Lowes Cato Dickinson (27 November 1819 – 15 December 1908) was an English portrait painter and

Christian socialist Christian socialism is a religious and political philosophy that blends Christianity and socialism, endorsing left-wing politics and socialist economics on the basis of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. Many Christian socialists believe cap ...

. He taught drawing with

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...

and

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...

. He was a founder of the Working Men's College in London.Lowes Cato Dickinson
National Portrait Gallery, accessed January 2010

Life

Dickinson was born in

Kilburn, London Kilburn is an area of north west London, England, which spans the boundary of three London Boroughs: London Borough of Camden, Camden to the east, City of Westminster, London Borough of Brent, Brent to the west. There is also an area in the City ...

and was one of eleven siblings. He obtained his first apprenticeship with his father, a Bond Street lithographer and art publisher, after attending Topsham School, and Dr Lord's School in Tooting. After his father's death in 1849, he became a partner with his two eldest brothers, Gilbert Bell Dickinson and William Robert Dickinson, in the firm of Dickinson Brothers of Bond Street. As well as continuing to publish lithographs, the firm were photographers, by appointment to Queen Victoria, and many of Dickinson's portraits were painted from photographs (when portraits were required of people too busy to sit for them, abroad, or dead). Dickinson frequently painted only the faces, with other artists hired to paint the clothes. Some of Dickinson's group pictures were also "subscription pictures", in which people would pay to have themselves portrayed more or less prominently in the painting. He corresponded and worked with the central participants of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood,Artists' Papers Register
accessed January 2010 lecturing with both

and

. He had a studio in the same building as

John Everett Millais Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...

and taught

Ford Madox Brown Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his most notable painti ...

, who worked for a time at Dickinson Brothers. Before touring

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

for three years around 1850, he had exhibited at the Royal Academy, at which he exhibited every year, except three, between 1848 and 1891. With other Christian Socialists, Dickinson founded the Working Men's College,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, in 1854,

J. F. C. Harrison John Fletcher Clews Harrison (28 February 1921 – 8 January 2018), usually cited as J. F. C. Harrison, was a British academic who was Professor of History at the University of Sussex and author of books on history, particularly relating to Victor ...

,''A History of the Working Men's College (1854-1954)'', Routledge Kegan Paul, 1954 a college to provide a liberal education for artisans. He was an enthusiastic follower of the

movement, and painted other Christian Socialists including Charles Kingsley,

Thomas Hughes Thomas Hughes (20 October 182222 March 1896) was an English lawyer, judge, politician and author. He is most famous for his novel ''Tom Brown's School Days'' (1857), a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended. ...

John Malcolm Forbes Ludlow John Malcolm Forbes Ludlow (8 March 1821 – 17 October 1911) was an Anglo-Indian barrister. He led the Christian socialist movement and founded its newspaper of the same name. Biography He was born in Nimach, British India, where his father ...

, John Westlake,

Frederick James Furnivall Frederick James Furnivall (4 February 1825 – 2 July 1910) was an English philologist, best known as one of the co-creators of the '' New English Dictionary''. He founded a number of learned societies on early English literature and made pio ...

, Richard Buckley Litchfield,

John Llewelyn Davies John Llewelyn Davies (26 February 1826 – 18 May 1916) was an English preacher and theologian, an outspoken foe of poverty and inequality, and was active in Christian socialist groups. Obituary of John Llewelyn Davies, The Times, Friday, 19 M ...

, and the movement's founder,

F. D. Maurice John Frederick Denison Maurice (1805–1872), known as F. D. Maurice, was an English Anglican theologian, a prolific author, and one of the founders of Christian socialism. Since the Second World War, interest in Maurice has expanded."Fre ...

. Other subjects for portraits included

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

, the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

and his cabinet,

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

, and scientists such as Arthur Cayley, William Thomson,

Sir George Stokes Sir George Gabriel Stokes, 1st Baronet, (; 13 August 1819 – 1 February 1903) was an Irish English physicist and mathematician. Born in County Sligo, Ireland, Stokes spent all of his career at the University of Cambridge, where he was the Lu ...

and

James Clerk Maxwell James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematician and scientist responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism and li ...

. Maxwell mentions Dickinson in a poem he wrote to ridicule Cayley, where he notes that his portrait is merely in two dimensions whereas Cayley's achievements were in n-dimensional space. Dickinson married Margaret Ellen Williams in 1857. Their sons were writer

Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson (6 August 1862 – 3 August 1932), known as Goldie, was a British political scientist and philosopher. He lived most of his life at Cambridge, where he wrote a dissertation on Neoplatonism before becoming a fellow. H ...

and the accountant Arthur Lowes Dickinson; they also had five daughters. He died in a house built for himself in All Souls Place just north of Oxford Circus, and was buried at

Kensal Green Cemetery Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of Queens Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederick ...

. His papers are at Princeton, Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

Legacy

Dickinson has numerous paintings in the National Portrait Gallery in London, including his group painting of Gladstone's 1868 cabinet pictured in the cabinet room of 10 Downing Street. The Working Men's College offers an annual £1000 pound Art prize for its students called the Lowes Dickinson AwardLowes Dickinson Award
, accessed August 2010 His children also established a travel award for students in his memory.

References

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dickinson, Lowes Cato 1819 births 1908 deaths 19th-century English painters English male painters 20th-century English painters English Christian socialists Painters from London Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery Artists' Rifles soldiers 20th-century English male artists 19th-century English male artists