Self Help by Samuel Smiles (desktop ebook reader txt) 📖

prizes) revealed him to the world as a

genuine artist; and the works which he has since exhibited—such as

the ‘Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania,’ ‘Home,’ and ‘The bluidy

Tryste’—have shown a steady advance in artistic power and culture.

 

Another striking exemplification of perseverance and industry in

the cultivation of art in humble life is presented in the career of

James Sharples, a working blacksmith at Blackburn. He was born at

Wakefield in Yorkshire, in 1825, one of a family of thirteen

children. His father was a working ironfounder, and removed to

Bury to follow his business. The boys received no school

education, but were all sent to work as soon as they were able; and

at about ten James was placed in a foundry, where he was employed

for about two years as smithy-boy. After that he was sent into the

engine-shop where his father worked as engine-smith. The boy’s

employment was to heat and carry rivets for the boiler-makers.

Though his hours of labour were very long—often from six in the

morning until eight at night—his father contrived to give him some

little teaching after working hours; and it was thus that he

partially learned his letters. An incident occurred in the course

of his employment among the boiler-makers, which first awakened in

him the desire to learn drawing. He had occasionally been employed

by the foreman to hold the chalked line with which he made the

designs of boilers upon the floor of the workshop; and on such

occasions the foreman was accustomed to hold the line, and direct

the boy to make the necessary dimensions. James soon became so

expert at this as to be of considerable service to the foreman; and

at his leisure hours at home his great delight was to practise

drawing designs of boilers upon his mother’s floor. On one

occasion, when a female relative was expected from Manchester to

pay the family a visit, and the house had been made as decent as

possible for her reception, the boy, on coming in from the foundry

in the evening, began his usual operations upon the floor. He had

proceeded some way with his design of a large boiler in chalk, when

his mother arrived with the visitor, and to her dismay found the

boy unwashed and the floor chalked all over. The relative,

however, professed to be pleased with the boy’s industry, praised

his design, and recommended his mother to provide “the little

sweep,” as she called him, with paper and pencils.

 

Encouraged by his elder brother, he began to practise figure and

landscape drawing, making copies of lithographs, but as yet without

any knowledge of the rules of perspective and the principles of

light and shade. He worked on, however, and gradually acquired

expertness in copying. At sixteen, he entered the Bury Mechanic’s

Institution in order to attend the drawing class, taught by an

amateur who followed the trade of a barber. There he had a lesson

a week during three months. The teacher recommended him to obtain

from the library Burnet’s ‘Practical Treatise on Painting;’ but as

he could not yet read with ease, he was under the necessity of

getting his mother, and sometimes his elder brother, to read

passages from the book for him while he sat by and listened.

Feeling hampered by his ignorance of the art of reading, and eager

to master the contents of Burnet’s book, he ceased attending the

drawing class at the Institute after the first quarter, and devoted

himself to learning reading and writing at home. In this he soon

succeeded; and when he again entered the Institute and took out

‘Burnet’ a second time, he was not only able to read it, but to

make written extracts for further use. So ardently did he study

the volume, that he used to rise at four o’clock in the morning to

read it and copy out passages; after which he went to the foundry

at six, worked until six and sometimes eight in the evening; and

returned home to enter with fresh zest upon the study of Burnet,

which he continued often until a late hour. Parts of his nights

were also occupied in drawing and making copies of drawings. On

one of these—a copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper”—he spent

an entire night. He went to bed indeed, but his mind was so

engrossed with the subject that he could not sleep, and rose again

to resume his pencil.

 

He next proceeded to try his hand at painting in oil, for which

purpose he procured some canvas from a draper, stretched it on a

frame, coated it over with white lead, and began painting on it

with colours bought from a house-painter. But his work proved a

total failure; for the canvas was rough and knotty, and the paint

would not dry. In his extremity he applied to his old teacher, the

barber, from whom he first learnt that prepared canvas was to be

had, and that there were colours and varnishes made for the special

purpose of oil-painting. As soon therefore, as his means would

allow, he bought a small stock of the necessary articles and began

afresh,—his amateur master showing him how to paint; and the pupil

succeeded so well that he excelled the master’s copy. His first

picture was a copy from an engraving called “Sheep-shearing,” and

was afterwards sold by him for half-a-crown. Aided by a shilling

Guide to Oil-painting, he went on working at his leisure hours, and

gradually acquired a better knowledge of his materials. He made

his own easel and palette, palette-knife, and paint-chest; he

bought his paint, brushes, and canvas, as he could raise the money

by working over-time. This was the slender fund which his parents

consented to allow him for the purpose; the burden of supporting a

very large family precluding them from doing more. Often he would

walk to Manchester and back in the evenings to buy two or three

shillings’ worth of paint and canvas, returning almost at midnight,

after his eighteen miles’ walk, sometimes wet through and

completely exhausted, but borne up throughout by his inexhaustible

hope and invincible determination. The further progress of the

self-taught artist is best narrated in his own words, as

communicated by him in a letter to the author:-

 

“The next pictures I painted,” he says, “were a Landscape by

Moonlight, a Fruitpiece, and one or two others; after which I

conceived the idea of painting ‘The Forge.’ I had for some time

thought about it, but had not attempted to embody the conception in

a drawing. I now, however, made a sketch of the subject upon

paper, and then proceeded to paint it on canvas. The picture

simply represents the interior of a large workshop such as I have

been accustomed to work in, although not of any particular shop.

It is, therefore, to this extent, an original conception. Having

made an outline of the subject, I found that, before I could

proceed with it successfully, a knowledge of anatomy was

indispensable to enable me accurately to delineate the muscles of

the figures. My brother Peter came to my assistance at this

juncture, and kindly purchased for me Flaxman’s ‘Anatomical

studies,’—a work altogether beyond my means at the time, for it

cost twenty-four shillings. This book I looked upon as a great

treasure, and I studied it laboriously, rising at three o’clock in

the morning to draw after it, and occasionally getting my brother

Peter to stand for me as a model at that untimely hour. Although I

gradually improved myself by this practice, it was some time before

I felt sufficient confidence to go on with my picture. I also felt

hampered by my want of knowledge of perspective, which I

endeavoured to remedy by carefully studying Brook Taylor’s

‘Principles;’ and shortly after I resumed my painting. While

engaged in the study of perspective at home, I used to apply for

and obtain leave to work at the heavier kinds of smith work at the

foundry, and for this reason—the time required for heating the

heaviest iron work is so much longer than that required for heating

the lighter, that it enabled me to secure a number of spare minutes

in the course of the day, which I carefully employed in making

diagrams in perspective upon the sheet iron casing in front of the

hearth at which I worked.”

 

Thus assiduously working and studying, James Sharples steadily

advanced in his knowledge of the principles of art, and acquired

greater facility in its practice. Some eighteen months after the

expiry of his apprenticeship he painted a portrait of his father,

which attracted considerable notice in the town; as also did the

picture of “The Forge,” which he finished soon after. His success

in portrait-painting obtained for him a commission from the foreman

of the shop to paint a family group, and Sharples executed it so

well that the foreman not only paid him the agreed price of

eighteen pounds, but thirty shillings to boot. While engaged on

this group he ceased to work at the foundry, and he had thoughts of

giving up his trade altogether and devoting himself exclusively to

painting. He proceeded to paint several pictures, amongst others a

head of Christ, an original conception, life-size, and a view of

Bury; but not obtaining sufficient employment at portraits to

occupy his time, or give him the prospect of a steady income, he

had the good sense to resume his leather apron, and go on working

at his honest trade of a blacksmith; employing his leisure hours in

engraving his picture of “The Forge,” since published. He was

induced to commence the engraving by the following circumstance. A

Manchester picture-dealer, to whom he showed the painting, let drop

the observation, that in the hands of a skilful engraver it would

make a very good print. Sharples immediately conceived the idea of

engraving it himself, though altogether ignorant of the art. The

difficulties which he encountered and successfully overcame in

carrying out his project are thus described by himself:-

 

“I had seen an advertisement of a Sheffield steel-plate maker,

giving a list of the prices at which he supplied plates of various

sizes, and, fixing upon one of suitable dimensions, I remitted the

amount, together with a small additional sum for which I requested

him to send me a few engraving tools. I could not specify the

articles wanted, for I did not then know anything about the process

of engraving. However, there duly arrived with the plate three or

four gravers and an etching needle; the latter I spoiled before I

knew its use. While working at the plate, the Amalgamated Society

of Engineers offered a premium for the best design for an

emblematical picture, for which I determined to compete, and I was

so fortunate as to win the prize. Shortly after this I removed to

Blackburn, where I obtained employment at Messrs. Yates’,

engineers, as an engine-smith; and continued to employ my leisure

time in drawing, painting, and engraving, as before. With the

engraving I made but very slow progress, owing to the difficulties

I experienced from not possessing proper tools. I then determined

to try to make some that would suit my purpose, and after several

failures I succeeded in making many that I have used in the course

of my engraving. I was also greatly at a loss for want of a proper

magnifying glass, and part of the plate was executed with no other

assistance of this sort than what my father’s spectacles afforded,

though I afterwards succeeded in obtaining a proper magnifier,

which was of the utmost use to me. An incident occurred while I

was engraving the plate, which had almost caused me to abandon it

altogether. It sometimes happened that I was obliged to lay it

aside for a considerable time, when other work pressed; and in