Engraved by J. Grozier, by Ch. Turner, A.R. A., and by F. Joubert. On canvas, 2 ft. 6 in. h. by 2 ft. 1 in. w. Under glass. Bought at the sale of Mr. Harman's pictures. VERNON COLLECTION. No. 681. PORTRAIT OF AN OFFICER, CAPTAIN ORME, full length, standing, leaning on his horse. On canvas, 7 ft. 9 in. h. by 4 ft. 9 in. w. Painted for the Earl of Inchiquin, and exhibited at Spring Gardens in 1761. Sir Joshua received one hundred guineas, a second payment, for this picture in December 1777.* Purchased at the sale of Mr. R. Williams's pictures in 1862. No. 754. PORTRAITS OF TWO GENTLEMEN. He on the spectator's left is the Rev. George Huddesford, Vicar of Loxley, Warwickshire; the other is Mr. John Codrington Warwick Bampfylde. They are looking at some prints; the latter gentleman holds a violin in his right hand. Mr. Huddesford was in his youth a painter, and a pupil of Sir Joshua's; he was also a poet and satirist; he died in 1809. Mr. Bampfylde, likewise a poet, died about the year 1796.† On canvas, 4 ft. 1 in. h. by 3 ft. 4 in. w. Engraved by A. Sanders, for Graves' Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Painted in 1778-9. Presented in 1866 by Mrs. Plenge, in the name of her mother, Mrs. Martha Beaumont. wwwwwwwww...~~~ RIPPINGILLE. EDWARD VILLIERS RIPPINGILLE was born at King's Lynn, in Norfolk, in 1798. He was self-taught; first established himself at Bristol; and was an exhibitor at the Royal Academy as early as 1819, when his picture of "The Post Office" attracted the notice of the public. The next year he exhibited a portrait of Bird, the Academician, painted in 1817. But his pictures were generally of the class known as genre, as "A Recruiting Party;" "The Funeral Procession of W. Canynge," from Chatterton "Going to the Fair;" "The Spendthrift perplexed; "Italian Brigands visiting a Wine-grower during the Vintage; &c. He visited France, Italy, and the East; delivered lectures on art, and was the author of some literary contributions to the periodical press. He died * See Cotton's Sir Joshua Reynolds' Notes, &c. London, 8vo. 1859. t Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with short biographical notices, by R. E. Graves, B.A., of the British Museum. Folio. 1866. suddenly, at a railway station, near Birmingham, on the 22d of April 1859. No. 454. STUDY OF A FEMALE HEAD. 11 in. w. On canvas, 2 ft. 3 in. h. by 1 ft. No. 455. A CAPUCHIN FRIAR A study made at Calais ; a head, profile. Engraved by J. C. Armytage. On canvas, 2 ft. 3 in. h. by 1 ft. 11 in. w. VERNON COLLECTION. ROBERTS. DAVID ROBERTS, R.A., was born at Stockbridge near Edinburgh, October the 24th, 1796, and was apprenticed to a house painter and decorator in the Scotch capital. At the expiration, however, of his apprenticeship, he devoted himself at once to scene painting; and obtained employment in 1816 at the Edinburgh circus, at 258. a week; he was afterwards engaged for the Glasgow theatre. He was not a student of the Trustees' Academy, though he attended it a few days. In 1822 Roberts came to London, and was engaged as a scene painter at Drury Lane Theatre, where later Mr. Stanfield became his fellow-labourer in the same department. His very great success as a scene painter led Roberts to try his fortune in the more delicate province of architectural painting in oil, and in this branch of his art also he soon demonstrated extraordinary capacity, and was not long in acquiring a public recognition of his powers. He appeared first as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 1826, with a view of "Rouen Cathedral;" he exhibited also at the British Institution, and more frequently with the Society of British Artists at Suffolk Street; he was one of the original members and a vice-president of that society, but had to leave it eventually in order to qualify himself for membership of the Royal Academy. In 1832-33 Roberts made a tour in Spain, which visit was the source during many years of some of his most charming sketches* and most valuable pictures. In 1835 * A drawing of "The Great Square of Tetuan," made by Roberts in 1833, was sold to Mr. Bicknell, of Herne Hill, for twenty guineas; and was afterwards purchased by the Marquis of Hertford, at Mr. Bicknell's sale in 1863, for 430l. 10s. he exhibited at the Royal Academy a large exterior view of "The Cathedral of Burgos," and painted the small interior of the same cathedral, which is now in this collection. Roberts made many journeys on the Continent of Europe, and in 1838-39 undertook an arduous and extensive tour in the East, which, like his Spanish journeys, was thenceforth the constant source of pictures, including some of his finest works. A more immediate result was a noble series of published sketches which has spread the painter's reputation even to the East.* Among the most remakable pictures, the result of this Eastern tour, are "The Ruins of Baalbec, Mount Lebanon in the Distance," exhibited at the Academy in 1841, and "Jerusalem from the South-east, the Mount of Olives," exhibited in 1845. From 1835 until his death, Roberts's name was but once, in 1839, absent from the Royal Academy catalogues; he contributed altogether 99 pictures, somewhat more than one third of his works in oil, to the Royal Academy exhibitions. He painted altogether about 260 oil pictures; for the first sold, he received 50 shillings, for the last 525 pounds.† He was elected an Associate of the Academy in 1838, while in the East, and became a full member in 1841, having earned this dignity by his Spanish pictures chiefly. He died in London of apoplexy, on the evening of the 25th of November, 1864, in his sixty-ninth year. Though Roberts did not attain to a great age, he yet lived long enough to see his early pictures sold at auctions, for ten, and even twenty, times the amount of the original price fixed by himself. His pictures are nearly exclusively architectural, but the purely landscape and figure portions of them have generally an admirable effect also. They are too numerous to admit of mention of even of a selection of them in a notice of this description. Among the most interesting are some of the very last-those *These sketches were exhibited in a room in Regent Street in 1840, and were published, on a large scale by Alderman Moon in 1842 and following years, under the title-The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia; the lithographs drawn by Louis Haghe, and the letter press of the "Holy Land" by Dr. Croly; 123 plates in three volumes folio. Egypt and Nubia, with descriptions by Mr. Brockedon, constitute a separate work; both were published plain and coloured by hand in imitation of the sketches. † For these details I am indebted to his executor, Mr. Henry Bicknell of Clapham Common, who is married to the painter's only daughter. illustrating the more conspicuous architectural monuments of this metropolis. As remarkable exceptions to his ordinary subjects may be instanced "The Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans under Titus, in the year 71;" exhibited at the Academy in 1849 (published in chromolithography, by Louis Haghe); and the large and magnificent sunset view of Rome from the convent of Sant' Onofrio, in the exhibition of 1855, and now permanently placed in the Edinburgh gallery, to which it was presented by the painter. Many of Roberts's foreign sketches have been published in "The Landscape Annual," and other similar publications of the same period; he received 15l. each for the original drawings. The sale of his remaining sketches and drawings, at Christie's, in June 1865, realized the large amount of 16,450l. * No. 400. INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL AT BURGOS, NORTH TRANSEPT. The rich gothic cathedral of Burgos, the capital of Old Castile, was commenced by Ferdinand III. early in the 13th century, but was not completed until some centuries later; the magnificent flight of steps to the left, leading into the cathedral from the upper town, belongs to the period of the Renaissance, and was executed in the 16th century. Engraved by E. Challis. On wood, 1 ft. 8 in. h. by 11 in. w. Painted in 1835. VERNON COLLECTION. *The following notes from Mr. Henry Bicknell's catalogue of his father's sale in 1863, that is in the painter's lifetime, relating to seven pictures, by Roberts, afford interesting materials for the statistics of prices. In the first column are the sums received by the painter, in the second are the amounts realized for the purchaser's estate at the sale : No. 401. CHANCEL OF THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF ST. PAUL, AT ANTWERP. The church, as it at present exists, is a work of the 17th century. The original church, which was attached to a Dominican convent, was destroyed in 1547. The marble altar is by Pieter Verbrugghen, the younger: the altar piece, by Cornelis Cels, was painted in Rome, in 1807. Engraved by E. Challis. On canvas, 4 ft. 8 in. h. by 3 ft. 8 in. w. Painted in 1848 for Robert Vernon, Esq. VERNON COLLEC TION. ROMNEY. GEORGE ROMNEY, historical and portrait painter, was born at Dalton, in Lancashire, December the 15th, 1734. His father was a cabinet-maker of that town, and brought Romney up to his own business; but the son having shown a decided ability for drawing, the father was induced to place him, at the age of nineteen, with a portrait painter, of the name of Steele, then established at Kendal. In 1756 Romney married, and in the following year commenced painting on his own account. His first production, a hand holding a letter for the post office window at Kendal, remained there for many years. For five years Romney practised at Kendal portrait and fancy subjects; and ultimately with such success, that in 1762 he ventured to try his fortunes in the capital. In London he rose rapidly to fame and fortune and in 1773 he visited Italy; he returned to London in 1775, and took a house in Cavendish Square. From this time he divided the patronage of the great and wealthy with Reynolds and Gainsborough; but his wife and family were never called to share his success; they remained at Kendal, and during thirty-seven years he paid only two visits to the north. In 1799, however, he broke up his establishment at Hampstead, where he had latterly resided, retired to his native country, and rejoined his family, at Kendal. He died at Kendal, November 15th, 1802, and was buried at his birthplace, Dalton. Romney's finished pictures are chiefly portraits; of his poetic works, several designs and cartoons are preserved at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and the Royal Insti |