William Callow

William Callow was born in Greenwich, East London in 1812, the son of a carpenter and builder. His father encouraged him to pursue art and in 1823, at the age of 11 he was apprenticed to the engraver and landscape painter, Theodore Henry Fielding (1781-1851), where he studied watercolor drawing and aquatint engraving for eight years. In 1829 Callow left for Paris to work for the publisher, J.F. d'Ostervald. However, the July Revolution of 1830, in which the French monarch King Charles X was overthrown, forced Callow's return to Britain. He returned to Paris again in 1831 and became acquainted with Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828), who proved to be a major influence on his work. Callow was first and foremost a landscape painter and this passion led to his extensive travels around Europe, recording the landscapes he encountered there. In 1834 Callow exhibited at the Paris Salon and was subsequently invited by King Louis-Philippe I of France to teach drawing to his two sons and daughter. In 1841 Callow moved back to London, established himself as a drawing master and built up an aristocratic and influential clientele. He exhibited regularly at the Old Watercolour Society from 1838 onwards, at the British Institute from 1848-1867, and showed 29 works at the Royal Academy between 1850-1876, mainly European landscapes. About two years before his death he sold his portfolios of early works which sold so well that he held an exhibition of them at the Leicester Galleries in 1907. He moved to Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire in 1855 and lived and worked there until his death at the great age of 96, in 1908. William Callow is recognized as the Victorian heir of the picturesque topographical school of painting, epitomized by Samuel Prout (1783-1852).