Biography of Egley, William Maw (English painter, 1826-1916)
| Name | Egley, William Maw (English painter, 1826-1916) |
| Person type | Artist/Maker |
| Biographical notes | William Maw Egley was one of a number of Victorian artists who, during the 1850s and 1860s, specialised in painting scenes of everyday life. He was a friend of the famous genre painter W. P Frith with whom he had collaborated by painting the backgrounds of several of his pictures. This association may well have influenced his choice of subjects and style during this period. Egley was born in 1826 and died in 1916. His father William Egley (1798-1870) had been a miniaturist. Egley had a successful career, exhibiting at the Royal Academy from 1843-1898. During his long painting life, despite being a slow worker, he executed over one thousand paintings. At the beginning of his career he specialised in literary themes with subjects frequently taken from Shakespeare of Moliere. However, during the period 1855 to about 1862, he painted a number of scenes from modern life. After this short interlude he turned to painting historical scenes and eighteenth-century costume pieces for the rest of his career. |
