6

Tancarville,' 'Llanberris,' Llanthony,' Alnwick Castle,' and other works by Turner. In all of these he has displayed great taste and ability, and a desire carefully to render the style of the artists whose pictures he has engraved. Declining health has, unhappily, recently prevented him from pursuing his profession.

CHARLES LOCK EASTLAKE.

Choice of a new President -The late Prince Consort's Testimony to the Qualifications of Sir C. Eastlake for the Office- The President's First AddressThe Great Exhibition of 1851 - The Academy Dinner, and the late Prince Consort's Address- Conversazione for Exhibitors established Distribution of Gold Medals-Changes in the Schools The Science and Art Department established The Guild of Literature and Art-Speeches at the Annual Dinner, 1852-Varnishing Days discontinued. The National Gallery and the Turner Collection of Pictures - The new Historical Portrait Gallery Formation of the Institute of British Sculptors - Engravers' Claims to full Academic Honours-The Dublin Exhibition, 1853-The President's Address Engravers elected as Academicians - Lord Mayor Moon's Dinner to the Royal Academy-The President appointed Director of the National Gallery-Paris Exposition, 1855-Academy Exhibition, 1856-Laws of Copyright in

Art-Additional Lectures at the Academy - Gold Medals distributed by the President in 1857, and his Address to the Students - Manchester ArtTreasures' Exhibition-The Sheepshanks' Collection—Report of the Commission on the Site for a New National Gallery—Parliamentary Proceedings relating to the Academy, 1858-59- Proposed Assignment of a Site at Burlington House for a New Academy-Lord Lyndhurst's Address to the House of Lords · Communication between the Academy and the French Government, on Art - Retirement of Sir Robert Smirke, R.A. Publication of a Report by the Council on the History and Proceedings of the Royal Academy· - Alterations in the Exhibition Rooms - - Admission of Female Students to the Schools Revised Code of Regulations for Students — Changes among the Officers and Members-Exhibitions, and the Receipts from them · - Items of Expenditure -Address of Condolence to the Queen on the Death of the Prince Consort-List of Present Officers and Members of the Royal Academy.

FOR

OR some time before the decease of Sir Martin A. Shee, the probability of that event-considering his enfeebled state during the last three or four years of his long and useful life—had naturally forced itself upon the attention of the Royal Academicians and the public. When, in August 1850, the venerable President who had so ably resisted all encroachments upon the rights of the institution, passed away, the members had no hesitation in nominating as his successor Mr. Charles Lock Eastlake, whose high reputation as a painter, whose abilities as a scholar and a writer upon art, and whose courtesy and high principle as a gentleman, combined to qualify him pre-eminently for the duties of the office which Reynolds, West, Lawrence, and Shee, had filled before him. A difficulty, however, presented itself, in the circumstance that he was at that time filling the office of Secretary to the Royal Commission on the Fine Arts; and it became a question whether he could discharge the onerous duties of that office, and yet occupy the high position to which his brethren desired to elevate him in the Royal Academy. He felt that he was bound in honour to retain his post in the Royal Commission, which he had filled with so much advantage to the arts, and to the country, since its formation, until his labours were completed; and it was not till it was determined that he should continue to hold that office, that he accepted the added dignity of

the Presidentship of the Royal Academy. Her Majesty had previously privately intimated to Sir Edwin Landseer (who was then at Balmoral), that Eastlake's appointment would be highly agreeable both to herself and the Prince Consort. This was made known to him by Leslie, who says, "we had determined to vote for him whenever the vacancy should occur, long before we knew how acceptable the choice would be to the Queen." Thus unanimously raised to the position for which he was so eminently qualified, Mr. Eastlake was informed that Her Majesty had been pleased to confirm the selection of his brother Academicians, and to bestow on him the honour of knighthood; and the late lamented Prince Consort, as President of the Royal Commission, bore testimony to the value of the services rendered by Sir Charles Eastlake as its Secretary, on the occasion of the first annual dinner at the Academy after his election as President (May, 1851), when his Royal Highness said:

"Although I have, since my first arrival in this country, never once missed visiting the exhibition of the Royal Academy, and have always derived the greatest pleasure and instruction from those visits, it is but seldom that my engagements will enable me to join in your festive dinner. I have, however, on this occasion, made it a point to do so, in order to assist at what may be considered the inaugurative festival of your newlyelected President, at whose election I have heartily rejoiced not only on account of my high estimate of his qualities, but also on account of my feelings of regard towards him personally. It would be presumptuous in me to speak to you of his talent as an artist, for that is well known to you, and of it you are the best judges; or of his merits as an author, for you are all familiar with his books or, at least, ought to be so; or of his amiable character as a man, for that also you must have had opportunities to estimate; but my connection with him now for nine years, on Her Majesty's Commission for the Promotion of the Fine Arts, has enabled me to know, what you can know less, and what is of the greatest value in a President of the Royal Academy I mean that kindness of heart and refinement of feeling which guided him in all his communications, often most

difficult and delicate, with the different artists whom he had to invite to competition, whose works we had to criticise, whom we had to employ or reject."

It has already been stated that the Academicians voted an annual pension of £300 a year to Sir M. A. Shee during the last few years of his life. On the election of his successor to the presidental chair, it was proposed by C. R. Leslie that the sum thus voted should be continued, and the suggestion was readily adopted. He tells us, however, that "some of the Academicians considered it undignified that the President of the Royal Academy should be paid for his services-a view, I confess, entirely opposite to that which I take of the matter. In the first place, £300 a-year (voted until the bequest of Chantrey comes into effect) is no payment for the time and money the President is now called on to expend in the service of the Academy; and in the second, it seems to me that it would be much less dignified in that body to allow a distinguished artist to make the great sacrifices he must make for the benefit of the institution, wholly without remuneration."

Sir Charles Eastlake made his first public appearance as President on the 10th of December, 1850, the eightysecond anniversary of the foundation of the Royal Academy, when a large number of the Academicians and Associates assembled to witness the distribution by him of the prizes to the students. In a brief address, he referred to the time when he had himself been one of their number in their old rooms at Somerset House, and had to contend with all the difficulties and disappointments which must be felt at some time or other even by the most assiduous in the path to artistic reputation; and he put it to them, that if such be the lot of the diligent students, what can they expect who neglect half the opportunities afforded them for improvement, or mis-spend the time which ought to be employed in close and energetic study? While thus urging all to greater perseve