Thomas Webster
(1800–1886)
Thomas Webster, was an English genre painter, who lived for many years at the artists' colony in Cranbrook.// Webster was born in Ranelagh Street, Pimlico, London, his father was a member of the household of George III. Having shown an aptitude for music, Webster became a chorister, first at St George's Chapel in Windsor, then the Chapel Royal at St. James's Palace. After abandoning music for painting, he was admitted as a student to the Royal Academy in 1821, exhibiting, in 1824, portraits of "Mrs Robinson and Family." In the following year he won first prize in the school of painting. In 1825, Webster exhibited the first of a series of pictures of schoolboy life, for which he subsequently became known, at the Suffolk Street Gallery. In 1828 he exhibited at the Royal Academy, and the following year he exhibited two paintings at the British Institution. These were followed by numerous other pictures of school and village life at both galleries. In 1840 Webster was elected an associate of the Royal Academy (ARA), and in 1846 a Royal Academician (RA). He continued to be a frequent exhibitor till 1876, when he retired from the academy. He exhibited his own portrait in 1878, and 'Released from School,' his last picture, in 1879.
In 1856 Webster was photographed at 'The Photographic Institute', London, by Robert Howlett, as part of a series of portraits of 'fine artists'. The picture was among a group exhibited at the Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester in 1857.
From 1835 to 1856 Webster resided at The Mall, Kensington, but the last thirty years of his life were spent at the artists' colony in Cranbrook, Kent, where he died on 23 Sept. 1886. In the range of subjects which he made his own, Webster was unrivalled. Some of his pictures were produced as prints by Abraham Le Blond. 'The Smile' (1841), 'The Frown' and 'The Boy with Many Friends', are among the numerous pictures which became well known by engravings. Webster was influential on the work of fellow Cranbrook artists George Bernard O'Neill and Frederick Daniel Hardy.