Augustus Mulready

Augustus Edwin Mulready (23 Feb 1844 – 15 March 1904) was an English genre painter whose work often depicted London street scenes with urchins and flower-sellers.

Mulready came from a family of artists. His grandfather, William Mulready (1786–1863), came to London from Ireland and established himself as a very successful and popular genre painter and book illustrator. His grandmother Elizabeth Mulready, née Varley (1784–1864) was a landscape painter, and the sister of artist John Varley (1778–1842).

Mulready was born in Kensal Green, London, the third of five children of William Mulready Junior (1805–1878, portrait painter and picture restorer), and his wife Sara (1818–1874). He studied art at the South Kensington Schools and as early as 1861, at the age of 17, was already promoting himself as a figure artist. In the same year he entered the Royal Academy, London on the recommendation of John Callcott Horsley who took him under his patronage. In 1903, reflecting on Horsley's death, Mulready wrote that Horsley was "for so many years...regarded by myself as more than a father or valued friend I have known - whose many acts, by word of help and of kindness, throughout the days of his life to me have been so marked and fixed in love though now in tears of memory"..

Mulready's artistic career was much overshadowed by the fame of his grandfather, William Mulready, who was remembered, praised, exhibited and referred to long after his death in 1863. He exhibited, however, at the Royal Academy between 1863 and 1880, at the Hanover Gallery, and the art galleries of Liverpool and Southport, and his paintings were sold at Christie's. In 1879, 'A Naturalist's Window' shown at Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool was praised by a local critic as representing "a group of persons in various stations of lfe, including an African nurse girl, looking at a stuffed gorilla in a naturalist shop. It is a remarkable production and does great credit to Mr A E Mulready.". His artistic manner - figurative painting with extensive use of colours and attention to detail - was similar to that of his father and grandfather.

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