CHARLES ROBERT LESLIE (1794—1859) was born in London, probably in Clerkenwell, of American parents. His father was a clockmaker from Philadelphia, who returned with his family to America when the future painter was five years old. The boy was apprenticed to a bookseller, but his true vocation was decided by a portrait which he made of Cooke, the English tragedian, who was performing in Philadelphia. This work attracted so much notice among Leslie's friends that a subscription was raised to send him to England, the bookseller, his master, liberally contributing. In 1811, Leslie became a student of the Royal Academy, and received instruction from his countrymen Washington Allston and Benjamin West. Leslie, however, considered teaching of little value. He said that, if materials were provided, a man was his own best teacher, and he speaks of "Fuseli's wise neglect" of the Academy students. Influenced, probably, by the example of Allston and West, Leslie began by aiming at classic art. He mentions that he was reading "Telemachus," with a view to a subject, and among his early works was Saul and the Witch of Endor. Even when he commenced to draw subjects from Shakespeare, he turned first to the historic plays, and painted The Death of Rutland and The Murder Scene from "Macbeth." Unlike Wilkie and Mulready, Leslie did not strive to create subjects for his pictures. He preferred to ramble through literature, and to select a scene or episode for his canvas. Wilkie invented scenes illustrating the festivities of the lower classes, Mulready chose similar incidents; it was left to Leslie to adopt "genteel comedy." Like his countryman and adviser, Washington Irving, he had visited, doubtless, many scenes of quiet English country life, and one of these is reproduced in his well-known picture of Sir Roger de Coverley going to Church, which was exhibited in 1819. He had previously shown his power in humorous subjects by painting Ann Page and Slender. Leslie had discovered his true vocation, and continued to work in the department of the higher genre with unabated success. The patronage of Lord Egremont, for whom he painted, in 1823, Sancho Panza in the Apartment of the Duchess, was the means of procuring him many commissions. The picture in the National Gallery, of which we give an illustration, is a replica with slight alterations, executed many years later. He married in 1825, and became a full member of the Academy a year later. In 1831 he exhibited The Dinner at Page's House, from "The Merry Wives of Windsor"—one of his finest works. No painter has made us so well acquainted with the delightful old reprobate, Falstaff, with Bardolph, and the merry company who drank sack at the Boar's Head in Eastcheap. There is a repetition of The Dinner at Page's House in the Sheepshanks Collection, slightly varied from the first, and bearing traces of Constable's influence. In 1833, Leslie was appointed teacher of drawing at the American Academy at West Point, and with his family he removed thither. It was a mistake, and the painter returned to England within a year. He illustrated Shakespeare, Cervantes, Goldsmith, and Sterne, the latter furnishing him with the subject of Uncle Toby and the Widow Wadman. In 1838, Leslie, by request of the Queen, painted Her Majesty's Coronation—which is very unlike the usual pictures of a state ceremonial. In 1841 he was commissioned to paint The Christening of the Princess Royal. The domestic life of Leslie was peaceful and prosperous, till the death of a daughter gave a shock from which he never recovered. He died May 5, 1859. Mr. Redgrave says of his art, "Leslie entered into the true spirit of the writer he illustrated. His characters appear the very individuals who have filled our mind. Beauty, elegance, and refinement, varied, and full of character, or sparkling with sweet humour, were charmingly depicted by his pencil; while the broader characters of another class, from his fine appreciation of humour, are no less truthfully rendered, and that with an entire absence of any approach to vulgarity. The treatment of his subject is so simple that we lose the sense of a picture, and feel that we are looking upon a scene as it must have happened. He drew correctly and with an innate sense of grace. His colouring is pleasing, his costume simple and appropriate."
GILBERT STUART NEWTON (1794—1835), connected with Leslie by friendship and similarity of taste, was a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1817, when travelling in Europe, Newton met with Leslie at Paris, and returned with him to London. He was a student of the Academy, and soon attracted attention by The Forsaken, Lovers' Quarrels, and The Importunate Author, which were exhibited at the British Institution. Newton began to exhibit at the Academy in 1823, and delighted the world with Don Quixote in his Study, and Captain Macheath upbraided by Polly and Lucy. In 1828 he surpassed these works with The Vicar of Wakefield reconciling his Wife to Olivia, and was elected an A.R.A. Yorick and the Grisette, Cordelia and the Physician, Portia and Bassanio, and similar works followed. In 1832 Newton became a full member of the Academy, and visiting America, married, and returned with his wife to England. The brief remaining period of his life was clouded with a great sorrow; his mind gave way, and having exhibited his last picture, Abelard in his Study, he became altogether insane.
AUGUSTUS LEOPOLD EGG (1816—1863) was born in Piccadilly, and on becoming a painter chose similar subjects to those of Leslie and Newton. He had not the humour of Leslie; indeed, most of Egg's subjects are melancholy. His first works were Italian views, and illustrations of Scott's novels, which attracted little notice. The Victim promised better. Egg showed pictures in the Suffolk Street Gallery, and, in 1838, The Spanish Girl appeared at the Royal Academy. Failing health compelled him to winter abroad, and on the 23rd of March, 1863, he died at Algiers, and was buried on a lonely hill. Three years before his death Egg had become a full member of the Academy. He is described as having a greater sense of colour than Leslie, but inferior to Newton in this respect. In execution he far surpassed the flimsy mannerism of the latter. His females have not the sweet beauty and gentleness of Leslie's. In the National Gallery is A Scene from "Le Diable Boiteux," in which the dexterity of Egg's execution is visible. He partially concurred with the pre-Raphaelites in his later years, and their influence may be traced in Pepys' Introduction to Nell Gwynne, and in a scene from Thackeray's "Esmond." Other noteworthy pictures are The Life and Death of Buckingham; Peter the Great sees Catherine, his future Empress, for the First Time; The Night before Naseby; and Catherine and Petruchio.
EDWIN HENRY LANDSEER (1802—1873) was eminent among English animal painters. No artist has done more to teach us how to love animals and to enforce the truth that—
"He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small."
