Biography

Scottish painter, scientist and art administrator. He studied in London and Rome where he was influenced by the Nazarenes and he is said to have painted a Madonna in 1828 (now lost), which may have helped to transmit the new German ideas to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (founded in 1848).

As an artist Dyce was influential in his support for the revival of religious subject matter in art and for fresco painting. In both these areas he was affected by his visit to Rome in 1825 (and later in 1827-28, 1832 and 1845-46) where he established contact with German Nazarene artists like Frederick Overbeck and Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld. Dyce thus formed a vital link between the Nazarenes in Germany and the Pre-Raphaelites in Britain.

Dyce also became involved with several major joint commissions for frescoes, principally the Garden Pavilion at Buckingham Palace (1842-43) and the Palace of Westminster, where his main achievement was the Queen's Robing Room in the House of Lords (1847 onwards). In between these two projects he painted the fresco Neptune assigning to Britannia the Empire of the Seas for Prince Albert on the staircase at Osborne House. Ironically, he is today perhaps best known for two paintings in oil: Titian's First Essay in Colour (Aberdeen Art Gallery) and Pegwell Bay: A Recollection of October 5 1858 (London, Tate Gallery).

Dyce was an important figure in the Victorian art world and he shared with Prince Albert a concern for the public role that art should play in society, both as regards education and design. He held several influential positions, including Superintendent of the School of Design in London from 1837 to 1843; from 1844 he was Professor of Fine Art at King's College, London University. He was also closely involved in 1853 with proposals for the development of the National Gallery, London, giving evidence to a Parliamentary Select Committee, but publishing his forthright suggestions separately.

Dyce was an artist of omnivorous interests extending from ecclesiology through geology to musical composition, specifically in connection with the Motett Society, which he established in 1844.