Henry William Pickersgill, a painter, was born in London on 3 December 1782. He was adopted early in life by a Mr Hall, a silk manufacturer in Spitalfields, who sent him to a school at Poplar, and at the age of 16, placed him in his own business. However, the war with Revolutionary France caused a decline in the silk trade and Pickersgill, who had already imbibed a love of painting and displayed some skill in draughtsmanship, then determined to adopt painting as a profession. He was a pupil of George Arnald, ARA, from 1802 to 1805. In November 1805, he obtained entry to the Royal Academy as a student, having obtained an introduction to Fuseli, the RA’s Keeper, through a surgeon who had attended on him during a severe illness. Pickersgill at first painted, besides portraits, historical subjects or those from poetry and mythology. He exhibited for the first time at the RA in 1806, sending a portrait of Mr Hall, in 1808 one of himself, and in 1809 one of Mrs W Hall. Subsequently, he devoted himself almost entirely to portrait painting. He was for over 60 years a constant and prolific exhibitor at the RA, where 384 of his paintings were shown at one time or another. He was elected ARA in 1822 and RA in 1826. His Diploma Work was The Oriental Love Letter (1824). The painting depicts a woman dressed in richly embroidered clothing and was presumably set in a harem. She wears an abundant collection of pearls and this, along with the recently received flowers, implies that the woman was favoured. Flowers were used as a method of communication by symbolically chosen bouquets. A verse by Lord Byron alluding to this was included in the catalogue when Pickersgill first exhibited this work in 1824: ‘the token-flowers that tell, What words can never speak so well, By love’s alternate joy and woe.’ The painting’s subject matter reflected a growing interest in the East in the first half of the 19th century and particularly in scenes from the harem, which greatly intrigued the Victorian public. Pickersgill’s wife Maria published the book Tales of the Harem in 1827. Many of Pickersgill’s subject-pictures, as well as his portraits, were engraved. After the death of Thomas Phillips in 1845, Pickersgill obtained almost a monopoly of painting the portraits of eminent figures. In this way, he painted nearly all the most celebrated people of his time. He had a studio for some time in Soho Square, and latterly in Stratford Place, Oxford Street, where hardly a day passed without some person of distinction crossing the threshold. In the National Portrait Gallery there are portraits by him of Wordsworth, William Godwin, Jeremy Bentham, M G Lewis, Hannah More, George Stephenson, and Judge Talfourd. For Sir Robert Peel he painted Richard Owen, Cuvier, Humboldt, and Hallam; and for Lord Hill a portrait of General Lord Hill, and a full-length portrait of the Duke of Wellington. His portrait of Mr Vernon passed, with Pickersgill’s picture of A Syrian Maid in the Vernon collection, to the National Gallery. There are numerous portraits by Pickersgill in the college halls at Oxford. His portrait of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (in the possession of Mr Moulton Barrett) was in the Victorian Exhibition at the New Gallery in 1892; and also those of Faraday (Royal Institution), Sir John Herschel (St. John’s College, Cambridge), Dr Robert Brown (Linnean Society), and J G Lockhart (John Murray). It has been remarked that Pickersgill was a competent painter, and could catch a likeness; but his portraits, if solid and straightforward, lack finesse and distinction. In 1856, on the death of T Uwins, RA, he gained the appointment of Librarian to the RA, holding that post until his death. By that time an exceedingly wealthy man by his industry, Pickersgill exhibited for the last time in 1872. He placed himself on the list of retired academicians in 1873 and died at his house at Barnes on 21 April 1875, at the great age of 93. In his will, Pickersgill left a bequest to the RNLI. The lifeboat HENRY WILLIAM PICKERSGILL, RA, which served on Dover Station in the period 1878-88, was funded by the bequest. Two version of Pickersgill’s self-portrait may be found in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The Tate Gallery has his A Syrian Maid (1837); A Nun and the Portrait of Robert Vernon (1846). His portrait of that great sailor Rear-Admiral Sir Alexander John Ball may be found in the Greenwich Hospital Collection of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.