Thomas Miles Richardson Jnr was born in Newcastle in 1813. His father was the landscape artist Thomas Miles Richardson Snr, who is regarded as Newcastle’s ‘Father of Fine Arts’. He was the third of six sons, and his father taught them all painting from an early age. Though Richardson Jnr was seen as particularly gifted, all five of his brothers went on to become artists. His father had established the Northern Academy of Fine Arts in Newcastle along with its annual exhibition, the first of its kind in Northern England.
In the inaugural exhibition in 1828, Richardson Jnr exhibited two pictures, aged only 14. It was the beginning of a distinguished career to rival his father’s.
From 1832, Thomas Miles Richardson Jnr began sending his artwork to London to be exhibited with the Royal Academy of Arts and the British Institution. At first, he was mostly painting in Newcastle before gaining particular renown for his depictions of Scotland and the Highlands. He had a preference and skill in capturing mountainous landscape and coastal scenes.
In 1837, he embarked on an artistic tour across Europe, including travel to France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Holland. The result of this trip was Sketches on the Continent, a folio of 26 hand-coloured lithographs produced from his drawings. The volume was published in 1838 and is dedicated to the Duchess of Northumberland, who may have been his patron.
While in Newcastle, Thomas Miles Richardson Jnr founded a private art academy with his eldest brother George, who died suddenly in 1840, aged only 33. George’s death, coupled with the growing demands of his own artwork, forced the closure of the art academy.
In 1843, he was elected an associate of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours and moved to London in 1846. In 1851, he was made a full member of that society and exhibited regularly thereafter. By the end of his career he had exhibited over 700 paintings with this society alone, and in 1857 John Ruskin praised the ‘manual power’ and use of colour in his work.
Thomas Miles Richardson Jnr died in January 1890, aged 77. The sale of his estate was held at Christie’s in June 1890.
His work is represented in the collections of the V&A; and the Laing Art Gallery (Newcastle).
