John Lucas (painter)

Born in London on 4 July 1807, he was son of William Lucas, from a King's Lynn family, originally in the Royal Navy, then a writer and journalist; his mother was a Miss Callcott.

One of his earliest patrons and sitters was Henry Milton, who introduced him to Mary Russell Mitford, whose portrait he painted, and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1829.

[1] Lucas exhibited 96 portraits at the Royal Academy, 13 at the British Institution, and eight at the Suffolk Street Gallery, between 1828 and his death.

Those sat who sat for him included Queen Adelaide, Albert, Prince Consort (four times), the Princess Royal, the Duke of Wellington (eight times), Lord and Lady Palmerston, William Ewart Gladstone, Lord and Lady Mahon, and many court beauties.

[1] Lucas married early in life Miss Milborough Morgan, and left three sons and two daughters.

Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld , Duchess of Kent, 1841 portrait by John Lucas
Conference of Engineers at the Menai Straits Preparatory to Floating one of the Tubes of the Britannia Bridge , 1868 engraving by James Scott, after John Lucas, portrait group of Robert Stephenson , Isambard Kingdom Brunel , and other engineers, consulting over the Menai Bridge [ 1 ]