MRS. BRAY'S LIFE OF STOTHA RD. * IT was often remarked

during the lifetime of Mr. Stothard, and the observation has been repeated since his death, that it was a national reflection or misfortune for such a man to have been al- lowed to fritter away his days in designs for booksellers and silver- plate-manufacturers, instead of being enabled to devote his time to historical or imaginative painting. The fact implied in the regret is true enough. For nearly sixty years—from his first con- nexion as a designer with Harrison's Novelist's Magazine, circa 1775, till his death in 1834—Stothard's most constant patrons Were tradesmen, for purposes of trade. Of the ten thousand designs which are estimated to have come from his pencil, the greater part were, so to speak, made to order. But though applying his art to trade, he never worked in a trading spirit. Producing so much, he of necessity fell into that self-repetition which is called mannerism ; irregularly self-trained in art, he was not perhaps well-grounded in its fundamentals or the cognate sciences requisite t.0 'the painter ; slenderly educated in literature, he wanted-learn- ing to invent appropriately either in allegorical design or the higher branches of historical painting ; embarking early in the business of illustration, he had hardly leisure for that studious thought which is necessary to engraft the individual character on the universal type, if indeed he was altogether fitted by nature to reach that high quality of art : perhaps, too, there was another de- ficiency —a want of strength in conception and execution, and of Sustained energy to continue with unflagging spirit at a long and laborious undertaking. But such illustrations as Stothard continually put forth for more than half a century had never been seen before. If there was not always appropriate allegory, there was always grace and spirit; in such myriads of designs, the wonder is, not that there was mannerism, but that there was such infinite variety of form and such fadility of treatment.

If there is predestination in faith and morals, there is no reason

I'Vhe Life of Thomas Stallard, R.A. With Personal Reminiscences. By Mrs. third .

araY. Atithor of "Memoirs of Charles A. Stothard, F.S.A.," &c. With nu- memos Illustrations from his Works. Published by Murray.

why it should not pretall in life and art ; though this still throws back the argument to the origin of the assemblage of qualities— the idiosyncrasy which of necessity pursues a certain course. But, taking Fate as an established fact, we are inclined to think that Stothard was predestined not to be a great historical painter, al- though he had some of the necessary qualities. He had invention ; his story was always clearly told, generally with effect, sometimes with felicity ; but his forms and characters' were conventional rather than natural. From the want of learning we have alluded to, he could not rise to the canon " Intererit multuro, Daytime loquatur, an heros,

• •

Colehus, an Assyritts' Thebis nutritus, an Argis" ;

his distant peoples ever had a home look, as if they were academy figures in costume ; strength, too, was ever wanting ; and though grace was ever present, it was generally a grace without distinc- tiveness, and if not too common, too Stothardlike. On his greater subjects, and as he advanced in life, he put more individuality into his persons, though they wanted national or remote character, as the case might be. Strength and-energy, we think, were unattain- able, by him from the nature of his mind.

It has been customkry to ascribe Stothard's incessant but slight industry to the pressure of circumstances. A growing family, no doubt, compelled him to look about him, and gain money in any honourable way; but men with a mission have devoted themselves to lofty objects on less means than Stothard possessed : for his father, who died early, left him "twelve hundred pounds" in the Funds ; the interest of which could and in fact did support him seventy years ago. Yet Stothard did not care for money ; but he seemed to require some external impulse to set him to work. He wanted "an order." His chef d'oeuvre, the Pilgrimage to Canter- bury, was suggested by Cromek, an engraver ; though the design was wholly Stothard's.

This only applies to the labour of composition. In collecting materials he was indefatigable ; but he seems to have directed his attention much less to man than to the inferior parts of crea- tion. "The human form divine" he was mostly content to study in the antique, or in Raphael : he went to nature for animals, plants, and colour. Mrs. Bray has preserved some interesting me- morials of his industry and observation ; to which, undoubtedly, his fertility and humbler grace are to be ascribed.

"Few things in nature were considered below the attention of his most observant mind. If he wanted to make himself acquainted with any natu- ral object, he always drew it. If any of his children asked him a question relating to a bird or an animal, he instantly took up the pencil and sketched it, by way of illustrating the explanation he gave in reply. And as to him- self, in order more fully to understand what might be required if he had oc- casion to introduce an animal in a picture, he would often draw even the skeleton of it. One, of the entire elephant, where every bone is most care- fully distinguished, is still in the possession of his son Alfred ; it is in pen and ink. Several of his fine studies from living creatures, such as the lion, the tiger, the leopard, &c., are to be found in the collections of the adinirers of his works. In sketching animals, he was as remarkable for observing the grace of form and action as in drawing the human figure. * * * " He was beginning to paint the figure of a reclining sylph, when a diffi- culty arose in his own mind, how best to represent such a being of fancy. A friend who was present said, Give the sylph a butterfly's wing, and there you have it.' That I will,' exclaimed Stothard ; and to be correct, I will paint the wing from the butterfly itself.' He immediately sallied forth, ex- tended his walk to the -fields some miles distant, and caught one of those beautiful insects: it was of the class called the peacock. Our artist brought

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it carefully home, and commenced sketching it, but not in the painting- room; and leaving it on the table, a servant (I know not if it were the Irish damsel) swept the pretty little creature away, before its portrait was finished. On learning his loss, away went Stothard once more to the fields to seek another butterfly. But at this time one of the tortoise-shell tribe crossed his path, and was secured. He was astonished at the combination of colour that presented itself to him in this small but exquisite work of the Creator; and from that moment determined to enter on a new and delight- ful field—the study of the insect department of natural history. He became a hunter of butterflies ; the more he caught, the greater beauty did he trace in their infinite variety; and he would often say, that no one knew what he owed to these insects—they had taught him the finest combinations in that difficult branch of art, colouring. "Not, however, in butterflies only, but in everything, Stothard was an in- defatigable student of nature. He went nowhere without a sketch-book, and nothing struck his eye or his fancy but it was transferred to it : he recom- mended this practice to others, with the injunction, never to alter anything when absent from the object drawn : he said that, unless this rule was ob- served, all the spirit of the sketch would be lost. In his walks to Ivor, (about eighteen miles from London,) whither he often went, accompanied by his son Alfred, to visit his aged aunt, Mrs. Hales, after they had passed Acton, he would say, 'Now let us leave the high road, and away to the fields and the hedges ; we shall find there some beautiful plants, well worth seeking.' No sooner had they done so, than the sketch-book and colour-box were brought forth from his pocket ; and many a wild plant, with its, delicate formation of leaf and flower, was carefully copied on the spot. This was done with a fine pen filled with the tints required ; the springing of the tendrils from the stem, and every elegant bend and turn of the leaves, or the drooping of a bell, was observed and depicted with the utmost beauty."

The written style of Stothard was diffuse and devoid of strength; a trait not chargeable upon the deficiency of early education, since he was all his life a great reader, and many men with less literature than he had write with force when they do write. He had thought about his profession as a science, as well as practised it as an art : some of his observations are worth preserving. In a letter to a friend who was pursuing painting as an amusement, he propounds a general critical truth : " One thing I advise, which comprehends everything—let your objects be few, and well discriminated." His opinions on beauty were his own, and rather contrary, we believe,

to those of the herd of artists.

" I see more beauty,' would he say, 'in faces that are looked upon by others as having no claim to it, than most persons would suspect.' Sto-

ras considered that the highest order of beauty in a human fine is derived solely from its expression. Plato said that the emotions produced by beauty

on the mind arose from a remembrance of supreme perfection. He probably said this in connexion with the spirit or soul, because it is that which am- mates the countenance. Regular features and beauty of complexion will not alone awaken interest; there must be something more. The mind must give that action to the countenance which we call expression : yet more beauty to please the eye, without interesting the feelings, is common enough. On being asked in what he considered the more common order of beauty to consist, he replied, ' In youth and health: where those are found, unless there is a great perversity of nature to render the features really disagreeable, there can hardly be other than some claims to beauty ; for there is a great deal of grace in nature. "I see it,' he would say, 'in everything.' • * * * "As I once conversed with Stothard about certain celebrated beauties, he said, many. who were esteemed such did not strike him, because they wanted an expression of sense and feeling; their countenances were like blank books, very fair, but nothing to be read in them. He liked a face that had matter in it—that promised a rich mind or a warm heart. He neither liked a fool- ish woman nor a coldhearted woman. The last, indeed, is ever repulsive— something contrary to what Nature intended should be the principal distinc- tion of her sex; for we look for love and tenderness in a woman, as we do for warmth in the sun. In other respects, Stothard, though he preferred the elegance and grace of Raphael's female figures to the portly dames of Rubens, so far agreed with the Flemish painter as to think stoutness an advantage to beauty, unless in the very prime of youth. Indeed, nothing impairs beauty so much, and nothing. shows age so soon, as leanness. A very thin face may retain all its expression if there is mind in the person ; but thin- ness conveys an idea of ill health, wasting, and suffering, and that always gives pain. In the countenance of a sneerer, leanness in a great degree be- comes hideous." ["Let MC have men about me that are fat."] The events of Stothard's middle and later life were confined to his studio and family affairs. His childhood and youth have more interest. He was born in 1755, in Long Acre, where his father kept a public-house. The child's health was delicate, and be was sent to his father's native county, Yorkshire, for country air. Here he was taught in a dame school; and, child as he was, his innate love of art developed itself. Among other anecdotes, the following from Stothard's own mouth may be instanced. "She [the dame] had two sons in the Temple, London; who sent her a present of some of the heads of Houbmken, framed and glazed ; likewise an engraving of the blind Belisarius, by Strange, and some religious pictures from the unrivalled graver of the same artist. I looked often audearnestly at those productions, for the old lady admitted me freely into her room, and seemed pleased with my admiration of them. I gazed till a love of art grew within me, and a desire to imitate what was on her walls. I got bits of paper and pencils, and made many attempts. I could see that my hand was improving, and I had sketched some things not amiss, when, at eight years old, I was removed to Stutton, the birthplace of my father. Before this, I should have mentioned that my father, pleased with my attempts, had sent me boxes of colours; which I knew so little how to use, that I applied to a house-painter for some mixed paint, which he gave me in an Oyster-shell; and the first man I painted was in black. I had no examples; you know how necessary they are : literature may be taught by words, art must come through signs."

- Young Stothard was subsequently sent to school at Ilford in Essex ; where he learned little, and was half starved. In 1770 his father died ; and his mother, induced by his love of drawing, apprenticed him to a silk-brocade pattern-designer in Spital Square. Here his evenings were spent in reading Homer and the Fairy aueen, and in making illustrative designs from them ; and here, on his master's death, an incident occurred that launched him upon that course which he steadily pursued to the end of his life. "He ever spoke of his mistress in terms of grateful esteem, and his good conduct had secured for him her most sincere regard. Whilst he was thus engaged in sketching of an evening, she would often watch his hand, and asked him to give her one or two of his drawings, that she might place them for an ornament over her mantelpiece in the best' parlour. Her wish was granted, and the sketches were hung up. "Not long after, two gentlemen called at her house, one of them to give her a commission in the way of business; and, whilst he was talking to her, the other gentleman amused himself with examining the sketches over the mantelpiece. His attention being completely absorbed:by them, his friend came up and looked also. On hearing the astonishment expressed by the former at their style and execution, the mistress of the house felt such a pride in her youthful apprentice, that she exclaimed, 'Sir, you are admiring my lad's work : that is the way in which he occupies himself every even- ing.' Does he so ? ' replied the stranger; 'pray let me see him.' Thomas was then introduced, and the person who had so admired his designs over the chimney-piece drew from his pocket a book. This he placed in the hands of the youth, (who stood before him not a little abashed by hear- ing his own commendations,) and begged him to read it carefully ; and when he met with a subject which struck his fancy, to make a design for it in In- dian ink. He then took his leave, saying that he would call again at the end of a week. The book (a novel) was read, and instead of one, three de- signs were executed and ready for the gentleman ; who, true to his time and word, called again. The drawings were examined and approved ; half a guinea was put into his hand; and Stothard's future lot was decided. The stranger was no other than the well-known Mr. Harrison, the editor (and I lielieve proprietor) of the Novelist's Magazine, published many years ago, and long before that series edited by Mrs. Barbauld, with a critique by her- self appended to each work."

Those who wish to follow the career of Stothard further may recur to Mrs. Bray's volume. It is a pleasing anecdotical account of " the English Raphael," with as fair a criticism upon him as might be expected from a daughter-in-law and devoted admirer. Being somewhat deficient, however, in plan and chronological order, the book is almost as much a biographical essay as a bio- graphy. The volume, at the suggestion of Mr. Murray, is fully illustrated by wood-cuts after the best of Stothard's designs; which answer the double purpose of forming a handsome book and furnish- ing the reader with specimens of the artist.