Philip Hermogenes Calderon was born at Poitiers, France on 3 May 1833. His mother was French and his father Juan Calderon was a professor of Spanish literature at King’s College, London and a former Roman Catholic priest, who had converted to Anglicanism. The young Calderon initially planned to study engineering, but became so interested in drawing technical figures and diagrams that he changed his mind and devoted his time to art. He studied at James M Leigh’s school in London in 1850, then in Paris at the studio of François-Edouard Picot. Henry Stacy Marks would later recall: ‘I was making a drawing from an antique figure in the British Museum, when a young man with a bright, intelligent face, dark eyes and a slight black moustache, looked over my shoulder for a minute or two and then addressed me in French. I had not long returned from Paris, which indeed must have been perceived by that quick-witted youth of seventeen. We entered into conversation and discovered a community of artistic interest; also that we both lived in St John’s Wood. In a short time, we became fast friends, and on my next trip to Paris, he accompanied me, and for a year studied under Picot.’ Calderon exhibited his first painting at the Royal Academy By the Waters of Babylon (London, Tate) in 1853 and thereafter became a regular exhibitor. He first made his name with his painting Broken Vows (Tate), exhibited in 1857. The painting depicts a woman overhearing through a garden fence her lover betraying her and was painted in the detailed, clean-cut style associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. It was successful with critics and public alike and was engraved in 1859. From the beginning, Calderon was inspired by the Pre-Raphaelites, and his work evinces the detail, deep colours, and realistic forms that characterise the style. Tall and possessed of a romantic appearance, Calderon was, as it were, a Spanish gentleman translated into English. He became a leading member of the St John’s Wood Clique, a group of artists interested in modern genre and historical subjects. Historical, biblical, and literary themes were common in his later work. Many of his pieces depict female forms wearing rich, silky clothing in gently-coloured landscapes. At the Paris International Exhibition of 1878 he was appointed by the French to the Legion D’Honneur. His Morning (1884) features a copper-haired maiden watching a sunrise. Calderon’s own studio records book states: ‘Morning was painted for the dining room of Mr John Aird – painted extremely light, as part of the dining room the painting is to be placed in is very dark. The price paid for the painting in 1884 was 750 guineas.’ His 1891 painting St Elizabeth of Hungary’s Great Act of Renunciation was purchased for the National Collection by the Chantrey Bequest, but caused considerable controversy in Catholic circles because of its perceived anti-Catholic message. St Elizabeth of Hungary (1207-31) was the wife of Lewis, Landgrave of Thuringia. After his death on the Crusades in 1227, she entered a convent and devoted herself to good works. Before becoming a nun, she passed through a spiritual crisis, torn by the need to renounce the world, and therefore her children, in order to fulfill her desire to serve God. Pressed by a domineering monk, Conrad, whose natural affections had been starved by celibacy, Elizabeth finally vowed that ‘naked and barefoot’ she would follow her ‘naked Lord’. Calderon’s picture depicts the moment of self-abasement. He took his subject from a play by Charles Kingsley, The Saint’s Tragedy, first published in 1848. His Juliet (1896) depicted Shakespeare’s young heroine seated on her balcony gazing at the stars. Calderon’s later paintings adopt more classical style, comparable to Poynter. His draughtsmanship, use of attractive colouring and interesting choice of subjects made him popular in his day. Calderon was elected ARA in 1864 and RA in 1867. (His Whither? may be found in the Royal Academy Diploma Collection). In 1887 he was appointed Keeper of the Royal Academy and moved in there. One of his duties was to supervise the RA Schools, and he was a much-loved mentor, known for his kindliness and encouragement to the RA’s students. He died on 30 April 1898. Examples of his work may be found in the collections of the Walker Art Gallery – Liverpool, Salford Art Gallery, Leeds City Art Gallery, Manchester City Art Gallery, Brooklyn Museum Of Art – USA, Yale Center For British Art – USA and the Hamburg Kunsthalle, Germany.