Edward Robert Hughes

5 November 1851 - 23 April 1914. Painter.

Edward Robert Hughes is widely known for his paintings which reflect Pre-Raphaelitism and aestheticism. Some of his paintings are recognized as the representation of symbolic paintings. His paintings are technically detailed. Portrait was his favourite form of painting. Though he was renowned for his use of watercolour, many of his popular works are oil-paintings. Many of his paintings were also created with pencil, red and black chalk, media art [what does media art mean?] etc.

He got his inspiration to play with canvas, colour and brush from his uncle Arthur Hughes, the famous Pre-Raphaelite artist. Some of Robert Hughes’s works are collaborations with another great painter of his time, William Holman Hunt. They have jointly gifted astonishing paintings like The Lady of the World and The Lady of Shallot. Hughes was a student of the Royal Academy School in England, Académie Julian in Paris. The Spinet (1870) was his first painting featured in an exhibition. He was a member of the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) from 1891 till his death. As an honourable member of the Art Worker’s Guild, he also served there as vice president for two years.

Critically acclaimed as a prominent artist of the nineteenth century, Hughes’s art is cryptic, suggestive, illustrative, denotative. Like other contemporary painters of his time, his paintings collocate the beauty of nature against manifestations of the Industrial Revolution, women with long hair and dress, use of vibrant colours. Some of his works are derived from poetry and literature. Though some of his works have been criticised as outdated and emotional, most of his works were admired by the audience.

Love of the world, Midsummer’s Eve, Night with her Train of Stars, Heart of snow are some of his notable works.

Bibliography

Bullen, J.B. The Pre-Raphaelite Body: Fear and Desire in Painting, Poetry, and Criticism. Clarendon Press, 1998.

Engen, Rodney, "The Twilight of Edward Robert Hughes, RWS", Watercolours and Drawings 5.1 (1990): 34-37.

Osborne, Victoria Jean. “A British Symbolist in Pre-Raphaelite Circles: Edward Robert Hughes RWS.” M.A. thesis, University of Birmingham, College of Arts and Law, Department of the History of Art, 2009.