THOMAS

See also:

• SEDDON, RICHARD JOHN (1845-1906)
• THOMAS SEDDON (1821-1856)

SEDDON (1821-1856)  , English landscape painter, was born in London on the 28th of August 1821 . His father was a cabinetmaker, and the son for some time followed the same occupation; but in 1842 he was sent to Paris to study ornamental art . On his return he executed designs for furniture for his father . In 1849 he made sketching expeditions in Wales and France, and in 1852 began to exhibit in the Royal Academy, sending a figure-piece, Penelope, and afterwards landscapes, deriving their subjects from Brittany . In the end of 1853 he joined Holman Hunt at Cairo . He worked for a year in Egypt and Palestine, =Iv . 19SEDGWICK, A . 377 executing views which Ruskin pronounced to be " the first landscapes uniting perfect artistical skill with topographical accuracy; being directed, with stern self-restraint, to no other purpose than that of giving to persons who cannot travel trust-worthy knowledge of the scenes which ought to be most interesting to them." Seddon's Eastern subjects were exhibited in Berners Street, London, in 1855, and in Conduit Street in 1856 . In October 1856 Seddon again visited Cairo, where he died on the 23rd of November . In 1857 his works were exhibited in the rooms of the Society of Arts, and his important and elaborately finished picture, " Jerusalem and the Valley of Jehoshaphat," was purchased by subscription and presented to the National Gallery . A memoir of Seddon, by his brother, was published in 1859 .