Frederick Richard Pickersgill

1820–1900

Biography

Frederick Richard Pickersgill (25 September 1820 – 20 December 1900) was an English painter and book illustrator. Born in London into a family of artists, he was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools in 1840. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy between 1839 and 1875. Most of these works depicted scenes drawn from literature (including Edmund Spenser and John Milton), religion, and history.

Pickersgill's The Burial of Harold was accepted as a decoration for the Houses of Parliament in 1847 for the sum of £500. He also did some landscapes under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites.

In 1856 Pickersgill was photographed at The Photography Institute by Robert Howlett, as part of a series of portraits of artists. The picture was among a group exhibited at the Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester in 1857. In addition, Pickersgill seems to have experimented with photography himself.

Pickersgill was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1847 and a full Royal Academician in June 1857, but retired in 1888. He was keeper of the Royal Academy Schools from 1873 to 1887.

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