RICHMOND, Sir William Blake

1842 - 1921

William Blake Richmond was born at York Street, Marylebone, London on 29 November 1842 and baptised at Marylebone on 22 January 1843, one of the several children of George Richmond, R.A. (28 March 1809–19 March 1896), who painted the portraits of the most eminent people of his day, and his wife Julia Tatham (24 May 1811-6 January 1881), daughter of Charles Heathcote Tatham, an architect, who married at Gretna Green in January 1831. After coaching from John Ruskin (1819-1900), in 1857 William entered the Royal Academy Schools, where he studied for about three years. After a visit to Italy in 1859 he began the study of old masters and his first Academy picture in 1861, was a portrait group. William married at Marylebone in late 1864, Charlotte Foster (1841-16 December 1865), who was buried in Brompton Cemetery on 19 December 1865 and William married secondly at Ryde, Isle of Wight on 30 November 1867, 20 year old Clara Jane Richards (1846-1915), youngest daughter of William Richards of Cardiff, and their children included Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond (1871–1946), a naval historian, and Ernest Richmond (1874–1955), an architect. In 1874, the Southwold churchwardens called upon William's father George, to revive the 400-year-old rood screen in Southwold church in Suffolk which, at the time of the reformation, had sustained scratches to the faces of the angels, his son William then went on to rent Centre Cliff House, Southwold, Suffolk and the Worlingham Hall estate near Beccles, Suffolk. In 1878, William Richmond succeeded Ruskin as Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University 1879-1883. William was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1888, and Royal Academician in 1895. He received the degree of D.C.L. in 1896, and a knighthood of the Order of the Bath in 1897 and became professor of painting to the Royal Academy. Although a successful portrait painter, Richmond wished to paint large, allegoric works which led him to take an interest in the design of stained glass and mosaic and in decorative art, his most conspicuous achievement was the internal decoration and the glass mosaics covering the spandrels and choir of St Paul's Cathedral, London. His wife Clara was killed after being knocked down by a car near her home in Hammersmith in November 1915 and William Blake Richmond died at Beavor Lodge, Hammersmith, London on 11 February 1921.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 10 York Street, Portman Square
1861 647 Walter and John, brothers of the artist
1862 122 John Richmond
1863 679 Mary, daughter of John W. Ogle, Esq. M.D.
1864 119 Miss Julia Farrer
         374 Amy, daughter of J. Gwyn Jeffrys
         684 A Portrait
from 24 Albion Street, Hyde Park
1865 237 Mary resting
1869 277 A Procession in honour of Bacchus at the time of the vintage
from Beavor Lodge, Beavor Lane, Hammersmith
1871 523 Bowl Players
         530 Lady F. Cavendish
1872 172 Mary and Agatha, daughters of J. S. Hodgson, Esq.
         483 Miss Beaumont
         498 The Lament of Ariadne
         636 Viscountess Halifax
         1051 Amy, daughter of W. B. Beaumont, Esq., M.P.
1874 687 Prometheus Bound
         721 Lord Frederick Cavendish
1876 673 Miss Charlotte H. Richmond
         945 Near Via Reggio, where Shelley's body was found
         1277 The Hon. Miss Labouchere
1877 527 The Lady Susan Harcourt
         988 Sir Harry Vernay, Bart.
1887 133 'The thoughts of youth, are long, long thoughts
         269 Mrs. Baird Smith
1888 21 Prince Von Bismark
         345 Mrs. J. A. Fuller Maitland
         357 Mrs. Ernest Moon
         439 The Viscountess Hood
from 6 Holland Park Road, Kensington
1889 49 Timothy Holmes, Esq.
         2187 The Arcadian Shepherd
1890 124 The Rt. Rev. the Lord Bishop of Durham
         449 The Countess of Yarborough
         666 The late Dr. Lightfoot, Bishop of Durham
from Beavor Lodge, Beavor Lane, Hammersmith
1891 167 The Ven. Archdeacon Pott, Archdeacon of Berkshire
         360 Mrs Alexander Mackay
         487 Mrs Wrightson
         738 T. Wrightson, Esq.
1895 34 The Countess of Pembroke
         145 Mrs Frederick Verney
         569 Aphrodite between Eros and Himeros
         1041 Misgivings - watercolour
         1325 William Rawlinson, Esq. - drawing
         1341 Professor Mommson - drawing
         1713 Melchizekek blessing Abraham - watercolour
1899 137 Miss Muriel Wilson
         318 The Very Rev. The Dean of St Paul's
         1527 Mary, wife of Fredk. Willis Farrer, Esq. - drawing
1900 138 Orpheus returning from the shades
         585 The Hon. Mr. Justice Kennedy
         662 A Summer Cloud
         1591 The Dowager Countess of Crawford and Balcarres - drawing
         1606 The Lady Wantage - drawing
         1615 Mrs. Walter Medlicott - drawing
         1642 H. G. Gwyther, Esq. - drawing
1901 157 Miss Margaret Wrightson
1903 84 Phaeton: sunrise
         195 His Grace the Archbishop of York
         280 Alfred Higgins, Esq.
         1377 Mrs. H. Taylor - drawing
1904 277 Madame Errera
         483 Edward Micholls, Esq., J.P.
         485 Miss Dove
         553 Moses view of the Promised Land
1905 223 Mrs. Micholls
         1832 Homer, the young minstrel - statue
1906 1793 Model for memorial to Mr & Mrs Gladstone
1907 150 Demeter at Eleusis
         213 Miss Mary E. Robinson
         335 Arthur Evans, Esq.
         1449 Commander Richmond, R.N. - drawing
1911 213 M. Paul Evveva, rector of university Brussels
         430 Near Urbino, Umbria
         483 Diana in pursuit of Actaeon
         524 Orpheus wandering
         536 Evening Ploughing: Urbino
         640 S Francis' Monastery, near Assisi
1912 73 Miss Gwendolen Verney
         217 Robert Bridges, Esq., M.D.
1914 82 A Greek Water Carrier in Egypt
         159 Helen of Troy
         193 John Selwyn Harvey, M.D.
         412 Mrs Felix S. Schuster
1915 106 The Tree of Knowledge
         124 Arcadia
         128 Euphrosyne
         412 The Vintage
         800 An Offering
         827 The Prince of Love and the Man of War
1916 426 Sleep
         546 Aphrodite, mother of Aeneas

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Works by This Artist