William Huggins

William Huggins (May 1820 – 25 February 1884) was an English artist, from Liverpool, who specialised in drawing animals.

Huggins was a member of the Liverpool Academy of Arts. Huggins has been compared to fellow Liverpool artist George Stubbs His animal work was admired and compared to Stubbs. Huggins was magnanimous in acknowledging Stubbs' influence and this contrasts with a later comparison that was made with Landseer where Huggins felt insulted. Huggins pictures of exotic animals were much admired but they are noted for lack of background as Huggins never saw them in their own habitat. In 1845 Huggins changed his themes away from animals and chickens. His paintings were based on literary themes from Milton, Shelley and Spenser's "The Faerie Queene" and Moore's "Enchantress and Nourmahal" He became a full member of the Liverpool Academy in 1850 (resigning in 1856), but never became an RA (Royal Academician). After leaving his brother, he painted the "Stones of Chester, or Ruins of St. John's" (1874) and the "Salmon Trap on the Dee". He moved to Betws-y-Coed in 1876 so that he could paint landscapes. One painting that resulted was, "The Fairy Glen" which was exhibited in Liverpool in 1877. just a year before his brother, Samuel. The brothers were buried in St James' Church, Christleton, and the headstone of their grave is a Grade II listed building.

Work

Huggins' horses, cattle, and poultry pictures were his best and most characteristic work, good in drawing, and remarkable for brilliance of colour.

Huggins portrait include one of the master of the Holcombe Hunt, his brother Samuel and himself. He included his wife in "Aerial combat, the fight between the Eagle and the Serpent" which he painted in his literary phase and which illustrated Shelley's "Revolt of Islam."

Huggins has nearly 60 paintings in public collections in the United Kingdom.

According to art-historian and gallery owner Rupert Maas, "Huggins was an eccentric individual. He preferred the company of animals, especially chickens, than of his fellow men. He hated travelling through tunnels, and so would get off the train before Liverpool and walk the rest of the way home. His epitaph, which he composed himself, read: 'A just and compassionate man who would neither tread on a worm, nor cringe to an Emperor'."

Selected paintings

A Jaguar (1838) Bideston Farmhouse (1850) Poultry in a Landscape (1856) Barn Door Fowl (Rhode Island Reds) (1860) A Horse in the Stable (1866) Portrait of a Newfoundland (1869) Portrait of a Boy (1869)