Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rippingille, Edward Villiers
RIPPINGILLE, EDWARD VILLIERS (1798?–1859), painter and writer on art, stated to have been born in 1798, was son of a farmer at King's Lynn in Norfolk, and as an artist was self-taught. In 1813 he exhibited a small subject-picture, ‘Enlisting,’ at the Royal Academy. In the ensuing years he met with some success, exhibiting ‘A Scene in a Gaming House,’ ‘A Country Post Office,’ and similar subjects. He next turned his attention to representations of English domestic and rural life, such as ‘Going to the Fair,’ ‘A Recruiting Party,’ &c., and a series of six pictures entitled ‘The Progress of Drunkenness.’ In 1837 Rippingille went to Rome, where he devoted himself to Italian subjects until 1846. He then returned home and resumed pictures of English life. In 1843 he was a competitor at the Westminster Cartoon Exhibition, and gained one of the prizes. Rippingille was also a writer and lecturer on art subjects, and contributed stories and articles to ‘Bentley's Magazine,’ the ‘Art Journal,’ and other periodicals. In 1843 he started an art periodical entitled ‘The Artist's and Amateur's Magazine,’ which had a short career. Rippingille's writings and criticisms on art and artists were tinged with an egotism and prejudice which not unfrequently gave offence. He died suddenly on 22 April 1859 of heart disease at the railway station of Swan Village in Shropshire. There is a picture by him in the Sheepshanks collection at the South Kensington Museum.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Art Journal, 1859, p. 187; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1893.]