Octavius Oakley RWS (27 April 1800, in

Bermondsey Bermondsey () is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham ...

– 1 March 1867, in London), was a British

watercolour 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 ...

portrait, figure and landscape artist.

Life

Family grave of Octavius Oakley in Highgate Cemetery

Oakley was born in Bermondsey, London on the 27th April 1800. Initially he worked for a

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

textile company. He developed into a specialist of portraits in watercolour and was given commissions by the Duke of Devonshire. Whilst living in

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

where he painted rustic scenes until he moved to Leamington Spa in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

in 1836. He returned to London in the 1840s and worked there until his death, producing paintings of street scenes and gypsies and their lifestyle. His emphasis on gypsy paintings which he exhibited at the

Royal Watercolour Society The Royal Watercolour Society is a British institution of painters working in watercolours. The Society is a centre of excellence for water-based media on paper, which allows for a diverse and interesting range of approaches to the medium of wa ...

earned him the name 'Gypsy Oakley'. Oakley met Thomas Baker in Leamington Spa, where Baker was living and working and in 1841 did a portrait of the celebrated painter, who was an important figure in the Midlands and

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

art world.Birmingham Museum
/ref> His youngest daughter,

Isabel Naftel Isabel Naftel, née Oakley, (baptised 20 July 1832, died 1912) was a British artist known for her portrait, genre and landscape paintings. Biography Naftel was the youngest of the three daughters of the, then, Derby based artist Octavius Oakle ...

was also an artist. He died at his home, 7 Chepstow Villas, Kensington, on the 1st March 1867 and was buried in a family grave (no.14459) on the western side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

Gallery

Octavius Oakley08a.jpg, Country Family of Emigrants, watercolour Octavius Oakley12.jpg, Portrait of a gypsy woman, watercolour on paper, 31 x 25 cm, oval format Octavius Oakley01.jpg, Portrait of Benjamin Gibbons, son of

John Gibbons John Michael Gibbons (born June 8, 1962) is an American former professional baseball player and former manager of the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB). Gibbons briefly played in the Major Leagues as a catcher with the New York Me ...

(1777-1851), with a view of Eton College Beyond, Watercolour, 16 1/2 X 11 1/4 inches (36.8 x 28.6 cm) Joseph Paxton by Octavius Oakley, c1850.jpg,

Sir Joseph Paxton ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

, builder of

The Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibitors from around th ...

Octavius Oakley04.jpg, Portrait of Thomas Baker (1809-1864), watercolour, 301 x 232mm

References

External links

Portraits by O. Oakley
( National Portrait Gallery)
Portrait of Benjamin Gibbons Seated, with a view of Eton College Beyond
(Victorian web) 1800 births 1867 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery English watercolourists 19th-century English painters English male painters English landscape painters 19th-century English male artists {{England-painter-stub