Each to His Art and the Wolf to the Sheep
The Wolf and the Lamb
William Mulready, RA 1786-1863
C. W. Sharpe, engraver
Oil on panel
24 x 20 inches
Source: 1856 Art-Periodical
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Commentary by the Art-Journal
Except by a comparison of one with the other, the old maxim "Life is short and Art is long" volition not apply to Mulready and his works: for more than one-half a century—an unusually lengthened period in Art-life—he has devoted himself to his profession, with an assiduity and zeal rarely known; and each year of that term 1ms, almost without interval, produced something that volition perpetuate his name amid the nifty painters of the world. And the nigh remarkable characteristic in his career is that with advancing years he appears to have been imbued with increased powers; his whole life seems to have been one of progress towards perfection, as if he felt that he bad always something to learn—that there was some indicate of excellence to be reached which, as still, he had non attained to. Half the surreptitious of his success may be traced to the manner in which he embarked on his course; he prepare out with certain divers principles of action, so to speak, and to these he has constantly adhered, so that the differences which the various epoche of his Fine art may prove are not alterations of mode, but progress in that he commenced with. Color and execution are the results at which he aimed; and if nosotros examine a moving picture of whatever single twelvemonth, we shall observe it was the best he was capable of producing at that detail menstruation, his latest works being those wherein these 2 qualities are the most conspicuous; while even his earliest pictures exhibit a depth and force of colour which are found in the productions of other painters but after a life-time of severe written report. We remember seeing at the Royal Academy, a very few years ago, two little pictures — views at Kensington, which were painted in 1813; they are simple scenes, only so extraordinary in execution and feeling, as to identify them at once on a level with the very all-time works of their form of any age or country.
All the same it must not be supposed that Mulready's art is limited to the mere materialism of painting, and that he has had no higher motive than to excite admiration by tho brilliancy of his colouring, or surprise at the elaborateness of his 'manipulation : in these qualities some of the quondam Dutch masters may equal, though none surpass him. His sense of humor is rich, natural,and delicate; his sentimental narrative, graceful and touching; then that we scarcely know to which class of subject field to requite the preference. Both are studies not only for the creative person, but for those who desire to read the philosophy of human life; the erstwhile volition find in them the very highest qualities of his Art, and the latter will discover, amidst the groups that brand up his subjects, something beyond the types and Bhadows of individual character. Mulready is the "Æsop" of painters, inasmuch as beneath all his figurative expressions lies the moral of truth, fashioned indeed after the similitude of a fable, but cosily discerned and practical.
What a story, for example, is told in the moving-picture show of "The Wolf and the Lamb," already well-known from the engraving by Mr. J. H. Robinson, published many years since, tho plate of which is, all the same, destroyed. That wolfish male child—he has outgrown everything he wears—is the terror of all in the hamlet; he is e'er set up to practice battle, save in a righteous cause, and when his opponent is bigger than himself; his hair, his neckband, his coat, and his sleeves, are all turned back, expressive of defiance; in his haste to identify himself in a fighting attitude, or more properly speaking, a bullying attitude, he has burst the strap of his trowsers, while his eyebrow exhibits tho most perfect embodiment of juvenile tyranny. The other, a meek-looking—just, nosotros will venture to affirm, a well-tending lad—is possibly "the only son of his mother, and she a widow;" the fiddling girl is his sister, whose cries for assistance have brought their parent to tho door of the cottage to rescue the "Lamb" from the fangs of the "Wolf." Tho whole picture is full of natural incident expressed in the most felicitous manner. It is in the collection at Buckingham Palace.
Bibliography
"The Imperial Pictures. The Wolf and the Lamb." Fine art Periodical (1856): 36. Hathi Trust Digital Library version of a copy in the University of Michigan Library. Spider web. 28 July 2013.
Last modified 5 Baronial 2013
Source: https://victorianweb.org/painting/mulready/paintings/4.html
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