The People of Gibraltar

1862 - Frederick Richard Lee

Frederick Richard Lee was born in Devon in 1798. He enrolled in the Royal Academy in 1818 and never looked back as he became one of the most a prolific - and well paid - oil painter of his era. Recent research shows that he produced more than 300 paintings in his lifetime many unfortunately as yet unknown to the general public.

Frederick Richard Lee

He was much influenced by Constable and the majority of his pictures deal with British scenes. But he did travel. Only a few copies of his Gibraltar pictures seem to be readily available although there may be more in private collections.

His style could almost be described as 'super-realism' - he was apparently unimpressed by Turner's impressionism. The result is that he has left us with two shimmering views of both the north and the south ends of the Rock, and one of the Rock from Algeciras.

His drawing of a sunfish can be used as evidence of his visit to Gibraltar as the fish was caught while he was travelling to the Rock from Algeciras.

Sun Fish

Surprisingly, even though he is recorded as having travelled extensively throughout Europe he painted very few pictures outside Britain. Out of several hundred available over the internet only one each from Italy and France are available. Gibraltar can therefore count itself lucky to have more than one. The only one I can find of Spain is the Rock viewed from Algeciras,

It has also been suggested that he may have used photographs - from Francis Frith or James Mann for example - to develop his few foreign themes. If so it leaves us with one or two anomalies in the Windmill Hill picture; the guns seem out of proportion, the cliffs too high and the rock formations on the right do not correspond with reality - all unusual mistakes for a painter of such precision.