Augustus Leopold Egg
RA (2 May 1816, in
London – 26 March 1863, in
Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques d ...
) was a British
Victorian artist, and member of
The Clique
A clique is a close social group.
Clique or The Clique may also refer to:
Math and computing
* Clique (graph theory)
** Clique problem in computer science
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* Clique (vodka), a Latvian vodka sold in the United States
Enterta ...
best known for his modern
triptych ''
Past and Present'' (1858), which depicts the breakup of a middle-class Victorian family.
Biography
Egg was born to Joseph and Ann Egg, and baptised in
St James's Church, Piccadilly
St James's Church, Piccadilly, also known as St James's Church, Westminster, and St James-in-the-Fields, is an Anglican church on Piccadilly in the centre of London, United Kingdom. The church was designed and built by Sir Christopher Wren.
T ...
, on 30 May 1816. He had an elder brother, George Hine Egg.
His father Joseph Egg was a wealthy gunsmith from the
distinguished gun making family, who immigrated to London from
Huningue, Alsace.
[Hilarie Faberman, 'Egg, Augustus Leopold (1816–1863)’, ]Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004 Egg was educated in the schools of the
Royal Academy, beginning in 1836. Egg was a member of The Clique, a group of artists founded by
Richard Dadd
Richard Dadd (1 August 1817 – 7 January 1886) was an English painter of the Victorian era, noted for his depictions of fairies and other supernatural subjects, Orientalist scenes, and enigmatic genre scenes, rendered with obsessively minuscule ...
and others in the late 1830s (c. 1837). Egg sought to combine popularity with moral and social activism, in line with the literary work of his friend
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
. With Dickens he set up the "Guild of Literature and Art", a philanthropic organisation intended to provide welfare payments to struggling artists and writers. He acted the lead role in "
Not So Bad As We Seem," a play written by
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, PC (25 May 180318 January 1873) was an English writer and politician. He served as a Whig member of Parliament from 1831 to 1841 and a Conservative from 1851 to 1866. He was Secret ...
to raise funds for the organisation. His self-portrait in the role is in
Hospitalfield House in
Arbroath
Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( gd, Obar Bhrothaig ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902.
It lies on the North Sea coast some ENE of Dundee and SSW of Aberdeen.
Ther ...
.
Egg's early paintings were generally illustrations of literary subjects. Like other members of The Clique, he saw himself as a follower of
Hogarth. His interest in Hogarthian moral themes is evidenced in his paired paintings ''The Life and Death of Buckingham'', depicting the dissolute life and sordid death of the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
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* ...
rake
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. Yet his paintings often took a humorous look at their subjects, as in his ''
Queen Elizabeth Discovers she is no longer Young'' (1848).
Style
Unlike most other members of The Clique, Egg also admired the
Pre-Raphaelites; he bought work from the young
William Holman Hunt
William Holman Hunt (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolism ...
and shared ideas on
colour theory
In the visual arts, color theory is the body of practical guidance for color mixing and the visual effects of a specific color combination. Color terminology based on the color wheel and its geometry separates colors into primary color, seconda ...
with him. His own triptych, known as ''Past and Present'', was influenced by Hunt's work. The triptych depicted three separate scenes, one portraying a prosperous middle-class family and the other two depicting poor and isolated figures – two young girls in a bedsit and a homeless woman with a baby. The viewer was expected to read a series of visual clues that linked together these three scenes, to reveal that the prosperous family in the central scene is in the process of disintegrating because of the mother's adultery. The two outer scenes depict the separated mother and children a few years later, now living in poverty. The painting's use of
flashback – the central scene is occurring in the past – has been seen as a precursor of cinema.
Egg was also an active organiser of exhibitions, being admired by fellow-artists for his dedication and fair mindedness. He was one of the organisers of the Manchester
Art Treasures Exhibition
The Art Treasures of Great Britain was an exhibition of fine art held in Manchester, England, from 5 May to 17 October 1857.[Wilkie Collins
William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for '' The Woman in White'' (1859), a mystery novel and early "sensation novel", and for ''The Moonstone'' (1868), which has be ...]
, Egg features in their surviving correspondence. He participated, as actor and costume designer, in their amateur theatricals, which were often conducted for charitable purposes as noted above. In January 1857 he took a part in Collins's play ''
The Frozen Deep'', which starred Dickens and was performed at his home,
Tavistock House
Tavistock House was the London home of the noted British author Charles Dickens and his family from 1851 to 1860. At Tavistock House Dickens wrote ''Bleak House'', '' Hard Times'', ''Little Dorrit'' and ''A Tale of Two Cities''. He also put on a ...
(Egg played John Want, the ship's cook.) The production was also acted before
Queen Victoria and then performed for charity. Dickens described Egg as a "dear gentle little fellow," "always sweet-tempered, humorous, conscientious, thoroughly good, and thoroughly beloved."
In a 1953 radio interview, novelist
Evelyn Waugh was asked "What painters do you admire most?". He answered "Augustus Egg I’d put among the highest."
[Excerpts from the text of the broadcast, on 16 November 1953, are given in the 1998 Penguin Books edition of '']The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold
''The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold'' is a novel by the British writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in July 1957. It is Waugh's penultimate full-length work of fiction, which the author called his "mad book"—a largely autobiographical account ...
'', pp. 135–43.
Gallery
Past and Present
File:Past and Present Number One.jpg, No. 1 – Misfortune, 1858
File:Past and Present Number Two.jpg, No. 2 – Prayer, 1858
File:Past and Present Number Three.jpg, No. 3 – Despair, 1858
Select Paintings
File:Augustus Leopold Egg - The Life of Buckingham - Google Art Project.jpg, The Life and Death of Buckingham: The Life of Buckingham, c. 1855
File:Augustus Leopold Egg - The Death of Buckingham - Google Art Project.jpg, The Life and Death of Buckingham: The Death of Buckingham, c. 1855
File:Self Portrait as a Distressed Poet Augustus Leopold Egg (1816–1863) Hospitalfield.jpg, Self Portrait as a Distressed Poet
File:Unknown woman, formerly known as Florence Nightingale by Augustus Leopold Egg.jpg, Unknown woman, formerly known as Florence Nightingale
File:Augustus Leopold Egg (1816-1863) - Beatrix Knighting Esmond - N01385 - National Gallery.jpg, Beatrix Knighting Esmond, 1857
File:Augustus Leopold Egg The love letter.jpg, The love letter, by 1863
File:Queen Elizabeth discovers she is no longer young.jpg, Queen Elizabeth discovers she is no longer young, 1848
File:Augustus Leopold Egg - Madame de Maintenon and Scarron - y1982-19 - Princeton University Art Museum.jpg, Madame de Maintenon and Scarron
Notes
References
* Collins, Wilkie. ''Letters of Wilkie Collins.'' Edited by William Baker and William Malpas Clarke; London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1999.
* Cowling, Mary. ''Victorian Figurative Painting.'' London, Andreas Papadakis Publisher, 2001.
* Ley, J. W. T. ''The Dickens Circle: A Narrative of the Novelist's Friendships.'' New York: E. P. Dutton, 1919.
* Valentine, Helen, ed. ''Art in the Age of Queen Victoria: Treasures from the Royal Academy of Arts Permanent Collection.'' New Haven and London:
Yale University Press /
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1999.
External links
*
Phryne's list of pictures in accessible collections in the UK
{{DEFAULTSORT:Egg, Augustus
19th-century English painters
English male painters
Royal Academicians
1816 births
1863 deaths
Painters from London
19th-century English male artists