Frederick Yeates Hurlstone

Frederick Yeates Hurlstone (1800 – 10 June 1869) was an English portrait and historical painter.

Hurlstone was born in London in 1800, the eldest son by his second marriage of Thomas Y. Hurlstone, one of the proprietors of the "Morning Chronicle" (his granduncle, Richard Hurlstone, was a well-known portrait-painter a generation earlier). He began life in the office of his father's journal, but, while still very young, became a pupil of Sir William Beechey, afterwards studying under Sir Thomas Lawrence, and also, it is said, under Benjamin Haydon.

His first original work was an altar-piece, painted in 1816, for which he received 20 pounds. In 1820 he was admitted as a student of the Royal Academy, where in 1822 he gained the silver medal for the best copy made in the school of painting, and in 1823 the gold medal for historical painting, the subject being "The Contention between the Archangel Michael and Satan for the Body of Moses". He first exhibited in 1821, sending to the Royal Academy "Le Malade Imaginaire" and to the British Institution a "View near Windsor". These were followed at the Academy in 1822 by "The Return of the Prodigal Son" and a portrait, in 1823 by five portraits, and in 1824 by his "Archangel Michael" and some more portraits.

One of his best early works was "A Venetian Page with a Parrot", exhibited at the British Institution in 1824. In 1824 also he contributed "The Bandit Chief" to the first exhibition of the Society of British Artists. He continued to send portraits to the Royal Academy until 1830, but in 1831 he was elected a member of the Society of British Artists, after which he seldom exhibited elsewhere. He was chosen president in 1835, and again in 1840, retaining the office until his death. He contributed to the society's exhibitions upwards of three hundred portraits and other works, among them being "The Enchantress Armida", exhibited in 1831; "Haidee aroused from her Trance by the sound of Music", 1834; "Eros", 1836; "Italian Boys playing at the National Game of Mora" and the "Prisoner of Chillon", 1837; "The Scene in St. Peter's, Rome, from Byron's Deformed Transformed", 1839; "The Convent of St. Isidore: the Monks giving away provisions", 1841; and a "Scene in a Spanish Posada in Andalusia", 1843.

In 1844 and, for the last time, in 1845 he again sent portraits to the Academy. His subsequent works at the Society of British Artists included "The Sons of Jacob bringing the blood-stained garment of Joseph to their Father", 1844; "Salute, Signore", 1845; "A Girl of Sorrento at a Well", 1847; "Inhabitants of the Palace of the Cæsars—Rome in the Nineteenth Century" 1850; "Columbus asking Alms at the Convent of La Rabida" 1853; "The Last Sigh of the Moor" (or "Boabdil el Chico, mourning over the Fall of Granada, reproached by his Mother"), 1854; and "Margaret of Anjou and Edward, Prince of Wales, in the wood on their flight after the Battle of Hexham", 1860. Besides these may be noted "The Eve of the Land which is still Paradise" and "Constance and Prince Arthur".

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