Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
|
See also:DANIEL See also:MACLISE (1806-1870)
, Irish painter, was See also:born at See also:Cork, the son of a Highland soldier
.
His See also:education was of the plainest See also:kind, but he was eager for culture, fond of See also:reading, and anxious to become an artist
.
His See also:father, however, placed him, in 182o, in Newenham's See also:Bank, where he remained for two years, and then See also:left to study in the Cork school of See also:art
.
In 1825 it happened that See also:Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott was travelling in See also:Ireland, and See also:young See also:Maclise, having seen him in a bookseller's See also:shop, made a surreptitious See also:sketch of the See also:great See also:man, which he afterwards lithographed
.
It was exceedingly popular, and the artist became celebrated enough to receive many commissions for portraits, which he executed, in See also:pencil, with very careful treatment of detail and See also:accessory
.
Various influential See also:friends perceived the See also:genius and promise of the lad, and were anxious to furnish him with the means of studying in the See also:metropolis; but with rare See also:independence he refused all aid, and by careful See also:economy saved a sufficient sum to enable him to leave for See also:London
.
There he made a lucky See also:hit by a sketch of the younger See also:Kean, which, like his portrait of Scott, was lithographed and published
.
He entered the See also:Academy See also:schools in 1828, and carried off the highest prizes open to the students
.
In 1829 he exhibited for the first See also:time in the Royal Academy
.
Gradually he began to confine himself more exclusively to subject and See also:historical pictures, varied occasionally by portraits of See also: He also designed illustrations for several of Dickens's See also:Christmas books and other works . Between the years 1830 and 1836 he contributed to See also:Fraser's See also:Magazine, under the See also:pseudonym of See also:Alfred Croquis, a remarkable series of portraits of the literary and other celebrities of the time—See also:character studies, etched or lithographed in outline, and touched more or less with the emphasis of the caricaturist, which were afterwards published as the Maclise Portrait See also:Gallery (1871) . In 1858 Maclise commenced one of the two great monumental works of his See also:life, the " See also:Meeting of See also:Wellington and See also:Blucher," on the walls of See also:Westminster See also:Palace . It was begun in See also:fresco, a See also:process which proved unmanageable . The artist wished to resign the task; but, encouraged by See also:Prince See also:Albert, he studied in See also:Berlin the new method of " See also:water-See also:glass " See also:painting, and carried out the subject and its See also:companion, the " See also:Death of See also:Nelson," in that See also:medium, completing the latter painting in 1864 . The intense application which he gave to these great historic works, and various circumstances connected with the See also:commission, had a serious effect on the artist's See also:health . He began to shun the See also:company in which he formerly delighted; his old buoyancy of See also:spirits was gone; and when, in 1865, the presidentship of the Academy was offered to him he declined the See also:honour . He died of acute See also:pneumonia on the 25th of See also:April 187o . His works are distinguished by powerful intellectual and imaginative qualities, but most of them are marred by harsh and dull colouring, by metallic hardness of See also:surface and texture, and by frequent touches of the theatrical in the See also:action and attitudes of the figures . His fame rests most securely on his two greatest works at Westminster . A memoir of Maclise, by his friend W . J . O'Driscoll, was published in 1871 . |
|
|
[back] NORMAN MACLEOD (1812-1872) |
[next] WILLIAM MACLURE (1763-1840) |
There are no comments yet for this article.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are encouraged.