Edward Henry Corbould
1815–1905 · British historical painter, book illustrator and watercolourist
Edward Henry Corbould (London, 1815-1905) was a British painter best known for historical subjects and, above all, for watercolours. He came from a family of artists: his father, Henry Corbould, and his grandfather, Richard Corbould, were both painters. He trained with Henry Sass and studied at the Royal Academy Schools.
In 1842 Prince Albert bought one of his watercolours, The Woman taken in Adultery, and in 1851 he was appointed instructor of historical painting to the Royal Family, a post he held for twenty-one years. Much of his work ended up in royal collections, including an illustration of Tennyson's Morte d'Arthur that Queen Victoria gave to Princess Louise. He worked mainly in watercolour, drawing on literature by Chaucer, Spenser and Shakespeare, on history and on everyday life. Only a few of his pictures are in oils, among them The Canterbury Pilgrims (1874).
He also illustrated books, including the Abbotsford edition of Walter Scott's novels and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and contributed to periodicals such as the Illustrated London News. He died in Kensington in 1905.