(1829 - 1896)
Samuel Sidley was born in York and studied at the Manchester School of Art, followed by the Royal Academy Schools in London. During his career, he exhibited 30 paintings at the Royal Academy and 11 at the Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street. Although best known as a portrait painter, Sidley also painted sentimental genre subjects, including the young girl smiling mischievously and holding a snowball in ‘The Challenge’ (1876). For some portraits he collaborated with animal painter Richard Ansdell; for example Ansdell painted the pony in Sidley’s portrait of ‘Annie and Ernest, The Children of Angus Holden’. Sidley died in 1896 at his home at Victoria Road, Kensington in London. He left a widow, Betty Ferns Sidley.
