(1816 - 1863)
Augustus Leopold Egg, London historical genre painter, painted subjects taken from British history and literature - especially William Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott. He entered Henry Sass's Academy in Bloomsbury, in about 1834. He later travelled in France and Italy. His best-known works are his moralising paintings of the 1850s, such as the trilogy known as ‘Past and Present’ (RA 1858; Tate collection). Egg died from asthma at the age of 47, during a visit to Algiers.
