DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61252#0394
350
COLLECTION OF SIR R. PEEL.
of my brother artists, who have placed me in his chair, and thus given me
authority which my professional ability must have wanted.
“ You have given far too liberal notice of my talent; but in my own opinion,
(which, perhaps, may be too much governed by my long cherished views of
art,) you have given a misdirection to it in placing it in the Flemish school;
with the exception of Rembrandt, it has, less than any other, been the object of
imitation with me. My thoughts have almost invariably been devoted to Sir
Joshua, and, generally, the Italian schools—Raffaele, Correggio, Titian, even
Parmegianino. An admirer of the very finest works of Vandyke, and acknow-
ledging the consistent ability of his pencil, I have been less his votary than,
perhaps, hundreds since his time, of distinguished taste and talent, (Gains-
borough, for instance,) to whose judgment in other cases I should justly bend.
Rubens has been infinitely more the object of my admiration, but, as you know,
presents very little as example for portrait painting.
“ Sir Joshua continues to be more and more my delight and my surprise !
Rembrandt has another, and still higher place in my affection, (but this, I am
aware, demands some private ex-planation.) In my men, then, I have thought
of both, and of Titian, and of Raffaele, as the subjects approached their style.
In women, of Sir Joshua, Raffaele, Parmegianino, and Correggio. In chil-
dren, of Sir Joshua, and the two latter. In my portraits of Kemble, and Mrs.
Siddons, of the higher Italian school. In my Satan calling up his Legions, of
the Sistine Chapel; but though rejecting (as he himself did for me) any charge
of servile imitation of Fuseli, acknowledging proudly, and in grateful homage
to the noblest poetically inventive genius that perhaps our modern ages have
produced, that it owes its conception to his character of composition and de-
sign. The whole of it, (its adaptation of proportion and style excepted,) which
were formed on the antique, was long and carefully studied, from the finest
living models I could secure.
“ To what length have I extended this defence of self-love !—but you have
drawn its tediousness upon you, by the question in your letter; I should else
have remained silently obliged by the general compliment from * * * *
‘ ‘ I have the honour to be,
“ Dear Madam,
“ Your obliged and devoted servant,
“ To Mrs. Jameson.” “ Thos. Lawrence.
jFkmtel) anb ©utdj Rasters.
BACHHUYSEN (Ludolf), b. at Embden, 1631; d. 1709. [As a
marine painter inferior only to Vander Velde ; perhaps equal to him
in the representation of stormy and troubled weather. His pictures
have less harmony and delicacy than those of Vander Velde, and are
generally on a larger scale.]
1 A Coast Scene.—Cloudy weather, and a fresh breeze;
two sailors are pushing off their vessel. Immediately in
the foreground, a group of five persons, one of whom is a
fisherman, with his back turned, in conversation with a
COLLECTION OF SIR R. PEEL.
of my brother artists, who have placed me in his chair, and thus given me
authority which my professional ability must have wanted.
“ You have given far too liberal notice of my talent; but in my own opinion,
(which, perhaps, may be too much governed by my long cherished views of
art,) you have given a misdirection to it in placing it in the Flemish school;
with the exception of Rembrandt, it has, less than any other, been the object of
imitation with me. My thoughts have almost invariably been devoted to Sir
Joshua, and, generally, the Italian schools—Raffaele, Correggio, Titian, even
Parmegianino. An admirer of the very finest works of Vandyke, and acknow-
ledging the consistent ability of his pencil, I have been less his votary than,
perhaps, hundreds since his time, of distinguished taste and talent, (Gains-
borough, for instance,) to whose judgment in other cases I should justly bend.
Rubens has been infinitely more the object of my admiration, but, as you know,
presents very little as example for portrait painting.
“ Sir Joshua continues to be more and more my delight and my surprise !
Rembrandt has another, and still higher place in my affection, (but this, I am
aware, demands some private ex-planation.) In my men, then, I have thought
of both, and of Titian, and of Raffaele, as the subjects approached their style.
In women, of Sir Joshua, Raffaele, Parmegianino, and Correggio. In chil-
dren, of Sir Joshua, and the two latter. In my portraits of Kemble, and Mrs.
Siddons, of the higher Italian school. In my Satan calling up his Legions, of
the Sistine Chapel; but though rejecting (as he himself did for me) any charge
of servile imitation of Fuseli, acknowledging proudly, and in grateful homage
to the noblest poetically inventive genius that perhaps our modern ages have
produced, that it owes its conception to his character of composition and de-
sign. The whole of it, (its adaptation of proportion and style excepted,) which
were formed on the antique, was long and carefully studied, from the finest
living models I could secure.
“ To what length have I extended this defence of self-love !—but you have
drawn its tediousness upon you, by the question in your letter; I should else
have remained silently obliged by the general compliment from * * * *
‘ ‘ I have the honour to be,
“ Dear Madam,
“ Your obliged and devoted servant,
“ To Mrs. Jameson.” “ Thos. Lawrence.
jFkmtel) anb ©utdj Rasters.
BACHHUYSEN (Ludolf), b. at Embden, 1631; d. 1709. [As a
marine painter inferior only to Vander Velde ; perhaps equal to him
in the representation of stormy and troubled weather. His pictures
have less harmony and delicacy than those of Vander Velde, and are
generally on a larger scale.]
1 A Coast Scene.—Cloudy weather, and a fresh breeze;
two sailors are pushing off their vessel. Immediately in
the foreground, a group of five persons, one of whom is a
fisherman, with his back turned, in conversation with a