Edward Villiers Rippingille (c. 1790–1859) was an English

oil painter Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

and

watercolourist Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

who was a member of the informal group of artists which has come to be known as the

Bristol School The Bristol School (or Bristol School of Artists) is a term applied retrospectively to describe the informal association and works of a group of artists working in Bristol, England, in the early 19th century. It was mainly active in the 1820 ...

. In that group he was a particularly close associate of both Edward Bird and

Francis Danby Francis Danby (16 November 1793 – 9 February 1861) was an Irish painter of the Romantic era. His imaginative, dramatic landscapes were comparable to those of John Martin. Danby initially developed his imaginative style while he was the centr ...

Early life

Rippingille was born in

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...

, Norfolk, the son of a farmer. His year of birth is now believed to be c. 1790 rather than 1798, as previously thought. For a period he worked taking portraits and teaching drawing in

Wisbech Wisbech ( ) is a market town, inland Port of Wisbech, port and civil parish in the Fenland District, Fenland district in Cambridgeshire, England. In 2011 it had a population of 31,573. The town lies in the far north-east of Cambridgeshire, bord ...

, where his paintings were seen and admired by John Clare. In 1813 he exhibited at the Norwich Society of Artists, and showed ''Enlisting'' at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

Bristol School

He moved to

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, where he participated in the sketching activities of the Bristol School. Rippingille's ''Sketching Party in Leigh Woods'' (c. 1828) depicts a sketching excursion in Leigh Woods typical of those made by the school's members. He worked particularly closely with Edward Bird, and was influenced by Bird's

genre painting Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached ...

, which was naturalistic and freshly coloured. In 1814 they both exhibited works at the Royal Academy with the same subject, ''The Cheat Detected''. Rippingille was also a close friend of Francis Danby, and his style developed alongside that of Danby under Bird's influence. In 1819 Rippingille had a success at the Royal Academy with ''The Post Office''. In 1822 the Royal Academy saw ''The Recruiting Sergeant'', a work following the style of Bird, and ''The Funeral Procession of William Canynge to St Mary Redcliffe, 1474''. These works were among Rippingille's finest achievements in the fields of genre and historical painting respectively. He exhibited by himself at the new

Bristol Institution Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in S ...

in 1823, and in 1824 was one of the organisers of the first exhibition there by local artists. In 1824 he exhibited ''The Stage Coach Breakfast'' at the Royal Academy. This is his best known painting. It depicts some of the literary figures associated with Bristol:

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

and Robert Southey.

Later years

In 1830 Rippingille left Bristol and travelled to France and Germany. He returned to London where he married in 1832, before travelling to France again, in the company of James Baker Pyne. In 1835, returning to London, he held his own exhibition at

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place ...

. From 1837 he conducted trips to Italy and concentrated on Italian subjects. He died on 22 April 1859 at Swan Village railway station in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

. Rippingille had a brother, Alexander, who was also a painter working in Bristol.

References

External links

*
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rippingille, Edward Villiers 1790 births 1859 deaths 19th-century English people People from King's Lynn History of Bristol English romantic painters English watercolourists Landscape artists