Sir Thomas Fairbairn, 2nd Baronet (18 January 1823 - 12 August 1891) was an English industrialist and art collector.
Fairbairn was born in the Polygon in Ardwick, near the centre of
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
. He was the third of eight surviving children of Sir
William Fairbairn
Sir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet of Ardwick (19 February 1789 – 18 August 1874) was a Scottish civil engineer, structural engineer and shipbuilder. In 1854 he succeeded George Stephenson and Robert Stephenson to become the third pre ...
(1789–1874). His father was a Scottish engineer who moved to Manchester in the early 19th century, where he designed bridges, and established a business,
William Fairbairn & Sons
William Fairbairn and Sons, was an engineering works in Manchester, England.
History
William Fairbairn opened an iron foundry in 1816 and was joined the following year by a Mr. Lillie, and the firm became known as Fairbairn and Lillie Engine Mak ...
boilermaking
A boilermaker is a tradesperson who fabricates steel, iron, or copper into boilers and other large containers intended to hold hot gas or liquid, as well as maintains and repairs boilers and boiler systems.Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Dep ...
,
ship building
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...
Peter Fairbairn
Sir Peter Fairbairn (1799–1861) was a Scottish engineer, inventor, and mayor of Leeds, West Yorkshire.
Early life
Peter Fairbairn was the youngest brother of Sir William Fairbairn, born at Kelso in Roxburghshire in September 1799. He had ...
of Leeds - also an engineer like his brother - and first cousin of MP Andrew Fairbairn.
After a private education, Thomas Fairbairn worked in his father's businesses from 1840, and took charge of the firm's shipbuilding operation in
Millwall
Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...
. After a tour of Italy in 1841–2, he started to use his industrial wealth to collect paintings.
He married Allison Callaway on 23 March 1848 and settled back in Manchester. They had at least five children together. Two—his son Arthur and daughter Constance—were born deaf.
Fairbairn was impressed by the works of
William Holman Hunt
William Holman Hunt (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolis ...
exhibited at the 1853 Royal Academy exhibition, and commissioned Hunt to complete his 1853 painting ''
The Awakening Conscience
''The Awakening Conscience'' (1853) is an oil-on-canvas painting by the English artist William Holman Hunt, one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which depicts a woman rising from her position in the lap of a man and gazing trans ...
'', although he asked Hunt to repaint the expression of the female figure. He also persuaded Hunt to make changes to his 1854 painting ''
The Scapegoat
A scapegoat is a goat used in a religious ritual or the victim of scapegoating, the singling out of a party for unmerited blame.
Scapegoat or The Scapegoat may also refer to:
Places
* Scapegoat Wilderness, a Wilderness Area in Montana
** Scapeg ...
''. Fairbairn commissioned a group portrait of his wife and five children from Hunt in 1864, which became his '' The Children's Holiday''. Although he acquired portraits from Hunt, Fairbairn generally preferred
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 ...
landscapes and historical painting. He commissioned paintings by Edward Lear, and sculptures by
Thomas Woolner
Thomas Woolner (17 December 1825 – 7 October 1892) was an English sculptor and poet who was one of the founder-members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was the only sculptor among the original members.
After participating in the found ...
, including a life-sized marble sculpture of his two deaf children in 1857–1862.
Fairburn was a commissioner of the 1851 Great Exhibition, and chairman of the Executive Committee that organised the 1857
Art Treasures Exhibition
The Art Treasures of Great Britain was an exhibition of fine art held in Manchester, England, from 5 May to 17 October 1857.C. D. Young & Co, who were already building the Museum of Science and Art in South Kensington (later the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
). His friend
Augustus Egg
Augustus Leopold Egg RA (2 May 1816, in London – 26 March 1863, in Algiers) was a British Victorian artist, and member of The Clique best known for his modern triptych '' Past and Present'' (1858), which depicts the breakup of a middle-class ...
was appointed as director of the gallery of Modern Masters at the exhibition, with many of Fairburn's favourite Pre-Raphaelites being selected. He was responsible for the decision to purchase Jules Soulages's collection for £13,500, to form the core of the collection of medieval and Renaissance decorative arts. It was later sold in instalments to the V&A. Fairbairn was offered a knighthood for his efforts, but declined.
Fairbairn worked on the
International Exhibition
A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...
s of 1862, 1867 and 1871. From 1860, he struggled with a project to open a new, free new art gallery for Manchester, which finally opened as the City Art Gallery in 1882. He was elected to the
Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851
The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 is an institution founded in 1850 to administer the international exhibition of 1851, officially called the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations. The Great Exhibition was held ...
High Sheriff of Hampshire
This is a list of High Sheriffs of Hampshire. This title was often given as High Sheriff of the County of Southampton until 1959.
List of High Sheriffs
*1070–1096: Hugh de Port "Domesday Book Online"
*1105: Henry de Port (son of Hugh)
*1129: W ...
in 1870 and succeeded his father as 2nd Baronet in 1874.
Many of his pictures were auctioned off in the 1890s, and the remainder of the collection was broken up after his death from a stroke. He died in Bishopstoke, in Hampshire, and was buried at Twyford church.
File:William_Holman_Hunt_-_The_Awakening_Conscience_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg, ''The Awakening Conscience''
File:William Holman Hunt - The Scapegoat.jpg, ''The Scapegoat''
File:William Holman Hunt - The Children's Holiday.jpg, ''The Children's Holiday''