# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Hughes, Edward

​HUGHES, EDWARD (1832–1908), portrait-painter, born on 14 Sept. 1832, at Myddelton Square, Pentonville, was son of George Hughes, painter and exhibitor at the Royal Academy, by his wife Mary Lucas. From his father and John Pye [q.v.], the engraver, Hughes received his earliest training in art. In December 1846 he was admitted to the Royal Academy school, and in 1847, when still only fourteen, was awarded the silver medal of the Royal Society of Arts for a chalk drawing. His precocious ability rapidly developed, and in the same year Hughes's earliest painting, 'The First Primer,' won distinction on the line at Burlington House. A more ambitious subject, 'Nourmahal's dream; Light of the Harem,' from 'Lalla Rookh,' was hung the following year. From 1855 to 1876 Hughes was regularly represented at the Academy by subject-pictures, which he afterwards abandoned for the more remunerative work of portraiture. From 1878 to 1884, when his contributions ceased, he exclusively exhibited portraits at the Royal Academy, the most noteworthy being those of Miss Louisa Parnell (Hon. Mrs. Francis Errington) and Dr. Lightfoot, bishop of Durham. 'Very many artists,' Millais is reported to have said, 'can paint the portrait of a man, but very few can paint the portrait of a lady, and Edward Hughes is one of those few.' Hughes's popularity steadily increased, and in 1886 his whole-length painting of Miss Jeannie Chamberlain (Lady Naylor Leyland), exhibited at Messrs. Agnew's Galleries, brought him important commissions.
In 1895 Hughes received his first royal commission. He painted a whole-length seated portrait of Queen Mary, when Duchess of York (now at Buckingham Palace). Of Queen Alexandra Hughes painted three whole-length portraits. The first of these, standing in a landscape, as Princess of Wales, and now at Sandringham, was exhibited at the Guildhall in 1897. The second portrait, in the mourning robes worn at the opening of parliament in 1902, is now at Marlborough House, and was reproduced in photogravure by J. B. Pratt; the third portrait (at Buckingham Palace), which shows Queen Alexandra in coronation robes, was engraved by E. L. Haynes, while replicas were executed for the King of Denmark and the Durbar Hall, Patiala, India. Hughes also painted the Princess Royal, the Princess Victoria, the Queen of Norway (these portraits are at Sandringham), the Duchess of Teck, the Prince of Wales, his brother Prince Albert, and his sister Princess Mary (these are at Buckingham Palace).
Hughes's later work was confined entirely to portraits of ladies and children; among his sitters being Louise, Duchess of Devonshire, and her daughters, Lady Mary and Lady Alice Montagu. The Countess of Leven and Melville, Mrs. William James, and Mrs. Miller Mundy were painted at whole length with their children. The group of the Earl and Countess of Minto's three daughters, painted in 1905, was Hughes's largest picture. Hughes's many American sitters included Miss Jean Reid (afterwards the Hon. Mrs. John Ward), daughter of Mr. Whitelaw Reid, American Ambassador in London from 1904.
Hughes died on 14 May 1908 at his residence, 52 Gower Street, W.C, and was buried at Highgate cemetery. His unfinished portrait of himself is in the possession of his daughter. He married first Mary Pewtner, and secondly Kate Margetts, and was survived by two sons and a daughter, Alice Hughes, who resided with her father for many years at Gower Street, and earned a wide reputation as a professional photographer.
Hughes, who studied the masters of portraiture from Reynolds onwards to the modern workers of the French school, devoted his technical skill chiefly to an idealistic treatment of his sitters.
His earliest portrait of Queen Alexandra, those of Queen Mary, Lady Naylor Leyland, and seven others were reproduced in photogravure in 'The Book of Beauty,' 1896. No specimen of his work is in any public collection.
J. D. M.