William Teulon Blandford Fletcher (known as Blandford Fletcher) (8 November 1858 – 27 June 1936) was a British artist and an early member of the influential

Newlyn School The Newlyn School was an art colony of artists based in or near Newlyn, a fishing village adjacent to Penzance, on the south coast of Cornwall, from the 1880s until the early twentieth century. The establishment of the Newlyn School was remini ...

of painters.

Early life

Fletcher was born in London in 1858 to William Fletcher, a linen draper and upholsterer, and his wife Eliza (née Bartholomew). Against his father's wishes, Fletcher studied art at the

South Kensington School of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

from the age of 16 to 20, winning the Silver Medal and the Queen's Prize. During that time he visited

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

, making acquaintance with

Stanhope Forbes Stanhope Alexander Forbes (18 November 1857 – 2 March 1947) was an Irish artist and a founding member of the influential Newlyn school of painters. He was often called 'the father of the Newlyn School'.Charles Verlat's Academie Royale in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, where he became friends with

Frank Bramley Frank Bramley RA (6 May 1857 – 9 August 1915) was an English post-impressionist genre painter of the Newlyn School. Personal life Bramley was born in Sibsey, near Boston, in Lincolnshire to Charles Bramley from Fiskerton also in Lincol ...

Fred Hall Frederick Lee Hall (July 24, 1916 – March 18, 1970) was an American lawyer, judge, and politician who served as the 31st lieutenant governor of Kansas from 1951 to 1955 and 33rd governor of Kansas from 1955 until 1957 and a justice of the Kans ...

and

Walter Osborne Walter Frederick Osborne (17 June 1859 – 24 April 1903) was an Irish impressionist and Post-Impressionism landscape and portrait painter, best known for his documentary depictions of late 19th century working class life. Most of his paint ...

. He spent time painting at

Pont-Aven Pont-Aven (; in Breton) is a commune in the Finistère department in the Brittany region in Northwestern France. Demographics Inhabitants of Pont-Aven are called in French. Pont-Aven absorbed the former commune of Nizon in 1954, which had ...

and

Dinan Dinan (; ) is a walled Brittany, Breton town and a commune in France, commune in the Côtes-d'Armor Departments of France, department in northwestern France. On 1 January 2018, the former commune of Léhon was merged into Dinan. Geography Inst ...

in France, during which time he became friends with Frederick Millard and met

Jules Bastien-Lepage Jules Bastien-Lepage (1 November 1848 – 10 December 1884) was a French painter closely associated with the beginning of naturalism, an artistic style that grew out of the Realist movement and paved the way for the development of impressioni ...

. In the 1884

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

shows he exhibited four paintings executed at Pont-Aven and

Quimperlé Quimperlé (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Finistère Departments of France, department, region of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany, northwestern France. Geography Quimperlé is in the southeast of Finistère, 20 km t ...

, although he did not become a

Royal Academician The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

. He was an early member of the

in 1885, where he worked on a single large canvas, ''Dame Grigson's Academy''. Fletcher lived in lodgings in Henry & Elizabeth Maddern's Belle Vue House with Forbes and Albert Chevallier Tayler. The same year he permanently left the artists' colony. He travelled, sometimes with Osborne, and continued to travel and worked as a wandering artist until settling in

Dorking Dorking () is a market town in Surrey in South East England about south-west of London. It is in Mole Valley, Mole Valley District and the non-metropolitan district, council headquarters are to the east of the centre. The High Street runs ro ...

in 1904 and then

Abingdon-on-Thames Abingdon-on-Thames ( ), commonly known as Abingdon, is a historic market town and civil parish on the River Thames in the Vale of the White Horse district of Oxfordshire, England. The Historic counties of England, historic county town of Berksh ...

in 1915.

Works

''Evicted''

Fletcher's most famous work is ''Evicted'' (painted in Steventon in 1887), which was the first painting acquired by the

Queensland Art Gallery The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away. The Queensland Art Galle ...

in 1896. It was bought for a sum reported variously to be 300, 400 or 450 guineas. ''Under Petticoat Government'' (1891) was initially also acquired by QAG in 1896 on a loan arrangement. In 1942 ''Evicted'' inspired the 11-year-old

Betty Churcher Elizabeth Ann Dewar Churcher (''née'' Cameron; 11 January 193131 March 2015) was an Australian arts administrator, best known as director of the National Gallery of Australia from 1990 to 1997. She was also a painter in her own right e ...

to decide to be an artist. A year before her death, Archer described her reaction to the painting: "Looking at those boots and the wonder of those autumn leaves on the road brought it all back in a rush. I was no longer worried about the illustrative pathos of the subject; I fell in love again with the magic of paint, with the wonder that paint could transform a stretch of bare canvas into a whole new world for a little girl." In 1900, 1907, 1909 and 1938 it was one of a number of paintings sent on tours of Queensland country towns. In 1907 ''Evicted'' was described as "a masterpiece of painting", and in 1932 as "that beautiful and ever popular picture". but by 1949 tastes had changed and it was one of six paintings to be removed from display and placed into storage, with the then director, Robert Campbell, declaring that it was only popular "because it had a sentimental touch". Campbell called for it to be "discarded", and declared that " tis not Art", further stating that it was a mere "illustration". John Cooper, director of the Moreton Galleries in Brisbane, stated that it should be auctioned off, notwithstanding that it was QAG's most popular picture. It formed part of an exhibition of request paintings at QAG in 1954. It is typical of his painting style. It is not currently (2022) on display.

Other works

A partial list of his other works includes: *''The Kitchen Garden in November'', 1883,

National Gallery of Ireland The National Gallery of Ireland () houses the national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another on Clare Street, Dublin, Clare Street. It ...

*''The Farm Garden'', 1888,

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...

, Oxford *''The Widow's Mite'', 1890, Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum *''Under Petticoat Government'', 1891, Ferens Art Gallery *''The Old Mill, Surrey'', 1893,

Leeds Art Gallery Leeds Art Gallery in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is a gallery, part of the Leeds Museums & Galleries group, whose collection of 20th-century British Art was designated by the British government in 1997 as a collection "of national importance ...

*''Sacrament Sunday'', 1897, Nottingham City Museum & Gallery *''Bosham Harbour at Low Tide'', 1901, Penlee House *''The Anthem'', 1913, Colchester and Ipswich Museums Service

Exhibitions

* Maas Gallery, London, 1975. *"Father and Daughter: Blandford Fletcher, painter, Rosamund Fletcher, sculptor", Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1979.

Publications

*Hood, Nancy, ''William Teulon Blandford Fletcher, 1858-1936'', (Rosamund Fletcher: 1986).

Personal life

Engaged since 1888, Fletcher married Norah Beatrice Emmeline Harris (1863-1960) in 1894. They had two daughters, one of whom was the sculptor Rosamund Fletcher. He died in 1936, aged 77, in Abingdon. Fletcher was a Catholic convert.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Blandford 1858 births 1936 deaths 19th-century British painters British male painters 20th-century British painters Newlyn School of Artists People of the Victorian era 19th-century British male artists 20th-century British male artists