Edward Henry Wehnert was an English-born painter of landscape, genre and historical subjects, now best remembered for his illustrations in books and magazine.

Life and Work

The artist was born in London of German parents in 1813 and christened at St Anne's Church, Soho, on 14 February. He was educated at Göttingen University and received his art training chiefly in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, where and in Jersey

Jersey

Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...

 he resided from 1832 to 1837. While in Jersey he taught John Everett Millais

John Everett Millais

Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Early life:...

, shortly before the youngster left to pursue his art education in London, and also painted some topographical views. Wehnert then returned to England himself after joining the recently founded New Society of Painters in Watercolours, to the exhibitions of which he was subsequently a constant contributor. Among these was “The Gardener’s Daughter” (1860), which was obviously influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite themes favoured by his former pupil, Millais, with whom he had kept in contact. Among his other close friends were the sculptor Alfred Stevens

Alfred Stevens (sculptor)

Alfred Stevens , British sculptor, was born at Blandford Forum in Dorset.He was the son of a house painter and in the early part of his career he painted pictures in his spare time. In 1833, the rector of his parish enabled him to go to Italy, where he spent nine years studying at Naples, Pompeii,...

 and the wood engraver William James Linton

William James Linton

William James Linton was an English-born American wood engraver, landscape painter, political reformer and author of memoirs, novels, poetry and non-fiction.- Birth and early years :...

.

His drawings were all of an historical character, among the best being "Luther reading his Sermon to some Friends", "The Death of Wickliffe", "George Fox preaching in a tavern" and "Caxton examining the first proof sheet from his press". Wehnert's large works, though excellently conceived and drawn, were unattractive in colour and did not readily find purchasers. He was more successful as a designer of book illustrations. Among the many for which he furnished the drawings were Grimm's Fairy Tales

Grimm's Fairy Tales

Children's and Household Tales is a collection of German origin fairy tales first published in 1812 by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the Brothers Grimm. The collection is commonly known today as Grimms' Fairy Tales .-Composition:...

 (1853); Keats's Eve of St. Agnes (1856); Coleridge's Ancient Mariner (1857); The Pilgrim's Progress

The Pilgrim's Progress

The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan and published in February, 1678. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been...

(1858); Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...

's Fairy Tales (1861); Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and...

(1862); and Edgar Allen Poe's Poetical Works (1865).

Wehnert contributed to the Westminster Hall cartoon exhibition in 1845 an allegorical drawing of "Justice". He died at Fortess Terrace, Kentish Town

Kentish Town

Kentish Town is an area of north west London, England in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The most widely accepted explanation of the name of Kentish Town is that it derived from 'Ken-ditch' meaning the 'bed of a waterway'...

, on 15 September 1868. There is a collection of his work at the Victoria & Albert Museum, for which he also designed a mosaic.

Note

The bulk of the information here is taken from the article by Freeman Marius O'Donoghue in the Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 60, a work in the public domain.