JAMES HOLLAND (1800—1870) began as a flower painter and teacher of that branch of art. He found a wider sphere, and is known as a painter of landscapes and sea subjects. In his works high colouring is remarkable. His Nymwegen, in Holland, is at South Kensington, where there is also a series of sixteen of his drawings made in Portugal.
SAMUEL PALMER (1805—1881) first exhibited, at the British Institution, in 1819. In 1843 he was elected an Associate of the Water-Colour Society, and became a full member in 1855; and it was at the exhibitions of that society that his works were most often seen.
His paintings are chiefly pastoral scenes, treated in an ideal manner, and display imaginative and poetic genius of a high order. He drew inspirations for his paintings from the writings of Milton and Virgil, with which he was very familiar. He was influenced in his art by the work of William Blake, and to some extent by that of his father-in-law, John Linnell. Samuel Palmer executed a few highly-prized etchings.
EDWARD HENRY WEHNERT (1813—1868), FRANCIS WILLIAM TOPHAM (1808—1877), AARON EDWIN PENLEY (1806—1870), EDWARD DUNCAN (1803—1882), George Shalders (1826—1873), GEORGE HAYDOCK DODGSON (1811—1880), were all members of one or other of the Water-Colour Societies, and attained fame in their various walks of art.
CHAPTER VIII.
ENGLISH ART IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.—SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.
IN tracing the progress of British painting, we have seen that early in the eighteenth century the English public thought most of foreign artists. There was no belief in the power of Englishmen to create original works, and therefore no encouragement was given against the "slavery of the black masters." No one dared to hang a modern English painting which aimed at being original. If a portrait was desired the artist considered it necessary to imitate Kneller. If a landscape were needed, it was thought right to seek it in Italy. If a painter desired to prosper, he was forced to be more of a house-decorator than an artist. We have seen also how this spell was broken, first by Hogarth, who had the courage to abide by his originality, although but one purchaser appeared at a sale of his pictures; next by Reynolds, who painted portraits like living persons, and not mere dolls. We have seen Wilson and Gainsborough create a school of English landscape-painting, and show the hitherto neglected beauties of our own land. We have marked historic painters bravely struggling against neglect, like Barry uncared for, believing in his art; and like Copley, who treated history with freshness and truth. To West we owe an attempt to depict scenes from Scripture, and a bold stand against the ridiculous fashion which represented any warrior, even a Red Indian, attired as a soldier of ancient Rome. And we must not forget the poetic fancies of Romney, the dramatic force of Opie, the grace of Stothard, the great inspiration of Blake, and the wild nightmare illustrations of Fuseli. We have seen art too long wedded to literature, and yet making great advances under the treatment of those who turned their attention to book illustration and miniature-painting, rising to a high pitch of popularity. We have observed how the Royal Academy improved the social position of English painters, who had previously been regarded as representing a better kind of house-decorators, and how the establishment of the Water-Colour Societies promoted a branch of art which, starting from the topographer's sketch, has attained high excellence and beauty.