Richard Redgrave (30 April 1804 in Pimlico,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

– 14 December 1888 in Kensington,

) was an English landscape artist, genre painter and administrator.

Early life

He was born in Pimlico, London, at 2 Belgrave Terrace, the second son of William Redgrave, and younger brother of Samuel Redgrave. While employed in his father's manufacturing firm, he visited the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

to make drawings of the marble sculptures there. His work ''The River Brent, near Hanwell'' of 1825 saw him admitted to the Royal Academy schools the next year. He left his father's firm in 1830 and began to make a living teaching art..

Career

He worked at first as a designer. He was elected an Associate in 1840 and an Academician in 1851 (retired, 1882). His ''Gulliver on the Farmer's Table'' (1837) made his reputation as a painter. He became an assiduous painter of landscape and genre; his best pictures being ''Country Cousins'' (1848), ''Olivia's Return to her Parents'' (1839), ''The Sempstress'' (1844) and ''A Well-spring in the Forest'' (1877). Redgrave held three important exhibitions at the Royal Academy and one at Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. Richard Redgrave by J

He began in 1847 a connection with the Government School of Design, as

botanical Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

lecturer and teacher, he became head-master in 1848, and art superintendent in 1852. He was inspector-general for art at 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 ...

in 1857. The first Keeper of Paintings at South Kensington Museum, he was greatly instrumental in the establishment of this institution, and he claimed the credit of having secured the Sheepshanks and Ellison gifts for the nation. Redgrave received the cross of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

after serving on the executive committee of the British section of the

Paris Exhibition of 1855 The Exposition Universelle of 1855 was an International Exhibition held on the Champs-Élysées in Paris from 15 May to 15 November 1855. Its full official title was the Exposition Universelle des produits de l'Agriculture, de l'Industrie et des B ...

. The income provided for an impressive house at Hyde Park Gate, overlooking the park, in one of the most prestigious addresses in London. His children Evelyn Leslie Redgrave and Frances M Redgrave were celebrated painters. He was surveyor of crown pictures from 1856–80, during which period he produced a 34-volume catalogue detailing the pictures at

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

, Buckingham Palace,

Hampton Court Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chie ...

, and other royal residences. Redgrave and his brother Samuel were the co-authors of the influential ''A Century of Painters of the English School,'' published in 1866, he also wrote also ''An Elementary Manual of Colour,'' 1853.

Later life

He was offered, but declined, a

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...

in 1869. He died at 27

Hyde Park Gate Hyde Park Gate is a street in Central London, England, which applies to two parallel roads in Kensington on the southern boundary of Kensington Gardens. These two roads run south, perpendicular to Kensington Road, but the name Hyde Park Gate als ...

, Kensington, London, on 14 December 1888 and is buried in

Brompton Cemetery Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is a London cemetery, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. Establ ...

Gallery

File:RichardRedgraveBrompton01.jpg, Funerary monument,

File:St Mary Abbots 16.JPG, Memorial in

St Mary Abbots St Mary Abbots is a church located on Kensington High Street and the corner of Kensington Church Street in London W8. The present church structure was built in 1872 to the designs of Sir George Gilbert Scott, who combined neo-Gothic and early ...

, Kensington File:TheOutcastRichardRedgrave.jpg, ''The Outcast'' by Richard Redgrave File:Szene aus Gulliver's Reisen - Gulliver in Brobdingnag.jpg, ''Gulliver in

Brobdingnag Brobdingnag is a fictional land, which is occupied by giants, in Jonathan Swift's 1726 satirical novel ''Gulliver's Travels.'' The story's main character, Lemuel Gulliver, visits the land after the ship on which he is travelling is blown off co ...

'', Victoria and Albert Museum

References

;Bibliography * * * *

External links

*
Richard Redgrave , Artist , Royal Academy of ArtsRichard Redgrave 1804-1888 , TateBiography of Richard Redgrave, CB, RA - Victoria and Albert Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Redgrave, Richard 1804 births 1888 deaths 19th-century English painters English male painters English landscape artists Artists from London People from Pimlico Surveyors of the Queen's Pictures Burials at Brompton Cemetery Royal Academicians 19th-century English male artists