MAGUIRE, Thomas Herbert

1821 - 1895

Thomas Herbert Maguire was born at St James's, London in 1821, second son of the three sons and two daughters of Dublin born Henry Calton Maguire (1790-16 November 1854), a lithographer and his wife Eliza (1798-1842), from a family of artists and lithographers. He studied in the schools of the Royal Academy and in 1846 won a silver medal for the 'best drawing from life. He began to exhibit portraits and figure subjects and was a brilliant pupil of master lithographer and line-engraver, Richard James Lane (1800-1872), one of the favourite collaborators of the Swiss portrait painter, Alfred Edward Chalon (1780-1869) in the pages of the 'Illustrated London News'. Thomas was an English artist and engraver, noted for his portraits of prominent figures and was privately commissioned by George Ransome, in connection with the foundation of the Ipswich Museum in 1847, a series of 60 scientific portraits which were executed as the Museum obtained fresh scientific sponsors between 1847 and 1852. Some were made by the artist from life, others from photographic portraits or, in the case of the Revd William Kirby, from an oil portrait by Ferdinand Henry Bischoff. The exact number in this series is slightly over 60 because some, for example Edwin Lankester, were re-drawn. Copies of the lithographs were given to subscribing members of the Ipswich Museum and a bound portfolio copy of the series was presented by Professor John Stevens Henslow (1796-1860) to Prince Albert when he inspected the Museum when the 1851 Ipswich Congress of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. George Ransome resigned his position as founding Secretary of the Museum in 1852 when the cumulative series was then discontinued. Maguire married at Holborn, London in 1847, Agnes Inglis (1821-25 July 1881) and in 1851, a 29-year-old lithographer and painter, living at Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London, the home of his 58-year-old father Henry, a widower. Also living there were Thomas's wife, 24-year-old Agnes and their two children Herbert Henry 3 and Sidney Calton 1, together with Thomas's siblings, Henry Calton 18, a lithographer, Alfred 15. In 1881, a 59-year-old artist historical painter, living at 6 Blomfield Crescent, Paddington with his 54-year-old wife and three of his children, Sidney Calton 32, Helena Jane 21 and Agnes Bertha 19, all three historical artist painters. In July 1853 he was appointed lithographer ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen, and for a time had a studio in Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, where he executed many lithographic portraits of members of the Royal Family. He exhibited at the Suffolk Fine Arts Association exhibition at Ipswich in August 1850, oil paintings 'Buy a Bunch of Lavender', 'The Midshipman's Return' and 'The Friendly Covert' and was also an exhibitor at the Royal Academy 1846-1887 and at the British Institution 1848-1867 and made a few contributions to the Royal Hibernian Academy. Thomas Herbert Maguire died at 6 Blomfield Crescent, Westbourne Terrace, London on 30 April 1895, aged 73. His daughter Helena Jane Maguire was also an artist who exhibited at the Royal Academy (1085) from her father's address in 1887.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 78 Great Russell Street, Bedford Square, London
1846 225 Portrait of an Artist
others until
from 6 Bloomfield Crescent, Westbourne Terrace, London
1887 1343 A W Wilkinson, Esq. - miniature

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Works by This Artist