United Kingdom Naturalism
Thomas Bewick was an English wood-engraver and natural history author. Early in his career he took on all kinds of work such as engraving cutlery, making the wood blocks for advertisements, and illustrating children's books. He gradually turned to illustrating, writing and publishing his own books, gaining an adult audience for the fine illustrations in A History of Quadrupeds.
Thomas Birch was an English-born American portrait and marine painter.
He exhibited regularly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for forty years, beginning in 1811, and managed the museum, 1812-1817. His work is collected at PAFA, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among others. In 1833, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Honorary member.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a British statesman, soldier and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.
Jacques de Lalaing was an Anglo-Belgian painter and sculptor, specializing in animals. Lalaing was raised in England until 1875, when he moved to Brussels. He trained as an artist under Jean-François Portaels and Louis Gallait at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. With the encouragement of Thomas Vinçotte and Jef Lambeaux, Lalaing began to sculpt in 1884. As a painter he continued to work in a realistic, naturalistic style, as a portrait painter and producing historical scenes. As a sculptor he produced allegorical bronzes and memorial art. Along with his fellow animalier sculptors Léon Mignon and Antoine-Félix Bouré Lalaing established a distinctively Belgian tradition of animal art, to which the flourishing Antwerp Zoo contributed inspiration. In 1896 Lalaing became a member of the Royal Academy where he had studied, and from 1904 through 1913 he served as its director. His works are represented in the collections of museums in Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent and Tournai.
Georg Dionysius Ehret was a German botanist and entomologist known for his botanical illustrations.
Ehret's original art work may be found at the Natural History Museum in London, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, The Royal Society, London, the Lindley Library at the Royal Horticultural Society, the Victoria and Albert Museum, at the University Library of Erlangen, the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden, and the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
John Linnell was an English engraver, and portrait and landscape painter. He was a naturalist and a rival to the artist John Constable. He had a taste for Northern European art of the Renaissance, particularly Albrecht Dürer. He also associated with the amateur artist Edward Thomas Daniell, and with William Blake, to whom he introduced the painter and writer Samuel Palmer and others of the Ancients.
John Everett Millais was an influential British artist and a key figure in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, celebrated for his detailed and naturalistic paintings. Born in Southampton in 1829, Millais was a child prodigy, gaining admission to the Royal Academy Schools at the remarkable age of eleven. His early work, characterized by meticulous attention to detail and vibrant naturalism, stirred controversy and admiration alike. One of his most renowned pieces, "Ophelia" (1851-52), exemplifies his style during this period, capturing intricate natural scenes with profound emotional depth.
Millais's personal life was as notable as his artistic career, particularly his marriage to Effie Gray, who was previously married to the art critic John Ruskin. This union, following Effie's annulment from Ruskin, produced eight children and intertwined with Millais's evolving artistic journey.
Later in his career, Millais's style transitioned towards a broader approach, a change criticized by some contemporaries but which also garnered him significant acclaim and financial success. His influence extended to various artists, including John Singer Sargent, and his works remain pivotal in the study of Victorian art. His dedication to his craft earned him numerous honors, including a baronetcy, making him the first artist to be bestowed such an honor.
Millais's legacy is preserved in numerous galleries worldwide, with Tate Britain and the Ashmolean Museum housing key works like "The Order of Release" and "The Return of the Dove to the Ark." His contribution to art and culture remains significant, offering a window into the Victorian era's aesthetic and social dynamics.
For enthusiasts and collectors interested in Millais's work, staying updated on exhibitions and sales can provide invaluable insights into his artistry and its enduring appeal. Subscribing to updates on Millais can ensure you remain informed about upcoming events and opportunities related to this seminal artist.
Marianne North was a prolific English Victorian biologist and botanical artist, notable for her plant and landscape paintings, her extensive foreign travels, her writings, her plant discoveries and the creation of her gallery at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Albert Julius Olsson was a British maritime artist and keen yachtsman. Olsson cruised with his yacht most summers, and The Studio commented: «He knows the way from the Scillies to the Isle of Wight as most men know their way to the nearest railway station.»
John Robertson Reid was a Scottish painter who spent his early working life in Surrey, and then from the early 1880s in Cornwall in the wild south-west of England. He became the president of the Society of British Artists in 1886 and the Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in 1898. These posts gave him an entree into London society, and from the early 1900s he made his home in London. In Reid's later years, the young Sir Winston Churchill used to paint outdoors in the company of Reid.
Frederick Cayley Robinson was an English artist, creating paintings and applied art including book illustrations and theatre set designs. Along with a number of other British artists, Cayley Robinson continued to paint striking Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian subjects well into the twentieth century despite this approach becoming deeply unfashionable. His work has been examined in a PhD thesis by Alice Eden and an exhibition Modern Pre-Raphaelite Visionaries at Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum.
Archibald Thorburn was a Scottish artist who specialised in wildlife, painting mostly in watercolour. He regularly visited Scotland to sketch birds in the wild, his favourite haunt being the Forest of Gaick near Kingussie in Invernesshire. His widely reproduced images of British wildlife, with their evocative and dramatic backgrounds, are enjoyed as much today as they were by naturalists a century ago.
