Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/160

 Varley 251-6), some fifty or more, including the 'Ghost of a Flea,' a copy of which was engraved by John Linnell for Varley's 'Treatise on Zodiacal Physiognomy' (pt. i. only, London, 1828,8vo). In 1820 the Oil and Watercolour Society allotted to Varley one of their premiums of 30l., to incite the production of important works, and in 1821 Varley, in response, sent a large drawing of the 'Bride of Abydos,' which was followed in 1822 by another elaborate composition, 'The Destruction of Tyre.' From 1823 to 1836 he sent on the average twenty-two works yearly, but afterwards about six only. In 1825 he was burnt out at his studio, but, though he was uninsured, he was not disconcerted, because it agreed with a prediction he had made, of which he wrote an account while the fire was proceeding. In 1830 he was again burnt out, and this was his third fire, for one had occurred while he was living in Conduit Street. After a short stay at John Linnell's house in Porchester Terrace, he finally settled at 3 Elkins Road, Bayswater. His second wife did all she could to make his life comfortable, but his last years were full of ever increasing difficulties. He had thirty writs served upon him in one year, most, if not all, for other persons' debts. He said he did not feel all was quite right unless he was arrested for debt at least once or twice a month. He generally freed himself very soon by drawings sold to Vokins and other dealers. It is not surprising that works produced in his later life were often hasty and nearly always mannered, for he was in the hands of the dealers and the money-lenders, and had no time to study nature afresh. But his spirits and courage never broke down. He once said to Linnell, 'All these troubles are necessary to me; if it were not for my troubles I should burst with joy.' Nor did his interest in his profession decline. He constantly made experiments. At one time he tried painting in varnish over watercolour, and about 1837 commenced to paint on thin whitey-brown paper laid down upon white, which he scraped down upon for the lights. The drawings done by this method, with the darks enriched with gum, were almost as forcible as oil paintings, and produced quite a sensation among his brother artists. Shortly before his death he seemed to have a fresh access of energy. He exhibited thirty drawings in 1841, and forty-one in 1842. Nor were his energies confined to his art. He spent an immense amount of labour and a great deal of money, 1,000l. of which was borrowed, in striving to perfect a carriage with eight wheels, which he thought would move much more easily than one with four, but it was a complete failure and perfected his ruin. A friendly clerk of his moneylender warned him of the issue of a writ, and provided him with a retreat in his humble lodging in Gray's Inn Lane. Here he was found by Vokins, who took him to his own house, 67 Margaret Street, Cavendish Square. But then or soon after he became dangerously ill from disease of the kidneys, brought on, it is said, by sitting on damp grass while sketching in the gardens of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society at Chelsea. At Vokins's he was visited by many distinguished persons, 'not more,' said that gentleman, 'for his artistic celebrity than for his astrological knowledge and for the interest there was in the man himself, for his was a most genial spirit.' To his eldest son, Albert, Varley said, 'I shall not get better, my boy. All the aspects are too strong against me.' His astrological books were lying on his bed. He died at Vokins's house on 17 Nov. 1842. At the post-mortem examination all his organs, except the kidneys, were found in such perfect order that the surgeon said they looked 'as though they had never been used.'

As an artist Varley stands high among the early English watercolourists, although he produced a great deal of hasty and inferior work. He occasionally painted in oil. 'The Burial of Saul' (figures by Linnell) was in this medium. His early drawings, especially those of Welsh scenery, were full of fresh observation, and even his most conventional work has a fine style, caught perhaps from the Poussins and Claude, whom he greatly admired. He was a good colourist and a master of execution. Messrs. Redgrave say: 'When he laid himself out to do his best, and when he studied his subjects on the spot, his pictures have qualities that we find in no other painters—freshness, clearness, and a classical air, even in the most common and matter-of-fact subjects.' Ruskin once wrote that he was the only artist (except Turner) who knew how to draw a mountain. But he was greater as a teacher than an artist.

As a man he was remarkable for vigour of body and mind, for courage and self-reliance, for industry, unselfishness, and generosity, and not least for credulity. He was said to have believed 'nearly all he heard—all he read' (see Edinburqh Phrenologiral Journal for 1843. paper by Mr. Atkinson, F.S.A.) He believed in astrology and his own predictions; he believed in the visions of Blake, even the ghost of a flea; but in religion he was a sceptic, was indeed almost destitute of a sense of the supernatural, apart from 'the