Henry Tanworth Wells
(1828-1903), Miniature and portrait painterLater Victorian Portraits Catalogue Entry
Sitter in 8 portraits
Artist associated with 107 portraits
Trained as an artist from a young age, exhibiting at the Royal Academy from the age of eighteen. He specialised in painting miniatures, but the development of photography rapidly made this form of artistic production obsolete, and he turned his attention to painting in oils. He exhibited his first oil portrait at the Royal Academy in 1861, became an associate five years later and was elected a full academician in 1870. Wells was chiefly known as the painter of groups of regiments and volunteers. He also produced about fifty crayon portraits of political and society figures. His best know work is Victoria Regina (1880), which depicts Princess Victoria receiving the news of her accession.
Private View of the Old Masters Exhibition, Royal Academy, 1888
by Henry Jamyn Brooks
oil on canvas, 1889
NPG 1833
The Royal Academy Conversazione, 1891
by George Henry Grenville Manton
pen, ink and gouache, 1891
NPG 2820
by Lock & Whitfield, published by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington
woodburytype, published 1878
NPG Ax17568
by Lock & Whitfield
woodburytype, 1878 or before
NPG x133410
by Ralph Winwood Robinson, published by C. Whittingham & Co
platinum print, published 1892
NPG x7400
after Henry Tanworth Wells
collotype, (1899)
NPG D20757
Key to Private View of the Old Masters Exhibition, Royal Academy, 1888
after Henry Jamyn Brooks
photograph, 1919 or after
NPG D42236
by Lock & Whitfield, published by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington
woodburytype, published 1878
NPG x134573
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