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WILLIAM POWELL FRITH (1818-19og)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 236 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WILLIAM See also:POWELL See also:FRITH (1818-19og)  , See also:English painter, was See also:born at Aldfield, in See also:Yorkshire, on the 9th of See also:January 1819 . His parents moved in 1826 to See also:Harrogate, where his See also:father became landlord of the See also:Dragon See also:Inn, and it was then that the boy began his See also:general See also:education at a school at See also:Knaresborough . Later he went for about two years to a school at St See also:Margaret's, near See also:Dover, where he was placed specially under the direction of the See also:drawing-See also:master, as a step towards his preparation for the profession which his father had decided on as the one that he wished him to adopt . In 1835 he was entered as a student in the well-known See also:art school kept by See also:Henry Sass in Bloomsbury, from which he passed after two years to the Royal See also:Academy See also:schools . His first See also:independent experience was gained in 1839, when he went about for some months in See also:Lincolnshire executing several commissions for portraits; but he soon began to See also:attempt compositions, and in 1840 his first picture, " Malvolio, See also:cross-gartered before the Countess Olivia," appeared at the Royal Academy . During the next few years he produced several notable paintings, among them " See also:Squire See also:Thornhill See also:relating his See also:town adventures to the See also:Vicar's See also:family," and " The See also:Village Pastor," which established his reputation as one of the most promising of the younger men of that See also:time . This last See also:work was exhibited in 1845, and in the autumn of that See also:year he was elected an See also:Associate of the Royal Academy . His promotion to the See also:rank of Academician followed in 18J3, when he was chosen to fill the vacancy caused by See also:Turner's See also:death . The See also:chief pictures painted by him during his See also:tenure of Associateship were: " An English Merry-making in the Olden Time," " Old Woman accused of See also:Witchcraft," " The Coming of See also:Age," " Sancho and See also:Don Quixote," " See also:Hogarth before the See also:Governor of See also:Calais," and the "See also:Scene from See also:Goldsmith's ` See also:Good-natured See also:Man,' " which was commissioned in 185o by Mr See also:Sheepshanks, and bequeathed by him to the See also:South See also:Kensington Museum . Then came a See also:succession of large compositions which gained for the artist an extraordinary popularity . " See also:Life at the Seaside," better known as " See also:Ramsgate Sands," was exhibited in 18J4, and was bought by See also:Queen See also:Victoria; " The See also:Derby See also:Day," in 1858; " See also:Claude See also:Duval," in 186o; " The Railway Station," in 1862; " The See also:Marriage of the See also:Prince of See also:Wales," painted for Queen Victoria, in 1865; " The Last See also:Sunday of See also:Charles II.," in 1867; " The See also:Salon d'Or," in 1871; " The Road to Ruin," a See also:series, in 1878; a similar series, " The See also:Race for See also:Wealth," shown at a See also:gallery in See also:King See also:Street, St See also:James's, in 188o; " The Private View," in 1883; and " See also:John See also:Knox at Holyrood," in1886 . See also:Frith also painted a considerable number of portraits of well-known See also:people .

In 1889 he became an honorary retired academician . His " Derby Day " is in the See also:

National Gallery of See also:British Art . In his youth, in See also:common with the men by whom he was surrounded, he had leanings towards See also:romance, and he scored many successes as a painter of imaginative subjects . In these he proved himself to be possessed of exceptional qualities as a colourist and manipulator, qualities that promised to See also:earn for him a secure See also:place among the best executants of the British School . But in his See also:middle See also:period he See also:chose a fresh direction . Fascinated by the welcome which the public gave to his first attempts to illustrate the life of his own times, he undertook a considerable series of large canvases, in which he commented on the See also:manners and morals of society as he found it . He became a pictorial preacher, a painter who moralized about the everyday incidents of See also:modern existence; and he sacrificed some of his technical variety . There remained, however, a remarkable sense of characterization, and an acute appreciation of dramatic effect . Frith died on the 2nd of See also:November 1909 . Frith published his Autobiography and Reminiscences in 1887, and Further Reminiscences in 1889 .

End of Article: WILLIAM POWELL FRITH (1818-19og)
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