The New International Encyclopædia/Northcote, James

NORTHCOTE, nôrth′kŏt, James (1746-1831). An English historical and portrait painter and author, born at Plymouth. The son of a poor watchmaker, who insisted upon apprenticing James to his trade, he was hampered in his early artistic aspirations, but in 1771 managed to make his way to London, where Sir Joshua Reynolds admitted him into his studio as an assistant, and soon after invited him to live in his house. Northcote studied also at the Royal Academy, exhibited there some good portraits, and, after remaining with Reynolds five years, returned home and thence went to Italy in 1777. For two years in Rome he studied the great masters, especially Titian, then visited Florence, where he was requested to paint his own portrait for the Uffizi Gallery, and was elected a member of the Academy. Back in London in 1780, he became a regular exhibitor, first of portraits, and from 1783 on of subject pictures. The success of one of these led to his being employed by Boydell, the publisher, to paint nine pictures for the famous Shakespeare Gallery, the most celebrated of which are “The Murder of the Princes in the Tower,” “The Burial of the Princes,” “Prince Arthur and Hubert,” and “Entry of Bolingbroke and Richard II. into London.” Their popularity brought him the commission for a large painting of the “Death of Wat Tyler in 1381” (1786), now in the Guildhall, London. Of his other numerous historical subjects, the only one in a public collection is the “Presentation of British Officers to Pope Pius VI.,” in the South Kensington Museum. He also obtained considerable success with pictures of animals, but his fame is due chiefly to his portraits. The National Gallery contains those of Dr. Jenner, of Viscount Exmouth, and one of himself (1827). His literary ability is proved by his Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1813), to which a supplement was added in 1815, and by One Hundred Fables (1828), illustrated with numerous wood cuts after his own designs. In 1830 he published a Life of Titian, and after his death appeared a second series of fables under the title The Artists' Book of Fables. Consult: Cunningham, Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters, edited by Heaton (London, 1879).