Henry John Yeend King | Victorian genre painter

Henry John Yeend King (1855-1924) was a British artist best known for his paintings of rustic English farms and young women strolling in the countryside.

His technique was influenced by Impressionism, but is notably more restrained, detailed, and realistic in its application.

Born on August 21, 1855 in London, England, King went on to study as a glass painter, later traveling to Paris to study under Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat and Fernand Cormon where he learned Impressionist techniques.

The plein-air technique prevalent in France influenced his art, and on his return to England he chose to specialise in landscapes and depictions of rustic genre.

Yeend King lived in London for most of his life however, like many of his contemporaries his heart was 'in the country'.

Ralph Hedley | Genre painter

Ralph Hedley (1848-1913) was a realist painter, woodcarver and illustrator, best known for his paintings portraying scenes of everyday life in the North East of England.

Biography

Born in Gilling West near Richmond, North Yorkshire, Ralph and his parents Richard and Anne Hedley moved to Newcastle upon Tyne around 1850, on the wave of industrial opportunity.

Aged about 13, he was apprenticed to Thomas Tweedy in his carving workshops, simultaneously studying art and design at the 'Government school' in Newcastle, and attending evening classes at the Life School under William Bell Scott. At the age of 14 he was awarded a bronze medal by government's Department of Art and Science.

After concluding his apprenticeship, Hedley established a successful woodcarving business, whilst also producing lithographs for the local press and taking every opportunity to work as an artist. He had the first of many paintings, The Newsboy, accepted for exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1879.

William Kay Blacklock | Victorian genre painter

William Kay Blacklock (1872-1924) was a British artist in the mediums of watercolours and oils.

Biography

William Blacklock was born in Bishopwearmouth, Sunderland, in North East England, in 1872.

He was one of three children of John Blacklock, an engine fitter, and his wife Isabella. His father died in 1886.

According to the 1891 census, William was 18 years old and was working as a lithographer's apprentice, while living with his widowed mother. He continued to live with his mother, at least until 1901, practising the trade of lithography. It seems that he added Kay as his middle name when he became an artist.

Pablo Segarra Chias, 1945 | Genre painter

Spanish painter Pablo Segarra Chias was born in Seville, a city impoverished and devastated by the recent Spanish civil war, Pablo lived in the Macarena District in the heart of the city.

At the tender age of 7yrs Chias completed his first oil on canvas painting.

His father would let him use a chair, outside the local tavern, as an easel and it was from here he sold his first painting for 10p encouraging him to start and go on with painting as a more vocational commitment.

Hermann Seeger (1857-1945) | Genre painter

Hermann Seeger was a German genre and landscape painter. Seeger was also known as a talented engraver. Seeger was born as the son of master tailor Carl Seeger and his wife Henriette, born Meyer, on October 15, 1857.

After the Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871, a prisoner French officer lived with Hermann's parents and gave him an ink box.

In 1875 Hermann Seeger graduated from high school, then he studied philology in Halle. During his studies he became a member of the Fridericiana Halle in 1878-79.

After completing his studies, he worked as a teacher in Halberstadt and did his doctorate on Old French.

Max Leenhardt (1853-1941)

Michel Maximilien Leenhardt was a French painter, known for landscapes, history paintings and genre scenes.

Biography

His father was a bank manager. In 1872, he entered the "École supérieure des beaux-arts de Montpellier", where he studied with the history and genre painter, Ernest Michel. During his time there, he made a study trip to Austria.

In 1877, together with his cousin, Eugène Burnand, he went to Paris, where he studied briefly at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts with Alexandre Cabanel.

Carlton Alfred Smith (1853-1946) | Genre painter

Carlton Alfred Smith, RBA RI ROI was a British watercolourist, oil painter and genre artist who often made images of cottage interiors showing domestic life and figures in cottage interiors in a romantic manner towards the end of the nineteenth century.

He was the son of a steel engraver and spent some of his early years being educated in France. The artist also studied at the Slade School of Art, winning gold and silver medals.

He became one of the most technically accomplished watercolorists of the late Victorian period. With Charles Edward Wilson (fl. 1890-1930) he moved from London to join the artistic community founded by Myles Birket Foster Allingham (1848-1926) in the towns or villages surrounding Witley in Surrey.

Gustave Jacquet | Portrait / Genre painter

During the 19th century, particularly in France, people developed a vivid fascination with the past and paintings of the bygone eras were in demand.

Jacquet specialised in painting figures, portraits and genre subjects in which he evoked the elegance of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. These works were exquisitely painted with every attention paid to detail; his use of colour is rich and vibrant and his rendition of luxurious cloth is outstanding.