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Cornelius Varley

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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CORNELIUS VARLEY (1781-1873), English water-colour painter, a younger brother of John Varley, was born at Hackney, London, on the 21st of November 1781. He was educated by his uncle, a philosophical instrument maker, and under him acquired a knowledge of the natural sciences; but about 1800 he joined his brother in a tour through Wales, and began the study of art. He was soon engaged in teaching drawing. From 1803 till 1859 he was an occasional exhibitor in the Royal Academy; and he also contributed regularly to the displays of the Water-Colour Society, of which, in 1803, he was one of the founders, and of which he continued a member till 1821. His works consist mainly of carefully finished classical subjects, with architecture and figures. He published a series of etchings of "Boats and other Craft on the River Thames," and during his life as an artist he continued deeply interested in scientific pursuits. For his improvements in the camera lucida, the camera obscura and the microscope he received the Isis gold medal of the Society of Arts; and at the International Exhibition of 1851 he gained a medal for his invention of the graphic telescope. He died at Hampstead on the 2nd of October 1873.