{"title":"Egg, Augustus","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAugustus Leopold Egg RA (1816-1863)\u003c\/strong\u003e was a British Victorian artist, and member of The Clique, best-known for his modern triptych Past and Present (1858), which depicts the breakup of a middle-class Victorian family.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEgg was born in London to Joseph and Ann Egg, and baptised in St James's Church, Piccadilly, on 30 May 1816. He had an elder brother, George Hine Egg.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis father Joseph Egg was a wealthy gunsmith from the distinguished gun making family, who immigrated to London from Huningue, Alsace. Egg was educated in the schools of the Royal Academy, beginning in 1836. Egg was a member of The Clique, a group of artists founded by Richard Dadd and others in the late 1830s (c.1837). Egg sought to combine popularity with moral and social activism, in line with the literary work of his friend Charles Dickens. With Dickens he set up the \"Guild of Literature and Art\", a philanthropic organisation intended to provide welfare payments to struggling artists and writers. He acted the lead role in \"Not So Bad As We Seem,\" a play written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton to raise funds for the organisation. His self-portrait in the role is in Hospitalfield House in Arbroath.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEgg's early paintings were generally illustrations of literary subjects. Like other members of The Clique, he saw himself as a follower of Hogarth. His interest in Hogarthian moral themes is evidenced in his paired paintings The Life and Death of Buckingham, depicting the dissolute life and sordid death of the Restoration rake George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. Yet his paintings often took a humorous look at their subjects, as in his Queen Elizabeth Discovers she is no longer Young (1848).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnlike most other members of The Clique, Egg also admired the Pre-Raphaelites; he bought work from the young William Holman Hunt and shared ideas on colour theory with him. His own triptych, known as Past and Present, was influenced by Hunt's work. The triptych depicted three separate scenes, one portraying a prosperous middle-class family and the other two depicting poor and isolated figures - two young girls in a bedsit and a homeless woman with a baby. The viewer was expected to read a series of visual clues that linked together these three scenes to reveal that the prosperous family in the central scene is in the process of disintegrating because of the mother's adultery. The two outer scenes depict the separated mother and children a few years later, now living in poverty. The painting's use of flashback - the central scene is occurring in the past - has been seen as a precursor of cinema.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEgg was also an active organiser of exhibitions, being admired by fellow-artists for his dedication and fair-mindedness. He was one of the organisers of the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition in 1857. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1860.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlways in poor health, Egg spent his later years in the warmer climate of continental Europe, where he painted Travelling Companions, an ambiguous image of two near-identical young women that has sometimes been interpreted as an attempt to represent two sides of the same person. A member of the circle of friends that included Dickens and Wilkie Collins, Egg features in their surviving correspondence. He participated, as actor and costume designer, in their amateur theatricals, which were often conducted for charitable purposes as noted above. In January 1857 he took a part in Collins's play The Frozen Deep, which starred Dickens and was performed at his home, Tavistock House (Egg played John Want, the ship's cook). The production was also acted before Queen Victoria and then performed for charity. Dickens described Egg as a \"dear gentle little fellow\", \"always sweet-tempered, humorous, conscientious, thoroughly good, and thoroughly beloved.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEgg died in Algiers on 26 March 1863.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"people-that-read-100-images","title":"People that Read - 100 High Resolution Images","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis special collection features images from a variety of artists that depict people reading. Women, men and children are all included.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eArtists include Van Gogh, Gwen John, Ernst Kirchner, Henri Matisse, Rembrandt, Renoir, Berthe Morisot and many more.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis download features 100 hi-res images, in jpeg format. The images are all 300dpi or 600dpi and range in size from 4936 pixels wide\/tall to 14985 pixels wide\/tall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe pictures are out of copyright and in the public domain, so you are free to use them in whatever way you’d like, including commercial use.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Digital Download - 100 images","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50471749681482,"sku":null,"price":5.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0776\/7965\/7290\/files\/People_that_Read_-_100_images.jpg?v=1747045210"},{"product_id":"egg-augustus-1816-1863-goodnight-story-1883","title":"Egg, Augustus (1816-1863) - Goodnight Story 1883","description":"\u003cp\u003eArtwork by the British artist Augustus Egg.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis download consists of 1 image, in JPEG format, that is 600dpi and 3535 pixels wide by 4347 pixels tall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe picture is out of copyright and in the public domain, so you are free to use it in whatever way you'd like, including commercial use.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRead more about \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/publicdomainimagelibrary.com\/collections\/egg-augustus\" title=\"Augustus Egg\"\u003eAugustus Egg\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Digital Download - 1 image","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53581853491530,"sku":null,"price":0.8,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0776\/7965\/7290\/files\/Egg_Augustus_1816-1863_-GoodnightStory1883_main.jpg?v=1765593490"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0776\/7965\/7290\/collections\/Egg_Augustus_1816-1863-8030152.jpg?v=1768959947","url":"https:\/\/www.publicdomainimagelibrary.com\/collections\/egg-augustus.oembed","provider":"Public Domain Image Library","version":"1.0","type":"link"}