Thomas Seddon

: "For the New Zealand politician see" Thomas Seddon (New Zealand)

Thomas Seddon (28 August 1821 - 23 November 1856), English landscape painter associated with the Pre-Raphaelite style, was born in London.

His father was a cabinetmaker, and the son for some time followed the same occupation; but in 1842 he was sent to Paris to study ornamental art. On his return he executed designs for furniture for his mother. In 1849 he made sketching expeditions in Wales and France, and in 1852 began to exhibit in the Royal Academy, sending a figure-piece, "Penelope," and afterwards landscapes, deriving their subjects from Brittany.

In the end of 1853 he joined Holman Hunt at Cairo. He worked for a year in Egypt and Palestine, executing views which Ruskin pronounced to be "the first landscapes uniting perfect artistical skill with topographical accuracy; being directed, with stern self-restraint, to no other purpose than that of giving to persons who cannot travel trustworthy knowledge of the scenes which ought to be most interesting to them."

Seddon's Eastern subjects were exhibited in Berners Street, London, in 1855, and in Conduit Street in 1856. In October 1856 Seddon again visited Cairo, where he died on the 23rd of November. In 1857 his works were exhibited in the rooms of the Society of Arts, and his important and elaborately finished picture, "Jerusalem and the Valley of Jehoshaphat," was purchased by subscription and presented to the National Gallery, London.

A memoir of Seddon, by his brother, was published in 1859.

ee also

*List of Pre-Raphaelite paintings - including the works of Thomas Seddon.

External links

* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/seddon_thomas.html Thomas Seddon] on ArtCyclopedia.
* [http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/art.asp?aid=2083 Thomas Seddon] on Art Renewal Center.