ART AND ARTISTS.
Reading edition
MEMORANDA
OF
ART AND ARTISTS,
Anecdotal and Biographical.
COLLECTED AND ARRANGED
By JOSEPH SANDELL.
London:
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & Co., Stationers’ Hall Court, E.C. AND FIELD & TUER, 50, Leadenhall Street, E.C. 1871.
[Copyright entered at Stationers’ Hall.]
AI 718 FIELD & TUER LEADENHALL ST LONDON
PREFACE.
THE collection of the Anecdotes now offered to the public has been a work of some few years, but it has also been a pleasure. Loving Art, I have taken a deep interest in the light thrown by them on the character and career of the great artists whose works have done so much to elevate and refine mankind. These anecdotes have been culled from various sources; and though many of them have doubtless been several times related, yet some, it is believed, have never before been published in a collected form. Mr. Henry Ottley, in the Preface to his “Supplement to Bryan’s Dictionary of Painters,” remarks that many artists to whom he had applied for materials for biography, did not answer his letters, and that others declined from a feeling of diffidence to give him the required information. I have found a similar difficulty in obtaining anecdotes by applying to the artist friends with whom I have the honour of being acquainted. My work has, therefore, been to seek materials from other sources; to select, arrange, and, in some instances, abridge. Whenever it was possible to give the authority for a story, this has been done. The anecdotes are arranged in groups, according to the artist to whom they relate; and for convenience of reference, the names of artists are given alphabetically. It is hoped that this little volume, while serving to wile away a leisure hour, may at the same time do something to arouse the reader’s interest in the men who have devoted their lives to the service of Art, and so to the instruction and well-being of their fellow-men.
J. S.
Walham Green, London, 1871.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Allston, Washington 1
His Opinion of his own Painting. 2
Bartolozzi, Francesco, R.A. 2
Interview with George III. 4
Beechey, Sir William, R.A. 5
Interview with Holcroft 5
Chantrey, Sir Francis, R.A. 6
Chantrey’s Prices 7
Horne Tooke 7
Equestrian Figures 8
Candid Opinion 9
Fashion 9
Collins, William, R.A. 12
Complaint against the Hanging Committee 14
“The Bird Catchers” 15
Haydon’s “Judgment of Solomon” 16
Samuel T. Coleridge 17
The Painter’s Sympathisers 19
Constable, John, R.A. 10
Archdeacon Fisher 12
Constable’s Pleasantry 12
Copley, John Singleton, R.A. 20
Portrait Painting 21
David, Jacques Louis 22
His Marriage 22
His Cruelty 24
His Excessive Vanity 25
Danton’s Features 25
David and Napoleon 25
David and the Emperor’s Portrait 26
Denon, Dominique Vivant 26
Naïveté of Talleyrand’s Wife 28
Denon’s Curiosities 28
Flaxman, John, R.A. 29
His Obliging Disposition 30
Fuseli, Henry, R.A. 31
His Cat 32
His Gaiters 33
The Drama 33
Noisy Students 34
The Yorkshireman 34
Richardson’s Novels 35
Classical Attainments 35
Gainsborough, Thomas, R.A. 36
The Conceited Alderman 36
The Artist’s Independence 37
His Letter to the Duke of Bedford 37
Mrs. Siddons’s Nose 38
Conclusive Evidence 38
The German Professor 39
The Artist’s Retort to the Lawyer 40
Gordon, Sir John Watson, R.A. 40
Lord Palmerston and the Artist 41
Harlowe, George Henry 42
Taking a Likeness under Difficulties 42
Haydon, Benjamin Robert 43
Introduction to Fuseli 46
London Smoke 47
His Description of the British School of Painters 48
Hayman, Francis, R.A. 48
Gluttony 49
Marquis of Granby and the Noble Art 50
The Painter’s Friendship for Quin 50
Hogarth, William 51
Wilkes and Churchill 54
Garrick’s Generosity 55
Caricature 56
Wilkes 56
Hogarth’s Conceit 57
An Ugly Sitter 57
Hoppner, John, R.A. 58
An Eccentric Customer 59
The Alderman’s Lady 60
A Cool Sitter 61
Ibbetson, Julius Cæsar 61
The Toper’s Reply 62
The Recognition 63
Inman, Henry 64
Jervas, Charles 70
Reynolds, Sir Joshua 70
Dr. Arbuthnot 70
Vanity 71
Lady Bridgwater 71
The Painter’s Generosity 71
Hints to Pope on Painting 72
Kneller, Sir Godfrey 73
Royal Patronage 74
Radcliffe, Dr. 74
Origin of the Kit-Cat Club 75
Portrait Painting 76
Cut at Pope 76
A Country Sitter 76
Vandyke and Kneller 76
Tonson, the Bookseller 77
Lawrence, Sir Thomas, P.R.A. 77
Royal Favours 79
Miss Fanny Kemble 80
Hoaxing Lawrence 81
Fuseli’s Envy 82
His Professional Practice 82
Liotard, John Stephen 84
Liverseege, Henry 85
A Dear Model 86
Lotherbourg, Philip James de, R.A. 87
Gilray 88
Loutherbourg’s Eccentricity 89
Attitude is Everything 89
Opie, John, R.A. 89
The Affected Sitter 90
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, P.R.A. 91
Astley 91
Reynolds on Art 92
Johnson’s Portrait 92
Reynolds’s Sundays 93
Dr. Johnson 93
Garrick’s Pleasantry 94
Duchess of Marlborough 94
Pope 95
Michael Angelo 95
Reynolds’s Study 96
Dr. Johnson’s Opinion of Artists 96
Reynolds’s Discourses 97
Garrick’s Portraits 97
Sir Joshua’s Generosity 97
An Epicure’s Advice 98
Lord Mansfield 98
Roubiliac, Louis Francis 98
Goldsmith 99
Roubiliac’s Honesty 100
Bernini 100
Lord Shelburne 100
Dr. Johnson 101
Roubiliac’s Poetic Effusions 102
Rylan, William Wynne 103
Magnanimity 103
Self-Possession 104
Red Chalk Engravings 104
Teniers, David: Father and Son 105
Teniers at the Village Alehouse 105
West, Benjamin, P.R.A. 108
Leigh Hunt 109
John Constable 112
William Woollet 112
James Northcote 113
Youthful Ambition 114
Perseverance in Art 115
Wilkie, Sir David, R.A. 115
“Letter of Introduction” 119
Collins’s Reminiscences of Wilkie 119
Arrest at Calais 120
His Opinion of Michael Angelo and Raphael 122
Wilson, Richard, R.A. 123
A Scene at Christie’s 124
Zoffany, Johann, R.A. 124
The Royal Picture 127
The “Cock Fight” 127
MISCELLANEOUS ANECDOTES, ETC.
The Royal Academy, Burlington House 129
Fonthill Collection 130
The Strawberry Hill Collection 132
The Saltmarshe Collection 134
The Stowe Collection 135
The Bernal Collection 136
Sale of Daniel O’Connell’s Library, etc. 138
Holbein 140
Palladio, Andrew 141
Callot’s Etchings 142
The Female Face 143
London in the Seventeenth Century 144
Tardif, the French Connoisseur 146
Paul Potter’s Studies of Nature 147
Fidelity in Portrait Painting 148
Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode 148
Barry’s Contempt for Portrait Painting 149
Barry’s Eccentricity 149
The Royal Prisoner 150
Athenian Stuart 151
Prudhon and Canova 151
Revolution an Enemy to Art 152
Serres and Vernet 153
The Heroic Painter 154
Vernet and Voltaire 155
Pistrucci’s Ready Ingenuity 155
Charles Townley 156
The Townley Marbles 156
Blucher taken by Limners 157
Cost of a Picture 158
Resuscitated Celebrities 158
Two Gormandizers 159
The Artist Illustrated 160
The Double Surprised 161
The Ideal Part of Painting 162
Satan at a Premium 163
Love of the Picturesque 164
The Dutch Painter and his Customers 165
Painting a Sky 166
Variety of Skies 168
Slang of Artists 169
A Picture Dealer’s Knowledge of Geography 170
On Study of Antiquities 170
The Reserve 171
Gallantry of Antiquaries 171
Poets and Painters 172
Freedom of Opinion 173
The Connoisseur Taken In 174
No Connoisseur 175
The Uncourtly Medalist 175
Connoisseurs 176
Old Books 176
Extra Love of Antiquity 176
How to be a Connoisseur 177
The Chandos Portrait of Shakspeare 177
The Felton Portrait of Shakspeare 178
Parisian Caricaturists 179
Italian Pottery and Glass Making 180
The Portland Vase 182
A Lost Art 183
Fans 184
The Trials of a Portrait Painter 192
Seddon’s Picture of “Jerusalem” 194
A Great Picture and its Vicissitudes 196
The Frescoes in the Houses of Parliament 198
The Riding Master and the Elgin Marbles 200
A Hallowed Spot 201
ART AND ARTISTS.