Watercolour by George Goodwin Kilburne, signed 1877. An oil painting of the same subject resides currently in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.George Goodwin Kilburne R.I., R.O.I, R.M.S (1839 � 1924) was an English genre painter specialising in accurately drawn interiors with figures. He favoured the watercolour medium, although he also worked in oils, pencil and initially trained as a wood-engraver.George�s paintings often portrayed the upper classes and ultra-fashionable female beauties in opulent late 18th- and early 19th-century settings. His depiction of this beauty was heightened by his attention to detail with dress, and richly decorated interiors. During that period his paintings would have been considered traditional, especially compared to the work of contemporaries such as James McNeill Whistler and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.Kilburne travelled extensively in Italy around 1875, and painted in Rome for three months, besides working in Venice at that time, and also in 1876. He did a great deal of sketching in Normandy and Switzerland, besides visiting many parts of England and Wales for the same purpose.Shortly after the death of the Emperor Napoleon III, the Empress Eugenie commissioned Kilburne to paint several pictures for her. For that purpose he paid many visits to her at Chislehurst, Kent, to paint pictures of the rooms used by the late Emperor, which had been kept just as they were during his lifetime.Towards the end of the 19th century, Kilburne designed and executed a great number of greeting and Christmas cards for the firms of Raphael Tuck & Sons and De La Rue. The minute work and labour involved brought on a serious attack of gout in the eyes. He also contributed a large number of black-and-white pictures to The Graphic, The Illustrated London News and Cassell�s Magazine, and many of his pictures became popular through prints.Kilburne was elected a member of the New Watercolour Society (RI) in 1866.[6] He became a me...