Prinsep, Valentine Cameron
PRINSEP, VALENTINE CAMERON (1838-1904), English artist, was born on the 4th of February 1838. His father, Henry Thoby Prinsep, who was for sixteen years a member of the Council of India, had settled at Little Holland House, which became a centre of artistic society. Henry Prinsep was an intimate friend of G. F. Watts, under whom his son first studied. Val Prinsep also worked in Paris in the atelier Gleyre; and " Taffy " in his friend Du Maurier's novel Trilby, is said to have been sketched from him. He was an intimate friend of Millais and of Burne-Jones, with whom he travelled in Italy. He had a share with Rossetti and others in the decoration of the hall of the Oxford Union. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1862 with his " Bianca Capella," his first picture, which attracted marked notice, being a portrait (1866) of General Gordon in Chinese costume; the best of his later exhibits were " A Versailles," " The Emperor Theophilus chooses his Wife," " The Broken Idol " arid " The Goose Girl." He was elected A.R.A. in 1879 and R.A. in 1894. In 1877 he went to India and painted a huge picture of the Delhi durbar, exhibited in 1880, and afterwards hung at Buckingham Palace. He married in 1884 Florence, daughter of the well-known collector, Frederick Leyland. Prinsep wrote two plays, Cousin Dick and Monsieur le Due, produced at the Court and the St James's theatres respectively; two novels; and Imperial India: an Artist's Journal (1879). He was an enthusiastic volunteer, and one of the founders of the Artists' Corps. He died on the nth of November 1904.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
