Person    | Male  Born 17/11/1793  Died 24/12/1865

Sir Charles Eastlake

Categories: Art, Politics & Administration

Countries: Italy

First Director of the National Gallery. President of the Royal Academy. First President of the Royal Photographic Society. One of the Commissioners for the Great Exhibition.

Born in Plymouth, son of the Solicitor to the Admiralty. He studied in London and then travelled to Italy for about 12 years, returning to London. Became President of the Royal Academy in 1850 and in 1855 added Director of the National Gallery to his portfolio. Our colleague, Andrew Behan, has also provided some information.

Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, P.R.A., was born on 17 November 1973 in Plymouth, Devon, the youngest of the six children of George Eastlake (1758-1820) and Mary Eastlake née Pearce (1756-1823).

On 9 April 1849 he married Elizabeth Rigby (1809-1893) in the Parish Church of St Cuthbert, 5 Lothian Road, Edinburgh, Scotland. He was knighted in 1850 on his election as President of the Royal Academy and the 1851 census shows him as an artist living at Fitzroy Square, Marylebone, with his wife, two male and four female servants. In the 1861 census he is recorded as an artist & President of the Royal Academy residing at 7 Fitzroy Square, Marylebone, with his wife, a cook, a ladies maid, a housemaid, a kitchen-maid, a butler, a footman, together with a coachman & his wife and two sons. Director of the National Gallery from 1855.

He died, aged 72 years, on 24 December 1865 in Pisa, Italy and he was buried in Cimitero Accatolico, Piazzalle Donatello, Florence, Italy. His body was subsequently exhumed and brought back to England where it was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, Harrow Road, London, W10 4RA. Probate records show that his will was proved by his widow on 10 May 1866 and his effects were valued at under £40,000.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Sir Charles Eastlake

Commemorated ati

Great Exhibition and Prince Albert

Designed by Joseph Durham with modifications by Sydney Smirke. Inaugurated by...

Read More

Sir Charles Eastlake

Greater London Council Sir Charles Eastlake, 1793 - 1865, painter and first ...

Read More

Other Subjects

George Bunting

George Bunting

From Orra: “George, an engineer by profession, was an easy-going, pipe smoking and puckish ‘mein host’.  His auburn close-cropped hair and goatee made him instantly recognizable, and his infectious...

Person, Art, Community / Clubs, India

1 memorial
W. H. C. Groome

W. H. C. Groome

Member of the Ealing District Council in 1899. Bear Alley has a full biography of Groome by Robert J Kirkpatrick, with many illustrations: ""W.H.C. Groome was one of the most prolific children’s b...

Person, Art, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Jonathan Waights

Jonathan Waights

Ceramics artist. From our Picture source website: "Art on Tiles, the hand painted tile company was founded in the 1980s by Jonathan Waights, a British ceramic artist who – as a teenager – was appre...

Person, Art, Portugal

1 memorial
Paul Sandby

Paul Sandby

Water-colour painter. Probably born in Nottingham.  1742 joined the Ordnance office at the Tower of London as a military draughtsman.   Engaged for 5 years in the military survey of Scotland.  Back...

Person, Art

1 memorial
Edward McKnight Kauffer

Edward McKnight Kauffer

Artist and designer. Born in Great Falls, Cascade County, Montana, USA. As an art student, he was sponsored by Professor Joseph McKnight, from whom he adopted his middle name. He moved to Paris whe...

Person, Art, France, USA

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Sir N. E. Waterhouse

Sir N. E. Waterhouse

EC2, Frederick's Place, 1

This stone was laid by Sir Nicholas Edwin Waterhouse, KBE, 21st January 1955.

1 subject commemorated