expense. In April 1841 a select committee of the House of Commons was appointed, and the evidence was taken of various artists, including Dyce. This committee recommended the employment of fresco-painting to decorate the vacant wall-spaces in the new buildings, and it was implied that the style of the Munich artists was the best to be adopted. In November 1841 a royal commission was appointed, with the prince consort as chairman and Mr. Eastlake as secretary. In 1843 a cartoon competition was held in Westminster Hall, and in 1844 a fresco competition. This latter exhibition disposed of the objections of some persons who alleged that no Englishman was capable of painting in fresco, and that Cornelius must be brought over to execute them. Cornelius is stated to have himself said that it was needless to bring him over from Germany when Dyce's services were available. Dyce, who enjoyed the confidence of the prince consort, was one of the competitors, though he never concealed his opinion that fresco was unsuited to the English climate. In the meantime Dyce completed his first fresco of ‘The Consecration of Archbishop Parker’ in Lambeth Palace, two heads from which he had sent to the fresco competition. This caused him to be one of the six artists selected for the frescoes in the House of Lords, and eventually the commissioners decided that Dyce should complete a fresco in the House of Lords representing the ‘Baptism of Ethelbert’ before any other commissions were given. This was completed in 1846, and was so successful that the commissioners gave five further commissions to other artists, with instructions to adapt their frescoes to suit Dyce's design and colouring. Before executing this fresco Dyce visited Italy in order to renew and perfect his studies in fresco-painting, and addressed a paper on the subject to the fine arts commission, which was printed in one of their reports. Dyce was next employed by the prince consort to paint a fresco at Osborne of ‘Neptune giving the Empire of the Sea to Britannia,’ and also to paint one of the frescoes from the masque of ‘Comus’ in the garden pavilion at Buckingham Palace. While painting the former Dyce suggested to his royal highness the suitability of the Arthurian legends as decorations typifying ‘Chivalry’ for the queen's robing-room in the House of Lords, remarking that they should be treated in the way that the German fresco-painters had treated the Nibelungenlied, and that Maclise was a fitting painter for the task. The subjects were adopted by the commissioners, but the execution was entrusted to Dyce, who agreed to paint in fresco seven compartments in the queen's robing-room, together with smaller compartments in the frieze, twenty-eight in all, to be completed in seven years from 1 July 1848 at a total cost of 4,800l. This contract, subsequently modified in some particulars, turned out to be an unwise one, owing to the limited portion of the year during which work in fresco is possible in this climate, and the excessive amount of research and study necessary for the correct representation of the details in the Arthurian legends. Another opportunity for indulging what was perhaps his chief predilection in art occupied much time; he was asked to undertake the interior decoration of the church of All Saints, Margaret Street, an offer he was unable to refuse, which included a series of frescoes from the life of Jesus Christ. This he completed during 1858–9, while the House of Lords' frescoes remained unfinished. Dyce did not escape censure for accepting a second commission before the previous contract had been fulfilled, and he himself admitted that to some extent he had laid himself open to it. In 1860 his health began to fail him, and his sufferings were increased by his acute sensitiveness to the complaints made from time to time in the houses of parliament as to the non-completion of the frescoes. Finally, feeling that he would not live to complete them, he wished to return all the money he had received for them. He died in his house at Streatham on 14 Feb. 1864, having completed but five of the frescoes in the queen's robing-room, viz. those typifying ‘Hospitality,’ ‘Religion,’ ‘Mercy,’ ‘Generosity,’ and ‘Courtesy,’ as component parts of ‘Chivalry’ which the whole series was intended to depict. Dyce was buried in St. Leonard's Church, Streatham, which had been enlarged from his designs. He married 17 Jan. 1850 Jane Bickerton, eldest daughter of James Brand of Milanthort, Kinross-shire, by whom (who died 29 Dec. 1885, aged 55) he left two sons and two daughters. Dyce's time was fully occupied during the later years of his life, and his easel-paintings are not numerous; among those exhibited by him at the Royal Academy may be noticed ‘The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel’ (1850), ‘King Lear and the Fool in a Storm’ (1851), ‘Christabel’ (1855), ‘Titian preparing to make his first essay in Colouring’ (1859), ‘St. John leading home his adopted Mother’ (1860, commenced in 1844), ‘George Herbert at Bemerton’ (1861) and ‘Eleazar of Damascus’ (1863). Dyce, who was deeply learned in theology and patristic literature, was one of the leaders in the high church movement. He was also an accomplished musician, both as organist and composer, and composed a ‘Non nobis’ anthem,
