(1780 - 1860)
Alfred Edward Chalon was born in Geneva but moved to England as a child, when his father was made French professor at Sandhurst. He began his studies at the Royal Academy Schools in 1797 and, having become a fashionable portraitist, was elected a Royal Academician in 1816. Chalon was the first to paint Queen Victoria on her accession to the throne. He was later appointed her official Portrait Painter in Water-colours. His brother, John James Chalon (1778-1854), was also a painter and together they established the Society for the Study of Epic and Pastoral Design in 1808, also known as the Bread and Cheese Society, and the Chalon Sketching Society. Chalon died in Kensington in 1860 and was buried in Highgate Cemetery.
