Princep, Valentine

Valentine Cameron Prinsep ( born February 14, 1838 , Calcutta - November 11, 1904 , London ) is a British historical and genre painter.

His father, Henry Toby Prinsep , a sixteen-year-old member of the Indian Affairs Council, settled at Little Holland House in Kensington, which became the center of the local artistic community. Henry Prinsep was a close friend of J.F. Watts , from whom his son, who had been interested in drawing since childhood, first studied. Then Valentin worked in Paris in the workshop of Charles Gleyre ; he depicted Tuffy, the heroine of the novel "Trilby" by his friend George Dumorier . He was a close friend of Millet and Burne-Jones , with whom he traveled to Italy. Together with Rossetti and other artists, he took part in the decoration of the room for discussion at the University of Oxford . He studied at the London Academy of Arts , where Leighton was his main mentor, whose painting techniques he quickly adopted.

Since 1862, Princep began to gain fame as a salon artist. His first famous work was the painting “Bianca Capello Trying to Poison Cardinal Medici”, exhibited at the academy in 1862. He also gained fame as a portrait of General Gordon in a Chinese costume (1866), the paintings “Baby Sister Moses guards him on the Nile” (1867), “Venetian art lover”, “Bacchus and Ariadne”, “Death of Cleopatra” (1870), “ News from a foreign land ”(1871),“ The Influence of Spring ”(1872),“ Minuet ”and“ See you soon ”. In 1877 he went to India and, following the results of his trip, wrote in 1880 a huge canvas depicting what was happening in Delhi on January 1, 1877, under the chairmanship of the Viceroy Lord Leighton of the collection of vassals of the Empress of India, which then adorned Buckingham Palace. In 1879 he became an associate, and in 1894 a full member of the Royal Academy. In 1879, he published under the title "Imperial India" an essay about his journey to Hindustan and the Rajahs he portrayed there. In 1884, he married Florence, the daughter of the famous collector Frederick Leyland. He also wrote two plays, “Cousin Dick” and “Monsieur le Duc,” which were staged at the Royal Theater and Theater of St. Jacob, respectively, and two short stories. He was buried at Brompton Cemetery .

According to the authors of ESBE, his paintings could be considered "composed with intelligence and taste, executed with rare thoroughness and pleasant, although not particularly strong in color."