The Victorian painter Thomas John Hughes was active around 1851–1865. Little is recorded about Hughes's life, but his large canvases include sentimental Victorian narrative subjects, such as 'Leaving Home', a girl on her knees praying beside her packed suitcases, and 'A First Attempt' (1860), depicting a young child painting an artist's mannequin.
There is also a listed artist T.J. Hughes, who may be one and the same. T.J. Hughes is recorded as having exhibited across London in the 1850s: at the Royal Academy in 1851, living at 28 High St, Camden Town, and in 1858, living at 72 Upper Seymour St; and at the Royal Society of British Artists in 1854, living at 52 Mornington Road, Regents Park, and in 1857, at 7 Clarendon St, Euston Square, then as Thomas John Hughes in 1879, 2 Elm Row, Hampstead.
