File:British painters; with eighty examples of their work engraved on wood (1881) (14781984934).jpg

Identifier: britishpaintersw00newy (find matches)
Title: British painters; with eighty examples of their work engraved on wood
Year: 1881 (1880s)
Authors:
Subjects: Painters -- Great Britain Painting -- Great Britain
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
abbey church at Waltham was being restored under the direction of Mr.
William Burges, and Mr. Poynter was engaged to decorate the ceiling, for
which he painted, on canvas, a large number of pictures—nearly thirty, we
believe—the designs containing life-size figures: these canvases were fixed
to the ceiling. He was also employed about the same time in making
drawings for stained glass, and among these were four large historical
subjects for windows in the Maison Dieu Hall at Dover, and two for windows
in the church of St. Bartholomews Hospital.
Henceforth we follow the footsteps of Mr. Poynter as he passes through
the galleries of the Royal Academy, where he appeared for the first time in
1861, in a small picture, called "Alia Veneziana", which was succeeded, in
1862, by two works, "Heaven's Messenger" and "The Bunch of Blue
Ribbons". His two pictures in the Academy in 1864 were"The Siren", a
nude figure of great beauty, holding a harp in her hand, and "On Guard, in
the Time of the Pharaohs," an Egyptian soldier standing sentinel on a
Text Appearing After Image:
P O Y N T E R. 149
watchtower: this last work was the forerunner of several pictures carrying
back the spectator to a country and a chronology almost strange to modern
Art—at least, as Mr. Poynter showed them—both in time and place. Before,
however, resorting again to the land of the Pharaohs, he exhibited, in 1865, a
picture recalling to mind the destruction of Pompeii : it was called Faithful
unto Death. The subject is elucidated by the artist himself, who appended
to the title of the picture the following explanation :— In carrying on the
excavations near the Herculanean Gate of Pompeii, the skeleton of a soldier in
full armour was discovered. Forgotten in the terror and confusion that reigned
during the destruction of the city, the sentinel had received no order to quit
his post, and while all sought their safety in flight, he remained faithful to his
duty, notwithstanding the certain doom which awaited him. There is
unflinching firmness manifest in the expression of the man's face, and in the
attitude of every limb ; but the picture is not agreeable to contemplate, as
much from the necessary prevalence of strong red colour as from its painful
association with what may be called a living death.

Note About Images