Anthony R. Montalba

Anthony Rubens Montalba (1812–24 July 1884) was a Swedish-born, naturalised British painter and the head of a family of renowned artists that based itself in Venice in the later part of the nineteenth-century. He may be known best as the editor of an 1849 story collection illustrated by Richard Doyle, Fairy Tales from All Nations.

Fairy Tales from All Nations

Montalba edited Fairy Tales from All Nations, illustrated by Richard Doyle and published by Chapman & Hall in 1849.

In the introduction to his book, Montalba declared that the folly of declaring fairy tales to be immoral had now been "cast off". Jack Zipes explains the Puritanical background and the flowering after 1840 in the introduction to his Victorian Fairy Tales anthology. (Harper & Brothers announced the US edition as forthcoming "In December", and it may have been published then, although dated 1850 on the title page. Ellen Emeline (1842–1912), who studied at the Royal College of Art and in Europe, being based in Venice along with her family. She painted a number of portraits and landscape paintings. Among the portraits she exhibited was one of her sister Clara. Edward Augustus (1843–1938), whose house in Venice became a gathering place for artists. Hilda Montalba (1845–1919). Like her sisters, Hilda painted many landscape subjects, including scenes of Venice. Like Clara she painted fishing boats, and also painted close-up studies of Venetian people. One notable example of her work is a painting now in the Graves Art Gallery in Sheffield, Boy Unloading a Venetian Market Boat.

The 1871 British census shows Montalba living at 19 Arundel Gardens, Notting Hill, London, with four daughters, all artists.

Montalba died in Venice on 24 July 1884.