Albany Fine Art : Biography of Richard BUCKNER

Richard Buckner

British, 1812–1883

"He was one of the few portrait painters of the nineteenth century whose work could hold its own when hung in country houses alongside the work of Reynolds and Gainsborough". (J. Maas, Victorian Painters, 1970).

Born at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, London, in 1812, Richard Buckner was an immensely popular portrait and genre painter in oil and watercolour who fell into almost total obscurity after his death in London on 12th August 1883, and, inexplicably, remained there for many years.

He was raised at Rumboldswhyke, near Chichester in Sussex, and first worked from a studio at his family home. After a short period in the army, he moved to Rome where he worked from 1820-40. Here he studied under Giovanni Battista Canevari (Italian, 1789-1876) and befriended Frederic, Lord Leighton (1st Baron Leighton, PRA, British, 1830–1896).

His work therefore showed influences of both the British and Continental styles and he quickly gained a reputation both for his elegant portraits and also for his delicate watercolours of Italian peasants.

Encouraged by Leighton, Buckner returned to London shortly after 1840, where he became an immediate success. By 1842 he was exhibiting at the Royal Academy and the British Institution and thereafter he exhibited at the Royal Academy in each of the next 35 years, from 1842 to 1877, his paintings largely being portraits of prominent members of Society.

Buckner was an immensely popular and successful London-based portraitist from the earliest years of Queen Victoria's reign (1837-1901), and was widely patronised by members of the Royal family and other grandees, including Queen Victoria herself; her husband Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Consort; Edward, Prince of Wales; Adelaide, Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen, and William Alexander, 11th Duke of Hamilton. His undoubted skills as a portraitist as well as the fact that he was “the only Victorian artist to be accepted as a gentleman”, according to George du Maurier, no doubt encouraged such lofty patronage.

In the opinion of the eminent art historian and author, Jeremy Maas, "He (Buckner) was one of the few portrait painters of the nineteenth century whose work could hold its own when hung in country houses alongside the work of Reynolds and Gainsborough". (J Maas, Victorian Painters, published 1970).

Richard Buckner was hugely successful and highly acclaimed during his lifetime, evidenced, for example, by the fact that two sales of his work were held at Christie’s during his lifetime (in February 1873 and July 1877). It is therefore one of those anomalies of fate that he should subsequently fall into obscurity for so many years. Fortunately his reputation is being re-discovered and we believe this painting may therefore represent a particularly sound investment over time.