Freeman Marius O'Donoghue

“ When lithography came into vogue in this country, he quickly adopted it as a means of providing good examples for the use of pupils and students, and in the many works which he published greatly developed the resources of the art, carrying it in fact to a point of excellence which has not been surpassed. The 'Académie des Beaux Arts' had awarded him two gold medals for lithographic drawings exhibited at the Louvre. His early productions were drawing-books, consisting of pencil sketches and studies of trees ”

“ HERBERT, ALFRED (d. 1861) , watercolour painter, was the son of a Thames waterman, who apprenticed him to a boatbuilder, but, yielding to a strong natural inclination, he became an artist. He began to exhibit with the Society of British Artists in 1844, and at the Royal Academy in 1847, his subjects being coast scenes, with fishing-boats and figures, and views in the lower reaches of the Thames. He sent an oil picture to Suffolk Street in 1855, and continued a regular contributor of water-colours at the Royal Academy until 1860. ”

“ In 1831, when a lad of seventeen, Heaphy accompanied his father on a visit to Italy, where he acquired a knowledge of the language and cultivated a taste for religious art, for which he always retained a strong predilection. Adopting his father's profession, he commenced life as a portrait-painter, and for many years enjoyed an extensive patronage. ”

“ In 1830 Harding exhibited Italian views sketched on papers of various tints and textures. This novel idea was generally adopted, and for many years 'Harding's papers' (as they came to be called by drawing-masters) , manufactured by Whatman, were extensively used for sketching purposes. In the practice of water-colour painting Harding was chiefly responsible for the abandonment of the exclusive use of transparent colours, in which nearly all the great artists worked before his time. Harding, following the example first set by Turner, freely employed opaque or body colour. ”

“ In 1812, giving up his membership of the Water-colour Society, he betook himself, at the invitation of the Duke of Wellington, to the British camp in the Peninsula, where he remained until the end of the war, painting the portraits of the English officers, and on his return executed his most important work, a representation of the Duke of Wellington giving his orders previous to a general action, which comprised portraits of about fifty general officers. ”

“ LADBROOKE, ROBERT (1768–1842) , landscape-painter, born in a humble position at Norwich in 1768, was apprenticed when very young to an artist and printer named White, and for some years worked as a journeyman printer. While so engaged he made the acquaintance of John Crome [q. v.] , then a lad of about his own age, who was working for a house- and sign-painter, and having congenial tastes they became fast friends, living together, and devoting all their spare time to sketching and copying. ”

“ Throughout his chequered career he was a constant exhibitor at the Royal Academy, frequently contributing during his residence at Bristol.
In 1819 he sent a portrait of the Duke of Sussex; his best work was a picture of Carolus the hermit of Tong. His portrait of Miss Biggs in the charahter of Cora, and that of Richard Reynolds, the Bristol philanthropist, have been engraved, the latter by W. Sharp. He was always well patronised, and obtained good prices for his works, but the quality of his art suffered greatly from his restless and improvident habits. ”

“ Lowry was a student of geology, and early in life constructed with his friend Professor Phillips a geological model of the Isle of Wight. On the establishment of the Geological Surrey of Great Britain and Ireland he became engraver to the department, and it is by the vast number of beautiful plates of 'sections' and fossils which he executed in that capacity that he will be remembered; on these he continued to work until his death. ”

“ Notwithstanding the skill and elaboration with which the plates were executed, they never found favour with artists, and have failed to supersede the rougher but more vigorous work of Dorigny. He executed crayon portraits of himself and of his nephew, a naval captain. A brother John was at one time a popular lecturer on animal magnetism. ”

“ Being engaged by West to copy pictures at Windsor, Livesay went to reside there about 1790, and gave lessons in drawing to some of the royal children. While at Windsor he was much employed in painting portraits of young Etonians, generally small whole-lengths, and an interesting picture by him of ‘Eton Boys going to Montem’ is in the possession of the college, to which it was presented by the Duke of Newcastle in 1891. In 1796, having been appointed drawing-master to the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth, Livesay removed to Portsea ”

“ On the revival of the Society of Antiquaries in 1717 he became a member, and was appointed its official engraver, in which capacity he executed nearly all the plates published in ‘Vetusta Monumenta’ down to 1756, including the portrait of Richard II at Westminster, the shrine of Edward the Confessor, and a view of Waltham Cross. From 1723 to 1751, all the Oxford Almanacs, with one or two exceptions, were designed, and engraved by Vertue, who introduced views of the colleges and incidents connected with their foundation. ”

“ Lewis held the appointment of engraver of drawings to Princess Charlotte, Prince Leopold, George IV, William IV, and Queen Victoria. He was extremely industrious, and his portraits and other subjects from pictures by Landseer, Winterhalter, Chalon, Bonington, Danby, and others are very numerous. Throughout his life he devoted a portion of his time to landscape-painting, working both in oils and water-colours, and contributing largely to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and the Old Water-colour Society. ”

“ In 1811 Hofland returned to London, where he resided for a few years in Newman Street, contributing to the support of his family chiefly by making copies of celebrated works in the gallery of the British Institution, and at the same time painting many pictures, chiefly views of the Lakes. In 1814 he gained the British Institution prize of one hundred guineas for ‘A Storm off Scarborough,’ which was purchased by the Marquis of Stafford ”

“ HARDING, GEORGE PERFECT (d. 1853) , portrait-painter and copyist, was a son of Silvester Harding [q. v.] of Pall Mall. Adopting his father's profession, he practised miniature-painting, and exhibited at the Royal Academy at intervals between 1802 and 1840; but, like his father, he mainly devoted himself to making water-colour copies of ancient historical portraits. ”

“ LAPORTE, JOHN (1761–1839) , water-colour painter, was born in 1761, and became a drawing-master at the military academy at Addiscombe. He was also a successful private teacher, and Dr. Thomas Monro [q. v.] , the patron of Turner, was one of his pupils. From 1785 he contributed landscapes to the Royal Academy and British Institution exhibitions, and was an original member of the short-lived society 'The Associated Artists in Water-colours,' from which he retired in 1811. ”

“ In 1833 Jackson was one of the founders of a sketching society at Bristol, to which W. J. Müller, J. Skinner Prout, and other artists who later achieved eminence belonged, and he was always closely identified with the Bristol ‘school.’ In 1848 he withdrew from the Water-colour Society, having failed to obtain election to full membership. In 1855 and 1856 Jackson made tours in Switzerland, after which he painted, almost exclusively, Swiss views in oils, which were sent to the Bristol annual exhibition and sold well. ”

“ VAN VOERST, ROBERT (1596–1636) , engraver, was born in 1596 at Arnheim in Holland, and studied at Utrecht under Crispin de Passe the elder. Some small plates of animals by him, which appeared in Passe's ‘La Lumière de la Peinture,’ 1643, were probably executed at this period. He came to England in 1628, and during the next few years engraved portraits of the queen of Bohemia, the Prince of Wales, Prince Rupert, and several English noblemen, from pictures by Honthorst, Dobson, Geldorp, Miereveldt, Mytens, and Janssen. ”

“ Latterly he executed a great number of drawings in sepia and chalk of biblical and poetical subjects, and depicted the battles of the Sikh and Crimean wars. In the last year of his life he exhibited at the Academy ‘Sketch of the Conquest and Destruction of Magdala,’ as well as two large pictures, ‘Cawnpore—Passage of the Ganges,’ and ‘Relief of Lucknow,’ which he presented to the National Gallery. ”

“ Vivares exhibited engravings with the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1766 and 1768. During the last thirty years of his life he resided in Great Newport Street, where he kept a print-shop. There he died on 28 Nov. 1780, and was buried in Paddington churchyard. He was thrice married, and had thirty-one children. There is a portrait of Vivares, engraved by himself and James Caldwall.
Thomas Vivares (fl. 1770–1790) , a son of François, worked as assistant to his father, and in 1764 gained a premium from the Society of Arts for two engravings. ”

“ Lupton was an active supporter of the Artists' Annuity Fund, of which he was elected president in 1836. He died at 4 Keppel Street, Russell Square, London, where he had resided for thirty-six years, on 18 May 1873. By his marriage in 1818 to Miss Susanna Oliver he had a family of six sons and one daughter. His youngest son, Nevil Oliver Lupton, born in 1828, gained the ‘Turner’ gold medal of the Academy at the first competition in 1857, and was a frequent exhibitor of landscapes up to 1877. ”

“ In 1726 Pelham emigrated to America with his wife Martha and two sons, Peter and Charles, and settled at Boston, where he established a school, in which were taught writing, reading, dancing, painting, and needlework, and practised both as painter and engraver until the end of his life ”

“ Macmillan & Co., for whose ‘Golden Treasury’ series and other publications he produced many beautiful vignettes and portraits, among the latter a series of ‘Scientific Worthies,’ issued in the periodical ‘Nature.’ In 1863 he completed for the Art Union of London the plate commenced by Shenton from Dicksee's ‘A Labour of Love,’ and one of his latest works was ‘Joseph and Mary,’ after Armitage, published by the same society in 1877. ”

“ WILLIAMS, SAMUEL (1788–1853) , draughtsman and wood engraver, was born at Colchester, of humble parentage, on 23 Feb. 1788. He was apprenticed to a Colchester printer named Marsden, but devoted all his spare time to drawing and engraving on wood, and subsequently adopted this as his profession. He first established himself in his native town, but in 1819 settled in London. ”

“ He became the ablest mezzotint engraver that had yet appeared in England, and was the first to make use of the etched line to strengthen the work. White's plates number about sixty, of which the best are the portraits of William Dobson, George Hooper, bishop of St. Asaph, Tycho Wing, and 'Old' Parr. White, like his father, drew portraits in pencil on vellum with great success; he also practised in crayons, and latterly took to painting in oils. He died at his house in Bloomsbury on 27 May 1732. ”

“ About 1674 he accompanied Henri Gascar [q. v.] to England, and gained a reputation as an engraver of portraits, which he executed on a larger scale than any previously produced in this country. He worked with great mechanical skill, but his plates are deficient in the higher qualities of the art. They include portraits of Charles II, James II, Mary Beatrix, the Prince and Princess of Orange, Louis XIV, the Duke of Monmouth, Sir William Temple, Sir E. Berry Godfrey, and other prominent persons, chiefly from pictures by Lely, Kneller, and Gascar ”

“ There he lodged with Scheemakers the sculptor, and his pupil Delvaux, whose acquaintance he had made in England, and entered the school of Francesco Fernandi, called ‘d'Imperiali,’ an historical painter. Pompeo Batoni, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship, was his fellow-pupil. ”

“ In 1768 he published ‘The Ruins of Pæstum, otherwise Posidonia, in Magna Græcia,’ illustrated with excellent plates done from various authorities; this was translated into French in 1769, and into German in 1781. Major was the first English engraver who received the honours of the Royal Academy, being elected an associate in 1770; he held the appointment of engraver to the king, and was for forty years engraver to the stamp office. ”

“ But his talent was for humorous subjects, and a series of thirty-six designs by him, entitled ‘The Life of an Actor,’ with letterpress by Pierce Egan, was published in 1825. Lane etched some clever prints of sporting and social life, such as ‘Masquerade at the Argyll Rooms,’ ‘Scientific Pursuits, or Hobby Horse Races to the Temple of Fame,’ and ‘A Trip to Ascot Races,’ a series of scenes on the road from Hyde Park Corner to the heath, which he dedicated to the king, 1827. ”

“ LEAKEY, JAMES (1775–1866) , artist, was born 20 Sept. 1775 at Exeter, where his father, John Leakey, was engaged in the wool trade. At the time of Sir Joshua Reynolds's death he was about to become his pupil. Leakey established himself at Exeter, painting portraits, miniatures, landscapes, and small interiors with groups of rustic figures. ”