569 



EOANE, SIR JOHN. 



SOANE, Sill JOHN. 



70 



in 1579, was & pupil of Henry van Balen, and for a time followed the 

 style of his preceptor, confining himself to the representation of fruit, 

 flowers, and other objects of etill life. He soon attempted the more 

 difficult task of painting animals, in which, for freedom, truth, and 

 energy, he became conspicuous, and for these qualities remains to 

 this day without a rival, so far as relates to the representation of 

 animals in violent action. D'Argeuville says (and he is followed by 

 some later writers) that Snyders went to Italy for professional im- 

 provement, and that at Rome he became an ardent admirer of the style 

 of Benedetto Castiglione, from whose pictures he studied a considerable 

 time. But as Castiglione was not born till 1616 this is of course im- 

 possible ; though it by no means follows because he did not study 

 under Castiglione that Snyders did not leave the Netherlands. 

 During part of his career he lived at Brussels, having been invited 

 there by the Archduke Albert, governor of the Low Countries, for 

 whom he painted some of his finest works, particularly a stag-hunt, 

 which was sent by the archduke to Philip III. of Spain, who was so 

 charmed with the present, that he gave the artist commissions for 

 several large pictures of huntings and other similar compositions, and 

 which, down to a recent date, were in the old palace of Buen Retiro. 

 Rubens, although himself eminent as an animal painter, held the 

 abilities of Snyders in such admiration that he frequently intrusted 

 that portion of his pictures, as well as the fruit, and other similar 

 accessories', to the masterly pencil of his brother artist, and it would 

 be difficult to point out any two masters who have worked in conjunc- 

 tion whose performances are in more perfect harmony than those of 

 these eminent men. Jordaens too availed himself of the talents of 

 Suyders in a similar manner, and in a variety of instances both 

 Rubens and Jordaens conjointly executed the human figures in com- 

 positions of Snyders, and there are known to be several pictures in 

 existence the joint production of these three great but friendly rivals. 

 The works of Snyders are in many of the best collections in England. 

 One in the possession of the Marquis of Westminster, in Grosvenor 

 House, London, representing a Bear Hunt, consists of a group of two 

 bears and eleven dogs. Unfortunately the National Gallery does not 

 possess an example of this great painter's pencil. In the LouVre 

 there are several pictures by Snyders, one of them containing the two 

 lions, afterwards introduced by Rubens into his picture of the Marriage 

 of Henry IV. Although the works of Snyders consist principally of 

 boar and bear-hunts, and other compositions of animals, views of 

 interiors and subjects of still-life are by no means uncommon, though 

 it is but reasonable to suppose that the chief number of these were 

 executed soon after he left the studio of Von Balen. Those however 

 in which the human figures are painted by Rubens or Jordaens are 

 of course of a later date. There is an admirable portrait of Snyders 

 by Vandyke, which was in the Orleans collection, and is engraved in 

 the well-known series of heads after pictures by that master. There 

 are, according to Mr. Bryan, a set of sixteen etchings of various 

 animals by Snyders, executed in a spirited and masterly manner. 

 That there are a few etchings by him we know, but that they consist 

 of so great a number as sixteen is very doubtful, for Bartsch in his 

 catalogue does not mention even one as belonging to the extensive 

 collection at Vienna, nor is there one by his hand among the prints 

 formerly belonging to Mr. Sheepshanks, and now deposited in the 

 British Museum, a collection confessedly rich in works, both with the 

 graver and the point, by masters in the Flemish and Dutch schools. 

 Although there are very few etchings by this eminent painter, 

 there are many after his works. He died at Antwerp, in the year 

 1657. 



SOANE, SIR JOHN, was a remarkable instance of a career com- 

 menced in poverty and obscurity, and terminating in opulence and 

 celebrity. Of his origin little is known, except that his father was a 

 bricklajer or petty builder, and he himself born at Reading, Sep- 

 tember 10th, 1753. At an early age he was taken into the office of 

 Dance, the architect (in whose family his sister was also a servant), 

 first merely as errand-boy or attendant, but afterwards he was placed 

 on the footing of a pupil. He subsequently entered that of Holland, 

 another architect of high standing, where he remained up to the time 

 of his being sent to Italy for three years as travelling student of the 

 Royal Academy, at the recommendation of Sir W. Chambers, in con- 

 sequence of the talent displayed by him in a design for a triumphal 

 bridge, which obtained the gold medal. It was perhaps a fortunrte 

 circumstance for him that an octavo volume of designs for temples, 

 baths, &c., previously prepared by him, was not published till 1778, 

 the year after he quitted England, since, so far from displaying any 

 talent, it indicates the most wretched taste. No wonder, then, that at 

 a later period the author should have bought up every copy he could 

 meet with, more especially as his name is there printed SOAN, which 

 name itself, we have been assured upon excellent authority, was an 

 improvement upon the original one of Swan. These designs exhibit 

 the germs of many of his after peculiarities of those whims and 

 freaks, together with that littleness of manner, from which he could 

 never totally divest himself even in his best works. 



During his stay in Italy (1777-1780) he made good use of his time, 

 studying ancient buildings, particularly those arrangements of plan 

 and picturesque combinations which occur in Roman Thermse, or 

 imperial baths. He also made original designs, among which were 

 those for a British Senate House and Royal Palace. While in Italy he 



became acquainted with Mr. Thomas Pitt, afterwards Lord Camelford, 

 to whose influence he is said to have been mainly indebted for his 

 appointment as architect of the Bank of England, on the death of 

 Sir Robert Taylor. Very soon after his return to England, he executed 

 several private residences and country-seats in the counties of Norfolk, 

 Suffolk, &c., the plans and elevations of which he published in a folio 

 volume, 1788 ; but except that there are some good points in the 

 former, and that they manifest great attention to convenience, they 

 display very little invention or taste. On obtaining the lucrative 

 appointment to the Bank, he married Miss Smith, the niece of Mr. 

 George Wyatt, a wealthy builder in the city, whose death soon put 

 him into possession of a very considerable fortune in right of his 

 wife. Other advantageous appointments followed : that of clerk of 

 the works to St. James's Palace 1791 ; of architect to the Woods and 

 Forests 1795 ; and of surveyor to Chelsea Hospital 1807; besides that 

 of professor of architecture at the Royal Academy in 1806. Numerous 

 commissions for both public and piivate buildings, in addition to his 

 official engagements, kept him in constant occupation for many years ; 

 and some of them furnished him with more favourable opportunities 

 than were afforded to almost any other architect of that day. Yet 

 notwithstanding his undtniable attachment to his profession, and bis 

 industrious application to it, the majority of the buildings that he 

 executed are little better than so many experimental attempts at 

 originality, with considerable merits in parts, but more or less failures 

 upon the whole. With all his apparent fertility of invention, they 

 exhibit sameness of ideas, and those by no means of the happiest 

 kind ; while, with a good deal of study in some respects, they betray 

 great neglect of if. in others. Never was architect more unequal in 

 his taste, not only at different times, but in the eaine building, for not 

 a single building among all that he executed or designed is consistently 

 finished up throughout. On the contrary, striking beauties and strik- 

 ing defects are so oddly mixed up in several of them, that it is hardly 

 possible to say which predominate. Even in mere designs, where he 

 was at liberty to exercise his fancy without restraint, there invariably 

 occurs something most offensively mean or extravagantly uncouth and 

 absurd. Proofs of this assertion are furnished by the folio of ' Public 

 and Private Buildings,' published by him in 1828, and which was 

 intended to be in some measure a record of his long professional 

 career, although the plates are wretchedly executed ; and nearly the 

 same may be said ot those in the ' Description ' of his own house and 

 museum, a quarto volume of some bulk, printed by him in 1832 for 

 private distribution and presents. In both instances he was most 

 niggardly towards himself, yet in the latter not altogether free at the 

 same time from vanity. The same may be said with regard to his 

 house itself, the exterior of which is by no means such a specimen of 

 taste as an architect would be ambitious of bequeathing to posterity, 

 though, taken altogether, the building and its contents form a monu- 

 ment sufficiently expressive of the character of the man a strange 

 jumble of insignificance and ostentation, of parsimony and extra- 

 vagance, of ingenious contrivance in some parts, and of the most 

 miserable conceits in others. Such as it is, however, it was for years 

 his favourite amusement, even from the time he commenced it in 1812 ; 

 and as he seems to have grudged no cost in making repeated altera- 

 tions, it is singular, more especially considering the purpose to which 

 he ultimately destined it, that he should not have rebuilt the front, 

 and that of the house on each side of it (also his own property), so as 

 to have produced a uniform fagade of tolerably imposing aspect, even 

 had he not added those houses to his own residence and museum. 



In 1833 he obtained an act of parliament vesting his museum, 

 library, &c. in trustees, for the use of the public after his death. 

 Availing himself of the power given by the act of parliament to make 

 such regulations as he afterwards pleased, he thought proper to limit 

 the time of the ' Soanean Museum' being opened to the public to two 

 days in each week for three months in the year ; when it can be visited 

 only by tickets, and those are given in a very limited number for each 

 day. Whatever may have been the real cause, it is notorious that a most 

 violent rupture had existed for years between Sir John and his only 

 surviving son ; nor could any reconciliation between them be effected 

 a circumstance which throws some light upon much that would 

 otherwise be inexplicable in Sir John's charactei-, including, among 

 other points of it, his refusal of a baronetcy, and his determination 

 to accept only simple knighthood (1831). His alienation from his son 

 induced many to look forward to considerable legacies from him ; but 

 if he ever encouraged any such expectations, he certainly did not 

 realise them. Advanced as he was in years, he had not fallen into 

 dotage : both his faculties and health remained unimpaired to the last, 

 when, with scarcely a day's previous indisposition, he died at his house 

 in Lincoln's Inn Fields, January 20th, 1837. 



Eminently successful as he was throughout life, Sir J. Soane was 

 quite as much to be pitied as to be envied, and he is a striking lesson 

 to the world that prosperity may be bitter to the man, and opportunity 

 sometimes worse than useless to the artist. As an architect, he did 

 not, with the exception of the Bank and there only in bits accom- 

 plish anything of sterling merit. He had great ingenuity and con- 

 trivance, and was often singularly happy in those picturesque and 

 perspective effects which depend upon arrangement and plan, and on 

 the mode of admitting light in interiors, but he never fully wrought 

 up his ideas, and often left them quite crude sketchings. His 



