afield from pure painting. It illustrates the literary rather than the
pictorial. Following Wilkie the most distinguished painter was
Mulready (1786-1863), whose pictures of village boys are well known
through engravings.

[Illustration: FIG. 98.--TURNER. FIGHTING TEMERAIRE. NAT. GAL.
LONDON.]

THE LANDSCAPE PAINTERS: In landscape the English have had something to
say peculiarly their own. It has not always been well said, the
coloring is often hot, the brush-work brittle, the attention to
detail inconsistent with the large view of nature, yet such as it is
it shows the English point of view and is valuable on that account.
Richard Wilson (1713-1782) was the first landscapist of importance,
though he was not so English in view as some others to follow. In
fact, Wilson was nurtured on Claude Lorrain and Joseph Vernet and
instead of painting the realistic English landscape he painted the
pseudo-Italian landscape. He began working in portraiture under the
tutorship of Wright, and achieved some success in this department; but
in 1749 he went to Italy and devoted himself wholly to landscapes.
These were of the classic type and somewhat conventional. The
composition was usually a dark foreground with trees or buildings to
right and left, an opening in the middle distance leading into the
background, and a broad expanse of sunset sky. In the foreground he
usually introduced a few figures for romantic or classic association.
Considerable elevation of theme and spirit marks most of his pictures.
There was good workmanship about the skies and the light, and an
attentive study of nature was shown throughout. His canvases did not
meet with much success at the time they were painted. In more modern
days Wilson has been ranked as the true founder of landscape in
England, and one of the most sincere of English painters.

THE NORWICH SCHOOL: Old Crome (1769-1821), though influenced to some
extent by Wilson and the Dutch painters, was an original talent,
painting English scenery with much simplicity and considerable power.
He was sometimes rasping with his brush, and had a small method of
recording details combined with mannerisms of drawing and composition,
and yet gave an out-of-doors feeling in light and air that was
astonishing. His large trees have truth of mass and accuracy of
drawing, and his foregrounds are painted with solidity. He was a keen
student of nature, and drew about him a number of landscape painters
at Norwich,