Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue
Frederick Richard Pickersgill (1820-1900), History and genre painter; nephew of Henry William Pickersgill
- Gallery portraits
- All known portraits
- Biography and References
Painter; born 25 September 1820, in London, nephew of portrait painter Henry William Pickersgill. Trained with William Frederick Witherington, with his uncle and at Royal Academy Schools from 1840; exhibition debut with watercolour RA 1839, continuing there until 1875; prizewinner Palace of Westminster competition 1846–7, with The Burial of Harold; elected ARA 1847, RA 1857 (retired 1888), Keeper of RA Schools 1873–87; favoured subjects include dramatic historical and literary scenes as in the early work Amoret, Aemylia and Prince Arthur, in the Cottage of Sclaunder (RA 1845; Tate) and more florid later ones like Samson Betrayed (RA 1850; Manchester AG), [1] followed in the 1860s by modern-life subjects; married Mary Noorouz Elizabeth Hook, sister of painter J.C. Hook 1847; [2] died 20 December 1900, on the Isle of Wight.
Pickersgill was described as a conscientious and full-time Keeper at the RA, and remembered as an ‘amiable gentleman and good friend’. [3] G.D. Leslie noted that it was ‘fortunate for the Academy to have had a Keeper of so much tact and ability just at the time when the female element [i.e. women students] began to take root in the Schools, for the ladies made under his amiable and careful management a very propitious start’. [4]
Dr Jan Marsh
Pickersgill was described as a conscientious and full-time Keeper at the RA, and remembered as an ‘amiable gentleman and good friend’. [3] G.D. Leslie noted that it was ‘fortunate for the Academy to have had a Keeper of so much tact and ability just at the time when the female element [i.e. women students] began to take root in the Schools, for the ladies made under his amiable and careful management a very propitious start’. [4]
Dr Jan Marsh
Footnotesback to top
1) Valentine 2004b.
2) Valentine 2004b. Maas 1984, p.48 erroneously states that Pickersgill married a daughter of Roger Fenton.
3) Portfolio, no.18, 1887, p.106; and Athenaeum, 29 Dec. 1900; quoted Valentine 2004b.
4) Leslie 1914, p.51.
Referencesback to top
Cooper 1876–83Cooper, T., Men of Mark: A Gallery of Contemporary Portraits of Men Distinguished in the Senate, the Church, in Science, Literature and Art, the Army, Navy, Law, Medicine, etc. Photographed from life by Lock and Whitfield, London, 7 ser., 1876–83.
Gould 2004
Gould, V.F., G.F. Watts: The Last Great Victorian, London, 2004.
Hacking 2000
Hacking, J., Princes of Victorian Bohemia: Photographs by David Wilkie Wynfield, exh. cat., NPG, London, 2000.
Leslie 1914
Leslie, G.D., The Inner Life of the Royal Academy, London, 1914.
Maas 1984
Maas, J., The Victorian Art World in Photographs, London, 1984.
McMaster 2008
McMaster, J., ‘That Mighty Art of Black-and-White: Linley Sambourne, Punch and the Royal Academy’, British Art Journal, Autumn 2008, pp.62–76.
McMaster 2009
McMaster, J., That Mighty Art of Black-and-White: Linley Sambourne, Punch and the Royal Academy, Edmonton, Canada, 2009.
Ormond 2010
Ormond, L., Linley Sambourne: Illustrator and Punch Cartoonist, London, 2010.
Reeve & Walford 1863–7
Reeve, L., and E. Walford, eds, Portraits of Men of Eminence in literature, science and art, with biographical memoirs. The photographs from life, by E. Edwards, 6 vols, London, 1863–7.
Robertson 1978
Robertson, D., Sir Charles Eastlake and the Victorian Art World, Princeton and Guildford, 1978.
Valentine 2004b
Valentine, H., ‘Pickersgill, Frederick Richard (1820–1900)’, ODNB, Oxford, 2004.
Vialla 1983
Vialla, J., Les Pickersgill-Arundale, une famille de peintres anglais au xix siecle, Paris, 1983.
Dr Jan Marsh