James Henry Govier (1 August 1910 – 21 December 1974) was a British painter and etcher, who worked in

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

and

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

Biography

Govier was born on 1 August 1910, at

Oakley, Buckinghamshire Oakley is a village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. It has an area of and includes about 400 households. The 2021 Census recorded the population as 1,128. At one time it was thought Oakley held a rare (and possibly unique) dou ...

. He was the second child and only son of his parents, Henry Govier and Mary Ann Measey. He had an older sister, Elizabeth, and a younger sister, Florence. In 1914, the family moved to the small town of

Gorseinon Gorseinon is a town within the City and County of Swansea, Wales, near the Loughor estuary. It was a small village until the late 19th century, when it grew around the coal mining and tinplate industries. It is around north west of Swansea Ci ...

Gower The Gower Peninsula (), or simply Gower (), is a peninsula in the south-west of Wales. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan, and is now within the City and County of Swansea. It projects towards the Bristol Channel ...

near

, where James was educated at the local school. At the age of fourteen, he left school to work in one of the local tin works; and at the age of seventeen, he became an evening student at the Swansea School of Art and Crafts (now part of

Swansea Metropolitan University Swansea Metropolitan University () is a former university based in Swansea, Wales, UK. The university merged with, and became a constituent campus of, the University of Wales Trinity Saint David on 1 August 2013. Employing more than 500 staff ...

). James was taken to see William Grant Murray, the head of the School; and at the age of twenty, he gained a Glamorgan County Scholarship to study full-time at the School. From 1930, James came under the influence of William Grant Murray; and he exhibited with many Welsh artists, including

Alfred Janes Alfred George Janes (30 June 1911 – 3 February 1999) was a Welsh artist, who worked in Swansea and Croydon. He experimented with many forms, but is best known for his meticulous still lifes and Portrait painting, portraits. He is also remembe ...

Ceri Richards Ceri Giraldus Richards (6 June 1903 – 9 November 1971) was a Welsh painter, print-maker and maker of reliefs. Biography Richards was born in 1903 in the village of Dunvant, near Swansea, the son of Thomas Coslett Richards and Sarah Ri ...

and Kenneth Hancock. In 1935 he exhibited with past students at the

Glynn Vivian Art Gallery The Glynn Vivian Art Gallery is the public art gallery of the City and County of Swansea, in Wales, United Kingdom. The gallery is situated in Alexandra Road, near Swansea railway station, opposite the old Swansea Central Library. History The ...

in Swansea. From 1935 James studied in London at the

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

under the tutorship of

Malcolm Osborne Malcolm Osborne (1 August 1880 – 22 September 1963) was a British original printmaker known for his intaglio prints of landscapes, urban views and portraits. Chronology *1 August 1880 born at Frome, Somerset, the fourth son of Alfred Ar ...

, RA, RE. At this time he became an acquaintance of the poet

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer, whose works include the poems " Do not go gentle into that good night" and " And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Un ...

, and worked with other Welsh artists in London. In 1938, he gained his ARCA along with the Art Travelling Scholarship, which he was unable to take up because of the outbreak of war. From 1938, Govier worked as

’s assistant at the

, and also helped Robert Austin 1940–42. In August 1940, he joined the Royal Engineers constructing gun emplacements and in the development of chemical warfare. In 1942, by order of the Air Ministry, he was transferred to the Royal Air Force model making section for North Africa and Italy, producing models for the Dambuster raids, the D-Day landings and objectives in Africa and Italy. James was demobilised in 1945, and started to exhibit with the Aylesbury and District Art Society, becoming an acquaintance of the Society’s patron,

Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...

. In 1947, he became art master at

Eye An eye is a sensory organ that allows an organism to perceive visual information. It detects light and converts it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons (neurones). It is part of an organism's visual system. In higher organisms, the ey ...

Grammar School in Suffolk, and resided in Eye until his marriage in 1950, when he moved to Hoxne, also in Suffolk. In 1950 he married Freda Muriel Tye of Hoxne, a student at Ipswich Art School specialising as a commercial display artist. The couple started married life in Hoxne, and in 1957 moved to ‘The Retreat’, a large thatched house in Hoxne. They had a son, Stephen James. Govier continued to exhibit with the Aylesbury Art Society and Ipswich Art Club. In 1965, the Eye Grammar School closed, and Govier moved to Diss Grammar School, where he remained until his early retirement in 1972. He continued to paint oils and watercolours of East Anglia, including many genre subjects. James Henry Govier died on 21 December, 1974. He left behind him a large variety of works, from small, delicate pencil drawings and etchings to vibrant oils and translucent watercolours. Some of his canvasses are almost impressionistic in style, showing the quality of the chiaroscuro he so frequently used. James Henry Govier's works can be seen at the

National Museum Cardiff National Museum Cardiff (), formerly known as the National Museum of Wales, is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales. Entry is kept free by a grant from the Wel ...

, the

National Library of Wales The National Library of Wales (, ) in Aberystwyth is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies. It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million books and periodicals, and the l ...

, the

(Swansea);

The British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

;

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;

Christchurch Mansion Christchurch Mansion is a substantial Tudor brick mansion house built in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, by Edmund Withypoll (also written "Withipoll") around 1548–1550. The Grade I listed building is located within Christchurch Park and sits b ...

, Ipswich;

Norwich Castle Norwich Castle is a medieval royal fortification in the city of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. William the Conqueror (1066–1087) ordered its construction in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England. The castle was used as a ...

Museum and

Buckinghamshire County Museum The Buckinghamshire County Museum is a museum in the centre of Aylesbury, in Buckinghamshire, England. It displays artefacts pertinent to the history of Buckinghamshire including geological displays, costume, agriculture and industry. The mus ...

Biography

References

Further reading