on French precedents, and his appointment of Jules Dalou as head of the modelling school was not less epoch-marking than the election of Legros at the Slade School. In connexion with his office at South Kensington he edited a series of freehand drawing-copies and another of manuals of art history, each far superior to any previously available in this country. Finding that his duties interfered with his painting—Lord Wharncliffe's four canvases had taken seven years to finish, and the only other important picture of this period was ‘A Visit to Aesculapius’ (1880), now in the Tate Gallery—he resigned the directorship in August 1881.
He next undertook another piece of decoration, the preparation of gigantic cartoons developing part of Alfred Stevens's sketch-design for the interior of the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. When tested in position they were found to be invisible, and the permanent realization of the scheme was abandoned. At this time he began the picture of ‘The Queen of Sheba's Visit to King Solomon’, a vast canvas containing more than fifty figures and heads. It was completed in 1890 and bought by Messrs. McLean, who sold it to the National Gallery at Sydney. The price, £3,000, although the highest he ever received, was small compared with those earned by many of his contemporaries, and cannot have remunerated him for the time and research lavished on one of the most elaborate pictures of its class ever painted. During its progress Poynter maintained the reputation he had earned by a number of portraits and by those subject-pictures of Graeco-Roman genre which henceforth formed the staple of his output.
Public attention having been attracted to the destructive influences at work on the monuments of ancient Egypt, a society was formed for their preservation in 1889, Poynter becoming the honorary secretary. An active controversialist, he usually took part in any correspondence in the press relating to artistic matters.
In March 1894 the directorship of the National Gallery fell vacant by the retirement of Sir Frederick Burton [q.v.]. Since 1855 the gallery had been managed with conspicuous success by autocratic directors who were also practising painters. On this occasion strong efforts were made to procure the appointment of a professional critic. Doubtless in response to this agitation, the prime minister, before offering the post to Poynter, enacted a new constitution curtailing the power of the office; in practice, as Poynter found to his cost, the influence of one trustee was sufficient to reduce the director almost to a cipher and produce constant friction. In spite of this, Poynter was able to render good service to the gallery. The number of pictures, above five hundred, added during his directorship, was swollen by the Tate gift and by the absorption of the collection formed by the Chantrey trustees. The most conspicuous purchases made in his time were the De Saumarez Rembrandts and Titian's ‘Ariosto’. He also acquired the Northbrook Mantegna and Antonello and the Ashburnham Pisanello, and was instrumental in securing for the gallery its first pictures by Dürer, Goya, and Alfred Stevens, as well as in filling many less serious gaps in it; he also edited the first complete illustrated catalogue (1899). He was responsible for the arrangement and opening of the Tate Gallery (1897). He retired at the end of 1904.
On the death of Millais, Poynter was elected (December 1896) president of the Royal Academy. A man of distinguished bearing, a good linguist, an artist with practical knowledge of every process of painting, possessing intimate experience of art education and long familiarity with the business of the Academy, he was well suited for this position. During his tenure the Academy was called upon to face a rancorous attack in connexion with the Chantrey bequest. A committee of the House of Lords held an inquiry (1904) and recommended some modifications in the administration. Poynter was a principal witness, and by his dignity and integrity gave strong support to an unpopular cause. In April 1917 his colleagues in the Academy made him a present to commemorate his twenty years' tenure of the chair, Reynolds and West alone among his predecessors having presided for so long a period. About this time his health and eyesight began to fail. In the autumn of 1918 he resigned the presidentship. He died at 70 Addison Road, Kensington, on 26 July 1919, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.
He married in 1866 Agnes, daughter of the Rev. G. B. Macdonald, a lady of great beauty and musical talent, one of whose sisters was the wife of Sir Edward Burne-Jones. She died in 1906, leaving two sons. Poynter was knighted in 1896, created a baronet in 1902, and G.C.V.O. in 1918. He possessed a fine collection of drawings by the old masters, which was sold at Sotheby's in 1918.
There are numerous portraits of Poynter:
440
