Frederick Richard Lee - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Frederick Richard Lee (Barnstaple

Barnstaple

Barnstaple is a town and civil parish in the local government district of North Devon in the county of Devon, England, UK. It lies west southwest of Bristol, north of Plymouth and northwest of the county town of Exeter. The old spelling Barnstable is now obsolete.It is the main town of the...

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

, 10 June 1798 – Vleesch Bank 5 June 1879) was the son of Thomas Lee of Barnstaple and brother of Thomas Lee (Jnr)

Thomas Lee (Jnr)

Thomas Lee , the son of Thomas Lee of Barnstaple, Devon, was an English architect. He was educated at Barnstaple Grammar School and left to train briefly in 1810 at Sir John Soane's office, where his father no doubt placed him, but left for the office of David Laing...

, an architect.

Frederick enrolled as a student in the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

on 16 January 1818, aged nineteen. Although no dated paintings are recorded from this time, by the time of his election as an Associate of the Royal Academy (A.R.A.) on 3 November 1834, at least six dated paintings existed. One of F.R. Lee's paintings from this time is Bringing in the Stag, in oil, measuring 38 cm x 51 cm (1830) at the Tate Gallery

Tate Gallery

The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...

in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

).

Lee was elected to full membership of the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

on 10 February 1838. A further seven paintings have been documented as painted by Lee before this date, again as oils, mainly on canvas. The Tate Gallery

Tate Gallery

The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...

has an example from this period of his career in Sea Coast Sunrise, which is also painted in oil and is 85 cm x 109 cm (1834).

Frederick Lee is known to have produced a further forty dated paintings over the next thirty years. In addition to the dated paintings, fifty undated paintings exist, including Lake in a Park at the Tate.

Paintings by Lee in public collections are (in chronological order):

Displayed at	Name	Size	Date
Tate Gallery Tate Gallery The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...	Cover Side	48 cm x 40 cm	1839
Penrhyn Castle Penrhyn Castle Penrhyn Castle is a country house in Llandegai, Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales, in the form of a Norman castle. It was originally a medieval fortified manor house, founded by Ednyfed Fychan. In 1438, Ioan ap Gruffudd was granted a licence to crenellate and he founded the stone castle and added a...	The River Ogwen at Cochwillan Mill		1849
Tate Gallery	Evening in the Meadows	93 cm x 122 cm	1854
Tate Gallery	A River Scene	127 cm x 183 cm	1855
Norwich Castle Norwich Castle Norwich Castle is a medieval royal fortification in the city of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. It was founded in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England when William the Conqueror ordered its construction because he wished to have a fortified place in the important city of...	Mill on Ogwen River	25 cm x 35 cm	1857
de Young Museum M. H. de Young Memorial Museum The M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, commonly called simply the de Young Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. It is named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H... , San Francisco	The Overhanging Trees	84.5 cm x 109.9 cm	1865
Met Museum Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...	Garibaldi's Residence in Caprera	87 cm x 138.1 cm	1865
Barnstaple Museum	The River Taw, and the North Devon Railway		1868
Royal Academy Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...	Morning in the Meadows	112 cm x183cm	1869

Lee was a prolific artist, based on the number of oil paintings he is known to have produced, both on canvas and on board. His subject matter choices clearly shared influences with John Constable

John Constable

John Constable was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home—now known as "Constable Country"—which he invested with an intensity of affection...

and other contemporaries.

Some of Lee's more notable paintings were a collaboration with Thomas Sidney Cooper

Thomas Sidney Cooper

Thomas Sidney Cooper was an English landscape painter noted for his images of cattle and farm animals.Cooper was born at Canterbury, Kent, and as a small child he began to show strong artistic inclinations, but the circumstances of his family did not allow him to received any systematic training...

(between 1848 and 1856) and Sir Edwin Landseer, Lee painting the landscape and Cooper and Landseer adding the animals. Landscapes and pastoral scenes form the majority of his painting interest, with some exceptions, for example, Cover Side, The Campfire and Gypsy Tent.

Scottish scenes figured prominently as subjects for Lee, but he also traveled extensively elsewhere in Britain and the continent: 'Gillingham Mill, Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

', 'North Duffield Bridge, Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

', 'Swiss Bridge, Lynedock', 'Fulford Park, Exeter

Exeter

Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...

', 'Benmore looking up Glen Dochart

Glen Dochart

Glen Dochart in Perthshire, Scottish Highlands is a glen which runs from Crianlarich eastwards to Killin, following the course of the River Dochart as it flows through Loch Dochart and Loch Iubhair. It is met by Glen Ogle at Lix Toll....

', 'Shattered Oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

in Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....

', 'Sleaford

Sleaford

Sleaford is a town in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is located thirteen miles northeast of Grantham, seventeen miles west of Boston, and nineteen miles south of Lincoln, and had a total resident population of around 14,500 in 6,167 households at the time...

, Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

', 'Rock of Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...

' and 'Pont du Gard

Pont du Gard

The Pont du Gard is a notable ancient Roman aqueduct bridge that crosses the Gard River in southern France. It is part of a long aqueduct that runs between Uzès and Nîmes in the South of France. It is located in Vers-Pont-du-Gard near Remoulins, in the Gard département...

' are all examples of this.

Lee also spent considerable time at Penshurst

Penshurst

Penshurst is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks district of Kent, England. The parish is located on the northern slopes of the Weald, west of Tonbridge. Within the parish boundaries are the two villages of Penshurst and Fordcombe, with a combined population of some 1,479 persons. The...

, Kent where a number of his paintings originate. His wife Harriet Eves Lee was buried in the churchyard there (at plot 147) after her death in 1850.

The painting featured above is Shattered Oak in Bedfordshire reproduced here as a public-domain image with permission of the owner, for others to enjoy. The painting was found recently after being unrecognised in a private dwelling for over 70 years. The picture is framed, oil on board, and measures 45 cm x 70 cm and signed "F R Lee RA 1851".

Lee's life has been documented elsewhere, and the popularity of his painting remains his lasting legacy. Many of his works have brought substantial prices when sold in recent times. He had a long career with over 90 identified paintings to his credit, compared to John Constable

John Constable

with only around 20 paintings. However, some recent information has come to light detailing more than 300 of his paintings, suggesting many still reside in private hands or in the unpublished care of museums/National Trust properties. The Constable influence remained throughout his career and he was apparently not tempted to follow the Turner

J. M. W. Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting...

impressionist style, but remained true to his original interests despite the industrial revolution

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

taking place around him.

Lee's paintings were much in demand during his life-time, and he was certainly not a poor, struggling artist — he appears to have been fairly well-off at the end of his career. Perhaps another aspect to his painting style and prolific output could have been financial. He knew his market, and painted subjects in the style he knew would be popular.

In the last 15 years of his life, Lee divided his time between three residences: Broadgate House, his yacht, and South Africa, where he owned several farms. Lee retired on 1 December 1871 and died and was buried near Wellington in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

on 5 June 1879. Only three photographic portraits of Frederick Richard Lee have survived, and they can be found in the National Portrait Gallery (London).

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