William Mulready — Ennis-Born Painter of Victorian London
Irish Artist · 1786–1863
William Mulready
Born in Ennis, made in London — a Royal Academician, and the designer of a postal envelope the public would not have.
Part of our full Irish Art Prints collection.
The Toy-seller — a travelling seller offers a toy to a child held by a woman. In the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland.
The Story
William Mulready is claimed as an Irish painter on the strength of his birth, and the claim is fair. He was born on 1 April 1786 in Ennis, Co. Clare — but Ennis is where his story begins and, in practice, where his Irish life ends. The family moved to Dublin in 1788 and soon afterwards to London, and by 1792 they were living in Bayswater.
He was drawing early enough to be noticed. The Scottish painter John Graham took him up around 1796, the sculptor Thomas Banks trained his hand, and in 1800 — aged fourteen — he was accepted as a student at the Royal Academy. He was elected an Associate of the Academy in 1815 and a full Royal Academician in 1816, and went on exhibiting there for decades.
His best-remembered commission is one he would rather have missed. In 1840, alongside the Penny Black, the Post Office issued prepaid letter-sheets and envelopes bearing a design by Mulready. They went on sale on 1 May 1840 and were valid from 6 May. The public mocked them at once: caricatures of the design appeared in numbers, and within six days Rowland Hill was writing, “I fear we shall have to substitute some other stamp for that design by Mulready.” The Penny Pink envelopes replaced them in February 1841.
Two of his pictures are in the catalogue here, and both are in the National Gallery of Ireland. The Toy-seller is the late one, painted between 1857 and his death in 1863. It is the larger, later version of a subject he had first painted in 1835: in that small oil, now in the V&A as part of John Sheepshanks's gift to the nation, a Black toy-seller holds a toy bird up to a child who turns away from him into the arms of the woman holding it. The National Gallery of Ireland bought the later version in 1891.
Bathers Surprised is a different Mulready — nude, outdoors, and painted on a small wood panel, 59 × 44 cm, in 1852–53. The Gallery's catalogue describes young women bathing from the rocky bank of a stream while a woman holding a child warns them that someone is coming; the figure in the foreground, untroubled, touches her hair. It was shown at the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris and at the 1862 International Exhibition in London, and the Gallery bought it in 1911. The Gallery's note on a related chalk study adds that Queen Victoria admired his idealised nudes enough to ask for one for Prince Albert.
Mulready died at home in Bayswater on 7 July 1863 and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery.
Timeline
- 1786 — Born 1 April in Ennis, Co. Clare.
- 1788 — The family moves to Dublin, then soon afterwards to London; they are living in Bayswater by 1792.
- 1800 — Accepted as a student at the Royal Academy.
- 1815–16 — Elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1815 and Royal Academician in 1816.
- 1840 — His designs for the Post Office's prepaid stationery go on sale on 1 May, and are widely mocked.
- 1852–53 — Paints Bathers Surprised, shown at the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris.
- 1857–63 — Paints The Toy-seller, working on it until his death.
- 1863 — Dies 7 July at home in Bayswater; buried at Kensal Green Cemetery.
- 1891 — The National Gallery of Ireland acquires The Toy-seller.
- 1911 — The National Gallery of Ireland buys Bathers Surprised.
His Places
From a birthplace in Clare to a Bayswater house and a Kensal Green grave — and the galleries where the paintings are kept. Click a pin.
Ennis · Bayswater · Kensal Green · the V&A · the National Gallery of Ireland.
Featured Works
Collector's Guide
Begin with The Toy-seller — the late picture, painted between 1857 and his death in 1863, and a small domestic drama with a child who wants nothing to do with the toy. Bathers Surprised is the more ambitious, a figure composition that took its place in international exhibitions in Paris and London.
About the Prints
Every Mulready print is open edition and made to order, printed on archival matte paper and shipped free worldwide, framed or unframed. Mulready died in 1863, so his work is in the public domain.
Discover Similar Artists
Frederic William Burton — another Clare-born painter who made his career in London. · Walter Osborne — another Irish painter of everyday life.
Or see every artist on our Irish artists we print page.