“THE CONNOISSEURS.”ENGRAVED BY PERMISSION OF HENRYGRAVES & CO., LONDON. AFTER THE PAINTING BY SIR EDWIN LANDSEER.
(SEE PAGE 814.)
ST. NICHOLAS.
Vol. XIII. SEPTEMBER, 1886. No. 11.
[Copyright, 1886, by The CENTURY CO.]
STORIES OF ART AND ARTISTS: ENGLISH PAINTERS.
By Clara Erskine Clement.
When Henry VIII. came to the throne of England, he was a magnificentprince. He loved pleasure and pomp and invited many foreign artists tohis court. After a time, however, he became indifferent to art, and itis difficult to say whether he lessened or added to the art-treasures ofEngland.
The long reign of Queen Elizabeth—forty-seven years—afforded greatopportunity for the encouragement of art. But most of the painters whomshe employed were foreigners.
King Charles I. was a true lover of art. Rubens and Vandyck were hisprincipal painters, and Inigo Jones his architect; the choice of suchartists proves the excellence of his artistic taste and judgment. Heemployed many other foreign artists, of whom it need only be said thatthe English artists profited much by their intercourse with them, aswell as by the study of foreign pictures which the King purchased.
In fact, before the time of William Hogarth, portraits had been the onlypictures of any importance which were painted by English artists, and noone painter had become very eminent. No native master had originated amanner of painting which he could claim as his own.
Hogarth was born near Ludgate Hill, London, in 1697.
In 1734, he produced some works which immediately made him famous. Hehad originated a manner of his own; he had neither attempted toillustrate the stories of Greek Mythology, nor to invent allegories, asso many painters had done before him; he simply gave form to the naturethat was all about him, and painted just what he could see in Londonevery day. His pictures of this sort came to be almost numberless, andno rank in society, no phase of life, escaped the truthfulrepresentation of his brush.
He was a teacher as well as an artist, for his pictures dealt withfamiliar scenes and subjects and presented the lessons of the follies ofhis day with more effect upon the mass of the people than any writercould produce with his pen, or any preacher by his sermons.
Hogarth died at his house in Leicester Fields, on October 26, 1764.
His success aroused a strong faith and a new interest in the native artof England, which showed their results in the establishment of the RoyalAcademy of Arts. A little more than four years after Hogarth's death,this Academy was founded by King George III. The original members of theAcademy numbered thirty-four, and among them was
Joshua Reynolds,
who afterward became its first president.
His father, Samuel Reynolds, was the rector of a grammar school atPlympton, in Devonshire, and in that little hamlet, on July 16, 1723,was born Joshua, the seventh of eleven children.
When Joshua was but a mere child, hi