DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62037#0040
HIS LIFE AND WORKS 17
joyously enhedged with material pleasure and comforts,
winds luxuriously round the lower approaches of the
Temple of Art. He was only twenty-three when he
removed from Exeter Court to Bateman’s Buildings ; only
twenty-three when his first living son, his fourth child,
was born. The lean and hungry look had gone out
of his eyes, starvation and want were out of sight.
He no longer dreamed dreams, and he was no longer
idle. He was “engraver and print publisher,” but he
was also a man of pleasure. Already we hear of him
as a frequenter of clubs. We hear of him at the “ One
Tun” in St. James’s Market, at the “Anacreontic,” in
even better company, at the “Beef-Steak,” and, what
became of more importance than any of these, at “Jack
Harris’s Tavern Club.” Wolcot met him on his brief
visit to London in 1773, and found him congenial
company. Tom Sheridan and Horne Tooke spent an
evening with him at the “ Catch Club.” He kept a
comparatively steady head amongst the wits, but he
eschewed laborious nights ; and in the unmined depths
of him the buried roots of ambition lay choked with the
refuse of his dissipations.
He worked, of course ; work was essential to his
mode of life, and he was already capable of quite a
remarkable speed. Twelve important coppers, fully
authenticated and signed, were brought out in the year
1775. Amongst them was the “Infant Jupiter.” Now
he fell slightly, very slightly, under the influence of
Reynolds, and floriated amazingly, even from the
momentary contact. In 1776 there were no less than
sixteen plates, many of them after this great artist. He
had almost more commissions than he could execute.
He was asked to take pupils, apprentices : William Ward
was bound to him. He still used a closer grain than he
adopted later, but his powers were becoming manifest
even to the trade. The “Duke of Devonshire” and
“Elizabeth Montague,” “Henrietta Morris,” “Charlotte
Mordaunt”and “Bacchus” (Earl of Carnarvon), made
not a bad record, even without the other eleven. And
vol. 1 c
joyously enhedged with material pleasure and comforts,
winds luxuriously round the lower approaches of the
Temple of Art. He was only twenty-three when he
removed from Exeter Court to Bateman’s Buildings ; only
twenty-three when his first living son, his fourth child,
was born. The lean and hungry look had gone out
of his eyes, starvation and want were out of sight.
He no longer dreamed dreams, and he was no longer
idle. He was “engraver and print publisher,” but he
was also a man of pleasure. Already we hear of him
as a frequenter of clubs. We hear of him at the “ One
Tun” in St. James’s Market, at the “Anacreontic,” in
even better company, at the “Beef-Steak,” and, what
became of more importance than any of these, at “Jack
Harris’s Tavern Club.” Wolcot met him on his brief
visit to London in 1773, and found him congenial
company. Tom Sheridan and Horne Tooke spent an
evening with him at the “ Catch Club.” He kept a
comparatively steady head amongst the wits, but he
eschewed laborious nights ; and in the unmined depths
of him the buried roots of ambition lay choked with the
refuse of his dissipations.
He worked, of course ; work was essential to his
mode of life, and he was already capable of quite a
remarkable speed. Twelve important coppers, fully
authenticated and signed, were brought out in the year
1775. Amongst them was the “Infant Jupiter.” Now
he fell slightly, very slightly, under the influence of
Reynolds, and floriated amazingly, even from the
momentary contact. In 1776 there were no less than
sixteen plates, many of them after this great artist. He
had almost more commissions than he could execute.
He was asked to take pupils, apprentices : William Ward
was bound to him. He still used a closer grain than he
adopted later, but his powers were becoming manifest
even to the trade. The “Duke of Devonshire” and
“Elizabeth Montague,” “Henrietta Morris,” “Charlotte
Mordaunt”and “Bacchus” (Earl of Carnarvon), made
not a bad record, even without the other eleven. And
vol. 1 c