Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Corbould, Edward Henry
CORBOULD, EDWARD HENRY (1815–1905), water-colour painter, born in London on 5 Dec. 1815, was son of Henry Corbould [q. v.], historical painter and draughtsman, and grandson of Richard Corbould [q. v.], portrait, landscape, and historical painter, and designer of book illustrations. He was a pupil of Henry Sass, and a student of the Royal Academy. In 1834, 1835, and 1836 he won gold medals of the Society of Arts, in 1834 with a water-colour of the 'Fall of Phaethon,' and in the last two years with models of 'St. George and the Dragon' (collection of Dr. Victor Corbould) and a 'Chariot Race, from Homer' (now in the possession of Mrs. G. H. Hey wood). His first exhibits in the Royal Academy in 1835 included a model ('Cyllarus and Hylonome'), but he did not pursue the art of sculpture for long. It is interesting, however, to note that in 1889, when the London corporation invited various artists to submit designs for four pieces of sculpture for Blackfriars bridge (a project never carried out), he produced four drawings of colossal groups, which are still in the possession of Dr. Victor Corbould. The main work of his life was in water-colour, in which he produced a large number of subjects illustrating literature (chiefly Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare), history, and daily life. He continued to the end even in his larger subjects to paint in the careful stippled manner that is more adapted to miniature portrait and illustration; and only a small proportion of his pictures are in oil (e.g. 'The Canterbury Pilgrims,' R.A. 1874, in the possession of Dr. Victor Corbould). He started exhibiting at the New Water Colour Society (later the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours) in 1837, becoming a member of that body in the same year. One of the most important of his early exhibits at this society, 'The Canterbury Pilgrims assembled at the old Tabard Inn' (1840), is now at Norbury Park, Dorking. In 1842 his water-colour of 'The Woman taken in Adultery' was purchased by the Prince Consort, and nine years later he was appointed 'instructor of historical painting to the royal family.' He continued for twenty-one years teaching various members of the royal family, and many of his best works were acquired by Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and his royal pupils, e.g. an illustration of Tennyson's 'Morte d'Arthur' (now in Kensington Palace), presented by Queen Victoria to Princess Louise, and 'Henry VI welcomed to London after his Coronation in Paris,' and 'The Iconoclasts of Basle,' acquired by the Empress Frederick and still in the imperial collection, Berlin. Apart from the royal collections, one of the largest collections of his works was that of George Strutt of Belper. Corbould exhibited in all about 250 drawings at the Royal Institute, only retiring from active membership in 1898. He also produced a large number of designs (chiefly subjects of fancy and_romance) for book illustration, e.g. in the Abbotsford edition of the ‘Waverley Novels’ (Cadell, 1841–6), and in Black's edition of the same (1852–3), Spenser's ‘Faerie Queen’ and Chaucer's ‘Canterbury Tales’ (Routledge, 1853), Tupper's ‘Proverbial Philosophy’ (1854), Willmott's ‘Poets of the Nineteenth Century’ (1857), ‘Merrie Days of England’ (1858–9), and in periodicals such as ‘London Society,’ the ‘Churchman's Family Magazine,’ ‘Cassell's Magazine,’ and the ‘Illustrated London News.’ He died at Kensington on 18 Jan. 1905.
He was thrice married: (1) on 28 Sept. 1839 to Fanny Jemima (d. 1850), daughter of the engraver Charles Heath [q. v.], by whom he had three daughters, one of whom, Isabel Fanny (Mrs. G. H. Heywood), has two daughters who are artists, Mrs. Eveline Corbould-Ellis and Mrs. Weatherley; (2) on 7 Aug. 1851 to Anne Middleton Wilson (d. 1866), by whom he had two sons, Ridley Edward Arthur Lamothe (1854–1887) and Victor Albert Louis Edward (b. 1866); (3) on 15 Jan. 1868 to Anne Melis Sanders, by whom he had one son and one daughter.
The only painting preserved in a public gallery is a water-colour of ‘Lady Godiva’ in the National Gallery of New South Wales. The following are among the more important prints after his paintings: ‘The Canterbury Pilgrims assembled at the old Tabard Inn’ (mezzotint by C. E. Wagstaff, 1843); ‘Henry VI welcomed to London after his Coronation’ (engraved by E. Webb, 1847; the original now in Berlin); ‘My Chickens for Sale’ (1847), ‘Maid of the Mill’ (1849), and ‘Valentine's Eve’ (1850) (mezzotints by Samuel Bellin); ‘Happy as a Queen’ (1852), and ‘The Wood Nymph’ (mezzotints by W. H. Egleton, 1855); ‘The Fairy Well’ (mezzotint by J. E. Coombs, 1855); ‘Lady Godiva’ (mezzotint by J. J. Chant, 1860); ‘The Queen of the Tournament’ (mezzotint by T. W. Huffam); ‘The Plague of London’ (one of the Westminster Hall Cartoons, lithograph by Frank Howard); portrait of the Prince Consort (lithograph by R. J. Lane, 1862).
A miniature portrait of Corbould by his grand-daughter, Mrs. Weatherley, is in the possession of Dr. Victor Corbould.
[The Biograph and Review, vol. iii. no. 16 (April 1880); M. H. Spielmann in the Daily Graphic, 19 Jan. 1905; Daily Chronicle, 21 Jan. 1905; A. Graves, Dictionary of Artists (1895) and Royal Academy Exhibitors; Lists of the Printsellers' Association; Gleeson White, English Illustration: The Sixties, 1897; The Brothers Dalziel, 1901; information supplied by Dr. Victor Corbould.]