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was about, and requested him to show her the | of eighteen was fairly established in the city paper. He obeyed, entreating her not to be angry. Mrs. West, after looking some time at the drawing with evident pleasure, said to her daughter, 'I declare he has made a likeness of little Sally,' and kissed him with much fondness and satisfaction. This encouraged him to say, that if it would give her any pleasure, he would make pictures of the flowers which she held in her hand; for the instinct of his genius was now awakened, and he felt that he could imitate the forms of those things which pleased his sight."

There is nothing very remarkable in a boy of seven years old doing the like at the present time, and with example frequently before his eyes; but let it be remembered that the circumstance above related occurred in the midst | of a Pennsylvania forest, no less than a hundred and four years ago, and that in addition to the obstacles natural to such a situation for excluding every form of what are called the fine arts, his parents belonged to the Society of Friends, whose principles would render that exclusion still more complete, if, indeed, such were possible. With nothing in his environment that could be suggestive to the attempt, it must have been a pure, original emanation | of the child's inventive genius, and the fact that the ink lines were traced with such truthfulness and fidelity that the resemblance was recognised, strikes one as being altogether surprising.

The boy's mind from this time forward became intent on the delineation, on flat surfaces, of such objects in nature as pleased his fancy. An interesting narrative of his early efforts, of the attendant difficulties and his ingenuity in overcoming them, will be found in the number before referred to, written by our esteemed editor, Professor Hart. It is accompanied by a representation of the family homestead and also of the celebrated Springfield Meeting-house, as they appeared one hundred years after the birth of Benjamin. A repetition of those details here will therefore be unnecessary. As it became expedient, when he had attained the age of sixteen, to arrive at some determination as to what should be the future occupation of the youth as a means of livelihood, the council was convened which decided on permitting him to follow the natural bent of his inclinations so strikingly manifested, and study painting as a profession. The docility of his character, united to so earnest a devotion to his art, procured him numerous friends, who cheerfully aided him in the cultivation of his mind by wise directions, and afforded him substantial encouragement in his employment. He painted pictures in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, both in portraiture and history, and at the age

of Philadelphia as an artist. Here he remained about two years, fully employed, and assiduously availing himself of every opportunity of improvement by the study of such works as then existed within his reach. He then removed to New York, whither his reputation had preceded him, and was there enabled to double his prices. At this time his charge for a half-length portrait was £10. Having attained the age of twenty-one years, and earned sufficient money to bear his expenses to Italy, as well as enable him to remain a short time there in the acquisition of a more profound knowledge of the principles of his darling pursuit, he departed in a ship from Philadelphia to Leghorn, laden with grain, the Italian harvest having failed. On first leaving he received an addition to his means from one of his late employers, contributed in a way that did infinite credit to the delicacy as well as liberal spirit of the donor; and after his arrival in the region, filled to overflowing with examples for his instruction, he received from a gentleman in Philadelphia a letter of unlimited credit on his banker in Leghorn, thus converting the hurried visit into a protracted stay of four years' duration.

West's course of study was quite different from that ordinarily pursued; he did not often copy the works from which he might be for the time "hiving" his knowledge, but rather perused them, discovering and making his own the principles on which they were painted. It is indeed matter of surprise that he should have acquired such facility of execution as the pictures he painted immediately after his arrival in England evince. After a few days spent in Rome, his friends, to whom he had presented introductory letters, requested him to exhibit his attainments by the production of a drawing; he replied that he had not much practice in drawing, but that he should be pleased to paint a head. This he accordingly did, and the work was much applauded. By the method of study described his progress was extraordinarily rapid; before leaving Italy he painted two original historical pictures, which gained him academical honours, and immediately on his arrival in England he took his stand as the first historical painter in that country.

In Italy the materials of study were of course vast, but the art as then practised was of but little account. Mengs stood at the head of his profession in Rome, but there was another claiming to be his rival, Pompeo Battoni, of whom Washington Allston related the following anecdote, as told to him by West. "Battoni was at that time in full flower,' dividing the empire of Art with Mengs. He

received Mr. West very graciously in his paint- | out fault." At the date of this marriage West ing-room, and after some questions about his was in his twenty-seventh year, and the story country-concerning which he seemed to have of their attachment, with its impediments and no very distinct notion-said, 'And so, young crosses, was sufficiently romantic to furnish man, you have come-how far is it?' Three Mrs. Ellet with the materials for an interesting thousand miles.' 6 Ay, three thousand miles article, entitled "A Passage in the Life of an from the woods of America to become a painter. | Artist," published in the January Number of You are very fortunate in coming to Rome at this time, for now you shall see Battoni paint.' He thereupon proceeded with his work then on hand, a picture of the Madonna ; occasionally exclaiming, as he stept back to see the effect, e viva Battoni.""

In Mengs, West found a generous friend and judicious adviser; indeed he found warm friends everywhere. His personal qualities favoured him, for in addition to prudence, virtue, and industry, he possessed youth and beauty, and fortunate circumstances seem uniformly to have come in his aid always at the right time. Arrived in London, three of his best and most serviceable Philadelphia friends happened to be there before him, ready to introduce him into the most influential circles. Of one of them (Gov. Hamilton) he painted the portrait, and this picture is said to be now in Philadelphia. Thus encouraged, he suffered himself to be persuaded to establish himself in the British metropolis, where his commanding talents soon made an impression that secured him permanent prosperity for the remainder of his long and peaceful life.

While our youthful artist was still in Philadelphia, he formed an attachment to a lady of that city, by whom the feeling was cordially reciprocated. But in this, as in the majority of cases, the course of true love ran anything but smoothly. The proud and aristocratic brother of Miss Shewall scorned the idea, that a member of his family should be degraded by such a union. But the lovers had plighted their troth and remained constant, though parted, and as soon as West was satisfied with his prospects in London, he desired to return to America to see his friends and bring back his bride. But those who watched over his welfare, arranged that his betrothed should come to England in the care of John West, the father of Benjamin. Shewall was however still obdurate, and after other means had failed, the rope-ladder and other adjuncts of romantic adventure, were resorted to by three of West's youthful intimates. The lady, in the darkness of night, was placed on board a Liverpool vessel, and was the next day fairly on her Voyage. The painter was in waiting at Liverpool, and the pair were happily married. And a pair they were, living together for fifty years in one unbroken course of perfect harmony. The lady declared, near the close of her life, that her husband "had been all his days with

this Magazine for 1849. It may be well to mention that Mrs. West's niece was the mother of the celebrated Leigh Hunt.

But this meeting was not the only one of interest. Benjamin was the youngest son; but the oldest, who was forty years of age, and a watchmaker at Reading, England, his father was now to behold for the first time. Soon after John West's marriage, in 1724, he left England, for the purpose of exploring a part of Pennsylvania, before fully making up his mind to settle there, whither many of his family connexions had preceded him, being amongst the first of William Penn's colonists. His wife remained behind, and dying at the time of her son's birth, the child was adopted into the family of its relatives, who were all of the society of Friends; and becoming attached to him, begged to be permitted to retain the child when the father sent for it, to which he at length consented. On Benjamin asking his father how London appeared to him after so long an absence, the old gentleman replied, "The streets and houses look very much as they did, but can thee tell, my son, what has become of all the Englishmen? When I left England, forty years since, the men were generally a portly, comely race, with ample garments and large flowing wigs; rather slow in their movements, and grave and dignified in their deportment:-but now they are docked and cropped, and skipping about in scanty clothes, like so many monkeys." West has introduced portraits of both his father and halfbrother, in his celebrated picture of "Penn's Treaty with the Indians." Of this work an engraving is now in progress for this Magazine; the original is at Stoke, in England, in the possession of the lineal descendants of William Penn. At the request of George the Third, West introduced his father and some other Quakers from Philadelphia to a private audience. On this the Prince of Wales (afterwards George the Fourth) remarked, "Yes, the King has always been fond of Quakers ever sincefinish the sentence, although spoken by one whom the loyal portion of his majesty's subjects love to style "the finest gentleman in England.”

We dare not

West's introduction to the King was through the zealous friendship of the Bishop of York, who was deeply impressed with the young painter's great abilities, as displayed in his various works, but particularly in a picture painted for himself, illustrating a passage in

BENJAMIN WEST.

Tacitus, where Agrippina lands with the ashes of Germanicus. This grand composition is known to the American public by the large print of it. Having failed in his attempt to raise by subscription a sufficient sum of money to free West from the necessity of painting portraits, so that his talents might be employed in a manner calculated to build up in England a school of historical painting, he applied to the young monarch, then free from cares. The acquaintance was a fortunate one for art. The King gave him a commission, which was followed by a continuous succession of others as long as the patron retained his reason. He was admitted on the most intimate footing of friendly familiarity, during the long term of half a century; and it is worthy of remark that he and the king, born in the same year, both died in the year 1820, within two months of each other, at the age of eighty-two.

West was ever ready to encourage the dawn of talent and skill whenever he met with it, and his advice and assistance were ever at the service of the numerous students from his native country, who, towards the latter part of his career, were constantly commended to his attention and care. His unbounded success awakened the envy of some, as a matter of course, but he bore his honours with so much meekness, that malice and jealousy were half disarmed. He was of a quiet, tranquil disposition, unimpassioned, eminently blessed as a peacemaker, and to be of service to a brother artist he would, notwithstanding his accustomed prudence, risk incurring displeasure himself, in order to diminish what he believed had unjustly fallen on another: witness the service he rendered to Robert Strange, the eminent

engraver.

I was one day, some twenty odd years ago, looking over the works in the print-room of the British Museum, and in turning the leaves of a large folio scrap-book, in which the prints were pasted by the corners, I was in the act of passing one by Strange, engraved from a painting by West, when it caught the eye of Smith, the librarian. He instantly arrested my hand by an exclamation that the print I was passing so carelessly was curious and interesting, as he would convince me by an anecdote respecting it; and accordingly he toddled across the room, with his queer gait, to relate it. This was the same Smith who wrote the Life of Nollekins the sculptor, and whose memory was stored to an extraordinary extent with minute details and anecdote, connected with art and artists of his day. The print referred to represented angels conducting to heaven the disembodied spirit of one of the royal children.

"This,' said Smith, is one of but eight impressions of the engraved plate, for no more

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were ever printed. Strange had some years before put an affront on the king, and finding that his prospects in life were darkened by the displeasure of the Court, engraved this plate with the view and in hopes of making it instrumental in producing a reconciliation, and for this purpose the subject was most appropriate. The plate finished, West proceeded to Windsor Castle with a proof, and submitted it to the King. He was delighted with it, and eagerly inquired who engraved it. 'One,' replied West, who has been so unfortunate as to fall beneath your majesty's displeasure, but I am confident that your majesty has not a more loyal and devoted subject than he. He implores your royal clemency, and most respectfully entreats your majesty will be graciously pleased to grant him an audience to present the rest of the proof impressions in person.' 'Strange!' exclaimed the King sharply; 'you mean that man Strange.' West said a few more submissive words in extenuation, and the King replied, 'Well, well, bring him, bring him.' West proceeded to London and returned again, having Strange in company, the latter bearing with him the copper plate of the royal apotheosis, and the remaining proofs. During the interview that ensued the engraver unpacked the plate, and exposing its bright surface and glistening lines to the gaze of the King, drew from his pocket a steel tool used in his art, saying, 'And now, to convince your majesty that I have spent so much time in elaborating this work-not for pecuniary gain by the sale of the prints, but solely in hopes of effecting a reconciliation with your gracious majesty-those being the only impressions, the plate I now destroy.' So saying, he scored the plate across in every direction till it was utterly ruined."

West's benevolent purpose was more than accomplished, for Strange was not only forgiven, but knighted. Our collectors of choice prints know that many of this engraver's plates bear the inscription Sir Robert Strange, sculpsit. But now comes the question: how had the artist offended the prince? We shall see; and a more miserable meanness, or hardhearted piece of villany than that exhibited by George the Third in this transaction, has seldom been exposed.

Ramsey the artist had painted a whole-length portrait of the Prince of Wales (shortly to become king), and also one of the Earl of Bute. Desirous of having both pictures engraved by so eminent an artist as Robert Strange, information was conveyed to him through Chambers the architect (afterwards Sir William Chambers), that the Prince wished them done, and that he should be presented with one hundred guineas, and reap whatever advantage might

accrue from the sale of the prints. Now to appreciate fully the modest nature of this proposition, it must be known that it required four years' labour to execute the plates, that the paintings were poor, and that the engraver, an enthusiast in his profession, and in the advancement of taste in England, would only work from the finest pictures. To escape from such patronage, and at the same time avoid giving offence, he had it properly represented, and not untruly, that his arrangements for visiting Italy were nearly completed, and that he could not, without serious detriment to his family and fortunes, change his plan.* He was soon made to suffer for the supposed slight; the subscription to his prints then in hand received a sudden check. This was comparatively trifling to what followed in the form of active, premeditated persecution, for it is to be expected, that the fawning sycophants of a court would withhold protection and patronage from those on whom the sun of their little elysium refused to shine. In the encouragement which subscriptions of that kind required at that day, the mass of the public were as nothing, and little could be done unless men bearing titles, whom Dryden and other geniuses a short time before had flattered in their dedications as greater than Mæcenas, led off in the matter. So that all connoisseurdom knew that Strange was under a cloud, and a man marked for neglect.

Thus matters stood when he departed for Italy. There followed in his track a man named Dalton, librarian to the King, who at an interview with him in Bologna, learned from the unsuspecting artist the pictures he meant to copy, and forthwith employed an eminent Italian engraver, Bartolozzi, secretly to make drawings of those very works, and to engrave them for the King.

It may be perhaps doubted by some that a man in such a station would descend to so nefarious a course in revenge for so slight an offence, but to establish the fact beyond question, here is one of the certificates afterwards procured by Strange from the persons without whose permission the copies could not be made. Translation: “We Vincentius Malvetius, Cardinal Presbyter of the S. R. C., Archbishop of Bologna, and Prince of the S. R. Empire,

"To all and every one who shall see these presents, certify and attest; that M. Dalton, bookseller to the King of England, asked a per

These pictures were afterwards engraved by Ryland, who was engaged nearly four years in their execution. (He subsequently got executed himself for the crime of forgery.) He was paid one hundred guineas for the drawings, and fifty pounds every three months. When the plates were completed, the payments were continued in the form of pension.

mission from us, in the year 1763, to allow M. | Bartolozzi to make a drawing for the said King of England, of the picture representing the circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ, painted by the celebrated John Francis Barbieri, knight, commonly called Guercino da Cento; and we having granted M. Dalton's request, the permission was given accordingly. In testimony whereof we give these our letters, sealed with our usual seal, and signed by us at our Archbishop's Palace in Bologna, this 20th day of December, 1773.

|

(Signed) Vinc. Card. Malvetius Archiepiscopus.

Paulus Canonicus Comes a Secretis."

It is needless to point out the obvious mistake of the Italian in calling Dalton bookseller instead of librarian. This man was treasurer to the Society of Artists, and a leading man in the direction: in that capacity, also, he was able to gratify still further the malevolence of his royal master. The annual exhibition of pictures was to open shortly after the return of Strange to his native country, and almost on the eve of his return a by-law was inserted among others, which by the confession of one of the directors, was framed expressly to exclude his works from the exhibition. It was to prohibit coloured drawings. This did not prevent them from exhibiting similar drawings by Bartolozzi, the following year after they had rejected those of Strange. So, in the formation not long after of the Royal Academy, under the special patronage of the King, the laws were made to exclude engravers from membership, evidently for the sole purpose of excluding Strange; for it did not prevent them from admitting Bartolozzi, who had been used as the instrument of the King's vengeance. By what process they got him in does not appear, but it is to be presumed that he who was so much puzzled to know how an apple could possibly get inside a dumpling, still experienced no very great difficulty in devising the means. lozzi was unquestionably an admirable engraver; the print of the Circumcision after Guecino is alone sufficient to establish that. Had he not been, the court party would have failed in its object in bringing him to England, which object was obviously to supersede Robert Strange, who to that time was eminently superior in his art to all others there. The Italian, warmed in the sunshine of the royal favour, ran a prosperous and triumphant career, and his brother, a talented musician, was not long in joining him. The latter was the father of the celebrated Madame Vestris, now Mrs. Matthews, of theatrical notoriety.

(To be continued.)

Barto

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