William Henry Fisk

Fisk, born in Homerton, Middlesex, was the son of William Fisk. He was a pupil of his father, and also studied at the Royal Academy. He was a skilled draughtsman, and as such was appointed anatomical draughtsman to the Royal College of Surgeons. He exhibited as a painter for the first time in 1846. Three years later he was the first of a series of artists to be invited to Balmoral to paint watercolour views for Queen Victoria. She selected four of his images of the area for inclusion in one of her 'souvenir albums'.{{cite web|title=Albrecht Dürer: design for a mosaic in the Museum (the 'Kensington Valhalla')|date=8 September 1869 |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O132527/albrecht-durer-design-for-a-oil-painting-fisk-william-henry/|publisher=Victoria and Albert Museum|accessdate=1 April 2016}}

File:Grave of William Henry Fisk in Highgate Cemetery.jpg]]

He exhibited paintings of historical, religious and genre subjects at the Royal Academy from 1850 until 1873,{{cite book|last1=Manson|first1=J.B.|title=Frederick George Stephens and the Pre-Raphaelite Brothers| year=1920 |location=London|url=https://archive.org/details/frederickgeorges00step}} [Unpaginated]. and was an occasional exhibitor at the other London exhibitions and also in Paris. He was teacher of drawing and painting to University College School, London, and in that capacity was very successful and of high repute. He was a clear and logical lecturer on the practical aspect of art, and succeeded in attracting large audiences in London and the provinces. He also occasionally contributed articles on painting to the press.Dictionary of National Biography 1885–1900 He was appointed anatomical draughtsman to the Royal College of Surgeons.

In the 1860s Fisk was commissioned to design mosaics depicting Lorenzo Ghiberti and Albrecht Dürer as part of a series of portraits of great artists for the 'Kensington Valhalla' in the South Court of the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum). Only the painting of Ghiberti was reproduced in mosaic, but Fisk's full sized oil versions for both remain in the museum.{{cite web|title=Ghiberti: design for a mosaic in the Museum (the 'Kensington Valhalla')|date=8 September 1870 |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O131365/ghiberti-design-for-a-mosaic-oil-painting-fisk-william-henry/|publisher=Victoria and Albert Museum|accessdate=1 April 2016}}

In 1863, Fisk was interested in the French Revolution; his painting Robespierre Receiving Letters from Friends of his Victims with Assassination Threats is nowadays exhibited in the Musée de la Révolution française.{{cite web|title=Acquisitions by the Musée de la Révolution Française in Vizille : the 19th century|url=http://www.thearttribune.com/Acquisitions-by-the-Musee-de-la.html|publisher=thearttribune.com|date=2010|accessdate=13 September 2019}}

He died on 13 November 1884, at No. 27 Church Row, in Hampstead, in his 58th year and was buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery.

File:Abolition Meeting Held at Willis's Rooms in Honor of Harriet Beecher Stowe MET DP804206.jpg|Abolition Meeting Held at Willis's Rooms in Honour of Harriet Beecher Stowe (1853)
Watercolour, Metropolitan Museum of Art

File:William Henry Fisk - Robespierre.jpg|Robespierre Reading Letters from Friends of his Victims, Threatening to Murder Him (1863)
Oil on canvas, Musée de la Révolution française

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Category:1827 births

Category:1884 deaths

Category:Burials at Highgate Cemetery

Category:19th-century English painters

Category:English male painters

Category:19th-century English educators

Category:English draughtsmen

Category:Schoolteachers from London

Category:19th-century English male artists

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