Frederic James Shields (14 March 1833 – 26 February 1911) was a British artist, illustrator, and designer closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelites through Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown.
Frederic James Shields was born in Hartlepool on 14 March 1833, the eldest of four children of Georgiana Storey (d. 1853) a straw hat maker and John Shields (c.1808–1849) a bookbinder, stationer, and printer who ran a circulating library. Baptised Frederick, he later adopted the spelling Frederic.
The family moved to London in 1839 and Shields attended St Clement Danes parish school until he was fourteen. His father was a skilled draughtsman and gave Shields his first drawing lessons, and the boy went on to study engraving at evening classes at the London Mechanics' Institute, winning a drawing prize aged thirteen. In October 1847, he was apprenticed to a firm of lithographers. His father's business failed in 1848, and the family moved back north where Shields joined them.
He was brought up in extreme poverty, and as a young man was employed on hack-work for commercial engravers. He managed to study art briefly at evening classes in London and then in Manchester, where he settled in about 1848. He spent much of his artistic life in Manchester, and it was there that his drawings and watercolours were noticed and appreciated.
The Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857 made a great impression on Shields. His style became more elegant and minute. Inspired by Edward Moxon's illustrated edition of Poems by Alfred Tennyson (1857), he started to work in black-and-white as a book illustrator. His designs for Daniel Defoe's History of the Plague (1862) and John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (1864) were very successful and brought him admirers, among whose were John Ruskin and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In May 1864 Shields went to London and met Rossetti, through whom he soon came to know the whole Pre-Raphaelite circle.
Influenced by Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown, Shields was sensitive to the artistic legacy of William Blake who was admired by the Pre-Raphaelites. His portrayal of the room in which William Blake had died (Manchester Art Gallery, a version at Delaware Fine Art Museum, USA) inspired a poem by DG Rossetti.
Frederic Shields was deeply religious man. His faith influenced his artistic manner which was gradually becoming more mannered and mystical in theme. These changes can be seen in his most significant book design – the second edition of Alexander Gilchrist's Life of William Blake (London: Macmillan, 1880. 2 vols). It was inspired by Rossetti about whom The New York Times wrote:
Rossetti shows increasing zeal in /…/ recommending others who would be qualified to help with the work. Of Frederic Shields he says, 'Of course his labour would be purely one of love. He is an ardent worshipper of Blake, and no man could write better about him or with more practical exactness.' Shields' binding can be considered today as a very fine example of early Art Nouveau style.
In 1865, he was elected an associate of the Royal Watercolour Society, but it was not until 1876, after a visit to Italy, that he finally settled in London.
His relations with the Rossetti family remained very close. He was in constant correspondence with Christina Rossetti, and in 1883, after the death of DG Rossetti, his mother commissioned from Shields "two lights in stained glass, to be placed in the little window which overlooks the grave of Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the churchyard at Birchington, near Margate."'
The first light (left side) is Rossetti's own design adapted by Shields from The Passover in the Holy Family: Gathering Bitter Herbs (watercolour, 1855–56, Tate Gallery). The second light is designed by Shields and portrays Christ leading the Blind Man Out of Bethsaida. The inscription under the window reads: “To the glory of God and in memory of my Son Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti. Born in London 12 May 1828. Died at Birchington Easter Day 1882.”
An extract from Rossetti's brother's diary states a man from D Brucciani & Co, London was commissioned to take a cast of Gabriel's face. This proved extremely disappointing. So the family requested Shields make a drawing of him, which he duly did. Shields recorded in his diary "Made two copies (in misery) of the drawing of Rossetti's face for Christina and Watts.”
Shields also became a very close friend with the artist Emily Gertrude Thomson. He shared a stained glass commission with her named The Britomart Window at the Cheltenham Ladies' College based upon six pictures taken from Spenser's allegory The Faerie Queene. Emily produced a portrait of Frederic Shields (shown above) and when he finally retired to Merton in Surrey she frequently visited him.
Shields made numerous chalk drawings. In 1864 he had begun to experiment with a certain French "compressed charcoal". He showed this medium to Rossetti who at once adopted this material alone for all his larger studies.
Shields also undertook designing of three-dimensional objects of applied art. Several artefacts, designed, painted and signed by Shields are known.
Shields however strived for large-scale projects of spiritual content. This might have been the reason that in 1879, when the murals on the history of Manchester for Manchester Town Hall were commissioned from both Ford Madox Brown and Frederic Shields, he withdrew, leaving Brown to complete all twelve works. Madox Brown did however immortalise Shields in one of the Manchester Murals: he made him sit for Wycliffe in the fresco of the Reformer's Trial.
Shields' most important legacy is three successive series of designs for stained glass and mural decorations for the Chapel of Eaton Hall, Cheshire, seat of the Dukes of Westminster (1876–1888); for the private chapel of William Houldsworth in Kilmarnock (1877–1879) and for the St Elisabeth's Church, Reddish, Stockport (1881–1883); and finally for the Chapel of the Ascension, Bayswater Road, London (1888–1910).
Eaton Hall in Cheshire was designed by Alfred Waterhouse and built in 1873–1874 for Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster (1825–1899). From 1876–1888, Shields provided for its chapel designs for stained glass and stone mosaics on the theme 'Te Deum Laudamus'. This large-scale commission helped him to clarify and formulate his thoughts on Art as applied to the Faith: "Nearly ninety subjects, all told, not isolated, but such as could be linked in blessed continuity – to keep the heart hot, and the mind quick, with its grand purpose – the Praise of God and of his Son Jesus Christ, from the lives of apostles, prophets, martyrs, and the Holy Church of all the ages."