CHAPTER X.

MR. BEWICK'S FAME AS A COPYIST-REMBRANDT IN GLASGOW UNIVERSITY GENERAL GRAHAM

INVITATION TO THE

EGLINTOUN TOURNAMENT -THE PORTRAIT GALLERY-VISIT

TO IRELAND-JOURNEY FROM BELFAST TO DUBLIN DUBLIN
-REV. CHARLES ROBERT MATURIN -RICHARD SHIEL AND
WILLIAM HENRY CURRAN SHERIDAN KNOWLES- SIR

ARTHUR AND LADY CLARK -MR. HAMILTON ROWAN LORD
NORBURY, THE PUNNING JUDGE

LADY MORGAN.

MR. BEWICK had now acquired great skill as a copyist, and while at Gartmore, the guest of Mr. Graham, he had made a copy of a ' Rembrandt,' for which that gentleman had given 40007. The person who had sold the original obtained a loan of the copy, and was so charmed with it, that he steadily refused to give it up, saying that he had always regretted parting with the original; but this copy was so nearly equal to it, that it in great measure reconciled him to the loss of his picture, and he concluded by begging Mr. Bewick to name his price. He did

REMBRANDT IN GLASGOW UNIVERSITY. 201

so, and it was paid at once, but Mr. Bewick never saw his picture again.

The fame of Bewick's success in this copy reached Glasgow before the artist himself. At a dinner-party there, which included several gentlemen who took an interest in art and artists, a discussion arose on the style and colour of Rembrandt, and the materials used by him to produce his effects of light and shadow, and the strong impasto on the surface of his pictures. The discussion was suggested by the wonderful sketch by Rembrandt in Glasgow University; and a very spirited argument was maintained between two of the party, the one asserting that he could not have produced such an impasto without the aid of wax or some similar material, while the other contended that it might be done with pure colour and linseed oil, and that Rembrandt used nothing but these simple materials, which accounts for the manner in which his works stand the test of time. The opponent offered to lay a wager that it could not be done, and Bewick undertook to make a copy, using nothing but linseed oil and pure colour. He had almost

202

GENERAL GRAHAM.

finished his task, and being anxious to study the effect, he had put his copy in the frame and the original on his easel, when two of the professors came in, and having looked carefully at both, said, 'Well, Mr. Bewick, we cannot tell one from the other, this is so perfect a facsimile of the original.' This remark decided the wager, which was cheerfully paid, and thus was exploded the idea of vehicles. This copy afterwards deceived a very great judge of Rembrandt's works in London. This gentleman, when he saw it, was convinced it was an original work of the great artist, and offered to purchase it as such. When assured

that it was only a copy, he

expressed his

astonishment at the artistic skill displayed in so faithful a reproduction.

'Whilst in Edinburgh,' writes Mr. Bewick, General Graham, at that time Governor of the Castle, drove me to his seat at Gartmore, in the Highlands, to see a fine Rembrandt. The place was a most lovely one; the approach being lined by an avenue of Portugal laurels, twelve or fourteen feet high. Here I remained a fortnight, during which

time the General permitted me to make a copy of this fine work, and showed me the most courteous hospitality, taking me to see the different views and fine scenery in which

this neighbourhood abounds.

Here were eagles

with their nests perched on the magnificent trees. The coachman, a daring fellow, attempted to climb these gigantic trees, and succeeded in bringing us a nest of young ones. Presently the old ones returned, and their shrieks and batterings became so fearful that it was thought advisable to leave them their

young.

'During my sojourn at my native place, where I had been ordered for change of air, I was agreeably surprised by the honour of an invitation from the Earl of Eglinton to witness the magnificent entertainment got up by that chivalrous and high-spirited nobleman. Notwithstanding my then delicate state, my spirits rallied when I thought of the opportunity now afforded me of witnessing in reality the grand sight which I had so often pictured in my imagination, when reading the everdelightful and graphic descriptions of the tour

nament given by Sir Walter Scott in his Ivanhoe.'

From Edinburgh Mr. Bewick went to Glasgow, where he made an exhibition of his works, and added several new portraits to his gallery. It will be remembered that Dr. Birkbeck was the founder of Mechanics' Institutions, and that his first institution was established in Glasgow. For this institution Mr. Bewick had painted a portrait of Dr. Birkbeck. He had been requested to be present at one of their meetings, by a deputation which had waited on him in London; and when, being in the city, he complied with their request, and was introduced as the painter of their founder, all the meeting rose en masse and cheered the artist, who was lifted off his feet on to the lecture-table, that all might see him, while the names of Bewick and Birkbeck resounded through the hall.

When Bewick left London he had no intention of extending his tour further than Scotland, but an accidental suggestion, thrown out at a dinner-party at Glasgow, induced him to pay a short visit to Ireland also. His intention at first was only to take a short trip to