Description
Henry Courtney Selous was an English painter, illustrator and lithographer.
In 1818 Selous entered the Royal Academy Schools and also exhibited his first work, a Portrait of a Favourite Cat (location untraced), at the Academy. He submitted animal portraits for the next three years before embarking on human portraiture. His early works were exhibited under the name Slous, but at some time between 1831 and 1838 he adopted the name Selous.
In the 1840s he began to paint historical subjects, initially inspired by the renewed interest in history painting prompted by the New Palace of Westminster cartoon competition for the designs of frescoes on the new building in 1843. In this he submitted a picture of Boadicea Harranguing the Iceni which won a premium of £200 in 1843. He was aided by the knowledge of mural technique he had acquired by working for a panorama painter. Despite the prize, the picture was criticised by one reviewer because the “violence of the action and dashing lights carry us away like the speech of a mob orator.”
He painted historical pieces for the rest of his career, for example Cassio Wounded (1874, location untraced), as well as such works as The Opening of The Great Exhibition recording contemporary events.
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