Henry Gastineau (1791–1876) was an English engraver and prolific painter in water-colours.[1] He was born in London to a family of Huguenot descent.[2] One of his daughters, Maria Gastineau, painted in a similar style.

Henry Gastineau from 5 Feb 1876 in the Illustrated London News

Life edit

He was a student at the Royal Academy, and began as an engraver, but switched to painting in oils. He eventually settled down exclusively to working in water-colour.[1] He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1812. A favourite subject was coastal scenery.[3]

Gastineau joined the Society of Painters in Water-colours in 1818, when he exhibited for the first time. In 1821 he was elected an associate, and in 1823 a full member. He exhibited for 58 years without a break, showing eleven pictures when eighty-five years of age.[1]

A contemporary of David Cox, Copley Fielding, George Cattermole, and Samuel Prout, he kept to the old manner of water-colour painting. Gastineau also devoted a great deal of his time to teaching, both privately and at various schools. Early in life he built for himself a house, Norfolk Lodge, in Cold Harbour Lane, Camberwell, and lived there until his death on 17 January 1876 in his eighty-sixth year. He was then the oldest living member of the Old Society of Painters in Water-colours.[1] He left a family, one of whom, Maria Gastineau, was born in 1827 and she was also a water-colour painter.[4]

Like Cox, Cattermole and Prout, he was buried at West Norwood Cemetery.

Gastineau's unsold works were auctioned at Christie's on 19 May 1876.[3]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d "Gastineau, Henry" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  2. ^ Greg Smith, ‘Gastineau, Henry (1790/91–1876)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
  3. ^ a b H. L. Mallalieu, The Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists Up To 1920. Publ. Antique Collectors' Club, 1986, p. 140.
  4. ^ "Gastineau, Maria (bap. 1827, d. 1890), landscape painter". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/69043. Retrieved 15 April 2021.

Further reading edit

  • John Ramm, "Master of the Picturesque", Antique Dealer & Collectors Guide, November 1995, pp. 24–27.

External links edit

  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain"Gastineau, Henry". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.