# Frederick Richard Lee artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/frederick-richard-lee/
Profile generated: 2026-05-24T12:16:55.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1798-06-10
- Death date: 1879-06-04
- Nationality: English, British
- Movements: British landscape painting, 19th century
- Common media: Oil on canvas, Watercolour

## About Frederick Richard Lee

Frederick Richard Lee (1798–1879) was an English landscape painter born in Barnstaple, Devon. He trained at the Royal Academy of Arts in London from 1818 and built a career around sweeping pastoral views, Scottish highland scenery, and riverside compositions. Lee frequently collaborated with prominent Victorian animal painters, most notably Thomas Sidney Cooper and Edwin Landseer, contributing landscape settings while his partners added cattle, game, or figurative elements. His works were exhibited at the Royal Academy and the British Institution during the mid-nineteenth century. Around 1865 Lee left England for South Africa, settling in the Cape Province where he continued painting until his death in 1879. The Tate, London holds examples of his work, and the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History records nearly two hundred images attributed to him.

## Common works and media

Lee primarily produced oil-on-canvas landscape paintings depicting Scottish highland scenery, Devon countryside, Welsh rivers, and views of historic castles and estates set within broad natural panoramas. Pastoral scenes with cattle or figures beside water are typical. Collaborative works — where Lee painted the landscape and another artist added animals or figures — form a distinct category in his output. Smaller watercolour studies and preparatory works also appear on the market. Prints and engravings after his paintings were published in Victorian art journals and gift books.

## Market and appraisal context

Frederick Richard Lee's oil landscapes appear regularly at auction, with over 260 recorded lots across major and regional salerooms. Collectors should note that Lee often painted in collaboration, supplying landscape backgrounds for artists such as Cooper and Landseer, which can affect both attribution and value. Works with strong provenance linking to Royal Academy or British Institution exhibitions tend to command more interest. His characteristic subjects — Scottish lochs, Devon valleys, and castle ruins in panoramic settings — are the most recognizable. Later works produced during his South Africa period (after c. 1865) are less common and may present attribution challenges. Condition assessment should account for the age of the canvas and any historical conservation.

## Appraisily data basis

This Appraisily artist page combines verified identity data from museum records and international library authority files with public auction records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lot results when available. Artist biography and context are drawn from institution-grade sources including the Tate, the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, Getty ULAN, and VIAF, supplemented by Invaluable auction catalogue data.

## Sources

- RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/48767
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/frederick-richard-lee-339
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500002246
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/95694282/
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5498619
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Richard_Lee