Work
George's paintings often portrayed the upper classes and ultra-fashionable female beauties in opulent late 18th and early 19th century settings. His depiction of this beauty was heightened by his attention to detail with dress, and richly decorated interiors. During the period his paintings would have been considered traditional, especially compared to the work of contemporaries such as James McNeill Whistler and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Kilburne travelled extensively in Italy around 1875, and painted in Rome for three months, besides working in Venice at that time, and also in 1876. He did a great deal of sketching in Normandy and Switzerland, besides visiting many parts of England and Wales for the same purpose.
Shortly after the death of the Emperor Napoleon III, the Empress Eugenie commissioned KIlburne to paint several pictures for her. For this purpose he paid many visits to her at Chislehurst, Kent to paint pictures of the rooms used by the late Emperor, which had been kept, just as they were, during his lifetime.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, he designed and executed a great number of greetings and Christmas cards for the firm of Raphael Tuck & Sons and De La Rue, the minute labour and work for which brought on a serious attack of gout in the eyes. He also contributed a large number of black and white pictures to The Graphic, The Illustrated London News and Cassell's Magazine. Many of his pictures became popular through prints.
Kilburne was elected a member of the New Watercolour Society (RI) in 1866. He became a member of the Royal Miniature Society in 1898 and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) in 1883. In London, Kilburne exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1863–1918, at the Royal Society of British Artists (Suffolk Street), New Watercolour Society, Royal Miniature Society, Grosvenor Gallery, Dowdeswell Galleries and others. In the regions he exhibited at Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, the Manchester City Art Gallery, the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.
Kilburne's work can be seen nowadays in many public and private galleries including the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, Manchester City Art Gallery and the Sheffield Art Gallery.
Read more about this topic: George Goodwin Kilburne
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