Education
Prinsep was an intimate friend of G. F. Watts, under whom his son first studied.
Prinsep was an intimate friend of G. F. Watts, under whom his son first studied.
He is often known as Val Prinsep. Henry and Sarah had settled at Little Holland House and made it a centre of artistic society. He went out with Watts in 1856-1857 to watch Sir Charles Newton"s excavation of Halicarnassus.
After studying under Watts he proceeded to Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre"s atelier in Paris.
There Whistler, Poynter, and du Maurier were among his fellow students, and he sat unconsciously as a model for Taffy in du Maurier"s novel Trilby. From Paris, Prinsep passed to Italy.
He had a share with Rossetti and others in the decoration of the hall of the Oxford Union. Prinsep first exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1862 with his Bianca Capella, his first picture, which attracted marked notice, being a portrait (1866) of General Gordon in Chinese costume.
Prinsep lent the costume to Millais who used it in his own painting Esther.
From that time to his death Prinsep was an annual exhibitor. Prinsep"s chief paintings were Miriam watching the infant Moses (exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1867), A Venetian lover (1868), Bacchus and Ariadne (1869), News from abroad (1871), The linen gatherers (1876), The gleaners, and A minuet. In 1877, he went to India and painted a huge picture of the Delhi Durbar, exhibited in 1880 at the Royal Academy, presented to Queen Victoria and afterwards hung at Buckingham Palace.
This "colossal work" attracted much favourable press criticism.
He was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1879 and Resident Advisor in 1894. Prinsep died at Holland Park, west London in 1904, and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.
He is buried with hise wife Florence. The highly distinctive Roman style monument lies on the western path between the north entrance and the central buildings.
She survived him with three sons.
Royal Academy of Arts]
With other members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he taught at the Working Men"s College during the mid-19th century.
He was an enthusiastic volunteer, and one of the founders of the Artists Rifles.