Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/335

 

LINLITHGOW, {{sc|Earls of}. [See, d. 1622, first ;, 1610–1690, third ; , 1652?–1695, fourth .]

LINNECAR, RICHARD (1722–1800), dramatist, born at Wakefield in 1722, was for some time postmaster there. In 1763 he was elected one of the coroners for the West Riding of Yorkshire. For many years he was a prominent freemason. He died while holding an inquest at Swillington on 14 March 1800, aged 78 (Gent. Mag. 1800, pt. i. p. 391).

Linnecar published by subscription in 1789 a volume of ‘Miscellaneous Works’ (8vo, Leeds), containing two comedies, ‘The Lucky Escape,’ described by Genest ‘as insipid to the last degree,’ and ‘The Plotting Wives,’ the latter of which was acted at York on 6 Feb. 1769; a tragedy, ‘The Generous Moor;’ some prose ‘Strictures on Freemasonry,’ and numerous songs and other trifles in verse.

His portrait was painted by Singleton and engraved by T. Barrow. 

LINNELL, JOHN (1792–1882), portrait and landscape painter, the son of a wood-carver and picture dealer, was born in 1792 in a house at the corner of Plumtree Street, Bloomsbury. Shortly after his birth his father removed to 2 Streatham Street, Bloomsbury. Thomas Dodd was his earliest patron. At ten years old he drew portraits in pencil and chalk, and later he copied successfully several of Morland's pictures. From his boyhood he frequented Christie's auction rooms, and made sketches from the works on the walls. He was soon introduced to Benjamin West, and entered the schools of the Royal Academy in 1805. For about a year (1805–6) he studied under John Varley, and made the acquaintance of William Henry Hunt, a fellow-pupil at Varley's, with whom he went out sketching, and of William Mulready, who assisted Varley in teaching, and with whom Linnell afterwards shared rooms in Francis Street, Tottenham Court Road. In 1807 he was awarded a medal for drawing from the life, and exhibited a ‘Study from Nature, View near Reading,’ at the Academy. Between 1805 and 1809 he made sketches in oil-colours on the banks of the Thames, and about this time was one of the young artists who enjoyed the kind patronage of Dr. Thomas Monro [q. v.]

In 1808 he exhibited at both the British Institution and the Royal Academy. His contribution to the latter, called ‘Fisherman,’ was purchased by Ridley (afterwards Lord) Colborne for fifteen guineas. In 1809 he was at Hastings with Hunt, and won a fifty guinea prize at the British Institution with his landscape, ‘Removing Timber.’ In the following year, to prove his opinion that it was easier for a painter to model than for a sculptor to draw, he competed for the modelling medal at the Royal Academy and won it. In 1810 he exhibited at the Royal Academy ‘Fishermen waiting for the Return of the Ferryboat, Hastings,’ and in 1811 ‘The Ducking: a Scene from Nature;’ but his next contribution to the Academy's exhibitions was in 1821. To the years between 1811 and 1815 (both inclusive) belong a series of water-colour sketches in the London parks, Bayswater, Kilburn, St. John's Wood, and Windsor Forest, with a few in Wales and the Isle of Wight. He also about this time was employed as a draughtsman by the elder Pugin [see ]. But though he drew occasionally in water-colours then and in later life, his usual medium was oil, in which he early attained great proficiency. A picture of ‘Quoit Players,’ painted in 1810 (exhibited in 1811 at the British Institution, and sold to Sir Thomas Baring for seventy-five guineas), has since realised 1,000l. In 1812, when the Society of Painters in Water-colours was transformed (for a few years) into the Society of Painters in Oil and Water Colours, Linnell became a member, and contributed fifty-two works to their exhibitions from 1813 to 1820. He was their treasurer in 1817. In 1820 they again excluded oil-paintings, and Linnell withdrew from the society and recommenced exhibiting with the Royal Academy. During this time his principal sources of income were portrait-painting and teaching. He not only drew and painted portraits, but he engraved them himself. In 1818, through Mr. George Cumberland of Bristol, he obtained an introduction to William Blake, and then began that human and artistic fellowship between the two men which lasted till Blake's death [see, 1757–1827]. Blake helped him in engraving, and he introduced Blake to J. Varley, Mulready, and others, who formed a congenial society animated by similar aims. He appears to have known William Godwin also, and to