Plate 12, The Industrious 'Prentice Lord-Mayor of London

Frederick Walker was a British painter and illustrator. He achieved considerable success in both oils and watercolour before his early death. According to John Everett Millais he was "the greatest artist of the century". His career began as an illustrator, producing line drawings in ink to be turned into wood engravings for magazines and books. He is often regarded as the founder of the Idyllic school in Victorian painting, though that term was not coined until after his death. Among other stylistic trends of his period he sometimes displayed social realism and genre painting sentimentality.

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