have become familiar, but Edward Bird (1772-1819)well represented in the National Gallery by his Raffle for the Watch-deserves recognition as having been to some extent the forerunner of Wilkie, and the first to introduce the humorous element which is so important a feature of British genre painting.

Wilkie in some respects resembled his great predecessor Hogarth, but in the works of the latter the moral to be conveyed is always the first thing to strike the observer, while in those of the former kindly humor rather than satire is the predominant feature. Until 1825 Wil

kie painted genre pictures exclusively, winning a reputation never surpassed by his Village Politicians, Blind Fiddler, the Rent Day, the Village Festival, the Letter of Introduction, Duncan Gray, Distraining for Rent (many of them in the English collections at South Kensington and Trafalgar Square), the Penny Wedding, and the Chelsea Pensioners, in the possession of the Duke of Wellington, and many other similar works. These early compositions are mostly of cabinet size, and are all alike characterized by simple and effective treatment of familiar incident. Many of them are crowded with figures; they are painted in a pure and transparent color which cannot be called either rich or brilliant, but which admirably fulfills all the requirements of the subject chosen. In the year 1825 Wilkie went to Italy, and on his return to England completely changed his style and mode of execution. His later works-such as the Maid of Saragossa, and his John Knox Preaching, in the National Galleryalthough they have a charm of their own, and display considerable dramatic force and power of picturesque grouping, are wanting in the vitality of those enumerated above. In an attempt to imitate the broad, rich coloring of Titian and Velazquez,

Wilkie lost the quiet harmony and balance of tone by which he had been distinguished. But for his early death, however, he would probably have conquered these deficiencies, and have risen to a high position as an historic painter in the grand style. Wilkie painted chiefly in oils, but the South Kensington Museum contains some interesting water-color sketches by him.

William Mulready (1786-1863), born at Ennis in Ireland, ranks second only to Wilkie in his masterly treatment of familiar incident, and is by some critics thought to approach Turner in the finish and

brilliant coloring of his landscapes. His genre pictures exhibit less dramatic power and less humor than those of Wilkie, but in truth of drawing and sweetness and depth of coloring they are inferior to none. Mulready's easel pictures are in oils; but the South Kensington Museum contains a fine collection of life-studies in chalk which afford valuable specimens of careful drawing. Of his oil-paintings the following (all of which are in the National Gallery or the South Kensington Museum) are among the most remarkable: The Last In, Crossing the Ford, the Fight Interrupted, Giving a Bite, First Love, the Toy Seller, Choosing the Wedding Gown (his most popular work), and the Seven Ages of Man.

Charles Robert Leslie (1794-1859), a distinguished artist of American birth, practiced genre painting of the highest class. The leading characteristics of his works are force of expression, refinement, and feeling for female beauty. His subjects are principally illustrations of popular authors, of which the Merry Wives of Windsor, in the South Kensington Museum; Sancho Panza, and Uncle Toby and the Widow Wadman, both in the National Gallery, are among the most noteworthy. In all these works the

but was wanting in knowledge of drawing. His Portia and Bassanio, in the South Kensington Museum, considered one of his best works, is a fine example of his manner. Egg, whose untimely death was severely felt, excelled Newton in drawing, but was inferior to him in coloring. His works are characterized by pathetic beauty, and are mostly pervaded by a subtle sadness. A scene from Le Diable Boiteux, in the National Gallery, is considered one of his finest compositions, but we may also mention the Life and Death of Buckingham, Past

more recently, Sir Charles Eastlake and Daniel Maclise, were the chief.

Henry Howard (1769-1847), an oil-painter of great industry and perseverance, cannot take high rank among the artists of the present century; his works are pretty and pleasing, but never grand. A Flower-girl by him is in the National Gallery.

William Hilton (1786-1839), a man of greater power than Howard, produced many fine works; some of them-such as Christ Crowned with Thorns; the Angel releasing S. Peter; Edith and the Monks

discovering the body of Harold and Serena rescued by the Red Cross Knight, both in the National Gallery -are characterized by ideal beauty of design; but unfortunately, owing to the undue use of asphaltum, it is now difficult to fully realize their original condition, and there appears to be no hope of their preservation.

Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846), whose life was one long struggle with pecuniary difficulties, painted many large historic and sacred works-of which Xenophon's first sight of the Sea, Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, and the Raising of Lazarus (in the National Gallery) were among the best. His power was unfortunately not equal to his will; and although the general effect of some of his compositions is good, a close examination betrays gross errors of drawing and carelessness of execution. He was a vain and very ambitious man, and his want of success led to his melancholy end.

Among painters of fruit and flowers in England, George Lance (1802-1864) ranks with Van Huysum in Holland. He was a pupil of Haydon.

William Etty (1787–1849), a man of great industry, stands alone as the English artist who has gone nearest to a mastery of the difficulties of the nude human figure, and has approached to the brilliant transparency of the old Venetians in his flesh-tints. The early part of his career was beset with difficulties of every kind; his merits were unappreciated, his faults exaggerated, the technical excellences of his work were not understood; and, as a rule, the subjects he chose did not appeal with any force to the popular sympathies. Yet in spite of all these discouragements, he worked out for himself an original style, and won a place among the very first British artist. To quote his own words, Etty's aim in all his important pictures was "to paint some great moral on the heart.” The Combat, or Woman Pleading for Mercy; Benaiah, David's Chief Captain; Ulysses and the Syrens, three pictures of Joan of Arc, and three of Judith, now in the Royal Scottish Academy, are named by the artist himself as his best works; but we must also mention Youth on the Prow and Pleasure at the Helm, the Bather, and the Wife of Candaules, King of Lydia, in the National Gallery; and Venus Descending, and Cupid sheltering Psyche, in the South Kensington Museum, as extremely fine examples of the beauty

of form and truth of flesh-tints characteristic of everything produced by Etty.

Sir Charles Eastlake (1793-1865), a man of high scholarship and varied accomplishments, exercised an important influence on English Painting of the present day, both by his pictures and writings on art. His oil-paintings, which are not numerous, are characterized by delicate grace of execution, feeling for spiritual beauty, and effective simplicity of grouping. Christ lamenting over Jerusalem, in the National Gallery, is considered his masterpiece; other examples are-Greek Fugitives in the hands of Banditti; Hagar and Ishmael, and several incidents from Italian life. He was for many years President of the Royal Academy, and also Director of the National Gallery-of which for a few years he had been keeper.

Daniel Maclise (1811-1870), an Irishman by birth, was a man of considerable original genius, with great power of design and feeling for color. He produced numerous important works in oil colors, of which the Play scene in Hamlet, in the National Gallery; Sabrina releasing the Lady from the Enchanted Chair, the Banquet Scene in Macbeth, the Ordeal by Touch, and Robin Hood and Richard Cœur de Lion, were among the principal. The latter years of Maclise's life were occupied in executing mural pictures (they cannot be called fresco pictures in the strict sense of the word) for the decoration of the Houses of Parliament, of which the Meeting of Wellington and Blücher and the Death of Nelson were the chief. The cartoon for the former is in the possession of the Royal Academy. Maclise's manner underwent a great change after the commencement of the pre-Raphaelite movement, and an almost painful attention to detail encumbered his later works. The Eve of S. Agnes, one of his latest exhibited easel pictures, may be referred to as a typical example of his power and his high finish.

Edward Matthew Ward (1816-1879), one of the few painters of historic subjects in England, formed his style from a three years' study in the galleries of Rome. The three pictures in the National Gallery, the Disgrace of Lord Clarendon; the South Sea Bubble; and James II. receiving the news of the landing of the Prince of Orange, are sufficient to show the character of his work. He was a most industrious artist, and has left many paintings, several of which have been engraved.

As portrait painters of the British school who attained to eminence in the present century, we may name John Jackson (1778-1831), John Watson Gordon (1790-1864), Sir William Allan (1782-1850), all of whom are represented in the National Gallery, and the late president of the Royal Academy, Sir Francis Grant (1803-1878), who painted many excellent portraits of the nobility.

James Ward (1769-1859) was a very successful animal painter, well known by his Council of Horses and Gordale Scar, both in the National Gallery, and numerous fine groups of animals in the South Kensington Museum and elsewhere. The fame of Ward however, has been entirely eclipsed by that of:

He

Sir Edwin Landseer (1802-1873), who was so long at the head of animal painters in Great Britain. stands alone as an interpreter of the thoughts and feelings of the dumb creatures, and his compositions are chiefly characterized by masterly drawing, delicacy of execution, poetic feeling and dramatic force. He had a rare power of rendering textures; his subtle and rapid execution seemed equal to depicting with perfect ease and perfect fidelity, fur, feathers, hair, horn-in short, perhaps every texture except human flesh. In the expression of animal life he was abso

lutely unrivaled, though he did not attempt any of those furious hunting combats for which Snyders obtained such renown. His coloring is cold, and the human figures in his groups are often wanting in charac ter and inferior in handling to the animals; but, in spite of these drawbacks, his paintings will always appeal powerfully to the sympathies of educated and uneducated alike.

Of Sir E. Landseer's oilpaintings, the following are among the most celebrated: -Bolton Abbey; Hawking; There's Life in the Old Dog yet; The Otter Speared; The Sanctuary; Coming Events cast their Shadows before; The Stag at Bay-all in pri

vate possession; and High Life and Low Life; Shoeing the Bay Mare; Dignity and Impudence; Peace; War; a Dialogue at Waterloo; Alexander ana Diogenes; and the Maid and the Magpie-all in the National Gallery; and A Jack in Office, and the Shepherd's Chief Mourner, in the South Kensington Museum. Drawings and sketches in pen and ink and in water-colors are many of them scarcely less effective than his completed pictures.

His elder brother Charles Landseer (1799-1879) was a good painter of subject pieces. His most popular works were the Sacking of Basing House, and Nell Gwynne.

Thomas Creswick (1811-1869) made for himself an undying fame as a painter of landscapes. His works are thoroughly English in sentiment and excution. Several well-known artists have collaborated with Creswick.

John Phillip (1817-1867) deserves notice on account of the rare merit of his pictures, especially in point of color. He visited Seville twice and painted Spanish scenes with success; and a few of his latest pictures, such as La Gloria (a Spanish wake) and the Prison Window, have a touching interest of genuine power.

John Frederick Lewis (1805-1876) succeeded equally in water-colors and in oil; in 1857 he was elected President of the Society of Painters in Water-colors, and later became a Royal Academician. His pictures are views, with figures, in Spain, Italy, and the East. His Interior of a Harem gained him great reputation.

William Edward Frost (1810-1877) painted pictures very similar in subject to those of Etty; his female figures are graceful, but he lacks the powerful coloring of his rival,

Edward William Cooke (1811-1880) was one of the best English marine painters of the present century. His works may be seen both in the National Gallery and at the South Kensington Mu

seum.

Alfred Elmore (1815-1881) earned much renown as a subject painter.

George Hemming Mason (1818-1872), produced many fine works of landscape and figure, painted both in Italy and England: they are note-worthy for their fine coloring.

LATER ENGLISH WATER-COLOR PAINTERS.

Before we close our notice of the English School of Painting, it is our pleasant task to speak of a group of men who are allowed, even by French critics, to be unrivaled in their peculiar line by any of their European contemporaries. We refer to the distinguished painters in water-colors, who carried on the work inaugurated by Cozens, Girtin and Turner.

John J. Chalon (1778-1854) and Thomas Heaphy (1775-1853) attained to considerable eminence as water-color artists in the early part of the present century; but were both far surpassed by

David Cox (1783-1859), who may be said, indeed, to rank second only to Turner in fertility of imagination, feeling for the poetry of nature, and power of rendering the characteristic beauties of English landscapes. His works are truly ideal productions, in which the leading features are breadth and transparency of color, truth of foliage, whether at rest or in motion, and life-like play of light and shade. Of Cox, Redgrave says: "No painter has given us more truly the moist brilliancy of early summer time, ere the sun has dried the spring bloom from the lately opened leaf. The sparkle and shimmer of foliage and weedage in the fitful breeze that rolls

away the clouds from the watery sun, when the shower and sunshine chase each other over the land, have never been given with greater truth than by David Cox." A Welsh Funeral is cited by the same author as a typical example of his peculiar excellences; the series of landscapes in the South Kensington Museum are eminently characteristic.

Peter de Wint (1783-1849) worked out an original style of his own, giving faithful and effective renderings of the general aspects of nature and of vast expanses of country, without any attempt at the finishing of details, cultivating tone and color rather than

form.

Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding (1787-1855), one of the first English painters of the Sussex Downs, and of marine effects, did much as President of the Water-color Society to improve the position of the professors of his own branch of art.

George Fennel Robson (1790-1833) was an admirable interpreter of the lake and mountain scenery of England.

Samuel Prout (1783-1852) excelled in drawing architecture, and has never been surpassed in rendering the features of buildings. He was very chary of his work-a little drawing was made by him to go a long way; but then every line represented firmly and accurately as much as it was intended to show. He had a keen sense of the picturesque, his points of sight were well chosen, and his grouping was always happy. As a colorist he was not very successful. The South Kensington Museum contains several valuable water-color drawings by Prout.

Our limits forbid us to attempt any detailed account of the many men who contributed to the development of the present English School of Watercolor Painting-such as William Hunt (1790-1864), who is among the best English colorists of the present century. Hunt's subjects were usually either rustic scenes or fruit and flowers, and his textures were marvelously rendered. His coloring was that of Nature herself, and his finish has never been excelled, if equaled. George Cattermole (1800-1868) is chiefly distinguished for his life-like figure painting.

Samuel Palmer (1805-1881), who owed much to the teaching of his father-in-law, Mr. John Linnell, and to Blake, whose works produced much impression on his mind, was a landscape painter of no common order. His works, especially his sunsets, are