JUSTICE
TWO OF THE CARDINAL VIRTUES; FROM THE PAINTINGS BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS FOR THE WINDOW AT NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD; IN THE COLLECTION OF THE EARL OF NORMANTON
Faith is represented by the figure of a girl with a face of exquisite innocence and sweetness, expressive also of deep suffering and infinite resignation. Her plain white pilgrim’s robe is partly covered by a loose brown drapery falling around her in simple heavy folds; with her left hand she holds a tall wooden cross, the upper part of which is strongly outlined against the divine illumination which brightens the clouds above her; her right hand is uplifted towards heaven in an attitude of invocation. Hope is the least successful panel of the series. Clad in dull green draperies with a brown scarf flowing from her shoulders, she stands in a somewhat awkward position, her hands uplifted and her face averted towards the light which pours upon her through the clouds. Charity can, on the contrary, rank with the finest of Sir Joshua’s pictures; his model in this instance was Mrs. Sheridan, the lovely wife of the author of ‘School for Scandal,’ who had also sat to him for the figure of the Virgin in the Nativity. On her breast nestles a half-naked infant whom she lovingly supports with her left hand, whilst with the other she clasps in a close embrace two more children, a young girl and a curly-headed boy, who have run to her for protection; with an expression of rare tenderness and pity she gazes down upon her little charges. This picture is painted with exceptional power; the contrasts of light and shade are rendered with a perfection almost reminiscent of Rembrandt, whilst the composition is both strong and graceful. The two beautiful young women in whom Reynolds has impersonated Temperance and Prudence are clothed in white dresses of eighteenth-century design, bordered in the case of the second with a narrow gold braid. Mrs. Elizabeth Palmer, wife of the artist’s nephew, the Dean of Cashel, was the model for Prudence; she gazes thoughtfully into a mirror which she holds in her right hand; in the left she has an arrow round which an adder is entwined. Temperance is pouring water from a golden jug into a golden cup. In the two last panels, the figures stand full face to the spectator; the features of Justice are shaded by the balance which she raises to the level of her head; her loose robe, held by a girdle at the waist, is rose-coloured, and her right hand rests on the hilt of a naked sword. Fortitude (Lady Dudley and Ward) is the traditional figure of Britannia, a plumed helmet upon her noble head, a small golden breast-plate decorating her white robe, around which a dark red mantle is draped; the head of the watchful lion crouching at her feet is shown in the right-hand corner. ¶ Several other works by Sir Joshua were acquired by Lord Normanton besides the seven Virtues at Lady Thomond’s sale, including the expressive half-length portrait of himself, painted in 1769, in his robes of president of the Royal Academy, his right hand resting on a book. The delightful portrait of Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Joshua’s friend Topham Beauclerk and his beautiful wife Lady Diana, represented as Spenser’s Una with the lion crouching at her side, came from the same source and cost only thirty-seven guineas. Elizabeth Beauclerk married in 1787 the Earl of Pembroke and was the mother of Diana, Lady Normanton, wife of the collector. Sir Joshua painted her about the year 1778 and showed her in a perfectly simple white frock, childishly sitting on her heels upon the ground. Her hair falls loosely over her shoulders and her expression is one of thoughtful innocence. The foliage and landscape behind her are treated with great breadth and power; the more delicate parts of the picture, such as the face and hands, are on the contrary very smoothly painted; the marked difference in texture is explained by the fact that at this period Sir Joshua used a mixture of wax and Venice turpentine as a vehicle for the heads, and wax alone for other portions of his pictures where he wished to produce thicker impastos. The picture described in Lady Thomond’s catalogue as A Girl seated on her heels embracing a favourite Kitten, for which Lord Normanton gave 295 guineas, is one of several of the same delightful subject done by Sir Joshua and usually known as Felina. It was painted in 1787, and although Offy Palmer was by that time a grown-up young woman, it is her features when a child which her uncle has once more used. Witty and graceful, this picture bears witness to Sir Joshua’s supremacy as a limner of children. No one more than he succeeded in reproducing their quaint and charmingly awkward attitudes, and it would be difficult to find even in his works anything more delicious than this little dark-eyed damsel fondling her unhappy pet almost to the point of suffocation. The face is painted with great delicacy and a clearness of complexion unusual in Sir Joshua’s pictures; the background of foliage is unfortunately severely cracked, owing to an excessive use of treacherous bitumen. Miss Falconer (afterwards the Hon. Mrs. Stanhope) as Contemplation was also included in the Marchioness of Thomond’s collection, but was not bought at her sale by Lord Normanton. It was knocked down on that occasion for 100 guineas to a dealer, from whom it passed into the possession of Mr. John Allnutt, of Clapham Common, and it was only many years later that it was transferred into the Somerley collection of which it now forms part. The beautiful lady whom the painter has here represented, in a moonlit landscape, seated on a bank in a pensive attitude, was a well-known figure in the society of her day, where her high spirits and light-hearted gaiety made her a general favourite; the appearance of this portrait, so contrary to her character, excited no little comment at the time. In charm of expression and unaffected grace of pose this portrait is a truly delightful production. An interesting fact concerning it is that it is one of the few portraits by Reynolds painted on a panel; the artist, who, as is well known, was for ever making new experiments in the mediums he employed, selected on this occasion an old Japanese panel, and the reverse of the picture is to this day decorated with a still-life in bold relief, brilliant in colouring and of no mean artistic merit. ¶ In three life-size full-length portraits of young girls which hang in Lord Normanton’s gallery, it is instructive to compare the artist’s method of treatment of a similar subject at different periods of his career. These pictures are those of Lady Betty Hamilton, painted in 1758, of Miss Murray of Kirkcudbright, 1765, and that, some twenty years later in date, known for lack of a better title as The Little Gardener. In the first there is a richness of colour and a wealth of detail not to be found in either of the two others; the influence of Reynolds’s master, Hudson, is still clearly discernible, and the warmth and brilliance of the colouring must be traced to the immediate effects of the artist’s recent travels in Italy, where the gorgeous tones of the Venetians had filled him with a boundless admiration. In the two earlier portraits there is a simple artlessness of pose in striking contrast with the affected and self-conscious attitude of The Little Gardener, whilst the latter is far broader and more spontaneous in technique. ¶ The portrait of Lady Betty Hamilton, afterwards Countess of Derby, is unsurpassed by any work of Sir Joshua at this early period, and it may also be counted among the best of his child portraits. In a low-cut dress of plum-coloured embroidered silk, her wide skirt reaching to the ground, she sits on a bank in a garden; she has a white muslin pinafore bordered with lace, and her hands rest on her lap holding a bunch of vari-coloured flowers. The flesh-tints are somewhat faded, but the dreamy blue eyes and rosebud mouth expressive of happy childhood’s ignorance of evil and suffering, are a delight to look upon. She was a daughter of the Duke of Hamilton, and became the first wife of the twelfth Earl of Derby, who, after divorcing her, married Miss Farren the celebrated actress. In 1777 Reynolds painted another portrait of her as Countess of Derby, a whole-length which was engraved by William Dickinson; this picture has, however, disappeared, probably destroyed by her husband after his divorce. ¶ Little Miss Murray of Kirkcudbright in a plain white dress with a black silk scarf thrown over her head and shoulders and funny blue shoes, stands in a landscape, her hands loosely crossed in front of her. By her side sits a curious woolly white dog with black spots on its face, which has no appearance of life, and shows how inferior in this respect Sir Joshua was to Gainsborough, who stands with Velasquez among the greatest dog painters of the world. The landscape in this picture is of quite unusual excellence, and with the fine breezy sky forms an effective and pleasing background to the figure of the blue-eyed little Scotch girl. ¶ Who was the sitter for the portrait called The Little Gardener, it seems at the present time impossible to discover; it shows a pretty young girl sitting dreamily on a bank at the edge of a wood; she wears a white dress with a crimson sash, and with her right hand she loosely holds a straw bonnet decorated with pink ribbons.
THE LITTLE GARDENER, BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS; IN THE COLLECTION OF THE EARL OF NORMANTON
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PORTRAIT OF GEORGE, THIRD DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH, BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS; IN THE COLLECTION OF THE EARL OF NORMANTON
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There is at Somerley only one male portrait of great importance by Sir Joshua Reynolds. This represents George, third Duke of Marlborough, and is a magnificent three-quarter length portrait. The duke wears a rich coat of brown embroidered silk and a mantle of crimson velvet bordered with white fur thrown over his right shoulder; his left arm rests upon a column, and the upper portion of the body is outlined against a beautiful sky background. The pose is evidently inspired by Van Dyck, and the portrait lacks none of the dignity and elegance of the older master. An almost exactly similar painting is in the possession of the Earl of Pembroke, in which however the duke’s dark dress is replaced by one of white embroidered satin. ¶ Some dozen portraits of the usual half-length format (about 30 in. by 25 in.) are contained in the Normanton collection, and not a few of them are of superlative quality. Among the most pleasing is that of the Misses Horneck, as original as it is graceful in composition; many failures have resulted from the attempt thus to group two life-size heads in so small a space, but Sir Joshua has here admirably succeeded in avoiding stiffness and crowding while preserving perfect pictorial unity. Painted in a light key about the year 1775, this picture is in a wonderful state of preservation, having retained all its freshness of tone and delicacy of modelling. An unfinished sketch of the same subject, slightly larger in size, belongs to Sir Henry Bunbury, a descendant of the elder sister’s husband, the caricaturist, Henry William Bunbury. Mrs. Bunbury (Catharine Horneck), who is seen on the right of the group, was Goldsmith’s ‘Little Comedy,’ whilst her sister Mary, afterwards Mrs. Gwyn, is celebrated by him as ‘The Jessamy Bride.’ The excellent though slightly faded portrait of Miss Anne Liddell was bought by the second Lord Normanton at Christie’s in May, 1867, at the sale of Mr. H. A. J. Munro, of Novar, for 225 guineas. Miss Liddell, who is represented in a black low-cut dress and black cloak trimmed with white fur, holding some flowers in her right hand, was a daughter of Lord Ravensworth; she became Duchess of Grafton, and after divorcing in 1769 married the Earl of Upper Ossory. The pair of heads of the Earl and Countess of Pembroke, painted within the last years of the artist’s life, cost Lord Normanton only 30 guineas in 1827. Lord and Lady Pembroke were the parents of Diana, Lady Normanton, and the countess is the same lady whom Sir Joshua represented some years previously as Una with the lion; she wears her peeress’s robes of crimson and ermine over a white low-necked dress, and the earl is in uniform of red and gold. It is interesting to find side by side with these examples of the end of the painter’s career the picture of A Boy Reading, which is inscribed ‘1747, Ja Reynolds pinxit Nov.’ and which is one of the earliest known works of the artist, when he was only twenty-three years of age. It is said to be a portrait of himself, but this is by no means certain, although the boy’s features bear a certain resemblance to those of Sir Joshua. With hair falling over his shoulders, and arms leaning on a table, he reads from a large book which he holds open with both hands; four more books lie on the table beside him. It is related that on seeing this picture after an interval of many years Sir Joshua remarked that he had made but little progress since he painted it. Although this observation must not be taken too literally, there is no doubt that even at this early period he exhibited uncommon mastery of his art. To an early period also, probably between 1755 and 1760, the portrait of Lady Charlotte Johnstone, daughter of the first Earl of Halifax, and that of Mrs. Russell, daughter of Mr. Flountia Vassall, are shown to belong by the marked attention paid to detail, by a certain tightness of drawing, and also by the faded flesh-tints due to Reynolds’s excessive use at this time of brilliant but unstable carmine. Both are painted in profile, wearing rich dresses of similar pattern, with pearls in their ears and round their throat. Probably a little later in date is the very decorative and somewhat French-looking portrait of Miss Meux (engraved as Miss Muse); she wears a Louis XV costume, the bodice all tucks and frills, and a flat gipsy straw hat trimmed with pink ribbons; she has two rows of pearls round her throat, and the muslin gimp which covers her breast is spotted with little pink rosettes. This is no doubt the picture which Lord Normanton bought for 135 gns. at the Novar sale in 1867, and which was then said to be a portrait of Fanny Reynolds (Sir Joshua’s sister). Another beautiful half-length picture is that of the actress Mrs. Quarrington, as St. Agnes, in a brown dress over which hangs a dark green mantle. She holds a lamb in her arms and a palm branch in her left hand; the pathetic face, surrounded by her loose locks of hair, is upturned in an attitude of prayer. Nor must mention be omitted of a pretty and powerful octagonal study of a little girl’s head with pearls in her hair, the shoulders covered with a light white drapery. ¶ The oval portrait of Mrs. Inchbald is catalogued in more than one volume of recent date as a work by Sir Joshua; it is, however, hard and unconvincing, and the flesh and black dress are too weakly painted not to leave a doubt in one’s mind whether it is not rather the production of one of Reynolds’s pupils, most probably Northcote. It is difficult also to admit the portrait of Admiral Barrington to be entirely from the master’s hand; there is a similar portrait by him in Greenwich Hospital, and it is known that six replicas were made at the time in Sir Joshua’s studio; this is one of them, and, although painted under his supervision, it is probable that his own brush took but little part in the work. Possibly a replica of the famous picture in the Chamberlayne collection, but also more probably the work of a contemporary copyist, is the Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante, a subject rendered familiar by numerous engravings, notably Bartolozzi’s beautiful colour-print. No doubt whatever is possible in the case of The Little Archer, the figure of a boy lying full length in a landscape; here the methods of Sir Joshua are palpably imitated, but the poor drawing and the ugly obtrusiveness of the boy’s white stockings preclude any possibility of the master having in any way contributed to its painting. ¶ A number of acknowledged copies of pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds are also to be found at Somerley, and some are not devoid of merit. Among the best may be mentioned Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse, painted by the Duchess of Buckingham, from the original now at Grosvenor House, of which a genuine replica hangs at Dulwich; also Mrs. Gwyn in Persian costume, a good contemporary reproduction of the picture which belongs to Mr. W. W. Astor. ¶ It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of this group of pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds; the genius of the Royal Academy’s first president is displayed at Somerley in its every phase, and each period of his career is represented by one or more works of the highest artistic value; there, he can be studied as it is impossible to study him elsewhere, at the same time that a comparison can be made with masterpieces of other great English painters which hang in Lord Normanton’s magnificent gallery.