William Quiller Orchardson - Legacy

Legacy

Orchardson's wider popularity dates from 1880. To that year's Royal Academy summer exhibition he sent the large "Napoleon on board the Bellerophon", which was immediately acquired for the national collection by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest for Tate. Its success with the public was great and instantaneous, and for a decade or more, Orchardson's work was more eagerly looked for at the Academy than that of anyone else. He followed up the "Napoleon on the Bellerophon" with the still finer "Voltaire". Technically, the "Voltaire" is, perhaps, his high-water mark. Fine both in design and colour, it is carried out with a supple dexterity of hand which has scarcely been equalled in the British school since the death of Gainsborough. The subject does not appear happy, for it does not explain itself, but requires a previous knowledge on the part of the spectator of how Voltaire was beaten by the servants of the Chevalier de Rohan-Chabot, and how the duc de Sully failed to avenge his guest. The painter was attracted by the opportunity it gave for effective opposition of character, line, colour and movement.

The "Voltaire" was at the Academy of 1883; it was followed, in 1884, by the "Marriage de convenance", perhaps the most popular of all Orchardson's pictures; in 1885, by "The Salon of Madame Récamier"; in 1886, by "After", the sequel to the "Marriage de convenance", and "A Tender Chord", one of his most exquisite productions; in 1887, by "The First Cloud"; in 1888, by "Her Mother's Voice"; and in 1889, by "The Young Duke", a canvas on which he returned to much the same pictorial scheme as that of the "Voltaire". Subsequently he exhibited a series of pictures in which fine pictorial use was made of the furniture and costumes of the early years of the 19th century, the subjects, as a rule, being only just enough to suggest a title.

"An Enigma", "A Social Eddy", "Reflections", "If music be the food of love, play on!", "Music, when sweet voices die, vibrates on the memory", "Her First Dance", - in these, opportunities are made to introduce old harpsichords, spinets, early pianofortes, Empire chairs, sofas and tables, Aubusson carpets, short-waisted gowns, delicate in material and primitive in ornament. Between such things and Orchardson's methods as a painter, the sympathy is close, so that the best among them, "A Tender Chord", for instance, or "Music, when sweet voices die", have a rare distinction.

As a portrait-painter Orchardson must be placed in the first class. His portraits are not numerous, but among them are a few which rise to the highest level reached by modern art. "Master Baby", a picture, connecting subject-painting with portraiture, is a masterpiece of design, colour and broad execution.

"Mrs Joseph", "Mrs Ralli", "Sir Andrew Walker, Bart.", "Charles Moxon, Esq.", "Mrs Orchardson", "Conditional Neutrality" (a portrait of Orchardson's eldest son as a boy of six), "Lord Rookwood", "The Provost of Aberdeen" and, above all, "Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart." would all deserve a place on any list of the best portraits of the 19th century. In this branch of art, the "Sir Walter Gilbey" may fairly be called the painter's masterpiece, although the sumptuous full-length of the Scottish provost, in his robes, runs it closely. The scheme of colour is reticent; had the picture been exhibited at the time of the Second Boer War of 1900, the colour would have been called khaki; the design is simple, uniting nature to art with a rare felicity, with the likeness being found satisfactory by the sitter's friends.

The most important commission received by Orchardson as a portrait-painter was that for the Royal group of Queen Victoria with her son (afterwards King Edward VII), grandson and great-grandson, to be painted on one canvas for the Royal Agricultural Society. The painter hit upon a happy notion for the bringing of the four figures together, and as time went on and the picture slowly turned into history, its merit was likely to be better appreciated. He continued painting to the end of his life, and had three portraits ready for the Royal Academy in the final year of his life, 1910.