"Two young ladies, richly dressed, whom he introduced as women of very great distinction, and famous, from Town."
"The Vicar of Wakefield."
FROM "DALZIEL'S GOLDSMITH."
By G. J. Pinwell, R.W.S.
By permission of Messrs. Ward & Lock.
One of the last pictures we purchased from Pinwell was "The Old Clock," it being a repeat of one of the rustic drawings he made for us.
At the time of his death we had acquired a great number of his finished works, both large and small. At the sale of the remainder of his works at Christie's we purchased about one third of the collection. Amongst them were two for which he had been commissioned by us—one, a repeat of "The Elixir of Love," smaller than the original, and, although unfinished, much the finer work of the two; the other a water colour repeat of an oil painting of "Vanity Fair," which he had in progress.
Two or three other unfinished efforts in oil, "The Earl of Quarter Deck," "Sally in Our Alley," and "The New Slipper," all go to show that he was a perfect master of the material; and had he lived to complete any of these, his election into the Academy would have been assured.
Pinwell had not the advantage of high culture early in life, but he was a true gentleman; though sometimes rough and brusque in manner, which showed most strongly when he came across or heard of any act of petty meanness, in all the ordinary ways of life he was good-natured, genial and sociable, brimful of tenderness, of a vivid imagination, and generous to a degree. His life was a truly domestic one, spending most of his time at home with a charming wife and a few chosen friends, amongst whom, perhaps, E. G. Dalziel and A. B. Houghton were the closest and most constant. He was the soul of good fellowship, perfectly human, and sympathetic in the highest degree. Sir John Millais, speaking of him, summed him up in his own emphatic way, saying, "no man could produce work like his who was not a man of exquisite taste and refined poetic feeling."