Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/197

 student of the paintings by the great masters, devoting special attention to the works of Titian. He lived a secluded life, supporting himself by copying well-known works. He obtained some reputation as a painter, and while visiting Florence on his return was requested to paint his own portrait for the gallery of painters there. He was also elected fellow of the Imperial Academy at Florence, the Academy dei Forti at Rome, and the Ancient Etruscan Academy at Cortona. It was in Italy that he became imbued with the desire of becoming a painter of history.

Northcote returned to London in May 1780, and received a hearty welcome from Reynolds. He at once commenced portrait-painting, and took lodgings at 2 Old Bond Street, whence he sent a portrait to the Royal Academy in 1781. In 1782 he removed to Clifford Street, Bond Street, where he remained about nine years, continuing to be an annual exhibitor at the Royal Academy. In 1783 he sent his first subject-pictures, ‘Beggars with Dancing Dogs,’ ‘Hobnella,’ and ‘The Village Doctress,’ and in 1784 his first historical picture, ‘Captain Englefield and his Crew escaping from the Wreck of the Centaur’ (engraved by T. Gaugain). In 1785 he painted a portrait of his brother, and in 1786 one of his father, which were both engraved in mezzotint by S. W. Reynolds. Shortly after this [q. v.] embarked on his great project of the Shakespeare Gallery, commissioning a series of large paintings and a series of large engravings to be made from the same. Northcote was one of the principal painters employed by Boydell, and painted nine pictures for this series. The first was ‘The Murder of the Young Princes in the Tower,’ which he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1786. The popularity of this and other paintings obtained for Northcote a commission from the city of London to paint a large picture of ‘Sir William Walworth, Lord Mayor of London, A.D. 1381, killing Wat Tyler,’ now in the Guildhall in London. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1787, and engraved by Anker Smith. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1786, and an academician on 13 Feb. 1787. Of Northcote's other Shakespeare pictures, ‘The Burial of the Young Princes’ and ‘Prince Arthur and Hubert’ were especially popular, and his most important historical paintings were ‘The Loss of the Halsewell, East Indiaman’ (engraved by T. Gaugain), ‘The Death of Prince Leopold of Brunswick’ (engraved by J. Gillray), and ‘The Earl of Argyle in Prison,’ painted for Earl Grey (engraved by E. Scriven). The failure of Boydell's scheme was a great blow to Northcote's fortunes as a painter of history, and he suffered further from the rising popularity of (1761–1807) [q. v.] in the same line. His reputation, however, as a portrait-painter continued to increase, and in 1791 he removed to a larger house in Argyll Place, where he spent the remainder of his life. There he continued to paint with undiminished industry for over fifty years, producing, with little encouragement, numerous historical and sacred pictures. Among these was a series of ten pictures, entitled ‘Diligence and Dissipation,’ showing the history of a modest girl and a wanton, which were painted in direct rivalry with the works of Hogarth, and with a high moral intention; the pictures were engraved, and in that form had a large sale. The series, however, proved a complete failure both from an artistic and moral point of view. Northcote also paid very considerable attention to the painting of animals, obtaining some success, of which he was justifiably proud, and several popular engravings were made from these pictures.

Northcote, however, attained his chief excellence as a portrait-painter. His portraits are well drawn and modelled, sober in colour and dignified in conception, though they have none of the individuality of Reynolds, and hardly reach so high a level as those of his chief rival, John Opie. During his long life Northcote painted an almost incalculable number, and they include many of the most remarkable persons of his day, from Dr. Mudge down to S. T. Coleridge and John Ruskin. There are good examples in the National Portrait Gallery.

Such eminence as Northcote attained as a painter of history was due to a considerable skill in composition and to simplicity in presentment. He had little imagination or creative power in his art, and did not excel as a draughtsman or colourist. Having unexampled opportunities of studying Reynolds's method of painting, he yet showed himself but little influenced by his master in his own paintings. Of his contemporaries he was perhaps most influenced by Opie, whom he admired, although a successful rival. Throughout his life he was a devoted student and admirer of Titian, and yet seemed unable to understand the secret of Titian's skill as a colourist. Northcote's pictures are, however, good specimens of the English school, and have fallen into unmerited neglect. The only one in the national collections is ‘The Presentation of British Officers to Pope Pius VI’ in the South Kensington Museum. There are five pictures by him at Petworth House, Sussex, including ‘The Murder of the Princes