Portrait of the painter Friedrich Wilhelm Keyl (1860s)

Frederick William Keyl (originally Friedrich Wilhelm Keyl; 17 September 1823 – 5 December 1871), born in Germany, was an animal painter in England; he received many commissions for paintings from Queen Victoria.

Life

Keyl was born in Frankfurt am Main, son of a wine merchant, and showed at an early age an interest in drawing animals. He studied at the Städelsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt under Jakob Becker, and later was a pupil of

Eugène Verboeckhoven Eugene is a common male given name that comes from the Greek εὐγενής (''eugenēs''), "noble", literally "well-born", from εὖ (''eu''), "well" and γένος (''genos''), "race, stock, kin".Edwin Landseer, and through him Keyl was introduced to Queen Victoria and

Albert, Prince Consort Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Franz August Karl Albert Emanuel; 26 August 1819 – 14 December 1861) was the consort of Queen Victoria from their marriage on 10 February 1840 until his death in 1861. Albert was born in the Saxon duch ...

. He obtained many commissions from the royal family, producing oil paintings, watercolours and sketches, and painting photographs; a notable commission was to paint Looty, the Queen's Pekingese. Apart from royal patronage, work included book illustrations, and plates for the '' Illustrated London News''. Friedrich Wilhelm Keyl - Looty (1861)

Keyl was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy of Art and the

British Institution The British Institution (in full, the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom; founded 1805, disbanded 1867) was a private 19th-century society in London formed to exhibit the works of living and dead artists; it w ...

, though he was by nature averse to exhibiting his pictures. In 1852 he married Sara Constance Woodlin, a niece of the painter

C. R. Leslie Charles Robert Leslie (19 October 1794 – 5 May 1859) was an English genre painter. Biography Leslie was born in London to American parents. When he was five years of age he returned with them to the United States, where they settled in Phi ...

. They had nine children, of whom three died in infancy. Keyl died at his home in St John's Wood, London, probably of consumption, on 5 December 1871, and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keyl, Frederick William 1823 births 1871 deaths Artists from Frankfurt German painters of animals 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists 19th-century English painters Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery