Richard Burchett

View across Sandown Bay, Isle of Wight probably of 1855, Victoria and Albert Museum.
Sanctuary, or Edward IV Withheld by Ecclesiastics from Pursuing Lancastrian Fugitives into a Church, 1867, Guildhall Art Gallery. One of the large history paintings with which Burchett hoped to make his reputation

Richard Burchett (1815–1875) was a British artist and educator on the fringes of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who was for over twenty years the Headmaster of what later became the Royal College of Art.

He was later described as "a prominent figure in the art-schools, a well-instructed painter, and a teacher exceptionally equipped with all the learning of his craft" by his ex-pupil, the poet Austin Dobson. Burchett's pupils included the extremely varied talents of Kate Greenaway, Christopher Dresser, Elizabeth Thompson (Lady Butler), Sir George Clausen, Sir Luke Fildes, Gertrude Jekyll, Hubert von Herkomer, Evelyn De Morgan, William Harbutt and Helen Allingham. Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, Queen Victoria's daughter, and a talented artist, was also a student.[1]

As an artist he achieved some reputation for large history paintings, and decorated public buildings including parts of the Palace of Westminster and the Victoria and Albert Museum, but his View across Sandown Bay, Isle of Wight is seen by modern art historians as his best work. Burchett published collections of his lectures as text-books for the South Kensington system of art education, which he helped to devise.

  1. ^ MacDonald:173 describes Rosa Bonheur as a "student", but this seems dubious. She may have visited for a time before taking over her father's position running an art school for girls, the "École Gratuite de Dessins des Jeunes Filles" in 1849.