William Frederick Mitchell
Encyclopedia
Calshot
Calshot is a coastal village in Hampshire, England at the west corner of Southampton_Water where it joins the Solent. A settlement at the site is believed to have existed since the fifth century AD...
, 1845 – 1914, Ryde
Ryde
Ryde is a British seaside town, civil parish and the most populous town and urban area on the Isle of Wight, with a population of approximately 30,000. It is situated on the north-east coast. The town grew in size as a seaside resort following the joining of the villages of Upper Ryde and Lower...
, Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
) was a British artist commissioned to paint various ships of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
. His collected works were original published in The Royal Navy in a series of illustrations. He has many works in the National Maritime Museum
National Maritime Museum
The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom and may be the largest museum of its kind in the world. The historic buildings forming part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, it also incorporates the Royal Observatory, Greenwich,...
Collection in England. He lived most of his life near Portsmouth and painted pictures of ships for their officers and owners. He also illustrated Brassey's Naval Annual
Brassey's Naval Annual
The Naval Annual was a book that sought to bring together a large amount of information on naval subjects, which had hitherto been obtainable only by consulting numerous publications and chiefly from foreign sources...
. His works are numbered and run to more than 3,500. His medium was principally watercolour but he produced some oils
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...
. He wrote a short autobiography for the 1904 May/June issue of The Messenger, a magazine for the deaf, in which he describes how scarlet fever deprived him of his hearing, but at home his father, a Royal Navy Coastguard stationed at Calshot Castle, taught him to speak.
External links
Prints and drawings of William Frederick Mitchell, National Maritime MuseumNational Maritime Museum
The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom and may be the largest museum of its kind in the world. The historic buildings forming part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, it also incorporates the Royal Observatory, Greenwich,...
, Greenwich
Greenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
.