William Mulready RA

1786 - 1863

Mulready is probably best known for his appealing depictions of rural and genre scenes, such as the present example, and also for creating Mulready stationery letter sheets, issued officially at the same time as the Penny Black postage stamp. He entered the Royal Academy Schools aged 14, and two years later he married Elizabeth Varley, a landscape painter and sister of John and Cornelius. Many of his early pictures show landscapes, before he started to build a reputation as a genre painter from 1808 on, painting mostly everyday scenes from rural life. He also illustrated children's books, including the first edition of Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare in 1807. In 1815, Mulready was elected to the Royal Academy, and some of his exhibits there were a great success with the public.

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