William Frederick Yeames (1835-1918)

Photographer: David Wilkie Wynfield (1837–1887)

c.1863

Albumen print

8 3/8 x 6 1/4 inches (21.2 x 15.9 cm).

Collection: National Portrait Gallery, London, accession no. NPG P98

Photo: © National Portrait Gallery, London.

Reproduced with kind permission. [Click on image to enlarge it, and see commentary below; mouse over the text for links.]

William Frederick Yeames (homepage)

Wynfield as a Painter

Commentary by Dennis T. Lanigan

Yeames was another of Wynfield's colleagues in the St. John's Wood Clique, as well as his brother-in-law, having married Wynfield's sister Annie. Wynfield has chosen to portray him in Renaissance costume, one of the three or four images Wynfield created of his close friend. In this image Yeames is shown full face with a stern visage and wearing a Tudor style costume of a decoratively smocked shirt underneath a fur wrap. He wears a plumed cap on his head. Both photographer and sitter were fond of portraying Tudor subjects in their art. Yeames's stern expression may be the result of his not wearing his usual glasses.

Yeames's niece Mary found Wynfield's portrait of Yeames in Renaissance attire less effective than some of his other photographs: "He took several portraits of my uncle, but I never thought them so effective as some of the others. Perhaps it was because, being very shortsighted, his eyes would take on the blurred look of a near-sighted eye if bereft of glasses, for, as Wynfield always liked to take his portraits in costume, spectacles seemed rather out of place" (153-54).

Yeames became a successful painter, primarily of historical genre subjects. He was made an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1866 and a full member in 1878. He became Librarian at the Royal Academy in 1895, succeeding John Evan Hodgson, another member of the St. John's Wood Clique who had also been photographed by Wynfield.

Bibliography

Keaney, Magdalene. "This Portrait." National Portrait Gallery. Web. 14 December 2023.

Stephen Smith, Mary H. Art And Anecdote. Recollections of William Frederick Yeames, R.A. London: Hutchinson & Co. Ltd., 1927.

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Created 14 December 2023