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January 22nd, 2021 
Awake Goy 
There is not much to say about 19th Century British painter James Sant other than his artworks, as for pictorial quality is concerned, speak quite clearly for themselves. As for subjects he mostly focused his attention on women, but most particularly children, so much so that at some point in time he became known as “the emperor of children” by some art connoisseurs of his time. Among my favourite paintings by Sant I would like to mention A Thorn Amidst the Roses (1887), one of his masterpieces Courage, Anxiety and Despair Watching the Battle (c.1850), the dreamy Love’s Messenger, the popular Little Red Riding Hood, the very alluring The Moonlit Beauty, and the one I have chosen as title for this article due to his evocative nature Distant Memories, a painting with clear symbolist overtones.
Biography
James Sant CVO RA (1820-1916) was a British painter specialising in portraits and known particularly for images of children and artistic exploration of the symbolism of childhood. He was a member of the Royal Academy. There were two more other artists known as George Sant and Sarah Sant who are believed to have been his brother and sister.
Sant was born in Croydon, Surrey, England, on 23 April 1820. He was taught first by the watercolourist John Varley, then by Augustus Wall Callcott, then from the age of twenty he was taught by the schools of the Royal Academy.
James Sant exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery by the same time as he produced nearly three hundred canvases for exhibition at the Academy. The first of these, a portrait of his father William Sant was exhibited in 1840; the last was exhibited in 1915. In 1851 he married Elizabeth (Eliza) Thomson, daughter of Dr R.M.M. Thomson, a surgeon and member of the Agri Horticultural Society of India. His 1853 picture known as The Infant Samuel was his first popular success, and engravings of this painting and of Little Red Riding Hood and The Soul’s Awakening sold in great numbers.
In 1861, his portraits of friends and relatives of Frances, Lady Waldegrave were exhibited by Ernest Gambart at his Gallery in Pall Mall. This enhanced his reputation as he was elected ARA (Associate to The Royal Academy), and later RA; in 1871 he was appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary (official portraitist) to Queen Victoria, having become known for his portraits of the royal children and in particular his 1870 portrait of Prince Leopold and Princess Beatrice.
As stated James Sant is best known for his portraits of children; he was “the emperor of children,” in the words of The Athenaeum. Nevertheless, many of his pictures were landscapes and particularly gardens; he also painted seascapes, landscapes with animals, and other subjects including the Wish Tower (a martello-type tower) at Eastbourne. His later pictures are freer in style and some have a visionary or mannerist quality; his landscapes could include figures with blank or distorted features or simple silhouettes such as the nun in Convent Walls (1910). He continued painting into old age; All My Fancy! (1910), an Italian landscape with villa and hills, he painted in bed from memory.
James Sant became a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in 1914 and resigned from the RA in the same year to “make room for younger men”. Sant died in Lancaster Gate, London, on 12 July 1916, at the age of 96. His work can be found at the Tate Gallery and at the National Portrait Gallery.
Sources: HellenicaWorld, artnet, wikipedia, and Library of Nineteenth-Century Photography.
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