Alfred W. Elmore (1815-1881)

Elmore is best known for his much-celebrated work The Emperor Charles V at the Convent of St Yuste (1856, Royal Holloway, University of London). Recognised from an early stage in his career as a promising artist, the Art Journal pronounced that: 'Mr. Elmore, we understand, is young; if he progresses as he has commenced, we shall ere long add another name to our limited list of great English masters' (Art Journal, 1839, p. 8). Travelling extensively in Europe, Elmore studied the pictures and antiquities in Paris, Venice, Florence, Rome, Munich and Dresden. He exhibited extensively at the Royal Academy, so much so that a later Art Journal critic commented that 'such an instance of good fortune...is, we imagine without a parallel in the history of the Academy...Mr. Elmore is an artist who follows no beaten track; he thinks for himself and works out his ideas in a spirit of independence, affording as great pleasure in the novelty of the subjects he places before us, as by the skilful and effective manner in which they are treated' (Art Journal, 1857, p. 115).