Valentine Cameron Prinsep | |
|---|---|
 Valentine Cameron Prinsep (1867) by Julia Margaret Cameron | |
| Born | (1838-02-14)14 February 1838 Calcutta, India |
| Died | 4 November 1904(1904-11-04) (aged 66) London |
| Known for | oil painting |
| Movement | Pre-Raphaelite |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent(s) | Henry Prinsep Sara Monckton Prinsep |
| Relatives |
|
Valentine Cameron PrinsepRA (14 February 1838 – 4 November 1904) was aBritish painter of thePre-Raphaelite school.
Born inCalcutta, India, he was the second child ofHenry Thoby Prinsep, a civil servant of theBritish Raj, and his wifeSara Monckton Pattle. His home was shared by the painterGeorge Frederick Watts and the Little Holland House salon.[1][2] His mother was a sister of the photographerJulia Margaret Cameron[1] and Maria Jackson (née Pattle), grandmother ofVirginia Woolf andVanessa Bell.
Henry and Sara Prinsep returned to England in 1843. They settled in 1851 atLittle Holland House, and made it a centre of artistic society.[2]
Henry Thoby Prinsep was a friend of the painterGeorge Frederic Watts, under whom his son first studied,[3] and travelled with Watts in 1856–57 to SirCharles Thomas Newton's excavation ofHalicarnassus. Valentine then went toCharles Gleyre's atelier in Paris. ThereJames Abbott McNeill Whistler,Edward Poynter, andGeorge du Maurier were among his fellow students, and he was later the original for Taffy in Du Maurier's novelTrilby. After Paris, Prinsep passed to Italy. WithEdward Burne-Jones he visitedSiena and there made the acquaintance ofRobert Browning, of whom he saw much in Rome during the winter of 1859–60.[4]
Prinsep was a close friend ofJohn Everett Millais, and of Burne-Jones, with whom he travelled further in Italy. He had a share withDante Gabriel Rossetti and others in thedecoration of the hall of theOxford Union.[3] With other members of thePre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he taught at theWorking Men's College during the mid-19th century.[5] He first exhibited at theRoyal Academy of Arts in 1862 with hisBianca Capella, his first picture, which attracted notice as a portrait (1866) ofGeneral Gordon in Chinese costume.[3] Prinsep lent the costume to Millais who used it in his own paintingEsther.[4]
From 1862 to his death Prinsep was an annual exhibitor at the Royal Academy. He was electedA.R.A. in 1879 andR.A. in 1894.[4] His marriage in 1884 made Prinsep a wealthy man, and he became a company director and landowner.[2]
He was an enthusiasticvolunteer and one of the founders of theArtists Rifles[4] in 1859.
Prinsep died at Holland Park, west London in 1904, and is buried inBrompton Cemetery, London.[6] He was buried with his wife Florence. Their distinctive monument lies on the western path between the north entrance and the central buildings.[4] It has a stepped plinth with bronze plaques surmounted by atomb chest on eight columns. The chest is carved with 14th-century style figures in a colonnade of ogee arches. The monument is Grade II listed.[7]
Prinsep's major paintings wereMiriam watching the infant Moses (exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1867),A Venetian lover (1868),Bacchus and Ariadne (1869),News from abroad (1871),The linen gatherers (1876),The gleaners, andA minuet.[4]
In 1877, Prinsep returned to India and painted a huge picture of theDelhi Durbar. It was a commission fromRobert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, the Viceroy of India. It was exhibited in 1880 at the Royal Academy, presented to Queen Victoria and afterwards hung atBuckingham Palace. This "colossal work" attracted press comment, positive and negative.[8][2] Later exhibits wereÀ Versailles,The Emperor Theophilus chooses his Wife,The Broken Idol andThe Goose Girl.[4]
Prinsep wrote two plays,Cousin Dick andMonsieur le Duc, produced at theRoyal Court Theatre and theSt James's Theatre theatres respectively; two novels; andImperial India: an Artist's Journal (1879).[3]
Prinsep married in 1884 Florencenée Leyland, daughter ofFrederick Richards Leyland of Wootten Hall, Liverpool.[3] She survived him, they had three sons.[4]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Gibson, Frank W. (1912). "Prinsep, Valentine Cameron". InLee, Sidney (ed.).Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). Vol. 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co. This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Prinsep, Valentine Cameron".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 350.
