DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61252#0327
THE GROSVENOR GALLERY.
283
gent sympathy—of all classes of spectators; and it is too
well known by the multitude of engravings from it, to need
much description. Cunningham, in his life of West,
points out the Indian warrior, intently watching the dying
hero to see if he equalled in fortitude the children of the
desert, as a fine stroke of nature and poetry.*
C. 4 ft. 7| in. by 7 ft.
154 Portrait of General Wolfe—when a youth, at his studies,
holding in his hand the plans of Blenheim and Bergem-op-
Zoom. Small half-length. This must have been painted
after some other portrait taken from life.
155 William III. passing the Boyne.
* Besides the historic interest of the story, and the pathos and truth with
which it is here represented, this picture is remarkable for an anecdote I give
entire, from Allan Cunningham’s “ Lives of the Painters.” It is important in
the history of art, and amusing, too, as indicative of the force of a prejudice
now long exploded.
“ A change was now to be effected in the character of British art; hitherto
historical painting had appeared in a masquing habit; the actions of English-
men seemed all to have been performed, if costume were to be believed, by
Greeks or by Romans. West dismissed at once this pedantry, and restored
nature and propriety in his noble work of “ The Death of Wolfe.” The mul-
titude acknowledged its excellence at once. The lovers of old art, the manu-
facturers of compositions called by courtesy, classical, complained of the bar-
barism of boots, and buttons, and blunderbusses, and cried out for naked
warriors, with bows, bucklers, and battering rams.
“ The king questioned West concerning the picture, and put him on his de-
fence of this new heresy in art. ‘ When it was understood,’ said the artist,
‘ that I intended to paint the characters as they had actually appeared on the
scene, the Archbishop of York called on Reynolds, and asked his opinion; they
both came to my house to dissuade me from running so great a risk. Reynolds
began a very ingenious and elegant dissertation on the state of the public taste
in this country, and the danger which every innovation incurred of contempt
and ridicule, and concluded by urging me earnestly to adopt the costume of
antiquity, as more becoming the greatness of my subject, than the modem garb
of European warriors. I answered, that the event to be commemorated hap-
pened in the year 1758, in a region of the world unknown to the Greeks and
Romans, and at a period of time when no warriors who wore such costume
existed. The subject I have to represent is a great battle fought and won; and
the same truth which gives law to the historian, should rule the painter. If
instead of the facts of the action, I introduce fictions, how shall I be understood
by posterity ? The classic dress is certainly picturesque; but by using it, I
shall lose in sentiment what I gain in external grace. I want to mark the
place, the time, and the people, and to do this I must abide by truth. They
went away then, and returned again when I had the painting finished. Rey-
nolds seated himself before the picture, examined it with deep and minute at-
283
gent sympathy—of all classes of spectators; and it is too
well known by the multitude of engravings from it, to need
much description. Cunningham, in his life of West,
points out the Indian warrior, intently watching the dying
hero to see if he equalled in fortitude the children of the
desert, as a fine stroke of nature and poetry.*
C. 4 ft. 7| in. by 7 ft.
154 Portrait of General Wolfe—when a youth, at his studies,
holding in his hand the plans of Blenheim and Bergem-op-
Zoom. Small half-length. This must have been painted
after some other portrait taken from life.
155 William III. passing the Boyne.
* Besides the historic interest of the story, and the pathos and truth with
which it is here represented, this picture is remarkable for an anecdote I give
entire, from Allan Cunningham’s “ Lives of the Painters.” It is important in
the history of art, and amusing, too, as indicative of the force of a prejudice
now long exploded.
“ A change was now to be effected in the character of British art; hitherto
historical painting had appeared in a masquing habit; the actions of English-
men seemed all to have been performed, if costume were to be believed, by
Greeks or by Romans. West dismissed at once this pedantry, and restored
nature and propriety in his noble work of “ The Death of Wolfe.” The mul-
titude acknowledged its excellence at once. The lovers of old art, the manu-
facturers of compositions called by courtesy, classical, complained of the bar-
barism of boots, and buttons, and blunderbusses, and cried out for naked
warriors, with bows, bucklers, and battering rams.
“ The king questioned West concerning the picture, and put him on his de-
fence of this new heresy in art. ‘ When it was understood,’ said the artist,
‘ that I intended to paint the characters as they had actually appeared on the
scene, the Archbishop of York called on Reynolds, and asked his opinion; they
both came to my house to dissuade me from running so great a risk. Reynolds
began a very ingenious and elegant dissertation on the state of the public taste
in this country, and the danger which every innovation incurred of contempt
and ridicule, and concluded by urging me earnestly to adopt the costume of
antiquity, as more becoming the greatness of my subject, than the modem garb
of European warriors. I answered, that the event to be commemorated hap-
pened in the year 1758, in a region of the world unknown to the Greeks and
Romans, and at a period of time when no warriors who wore such costume
existed. The subject I have to represent is a great battle fought and won; and
the same truth which gives law to the historian, should rule the painter. If
instead of the facts of the action, I introduce fictions, how shall I be understood
by posterity ? The classic dress is certainly picturesque; but by using it, I
shall lose in sentiment what I gain in external grace. I want to mark the
place, the time, and the people, and to do this I must abide by truth. They
went away then, and returned again when I had the painting finished. Rey-
nolds seated himself before the picture, examined it with deep and minute at-