Richard Ansdell (11 May 1815 – 20 April 1885) was a British painter of animals and genre scenes.

Life

Ansdell was born in Liverpool (then in Lancashire), the son of Thomas Griffiths Ansdell, a freeman who worked at the port, and Anne Jackson. His father died young; Richard was educated at

The Liverpool Blue Coat school The Liverpool Blue Coat School is a grammar school in Wavertree, Liverpool, England. It was founded in 1708 by Bryan Blundell and the Reverend Robert Styth as the Liverpool Blue Coat Hospital and was for many years a boys' boarding school befo ...

for orphans. He had a natural talent for art from an early age, and after leaving school worked for a portrait painter in Chatham in Kent, and also spent time as a sign painter in the Netherlands. He first exhibited at the Liverpool Academy in 1835, becoming a student there the following year. His animal and rural subjects proved to be popular and he soon attracted wealthy patrons. His first exhibition at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

, London, was in 1840, with two paintings called "Grouse shooting" and "A Galloway farm". This was followed, in 1841 by "The Earl of Sefton and party returning from hunting", in 1842 "The death of Sir William Lambton at the Battle of Marston Moor" (1842; Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston), in 1843 "The Death" and in 1844 "Mary Queen of Scots returning from the chase to Stirling Castle". He went on to exhibit pictures every year at the Academy until 1885 (149 canvases in all).See Walford. In 1846 he exhibited his first picture, "A Drover's Halt" at the

British Institution The British Institution (in full, the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom; founded 1805, disbanded 1867) was a private 19th-century society in London formed to exhibit the works of living and dead artists; it w ...

, London, and went on to show 30 canvases there. In June 1841, he married Maria Romer; the couple went on to have 11 children. In 1847 the family left Liverpool to live in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

in London. In 1850, Ansdell started collaborating on pictures with Thomas Creswick, who specialised in landscapes (e.g.:"The South Downs", "England's day in the country" etc.). He also worked with William Powell Frith ("The Keeper's daughter") and John Phillip, with whom he travelled to Spain in 1856 and painted a series of Spanish subjects - "The Water Carrier", "The Road to Seville", "The Spanish shepherd" etc. He returned to Spain alone the following year to paint more pictures there. In 1855, Andsell was awarded a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition for his works, "The Wolf Slyer" and "Taming the Drove". He also won the "Heywood medal" three times for his work at the Manchester Royal Institution. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1861 and a Royal Academician (RA) in 1870. During part of his career he kept a "summer house" at

Lytham St Annes Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the The Fylde, Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 42,954 ...

, in the borough of Fylde, where a district,

Ansdell Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the The Fylde, Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 42,954 ...

, is named after him. He is the only English artist to have been honoured in this way. Ansdell died at "Collingwood Tower" at Frimley, near

Farnborough Farnborough may refer to: Australia * Farnborough, Queensland, a locality in the Shire of Livingstone United Kingdom * Farnborough, Hampshire, a town in the Rushmoor district of Hampshire, England ** Farnborough (Main) railway station, a railw ...

in Hampshire on 20 April 1885. He was buried at Brookwood Cemetery.

Works

Ansdell's best known works include ''Stag at Bay'' (1846), ''The Combat'' (1847), and ''Battle of the Standard'' (1848) - depicting the capture of the French flag at Waterloo by Sergeant Ewart of the Scots Greys. Ansdell's subject matter was compared to that of Edwin Landseer, though critical opinion was that, though popular, his works lacked the latter's emotional impact. His reputation was as a hardworking but occasionally over-proud artist; for instance, he received no royal commissions after refusing to paint Queen Victoria's dogs unless they were brought to his studio. Many of his works are under the guardianship of

Fylde Borough Council Fylde could refer to *The Fylde, a coastal plain in Lancashire, England, or, within it: **Borough of Fylde, a local government district **Fylde (UK Parliament constituency) **FY postcode area covering the western side of the Fylde **AFC Fylde, an ...

, having been donated to the former Lytham St Annes Corporation in the 1930s. A selection of these paintings is periodically exhibited at the Fylde Gallery above Booths supermarket in Lytham where ''The Herd Lassie'' is on long-term loan. There are further Ansdell paintings hanging in non-public rooms at Fylde Borough Council Town Hall that can be viewed by prior arrangement or on heritage open days in September. In October 2017 a large painting by Ansdell of a Friesian cow was featured on BBC One's '' Antiques Roadshow'' and was valued, by art expert

Rupert Maas Rupert Nicholas Maas (born 23 July 1960) is an English painting specialist and gallery owner best known for his appearances on the long-running BBC One series ''Antiques Roadshow'' where he has been a member of the team of experts since 1997. Bi ...

, as being worth between 15,000 and £20,000. The largest public collections of Ansdell's paintings in Britain are in Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery, the

Lytham St Annes Art Collection The Lytham St Annes Art Collection is a public art collection of over 240 artworks in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire. Fylde Borough Council are the custodians of the paintings, sculptures, prints and artefacts that are mostly held within the Lytham ...

, and

Preston Preston is a place name, surname and given name that may refer to: Places England *Preston, Lancashire, an urban settlement **The City of Preston, Lancashire, a borough and non-metropolitan district which contains the settlement **County Boro ...

's Harris Museum., pages 69-70.

Military Paintings

* ''The Death of Sir William Lambton at Marston Moor'' (1842;

Harris Museum and Art Gallery The Harris Museum is a Grade I-listed building in Preston, Lancashire, England. Founded by Edmund Harris in 1877, it is a local history and fine art museum. History In the 19th century, it became legal to raise money for libraries by local ...

) * ''The Fight for the Standard'' (Waterloo) (1848; Royal Hospital, Chelsea) * ''The Fight for the Standard'' (Waterloo) (1848; Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, on loan to

Edinburgh Castle Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock (Edinburgh), Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age, although the nature of the early settlement is unclear. ...

) * ''Thomas Brown regaining the Lost Guidon'' (Dettingen) ( Queen's Royal Hussars)

Selected works

File:Ansdell Richard The Gamekeeper.jpg, ''The Gamekeeper'' File:Richard Ansdell — The Fight For The Standard.jpg, ''The Fight for the Standard'', 1847 File:Richard Ansdell - Lytham Sandhills (1853).jpg, ''Lytham Sandhills'', (1853) File:The Hunted Slaves by Richard Ansdell 1861.jpg, '' The Hunted Slaves'', (1861) File:Richard Ansdell - Hawking (1863).jpg, ''Hawking'', 1863 File:Ansdell The Poacher At Bay 1865.png, ''The Poacher At Bay'', (1865) File:Richard Ansdell - Winter Shooting, Hares and Ptarmigan (1869).jpg, Winter Shooting, Hares and Ptarmigan, 1869 File:Richard Ansdell - The Gardeners Daughter.jpg, ''The Gardeners Daughter'' File:Ansdell Caledonian Coursing Meeting.jpg, ''Caledonian Coursing Meeting, near the Castle of Ardrossan'' File:Richard Ansdell - A Spanish Shepherd (1863).jpg, A Spanish Shepherd (1863) File:Richard Ansdell Falcon with a Ptarmigan.jpg, Falcon with a Ptarmigan File:Richard Ansdell - Buzzard with Ptarmigan (1876).jpg, Buzzard with Ptarmigan (1876) File:Richard Ansdell - Collecting the sheep for clipping in the highlands (1881).jpg, Collecting the sheep for clipping in the highlands (1881)

Notes

References

*Walford, Edward.
Representative Men in Literature, Science, and Art: Richard Andsell
' (London: Alfred William Bennett, 1868). *

Meynell, Wilfrid Wilfrid Meynell (17 November 1852, Newcastle-upon-Tyne – 20 October 1948, Pulborough),Obituary, '' The Times'', 22 October 1948, p.7. who sometimes wrote under the pseudonym John Oldcastle, was a British newspaper publisher and editor. Born o ...