Background
Claxton was born in Bolton, Lancashire, the son of a Wesleyan Methodist minister, the Review Marshall Claxton, and his wife Diana. He had his first picture in the Royal Academy in 1832, a portrait of his father.
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Marshall Claxton
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Marshall studied under John Jackson, Resident Advisor, and at the Royal Academy school where he enrolled on 26 April 1831.
Career
In subsequent years about 30 of his pictures were shown at Academy exhibitions. In 1834 he was awarded the first medal in the painting school, and obtained the gold medal of the Society of Arts in 1835 for his portrait of Sir Astley Cooper. From 1837 to 1842 he worked in Italy and then returned to London, gaining a prize of £100 for his "Alfred the Great in the Camp of the Danes".
In 1850 Claxton went to Sydney, Australia, with a large collection of pictures, but had little success in selling them.
While in Sydney he painted a large picture, "Suffer little children to come unto me", a commission from the Baroness Burdett-Coutts. This was described in Household Words as "the first important picture" painted in Australia.
In September 1854 Claxton left Sydney for Calcutta, where he sold several of his pictures. He returned to England in 1858 via Egypt, and died in London after a long illness on 28 July 1881.
Claxton"s "General View of the Harbour and City of Sydney" is in the Royal collection in England, and there are two pictures by him in the Dickinson collection in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
His portraits of Bishop William Broughton and Dean Cowper are at Saint Paul"s College, University of Sydney, and that of the Review Robert Forrest is exhibited at The King"s School, Parramatta. His Godiva painting is in the Herbert Art Gallery and he also has work at Derby Art Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
He was also known for his depictions of Wesleyan and Methodist subjects, made popular as prints.
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Born
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Died
July 26, 1881 (aged 70) -
Nationality
United Kingdom