My Favourite Victorian Painters Quiz

Answer: Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896)

The painting of the Shakespeare character Ophelia from "Hamlet" shows her floating in the river; the poor girl has been driven mad by her beloved Hamlet, and she's singing before she drowns. It was painted by Sir John Everett Millais. The painting is particularly renowned for its realistic portrayal of the natural landscape of the river bank.

Elizabeth Siddall modelled as Ophelia, fully-dressed in a bath of cold water. Contrary to legend she didn't die because of this; she did, however, catch a severe cold for which her father demanded £50 in compensation.

The picture hangs in the Tate Britain Gallery in London

Answer: John Martin (1789-1854)

A few years ago I made the 500-mile round trip from my home to London to see a special exhibition of the work of John Martin at the Tate Britain. The exhibition was magnificent but deserted - I think Martin is a bit of an acquired taste.

In the earlier part of his career Martin mainly produced landscapes, but from the mid-1810s he started to produce enormous canvases, often with a biblical theme - his first outstanding work was "Belshazzar's Feast" (1820), and he went on to produce many more paintings with melodramatic and apocalyptic themes.

Anyway, I was particularly struck by "The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah" - a violent storm in heaven forms the backdrop for the destruction of the two cities, with Lot, his wife and their daughters being so insignificant against the destruction that they're barely visible.

The painting hangs in the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Answer: Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912)

Many Victorian artists specialised in works depicting historical characters and incidents. One of the most famous was Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema who was particularly known for his accurate depictions of scenes set in ancient Rome, of which "The Roses of Heliogabalus" is a prime example. The picture is of a banquet in the imperial palace hosted by the Emperor Elagabalus (203-222 AD), who was renowned for his licentiousness, debauchery and corruption. In an incident reported by the "Historia Augusta", guests are being smothered by rose petals released from a false ceiling.

Alma-Tadema's reputation diminished after his death, and when put up for auction at Christie's in 1960 this picture failed to sell for £100. However, after a revival of interest in Victorian paintings it sold for £1.5 million in 1993. Sadly, it's now in a private collection, although it is sometimes featured in exhibitions.

Answer: Frederic Leighton (1830-1896)

Like Alma-Tadema, Frederic Leighton was a great producer of paintings depicting historical scenes. His most famous work was this one, "Flaming June", depicting a sleeping woman in classical dress - a wonderful orange robe. The painting throbs with sensuality and Mediterranean heat.

The picture's recent history demonstrates the revival of interest in Victorian art - in the early 1960s it was sold for less than $1,000, but after all the exposure it's had it would now be worth millions. It's to be found in the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

Answer: Sir Edwin Landseer (1802-1873)

Sir Edwin Landseer was the archetypal animal painter of the Victorian era; he also produced the four lions at the base of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London. His most famous painting is "The Monarch of the Glen", a wonderful depiction of a red deer stag against a misty mountain backdrop.

Sadly, in modern times this picture has become a bit of a cliche owing to its frequent appearance on tins of Scottish shortbread and the like. However, unlike many other Victorian paintings, it's always been highly valued - in 2017 at about £8 million. Fittingly, this painting now hangs in the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh.

Answer: William Holman Hunt (1827-1910)

William Holman Hunt was one of the founders and most important members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; amongst his most famous works are "The Light of the World", "The Scapegoat" and "The Awakening Conscience". My favourite work of his, however, is "The Hireling Shepherd".

It's a strange work, set in the open countryside where it seems that a shepherd is seducing his employer's daughter by showing her a death's-head hawkmoth while in the background his sheep are straying into a cornfield. Later, Hunt stated that the couple symbolised the pointless theological debates that occupied clerics while their "flock" went astray due to a lack of proper moral guidance.

The painting currently hangs in the Manchester Art Gallery in Manchester.

Answer: J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851

Turner was a precocious talent, being admitted to the Royal Academy in 1789, but even in his 60s he was producing excellent paintings such as "Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway" (1844). His work was becoming quite abstracted, concentrating on light while becoming less figurative. The best example of this is the iconic "Fighting Temeraire", showing the progress of one of the last surviving ships from the Battle of Trafalgar up the estuary of the River Thames to the wrecker's yard. It's a wonderful picture, beautifully composed, and with a glorious use of colour.

Keen-eyed quizzers will wonder why, if the ship is being towed in a westerly direction up the Thames, the setting sun appears behind it.

In 2005 it was voted the nation's favourite painting by listeners to the BBC Radio 4's Today programme. It also appears on the back of the £20 note issued in 2020. It hangs in the National Gallery in London.

Answer: Elizabeth Southerden Thompson, Lady Butler (1846-1933)

Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler, specialised in painting scenes from British military history, especially the Boer, Crimean Napoleonic wars. She was very popular - in fact her painting of the aftermath of the Battle of Inkerman, "The Roll Call", was bought by Queen Victoria.

"Scotland Forever!" is an astonishing picture, bringing to life the power and impact of a heavy cavalry charge. Depicting some of the action from the Battle of Waterloo, it shows the Allied response to the attack of D'Erlons Corps on the left flank of Wellington's position at about 1pm. General Picton, who was commanding that sector, had been killed and the Allied line was retreating. Cavalry commander Lord Uxbridge ordered his 2,000-strong heavy cavalry to attack to retrieve the situation, and the weight and ferocity of this charge routed D'Erlon's troops; the French suffered 3,000 casualties.

Sadly, however, the cavalry advanced too far and they arrived at the main French line with totally exhausted horses. The French responded by letting loose their Lancers and Cuirassier cavalry, and these lighter troops practically wiped out the Scots Greys. Wellington was furious at the cavalry's lack of discipline.

The picture can be found in the Leeds Art Gallery

Answer: William Powell Frith (1819-1909)

Frith specialised in painting large complex paintings depicting everyday public social life in Victorian life, one of the first of which was "The Derby Day". It's a huge canvas, 40 inches by 88 inches, showing the revelry at Epsom on the day of this important horse race. You can see rich gentlemen being tricked out of their money by cardsharps, jugglers, drunks, a high-class prostitute, beggars and street musicians - all human life is here! You can spend a very long time looking at all the detail.

Frith followed up "The Derby Day" with "The Railway Station" (1862), a very similar work showing a lively platform in Paddington Station (but without any bears).

"The Derby Day" is in the Tate Britain Gallery in London, and there's a second version in the Manchester Art Gallery

Answer: Richard Dadd (1817-1886)

Richard Dadd's "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" is my favourite Victorian painting. I first came across it when I saw it in an article in "Time" magazine in about 1969, and I very quickly acquired a framed print that I had for many years.

Dadd had a strange life. In 1843 at the age of 26 he developed paranoid schizophrenia and he became convinced that his father was the Devil; this resulted in Dadd killing him. He spent the rest of his life in psychiatric hospitals, firstly Bethlem and then Broadmoor. Even before his illness he'd been producing bizarre, small-scale pictures of elves and fairies and after his hospitalisation he produced more, of which "The Fairy Feller" is the prime example. The picture shows a woodsman about to cleave a hazelnut, while a weird entourage looks on; the tension is almost palpable.

His painting method was to use oil paints, applied to the canvas in layers; this produces a 3D effect. It took him nine years to paint this picture, although he said that he'd never properly finished it.

In 1987 a long-lost watercolour by Dadd, "The Artist's Halt in the Desert", was discovered on the BBC TV programme "Antiques Roadshow" and sold to the British Museum for £100,000. "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" can be seen in the Tate Britain Gallery in London.