The directory «Artists»

Eastlake Charles Locke
(1793–1865)

English painter, born in Plymouth. Eastlake trained at the Royal Academy schools but he supplemented this experience with a period of study in Paris. Over the period 1813–30 he toured throughout Italy. In 1818 a visit to Greece completed his introduction to classical culture and he set out on a career as a history painter. However, it was as a painter of portraits and of the Romantic peasant genre that he became known. On returning to Plymouth in 1815 he had the opportunity to see Napoleon while detained there on board the Bellerophon before he was sent to St Helena. The full-length oil portrait he painted of the ex-emperor won him celebrity and a considerable sum of money from its public exhibition, and it was the only portrait of Napoleon painted from life by a British artist. The picture is striking in its innovative composition, hard, glossy paint, colour and lighting. Eastlake moved from Plymouth to London, where he was elected a Royal Academician in 1830. In 1842 he was Secretary to the Fine Arts Commission. In addition, he held the post of librarian of the Royal Academy from 1842–44 before becoming President of the Royal Academy and Director of the National Gallery.

Ajman, 1972, Napoleon on board the «Bellerophon»

Manama, 1972, Napoleon on board the «Bellerophon»