NATIONAL GALLERY. 



NATIONAL GALLERY. 



830 



suitable room for the reception of new purchases or presents' 

 Successive governments have however, pledged themselves to provide 

 adequate accommodation for the national collections. To do this, 

 various schemes of a more or less official character, for altering and 

 enlarging the existing building, have been projected by the director, 

 Sir Charles Eastlake ; by Captain Fowkes, the designer of the galleries 

 at South Kensington ; and on a more magnificent scale by the late Sir 

 Charles Barry. The only sufficient remedy if the present site be 

 retained, would be the removal of the present most ungainly, incon- 

 venient, ill-lighted, and utterly inappro[>riate building, and the con- 

 struction in its place (the barracks, &c., at the rear being included in 

 the site) of one of sufficient size to contain in two great divisions 

 Foreign and English all our national pictures, and to admit of their 

 arrangement in a convenient and systematic manner. But a far better 

 plan, if indeed it be not too late so to appropriate the site incom- 

 parably more suitable for the pictures, and hardly at all less con- 

 venient to the public would be the construction on the site of 

 Burlington House of a grand National Gallery ; which, from the 

 almost indefinite capability which the site affords for extension with 

 the growth of the gallery, might be at once designed, as such a 

 gallery ought to be, to include a systematic collection of English as 

 well as foreign pictures, and English as well as foreign sculpture, and 

 also afford room for a National Collection of Water Colour Paintings, 

 and the National Portrait Gallery: in a word, be a really compre- 

 hensive National Gallery of Art, worthy of the country. Of this 

 there is little probability. It is, however, admitted by all that 

 the time has arrived when some provision must be made for the 

 growth of the collections, and it is understood that the Government 

 has decided to carry out a plan prepared by Mr. Pennethorne, for 

 the extension of the present building, though only as a temporary 

 expedient. 



Oallrni of Britith Art : Vernm Collection. As we have seen, there 

 were included in the Angersteiu collection, which formed the basis of 

 the National Gallery, seven paintings by Hogarth, one by Reynolds, 

 and one by Wilkie ; and among the Beaumont pictures, five were by 

 British painters. There was thus provided, at the very origin of the 

 National Gallery, the germ of a Gallery of British Art. It would seem 

 that one of the most obvious duties of the trustees would be to watch 

 over and cherish the growth of the native section of the institution, 

 with at least as much care as the foreign. But native art was 

 resolutely discountenanced. It is a remarkable fact, that every addi- 

 tional specimen of English art which the nation possesses has been 

 obtained by what may be called chance. Except the nine works which 

 were included in the Angerstein collection, purchased six-and-thirty 

 years ago, not a single English picture has, up to the present hour, 

 been purchased for the national collection. Every one which the 

 nation possesses has been either a gift or a bequest. Such a thing 

 is probably unparalleled in any other country possessing a collection of 

 pictures ; but it arose from the entire control of our National Gallery 

 being vested in gentlemen who regarded the Old Masters as the only 

 legitimate representatives of painting. From the first they resolved 

 that from the British National Gallery, British art must be excluded. 

 Such works of Hogarth, Reynolds, Wilson, Gainsborough, and Wilkie, 

 as were given or bequeathed they could not, of course, actually refuse 

 to admit ; but even to them they only accorded a contemptuous 

 shelter. That any approach whatever has been made to a collection of 

 works of British art is m no wise due to the trustees of the National 

 Gallery, or to the British government, but solely to the patriotism and 

 the benevolence of private individuals. 



After having been in existence twenty-four years, the National 

 Gallery possessed 44 British pictures, of which 35 were gifts. Of 

 these several were common-place portraits. The ignorance, and the 

 contemptuous indifference of foreigners respecting British art, has often 

 been complained of ; but how could foreigners be expected to take any 

 pains to acquaint themselves with what was treated with such supreme 

 neglect at home ? If British art were worth anything, it might fairly 

 be suppo.ied that the nation would not keep it so carefully out of sight. 

 The edect of a public collection of the works of the leading English 

 painters in correcting the low opinions prevalent of British art was 

 well shown in the Manchester Exhibition of 1857. The great French 

 painter Ary Scbeffer we are told, " was scarcely less astonished than 

 enchanted with the spectacle which that collection afforded him. ' I 

 hart no conception,' said he, ' how rich the English school was ! There 

 have lived great painters among you ; that is unquestionable ! . . . The 

 power of dealing with colour, especially, possessed by the English 

 artists, fills me with admiration, &c.'" (Mrs. Grote's 'Life of Ary 

 Scheffer,' p. 117). And what Scheffer felt was felt more or less by 

 every one, native as well as foreigner, who visited that remarkable 

 collection. 



The fir?t actual attempt to provide a permanent gallery of national 

 art was made in 1847, when Mr. Robert Vernon presented to the 

 country his collection of 157 pictures, all but two being by British 

 painters. For the mo.st part the pictures were of a cabinet size, of 

 homely and familiar subjects, and by living or recently deceased 

 painters ; though among them were 3 small works by Reynolds, 4 each 

 by Wilson and Gainsborough, and 1 by Ilomney. Of our more 

 eminent masters of a later date, the Vernon gift included 6 specimens 

 by Stothard ; fl by Wilkie (all of second-rate quality); 6 by Hilton; 9 



by Calloott ; no less than 11 by Etty ; 4 by Turner ; 1 by Constable ; 

 2 by Collins ; 4 by Mulready ; 3 by Eastlake (including two of his best 

 works ' Christ Lamenting over Jerusalem,' and the ' Escape of the 

 O.irvara Family') ; 2 by Leslie (' Uncle Toby and Widow Wadman,' and 

 ' Sancho and the Duchess,') ; 4 by Stanfield ; 2 by Roberts ; 2 by Lee ; 

 7 by Sir Edwin Landseer (including his large picture of ' Wellington 

 at Waterloo,' ' High and Low Life,' ' Peace and War,' ' Highland 

 Music,' &c.) ; 2 by Maclise (the ' Play Scene in Hamlet.' and ' Malvolio 

 and the Countess') ; 2 by Webster (' Going to School,' and the ' Dame's 

 School,'); 2 by Newton; 3 by Lance; 2 by Ward; and others by 

 Creswick, T. S. Cooper, Bonington, Muller, Danby, Linnell, Uwins, 

 Herbert, &c. They were pictures purchased by a private gentleman 

 of plain tastes, for the decoration of a private house of moderate size. 

 They were, therefore, not works of a kind that would, either in respect 

 of size, subject, or pretension, have been chosen for a public gallery ; 

 but strictly cabinet or parlour pictures pictures for quiet home 

 enjoyment. Their presentation to the nation was. an afterthought. 

 While, therefore, they may be taken as very fairly representing the 

 popular phase of British art, they are not to be received as adequately 

 representing the school in its highest efforts, or even what it has 

 actually accomplished. But though not great works, the collection 

 included specimens and most of them very excellent specimens of 

 the major part of the more eminent painters of Mr. Vernon's day. In 

 short, it was a very admirable private collection ; and it formed, in 

 truth, a noble gift so noble a gift, indeed, that it ought to have 

 stimulated the nation, or its rulers vigorously to carry on and com- 

 plete the formation of a gallery of native art, so large an addition hav- 

 ing been made to the means already possessed for the accomplishment 

 of that object. Nothing, however, was done evon towards providing a 

 suitable place for the reception of so munificent a gift. Mr. Vernon's 

 donation took effect during his lifetime, and the pictures were in the 

 first instance exhibited to the public in his house in Pall Mall. From 

 thence they were removed to the vaults underneath the National 

 Gallery; and in 1850 they were taken to Marlborough House, where 

 they remained till 18.W, when that building was required for the 

 residence of the Prince of Wales. A brick building was then erected 

 for their reception adjoining the South Kensington Museum, and open- 

 ing into it. It comprises seven spacious and well-lighted rooms, in 

 which are hung the whole of the British pictures belonging to the 

 National Gallery. One addition only, but' that a worthy one, has been 

 made to the British pictures in the National Gallery, since the gift of 

 Mr. Vernon. This was the bequest in 1S59, already referred to, of 19 

 pictures by Mr. Jacob Bell. Among these pictures are seven by Sir 

 Edwin Landseer including some of his best works ' The Defeat of 

 Comus,' ' Sleeping Bloodhound,' ' Dignity and Impudence,' ' Highland 

 Dogs,' ' Shoeing,' ' The Maid and Magpie,' ; Leslie's ' Uncle Toby and 

 Widow Wadman' being the third copy of this picture now possessed 

 by the nation ; Ward's ' James II. receiving news of the landing of the 

 Prince of Orange ;' three pictures by Charles Landseer ; and one each by 

 Etty, Lee, Cooper, Douglas, and G. O'Neill ; also Frith's ' Derby Day' 

 and Rosa Bonheur's ' Horse Fair,' though the last two, as well as one 

 of Landseer's. are at present retained for engraving by the purchasers 

 of the copyright. 



The placing of these pictures at South Kensington is, however, only 

 a temporary arrangement : suitable provision is to be made for the 

 British pictures in " the new premises," which the government have 

 undertaken to provide for the national collections. When that shall 

 be done, we trust that so opportune an occasion will not be let pass 

 without undertaking the formation of a Gallery of British Art worthy 

 of the name. It is a mortifying fact, that the Collection of British 

 Pictures at Manchester was the first and the only opportunity English- 

 men have ever had of seeing at one view what the British school has 

 j done and is doing. That collection is dispersed, but the ex tuple 

 I remains. We have here, in the 70 pictures belonging to the National 

 j Gallery, and in the 150 of the Vernon collection, a good groundwork 

 for a national collection. The Sheepshanks pictures were expressly 

 ' given to assist iu the formation of a gallery of native art, but the gift 

 I was hampered with a clause as to the locality, which may render it 

 unsuitable for that purpose. If that could be got over, they would be 

 of the greatest value, and they would render tolerably complete the 

 series of recent works of their class. The century of Turner land- 

 scapes are a specialty, and will in any gallery occupy their own apart- 

 ment. But together we have thus 560 paintings by British artists, 

 some 520 of them having been presented to the nation for the express 

 purpose of assisting in the formation of a British gallery. In a 

 few years Sir Francis Chantrey's bequest of above 2000Z. a-year 

 for a like purpose will fall in. If such a gallery were really 

 taken in hand with an evidently sincere desire of making it what 

 it ought to be, there can be no doubt that other gifts and 

 bequests would not be wanting. All that would be required of 

 the authorities, in addition to a suitable building, would be to see that 

 the great object was kept steadily in view of making a thoroughly 

 comprehensive collection of characteristic works. To this end suitable 

 early pictures, and pictures of a high class, should be sought out and 

 purchased, and for the present, at least, purchases should be strictly 

 confined to works which fairly illustrate the rise and progress of 

 British art. And surely if it be desirable to secure " unsightly" early 

 examples of the Italian and German schools "solely for their historical 



