Paintings by Thomas George Webster, RA (1800-1886)
We would venture to assert, without fear of contradiction, that there is no painter exhibiting annually at the Royal Academy whose pictures afford a larger measure of hearty enjoyment than do those of Mr. Webster. They have in them so much genuine humour, such truthful touches of character and disposition, such a thorough knowledge of the “manners, customs, and habits” of the fraternity of juvenile mischief-mongers, idlers, and merry-makers, as cannot fail to convey the spectator at once into the midst of the scenes where these are busily occupied, and which the artist so carefully depicts. And then, how wo travel back with him through the highways and byeways of memory, to those happy times when we participated in similar sports, till we are ready to exclaim —
“Oh, that I were a boy again.” ["The Vernon Gallery: The Truant," 322]
Bibliography
"British Artists, Their Style and Character, with Engraved illustrations: No. X, Thomas Webster, RA." Art-Journal (1855). Internet Archive. Contributed by the Getty Research Institute. 293-296. Web. 27 November 2018.
Lambourne, Lionel. Victorian Painting. Pbk ed. London and New York: Phaidon, 2004. (Lambourne has an excellent chapter on "Childhood and Sentiment," pp. 169-89, in which Webster, Horsley and others are more prominently treated than usual).
"Obituary." Times. 24 September 1886: 7. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 27 November 2018.
Redgrave, Richard and Samuel. A Century of Painters of the English School. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1890. 2nd ed. (abridged) Internet Archive. Contributed by Dorothy H. Hoover Library, Ontario College of Art & Design.
"The Royal Academy. The Eighty-First Exhibition — 1849." Art-Journal (1849). 165-176. Internet Archive. Contributed by the Getty Research Institute. 165-76. Web. 27 November 2018.
"The Vernon Gallery: The Truant." Art-Journal (1849). 322. Internet Archive. Contributed by the Getty Research Institute. Web. 27 November 2018.
Created 27 November 2018