ALKEN, Samuel Henry Gordon

1810 - 1894

Samuel Henry Gordon Alken was born in Ipswich in 1810, son of Henry Thomas Alken and his wife Maria or Marianée née Gordon (1786-1841). Samuel studied under his father and worked in Ipswich, but the family returned to London where Samuel worked as an artist and specialised in painting animals, he executed many of the horses depicted in George Sala's 60-foot-long panorama of the funeral procession of the Duke of Wellington in 1852. In 1851, Alken was living in the Strand, London with 21-year-old Ellen from Doncaster, described as his wife and in 1861 at Bridge Street, Covent Garden with 29-year-old Jane from Romford, Essex also described as his wife, but no marriage licences have been found. In 1871, unmarried, lodging at 9 Market Terrace, Hammersmith and in the 1881 census living at 62 High Street, Shadwell, Essex and ten years later Samuel Henry Gordon Alken was a patient at Poplar & Stepney Sick Asylum where he died in 1894.

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Works by This Artist