Shelley M. Bennett, Thomas Stothard: the Mechanisms of Art Patronage in England Circa 1800
REVIEW
Shelley M. Bennett, Thomas Stothard: The Mechanisms of Art Patronage in England circa 1800
G. E. Bentley, Jr.
Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly, Volume 23, Issue 4, Spring 1990, pp. 205-209 Spring 1990 BLAKE/AN IllUSTRATED QUARTERLY 205
and craftsmen, including Flaxman the as engraver and part-publisher, of at sculptor, "Mr. George Cumberland, least as much as the £80 he had REVIEWS and Mr. Sharp [the engraver]," who received from Macklin in 1783 for were "in the habit of frequently pass- engraving Stothard's "The Fall of ing ... [their] evenings in drawing and Rosamund." From this he and Parker designing" together.s Each of Blake's would have had to pay the cost (usual- Shelley M. Bennett. friends went on to a career of distinc- ly modest) of Stothard's two deSigns, Thomas Stothard: The tion, Flaxman as the most famous perhaps £20 each.7 However, very few Mechanisms of Art Pa- English sculptor of his day, Stothard as copies of "Callisto" and "Zephyrus & the most productive contemporary Flora" survive, and perhaps not many tronage in England circa designer of book-illustrations, Sharp were sold. It is likely that Blake and 1800. Columbia: U of Mis- as one of the finest line-engravers, and Parker had some difficulty in finding souriP, 1988. xii + 112 pp. Cumberland as a prolific gentleman the money to pay Stothard for his 53 illus. $29. poet, artist, novelist, and inventor. In designs. And it is notable that after later life, Blake was professionally the 1785 Blake engraved no more of most obscure of the five friends, but Stothard's designs and the firm of Parker & Blake went out of business. Reviewed by He was considered by Stothard and Flax- man . . . with the highest admiration. Bennett remarks that in a scene from G. E. Bentley,]r. These artists allowed him their utmost un- Fenelon'S Adventures of Telemachus qualified praise, and were ever anxious to (1795), "Stothard's sentimental inter- recommend him and his productions to pretation of Venus (Vice) has subver- the patrons of the Arts . .. .6 homas Stothard was "probably the ted the didactic message of this scene" Tmost prolific" book-illustrator of Perha ps with encouragement from (29), and the same could be said of his day (1755-1834) with some three Stothard, the book-sellers commis- numerous other Stothard deSigns, such thousand designs published in his sioned Blake to engrave thirty-two as those for Pope's Rape of the Lock lifetime.) He was also a painter of note, book-illustrations after Stothard in (1798). The point is not so much that a Royal Academician and Librarian of 1779-84; this is as many as he Signed he perverted the "message" of his the Royal Academy-his charming than after all other deSigners com- authors as that he chose from them catalogue of the Royal Academy bined. Stothard was of far more impor- what he could best give visible form Library consists of pictures of each tance in Blake's early professional to. Had such changes been made by bookcase with the title on the spine of career than vice versa. The thirty-two William Blake, his modern critics each volume. He was a man of consid- plates Blake engraved after Stothard would say that he was "correcting" or erable importance and influence in the formed only a fraction of Stothard's "criticizing" his author or treating him art world of his day, and it is somewhat book-illustrations; he designed 244 ironically. Stothard's temper is sweeter surprising that more attention has not plates for The Novelist's Magazine than Blake's, his consistency greater- been devoted to him.2 Shelley Ben- (1780-86) alone, of which Blake en- and his superficiality is often striking. nett's book is welcome in supplying a graved only eight. Blake is dealt with Bennett tends to speak of him some- long-felt want and in providing a good here (chiefly on 11-15) as being, of what dismissively: ( his illustrations are deal of abstruse and diverse informa- course, only incidental to Stothard's always attractive, decorative designs tion not previously available about one career. with little or no dramatic impact" (29). of the best known artists of his time. For most of these book-illustrations, This is true, but it would have been Stothard was also the intimate friend Blake was probably paid at the rate of more relevant if Stothard had been of George Cumberland, John Flaxman, about £5 each, or perhaps £160 for all striving for dramatic impact. The need and William Blake. Indeed, Blake was of them. One of the most remarkable for drama is ours, not his. With Stothard on a sailing jaunt the first features of the relationship between To us, there seems to be a predict- time Blake was arrested for treason.3 Blake and Stothard is that Stothard ability about Stothard's designs, which Surprisingly little is known about the designed the only two prints known to often depict fluttering females in relationship of Stothard and Blake, have been published by the short- agitating circumstances, but to his con- though it is clear that they were good lived firm of Parker & Blake (1784-85). temporaries his adaptability was as friends for a time. According to con- When Blake engraved Stothard's remarkable as his reliable gracefulness. temporaries, "Trotter, the engraver, ... designs of "Callisto" and "Zephyrus & In 1825 Pickering published a puff introduced his friend Stothard to Flora" in 1784, he should have ex- about Stothard which said: Blake, "4 and "in early life" they formed pected a commercial return for each, a little circle with other fledgling artists 206 BLAKE/AN IUUSTRATED QUARTERLY Spring 1990
Of all our artists who have applied their But Turner called him admiringly "the talents to the illustration of books, he is Giotto of England" (53), and Thomas unquestionably the most original in com- Lawrence wrote that "Mr. Stothard is position, the most varied, r fined .and cha~ act ristic. In this latt r quahty he IS perhaps the first genius, after Mr. especially distinguished; it being won?er- Fuseli and Mr. Flaxman, that the ful to s e with what spirit he identIfies English school or modern Europe has himself with his subject, and makes his known" (90). The breadth and taste of composition appear, as well in the charac- this praise should make us suspect that t r of their figures, as in their inferior ad- juncts of scenery, buildings, costume, &c. we are narrow-minded, not that they to belong inseparably to the time and s~ory were blind. which h treats .... With Milton his h.e., Shelley Bennett's focus is more upon he?l is primeval and angeltcal; with Stothard's versatility and about chan- Bunyan dreamyand Calvinistic ... j he flut- ges in the art world to which he was ters with infinite grace in the courtly and sparkling scenes of Pope's "Rape of the responding than on his most charac- Lock." (30) teristic achievements. "Stothard's career provides numerous insights His publisher Harrison said that he had into the effect these new market con- r ceived "numerous encomiums" upon ditions had on the mechanisms of art "that most astonishing artist, the truly patronage" (vii). She effectively demon- ing nious Mr. Stothard ... aU uniform- strates the range of his work from ly declaring him the first Genius of the "banknotes and theatre tickets, to sil- with Turner on the illustrations for the Age in this department [of book-illus- ver work and funerary monuments" famous edition of Rogers' Itaiy(1830), tration]" (8). One of his admirers in the (36). The book is organized into chap- and Bennett gives an enormous list of 1780s was Charles Lamb, who wrote: t rs on his foonative years, his entry contemporary books and periodicals into the art world, his elevation in which bear Stothard's designs. This list How often have I with a child's fond gaze status as an artist, additional sources of POI' d on th pictu1' d wonder thou seems to be far more extensive and [artistic] income, and the influence of had t done: reliable than anything previously in the market in Stothard's last years, with Clarissa mournful, and prim Grandison! print, chiefly Coxhead's Thomas All Pi Iding's, Smollett's hero s, rose to appendices on Stothard's excursions Stothard (1908), but the difficulties of vi Wj (e.g., with Blake when they were su- tracing the original publication of J s wand I beli ved the phantoms tru . spected of treason) and books illus- , (54) some three thousand designs and of trated by Stothard. She has searched their reprintings and copies (legal and widely for Stothard materials, p.ar- We are more Uk ly to think of Stothard fraudulent) are very formidable. In- ticularly for drawings by him, listing in the floral world of Leigh Hunt (and deed, I know of no attempt so am- four collections which among them of the early K ats), who wrote of him: bitious as this one for any artist. Some have over 1,700 drawings. Bennett of the problems were created by r cords many curious facts about Stothard himself. Joseph Farington ... never since those southern masters Stothard; for instance, he was an en- fine ... wrote in his diary for 20 May 1811 that thusiastic lepidopterist, with what a las [rue woman's g otl mien divine "Stothard was makeing small draw- contempor ry c lIed "a large col1e~ Looked so, as in tl os breathing heads ings, Head Pieces, for a Lady's Pocket of thin tion of mothes and flies" (36). This Book published annually. He has done With part dIcks, and simp! chc k should remind us that the moth-Wings this for the publication many years, but sincer . on may of his c lestial maidens may does not put His name to them." It is well be derived from nature-and that Therefor ,against our climate's chilly hard enough to find all the plates with Blake's poem called "The ly" is clear- hold, Stothard's name on them without hav- Thou ha tan st in sunny glades and ly about a butterfly. . ing to look for his designs which were bow rSj But th accomplishn1ents for whlCh published anonymously. And ther ,about thee, never growing Stothard was b st known by his con- old, P rtly because of such difficulties, temporaries, and for which he was Are th se falr things, cle' l' as the lily Bennett has relied heavily upon col- most important to William Blak ,were flow rs, lections of Stothard's prints made by Such a great P rrar h lov d,-only less his book-illustrations. There are some his contemporaries, and upon their c kl, fascinating accounts of Stothard's manuscript notes on the prints. Her list Mor' trUly virtuous, and of gladdening work here, such as his collaboration p w rs. (32) of over ~o hundred fifty publications Spring 1990 BLAKE/AN IllUSTRATED QUARTERLY 207
with plates after Stothard's designs engravings after his designs. I have Proprietor; Sold Wholesale and forms a vel)' substantial portion of her made notes on books with Stothard Retail by Alex. Hogg [et a1.], n.d. book (63-89) and perhaps its most last- prints I have encountered, and these [1793- 94?]).
Cowper, William, Poetical Works, New Moore, Thomas, A Selection ofpopular with imprints of 1802-03) and dition, 2 vols. (London: Joseph Nattonal Airs With Symphonies and 13 for Milton (engraved by Johnson, 1800).
Lady'sPoeticaIMagaztne; Of, Beauties -. Stothard signed receipts to Mr. 1 According to the obituary of Stothard of British Po try (London: arrison [presumably George] Robinson for in The Gentlema n 's MagaZine ns 2 (1834): & Co., 1791).
ley Margaret Bennett, "Thomas Stothard, I am told by Mrs. H. E. Jones, Assistant 5 Obituary of Flaxman in The Annual R. A." UCLA Ph.D., 1977 (the basis of the Keeper of the Search Department of the Obituary (1828}-see Blake Records 362. present book). (. ... Not in her "Selected Public Record Office, that there is "no men- 6 J. T. Smith, A Book for a Rainy Day Bibliography" 100-06.) The life of Stothard tion of the arrest of William Blake or Thom- (1845}-see Blake Records 26. which Bennett attributes to Allan Cunning- as Stothard" in the Alpbabettcal Gutde to 7 For his large oil of "The Pilgrimage to ham in his L1ves o/the Most Emtnent British War Office and other Military Records Pres- Canterbury" at the height of his reputation Patnters (1880) 149-52, is in fact by the erved in the Public Record Office-but of in 1807, Stothard received £60 (Bennett editor of the 1880 edition, Mrs. Heaton. course the index is not exhaustive. 48). It was conventional for the publisher 3 This incident is dated here "perhaps ... 4 J. T. Smith, Nollekens (1828)-see to buy the design from the artist and thus 1779" (11, 91) and "ca. 1781" (62). Blake Blake Records 466. acquire publication rights to it. Records (1969) guesses 1780 (19).
admirably in the first category, fails in probably not enough to fully under- William Blake. Aktens- the second (although some compen- stand the original) with an excellent sation is provided in the aftelWord), text to accompany the plates. kapet mellan Himmel and achieves only mediocre results in The (untitled) foreword is another oeb Helvete, trans. Folke the third. A review of this book is there- matter. Although Isaksson, as one Isaksson with an after- fore bound to be somewhat fragmen- would expect of a poet of his caliber, has word by Goran Malm- tary, taking up each of these parts some interesting obselVations to make, quist. Tystberga, Sweden: separately. the uninitiated reader is not provided Bokforlaget Epokhe. n.d. Folke Isaksson's translation is on the with enough infonnation about the his- whole excellent. Isaksson manages to torical context and internal references of 71 pp. + frontispiece and 27 render the tone and rhythm of Blake's The Marriage to approach it with any color plates. English in a Swedish version that is degree of confidence. The foreword also poetic but free of unnecessary archa- perpetuates the myth of Blake's later ism. Isaksson retains Blake's use of works as a farrago of muddy prophedes: uppercase lettering but alters his punc- Reviewed by Morton D. During the long last years of his life, Wil- tuation; the latter is sometimes but not liam Blake, the unknown giant, lived in a Paley and Gunnel Tottie always necessary. (Cf. for instance pI. state of disappointment, depreSSion, [and] 14, where Isaksson substitutes a period perhaps at times derangement, writing for a comma after Helland a semicolon enormous poetical works where the songs rl A !though this is not the first rendi- for a comma after tree oflife.) Isaksson and blasphemies of his ea ier periods tum 1""1.tion of The Marriage of Heaven into prophetic murmurings. But some shows a sure sense of style in his freer critics also believe that Blake was in to appear in Swedish,l it is by and Hell renderings; thus for instance poetic danger of his life and was driven under- far the most ambitious. It comprises tales(pl. 11) is translated as sagen Dcb ground because of his political radicalism, four elements: a translation of the text dikt rather than the literal poetiska and that, resorting to allegory and ec- by the well-known poet Folke berattelser. centricity, he made himself invisible. (5) Isaksson, a short foreword by the Mistakes are few and unimportant. This is consonant with the know-noth- translator, color reproductions of all It would probably have been better to ing view of Alfred Kazin, whose essay the plates, and an aftetword by the render This said he, like all firm of 1941 (or perhaps a later reprint of it) sinologist, Blake scholar, and member perswasions, is come to pass(pl. 13) as is the most recent critical work to be of the Swedish Academy, Goran Malm- Denna . . . har liksom varye annan referred to here (5). Shouldn't an intro- quist. These parts are of such disparate fast 6vertygelse blivitfullbordad or bar duction to The Marriage invite the quality that it is impossible to render a blivit uppfylld, rather than bar blivit curious reader to further exploration single judgment of the volume. Perhaps godtagen, as Isaksson does. In plate rather tl1an uninformed dismissal? As the best way to begin is by asking what 10, one might question the translation there is neither annotation nor bibliog- such a book oUght to accomplish. of unacted desires as otilljredsstallda raphy, however, such a reader is going An edition of Blake in a foreign ("unsatisfied") begar; perhaps oprovade to be hard put to understand even the language should presumably provide lustar would have selVed. But these work at hand. Why is a new heaven a clear, accurate text, a critical intro- are mostly suggestions; Isaksson has begun, and why is it thirty-three years dUction and select bibliography, and splendidly performed his difficult task since its advent? Who is Rintrab, mere- in the case of an illuminated book, and has managed to provide Swedish ly referred to as "wrathful, fireshaking" trustworthy reproductions of Blake's readers (who, if they are interested in in the foreword (6)? Shouldn't an edi- etched pages. Aktenskapet succeeds Blake, may know some English but tion such as this provide answers to