Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Richmond, Thomas

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663677Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 48 — Richmond, Thomas1896Albert Nicholson

RICHMOND, THOMAS (1771–1837), miniature-painter, was son of Thomas Richmond, originally of Bawtry, and of an old Yorkshire family. The father was ‘groom of the stables’ to the Duke of Gloucester, and afterwards the proprietor of the Coach and Horses at Kew, where the artist was born in 1771. His mother, Ann Bone, was a cousin of George Engleheart [q. v.], ‘miniature-painter to the king.’ Thomas consequently became Engleheart's pupil, and was employed by the royal family in copying miniatures by his master and Cosway. He also copied in miniature size many of the portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds in the possession of royalty. His original and unsigned miniatures are numerous. Some are on ivory, others are on paper, and in many cases full or half length, with the head in colours and the rest in pencil. Though the pose of some of his figures is in the stiff manner usual at the time, the portraits are lifelike, and the drawing and expression excellent. In later years Richmond lived in the centre of fashion, 42 Half-Moon Street, Mayfair. He died in 1837, and was buried in Paddington churchyard, near the grave of Mrs. Siddons. From 1795 to 1825 he exhibited forty-six miniatures at the Royal Academy. An early portrait of Richmond became the property of Frederick W. Farrer, esq., who married his granddaughter. One of his miniatures, a portrait of his wife (Ann Oram), taken in 1808, was engraved by William Holl, jun. His younger son, George [q. v.], to whom many of his works passed, is noticed separately.

His eldest son, Thomas, born in 1802, practised for many years as a miniature-painter in Sheffield and afterwards in London. He had a large connection among hunting men. He visited Rome with his brother George in 1840, and there made Mr. Ruskin's acquaintance. He died in 1874 at Windermere, where he had purchased an estate, but was buried in Brompton cemetery, London. He exhibited fifty-one portraits at the London exhibitions between 1822 and 1860—forty-five at the Royal Academy and six at the Suffolk Street gallery.

[Information kindly supplied by Canon T. K. Richmond; Graves's Dict. of Artists; Redgrave's Artists of the English School.]

A. N.