Octavius Oakley
{{short description|British artist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Octavius Oakley RWS (27 April 1800, in Bermondsey – 1 March 1867, in London), was a British watercolour portrait, figure and landscape artist.{{cite DNB|wstitle=Oakley, Octavius|volume=41|page=292}}
Life
File:Family grave of Octavius Oakley in Highgate Cemetery.jpg (west side)]]
Oakley was born in Bermondsey, London on the 27th April 1800.
Initially he worked for a Leeds textile company. He developed into a specialist of portraits in watercolour and was given commissions by the Duke of Devonshire.
Whilst living in Derby where he painted rustic scenes until he moved to Leamington Spa in Warwickshire in 1836. He returned to London in the 1840s and worked there until his death, producing paintings of street scenes and gypsies and their lifestyle.[http://www.bmagic.org.uk/people/Octavius+Oakley Birmingham Museum]
His emphasis on gypsy paintings which he exhibited at the Royal Watercolour Society earned him the name 'Gypsy Oakley'.
Oakley met Thomas Baker in Leamington Spa, where Baker was living and working and in 1841 did a portrait of the celebrated painter, who was an important figure in the Midlands and Birmingham art world.[http://www.bmagic.org.uk/objects/1928P198 Birmingham Museum] His youngest daughter, Isabel Naftel was also an artist.{{cite book|author= HCG Matthew & Brian Harrison (Editors)|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Vol 40 (Murrell-Nooth)|ISBN=0-19-861390-3}}
He died at his home, 7 Chepstow Villas, Kensington, on the 1st March 1867 and was buried in a family grave (no.14459) on the western side of Highgate Cemetery.
Gallery
Octavius Oakley08a.jpg|Country Family of Emigrants, watercolour
Octavius Oakley12.jpg|Portrait of a gypsy woman, watercolour on paper, 31 x 25 cm, oval format
Octavius Oakley01.jpg|Portrait of Benjamin Gibbons, son of John Gibbons(1777-1851), with a view of Eton College Beyond, Watercolour, 16 1/2 X 11 1/4 inches (36.8 x 28.6 cm)
Joseph Paxton by Octavius Oakley, c1850.jpg|Sir Joseph Paxton, builder of The Crystal Palace
Octavius Oakley04.jpg|Portrait of Thomas Baker (1809-1864), watercolour, 301 x 232mm
References
{{reflist}}
{{commons category}}
External links
- [http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?LinkID=mp07376&role=art Portraits by O. Oakley] (National Portrait Gallery)
- [http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/misc/oakley1.html Portrait of Benjamin Gibbons Seated, with a view of Eton College Beyond ] (Victorian web)
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oakley, Octavius}}
Category:Burials at Highgate Cemetery
Category:English watercolourists
Category:19th-century English painters
Category:English male painters
Category:English landscape painters
Category:19th-century English male artists
{{UK-painter-19thC-stub}}
{{England-painter-stub}}