ART NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1264, 21 May 1896, Page 12

ART NOTES.

THE LATE GEORGE RICHMOND, R.A.

Our London correspondent writing on April 7th says : Mr George Richmond, R.A., who died at his house in York street, Portland square, on Saturday, was less known to tho present generation of artists than his still more famous son, W. B. Richmond, R.A. George Richmond was bora in 1809, being senior to Mr Gladstone by nine months, and one of his earliest recollections was seeing the return of tho Life Guards from Waterloo. He had met Beau Brummel, had cheered Queen Caroline, and sketched tlie Duke of York.

Tlie son of a painter himself, no obstacles were placed in the way of his adoption of the profession, and after studying in Paris he rapidly achieved celebrity with portraits. He was elected A.R.A. in 1857, and R.A. in 18(56. Among the portraits (paintings or drawings) by him exhibited in tlie \ ictorian Exhibition a few years ago were those of Sir Gilbert Scott, V ilbcrforce (Bishop of Oxford), Longley, Canon, Liddon, Pusey, Kelde, Newman, Sir George Grey, Ld. Lyndhurst, E. M. Ward, R. A. Faraday, Lyoll, Macaulay, Lady Augusta Stanley, Mrs Gaskell, Charlotte Bronte, Halhun and the Lord Chancellor Campbell. Four or five of his portraits are to bo seen in tho National Portrait Gallery. They are all pleasing, and nearly all —if tho point is not considered too old-fashioned for mention in these days—are good likenesses. They are said to number in all between 2000 and 3000, and hundreds have been engraved. It was, however, as the friend of Blake the painter poet, mystic and Severn of Romo (the friend of Keats and father of Arthur and Walter Sevorn) that George Richmond was chiefly interesting. As a lad of sixteen, George Richmond had met Blake one day at tho house of another artist friend, and was allowed to walk home with him. To tho boy, says Blake’s biographer, “ it was as if ho were walking with tlie prophet Isaiah ” ; for lie had heard much of Blake, greatly admired all he had heard, and all he had seen of his designs. Tlie prophet talked fully and kindly, freely opening his mind, as was his wont with the young. Mr Richmond used to relate that, in their intercourse, ho would himself, as young men are prone to do, argue boldly and disagree, and that Blake” would take it all very goodhumouredly. “ Never,” said Mr Richmond, “havo I known an artist so spiritual, so devoted, so siuglo-minded, or cherishing imagination as lie did.” Once, the young artist, finding his invention flag during a wholo fortnight, went to Blake, as was his wont, for some advice or comfort. Ho found him sitting at tea with his wife. He related his distress, how he felt deserted by the power of invention, folds astonishment, Blake turned to his wile suddenly and said, “ It is just so with us, is it not, for weeks together, when the visions torsake us? What do we do then, Kate?” “Wo kneel down,” said his wife, “ and pray, Mr Blake.” Mr Richmond made a poncil-urawing oi Blake, which is said to lie the best likeness of him, and for which he had the assistance of a cast. Mr Richmond, when showing this cast to a visitor, drew attention to the position of Blake’s ear, which is low down, away from the face, near the back of the neck showing an immense height of head above. “ I have noticed this relation of ear finely characterised in three men,” ho said : “Cardinal Newman, William Blake, and Henry Hallam. I once told Mr Gladstone,” lie said on tlie same occasion, “that I never understood his character until the day when I sat in church behind him. Then 1 saw tho tremendous bulwark of tho stateman’s neck.” Mr Richmond did not see Keats, but he was an intimate friend of “ Keats Severn, in whoso company lie passed some time at Rome. Mr Ruskin was another old friend of Richmond the portrait of Ruskin familiar to most readers as the frontispiece to the popular volume of “ Selections ” was by him; and in his “Praeterita,” Mr Ruskin has given a very vivid account of Richmond and Severn together at Rome. “ No habitue,” ho says, “ of the brightest circles of present London society will

doubt the privilege we had in coining to know George Richmond.” His friendship with the Ruskins was kept up on their return to England, and Mr Ruskin relates how for some years his birthday dinner party at Denmark hill always included Turner, Mr George Richmond, Mr Thomas Richmond (his brother), and Samuel Prout. But Mr Richmond’s friendships were by no means confined to the artistic world — Mr Gladstone, John Sterling, and Carlyle being among the celebrated men in other walks of life with whom ho was familiar.