William Edward Frost (September 1810 – 4 June 1877) was an English painter of the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

. Virtually alone among English artists in the middle Victorian period, he devoted his practice to the portrayal of the female nude. Frost was educated in the schools of the Royal Academy, beginning in 1829; he established a reputation as a portrait painter before branching into historical and mythological subjects, including the subgenre of

fairy painting Fairy painting is a genre of painting and illustration featuring fairies and fairy tale settings, often with extreme attention to detail. The genre is most closely associated with Victorian painting in the United Kingdom, but has experienced a c ...

that was characteristic of Victorian art. In 1839 he won the Royal Academy's gold medal for his ''Prometheus Bound'', and in 1843 he won a prize in the Westminster Hall competition for his ''Una Alarmed by Fauns'' (a subject from Spenser's ''

The Faerie Queene ''The Faerie Queene'' is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books IIII were first published in 1590, then republished in 1596 together with books IVVI. ''The Faerie Queene'' is notable for its form: at over 36,000 lines and over 4,000 sta ...

''). He was elected an associate member of the Royal Academy in 1846, and a full member in 1870. Frost is widely recognized as a follower of

William Etty William Etty (10 March 1787 – 13 November 1849) was an English artist best known for his history paintings containing nude (art), nude figures. He was the first significant British painter of nudes and still lifes. Born in York, h ...

, who preceded him as the primary British painter of nudes in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Despite the prudishness of the Victorian era, Frost's relatively chaste nudes were popular, and his career was financially successful.

At their best Frost's works have a distinctive jewel-like charm, his attractive young women models possessing a pert, self-conscious quality which makes them more titillating than Etty's powerful studies.... :—Lionel Lambourne, ''Victorian Painting''Lionel Lambourne, ''Victorian Painting'', London, Phaidon Press, 1999; pp. 282–4.

References

External links

*
''Venus Disarming Cupid''.

''Venus and Cupid''.

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frost, William Edward 1810 births 1877 deaths 19th-century English painters English male painters Royal Academicians 19th-century English male artists