Walter Howell Deverell (1827–1854) was a United States-born British artist, closely associated with the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Biography
Deverell was born in
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen ...
, into an English family who moved back to Britain when Walter was only two years old. He studied art at the
Royal Academy Schools, where he met
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...
. He and Rossetti shared a studio in 1851. The Pre-Raphaelites had been founded in 1848, and under Rossetti's influence Deverell's work began to show the influence of the movement, while still retaining features more characteristic of earlier
genre painters
Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, work, and street scenes. Such representations (also called genre works, ...
like
Charles Robert Leslie
Charles Robert Leslie (19 October 1794 – 5 May 1859) was an English genre painter.
Biography
Leslie was born in London to American parents. When he was five years of age he returned with them to the United States, where they settled in Phi ...
.
It was Deverell who "discovered"
Elizabeth Siddal
Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall (25 July 1829 – 11 February 1862), better known as Elizabeth Siddal, was an English artist, poet, and artists' model. Significant collections of her artworks can be found at Wightwick Manor and the Ashmolean. Sidda ...
, the Pre-Raphaelites' most important early model. However, despite his attraction to her, she later married Rossetti. Rossetti's assistant
Henry Treffry Dunn was recommended for the position by Deverell.
After the resignation of
James Collinson from the PRB, Rossetti proposed that Deverell should replace him, but no decision was ever made.
Deverell completed very few important works, exhibiting only four paintings at the R.A. before his early death from
Bright's disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that are described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. It was characterized by swelling and the presence of albumin in the urine, and was frequently accompanied b ...
at the age of twenty-seven. He lived in
Kew
Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...
, now part of London, where one of his paintings, ''A Pet'', was done in his house.
See also
*
List of Pre-Raphaelite paintings
This is a list of paintings produced by members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and other artists associated with the Pre-Raphaelite style. The term "Pre-Raphaelite" is used here in a loose and inclusive fashion.
PRB members James Collinson
...
– including the work of Walter Deverell.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deverell, Walter
1827 births
1854 deaths
19th-century British painters
British male painters
Pre-Raphaelite painters
People from Charlottesville, Virginia
People from Kew, London
Deaths from nephritis
Painters from Virginia
19th-century British male artists