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One morning in the 1820s, teenager Jacob Bell was attending
an art class at Henry Sass’s private drawing school
in Bloomsbury, London. The students were asked to draw a large plaster
ball, but Jacob would not
join in and mocked the exercise.
Sass retorted: “Sir, your father
placed you under my care for the purpose of making an artist of you.
I can’t do it; I can make nothing of you.”
Following this damning experience, Bell paid more attention to his scientific
studies and went on to inherit the well-established pharmacy business
of his father, John Bell, and to found the Pharmaceutical
Society.
However many of his letters, illustrated with lively pen and
ink sketches, reflect
a continued passion for drawing. His urgency to be around artists in
later life could, perhaps, be explained by his own frustrated efforts
to become an artist.
Historian S. W. F. Holloway has
also pointed out that Bell’s father’s business success provided
the means for him to develop interests and abilities which “lured
him out of the confines of the [Quaker] meeting-house and dispensary
into the
temptations offered by politics and the arts.” Patronage
Museum of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
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Bell (1810–59) certainly went on to be a significant figure in
the Victorian art world, acting as patron, adviser and friend to a
network of artists. He helped them with business matters, gathered them
around
him for social events, and encouraged them with commissions. Bell also
moved in wider artistic, musical and theatrical circles, and often hosted
parties with guests, including Charles Dickens and George
Cruikshank.
He led parties to the opera, including the first performances in England
of Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’, Donizetti’s ‘Don
Pasquale’ and many more.
In 1891, William Ince, a founder member of the Pharmaceutical Society,
recalled his impressions of Bell’s house: “The drawing room
… was a gallery of art. The walls were hung, or rather hidden, by
a collection of modern paintings.” An undated inventory of Bell’s
art collection records 156 paintings, eight sculptures and a number of
miscellaneous prints.
In addition to encouraging them to produce new works, Jacob Bell also
advised artists on how to make sure they benefited fully from the reproduction
and rights of their works. He advised them with input from his friend,
member of parliament and lawyer, Thomas Noon Talfourd, who had been instrumental
in the establishment of the 1842 Copyright Act. Bell’s role as
business adviser was one that he played in relation to a number of artists,
particularly Edwin Landseer.
Family ties
Bell also had family connections in the art world through his cousin,
Henry Perronet Briggs (1792–1844). Although Briggs had been born
near Durham, he moved to London in 1811 to train at the Royal Academy
Schools. He established himself as a historical and portrait painter
and from 1814 until his death, he exhibited regularly at the Royal
Academy and at the British Institution. His success was recognised
with his election as a Royal Academician in 1832.
Briggs had given his cousin lessons in oil painting when he was a child
and, as an adult, Bell continued to work him. Bell bought Briggs’s ‘Othello
relating his adventures to Desdemona’ and commissioned other works
from him. Briggs produced a portrait of John Bell in 1833, the membership
certificate of the Pharmaceutical Society and a portrait, now in the
Society’s collection, of William Allen, the Society’s first
president. When Briggs died in 1844, Jacob was his executor and was given
guardianship of his two children.
Frith
Sat near to the young Bell at the ill-fated Sass art class was William
Powell Frith (1818–1909). The two boys became close friends,
but Frith succeeded where Bell failed. He began his career as a portrait
painter, using members of his family as models. He first exhibited
at the British Institution in 1838 and during the 1840s he established
himself with his entertaining historical and literary subjects.
© Tate, London 2007
This is not an accurate reproduction.
For the purposes of the competition
on p721, some details (eg,
several birds in the sky) have been removed.
See the correct
version
“Derby
Day” by Frith, 1856–8 |
Bell
had a passion for horses and, although his Quaker upbringing prevented
him from gambling, he immediately offered Frith £1,500 to produce
a full-scale painting of what is perhaps Frith’s most well-known
work, ‘Derby day’, after seeing a preliminary sketch.
Aware
of the lucrative subject matter the dealer Ernest Gambart paid Frith
the equivalent amount to secure the painting’s copyright and exhibition
rights before the artist had even put his brush to the canvas.
The popularity of the painting was assured owing to Gambart’s involvement.
The public were so eager to press their faces against the newly painted
canvas that Bell applied to the Royal Academy council for a protective
rail when the work was exhibited at the academy in May 1858. In his diary
entry for 8 May, Bell remarked that he “couldn’t help going
to see the rail, and there it is sure enough; and loads of people”.
In addition to commissioning the painting from Frith, Bell supplied the
artist with attractive models and, in his autobiography, Frith remarked
that he had found Bell “very useful … in procuring models.
Few people had a more extensive acquaintance, especially among the female
sex.” Landseer
Jacob Bell and Edwin Landseer (1802–73) met as adults when Landseer
was already an established painter. The foundation of their friendship
seems to have been a mutual love of animals, in particular horses and
dogs — two of Landseer’s chief subjects.
Unworldly in business
matters, Landseer gradually came to rely on Bell to act as his business
manager. Until his death in 1859, Bell, with his brother, James, acted
as the artist’s business agent and adviser, relieving him of business
correspondence and helping him to secure the best prices for his pictures.
Although it is difficult to conjecture how far Bell determined the subjects
of Landseer’s painting, it is possible that he steered the painter
towards subjects that would sell commercially and, consequently, Landseer
was never short of patrons.
Bell’s efficient management of Landseer’s affairs contributed
greatly towards the artist’s prosperity. An account among Bell’s
papers from about 1851 shows how dramatically the artist’s income
rose due to his friend’s astute businessmanship. For example, in
1832 Landseer’s income was just £1,117 but seven years later
had risen to £3,298. By 1847, it had increased even further to £6,432,
nearly half of which came from copyright fees. The animal painter’s
income reached the highest point in 1865 when he earned £17,352
in one year.
Landseer spent much time at Bell’s house in Langham Place, and
bought a country house in Wandsworth, next to Bell’s Clock House.
Joseph Ince, a member of the Pharmaceutical Society’s journal committee,
recalled attending a meeting at Langham Place: “The business of
the committee was interrupted by outside visitors who had no connections
with pharmacy whatsoever; chiefly by Sir Edwin Landseer, who rippled
over with droll remark and conversation. ‘Now, I suppose you must
go,’ said Sir Edwin; ‘rammed up to the muzzle with your speeches
to be let off before the Society!’ He put an adjective before the
last word derived from the animal kingdom.”
Bell bought a number of Landseer’s works. Three of the Landseer
paintings in his collection were based on Bell’s own animals. Bell
was a keen horseman, and often visited his father’s estate where
he enjoyed hunting. He commissioned ‘Shoeing’ from Landseer
of his mare, Old Betty. Bell had initially wanted Landseer to depict
the mare with her foal, but the painter kept putting off the commission
until the foal was bigger than its mother so he substituted the foal
for a donkey. The painting also shows Bell’s bloodhound, Laura,
and his farrier.
‘Dignity and Impudence’ portrays Bell’s two dogs, Grafton
the bloodhound and Scratch, a West Highland terrier. On one occasion
Grafton, a tenacious creature, was locked in a stable with another dog
which he immediately took a dislike to. The two dogs were discovered
the next morning badly injured. In his dismay at Grafton, Bell left him
to die. Grafton recovered from the fight but Bell wrote: “In future
Grafton shall wear a muzzle and unless he is very careful how he behaves
I will shoot him”. ‘Dignity and Impudence’ was bought
by Bell for £50.
‘Sleeping bloodhound’ depicts Bell’s hound, Countess, lying
on a parapet at his home, Clock House in West-hill, Wandsworth. The painting
was commissioned by Bell following an incident in which the dog fell
23ft to the ground from the balcony of Bell’s house. Afraid that
the dog was dying Bell took it over to Landseer’s house in St John’s
Wood straight away. He asked the artist to paint Countess in order to
preserve his memory of her.
‘The maid and the magpie’, a painting of a Belgian milkmaid, was
sold by Bell for £2,000, who then lodged the money in Landseer’s
bank account. Bell, ever aware of the artist’s poor financial acumen,
had kept quiet about his purchase, knowing that Landseer would have refused
to take such a substantial sum of money from a friend.
In 1840, Landseer became severely depressed after his proposal to the
recently widowed Duchess of Bedford was refused. He requested Bell’s
company on a continental tour through Belgium, Germany and Switzerland,
during which Bell encouraged him to do as little as possible.
In the
end it was Bell who ended up cutting the trip short after developing
quinsy in Geneva and, after two months of travelling, they returned home
via Paris. Once home, Bell threw himself into the establishment and development
of the Pharmaceutical Society. His health declined through the 1840s
and 1850s, no doubt hastened by his hard work.
Landseer’s most significant work as far as the Society is concerned
is his portrait of Bell. The founder of the Society sat for this portrait
just two weeks before his death at the age of 49 years. It was completed
in only two hours. The portrait was presented to Thomas Hyde
Hills with
the inscription “Given to his very worthy successor T. H. Hills
by his friend the author”. The portrait was bequeathed by Hill
to the Society in 1891. Bell’s legacy
Although most of Bell’s collection was sold in May 1860, 16 paintings
from Bell’s collection were bequeathed to the National Collection.
With the exception of Rosa Bonheur’s ‘The horse fair’ (National
Gallery), Bell’s collection is now owned by Tate.
The collection
reflects Bell’s strong friendships with a number of artists, including
C. R. Leslie, W. Etty, W. F.
Douglas and F. R. Lee. But the most notable
works are undoubtedly by Frith and Landseer.
Bell’s patronage also continued after his death in the person of
Hills. Having worked as an apprentice with Bell’s father, Hills
joined Bell’s pharmacy as junior assistant in 1837. He became superintendent
pharmacist at John Bell & Co in 1845. On John Bell’s death
in 1849, Jacob Bell and Hills became joint proprietors.
Hills was the first associate member of the Pharmaceutical Society in
1841. He became a full member in 1848. He was elected to the Society’s
Council in 1860 and held all three officer posts culminating in president
(1873–1876). Hills formed a close friendship with Bell. In fact,
he moved into Bell’s house in 1837 and stayed there until Bell’s
death in 1859. On his death, Bell left his friend two-thirds of the pharmacy
business.
Hills’ involvement in Bell’s art patronage led to the description
in Hill’s obituary in 1891 as Bell’s alter ego: “Nearly
all Bell’s art friendships were continued by his successor, who
had already become closely connected with Landseer, to whom he acted
as a business adviser, and finally as executor; with Millais, who painted
a wonderful slap-dash full-length portrait of his friend, with, I believe,
only one sitting; with Frith, Hart, Mulready, and other lights of the
time.”
When Hills died, he bequeathed two of Landseer’s full size sketches
of the lions designed for the foot of Nelson’s Column to the National
Gallery. The slap-dash portrait by Millais is part of the Society’s
collection. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I acknowledge the invaluable help and information provided
by Heather Birchall, formerly assistant curator at Tate. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal