Saturday, November 23, 2019

Red Hair in Art: Valentine Cameron Prinsep

Valentine Cameron "Val" Prinsep (1838 - 1904) was a British painter of the Pre-Raphaelite school.

Born in Calcutta, India, he was the second child of Henry Thoby Prinsep, a civil servant of the British Raj, and his wife Sarah Monckton Pattle, daughter of James Pattle. He was a cousin of Julia Stephen and a nephew of the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.

Prinsep was a close friend of John Everett Millais and of Burne-Jones, with whom he travelled in Italy. He had a share with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others in the decoration of the hall of the Oxford Union. With other members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he taught at the Working Men's College during the mid-19th century. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1862 with his Bianca Capella, his first picture, which attracted notice as a portrait (1866) of General Gordon in Chinese costume.

From 1862 to his death Prinsep was an annual exhibitor at the Royal Academy. He was elected A.R.A. in 1879 and R.A. in 1894.

In 1877 Prinsep returned to India and painted a huge picture of the Delhi Durbar. It was a commission from Robert 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 at Buckingham Palace.

My Lady Betty

The Owl (Il barbagianni)

The Gamekeeper's Daughter

Portrait of a boy quarter-length in a
brown waistcoat and white lace collar

Reclining Woman with a Parrot

A Girl Carrying Grapes

The Departure of Sir Tristram and le Belle Isoude
from Ireland, Harden Grange, Yorkshire

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