The Victorian Age

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

Among a number of scholarly artists who were influenced by the example of Leighton, one of the most distinguished was his eventual successor in the presidency of the Royal Academy, Sir Edward John Poynter (1836-1919). This artist was born in Paris and was the son of an architect, Ambrose Poynter, who was himself a skilful painter in water colors and had been an intimate friend of R.P.Bonington. E.J.Poynter studied art first in the Academy schools and afterwards in Paris, where one of his most intimate friends and fellow-students was the illustrator George du Maurier, author of Trilby. Poynter first exhibited at the Academy in 1861, and during the earlier part of his life he designed a number of decorative works, among them being mosaics for the Houses of Parliament and for St Paul’s Cathedral. He also, like Leighton, executed illustrations—some of which appeared in Once-a-Week—and painted portraits as well as landscapes; but though his activities were many and various, he was best known by his paintings of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian subjects. His first great popular success, and probably the most moving picture he ever conceived, was painted in 1865; ‘Faithful unto Death,’ now in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, shows a Roman soldier standing unmoved at his post while Pompeii is being destroyed by earthquake and volcanic eruptions, and in this picture the artist not only shows exactitude in archeological detail, but also expresses a nobility of purpose which every human being can understand and admire. In 1867 he painted ‘Israel in Egypt,’ but in later years he seldom approached the high seriousness of these early pictures and though he maintained his popularity with scholarly and agreeable renderings of classical scenes, like ‘A Visit to Æsculapius’ in the Tate Gallery, the subjects of these pictures tended to become lighter and sometimes trivial.

In addition to his work as a painter Sir E J Poynter was overwhelmed by official duties. He was elected A.R.A in 1869 and two years later he was appointed the first Slade Professor at University College, London, a post which he held till 1975, when he became Director of the Royal College of Art at South Kensington, over which he presided for seven years. Meanwhile he had in 1876 been elected R.A and henceforward his influence in the Academy council steadily increased. In 1894 he was appointed Director of the National Gallery, London, and he held this post till 1905, although in 1896 he had been appointed President of the Royal Academy, in succession to Millais. He was knighted in 1896 and made a baronet in 1902.

The wealth of Victorian England not only fostered native art, but naturally drew to these shores a number of foreign artists. Among them was one of the most famous of our modern classical painters, Sir Lawrence Alma -Tadema. This artist was born in Holland in 1836, and after studying art in Antwerp gave his attention to historical painting. He began with early French and Egyptian subjects, but commenced his series of Greek subjects about 1865. In 1869 he sent his painting ‘The Pyrrhic Dance’ to the Academy in London, where it was so well received that the painter decided to settle in England and became naturalized in 1873.

In the hands of Alma-Tadema the classical picture became historical in detail but playful and fanciful in subject. The Victorian anecdote reappeared in a Greek or Roman dress, as in his picture ‘A Silent Greeting’ at the Tate Gallery, in which a Roman warrior places a bunch of roses in the lap of a sleeping lady. ‘Love in Idleness’ is a characteristic example of his art and shows the wonderfully painted marble accessories which he was so fond of introducing into his pictures. Though full himself of antiquarian knowledge, and often called upon by Irving and other theatrical producers to assist in giving verisimilitude to the costumes and scenery for historical plays, Alma-Tadema never wearied the public with his learning, and his pictures were in the nature of agreeable dreams which made no serious demands upon the intellect or high emotions of the spectator. In the course of a long and successful career Alma-Tadema was elected A.R.A in 1876, R.A in 1879, knighted in 1899, and received the Order of Merit in 1905. He died while staying at Wiesbaden in 1912.

While all these artists enjoyed fame and fortune in their lifetime, other artists of equal or superior gifts were less appreciated by their contemporaries, though in several cases their fame is higher today than than of the popular favorites of their day. If we number Albert Moore (1841-93) among the Victorian classical painters, we must be careful to draw a distinction between his art and that of Leighton, Poynter, and Alma-Tadema. For, whereas these three artists emphasized the illustrative element in painting, Albert Moore laid more stress on its decorative element. Moore was not anecdotal, and for this reason his decorative compositions did not make so easy and obvious an appeal to his contemporaries; but he was filled with the Greek spirit of beauty, and his painting ‘Blossoms’ is now one of the most admired of the quasi-classical pictures in the Tate Gallery. Moore was born at York and was the son of an artist, but though he was trained in the Academy schools and began to exhibit at the Academy in the sixties, he was not well received there, and subsequently exhibited chiefly at the Grosvenor Gallery and the Old Water Color Society. He was never elected a member of the Academy, but associated with the Whistler and other independent artists. An admirable draughtsman and designer, Albert Moore was also gifted with a refined and delicate sense of color equalled by few of his contemporaries.

His brother Henry Moore (1831-95), an excellent marine painter, received more official recognition; he was elected A.R.A in 1886, R.A in 1893, and in 1885 his ‘Catspaws of the Land,’ in the Tate Gallery, was bought for the nation.

The Victorian Age (continued)