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Read Ebook: The Collected Works of William Hazlitt Vol. 09 (of 12) by Hazlitt William Glover Arnold Editor Waller A R Alfred Rayney Editor
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THE PRINCIPAL PICTURE-GALLERIES IN ENGLAND 1
NOTES OF A JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY 83
MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS ON THE FINE ARTS 305
NOTES 439
SKETCHES OF THE PRINCIPAL PICTURE-GALLERIES IN ENGLAND WITH A CRITICISM ON 'MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE'
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Four pages of Taylor & Hessey's announcements are bound up with the volume.
The present text is that of the 1824 volume.
ADVERTISEMENT
PAGE
Mr. Angerstein's Collection 7
Dulwich Gallery 17
The Marquis of Stafford's Gallery 27
Pictures at Windsor Castle 36
Pictures at Hampton Court 42
Lord Grosvenor's Collection 49
Pictures at Wilton and Stourhead 55
Pictures at Burleigh House 62
Pictures at Oxford and Blenheim 69
Criticism on Marriage a-la-Mode 75
PICTURE-GALLERIES IN ENGLAND
MR. ANGERSTEIN'S COLLECTION
'Mask or midnight serenade, Which the starved lover to his mistress sings, Best quitted with disdain.'
There is one Rembrandt, and one N. Poussin. The Rembrandt is prodigious in colouring, in light and shade, in pencilling, in solemn effect; but that is nearly all--
'Of outward show Elaborate, of inward less exact.'
A CATALOGUE OF THE PICTURES IN THE ANGERSTEIN GALLERY
THE DULWICH GALLERY
It was on the 5th of November that we went to see this Gallery. The morning was mild, calm, pleasant: it was a day to ruminate on the object we had in view. It was the time of year
'When yellow leaves, or few or none, do hang Upon the branches;'
The pictures are 356 in number, and are hung on the walls of a large gallery, built for the purpose, and divided into five compartments. They certainly looked better in their old places, at the house of Mr. Desenfans , where they were distributed into a number of small rooms, and seen separately and close to the eye. They are mostly cabinet-pictures; and not only does the height, at which many of them are necessarily hung to cover a large space, lessen the effect, but the number distracts and deadens the attention. Besides, the skylights are so contrived as to 'shed a dim,' though not a 'religious light' upon them. At our entrance, we were first struck by our old friends the Cuyps; and just beyond, caught a glimpse of that fine female head by Carlo Maratti, giving us a welcome with cordial glances. May we not exclaim--
'Entire affection scorneth nicer hands.'
If a picture is admirable in its kind, we do not give ourselves much trouble about the subject. Could we paint as well as Hobbima, we should not envy Rembrandt: nay, even as it is, while we can relish both, we envy neither!
THE MARQUIS OF STAFFORD'S GALLERY
And lo! over the clear lone brow of Tuderley and Norman Court, knit into the web and fibres of our heart, the sighing grove waves in the autumnal air, deserted by Love, by Hope, but forever haunted by Memory! And there that fine passage stands in Antony and Cleopatra as we read it long ago with exalting eyes in Paris, after puzzling over a tragedy of Racine's, and cried aloud: 'Our Shakspeare was also a poet!' These feelings are dear to us at the time; and they come back unimpaired, heightened, mellowed, whenever we choose to go back to them. We turn over the leaf and 'volume of the brain,' and there see them face to face.--Marina in Pericles complains that
'Life is as a storm hurrying her from her friends!'
'And o'er-informed the tenement of clay.'
On the whole, the Stafford Gallery is probably the most magnificent Collection this country can boast. The specimens of the different schools are as numerous as they are select; and they are equally calculated to delight the student by the degree, or to inform the uninitiated by the variety of excellence. Yet even this Collection is not complete. It is deficient in Rembrandts, Vandykes, and Rubenses; except one splendid allegory and fruit-piece by the last.
THE PICTURES AT WINDSOR CASTLE
The palaces of Windsor and Hampton-court contain pictures worthy of the feelings we attach to the names of those places. The first boasts a number of individual pictures of great excellence and interest, and the last the Cartoons.
The rooms are chill and comfortless at this time of the year, and gilded ceilings look down on smoky fire-places. The view from the windows, too, which is so rich and glowing in the summer-time, is desolate and deformed with the rains overflowing the marshy grounds. As to physical comfort, one seems to have no more of it in these tapestried halls and on marble floors, than the poor bird driven before the pelting storm, or the ploughboy seeking shelter from the drizzling sky, in his sheep-skin jacket and clouted shoes, beneath the dripping, leafless spray. The palace does not always defend us against the winter's cold. The apartments are also filled with too many rubbishly pictures of kings and queens--there are too many of Verrio's paintings, and a whole roomful of West's; but there are ten or twenty pictures which the eye, having once seen, never loses sight of, and that make Windsor one of the retreats and treasuries of art in this country. These, however, are chiefly pictures which have a personal and individual interest attached to them, as we have already hinted: there are very few historical compositions of any value, and the subjects of the others are so desultory that the young person who shows them, and goes through the names of the painters and portraits very correctly, said she very nearly went out of her mind in the three weeks she was 'studying her part.' It is a matter of nomenclature: we hope we shall make as few blunders in our report as she did.
In the first room the stranger is shown into, there are two large landscapes by Zuccarelli. They are clever, well-painted pictures; but they are worth nothing. The fault of this artist is, that there is nothing absolutely good or bad in his pictures. They are mere handicraft. The whole is done with a certain mechanical ease and indifference; but it is evident no part of the picture gave him any pleasure, and it is impossible it should give the spectator any. His only ambition was to execute his task so as to save his credit; and your first impulse is, to turn away from the picture, and save your time.
In the same room with the portrait of Lady Digby, there is one of Killigrew and Carew, by the same masterly hand. There is spirit and character in the profile of Carew, while the head of Killigrew is surprising from its composure and sedateness of aspect. He was one of the grave wits of the day, who made nonsense a profound study, and turned trifles into philosophy, and philosophy into a jest. The pale, sallow complexion of this head is throughout in wonderful keeping. The beard and face seem nearly of the same colour. We often see this clear uniform colour of the skin in Titian's portraits. But then the dark eyes, beard, and eye-brows, give relief and distinctness. The fair hair and complexions, that Vandyke usually painted, with the almost total absence of shade from his pictures, made the task more difficult; and, indeed, the prominence and effect he produces in this respect, without any of the usual means, are almost miraculous.
We have lost our reckoning as to the order of the pictures and rooms in which they are placed, and must proceed promiscuously through the remainder of our Catalogue.
THE PICTURES AT HAMPTON COURT
'Fine by degrees, and beautifully less.'
'Like to those hanging locks Of young Apollo.'
It would be in vain to enumerate the particular figures, or to explain the story of works so well known: what we have aimed at has been to shew the spirit that breathes through them, and we shall count ourselves fortunate, if we have not sullied them with our praise. We do not care about some works: but these were sacred to our imaginations, and we should be sorry indeed to have profaned them by description or criticism. We have hurried through our unavoidable task with fear, and look back to it with doubt.
LORD GROSVENOR'S COLLECTION OF PICTURES
'From Pembroke's princely dome, where mimic art Decks with a magic hand the dazzling bowers, Its living hues where the warm pencil pours, And breathing forms from the rude marble start, How to life's humbler scenes can I depart? My breast all glowing from those gorgeous tow'rs, In my low cell how cheat the sullen hours? Vain the complaint! For Fancy can impart Whate'er adorns the stately-storied hall: She, mid the dungeon's solitary gloom, Can dress the Graces in their Attic pall: Bid the green landscape's vernal beauty bloom; And in bright trophies clothe the twilight wall.'
Having repeated these lines to ourselves, we sit quietly down in our chairs to con over our task, abstract the idea of exclusive property, and think only of those images of beauty and of grandeur, which we can carry away with us in our minds, and have every where before us. Let us take some of these, and describe them how we can.
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