Clarkson Stanfield (1793-1867)

Photograph of a full-length portrait of Clarkson Stanfield standing facing front. He poses with his right arm on the back of a wooden 17th-century-style chair with barley-twist carving.

Stanfield was an English marine painter. His father named him after Thomas Clarkson, the slave trade abolitionist. As a young man he first trained with a coach-decorator until 1808 when he was press-ganged into the Royal Navy. In 1816, he began work as a decorator and scene painter in London theatres, a profession he maintained for about twenty years. Stanfield partnered with David Roberts on several large-scale diorama and panorama projects in the 1820s and 1830s. In his mature years he was primarily an easel painter and exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy. King William IV took an interest after seeing one of his paintings and commissioned two works from him of the Opening of New London Bridge (RCIN 404711) and The Entrance to Portsmouth Harbour (RCIN 404789).