Robert Burford was an English painter of panoramas

Panoramic painting

Panoramic paintings are massive artworks that reveal a wide, all-encompassing view of a particular subject, often a landscape, military battle, or historical event. They became especially popular in the 19th Century in Europe and the United States, inciting opposition from writers of Romantic poetry...

.

Life and work

Burford was born in 1791 and first exhibited 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...

 in 1812 with "A View of Westminster Hall". In conjunction with fellow artist Henry Aston Barker

Henry Aston Barker

Henry Aston Barker was a Scottish landscape and panorama painter and exhibitor, the son of Robert Barker whose business he continued.-Life and works:...

, he opened a panorama on the site of the present Strand Theatre

Strand Theatre

- England :* Royal Strand Theatre, London* Strand Theatre , London in the United States...

, which was then moved to Leicester Square

Leicester Square

Leicester Square is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. The Square lies within an area bound by Lisle Street, to the north; Charing Cross Road, to the east; Orange Street, to the south; and Whitcomb Street, to the west...

, where for many years it formed one
of the chief attractions of London. Burford exhibited there a succession of panoramic views of the chief places of interest in Europe, all of which he visited himself in order to obtain accurate drawings. John Ruskin

John Ruskin

John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...

 visited the exhibition as a boy, and spoke in high praise of Burford's abilities in his "Praeterita (1885, p200).

Burford died at his residence, 35 Camden Road Villas, Camden

London Borough of Camden

In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough were already developed and had a total population of 96,795. This continued to rise swiftly throughout the 19th century, as the district became built up; reaching 270,197 in the middle of the century...

, London, on 30 January 1861, just after finishing a view of Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 and Messina. Amongst panoramas he exhibited were "Battle of Waterloo", "Cabool", "Baden", "The Embarkation of the Queen at Treport", "Athens", "Constantinople", "Grand Cairo", "Ruins of Pompeii", "The Polar Regions", "The Battle of the Alma", "Siege of Sebastopol", "Venice", "Rome" and "Rio Janeiro.