at the Royal Academy and the British Institution, his first picture at the Academy being hung on the line between works by Landseer and Sir Francis Grant. In 1849 the elder Stark removed to London for the sake of the education of his son, who entered the Royal Academy schools in the same year. For some time young Stark used to paint in the stables of Messrs. Chaplin & Home, the carriers, and at a later period he rented for three years at Tattersall's a studio where he perfected his painting of horses. His ability became known, and in 1874, from a fear of hampering his progress, he declined a private offer of the post vacated by the death of Frederick William Keyl [q. v.], of animal painter to Queen Victoria. For many years he taught art in London as well as painted. In 1886 he retired to Nutfield, Surrey, where he devoted the remainder of his life exclusively to painting.
Stark was one of the last artists of the Norwich school (of which his father was a chief disciple), and probably the only one to acquire a reputation for animal painting. The minute touch of his earlier work shows the strong influence of his father, but his later pictures display a more marked individuality and abandon many of the traditions of his father's school. He was fond of depicting homely English scenes, such as haymaking, harvesting, and the farmyard; his landscapes were largely derived from the Thames valley (especially the neighbourhood of Sonning), Surrey, and Norfolk. He painted both in oil and water-colour.
Between 1848 and 1887 he exhibited thirty-six pictures at the Royal Academy, thirty-three at the British Institution, fifty-one at the Society of British Artists, three at the Institute of Painters in Water Colours, and fifty-seven at other galleries. Among his works were 'A Water Mill' (1848), 'Forest Scene' (1850), 'Interior of a Stable' (1853), 'A Quiet Nook' (1857), ’A Shady Pool' (1861), 'In Moor Park, Rickmansworth' (1865), 'Timber Carting' (1874), 'A Farmyard' (1875), and 'Dartmoor Drift' (1877) — the last-named was one of his best paintings.
A water-colour drawing of 'Calves' is at the Victoria and Albert Museum; three water-colours, 'Interior of a Windmill (on Reigate Heath) fitted up as a Chapel,' 'Windmill and Cottage,' and 'Heath Scene,' are at the British Museum, and an oil painting of 'Dartmoor Ponies' is in the Norwich Castle Museum. Exhibitions of works by him were held at the Dudley Galleries, 169 Piccadilly, in Oct. 1907 and Oct. 1911.
Stark, who was a man of culture and high principle, and of simple and genial manner, was at work till within a few days of his death at Thornbank, South Nutfield, Surrey, on 29 Oct. 1902. He was cremated at Woking, and a tablet was placed to his memory in Nutfield old church. His portrait in miniature by H. B. Love (1837); in oil, as a child, by Charles Hancock, and in water-colour by his wife (1883) are in the possession of his widow. He married on 20 Nov. 1878, at Ascot, Rose Isabella youngest daughter of Thomas Fassett Kent, counsel to the chairman of committees in the House of Lords, by whom he had a daughter (b. 1879) and a son (b. 1881), both of whom survived him.
[Information kindly supplied by Mrs. Stark; The Times, 30 Oct. 1902; Eastern Daily Press, 10 Oct. 1911; A. P. Nicholson in The Nineteenth Century and After, April 1907; Graves's Dict. of Artists, Roy. Acad, and British Institution.]
STEGGALL, CHARLES (1826–1905), organist and composer, son of Robert William Steggall, was born in London on 3 June 1826. He was educated at the Royal Academy of Music, principally under Sir William Sterndale Bennett. In 1848, while still a student, he was appointed organist of Christ Chapel, Maida Vale, and in 1849 was consulted by Bennett as to the inauguration of the Bach Society, of which he was honorary secretary till its dissolution in 1870. He was appointed a professor of the organ at the Royal Academy of Music in 1851; and next year graduated Mus.Bac. and Mus.Doc. at Cambridge. In 1855 he was chosen the first organist of Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, being at the same time organist of Clapham grammar school, and in 1864 he became organist of Lincoln's Inn Chapel, where he remained till his death, though for the later years his son, William Reginald Steggall, usually discharged the duties. Between 1850 and 1870 he frequently lectured on musical subjects in London and the provinces. He was one of the founders of the Royal College of Organists in 1864, gave the inaugural lecture, and, with John Hullah and Edward John Hopkins, conducted the first examination in July 1866. In 1884 he joined the board of directors of the Royal Academy of Music; and when Principal Macfarren died, in 1887, he took his place until the election of
