Richard Buckner was an English portrait painter who began his artistic career working in a studio set up in the family home. After serving in the army in 1832 and 1833 as a second lieutenant in the King's Royal Rifle Corps, he studied painting in Rome under Giovanni Battista Cassevari. During his stay in that city, he offered guidance to the young Frederick Leighton, who would later become president of the Royal Academy.

In London, he had his residence and studio in Cleveland Row, opposite St. James's Palace. He began his activity as a miniaturist but later specialized in larger-format portraiture. He painted Italian genre scenes but later focused on portraits of Victorian ladies of high society.

Buckner exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1842 and then regularly between 1846 and 1877, with a total of 77 works, only seven of which were Italian in subject matter. He was proposed as a candidate for membership in that institution. He also exhibited in other important British institutions. Numerous engravings based on his works are preserved in the National Portrait Gallery in London. Among his oil paintings are Portrait of a Boy and Portrait of a Boy Singer at the Chapel Royal, both of which are in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Works by him are also in the British Museum, the National Army Museum, Windsor Castle, Osborne House, Woburn Abbey, the Birmingham Art Gallery, Harewood House, the Foundling Hospital, County Hall, Maidstone, and Castle Leslie in Ireland. Among his patrons were Queen Adelaide, Queen Victoria, and Prince Albert.