PAINTERS AND ENGRAVERS.
it is said, in long evenings' exposure on the canals
of that fascinating- city. Then in Paris, while
sketching in the sun, he received a sunstroke
which brought on lirst of all somnambulism and
then brain fever. From the former he never
entirely recovered, and the consumption making
rapid progress lai<l him aside completely, and he
died in London on September 23, 1828, before he
had completed his twenty-seventh year. Eugene
Delacroix was Ids great friend and comrade, and
the eminent artist has thus described him : — " I
knew Bonicgton well and loved him much. His
English composure, which nothing could disturb,
robbed him of some of the qualities which make
life pleasant. As a lad he developed an astonishing
dexterity in the use of water-colours, which were
in 1817 an English novelty. Other artists were
perhaps more powerful or more accurate than
Bonington, but no one in the modern school,
perhaps no earlier artist, possessed the ease of
execution which makes his works, in a certain
sense, diamonds, by which the eye is pleased and
fascinated, quite independently of tlie subject and
the particular representation of nature. The same
is true of the costume pictures which he afterwards
painted. Even here I could never grow weary
of marvelling at his sense of effort and his great
ease of execution. Not that he was quickly satis-
fied ; on the cc'.itrary, he often began over again
perfectly finished pieces which seemed wonderful
to us. His dexterity was, however, so great that
in a moment he produced with his brush new
effects which were as charming as the first and
more truthful." The career of Bonington is a
very sad instance of genius cut off in its bloom.
He was at once, as Muther says, "the most natural
and the most delicate in that Romantic school in
which he was one of the first to make an appear-
ance. He had a fine eye for the charm of Nature,
saw grace and beauty in her everywhere, and
represented the spring and the sunshine in bright
clear tones. No Frenchman before him had so
painted the play of light on gleaming costumes
and succulent meadow greens." His spirited im-
pressionist works, full of careful observation, are
the direct result of his study of Constable, and it
was largely to his influence and to the ability
which he had to carry the Constable quality over
to France, that the men of the Barbizon school,
whose forerunner he was, were able to acquire
that influence of Constable which is so marked
in their works and which they brought down to
the present day. Bonini^ton is the link of union
between the men of classic fame in England and
the Barbizon school, with all its developments
on the landscape art of France. At the British
Institution he exhibited in 1826 two ' Views on
the French Coast,' and also the ' Column of St.
Mark's, Venice,' now in the National Gallery. To
the Royal Academy he sent four pictures, ' Henry
III. of France' and 'The Grand Canal, Venice,'
both painted in 1828, and two ' Coast Scenes.'
Two of his best known works are ' Henri IV. and
the Spanish Ambassador ' (which was sold in the
San Donate collection in 1870 for £3320, and is
now in the Wallace Gallery), and ' Francis I. and
the Duchesse d'Etarapes,' now in the Louvre.
There are three of his water-colours in the Museum
at Kensington, but in no gallery can his work be
80 well studied .ns at Hertford House, where there
are no less than thirty-four of his paintings ; ten
being in oil and the remainder in water-colour.
Amongst those in oil, in addition to those just
mentioned, are ' Francis I. and Marguerite _ of
Navarre,' representiug the scene where the King
has just written on the window-pane the famous
verse, ' Souvent femme varie, Bien fol qui s'y fie,'
' Anne Pai;e and Slender,' 'The Seine near Rouen,'
'A Rustic Scene,' and 'The Piazza San Marco,
Venice.' In water-colours there are many scenes
from Venice, Bologna, Milan, Rouen, and some
charming historical episodes, as 'The Earl of
Surrey with the fairGeraldine,' 'Death of Leonardo
da Vinci.' Some of his finest productions were
executed in lithography. g. c. W.
BONINI, GiROLAMO, called L'Anconitana, was, according to Padre Orlandi, a native of Ancona, and flourished about the year 1660. He was a favourite scholar and imitator of Francesco Albani. and assisted that master in many of his principal works, particularly in the Sala Farnese, and in the palaces at Bologna. A ' Christ adored by Saints ' by him is in the Louvre. He died about 1680.
BONINSEGNA, Duccio Di. See Buoninseqna.
BONIS, Floriano. See Bdoni.
BONISOLI, Agostino, was born at Cremona in 1633, and was first a scholar of Battista Tortiroli, and afterwards studied a short time under .Miradoro Agostino Bonisoli, a relation, an artist of little note. He was indebted to his natural genius and his study of the works of Paolo Veronese more than to either of his instructors. He was more employed in e.asel pictures of sacred subjects than for the churches. The only large work by him that is recorded is a picture in the Conventuali at Cremona, representing the dispute between St. Anthony and the tyrant Ezzelino. He died in 1700.
BONITO, Giuseppe, was born at Castellamare, in the kingdom of Naples, in 1705. He was a scholar of Francesco Solimena, and one of the most successful followers of his style. He ac- quired considerable celebrity as a painter of history, and was much emploj'ed as a portrait painter. He was appointed painter to tlie Court of Naples, where he died in 1789. A Portrait of a Turkish Amb.assador by him is in the Madrid Gallery.
BONNAR, William, a painter of portraits, his- tory, and genre, was born at Edinburgh in 1800. His father was a house-painter of considerable skill, and the son, having from his early years evinced a remarkable aptitude for drawing, was apprenticed to one of the leading decorators of the time. When George IV. visited Edinburgh in 1822, Bonnar assisted David Roberts in decorating the assembly rooms for the grand state ball which was given in honour of the occasion. Shortly afterwards some signboards painted by him at- tracted the notice of Captain Basil Hall, who sought out and encouraged the young artist. In the year 1824 his picture of 'The Tinkers' estab- lished him as a favourite with the public, and shortly after the formation of the Royal Scottish Academy (in 1830) he was elected one of the members. Bonnar died at Edinburgh in 1853. He left behind him many fine pictures, several of which have been engraved. In the Edinburgh Gallery there are his own Portrait and a Portrait of G. .M. Kemp, the Architect of the Scott Monu- ment, Edinburgh.
BONN.RT, Henri, a French painter and en- graver, was the brother of Robert, Jean Baptiste, and Nicolas Bonnart. He was born in Paris in
1642, became rector of the Academy of St. Luke.
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