Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue

Painter and photographer; born in India and named after his great-uncle and godfather Sir David Wilkie. Studied at Leigh’s Art School from 1856 and first exhibited Royal Academy 1859; became a founding member of the St John’s Wood Clique of artists (the only member not elected ARA or RA) and close friend to P.H. Calderon, Henry Stacy Marks, John Evan Hodgson and W.F. Yeames, who married his sister; his paintings, including Oliver Cromwell on the Night before his Death (RA 1867; V&A, London), are in keeping with the group’s interest in historical genre subjects; lauded by Julia Margaret Cameron as a teacher and inspiration, Wynfield produced and published a series of photographic portraits of artists in historic costume under the title The Studio; died 26 May 1887, in London. [1]

Magdalene Keaney

Referencesback to top

Hacking 1998
Hacking, J.L., ‘Photography Personified: Art and Identity in British Photography 1857–1869’, unpublished doctoral thesis, Courtauld Institute, University of London, 1998.

Hacking 2000
Hacking, J., Princes of Victorian Bohemia: Photographs by David Wilkie Wynfield, exh. cat., NPG, London, 2000.

Hacking 2004
Hacking, J.,‘Wynfield, David Wilkie (1837–1887)’, ODNB, Oxford, 2004.

Maas 1984
Maas, J., The Victorian Art World in Photographs, London, 1984.

Marks 1894
Marks, H.S., Pen & Pencil Sketches, 2 vols, London, 1894.

Morris & Milner 1992
Morris, E., and F. Milner, ‘And When Did You Last See Your Father?’, exh. cat., Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1992.

Walkley 1994
Walkley, G., Artists’ Houses in London 1764–1914, Aldershot, 1994.