Frederick Richard Lee, R. A.
Eminent Victorian Artist
| This
portrait of F R Lee as a youngish man is in the
Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon and was
displayed in our Exhibition there in May
2017. The Museum has several paintings by
Lee, including a large one that can be seen in the
foyer, and a charming smaller landscape that was
shown in our Exhibition. We were also able to
display - thanks to the Athenaeum at Barnstaple
Library - the painting below: |
The Lane to Pitt Farm, Raleigh, Pilton, by F R Lee, 1930
| The
painting above was discovered in recent years, and
has been restored. Pitt Farm and Raleigh are on
the opposite side of Pilton to Manning's Pit, and
this painting was done before F R Lee moved to
Pilton. Interestingly, when Benjamin Manning came
to Devon from Tiverton, he first worked at a
factory in the Raleigh area of Pilton. A link to 58 of F R Lee's paintings in various locations: https://artuk.org/discover/artists/lee-frederick-richard-17981879 F.R. Lee was born in Barbican House, near Trinity Church, Barnstaple, in 1798. His father was a successful architect, as was his older brother, Thomas, who designed Arlington House and the Barnstaple Guildhall among other buildings. Thomas was drowned while swimming at Mortehoe, and there is a tablet commemorating his death on the wall of St Anne's Chapel in Barnstaple. In 1818 Lee became a student at the Royal Academy where he may have met WM Turner, whose family came from North Devon and whose uncle lived in Barnstaple (first in central Barnstaple but later in Littabourne, Pilton.) Lee was elected to the Royal Academy in 1838 and became a very successful and famous Victorian landscape artist. He did not like painting animals and because of this two other famous artists, Sir Edwin Landseer and Thomas SidneyCooper often collaborated with him. Lee lived with his first wife Harriet in Kent, and they had a daughter Sarah Catherine, but after Harriet's death and his later remarriage, Lee moved back to Devon, and bought Broadgate House in Pilton in 1858. His second wife Mary died within eighteen months of their marriage, but Broadgate House remained the family home, and his daughter Sarah was to live there with her husband Col Hugh Hibbert for many years. Lee's other passion in life was sailing, and he travelled extensively in his yachts, to places like Spain, and then in the 1870s he sailed in his yacht Linda to Australia and back. Much of the information here comes from Margaret Reed's article, so for the full story of Lee's life, please look at the link below: |
Frederick Richard Lee - his life, by Margaret Reed.
You can also find more information at the Wikipedia link
below
Frederick Richard Lee - Wikipedia
Here is a link to a charming sketch of a "sunfish" by F
R Lee, from 1857,
while he was on his yacht sailing from Algeria to
Gibraltar
https://twitter.com/royalacademy/status/638267488648597504
This sketch was made not long before Lee
purchased Broadgate House.
| Broadgate House in
Victorian times, with thanks to the Henry Williamson
Society for allowing us to show this photograph. F R
Lee's daughter Sarah was the grandmother of Henry
Williamson's wife. The above photograph shows Broadgate House from the front. Below is a photograph taken in spring, 2017, looking across the road to the back of Broadgate House.. The photograph was taken on the pavement outside the house where the Munros (and the young Saki) lived. They were very close neighbours, and we have been told that the Hibberts and the Munros did indeed socialise.  |
Lee's Round the World Trip
Report from the North Devon Journal of 27 March 1873
Report from the North Devon Journal of 31 July
1873
More information will be added to this page.