Alfred Joseph Woolmer (1805–1892) was an English painter whose subject matter covered the literary and historical genre. He was exceptionally prolific and, by age sixty, the number of works he had exhibited had reached 355 at the Society of British Artists, 45 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 ...

, and 12 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 ...

.Robyn Asleson, ‘ Woolmer, Alfred Joseph (1805–1892)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 Woolmer started contributing to exhibitions in 1828. In 1848 he was elected to the Society of British Artists and in the following decade would exhibit between ten and sixteen pictures each year with the society. His paintings, often mildly erotic, portray the concept of "

ut pictura poesis ''Ut pictura poesis'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "as is painting so is poetry". The statement (often repeated) occurs most famously in Horace's '' Ars Poetica'', near the end, immediately after another famous quotation, "", or " even Hom ...

". Marina Warner described his '' Lady Godiva'', displayed at the

Herbert Art Gallery and Museum Herbert Art Gallery & Museum (also known as the Herbert) is a museum, art gallery, records archive, learning centre, media studio and creative arts facility on Jordan Well, Coventry, England. Overview The museum is named after Sir Alfred Herb ...

in Coventry, as "sumptuous".Marina Warner. ''When Godiva streaked and Tom peeped'' The Times, 10 July 1982 "Lalla Rookh" (1861), is based on the hugely popular 19th-century poem by Irish poet

Thomas Moore Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852) was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist celebrated for his ''Irish Melodies''. Their setting of English-language verse to old Irish tunes marked the transition in popular Irish culture from Irish ...

, '' Lalla Rookh'' (1817). The painting depicts Hinda, daughter of the Emir of Arabia, in a tower overlooking the Persian Gulf, based on the story called "The Fire-Worshippers" in the poem. The painting is now housed in the Leicester Museum & Art Gallery.

References

19th-century British painters British male painters 1805 births 1892 deaths 19th-century British male artists {{UK-painter-19thC-stub