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| Clouds Over Menton, France | Early Morning, 1945 |
1875 - 1970
A landscape painter in oil and water-colour, born in Arnold, Nottinghamshire, the youngest son of a shopkeeper and his wife. He left school at 11 and was apprenticed to a watchmaker, very much against his will. He was determined to study art and become a painter and attended evening classes at Nottingham School of Art under Wilson Foster. Despite the difficulties he experienced, his talent was apparent and in 1900 he moved to London to attend Westminster School of Art before going on to further study in Paris and Venice. Thus began a long and prolific career seeing him move from being an industrial artist to a landscape and then portrait painter.
His subjects range from industrial scenes to the French Riviera to the characters and landscapes of Sussex and Devon. Although he travelled widely, his first love was always England and the English countryside. In 1920 he visited America and painted a series of 30 oils depicting a chemical plant in Michigan. He painted widely in France, Italy and the USA and was a life member of the American Watercolour Society. He was also Hon. member of the New York water-colour club and was elected RI in 1933. He lived in the South of France and Italy for many years but later returned to the West of England where he died at Seaborough in Devon. His work was admired and collected by American industrialists, the Greek Royal family, English aristocrats and other artists. Augustus John called him “the greatest English painter in water-colour of our time”.
Exhibitions Include:
Royal Academy; Principal London and provincial galleries; Extensively abroad; Savage Fine Art, Northampton