HENRY HOWARD (1769—1847), though not intended originally for an artist, early showed a talent for drawing, became a pupil of Philip Reinagle and the Academy, where, two years later, he gained the silver medal of the Life School, and the gold medal in the Painting School for Caractacus recognising the dead Body of his Son, which Reynolds, then President, warmly praised. From 1791 to 1794 Howard travelled in Italy, and painted The Death of Abel for the travelling studentship of the Academy, which he did not obtain. The promise of his youth was not fulfilled. "His works are graceful and pretty, marked by propriety, and pleasing in composition; his faces and expressions are good, his drawing is correct, but his style cold and feeble." (Redgrave.) Most of Howard's works are small: he selected classic and poetic subjects, such as The Birth of Venus, The Solar System, Pandora, and The Pleiades, and occasionally he painted portraits. He was Secretary and Professor of Painting to the Royal Academy. In the National Gallery is The Flower Girl, a portrait of his own daughter.
JAMES WARD (1769—1859) began life as an engraver, and was thirty-five years old before he devoted himself to painting. He selected animal portraiture, and bulls and horses were his favourite subjects. His most famous, but not his best picture is A Landscape, with Cattle (National Gallery), produced at the suggestion of West to rival Paul Potter's Young Bull, at the Hague, which Ward had never seen. Ward's cattle were all painted from life. Morland was a brother-in-law of Ward, and his influence is obvious in the latter's pictures. The life-size cattle in the before mentioned picture are an Alderney bull, cow, and calf in the centre, another cow, sheep, and goat in the foreground. In the National Gallery, too, is his large landscape of Gordale Scar, Yorkshire.
THOMAS PHILLIPS (1770—1845) was a native of Dudley, and began as a glass painter at Birmingham. Coming to London, he was assisted by West, then President of the Academy, and in 1792 exhibited a View of Windsor Castle, and next year The Death of Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, at the Battle of Chatillon. Phillips was more successful as a portrait painter: his likenesses are faithful, his pictures free from faults, and possess a pleasant tone, though as a colourist he does not occupy a high place. He was Professor of Painting in 1829. In the National Gallery are a portrait of Sir David Wilkie, and a Wood Nymph. The latter looks more like a young lady fresh from a drawing-room.
HENRY THOMSON (1773—1843), the son of a purser in the Navy, was born at Portsea, or, as some say, in London. His works consist of historic and fancy subjects, and portraits. His first picture exhibited at the Academy was Daedalus fastening wings on to his Son Icarus. Thomson was, in 1825, appointed Keeper of the Academy in succession to Fuseli. He exhibited, from 1800 to 1825, seventy-six pictures, chiefly portraits. The Dead Robin is in the National Gallery.
JOHN JACKSON (1778—1831) rose from the simple home of the tailor, his father, to a high place in the world of art. He was freed from the craft of his father by Lord Mulgrave and Sir George Beaumont. The latter encouraged him to visit London, and allowed him £50 a year and a room in his house while he studied in the Academy. The young painter soon obtained success as a portrait painter, and in 1817 was elected a full member of the Academy. In 1819, he visited Rome with Sir F. Chantrey, and painted for him a portrait of Canova. A portrait of Flaxman, painted for Lord Dover, is considered Jackson's masterpiece. Leslie, speaking of the subdued richness of his colouring, said that Lawrence never approached him; and Lawrence himself declared that the portrait of Flaxman was "a great achievement of the English school, one of which Van Dyck might have felt proud to own himself the author." Three portraits by Jackson are in the National Gallery—the Rev. W. H. Carr, Sir John Soane, and Miss Stephens, afterwards the late Countess of Essex. Jackson's own portrait, by himself, is in the National Portrait Gallery.
CHAPTER IX.
LANDSCAPE PAINTERS.
JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER (1775—1851) stands at the head of English landscape painters. It has been said that though others may have equalled or surpassed him in some respects, "none has yet appeared with such versatility of talent." (Dr. Waagen.) The character of Turner is a mixture of contradictory elements. He possessed a marvellous appreciation of the beautiful in nature, yet lived in dirt and squalor, and dressed in a style between that of a sea-captain and a hackney coachman. The man who worked exquisitely was sometimes harsh and uncouth, though capable of a rude hospitality; disliking the society of some of his fellow-men, he yet loved the company of his friends, and though penurious in some money transactions, left a magnificent bequest to his profession. Turner owed nothing to the beauty or poetic surroundings of his birth-place, which was the house of his father, a barber in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. But as Lord Byron is said to have conjured up his loveliest scenes of Greece whilst walking in Albemarle Street, so the associations of Maiden Lane did not prevent Turner from delineating storm-swept landscapes, and innumerable splendours of nature. The barber was justly proud of his child, who very early displayed his genius, and the first drawings of Turner are said to have been exhibited in his father's shaving-room. In time the boy was colouring prints and washing in the backgrounds of architects' drawings. Dr. Monro, the art patron, extended a helping hand to the young genius of Maiden Lane. "Girtin and I," says Turner, "often walked to Bushey and back, to make drawings for good Dr. Monro at half-a-crown a piece, and the money for our supper when we got home." He did not, of course, start from London.