MASTER LAMBTON

Size of the original print, 15 by 11 inches.

From the mezzotint engraving by Samuel Cousins (1801-1887), after the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Engraved in 1827. The son of J. G. Lambton, Lord Durham. The original painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1825.

If to-day

for this there is a very good reason. one wishes to know what some of the existing pictures by, say, Sir Joshua Reynolds, were originally like, he must consult - not the painting which often has changed and faded, but some contemporary mezzotint after it, which is now as fresh as ever.

One curious circumstance connected with the old masterpieces of portrait engraving is, that although each portrait was originally produced for the sake of the man or woman whose likeness was therein depicted, yet, as most human beings very soon "outlive their own immortality," it has come to pass that to-day many a man would be totally forgotten were it not for some beautiful portrait of him which is still known and valued. The lost souls in Dante's Inferno had a pathetic longing to be still remembered on the earth. It is an instinct of humanity; and so, happy is he whose portrait has been engraved by a master!

Samuel Cousins, although a very able draughtsman, and endowed with the power to make admirable likenesses from life, yet devoted his talents to reproducing the work of other men. Many print-lovers of our day condemn every engraving which is not "original" that is, which is not the design of the engraver himself. If this theory had been adopted in former times it would have deprived the world of many of the finest engravings in existence. The reason is that, in nearly every case, the original creative designer did not know

how to etch or engrave, and therefore he was glad to avail himself of the technical skill of the expert engraver. Are Wagner's compositions, for example, never to be performed by trained instrumentalists because that great creative musician has admitted that he himself had not the technical skill to worthily play even on the piano the music which his genius had created?

Samuel Cousins was born in the city of Exeter in the year 1801. At the age of eleven he won a prize for drawing, and at the age of twelve a medal from the London Society of Arts. When thirteen years old he was bound apprentice for seven years to the eminent mezzotint-engraver, Samuel W. Reynolds, and, after the completion of his apprenticeship, he worked with Reynolds for three years more. During this latter period about eighty beautiful plates which were signed by Reynolds were really engraved by Cousins. Sir Seymour Haden tells us that as early as the time of Rembrandt it was the custom of a master to publish as his own the best work of clever apprentices.

After his ten years of service with Reynolds, Cousins wished to establish himself as a painter of portraits in miniature. But the painters, the publishers, and the public would not allow him to carry out his personal choice, and these circumstances forced him to remain a mezzotintengraver reproducing the work of other men to the end of his long and laborious life.

In 1835 he was elected to membership in the Royal Academy, a circumstance in which he took great pleasure, and of which he was very proud. It is all very well for disappointed outsiders to affect to make light of the magic letters, "R. A.," after a British artist's name, yet in our own day American artists of such power as John S. Sargent and Edwin A. Abbey did not reject the coveted "R. A.," when it was offered to them.

Although it is probable that Cousins has left us a greater number of really first-class mezzotints than any other engraver, yet his work was unequal. This was caused (as it is in the case of some very popular writers) by the importunities of the publishers. They wanted from him far more than he could produce; and although his second best plates were apt to be finer than another man's best, yet it was only when he was not pushed and hurried that we see Samuel Cousins at his best.

When he had attained the age of seventy-four years, Cousins resolved to retire from the practise of his profession. "Hitherto," he said, “I have only suffered existence - now I want to live." He had often complained of the solitude which his work imposed upon him. "Solitary confinement with hard labor," he used to call it. He was rich, he was famous, he was still in excellent health, and he wanted to amuse himself. But this was not to be. He thought that he could rid himself of commissions by putting a prohibitive price on his work, and with this view,

in response to the proposition of a publisher, he demanded the unheard-of price of 1,500 guineas for a plate after Gainsborough and to his amazement the publisher at once agreed to his terms. Similar offers of the most liberal character induced Cousins, from time to time, to undertake "just one more plate"; and it was during these last years of his life that he produced some of his very best work. His last plate was engraved in his eighty-third year. Very appropriately it was his own portrait, done after the painting by Edwin Long, R. A. In looking at this firm and strong piece of work we are reminded of the text which describes Moses of old in extreme age: "His eye was not dim nor his natural strength abated," and yet the engraver had been working at his art for seventy-one years.

Notwithstanding all this occupation, Cousins found time to "set his house in order," and in making his will he manifested not only his kindly nature, but also his respect for art and artists. He bequeathed £15,000 sterling to the Royal Academy the interest to be devoted to the aiding of artists of merit in their declining years. No one beneficiary was to receive an annuity of more than £80. At the present time this endowment yields nine annuities of £80 each. He also left £1,000 to the Artist's Benevolent Fund and £5,000 to the Artist's Orphan Fund. He never married, but besides the public benefactions already mentioned he left liberal bequests to members of his own family.