Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/41

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Howard
35
Howard

country gentleman and antiquary. In politics he was a whig; he signed the petition in favour of parliamentary reform, and continually advocated the repeal of the penal laws against Roman catholics. When in 1795 it became possible, Howard was made captain in the 1st York militia, with which he served for a time in Ireland. In 1802 he raised the Edenside rangers, and in 1803 the Cumberland rangers, for which regiment he wrote a little work on the drill of light infantry (1805). In later life he was a friend and correspondent of Louis-Philippe. He was a F.S.A., and in 1832 high sheriff of Cumberland. He died at Corby Castle on 1 March 1842. His portrait, by James Oliver, R.A., was engraved by C. Turner, A.R.A.,in 1839.

Howard married first, 4 Nov. 1788, Maria, third daughter of Andrew, last lord Archer of Umberslade. She died in 1789, leaving one daughter; the monument by Nollekens erected to her memory in Wetheral Church, Cumberland, is the subject of two of Wordsworth's sonnets. Howard's second wife, whom he married 18 March 1793, was Catherine Mary (d. 1849), second daughter of Sir Richard Neave, bart., of Dagnam Park, Essex. She kept extensive journals, and printed privately at Carlisle from 1836 to 1838 'Reminiscences' for her children, 4 vols. 8vo. By her he left two sons and three daughters.

Howard's chief works were: 1. 'Remarks on the Erroneous Opinions entertained respecting the Catholic Religion,' Carlisle, 1825, 8vo; other later editions. 2. 'Indications of Memorials ... of Persons of the Howard Family,' 1834, fol., privately printed. He also contributed to 'Archæologia' in 1800 and 1803, and assisted Dr. Lingard, Miss Strickland, and others in historical work.

[Gillow's Bibl. Dict. iii. 427; Gent. Mag. 1842, i. 437; Martin's Cat. of Privately Printed Books, 1854, p. 449.]

HOWARD, HENRY (1769–1847), portrait and historical painter, was born in London on 31 Jan. 1769. He received his elementary education at a school at Hounslow, and at the age of seventeen became a pupil of Philip Reinagle, R.A., whose daughter he afterwards married. In 1788 he was admitted a student of the Royal Academy, where in 1790 he gained the first silver medal for the best drawing from the life, and at the same time the gold medal for historical painting, the subject, taken from Mason's dramatic poem 'Caractacus,' being 'Caractacus recognising the Dead Body of his Son.' He went to Italy in 1791, taking with him a letter of introduction from Sir Joshua Reynolds to Lord Hervey, then British minister at Florence, in which Sir Joshua said of his 'Caractacus' that 'it was the opinion of the Academicians that his picture was the best that had been presented to the Academy ever since its foundation.' At Rome he met Flaxman and John Deare, and joined them in a diligent study of sculpture. In 1792 he painted the 'Dream of Cain' from Gesner's 'Death of Abel,' and sent it to England in competition for the travelling studentship of the Royal Academy; but, although his picture was admitted to be the best, the studentship was awarded to the second, but less affluent, candidate. He returned home in 1794 by way of Vienna and Dresden, and exhibited at the Royal Academy his 'Dream of Cain.' In 1795 he sent three small pictures and a portrait, and in 1796 a finished sketch, from Milton's 'Paradise Lost,' of ‘The Planets drawing Light from the Sun,’ and other works. He made some designs for Sharpe's 'British Essayists,' Du Roveray's edition of Pope's translation of Homer, and other books, and he painted some of his own designs on the vases made at Wedgwood's pottery. In 1799 he exhibited a sketch from Shakespeare's 'Midsummer Night's Dream;' 'A Mermaid sitting on a Dolphin's back,' one of his most beautiful compositions; and in the same year he was first employed by the Dilettanti Society to make drawings from ancient sculpture for their publications. He was afterwards engaged on similar work for the Society of Engravers. In 1800 he exhibited at the Royal Academy 'Eve' and 'The Dream of the Red Cross Knight,' and was elected an associate. His contributions to the exhibition of 1801 included 'Achilles wounded by Paris from behind the Statue of Apollo,' 'The Angel awaking Peter in the Prison,' and 'Adam and Eve;' to that of 1802, 'Love animating the Statue of Pygmalion,' now in the South Kensington Museum; and to that of 1803, 'Love listening to the Flatteries of Hope' and a portrait of Sir Humphry Davy. In 1805 he exhibited 'Sabrina,' the first of a series of pictures from Milton's 'Comus,' which furnished him with subjects almost to the end of his career; he also commenced the artistic supervision of Forster's 'British Gallery of Engravings,' and the 'British Gallery of Contemporary Portraits.' In 1805, too, he painted for Mr. Hibbert an extensive frieze representing the story of Cupid and Psyche, and exhibited a picture of 'Hero and Leander,' engraved by F. Engleheart for the 'Gem' of 1829, which was followed in 1807 by 'The Infant Bacchus brought by Mercury to the Nymphs of Nysa.' In 1806 he removed to 5 Newman Street, which had been the residence of Thomas