Arthur Hughes

{"Id":909,"Name":"Arthur Hughes","Biography":"\u003Ccenter\u003E\u003Cb\u003EArthur Hughes\u003C/b\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.victorianartinbritain.co.uk/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Eby Paul Ripley\u003C/a\u003E\u003C/b\u003E\u003C/center\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EHughes showed early artistic promise \u0026 enrolled in the Royal Academy Antique School in 1847. He was encouraged by Millais, who was always an affable individual. Hughes was inspired directly by The Germ, the short-lived Pre-Raphaelite magazine. He attended PRB meetings, in rather a junior hero-worshipping manner. Hughes was liked by the PRB, in fact he was throughout his long life, a well liked individual. He was also encouraged by Rossetti.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EHughes main traits as an individual were his modesty \u0026 self-effacement. He suffered somewhat at the hands of the Royal Academy, having a number of ill-merited rejections, \u0026 very badly hung pictures. He was never even elected an Associate. Hughes married, in 1855 Tryphena Foord, the union was lasting, \u0026 happy. As well as the limits imposed by his diffidence \u0026 modesty, Hughes was motivated by the desire for a stable, happy family life. Ultimately he was prepared to compromise artistic ambitions for this. Many of his pictures were of ordinary scenes of life. They were painted with great delicacy, \u0026 feeling, \u0026 were often in greens \u0026 mauves. Like the great orchestral composers, the warm sympathetic character of the man shines through in his work. William Michael Rossetti, writing about Hughes said \u0026ldquo;If I had to pick out, from my once numerous acquaintances of the male sex, the sweetest \u0026 most ingenuous nature of all, the least carking \u0026 querulous, \u0026 the freest from envy hatred \u0026 malice, \u0026 all uncharitableness, I should probably find myself bound to select Mr Hughes.\u0026rdquo; Should any human being have a better character reference, or epitaph than this I have yet to see it.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EFollowing the death of Tryphena Hughes in 1921, their daughter Emily had to move to a smaller house. There was, therefore, a shortage of space. As a result she had her father\u0026rsquo;s remaining preparatory sketches, \u0026 all his private papers \u0026 correspondence destroyed. What an appalling act of artistic \u0026 historical vandalism!\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E Source: \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.victorianartinbritain.co.uk/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EVictorian Art in Britain\u003C/a\u003E.\u003Cp\u003E","Awards":null,"HasAlbums":false,"HasPortraits":true,"HasRelationships":false,"HasArticles":false,"HasDepictedPlaces":true,"HasLetters":false,"HasLibraryItems":false,"HasProducts":false,"HasSignatures":false,"HasVideos":false,"HasMapLocations":true,"TotalArtworks":96}