Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Third Supplement.djvu/489

 maturity of her husband's character and the lasting youthfulness of her own. They had one son and one daughter.

Lady Ritchie wrote a number of novels, some of which, notably The Village on the Cliff (1867) and Old Kensington (1873), deserved and obtained a considerable popularity. But her real bent was rather to memoirs and biographical sketches; and it is in social life rather than in literature that her position was unique. For seventy years, almost from the nursery until her death, she knew nearly everybody of literary, artistic, or musical note; and her eye for picturesque detail combined with her quick sympathy and unquenchable interest in character-study gave distinction to all her work. To this she contributed the life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning; and through her brother-in-law, Sir Leslie Stephen, and her friend, Reginald Smith, she gave valuable information and assistance to other contributors. The Blackstick Papers (1908) and From the Porch (1913) are the best-known volumes of her essays. The latter contains the address which she delivered in January 1913 as president of the English Association, remarkable for its fine appreciation of Mrs. Oliphant, the novelist. In 1914 Lady Ritchie sat to J. S. Sargent for a black-and-white portrait, subscribed for by her friends; this is now in the possession of her daughter. She died 26 February 1919 at Freshwater, Isle of Wight.

 RIVIERE, BRITON (1840–1920), painter, the youngest child of William Riviere [q.v.] by his wife, Ann, daughter of Joseph Jarvis, of Atherston, Warwickshire, was born in London 14 August 1840. The family, which originally bore the name of Nerac, came to England from the Bordeaux district after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Briton Riviere's mother was a good musician and had some talent for drawing. His grandfather, Daniel Valentine Riviere, his uncle, Henry Parsons Riviere [q.v.], as well as his father, were painters and teachers of drawing, and altogether nine bearers of the name, including his wife, are to be found in the list of exhibitors at the Royal Academy. Another uncle, Robert Riviere [q.v.], was a well-known book-binder. Briton received his education and his first training in art at Cheltenham College, where his father was drawing-master. From thence he sent in 1851 and 1852 to the exhibitions at the British Institution, two little oil-paintings of kittens. In 1858, with ‘The Broken Chain’, he began the series of works annually shown at the Royal Academy, with one short interruption of four years, till the end of his long life; the last picture, ‘Michael’, an old shepherd with his dog, was sent in a fortnight before he died.

Between 1860 and 1863 Riviere was attracted, mainly under the influence of his future brother-in-law, Clarence Dobell, by the aims and methods of the pre-Raphaelites. He painted, in accordance with their principles, ‘Elaine on the Barge’, ‘Hamlet and Ophelia’, and other pictures, all in turn rejected by the Academy, which had previously shown itself appreciative of his work. Helped by his experience to realize his own congenial sphere, the painter returned to the path by which he was to reach artistic and popular success. Meanwhile his parents had moved in 1859 from Cheltenham to Oxford. In 1863 Briton matriculated at St. Mary Hall. The authorities did not require him to reside, and he continued to live and paint under his father's roof, while reading for a degree. He took his B.A. in 1866 and his M.A. in 1873. In 1867 he married. His wife was Mary Alice, sister of Clarence and Sydney Thompson Dobell [q.v.], and daughter of John Dobell, of Detmore, a property, near Cheltenham, which figures as ‘Longfield’ in John Halifax, Gentleman. The young couple lived first at Keston, Kent, and then at Bromley. In 1871 they moved to London, and finally settled at 82 Finchley Road.

Life in London brought Riviere the stimulating friendship of other painters. He became closely attached to, and much influenced by, the artists of the new Scottish school, Orchardson, Pettie, Peter Graham, and MacWhirter. It is not too much to say that his first conception of a colour scheme, instead of a black and white scheme, as a basis for a picture came to him from them, and that his fine use of broken, shimmering colour was developed by his association with these friends. Besides exhibiting in oil and water-colour at the Royal Academy, the Dudley Gallery, and later, the Grosvenor Gallery, 463