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Henry Perronet Briggs
RA (1793 – 18 January 1844) was an English painter of portraits and historical scenes.
Life
Briggs was born at
Walworth, County Durham
Walworth is a central small village with outlying farmsteads, which together constitute a scattered village in the borough of Darlington and the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It is a civil parish which does not have a church. T ...
, the son of a post office official. His cousin was
Amelia Opie
Amelia Opie (née Alderson; 12 November 1769 – 2 December 1853) was an English author who published numerous novels in the Romantic period up to 1828. Opie was also a leading abolitionist in Norwich, England. Hers was the first of 187,000 nam ...
(née Alderson), the wife of artist
John Opie
John Opie (16 May 1761 – 9 April 1807) was an English historical and portrait painter. He painted many great men and women of his day, including members of the British Royal Family, and others who were notable in the artistic and literary ...
(whose portrait was later painted by Briggs). While still at school at
Epping Epping may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Epping, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
** Epping railway station, Sydney
* Electoral district of Epping, the corresponding seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
* Epping Forest, Kearns, a he ...
he sent two engravings to the ''
Gentleman's Magazine
''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term ''magazine'' (from the French ''magazine'' ...
'' and in 1811 entered as a student 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 ...
,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, where he began to exhibit in 1814. From that time onwards until his death he was a constant exhibitor at the annual exhibitions of the Academy, as well as 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 ...
, his paintings being for the most part historical in subject. After his election as a Royal Academician (RA) in 1832 he devoted his attention almost exclusively to portraiture.
Briggs died, of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
in London on 18 January 1844, aged 50/51. The lease to his home in
Bruton Street
Bruton Street is a street in London's Mayfair district.
It runs from Berkeley Square in the south-west to New Bond Street in the north-east, where it continues as Conduit Street.
Notable residents have included Field Marshal John Campbell, 2nd ...
,
Berkeley Square
Berkeley Square is a garden square in the West End of London. It is one of the best known of the many squares in London, located in Mayfair in the City of Westminster. It was laid out in the mid 18th century by the architect William Kent ...
was subsequently purchased by portrait painter
Thomas Henry Illidge.
Jacob Bell, founder of the
Pharmaceutical Society, was a cousin of Briggs, and took painting lessons from the artist as a child. Bell commissioned several art-works and it was his connections that enabled Briggs to paint the portraits of pharmacist John Bell (of John Bell & Co.), and
William Allen William Allen may refer to:
Politicians
United States
*William Allen (congressman) (1827–1881), United States Representative from Ohio
*William Allen (governor) (1803–1879), U.S. Representative, Senator, and 31st Governor of Ohio
*William ...
, the Society's first President. Briggs also designed the society's membership certificate.
Thomas Francis Dicksee
Thomas Francis Dicksee (1819–1895) was an English painter. He was a portraitist and painter of historical, genre subjects
often inspired by the works of Shakespeare.
Life and career
Thomas Francis Dicksee was born in London on 13 December 18 ...
was a notable pupil of Briggs.
Works
Two of Briggs' historical pictures, first exhibited at the Academy in 1826 and 1827, are now in
Tate Britain
Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...
, London – ''First Conference between the Spaniards and Peruvians'', 1531, and ''Juliet and her Nurse''. His large painting of ''George III presenting the Sword to Lord Howe on board the Queen Charlotte'', 1794, was initially purchased by 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 ...
, presented to
Greenwich Hospital, and is now in the
National Maritime Museum
The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United ...
. Among the more successful of the various Shakespearean scenes painted by him may be mentioned his ''Othello relating his adventures to Desdemona''. Of his numerous portraits, the best perhaps was that of
Lord Eldon
Earl of Eldon, in the County Palatine of Durham, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1821 for the lawyer and politician John Scott, 1st Baron Eldon, Lord Chancellor from 1801 to 1806 and again from 1807 to 1827. ...
. He also made the portrait of the Indian leader
Raja Ram Mohan Roy
Raja Ram Mohan Roy ( bn, রামমোহন রায়; 22 May 1772 – 27 September 1833) was an Indian reformer who was one of the founders of the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, the precursor of the Brahmo Samaj, a social-religious reform m ...
.
[Christopher Wright, Catherine May Gordon and Mary Peskett Smith.(2006) British and Irish Paintings in Public Collections: An Index of British and Irish oil paintings by artists born before 1870 in public and institutional collections in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Compilation. New Haven, Conn; London: Yale University Press. , 9780300117301]
William Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray (; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was a British novelist, author and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1848 novel '' Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and t ...
regarded Briggs as "out and out the best portrait-painter of the set";
though the ''
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 ...
'' entry (1886), by
Warwick William Wroth
Warwick William Wroth (24 August 1858 – 26 September 1911) was a numismatist and biographer. He was Senior Assistant Keeper of Coins and Medals in the British Museum and one of the original contributors to the ''Dictionary of National Biog ...
, was more circumspect, commenting that "the pictures painted by Briggs, though not without merits of construction, cannot be said to belong to the highest class of art".
References
;Attribution
External links
*
H P Briggs online(ArtCyclopedia)
A Scene from 'The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom'(1829 oil on panel –
Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...
)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Briggs, Henry Perronet
19th-century English painters
English male painters
English portrait painters
Royal Academicians
People from the Borough of Darlington
19th-century deaths from tuberculosis
1793 births
1844 deaths
Tuberculosis deaths in England
19th-century English male artists