William James Webbe [Webb] (British painter) 1830 - 1904
William James Webbe went by the name of William J Webbe for his paintings but went by the name of W. J. Webb when he illustrated books. He lived in London, travelled abroad to Düsseldorf and to Jerusalem and the Middle East, and exhibited at the RA 1853-78, also at the British Institution and Royal Society of British Artists. The style of his paintings, with their detail and high colour, and the religious and allegorical content of his paintings, -but chiefly his visits to the East- declare him as a follower of Holman Hunt. He travelled to Palestine in the 1862. Although not a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he was close to Holman Hunt, and it is likely that his style was initially influenced by him. Webbe exhibited a small number of faerie pictures in the 1850s but the greater part of his output was of birds and animals, often with an element of anthropomorphism, set in minutely observed landscapes that resemble the Nazarenes as much as the Pre-Raphaelites.
