Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brocky, Charles
BROCKY, CHARLES (1807–1855), portrait and subject painter, was born at Temeswar, in the Banat, Hungary. When between six and seven years of age he lost his mother. Her sister had married the manager of a company of strolling players, and Brocky's father, who had originally been a peasant, followed the theatrical party in the capacity of hairdresser. He had many difficulties and hardships to contend against in his youth, but succeeded in obtaining some instruction in art at a free drawing-school at Vienna, and afterwards studied in the Louvre at Paris. He settled in London about 1837-8, and enjoyed some practice as a miniature-painter. Among his sitters was the queen. Brocky exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1839 to 1854 both portraits and subject pieces, among the latter an oil picture entitled 'The Nymph,' and four representations of the Seasons. The British Museum possesses four heads drawn by him in red chalk, executed in a masterly style, and four others are at the South Kensington Museum. When at Vienna he painted a St. John the Baptist, an altar-piece, a full-length portrait of the Emperor of Austria, a St. Cecilia, and a St. John the Evangelist. Brocky died in London on 8 July 1855, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery.
[Wilkinson's Sketch of the Life of Charles Brocky, the Artist, 1870, 8vo.]