W.DLLIAM REMICK (ARTIST).*
oes 04010R if it Wan not on a par rev's relatives, the hypochondriacal earl, with a beautiful niece, The biographer of a painter is hardly to blame if his readers are and the Spanish artist, all last from Rome—the Spaniard hay- left in ignorance of the artistic merits of his subject. If nothing ing a second time escaped death, this time in defending the more is to be said of William Bewiek than that " he occupied a beautiful Goniveve and her uncle from Italian bandits. While good position as an artist," and that " without venturing to at King's Lynn Geniveve's father sends for her to his death-bed, assert his right to one of the highest niches in the Temple of just to mention that he and his late brother bad concealed the Fame," it may yet be maintained " that the artist who received fact that the latter had a son in Spain who was heir to the hypo- so many testimonies of approval not only from the public, but also chondriacal earl, and in a week or two the identity of this son with from brothers of the brush, must have possessed more than our Spanish artist is established. Ho, however, declines Geniveve, ordinary talent," we cannot doubt as to his real position. Mr. '1'. estates, and title altogether, as ho has pledged his word two years Landseer adds, indeed, that there are many paintings by William before to the dressmaker, and she declines to yield an inch of her Bewiek to be found in the neighbourhood of Darlington, and that rights. Quick is therefore the word, and they are married. In a ho once received a commission for a cartoon of some of the figures few weeks the Seadrift doctor's rich uncle dies, and it becomes in the Elgin marbles from Goethe. But as many of the paintings necessary that Martha should go to take possession of his house, mentioned seem to bo portraits of wealthy Quakers they would which is her mother's property. The earl hears also of this death, hardly repay a trip to the North, while whatever may be Goethe's and, the hated parvenu being out of the way, sets his heart again reputation as a judge of art, the picture he presented to the church on the Seadrift climate and doctor. By the strangest chance, ho at Bingen shows that he was not an infallible buyer. The priuci- and Geniveve and the artist and Martha all atop into the pal facts we learn about William Bewick's artistic career are that Antelope, a new and well-appointed steamer, bound from South- he showed a singular love of art and great facility in drawing ainpton to Falmouth—a distance, by the way, of about 200 miles— when he was a boy ; that he was afterwards a favourite pupil of and "for the first few days all went well." But steamers are not Hayden's, that he painted a picture for Haydon which was shown sailing-vessels, nor is August winter, and so, though the sail from at the Manchester Exhibition under the name of that artist, and the north coast of Cornwall to the Wash took only three days that he was sent to Rome by Sir Thomas Lawrence to make copies in winter, we should be unreasonable to wonder at the tardy pro- of some of Michael Augelo's figures in the Sistine. We are told gruel of the steamer in August. And if steam could not do much, that in William Bewiek's boyhood he devoted every spare moment wind and waves could ; for the vessel taking fire simultaneously to drawing, much to the dismay of his father, who was a worthy with the coining on of a great storm before their arrival at Fal- upholsterer, and looked upon his own business as the only certain mouth, they take to the boats—that is to a boat, for the first five thing in life. Whenever his son's drawings were exhibited ho was or six of this new and well-appointed vessel won't act, or else cap- inclined to groan, " Neura:Ise, nonsense, this will be the boy's size,—and by a strange freak of nature they weather the Lizard's ruin, I foresee ;" and when at length William Bewick made up his Point and the Land's End, and after some days of agony they find mind to become a painter, his father refused him all further assist- themselves on the ?tor& coast and off Seadrift. But, alas the anise, leaving him to make his own way to London, and support tortured sailors do not know how near their refuge is, so they himself there by his own efforts. Hayden, whose pupil William decide to throw the women into the sea to lighten the boat ; Bewick became, was not able to give him much peOuniary help, andpoor Martha—mad with the sight of Philip's and for once, when asked for a loan, the master confessed that he had Geniveve's love—says " Hands' off !" and jumps over- only £5 left, and while the " Raising of Lazarus " was being board without compulsion, thus fulfilling a prophecy made in painted, Hayden was arrested three times in a single morning. her youth by a mad Methodist of Seadrift. Philip, seeing that For some time it appears that William Bewick was engaged in a Geniveve is to be sacrificed, jumps in with her. kle knows of a hard struggle for existence, but so far as we can gather from this rock only a mile from land to which he had once swum in winter book he was able at last to retire with a decent fortune. The —a week or two after his dangerous illness—to make a sketch, and prophecy of some fox-hunting squire that fame, riches, and to this rock he now takes his love. But such is not to be the end honours would come upon him thick as the leaves in Vallombrosa, of the sad voyage. Fate has determined that Philip shall was not indeed accomplished, but lie might possibly have con- become Seadrift—for the name of the place is evidently a joke vinced his father that painting was more profitable iu many ways —and so the consumptive doctor swims out on his pale horse and than upholstery. If we expect greater results than this from rescues Geniveve, but, venturing a second time for Philip, his youthful aspirations and youthful facility, from the courage to
lungs give way and the horse returns riderless to shore. Nor is ___
* Life and Lakes of William Avid (Artist). Edited 17 Tlionlar+ Landseor, A.R.A
struggle with hardship and the praise of good judges who detected promise, it is not the first time that we have been disappointed.
The main interest of these volumes is to be found in William Bewick's reminiscences of the persons with whom he came in contact, and slight as are many of his sketches, they often bring out striking characteristics. There is a remarkable account of a meeting between Wordsworth and Ugo Foscolo, when the latter, heated by argument, and perhaps provoked by the quiet solemnity of the English poet, rushed across the room, doubled his fist, and held it close to Wordsworth's nose while bawling out what he thought a triumphant and unanswerable rejoinder. Another singular figure is llazlitt, who is described as playing a game of tennis with the wildest contortions, performing the most wonderful feats, but every now and then rising to perfect frenzy. After the game was over, he said to his companion, with mock solemnity, " You see I am without my shirt ; it was so wet with perspiration that I left it behind to get dried. You must not be seen walking with a person who has no shirt to his back, therefore we part here ; you go that way, I this." llszlitt's absence of mind appears in a story told by
Hayden. The critic's son was to be christened, and the friends who had been invited to attend the ceremony and the dinner which was to follow had waited some time for the officiating minister,
when, on a question being asked, Hazlitt was forced to confess that ho had forgotten all about speaking to the clergyman. All that could be done was to eat the christening-dinner without the ceremony of christening. William Bewick was staying with Hazlitt at Melrose, and went over from thence to pay a visit to Scott at Abbotsford. The account of Scott's cheeriness and hospitality merely confirms many former descriptions, and perhaps the only novelty in the present sketch is the scone between Lady Scott and a French ventriloquist who pretended to plane her dining-table :—
" The attitude, the action, the noise, the acreeehes and hitches at knots, throwing off the shavings with his loft hand, were all so perfect that Lady Scott screamed in alarm Ohl my dining-table,--you are spoiling my beautiful table, it will never be got bright again," &c. Sir Walter pacified her by saying, tie be walked up to her, 'It is only imitation, my dear ; it is only make-believe, he will not hurt the table.' She replied, 'Impossible, what ! don't I hear the shavings oomo off and drop down ? ' Alexandra worked away, producing all the peculiar noises, and the sound of the checks caused by the different grains and knots of wood that the instrument appeared to out through,—dashing off the perspiration occasionally from his forehead, and imitating the manners and tricks of cabinet-makers at their work, until Lady Scott must convince herself that no harm was done to her table, by going to examine and feel the pasta!"
Wo should have expected to find more details about artists in a book of this kind than are given us by William Bewick. His devotion to his master, Haydon, is, indeed, a worthy feature in his
character, and he speaks warmly of Turner and Wilkie. In one place we are promised an account of the different ways in which Turner, Wilkie, and Ilaydon went to work, but all that we are told is that these differences cannot be described. We hear that Wilkie's palette was so furbished up, "the scrapings, the savings, and the skin, with just a bit of the surface rubbed clean to wet his pencil on and mix the tints," that no one would expect it to produce his pictures. In the same way Turner's appearance was unpromising. " He looked like a farmer, and there was nothing about him to denote the possession of great genius. He was ruddy and stiff in the joints, awkward and ill-dressed,
although he bad mixed in the best circles." If there is a tinge of snobbishness in the last sentence, we must remember that Wil- liam Bewick had before him as a model for all such descriptions the letter of Lord Carlisle's housekeeper about Wilkie's visit to Castle Howard, It seems Wilkie's first question was as to Lord Carlisle's dinner-hour, and his lordship being told of the question, was highly offended. "What does the fellow mean ?" he asked ; "does the fellow want to dine with me? I think my steward or housekeeper may content him." Probably the housekeeper would have also referred the painter to a lower region than the one which she adorned, yet she explains that but for the question about the dinner-hour, he would have been treated, like all clever people, with great attention both by my lord and my lady. They were always very kind to Mr. Jackson, the portrait-painter, and this was the more remarkable, as he was " not very particular in dress, although he was a tailor's sou." But in the case of Wilkie, the housekeeper bad good reasons for astonishment because, as she says, " I understand he is the son of a Scotch clergyman, and it is a pity but his father had taught him a little more of Christian humility and good manners, so as not to come from Scotland here to a great house like this, and expect to dine with my Lord even without an invitation." The italics are the housekeeper's own, and they show the depth of Wilkie's depravity. If there was anything more in this book to which we ought to call attention, we could
hardly venture to do it, after such a judgment on the class to which both the biographer and his subject belong. It is a truism that no man is a hero to his valet, but what is the greatest hero to the valet of his worldly superior ?
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