Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Third Supplement.djvu/465

 leaving two daughters (Mrs. Mervyn Gordon and Miss Constance Power).

 POYNTER, EDWARD JOHN,  (1836–1919), painter and president of the Royal Academy, was born in Paris 20 March 1836, the only son of Ambrose Poynter [q.v.]. His schooldays were interrupted by delicate health. An inherited bent for art was strengthened by the influence of his grandmother, the daughter of Thomas Banks, R.A. [q.v.]; and the acquaintance of Lord Leighton, which he made in Rome in November 1853, fixed his determination to become a painter. In the following year he entered the school of James Mathews Leigh [q.v.], and worked there, at the Royal Academy, and in the studio of W. C. T. Dobson, R.A. A visit to the Paris exhibition of 1855 filled him with admiration for contemporary French painting and led to his becoming in 1857 a pupil in the atelier of Gleyre. Here he met Whistler, Lamont, Du Maurier, and others of the group described in Du Maurier's Trilby, with some members of which he shared a studio in Paris. He used later in life to complain that he had not remained with Gleyre long enough to master completely the technique of oil painting, but the insight which he obtained into French methods was afterwards of great value to him.

Returning to London in 1860 he occupied himself with decorative work, some of it, like the painted ceiling of Waltham Abbey, in conjunction with the architect William Burges [q.v.]. At the same time he earned his place amongst the ‘Illustrators of the 'Sixties’ by drawing for Once a Week and other publications, including the truncated Dalziel Bible to which he contributed several elaborate Egyptian subjects. His first exhibit in the Academy was hung in 1861. From that year until 1919 he never failed to contribute. Many of his minor works were shown at the Dudley and later at the Grosvenor and New galleries, as well as with the old Water Colour Society; but his larger pictures, with a single exception, appeared at the Academy and can be dated from the catalogues. The first to attract attention was ‘Faithful unto Death’ (1865), now in the Liverpool Gallery. This was followed in 1867 by ‘Israel in Egypt’, which at once established the artist's fame. This immense work, now in the Guildhall Gallery, London, is characteristic of Poynter's aims and limitations throughout his career. In particular a tendency is manifest to overburden his subject with accessories, selected with extreme learning and taste and painted with great patience and in a sound and workmanlike style. In ‘The Catapult’ (1868) this is less marked; and the admirable drawing of the nudes places it amongst his best pictures. It secured his election as A.R.A. About this time he was engaged on several important decorative designs: the mosaic of St. George in the Houses of Parliament (1869); the tile-work in the grill-room at South Kensington Museum (1868–1870); a project for painting the semi-dome of the lecture theatre in the same museum (1871), unfortunately left unexecuted, as it would have been his finest achievement; and a fresco in St. Stephen's church, South Dulwich (1872–1873), which remains one of the few successful works in true fresco by an Englishman and is one of Poynter's most striking designs, especially the predella. He next undertook for the Earl of Wharncliffe the decoration of the billiard-room at Wortley Hall, a scheme combining four large oil-pictures in an ornamental setting; in these pictures, ‘Perseus and Andromeda’ (1872), ‘The Dragon of Wantley’ (1873), ‘Atalanta's Race’ (1876), and ‘Nausicaa and her Maidens’ (1879), he reached his highest level. He was elected R.A. in 1877.

On the foundation of the Slade chair and school at University College, London (1871), Poynter was chosen as professor. He took the opportunity to adopt in the new school the principles of French art education, of the superiority of which he had personal experience; but this revolutionary policy was not universally approved. It was in the face of much opposition that he established it firmly by securing on his retirement (July 1875) the election of his friend, Alphonse Legros [q.v.], as his successor, thus giving to English art teaching a direction which it still follows. His resignation was due to his acceptance of a still more influential position at South Kensington. As director for art, he became jointly responsible for the acquisition of specimens for the museum, a task for which the uncommon catholicity of his taste and his wide knowledge of art history peculiarly qualified him; as principal of the National Art Training School, he had to superintend the system of government art education elaborated by his predecessor, Richard Redgrave [q.v.], as well as to give personal instruction. He made considerable changes, again founded 439