Nicolas Kratzer: Astronomer to Henry VIII. By Hans Holbein. DATED 1528. In the Louvre.
Nicolas Kratzer: Astronomer to Henry VIII. By Hans Holbein. DATED 1528.
In the Louvre.

It is not surprising that art made little progress whilst it was mainly directed to the painting and gilding of timber angels and of solid devils for a hell of iron and wood-work. Things were not much better in the reign of Henry VIII. His love of ostentation made him fond of pageants, and the instructions which he left for his own monument are curious. "The King shall appear on horseback, of the stature of a goodly man while over him shall appear the image of God the Father holding the King's soul in his left hand, and his right hand extended in the act of benediction." This work was to have been executed in bronze, but was never finished. Elizabeth stopped the necessary payments, and the uncompleted figure was sold by an unsentimental and Puritan Parliament for £600. The influence of the Reformation was decidedly antagonistic to art in England and elsewhere. In attempting to reform, the leaders tolerated destruction, and whilst pretending to purify the church they carried away not only the "idols," but much that was beautiful. They literally "broke down the carved work thereof with axes and hammers." Pictures and altar-pieces were ruthlessly destroyed. Fortunately a considerable number of old paintings still exist in our churches. A little work on "Wall Paintings in England," recently published by the Science and Art Department, mentions five hundred and sixty-eight churches and other public buildings in England in which wall paintings and other decorations have been found, all dating from an earlier period than the Reformation, and there are doubtless many not noticed. The branch of art which suffered least from the iconoclastic Reformers was that of portrait-painting, and this received a great impetus in England by the opportune arrival of—

HANS HOLBEIN, the younger, of Augsburg (1497—1543), who came, in 1526, with a recommendation from Erasmus to Sir Thomas More, by whom he was welcomed and entertained at Chelsea. Unlike Albrecht Dürer, the other great German painter of the Reformation epoch, Holbein was a literal painter of men, not a dreamer haunted by visions of saints and angels. His ideas of heaven were probably modelled far more on the plan of the Bristol pageant, than on that of the Italian masters. Such an artist came exactly at the right moment to England, where Protestantism was becoming popular. Holbein's wonderful power as a colourist and the fidelity of his likenesses exercised a lasting effect on English art. He founded no school, however, though he had many imitators among the foreign artists whom Henry had invited.[C]

Edward, Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward VI. By HOLBEIN. From a Miniature in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire.
Edward, Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward VI.
By HOLBEIN.
From a Miniature in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire.

In 1532 Holbein was made Painter to the King, with a salary of £34 a year, in addition to the payment given for his works. The chief pictures painted by Holbein in England are portraits; and tradition says that Henry specially employed him to delineate the features of any fair lady on whom he had cast a favourable eye. Among the portraits we may mention those of Nicolas Kratzer, Erasmus, Anne of Cleves, and Sir Richard Southwel (in the Louvre); Archbishop Warham (Lambeth Palace); Sir Henry Guildford, a Merchant of the Steelyard, and Lady Rich (Windsor); Lady Vaux and John Reskimer (Hampton Court); Henry VIII.; the Duchess of Milan[D] (Arundel Castle); Sir William and Lady Butts (Mr. W. H. Pole Carew); The Ambassadors, a most important work, and Erasmus (Lord Radnor, Longford Castle). There is at Windsor a series of eighty portraits of the English nobility, drawn by Holbein in black and red chalks, which are of infinite value as works of art; and at Windsor likewise, and in other galleries, are many carefully painted miniatures ascribed to him, of the greatest artistic and historic value.

Hans Holbein, like most artists of his age, could do more than paint portraits. At Basle are noble subject pictures by him. He was an architect, a modeller, and a carver. He was specially gifted in designing wood-blocks for illustrating books, and in the ornamentation of sword-hilts, plate, and the like. A book of designs for jewels, by Holbein, once the property of Sir Hans Sloane, is now in the British Museum. Holbein died of the plague, in London, between October 7th and November 29th, 1543.

Another painter in the service of King Henry VIII. at this time was the above-named GIROLAMO PENNACCHI, who was born at Treviso, in 1497. He was an imitator of Raphael, and painted portraits—chiefly at Genoa, Faenza, Bologna, and Venice, and in 1542 came to England. He was killed by a cannon-ball while acting as a military engineer in the King's service near Boulogne, in 1544. There is an altar-piece by him, signed IERONIMVS TREVISIVS P (No. 623 in the National Gallery.) In the "Old Masters" Exhibition of 1880, was a portrait of Sir T. Gresham (No. 165), a fine whole-length, standing, life-size picture of the famous merchant, with a skull on the pavement at our left. This work is dated 1544, the year of Sir Thomas's marriage, in his twenty-sixth year, and, as we have seen above, of Treviso's death. It is the property of the Gresham Committee of London, and every expert has accepted it as a work of the Italian painter, engineer, and architect, who was important enough to be honoured with a separate biography by Vasari in his "Lives of the Painters." Girolamo's salary from the English King was 400 scudi per annum. Much likeness exists between the art of Gresham's portrait and that of the masterly life-size, whole-length picture of the Earl of Surrey, with his motto, Sat super est, which is one of the chief ornaments of Knole, and almost worthy of Velasquez himself. This picture (which is dated 1546) is attributed to the undermentioned GWILLIM STRETES (or STREET). It is much more like an Italian production than a Dutch one, and so fine that Da Treviso might have painted it at his best time. It is not like the beautiful portraits of Edward VI. at Windsor and Petworth, which are exactly such as we attribute to a man in Stretes's position, and which, while differing from the productions of Holbein, are, technically speaking, by no means unworthy of him. The charming Windsor portrait of Edward VI. was No. 172 in the National Portrait Exhibition of 1866. In the same collection were more works of the same period, including the portrait of Henry VIII., No. 124, lent by the Queen.

The following are among the painters who flourished at this time of whom records exist and are more or less confused, yet are so valuable that they deserve to be sifted in comparison with the large numbers of pictures. The artists' names are important because they prove how many of the owners were Englishmen. These persons were all employed by Henry VIII. They were JOHN BROWN, who received a pension of £10 a year; Andrew Wright, died 1543; VINCENT VOLPE, who translated his name into "Fox" and died 1529. He, c. 1529, was paid at the rate of £20 a year, a great sum in those days, when Holbein himself had but £30 a year. ANTONIO TOTO succeeded Wright as Sergeant-Painter to the King, a dignity which afterwards fell to Sir James Thornhill and Hogarth successively. Gerrard Lucas Horebout, or HORNEBOLT (1475—1558), and LUCAS HOREBOUT (died 1544), his son, Flemings, were painters of distinction here and abroad, whose works have been added to those of Holbein. Their wages were more than £30 per annum each. SUSANNA HOREBOUT was a painter of miniatures, much employed by the King and his courtiers. A picture of Henry VIII. at Warwick Castle has for centuries borne the name of Lucas of this family. It is doubtless rightly named, and may some day furnish a key to the style of the distinguished owner himself. It was No. 99 in the National Portrait Exhibition of 1866, and No. 471 of the Manchester Art Treasures of 1857. A somewhat similar picture is now in the National Portrait Gallery. We may, in future, recognise in some of the beautiful miniatures of this period, which are now ascribed to Holbein, the much-praised works of Susanna Horebout. Doubtless some of the works of Lucas have been bestowed on Lucas de Heere, who is mentioned below. BARTHOLOMEW PENNI, and ALICE CARMILLION succeeded in honour. Lavinia Terling (born Benich), "paintrix," as they called her, had for quarterly wages £10, and was mentioned by Vasari as of Bruges.

Portrait of a Dutch Gentleman. By SIR ANTONIS MORE.
Portrait of a Dutch Gentleman. By SIR ANTONIS MORE.

In the reign of Edward VI. GWILLIM STRETES was made Painter to the King. Strype records that he was paid fifty marks for two pictures of the King, and one of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who was beheaded in 1547. KATHERINE MAYNORS and GERBACH FLICK—evidently a Dutchman, one of whose drawings belonged to Richardson and is dated 1547—were here at this time; Flick's likeness of Cranmer (signed GERBARUS FLICIUS), painted in 1546, is now in the National Portrait Gallery. They continued the practice of art in this country. At Irnham is a fine full-length portrait of Lord Darcy of Chirke, dated 1551. Nicholas Lyzardi was second painter to King Edward, and succeeded TOTO, as Sergeant-Painter to Elizabeth. JOHANNES CORVUS painted the likeness of Fox, Bishop of Winchester, which belongs to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and which was at the National Portrait Exhibition, 1866, No. 46. Corvus has been identified by Mr. Scharf as the artist of a fine portrait, dated 1532, of Mary Tudor, wife of Louis XII., and the Duke of Suffolk. WILLIAM KEY, or CAIUS, as he called himself, was born at Breda in 1520 and died 1568. Some of his pictures were, as Mr. Scharf has noticed, in the collections of Charles I., and the Duke of Buckingham. A carver, and probably painter, well known at this period in England, whose works are, however, no longer to be identified, was Nicholas of Modena, who made pictures, possibly small coloured statues, of Henry VIII. and Francis I. It is worth while to mention that one P. Oudry, apparently a Frenchman, was busily employed in this country about 1578, and painted various portraits of Mary, Queen of Scots, one of which is in the National Portrait Gallery, while others are at Cobham, Hardwick, Hatfield, and Welbeck.

In the reign of Mary I. we find art represented by SIR ANTONIS MOR, MORO, or MORE (1512—1576—78), a native of Utrecht, who had painted and studied in Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Philip II. was his especial patron, and gave him a gold chain for the portrait of his gloomy Queen. He came to England in 1553, was made painter to the Court, and received very large prices for his pictures. He remained till the Queen's death, in 1558, when he returned to Madrid. He afterwards established himself at Brussels, under the protection of the Duke of Alva, but in 1572 removed to Antwerp, where he died. His portraits of Jeanne d'Archel, in the National Gallery, and of Sir T. Gresham, in the National Portrait Gallery, are excellent examples of his skill. Joost van Cleef (15001536?), a native of Antwerp, also painted portraits at this time with considerable success. From his overweening conceit, which led him into furious quarrels, he was called Zotte (foolish) Cleef. His portrait, by himself, is in the Althorp Gallery.

It has been said of Elizabeth, that although she had not much taste for painting, she loved pictures of herself. Her court painter was a Fleming, Lucas de Heere (1534?—1584), who had also been employed by Queen Mary, whose portrait (dated 1554) by him belongs to the Society of Antiquaries, and was at the "Old Masters," in 1880, No. 202. He painted, in 1570, the gallery of the Earl of Lincoln, describing the characteristics of different nations. With a sarcastic wit, which Elizabeth doubtless appreciated, he represented the typical Englishman as naked, with a pair of shears, and different kinds of clothes beside him, unable to decide on the best fashion. DE HEERE painted Elizabeth in full state, as she loved to be depicted, attended by Juno, Minerva and Venus. This picture remains at Hampton Court (No. 635), and is dated 1569. Mr. Wynne Finch has a capital picture of small figures, representing Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, and her second husband Adrian Stokes, dated 1559, by this able painter. Many other works by him exist in English seats. Other foreign artists of this reign were CORNELIUS VROOM, who drew designs for tapestry, representing the victory of Lord Howard over the famous "Armada" of the Spaniards (these tapestries were burnt with the Houses of Parliament in 1834); Federigo Zucchero (1643—1609), whose portrait of the Queen in a fantastic dress is in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, and was No. 229 in the National Portrait Exhibition, 1866; and MARC GHEERAEDTS, or GARRARD (1561—1635), of Bruges. There are three portraits ascribed to Gheeraedts in the collection of the Marquis of Exeter, and others were exhibited in the first (1866) National Portrait Exhibition. The most important of all the works attributed to Gheeraedts is the group of eleven English and Spanish Statesmen assembled at Somerset House, which has been recently acquired for the National Portrait Gallery at the Hamilton Palace sale.[E] A very fine little example, signed "M.G.," is a full-length portrait of Queen Elizabeth, standing, holding a branch of olive, with a sword and a little shock dog at her feet. It belongs to the Duke of Portland, and was long lent to the South Kensington Museum. A head of Camden, in the Bodleian, is signed with the artist's name in full. A very fine full-length portrait is at Woburn Abbey; other signed specimens are at Barron Hill and Penshurst.

Countess of Pembroke. "Sidney's Sister, Pembroke's Mother." By NICHOLAS HILLIARD (?). From a rare Engraving.
Countess of Pembroke. "Sidney's Sister, Pembroke's Mother."
By NICHOLAS HILLIARD (?).
From a rare Engraving.

More interesting than these foreign artists is the name of Nicholas Hilliard (1547—1619), an Englishman, and the first native artist of importance, whose fame remains to the present time. The "Old Masters" Exhibition of 1879 contained many likenesses said to have been painted by Hilliard; among these was one of Queen Elizabeth. Hilliard's skill was specially shown in his miniatures, of which that of Jane Seymour, at Windsor, is a crowning piece. The Duke of Buccleuch has a noble series of Hilliard's and Oliver's paintings of this kind. Dr. Donne says of the former—

The influence of Holbein is traceable in the works of Hilliard, and in those of his successor, and, probably, pupil, Isaac Oliver. One of the most able painters of this age was SIR NATHANIEL BACON, half-brother to the great Sir Francis Bacon, whose life-size portrait of himself, belonging to the Earl of Verulam, has been engraved in Walpole's "Anecdotes." Sir N. Bacon died in 1615.

Sir Philip Sidney at Penshurst. By ISAAC OLIVER. From a Miniature in Windsor Castle.
Sir Philip Sidney at Penshurst. By ISAAC OLIVER.
From a Miniature in Windsor Castle.

The miniatures of ISAAC OLIVER (1556—1617) are considered by some critics to rival those of Holbein. Both Isaac and his son PETER OLIVER (1601—1660) painted in the reign of James I., who, if not a great patron of Art, yet encouraged foreign portrait painters to work in England. Most famous among these were DANIEL MYTENS, PAUL VAN SOMER, and CORNELIS JONSON. Van Somer, a Fleming, is specially noted for his fidelity, Mytens for the spirit and dignity of his likenesses and his landscape backgrounds, and Jonson for the accuracy of his portraits. JEAN PETITOT (1607—1691), of Geneva, also came to England and painted portraits in enamel for Charles I. But native art was not altogether unrepresented. Nicholas Stone, the sculptor, flourished; and John Hoskins, who died in 1664, was celebrated as a miniature painter. The special art of miniature painting was at this time lucrative to its professors, as it was the fashion to wear pictures of friends, set in gold and precious stones. There were symptoms of a growing taste for art in England, and men were learning that it was possible to paint a good picture without living on the Continent.

Portrait of King James I. By Hoskins, After Van Somer. From a Miniature in Windsor Castle.
Portrait of King James I. By Hoskins, After Van Somer.
From a Miniature in Windsor Castle.

The first Englishman of high degree who collected works of art in the manner to which we apply the phrase, was the Earl of Arundel, who was followed by Prince Henry, son of James I. The accession of Charles I. marks a new and bright period in the history of English painting. Walpole, in his "Anecdotes of Painting," speaking of Charles I., says, not very accurately, "The accession of this Prince was the first era of real taste in England. As his temper was not profuse, the money he expended on his collections, and the rewards he bestowed on men of true genius, are proofs of his judgment. He knew how and where to bestow." The King was not only a patron of art, but an artist. We are told by Gilpin that Charles "had singular skill in limning, and was a good judge of pictures." Another authority states that he often amused himself by drawing and designing. Charles inherited pictures which had been collected by Henry VIII. and Prince Henry, all of which were scattered in the different royal palaces. To these works, one hundred and fifty in all, the King added a vast number of valuable examples. The manuscript catalogue, left incomplete by Vanderdoort, the keeper of the royal galleries, mentions 497 pictures at Whitehall, including 28 by Titian, 9 by Raphael, 11 by Correggio, 11 by Holbein, 16 by Giulio Romano, 7 by Parmigiano, 7 by Rubens, 7 by Tintoretto, 3 by Rembrandt, 16 by Van Dyck, 4 by Paolo Veronese, and 2 by Leonardo da Vinci.[F] Charles bought, in 1627, the collection of paintings belonging to the Duke of Mantua for £18,280 12s. 8d.; and many foreign courts made presents of rare and valuable pictures to the King of England. The good example of their master was followed by some of the nobility, and the Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Somerset, the Earl of Pembroke, and the Earl of Arundel were liberal patrons of art. The last made a noble collection of statues and drawings; some of the latter are in the British Museum; many of the sculptures are at Oxford. Charles vainly invited Albani to visit England, but in 1629 RUBENS arrived as a confidential diplomatic representative of the Archduchess Isabella, Infanta of Spain, and was induced to remain for about nine months. The King delighted to honour the great painter, and made him a knight. During his stay in England, Rubens, among other works, painted his allegoric picture of Peace and War (National Gallery); St. George (Buckingham Palace); the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, for the Earl of Arundel; and the designs for the ceiling of Whitehall. The influence from this brief sojourn was very marked, and it was followed by that of—

WILLIAM DOBSON (1610—1646), a dwarf, was apprenticed to Sir Robert Peake, an obscure painter and picture dealer, and learnt to copy Van Dyck so accurately, that he attracted the notice of the great master, who introduced him to the King. He became, after his patron's death, Serjeant-Painter, and Groom of the Privy Chamber. His career, like himself, was brief. When the Civil War broke out, Dobson was a prisoner for debt, and he died three years before the execution of his royal master. His portraits are often mistaken for those of Van Dyck. At Hampton Court is a fine picture of the painter himself with his wife. The Beheading of St. John the Baptist, which resembles a Honthorst, is at Wilton House; and a portrait of Cleveland, the poet, is in the Ellesmere collection. Several of Dobson's portraits have been exhibited in the National Portrait Exhibition, and in the collections of works by the "Old Masters" at Burlington House.

The Countess of Devonshire. By VAN DYCK. From the Engraving by P. Lombart.
The Countess of Devonshire. By VAN DYCK. From the Engraving by P. Lombart.

GEORGE JAMESONE (1586—1644), the son of an Aberdeen architect, is styled by Cunningham "the Scottish Van Dyck." He studied abroad under Rubens, in the company of Van Dyck, and in 1628 commenced a prosperous career in Scotland. He painted the portrait of Charles I., in 1633, when the King visited that country. Jamesone also painted historic pictures, landscapes, and subjects from the Bible. During the contest of the King with his Parliament, the arts could not but languish. Some of the great collectors fled to the Continent, where more than one of them existed by the sale of portable works of art, such as medals. The Parliament ordered the furniture of the royal palaces and the contents of the picture galleries to be sold by auction, and the proceeds to be applied to the expenses of the war in Ireland and the North. By an order of the House of Commons, 1645, all such pictures and statues at York House as bore the image of the Virgin Mary were to be forthwith destroyed as gendering superstition. Although art, as represented in England at this time, had been devoted to any but religious purposes—and many of its manifestations were grossly indecent and infamous, or, at best, shocking to unaccustomed eyes—these orders were not obeyed universally. Many pictures were bought by foreign princes, some by Cavaliers, others by the Puritans, among whom Colonel Hutchinson was an extensive purchaser. Cromwell, on becoming Protector, stopped all the sales of royal paintings and property. To him we owe the preservation of Raphael's cartoons. They were valued by the Commissioners at £300 and ordered to be sold, but Cromwell stopped the sale. In the reign of Charles II., these cartoons would have been lost to England; the King had offered to sell them to Barillon, minister of Louis XIV., and it was only by Lord Danby's means that the sale was prevented. Cromwell employed as his portrait painter—

Oliver Cromwell. By SIR PETER LELY. In the Pitti Palace, Florence.
Oliver Cromwell. By SIR PETER LELY. In the Pitti Palace, Florence.

ROBERT WALKER, who died in 1658. The Protector insisted upon having the warts and pimples on his face faithfully portrayed, and gave strict injunctions both to Walker and Sir Peter Lely not to flatter him. One of Walker's portraits of Cromwell is at Warwick Castle. Some capital examples of his skill are in the National Portrait Gallery. The Restoration was not favourable to design. Charles II. had neither taste for art, nor money to encourage painters. The unbridled license of the Court defiled the studio as it did the stage; and the most popular pictures were the portraits of the rakes and wantons who clustered round the King.

Sir PETER LELY (1618—1680), originally named Van der Faes, was the very accomplished painter of the Court, some of whose better works may be compared with Van Dyck's. He came to England in 1643, and profited by his art under Charles I., the Protectorate, and Charles II. Walpole said of Lely's nymphs that they are "generally reposed on the turf, and are too wanton and too magnificent to be taken for anything but Maids of Honour."

The well-known collection of Lely's portraits at Hampton Court includes, among others, those of the Duchess of Richmond; the Countess of Rochester; Mrs. Middleton the celebrated beauty; the Countess of Northumberland; the Duchess of Cleveland, as Minerva; the Countess de Grammont, and Jane Kellaway, as Diana (misnamed Princess Mary). Mrs. Middleton, in the National Portrait Gallery, by Lely, is remarkably good. Lely fell dead before his easel, while painting a portrait of the Dowager Duchess of Somerset, November 30th, 1680.

SAMUEL COOPER (1609—1672) was a miniature painter of a high order, whose art attested the influence of Van Dyck; the Duke of Buccleuch has the two famous unfinished portraits of the Protector by him, and a galaxy of other works of this class. Pepys, speaking of a portrait-painter named JOHN HAYLS, of whom he thought highly, said: "He has also persuaded me to have Cooper draw my wife's picture, which though it cost over £30, yet I will have it done." He called Cooper "a limner in little," and referred to him several times in his Diary. On the death of Sir Peter Lely, another foreigner became the popular painter of the Court. This was—

Grinling Gibbons, the Sculptor. By GODFREY KNELLER.
Grinling Gibbons, the Sculptor. By GODFREY KNELLER.

The popularity of allegoric painting did much to hinder the progress of English art. Nature gave place to naked gods and impossible shepherdesses, who were painted on walls and ceilings at so much a square foot. Charles II. had probably acquired a taste for such painting abroad, and it retained its popularity for a considerable period. Fuseli said: "Charles II., with the Cartoons in his possession and the magnificence of Whitehall before his eyes, suffered Verrio to contaminate the walls of his palaces, or degraded Lely to paint the Cymons and Iphigenias of his Court, while the manner of Kneller swept completely away what might be left of taste among his successors. It was reserved for the German Lely and his successor Kneller to lay the foundation of a manner which, by pretending to unite portrait with history, gave a retrograde direction for nearly a century to both; a mob of shepherds and shepherdesses in flowing wigs and dressed curls, ruffled Endymions, humble Junos, withered Hebes, surly Allegros, and smirking Pensierosos usurp the place of propriety and character." We can see the triumphs of allegory over nature fully illustrated in Hampton Court Palace. Chief among painters of this class of art was Antonio Verrio (1634—1707), who received from Charles II. £10,000 for the decoration of Windsor Castle. LOUIS LAGUERRE (1663—1721) was associated with Verrio, and carried on similar work after Verrio's death. His best works are at Blenheim. In his later years Laguerre found a coadjutor in SIR JAMES THORNHILL (1676—1734), whose decorations are superior to those of Verrio or Laguerre. His chief productions are in the cupola of St. Paul's Cathedral, the Great Hall of Greenwich Hospital, an apartment at Hampton Court, and a saloon in Blenheim Palace. Thornhill was knighted by George I., being the first English artist who received that honour, and he sat in Parliament for his native place, Melcombe Regis. Perhaps the most enduring fact about him is that he was the father-in-law of Hogarth. Walpole said of the reign of George I.:—"No reign since the arts have been in any estimation produced fewer works that will deserve the attention of posterity." It was not only in England that art slumbered. The Flemish, Dutch, and Spanish schools had passed from the brilliance of their seventeenth-century period. In Italy art had shrivelled with the last of the Bolognese school. France possessed some original painters, but not of the highest order.

Before passing on to the period of Hogarth and the creation of the English school, we may mention a few names of painters in England. These were JOHN RILEY (1646—1691); JAMES PARMENTIER (1658—1730); WILLIAM AIKMAN (1682—1731); MARY BEALE (1632—1697); JOHN CLOSTERMANN (1656—1713); MICHAEL DAHL (1656—1743); Gerard von Soest (1637—1681); JOHN VANDERBANK (1694?—1739); WILLIAM WISSING (1656—1687); Joseph Michael Wright (1625?—1700?), a pupil of Jamesone; JONATHAN RICHARDSON (1665—1745), a pupil of Riley; CHARLES JERVAS (1675—1739), a follower of Kneller, and the friend of Pope, who, with the fulsome flattery of the day, compared him to Zeuxis. GEORGE KNAPTON (1698—1778) was famous for crayon portraits; a large group, in oils, representing the Princess of Wales and her family, by his hand, is at Hampton Court.

In the middle of the eighteenth century, THOMAS HUDSON (1701—1779) became the fashionable portrait painter. His chief remaining claim to fame is that he was the first master of Joshua Reynolds. FRANCIS HAYMAN (1708—1776) lived long enough to write himself R.A. among the earliest members. His Finding of Moses may be seen at the Foundling Hospital; and his own portrait in the National Portrait Gallery. He seems to have been highly esteemed, and, among other works, executed some for Vauxhall Gardens. His fame is now almost as extinct as the lamps of that once famous place of entertainment.

CHAPTER III.

ENGLISH ART IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY—WILLIAM HOGARTH.

HITHERTO we have seen painting in England confined to foreign artists, or to natives who more or less slavishly copied them. We have seen, likewise, that many of the English painters of the latter days of the seventeenth century were decorators rather than artists, who, forsaking all truth and nature, covered the walls and ceilings of houses with simpering shepherdesses and impossible deities. The time of change came, however, and with it the man who was to be the first original painter of his country. It is to plain William Hogarth, the son of the Cumberland schoolmaster, the apprentice of the silver-plate engraver, Ellis Gamble, that we owe the origin of the English school of painting. The term "school of painting" is, however, hardly correct, as Hogarth founded no school, nor has there existed one in England till very recently. We should rather say that Hogarth was the first English artist who forsook exhausted conventionalities for large truthfulness and original thought, and thus paved the way to a new life in art. A man who laughed at the "black masters," as he called the painters of the most popular works of the period; and who declared that copying other men's pictures was like pouring wine from one vessel to another, a process which did not increase the quality, and allowed the flavour to evaporate, was naturally regarded as an innovator of a monstrous order. Like all reformers, Hogarth had to defeat opposition and ridicule. But he dared to think for himself, and in that courage lay the secret of success.

William Hogarth and his Dog Trump. By HOGARTH. In the National Gallery.
William Hogarth and his Dog Trump. By HOGARTH.
In the National Gallery.

WILLIAM HOGARTH was born in 1697 in Ship Court, Old Bailey, hard by Ludgate Hill, in a house which was pulled down in 1862. His father, who had received a good education at St. Bees, kept a school in Ship Court, and sought work from booksellers. But, like many another poor scholar, he could not make a living, and died disappointed. After spending some time at school, William Hogarth, warned by the example of his father, determined to pursue a craft in preference to literature, and was apprenticed, probably in 1711, to Ellis Gamble, a silversmith in Cranbourne Alley. Here, though his drawings and engravings were mostly confined to heraldic devices and the like, the young artist gained accuracy of touch, to which he added truthfulness of design, and prepared himself to delineate that London life which was to furnish him with models for his art. He tells us how he determined to enter a wider field than that of mere silver-plate engraving, though at the age of twenty to engrave his own designs on copper was the height of his ambition. The men and women who jostled him in London streets, or rolled by him in their coaches, were his models. Besides the keenest powers of observation, and a sardonic, sympathizing, and pitying humour, he possessed a wonderfully accurate and retentive memory, which enabled him to impress a face or form on his mind, and reproduce it at leisure. Occasionally, if some very attractive or singular face struck his fancy, he would sketch it on his thumb-nail, and thence transfer it. Hogarth tells us that "instead of burdening the memory with musty rules, or tiring the eye with copying dry or damaged pictures, I have ever found studying from nature the shortest and safest way of obtaining knowledge of my art." Thus, whether he was watching "society" on its way to court, or mingling in the midnight orgies of a tavern, Hogarth was storing portraits which were to appear, some in silks and satins, as in the Marriage à la Mode, others among the humours of Beer Street and the misery of Gin Lane. Hogarth's apprenticeship ended probably in 1718; we find him studying drawing from the life in the Academy in St. Martin's Lane. In 1721 he published An Emblematical Print on the South Sea (Scheme), which was sold at one shilling a copy, and though defective in the sardonic humour which marked his later works, shows promise of what was to come. In the same year The Lottery was published. In 1724 he engraved Masquerades and Operas, a satire, which represents "society" crowding to a masquerade, and led by a figure wearing a cap and bells on his head, and the Garter on his leg. This engraving delighted the public whom it satirised, and Hogarth lost much through piracies of his work. He was employed by the booksellers to illustrate books with engravings and frontispieces. In "Mottraye's Travels" (1723) there are eighteen illustrations by Hogarth, seven in the "Golden Ass of Apuleius" (1724), and five frontispieces in "Cassandra" (1725). Walpole says, somewhat too severely, that "no symptoms of genius dawned in those early plates." In 1726 was published, besides his twelve large prints, which are well known, an edition of "Hudibras," illustrated by Hogarth in seventeen smaller plates. Of this Walpole says, "This was among the first of his works that marked him as a man above the common; yet in what made him then noticed it surprises me now to find so little humour in an undertaking so congenial to his talents." The designs of Hogarth are not so witty as the verses of Butler, but we must remember that the painter had never seen men living and acting as they are described in the poem; they were not like the men of whom he made his daily studies. At this period he who dared to be original, and to satirise his neighbours, had much trouble. The value set upon his work in those early days may be estimated when we read that J. Bowles, of the Black Horse, in Cornhill, patronised Hogarth to the extent of offering him half-a-crown a pound weight for a copperplate just executed. In 1727, we find a certain upholsterer named Morris refusing to pay thirty pounds to the artist, because he had failed, in Morris's opinion, to execute a representation of the Element of Earth, as a design for tapestry, "in a workmanlike manner." It is on record that the verdict was in favour of Hogarth, who was paid £20 for his work and £10 for materials. In 1730, Hogarth made a secret marriage at old Paddington Church, with Jane, only daughter of Sir James Thornhill, Serjeant-Painter to the King. He had frequented Thornhill's studio, but whether the art of the court painter, or the face of his daughter was the greater attraction we know not. There is no doubt that Hogarth's technique was studied from Thornhill's pictures, and not from those of Watteau or Chardin, as has been supposed. Hogarth was painting portraits years before 1730. Mr. Redgrave, in his "Century of Painters," describes some wall pictures in the house No. 75, Dean Street, Soho, which is said to have been a residence of Sir James Thornhill. Some of the figures here are thoroughly of the Hogarth type, especially that of a black man in a turban, a familiar form in the Marriage à la Mode. For a time after his marriage Hogarth confined himself to painting portraits and conversation pieces, for which he was well paid, although Walpole declares that this "was the most ill-suited employment to a man whose turn was certainly not flattery." Truthfulness, however, is more valuable in a portrait than flattery, and we surely find it in Hogarth's portraits of himself, one in the National Gallery, and in that of Captain Coram, at the Foundling. In 1734, Hogarth published the first of those wonderful unspoken sermons against vice and folly, A Harlot's Progress, which was followed immediately by A Rake's Progress, issued in 1735. A Harlot's Progress, in six plates, met with an enthusiastic reception; it was a bold innovation on the cold stilted style of the day, and its terrible reality stirred the hearts of all beholders. A Rake's Progress, in eight plates, was scarcely so popular, and the professors of the kind of art which Hogarth had satirised found many faults with the reformer. Hogarth was now a person of consequence, and the once unknown and struggling artist was the talk of the town. The Sleeping Congregation is a satire on the heavy preachers and indifferent church-goers of that period. The Distressed Poet and A Midnight Modern Conversation soon followed. The latter, in which most of the figures are actual portraits, is considered in France and Germany the best of this master's single works. In due course appeared The Enraged Musician, of which a wit of the day observed that "it deafens one to look at it," and The Strolling Actresses, which Allan Cunningham describes as "one of the most imaginative and amusing of all the works of Hogarth."[G]

One of the best of Hogarth's life stories is the Marriage à la Mode, the original paintings of which are in the National Gallery; they appeared in prints in 1745. These well-known pictures illustrate the story of a loveless marriage, where parents sacrifice their children, the one for rank the other for money. Mr. Redgrave ("A Century of Painters") tells us that "the novelty of Hogarth's work consisted in the painter being the inventor of his own drama, as well as painter, and in the way in which all the parts are made to tend to a dramatic whole; each picture dependent on the other, and all the details illustrative of the complete work. The same characters recur again and again, moved in different tableaux with varied passions, one moral running through all, the beginning finding its natural climax in the end." Some of the most striking points in the satire of Hogarth's picture are brought out in the background, as in the first picture of Marriage à la Mode, where the works of "the black masters" are represented ludicrously, and the ceiling of the room is adorned with an unnatural picture of the destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea. In 1750 appeared The March of the Guards to Finchley, which is "steeped in humour and strewn with absurdities." It was originally dedicated to George II., but, so the story goes, the King was offended by a satire on his Guards, and he declared "I hate boetry and bainting; neither one nor the other ever did any good." Certain it is that Hogarth was disappointed by the reception of his work, and dedicated it to the King of Prussia. The painting of The March to Finchley, on publication of the print, was disposed of by lottery, and won by the Foundling Hospital. We cannot do more than mention some of the remaining works by which the satirist continued "to shoot Folly as she flies." Beer Street, and Gin Lane, illustrate the advantages of drinking the national beverage, and the miseries following the use of gin. The Cockpit represents a scene very common in those days, and contains many portraits. The Election is a series of four scenes, published between 1755 and 1758, in which all the varied vices, humours, and passions of a contested election are admirably represented. The pictures of this series are in Sir John Soane's Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields.

Hogarth's last years were embittered by quarrels, those with Churchill and Wilkes being the most memorable. The publication in 1753 of his admirable book, called "The Analysis of Beauty," in which Hogarth tried to prove that a winding line is the Line of Beauty, produced much adverse criticism and many fierce attacks, which the painter could not take quietly. He was further annoyed by the censures passed on his picture of Sigismunda, now in the National Gallery, which he had painted in 1759 for Sir Richard Grosvenor, and which was returned on his hands. Two years previously Hogarth had been made Serjeant-Painter to the King. He did not live to hold this office long; on October 26th, 1764, the hand which had exposed the vices and follies of the day so truly, and yet with such humour, had ceased to move. Hogarth died in his house at Leicester Fields; he was buried in Chiswick Churchyard, where on his monument stands this epitaph by Garrick;—