BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Menrs M. Sage 1891 A.lP./±i ^ jAJ.^-^- ILLUSTRATED BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GREAT ARTISTS. WILLIAM MULREADY, R.A. ILLUSTRATED BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GREAT ARTISTS. ADDITIONAL VOLUMES. Francois Millet, Theodore Rousseau, and Nareisse Diaz de la Fena, Memoirs of.* By J. W. Moi.lett, B.A. With numerous Illustrations. Camille Corot, Charles Francois Daubigny, and Jules Dupr6, Memoirs of.* By John W. Mollett, B.A. With numerous Illustrations. William Mulready, Memorials of. Collected by F. G. Stephens. With reproductions of his Studies from the Life, and Sketches fi'om Nature, in the South Kensington Museum — the Mulready Envelope — and many other Illustrations. David Cox and Peter de Wint. Memoirs of their Lives and Works. By Gilbeet R. Redgrave. With i6 Illustrations. [/« pteparaUon^ George Cruikshank, His Life and Works. Including a Memoir by F. G. Stephens, and an Essay on the Genius of George Cruikshank by W. M. Thackeray. With numerous Illustrations. [/« preparation,'\ The Landscape Painters of Holland : Euisdael and Hobbema, Cuyp and Potter. With many Illustrations. By Frank Cundall. [/» preparation. ] " Garvani," Memoirs of By Frank Marzials. With many Illustrations. \In preparation.^ Van Eyck, Memlinc, Matsys, and other Painters of the Early Flemish School. ' [In preparation.'] THE PAINTERS OF BARBIZON. The two volumes * bound in one, containing about 40 Illustrations, in half morocco, Roxburgh style, price yj. 6rf. WILLIAM MULREADY, R.A. From a photograph by Philip H. Delamotie. Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031234861 " The whole world without Art would be one great wilderneh.^ MEMORIALS OF WILLIAM MULREADY, R.A. BY FREDERIC G. STEPHENS AUTHOR OF " THE LIFE OF SIR EDWIN LANDSEEK," ETC. NEW YORK: SCRIBNER AND WELFORD. 1890. {All rights reserved.) PREFACE. SATISFIED that the life and works of Mulready reflected each other with unusual completeness, I have, in arrang. ing the literary portion of these Memorials, endeavoured to show how much the one was the outcome of the other. Many readers may agree with this notion and be interested in it as a matter of study. If I am right, the illustrations of this book and the painter's works at large, as well as the text before us — imperfect as the last may be — present what is really a biography. Other readers may welcome the story of a man whose pictures all have admired, the most important of which are in the National Galleries. About one-fifth part of the text which follows here was, shortly after Mulready's death, published in ' The Fine Arts Quarterly Review.' Additions to, and revision of, what was then written, made this a new work, for the historical portion of which I am indebted to many of the oldest, most intimate, and most eminent of the painter's friends ; to these the warmest thanks are due. Further revisions and some addi- tions to this, the third version of the text, have become Vlll PREFACE. desirable. Among those who assisted me, I may venture to name Miss Swinburne ; Sir Henry Cole ; Samuel Palmer ; George Jones, R.A. ; John Linnell ; John Pye ; R. Redgrave, R.A. ; William Smith of Lisle Street; Albert Yarley; Henry Wallis ; and E. M. Ward, R.A. Frederic G. Stephens. CONTENTS. PART I. PAGE Comparison between Mulready and Wilkie— Mulready's social cha- racter — His love for . work — His system of study — His early book illustrations . ] His birtli at Ennis, County Clare, 1786 — His first drawings — His family removes to London, 1792 — His early school-days — 'The Looking-Glass,' by Marcliffe — His father's changes of I'esidence — Studies under Mr. .John Graham — Draws anatomical figures — Taken into the studio pf the sculptor, Mr. Thomas Banks, K. A. — Becomes a student of the Royal Academy, 1800 — Gained the silver palette of the Society of Arts, 1802 — Draws illustrations for books — Paints scenes for theatres — Gives drawing lessons to ladies — Helps to . paint the ■ Panol'ania, The Storming of Seringa- patam — His acquaintance with John Varley — The Varley Family — Makes a tour in Yorkshire, 1803 — Varley's pupils — Memorials of r. 0. Fiuch — Mulready marries Varley's sister, 1803 — Paints "grand" subjects — Ulysses and Polyphemus — The Disobedient Prophet — The J^udgment of Solomon 8 PART II. Mulready's first pictures in the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1804 — Paints decorations for the Sans-Soicei Theatre in Leicester Place — Is spurred on to paint pictures by the success of Wilkie — Gives the copyright of his painting The Wolf and the Lamb to the Artists' Benevolent Fund — Receives a present of a large silver bowl from seventy-three brother artists connected with the Fund — His dilferent residences — Meetings at the ' Sol's Arms ' in the Hampstead Road — Domiciled with John Li:inell in Francis X CONTENTS. PAGE Street, Bedford Square— Paints landscapes on Blackheath. Park — Removes to Robinson's Row, Kensington Gravel Pits — Paints The Mall, and Near the Mall, Kensington— His picture of Punch ex- hibited at the Royal Academy, 1813, and purchased by Sir John Swinburne — Removes to Moscow Cottages — Is made an Associate of the Royal Academy in November 1815, and a fuU member in February 1816— A thief attempts to rob him in the Bayswater Road — Mulready as an Athlete — His love of children — On hanging pictures— Removes to Linden Grove — Arrangement of his house and studio — There he paints his best pictures — Mulready as a father— Notes ofthe Council Meetings of the Royal Academy . 47 PAET III. Chronological List of Mulready's Paintings 76 His aims in colour — Beauty of his colour in The Whistonian Oontro- versy—The Butt — Burchell and Sophia — Choosing the Wedding Gown — Train up a Child — His backgrounds —His landscapes — His variety of subjects . 80 Analysis of Mulready's principal paintings .... 75 — 101 Academy studies from the life — The Life School — His power as a teacher — His portrait by Dr. Dorau — His death, July 7, 1863 . 102 Catalogue of paintings exhibited at the Royal Academy . . . 110 At the British Institution • 113 In Paris, 1855 113 Art Treasures Exhibition, Manchester, 1857 .... 113 The Internationskl Exhibition, 1862 114 National Exhibition, Leeds, 1868 114 Winter Exhibitions at the Royal Academy . .... 115 The Grosvenor Gallery, 1888 116 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PoiiTBAiT OF MuLEEADY {from, a photograph) mulreadt at foett-thebe years of age Study of Doves . Study from the Life . Study of Drapery Portrait of John Varley Playtime— Summer Studies of Costume Measuring HEroHTs The Mulready Envelope . Me. Sheepshanks in his Study Haymaking — Sophia and Burohell Lessons — From The Mother's Primer Study of a Sunflower Study from the Life Portrait of Me. Sheepshanks The Travelling Druggist . Choosing the Wedding Gown Reading the Sonnet Study from the Life . AGE . . xu 4 . 20 . 26 . 32 . 47 . 50 . 52 . 55 . 60 . 63 . 68 . 75 80 . 86 . 93 . 96 . 100 104 ^^^!^' ^^. WILLIAM MTJLEEADY, B.A. Drawn by P. Mvlready in 1829. Engraved by J. H. RoUnson. WILLIAM MULREADY, R.A. MULREADY'S biography presents more than a record of works produced, honours won, and wealth acquired. One of the best-known artists of this age, independent and thoroughly English, a master in painting, a humorist without malice, an indefatigable student — he, whether with touching pathos or gaiety, imparted to numerous genre subjects that artistic completeness we seek in historical painting, and, by the truthfulness of all he did, ennobled them in the process. It was no small thing to have, with a newer purpose, carried onwards in art that which Wilkie began, and in doing so, rounded a long life with half-unconscious heroism. Mulready was in some respects a more ambitious artist than Wilkie, because, while he surpassed him in colour and drawing, he imparted more of what we may call philosophy to his works — and taught as well as pleased the spectator ; so that, from The Fight Inter- rupted, of 1816, to the latest of his pictures, something beyond characterization is in all he did. Such higher qualities are but exceptionally present with Wilkie, as in Reading tlie Will ; otherwise Mulready's contemporary seemed to have not much more of pathetic insight to human nature than the best seventeenth-century Dutch genre painters, De Hooghe and B 2 WILLIAM MULREADY. Jan Steen, wto, although admirable humorists, represented Nature with exquisite skill, yet with little sentiment. Apart from religious art, this human sympathy is characteristically modern, and was by no man so frequently displayed as by Mulready; it is this which separates him from the mass of painters of genre. Apart from his profession, Mulready was affectionately regarded by all who knew him, from the old fellow-student of sixty years before to the latest-admitted tyro of the Life Academy in Ti-afalgar Square. In society, full of anecdote and brimming with memories of men of note, earnest and simple, and steadily pursuing a well-considered plan of life, he was always an interesting companion. None could be a warmer friend ;. from his hands many secret charities flowed ; no youth went in vain to him for counsel, many got sxibstantial aid, and all obtained genial words. No wonder this man left grateful and loving thoughts where every student was almost a son. Active, vigorous, blithe, and kindly, a true gentleman in the best sense of the word, the great artist was equally the good friend and the pleasant companion, not only at the table and in front of the easel, but on the road, or on the river. "His humour and comic imitative power have kept a knot of his intimate friends in convulsions of laughter, on and off, during an evening, one of the party falling upon the carpet and rolling." So said Samuel Palmer, the poet-painter and friend of Mulready, Blake, and Linnell, in a note to me. Although he was not a mere student, and still less an ascetic, we must primarily consider Mulready as a painter, and endeavour to find out by what means he attained success in Art and fame in the world. That method seems a very characteristic and intellectual one. Hence his works appear as the proper results of his methods of study and practice, and are the counterparts of his life exactly, as medals are the EAELY LIFE. 3 produce of a die. What then was the moving spring of his simple life in 6tudy? His earliest biographer, for Mulready had a biographer before he was twenty years of age, says this spring was in thorough love for his work. No doubt that was the truth ; he loved it, and gave all his mind and all his heart to it, as we shall see. " I have drawn all my life as if I were drawing for a prize," * said he, when an old man. His plan of study was essentially intelligent and searching, and based on the necessity to understand all he had to do. This is the key to the soundness and completeness of his pictures, and to much of his character. He regarded drawing as the funda- mental means of artistic expression, and studied zealously, to the last week of his life, to sustain his power therein, which many years of practice had made as facile and swift as it was felicitous. His studies, thus made, are by many regarded as amongst the treasures of modern art, and, as studies, to vie with those of the great masters. For the purpose of under- standing all that he did, the painter, as Da Vinci and Holbein had done before him, made drawings, from many points of view, of almost every object, with its details, that appears in his works. Trees, such as we see in their backgrounds, * "Minutes of Evidence before the Select Committee appointed to inquire into the present position of the Royal Academy," 1863. Reply No. 1564, his last words as a witness. On this subject Samuel Palmer wrote to the author — "Only one fragment remains in my tiny Mulreadian cabinet (of anecdotes). He had been looking over some beautiful studies by young artists of great promise, when 'a brother R.A. said,. 'Why can't we begin again ? ' Muh'eady said quickly, ' I do begin again ! ' with a sharp emphasis on the 'do.' And really he seems to have worked upon Lavater's plan — ■' Take such pains with everything you undertake as if it were your first, last, and only work.' See Lavater's 'Aphorisms,' translated by Fuseli, I think. I cannot find my copy, which was doubly valuable as having belonged to the illustrious William Blake. That great man had written his own name close to Lavater's on the title-page, and had enclosed both in one Mart drawn in pencil." WILLIAM MULREADT. he drew, brancli, bark, bole, and even leaves, and entire boughs, with wonderful breadth and delicacy. Doing this, he would put the whole on his canvas with such extra- ordinary quickness as compensated for the foregone labour. Flowers he would occasionally dissect. He did the same with animals. Thus, he made life-size studies of the doves in his latest completed picture, Mother and Child, although they are hardly an inch long and quite subordinate. The like he often did with the colours of objects, and he left hundreds of such studies — real studies, not commonplace sketches — behind him. STUDY OF DOVES. (Reduced.) Mr. Redgrave * repeats an apt saying by Mulready of him- self, that he had been a drawing-master all his life long, with intervals for painting pictures. This is, of course, a hiTmorous exaggeration by the speaker, who was probably prouder of his drawing than of any other acquirement he had. * 'A Century of Painters of the Englisli School,' vol. ii. p. 227. STUDIES FROM THE LIFE. 5 With regard to his manner of working when time had perfected his skill, let the following be stated. A rapidly but elegantly drawn sketch in pen and ink was often the first sign of a long-meditated composition. For the minor as well as for the major parts of his paintings he produced the studies already spoken of ; and sometimes, as in Choosing the Wedding Oovm, he made elaborate drawings in red, white, and black chalks of the chiaroscuro and effect of the whole of a picture. In painting the Wedding Govm, Mulready began with the red stool in the front, because it is the most powerful piece of colour in the design ; the dog followed, and he deter- mined to paint the whole work up to their pitch. With what splendid success he did so we know. This was the system of the early Germans and Flemings, Holbein, and the much- abused modern Pre-Raphaelites. It demands great mastery of the material, and a thorough pre-conception of the picture.* Pictures so produced are sure to be long in hand. When all things were favourable and difficulties had been conquered by the indomitable spirit of the man, the execution of an example was in many cases extremely rapid ; thus. Firing a Cannon was painted in three weeks of 1827, t and, as No. 124, exhibited at the Royal Academy in the same year. At other times pictures would remain in progress during many years, not because the artist did not know how to complete them, but through the intervention of other affairs, which prevented him from carry- ing out the whole of his meaning. Mulready never could be induced to part with a picture untU he felt he could do no * " He said," as Samuel Palmer told me of Mulready, "that all the best artists had begun with what is called niggling." t This work exemplifies, by its perfectly sound condition, the advantages of painting in the simple manner adopted by Mulready ; it is on panel, and was exhibited at the Society of Arts' Boom in 1848 ; at South Kensing- ton, in 1864. It is the property of Sir Eobert Peel, Bart., whose father bought it at the Exhibition. 6 WILLIAM MULHEADY. more to it. In another way The Butt was retained for not less than twenty-five years, or rather laid aside while other works were in progress ; see the description of this instance and the anecdote of its re-commencement (pp. 97-8). Carrying out such a system as this, and dealing with home subjects, the artist did not need to study abroad ; and, whUe fully sensible of the glories of ancient art, did not believe he could learn so much from pictures as from nature. Within his own range of art, he was undoubtedly right ; yet he heartily appreciated the Dutch and the Venetian painters ; and, beyond most Englishmen, profited by their works. After leaving his native Ireland, Mulready never went out of England, except in the old-fashioned packet-boats sailing to and from Calais, which he did for the benefit of his health.* Having thus, so to say, summarized the man, his doings and motives, I may proceed with his biography, and, in doing so, make an abstract of a little book concerning him which Fortune offers for the purpose, and begins with the very beginning of the life of our painter. Besides other efforts for the good of his fellow-creatures, William Godwin produced a series of children's story books in prose and verse. Amongst these is "THE LOOKING- GLASS. A True History of the Early Years of an ARTIST ; Calculated to awaken the Emulation of YOUNG PERSONS of both Sexes, in the Pursuit of every laudable Attain- ment : particularly in the Cultivation of the Fine Arts. By Theophilus Maeclipfe; London, 1805." 12mo.t With * In this lie resembled his old friend and pupil "W. Hunt, who, until late in life, never got further than Brussels, and returned thence with little inclination to repeat the journey. t This curious little book has another title on the cover, thus : — "THE LOOKING-GLASS : A Mieeop. in which every Good Little Boy and Girl may see what He or She is ; and those who are not yet Quite Good, may find what They ought to be. Price One Shilling. [This appeal's to have BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS. 7 a frontispiece of a little boy practising the broad-sword exercise, his hat stuck upon his left fist by way of shield. " Marclifie " was a pseudonym of Godwin, to whom Mul- ready related the early history of his life, in that genial, self- observing manner which was peculiar to himself. Godwin, ever on the watch, fashioned the account into a prose tale — probably with very little trouble, for Mulready would not fail to use all his methodic and coherent habits of thought to impart to it that local colour which adds so rare a charm to autobiographies — and published it with little illustrative sketches, which look -very like Mulready's handiwork. At any rate, although professedly the drawings of a child, and employed to show what an ingenious boy could do, they are too artistic and excellent for such an origin. I, from the first, believed they are Mulready's, and that the half-indigna- tion with which he was accustomed to refer to the biography as an unfair publication of private gossip, was assumed : been subsequently increased to one shilling and sixpence.] London. Printed for "W. Godwin, at the JUVENILE LIBRARY, No. 41, Skinner Street, Snow Hill, and to be had of all Booksellers." The book seems to have had a second cover applied to it, due probably to a change in the place of publication ; early copies are stated on the cover to be issued by Thomas Hodgkin, of Hanway Street, Oxford Street. The truth about the authorship and publication of this little volume seems to be, that in the early part of their acquaintanceship Godwin went to Mulready and heard the entire history at once, or got the details piecemeal ; went home and wrote the book ; came again, and, saying that he had found it a good thing, induced his friend to make the drawings which illustrate the text ; probably got him to revise that text for the press, so that the volume is to a certain extent a joint production ; of the certainty that the drawings are by Mulready, see above, and compare the date of the publication with that of Mulready's birth, 1786. 'The Looking-Glass,' which was published in 1805, was followed in the next year by that analogous and better-known brochure. Dr. Malkin's ' A Father's Memoirs of his Child,' which has a frontispiece by W. Blake. 8 WILLIAM MULEEADY. accordingly, my surmise turns out to be substantially correct. The painter, as it since appeared, admitted to his intimates that the test was in the main a true history of his early life, and, in conversation with John Linnell, one of my informants, .expressly stated that the illustrations were his own ; no doubt they were intentionally adapted for the edification of children. Any one who reads the book will recognize the pleasant manner of Mulready's conversation, the light-hearted and genial but thoughtful humour, far above vanity, which allowed him to talk freely about himself. The little volume is well worth reading for its own sake, and so fit for its original purpose, that its republication has been a boon to children of the present day. The original is one of the scarcest of books of the class, a class which, as every one knows, seems at one time to exist by multitudes of specimens, and later, with the exception of one or two examples, which become precious beyond expectation, to disappear from the face of the earth. Such is the case with ' The Looking-G-lass,' of which only three copies have come under my notice ; one of these is in the British Museum. Another copy would be worth its weight in silver. I here combine with the following abstract of ' The Looking-Glass ' such additional matter as presents itself, distin- guishing the record of each authority from that of the others.* MarcUffe's subject and our own was born April 1st, 1786, at Ennis, in County Clare. His father and mother were Eoman Catholics; the first was a leather-breeches maker, "Master of his Craft," as he styled himself, and for a long time one of the Armed Volunteers of Ireland. When their son was about eighteen months old, the pair removed to Dublin. Mulready's earliest hint in art was from his father's imitating the sketches * On the authorship of ' The Looking-Glass,' see a note in my reprint of the same, which has been published by Messrs. Bemrose and Sons, 1885. London and Derby. — F. G. S. EARLY DRAWINGS. 9 of one Corny (Cornelius) Gorman, a companion whose skill all admired. The first of these drawings showed a hunting-field, with men, hounds, and horses, and was so attractive to the boy that, although only three years of age, he repaired the damages to which its situation above the family fire-place had exposed the composition, and, when a catastrophe came which almost destroyed it, and he was four years of age, he "restored" the whole design. It is certain that Mulready began to draw very early in life.* I was assured by a member of his family, who probably had it from himself, that the discovery of his taste for drawing was made when his father entered the room where the boy had been left alone — the family occupied only one room, and had accus- tomed themselves to lock him in while they were at work elsewhere — and found that, with a piece of common chalk, little William had made a tolerably successful copy of part of an engraving from St. Paul's, London, which hung on the wall of the chamber, and that, for lack of a better panel, he had done so on the floor beneath the bed, beyond which a part of the cartoon extended. Much laughter used to be evoked by the artist's account of how his father suddenly appeared when this architectural study was nearly complete, and of his surprise on seeing a pair of rosy and sturdy legs protruding from beneath the bedstead, the young owner of which had to back out before his work could be examined. Marcliffe records that at this period the floor was the frequent field of Mulready's practice ; there he drew flowers and fruit, so that every morning when his mother used the broom she marred * In PI. I. Fig. 1 of tlie illustrations to 'The Lookinfr-Glass, ' we have what Godwin called a " tolerablj' accurate representation of the style in which he [Mulready] delineated a hare. " The example is certainly primi- tive. The figure that is called a gi-ampus, but which Godwin truly says better suggests a mermaid, shows considerable advance on the above-named early work of our subject. 10 WILLIAM MULREADY. the labours of the day before. " But the child did not mind ; he worked for amusement, not for duration." * After four years spent in Dublin, the family came to London in 1792 — the boy studying the scenes of the journey in a manner credible to those who knew the man. In London, the Mulreadys settled near Leicester Square, and the father was compelled to become a journeyman in the craft of which he had been a master, while our f utvire painter was sent to a school kept, as John Linnell told me, by Mr. Underwood, a Wesleyan preacher, in whose charge he remained five years. The first object Mulready drew in England is reproduced in Marcliffe's book, and described as Noah's Dove, although it strongly resembles a swallow. With copies borrowed from a school-fellow's drawing-book, the young artist continued, and attempted to delineate the countenances and figures of his play-mates. One of the best is given as a specimen of his work when nine years of age, and, with a spirit that is very promising, represents a boy going throiigh the broad-sword exercise, using his hat for target ; this is the frontispiece to ' The Looking-Glass ' and mentioned above. There is indeed some uncertainty in the treatment of the sturdy legs cased in short trousers, socks and shoes, but nothing of the sort appears in the body, bound with a broad sash and huge side-bow, or in the lively arms and curly head. About this time rude com- positions of armoured and unarmoured human figures engaged in battle were in vogue, and we may suppose they had some resemblance to the Assyrian bas-reliefs. A change of schools brought Mulready into the hands of another Wesleyan preacher, a Mr. Night (? Knight), an extra- ordinary man, who, in addition to his clerical duties, professed * One of Mulready's amusements at this time was to cut out little pasteboard figures of soldiers that, by means of a buttress of the same material, could be made to stand upright ; these he delighted to blow up with gunpowder. EARLY DRAWINGS. 11 to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, the ancient and modern languages, mathematics, natural philosophy, geography, his- tory, drawing, dancing, fencing, music, &c. This very ei-udite and active gentleman discovered the pupil's ability to draw, and, for copies, lent him an heroic composition of his own, representing Goliath defying the Israelites, and the emblazoned coat of arms that hung above his parlour chimney-piece, and was claimed as the escutcheon of the family. The instructor was certainly brought up in the odour of art — he had been to school with James Heath the engraver, and seemed to think that this piece of good fortune qualified him to be a critic as well as a painter. Mr. Night stimulated his pupil's ambition by pointing out that Heath was originally as poor as himself, and as little distinguished, yet by dint of perseverance had risen to the summit of his profession. Heath is known to us because he engraved Copley's Death of Major Fierson, and Benjamin West's Death of Nelson. Our subject's introduction to the art of painting in oil- colours seems, according to Marcliffe, to have been inscribing upon those utensils the initials of the proprietor of a set of stable-buckets. They had been sent to be so decorated by the landlord of the house where Mulready lodged ; this craftsman, at Mulready's urgent request, permitted the boy to work on the buckets, and even to take them home. As, loaded thus, he marched down the stable-yard, the loitering grooms examined, not without praises, the earliest efforts of the RA. to be. One of Mulready's boyish amusements was that chalk- writing which, on street-walls, advertises the wares of trades- men to be sold ; in this he emulated the firmness and clear handling of the professional caligraphers, and it was while displaying his ability upon a dead wall, and holding forth to a knot of urchins upon the proper treatment of certain letters, that the comely little lecturer was noticed by a Mr. Graham, 12 WILLIAM MULBEADY. who was then painting an illustration to Macklin's 'Bible,' who asked the boy to sit for the face of Solomon receiving the blessing of his father David. To do this Mulready and his parents gladly consented. "Our Solomon was placed, I believe," says Marcliffe, " kneeling before his royal father, his face raised reverently to his parent, and one hand extended towards him." A piece of yellow satin was thrown over the shoulder of the sitter, to reflect a strong light upon his chin. " This occasioned our pupil to exercise his speculations on the doctrine of light and shade." * Graham, — finding the little boy was fond of drawing, set him to copy a print representing seven passions as expressed on the human features, — not only gave him sixpence for a prize, with which to buy a pencil, but strongly recommended the parents to make an artist of him ; they were not a little flattered by this confirmation of their belief in the lad's genius, but did not adopt the advice until some time after ; pi'obably they were too poor to do so, thought their son too young, or were ignorant of the manner in which the thing could be brought about. Mr. Graham, soon after this, went to Scotland, of which country he was, says Marclifie, a native, and Mulready heard no more of him during several years. About this time — the leather-breeches maker's family having removed from the " west of Leicester Square," to a lodging near Long Acre ■ — Mulready was taken from the Wesleyan school and placed in " Castle Street," under a Roman Catholic teacher. There were at least three Castle Streets in this immediate neighbourhood ; it would be difficult now to discover the one referred to by the biographer. Dr. Doran, a close friend of Mulready, had it from his own lips, that in the poor days of his Roman * Those who knew Mulready will recognize in this last sentence the very "way" and spirit of the man in speaking, and his manner of thought. • THE LOOKING-GLASS.' 13 Catholic parents, he lived in Orange Court, Leicester Square ; that he went to a boys' school in this court, and had for one of his schoolfellows the little Edmund Kean. Notwithstanding a change of masters, Mulready at this time gave up drawing to loiter at book-stalls, in search of furtive reading. One Mr. Aldrich was proprietor of a then well-known shop under the Piazza in Covent Garden ; at his board Mulready, by brief instalments, got through the first volume of Pope's ' Homer ' before he was rich enough to buy that treasure. The shopkeeper, interested in the youth who devoured the wealth of his stall, lent him books, and encour- aged him to try his hand at colouring prints, a first essay in which was a dreadful failure. Mulready's father had, it is right to say, promoted the lad's taste for reading, and lent him ' Shakspeare,' 'The Vicar of Wakefield,' 'Don Quixote,' ' Captain Bobert Boyd,' ' Joseph Andrews,' &c. It will be convenient to interrupt our abstract from ' The Looking-Glass,' by a noteworthy illustration of the text, which suggests its fidelity to the little story. This is with regard to the Mr. Graham whom " Marcliffe " describes as finding Mul- ready occupied as a teacher. As he expatiated to his juvenile companions upon the right form and size of wall-lettering, so Mulready taught the students of several generations in the Royal Academy, and in the Life School illustrated the beauty of the human form. We shall .see that his earthly career ended thus, while the last of his professional acts was as Visitor to that institution. On turning to the Catalogue of the Exhibition of 1797, we find that a picture was then shown which, in all probability, was that for which our subject sat. Thus, No. 146 is styled King David instructing Solomon; and derived from the fourth chapter of the Book of Proverbs, wherein the king relates how David his father counselled him on the value of wisdom, and the dangers of evil companionship. 14 WILLIAM MULREADY. The author of this picture was Mr. J. Graham, who fre- quently contributed to the Academy (he sent not fewer than six works in 1797) portraits and what we call "fancy sub- jects " : thus, Fairy-Gallant appeared in the year in question. The probability of Mulready's or " Marcliffie's " Mr. Graham and the "J. Graham" of the catalogues being the same person, is increased by the fact that the address of the latter is " Leicester Square," without a number ; from which, as the omission occurs every year, we may infer that he was well known there: this is the conclusion to be drawn from the absence of numbers in the addresses of Londoners at that time,* e. g. Banks rarely gave his number in Newman Street : Lawrence briefly informs the public (vide the catalogue) that he lives in "Piccadilly"; Wyatt gives "Queen Ann Street" only ; for Benjamin West, that great man, " Newman Street " is thought enough; even Farrington obliges us no further than with " Upper Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square " ; Hoppner, Beechy, Ozias Humphrey, Bacon the sculptor, Stothard, De Loutherbourg, Opie, Flaxman, and other famous persons, refuse to be numbered in the plebeian way, although some of them lived in places which must have been, even in those days, * The houses in London were not invariably numbered until a few years before this, the majority remained without numbers till c. 1785 ; several ancient continental towns and small cities yet remain as our metropolis was then. One of the first things the French did, when, under Napoleon I. , they occupied a German city, was to number every house : tliis, in the time of war, facilitated the gathering of contributions, its primary purpose ; but so much trouble did it save, that it has proved almost worth the loss - in cash. An old citizen of Hanover gratefully described to me this result of French method, but he groaned dreadfully when No. 1000, Abend Strasse, was taxed. Respecting nearly all the houses in London to which historical associations are attached, we must needs lament that ignorant busybodies whom "popular reforms" have put in office, have abolished our knowledge by altering the numbers of buildings, and confused the records of great men. EARLY LIFE IN LONDON. 15 inferior to their pretensions, and are now utterly squalid. Thus, Mrs. Lloyd, R.A., resided in Seymour Place, Little Chelsea; poor Thomas Girtin, or his brother, lived at 35, Drury Lane ; admirable Henry Edridge lived in. Duf cur's Place, Broad Street, Golden Square, a district then by no means so sunk as it is now, where we shall presently meet Mulready, and where Blake was born. Having thus come again upon Mulready, let us return to Mr. Graham, whose quarters in Leicester Square sent our memories abroad. The fact that the Mr. J. Graham who painted "No. 146" of the catalogue for 1797 — a picture having a subject identical with that ascribed to Mulready's friend by "Marcliffe'' — is by no means insignificant, because it was in that neighbourhood the boy lived with his parents, from whose lodgings a lad of ten years of age or so could not be far removed when " Mr. Graham " caught him lecturing to the urchins and writing on the wall. Again, if we suppose " No. 146 " to have been painted in the twelvemonths preceding its exhibition, we have not only done something towards confirm- ing " Marcliffe," but settled the whereabouts of our subject in his tenth or eleventh year. This age, it will be remembered, was exactly such as an artist of that day would prefer in a model for the youthful David. It does not appear that any Graham painted for Macklin's ' Bible ' ; at least, I do not find in that once renowned publication an engraving from a picture by such a person. A work commissioned by Macklin from Mr. Graham might have remained unengraved, and so the tale be true. In Boy dell's 'Shakespeare' is engraved a picture by J. Graham; as this plate was published in 1803, and no other Graham appears in the catalogues except the painter of No. 146, it may fairly be supposed that this picture, and the work which Boy dell, and not Macklin, published, are the same, 16 WILLIAM MULEEADT. and by the man to whom Mulready was indebted for his first art-counsel.* The influence of Graham upon English art did not cease in encouraging Mulready to persevere in drawing ; that influence has been incalculably great, as will appear from a letter pub- lished in the 'Athenaeum' (No. 2015), which, after recounting much that has been stated above, gives something more. " Inquiring about the early life of Mulready has led me to connect him with Wilkie, Watson Gordon, Sir William Allan, and John Burnet in a manner which may bring further light on the subject. ... It was worth while to trace the man to whom Mulready owed the impetus of his artistic career. The Catalogues of the Academy Exhibitions presumptively con- firmed MarcHfEe's little history. For several years, ' J. Graham,' whose address is ' Leicester Square ' (no number), sent pictures, * The picture by Graham in Boydell's ' Shakspeare ' was entitled Othello and Desdeinona, the murder scene. At the sale of the Boydell Gallery as a whole, after it was won by Tassie the modeller (the prize was estimated to be worth £30,000), this particular work was bought by Sir C. Burrell for 20 guineas. May 17th, 1805. See the priced catalogue of Boydell's sale in Mr. Pye's 'Patronage of British Art.' The following general account of Graham is given in Mr. W. B. Johnstone's official catalogue of pictures in the ITational Gallery of Scotland. He was born in 1754, apprenticed to a coach-painter at Edinburgh, afterwards went to London, and for some time worked in that craft. Admitted to the Koyal Academy, he was encouraged to attempt historical art. In 1778 {sic, see after, in respect to this date) he became Master of the Trustees' Academy, Edinburgh, a post.which he retained until his death at Edinburgh in November 1817. Mr. Johnstone writes as follows — " I recollect having seen in a carver and gUder's shop here [Edinburgh], many years ago, a picture which I was told was by Graham — the subject, Samuel instructing Eli; or, it may have been, David and Solomon." See after, the author's letter to the editor of the ' Athenaeum. ' Graham painted for Boydell Mary, Queen of Scots, escaping from Zochleven Castle, which, with a portrait of himself, by the same artist, Boydell presented to the Stationers' Company of London. Graham contributed to the exhibitions of the Society of Artists and the Free Society of Artists, EARLY LIFE IN LONDON. 17 and entirely ceased to do so in 1797, when he contributed six, among which appears No. 146, King David instructing /Solomon (Proverbs, ch. iv.). ... To learn what has become of Solomon receiving the advice of his father David is one of my objects in addressing you ; the owner may not know who sat for the royal youth ; it will contain the earliest portrait of Mulready. Looking for John Graham, at a later date than 1797, when he disappeared from the Academy Exhibition, I recollected that an artist of the same name taught Wilkie, Watson Gordon, Burnet, Alexander Fraser, D. Thompson, and W. Allan at the Trustees' Academy, Edinburgh, and, as his pupils spoke of him with unbounded affection and gratitude, might be styled the Mulready of that valuable school. This John Graham was also the author of The Death of General Fraser, an engraving from which hung constantly, says Cunningham's ' Life of Wilkie,' in that artist's study ; also, of The Death of Rizzio, a good work, and of The Disobedient Prophet, a large and excellent picture, No. 334, in the National Gallery of Scotland. The brief biography appended to this number in the official cata- logue, however, stated that the painter was appointed Master of the Trustees' Academy in 1788, in which case the Mr. Graham of Marcliffe and Mulready, and the ' John Graham ' of Wilkie, Gordon, and Burnet, could not be the same, inas- much as no active teacher would have produced six pictures in one year. The kindness of Mr. W. B. Johnstone, U.S.A., Keeper of the National Gallery of Scotland, to whom I wrote for a verification of the date '1788,' seems, if we remember that there was no other Graham exhibiting in London at that date, to set the matter right, by enabling me to identify the teacher of the able Scotchmen with the adviser of Mulready, and indicate one to whom British Art is indebted. Mr. Johnstone tells me that the date should be ' 1798,' the year after the evanishment of J. Graham from London, when, c 18 WILLIAM MULEEADY. January 7th, he was appointed Master of the Trustees' Academy, at which date he was resident here. The drawings which he submitted, when a competitor for the appointment, describe him as ' John Graham, history painter, London,' and among his letters of recommendation from West, Bomney, Eigaud, and others, was one from Alderman Boydell, publisher of the ' Shakespeare ' which J. Gi'aham illustrated with Othello and Desdemona ; he painted subjects of that class during his whole career. . . . As if to clench the whole of these little facts together, I observe that ' Marcliffe ' says Graham, ' who was a native of Scotland, returned to his own country soon after Mulready sat to him. The two did not meet until some years had elapsed, when Mulready was an Academy Student.' "F. G. Stepheks." Taking up ' The Looking-Glass ' again, we will resume the little narrative. When Mulready was about ten years of age, he removed from " the West of Leicester Square " to " near Long Acre." Books were his chief delight ; to procure these, he made " Turks' caps," * for sale to his playfellows ; with the pence thus obtained — scarce pence they must have been — a small collection of volumes was bought, among them ' Shake- speare's Plays ' — which is, except the Bible, the cheapest and commonest book in English — was prominent. Soon after this, at twelve years of age, Mulready was removed from the Castle Street school to another kept at No. 7 Newman Street by Mr. Byan, Chaplain to the NeapoUtan Embassy. Here he began to learn Latin and French, and, like many a famous * Those readers who may have forgotten the nature of "Turks' caps" should know that they do not resemble any part of a cap — unless it be embroidery on the flat top of one. Such a, cap is made by describing a circle with compasses and dividing it into equal parts, and, from the points thus marked, drawing quadrants from the centre to the exterior of the ring ; thus a sort of rosette is formed by intersecting quadrants. Probably Mulready coloured these works, and thus attracted his customers. EAELY LIFE IN LONDON. 19 artist, was powerfully attracted by the fame and person of Kemble, drew him in his favourite characters, and hung about the doors of Drury Lane Theatre for hours, hoping to see the hero of the boards come forth. Sensitive, pugnacious, and full of fun, the boy was always getting into scrapes ; but with characteristic diligence he kept to school, using the regular play-hours for drawing, which was now resumed, and (after the fashion of London boys) giving the dusky evenings to play. Some copies from the engraved frontispieces to his play- books, which represented favourite characters as performed by Kemble, Bensley, Vernon, and Dodd, were, to the satisfaction of the artist, thought worthy of black leather frames of home manufacture, and hung on the family walls. His kindly parents treated him with the magnanimity of a perfect affec- tion, urged him to profit by their very scanty means in acquiring accomplishments that might be useful in after life ; and in order to help him, laboured harder than ever in their humble ways,* " often sitting up whole nights that they might increase their power of doing justice to his talents.'' Their estimate of the abilities of the boy was founded not only on affectionate observations, but on the assurances of John Graham, who sent for the elder Mulready and urged him in behalf of his son. That son was two years with Mr. Kyan, until the horrible death of the poor old priest by burning in bed. Another Eoman Catholic teacher followed this unfor- tunate ; his academy was held in a chapel near Buckingham Gate, St. James's Park. This was Mulready's last school; here, as before, he distinguished himself, especially in penman- ship, so says Marcliffie — whose statement is confirmed by the clear, well-formed, and precise writing of the artist. A * The elderly man seated on a fallen tree, in Linnell's Removing Timber in Autumn, now belonging to the Linnell family, No. 26 at the Academy in 1883, is a portrait of Mulready's father. The schoolmaster's head in Idle Soys, see p. 92, is another portrait of him. 20 WILLIAM MULEEADY. private tutor, whose qualifications are not stated, succeeded the priests. The three teachers directed the energies of their pupil to the acquirement of Latin ; each said his predecessor had misled him, and sent him back to toil afresh, so that the lad got nothing that was worth his pains. Soon after this, a happj'- study of a harlequin, which had been placed in a shop-window, attracted a second artist, Mi-. Neill,* an Irishman, who was then, says Marcliffe, eighteen years of age, and, doubtless, not very far advanced in his studies. It appears that Mr. Neill modestly admitted so much when he recommended the boy to go to Mr. Baynes,t who was a drawing-master, for instruction. Mulready, accompanied by his mother, in the old-fashioned and affectionate way, visited this gentleman, who admitted, first, the excellence of the lad's drawings, and secondly, his own inability to be of use, because his skill was confined to landscape-painting. The drawing-school of the Royal Academy, then in Somerset House, and under the charge of Joseph Wilton, E.A., was pointed out by Mr. NeiU as the best for lads of promise, and earnestly desired by the leather-breeches maker and his family. A chance visit from an acquaintance ("a boot-maker," so Mar- cliffe styles him, giving a glimpse of the establishment in " the neighbourhood of Long Acre ") threw light on the question. " There was a Mr. John Corbet, one of the best fellows going, * A Mr. H. Neill exhibited landscapes at the Royal Academy from 1800 to 1804 inclusive, when he disappeared from the catalogues. t This teacher was probably James Baynes, a pupil of Eomney, who, with frequent intervals, exhibited at the Royal Academy and in Suffolk Street from 1796 to 1837, and in all likelihood accompanied John Yarley and George Arnald, A.R.A. (see hereafter, p. 32), during that pedestrian tour in North Wales, which strongly influenced Varley, and, through him, the entire school of water-colour painters in this country. A Mr. James Baynes exhibited in 1820 with the Society of Painters in Oil and Water Colours, i. e. " The Society of Painters in Water-Colours," the former style being a temporary title of this body. Also Mr. T. M. Baynes. Study from the Life. By Mulready. From the Dravdng in the South Ketaington Museum. ANATOMICAL FIGURES. 21 who had some considerable place at the Eoyal Academy, for which he received a salary of ninety pounds per annum, and whom he was very well acquainted with, having had the honour to make his boots." Such was the statement of the new-comer, when he recommended an application to Mr. Corbet, who, in Norfolk Street, Strand, kept a sort of puppet- show, where he exhibited "The Androides." * A visit to Mr. Corbet was fortunate, insomuch as, although he told the pair (for the good mother of Mulready again accompanied her son) that he liad nothing to do with the Eoyal Academy, he lent the boy drawings to copy, put him in the way of executing his .studies in a neater manner than before, and recommended Walker's 'Anntomy,' Roubilliac's Anatomical Figure, and a cast from the Apollo, as models for study. These were soon got, and, especially Walker's book, eagerly mastered. The favourite place for study, the first studio of Mulready, was in the chapel adjoining the house of his schoolmaster, near Buck- ingham Gate. Strictly to write, this study was at the very altar of that chapel, where no other boy went except to deposit his cap. Under the altar-table, and amid the heap of head- coverings, Mulready ensconced himself ; there he mastered "Walker," and made a noteworthy step towards fame and fortune. A drawing from the Anatomical Figure, and perfect mastery of the terms in the book, pleased Mr. Corbet, not less than the docility and quickness of the pupil, but left him at a loss for further advice. A list of the Eoyal Academicians suggested, because the name stood at the top of it t one of the best, but the least likely man to interest * Ml'. Corbet's show probably consisted of automata, such as Vaucanson's "Flute Player. " "The Automaton Chess Player" was a machine of this kind. + It is curiously worth while to note, as characteristic of the ways of. Mulready in youth as in age, and confirmatory of the little book from whiclr I am still quoting, that, after the death of John Bacon, in 1799, the name of Banks stood first in the alphabetical list of Academicians until his death in 1805. 22 WILLIAM MULREADY. himself in a student destined to become, not a sculptor, but a painter. To this best instructor Corbet, although himself an utter stranger to the great E..A., sent the boy, then " thirteen years and a month old." He was Thomas Banks the sculptor, who lived at No. 5 in the then handsome Newman Street, which is next door but one to the old school of Mulready. To him, this time unaccompanied by his mother, and in his perturbation giving two violent single knocks at the door, Mulready took a drawing of the Apollo. Questioned as to his age, position, and education, and mortified by being advised to wait ere he attempted to enter the Academy schools, the poor lad had "already got the frill of his shirt in his mouth, and was hanging down his head," when kind counsel sent him back for further study, and finally, after having, by Banks's advice, frequented a drawing-school in Furnival's Inn Court, Holborn, he was, to his own delight and the honour of the sculptor, then in the highest rank of his profession, taken into the studio of the latter, set to work at drawing from casts, and put in the way to acquire a soitnd knowledge of art. One of the first things Banks set before Mulready to be drawn was a piece of Gothic sculptured foliage, the character- istic beauty of which both master and pupil enjoyed at a time when such models were not fashionable.* To Banks * Tills is the account given by Mulready to the author some years since. With regard to Banks's knowledge of the antique, there can be no doubt whatever. Flaxman deliveved to the Eoyal Academy, In 1805, an elogc of Banks and his genius, which contains the best account of the man and his works. Whatever might have been the sculptor's appreciation of Gothic cawing, he did not treat Gothic Architecture with much reverence when he placed in the trlforium of Westminster Abbey that absurd monument of Su- Eyre Coote, which is one of his latest productions, and probably the most unfortunate of the memorials disfiguring that edifice. Banks was burled on the south side of Paddlngton Churchyard, where are Interred NoUekens, George Barret, Vlvares, Schavionetti, Collins, and Mrs. Slddons : there is » tablet to his memory in Westminster Abbey. Instead of the STUDENT OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 23 Mulready's devotion to purity of form and earnest study of drawing was due. He drew his Gothic foliage with the greatest care and completeness, and was well drilled therein by the sculptor, who was intolerant of slovenly wort. Banks watched Mulready, after a year's work in Newman Street, into the schools of the Eoyal Academy, and was much annoyed at his pupil's failure to get admittance to them on his first essay. He was unsuccessful with a drawing of the Townley Hercules, but, at a later day, succeeded in pleasing Wilton, who was then Keeper, with a drawing of a statue by Michael Angelo ; thus he got his probationship, and, in due time, the much-desired studentship of the Eoyal Academy. This was in November, 1800 ; a few years before Haydon, Wilkie, Collins, Linnell, and Hilton were in the schools. Our student made a drawing from an antique group, TJie Pan- crastince, or Boxers, for admission to the Life School of the Academy; this work was exhibited as No. 115a at South Kensington in 1864, and, being dated 1800, proves that his progress from the inferior to the higher school was unusually rapid, and due, no doubt, to his early practice in drawing. During more than four years Mulready drew very diligently in the Antique Schools at Somerset House, and thus cultivated his knowledge of and skill in delineating beautiful form. By this time he had become one of the pupils of Fuseli, who was Gothic foliage before mentioned, we might probably read Gothic statues. In this case it is not difiBcult to identify them with those figures of Religion, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance, Law, and Learning, which, together with a statue of our Saviour, were in 1789 removed from the porch of Guildhall, London, when that building was "restored" by George Dance the younger. Some years later these works were, at the instance of Alderman Boydell, given to Banks, and at the sale of his etfects bought for £100 by Mr. Bankes, M. P. , of Kingston Laeey : they are etched in Carter's ' Ancient Sculptiu'e and Painting.' They dated from the middle of the fifteenth centui-y, and, according to Carter's showing, are excellent works. 24 WILLIAM MULEEADY. appointed Keeper in 1804, with Hilton, Leslie, Etty, Haydon, and Briggs in the schools. Shortly after his admission to the Academy, the student gained the silver palette from the Society of Arts ; this was in 1802-3. Our little biography, ' The Looking-GIass,' terminates here with the information that its subject, then about fifteen, having received an offer of employment, had resolved no longer to be a burden to his parents, and, notwithstanding their desire to keep him with them seven years longer, while they would work to maintain him, was bent upon helping himself, and them also if need were.* It is not difficult to see what was the nature of the employ- ment Mulready had in view. Primarily, working on the fashionable panoramas, hereafter referred to, is said to have occupied him. For the moment, let us confine our attention to the kind of labour which was nearer at hand. Book-design- ing, and that in the publications of William Godwin, is clearly indicated by the text of ' The Looking-Glass,' no less than by its illustrations, and the advertisements appended to it, which comprise Baldwin's ' Fables, Ancient and Modern,' with seventy-three copper-plates, probably by Mulready, some of them admirable in design and humour (there was an edition of this in French, with the same plates) ; and ' The King and Queen of Hearts, etc., with fifteen elegant engravings.' Others were indicated by John Linnell as having been worked upon in his presence : these are ' Nong Tong Paw, or the Discoveries of John Bull,' a thin little book, the drawings in which are made with great spirit and wealth of character; they pro- voked abundant laughter among Mulready's friends, and were handed about at John Varley's house with universal applause ; the original drawings were much better than the engraved * ' The Looking-Glass ' is to be found in the British Museum Library- Catalogue under " MarcUffc, Theophilus." BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS. 25 transcripts; likewise, 'The Sullen Woman and the Pedlar.' The practice of thus illustrating books was maintained by Mulready for several years, as the dates indicate, by ranging from 1805 (that of ' The Looking-Glass ') to, at least, 1809, as I proceed to show. A "second edition" — I have not seen that which preceded it — of Lamb's ' Tales from Shakespeare, W. Godwin, 51, Skinner Street,' was, as Mr. Sheepshanks told the late Mr. Carpenter of the British Museum, illustrated by Mulready. This is in two small volumes, with rough but spirited etchings. The date of this second edition is 1810; as it does not state the illustrations are new, doubtless they were attached to the first edition. ' The Butterily's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast,' 1807, has a set of charming prints, very playful and naive in character, and enhanced by little poetical hints, such as occur in the artist's greater works. ' Think before you Speak, or, The Three Wishes,' 1809, trans- lated from Madame de Beaumont ; and other books, such as 'GafEer Gray,' which, when he was nineteen, was published with a set of very spirited designs, contain the earliest works by Mulready of the kind. Notwithstanding the enormous numbers of these books that were printed and published within a few years, even the ' Fables, Ancient and Modern,' which carried the name of Baldwin to the ends of the eax'th, is now scarce ; of the myriads who used the little text, few thought of Mulready as the illustrator of many of its stories. The British Museum itself contains only a few of these trifles. Other means of getting a livelihood presented themselves about this time. Muli'eady, who had none of the foolish pride that makes a shame of early difficulties, and never boasted of the manner in which he overcame them, admitted having painted " on a very large scale when I was young," that is to say, he did a good deal of scene-painting, and he added that he believed the vaults under the Mansion House might still 26 WILLIAM MULREA.DT. contain some of his pictures. The reader will remember that this was long before Clarkson Stanfield was at work at the Sailors' Theatre in Well-close Square, and while D. E,oberts was yet a boy ; until a little time before De Loutherbourg had reigned as theatrical scene-painter. The result of inquiries for the pictures supposed to be in the vaults of the Mansion House is unsatisfactory ; it would appear that nothing of the sort is now to be found there. Teaching drawing to ladies and other amateurs was, even at this early date, one of the resources of Mulready. This was continued . for many years, and the artist became tutor to more than one person of note ; among them was Miss Isabella Milbanke, afterwards Lady Byron, whom he described as " not handsome," — readers will remember her own phrase, about her "pippin" face — "but talented and good." Frances Charlotte, Countess of Dart- mouth, whose portrait, sitting by her own fireside, he painted at a later date, was one of these pupils ; among other.s were Miss Elizabeth Swinburne (who became Mis. Bowden, and died in 1844), and her eldcir sister, Julia, who survives now as doubtless the last of his pupils. There can be no doubt that Mulready pursued all these occupations steadily, thoroughly, and with good fortune. Miss Julia Swinburne, not only in kindly remembrance of her teacher of seventy years ago, but in the evidence of her own good painting and that of her sister Elizabeth, attests the excellence of his teaching. A means for explaining the rather oracular statement by Mulready, which is above referred to in relation with his drawing on a large scale, has been accidentally offered : it appears that he drew for Sir Robert Ker Porter some of the life-sized figures on a large panorama that was produced by this energetic artist and traveller. Porter executed at least three large pictures of the sort ; the first and largest repre- sented the storming of Seringapatam in 1799, by Generals Study of Drapery. By Mulready. hi the South Kensington Ahtsevm. PANORAMA OF 'STORMING OF SERINGAPATAM.' 27 Harris and Sir David Baird — a fruitful Indian event now seldom in men's memories, but which, in 1800, when the news of it came to this country, created a tremendous furore. Sir Robert Ker Porter, then a youth of twenty-five, was seized with the idea of representing the assault on the City of Tippoo Sahib in a picture of one hundred and twenty feet in length, and crowded with figures and architecture. Of course he had many assistants in this work, which was produced in six weeks, and immediately exhibited at the Lyceum Great Room, which was then the gallery of the Incorporated Society of Artists — who erected and occupied the building until pecuni- ary embarrassments compelled its sale by the owners, who for a time had been no despicable rivals of the Royal Academy. There, in 1800, the great panorama was displayed with im- mense success and loud public applause. It is said that Mulready, although not more than fourteen years old, was employed to execute some of the groups, and that so great was his facility in drawing the human form that in one day he completed three figures of the size of life.* * The following letters refer to another large picture of this kind, as well as to the panorama. To THE Editor of 'The Athenaeum.' SiE, — In reference to this wonderful historical canvas, now on view at Guildhall, will you allow me through the medium of your journal, to give the public the benefit of such information as I possess ? Robert Ker Porter was an associate of the late John Britton, F.S.A., &c., who states he saw the painter at work upon his Battle of AgincouH, a history of which he was enabled to furnish certain individuals, whom, in his Autobiography, he terms his "Civic friends." At the end of last century the first of a series of panoramic pictures painted by the same master hand — the storming of Seringapatam — was exhibited at the Lyceum Theatre. This picture, 200 feet long, is said to have been painted in six weeks. Such rapidity of execution of course astonished all who witnessed his progress. Porter's vivid treatment of battle scenes is 28 TiriLLIAM MUI.READY. The further history of this picture is not without interest as containing reputed work by Mulready : the article, " Sir described as most effective in their representation: "Korses, soldiers, artillery, baggage- waggons, and all the paraphernalia of war, were dispersed ov«r a vast area of canvas. " He afterwards executed pictures of the Siege of Acre, and the battles of Lodi, Alexandria, and, lastly, Agincourt, the fate of which formed the subject-matter of a letter of mine in ' The Citizen ' of June 26th last. Sir Robert was born 1780, and died 1842, in his sixty- second year. Regarding the history of the immense painting of Agincourt in the possession of the Corporation, it appears, by minutes of the Court of Common Council so far back as September 22, 1808, that a letter was read from Robert Ker Porter, Esq., dated Stockholm, May 19, addressed to Lord Mayor Ansley, requesting his Lordship to present the "large picture of the Battle of Agincmbrt, my last, and, I think, best work, to the City of London. The subject is so grateful to the patriotic breast of every Briton that I need not comment on its propriety as a recommendation worthy a place either in the Mansion House or Guildhall. To know that the capital of my native country possesses the last of my productions will be an ample and valuable recompense for my exertions in having produced it." Thanks were ordered by the Lord Mayor to be returned, and the Committee for Letting the City Lands was requested to ' ' consider of 'the best place to display the picture." It was hung up in the Egyptian Hall, Mansion House, but removed to enable certain alterations to be made in that room, and consigned to oblivion for about twelve years. It was then disentombed in 1823, and hung up at Guildhall, 6rowds of people flocking thither to see it. Then, although its preservation and public display were advocated by members of the Coi-poration, it was rolled up and again committed to its former sepulchre under the Hall. It seems afterwards to have been taken out, unrolled, and hung up for a week or two every three or four years to " keep from perishing " ! This brings its history down to about 1850. In a letter to the late John Britton, May 15, 1851, Mr. John Sewell says : " It is a fine performance, fit to be exhibited as a panoramic painting, and I think it is a pity it should remain lost to the public. " Supported by such information, I wrote on the 13th July to our highly- respected Lord Mayor as follows : — "My fear is that lapse of time and changes of various descriptions may have tended to produce an existing state of things in which probably the very existence of Sir R. K. Porter's Battle of Agincourt is for the time entirely lost sight of." 'STORMING OF SEEINGAPATAM.' 29 E. K. Porter," in the 'English Cyclopaedia,' states that "it was burnt in the fire which consumed a friend's warehouse where the painter had deposited it during his absence in Russia ; but the sketches still exist, and were sold at the sale of Porter's effects in 1843. In 1801, a picture representing the Siege of Acre, by the same painter, was exhibited, together with that before mentioned ; Agincowrt, a third battle piece, was shown there, and must have followed very closely on its predecessors to have been produced ere the artist left England for Russia in 1804." This work was presented to the Corpora- tion of London and hung in Guildhall ; it was removed, but again exhibited some thirty years later ; after this second dis- play it disappeared until recently, when, another generation of officials coming into action, it was rehung and much commented on. There I saw it during 1866 in a terribly dilapidated con- dition ; rats had made free with the edges of the canvas ; it The following reply was sent to me next day : — "The Mansion House, "London, E.G. "July 14, 1880. "Deae Sir, "The Lord Mayor directs me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 13th inst., and to say that he will take care it is brought to the notice of the proper authorities of the Corporation. "Yours truly, "W. J. SOULSBY. "W. Bkitton, Esq." So I am rewarded, through the courtesy of Sir E. "VT. Truscott, in the knowledge that this fine work of so talented an artist is again unearthed, through my personal efforts, after a lapse of nearly thirty years. I am. Sir, yours respectfully, William Bkitton. 13, Mead Place, South Sackney, Oct. 9, 1880. 30 WILLIAM MULREADY. had been removed from the stretching-frame, and ignominiously treated. It was again exhibited in 1880, as stated in the accompanying note, and ordered to be sold in October 1886. See ' The Building News,' October 1, 1880, and ' The Athenajum,' October 6, 1886. Here is the chance of an explanation for Mulready's words to the author, that he painted on a very large scale when he was young, and that the vaults of the Mansion House might contain some of his productions. Mulready might thoughtlessly say " Mansion House," when Guildhall was the place in point, or believe the work to be in the Mansion House ; indeed, it might have been there at one time. I am strongly inclined to think that it must have been to this picture our subject referred as above, and not to that of the Storming of Seringapatam, upon which he was, according to Mr. S. Bedgrave, in his ' Dictionary of Artists of the English School,' and other authorities, engaged at a much later period. He would surely be aware that the latter was burnt — a matter of public notoriety, and peculiarly interesting to himself, had he worked on the painting when but fourteen years of age. Mulready became, as we have seen, a Student of the Academy in 1800 ; it is not very likely that so young a person would be employed, whose drawings at that period, notwithstanding their noteworthy ability, promised no such power in large work : after his death these early Academy studies were exhibited at South Kensington, where we saw them. It is much more probable that the Agincourt of 1803, which was produced when Mulready was seventeen years of age, and had had the benefit of three years' hard drawing, would have received his aid, than that the preceding panoramas did so. This would explain the above-quoted remark to me as we walked fronl a dinner-party to his home in Linden Grove, Bayswater. This was about a" year before his death. It might not have been of importance great enough SCENES FOR THE THEATRES. 31 to need so much detailed examination as the above if the event in question did not refer to what, in any case, must have been one of his earliest works, and, above all — if the suggestion offered with regard to the Agincourt picture be accepted — ■ that it may enable us to point to this huge, torn, battered, and rat-gnawn canvas, as probably the earliest of Mulready's labours now extant, done more than eighty-seven years ago, when times were very hard indeed, and while his youth was flaming strongly in new energy, by one of the most able of our painters. According to ' Londina lUustrata,' under " Lyceum Theatre," Mulready had a part in JSgyptiana, a collection of views on the Nile, which were exhibited at the gallery on the site of this playhouse. He painted scenes for Bannister's Sans Souci Theatre, as well as portraits. For Sir E-. K. Porter, see Henry Angelo's 'Reminiscences,' ii. 109. I do not know what circumstances brought Mulready into a close relationship with John Varley, the famous water-colour painter,* whose pupil he is generally believed to have been. It is certain that a very intimate and durable friendship existed between men whose ages were unequal, and their experiences so different, as they must have been in the begin- ning of this century, when their friendship begun. "Varley, born August 17th, 1788, was eight years older than his friend — a difference which goes for much when one of the parties is eighteen years old. Moreover, John Varley was then high in reputation, and — although still young — so well established that, in the early part of his acquaintance with Mulready, * How industrious was Varley the reader may surmise from this enumeration of his doings. Between the opening of the "Water-Colour Society's Exhibitions in 1805, and his ceasing to exhibit in 1843, he contributed no fewer than 737 drawings to their Gallery ; in the year 1809 he sent sixty specimens. Copley Fielding, between 1810 and 1854, exhibited 1670 works ; in 1824, fifty-four. David Cox, between 1813 and 1854, 788. 32 WILLIAM MULEEADT. he became one of the founders, or, at least, one of the first exhibitors and most influential members of the still flourishing Old Society of Painters in Water-Colours. In 1798, having a previous friendship with Francia, the water-colour artist, J. P. Neale and others, Varley had, with George Arnald, A.R.A., and Mr. Baynes,* made a pedestrian tour in North Wales ; the result of which was the development of a style of painting and manner of thought in Art which not only rapidly brought distinction to their possessor, and procured, honour for his name which will be augmented by and by, but made him comparatively wealthy, and the ablest teacher of the day. In fact, Yarley became the professional successor of Panl Sandby, the fashionable drawing-master of the time, who died in 1809. Soon after his return from Wales, Dr. Monro, one of Georg the Third's physicians in insanity, an ever-active encourager of artists and most kindly patron, employed Varley to make a series of drawings from the neighbourhood of Fetcham, where he then resided. Although Varley's notions of poetic effect in landscape were somewhat limited, he felt nature thoroughly, and as an artist should do, that is, independently of the schools ; he painted with great vigour and depth of tone, breadth of colouring, richness and lucidity. He was a larger Edridget with a wider range of thought. It is * A drawing-master of some repute in those days ; see the previous reference to this person, p. 20. t See ' The Portfolio ' of 1880. Of Henry Edridge, A.K.A., so little is known, and his great ahility is so nearly forgotten, that the reader may welcome the following abstract from the biographies of this ai'tist, published in Eedgrave's 'Century of Painters of the English School,' and Sandby's ' History of the Eoyal Academy. ' He is best known as a miniature and portrait painter, but deserves high respect as a landscapist. The son of a tradesman in St. James's, Westminster, he was born at Paddington in 1769 — so say the Messrs. Redgrave. Stanley, in the ' Dictionary of Painters and Engravers," and Mr. Sandby, as above, give the date a year earlier. His father dying, young Ediidge was left in charge of a widow with poor Portrait of John Varley. By Mulready. From the Drawing in the British Museum. JOHN VAELEY. 33 impossible to say too much of the debt English art, in oil as in water-colours, owes to this most able and energetic man. Varley then resided at No. 2, Harris Place, near the Pantheon, Oxford Street, where he lived until about 1804 ; in 1805 we find him at No. 15, Broad Street, Golden Square. The house in Harris Place is but the second from Oxford Street, yet it is quiet enough for any student ; the " Place " itself is composed of a single row of houses, with a high dead means, wlio, however, contrived to educate him, and when his predilection for Art became marked, to apprentice him to "William Pether, portrait and miniature painter, and mezzotint engraver. Edridge's landscapes were executed in a singularly broad and free manner ; he painted much on ivory, and drew likenesses in black-lead, to which he added backgrounds that were much admired. " In such works his finish was remarkable for brilliancy and truth, uniting richness with freedom and freshness." " He had also a, great taste," add the Messrs. Redgrave, "for landscape art, which he cultivated in his intimacy with Hearne. In 1817 and 1819 he visited France, made many studies of architecture, especially Gothic, in the neighbourhood of Paris and in Normandy. Many of these works were exhibited ; three of his landscapes are at the South Kensington Museum ; three portraits, those of the Marquis of Anglesea, Lord Auckland, and Robert Southey, are in the National Portrait Gallery. He became a Student of the Royal Academy in 1784, and an A.R.A. in 1820. Having lost a son and daughter in rapid succession, these afflictions broke his already impaired constitution ; he died April 23, 1821, and was buried in the churchyard of .Bushey, Hertfordshire, elope to the graves of Hearne and the Monro family." J)r. Monro was George the Third's physician in insanity, before named, an executor of both Hearne and Edridge ; see ' Notes and Queries,' 1886. His descendant. Dr. H. Monro, late of Caven- dish Square, has the wills of both these artists. They left legacies to the elder doctor, who was also the good friend of Turner, Girtin, "W. Hunt, and many others. The freedom and richness of colour in Edridge's works, and his extreme facility in drawing with the brush, were very enjoyable. He may have derived much benefit from Hearne, but cannot be said to have imitated him, or to have been his pupil. In De Wint, Edridge came to life again ; with some superior qualities the former transcended the latter in the warmth, and, above all, in the lucidity of his shadows, but erred therein in excess of blackness ; tlie latter never did so ; De Wint had the larger scope in Art. D 34 WILLIAM MULREADY. wall before them ; the entrance from Oxford Street is covered, and of small dimensions. No. 2 is a comfortable house of its kind, and sixty years ago was doubtless rather above the average of middle-class London habitations. In it was no want of brilliant company and robust fun, for John Varley was not only a prosperous, but a jocund and highly popular person, upon whom no end of artists, and those interested in painting, called and spent their leisure. When I last saw Harris Place a great change had occurred there since Varley left it ; an organ-grinder was making the whole neighbourhood ring with the dismal groans and hideous braying of the machine at which he was stolidly working before a knot of grimy urchins, who, reckless of music and defiant of time, proved the sincerity of their belief that it was proper to dance to regulated sounds, while the oafish Italian would have hesitated to claim the name of music for the lugubrious uproar which set the children capering. The entertainment showed how completely Harris Place had become a slum. There, in its better days, Mulready became intimate with the Varley family, which comprised John, Cornelius, William, and two sisters (who did not, of course, all reside together) : one of the latter and the three brothers were painters who contributed with regularity to the Royal Academy. Cornelius was, with John, one of the original exhibitors of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours, and until he died in 1873, being then in his ninety-second year, was long the only surviving representative of the Society as at first constituted. He was, it is worth while to add, then the oldest living exhibiting artist. Mr. Cornelius Varley, during his very long life, won and retained the high respect of his intimates, to a degree which is remarkable. He was the inventor of the Graphic Telescope, and other philo- sophical apparatus; his son, Mr. Cromwell Varley, is now universally known as an electrician. THE VARLEY FAMILY. 35 To Yarley's Mulready went, and soon found metal tie most attractive. In a year or two he became the real master of Varley's pupils. Meanwhile the inscriptions ou some of Mul- ready's earliest works testify that part of the summer of 1803 was given to a tour in Yorkshire, when Kirkstall and other places were visited. Fountain's Abbey and Knaresborough were reached in the following year. Windsor and Eton supplied subjects for sketches in 1805, and East Cray did as much for 1806. In the habit of making excursions, Mulready was certainly strengthened, if he was not originally indebted to him for the notion, by John Varley, the essence of whose teaching was an injunction to go to nature for everything. He insisted on the mastery of principles and the study of ancient Art as the key to nature. It was for the principles he taught them, and particularly for the science of the dis- position of masses upon which he insisted, that his pupils were most grateful to Yarley. However easily, so far as detail is concerned, the master in later days satisfied himself in the execution of his own advice, it is beyond question that his drawings owed their charm to general fideUty to nature, an ennobling massiveness, and an almost antique simplicity, and that the ever-recurring lessons of Turner's and Girtin's genius were illustrated by him. In diverse ways, each according to the nature and attain- ments of the man who practised them, those grand lessons — the foundation of all noble Art — were thus inculcated and handed down to the modern English school. We talk glibly of paint- ing from nature, as if that were among the simple things of the world. How one pupil of Varley felt about this dictum may be told in his own words. He was afterwards, and chiefly, a pupil of Mulready, and became famous as William Henry Hunt. Said this master of nature-in-small — but not the less master for that — " I feel really frightened lohen 36 WILLIAM MULREADT. I sit down to paint a flovxr." Does the reader see the humility, the reverence, the love of beauty and of truth, that these homely words express % The man who used them was then sixty years of age, a master in his craft, and acknowledged to be not only unrivalled, but original in his path. W. Hunt, who painted flowers as man had never painted them before, said, after fifty years of toil and love, " I fed really frightened when I sit down to paint a flower ! " There are letters of his in my possession, written when life was ebbing, to a lad whose life was at the spring. "How I remember so many years ago, when the weather was fine as it is now, and I could sit out of doors all day long, and keep on painting until it was dark. I saw some roses yesterday in a garden I thought I should like to paint, and stopped the chaise to buy them, but the people of the house, when I told them what I wanted, cut the flowers from the trees and wouldn't take any money. They were very kind, you see ; I wish I could sit out of doors to paint them now, as one used to do ! " Such are the masters in " painting from nature," such is the love, such the lamentation over loss. Such was the fruit of Varley's lessons, such the merit of Mulready's teaching. Mulready presents himself even thus early as a teacher ; the reader has just now read how even his boyhood became exemplary, and was set forth by Godwin in 'The Looking- Glass.' AVe shall soon see that, although he was to some extent the pupil of Varley, and doubtless derived immense advantage from him, the difference between the ages of the men was not great enough to admit of much inequality in their attainments. Moreover, the domestic relations of the pair, closely united as they were by marriage of th$ one to the elder sister of the other, forbad that obedience which is due from a pupil to a master. Mulready so soon established himself in the house of Yarley as a brother-in-art, if not as a JOHN vahley's pupils. 37 brother-in-law, that when William Hunt went to take his first lesson from the master to whom he had been apprenticed, our subject was already in charge of the pupils, and it was upon him that the duty devolved of setting the tinman's little son to work.* This, no doubt, was done in some considerate way, but it turned out that Mulready was not yet informed of the attainments of the wizened and slightly crippled young fellow with the big head who then presented himseM ; he was soon enlightened, however, and the result was many years after a favourite cause for chuckling by Hunt when he said, " I guess I astonished them rather ! " Yarley's pupils took the master's dictum to heart, and cai-ried it into effect beyond his own pretensions. He would, we are told, leave youngsters very much to themselves ; in fact, he kept a house at Teddington, where they went as to a centre for sketching excursions. Mulready most strictly carried out the injunction, and, in "seeking to understand all Jte had to do," had no other resource than nature. W. Hunt alone rivalled him in this matter, and was so stanchly literal Mnd so full of faith in nature, that he would borrow a pin to draw fi'om rather than trust to " feeling " for so simple an object. It is not because they were thus unflinchingly faithful, that either Mulready or Hunt lacked power ; they knew that nature is richer than memory, and that there is an ineffable charm in the materials she supplies. The former distinguished himself among the students in Broad Street ; and as regards Hunt, put into practice the good advice above repeated, so he was received as the leader of the working party of Varley's * Hunt's father was a tin-plate worker and japanner of Old Belton Street, now Endell Street, Long Acre. The house where he was bom still stands ; it was, till a few years ago, numbered 8, and in the occupation of a member of Hunt's family, who carried on the old trade. 38 WILLIAM MULEEADY. numerous pupils. Among these were men now known by the names of Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding, John Linnell, F. O. Finch, and William Turner of Oxford. Such pupils as these would suffice for the fame of any master. Varley had others whose reputations are considerable. David Cox was in a position similar to that which Mulready occupied at Yarley's.* The intimacy of Mulready with Varley began whilst the latter resided in Harris Place — on the marriage of the former bringing him into closer relationship with his friend — our subject took part of the house in Broad Street, already men- tioned ; there, in due course, Varley came with the whole of his pupils and other followers. The life that was led, and to no small extent enjoyed, by the pair was a hard-working one, relieved by much fun and abundance of society. No one was fonder of practical jokes than Mulready at this period ; in these Varley — always a lover of play, and, from his robust and jocund nature, delighting in rough games — readily either joined or led. A story illustrates this. It was Mulready's and Yarley's delight to pelt with peas from a shooter the windows of a cobbler's stall opposite their house in Broad Street, and to watch the effect of a rattling shower on the inmate ; the best mode of enjoying this sport was for the * With John Yarley's extraordinary astrological notions and not less extraordinary predictions, which were now and then verified in a startling manner, and more often failed completely, we have nothing here to do. Of their precise nature the best infonnation will be found in his ' Treatise on Zodiacal Physiognomy,' 1828. The 'Life of William Blake,' by W. Gilchrist, 1863, records a few anecdotes of Varley, also Mr. Grantley Berkeley's 'My Life and Recollections.' We are told that Mulready, although refusing absolute acceptance of the ' Zodiacal Physiognomy ' of his friend, admitted he had found it of service for his pictures ; one does not see how, according to the ordinary practice of artists, this could be. The book contains a portrait of Mulready, and other heads, drawn by John Linnell. JOHN varlet's pupils. 39 confederates to station themselves behind the shutters in the first-floor front room of their own premises just before four o'clock in the afternoon, when the boys of a neighbouring day- school were sure to pass the craftsman at his work. These urchins were strongly suspected by the cobbler. Operations were commenced by the discharge of a few peas, just enough to rouse the victim's ire, without provoking him to leave his bench. At the moment the first boy turned the corner by the stall, the missiles were sent closer together and with more force than before against the dingy little shop front, its windows, and into its half-open doorway. The fun began when the mender of soles was seen to leave his stool, and with slow and guarded motions, stretch himself to secure the strap devoted to such occasions. Ensconced behind the door, and still more exasperated by well-directed peas, the poor man was observed to single out some lad whose former conduct justified suspicion, and at the best moment for a charge, to sally out, strap in hand, with flying apron and with shouts of wrath, in pursuit of the fancied tormentor. Of course the latter was rarely caught, because a stern chase is long, and boys are nimbler than cobblers. Among Varley's articled pupils above alluded to was, at a much later date, Francis Oliver Finch, an amiable and imagin- ative painter of landscapes, whose death left a gap in the Society of "Water-Colour Painters that will not readily be filled. The widow of this gentleman published ' Memorials ' of her husband,* in which she displayed the warmth of a happy afPection and Christian placidity in sorrow. This book records, among other matters of interest to its proper subject, not only Finch's gratitude to Varley and the companions of his youth, but several characteristic sketches of that period of * ' Memorials of the late Francis Oliver Finch, with Selections from his Writings.' Longmans, 1865. 40 WILLIAM MULREADY. Mulready's and his comrades' lives. The authoress tells us that Finch, with a premium of two hundred pounds, was articled to Varley for three years, that he remained in this position for upwards of five years under another arrangement, and that he was twelve years of age when thus placed. Although this took effect in the year 1813 or 1814, consider- ably later than the period now in question. Finch's experiences are worth noting in connection with the household in Broad Street. "On the whole," says Mrs. Finch, "this boyish fra- ternity agreed exceeding well (this included the four sons of Yarley, and others, his pupils), but truth compels me to confess that one 'little diflB.oulty' occurred on a certain occasion between Francis and a junior Varley, which was settled with the fists ! — who was the victor history does not record. Mr. Varley's method of settling disputes or converting idleness into industry was very summary indeed. Whenever he heard an unusual noise in the study over his head, where his pupils were supposed to be at work, he opened his own door stealthily, ran up at full speed — for, bulky as he was, his activity was remarkable — and suddenly bursting open the door, laid about him right and left, letting the weight of his cane fall on the heads and shoulders of the nearest delinquents (they on one occasion smashed a chimney-glass to shiA^ers), and, having relieved himself, he would . as quickly descend, drop down, as it were, upon his work again, serene as if nothing had hap- pened, quite absorbed among his pictorial gleams and glades." Mrs. Finch continued, " The view which he [Varley] took of things was, as we have said, peculiarly original. In his gallery one day, he was in deep talk with a young artist who had called upon him — a solemn talk about taste and senti- ment, and long lines and broad shadows, Yarley spouting poetry, and just losing himself in fairyland, repeating perhaps his favourite lines, JOHN VARLEY AND HIS PUPILS. 41 ' Hark ! how the sacred calm which breathes around Bids every fierce tumultuous passion cease, ' when the street-door bell rang, and the dog barked vociferously. ' A drawer was opened, out came the cane in a moment, a couple of light touches reached the too faithful Argus. Peace was restored again, and with the short remark ' I ha(e affectation,' the cane was returned to the drawer, and the bell duly- answered, the dog resumed his doze, and the artistic pair relapsed into dreamland. "Whether he succeeded in curing the little animal of the infirmity in question does not appear, but Varley was no Draco or Domitian — he was a thoroughly good-natured liberal man, and the discipline, always sudden, was little more than momentary, never severe. His pupils were his friends for life." Certainly John Varley was the friend of many men, and familiar with diverse characters. Among these was William Blake, whose visions and exalted imagination had something akin to his own brain and heart. At one time he took Blake to dine at Lady Blessington's house in St. James's Square. The author of the ' Songs of Inno- cence ' was an entirely unconventional person, and disinclined to make himself uncomfortable to suit the artificial habits of others ; nevertheless, although he made his appearance at that house, which was a sort of menagerie of small lions, in thick shoes and worsted stockings, nobody complained of the strange guest's lack of refinement and gentlemanliness. " Perhaps Varley enjoyed no evenings more than those which Blake spent with him by appointment, designing, as he felt the impulse, heroes and patriarchs of ancient story, of which drawings Varley became the purchaser. Varley believed, with Blake, that the ' visions ' which presented themselves inwardly to his friend were vital realities." This is Samuel Palmer's note to me, — " A volume containing forty-nine heads in pencil 42 WILLIAM MULREADY. from visions whicli appeared to Blake, and were then drawn by him, was sold on Mulready's death, in 1864, with the remaining works of the latter." In 1803, Mulready, being then but eighteen years of age, married a damsel who was a year older than himself ; he was a father in his nineteenth year. The former event was for a long time unknown to his fellow-students in the Academy. This union was a very unhappy one, and occasioned much of the trouble of his life. Before many years the husband and wife separated. The elder of the two sisters of John Varley, the lady was an artist by profession and ability, who exhibited pictures in the Royal Academy from 1811 until 1819; these were mostly landscapes. The late Mr. Albert Varley, of Thistle Grove, Brompton, her nephew, and the eldest son of John Varley, had a miniature portrait in oil by Mulready oi his wife, which, as it represents a young girl of about nineteen, must have been produced near the time of their marriage. So far as it goes, there is something charming in the piquancy of this portrait, with its bright and white skin, and decidedly retrousse nose. The little head, with tawny-brown hair drawn high up and off the ears, is, with all the freshness of just-perfected youth, balanced, so to say, on the longest tendril of a neck with a dainty, insouciant demeanour that might have piqued the coldest man to love and a more daring im- prudence than Mulready committed in marrying the fair damsel who sat to him for this pretty memorial of their young lives. It may be that love had something to do with the spirit of the portrait. We do not know from any other source that the lady was so attractive. Unhappy as this marriage was, which ended in a separation of nearly fifty years, and until Death removed them both, it is hard on looking at this little portrait, with knowledge that a gulf had yawned between the boy-lover and the girl-sitter, who, when HIS MARKIAGE. 43 it was painted, thought that all was fair before them : — ^it is hard, I say, not to hope they have now a better understanding of each other than while life divided them. Mrs. Mulready died not long after her husband. The younger Miss Varley married a Mr. Andrews. Mulready's artistic circle was extended by his marriage, thus — John Varley married Esther ; Clementi, the composer and pianist, married Emma ; and Copley V. Fielding married Susanna — three of four sisters whose common name was Gisbome.* * It was remarkable that three sisters should have mamed three such distinguished artists ; they were not connected with Art in any way. Their brother was Mr. John Gisbome, the intimate friend of Shelley (here we meet with the other end of Mulready's Godwin-connection, and can trace the line pretty fairly), the recipient of so many of the letters that are published in the ' Essays and Letters of Shelley,' 1852. With his aid, and, it is said, for his benefit, Shelley wanted to establish a steam-boat to trade between Marseilles and Leghorn. Mr. Gisbome was an engineer ; to his wife Shelley addressed that beautiful poetical epistle beginning — " The spider spreads her webs, whether she be In poet's tower, cellar, barn, or tree ; The silkworm on the dark-green mulberry leaves His winding-sheet and cradle ever weaves ; — ***** Whoever should behold me now, I wist, Would think I were a mighty mechanist, Bent with sublime Archimedean art To breathe a soul into the iron heart Of some machine portentous, or strange gin, Which by the force of figured spells might win Its way over the sea, arid sport therein ; For round the walls are hung dread engines, such As Tulcan never wrought for Jove to clutch Ixion or the Titan : — or the quick Wit of that man of God, St. Dominic, To convince Atheist, Turk, or Heretic.'" Her portrait, with a lock of her hair, is now in the British Museum. Mrs. Gisborne's son by a first husband was Mr. Henry Keveley, well 44 WILLIAM MULEEADY. Sarah, the eldest sister, married Mr. Gray, Vicar of Hanley, near Cirencester. In 1804 Mulready produced one of his earliest pictures, Ulysses mid Polyphemus, which was followed, shortly after- wards, by The Disobedient PropJiet. While living in Broad Street with Varley, he made a large and elaborately wrought design, or cartoon, representing The Judgment of Solomon. But it was evident that his strength did not lie in grand subjects, and he shortly afterwards abandoned them. 1 believe, on excellent authority, that the last-named picture was rejected at the Royal Academy in 1804.* It was generously given by the known in his day as an engineer ; one of whose most noteworthy schemes was to eonstrnct a- tuhe from London to Brighton, through which trains of loaded carriages were to be driven hy atmospheric power ; in fact, something of the sort which, but a few years ago, was attempted to pass beneath the Thames, between Whitehall and Lambeth. See Shelley's letters to this gentleman in the above-named collection. When Mrs. Gisborne's first husband died, W. Godwin ardently wooed her to marry him, although his first wife, Mary Wolstoncraft, had been dead not many weeks previously. John Varley was married a second time, to the daughter of the well-known engraver, Wilson Lowry, F.R.S.' This lady was the authoress of the highly-successful 'Conversations on Mineralogy.' * Mr. Redgrave, in 'A Century of Painters of the English School,' expressed strong doubts of the soundness of this I elief, which is based on the authority of one of the oldest of Mulready's friends, a great guide in such matters. Although Mr. Redgrave pointed out that the artist exhibited landscapes until 1807, this by no means settles the question ; as Mulready was an accomplished figure draughtsman at this period, there is every probability that he would attempt figure pictm-es. He drew with extraordinary facility before this time. See what is said above about the figure drawing in Sir R. K. Porter's Panorama of the Storming of Seringa- patam, and the cartoon of The Judgment of Solomon. Old Kaspar, an early Mulready, was certainly painted in or before' 1805, in which year it was purchased by Miss Sparrow, afterwards Countess of Gosford. St. Peter's Well, which was exhibited in this year, may be called a fio-ure picture, because it includes a woman and a boy, ample evidence if nothing more were known on the subject, to show that Mulready had by GKAND SUBJECTS. 45 artist to the Lancashire Eelief Fund Exhibition held at Suffolk Street in 1863, and sold to Mr. Bowman of Clifford Street for £157 10s. Polypliemus receiving tlie third Bowl of Wine from Ulysses, which was beyond a doubt that above- named, was among Malready's pictures colleoted by the Society of Arts in 1848, and, with the rest of the artist's effects, sold, after his death, by Messrs. Christie, Manson, and Woods, to Messrs. Agnew, for fifteen guineas. Undoubtedly both these pictures had been worked upon since 1804-5, but they showed great original power in design, and much beauty. Discouraged, it may be, by their failure, Mulready turned to the study of landscape, and, a few years later, found in the neighbourhood of Bayswater, where he spent nearly the whole no means confined his attention to the study of landscape, but had executed figures at a period so shqrt as twelve months after the alleged, hut challenged, rejection of The Disobedient Prophet hy the Academicians. Mr. Redgrave, inadvertently, no doubt, extended wljat is said above on the rejection of The Disobedient Prophet to include the Ulyascs and Poly- phemus. The term "rejection,'' as ajiplied to the first reception of both these works, was not intended to comprise both in reference to the Academy ; the idea that such was the case seemed to me guarded by the special allusion to one only, the former, as having been unfortunate at Somerset House. No human Selecting Committee could venture to plead not guilty of rejecting works of painters who afterwards attain honour. As the above-named Panorama was exhibited in 1800, the year after the event it represented, it appears that Mr. Eedgrave (vol. ii. p. 307) inad- vertently placed the date of Mulret-dy's share in it several years too late, and after the painting of The Barber's Shop in 1811. Sir E. K. Porter went to Russia in 1804 ; his third panorama was exhibited in 1802 or 1803. Beyond a doubt Mulready's pictures had been worked on at a much later period ; there is nothing unreasonable in supposing that in their original condition they might not invoke much attention from a Selecting Committee, or even that they deserved to be accepted. The fact that Mulready sent his first important figure picture to the British Institu- tion adds probability to the assertion that he had not been fortunate at the Academy. 46 WILLIAM MtTLEEADT. of his life, ample materials of that kind, the product of which is now in the National Gallery. Primarily, and of the category in question, he painted Tlie Grypt in KirhstaU Abbey, The West Front of KirhstaU Abbey, and A Cottage at Knwreshorough ; these were at the Royal Academy Exhibition in 1804. In 1805 appeared, with others. The Cottage, which, with St. Peter's Well, in the Vestry of York Minster, were exhibited, the former in 1805, the latter in 1806. A View in St. Albaris followed in 1807. Old Kaspa/r, which was exhibited at the Academy in 1807, was purchased in 1805. All these are landscapes. He sent to the British Institution in 1808 (the third year of its existence) The Rattle, since the property of Mr. Gillott of BirmingEiam, being his first exhibited figure-picture. With regard to the lack of patronage for pictures of the class Mulready excelled in, it wiU be weU to remind the reader that in 1806 Wilkie obtained only 30 guineas from the Earl of Mansfield for The Village Politicians, and £50 from Sir George Beaumont for The Blind Fiddler, and that it was not until 1811 that he received more than 150 guineas for a work of the same order. At this date he got from Mr. Angerstein 802 guineas for The Village Festival; this was the greatest price Wilkie obtained before 1828. PLAYTIME. (From Tlie Mother's Primer.) PART II. I HAVE now, in pursuing the plan of this book, to give in anecdotic matter what remains of Mulready's biography. Thus far I have brought him, as it were, to the gates of life, shown what was his training, recorded his marriage, set forth the results of that step, and, so well as a few pages could do, placed him in the outset of his professional career. What has been thus related concerns that period of life when all action is initiatory, all practice tentative ; during this stage of a man's existence, his work and he cannot be separated : untU this era is ended he can hardly be said to be a producer of any- thing which is thoroughly characteristic of him as a whole. After his entry to the second stage of life the account of a man may be divided from that of his labours ; so, after death, the latter survive him. To this second stage Part III of my text is appropriated, because — not to break the thread of our biography at starting — it will be well to postpone detailed considerations of Mulready's pictures, unless they refer to 48 WILLIAM MULEEADY. the painter himself, and that we should confine our attention to the man. The painter's sojourn with Varley in Broad Street com- prised a portion of his career which has been referred to at length and illustrated with anecdotes of the amusements and studies of the pair — amusements which, by the way, might be indicated by a sketch called The Angry Cohhler, and exhibited at South Kensington in 1864, with the number 421. It must not be supposed that such freaks formed the staples of the lives of the men ; it is certain they had heavy responsibilities, much genius and uncommon energy. More- over, as regards Mulready, I have shown that those high aims in Art which affect the minds of most young painters, were impelling him ; this appeared by means of the large cartoon of the Judgment of Solomon — a subject of a class suggested by John, Graham.' s practice.* TJie Supper at Emmaus, another subject of this order, was, however, less ambitiously wrought out than TJie Judgment of Solomon, and was painted in 1809, •some time after the latter, but sufficiently near to indicate how the painter's mind was directed towards grave themes. The Battle, and Old Kaspar, were produced before this time ; they were in that category of book illustrations on which Mulready had long before been arduously employed. The Supper at Emmaus was first exhibited, and, for all we know, then first offered for exhibition, at the general gathering of 1864, that is, after the painter's death ; it was a very dingy and unsatisfactory instance, executed in oil on millboard, and sold by Messrs. Christie, Manson and Woods, with other relics of Mulready, on April 30, 1864. * It will be remembered (see pp. 44 and 45), that The Judgment of Solomon was a drawing, or cartoon, of some importance as to its size and the time spent upon it. The Ulysses and Polyphemus, and The Disobedient Prophet, were pictures. EXHIBITS AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 49 In the year after his marriage, that is, in 1 804, Mulready, as the Catalogue of the Koyal Academy Exhibition informs us, appeared for the first time as a painter, and with three pictures, two of which have not been traced, but may exist under other names than Tha West-Front Entrance to Eirlistall Ahbey, and A Cottage at Knareshorough, Yorhshire. The third. Crypt in Kirlestall Abbey, which, on account of its number, was really the first exhibited work of Mulready, No. 392 in the catalogue, is now in the possession of Mr. C. W. Cope, !R.A. It must have been about this period of his life (c. 1806) that further employment of the sort to which he used to refer as performed " on a very large scale," offered itself, and Mulready painted decorations for Bannister's then popular " Sans-Souci Theatre," * in Leicester Place, Leicester Square. This exhibition was the first of its class in this country, and an " entertainment " comprising recitations with music, sing- ing, and by-play, almost identical with the performances of Mr. and Mrs. German Heed. Mulready was soon ■ driven by necessity to abandon that branch of art which poverty had originally made familiar, i. e. designing for books, an employment which is not better than invention at second-hand, and flourishes best in the exposition of the ideas of others. Although not the first, he was among the earliest British painters who invented their own themes. The Carpenter's Shop, with a simple and pathetic subject, had no action in it ; The Barber's Shop marked decided progress, a clear sense of homely humour, and general development. * The Sans-Souci Theatre was built by Charles Dibdin in 1796, in place of another establishment of the same name, which he occupied in the Strand, and was sold by him in 1805' ; the premises (No. 2) ai-e now used as an hotel ; a use to which the site was originally applied when ' The Feathers ' tavern stood there, and was the resort of many artists and antiquaries, e.g. Hearne, Grose, "Athenian" Stuart, and others. ^<"^/ STUDIES OP cosTUMEt (From MulreaiJy's Sketch Book.) EIVALEY WITH WILKIE. 51 This was a course to which his attention was directed by Wilkie's The Village Politicians, and The Card Players. The Carpenter's Shop was produced in 1808, The Rattle in the same year, whereas Wilkie painted Pitlessie P'air and Tlie Village Recruit in 1805 ; in the next year the last-named picture was displayed in a shop-window at Charing Cross. The Village Politicians preceded any similar original work by Mukeady ; even The Blind Fiddler was exhibited in 1807, and painted in the previous year. "VVilkie's reputation was established, and he had become a member of the Koyal Academy ere Mulready made much stir. We must, therefoi'e, accept with considerable reserve, a remark of the then Earl of Essex, that at twenty-five years of age, that is, in 1811, " Mulready had the greatest reputation of any artist of the day." Doubtless the success of Wilkie spurred Mulready to ex- ercise to the utmost his own indomitable energy, industry, and cultivated powers. Nevertheless, he could not be induced to hasten his work unduly. On the contrary, so tardy was he that Varley grumbled at h.is brother-in-law's lengthened preparations, questioned the value of his studies, and blamed those fi'equent erasures which insured delays. Until time and labour had endowed him with facility, Mulready was slow in working out what he desired should stand long, and very cautious in perfecting all he did ; innumerable studies remain to attest his energy, and show with what patience he gained felicity as well as swiftness of hand. He had not that manual dexterity which was Wilkie's by gift of nature, neither could he so easily satisfy himself. Leslie, with whom he has been contrasted, was much less exacting as to the attractive surface, finish, and glowing coloration of his pictures than Mulready; with the latter everything must be complete ; with the painter of Sancho and the Duchess it was generally sufficient that his meaning should 52 WILLIAM MULEEADY. be aptly rendered. " Surface,"' refinement of drawing, and other technical luxuries were not indispensable in Leslie's pictures. The prudent Wilkie laboured free of matrimonial bonds and their consequences, and, as a painter, was less fastidious than our subject. Mulready had frequently to turn from the MEASURING HEIGHTS. (From The P'icar of Wakefield.) ascending path to supply immediate, temporary, and pressing wants. The delicate health, timid, and cautious character of Wilkie were positive advantages so long as the first permitted him to work steadily. Mulready had the disadvantages, as well as the advantages, of , robust health, an ardent physique, THE AETISTS' BENEVOLENT FUND, 53 and a jovial temperament. Wilkie, who lived secluded, profited mucii by " good society," but cared little for general companionship. Mulready's sociability would have been dangerous to a less constant mind than his. It is to his honour, therefore, that for years Mulready laboured deliberately, and, as it might have seemed to many, progressed slowly. It was doubtless in reference to this period, when he had become already a husband and a father, that Mulready said : " Out of the profession, yew people can comprehend the toils and difficulties of an artist. I remember the time when l had a wife, four children, nothing to do, and was six hundred pounds in debt 1 " To recollections of this sharp poverty was doubtless due that earnest attention to the affairs of the Artists' Fund, with which Mulready and others succeeded in reviving the charity from a moribund state. Such recollections, and his own good heart, caused him never to be absent from the committee during seventeen years.* * On these occasions, as Joliu Pye tells us, Mulready, who hated to he unoccupied, took numerous sketches of the speech-makers, drawing them with a pen on scraps of paper that came to hand. Some of the capital likenesses he thus produced were engraved in Pye's ' Patronage of British Art, ' and were in that artist's possession. Mr. Pye induced Mulready to design the charming illustrations to 'The Vicar of Wakefield,' which in 1843 were published by Van Voorst, and are — except Stothard's cuts to • Robinson Crusoe 'incomparably the finest series of modem book illus- trations of genre. ' These designs supplied the bases of several of Mul- ready's most famous pictures, such as ffaymaMng, Choosing the Wedding Gown, and The Whistonian Controversy. Until they were produced, and after he became known as a painter, he had, to a great extent, abandoned that practice of designing for books, which in early days was one of his chief resources. Subsequently he made the drawings for Moore's ' Melodies ' which were exhibited at South Kensington in 1864 ; also, he furnished a part — which, it must be owned, was by no means a fortunate one — of the illustrations to Tennyson's ' Poems,' as published, in 1856, by Messrs. Moxon. ' Boxiaua ' is said to contain several etched portraits of 54 WILLIAM MULREADT. The gift of a large silver goblet by seventy-three brother artists' associated with the Fund, whose names are inscribed on the sides of the vessel, attested and acknowledged his services to that body, and to the practice of benevolence on a magnificent as well as unwonted scale. It is to the honour of Mulready that he surrendered for the benefit of poor artists, and at a time when it was of great value, the right to engrave and sell prints from his admirable Wolf and the Lamb, which was then, as it is now, in Eoyal possession. At a meeting of the " Fund," John Pye, the famous engraver, proposed that a member should furnish a picture to be engraved, and that prints might be sold in this manner. Mulready immediately rose, and generously proffered his own work. Accordingly, Mr. J. H. Robinson produced one of the finest of modern line- engravings, the sale of which brought more than £1000 to the Fund. This was, in fact, Mulready's contribution to the charity ; to it must be added the value of the time he bestowed during seventeen years, and his annual payments as a member. The reader will recollect that he, who was never rich, could as easily realize the £1000 for himself. pugilists by Mulready. The experiinental ' Post OfBoe Envelope, ' part of Rowland Hill's gi-eat scheme, was decorated by him with emblematical designs. A copy of it is on the opposite page. It is not generally known that among the earliest satirical works of John Leech was a caricature of this envelope. The design of the original explains itself. The advertise- ments which covered the folding margins of the ' Mulready Envelope ' were expected to increase the revenue of the Post Office. Owing to fiscal changes, its troublesomeness in use, and the dislike of Britons to the introduction of art of any sort to their business doings, the envelope very soon went out of vogue, chiefly because few would be troubled to use it in preference to a common envelope. It must be owned that there was an air of unreality about it. Drawings to illustrate ' An Idyll of Theocritus ' (1858), several of Scott's' Waverley Novels,' 'Madonna Pia,' and 'The Pale Student,' by James Grant, all of which appeared at South Kensington in 1864, may be regarded as occasional productions of Mulready. . a, H S O ^ s « 56 WILLIAM MULEEADY. To sucli noble use did Mulready put his poverty. These profitable straits were left behind before 1806, when he went to live at No. 9, Upper Cleveland Street, Fitzroy Square, a place now merged in Cleveland Street proper, and sunk into squalor and immeasurable dirt, where- Linnell visited his friend, and found him comfortably established in the second floor of a house which, like his former quarters in Broad Street, has now much declined from its former " respectability." Before this the brave painter endured two winters without a fire in his study, and spent the evenings at home by the light of a rush candle. Unable to pay for entrance to those picture exhibitions which were not gratuitous, he, by frequent visits to " Christie's " auction-room, then, as now, the receptacle for masterpieces, gained invaluable knowledge of ancient art. The homely comfort of Cleveland Street was enlivened by the society of friends whose names are still honoured. However comfortable they might have been, the rooms in Cleveland Street were not long occupied by the painter, who also remained no long time in his quarters (1809) at No. 25, Frederick Place, Hampstead Road, in a neighbourhood occu- pied not long before by Wilkie,* who was "getting on in the world." It is a district noteworthy to us as comprising ' The Sol's Arms,' a tavern where, as at a club, after the homely fashion of that date, some of the best of painters met ; among these were certainly Clarkson Stanfield, W. Hunt, and, doubt- less, Mulready himself. As a painters' meeting-place ' The Sol's Arms ' succeeded, at a considerable interval of time, ' The Turk's * Wilkie's 'Diary,' June 11th, 1808, notes a visit to the writer by Mulready on that day, thus : " Painted from 10 till 4 ; had a call from Mulready, and afterwards from Lord Mulgrave." The address was 10, Sol's Row, Hampstead Road ; here he painted 2'he Blind Fiddler, which hung next to Mulready's Cottage and Figures, at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1807, The Card-Players, The Bent Day and part of The Cut Finger. 'THE CAEPENTEE's SHOP.' 57 Head ' in Gerrard Street, which is ever famous as the resort of Reynolds, Johnson, and Goldsmith. Our painter was not long a denizen of the Hampstead Road. We soon (1808-9) find him domiciled with Linnell at No. 30, Francis Street, Bedford Square, and thus notice a change of fortune which must have been an improvement. Francis Street has suffered less by time than the Hampstead Eoad; whereas the latter has become a greater wreck than Harris Place or Broad Street, the former still keeps tte shady side of shabby gentility, and is poor without being also foul. The two first-floor rooms of the Francis Street house formed Mulready's share of the joint tenancy. There was painted Tlie Ca/rpenter's Sliop ; and there also was developed to the utmost that fidelity to nature which marked the first stage of our subject's progress. Linnell, younger and a bachelor, occupied the rooms above. The genial ways of Broad and Cleveland Streets were sur- passed by the double companionship of the Bedford Square lodgings. In the latter home, and in the company of ladies, we hear of tea-parties taking place after the sober fashion of painters, and of the enjoyment of a great deal of fun, such as was practicable in a less supercilious age than ours. Mulready's favourite pastime of boxing was freely indulged in after these repasts. John Varley, a frequent visitor, was agile, although bulky, a very formidable opponent, and able to give as well as take in the combat ; he was sometimes " sent flying into the corner of the room " by a well-directed blow, and returned to the assault with right good-will. George Dkwe, a now almost forgotten Royal Academician, was among the visitors on these occasions, and left traces of his in- experience not yet effaced from the gloves which remained with John Linnell as trophies of the time. Mulready worked very hard at TJie Carpenter's Shop, because the British Institution had offered prizes of fifty pounds each 58 WILLIAM MULEEADY. for the best examples of figure and landscape painting. Fifty pounds would have been most welcome in 1809, insure the sale of the picture, and extend the artist's reputation. Earn- estly as Mulready worked at it, and, as the picture in Miss Swinburne's collection . attests, well as he painted it, the dilettanti of the British Institution preferred the work of another.* * Here we may as well borrow a note from "Wilkie's 'Diary ' — "July 8th, 1809. I heard to-day, that at the In.stitution the prizes were awarded as follows : — Sharpe, for a domestic subject ; Dawe [George Dawe, before named], for an historical subject ; and Master Linnel, for a landscape." Of these pictures Dawe's was Imogen at the Cave of Bellarius, from Shake- speare's 'Cymbeline.' "Master Linnel" was Mulready's fellow-tenant in Francis Street, destined to be one of the most famous l.indscape painters, a liberal contributor to this biography of his friend ; his work attained an immediate and lasting reputation under the title of Itemomng Timber. "Sharpe " was Mr. M. W. Sharpe, an artist who is not quite forgotten as the producer of many extremely foolish pictures, one of which was called " Oh!" and showed a man yawning, so that the mouth took the shape of, and in a very lively manner represented, the letter 0. Great was the delight over this beautiful design ! At a later time Sharpe was called " Bee's-Wing Sharpe," because he painted a man holding up a bottle of old port, faded and fly-blown prints of which yet linger in the parlours of old-fashioned taverns ; he also painted The Last Pinch, a man wringing snuff from the ends of his fingers ; engravings from this picture also still occur in country taverns and private houses, and, like their original, are of the most paltry description. Such was the man whom the sapient Directors of the British Institution preferred to Mulready ; such was the art which they declared their intention to "promote in the United Kingdom" — these are the words of their title as an association ! It is to the honour of Sir George Beaumont that WQkie recorded how, a few days later, " Sir G. Beaumont called. .He had been at the British Institution, and liked Mulready's pictures better than he did Sharpe's." Sharpe was a pupil of Sir W. Beechey. There is a story told of his favour with King George the Third — by whom he was accepted where Reynolds was, neglected. This tale avers that he so faithfully depicted a pair of snuffers (another version says scissors) as if they were hanging from a nail in one of the royal apartments, that it was a regular joke in 'BLACKHEATH PAEK.' 59 There are several entries in Wilkie's ' Diary ' with refer- ences to Mulready, and evidence of the friendliness, if not the intimacy, of the painters ; one of these mentions the sitting by Mulready for Duncan Gray.* Later, Haydon testified his admiration for one of Mulready's pictures. During the time Mulready and Linnell lived in Francis Street, the former, finding the presence of four infants in two small rooms unfavourable to study, removed his family to Kensington. It was in Francis Street Linnell drew Mul- ready as the finest attainable model for a figure about to be painted by the latter ; this drawing was used by him in The Carpenter's Shop. The Barber's Shop was produced there about this time, 1810-11. Soon after its completion Mulready rejoined his family in Robinson's Row, Kensington Gravel Pits. In this neighbour- hood all the. remainder of his life was spent, but varied by visits to the Swinburne family at Capheaton, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and by one or two excursions of less extent. Later, he was frequently Mr. Sheepshanks's guest at Blackheath, a region, since wofully marred by the builder, but, even in 1850, suffi- ciently rural to afford freshness to the last of Mulready's land- scapes, the so-calleJ Blackheath Park — wherein he rendered nature with truth and crispness, yet in a thin, brilliant, and the Household to watch those who attempted to remove them. Fate made the king a victim to the trick ; he was seen, by those who could not suppress a titter, to gi-asp at the snare, and resentfully pish at it. Poor Sharpe lost credit from that moment. *■ ' Diary,' Jan. 30th, 1814: : "Mulready came to sit for the head of Duncan Gray, which I painted in entirely. " This picture was exhibited in 1814 as The Hefusal; Wilkie worked on it again in 1817. It was originally the property of Dr. Baillie, brother of Joanna Baillie. It was a second time exhibited at the British Institution, by Lord Charles Townohend ; afterwards it passed to Mr. Sheepshanks, and is now at South Kensington. 60 WILLIAM MULEEADY. spotty manner, which contrasts strongly with the solid, rather heavy, and very broad landscapes of his youth. Blackheath Pa/rh is not without crudity of colouring, and errs in what painters call " tintiness." With the Sheepshanks Gift, it is now at South Kensington ; it was painted from the front gateway of the house in which the donor lived. It is not the only Mulready which refers directly to a friend's house ; the Interior, likewise part of the Sheepshanks Gift, representing the giver receiving coffee and letters from a servant, was painted at No. 172, New Bond Street, the upper portion of which being over the shop of Dinneford, a chemist famous for magnesia, was occupied by Sheepshanks, and the scene of dinner- parties at which Mulready's humour shone to its brightest. This geniality shone likewise at Blackheath, and, later still, at a third house of Sheepshanks's, near Rutland Gate, where he died. Several of the earlier landscapes were painted at Oapheaton; Mounce's Knowe and Tlie Leaplish owe their names to places in that neighbourhood. The intimacy between Mulready and the Swinburne family, that is to say, the late Sir John Edward and Lady Swinburne, and their daughters (to one of whom I am indebted for additions to and corrections of this biography of her old friend), began in 1811, while the painter lived in Robinson's Row, his first Kensington house. This intimacy grew warmer with duration, during the lives of Sir John, Lady, and Miss Swinburne, until the artist's death made the last the possessor of several interesting pictures now in question, including The Cm'penter's Shop and Boys Fishing. Sir John was Mulready's earnest and affectionate friend, and untiringly associated with him in the establishment and maintenance of the Artists' Fund, for which see Pye's ' History of the Patron- age of British Art.' It was to Sir J. Swinburne Leigh Hunt dedicated, 1818, his volume of early poems, entitled Foliage. Mr Sheepshanks' Library. Sketch by Mulready. In the South Kensington Museum. 'THE MALLj KENSINGTON.' 61 Within a door or two of Mulready's house in Robinson's Eow, lived his friend Sir A. W. Callcott, who, our subject then being much in need of such good offices, procured for him a commission- to paint two landscapes, now at South Kensington, and part of the Sheepshanks Gift. The former artist, as before with Tire Carpenter's Shop, worked upon these studies with extraordinary care, and the utmost of his power, over-doing it by making his execution too literal for the taste of that date. The first of these pictures, The Mall (1811), is to be distinguished from Near the Mall, its com- panion (1812), and is noteworthy in showing the house in Robinson's ■ Row where Mulready lived, and for having been in part "composed" so as to make a more "artistic" subject than Kensington offered. In its execution, Near the Mall occupied a considerable time, accordingly it is dated 1812, a year later than The Mall, and is interesting in representing some buildings that still exist notwithstanding changes which have converted a half -rural spot into a highly-stuccoed quarter of the town. On these Kensington studies Mulready worked ardently, painted the truth as he then saw it, and put into unimportant landscapes the whole of his knowledge and technical skill. It was in vain. His patrons were not "educated" enough to admit, still -less to admire, anything so literal; the gentleman for whom they were produced, and the artist who brought Mulready to that patron, declined to receive them, the one refused to recognize them as pictures, the other as not ful- filling the commissions he had given. With a kindly ,sigh, for which we respect him, Callcott murmured, " / cannot conscientiously recommend them, I really cannot!" Here then was an end to Mulready's hopes of cash and honour through these valiantly-wrought paintings. They were thrown upon his hands ; and so, for a time, they rested. 62 WILLIAM MULBEADY. The Mall passed to Mr. Welbank,* Mulready's family doctor, and so remained while the painter's works rose prodigiously in value ; after Mr. Welbank's death it was sold "by his nephew to Mr. Sheepshanks, who, gave it with the companion picture to the South Kensington Museum, where it forms one of the most interesting links in the history of Mulready's art. Near . the Mall was sold for a very small sum to Mr. Welsh, who, in 1809, had bought another picture from Mulready styled An Old Gable, and exhibited at the Academy in the year The Mall was executed.t Mr. Welsh was a singing-master of reputation, who had among his pupils Miss Katherine Stephens, the late Dowager-Countess of Essex. After his death this picture passed to Mr. Sheepshanks, and through him, with its companion, to South Kensington. Teaching drawing must have been Mulready's chief stay at this time ; illustrating books had declined ; panoramas were in abeyance ; scene-painting was less remunerative than was desired, and Mulready, with six persons to maintain, had no happy prospect. As the years went by new themes employed him ; thus, TJie Carpenter's Shop, Returning from the Ale-house, and A Music Lesson — the last comprised portraits of the artist and a lady at a pianoforte. These examples, with others of the class, form the staple of Mulready's early practice, indicate his progress, and were the means of his attaining knowledge for more important pictures. Punch, which, in 1812, marked a very distinct advance, was the next ambitious attempt. The change in Mulready's address shows when he left Robinson's Row, for No. 14, Moscow Cottages, Bayswater, * Mr. "Welbank was intimate with several painters of note, including John Martin, whose family he attended, and some of whose pictures he owned. t Mr. Welsh bought about this time several pictures hy Mulready, and otherwise exhibited faith in him, which was destined to be justified ; among them were Gipsies, and Roadside Inn (1810). HIS DIFFERENT RESIDENCES. 63 which he occupied until 1827, and where he produced much on which his fame rests, , It seems as if destruction waited on Mulready's residences ; his admirers must seek in Francis Street for one of the early homes of the painter, or for domiciles of his go still further back to Frederick Place, Cleveland Street, and Broad Street. HAYMAKING. (From The Vicar of Wakefield.) Like Robinson's Row, Moscow Cottages are wrecked, and on its site stands one of those " Victoria Roads " which, by their titles, bewilder the stranger, and indicate the popularity of the sovereign.* This removal to Bayswater showed Mulready's * "We have seen how two of Muh-eady's residences were destroyed. A like fate lias overtaken the third, in which he died, No. 1, Linden Grove, Bayswater. These premises became the property of Mr. Creswick, fi.A., 64 WILLIAM MULREADT. greatly improved position, and that he was reaping the harvest of foregone labours. From that date his rise was rapid, and his popularity yearly became greater. This was evident very soon after The Mali and Necur the, Mall were rejected by the Selscting Committee of the Academy, and may be dated from the great success of Punch, the next important picture, begun before Near tlie Mall was completed. It was finished in 1813, and exhibited at the Eoyal Academy of that year, when it was purchased by Sir John Swinburne. In this year Mulready also painted a portrait of Miss Swin- burne, and the capital landscape with figures which is styled Boys Fishing, which, with the last, now belongs to her. ilulready's progress was secured before his removal to Moscow Cottages. While there he was elected an A.R.A. ; from that place he was accustomed to walk to and from the who determined to build a larger house on the site, reserving only the studio of Mulready, which was erected according to his own plans, and where he produced all his pictures between The Oannon and The Toy Seller, including The Interior of an English Cottage, The Last In, Brother and Sister, "All the World's a Stage," The Sonnet, " Train up a Child," The Whistonian Controversy, Choosing tlm Wedding Gown, Baymahing, and The Butt. The Fight Interrupted, Lending a Bite, and TTie Wolf and the Lamb, were painted in Moscow Cottages. Pimch was executed in Robinson's Row, and is among the most important of Mulready's productions, the largest he had then attempted, and, in the end, one of his largest works. Its size, as compared with that of other instances by him, will be interesting here, because the measurements show how small were the fields which sufiBced for the display of art and industry. Punch is 38 x 52 inches, and in size considerably exceeds T/te Carpenter's Shop, which is 39 x 29 inches. Th^e Barber's Shop is 40 x 30 inches ; Boys Fishing, 39 v 29 inches ; Idle Boys, 304 x 25J inches ; The Wolf and the Lamb, 23 J x 29| inches ; The Convalescent from Waterloo, 30J x 24 inches ; Tfie Last In, 24 J X 30 inches ; The Seven Ages, " All the World's a Stage," 45 x 35 J inches ; First Love, SOJ x 24 inches ; Fair Time, 31 x 26 inches ; " Train up a Child," &c., 31 x 21| inches ; The young Brother, 30 x 24J inches ; Tlie Toy Seller, 55J x 43| inches. These are all Mulready's pictures which exceed 30 inches in one of their dimensions. ELECTED ASSOCIATE OF THE EOYAL ACADEMY. 65 Artists' Fund Meetings. Respecting tliese journeys several anecdotes illustrate his character. At a very late hour after one of these meetings, Mulready had to traverse the then lonely road from Tyburn Gate to Kotting Hill ; a thorough- fare which now forms the boundary of a sort of metropolis of eminent respectability : but was then almost rural in its quietude, and very rural in the incursions of footpads, heed- less that Tyburn was an Aceldama of malefactors. Ere the time in question, Mulready had been robbed of money and his handkerchief ; but relying on his extraordinary personal strength, he refused to take a safer but roundabout road for going home ; but he consented to walk in the middle of the road, so as to be comparatively safe from surprise by ruffians hidden in the hedges. Thus proceeding, he reached one of the most silent and dark parts of the journey, when suddenly a man stepped off the footpath and grappled with him, who, being prepared for an attack, seized the assailant by his wrist, twisted his arm by a swift and powerful movement, and was glad to find he had prevented the robber from using a pistol. Convinced he had caught a Tai'tar, the would-be thief begged for mercy. Many would have been content to disarm the fellow and let him go. Some would have collared him and hallooed for the watch. Mulready took the original course of dragging him to the house at Bayswater, where he called up his father, the quondam leather-breeches maker, who then lived with him, took the captive into the sitting- room, and made inquiries as to the life he led, and his motives for adopting it. Satisfied that want alone provoked the crime, and that the man was no habitual robber, ]\lulready let him go, with money in aid of certain good resolutions which this unexpected treatment evoked.* * It must have been during one of these homeward journeys Mulready met Sheridan in full dress, having left a party at Holland House very F 66 WILLIAM MULEEADT. As might be expected from a training such as that of Mulready, some of his friendships were of life-long endurance, as with Varley, W. Hunt, Sir John Swinburne, and John Linnell. His long-continued relationship with Varley was sustained, not only by views of art and modes of study common to both, but by their extraordinary physical powers. Frequent swimming and boxing matches took place between these members of a profession supposed to be dyspeptic ; of the latter exercises much has been written ; of the former it is recorded that Mulready saved the life of his friend in the Thames at Windsor. Yarley, the bigger and stronger man, was attacked by cramp, and sank to rise no more if his friend had not been at hand. In boxing encounters, the activity, lightness, and spirit of Mulready counterbalanced his adversary's greater height, weight, and length of arm. Mulready, being an athlete, had companions who did not belong to the " respectable " classes of society. He was a pupil, and often the antagonist, of no less formidable a per- sonage than Mendoza the pugilist, who ruled '' the Ring " with honour to himself and advantage to others. Muh-eady etched a portrait of this worthy, and illustrated P. Egan's 'Boxiana' with portraits of fighters of that day. It was at the stage-door of Drury Lane Theatre, and rather Inte in the life of Mendoza, that our artist met him after a considerable interval of time ; the customary greetings were exchanged, the painter was asked shortly before daylight. Finding liis carriage had not arrived, the wit set off on foot along the Kensington Eoad to meet it. Curious to see the man whom all talked about, Mulready followed at a distance. It was long before the coach came slowly up the road ; gi-eat was the insolence of the coachman to his master when remonstrated with. Sheridan must have been used to this conduct, for he got into the vehicle without losing much of his temper. Probably the coachman's wages had been due for an unusually long period. LOVE OF BOXING. 67 by Mendoza what he was doing. " Well," said Mulready, who had risen in reputation, " I've been painting pictures.'' " Ah ! " cried the champion, with an apologetic sigh, " we must all do something ! " The late George Jones, R.A., and Keeper of the Royal Academy, a crony of Mulready, told me that while the latter attended the old Schools in Somerset House, one of the rough amusements favoured by the students was boxing, and that the men used to go down to the river-side and " set to " with their tongues and fists against the bargees who frequented the ' Fox under the Hill.' As to Mulready's appreciation of a street-fight many stories are told. At one period it was hard work to get him to pass such a spectacle. John Pye told me that Mulready at sight of a "row" would stay any conversation, and quit any company to study the changes of a fight. He would dodge about the lookers-on for scientific points of view, and with head advanced and set lips, followed the combat, watched the champions as they went round and round, attended each attack with ardour, and each retreat with expectation. The robust Mulready indulged no coarse or unkindly feel- ings with these athletic tastes, which are now unfashionable, and in 1810-20 were recognized, not by the fastidious only, but by society at large, as very far indeed from being degrad- ing. On the contrary, his instincts were the reverse of coarse, while, as to his kindness of heart, from his hands many secret charities flowed. Because they are secret, only one or two instances of these good actions may be related. Mulready, invariably kind to models, advanced money to one, who, having some ability in music, was enabled to purchase an instrument, and attain a comfortable position as a teacher. From him many of the same class applied for and rarely failed to get help in need. A friend testifies to his having for a considerable time supplied a poor sick fellow with luxuries such as he rarely 68 WILLIAM MULREADY. took himself, and were invaluable to an invalid. Almost daily, Mulready, by liis own hands, filled a little basket with good things, and, going for his evening walk, left it at the sufferer's door, without a word beyond a kindly inquiry. Always great with children, Mulready, in his later days. LBSSONS. (From The Mother's Primer.) became irresistible by those rather uncertain folks ; confronted with him, and charmed by the old man's manner, they would sit with great round eyes fixed on his ; thus they would keep placid features, and be self-involved, mysterious, without a cry or even a smile. With confidence the youngsters submitted HIS LOVE OF CHILDREN. 69 their cliubbiest of limbs to the inspection of the stranger. The elderly Mulready, in an omnibus loaded with women and babies, was amusing. A young bachelor artist told me how astonished he was to find the old man call his attention, aesthetically, to the fine " points " of the children on their mothers' knees, and, with a withered finger, invoke notice, first, to the fine turn of an arm ; then, to a promising leg ; now, to the well-knitting of a shoulder ; next, to the sound, solid, firm, and perfect contour of a feature ; again, to the boldness of a forehead, or the clear, unwavering glance of an infant's eye. The glad mothei s whose offspring deserved the artist's laudatory criticism, held up their babies at the moment of parting, and, while Mulready alighted from the vehicle, bade the little ones say " Good-bye I " to the " nice old gentleman " who had praised them with so much judgment. Mulready's felicity in describing character,* and his satiric mimicry of the ways of others, which he often practised with laughter-provoking spirit, did not prevent his criticisms from being kindly and considerate. His habit of balancing the feelings of men with his own, of comparing and allow- ing for the effects of circumstances on those with whom he was brought in contact, never failed to influence him, even in the most gleeful moods. Eager to control some * Here is one of Mulready's rocollections of a contemporary. "He had seen many men of note : amongst these was Nelson, whom he often met at Charing Cross, going to the Admiralty, no doubt. Nelson always wore ou these occasions a closely-buttoned-up coat, and a hat pressed down upon his face. He had « very striking expression of eye — a far-off-looking air, fixed, and seeming as if he scanned a distant horizon. It was imposiible to divest oneself of the idea that Nelson was for ever on the watch for something, and absorbed in thought about the contingencies of war. 'J he painter described Pitt as a tall, thin, slovenly-looking man, who was very untidy about the legs, his stockings being loose and too large for him. He carried a, cocked hat under his arm, as if from habit, when other folks laid theirs aside." 70 WILLIAM MULKEADY. hastiness of temper, to which he believed himself liable, he checked his opinions with unusual caution, and held his judgment as in a leash. Systematic and cautious, Wfeipeadj had a strongly-guarded sense of propriety in official acts, and, althougli liberal to the core, he would not hear of the intrusion of that ambitious " lay element " to the Academy, of which a few years ago we heard so much, as the best means for reforming its alleged abuses. Hence, when questioned before the Commons' Com- mittee of 1863, those examiners who were in favour of the intrusion did not venture to attack the Academician, who, while known to desire reforms, and as a prime mover of improvements, was resolved they should be made from within and not by strange hands. The amateurs feared Mulready would denounce meddling in professional matters, and ridicule cheap honours, which were to be had by virtue of " distin- guished social positions and love of art." Had he been asked his opinion of the " lay element," or even had an opportunity for expressing it in public, his contempt would have been freely spoken. Obedient to his conscience in all things, he performed his official duties with precision, care, and right-mindedness : so far did he carry this sort of fidelity that, when on the Hanging Committees of exhibitions, he made diagrams of the best arrangements for the important pictures ; the ideas thus proposed were matured by experience, and applicable to particular cases. On one . occasion he had David Roberts for a colleague in this office, whose views of art were utterly different from his. Each painter insisted on his own opinion being carried into effect. There was a somewhat hot dispute. Mulready was disinclined to yield to his junior, and his inferior, and the result was an estrangement of many years' standing. Mulready regarded his office as " Hanger " with a sense of ON HANGING PICTURES. 71 heavy responsibility, and never refused that care in arrang- ing the works of others which he expected for his own. Redgrave told me that Mulready was "always extremely anxious about the hanging of his own pictures, an inch too high or two low was a source of serious remonstrance from him. When the Sheepshanks Gift went to South Kensington, he chose the side of the room he would have, and I was quite anxious till he had seen laj arrangement of his pictures — which he specially desired should be grouped together. It was a great relief to me that he expressed himself satisfied when he saw them. For the Paris Exhibition of 1855, he made an exact diagram of how his pictures were to be hung on the walls, in one group, and was very strenuous that it should be followed exactly." Among his other Royal Academical functions I find that our painter attended the -funerals, in St. Paul's, of Fuseli, 1825, and Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1830. The house in Linden Grove, where he painted his most important pictures, and where he died, was built in accordance with his wishes ; the studio, in particular, was constructed after his own designs. When his sketches and studies, the accumulations of a life, were brought forth, sympathizing eyes discerned how in the long-past middle of his life he had planned the house for his own requirements, and, by means of drawings, arranged it to suit his ideas of comfort, elegance, and pleasure. He designed the rooms and their furniture, as well as the pictures to be placed upon their walls ; he planned the flower-beds, and set forth even the positions of the shrubs and trees of the little garden. In later days it was interest- ing, rather than painful, to those who knew how incompletely these plans were realized, when these friends recalled the actual state of the house which was thus planned. A gener- ation passed away, and but little was done to carry out the owner's devices. 72 WILLIAM MULKEADY. It is evident that he did not anticipate any material change in his mode of life. The house itself was planned, and its fittings were adapted solely to the convenience of a man who was resolved to be independent. Here was the key to the whole. At this date his sons were grown up, and his property, no great sum, but sufiicient for a man of simple ways, was already secured. He was thenceforth to labour for the love of art and artists ; that leisure which he must have anticipated, came to him when his habits were confirmed, and his industry was habitual. The inevitable result followed. For a time the long-deliberated plans were pursued, and partly-efEected improvements were enjoyed ; but, being enjoyed alone, older habits returned with new force upon the painter, and prevailed again : when the zest of novelty was spent, he sank to studentship, and the house became subservient to the studio. His domestic hopes were never realized, simply because he did not care to carry them, out ; when formed they were already impracticable. He soon realized the fact that, to a man in the middle of life, it was pleasanter to paint pictures, than to watch the growth of trees, pleasanter to reap applause of men than to sit cosily by the fireside, making labour subordinate to enjoyment : at the age of, forty-one he would, by departing from the customs of his manhood, and setting aside the training of his youth and the glories of his art, have broken with his former life. Accordingly, the house remained a sort of ante-chamber to the studio, and sometimes looked half-inhabited. Well it might do so, for, in truth, such was its condition. No one lived in the little chambers. In late years the chairs stood formally against the walls, the table-covers were never rumpled, and the stoves had a too-tidy look ; the taller shrubs in the garden grew against the windows, the smaller plants spread over the earth, and, at last, struggled with indomitable grass and HIS HOUSE IN LINDEN GEOVE. 73 weeds which were only of a rarer growth. Such, finally, was the aspect of Mulready's house; it was a mirror of his mind. Scrupulously clean, all in order, its external, apparent chill had ample cause, and reflected the mood of the habitual student in those living rooms which attested the painter's absorption in his art, the loneliness of his later years. It is not just to pry into the inner life of any person, suffice that, although perhaps his troubles were heavier than ordinary, Mulready was not unhappy beyond the lot of man. A glimpse at the inner mind of the man may be obtained by means of the picture he valued most, on which he expended all his art, not once alone, but a second time, when chance (if such indeed it were) brought the canvas back to his easel in an almost ruined state. This work is now in the Baring Collection, and entitled, " Train up a child in the way fie should go ; and when he is old he will not depart from it." When its subject was chosen,Mulready had attained that middle platform of life whence men survey all they have passed by, and, to sonie extent, are able to anticipate much that is to come ; on reaching this age they have attained knowledge of themselves and the positions they occupy. Nothing could have been clearer than that his own life illustrated the force of the injunction to parents that they should train their children in the way they should go. Than Mulready there were few better sons : this has been shown in many quotations from ' The Looking-Glass.' It is said, however, that his own children had less than their due of paternal affection at his hands. On the other hand, John Linnell, an unimpeachable witness, authorized me to declare that Mulready was one of the best of fathers, that within his means, and under the circumstances, which were those of peculiar difficulty and trial, no parent could have been more abundantly affectionate, more indulgent, more considerate for his children. There is no doubt of the 74 WILLIAM MULREADY. truth of this ; indeed, in the last years of his life the devotion of the only one of his children who was then in a position to be serviceable, attested anytiing but a lack of affection. The conscientioTis care we observed to be native in Mul- ready's mind, and from the first found apparent in his works, obtained in all things through his life. Strong as his memory was, he was in the habit of making copious notes of the pro- ceedings at the Council Meetings of the Royal Academy. He employed for these, as well as for his private diaries, a system of abbreviated writing which enabled him to express much in a small space. Yoluminous as these notes were, he could seldom be induced to use them for aid in speaking his opinion ; in fact, as with most other takers of copious notes, their service- ableness was in the act of taking them ; this effected, the notes were almost superfluous. On these occasions, although not generally, he was irresolute and confused in expressing himself; he was no elocutionist, but really a bad speaker, yet not so from lack of judgment and matter to express, but through natural hesitancy. In saying a few words upon matters of practice and detail he was ready and terse, and most especially so when relating his own experiences. Before we close this personal history, it is desirable to examine some of the most important of the painter's works. For this purpose we must return to the opening of his artistic career, and from that point proceed to the end of his life, embodying such anecdotes as properly belong to what may be called his pictorial life, and those examples from which his fame will always spring. A complete chronology of the works of an artist is the best key to his history. Such a list as follows cannot fail to throw a clear light on Mulready's practice, and even to illustrate his character, while it gives an epitome of his technical progress. STUDY OF A SUNFLOWER. PART III. THE primary practice of figure-painting by Mulready was guided by study of the Dutch masters, Jan Steen and Teniers, to which he betook himself about 1808. He continued to work in landscape, for we find in the same year Old Houses at Laniheth. In 1809, however, appeared that picture which, when I saw it in 1890, struck me as curiously like a Jan Steen, with a somewhat less firm touch and solid impasto than belonged to that capital master. It is the property of Miss Swinburne, and is entitled A Carpenter's Shop and Kitchen ; with it began that practice of figure-painting to which Mulready's life was devoted, and which is illustrated by the following 76 WILLIAM MULREADY. list of his most important pictures, arranged as correctly as possible in the order of their execution. This will afford a nearly complete view of his work in life, and exhibit the classes of subjects he successively studied, as well as his pro- gress in art. The first date gives, approximately, the year of execution — this is often indefinite, as may be guessed from what I have before said of Mulready's habit of retaining his pictures on hand ; — the second date is that of exhibition. R. A. signifies tha,t the work was exhibited at the Royal Academy ; B. I., that it was at the British Institution ; M., in the Man- chester Art Treasures, 1857 ; I. E., in the International Exhi- bition, 1862 ; P., at Paris, 1855 ; Y., in the Vernon Gift ; and S., that it belongs to the Sheepshanks Collection. As in 1864 nearly the whole of these works were exhibited at the Kensington Museum, it is not necessary to refer to that fact. For the same reason no reference is made here to the exhibition of a very large number of them in the Great Room of the Society of Arts, 1848. With regard to the catalogue of the last-named collection, it is worth while to notice that all its details were checked by the painter. It is therefore a perfect authority. The names of the owners have, as far as it is practicable, been corrected to the present date, 1890; but, owing to the breaking-up of collections, it is out of the ques- tion to make the list perfect in that respect. At the end of the volume is a complete catalogue of the exhibited works of Mulready. The present is a chronological list, and comprises many names not to be found in the catalogue. Crypt in Kirkstall Abbey, K. A., 1804, in the possession of Mr. C. AV. Cope, Royal Academician. "West Front of Kirkstall Abbey, E. A., 1804, not traced. Portrait of Mrs. Mulready (born Varley), drca 1804, formerly in the possession of Mr. A. Varley, Brompton, not exhibited. Cottage at Knaresborougli, R. A., 1804, not traced. Porch of St. Margaret's, York, R. A., 1804, not traced. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF HIS PAINTINGS. 77 1805, St. Petur's Well, York Minster, R. A., 1806, in the possession of Sir J. Neeld, Bart. 1805, Old Kaspar, from Southey's 'Battle of Blenheim,' E. A., 1807, in the possession of the Earl of Gosford. 1806, The Cottages, S. 1806, Cottage, St. Alban's, S., K. A., 1806. 1806, View in St. Alban's, R. A., 1807, in the possession of Jlrs. Hope. 1806, Hampstead Heath, not exhibited, S. 1806, Another, S. 1807, A Gravel Pit, R. A., 1848, then in the possession of Mr. Baring. 1808, Dead Hare, not traced, R. A., 1808. 1808, Girl at Work, not traced, R. A., 1808. 1808, The Rattle B. I., 1808, formerly in the possession of J. Gillott, Esq., Birmingham, sold to Messrs. Agnew in 1872. 1808, Returning from the Ale-house, R. A., 1809, V. 1808, Carpenter's Shop and Kitchen, B. I., 1809 ; I. E., 1862, now in the possession of Mis^s Swinburne. 1808, Utensils and Vegetables, S. 1809, Heston, Middlesex. 1809, A Music Lesson, R. A., 1851, formerly in the pofsession of J. J. Stone, Esq. 1810, Horses Baiting, in the possession of the Eev. B. Gibbons, R. A., 1811, and 1890. 1810, Cottage, with Figures loading a Cart, formerly in the possessioi. of Mrs. Gibbons, Regent's Park. 1810, Boys playing at Cricket, R. A., 1813, formerly in the possession of Mrs. Gibbons, Regent's Park. 1810, Barber's Shop, R. A., 1811, M., in the possession of R. Hemming, Esq. 1811, The Kitchen Fire, in the possession of the Hon. Mrs. Giirdon. 1811, Child and Kitten, in the possession of the Hon. Mrs. Gurdon. ISll, The Mall, Kensington Gravel Pits, R. A., 1844, S. 1812, Piiuch, R. A., 1813, sold with Sir John Swinburne's pictures in 1861, for £1000 ; afterwards in the possession of Mrs. Gibbons, Regent's Park. Sold in 1872. 1812, Near the Mall, R. A., 1844, S. 1813, Portrait of Miss Swinburne, now in the possession of Miss Swinburne. 1813, Boys Fishing, R. A., 1814, now in the possession of Miss Swinburne. 1814, An Ass, now in the possession of Miss Swinburne. 1814, Idle Boys, R. A. , 1815, formerly in the possession of Henry McConnel, Esq., and sold at Christie's, March 27, 1886, for £1585 ; nnw the property of T. Woolner, Esq., R. A. Grosveuor Gallery,- 1888. 78 WILLIAM MDLREADY. 1815, The Fight Iiitemiptod, R. A., 1816, S. 1816, The Village Butfoon, Diploma picture, now at the Royal Academy. 1818, Lending a Bite, R. A., 1819, and 1889, in the possession of T. Miller, Esq., of Preston. 1820, Wolf and the Lamb, R. A., 1820, M., now in the possession of her Majesty.* 1821,- Careless Messenger Detected, R. A., 1821, now in the possession of the Earl of Durham. 1822, The Convalescent from Waterloo, R. A., 1822 ; B. I., 1826 : by the Society of British Arts, 1884, in the possession of J. Jones, Esq. Engraved by G. Doo, for the Art-Union of London. 1823, The Widow, R. A., 1824, Leeds, 1868; Grosvenor Galleiy, 1888, now in the possession of Mr. Rankin of Liverpool. + 1825, The Travelling Druggist, R. A., 1825, formerly in the possession of J. Chapman, Esq. 1826,' Origin of a Painter, R. A., 1826, now in the possession of Miss Swinburne. 1826, In this year Mulready made a series of Illustrations to ' Peveril of the Peak.' 1827, The Cannon, R. A., 1827, I.E., in the possession of Sir R. Peel, Bart. 1828, Interior of an English Cottage, R. A. , 1828, formerly in the possession of H. McConnel, Esq. 1829, Returning from the Hustings, R. A., 1830, formerly in the possession of C. Loddlges, Esq. 1830, Dog of Two Minds, R. A., 1830, M., formerly in the possession of W. Wells, Esq. 1830, Father and Child, R. A., 1845 ("a Sketch"), in the possession of H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge. 18S1, A Sailing Match, R. A., 1831, formerly in the possession of Mrs. * Mr. R. Redgrave wrote to me with regard to this picture — " TJi^ Wolf and the Ltxyab was certainly tainted with it [asphaltum]. It was repaired by Bentley under Mulready's direction, in 1854, or rather just before it went to tlie Paris Exhibition [1855] ; but it again became such a wreck, that with her Majesty's permission it was sent to Mulready a year or two before his death to see if anytliing could be done with it. He kept it three months and then returned it, saying, unless he scraped all the injured out he could do uothing with it. It has,' however, been stopped since and seems likely to remain sound." This is tlie picture engraved by J. H. Robinson for the' Ai-tists' Fund, as stated above. t John Varlcy sat to Mulready for the suitor in this picture, the subject of which is further explained by the quotation, *' So mourned the Dame of Ephosus her love." Tlris worl<, which was sold with Mr. G. Knott's collection in 1845 for £420, was resold with Mr. Holdsworth's gallery, in 1881, for £1155. Our subject also painted, in 1814, a very elaborate miniature in oil of his friend, a work which was at one time in the posses- sion of Mr. Charles S. "Varley, a son of the sitter, and was exhibited at South Kensington in 1864. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF HIS PAINTINGS. 79 Gibbons, Regent's Park (repeated in small for Mr. Sheepshanks, 1833). 1832, Scene from ' St. Ronan's Well,' Peregrine Touchwood and Cargill, R. A., 1832, I. E., M., now in the possession of Miss Swinburne. 1832,, The Forgotten Word, E. A., 1832, M., now in the possession of Miss Swinburne. 1832, A Portrait of Mr. Sheepshanks, S. (a transition picture, probably begun much earlier). * 1833, The First Voyage, R. A., 1833 (sold, in a much faded condition, June 27, 1863, at Christie's for £1522 10s., from Mr. Tunno's Collection) ; the drawing exhibited, R. A., 1849 ; in the possession of S. Mendel, Esq. 1834, Giving a Bite, R. A., 1836, S. 1835,' The Last In, R. A., 1835, V. ; the drawing exhibited, R. A., 1846. Engraved by J. T. Smyth. 1835, A Toy Seller, R. A., 1837, S. ; furnished the basis of the design for the picture, which was left unfinished by the artist. 1836, A Brother and Sister, R. A., 1837, P., S. ; furnished the basis of design for the Vernon picture of the same title. 1837, The Seven Ages, 'All the World's a Stage," R. A., 1838, S. 1838, Bob-cherry, 'Open your mouth and shut your eyes,' R.A., 1839, S. ,1839, First Love, R. A., 1840, S. 1839, The Sonnet, R. A., 1839, S. '1840, Fair Time, originally exhibited, R. A., 1809, as 'Returning from the Ale-house' ; with a new background, and this title, again at the R. A., 1840, V. Engraved by H. Bourne. 1841, Train up a Child, &c.,t E. A., 1841, M., I. E. (Baring Collection). 1842, Crossing the Ford, E. A., 1842, V. ; the drawing exhibited R. A., 1847. Engraved by Lumb Stocks. 1843, The Whistonian Controversy, R. A., 1844, I.E., P.; belongs to Lord Northbrook. 1843, In this year appeared the Illustrated Edition of 'The Vicar of Wakefield.' 1844, The Intercepted Billet, R. A., 1844, S. 1845, Choosing the Wedding Gown, E. A., 1846, P., S. ; the drawing belongs to Lord Northbrook, and was exhibited R. A., 1844. 1847, Haymaking, Burchell and Sophia, R. A., 1847, M., I.E. ; belongs to Lord Northbrook. * Painted in the first floor of the house, 172, New Bond Street, well known as that of Dinneford tlie ohemist, then occupied by Mr. Sheepshanks. t In.jui'ed by fire, returned to Mulready for repairs, to a great extent repainted by hini. and mucli improved by the process. The drawing for it was exhibited at the Boyal Academy in 1S4S. 80 WILLIAM MTJLIiEADY. 1847, The Butt, Shooting a Cheriy, R. A., 1848, P., S. 1848, "Women Bathing, R. A., 1849 ; belongs to Mr. Woolner, K. A. 1849, The Bathers. M., I. E. P. (Baring Collection). 1851, Blackheath Park, R. A., 1852, S., P. 1854, The Young Brother, another version, larger, of 'A Brother and Sister,' see 1836 ; R. A., 1857, V. 1858, 'Just as the' twig is bent the tree's inclined,* Mother teaching her Son, R. A., 1859, S.' 1861, The Toy Seller, R. A., 1862, left unfinished.* In this list we have a key to the practice and progress of tlie artist. It proves how few pictures he produced, during a long life . marked by extraordinary industry. The list of possessors of his work:i is singularly brief. An examination of the titles will cast light on the labours, aims, and whereabouts of the artist ; we have already noted his country trips in early manhood. Mulready was never * Besides the above I have met with the following : — 1. A Village Scene, TTinter, a small snow piece, sold by Messrs. Christie, Mansun, and Woods, March 25th, 1865, for £86 2s. ; the purchaser's name in the auctioneers' books is " Marshall." It is probably No. 1038 in the National Gallery. 2. A Rivei' Scene, wa.s sold by the same auctioneerR, March 24th, 1866, at the sale of Mr, Flatow's pictures, for £34, the purchaser's name, " Braithwaite." 3. ZandseapeyThe Forge, t'ormeTly in the possession of Mrs. Gibljons ; never exhibited, now belongs to Mr. Woohiev, R. A., and is^oraetimes called The Slacksmitk' s Shop. 4. A small early landscape, in oil, is in the possession of Mr. Linnell, who has also several drawings by Mulready. The Young Anglers, sold at Christie's, May 9th, 18T0, £54 (Lloyd). Portrait of the Countess of Dartmouth, at R. A,, 1886. Still Life, that belonged to Mr. McConnel, now belongs to Mv. Woolner, who likewise owns Cottage with Figures : A MarC^ Portrait, Nude Study of a Man, and ffavipstead Heath, a Study. Lord North- .brook has A Landscape, with Two Boys on a High Bank. The following have been sold at Christie's at different times — Cottage by a River; The Negligent Brother : Temptation: Children at, an Apple-Stall; Burchell and Sophia, Study; Measuring Heights, Study; The Elopement ; A Biiier Scene ; A Landscape ; A Coast Scene ; English River Scene ; Old Houses on the Sei'pentine / Village, with Figures: The Rattle, Study; Baiting Horses; ■ and The Careless Nurse. Sir Jolm Swinburne, Bart., has (1890) Sketch for the Picture of ' The Bog of two. Minds,' painted in 1830, from Bedleaf; and Sketch for the Picture of * The Travelling Bruggist.' These may represent some of the missing works of the artist. Others may be in existence, but they must be few in number. The list above given states nearly the whole of liis imi)oi*taut productions, and their jiresent places of. deposit. It is worth. while to-note here that The Zeaplish, as the title of one of our artist's works, has puzzled many who have not seen the picture ; it is the name of a placebelonging to the family of the painter's old friends, Sir John and Miss Swinburne, a iiioorland summer residence, where Mulready made several sketches ; among them Mouncie's Knowe.- "Harry Sumpter " was the name of the sitter for t;h>t picture, who w;as an artist exhibiting at R.A., &c., 1816-47. He painted still life. Mulready designed the Seal of the Artists' Fund; the Medal of the Royal Humane Sooiety; the illustrations to 'Madonna Pia,' a' poem by James Grant, and the same writer's 'The Pale Student,' as well as some cuts for the ' Poems ' of Alfred Tennyson, and the allegory on a postage envelope, already mentioned in this text, which had but a brief circulntion ; see the fac-simile, p. 55, ante. Impressions of the last are now rare, and realize comparatively high prices. Study from the Life. By Mulready. From the Drazuin^ in the South Keitsin^tOH Musest h. HIS PRACTICK IN ART. 81 absent from England after his arrival in childhood, unless voyages in the Calais hoy could be called excursions. Thus no pretence exists for considering him other than a native-taught master ; what he had was his own winning, enriched by ardent and profitable studies of the old masters' works, to which, as I have repeatedly stated, he devoted himself thoroughly. His genius was exercised on homely subjects, exalted by the ability with which he clothed those simple themes in art. It has been said that a painter's career is rich only in works ; this is so far true that artists' biographies are happily void of Sensational incidents and striking theatrical situations ; never- theless, to those who' love the painter for the sake of his pictures, such facts as we have gathered of his way through the world may be acceptable. As was said in the beginning — " His works are the proper results of his methods, and the counterpa/rts of his life exacttij as medals are the produce of a die." It is evident that primarily his desire was to cultivate certain faculties ho possessed, and, if possible, excel his guides. Those guides were the Dutch masters before-named, whose works he studied in the same way that Wilkie did.* His own inde- pendent style, however, appeared in every production, and it is as characteristically displayed in The Rattle, his first picture of importance, as in The Toy Seller, which stood upon his easel when he died. How Mulready directed these faculties and powers through stage after stage towards perfection in practice is well marked in every page of this text. * " In early life undoubtedly. Later, it is undeniable that he seems to have affected the modes of the Roman and Florentine Schools, especially as to the arrangement and management of the local colours, which seem not to be treated as necessary evils, or antagonists to be pacified, but as gaining lusti-e by a massive opposition in various degrees of contrast. And, although Mulready never went to Italy, he could see and did see in our private collections here what was quite sufiBcient for his purpose, if I am right in supposing that this was the leaning of bis taste. " — Samuel Palmer to the Author. G 82 WILLIAM MULEEADY. Character, humour and fidelity in expression, founded upon that study of nature are seen in all the artist's studies of animal as well as human life — the dogs in Tlie. Wolf and ike Lamh, The Wedding Gown, BurcheU and Sophia, The Butt, and " Train up a Child " are admirable and original. Thus, in CJioosimg the Wedding Gown, the long and glossy-haired spaniel that dozes in the foreground gives a complete idea of the sunny warmth of the place about him ; his silky hair is in perfect keeping with the lustrous fabrics laid aside by the intended Mrs. Primrose : it is evident he does not belong to her, active- minded, purposeful woman as she is, but has been cunningly introduced to contrast his indolence with her energy, also, by means of the potent black * and white of his ooat to foil the intense reds and greens of the surrounding objects, and, by the piebald marking of that skin, to' aid the chiaroacwro of the picture. In Haymaking, the canine pursuer and pursued repeat the demure coquetry of Sophia with the would-be lover who offers his needless aid, and serve to call attention to the observant but not well-pleased Vicar, who sits behind. No point of humour with a dog was better expressed by Mulready than that of the sleek-hided, whimpering, shuddering, but well-fed little beast, not much larger than a rat, who shares his master's terrors, sympathizes with his ignominy, and is equally helpless, in The Wolf and the Lmnh. Notice the stately, old-gentlemanly grace and suavity of the dog in " Train up a Child," &c. ; see how his forefeet are placed, how with elegant deliberation his comely head yields to the action of the boy, and preserves its expression of interest in the outlandish Lascars, who receive so picturesquely that alms which the dog's good breeding and kindly nature lead him to approve. * " I have heard him more than once speak of the importance of real black in some one object, and of its bearing on all the colours of a picture, instancing Cuypaa an authority. "—Samuel Palmer to the Author. HIS PICTURES OF DOGS. 83 This dog is conscious of tlie value of a gentlemanly character, and in his old age reliant upon good service rendered in his youth, yet incapable of insisting on his own merits ; he is a dog who has grown old with an old master : this we know although no patron appears in the picture. Notice the varied actions of the dogs and their relation to the subjects of The Seven Ages, " All the World's a Stage" and The Last In. Mul- ready's power is made plain by the greedy dog in Lending a Bite, where, as the dog bullies the monkey, so his master bullies the boy. The Dog of Two Minds has such a creature for its leading character, and his action is full of spirit. The richest example of Mulready's love of dog painting, no less than of the extraordinary care he bestowed and the success which attended it, is to be found in The Butt, Shooting a Cherry, where there is intensity of character and infinite humour in the action and expression of the butcher's cur. As we shall return to these incidents when speaking of the pictures as a whole, bare reference to them will suffice for the present. Mulready painted dogs more frequently than artists in general care to do, and never failed to make them perfect. This was so because in his designs dogs are never treated as mere accessories, or as if their presence was accidental. In all his pictures produced before 1824, or thereabouts, he was evidently under the influence of De Hooghe and Jan Steen ; and painted solidly, powerf uHy, but rather opaquely ; seeking character rather than beauty, but never failing to give happy and pleasant faces. Of this stage, The Fight Inter- rupted (1815) is probably the most complete, as it is the most valuable example. Tim Wolf and the Lamh (1820), although dated some years later, slightly, if at all, surpasses that work, which more than justified the painter's rapid advance in academical honours. He was elected A.R.A. in November, 84 WILLIAM MULREADY. 1815, and E.A. Febuary, 1816.* The Wolf and tU Lamb is lighter in handling than the earlier work named ; this seems to us the sole indication !of progress. V/ilkie's unprofitable exhibition of his works, ini 1812, at No. 87, Pall Mall, might have something to do with the production of The Fight Inter- rupted — a picture which, in execution, and, above all, in warmth and general fidelity, surpasses most things Wilkie produced. Wilkie surpassed Mulready in wealth of invention, and in that art of composition, wherein the latter was sometimes peculiarly unfortunate, as in The Convalescent after * More stress than was needful has been laid ou the fact that Mulready was one of the few Academicians whose names never appeared in the exhibition catalogues as those of Associates of the body. This is due, in his case, to his having attained the full honours in the interval of two exhibitions, as above shown. If Mr. Sandby's Appendices to ' The History of the Royal Academy,' Longman, 1862, are to be relied on, such promotion was by no means rare. Thus, besides the thirty-six original members who ascended to honour by one bound, the following artists were as fortunate as Mulreadv — I.R.A R.A. A.R.A. R.A. 1770 E.Burch 1771 1786 J. Opie 1787 1770 R. Cosway 1771 1786 J. Korthcote 1787 1771 J. NoUekena 1772 1786 W. Hodges 1787 1772 J. Barry 1773 1790 F. Wheatly 1791 1780 P. J. De Loutherbourg 1781 1856 G. F. Doo (engraver) 1857 Burch, Cosway, and NoUekens were elected A,R.A.'s with eleven others, who formed the first batch to whom that dignity was vouchsafed. The eleven thus referred to never became Royal Academicians. Their names were, T. Major, S. F. Eavenet, P. C. Canot, J. Browne, T. Chambers, en- gravers ; E. Stevens (or Stephens), architect ; and G. James, E. Martin, A. Zucchi, M. A. Kooker, and "W. Para, painters. A. E. Chalou and Mul-, ready were elected R.A.'s in the places of F. Bartolozzi and J. S. Copley, both of whom died in 1815.. J. H. Mortimer, painter, and W. Burges, architect, being elected and dying in the intervals of exhibitions, theii names were never placed in the catalogues of those annual gatherings as exhibitors and associates. HIS AIMS IN COLOUR. 85 Waterloo. Now and then Mulready's composition is admirable, as in "Train up a Child" ; a little scattered, as in The Butt ; too much condensed, as in Brotlier and Sister ; disjointed, as in "All ilm World's a Stage" :* while in respect to this quality nothing can be better than the Sonnet. Wilkie showed no such inequalities in this matter as Mulready. With the advantages of seeing Wilkie before him, and of knowing what that master had done, it would not have needed the full exercise of Mulready's more robust and lively genius to approach that admirable humorist in several qualities of art. There are signs, even in Lending a Bite (1818), that Mulready was aiming at a pitch of colour beyond his Dutch models, or the power of his Scotch predecessor; — the lightness of handling in TJie Wolf and the Lamb, and the airiness of The Convalescent, show what he intended. The former indicates a temporary leaning towards the silvery tones and sober coloration of Teniers. The Widow (1824) is very brilliant, solid, and exquisitely finished, and a great advance on what preceded ; it inclined stroagly towards Adrian Yan Ostade. In Ths Travelling Druggist (1825) this is still more marked, and in Returning from the Hustings (1829) the purpose is confirmed. Wilkie, so early as his visit to Paris in 1814, had, though Haydon only refers to his devotion to Jan * The original design for this picture was drawn on wood as a frontis- piece to the 'Illustrations of Shakespeare's "Seven Ages,"' published by Van Voorst, who also published the ' Illustrated Vicar of Wakefield.' The picture was painted for Mr. Sheepshanks, not at Mulready's suggestion. How Mulready came to know Mr. Sheepshanks, his particular friend, who bought many of the artist's pictures now at South Kensington, was thus related to me by Samuel Palmer — "An omnibus stopped, and an overfare was rudely demanded of one of Mr. Mulready's fellow-passengers. Mr. Mulready got out, took this gentleman's part, and helped him to get over the crossing. The stranger asked him to go home with him, and the stranger was Mr. Sheepshanks." 86 WILLIAM MULREADY. Steen, seen other artists' pictures, and profited by the sight. The British Institution Exhibition of Works by Old Masters, which commenced in 1815, widened artists' ideas, and brought Mulready in contact with pictui-es by Titian and Tintoretto. Before this collection was opened he could have met with sucC^'K)rks in private galleries only ; oppor- tunities for privatewfejjections were not frequent. Colour, in more ways than one, was coming into fashion ; and the arrival of the Elgin Marbles affected a receptive intellect like Muheady's, opened a large field for thought, and suggested the probability of combining the large, free manners of the Venetians and the Greeks with the delicacy, firmness, and finish of De Hooghe and Jan Steen. ^iFe must bear in mind that Mulready kept some of his w^ks, and no doubt his thoughts also, a long time in hand ; we must therefore not expect to see the results of these thoughts presented in his pictures until some years subsequent to their commencement.* In 1825, Wilkie, for more reasons than the recovery of his health, hastened to the Continent, and came back ruined in art, with a proclivity for ease and showy execution, a lament- able affection for asphaltum and flim.sy painting. On the other hand, Mulready, a steadier and stronger man, feeling a powerful impulse towards colour and freedom of design, obeyed it to a result which is thus applauded by two critics, whose points of view are widely removed. Haydon wrote, " Diary, May 7, 1844," " There is a picture at the Academy, by Mul- ready, which is as great an epoch in the colour of our domestic school, as was Wilkie's Blind Mddler, in composition — The * It was characteristic of Mulready's fair dealing, and wish to retain his pictures long, that, having received the money for a work which he — between doing so and sending it home — determined to continue labouring on, he did not present the cheque at the purchaser's bankers' for more than twelve years, while the picture remained unfinished. Portrait of Mr. Sheepshanks. By Mulready. From the Drawing in the South Ke/isi/igtoa Museum. BEAUTY OF HIS COLOUR. 87 Whistonian Controversy." Mr. Euskin's Modern Painters, vol. ii. p. 221, declares The Butt to be "a perfect piece of colour." See the same page for opinions on Burcliell and Sophia, Choosing the Wedding Oown, and The Gravel Pit. Mulready's powers culminated in " Train up a Child " ; although that work lacks the delicate brilliancy of The Bathers and Women Bathing, while in it we miss their finish and marvel- lous flesh tints, and the luminous firmness and perfection of tone in Choosing the Wedding Gown, and, still more, the beauty of Mrs. Primrose in the last-named work. At the same time it surpasses not only these, but all others by our artist in chiaroscuro, and that elevation of design which ennobles a theme of little promise. The splendid group of Lascars is as fine as possible. Here I agree with Samuel Palmer's criticism, that in later life Mulready was visibly . affected by the Venetians in colour, and by the Romans in style. Notice the terror of the dusky faces of two of these men ; their slow, oriental motion of uncovering in the act of reverential saluta- tion ; observe the arm silently outstretched to receive the gift of the half-affrighted boy. Note, also, the shrouded, mysterious air of the third Lascar who is crouched in front of the picture and dozing, it may be, but is so completely centered in him- self, and so thoroughly abstracted from the world, that he looks like a Zoroaster in disguise, of immortal blood, who is even now meditating tremendous problems, the results of immemorial investigations, and capable of revolutionizing the human intellect. If this be too high a flight, let us fancy him to be a Brahmin of the purest race, to whom chang- ing phases of the wealth and poverty of nations are but accidents, and indiiferent to the individual. The strange eyes, motions, attitudes, and costumes of these men are expressed so powerfully as to account for the terror of the child and almost make us share it, thus giving dignity, force, and tragic interest 88 WILLIAM MULEEADY. to the picture. Had the same powers of design been employed upon a mythological or tragic subject, no one could have failed to see how grand they were ; as it is, the painter imparted strange, though perfectly genuine grace to his work, and avoided the vulgar suggestions of the theatre. Mulready's other great pictures do not approach it in this, which is one of the highest characteristics of art. The artist's oivn opinion was that " Train up a Child " was his masterpiece. It is noteworthy that the present condition of this picture is in advance of its original date. Its after history is, briefly, as follows. Having been much damaged by fire at the house of Mr. Baring, Mulready repaired it, and made every improvement he could devise and the growth of his experience suggested ; the . beauty of the faces was heightened ; the landscape, which was rather sketchy at first, was carried further and deepened in tone ; the coloration was enhanced throughout, and the chiaroscuro of the whole enriched as well as intensified. It has but one defect, the want of substance in the background, showing that Mulready had allowed himself to be talked over by critics who pretended that because we cannot with a single glance, and at once, see in nature more than one part of a view, therefore the solidity of minor portions of a picture should be sacrificed to that of those in chief : thus reducing the art of the chiaroscurist to the scene-painter's level — which predicates the substantiality of the performers who move upon the stage in contrast with a flimsily-painted background of scenery, which is, of course, inferior to nature in the solidity of rightly executed backgrounds of pictures. Among those by Mulready, Choosing the Wedding Gotun, The Fight Inter- rupted, and The Wolf and the Lamb, indicate the happy mean between the practice of artists who consult their indolence, and that of those who err in the opposite, but preferable, direction. HIS BACKGROUNDS. 89 The slightness of the background in " Train up a Child " is observable elsewhere in Mulready's pictures ; see The Butt, Crossing the Ford, and T/ie Whislonian Controversy. General- izing on the painter's merits, it has been said that in mere execution, The Bathers is most highly prized by artists of the nude, while Choosing the Wedding Govm, and The Butt are the most thoroughly complete, and equally finished and skilful of his works. It is strange that Tim Bathers should be the last picture he executed, and proved that he retained full vigour. It was so, although both Tlie Young Brother and The Toy Seller are admirable. Tho Mother teaching her Son shows symptons of decay in the disproportions of the parts of the figures to each other, the pinky carnations, and in some unusual imperfection of the drawing. In respect to other qualities, another summary of Mulready's works may be attempted in progressive order. The Crypt of Kirkstall Abbey, and St. Peter's Well, York Minster, are among his earliest exercises, and, for a youth of nineteen, admirably drawn ; the latter testifies to the seduc- tive powers of asphaltum, as indeed do many other pictures by the artist, including, it is sad to say. The Wolf and the Lamb, which is undoubtedly a masterpiece of modern genre painting. St. Peter's Well is an experiment in chiaroscuro. The subject is a woman washing linen, on which a boy pours water from a tall old pump placed in a crypt ; standing beside them is a vesture chest gray with age ; the whole is lighted by a Gothic window. The Cottage at St. Alhan's, and A View in St. Albans, were exhibitod in 1806 and 1807 respectively; but, judging from their differing qualities of execution, I think the latter was painted before the former. Above the houses rises the square tower of the church that was built of Koman bricks removed from the neighbouring Verulamium ; the whole, despite a fitful gleam of moonlight, is gray with clouds. 90 WILLIAM MULEEADY. Tlie Rattle, a boy playing with his brother, shaking such a toy, shows humour, full appreciation of juvenile character, and great solidity of painting. The Carpenter's Shop and Kitchen, painted in 1808, the history of which has been given, proves the nature and extent of the artist's studies of Jan Steen ; its execution is somewhat angular in the drawing and modelling; the painting is dry and solid, but rather opaque; the finish is, according to the standard of 1808, minute, but broad ; the coloration is admirable, despite its heaviness, yet differing from any- thing to which the painter afterwards accustomed us. This work represents— obviously without the intention, or the power to render expression, for which indeed the subject did not call — a young carpenter standing behind a chair in which his wife is seated with a baby in her arms, the man looking at the little one in a fatherly manner ; a. boy occupies a stool near the fire-place. The elaboration of the details is unusual for the time, and shows how thoroughly, even at that early period of his practice, Mulready had worked from nature. Several studies for this picture exist, see No. 15, in the Sheep- shanks Gift, which gives the whole work ; likewise the Earthenware Jug,