Page:Dictionary of Artists of the English School (1878).djvu/468

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and carefully finished. Vanderdoort, in his Catalogue, styles him 'The King's En- graver.' His last known work is dated 1635, but he is believed to have lived till 1669.

VARDY, John, architect Was a pupil of Kent. He was a member of the In- corporated Society of Artists, and was the architect of several fine mansions. He built the Horse Guards, it is said, after a design by Kent, 1753. He exhibited at Spring Gardens, in 1761, 'A Design for a Building for the Dilettanti Society/ 'A Design for the British Museum, prepared by order of the trustees, 1754'; 'A De- sign for a Royal Palace fronting the Park/ 1748, on the spot where the Horse Guards was afterwards placed, and ' A Design for the North Front of St. James's Palace;' 'Earl Spencer's House,' looking into St. James's Park, and, in 1762, ' Uxbridge House, Burlington Gardens,' now a branch of the Bank of England. He held the office of Clerk of the Works at Kensington Palace. He died in 1765.

VARLE Y, John, water-colour painter. His father, a native of Epworth, Lincoln- shire, settled for a time in Yorkshire, where he married, but his circumstances not prov- ing prosperous he came to London, and his son was Doru at Hackney, August 17, 1778. The father became tutor to Lord Stanhope's son, and was a man of very scientific at- tainments. He discouraged the taste of his son, John Yarley, for art, and he was sent on liking to a silversmith, with the intention to apprentice him to that trade ; but his father dying, he managed to free himself from the engagement, and found some employment with a portrait painter, and when about 16 years of age, with an architectural draftsman, and in his spare hours sketched everything that came in his way. He was taken on a tour by his master to sketch the principal buildings in the towns they visited, ana in 1798 he ex- hibited his first work, a ' View of Peter- borough Cathedral. ' In the next year he made a tour in North Wales, and here he found the true field for the exercise of his art. He made numerous studies, revisited Wales in 1800, and again in 1802, and afterwards the northern counties of Eng- land. Meanwhile he was one of the class of young painters that met continually at the house of Dr. Monro, and had profited by association in their studies.

He had exhibited his works at the Royal Academy up to 1804, when he became one of the foundation members of the Water- Colour Society, and thenceforth contributed to its exhibitions alone, sending no less than 42 works, almost entirely Welsh sub- jects, to the Society's first exhibition, and continuing to contribute so largely that he exhibited 344 drawings in the first eight

years, so that it is. no wonder there are so many slight and inferior works by his hand.

Many of his subjects at this period are from the banks of the Thames, and, evi- dently painted on the spot, possess greater individuality and truth than his more aspiring compositions. But he had married in 1803 ; a family had now to be cared for, and he was obliged to work for the dealers, and at their prices ; and from this resulted weak and common-place work. He con- tinued a member of the Water-Colour Society, when a large secession took place in 1813, and clung to it during its several changes and vicissitudes, constantly con- tributing to its exhibitions. All his latter works were chiefly compositions, mountains and lake scenery, produced from a stored memory, but not possessing the qualities of the works of his middle period.

Part of his income arose from teaching, and he had several pupils, who became eminent in art. Some of his lady pupils, and some who came to purchase his draw- ing, had another object. He was an en- thusiastic astrologer, and they enticed him to cast their nativities. He was in some degree a sincere believer in his power, and many strange coincidences are told in respect to bis predictions. A man of a liberal and genial character, he" was full of clever conversation on many topics, and amusing on all. As artist, teacher, and as- trologer, he managed at one period of his life to make a good income ; but in the latter part he fell into difficulties, not from any extravagance or indolence, but rather from mismanagement and neglect of his house- hold affairs. He had suffered from an affection of the kidneys, and sitting down to some sketch that allured him ne had a relapse, was unable to reach his home, and died in a friend's house on the 17th November, 1842.

His landscapes have great breadth and simplicity, his tints are beautifully laid with a full and free pencil, his colour fresh, pure and simple, and no body colour is used in his best works. He was rather mannered, but a great master of the rules of com-

S&ition, which he applied with true genius, is foliage is large and massive rather than imitative. He usually painted com- mon sunlight and summer foliage, seldom autumnal tints, and rarely sunsets or other effects. He was happy in the introduction of figures. He published some strange books, for he had not mastered the art of writing. A treatise on 'Zodiacal Physi- ognomy.' 1828; 'Observations on Colour- ing ana Sketching from Nature,' 1830; and a 'Practical Treatise on Perspective.' His eldest son, Albert Fleetwood Var- ley, a water-colour painter, and teacher in good practice, died at Brompton, July 27, 1876, aged 72.

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