HORSLEY, JOHN CALLCOTT, A.R.A., was born in London in January 1817. Trained to art from childhood, Horsley became a contri butor to the various pictorial exhibitions while quite a youth ; but the works which first attracted notice, beyond his own friendly circle, were the' Contrast' and 'Leaving the Ball,' exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1840, and belonging to a sentimental style at that time much iu vogue. Other works similar in atvle engaged the young artist's pencil, till the proposals put forth by the Commission of the Fine Arta, in connection with the decoration of the new houses of parliament, incited him to a bolder flight. At the Cartoon Competition of 1843 Mr. Horsley, by his cartoon of St. Augustine Preaching,' secured one of the three aecond-ela.sa prizes of 200/. ; and in the succeeding Fresco Competition he was one of the six artists who obtained commissions to prepare designs for executing iu the House of Lords. The subject
assigned to him was the ' Spirit of Religion,' and his design being approved, he painted It in fresco in one of the arches over the Strangers Gallery in the .peers' chamber. He has since painted another fresco in the Poets Hall, 'Satan surprised, at the ear of Eve.' Mr. llorsley's principal cabinet pictures, painted since the completion of his frescoes, have been—' Malvolio i' the Sun,' exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1849 ; Hospitality—the Mote at Ightham,' 1850; ' L'Allegro and 11 Penscroso,' painted for Prince Albert, and ' Youth and Age, 1851 • Master Slender' and the 'Madrigal,' 1852; Lady Jane Grey and Roger Ascham: 1853; ' Scene from Don Quixote,' 1855 —the most original and masterly of the genre pictures Mr. Horsley has yet painted ; and the 'Administration of the Lord's Supper,' 1856. Mr. Horsley was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1855.