2-888-549 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The New President of the Royal Academy - C. L. Eastlake, Esq., 1850. Portrait of British art historian and painter Charles Lock Eastlake who has shown '...his desire to reform the abuses and remove the restrictions which have rendered the Royal Academy obnoxious to public censure; and we hope that his administration of its affairs will be marked by a judicious resolution to adapt the institution...Benvenuto Cellini...recommends every artist who has passed the age of forty, and who has previously produced works of excellence, to follow his example, and write his own life. Mr. Eastlake has followed this advice, and thus furnished materials for tracing his career...Mr. Eastlake made a sketch of the ex-Emperor [Napoleon], as he appeared from the gangway of the Bellerophon, when at anchor in Plymouth roads, interesting as the last delineation of a noble visage, then untinged with chagrin'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.