"Frank Stone ARA (22 August 1800 – 18 November 1859) was an English painter. He was born in Manchester, and was entirely self-taught.
He was elected an ...
Associate of the Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1833 and Member in 1843; and an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1851.
The works he first exhibited at the Academy were portraits, but from 1840 onwards he contributed figure pictures, scenes from Shakespeare, scripture and sentimental subjects, many of which were engraved.
In 1850 he led the opposition within the Academy to the innovations of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, having already criticised their work in the previous year. When Dante Gabriel Rossetti wrote a very critical review of Stone´s work in return, Stone launched an outright assault on Pre-Raphaelitism, initiating the controversy that engulfed the movement. Leading Pre-Raphaelite William Holman Hunt later depicted a print of one of Stone´s works in the background of his painting The Awakening Conscience. It has been suggested that this was intended as an insult, since the furniture of the room was supposed to represent the bad taste of the characters depicted." - (en.wikipedia.org 21.01.2020)
