DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61252#0032
XXviii GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
of a better age, of the highest style of art, were at hand
for comparison and reference, did a better feeling exist.
And we must needs allow, that for Claude, for Nicolo and
Gaspar Poussin, for Salvator Rosa, there has existed in
England a real taste, for it was not merely a fashion. The
predilection for Claude—dating from early in the last cen-
tury, when Frederic Prince of Wales bought them where-
ever they were to be met with—has been such, that, I
believe, all the best pictures and drawings of that prince of
landscape painters are, with few exceptions, now in this
country. Of the Flemish school, Rubens, and above all,
Van Dyck, from his long residence in England, were most
frequently met with; yet Sir Joshua Reynolds tells us, that
in the early part of the last century, the man who should
have placed Van Dyck above Kneller would have been
scoffed at; and we all know the story of the gentleman who
employed a painter to wig his Van Dycks. But to proceed
with our chronicle.
The French Revolution, and the breaking out of the
continental wars, changed the whole aspect of things as
regarded art and the taste for art in this country. Our
first acquisition was the Orleans Gallery. In the history
of this famous gallery, its formation, its dispersion, there
is something which strongly excites the imagination. It
was founded by the infamous Regent-Duke of Orleans. In
ten short years,—that is, between the period of his acces-
sion to the Regency in 1714, and his death in 1723, he
brought together a collection of pictures which can only
be compared with that of Charles I. He was all-powerful;
he had the revenues and patronage of a great monarchy at
his disposal; he had a really fine taste, and was himself no
mean artist. Into his gallery were swept many important
collections. In the first place, that of Queen Christina,
which contained forty-seven pictures of the highest class,
several of which had belonged to our Charles I.; those of
of a better age, of the highest style of art, were at hand
for comparison and reference, did a better feeling exist.
And we must needs allow, that for Claude, for Nicolo and
Gaspar Poussin, for Salvator Rosa, there has existed in
England a real taste, for it was not merely a fashion. The
predilection for Claude—dating from early in the last cen-
tury, when Frederic Prince of Wales bought them where-
ever they were to be met with—has been such, that, I
believe, all the best pictures and drawings of that prince of
landscape painters are, with few exceptions, now in this
country. Of the Flemish school, Rubens, and above all,
Van Dyck, from his long residence in England, were most
frequently met with; yet Sir Joshua Reynolds tells us, that
in the early part of the last century, the man who should
have placed Van Dyck above Kneller would have been
scoffed at; and we all know the story of the gentleman who
employed a painter to wig his Van Dycks. But to proceed
with our chronicle.
The French Revolution, and the breaking out of the
continental wars, changed the whole aspect of things as
regarded art and the taste for art in this country. Our
first acquisition was the Orleans Gallery. In the history
of this famous gallery, its formation, its dispersion, there
is something which strongly excites the imagination. It
was founded by the infamous Regent-Duke of Orleans. In
ten short years,—that is, between the period of his acces-
sion to the Regency in 1714, and his death in 1723, he
brought together a collection of pictures which can only
be compared with that of Charles I. He was all-powerful;
he had the revenues and patronage of a great monarchy at
his disposal; he had a really fine taste, and was himself no
mean artist. Into his gallery were swept many important
collections. In the first place, that of Queen Christina,
which contained forty-seven pictures of the highest class,
several of which had belonged to our Charles I.; those of