Sir Samuel Luke Fildes RA (October 3, 1843 – February 28, 1927) was an English painter and illustrator born at Liverpool and trained in the South Kensington and Royal Academy schools.
At the age of seventeen Luke Fildes became a student at the Warrington School of Art. Fildes moved to the South Kensington Art school where he met Hubert von Herkomer and Frank Holl. All three men became influenced by the work of Frederick Walker, the leader of the ...
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Sir Samuel Luke Fildes RA (October 3, 1843 – February 28, 1927) was an English painter and illustrator born at Liverpool and trained in the South Kensington and Royal Academy schools.
At the age of seventeen Luke Fildes became a student at the Warrington School of Art. Fildes moved to the South Kensington Art school where he met Hubert von Herkomer and Frank Holl. All three men became influenced by the work of Frederick Walker, the leader of the social realist movement in Britain.
Fildes shared his grandmother's concern for the poor and in 1869 joined the staff of The Graphic newspaper, an illustrated weekly edited by the social reformer, William Luson Thomas. Fildes shared Thomas' belief in the power of visual images to change public opinion on subjects such as poverty and injustice. Thomas hoped that the images in the Graphic would result in individual acts of charity and collective social action.
In the first edition of the Graphic magazine that appeared in December 1869, Luke...
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