1842.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL, 



163 



nature to represent all national acts of war or peace. It has the power of 

 representing men as they are, with their own proper actions and dresses ; it 

 has the power of representing everything about them, the air they breathe, 

 and the element in which they distinguish themselves, be it on the earth, or 

 in the water, or the air, or even in the fire; for Englishmen, in that wild, 

 romantic spirit, which distinguishes them from other people, revel and live 

 in all these elements, and, I should say, require the universal power of paint- 

 ing to record their actions, rather than the limited range of sculpture, which 

 always rejects the actual dress, and has no power over the aforesaid elements. 

 The only thing we have in this way, is the little Naval Gallery at Greenwich 

 Hospital ; and it is impossible not to be struck with the admirable use and 

 power of this accidental collection, for I believe not any one of those inte- 

 resting battle pictures was done for the purpose. The old sailors show you 

 round, and describe the subjects in which they themselves were engaged, and 

 at the time you, yourself, become a sailor, for I confess I never knew so much 

 before of our great naval victories as I learned in my visits to this humble 

 gallery. Now what in sculpture will compare with this ? what is there that 

 can so come home to us .' Will Nelson, at tlie top of that expensive column^ 

 compare with it ? certainly not : and yet that meritorious gallery of naval 

 pictures, did not cost so much as the base alone of that proud column. This 

 Greenwich Gallery I take as a golden augurj- of the success of the proposed 

 national history painting in fresco ; for this Sailor Gallery is quite enougli to 

 show what tine things Englishmen will do in national painting, when they 

 are working under the patronage of the State and the people, neither of 

 which had they in the pictures I allude to. I do not mean in these remarks 

 to find fault with Enghsh sculpture, or grumble at its success ; I would not 

 say that it had been encouraged too much, but rather that painting has not 

 been encouraged enough ; that other nations make painting and sculpture go 

 hand in hand in the commemoration of national greatness. In France, paint- 

 ing has predominated, in Germany the same, and in Italy always. Here we 

 have had nothing but sculpture, which is singular, as the English are con- 

 sidered to excel more in painting. It may be that the want of fresco has 

 been the cause. 



The revival of our Gothic architecture in the new Houses of Parliament 

 must be looked upon as a singularly fortunate circumstance, as regards the 

 formation of a style of fresco painting which shall be our own, both as to 

 subject and the manner of treating it. I mean that this noble style of archi- 

 tecture, replete with beauty and grandeur as it is, and more applicable to all 

 our uses than any other, is entirely our own, as it grew up amongst us in the 

 early times, was carried to perfection by us, and, singularly enough, we have 

 still the finest specimens in the world. It belongs to ns as Englishmen, and 

 associates with the grandest periods of our history ; and we are fortunate in 

 having a British architect, whose genius has caught up the spirit and power, 

 ' and revived it, as though he had lived in the "olden time." Now this ele- 

 vated English style, rising into splendour again in the new Parliament Houses, 

 will be the fortunate occasion (and perhaps no occasion could have been so 

 fortunate) of our calling up a style of historical painting in unison with it, 

 that shall be our own, as is the architecture — that shall be bold, manly, and 

 English in all its characteristics, and have beauty and power like the building. 

 Nor do I see such great ditliculties in the English school attaining this excel- 

 lence, as many suppose ; for it must be considered, that the British public 

 and the British artists will go hand in hand, mutually assisting each other, 

 both inspired by the English style of architecture, and nerved to revive all 

 the other English arts so closely connected with our national feelings. M'e 

 shall have fresco painting, wood carving, and stained glass; and we have a 

 wonderful collection of British illuminated MSS , which will form a fine field 

 wherein to hunt for national art, all of which we take up again from the 

 early times of England, when Westminster Hall was built, than which 

 nothing grander, more majestic, or so well suited to fresco painting, exists 

 from one end of Italy to the other. Our former experiments have mostly 

 been in the classic, either Greek or Roman, but always foreign to us, and we 

 never entered deeply into them. We are not a classic people ; our tendency 

 nationally is to the romantic histories and customs of the middle ages. We 

 are essentially English in this, our literature tends to it, and is first-rate 

 withal ; our finest architecture the same, and still first-rate : then why, if we 

 are now to form a style of national painting, should it not be the same, and 

 with the same bright hopes ? Who can visit that magnificent hall of West- 

 minster without thinking on the illustrious deeds of Englishmen ? and who 

 that forms these pictures in his mind forms them classically ? — I mean with 

 the semblances of ApoUos, Adonises, and the like, after the fashion of our 

 neighbours the French. No, in this place we only think of Men — of a hardy 

 race of warriors, legislators, philosophers, all working-day men, who never 



even dreamed of such things as modern art produces. The tame creations 

 of French academies, or the fashionable ones formed from English theatres, 

 are things to shut our eyes at, that we may open them to behold a race of 

 m«j who sturdily gave England the groundwork of her greatness, before 

 academies or theatricals were thought of. Fashion may possibly lend a grace 

 to many things, but certainly never to historical painting. 



The greatest charm of historical painting is, to transport ns to the time 

 and place it attempts to represent ; our architecture does this, and our paint- 

 ing must do it, or the English people will never be satisfied. In other coun- 

 tries art was made great in this way, for Raffaello, although called classical, 

 is essentially Christian, and associates in his frescos with the period of our 

 architecture. Roman soldiers he puts in the Gothic armour of the Swiss 

 guards, and the same feeling of bis time is apparent throughout his works ; 

 even his Madonnas are Gothic ; yet he took everything he could find to his 

 purpose in the antique, though he never ceased to produce what we may 

 really call Christian art, which was his own feeling. Here is an example for 

 us. But perhaps a better one may be found in our own times in Germany, 

 where, in the revival of the fresco art, the artists have boldly dared to create 

 a style independent of the antique ; and, in treating subjects of the middle 

 ages, have produced a style of design, not so classically correct as the Italian, 

 but so adapted to the subjects of those times, so mauly and vigorous, with 

 their Gothic heroes so completely called up, that I doubt whether anything 

 more original in art has ever been done. Now it is in this, and not in the 

 mere fresco material, that we should do well to study them. We could 

 borrow some of their magnificent cartoons, which, though done in simple 

 charcoal, are wonderful productions of art, and woidd astonish us here ; for 

 the means are almost nothing, yet the result everything. A studied German 

 cartoon is replete with invention, composition, design, and character, and all 

 this in charcoal alone. It is impossible to innagine the result of such excel- 

 lent preparations for a picture, or the pleasure to the painter of adding colour 

 and efl'ect — and sui-h colour and such effect as an Englishman can add to 

 such preparations. Perhaps I should explain here, that the paper used for 

 this purpose is prepared by a simple wash of very thin glue, which glue, when 

 the charcoal drawing is done, undergoes a steaming from a two or three 

 spouted tea-kettle, with a spirit lamp to keep the water boiling; this easily 

 incorporates the charcoal in the melted glue, and the result is, a solid surface, 

 like a picture. I remember two immense cartoons, which Cornelius executed 

 at Rome in this way, and when done, he cut them into convenient sizes to 

 roll and carry to Germany for the fresco painting. No doubt, the sight of 

 some of these would greatly assist and gratify us; and these we could easily 

 have, for the German artists are as liberal as they are accomplished. As for 

 the fresco material, it is so easy, so simple, and so sure, that I cannot but 

 think we should learn it better by ourselves, rather than pick up the vices of 

 others ; for although it may be feared that the first specimens of fresco may 

 appear crude and inharmonious to the English eye, accustomed to the bland, 

 glazing method of oil painting, yet it must be considered, that we are an 

 acknowledged school of colourists, and in so high a degree that it might be 

 cited as the only genuine remnant of fine art in the world in these deploring 

 times ; and this alone ought to give singular advantages to En^ish fresco 

 painting. Here inay also be considered the height to which the English 

 purification of colours is carried, in their chemical nature as well as their 

 principles in art. This alone, I anticipate, will revive some of the splendours 

 of Italian fresco colouring, in which the Germans have not yet succeeded, 

 and no doubt for this reason. These advantages, joined to well-studied 

 English cartoons, and subjects from our noble history, seem to me a Paradise 

 of Art — a thing to enchant the whole race of English artists, whether in 

 regard to animals, figures, landscapes, flowers, sea-pieces, or even ornamental 

 painting. The facility with which they will exercise their new art, compared 

 with the laboiu- of oil painting, I am sure must win them to think more 

 kindly of fresco when they understand it. 



In one point I am confident that they will be brilliantly successful, I mean 

 in the varied effects of aerial perspective ; for as this is a part so laborious 

 and difficult in oil, and in which the continental artists never succeed, except 

 when they paint fresco ; so I am certain the English artists in this point will 

 surpass themselves, for in the process of the fresco drying, in the change 

 from the wet plaster to the dry, so many beautiful eftects come out, that I 

 look forward to the English carrying it further than they have carried water- 

 colour painting, which is acknowledged to be most perfect, and is entirely of 

 English origin. 



As regards the combining of fresco painting with architecture, so as to 

 enable them to unite, and ha\ e the same object, no doubt there must be great 

 uniformity and simplicity in the style of composition adopted in the pictures 



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