William Frederick Mitchell

With the English painter William Frederick Mitchell there is an aspect connected with his art that has nothing to do with his art at all: He was deaf. The frightening thing about it from today's point of view is the reason for his deafness. It was a scarlet fever. A childhood disease that can be treated with antibiotics nowadays. This shows what dangerous late effects such childhood diseases could have in earlier centuries. Despite this handicap, William Frederick Mitchell did not lose his courage to face life and later demonstrated impressive artistic creativity. He found support and encouragement from his father. The deaf boy could not attend a normal school, so the father taught his son at home. When William Frederick got older, he was obviously ready to pass on his experiences with his deafness to his fellow sufferers. In 1904, he published his biography in a magazine for deaf people, describing his illness and the painful time that followed.

Perhaps it was also due to his deafness that William Frederick Mitchell did not find the woman for life for a long time. He was already 37 years old when he married young Miss Woodman. William Frederick was born on the south coast of England in Calshot, near Southampton. It was in that area, more precisely near Portsmouth, that he spent most of his life. After his marriage he moved to the Isle of Wight, where he died. So his life was influenced by the element water

The same applies to his work. Mitchell preferred to paint ships. He was so precise and obsessed with detail that his motifs look like photographs. It can be assumed that he was not only well versed in painting techniques but also in nautical science. In 1845, the year William Frederick was born, the first English steamer named Lady of the Lake set sail. It was an era of progress and navigation. Britain was a majestic seafaring nation. From 1815 to 1914, the British ruled the world's oceans and it was considered the imperial century. Therefore, the sailors of that time had the desire to see their proud naval or merchant ships captured on canvas. Especially officers and ship owners commissioned William Frederick to paint their ships. As an artist he also had many high-ranking patrons such as Queen Victoria, Edward Prince of Wales and the Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia. Mitchell's work includes battleships, cruisers, gunboats or frigates, many with full, swollen sails. But Mitchell did not simply paint the ship itself. No, he showed it in its element of water, sometimes knocked over by waves, sometimes on calm waters and always with a vivid sky in the background. He mainly used watercolours, but also painted oil paintings. Originally his works were published in the Royal Navy. Today many of his paintings are in the National Maritime Museum Collection in Greenwich.

William Frederick Mitchell

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The most popular works of William Frederick Mitchell

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