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Valentine Cameron Prinsep

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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VALENTINE CAMERON PRINSEP (1838-1904), English artist, was born on the 4th of February 1838. His father, Henry Thoby Prinsep, who was for sixteen years a member of the Council of India, had settled at Little Holland House, which became a centre of artistic society. Henry Prinsep was an intimate friend of G. F. Watts, under whom his son first studied. Val Prinsep also worked in Paris in the atelier Gleyre; and "Taffy" in his friend Du Maurier's novel Trilby, is said to have been sketched from him. He was an intimate friend of Millais and of Burne-Jones, with whom he travelled in Italy. He had a share with Rossetti and others in the decoration of the hall of the Oxford Union. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1862 with his "Bianca Capella," his first picture, which attracted marked notice, being a portrait (1866) of General Gordon in Chinese costume; the best of his later exhibits were "A Versailles," "The Emperor Theophilus chooses his Wife," "The Broken Idol" and "The Goose Girl." He was elected A.R.A. in 1879 and R.A. in 1894. In 1877 he went to India and painted a huge picture of the Delhi durbar, exhibited in 1880, and afterwards hung at Buckingham Palace. He married in 1884 Florence, daughter of the well-known collector, Frederick Leyland. Prinsep wrote two plays, Cousin Dick and Monsieur le Due, produced at the Court and the St James's theatres respectively; two novels; and Imperial India: an Artist's Journal (1879). He was an enthusiastic volunteer, and one of the founders of the Artists' Corps. He died on the 11th of November 1904.