Frederic William Burton

Sir
Frederic William Burton
Painting of Sir Frederic William Burton by Henry Tanworth Wells, 1863
Born8 April 1816
Died16 March 1900
London

Sir Frederic William Burton RHA (8 April 1816 in Wicklow 16 March 1900 in London) was an Irish Victorian painter and curator who was the third director of the National Gallery, London for 20 years from 1874.

Burton's best-known watercolours, The Aran Fisherman's Drowned Child (1841) and The Meeting on the Turret Stairs (1864; also known as Hellelil and Hildebrand) are in the National Gallery of Ireland. Meeting on the Turret Stairs was voted by the Irish public as Ireland's favourite painting in 2012 from among 10 works shortlisted by critics.