Dates

• Existence: 1820 - 1902

Biography

John Hungerford Pollen (1820-1902), artist and author, was born at 6 New Burlington Street, London, on 19 November 1820. Pollen was educated at Durham House, Chelsea (1829-33), and at Eton College (1833-8). In 1838 he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford. After taking his BA he became a fellow of Merton College in 1842. He was ordained deacon in Oxford on Trinity Sunday 1845 and became curate of St Peter-le-Bailey, Oxford in the same year. He had to forfeit his fellowship at Merton when he converted to the Roman Catholic faith in 1852. In November 1854 Pollen was offered the professorship of fine arts at Newman's new university in Dublinm, which involved designing the university church, St Stephen's Green. He also contributed to The Tablet as an art critic, where he established himself as a supporter of both Turner and Whistler. In 1858 Pollen was commissioned to design the carvings for the façade of the new University Museum of Natural History in Oxford. He became Lord Ripon's private secretary in 1876. Pollen died suddenly at home, 11 Pembridge Crescent, London, on 2 December 1902.

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