Anthony, Henry Mark

Henry Mark Anthony (4 August 1817 – 1 December 1886) was an English landscape artist, often favourably compared to John Constable by critics. He exhibited at many major art institutions and travelled widely, being credited with introducing the en plein air style of painting to Britain. George Phoenix. Portrait of Henry Mark Anthony. 1880s. Present location unknown Anthony was born at Rusholme Lane, Manchester, of Welsh ancestry, and was the second son of John Anthony, merchant, and his wife, Phoebe. The family moved to Cowbridge, Glamorgan (in Wales), around 1823.Anthony was apprenticed to a doctor called Harrison who, being an amateur artist himself, encouraged his artistic leanings. Subsequently he is reported to have been a pupil of his cousin George Wilfred Anthony, a drawing-master in Manchester (later a landscape painter and art critic - as Gabriel Tinto - for the Manchester Guardian). Anthony moved to London around 1833. Patronage and a legacy received in the 1830s, allowed him to travel. Thus he studied at The Hague, in Paris, at the Académie des Beaux-Arts with Paul Delaroche, Ary Scheffer, and Horace Vernet, and in Fontainebleau in 1837, where he was influenced by the Barbizon school, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, and Jules Dupré.Anthony was among the first British artists to introduce the French style of plein-air landscape painting to London. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, between 1837 and 1884, the British Institution (1841–60), and the Society of British Artists (1841–69).[4] He was elected a member of the latter in 1845, resigning in 1852 in the hope that it would assist his election to associateship of the Royal Academy. In 1843 he showed one of his paintings at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA) and in the same year was elected its member. He also exhibited once at the Grosvenor Gallery and the Liverpool Academy, winning the 1854 prize of £50 for Nature''''s Mirror (Wolverhampton Art Gallery). He travelled and painted in England and Wales, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Spain. At the time, Anthony was considered the second best British landscape artist after John Constable. Working directly from nature, he painted on the large scale, introducing into painted landscape melancholic mood, nostalgic feelings, and atmospheric effects often enhanced by the light of dawn or early evening over an old church or castle. However, new developments in British art after 1860, and his failure to be elected to the Royal Academy, led to a solitary later career.