Campbell Dodgson

“ After two years spent at the city office his parents decided to let him follow his bent, and he devoted himself to learning every variety of technique which was likely to be of use to him : painting in oils, water-colours, and fresco, modelling, carving, drawing on paper, wood, and stone, engraving and etching. In all these arts he was mainly self-taught, for he frequented no school and had no regular instruction except some lessons in the use of colour from George Lance, the painter of fruit. ”

“ For twenty years Thomas devoted almost all his time and thought to the 'Graphic;' but a scheme for another enterprise gradually shaped itself in his mind and bore fruit in the foundation in 1890 of the 'Daily Graphic,' the first daily illustrated paper published in England. The difficulties, both mechanical and financial, of such a scheme were enormous, but he overcame them as soon as improvements in process work and in machinery enabled him to get illustrations produced and printed with the requisite speed. ”

“ As a water-colour painter his mission was to stand up for the old tradition of painting entirely in transparent washes, and to protest by quiet insistence against the corruption of the art, as he deemed it, which had been introduced by artists like Walker and George John Pinwell [q. v.] , who used body-colour. Dobson remained a constant exhibitor almost to the last, both at the Royal Academy and at the Old Water-colour Society, contributing about a hundred and twenty pictures to the former and about sixty to the latter gallery. ”

“ HINE, HENRY GEORGE (1811–1895) , landscape-painter, born at Brighton, Sussex, on 15 Aug. 1811, was the youngest son of William Hine, a native of Hampshire, by his marriage with Mary Roffey. His father was at one time coachman to Mrs. Thrale, and afterwards a coachmaster at Brighton. The boy had no regular training in art, but taught himself to draw and paint from nature, and was encouraged by the vicar of a neighbouring Sussex village, who had a collection of water-colours by Copley Fielding, and taught Hine to appreciate the beauties of the South Downs. ”

“ At the gallery in Pall Mall East he exhibited more than three hundred water-colours, and these represent only a small proportion of his life's work, for he was a rapid though a very careful worker. He devoted much time and energy to the service of the Royal Water-colour Society, as it has been called since 1881; this advance and the prosperity which the society has enjoyed in recent years were due in some measure to Hunt's exertions. ”

“ He raised the necessary capital with the aid of an elder brother, a Brazilian merchant, and other friends, and the first number of the 'Graphic' appeared on 4 Dec. 1869. 'It was a bold idea,' he wrote himself (Universal Review, 15 Sept. 1888) , 'to attempt a new journal at the price of sixpence a copy in the face of the most successful and firmly established illustrated paper in the world, costing then only fivepence,' but his energy, zeal, and thorough knowledge both of art and business soon ensured the success of the venture. ”

“ An important event in Gilbert's career was his election as an associate of the Old (now Royal) Water-colour Society, which took place on 9 Feb. 1852. He was elected a full member on 12 June 1854. From that time till his death Gilbert's connection with the society was intimate and uninterrupted. He exhibited about 270 water-colours in the society's gallery, and it was on his initiative that the first experimental exhibition of sketches was held in the winter of 1862, which led to the establishment of regular winter exhibitions. ”

“ A colossal statue of Lord Beaconsfield is at Liverpool; a statue of General Earle, and a large group, 'Godiva,' are placed in front of St. George's Hall in the same city. Several of his works are at Sydney, New South Wales, including 'Retaliation,' which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1878, and purchased by the commissioners of the Sydney Art Gallery; 'Justice' and 'Plenty,' allegorical figures in marble at the entrance of the Australian Joint-stock Bank; and a 'Water Nymph,' a bronze statue placed over a fountain. A monument to Jenny Lind by Birch is in Malvern cemetery. ”

“ BRIERLY, Sir OSWALD WALTERS (1817–1894) , marine painter, son of Thomas Brierly, a doctor and amateur artist, who belonged to an old Cheshire family, was born at Chester on 19 May 1817. After a general grounding in art at the academy of Henry Sass [q. v.] in Bloomsbury, he went to Plymouth to study naval architecture and rigging. He exhibited drawings of two men-of-war at Plymouth, the Pique and the Gorgon, at the Royal Academy in 1839. He then spent some time in the study of navigation, and in 1841 started on a voyage round the world with Benjamin Boyd [q. v.] ”

“ HODGSON, JOHN EVAN (1831–1895) , painter, the elder son of John Hodgson, a member of an influential Newcastle family and a Russia merchant, was born in London on 1 March 1831. At the age of four he was taken to St. Petersburg, but was sent to England eight years later for his education. He entered Rugby school in February 1846, and on leaving school returned to St. Petersburg and entered his father's counting-house. The study of the old masters in the Hermitage collection and of Ruskin's 'Modern Painters' induced him to abandon commerce for an artist's career. ”

“ Foster had a large circle of friends, especially among artists; Frederick Walker [q. v.] was one of his most constant companions and guests at Witley, and exercised some influence upon his figure-painting.
Foster died at Weybridge on 27 March 1899, and was buried on 1 April at Witley. He married, first, in 1850, his cousin Ann, daughter of Robert Spence of North Shields, by whom he had five children, the second of whom is the water-colour painter and illustrator, William Foster. His first wife died in 1859. ”

“ When large subjects were required, covering two pages or more of the newspaper, Gilbert would first sketch the whole subject very slightly in ink, and then complete the drawing in sections, unscrewing each portion of the composite block of boxwood as it was finished, and passing it on to the engraver, while he continued his work on the next piece of wood, with a perfect recollection of its relation to the whole design. He was always very successful with those civic and military pageants and displays of picturesque ceremonial, which he had loved to draw in his early days. ”

“ He came early in life to London, and was trained as a wood-engraver and draughtsman on wood under Myles Birket Foster [q. v. Suppl.] He did much for the 'Illustrated London News' and other periodicals and books. He was an indifferent figure draughtsman, and confined himself to landscape when he adopted painting as his profession. He was a member of the Society of British Artists from 1870 to 1874. ”

“ Pickersgill did not exhibit in 1867 or 1870, and the picture of 1871 was his last, with the exception of a pathetic subject with a quotation from Tennyson's ‘Mariana in the South,’ ending with the words ‘To live forgotten and die forlorn,’ which was exhibited in 1875. He still, however, took an active interest in the Royal Academy, and held the offices of keeper and trustee from 1873 to 1887. In 1888 he retired finally from the academy, and spent the remainder of his life at the Towers, Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, where he died on 20 Dec. ”

“ The publishing firm of Field & Tuer, which issued many illustrated books, and especially facsimile reprints of popular literature and children's books of the reign of George III, was converted in February 1892, a year after Field's death, into a limited company under the name of the Leadenhall Press. In July 1899 Tuer became a director of the firm of Kelly, publishers of the post-office directory. ”

“ James Wyatt, the well-known print-seller in the High Street, purchased his drawings, though not on a liberal scale of remuneration, and encouraged him to adopt painting as a profession. Hunt hesitated for a time between an academic and an artistic career. ”

“ This attempt to revive freedom of design in the craftsman, in the spirit of mediæval Gothic art, was carried still further, under Ruskin's direct supervision, in the next important work of the firm, the Oxford Museum, with which Woodward's name is especially connected. A competition between Palladian and Gothic designs was decided in 1854 in favour of Deane and Woodward, whose design had been selected, with one in Renaissance style by Barry, from the work of thirty-two anonymous contributors. ”

“ The lad, who was born to be an artist, not a clerk, spent much of his time in sketching on the office paper the busy life of the great city thoroughfare which he saw from the windows, and especially the displays of civic pomp which were frequently to be seen in the neighbourhood of the Mansion House. ”

“ On leaving school he joined his elder brother, George Housman Thomas (1824–1868) [q. v.] , who was practising at Paris as an engraver on wood. In 1846 the two brothers, accompanied by Mr. H. Harrison, the brother-in-law and partner of the elder, went to America to take part in the promotion of two illustrated journals, 'The Republic' and 'The Picture Gallery.' Both enterprises failed, the health of George Thomas broke down, and the brothers returned to Europe. They spent two years at Rome, and William Thomas then joined the wood-engraver William James Linton [q. v. Suppl.] as an assistant. ”

“ His chief literary work, ' Bartolozzi and his Works,' contains not only a great amount of information on Bartolozzi and his contemporaries and pupils, but practical hints to collectors and many explanations of technical matters in a popular and pleasant form. No book on the subject of engravings is more readable, but it is discursive and unsystematic in its arrangement, and does not satisfy the demands of the serious student. Its great defect is the absence of a catalogue of Bartolozzi's works. Tuer had intended to produce one, and no writer was better qualified for the task ”

“ He exhibited for the last time in 1879, Good engravings of some of his most popular statues, 'The Maid of Saragossa,' 'Babes in the Wood,' and 'The Cross of Prayer,' were published in the 'Art Journal.' Bell presented a collection of models of his large works to the Kensington Town Hall. ”

“ In 1844 he exhibited at Westminster Hall a fresco, ‘Sir Calepine rescuing Serena,’ which did not obtain a prize. A series of academy pictures, illustrating Spenser's ‘Faerie Queene,’ of which the first had appeared in 1841, was continued by ‘Florimel in the Cottage of the Witch,’ 1843 (engraved by Periam for the ‘Art Journal’) , ‘Amoret, Æmylia, and Prince Arthur in the Cottage of Sclaunder,’ 1845, ‘Idleness’ and ‘The Contest of Beauty for the Girdle of Florimel,’ 1848. ”

“ The museum is in thirteenth century Gothic style, strongly influenced by Venetian architecture; the form of the chemical laboratory at the south end of the building was suggested by the abbots' kitchen at Glastonbury. ”

“ Frederick Eaton, a series of articles on the history of the Academy in the eighteenth century to the 'Art Journal' in 1889. He also published 'Academy Lectures' in 1884, and 'Fifty Years of British Art' on the occasion of the Manchester exhibition in 1887. ”

“ He had a profound and scientific knowledge of wave-form, acquired at the cost of exposure in all weathers, and he was generally content to paint the sea itself without introducing ships or human figures. ”

“ He painted most frequently on the downs at the back of Brighton, and near Lewes and Eastbourne, or along the coast from Rottingdean to Cuckmere Haven. His pictures sold well, and enabled him to support a family of ten daughters and four sons. Two of his sons have inherited his talent for art, Mr. Harry Hine being a well-known member of the Institute, while Mr. William Egerton Hine is art master at Harrow School. ”

“ In the pictures of his third period, which depended on imagination, aided by careful archaeological research, he did not appeal very powerfully either to the popular taste or to the judgment of critics. ”

“ In 1840 he married Mary Ann, daughter of John Egerton, a coach-master. His style was founded especially on that of Copley Fielding. He rendered with great success the wide spaces and sweeping curves of the downs, generally in summer or early autumn weather, in glowing sunlight or with sunset and twilight effects. ”

“ Two of Bell's chief works are at Woolwich, a marble statue of 'Armed Science' (1855) , in the royal artillery mess-room, and the Crimean artillery memorial (1860) on the parade. A bust of Sir Robert Walpole (1858) is at Eton, and there is a large monument to James Montgomery in Sheffield cemetery. Many of Bell's best works are in private collections ”

“ He exhibited his first pictures, views in Surrey and on the river Wye, at the British Institution and the Suffolk Street Galleries in 1852. In 1853, after a tour abroad with his father, he exhibited 'Marienburg on the Moselle' and 'Ranmore Common, Surrey,' at the Royal Academy. For a few years, after a temporary separation from his father, he lived in London and gave drawing-lessons. He gained little by his pictures, and was often in straits. ”

“ He painted numerous scriptural subjects, at first in oils, afterwards in water-colours also, which enjoyed a great vogue in their own day, and were popularised by engraving. The public liked their prettiness, simplicity, and refinement, and did not object to their sentimentality and want of realism. ”

“ He became a full member of the society in 1862, after a period of probation of unexampled shortness, and remained from that date onwards one of the most indefatigable as well as the most popular contributors to the society's exhibitions, in which over three hundred of his drawings appeared. ”