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1851, ' Caxton showing his Printing-press to Edward IV. ; ' in 1854, * The Marriage of Strongbow and Eva/ an important pic- ture, which the commissioners wished him to repeat on the walls of the palace, but proposed a very inadequate remuneration. He had visited Paris again in 1844, and he now (1855) made his third visit, and extended his journey to Turin, Genoa, Florence, Naples, and Rome.
He had in 1851 expressed a wish to undertake the decoration of the Royal Gallery, which resulted in the commis- sioners offering as a commencement of that work, two subjects—* The Meeting of Wel- lington and Blucher after the Battle of Waterloo ' and 'The Death of Nelson/ The spaces these two pictures were to occupy were each 48 ft. long ; and he commenced his designs for them in 1858, and in the following year he completed an elaborate cartoon of the first, full of the most careful detail, which is now possessed by the Royal Academy. But on commencing the work in fresco he found so many insurmount- able difficulties that he resigned the tasjc in that material, yet was willing to make a trial of it in oil. To remove this difficulty, at the request of Prince Albert, the presi- dent of the commission, he went to Berlin in 1859 to inform himself of the water- glass process, and consented to commence his subject on this principle. Working incessantly in the gloomy gallery it was to occupy, utterly abstracted from all else, depressed and plagued, he finished his great work in December 1859, representing accu- rately even the smallest details of portrait, costume, and the minor accessories; and was then commissioned to commence the companion picture, which, under the most discouraging and depressing circumstances, he completed in 1864, abandoning all claim to the amount of remuneration which he might justly have claimed. These two large water-glass paintings have been engraved in line for the Art Union of London.
Between 1857, when he completed an outline series of designs, ' The Story of the Norman Conquest/ for the Art Union, and 1865, while engaged on the works ot the Royal Commission, he had only exhibited one unimportant rilcture at the Academy. In each of the following years, including the year of his death, he exhibited, his pic- tures chiefly from Shakespeare : but his energies, great as they were, had been ex- hausted, and he succumbed after a short illness, aying at his house in Cheyne Walk. Chelsea, on April 25, 1870. He was buriea at the Kensal Green Cemetery, his grave surrounded by his friends. He illustrated Moore's 'Irish Melodies/ Lord Lytton's 'Pilgrims of the Rhine/ and some other works, and designed the Swiney Cup for the Society of Arts, the Medal for the
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International Exhibition, 1862, and the Turner Medal for the Royal Academy.
Of a high and generous nature, fertile in invention, of great power of execution, and an excellent draftsman, but deficient in colour, he was always original and pleasing in his art. As a man he was modest, gentle, and frank-hearted. Wedded to his art, he died unmarried. Indifferent and almost careless in money matters, his will was proved under 40.000/. personalty. A memoir of him was published in 1871 by his friend Justin O'Driscoll.
MADDEN, Thomas, sculptor. There is a fine tomb to Sir Hugh Hammersley by this unknown artist in the Church of St. Andrew Undershaft, London. The knight is represented kneeling under a canopy, and behind him his wife, with two finely- conceived cavalier figures on each side, 1636.
MADDEN, Wykdham, portrait painter of the last half of the 18th century. Dick- inson mezzo-tinted a portrait by him.
MADDOX, George, architect. He was an exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 1796, 1807, and 1819, afterwards he became a member of the Society of British Artists, and contributed to their exhibitions classical compositions in architecture, fragments of sculpture, and ornaments in the antique taste. Cockerell, R.A., Decimus Burton, and Professor Hosking were his pupils. He died October 9, 1843, in his 83rd year.
♦ MADDOX, Willis, portrait and his- tory painter. Was born at Bath in 1813. Was noticed by Mr. Beckf ord, of FonthiU, for whom he executed several works —
- Christ's Temptation on the Mount ' and
' Agony in the Garden. 7 And from him he probably received an impulse towards oriental subjects. He first exhibited at the Academy in 1844, his early contributions being still-life. He painted the portraits of several distinguished Turks, and was invited to Constantinople, where he painted the Sultan. He exhibited at the Academy, in 1849, a portrait of Risk Allah ; and in 1850, of Aina Felleck, the ' Light of the Mirror.' The chief subject picture which he exhi- bited is his ' Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah,' 1847. There is a portrait of the Duchess of Hamilton by him, painted in 1846, and at Bath many of his portraits, which are truthful and vigorous. He died of fever, at Pera, near Constantinople, June 26, 1853.
MAINWARING, William, medallist. Practised in England towards the end of 18th century.
MAJOR, Thomas, A.E., engraver. Born in 1720. In the early part of his life he resided several years in Paris, and was eventually imprisoned there, as a reprisal for some French troops captured at Culloden. He I engraved, while in Paris, several plates [after Berghem, Wouvermans, and others.
