Biography (1832 - 1915)
Header Painting: The most beautiful painting I've ever seen, April Love, 1855 - 56 (Detail)
Arthur Hughes
Oil on canvas, 88.9 x 49.5cm
Tate Britain, London
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Arthur Hughes ~ Biography
Painter (1832 - 1915)
Born: 1832
Birth place: London, UK
Date of death: 1915
Arthur Hughes was born in London and studied to become a painter at the Royal Academy. There he met Rossetti, Millais and Holman Hunt, and joined them in making the mural decoration of the Oxford Union. Hughes remained under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites, and many of his paintings follow, more or less closely, the themes produced by members of the Brotherhood.
Hughes produced a series of pictures of lovers, making a feature of clinging ivy on old trees, and his subjects tended to be out of doors.
As well as being a painter, Hughes became one of the more successful Pre-Raphaelite illustrators, drawing many pictures for the illustrated magazines and books of the 1860s and onwards. Several later illustrators followed his style for nursery and fairy tale books, among them Helen Stratton.
Arthur Hughes ~ Trivia
Source: Victorian Painting
Hughes was a disciple of George Frederic Watts.
He was a teacher of Albert Goodwin (1845 - 1932).
He became influenced by the Pre Raphaelites as a result of reading their short lived magazine The Germ.
Ruskin said of his work: 'his sense of beauty is quite exquisite'.
April Love (header painting) was inspired by Tennyson's poem The Miller's Daughter. The colour blue was never as beautiful anywhere else in Pre Raphaelite painting.
When April Love was exhibited in 1856 it was bought by William Morris.
Other works include Aurora Leigh's Dismissal of Romney (The Tryst) (1860), inspired by a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and The Long Engagement, painted between 1853 and 1859.
Home From Sea (1856 - 62) is in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. In 1910, it was part of a new display devoted to the Pre Raphaelites at the Ashmolean.
He was by all accounts a modest and retiring man.
The Long Engagement, oil on canvas, 105.4 x 32.1cm, is in the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery.
Further Reading: Victorian Painting
Arthur Hughes ~ Gallery
The key works in the career of this unbelievably underrated painter for he surely deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with Rossetti, Brown, Hunt and Millais.
His work has moved me in a way few other masters have. Seeing his work you almost gasp at the sheer beauty you behold.
Arthur Hughes
April Love
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Arthur Hughes
In the Grass (second version)
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Arthur Hughes
The Long Engagement
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Arthur Hughes
Wonderland (later version)
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Arthur Hughes
The Convent Boat
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Arthur Hughes
Good Night (later version)
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Arthur Hughes
The Lady of Shalott
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Arthur Hughes
Portrait of Mrs. Louisa Jenner
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Arthur Hughes
The Pained Heart (aka 'Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more')
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Arthur Hughes
Mariana at the Window
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Arthur Hughes
Gleaning
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Arthur Hughes
Endymion
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Arthur Hughes
Poll the Milkmaid
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Arthur Hughes
The Property Room
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Arthur Hughes
Self Portrait
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Arthur Hughes
La Belle Dame Sans Merci
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Arthur Hughes
Portrait of Lucy Hill
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Arthur Hughes
Beauty and the Beast
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Arthur Hughes: Biography >> Trivia >> Gallery >> Pre Raphaelites >> Advertise >> Arthur Hughes Books and Dvds available @ amazon.com
