The Brothers Dalziel / A Record of Fifty Years Work in Conjunction with many of the Most Distinguished Artists of the Period 1840-1890

by George Dalziel; Edward Dalziel

We were members of a family of twelve children, and, with one exception, we were born at Wooler, Northumberland, the youngest having been born at Newcastle-on-Tyne. Our father spent a great part of his time in horticultural pursuits, and in middle life took up art as a profession. He also held a commission in the Northumberland Militia. His sons, eight in number, inherited strong artistic tastes, which they all carried out professionally, except the youngest, Davison, who applied himself very successfully to commerce. The eldest, William, whose art work was chiefly devoted to heraldic and occasional ornamental decoration for MSS. books, also painted a little in still-life subjects with remarkable fidelity; while the second son, Robert, devoted himself to art, and obtained a fair reputation as a portrait painter. He also studied landscape painting for some time under Thompson, of Duddingston, and having practiced his art successfully both in Glasgow and Edinburgh, he came ultimately to London, where he died, having attained only his thirty-second year. The next brother, Alexander, was a youth of rare artistic promise, and, had he lived, must of necessity have made a great name for himself as a designer and draughtsman in black and white; but early in life, while living in London, he caught a chill, which terminated in consumption. He, having returned to his mothers house in Newcastle-on-Tyne, died before completing his twenty-third year.

The next brother, George, early in 1835,[1] being then nineteen, came to London as a pupil to the late Charles Gray, an engraver on wood, with whom he remained four years, and on the completion of his engagement, he commenced operations on his own account, though continuing on the most friendly terms with Gray. A few weeks later he was joined by his brother Edward, and from that day we two have, for a period of over fifty-five years, worked hand in hand together, as "The Brothers Dalziel."

Alexander Dalziel,

OUR FATHER.

BORN, MAY 22, 1781; DIED, JUNE 30, 1832.

From a Bust, Modelled by his Second Son, Robert Dalziel.

"Alexander Dalziel, born at Wooler, in the County of Northumberland, on the 22nd May, 1781; married at Lamberton, North Britain, on the 4th day of January, 1805, to Elizabeth Hills, born at Mornington, North Britain, on the 11th May, 1783."

—Extract from Family Bible.