John Callcott Horsley - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

John Callcott Horsley RA

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...

(29 January 1817 18 October 1903), was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

Academic painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

of genre and historical scenes, illustrator, and designer of the first Christmas card

Christmas card

A Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to the Christmas and holiday season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during the weeks preceding Christmas Day by many people in Western...

. He was a member of the artist's colony in Cranbrook

Cranbrook Colony

The Cranbrook Colony was a group of artists who settled in Cranbrook, Kent from 1854 onwards and were inspired by seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish painters...

Life

Horsley was born 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...

, the son of William Horsley

William Horsley

William Horsley was an English musician.In 1790 he became the pupil of Theodore Smith, an indifferent musician of the time, who, however, taught him sufficiently well to obtain the position of organist at Ely Chapel, Holborn, in 1794...

, the musician, and grand-nephew of Sir Augustus Callcott

Augustus Wall Callcott

Sir Augustus Wall Callcott was an English landscape painter-Life and work:Callcott was born in Kensington gravel pits, London. His first study was music and he sang for several years in the choir of Westminster Abbey...

. His sister Mary Elizabeth Horsley wed the famous British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...

in 1836.

Horsley studied painting in the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

schools, and in 1836 exhibited "The Pride of the Village" (Vernon Gallery) at the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

. This was followed by numerous genre pictures at subsequent exhibitions up to 1893, the best known of these being "Malvolio", "L'Allegro and il Penseroso" (painted for the Prince Consort), "Le Jour des Morts" and "A Scene from Don Quixote".

In 1843 his cartoon (preliminary drawing) of "St Augustine Preaching" won a prize in the competition to provide interior decorations for Westminster Hall, London, and in 1844 he was selected as one of the six painters commissioned to execute frescoes for the Houses of Parliament - his "Religion" (1845) being put in the House of Lords. He also painted "Henry V

Henry V of England

Henry V was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of 35 in 1422. He was the second monarch belonging to the House of Lancaster....

assuming the Crown" and "Satan touched by Ithuriel's Spear while whispering evil dreams to Eve". In 1864 he became a Royal Academician

Royal Academy

(RA), and in 1882 was elected treasurer, a post which he held until 1897, when he resigned and became a "retired Academician".

Horsley designed the first ever Christmas card

Christmas card

, commissioned by Henry Cole

Henry Cole

Sir Henry Cole was an English civil servant and inventor who facilitated many innovations in commerce and education in 19th century Britain...

. It caused some controversy because it depicted a small child drinking wine. He also designed the Horsley envelope, a pre-paid envelope that was the precursor to the postage stamp.

Horsley had much to do with organizing the winter exhibitions of "Old Masters" at Burlington House

Burlington House

Burlington House is a building on Piccadilly in London. It was originally a private Palladian mansion, and was expanded in the mid 19th century after being purchased by the British government...

after 1870. When, during the 1880s, the example of the French Salon began to affect the Academy exhibitors, and paintings of the nude became the fashion, he protested against the innovation, and his attitude caused Punch to give him the sobriquet of "Mr J. C(lothes) Horsley" (a pun on clothes horse).

In 1856 Horsley was photographed at "The Photographed Institute" by Robert Howlett

Robert Howlett

Robert Howlett , was a pioneering British photographer whose pictures are widely exhibited in major galleries. Howlett produced portraits of Crimean War heroes, genre scenes and landscapes...

, as part of a series of portraits of "fine artists". The picture was among a group exhibited at the Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

in 1857.

Horsley was a member of the London-based Etching Club

The Etching Club

The Etching Club was an artists' society founded in London, England in 1838 by Charles West Cope. The club published illustrated editions of works by authors such as Oliver Goldsmith, Shakespeare, John Milton and Thomas Gray...

contributing illustrations to editions of "The Deserted Village" (Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith was an Irish writer, poet and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...

and "Songs of Shakespeare". He also illustrated a number of other books including "Little Princes" by Eliza Slater (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1890).

Horsley's son, Sir Victor Horsley

Victor Horsley

Sir Victor Alexander Haden Horsley was an accomplished scientist and professor. He was born in Kensington, London. He was educated at Cranbrook School, Kent and studied medicine at University College London and in Berlin, Germany , and in the same year started his career as a house surgeon and...

(born 1857), became famous as a surgeon and neuropathologist, and a prominent supporter of the cause of experimental research.

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Life

Further reading

External links