Events from the year 1869 in art.
The Illustrated London News, founded by Herbert Ingram and first published on Saturday 14 May 1842, was the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. The magazine was published weekly for most of its existence, switched to a less frequent publication schedule in 1971, and eventually ceased publication in 2003. The company continues today as Illustrated London News Ltd, a publishing, content, and digital agency in London, which holds the publication and business archives of the magazine.
Edward John Gregory, PPRBSA, was a British painter.
Sir Hubert von Herkomer was a Bavarian-born British painter, pioneering film-director, and composer. Though a very successful portrait artist, especially of men, he is mainly remembered for his earlier works that took a realistic approach to the conditions of life of the poor. Hard Times showing the distraught family of a travelling day-labourer at the side of a road, is one of his best-known works.
Sir Samuel Luke Fildes was a British painter and illustrator born in Liverpool and trained at the South Kensington and Royal Academy Schools. He was the grandson of the political activist Mary Fildes.
William Luson Thomas was a British wood-engraver and the founder of various British newspapers.
The Daily Graphic: An Illustrated Evening Newspaper was the first American newspaper with daily illustrations. It was founded in New York City in 1873 by Canadian engravers George-Édouard Desbarats and William Leggo, and began publication in March of that year. It continued publication until September 23, 1889.
Arthur Comfort was a British wood-engraver at The Graphic in London and art teacher in Halifax.
The Brothers Dalziel was a prolific wood-engraving business in Victorian London, founded in 1839 by George Dalziel.
The Sphere: An Illustrated Newspaper for the Home and, later, The Sphere: The Empire's Illustrated Weekly, was a British newspaper, published by London Illustrated Newspapers weekly from 27 January 1900 until the closure of the paper on 27 June 1964.
Edmund Evans was an English wood-engraver and colour printer during the Victorian era. He specialized in full-colour printing, a technique which, in part because of his work, became popular in the mid-19th century. He employed and collaborated with illustrators such as Walter Crane, Randolph Caldecott, Kate Greenaway and Richard Doyle to produce what are now considered to be classic children's books. Little is known about his life, although he wrote a short autobiography before his death in 1905 in which he described his life as a printer in Victorian London.
Robert William Buss was a Victorian artist, etcher and illustrator perhaps best known for his painting Dickens' Dream. He was the father of Frances Buss, a pioneer of girls' education.
Bradbury & Evans (est.1830) was a printing and publishing business founded in London by William Bradbury (1799–1869) and Frederick Mullett Evans (1804–1870).
George Holt Thomas was an aviation industry pioneer and newspaper proprietor. In 1911, Holt Thomas founded the business which became Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited or Airco.
Henry Woods was a British painter and illustrator, and one of the leading Neo-Venetian school artists.
Godefroy Durand was a German-born French illustrator and draughtsman, who worked in both France and Great Britain.
Daniel Albert Wehrschmidt, also known as D. A. Veresmith, was a German-American artist from Ohio who made a career for himself in England as a portrait painter, lithographer, and engraver.
Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward is an 1874 oil painting by British painter Luke Fildes, a key work in nineteenth-century British social realism. The painting shows a street scene of impoverished and weary men, women and children waiting by the side of the road outside a police station, huddled against the cold evening, waiting to be given a ticket for temporary admission to a workhouse for the night. Many resisted taking up permanent residence at the workhouse, where men and women would be separated, and would be required to work to pay for their board and lodging; once they entered, many only left when they died. Instead, from 1864, if the police in London certified that a person was genuinely in need, they could stay for one night on a "casual" basis, and leave the next morning, but they would have to queue up again for temporary admission the next evening. Poverty and vagrancy were pressing issues in Victorian London, and the issuance of "casual" tickets doubled from around 200,000 in 1864 to over 400,000 in 1869.
Horace Downey Harral was a British wood-engraver, etcher and photographer. He was a pupil of John Orrin Smith and later joined him as a partner in an engraving firm. Harral produced prints of many Pre-Raphaelite paintings and also illustrated many British periodicals of the mid-Victorian era. He engraved Robert Howlett's photograph Isambard Kingdom Brunel Standing Before the Launching Chains of the Great Eastern, one of the most famous and finest of the 19th century, for publication in the Illustrated Times in 1858. Harral also produced etchings and photographs. He is noted for an 1860s series of theatrically posed photographs of his friends. Harral once shared an office with William Luson Thomas and was later a significant shareholder in his company, which published The Graphic newspaper. Harral died a wealthy man and left the bulk of his estate to charity.
Henry William Brewer was a British illustrator, notable for his detailed city panoramas, held to be one of the most outstanding architectural draughtsmen of his day.
