GALAHAD 



2360 



GALAPAGOS ISLANDS 



portraits which he painted. He was born of 

 middle class parents in Sudbury, Suffolk. As 

 a boy he often played truant from school that 

 he might sketch; in this he showed such re- 

 markable talent that his father sent him to 

 London at the age of fifteen to study. After 

 an unsuccessful attempt to establish a studio 

 in that city he returned to his home town in 

 1745, where he married Margaret Burr. They 

 soon moved to Ipswich, where for fourteen 

 years Gainsborough worked steadily, painting 

 landscapes as well as portraits, but when in 

 1760 he moved to Bath, orders were heaped 

 upon him for portraits, until he acquired such 

 a reputation that George III, upon hearing of 

 his return to London in 1774, invited him to 

 paint portraits of the queen and himself. All 

 the fashionable world followed the king's ex- 

 ample, which resulted in great prosperity for 

 the artist, which did not abate during his life. 



In 1768 Gainsborough became one of the 

 thirty-six original members of the Royal Acad- 

 emy, but four years before his death he with- 

 drew all his pictures because he did not like 

 their hanging-places. Although he rarely sold 

 his landscapes, he painted for the love of the 

 task gloomy forest shades or rough broken 

 country; The Watering Place, in the National- 

 Gallery, London, is a characteristic example. 

 Of all his portraits, The Blue Boy is considered 

 the best in its wonderful coloring, as well as 

 in its airy and birdlike effect, but many others 

 such as Lady Ligonier, Perdita Robinson and 

 Mrs. Graham are equally as well known. The 

 famous Gainsborough hat has been worn at 

 various periods since he made it so popular. 



GAL'AHAD, SIR, in the legends of King Ar- 

 thur, was the noblest of the Knights of the 

 Round Table, and the one who had the most 

 important part in the quest for the sacred cup 

 from which Christ drank at the Last Supper 

 (see HOLY GRAIL). Sir Galahad is pictured in 

 art, narrative and poetry as the type of ideal 

 manhood, set apart from other men because 

 of his wonderful strength and purity. 'This 

 conception finds appropriate expression in the 

 familiar lines from Tennyson's Sir Galahad: 



My good blade carves the casques of men, 

 My tough lance thrusteth sure. 



My strength is as the strength of ten 

 Because my heart is pure. 



The different versions of the Sir Galahad 

 legend vary in many details. He is represented 

 as the son of Sir Launcelot and Elaine, and as 

 created by enchantment. In the stories of Sir 

 Thomas Malory (which see), Sir Galahad, Sir 



Bors and Sir Percival are permitted to see the 

 Holy Grail, after which the soul of Sir Galahad 

 departs to heaven. "Then it seemed to the 

 two knights that there came a hand from 

 heaven and bore away the holy vessel. And 

 since that time there was never any man so 

 bold as to say he had seen the Holy Grail." 



SIR GALAHAD 



Drawn from the painting by Watts. Ellen 

 Terry, the actress, was the model for the Galahad 

 of the picture while she was the wife of Watts. 



In Tennyson's Idylls of the King, Sir Gala- 

 had, on the last day of his quest, saw rising up 

 before him, and stretching out toward a great 

 sea, a bridge of a thousand piers, each of which, 

 as he crossed, became a sweeping mass of 

 flame. When he had passed far out on the 

 great sea he was drawn into a celestial city 

 whose spires and gateways gleamed white like 

 pearls, and over which, in a mist of wondrous' 

 beauty, floated the Holy Grail. 



GALAPAGOS, gahlah'pahgos, ISLANDS, a 

 group of small volcanic islands in the Pacific 

 Ocean, belonging to Ecuador. They lie di- 

 rectly on the equator and are about 600 miles 



