Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Ansdell, Richard
ANSDELL, Richard, R.A., was born at Liverpool in 1815, and educated at the Bluecoat School of that town. Having determined to adopt painting as a profession, he first distinguished himself by the painting of animals and sports of the field, with occasionally an outdoor historical subject. The earliest pictures he exhibited at the Royal Academy (1840) were "Grouse Shooting " and "A Galloway Farm, the Property of the Marquis of Bute." In the following year he exhibited "The Earl of Sefton and party returning from Shooting." In 1842 his "Death of Sir W. Lambton at the Battle of Marston Moor" attracted notice by its spirited treatment. In 1843 appeared "The Death," a scene in the deer-hunt; in 1844 "Mary, Queen of Scots, returning from the chase to Stirling Castle;" and, in 1845, "Fox-hunting in the North," a portrait group of Mr. James Machell, of Windermere, and his family. In 1846 Mr. Ansdell exhibited for the first time at the British Institution, the subject of his picture being "The Drover's Halt—Isle of Mull in the Distance;" and the same year he sent to the Royal Academy "The Stag at Bay." In the following year at the Academy appeared "The Combat," a companion to the last picture; and in 1848 "The Battle of the Standard." In 1856 Mr. Ansdell accompanied Mr. Phillip, R.A., to Spain; and again, in the following year, he journeyed there alone, making the province of Seville his sketching ground. In 1857 he exhibited "The Water Carrier" and "Mules Drinking"; in 1858 "The Road to Seville," and "The Spanish Shepherd;" in 1859 "Isla Mayor—Banks of the Guadalquivir," and "The Spanish Flower Seller." In 1860 he made a slight diversion to English subjects in "The Lost Shepherd" and "Buy a Dog, Ma'am?"; but in the next year he again showed his attachment to Spanish life and scenery. On three occasions Mr. Ansdell received the "Heywood medal" for his works exhibited at Manchester; and a gold medal was awarded to him for pictures in the Paris Exhibition of 1855—"The Wolf-slayer" and "Turning the Drove." He was elected A.R.A. June 29, 1861. In that year he exhibited "Hunted Slaves" and "Old Friends"; and in 1862 "Excelsior," a traveller, half buried in the snow, found by the monks of St. Bernard. His more recent exhibits include:—"Goatherds—Bay of Gibraltar," 1874; "The Intruders," "Quarrying in the Highlands, Loch Laggan"; "A Fête Day: Going to a Bull Fight at San Roque, Gibraltar," 1875; "After a Spate," "The Cattle are in the Corn," 1876; "The Home of the Red Deer," 1877; "Fifty Years Ago": before the Salmon Act, 1878; "The Stray Lamb," "A Storm in the Glen," 1879; "The Farm of the Alhambra," 1881; "Returning from the Fair at Seville," "The Vega of Granada: returning from pasture"; "A Timid Visitor," "Collecting Sheep for Clipping in the Highlands," "A Warm Corner," 1882; "The Vega of Granada: the Alhambra in the distance," "The Scare," "Water-carriers of the Alhambra," and "Hunting the Boar," 1883. Mr. Ansdell was elected a Royal Academician in 1870.