Wilkie Collins Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, R.A., Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, London 1848 II pp6-10
The original spelling, punctuation and paragraphing is retained.
The general characteristics presented by the "Skittle-players" to the
spectator, were—a strikingly original composition of eight principal, and
eight second and third-rate figures; a disposition of light and shade,
harmonious and scientific; and a tone of colour, brilliant, various and true. Of
its more particular merits of story and character; of drawing, arrangement and
execution, a more careful and particular review is required.
The skittle-ground is the stage on which the characters of the picture are displayed. It runs up obliquely, from the right-hand foreground, to the left-hand centre, of the composition. The game has been hotly contested for some time; and the decisive moment has now arrived. Five skittles are down; and four, in difficult situations, remain up, to be levelled at one stroke, if the game is to be won. Under a picturesque old shed, which occupies the middle of the picture, and on a line to the right of the skittles beneath it, stand three of the players—a cobler, a blacksmith, and another man. The two last, press forwards towards the skittles, in their over-anxiety to witness the decisive "throw ;" but the cobler is too enthusiastic about the fairness of the game, to permit the possibility of their interfering with it, in any way. With his raggedly-clad legs fixed firmly on the ground, his aproned body bent forward in intense expectation, and his lanky arms stretched out horizontally on each side of him, he bars the sturdy blacksmith and his friend from advancing another step; while he turns his face in the all-alluring direction of the playing man. This figure is placed in the right-hand foreground of the picture. His back is towards the spectator, one of his legs is in a bending position, the other is stretched behind him to its fullest extent. His head is thrown back, and he is exerting his utmost strength, at the moment of "delivering" the heavy ball. The "pose" of this figure is magnificent—clothed though he is, the violent muscular effort, the athletic fling of his whole body, is discernible in every limb. The perfect correctness in the drawing of this difficult and original attitude, preserves it from the slightest appearance of exaggeration, and makes the bold nature of its intention immediately apparent to the most ignorant eye. At the left-hand side of the skittle-shed, three lads, squeezing themselves half-through the aperture in the poles that support it, and watching the game with speechless eagerness, complete the skittle-observing and skittle-playing groups. The figures in the other division of the picture, finely contrast, in their comfortable, careless attitudes, with the agitation and action of the rest of the scene; but are preserved from any appearance of artificial separation, by the skill of the composition, which, though dividing them by almost the whole breadth of the picture, from the man bowling, connects them naturally with his companions, by the propinquity of a table, round which they are grouped, to the backs of the lads who are watching the game. One burly sun-burnt fellow, is lighting his pipe at a tallow-candle, placed on the table. A hearty, handsome, benevolent old farmer, sits next him, (in the left-hand foreground,) feeling for a piece of money in his waistcoat pocket, while he jests good-humouredly with a roguish little apple-girl, on the quality of the fruit she is offering to him for sale. Near the apple-girl, is the clumsy red-haired pot-boy of the inn, replenishing a mug of ale from his can, while the public-house dog by his side, sniffs inquiringly at the bright froth above a jug just filled. Beyond the table, and further towards the left-hand distance, "mine host" stands at his own door, giving a direction to a female pedlar and her child, at whom his wife looks suspiciously over his shoulder: while, still further, two little boys are walking through the public-house gate, with a jug of beer, towards the village, which is partially indicated in the distance. The branches of a large tree—the foliage of which is painted with wonderful intelligence and skill—extend over the roof of the skittle-shed, and fill two-thirds of the upper part of the picture; the rest being occupied by a patch of sky, and the trees behind the public-house. Such are the characteristics of this remarkable work which come within the imperfect limits of description. Of the dispositions of colour—powerful without exaggeration, and harmonious without monotony; of the "execution"—in which finish never degenerates into feebleness, nor solidity into coarseness; of the minute study of Nature—without meanness, or vulgarity—which the picture displays throughout, an idea can only be gained from a sight of the work itself. As an assertion of the versatility of the painter’s powers, its success was triumphant: but one opinion prevailed, as to the high rank it held among the works of its class. It was called, punningly, in reference to the attitude of the principal figure, and the advance in excellence that it displayed—" Collins’s stride." But the most amusing criticism on its merits, proceeded from Mr. Collins’s gardener; who, as a great skittle-player, was called in to test the correctness of the picture, as to its main subject. "Well!" cried that horticultural functionary, with genuine delight—"this is as downright a tough game, as ever I see!" Such a "dictum," coming from such a quarter, was to the painter as decisive a testimony to the truth of his picture, as was the laugh of Molière’s old housekeeper to the excellence of his jokes, when the great dramatist read them to her in manuscript, before he committed them to the stage.
Yet, complete as was the success of this picture with the public, so universal was the depression that prevailed this year over the monied world, that no one, during its Exhibition both at the Royal Academy and the British Institution, was willing to become its purchaser, at the price which, by Wilkie’s advice, Mr. Collins had demanded for it. Its existence and its merits were not however forgotten, when it was removed from the public view. As the affairs of the country brightened, and pictures of worth appeared, even as commercial speculations, to retain their importance as property of actual value, several offers were made for it, but still at a somewhat smaller price than the painter required and was still determined to require for it; viz,—four hundred guineas. It remained therefore on his hands, until the year 1844; when two gentlemen, each anxious to purchase it at the artist’s price, came to his house on the same day—an interval of a quarter of an hour only, elapsing between their visits. The first, and consequently the successful applicant, was Mr. George Young, (an early and intimate friend of Sir David Wilkie’s,) in whose collection the picture is now placed.