- Henry Wallis
.
Born in
London on21 February 1830 , his father's name and occupation are unknown. When in 1845 his mother, Mary Anne Thomas, married Andrew Wallis, a prosperous London architect, Henry took his stepfather's surname. His artistic training was thorough and influential. He was admitted as a probationer to the RA and enrolled in the Painting School in March 1848. He also studied in Paris at Gleyre's atelier and at theAcademie de Beaux Arts , sometime between 1849 and 1853.". In total he showed 35 exhibits at the RA, but later in life developed a greater interest in watercolour painting. He was elected a full member of the RWS (Royal Watercolour Society) in 1878 and exhibited over 80 watercolours at the society.
The model for his acclaimed "Death of Chatterton" was the young George Meredith, the famous author of whom Oscar Wilde was a big fan, and acknowledged in his work "The Decay of Lying" with the speech "Ah Meredith! Who can define him? His style is chaos illumined by flashes of lightning." Wallis would later have an affair with Meredith's wife.
Wallis' method of painting, especially in the early years of his career, and in particular on "Death of Chatterton", was to do the initial sketch, saturate it in water, use a grey tint to block in the shade, put on the colour and allow it to dry. When firm, he would use a hair pencil to add in the details, for which he is so renowned. For the light, he would touch the area in question with water and then rub it with a piece of bread. His studio during these years was in Chelsea, a very bohemian and out of the way part of London at the time.
He died, almost blind, at 1 Walpole Road, Croydon, on 20 December 1916.
elected bibliography
*John Ramm, 'The Forgotten Pre-Raphaelite' 'Antique Dealer & Collectors Guide', March/April 2003, Vol 56, 8&9
*van de Put, A. "Henry Wallis, 1830–1916", Faenza, v (1917), pp. 33–8
*Treuherz, J. "Hard Times: Social Realism in Victorian Art" (London, 1987), pp. 36–39
*Peter Ackroyd 's novel, "Chatterton", first published in 1987.External links
* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/wallis_henry.html Henry Wallis at Artcyclopedia]
* [http://search.famsf.org:8080/search.shtml?keywords=henry+wallis Henry Wallis at Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco]
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