Volume 1

The Farington diary / edited by James Greig.

  • Joseph Farington
Date:
[1922?-1928]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Farington diary / edited by James Greig. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of etiquette, which is that the King has been the guest of Ld. Harcourt at Nuneham. Wyatt told me that the King has an intention of doing many things at Windsor, but defers it during the life of Sir William Chambers [Sur¬ veyor-General]. The King has seen some of Reptons books on gardening, and seems to think them rather coxcomical works.* The King told Wyatt that before the 7th of June last several appli¬ cations had been made to him for the Surveyorship, on the decease of Sir William, but that He had given it away : after which He added it was to Mr. Wyatt, who He considered as the first Architect in the Kingdom and most proper for it. Wyatt bowed and expressed his gratitude. February 20.—At Lady Inchiquins who expressed mortification at no Medal being given [by the Royal Academy] to the family of Sir Joshua Reynolds. [Following this expression, Farington moved at the Academy that a Silver Medal should be presented to the representative of Sir Joshua, and his motion was carried unanimously.] Smirke and Fuseli dined with me, and we went together to the Academy. Tyler rose and shortly moved that the subscription to the Revd. Mr. Bromleys History of the Arts be discontinued. He was seconded by Smirke. Objections were started by Bacon etc. as to the impropriety of refusing the 2d. volume after having reed, the first. I said the first vol. had been reed, without the contents having been known—being known they were disaproved—and to continue the subscription was to encourage a work which from the specimen had was likely to increase the disatisfaction felt in the Academy that a man who had written with so little delicacy on the works of living artists already, might be expected to describe with great partiality and ignorance in his future volumes the professional characters of the very persons there assembled. Tylers motion was put—That the subscription to the Revd. Mr. Bromleys History of the Arts be ordered to be discontinued. [Seven¬ teen members voted for the motion and four against.]f * Repton (1752-1818) was a landscape-gardener who, intended for a commercial career, went in his twelfth year to Holland to learn Dutch. On his return to England calicos and satins occupied him for a time, but he was unsuccessful in trade. Having studied botany and gardening he ultimately became a landscape- gardener, Lancelot Brown being his first guide. Repton laid out Russell-square and made alterations on Kensington Gardens, and his work and books brought him in touch with eminent men, including Burke, Pitt, and Windham. As a writer on Landscape Gardening, painting, and architecture Repton was criticised by Richard Payne Knight and Sir Uvedale Price ; we know what the King said of his gardening books, and Farington records on April 29 that Lord Orford “ thinks Repton a coxcomb.” f The Rev. R. A. Bromley, rector of St. Mildred’s, in the Poultry, issued a proposal for publishing by subscription two large quarto volumes of “ A Philosophical and Critical History of the Fine Arts, more especially Painting,” and the Royal Academy, at the instance of Benjamin West, subscribed for a copy with¬ out first asking permission of its members. So it was said. In the first volume, which appeared in 1794, Bromley condemned some of the subjects painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Fuseli, and praised those of West, particularly his “ Death of Wolfe,” which he characterised as “ one of the most genuine models of historic painting in the world.” Barry’s decorations for the great room of the Society of Arts in the Adelphi (they are still there) were also eulogised by Bromley, who, it was stated, had assisted West to get up the presidential discourses delivered at the Academy, and that West had given him hints on modern art : had even told Bromley what to say in praise of West’s own work. The Academy’s decision and a letter from Fuseli pointing out Bromley’s ignorance of Art, incensed the parson, and he published a series of seven letters in the Morning Herald. The first, which appeared on March 12, 1794, Farington says was “ filled with gross