Sir Frederic William Burton | Victorian painter

Irish painter🎨 Sir Frederic William Burton RHA (8 April 1816 in Wicklow - 16 March 1900 in London) was the third director of the National Gallery, London.

• Artistic career

Educated in Dublin, he was elected an associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy at the age of twenty-one and an academician two years later.

In 1842 he began to exhibit at the Royal Academy. A visit to Germany and Bavaria in 1842 was the first of a long series of trips to various parts of Europe, which gave him a profound knowledge of the works of the Old Masters.

From 1851 he spent 7 years working as a painter in the service of Maximilian II of Bavaria.

Burton worked with George Petrie on archaeological sketches and was on the council of the Royal Irish Academy and the Archaeological Society of Ireland.

He was elected an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours in 1855, and a full member in the following year.

He resigned in 1870, and was reelected as an honorary member in 1886.

A knighthood was conferred on him in 1884, and the degree of LL.D. of Dublin in 1889.

In his youth he had strong sympathy with the Young Ireland Party. He died in Kensington, west London and is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin.

Burton's best-known watercolours, The Aran Fisherman's Drowned Child🎨 (1841) and The Meeting on the Turret Stairs (1864; also known as Hellelil and Hildebrand) are in the National Gallery of Ireland.

Meeting on the Turret Stairs was voted by the Irish public as Ireland's favourite painting in 2012 from among 10 works shortlisted by critics.

• Directorship of the National Gallery

In 1874 Burton was appointed director of the National Gallery, London, in succession to Sir William Boxall RA.

In June 1874, he obtained a special grant to acquire the art collection of Alexander Barker, which included Piero della Francesca's🎨 Nativity and Botticelli's Venus and Mars🎨.

In 1876 a bequest of 94 paintings, mainly by Dutch artists🎨 but also including works by Pollaiuolo, Bouts and Canaletto🎨, was made by the haberdasher Wynne Ellis.

Also in this year an extension to the Gallery by E. M. Barry was completed.

During the twenty years that he held this post he was responsible for many important purchases, among them Leonardo da Vinci's🎨 Virgin of the Rocks, Raphael's Ansidei Madonna, Anthony van Dyck's🎨 Equestrian portrait of Charles I, Hans Holbein the Younger's Ambassadors, and the Admiral Pulido Pareja, by Diego Velázquez🎨 (this subsequently attributed to Velázquez's assistant Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo).

He also added to the noted series of Early Italian pictures in the gallery.

The number of acquisitions made to the collection during his period of office amounts to more than 500. | © Wikipedia

Sir Frederic William Burton (8 aprile 1816 - 16 marzo 1900) è stato un pittore Irlandese🎨.

• Fu direttore della National Gallery di Londra.

Frederic William Burton nacque nel 1816 in Irlanda, nel paese di Corofin, nella contea di Clare.

Suo padre, Frederick Mallet Burton, era un pittore amatoriale di paesaggi ed incoraggiò il talento di suo figlio inviandolo nel 1826 a Dublino dove apprese nuove tecniche grazie all'apprendistato presso il pittore Samuel Frederick Brocas.

Nel 1837, a soli ventun anni, Burton divenne membro della Royal Hibernian Academy divenendone poco dopo accademico nel 1839.

Nel 1840 presentò il suo primo dipinto The Blind Girl at the Holy Well alla Royal Hibernian Academy.

Nel 1842 si recò in Inghilterra, dove espose alcuni suoi lavori nella Royal Academy di Londra.

Nel 1851 si recò in Germania e più precisamente in Baviera, prima di una lunga serie di visite in gran parte dell'Europa, che gli fornì una buona cultura artistica.

Nel 1874 venne nominato direttore della National Gallery di Londra come successore di Sir William Boxall.

Come direttore del museo, Burton diede un fondamentale contributo all'acquisizione di prestigiose opere d'arte come la Vergine delle Rocce di Leonardo🎨 ed il Ritratto di Carlo I a cavallo di Antoon van Dyck🎨.

Tra le altre opere, lavori di Raffaello🎨, Hans Holbein il Giovane, Diego Velázquez🎨 e di numerosi pittori italiani del Rinascimento🎨.

Durante il periodo di direzione di Burton, la galleria ottenne circa cinquecento nuove opere. | © Wikipedia