J THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS AND THE ROMNEY CASE Size 21 XI 7.] ^^Frontispiece. EMMA HART. (Lady Hamilton.) From a Painting by George Romney. THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS AND THE ROMNEY CASE BY RICKARD W. LLOYD WITH A FOREWORD BY SIR EDWARD J. POYNTER, Bart.. P.R.A. ILLUSTRATED WITH SIXTEEN PLATES XonDon SKEFFINGTON & SON, LTD. PUBLISHERS TO HIS MAJESTY THE KING 34, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND, W.C. 2 DEDICATED WITH KIND PERMISSION TO SIR EDWARD J. POYNTER, Bart. PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY \ RiCKARD W. Lloyd, Esq. Dear Sir, You have set forth the difficulties and snares which beset the Cult of Old Paintings in a way which is both interesting and amusing, and I have read your Treatise with pleasure. When I saw the words '^Romney Case'' on your cover, I was afraid that it might be a con- troversial view of this particular subject which you wished to dedicate to me. Seeing that there is nothing in your writing of a polemic character, I raise no objection and shall be honoured by your coupling my name with your little book. I am, dear Sir, Yours sincerely, Edward J. Poynter. June 25, 1917, PREFACE This narrative, prompted by the Romney Case, throws some light upon difficulties to be met with when engaging in The Cult of Old Paintings.'' The information has been acquired in hours of recreation during many years. Theory is touched upon in explanation of some of the practical difficulties that are met with. It is founded upon initial working, in a field that is of almost universal interest. Rein has been given to subjects touched upon in the Case. The writer gratefully feels that his effort has been fully rewarded by the very kind open letter that he has received, giving him permission to inscribe this booklet to Sir Edward J. Poynter, Bart., the President of the Royal Academy, and would also take this opportunity of thanking Mr. J. W. North, A.R.A., and other friends for much very kind information during a number of years. He further desires to express his thanks to the proprietors of the Daily Telegraph for their kind permission to reproduce or excerpt the Law Reports on the Romney Case, contained in that newspaper. THE ILLUSTRATIONS Illustrations have the advantage of being free from the Gossypium ^ which is so frequently seen in text. Those in this book that are taken from old paintings have never been repro- duced before. They therefore possess the charm of novelty. The engravings reproduced are for purposes of comparison and to facilitate the argument. It is considered that the interest in the illus- trations^ to those who study them, will increase in proportion to their knowledge of the artists. If any see puzzles in them their interest will be heightened, in accordance with their fondness for such exercises, and they may find satiety in them. Everyone has a right to an opinion, but where opinions differ all cannot be correct. There- fore the opinions that are supported by sound reasoning on the intrinsic attributes of the pic- tures will be the most worthy. Shakespeare said : — " Your gallery I have passed through, not without much content.'* The photographs from which the blocks for the illustrations are produced were taken by Frederick HoUyer. ^ " Gossypium "is the therapeutical term for cotton-wool." LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Emma Hart (Lady Hamilton). Romney . Frontispiece Moses Discovered in the Bulrushes. . Raffaelle Romney Trial, Scene in Court John Milton Reproductions of Three Engraved Por traits of John Milton . A Morland Christ in the Storm (from an engraving by J. Fittler, A.R.A., after Rem brant A Naval Battle. Rembrandt . Elijah and the Ravens. Ronbrandt Boy — a Nude. Rembrandt Landscape. Gainsborough Landscape (from an engraving afte Gainsborough) .... A Market Cart. Gainsborough A Market Cart (from an engraving after Gainsborough) .... Venus and Cupid. Honthorst Cupid. Sir Joshua Reynolds . Yarico and Mr. Inkle. Gainsborough Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, from a mezzotint by George Clint, A.R.A., after Hoppner Master Hope as Bacchus, a Water Colour. Lawrence . . . . Facing page >5 5> 1) 91 40 9> 1» J) }» 60-61 87 89 89 90 93 116 116 119 119 120 124 127 144 147 INTRODUCTION Peace reigned when it was said that The pen is mightier than the sword.'' May that day very soon return! Under the incubus of war, mixed feelings of apology for, and of the utility of, writing arise. To divert the mind from the horrors insepar- able from the experiences of war is justification enough. Many think the records of war are too sparsely issued to satisfy the anxiety for news of its progress, and the policy as to how much of it should be made known is much debated and considered. The relaxation of mental strain afforded by change of subject, helping to combat and ward off depressing ideas, is sufficient excuse for ex- pressing views with the greatest latitude on ordinary affairs, even more lightly than in normal times. THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS AND THE ROMNEY CAUSE CELE'BRE Bassanio exclaimed: — '*What find I here? Fair Portia's counterfeit! What demi-god Hath come so near creation?"^ Having chosen the leaden casket whose plain- ness moved him more than eloquence," it would be interesting to know whether " instinct " in- fluenced his choice. On opening the casket, at sight of Portia's portrait the question of its attribution flashes through his mind. Whether instinct served him in that would depend upon his knowledge of the style and manner of the artist. Appreciatively he continues: — " But her eyes, — How could he see to do them? having made one, Methinks it should have power to steal both his, And leave itself unfurnished." It would have been very surprising had Bassanio ^ "Merchant of Venice," Act HI., Sc. ii. Counterfeit, which is at present used only in a bad sense, anciently signified a likeness, a resemblance, without comprehend- ing any idea of fraud. In Shakespeare's time a portrait was called a counterfeit. 11 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS been detained by the question of attribution from considering the charming detail of the por- trait which produced in him such ecstasy. Many are interested in the cult of old paint- ings, yet few seem to realise the amount of work necessary to acquire an elementary opinion of the works of even a very limited number of painters. One who feels on the threshold of the sub- ject, having enjoyed hours of recreation from time to time during many years' study of it — in a way that would have been very hard work indeed were it not for its fascination — ventures to ventilate some of his impressions, as he hopes, ^' to hold out the light of reason,'' and, as he also believes, to promulgate the determinations of truth " among those interested, that they may make comparison of their experiences and ideas. Possibly a few remarks upon the present may be allowed to lead the way. It is customary for artists to invite the company of their friends and others to their studio to view their latest creation, before the picture is removed from the easel. On such a Show day," suppose the subject of the picture to be a beautiful girl! 12 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Does any admirer contemplate upon her future career? Yet, how interesting it would be to do so ! Has her creator already fallen in love with her, as Pygmalion the sculptor did with Galatea? It may in the remote future become a question whether he conferred his name upon her — whether the picture was signed. In any event, the picture will always, as long as it exists, be entitled to be known as ^^by'' the name of the creator. If she escapes hanging at the Academy she may be hung at some provincial exhibition. In either event she is likely to be the cynosure of all eyes and may be borne off triumphantly by someone paying the artist's price. Her career thenceforth will depend upon the social position and conservatism of her pos- sessor. She may be destined to grace the fes- tivities of the dining-hall, or perchance to enter the company of other beauties and associate with cavaliers and celebrities, in a gallery amidst mag- nificent landscapes, and to remain among them so long as to become ancestral — an heirloom — to pass through whatever family fortune or mis- fortune may bring. But should she not be claimed by an admirer 13 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS she will be returned to the studio, and her career then would be another story. During her crea- tor's lifetime, through no fault of his, it is possible that she may pass through ages of neglect and ill-treatment. After his death, it may be even a century or more, his name may become famous. Then perhaps more or less hidden by the effects of unwholesome and dusty atmosphere, she may be viewed,'' "put up," and " knocked down " for a song to the " knock- out," to be rediscovered, cleaned, her creator's or, possibly in error, some other artist's name already famous having been applied to her to indicate her origin, she will be again exhibited; maybe sent upon the grand tour; and sooner or later, ransomed by some millionaire or corpora- tion, she may enter upon such a career as was suggested she might have had if the world, at the time of her entry into it, had been artistic- ally more enlightened. In his evidence in the Romney case a picture dealer who was one of the parties to the " knock- out" at the sale of the disputed picture at Mr. Adams's house near Godalming stated that he got ^^150 out of the transaction. His lordship 14 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS asked whether the object of the '^knock-ouf was to prevent the vendor getting the real value of the article. Witness: ^'Ah! It can be put that way.'' In a seemingly sinister conversation between Timon, a noble Athenian, and Apemantus, a churlish philosopher, there is a reference which may be to the practice which was exciting his lordship's curiosisty, and in that case it gives to it the support of ancient custom, for what it is worth : — TiMON : Whither art going? Apemantus : To knock out an honest Athenian's brains. TiMON : That's a deed thou 'It die for. Apemantus : Right, if doing nothing be death by the law. TiMON : How likest thou this picture, Apemantus ? ^ The effect of the knock-out " is to prevent the vendor getting the real value of the article. That is probably not the object." The object is attained by getting the article below the highest price that someone will give in the ^'knock-out," the difference between that and the auction price going into the pockets of those associated in it. Such combinations do not exist ''Timon of Athens," Act I., Sc. i. THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS at every sale. Even when they do exist the price they go to may be exceeded by a private buyer. It has to be remembered that if it were not for the support of the dealers, sales by auction would often fail to" be effected, or prices be even more disastrously low than they are sometimes even with their support. Many a masterpiece has been rescued from oblivion or destruction by the dealers. It is not to be expected that posterity can show any anticipation of favours to come; if it could, surely the rescuers of masterpieces deserve gratitude. At one time the Adams family had thought the ladies in the disputed picture were of the Misses Linley, one of whom married Sheridan. The latter, in The School for Scandal,'' Act IV., Sc. i., makes humorous reference to Old Masters" and their sale by auction, those present on the occasion including Charles Sur- face, the owner; Sir Oliver Surface (his uncle disguised as Mr. Premium, a money lender); Moses and Careless. Charles Surface disposing of the family por- traits provides Careless (acting as auctioneer) with his father's ^' old gouty chair " as a pulpit i6 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS or rostrum. Careless, having asked for a hammer,'' Surface hands him the roUed-up parchment, Our genealogy in full,'' remarking. Here, Careless, you shall have no common bit of mahogany, here's the family tree for you, you rogue — this shall be your hammer, and now you may knock down my ancestors with their own pedigree." Charles Surface's uncle, a staff officer, having been knocked down for ten pounds. Sir Oliver exclaimed (aside) ^ Heaven deliver me ! His famous Uncle Richard for ten pounds! Well, Sir, I take him at that." Charles Surface : Careless, knock down my Uncle Richard. Here, now, is a maiden sister of his, my great-aunt Deborah, done by Kneller, thought to be in his best manner, and a very formidable likeness. There she is, you see, a shepherdess feeding her flock. You shall have her for five pounds ten — the sheep are worth the money. Sir Oliver : Ah ! Poor Deborah ! A woman who set such a value on herself (aside). Five pounds ten — she's mine. Charles Surface: Knock down my aunt Deborah ! 17 c THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS It is not easy as a rule for an amateur who supports his fancy sufficiently to acquire a pic- ture to establish the attribution of his ^'find'' when he has arrived at it. But his combination of speculative instinct, courage of a sort, judg- ment and luck is often ultimately vindicated, and, besides the pleasure, he sometimes enjoys the profit of it. Does he ever think after rescu- ing a masterpiece that he is in any way a hero ? If so, he must look to posterity for recognition; and everyone knows that it is impossible for posterity to fulfil all its obligations. The vicissitudes of works of art throughout the ages render the acquisition and study of old paintings a most fascinating field for the exer- cise of skill and fortune. In it there are ele- ments of speculation and chance which are ever attractive to mankind. References will be made to Raffaelle, Rem- brandt, and one or two other artists outside the English school, but only to serve as explanatory illustrations. It is not within the scope of this booklet to differentiate between the great schools of Art, including the Florentine, the Roman, the Venetian, the Lombard, the German, the i8 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Flemish, the Dutch, the Spanish, the French, and the English; let alone the many masters in those schools. Speaking generally, a painting may be attri- buted to a school and its attribution further refined until the particular painter of it is identified. What is here written is intended to be popular, and has been prompted by the in- terest the Romney trial created. If it succeeds in interesting, by showing the immensity and diflSculty of the subject and the ways that it opens up, it will have succeeded in its object. Many engaging in the study will see the advan- tage and advisability of selecting some school or period and specialising in it; in any case it is one not likely to be persevered in by anyone not possessing a strong natural inclination to- wards it. And with this explanation the desul- tory treatment of it may be allowed to proceed, as it applies more or less to every school. Ruskin lays down as elementary principles the three divisions of the art of painting, outline,'' colour,'' light and shade." He says of these three, " outline in perfection is the most difl&cult; but students must begin with that task; and arc 19 c 2 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS masters when they can see to the end of it, though they never reach it.'^ The three divi- sions of the art of painting are so fundamentally important, not only to the painter, but to those who study paintings from any point of view, that Ruskin's opening words upon it in The Laws of Fesole,^' page 8, are here quoted : In order to produce a completely representative picture of any object on a flat surface, we must outline it, colour it, and shade it. Accordingly, in order to become a complete artist, you must learn these three following modes of skill com- plete. First, how to outline spaces with accurate and delicate lines. Secondly, how to fill the out- lined spaces with accurate and delicately laid colour. Thirdly, how to gradate the coloured spaces, so as to express, accurately and delicately, relations of light and shade.'' Appreciation of those principles is a good foundation upon which to train the mind in studying " The Cult of Old Paintings.'' In this book are scattered about most of the other points for consideration. It is not intended to refer to or point out the characteristics of a host of painters. Some have been selected as 20 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS examples by way of showing the procedure, and to a great extent they were chosen, as illustra- tions of them which would serve to illustrate what is written were accessible. In all the arts analogies exist. Ralph Waldo Emerson said : Raphael paints wisdom, Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it. Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanises it.'^ In the attribution of pictures knowledge is useful, at all events, of how to proceed. Apti- tude for the work must vary in different indi- viduals. It requires often much perseverance, patience, power of observation, and a judicial mind to arrive at a reasonable opinion. Anyone who is really very familiar with an artist's work, once he gets on the scent will run the picture to earth very quickly. There is often difficulty in picking up the scent though, in the different circumstances, surroundings, light and condition in which the picture is seen. The reiteration of those remarks is worth making, for it is well that all should understand that there is really great activity of mind necessary for the work 21 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS and that it is easy or hard in proportion to the inclination or disinclination for it at the moment. There are no doubt times when a person judging a picture would be more *'on the spot" than at others. Wine tasters, so the manager of a port wine grower at Lisbon said, prepare their palate by tasting inferior wines during the morn- ing, then shortly before lunch their palate is at its best and they taste " their most important samples. So that, while smoking a cigar, after a dinner of many courses, is not a good time to judge port wine, although that is when many people most confidently express their opinion upon it. The latter conditions would appear to be favourable to the wine. Some people reserve their judgment upon it until the next morning, just as their best post-prandial speeches come to some only then or on their way home in the taxi. On one occasion a guest was pressed to make an after-dinner speech, and in calling upon him stress was laid upon a reference to his having made a brilliant speech on a similar and former occasion. He was not in the mood to respond, having nothing written upon his cufF, so contented himself with saying he had no 22 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS recollection of ever having made a brilliant speech and that he was certainly not going to attempt to break that record to-night.'' He sat down amid signs of appreciation. Allons! By the special sense of vision natural and acquired knowledge of form, colour and style is brought to bear upon the conceptions and sentiments " depicted by an artist for interpre- tation. Style in painting," Sir Joshua Reynolds said, " is the same as in writing — a power over materials, whether words or colours, by which conceptions and sentiments are conveyed.'' Hence in the various styles of different artists there are individual characteristics. So the attri- bution of pictures to their respective artists becomes possible. The attribution of the works of different artists affords a pleasant exercise, through the sense of vision, of our knowledge of nature and art. Upon the extent of that knowledge will de- pend the power of attribution. Visual know- ledge of the painter's work in question is essential. Such knowledge may be so complete and familiar as to produce an unreasoned prompt- 23 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS ing on sight of a picture as to which of the familiar artists is the actual painter. That is what artists, art critics and art dealers mean by instinct/' although they are not very ready to explain it. The instinct which prompts the recognition of the work of any particular artist is really the result of observation. Instinct is no doubt greatly to be enlarged and improved by cultivation. There is a real instinct which en- ables artists and others to distinguish good work from bad, and without which a just appreciation of works of art cannot be acquired. In the course of the Romney case counsel remarked that it was very difficult to cross- examine instinct. His lordship said, " That might be so, but it nevertheless exists. A fox- hound has instinct although you cannot cross- examine him.'' Instinct in animals depends upon the state of existence and development of the special senses by which they hear, see, smell, touch, feel, and taste, influenced by memory, desire, and appetite. Some animals are weatherwise. Their coats are natural hygrometers. That must be so parti- cularly in the case of dogs as their skins do not 24 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS perspire. Many animals, when they are out of health, have a ^'staring'' coat which produces an unthrifty appearance. The bristling or standing up of the fur of animals under emotions of fear or rage is familiar in the dog and cat. Counsel for the defence, proceeding, said : before the case ends I hope to produce some good noses." As the denouement showed, he was unconsciously more prophetic than he thought. At the time neither had any idea that the real quarry would prove to be a sketch." There is sport in the cult of Old Paintings. You cannot hunt foxes in London, but you can hunt pictures. In this case the quarry had not much chance of escape, for two packs were in the vicinity when it unexpectedly broke cover." The incident recalls the title ''Real Life in London, or the Adventures of Rob Tallyho, Esq.," by "An Amateur." Law makes use of Art as a recreation. The converse is not equally the case, although there was a historic case, one hundred and thirty years ago, on a par with the Romney case. In the course of that case Gainsborough gave evidence that the picture was not a Poussin. An 25 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS amusing repartee arose. Counsel questioned him : ^' I observe you lay great stress on the phrase, ^ the painter's eye ' ; what do you mean by that ? Gainsborough : The painter's eye is to him what the lawyer's tongue is to you.'' The case is fully set forth in Whitley's Life of Gainsborough." Instinct is active in Equity. In Law it is dormant. Consider — What is instinct .^^ In Cock and F0X5" Dryden says Art may err, but Nature cannot miss." Some critics place great confidence in pedigrees. Instinct is by Nature out of Art. Instinct may start odds on " but in the long run Intelligence, by Nature out of Reason, wins. The more the intellectual faculties are developed the less reliance is placed upon instinct. The instinctive attribution of a picture should be followed by more reasoned examination. ^'Instinct" puts one on the scent" of the artist, but it is only by following that up that its correctness is to be established. Instinct may prove to be at fault and in difficult cases 26 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS every possible ^^clue" may result in failure of attribution. In the language of our Allies, Milton's " on instinct'' is ^^animee"; and Brougham's "a noble performance, instinct with sound prin- ciple " becomes ^^une oeuvre magnifique, animee d'excellents principes." When the only reason that can be given for attributing or con- demning an attribution is " instinct," a phrase that has always been considered very expressive suggests itself : C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre." In the case of the disputed Romney it is easy to imagine there would have been difficulty in defending the fact that the real painter of it was Ozias Humphry, for when that was done, and the picture was proved to be by him, the case ended. It took a six days' trial to do it. There- fore it will be seen that the defence of an attri- bution may not always be easy, although it may be correct. It shows that some experts when brought to battle are sometimes vanquished. Their fallibility should be borne in mind. Due consideration should be given to difficulties when experts express, especially hastily, opinions upon 27 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS a painting which the owner has reason to think was painted by a certain artist. Many people in considering a picture see ^'clues'' to its attribution and follow them up very rapidly in their mind's eye. It is not surprising that the fair critic should be arrested by the eyes and hands as they are painted by an artist. In portraying these features the method of treatment amounts to an individual peculiarity with some artists. Van Dyck occupies the most honourable place as a portrait painter after Titian. Titian excelled Van Dyck in his heads, but in the hands and accessories was inferior to Van Dyck. In the composition of drapery and hair artists are necessarily influenced in their work by the fashions prevailing at the time of it. Still some show more taste, ease, and grace than others. ^^Lely (1617-1680) painted the ^sleepy eye that spoke the melting soul/ which was perhaps an afi^ectation of the ladies of a voluptuous Court. It has been remarked that his ladies had all beautiful hands. He knew how to paint them!'' Greuze's "heads of young girls are the most 28 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS pleasing of his works, especially when he paints them as Nature forms them, with the untutored simphcity and innocence of infancy, before they are spoilt by education and tricked out with the dress and air of coquettes. It is to be regretted that an artist so capable should ever have painted any pictures that were alluring by the meretri- cious glances of assumed simplicity.'' ^'Kneller (1648-1722) was a correct and graceful designer of a head. He shows too great a sameness, especially in his compositions.'' The picture he most prided himself on was that of the Converted Chinese at Windsor Castle. If Kneller's twelve portraits of the Beauties of Hampton Court (eight of them are in the gallery there now) are looked at, a great similarity in the eyes will be seen. There is less gaiety in them than in those of the Windsor Beauties, painted by Lely. Differences too are very noticeable in the composition of the drapery and hair of the por- traits of these two artists who practised near each other — Kneller overlapping Lely in point of time. In their compositions those artists are necessarily influenced by the fashions in vogue at the time of their work. But differences in 29 » THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS treatment, feeling, handling and brushwork are also noticeable. His lordship, in the Romney case, inquired from a witness as to the period of the hair- dressing in Reynolds's picture " Sisters Walde- grave.'^ Witness replied that it was not the real hair-dressing of society; it was neglige. His lordship : What you call affecting to seem un- affected. Lely's paintings are perhaps more sought after than Kneller's in the present day, but the latter will in all likelihood rise in market demand, as the works of artists of merit are wont to oscillate under the hammer.'' Most of the important paintings are in public or private collections; but not all of them. Some have an idea that the whereabouts of paintings by the great masters are known. There are no doubt some in existence of which the whereabouts are unknown. In Bode and de Groot's eight large volumes on Rembrandt and his Paintings, it is mentioned that while compiling the list of Rem- brandt paintings, some sixty examples hitherto unknown came to light. Probably others exist not publicly known, and still others that are at 30 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS present unknown. Rembrandt as a colourist, if not the greatest master, is among the greatest masters of the Art. It has been said by an authority that his treatment of chiaroscuro — light and shade — were peculiar to him; and that it developed and died with him. If this be so, should an example of his work have been lost sight of, it ought not to be difficult to establish it, with mature judgment and consideration, when it comes to light. There cannot be many Rembrandts undis- covered, but if there are any they will probably be in a state requiring some attention before their characteristics can be made out. In a book upon Raffaelle and his paintings, some in the list recorded have lost as their whereabouts; some, no doubt, were never in the list. Any of those might be discovered. It is unlikely, but possible. There is in the Library at Oxford a collection of original drawings by Raffaelle. Among others is one of The Find- ing of Moses.'' The large finished picture is in the Loggia of the Vatican. Is it not possible that there exists a small preliminary painting of that subject by Raffaelle } The writer considers he has 31 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS good reason to think that one exists. Of course, if the theory that the whereabouts of all pictures of importance are known is granted, then nothing of importance outside those can be discovered. Enough has been said to show the fallacy of such a theory. Those who do not accept it have much more opportunity than those who do of discovering important paintings by great artists when engaged in their quest. If the paintings of different painters be care- fully examined, it will be observed that there is a great resemblance in many of the faces that are seen in different pictures by the same artist. There is a prevailing type to be noticed in them. On consideration it is not difficult to account for these coincidences. It can be readily understood that an artist, perhaps more than most people, has an ideal. A model more or less in keeping with that ideal, and one that is available and amenable, is not always easy to find or obtain, and when one suitable to the artist's requirements is ob- tained, the same model is employed repeatedly, although the paintings produced are not neces- sarily intended to be portraits and are idealised in 3^ THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS accordance with the artist's talents and ideas of the subject that he is painting. It can be no digression to make some remarks upon portraiture on the authority of one whose essays^ were written, in 1783, after ten years' daily study, For the Promotion of the Know- ledge and Love of Mankind." Quotations are made to avoid the complaint contained in the introduction to the old copy from which they are taken, that certain literary pirates had seized almost the whole of it" ^^with the utmost effrontery and without acknowledgment.'' Physiognomy is the judging of internal worth by external appearances." ^'The painter, if he be not a physiognomist, is nothing." " There is no rose perfectly similar to another rose, no egg to an egg ... no man to a man." Does not the physician pay more attention to the physiognomy of the sick than to all the ac- counts that are brought to him concerning his patient ? " I will say nothing of the painter, as his art too evidently reproves the childish and arrogant 1 J. C. Lavater, On Physiognomy. 33 D THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS prejudices of those who pretend to disbelieve physiognomy." By what rule do we judge of the sky but by its physiognomy?" ^^And so also food is judged by its physiognomy or exterior, ^ as a pre- liminary.' " ''How wonderfully may the expression of countenance and character be altered by a slight inflexion or diminishing, lengthening or sharpen- ing, even though but of a hair's breadth!" ''Distinguishing traits may be so difficult to seize that it shall be impossible to paint, much less to engrave, or describe them by language." " Can joy and grief, pleasure and pain, love and hatred, all exhibit the same traits, that is, have they no traits ? " There is no doubt something to be learned from physiognomy, even by a sceptic, which would be useful to a painter of portraits — parti- cularly regarding the features of the face and head, including foreheads, eyes, eyebrows, noses, mouths and lips, teeth, chins, not forgetting skulls. " If shown the bald head of Caesar as painted by Rubens or Titian, or that of Michael Angelo, 34 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS what man would be dull enough not to discover that impulsive power, that rocky comprehension, by which they were peculiarly characterised; and that more ardour, more action must be expected, than from a smooth, round, flat head ? " "He who can distinguish between the heads of a saint and that of a malefactor should not therefore aflftrm that he can distinguish the skulls of saints from the skulls of malefactors. " To me it appears that justice requires we should, in all our decisions concerning books, men, and opinions, judge each according to its pretensions, and not ascribe pretensions which have not been made to any man." Take the faces of Raff^aelle's female figures. How striking is the resemblance of their type even in a group of them! Giulio Romano was Rafi^aelle's favourite pupil, but the type of face he painted does not resemble that which his master aff^ected, certainly not in any degree in the sense in which the type is seen in the productions of individual painters. This is apart from the artistic characteristics which are individually peculiar, more or less, to the artist, as are also the pose and composition of the figures. In them it THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS may be observed there is also a type. The colour scheme, too, is often typically suggestive of an individual artist, as are also the etceteras of a picture, including surrounding objects, such as furnishings, backgrounds, foregrounds, and de- tails shown in them. In Sir Joshua Reynolds's pictures there is not infrequently to be obtained from an interior a glimpse of an interesting landscape in the dis- tance, or otherwise associated with a picture in which the main idea is a figure subject. That Gainsborough repeatedly introduced the wagoner. Old Wiltshere, is elsewhere referred to. And who knows how often Emma Hart, after- wards Lady Hamilton, figured in Romney's pic- tures.^ By the way, too, Romney often intro- duces chickens, pigeons, or some such-like life in the foreground or its neighbourhood. To refer again as far as possible to artists already spoken of. In Rembrandt's pictures the same models at different ages, corresponding no doubt to the dates of the production of the pic- tures, may be traced, and they appear in his etch- ings as well as his paintings. So, too, in Mor- land's pictures, a woman and child of Semitic type 36 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS may be seen in more than one of his pictures. That there is a type of men, horses, and pigs that he painted surely requires no argument. These remarks are to be borne in mind, and the study of their application to the works of different artists will be found to be interesting and sometimes to afford a useful clue to the attri- bution of an unknown picture which, when fol- lowed up, may result in establishing it. Ease and affluence are not conducive to the dis- covery of lost-sight-of paintings by artists whose work is now eagerly sought for. They are con- ditions which lead indirectly to genuine dis- coveries. Without their support ^'faking" could not flourish. It will be understood, therefore, especially when valuable paintings are in question, that the unravelling of their origin and details becomes alluring. It is useful to have a knowledge of the esteem in which an artist is publicly held at the moment by connoisseurs and the trade. Circumstances such as error of judgment, desire or not for possession, present ownership of a picture, the pedigree and the price, if any, set upon it, 37 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS influence some whose attribution and valuation after all are, of course, fallible. Extracts were read from the evidence, taken on commission in America, of the daughter of the member of Lloyd's, who owned for many years the disputed Romney, which was ultimately sold, after changing hands several times, to a mil- lionaire for 100,000 dollars. She said her father was always bringing home pictures that he had picked up at sales, to the diff^erent houses they had occupied from time to time, round about and outside London. She remembered the picture in dispute coming to their house. It was bought at a sale at a house in their neighbourhood for a few pounds. ^' Did your father attribute the picture to any artist ? " He thought it might be by Sir Joshua Rey- nolds." If you had a Sir Joshua Reynolds in the family, did the family set any great value upon it?'' The governor's ^ finds ' were a by- word in our family." Now, the picture is said by experts in the wit- 38 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS ness box to be worth or if by Romney, on which there is a difference of opinion, ^50,000. The speculative and artistic instinct of the late member of Lloyd's has therefore been vindicated in the Law Courts long after his death; although the trial has resulted in showing the picture to be of The Sisters Waldegrave," by Ozias Humphry — not by Romney. In these pages reference has been made to the action in the King's Bench Division, before Mr. Justice Darling, which opened on May i6th, 1 91 7 — a claim for the return of ;!^2o,ooo on a breach of guarantee of a picture said to be by Romney. No better way can possibly be conceived of ob- taining the material for estimating the perspec- tive in which opinions and criticisms of experts should be viewed than consideration of their own sworn testimony, while under examination and cross-examination, in the witness-box. A full epitome of the Romney case^ is ap- pended. The omission of some names and variation in the sequence of evidence will not detract from its interest. 1 Chiefly extracted from the Dajly Telegraph, 39 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS The Romney case was tried before Mr. Justice Darling without a jury. There were, no doubt, good reasons for this course being agreed upon. At any rate, it prevented repetition of one inci- dent that occurred in a previous celebrated art " trial, when a witness who had spoken of a Titian ^ was asked by a juryman whether he meant an optician." Some account of the proceedings, the scene, and the entourage of the trial may be appre- ciated as throwing light upon the subject. In the court the disputed picture and paint- ings by Romney were ranged around on either side of his lordship. In front of some of them the President of the Royal Academy and other distinguished R.A.'s occupied seats in the jury box; high over which, in another box, were several ladies, to whose beauty was the added enchantment lent by distance. The gulf be- tween the judge and counsel was a confused sea of pictures, engravings, photographs, books and other literature on Art. The atmosphere of the court was metaphorically exhilarating and, as well as the setting, appeared to agree very well with his lordship. Sir Henry Morris, an ex-Presi- 40 / THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS dent of the Royal College of Surgeons, dropped in at least once during the trial, but the oppor- tunity of obtaining his opinion upon eyes, double chins, knock-knees and the outstretched arm of the fabulous Mrs. Siddons was missed. Doubtless he is a man whose attainments would have enabled him to have given a worthy opinion upon the question at issue, apart from the fact that close by the Royal Courts of Justice, in the Royal College of Surgeons, there is a life-size portrait — head and shoulders — of John Belchier, the surgeon of over a century ago, by Ozias Humphry, which, in colour and handling, as far as it goes, is reminiscent of the painting in dis- pute, that was proved to be of two ladies Walde- grave, by that artist — and not of Mrs. Siddons and her sister. Miss Fanny Kemble, nor by Romney. Conspicuous among the engravings produced was the mezzotint, The Trial of Queen Catherine," painted by G. H. Harlow, .and engraved by George Clint, A.R.A., who was one of the best, though not a prolific engraver in mezzotint. In it Mrs. Siddons, her sister and Charles Kemble are prominent figures, and their resemblance to each other is remarkable. Charles THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Kemble, in mezzotint, by Lupton, after Harlow, and Fanny Kemble, engraved from a drawing by Lawrence, are at first sight indistinguishably alike, except for the ''composition'^ of their hair. Another engraving was produced that is thought much of and greatly admired, the mezzotint of the Three Sisters Waldegrave, en- graved by Valentine Green, after Sir Joshua Reynolds; and yet another, these latter two being gems among mezzotints as they are among paint- ings, was '' The Gower Family,'' engraved by J. R. Smith, after George Romney. Amid such surroundings it is no wonder that the court usher's expression, usually severe, had become benign. Among witnesses who said the picture in dis- pute was not ^ Romney were : Royal Academi- cians, including the President of the Royal Academy; other distinguished artists; a director of the National Gallery of Ireland, who was also the author of Romney's Biography in the Dictionary of National Biography"; the chemist to the Royal Academy; other experts; some dealers. In the face of their criticisms, Ozias Humphry in his portrayal of Juno and 42 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Venus," cannot be accused of flattering the goddesses. According to those witnesses the de- tails of the figures included : eyes that do not ''flash," ''mouths that are not human and slip away to nothing," "double chins" with "no chin bone," under which (or where it ought to be) one wears a band, or what was what the wit- ness's description conveyed to his lordship as being " a kind of truss to hold up a fatty depen- dency " in the upper part of the neck; " an arm like a leg of mutton," " clasped hands that are idiotic," " fingers like a bunch of carrots," " knock-knees," " feet extremely out of scale," "a shambling gait." And, as a whole, "both were too old," and presented " a feeble, namby- pamby artificial look," devoid of " Italian char- acteristics." Shade of Serjeant Buzf uz ! The witnesses who said that the picture was by Romney included distinguished artists; a former art critic of the Times; the co-authors of "George Romney"; the curators of the Guild- hall and of the Liverpool Art Galleries; other experts; some dealers. Their testimony may be taken as a strong recommendation of the picture to mercy, made in these terms : " impression fol- 43 THEXULT OF OLD PAINTINGS lowed up by examination of details led to its being taken for a portrait of Mrs. Siddons and her sister.'^ Rather a handsome picture.'* One of the most beautiful and attractive pic- tures by Romney'* ever seen. ^'A splendid picture." The trial proved that the picture was not by Romney and practically established its attribution to Ozias Humphry. Apparently accepting the scathing condemna- tion by the plaintiff's witnesses the Trustees of the National Gallery appear to have come to the conclusion that hanging is too good for the pic- ture. In the light of the recommendation to mercy, hope of finding a home for it should not be abandoned until application to Madame Tus- saud's has failed. Among the celebrities there it would be recognised as a worthy acquisition. That epitomised account of the Romney trial, and more or less fanciful fate of the picture, serves to show what may be seen by different experts in a picture submitted to the ordeal of their criticism. A poet criticised a portrait before the painter of it, and his criticism is immortal, as it is of the 44 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS portrait of Timon of Athens, and occurs in the play so entitled, by Shakespeare, Act I., Sc. i. Here is the extract: — Poet : What have you there ? Painter : A picture, sir. Poet : Admirable : how this grace Speaks his own standing ! what a mental power This eye shoots forth ! how big imagination Moves in this lip ! to the dumbness of the gesture One might interpret. Painter : It is a pretty mocking of the life. Here is a touch: is't good? Poet : I will say of it, It tutors nature : artificial strife Lives in these touches, livelier than life. A more sporting and romantic way of describ- ing the trial would be in the light of a ^' meet at the Law Courts — a stag-hunt fixture. The picture having been ^' uncarted,^' Whoop! the experts ran merrily. Whoo ! they rattled along. Hal-loo! until — now the antlered ^'Dilemma'' — stood "at bay." There's a sketch to pro- duce! — and it was produced. None were found " to trash for overtopping."^ The picture was easily "carted," and so lived to fight another day. But its retirement was announced, although to what particular pasture was unset- ^ "Tempest," Act I., Sc. ii. 45 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS tied when the company separated, after that most memorable "run" in the Art country, during which more than one old habitue came a nasty " purler." All the world and his wife used to attend " The Stag Hunt " — the spectacle or manoeuvre of the Paris Hippodrome performance — which so successfully inaugurated the opening of the expansively roofed Olympia and its versatile career. But seriously, the over-life-size picture in dis- pute has been decided, as a result of the trial, to be by Ozias Humphry, who was described by a contemporary critic as being one of the greatest miniature painters that ever lived. He was a friend, and the travelling companion on a tour in Italy, of George Romney, to whom quite a number of experts of the present day erroneously attributed the picture. It was stated, in offering the picture to the public galleries, that it was probably the only large important picture extant by Ozias Humphry. The production of the preliminary sketch for the disputed picture concluded the evidence that the picture was not by Romney. THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Ozias Humphry placed (h) upon his sketch. As a monogram it is neat. As an epigram upon its effect in the Romney case it is brevity itself. Law indulges in Art. When they combine wit is generated, giving rise to explosions which are not due to incompatibility. It may seem a waste of time to persons who are constantly and studiously engaged in avoid- ing the law of libel, temporarily obsessed by ^'Dora," accustomed to pore over the pages of Every Man his Own Lawyer,'' Lloyd George's Land Act, or penny editions of ''Landlord and Tenant," and such works — useful as they really are — for judges to show any humour during the proceedings of a trial, but as a matter of fact their flashes of humour from the bench often have efi^ects like those of lightning in speeding up the machinery of the Law. '' The man who is his own lawyer has a fool for his client," is an adage about as true as ''A man is either a fool or a physician at forty." Combined they are a medico-legal way of expressing Carlyle's opinion about ''forty millions of people, mostly fools." He makes no distinction of class, so the necessity 47 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS for a client to ^'hold a watching brief'' in his legal affairs — like good wine — needs no bush. Law is very dry. Some in their exasperation say it is a sort of brut. Sam Weiller said it was a ^^hass.'' Courts would be dull indeed were it not for the relief afforded to learned judges and counsel to air their facetious ability and power of repartee. They are plants so hardy in their hands that they flourish even when they wither. Nowhere are those qualities more restrained or more appreciated than in court. Yes, " learned friends'' are so sensitive that they require daily refreshers to ensure their brief appearance. On the bench and among its aspirants — senior and junior — wit may vie, but does not always prevail. In some witnesses it is irrepressible. It will thrive in any court in which his lordship, his honour, or his worship presides. Sam Weller might not have laid the stress he did on his opinion of the law had he known that in Boileau's works (translated by Soame in 1680, by Ozell in 171 2, and others) is set forth, in poetry, the story of how Tom and Will who picked up an oyster near the sea appealed to the 48 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS law as to their respective rights. After full legal argument, the lawyer declared : — ''My friends, the case is dear; The fish he eat, gave each a shell ; " and then wished the wranglers farewell. The story has been engraved and may have been so from a painting. If Tom and Will had picked up an Old Master and determined their claims by process of law, they would, by analogy, have left the court with the frame, about which, if their litigious spirit had not been sufficiently damped, they might have had a further action, after which the frame would probably have sadly required regilding. It is a great mistake to regild an old frame if its appearance does not make it imperative, without full consideration. An announcement of determination to carry that into effect might have been accepted as substantial grounds, in the cir- cumstances cited, on which to base an application for leave to appeal. If it had been ultimately shown that Tom and Will were in unlawful pos- session of the chef d^ceuvre when they appealed to the law as to the division of the spoils, they might eventually have found themselves incar- 49 E THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS cerated in a divided frame — not alone of mind. Counsel in a dispute about a diamond ring asked that the ring might be brought into court.'' His Honour remarked that the court was asked to receive all kinds of things and that he remembered a case in which it was desired to bring a black horse into court. Counsel : I trust it may be a long time before your Honour, my friend, or myself may require the use of black horses. Alas! that time may have expired. Mr. Leslie Scott, K.C. (for the defence), in the Romney case, having referred to The Jolly Duchess," by Charles Pearce, mentioned there were lots of jokes in the book. Doubtless he would have proceeded leisurely to narrate them had he not been interrupted by his lordship: Don't give them away. Learn some for the Commercial Court! " The trial was a crushing rebuke to the artist who, having expressed his opinion that the pic- ture was by Romney, defied Omniscience to alter it. The defendants must have felt strongly sup- £0 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS ported in their view that the picture was by Romney when they were in possession of that opinion from so distinguished an artist. The writer was brought to book by the Rom- ney case; in what manner is suggested in dialogue between a painter and a poet ^ : — Painter : You are rapt, sir, in some work, some dedi- cation To the great lord. Poet : A thing slipp'd idly from me. Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes From whence 'tis nourished : the fire i' the flint Shows not till it be struck ; our gentle flame Provokes itself and like the current flies Each bound it chafes. What have you there? Painter : A picture, sir. When comes your book forth? Poet : Upon the heels of my presentment, sir. Let's see your piece. Miniature of the Romney Case. Before Mr. Justice Darling. For the Plaintiff: Sir John Simon, K.C, and Others. For the Defendants : Mr. Leslie Scott, K.C, and Others. Sir John Simon [opening the case"]: — Romney, or not Romney.'' that is the ques- tion ! ' ''Timon of Athens," Act. L, Sc. i. 51 E 2 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Experts for Plaintiff : — Romneyj no! poor in colour and pose im- possible! The artist failed to ^'draw.'^ Mr. Leslie Scott [for the Defence']: — Romney, aye! by Romney! there is no ques- tion! Experts for Defendants : — Romney, aye! with its defects and faults per- missible ! More beautiful one never saw.'' Ghost of Ozias Humphry: — Romney right well I knew. In life he was my friend! Produce the sketch I drew. This cause celebre 'twill end. His Lordship: — The problem being solved — in this dramatic way. Honest opinions, truly fought, have had their day! In such honourable conduct, none can say them nay ! C2 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Refund the price with interest. And taxed cost! Hang the Humphry — my last request — No chances lost. R. W, L. (The miniature is signed by the author to avoid any possibility of its being attributed to Bacon.) The writer is familiar with a receipt for /^loo for a landscape by Linnell as follows : — Nov., 1850. Miniature OF THE Landscape in Water-colour. Dear Sir, I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your draft for one hundred pounds for the Picture of which the above sketch is a mcm^^. John Linnell. " How far that little candle throws his beams ! So shines a good deed in a naughty world/' Mr. Leslie Scott, K.C, said, during the trial, that probably before the end of the case they might find the receipt for the picture in dispute. His Lordship : In the course of my career I 53 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS have come across people who would supply you with one.'' Mr. Leslie Scott : It reminds me of a carpet I bought in the East. It was offered to me for ;£2^ with a British Consul's certificate as to its genuineness, but for ^5 without a certificate." Seemingly the wily carpet- wallah opened the eyes of the tourist, who was then ready to shut one, if not both of them, when he struck the bargain. Persian carpets are often signed in Persian characters. The signature is plainly worked in the border near the edge of one side of the carpet. They're equally everlasting. On one occasion Van Dyck, while a pupil of Rubens, painted in the damaged features of one of the master's chefs d'^oeuvre^ which the in- quisitive class had damaged while trespassing in the studio which Rubens had inadvertently left unlocked. Rubens on his return was more amazed than annoyed, when he saw it, at the talent displayed, and no doubt Van Dyck rose in his estimation. Did not a ghost " play an important role in an action for libel brought by a sculptor in. was it the 'eighties.'^ The case S4 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS went on for some time and everyone was as hungry for the morning paper as for breakfast while the trial lasted. The ghost " in that case, memory serving, was a man who did much of the work — the less important work — of the sculptor. The opportunity for a ghost " with genius to invest the work of mediocrity with artistic merit is conceivable. In a case at Warwick the defence set up was that the crime was committed by an apparition. I think, gentlemen/' said the judge, you seem inclined to lay more stress on an appari- tion than it will bear . . . Crier, call the ghost." That was thrice done, to no manner of purpose. His lordship, in the discussion between coun- sel and a witness about the Cloud " upon which the ladies in the disputed picture are apparently walking, said that the present-day critic would say : ^' If you are to put a lady of ample pro- portions to stand on a cloud you must in some way solidify it, or it will not bear her.'' Counsel no doubt saw then the weight of the argument. In the disputed picture the ladies are walking on a cloud. Mr. Dryden, in the preface to his translation of M. Du Fresnoy's " Poem on the 55 * THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Art of Painting,'^ containing a parallel between poetry and painting, quotes : The painter is not to paint a cloud at the bottom of a picture, but in the uppermost parts.'' The substantial cloud in the bottom of the disputed Romney excited the humour of his lordship. Ozias Humphry, who was proved to have painted the picture, must have been unaware of or ignored that precept, written in the middle of the seven- teenth century. The poem gives the leading principles of the art with more " precision, con- ciseness and accuracy than has ever been equalled before or since." Van Dyck, it is said, visited England in 1630 at the time that Cornelius Janssens was the Court painter. He only remained about a year, but in 1632 King Charles I, having seen a portrait of the musician Nicholas Laniere, invited Van Dyck to return, appointed him to the Court with a retainer and engaged him very much in portrait painting. So frequently was the King himself the sitter, that he must have acquired some idea of the life of an artist's model. Many a model has occupied the (studio) throne." Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." 56 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Plagiarists of the masterpieces of art display less talent than their masters. The number of people copying, or using unconsciously or with- out acknowledgment, the literary phrases of others, is legion. It is not always that Famili- arity breeds contempt.'' The frequency with which Shakespeare is quoted to-day may be imagined when it is re- called that in a single speech of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Act III., Sc. i.) the following ex- pressions occur : the first line, To be, or not to be, that is the question," has previously been parodied by the writer. Among other expres- sions occurring in the same speech are : That flesh is heir to 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished "; "to sleep ! perchance to dream "; " ay, there's the rub "; shuffled off this mortal coil"; " the pangs of despised love "; " the law's delay "; " the insolence of office "; " from whose bourn no traveller returns"; "bear those ills we have, than fly to others that we know not of "; " conscience does make cowards of us all "; " the pale cast of thought." Those are all familiar. How many when they extend the word " dancing " into the now hack- 57 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS neyed phrase, tripping it on the light fantastic toe/' know that in doing so they are indebted to Milton for his lines : — " Come and trip it as you go, On the light fantastic toe." Not many years ago the lyric — "Speak to me only with thine eyes," was much practised and sung with more or less effect. If it is not so often heard ^'at home'' to-day, its precept is not neglected. Among the sixteen songs in ^'The Forest," by Ben Jonson, first published in 1616, the year in which he was made Poet Laureate, is — " Drink to me only with thine eyes." The modern version is no less ardent, although the sting to the susceptibilities of the disciples of the late Sir Wilfrid Lawson has been removed. Very impressively applied by the late Mr. Gladstone in one of his great speeches were the exact last words of a speech made by Brutus in Julius Caesar," Act II., Sc. ii. : — " I pause for a reply.'* In a leading article of the Daily Telegraphy June 2, 19175 among other novelists, Charles Reade is referred to. In regard to his works, it 58 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS concludes : But by almost common consent his masterpiece is declared to be ^ The Cloister and the Hearth/ especially by those who are not av/are of the enormous obligations which the author owes to the ^ Colloquies' of Erasmus.'' After a time phrases lose their novelty and pass into common use. If a "clearing house" for phrases were established the phrases would ultimately find their way back to the " banks " or authors on which they were drawn. That would not perhaps be practical. Still, when a phrase is known to be a quotation, and especially if it has the look of originality, is it not entitled to inverted commas.'^ Would anything be lost by it.'^ Dr. Johnson says Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world." Reference has been made to Cornelius Jans- sens. He came to England in 1618 and was taken into the service of James I. In the same year he painted a portrait of John Milton when ten years old. There is an engraving of that by Cipriani. It is not unlikely that he also painted a portrait of John Milton when about thirty years of age, as the writer knows one in which, when compared with engravings of John Milton 59 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS when younger and when older, the likeness can be identified, and the painting is very similar to Janssens' work. Bryan's Dictionary says Cor- nelius Janssens' portraits are characterised by neat finish, clear style of colouring, featured by a fair character of nature, somewhat stiff and formal, remarkable for a truth and tranquillity in the countenances, which is peculiar to him.'' He remained in England until 1648, so that he continued to paint here for seven years after Van Dyck's death in 1641. A professional photographer of pictures who had photographed the painting by Van der Plaas, said to be a portrait of Milton in the National Portrait Gallery, does not seem to think that portrait to be probably of the same person as the several engraved portraits of Milton that he had before him. But he thinks the painting referred to as a portrait of Milton when about thirty years of age, when compared with the engraved por- traits of him when younger and when older, is not only possibly but probably a portrait of Milton." There is a picturesque charm and interest about very old residences, especially when met 60 Size 30 X 24^.] [To face p. 60. - JOHN MILTON. From a Painting by Cornelius Janssens (?). VD (5 o ir, u O o > u OO oo o o u g 2 O 1) o cl 'a c o i-l fa o h (/5 ;3 " 1 2 X o in ^ 0) O 3 ^ o CI THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS with in the suburbs of London, where too few now remain. In one of them, which had been inhabited for generations by the same family and which was situated in the neighbourhood of Putney and Wandsworth- — districts with which Cromwell and Milton were associated — an old lady, having died, the house and its contents were being sold by order of her executors. Among the pictures was one catalogued by the auctioneers as ^' A Flemish Gentleman.'' When it had been to a certain extent cleaned, the ^'Flemish Gentleman" reminded the writer of a portrait with which he was familiar. After some consideration he thought the similarity might be to an engraving in his possession. On comparing the engraving — a portrait of John Milton ^ at the age of twenty-one — with the painting, he recognised at once a very strong resemblance, although the painting was of a man a few years older. On comparing the painting with other engravings of John Milton, this im- pression was confirmed, especially by a picture produced as a frontispiece to vol. ii. of Milton's ^ John Milton, born 1608, died 1674. In 1644 his vision grew weak, and in 1654 he was practically blind. 6i THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS prose works, Bohn's edition, 1848, which is of Cromwell in Conference with Milton.'' The latter was secretary for the Foreign Tongues,'' and between August 10, 1649, and May 15, 1659, wrote letters of State during the adminis- tration of the Commonwealth and the Protectors Oliver and Richard Cromwell. The pose of Milton, as he appears sitting at that conference, is almost identical with that in the painting, as are also the resemblances in the contour and con- dition of the face and neck, and the habiliments as shown in the engraving and the painting, although he is some years older in the former. In the painting he answers somewhat strikingly to the description given by his daughter Deborah, who said he was of a fair complexion, a little red in his cheeks, and had light brown lank hair." The books on the shelves in the background are suggestive of ihe literary associa- tion of the man whose portrait it appears to be. The miniature of Milton in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch at Montague House, London, shows a slight dimple in the chin, which is also seen in the frontispiece portrait of Milton (Cooper del Cochran sculpsit) in the Bohn's 62 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Library edition of Milton's prose works, vol. i. Then there is an engraved portrait of Milton when sixty-two years of age drawn from life by Faithorne. In that, allowing for difference in age, the shape of the face and the eyes are par- ticularly similar to the painting. In the National Portrait Gallery there is a portrait painted by Van der Plaas, styled John Milton." There is also the engraved portrait by Faithorne. The Van der Plaas portrait does not appear to be of the same man as the other engravings referred to as John Milton. That portrait was reproduced as a mezzotint at Nor- wich in the eighteenth century and styled John Milton.'^ It may be that the sale of it did not svxffer in consequence, but it may also be that it was the cause of a vicious circle resulting in the Van der Plaas portrait being displayed to the visitors to the National Portrait Gallery as that of the portrait of the greatest English prose poet, although the director is among those who do not consider that portrait to be of iconographic importance. The fact that Cornelius Janssens, during the 63 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS year of his arrival in England, painted a portrait of John Milton at the age of ten years has been mentioned. This portrait has intrinsically much in addition to suggest that it was painted by that artist. The painting and some of the en- gravings referred to are reproduced here for com- parison, and, as is the case with the other paintings reproduced, it must speak for itself. Romney painted a picture of Milton and His Two Daughters.' ' It was engraved by Benjamin Smith and published June i, I795> by the Boydells. In comparing engraved reproductions with originals, it should be remembered that the en- graver, having copied the original upon his copper or steel plate, as the case may be, when the print comes to be taken from the plate the picture is reversed. That is, if the portrait is looking towards the left the print will appear looking towards the right, and, for instance, if the hair be parted on the left in the original it will appear in the print as parted on the right. Some engravers in reproducing their plates take this into consideration, and so in those respects the print is similar to the original. It is im- ^>4 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS portant to make these and other allowances when comparing" engravings with the original pictures from which they are taken. The painter is some- times very much indebted to the engraver for the embellishments which he may introduce, though such auxiliary aid may not always be acknowledged by the artist. On the other hand, the artist may have good reason to complain of the extent to which he may have suffered at the hands of the engraver. There are various styles of engraving — line, stipple, mezzotint, etching and combinations of these. Some subjects lend themselves to repro- duction as engravings in one style more than another; others to styles in combination. Por- traits reproduced from paintings in mezzotint are very beautiful, and that art is perhaps shown to greatest advantage in that branch of its use. Until 1820, when W. Say produced a mezzo- tint on steel, all mezzotints were from copper plates; the copper being so much softer than steel, the number of copies that could be ob- tained from the plate was comparatively very small. Specimens of them must therefore neces- sarily be comparatively very limited. 65 F THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS The art of engraving suffered very much on the introduction of photography, and still more so when the many " processes were introduced for reproducing pictures. Not many years ago it looked as if engraving would become extinct; there were practically only one or two line en- gravers and no mezzotint engravers. Of late years, however, the increasing popularity of the old engravings, and the consequent high prices which they obtain, has stimulated a few, and the art of engraving has been to some extent revived. In the light of recent events one can imagine that important pictures may be ''bunkered" through want of recognition by experts. That is one reason why there are still opportunities of acquiring them at sales of effects by executors. The collector must be careful or he will find his walls covered with '' mistakes." To have them always staring him in the face would be very unpleasant. There is this consolation in that event, that experience is acquired through mis- takes more, perhaps, than in any other way. The late lamented " Uncle Percival," writing from Paris — '' The Gay City " — contributed weekly for many years to the Referee, He men- 66 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS tioned once what might be considered by some to have been a shocking mistake. Dictating a letter to a friend interested in old paintings, he said that he had picked up a delightful Watteau. On reading over the typewriter's copy he found that the artist's name had been misspelt What, ho! It may not be generally known that the source of that expression which has passed into vulgar use is Shakespeare, so that error was really quite a classical expression; he uses it repeatedly. Part of the Saturday during the week of the Romney trial was occupied by his lordship view- ing Romneys in the National Gallery and some private collections. It is not possible for every- one to possess any examples by one of the great painters, but all can study them in public galleries. Some few are to be seen on the walls of those fortunate enough to possess one or more of them. They are treasured, and are a source of interest and pleasure to the friends of their owners. The tales attaching to them increase as time goes on, and the proud possessor is always sure of a hearing when the picture is before the listener, serving as an original illustration in colour for his stories. The picture always gives 67 F 2 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS point to the story, however oratorically lacking that may be. Any number of witticisms are attributed to artists. Here is an amusing one : The servants of Sir Godfrey Kneller's neighbour. Dr. Rad- clifFe, abused the liberty of a private entrance to the painter's garden, and plucked his flowers. Kneller sent word that he must shut the door up. Tell him,'' the doctor peevishly replied, ^' that he may do anything with it but paint it." ^' Never mind what he says," retorted Sir God- frey, " I can take anything from him — but physic." Very great humour is displayed by some artists in their paintings. There is generally a story — natural, historical, conventional or fanciful — in a picture. The fact that some few pictures of importance have been lost sight of, with a possibility of being rediscovered, lends a zest to the happy hunter among the works displayed by dealers in antiques at home and abroad. It is a fact that many finds" are only fakes." A successful collector has some knowledge and much intelli- gence. There are advantages in the study of 68 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS pictures over some other recreations. They are always instructive and frequently amusing. As a pastime they may be engaged in singly or socially. Surely they afford more profitable occupation than looking at the pictures, counting the pips, and arranging the cards in the solitary game of Patience.'^ Yet ^'Patience'' is a game that is enjoyed by most intellectual people. Almost everyone, except the colour-blind, has a partiality for certain colours. Many know what they call their ^'favourite" colour, and it is often one that suits their own complexion and the colour of their hair. The preferences are suggestive of the taste in colour of the in- dividual. Good, bad, indifferent or even abom- inable taste may be shown in the choice of colours in attire. Artists are not free from these preferences. An artist should have a nicer appre- ciation of colours and their shades than the man in the street. In the pictures of different artists the predilections for certain colours crop up. What beautiful blue silks Gainsborough painted ! and the favour of Romney for certain shades of reds and browns will be familiar to all. It is 69 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS only as a suggestion for direction of observation that these illustrations are given. There are certain poses that show off different types of face and figure, and all sitters are desirous of being made the most of; while some, especially among the fair, will imitate the latest pose of the most recent portraits of reigning beauties, a form of flattery that sometimes makes the perpetrator of it look very ridiculous. The advice of the artist is not always accepted by his patrons. Therefore the influence of the pre- dilections of sitters, the fondness of the artist for certain colours and the range of poses that become the human (about all of which a variety of idea is displayed by artists) is shown in the artist's work, and occurs frequently enough to give a type or style to it sometimes. In a picture there is much for the mind to dwell upon. What is its subject? If a portrait — of whom is it a portrait ."^ What the expres- sion, fashion, surroundings; the latter may even suggest the occupation of the subject. If a landscape, the country, life, architecture, atmosphere, sky, that appear in it will interest. So in still-life, seascapes, genre subjects, fruit, 70 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS flowers, there is much for pleasant contemplation. In all of them the handling, i.e.^ the manipula- tion peculiar to the artist, the colour scheme, and chiaroscuro, or light and shade, should be noticed. By handling is meant the manner of execution by which the artist produces finish. Foreshortening is the art of representing ob- jects on plane surfaces as they appear to the eye, depending upon a correct knowledge of /orw, perspective and observation. Michael Angelo, Rubens and Correggio were distinguished among other rare qualities for their skill in fore- shortening, which constitutes the skill of the master. Brushwork is later referred to. As the subject is a life-long one, to attempt to go fully into it is not within the scope of the writer of this brochure, even if he had the capacity for it. ' Experts, when in court, admit the evidence of sketches, executed as preliminaries to a painting, in support of the authenticity of the painting. Regarding portraits, details of their period, pose, drawing, colour and other peculiarities would 71 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS apply. The value of comparison of likeness or resemblance in portraits of the same individual when painted by different artists at different periods of the life of the individual is admitted by them; and in landscapes, sketches of the same site as that in the picture, and many other associations would afford information. In the course of the Romney case a discussion occurred upon the subject of ''double chins'' arising out of an artist's suggestion that the band under the chin in Gainsborough's portrait of Mrs. Siddons, now in the National Gallery, was probably intended to hold up a ''certain fatty dependence." During the amusing discussion, Mr. Leslie Scott said that in other parts of his statement the artist spoke with " pleasant direct- ness." His Lordship : " Yes; I see he says that because a man hides a hump it does not follow that he has not got one." His lordship had pre- viously said he had often seen that band under the chin in Gainsborough's portrait of Mrs. Siddons and that it never occurred to him that it was there to act as a support. A member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water-colours said the eyes of Mrs. Siddons, 72 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS whose two Lawrence portraits were in the National Gallery, were of a ''deep red brown; at times Jike an antelope, and at other times, as Sir John Simon had said, like flashing motor lamps. Mrs. Siddons, he said, had Semitic eyebrows, which, he explained to his lordship, meant arched eyebrows. Mrs. Clement Parsons, authoress of the bio- graphy of Mrs. Siddons, said that dark brown was the colour of Mrs. Siddons' eyes in all the accepted pictures. His lordship quoted from witness's book : " Mrs. Siddons could, by the blaze of her eyes, make the front row of the pit recoil several feet." '' It must have been very awkward indeed for the back rows," added his lordship. No reference was made to their efi^ect upon the " gods." The colour of the healthy eye depends upon the colour and effect of the pigment that is in the iris or curtain which surrounds the pupil. "It is generally alike in both eyes, but some- times it differs in the two eyes even in health. One may be blue or grey and the other brown or greenish. More frequently there is a dark, sector-shaped patch occupying part of the iris 73 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS of one eye.'' ^ The pupil of the eye is what looks like a black central spot in the eye, which changes in size under the influence of varying light; accommodation of vision for seeing ob- jects at different distances; the emotions; and the influence of certain drugs, which, while they in their effect temporarily alter the size and appear- ance of the pupil, at the same time they tempor- arily impair natural vision. Such discomforts are sometimes borne on medical grounds. Used for cosmetic effect only, they are injurious, un- comfortable and unjustifiable. The activity of the eye depends upon the mind. At the moment that the eye is most active, the wit most lively — the motion and fire of the eye undergo the most visible alteration.'' ^ The beauty of even the most beautiful eye suffers during, or as the result of, inflammation, whether permanently or not, and the amount of damage, if any, to its use or beauty will depend upon the extent and effect of the inflammation. Everyone knows the disfigurement that a black eye " gives rise to, whether sustained by accident, assault, or in the practice of the ^' noble art." In * Nettleship on The Eye. ^ Lavater. 74 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS ^' Sweet Lavender,'' the character originally played by Edward Terry becomes the victim of one. While having it dressed he constantly in- terrupts the qualified canine specialist — who is a patron of the ring and popular as a cos- metic expert — by exclaiming, But am I per- manently injured?'' His courage has been replaced by anxiety, and he seems ashamed or afraid, or both, as to the effect of his appearance upon his wife and the result of it. Yet, a quarter of a century or more ago, ''Two lovely black eyes " enjoyed popularity. Thomas Moore, in '' Black and Blue Eyes," shows how — The brilliant black eye May in triumph let fly," and how — "The soft eye of blue May scatter wounds too." "What the black eye may say,'* and what — "The blue eye half hid Says from under its lid." Action and sentiment are vividly expressed in the poetry. The master of the line of beauty " has the power to express them in painting. The imagination of some is more stirred by 75 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS the poet; that of others being more moved by the artist. Most people have been " hard hit by one or the other. Was it not Goldsmith who said : — "As women are always beautiful So men are always young." And Emerson refers to a Young Men^s Club for which all men were to be held eligible who were under seventy. Dr. Johnson says consolingly that the eye which happens to glance upon us is turned in a moment on him that follows us, and that the utmost which we can reasonably hope or fear is, to fill a vacant hour with prattle and be for- gotten.'' Another comforting remark which he makes in association with this is : But the truth is, that no man is much regarded by the rest of the world.'' Art students study the conformation of the bony framework or skeleton, the muscles and soft tissues of the body; also the natural folds that the effect of their disposition has upon the surface of the body. They study the relative size and length of the different portions and limbs of the body. In Cipriani's drawing book 76 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS (and Cipriani is acknowledged to have been a very good draughtsman of the human figure) plates are given showing the skeleton, covered with the soft tissues, as if these were transparent — a kind of X-ray illustration of them. Also Greek figures and the measurements of the different parts of them, in heads^^ parts " of a head, and '^minutes " — the length of the head of the particular figure founding the scale, the figure being so many heads high. The head is four parts long and each part is divided into twelve minutes, (Veterinary people speak of a horse being so many hands high — a hand being fixed at four inches.) If a consummate artist's sketches leading up to some great picture be examined, and, indeed, if the picture were seen in its development, the presence of those ana- tomical details in the mind of the artist will be apparent, as they are shown in the manner sug- gested in the sketches. These sketches of great artists are much prized and very instructive, as they show step by step the master's methods of treatment. Genius is born, not made, and so artists that develop from natural genius without study of the elementary 77 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS principles of art are often lacking in the refine- ments of drawing of figures, or niceties of detail. Counsel directed a witness's attention to the lower limbs of the figure in the disputed picture said to be Mrs. Siddons. ^^Are they/' he in- quired, ''characteristic of Romney's graceful style .^'' The witness pointed out that the figures were in gentle movement and " anything might be possible.'' '' You don't think that a deliberate repre- sentation of knock-knees .'^ " "No; I don't believe in any of that nonsense! " When shall you hear that I Will praise a hand, a foot, a face, an eye, A gait, a state, ^ a brow, a breast, a waist, A leg, a limb ? ^ In regard to knock-knees it may be explained that the upper ends or heads of the thigh bones (entering into the formation of the hip-joints) are further apart in the adult female than in the male, by reason of the bony framework or pelvis that forms the lower part of the trunk of the body being wider in women. As the shafts of ^ State here signifies the act of standing as opposed to gait, i.e., movement. ^ "Love's Labour's Lost," Act IV., Sc. iii. 78 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS the thigh bones descend they approach each other towards the knees. There is then, anatomically, in the female more of a natural tendency to knock-knee than in the male. Knock-knee, i.e.y exaggeration of that tendency, is due to an un- equal growth of the natural enlargements — condyles — at the lower end of the thigh-bone, which forms part of the hinge of the knee-joint. That is to say, the lower part of the thigh-bone enlarges and spreads, as it descends, ending in two bosses of bone or condyles — an inner and an outer condyle — which form the upper bone of the hinge of the knee-joint — the largest hinge- joint in the body. When the inner boss of bone or condyle overgrows, it does so partly down- wards and so presses down on the inner of the two cups of the upper end of the leg-bone, in which the condyles work as a hinge, and so the descent of the leg is thrown away from the middle line of the body, that is, away from an imaginary straight line, drawn down between the eyes to the ground, when the individual is standing upright, giving rise to the appearance called knock-knee. In the female skeleton (the hip-joints being farther apart) there is naturally 79 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS more approach to knock-knee than in the male. Nature by the disposition of muscles and soft tissues conceals the natural tendency to knock- knee'' appearance that the skeleton — bony framework of the body — has. In the Romney case the vernacular expression knock-knee '' was the subject of cross-examination. Tech- nically ''knock-knee'' is known in surgical lan- guage as '' genu valgum." Even when extreme it is remediable. Defective nutrition and ab- normal growth are prime factors in the produc- tion of knock-knee, which may develop any time before the growth of the body is set. Weakness or relaxation of ligaments, that is, of the tough tissues which hold the bones forming the joint in proper position, will allow of the occurrence of knock-knee, even when there is no bony de- formity. The development of the latter is encouraged by relaxed ligaments. It is fre- quently observable during the growing periods of childhood and that of adolescence. In those cases it may be only temporary. Sometimes it increases, and may become permanent if neglected. In men who have been accustomed to much horse-riding there is often a looseness of 80 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS the ligaments of the knee-joint, allowing of a wobbling of the joint, giving rise to a knock- knee appearance. It may be observed in some men who ride much and in many cavalry soldiers. Still, the mirror may be held up to Nature and the generally accepted reflection — beauty is only skin deep — remain undisturbed. When beauty is more superficial it is adventitious and too fugitive for serious consideration beyond the spheres of utility or fashion. A painter and art critic said the outstretched hand of Mrs. Siddons in the disputed picture was only ''half the length it ought to be." It was already rivalling '' the long arm of the law," for it brought to his lordship's mind the ex- clamation of the Queen in Act V., Sc. i., of Macbeth," Out, damned spot! Out, I say! " and he suggested to counsel for the plaintiff" that he thought he might be thinking that the lady might be addressing herself '' to her little out- stretched hand " in those words. Counsel said he had in his mind that ''all the perfumes of Arabia would not sweeten it," and now said he did not know that the language his lordship had used would have been permissible in court. 8l G THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS An inscrutable visage is a valuable asset to any counsel^ and on this occasion his lordship — much as judges are accustomed, in their way, to paint from nature — had failed to paint counsel's flight of imagination. Entering a residence in the course of ordinary professional engagements, the writer was shown into a room where among the pictures on the wall were the portraits of a lady and a gentle- man, the titled great-grandmother (descended from Edward III) and the great-grandfather of the owner. They were exquisitely painted by Romney. They were received as a wedding present by the possessor of them. The artist who painted a portrait of the latter, which is itself very good, remarked : It is diflScult to paint a portrait to live in a room with those two Rom- neys.'' The faces of those Romney portraits have life in them. The white dress, its strings and the blue sash of the lady, looked at closely, are seen to be put in by a few heavy strokes of the brush. At a little distance the efi^ect is charming. The red coat of her military husband is of a shade worthy of imitation. Could anyone look upon 82 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS those pictures every day without being to some extent a judge of a Romney? That is an account of an opportunity, a by- product of one's occupation, that ought not to be thrown away, and so forth and so on. That is to say, that under similar circumstances the writer has seen a Van Dyck that was afterwards sold for more than ^60,000 and a small host of other fine examples by different great painters. Seen in that way the pleasure is enhanced. There is none of the embarras de richesse which one feels in the great public galleries and which is perhaps one of the causes of the headache that many say they experience in picture galleries. It may be well to point out again, as has been already said or implied, that the object of this little volume is to help in the examination of pictures by pointing out what is to be looked for — what should tell — in their consideration. Lest some should think there is need for apology for quotation in these pages, consider that ^^Life is short and Art is long " and that the writer, having a humble opinion of his own knowledge of Art, literary style, and authority 83 G 2 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS for expressing views in which he acquiesces, pre- fers to share the responsibility of his remarks with those whose statements he quotes, their remarks and authority, as far as he knows, being among the unquestioned accumulation of time and of genius. Where inverted commas are used weight is implied. In considering the work of an artist it should always be borne in mind that it improved until it reached its zenith, and in many cases under- went a subsequent decline. It does not do to expect every example of an artist's work to be comparably equal to his best work, nor to con- demn it as the work of someone else if it is not. Many people, among them even some who have visited picture galleries of the world, but have not really grasped the subject of the work of great painters, when their attention is directed to some example of an acknowledged master's work, at once see something that does not appear to them to be as well drawn as they would expect it to be, and they rate the picture on that defect. Take Gainsborough's landscapes in which there may be one or more persons, horses, or cows; 84 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS well ! who that knows his work would expect to see those details of the picture as well drawn as, for instance. Herring drew horses, or Sidney Cooper cattle ? Turner, too. in his landscapes or seascapes drew figures so badly that when they are well done that fact is against the picture being by him. Some pictures, too, are painted by two or perhaps even more artists ; for example, the landscape may be by a great landscape painter while the figures in the same picture are by a great figure painter. And so also there are pic- tures in which the fruit, flowers, game, china, etc., are painted by one celebrated artist while the rest of the picture, also very important, is painted by another celebrated painter. Dis- tinguished and busy artists not infrequently have the backgrounds and less important parts of pic- tures painted by pupils or assistants. How true Meags's observation in regard to Raffaelle is can be understood with a little consideration. He said that had Raffaelle possessed every part of the art of painting in the same degree as he possessed that of composition, he would have gone beyond the limits of humanity. Concerning Raffaelle, the prince of painters, 85 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS who was born on April 6, 1483, and died on April 6, 1520 — when exactly thirty-seven years of age — (the first part of the next paragraph has just been paraphrased, but its repetition will emphasise it)— ^' In composition^ so nearly con- nected with invention^ RafFaelle is entitled to the highest praise; and it has been observed by Meags that he would have gone beyond the limits of humanity if he had possessed every part of the art in the same degree. In all his com- positions the principal figure presents itself to the beholder at once; there is never a necessity to search for it. The different groups are reunited by the principal action; his oppositions, and his conduct of the masses of light and shadow, are not directed by affectation or caprice, but are regulated by reason and truth. In his works ^ every visage, every attitude, is animated by the most appropriate expression.' He possessed in a transcendent degree ^ invention,' ^ composi- tion,' Mesign,' representing objects ^not as they are but as they ought to be.' In ^expression' he was unrivalled, giving to each figure the precise shade of feeling, giving not only the ex- pression suitable to each figure, but to the entire 86 oo •5, Q < O o o o > o H O oo X m OJ N c75 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS subject. His figures appear to be put in motion by the sentiment of the mind.'' ^ It will be readily imagined, therefore, that Raffaelle's great natural talent improved with cultivation, and that it would have even further matured had his health and life continued. Take another example, George Morland (born 1764, died 1804). ''When a boy his produc- tions were hard, formal and laboured. Later they continued to exhibit care in finish and every object was painted immediately from life with considerable attention to detail. He, however, imperceptibly neglected the parts and adopted a broader style; and finding that it pleased others it pleased himself. About 1790 he appears to have arrived at his meridian, and this period lasted about six years; afterwards his paintings began to decline from their peculiar excellency and fell to vapid imitations of his former works. These feeble glimmerings of expiring genius show, according to their dates, a regular decay. He was forty years of age when he died. It should be known that he permitted his cronies, Hands, Taylor and ^ Extracted from Bryan's "Dictionary of Painters." 87 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS dirty Brooks to use his name when it suited, his or their purpose. The dealers of the day also found it to be a good speculation to pay him handsomely for one genuine picture^ which they increased sevenfold.'' ^ Morland was a man whose habits led him on occasion to paint a picture or the sign of an inn as a set-ofF against his score, which was liable to ^'run,'' as the landlord depicted it, in chalk — if for no other reason — so it requires no great stretch of imagination to apply the lines, popular in the middle of the last century, and possibly for a long time before, to him : — " Up and down the City Road, In and out the 'Eagle That's the way the money goes, Pop goes the *' easel. This appropriate version avoids the question '^What is a weasel.*^'' — which is raised as a *^Note and Query" from time to time in the Press. In that respect the weasel is related to those other phenomena, the sea-serpent and the big gooseberry. Therefore, in attributing pictures to Morland much latitude of excellence must be allowed, ^ Extracted from Bryan's Dictionary of Painters." 88 Size 12J X 10.] CHRIST IN THE STORM. Rembrandt Pinxit.] [J. Fittler, A.R.A., Sculpsit. AFTER "A NAVAL BATTLE." Painted by Rembrandt [To face j>. 89. THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS or many of his genuine examples will be con- demned. Other difficulties in the case of this master suggest themselves. Opinions, however spontaneously expressed, about a picture which possesses intrinsic resem- blance to the characteristic attributes of some artist are not necessarily conclusive. Opinions may vary. Mature judgment arising from leisurely consideration is much handicapped in those who having, it may be hastily, expressed an opinion, stick to it through thick and thin as a matter of routine. What value can be placed upon opinions expressed without sufficient know- ledge of an artist in question? For example, there is an engraving by Fittler, after a painting by Rembrandt, entitled '^Christ in the Storm." Emile Michel, of the Institute of France, in his book on Rembrandt (2 vols.), calls it St. Peter^s Boat,'' 1633. ^^Y^ murky sky is partially lighted by a sinister glow and the waves dash violently against the frail ship which seems about to sink under the foaming waters . . . impressively and eloquently ren- dered by one who, from his native shore, had often watched the fierce onslaught of the waters 89 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS let loose by the tempest.'' Again, in the second of the eight volumes upon Rembrandt's works by Bode and de Groot, the picture is referred to as The Timorous Disciples in a Storm, errone- ously called St. Peter's Boat." Yet many artists, some of high repute, have expressed themselves unaware that Rembrandt painted seascapes. More generally known is the fact that Rem- brandt painted, besides portraits (of which there are many well-known examples), as Bode and de Groot say, pictures in which heroes of an- tiquity or of Old Testament history play the leading parts . . . are connected with a series of single male figures. . . . They date from 1634 to 1635, ^hey are painted in the costumes in which Rembrandt clothed rabbis, high priests, and prophets of the Old Testament, in his com- positions they invariably figure under one of these titles, generally that of Rabbi." The state- ment occurs in our National Gallery Catalogue that Rembrandt stands alone as an interpreter of the Bible story." Similar manner or trick of arrangement is not infrequently noticeable in different pictures by the same artist, just as mannerisms or tricks of 90 Size isi X 35.] ELIJAH AND THE RAVENS. From a Painting by Rembrandt {signed " Ronbrandt "). [To face p. 90 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS action are noticeable in the same actor when playing in different characters. There appears to be a kind of stock-property in manner as well as material. But the former is more often peculiar to the artist than the latter. There are similar stock-properties that are to be commonly found in many studios, and so they appear in the pictures of different artists. The writer for some time applied the word " trick " himself to points in paintings. He always felt trepidation in doing so, and some- times, particularly when talking to artists, re- luctantly avoided using it, feeling ashamed to apply it to a work of art; but he came across it in ^'The Eagle's Nest,'' paragraph 218, where Ruskin, speaking of a modern work, says it possesses a grace and severity of action which we all are ready to praise; but this is not the painter's own bestowing, the trick of it is learned from Membling and Van Eyck ^ and other men of the Northern religious school." The word trick is so expressive and useful in some circumstances to explain some character- ^ "Hubert van Eyck, one of the greatest if not the greatest artist that ever lived." — Bryan's "Dictionary." 91 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS istics that Ruskin's authority for using it will be welcome to anyone who might feel diffident in applying it to art. Sometimes in the papers one reads of the dis- covery of a painting by an Old Master. On such occasion who has not contemplated at some time or other the possibility, and almost entire futility, of the desire of enjoying the pleasure and profit of such a find'' ? One who has so far enjoyed the pleasure of it on several occasions, notable instances including a seascape, a landscape, and a nude, by Rem- brandt, says that all attempts on his part to correct any error of vision by exposing those examples to criticism of others; by study of acknowledged examples — originals and repro- ductions by different processes— and the litera- ture of the subject have only intensified his con- viction. The unlikelihood of such finds has appeared to produce a form of blindness in some artists and persons of knowledge of art matters, or at least of doubt, on more than one occasion, reducing their criticism upon these examples to the single interrogation, Have you got a por- trait by Rembrandt? " With examples of three 92 Size igh X isf.] [To /ace /. 93. FROM THE PAINTING BY REMBRANDT. THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS different branches of painting by the master before them they have asked for a fourth — a portrait. However natural that insatiability, it may yet be satisfied, for it is not impossible that a very fine portrait by that great master may some day be added to the collection. A landscape, with single figure, of a religious subject; a nude of the same boy that is depicted by Rembrandt in more than one of his etchings; and a seascape strongly reminiscent, in details of treatment and arrangement, of his picture called by Michel St. Peter's Boat," by Bode and de Groot The Timorous Disciples in a Storm, erroneously called St. Peter's Boat," and with the engraving, after that painting, by Fittler, which is lettered ^'Christ in the Storm" — to act as a corrective — make up a unique if not comprehensive array of examples. These paintings brought together in the course of years from different sources, in states more or less obscured by age and matter out of place, when revived and associated, display Rem- brandtesqueness in common which is striking if not convincing. Those characteristics will appeal to the initiated, while the integrity of the names 93 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS and dates, which have more or less survived upon them, will further impress those who allow them- selves to be influenced by such attributes. Mr. Justice Darling remarked in the course of the trial as to the genuineness of the picture attributed to Romney that when he on one occa- sion pointed out the absence of signatures from pictures, a dealer answered, I do not think anything of that; I have put too many on my- self.'' It is so customary for artists to sign their pictures that when they do not it becomes a peculiarity and the reason is not always apparent. It may be that some have considered that their paintings themselves are so characteristic and known that they cannot be mistaken. It may be that they have not considered a picture worthy of their signature, or that their signature can be no additional attraction to the picture. The late Surgeon-General Sylvester, who painted portraits, among others, of Lord Roberts (now in the East India United Service Club and engraved during the Boer War) and Sir Evelyn Wood, having painted a certain portrait, placed his monogram upon it. The portrait was con- sidered to be severe in expression, and he was 94 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS asked to make some alterations. Having made them at the suggestion of the gentleman whose portrait it was, he said, Is there any other alteration you would like made? " And on re- ceiving a negative reply he meditatively painted out his monogram, remarking That is not a portrait of you, that is a portrait of Miss meaning an imaginary sister of the sitter. Too much stress should not be laid upon signatures and pedigrees of pictures. A picture may bear a bond fide signature. It may have upon it a forged signature. If no signature is present it may have been removed by design, accident, or injury, or the picture may never have been signed. Pedigrees of pictures are useful when known, but, as in the case of individuals, they cannot always be traced or may be unknown. To dis- count the importance of signatures and pedi- grees altogether is going too far. The faker seldom forgets them. They seem to fascinate him, and the romance attaching to them depends upon his ingenuity. A pedigree is often limited to some imaginary ancestral longevity of his, or someone else, which the ' '.treasure has sur- 95 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS vived. With ill-conceived desire of facilitating a change in its environment, he asks for it a sum which he fixes as a result of his estimate of the full extent of the credulity of the collector, who may be considering its acquisition. The story once started may be innocently handed on by any dupe, be he amateur or professional. Some artists seldom or never signed their pictures. Others display ingenuity in mono- graphic, hieroglyphic, or heraldic ways of signing — often difficult to decipher or interpret, when they do not sign their name. Some artists added F., f.. Fecit or fecit — others P., pinx., or pinxit — after their signa- ture. The date was often placed in the same line as, or beneath, the signature. But signatures and pedigrees when legitimate are valuable. They are not always foolishness and stumbling-blocks. An honest signature is a mark of identification placed by an artist, with something like parental pride, upon his work. It is an elegant corrective. The last thing that an artist paints upon his picture is generally his signature. Owing to this circumstance it would be the first thing to be removed, if the paint of 96 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS that part of the picture on which it is placed is disturbed, as in cleaning or some other way. That being so, its removal, with little or no disturbance of the deeper paint, is no proof that it has been fraudulently added or faked. But the appearance of the signature and facility of its removal, in that event, no doubt deserve consideration. The presence of a signature suggests, but is no verification, that a picture is painted by the owner of the signature; and in the case of those artists who do not usually sign their pictures rather creates suspicion. But suspicion does not necessarily condemn. The signature may be original or it may have been added to a genuine and original picture. Many S.E. (Stock Exchange) men would see a ^^bulP^ point in a signature upon a picture; and look upon the Romney case as a ^^stag" hunt. They are not all bears.'' The signing or not of a picture is at the caprice of the artist. It is not so with medical men in regard to their prescriptions. They are signed — not always artistically — sometimes in an undecipherable and peculiar manner. Some 97 H THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS doctors find time to add to the signature some of the letters of the alphabet which they are, as a result of examination, entitled to. An octo- genarian patient once said tto his general medical attendant — M.R.C.S. (Member of the Royal College of Surgeons) and L.R.C.P. (Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians) — Which do you prefer to be called, Dr. or Mr. } His better half (the helpmate of his life) saved the situation by interposing "What does it matter.^ I suppose he doesn't mind so long as he is called in \ " That might have happened to any Fellow ! When an orthodox member of the public commits his health or disease to the care of a qualified practitioner he often relieves his mind. The degree to which he hands himself over depends upon his confidence. When confidence is established in a practitioner, some, especially Americans, address the disciple of iEsculapius as " Doc.'' When the abbreviation is made it usually implies esteem. There are some " pencillers " whose " nod " is as good as their signature. To them " even money " is no " odds." 98 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Decided judgment in most matters in which there is any difficulty is not to be arrived at in a glance. It generally takes more or less time to work out. It may be said, with deference to those of other opinions, that the same may be applied to the attribution of pictures. The ex- amination of the picture is most important. If there be a signature it should be scrutinised. After examining the tablet from the original frame of the disputed picture with the remains of a torn label upon it, his lordship remarked : I can decipher the name ' Romney it is very like Bill Stumps, His Mark.'^ A photograph of an old painting which shows intrinsic attributes of a certain great artist was shown to the director of a very important gallery. While the director was examining the photo- graph it was pointed out to him that there appeared to be a signature upon it which " looked like R and some other letters.'' The director, looking through a magnifying glass, observed : ^' It looks to me like ^R.I.P.' The owner of the photo so enjoyed the wit of the director that he shortly after called again to show him another picture, this time a painting. The director was 99 H 2 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS out, and the assistant director displayed no wit, though he implied that the attribution of this other picture was correct, but that the example was not one of the artist's best. At the time it was thickly obscured by varnish which con- cealed its delicacy. A photograph subsequently taken of the sig- nature read by the director as R.I.P.'^ showed the signature of a particular artist that the director had incidentally mentioned, in a letter to the Press a short time previously, that " he would go any distance to see an example of.'' A signature, as has been said, may be a good clue." It may also be some confirma- tion. Having no desire to indulge in what Whistler called the ^'Gentle Art of Making Enemies," or that this effort should be mistaken for a work on fishing with melancholy bait, further examples of expert criticism are not now made public; they are being kept for the commercial court." But members of the cult may be ad- vised to take heart, to accept criticism, however punishing, and to come up smiling:—- 100 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS For pursuits, each a quiet hobby, Fill time, or the live-long day, 'Twixt the employments of the busy And their amusements, sometimes gay. What can you see in a hobby ? Some think it time thrown away! Critics are not all like Dizzy,'' Who saw what to-morrow would pay! While Mr. John Collier was in the witness box, his lordship inquired: *'Who was it said that the critic is usually one who has failed in literature or art? '' The Witness : It was Benjamin Disraeli.'' Benjamin Disraeli — Dizzy " — author, orator and statesman, was created Earl of Beaconsfield, 1876, and was pre-eminently distinguished in literature and politics. From 1874 to 1880 he was First Lord of the Treasury. It was on his advice that Great Britain acquired its large hold- ing in Suez Canal shares with the influence attached to them. On his arrival from the European Concert at Berlin in 1878, he stood up in the landau at Charing Cross and said to the vociferous populace : I have brought you lOI THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Peace with Honour " — memorable words. His reference to his rival party leader as a man inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity 'Ms a model of cryptical speech that has been rivalled on occasion since by politicians, but never equalled or excelled. It is said that Gainsborough did not sign his pictures, nor did Romney, and in a large book upon Sir Joshua Reynolds's pictures it is stated that he is only known to have signed two of them. Sir John Simon, in the Romney case, men- tioned that Sir Joshua Reynolds, when he painted Mrs. Siddons as ^' The Tragic Muse,'' departed from his usual course and wrote his name upon the canvas and the hem of her garment. His Lordship: "Yes, it was a very nice compli- ment." An authority, speaking of Van Dyck, says : " Out of 600 or 800 canvases attributed to Van Dyck one could only mention fifteen or twenty bearing signatures. In the majority of cases it is an addition due to a strange hand. Many of the signatures have a respectable antiquity, but are of no better quality on that account." 102 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS It is possible that the pictures were signed more often than artists are credited with signing them. Signatures are hidden with such modesty sometimes that having found one it is almost impossible to get anyone else to see it. The photographer corroborates the finder by pro- ducing it upon a plate. The writer discovered, in the shade, under the seam of a substantial cushion, to the left in a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds the name of the artist and the date, 1785. Some people when their attention is directed to a picture, thought to be by a certain great artist, at once proceed to look for the signa- ture upon it or inquire whether it is signed — as if it were a cheque. Even in that case the signature is not always valuable, for a lady received a letter from her bank manager intimat- ing, to her surprise, that she had overdrawn her account by ;^300. She at once sat down and wrote out a cheque for ^300, having signed which, she enclosed it to her banker saying she had pleasure in sending him a cheque for the amount which she had overdrawn. In that case the signature was obviously of no value. An 103 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS illiterate and poor man, who had become very rich as a result of practical business operations, once said he was a rich man until he learned how to sign his name. The works of some artists are very rich, unsigned or signed. There have been some artists whose best work was very good, but who are known to have dashed off many pot-boilers,^' and their signa- tures are much en evidence upon them. The late T. B. Hardy is unfortunately among them. He was perhaps the finest water-colour painter of marine subjects of recent years. It takes some people who are interested in the cult a long time to get beyond the stage of searching for signatures, instead of seeking qualities in the picture itself. It is interesting to have the artist's signature as well as his picture, but that is not what is usually implied by the inquiry, ''Is it signed.'^'' However, enough has been said to show that the picture is more important than the signature, though some would seem to think the reverse. One would suppose from the sine qua non manner in which they ask for the signature that its exhibition would be sufficient to establish 104 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS the genuine attribution of the picture. As a rule, the least informed rely most upon signatures. There must necessarily be traffic in old pic- tures as in all of this world's goods. Desire for their possession or for their retention is under certain influences and subject to the com- mon channel of valuation. A signature upon a picture may be a salve acting like a charm upon an inexperienced collector desirous of its possession; while a substantial and open cheque would seldom fail as a panacea for the wounded sentiment or itching palm that all must suffer from, more or less, when parting with a work of art. There are some art critics and some artists who only attribute a picture when they are hit in the eye by the artist on sight '' of his picture. Perhaps some rely too much upon " instinct," which none seem ready to explain. It is human to err. A detailed examination should reasonably be made if the critic is to avoid the possibility of error arising from conclusion at first sight. 105 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS A signature upon a picture may not affect the judgment of an art critic, but it is not so irrele- vant as was the presence or absence of a date upon the document placed by Mrs. Bardell in her window, and as to which one of the jurors made inquiry during the trial of Bardell v. Pickwick. When the Mona Lisa was being identified after its recovery, those critics who were familiar with the picture made a minute exami- nation aided by lenses and photography, and no one wrote to the papers to suggest that such a proceeding was unnecessary, misleading, or foolish. The officers of the C.I.D., when they have in custody a suspected original, confirm their opinion by careful and, if possible, finger-print examination. The shopman inspects and rings'' the doubtful coin. A doctor on seeing a case of scarlet fever, smallpox or other characteristic disease may be hit in the eye '' on sight of the patient, but he nevertheless makes a detailed examination upon which to confirm or found his opinion. io6 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Bewick, the celebrated wood engraver, impressed his thumb-print in the foliage of the unsigned proofs of his chef d^ceuvre^ ^^The Chillingham Bull/' to avoid fraud by his work- men. Artists, while still living, have been so copied even to their signatures, during their lifetime, that they have found it necessary and profitable to make a charge for verifying their pictures for those who were in doubt as to the genuineness of their possessions, actual or con- templated. Among them is Sidney Cooper, the landscape and cattle painter. Copies, especially when well executed, are embarrassing and require great skill for their determination. It would be a mistake to suppose that the Fine Arts monopolise signatures and marks. The products of the Useful Arts are often stamped with a " trade-mark or a signature — sometimes both — the commercial value of which is recognised, and property in them is protected by special laws. Real or fancied infringements of them may lead to prolonged litigation, although the questions raised often appear trivial. In recent years the Courts have 107 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS had to decide *^What is a sardine?'^ To say it is a hors d^ceuvre — literally, a digression — would be unsatisfying if not unpalatable to legal minds. *^What is whiskey was another conun- drum that the Courts were called upon to answer. The question was argued with spirit — the judges as usual insisting on proof. A year or two ago the High Court was approached for its opinion as to whether " a winkle is a fish,'^ The language of Shake- speare — Tut, a pin! this shall be answered " — puts a method of investigation in a nutshell. It was not mentioned that the three judges who said that a winkle is a fish arrived at that gustatory decision as a result of a Bohean experi- ment. They generally rise before " five o^clock.'' Distinguished artists, art critics, and dealers may be far from unanimous as to the attribu- tion of a picture, and may express contradictory opinions among themselves, and in their differ- ent classes. Unless they have made a special study of the work of an artist to whom the picture may be correctly attributed, they THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS cannot be in a position to make a correct attribution. When the attribution of a picture IS in doubt a field of artists is in question. It is almost necessary to have special knowledge of the work of all the artists in that field, to be capable of expressing a weighty opinion. Of course, a picture in question may be by a particular artist of whom the person judging has a complete knowledge, and so he may correctly recognise the work and attribute it. Those who have knowledge, more or less, may by patiently studying the picture in ques- tion, and the possible artists to have painted it, arrive at a correct attribution. In considering the attribution of a picture there are many points for investigation — the general tone, colour, composition and drawing of the subject; to which class of subject it belongs; the scale of it; the light and shade; the pose, grace, sentiment, and other special and general characteristics. More diflficult, for those uninitiated in the art of painting, will be the technical detail, among which handling,'' "treatment," "foreshortening,'' and "brush- work " may be mentioned. 109 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS It may be noticed in paintings by skilful artists that the outlines, when examined closely, are not one continuous line, but are arrived at to appear as a series of strokes. For instance, take a nude knee-joint in a semi-flexed position, what one may call the outline of it appears to be a series of strokes establishing a continuity by junction, but in effect giving a representa- tion of the natural curves and lines of the region. That is observable in good work. It is extraordinary that a famous artist who had been looking at a nude, believed by the owner to be by one of the greatest painters that ever lived, said it had not the smallest resem- blance.'' On being asked why he said so, he turned his back upon the picture, took a pencil and piece of paper, and drawing a figure like a bent sausage he said, "the knee is like that! '' " How would the artist mentioned have drawn it.'^ '' " Oh ! the outline would have looked like that! '' putting a series of strokes to form the outline. It happened that a day or two after- wards a connoisseur of china while looking at the same painting exclaimed: "Look here! have you ever noticed the way the knee is put in.'^ '' "Why, what do you mean? '' "Don't you see, no THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS it is put in by a series of strokes! In other words, the great painter said a condition was absent, with the presence of which the connois- seur of china and other works of art was so struck that he drew attention to it as above set forth. Surely the unprompted positive obser- vation of the presence of the condition is more likely to be exact than the reference to its absence. As a matter of fact, the presence of the condition is obvious, and the owner is con- vinced that the attribution to the great master, for several other reasons as well, is correct. Artists have shown a preference for special kinds of canvas for their paintings, some pre- ferring a smooth and others a twill canvas, some using either. At different times the quality or coarseness of the canvas has varied too. Some had an impression that Romney always painted on smooth canvas. Whether he usually did so or not, a witness, an expert on canvas, in the case said he had examined the Romney canvases in the National Gallery and that four were twill and three were smooth canvases. Some years ago a lady from Dublin, during a short stay in London, went to the National Gallery to see a recent acquisition. Being III THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS pressed for time, she inquired of an atten- dant as to its whereabouts. Pointing down the gallery to a picture facing them in the distance, he said, There it is; it cost ;^6o,ooo.** ^^Sixty-thousand pounds!^' she exclaimed. The attendant, turning half round, pointed up another gallery to a larger picture, facing them at the end of it, saying That one cost ;i^40,ooo.'^ The daughter of Erin, intent upon shopping, rejoined : I see more canvas for less money.'' The fun of her remark was intensified by the native beauty of her glance and brogue, of which she had ample gifts. Painting in an oil medium may have existed before, but it has been known on authority since 1420. Paintings, like everything else in this world, are subject to decay, injury, and destructive processes, and so are the substances or materials on which they are painted. And the repair of paintings is known to have been recom- mended long ago by Buonarotti and the Caracci, as related by Lanzi. Carlo Maratti restored some of the Raffaelles as described by Bellori. The Government of Venice, in 1778, appointed a committee to watch over and arrest decay or 112 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS preserve paintings, and a studio for the purpose was opened. And so the preservation and restoration of old pictures has become an art in itself. It is beyond the scope of the author to go into further detail on the subject here, but a timely warning not to disturb, beyond sponging with water a little, any old painting in which great possibilities are thought to exist should be accepted wisely and rigidly by all those who know nothing about cleaning pictures. Irrepar- able damage can be done in a moment by those who have no knowledge of the subject. But the points to be brought out here are that the canvases, panels, or other substances on which old paintings are painted will present appearances commensurate with their age ; that repairs may have been previously executed, and that not infre- quently old canvases have rotted and broken away at the edges and have been relined. So proficient are some restorers that they even, as it were, transfer the paintings on canvases to panels and even the painting from one canvas to another. The detail of all this is as interesting as it is surprising. At present, the writer, not being a painter, 113 » THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS has said very little of what an artist might see, from his point of view, in a picture. As a preliminary to this, the study of the little book, Ruskin's ''Frondes Agrestes'': Readings on '' Modern Painters,'' which treats of the '' prin- ciples of art; power and office of imagination; the sky, streams and sea; streams and sky; moun- tains; stones; plants and flowers; education and the moralities '' may be recommended. They are likely to be of '' permanent interest to general readers,'' and anyone interested in the cult of old paintings will find a primer in the little book. Well! how much zealous application, even by an observant person, will be necessary to get a real artistic understanding of only some of these as characterising even only a few painters. Then when it is acquired and the power is possessed, it is not unlikely that when the opportunity arises for displaying it he will be caught napping. If his error is due to his being at the time himself a bit " off colour," he deserves sympathy, but his reputation as an authority, if he had one, may vanish. Ruskin Modern Painters," vol. iii., p. 39) points out that 'The greatness of style depends "4 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS on the sum of truth/ which can be ^ increased by delicacy of handlingy^ and ^ all great art must have this delicacy to the utmost possible degree. This rule is infallible and inflexible. All coarse work is the sign of low art. Only, it is to be remembered that coarseness must be estimated by the distance from the eye ' at which the artist intends the paint to be viewed. What, seen near, appear coarse strokes of a master, viewed at the proper distance are in reality ^ more delicate than the finest close handling,' for there is necessary to produce it ^ in the finger and eye, an ineffably delicate estimate of distance and touch.' Seen closely, such master-strokes, laid on with such subtle delicacy and modulation, ^ look to an ignorant spectator merely like a violent dash of loaded colour and are as such imitated by blundering artists.' Lacking the qualities of the master the result is coarse. ^ All great Art is delicate art, and all coarse Art is bad art.' Ruskin says there is absolutely no exception to that rule, and that ^ nearly every other rule applicable to Art has some exception.' By way of illustration, take Gainsborough and Morland. Their masterpieces are among those iI5 1 2 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS more generally familiar and loved. All the eminent men of the day sat to Gainsborough and he was the favourite of the King and Royal Family. When a very fine portrait by Gainsborough changes hands, what is to ordi- nary folk a large fortune is transferred from one banking account to another, unless it is picked up," which is very unlikely nowadays. And yet Gainsborough himself desired to be remembered for his landscapes. Gamsborough (172 7- 1788) and Morland (i 764- 1804) were to some extent contemporaries. The rural pieces of Gains- borough greatly surpass Morland' s best perfor- mances in sentimenty composition^ and effect. Gainsborough rich, straining at transparency, often flimsy y had too little solidity ^ while Mor- land carried it to excess, and in light and shade the former had greatly the advantage. Both are incorrect in drawing and loose in execution. Of Gainsborough, as a colourist, Ruskin said ^ in management and quality of single and par- ticular tint,' ^ in the purely technical part of painting, Turner is a child to Gainsborough.' ^ The portraiture of Romney (i 734-1 802) was ^ Modern Painters," vol. i., Preface note, p. xx. 116 Size 26^ X 20^] FROM A PAINTING BY THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH. Size 30 X 23] [To /ace p. 116 THE WATERING PLACE. Painted by T. Gainsborough.] [Engraved by W. INIiller Size 9I X 7. THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS of a more poetical type than either that of Rey- nolds or Gainsborough. Simplicity too was one of his chief characteristics . . . nothing of the ^ stagy ^ element of Reynolds, nor of the showy dexterity of Gainsborough; as a draughtsman he ranks high among his contemporaries, and must for ever remain one of the chief glories of English painting. Morland's interiors are considered to be his best productions." ^ There is charm in the graceful ease and simple serenity of Romney's figures. Gainsborough^s want of solidity and Morland's excess of it have been referred to. Romney is in that respect somewhere between the two. The reference to the rich, transparent, flimsy foliage and drape- ries of Gainsborough, and his association in this narrative with Romney may recall the firmer, heavier, yet transparent lacework and trees of Romney. There is more solidity, less trans- parency, displayed by Romney's painting of flesh than Gainsborough shows. Slight references to and comparisons of the work of several artists have been made, the intention being rather to show the way as the * Extracted from Bryan's Dictionary," 117 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS sign-posts do that one meets with at the turnings in a country lane. In the volume Gower on Romney, a sketch for a picture is reproduced entitled Poverty and Wealth.'' In it Lady Hamilton is repre- sented as Poverty,'' hatless, in a gown not un- like some of the simpler ones that have been worn in recent years, with arms bare, a long rustic stick in her left hand, the right being held up to receive the coin from a lady of wealth in ithe height of fashion. Poverty " is seen advancing towards ^'Wealth," her right foot forward; her face is averted from the lady, so that it appears vis-a-vis to the spectator. Shyness, modesty, and gratitude are displayed in the beautiful face of Emma Hart (Lady Hamilton). If the pic- ture was ever painted, Romney must have expressed the sentiment and caught the life of the scene. One is reminded by it of what Ruskin says somewhere, All dress is thus heraldic . . . but all is heraldic from the beggar's rag to the King's diadem." In a book of plates of drawings by Gains- borough, a crayon sketch — sketch for a land- scape — is reproduced. A Gainsborough, pre- ii8 Size 6| X 8.] THE MARKET CART (in the National Gallery). Published for the Proprietors by Geo. Virtue, 20, Ivy Lane. Painted by Gainsborough. Engraved by J. C. F»entley. A MARKET CART. From a Painting by T, Gainsborough. [7V /ace p. 119. THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS viously referred to, is precisely the landscape depicted in that sketch of Gainsborough^s. On cross-roads at the spot he has added in the paint- ing his favourite wagoner. Old Wiltshere, the public carrier of Bath, seated on his wagon, which is being drawn by two horses — tandem — a* bay wheeler and a white leader." In the wagon are three calves and on the footboard in front a terrier. The wagoner and horses homeward plod their weary way " along the winding and undulating roads. Wiltshere used to carry Gainsborough's pictures to and fro between Bath and London when they were sent to the Academy. The painting is admittedly by Gains- borough. The purchase at Christie's by a well-known firm of dealers of two pictures by Honthorst, being reported in the Press, led a private owner to submit to them a Honthorst for sale. It was returned to him on the ground that it was of no particular or saleable value and they only bought for resale. Its authenticity was unquestioned. Subsequently the picture was seen by a well- known A.R.A., who spoke very highly indeed of its artistic merit. A few days later, when the 119 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS same owner informed the A.R.A. that the sufFra- gettes had hacked the Velasquez Venus in the National Gallery, his rejoinder was, ^'As a work of art, I would rather have that Hon- thorst of yours than it.'^ He added, Its value is affected very much by fashion — but, fashion or no fashion, it is worth . . . pounds.'^ Much diversity of opinion has been expressed regarding that Velasquez,'' for which ;^40,ooo was paid, I think, on behalf of the National Gallery. Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and En- gravers (Illustrated, Biographical and Critical)," 1 9 13, consists of five volumes, about 1800 pages, quarto size, so the number of artists whose work is worthy of record, and more or less extant, can be imagined. That is an immense field. The number in the field of, so to say, fashionable painters, old and modern, is much smaller but stiJl very large. Then there is a much smaller field of the elite of fashion, including such masters as Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, Gainsborough, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Romney, Turner, Raeburn — only to mention a 120 Size 2ii X i5i.] [To face p. 120. FROM THE PAINTING BY G. VAN HONTHORST, 1652. THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS few of olden and none of modern days. From time to time a painter's work is admitted to this circle of the elite^ not always to remain, just as others in it drop out of it, not necessarily never to return. The entry to, and departure from, that mystic circle are controlled by merit or some occult power. The foregoing gives some idea of the impossibility of acquiring sufficient know- ledge to satisfy, on sight or even with mature examination, the not uncommon question that inquiring possessors of unearthed old pictures expect any artist, or anyone with any reputation at all in the world pertaining to paintings, to answer offhand — the question Who is it by .'^ The worst of it is that so many, who know much, appear for some inscrutable reason or other to support those expectations by seldom being at a loss to reply and to attribute the picture to some artist, not always correctly, but, much more frequently, evasively answering in some such phrase as It is not a picture of any importance.'' By that the interest in the picture is chilled and more often than not, unless it is furnishing a wall, ^'decorative" as they say, it disappears into the lumber-room until some 121 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS accidental circumstance maybe again brings it to light, perhaps only to meet the same fate; al- though now and again, if the pitcher has not been broken by going too often to the well,'' some such picture is identified and may possibly become one of the elite for sale to the National Gallery or to be exiled to America. But it must not be thought that every old canvas or panel has such potentialities. The majority have not, although paintings are subject to the universal law of survival of the fittest. Mr. Leslie Scott, for the defendants, said plaintiff had no doubt until December, 1913, when Mr. Joseph Duveen doubted it, but that the picture in dispute was by Romney. His Lordship : What sort of inhuman crea- ture is it who would suggest to a man who is pleased with his purchase that it is not a Romney — especially if he paid 100,000 dollars for it.'* That question having arisen in his Lordship's mind, it would be interesting to know his view as to what punishment would fit the crime of the killjoy who said that a genuine example of a great painter is not by him, has not the smallest resemblance" to his work; or 122 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS expresses his opinion, as one well-known dealer did, on an occasion when he was looking at a picture, when he said, ^'Who do you think it is by? On the answer being given, on distin- guished authority, " by Romney,'^ he replied : "Then it's not! You asked for it and now you've got it." If the portrait of such an expert is ever painted and his picture be not hung, let no one shoot at it, as the expert may have done his best ! And in these days muni- tions must not be wasted. Disappointing are they who — by masterly inactivity — do a wilful stillness entertain, With purpose to be dress in an opinion Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit, As who should say, * I am Sir Oracle.' * In the admissibility of comparison of asso- ciated engraved, photographic, and painted por- traits experts seem to agree. The differences of opinion that may exist among them was largely illustrated in the Romney case, as to which much reference has been made, and a study of the whole case would throw much light upon the subject. Besides many paintings and pictures of many ' Merchant of Venice,*' Act. I., Sc. i. 123 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS kinds, much literature, such as ancient Academy and auctioneers' catalogues, diaries, newspapers and playbills, were greedily referred to. Photographs of pictures may be produced displaying the brushwork and touch of an artist, and, to get the effect of the actual handi- work of the painter, the photo should not be taken in too flattering a light, and must be absolutely untouched by the photographer. In fact, a photo taken out of doors by an amateur would be more valuable for the purpose. The glossy bromide photos are often best, but some- times the plain bromide photos show most. Magnified photography and its study throw con- siderable light upon this subject. More often than not an artist or critic would reserve his final judgment until he had seen the original painting. A passenger in a stage- carriage was examining the proof of a photo when there was sitting next to him an elderly party, who, having evidently caught sight of it, exclaimed ^'Lor! that's a fine baby, is it yours? " No,'' he answered her, it's by Sir Joshua Reynolds." " Anyhow it's a very fine boy! " was her final rejoinder. The photograph 124 Size 28I X 24I.] [To face p. 124. FROM THE PAINTING BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS was really of a painting of a cupid starting up after awaking. His wings being of blue feathers, like those of the famous macaw which the great painter favoured more than once in the composition of the surroundings in his portraits, did not ''come out so plainly in the photo. Photographs often show details, even signa- tures, maybe, that escape the eye when examin- ing pictures. In reference to photography of moving objects, it must be considered that the successful camera operator takes an instantaneous photo- graph of a living object when it is moving, and so, for example, a horse galloping may be photographed in an attitude that no one ever sees, but in which it was at the instant of being photographed. It must be remembered that when a person is watching a horse galloping the eye receives upon the retina a rapid succession of impressions, which are generalised by the mind, in a way which recalls the effects of the amusing machine or toy known as the Wheel of Life.'' An incident occurred one summer Sunday afternoon at the roadside on the top of Rich- mond Hill suggesting the degree of fellow- 125 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS feeling existing between artists and photo- graphers. The late Phil May, standing erect in a landau, while smoking a huge cigar was looking through field glasses enjoying the distant view, when the itinerant photographer, who has a pitch on the pathside for his portable dark room, touched the artist who, keeping the glasses raised, dropped his eyes upon his interrupter. The take-it- while-you-wait-Sir operator was holding up a specimea of his work. Phil May quietly drew out a cigar case of extra large cigars, opened it and extended it to the photographer, who in astonishment withdrew one and saluted. Not a word passed between them. But upon Phil May's face there was a thoughtful, kindly expression which had not passed off when he once more adjusted the field glasses and resumed his survey. Five seconds covered the time of the incident, but it made an impression. Phil May was evidently quite unconscious of being recog- nised or observed by anyone. There are more people know Jim Crow than Jim Crow knows.'' Windsor Castle is visible from the spot on a clear day. There are to be seen some of the finest pictures. They are accessible to the public. 126 Size i8^ X 15^^.] [7'o face p. 127. "YARICO AND MR. INKLE." Vide Sj)eciator — Story of, by Sir Richard Steele. Thomas Gainsborough.] THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS It is a matter of inquiry with some people as to how it is that these painters, Reynolds, Gains- borough, and a few artists of that period, are so famous and sought after. Consider their pro- ductions, and the fact that the English school was practically founded by artists of that time. For instance, it is acknowledged that two eminent men, Wilson and Gainsborough, laid the foundation of our school of landscape; their works are full of the truest nature and the purest fancy, and their fame is now properly felt.^^ Wilson's art was more or less founded on the Italian school. Gainsborough's more directly from Nature and the contemplation of the Dutch school, Hobbema and others. Imagine a genea- logical tree of all the artists that have existed since the foundation of the school of English landscape, all, so to say, descended from Wilson and Gainsborough. How they have multiplied and what an enormous number of them there are now, and the total of their works so great that unless they are of very special merit they are likely to be lost in the ^'glut" of which artists now frequently complain. As founders and masters of the art, it is no wonder they are 127 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS reverenced more and more as wealth and the world grow, while the number of their works decreases with the ravages of time. J. M. W. Turner, R.A., was born 1775, London and became an R.A. in 1802, after- wards moving from Hand Court to 64 Harley Street. He appears to have determined to excel the great painters of the world in sea and land- scape. He died in 1851, and during his long life from colouring prints for John Raphael Smith in his young days he, by the deliberate exercise of his imagination, perception, and skill, developed powers which caused his supreme eminence to be acknowledged. His pictures are wonderful illustrations of master- ful technique, as the qualities are described by Ruskin, who had a devoted admiration for him. Turner was remarkable for his facility in the power of depicting nature, and some think he was by far the greatest of our landscape painters — perhaps the greatest landscape painter the world has ever known. Emerson ^ says : " Art universally is the spirit ^ Emerson's ''Society and Solitude.'* 128 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS creative, and aims at use or beauty. Hence Art divides itself into the Useful and the Fine Arts.'' Again he says : The conscious utterances of thought, by speech or action, to any end, is Art." As applied to painting it is so, he says, from the tattooing of the Owhyhees to the Vatican Gallery." The Useful Arts often bring riches to those who engage in them. Those who practise the Fine Arts rarely make fortunes. It is fortunate that the useful millionaire finds diversion in the Fine Arts and supports the members of that division. Among them are many who are called Bohemians — they, least of all, find it necessary to keep a staff of clerks to keep their books in order, but has anyone ever known any artist that did so? The Bohemian may be more punc- tilious about his washing book than any memo, of account, so absorbing is talent. Alas! Its value is seldom reaped in their generation and not always fully recognised until their centenary. Lavater said : Does not genius continually, with eagle eye and flight, anticipate centuries.'^ " Daedalus, an Athenian, the most ingenious artist of his age, the inventor of, among other 120 K THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS things, sails for ships, while imprisoned in a labyrinth which he had constructed, made wings of feathers and wax and carefully fitted them to his body and to that of his son, who was a com- panion of his' confinement. They took their flight in the air from Crete; but the heat of the sun melted the wax on the wings of the son, Icarus, whose flight was too high, and he fell into that part of the ocean which, after him, has been called the Icarian Sea. The father, by a proper management of his wings, alighted at Cumae, where he built a temple to Apollo. Were they the prototypes of the flying men of to-day ? Many portray an artist, in their imagination, as standing drawing at an easel, a briar,'' or both. The majority of artists worship at the shrine of Nicotine — Which from east to west Cheers the tar's labour or the Turkman's rest! Charles Lamb, whose solace it had been, aban- doned its use and embodied the floating fancies which had attended on his long wavering in one of the richest of his poems" — The Farewell to ^ Byron, "The Island," Canto II., Stanza 19. 130 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Tobacco.'^ ^ James I., wrote A Counterblaste to Tobacco,'' published in 1604. The effects of tobacco are spoken of by many as evil.'' What they really refer to are the evil effects of over-smoking or of smoking by persons having an idiosyncrasy for tobacco. But most of the classes called anti " have mistaken or exaggerated ideas. An exception may, per- haps, be made in the case of the anti-fat, whose performances, when diet is neglected, are so modest that — unless displayed and pushed by advertisement — they might escape notice. But tobacco is a luxury — in proper circumstances — social and convivial. From hygienic and economic points of view it should not be indulged in to the exclusion of necessaries. Some think it creates an appetite for spirituous liquors, but there are too many persons on whom it has no such effect for that to be admitted ipso facto. The two may be associated, no doubt, and so are eating and drinking. In moderation, according to the requirements of the individual as expertly gauged by their effects upon him, tobacco does no harm. Most people will admit ' Talfourd. 131 K 2 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS the evil effects of an over-dose of coal gas or of chloroform without personally testing them. In excess, tobacco and ''drink" form a horrible combination in either sex. Perhaps never on the stage has studio life and Bohemianism been so charmingly displayed as it was in "Trilby." Besides the fascinating heroine, to whom the play owes its title, the late Sir Beerbohm Tree's impersonation of Svengali was one of his most realistic masterpieces, and the closing scene of Svengali's career, as then represented, was a creeping and thrilling imita- tion, heightened and made more impressive by the artifices of light, shade, and colour. Those who follow the Useful Arts generally work hard and consistently. The great men among them employ large staffs, even thousands of men. They seek recreation in the society most easy to them. Some men find it in debate and, as Emerson says, '' at the approach of a dispute neigh like horses." Elsewhere he says : '' What is it we look for in the landscape, in sunsets and sunrises, in the sea and the firma- ment ? What but a compensation for the cramp and pettiness of human performances " 132 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Therefore, to be possessed with double pomp, To guard ^ a title that was rich before. To gild refined gold, to paint the lily. To throw a perfume on the violet, To smooth the ice, or add another hue Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish. Is wasteful, and ridiculous excess.^ Variety is necessary for healthy existence; in the alternation of work and recreation it is ob- tained. Much recreation is afforded by books which utter what tens of thousands feel though they cannot say; society; clubs"; and, of many others, the Fine Arts including the cult of old paintings. They are all affected — some more than others. In writing about books, Emerson says : " There is a class whose value I should designate as Favourites?^ He speaks of the predilections and even delirious delight — almost mania — of some book lovers for examples rare by reason of their edition or some signature pertaining to them. Indeed, a man's library is a sort of harem, and," he observes, that tender readers have a great pudency in showing their books to a ^ To guard here means to ornament by addition. 2 ''King John,^' Act IV., Sc. ii. 133 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS stranger.^' Perhaps those remarks will be even more applicable to collectors of pictures. The collector during many years may look back upon phases of his fancy or preferences at different epochs for various subjects — as in other interests — a seven ages of taste, sometimes but not always running concurrently would appear to exist. Sometimes the subject of a reproduction of a work of art, an old master, sometimes a more modern work, becomes as familiar as anything that all who run may read, by reason of its being used as a poster^' to draw attention to some commercial speciality. Why should it not be.^ You cannot have too much of a good thing. How misleading testimonials may be was amusingly exposed by that choice pictorial ad- vertisement of " Two years ago I used since when I have used no other,' ^ which is too familiar to need full or further description — except to say that the proprietors of the article must have had the fullest confidence in its virtue before giving the public so much amusement at its expense. Millions who enjoyed it now daily apply the soft impeachment " to themselves. The popularity of pictures was never greater 134 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS than it is to-day. The Pictures rival every form of entertainment and even public worship. Their effects are relied upon as excuses and de- fences for juvenile offenders, so that their in- fluence of that kind upon older persons is highly probable. These conditions are engrossing the mind of philosophers for the public weal and of legislators. In the picture palaces and on hoardings — the people's picture gallery — they are sowing seed. The exploits of our magnificent Army and Navy, full of indescribable heroism, are not in- cluded in this reference. The influence of those is full of patriotism, brave example, and in- evitably of sadness; for has anyone escaped family bereavement in this war.'^ Or the loss of a friend.'^ In vain does valour bleed, While avarice and rapine share the land."i Thank Goodness! some '^kultur" in an underwater experiment exploded, burnt the fingers of its military inventors, and roused the statue of Liberty. Hail Columbia! The immense power of pictorial advertise- ment is recognised by Government Departments 1 Milton. 135 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS — recruiting, financial, economic — as well as by the great commercial houses, whose greatness has sometimes arisen and may depend for its maintenance upon such advertisement, which is not always artistically and tastefully selected. Mimicry is not confined to the young — an idea may be young in the head that is on old shoulders. In this connection, therefore, teaching the young idea how to shoot'' is not limited to juvenile application. Nowadays the man in the street, as he pur- sues the even or uneven tenor of his way, sees before him, often with wearisome repetition, highly coloured posters — some that are works of art, others not so — all pushing upon him food, drink or entertainment. The latter draw- ing attention to heroes, heroines, and their per- formances; villains and their villainies in dramatic or book form; and many other attrac- tions. In considering the possible influence of these displays it is necessary to take into account the diff^erent conditions, physical and mental, of in- dividuals at the time that these exhibitions are thrust upon them. The physical, mental and 136 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS economic state, as well as the environment in which the individual is living, has to be thought of when considering the effect of viewing the illustrations that are put before his eyes, upon permanent or temporary hoardings. Physical and mental conditions are associated and depend primarily upon a common source, that of food supply. They are influenced by work, recreation, and fatigue. Work in the ab- stract is beneficial and so is recreation. Either of those may induce fatigue. Fatigue may be healtjhy and natural^ — certainly over-fatigue is injurious. Environment includes housing; conditions of work — whether injurious or not by reason of its nature or pressure; domestic comfort. Among its influences are everyday circum- stances — with their attendant just or unjust associations — among which are success, wealth; failure, poverty; unevenness of the course of true and of domestic love; pent-up desires; starvation — res angusta domi — and emotional. Films set with intellectual jewels await ex- ploitation, while unedifying scenes turn the milk of human kindness. 137 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Many pictorial advertisements are artistic and elevating. Some crudity and garishness — however piquant e some of them may be, and some are sauce itself — is to a certain extent excusable. Their life is out of doors, subject to exposure in all weathers, albeit of short dura- tion. Variety of taste in men's — and women's — minds has a very wide range. What is hideous to one another will think beautiful. What makes one man's mouth water causes another to consult his panel doctor for loss of appetite. Say what pictorially advertised products a man eats and imbibes; what books and papers he reads; what investments he makes; what occu- pation he follows" or seeks; what shows " he frequents — mention those, and without con- sulting the crystal, cards, tea-leaves, or stars, his character may be more correctly read and fore- told perhaps than by the most bewitching crea- ture, " oriental " or old crone, whether at home," in a wigwam anywhere, or a seductive suite in Bond Street. The characteristics — vanity and desire for notoriety — vary in different people. In some, 138 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS who may be devoid of ambition, they are absent. In others they are overpowering. Do you recall the pictorial posters and pic- torial advertisements of not many years ago — were they of " CasselPs Popular Educator ? — in which a patched, half-dressed and de- generated urchin is staring with all his might and amazement at The Boy, what will he be- come.'^'' which displayed a sound, healthy- looking head of a small boy, to the left of the picture; and proceeding to the right from that, an upper row, a progressive representation of the boy engaged in prosperous occupations at different ages — through youth to manhood and venerable old age; and below it a row repre- senting youth passing through unthrifty con- ditions and states to intemperate, poverty- stricken and miserable old age. The seven ages of man was the subject. It was one of the earliest, as it certainly was one of the most perennial, of the early pictorial posters. It probably had a very educational and beneficial influence upon boyhood, manhood and old age. In those days, neither in defence of juveniles, 129 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS nor of "children of larger growth,^' were fhe " Pictures pleaded as excuses^ for offences. But reading " Dick Turpin,'' " Jack Sheppard,'' and literature of criminal adventure used to be paraded as the influences respon- sible for crime committed by juveniles and adolescents. By the way, what has become of the eugenic crusaders and their bucolic ideas since the outbreak of war? The subject is an important one, and a reasonable and practical exposition of it should have a beneficial influence. Reference has been made to fortune telling. Sir Joshua Reynolds^s picture of " The For- tune Teller is a most attractive one, displaying the insinuating uncanniness of the gipsy and the laughing, shy, ingenuous state of mind of her victim. Such a scene is a familiar one among the picnickers at race meetings. The only impression remaining of a particular visit to Epsom on a Derby or Oaks day — one or the other — ^years ago, and it is a vivid one, is that of seeing Sir Edward Clarke, one of a party, on the off-side seat next the door of a wagonette, away down on the lower part of the 140 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS hill facing the course and stands. Sir Edward, in black '^topper'' and dark grey frock coat, supporting himself with his hands on the handle of his perpendicular umbrella, looking straight in front of him, sitting — Like his grandsire cut in alabaster.*' ^ while a sun-burnt, black-haired gipsy girl was importuning her pretty gentleman to allow her to tell his fortune. His expression was so adamantine that she may have been administer- ing to him her ^'warning,'' or whispering — "I'll conjure you, Til fortune tell you."* ^' There needs no more than impudence on one side, and a superstitious credulity on the other, to the setting up of a fortune teller.'^ ^ If Sir Edward drew or had anything on the winner that year, he would more easily recall the name of the horse. It was probably on that day, too, that the champion of the prize ring, the late Peter Jack- son, the long-armed, agile, Roman-featured " black," was to the fore on the box seat of a coach. ^ Shakespeare. ^ L 'Estrange. 141 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS If Frith's picture of the Derby Day be re- called, those incidents may be mentally intro- duced, although they occurred years after that was painted. Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. (i 723-1 792). Joshua was originally intended for an apothe- cary, but it is said that perusing Richardson's Treatise on Painting decided him to adopt the profession of a painter. That may in some way account for the portrait which he painted, years afterwards, of the, sagacious John Hunter, the most distinguished of anatomists — a great surgeon and military surgeon — being considered perhaps the happiest '' of his por- traits. It is in the Royal College of Surgeons of England. There too is the John Hunter Collection. In 1768 he was unanimously elected first President of the Royal Academy. In a painting by ZofTany of the members then, Sir Joshua is near the centre holding an ear trumpet to his ear. His deafness is said to have been due to a cold caught in the Vatican many years before. That picture was engraved by Earlom. Sir Joshua painted many portraits and subject 142 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS pictures. There are about twenty-five examples of his work in the National Gallery. He painted a few landscapes, and associated with many of his portraits there is often a glimpse of well- executed landscape in the background. In 1789 he practically retired owing to failing sight. The aptitude for choice of occupations and recreations varies in different peoples. The choice of the former is generally based upon necessity. Where would England be without her Navy.'^ Echo answers, Nowhere! Over there, side by side, are mezzotint portraits of Nelson and Hood. Nelson, the hero of our Navy and Trafalgar, whose love of human sympathy was expressed in his immortal and last words : Kiss me. Hardy ! addressed to his favourite flag-captain. And Hood, who was a member of the great naval family of that name. — (The late Rear-Admiral Horace Hood, the second son of the fourth Viscount Hood, commanded, and lost his life associated with the victory of our Navy, at the Battle of Jutland.) — Both are after full-length paintings by Hoppner, each depicted with the right sleeve pinned up, for each had 143 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS lost that arm. The portrait of Hood, a brilliant proof by George Clint, A.R.A., before all letters, has upon it this pathetic label in his own hand- writing : — From Sam Hood. — Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, who served with Nelson in the Mediterranean. A few years ago the original was sold at Christie's, and it was afterwards, for a time at all events, at Messrs. Agnew's in Bond Street. Having mentioned Hoppner, there is every excuse for saying something more about his paintings, as they are among the old paintings by British artists — chiefly Gainsborough, Rey- nolds, Raeburn, Romney, Turner, Lawrence and Morland — which are among those most appreciated to-day. It is not intended to attempt to introduce a dictionary of painters, so it may again be men- tioned that Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers'' (1800 pages quarto in double column, and illustrated), is a most useful and satisfying companion. John Hoppner was born at Whitechapel in 144 Size 25! X 16.] [To face p. 144. ADMIRAL SIR SAMUEL HOOD. Painted by Hoppner.] [Engraved by George Clint. THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS 1758 and died in 18 10. His work was no doubt influenced by that of Sir Joshua Reynolds, but he introduced his own original graces. He practised portrait painting almost exclusively and never exhibited publicly except at the Royal Academy, where he showed 161 examples. The manner of the landscapes in his backgrounds suggests that had he devoted himself to that branch he would have excelled in it. Until 1797 it was the practice only to desig- nate by name portraits of persons of blood- royal, so that many of his portraits, like those of others up to that time, were styled Portrait of a Lady," or ^'Portrait of a Gentleman," and so nowadays one of the puzzles of old portraits is to identify the personalities they represent. Sir Henry Raeburn is the most famous of Scottish portrait painters; he was born in 1756 near Edinburgh. At first he painted miniatures, but early directed his attention to life-size oil paintings. George IV visited Scotland in 1822, and in the next year Raeburn was appointed " His Majesty^s Limner for Scotland." He has been considered by some authorities to be THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS the most outstanding, if not the only, expo- nent of direct painting between Velasquez and Hals and quite recent times. Yet it is only of late years that Raeburn's gifts have been fully recognised.'' Recently at Christie's his portrait of The MacNab, perhaps his finest male por- trait, sold for over ;^2o,ooo. Examples of his work may be seen in the galleries at London, Brussels, Dresden, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paris and other places. In the Romney case reference to the portrait of Mrs. Siddons by Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) was made. It is a ''sweet" pic- ture with a meditative expression. '' None of his works were more beautiful than his groups of mothers and children, in portraying whose beauty and vivacity no English portrait painter except Reynolds has been happier." ^ There are single examples of portraits by this artist at Bristol, Dulwich, Hampton Court, Ireland, in Sir John Colomb's collection; in London at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, that of John Aber- nethy, the surgeon; eight at Apsley House, one at Stafford House; Matthew Baillee, M.D., at 1 Bryan's Dictionary." 146 {To face />. 147. MASTER HOPE AS BACCHUS. From the Painting in Water Colour by Sir Thomas Lawrence. THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS the Royal College of Physicians, three in the Dilettanti Society, two at the Royal Academy, eleven in the National Portrait Gallery, six in the National Gallery, one in the British Museum, three at South Kensington, one in Liverpool, two at Oxford, one at Paris, one at Rome, and at Windsor Castle no fewer than thirty-five. In that list nearly all are portraits. **The portrait soothes the loss it can't repair, And sheds a comfort even on despair." It is a list of more or less publicly known ex- amples. Of course there are others, among them a water-colour of Master Hope as Bacchus, which is here reproduced. There is probably also an oil painting of the same subject, as there certainly is a mezzotint of it, engraved by Samuel Cousins, after Lawrence. A few artists only have been mentioned, and very little has been said about them. Their works and those of a multitude of others may be studied in the public galleries and elsewhere. Literature may be consulted pertaining to them. The works upon the subject are numerous and 147 L 2 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS the volumes upon individual artists are often of very large size. After the disputed picture had been acquired at th^ auction it w'as taken out of the original frame because the latter was not of a type suit- able to the American market, and it was put into a Louis Quinze frame.'^ His Lordship : I can quite understand that the Americans have not an affection for George III. It is desirable to display a picture in a suit- able frame of the period in which it was painted. There are styles of frames that are called after the artists whose pictures used to be framed in the particular style. As examples may be men- tioned the Morland, the Hogarth, the Kneller, the varieties of Dutch frames, the Louis Quinze already mentioned, and other French frames. Some artists designed frames for their pictures, as did the late Sir Edward Burne- Jones. So important is this question of frames, and so much improved are pictures by being suitably framed, that the sums paid by connoisseurs for old frames to marry their pictures is aston- ishing. They have almost as much difficulty 148 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS in obtaining them sometimes as in finding eligible partis for their offspring. How often — '*The knave of diamonds tries his wily arts, And wins, O shameful chance ! the queen of hearts." ^ In those lines are contained themes upon which artists, authors, and the Courts of Law have been much occupied. Truth is stranger than fiction. " The proper study of mankind," in- cluding the present and general state of human affairs and animated existence, is Man.'' ^ These gleanings from the harvest-field of Life have been garnered — by profession, observation, and conversation — from the experiences of a multitude. **A man's life is an appendix to his heart." ^ Reference has been made to some particular pictures to illustrate the hints given in the text. Feeling that what the writer has said may have been of interest, and that it may assist the reader to rise to a full appreciation of the proceedings in the long trial that follows, he is bringing his remarks upon ^^The Cult of Old Paintings" to a close. During the ascent a few remarks by 1 Pope. 2 South. 149 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS way of retrospect and peroration may be approved. In the consideration of many subjects met with in the engaging study of the cult of Old Paintings Ruskin's quite phenomenal works and the literary works of Sir Joshua Rey- nolds may be recommended to those who have plenty of time. The latter will specially appeal to those who have less leisure. Much informa- tion and pleasure may be derived by those in- terested in the subject employing spare moments in the perusal of their pages. The choice of literature, however, must depend upon circum- stances, regarding any particular artist. In the treatment of the subjects — handled and foreshortened as they have been — wanting light or seeking shade — hope is expressed that feeling has been shown in tone and colour. To Nature everyone owes their existence, and throughout their lives are under her . control more or less influenced by civilisation and edu- cation. Self-preservation is the first law of Nature, and so the provision for that is the business of our lives. Staleness is avoided by recreation. Even they may pall, and the ISO THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS mind, which is ever active during the waking hours, and even to some extent during those of sleep, yearns for employment, and is ever seeking an outlet for the congenial occupation of its superfluous energy — and so amusements and hobbies creep into our lives. A Persian distich, with verses introduced be- tween the lines, presents a brief picture of existence, ideal in its consummation : Naked on nurse's knees there satst a new-born child and wept.'' Nature, the old nurse, took The child upon her knee, Saying, ' Here is a story-book Thy Father has written for thee.' And whenever the way seemed long. Or his heart began to fail. She would sing a more wonderful song Or tell a more marvellous tale." **So live that passing to thy last long sleep thou mayest smile while all around thee weep." THE END EXCERPT FROM THE LAW REPORTS OF HUNTINGTON v. LEWIS AND SIMMONS. ^'The Romney Case." From The Daily Telegraph^^^ by kind per- mission of the Proprietors of that Journal. May i6th K^ijy and following days. High Court of Justice King's Bench Division. Before Mr. JUSTICE DARLING. Huntington v. Lewis and Simmons. THE ROMNEY CASE. Plaintiffs Mr. Henry Edward Huntington, Art Collector, Fifth Avenue, New York, as popular in Bond Street as in Fifth Avenue,'' claimed damages for an alleged breach of war- 153 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS ranty in the sale of a picture, said to be the work of George Romney, for which he paid the defendants $100,000. Defendants^ Messrs. Lewis and Simmons, Art Dealers, New Bond Street, London. Defendants pleaded a denial of the allega- tions. For the Plaintiff. — Sir John Simon, K.C., Mr. Hemmerde, K.C., Mr. Douglas Hogg, and Mr. A. H. Richardson, instructed by Messrs. Guedalla and Jacobson. For the Defendants. — Mr. Leslie Scott, K.C., and Mr. C. J. Conway, instructed by Messrs. Harris, Chetham, and Cohen. Mr. Phillip Guedalla held a watching brief for Messrs. Duveen Brothers. The plaintiff bought a picture from defend- ants, said to be by George Romney, for $100,000, and he alleged that it was not as guaranteed. The guarantees being, first, that it was the work of George Romney; secondly, that it represented Mrs. Siddons and her youngest sister. Miss Fanny Kemble; and, thirdly, that it was the picture, entries as to which were to be found in Romney's appoint- IS4 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS ment book or diary running from December 3rd5 1776, to January I4th5 1777, which entries. Counsel for plaintiff said, did not relate to Mrs. Siddons. Defendants denied that there had been a breach of warranty. From the statement of Sir John Simon, plaintiff's counsel, opening the case, it appeared that the disputed picture, which was now exhibited on the Bench, was entered in the cata- logue as by Sir Joshua Reynolds and sold on February 8 th, 191 2, at a country house, that of Mr. J. Franklin Adams, near Godalming, to an art dealer of King Street, St. James's, for 361 guineas. The picture passed into the hands of (or as was afterwards testified, bought in the " knock out '' by) the defendants for £^i^* In April, a picture cleaner's account, in regard to it, was for ^'Two Ladies, Romney." On May 7, a co-author of an essay on Romney sent a report to Mr. Lewis, describing the picture as unques- tionably one of the most beautiful and attrac- tive pictures by Romney that I have ever seen." In June, 1912, it was sent to Paris, and in September to New York. In the American customs declaration, the picture was described as 155 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS a painting of two sisters by Romney,'^ and that it was painted in or about 1785. Defendants opened premises in Fifth Avenue, New York, in September, 191 2, and got in touch with plaintiff, who bought the picture for $100,000. It was delivered with the guarantees. In 19 14 plaintiff formed the view that the picture was not as represented, and it was ultimately sent back to England. History of the Picture. — About 1785 Mr. John Adams, a Lloyd^s underwriter, bought the picture. The household got in the way of call- ing the picture a Reynolds and the two ladies the two Miss Linleys, one of whom married Sheridan. Later the idea grew up in the Adams family that the portrait was that of Mrs. Siddons and her sister. Mrs. Siddons was acting in Manchester, Birmingham, and Liver- pool when Romney was sitting in his study in Cavendish Square, painting some unknown ladies. According to Mrs. Siddons's assertion, Romney painted her portrait but once, and she gave him only one sitting. A photograph of the Martineau sketch of Mrs. Siddons was handed to his lordship, with the remark that it 156 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS was difficult to conceive that the features in the sketch and the picture in question could have come from the brush of the same artist. The Martineau sketch was sold at Christie's in 1912, but it had been impossible to trace its present whereabouts. Sir John Simon said he would call experts to prove that the composition and execution were not of the first order. The fingers of one hand of the alleged Mrs. Siddons counsel described as like a bunch of carrots.^' According to Sir Walter Scott, Mrs. Siddons stayed as his guest at Abbotsford, and observed to the footman, You have brought me water, boy; I asked for beer.'' I deny," said Sir John, that a lady (pointing to the picture) of that simpering ex- pression is capable of so noble a sentiment." The Hon. John Collier, painter, said that Romney was a masterly painter, and knew how to produce his effects. Witness had come to the conclusion that the picture in question could not possibly be a Romney, and that neither of the figures resembled the known portraits of Mrs. Siddons. The composition of the picture was distinctly bad. The main lines were curiously 157 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS ungraceful. Mrs. Siddons was represented in the picture as having a curiously shambling knock-kneed action. The hands were badly drawn, and the clasped hands he described as idiotic. One of the arms of the supposed Mrs. Siddons was like a leg of mutton. She had no shin-bone, and the feet were badly drawn. He did not think Romney would make them as small as that. Mr. Collier, in reply to Sir J. Simon, said he was of opinion that pictures in court, ^' Eliza- beth Lady Forbes" and ''Lady de la Pole,'' were Romney s, but another, ^'Lady Hamilton, Ambassadress,'' said by Sir John Simon to have been painted by Romney on Lady Hamilton's wedding-day, witness said he did not like very much. Cross-examined by Mr. Leslie Scott, witness said in his view the picture at issue was a picture of very little merit — a poor picture. If Sir Wil- liam Richmond had already given evidence about the picture, and had attributed it to Romney, it showed at least that people of equal skill could hold opposite opinions. Counsel : Broadly speaking, the power of is8 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS judgment as to the qualities of a picture pointing to this or the other authorship may be found to be more developed in the trained art critic than in the artist ? — There I cannot go with you. To tell you the honest truth, we artists do not think much of the art critics. His Lordship : Who was it said the critic is usually one who has failed in literature or art ? Witness: It was Benjamin Disraeli. Counsel : That was a good many years ago. I think that during the last thirty years the big opinions by which the world has been guided as to the authenticity of pictures by unknown mas- ters have been those of art critics rather than those of artists. Questioned as to what he considered to be defects in the picture in question, witness pointed to certain arrangements of the folds of the draperies. His Lordship: Did Romney always paint his drapery himself.'^ WiTNE s s : I believe he did. Sir Joshua Reynolds had any number of drapery people to help him. IS9 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Counsel : Is there any one fold of this drapery that you say is impossible ? — A fold has form. These folds I have indicated have none. Romney was a good draughtsman, but occasion- ally careless. Witness further pointed out that the hands had obviously been first traced in with a red pigment. Counsel remarked that this was the case with early Romney pictures in the National Gallery — ^'Lady Craven^' (1778) and "Lady and Child (1782) — but was less noticeable in the portrait, "Miss Trotter'' (1789), and asked if that was not of value as to the authenticity of the picture in dispute. Witness said it was, but added that the prac- tice of painting in in that manner was common; he had done it himself. Re-examined by Sir J. Simon, witness said the work was timid, and apparently not the work of one accustomed to paint on a large scale. Sir Edward Poynter, P.R.A., stated that he had come to the opinion that the picture could not have been painted by Romney. It had none 160 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS of Romney's characteristics. The fault of the figure said to be Mrs. Siddons was that one did not know which leg she was standing on. Romney could not have made a mistake like that. The chin was not in the least like Mrs. Siddons's. The characteristics were missing. The mouth slipped away to nothing; it was wretchedly drawn. Cross-examined, witness said he thought the picture was by an inferior painter, by a man with no great reputation. At first he thought it was a picture by Angelica Kaufmann, but her work was rather better done than the picture in court. He did not think the picture was worth much. Witness could not recall the name of any man of the eighteenth century capable of painting the picture outside the big artists. He could not see any resemblance in the face of Mrs. Siddons as painted by Gainsborough and that in the disputed picture. During the proceedings counsel produced a mezzotint, which he described as a problem pic- ture. He tested Sir Edward Poynter, P.R.A., Sir Luke Fildes, R.A., the Hon. John Collier, and Sir Walter Armstrong as to their ability to l6l M THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS name the artist. A desire was expressed to see the original. Eventually, on removing a piece of paper, it was stated to bear the name G. Romney.'' Sir Luke Fildes, R.A., stated that he painted the State picture of Edward VII. , Queen Alex- andra, and King George. He was familiar with the portrait painters of the eighteenth century. He was of opinion that the picture at issue was not a Romney; it differed very much from Romney's work, which was more like Nature. He founded his work upon actuality. His work had not the feeble, namby-pamby, artificial look that the picture in question had. There was a touch of Sir Joshua Reynolds about the com- position of the picture. Mr. Scott : Lots of Sir Joshua Reynolds's pictures were poor work, and sometimes filled in by pupils — I cannot say poor, but hasty. Sir Walter Armstrong, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland and author of the biography of Romney in the ^'Dictionary of National Biography,'' said he was quite sure the picture in dispute was not the work of George Romney; it was nothing like Romney anywhere. 162 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS On being shown a reproduction in colour of Reynolds's Sisters Waldegrave," witness said that the lady in white in the disputed picture (Miss Kemble) and the features of one of the Sisters Waldegrave were as alike as two por- traits of the same sitter by different artists would be. Witness said he did not recognise the brown lady'' in the disputed picture as Mrs. Siddons. As to a specimen of Ozias Humphry's work, which was handed to witness, he remarked that there were many points of resemblance be- tween it and the disputed picture, and he sus- pected the latter was by the same artist. The mouths were similar, not like human mouths; the colour of the hair and the eyes was the same. His lordship stated that he understood Sir Edward Poynter to say that the Humphry por- trait was that of his great-grandmother. Sir Edward said that was so. His lordship observed that he was reminded of the lines by Frederick Locker on a Romney portrait : — "Were Romney's limning true, What a happy dog were you, grandpapa.*' Subsequently his lordship stated that he knew 163 M 2 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS a house where a picture hung for years without anyone knowing who was the artist, and it was only a few years ago when, on going over the family papers, a receipt was found which showed the picture was painted by Romney. His lordship said there was a portrait of a friend of his own, which was said in the family — now about twenty-five years ago — to be by Sir Joshua Reynolds. He told this to Mr. Frith, the Academician, who was charged by the Royal Academy to let them know where there was a fine specimen of a painter of the eighteenth-century school which could be borrowed for exhibition. He saw the picture, and said, It is the finest Romney I have ever seen.'' The family were furious, and refused its loan to the Academy, because he had slan- dered their ancestors. However, it was after- wards exhibited, and found to be the finest Romney that artist had ever painted. It showed they had forgotten about Romney; he was not fashionable; Reynolds was the painter of the great pictures. Professor Laurie, chemist to the Royal Academy, said examination of the pigments 164 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS suggested that the picture was painted in the eighteenth century. He found no traces in the picture of the bold brush-work of Romney. He said the eyes of the supposed Mrs. Siddons in the disputed picture were greyish-blue. His Lordship recalled the story : Said a young man to Sir Joshua Reynolds, Would you tell me. Sir, how you mix your pigments, as I wish to get the same effects.^'' Said Sir Joshua to the young man, With brains. Sir." Mr. Leslie Scott during a discussion about the flowing scarf in the disputed picture, having said some landscapes, like passing effects of storms, could not be painted except from memory. His Lordship said that no one could say that Turner, although perhaps the greatest artist that England ever produced, was a topographical artist. The pictures to which he put his name were obviously not painted on the spot. Mr. Percy Macquoid, Member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, declared the disputed picture was not by Romney. He said Mrs. Siddons's eyes in the Lawrence portraits were of a deep red-brown," at times like those of an antelope and at other times, as Sir John i6s THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Simon had said, ^Mike a flashing motor lamp." Mrs. Siddons had Semitic eyebrows. His Lord- ship inquired what that characteristic was ? Wit- ness said it was an arch. His lordship said Sir Joshua Reynolds seemed to have given thick, but straight, eyebrows to the ^' Tragic Muse." Mr. Conway, in cross-examining, suggested that the public as a rule were not bad judges. His Lordship: Oh, no! those are on the Bench. Two engravers, Mr. William Henderson and Mr. Sidney Ernest Wilson, both expressed the opinion that the picture was not a Romney. Mr. Edward Hazel Vicars, of Vicars Brothers, picture dealers and valuers. Old Bond Street, was very emphatic in these terms, Dufi^er, rubbish! Instinct told me in a moment, without going near it, that the picture has no pretensions to be a Romney. It has not the colour or drawing.'' He valued the picture at /^^.oo. His Lordship: What do you mean by a ^ dufl^er '' ? — That the picture is not by the artist it is represented to be by, but by a minor artist. Mr. Vicars admitted that he once bought a pic- ture from a certain nobleman, who it was agreed i66 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS to call Lord P., for ;2^i5000. The picture was hung high and Lord P. was satisfied that the portrait was of his grandmother, by Romney. — Was the picture brought to your place of busi- ness ? — As a rule I took them with me, I did not leave them in the house. I have been ^' had " that way once. He admitted he made a mistake in that pur- chase, and said he learned his business by making mistakes. I lost ^ijOOO, I was going to say, in buying a ^ duffer His Lordship : Let us say in buying a grand- mother. Mr. Conway : To give the story a happy ending I think he even paid back your money and had the picture ? — Yes, he was very glad to do so. Mr. Vicars having remarked to Counsel, You mentioned the name,'^ it having slipped out. His Lordship : If anybody remembers it I will commit him for Contempt of Court. Mr. Conway : How do you tell that this picture is not a Romney ? Can you give me any detail? — ^'Take the picture here,'' said witness, 167 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS indicating a picture of Lady Hamilton on his right. That one jumps at me. I could tell it fifty yards off as a Romney.'' What is your strong point in the English school ? His Lordship : I should say it is giving evidence. Mr. Conway : Can you give us your reasons for saying this picture is not a Romney.^ — The colouring is all wrong and the thing is perfectly flat. I absolutely condemn it as a wrong pic- ture, and I shall think very little of anybody who says differently. Mr. Con way : It is assumed that the picture in this action was sold at a very large profit — ^12,000 or something of that sort. His Lordship : I remember before you were born a picture by Gainsborough of a lady in a blue dress being bought by the housekeeper for two or three pounds at some saile down in the country, because an arrow had been through it. The picture turned out to be a very fine Gains- borough, and was sold for a very large sum. Mr. Conway : You will be sorry to hear that it is now in New York. i68 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Mr. Vicars : It was a portrait of Mrs. Sheridan. Mr. Conway : You say this is not a Romney ? — If it was a Romney I would not take less than ^45,000 for it. '^If! His Lordship : I think that is against you, Mr. Conway. Mr. Algernon Graves, an elderly gentleman, who, in answer to a question, said he was asso- ciated with Mr. Agnew as an expert adviser, and a former partner in the firm of H. Graves and Co., Pall Mall, said he formed the opinion that it was emphatically not by Romney. Romney never exhibited at the Royal Academy. Mr. Leslie Scott presented a reproduction of the Clavering Children,'' by Romney, and asked Sir Edward Poynter, P.R.A., and Sir Luke Fildes, R.A., if they noticed a similarity in design between it and the disputed picture, especially in regard to the flowing scarf. Sir Edward Poynter said there was a similarity, but the reproduction was more graceful. Sir Luke Fildes agreed there was a similarity, but the flowing scarf was stock property. He thought it unlikely that Romney would repeat, almost 169 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS slavishly, a former work. It looked as if a contemporary of Romney had been impressed and had copied his design. Witness produced a long series of catalogues of the Royal Academy Exhibitions from 1769 to 1800. The catalogue of the 1780 exhibition contained an entry 146. O. Humphry. Por- traits of Two Ladies.' ' About forty years ago he put in the pencil note Ladies Maria and Horatia Waldegrave.'' (This turned out to be the picture in dispute.) Sir J. Simon read an extract from the Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser on the Academy Exhibition of 1780 under the signa- ture of Candid/' referred to No. 146 as Two Ladies, Venus and Juno,'' and goes on to speak of Humphry as the ingenious artist who from painting the most excellent of miniatures is likely to become a good painter in oils," and regrets it cannot be seen at its proper distance." His Lordship : That is one for the Hanging Committee. Witness stated that in the Life " of Sir Joshua Reynolds, written by Leslie and Tom Taylor, there occurred a chapter dealing with 170 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS the 1780 exhibition which said: "Amongst the portraits at the exhibition was a group by O. Humphry of two of Horace Walpole's grand-nieces.'' Walpole was dissatisfied with Humphry's picture, and wrote in his catalogue, " Both were too old, and Lady Horatia not nearly as handsome as she is." Witness had copied Walpole's notes from a catalogue be- longing to Lord Rosebery. It was possible to assert, said Sir John Simon, that this picture of Humphry's was not taken delivery of by the sisters Waldegrave, because in 1 8 10 there was a sale at Christie's of a collec- tion of Humphry's works, including '^Portraits of the Ladies Waldegrave, daughters of the late Duchess of Gloucester (whole length)." The sale also included some Romney pictures. The auctioneers' note showed that the portrait of the Waldegrave ladies was bought in for 25 guineas. Some Romney pictures in 18 10 were stated to have been sold for 20s., i6s., 14s., and 2s. 6d. His lordship said that towards the end of his life Romney was painting all sorts of queer 171 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS mythological subjects and sacred pictures. They were not his best by any means, but 2s. 6d. was rather low. Witness stated it was unusual in those days for sketches by big men to fetch 2s. 6d. Mr. Leslie Scott: A connection of mine bought a Romney not many years ago for los. 6d. Counsel explained that £21 was paid for a finished portrait of the celebrated Mrs. Robinson, by Romney, and witness said it was now in the Wallace Collection. Trifling figures were given for Romneys during the nineteenth century. Nobody would touch him then,'' added wit- ness. He did not think the disputed picture, if it was by Humphry, would fetch more than /300 or ^^400. Mrs. Clement Parsons, authoress of the bio- graphy of Mrs. Siddons, said she had made a study of the recognised portraits of Mrs. Sid- dons. The latter, witness stated, had left London in June, 1776, and did not return until October, 1782. Playbills of Mrs. Siddons's appearance in Liverpool and Manchester at the end of 1776 172 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS and the beginning of 1777 were produced by Sir John Simon for the purpose of showing that Mrs. Siddons could not have given a sitting to Romney at the time indicated in the picture warranty. Mr. Leslie Scott said that Mr. W. Roberts, who had made a report to defendants on the picture, was now satisfied that the playbills were conclusive evidence that Mrs. Siddons could not have given a sitting to Romney on the dates indicated in the diary of the artist. Sir John Simon said that involved an admis- sion that one of the guarantees was proved to be unfounded — that it was the identical picture referred to in Romney's diary as ''A Lady'^ and ''The Lady.'' Mr. Leslie Scott said the passage at the end of the invoice was shown to have been uninten- tionally inaccurate. His Lordship: I do not understand that there is any suggestion of fraud. Mr. Leslie Scott: No. My clients gave the guarantee on the faith of the report of Mr. Roberts. Everybody has acted bona fide. 173 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Sir John Simon : I have never suggested a want of good faith on the part of anybody. Witness said that dark brown was the colour of Mrs. Siddons's eyes in all the accepted pic- tures. Mr. William T. Whitley, student and writer on artistic subjects, said in 191 5 he published a book on Thomas Gainsborough, and having seen that artistes painting of Lady Horatia Walde- grave, he reproduced it in his book. He pro- duced the ^' Candid Review pamphlet of 1780, referring to the Academy exhibition of that year. "No. 146. ^Portraits of Two Ladies, by O. Humphry, very strong likenesses of the Ladies Waldegrave. The attitudes are ex- ceedingly graceful, and heaven having given them so much beauty, the painter has placed them in the sky.' Witness said he recognised Lady Horatia in the brown figure said to refer to Mrs. Siddons. His lordship stated that he had read the evi- dence of Mr. Huntington, and he had seen the portrait of the Gower children, and undoubted portraits of Romney since the Court last ad- journed. 174 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Case for Defendants. Mr. Leslie Scott, in opening the defence, said the American question of law would be dealt with later. Defendants profoundly"^ believed when they sold the picture, as they did to-day, that it was a Romney, and consisted of portraits of Mrs. Siddons and her sister. Whatever the result of the case, defendants wanted the world to know that there was a large and important body of opinion in favour of the view indepen- dently and originally taken by Mr. Lewis. The picture was bought cheap, under the name of Sir Joshua Reynolds, when it was fairly obvious that it was not by Reynolds. There had been too many pictures lost in oblivion and recovered by modern critical insight to make that an un- usual circumstance, and in the case of Romney that had happened more than was the case with any leading artist of the eighteenth-century Eng- lish school, because he had gone out of fashion very much during the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century. 175 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS When Mr. Lewis went to see the advertised Sir Joshua the picture was hung high, in a bad light, and was very dirty. After the picture was taken down and placed in a better light he saw the name Romney on a plaque. The picture was sent to a cleaner, and Mr. Roberts, who had been invited to report on it, was not told about the plaque. The picture was taken out of the original frame, because the latter was not of a type suitable to the American market, and it was put into a Louis Quinze frame. His Lordship : I can quite understand the Americans have not an affection for George III. Mr. Leslie Scott said defendants sent the old frame to an auctioneer and it was sold. Romney, counsel explained, was not in fashion until after 1870, and if an obliterated name of Romney had never been preserved on an old frame, he thought that was a point of consider- able value in the disputed case. Mr. Scott said the old frame had been traced to an art dealer named Sankey, in the Potteries. He had cut down the frame to use it for a Rubens, and on the plaque had caused the name of Rubens to be painted. There was no shadow of doubt in Mr. 176 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Huntington's mind as to the authenticity of the picture until December, 1913, when Mr. Joseph Duveen doubted whether it was a Romney, because the evidence of plaintiff, taken on commission, showed he had spoken in his club and to friends of having bought a Romney. His Lordship : What sort of an inhuman creature is it who would suggest to a man who is pleased with his purchase that it is not a Romney — especially if he paid $100,000 for it? Mr. Leslie Scott: The function of the candid friend who explains that your swan is only a goose, I agree, is not a grateful one. His lordship said everybody agreed it was an original and not a copy. It was not like the case of the unfortunate Mr. Vicars who was fobbed off with a copy of somebody else's grand- mother. Mr. Leslie Scott quoted from plaintiff's evi- dence that he was never worried about anything. His Lordship : I gather that he has so many things that he would not have time to worry. Subsequently Mr. Justice Darling said that after this case he thought he could retire and do very well as an expert on Romney. 177 N THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Mr. Leslie Scott: Your lordship's reputa- tion may be made in this case. Mr. Leslie Scott submitted : (i) That the dis- puted picture contains marked Romney charac- teristics. (2) That it is much too fine a picture to have come from Ozias Humphry. (3) That the two faces are not in the least like the Walde- graves. (4) That as plaintiff's cannot produce any pictures by Humphry for the purpose of comparison, they are relying upon mere specula- tion based upon the search for the possible painter to attribute the work in dispute. " And,'' continued counsel, ''it is your lordship's busi- ness to be an arch-speculator." Mr. Morris Lewis, one of the defendants, said about twenty Romneys had passed through his hands. He formed the opinion when he saw the Romney in dispute previous to the sale that it was a Romney, and he was of the same opinion still. Witness got Mr. Roe, another dealer, to buy the picture, and witness subsequently bought it at the ''knock-out." When the picture had been taken down from the wall, Mr. Roe said : " Someone has called it a Romney." Witness added : " That did not affect my judgment. I 178 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS was satisfied without that.'' Witness asked Mr. Roberts to trace the alleged portraiture of Mrs. Siddons and her sister. Directly Mr. Roberts saw the painting he said : Oh ! it's a Romney." My own opinion," added witness, is that this picture is a Romney, and that it always will be." Had you a partner in this transaction, Mr. Moss Harris, who had a half-share in the ven- ture ? — Yes, when the picture came home to my place I said to Mr. Harris, with whom I was on very friendly relations : I will give you ^i,ooo for your half-share." He refused, re- marking : I would like to see the end of it." Witness then said : I have a partner, and we have expenses out in New York. What do you say to taking one-third .^^ " And he was quite agreeable. Mr. William Roberts, co-author with Mr. Humphry Ward of George Romney," said the first time he saw the picture in dispute he said at once : What a fine Romney you have got." I formed the impression instantly that it was a Romney. His Lordship : Do you say now, as in your 179 N2 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS report, that this is ''one of the most beautiful . and attractive pictures of Romney you have ever seen ? — I do, my lord. Do you mean to say that this one, painted in the earlier period, is as beautiful as that one of Lady de la Pole painted in the later period? — Yes, I do. I prefer the earlier period, just after Romney came back from Italy. I think the earlier period much more attractive than the later period, because it is more spontaneous. I regard the period soon after he came back from Italy as Romney's best period. His Lordship : Do you call that a splendid picture ? — Yes. Splendidly true or splendidly painted? — A splendid example of Romney's early art. I simply have no reason to alter my opinion. Sir John Simon : Does not the evidence now before you go to show that the picture was painted by Humphry? — No. Mr. Humphry Ward's evidence had been pre- viously taken. He is a co-author of George Romney,'' and had been art critic for the Times. He said Romney pictures appealed to him par- ticularly. He thought it was a very fine picture i8o THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS by Romney and that the portraits were of Mrs. Siddons and her sister. Sir John Simon (cross-examining) asked wit- ness whether in forming his judgment he was guided by the frame. Witness replied : Was there not a rather rubbed out label on the bottom of the frame with the name Romney on it ? Do you really think the person who painted the Gower Family at the same time painted this other picture? Do you not think the contrast rather startling.^ — One is better than the other undoubtedly. In your studies have you ever heard of this canvas ? — No. An adviser to the Trustees of the National Gallery and an art dealer said he attributed the picture to Romney on inspecting it in 191 5, basing his judgment on the pose of the figures, the painting of the hands and feet, and the folds of the drapery. Romney had painted worse pic- tures than the canvas in dispute, which he re- garded as rather a handsome picture. Sir John Simon : Is not the arm of the figure in brown outstretched at the same angle as a railway signal when a train is not to go on.^ — I think that is rather a flight of fancy. 181 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Mr. Leslie Scott : You do not suggest that George Stephenson painted it, do you? The Curator of the Liverpool Corporation Art Gallery said that Romney was born at Dalton-in- Furness. He had formed the opinion that the picture in question was undoubtedly a Romney, of the period 1775, when the artist returned from Italy. It was certainly an English picture of the period. He was unable to suggest any other artist who could have painted the picture at that time. He had seen pastels, but not work in oils by Humphry, whom he considered a better draughtsman than Romney. When the latter had his subject before him he was often extremely happy in representing it. The use of clouds in imaginative compositions was a favourite device of Romney. Witness gave extracts from Hayley's ^^Life of Romney'' in support of that statement, and instances of bad drawing in Romney's known works. After alluding to some anatomical defects in Romney's works, his lordship said : I understand Lady Hamil- ton was a sort of professional contortionist." Witness asserted that Romney's drawing was bad. 182 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS His Lordship : Perhaps that is why they never made him an Academician. The director of the Art Galleries at the Guild- hall said he had not thought fit to alter his opinion, formed in 1915, that the picture was a Romney. A painter, art critic, and author of various works on art, said the picture seemed to him to be probably an early Romney of the pre-Lady Hamilton period. He also came to that con- clusion from the general characteristics and feeling of the picture, the details of the drawing and the colour. Romney had curious tricks of design and colouring. In cross-examination, witness said Romney's drawings were almost always defective. Ignor- ance of anatomical construction and the way he fitted the limbs to the trunk were characteristic of Romney. In many respects Lady de la Pole was much worse drawn than the ladies in the disputed picture. Where, he asked, did Lady de la Pole's left leg attach to the body .^^ You could not attach her left leg to the hip with the knee and foot in the position in which they are in the picture." Humphry, he said, drew far 183 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS too well to make the many mistakes shown in the majority of Romney's works. The Curator of the Shakespeare Memorial Gallery, Stratford-on-Avon, and lecturer on fine art, said he attributed the picture in question to Romney, and knew of no other artist to whom it could be ascribed. The hearing was adjourned. His lordship next morning said that before coming into court the photograph of the sketch was shown to him by Mr. Scott in the presence of Sir John Simon. There could not be the slightest doubt it was that of the original sketch for the disputed picture. It was in almost all particulars exactly the same. There were first those alterations which an artist made tenta- tively when he was trying to arrive at a com- position, but they were very few and very slight indeed. They mostly concerned the right hand of the brown figure, and the left hand which held the hand of the other lady. The ensemble was exactly the same, with the differences he had mentioned. But as to that hand which various people had tried to account for, there was the exact position and almost impossible drawing in 184 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS the original sketch as appeared on the painting, and there was the Ozias Humphry cipher at the bottom of the sketch. Where, he asked, was the original ? Mr. Leslie Scott said it was in the library of the Royal Academy, but,, he believed, not under the name of Ozias Humphry. Under what name it was indexed he did not know. His Lordship : But there is no doubt it is by Ozias Humphry; there it is with his cipher, Mr. Leslie Scott said he thought that was indisputable. Under the circumstances, Mr. Lewis recognised there was an end to the case. Mr. Lewis desired to say to the Court that he consented at once to take back the picture, to repay Mr. Huntington the ;^2o,ooo he had paid with interest since the date of payment, and to pay the taxed costs of the action, which, of course, would be very heavy. In addition, he desired to say that he wished to offer the picture — which was now proved beyond doubt to have been painted by Ozias Humphry — and therefore practically the only important work in oil sur- viving from that artist — to the National Portrait Gallery or to the Royal Academy. If neither 185 I THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS of them cared to have it, then he would offer it to the Metropolitan Museum, New York. His Lordship : He has not thought whether the Law Courts have a claim. Mr. Leslie Scott said there seemed to be evi- dence that the two ladies in the picture by Ozias Humphry were, in fact, the Ladies Waldegrave. Sir John Simon said this was certainly a very dramatic conclusion to what had been an un- usually interesting case. He might be excused for pointing out how each side, tracing the matter down, had converged at the same moment on the sketch. Mr. Guedalla, who instructed him, and his managing clerk, Miss Joseph, had got as far as this, that in the Sotheby sale of 1846, which was the sale of the library of the late Mr. Wil- liam Upcott, there were a number of miniatures and drawings by Ozias Humphry put up for auction. They had got the catalogue, which was preserved in the British Museum, of that sale, and had found this: ''No. 411. Ladies Maria and Horatia Waldegrave : Whole length. Free pen. Very fine. By O. Humphry.' ' They ascer- tained that it had not been knocked down to a bidder, but had been bought in. The collection 186 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS had been traced to Charles Turner, at Dorking, Surrey, close to where the original picture ulti- mately went. There was up to the previous day a doubt as to what had happened to the drawing. It was known the collection was dissipated, and it happened that morning he had further in- formation that within the ilast two years that collection had been in the hands of a gentleman who might ultimately have been made available. Thus, after several days' trial, the two sides were converging upon the fatal sketch. It was quite obvious it was a sketch by the artist who painted the disputed picture. PlaintiflF had not ven- tured to tamper with the canvas of the picture, but those who advised him had considerable doubt whether if the cloud underneath one of the ladies' feet was mechanically treated they might not find the O. H.'' signature on the canvas. His lordship said the case had given rise to a most interesting speculation, and many people were called who, he was persuaded, gave their honest opinion, fortified by instances and criti- cisms of the picture. It had been proved to demonstration that the picture was by Ozias 187 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS Humphry, but whether that had come out or not that morning, unless Mr. Leslie Scott had been able to change his lordship's mind altogether by his address, he would have delivered judgment to exactly the effect now arrived at. It had been alleged the picture was Mrs. Siddons painted at a particular time. Sir John Simon had been able to prove an absolute alibi for Mrs. Siddons in the years 1 775-1 776 — perhaps the most re- markable alibi ever established in a court of law. He was convinced the picture was not by Romney. He was strongly of opinion that it was by Ozias Humphry. The investigation had altogether been a very remarkable one, and the end of it was in a true sense dramatic. He added that there was never any allegation of fraud, or underhand dealing, or dishonourable conduct against defendants. No one had expressed an opinion that was not an honest opinion. The case had been very creditably fought by both sides. Everything anybody knew had been laid before the Court, and the last light of all upon the picture had been thrown by defendant, Mr. Lewis, by the pro- duction of the photograph of the original sketch. 188 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS The conduct of the case had been honourable to all concerned, and it was a satisfaction to know that a conclusion had been reached which must convince everybody, even, he should hope. Sir William Richmond. This had been, in the true sense of the word, a cause celehre^ and not a dis- creditable one. It had involved inquiries into the lives of many celebrated people long since dead. He hoped the Trustees of the National Collection referred to would find it possible to accept the picture which Mr. Lewis had so generously offered, because he thought it was of historic interest, and so many people had given evidence that there was so much good in the picture that he thought it was worthy of a place in a collection where not every work was a chef d^ceuvre. A Costly Trial The above action will be memorable not only for its intensely interesting character, but for its costliness. The six or seven days' hearing^, it is estimated, cost very little short of 10,000 — about half the price paid for the picture. The brief of Sir John Simon, K.C., was marked 1,000 1S9 THE CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS guineas; that of Mr. Hemmerde, K.C, 666 guineas; and that of Mr. Leslie Scott, K.C. 500 guineas; and to those fees must be added daily refreshers both to the leaders and their juniors. In that sense it was a good case and after the heart of a lawyer. Cases are of diverse nature, and as an example of one on the fringe of legal procedure Thackeray wrote : — " O Justice I says the doctor, " instruct me what to do, I Ve come from the country to throw myself on you ; My patients have no doctor to tend them in their ills, There they are in Suffolk without their draughts and pills." (Which his name was Mr. Hammill, a honourable beak That takes his seat in Worship Street four times a week.) "IVe come up from the country to know how Til dispose Of this pore little baby, and the twenty-pun note and close, And I want to go back to Suffolk, dear Justice, if you please. And my patients wants their doctor, and their doctor wants his fees.'* Up spoke Mr. Hammill, sittin' at his desk, "This year application does me much perlesk : What I do adwise you, is to leave this babby In the parish where it was left by its mother shabby." The doctor from his Worship sadly did depart — He might have left the babby, but he hadn't got the heart To go for to leave that hinnocent, has the laws allows, To the tender mussies of the Union House. Autre s temps, autres moeurs,** 190 INDEX Abernethy, John, 146. Adams, 14, 16, 155, 156. Advertisement, 134, 137. Agnew, 144, 169. Alexandra, Queen, 162. Allies, 27. Amateur, i8, 25, 96. Ambassadress, 158. America, 38, 122, 148, 175, 176. Angelo, Michael, 34, 71. Anti-fat, 131. Apsley House, 146. Arabia, Perfumes of, 81. Armstrong, Sir Walter, i6r, 162. Army and Navy, 135. Art, 25, 31, 40, 47, 83, 114, 115, 128, 12^, 149, 180. Art Critic, 24, 81, 108, 180. Art, Schools of, 18. Artists, 12, 24, 32, 70, 108, 109, 110, 149. Artist's Model, 32. Arts, Fine, 107, 129, 133. Arts, Useful, 107, 129, 13a. "At Home," 58, 138. Attribution, 11, 21, 23, 26, 37, 44, gg, 105, 109, 121. Auction, 16. Babby, 190. Bacchus, 147. Background, 36, 85, 143, 145. Bacon, 53. Baillie, Matthew, M.D., 146. Bardell, Mrs., 106. Bassanio's Speech, 11, " Bears," 97. Beauty, 74. Belchier, John, 41. Bellori, 112. Bench, 48, 155, 166. Bewick, 106. Bode, 30. Bohean, 108. Bohemian, 129, 132. Bond Street, 138, 153. Books, 133. Boy, The, 139. Boydell's, 64. British Museum, 147. Brougham, 27. Brushwork, 71, 109, 124, Bryan's Dictionary, 120, 144, Buccleuch, Duke of, 62. Bucolic, 140. "Bull," Buonarotti, 112. Burne-Jones, Sir Edward, 148. Buzfuz, 43. Candid, 170. Canvas, 11 1, 113, 122, 187. Caracci, 112. Careless, 16. Carlyle, 47. Carpet, 54. Carpet, Persian, 54. Catalogues, 124, 170. Catharine, Trial of Queen, 41. Cause c^lebre, 189. Cavendish Square, 156. Chancery, Court of, 149. Charles I., 56. Chef d'ceuvre, 49, 54, 107, i8g. Cheque, 103. Chiaroscuro, 31, 86. Child, 151. Chillingham Bull, 107. Chloroform, 132. Christ in the Storm, 89, 93. Christy's, 119, 144, 146, 157, 171. C.I.p., 106. Cipriani, 59, 76. Clarke, Sir Edward, 140. Clavering, Children, 169. Clearing House, 59. Clint, Geo*, A.R.A., 41, 143. Cloister and the Hearth, The, 59. Club, 133. " Clue," 27, 28, 37, 100. Coarse, 115. Cochran, 62. Collector, 66, 134, 142, 189. Collier, The Hon. John, loi, 157, x6i. Colour, 19, 23, 69, 71, 150. Colour-blind, 69. Colour Scheme, 36. Columbia^ 135. Composition, 42, 86, ii6. Conceptions, 23. Connoisseurs, 37, xio. Contempt of Court, 167 191 CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS, INDEX Conway, Mr. C. J., 154. Cooper, 85, 107. Copies, 107. Correggio, 71. Costs, 189. Counsel, 24, 25, 48. Court, 108. Cousins, Samuel, 147. Craven, Lady, 160. Criticism, 39, 44, 45, 92. Critics, 26, 28, loi, 105, 159. Cromwell, Oliver, 61, 62. Cromwell, Richard, 62. Cupid, 124. D-«DALUS, 129. Daily Telegraph, 39, 58, 153. Dalton-in-Furness, 182. Darling, Mr. Justice, 39, 40, 94, 177. Dealers, 16, 43, 108. Deborah, 62. Deborah, Aunt, 17. Deborah, Milton's Daughter, 62. Decorative, 121. Defendants, 154. dc Groot, 30, 90. Derby, 140, 141. Dilemma, 45. Disraeli, Benjamin, loi, 159. Distich, Persian, 151. " Dizzy," loi. Doctor, 98, 106, 190. Doctor, Panel, 138. Double Chins, 43. Drapery, 159. Drawing, 118. Drink, 58, 132. Dryden, 26, 55. Dublin, III. Duchess, The Jolly, 50. •'Duflfer," i66. Dulwich Gallery, 146. Dutch Frame, 148. Dutch School, 127. Duveen, Mr. Joseph, 122, 154^ 177. Easel, 12, 88, 130. Edward III., 82. Edward VII., 162. Effect, 115, ii6. Elijah, 90. Elite, I20, 121, 122. Emerson, 21, 76, 128, 132, 133. England, 143. English School, 18, 127, 168. Engraver, 64. Engravng, on Copper or Steel, 64, i Environment, 96, 136. Epigram, 47. Epsom, 140. Equity, 26. Erasmus, Colloquies of, 58. Erin, in. Etching, 65. Eugenic, 140. Excerpt, 153. Excess, 133. Expert, 27, 38, 39, 43, 52, 123, 177. Eyes, 34, 72, 73, 163, 165, 174. Faithorne, 63. Faker, 37, 95, 97. Fantastic Toe, 58. Fashion, 120. Father, 151. Fatigue, 137. Favourites, 133. Feeling, 150. Fees, 190. Fellow, 98. F6sole, Laws of, 20. Fildes, Sir Luke, Bart., R.A., 161, 162, 169. Films, 137. " Find," 18, 38, 68, 92. Finish, 71. Fittler, 82. Five o'clock, 108. Flemish Gentleman, 61. Flying, 130. Forbes, Lady Elizabeth, 158. Foreground, 36. Foreshortening, 71, 109, 150. Form, 71. "Fortune-teller," The, 140, 141. Frame, 49, 148, 176. Frith, 141, 164. Frondes Agrestes, 114. Fruit, 85. Gainsborough, 25, 26, 36, 69, 72, 84, 102, 115, 116, 117, 118, 120, 127. Galatea, 13. Gallery, Dulwich, 146. Gallery, Guildhall Art, 183. Gallery, National Portrait, 60, 63, 142. Gallery, Shakespeare Memorial Art, 183. Gas, Coal, 133. Genre Subjects, 70. Gentleman, Portrait of a, 145. George, King, 162. George III., 148. George IV., 145. Ghost, 54, 55. Ghost of Ozias Humphry, 52. Gipsy, 140, 141. 23. Giulio Romano, 35. Gladstone, the late Mr., 58. "Glut,;* 127. Gossypium, 7. Government Departments, 135. 192 INDEX Gower, ii8. Gower Family, 42, 174, 181. Graves, Mr. Algernon, 169. Green, Valentine, 42. Greuze, 28. Guedalla & Jacobson, 154. Hals, 146. Hamilton, Lady, 36, 118, 168, 182. Hamlet, 57. Hammer, 17, 30. Hampton Court, 146. Hampton Court, Beauties of, 29. Handel, 21. Handling, 41, 71, 109, 115, T50. Hardy, Captain, 143. Hardy, T. B., 104. Harem, 133. Harley Street, 128. Harlow, G. H., 41, 42. Harris, Chetham & Cohen, 154. Harris, Mr. Moss, 179. Hart, Kmma (Frontispiece), 118. " Heads," 77. Hemmerde, Mr., K.C., 154, 190. Henderson, 166. Heraldic, 96. Hieroglyphic, 96. High Court, 153. H'ppodrome, 46. His Lordship, 24, 30, 50, 52, 72, 81, 122, 148, 165. Hobbema, 127. Hobby, lOT, 151. Hogarth Frame, 148. Hogg, Mr. Douglas, 154. Hollyer, Fredk., 7. Honthoi'st, 119. Hood, 143. Hood, Admiral Horace, 143. Hood, Admiral Sir Samuel, 143, 144. Hope, Master, 147. Hoppner, 143, 144. Hors d'oeuvre, 107. Humphry, Ozias, 27, 39, 41, 42, 44, 46, 52, 53, 163, 170, 171, 172, 174, 178, 183, 186, 188. Hunter, John, 142. Huntington, 153, 174, 177. Illustrations, 7. Instinct, 11, 24, 26, 27, 105. Introduction, g. Invention, 86. Italy, 1 80. Jackson, Peter, 141. Jacobson, 154. James I., 59, 131. Janssens, Cornelius, 59, 60, 63. Jim Crow, 126. Johnson, Dr., 59, 76. Jones, Sir E. Burne, 148. Jonson, Ben, 58. Joseph, Miss, 186. Julius Caesar, 58. Juno, 42, 170. Justice, 190. Justice, Royal Courts of, 41. Jutland, 143. Kaufmann, Angelica, i6i. Kemble, Chas., 41, 42. Kemble, Fanny, 41, 42, 154, 163. Kill-joy, 122. King George, 162. King's Diadem, 118. Kneller, 17, 29, 30, 68, 148. Knock-knees, 43, 78, 79, 80, 158. Knock-out, 14, 15, T78. "Kultur," 135. Lamb, Charles, 130. Landscape, 53, 70, 93, 118, 127, 132 .^43 Laniere, Nicholas, 56. Lanzi, 112. Laurie, Professor, 164. Lavater, 33, 129. Law, 25, 39, 47, 48. Law Reports, 153. Lawrence, 42, 146, 147, 165. Lawson, Sir Wilfrid, 58. Lawyer, 47, 190. Legislators, 135. Lely, 28, 30. Leonardo da Vinci, 120. Lewis & Simmons, 153, 155, 175, 178. "Liberty," 135. Life, 83, 170. Light, 19, 31, 86, n6, 150. Lpy» 133- Limner, 145, 163. Line Engraving, 65. Linley, 16. Linley, The Two Sisters, 16, 156. Linnell, Sir John, 53. Literary Works, 147, 150. Liverpool Corporation Art Galleries, Curator of, 147, 182. Lloyds, 38, 39, 156. Louis Quinze, 148. Macbeth, 81. MacNab, The, 146. Macquoid, Mr. Percy, 16 Madame Tussaud's, 44. Mankind, 149. Manner, 11. Maratti, Carlo, 112. o 193 CULT OF OLD PAINTINGS. INDEX Market Cart, 119. Martineau Sketch, 156. Masterpiece, 16. Masters, Unknown, 159. Meags, 85. " Meet," 45. Mezzotint, 41, 65, 66, 143, 147, 161. Michael Angelo, 34, 71. Milton, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64. Miniicry, 135. Miniature, 53, 145, 170. Miniature of Romney Case, 51, 52, 53. " Minutes," 77. Mistakes, 66. Model, 32, 56. Modern Painters, 114. Mona Lisa, 106. Monogram, 47, 95. Monographic, 96. Morland, George, 36, 87, 88, 116, 148. Morris, Sir Henry, 40. Moses, 16. Moses, Finding of, 31. Muscles, 76. Muse, The Tragic, 102, 165. National Gallery, 44, 67, 72, 73, 90, III, 120, 122, 147, 160. National Portrait Gallery, 147. Nature, 26, 127, 150, 15T, 162. Navj^ 135, 143. Nelson, 143, 144. New York, 155, 156, 168. Nicotine, 130. North, J. W., A.R.A., 6. Nude, 92, no. Nurse, 151. Observation, 71. O.H., 47, 187. Old Crone, 138. Old Paintings, 25, 112, 113, 121, 133, 149, 150. Old Testament History, 90. Olympia, 46. Oracle, Sir, 123. Original, 177. Outline, 19, no. Owhyhees, 129. Oyster, 48. O'Zell, 48. Painter, 33, 51, 04, 142. Palm, Itching, 105. Panacea, 105. Panel, 113. Parsons, Mrs. Clement, 73, 172. "Parts," 77. Patience, 69. Patients, 190. Pedigree, 26, 95, 96. I Period, 71. Persian Distich, 151. Perspective, 39, 71. Peter Jackson, 141. Phidias, 21. Phil May, 126. Photographs, 66, 99, 123, 124, 125. Physiognomy, 33, 34 Pickwick, 106. Pictures," The, 134, 139. Pigments, 164. Pitcher, 122. Plaintiff, 153. Playbills, 124, 172. Poet, 44, 51. Pole, Lady de la, 180, 183. Pope, 149. Portia, II. Portrait, it, 32, 44, 70, 72, 92, 123, 142, 145, 147, i7i» 174- Pose, 70, 71. Poster, 134, 136, 138. Pot-boiler, 104. Poussin, 25. " Poverty," 118. Poynter, Sir E,, Bart., P.R.A., 40, 42, 160, 161, 163, 169. Preface, 6. Premium, Mr., 16. Press, 100, 119, Prince of Painters, 85. Pygmalion, 13. Rabbi, 90. Radcliffe, Dr., 68. Raeburn, 120, 145, 146. Raffaelle, 18, 21, 31, 35, 85, 112, 120. Reade, Charles, 58. Receipt, 53. Recreation, 25, 133, 143, 150. Reigning Beauties, 70. Rembrandt, 18, 30, 31, 36^ 89, 92, 120. Restorers, 113. Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 23, 30, 36, 38, 102, 103, 117, 120, 124, 140, 142, 150, 155, 156. Richardson, Mr. A. H., 154. Richmond Hill, 126. Richmond, Sir Wm., 158, 189. Ring, Diamond, 50. R.LP.,99. Roberts, Mr., 173, 179. Robinson, Mrs., 172. Roe, Mr. George, 178. Rome, 147. Romney, 36, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 51, 69, 82, III, 116, 117, 120, 122, 154. ^ Romney Case, 24, 25, 30, 39, 40, 146, 153- INDEX Romney Case, Miniature of, 51, 52, 53. Ronbrandt, 90. Rosebery, Lord. Royal Academj', 145, 146, 164. Royal Academy, President of, 40, 42, 142. Royal College of Physicians, 146. Royal Family, 116. Royal Institute of Painters in Water- colours, 165. Rubens, 34, 54, 71, 120. Ruskin, 19, 91, 114, 115, it8, 128, 150. St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 146. St. Peter's Boat, 89, 93. Sale, 16. Sardine, 107. Say, W., 65. " Scent," 21. Schools of Art, 18. Scott, Mr. Leslie, K.C., 51, 52, 72, 122, 154, 175, 188, 190. Scott, Sir Walter, 157. Sea-serpent, 88. Sentiment, 87, 116, 118, 157. Shade, 31, 116, 150. Shakespeare, 21, 57, 108. Shakespeare Memorial Gallery, Cur- ator of, J 84. Sheridan, 16, 169. Show- day, 12. Siddons, Mrs., 41, 44, 72, 73, 78, 102, 146, 154, 156, 157. Signatures, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 103, 105, 107, 187. Simon, Sir John, K.C., 51, 73, 102, 154, 155, i57> 190- Skeleton, 76. Sketch, 25, 45, 46. 47, 118, iS-i, 186, 187. Sketches, 77, 172. Smith, Benjamin, 64. Smith, J. R., 42, 128. Sotheby, 186. South Kensington Museum, 147. Speculation, 18, 178, 187. Stag-hunt, 45, 46, 97. Starvation, 137. Stephenson, George, 182. Stipple Engraving, 65. Stock Exchange, 97. Stories, 67. Style, II, 23, 70, 87, ti5, 148. Surface, Charles, 16, 17. Surface, Sir Oliver, 16, 17. Surgeon, 142. Surgeons, Royal College of, 41. Svengali, 132. Sylvester, Surg. -Gen., 94. Tallvho, Rob., Esq., 25. Thackeray, 190. Tz;ues, Tke, 180. Timon of Athens, 15, 45, 51. Titian, 28, 34, 40. Tobacco, 131, 132. Tom and Will, 48, 49. Tone, 150. Touch, T15. Trade, 37. Trafalgar, 143. Treatment, 109. Tree, Beerbohm, 132. Trick, 90, 91. Trilby, 132. Trotter, Miss, 160. Turner, 85, 116, 120, 128, 165. Turner, Charles, of Dorking, 187. Uncle Percival," 66. Upcott, The Late Mr. Wm., 186. Van der Plaas, 63. Van Dyck, 28, 54, 56, 102. Van Eyck, 91. Vanity, 138. Vatican, 31, 129. Velasquez, 120, 145. Venice, 112. Venus, 43, 120, 170. Vicars, Mr. E. H., 166, 177. Waldegrave Ladies, 41, 170, 171, 174. Waldegrave, Sisters, 30, 39, 42, 163. Wallace Collection, 172. Walpole, Horace, 171. War, 135. Ward, Mr. Humphry, 180. Watteau, 67. Wealth, 118, 128. Wedding Present, 82. Weller, Sam, 48. Wheel of Life, 125. Whiskey, 108. Whistler, 100. Whitley, Mr. W. T., 174. Wilson, 127. Wilson, Mr. S. E., 166. Wiltshere, 36, 118. Windsor Beauties, 29. Windsor Castle, 29, 126, 147. Wine-tasters, 22. Winkle, 108. Work, 133, 136, 137. ZofFany, 142. 195 pkinted in great britain by Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, brunswick street, stamford street, s.e. and bungay, suffolk-. t { GETTY CENTER LIBRARY 3 3125 00954 9896