CHAPTER VII.

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

MANY others of our recent English painters have been almost as entirely their own instructers 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

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

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

mason; but some authorities state that he had been also a victualler. At the time of Barry's birth, he was the master of a small coasting vessel in which he traded between England and Ireland.

Barry is understood to have received a good education in the ordinary branches of scholarship. At an early age, however, his father took him with him to sea, and made him do duty as a ship-boy. This occupation he detested. The love of painting had already taken possession of him, and his greatest pleasure was to cover the deck with sketches of objects made with chalk or ochre. His father, at last, finding all his efforts to make him a sailor of no avail, allowed him to remain at home, and to pursue his studies in literature and art. He now returned to school, and distinguished himself by an ardour and diligence which left all his class-fellows behind him. Even his play-hours were generally given to hard study. Instead of associating with the other boys in their amusements, his practice was to retire to his room, and there to employ himself in reading or painting. Whatever money he got, he spent in purchasing books, or candles to enable him to read during the night. His enthusiasm was at this time (and indeed throughout his life) partly sustained also by certain notions of the virtue of ascetic observances, which he had derived from his mother, who was a Catholic, and had great influence over him. In conformity with these opinions he was wont to sleep, when he did take rest, upon the hardest bed, and to wear the coarsest clothes he could procure. These theological prejudices were not calculated to have a salutary effect upon the growth of a character like that of Barry, whose morose and atrabilious temperament rather required an education calculated to bring the gentler affections of his nature more into play.

His ardour in study, however, both at this and every other part of his life, was admirable. He had as yet but few books of his own, but he borrowed from all who had any to lend, and sometimes learned the passages which he liked by heart, (a practice of which he soon found the advantage, in the growing strength of his memory), and sometimes transcribed them. It is said that transcripts of several entire volumes, which he had made at this period, were found after his death among his papers. Among the works which he especially delighted to study, it is recorded, were many on controversial divinity unfortunately not the most wholesome sustenance for an intellectual and moral organization like his.

He was in his seventeenth year when he first attempted to paint in oil; and for some years he wrought with no one to encourage or to notice him. Among the first performances which he produced, were compositions on the escape of Æneas from Troy, the story of Susannah and the Elders, and that of Daniel in the Lion's Den. These pictures he hung up on the walls of his father's house, and there they remained long after the painter's fame had spread over Europe. At last, in his twentieth or twenty-first year, he produced a work which appeared to himself such as he might exhibit in a more public place. This was a picture on the fine subject of the baptism by St Patrick of one of the kings of Cashel, who stands unmoved while the ceremony is performed, amidst a circle of wondering and horrorstruck spectators, although the saint, in setting down his crozier, has, without perceiving it, struck its iron point through the royal foot. With this work he set out for Dublin, and placed it in the exhibition room of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts. It was universally admired. But no one knew the artist,