A biographical and critical dictionary of recent and living painters and engravers / by Henry Ottley.

  • Henry Ottley
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A biographical and critical dictionary of recent and living painters and engravers / by Henry Ottley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    faul] eye in a public exhibition ; they were the offspring of refined taste and feeling, and possessing nothing meretricious, were too often passed over by the mere “ exhibition goer,” while they afforded a rich treat to the man of taste. Nevertheless his ‘ Por- trait of a Lady’ in the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1845 was almost universally admired ; and one, a half-length of a Lady, exhibited in 1838, was marked as a creation of exquisite feminine beauty and sensibility. Mr. Faulkner died in Newman Street on the 29th Oct., 1849. EEARNLEY, Thomas, was born at Frederick- shall, in Norway, in Dec. 1802; his family, on the father’s side being English. He was first intended for the army, and afterwards for a mercantile life, but a quarrel with some persons in his uncle’s establishment made him determine to adopt the arts, for which he had long shown a taste, as a profession. He went to Copenhagen and entered the Academy there. In 1822 his works attracted the notice of the Crown Prince Oscar, who com- missioned him to paint a large picture, ‘ A View of Copenhagen.’ In 1828 he set out upon a jour- ney southward, proceeding by Hamburgh to Dres- den, and Berlin, and other places in the centre of Europe, taking up his winter quarters in 1832 at Munich. Italy, Switzerland, Greece, France and England, were afterwards visited, and he returned to his native country in 1836, after an absence of eight years. He afterwards travelled in Norway, and England, where he remained two years and a-lialf; and finally, after some other travels, went to Munich in 1841, where he died in January 1842. His biographer in the ‘ Gentleman’s Magazine’ states, that “ he loved singular and difficult sub- jects—thus he painted the Blue Grotto of Capri with all its peculiarities, and passed a whole fort- night studying the glacier of the Grindewald. The result of this was a large picture so true to nature that it makes the spectator shiver with cold. It became a favourite subject with him, and he repeated it several times.” FELSING, James, a German engraver, was born at Darmstadt in 1802. He was initiated in his art by his father, and was afterwards sent as a pensioner of the Prince of Darmstadt to the Aca- demy of Milan. Afterwards he went to Florence where he executed one of his best engravings, ‘ Christ on the Mount of Olives,’ after Carlo Dolce. He next took in hand the * Madonna del Trono/ a chef d’oeuvre of Andrea del Sarto. At Rome and at Naples he pursued the study of the beau- ties of nature and art; Toschi, with whom he be- came acquainted at Parma, by his judicious influ- ence, preventing him from falling into errors of excess in the execution of his works. He was made a professor at the Academy of Florence. In 1832 he returned to Darmstadt, where he engraved the ‘ Violin Player,’ after the picture of Raphael, in the Sciarra gallery at Rome, and the ‘ Young Girl at the Fountain/ after Bendemann. He afterwards visited Munich and Paris ; and on his return to Germany, engraved ‘ the Holy Family,’ after Overbech, in 1839. Felsing has always laboured, and laboured successfully to render not only the subject, but the manner of the master after whom lie engraves. Besides the works by him already referred to, may be mentioned ‘ Christ with the Cross/ after Crespi; and ‘ The Marriage of St. Catharine,’ after Correggio. FENDI, Peter, a German Painter, was born at Vienna in September, 1796, and died in f 2 August, 1842. He studied painting in the Aca- demy of his native city. In 1818, on the death of Mamesfeld, designer to the Cabinet of Antiqui- ties, lie was selected to succeed him. In 1821 he accompanied the Director M. de Steinbiichel to Venice, where he obtained tin' gold medal for his picture ‘ The Grotto, or Corniola/ He designed almost all the medals of gold and silver in the Cabinet of Coins and Medals at Vienna. He also painted for the Cabinet of Medals, portraits of the principal numismatists of Europe. He was emi- nently successful in the reproduction of works of antiquity ;—perhaps even he added too much of elegance in such works. His historical paintings are almost all on subjects of German history or poetry. At the chateauof Count Hugo de Salm, atRaiz, there are by his hand, in water colours, ‘ Eginhard and Emma/ ‘ The Ring of Fidelity/ ‘ The Town of Saltzbourg/ ‘ The Girl at the Post Office after poems of Schiller. He also designed illustrations for Dibdin’s ‘Biographical Tour in France and Ger- many,’and for Hormayr’s ‘ History of Vienna/ FJENNELL, John G., was born in 1809 ; be- came a pupil of the late Henry Sass, and was ad- mitted a student at the Royal Academy in 1828. He took the large silver medal of the Society of Arts in 1827. For many years he was engaged to superintend the establishment of the eminent Messrs. Finden, the engravers. Many of the natural history subjects in the Penny Magazine and Saturday Magazine are from his pencil. He likewise assisted the Messrs. Cadell in the selec- tions of the subjects for some of the volumes of the Abbotsford Edition of the Waverley Novei> ; the last volume of which contains five engravings bearing his name. He has painted some humourous subjects, as ‘ Persuasion Better than Force/ ‘ Full Cry/ &c. which have been engraved by A. M. Huffam. FEAHRE, Robert le. This artist was born at Bayeaux, in April, 1756. His father placed him, early in life, with an attorney, intending him to follow the law as a profession. But the young man’s inclinations took a wholly different direction. At the age of eighteen he made the journey to Paris on foot, in order to contemplate the works of art collected in that capital. On returning to Caen he entirely abandoned the study of law for that of painting. By painting portraits and deco- rations in the castle of Airel, near St. Loo, he obtained the means to return to Paris, where he entered the school of John Baptist Eegnault. As a portrait painter he enjoyed a high reputation. He painted the Emperor 'Napoleon I., the Em- press Josephine, Pope Pius VII., and all the prin- cipal personages of the Empire, and the Resto- ration. In 1814 he was commissioned to paint the portrait of Lous XVIII., for the Chamber of Peers ; was appointed principal painter of the ca- binet and chamber of the king, and made a Knight of the Legion of Honour. He died, in consequence of an accident, at Paris, in January, 1831. In the Antwerp Museum is a portrait by him of John Francis van Dael, the celebrated flower painter. FIELDING, Copley Vandyke. This artist, although he also painted extensively in oils, directed his chief and most successful efforts to water colour painting. He was born about the year l?8,8- . He exhibited first at the Water Colour Exhibition in Spring Gardens in 1810; and im- mediately took a high position in this branch of ait. On the death of Joshua Christall he was
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