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insincere. Swayed from time to time by the frigid classicalism of Carstens, the equally frigid religious effusions of Overbeck and the other Nazarenes,' the ponderous stage heroics of Cornelius and the Munich school, the vacuous if forcible illustrations. of Retzch, or the elfish anecdotage of Moritz von Schwind, it is not surprising that the ideas which took form in the young prince's brain far exceeded in number and importance the actual achievements which he was able to carry through during his short and useful life.

With his mind thus imbued with a strenuous devotion to the religious aspect of art, as well as with the enthusiasm derived from a close study of the legendary history of the German race, Prince Albert came to England to woo and to wed the young queen. If Germany was in 1840 an unpromising soil for the development of art, England was even worse, and certainly far less impressionable. Art was at its lowest ebb; painting, sculpture, architecture alike, and self-complacent mediocrity was the order of the day.

In spite of his numberless high qualities, the purity of his life, the disinterestedness of his intentions, and the perfect love and accord between the queen and her chosen husband, the prince met with a somewhat chilly reception in England. A young and ardent prince, whose intellect was vaunted as above the average, and whose devotion to duty was at once apparent, was feared and mistrusted by the representatives of officialism in England. During the twenty years of his life in England it was chiefly through the domain of art that Prince Albert was at last able to reach the heart of the English people.

Unluckily, the instruments ready to hand were for the most part unfitted or unready to carry out the great ideas which the prince's fertile brain conceived. The famous Fine Arts Commission did little more than reveal the nakedness of the land, and

the almost complete absence of artistic inspiration in those who were recognized as the nation's leaders and advisers in that domain.

The great scheme which resulted in the International Exhibition of 1851 was the progenitor of results which perhaps its originator, Prince Albert, could hardly have hoped to foresee. But these results were mainly industrial rather than artistic, and Germany has profited by them more than England.

One result, however, was of the highest importance, if somewhat slow of development. The fine arts as shown in the great glass palace in Hyde Park were seen in their most pretentious, artificial, and generally decayed form. Not a country in Europe could show a genuine national spirit in art. The second exhibition in 1862 showed but little advance. To the revolt, however, of the true artistic spirit against the horrors of 1851 may perhaps be attributed the steady, if laborious, renascence of the arts, which is still in progress at the present day. When passing these strictures upon the artistic output of the years 1840-1870, it should be remembered that, if the design was in most cases atrocious, the actual workmanship was usually of the highest quality. The modern art furnisher and decorator who degrades the name of art by applying it to his wares could learn many a lesson if he chose from the craftsmen of the much-abused early Victorian period.

It was not unnatural that Prince Albert during the early years of his married life should have looked to his German advisers for guidance in those theories of art and design which he had so ardently at heart. It was not that the art professors in Germany were of so high a quality, but that in England they were practically nonexistent. When the prince sought for his allies in England he could find little to help him beyond the superficial and obsequious

officialism of a Sir Charles Eastlake and the bourgeois and bustling energy of a Sir Henry Cole, both of whom, however, proved most useful instruments in the prince's hands.

One of Prince Albert's earliest advisers and tutors in art was Professor Ludwig Gruner of Dresden. It would be out of place here to enter into any account of the influence of Professor Gruner on the arts of design in England, so completely have the principles of his artistic theories become a relic of the past. It will be sufficient to say that even where, as in Buckingham Palace, Gruner's decorative designs appear distasteful to those who live at the beginning of the twentieth century, the workmanship was always good, and offers a strong contrast to much of the cheaper and more meretricious achievements of those who dabbled at the close of the nineteenth century in the so-called ‘Queen Anne' style, or the sham revival of the ancien régime.

Under such a guide as Gruner the young prince could make a good start, and it is interesting to find that it was Gruner who assisted the prince to form the small collection of paintings by the old masters to which allusion has already been made. The collections thus made consist chiefly of works of primitive artists of North Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. They are the more remarkable because the public mind had hardly yet begun to realize that there were any pictures worth collecting or studying other than the works of the time-honoured masters of the later Italian and the Dutch and Flemish schools. Even Velazquez was not rated higher than Guido Reni, and the works of Van Eyck, Memlinc, Albrecht Dürer, and Cranach, were, if seen at all, viewed with a kind of amusement, looked upon as curiosities, and generally classed together as 'gothic.' The pioneer work of Sir Henry Layard and Mrs. Higford Burr had not yet opened the eyes of the British tourist to the beauty and interest of the

Prince Albert as a Collector

fresco-paintings by the early painters of Northern and Central Italy. The Arundel Society was yet to come with its powerful influence in stimulating the interest of the average educated person in the works of the so-called 'gothic' period. The trumpet-call of John Ruskin had not yet brought down the walls of British ignorance and prejudice, and William Morris had not yet left the realm of poesy for the more prosaic but more important duty of reforming the domestic furniture and general decorative aspect of the British home. Even France had not yet escaped from the depressing and stifling bourgeoisie of Louis Philippe into the footlights and extravaganzas of the Second Empire.

It is of particular interest, therefore, to find Prince Albert, loyally assisted by Her Majesty the Queen, acquiring in 1844 from a Mr. Nicholls a Lucretia by Lucas Cranach and a Salome, then attributed to Bernardino Luini, but probably an interesting work by Vincenzo Catena. In 1845 he obtained, on the advice of Professor Gruner, the following paintings, which are of special interest at the present day: From Dr. Metzger, in Florence, an exquisite little painting of The Marriage of St. Catherine, attributed to Hans Memlinc; an altarpiece by Duccio of Siena; a small painting of The Marriage of the Virgin, by Agnolo Gaddi; a large circular Madonna and Saints, attributed to Verrocchio; a St. Peter Martyr, by Fra Angelico; and other paintings attributed to Antonello da Messina, Giovanni Bellini, and Ambrogio Borgognone. In the same year was secured from the collection of the Duca di Melzi at Milan a large altarpiece attributed to Ambrogio Borgognone; and from Signor della Bruna an interesting St. Jerome, then attributed to Perugino. In 1846 the prince obtained from Mr. Warner Ottley several important paintings, comprising a Madonna and Child, an authentic work by Gentile da Fabriano; a splendid painting of S. Cosmo and S. Damiano, of the Pollaiuolo school,

attributed perhaps rightly to Pesellino; a small Judgement of Solomon, a genuine work by Benozzo Gozzoli; a Coronation. of the Virgin, attributed to Niccolo da Foligno; and a Virgin and Child, attributed to the great Andrea Orcagna. In 1846 also the prince acquired from Mr. Nicholls a fine Portrait of a Nobleman, attributed to Giorgione, but probably the work of Moretto or Romanino of Brescia, and a first-rate Adam and Eve, by Lucas Cranach, from Mr. Campe in Nuremberg. In 1847 he added a few other Italian pictures to his collection, including a St. Sebastian, attributed to Mantegna.

In 1848 Prince Albert promoted another scheme for encouraging the study of primitive artists, this time for the most part of the schools of painting north of the Alps. A collection of Byzantine, early Italian, German, and Flemish pictures had been formed by H.S.H. Prince Ludwig von Oettingen-Wallerstein. This collection was similar in character, if inferior in general quality, to the famous Boisserée collection, which now forms one of the principal ornaments of the picture gallery at Munich. Hearing that its owner was anxious to dispose of the collection, Prince Albert induced Prince Ludwig to send it to England for that purpose, and arranged for its exhibition in Kensington Palace, in the hope that sufficient enthusiasm might be excited to enable the collection to be purchased as a whole for the nation. The exhibition, however, proved a failure, for the British public had not yet divested itself of its faith in the super-eminent qualities of Raphael and of the Bolognese school; and, accustomed as they were to large canvases and academical drawing, they could not understand the bright panels, however exquisitely painted, of the early Flemish masters, any more than they could at first comprehend the art of their own countryman Turner.

Eventually Prince Albert purchased the

whole Oettingen-Wallerstein collection for his own, and placed it in Buckingham Palace. He never, however, abandoned his hope that some, at all events, of the paintings in the collection should find their way to the National Gallery. After the lamented death of the Prince Consort in 1861, the sorrowing queen carried out his wish by offering to the National Gallery this collection to select such pictures as the board of trustees might care to have. About twenty pictures were selected for the National Gallery, and the remainder hung practically unknown in Buckingham Palace until the accession of King Edward VII.

If it were the case that the National Gallery had a free hand in selecting from this collection, it is much to be regretted that the choice did not rest in more sympathetic hands than those of Sir Charles Eastlake as Director of the National Gallery. It must be conceded that the value of the collection had been over-estimated, for few of the seventy or eighty pictures were of the first class, and many had suffered grievously by re-painting. Still, modern criticism has shown that there remain at Buckingham Palace a few pictures of special interest, notably a Coronation of the Virgin, in which has been recognized an important work, or contemporary copy of a lost work, by Hugo van der Goes. There are other paintings of the Bruges school by imitators of Roger van der Weyden and Gerard David, and some important examples of the schoolwork of Herri met de Bles. To these may be added two genuine works by Sano di Pietro and Palmezzano, a signed portrait by Michael Ostendorfer, and a portrait by Hans Baldung Grün, together with an important copy of a famous portrait of Christ with the legend of King Abgarus of Edessa, the original of which is preserved in the

strictest seclusion at Genoa.

The last and most important acquisition made by Prince Albert was in July 1856, when, at the sale of the Earl of Orford's

pictures at Christie's, he purchased for a very moderate sum a large triptych of the Virgin and Saints, then ascribed to Matthäus Grünewald, but now recognized as one of the most important works of Lucas Cranach the elder. As a Saxon prince Prince Albert would naturally feel an interest in the works of Lucas Cranach, with whom Saxon art is so closely identified. The name of Cranach could have been but little known in England, that of Grünewald still less. As this painting did not form part of the OettingenWallerstein collection, it is uncertain if the National Gallery was given the opportunity of possessing it. It can hardly be thought that even Sir Charles Eastlake would have neglected to secure what was on the face of it such an important monument of early German art.

During the last few years the study of the 'primitive' painters of northern Europe has become one of the most interesting for the student and historian of art. For this a tribute must be paid to Mr. W. H. J. Weale, who laboured so hard during the so-called 'gothic' period to expound to an ungrateful public the importance and value of the early painters of Bruges and the neighbourhood. It is to Mr. Weale that the great painters of that school-the Van Eycks, Memlinc, Gerard David, and others owe the final recognition of their pre-eminence in the history of painting. Mr. Weale's work has been taken up and continued by other workers, such as Dr. G. Hulin and M. Henri Hymans in Belgium, Dr. Max Friedländer and many others in Germany, and by M. Bouchot and M. Dimier in France, to say nothing of those who have tried to walk in Mr. Weale's footsteps in this country. The recent exhibition at Bruges of the works of the early

Prince Albert as a Collector

painters of the Netherlands, if it added little to the reputation of these great painters, whose fame was already established, revealed, at all events, the immense extent of the schools of painting, the artists of which it is important to localize and distinguish.

The exhibition to be held this spring in Paris of the works by the 'Primitifs Français' is a bold attempt to show that in France there existed an original school of artists, independent of the Netherlands. It is interesting to find that among the paintings of the Oettingen-Wallerstein collection, purchased by Prince Albert, there is a painting in four compartments with the legend of St. Margaret, which has been recognized as belonging to the primitive French school.

Another exhibition to be held at Düsseldorf seeks to ascertain the identities and works of the principal primitive artists of the Lower Rhine school, the so-called 'Master of the Death of Mary,' the Joost van Cleefs and other masters, whose figures are now vaguely discernible through their works. Here again in Prince Albert's collection are to be found paintings of this school, which will profit by the new light to be thrown on them.

It is hardly necessary to do more than allude to the far-reaching effect of that great exhibition of the works of Lucas Cranach and his school which was held at Dresden a few years ago.

Enough has been said to indicate the importance of the Prince Consort's private collections. It is hoped, as stated above, with His Majesty's gracious permission, to reproduce some of the more important paintings in future numbers of THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE.

VERNEY, BART.

BY R. S. CLOUSTON PART I

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IN English country seat is as far removed as possible from the mushroom-like growth of the Arabian Nights. Even when the greater part has been built at one time, alterations or additions have usually been subsequently made, and the interiors are even more diversified than the exteriors. In Claydon House we see destruction following construction almost immediately. One finds without surprise that different parts have dates from the twelfth to the nineteenth century; but there must be few, if any, cases in which one proprietor has pulled down so much of what an immediate predecessor had built.

Earl Verney, who came into possession of the estate in 1752, had a mania for building, which he indulged to his own ruin. He began almost at once, the stables being dated 1754; but his ambition was to create a house which should, without the use of gilding, outrival Stowe. For this purpose he employed Robert Adam, whom he possibly met while that architect was studying at Rome. The house, as Adam built it, exists only in the form of a plan, for its ducal magnificence required a corresponding income to live in it, and it was not even completed in all its details when the smash came. Of the furniture, which probably comprised much of Adam's designing, there is unfortunately not a single trace, as it was all carried away by the creditors, even to a carved mantelpiece imported from Italy, which, not being fixed in position, was regarded as a move

able.

Earl Verney himself only escaped capture by being taken away in the hearse which had borne his wife's body to the grave. Instead of remaining on the conti

nent, he actually returned some time after to the dismantled and deserted house, where, by the loyalty of his tenantry, his presence was kept secret. There is something very pathetic in the picture of his rambling through the empty rooms of the house which it had been the dream of his life to build, and of his beckoning from one of the windows to a boy whom he saw playing outside, so as to have a human being to speak to.

His niece and heiress, Lady Fermanagh, finding the house much too large for her requirements or income, pulled down at least two-thirds of it, in what seems to have been rather a random manner. Many of the alterations were not made under the direction of a professional architect, and some of them are far from happy. For instance, bow windows have been thrown out on one of the frontages, which are looked into by the windows in the wings. No proper entrance was made, but at a later date windows in two adjoining rooms were turned into doors, thus giving two entrances only separated by a few yards. There is, in fact, no dining-room, no drawing-room, and no front door.' From the outside Claydon House is disappointing in every way. The plan of the whole has naturally been irretrievably ruined, and the absence of a proper entrance is not only a loss architecturally, but somehow suggests a museum rather than a house.

In this instance, nevertheless, there is not so much lost as might at first be imagined, for Robert Adam thought from the interior outwards. He always seems to have had before his mind the fact that the people for whom he designed would be more affected by the beauty of the rooms in which they were to spend so much of their lives than by the external design,

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