Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

of his work are to be seen at Bowdoin College and the Historical Society of Providence. Pratt started as a sign-painter. His best work is a portrait of Lieutenant-Governor Cadwallader Colden.

But the true foundation of American Art was laid by Copley and West, who were almost contemporaneous.

John Singleton Copley was born in Boston in 1737. His parentage was probably Irish. His general education was that of the ordinary colonial lads, and his early Art education was simply that of observation and experiment. As early as at the age of seventeen

he had determined to adopt painting as a profession. His first efforts were consid

ered as wonderfully good at that time, and indeed were so when we consider the disadvantages under which he

labored. It

has been

supposed

those days. His visit to Europe was made in 1774, and it is said that he went because of the lack of material for study in his native land. Some time was spent in Italy, and he then resorted to England, where he settled permanently. In 1783 he was made a member of the Royal Academy. His son attained the high honor of becoming Lord Chancellor of England and the title of Lord Lyndhurst. The models upon which Copley formed his style when in America may still be seen in some instances, and particularly a portrait of Thomas Hollis, a benefactor of Harvard College, which was once supposed to

[graphic]

have been

by Copley, is very like him in style.

that his first

hints were

obtained

DEATH OF MAJOR PIERSON. BY J. S. COPLEY.

It is

from his step-father, Peter Pelham, a schoolmaster and tolerably clever mezzotint engraver. also possible that he may have obtained some slight instruction from Blackburn, an English artist of some reputation, who was visiting the colony of Massachusetts during Copley's boyhood. This, however, is extremely doubtful. Tradition gives the entire credit of the young painter's success to his own indefatigable talent. Copley soon found that his true field was that of a portrait painter, though as an historical painter he did some excellent work even before his studies abroad. In 1760 his income was about $1,500, a large sum in

As a por

trait painter,

many specimens of Copley's style may be seen in the Memorial

Hall of Har-
vard and in

the Boston
Museum of

Fine Arts.
When in
England he
painted

many portraits of

members of the nobility, and several large historical pictures. His best portraits are those of the Earl of Chatham and of Mrs. Thomas Boylston -the latter in Memorial Hall. Nearly as good is that of Mrs. Relief Gill, painted when she was eighty years of age. The Boston Public Library owns one of his large historical paintings-Charles I. Demanding the Five Members of Parliament. But a still better picture is his Death of Major Pierson, of which we give an engraving. The Death of Chatham, and The Boy and the Squirrel are also fine canvases. Copley was a better colorist than West, though by no means beyond re

proach in this particular. His chief faults are a dryness of style, a stiffness of figures, and hardness in outline; but he was quick to catch individual expression, and remarkably good in elaborating details of costume and painting rich stuffs. The elegant costumes of the day gave him splendid opportunities in this direction, which he was not slow to improve.

Benjamin West, the greatest of the early American painters, was born in Springfield, Penn., in 1738. His family were English in descent, and were Quakers by religious persuasion. Naturally, the inner promptings of the Quaker lad's heart leading him toward

Art met with no encouragement from his relatives. It is said that at nine years of age he made a rude brush for himself from hairs drawn from a cat's tail. His colors were obtained from the war paints of friendly Indians, from his mother's indigo, and by grinding chalk and charcoal, and bruising certain berries.

Yet with these rude materials he painted a picture of a child sleeping in its cradle, certain touches of which, he was wont

there, and to send to America for his intended bride. In England he prospered amazingly. He was introduced to the king by the Archbishop of York, and George III. conceived a violent fancy for the young artist, which was not affected by the Revolutionary War. For thirty years West received royal commissions amounting to a thousand pounds a year. His first great picture painted at the royal command was the Departure of Regulus; but a far better work was The Death of General Wolfe, which we reproduce. It will surprise many of our readers to learn that up to the date of this picture it was the practice

BENJAMIN WEST.

to say in after life, were not inferior to his most famous work. A Quaker council, called to pass upon the boy's conduct as an infringement of the laws of the Society, had the good sense to see that such faculties as his were not granted but to be honorably employed, and gave him the desired permission to follow his chosen profession. West studied under a painter named Williams, and spent some time as a portrait painter in both Philadelphia and New York. In 1760, when twenty-two years old, he resolved to study in Italy, and spent three years there. Stopping on his homeward journey at London, he found the prospect so promising that he decided to settle

in historical pictures

to clothe all the figures in Roman or

Greek togas. Absurd as this seems to us now, it was then considered the only dignified costume in historical painting, and it was against the protest of Sir Joshua Reynolds himself that Benjamin West made the daring innovation of painting his soldiers in their proper uniforms. With the Death of Wolfe, West reached his highest fame as an historical painter. Many think that the continued patronage of the king was injurious rather than beneficial to him

[graphic]

artistically. After George III. lost his reason and West was, as it were, left to his own resources, he developed a taste for religious subjects. The best of his pictures in this line are Christ Healing the Sick and Death on the Pale Horse, the latter positively startling in its grim terror. West had the honor of being one of the first thirty-six members of the Royal Academy, and succeeded Sir Joshua Reynolds as president, retaining that office until his death in 1820. In the early days of his success West was original, and his wonderfully fertile imagination made up for technical deficiencies. In later life, however, he became disappointingly conventional. His natural

[merged small][merged small][graphic]

DEATH OF WOLFE. BY BENJAMIN WEST. IN THE POSSESSION OF THE DUKE OF WESTMINSTER.

at Chesterton, Maryland, was not only a painter, but a worker in wood, metal and leather. Besides his oil paintings, he executed numerous miniatures, for which he "sawed his own ivory, molded the glasses, and made the shagreen cases." He also served in the American army, where he rose to the rank of Colonel. He studied under various, masters-in Phildelphia under a German, in Boston with Copley, and in London with West.

Peale, though lacking the highest qualities of an

he painted, among other pictures, portraits for his father's museum. His Portrait of Washington was purchased by Congress for $2,000.

Gilbert Charles Stuart (1756-1828), one of the best portrait painters of America, was born at Narragansett, in Rhode Island, of Scotch and Welsh descent. He received his instruction in Art at Newport from Cosmo Alexander, who took him to Scot. land with him, but Stuart returned to America soon afterward. In 1781 he went again to Great Britain,

studied under West, and established himself as a portrait painter in London, where he enjoyed the friendship and society of some of the famous men of the day. It was during this visit that he painted the fine portrait of Mr. Grant skating, exhibited at the Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters in 1875. In 1793 he returned to America, and after residing in New York, Washington and Philadelphia, he re-established himself finally, in 1806, at Boston, where he continued to paint with uninterrupted success until his death. works are commonly seen both in the public and private galleries in America. His chef-d'œuvre is his Portrait of Washington. His pupil, James Frothingham, also acquired fame as a portrait painter.

[graphic]

His

John Trumbull (17561843), the historic painter, born at Lebanon, Connecticut, was one of the best of the early American artists. He combined the professions

ON THE FRENCH COAST. BY HENDRIK DE HAAS.

of a soldier and a painter, and thus had the means of being an eye-witness of scenes-such as the storming of the works of Burgoyne at Saratoga -which suggested the subjects of many of the works which have made his name famous. He graduated at Harvard, entered the army, and was made aidede-camp to Washington. In 1780 he went to London, where he studied under his fellow-countryman West. Arrested as a spy, he was obliged to return to America, but on the cessation of hostilities he went again to England, and resumed his studies under West. After a visit of nineteen years (17961815), seven of which were spent in diplomatic service, he lived constantly in America. He died in New York, at the advanced age of eighty-seven, and was buried in Yale College. His four great works

executed in the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington-the Declaration of Independence, the Surrender of Burgoyne, the Surrender of Cornwallis, and the Resignation of Washington at Annapolis-have since been moved to the Art Gallery in Yale College.

Of other works we may notice-in the City Hall, New York, portraits of Governors Lewis and Clinton, at New Haven, the Death of General Montgomery, "one of the most spirited battle-pieces ever painted," the Battle of Bunker's Hill, and a full-length Portrait of Washington. His works were unequal in merit; his male portraits were far more successful than his female. He was one of the founders, and the first president, of the American Academy of Fine Arts. Edward G. Malbone (1777-1807), a native of Newin his short career of thirty years executed some

port,

charming works in miniature painting. The Hours by him, now in the Athenæum at Providence, is full of grace and poetry.

PAINTERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

John Vanderlyn (1776-1852), who was born at Kingston, New York, went in 1803 to Europe, and was in Paris and at Rome (where he lived in the house formerly owned by Salvator Rosa) the friend. and companion of Allston. In Rome he painted, in 1807, his famous Marius sitting on the Ruins of Carthage, to which Napoleon personally awarded the prize medal in the Salon of 1808. His next best picture was a Sleeping Ariadne, in the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts; and he also executed numerous portraits.

Washington Allston (1779-1843), who is generally considered the chief painter of the American School, was a native of Waccamaw in South Carolina. After the completion of his university career at Harvard he went to London in 1801, and at once entered the Royal Academy schools, where he became acquainted with his fellow-countryman West, who was then president. In 1804 Allston went with Vanderlyn to Paris, and thence to Rome, where in the following year he painted his Joseph's Dream. At Rome, Allston commenced with Washington Irving a friendship which lasted for life. He also became acquainted with Coleridge, and the Danish sculptor Thorwaldsen. In 1809 he returned to America, married a sister of Dr. Channing, and then went again to London, where he produced his Dead Man revived by the bones of Elisha, which gained a prize of two hundred guineas from the British Institution. It is now in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Then followed the Liberation of S. Peter by the Angel, now in the Worcester Lunatic Hospital; Uriel in the Sun, in possession of the Duke of Sutherland, and Jacob's Dream, in the Petworth Gallery. In 1818 Allston returned to America, and settled at Boston, with his health weakened by sorrow for his wife, lately deceased, and by over-work. In the same year he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. Of the works which he executed in the following years, we may notice, the Prophet Jeremiah, now in Yale College; Saul and the Witch of Endor; Miriam's Song and Dante's Beatrice. In 1830 he married again, and settled at Cambridge, Mass., where he spent the rest of his life. His Spalatro's

vision of the bloody hand, from "The Italian" by Mrs. Radcliffe, was formerly in the Taylor Johnston Collection in New York.

The works of Allston, the "American Titian," are especially remarkable for the beauty and power of color. In his subjects he was fond of the terrible, especially noticeable in Spalatro's Vision, Saul and the Witch of Endor, and in his unfinished Belshazzar's Feast. He painted many excellent portraits. That of Coleridge, by him, is in the National Portrait Gallery.

John Wesley Jarvis (1780-1840) and Thomas Sully (1783-1872), natives of England, were also successful as portrait painters. Sully's female portraits possess great sweetness, but his likenesses of men are lacking in power. His pupil, John Neagle (1799-1865), of Philadelphia, also produced admirable portraits.

Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872), of telegraphic fame, practiced for some years as a painter. He was a pupil of Allston, and one of the founders, in 1826, and second president, of the National Academy of Design. He abandoned art as a profession in 1839. His Dying Hercules is especially good as an anatomical study.

John James Audubon (1782-1851) was born in Louisiana, and studied in Paris under David. On his return to America in 1826 he devoted himself to portraying birds, just in the same manner as Catlin gave himself up to the painting of American Indians. He published, in Edinburgh, a book containing more than one thousand birds' portraits, the originals of which are now in the possession of the New York Historical Society. Having exhausted the feathered tribe, Audubon was engaged on a work on the quadrupeds of America when he died.

Chester Harding (1792-1866) began his career in Painting as a sign-painter, at Pittsburgh, but subsequently turned his attention to portraiture, in which he afterward became successful. From Pittsburgh he went to Philadelphia, thence to St. Louis, and then to Boston, where he became the fashionable portrait-painter of the day. In 1823 Harding paid a visit to England, where he received much patronage from the nobility. He afterward revisited England, but died at Boston, Mass. One of his portraits, that of Daniel Webster, in the possession of the Bar Association, New York, is the most famous.

George Catlin (1796-1872), the painter of the aboriginal Indians, was originally intended for the

« AnkstesnisTęsti »