The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-15 00:00:00

FEBRUARY 153 1850

LITERATURE.

SIR FRANCIS CHANTREY, R.A. Recollections
of his Life, Practice, and Opinions. By George
Jones, R.A.
We deem it the highest privilege of talent, not in-
deed that it creates wonder, excites admiration, or
even stimulates in others a noble spirit of emulation,
but that it gives rise, in the heart of all its true
admirers, to a certain degree of personal interest
which incites them, not from mere inane curiosity,
but from sympathy and gratitude, to seek a nearer
acquaintance with, or a hatter knowledge of, the man
whose works, in whatever range of science or art his
genius may shine, they love to contemplate or study.
If this be true with regard to the great and good
men of our own times, still more forcibly does it
apply to those whom death has snatched from among
us, and for whom our interest seems rather to be in-
creased than diminished by the close of their earthly
career. Thence our eager desire for the more or less
faithful representation of their features, our anxious
search for narratives of incidents and occurrences
connected with their lives, and our proneness
even to ba aten led away by an easy
belief of, and confidence in, every record,
whether artistical or graphic, which makes
them present to us. No wonder then that we
should at all times be ready to welcome such a work
as that for which we are indebted to Mr. George
Jones, and that we should hail with applause the
attempt made by a friendly pen to acquaint the world,
within certain judicious limits, with the rise, pro-
gress, and signal success of a man who was enabled,
by the sole force of the love of art, to overcome many
difficulties, and raise himself to a degree of eminence
which procured for him many admirers and no
enemies. Well pleased are we then to be thus put in
possession of much in connexion with the private life
and opinions of so great, yet so unassuming, an artist,
which would prove, if proofs were wanting, that high
worth in any station of life and modesty are always
found united. Impressed as we are with the forego-
ing thoughts, we can hardly help expressing some
regret at finding that much of the work in question, '
particularly the first portion of it, is exclusively em-
ployed in recording opinions so completely artistical
in their nature as to entitle them to the serious con-
sideration of artists, but less likely to come home to
the feelings of the general reader : this, which we
would not call a fault, is less the case as the work
progresses, and we are happy to concur, corre-
spond, or commune with that excellent man, and
to find ourselves at home with him, and, as a
consequence, with the host of eminent men, in every
rank, and station in society (and be it said as much
to their credit, as to his own) his friends. Still
more are we disposed to admire the spirit of genuine
liberality, and in some instances (see page 127 et
seq.) of munificent generosity which he evinced to-
wards fellow-artists and friends, but most of all we
were pleased to be introduced to the man himself, so
far as not only to become acquainted with his pecu-
liarities and very foibles, hut to be compelled to ac-
knowledge a greater treat than we had antici-
pated, by the perusal of some of his letters. Of
course, while descanting on the merits of his friend
as an artist, or his worth as a man, the author may
well be supposed to treat his subject with a certain
degree of partiality, nay, more, to give us occasion-
ally his own views in common with those of the hero
of his record; but those letters are Sir P.
Chantrey's own words, his own views, his own wit
and humour ; the acts he treats on are his own act:,
awl over the selection alone of those letters could
friendly interference have any sway, and they not
only afford a clue to the real character of Sir Francis,
but tend to prove the soundness of the writer's judg-
ments and opinions, which, we are glad to say,
are further confirmed by the interesting details con-
tained in the appendix. In conclusion, we congratu-
late Mr. G. Jones, on having acquitted himself of
his task with credit to himself and advantage to the
world and the arts.