Henry O'Neil, "The Pre-Raphaelite", a satire on the Pre-Raphaelites painted by O'Neil in 1857

Henry Nelson O'Neil (1817-1880) was an historical genre painter and minor Victorian writer. He worked primarily with historical and literary subjects, but his best-known paintings dealt with the Indian Mutiny. Eastward, Ho!, dated August 1857 but exhibited the following year, depicts the British troops embarking for India. A second painting, Home Again, (1859) shows the troops returning to England. He also had popular successes with romantic scenes portraying the deaths of Mozart and Raphael, depicted as though mentally transported to heaven by their own religious art. In The Last Moments of Mozart the dying composer listens to singers performing part of his Requiem. The Last Moments of Raphael shows the painter contemplating the unseen figure of Christ in his Transfiguration. 1817 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1880 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... An engraving titled Sepoy Indian troops dividing the spoils after their mutiny against British rule gives a contemporary view of events from the British perspective. ... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was one of the most significant and influential of all composers of Western classical music. ... Self-portrait by Raphael. ... The Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known formally (in Latin) as the Missa pro defunctis or Missa defunctorum, is a liturgical service of the Roman Catholic Church and its Eastern Rite. ... The upper part of The Transfiguration (1520) by Raphael, depicting Christ miraculously discoursing with Moses and Elijah The word Transfiguration means a changing of appearance or form. ...

O'Neil was a member of The Clique, a group of artists in the 1840s who, like the later Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, met regularly to discuss and criticize one another's works. The other members of The Clique were Augustus Egg, Alfred Elmore, Richard Dadd, William Powell Frith, John Phillip, Edward Matthew Ward. Henry ONeil, The Pre-Raphaelite, a satire on the Pre-Raphaelites painted by ONeil in 1857 The Clique was a group of Victorian artists founded by Richard Dadd. ... Persephone, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. ... Augustus Egg, Travelling Companions, painted in 1862 Augustus Leopold Egg (1816-1863) was a Victorian artist best known for his modern triptych Past and Present (1858), which depicts the break up of a middle-class Victorian family. ... Alfred Elmore (1815-1881) was a Victorian history and genre painter. ... Richard Dadd (August 1, 1817 - January 7, 1886) was a Victorian painter of fairies and other supernatural subjects, depicting them with obsessively minuscule detail. ... Detail of a nude by Frith William Powell Frith (January 19, 1819 - November 9, 1909), was an English painter specialising in portraits and Victorian era narratives, who was elected to the Royal Academy in 1852. ... John Phillip The Evil Eye (1859), a self-portrait depicting the artist sketching a Spanish gypsy who thinks she is being given the evil eye John Phillip (1817-1867) was a Victorian era painter best known for his portrayals of Spanish life. ... E.M. Ward, The South Sea Bubble (1846), a Hogarthian subject in the Tate Gallery Edward Matthew Ward (1816-1879) was a Victorian narrative painter best known for his murals in the Palace of Westminster depicting episodes in British history from the English Civil War to the Glorious Revolution. ...

Most of the Clique opposed the Pre-Raphaelites, but O'Neil was the most virulent in his condemnation of the movement, attacking them in both paintings and writings. These included his futuristic fantasy 2000 Years Hence, which portrayed Britain in the year 3967 as a frozen wasteland excavated by an archaeologist from New Zealand. The archaeologist uncovers evidence of the decline of British culture in the nineteenth century, allowing O'Neil to vent his own distinctly reactionary political views. For the meaning in finance, see futures contract. ... Archaeology or sometimes in American English archeology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains, including architecture, artefacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ... Reactionary (or reactionist) is a political epithet typically applied to conservatism. ...