Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 47.djvu/386

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Redgrave
380
Redgrave

at Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, Hampton Court, and other royal residences, in thirty-four manuscript volumes. In 1869 he was offered the honour of knighthood, which he declined, but on his retirement from office in 1880 he was created a C.B. He had previously, in 1875, resigned the directorship of the art division of the education department, to which he was promoted in 1874. He was awarded a special pension as a recognition of the great services which he had rendered to the science and art department. The presentation of the Sheepshanks collection of pictures and the Ellison collection of water-colour drawings was mainly due to his influence.

Redgrave died at 27 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington, London, on 14 Dec. 1888, his eyesight having gradually failed for some time previously. He was buried in Brompton cemetery.

There are two portraits of him in the possession of his family: a small one painted by himself when young, and another, life-sized, painted by Mr. Arthur S. Cope in 1880.

Redgrave was joint-author with his brother Samuel of 'A Century of Painters of the English School,' published in 1866, and wrote also 'An Elementary Manual of Colour,' 1853, and the introduction and biographical notices to a series of autotypes issued as 'The Sheepshanks Gallenr in 1870. A 'Manual of Design,' compiled from his writings and addresses, was published in 1876 by his son, Mr. Gilbert R. Redgrave, chief senior inspector of the National Art Training School. Ten pictures in oil by him, and a number of studies and sketches in watercolours and in chalk and pencil, are in the South Kensington Museum.

[Richard Redgrave, C.B., R.A., a Memoir compiled from his diary by his daughter, Miss F. M. Redgrave, with portrait, 1891; Art Journal, 1850, p. 48, autobiographical sketch, with portrait, and 1859, pp. 205–7; Sandby's History of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1862, ii. 290–4; Men of the Time, 1887; Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves and Armstrong, 1886–9, ii. 770; Royal Academy Exhibition Catalogues, 1825–83; British Institution Exhibition Catalogues (Living Artists), 1832–59; Exhibition Catalogues of the Society of British Artists, 1829–79.]

R. E. G.


REDGRAVE, SAMUEL (1802–1876), writer on art, eldest son of William Redgrave, and brother of Richard Redgrave [q. v.], was born at 9 Upper Eaton Street, Pimlico, London, on 3 Oct. 1802. When about fourteen Samuel obtained a clerkship in connection with the home office, and in his leisure time studied French, German, and Spanish, and practised watercolour-painting and architectural drawing, so far as to be admitted in 1833 an architectural student of the Royal Academy. He subsequently received a permanent appointment in the home office, and rendered important service in connection with the registration of criminal offences. In 1836 he acted as secretary to the constabulary force commission, and in May 1839 became assistant private secretary to Lord John Russell, and then to Fox Maule, afterwards second Baron Panmure [q. v.], until September 1841. Later on, from December 1852 to February 1856, he was private secretary to Henry Fitzroy (1807-1859) [q. v.] During the tenure of the home office by Sir George Grey he prepared, by direction of his chief, a volume entitled 'Some Account of the Powers, Authorities, and Duties of Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department,' which was printed for official use in 1852. This work fed him to compile 'Murray's Official Handbook of Church and State,' which was published in 1852 and again in 1855.

He retired from the public service in 1860, and devoted the rest of his life to the advancement of art. He had been secretary to the Etching Club since 1842, and had thus been brought in contact with many leading artists. At the International exhibition of 1862 the water-colour gallery was arranged by him, and the loan collection of miniatures exhibited at the South Kensington Museum in 1865 was due to his initiation and management. The National Portrait exhibitions of 1866, 1867, and 1868 also owed much to his exertions, and the gallery of British art in the Paris International exhibition of 1867 was under his direction. He likewise acted as secretary to the committee which carried out the exhibitions of the works of old masters and deceased British artists held at the Royal Academy from 1870, but retired on the appointment of a lay secretary to the academy in 1873.

His earliest contribution to the literature of art was 'A Century of Painters of the British School,' written conjointly with his brother Richard, and first published in 1866. This was followed in 1874 by his valuable 'Dictionary of Artists of the English School,' and in 1877 by a 'Descriptive Catalogue of the Historical Collection of Water-colour Paintings in the South Kensington Museum,' on which he was engaged at the time of his death. He also compiled the 'Catalogue of the Loan Exhibition of Fans,' 1870, which was followed by 'Fans of all Countries,' a