Eastlake

Eastlake, SIR CHARLES LOCK, President of the Royal Academy, was born at Plymouth in 1793, and studied in London and Paris. When the Bellerophon, with Napoleon on board, appeared in the port of Plymouth, Eastlake profited by the opportunity, and produced, from a number of rapid sketches taken in a shore-boat, two full-length portraits of the emperor. From 1816 to 1830 he made his home in Rome, where he executed the 'banditti' pictures that first attracted attention to him in England. In this period also he exhibited 'Isidas the Spartan,' 'Pilgrims in sight of Rome,' and 'Byron's Dream.' In 1827 he was elected an Associate, and in 1830 a full member of the Royal Academy. In 1839 appeared 'Christ blessing little Children,' and in 1841 his great work, 'Christ weeping over Jerusalem,' now in the National Gallery. In 1850 he was elected President of the Royal Academy, and received the honour of knighthood. In 1855 he was appointed Director of the National Gallery, in which capacity his services were as valuable as they were unsparingly given; and it was during one of his journeys in search of pictures for the national collection that he died at Pisa, 14th December 1865. Eastlake became an eminent art authority, and published Materials for the History of Oil Painting (1847); translated Goethe's Theory of Colours (1840); and prepared valuable papers, collected in Contributions to the Literature of the Fine Arts (1848 and 1870). To the second series a Memoir is prefixed by Lady Eastlake (Elizabeth Rigby, of Norwich, 1810-93), the authoress of Letters from the Baltic, and the venomous reviewer of Jane Eyre in the Quarterly. (See her own Journals, 1896.) Eastlake was F.R.S., D.C.L. of Oxford, and a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.