For the architect and furniture designer, see Charles Eastlake

Born in Plymouth, Devon, Sir Charles Lock Eastlake (17 November 1793 – 24 December 1865) was an English painter, gallery director, collector and writer of the early 19th century.

The fourth son of an Admiralty lawyer, Eastlake was educated at local grammar schools in Plymouth and, briefly, at Charterhouse, Surrey. Set on becoming a painter, in 1809 he became the first pupil of Benjamin Haydon and a student at the Royal Academy schools in London - where he later exhibited.

However his first exhibited work was shown at the British Institution in 1815, a year in which he also visited Paris and studied works in the Louvre (then known as the Musée Napoléon ). His first notable success was a painting Napoleon on Board the Bellerophon in Plymouth Sound (1815; now in the National Maritime Museum, London).

In 1816, he travelled to Rome where he painted members of the British elite staying in Italy including fellow artists Sir Thomas Lawrence and J. M. W. Turner. He also travelled to Naples and Athens.

Despite being based predominantly in mainland Europe, Eastlake regularly sent works back to London for exhibition and in 1827 he was elected a member of the Royal Academy. Three years later, he returned to England permanently where he continued to paint historic and biblical paintings set in Mediterranean landscapes.

As an art scholar, he translated Goethe's Zur Farbenlehre (Theory of Colours, 1810) and the Handbuch der Geschichte der Malerei (Handbook of the History of Painting) by Franz Kugler . These publications and his reputation as an artist led to his nomination in 1841 to become secretary of the Fine Arts Commission , the body in charge of government art patronage.

Having already advised the National Gallery, London on acquisitions, he was appointed the Gallery's first Keeper in 1843, a post he later resigned to resume writing and painting.

In 1849 he married Elizabeth Rigby , an art historian and translator of German art histories, forming a formidable art history writing partnership.

Elected President of the Royal Academy and knighted in 1850, he became a notable figure in the British art establishment, being appointed the first President of the Photographic Society in 1853 and, in 1855, the first Director of the National Gallery.

After Eastlake died in Pisa, Italy on Christmas Eve, 1865, his will provided for the Gallery to purchase his own collection of paintings. Lady Eastlake also sold her husband's art history book collection to the Gallery's library.

Publications

Materials for a History of Oil Painting (1847) Contributions to the Literature of the Fine Arts (1848)