George Lance: Victorian Master of Still Life

by John Radcliffe (m. 1959)

John Radcliffe practiced as a solicitor in the City of London for the whole of his professional life. He retired in 1997 and has devoted much of the last ten years to research into the life of his forebear, George Lance.

George Lance (1802 1864), a pupil of B.R. Haydon, a titanic figure in the Regency art world, brought new vibrancy to still life painting in the early Victorian period. In his seminal work Victorian Painting (1966) Graham Reynolds stated that the revival of still life painting was effected almost single-handedly by Lance. Over one hundred years earlier J.M.W. Turner had expressed the view that Lance was one of the three greatest colourists of his era. Lavishly illustrated with Lance's works and detailing other aspects of his life, this book gives a rounded picture of the man, not just the artist and will serve as the definitive record of the life of a much under-appreciated painter.

John Radcliffe (left)