Eastlake's Scholarly and Artistic Achievements Wednesday 10 October 2012 Lizzie Hill & Laura Hughes Overview I will begin this Art Bite with a quotation from A Century of British Painters by Samuel and Richard Redgrave, who refer to Eastlake as one of "a few exceptional painters who have served the art they love better by their lives than their brush" . This observation is in keeping with the norm of contemporary views in which Eastlake is first and foremost seen as an art historian and collector. However, as a man who began his career as a painter, it seems it would be interesting to explore both of these aspects of his life. Therefore, this Art Bite will be examining the validity of this critique by evaluating Eastlake's artistic outputs and scholarly achievements, and putting these two aspects of his life in direct relation to each other. By doing this, the aim behind this Art Bite is to uncover the fundamental reason behind Eastlake's contemporary and historical reputation, and ultimately to answer; - What proved to be Eastlake's best weapon in entering the Art Historical canon: his brain or his brush? Introduction So, who was Sir Charles Lock Eastlake? To properly be able to compare his reputation as an art historian versus being a painter himself, we need to know the basic facts about the man. A very brief overview is that Eastlake was born in Plymouth in 1793 and from an early age was determined to be a painter. He was the first student of the notable artist Benjamin Haydon in January 1809 and received tuition from the Royal Academy schools from late 1809. Eastlake devoted himself to his artwork, undertaking a rigorous routine consisting of drawing from 9.30-5, then 6-8pm, and finally 8-12pm where he would study Latin, Greek, and yet more drawing! Even in this heavily artistic part of his life, Eastlake was keen to learn the rudiments of the practice and theory of art (or put another way, the building block or the grammar of art), stating that he needed to "learn the language of art before I can express ideas" 1. Perhaps this could be seen to reflect his later life where he eventually moves away from creating art himself and instead moves toward writing about it. However this is getting ahead of ourselves - we'll reflect on this again later! Eastlake quickly became a notable painter himself and ended up selling perhaps what became one of his most famous paintings; Napoleon Bonaparte on Board the 'Bellerophon' in Plymouth Sound , which you can see an image of just over here! Interestingly the young Eastlake had actually witnessed this event with his own eyes, and when Napoleon had seen the artist at work he 1 Robertson, D. Sir Charles Eastlake and the Victorian Art World , Princeton: PUP, 1978 held his pose at the gangway and sent ashore a uniform and decorations for the young artist's use! At the time the painting was described as possessing "the highest claims to notice and praise" and also as being "a picture of first class of historical portraiture, full of beauty, sentiment and truth" . It was the sale of this very painting that enabled Eastlake to follow his dream and travel to Rome. His love of the city was transparent as he spent fourteen years there, albeit with trips around Europe during that time too. These years provided him with an invaluable education; he was introduced into international social and intellectual circles which were to prove as important to him as artistic ones. From this time on, his outlook was decidedly European. While in Italy, Eastlake executed some of his finest paintings. They proved popular enough with his colleagues back in England that in 1827 he was elected an associate member of the Royal Academy - the first ever artist ever accorded this honour in absentia. During the following decade Eastlake pursued an active career as a painter until in 1843 he began to swiftly ascend the art historical ladder. It was this year that he was appointed Keeper of the National Gallery (at this time there being no director's post). Then in 1850 he was elected President of the Royal Academy, and automatically received a knighthood. Shortly after, in 1855, Eastlake was appointed the first Director of the National Gallery, the position which he is perhaps best known for now. It was in this position that he undertook a huge responsibility in acquiring the largest amount of paintings for the National Gallery that had ever been achieved before, consisting of over 150 pictures! It was these purchases that worked to significantly transform the Gallery, allowing it to finally rival, at least in terms of quality if not quantity, those continental galleries such as the Louvre or the Prado. And yet almost 150 years after Eastlake's death - this man who was a painter, museum director, collector and writer, how is he remembered? During the research for this Art Bite, Laura and I quickly realised that the general consensus was that Eastlake's latter work as a scholar and administrator were far higher regarded than his artistic production. Considering that he was not made Director of the National Gallery until he was 61, this seems like an unusual turn of events. You could even infer that his early life is pretty much ignored, even though arguably his later achievements are enabled because of these experiences. Therefore the aim of this Art Bite is to understand why this preference exists and why, despite having early success and great potential, did Eastlake allow his art to take second place in favour of his other pursuits. To fully consider Eastlake's artistic legacy we should look at his time in Rome. Eastlake's success as an artist: When Eastlake first moved to Rome he was enjoying great success in his artistic career. However, other artists nursed doubts at first, indeed John Constable worrying that Eastlake was “mouldering away” while he chased the ghosts of Titian and Giorgione 2 This comment was probably made because Eastlake had changed subject matter quite definitively; moving from large classicising scenes from Roman history influenced by the work of his teacher Haydon, to smaller-scale genre scenes of Italian peasants and bandits, which proved very popular with an English audience back home. It is clear that in his early days in Rome Eastlake himself felt that he was improving greatly as an artist. In a letter to Harman he outlined a list of famous painters who too had studied in Rome, with the likes of Poussin and Reynolds included in this. By doing so, it implied that Eastlake was boldly identifying himself as their heir. Even before his great success in exhibiting The Spartan Isadas and thus becoming the first ARA ever elected in absentia, Eastlake had a confidence in the "growing merit of his paintings" . This too was confirmed later on in his life where the Art Union featured him as their first artist in their 'Portraits of British Artists' series. This underlined his conspicuous position among the leading British painters of the day. Therefore, with all this success, why did he eventually move away all together from painting and solely become a scholar and administrator? One of the possible links to be made is through another Director of the National Gallery; Sir Thomas Lawrence. The two were in correspondence throughout Eastlake's adjourn in Rome, with Eastlake continually seeking the other's advice. At one point Eastlake wrote to Lawrence that he was intending to follow those such as Michelangelo with their dark sombre tones in paintings. However, Lawrence managed to alter Eastlake's view and convince him instead to create a lighter palette, instead following in the footsteps of Titian and Raphael instead. This can partly be illustrated with a look at his painting Contemplation , which you can see right here. As you may have noticed, this painting is incredibly reminiscent of Titian. In a comparison with his earlier works, for example Cypresses at L'Arriccia, painted around 1816-20 and which you can see right here, it is, in my opinion, quite different. Though the older piece is not entirely dark in the way Eastlake was intending to go later on, you can still see the more muted tones, giving the whole thing a slightly more sombre tone than the later Contemplation which almost seems to radiate light through the painting. It was this change in tonal features and palette that changed not only Eastlake's paintings, but also his philosophy of art. This was partly done in correspondence with some of the great names of the time, for example Lawrence who we have previously mentioned. However also it was written in Eastlake's numerous travel notebooks (one of which you can see in this cabinet). In these notebooks Eastlake would take detailed notes on the artworks which he had seen, as well as noting his ideas on art theory and practice. 2 Avery-Quash, S. Art for the Nation: The Eastlakes and the Victorian Art World, (National Gallery Company) (National Gallery London) . Thus even at this time when Eastlake was primarily a painter, he was still influencing many of the great artists of the time. Even when Eastlake returned to England after being elected Associate Member of the Royal Academy (ARA), his paintings were still popular. On his return home his depictions of scenes from the life of Christ were very well received, as were the representation from Italian late medieval and Renaissance history. At one point he was even selected by Prince Albert himself to paint one of the lunettes at Buckingham Palace! He was receiving glowing reviews, such as in this letter from William Collins to Eastlake's own brother.