Introduction
We have few biographical details of Webbe (or Webb) who was known as a painter of rustic genre, religious and allegorical subjects, and animals. William James Webbe went by the name of William J. Webbe for his paintings but went by the name of W. J. Webb when he illustrated books [Source: Jennie Shelley]. He lived in London, travelled abroad to Düsseldorf and to Jerusalem and the Middle East, and exhibited at the RA 1853-78, also at the British Institution and Royal Society of British Artists. The style of his paintings, with their detail and high colour, and the religious and allegorical content of his paintings, — but chiefly his visits to the East — declare him as a follower of Holman Hunt. He travelled to Palestine in 1862. Although not a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he was close to Holman Hunt, and it is likely that his style was initially influenced by him. Webbe exhibited a small number of faerie pictures in the 1850s but the greater part of his output was of birds and animals, often with an element of anthropomorphism, set in minutely observed landscapes that resemble the Nazarenes as much as the Pre-Raphaelites. [Information from Fine Art Society catalogues]
Biographical Material
Works
Bibliography
Brooke, Anthea. Victorian Painting. Catalogue for exhibition November-December 1977. London: Fine Art Society, 1977.
Spring '99. London: The Fine Art Society, 1999.
Created 11 April 2005
Last modified 30 May 2025