Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/649

In England. 619 House of Commons ; the Assassination of Buckingham, and King Charles signing Strafford's death warrant. Of the numerous artists who endeavoured with greater or less success to follow the leaders whom we have just named, the principal were : — George Romney (1734 — 1802), who executed several portraits and simple groups characterized by dignified refinement, truth of form, and individuality of character. Of his portraits those of Lady Hamilton and The Parsons Daughter in the National Gallery, and of his groups Newton showing the effects of the Prism; Milton dictating to his Daughters ; and the Infant Shakespeare surrounded by the Passions, are among the most esteemed. In his best paintings, Romney was considered equal to Reynolds and Gainsborough. Joseph Wright (1734 — 1797), of Derby, a historic painter whose finest work, an Experiment with the Air-pump, is in the National Gallery, was celebrated for his fire-light subjects. Heinrich Fuessly, known in England as Henry Fuseli (1741 — 1825), a native of Zurich, was an artist of great power, often, however, tending to extravagance ; he is well known by his illustrations of the English poets. As pro- fessor of painting at the Royal Academy, he fostered the genius of many of the rising men of his day. He attained in his own works as near to the grandeur of Michelangelo as any British painter. James Northcote (1746 — 1831) painted several import- ant historic pictures in a bold and forcible manner, one of which — the Presentation of British Officers to Pope Pius VI. — is in the South Kensington Museum. He made many designs for Boydell's ' Shakespeare.'