Francis Donkin Bedford
, 1864 - 1954
Francis Donkin Bedford was born in London as the sixth child of Edwin Bedford, a solicitor. He attended Westminster School, then studied architecture at the South Kensington Schools and enrolled at the Royal Academy of Arts to become a painter and illustrator. During his Grand Tour in 1885–1891 he visited France, Spain, Tangier in Northern Morocco and Italy. His sketches from this tour are held in Victoria and Albert Museum's RIBA Drawings Collection. Although he exhibited his paintings at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and various galleries, he is always identified with book illustration in the late Victorian and Edwardian period (see: here, here, here and here, accessed: January 13, 2022). He produced illustrations for over 50 books, as well as texts published in periodicals. Among the books he illustrated were novels by Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, W. M. Thackeray and the most famous – Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie.
Source:
Mallalieu, Huon Lancelot, The Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists up to 1920, vol. 1, Woolbridge: Antique Collectors' Club, 1976, 36.
Bio prepared by Marta Pszczolińska, University of Warsaw, m.pszczolinska@al.uw.edu.pl
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