Profession: artist

Josiah Wedgwood was approached by Stubbs to find a way of firing high-quality enamelled images; both made heavy demands of the other, though it enabled Wedgwood to present himself as an artist’s patron. He commissioned some family portraits from Stubbs, and got him to teach perspective drawing to his children, including Thomas. Burke was an acquaintance. Hunter became a friend of Stubbs — they shared a passion for anatomy — and commissioned studies of a yak, a rhino, a baboon and a monkey from him, and noted that the kangaroo painted for Banks was based on the skin and skull only.

Without being considered a major artist, Trumbull’s paintings are icons of American nationalism. Meeting Copley in Boston persuaded Trumbull to become an artist (he was inspired by Copley’s personal elegance as well as his work). West, who taught him in London, interceded to stop him being executed as a spy (he still spent several months in prison). He visited David in Paris, and introduced another admirer, Jefferson, to him. Franklin and Jefferson both sat for him, though he later fell out with Jefferson. Gilbert, who painted his portrait, had shared a studio in London, but became something of a rival in the U.S.

Van Gogh wrote that he’d met Millais, whose work had moved him, on a London street. The precocious Millais and Hunt were students together, and meeting the like-minded Dante Rossetti, formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in opposition to the Royal Academy’s taught values. He was Ruskin’s protégé and close friend, though they fell out when Millais took up with Ruskin’s rejected wife. He illustrated the work of his friends Tennyson, Thackeray and Trollope. Collins, Browning and Christina Rossetti were also friends; Dickens became one (having earlier denounced the Pre-Raphaelites); Millais drew him on his death-bed.

Abel and Bach were close friends and fellow-carousers — Gainsborough preferring the company of musicians to artists. A founder-member of the Royal Academy, Reynolds was his great rival (they made up when Gainsborough was dying). When first in London, he had joined Hogarth’s St. Martin’s Lane group, contributing to a set of murals for the Foundling Hospital. Garrick sat for his portrait, but dismissing Gainsborough’s talents, changed his expression every time the artist looked away. Gainsborough confided to Sheridan that he had many more acquaintances than friends, and asked if he’d accompany him to his grave.

Eakins assisted Muybridge in research he undertook in Philadelphia, and was directly influenced by his approach to photographing human and animal locomotion. Whitman and Eakins had a lot of mutual respect, perhaps grounded in the professional rebuffs both had experienced; Eakins painted and photographed Whitman (a set of images of a naked old man are probably also be of him). Henri studied under him briefly, and after his death, wrote about his honesty and integrity as an artist.

Sargent enjoyed a long friendship with Rodin. Monet was met when both had work in the same exhibition; he encouraged Sargent to work outdoors, and was painted by him at his house in Giverny. James urged Sargent to move to London, and wrote about him, boosting his reputation. Whistler crossed paths with Sargent, befriended his fellow-expatriate, but was somewhat critical of his technique; Sargent lent him his studio at a difficult time in his life. Both Whistler and Wilde lived in the same Chelsea street. Stevenson was a lifelong friend, though described one of Sargent’s portraits of him as “damn queer.”

Corot and Courbet were among the artists Jongkind met during his first period of residence in France; Corot was one of several who later gave work to be auctioned so Jongkind could return from Rotterdam, where Nadar had visited him. He made several trips to Normandy, meeting Boudin, Sisley, and the young Monet, painting with Monet in Le Havre and persuading Boudin to work outdoors. Monet said that ‘the master’ Jongkind had given him the definitive education of his eyes. Baudelaire and Zola (whose friend Cézanne lived in the same building) both met him and wrote enthusiastically about his work.

He worked with Corot, Daumier and Manet to get official Salon regulations changed, often lent Monet money, strongly influenced the young Renoir, and corresponded extensively with Hugo. His regular companions and supporters Proudhon and Baudelaire were depicted in his famous allegory of the artist’s studio; these two, Courbet and Daumier frequented a brasserie close to his studio — a regular meeting-place for realist painters and writers. Whistler had been a disciple; the likelihood that his mistress modelled for Courbet’s most shockingly erotic painting may explain the abrupt ending of their friendship.