Author Description

William Powell Frith (1819 -1909) was an English painter specializing in genre subjects and panoramic narrative works of life in the Victorian era. He has been described as the "greatest British painter of the social scene since Hogarth". Frith was a traditionalist who made known his aversion to modern-art developments in a couple of autobiographies - My Autobiography and Reminiscences (1887) and Further Reminiscences (1888) - and other writings. He was also an inveterate enemy of the Pre-Raphaelites and of the Aesthetic Movement, which he satirised in his painting A Private View at the Royal Academy (1883), in which Oscar Wilde is depicted discoursing on art while Frith's friends look on disapprovingly. Fellow traditionalist Frederic Leighton is featured in the painting, which also portrays painter John Everett Millais and novelist Anthony Trollope.