William Frederick Mitchell

William Frederick Mitchell (Calshot, 1845 – 1914, Ryde, Isle of Wight) was a British artist commissioned to paint various ships of the Royal Navy. His collected works were original published in The Royal Navy in a series of illustrations. He has many works in the National Maritime Museum Collection in England. He lived most of his life near Portsmouth and painted pictures of ships for their officers and owners. He also illustrated Brassey's Naval Annual. His works are numbered and run to more than 3,500. His medium was principally watercolour but he produced some oils. He wrote a short autobiography for the 1904 May/June issue of The Messenger, a magazine for the deaf, in which he describes how scarlet fever deprived him of his hearing, but at home his father, a Royal Navy Coastguard stationed at Calshot Castle, taught him to speak. <His autobiography also relates his move to Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, shortly after marriage to Miss Woodman in 1881, and claims Queen Victoria, King Edward VII[when Prince of Wales], The German Emperor, and the Russian Grand Duke Michoelovitch amongst his patrons. [1][2][3][4]

References

  1. ^ Biography ("War Art").
  2. ^ Christopher Wood (Ed.). The Dictionary of Victorian Painters (Antique Collectors' Club Ltd, 1978). ISBN 0-90202-872-3 & ISBN 978-0902028722.
  3. ^ Mallalieu, H. L. (1986). The Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists up to 1920. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1-85149-036-1. 
  4. ^ 1904 May/ June issue of The Messenger

External links

Prints and drawings of William Frederick Mitchell, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.