William Maw Egley

1826-1916 English

Viktorianische Genreszenen mit Kostümdetails

William Maw Egley was an English artist of the Victorian era. The son of the miniaturist William Egley, he studied under his father. His early works were illustrations of literary subjects typical of the period, such as Prospero and Miranda from The Tempest. These were similar to the work of The Clique. William Powell Frith, one of The Clique, hired Egley to add backgrounds to his own work. Egley soon developed a style influenced by Frith, including domestic and childhood subjects. Most of his paintings were humorous or "feelgood" genre scenes of urban and rural life, depicting such subjects as harvest festivals and contemporary fashions. His best-known painting, Omnibus Life in London (Tate Gallery), is a comic scene of people squashed together in the busy, cramped public transport of the era. Egley zeigte stets großes Interesse an den Einzelheiten der Kostüme und schenkte ihnen detaillierte Aufmerksamkeit, doch seine Gemälde wurden oft wegen ihres harten, ungeschickten Stils kritisiert. In den 1860er Jahren übernahm Egley die Mode für romantisierte Themen des 18. Jahrhunderts. Obwohl er eine sehr große Anzahl von zuverlässig verkäuflichen Gemälden produzierte, wurde seine Arbeit nie kritisch bewundert.