in 1835; which appeared like a vision from the spiritual world, after the modern antiques of the school of David, and the military chronicles of the Government of July. Scheffer, too, painted what the French have termed the higher genre; and he produced also many admirable works of exalted religious sentiment, though of somewhat austere ethics. Of the former class are his various representations from Faust, the Mignons, Beatrice, the Giaour, the “King of Thulé," and others, which are all productions also of an eminently pathetic and poetical character. Of the second, and commonly assumed higher class of works, are, among others" Ruth and Naomi," "St. Monica and St Augustin," "The Holy Women returning from the Sepulchre," "Les Gémissemens," or "Les douleurs de la Terre," "Le Christ Consolateur," and his last work; "The Angel announcing the Resurrection of Jesus." Nearly all are well known from the admirable engravings after them by Henriquel-Dupont, Blanchard, Girard, Calamatta, Caron, and others. The uniform mystic melancholy tendency, however, of Ary Scheffer's works is very striking; the sentiment bordering occasionally on the ascetic, or on despair; nearly all suggesting some actual evil or impending doom, as if life were identified with misery. This character of the painter's works indicates something more than that common morbidity of mind which is often induced by a weakly bodily health. His "Christus Consolator" is not an exception to this melancholy tendency, for it impresses the extent of misery rather than its alleviation. In vain do we look for sunshine; for love or for hope. However this may be, the chief quality in all Scheffer's pictures, of every kind, is sentiment or character; to this everything is subordinate; there is an expression of grandeur in the treatment of the least of his works: he was never merely academic in the execution of his pictures, though they are sometimes dryly painted. Louis Philippe endeavoured to enlist his powers in the service of "Toutes les Gloires de la France," at Versailles, but he was not a trophy painter, and his contribution to the vast picture repertory in the palace of Versailles added neither to the glory of France nor to that of the painter.

Ary Scheffer's reputation is already as much European as it is French. He was not a member of the Institute, but was made an officer of the Legion of Honour in 1835: he never exhibited after 1846, and like Paul Delaroche, abstained from political sentiments from contributing to the International Exhibition of 1855.

In ALEXANDRE GABRIEL DECAMPS, also one of the greatest ornaments of the modern school of France, we have the painter of actual life he was born in Paris, March 3rd, 1803. He excelled equally in landscapes, animals, or genre pictures, and these were his ordinary subjects, though he had been educated by Abel de Pujol as an

historical painter, and as such he commenced his career. He is particularly distinguished for the force of his execution; and his subjects have always been highly popular as taken from the life of the day. Decamps visited the East, and he has left us many remarkable pictures of Eastern life; some of which are among his best and most interesting works. His facile, showy pictures quite astonished the connoisseurs of Europe, at the Paris International Exhibition, in 1855, where there were forty-four paintings, besides drawings, by Alexandre Decamps. He loved the chase, and to this pursuit we owe his premature death: he joined a hunting party in the Forest of Fontainebleau, and was thrown against a tree by his horse, and killed, on the 23rd of August, 1860. He had been nominated an Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1851.

EMILE JEAN HORACE VERNET, the most masterly painter of modern times, was born in the Louvre, Paris, on the 30th of June, 1789, and after acquiring the elements of his art from his father. Carle Vernet, entered the studio of Vincent. So great was Horace's ability, from mere childhood, that at fifteen he was his own master, and maintained himself by his drawings: yet he failed in 1810 to gain the travelling pension from the Academy of Painting, which his father Carle had obtained in his day: the requirements of the Academy were too exact and precise for the buoyant genius of the young painter. He was, however, an exhibitor at the Louvre, and was married to Louise Pujol, before he became of age. He also served for a short time as a soldier, which experience proved a valuable initiation for him into the specialities of that service, to the illustration of which, by his pencil, he has acquired such immortal fame. He obtained a medal of the first class for historical painting in 1812; and in 1814 Napoleon decorated him with the Cross of the Legion d'Honneur, not, however, for his painting, but for his gallant conduct before the enemy, at the Barrière of Clichy : he and his friend Gericault, served in a regiment of Hussars on that occasion. He became an Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1825, a Commander in 1842, and shortly before his death a Grand Officer. In 1826 Horace Vernet was elected a Member of the Institute; and in 1828 he succeeded Guérin as Director of the French Academy of the Arts at Rome. He remained at Rome about seven years, and there painted some of his most admirable works—among which is conspicuous the very popular picture, now in the Luxembourg, of "Raphael encountering Michelangelo on the steps of the Vatican;" he has introduced in this picture his daughter Louise, afterwards Madame Delaroche, as a Roman peasant: it was exhibited in the Louvre in 1833. He resided in many other countries besides Italy:

See the "Fine Arts Quarterly Review," No. III., 1864.

in Algeria, in Egypt, in Syria, in the Holy Land, in Russia, and in England. There were few of the great European monarchs of his day who did not delight to honour Horace Vernet: when at home, he resided chiefly at Versailles; but he had apartments also at the Institute; and he spent some part of the year on his estate of "Les Bernettes," at Hyères. He was twice married: the second time in 1858, to a widow, Madame de Boiricheux, the daughter of an English general, named Fuller.' He died in Paris, full of years and honours, on the 17th of January, 1863.

The facilities of execution and general powers of observation displayed by Horace Vernet may be termed prodigious; he is said to have possessed the rare faculty of having been able to paint objects correctly from pure memory. He commonly painted alla prima, as the Italians express it, that is, without retouching; and often even without any previous preparation on the canvas; yet there is a perfect unity in the general effect of his works. Political changes sometimes interfered with his position and influence but on the whole his career was one of unbroken progress, and of unrivalled celebrity, in modern times; and he was without a peer in his own more special department of painting-the incidents of war. His sphere was, however, general as well as special; and though he is in the higher spheres of art not, I imagine, to be compared with either Paul Delaroche or Ary Scheffer, Horace Vernet was far from being a mere military chronicler, as many of his school have been, nor was he a mere naturalist or genre painter. A vast display of his powers was shown at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1855, when he was awarded a Grand Medal of Honour he exhibited on that occasion twenty-two pictures: comprising, among others of startling effect, the following important works:-the Battles of Jemmapes, Valmy, Hanau, and Montmirail, now all belonging to the Marquis of Hertford; the "Barrière de Clichy, or the Defence of Paris in 1814," painted in 1820; Mazeppa (1825); Mazeppa and the Wolves (1826); the Cholera on board the Melpomene (1830): Judith and Holofernes (1831); Rebecca at the Fountain, painted in Rome in 1834; the Storming of Constantina, 13th October, 1837, a repetition, painted in 1855, of one of the magnificent works of 1839, relating to this siege; the vast "Taking of La Smala," of Abd-el-Kader, in May, 1843 (1845); and the Battle of Isly, August, 1844 (1846). Other great works are-the Battle of Tolosa (1817), and the Massacre of the Mamelukes (1819), both now in the Luxembourg. He is seen to very great advantage at Versailles, in the so-called Hall of Constantina, where is the stupendous picture of the assault of that city, which was ex

hibited in the Louvre in 1839, and which is alone sufficient to establish a great and lasting reputation for any painter. Horace Vernet painted many portraits; and also a mass of what may be called genre pictures, of a most striking character; such as the "Arab Camp Scene," at Manchester House. A very capital portrait of this great French master was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1855, by a great English master, J. R. Herbert, R.A.'

CHAPTER XXXIII.

PAINTING IN ENGLAND-DISTINCTIVELY CHARACTERIZED BY THE INFLUENCE OF REMBRANDT, MEDIATELY THROUGH SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS-COLOUR AND EFFECT AS AN END-IMITATIVE REVIVAL.

WITH the following rapid view of the progress of painting in

1 The general authorities for the History of Painting in France are-Felibien, "Entretiens sur les Vies et sur les Ouvrages de plus excellens Peintres," &c., 6 vols., 12mo., London and Trevoux, 1705-25; D'Argenville, "Abrégé de la Vie des plus fameux Peintres," &c., 3 vols., 4to., Paris, 1745-52; Gault de Saint Germain, "Trois Siècles de la Peinture en France," &c., 8vo., Paris, 1808; De Laborde, "La Renaissances des Arts à la Cour de France, Peinture," Svo., Paris, 1850-55; "Mémoires Inedits des Membres de l'Academie Royale," 2 vols., 8vo., Paris, 1854; Gabet, "Dictionnaire des Artistes des l'École Française au XIX Siècle," 8vo., Paris, 1831; Robert Dumesnil, "Le Peintre-graveur Français," &c., 8 vols., 8vo., Paris, 1835-50; Baudicour, "Le Peintre-graveur Français continué," 2 vols., Svo., Paris, 1859-61; and Villot, "Notice des Tableaux du Musée Impérial du Louvre. Ecole Française," 8vo., Paris, 1861.

England, the proposed object of this comprehensive sketch will be completed. Painting and painters have been the theme throughout; the art itself in its various development has been a chief object of review; but I have also endeavoured to present the painter himself in his social position and circumstances as fully, as regards essential facts, as the space at my command would admit. Such painters as have not been distinguished for any other service than that of repeating what had already been done by others, have been little more than named, and that only in such cases where they were of high merit, or the principal promoters of the art in their respective localities. The same course will be pursued, with some slight allowance for home prejudice, in the review of painting in England.

As we have seen it to be the case in many other countries, so the native school of England is of comparatively recent date. What the Italian painters did immediately in Spain and France, was done by Flemish and German masters in England; the art of Italy operating thus mediately likewise in this country. We have no record of English artists of importance previous to the reign of Charles I., and the masters of this period were almost exclusively portrait painters. Before the time of Charles, all important works in painting were intrusted to foreigners, and also during his and some subsequent reigns foreign artists had more especially the public favour.

England possessed one celebrated artist of her own in the reign of Henry VI.; this was WILLIAM AUSTEN, the founder and the artist of the celebrated monument to Richard de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, in St. Mary's church, at Warwick: a work which shows Austen to have been little inferior to his celebrated Italian contemporaries, Donatello and Ghiberti. Richard Earl of Warwick died in 1439.'

Henry VII. appears to have been one of the first British monarchs who paid any attention to the arts. He employed some distinguished foreign artists; among the painters, JAN MABUSE was the principal. In the following reign, that of Henry VIII., a much greater activity commenced: one of the first painters in Europe was then domiciliated in this country-Holbein. England was, however, not without its native painters at this time. JOHN BROWNE, the builder of "Painters' Hall," was appointed Sergeant-Painter to Henry VIII. in 1511, “with 2d. a day out of the issues of the lordship of Whitley, in Surrey, and four ells of cloth at Christmas annually, of the value of 6s. 8d. an ell, from the Keeper of the Great Wardrobe." He died in November, 1532. Another Ser

1 See the writer's notice of AUSTEN in the "Supplement to the Penny Cyclopædia."