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lege, Sandhurst, and afterwards settled with his family at Kensington. The son was placed in a large commercial house ; but he had a natural genius for art, and in 1796 entered as a student at the Royal Academy, and there, in 1800, he exhibited his first picture, ' Banditti at their Repast/ followed by * A Landscape ' and ' Fortune Telling ; ' and then, in 1804 and 1805, several works— all landscapes. Up to this time his art had been in oil ; but in 1806 he became an exhibitor, and in 1808 a full member, of the Water-Colour Society and then produced works which gave him a distinguished position as a water-colour painter. On the alterations which took place in the Society in 1813 he was among the seceders.
He had continued to send an oil-painting to the Academy — his secession was proba- bly influenced by the desire to seek Aca- demy honours ; and in 1816 he exhibited his 'Napoleon on board the " Bellerophon ." ' a fine work, which he presented to the gallery at Greenwich Hospital. In 1819 Be exhibited a work of great power, now in the South Kensington Museum — 'A View of Hastings.' He continued to ex- hibit both landscape and genre subjects of great merit and interest, original Both in their conception and treatment. It was not till 1827 that he gamed his election as associate, and his election as academician was deferred till 1841. Among his later works were, 'Gil Bias in the Robbers' Cave,' 1843 ; and ' Arrival of the Steam- packet at Folkestone/ in the following year.
In 1847 he was suddenly seized with paralysis, his powers and health gradually declined, and a long and wearisome illness terminated fatally on November 14, 1854. During a career of nearly 50 years he painted few pictures. His art met with tittle encouragement, and he was engaged part of his time in teaching. With nis hrother Alfred he was the centre of a group of distinguished men of their profession. He published, in 1820, 'Sketches from Parisian Manners ' — humorous in their treatment, but not caricatures.
CHALON, Alfred Edward, R.A., portrait and subject painter. Was the younger brother of the above, and was fWo born at Geneva, February 15, ]&£. Like J him, he was intended for a commercial life, but the drudgery was distasteful, and with the consent of his father he com- menced the study of art, for which his talents eminently fitted him, and entered the schools of the Academy in 1797. He became a member of the short-lived Society of Associated Artists in Water- Colours in 1808 ; and in the same year, with his brother and a few friends, founded 'The Sketching Society/ for the study and
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practice of composition. In 1810 he ex- hibited his first picture at the Royal Academy. He was elected an associate of the Academy in 1812 and a full member in 1816. He then, and for many years after- wards, was the most fashionable portrait painter in water-colours. His full-length portraits in this manner, usually about 15 mches high, were full of character, painted with a dashing grace, and never common- place ; the draperies and accessories drawn with great spirit and elegance, imitations of all the vagaries that fashion can commit in lace and silk. He also painted, among his earlier works, some good miniatures in ivory. Many of his drawings of the cele- brated operatic singers and dancers of his day were engraved. He held the appoint- ment of painter in water-colours to the Queen.
But his genius was not limited to water- colours or to portraiture. He painted many fine subject pictures in oil. Among others, he exhibited, in 1831, ' Hunt the Slipper/ a large composition, filled with well-grouped figures m action ; in 1837, 'John Knox reproving the Ladies of Queen Mary's Court,' which was en- graved ; in 1847, * Serena ; ' and in 1857, 'Sophia Western ; ' with many others. He had a great power of imitating the styles of the great painters, particularly of Watteau, whose works he greatly admired. In 1855 a collection of his works, together with his late brother's, was exhibited in the rooms of the Society of Arts in the Adelphi. He had made a large collection of drawings and sketches by himself, and he possessed the chief of his brother's works, which had found no purchasers, all of which he proposed in 1859 to give to the inhabitants of Hampstead, with some endowment for the maintenance of the collection; but they were unable to pro- vide a suitable building for its exhibition. He then offered the collection to the Government, but no arrangement was come to, when he died suddenly, though he had been sometime unwell, on October 3, 1860.
He had retired to an old house at Camp- den Hill, Kensington, with his brother, where both died, and after passing a long unmarried life inseparably together, were buried in the same grave in the Highgate Cemetery. French m his manner, he was a true Englishman at heart; an active host, a witty companion, full of the gossip of his profession ; and an accomplished musician.
CHALON, Henry Bernard, animal painter. Born 1770. His father was a native of Amsterdam, in no way related to the foregoing two painters of the same name. He came early in life to London, where he practised and was living in 1793.
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