Lavishly illustrated with George Lance's works, this first ever biography gives a rounded picture of the man, not just the artist, and serves as the definitive record of the life of a much under-appreciated painter.

George Lance (1802-1864) brought new vibrancy to still life painting in the early Victorian period. In his seminal work Victorian Painting (1966), Graham Reynolds stated that the revival of still life painting, as an artist's main preoccupation, was effected almost single-handedly by Lance. Over one hundred years earlier J.M.W. Turner had expressed the view that Lance was one of the three greatest colourists of his era.

Lance was a pupil of the contumacious and ultimately tragic B.R. Haydon, a titanic figure in the Regency art world. Lance drew inspiration from the Dutch and Flemish Old Masters, adopting many of their motifs. His work was purchased by some of the greatest aristocrats and industrialists of the time.

He was never elected to the Royal Academy, a mystery to contemporary commentators but perhaps due to his confrontation with the political establishment. His popularity with his fellow artists, however, was never in doubt.

John Radcliffe practised as a solicitor in the City of London for the whole of his professional life. He retired in 1997 and has devoted much of the last ten years to research into the life of his forebear, George Lance.

Mark Lance, a collateral descendant of the artist, is a Fellow of the Institute of Secretaries and Administrators. He is Managing Director of The Cornhill Group Limited. He has also researched deeply into the life and works of George Lance.