* EASTLAKE, SIR CHARLES LOCK, P.R.A., was born in 1793 at Plymouth, Devonshire. Having, after the usual course of educa tion at the grammar schools of Plymouth and Plympton, and for a brief apace at the Charterhouse, decided on adopting painting as a profession, he entered as a student at the Royal Academy, London, where under Fusel' he considerably distinguished himself. At this time too he availed himself of the advice and experience of his fellow townsman, Hayden. Soon after completing his preparatory studies, Mr. Eastlake visited Paris iu order to study and copy some of the many great works which Napoleon had collected in the Louvre. His labours were however interrupted by the Emperor's return from Elba, and he came back to England and established himself at Plymouth as a portrait-painter. When the Bellerophon lay off Plymouth with Bona parte on board of it, Mr. Eastlake made sketches of him as he walked the deck from a boat, and from these painted a full-length portrait of the fallen emperor—the last painted from him in Europe. Mr. Eastlake in 1817-18 visited Italy, Greece, and Sicily ; and then settled for some time in Rome. In 1823 he sent to the exhibition of the Royal Academy some views of Rome and its neighbourhood. These were followed by various pictures of the peasantry of Italy and Greece, chiefly what have been called costume pieces, but some of them—as the 'Brigand's Wife Defending her Wounded Husband,' Byron's Dream; &c.—of a somewhat more ambitious character. In 1827 he sent to the exhibition a painting of the 'Spartan Isidas,' and he was the same year elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. The following year he contributed his 'Peasants on a Pilgrimage to Rome first coming in sight of the Holy City; a work which showed a far greater amount of power than any he had previously painted, and in fact formed one of the leading features of the year's exhibition. This admirable picture has been two or three times engraved, and Mr. Eastlake has painted a duplicate of it with some variations. In 1830 Mr. Eastlake was elected ILA. For several seasons his contri butions to the Academy exhibitions cousisted chiefly of Italian and Greek subjects, such as the 'Contadina and Family returning from a Festa—prisoners to Banditti ;" Gastou de Foix befuro the Battle of Ravenna, in which he was slain ;" Salutation of the Aged Friar,' &e. Ile at length sent • work of much more elevated aim, his now uni versally known 'Christ Weeping over Jerusalem.' This, though of
but moderate size, was really one of the most important productions in the historical style which the English school bad for a considerable period produced. With the utmost refinement, and purity, there was combined a deep religious earneetness of character and expression, breadth and simplicity of treatment, and subdued but rich colour; and the well-filled canvass had neither figure nor feature to let, or in the way. And whilst every part was finished with the most scrupulous care, there were no ostentatious details, no coat-trimmings, or pebble stones, or wall-lichens set forth with the pedantry of a collector or the fussiness of an antiquary. The deep sentiment of the picture found its way to every heart ; and many hoped that it was the inauguration of a new and nubler school of English historical painting. The 'Christ Blessing Little Children,' and the 'Hagar and Ishmael,' how ever admirable, as in many respects they both were, did not certainly increaso, if indeed they sustained, the high reputation acquired by the 'Christ Weeping over Jerusalem.' There were all the refinement and purity of that work, but the delicacy verged on feebleness, and the colour was less true and powerful. But Mr. Eastlake 'a energies had been diverted away from constant attention to his art, and art is too jealous a mistress to allow of a divided service.
In 1S41 Mr. Eastlake was appointed Secretary to the Royal Com mission of Fine Arts, formed for inquiring whether advantage might not be taken of the opportunity afforded by the rebuilding of the houses of parliament for promoting and encouraging the fine arts. The direction of the proceedings of this commission, the laborious col lection of materials for arriving at a decision as to the best means of carrying out the purpose for which the commission was appointed, the investigations respecting tho history and processes of fresco painting, and other connected matters, occupied for some years a con siderable portion of Mr. Eastlake's time; and to his zeal and unselfish exertions much of the success of the commission was duo. The reports presented by the commission to parliament represent but a small portion of Mr. Eastlake's labours as its secretary, an oflico ho still retains. In November 1843 Mr. Eastlake was appointed Keeper of the National Gallery, but resigned in October 1847.