Richard St John Tyrwhitt (1827–1895) was an English cleric and academic, known as a writer on art. Richard St John Tyrwhitt Dodgson

Life

The eldest son of Robert Philip Tyrwhitt (1798–1886), a police magistrate, and his wife Catherine Wigley, daughter of Henry St. John, he was born on 19 March 1827. He matriculated at

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

, on 15 May 1845, was a student from 1845 to 1859, tutor from 1852 to 1856, and rhetoric reader in 1856. He graduated B.A. in 1849 and M.A. in 1852. In 1851 he was ordained, and from 1858 to 1872 he held the vicarage of

St Mary Magdalen's Church, Oxford St Mary Magdalen is a Church of England parish church in Magdalen Street, Oxford, England, dedicated to Jesus' companion Mary Magdalene. It is one of the city's ancient parish churches and is a Grade I listed building. Worship Worship at St Mar ...

. Tyrwhitt was an admirer of

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...

, in whose favour he withdrew his candidature for the

Slade Professorship of Fine Art The Slade Professorship of Fine Art is the oldest professorship of art and art history at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and University College, London. History The chairs were founded concurrently in 1869 by a bequest from the art collecto ...

in 1869; he was accounted a member of the

Guild of St George The Guild of St George is a charitable Education Trust, based in England but with a worldwide membership, which tries to uphold the values and put into practice the ideas of its founder, John Ruskin (1819–1900). History Ruskin, a Victorian ...

in 1876. He was a member of the committee for the decoration of

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

. He died at 62 Banbury Road, Oxford, on 6 November 1895.

Views

During the contested 1877 election for the Oxford Professorship of Poetry, Tyrwhitt attacked

John Addington Symonds John Addington Symonds, Jr. (; 5 October 1840 – 19 April 1893) was an English poet and literary critic. A cultural historian, he was known for his work on the Renaissance, as well as numerous biographies of writers and artists. Although m ...

, a candidate, in a piece "The Greek Spirit in Modern Literature" in the ''

Contemporary Review ''The Contemporary Review'' is a British biannual, formerly quarterly, magazine. It has an uncertain future as of 2013. History The magazine was established in 1866 by Alexander Strahan and a group of intellectuals anxious to promote intellige ...

''. The argument also took in

Benjamin Jowett Benjamin Jowett (, modern variant ; 15 April 1817 – 1 October 1893) was an English tutor and administrative reformer in the University of Oxford, a theologian, an Anglican cleric, and a translator of Plato and Thucydides. He was Master of Bal ...

, suspected of unorthodox religious views; Symonds found it telling, and withdrew his candidacy shortly before the election. Tyrwhitt's piece has been characterised as

homophobic Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...

, and caused the withdrawal of

Walter Pater Walter Horatio Pater (4 August 1839 – 30 July 1894) was an English essayist, art critic and literary critic, and fiction writer, regarded as one of the great stylists. His first and most often reprinted book, ''Studies in the History of the Re ...

too. Also in the ''Contemporary Review'', he argued in 1878 that belief in evolution was compatible with Christianity, and that

John Tyndall John Tyndall FRS (; 2 August 1820 – 4 December 1893) was a prominent 19th-century Irish physicist. His scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he made discoveries in the realms of infrared radiation and the p ...

was incorrect in thinking otherwise. Friendship with John Henry Parker led Tyrwhitt into the debate over the Roman

catacomb Catacombs are man-made subterranean passageways for religious practice. Any chamber used as a burial place is a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman Empire. Etymology and history The first place to be referred ...

s and their significance. Here he tried to keep to a middle, non-sectarian way of interpretation, following Henry Reeve, with emphasis on the evidence of growth of early Christianity.

Works

Tyrwhitt was the author of ''A Handbook of Pictorial Art'' (1866; 2nd edit. 1868): it was adopted by the

Science and Art Department The Science and Art Department was a British government body which functioned from 1853 to 1899, promoting education in art, science, technology and design in Britain and Ireland. Background The Science and Art Department was created as a subdivis ...

as a textbook. In addition to sermons, he published also: * ''Concerning Clerical Powers and Duties'', 1861. * ''Fragments'', 1867. Poems. * ''Christian Art and Symbolism, with Hints on the Study of Landscape'', 1872 (preface by Ruskin). * ''The Art Teaching of the Primitive Church'', 1874. * ''Our Sketching Club: Letters and Studies in Landscape Art, with a Reproduction of the Lessons and Woodcuts in Ruskin's "Elements of Drawing"'', 1874. Unfavourably reviewed by

William Bell Scott William Bell Scott (1811–1890) was a Scottish artist in oils and watercolour and occasionally printmaking. He was also a poet and art teacher, and his posthumously published reminiscences give a chatty and often vivid picture of life in the ...

, it caused a controversy between Scott and Ruskin. * ''Hugh Heron, Ch. Ch.: an Oxford Novel'', 1880. * ''Greek and Gothic: Progress and Decay in the three Arts of Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting'', 1881. * ''The Natural Theology of Natural Beauty'', 1882. * ''Christian Ideals and Hopes: an Argument from Moral Beauty'', 1883. * ''An Amateur Art Book: Lectures'', 1886. * ''Free Field Lyrics, chiefly descriptive'', 1888. To

Francis Galton Sir Francis Galton, FRS FRAI (; 16 February 1822 – 17 January 1911), was an English Victorian era polymath: a statistician, sociologist, psychologist, anthropologist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto- ...

's ''Vacation Tourists'', 1864, Tyrwhitt contributed an account of a visit to

Sinai Sinai commonly refers to: * Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Mount Sinai, a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Biblical Mount Sinai, the site in the Bible where Moses received the Law of God Sinai may also refer to: * Sinai, South Dakota, a place ...

. He exhibited watercolours 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 ...

and

Suffolk Street Gallery The Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy. History The RBA commenced with twenty-seven members, and took until 1876 to reach fif ...

. He also painted murals, for example in the Oxford Museum. Tyrwhitt wrote for periodicals, for example on art criticism in the ''Contemporary Review''. He also contributed to the ''Dictionary of Christian Antiquities'', and to the ''

Dictionary of Christian Biography ''A Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century A.D., with an Account of the Principal Sects and Heresies'' is a 1911 religious encyclopedia of biographies. Edited by William C. Piercy and Henry Wace, Dean of ...

''.

Family

Tyrwhitt married, first, on 28 June 1858, Eliza Ann, daughter of John Spencer Stanhope of Cannon Hall, Yorkshire. She died on 8 September 1859, leaving a son, Walter Spencer Stanhope, a lieutenant in the Warwick militia. By a second marriage, on 2 January 1861, to Caroline (died 1883), youngest daughter of John Yorke of Bewerley Hall, Yorkshire, he had six children.

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Tyrwhitt, Richard St John 1827 births 1895 deaths 19th-century English Anglican priests Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford English watercolourists 19th-century English painters