Philip Hermogenes Calderon R.A.

Portrait Of A Redhead Girl, Emily Bland, 19th Century Pre-Raphaelite

Having studied in London and Paris, Philip Calderon began exhibiting historical and literary pictures and portraiture at the Royal Academy in 1853. A friend and contemporary of William Holman Hunt (1827-1910), Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) and John Everett Millais (1829-1896) his style was initially Pre Raphaelite yet in subject was initially closer to the artists of The Clique such as William Powell Frith (1819-1909) and Henry Nelson O’Neil (1817-880) and later to the classical themes of the Olympians Lord Leighton (1830-1896) and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912). Calderon was elected an ARA in 1864 and a full Academician three years later, aged just 34. In the same year he became the first British artist to be awarded a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition. Perhaps above all else, Calderon was a superb painter of female beauty. In 1887 the artist received one of the Royal Academy’s highest honours when he was appointed Keeper of the RA.