The Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters and Sculptors, Volume 5Harper & brothers, 1834 - Painters |
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admired Allan appears artist Beaumont beauty began brethren called canvass Chantrey character Coleorton colour conversation Cosway death Devizes Devonport drawing Duke Earl easel elegance Elgin marbles engraved excellence exhibited expression eyes fame fancy father favour feeling friends Fuseli gallery genius gentle give grace hand Hazlitt head heard historical honour imagined Italy Jackson James Northcote king labours Lady landscape Lawrence letter light lived Liverseege London look Lord Byron Lord Mulgrave loved manner Maria Hadfield master merit Michael Angelo nature never Northcote Novel Opie painted painter pencil perhaps person picture poet poetic poetry portraits portraiture Prince Prince of Wales Raphael rence Reynolds Rome Royal Academy scenes seems sentiment Shakspeare Sir George Sir Joshua Sir Robert Peel Sir Thomas sitters sketches skill spirit style talent taste thing thought tion Titian took truth vols Wat Tyler young youth
Popular passages
Page 105 - A little Neglect may breed great Mischief; adding, for want of a Nail the Shoe was lost; for want of a Shoe the Horse was lost; and for want of a Horse the Rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the Enemy; all for want of Care about a Horse-shoe Nail.
Page 29 - The subject is the old poetic dream of the " Origin of Painting; or the Corinthian Maid drawing the shadow of her Lover." The youth is sitting ; he keeps himself firm with his left hand, extends his right gently round the waist of his mistress, and holds his face in repose ; the maid sits on his knee, places a lamp with a clear steady flame, on one side, touches his chin modestly with her left hand to keep it in...
Page 110 - Paris at the same time : his looks and manner seemed to announce a much greater man. He strutted through the streets with a very consequential air ; and in company held up his head, screwed up his features, and placed himself on a sort of pedestal to be observed and admired, as if he never relaxed in the assumption nor wished it to be forgotten by others, that he was the American Sir Walter Scott. The real one never troubled himself about the matter.
Page 56 - There is not a man on earth who has the least notion of colouring : we all of us have it equally to seek for, and find out — as, at present, it is totally lost to the art.
Page 60 - Medici, leaning on his hand, in the chapel of St. Lorenzo at Florence ; I' declare it has that look of reality in it, that it almost terrifies you to be near it.
Page 213 - It ought, in my opinion, to be indispensably observed, that the masses of light in a picture be always of a warm mellow colour, yellow, red, or a yellowish white ; and that the blue, the grey, or the green colours be kept almost entirely out of these masses, and be used only to support and set off these warm colours and for this purpose, a small proportion of cold colours will be sufficient.
Page 165 - Curran ; under mean and harsh features, a genius of the highest order lay concealed, like a sweet kernel in a rough husk : and so little of the true man did Lawrence perceive in his first sittings, that he almost laid down his palette in despair, in the belief that he could make nothing but a common or vulgar work. The parting hour came, and with it the great Irishman burst out in all...
Page 82 - I wanted to give a look of mingled remorse and admiration ; and when I found that others saw this look in the sketch I had made, I left off. By going on, I might lose it again. There is a point of felicity which, whether you fall short of or have gone beyond it, can only be determined by the effect on the unprejudiced observer. You cannot be always with your picture to explain it to others : it must be left to speak for itself. Those who stand before their pictures and make fine speeches about them,...
Page 184 - ... well made, but wide, and contemptuous even in its smile, falling singularly at the corners, and its vindictive and disdainful expression heightened by the massive firmness of the chin, which springs at once from the centre of the full under lip ; the hair dark and curling, but irregular in its growth : all this presents to you the poet and the man ; and the general effect is heightened by a thin spare form, and, as you may have heard, by a deformity of limb.