well
known artists, mainly from the past, whose local scenes are shown on this
website
arranged
in approximately chronological order
1748 - 1849
Peter de Wint was a famous English
landscape artist who lived in London and Lincoln. His pictures are in the
National Gallery, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and 32 of his works are in
The Tate Gallery. He was born at Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, of Dutch ancestry. He
moved to London in 1802, and was apprenticed to portrait painter John Raphael
Smith. He bought his freedom from apprenticeship in 1806, on condition that he
supply eighteen oil paintings to Smith. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy
in 1807. By that time, as an established drawing-master, he was spending his
summers teaching well-to-do provincial families. He frequently visited his
wife's home city of Lincoln, and many of his panoramic landscapes and haymaking
scenes are set in Lincolnshire.
Thomas Girtin
1775 - 1802
Thomas Girtin was an English painter and
etcher who played a key role at the time in establishing watercolour as a
reputable art form, and was a friend and rival of JMW Turner. He was born in
Southwark, London, the son of a well-to-do brush maker of Huguenot descent. He
became a friend of Turner in his teenager years and they were both employed to
colour prints with watercolours. His architectural and topographical sketches
and drawings established his reputation and he exhibited at the Royal Academy
from 1794.
James Baylis Allen
1803 - 1876
James Allen was a leading English
landscape artist and engraver who perfected the technique of engraving on steel
plates, and was known for a wide variety of landscape engravings. He was a born
in Birmingham in April 1803, the son of Joseph Allen, button manufacturer. He
was apprenticed to his elder brother Josiah, also an engraver in 1818. He first
exhibited at RSBA in 1833. He frequently produced engravings from J M Turner
and W H Bartlettʼs drawings.
William Henry Bartlett
1809 - 1854
William Henry Bartlett, who was born in
London, was apprenticed at the age of 13 to the architect and antiquarian John
Britton (1771-1857). He worked for him as a journeyman providing both
architectural and detailed landscapes sketches, making him one of the greatest
illustrators of topography of his generation. He travelled all over Britain and
in the mid 1840s in the Balkans and the Middle East. Between 1835 and 1852 he
made four visits to the United States in order to draw the buildings, towns and
scenery of the North-eastern states. Bartlett was the author of numerous works
including two books on the United States, one containing original chronicles of
the Pilgrims. Bartlett's work which merits great attention can be seen in
institutions such as the British Museum, V&A in London and the National
Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
Robert Nightingale
1815 - 1895
Probably the most famous Maldon artist.
Orphaned at the age of eight, he was apprenticed to a Maldon painter and
decorator before attending the Royal Academy as a student in 1837. Working in
Maldon he painted many equestrian and sporting subjects, landscapes, still life
and portraits. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Society of British
Artists. He also painted many horse portraits for private patrons. There are
paintings of his hanging in the Plume Library, Beeleigh Abbey, All Saints
Church and The United Reformed Church in Maldon.
Alfred Bennett Bamford
1857 - 1939
Alfred Bamford was born in Romford, Essex.
He was a student at the Camden School of Art, and had a painting accepted by
the Royal Academy for the first time in 1883. He was a contemporary of Louis
Burleigh Bruhl, with whom he often exhibited, who also lived in Romford. In
1907 he became the art master at the newly established Chelmsford County High
School for Girls.There are over 300 of his watercolour paintings in the Essex
Records Office.
Fred Roe
1864-1947
Fred Roe was born in Cambridge, the son of
Robert Henry Roe, painter and engraver; He studied at Heatherley School of Fine
Art. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1877, was elected to the RBA in
1895, then to the Royal Institute of British Painters in 1909. He is best known
for his large historical compositions set in period costumes and his work can
be found in many public collections including the National Portrait Gallery in
London. He was the author of several books: A
History of Oak Furniture, Ancient Church Chests and Chairs, Essex survivals:
with special attention to Essex smugglers. He illustrated many other books,
from which the sketches shown are taken.
Charles Henry Baskett
1872-1953
Landscape painter and etcher Charles Henry
Baskett was born in Colchester, Essex, the son of still life painter and etcher
Charles Edward Baskett (1845-1929). He is best known for his English coastal
landscapes, and marine and river scenes. He exhibited 24 works at the RA
between 1910 and 1930. He also exhibited at the RE, Paris Salon and elsewhere.
He was elected ARE in 1911 and RE in 1918. Was Principal of Chelmsford School
of Science and Art until his retirement in 1932. The British Museum holds a
large number of his works.
Louis Burleigh Bruhl
1861 - 1942
Louis Burleigh Bruhl was born in Baghdad.
His success as an artist led to his becoming a member of the RBA in 1897.
Burleigh Bruhl exhibited works at; RA, RBA, RCA, The Fine Art Society, Walkerʼs
Galleries in London and Liverpool, Grosvenor Gallery and more. Burleigh Bruh
lived both at Watford and Romford. He was president of the Watercolour Society
and famous for his railway posters and book illustrations.
Adam E Horne
1883 - 1955
From 1943-1946 Adam E Horne contributed
illustrations and a column for the Essex Chronicle and Essex Newsman Herald
under the title of "The Dear Homeland". His
Essex scenes and commentary were highly evocative and emotive for servicemen in
foreign parts and they inundated the artist and newspaper with letters of
support and requests for more. Many of these scenes were in the
Witham-Braintree area. A person with the same name worked at Marconi in
Chelmsford during that period and who died in the 1951 - it could have been the
artist.
James McBey
1883 - 1959
James McBey is a famous Scottish artist, known for his Great War
drawings and was an official war artist in France and Palestine. After the war
he took a studio in London and for a time his etchings fetched high prices, and
he exhibited in galleries across the country, including the Royal Glasgow
Institute of the Fine Arts. Disillusioned by a lack of appreciation of his work
at home, he spent much time travelling abroad, and bought a house in Tangiers.
In later life he concentrated more on portraits, some of his best-known
subjects being associated with the Arab world, including T E Lawrence and King
Feisal. He became an American citizen in 1939.
Claude Muncaster
1903 - 1974
Claude Muncaster was a marine and
landscape artist in oils and watercolour, and also a lecturer and writer. He
was born at West Chiltington, Sussex, son of Oliver Hall, R.A. He first
exhibited under the name of Grahame Hall, but from 1923 as Claude Muncaster.
From 1921 he exhibited at the Royal Academy. He served in the RNVR from 1940 to
1944, advising on camouflage. He was commissioned to do a series of
watercolours of royal residences in 1946.
Rowland Suddaby
1912 - 1972
Rowland Suddaby was born in Kimberworth, Yorkshire. He studied at the
Sheffield College of Art from 1926, and moved to London in 1931 aged nineteen.
After the outbreak of World War II Suddaby moved with his wife Elizabeth and
daughter to the Suffolk countryside near Sudbury. He found the landscape and
coastline of East Anglia an inspiration for the pictures for which he is most
widely known. During the 1940s and 1950s he produced still life painting which
became popular with visitors to shows at the Colchester Art Society, of which
he was a founder member. Suddaby's work was acquired by many prominent
collectors and public bodies, including the V& A Museum. There are 24
examples in the Government Art Collection.
Marcus Holly Ford
1915 - 1989
Marcus Ford is a well know East Anglian
landscape artist. He was born in Forest Gate London, was president of Upminster
art society and member of the Wapping Group. In later life he moved to
Aldebrough in Suffolk and painted many Suffolk and Norfolk scenes.
Charles Grigg Tait
1915 - 1995
Charles Tait was a Maldon Grammar and Plume school teacher for
many years, a celebrated Maldon artist who wrote several books including:
The Changed Face of
Maldon and Heybridge -
library ref: E.MAL.942.085 (146 sketches)
The Parish Churches
of South East Essex -
library refs: E.726.5, 942.67, E.726.5 (104 sketches)
The Reluctant Sailor - a book featuring the WW-2 wartime
diaries and artworks of Charles
H M Paterson
H M Peterson was probably Herbert Paterson
of Little Baddow, however nothing else is known of him other that he produces a
set of drawings of Essex villages in the 1920s. Many of them are held in the
Essex Records Office.
Peter Padfield
Well known naval historian and biographer Peter Padfield lived at 18 Fish Street in the 1960s
while writing two of his earliest books and working in nautical journalism. He
then moved to Woodbridge, where he lived until his death in March 2022. He was
also an extremely accomplished artist and whilst living in Goldhanger he drew
many sketches. One of his sketches was used in the Goldhanger Millennium
Calendar that was produced and sold in the village in 1999 to raise funds for
St Peterʼs Church restoration work. There is more about
Peter here.
A collection of Peterʼs
drawings are at... www.guypadfield.com/ppadfield/sketchbook.html
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Vasant
Vasant Chinchwadkar is a freelance
professional artist who has spent half of his time in his home town in India
and half at Jacobs Farm, Goldhanger Rd., Heybridge in the summer months from
the 1970s onwards, and returned to his home town Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India
each autumn. While at Jacobs Farm he often painted their colourful chickens
which he sold at the annual Goldhanger art shows...
There is more about
Vasant here
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local works of these artists are also shown in. . . Art from the past and Beckingham
Hall paintings & drawings
and many other examples of the work of all these artists can be found
with a Google image search using their names
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The two large Victorian oil paintings that
hang in St Peters Church, are remarkably good reproductions of the work of Bartolome Murillo
(1617-1682). Murillo was a Spanish painter active for most his life in Seville.
More information about him and the paintings is at. . . Oil
Paintings in St Peters Church
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