Valentine Cameron Prinsep

Valentine Cameron Prinsep, often known as Val Princep, (14 February 1838 in Calcutta, India - 4 November 1904 in London) was a painter of the Pre-Raphaelite school.

Early life

His parents were Henry Thoby Prinsep, who was for sixteen years a member of the Council of India, and Sarah Monckton Pattle; sister of pioneering photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (nee Pattle) and Maria Jackson (nee Pattle), grandmother of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. Henry and Sarah had settled at Little Holland House and made it a centre of artistic society.

Career

Henry Prinsep was an intimate friend of G. F. Watts, under whom his son first studied. Val Prinsep also worked in Paris in the atelier Gleyre; and Taffy in his friend George du Maurier's novel "Trilby", is said to have been sketched from him. He was an intimate friend of Millais and of Burne-Jones, with whom he travelled in Italy. He had a share with Rossetti and others in the decoration of the hall of the Oxford Union.

Prinsep first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1862 with his "Bianca Capella", his first picture, which attracted marked notice, being a portrait (1866) of General Gordon in Chinese costume. Princep lent the costume to Millais who used it in his own painting Esther.

The best of his later exhibits were "A Versailles", "The Emperor Theophilus chooses his Wife", "The Broken Idol" and "The Goose Girl". He was elected A.R.A. in 1879 and R.A. in 1894. In 1877 he went to India and painted a huge picture of the Delhi durbar, exhibited in 1880, and afterwards hung at Buckingham Palace.

Later life

Prinsep died in 1904 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London. [http://www.brompton.org/Residents.htm]

Personal life

He married in 1884 Florence, daughter of the well-known collector, Frederick Richards Leyland.

Writings

Prinsep wrote two plays, "Cousin Dick" and "Monsieur le Duc", produced at the Court and the St Jamess theatres respectively; two novels; and "Imperial India: an Artists Journal" (1879).

He was an enthusiastic volunteer, and one of the founders of the Artists Corps.

External links

* [http://www.victorianartinbritain.co.uk/obituary/prinsep.htm "The Times" obituary, with additional comments]
* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/prinsep_valentine_cameron.html Artcyclopedia links to paintings]

References

*1911