William Huggins (painter)

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William Huggins (May 1820 in Liverpool , England , United Kingdom , † February 25, 1884 in Christleton , Cheshire , England, United Kingdom) was a British painter who specialized in painting animals . As such, he was a frequent guest in the animal circus Wombwell's Traveling Menagerie and the Zoologischer Garten his hometown of Liverpool. Huggins was also known to have a wide variety of pets .

Life

Huggins was born in Liverpool in May 1820 to Samuel and Elizabeth Huggins and was baptized in the Church of St Paul on May 20, 1820 . Huggins received his first drawing lessons at the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys . At the age of only fifteen, Huggins won an art award for his painting Adam's Vision of the Death of Abel and was exhibited at the Liverpool Academy of Arts . Huggins first drew everyday scenes from his life or visited the Liverpool Zoo to study and draw animals there. But he also went on trips - for example, to observe and draw exotic animals in Wombwell's Traveling Menagerie. Huggin's prestigious work has even been compared to that of George Stubbs . Huggins generously admitted the influence of Stubbs - in complete contrast to a later comparison with Edwin Landseer , because of which Huggins was downright offended. Since Huggins was never able to observe the exotic animals he preferred to paint in their natural habitat, despite all the praise for the depiction of the animals themselves, some criticized the lack of background in Huggins' works.

In 1845, Huggins distanced himself from his favorite subjects, wild animals and domestic chickens . He was now inspired by and illustrated literary works - works by John Milton , Percy Shelley , Edmund Spenser and Thomas Moore were among his favorite sources of inspiration.

The first painting that Huggins exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts was Androcles and the lion in 1846. He exhibited here successfully until the 1870s, but never became a member of the Royal Academy. From 1850 to 1856, however, Huggins was a member of the Liverpool Academy . During his numerous exhibitions in the larger cities of Great Britain, Huggins came into contact with the Pre-Raphaelites , whose use of glazes influenced him.

In 1861, Huggins moved to Chester with his older brother Samuel , who was a well-known author on architecture . The brothers lived here until 1865. Influenced by Samuel, William Huggins also began to paint paintings of buildings - for example of Chester Cathedral , which Samuel campaigned to preserve when it was to be restored. Even when the brothers no longer lived together, Williams Huggins continued to paint buildings, resulting in paintings such as Stones of Chester, or Ruins of St. John's, and Salmon Trap on the Dee .

In 1876 Huggins moved to Betws-y-Coed , where he again increasingly painted landscape paintings. The Fairy Glen , exhibited in Liverpool, was painted around 1877 . Towards the end of his life, Huggins moved one last time - from Wales to Christleton, a village and suburb of Chester in Cheshire. Huggins died here on February 25, 1884 at the age of 63. His brother Samuel died the following year. The brothers were buried in St James' Church in Christleton.

plant

Even if they were perhaps not one of his favorite subjects, Huggin's paintings of domestic horses , cattle, and domestic and court birds were his best craftsmanship. However, Huggins had a particular weakness for big cats like tigers and lions . Again and again he painted the majestic predators against mostly neutral backgrounds, which was due to the fact that Huggins had never traveled to Africa or Asia to observe the animals in their natural habitat, and the animals, on the other hand, only study in zoos and at the circus could. This was also the only frequent criticism of Huggin's otherwise mostly lauded paintings of wild animals.

In addition to animals, Huggins also painted motifs from literary works. He illustrated texts by John Milton and Percy Shelley, the husband of Mary Shelley , the creator of Frankenstein . Particularly noteworthy are the illustrations for Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene and Thomas Moore's Enchantress and Nourmahal . In addition, Huggins painted buildings inspired by his brother Samuel, who wrote books on architectural subjects.

gallery

Gallery with artworks by William Huggins:

  • Lion, 1840

  • King Tiger, 1838

  • Cattle trough, 1871

  • Lion and Lioness, before 1884

  • Self-Portrait with Chickens, 1858

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Huggins, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British painter
DATE OF BIRTH May 1820
PLACE OF BIRTH Liverpool , England , UK
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1884
Place of death Christleton , Cheshire , England, UK