3-021-247 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mr. W. Q. Orchardson, A.R.A., 1868. 'That a love for art manifested itself in Mr. Orchardson's boyhood is evident from his having entered, at the age of fifteen, the celebrated Trustees' Academy of his native city [ie Edinburgh] - an art-school wherein has been trained several of our most eminent modern artists. The first pictures which the painter submitted to public inspection were shown in the exhibitions of the Royal Scottish Academy. Encouraged by their reception, Mr. Orchardson came to London in 1863, and the same year exhibited in Trafalgar-square for the first time...Mr. Orchardson's rise in the estimation of the London public and of his professional brethren has been unusually rapid. But perhaps his chief success was attained in the Paris Universal Exhibition, where his "Challenge"...and "Christopher Sly" were - especially the former - greatly admired by French critics for their very skilful execution, and won for the painter one of the very few medals awarded to British artists'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.