Frederick Walker

1 portrait

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Frederick Walker

by David Wilkie Wynfield
albumen print, circa 1863-1864
8 1/8 in. x 6 in. (207 mm x 152 mm)
Purchased, 1929
Primary Collection
NPG P84

Sitterback to top

  • Frederick Walker (1840-1875), Painter and illustrator. Sitter in 11 portraits, Artist or producer of 1 portrait.

Artistback to top

  • David Wilkie Wynfield (1837-1887), Painter and photographer. Artist or producer associated with 34 portraits, Sitter in 2 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Part of a pioneering photographic project conducted by the artist David Wilkie Wynfield, in which he photographed his artistic contemporaries and other prominent individuals in historical dress. Wynfield anonymously published the series as The Studio: A Collection of Photographic Portraits of Living Artists, Taken in the Style of the Old Masters, by An Amateur (1864). The potent results, such as this soulful, soft focus portrait of the talented watercolourist, Frederick Walker, influenced the celebrated photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. By depicting Walker in profile as a Renaissance courtier, Wynfield imbued his subject with affecting gravitas.

Linked publicationsback to top

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 1863back to top

Current affairs

The opening of the world's first underground railway, with the Metropolitan Railway running trains between Bishop's Street, Padington and Farringdon. Work had begun in 1860, using the 'cut-and-cover' method of construction. The Metropolitan line inspired the construction of other underground railways - the Parisian 'Metro' took its name from the line.
The Football Association is founded.

Art and science

Julia Margaret Cameron takes up photography, taking portraits of some of the most celebrated figures of the day, with her romantic style capturing the sense of nostalgia and longing that characterised the age.
Kingsley's Water Babies; A Fairy Tale for Children is published, the hugely popular tale of drowned chimney sweep Tom's moral education in the river world of the water babies. It inspired the 1978 film starring James Mason.

International

At an international conference, the Geneva Public Welfare Society calls on the sixteen nations present to form voluntary units to help the wartime wounded. The society, comprised of five Swiss citizens and led by Henri Dunant, who had been deeply affected by the casualties he had witnessed at the Battle of Solferino, became the National Red Cross Societies, adopting the emblem of a red cross on white background.

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