist in the fact that all the characters in the composition are motion- 
 less, except the Prince, who draws aside, the curtains to gaze on the face of the lady, 
 and the group of angels watching around her bed. It might be said, and with some 
 truth, that to show a multitude of figures in action is a far more difficult task than 
 when they are in a kind of death-like repose ; yet they scarcely appear so here, for 
 each one seems still occupied in the business of the hour when the wand of the fairy 
 touched him or her, and stopped for a time the pulse of life throughout the enchanted 
 palace. At the sale, in i860, of the collection of the late Mr. John Houldsworth, ot 
 Glasgow, " The Sleeping Beauty" was sold for _;^ 900. 
 
 The fourth picture exhibited by Maclise in 1841 was a scene from " The Vicar of 
 Wakefield," " Hunt the Slipper at Neighbour Flamborough's — Unexpected Visit of 
 the Fine Ladies :" — 
 
 " Michaelmas-eve happening on the next day, we were invited to burn nuts, and play 
 tricks, at neighbour Flamborough's, &c. 
 
 " Last of all, they sat down to hunt the slipper, &c. 
 
 " It was in this manner that my eldest daughter was hemmed in and thumped about, all 
 blowzed in spirits, and bawling for fair play with a voice that might deafen a ballad-singer. 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 21 
 
 when, confusion on confusion ! who should enter the room but our two great acquaintances 
 from town, Lady Blarney and Miss Caroline Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs, &c. 
 
 "Death ! to be seen by ladies of such high breeding in such vulgar attitudes ! " 
 
 A critic, writing of this picture at the time of its being exhibited, compared the 
 appearance of the flaunting city-ladies among the pure maidens of the village with 
 "Satan peering into Eden." Certainly, the painter has drawn a wonderful contrast 
 between town and country, each representative being to the life: it is a humorous, 
 capital work in every way, abounding with varied interest. 
 
 In 1842 Maclise exhibited "The Play Scene in Hamlet," undoubtedly the most 
 popular of his works, and the one with which the public is best acquainted, from its 
 presence in the National Gallery. In a letter to Mr. Forster, written, I presume, a 
 few days before he sent it to the Academy, he says : — 
 
 " You saw two men come in here as you went out ; one of them was a Mr. K , a 
 
 nouveau riche, who has lately begun to buzz about artists. He bought that large picture of 
 
 . Well, sir, can you believe it ? that man knew nothing of the play of 'Hamlet,' neither did 
 
 his pal. I felt myself a very spoon even in explaining to them the plot and meaning of the 
 pictvire ; and my soul feU into my slippers to think that man is the representative of a thousand 
 such. Oh ! were you to see the puzzled, unintelligent look he used now to throw on me, and 
 then on the picture, and then on his pal, who only looked at the tip of my nose. I swear to 
 you he never took his eyes off me, and, I believe, never saw the picture at all, * * * I 
 want to tell you that I have made Hamlet handsomer, and, I am sure, taken every vestige of 
 —ism out of him. I have painted on it ever since, so you may make your mind easy on that." 
 
 And on the evening of the day on which the pictures were sent in, he again writes 
 to his friend : — 
 
 "My troubles are over; my pictures have been carted to the annual show. Macready 
 called to-day, and reaUy seemed highly pleased. * * * He did not see the least shadow 
 
 of a shade of resemblance to the Hamlet remaining. The whole of this day I devoted to 
 
 entirely altering the character of the face, and I think I have succeeded in making it more up 
 to the idea than it was heretofore." 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to remind the readers of Shakspere that the picture 
 represents the piece of dumb show in the tragedy which Hamlet causes to be acted 
 before his mother and her husband, the prince's uncle, who robbed him of a father 
 and of the heritage of a crown. He has previously informed his friend Horatio — 
 
 " There is a play to-night before the King ; 
 One scene of it comes near the circumstance 
 Which I have told thee of my father's death. 
 I pray thee, when thou see'st that act on foot. 
 Even with the very .comment of thy soul 
 
2 2 DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 Observe my uncle; if his occulted guilt 
 Do not itself unkennel in one speech, 
 • ' It is EL damned ghost that we have seen, 
 And my imaginations are as foul 
 As Vulcan's smithy. Give him heedfiil note, 
 ¥.0T I mine eyes will rivet to his face." 
 
 The general conception of the picture, its grandeur of treatment, variety and truth- 
 fulness of character, appropriate value of what maybe called the "stage properties," 
 and its forcible delineation, render it worthy of the immortal poet. Look where we may, 
 every inch of the canvas presents a purpose ; nothing is the result of mere fancy, or 
 of the necessity of filling a space. The reflections which appear in the treatment of the 
 retiring figures are dealt with in a manner effective to a degree ; in short, the painter 
 has here illustrated" Shakapere in a style that the great dramatist himself must have 
 acknowledged with plaudits. j^There is no figure in the scene who, as well as ourselves, 
 is not a breathless spectator of the murder — 
 
 " Murder most foul, as in the best it is. 
 But this most foul, strange, and unnatural ; " 
 
 and we cannot separate ourselves from the corhmon/interest. But let us examine the 
 principal cha.racters as the painter has placed them on the canvas. 
 
 First, the Prince occupies the centre of^ the picture, and is placed, in accordance 
 with his own wishes, at the feet of Ophelia : lying with apparent listlessness- on the 
 floor, he watches with intense earnestness the impression made by the actors on his 
 uncle, whose remorse at the murder of his brother is most powerfully and expressively 
 rendered : again, his mind, as once before, is filled with — 
 
 "Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing." 
 
 In the countenance of Hamlet there is just the character one intinaately acquainted 
 with the poet's conception expects to find, — a mingling of horror, abhorrence, and 
 vengeance to be taken ; yet, still; a 
 
 " tettirtg'I dare not wait upon I would." 
 
 By the side of the King is seated the Queen, listening attentively to the actors, 
 marking the opening out of the mysterious drama, conscious of her own innQcence 
 as a particeps criminis, yet not altogether without' suspicion of some hidden meaning 
 she is unable to fathbm. Ophelia" is to the right of Hamlet, and is a very elegant 
 impersonation; — ^by the way, Maclise retouched and greatly improved this figure 
 since the picture became the property of the nation. Some critics object to Ophelia 
 
N 
 ^ 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 23 
 
 as she is here represented, for the very reason considered by others as its chief merit 
 — the expression of sympathy with Hamlet, rather than of love for him. Behind the 
 chair in which Ophelia sits stands Horatio, who, being in the secret of the murder, 
 from overhearing the colloquy of the Ghost with Hamlet, is also watching the effect 
 of the play upon the King. The old man on the right of the royal pair is Polonius, 
 the chamberlain ; a cleverly-conceived representation of an aged courtier, who seems 
 to have got almost into his dotage : all the rest of the figures in the foreground are 
 attendants of the court. The crowd of armed men thronging the sides of the composi- 
 tion and in the background gives a grand and solemn effect to the whole ; the 
 character of these figures, and the manner in which the lighting of the groups is 
 treated, are most masterly. Even in the scenic ornamentation there is an exuberance 
 of fancy — almost too redundant, it seems, for the proposed space. This fact, from 
 its being merely an accessory, escapes observation, unless closely examined ; we find, 
 however, in this, everything appropriate to the principal subject; on the left appear 
 " The Temptation," and " The Expulsion from Eden ; " on the right, '• Cain and Abel 
 offering Sacrifice," and *' The Death of Abel ; " all is the result of well-matured study. 
 But perhaps the finest portion of this grand picture, artistically considered, is the 
 "play" acted in the background; if this portion of the canvas were cut out of its 
 surroundings, and framed as a separate picture, it would be considered a gem of the 
 highest value, so delicately is it painted : the conception almost reaches the sublime. 
 How intrinsically poetical is the figure of the mimic murderer, seeking to shade his 
 face from the yet lingering light of day ; and the dim, gigantic form, his own outline 
 reflected from behind : quietly and stealthily he has crept to the couch of the sleeping 
 monarch, to "pour the lep'rous distilment in his ear." With such a vision before 
 him, well may the fratricidal Claudius rush from the apartment, and, conscience- 
 stricken, exclaim in his solitude — 
 
 " O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven ; 
 It hath the primal eldest curse upon't, 
 A brother's murder ! Pray can I not. 
 Though inclination be as sharp as will ; 
 My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent ; 
 And, like a man to double business bound, 
 I stand in pause where I shall first begin, 
 And both neglect." 
 
 Another of Maclise's pictures exhibited with the " Hamlet" was "The Return of 
 the Knight," a bold and spirited composition of two figures, fine in expression and 
 feeling — the knight and his lady. The former has just come back, probably from the 
 field of war, for he is yet in full panoply. His wife, who cannot wait the entrance of 
 
24 PANIEL MACUSE, R.A. 
 
 squire or page. to pet-form the diity^^eageriy assists him to doff his armour; but the 
 helmet is the. first- to beimbuckledi that she may give and receive the loving kiss. 
 The canvas is small, but the pictui-e is in every way most covetable,. 
 
 There was also a third work exhibited in 1842, '.' The Origin of the Harp." As 
 an Irishman, it would indeed have been , singular if Maclise had not sometimes found 
 subjects for liis pencil among the numerous Jegendsand fictions in which his native 
 cbuntry is rich: -In many of them i;here is so much of the poetical beauty and purity 
 of sentiment a true artist delights in, that they offer an attractive field for his labours. 
 Moore,' the great lyric poet of Ireland, made pleasant and profitable use of. these 
 stories; one of his songs suggested to Maclise .this picture. To render it intelligible 
 to those who do not know, or may not remember, the. "Irish Melody " bearing the 
 same -title as the. painting, the following stanzas will be acceptable by way of 
 e3q)lanation : — •• \; 
 
 ' " 'Tis believed that this Harp, which I wake now for thee, 
 ' "Was a siren of old who sung under the sea : 
 _, And -who often, at eve through, the bright billow roved. 
 To meet, on the, green shore, a youth whom she loved. 
 
 " But she loved him in vain, for he left her, to weep, 
 And in tears, all thei night, her gold xinglets to steep,. 
 ^ . Till heaven looked with pity on t^rue .love so warm, 
 A.hd changed to this soft Harp the sea-maiden's form. 
 
 " Still iier bosom rose fair — still her cheek smiled the same. 
 While her sea- beauties gracefully curled round her frame ; 
 And her hair, sheading tear-drops from all its bright rings, 
 '^ Felt over her whitfe arms to make the gold strings." 
 
 A more poetical illustration of a poetical idea was never embodied on canvas : the 
 siren stands at the ^entrance of a sea-cave, whose drooping stalactites, radiant with 
 colours glowing in the rays, of -the setting sun, -form a kind. of franiework around her: 
 behind is the deep blue sea, and above this the sky, of an azure still more intense, 
 except where the sun illumines it. The attitude of the nymph is exceedingly graceful ; 
 with her hand resting on a perpendicular fragnient of rock, and her long tresses falling 
 over the arm, she presents the ex,act form of .the ancient Irish harp; and one may 
 almost realise the music of the ocean as the water ripples through the ideal strings 
 into the cavern. The figure is decidedly^tatuesque'in charact-er, the limbs are well 
 rounded, and" the whole form is beautifully modelled. Her face is very agreeable, 
 though not strictly handsome';" and' the coronal of sea-flowers and pearls wreathed in 
 her dark hair adds, by its- picturesque- appearance, .to the poetical character of the 
 composition. ; ' f ^._ ;.. 
 
 One word about the ancient Irish.; harp. -; The' oldest in existence, or that which is 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE HARP= 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 25 
 
 assumed to be the oldest, is in the library of Trinity College, Dublin : it is supposed 
 to be the harp of Brean Boiromh, King of Ireland, who was slain in battle with the 
 Danes, in 1014, at Clontarf. His son Donagh, having murdered his brother Teize in 
 1023, was deposed by his nephew; he retired to Rome, carrying with him the crown, 
 the harp, and the regalia belonging to his father, which he presented to the Pope, to 
 obtain absolution. The pontiff, Adrian IV. — William Breakspear, the only Englishman 
 that ever ascended the Papal throne — urged this gift as one of the principal titles to 
 his claim to the kingdom, when he issued the bull transferring Ireland to Henry II. 
 These objects were kept in the Vatican till the then Pope sent the harp to Henry VIII., 
 and conferred upon him at the same time the title of " Defender of the Faith ;" the 
 crown, which was of pure gold, was retained at Rome. Henry presented the harp 
 to the Earl of Clanricarde, in whose family it remained till the beginning of the 
 eighteenth century, when it passed, by the gift of a lady of the De Burgh family, 
 into that of MacMahon, of Clenagh, in the county Clare. On the death of Mac- 
 Mahon, it came into the possession of Commissioner MacNamara, of Limerick ; and, 
 in 1782, it was presented to the Right Hon. William Conyngham, who deposited it 
 where it now remains. 
 
 Next in order of the pictures exhibited by Maclise was " The Actor's Reception of 
 the Author," a scene from his favourite work of fiction, " Gil Slas," and sent to the 
 Academy in 1843. 
 
 " Our page came, and said aloud to his mistress, ' Madam, a man in marvellous foul linen, 
 bedazzled all over, and who, so please you, looks very much like a poet, wants to speak 
 
 with you.' 
 
 " ' Show him up,' answered Arsenia. ' Do not stir, gentlemen ; it is but an author.' * * * 
 "He advanced into the room trembling and confused, and let his gloves and cloak fall, 
 which, having taken up, he approached my mistress, and presented to her a paper with more 
 respect than that of a counsellor when he delivers a petition to a judge, saying, ' Be so good, 
 madam, as to accept of this part, which I take the liberty to offer.' She received it in a cold 
 and disdainftil manner, without even deigning to answer his compliments." — Gt'l Bias, 
 chap. II. 
 
 This is a gorgeous and spirited rehearsal of one of those scenes that occurred after 
 Gil Bias had fallen among the players. The composition consists of numerous figures, 
 some sitting, others standing— for the reception takes place while the company is 
 at table. For finish, laborious and successful research, nice selection, and fit associa- 
 tion of objects, and, above all, for expression, character, and imaginative power, this 
 picture, in its class, can scarcely be equalled ; for the painter has showed himself lavish 
 of the wealth of a very rich imagination, and also of his powers to realise even the 
 least significant points of his conceptions. The "author" enters, bowing very low, 
 while the haughty and magnificent lady whom he addresses keeps her seat in 
 
26 DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 contemptuous silence; the attention of all present is fixed upon the speaker in a 
 manner at once to explain his visit and to confirm the unity of the whole design. 
 If there be a fault in this part of the picture, it is the evidence of power too much 
 indulged ; the expression is somewhat exaggerated, or, in other words, the contempt 
 of the players is too obvious — it is not kept within what may be termed decent 
 bounds. Maclise's works generally are, as it were, other words for luxuriant inven- 
 tion ; especially when, as in the present instance, they lead to the exhibition of ladies, 
 cavaliers, pages, and gay folk of all sorts, laughing, quaffing, coquetting, and making 
 merry. The colouring of the picture is less brilliant than is usual with him ; but it 
 does not seem that he intended it should possess any such quality. The work must 
 be estimated by its expression of character. 
 
 With the foregoing picture was exhibited "A Waterfall at St. Nigh ton's Keive, 
 near Tintagel, Cornwall :" it is engraved here under the title of " The Nymph of the 
 Waterfall," which seems more appropriate to the subject, though the landscape may 
 have been sketched In the spot indicated by the first title. Maclise had visited the 
 west of England with Mr. John Forster, and, I believe, Thackeray was of the party ; 
 this picture appears to have arisen out of that visit ; and it shows how a mind stored 
 with the rich associations of fiction, history, and chivalric romance is able successfully 
 to descend to the simplicity of nature when occasion requires. There is no greater 
 sign of true genius than this capacity for bringing down its own powers to the level 
 of ordinary matters; or, it may perhaps rather be said, that the conceptions of genius 
 elevate the common to the dignity of the lofty. The substance of the composition is 
 a girl, bare-footed, crossing a brook, with a pitcher of elegant form on her head ; she 
 picks her way carefully over the damp, moss-covered stones, followed by a dog whose 
 dripping coat suggests that he has had a plunge in the water. On the right is the 
 cascade, falling in broken torrents from masses of rock which appear to enclose the 
 water-bearer. Nothing can exceed the beauty of drawing and expression which 
 characterises this figure ; but unless it be a portrait thus romantically circumstanced, 
 the costume is by no means in keeping with the employment of the maiden, or with the 
 condition of life to which, apparently, she belongs. Her dress, arranged through- 
 out to a nicety, and the figure itself, seem to belong to a girl of condition — in this 
 case possibly rusticating for amusement. All the subordinate parts of the composition 
 — the rushing stream, the stones, the rocks, &c. — are excellent in drawing and colour. 
 Maclise gave this picture to his friend Charles Dickens : when the effects of the latter 
 were sold after his death, it was bought by Mr. Forster for 6io guineas. 
 
 Before proceeding to notice the works exhibited in the following year, 1844, by the 
 painter, it will vary my narrative to introduce, from Mr. O'DriscoU's " Memoir," a letter, 
 or at least a portion of one, from Maclise to Mr. Forster. After sending in his contribu- 
 tions to the Academy, he paid a short visit to Paris, from which city he thus writes : — 
 
_i MACLISE S. A. PlUX'f 
 
 F. BACON, SCULPS 
 
 THE NYMFH OF TEE WATEK.FAILJL. 
 
 LONDOB", VIRTUE & C? 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 27 
 
 " I breakfast and dine, and do all that I have to do, from home. I am out from nine in the 
 morning ; I am choke-fiall up to my eyes in pictures ; I never saw so much in all my life put 
 together ; it has taken me from ten in the morning till four in the afternoon, for three days 
 together, constantly walking, to see the miles of canvas in Versailles. I have gone into all 
 the churches hunting after dim old frescoes, and have found them rotting on dull and dank 
 walls, and in dingy domes. I have had a perfect surfeit of Art, and have once or twice sworn 
 to myself to give up all thoughts of it, and not commit the sin of adding one more picture to 
 the embarrassing number with which the world is laden. My belief is that we in London are 
 the smallest and most wretched set of snivellers that ever took pencil in hand ; and I feel that 
 I could not mention a single name with full confidence were I called upon to name one of our 
 artists in comparison with one of theirs.* Most of the painters are in the country ; nothing 
 more easy than to have access to them. De la Roche is in Rome ; H. Vemet is at his 
 chateau; Schifferf (szc) is out of town. I have seen Winterhalter in his studio, and Eugene 
 L'Ami, both in high fashion. * * * D. Roberts is here, and I have gone with him to 
 many of the sights. I have met with my very next-door neighbour in Russell Place — ^Ward.J 
 Herbert § has been here, and M. Jain and his wife. Bell, the sculptor, |j Townshend, &c.ir I 
 am about to start for Fontainebleau to-morrow ; it is forty miles, but, I hear, is well worth 
 the trouble. We went to the F6te of St. Cloud yesterday, and received splendid impressions 
 of French character in every variety there ; but I shall reserve all these things for your own 
 private boredom. In the Ecole des Beaux Arts is the work of Paul de la Roche.** I cannot 
 say a word —it is impossible for me even to convey to you my admiration of that splendid 
 work. I go to see it every day almost, and the guardian who shows it welcomes me, and 
 smiles at my enthusiastic admiration of it. I have given him so many fees for opening the 
 door that he positively refuses now to take any more." 
 
 One of the pictures Macllse exhibited in that year (1844) was "Scene from Comtis 
 — Sabrina the Nymph releases the Lady from the Enchanted Chair." To the title was 
 added the following quotation from the poem : — 
 
 " Brightest lady, look on me ; 
 Thus I sprinkle on thy breast 
 Drops, that from my fountain pure, 
 I have kept with precious care." 
 
 * This is a very strong assertion to have made, and it must surely have been written on the spur of the 
 moment, and without due thought. Maclise does not state what, in his view, constituted the superiority of 
 French over English art ; but he seems while in Paris to have forgotten that at this very time his Associates 
 in the Royal Academy were painters who have obtained some reputation even in that country whose artists he 
 so eulogises — such men as Callcott, Collins, Etty, Easdake, Leslie, Sir E. Landseer, D. Roberts, Stanfield, 
 Turner, Danby, Webster, Herbert, Creswick, Cope, Muhready, Sir F. Grant, and others. In their special 
 departments it would be difficult to name French contemporaneous painters who might justly be put in com- 
 parison with, at least, some of these. 
 
 t Amy Scheffer, presumably. 
 
 J E. M. Ward ; now a Royal Academician. 
 
 § J. R. Herbert ; now also a Royal Academician. 
 
 II John Bell ; still living. 
 
 ^ H. J. Townshend j an artist of good repute, who died several years ago. 
 
 •* The famous " Hemicycle." 
 
DANIEL MACIJSE. R.A. 
 
 I have no recollection of this picture, and must, therefore, borrow a description of it 
 from a contemporary critic, who wrote : — " This is an example of vast fecundity of 
 imagination, seconded by great power of hand : it is not, however, without its errors, 
 and what these are is instantly felt by the spectator. We cannot estimate such 
 subjects according to the qualities we demand in social scenes : had it been treated 
 in this feeling, it would have been a marked failure. The observer, therefore, would 
 exact something widely different, but without being able to describe his idea, and 
 without knowing how far painting could follow it out. This picture may, therefore, 
 be pronounced too ' sculpturesque,' and, perhaps, this may be termed an oversight of 
 the artist : it will also be called brilliant, but cold. There is sufficient ground for 
 such observations ; and it seems to have been the care of the artist that it should be 
 * sculpturesque.' A close attention to the colour will show that the painter reverses 
 the recipe for warm brilliancy; his principal figure is cold and bright, and the 
 extremities of his group are light warm tones. But we have not space to observe 
 at length on all the purposes of the work: the main object has been to make the 
 picture like a scene of enchantment, or rather disenchantment, and he has succeeded 
 by this very coldness : for had there been anything more of mortal warmth in it, the 
 fact must of necessity have been impaired or lost. The design was intended for 
 execution in fresco (it is one of the decorations of the Queen's summer house),* and 
 shows the nymph in the act of sprinkling on the lady the drops which are to undo the 
 charm. The background is the dark sky of night, and the entire scene is presided 
 over by the dew-distilling stars. The character of many of the heads is beautiful to 
 a degree. It is admirable in composition and grouping ; and all the accessories are 
 carefully studied. The chair is a model of ingenious design. In short, although not, 
 perhaps, the best work of Maclise, it is unquestionably one of high genius." 
 
 Another notable picture of the same year is "Undine," from De la Motte Fouque's 
 exquisite romance bearing the same title. The canvas is of rather small dimensions, 
 yet full of richly-diversified materials. The passage illustrated is that in which the 
 young knight Huldbrand of Kingstotten conducts his beautiful bride, who is mounted 
 on a gaily-caparisoned steed, through the forest, followed by the dreamy monk. Father 
 Heilmann, The Spirit of the waters, Kiihleborn, the uncle and guardian of Undine, 
 having assumed the human form, watches their progress to protect them from " the 
 mad-cap mimes of earth, and gnomes that haunt the woods." But the soul — which by 
 marriage was accorded to Undine — had separated her from the beings with whom she had 
 been associated by birth ; she repels the advances, and declines the further guardian- 
 
 * At Buckingham Palace ; where also are frescoes, from the same poem, by Sir C. L. Eastlake, Stanfield, 
 Uwins, LesUe, Sir W. Ross, Sir E. Landseer, and Etty, all of whom received commissions from the Queen for 
 these decorations. 
 
M 
 
 ^ 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 29 
 
 ship, of her uncle. In expressing his wrath he terrifies the lady, who shrieks and calls her 
 husband to her aid. The knight springs to her side, draws his sword, and strikes at the 
 head of Kiihleborn. The sword flashes merely through a torrent, which, foaming from 
 the hill-side, splashes among the group, while a voice is heard to exclaim : — " Brave 
 knight, continue always to defend your beautiful little wife with the same courage." 
 
 The composition is entirely in the spirit of German poetry, and is treated in the 
 spirit of German Art. The two principal figures and the horse are surrounded by 
 a kind of framework — Lilliputian beings, entangled among the ferns and wood-plants, 
 in an infinity of attitudes, but all their faces indicative of fear or surprise at the 
 intrusion on their solitude ; while Kiihleborn, like an arch-fiend, casts the dark shadow 
 of his presence over the strange fantastic scene, in hideous contrast to the singular 
 beauty, both of nature and of the human and animal form, that prevails all around. 
 There is some wonderful painting in all the details of the picture, which everywhere 
 shows the most ingenious fancy and great inventive power. 
 
 In 1 845 Maclise exhibited no pictures : he had employed much of his time during 
 the early part of that year and the latter part of the preceding in preparing a series 
 of designs illustrative of Moore's " Irish Melodies." They were published by Messrs. 
 Longman and Co., in a volume of more than two hundred pages, each of which 
 contains the letterpress engraved on the same plate as the design. To attempt even 
 a brief description of these very beautiful compositions would occupy more space than 
 could be given to them here, to do them even scant justice ; and to write of them fully 
 would almost necessitate a separate essay for each, so full of suggestion are all. In 
 one of a few paragraphs with which Moore prefaces the volume, he says : — "I deem 
 it most fortunate for this new edition that the rich imaginative powers of Mr. Maclise 
 have been employed in Its adornment; and that, to complete its national character, 
 an Irish pencil has lent its aid to an Irish pen in rendering due homage and honour to 
 our country's ancient harp," The poet and the artist must have an equal share in the 
 merits which belong to their combined genius; for the "Melodies" would, in all 
 probability, have remained unwedded to Art, but for Maclise ; and the latter would 
 never have added so bright a leaf to his chaplet, if the strains of the poet had not 
 called it into existence. Examine whatever page you may throughout the book, 
 the verse of the bard, be it inspiriting, as in " The Song of the Battle Eve," or 
 melancholy, as in «' The Legacy," is alike intense : to his touch his native harp has 
 yielded its most moving sweetness; and faithfully, as by a shadow, is he followed 
 unfalteringly by the painter, who summons forth, and disposes at his will, spirits that 
 would have obeyed no other call. The famous " Lied der Nibelungen," of Germany, 
 has been admirably illustrated ; but, beautiful and even various as are these composi- 
 tions, they fall far short of Maclise' s designs in accuracy of drawing, in power, in 
 knowledge of costume, and in exquisite feeling. 
 
30 DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 The proposal to decorate the new Houses of Parliament opened up a new field of 
 operation for the pencil of Maclise ; yet while in its results it added greatly to the 
 reputation of the painter, it was the source of much disappointment : but more of 
 this in its place. When the Royal Commissioners invited the artists of Great Britain 
 to a kind of competitive exhibition of fresco-paintings in Westminster Hall, in 1844, 
 Maclise contributed one entitled "The Knight," which might more appropriately 
 have been called " Arming the Knight." It shows a figure standing erect in a suit of 
 panoply, with the armourer by his side closing up the rivets : it may be assumed from 
 the melancholy countenance of the fair lady near him, that he is going to the battle- 
 field ; she holds an embroidered scarf with which, doubtless, she will invest him, as a 
 parting gift of love. The arrangement of the composition is good ; and, although 
 it seems somewhat overcharged with objects, everything keeps its proper place, and 
 all are nicely balanced. As usual, the utmost care is everywhere apparent. 
 
 The success of this work resulted in a commission being given to the artist to 
 prepare a cartoon of a subject, " The Spirit of Chivalry," which formed one of the 
 numerous drawings of a similar character exhibited in Westminster Hall, in 1845. 
 Two years afterwards he painted it on the walls of the House of Lords. The principal 
 figure, personifying " The Spirit of Chivalry," is a female clothed in white, imme- 
 diately surrounded by other figures — military, civil, and religious — who have attained 
 the highest honours she has to bestow. She is elevated on an altar-like pedestal, 
 holding in her hand a wreath of laurel ; on her right, as if waiting her behests, stands 
 a warrior, fully encased in armour, and having " his visored bascinet decorated with a 
 coronet." A dignitary of the Church, wearing the mitre of an archbishop, represents 
 Religion ; he lays his hand on the altar, as if in the act of consecration. The figure of 
 a statesman is the representative of Civil Government. Below these are other figures, 
 among whom is seen a young aspirant devoted to chivalrous services, in a kneeling 
 posture, and attended by his page. Around and near him are seen the Painter, 
 Sculptor, and Man of Science ; the Troubadour, the Palmer from the Holy Land, the 
 Bard, the Poet, the Historian, &c. In all these there is ample room for the display of 
 character; and the artist has made the most of it. In composition, drawing, and 
 expression, the work merits the highest praise ; and the refined intellect which lights 
 up each countenance, from the most prominent to that which may be considered as the 
 least so, is perfectly captivating. The subject is one peculiarly suited to the genius 
 of Maclise; and it may be doubted whether any artist of our own day, whatever 
 school or country might claim him as its own, could so appropriately and powerfully 
 have illustrated the " Spirit of Chivalry." 
 
 The only picture Maclise exhibited at the Academy in 1846 was "Ordeal by 
 Touch," suggested by a passage in Sir Walter Scott's " Fair Maid of Perth :" — " The 
 belief that the corpse of a murdered person would bleed on the touch, or at the 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 31 
 
 approach of the murderer, was universal among the northern nations." The painter 
 has, however, departed from a literal fulfilment of the text description, to represent 
 the emotions excited at the proof of guilt shown by the flow of blood from the 
 corpse. The trial was called that of bier-right, and was proposed to be demanded 
 by the town-clerk for the discovery of the murderer of Oliver Proudfute, the bonnet- 
 maker. " Let us demand," says the clerk, " from our Sovereign Lord King Robert — 
 who, when the wicked do not interfere to prevent his good intentions, is as just and 
 clement a prince as our annals can show in their long line — in the name of the Fair 
 City and all the commons in Scotland, that he give us, after the fashion of our 
 ancestors, the means of appealing to Heaven for light on this dark murder. We will 
 demand the proof by bier-right, often granted in the days of our Sovereign's ancestors ; 
 approved of by bulls and decretals ; and administered by the great Emperor Charle- 
 magne, in France ; by King Arthur, in Britain ; and by Gregory the Great and the 
 mighty Achaius, in this our land of Scotland." In the picture the murderer does 
 not touch the body, but confesses his guilt from what happens to it. The scene 
 may be supposed to lie within the High Church of St. John, in Perth. The body of 
 the murdered man is enveloped, except the head and shoulders, in a white sheet, 
 which would at once show any stain of blood. The officiating priest, a mitred abbot 
 or bishop, is on the right, and near and behind him stands a crowd of persons all 
 variously interested in the ceremony. On the immediate left, and near the body, are 
 the widow and family of the murdered man. Also on the left are seated the judges ; 
 and knights are standing near encased in full suits of armour. All eyes are turned 
 to two points — to the corpse, and to the man who would touch the body if he dared ; 
 but his approach has already caused a stream of blood to trickle from under the 
 cloth. His head is turned away from the terrible scene and from the spectators ; and 
 although he seems to nerve himself up for the "ordeal," even to a pitch of agony, 
 he is fixed to the spot ; for the condemnatory evidence of guilt is already declared, 
 even by the murderer's proximity. The muscles of his frame become knotted in a 
 vain effort to maintain self-possession : he is wrung to his heart's core, and turns 
 away horror-stricken when he sees the blood of his victim issuing forth to call down 
 vengeance upon his guilty head. The only moving figure is the widow, who points 
 fiercely to the fearful evidence, and denounces the assassin, to whom the attention 
 of the majority of those present is mainly directed : this concentration of interest is, 
 perhaps, the crowning excellence of the picture. The intense, breathless, soul- 
 searching gaze of those men in armour, of those judicial figures, were "ordeal" 
 enough for a heart of iron and a head of the most subtle mettle that ever mingled 
 in the composition of humanity. It must be admitted, as what seems to tell against 
 the effectiveness of the composition, that the figures jostle against each other, and 
 assume some improprieties of place. This is accounted for by the love of the 
 
32 DANIEL MACLISE, R.A.. 
 
 painter for reflected lights, in the management of which he is excelled by no modern 
 European artist ; but it is at the cost to which allusion is made that they thus appear. 
 The picture, which may certainly be classed among the greatest works of our school, 
 is full of curious reminiscences : the heads of the judges refer the spectator to 
 Holbein and other German masters of the period, while other portions advert to the 
 modern school of the same country. The armour of the knights is of a later period 
 than that of "ordeal by touch;" while the cpstume of the murderer is Gaulish or 
 Saxon ; had it been otherwise, it is probable his agonised expression would have 
 been nearly lost. 
 
 In 1847 Maclise contributed three pictures to the exhibition of the Royal Academy ; 
 two of them were painted from the designs made for the edition of Moore's " Irish 
 Melodies," of which I have already spoken. One illustrates the verse : — 
 
 " Her smile, when Beauty granted, 
 I hung with gaze enchanted ; 
 
 Like him the sprite 
 
 Whom maids by night 
 Oft meet in glen that's haunted." 
 
 In this composition the "sprite" takes precedence, in importance, of all in his 
 company. He is a courtly little gentleman, wears a three-cornered hat, and is 
 perched upon a stone, from which elevated position he gracefully salutes two maidens, 
 and in a manner indicating that he has a heart for each. The wonder of the simple 
 girls is charmingly represented, for they bend over the manikin with eyes astonishingly 
 wide-open. It is a whimsical reading of the verse, yet one in perfect consonance with 
 its spirit, which is suited to anything but grave subjects. The finish of the picture 
 is really exquisite : the red quilted petticoat of the near figure was never surpassed 
 by Gerard Dow or Mieris ; and the floral accessories— the foxglove, thistle, and bella- 
 donna — are equally delicate in touch : in colour the whole work is unsurpassingly 
 rich. The other subject is taken from the song : — 
 
 " Come, rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer ; 
 Though the herd has fled from thee, thy home is still here," &c. 
 
 There is nothing in these lines to prescribe any particular treatment: the figures 
 appear in what may be called mediaeval costume ; and in their relative dispositions 
 the sentiment of the poetry is exquisitely maintained. The lady professes to love— 
 
 " Through joy and through torment, through glory and shame," 
 
 and to this point the artist has most successfully worked up. In this, as in its 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 33 
 
 companion-picture, the draperies, &c., are painted with marvellous success. In 1857 
 it was sold, at the dispersion of the stock of Messrs. Lloyd, for the sum of 70 guineas. 
 Both canvases are small. 
 
 The third, and by far the most important work of the year, is entitled " Noah's 
 Sacrifice — the Ark resteth on Ararat — the Bow is behind the Cloud." This is a 
 large picture, painted much after the manner of a fresco; and, therefore, found but 
 comparatively little favour with the public, surrounded, as it was in the room, by 
 canvases glowing with brilliant colours : no work, whatever may be its merits as 
 a composition and its general treatment, as well as in feeling and other Art- 
 qualities, will stand such a test in the estimation of the uninitiated and the ignorant. 
 All the command of light and shadow peculiar to oil-painting, and all the resources 
 of colour are, to an extent, laid aside, or made subservient to the spirit of the theme 
 itself. The principle of execution is that which exercises an influence more or less 
 dominant in the continental schools, and shows to a certain point an acquiescence 
 with the severity and abnegation of some of the modern German painters. Yet it 
 is a grand work, both in design and style of execution : it carries out literally the 
 description of the event as given in the Book of Genesis. Noah is the principal 
 figure ; he stands looking upward, and resting his hand on the rude pile of stones 
 raised as an altar ; around him are the various members of his family ; and behind 
 them all is seen the ark on the summit of Ararat, with the animals, in pairs, issuing 
 forth from it, and descending the mountain. The upper field of the composition 
 is spanned by the bow in the clouds, the size of which, and its predominant colours, 
 tend in no slight degree to destroy the general harmony of the picture ; and yet it 
 would scarcely have been possible to treat this accessory, if it may so be called, less 
 prominently, without departing from the literal interpretation of the Mosaic writings. 
 "Noah's Sacrifice" has been made widely known from Simmons's engraving of the 
 subject. In 1861 it was in the possession of Mr. Gambart, and was then sold, with the 
 remainder of his collection, realising only the ridiculously low sum of 205 guineas. 
 It was said that the person who originally purchased it from the painter paid 600 
 guineas for it ; not a guinea too much, if Art is to be valued according to the genius 
 and labour bestowed upon the work. 
 
 The principal picture contributed by Maclise to the Academy exhibition of 1 848 
 was " Chivalry of the Time of Henry VIII.— a Knight being armed by his Esquires 
 for the Combat, bearing the two-edged Sword of the Period," a work of the utmost 
 vigour and power. It shows the knight almost fully equipped ; he stands erect, 
 leaning on the formidable weapon described in the text, while an attendant stoops as 
 if to fasten some portion of the lower equipment. On the left side ^f this figure is a 
 lady, who appears to be lamenting the departure of her liege lord ; an event that 
 is evidently near at hand, as we see in the background the castle- court, wherein a 
 
 F 
 
34 DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 number of warriors are assembled ready to take the field. Though carrying the 
 spectator's imagination to scenes of bloody warfare, the incident of the picture 
 partakes in a great measure of the domestic character. Plate-armour has rarely, if 
 ever, been painted so truthfully and exquisitely as by Maclise ; we see this in every 
 picture where such accoutrements of war are introduced ; and in the panoply of this 
 knight the artist has been most successful. The helmet is plain, without a panache, 
 or plume, resembling one in the Meyrick collection ; the breast-plate is ornamented 
 in the raised manner that preceded engraved and embossed plates ; and a marked 
 feature of the time is a broad solleret, or pointed shoe, which protects the foot. The 
 armour is crossed by drapery, a cyclas, or broad scarf; but this, as also the mail 
 visible under it, is a chronological error, both being out of use before the time of 
 Henry VIII. The picture exhibits all the display of exuberant fancy, and all the 
 prodigality of accessories which characterise the compositions of this artist ; and, if 
 it be not an example of that chivalrous life that was " but one long lay of ladye- 
 love," it represents the departure of a man apparently earnest in the work in which 
 he is about to engage ; " for every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and 
 garments rolled in blood." 
 
 As bearing on this picture and on the "Noah's Sacrifice," I may quote here the 
 remarks made by a writer in 1848, in discussing the question of fresco-painting. He 
 says : — " Maclise is the only one of our painters of established reputation who could, 
 without working under great disadvantage, immediately transfer his attention from oil 
 to fresco-painting ; and this from the fact that his style of execution has of late years 
 been strictly ^. fresco style, if we may be allowed the expression. His present manner 
 of colouring is calculated to give much more satisfaction in a work in fresco than in 
 an oil-picture ; for in the former we do not look for nor expect that richness and 
 brilliancy of colour, or transparency and depth of light and shade, with which we are 
 now quite familiarised in oil-pictures, and which, indeed, are the peculiar excellencies 
 of our school. It is remarkable, however, that Maclise, even in his oil-pictures, has 
 studiously discarded these peculiarly characteristic capabilities of the Art. But it is 
 only lately that he has exhibited a decided disregard for them — a disregard sufficiently 
 evidenced in the picture of ' Noah's Sacrifice,' exhibited in 1847; and in that of the 
 * Knight,' in this year's Exhibition. The former work, indeed, displayed scarcely a 
 single pictorial quality beyond that of the representation of form. These peculiarities, 
 however, do not prove Maclise's capacity to excel as a fresco-painter; they are 
 simply defects which will interfere little, if at all, with his other qualifications for this 
 branch of pictorial Art. He has to a high degree that definite and ready perception 
 of form and character which is the especial requisite of fresco-painting ; and with a 
 somewhat greater attention to colour, he cannot fail to become a great fresco- painter 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 35 
 
 and a capo-maestro of our school.* That he is quite capable of a more truthful and 
 generous style of colouring is sufficiently evident in many of his earlier works, to go 
 no further back than his ' Hamlet,' now in the Vernon Gallery ; and we recollect a 
 picture called ' Snap-apple Night,' which left nothing to be desired either in colour 
 or in chiarosairo. Of late years, however, Maclise seems to have taken as much pains 
 to shake off these excellencies as it must have given Sir Joshua Reynolds trouble to 
 introduce them during the fifty years it ultimately cost him to identify them with the 
 English School." 
 
 There is another picture of that same year, 1848, which must not be passed over: 
 this is the portrait of his friend, Mr. John Forster, in the character of Kitely, in Ben 
 Jonson's drama, Every Man in his Humour : — 
 
 " Dame Kitely. Sweetheart, will you come in to breakfast ? 
 Kitely. Troth my head aches extremely of a sudden." 
 
 It is a small canvas, whereon the presumed Kitely appears seated, looking downwards, 
 and in the expression of his countenance doing full justice to his aching head. The 
 figure is dressed in blue, and is most solidly and substantially painted. On his right 
 is the dame, in a reflected light, with features of much beauty. On the whole, it is a 
 very remarkable picture, eminently distinguished by powerful and decided execution. 
 
 There is yet another work, or rather a series of works, exhibited in 1848, deserving 
 of notice : — eight drawings in pencil, illustrating Shakspere's " Seven Ages," 
 charming compositions, full of genuine poetic feeling, and exquisitely drawn. They 
 were originally intended to ornament the border and centre of a plateau of porcelain ; 
 and, according to Mr. O'DriscoU, were made at the earnest request of some eminent 
 persons interested in the development of the Art- manufactures of the country. For 
 some unexplained reason, the object was not carried out, and the Council of the Art 
 Union of London purchased them for ^160, placed them in the hands of E. Goodall 
 for engraving, and distributed the prints as a book among the subscribers to the 
 Society. This was done, as reported at the time, without the sanction of the artist, 
 who felt annoyed at his works being forced out of the course for which they were 
 originally intended, and were more especially fitted than for outline-engravings. 
 
 Severe indisposition was one cause of Maclise's absence from the Academy in 1849. 
 In a letter to Mr. Forster about this time, though Mr. O'DriscoU, in whose book it 
 appears, appends no date to it, the artist says, — " I am really and truly unwell ; it may 
 be hypochondria, a return of my old ailment, but I am prohibited dining out. I did 
 not tell you what I told him " (Mr. C. Dickens), " that I fell down at the door of my 
 painting-room, and have had the most unquiet nights from palpitating fevers, and I am 
 
 • Abundant evidence has been given of this in the works he subsequently executed in this manner. — [Ed.] 
 
36 DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 lowered to nothing. I look like the ' Banished Lord ' by Sir Joshua, or Macready as 
 Werner, from not having shaved during a fortnight. Here I am." The allusion is 
 to a portrait of himself, as he is supposed to look, a rough but masterly sketch, appa- 
 rently done with Indian ink, grotesque and humorous. " But I'm better now," he 
 adds. In another letter to the same friend, almost immediately following the former 
 in Mr. O'DriscoU's " Memoir," he has introduced another caricature-portrait of himself 
 at work at his easel; his nose is bandaged up with a poultice; and he says, — " My 
 whole nose is one red, fiery mass, arising from a fluid boil that has engendered on the 
 very tip : I have had it a week, &c., &c. Fancy painting inspired pictures with your 
 nose in a bag." 
 
 There was, however, another and very dissimilar reason for Maclise's non- 
 appearance in the Academy in 1849; he was busily engaged on his "Spirit of 
 Justice," a companion-fresco to his *' Spirit of Chivalry," for the House of Lords : 
 he had received a commission for the latter work soon after the completion of the 
 former. " When we stand before his * Spirit of Chivalry,' " remarks an anonymous 
 writer of the date of the two works, " we feel that we mingle in a throng where every 
 hand is ready for achievement — that we tread a ground whereon lies a gauntlet, and 
 that the challenge is to all comers. But the ' Spirit of Justice ' is subtle in its argu- 
 ments and more mature in its style — it is a didactic allegory, in which we read of the 
 darker passions of the soul, and the most exalted attributes of which it can conceive ; 
 and to this result we are made to ascend from much that is human to much that is 
 divine. The paraphrase shows the Spirit of Justice supported by the Angel of Retri- 
 bution on her left, and on her right by the Angel of Mercy — three figures at once 
 determinable by the usual symbols. Below the Angel of Justice is a man accused of 
 murder, in evidence of which his captor shows a knife yet reeking with the blood of 
 his victim. On the opposite side are the widow and children of the murdered man, 
 together with an executioner and officials. Besides these are two remarkable figures 
 on the right ; one a negro slave, and anotlier who pleads for his liberation ; a tribute of 
 honour to the sustained exertions of this country to effect the suppression of the slave 
 trade. The Spirit of Justice holds the scales, and the two angels are respectively 
 distinguished by symbols. These figures all wear white robes, and although there is 
 no more shade in the work than is necessary to give sufficient force to the composition, 
 the light in the apartment is so low that a very small portion of this beautiful fresco 
 is discoverable. The feeling, however, and the harmonious play of line which pervade 
 it, are obvious, and every passage that can be distinctly seen is abundantly eloquent. 
 The artist succeeds admirably as an exponent of the pure source of Justice, and the 
 narrative would not have told so effectively in any other form than in that of mixed 
 allegory. Justice and her primary ministers, the two angels, being associated with 
 earthly beings, the story comes more immediately home to the spectator than if the 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 37 
 
 whole of the impersonations were ideal. With respect to colour, it appears that the 
 artist has departed from a drawing in black and white only enough to constitute a 
 coloured work ; and the mechanical execution is equal to that of the most vaunted 
 professors of fresco-painting." 
 
 To the exhibition of the Academy in 1850 Maclise contributed a replica, in oils, of 
 this noble fresco, when the following description was appended to its title by the 
 artist: " The figure of Justice occupies the centre of the design, and on either side 
 are the angels of Mercy and Retribution. Immediately in front of the angels, on a 
 level with the tribunal, are seated the Judges, lay and ecclesiastical. At the base, on 
 the side of the Angel of Retribution, stand the guilty one, and the accuser who 
 displays the evidence against him. Beneath the angel of Mercy are the widows and 
 orphans, protected by their armed champion. In the front a negro kneels, newly 
 liberated from bonds ; and a free citizen, also bending before Justice, unrolls the 
 charter of liberty." This does not materially differ from the reading of the com- 
 position, just quoted. 
 
 Of a character widely distinct from this is the picture he exhibited at the same 
 time, "The Gross of Green Spectacles," from "The Vicar of Wakefield:" — 
 
 " ' Here they are ; a gross of green spectacles, with silver rims and shagreen cases.' — ' A 
 gross of green spectacles ! ' repeated my wife, in a faint voice, ' and you have parted with the 
 colt, and brought us back nothing but a gross of green paltry spectacles.' — ' Dear mother,' 
 cried the boy, ' why won't you listen to reason ? I had them a dead bargain, or I should not 
 have bought them. The silver rims alone will sell for double the money.' — ' A fig for the 
 silver rims ! ' cried my wife, in a passion ; ' I dare say they won't sell for above half the money 
 at the rate of broken silver, five shillings an ounce.' — ' You need be under no uneasiness,' 
 cried I, ' about selling the rims, for they are not worth sixpence, for I perceive they are only 
 copper washed over.' — ' What,' cried my wife, ' not silver ! the rims not silver ! ' — ' No,' cried 
 I, ' no more silver than your saucepan.' " 
 
 The consternation which Moses has created in the family of the good vicar by his 
 unfortunate bartering of the colt for a portion of some hawker's stock-in-trade is 
 inimitably rendered in this picture. The vicar deplores the bargain, but with the 
 resignation of a Christian ; the sisters regard the erring boy with reproachful looks ; 
 but Mrs. Primrose's wrath is not to be appeased. The appeal of the boy to " listen 
 to reason " seems only to add fuel to the flame; she is implacable : while poor Moses 
 stands aghast at the mischief he has ignorantly perpetrated, looking the very embodi- 
 ment, both in expression and pose, of injured innocence. The scene lies in what 
 country-people call the "keeping" or "living" room, which in those days was not 
 uncommonly furnished with utensils of domestic use whose place is now in the kitchen. 
 All these objects (and they are tolerably numerous) are painted with the utmost nicety, 
 yet are made perfectly subservient to the more important parts of the composition. 
 
38 DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 The next important picture from the pencil of Maclise was " Caxton's Printing 
 Office in the Almonry of Westminster," exhibited in 185 1. It is a large composition, 
 full of figures ; for the designer, the illuminator, the wood-engraver, and the bookbinder 
 all worked at their respective vocations in the office of the earliest English printer ; 
 combining, with the compositors and pressmen, to produce the first complete book 
 published in England. All are here present on the canvas, with a company whose 
 names are more or less illustrious in the annals of the time, Caxton, behind whom 
 stands Wynkyn de Worde, is exhibiting to his patron, Edward IV., a proof-sheet of 
 that famous production, "The Game of Chesse," which has just been "pulled;" near 
 them are the Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, the royal daughter Elizabeth, afterwards 
 the wife of Henry VII., and the young princes : this group occupies the centre of the 
 composition. At a short distance from these are Edward's brothers, Richard and 
 Clarence, the chivalrous Earl Rivers, Caxton's friend, and Esteney, Abbot of West- 
 minster. Somewhat in the background on the right is the press, and behind it are 
 compositors, pressmen, and a press-reader; on the extreme left appear wood- 
 engravers, designers, binders, and others. In addition to all these are numerous 
 figures, men-in-armour, and Court-officia.ls in attendance on the King. The canvas 
 is, indeed, crowded^-almost too much so : not an inch of it but seems to give interest 
 to the picture by serving some legitimate purpose. In this work, as in most others 
 by him, Maclise seems to have been intolerant of vacancy. With respect to its 
 execution, it is impossible to eulogise too highly its faultlessly accurate manner. The 
 drawing and painting of the material are fastidiously careful ; and the types, the press, 
 the tools, &c., of the artist are so exquisitely realised that one is almost tempted to 
 examine these before studying the qualities that distinguish the figures, in which 
 there is, nevertheless, an impressive diversity of character. Each of the subordinates 
 appears deeply interested in what passes between the King and the master-printer in 
 the scene, so memorable in the history of English literature and civilisation, which, 
 nearly four centuries ago, transpired in the old almonry of Westminster. The picture 
 is the property of Mr. Forster, by whom it was lent for the International Exhibition of 
 1862. 
 
 In the letter of Maclise to Mr. Forster, to which allusion was just made, he speaks 
 of himself as looking like Macready in the character of Werner. The idea probably 
 led him to paint a portrait of his friend, the eminent tragedian, thus individualised : it 
 is a small full-length, depicting Werner as he represents his own personal appear- 
 ance : — 
 
 " Who would read in this form 
 The high soul of the son of a long line ? 
 Who, in this garb, the heir of princely lands ? 
 Who, in this sunken, sickly eye, the pride 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 39 
 
 Of rank and ancestry ? In this worn cheek 
 And famine-hoUow'd brow, the Lord of halls 
 Which daily feed a thousand vassals," &c. 
 
 Werner, Act i. sc. i. 
 
 There is an almost total negation of colour in this portrait, yet is it a work of great 
 power, and freely painted. It was exhibited at the Academy with the Caxton picture. 
 
 I have already referred to a picture by Maclise illustrating an incident in the life 
 of Salvator Rosa : he painted another from the same source, but I can find no record 
 of its ever having been exhibited. " Salvator Rosa and the Picture-Dealer " must have 
 been a comparatively early work, for it was in the possession of the Earl of Chesterfield 
 a quarter of a century ago : it is engraved as the frontispiece to this volume. Lady 
 Morgan, in her "Life of Salvator Rosa," says that, in the earlier part of his career, the 
 far greater number of his pictures were executed on primed paper, his limited means not 
 permitting him to purchase canvas. These were sold to the Jew dealers, who kept stalls 
 in the Strada della Carita, Naples. It is an interview with one of these questionable 
 patrons of artists which Maclise has illustrated with a feeling and in a manner that 
 differ entirely from the majority of his productions. It is a work of sterling merit, in 
 which the principal figures are brought forward in a way that at once indicates the 
 story. Excellent is that of the dealer, who, with his right hand over his eyes to 
 "focus" the light, and his left pointing to some part of the composition, surveys the 
 work with the air of a real connoisseur ; yet evidently purposing to find some flaw 
 in it, to lower the price demanded. The figure of the young Neapolitan artist is 
 finely drawn, as he stands, cap in hand, yet with a kind of independent bearing, 
 listening to the dealer's criticism, and quietly waiting his verdict. In the background 
 is a female, who may be the Jew's wife, glancing at the picture while placing a 
 casket among other objects in which the merchant deals. All these accessories, 
 composing the usual contents of a connoisseur's bazaar, are put together with the 
 happiest effect, and painted with the utmost attention to detail. 
 
 The year 1852 produced but one picture by Maclise, but it was a work that showed 
 he had not been idle. " Alfred, the Saxon King, disguised as a Minstrel, in the Tent 
 of Guthrum the Dane," is a large canvas, with a crowd of figures covering it. The 
 subject was suggested by a passage in old Speed's " History of Great Britain :" — 
 
 " But this prince, the very mirrour of princes, more minding the wealth of his subjects 
 than the majestie of state, disguised himself in the habit of a common minstrell, and in person 
 repaired to the Danes' camp, who lay like Senacheribs, wallowing in wantonesse, and secure 
 in their owne conceit firom impeach of danger ; which Alfred, a most skilfull musitian, and 
 an excellent poet, did not a little &%%<& on by his sweet musicke, and songs of their valour, so 
 that he was suffered to pass uncontrolled into the company of their princes, at banquets or 
 elsewhere, whereby he both saw their negligent securitie, and by diligent observances learned 
 the designs that in their counsels they intended." 
 
40 DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 The first idea which occurred to my mind when I saw this picture in the Academy 
 — and it equally suggested itself when looking at it for the second time, a year or two 
 ago, in the rooms of Messrs. Christie and Co. — was the originality of the subject; 
 the next, the originality of its treatment. The tent of the Danish chieftain fills 
 a considerable space on the canvas; the canopy is embowered, as it were, in an 
 atmosphere of sweet scents, arising from the most luxuriant floral offerings of the 
 white May-bush and the horse-chestnut, whose leaves and flowers hang almost in dense 
 masses over the tent as if they fain would hide from sight the saturnalia beneath 
 them. Guthrum and a crowd of nobles and women reclining on couches within the 
 circuit of the tent listen to the Saxon monarch, who sits outside playing on his harp, 
 and looking round half contemptuously on a group of Danish soldiers almost insen- 
 sible through intoxication. On the left is another group of stalwart semi-barbarians, 
 playing at dice. Objection has been taken, and in all probability not without good 
 reason, to the costume, armour, and weapons introduced, as being of a later period 
 than that referred to in the historic narrative; but setting this aside — though it is 
 important in the representation of any historical event — the design of the work is 
 most masterly, and its general effect most striking. At the sale, in 1855, of the 
 collection of Mr. Birch, of Birmingham, it realised 6go guineas; in 1870, when the 
 pictures belonging to Mr. E. Bullock, of Handsworth, were dispersed, it sold for 530 
 guineas only. 
 
 I pass over the year 1853, an entirely unproductive one: the year following, 
 however, brought a single picture to the Academy, " Richard de Clare, Earl of 
 Pembroke, surnamed Strongbow (sometimes also called Earl of Chepstow, or of 
 Strighul), receives the hand of the Princess Eva from her father, Dermot Mac- 
 Murrogh, King of Leinster, in fulfilment of his Compact with that Lord, and with 
 promise of Succession to his Throne." The artist thus describes his picture : — 
 
 " The marriage ceremony was solemnized on the battle-field, after the siege of the sacked 
 and ruined city of Waterford ; and it was in the midst of its scenes of desolation that the 
 conqueror received the hand of the Princess Eva ; at which time, as the chronicler relates — 
 ' The famous Strongbow did not celebrate his particular w^edding-day, but the indissoluble 
 knot of the Irish allegiance to the English Souveraignetie ; with the same ring which circuled 
 his wive's finger afiiancing that island to this our country.' 
 
 " The picture represents the celebration of the marriage beneath the ruined porch of the 
 church of the same period, and its round tower — the triumph of the invading Norman knights 
 — the submission of the Irish chieftains — the mourning over the fallen — and the burial of the 
 dead. 
 
 " The period was the vigil of St. Bartholomew, August 23, anno 1 171, reign of Henry II." 
 
 To describe this picture in anything approaching adequate detail would occupy far 
 more space than can be spared for it : its leading points can alone be adverted to. In 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 41 
 
 the central group, formed of the most important personages, is Strongbow in full 
 warlike equipment, holding in his gauntleted hand that of his bride. Behind them, 
 and filling the space that separates them, is the priest, who appears to be in the act of 
 pronouncing a blessing on the wedded pair. Immediately in the rear of Eva is her 
 father, Dermot, wearing his robes and regal crown ; and on the same side is a com- 
 pany of bridesmaids, one of whom bears the train of the bride : behind this group is 
 a body of armed knights, followers of Strongbow, among whom are Maurice Fitzgerald, 
 Robert Fitzmaurice, with others. On the same side, and nearer the base of the 
 picture, are the Irish commanders and soldiers — a portion of the garrison of Water- 
 ford laying down their arms in token of submission. On the left, and behind Strong- 
 bow, are officers and soldiers of his army. In the same part of the composition, and 
 behind these, are men engaged in burying the dead, whose bodies are scattered over 
 the foreground, mingled with the living wildly lamenting those who are slain. The 
 background is an eminence on which stand the walls of Waterford, whence are removed 
 the dead by throngs of the citizens, some of whom are also engaged in committing 
 the bodies to the earth. 
 
 It will at once be seen by these brief remarks how much material is crowded into 
 the picture. Passing over the anachronisms evidenced in the armour introduced, the 
 personal characteristics demand some notice. Throughout the whole of the work 
 there is intense and penetrating expression ; calm self-possession on the part of the 
 Earl of Pembroke, modesty and diffidence on that of Eva, who, by the way, is not 
 represented so beautiful as history reports her to have been : the other ladies, her 
 attendants, are not remarkable for delicate feminine features. Though the celebration 
 of what is ordinarily a joyous ceremony, here is more of wailing and grief, for the 
 marriage is a political necessity, not the union of two loving hearts, and it is con- 
 summated on the red battle-field, with the dead and dying around; here are the 
 conquered but unsubdued Irish warriors laying down their arms in sorrow and in 
 revengeful hatred, and wives and children lamenting the fate of their husbands and 
 fathers. Seated among the dead and the mourning is a fine figure, that of a harper, 
 too absorbed in sorrow to draw forth any melody from his harp. In effect the com- 
 position is divided into two parts : the upper, which is all light, has somewhat of a 
 dreamy and visionary appearance, disuniting it from the more material action that is 
 proceeding below; this upper section, moreover, comes too forward, the result of 
 which is, that it seems to overpower the lower portion. Yet the defects are com- 
 paratively of minor importance, and "The Marriage of Strongbow" must take rank 
 with the best productions of the modern British School of painting. It passed into 
 the collection of the late Lord Northwick, and was sold, at the dispersion of his gallery 
 in 1857, for the sum of 1,710 guineas, the purchaser being the late Mr. Flatou, who, 
 I assume, must have sold it before his death, for I find no record of it in the catalogue 
 
 G 
 
42 DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 of his pictures which Messrs. Christie sold after, his decease ; neither have I been able 
 to find out its present owner. ; ,. ■ • 
 
 When theiwork was exhibited, at the Academy, it was suggested Jn the Art-Journal 
 that so fine a picture ought to have a place among the paintings in the Houses of 
 Parliarhent, and overtures were made- to the artist by the Royal Commissioners — not 
 to purchase the, picture itself, but^to reproduce, it in fre^cp for a, compartment in the 
 Conference Hall at Westminster. In the report of *the Commissioners • for 1854 the 
 matter is thus referred to : — ^" We. further propose to comniission. Daniel Maclise, Esq., 
 R.A., to paint in fresco, in the Painted. Chamber .or Conference Ha.ll, 'The Marriage 
 of Strongbow and Eva,' the subject -being selected by us for that purpose. The 
 design.for,the fresco so to be executed will be adopted, according to the requirements 
 of fresco, from an oil-painting of the, same subject, executed. by that artist on his own 
 account, and which he has treated, with great ability." 
 
 Considerable correspondence on the subject took place between Maclise and, Sir- 
 Charles L.- Eastlake,. Secretary of the Commission, the result of. which was that the 
 negotiationsr came to nothing. One ground of the artist's objection to undertake, the 
 work was understood to be the inadequacy of the payment, offered, ;^i,50o; but a 
 much, stronger reason in his mind, was the position in which it was proposed to place 
 the work: in one of his letters to Eastlake, dated May 2, 1854, he says: — "That, 
 under any circumstances, I must decline to undertake- the execution of the work, if it 
 is to be placed on the west side of the. Painted Chamber, as the light is wholly unsuited 
 and. insufficietit for such a picture inithat position."^ 
 
 It was reported at the time .that the Prince Consort, President of the Commission, 
 did not approve of the sum offered for the fresco, and suggested that the artist was 
 entitled to a much higher remuneration for a work of such magnitude; also that he 
 was desirous the Commissioners should reopen negotiations in the hope that some 
 arrangements might be made whereby the nation might possess the picture. Whether 
 this were actually the case or not, the country has now only to regret that " Strong- 
 bow "is not among her Artr treasures open to the public, 
 
 . Released from an, engageriient which, if fulfilled, might have kept Maclise during 
 a lengthened period from again appearing at the Academy, he worked in his studio, 
 contributing to the exhibition, of 1855, " Orlando about , to engage with Charles, the 
 Duke's Wrestler," from As You. Like It, of which an engaving, is introduced here, 
 The passage thus illustrated is this ; but it will be seen that the conversation does not, 
 in the drama, -take place in the presence- of the duke and his personal attendants; it 
 is only by " pictorial license " that they are introduced by way of elucidating the text, 
 and giving additional interest to it : — 
 
 * jO'DriscoIl's " Memoir." 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 43 
 
 " Orlando. I beseech you punish me not with your hard thoughts, wherein I confess me 
 much guilty to deny so fair and excellent ladies anything. But let your fair eyes and gentle 
 wishes go with me to my trial, wherein if I be foiled, there is but one shamed that was never 
 gracious ; if killed, but one dead that is willing to be so. I shall do myself no wrong, for I 
 have none to lament me ; the world no injury, for in it I have nothing ; only in the world I 
 fill up a place which may be better supplied when I have made it empty. 
 
 Rosalind. The little strength I have, I would it were with you. 
 
 Celia. And mine to eke out hers." 
 
 As You Like It, Act i. sc. 2. 
 
 The scene is a lawn before the duke's palace. The characters introduced, from 
 the left to the right of the spectator, are Dennis (a servant), Oliver, Charles (the duke's 
 wrestler), Le Beau (a courtier), Duke Frederick, Celia, Rosalind, Touchstone (a clown), 
 Orlando, Adam, and, in the background, lords and attendants. Just before the 
 contest commences, the two cousins, Celia and Rosalind, have tried to dissuade 
 Orlando from engaging in the unequal contest with the powerful opponent before him, 
 while the duke turns aside to disembarrass the parties in the conversation, which 
 must have ceased ere we see, as here, the opponents standing face to face for the 
 struggle. 
 
 No very great amount of observation is requisite to see that every prominent 
 character introduced on the scene of action has been carefully and thoughtfully 
 studied, not alone pictorially, but also with regard to the part each plays in the 
 dramatic incident. In the stalwart wrestler we have the type, save in contour and 
 expression of face, of the old Roman gladiator. A formidable opponent the fellow 
 must prove of the slim and graceful Orlando, who stands watching him with clear eye 
 and clasped hands, as if measuring the strength of his adversary ; the latter evidently 
 looks on him with supreme contempt, as Goliath did on the stripling David, and asks, 
 "Where is this young gallant that is so desirous to lie with his mother earth? " By the 
 side of Orlando sits Touchstone, the duke's jester, casting a sly glance at the two girls, 
 one of whom, at least, he suspects shows unusual interest in the fate of Orlando : an 
 inimitable impersonation is this wearer of the cap and the bells. The usurping duke 
 is one who, in the matter of bone, sinew, and muscle, seems more fitted to enter the 
 arena with the court-wrestler than the young and unknown son of his enemy, Sir 
 Rowland de Bois, on whom his eyes are fixed as if in wonder at the daring of the 
 you h, not unmixed with pity for the fate that seems to be in store for him. On his 
 left are the two figures which give the picture all its sunshine, to speak metaphorically, 
 not artistically. Rosalind and Celia are noble-looking maidens, sweet in facial expres- 
 sion, yet withal somewhat saddened ; they are elegantly grouped together. The result 
 of the contest is evidently no small matter of interest with, both, though Rosalind may 
 be specially concerned in the issue, as the story of the drama reveals before it closes. 
 
44 DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 Worthy of notice is the manner in which the entire scene is displayed ; perfect 
 balance is maintained throughout ; each leading figure is in its proper place pic- 
 torially, and yet unity is preserved, while all are in action, so far as they reveal deep 
 interest in what is taking place. The painter has given power to his work as much 
 by skilful arrangement of light and shade as by his disposition of the figures and 
 expression of character. 
 
 The picture was painted expressly for Mr. H. L. Betts, of Preston Hall, Maidstone, 
 and was sold in 1868, with the rest of his small but valuable collection, for the sum of 
 580 guineas. 
 
 In June, 1855, Maclise was again in Paris, having been appointed a juror in the 
 section of the Fine Arts at the International Exhibition. Writing from Naples to 
 Mr. Forster at the end of July, he says : — 
 
 " The jury for Fine Arts had only two meetings, and the assembly was told by Count de 
 Morny, its president, that it would not be required to meet again before October, and even 
 another postponement might be necessary. All I did was to look out for notable works, and 
 make certain annotations, and even little rapid sketches, serving better for me than long 
 notes, to recall the pictures. Lord Elcho and myself went every day, for about a week, 
 through the galleries in this way ; he returned to England, and I went oflF the other way. 
 This summary break-up of the jury left me sooner than I expected without occupation ; and, 
 having again made myself familiar with all the old sights and scenes of Paris, there was 
 nothing left for me but to leave for Italy — a great deal too soon, as every person told me, and 
 as I have since found to my dismay ; for oh, the heat is beyond endurance. It is impossible 
 to exaggerate its effects, and I feel at this moment that I cannot write to you of any topic 
 but '\t." —0' DriscoW s Memoir. 
 
 Maclise was accompanied on this journey by his brother Joseph, and together they 
 visited the galleries of Florence, Milan, Naples, Rome, and Munich ; but it does not 
 seem that he left any record of whatever opinions he formed of what he saw in these 
 famous collections. Towards the close of the letter from which the above extract is 
 taken, he intimates that he shall reserve anything he may have to " confess " to his 
 friend on topics of Art till they meet. 
 
 In 1856 he made no appearance in the exhibition of the Academy; in the next 
 year he contributed one painting which certainly may take rank with, at least, some 
 of his best. The title was supplied by the following passages, explanatory of the 
 subject : — 
 
 " Peter the Great, Czar of Muscovy, working as a shipwright, with his ' rough retinue,' in 
 the dockyard of Deptford, during the winter of 1697-8, is visited by William the Third, in 
 attendance on whom are Lords Carmarthen and Shrewsbury, his President of Council and 
 Foreign Secretary. 
 
 " ' He (the Czar) is mechanically turned, and seems designed by nature rather to be a ship 
 carpenter than a great prince. This was his chief study and exercise while he stayed here. 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 45 
 
 He wrought much with his own hands, and made all about him work at the models of ships.' 
 — Bishop Burnet's History of Our Time. 
 
 " Among those ordinarily ' about him,' while thus or otherwise occupied during his three 
 months' stay in England, the memoir-writers of the time particularise as fellow-workmen in 
 the dockyard, Menzikoflf, Golownin, Galitzin, and Prince Siberski, the latter of whom was 
 noted for his ' skill to rig a ship from top to bottom.' They are careful to mention, as hardly 
 less familiar companions, a dwarf, a negro boy, a monkey (who, by excessive familiarity, 
 caused some alarm to King William on one of his later visits to Deptford), and a young actress 
 of Drury Lane. 
 
 " In St. Petersburg are still kept the coarse woollen stockings and sailor's coat in which 
 he worked ; and the Annual Register of 1769 preserves the testimony of an old man, a 
 Deptford shipwright in those days, who remembered well hearing his father say, forty years 
 before, that the Czar of Muscovy worked with his own hands as hard as any man in the yard." 
 
 Here, as in the majority of Maclise's compositions, is such a redundancy of 
 material meeting the eye of the spectator that it takes no little time to become 
 acquainted with all the personages and accessories introduced on the canvas. The 
 Czar is seen in the act of sawing a piece of timber, that looks as if he were about to 
 convert it into a rudder or stern-post, but he stops in his work to address the English 
 monarch, who has placed himself in a somewhat formal attitude while receiving the 
 Czar's salute. Two more opposite characters cannot well be imagined. Peter, as 
 represented here, is a jovial and hilarious personage ; but William is sedate in the 
 extreme, in expression, dress, and demeanour. The attention of the whole Russian 
 party is fixed upon their royal visitor with- that happy persistence always evinced by 
 the painter in indicating the points of his subject. Near Peter three of his distin- 
 guished companions are busily occupied ; one of them handles an adze, but so 
 awkwardly that it cannot well be determined whether he is aiming at the head of one 
 of the bystanders or at some unseen block of wood. On the left are three women — 
 one of them the actress referred to. On the right, behind William, are Lords Car- 
 marthen and Shrewsbury ; and in the centre, near the base of the picture, are the 
 dwarf, the negro boy, and the monkey, with an endless diversity of tools and scientific 
 instruments. Other accessories consist of bottles and glasses — a significant allusion 
 to the habits in which the Czar is said to have indulged— and a variety of fruit : all 
 these objects being painted with as much truth of nature as the figures which stand 
 out life-like on the canvas. The picture shows somewhat more prominently than was 
 the artist's wont his hardness of manner, added to an absence of harmonious colouring. 
 
 There was another contribution of Maclise to the exhibition of that year which 
 won the good opinion of Art-critics to equal, if not greater, extent than the large 
 painting. This was a series of outline drawings, forty-two in number, illustrating 
 the story of the Norman Conquest. To give even a brief description of these most 
 masterly compositions would extend this biographical notice of the artist far beyond 
 
■^^ DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 the limits I have allowed myself: it must suffice to say that nothing of a parallel kind 
 within my range of observation surpasses this most interesting series for accuracy of 
 costume, expressive character, grandeur of composition, and vigorous drawing. The 
 reading and research that could suggest a set of subjects so strictly in accordance with 
 historic authority must have been extensive. They were executed at irregular intervals 
 during the leisure of the artist's evening hours. The series was purchased by Mr. 
 Gambart, for the purpose, it is said, of having the whole engraved; but, for some 
 cause or other, this was not done, and the Art-Union of London acquired from their 
 owner the right to engrave them. The drawings were put into the hands of Mr. 
 Gruner, who executed fac-similes of them, which were distributed by the Art-Union to 
 their subscribers of 1866. 
 
 The next and only work exhibited by Maclise at the Academy was in 1859, when 
 he sent a picture called " The Poet to his Wife," suggested by a verse in Moore's 
 "Melodies:"— 
 
 " Oh ! could we do with this world of ours, 
 As thou dost with thy garden bowers — 
 Reject the weeds and keep the flowers — 
 What a heaven on earth we'd make it." 
 
 This, 1 think, was painted, with some alterations perhaps, from one of the designs 
 Maclise made for the illustrated edition of the " Melodies." The poet and his wife 
 are young, and evidently they have not long been married : she is busy in arranging 
 and trimming the plants which climb and blossom around an arbour, while he stands 
 watching her, and philosophising in the words of the song. It is a work of much 
 interest in sentiment, and is beautifully painted. 
 
 The interval between 1859 and 1866 was a blank at the Academy, so far as 
 relates to pictures by Maclise: he was otherwise occupied during these years in 
 matters Mich will be referred to presently. In 1866 he sent to the Academy a 
 finished study, in oils, of the great fresco, "The Death of Nelson," or, as he called 
 the picture, " Here Nelson fell," on which, with another, he had been engaged for 
 so long a time. The following year he exhibited "Othello, Desdemona, Emilia," 
 illustrating the lines— 
 
 " Des. Why is your speech so faint ? are you not well ? 
 
 Oi/i. I have a pain upon my forehead here — 
 
 Des. Why that's with watching ; 'twill away again : 
 Let me but bind it hard, within this hour it will be well." 
 
 Othello, Act xii. sc. 3. 
 
 Notwithstanding there is a strong tendency towards dramatic effect in the manner 
 in which these figures are grouped on the canvas, and also a certain hardness of 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 47 
 
 Colouring, this is a most attractive work. Desdemona's face excites unqualified 
 admiration by its beauty, and the earnest anxiety expressed by her action is justified 
 by the situation. At the same time appeared in the gallery "A Winter's Tale," the 
 motto to which was — 
 
 " In winter's tedious nights, sit by the fire 
 With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales." 
 
 King Richard II., Act v. sc. i. 
 
 These lines only suggest the subject ; the characters speak for themselves. By the 
 
 light of a blazing fire in the interior of a cottage, a story is being related to a number 
 
 of rustic listeners — a ghost story, or a tale of horrors, it seems, by the almost thrilling 
 
 interest manifested by the hearers. 
 
 In 1868 he also exhibited two pictures, of which the principal was " The Sleep of 
 
 Duncan," a work undoubtedly of grand motive: it illustrates Lady Macbeth' s 
 
 soliloquy : — 
 
 " The doors are open ; 
 And the surfeited grooms do mock their charge with snores : 
 I have drugged their possets, 
 That death and nature do contend about them, 
 
 Whether they live or die. 
 
 ******* 
 
 Hark ! I laid their daggers ready, 
 He could not miss them. — Had he not resembled 
 My father as he slept, I had done it." 
 
 Macbeth, Act ii. sc. 2. 
 
 The interest of the spectator of the picture is absorbed by the figure of the 
 sleeping King, which is very fine : by him stands the ambitious and murderous 
 woman, watching her victim as the bird of prey watches his. The scene altogether 
 is dark and mysterious — awful as a vision of one of Dante's poetic dreams of the 
 infernal regions. Turning from this to Maclise's second picture of the year is like 
 passing from the chamber of death into the realm of sunshine and joy. " Madeleine 
 after Prayer" is a lovely impersonation derived from Keats's lines — 
 
 " Her vespers done, 
 
 Of all her wreathed pearls her hair she frees ; 
 
 Unclasps her warmed jewels one by one ; 
 
 Loosens her fragrant bodice ; by degrees 
 
 Her rich attire creeps rustling to her knees : 
 
 Pensive awhile she dreams awake, and sees 
 
 In fancy fair Saint Agnes in her bed, 
 
 But dares not look behind, or all the charm is fled." 
 
 The Eve 0/ St. Agnes. 
 
43 DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 The subject in the hands of some painters might have provoked a treatment akin 
 to immodesty; Maclise's rendering- is eminently delicate, while the girl, as she doffs 
 her ornaments and rich costume, all exquisitely painted, is the embodiment of grace 
 and innocence. 
 
 "When the 'Madeleine' appeared in 1868," writes Mr. O'Driscoll, "Mr. Wardell 
 
 — an eminent merchant in Dublin, who had purchased ' The Spirit of Chivalry ' " (a 
 
 small replica of the large fresco), " expressed a desire to possess it, and wrote to 
 Maclise on the subject ; but the picture had been already disposed of. Mr. Wardell 
 then commissioned him to execute a work, leaving the subject and the price to him- 
 self." In reply the artist informed his correspondent that he was engaged on a work, 
 which, in a subsequent letter to Mr. Wardell, he thus describes. Mr. O'Driscoll prints 
 the note, but gives no date; but it was evidently written about the end of June, 1868, 
 and runs thus : — 
 
 " My dear Sir,— The picture I have on my easel is one I have long wished to paint— 
 'King Caphetua— Caphetua— and the Beggar Maid'— see Old Ballad and Tennyson; but I 
 choose to invent the scene, and figure to myself a young King, with a few retainers grouped 
 about him, under a tent, and he, seeing her pass by, loves her— weds her (as I hope). It may 
 be completed next year, for the first Exhibition, which we trust will take place in the New 
 R. A., Burlington House, and our centenary of existence. 
 
 " I shall dally with it, and care not to paint anything else in this year ; but you shall only 
 take the picture— if, indeed, you think of it— on the express condition of your admiring it. 
 
 " I am living at Brighton, in charge of my sister and two nieces, for a month or so ; but I 
 grieve to say, in spite of sea and sunsets, my old habit leads me to shut out both, and convert 
 * an eligible drawing-room facing the sea ' into an atelier. 
 
 " Believe me, truly yours, 
 
 "Daniel Maclise." 
 
 " Mr. Wardell," continues Mr. O'Driscoll, " purchased the picture, and it was 
 transmitted to Dublin, with a note from Maclise, in which he says : — ' I assure you 
 that my satisfaction is complete in thinking that, amid all the agitations of dis- 
 establishment and disendowment, Ireland can still give heed to the claims of Art.' " 
 
 In due time it appeared at the Academy's new gallery, in the exhibition of 1869, 
 with the title of "King Caphetua and the Beggar- maid ;" the catalogue gave the 
 following extracts explaining the subject : — 
 
 " When King Caphetua lov'd the beggar-maid." 
 
 Romeo and Juliet, Act ii. sc. i. 
 
 " Is there not a ballad, boy, of the 
 King and the beggar ? " 
 
 Lov^s Labour's Lost. 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 49 
 
 " There you may read, Caphetua, 
 Though long time fancie-fed, 
 Compelled by the blinded boy 
 
 The beggar for to wed ; 
 She that did lover's looks disdaine. 
 To do the same was good and faine ; 
 Or else he would himself have slaine, 
 
 In storie, as we read. 
 
 * » * * 
 
 He saw her pass in modest grace. 
 
 Whiles in his tent he lay, 
 ' Fill me a cup,' the king he sayde, 
 * She shall be queen, this beggar-mayde. 
 
 If she'll not say me nay.' " 
 
 Old Ballad. 
 
 It is a large canvas, covered with figures, all of which show the painter's exube- 
 rance of fancy and masterly drawing ; the beggar-maid, as is fit, possessing a face of 
 loveliness that would tempt to matrimony even a St. Anthony. On the other hand, the 
 work is not free from that crude and hard manner which characterises many of his 
 paintings. 
 
 There is but one more of Maclise's principal easel-pictures left to be noticed ; the 
 last on which he was engaged, " The Earls of Desmond and Ormond." It hung on 
 the walls of the Academy in 1870, when the hand of the highly-gifted artist was cold 
 in death. Its title was followed in the catalogue by a quotation : — 
 
 " Battles, as a matter of course, were fought to settle the litigated questions ; which, 
 however they may have carried defeat or victory, never brought conviction. It was in one of 
 these that Desmond, being wounded and taken prisoner, was borne from the field by some of 
 Ormond's men, who made a litter for the purpose, which they slung across their shoulders. 
 • Where now,' asked the victors, ' is the great Earl of Desmond \ '—' In his proper place,' 
 retorted this Geraldine, witty as he was wild, ' on the necks of the Butlers.' " 
 
 A composition this that might belong to the period it indicates, so thoroughly 
 does it bring before the spectator the wild and lawless spirit of the time, with the 
 characteristic individuality of those who took part in those sanguinary feuds. The 
 litter whereon the Desmond chieftain lies is carried upon the brawny shoulders of his 
 opponent's followers, while the Earl, half rising up to answer his querists, throws a 
 half-savage yet triumphant glance on Ormond, who rides on horseback at his side. 
 None who stood before the picture in the Academy — and the knowledge that it was 
 Maclise's last work imparted to it unusual attraction— but must have regretted sin- 
 cerely the loss of an artist who had so long awakened their feelings by the magic of 
 his pencil. After his death, it was sold — ^with the sketches and unfinished works 
 
 H 
 
50 DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 remaining in his studio — for the sum of 500 guineas ; Mr. M'Lean, the picture-dealer, 
 being its purchaser. 
 
 Besides the pictures to which special reference has been made, as the principal 
 works exhibited by Maclise, he painted many others that were never, so far as I can 
 ascertain, shown to the public, but passed at once from the atelier of the artist to that 
 of the purchaser. Among these is " The Ballad-Singer," here engraved, the property 
 of Mr. John Mitchell, of Blackburn, in 1864, though he must have sold it soon after- 
 wards, or the artist must have painted another picture of the same title ; for in a 
 sale of a collection, by Messrs. Christie, on March, 1865, a " Ballad- Singer," by 
 Maclise, was bought by Maclise himself for 280 guineas. The name of the owner 
 of the collection was not stated, but the probability is that this was Mr. Mitchell's 
 picture. She is represented as a woman with a gipsy-kind of face, carrying a half- 
 clad infant at her back, and on her right arm a basket of fruit with accompaniments, 
 the meaning of which in connection with her professional avocation, if it be that of 
 a wandering songstress, is not very clear. Still the apples afforded the painter an 
 opportunity of putting in a few touches of brilliant colouring. She has entered the 
 front garden of a wayside cottage, on whose enclosing palings a robin is perched, 
 uniting his warble with the song of the woman, who is presumed to be serenading 
 the inmates of the dwelling with a ballad, the words of which she holds in her hand. 
 The principal figure is bold and free in design, and is richly coloured : exquisite in 
 detail, and luxuriant in growth, are the masses of lilac flowers and foliage which 
 form the chief background of the composition ; bringing into relief the woman, whose 
 costume and adornments, by the way, appear rather beyond one in her position of life. 
 
 Among other unexhibited pictures may be pointed out, " The Mock Duenna, 
 Pereira's Studio," sold with the collection of Mr. John Smith, of Prince's Gate, in 
 1870, for 250 guineas, to Messrs. Agnew ; "Scottish Lovers," sold in 1866 to a 
 Mr. Smith for 400 guineas ; " The Magic Deal," sold the same year, from the collec- 
 tion of the late Mr. Flatou, to Mr. Lewis for 140 guineas; "Ye Ladye Margaret's 
 Page," III guineas; " The Spirit of Justice," 300 guineas; " The Spirit of Chivalry," 
 1 10 guineas ; these belonged to Mr. Charles Birch, of Birmingham, and were sold in 
 1857 : three years later the first of the three was re-sold for 100 guineas ; " Ariadne," 
 sold in 1858 for 140 guineas, and again, in the following year, for 118 guineas only; 
 " The Bathers," from the collection of Mr. C. Morgan, of Clifton, sold in 1858 for 
 82 guineas; " Babes in the Wood," painted in 1856, and sold in 1857 for 250 guineas. 
 There are many unexhibited works mentioned by Mr. O'DriscoU, not included in the 
 above, and which his biographer copied from a list in Maclise' s own handwriting; no 
 dates are appended, so we have no clue to the time when they were executed : among 
 these I may point out, "Page with a Letter," "The Wild Huntsman," "The 
 Hypochondriac," " The Sleeping Page," " A Group of Indian Lovers," and another 
 
D. MACLISE . E,.A . HHT? 
 
 J. ST]'JFHiSMSGi-l, SCULPT 
 
 THE'' BALtAD -SlM.&ISac 
 
 LONDON, VIRTUE & 09 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. jj 
 
 group— both painted for Lady Blessington—" Pan and Dancing Fairies," "Combat 
 of Two Knights," painted for Lord Lytton, " Sardanapalus and Myrrha," painted for 
 the Marquis of Lansdowne, "Virgin and Child in a Niche," " Phcebe and Silvius," 
 " Youth and Girl with Hawks," " Claude Sketching," "Maid Marian," " The Loving 
 Cup," " Henry VIIL and Anne Boleyn," " The Choice of Hercules," &c., &c. ; to 
 which may be added several portraits. 
 
 The prices realised by Maclise'S pictures at public sales, of which I have instanced 
 several examples, must be acknowledged to be remarkably low, not only with reference 
 to the works of other artists, but with respect to their own unquestionable merit. One 
 very probable reason is that the size of many of his canvases is so large as to preclude 
 them from any collection which is not domiciled in a gallery of extensive dimensions. 
 Yet this does not apply to pictures of cabinet-size, or even larger ; and for ..these 
 collectors have, as it appears, been disposed to pay only very disproportionate sums. 
 There is a fashion in Art as in all else, and Maclise was not a fashionable painter ; or, 
 in other words, he did not paint to please the multitude, or to extort admiration by 
 prettiness. But a time must come when his works will be more generally classed, as 
 they now are by those who are competent to judge, as among the finest and greatest 
 of their kind which the British School of the nineteenth century has produced. 
 
 There is yet another reason to which may be assigned the comparative unpopu- 
 larity of the works of this artist : it is the want of general sympathy with the subjects 
 of many of his pictures — such, for example, as " The Warrior's Cradle," of which an 
 engraving is introduced here. If individual character influences the imagination of 
 an artist so that it is seen through his works — and, undoubtedly, this is often the case 
 — then Maclise must certainly have fallen upon evil days, living, as he did, and which 
 we all do, in a generation which, for the most part, has no feeling in common with the 
 times that, at least from an Art point of view, were so cherished by him ; for how can 
 an " age of industries" have any sympathetic association with an "age of chivalry?" 
 The two, in all their essential qualities, are altogether opposed to each other ; and 
 the mind not attuned to a love of Art for its own sake— that is, for the excellence of 
 the painter's work — finds in the foray or tournament of "belted knight," or in his 
 more peaceful passage-at-arms with the maiden he wooes in leafy bower, little but that 
 to which he is indifferent. There is, nevertheless, one ground whereon the past and 
 the present may meet in harmony, for domestic affection is limited to no time, or 
 locality, or class ; and our forefathers who wore steel armour or leather jerkin, and 
 their wives; and the men who now wear broad-cloth or fustian, according to their 
 degree in the social scale, and their wives ; may, in this trait of natural feeling, be 
 placed in the same category. And thus the chivalric scene conjured up by Maclise 
 in " The Warrior's Cradle " must find an echo in the hearts of the living. 
 
 It is a noble composition : grand in design, and most powerfully worked out. The 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 picture, I believe, is one of those never exhibited in public. The warrior, armed 
 cap-a-pie, hdiS entered his tent from the field of encampment, and, seated by his wife, 
 who raises her hand to enjoin silence, watches his boy sleeping soundly in one of his 
 father's brekst-plates extemporised as a cradlfe-^-and a' fitting one, too, for a warrior's 
 child, o A Sturdy -youngster he is,, who, if lif^.be spared, will certainly grow up to be 
 a stalwart knight, a worthy scion of that majestic-looking couple; for the lady is a 
 magnificent specimen of her sex, as her lord is of a soldier. The incident itself is 
 highly poetic ; and Ihe accessories of ,the composition, even to the flowers peeping out 
 of the armlet and strewed on -the grolrnd, aid materially the sentiment. 
 ' I have reserved to the' last the consid^ation of -Maclise's two greatest works, 
 "The Meeting of Wellington and Bluchei: at Waterloo " and " The Death of Nelson," 
 painted ibrthe House of Parliatpent. The eritire history of these frescoes, including 
 the correspondence. with the Royal Commissioners— even as it appears, in a condensed 
 form, in 'Mr. d'"t>riseolFs "Memoir" — is far, too voluminous for me to touch upon 
 here ; rieithe'r-'is'it necessary I should do so. It must suffice to state that, after con- 
 siderable negotiations, it; was finally arranged that Maclise should, execute . the ..two 
 pictures in question 'for / 3, 500 each : no very exorbitant sum for works measuring 
 nearly yorty-seven fetet in length and more than twelve feet in height. This was in 
 February, 1858, and^he immediately commenced his task by preparing, a large cartoon 
 of the 'Waterloo subject. ■ "The.. enormous space required for the picture,'' writes 
 Mr.' O'Driscbll, " compelled- him to divide the work into compartments ; and these 
 were separately ex"6cuted on -^the-- wall of his drawing-room at Russell Place. When 
 all -Were finished ^they were skilfully joined together, and presented an unbroken 
 surface, as the cartoon now appears.* His scrupulous accuracy in the most minute 
 details is manifested in the -work. All the uniforms of the leading generals were 
 copied from coats, caps, and arms actuallyworn on: the field on the day of the battle. 
 His fridnd Sir Charles Eastlake afforded him great assistance in his researches." Mr. 
 (XDriscoll quotes some interesting coi;respondence that this matter of .costume . gave 
 "rise to between the artist and those desirous of aiding him in the search after truth- 
 fulness. ,,'- .■^- ■ 
 
 ■ The cartoon was completed in July, 1859, and gained unbounded admiration. 
 Not the least gratifying, we may rest assured,, was the tribute offered Maclise by a 
 large body of artists and others interested in his success, which took the shape of a 
 massive gold porte-crayon, accompanied by the following letter engrossed on vellum : — 
 
 " Daniel Maclise, — ^ 
 " We send the accompanying trifle for your acceptance, not so much as a token of our 
 esteem and admiration as of the honest pride which, 'as artists and fellow-countrymen, we 
 
 * At the sale of Maclise's works after his death, this cartoon was purchased for the Royal Academy, at 
 the price of 300 guineas. It is now at Burlington House. 
 
X).MA.01ISE, H..A.PINXT 
 
 J . I HAM GK , SCULPT. 
 
 THE WAB-MIORS ClRABLEo 
 
 LONDOB", VIRTUE & 0° 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 53 
 
 feel in the success of the cartoon you have lately executed. We add our earnest wishes for 
 your future welfare, hoping that you may enjoy health and happiness to complete the work 
 you have commenced so well." * 
 
 This letter bore forty-three signatures, of which thirty were Members or Associates of 
 the Academy. 
 
 The completion of the cartoon seemed, however, only to be the beginning of diffi- 
 culties. After making several experiments on the wall of the Royal Gallery, where 
 it was intended the picture should be painted, Maclise came to the conclusion that 
 the colours reflected from the stained-glass windows in the apartment would greatly 
 injure the effect of his work; and he actually wrote, in August, 1859, to Sir Charles 
 Eastlake, secretary to the Royal Commissioners, resigning the task entrusted to him. 
 In a subsequent letter he expresses a wish to execute it in oil-colours, and gives 
 reasons for preferring this medium to fresco. The Prince Consort was, however, 
 in favour of the latter, and wrote to Eastlake explaining how the difficulties 
 might be overcome, especially by the removal of the objectionable windows, which, 
 it was understood, he was endeavouring to effect when his almost sudden death 
 arrested his efforts ; and the " Commissioners turned a deaf ear to all the remon- 
 strances of the artist." The Prince even came up to London from Osborne to see 
 Maclise himself, to discuss the matter with him, and also to bring before his notice 
 the method of water-glass-painting, or stereochromy, as it is scientifically termed, 
 examples of which had been executed most successfully at Berlin and Munich. Out 
 of this interview and subsequent proceedings Maclise determined to visit Berlin to 
 see what had been done there, and to get information about the method ; and he left 
 London for the purpose without delay. The result of his journey appeared, theoretically, 
 in an admirable report communicated to the Commissioners, and subsequently published : 
 practically, in his resuming his labours on the fresco, by effacing what he had already 
 painted, and commencing the whole again with the new process. The work was 
 finally completed in the spring of 1862. 
 
 It is so well known that there is little need of any lengthened description. The 
 Duke and his ally, the veteran Blucher, appear on horseback, with their hands grasp- 
 ing each other. The face of each is seen in profile : that of Wellington expressive 
 of grief — he sorrowed for his brave companions-in-arms who had fallen on the hard- 
 fought field ; that of Blucher is exultant, for the victory had almost been won. Behind 
 each are masses of troops, of every arm, serving to sustain the remembrance of the 
 dreadful struggle not yet over. Conspicuous among the figures in the foreground 
 is that of young Howard — immortalised by Byron in " Childe Harold" — being borne 
 off" to a soldier's grave : another, lying on the ground, is assumed to be the Marquis 
 
 * O'Driscoll's " Memoir." 
 
5^ DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 of Anglesea, who lost his leg by a cannon-ball — one of the last that was fired by 
 the enemy ere their final retreat. A third prominent figure is that of a wounded 
 Highland piper, who sat on the ground " discoursing eloquent music " from his 
 instrument till- he fainted from loss of blood. Near Wellington are Lord Edward 
 Somerset, who commanded the brigade of heavy cavalry ; Sir Hussey Vivian, who 
 led one of the light cavalry brigades ; and Lord Sandys, with other surviving officers 
 of the Duke's staff. Behind these are some of the second regiment of Life Guards, 
 which suffered so severely in the famous cavalry charge, that, it is said, when the 
 remnant was mustered towards the close of the battle, and an aide-de-camp rode up 
 to inquire of Colonel Lygon where the regiment was, he pointed to a comparative 
 handful of troopers, and said with deep emotion, •' These are all." Behind Blucher 
 stand Bulow, Gniesau, Zeithen, and numerous other distinguished Prussian officers ; 
 and yet further in the background .is the band of a Prussian regiment playing their 
 national anthem. The farm-house. La Belle Alliance, where this famous meeting is 
 generally assumed to have taken place (though the matter has been disputed), is seen 
 immediately behind the two commanders. 
 
 It is worthy of note how careful Maclise seems to have been to deal tenderly with 
 the nation over whose armies we had gained such a signal victory. Throughout the 
 whole of this vast composition there is nothing brought forward to wound unnecessarily 
 the national pride of our foreign neighbours. This, as a critic has observed, is " a 
 new trait in battle-painting." The dead and dying are almost equally represented 
 by examples of both countries. Thus, where a fallen Englishman is seen, a dead 
 Frenchman is his companion ; and wherever the eye rests, there are cuirassiers, 
 guardsmen, carabineers, Highlanders, and almost every description of troops in both 
 armies. Another great feature is the entire absence of theatrical display, though 
 the subject would tempt, almost naturally, such treatment. It is a solemn scene, 
 presented to the spectator in a spirit of earnest sobriety ; a memorial of a great and 
 important victory, but without the flush of conquest and the exulting cry of the 
 triumphant; — "at once the most faithful and the most modest of all the battle-subjects 
 we have ever seen." 
 
 The victory of Trafalgar, though it cost England the sacrifice of her great naval 
 hero, was a fitting subject to stand as a companion to the victory of Waterloo. 
 Maclise had never shown himself as a sea-painter, yet the commission to produce such 
 a picture was almost unreservedly entrusted to him. In 1862 he had executed and 
 submitted to the authorities a study and an oil-painting of " The Death of Nelson ;" 
 and in February of the year following the Secretary to the Commissioners wrote to 
 inform him that the design was approved, and that he "was at liberty to begin the wall- 
 painting when it suited his convenience." It was completed by the commencement of 
 1865. Here, as in the companion-fresco, there is abundant evidence of great pains and 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 55 
 
 labour bestowed by the artist to obtain exactness in every object, even to the minutest. 
 His biographer says : — " His sketch-book exhibits an example of the wonderful industry 
 and accuracy with which he worked out all the details of the picture. Every portion 
 of the ship, the calibre of the guns used in the action, their situation in the ship, 
 and sketches of the guns' carriages, &c., were all separately made. He went to the 
 Hospital at Greenwich and saw Lieutenant Pollard of the Victory, Drummond, the 
 valet of Nelson," &c. The picture represents almost the entire length of the quarter-- 
 deck of the gallant admiral's flag-ship, but the chief interest is concentrated on the 
 spot which soon and ever afterwards bore on a brass plate the inscription, " Here 
 Nelson fell." He has just been struck down, but is raised by his friend Hardy, captain 
 of the Victory, and some of the sailors. There is a mingled expression of suffering 
 and fortitude in his features, though he knows that, to use his own words, — " They 
 have done for me at last. Hardy! my backbone .is shot through." Near him are 
 Dr. Beattie, surgeon of the ship,, who stoops to examine the wound. Captain Adair, 
 Sergeant Seeker, and others. A sailor, coming forward with a French flag, recog- 
 nises the admiral's situation, and falls on his knees with unfeigned sorrow. A coloured 
 seaman directs the attention of a marine to the mizzen-top of the Redoubtable, from the 
 rigging of which ship the fatal bullet was fired. Another sailor points out the same ' 
 to some young midshipmen, who at once level their muskets at the spot ; one of them. 
 Pollard, bringing down, it is believed, the rifleman who gave Nelson his death-wound. 
 But the whole picture is full of incidents, distinct in themselves, yet each harmonising 
 with the rest and producing unity of action and effect throughout. There is a fine poetic 
 touch in the upper part of the composition which was well pointed out by a writer 
 when the finished study, in oils, of the fresco was exhibited in the Academy in 1866 :— 
 «' It was a happy thought, that opening in the clear blue sky above the head of the 
 dying hero. The blanket of thick smoke is rolled away ; the gates of the future, into 
 which so many spirits are flying from their mortal tenements, are thrown open, and light 
 illumines, as with hope, the face of the victor of Trafalgar." Though the fame of 
 Maclise certainly will not rest entirely on these two mural paintings, they add 
 immensely to it. Both subjects have, I believe, been for some time past in the hands 
 of engravers, commissioned by the Art-Union of London to, execute plates of them 
 for the subscribers of the society. Maclise was paid ^2,100 by the Art-Union for 
 his oil-picture of the " Death of Nelson." 
 
 But the end was now approaching, though it was yet at a distance ; and, as I have 
 already shown, Maclise had painted and exhibited some pictures at the Academy 
 since 1866. He had long felt the injustice done to him by the Royal Commissioners 
 by their declining to carry out a scheme for the decoration of the gallery entrusted 
 to him— a scheme that met their unqualified approval, and in pursuance of which he 
 had executed, at their own request, three designs, in oil-colours, illustrating respec- 
 
S6 DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 tively, "Queen Elizabeth at Tilbury Fort," "Admiral Blake at Tunis," and "Marl- 
 borough at Blenheim." For these he even did not receive any remuneration. 
 Moreover, while, as it appears^ other artists who had been at work for the Houses 
 of Parliament had been paid over and above the sum stipulated, Maclise had nothing 
 beyond what he had agreed for. In 1864 he writes to Mr. Forster, who exerted 
 himself heartily to get justice done to his friend : — " I am annoyed that, inasmuch 
 as I never made the slightest efforts for an increase of payment, and did not even 
 claim the sums due to me, lest it should interfere with the sum available for other 
 artists, yet I find I am not signalised in any way, and I feel myself included in a kind 
 of rebuke in the last paragraph of the Report of the Commissioners, who ' desire to 
 express their strong conviction that it is for the true interest and honour of artists, 
 as well as due to public economy, that in future there shall be no subsequent departure 
 from the provisions of any contract which has been deliberately agreed upon. It is 
 for the artist, before he enters upon such an agreement, well to consider how far the 
 renown which accompanies a successful work in a national monument or building, 
 affords an adequate compensation for any pecuniary loss he may apprehend with 
 regard to his private practice.' " There would be some reason in this argument if 
 artists were entirely independent of their profession ; then the " honour and glory" 
 might afford some compensation for their labours. But when ,this is not the case, 
 and it very rarely is, he should be paid, as far as could be estimated, just what he 
 would have received for work done on his own account, so to speak. 
 
 The death of his elder sister, to whom he was much attached^ occurred in 1865 ; 
 and the event was a source of great grief to him. His own health, too, was at this 
 period far from good, a naturally strong and sound constitution having suffered from 
 his protracted work in the Houses of Parliament. For some years " he almost 
 constantly lived in the ' gloomy hall,' as he termed it, in Westminster Palace, inhaling 
 an atmosphere to some extent tainted with the poisonous pigments used in fresco- 
 painting, and enduring the alternations of oppressive heat in summer and the fogs 
 and damps of winter. He was accustomed to leave his home at Chelsea every 
 morning about ten o'clock, and remain in the Royal Gallery until the fading daylight 
 brought him a short respite from his labours." And notwithstanding his cause with 
 regard to the treatment he experienced from the Royal Commissioners was taken up 
 by several influential journals and newspapers, they failed in procuring for him that 
 justice to which he was entitled. This result was well calculated to depress his spirits 
 and injure his health. 
 
 In 1865 Sir Charles Eastlake, President of the Academy, died. An offer was made 
 to Sir Edwin Landseer to supply the vacancy : on his declining, Maclise was requested 
 to fill the chair, but his habits and disposition were too retiring to induce him to accept 
 the honour, and Mr. Grant, now Sir Francis Grant, succeeded to the presidentship. 
 
DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. 57 
 
 " His health was still delicate," says Mr. O'Driscoll, referring to the early part of 
 1870; "he could no longer enjoy his accustomed exercise; the sHghtest exertion 
 was followed by extreme languor and weariness. He was suffering from a slight 
 cough ; but as this recurred regularly every winter from the period when he was first 
 engaged on the wall-paintings at Westminster, and again disappeared in the month 
 of April, it did not, previously, excite much alarm. His habits became even more 
 solitary and sedentary than before, and this year the cough did not yield to the 
 influence of returning spring. The favourite occupation of the artist was to sit at 
 the window of his house in Cheyne Walk, with his pencil and sketch-book." On the 
 6th of April, though languid and depressed, he attended the Oxford and Cambridge 
 boat-race. A few days afterwards he was seized with an attack of acute pneumonia, 
 and though the most skilful medical advice was at once resorted to, it failed to arrest 
 the progress of the disorder, and on the 26th of the month the earthly career of 
 Maclise terminated. He was buried in the cemetery at Kensal Green, in the vault 
 containing the remains of his father, mother, brother, and sister. The day of the 
 funeral chanced to be that on which the annual banquet of the Academy was fixed to 
 take place, and the arrangements could not be postponed ; but for this the members 
 of the society would in a body have attended the obsequies. As it was, several of 
 them did, with many of the deceased painter's friends. 
 
 The event naturally shed a dark cloud over the members of the Academy and 
 their guests when they met in the great banquet-hall the same evening, where hung, 
 with many of the finest pictures of the year's exhibition, Maclise's last work, " The 
 Earls of Desmond and Ormond." His death was referred to by more than one 
 speaker at the festal table ; but the eloquent tribute to his memory there paid by 
 Charles Dickens deserves to be recorded wherever mention is made of the artist and 
 his works. After alluding to the long term of intimacy and constant companionship 
 existing between them, he thus concluded — " Of his genius in his chosen art I will 
 venture to say nothing here ; but of his prodigious fertility of mind and wonderful 
 wealth of intellect, I may confidently assert that they would have made him, if he had 
 been so minded, at least as great a writer as he was a painter. The gentlest and 
 most modest of men, the freest as to his generous appreciation of young aspirants, 
 and the frankest and largest-hearted as to his peers, incapable of a sordid or ignoble 
 thought, gallantly sustaining the true dignity of his vocation, without one grain of 
 self-assertion, wholesomely natural at the last as at the first, 'in wit a man, in sim- 
 plicity a child ; ' no artist, of whatsoever denomination, I make bold to say, ever went 
 to his rest with a truer chivalry to the Art-goddess whom he worshipped." In less 
 than two months from the utterance of these words, the speaker of them also " rested 
 from his labours." 
 
 Whatever difference of opinion — and that there is such cannot be denied — may 
 
 I 
 
58 DANIEL ,MACLISE, R.A. 
 
 j^revail on the special qualities of Maclise's pictures, it is certain that by his death 
 we lost one of our most original artists, and one who was as great in many respects 
 as he was original. In design and drawing but few, if any, of our school will bear 
 comparison with him. A rich faculty of invention, combined with great power, marks 
 almost every work that proceeded from his hand ; and yet this vigour of conception, 
 and a wonderful boldness of handling, were united with the utmost attention to detail, 
 even to pre-Raffaelism. It is said he- was no colourist, and in one sense this may be 
 true ; still, his pictures are brilliant -with colour, though often deficient in that harmony 
 which satisfies a critical eye : hence a certain harshness far from agreeable, and a want 
 of that repose which, even amid a blaze of splendour, is not beyond the. reach of the 
 painter's art. Vigour of composition and force of realisation were evidently his aim, 
 and in working up to these results he appears to have cared little for aught else : 
 but whether his canvas showed only a single figure, or was crowded with stirring 
 incident, it developed the mind and the hand of a master of Art. 
 
 LONDON ■ PRINTED bY VIKTUE AND CO., CITY AOAtt.