William James Webbe

Webbe was born on 13 July 1830 at Redruth, Cornwall, and baptized on the 23rd of that month at St Austell, Cornwall. He was one of eight children of Wesleyan Church minister Rev. Samuel Webb and Sarah née Stirrup. He married Besse before 1871, the couple had two children, Wilfred Mark Webb and Ethel Alice Webb, and lived in London. He travelled abroad, to Dusseldorf, where he study art, where he was probably influenced by Nazarenes art. Webbe returned to England in 1853, and made his debut at the Royal Academy. He took part in exhibitions at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and the Royal Society of British Artists from 1853 to 1878. • Illustration — Two lambs in a barn, signed and dated 'W. J. Webb April 1853' (lower left), oil on board • Illustration — Twilight, c. 1855, oil on canvas • Illustration — Rabbit amid Ferns and Flowering Plants, 1855 • Illustration — Chanticleer and the Fox, signed with initials and dated 'WJW 1857' (lower left) Webbe was an early convert to Pre-Raphaelitism. Allen Staley wrote about Webbe in his book The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape (1973), and noted that two of his works dating from 1854–55 are of "Pre-Raphaelite elaboration of microscopic foreground detail pushed to an almost insane extreme". In 1862 Webbe made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Middle East and began to paint Eastern subjects. Webbe's journey was probably inspired by English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood William Holman Hunt, who visited the Holy Land in 1854–1856, 1869–1872, 1875–1878, and 1892. Webbe is known for his book illustrations for six volumes published by the London publishing house Raphael Tuck & Sons. More of his illustrations can be found in Biblical Stories for Children and in books by authors such as William Makepeace Thackeray and those of his son Wilfred Mark Webb. He drew his book illustrations using the pseudonym WJ Webb. • Illustration — A street in Jerusalem, 1863 • Illustration — A Shepherd of Jerusalem, 1863 • Illustration — The piping shepherd, signed with monogram and dated '1864' (lower left), oil on canvas • Illustration — A street in Jerusalem, signed with monogram and dated '1867' (lower left) • Illustration — The Homeward Journey, signed and dated 'W.J.Webb/1869' (lower left), oil on panel William James Webbe was living in the Isle of Wight in 1856, later, in 1861, he resided at Langham Chambers, "in an area where many of the Pre-Raphaelites congregated and had their studios". According to Webbe's great great grandniece, Jennie Shelley, "In the 1901 census William aged 70 and his wife Besse aged 52 were living at 4 Marlborough Rd, Ealing, Middlesex, and his occupation was artist. Also at that address was his daughter Ethel who was a science mistress." His brothers, Samuel Webb and Thomas Stirrup Webb, emigrated to New Zealand. Samuel was a pottery manufacturer in Stoke on Trent, William's mother, Sarah Stirrup, also "came from generations of pottery manufacturers".

• Illustration — A White Terrier by a Mossy Bank with Flowers. Opaque glue-based paint, followed by resinous glazing, and brush, perhaps pen, on heavy off-white paper, 1871 • A Hedge Bank in May, 1855 • Twilight, c. 1855 • Cattle and a Fram, 1856 • The White Owl, 1856 • Strawberries, 1860 • Lambs, 1860 • The Collared Thief, 1860 • Early Lambs, 1861 • A Rabbit, 1862 • Street in Jerusalem, 1863 • Ploughing on Mount Zion, 1864 • The Lost Sheep, 1864 • A White Terrier by a Mossy Bank with Flowers, 1871 • A Plough Team outside Jerusalem, 1879 • Perch on a River Bank