Object Description
SIR WILLIAM BLAKE RICHMOND, RA
(1842-1921)
Study of an Angel
Pencil on the artist’s writing paper for Beavor Lodge, Hammersmith
Unframed
22.5 by 17 cm., 9 by 6 ¾ in.
(mount size 37 by 31.5 cm., 14 ½ by 12 ½ in.)
William Blake Richmond was the son of the painter and watercolourist George Richmond. After first studying with his father and having early coaching from John Ruskin, he entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1857. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1861 and established a career as a successful painter of large neo-classical subjects and portraits. Following a trip to Italy in 1864 he came under the influence of Frederic Leighton and Giovanni Costa and became a devotee of plein air landscape painting. He was also a designer of stained glass and mosaics, his major work in this medium being the decorations below the dome and in the apse of St Paul’s Cathedral.