Frederick William Burton
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Frederick William Burton (April 8, 1816 – March 16, 1900)was an Irish painter born in Corofin, Co Clare.
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 1851 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. In 1874 when he was appointed director of the National Gallery, London 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, Hans Holbein the Younger's Ambassadors, Anthony van Dyck's equestrian portrait of Charles I, and the Admiral Pulido Pareja, by Diego Velázquez. 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.
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, London.
[edit] Famous Works
Burton's watercolours Hellelil and Hildebrand and The Meeting on Turret Stairs, 1864 are exhibited at The National Gallery of Ireland
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
| Preceded by: Sir William Boxall |
Director of the National Gallery 1874–1894 |
Succeeded by: Sir Edward Poynter |
