The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-02 00:00:00

THE LATE SIR WILLIAM C. ROS ', ILA

The mortal remains of the late Sir William Ross
were deposited in the Highgate Cemetery last
Saturday. For more than two years before his
death a stroke of paralysis had impaired his facul-
ties, and stayed a hand of almost matchless pictorial
skill. His parents were both devoted to the arts,
his father as a drawing-master and
.minature-
painter, and by the time he was nine years of age
the proficiency in drawing of " Little Ross," a name
well remembered by his seniors and contemporaries,
was almost unprecedented. At that early age also
he essayed his little hand in the branch of art in
which he was subsequently to be distinguished,
and we have seen miniatures by him, aniong them
one of the Duke of Portland, and of Lord John
Bentinck, executed when he was 10 years old.
These are perfectly well drawn, and that of the
young Lord John, then about the same age
as his boy-portrayer, of a truth and delicacy
of colouring prophetic of the painter's ulti-
mate excellence. In the year 1808, at the age
of 13, he was admitted a student of the Royal Aca-
demy, where his innocent manners and assiduous
study attracted the notice of many. The first am-
bition of the young aspirant was to excel is his-
torical art, and from West, then President, who
was deeply interested in the boy, he received much
kind precept, but not the most desirable example.
Large chalk drawings by him itt 15 years of age,
for which he received prizes; show a care, beauty
of finish, correct drawing, and comprehension of a
whole, which are astonishing at that age, though
in other respects too faithful to the taste and treat-
ment inculcated by West. The desire for histori-
cal composition adhered so strongly to him that so
late as 1843 .a cartoon by Sir W. Ross was exhi-
bited in Westminster-hall, for which he obtained a
premium of £lOO. When he was about 20, however,
he had altered his course, and, as the feeling of the
day expressed it, came down to the branch of art in
which he became unrivalled. He soon attracted.the
notice of the higher classes of patrons. In 1819 his
portraits of Sir Tho. D. Arland and Lady Acland were
exhibited ; in 1822 those of the Earl and Countess
of Uxbridge. From that time to 1857, when the
unfinished portraits of the Duke and DuChess
d'Aumale, with their two sons, bore witness to his
suddenly arrested hand, he may be said to have
painted the chief beauties and highest dignities of
the British aristocracy, and the various members of
the Royal families of England and Belgium. In
1837 he was appointed miniature painter to the
Queen ; in 1838 ho was elected Associate of the
Royal Academy; in 1839 Academician, and in the
same year he was knighted.
This scanty outline is all that need be given here
of the late painter's life, which was one of such
simple industry and devotion to his art, and of
such amiability of temper and extreme benevolence
of heart, that even his talent and success, it may
be hoped, failed to raise him up one snemy. But
his art is entitled to a few separate words. There
is no doubt that the perfect mastery of drawing
se
minute he had attained, even. when labouring in a
false direction, set him far forward in his career
uncertainoutlinesform s
as a miniature painter. No false anatomy
o
intoev wchhaielhlenhgeecompe
criticismrsse d in
those a
whole school of fine at •t. But beyond this no trace
of his former studies appear; for, far
th or, from partaking
' of the " Grand Style,"
eeic.omposition of his figures
and
.groUps and the f eir.gndohf his heads became
eminently pure and natural,
more than simplicity which aadt.tltiat something
to call naivete. None of the aristocratic beauties,
agree
none of the sweet children, the latter the most ex
ex-
quisite and. difficult achievements of his hand, but
may
may be proud to display the beautiful and touching
records be has left of their youth and infancy. In
wh It also, in spite of all abstract mo,lern theory,
must ever be considered the painter's chief praise, his
colouring, Sir William Ross was equally admirable.
No Frticular master in this quality se2ies to have
been studied by him, though it is evident that he had
looked 'ovine] v at it übens, Vandyke,and at our own
great Reynolds. In the colouring f inn`fls as hhe is bof
y
andeach
turns.as tender, pearly,
these painters. No one ever made the complexion
of woman and child so delicate, with 'at. once so
•
whitest much variety of tint and so little sacrifice on f t ruththese,
the hand: of his highest h orn d
have
handS are some of his most precious morse
still real, warm, human blood in the
in -
It is
es p e
ciallyin those minute gradations of light, in those
tender distinctions of similar hues—the touchstone
of a painter's art—that he excelled. That beauta-
ful combination of various white? Oieli we have
often. occasion to admire in the late daylight hours