Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/434

 to an English artist. When it appeared at Christie's in the year of the artist's death it fetched a sum considerably below its original price. It was included, with 'Aphrodite,' in the winter exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1901. In 'Home after Victory' (1867) the background was a careful study of the courtyard at Hever Castle, Kent, which the painter had occupied for three months in 1866 with his artist friends, Mr. W. F. Yeames (now R.A.) and D. W. Wynfield (d. 1887). These three, with the addition of Mr. George D. Leslie, R.A., Mr. George A. Storey, R.A., and the late academicians, Henry Stacy Marks and John Evan Hodgson [q. V. Suppl.], composed a group which was known from about 1862 to 1887, when its members were dispersed, as the 'St. John's Wood school' or 'clique.' All the members except Mr. Leslie and Mr. Yeames had been, like Calderon, pupils at Leigh's; they looked up to him as their leader, and he was the organiser of many outings and social entertainments in which the 'clique' took part (, Pen and Pencil Sketches, 1894, i. chap. 9-10).

Calderon's chief academy picture of 1868 was 'The Young Lord Hamlet riding on Yorick's Back;' it was accompanied by 'Œnone' and 'Whither.' The last-named picture, painted at Hever, was the painter's diploma work, for he had been elected an academician on 22 June 1867. In 1869 he exhibited 'Sighing his Soul into his Lady's Face,' and in 1870 'Spring driving away Winter.' 'On her Way to the Throne' appeared in 1871. Later works of importance were 'A High-born Maiden,' 'Les Coquettes, Aries,' 'The Queen of the Tournaments,' and 'Home they brought her Warrior dead' (1877). The last-named work was exhibited, with six others, at the Paris exhibition of 1878, when Calderon obtained another gold medal and the decoration of the legion of honour.

Calderon had been exhibiting meanwhile at other galleries in England. 'Drink to me only with thine Eyes' appeared with other pictures at the French Gallery, while 'Aphrodite' was one of the best of his Grosvenor Gallery pictures. Calderon, too, like other members of the 'St. John's Wood school,' took a prominent part in the exhibitions — of water-colours in the spring and oil-paintings in the winter — which were held at the Dudley Gallery from 1864 to 1882. After 1870 he returned to the practice of portrait-painting and exhibited many portraits at the Royal Academy, among the most remarkable of which were those of Stacy Marks and the Marquis and Marchioness of Waterford, In 1887 Calderon was elected keeper of the Royal Academy, in which capacity he was closely concerned with the management of the academy schools, so that he found less time thenceforth for painting. As this appointment carried with it an official residence in Burlington House, Calderon now left St. John's Wood, where he had resided in Marlborough Road, Grove End Road, and elsewhere, ever since his return from Paris. In 1889 he exhibited 'Home,' and in 1891 the most famous of his later works, 'The Renunciation of St. Elizabeth of Hungary,' a subject from Kingsley's 'Saint's Tragedy,' which was purchased for 1,200l. by the council of the Royal Academy out of the funds of the Chantrey bequest. The representation of the saint as a nude figure kneeling before the altar gave great offence, especially in Roman catholic circles. The picture is now in the National Gallery of British Art, Millbank. Other late pictures were 'Elizabeth Woodville parting with the Duke of York' (1893), now in the Queensland Art Gallery at Brisbane; 'Ariadne' (1895); 'The Olive,' 'The Vine,' and 'The Flowers of the Earth,' decorative subjects painted for the dining-room of Sir John Aird, M.P., at 14 Hyde Park Terrace; 'Ruth' and 'The Answer' (1897).

After a protracted illness Calderon died at Burlington House on 30 April 1898, and was buried on 4 May at Kensal Green cemetery.

By his marriage, which took place in May 1860, with Clara, daughter of James Payne Storey and sister of Mr. G. A. Storey, R.A., Calderon left two daughters and six sons, the third of whom is the painter, Mr. William Frank Calderon, director of the well-known school of animal painting and anatomy in Baker Street. The portrait of Calderon, still in the possession of the painter, Mr. G. F. Watts, R.A., is that of a man of distinguished and picturesque appearance, showing his Spanish blood.

Calderon's admirable draughtsmanship and sound technique secured the esteem of artists for his work. He probably owed much of his popularity with the general public to his choice of subjects. Most of his pictures tell a story, usually one of his own invention, sometimes a subject from history or literature. He resembled Millais in his power of representing a dramatic or pathetic incident, usually with few actors on the scene, with a simplicity which appealed at once to the intelligence and the sympathy of the crowd which frequents the Royal Academy exhibitions. The success of his pictures