Robert Edmund Graves

“ He was trained as a pattern designer at the school of design in Glasgow, after which he continued his studies for some years in France. Returning to Glasgow he began to practise on his own account, and succeeded so well that when he was about thirty-three years of age he was able to give up designing patterns and to devote himself exclusively to landscape-painting, which he had long been assiduously cultivating in his leisure hours. His earlier works were for the most part scenes from the lochs of the Western Highlands, which he exhibited at the Glasgow Fine Art Institute. ”

“ Horace Walpole says that he ‘owed a great part of his merit to the works of Van Dyck, and yet may be called an original genius, as he was the first who gave the strength and freedom of oil to miniature.’ His heads excel in the variety of their tints and in the management of the hair, but the drawing of the neck and shoulders is often so incorrect as to afford grounds for the conjecture that it was for this reason that so many of his works were left unfinished. ”

“ His passion for painting turned out better.' Although he enjoyed no systematic artistic training beyond having received when a boy twelve lessons in drawing the human figure, yet such was his ability that by copying the works of Velazquez and other masters he made rapid progress, and gained an early reputation as a painter of sporting scenes. He was already thirty-one when he first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1834, sending an equestrian portrait of Captain Vandeleur and the 'Breakfast Scene at Melton,' which was engraved by Charles G. Lewis. ”

“ The fertility of Alken's pencil was amazing; but the idea of it might be fictitiously enhanced if the fact were not borne in mind that he left two or three sons——one of whom was named Henry——all artists, and all sporting artists, who have been incessantly painting, lithographing, aquatinting, and etching for the sporting publishers and for private patrons of the turf. In all Alken's works there is a freedom of handling and a happy choice of subject which rendered them very popular in their day. ”

“ COUSEN, JOHN (1804–1880) , line engraver, was born at Miryshaw near Bradford in Yorkshire 19 Feb. 1804. He was a pupil of John Scott, the animal engraver, but at an early period of his career he devoted himself to landscape engraving, and became one of the ablest engravers of the best period of the art. His exquisite taste is best displayed in his smaller book-plates, especially those after Turner for the ‘Rivers of France,’ viz. the ‘Light-Towers of the Hève,’ ‘Harfleur,’ ‘Honfleur,’ ‘Château-Gaillard,’ and the ‘Bridge of Meulan.’ These are full of artistic feeling and power of execution. ”

“ His first picture of importance, ‘Queen Mary resigning her Crown at Loch Leven Castle,’ appeared at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1861. In 1863, after having passed a year among the art treasures of France, Italy, and Belgium, he settled in London and devoted much of his time to portraiture, which he varied with landscapes and fancy subjects, but his summers were often spent in Scotland. His pictures of ‘The Death of John Brown of Priesthill’ and ‘Jeanie Deans and the Laird o' Dumbiedykes’ attracted much notice, and in 1866 he began to exhibit at the Royal Academy. ”

“ He was born in 1818, and early in life became a pupil of Thomas Goff Lupton, the well-known mezzotint engraver, with whom he remained until he was twenty years of age. He applied himself with great earnestness to the study of his art, and acquired so much delicacy in its practice that he would in all probability have attained a very high position in it had he not been prematurely cut off. ”

“ GRANT, Sir FRANCIS (1803–1878) , portrait-painter, born in Edinburgh on 18 Jan. 1803, was fourth son of Francis Grant, laird of Kilgraston. General Sir James Hope Grant [q. v.] was his brother. He was educated at Harrow School, and was intended for the bar. 'In youth, that is in extreme youth,' writes Sir Walter Scott in his diary on 26 March 1831, 'he was passionately fond of fox-hunting and othersports, but not of any species of gambling. He had also a strong passion for painting, and made a little collection. ”

“ Though not possessing the knowledge of art which distinguished Wedgwood, he chose as his associates men of unquestionable taste and judgment, among whom was Thomas Battam, with whose aid the productions of his manufactory gained a world-wide renown, and in all the great international exhibitions of recent times obtained the highest commendation both for their design and execution. ”

“ But the branch of ceramic art which Copeland carried to the highest degree of perfection was the manufacture of parian groups and statuettes, in which he secured the co-operation of some of the most eminent sculptors of the day, including Gibson, Calder Marshall, Foley, Marochetti, and Durham. Copeland was in early life a keen sportsman, keeping a stud of race-horses, and always identifying himself with those who sought to maintain the honour of the sport as an old English institution. ”

“ He was a pupil of George Bickham; but after having engraved a few plates, chiefly landscapes of no great merit, he relinqilished the practice of the art, and devoted the remainder of his life to teaching drawing, first in London and afterwards in Brighton. ”

“ He appears to have been a youth of ability, for besides painting in oil and drawing in crayons, he soon acquired a good knowledge of Latin, French, Italian, and German, and became proficient in music, especially on the violin and flute, and in every branch of science which could be of advantage to an artist. ”

“ She then went for a while to Paris, where she worked in the studios of Hendrik and Ary Scheffer, and on her return to England she exhibited from time to time portraits in oil. It was, however, not long before she devoted herself to water-colour-painting, usually choosing domestic, romantic, or sentimental subjects, and it is on these that her chief distinction rests. In 1852 she was elected an associate of the Old (now the Royal) Society of Painters in Water-colours, and was a constant contributor to its exhibitions down to the year of her death. ”

“ All show great mastery of his art and originality of style, but, like other artists of the time, he was more intent upon making his portraits works of art than faithful likenesses. His finest portraits are after Sir Joshua Reynolds, and include those of the painter himself, from the original in the Royal Academy ”

“ His pictures of ‘The Woodman,’ ‘Old Tom,’ and gipsy groups and rustic figures, were copied upon almost every available material which would admit of decoration—Staffordshire pottery, Worcester china, Manchester cottons, and Glasgow linens; yet for this service rendered by the artist to the artisan he never claimed anything for copyright, but rejoiced in the reflection that his labours and his talent afforded profitable employment to others, and were the means of enriching more than himself alone. ”

“ CHÉRON, LOUIS (1655–1725) , painter and engraver, was born in Paris on 2 Sept. 1655. He was the son of Henri Chéron, a French miniature painter in enamel and an engraver, who died at Lyons in 1677. After having received some instruction from his father, he was enabled by the liberality of his sister to visit Italy, where he particularly studied the works of Raphael and Giulio Romano. On his return to Paris he was in 1687, and again in 1690, commissioned by the corporation of goldsmiths to paint the ‘mai’ which they offered every year on 1 May to the cathedral of Notre-Dame. ”

“ After having been educated at Bath, he was apprenticed to a wood-engraver in London, and acquired much skill both as a draughtsman and an engraver, distinguishing himself by his revival of the art of producing a gradatlon of tints by means of a combination of blocks. ”

“ HALL, CHARLES (1720?–1783) , line engraver, born about 1720, was brought up as a writing engraver, but by his own exertions he made so much progress in art that, although he never rose above mediocrity, he became a fair engraver of portraits, medals, coins, and other antiquities. ”

“ In 1823 he was articled to John Britton, the architect, who sent him into Essex, Kent, Bedfordshire, Wiltshire, and other parts of England, to sketch and study from nature. He was afterwards employed in making drawings at Bristol, Gloucester, and Hereford for Britton's ‘Cathedral Antiquities of England,’ 1814–32, and his skill in landscape and scenic effects induced Britton to undertake his ‘Picturesque Antiquities of English Cities,’ which appeared in 1828–30, for which Bartlett made a number of elaborate drawings in various parts of England. ”

“ As an artist Howard was never popular. His early works were his best, and many of them were engraved for the ‘Literary Souvenir,’ ‘Keepsake,’ ‘Gem,’ and other annuals. His art is seen to highest advantage in the Soane Museum, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and in Lord Leconfield’s collection at Petworth House, Sussex. The Vernon Collection at the National Gallery includes ‘The Flower Girl,’ a replica of the portrait of the painter’s daughter exhibited in 1824 ”

“ His last finished plate was a portrait of Charles Dickens, after W. P. Frith, for John Forster's ‘Life’ of the great novelist; but he left unfinished a plate after Gainsborough's portrait of ‘Lady Bowater,’ which was completed by James Stephenson. ‘His plates generally,’ writes an art critic, ‘are characterised more by their refinement and delicacy—and in these qualities they can scarcely be surpassed—than by any remarkable vigour of line; his best subject plate is undoubtedly “The Whiskey Still.”’
Graves died of paralysis at 20 Grove Terrace, Highgate Road, London, on 28 Feb. ”

“ At a very early age his talent for drawing attracted the notice of the Scottish sculptors, Alexander and John Ritchie, who urged his friends to cultivate it. He was accordingly articled to Thomas Dobbie of Edinburgh, an excellent draughtsman and naturalist, but less known as an engraver, under whose tuition Croll made good progress in drawing, but not so much in engraving. The death of his master, however, before the completion of his apprenticeship led to his being placed for two years to study line engraving under Robert Charles Bell [q. v.] ”

“ He was born at Blois in 1661, and after having acquired the art of engraving in Paris, came to England about 1680. There is a view of the Old Trinity Hospital at Deptford engraved by him in 1701, but his first work of importance was a copy of Gerard Edelinck's fine engraving of 'Alexander entering the Tent of Darius,' after Le Brun, published in 1707. In the same year he completed a set of seven small plates of the cartoons of Raphael, with a title-page composed of a sectional view of the apartment at Hampton Court in which they were then placed, and a circular portrait of Queen Anne. ”

“ In 1800 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy, and in the same year he published a folio volume with coloured plates, entitled ‘A Description of the different varieties of Oxen common in the British Isles, embellished with engravings; being an accompaniment to a set of models of the improved breeds of Cattle, executed by George Garrard, upon an exact scale from nature, under the patronage of the Board of Agriculture.’ In 1802 he exhibited ‘A Peasant attacked by Wolves in the Snow,’ but after 1804 he appears to have restricted himself almost entirely to sculpture and modelling. ”

“ In 1833 he was commissioned by King Leopold to paint a portrait of the Princess Victoria, on whose accession to the throne he was appointed ‘portrait and historical painter to the queen.’ In 1838 he sent to the Royal Academy ‘The Queen, seated on the throne in the House of Lords,’ painted for the city of London, and now in the council chamber in the Guildhall, and also a portrait of Viscount Melbourne. ”

“ Golding was afterwards introduced to Benjamin West, who employed him to engrave his ‘Death of Nelson.’ He then executed a number of admirable book-plates, the best known of which are those after the designs of Robert Smirke for editions of ‘Don Quixote’ and ‘Gil Blas,’ and he also assisted William Sharp. In 1818 he completed a fine plate of the Princess Charlotte of Wales, after the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence, who is said to have touched the engraver's proofs no less than thirty times. ”

“ His taste for art was probably inherited from his maternal grandfather, an excellent miniature painter, but it was not fostered early in life, for on leaving school he was placed in the Custom House, where his father held an appointment. ”

“ He practised also at one time very successfully as a teacher of art. The only picture which he contributed to a London exhibition was a ‘View of the Port and Fortifications of Callao, and Capture of the Spanish frigate Esmeralda,’ at the Royal Academy in 1836. The characteristics of his art are those of what may be termed the old school of Scottish landscape-painting. ”