Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fielding, Theodore Henry Adolphus

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824313Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 18 — Fielding, Theodore Henry Adolphus1889Lionel Henry Cust

FIELDING, THEODORE HENRY ADOLPHUS (1781–1851), painter, engraver, and author, was eldest son of Nathan Theodore Fielding [q. v.] Like his brothers he painted in water-colours, and in 1799 sent to the Royal Academy ‘A View of the North Tyne, near Billingham, Northumberland.’ In 1814 he sent to the British Institution ‘A Sleeping Bacchus.’ He continued to exhibit at both exhibitions, but it is sometimes difficult to distinguish his works from those of his younger brother, Thales Fielding [q. v.] He was appointed teacher of drawing and perspective at the East India Company's Military College at Addiscombe, and resided at Croydon, in the neighbourhood, until his death, which occurred on 11 July 1851, at the age of seventy. Fielding worked also in stipple and aquatint, and published numerous sets of engravings in the latter style, including a set of views as illustrations to ‘Excursion sur les côtes et dans les ports de Normandie,’ after Bonington and others; ‘Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire Illustrated’ (44 plates, 1822); ‘A Series of Views in the West Indies’ (1827); ‘Ten Aquatint Coloured Engravings from a work containing 48 Subjects of Landscape Scenery, principally Views in or near Bath, painted by Benjamin Barker’ (1824); ‘British Castles; or, a Compendious History of the Ancient Military Structures of Great Britain’ (1825); ‘A Picturesque Tour of the River Wye, from its Source to its Junction with the Severn, from Drawings by Copley Fielding.’ Fielding also published some important works on the practice of art—viz. ‘On Painting in Oil and Water-colours for Landscape or Portraits,’ ‘Index of Colours and Mixed Tints’ (1830), ‘On the Theory of Painting’ (1836), ‘Synopsis of Practical Perspective, lineal and aerial, with Remarks on Sketching from Nature’ (1829), ‘The Knowledge and Restoration of Oil-paintings, the Modes of Judging between Copies and Originals, and a brief Life of the principal Masters in the different Schools of Painting’ (1847), and ‘The Art of Engraving, with the various Modes of Operation,’ &c. (1844); the last-named work has been for the most part reprinted in Hoe's edition of Maberly's ‘Print Collector’ (1880).

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Catalogues of the Royal Academy and the British Institution; Gent. Mag. (1851), pt. ii. p. 330; South Kensington Cat. of Works on Art; Brit. Mus. Cat.]

L. C.