Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 3).djvu/594



R. WILLIAM POWELL FRITH|WILLIAM POWELL FRITH was born at Studley, near Ripon, and at sixteen entered Sass's academy. At nineteen he painted, among other pictures, a very fine portrait of himself, which we have here the pleasure of reproducing. At the very early age of twenty-seven he was elected an A.R.A., becoming an R.A. at thirty-three, by which time his realistic and dramatic power had made him perhaps the most widely popular of all English artists. His "Coming of Age," "Ramsgate Sands," "The Railway Station," and "The Derby Day," are known by engravings from castle to cottage throughout the land. When "The Derby Day" was exhibited at the Royal Academy it had to be protected from the pressure of the crowd by a barrier—the first occasion in which such a precaution was required. Mr. Frith's admirable "Reminiscences" have placed him at the head of living writers of autobiographies.