*EGG, AUGUSTUS, A.R.A., was born in London in 1816. After the usual educational course in the schools of Mr. Sass and of the Royal Academy, Mr. Egg became for the first time in 183S a con tributor to the Academy exhibition by sending a 'Spanish Girl;' he also in these early years sent pictures to the Society of British Artists, and to the provincial exhibitions. The peculiar turn of his mind was perhaps first distinctly shown by the picture he exhibited at the Academy in 1840, A Scene in the Boar's Head, Cheapside ; ' and he has since been a pretty constant contributor of pictures illus trating scenes of humour from the pages of Shakspere, Scott, Le Sage, &c., of the order technically styled 'genre.' Their clear bright colouring, vivacity, and a certain coarse theatrical freedom and geniality, made them favourites with those who relish a less refined fare than was afforded by Mr. Leslie, previously the chief caterer in the same walk. Without any marked departure from his original manner, Mr. Egg has shown a steady advance in the mechanical departments of his art, and he has on more than one occasion shown too that he has as yet done but imperfect justice to his talents. The following are the principal works he. has contributed to the Royal Academy exhibitions since 1840:—' Scene from Romeo and Juliet,' and an 'Italian Festa,' in 1841 ; Cromwell discovering his chaplain Jeremiah White making love to his daughter Frances; 1842; The Introduction of Sir Piercie Shafton to Herbert Glendinniug; 1843; 'Scene from the Devil on Two Sticks,' 1844, now in the Vernon Gallery ; ' Scene from the Winter's Tale,' 1845 ; Buckingham Rebuffed,' 1846; The Wooing of Katherine—from the Taming of the Shrew,' 1847; ' Queen Elizabeth discovers she is no longer young,' 1848, a ridiculous caricature in the very lowest grade of broad farce; 'Henrietta Maria in Distress relieved by Cardinal du Retz,' and Launce's substitute for Proteus'e Dog,' 1849 ; ' Peter the Great sees Katherine, his future Empress, for the first time,' 1850 ; Pepys's Introduction to Nell Gwynne,' 1851, like the last, a very clever rendering of a subject not remarkable for its pictorial capability ; 'Dame Ursula and Margaret,' 1854 ; and The Life and Death of Buckingham,' 1855. The Life and Death of Buckingham' is repre
- seated in dramatic, fashion—within the same frame the profligate duke and his sovereign revelling with the courtiers and the courtezans of "the merry monarch," and the death of the dobauchee, according to Pope's version of it, " in the worst inn's worst room "—both scenes being wrought out with uncompromising fidelity. In power i far surpassed any of Mr. Egg's previous productions, but it was sickening and repulsive, exactly in proportion to its truth and force. Mr. Egg was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1848.