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Samuel Edmund Waller (18 June 1850 – 14 June 1903) was anEnglish painter of genre pictures.
Waller, was born at theSpa, Gloucester, on 18 June 1850, toFrederick Sandham Waller, and his wife Anne Elizabeth Hitch. His father, was an architect practising in Gloucester, who ably restored considerable portions ofGloucester Cathedral in perfect harmony with the original design. Young Waller, was educated atCheltenham College with a view to the army, but showing artistic inclinations was sent to theGloucester School of Art, and later went through a course of architectural studies in his father's office.[1] This training proved of service to him, for many of his pictures have architectural backgrounds. At eighteen he entered the Royal Academy Schools, and three years later (1871) he exhibited his first pictures atBurlington House entitledA Winter's Tale andThe Illustrious Stranger.
In 1872 he went to Iceland, and published an illustrated account in 1874 of his travels entitledSix Weeks in the Saddle.
In 1873 he joined the staff ofThe Graphic. The following year he appeared at the Royal Academy with a work calledSoldiers of Fortune, and henceforward was a steady exhibitor there until 1902. His chief and best-known pictures wereJealous (1875), now in the National Gallery, Melbourne;The Way of the World (1876),Home? (1877), now in theArt Gallery of New South Wales;The Empty Saddle (1879), with an architectural setting taken fromBurford Priory, Oxfordshire;Success! (1881), andSweethearts and Wives (1882), are both held by theTate Gallery. Later works includeThe Day of Reckoning (1883),Peril (1886),The Morning of Agincourt (1888),In his Father's Footsteps (1889),Dawn (1890),One-and-Twenty (1891),The Ruined Sanctuary (1892),Alone! (1896),Safe (1898),My Hero (1902).[1]
Old English country life strongly attracted his imagination, and furnished him with the romantic incidents which formed the subjects of his most notable pictures, and their backgrounds were frequently taken fromElizabethan houses in his native county or elsewhere in England.
Many of his pictures are well known as reproductions and engravings throughout the English-speaking world. The originals are in many cases in private ownership in America and Australia as well as in England. Waller's great knowledge of horses and his skill in representing them gave his work much vogue among sportsmen. He took great pains in studying animals, and related some of his experiences in articles contributed to the 'Art Journal' (1893-6). His pictures usually tell a story effectively and dramatically, and has been described as both a Victorian and a narrative artist.[1]
He died at his studio,Haverstock Hill, London, on 9 June 1903, after a long illness, and was buried atGolders Green. He married in 1874Mary Lemon Fowler, daughter of the Rev. Hugh Fowler ofBarnwood, Gloucestershire. His widow, a well-known artist, who often painted pictures of children, also exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1877 to 1904. She died in 1931 and was survived by the couple's son by just one year.[1]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1912). "Waller, Samuel Edmund".Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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