John Partridge (artist) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

John Partridge was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

artist and portrait painter

Portrait painting

Portrait painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to depict the visual appearance of the subject. Beside human beings, animals, pets and even inanimate objects can be chosen as the subject for a portrait...

. Named 'portrait painter-extraordinary' to Queen Victoria

Victoria of the United Kingdom

Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....

, his pictures depict many of the notable figures of his time.

Born in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, he was the second son of twelve children of Samuel Partridge. His brother Richard Partridge

Richard Partridge

Richard Partridge FRS, FRCS was a British surgeon. Although he became President of both the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, he is best known for his part in apprehending the London Burkers gang and for failing to spot a bullet lodged in Giuseppe Garibaldi's...

became the President of the Royal College of Surgeons

Royal College of Surgeons of England

The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body and registered charity committed to promoting and advancing the highest standards of surgical care for patients, regulating surgery, including dentistry, in England and Wales...

; his nephew Sir John Bernard Partridge

John Bernard Partridge

John Bernard Partridge was an English illustrator. Born in London, he was the son of Professor Richard Partridge, F.R.S., president of the Royal College of Surgeons, and nephew of John Partridge, portrait-painter extraordinary to Queen Victoria.Partridge was educated at Stonyhurst College, and...

was an illustrator and actor.

Education and early career

Partridge studied with the portrait painter Thomas Phillips

Thomas Phillips

Thomas Phillips was a leading English portrait and subject painter. He painted many of the great men of the day including scientists, artists, writers, poets and explorers.-Life and work:...

from 1814; he exhibited his first painting, 'Miss Foote in the Character of Lucilla' 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 1815. He moved to 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 same year, entering the Royal Academy Schools in 1816. At first he lived in Marylebone

Marylebone

Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, located within the City of Westminster. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone or Mary-le-bone....

, then a popular neighbourhood with artists. In 1820, he married his cousin Clementina Sarah Campbell; she features in his painting 'The artist and his family in his house at 21 Brook Street, Grosvenor Square' (c. 1828–35). From 1823 to 1827, he lived in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, staying in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

, and Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. During his time there, his focus widened from purely portraits; he sketched landscapes

Landscape art

Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...

and made copies of Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

masters including Correggio

Antonio da Correggio

Antonio Allegri da Correggio , usually known as Correggio, was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sensuous works of the 16th century...

, Raphael

Raphael

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...

, Rubens, Tintoretto

Tintoretto

Tintoretto , real name Jacopo Comin, was a Venetian painter and a notable exponent of the Renaissance school. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso...

and Titian

Titian

Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576 better known as Titian was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near...

. During his stay in Italy, he gained several wealthy patrons. In 1828, soon after his return from Rome, he left Marylebone for the more upper class Brook Street

Brook Street

Brook Street is one of the principal streets on the Grosvenor Estate in the exclusive central London district of Mayfair. It was developed in the first half of the 18th century and runs from Hanover Square to Grosvenor Square. The continuation from Grosvenor Square to Park Lane is called Upper...

, off Grosvenor Square

Grosvenor Square

Grosvenor Square is a large garden square in the exclusive Mayfair district of London, England. It is the centrepiece of the Mayfair property of the Duke of Westminster, and takes its name from their surname, "Grosvenor".-History:...

, where many of his sitters resided.

Royal patronage

The move seems to have paid off: his career blossomed. Between 1827 and 1845, he painted over two hundred portraits, earning him £2762 in 1841 alone. Many were of prestigious sitters, including an 1836 commission from Leopold I of Belgium

Leopold I of Belgium

Leopold I was from 21 July 1831 the first King of the Belgians, following Belgium's independence from the Netherlands. He was the founder of the Belgian line of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha...

, which led two years later to the patronage of Queen Victoria

Victoria of the United Kingdom

Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....

. He painted several successful portraits of the Queen and of Prince Albert, and in 1843, he became 'portrait painter-extraordinary' to the Queen. Queen Victoria's attentions were, however, to prove fickle, and the 1842 arrival of Franz Xaver Winterhalter, soon the new favourite, cut short Partridge's career as a royal portraitist.

Later career and legacy

In 1846, Partridge made the decision never to exhibit again at the Royal Academy, after two of his portraits were placed insultingly badly, probably in consequence of a dispute more than a decade earlier with fellow artist and Royal Academician, Ramsay Richard Reinagle

Ramsay Richard Reinagle

Ramsay Richard Reinagle, was an English portrait, landscape, and animal painter, and son of Philip Reinagle.-Biography:...

, over Partridge altering one of Reinagle's pictures for the owner. He did not change his mind even when, two years later, Reinagle was discredited for claiming another artist's work as his own.

Although Partridge set up a gallery in his studio to exhibit his works, commissions plummeted, with only 76 portraits in the period from 1845 to 1865, and his income inevitably suffered. Towards the end of his life, Partridge railed against this injustice in a pamphlet, On the Constitution and Management of the Royal Academy (1864), writing that he had been 'driven from the position I held in public estimation and employment ... as the penalty for maintaining any degree of self-respect and independent feeling.'

Partridge died in London in 1872. He had earlier donated some of his unsold paintings to the National Portrait Gallery, where many are still on display.

Portraits and other works

Partridge portrayed many of the notable people of the day, with over three hundred portraits in total. In addition to the royal subjects previously mentioned, he painted the prime minister, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, PC, FRS was a British Whig statesman who served as Home Secretary and Prime Minister . He is best known for his intense and successful mentoring of Queen Victoria, at ages 18-21, in the ways of politics...

, and many other political or noble figures including Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk

Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk

Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk, , styled Baron Maltravers until 1856 and Earl of Arundel and Surrey between 1856 and 1860, was a British Unionist politician and philanthropist...

, Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster

Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster

Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster KG, PC , styled Viscount Belgrave from 1802 to 1831 and Earl Belgrave from 1831 to 1845, was an English politician, landowner, property developer and benefactor....

, George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen

George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen

George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen KG, KT, FRS, PC , styled Lord Haddo from 1791 to 1801, was a Scottish politician, successively a Tory, Conservative and Peelite, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1852 until 1855.-Early life:Born in Edinburgh on 28 January 1784, he...

, Frederick Lamb, 3rd Viscount Melbourne

Frederick Lamb, 3rd Viscount Melbourne

Frederick James Lamb, 3rd Viscount Melbourne PC, GCB , known as the Lord Beauvale from 1839 to 1848, was a British diplomat....

, Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay PC was a British poet, historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer, and on British history...

, Maharaja Duleep Singh

Duleep Singh

This article is about Maharaja Dalip Singh. For other uses, see Dalip SinghMaharaja Dalip Singh, GCSI , commonly called Duleep Singh and later in life nicknamed the Black Prince of Perthshire, was the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire...

, George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland

George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland

George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland KG , styled Viscount Trentham until 1803, Earl Gower between 1803 and 1833 and Marquess of Stafford in 1833, was a British peer....

and Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, KG, GCB, PC , known popularly as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman who served twice as Prime Minister in the mid-19th century...

. Other subjects included members of the artistic community such as Daniel Asher Alexander

Daniel Asher Alexander

Daniel Asher Alexander was a British architect and engineer, born in London.-Life:Daniel Asher Alexander was educated at St Paul's School, London, and admitted to the Royal Academy Schools in 1782....

, Robert Trewick Bone

Robert Trewick Bone

Robert Trewick Bone was an English painter of sacred, classical and genre scenes. He was also an enamel painter.-Life and work:...

, John James Chalon

John James Chalon

John James Chalon was a Swiss painter active in England. He treated a wide range of subjects — landscapes, marine scenes, animal life, and figure-pieces.-Life:...

, William Dyce

William Dyce

William Dyce was a distinguished Scottish artist, who played a significant part in the formation of public art education in the UK, as perhaps the true parent of the South Kensington Schools system.Dyce began his career at the Royal Academy schools, and then traveled to Rome for the first time in...

, Sir Charles Lock Eastlake

Charles Lock Eastlake

Sir Charles Lock Eastlake RA was an English painter, gallery director, collector and writer of the early 19th century.-Early life:...

, John Gibson

John Gibson (sculptor)

John Gibson, was a Welsh sculptor.-Early life:He was born near Conwy, Wales, his father being a market gardener. To his mother, whom he described as ruling his father and all the family, he owed the energy and determination which carried him over every obstacle.When he was nine years old the...

, Charles Robert Leslie

Charles Robert Leslie

]Charles Robert Leslie , was an English genre painter. Born in London, his parents were American, and when he was five years of age he returned with them to their native country. They settled in Philadelphia, where their son was educated and afterwards apprenticed to a bookseller...

, Joseph Severn

Joseph Severn

Joseph Severn was an English portrait and subject painter and a personal friend of the famous English poet John Keats...

and Thomas Uwins

Thomas Uwins

Thomas Uwins was an English portrait, subject, genre and landscape painter , and a book illustrator...

, and prominent scientists such as Joseph Hodgson

Joseph Hodgson

Joseph Hodgson was a British physician.He was born in Penrith, Cumberland the son of a Birmingham merchant and educated at King Edward VI School, Birmingham, after which he was apprenticed to George Freer at Birmingham General Hospital. He then transferred to St...

and James Watt

James Watt

James Watt, FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.While working as an instrument maker at the...

.

He worked mainly in oil on canvas

Oil painting

Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...

; several of his paintings were subsequently engrave

Engraving

Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...

d. His early style was significantly influenced by his teacher Thomas Phillips, who in turn was influenced by Sir Thomas Lawrence

Thomas Lawrence (painter)

Sir Thomas Lawrence RA FRS was a leading English portrait painter and president of the Royal Academy.Lawrence was a child prodigy. He was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper. At the age of ten, having moved to Bath, he was supporting his family with his...

.

His other works encompassed landscapes, often depicting Italy, paintings with literary themes, and studies, often of children. The majority were exhibited at the British Institution

British Institution

The British Institution was a private 19th-century society in London formed to exhibit the works of living and dead artists; it was also known as the Pall Mall Picture Galleries or the British Gallery...

. Usually small, they included numerous pencil sketches, sometimes incorporating an ink or watercolour wash.

Selected works

Links to online representations are given where available.

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