Henry Courtney Selous

Henry Courtney Selous (b. Panton Street, Haymarket, London 1803; d. Beaworthy, Devon, 24 September 1890)[1] was an English painter, illustrator and lithographer.

[clarification needed] Selous had two brothers, Frederick Lokes Slous (the father of Frederick Courteney Selous) and Angiolo Robson Slous, a playwright who wrote True to the Core: A Story of the Armada and whose daughter Alice married the novelist Morley Roberts.

In the 1840s he began to paint historical subjects, initially inspired by the renewed interest in history painting prompted by the New Palace of Westminster cartoon competition for the designs of frescoes on the new building in 1843.

He was aided by the knowledge of mural technique he had acquired by working for a panorama painter.

Despite the prize, the picture was criticised by one reviewer because the "violence of the action and dashing lights carry us away like the speech of a mob orator.