His death date is alternately given as 1893. One of the best known Victorian painters From an account of his life by his great granddaughter Rosemary James: Horatio Henry Couldery was born in Lewisham in 1832 and christened at St. Mary’s Lewisham on 23 December 1832. He was the fourth of nine children of Robert Hall Couldery, and Lydia Frances nee Ruegg. Horatio was originally apprenticed to a cabinet maker but following in his father’s footsteps, he realised his true vocation when, at the age of 23, he entered the Royal Academy Schools. He specialised in painting animals and was nicknamed ’Kitten Couldery’ because of his many feline paintings but he also painted dogs, ducks, pheasants, rabbits, mice and fish. He exhibited many of his works at the Royal Academy of Arts in London between 1861 and 1892. Horatio was a prolific painter and his paintings reflect the typical late Victorian style with dark backgrounds, vignette settings and a real love of animals. His works were often used to illustrated children’s books and many of his paintings more recently have been used on greetings cards. In 1875 Horatio attracted the attention of the art critic John Ruskin who commented that one of his paintings entitled ’ A Fascinating Tail’ exhibited at The Royal Academy was “ quite the most skilful piece of minute and Dureresque painting in the exhibition, which could not be rightly seen without a lens and unsurpassable in its depiction of kitten meditation". Despite his incredible talent, like many artists in their lifetime he did not become wealthy and when he died he died his estate was valued at £250! Today his paintings are very valuable and sell for many thousands of pounds. (http://www.foblc.org.uk/2008/08/blog-post.html#.VDxPKef3k7l) undefined

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