Stephen Pearce
| Stephen Pearce | |
|---|---|
Self Portrait
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| Born |
16 November 1819 King's Mews, Charing Cross |
| Died | 31 January 1904 (aged 84) Sussex Gardens, London |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Martin Archer Shee |
| Spouse(s) | Matilda Jane Cheswright |
Stephen Pearce (16 November 1819 – 31 January 1904) was a portrait and equestrian painter. Forty-four portraits which he painted are in the National Portrait Gallery in London, which also contains two self-portraits.
He was born on 16 November 1819 at the King's Mews, Charing Cross, was only child of Stephen Pearce, clerk in the department of the master of horse, and Ann Whittington. He was trained at Sass's Academy in Charlotte Street, and at the Royal Academy schools, 1840, and in 1841 became a pupil of Sir Martin Archer Shee. From 1842 to 1846, he acted as amanuensis to Charles Lever, and he afterwards visited Italy. Paintings by him of favourite horses in the royal mews (transferred in 1825 to Buckingham Palace) were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1839 and 1841, and from 1849, on his return from Italy, till 1885 he contributed numerous portraits and equestrian paintings to Burlington House.
Early friendship with Colonel John Barrow, keeper of the admiralty records, brought Pearce a commission to paint 'The Arctic Council discussing a plan of search for Sir John Franklin.' This work he completed in 1851; it contained portraits of Back, Beechey, Bird, Parry, Richardson, Ross, Sabine, and others; was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1853, and was engraved by James Scott. Pearce's picture increased the public interest in Franklin's fate. Pearce also painted for Colonel Barrow half-lengths of Sir Robert McClure, Sir , Sir George Nares, and Captain Penny in their Arctic dress, and a series of small portraits of other arctic explorers. Lady Franklin also commissioned a similar series, which passed at her death to Miss Cracroft, her husband's niece. All these pictures are in the National Portrait Gallery, to which Colonel Barrow and Miss Cracroft respectively bequeathed them. Pearce's other sitters included Sir Francis Beaufort and Sir James Clark Ross (for Greenwich Hospital), Sir Edward Sabine and Sir John Barrow (for the Royal Society), and Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Charles Lever, Sims Reeves, Sir Erasmus Wilson (Hospital for Diseases of the Skin, Westgate-on-Sea, copied for the Royal College of Surgeons), and the seventh Duke of Bedford.
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