[57] The passage is thus translated by Franklin:—
——-"A dreadful clap
Of thunder shook the ground; the virgins trembled,
And clinging fearful round their father's knees,
Beat their sad breasts and wept."
Sophocles Œdipus Coloneus, Act. 5, Scene 1.
[58] Professor Bonnycastle was born at Aylesbury, in Buckinghamshire, in January 1752, and died at Woolwich, 15th of May, 1821.
[59] While these pages were passing through the press, Europe and the fine arts have been bereaved of the splendid talents of Sir Thomas Lawrence. This gentleman died, after an illness of a few days continuance, on the 7th of January, 1830, in the sixty-first year of his age.
Shortly after Sir Thomas's arrival in London, Fuseli saw "the future promise" in the youth, and was therefore gratified in making remarks upon his portraits for his improvement. This kind notice, from a man whom Sir Thomas held in the highest esteem for talents and various acquirements, made a deep impression on his mind: he sought an intimacy with him, which, upon more mature knowledge of the individual, ripened into the closest friendship. The world is now deprived of these two great artists, and there can be no other than feelings of deep regret for their loss. These, however, with regard to myself, are not unmingled with those of satisfaction, when I consider the many happy hours passed in their society, and that this pleasure was enjoyed for more than twenty years.
At the death of Mr. West, in the year 1820, Fuseli was among the most forward of the Academicians to propose that his friend, Sir Thomas, who was then on the Continent of Europe, should fill the chair. This honour he felt due to him, not only for his unrivalled powers as a portrait painter, but for the elegance of his mind and the urbanity of his manners. Few men had so pleasing an address; and fewer the happy method of making this acceptable to the particular persons with whom he conversed.
Although Sir Thomas Lawrence was not, in the usual acceptation of the word, a scholar, being unskilled in the dead languages; yet he was well versed in English literature, had a fine taste for poetry, and I have heard him recite some lines of his own composition, (full of merit) with great taste, feeling, and judgment.
Sir Thomas is known to the public chiefly as a portrait painter,—the only lucrative branch of the art in England. In this, his style was truly English. In the countenances of his men we see faithful likenesses; sometimes certainly given with some degree of flattery; but he was always the more intent in shewing "the mind's construction in the face." In his portraits of heroes there is always dignity; in those of statesmen, depth of thought, with firmness of character. In the delineation of females, in which he chiefly shone, beauty and delicacy were combined with great taste of attitudes, and which was heightened by the elegance and disposition of their drapery. His backgrounds were always appropriate to the portraits; and when his pencil was employed on large pictures, these were introduced with great taste and power.
The drawings of the human face in black lead pencil, frequently heightened with a little colour, which he sometimes made to present to his friends, exceed all praise, for truth, delicacy, and fine finish.
Had public encouragement gone hand in hand with the powers of the man, we should, no doubt, have possessed some fine epic and dramatic subjects from his pencil. As a proof of this, I may again be permitted to advert to the sublime picture of "Satan calling up his Legions," which was purchased by the late Duke of Norfolk, and came again into the possession of Sir Thomas, when his Grace's effects were sold: here we see an epic subject of the highest class treated with invention, great power of drawing, and brilliancy of colouring. This, with "Homer reciting his Verses to the Greeks," are the only historical pictures from his pencil that I am acquainted with, and perhaps the only ones known. In this advanced stage of my work, I may be excused for giving only a brief sketch of my friend, whose loss every admirer of the fine arts in Europe deeply deplores;—a man whose name will go down to posterity coupled with those of the great masters who have preceded him in the pictorial art; and as the present high appreciation of his merits does not rest upon adventitious circumstances, time will rather add to than detract from his fame.