Art and Artists of Brentford
The talk of Turner in the ‘Blue Plaque’ discussion got me interested in finding out what artists were born or lived in Brentford and also what works used Brentford as subject matter. Here’s a start at finding some.Do you know of any more artists who lived here or works where Brentford is the subject?The great J M W Turner, (1775-1851) was sent to live for about a year with his maternal uncle, in Brentford in 1885. The house was on the site of the current pub The Weir (ex White Horse). He attended Brentford Free School.John Macallan Swan (1847–1910) was born in Brentford and gained fame as a painter of wild animals. www.modjourn.brown.edu/mjp/Image/Swan/Swan.htmGeorge Horlor (1849–1890), an English painter lived for some time in Brentford.Frederick Cayley Robinson (1862–1927), a Symbolist painter and illustrator was born in Brentford. Collections of his works are in the British Museum and Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. www.speel.demon.co.uk/artists2/fcrbnsn.htmSam Hyde Harris (1889–1977) a landscape painter was born in Brentford and emigrated to Los Angeles, USA in 1904. www.askart.com/artist/H/samuel_hyde_harris.asp?ID=281John Zoffany (1773–1810), who lived on Strand-on-the-Green painted ‘The Last Supper’, initially for St Anne’s Church on Kew Green, then it went to St Georges Church in Brentford and then to St Paul’s Church in Brentford. – Doe anybody know if it is still hanging in this church?I found an interesting website – Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco www.thinker.org and if you enter ‘Brentford’ into the ‘search image base’ field at the top right of screen you get a list of four works of art using Brentford as subject matter. If you select an image size you can blow up the size of the picture by clicking on the picture. See if you can recognise which part of Brentford they are of. 1. Dorothy E.G. Woollard (1886–1986), ‘Thames at Brentford’ 1963Is this a picture of Brentford Dock in the distance, its warehouses before they were demolished for the current flats built in the 1970s?2. Arthur Evershed (1836– 919), ‘At Brentford’Is this of Brentford Ferry painted from the Kew bank of the Thames, showing the Ferry Quay side?3. Francis Seymour Haden (1818–1910), ‘Brentford Ferry’ 1864This is the Kew bank side of the Ferry opposite the Ferry Quay. Do you think that in the distance is the tower now at the Kew Bridge Steam Museum site? I think it had just been built about that time.4. Cecil Lawson (1851 –1882), ‘Brentford Eyot’, page 3 in the book ‘Cecil Lawson: A memoir by Edmund W. Gosse’I couldn’t get this one to blow up.An finally we have a current colony of artists at The Diesel Studios in the Kew Bridge Steam Museum www.dieselhousestudios.comAny more?
Duncan Walker ● 8036d28 Comments ● 6911d