2 OCTOBER 1858, Page 31

arts.

A STOTHARD MEMORIAL.

Thomas Stothard, the pure-hearted and gentle-minded, and (except Lawrence) perhaps the only British painter of his period whose name and works are still thoroughly familiar and popular, has been sleeping his last sleep in Dunhill Fields Burial-ground ever since 1834, and, up to the present day, no memorial of any kind marks the grave of a man whose works have delighted and done their part in refining three gene- rations. An endeavour is now being made to remedy this more than commonly noticeable and unhandsome neglect. A committee, including such men as Messrs. Dyce, Doo, Carpenter, and Cockerell, is formed for erecting to his memory some appropriate record, and several leading artiste and connoisseurs are already on the list of subscribers. The question arises, we understand, whether this record should take the form of some monument on the grave itself, or should be of a more conspi- cuously public character, such as a memorial in the National Gallery. We should decidedly advocate the former plan. The real record of Stothard is his own works : we do not so much wish for an extraneous reminder of the man as for something to tell us that the spot where he lies buried is not altogether common earth. However this may be de- cided, we wish the effort a speedy and successful result. It is surely not too much to ask that every man whose powers raise him above the level, and have been consistently exerted for good in a wide sphere, should receive some grateful commemoration; and we are only surprised in this instance to be reminded that the debt has been so long due.