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- William Mulready
- Also known as
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William Mulready
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primary name: Mulready, William
- Details
- individual; painter/draughtsman; British; Male
- Life dates
- 1786-1863
- Address
- 1828 to death: 1 Linden Grove, Kensington gravel pits, London
- Biography
- Painter and draughtsman; b. 1 April 1786 in Ennis, Clare, Ireland, d. 7 July 1863, London; exhibited at Royal Academy from 1803 to 1863; RA student from 23 October 1800; was student of John Varley from around 1802; married Elizabeth Varley (John Varley’s sister) in 1803; was assistant to John Varley from 1805; William Godwin publishes ‘The Looking Glass a True History of the Early Years of an Artist’ based on the life of Mulready in 1805; Mulready won Royal Academy Schools Silver Medal in 1806; befriended David Wilkie in 1807, they remained friends until Wilkie’s death in 1841; established reputation for his cottage scenes from around 1808; Sir John Edward Swinburne purchased Mulready’s ‘Boys Fishing’ in 1812, Swinburne family patronage began; Mulready was elected A.R.A. (Associate of the Royal Academy) on 06 November 1815; Mulready exhibited ‘Idle Boys’ in 1815, and was elected Royal Academician on 10 February 1816 following the success of this exhibit; awarded the French "Légion d'honneur” in 1816; John Sheepshanks and Robert Vernon patronage began in the 1830s; 1st May 1840 ‘Mulready stationery’ (letter sheets and envelopes with design by Mulready) went on sale, introduced as part of the British Post Office postal reforms; ‘Vicar of Wakefield’ series produced between 1843-47; Mulready designed Royal Academy Medal (Turner Prize) in 1858; Mulready died in 1863, posthumous sale held at Christie’s on 14th May 1864.
- Bibliography
- Dafforne, J., Pictures by William Mulready, R.A., London, 1872.
Heleniak, K., William Mulready, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1980.
ODNB, M. Pointon, 2004
Pointon, M., Mulready, exh.cat., Victoria and Albert Museum, 1986.
Redgrave, S., A Century of Painters of the English School, 2 vols., London 1866.
Stephens, F.G., Masterpieces of Mulready, London, 1867 (revised and enlarged as Memorials of William Mulready, R.A., London 1890).
