John Partridge & Sir William Beechey James Watt, 1736 - 1819. Engineer and inventor 1806

Biography

Born 1790
Died 1872
Nationality British
Birth place London

Glasgow-born Partridge was a successful painter of portraits and subject pictures. He studied under Thomas Phillips and later at the Royal Academy Schools and in Italy. In 1827 he settled in London, where his patrons included members of the aristocracy and gentry. In 1840 he painted portraits of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and in 1843 enjoyed a brief appointment as portrait painter to the queen. Partridge’s career was marred by opposition from within the Royal Academy. After upsetting an Academician in 1833, his own paintings at the Academy were badly and obscurely hung. In 1846 he decided never to exhibit there again, a decision which led to fewer portrait commissions and ruined his hopes of an associate-ship of the institution.