Memoranda of Art and Artists

Art and Artists.

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.]

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.