Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fielding, Thales

824312Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 18 — Fielding, Thales1889Lionel Henry Cust

FIELDING, THALES (1793–1837), water-colour painter, third son of Nathan Theodore Fielding [q. v.], like his brothers, is chiefly known as a painter in water-colours. He seems to have first exhibited at the British Institution in 1816, sending ‘A View of Saddleback, Cumberland,’ but there is some difficulty at first in distinguishing his works from those of his elder brother, Theodore H. A. Fielding [q. v.] In 1818 he appears as settled at 26 Newman Street, London, where he resided until his death, which occurred after a few hours' illness on 20 Dec. 1837, at the age of forty-four. He was an excellent artist, and was an associate exhibitor of the Royal Society of Painters in Water-colours. He exhibited numerous landscapes and cattle-pieces, mostly compositions, at the Royal Academy and at the British Institution. His last picture, in 1837, was ‘A View of Caerphilly Castle, Glamorganshire.’ He also painted portraits. In 1827 he exhibited a portrait of M. Delacroix at the Royal Academy, and a portrait by him of Peter Barlow, F.R.S., was published in lithography by Graf and Soret. He was for some years teacher of drawing at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Gent. Mag. (1838), p. 217; Examiner, 31 Dec. 1837.]

L. C.