PIDDING, Henry James

1795 - 1864

Henry James Pidding was born in June 1795 and baptised at St James, Westminster, London on 30 August 1795, son of James Pidding (c1771-3 April 1827), a stationer and lottery-office keeper at No. 1 Cornhill, Westminster, and his wife Sarah née Stainforth, who married at St James, Westminster on 12 April 1793. In 1818, Henry's father James, held the licence for the State Lottery Office at 1 Cornhill and at 296 Holborn, London. Henry attained some note by his paintings of humorous subjects from domestic life and was a prolific exhibitor at the Suffolk Street Gallery of the Royal Society of British Artists, London being elected a member in 1843. Henry also exhibited at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and various local exhibitions including the Suffolk Fine Arts Association at Ipswich when he had on display 'Entertainment at the Expense of Poor Tray'. Several of his pictures were engraved, some by his own hand in mezzotint, such as ‘The Greenwich Pensioners’, ‘Massa out, Sambo very Dry’, ‘A Negro in the Stocks’, ‘A Fair Penitent,’ &c. In 1836 Pidding etched a series of six humorous illustrations for ‘The Rival Demons,’ an anonymous poem. In 1851, an unmarried 52-year-old 'animal portrait painter', living at Ashburnham Grove, Greenwich where he died on 13 June 1864, aged 67 [sic], leaving as his executor his brother Charles (4 January 1799-1886).
Using an incorrect age at death, he is often incorrectly given a birth year of 1797, City of Westminster Archives Centre gives his correct birth and baptism date and parentage.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 2 Osnaburg Street, Regent's Park
1844 24 The Idlers
         1089 Sunday Evening - architecture
1845 63 Fish
         1012 Persuasion - drawing
1848 114 Thoughts of Trafalgar
         400 A Trout
from Greenwich
1855 212 Cottagers

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Works by This Artist