Valentine Cameron Prinsep (14 February 1838 - 11 November 1904) was a United Kingdom painter of the pre-Raphaelite school.

His parents were Henry Thoby Prinsep , who was for sixteen years a member of the Council of India, and Sara Prinsep ; they had settled at Little Holland House and made it a centre of artistic society. Henry Prinsep was an intimate friend of G. F. Watts , under whom his son first studied. Val Prinsep also worked in Paris in the atelier Gleyre ; and Taffy in his friend Du Mauriers novel Trilby, is said to have been sketched from him. He was an intimate friend of Millais and of Burne-Jones , with whom he travelled in Italy. He had a share with Rossetti and others in the decoration of the hall of the Oxford Union.

Prinsep first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1862 with his Bianca Capella, his first picture, which attracted marked notice, being a portrait (1866) of General Gordon in Chinese costume; the best of his later exhibits were A Versailles, The Emperor Theophilus chooses his Wife, The Broken Idol and The Goose Girl. He was elected A.R.A. in 1879 and R.A. in 1894. In 1877 he went to India and painted a huge picture of the Delhi durbar , exhibited in 1880, and afterwards hung at Buckingham Palace. He married in 1884 Florence, daughter of the well-known collector, Frederick Leyland . Prinsep wrote two plays, Cousin Dick and Monsieur le Duc, produced at the Court and the St Jamess theatres respectively; two novels; and Imperial India: an Artists Journal (1879). He was an enthusiastic volunteer, and one of the founders of the Artists Corps.

External links

• The Times obituary, with additional comments
• Artcyclopedia links to paintings