Anthony Christian was the youngest artist ever to have studied at London’s National Gallery when he was only 10 years old, a privilege unique to this day. At the same time he studied anatomy at The Victoria and Albert Museum under the auspices of Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith.
The newspapers hailed him as a prodigy during his time at the National Gallery where he was skillfully reproducing Philips Wouwerman’s ‘Cavalry Battle’, a painting measuring 54 x 75 ins. which was larger than the artist at the time. By the time it was completed in 1961, he had received offers up to £8300 for the painting, equivalent to £185,000 today.