Gustav Pope

The Three Daughters of King Lear (1875–6) by Gustav Pope in the Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico

Gustav Pope (1831–1910) was a British painter of Austrian origin. Active in the Victorian era, he incorporated several styles on his work, but in his mature style he showed influences of the second wave of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.^[1]

Little is known about Pope's training as a painter, but he is listed as a regular exhibitor in London from 1852 to 1895, at the British Institution, the Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal Academy.^[2] His work shows the influence of Thomas Seddon, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Frederic, Lord Leighton. English literary sources, classical mythology, portraiture, landscape and idealized images of young women are the most typical subjects in his paintings.^[3]

Some sources shows Gustav Pope as deceased by 1895, based on the last year he was exhibiting at the Royal Academy. Nevertheless, we can be certain that the year of his death, in 1910, his widow presented the painting A Rainy Day to the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery in memory of her husband. He was a resident of Chelsea, according to the 1910 Census.^[4]

Selected works

• The Three Daughters of King Lear (1875–6), Museo de Art de Ponce, Puerto Rico
• Lillies (1874), sold at Auction at Christie's, London in 2009
• The Judgement of Paris (The Apple of the Discord) (1889), sold at auction at Christie's, London in 2006.^[5]
• Dante’s Inspiration, sold at auction at Christie's, London in 2014.^[6]
• The Illustrated London Almanack, engraving. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

References

1. Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in the Ponce Museum Of Art, Cheryl Hartup, February 2012
2. The Royal Academy of Arts: A complete Dictionary of Contributors Volume 6. Algernon Graves, 1906
3. Sleeping Beauty: Masterpieces of Victorian Painting from Museo de Arte de Ponce, Agnes Husslein-Arco, Alfred Weidinger, Vienna Belvedere, 2010.
4. Museo de Arte de Ponce collection catalogue. Volume 1, The British collection, Heather Birchall, Cheryl Hartup,Sally-Anne Huxtable, Allison Smith, Ponce Art Museum, 2012
5. Christie's Victorian and Traditionalist Pictures. Catalogue, 8 June 2006. London King Street
6. Christie's Victorian and British Impressionist Art. Catalogue, 14 November 2013. London South Kensington