3-011-763 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

J. C. Horsley, Esq., R.A., 1864. Engraving from a photograph by J. and C. Watkins. 'Probably few, if any, living painters have given to all unsophisticated lovers of art more unalloyed pleasure...But Mr. Horsley is less widely known for powers he has occasionally displayed in that difficult branch of art, monumental painting...In the grand movement for the development of mural painting in this country by the decoration of the new Houses of Parliament, Mr. Horsley has taken, as we have already intimated, a prominent and successful part. In the (first) cartoon competition of 1843, at Westminster Hall, he obtained one of the three second-class prizes of £200 for his "Saint Augustine Preaching." In the trial of skill in the same place, on the following year, his two small frescoes obtained him a place among the six painters commissioned to execute further samples. In 1845 his design, "The Spirit of Religion," was approved of, and the subject subsequently executed over the Strangers' Gallery in the House of Lords. This fresco has much of that largeness of style indispensable in painted monumental decorations, but which few artists whose practice has been confined to the painting easel pictures succeed in attaining'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.