Frederick Tatham
Encyclopedia
Ancients (art group)
The Ancients , were a group of English artists who were brought together by their attraction to archaism in art and admiration for the work of William Blake. The core members of the Ancients were Samuel Palmer, George Richmond, Edward Calvert...
, a group of followers of William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
.
The son of Charles Heathcote Tatham
Charles Heathcote Tatham
Charles Heathcote Tatham , was an English architect of the early nineteenth century.-Early life:...
, an architect, Tatham and his brother and sister were all associated with the Ancients. His sister Julia married another member, George Richmond
George Richmond
For the 21st century educator see George H. RichmondGeorge Richmond was an English painter.George Richmond was the father of the painter William Blake Richmond as well as the grandfather of the naval historian, Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond.A keen follower of cricket, Richmond was noted in one...
, the father of William Blake Richmond
William Blake Richmond
Sir William Blake Richmond KCB , English painter and decorator, was born in London. His father, George Richmond, R.A...
.
Tatham is most notable for the fact that after Blake's death, he looked after the poet's widow Catherine
Catherine Blake
Catherine Blake was the wife of the poet, painter and engraver William Blake , and a vital presence and assistant throughout his life as an artist.-Life:...
, who nominally worked as his housekeeper. After her death in 1831, he claimed that she had left him all her husband’s works. This claim brought him into conflict with another Ancient, John Linnell
John Linnell (painter)
John Linnell was an English landscape painter. Linnell was a naturalist and a rival to John Constable. He had a taste for Northern European art of the Renaissance, particularly Albrecht Dürer. He also associated with William Blake, to whom he introduced Samuel Palmer and others of the...
, who insisted that Blake's sister should have inherited them. Tatham also tried to extract paintings that Linnell himself owned, despite the fact that Linnell had bought them from the artist.
Shortly afterwards Tatham joined a millenarian sect, becoming an Irvingite (follower of Edward Irving
Edward Irving
*For Edward Irving, the Canadian geologist, see Edward A. Irving.Edward Irving was a Scottish clergyman, generally regarded as the main figure behind the foundation of the Catholic Apostolic Church.-Youth:...
). A this time his religious dogmatism led him to destroy a significant number of Blake's works in the belief that they had been inspired by the devil. Tatham later wrote biographical literature on Blake.
Tatham was both a sculptor and painter, exhibiting at 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...
between 1825 and 1854. His works were characterised by their imitation of stiff early Renaissance styles, in the manner of the Ancients, though his later work became more conventional.