CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 
 OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT 
 FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY 
 
 HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE 
 
Cornell University Library 
 arY1258 
 Pictures by Sir AW. Callcott R-A- 
 
 3 1924 032 188 611 
 olin.anx 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 'SQ h-" 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032188611 
 
PICTURES 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR A. W. CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
4 
 
 E=i 
 
 0- 
 
 m 
 
 O 
 
 
 4 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 
 .t< 
 
 ^ 
 
 A 
 
 N 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 "A 
 
 ^ 
 
 O 
 
 n 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 «%tk;^.? 
 
PICTURES 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR A. W. CALLCOTT, R.A 
 
 WITH DESCRIPTIONS 
 
 AND 
 
 A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE PAINTER 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES DAFFORNE 
 
 AUTHOR OF "PICTURES BY SIR EDWIN LANDSEKR, R.A.;" "PICTURES BY CHARLES R. LESLIE, R.A. ;" "PICTURES BY WILLIAM MULREADY, R.A., 
 
 "GKEAT MASTERS OF ART," ETC., ETC. 
 
 LONDON 
 VIRTUE, SPALDING, AND CO., 26, IVY LANE 
 
 PATERNOSTER ROW 
 
c 
 
 A, 38-?-! (5" , 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 ♦ 
 
 FACE 
 
 INTRODUCTION i 
 
 SIR AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A 13 
 
 ENGLISH SCENERY 29 
 
 DUTCH, BELGIAN, AND GERMAN SCENERY 45 
 
 ITALIAN SCENERY 57 
 
 APPENDIXES :— 
 
 PICTURES EXHIBITED AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY 67 
 
 PICTURES EXHIBITED AT THE BRITISH INSTITUTION .... 70 
 PICTURES EXHIBITED AT THE BRITISH INSTITUTION AFTER THE 
 
 ARTIST'S DEATH 7i 
 
 WORKS SOLD BY AUCTION .......>..• 72 
 
LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 — ♦ — 
 
 CROSSING THE STREAM Engradeddy ] . Covs^vi . Frontispiece 
 
 THE BENIGHTED TRAVELLER . . . , „ A. Heath To fact page qa 
 
 THE BENEVOLENT COTTAGERS F- W. Topham . . 32 
 
 POOL OF THE THAMES , W. Miller ... 36 
 
 THE WOODEN BRIDGE „ J- C. Bentley . . 38 
 
 THE OLD PIER AT LITTLEHAMPTON ... „ J. Cousen ... 40 
 
 THE MEADOW .. R- Brandard . . 42 
 
 WAITING FOR THE BOATS .> J- H. Kernot . . 48 
 
 A DUTCH FERRY " R- Wallis ... 50 
 
 SEA-SHORE IN HOLLAND J- C- Bentley . .52 
 
 ENTRANCE TO PISA FROM LEGHORN ... „ J- C. Bentley . . 62 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 OOKING into the histories of the various schools of painting since 
 the revival of Art, it may be affirmed, without any fear of contra- 
 diction, that not one presents a parallel case with our own of 
 rapid growth to maturity. It occupied the Italians three centuries, 
 from the thirteenth to the fifteenth, both inclusive, to develop their 
 school, and another century fully to establish it. The Spanish School, commencing- 
 about the middle of the fifteenth century, reached its climax, in the works of Murillo 
 and Velasquez, towards the close of the seventeenth. Both of these schools have 
 long been practically defunct. That of the Flemings and Dutch, which bear so 
 close a resemblance, and therefore may be coupled together, began in the middle 
 of the fifteenth century, and attained its highest point about the end of the 
 seventeenth : yet so far as regards the former, we find in the works of the modern 
 Belgian painters a vigour and general excellence not unworthy of its ancient renown. 
 The foundation of the French School was laid early in the seventeenth century; 
 it progressed through the eighteenth century by the labours of E. Lesueur, Le Brun, 
 Jouvenet, David, &c., but it scarcely reached maturity till the earlier part of the 
 present, as exemplified in the works of Delacroix, Delaroche, Decamps, Gericault, 
 Gerard, and others. 
 
 Till the latter half of the present century England had no school of painting : 
 and, in fact, till the appearance of Hogarth, who died in 1764, we had no artist 
 of any great eminence, except the portrait-painters of the reign of Charles I., 
 Cooper, Dobson, and Oliver. But the founders of our school — Reynolds, Wilson, 
 Gainsborough, Barry, Northcote, Opie, Romney, and others— some of whom were 
 living at the commencement of the present century — were the pioneers of a numerous 
 and distinguished body of artists, whose works, except, perhaps, in the department of 
 
 B 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 history, sacred, secular, and fabled, will bear comparison with those of any aee 
 or country. Fifty years sufficed to place England on a level with the best Art- epochs 
 of the Continent ; for if we have not produced a Raffaelle, a Leonardo da Vinci 
 or a Guido, it must be borne in mind that we have exhibited a greater diversity 
 of talent and more originality than the most famous schools of Italy ever exhibited 
 If we are behind all others in historical painting, it is the result of circumstances 
 rather than of any deficiency of talent: the commercial axiom that the demand 
 usually regulates the supply is scarcely less applicable to Art, for there can be 
 no reasonable expectation, of the latter without the requirements of the former. 
 Italy, throughout her long period of artistic excellence, asked for little more than 
 the representations of saints, and martyrs, and sacred history, though in process 
 of time secular subjects of various kinds were added to these : consequently, the 
 talents of her painters were chiefly dedicated to what may be termed ecclesiastical 
 Art. Protestantism effected almost as remarkable a change in painting as in 
 religious forms and ceremonies. It opened a wider field for the talents of the 
 artist ; and as the doctrines of Huss, and Luther, and Calvin soon spread over 
 the Low Countries, there arose in them the numerous classes of landscape and 
 ^^r^-painters who have served more or less as models for those of our own school. 
 
 England is of all countries that in which landscape-painting has reached the 
 highest point of excellence, though it must be admitted that both Francb and 
 Belgium-the former especially-have within the last few years produced some 
 admirable works of this kind, after their manner-on^ entirely distinct from our own. 
 In England, too, it meets with the most liberal encouragement, as the enormous 
 sums given for pictures by Turner, D. Cox, W. Muller, and one or two more 
 abundantly prove: and, perhaps, in this latter fact we may find the cause of 
 the former, masmuch as. according to what was just stated, the demand regulates 
 the supply. Nor would it be difficult to assign a reason why this class of Art 
 IS so generally esteemed among us : we English are proverbially lovers of the 
 country-of its scenery, its occupations, its amusements, its retirement, and its 
 quietude The nobleman or the untitled landed proprietor, whose estates have been 
 handed down through successive generations, exults in his broad acres as his eye 
 surveys park and pasture, woods, and golden cornfields; and, while he feels they 
 are the sources whence his wealth and influence are derived-or, at least, that 
 they are eminently associated with his social position-he admires the beauty of 
 he landscape, he plants and cuts down, he opens out views and closes up spaces, 
 to aid Nature in forming what to his eye is the picturesque. The English merchant 
 and the prosperous tradesman, unlike those of most foreign countries, leave the 
 mart, the exchange, the counting-house or the shop, when the labours of the day 
 over, for their suburban yiHas with neatly-trimmed lawns and well-stocked 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 gardens, and half-a-dozen acres of grass, perhaps, for the cow and the poultry : 
 and so these become aids to the enjoyment of real rural life. And, descending 
 to a lower scale in the social system, the artisan, whose mind has not become 
 vitiated and his senses dulled by the dramshop — the great curse of England — 
 finds relief from his ceaseless toil, on the few holidays which fall to his lot during 
 the year, in wandering with his wife and children into some remote outskirt of 
 the crowded city or town wherein he dwells, that they may breathe the perfumes 
 of wild flowers and meadow-grass, and refresh their eyes with the verdure of green 
 fields and stately trees. " The architecture of castles and palaces," says an American 
 writer (Mr. J. J. Jarves), "the statues of local divinities, the designs of escutcheons 
 and sepulchral monuments, address the feelings both of love and pride which bind 
 generations of men together;" but there is something that addresses the feelings, 
 and invites the admiration of every human being — though her voice speaks more 
 eloquently and persuasively to some than to others— and that is Nature, in her 
 grandeur and her simplicity, in her tempests and her calm. In such contemplation 
 the peer and the peasant, the learned and the ignorant, stand on equal ground; 
 science, philosophy, education, a refined taste, are needless as they are inoperative, 
 to create a love of the beautiful, or for its real appreciation. A man can no more 
 close his heart against its influences than he can eflectually seal up his eyes to the 
 brightness of the meridian sun ; and though he may be unable to explain how he 
 is affected by the light of the one and the magnificence of the other, he feels his 
 sensibilities are awakened, and is glad. 
 
 I am not among the number of those who regard landscape-painting as an 
 art requiring little mental capacity, nor even as one of a comparatively inferior 
 character. The eye that is ever resting on the amplitude and the glory of 
 the works of a Divine Maker, the imagination which is filled with their beauty 
 and impressive power, receives what must expand and elevate the mind. Can 
 that be an inferior art that portrays the thunderstorm as it echoes from peak to 
 peak of Alpine mountain, till every living creature is awed by its terrible majesty 
 —that paints the sun as he wakes up a world from slumber; or decks it with "a 
 robe of molten gold," as he sinks in the western horizon— that reveals to our 
 eyes the rushing of the cataract or the murmur of the rivulet, so that we fancy our 
 ears catch the rippling of the one and the roar of the other— that leads us beside 
 pastures of living green, or into the cool recesses of shady woods— that shows 
 us the husbandman binding his sheaves, and the rustic dotting the meadow with 
 tiny mounds of newly-mown and sweet-scented grass ? Is that an art of inferior 
 degree which compels the closest study of the subtleties and the delicacies of Nature 
 in her ever-shifting moods, her infinite varieties of materials, and her operations; 
 which requires a certain amount of botanical knowledge to delineate the forms and 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 anatomy of trees and plants ; of the science of geology, with reference to the 
 construction and colour of rocks and other irregular masses ; of so much of 
 meteorology as to understand the laws which regulate the action of the sun with 
 regard to light and shade, the motion of the clouds, and atmospheric appearances ; 
 and of chemistry, with respect to the uses and properties of colours ? I do not 
 say that every good landscape-painter has all this knowledge in himself, so as to 
 be able to give a rule for whatever he does ; but he must possess a practical 
 knowledge, though he may be partially ignorant of theories, or he will never become 
 a faithful copyist of Nature ; and if landscape-painting requires so many varied 
 attainments, each being in itself of a high character, such Art must not be lightly 
 spoken of as one of secondary degree. It may be doubted much whether any 
 class of art offers to those who practise it so much real enjoyment ; for, whether 
 sketching in the fields, or working in the solitude of the studio, they are always 
 in communion with the beautiful: like the children of Israel when thick darkness 
 overspread the land of Egypt, they have ever "light in their dwellings." 
 
 Opinions differ, or, perhaps it should rather be said, tastes differ, on the subject 
 of what constitutes picturesque beauty : the conclusion at which all arrive, however, 
 results from one cause — the faculty of perception and of appreciation in each 
 individual; for it is scarcely possible to define the picturesque in landscape by 
 any determinate rules or abstract propositions. All nature is beautiful after its 
 kind; that is, it has within itself the essential elements of beauty in one form 
 or other; but every mind is not capable of seeing and analysing, though it 
 may be of enjoying, them ; and, therefore, carniot comprehend them : just as certain 
 chords of music, which are sweet to the ear of one listener, fall heedlessly or 
 inharmoniously on that of another. One man can see much to admire in a hedge- 
 row, and another in a forest; one in a vast extent of level plain chequered with 
 light of sun and shade of cloud, and another in some cavernous glen which 
 the sunbeams rarely penetrate; one in a range pf alpine mountains whose peaks 
 are covered with eternal snows, another in the verdant meadows enamelled with 
 the golden kingcup and pink-eyed daisy; one in the peasant's cottage over 
 whose whitened walls the red rose and fragrant honeysuckle climb and mingle, 
 and another in the relics of some old castle hoary with age and tinted with the 
 hues of moss and lichens ; one in " the willowy brook that turns a mill," and another 
 in the broad expanse of ocean, restless, upheaving, and suggestive of danger 
 and of death. 
 
 It is necessary, however, in forming an accurate opinion of an object or series 
 of objects, that the mind be fully impressed with its distinctive character; but 
 it does not always happen — indeed, the contrary is often the case— that the mind 
 actually receives what the eye looks upon. Locke remarks, in his "Essay on 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the Understanding:" — "This is certain, that whatever alterations are made in 
 the body, if they reach not the mind, and whatever impressions are made on 
 the outward parts, if they are not taken notice of within, there is no perception. 
 Fire may burn our bodies with no other effect than it does a billet, unless the 
 motion be continued to the brain, and there the sense of heat, or idea of pain, 
 be produced in the mind, wherein consists actual perception. How often may 
 a man observe in himself, that whilst his mind is intently employed in the con- 
 templation of some subjects, and curiously observing some ideas that are there, 
 it takes no notice of impressions of sounding bodies made upon the organ of 
 hearing, with the same attention that uses to be for the producing the ideas of 
 sound. A sufficient impulse there may be on the organ, but, it not reaching 
 the observation of the mind, there follows no perception, and though the motion that 
 uses to produce the idea of sound be made in the ear, yet no sound is heard." 
 Now if this be true with regard to the faculty of hearing, it is equally, indeed 
 even more so, with reference to the faculty of sight. Most of us, it may be 
 presumed, know what it is to have the eyes fixed on an object without seeing it, 
 simply because the mind is otherwise occupied, and, therefore, receives no impression 
 of what meets the vision : and even where impression is made, the effect is frequently 
 not felt, from the absence of sensibility to the power possessed by the object of 
 conferring pleasure or any other sensation. I have often remarked this in persons 
 standing before a piece of sculpture ; it has no colour to attract the eye, no 
 combination of rich and brilliant tints, like those in a painting, to dazzle and charm ; 
 perhaps, too, it tells no story, conveys no ideas to an unimaginative mind, and 
 makes no appeal to the passions; its excellences may lie only in beauty of form, 
 graceful attitude, and symmetrical proportions — qualities which are lost on some 
 minds, or are incomprehensible to them ; and hence the work is regarded as little 
 more than a piece of highly-polished marble, sculptured into the likeness of a human 
 being, but totally incapable of calling up one sympathising emotion or a single 
 ennobling thought. A similar deadness of feeling towards other objects that may 
 be really designated picturesque is by no means uncommon. Many years ago I 
 remember hearing a lady expostulating with an artist who was sketching, on the 
 beach at Brighton, the hull of an old fishing-smack, which time and the sea had 
 richly tinted, in preference to a gaily-painted yacht lying at anchor close by: she 
 was " astonished at his want of taste : " the yacht was more picturesque in her eyes 
 than the weatherbeaten boat of the fisherman. Here was an example, not of 
 absolute blindness of perception, but of perverted faculties. 
 
 Nor is this absence of true sensibility limited to the contemplation of Art. There 
 are those on whom the most glorious works of Nature make no vivid or lasting 
 impression ; who stand lipon the topmost height of the mountain -range when the 
 
 c 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 night-mists are rising from off the plains, or the western sun is throwing gigantic 
 shadows across them ; who dive into the depths of the forest, where towering trees 
 form a lengthened aisle of clustering branches ; and yet find nothing to love, 
 nothing to admire in the living beauty of the one, or the quiet grandeur of the 
 other : no lesson of devotion is taught, no spark of veneration is kindled, by such 
 scenes as these. Nature is little else than a blank page to some minds, or, if she 
 discourses eloquently, her voice is not heard. 
 
 All painters have, or are presumed to have, a sense of the beautiful, which 
 they endeavour to embody in their works ; but this sense is seen to vary as much 
 in them as it does in any other class of individuals : each has his own idea of the 
 picturesque, and strives to define it by his pencil. One finds it in the moor and 
 the mountain, another in the meadows and the hamlet; one in the rocky shore 
 and the ocean, and another in the domestic and ecclesiastical architecture of old 
 towns and cities ; some seem almost to live among the works of Nature, and others 
 among those which man has raised; one amid objects that are fresh and living, 
 another amid those whereon time hath set his "effacing finger." And though 
 each may not be insensible to the beauties seen by his brother-artist, they are not 
 of a character to win him from those to which he is more alive, or to which his own 
 tastes and feelings are more inclined : painters rarely step far out of the track 
 they have been accustomed to mark out for themselves, and to follow; and when 
 they do, the result is, generally, not conducive to their reputation. 
 
 The pleasure one receives from the contemplation of a work of Art is, as a rule, 
 derivable from its being associated in the mind with our ideas of the true, or the 
 expressive, or the beautiful, either in sentiment, or form, or action, or colour, or in 
 these partially or wholly united. Art, like speech, is the expression of thought ; but 
 speech falls inaudible upon the deaf ear, and finds no sympathy in the heart that 
 echoes not back its meaning— is not responsive to it ; so Art is appreciated only by 
 those who feel its awakening influences, but only in such a manner, or in such points, 
 as commend themselves to the taste and feeling. In using here the term " appre- 
 ciation," I would entirely disconnect its meaning from the power of judging; this 
 opens up another line of argument upon which it is unnecessary here to enter : I would 
 simply infer that a picture, a statue, or any ornamental or decorative object which 
 affords pleasure, does so because it makes its appeal successfully to the mind; 
 and, in the case of the learned, to the understanding also. Yet even in the case of the 
 latter, how different often are the opinions entertained: one man can admire a 
 Raffaelle, but has no respect for a Rubens ; another collects examples of the Dutch 
 and Flemish painters, and is wholly indifferent to the finest productions of the Italian 
 schools. Some are delighted with bold, striking, and sublime subjects ; others with 
 what is suggestive of simple beauty and repose ; the eyes of each being satisfied with 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the element or quality of excellence which best agrees with his spirit or taste — 
 taste being, in its primary considerations, the result of feeling. The operations of 
 taste on minds differently constituted — or, it should perhaps rather be said, on 
 minds comparatively ignorant of the truths of Art, and on those who have been 
 educated in them — have been thus described : " There is no more certain test of 
 good taste than the involuntary selection of subjects by the eye, in viewing for the 
 first time ornament in objects of Art. Nature works on so large or true a scale, that 
 few judge her amiss. That which is majestic, noble, picturesque, or simply 
 beautiful as a whole, classes itself at once in all minds ; and the fact of a common 
 decision on these points demonstrates the genuineness of the laws of Taste. The 
 common mind differs from the cultivated, in its knowledge and appreciation of 
 Nature's beauty in detail. The former sees only partially, the latter grasps the 
 whole and distinguishes the parts; nothing, however humble, which goes to make 
 up the chord of beauty, escapes its notice. Where the appreciation of the one ends, 
 the pleasure of the other is but begun ; so that his delight is as true and infinite as 
 Nature herself. The natural eye, therefore, sees all things as in a glass darkly— the 
 cultivated penetrates the film of Nature, and looks into her heart."* 
 
 Now, may not this train of thought be carried from Art generally to the productions 
 of individual painters ? It is too much the practice to criticise unfairly, and to condemn, 
 an artist, simply because his works are not fashioned according to our taste, or in 
 exact harmony with our own feelings; forgetful that to others equally capable as 
 ourselves— possibly more capable— of coming to a right decision, they may embody 
 all that is excellent ; and when we do so, how great injustice is committed ! Another 
 ground whereon this superstructure of erroneous judgment is raised, is, that hastily 
 rejecting, at a glance perhaps, what is represented, we take no trouble to ascertain 
 its merits, we give to it neither close examination nor patient study; and, 
 unwilling to recognise and accept the spirit which created and formed it, we 
 consign to neglect, or, worse perhaps, publicly condemn, a work of genius merely 
 because we chance to have " an unwholesome preference" for some others. Suppose 
 such a principle of feeling and acting were transferred from the world of Art to that 
 of Nature, we should have one man arraigning the wisdom of Providence because 
 the sky is not always blue, and another because the sunshine is frequently dimmed 
 by cloudy weather; one because the surface of the earth is not an unvarying 
 extent of gentle slopes and verdant meadows, another because it does not exhibit a 
 succession of lofty mountains an4 rugged precipices. The proof of true taste and of 
 a right and kindly spirit lies in the ability and desire to discover beauty or excellence 
 under every guise, without prejudice or undue partiality. The first effort of the 
 
 * " Art Hints." By J. J. Jarves. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 critic should be directed to the divesting himself of every impediment that may 
 hinder his arriving at a just, reasonable, and correct conclusion, according to his 
 power of thus judging. 
 
 Again, we should accept the artist for what he is, and not repudiate him 
 for what he is not, nor pretends to be : the charlatan who assumes a position for 
 which every one sees him to be disqualified is a fair mark for animadversion ; but 
 the man who so knows himself as to keep within his own capabilities, demands 
 the respect due to him. Men of great and surpassing genius are not created every 
 day ; they are the rarce aves, which are produced at long intervals of time to stand as 
 examples to the world at large of the ennobling gifts Nature is able to bestow, and as 
 suns in the intellectual sphere round which lesser lights may revolve, but whose 
 brightness they can never equal, much less outshine. Such men are occasionally 
 raised up for the wonder and honour of the nations, to be followed and imitated, 
 though it will ever be at a far-off distance. Painters, as well as poets, philosophers, 
 men of science, and orators, must be measured each according to his degree of 
 intelligent power; and it would be as absurd to condemn Addison or Akenside, 
 because the one had not the gifts of Milton and the other of Shakspeare, as it is to 
 ignore the works of a second or third-rate artist because he has been denied the genius 
 of Raifaelle, Titian, or Michael Angelo. 
 
 Nowhere has landscape-painting attained so high a position, at least in times 
 comparatively modern, as in England. Gainsborough and Richard Wilson, its two 
 greatest exponents in the early days of our school, were succeeded by Turner, 
 Constable, Callcott, Crome — an artist whose works were long neglected as of 
 little value, though collectors have recently learned to form a right estimate of their 
 merits, and have now to pay large prices to secure them — Collins, Nasmyth, W. 
 Miiller, and others. The water-colour landscape-painters, as exemplified by D. Cox, 
 Copley Fielding, P. Dewint, and others, carried their art to the highest point of 
 perfection. Of the living artists, both in oils and water-colours, it must suffice to say 
 they well sustain the character of the British School ; though in the case of some 
 it must be admitted that they have materially changed its principles. 
 
 And while writing of landscape-artists, we cannot overlook the fact that by their 
 efforts we extend very considerably our topographical knowledge. It falls to the lot 
 of few persons compared with the many— even in these days of rapid and facile transit 
 —to journey beyond the limits of their native country. But Art, as now practised, 
 brings almost every place of beauty or interest home to us. -Such are the 
 wandering propensities of a large number of artists, such their energy, their 
 disregard of dangers and difficulties, their desire to see, and to show to others, 
 whatever is rich and rare on the face of nature, or is known to fame by the records 
 of history, that there is scarcely an accessible region, civilised or savage, throughout 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the world, unvisited by the artist ; and many of these places seem to be almost as 
 familiar to us who tarry at home and have the opportunity of seeing the results of his 
 travels, as the highways along which we walk or ride daily to our ordinary avocations. 
 In Art, as in numerous other matters, the resolution, courage, perseverance, and love 
 of adventure which form such powerful elements of action in the English character, 
 enable the artist to triumph over all obstacles, and achieve results unapproached, 
 to a similar extent, by the painters of other countries. 
 
 In comparison with ourselves, how ignorant must the vast majority of our 
 forefathers have been of much with which we are intimately acquainted. Rarely 
 venturing beyond the shores of the kingdom except upon urgent claims of business, 
 and travelling but little within the confines of their own country — Art, yet in its 
 infancy among them, restricted in its practice and limited as to its diffusion— their 
 geographical and topographical knowledge was mainly bounded by such information 
 as the writings of travellers afforded. But no description, however graphically 
 or eloquently narrated, can convey to the mind so impressive and truthful repre- 
 sentation as that which comes within the range of the eye : hence the painter's 
 art assumes a value far beyond that of the author; hence, too, the combined 
 efforts of the painter and the engraver have, in these latter years, gathered aroimd 
 us very much that is magnificent and beautiful in the natural world, with much also 
 of what is associated with the history of mankind in its brightest or darkest periods, 
 and which our fathers knew only by name. 
 
 We are accustomed to claim for our own landscape-painters superiority over 
 those of continental schools, and to some extent it is a just claim ; but much for 
 which we give them credit arises from our greater familiarity with English than 
 with foreign scenery ; and, nationally, we prefer it. Our artists, moreover, as I 
 believe, study nature more closely than do those of other countries, while the 
 peculiarities of our climate are productive of atmospheric effects rarely seen elsewhere 
 except in mountainous regions. One of our poets designates England as the 
 
 " Rich queen of mists and vapours," 
 
 and in the presence of such influences even a flat and barren heath ^which, under 
 an ordinary effect of daylight, is as monotonous and unpicturesque as can well be 
 imagined — ^when towering clouds roll in massy volumes overhead, assumes a character 
 almost approaching to sublimity as their shadows sweep slowly and majestically across 
 the plain, followed by long tracks of light, that in turn give place to succeeding 
 lines of gloom, as the forms which create them obey the impulse of the moving 
 power. The varied character of English scenery is one of its greatest charms; 
 the combinations of hill and dale, of pasture and cornfields, of navigable rivers 
 and green meadows, of lofty woodlands and rural hamlets, and old grey church- 
 
 D 
 
,Q INTRODUCTION. 
 
 towers and pictures;iue ruins, are features or elements of beauty that are nowhere 
 else seen in such ample abundance and within such limited ranges as in our own 
 country"; and it is these which have made the English landscape-painter what he 
 is very generally acknowledged to be— not a mere copyist of Nature, but one 
 who can delineate her with the feeling of a poet and the fidelity of a loving and 
 diligent student. 
 
 It must, however, be admitted that, as I intimated on a previous page, the 
 principles on which many of our landscape-painters work — and among them are 
 some who have attained great popularity— differ very widely from those that formed 
 the basis of the style practised by the artists who, both here and on the Continent, 
 raised their art to the high position it reached from the seventeenth century to the 
 first half of the present centuiy. A seeking after novelty, or a desire to attract by 
 singularity, or an affectation of some kind or other, has been the means of drawing 
 men aside from the path trodden by the great landscape-painters of the Low 
 Countries and France, and by those who so largely contributed to the foundation of 
 our own school, wath their immediate followers— artists whose names have already 
 been mentioned. If these were right in the opinions they held concerning landscape- 
 painting — opinions which guided their practice— those who differ so widely from 
 them cannot also be right : the same actual result, at least in Art, cannot be 
 reached by two diametrically opposite modes of dealing with it. Set two artists, 
 each one a representative of his class, to sketch the same landscape, and we should 
 doubtless have the same view, but totally different in feeling and expression ; in 
 the one a close exactness, a prosaic exactness, of what the sketcher has seen ; in 
 the other. Nature represented through the medium of a poetic imagination, fully 
 sensible of her manifold beauties, and giving to them the impress of truth allied 
 with fancy. 
 
 Poetic landscape-painting is of comparatively recent date, and reached Its 
 culminating point — at least in England, if not in every other country — in the 
 works of Turner. Till the seventeenth century it scarcely had any existence, though 
 some of the painters, and Titian especially, made some approach to it ; as also did, 
 and still nearer, the two Poussins, and Salvator Rosa, in the seventeenth century : 
 there is a classic beauty in the landscapes of Nicolas Poussin, a solemn melancholy 
 character in those of his brother-in-law Gaspar Dughet, commonly known as Gaspar 
 Poussin, and a "savage grandeur" in those of Salvator Rosa. Of the last Fuseli 
 says, he delighted in "ideas of desolation, solitude, and danger; impenetrable forests, 
 rocky or storm- lashed shores ; in lonely dells leading to dens and caverns of banditti, 
 alpine ridges, trees blasted by lightning, or sapped by time, or stretching their extra- 
 vagant arms athwart a murky sky; lowering or thundering clouds, and suns shorn 
 of their beams. His figures are wandering shepherds, forlorn travellers, wrecked 
 
INTRODUCTION. li 
 
 mariners, banditti lurking for their prey, or dividing their spoils." Claude Gelee, 
 of Lorraine, contemporary with these, shows a degree of poetic feeling, but altogether 
 of a different kind, and one that savours far more of the studio than of nature. 
 Claude's biographers state that he was accustomed to spend much time in the 
 fields watching the passing clouds; if so, he seems to have taken home with him 
 but very limited and weak ideas of their variety of form and colour, even for 
 Italian skies. Compare a sunset of Turner's with one of Claude's, and how tame 
 and insipid is that of the latter. The old Dutch and Flemish landscape-painters made 
 but little comparative progress towards a realisation of the poetry of Art: Cuyp 
 and Adrian Vander Velde, Ruysdael, and Both, and Hobbema, beautiful as are 
 their works, saw nature, generally, through a prosaic medium : some of their 
 compositions are designed with a certain amount of poetic feeling so far as regards 
 the materials of the subject, but the light in which they are presented shows 
 little of the ideal beauty that is so much more attractive and winsome than a 
 mere transcript of nature. These men, however, led the way into the pastures 
 and cornfields, and beside the streams and rivers, traversed by their successors, 
 both here and on the European continent, with more expansive and loftier views 
 of what landscape-painting is capable of achieving in the way of exhibiting nature 
 in all her sublimity and loveliness, her strength, her grace and tenderness. It 
 was left to the artists of the present century to reveal to us all this ; they have 
 done, and are still doing, it most effectually, and we owe much to them for it. 
 
SIR AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT. R.A. 
 
SIR AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 USIC and painting — sister-arts — found their homes, through more than 
 one generation, in two families allied by marriage, and resident in a 
 locality the name of which, to those unacquainted with the place, would 
 seem to have but little harmonious association with the arts of any 
 kind. Kensington Gravel Pits — such is the spot alluded to — was, in 
 the last century, adorned with some venerable picturesque mansions, of which a few 
 still remain, half concealed by stately trees of far older growth. In the village of 
 Kensington — for at one time, and that not so very far distant comparatively, it had 
 no more pretentious designation — stood Holland House, still in existence, built by Sir 
 Walter Cope, and enlarged by Inigo Jones ; Campden House, erected by Viscount 
 Campden, but burnt down not very many years ago ; Hale House, one of the numerous 
 suburban residences said to hav« been inhabited by Oliver Cromwell ; and Kensington 
 Palace, originally a mansion belonging to the family of Finch, earls of Nottingham, 
 which William III. purchased, and converted into a palace, and there he died after 
 being thrown from his horse when riding from Kensington to Hampton Court. In 
 this royal residence was born our beloved sovereign, Queen Victoria. Much more 
 might be said of this interesting locality, but it would here be out of place. 
 Kensington Gardens, however, must not be omitted; they have long been a 
 fashionable resort, for a century and a half ago the poet Tickell opens one of his 
 eclogues with this eulogy of them : — 
 
 " The dames of Britain oft in crowds repair, 
 For gravel walks and unpolluted air : 
 Here, while the town in damps and darkness lies, 
 They breathe in sunshine, and see azure skies. 
 Each walk, with robes of various dyes bespread. 
 Seems from afar a moving tulip-bed, 
 Where rich brocades and glossy damasks glow, 
 And chintz, the rival of the showery bow." 
 
,6 sm AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 The ladies of the present day would, one may fairly presume, smile at the idea of 
 being clad in " damasks" and " chintz ; " at least, in fabrics to which these names are 
 now given. 
 
 Kensington and its vicinity have, for many years past, been favourite places of 
 residence with artists and men of science and literature ; and there, during more than 
 a century, lived the two families alluded to, Dr. Callcott, William Horsley, and Mr. 
 William Hutchins Callcott— names well known to every lover of genuine English 
 vocal compositions — Sir Augustus Wall Callcott, and his great-nephew, Mr. John 
 Callcott Horsley, the present Royal Academician ; Mr. William H. Callcott, who is 
 still living, is the nephew of Sir Augustus. The Callcotts and Horsleys became 
 united by marriage, and Mr. J. C. Horsley, as descended from both families, bears 
 their joint names. 
 
 Sir Augustus W. Callcott was born at Kensington Gravel Pits in 1779, and resided 
 there, with a brief interval, all his life, a period of nearly sixty-six years. He gave 
 early indications of a taste for the Arts in general ; but in consequence, probably, of 
 his near relationship to Dr. Callcott, his elder brother, he chose music as a profession, 
 and for some time sung in the choir of Westminster Abbey under the late Dr. Cooke, 
 till, as reported, his voice broke. Mr. Webster, R.A., was also early educated to the 
 musical profession, and sang in the choir of the Chapel Royal, St. James's. Whether 
 Callcott employed his pencil during that period of his life, I am unable to determine ; 
 but before he had reached the age of twenty he began to study portrait-painting under 
 John Hoppner, R.A., who, singularly enough, had been when young a chorister in 
 the Chapel Royal. Hoppner was elected a Royal Academician in 1795, became a 
 very fashionable painter, and a formidable rival to Lawrence. The authors of "A 
 Century of Painters" quote a passage from a letter written by the latter in 18 10, 
 in which he admits the fact : — " You will be sorry to hear it," Lawrence says, "my 
 most powerful competitor, he whom only (to my friends) I have acknowledged as 
 my rival, is, L fear, sinking to the grave. I mean, of course, Hoppner. .... You 
 will believe that I" (shall?) "sincerely feel the loss of a brother-artist, from 
 whose works I have often gained instruction, and who has gone by my side in the 
 race these eighteen years." Hoppner died very early that year, and Lawrence, in 
 a second letter to his friend, adds: "The death of Hoppner leaves me without a 
 rival." Callcott, while working under Hoppner, was entered, in 1797, as a student 
 of the Royal Academy. Haydon, in his " Autobiography," relates the following 
 amusing story referring to the student-life of himself and others :—"Eastlake 
 told me that Callcott said once to Wilkie,— ' Do you not know that every one 
 complains of your continual rea-al-ly?' Wilkie mused a moment, looked at 
 Callcott, and drawled out, 'Do they rea-al-ly?' — 'You must leave it off.'— 'I 
 will, rea-al-ly.'— ' For heaven's sake don't keep repeating it,' said Callcott, 'it 
 
SJH AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 17 
 
 annoys me.' Wilkie looked, smiled, and in the most unconscious manner said, 
 ' Rea-al-ly ! ' " 
 
 In 1799 he sent his first picture to the exhibition of the Academy; this was a 
 portrait of Miss Roberts; and in 1 801 he contributed three works, of which two were 
 portraits, and one a landscape — a "View of Oxford." In that year he either had a 
 studio in town, or was temporarily residing there, for his address, as given in the 
 Academy catalogue, is 24, Leicester Square : henceforth, and to the close of his life, 
 it is at Kensington Gravel Pits. The portraits he had painted up to the year 
 1803 promised for him considerable success in this department of Art, but he 
 very soon turned his attention to landscape, and was accustomed to say that 
 Stothard's charming designs illustrating "Robinson Crusoe" mainly induced him to 
 change his practice. 
 
 In Mr. Thornburj^'s "Life of Turner," mention is made of a sketching-class 
 established towards the close of the last century by Girtin, the water-colour painter, 
 " which was open to patrons and amateurs as well as to artists. For three years this 
 little society of enthusiasts met on winter evenings for mutual improvement." " The 
 society consisted," Mr. Thornbury adds in a note, "of ten members: T. Girtin, the 
 founder ; Sir Robert Ker Porter, Sir Augustus Callcott, J. R. Underwood, G. Samuel, 
 P. S. Murray, J. T. Colman, L. Francia (pupil of Girtin' s), W. H. Worthington, and 
 J. C. Denham." They used to meet alternately at each other's houses, at six o'clock, 
 and after partaking of tea or coffee, over which they chatted about the work of the 
 evening — always a subject taken from an English poet — they began their task, and 
 continued it till the hour of ten, when a plain supper was ready for them. " The 
 member at whose house they met supplied stained {sic) paper, colours, and pencils ; 
 and all the sketches of the evening became his property." A similar society was 
 founded some years later, of which the two Chalons, Leslie, Uwins, Landseer, and 
 others, were members. Of Girtin's society two members only have left their marks 
 on the Art of the country, himself and Callcott ; Sir R. K. Porter is better known as 
 a traveller than an artist, yet his book of Eastern travel is illustrated with some 
 excellent engravings from his sketches. 
 
 It is a common assertion that the life of an artist must be looked for only in his 
 pictures ; and the truth of the remark may be admitted as a generality, yet only so 
 far as relates to his Art-work ; for it may be presumed that with very few exceptions, 
 the walls of the studio do not bound all which might be said or written concerning a 
 painter; we look for the artist in it, and for the man.'m his social character out of it. 
 Moreover — and especially in the case of landscape-painters who are travellers — there 
 is often very much of incident associated, more or less, with the labours of the studio, 
 which might be interwoven most pleasantly with biographical narrative. Callcott was 
 not what might strictly be called a recluse ; he mixed much in society, and that not 
 
,8 SJR AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 limited to his own profession ; besides, he visited continental countries on more than 
 one occasion, and yet it does not appear that he left behind him any records of any 
 kind concerning the people with whom he associated, or the places he visited ; and it 
 is somewhat singular that, in the published lives of his contemporaries, as Constable, 
 Leslie, Turner, Etty, Collins, Uwins, his name is only to be found quite occasionally; 
 this seems almost inexplicable, considering the position Callcott occupied among his 
 brother-artists, and the universal respect in which he was held by all who were 
 acquainted with him. I remarked something to this effect recently to a well-known 
 Royal Academician, who replied: — " I imagine few lives of eminent men would offer 
 less material of biographical interest than Callcott' s. 1 remember him well from the 
 time I was six or seven years old (half a century since) till his death, and I should 
 sum up his life as that of a man devoted to his profession and to society. He was 
 one of the handsomest and most agreeable men of his time, and was welcomed 
 wherever he went. For years and years, and during the London season, I should say 
 that one day was as like another as possible ; namely, breakfasting at eight o'clock, 
 always getting into his painting-room by half-past eight, and only leaving it in time • 
 to dress and go out to dinner." And thus, as it would seem, the life of the painter 
 glided away, happy, no doubt, in his work, and happy in his connections and friends, 
 but bequeathing to the world not a fragment of information respecting the Art of his 
 period, nor of those with whom he was accustomed to mingle, nor of his own 
 experiences either in or out of his studio. 
 
 Callcott' s landscapes soon found so much favour with the public and the members 
 of the Royal Academy, that the latter elected him, in 1806, an Associate of the 
 institution ; and four years later, Academician. With the exception of one work, 
 "Lago Maggiore, with a . Thunderstorm," exhibited In 1802, and three or four 
 portraits and figure-subjects— to the last of which reference will be made presently- 
 all his pictures, up to the year 1819, were of English or Welsh scenery. The " Lago 
 Maggiore" must have been painted from a sketch made by some one else, for there 
 is no evidence that Callcott had ever been abroad till some years after the date of Its 
 exhibition. Among the places where he found subjects at this comparatively early 
 part of his career, were the neighbourhood of Bala and other towns in Montgomery- 
 shire, in Shropshire, and around Southampton, &c. The year after his election as 
 Academician he exhibited no fewer than ten pictures ; it is clear, therefore, that the 
 law which now limits all artists to eight works, was not then in existence ; there are 
 few painters of the present day who avail themselves of the privilege to which the 
 rules of the Academy entitle them, and it is quite as well that it should be so ; hence 
 we have greater variety on the walls of the galleries, and a larger number of artists 
 are also represented. 
 
 In what year Callcott made his first foreign tour seems uncertain ; his first Dutch 
 
S/R AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, li.A. iq 
 
 subject, "Rotterdam," appeared at the Academy in 1819; and four years elapsed 
 ere another work, having its origin in the same country, appeared ; but from that 
 date (1823) forward he painted many. Thinking at times, — and especially when 
 walking through any one of our public picture-galleries open during the season, the 
 Royal Academy, for example, — on the large number of paintings of foreign scenery 
 by British artists one sees in the rooms, it has occurred to me as somewhat surprising 
 that the varied and notably beautiful scenery of our own island rarely, if ever, 
 tempts continental artists to make it their sketching-ground. Our landscape-painters 
 are found all over the world, it may almost be said; certainly there are very few 
 places of artistic interest on the European Continent which has not called into 
 exercise the pencil of the English artist. But foreigners do not pay us the same 
 compliment, though on our sea-coasts, as well as inland, there is quite enough of 
 the picturesque, it is not presumption to assume, to attract them to our shores. In 
 old architectural examples, such as abound more or less in every town, be it large 
 or small, and in almost every village in France, Belgium, &c., we in England are, 
 unfortunately, deficient. I say "unfortunately," because they are of great pictorial 
 value. Moreover, the costumes of the Continent, particularly those worn by the 
 lower classes, are far more picturesque than we have at home ; and these things, 
 trivial as they may appear to any one who has never considered what it takes to 
 make up an attractive composition, are matters of which no real artist fails to take 
 account. On the other hand, where will be found richer or more diversified land- 
 scapes than in England? yet are they ignored by our continental neighbours, who, 
 as a rule, do not travel abroad, as so many of our own painters are accustomed to 
 do, in search of subjects : they are generally content with what they get nearer 
 home ; while it may be said that the quality of our scenery is not in accordance 
 with their tastes. There is much truth in the remarks of an anonymous writer, who 
 says: "French landscape-painters of the present day care little for the gladness 
 of nature. Their sympathy with scenery is limited, their appreciation inconstant. 
 In certain moods of weather, in certain seasons of light, the beauty of the outward 
 world reveals itself to them, and they at once recognise in nature an expression of 
 human feeling. But they have not the natural love of her which makes them seek 
 out and carefully observe her details. We do not, therefore, find in their pictures 
 the careful imitation of separate flowers, the exact knowledge of foliage, which 
 are sometimes met with in an English painter. All minute things are slurred 
 over quickly. The different parts of the landscape are reduced into a single effect : 
 and yet this is done with so much truth of instinct that the result preserves the 
 essential qualities in the landscape, for the sake of which the picture was painted." 
 But, after all, the men who may strictly be called national landscape-painters — such 
 as Millet and Corot, whom France has unhappily lost within the present year, and 
 
S/H AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 the Linnells and Vicat Cole, of our own school, are respectively types of their 
 order. The wanderers from the shores of England — and they are a numerous class 
 — are, at least very many of them, somewhat amphibious, land and water sharing 
 almost equally their attention: among these may be placed Turner, Callcott, and 
 Stanfield. 
 
 Up to the year 1827 it was generally supposed Callcott was so wedded to 
 his art that he cared not to enter upon the state of matrimony: however, on 
 the 20th of February in that year — the date given by the authors of " A Century 
 of Painters "—Callcott married Mrs. Graham, the widow of Captain Graham, a naval 
 officer. With reference to this event, the following incident is told in their volumes : 
 — " Callcott and Mulready were neighbours from early times, and, being seven years 
 the elder, Callcott was a little looked up to by his junior. Varley* also was 
 intimate with them. A curious story used to be told among the members of Call- 
 cott' s family, and during the lifetime of both parties, relating to Varley' s practice of, 
 and belief in, astrology. Varley asked Callcott to give him his exact age ; and 
 having obtained it, cast his nativity, sealed it up, and gave it to Mulready, charging 
 him to keep it safely until Callcott was fifty years old. The paper, it is said, was 
 laid aside and forgotten, until Callcott, then in his fiftieth year, wrote to Mulready, 
 to invite him to his wedding, which was about to take place with Mrs. Graham, 
 the widow of Captain Graham. Mulready recollected Varley's sealed paper and his 
 injunction, and took the document with him, opening it in the presence of the assembled 
 company ; the contents run thus : ' Callcott will remain single until he is fifty, and 
 then will marry and go to Italy.' " " Over and over again," write Messrs. Redgrave, 
 the authors of the book from which this extract is taken, "have we heard this tale 
 told, with many other of Varley's wild fancies." But it is clear, as they admit, 
 that if the date of Callcott' s marriage, as stated above, be correct — it took place 
 on the anniversary of his birthday, when he had reached the age of forty-eight — 
 Varley must have made a false prediction. The journey to Italy, however, was 
 really undertaken soon after the marriage. In Leslie's "Autobiographical Recol- 
 lections" I find, in a letter to him from "Leslie's old chum, Peter Powell," as 
 the editor, Mr. Tom Taylor, designates that gentleman, the following paragraphs ; 
 the letter is dated "Padua, 27th November, 1827 : — ^You have,- perhaps, also heard 
 that I /ell in with Callcott and his wife at Venice, and have not yet fallen out with 
 them, although they are at present at Milan and / am here. I had been at Venice 
 some time when they arrived, and the first I heard of him was from the English 
 
 * John Varley, one of the founders of the Water-colour Society, died in 1842. He was an inveterate 
 astrologer ; and sought every opportunity of casting the nativity of his friends arid acquaintances : I met him 
 once only, when he would have subjected me to the ordeal, as he held me by the button of my coat ; but 
 I had just then neither the disposition nor the time to hear him out. — J. D. 
 
SIJi AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 21 
 
 Consul there, who told me he was very ill; and, accordingly, on going to his 
 hotel, I found him in bed, looking very woebegone and terribly hipped. It turned 
 out, however, that he was more frightened than hurt, and the doctor pronounced 
 his disorder to be of short duration, though poor Callcott's face was as long as my 
 arm. In two days he was quite well, and we enjoyed about ten days together at 
 
 Venice very much, as you may suppose Mrs. Callcott, who {sic) I had never 
 
 before seen more than once, I like vastly, and she is certainly a most extraordinary 
 woman in point of information and talent; notwithstanding which, we became 
 excellent friends ! ! ! The Callcotts and I left Venice, and visited Padua, Mantua, 
 and Verona together ; after which they went to Milan, which I had seen, and they 
 had not, and we expect to join again either at Bologna or Florence. This unexpected 
 rencounter at Venice has, I believe, been very agreeable to all of us." No mention 
 is here made of Callcott's visit to Rome, though it may be presumed, from some 
 of the pictures he painted later in life, that he must have been there at one period : 
 he may possibly have paid a second visit to Italy ; but of this I find no record of 
 any kind. 
 
 Mrs. Graham was a lady who had travelled much with her first husband: she 
 had, prior to her marriage with Callcott, gained considerable literary distinction, 
 and had also cultivated an acquaintance with the Fine Arts. The following works 
 from her pen appeared under the name of Maria Graham: — "Letters on India," 
 with nine etchings, 8vo., 18 14; "Three Months passed in the Mountains east of 
 Rome," 8vo., 1820; "Memoirs of the Life of Nicholas Poussin," 8vo., 1820; 
 "Journal of a Residence in Chili during the year 1822, and a Voyage from Chili 
 to Brazil in 1823," plates, 4to., 1824; "Voyage of H.M.S. Blonde to the Sandwich 
 Islands in the years 1824-25," with an introduction by Mrs. M. G., plates, 4to., 1827. 
 The name of Maria Callcott appears on the title-pages of the following works : — 
 " Rome in the Nineteenth Century, with Remarks on the Fine Arts, on the State 
 of Society, &c.," 3 vols., 8vo., Edinburgh, 1826;* "Description of the Chapel of 
 the Annunziata dell' Arena, or Giotto's Chapel, in Padua," 4to., London, 1835; 
 "Essays towards the History of Painting," 8vo., London, 1836; "Continuation 
 of Essays," 8vo., London, 1838; "A Scripture Herbal," by M. C, post 8vo., 
 London, 1842. 
 
 I find in Messrs. Redgrave's "Century of Painters" a very pleasant sketch 
 of the later years of Lady Callcott, who then bore that title, her Majesty, 
 when she ascended the throne in 1837, having conferred on Callcott the honour 
 
 * These lists are taken from the " Catalogue of Books on Art," published by the Department of Science 
 and Art, South Kensington. There is, however, some mistake here; for Mrs. Graham did not become 
 Mrs. Callcott till the year after the above date. 
 
 G 
 
Sm AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, Ji.A. 
 
 of knighthood : — " Callcott's health was not strong as he advanced in years. 
 Lady Callcott's, after a time, wholly failed ; and for many years before her death, 
 which happened in 1842, she was a complete invalid, confined to her chamber, 
 almost to her bed. Yet in that sick chamber she managed, in the intervals of 
 her suffering, to draw around her a circle of friends, of literary companions, of 
 artists young and old ; to learn of, and be interested in, the advance and social 
 progress of the outer world from which she was so much cut off. In the long 
 summer evenings, when these occasional gatherings took place, as the sun declined 
 in the west and the day faded into twilight, the room and the company formed a 
 picture such as memory reverts to with many regrets, and we are reminded of our 
 own art-aspirations, and the subjects of interest there discussed. The little bed on 
 which the lady sat, partly dressed, and propped up with pillows, covered with rich 
 draperies, was placed before the windows of a room in the old house — a copyhold 
 tenement of the Callcotts — in which the painter lived and died. Vines were trained 
 across and across the window, and through their leaves the rays of the setting sun 
 came tempered and moderated into green coolness. Inside the room there was 
 usually a small selection of rare plants in pots, and little bouquets of choice flowers 
 on the tables. Two or three dogs formed part of the company-^one of large size 
 was a great favourite with the mistress ; while the visitants, seated about on the old 
 furniture of a quaint, picturesque, and irregular room, gave the painters of the party 
 many hints of colour and effect as the light sank away into gloom. Lady Callcott 
 mostly supported the conversation. She was somewhat imperious in her state- 
 chamber; the painter being more of a silent listener until some incident of travel, 
 some question of art, roused him up to earnest interest or wise remark. He was 
 a kindly-hearted man, and always seemed interested in the progress of the young, 
 being quite willing to communicate to them his art-lore, and to advise with them 
 on the progress of their pictures ; and for his sake the young painters (who in the 
 latter days of his life had begun to flock to Kensington, for that its air was clearer 
 and its daylight longer than in Newman Street and Charlotte Street) " —where 
 artists were accustomed to congregate forty or fifty years ago — "made it a rule to 
 take their works on the morning of sending in to the Academy, and range them 
 before the sick lady who could not leave her chamber, that she might have a sight 
 at least of some portion of the coming exhibition ; and then, their labours done 
 for awhile, off they trooped to Willesden or Richmond, or some quiet suburb, to 
 let off their exuberant spirits — for artists are right merry fellows — in quoits or 
 football, in hockey or rounders : a custom which has continued to this day,* 
 although the cause of its institution has long since left us. After Lady Callcott's 
 
 This was written in 1866. — [J. D.] 
 
SIR AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. zj 
 
 death, Calkott's nieces took charge of his household." Dr. Waagen, in his "Art- 
 Treasures in Great Britain," speaks of a portrait of Lady Callcott, painted by Sir 
 Augustus, among the pictures in the possession of the Marquis of Lansdowne, in 
 Lansdowne House; and says of it: — "This lady's noble, delicate, and intelligent 
 features are rendered with great feeling." 
 
 After returning home from his Italian marriage-trip in 1827-28, Callcott seems to 
 have made the scenery of England, Holland, and Italy, the subjects of his pencil in 
 tolerably equal divisions; and in this order I propose to consider the principal 
 landscapes painted by him, so far as they have happened to fall under my notice 
 either as paintings or as engravings. But before doing this, some notice may be 
 taken of the few figure-subjects painted by him, which may be called his exceptional 
 works. 
 
 He began life, as I have already said, by painting portraits, and of these works 
 he exhibited five between the years 1799 and 1803; from this last year till 18 10, 
 when he had risen to be a Royal Academician, no portraits by him were exhibited in 
 the public galleries, but in 1810 one called " A Young Lady" appeared in the 
 Academy ; it was the last work of its kind. 
 
 The British Institution seems to have been the arena chosen by Callcott for 
 exhibiting his figure-subjects : in 1 808, he sent there a large picture, measuring six 
 feet by nearly five feet, including the frame, entitled " Cow- Boys." I have no clue 
 whatever to it. In 181 1, and again in 181 2, I find Callcott exhibiting at the British 
 Institution "Travelling Tinkers," a work quite unknown to me: it was also hung in 
 the Academy in 181 1, after it had left the Institution. 
 
 A long interval, twenty-two years, elapsed before he was again seen in the Pall 
 Mall Gallery; but in 1834 he sent there a small painting — "Scene from the Merry 
 Wives of Windsor ; " — 
 
 Anne Page. Wilt please your worship to come in, sir? 
 Slender. No, I thank you, forsooth, heartily ; I am very well. 
 Anne Page. The dinner attends you, sir. 
 Slender. I am not hungry, I thank you, forsooth," &c. 
 
 Callcott evidently designed this composition with a view to the theatrical representa- 
 tion, for at each side are stage-hangings — curtains drawn aside to show the scene. 
 On the left of the picture is an open doorway, through which are seen some figures at 
 a dinner-table : in front of the doorway, Anne Page, with hands folded together, 
 invites Slender to enter ; the latter, with walking-stick in front of him, stands at a 
 respectful distance from "fair Mistress Anne," looking very silly and uncomfortable. 
 Behind Slender, in the middle distance, are two figures leaning over a sort of balus- 
 trade, and looking towards Windsor Castle and the town, which compose the distance. 
 
24 SIR AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 This picture is in the Sheepshanks Collection at South Kensington; it is also 
 engraved in Finden's "Royal Gallery of British Art." 
 
 In the following year Callcott sent to the same gallery " An Italian Girl dressed 
 for the Festa;" and another scene from the Merry Wives of Windsor, which had 
 for its title: — "Falstaff, when escaping from Ford's in the disguise of the Old 
 Woman of Brentford, is followed by Simple, to know ' If Slender is to have Anne 
 Page or no:' " — 
 
 Falstaff. 'Tis, 'tis his fortune. 
 
 Simple. What, sir ? 
 
 Falstaff. To have her or no : Go, say the woman told me so. 
 
 Simple. May I be so bold to say so, sir ? 
 
 This picture is in the Sheepshanks Collection at South Kensington : it is a very 
 small work, painted on paper mounted on canvas. There are two other figure- 
 subjects, of which I can give no account, — "Apollo slaying the Sons of Niobe," 
 exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1811 ; and "Relieve the Fatherless, plead for 
 the Widow," in the British Institution in 1835. 
 
 In the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1832, was a picture by Callcott called 
 "The Benighted Traveller," suggested by the following lines: — 
 
 " The wayworn trav'Uer's daylight fails too soon, 
 While threat'ning storms chase down the rayless moon ; 
 To ask his path across the length'ning moor, 
 Turning, he seeks the last lone cottage-door 
 Whence the bright faggot shoots its cheerful light. 
 And, adding double darkness to the night, 
 Brings all the comforts of that home to mind 
 He spurned in youth, but longs in age to find." 
 
 Three years afterwards, namely, in 1835, the same subject appeared in the gallery 
 of the British Institution, a small picture described as "a sketch;" and in the 
 Vernon Collection is a still smaller " sketch," of which an engraving, the exact 
 size of the original, is here introduced, as an example of the artist's figure-subjects. 
 It is painted on paper fixed to a piece of millboard, and shows the story of the 
 traveller definitely and effectively. The man, who is yet young, and carries a child 
 at his back, has the appearance of a sailor; behind him is the "length'ning 
 moor," with the moon just peeping above the horizon, not yet sufficiently high to 
 illuminate the darkness. Having opened the wicket-gate of the cottage and roused 
 its inmates, he stands at the door Seeking direction on his way, as his action infers ; 
 or, not unlikely, imploring a night's shelter for himself and child in some outhouse 
 attached to the humble dwelling : the face of the elder woman implies suspicion of 
 
THE BENIGHTED TRAVELLER. 
 
SIP. AW CALLGOTT.R A PAIT-ITER 
 
 HEATli. E14GRAV. 
 
 THE BENIGHTEB TKAVELLEK,= 
 
 LONDON, VIRTUE 8c 0° 
 
SIR AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 25 
 
 the visitor, but there is a kindly expression in that of the younger which is 
 indicative of sympathy with the wanderer. The picture, professedly a sketch, is 
 sketchy in manner; but the composition is good, and the effect is Rembrandtish 
 by the figures being lighted up from the interior of the cottage. 
 
 Another of Callcott's figure-subjects exhibited at the Academy in the year 1832 
 was called " A Finished Sketch of Italian Girls going in Procession to their First 
 Communion ; painted in consequence of seeing a single sunbeam fall on the 
 high altar at the moment of the ceremony." The descriptive title suggests a 
 poetic idea, but having never seen the work, I cannot say anything of the treatment 
 of the subject. A picture under the title of "The First Communion" was sold at 
 Christie's in i860, for 145 guineas. I presume this to be the same work. The 
 name of the owner did not appear. 
 
 In the last exhibition at Burlington House, of the works of the old masters and 
 by deceased artists of the British School, was a picture by Callcott, belonging to 
 Mr. Holbrook Gaskell : it was called simply "A Landscape with Figures — Sunset." 
 I am disposed to consider this work as identical with one in the Academy exhibition 
 of 1833, "Shepherd's Boys with their Dog:" Mr. Gaskell's picture, an upright one, 
 shows two figures, with a dog, tending some sheep at a distance from them : the 
 effect of heat from the glowing sunset is very remarkable. 
 
 At the sale in 1857, by Messrs. Christie, of a miscellaneous collection of 
 pictures, was one "A Procession to the Temple of Esculapius at Athens," painted 
 by Callcott for his medical friend Dr. Carpenter, which sold for 260 guineas: it 
 does not seem to have ever been exhibited : and among the collection belonging 
 to the late Mr. J. K. Brunei, sold in the same room in i860, was one by 
 Callcott, called " Launce and his Dog," which realised the sum of 370 guineas. 
 It was subsequently in the possession of Mr. S. Mendel, of Manchester, whose 
 collection is, as I write, advertised for sale by Messrs. Christie, Manson, and Woods ; 
 " Launce and his Dog " being included in the catalogue. 
 
 There are yet two other figure-subjects by this painter which remain to be 
 noticed ; the most important, in point of size at least, he ever attempted. 
 " Raffaelle and the Fornarina," exhibited at the Academy in 1837, became very 
 widely known from the engraving of it, by Mr. Lumb Stocks, R.A., presented to 
 the subscribers of the Art- Union of London in 1843. Raffaelle and the lady are 
 seated on a terrace overlooking Rome: he has a sketch-book in his hand, and has 
 probably been making a study of the Fornarina, on whom he gazes intently, while 
 she is peering into the petals of a flower, seemingly unconscious of the silent 
 worship paid to her. The figures are life-size ; had they been reduced one-half, or 
 even less, the picture would have gained by the diminution : so far as regards the 
 costumes, the sculptured work, the flowers, and other accessories, the composition is 
 
 H 
 
26 SIR AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 abundantly enriched, and yet its large dimensions give to it an aspect of poverty, 
 irrespective of a kind of nothingness in itself. The picture is finished throughout 
 in the most careful manner ; a little more dash and vigour thrown into it would 
 have done much to redeem it from its faultless yet insipid propriety. It is in the 
 possession of Sir G. R. Philips, Bart., according to Messrs. Redgrave. 
 
 "Rafifaelle and the Fornarina" undoubtedly met with considerable popularity, 
 and attracted much attention, while its selection for engraving by the Council of the 
 Art-Union of London was an additional proof, or was thought to be, of its merits. 
 The success of the work most probably induced Callcott to engage on another 
 historic subject, " Milton dictating to his Daughters," sent to the Academy 
 Exhibition in 1 840 : it is a huge picture, the figures being as large, if not larger, 
 than life; and it shows the same qualities as the " Raifaelle " painting, — much 
 elaborate execution and general refinement of expressive character, neither of 
 which, nor both combined, compensates for the absence of power in the design 
 and energy in the use of the pencil. The picture gives evidence of ability, but 
 not of the kind demanded by the occasion : "it was too much for the physical 
 powers of the painter, whose health rapidly declined from this time."* In truth, 
 Callcott' s genius was not in alliance with figure-subjects, as such, though the 
 figures in his landscapes are, as a rule, admirable in every way. 
 
 It has already been stated that this artist received the honour of knighthood 
 in 1837; and in 1843 the Queen gave another testimony of her Majesty's 
 approbation by appointing him Keeper of the Royal Collections of Pictures, an 
 office then vacant by the death of Mr. Seguier. At the time Sir Augustus was 
 nominated to the post he was sinking under the pressure of disease : three 
 years before, Collins, the Academician, writing to Wilkie, who was then abroad, 
 about the prospects of the ensuing exhibition, says, in a letter dated February, 
 1840: — "There are great forebodings respecting our next exhibition. The 
 fears entertained that your absence will prevent your supplying us with 
 attractions always looked for from you ; the absence of Landseer, still at Geneva, 
 and I fear not likely to contribute much, should he even return ; Callcott' s 
 ill health, and the apprehension that others, usually attractive, will not have time 
 for great works; all conspire to produce, and, indeed, to give serious reasons 
 for anticipations of, shortcomings." Further on, in the same letter, Collins 
 writes : — " Richmond has gone to Rome with the intention of painting an 
 historical picture ; Leslie is painting something in secret ; and Callcott, as usual, 
 doing what his friend Allanf calls ' cabinet pictures.' "J Referring to the annual 
 
 * ii 
 
 A Century of Painters." t Sir William Allan, R.A. 
 
 X " Life of William Collins, Esq., R.A.," by his Son. 
 
Sm AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 27 
 
 banquet of the Academy in 1841, Collins, again writing to his friend Wilkie, 
 alludes to the speech made by the then President, Sir Martin A. Shee, wherein 
 "he then noticed the absence of Edwin Landseer and Callcott, with much feeling, 
 and led all to hope that their absence was only temporary." Collins' s apprehension 
 lest Callcott should be unable to exhibit in 1840 was ill-founded, for it was the 
 year in which his large picture of "Milton dictating to his Daughters" was 
 hung in the Academy, the only contribution from his studio. 
 
 Actuated by delicate and honourable feeling, that the state of his health 
 would not permit the efficient discharge of the duties attached to his appointment 
 in the royal household, Callcott hesitated to accept it; but as both the Queen 
 and the Prince Consort expressed a wish that health would not interfere with 
 their desire that he should hold it, his scruples were removed. In the due 
 arrangement and classification of those treasures of Art which form the royal 
 galleries, he was employed at intervals of time till the period of his death, an 
 event which took place on the 24th of November, 1844, in the old house in 
 Kensington Gravel Pits wherein he was born. He was buried at Kensal Green. 
 
 Callcott has been called by some the modern Claude, by others the modern 
 Cuyp; certainly the majority of his best works — and those unquestionably are 
 his river and marine subjects — assimilate more to those of the latter artist than 
 the former. Looking at the whole range of his Art, it must be pronounced 
 more realistic than imaginative. He was a close imitator of nature, and 
 interpreted her with exact fidelity, and sometimes with considerable poetic 
 treatment. There is much truth in Dr. Waagen's remarks on his works: — 
 " With a fine feeling for the picturesque in conception, he unites a delicacy of 
 drawing most favourably seen in his figures and animals, which are most 
 tastefully introduced. In his earlier pictures, the colouring is powerful and often 
 warm; in his later, rather too uniformly cool, and sometimes almost insipid: his 
 execution is spirited and careful." When Waagen wrote of insipidity, he was 
 most probably unconscious amid how much bodily suffering, and consequent 
 mental prostration, these works were frequently produced. His smaller pictures 
 were indisputably his best in every way, for in many of his larger landscapes 
 the subjects are not of sufficient importance to demand such dimensions of 
 canvas. The authors of " A Century of Painters" say — "He early became aware 
 that with the limited scale of light and dark, of colour and negation, at the 
 command of the painter, as compared with that of Nature, a compromise must 
 absolutely be made, and he adopted the principle of reducing the positive tints 
 of his pictures to negative ones, diffusing light pretty generally throughout the 
 whole, and making the figures, which he introduced with great skill, the telling 
 points of the composition ; both the strongest lights and darks, and the purest 
 
28 Sm AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 hues of colour being focussed in their draperies. As these were naturally the 
 points of most interest, the system was a sound one; the picture gained great 
 breadth, and was, from its lightness and the salient brilliancy of the figures, 
 always pleasing in our dark rooms." These remarks confirm my own observation 
 when looking at some of Callcott's pictures exhibited in the early part of this 
 year at Burlington House, and particularly in his " Rotterdam," where the only 
 bit of positive colour is a portion of the dress of the woman seated in the 
 stern of the market-boat; the petticoat is red, and it quite lights up the whole 
 picture, which, without it, would be comparatively colourless : Callcott well knew 
 the preciousness of these spots, if they may so be called, of brilliant tint. 
 
 Greatly as he was esteemed as an artist, those who had the pleasure of his 
 acquaintance held him in still higher regard. Aristocratic in his personal appearance, 
 refined in manner, and full of knowledge gained by travel and association, his 
 society was much sought after, and he everywhere took occasion to excite in his 
 table-talk a general reverence for Art, in the views of which his mind took a wide 
 scope. His private character exhibited many of the most beautiful traits which 
 pertain to the excellent of the earth, — kindness, gentleness, benevolence, uprightness ; 
 his warm and generous feeling showing itself in deeds of charity, the result of 
 principle, not of impulse. The younger members of his profession always found 
 in him a friendly encourager and a wise adviser. 
 
ENGLISH SCENERY. 
 
ENGLISH SCENERY. 
 
 jIDNEY SMITH is reported to have designated Callcott as " sea- shore 
 Callcott." The term was not altogether inappropriate, for many of his 
 most popular pictures consist of coast-scenes, and others are subjects 
 in which water occupies a prominent place. Till the year 1819, 
 when he exhibited his first Dutch picture — for the " Lago Maggiore, 
 with a Thunderstorm," exhibited in 1802, must have been painted, as I have already 
 stated, from a sketch supplied to him, as he did not visit the Continent till several 
 years later — his works were limited to the scenery of his native country; but it 
 unfortunately happens that a very large number of them — and the remark applies 
 with almost equal force to his foreign landscapes — bore, when exhibited, such 
 indefinite titles that it is not easy to determine at this distant date what particular 
 worK is referred to when it again comes before the public. Such was the case with 
 several of those hung last winter in the galleries of Burlington House ; while a glance 
 at the list of his exhibited pictures, given in the "Appendix" at the end of this 
 volume, will confirm what is stated as to the difficulty of identification. To his 
 earliest works we find appended such titles as " Moonlight," " Milking," " Morning," 
 "Evening," "A Distant Shower," "A Heath," &c., &c. With these, however, is 
 occasionally something definite, as "A View of Oxford " (1801) ; "The Gravel-Pit" 
 (1803), probably at Kensington; "Windsor" (1804). In the next five or six years 
 there is evidence that the artist has visited Wales, for among his pictures of that 
 period are "A Scene between Bala and Dolgelly," exhibited with two other Welsh 
 landscapes in 1805; "Old Houses at Shrewsbury " (1807); " Mill near Llangollen" 
 (1808); " Llangollen Bridge " (1808); "Scene from Capel Curig" (181 1). In 1805 
 appeared his first coast-scene, entitled " Moonrise: Fishermen drawing their Nets ; " 
 in the following year, "Sea-coast, with Figures bargaining for Fish," and "Calm: 
 
32 Sm AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 Figures shrimping." This last I am inclined to think identical with " The Shrimpers — 
 Coast-Scene," belonging to Mrs. Gibbons, which was among those exhibited recently 
 at Burlington House : the composition shows many figures, and a fishing-boat drawn 
 up on the shore, which slopes gently upwards on the right, and is backed by a mass 
 of dark threatening clouds. The sea is green and dark, approaching blackness in 
 the horizon ; the wet sands have also a very greenish hue. Though somewhat heavy 
 there is much richness of colour in this picture. 
 
 Among the ten pictures sent by Callcott to the Academy in 1811 were two views 
 in Hampshire ; one, " Itchen Ferry," the other " Southampton, from Weston Grove." 
 This latter work is, I believe, the same as that recently exhibited at Burlington 
 House under the title of " A View near Southampton," a small picture in the 
 possession of Mr. W. Grapel ; it presents a distant view of the town and river as seen 
 from a sort of garden-terrace, and is sketchily painted. The only other Southampton 
 subject by Callcott that I know of is "Southampton Water," the property of Mr. 
 W. Gibbs : it is a large canvas, showing several sailing-boats in the foreground, 
 scattered about halfway across the composition; the water is rather opaque and 
 greenish. This picture was painted for the late Sir John Swinburne, and was sold, 
 with others of his collection, in 1861, for the sum of 1,205 guineas, the purchaser 
 being the late Mr. Flatou, the dealer. It was, like the other, exhibited last 
 winter at Burlington House. 
 
 The annexed engraving is from a picture painted in 181 2, which, when exhibited, 
 bore the name of " The Cottager's Relief; " it forms one of the series of twenty-six 
 subjects lithographed by T. C. Dibdin, and published, in 1847, by Messrs. Henry 
 Graves & Co. : * the picture was then in the possession of the Rev. Thomas Heathcote 
 Tragett, and was called "The Benevolent Cottagers;" where it really is now I 
 cannot determine, but a few months since there was placed before me by a picture- 
 dealer, for verification, a painting which presents every appearance of being the 
 identical work : it is most carefully painted, a characteristic quality of Callcott' s 
 pictures, and is in excellent preservation as to colour and condition. A poor old 
 man, lame, as indicated by his crutch, has seated himself on a bank by the roadside, 
 and close to the entrance-gate of a cottage : around him are grouped the wife and 
 children of the tenant, who is seen in the distance driving some cows into a farmyard : 
 the mother has brought out to the wayfarer some food to satisfy his hunger, and the 
 act gives the title to the composition, which is throughout treated with truthful 
 simplicity; the point of colour is the woman's dress, dark red short jacket, and dark 
 
 * I must express my thanks to Messrs. Graves for allowing me the free use of this series of beautiful 
 prints, now a scarce work. It contains reproductions of some of Callcott's best pictures, and is published in 
 both coloured and plain editions. 
 
THE BENEVOLENT COTTAGERS. 
 
^- i-^-, 1 
 
 SIR A.TAT, CALLGOTT, B..A. PAINTER. 
 
 E.W. TOPHAM, ENGRAVER. 
 
 THE BEITE VOILE WT COTTAGEMSc 
 
 LONDON, VIRTUE 8c C9 
 
ENGLISH SCENERF. 33 
 
 blue skirt. There is much sympathetic expression thrown into the faces of the cottage 
 group, small as are the figures. 
 
 Gallcott painted three pictures to which he gave almost similar titles: in 181 2 
 appeared " Return from Market; " in 1834, " Returning from Market ; " and in 1836, 
 " Dutch Peasants returning from Market:" of the last I shall have to speak here- 
 after. One of the others, but I know not which, supplies the frontispiece to Dibdin's 
 series of lithographs; it is from a picture then, like that just mentioned, in the 
 possession of the Rev. T. H. Tragett. At the gate of a roadside cottage occupying 
 the whole right of the picture, a man, having dismounted from his own horse, is 
 assisting his wife to alight from that she has ridden : this group stands out in bold 
 relief against the sky ; the man's white horse forming the key of light to the 
 picture. On the left side a man is pulling lustily at a donkey laden with panniers 
 that seem to be well-filled ; the unfortunate animal is either too weary or too stubborn 
 to move, and another man is belabouring it with a stout stick. Immediately in front of 
 these, and in the foreground, a girl is drawing water from a well ; and on the opposite 
 side, but considerably more in the rear, is a boy with a basket of eggs in his left 
 hand, watching two white dogs at play ; a third dog rushes from the other side of 
 the road to join them. In advance of these, and close to the base-line of the 
 composition, is the slightest indication of a road- side pond, with three or four 
 ducks near it. This is an upright subject, very sunny in effect; the woman's red 
 cloak is the point of colour, as the white horse is the point of light. 
 
 In the possession of Sir William Heathcote, Bart., is a large picture by Callcott, 
 called in the catalogue of the works by old masters lately exhibited at Burlington 
 House, " A River Scene; " it also appears in Dibdin's series as " A River Scene — 
 Men fishing from a Boat ; " a picture bearing the former of these titles was exhibited 
 at the Academy in 1808, and probably this is the one, for I find no other in the list. 
 The scenery is not unlike that on the Medway above Rochester Bridge, as I remember 
 it many years ago. In the left-hand foreground is a boat with two men and a boy 
 in it, one of the former is pulling a fishing-line up from the water ; on the right-hand 
 side are two sailing-barges, one laden with straw, and two boats, all lying in a 
 group. Behind these, and stretching away to the far horizon, is a range of high, 
 undulating ground, very scantily wooded, which sweeps down to the river-side, and 
 gradually diminishes in height as it recedes into the distance. On the left side of 
 the picture, far removed from the foreground, are several buildings, and what looks 
 like a kind 'of wharf or landing-place, projecting out into the river; on this are some 
 carriages and horses, suggesting that the place is used as a ferry. The warm sunlight 
 is skilfully reflected on the water ; but the canvas is too large for the scanty materials 
 placed on it, Another version of the same subject, as seen from a different point of 
 view, and a much smaller picture, was hung at Burlington House with the last; it is 
 
 K 
 
34 Sm AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 called " A Fishing Scene," and is the property of the Earl of Egmont : its reduced 
 size makes it, in my opinion, the more covetable work. In 1820 Callcott sent to 
 the Academy, " Dead Calm on the Medway," his only exhibited picture of the year. 
 The " River Scene " may be the same painting under an indefinite title; certainly the 
 river is calm enough, not a breath of air stirs its surface. 
 
 The Marquis of Lansdowne's collection at Bowood contains a picture by Callcott, 
 bearing no especial title, but which Dr. Waagen thus describes : — " View of a 
 Seaport and part of a Town in morning light : in the foreground two vessels of burden 
 and two boats. The lighting is here carried out with so much delicacy, and the 
 careful treatment is so solid in body, that this picture recalls Cuyp. Inscribed and 
 dated 18 15." These remarks scarcely accord with the title of the only picture 
 exhibited by the painter in that year, " Passage and Luggage Boats," and yet it is 
 just possible the two may be the same work. 
 
 Callcott evidently painted very many pictures which he never exhibited, and 
 among them may be placed "The Farmyard," one of the Dibdin series; at that 
 time, 1847, it belonged to Mr. George Pennell, the well-known dealer, who must, 
 however, have disposed of it before his stock was sold in 1866, after his death, for 
 it did not appear in Messrs. Christie and Hanson's catalogue, though another picture 
 by the same painter did — " Sultry Evening on the Thames, near Maidenhead," which 
 was bought by Mr. Maxwell for 660 guineas. There is, too, no record of this having 
 ever been exhibited. "The Farmyard" presents a number of gabled buildings 
 embosomed among trees, and placed on the banks of a canal or small river, navigable, 
 from the fact of a barge being on it. The water occupies the whole foreground of 
 the picture, and is here shallow ; cows are standing in it and on the bank ; they 
 form very prominent objects in the centre of the composition; but the painter 
 has committed a great error in throwing right across the foreground, and most 
 conspicuously, the trunk of a large tree that has fallen, or been cut down ; a branch 
 of the tree interferes most awkwardly with some of the cattle, depriving two or three 
 of their legs, and dividing another into halves. On the left of the picture is a 
 wooden platform projecting over the water, and approached through a gateway 
 which separates it from a small meadow; on this platform stands a girl with a 
 pitcher in one hand and a red pan, or something like it, on her head; she is looking 
 at a boy near her who is kneeling to lace up his boots : the girl's dress is all red, 
 and it is made the chief point of colour. The tree-forms in this picture are almost 
 universally stiff and precise ; two or three withered pollards are really deformities, 
 and would have been better away altogether. A warm glow of evening sunshine is 
 suffused over the picture. 
 
 In 18 16 Callcott exhibited a picture, "Entrance to the Pool of London," at 
 the Academy, which must always be considered among his most successful works. 
 
ENGLISH SCENERY. 35 
 
 Uwins, the Royal Academician, in a letter to a friend, writing of some of the 
 principal contributions to the Gallery, speaks thus of it : — *' Callcott has fairly 
 out-boated himself; his picture of the entrance to the port of London is quite as 
 fine as anything Cuyp ever painted, or anything that has ever been done, in this 
 way, in any age or country : " and Mr. Thornbury, in his " Life of Turner," quotes a 
 passage from "Wine and Walnuts" which refers to the same work: — "Turner for 
 many years, during the Exhibition at Somerset House, was daily indebted to groups 
 of admiring artists, generously occupied in teaching the public to feel the poetry 
 of his original style ; whilst he, too great to dread a rival, on being told that Callcott 
 had painted one of his finest scenes on the Thames on commission for two hundred 
 pounds, observed in the presence of several patrons of the fine arts, ' Had I been 
 deputed to set a value upon that picture, I should have awarded a thousand 
 guineas.' " " The Pool of the Thames," * as it is entitled in the annexed engraving, 
 Is in the possession of the Marquis of Lansdowne ; but Dr. Waagen mentions another 
 picture bearing the same title in Lord Overstone's mansion in Cariton Gardens. Now 
 as I find no evidence that Callcott repeated the subject, and that Lord Overstone's 
 picture is stated to be a very small canvas, the treatment "broad and sketchy," it 
 may be assumed that the latter work is the original design for the former. The view 
 appears to be taken somewhere on the river, with Limehouse on the Middlesex side 
 and Rotherhithe on that of Surrey; not, however, so low down by a long space 
 as Deptford, though in the extreme distance we have what appears to be one of 
 the domes of Greenwich Hospital. The picture was painted long before the intro- 
 duction of steam navigation, and consequently the "Pool" presents a very different 
 aspect to what it does in the present day, the sky and atmosphere having a brilliancy 
 and clearness to which this part of the Thames has long been a stranger; while 
 among the vessels that crowd both sides of the river or float on its surface are no 
 signs of the black funnels and unpicturesque hulls which have become almost the 
 principal features of the ports of Great Britain. Here we have as the chief object in 
 the composition, one of those high-quartered, flat-bottomed Dutch vessels which, 
 old-fashioned as they are, always tell attractively in marine-painting, both from their 
 quaint construction and the rich brown colouring, often with a strip of bright emerald 
 green, they generally show. Beyond this is a hay-barge, and a little lower down, 
 a sailing-brig : some vessels of the latter class lie between this group and the 
 shore. On the left of the picture is a row-boat laden with merchandise, which has 
 nearly run foul of a fishing-boat, whose occupants are evidently plying their vocation 
 on the river ; the net of the fishermen is traced out by the floating corks. It must be, 
 one would think, many years since the Pool of the Thames yielded much result 
 
 * The picture was called " Entrance to the Pool of London," in the Academy Catalogue. 
 
36 SIR AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 to the labours of the fisherman ; even in Callcott's time it could scarcely have been 
 very profitable work. These two boats are very effectively placed. The sky in 
 the picture is among the most successful points — it is highly luminous, and the 
 masses of light clouds on the right are excellent in form and full of movement. 
 The bank of dark cloud on the left, from which a shower of rain descends in the 
 half-distance, comes in as a .kind of balance to the sail of the Dutch boat. The water 
 is painted with great transparency, and the whole scene is most felicitously composed, 
 and presented with remarkable brilliancy. 
 
 The first marine-subject, strictly so-called, painted— or, at least, exhibited — by 
 Callcott, was " The Mouth of the Tyne, with a View of Shields," which appeared 
 at the Royal Academy in 1818, the only picture he exhibited that year: it is 
 in the collection of Sir Matthew White-Ridley, Bart. The most prominent group 
 of objects on the canvas consists of some coast-brigs and row-boats in rather close 
 proximity ; the former are standing out of the river under spreading canvas with 
 a light breeze ; they occupy a large space on the left of the composition : on the 
 right, almost in the foreground, is a long row-boat with several men in it ; and 
 behind these, at no great apparent distance, is a scattered group of houses, 
 which may not inaptly represent the North Shields of that time, or, as it is now called, 
 Tynemouth; at the rear of these is a small forest of ships' masts, showing that 
 a considerable amount of commerce, chiefly in coals, was then carried on. The 
 picture is well lighted up by the evening sun. 
 
 In the late exhibition of "Old Masters," &c., at Burlington House, was a 
 large picture belonging to Sir W. Heathcote, which Callcott sent to the Royal 
 Academy in 1822: it is called "Smugglers alarmed by Change of Weather." In 
 the centre of the composition there rises from an extensive tract of sandy shore a 
 lofty range of rock, which, whatever it was originally, has now very little colour 
 to show; in the foreground is a long sailing-boat drawn up in the surf, and 
 containing numerous figures. On the beach are many more, several of them mounted 
 on horseback, and having the appearance of well-to-do farmers ; except for the 
 absence of the dogs and the character of the place, one would suppose it to be 
 a meet for a day with the hounds. The scene, certainly, is lively enough, but it 
 seems almost impossible to make the composition harmonise with the title given 
 to it. The artist was, most unquestionably, out of his element when he painted 
 this picture, which has no really definite and intelligible meaning : the horses, 
 moreover, that form such conspicuous objects in it, are ill-drawn and stiff in their 
 action, for all are on the move. The size of the canvas, about eight and a half feet 
 wide by five feet in height, renders the defects more manifest. 
 
 A few years ago a painter would have found it very difficult to meet with a 
 more picturesque passage of scenery, after its kind, than a view of Rochester as 
 
POOL OF THE THAMES. 
 
ENGLISH SCENERV. 37 
 
 seen from the Medway; such a view, that is, as would include the old bridge, the 
 keep of the ancient castle, and the tower of the venerable cathedral : these three 
 objects were in such close proximity that they grouped admirably. The old bridge, 
 however, has been replaced by a new one, not unpictorial in itself, but by its side 
 runs an ugly railway-bridge, which has destroyed the beauty of the locality for every 
 artistic purpose. The only work exhibited by Callcott in 1824 was a "View of 
 Rochester from the River below the Bridge," not so interesting a point, I consider, 
 as is, or rather was, a view of the city sketched from above the bridge, where, to 
 balance the castle, &c., on the right bank, there is, on the left, seen oyer the bridge, 
 and somewhat in the distance, the high ground on which stands the small village 
 of Frindsbury, with its pretty little church amidst groups of trees. Callcott' s picture, 
 which I have seen but once, and then only for a few minutes, when sold by Messrs. 
 Christie, in 1863, with the collection of the late Mr. Elkanan Bicknell, is a very 
 excellent example of the master : it was sold on that occasion for the sum of 
 490 guineas. 
 
 In the Sheepshanks collection is a small picture which I should have hesitated 
 to class with English subjects but for its having the title " The Inn Door, Gravesend," 
 assigned to it in the Catalogue. It bears no date, and no such work appears in 
 the various lists of Callcott's exhibited pictures. It is painted on a long and narrow 
 piece of millboard; on the right of the composition is the "inn-door," and before 
 it are some peasants, and horses standing loose eating out of a hay-crate; 
 in the rear of these is a cart, and, beyond, a high sandy bank, whereon stands a 
 cottage amid trees. On the left side of the roadway, a very wide one, is a pump 
 and a water-trough, to which a man has led his horse ; the end of an open shed 
 and two or three leafless pollards complete this group of objects. Between the 
 two side-groups is an extensive common, with a road running over it towards a 
 village, the spire of the church forming a kind of landmark; numerous figures 
 are on their way across the common : all beyond is a range of undulating country 
 stretching far away, till it seems to blend with the sky. It is a sweet little picture, 
 warm and sunny, the sky is beautiful in cloudy tone, and the distant landscape in 
 atmosphere. My doubts as to its being an English subject arise mainly, if not 
 altogether, from the costumes of the figures, which look more Dutch than English ; 
 the man with the horse, on the left, is in his dress very like an Italian. 
 
 In the same collection is a much larger, though scarcely a more covetable, work 
 than the last-mentioned ; it is called " A Sunny Morning," and shows a group of cattle 
 standing among some rushes in a pool of water : the effect of a hot, misty summer 
 morning is well given. It is stated to have been exhibited at the Academy in 1813, 
 but the artist was absent from the Gallery both in that year and the following. 
 Mr. Sheepshanks also possessed, though I do not now find it among the works 
 
38 
 
 SIJi AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 he presented to the nation, a very admirable water-colour drawing, called " Shipping 
 in a Breeze;" it is one of the series of coloured lithographs to which reference 
 has more than once been already made. The picture is evidently an English 
 river-scene, though there is no clue to the locality. In the foreground on the 
 left is a large fishing-lugger sailing before the wind, and close by, at right angles 
 with it, a small sailing-boat, apparently about to put some of its crew aboard the 
 fishing-boat : at a distance behind is a three-masted merchantman at anchor 
 near the river-bank, which extends almost the entire length of the composition, and 
 shows in one spot a small village-church, as it seems to be, and two or three 
 houses. On the right of the picture are several vessels of different kinds — a collier- 
 brig, a flat-bottomed sailing-boat, two merchantmen under sail, row-boats, &c. 
 There is but very little wave-motion in the water, which is clear and transparent. 
 The sky shows masses of white clouds very luminous. 
 
 In the Vernon collection is a very small oil-painting which bears the title 
 of "The Wooden Bridge:" there is no mention of any such work in the list of 
 Callcott's pictures, but it is a little gem, as the annexed engraving sufficiently shows, 
 so far as refers to the composition itself; the colour may be taken for granted. 
 The picture belongs strictly to the class of imitative art ; a faithful objective treatment 
 of a simple scene, one of those many homely views in which the vicinity of our 
 rural towns and villages abounded so much more numerously half a century ago 
 than they do at the present time. In the centre of the picture is the " Wooden 
 Bridge" spanning the narrow stream, the clear and quiet water of which, passing 
 underneath, is scarcely ruffled in the lightest degree by the ducks floating on its 
 surface. On the opposite side is a man seated in a boat mending some fishing- 
 baskets, possibly-^-for they are not easily determinable — while he talks with a woman 
 carrying a child, and standing on a small landing-place near him. Above these, 
 and on the bank, are some farm outbuildings, partly surrounded by masses of fine 
 trees ; and, crossing the bridge, is a farmer's cart heavily laden with agricultural 
 produce, and drawn by three horses. The execution of this sweet little picture is 
 very elaborate, and it is much more positively coloured than the majority of Callcott's 
 larger works. The fine cluster of trees contrasts beautifully with the bright sky 
 above, and the eye is very skilfully drawn to the bridge, the principal feature of 
 the composition, by the judicious introduction of the white horse just emerged from 
 the shadow of the foliage. The foreground acquires considerable force by the 
 delicacy with which the distant landscape, showing a town or large village, beneath 
 the bridge, is managed. 
 
 Turning over some more of Dibdin's lithographs after Callcott, I find one with 
 the title "Ships in a Stormy Sea," from a picture then in the possession of 
 Mr. Sheepshanks, and which now forms one of his collection at South Kensington, 
 
THE WOODEN BRIDGE. 
 
 ^^t^<^te^)^ 
 
f 
 
 o 
 'A 
 d 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
>^ 
 
 M 
 
ENGLISH SCENERY. 39 
 
 where it appears in the catalogue as "A Sea-Port — Gale rising:" there is nothing 
 in the painter's exhibited works which affords any index to its date. Almost the 
 whole of the fore-part is occupied by a rather boisterous sea, one-half of which 
 has a strong gleam of sunshine on it, the nearer half reflecting the cloud-shadows ; 
 several sea-gulls are skimming over the surface, and pieces of a ship's shrouds 
 are floating about; on the extreme right is a short jetty, on which stand some 
 sailors ; and a flagstaff, bending with the effects of the gale, is near them, 
 showing a small, bright-red flag: bits of red are very frequently seen in Callcott's 
 pictures, and here the flag is the only spot of positive colour to be seen. In the 
 middle distance is a small vessel that seems to have suffered some damage, and 
 near it is another, apparently dismasted ; farther off" are two large merchantmen 
 riding at anchor, the more distant one momentarily lighted up by the sun. The sky 
 is heavy with driving clouds, with here and there breaks of blue in it. 
 
 In the same series of prints as the last-mentioned is a thorough home-scene 
 from a water-colour drawing, "Reapers, with a View of Stafford," thirty years ago 
 in the possession of Mr. C. T. Maud; where it now is, I know not. The sketch 
 was made from some fields closely adjoining the town, and yet it shows but 
 comparatively few houses, a church, and portions of two public edifices, the whole 
 standing in ground slightly elevated, and the buildings somewhat scattered ; on the 
 left side of the picture, beyond the outskirts of the town, the view opens out into 
 an extensive tract of rather flat country. The cornfield where the reapers have 
 been at work— they are now binding and carrying the sheaves, and some gleaners 
 are leaving the spot well laden with their gatherings of golden ears— occupies a large 
 space of the foreground to the left, but is separated by a hedge from the right, 
 which presents the appearance of meadow-land. In the middle of the immediate 
 foreground a road leads from the cornfield out of the picture at its base; it is 
 bounded on each side by a low hedge of dock-leaves, long grasses, broken stakes, &c. 
 The only part of the whole landscape which is at all brilliantly lighted with sunshine 
 is the field where the reapers and others are at work. 
 
 Another example of Callcott's work among the farmers and their men is in a 
 picture, "Labourers reposing," in the gallery of the Marquis of Lansdowne : it is 
 a long, narrow canvas, presenting a most extensive view of a tract of downs such 
 as one sees in some parts of Sussex. There is scarcely a tree visible for miles. 
 Quite in the foreground, on the left, are a man and a boy half reclining on a 
 grass bank, with their dinner by their side ; between them a large dog is seated on 
 his hind legs, while the man gives him a lesson in the art of begging. The figures 
 are well drawn and naturally posed. Behind them, but on higher ground, is a 
 portion of a cottage, or probably of a barn, for no windows are visible. On the 
 right side of the picture, this group of objects is balanced by a horse and cart 
 
+0 Sm AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 standing broadside to the spectator, some women and a man apparently in conver- 
 sation, and by parts of a cottage with a haystack near it : a sheep-dog in front 
 of the house curiously watches the canine instruction going on across the road, for 
 a road divides the two groups from each other. The sky in this picture is very 
 brilliant in colour, somewhat golden and warm, while the atmospheric effect, or, 
 as some would say, the aerial perspective, is excellently well managed. 
 
 " The Old Pier at Littlehampton," the picture from which the annexed engraving 
 is taken, was exhibited at the Academy in 1812, and is now in the Vernon collection. 
 The old wooden structure has long since disappeared from this pleasant little Sussex 
 watering-place, which stands near to the mouth of the river Arun, and about three 
 miles from Arundel, with all its many historical associations. Littlehampton has 
 now another pier and jetties, and also a lighthouse. Callcott's picture shows stormy- 
 weather; heavy clouds are sailing up with the wind, and the surf beats roughl} 
 on the shore. There is nothing in the subject to give to it special interest beyond 
 the treatment ; but this is so thoroughly agreeable and effective, and the contrasts 
 of colours and of light and shade are so judiciously made, that the picture cannot 
 but attract. It was bought by the late Mr. Vernon at the sale of Lord de Tabley's 
 collection in 1827 for the sum of 155 guineas; less by one-third in all probability 
 than it would now realise, if submitted to public sale. 
 
 During the last twenty years of Callcott's life, he painted far fewer pictures of 
 English scenery than of Dutch and Italian ; but there are one or two of the first- 
 mentioned, belonging to his later period, that must not be passed over, as they 
 certainly are among his very best works. In 1833 he exhibited at the Academy 
 " Harvest in the Highlands," the figures and cattle by Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A. 
 Though there can be no question that the aid of our great animal-painter added vastly 
 to the value of the picture, yet the landscape-artist is fully entitled to his share. 
 The scene is presented on one of those long narrow canvases which Callcott frequently 
 used. From the left of the composition a lofty range of mountains stretches away 
 into the extreme distance; a considerable portion of these is concealed by clouds 
 and vapours, for a shower has just passed over the far-off landscape, which is in 
 deep shadow, except where a rainbow appears to spring from its surface ; the 
 long level plain between this and the foreground is more or less lighted up with 
 gleams of sunshine. In the front, on the left, and leading into the centre of the 
 picture, is the corn, partly standing, partly gathered into sheaves; nor does it 
 seem that the farmer is over-anxious to have it garnered, for the labourers are few 
 —one elderly woman with a rake in her hand, and a young girl holding a sickle, 
 and with a small sheaf of corn under her arm. The girl is conversing with a 
 group of boys, one of whom is keeping back a collie-dog, whose attention is 
 directed to a number of deer-stalkers coming up in the distance laden with their 
 
THE OLD PIER AT LITTLEHAMPTON, 
 

 
 1'". >^. 
 
 
 \ ' 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 1=1 
 
 W 
 Pi 
 
ENGLISH SCENERY. ^, 
 
 spoil. Between the old woman and the group of children is a cart laden with 
 corn : it is drawn by a rough-looking animal, with a foal at its side ; and to the 
 right of the group, among a mass of granite-boulders, is a calf tethered, and a 
 goat and its kids. These figures Landseer seems to have grouped together more 
 for variety and picturesque effect than for any fitness of companionship in a harvest- 
 field, — at least, it must appear so to one accustomed only to an English harvest-field ; 
 but who cares to criticize adversely such a scene of rich luxuriance ? even if there 
 are objects in it amenable to remark as being somewhat out of place. Callcott 
 did his part of the work well ; the landscape everywhere is charmingly rendered, 
 with a delicious effect of atmosphere which is very captivating. 
 
 Another notable picture by this refined painter — and, unfortunately, one of his 
 latest — was "An English Landscape Composition," exhibited at the Royal Academy 
 in 1842. During the three preceding years he had contributed but one painting 
 to the gallery, and that a figure-subject, "Milton dictating to his Daughters:" 
 Callcott's re- appearance, therefore, in his most familiar form, and in such a fine 
 landscape, was hailed with especial delight by all who appreciated his works, as it 
 showed that the principle of his Art-life was yet strong within him. The elements 
 of this composition are simple even to commonplace, so much so that none but 
 a master-spirit could attach to them even a limited measure of interest; here, 
 however, they are brought forward with a most appreciative sense of the sublime 
 and the beautiful. It is an upright canvas, of rather large dimensions, and the 
 landscape is made out of a foreground covered by a stream of shallow water in which 
 a few cows are luxuriating, some trees, and a distance. On the right the sight 
 is limited by the stately trees, whence it ranges over a gently-undulating country 
 into an airy prospective, which finally is mantled in the sky of the horizon. The 
 season is summer, the day sultry, and the atmosphere is charged with a slight air 
 that gives to the subject a soft and dreamy effect. The water is cool and inimitably 
 limpid ; but the triumph of the picture is its atmosphere : air has rarely been more 
 successfully represented. The shadow under the trees is pure and deep : a cow has 
 sought refuge there from the noon-day heat, but is pursued by the flies, if there 
 be any meaning in the movement of the animal's ears. The subsequent history 
 of this picture is both interesting and instructive. Callcott is said to have sold it 
 to the late Mr. Knott, of Upper Thames Street and Barnet, for the sum of 400 
 guineas : when the collection of this gentleman was dispersed by Messrs. Christie 
 and Manson in 1845, the "English Landscape" rose in value to 950 guineas, the 
 first bidding being 500 guineas : it was knocked down amid the applause of the 
 company, the sum being considered large. It was understood at the time to have 
 been bought by a dealer on commission for some gentleman ; but whether it passed at 
 once into the hands of the late Mr. Bicknell of Camberwell I cannot say; it was 
 
 M 
 
42 S/Ji AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 among his pictures, however, when his notable gallery was sold in 1863 ; and an 
 advance yet more remarkable then attended the Callcott painting, for since it last 
 appeared in a public sale-room, Sir Edwin Landseer had "worked up" the cattle, 
 and this alone served to raise it to the enormous value of 2,950 guineas, which Messrs. 
 Agnew then paid for it. Afterwards, and very soon, it must have passed into the 
 hands of Mr. Duncan Fletcher, the eminent ship-builder, at the dispersion of whose 
 collection, in 1863, the price dropped down to 2,000 guineas; Messrs. Agnew again 
 securing it, and at that sum. Its present owner is, I believe. Miss Woods, Hyde 
 Park Gardens. 
 
 Possibly Callcott had Cuyp in his mind when he painted the beautiful little picture, 
 now in the Vernon collection, entitled "The Meadow:" there is no clue to its 
 date, nor can it with certainty be determined whether the scene is Dutch or English ; 
 neither is it of importance to which country it may be assigned, and so it is here 
 placed among the latter. The meadow is situated on the confines of a river, on 
 the opposite bank of which we catch, through the golden haze, the dim outline 
 of a town, whose church-towers are lighted up with the rays of the early sun :— 
 
 " Around and above us the brightness grows, 
 Waking the earth from her sweet repose ; 
 And the broad expanse of the circling seas, 
 And the tops of the mighty forest trees, 
 And the distant towers of cities old, 
 Are clad in a robe of burnished gold." 
 
 To the left of the composition, in order to carry the eye onward, a cart is descending 
 over an obviously uneven road; it is partially obscured by the morning mist. In 
 the foreground a small herd of cattle is lying, some waking up from their night's 
 repose, others yet dozing through the young, day, but all in perfect tranquillity. 
 Around them, on the high grass and the green herbage, the fresh dew glitters 
 as if pearls had been scattered over their surface, while the pool of water beside 
 which the cattle are lying has just caught the first beams of sunlight. The sky 
 is arranged with the skill of a master; the clouds, in gentle motion, are placed where 
 they serve the purpose of filling in a considerable space, while they enrich the picture 
 by their beautiful colour and luminous quality. " The Meadow" is painted on panel, 
 about thirteen inches wide by six in height : in eveiy way it is a gem of the highest 
 and purest character, and wrought with exquisite finish. 
 
 We have, since Callcott's time, become used to a style of landscape-painting 
 which partakes somewhat too much of gaud and extravagance of colour to permit 
 of any comparison being made between his works and veiy many of those which have 
 succeeded to them ; hence we have heard his pictures termed vapid and conventional. 
 It should not, however, be forgotten that Callcott and his contemporaries were no 
 

 m 
 
 
 THE MEADOW. 
 
 •™§)-^>^-^^^^^^>^<A-^™"- 
 
■J'4^..A 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 H 
 
 B 
 p 
 
 o 
 
ENGLISH SCENERY. 
 
 43 
 
 seekers after novelty ; not even Turner's eccentricities could move them from the 
 " even tenour of their way," wherein it was their object to work on the lines laid down 
 by the great early landscape-painters. But we have now got far beyond all this; 
 and, in the opinion of some, have long left Claude and Cuyp, Ruysdael and Both, 
 Backhuysen and Van de Velde, quite in our rear as exponents of true Art. 
 
DUTCH, BELGIAN, AND GERMAN SCENERY. 
 
 ^^)^ 
 
4.8 Sm AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 the view ; and behind these, towards the left, rise the tower and gabled roofs of 
 the Church of St. Lawrence, or the Cathedral — an imposing-looking edifice as it is 
 brought forward in the picture. Two or three market-boats are prominent in the 
 foreground, and give life to the composition and a degree of brilliancy by reason 
 of the costume of the peasant-women carrying fruit and vegetables to market : the 
 only trace of positive colour visible anywhere is the bright red petticoat of a 
 woman seated in the stern of the boat nearest to the spectator. 
 
 In the collection of the Duke of Bedford, at Woburn Abbey, is one of the two 
 pictures exhibited by Callcott at the Academy in 1826, " The Quay at Antwerp 
 during the Fair-time." The quay is so completely concealed by the number of 
 vessels, many of them with their sails set, anchored near by, that very little indeed of 
 the picturesque houses standing on it, and still less of the pleasant green trees 
 are at all visible : at the extreme end of the quay is a mass of buildings, and 
 among them one having the appearance of a church, but I have no recollection 
 of seeing any such edifice during my visits to the city. The artist has placed it, 
 so far as I can judge, somewhere in the vicinity of the Citadel; and it is not 
 improbable that when he made his sketch — of course prior to 1826 — it may have 
 existed. The siege of Antwerp in 1832 may, however, have caused the removal 
 or destruction of these buildings, for the quarter of the Citadel suffered most severely 
 from the fire of the French, under the command of Marshal Gerard. Lying at a 
 short distance from the quay is a small fleet of those well-known Dutch vessels so 
 acceptable to artists, surrounded by many row-boats : it is the crowded appearance 
 of the former and the general holiday-look of the whole that suggest " Fair- time." 
 This latter group and the quay with its appendages divide the picture into two parts ; 
 to avoid, however, complete separation to the eye of the spectator, Callcott has 
 judiciously introduced between them, and slightly in advance of both, a boatload of 
 gaily-dressed figures. The scene is very bright, the sky warm and sunny, the river 
 Scheldt placidly reflecting all the softness and quietude of the heaven above it. 
 
 The other picture which Callcott exhibited with this last, was "Dutch Boats 
 running foul in the endeavour to board, and missing the Painter-rope;" according 
 to Mr. Thornbury, in his "Life of Turner," there is a story relating to the work, and 
 it is this:—" In 1826 that great ruler of the sea, Stanfield, painted a picture of a 
 calm, which he named ' Throwing the Painter.' Unfortunately he was unable to 
 get it finished in time for the Exhibition, and Callcott hearing of it, painted a picture 
 which for fun he called ' Dutch Fishing-Boat missing the Painter ' "—Mr. Thornbury 
 has not the title correctly. " Turner would chuckle rarely over these studio jokes, 
 and quietly determining to cap them all, he came out next year with a work named 
 'Now for the Painter,' with all the laughing triumph of a boy who at leap-frog 
 takes the last and highest back." 
 
DUTCH. BELGIAN. AND GERMAN SCENERY. 
 
 T has been stated in a preceding page that Callcott exhibited at the 
 Royal Academy in 1802 a picture called " Lago Maggiore," and 
 that it must have been painted from some sketch that had got 
 into his hands ; for there is no evidence of his visiting the Continent 
 till several years later. Most probably he went abroad about 18 ty 
 or 1 818, for he exhibited nothing in the former year, and only one picture, "The 
 Mouth of the Tyne," in the latter; but in 18 19 he sent "Rotterdam" to the 
 Academy, his only work. I believe this to be in the collection of Lord Overstone, 
 at Carlton Gardens, where Dr. Waagen, in his "Art-Treasures of Great Britain," 
 the supplemental volume, calls it a "View of the River Maas by Rotterdam," and 
 describes it as presenting " several large and small vessels, in morning light. . . . 
 This picture is of admirable effect and uncommon transparency, and shows the 
 successful study of Cuyp." His next foreign picture was sketched in the same 
 locality: "Dutch Market-Boats, Rotterdam," exhibited at the Academy in 1823, 
 and also at the late winter-exhibition at Burlington House, for which it was lent 
 by its owner, the Earl of Essex : it is a very clean-painted picture, showing little 
 more than negative colours, yet it is very far from dulness ; perhaps the sunshine 
 in it is as bright as can be expected in a Dutch seaport, though Rotterdam is actually 
 more than twenty miles from the ocean. The view offers a novel and picturesque 
 combination of water, quaint buildings, imposing architecture, and marine life, not 
 often found within the very heart of a city. The entire foreground is occupied 
 by a canal, flanked on the left by houses and warehouses, with numerous vessels 
 discharging or taking in cargo at the quays ; on the opposite side portions of some 
 picturesque buildings are just visible, by way of balance and support. At right 
 angles, or nearly so, with the sides, runs a line of houses, quays, &c., shutting in 
 
WAITING FOR THE BOATS. 
 
iJ:;,it;jiLiii;i^i]:uiJj;.ii;U!i-;iil;;l]^iii];i|itl!:i,,Kli,iyi:iji],|ii-i';.L^^ 
 
 fe 
 
 M 
 1=1 
 M 
 
 Pi 
 
 M 
 
 P- 
 
 o 
 
 Q 
 
 o 
 
50 sm AUGUSTUS WALL GALLCOTT, R.A, 
 
 artist seems to have animated the English painter in his treatment of this most 
 excellent picture. > j 
 
 Sir Matthew W. Ridley had in his possession a few years ago, and probably now 
 has, a remarkably good specimen of Callcott's works, of which a large coloured 
 engraving is before me: it has no name, but is simply designated "A River 
 Scene, with Round Tower," and is evidently of Dutch or German origin. The 
 picture is full of materials; the river is very narrow, scarcely wide enough to 
 admit of two sailing-barges passing each other without danger of collision. On 
 the left bank, two or three of such barges — one of them laden with straw — are 
 anchored close inshore, their large red sails spread out in the sun, and serving 
 as a background to some women and children seated on the piled-up straw* 
 Immediately in front of this barge is a row-boat, laden with some objects, which 
 are not readily determinable ; this boat a man is pushing out into mid-stream : 
 close to it is another boat of different construction, in which is a woman dipping 
 a jug into the water. On the land, immediately behind these, is a cottage, of 
 which only a part of the roof and the chimney are visible, embosomed in a mass 
 of trees. A little beyond this combination of objects, on the left side of the river, 
 is a boat with several men, some of them standing up in it, and in their rear is 
 the "round tower" which gives a sort of title to the work : it occupies a prominent 
 position almost in the centre of the picture, and leading the eye forward to a stone 
 bridge of four or five arches, which crosses the river to the right bank, and is backed 
 by numerous buildings, among which are the spires of churches : these form the 
 distance of the composition. Close to the bridge, on the right side, are some 
 barges with their sails set, and on the bank some horses, apparently employed in 
 towing. A man standing up to his knees among the rushes by the water-side,, 
 and engaged in fishing, serves as a kind of counterpoise to the numerous objects 
 opposite him on the other side of the river. The whole is presented under the 
 red glow of an evening sun. 
 
 Another coloured print from the same series, also lying before me, is called 
 "Unloading the Barge," the barge being one of those high and square stern 
 vessels with huge sails which the Dutch appear to have used since they first 
 learned the art of navigation, and which they seem determined to retain so 
 long as they have anything afloat. One or two smaller vessels are in her com- 
 pany, and all are lying in such shallow water, near a thin strip of land jutting 
 out into the sea, that the hoofs of a couple of horses, in a cart which is being 
 laden with merchandise from the barge, are scarcely covered. Nothing more is 
 visible in the picture than the objects just spoken of. The effect is that of the 
 time preceding twilight ; the upper part of the sky is covered with the clouds of 
 evening; in the lower portion sunlight lingers in the horizon, and throws out in 
 
DUTCH, BELGIAN, AND GERMAN SCENERY. 49 
 
 The annexed engraving is from a comparatively small picture in the Vernon 
 collection called "Waiting for the Boats;" the date of the work cannot now be 
 determined, for there is no record of its having ever been exhibited. That it is 
 a Dutch scene is undoubted, for the figures are dressed in the costume of that 
 nation ; and admirably modelled and grouped are both they and the horses. On 
 the old stone-jetty is a waggon with a pair of horses prepared, it may be presumed, 
 to carry inland some of the cargoes of the fishing-boats just visible in the horizon, 
 and for which the people on shore are waiting. The characteristic feeling of this 
 picture is repose — a repose that seems to pervade every object in it, whether animate 
 or inanimate, for there is not the slightest indication of a breath of air in the 
 atmosphere to move the clouds or to raise a ripple on the surface of the sea. 
 Callcott has certainly made the most of the materials he has employed, and has 
 arranged them very effectively: the picture is painted with considerable force and 
 freedom of pencil; a cool grey tone overspreads the whole, which renders it less 
 brilliant as an engraving than if the lights had been more strikingly brought 
 forward; such a treatment would, however, have destroyed the harmony of colour 
 now prevailing. The picture is painted on panel. 
 
 Among the works of Callcott in the Sheepshanks collection, is one which was 
 exhibited at the Academy in 1830— "A Brisk Gale— Dutch East Indiaman landing 
 Passengers," at the entrance of a port or harbour, the two extremities of which 
 are in the foreground of the composition ; some small Dutch-built vessels are making 
 for the shelter: these are on the left of the picture; on the right lies the Indiaman 
 broadside to the spectator. The ship is of enormous length, and low down in the 
 water, as if heavily laden with merchandise from the Dutch settlements in the East ; 
 a small sailing-boat with passengers has, apparently, just left her; a row-boat has 
 reached the end of one pier and the boatmen are landing a single passenger with 
 his luggage. There is effective play of cloud and sunshine in the sky, nicely 
 reflected as light and shade on the water. 
 
 In the same collection is another of Callcott's pictures, very different from that 
 just noticed, and of a much more recent date; in fact, one of his latest works, signed 
 and dated 1841, and exhibited in the Academy in the year follomng. It is a long, 
 narrow strip of canvas, bearing the title "Dort;" the whole of the foreground is 
 a large field dotted over with a vast herd of cattle ; on the right, where the ground 
 is somewhat elevated, is a farm-house and out-buildings, with a few pollard- 
 willows growing here and there. On the left two cow-herds are rechnmg on 
 a sandy bank, taking a meal, while their dog watches the kine. Beyond these, 
 in the distance, Dort is seen across the river Waal, whereon are a few fishmg- 
 boats; conspicuous among the buildings is the tall, square tower of the 
 principal church. Albert Cuyp was born at Dort, and the spirit of the Dutch 
 
A DUTCH FERRY. 
 
fe 
 
 
 
 rt 
 
 ^ 
 
 ;> 
 
 o 
 
 p; 
 
 1^ 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 o 
 
 
52 Sm AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 covered with rushes, projects a long way across the canvas, where it almost meets a 
 row-boat filled with men. The extreme depression of the horizon is met to some 
 extent by two or three tall piles near the rush-bank, which serve the purpose, 
 naturally, of landmarks when the river overflows, and in the picture, of breaking the 
 low horizontal lines, so as to carry the eye upward. On the other side of the rushes 
 the sails of one or two sailing-boats are visible, and in the middle of the river is 
 another that seems only to move slowly with the tide. The scene is one of perfect 
 quietude. 
 
 Callcott's visit to Germany produced, so far as can be gathered from his exhibited 
 pictures, but few results. In 1831 he sent to the Academy "View of Trent in the 
 Tyrol," and in 1836, "Trent in the Tyrol; " a small engraving from one of these 
 paintings — I know not which — is before me as I write. The view is taken from the 
 left bank of the river Adige, on which this town stands so picturesquely, surrounded 
 by lofty mountains ; a prominent object in the view is a lofty square tower rising from 
 a mass of buildings enclosed within a battlemented wall, having a gateway throifgh 
 which crowds of people are passing into and out of the town. From the left extremity 
 of the wall a wooden bridge crosses the Adige, a waggon drawn by four horses is 
 just on its way over; and several cows are standing knee-deep in the water. 
 Conspicuous in the foreground is a female carrying a vessel of some kind or other 
 in each hand. Judging from the effective character of the engraving, the picture 
 from which it was copied must be most excellent. There is, however, in the series 
 of coloured prints of which I have already made use, another version of this Trent 
 subject, taken from a water-colour drawing, at the time in possession of Messrs. 
 Graves & Co. The sketch for this seems to have been made somewhat nearer to 
 the town, but from the same point ; so that we have in it all the main features of the 
 other. The crowds of people going in and out of the city are, however, not here ; 
 nor the ^voman with her milk cans, or whatever the vessels may be which she carries ; 
 but as the principal objects, quite in the foreground, two flat-bottomed boats are 
 introduced, with two or three figures seated beside them, and some strangely-drawn 
 cows, to complete a rather incongruous group. From the sketchy nature of the copy 
 it may be assumed that the original is a slight drawing, yet one certainly of very 
 nice feeling : especially attractive is the treatment of the distant hills, with their 
 diversified tints of colour, and the play of light and shade over their surfaces. 
 
 In the Vernon collection is a picture the value of which must in no degree be 
 estimated by its size ; if it were, a very low estimate would be placed upon it, for 
 the wood, or panel, whereon the " Sea-shore in Holland " is painted is no larger than 
 the annexed engraving of the subject ; but the work is a little gem, exhibiting all 
 the best qualities a connoisseur would look for in a picture, and greatly resembling in 
 character the works of some one of the old Dutch masters, the younger Van de Velde, 
 
DUTCH, BELGIAN, AND GERMAN SCENERY. 51 
 
 bold relief, but in an almost colourless mass, the various objects grouped together 
 in the foreground. 
 
 No country of Europe has undergone so little external change within the two last 
 centuries as Holland. In its natural aspect — the general appearance of her towns and 
 villages — and in the domestic habits and manners of the people, we see now very 
 nearly the same scenes as the old Dutch painters have shown us. When Wilkie 
 visited the country he wrote to his friend, Sir George Beaumont: — "Nothing seems 
 new to me here, for I had been familiar with it all upon canvas, and what one could 
 not help admiring was, that these old masters should have been able to draw the 
 ntaterials of so beautiful a variety of art from so contracted and monotonous a 
 country." The remark applies with almost equal force to each class of art, whether 
 marine, or landscape-painting, or genre. It can, therefore, scarcely be a subject 
 of wonder that modern pictures of Dutch scenery and manners bear a close 
 resemblance to those painted two hundred years and more ago, when the sources 
 whence the painters draw their material have undergone little or no alteration. While 
 social revolution — not to speak of political changes — have rapidly been marching 
 through vast tracts of the civilised world, Holland has remained in appearance almost 
 as she was when Wouverman drew pictures of her cavaliers, Teniers of her village 
 fetes, and Cuyp and Paul Potter of her pastures and " lowing herds." 
 
 These remarks seem naturally to suggest themselves when looking at the engraving 
 here given from a picture by Callcott, in the Vernon collection, called " A Dutch 
 Ferrj'," exhibited at the Academy in 1829; the artist exhibited another "Dutch 
 Ferry" at the British Institution in 1834, but it was a much smaller work. Here is 
 a rural scene of true picturesque character, — some houses overshadowed by the 
 foliage of an avenue of noble trees, peasants refreshing themselves at a roadside 
 inn ; a woman mounted on her horse, either going to, or coming from, marketing in 
 the neighbouring town, is seen in the distance ; and, on the left, a boat filled with 
 various commodities has just left the shore, under the guidance of a woman, for the 
 opposite side of the ferry. All these various objects are disposed to the best pictorial 
 advantage; the trees would, perhaps, have gained in appearance had the forms 
 been less conventional, and the foliage rather less opaque ; the branches want opening 
 out to admit of some light to penetrate their density. The picture is, however, a good 
 specimen of the artist's quiet and perfectly natural style. 
 
 Lord Colborne possesses a painting by Callcott, a " River Scene in Holland," 
 which is little more than a representation of sky and water ; the former, occupying 
 quite three-fourths of the canvas, shows large masses of light clouds floating idly 
 overhead, hiding the sun from the near part of the picture, but throwing it brightly 
 on the slip of low land on the other side of the river : this sky is very sweetly 
 painted. The foreground is made up of some mud-banks, a narrow slip of which, 
 
SEA-SHORE IN HOLLAND. 
 

 
 m 
 
 I 
 
 H 
 m 
 
 o 
 
 w 
 
 B 
 
 I? 
 O 
 
 n 
 12; 
 o ^ 
 
5+ SIR AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 the Moselle, are in the highest degree picturesque ; and the view of its extraordinary 
 windings from the heights above it, are as singular as they are enchanting." Its 
 whole course, moreover, is as full of traditional and legendary story as well as of 
 historic facts, as is that of the Rhine. Callcott has not indicated the locality of this 
 "High Tower" — for such it really is, a very lofty square-built tower, without 
 windows, at least in the side facing the spectator, only narrow loopholes, and it stands 
 at the extreme edge of a high rock overhanging the Moselle ; between it and a bank 
 on the right is an archway, beneath which a road leads to some houses erected on 
 high ground. At the base of the tower on the left, but a hundred feet below, as it 
 appears, and at a considerable distance off, are some houses close to the water-side, 
 and two pleasure-boats from which people are disembarking ; or, perhaps, in which 
 they are about to embark. On the opposite side of the river is a sloping mass of 
 high rock, crowned with a large monastic-looking edifice, and having at its base 
 a village of some pretensions, for among the buildings two church spires are 
 conspicuous. In the foreground of the drawing are several figures on a rather 
 large scale: two females seated on a point of rock which immediately overlooks 
 the water, and to the right of these a woman talking to some men ; farther off 
 is a figure on horseback. One may very readily understand that the original from 
 which the print was taken is a drawing of much excellence, very warm and sunny 
 in tone. 
 
 Another coloured print, the last of the series, to which reference has frequently 
 been made, is from a picture that was in the possession of Miss Sheepshanks ; it is 
 an upright subject with nothing to enable one to identify the locality, its title being 
 only "River Scene: Figures on the Bank." It is, however, evidently of Dutch 
 origin. On the right hand is a road, high above the water-level, but leading to it 
 by a flight of four or Ave steps : on the road is a man on horseback talking to a 
 woman close to two horses drinking out of a roadside trough ; these are closed in 
 by some rather tall trees, and by the lofty sails of two barges moored close to the 
 wooden piles and fence supporting the embanked roadway, beyond which the stern 
 of one of the barges is visible, with a man seated in it. Nearer to the base-line 
 of the picture is a fisherman's boat with three men in it : long rushes, water-lilies in 
 bloom, and fishing-baskets in and out of the water, with other objects, occupy the 
 immediate foreground. On the opposite bank of the river is a group of buildings ; 
 among them a square tower is conspicuous, close to the water's edge ; and at some 
 distance off is another square tower-on a projecting tongue of land, so far as can 
 be made out amidst the hot, hazy atmosphere that envelops the whole of the distance. 
 The varied colours of the sky, and the general tone of the picture, are suggestive of 
 a sultry summer's evening. 
 
 The engraving forming the frontispiece to this volume is from one of Callcott's 
 
DUTCH, BELGIAN, AND GERMAN SCENERY. 53 
 
 for instance ; but more especially the marine views of Ruysdael ; a comparison of 
 it with one of the latter would show a close resemblance. It is considered by some 
 critics that this small picture is actually copied from a work by a Dutchman ; but 
 Callcott was no copyist, though in this instance he seems to have had in his mind 
 the work of another ; indeed, it is not improbable that the picture is a composition 
 of materials gathered from the sources alluded to, inasmuch as the artist would not 
 have painted a sea-shore in Holland as here represented had he adhered to his own 
 individual style ; the majority of his pictures of Dutch scenery partaking in a degree 
 of those qualities of tranquillity and of classic feeling which distinguish his English and 
 Italian landscapes. This, on the contrary, is strictly Dutch in its composition and 
 treatment, while the figures belong to an age that has long since passed away ; both 
 Ruysdael and Van de Velde might have made their personal acquaintance. The 
 fishing-boats are steering for the shore, warned by the threat of rough weather in 
 those heavy clouds charged with the tempest : there is very much of life and action 
 ever3rwhere, with an admirable disposition of each component part. The picture is 
 painted with a rich impasto of colour, but beautifully transparent in its tones, and with 
 the most delicate finish. There is a very effective arrangement of light and shade in 
 the original which could not easily be translated into black and white, owing to the 
 absence of any quantity of high lights; but the skill and management of that 
 excellent artist and very clever engraver, the late J. C. Bentley, have resulted in a 
 print of unusual sparkle and brilliancy. The picture bears no date. 
 
 Among the Flemish or Belgian scenes painted and exhibited by Callcott I find 
 such works as "Bruges, from the Ghent Canal" (i8?7) ; " Canal of Bruges" (1831) ; 
 and of German landscapes, "Morning on the Lower Rhine" (1833); "Cologne" 
 (1834) ; " Scene on the Rhine " (1838) ; but I have no notes of any of these pictures, 
 neither have I been able to trace them. 
 
 I have before me a large coloured print from a water-colour drawing by Callcott, 
 which, many years ago, was in the possession of Mr. Charles Meigh, of Shelton, 
 Staffordshire, whose collection was sold in the year 1850, but this work does not 
 appear to have been included in the sale ; it is simply called " High Tower on the 
 Moselle." The banks of this river offer to the artist many passages of a most 
 picturesque character; "while ruins of old castles, watch-towers, and Gothic church 
 steeples, are not wanting to give a religious or romantic tone to the landscape." 
 Very much of the pictorial interest which attaches to it arises from its complicated 
 windings that often produce very novel and striking scenery, while its sides skirt 
 lofty hills clothed in rich woods or covered with grape-vines : and though the banks of 
 the Moselle may not be compared with those of the Rhine for grandeur, they are less 
 monotonous in their general aspect, and more beautiful. " Some of the side-valleys, 
 too," says a writer when referring to the scenery of the river, " which merge into 
 
 p 
 
S6 
 
 Sm AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, K.A. 
 
 charms by its admirable simplicity combined with severe truth ; the gentle surging 
 of the water, acted upon by the wind — uniform from a given point — the beautiful 
 gradation of distance, and the respirable atmosphere, are points any one of which 
 would give value to a work of this kind ; it served to show that as a marine-painter 
 Callcott retained to the last his power of effectively treating such subjects. 
 
DUTCH, BELGIAN, AND GERMAN SCENERY. 55 
 
 best-known pictures — at least of Dutch scenery ; it is now in the Vernon collection, 
 where it is known as " Dutch Peasants returning from Market," and in the cata- 
 logue is stated to have been exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1834: but on 
 reference to the catalogues of the Academy I find in that year the artist had no 
 picture so designated, but one simply called "Returning from Market;" in 1836, 
 however, he exhibited one bearing the first-named title ; and it is, therefore, only 
 reasonable to assume the " Dutch Peasants, &c.," is the work sent in 1836, 
 which is here termed "Crossing the Stream," as better indicating the subject. 
 The composition is in every way most attractive from its picturesque beauty. 
 The foreground presents a group which may be accepted as consisting of a well-to- 
 do farmer's wife, mounted on a capital nag, another female, perhaps the sister of the 
 former, leading a grey horse carrying a young boy, and a female farm-servant 
 with a basket of poultry on her head, and a pail, filled with something or other, on 
 her right arm: with petticoats carefully "caught up" the two younger females 
 cross the shallow stream bare-legged. The background to the left shows a road, 
 skirted by an avenue of trees, to the town whence they have come from the 
 market ; and the road to the right leads to a village, their probable destination, over 
 a level tract of country stretching into the far-distant horizon. The prevailing 
 qualities of this picture are light and air ; the breadth of the former and the 
 transparency of the latter are rendered in a very masterly manner ; even the thick 
 masses of foliage are most luminously painted, and yet without the slightest sacrifice 
 of power, for the work throughout exhibits more "body" than we are accustomed 
 to find in Callcott's pictures generally. There is a degree of elegance in the pose 
 and grouping of the figures that contributes not a little to its beauty ; the respective 
 portions of the composition are also very nicely balanced, and the eye is judiciously 
 led from the centre — the chief point of interest — to each retiving distance. There 
 is one little matter that appears as a defect ; the trunk of the tree immediately behind 
 the dappled grey horse and the hind leg on the near side of the animal, form, as 
 it were, a continuous line, so as almost to seem parts of the same object ; had the 
 horse been placed only half a step in advance, this would have been avoided. The 
 splash round each of the feet of the same animal makes it to appear as if all had 
 been brought down simultaneously into the water. These, however, are blemishes 
 of little consequence in a picture so full of marked excellencies as this is. 
 
 Of the three pictures exhibited by Callcott in 1844, the year of his death, one, 
 "A Stiff Breeze," had a Dutch origin. The stiff breeze we may presume to be 
 off the land, since there is but little motion in the water. The only objects presented 
 are something like a Rotterdam schuyt, and in the middle distance a ship of the line 
 putting about to stand off the land. The painter often " ran free" with Backhuysen 
 and Van de Velde, outsailing both in their own misty Zuyder Zee. This picture 
 
ITALIAN SCENERY. 
 
bo SIJi AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, H.A. 
 
 Why do the cliffs of shadowy tint appear 
 More sweet than all the landscape smiling near ? 
 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, 
 And robes the mountain in its azure hue." 
 
 Campbell's Pleasures of Hope. 
 
 "Port of Savona, in the Gulf of Genoa,'" exhibited in 1833, ^nd the "Port of 
 Leghorn," in 1834, are pictures I have never chanced to see; but I find in a 
 contemporary review of the latter exhibition these remarks on " The Port of 
 Leghorn": — -"We like the remoter objects in this landscape, which are executed 
 with Mr. Callcott's accustomed delicacy and correctness, as well with regard to 
 linear as aerial perspective ; and, doubtless, to local truth also ; but in the water 
 there appears to us to be a decided departure from the effects of nature, both in form 
 and colour, the first of which is too mechanical, and the second too much of a 
 vegetable green." Of others which followed, "Approach to Verona, from the 
 Tyrol" (1835), and " Murano, the Old Port of Venice," exhibited at the British 
 Institution in 1838, I can learn nothing. "Cicero's Tomb, near Mola di Gaeta," 
 was exhibited at the Academy in 1838. The traveller from Itri to Naples passes 
 through a portion of country not only of great picturesque beauty naturally, but also 
 of much most interesting classical association. "Shortly before reaching Mola," 
 writes Mr. O. Blewitt, in his "Handbook for South Italy and Naples," "the road 
 opens upon the charming bay of Gaeta, bounded on the south by its celebrated 
 headland, covered with bright battlements and villas. In the distance, on the other 
 side, are Ischia and Procida ; and farther still, we may descry the blue mountains 
 which form the eastern curve of the bay of Naples, and the well-known outline of 
 Vesuvius. As we advance, a massive circular tower, standing on a square base 
 in the midst of the vineyard on the right, and overhung by a carrouba tree, is a 
 picturesque object in the landscape, and would probably be selected by the artist 
 as a striking feature in every view of the bay from this road even if it did not 
 possess a higher interest as the tomb of Cicero. This massive sepulchre too closely 
 resembles the other buildings of the same kind whose remains are still traceable on 
 the Appian to leave any doubt as to its real purpose ; it consists of two stories above 
 an immense square base, and is surmounted with a small lantern with windows. On 
 the hill above the road some vestiges of foundations may still be traced which 
 probably mark the site of the temple dedicated by Cicero to Apollo, and on the 
 shore, as we shall presently see, considerable remains still exist to denote the 
 position of the Formian villa." Callcott's picture was, a few years ago, and possibly 
 is yet, in the possession of Mr. William Marshall, Eaton Square ; the point of view 
 is happily selected, showing a wide expanse of the bay of Naples in the distance ; it 
 is delicate in gradation and careful in execution. 
 
ITALIAN SCENERY. 
 
 ", 
 
 N the short biographical sketch which appears in the earlier, pages of 
 this volume, it was remarked that there is no evidence of Callcott 
 visiting Italy till his marriage with Mrs. Graham, when both he and 
 his wife passed some time in that country, leaving London in May, 
 1827. In 1829 his first Italian picture appeared at the Academy, 
 at least, it may be presumed from its title, "The Fountain — Morning," to be an 
 Italian subject, and thenceforward scarcely a season passed without seeing one or 
 more of these scenes in the gallery of the Academy ; but the majority of them, as 
 the list in the Appendix shows, are mere compositions, very classic and elegant in 
 design, and appropriate in treatment, but necessarily losing much of their interest 
 from being " nowhere " except in the artist's imagination. In a few we gain some 
 clue to the locality represented, as in "Sunset: at Camuglia " (1832), a busy little 
 fishing-town about ten miles from Genoa, a city whose suburbs furnished Callcott 
 with several subjects, as " Genoese Coast near Recco" (1835), ^^^ "Recco" (1837), 
 a picturesque town, between three and four miles from Genoa, noted for its "white 
 houses and the lofty campanile of the church, backed by the richly-wooded hill and 
 promontory of Porto Fino, which, stretching into the sea, forms the western shore 
 of the bay of Rapallo," From the country about half-way between Genoa and 
 Leghorn came a subject exhibited, like the "Camuglia" picture, in the Academy 
 in 1832; this was "A Scene suggested by an Effect seen after heavy Rain in the 
 Ligurian Mountains, near Sarzana." Some idea, perhaps, of the treatment of the 
 subject may be formed from the lines Callcott added to the title : — 
 
 " Why to yon mountain turns the musing eye, 
 Whose sun-bright summit mingles with the sky- 
 
62 SIJi AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 reflect the clear, mellow tints of a southern atmosphere. As usual there is little 
 positive colour to be seen in the picture, except in a few of the figures, and even 
 in them it is kept down so as not to disturb the general harmony. 
 
 There were sold at Messrs. Christie's, in 1846, among a collection of pictures 
 whose owner's name did not appear, four or five by Callcott, one of which was 
 an Italian subject, "The Bay of Spezzia," never exhibited, so far as I can 
 ascertain ; it then realised 201 guineas. Subsequently it passed into the hands 
 of Mr. Charles Birch, of Birmingham, and again appeared in the same sale-rooms 
 when, in 1855, the collection of that gentleman was dispersed: on that occasion 
 "Spezzia Bay" rose to the value of 500 guineas; it is a rather large, upright 
 landscape, most classical in composition, quiet and tender in colour. 
 
 "Recollections of the Campagna of Rome" was exhibited at the Royal 
 Academy in 1834 ; I have never chanced to see it, but it was thus spoken of in 
 a contemporary publication: — "Of the numerous works exhibited by Mr. Callcott 
 this season" — he. had sent six to the Academy — " we find none more to our taste 
 than this; it is one of those little long compositions of his, embracing a wide 
 expanse of flat Italian scenery, in the representation of which and similar subjects, 
 he has so greatly excelled. The figures introduced at either extremity are executed 
 with taste and freedom ; and, upon the whole, a more delightful picture of its class 
 is scarcely to be desired." * 
 
 Among other pictures in the possession of Mr. Birch was one of Callcott' s 
 Italian compositions, simply called "Ruins near a River, with Bridge;" the design 
 differs veiy little from the ordinary conventional of similar subjects by this artist. 
 A large portion of the foreground is occupied by the river, which, at the base of 
 the picture, becomes very narrow; here at the extreme left a flat-bottomed boat 
 or punt is moored, and from it some packages are being landed, and are taken 
 in charge by two men, one of whom is on horseback, and the other is standing 
 by his horse, which has panniers slung across his back. In the middle-distance, 
 on the right of the composition, is a bank sloping down to the water, and some 
 cows standing near a small group of trees ; a point of this bank juts out into the 
 stream, where another boat is moored, broadside to the spectator. Beyond is 
 another bank of much greater elevation than the nearer, and well wooded at its 
 base; on this stands a long range of ruined buildings, consisting mainly of 
 walls and towers : the roadway from these traverses a bridge of four arches only, 
 the stream becoming here very narrow, and at the left end of the bridge are more 
 ruins. The evening sun brilliantly illuminates the floating clouds, imparts warmth to 
 the architecture, and reflects its radiance on the water where this is widest. 
 
 'Arnold's Magazine of the Fine Arts." Vol. IV. 1834. 
 
ITALIAN SCENERY. 6i 
 
 In that portion of the Vernon collection which is hung in Trafalgar Square is a 
 picture of considerable dimensions, which was exhibited at the Academy in 1833; 
 its title, " Entrance to Pisa from Leghorn." When it was in Mr. Vernon's house in 
 Pall Mall, the picture was called "Port of Leghorn, the Gate leading to Pisa;" 
 there is a discrepancy between the two titles, the latter inferring that the view is a 
 portion of Leghorn, showing some gate which conducts to the neighbouring city of 
 Pisa, about thirteen miles distant north-east ; Leghorn has, in fact, such a gate, 
 known as the north or Pisa gate. There is no question, however, that the scene 
 represented is that by which it is now known; but why the "Port of Leghorn" 
 should ever have formed part of the title is inexplicable. Pisa, considered the finest 
 city in Tuscany, after Florence, stands in a rich plain watered by the Arno, which 
 flows into the sea about four miles distant. Looking at the river as it now is 
 in reality, or as Callcott has represented it, it is difificult to believe that in the 
 earlier mediaeval times Pisa was a maritime place of very considerable importance, 
 and that the republic of Pisa possessed powerful fleets and armies of great 
 numerical strength. During several centuries she disputed the supremacy of the 
 Italian seas and ports with Genoa and other states, both European and African, 
 till the Pisans suffered two severe defeats by the Genoese; one in 1284, when 
 Oberto Doria, the first naval commander of the age, led the Genoese fleet against 
 that of Pisa, and after a desperate engagement, which lasted the whole day, near 
 Leghorn, completely destroyed it. Six years later Conrad Doria attacked the 
 Porto Pisano, destroyed its towers, and rendered the Arno unnavigable for vessels 
 of any size. From that time Pisa completely lost its rank as a maritime power. 
 
 The river divides the city into two nearly equal parts, which are connected by 
 three bridges ; one of these, that, it may be presumed, which is nearest the sea, 
 appears very picturesquely in Callcott' s work ; this takes in a portion of the quay 
 of the Arno, which the artist has enlivened with numerous groups of figures. On 
 each side of the bridge are groups of buildings capitally situated for pictorial 
 effect ; and beyond it are various edifices backed by wooded heights rising from 
 the banks of the Val d' Arno : but nowhere have we a glimpse of those famous 
 structures that render Pisa one of the most interesting cities of Italy to those who 
 love Art, — the noble group formed by the Duomo, or cathedral, the Baptistery, 
 the Campanile, and the cemetery of the.Campo Santo, which "rise in solemn 
 tranquillity from the green meadow of close-shaven turf, apart from all the 
 ordinary habitations of mankind." But these famous objects are not needed by 
 way of giving additional value to the composition, which presents that combination 
 of water with classic architecture that Callcott was accustomed to treat so ably. 
 The view here is taken under the effect of a warm sunny evening, but it is painted 
 in sober tones and with much delicacy, for even those parts left in deep shadows 
 
 R 
 
ENTRANCE TO PISA FROM LEGHORN, 
 
 ^ 
 
^ 
 m 
 
 N^ 
 
 N 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 W 
 
 Hi 
 > 
 
 N 
 
 Pi' 
 
 Q 
 
64 SIR AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 and later date, showing a massive wall with an open archway in it, flanked by a 
 strong circular tower connected with thick walls which are supported by heavy 
 buttresses ; and inasmuch as these walls stand much below the tower, the artist 
 has placed opposite to them on the other, or right, side some modern Italian 
 buildings. The Tiber occupies a large space in the centre of the picture, and in 
 the middle are the remains of a very extensive bridge, stretching at one time quite 
 across the river, but now showing a large portion of the centre broken away. All 
 beyond is flat country, till, in the extreme distance, a range of lofty hills, but faintly 
 seen in the dim horizon — dim by reason of the heated atmosphere — terminates 
 the view. There is abundance of material in this picture, but it is arranged in 
 a manner too formal and conventional, and yet somewhat incongruously, to render 
 it agreeable. It does not look like nature, while it is deficient in the qualities of 
 good composition. 
 
 Infinitely preferable to this work is another in the same series, taken from a 
 picture belonging at the time to Dr. Chambers, and bearing only the title of 
 an "Italian Landscape, with a Bridge." This bridge, of several lofty arches, 
 runs almost entirely across the canvas in the foreground, the river beyond it 
 rushing over large boulders of rock, till it again appears in the distance quietly 
 meandering through the level country on its course to the sea. On the right of the 
 bridge is a roadway through an avenue of noble trees, which appears to conduct 
 to some villas standing on an eminence commanding a magnificent panoramic 
 view of the sea and its picturesque coast of main and insular land, with, in the 
 extreme distance, a mountain that looks as if intended for Vesuvius. On the left 
 of the bridge a short flight of steps leads from the small slip of ground in the 
 front to the remains of a Roman temple and numerous buildings, among which is 
 an amphitheatre of considerable extent. Life is given to the composition by the 
 introduction of three figures in the foreground ; one is a man reclining on a part 
 of the stone wall that abuts on the river, two females, water-carriers, are conversing 
 with him; these figures and the large white stones of the wall constitute the points 
 of colour and light in the picture. 
 
 These Italian views are undoubtedly not the least interesting of Callcott's 
 works; they show refinement of feeling, a taste for the beauties of that classic 
 land, and, for the most part, an aptitude for turning them to the best pictorial 
 account; perhaps in this latter particular he has the advantage over Claude, 
 with whom his pictures of this class have often been compared. 
 
ITALIAN SCENERY. g^ 
 
 IS a 
 
 A more elegant and truly classical composition than that just described i 
 very small picture forming part of the Vernon collection at South Kensington, 
 where it bears the title of "Italian Landscape," On the near bank of a river, 
 over which several cows are passing, a man is conversing with a woman bearing 
 a water-jar on her head ; a rather high and abrupt bank forms a close background 
 to the. figures, which are only separated from it by a narrow breadth of water; 
 this bank is covered with a mass of trees very graceful in formation, among which 
 we catch a glimpse of the fragmentary columns and architrave of a small circular 
 temple like that of Vesta at Tivoli. Below this, and standing out against the 
 distant landscape, are some buildings, prominently a square tower, roofed ; just in 
 advance of this the river is crossed by a bridge of nine arches, varied in height 
 and width ; and at right-angles with it is another and lower bridge, of which two 
 arches only appear. The middle-distance, seen over these two bridges, is made 
 up of sloping ground, with two groups of trees, between which are some fine 
 villas standing on a considerable elevation; another bridge of several arches is 
 dimly visible at the foot of the sloping ground, and beyond is a stretch of open 
 country lying softly under the influence of a sky singularly transparent and luminous 
 in its serenity. This little picture is most beautiful in colour. 
 
 One of the coloured prints in the Dibdin series is called " The River Tiber, 
 with Ruins;" it was taken from a picture which, when the work was published in 
 1847, is stated to have belonged to Miss Sheepshanks, of Reading; it bears the 
 date 1841, but whether it ever was exhibited there is no record. It is an open 
 subject, taking in a wide expanse of country ; the sketch is presumably made from 
 an elevated terrace, reaching from one side of the picture to the other ; and from 
 it a kind of bird's-eye view is obtained of the whole range of landscape. Seated 
 on a step at the extreme left-hand side of the terrace, and beneath a fragment of 
 architecture showing some sculptured figures, is an old grey-bearded man, bare- 
 footed, and having the appearance of a traveller, . for he has a stick in his hand, 
 and a bundle lies by his side; the cloak he wears has a cowl, which is drawn 
 over his 'head. On the opposite side of the terrace, which has steps, and corre- 
 sponds in some measure with the other, is a female carrying in each hand a 
 water-jar, and close to her are a man and woman in conversation seated on one 
 of the steps of the terrace. Masses of architectural debris are scattered all about 
 the foreground, and beyond is a flock of sheep following their shepherd ; a viaduct 
 of four arches over a deep ravine runs parallel with the base of the picture behind 
 the three figures just spoken of, and serves to connect this elevated passage of 
 foreground with another running out of the picture on the left ; and on this stands 
 a portion of a ruined temple — columns, architrave. To balance this, on the 
 opposite side of the composition are some remains of edifices of a different style 
 
APPENDIXES. 
 
68 
 
 Sm AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 Xo. in 
 Catalogue. 
 
 1809. 
 
 6. The Watering-place. 
 107. Llangollen Bridge. 
 193. Windsor, from Eton. 
 
 127. Landscape — Diana and Actaeon. 
 182. A Young Lady. 
 
 1811. 
 
 112. Itchen Ferry. 
 
 141. Southampton, from Weston Grove. 
 
 198. Apollo slaying the Sons of Niobe. 
 
 223. Study from Nature. 
 
 277. Cattle at the Watering-place. 
 
 367. Morning. 
 
 432. Scene from Capel Curig, N. W. 
 
 450. No title, but a poetical quotation. 
 
 459. Morning. . 
 
 519. Travelling Tinker. 
 
 l8l2. 
 
 14. Little Hampton Pier. 
 
 50. The Cottager's Relief. 
 
 64. Return from Market. 
 
 159. Study from Nature. 
 
 198. Mill near Llangollen. 
 
 329. Hampton Court Bridge. 
 
 Absent. 
 Absent. 
 
 1813. 
 1814. 
 
 1815. 
 66. Passage and Luggage Boats. 
 
 1816. 
 175. Entrance to the Pool of London. 
 
 Absent. 
 
 1817. 
 
 1818. 
 
 95. Mouth of the Tyne, with View of Shields. 
 
 86. Rotterdam. 
 
 1819. 
 
 1020. 
 81.. Dead Calm on the Medway. 
 
 No. in 
 Catalogue. 
 
 I»2I. 
 
 194. Dover, from the Sea — Wind against Tide. 
 
 1522. 
 
 171. Smugglers alarmed by Change of Weather. 
 
 1823. 
 158. Dutch Market-Boats — Rotterdam. 
 
 1824. 
 160. Rochester from the River below the Bridge. 
 
 1825. 
 
 Absent. 
 
 1826. 
 
 102. Quay at Antwerp during the Fair-time. 
 165. Dutch Boats running foul in the endeavour to 
 board, and missing the Painter-rope 
 
 1827. 
 
 III. Heavy Weather coming on — with Vessels running 
 
 to Port. 
 173. Bruges, from the Ghent Canal. 
 221. Dead Calm — Boats off Cowes Castle. 
 306. The Thames below Greenwich. 
 
 1828. 
 
 Absent. 
 
 1829. 
 
 10. The Fountain — Morning. 
 66. A Dutch Ferry. 
 
 1830. 
 
 72, Morning: an Italian Composition. 
 
 85. Scene in the Neighbourhood of Arnheim. 
 105. The Passage Point: an Italian Composition. 
 172. A Brisk Gale— Dutch East Indiaman landing 
 
 Passengers. 
 327. Squally Weather. 
 
 1831. 
 
 11. Dutch Coast. 
 
 61. Evening : an Italian Landscape. 
 97. Morning: an Italian Landscape. 
 122. Italian Landscape. 
 
 135. Canal of Bruges. 
 
 136. A Mill-dam. 
 
 307. View of Trent, in the Tyrol. 
 417. A Sunny Morning. 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 Pictures Exhibited by Sir A. W. Callcott, R.A., at the Royal Academy. 
 
 No. in 
 Catalogue. 
 
 540. Miss Roberts. 
 Absent. 
 
 16. View of Oxford. 
 104. Mr. Webb. 
 372. Mr. Dignum. 
 
 1799. 
 
 1800. 
 
 1801. 
 
 1802. 
 
 80. Banks of a River. 
 
 121. Lago Maggiore — with a Thunderstorm. 
 525. Dr. Grey. 
 591. Moonlight. 
 618. Milking. 
 857. Morning. 
 
 1803. 
 
 164. The Gravel-pit. 
 
 205. Morning. 
 
 229. Evening. 
 
 516. Mr. Dignum. 
 
 556. A Heath— Peasants returning from Market. 
 
 743. Morning. 
 
 No. in . Qrt K 
 
 Catalogue. IO05- 
 
 2 2. The Water-mill. 
 
 42. Moonrise — Fishermen drawing their Nets. 
 119. The Angler. 
 170. Morning. 
 435. Distant Shower. 
 449. Scene between Bala and Dolgelly. 
 470. Scene between Dudley and Bridgenorth. 
 
 Waterfall in the Vicinity of Tany Owlch, 
 Merionethshire. 
 
 490. 
 
 1804. 
 
 570. Windsor. 
 
 1806. 
 70. The Brook. 
 105. Rural Scene— Midday. 
 241. Sea-coast, with Figures bargaining for Fish. 
 290. Calm— Figures shrimping. 
 
 1807. 
 
 r8. Market-day. 
 
 76. Coast-scene. 
 167. Old Houses at Shrewsbury. 
 308. Cow-boys. 
 427. Evening. 
 
 1808. 
 
 83. Mill near Llangollen. 
 105. Sea-coast, with Remains of Wreck. 
 180. River Scene, 
 
APPENDIX B. 
 
 Pictures by Sir A. W. Callcott, R.A., exhibited at the British Institution. 
 
 No. in Q £ 
 
 Catalogue. lOOO. 
 
 4. A Heath, with Peasants. 
 
 1808. 
 
 260. Cow-boys. 
 
 95. Travelling Tinkers. 
 1 14. A Study from Nature. 
 195. A Study from Nature. 
 
 106. Travelling Tinkers. 
 .159. A Study from Nature. 
 185. A Study from Nature. 
 
 1811. 
 
 1812. 
 
 1834. 
 
 3. A Dutch Ferry. 
 248. Landscape, with Figures. 
 236. Scene from " The Merry Wives of Windsor." 
 
 1835. 
 
 I. An ItaUan Girl dressed for the Festa. 
 167. Dutch Peasants coming to meet the Return of the Fishing-boats. 
 252. FalstafFin the Disguise of the Old Woman of Brentford, &c. 
 
 294. The Benighted Traveller — a Sketch. 
 
 295. "Reheve the Fatherless, plead for the Widow." 
 
 1838. 
 14. Murano. 
 
APPENDIXES. 
 
 69 
 
 No. in iS'ia. 
 
 Catalogue. ^ 
 
 8. Sunset at Camuglia, a small sea-port ten miles 
 S.E. of Genoa. 
 61. The ruined Tomb. 
 
 86. A Scene suggested by an Effect seen after heavy 
 Rain in the Ligurian Mountains, near 
 Sarzana. 
 100. The Wayworn Traveller. 
 141. A Cross-road. 
 187. An English Water-mill. 
 271. Dutch Coast-Scene. 
 
 332. A finished Sketch of Italian Girls going in 
 Procession to their First Communion, &c. 
 
 1833- 
 23. Shepherd's Boys with their Dogs. 
 70. Harvest in the Highlands : the figures by E 
 Landseer, R.A., the Landscape by A. W. 
 Callcott, R.A. 
 185. Entrance to Pisa from Leghorn. 
 221. Port of Savona, in the Gulf of Genoa. 
 283. Morning on the Lower Rhine. 
 359. Morning : an Italian Landscape. 
 
 1834. 
 
 106. Port of Leghorn. 
 
 121. Returning from Market. 
 
 154. Cologne. 
 
 189. Dutch Peasants waiting 
 
 Passenger-boat. 
 316. Recollections of the Campagna of Rome. 
 368. A Dutch Landscape. 
 
 the return of the 
 
 1835- 
 13. Genoese Coast — near Recco. 
 66. Midday — resting from the Harrow. 
 
 10 1. Approach to Verona, from the Tyrol. 
 
 118. Composition, from the Lago di Garda. 
 
 1836. 
 
 No. in 
 Catalogue. 
 
 48. Dutch Peasants returning from Market. 
 no. Murano, the old Port of Venice. 
 130- Trent, in the Tyrol. 
 
 1837. 
 104, Raffaelle and the Fornarina. 
 179. Recco, on the Coast of Genoa. 
 
 1838. 
 g. Cicero's Tomb, near Mola di Gaeta. 
 15. Italian Composition, from materials near Rome. 
 67. Itahan Composition, from materials at Baise. 
 176. Scene on the Rhine. 
 424. Dutch Boats leaving Port in Squally Weather. 
 
 1839. 
 
 Absent. 
 
 1840. 
 125. Milton dictating to his Daughters. 
 
 Absent. 
 
 1841. 
 
 1842. 
 
 10. An English Landscape — Composition. 
 166. An Italian Landscape — Composition. 
 262. Dort. 
 
 1843. 
 
 Absent. 
 
 1844. 
 
 78. A Stiff Breeze. 
 122. Italian Port — Sunrise. 
 129. Morning — an Italian Scene. 
 
APPENDIX D. 
 
 Pictures by, or attributed to, Sir A. W. Callcott, R.A., sold in the Auction 
 Rooms of Messrs. Christie, Manson, and Woods, and of Messrs. Foster 
 AND Son. 
 
 Where the name of the Collection is not given it did not appear in the Catalogue of the Sale. The names within 
 
 brackets at the end are those of the purchasers. 
 
 1827. The River Amo (Lord De Tabley's collection), 124 gs. 
 The Pier at Little Hampton," 155 gs. (R. Vernon). 
 
 1831. Windsor Castle and Eton College, 31 gs. 
 
 1835. View on the Meuse— Sportsman on a Grey Horse (Lord Charles Townsend's collection), 310 gs. 
 (Sir Charles Coote). 
 
 1842. Cologne (Mr. J. Delafield's collection), 145 gs. (Mr. G. Knott). 
 
 Landscape — Arcadian Shepherds in a Valley — Sunset, 190 gs. (Mr. Bryant). 
 
 1845. Cologne (Mr. G. Knott's collection), 273 gs. (Mr. Pennell). 
 
 1846. Italian Church Interior, 91 gs. 
 Bay of Spezzia, 201 gs. 
 Launce and his Dog, 57 gs. 
 
 Milton and his Daughters — a sketch, 21 gs. 
 
 Sea-shore — a sketch, 13^ gs. 
 
 Grand English Landscape, said to be an early work, 180 gs. 
 
 1850. A Classical View in Italy, small (Mr. C. Meigh's collection), 17 gs. 
 Yarmouth Jetty, small, 39 gs. 
 View on the Rhine, small, 13 gs. 
 Crossing the Brook ; the sketch for the picture called Dutch Peasants returning from Market, 30 gs. 
 
 (Engraved in this volume.) 
 Classical Landscape, large, 450 gs. 
 Landscape, small, 46 gs. 
 
 1852. Looking out — a marine view (Mr. W. Wells's collection), 160 gs. 
 
 Landscape — with trees and buildings, a small and early picture, 65 gs. 
 
 1855. Bay of Spezzia, 500 gs. 
 
 Water-mill — Windsor Castle in the Distance, 140 gs. 
 Both pictures were in the collection of Mr. C. Birch. 
 
APPENDIX C. 
 
 Pictures by Sir A. W. Callcott, R.A., exhibited in 1845 ^.t the British 
 
 IXSTITUTION AMONG THE WoRKS OF AnCIENT AND DECEASED MASTERS. 
 
 No. in 
 Catalogue. 
 
 124. An Italian Landscape 
 
 125. Raphael and the Fornarina * . 
 129. Morning .... 
 
 131. Landscape, with Figures 
 
 132. Sea-piece .... 
 
 133. A Study from Nature 
 
 134. Sea-piece 
 
 135. The Quay at Antwerp 
 
 140. Passage and Luggage-Boats 
 
 141. Sea-piece .... 
 Columbus 
 
 An Italian Composition . 
 An Italian Landscape 
 Landscape and Figures . 
 
 149. Trent, in the Tyrol . 
 
 150. Landscape, with Figures . 
 
 152. Sea-piece .... 
 
 153. Raphael and the Fornarina* . 
 
 155. Murano, the Ancient Port of Venice 
 
 1 56. A River-Scene 
 
 157.. Returning from Market . 
 
 160. River-view in Holland 
 
 161. View of R.ochester 
 
 164. Approach to Verona from the Tyrol 
 
 165. Dutch Market-boats 
 
 168. Landscape and Figures . 
 
 169. View of a Lake 
 
 143- 
 
 144. 
 
 145- 
 146. 
 
 Owner. 
 
 Sir John Swinburne, Bart. 
 Duke of Bedford. 
 The Royal Academy. 
 Lady Chantrey. 
 Lord Colborne. 
 Sir Thomas Baring, Bart. 
 Duke of Norfolk. 
 Duke of Bedford. 
 Sir John Swinburne, Bart. 
 Colonel Wyndham. 
 Mr. Justice Coltman. 
 Miss Sheepshanks. 
 Duke of Sutherland, K. G. 
 Marquis of Lansdowne, K. G. 
 Samuel Cartwright, Esq. 
 William Wells, Esq. 
 William Wells, Esq. 
 Sir George Philips, Bart. 
 Samuel Cartwright, Esq. 
 Miss Sheepshanks. 
 Duke of Norfolk. 
 Sir Charles Coote, Bart. 
 Sir George Philips, Bart. 
 John Marshall, Esq. 
 Earl of Essex. 
 Lady Dover. 
 William Wells, Esq. 
 
 * The two pictures "Raphael and the Fornarina" are not identical in style, though very much the 
 same in subject : the Duke of Bedford's is executed with a free and vigorous touch ; that of Sir George 
 PhiUps resembles the finish and texture of the modem German schools. 
 
74 
 
 SIR AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT, R.A. 
 
 1872. A Harvest-Field — very small, 285 gs. (Price). 
 The Cow-boy, 410 gs. (Agnew). 
 
 A Coast-Scene — a Fishing-boat putting off; the picture presumably sold in 1866, 1,400 gs. (White). 
 These three works were in the collection of Mr. Gillott. 
 
 1873. The Thames and St. Paul's — Early Morning (Mr. J. Hargreaves' collection), 300 gs. (Cartwright). 
 Italian River-Scene (same collection), 620 gs. (J. Edward Fordham). 
 
 Procession to the Temple of ^sculapius (Mr. Fender's collection), 180 gs. (Agnew). 
 
 1874. Tor Point Ferry, above Devonport (Mr. Heugh's collection), 410 gs. 
 A Calm, 13s gs. 
 
 1875. Launce and his Dog, 385 gs. 
 
 Windsor Castle, from the Thames — very small, 122 gs. 
 Landscape, with Ruins, Cottage, and a Pool of Water, 400 gs. 
 
 These three pictures were in the collection of Mr. S. Mendel. 
 View of a Town (Mr. W. Leafs collection), 90 gs. (Cox). 
 A Backwater on the Thames, 14 gs. 
 Foley Bridge, Oxford, z6 gs. 
 On the Thames — Windsor Castle, 90 gs. 
 
 PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO.. CITY KOAD. LONDnx. 
 
APPENDIXES. 
 
 73 
 
 1857. Raphael drawing the Foraarina : a small picture formerly in the collection of Lord Northwick, 25 gs. 
 
 Procession to the Temple of ^sculapius at Athens : a picture presented by Callcott to his medical 
 
 friend, Dr. Carpenter, 260 gs. (Holmes). 
 Hampstead Heath, 285 gs. (Mordaunt). 
 Returning from Market, the finished sketch for the picture in the Vernon collection ; and the same 
 
 sketch as that sold in 1850 under the title of Crossing the Brook, 72 gs. (collection of Mr. J. 
 
 Barlow, Manchester). 
 An English Landscape, 105 gs. 
 
 1859. Distant View of Dort (Hon. E. Phipps's collection), 270 gs. (Jones). 
 
 A Stiff Breeze — one of Callcott's latest exhibited works, 355 gs. (Rought). 
 Italian Landscape, with Figures, 410 gs. (Agnew). 
 
 i860. Rustic Landscape, 118 gs. 
 
 Scene in Holland, 260 gs. (Wallis). < ■ 
 
 View on the Rhine at Cologne, 125 gs. (Agnew). 
 Launce and his Dog, 370 gs. (Agnew). 
 
 These four pictures belonged to the late Mr. I. K. Brunei. 
 Mill Pond and Mill (Mr. J. Heugh's collection), 152 gs. 
 The First Communion, 145 gs. 
 
 1861, Beach at Hastings (Mr. Agnew's collection, and previously in the possession of Mr. W. Wells), 145 gs, 
 (Knowles). 
 Nave of a Cathedral in Spain (Mr. Wallis's collection) 106 gs. (Rought). 
 Landscape, with a Wooden Bridge, and a Village Church in the Distance, 105 gs. (Agnew). 
 Southampton Water (collection of Sir John Swinburne), 1,205 g^- (Flatou). 
 
 1863. Landscape, with Sheep grazing (Mr. Allmitt's collection), 310 gs. (Cox). 
 Rochester Bridge and Castle, 490 gs. (Agnew). 
 
 View near Southampton, 100 gs. (Agnew). 
 
 English Landscape, with Cattle finished by Sir E. Landseer, 2,950 gs. (Agnew). 
 
 These three pictures were in the collection of Mr. E. Bicknell. 
 River-Scene, with Architecture and Figures — a composition, 510 gs. (Agnew). 
 
 1864. Entrance to the Cathedral at Florence (Mr. J. Palmer's collection), 134 gs. (Cox). 
 
 A Gipsy's Encampment, painted in conjunction with F. Goodall, R.A. (Mr. A. Grant's collection), 
 
 90 gs. (Rhodes). 
 Landscape — Sunset, 65 gs. 
 
 1865. Entrance to a Cathedral, with Figures (Cox's collection, and presumably the same picture as that 
 
 referred to in the sale of the preceding year), 150 gs. (Barlow). 
 English Landscape (Mr. D. Fletcher's collection), 2,000 gs. (Agnew). This is the picture formerly in the 
 Bicknell collection; it was sold, in 1863, as stated above, for 2,950 gs., to Mr. Agnew, who 
 purchased it now for the second time. 
 
 1866. Coast-Scene, with a Ferry-boat and Figures (Mr. G. Young's collection), 275 gs. (Agnew). 
 
 A Sultry Evening on the Thames, near, Maidenhead (Mr. G. Pennell's collection), 660 gs. (Maxwell). 
 Coast-Scene, with a Fishing-boat putting off in a Storm, 840 gs. (W. Cox). 
 Italian Landscape (Mr. Flatou's collection), 1,000 gs. (Moore). 
 
 1870. Hampstead Heath (Mr. Bullock's collection), 195 gs. (Rowbotham). 
 
 1871. A Calm (Mr. F. Wilkinson's collection), 180 gs. (Ellingham). 
 
 U 
 
RECENT FINE ART PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Imperial 4to, with 9 Steel Engravings, handsomely bound in 
 cloth gilt, 1 6s. 
 
 Pictures by C. R. Leslie, R.A. With 
 
 Descriptive Notices and a Biographical Sketch of the Painter, by 
 James Dafforne. 
 
 " A true picture-book, eloquently and practically pleading for picture-books, is this 
 sumptuous volume. The engravings represent as worthy a selection of Leslie's works 
 as any admirers of his refined genius could wish." — Telegraph, 
 
 Imperial 4to, handsomely bound in cloth gilt, with 11 ^teel 
 Engravings, i6s. 
 
 Pictures by Daniel Maclise, R.A. 
 
 With Descriptions, and a Biographical Sketch of the Painter, by 
 James Dafforne. 
 
 " Mr. Dafforne's volume is a worthy monument to the genius of yiasXise."— Book- 
 seller, 
 
 Imperial 4to, elegantly bound in cloth gUt, with 20 Steel 
 Engravings, 31s. 6d. 
 
 Leslie and Maclise. Specimens of the 
 
 Works of: t^ese celebrated Artists. With Descriptive and Biographi- 
 cal Noticfes-by James Dafforne. 
 
 " These two books are produced in the same manner, a,nd a series of engravings 
 from the work of a deceased master in his art, published in this style, appears to be 
 exactly the right way to celebrate our leading artists as they pass from the stage. 
 The memoirs of both artists are exceedingly well related." — Academy, 
 
 "The binding and get up are most creditable, and Mr. Dafforne's pages descriptive 
 of the pictures enhance the attraction of the \>oo)ii."— Standard, 
 
 ART GIFT-BOOKS AND PRIZES. 
 
 Small 4to, extensively illustrated, 12s. 
 
 Art Studies from Nature, as applied 
 
 to Design. For the use of Architects, Designers, and Manu- 
 facturers. 
 
 Contents : 
 I.— The Adaptability of our Native Plants to the Purposes of Ornamental Art. Bv 
 
 Edward Hulme, F.L.S. , 
 
 II.— Seaweeds as Objects of Design. By J. S. Mackie, Esq., F.G.S., F.S.A. 
 III. — The Crystals of Snow, as applied to the Purposes of Desien. Bv Tames 
 
 Glaisher, Esq., F.R.S. -^ 
 
 IV.— Symmetrical and Ornamental Forms of Organic Remains. By Robert Hunt 
 F.R.S. * 
 
 "Not one of the Papers will be read by an intelligent manufacturer or designer in 
 almost any branch of ornamental business without affording suggestions which will 
 possess a. money value m the market. The illustrations are numerous and excellent." 
 — Standard. 
 
 , "A more apt or suggestive gift for the young artist or art-tradesman could not be 
 desired. — Daily Telegraph. 
 
 Small 4to, with 259 Wood fingravings, elegantly bound, 12s. 
 
 Art Papers, or Rambles of an Archae- 
 ologist. By F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A. 
 
 Contents.— t. Among Old Books and in Old Places ; 2. Grotesque Designs • 
 3. About Fmger-Rmgs ; 4. Ancient Brooches and Dress Fastenings : Albert Diirer 
 and his Works. 
 
 " Mr. Fairholt's knowledge and reading were extensive, his pencil facile and 
 accurate, and; he possessed the pen of a ready writer. The volume is a pleasant 
 memorial of that skilful artist and intelligent archaeologist."— yVoto and Queries. 
 
 Small 4to, with numerous Engravings on Wood, 12s. 
 
 Art Rambles at Home; or Homes, 
 
 Works, and Shrines of English Artists. By Frederick William 
 Fairholt, F.S.A. 
 
 Contents. 
 . Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. 
 
 2. Winiam Hogarth. 
 
 3. T. Gainsborough, R.A. 
 
 4. R. Cosway, R.A. 
 
 5. George Morland. 
 
 6. R. Wilson, R.A. 
 
 7. J. M. W. Turner, R.A. 
 
 8. W. Collins, R.A. 
 
 g. W. Etty, R.A. 
 
 10. William Blake. 
 
 11. T. Flaxman, R.A. 
 
 12. T. Nollekens, R.A. 
 
 13. R. J. Wyatt. 
 
 14. G. Vertue, F.S.A. 
 15- W. Woollett. 
 16. T. Bewick. 
 
 ' ", j' j^"^ more about these men, their ways and works, than a more elaborate book 
 could do ; and the beautiful illustrations complete the charm."— Daily Telegraph, 
 
 Small 4to, with 133 Woodcut Illustrations, elegantly bound, 12s. 
 
 Art Rambles Abroad ; or Homes and 
 
 Haunts of Foreign Artists. By Frederick William Fair- 
 holt, F.S.A. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 6. The Dutch Genre-Painters. 
 
 7. Dutch Landscape and Flower- 
 
 Painters. 
 
 8. Michael Angelo's Home, 
 g. Raffaelle in Rome. 
 
 1. Haunts of Rubens and Vandyke. 
 
 2. Rambles in Belgium. 
 
 3. Rembrandt's Studio. 
 
 4. The Country of Cuyp. 
 
 5. The Home of Paul Potter. 
 
 "Rarely am to found combined in one individual the qualifications of the literary 
 man, the artist, and the archsologist ; but in the late Mr. Fairholt these three accom- 
 plishments sbowell themselves m a remarkable maimsv."— Record. 
 
 'The biographical notices are genial, lively, and sympathetic ; the critical remarks 
 on their works are sound m judgment. The portraits of these men, their dwelling- 
 houses, the relics of their personal chattels, their monuments in the churches or public 
 places, and some characteristic bits of their designs, are represented byvievra and 
 engtaxiags."— Daily News. ■ i- j >=«» luu 
 
 Small 4to, with 135 Engravings on Wood, ijs. 
 
 Scenes and Characters of the Middle 
 
 Ages. By the Rev. Edward L. Cutts, late Hon. Sec. of the 
 Essex Archseological Society. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 The Monks of the Middle Ages. 
 
 The Hermits and Recluses of the Middle 
 
 Ages. 
 The Pilgrims of the Middle Ages. 
 
 The Secular Clergy of the Middle Ages. 
 The Minstrels of the Middle Ages. 
 The Knights of the Middle Ages. 
 The Merchants of the Middle Ages. 
 
 "_A series of valuable papers. . . . A lucid text, terse, and full of matter, excellently 
 assists the illustrations, which of themselves would be a welcome boon to the anti- 
 quarian." — Daily Telegraph. 
 
 " The illustrations alone, taken as they are from some old rare manuscripts and 
 other trustworthy sources, would make this volume extremely valuable." — Post. 
 
 Imperial 4to, handsomely bound in cloth gilt, with 20 Steel Engravings 
 and 50 Woodcuts, 21s. 
 
 The British School of Sculpture. 
 
 With a Preliminary Essay, and Notices of the Artists, by William 
 B. Scott, Author of "Our British Landscape Painters," "Life of 
 Albert Diirer," &c. 
 
 "A resplendent drawing-room table-book. A handsome and artistic volume."— 
 Echo. 
 
 "The volume contains twenty elaborate steel engravings, supplemented with 
 numerous woodcuts. In a pictorial and literary view the book is remarkable, and has 
 the rather unusual merit of being at once popular and trustworthy."— Baohseller. 
 
 " Let us give one glance to the exquisite genius which lends this great charm to 
 ^^ Scott's volume. Many of the woodcuts from Flaxman's monumental reliefs are 
 sufficiently delicate to give a fair idea of that genius. As we turn from one little 
 gioip to another, finding in each a new version of that tale of sorrow which, of all 
 tales, has been most outworn by the sculptor's art, what a singula* variety and fresh- 
 ness in Its rendering is set before us, what a truth to human feeling, what ever-present 
 tenderness and elevation ! Each of these woodcuts is a little poem from life, simplified 
 and idealized by Flaxman's genius. Mr. Scott cannot write without showing an 
 artist s feeling, and (what does not always co-exist with this) a genial sympathy for 
 art of diverse aims and merits." — Saturday Review. 
 
 In Four Vols., folio, cloth extra, gilt edges, with 152 Steel Engravings, 
 
 £,% 8s. 
 
 The Vernon Gallery of British Art. 
 
 Edited by S. C. Hall, F.S.A. 152 Engravings on Steel, of the 
 choicest pictures by British Artists, in the collection formed by the 
 late Robert Vernon, Esq., now in the National Gallery. 
 
 In Two Vols., large royal 4to, cloth extra, with gilt edges, ^■t, 6s. 
 
 British Schools of Art. A Selection of 
 
 Examples engraved in Line, by eminent Artists. With descriptions 
 by H. Murray, F.S.A. ^ 
 
 In folio, handsomely bound, ;^3 3s 
 
 Gallery of Modern Sculpture. 
 
 A 
 
 Senes of Steel Engravings. With Descriptions in Prose, and Poetical 
 Illustrations, by J.- Dafforne, T. K. Hervey, &c., preceded by an 
 Historical and Critical Essay on Sculpture, Ancient and Modem. 
 
 In Three handsome Vols., royal 4to, ;^8 8s. 
 
 National Gallery of British Pictures. 
 
 Edited by S. C. Hall, F.S.A., containing about 150 First-class Line 
 Engravings of the Pictures in the Vernon Collection, with a Selection 
 of 53 of the best Works of Modem Statuary. 
 
 The Vernon Gallery was presented by Robert Vernon, Esq., to the National Gall^rv 
 by deed bearing date 22nd December, 1847. The Pictures are all 7,f ^.f^i = „ <jallery 
 to be readily understood and appreciated, for the m"ost pl?t rlpLSL^fuytc^,^ 
 
 In folio, cloth, gilt edges, ^£'4 43. 
 
 The Wilkie Gallery. A Selection of En- 
 gravings of the best Paintings of Sir David Willde, R.A., includint. 
 his Spamsh and Oriental Sketches, witli Notices BiomrS and 
 Cntical, a Portrait of Wilkie, and a View of his Birthplace. 
 
 In Two large Vols., folio, handsomely bound, ;^5. 
 
 Royal Gems from the Galleries of 
 
 nS!" ■J-^'^^l^^, H'?!^ ^^^'"""^^ °f the Great Masters. With 
 E^q^F Ia"" Historical, and Descriptive, by S. C. Hall, 
 
 VIRTUE, SPALDING & CO, 26, IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. 
 
VIRTUE, SPALDING, & CO.S 
 
 RECENT FINE ART PUBLICATIONS, 
 
 Imperial 4to, with 13 Engravings on Steel. Price £1 is. 
 
 Pictures by William Etty, R.A. 
 
 With Descriptions, and a Biographical Sketch of the Painter bv 
 W. Cosmo Monkhouse. ' ' 
 
 1. Youth and Pleasure^ 
 
 2. The Coral Finders. 
 
 3. Cupid and Psyche. 
 
 4. Cupid and Psyche. 
 
 5. The Dangerous Playmate, 
 o. Bathers Surprised by a Swan, 
 7. The Brides of Venice. 
 
 List of Illustkations. 
 
 8. The Balcony. 
 9- The Duett. 
 
 10. A Persian Warrior. 
 
 11. The Sepulchre. 
 
 12. The Penitent. 
 
 13. The Disciple. 
 
 Imperial 410, with 16 Engravings on Steel, handsomely bound. 
 Price ^i IS. 
 
 Pictures by Italian Masters, Greater 
 
 and Lesser. With an Introductory Essay, and Notices of the Painters 
 and Subjects Engraved, by William B. Scott. 
 
 Madonna and Child* 
 Titian's Daughter. 
 Procession of the Virgin. 
 Silence ! 
 S. Catherine. 
 Death of Cleopatra. 
 The "Woman of Samaria. 
 Soldiers Gambling. 
 
 List of Illustrations. 
 
 The Daughter of Jerusalem. 
 
 Death of Peter Martyr. 
 
 Dives. 
 
 Europa. 
 
 The Magdalen. 
 
 Judith with the Head of Holofcrncs. 
 
 The Madonna. 
 
 The Infant Christ. 
 
 In 4to, with superb Wood Engravings, price ^fi is. 
 
 on the Upper Thames. By 
 
 Life 
 
 Henry R. Robertson. 
 
 Pride of the Thames. 
 
 Polling the "Willows. 
 
 Osier-cutting. 
 
 Osier-peeling. 
 
 Spinning for Trout at a 
 
 Weir. 
 WeirwithMovable Bridge. 
 "Weir with Fixed Bridge. 
 Opening a Lock. 
 Net-mending. 
 Sheep- washing. 
 The Wreck Ashore. 
 The Dipping-place. 
 
 Full-page Illustrations. 
 
 The Ferry. 
 
 Feeding bucks. 
 
 The Ford. 
 
 Water-lilies. 
 
 Perch-fishing. 
 
 Carrying over at a Weir. 
 
 Camping Out. 
 
 Boys Bathing. 
 
 Rush-cutting. 
 
 Ballasting. 
 
 Gudgeon-fishing. 
 
 BuTTow-hurdle. 
 
 Moor-hen Shooting. 
 
 Dibbing for Chub. 
 
 Swan's Nest. 
 
 Swan-hopping. 
 
 Shooting an Otter. 
 
 Putting Down Grig-weels. 
 
 Lowering Eel-bucks. 
 
 Flight-shooting. 
 
 Fisherman's Fireside. 
 
 Approaching the Fowl with 
 Stalking-horse. 
 
 Shooting with Stalking- 
 horse. 
 
 Boat-building. 
 
 And several smaller Illustrations. 
 
 In Crown 4to, with 50 Illustrations, price 7s. 6d. 
 
 Picture and Incident from Bible 
 
 Story. The Scenes are described by the undermentioned distinguished 
 Writers : — 
 
 Rev. Samuel Cox. 
 
 Rev. Gordon Calthrop, M.A. 
 
 Rev. J. Allanson Pictox, M.A. 
 
 Rev. Clement Bailhache. 
 
 Rev. J. Thain Davidson, M.A. 
 
 Rev. G. J. Proctor. 
 
 Rev. H. R. Haweis, M.A. 
 
 Rev. Luke H. Wisejian, M.A. 
 Very Rev. A. P. Stanley, D.D., 
 
 Dean of Westminster. 
 Rev. J. CuLROSs, D.D. 
 Rev. T. W. FowLE, M.A. 
 Rev. Henry Allon, D.D. 
 Rev. Thomas Binney, LL.D. 
 
 In 8vo, with 16 Illustrations, price 6s. 
 
 Boons and Blessings ; or, the Ad- 
 vantages of Temperance. A Series of Stories. By Mrs. S. C. Hall. 
 The Designs are by — 
 
 E. M. Ward, R.A. 
 W. J. Allen. 
 Fred. Goodall, R.A. 
 A. T. Woolmer. 
 P. R. Morris. 
 
 Mrs. E. M. Ward. 
 H. R. Robertson. 
 F. D. Hardy. 
 George Cruikshank. 
 E. Sherard Kennedy. 
 
 Alfred Elmore, R.A. 
 Erskine Nicol, A.R.A. 
 g. h. boughton. 
 A, R. Thorburn. 
 N. Chevalier. 
 
 Imperial 4to, handsomely bound in cloth, with 20 Engravings on 
 Steel, 31S. 6d. 
 
 Pictures by Sir Edwin Landseer, 
 
 R.A. With Descriptions and a Biographical Sketch of the Painter, 
 by James Dafforne. 
 
 ' Contents. 
 The Intruder. 
 
 Sreakfast Party. 
 Nau^ty Boy. 
 The Friends. 
 Highland Musici 
 High Life. 
 Low Life. 
 Death of the Stag. 
 The Cavalier's Pets, 
 i^eace. 
 
 War. 
 
 The Marmozettes. 
 
 Startled ! 
 
 Friend in Suspense. 
 
 Tack in Oflice. 
 
 The Stag at Bay. 
 
 The Twa Dogs. 
 
 Sleeping Bloodhound. 
 
 The Chieftain's Friends. 
 
 Rout of Comus and his Band. 
 
 " Selected with judgment from the works of the great artist, Mr.'Daiforne's account 
 of Landseer is full and interesting." — Times. ' t^ n j j 
 
 " A worthy and a prompt tribute to the memory of the great artist. —Standard. 
 
 " There is great delicacy in the engravings. With this volume in his possession, 
 any one will be able thoroughly to appreciate Landseer's marvellous realisations ot 
 animal Me."—Scoisman. 
 
 Imperial 4to, elegantly bound, with 16 Engravings on Steel, 21s. 
 
 Our British Portrait Painters, from 
 
 Sir Peter Lely to James Sant. With Critical Descriptions and Bio- 
 ' graphical Notices, by Edmund Ollier, Author of the "Dore Gallery," 
 &c. 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds. 
 
 The Duchess of Devonshire. 
 
 La Belle Hamilton. 
 
 Garrick and his Wife. 
 
 The Dowager Countess of Darnley. 
 
 Lady Hamilton. 
 
 The Royal Princesses. 
 
 The Princess Amelia. 
 
 List of Engravings. ' 
 
 Sir Walter Scott, Bart. ' 
 The Lady Dover. 
 
 The Princess Charlotte. 
 Morton, the Dramatist. 
 Sir A. Hume, Bart. 
 Sir David Wilkie. 
 The Royal Sisters. 
 J. M. W. Turner, R.A. 
 
 " The engravings leave nothing to be desired j while the descriptive and historical 
 notes, by Mr. Oilier, are far above the average letterpress of a fine-art volume."— 
 Times, 
 
 Imperial 410, handsomely bound in cloth gilt, wilh 13 Illustrations 
 on Steel, 21s. 
 
 Pictures by Clarkson Stanfield, R.A. 
 
 With Descriptive Notices and a Biographical Sketch of the Painter, 
 by James Dafforne. 
 
 List of Engravings. 
 
 Opening of London Bridge. ' 
 
 Royal Yacht off Mount St. Michael. 
 
 Portsmouth Harbour. 
 
 Battle of Trafalgar. 
 
 The Market-boat. 
 
 Venice. 
 
 Lake Como. 
 
 Iscfaia. 
 
 Vietii. 
 
 In the Gulf of Venice. 
 
 "Wreck off Dover. 
 
 The Scheldt— Texel Island. 
 
 Entrance to Portsmouth Harbour. 
 
 " One of the most welcome of the Art-books issued in honour of the season." — 
 Daily Telegraph. 
 
 "An interesting addition to i>ictorial literature. . . . The publishers have made a 
 judicious selection of the more important of Stanfield's works." — Post. 
 
 "A most charming and beautiful volume. The engravings are well executed, and 
 the accompanying literature instructs us in all it is necessary to know concerning 
 Stanfield and nis productions." — Daily News. 
 
 "Thirteen of our greatest sea-painter's finest pictures, beautifully engraved, make 
 up this magnificent volume." — Glasgow Herald. 
 
 Fcap. 4to, neatly bound, with 210 Illustrations, 21s. 
 
 The Stately Homes of England. 
 
 Llewellynn Jewitt, F.S.A., and S. C. Hall, F.S.A. 
 
 By 
 
 Alton Towers. 
 Cobham Hall. 
 Mount Edgcumbe. 
 Cothele. 
 Alnwick Castle. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Hardwick Hall. 
 Arundel Castle. 
 Penshurst. 
 Warwick Castle. 
 
 Haddon Hall. 
 Hatfield House. 
 Cassiobury. 
 Chatsworth. 
 
 " Mr. Jewitt's volume is not only an ornament to any table, but is good reading to 
 boot, and in this double quality is entitled to rank as a gift-book of the first order. — 
 Times. 
 
 "This volume contains 210 exquisite wood -engravings Is a beautifully- 
 illustrated and entertaining work." — Graphic. 
 
 Royal 4to, handsomely bound in cloth gilt, with 16 Illustrations, 21s. 
 
 Our British Landscape Painters, 
 
 from Samuel Scott to David Cox. With a PreHminary Essay and 
 Biographical Notices, by William B. Scott, Author of " Half-hour 
 Lectures on Art," "The British School of Sculpture," "Life of 
 Albert Diirer," &c. Containing Sixteen large Engravings on Steel, 
 from Famous Pictures by Scott, Turner, Constable, Gainsborough, 
 Ward, Callcott, Stanfield, Creswick, Cox, and others. 
 
 " We have here an exquisite volume. Some of the most delightful landscapes of 
 our best English artists — the supreme masters of landscape painting — are selected for 
 reproduction, and the engravings are of the highest order of excellence." — Daily News. 
 "Ward, Turner, Constable^ Callcott, Danby, and Nasmyth, are all charmingly 
 ' "■ ifield, Roberts, Hardwick, Creswick, and Cox, and it is 
 
 -Morning 
 
 represented, as are also Stan; , , , _ , _ 
 
 scarcely necessary to say that the engravings are beautifully executed. 
 Post. 
 
 Imperial 4to, elegantly bound in cloth gilt, with g Steel 
 Engravings, i6s. 
 
 Pictures by William Mulready, R.A. 
 
 With Descriptions and a Biographical Sketch of the Painter, by 
 James Dafforne. 
 
 " The engravings are by Stocks, Heath, and others, and the nine pictures selected 
 comprise some of the best and best-known works of the Irish Wilkie. — 7^imes. 
 
 "Another delightful Art-Volume is a collection of Mulready's pictures. With 
 most or with all of them the public is familiar, but not the less acceptable will be the 
 present collection of beautiful engravings ; the letterpress is also worthy to accompany 
 them, paper and type being alike excellent."— Mommg; Post. 
 
 " The nine pictures engraved in this volume are all splendid specimens' of the 
 engraver's art, and well-selected examples ot Mulready's manner at different periods 
 of his career." — £cAa.