515 APPENDIX A. ADDRESS OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY TO THOMAS WILKIE, ESQ., THE BROTHER, AND MISS HELEN WILKIE, THE SISTER OF THE LATE SIR DAVID WILKIE, r.a. THE President and Council of the Royal Academy, although reluctant to obtrude on sorrows too recent and severe to admit of present alleviation, yet cannot resist the anxious desire they feel respectfully to manifest to the family of the late Sir David Wilkie how deeply they sympathise in the loss they have sustained by the lamentable and untimely death of that great painter. Connected with him for many years socially and professionally, as an important member of their body, the Academy are fully sensible how much they have been indebted to his valuable services as a man and an artist: they largely participate, therefore, in the grief and regret which have been so generally excited by an event that has deprived the arts and his country of one of their most distinguished ornaments. The President and Council are well aware that time alone can assuage the sufferings of affection under such a bereavement; but they sincerely hope that when calmer feelings shall succeed to more acute emotion, the relatives and friends of this eminent man will derive much consolation from the reflection that, although he has been unhappily cut off in the full vigour of his powers, he has lived long enough for his fame; that his works are known and admired wherever the arts are appreciated; and that he has achieved a celebrity unsurpassed in modern times. MARTIN ARCHER SHEE, President. GEORGE JONES. E. LANDSEER. RICHARD COOK. DANIEL MACLISE. WILLIAM FREDERICK WITHERINGTON. SOLOMON ALEXANDER HART. HENRY PERRONET BRIGGS. HENRY HOWARD, Secretary. APPENDIX B. TO THE PRESIDENT AND COUNCIL OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY. Mr. President and Gentlemen, We the undersigned, Members of the Royal Academy, and other professional Artists, sensible of the irreparable loss the Arts have sustained in the death of Sir David Wilkie, and anxious to show how sincerely we deplore that event, beg to offer to his family, through the President and Council, the expression of our deep sympathy in their sorrow. We are particularly induced to request that this testimony to the memory of one so highly esteemed, both as an artist and as a man, should be thus transmitted, not only as an additional mark of our regard, but because the lamentable circumstances attending his decease preclude the possibility of paying that respect to his remains which the Royal Academy and the Profession at large have been accustomed to show to artists of such pre-eminent talent and deserved celebrity. (Signed by 225 artists.) APPENDIX C. WILKIE STATUE. [From the Morning Chronicle of 30th of August, 1841.] ON Saturday* a meeting of the admirers of the genius of the late Sir David Wilkie took place at the Thatched House Tavern, St. James's Street, for the purpose of taking the necessary preliminary steps toward the erection of a monument as a testimonial of the admiration of his countrymen for the genius of the lamented painter as an artist, and his worth as a man. The Right Honourable Sir Robert Peel took the chair. Among many other noblemen and gentlemen present we observed the Duke of Sutherland, Lord Francis Egerton, Lord Burghersh, Lord John Russell, Vis The 28th August, 1841. count Mahon, Lord Charles Townshend, Count D'Orsay, Hon. Leslie Melville, Sir Augustus Callcott, Sir James M'Grigor, Sir Charles Forbes, Sir Peter Laurie, Thomas Phillips, Esq. R. A., Charles Dickens, Esq., Sir Francis Chantrey, Allan Cunningham, Esq., Mr. Macready, C. Stanfield, Esq., R. A., Mr. Cockerell, Architect, P. M. Stewart, Esq. M. P., John Murray, Esq., D. Maclise, Esq. R. A., George Rennie, Esq. M. P., &c. &c. Immediately after the Right Honourable Chairman had assumed his seat, a person who gave his name as Johnson started up and proceeded to exclaim against the right of Sir Robert Peel to take the chair without previously consulting the sense of the meeting. He proceeded for some time amid much interruption; but when he used the words " differing as I do from the Right Hon. Baronet in politics," the cry of "Turn him out! no politics!" became universal. Mr. Johnson tried to make head against the storm for some time, but was at length compelled by the increasing dissatisfaction of the meeting to desist, and retire to a less prominent situation. Sir PETER LAURIE explained that the committee, which consisted of upwards of one hundred members, had been but too happy in obtaining the Right Hon. Baronet's consent to take the chair (cheers). He trusted the meeting would stand by the committee, and not allow the proceedings to be thus interrupted (loud cheers). Sir ROBERT PEEL rose and said, I was under the impression that I had been invited by sufficiently competent authority to take the chair at this meeting (hear, and cheers). I was not aware that any preliminary form was needed for that purpose (renewed cheering); and it was under that impression that I have assumed this chair. I think I am justified in doing so (cheers), and that I shall be best consulting the object for which we are met, and those feelings which I am sure animate the great majority of those present, if I abstain from any further notice of the late interruption (loud cheers). Gentlemen (continued the Right Hon. Baronet), I feel it a great honour, as it is a great satisfaction to my private feelings, to have been requested to preside at this meeting. I feel, too, altogether relieved from the necessity of pronouncing any studied or elaborate eulogium upon the merits of the late Sir David Wilkie. His loss has been so recent his name stands so preeminently high-the productions of his genius are so familiar, not only to his own countrymen, not only to Europe in general, but I am justified in saying to the whole world, that I think it would be out of harmony with his character, unbecoming the simplicity of -- that character, were I to attempt to pronounce any studied or elaborate eulogium upon it (cheers). Gentlemen, I had the honour of accounting Sir David Wilkie as one of my private and intimate friends. I am addressing many here who stood in the same relation to him who were not only admirers of his genius, but who were admitted to the intercourse of his private friendship; and those among you who stood in that relation to him can sympathise with my feelings of deep regret for the loss which we have sustained. There was something in the simplicity of Sir David Wilkie's character, in the generosity which he showed to every competitor in art, that must have, and that has, endeared him to all who were admitted to familiar intercourse with him. I have had that satisfaction personally, whilst he resided amongst us in this metropolis, and continued during his absence by a long and extensive correspondence; and if ever that correspondence, at least his part of it, should see the light, it will, I am confident, serve to add to the honour in which he is already held from the devotion which it manifests to his art from the generosity which it testifies to every competitor in that art, and from the sincere satisfaction it displays whenever the tidings had chanced to reach him of the success of any rival for distinction (loud cheers). Gentlemen, although our primary object is to do honour to the late Sir David Wilkie, yet that is not our sole object in meeting here. The whole object of an assemblage of this kind is not confined simply to paying homage to the memory of one man, however illustrious he may have been. By meetings of this nature, we supply a great stimulus to the exertions of many a young man (hear and cheers), who is now toiling in his profession (loud cheers), whose hopes of pecuniary return from his exertions may have been disappointed, but who will be animated and consoled by the reflection, that the time may come when justice will be done to his merits, and when that fame which he prizes more highly than any emolument may be achieved (loud cheers). I know that these are the prevailing feelings among many artists (hear). I know how inadequate is their reward, how small compared with other professions, in the return for great talents and great exertions. I know how vain the greatest efforts must often be to ensure success, if that success is to be measured by present applause or pecuniary advantage (hear). I know that the grand object with many artists is a noble ambition of fame; and by meetings such as this - by manifestations such as this, of your respect for the memory of an artist, we are supplying an incentive to future exertions. We are affording the prospect of a reward not to be hoped for from other sources. On these grounds-on the ground of doing justice to the memory of the late Sir David Wilkie, and for the grand public object of stimulating art, I invite you all cordially to co-operate with me in the promotion of the end for which we have met; and I cannot doubt but that the resolutions which will be submitted to your consideration will meet with your approval, and that, ratified by your preliminary assent, they will form the first step towards erecting a testimonial to the brilliant genius and tried worth of the great man to whose memory we are met to do honour (loud and enthusiastic cheering). The Duke of SUTHERLAND proposed the first resolution. He said: It is with feelings of melancholy satisfaction that I answer the call which has been made upon me. It is satisfactory for me to be allowed to take a public opportunity of testifying the respect which, in common with you all, I feel towards the memory of the illustrious deceased, that eminent artist, and that excellent man (cheers). The resolution I am about to read, so well expresses my feelings upon the subject, that I shall trouble you with but a very few words in addition. I think the propriety of this day's proceedings will be more universally acknowledged from the melancholy circumstances attending the death of the late Sir David Wilkie, which prevented us from joining together to confer upon his remains the honours of a public funeral (hear, hear). I feel, however, that, consigned as his body is to the deep, we may well say of him, as has been said of another illustrious man, that "The world is the tomb of distinguished merit" (hear, hear). He reared his own monument in his own works (hear, hear, and cheers). More than twenty years ago he had achieved trophies that would have for ever perpetuated his fame. He has not only been appreciated by us, but by the whole world. No artist has been more popular. From the highest in the land to the humblest mechanic, all have derived pleasure from the exercise of his genius. All have known how to value his works (cheers). It is with these feelings that I have great satisfaction in moving the following resolution: "It is the opinion of this meeting that the genius of Sir David Wilkie is of that high order which entitles him not only to the admiration and gratitude of his country, but to be publicly regarded amongst those whom she loves to honour." (Loud cheers.) Sir JAMES M'GRIGOR, after a few prefatory remarks, seconded the resolution, which was carried by acclamation. Lord JOHN RUSSELL, who was received with the most unbounded demonstrations of welcome, rose to propose the next resolution. |