Thomas Henry Illidge

Thomas Henry Illidge (26 September 1799 – 13 May 1851) was an English portrait painter.

Illidge was born in Birmingham on 26 September 1799, belonging to a family resident near Nantwich, Cheshire.

He initially tried landscape painting, but married early, and, as a result, took up portrait-painting as a more profitable endeavour.

Illidge was successful as a portrait-painter in the great manufacturing towns of Lancashire, painting many of the civic or financial celebrities of the locality.

In 1844, on the death of Henry Perronet Briggs, R.A., Illidge purchased the lease of the deceased artist's house in Bruton Street, Berkeley Square, where he commenced practice as a popular and fashionable portrait-painter.