Painting

Delivered November 18, 1853.

107. The subject on which I would desire to engage your attention this evening, is the nature and probable result of a certain schism which took place a few years ago among our British artists.

57. The delivery of the foregoing lectures excited, as it may be imagined, considerable indignation among the architects who happened to hear them, and elicited various attempts at reply.

138. I could not enter, in a popular lecture, upon one intricate and difficult question, closely connected with the subject of Pre-Raphaelitism—namely, the relation of invention to observation; and composition to imitation. It is still less a question to be discussed in the compass of a note; and I must defer all careful examination of it to a future opportunity. Nevertheless, it is impossible to leave altogether unanswered the first objection which is now most commonly made to the Pre-Raphaelite work, namely, that the principle of it seems adverse to all exertion of imaginative power.

Delivered November 4, 1853.

29. Before proceeding to the principal subject of this evening, I wish to anticipate one or two objections which may arise in your minds to what I must lay before you. It may perhaps have been felt by you last evening, that some things I proposed to you were either romantic or Utopian. Let us think for a few moments what romance and Utopianism mean.

Delivered November 15, 1853.

77. My object this evening is not so much to give you any account of the works or the genius of the great painter whom we have so lately lost (which it would require rather a year than an hour to do), as to give you some idea of the position which his works hold with respect to the landscape of other periods, and of the general condition and prospects of the landscape art of the present day. I will not lose time in prefatory remarks, as I have little enough at any rate, but will enter abruptly on my subject.

  1. Seville, the City of Music.
  2. A Day in Seville.
  3. Some Stories of the Alcazar.
  4. The Giralda—Its History and Its Architecture.
  5. The Children of Murillo’s Paintings.
  6. Murillo and Velazquez.
  7. Some Spanish Portraits.
  8. My Favorite Picture by Murillo.
  9. Some Visions Seen by Murillo.
  10. The Escurial—Its History.

Rubens was par excellence the painter of the group that included the heroes of the Dutch Republic; and, like many of his contemporaries, whilst excelling in his own line, he was, in other respects also, a great man, in a time of and among great men. —Chas. W. Kett.

  1. 1. A Day in Rubens’ Studio.
  2. 2. An Evening with Rubens.
  3. 3. Rubens at the Monastery.
  4. 4. A Day with Rubens in London.
  5. 5. Rubens as a Diplomat.
  6. 6. Antwerp, the Home City of Rubens.
  7. 7. Rubens and His Friends.
  8. 8. The Women Rubens Loved.
  9. 9. My Favorite Picture by Rubens.
  10. 10. The Masters of Rubens.

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We are about to study Raphael, the most generally praised, the most beautiful, and certainly the most loved of all the painters of the world. When all these delightful things can be truthfully said of one man, surely we may look forward with pleasure to a detailed study of his life and works.

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