Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/349

 of which she carries pickaback, is, though unfinished, one of his finest works. It belongs to the present Duke of Wellington); the Countesses of Darnley, Carysfort, Aylesford, and Harewood (when Mrs. Lascelles); the first Lord St. Vincent and Sir Ralph Abercromby; the Archbishop of York (William Markham) and Shute Barrington, bishop of Durham; the statesmen Pitt, Castlereagh, Canning, Frere, and Grenville; Robert Bloomfield, the poet, Mrs. Inchbald, Sir Philip Francis, and William Gifford; William Smith, the actor, and Richard Humphreys, the pugilist; Mrs. Gwyn (Goldsmith's ‘Jessamy Bride’), and Mrs. Draper (Sterne's ‘Eliza’). He never exhibited anywhere except at the Royal Academy, where he sent 168 pictures between 1780 and 1809 (both inclusive). These were mostly portraits, but he sent, especially in his earlier years, an occasional picture of the fancy, such as ‘A Primrose Girl’ (1780 and 1785); ‘Jupiter and Io’ (1785); ‘Belisarius’ (1787); ‘A Standard Bearer’ and ‘A Nymph’ (1788); and ‘A Bacchante’ (1789). One of the best of these, called ‘A Sleeping Nymph,’ was bought by Sir J. Leicester (Lord de Tabley), and was sold at his sale in 1827 for 472l. 10s. Between 1797 and 1803 he published, with [q. v.], the engraver, a ‘Select Series of Portraits of Ladies of Rank and Fashion;’ ten plates, seven after Hoppner, and three after Wilkin, who engraved them all (see Art Journal, 1886, p. 54). He also attempted verse with small success in a volume of ‘Oriental Tales translated into English Verse’ (1805).

Hoppner was always a great lover of nature, and began by painting landscape, his great taste for which is seen in the backgrounds to his portraits and the numerous sketches in chalk with which he amused his leisure hours. There are several of these in the print room of the British Museum.

It has been said that Hoppner was ‘the most daring plagiarist of Reynolds, and the boldest rival of Lawrence,’ and this expresses with some approach to accuracy his position as a portrait-painter, if it does not give him the credit he deserves. Without the marked individuality of either his senior or his junior, of whom alternately his works remind us, he is more manly than Lawrence, and, especially in his portraits of women and children, more simple and natural. Many of his pictures have suffered from the use of destructive mediums, but the public appearance in late years of a few of his best works in good condition has much improved his reputation. Such pictures as the group of ‘Lady Culling Smith and children’ (belonging to the Duke of Wellington), and the fine portrait of ‘Mrs. Lascelles’ (belonging to Lord Harewood), which were exhibited at the Royal Academy in the winter of 1876, enable us to understand the reputation enjoyed by Hoppner as a colourist at once brilliant and mellow. His drawing was faulty and his execution slight.

Hoppner died 23 Jan. 1810, and was buried in the cemetery of St. James's Chapel in Hampstead Road, London.



HOPPUS, JOHN (1789–1875), independent minister and professor at University College, London, son of the Rev. John Hoppus, also an independent minister, was born in London in 1789. He was educated for a time under Dr. Bennett at the Rotherham Independent College, where the views of Edward Williams, author of the ‘Divine Equality and Sovereignty,’ had great influence among the students. He afterwards studied at Edinburgh under Dugald Stewart, but transferred his terms to Glasgow, in order to attend the sermons of Dr. Chalmers, and there he graduated M.A. He came to London to take charge of the Carter Street Chapel, but resigned in 1825 owing to difficulties with his congregation, which was somewhat Arian in views. Hoppus had done some work for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and had become acquainted with Brougham. At Brougham's instance, with the support of James Mill, he was appointed the first professor of the philosophy of mind and logic in the university of London, afterwards University College, in 1829 [for the circumstances of the election, see under ]. Here he lectured till the middle of 1866. He was made LL.D. of Glasgow in 1839, and F.R.S. in 1841. In 1847 he took part in the controversy as to popular education. Hoppus died 29 Jan. 1875. He had married in 1832 Martha Devenish, who died in 1853, leaving several children.

His principal works, all published in London, are:  ‘A Statement of Facts, with Correspondence, relating to the late Mea-