RICHARD PARKES BONINGTON (1801--1828) passed most of his life abroad. He studied in the Louvre when a child, and gained his knowledge of art exclusively in Paris and Italy. His influence on the French school of _genre_ and dramatic art was very great indeed, almost equal to that which Constable produced on the French artists in landscape. He died, aged twenty-seven, from the effects of a sunstroke received while sketching in Paris. Bonington excelled in landscape, marine, and figure subjects. He exhibited in the British Institution, among other pictures, two _Views of the French Coast_, which attracted much notice, and _The Column of St. Mark's_, _Venice_ (National Gallery). Sir Richard Wallace possesses several of his best works, notably _Henri IV. and the Spanish Ambassador_. [Illustration: FRANCIS I. AND HIS SISTER. _By_ BONINGTON. _In the possession of Sir Richard Wallace, Bart._] WILLIAM JOHN MUeLLER (1812--1845) was another landscape painter whose career was brief, and who chiefly painted foreign scenery. He travelled in Germany, Italy and Switzerland, and for a time practised as a landscape painter at Bath, though with little success. In 1838 Mueller visited Greece and Egypt, and in 1841 he was in Lycia. He had previously settled in London. His pictures were chiefly of Oriental scenes, and his fame was rapidly growing when he died. His works now command high prices. In the National Gallery we have a _Landscape, with two Lycian Peasants_, and a _River Scene_. JOHN MARTIN (1789--1854) held a distinguished place as a painter of poetic or imaginative landscapes and architectural subjects. He was born near Hexham, and began the study of art in the humble field of coach painting at Newcastle. Coming to London, Martin worked at enamel painting, and in 1812 exhibited his first picture at the Academy, _Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion_, which is one of his best works. This was followed by _Joshua commanding the Sun to stand still_ (1816), _The Death of Moses_ (1838), _The Last Man_ (from Campbell's poem), _The Eve of the Deluge_, _Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah_, &c. Martin's most famous works were not exhibited at the Academy, _e.g._ _Belshazzar's Feast_, _The Fall of Babylon_, and _The Fall of Nineveh_. Many of his compositions were engraved, securing for them a wide circulation. Mr. Redgrave said: "We can hardly agree with Bulwer, that Martin was 'more original, more self-dependent than Raphael or Michael Angelo.'" But if in his lifetime Martin was over-praised, he was unjustly depreciated afterwards. Many of his brother artists and the public, when the first astonishment his pictures created had passed away, called his art a trick and an illusion, his execution mechanical, his colouring bad, his figures vilely drawn, their actions and expressions bombastic and ridiculous. But, granting this, wholly or partially, it must be remembered that his art, or manner, was original;