Birmingham Artists.—The names of at least two Birmingham men will ever hold a prominent place in the annals of English Art,—David Cox and E. Burne Jones; and as, from his residence here and his being a member of the Royal Society of Artists in this town, George Mason may also be fairly considered a local man, Birmingham may be said to have produced three great Masters—each perhaps the highest in his particular branch—in the three most characteristic phases and developments of English Art. Of this the town may be justly proud.
David Cox.—David Cox was born in Birmingham in 1783. His birth-place was near to “The Old Crown,” a noted ancient timbered house in Deritend. He received his early art instruction from Joseph Barber, who conducted an academy close to the site of the present Municipal School of Art. In the mastership of that academy, Joseph Barber was succeeded by his son, J. Vincent Barber. A few doors away, Samuel Lines carried on a drawing school. These were the only means of art instruction in the town until the formation of the Society of Arts, whose work is now continued in the above-mentioned Municipal School. Cox was apprenticed for eighteen months to a miniature painter on lockets and snuff boxes. Owing to the bankruptcy of his master, his engagement was terminated at the end of that period. He afterwards became scene painter at the Birmingham Theatre, then under the management of the elder Macready. John Varley, the famous water-colour painter, and Müller also gave him a few lessons in water-colours and oils, respectively. Thus Cox received what was for his day a fairly good education in art, if in this we include his initiation first into miniature painting and then into scene painting.
In 1813 he was elected a member of the Society of Painters in Water Colours. During his whole career, he seems to have possessed a strong affection for his native place; and, as soon as he was freed from the worries and anxieties of teaching, he came to Greenfield House, Harborne, where he spent the last eighteen years of his life, working at his beloved art, and paying visits, from time to time, to favourite Bettws-y-Coed. He died in 1859.
Cox was contemporary with Constable and Crowe. All three received but slight recognition of their merits while living; but since death their work has been highly praised and much sought after. Yet these men—and Cox particularly—were the first to carry out that direct study from nature which has become the characteristic of the English school, as distinct from the studio compositions and artificialities which flourished from the time of Claude to their own. There is every probability that the love for English scenery—scenery so full of colour and character; so varied and so changeful—has been greatly stimulated amongst the people by the fact that these artists have portrayed its beauties in their paintings, and have thus instilled a perception of, and love for, these beauties in nature.
Of the works of Cox, the Art Gallery contains thirty-three oil paintings (the Nettlefold Bequest), and two or three water-colours. This is perhaps the finest collection of his oil colours extant, and among it may be specially mentioned: “Sheep Shearing” (27) and “Driving Cattle” (28), both full in colour, and simple and direct in execution; while “Changing Pasture” (9) may be cited as one of his best works. In the picture last mentioned, the sunset sky, the purplish blue distance, and the truth of the light in the middle distance and foreground should receive particular attention. “In the Hayfield” (26) is more in his water-colour manner; as is also his grand “Rhyl Sands” (10), in which the effect of the sea breeze is felt all over the picture. “Bettws Church” (11), “Tending Sheep, Bettws-y-Coed” (12), and “Evening” (24) are excellent examples of that quiet and unaffected, yet highly poetic treatment by which he ennobled the simplest materials; while “The Shrimpers” (31) is perhaps the best of his pictures of a sandy shore. “The Missing Lamb” (2) is interesting, in that it shows his method of commencing work. “Asking the Way” (40) is a fine example of his water-colours. In the midst of these beautiful specimens of Cox’s labour is placed “The Late David Cox” (17), by Sir John Watson Gordon—one of the most successful portraits of a great artist by a brother artist. Alike by its success and the evident sympathy between painter and subject, the work recalls the portrait of Hook by Sir J. E. Millais.
Whilst a careful study of Cox’s life and pictures, of his earnest and loving methods of work, and of the glorious harvest therefrom resulting, has had a highly beneficial effect on the world of Art, there is no doubt that from the sudden rise in value of his pictures, and the consequent magnifying of any scrap of paper his hand had touched, as well as from the fact that the work of his latest and broadest style was most accessible, a certain servile imitation of his mannerisms, supplanted the earnest and loving study of nature, which characterised Cox to the end. These mannerisms, which by long study he had earned the right to use, and which in his work were always full of meaning, too often became in the productions of his imitators meaningless and pretentious. Time, however, is curing this evil; and the good alone will remain. As an example of the enormous increase in the monetary value of his pictures, it may be stated that “Lancaster sands,” for which Cox received £10, was sold at the Gillott sale for 3,000 guineas.
George Mason.—The work of George Mason, A.R.A. (born 1818; died 1872), marks a further development of English Art. He, like Frederick Walker, opened up still deeper poetic sympathies for us. During the varied phases of humanity, its toil and its rest, were no longer treated as mere accessories to the landscape, but as a large and essential part of it; not inserted to give a point, or story, or bit of colour to the picture, but intended from the beginning to essentially form a part of its growth as a work of art. And even when there is no human incident poetically treated, as in his “Evening Hymn,” or “Harvest Moon,” there is something in his schemes of colour or other treatment of his landscape which occurs to awaken a human interest never reached even by Cox or Turner. This school has had the strongest and widest influence on the English Art of to-day. It is greatly to be regretted that the Birmingham Art Gallery contains no examples of the works of George Mason.
E. Burne Jones.—The third phase is that represented by Mr. E. Burne Jones and Mr. Watts. This being the most recent development, its force cannot yet be measured; but there is little doubt that it will be the greatest of the three. For six months after the opening of the gallery, one end of the large room aforesaid was filled with a magnificent collection of the works of Mr. Burne Jones; and at a recent exhibition of the Birmingham Society of Artists, was shewn his noblest work, “The Six Days of Creation.”
The sale of the Graham collection has dispersed most of these. Perhaps no previous sale had evoked so much interest,—not even that of the Gillott collection. The enthusiasm then evinced, as well as the large prices obtained, shew that the work of the artist is already receiving just recognition. In addition to “The Six Days of Creation,” there were (e.g.) exhibited at Birmingham “Le Chant d’Amour,” “Venus’s Mirror,” “The Beguiling of Merlin,” “Love in the Ruins,” “Love Disguised as Reason,” but as these are no longer here, it is unnecessary now to describe them. “The Feast of Peleus” has been lent by its fortunate possessor, Mr. Alderman Kenrick, M.P. This picture—at least from an artist’s point of view—is one of the painter’s most beautiful works. At the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, the Goddess of Discord throws down a golden apple, to be claimed by the most beautiful. Juno, Venus, and Minerva rise eagerly to claim it. In the foreground are three fates. The composition, drawing, scheme of colour, and marvellous realization even of the minutest details of form and colour render this work one of exceptionally high character, and, taken as a whole, the most enjoyable of all the artist’s productions.
Attention may also be here directed to the fact that there have been placed in St. Martin’s and St. Philip’s Churches, Birmingham, two lovely stained glass windows, both designed by Mr. Burne Jones. The artist’s practice in stained glass, tempera, and mosaic has, no doubt, greatly influenced his style of composition and colour.