Sir Charles Lock Eastlake (17 November 1793 – 24 December 1865) was a British Painting, gallery director, collector and writer of the 19th century. After a period as keeper, he was the first director of the National Gallery. From 1850 to 1865 he served as President of the Royal Academy, succeeding Martin Archer Shee in the role.
Life
Eastlake was born in
Plymouth,
Devon, the fourth son of an Admiralty lawyer. He was educated at local grammar schools in Plymouth, including Plymouth Grammar School, and, briefly, at Charterhouse (then still in London). He was committed to becoming a painter, and in 1809 he became the first pupil of
Benjamin Haydon and a student at the
Royal Academy schools in London—where he later exhibited.
However, his first exhibited work was shown at the British Institution in 1815, a year in which he also visited Paris and studied works in the Louvre (then known as the Musée Napoléon). His first notable success was a painting of Napoleon on the Bellerophon (1815; National Maritime Museum, London). Like many other people at the time, Eastlake had hired a boat to take him to the ship on which Napoleon was held in Plymouth harbour. He sketched him from the boat.
In 1816, he travelled to Rome where he painted members of the British elite staying in Italy including fellow artists Sir Thomas Lawrence and J. M. W. Turner. He also travelled to Naples and Athens.
Despite being based predominantly in mainland Europe, Eastlake regularly sent works back to London to be exhibited, and in 1827 he was elected a member of the Royal Academy. Three years later, he returned to England permanently where he continued to paint historical and biblical paintings set in Mediterranean landscapes. While he had been abroad his 1827 painting Lord Byron's Dream was exhibited at the 1829 Royal Academy summer exhibition.
As an art historian, he translated Goethe's Zur Farbenlehre (Theory of Colours, 1840).[ Introduction to Goethe's Theory of Colours]
In his On Vision and Colours, § 14, Schopenhauer praised Eastlake's translation of Goethe.
Having already advised the National Gallery, London on acquisitions, he was appointed the Gallery's second Keeper in 1843, a post he later resigned "in consequence of an unfortunate purchase that roused much animadversion, a portrait erroneously ascribed to Holbein". In 1855 he returned as the first director, "with more extended powers".
In 1849, he married Elizabeth Rigby, an art historian and translator of German art histories. Together they formed a formidable art history writing partnership.
In 1845, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Honorary Academician. From 1850 to 1865, he was the second president of the Birmingham Society of Artists.
Legacy
On 24 December 1865, Eastlake died in
Pisa, Italy. He is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, London. His will provided for the Gallery to purchase his collection of paintings. Lady Eastlake sold her husband's art history book collection to the Gallery's library.
Popular culture
In the film
Effie Gray (2014), he is portrayed by
James Fox.
Gallery
File:Charles Lock Eastlake (1793-1865) - Brutus Exhorting the Romans to Revenge the Death of Lucretia - BIKGM-33 - Williamson Art Gallery and Museum.jpg| Brutus Exhorting the Romans to Revenge the Death of Lucretia, 1814
File:Eastlake - Napoleon on the Bellerophon.jpg| Napoleon on the Bellerophon, 1815
File:A View of the Erechtheum on the Acropolis, Athens, by Charles Lock Eastlake, 1818, oil on paper on canvas - Middlebury College Museum of Art - Middlebury, VT - DSC08177.jpg| A View of the Erechtheum on the Acropolis, Athens, 1818
File:The Erechtheum, Athens.png| The Erechtheum, Athens, 1821
File:Charles Lock Eastlake - A View of Trajan's Forum, Rome - Google Art Project.jpg| A View of Trajan's Forum, Rome, 1821
File:Charles Lock Eastlake (1793-1865) - The Colosseum from the Esquiline - T00664 - Tate.jpg| The Colosseum from the Esquiline, 1822
File:Charles Lock Eastlake (1793-1865) - The Colosseum from the Campo Vaccino - T00665 - Tate.jpg| The Colosseum from the Campo Vaccino, 1822
File:Charles Lock Eastlake - The Celian Hill from the Palatine - 56.099 - Rhode Island School of Design Museum.jpg| The Celian Hill from the Palatine, 1823
File:The Champion - Charles Lock Eastlake - Google Cultural Institute.jpg| The Champion, 1824
File:Charles Lock Eastlake (1793-1865) - Lord Byron's 'Dream' - N00898 - National Gallery.jpg| Lord Byron's Dream, 1827
File:Pilgrims arriving in sight of Rome (1827), by Charles Lock Eastlake.jpg| Pilgrims Arriving in Sight of Rome, 1827
File:Charles Lock Eastlake - Christ Blessing Little Children.jpg| Jesus Blessing Little Children, 1839
File:Sir Charles Lock Eastlake (1793-1865) - Zia Theresa, The visit to the nun - RCIN 405854 - Royal Collection.jpg| Zia Theresa: The Visit to the Nun, 1844
File:Eastlake.jpg| Christ Lamenting over Jerusalem, 1846, one of Eastlake's most popular biblical paintings.
Publications
-
Materials for a History of Oil Painting (1847). A second volume was published posthumously in 1869.
-
Contributions to the Literature of the Fine Arts (1848).
See also
- Attribution
-
; Endnotes:
-
Memoir by Lady Eastlake prefixed to the second series of Contributions to the Literature of the Fine Arts
-
Pictures by Sir Charles Eastlake
-
Haydon's Autobiography
-
Catalogue of the National Gallery (Wornum), and books mentioned in the text.
External links
-
, an engraving of the painting in Friendship's Offering, 1827, with the poem The Brigand Leader and his Wife by Felicia Hemans.
