Edward Robert Hughes
Edward Robert Hughes
Work
Having settled on his career choice, Edward Robert Hughes attended
E. R. Hughes is best known for his fantastical watercolours such as Midsummer Eve and Night with her Train of Stars, yet initially he built a career as a portrait painter to the upper classes.[1]: 17
In addition to being an artist himself, E. R. Hughes was also a studio assistant to the elder artist and Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood founding member William Holman Hunt. In later life Hunt suffered from glaucoma, and Hughes made a substantial contribution to a number of Hunt's paintings.[1]: 30 Two of the paintings that Hughes worked on with Hunt were The Light of the World, which is displayed in St Paul's Cathedral, and The Lady of Shalott, which is exhibited at the Wadsworth Atheneum.
On his own he experimented with techniques and was a perfectionist; he did studies for many of his paintings, some of which turned out to be good enough for exhibition.
Hughes held several important offices within the artistic community over his lifetime, such as becoming a member of the
His works can be seen in public collections including
Birmingham Museums Trust staged a retrospective exhibition, Enchanted Dreams: The Pre-Raphaelite Art of E.R. Hughes, from 17 October 2015 to 21 February 2016 at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.[4]
His auction record is $866,500 (£522,366) for Dream Idyll (A Valkyrie), sold at Sotheby's (New York) on 22 October 2009.[5]
Family life
E. R. Hughes (known to his family as "Ted") was born in Clerkenwell, London, in 1851 to Edward Hughes Snr. and Harriet Foord. He had one brother, William Arthur Hughes, who was two years younger than him, became a frame maker (gilder), and by 1891 a photographer. During the 1860s he lived for a time with his uncle Arthur Hughes and his family, which included his son Arthur Foord Hughes, also an artist.[1]: 10 In 1874 Hughes became engaged to Mary MacDonald, the daughter of the writer George MacDonald. Unfortunately Mary died four years later. In 1883 Hughes married Emily Eliza Davies.[1]: 17 In 1913 they moved to St Albans, Hertfordshire, where he was later stricken with appendicitis. He died after surgery on 23 April 1914 in his home (no. 3 Romeland). The marriage did not produce any offspring.
List of works
Gallery
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Bertuccio's Bride
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Heart of Snow
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Idle Tears
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Night with her Train of Stars
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Sabbath Morn
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The Shrew Katherina
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Summer Fantasy.
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The Valkyrie's Vigil.
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William Holman Hunt
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A Young Beauty
See also
References
- ^ OCLC 729577738.
- ^ "Royal Collection Trust: A Witch, by Edward R Hughes".
- ^ Waters, William George (1901). The Italian novelists. Vol. 3. pp. 10-11.
- ^ "Enchanted Dreams: The Pre-Raphaelite Art of E.R. Hughes". Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ^ 19th Century European Art, Sotheby's, October 2009
Bibliography
- Engen, Rodney (January 1990). The Twilight of Edward Robert Hughes RWS. Watercolours & Drawings.
- Osborne, Victoria Jean (2010). A British Symbolist in Pre-Raphaelite circles : Edward Robert Hughes RWS (M.Phil.). OCLC 729577738.