Henry Liverseege
| Henry Liverseege | |
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| Born | 4 September 1802 Manchester |
| Died | 13 January 1832 (aged 29) |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Genre painter |
Henry Liverseege (4 September 1802 – 13 January 1832) was an English genre painter of literary and folklore subjects.
Henry Liverseege was born in Manchester, the son of Edmund Liverseege, a joiner. He was a weakly child who suffered from asthma and following his death in 1832 it was discovered that one of his lungs had failed to develop. He also had a spinal deformity which caused his left shoulder to be noticeably lower than the right. Even when in his twenties, he was reported to weigh as little as 70-75 lbs. Perhaps as a consequence of his infirmities, his father rejected him and he was brought up by his uncle John Green, a Manchester cotton mill owner. He was educated in a small Manchester school but did not progress to university. He showed an early interest in the arts, became involved in amateur theatricals for a while and demonstrated a talent for drawing.
The financially comfortable circumstances of Liverseege's uncle, allowed him to pursue a career as an artist and his earliest work was painting portraits for commissions at around five guineas each. He had no formal artistic training and contemporary critics described his portraits as 'indifferent'. No portraits attributed to him have apparently survived. He also painted a number of inn signs for Manchester hotels. This work equally brought only modest renumeration.
Around 1826, Liverseege graduated from painting inn signs and portraits to specialising in genre paintings based on characters and scenes from literature and folklore. His first genre paintings were exhibited at the exhibition of the Royal Manchester Institution in 1827. These were three small works 'Banditti Attacking Travellers', 'Banditti Carousing' and 'A Robber on the Outlook'. These sold, but only for small prices. He was more successful that same year with his painting of 'Adam Woodcock' from Walter Scott's The Abbot which was purchased by Thomas Egerton, 2nd Earl of Wilton, of Heaton Hall.
He now made a number of visits to London where he sketched from works in the Royal Academy and the British Museum. He also attended some classes at a London art school. He applied to enter the Royal Academy as a student but was rejected on the technicality that he had failed to submit the required character references. While in London, he became acquainted with William Etty and with Sir Thomas Lawrence, the artist whose work he regarded as the finest. It was Lawrence who provided his letter of introduction to the Royal Academy.
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