RICHARD ANSDELL RA (1815 – 1885)
Richard Ansdell was born to Thomas Griffiths Ansdell, a ship’s pulley block maker at Liverpool docks, and Anne (nee Jackson) a seamstress. His father died when he was young and he was briefly educated at the Bluecoat School (for orphans). He was encouraged by a teacher who recognised his talent and consequently he, thereafter, trained in art silhouettes under W. C. Smith, profile and portrait painter of Chatham Street, Liverpool. We think he went to Holland after this, painting signs for a circus, but we have no documentary evidence.
In 1836 he became a student at the Liverpool Academy and eventually became President in 1845. Prior to this he had married Maria Romer (a Liverpool girl) and they went on to have eleven children – only one dying in infancy. By 1840 he had already exhibited two pictures : “Grouse Shooting: Lunch on the Moors” and “A Galloway Farm”) at the Royal Academy in London. – his largest commission at this time being “A Country Meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society at Bristol” – 16 feet long including 125 separate portraits in 1842.
Between 1840 and 1885 he exhibited pictures at the Royal Academy every year (149 in all) and also exhibited some 30 canvases at the British Institution.
His popularity was established by two paintings in particular: “The Combat” – two red stags locked in battle; and “The Fight for the Standard at the Battle of Waterloo” being a lifesized depiction of Sgt. Ewart of the Scots Greys grappling for the French Standard at the battle. This huge picture (13 feet X 11 feet) now hangs in the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle.
Lytham House Kensington
In 1847 he left his native Lancashire and moved to Kensington, eventually living in a large house called Lytham House named after his beloved Lytham St. Annes where he also had a sizeable residence called Starr Hills. Lytham House was convenient for the Royal Academy and also where he was surrounded by many illustrious artistic contemporaries. His love for Lytham St. Annes never failed and the Borough owns and cares for a sizeable collection of his artworks to this day. Nowadays the area of the town around Starr Hills is called ‘Ansdell’ after him – as is a street in Kensington.
Richard Ansdell was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1861 and Royal Academician in 1870. He became one of the most successful Victorian sporting artists, collaborating on huge canvases with artists such as Thomas Creswick (1811 – 1869) and William Powell Frith (1819 – 1909) placing the animals into their landscapes.
The Hunted Slaves
In 1861 Ansdell produced one of his masterpieces “The Hunted Slaves” – a very effective and unforgettable canvas (after a Longfellow poem – “The Dismal Swamp”) with an anti slave trade message. Now in the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool.
After he had discovered Scotland and had built his own Lodge there on the banks of Loch Laggan, he spent time north of the border whenever he could painting many Scottish subjects – stags in glens, sheep on hillsides, moorland/mountain scenes, sheep-dipping, everyday scenes in a shepherd’s life and the local working people; shooting and fishing parties, deer stalking.
Many of his paintings were engraved for reproduction and sale on the mass market thus producing valuable income to the artist and ensuring publicity both in the United Kingdom and also in America.
Ansdell's Inspiration
Another fellow artist, John Philip (1817 – 1867) known as “Spanish Philip” and for his historical scenes, inspired Ansdell to produce a few paintings in the same genre “The Death of Sir William Lambton at the Battle of Waterloo” (Harris Museum, Preston), being one of them. In 1856 Philip and Ansdell travelled to Spain and collaborated on many Spanish pictures – Ansdell travelled to Spain again on his own the following year, producing many paintings with a Spanish theme: “Feeding Goats in the Alhambra” being one such canvas (also in the Harris Museum) and another “On the Road to Seville” (Fylde Borough Council Collection).
Ansdell was extremely prolific. Hitherto unknown paintings are always coming to light; having been undocumented in family collections since Victorian times. He painted a wide variety of sporting, animal and romantic narrative subjects, and was especially noted for his depiction of many breeds of dogs and sheep – executed in fine, realistic detail with sound knowledge of the subject.
Death in 1885
He died at Collingwood Tower near Frimley in Surrey – the last mansion he built truly reflecting his remarkable success as an artist. Popular as a person as well as an artist, he preferred to be known as a Victorian ‘professional artist’, being realistic, level-headed and loyal to friends and family. He is buried, modestly, in a family plot at Brookwood Cemetery near Woking in Surrey.
“Thank you for your wonderful legacy”
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