Briton Rivière RA | |
|---|---|
 1881 portrait byPhilip Hermogenes Calderon | |
| Born | (1840-08-14)14 August 1840 London, England |
| Died | 20 April 1920(1920-04-20) (aged 79) London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Known for | Paintings of animals |
Briton RivièreRA (14 August 1840 – 20 April 1920)[1] was a Britishartist ofHuguenot descent. He exhibited a variety of paintings at theRoyal Academy, but devoted much of his life to animal paintings.
Briton's father,William Rivière (1806–1876), was for some years drawing-master atCheltenham College, and then an art teacher at theUniversity of Oxford. Briton was educated at Cheltenham College and Oxford, where he took his degree in 1867. For his art training he was indebted almost entirely to his father.[2] His paternal uncleHenry Parsons Rivière (1811–1888) was also a noted watercolourist, exhibiting works at theRoyal Watercolour Society, London and theRoyal Birmingham Society of Artists.
His first pictures appeared at theBritish Institution, and in 1857 he exhibited three works at theRoyal Academy, but it was not until 1863 that he became a regular contributor to the Academy exhibitions. In that year he was represented byThe eve of theSpanish Armada, and in 1864 by aRomeo and Juliet. However, subjects of this kind did not attract him long, for in 1865 he began, withSleeping Deerhound, a series of paintings of animal-subjects which occupied much of the rest of his life.[2] In a lengthy interview inChums Boys Annual, entitled "How I paint animals", Rivière explained some of the practicalities of painting both tame and wild animals:
I have always been a great lover of dogs but I have worked at them so much that I've grown tired of having them about me. However, you can never paint a dog unless you are fond of it. I never work from a dog without the assistance of a man who is well acquainted with animals ... Collies, I think, are the most restless dogs ...greyhounds are also very restless, and so arefox terriers ... The only way to paint wild animals is to gradually accumulate a large number of studies and a great knowledge of the animal itself, before you can paint its picture ... I paint from dead animals as well as from live ones. I have had the body of a fine lioness in my studio ... I have done a great deal of work in the dissecting rooms at the Zoological Gardens from time to time.[3]
Early in his career, Rivière made some mark as an illustrator, beginning withPunch. He was elected anAssociate of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1878, and aRoyal Academician in 1881, and received the degree ofDoctor of Civil Law at Oxford in 1891.[2] He was narrowly defeated in the election for President of the Royal Academy in 1896. His wife, Mary Alice Rivière (née Dobell; 1844–1931) whom he married in 1867, was a painter and exhibited briefly at theRoyal Academy of Arts in 1869–70. After his death she presented theBritish Museum with four of his drawings (and an etching "The king drinks"), which complements the dozens of prints made after his work housed there, especially byFrederick Stacpoole andWilliam Henry Simmons. The artist and his wife had seven children; five sons and two daughters. One of the sons,Hugh Goldwin Rivière (1869–1956), became a portraitist; another son (Evelyn) married the eminent psychoanalyst and translator of Sigmund Freud known asJoan Riviere.
Paintings by Rivière are held by public institutions including theTate,[4]Metropolitan Museum of Art,[5]Royal Holloway, University of London[6] andChrysler Museum of Art.
These include:
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Riviere, Briton".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 387. This citesSir Walter Armstrong, "Briton Riviere, R.A.: His Life and Work",Art Annual (1891).
