MEMOIRS OF EMINENT ARTISTS LATELY DECEASED.

ART. XII. Some Account of the late EDWARD BIRD, Esq. R. A.

SINCE our last, the Academy have lost a respectable member of their body, Mr. Bird of Bristol, who died on the 4th of November last, an artist of considerable talent, who was raised by party intrigue into an unfair rivalry with Wilkie, by which act the deceased alone was the sufferer.

The following account of him is taken from that of a friendly pen, in the Bristol Gazette of the 11th of November, who has in a very pardonable way somewhat overrated the talents of his friend.

"The memory of the late Mr. Bird will be preserved by all who intimately knew him, on account of the sincerity of his manners and philanthrophy, as well as generosity; independently of the admiration his pictorial attainments excited.

"He was a good son, an affectionate husband, a kind father, a liberal master, and a loyal citizen; and no man, while he enjoyed health, was more sociable or amiable in society.

"The last five or six years of his life were a continual struggle with disease, latterly producing hypochondriacal affection, till at length medical assistance could only alleviate pain for the last year he could not even exercise his beloved art, and that alone was sufficient to affect him poignantly.

"His success in his profession fully corresponded with his abilities and virtues. The Marquis of Stafford, early in his progress, patronized him; and his first picture of any consequence was, to serve him, placed in his celebrated Gallery among the old masters.

"The Royal Academy of London elected him a member

almost without application, and he was also much regarded by Mr. West.

"The Princess Charlotte of Wales gave him the title of her painter, on the slightest recommendation. For the Prince Regent he executed Psalm-Singers of a Country Church, and had a commission for its pendant, which he never lived to execute. Lord Bridgewater ordered his Debarkation of the King of France, which he munificently rewarded; and also the Embarkation, on an equally grand scale. He was a member of the Royal Sussex Lodge of Hospitality; and the superb Freemason's Hall, in Bridge-street, Bristol, bears upon its ceiling a specimen of his taste and talents. The Public viewed all his productions with partiality, and could he but have preserved his health, there is no doubt he might have left a considerable fortune behind him; which, as the love of money never made any part of his composition, and he has died in the prime of life, is not likely to be the case.

"Much of his success arose from his good understanding, which enabled him to profit by the observations of others; and although, as is natural, he would shrink at severe criticism at the moment, yet the next day he would own he had benefited by them; and he went through this ordeal better than most artists of inferior merit.]

"All his pictures, especially comic ones, were closely studied from nature; he employed models for every thing, and chose his models with judgment. Having many acquaintance and friends, and being rapid with his pencil, few would refuse him a sitting, and his best pictures abound with actual portraits.

"His mode of painting was perfectly singular; any room was his painting room, and any hour his hour of execution.

"The writer of this has seen him painting by candle light in oil, during the time his tea was pouring out, and beginning and finishing a little study before that meal was com

pleated. He painted his own portrait once in fifteen minutes, during the time he was making a hearty breakfast; and it was no uncommon thing to see him begim a picture without any previous drawing, on two or three parts at once; yet, the scale of his eye was so just, that all harmonized in proportion at the termination.

"Nobody was more liberal of his sketches, and for some years he was the centre of a society assembled to make drawings in evenings before supper, where the greater number of members were amateurs; and the result of their labours went into the scrap book of the party whose turn it became to hold the meeting at his own house. On these occasions his contributions were often the most valuable, and an infinite number of his designs are thus scattered about Bristol among his oldest acquaintance.

"Like all men of genius, he possessed a fund of simplicity and faith in other men's professions, and was probably often the dupe of his own good nature and ignorance of the world. His morals were pure, and he did not want for sagacity: but many causes creditable to himself contributed very often to his being the loser, where others would have made great gains.

"It has been the folly of some who have passed for his friends to pit him against Mr. Wilkie, which he himself never approved. Always allowing that gentleman's great merits, and knowing well that their systems of execution were entirely dissimilar, he never vaunted over him, but enjoyed his compositions in common with every good judge of art.

"He liberally patronised abilities where he found them, and took pleasure in bringing forward talents in others: his scholars were always his scholars, and for years promoted the advances of many who had long ceased to benefit him in a pecuniary way. For himself, his discoveries were all his own; and if any man might be allowed

to be self-taught, it was Bird; no one ever made so great a progress with so little help, ambition in him supplied other want.

every

"A great deal more might be said in his praise, would the limits of your pages allow it, or could the voice of his family be heard; who, in losing him, are not only deprived of his support and the friendship he created, but of the most indulgent and tenderly affectionate relation that ever existed."

Bristol, Nov. 3, 1819.

G. C.

In addition to the foregoing, may be added a short account of his funeral. Upon arriving at the Cathedral door, the corpse was met by the gentlemen of the choir, in their surplices, who chaunted the funeral service.

The body was then deposited in the cloisters; and as if all parties were equally anxious to show their regard, and emulous in their degree of it, the whole of that part of the ceremony which commenced with the entrance into the cathedral was gratuitous—a tribute unprecedented since the death of Powell the Comedian. Conduct such as this is honourable to Bristol, and equally honourable to the individuals who have shared in it, and is as gratifying to record it. Mr. Bird's fame will probably outlive the present age; and it will be a pleasing recollection hereafter to those who have paid their last respect to his remains, that they neglected nothing which could evince their regard."

This is conduct that the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's would do well to imitate, and not make the friends of Artists pay enormously for the funeral service. Opie's funeral would have been mnch more worthy of him, had not the probable expenses been so great.

TRANSACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES OF ACADEMIES AND

SOCIETIES CONNECTED WITH THE FINE ARTS.

ART. XIII. ROYAL ACADEMY. Lectures on Architecture continued. By JOHN SOANE, Esq.

(Concluded from page 289.)

When the Mole of Adrian, continued Mr. Soane, was converted from a mausoleum into a citadel, it was despoiled of its columns and entablature, and architectural embellishments gave way to battlements and parapets. The Mausoleum of Cecilia Metella was instanced as another instance of the same description.

Architecture introduced in a picture, said Mr. Soane, if carefully selected, and skilfully designed, assists in pointing to the period of the representation, and the grand distinctions of countries. The Regulus of Mr. West was pointed out in glowing terms by the professor, as a successful instance of the effect of well combined architecture in an historical composition. The Egyptians in their attempts to vary the appearance of their columns, cabled, fluted, or covered the shafts with hieroglyphics; but Mr. Soane approved of any of those methods in preference to some of more modern use, of interrupting the beauty of their outlines by square cinctures and* annular rustics; but even these are pardonable when confined to the Doric or Tuscan order, in comparison to thus despoiling a more embellished order. With other similar remarks altered and enlarged from the course of last year, Mr. Soane concluded one of the best series of Lectures delivered last winter.

Season 1819-1820.

ELECTION OF ASSOCIATES.-On Monday the 1st of November, a general assembly of the Academicians was * Waterloo Place and Regent Street to wit. ED.