George Goodwin Kilburne Biography | Oil Paintings

George Goodwin Kilburne was educated in his father's old school at Hawkhurst, Kent. At the age of fifteen, he went to London for a six-year apprenticeship as a wood engraver with the Dalziel brothers. His time as an engraver served him well, allowing him to develop the accuracy and detail which would enhance his later painting. He left the firm to take up watercolor and oil painting as a profession, becoming one of the most sought after and well-known artists in England.

In 1862, Kilburne married Janet Dalziel they had three sons and two daughters, his eldest son, George Goodwin Kilburne Jr., became a well-known painter of animals, figures, and sporting subjects.

Kilburne was a keen sportsman and equestrian and liked hunting, cycling and golf. He possessed a good collection of arms, armor, and swords, which he used as props in his paintings.

George Goodwin Kilburne's paintings often portrayed the upper classes and in vogue female beauties in opulent late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century settings. His depiction of this beauty was heightened by his attention to detail with the dress, and decorated interiors.

Kilburne traveled to Italy in 1875, and stayed to paint in Rome for three months, before going south to Venice, he also returned the next year. Besides sketching in many parts of England and Wales, he did the same in Normandy and Switzerland. Soon after the death of Emperor Napoleon III, Empress Eugenie commissioned George Goodwin Kilburne to paint several pictures for her.

George Goodwin Kilburne was elected a member of the New Watercolor Society in 1866. He became a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1883 and the Royal Miniature Society in 1898. In London, Kilburne exhibited at the Royal Academy for over fifty years starting in1863, and also at the Royal Society of British Artists, New Watercolor Society, Royal Miniature Society, and Grosvenor Gallery.

Art Movement: Victorian Classicism.
He Traveled To Italy, France, Switzerland, Wales.
Artist's Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.