New Materials For The Life Of John Bacon. R.A.

me to trouble you with this note ; as I am quite sure there could be no personal acquaintance that enabled Mr . Cunningham to estimate my father ' s character . Xt is now a quarter of a century since my father ' s name appeared in the Family Library . The writer has given him ciedit for eminent genius and ability in his professionbut has thrown out very ungenerous

, insinuations against his character ; which , I grant , ought to have been refuted at the time ; but I thought that I should only be brought into a profitless paper warfare , and that new statements , as foreign to truth as the first , would be put forth ; and I therefore allowed all to pass , without even a remonstrance .

I am willing to believe that the biographer , not inowing my father personally , was satisfied in taking much of his description from the sculptors in the Eoyal Academy , all of whom , at that time , were actuated by envy and disappointment at my father ' s celebrity and success iu his profession . But for this , no such statement could have been printed for the public eye as that he made an " audacious proposition to the Government to do all the national monump . nts

at a certain percentage below the Parliamentary price . '' All this I pronounce to be , with much more introduced at the same time , a gratuitous unqualified falsehood . I well recollect when the order came to my father to prepare designs for all the public monuments which the House of Commons , had voted for five of our naval commanders ; which order wasin

, like manner , sent to the other sculptors who were Eoyal Academicians . It is true that two out of the five were adjudged to my father , but quite unexpectedly to him ; nor would he have prejudiced his flame by daring , as the biographer calls it , to ask for more than his share .

I need not advert to the contempt which is cast over his religious opinions and habits . He was unfairly dealt with in this respect ; and if the world were not too ready to join in such scandal , it would be labour spent in vain . Believe me , & c , J . BACON . "

It is impossible to read this letter from a clever son , in defence of his father ' s memory , written five-andfifty years after his father ' s death , without a respect and regard for the filial reverence of the writer . What defence of my father , if any , I made , beyond a letter of acknowledgment , courtesy , and compliment , I cannot now remember .

The history of prices in art is instructive . For the Westminster Abbey " Chatham " monument , Bacon received six thousand pounds . I have seen the agreement , , dated 8 th March , 1779 . The monument was to he erected before the 25 th December , 17 S 3 , and Bacon fulfilled his engagement . This , at the time , was the hi

ghest sum ever given for a monument ; nor do I believe that it has been since exceeded by any public grant or subscription for a monument in marble , larger sums have since been received by sculptors in bronze . The late Matthew Cotes Wyatt had close on fifteen thousand pounds for the West End Wellington ;

"hantrey had , with money and gratuitously given gun ^ jetal , something like seven thousand pounds for the Cit y Wellington . What did Mr . Foley receive "in * u " for his Calcutta Lord Hardinge ? Was Bacon ' s wo thousand pounds , minus the much canvassed twoand-a-half per cent ., a large sum for the bronze King George III . and the bronze Father Thames in the court yard of Somerset House ? And was not Sir

New Materials For The Life Of John Bacon. R.A.

Richard Westmacott ' s alleged ten thousand pounds pay for the " Hyde Park Achilles , " the highest sum ever given for the mere reproduction in metal of any statue ? The present able Professor of Sculpture in the Eoyal Academy of Art ( Sir Richard Westmacott ' s son ) will perhaps kindly enlighten us on this point .

There are very few busts by Bacon ; but the few are fine in execution . His King George III ., at the Society of Antiquaries , has an indescribable excellence in it , unlike Nollekens and unlike Chantrey . There are duplicates of his " What George , what Third , " equally fine . The " carving" I can compare only with

the die-siukiug of Simon in the far-famed " Petition Crown " of Charles II . —that crown , the envy of all collectors of coins . My old friend Joseph Theaksione , of whom I have already made mention in this series of articles , for his unequalled skill in making marble look like satin or ermine , wrought under Bacon , and from his conversation while at work in Chantrey ' s studio , my father derived all he knew from " men " of Bacon as a man .

That Bacon should die worth " sixty thousand 230 imds , " without making busts , seems to me inexplicable ; and that Flaxman should die worth only " four thousand pounds" ( equally unproductive as he was of busts ) , seems to me incomprehensible . The money amassed by Nollekens and Chantrey , married , but

childless ( one greedy , the other grasping ) , I can . understand ; but I cannot see how Bacon acquired , by scul pture alone , the large sum he was unable to take with him . And here I will observe that the English scul ptor who should have amassed the most money from what physicians and lawyers call their " practice "

, was the elder Westmacott . Sir Richard flourished in the great era of Parliamentary votes for soldiers , seamen , and statesmen , and had more than three sculptors ' shares of the monuments voted by Parliament . What was Sir Richard Westmacott's property sworn under at his death ?

" St mommientum requiris" is Sir Christopher Wren ' s best monument ; a like inscription should have served for Guy , the founder of the noble hospital in London which bears his name . There were Guy governors , however , who , when Bacon was alive , thought otherwise ; and Bacon , at the cost of one thousand pounds ( prices of labourskilled or

other-, wise , I like to quote and see quoted ) made a monument to Guy , that , — " shouldering God's altar , " as it does ,- adds nothing to Guy ' s munificence of soul , or Bacon ' s fame as one of the greatest sculptors England has produced . PETER CuNNiHGiLUvr .

On The Arch And Arcades.

ON THE ARCH AND ARCADES .

( Continued from page 188 . ) It would occupy a great deal too much of our time were I to attempt to enumerate even the most conspicuous examples of this popular and pleasing feature , the arcade . Italy abounds in them . The city of Bologna , more than any other city in Europe , or perhaps in the world , is rendered remarkable by them : you may traverse

that large city in most directions wholly under their cover ; but perhaps one of the most singular arcades in existence is that which extends for upwards of two miles from one of the city gates up to a church built on the summit of a height overlooking the city . This arcade was built by the inhabitants in honour of the church to which it leads , and for the public use and benefit , at their own cost , each citizen contributing an arch .