Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER VII.

Other English Painters-Spencer; Highmore; Hannam; Gilpin; Gainsborough; Barry; Lawrence.

MANY others of our recent English painters have been almost as entirely their own instructors as West was. JARVIS SPENCER, who was celebrated as a miniature painter in the latter part of the last century, was originally a menial servant, and while in that condition used to amuse himself by attempting to draw, when no one suspected what he was about. At last, one of the family in whose service he lived having sat to an artist for a miniature, the performance, when it was finished, was seen by Spencer, who immediately remarked, very much to the surprise of everybody, that he thought he could make a copy of it. He was allowed to try his skill, and succeeded to admiration. His master, upon this discovery of his servant's genius, very generously exerted himself to place him in his proper sphere, and to make him generally known; and Spencer, as we have said, rose eventually to great eminence in the department which he cultivated. JOSEPH HIGHMORE, who painted, among other well-known works, the Hagar and Ishmael, in the Foundling Hospital, and long enjoyed high reputation, both for his historical pictures and his portraits, taught himself the art which he afterwards practised with so much success, while he was serving his apprenticeship in a solicitor's office, and was without any one to give him a lesson. Highmore died in 1780. Another painter of that day, of the name of HANNAM, whose works, however,

have not attracted much attention, was originally an apprentice to a cabinet-maker; and, having acquired some skill in painting by his own efforts, used to be allowed by his master to spend as much of his time as he chose in executing pictures for those who gave him commissions, on condition of his handing over the price to that person, who found that he made more in this way than he could have done by keeping Hannam to his regular work. RICHARD WRight, who about the same period was much celebrated for his sea-pieces, rose from the condition of a house and ship-painter, having taught himself to draw while he followed that trade in his native town of Liverpool. The late Royal Academician, SAWREY GILPIN, SO celebrated especially for his most faithful and spirited delineations of animals, was also originally apprenticed to a ship-painter. He lodged in Covent Garden, and there being a view of the market from the window of his apartment, Gilpin used to amuse himself in making sketches of the horses and carts, with their attendants, as they passed, or formed themselves into picturesque groups in the square. GAINSBOROUGH, the great landscape painter, again, led by his different genius, used, while yet a mere boy, to resort to the woods and pasture fields in the neighbourhood of his native town of Sudbury, and there to employ himself unweariedly, often from morning till night, in sketching with his untutored pencil the various objects that struck his fancy, from a flock of sheep, or the shepherd's hut, to the stump of an old tree. It was to these studies of his earliest years, undoubtedly, that Gainsborough was indebted both for that perfect truth and fidelity by which his works are distinguished, and for that deep feeling of the beautiful in nature which has thrown over them so inexpressible a charm. He learned also in this way a habit of diligent, minute and accurate ob

[graphic][subsumed][merged small][merged small][subsumed]

servation, which never left him; and it is both interesting and instructive to read the account which has been given, of the unrelaxed zeal with which he continued to pursue the study of his art even to the last. "He was continually remarking," says Sir Joshua Reynolds, speaking of the habits of his more mature years, "to those who happened to be about him, whatever peculiarity of countenance, whatever accidental combination of figures, or happy effects of light and shadow occurred in prospects, in the sky, in walking the streets, or in company. If in his walks he found a character that he liked, and whose attendance was to be obtained, he ordered him to his house; and from the fields he brought into his painting-room, stumps of trees, weeds, and animals of various kinds; and designed them, not from memory, but immediately from the objects. He even framed a kind of model of landscapes on his table, composed of broken stones, dried herbs, and pieces of looking-glass, which he magnified and improved into rocks, trees, and water; all which exhibit the solicitude and extreme anxiety which he had about everything relative to his art; that he wished to have his objects embodied, as it were, and distinctly before him, neglecting nothing that contributed to keep his faculties alive, and deriving hints from every sort of combination." It is not, indeed, generally, the highest genius which is least inclined to avail itself of such assistance in its labours as study and pains-taking may procure.

Another of the most distinguished names in the list of recent British artists, is that of JAMES BARRY. Barry was born at Cork in 1741. His father appears to have been a somewhat unsettled character, or at least to have shifted from one pursuit to another, probably without obtaining much success in any. It is commonly said that he was originally a

VOL. II.

P

« PreviousContinue »