Rivière

Rivière, BRITON, was born in London, August 14, 1840, son of a drawing-master at Cheltenham College, and afterwards at Oxford. His ancestors were French Huguenot refugees. He studied at Cheltenham College, and at Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1867. He had exhibited at the Royal Academy as early as 1858, and again in 1864, but from the appearance of 'The Poacher's Nurse' in 1866 he has been continuously represented by a succession of pictures, which have grown in vigour and impressiveness, in dramatic power, in humour, in pathos, no less than in mastery of technique. No painter of his time approaches him in his treatment of wild animals, and many of his masterpieces in this kind have reached the widest popularity through engravings. He was made A.R.A. in 1878, R.A. in 1881. Of his numerous works we may here merely name 'Daniel in the Lions' Den,' 'Persepolis,' 'A Roman Holiday,' 'Giants at Play,' 'Actæon,' 'Væ Victis,' 'Rizpah,' and 'A Mighty Hunter before the Lord.' See Armstrong in Art Journal Annual (1891).