Myles Birket Foster Biography
Myles Birket Foster (1825-1899) was an English illustrator, watercolor artist and printmaker of the Victorian period.
Born in North Shields, England to a predominantly Quaker family, Foster moved with his family to London in 1830.
Foster studied in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, and on leaving school began working in his father's business. However, noticing his talent for art, his father got him an apprenticeship with the well-known wood engraver, Ebenezer Landells, where he worked on illustrations for Punch magazine and the Illustrated London News. After leaving Landells' employment he continued to produce for the Illustrated London News and the Illustrated London Almanack. He also found work as a book illustrator and during the 1950s trained himself to paint in watercolour. His illustrations of Longfellow's "Evangeline" and books of poetry by other contemporaries were a great success, and he quickly established himself as a successful watercolor artist. Foster became a Member of the "Old" Watercolor Society (later the Royal Watercolor Society) in 1860 and exhibited more than 400 of his works at the Royal Academy of Arts over two decades. He traveled widely, painting the countryside around Scotland, the Rhine valley, the Swiss lakes and in Italy, especially Venice. Although he painted many landscapes from Scotland to the Mediterranean, it was after moving to Witley that Birket Foster produced the works for which he is best known - an idealized vision of the contemporary English countryside, particularly in West Surrey. Although criticized for their idealized view of rural life, they were recognized for their precision and execution. Foster's work (along with that of other artists) was used by Cadbury, the chocolate manufacturer, on the cover of their chocolate boxes starting in the 1960s. In 1893, Foster fell ill and moved to Weybridge, where he continued to paint until his death on 27 March 1899.
