Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Redgrave, Richard

​REDGRAVE, Richard, R.A., son of a manufacturer, in whose counting-house he passed his earlier years, chiefly employed in making designs and working-drawings, besides occasionally sketching from nature, was born in Pimlico, April 30, 1804. He began to study from the marbles in the British Museum in 1822, was admitted a student in the Royal Academy in 1826, and about this time was forced to eke out his resources by teaching landscape drawing. He twice competed, but without success, for the Academy's gold medal, having been defeated on the second occasion by Maclise. A picture exhibited at the British Institution, "Gulliver on the Farmer's Table," bought for the purpose of engraving, was his first success. His next effort, "Ellen Orford," from Crabbe, rejected at the Institution, was hung "on the line" at the Academy in 1838, and at once purchased. It was followed by "Quintin Matsys," "Olivia's Return to Her Parents," in 1839; and "The Reduced Gentleman's Daughter," in 1840, which commanded immediate purchasers and fresh commissions, thus enabling the painter to relinquish the drudgery of teaching, and to devote himself entirely to his art. In 1840 he was elected an Associate, and amongst other works produced "The Castle-builder," 1841; "The Poor Teacher," 1843; "The Sempstress," and "The Wedding Morning—the Departure," 1814; "The Governess," 1845; "Sunday Morning," 1846; "Fashion's Slaves," and "Country Cousins," painted for Mr. Vernon, 1848. In 1842, and in 1846, he exhibited landscapes at the Academy. His best known works are—"Happy Sheep," "The Moor-hen's Haunt," 1847; "Spring—the Trout's Dark Haunt," 1848; "The Solitary Pool," 1849; "The Evelyn Woods," 1850; "The Poet's Study," 1851; "The Woodland Mirror," 1852; "The Forest Portal," 1853; "An Old-English Homestead," 1854; and "The Midwood Shade." Meanwhile he tried his hand on several figure-pieces of higher pretensions, such as "The Attiring of Griselda," 1850; "The Flight into Egypt," 1851; in which year Mr. Redgrave was elected R.A. During the latter years of the Government School of Design, Mr. Redgrave was its head-master, and on the formation of the Department of Practical Art, subsequently enlarged into that of Science and Art, he prepared a system and course of instruction, which, under his supervision as Inspector-General of Art Schools, is being gradually extended throughout the United Kingdom. In conjunction with Mr. H. Cole, he formed the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House, increased under their joint charge into the Museum of Art at South Kensington. Mr. Redgrave was selected to be the medium through whom Mr. Sheepshanks presented his unequalled collection of British pictures to the nation, stipulating that they should be placed at Kensington, and thus insuring the success of the young institution. In 1851 Mr. Redgrave was named one of the jurors on the section of Fine Arts, and wrote a report on the general state of Design as applied to manufactures in the Great Exhibition. The arrangements for representing British Art ​in the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855 were intrusted to him, and he drew up a similar report, when the Cross of the Legion of Honour was bestowed upon him. In 1858 Her Majesty appointed him surveyor of Crown pictures, and he has since been engaged in preparing a complete catalogue of all such works of art belonging to the Crown. At the International Exhibition of 1862 the task of selecting and arranging specimens of British painting for the last hundred years was confided to him, and the works of native British artists, from Hogarth to the present day, were honourably contrasted with those of painters of other countries. These labours led to the preparation, in conjunction with his brother, Mr. S. Redgrave, of a history of British art, from the time of Hogarth to that first international gathering, under the title of "A Century of Painters," 1866. He was afterwards enabled, by gifts to, and purchases on the part of, the nation, to form an historical collection of water-colour paintings at the Kensington Museum. Mr. Redgrave resigned his appointment as keeper of the Royal pictures, and his connection with the Department of Science and Art in 1880. His more recent pictures, exhibited at the Academy, are:—"Sermons in Stones," "Startled Foresters," and " Tranquil Waters," 1874; "Starting for a Holiday," "The Wreck of the Forest," and "The Mill Pool," 1875; "Calling the Sheep to Fold," "To Market below the Hill," and " he Oak of the Mill Head," 1876; "Deserted," "Help at Hand," and "A Well-spring in the Forest," 1877; "The Heir come of Age," and "Friday Street, Wotton," 1878.