Name Theodore Wirgman Role Artist | Education Royal Academy of Arts | |
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Died January 16, 1925, London, United Kingdom | ||
Theodore Blake Wirgman (29 April 1848 – 16 January 1925) was an English painter and etcher who moved to London, studied at the Royal Academy schools, became a painter of history and genre subjects, and worked as a portrait artist for The Graphic. A number of these portraits are held at the National Portrait Gallery. Theodore Blake Wirgman was born in Belgium and died in London. He and his brothers, Charles Wirgman and Francis Wirgman (1837–1860), were the sons of Ferdinand Charles Wirgman (1806–1858) and Frances Letitia Brereton. The Wirgman ancestral family had been successful silversmiths who had come to London from Sweden early in the 18th century. Thomas Wirgman, Theodore Blake's grandfather, wrote books on Kant, the German philosopher. Several of Theodore Blake's siblings died in infancy. His sister Clara (1841–1895) married into the French family Thevenard.
He worked from a studio at 24 Dawson Place, Notting Hill, London, and joined The Arts Club in 1892.
Wirgman was part of a group of avant-garde young artists who emulated Edward Burne-Jones and Simeon Solomon. This group was made up of Walter Crane, Robert Bateman, Harry Ellis Wooldridge and Edward Clifford.