HOWARD, JOHN. 



HOWARD, JOHN. 



Sir Johua Reynold*, for the excellence of hi* historical deisn. In 

 the following year he vUited Italy, and at Rome be and Flaxman 

 pursued their *tudies in conjunction. 



On h return to Knglund Mr. Howard wan employed to make 

 drawing* for the Dilettanti Society, and deiigni for book-plate* ; be 

 ako painted tome portrait*. HU fint contribution! to tbe Royal 

 Academy, ' Joea* and Anohiies ' and the ' PlaneU drawing Light 

 from tbe Sun ' (1796), were much admired by penoni of classic lute* ; 

 od from tliia time for more than half a century Mr. Howard continued, 

 without a aingle intcnnia*ion. to tend to each annual exhibition come 

 painting* almort invariably of the classes of which these may be taken 

 a* the type*. In fact the euonnou* number of picture* which lie 

 txeeuted, though illustrating themes from the Scripture*, and from 

 (rwk, Roman, Italian, and Knelu>h history, poHry and mythology, 

 bare all or nearly all tbe tame character, for which perhaps there is no 

 word so descriptive as that of 'academic.' His figures are almost 

 nlways well drawn ; of elegant proportions ; hare the established 

 ' classic ' contour and expression, or absence of expression ; are clothed, 

 or partly clothed, in the same conventional ' drapery' which nymphs 

 and goddesses, whatever their position, wear to easily and gracefully 

 in picture* and statues, despite the ordinary laws of gravity, which 

 however may fairly be regarded as not applying to such beitu's; anil 

 they are so arranged as to iflbrd a pleasing flow of line and an Agreeable 

 conformity to the rule* of pictorial composition ; while the colouring, 

 if not rich and glowing, is chaste and harmonious. They wore in fact 

 good 'academic' pictures, and they are no more. Always strictly 

 u'tentive to the proprieties, there is nothing in any one of bis works, 

 whether it be a ' Venus rising from the Sea,' a ' Love animating the 

 Statue of Pygmalion,' or a col 1 ' Primeval Hope,' that can by any 

 rhance give the slightest shock to the nerve? of the most susceptible 

 who is not shocked by any representation of undraped female beauty. 

 I'.ut if his " bevies of fair forms " are never like those of Ktty trembling 

 on the verge of the voluptuous, they never like them are buoyant with 

 the exuberance of life and youthful vigour never exhibit the free 

 iibaudon of riant enjoyment and unrestrained spontaneous action. 

 They are works to bo looked at with a certain quiet admiration of the 

 artist's skill, not to seize the attention and linger in the memory. In 

 a word, they are works of taste, not of genius. 



Mr. Howard was elected an associate of tho Royal Academy in 

 1301 ; in 1808 he became an academician ; aud in 1S11 he was 

 appointed secretary to the Academy, an office he held till hit death, 

 though for some years previously its active duties were performed by 

 an assistant. He died on the 5th of October 1847. 



The title* of a few of his pictures will sufficiently indicate the range 

 and character of his subject*. Of his scriptural paintings, tbe most 

 ambitious are 'Christ Blessing Little Children,' placed as an altar- 

 piece in tho chapel in Little Berwick Street ; ' the Angel appearing 

 to St. Peter in Prison ; ' and ' Aaron staying the Plague.' The great 

 bulk of his pictures as already mentioned are however those in which 

 tbe subjects were chosen with a view to afford the opportunity of 

 painting the nude female form; and to this class his best pictures 

 belong. The most admired of the e is his ' Birth of Venus,' painted 

 in 1829. Others are 'The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche,' 'Proser- 

 pine,' and like stock subj'-cts; but a large number consists of figures 

 floating in the air with such titles as the ' Pleiades.' the ' Solar System,' 

 the 'Circling Hour*,' 'Morning,' 'Night,' &c. Beside numerous 

 pictures from Spenser, his favourite poet, Milton, Shakspere (espe- 

 cially the 'Midsummer Night's Dream') &c., he painted many a* 

 'Fairies on the Sea-shore,' with merely fancy titles; and he also 

 painted many portraits. It deserves to be mentioned as illustrative 

 of his life-long devotion to his art, that not only did be continue to 

 paint pictures for the Academy exhibitions up to the year of his 

 death, but that on the occasion of the first cartoon competition in 

 1843, he did not shrink from entering the lists, though then seventy- 

 three years of age, and in the rude encounter with the young artists 

 freh from the schools, bis cartoon, ' Man beset by contending 

 Fusions,' carried off one of the premiums of 100J. 



In 1814 Mr. Howard won the prize for a medal for the Patriotic 

 Society, and thenceforward he was generally employed in preparing 

 tbe designs for the medals and great seals required by the govern- 

 ment He also made numerous designs for works to bo executed in 

 (ilrer, chiefly for the house of Rundell and Bridge. Frank Howard, 

 tbe son of Mr. Howard, is well known as an able designer, and the 

 author of several elementary works on art. To a brief memoir of his 

 father, contributed by him to tbe ' Athenicum ' for November 13, 

 1847, we are indebted for most of the facts in this notice. 



HOWARD, JOHN, one of tbe most disinterested, laborious, and 

 useful philanthropists that have done honour to any age or nation, 

 was born about 1726. His father was a London tradesman, who 

 apprenticed him to a wholesale grocer, but dying when his son was 

 about nineteen years of age, and leaving him in possession of a hand- 

 some fortune, young Howard, who was in weak health, succeeded in 

 purchasing the time remaining of his indentures, and determined 

 on making a tour in France and Italy. On hi* return, still in ill 

 health, he took lodgings in Stoke Newington, where bis landlady 

 a widow named Loidore having nursed him carefully through a 

 severe illnen, he out of gratitude married her, though she was twenty- 

 seven year* hi* tenior. She however died about three years after the 



marriaga; and he now conceived a desire to visit l.isVm, a rhi.-f 

 inducement being hi* wish to do sow-thing to alleviate the miseries 

 caused by the preat earthquake in 17i6. He embarked accordingly, 

 but was captured by a French privateer, und carried a prisoner into 

 the port of Brest, aid subsequently removed into the interior, but 

 after a while was permitted to return to England on the promisa that 

 if be could not induce the government to make a suitable exchange 

 fr him he would return to hi* captivity. The exchange WM oht 

 however, and Howard retired to a small estate he possessed at Carding- 

 ton, near Bedford ; and there, in April 1758, he married a second wife, 

 alias Henrietta Leeds. The lady appears to have been in every way a 

 suitable match for him ; but it is mentioned as a characteristic trait, 

 that he stipulated before marriage " that in all matters in which thero 

 should be a difference of opinion between them his voice should rule." 

 For seven years they lived in unbroken happiness, leading a quiet 

 domestic life : be chiefly engaged in improving bin grounds, rebuilding 

 his house, cultivating his farm, and with even more earnestness getting 

 himself to the task of raising the physical and moral condition of the 

 peasantry of C'anlington and its neighbourhood, by erecting on bis 

 own estate better rottiges, establishing school*, and visiting and 

 relieving the sick and the destitute; and she in all ways as-i :in/ him 

 in his benevolent exertion*. But at tbe end of that time, after giving 

 birth to a son, (he died, M .irch 17(35, and Howard, who was devotedly 

 attached to her, from that time lost his interest in his home aud its 

 occupations. Till it appeared advisable to send his son to a di- 

 for bis education, Howard lived at Cardingtou in seclusion ; then, 

 unable to bear tbe solitude of the placa with all its painful association-. 

 he made another continental tour. In 1773 he was nominated sheriff 

 of Bedford. The sufferings which he had endured and witnessed 

 during his own brief confinement as a prisoner of war struck deep 

 into bis mind. The impression was now renewed and intr: 

 when, as sheriff, he had charge of the prisons of the county. Shocked 

 by tho misery and abuses which prevailed, he attempted to induce the 

 magistrates to remedy the more obvious of them. The reply was a 

 demand for a precedent, and Howard at once set out on a tour of 

 inspection to other county prisons in tbe hope to find it. But he 

 soon began to suspect that the evil was general, and now sot him- 'If 

 diligently to work to inquire into the extent and precise nature of th-i 

 mischief, and if possible to discover the true remedy for tho evil. In 

 that year he visited, in two journeys, most of the town and county 

 jails of England, and accumulated a large mass of information, which, 

 in March 1774, he laid beforo the I Ions) of Commons, This was tho 

 commencement of prison reform in England ; for in the same se^niou 

 two acts were passed, one for relieving acquitted prisoners from pay- 

 ment of fees, tbe other for preserving tbe health of prisoners. Once 

 actively engaged, he became more and more devoted to this benevolent 

 pursuit; insomuch that the history of his remaining years is little 

 more than the diary of his journeys, the only exception being in fact 

 his becoming a candidate with his friend Mr. Whitbread for the repre- 

 sentation of Bedford in parliament. They were however defeated ; 

 aud though a parliamentary scrutiny placed Mr. Whitbread at the 

 bead of the poll, his friend fortunately for the cause of humanity 

 was only placed third on the list. Howard travelled repeatedly over 

 the United Kingdom, and at different periods to almost every part of 

 Europe, visiting the most noisome places, relieving personally the 

 wants of the moat wretched objects, and noting all that seemed to 

 KIM important either for warning or example. The first fruit of 

 these labours was a 4to volume entitled ' The State of tho Prisons in 

 England and Wales, with some preliminary observations, and an 

 account of some Foreign Prisons,' 1777. "As goon as it appeared, tho 

 world was astonished at tho mass of valuable materials accumulated 

 by a private unaided individual, through a course of prodigious labour, 

 and at tbe constant hazard of life, in consequence of the infectious 

 diseases prevalent in the scones of his inquiries. The cool good sense 

 and moderation of his narrative, contrasted with that enthu 

 ardour which must have impelled him to his undertaking, were not 

 legs admired ; aud he was immediately regarded as one of tbe extra- 

 ordinary characters of the age, and as the leader in all plans of 

 meliorating the condition of that wretched part of the community 

 for whom he interested himself." (Aikin. I 



Tbe House of Commons having seconded his views by the intro- 

 duction of a bill for the establishment of houses of correction, 

 Mr. Howard, in 1778, undertook a fresh tour, principally to revisit 

 tbe celebrated Hasp-houses of Holland ; but lie continued his routo 

 through Belgium and Germany into Italy, whence he returned through 

 Switzerland and France in 1779. In the same year he made another 

 survey of Great Britain and Ireland. In these tours he extended his 

 views to the investigation of hospitals. The results were published in 

 1780, in an 'Appendix to the State of the Prisons in England and 

 Wales,' kc. In 1781, having now travelled over all tho south of 

 Europe, except Spain aud Portugal, through which he went in 1783, 

 he visited Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and Poland ; and continuing at 

 intervals his home inquiries, published in 1784 a second appendix, 

 together with a new edition of the original work, in which, thy 

 additional matter was comprised. 



The importance, both in prisons and hospitals, of preventing the 

 occurrence or spread of infectious disease*, produoad in Mr. Howard 

 a desire to witness the working and success of the Lazaretto system 



