CURTIS, Charles Morgan

Entomological illustrator and brother of John Curtis (see below). Born in Norwich the second son of this name (the first died at the age of 5 of Charles Morgan Curtis, an engraver and sign writer, and possibly a verger, who himself died shortly after the birth of Charles Morgan junior. He moved to London and made his reputation as an artist of natural history subjects which Bryant, Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, 1899, records 'he drew with much accuracy and spirit'. G.R.Waterhouse, 'Notes on the species of Triplax of Stephens' Illustrations and Collection' in Trans.ESL., 3rd series, I (II), 1861, p.2, notes 'The third specimen [of Triplax bicolor] which is pinned as Mr Stephens usually pinned the insects captured by himself, is a distinct species, and being in good condition was no doubt the insect given to Mr Charles Curtis to draw, for the plate in the Illustrations. This most careful artist would never have made a drawing ... without first cleaning it ...'. Dawson (1854) p.65 refers to Curtis picking up a dead specimen of Chlaenius sulcicoliis on the coast near Covehithe, Suffolk. Curtis exhibited pictures at both the Royal Academy and the Society of British Artists. Smith (1986) records that there are a few insects from Madeira which Curtis gave to Hope together with a letter, and original paintings of Coleoptera and larvae in the HDO. Other paintings are in the Templeton scrapbook in the RESL. There are references to Curtis in Benezit, Thieme Becker, and other art-historical reference books, and obituaries in Literary Gazette, 1839, and The Art Union, 1839, p.167. (MD 4/02, 11/09)