Edward Henry Corbould

Edward Henry Corbould
Edward Henry Corbould (Henry Weigall Jr., 1850)
Born	1815
Died	1905
Nationality	British
Occupation	artist

Edward Henry Corbould, R.I. (5 December 1815 in London – 18 January 1905 in London) was a British artist, noted as a historical painter and artist in water colour.

Born in London, he was son of Henry Corbould and grandson of Richard Corbould, both painters. He was a pupil of Henry Sass, and a student at the Royal Academy. In 1842 his watercolour of The Woman taken in Adultery was purchased by Albert, Prince Consort, and nine years later he was appointed instructor of historical painting to the Royal Family. He continued for twenty-one years teaching its members.

Corbould married three times:

Corbould died at Kensington on 18 January 1905. He has a memorial tablet in St Mary Abbots church in Kensington, London. His grandson was the noted designer Leonard Wyburd.

In 1834, 1835, and 1836 Corbould won gold medals of the Society of Arts, in 1834 with a watercolour of the Fall of Phaethon, and in the last two years with models of St. George and the Dragon and a Chariot Race, from Homer. His first exhibits in the Royal Academy in 1835 included a model (Cyllarus and Hylonome); and he submitted designs for four pieces of sculpture for Blackfriars Bridge.

Corbould was known for his water-colours, in which he produced subjects illustrating literature (mainly from Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare), history, and daily life. A few of his pictures are in oils (e.g. The Canterbury Pilgrims, 1874). He started exhibiting at the New Water Colour Society in 1837, becoming a member in the same year. His early exhibits included The Canterbury Pilgrims assembled at the old Tabard Inn. Many of his works were acquired by Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and his royal pupils, including an illustration of Alfred Tennyson's Morte d'Arthur presented by Queen Victoria to Princess Louise, and Henry VI welcomed to London after his Coronation in Paris, and The Iconoclasts of Basle, acquired by the Empress Frederick for the imperial collection in Berlin.