Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/90

 LESLIE, CHARLES ROBERT (1794–1859), painter, was the eldest son of American parents. His father, Robert Leslie, a personal friend of Benjamin Franklin, was a clockmaker, of extraordinary ingenuity in mathematics, who in 1793, in order to increase his business connections, came from Philadelphia to London, where Charles was born on 19 Oct. 1794. A sister, Eliza Leslie (1787–1858), who remained in America, was a prolific miscellaneous writer (see, Cyclop. of American Biog. iii. 696). When Charles was about five years old, his father, in consequence of the death of his partner, Mr. Price, returned with his family to Philadelphia. In the course of the voyage they had a fight with a French privateer, and had to put into Lisbon, where they spent the winter while the ship was being repaired. Robert Leslie died in 1804, with his affairs embarrassed by a lawsuit; but through the kindness of the professors at the university of Pennsylvania, Charles and his brother were able to complete their education. From his childhood Leslie had shown a decided talent for drawing, but his mother was too poor to permit of his training as an artist, and he was apprenticed in 1808 to Messrs. Bradford & Inskeep, publishers in Philadelphia.

A portrait of George Frederick Cooke the actor, drawn by the young apprentice from memory, attracted the attention of Mr. Bradford. It was taken to the Exchange Coffee-house, and in a few hours Leslie's fame was spread among the wealthiest merchants in the city. A subscription, headed by Mr. Bradford, was at once raised to enable Leslie to study painting for two years in Europe. After a few lessons in painting (his first) from a Philadelphian artist named Sully, he sailed from New York with Mr. Inskeep on 11 Nov. 1811, arriving in Liverpool on 3 Dec. He bore with him letters of introduction, and was kindly received by Benjamin West [q. v.], the president of the Royal Academy; he was at once admitted as a student at the Academy, and through West's influence was allowed access to the Elgin marbles, then deposited in a temporary building in the gardens of Burlington House. He and another young American, Morse, who had lodgings with him in Warren Street, Fitzroy Square, used to study them from six to eight in the morning, after a bath in the Serpentine. He also studied the Townley marbles in the British Museum, and succeeded in carrying off two silver medals at the Academy schools. He soon became acquainted with Allston and King, two American artists of some standing. From Allston and West he received instruction in painting, and through Allston he made the acquaintance of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whose society aided in the rapid development of his mind. He was fond of reading and the theatre, and delighted in the acting of John Kemble, Mrs. Siddons, and Bannister. He found congenial fellowship in the society of his fellow-countrymen, Washington Irving and Newton. They had the same circle of acquaintances (chiefly American), and for a time the three generally dined together at the York Chop-house in Wardour Street. John Constable also soon became an intimate friend, and the group, which included Peter Powell, who lived with Leslie at 8 Buckingham Place, Fitzroy Square, formed a merry company.

Leslie's early and natural ambition was to succeed in what was called ‘high art,’ and after a few portraits he painted ‘Saul and the Witch of Endor,’ which was rejected at the British Gallery, but was afterwards purchased for one hundred guineas by Sir J. Leicester (Lord de Tabley). The subjects of two other early pictures were ‘Timon’ and ‘Hercules,’ but the first which was exhibited at the Royal Academy was called ‘Murder’ (1813), a terrific scene of an assassin stealing from a cave at midnight holding a drawn sword in one hand and (as he himself describes it) ‘his breath with the other.’ In 1814 he exhibited a portrait of Mr. J. H. Payne (the American actor and dramatist) in the character of Norval, and in 1816 ‘The Death of Rutland,’ in which the curly-headed young Edwin Landseer [q. v.] figured as Rutland.

In 1817 he went to Paris with Allston and William Collins, and while there painted some portraits of American friends. In 1818 he visited Dawlish and Plymouth, and in the following year exhibited ‘Sir Roger de Coverley going to Church,’ the first picture in which he showed his special vocation as an artist. It had an immediate success. It was purchased by Mr. Dunlop, a wealthy tobacco merchant (whose constant kindness he owed to his American connection), and a replica was painted for the Marquis of Lansdowne. At this time Leslie was much occupied in illustrating Irving's ‘Knickerbocker's History of New York’ and ‘Sketch-book.’ He also, in 1820, painted Irving's portrait. In 1821 he exhibited the well-known picture of ‘May Day Revels in the Time of Queen Elizabeth,’ which was visited twice in the course of its progress by Sir Walter Scott. Sir Walter, to whom he had been introduced in the previous year, suggested the introduction of the archers. In the same year Leslie was elected an associate of the Royal Academy.

His next picture of note was ‘Sancho Panza in the Apartment of the Duchess’ (ex-