George Folingsby

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George Frederick Folingsby (August 23, 1828–January 4, 1891) was an Irish Australian painter and art educator.

Folingsby was born in the County of Wicklow, Ireland, at the age of 18 emigrated to Canada. Subsequently he went to New York, studied drawing and contributed illustrations to magazines of the day. In 1852 he went to Munich and spent two years at the drawing school of the Royal Academy. He then went to Paris and for a few months was a pupil of Thomas Couture. Returning to Munich he worked for five years under Carl von Piloty.

In 1864 his picture “Bunyan in Prison,” was purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria. He continued to live at Munich but occasionally exhibited in Ireland and England; his “The First Lesson” was hung in the Royal Academy in 1869 and “Lady Jane’s Victory Over Bishop Gardener” in 1871. He was awarded medals for historical paintings at the exhibitions held at Vienna in 1871 and Philadelphia in 1873. In 1879 he left Munich and settled at Melbourne, and becoming director of the national gallery in 1882, reorganized the painting school. The practice of making copies of pictures was discontinued, and every encouragement was given to working from life. Among his pupils were John Longstaff and Aby Altson, the winners of the first and second travelling scholarships.