William Maw Egley

1826-1916 English

Scene vittoriane e costumi dettagliati

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 ha sempre mostrato grande interesse per i dettagli dei costumi, dedicando loro un'attenzione meticolosa, ma i suoi dipinti erano spesso criticati per il loro stile duro e goffo. Negli anni '60 dell'Ottocento, Egley adottò la moda dei soggetti romanticizzati del XVIII secolo. Sebbene abbia prodotto un numero molto elevato di dipinti sicuramente vendibili, il suo lavoro non fu mai ammirato dalla critica.