Henry Wallis - Chatterton - Google Art Project

Henry Wallis (21 February 1830 – 20 December 1916) was a British

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

painter, writer and collector. Wallis was born in London on 21 February 1830, but his father's name and occupation are unknown. When in 1845 his mother, Mary Anne Thomas, married Andrew Wallis, a prosperous London architect, Henry took his stepfather's surname. His artistic training was thorough and influential. He was admitted as a probationer to the RA and enrolled in the Painting School in March 1848. He also studied in Paris at

Charles Gleyre Marc Gabriel Charles Gleyre (2 May 1806 – 5 May 1874), was a Swiss artist who was a resident in France from an early age. He took over the studio of Paul Delaroche in 1843 and taught a number of younger artists who became prominent, including He ...

's atelier and at the

Academie des Beaux Arts An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

, sometime between 1849 and 1853. Gerard Johnson carving William Shakespeare (by Henry Wallis)

Wallis is best remembered for his first great success, ''

The Death of Chatterton ''The Death of Chatterton'' is an oil painting on canvas, by the English Pre-Raphaelite painter Henry Wallis (1830 - 1916), now in Tate Britain, London. Two smaller versions, sketches or replicas, are possessed by the Birmingham Museum and Art ...

'', which he exhibited 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 ...

in 1856. The painting depicted the impoverished late 18th-century poet

Thomas Chatterton Thomas Chatterton (20 November 1752 – 24 August 1770) was an English poet whose precocious talents ended in suicide at age 17. He was an influence on Romantic artists of the period such as Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth and Coleridge. Althoug ...

, who poisoned himself in despair at the age of seventeen, and was considered a

Romantic hero The Romantic hero is a literary archetype referring to a character that rejects established norms and conventions, has been rejected by society, and has themselves at the center of their own existence. The Romantic hero is often the protagonist in ...

for many young and struggling artists in Wallis's day. His method and style in ''Monke Chatterton'' reveal the importance of his connection to the Pre-Raphaelite movement, seen in the vibrant colours and careful build-up of symbolic detail. He used a bold colour scheme with a contrasting palette and he exploited the fall of the natural light through the window of the garret to implement his much loved style at the time, chiaroscuro. The size of Chatterton's garret was only fractionally larger than the scope of the painting, with room for Wallis and his easel and little else during the preliminary sketches, which were done on-site. The painting is 25x37" and is in the

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 ...

, with other versions in the

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BM&AG) is a museum and art gallery in Birmingham, England. It has a collection of international importance covering fine art, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, natural history, archaeology, ethnography, local ...

and the

Yale Center for British Art Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...

Sir Walter Raleigh in the Tower by Henry Wallis

There may have been more examples of ''Chatterton'' as it was popular and when Wallis had to pay the rent he would paint another version. He once said that dead poets are more saleable than dead labourers (referring to '' The Stonebreaker'', his next major work). ''The Stonebreaker'' (1857, exhibited in 1858) consolidated his reputation as a true Pre-Raphaelite.Robin Hamlin: ''Henry Wallis'', in: ''

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 ...

'', vol. 57, London 2004, S. 14. In total, he showed 35 exhibits at the RA, but later in life developed a greater interest in watercolour painting. He was elected a full member of the RWS (Royal Watercolour Society) in 1878 and exhibited over 80 watercolours at the society. The model for his acclaimed ''

'' was the young

George Meredith George Meredith (12 February 1828 – 18 May 1909) was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. At first his focus was poetry, influenced by John Keats among others, but he gradually established a reputation as a novelist. ''The Ord ...

, whose first wife Mary Ellen would later run off with Wallis. Wallis's method of painting, especially in the early years of his career, and in particular on "Death of Chatterton", was to do the initial sketch, saturate it in water, use a grey tint to block in the shade, put on the colour and allow it to dry. When firm, he would use a hair pencil to add in the details, for which he is so renowned. For the light, he would touch the area in question with water and then rub it with a piece of bread. His studio during these years was in Chelsea, a very bohemian and out of the way part of London at the time. He died, almost blind, at 1 Walpole Road, Croydon, on 20 December 1916.

Selected bibliography

*Hamlin, Robin: ''Henry Wallis'', in: ''

'', vol. 57, London 2004, pp. 13–14. *van de Put, A., ''Henry Wallis, 1830–1916'', Faenza, v (1917), pp. 33–8. *Ramm, John, "The Forgotten Pre-Raphaelite", ''Antique Dealer & Collectors Guide'', March/April 2003, Vol 56, 8 & 9. *Treuherz, J. ''Hard Times: Social Realism in Victorian Art'' (London, 1987), pp. 36–39. *Literary treatment in

Peter Ackroyd Peter Ackroyd (born 5 October 1949) is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a specialist interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, William ...

's novel, ''Chatterton'', first published in 1987.

References

External links

*
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery's Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource
includes several works of art by Henry Wallis
Henry Wallis at Fine Arts Museums of San FranciscoThe Pre-Raph Pack
Discover more about the artists, the techniques they used and a timeline spanning 100 years. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wallis, Henry 19th-century English painters English male painters 20th-century English painters Pre-Raphaelite painters 1830 births 1916 deaths British art collectors 20th-century English male artists 19th-century English male artists