The London Foundations of an Academic Master Born into the vibrant atmosphere of the nineteenth-century London art trade as the son of a respected picture dealer, Henry Gritten was destined to be shaped by the brush and the canvas from his earliest years. His formative training at the Royal Academy instilled in him a profound respect for the classical techniques that defined the Victorian era, providing him with a rigorous foundation in anatomical precision and meticulous detail. During his early career, between 1835 and 1848, Gritten established himself as a formidable presence in the presti…