Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/665

Painting in England. 635 are painted in a pure and transparent colour which cannot be called either rich or brilliant, but which admirably fulfils all the requirements of the subject chosen. In the year 1825 Wilkie went to Italy, and on his return to Eng- land completely changed his style and mode of execution. His later works — such as the Maid of Saragossa, and his John Knox Preaching, in the National Gallery — although they have a charm of their own, and display considerable dramatic force and power of picturesque grouping, are wanting in the vitality of those enumerated above. In an attempt to imitate the broad, rich colouring of Titian and Velazquez, Wilkie lost the quiet harmony and balance of tone by which he had been distinguished. But for his early death, however, he would probably have con- quered these deficiencies, and have risen to a high position as an historic painter in the grand style. Wilkie painted chiefly in oils, but the South Kensington Museum contains some interesting water-colour sketches by him. William Mulready (1786—1863), born at Ennis in Ireland, ranks second only to Wilkie in his masterly treatment of familiar incident, and is by some critics thought to approach Turner in the finish and brilliant colouring of his landscapes. His genre pictures exhibit less dramatic power and less humour than those of Wilkie, but in truth of drawing and sweetness and depth of colouring they are inferior to none. Mulready' s easel pictures are in oils ; but the South Kensington Museum contains a fine collection of life-studies in chalk which afford valuable specimens of careful drawing. Of his oil- paintings the following (all of which are in the National Gallery or the South Kensington Museum) are among the most remarkable : The Last In, Crossing the Ford, the