Samuel Woodforde (29 March 1763 – 27 July 1817) was a British painter.

Life

Woodforde was born at

Castle Cary Castle Cary () is a market town and civil parish in south Somerset, England, north west of Wincanton and south of Shepton Mallet, at the foot of Lodge Hill and on the River Cary, a tributary of the Parrett. History The word Cary derives fr ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. He was the second son of Heighes Woodforde, an accountant of

Ansford Ansford is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated on the northern edge of Castle Cary in the South Somerset district. The civil parish has a population of approximately 1,085. The village lies on the A371 road, A371, close to ...

, and his wife Anne. He was a lineal descendant of the painter Samuel Woodford, and nephew of the diarist,

James Woodforde James Woodforde (1740–1803) was an English clergyman, mainly in Somerset and Norfolk, remembered as the author of ''The Diary of a Country Parson''. This vivid account of parish life remained unpublished until the 20th century. Early life Ja ...

. He was supported by the banker

Henry Hoare Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) *Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

Stourhead Stourhead () is a 1,072-hectare (2,650-acre) estate at the source of the River Stour in the southwest of the English county of Wiltshire, extending into Somerset. The estate is about northwest of the town of Mere and includes a Grade I listed ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

and his family. On 8 March 1782, he became a student at the

Royal Academy Schools 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 purpo ...

and started exhibiting pictures in 1784.Dodgson and Fiske, "Samuel Woodforde". He contributed no less than 133 pictures to the Royal Academy and 39 at 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 ...

. Richard Hoare granted Woodforde £100 a year, which allowed him to travel to Italy in 1786. He spent most of his time in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, studying the works of

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

, and

Paolo Veronese Paolo Caliari (152819 April 1588), known as Paolo Veronese ( , also , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as ''The Wedding at Cana'' (1563) and ''The ...

. He also visited

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

and

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

before returning to London in 1791. Between 1792 and 1815, "he exhibited constantly, showing portraits, scenes of Italian life, historical pictures, and subjects from literature". Many of his literary pictures were

engraved Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

, such as a scene from ''

Titus Andronicus ''Titus Andronicus'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written between 1588 and 1593, probably in collaboration with George Peele. It is thought to be Shakespeare's first tragedy and is often seen ...

'' by

Anker Smith Anker Smith (1759–1819) was an English engraver. Life Smith was born in Cheapside, London, where his father was a silk merchant. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, and at first articled to an uncle named Hoole, a solicitor; but he ...

for the Boydell Shakespeare edition (1805) and several other scenes for Longmans Shakespeare (1805–7). Woodforde became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1800 and a full member in 1807. On 7 October 1815 he married Jane Gardner; that year the couple left for Italy. Two years later, Woodforde died of fever at

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

where he is buried in the cemetery of La Certosa.R.L.Winstanley, ''Samuel Woodforde R.A'' in Parson Woodforde Society Journal, Vol. VI, No. 1

Notes

References

*Dodgson, Campbell and Tina Fiske. "Samuel Woodforde". ''

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 ...

''. Oxford University Press. 2004. Retrieved on 8 February 2008.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Woodforde, Samuel 1763 births 1817 deaths 18th-century English painters English male painters 19th-century English painters People from South Somerset (district) Royal Academicians 19th-century English male artists 18th-century English male artists