The American painter Richard Caton Woodville pursued his great passion, painting and drawing, at an early age. As the scion of a wealthy family, he was able to live out his talent without financial pressure.
He could not let go of his passion even during his medical studies at the University of Maryland, which may well have led him to decide not to pursue his desired career as a doctor. Instead, at the age of 20, he went to DĂĽsseldorf together with his wife Mary, whom he had married the year before. There he first attended the art academy, but - he could afford it - soon took private lessons with Karl Ferdinand Sohn. His opulent works, in which he took up themes from ancient mythology, were already very popular during his lifetime and later he was appointed director of the DĂĽsseldorf Art Academy.
The world of antiquity, however, was less to Woodville's taste. He was much more attracted to the caricature painting Johann Peter Hasenclevers, with which he had become famous during his time in DĂĽsseldorf. Hasenclever is considered one of the most important German painters of the 19th century and co-founder of socio-critical genre painting, whose famous representatives include Carl Spitzweg and Wilhelm Busch. From then on, this kind of ironically viewed snapshot became the subject of Woodville's work. His pictures reflect especially the world of the petty bourgeoisie in the Biedermeier era, which many artists liked to depict satirically and with a slight wink.
In Sohn's studio in the late 1840s, Woodville had met the DĂĽsseldorf architect's daughter Antoinette Marie Schnitzler, who, like him, was an enthusiastic painter. Because of her, his wife left him and went back to America with their three children. A few years later Richard Caton Woodville married his lover Antoinette, with whom he had a daughter. In the following years the artist couple traveled together through Paris and England. Like his life, Woodville's death was marked by passion and wildness - he died at the age of 30 from a morphine overdose.
His son Richard Caton Woodville junior, who also studied in DĂĽsseldorf, became almost even better known. However, he went his own artistic way and made a name for himself as a battle painter.
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.jpg "The Relief of the Light Brigade, 25th October 1854 by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Hyder Ali at Conjeveram in 1780, illustration from Hutchinson")
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.jpg "The Death of Henry Hotspur, 21st July 1403, Illustration from")
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.jpg "The Battle of Towton in 1461, illustration from Hutchinsons")
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.jpg "A Cossack Station in Manchuria with Tribal Signs Over the Men")
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.jpg "Before the Battle: A Russian Prayer for Success by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Ramillies: Marlborough Leading the Cavalry into Action, c.1910 by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "The Anointing of Edward the Martyr at his Coronation by St. Dunstan at Kingston-on-Thames, from")
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.jpg "The Capture of Ping Yang, illustration from")
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.jpg "Turkic-Bashkir Cossack archers harried and hounded the retreat of Napoleon")
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.jpg "The Last Shot in the Soudan, from")
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.jpg "British Artillery Getting into Position at the Battle of Mons by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Lord Kitchener")
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.jpg "Scene from the Battle of Haelen where the Belgian troops defeated the invaders by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Dampier Examining a Boomerang in Australia, c.1910 by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "At grips with the foe: House to house fighting at Ypres by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "The Cavalier")
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.jpg "Convicts on Their Way to Botany Bay by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "The fighting round Tientsin: Charge of the Japanese Cavalry, illustration from")
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.jpg "The Irish Land League Agitation: Scots Greys charging the mob at Limerick, illustration from")
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.jpg "The Elevation of Edward the Elder at His Coronation at Kingston-on-Thames, Whitsunday by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "A Cossack of the Line by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "The Russo-Japanese War: a hand-to-hand struggle in the earthworks at Port Arthur by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Native Road Menders, from After Pretoria: The Guerilla War by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Evening fete for the benefit of the London Hospitals - the Princess of Wales selling flowers by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Peter the Great watching the procedure of the House of Lords by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "The Boxer Movement, illustration from")
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.jpg "The Nawab")
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.jpg "Fire! by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Field Artillery Coming into Action, Illustration from")
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.jpg "Sir George Simpson in Vancouver Island, illustration from")
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.jpg "The Card Players by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "All That Was Left of Them by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "The Highlanders turning the captured French guns on Brenniers Battalions, illustration from")
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.jpg "The Attack on the House of Sir Alexander Burnes by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "The British in Ceylon, Illustration from")
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.jpg "Vespasian Rescued by His Son Titus, Illustration from")
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.jpg "The British in Natal in 1824, Illustration from")
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.jpg "The Yeoman")
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.jpg "The Oration of Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, at the Coronation of John, Ascension Day, May 27th, 1199 (from")
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.jpg "British Infantry Forcing Their Way Through German Wire Entanglements by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "The Devil")
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.jpg "Waiting for the Stage by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Charge of the Scots Greys at Waterloo by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Candahar: The 92nd Highlanders and the 2nd Gurkhas Storming Gaudi Mullah Sahibdad, from")
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.jpg "Cavalry Attack by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "British forces marching into Cape Town, illustration from")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-73725).jpg "Napoleon I with his Old Guard at Waterloo, engraved by Jules Jacquet by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "The Coronation Procession of Edward VI through London by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Old")
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.jpg "The Battle of Quebec, 1759, illustration from")
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.jpg "Caught in barbed wire entanglements: Night attack by British infantry by Richard Caton Woodville")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-377960).jpg "The Fencing Lesson, c.1847-49 by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "After the Battle of Oudenarde by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Attack on the Railway by Chunchuses by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "A Bengal Lancer and his Boxer Captive, illustration from")
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.jpg "The Surrender of Gibraltar by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Scaling of the Heights of Abraham by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Waiting for the Stage by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "British taking possession of Aden, illustration from")
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.jpg "The Visit of the Prince of Wales to India, 1876: The Prince")
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.jpg "Japanese Cavalry Encampment at Seoul: Farriers at Work by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "The surrender of Mauritius Isle to the British in 1810, illustration from")
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.jpg "Yeomanry Attacking De Wet")
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.jpg "The Squire")
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.jpg "The cession of Hong Kong to the British, illustration from")
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.jpg "Waiting for the Stage by Richard Caton Woodville")
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_Entry_into_Pretoria_on_5th_June_1900_-_(MeisterDrucke-317464).jpg "Lord Roberts")
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.jpg "The Unending March Eastwards: A Familiar Sight on the Way by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Waiting for the Stage by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "The Battle of Alma by Richard Caton Woodville")
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![The Fencing Lesson [recto] by Richard Caton Woodville](/kunstwerke/300px/Richard_Caton_Woodville_-_The_Fencing_Lesson_recto_-_(MeisterDrucke-1220726).jpg "The Fencing Lesson [recto] by Richard Caton Woodville")
![The Fencing Lesson [recto] by Richard Caton Woodville](/kunstwerke/400w/Richard_Caton_Woodville_-_The_Fencing_Lesson_recto_-_(MeisterDrucke-1220726).jpg)
.jpg "The Battle of Colenso: The Loss of Our Guns (illustration from")
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.jpg "Arrest of Japanese Spies Disguised as Coolies by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "The Battle of Salamanca, Illustration from")
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.jpg "The Landing of the British Troops in Aboukir Bay, Illustration from")
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.jpg "Evening Fete for the Benefit of the London Hospitals - Music in the Gardens by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "God Bless You Tommy Atkins by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Edward the Confessor Crowned at Winchester, 1043, from")
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.jpg "The surrender of Rangoon to the British, 1824, illustration from")
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.jpg "Captain Cook approaching New Zealand, illustration from")
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.jpg "The Attack on Sir Ralph Abercrombie by the French Dragoons, illustration from")
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.jpg "The First Sino-Japanese War, Illustration from")
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.jpg "The Battle of Blenheim: Storming the Village, c.1910 by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "British troops entering Singapore, illustration from")
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.jpg "The Gross of the Bulgarian Column Made a Dashing Assault Upon the Town, Illustration from")
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.jpg "The Battle of Malplaquet, c.1910 by Richard Caton Woodville")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-155984).jpg "The Charge of the Light Brigade, 1895 by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "The Homage, the Largesse and the General Pardon at the Coronation of James I and Anne of Denmark, July 25th, 1603 by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Politics in an Oyster House by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Bear baiting in Saxon times, from")
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.jpg "In the Row, Hyde Park by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "Mahsameh, scene in the Egyptian War of 1882, engraved by W.J. Palmer by Richard Caton Woodville")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-279745).jpg "The Sailor")
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.jpg "Russian Cossack Artillery Engaging the Chinese Outside Peking, Illustration from")
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.jpg "The Cession of Hong Kong to the British in 1841 by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "The Last Shot at Colenso by Richard Caton Woodville")
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.jpg "The Cretan Rebellion Against the Turks, illustration from")
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.jpg "The Seaforth Highlanders Storming the Zareba at the Battle of Atbara, Illustration from")
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.jpg "Politics in an Oyster House by Richard Caton Woodville")
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