will be an object of greater curiosity. Our successors will have no difficulty in procuring set portraits of ' Scott, Rogers, Moore, and all the better brothers,' though even of them it will not be easy to obtain the familiar faces and attitudes as sketched in the Magazine; but where can it be expected that elsewhere will be found any record of the countenances of the illustrious obscure who were scribbling away, with more or less repute, in the reign of William IV.?"
There is no doubt that the greater number of these portraits were the production of that distinguished artist, the late Daniel Maclise, R.A. For one or two, the "Gallery" may have been indebted to the well-known "Alfred Crowquill" (the late Alfred Henry Forrester); and it is not impossible that Thackeray himself may have lent a helping hand on an emergency. Contenting myself, however, wath these general suggestions, I shall make no attempt at further discrimination; nor refer to the manifestly erroneous judgments of certain self-constituted "experts" who have dogmatized on the subject.
The Sketches being slight,—in many cases tinged by caricature, — in nearly all taken surreptitiously or from recollection,—and accompanied, moreover, by humorous, satirical or sarcastic comments,—both artist and author were disposed to obscure their identity with a veil of pseudonymous mystery. The portraits, speaking generally, are nevertheless of the highest excellence, and bear the impress of a master hand. Firm and delicate at once in outline, and felicitous in composition, they exhibit a marvellous subtlety in the apprehension and exhibition of intellectual character. Mr. S. C. Hall, a most competent authority, speaks of them as "admirable as likenesses, and capital as specimens of art"; while Thackeray, in a letter to G. H. Lewes, tells us how greatly Goethe[1] was interested in those "admirable portraits,"—though "the ghastly caricature of R(ogers)" made him shut up the book and put it away in anger; for, as the veteran said with natural horror, "They would make me look like that."[2]
- ↑ Life of Goethe, by G. H. Lewes, vol. ii. p. 445, ed. 1855.
- ↑ It may be well to mention that a similar series of outline portraits, entitled "Our Portrait Gallery," inferior in interest and artistic merit, but accompanied by much longer and more serious biographical notices, is to be found in the Dublin University Magazine. This includes seventy-two portraits, and terminates with that of Captain McClure, R.N., in the number for March, 1854, vol. xliii. Those of Moore and J. W. Croker (vol. xix.). Dr. Maginn (vol. xxiii.), Crofton Croker (vol. xxxiv.), and J. S. Knowles (vol. xl.), have tMr analogues in Eraser's series, with which they may be compared.
