Walter Langley (8 June 1852 – 21 March 1922) was an English

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and founder of the Newlyn School of ''

plein air ''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or plein-air painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting is c ...

'' artists.

Biography

He was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

and his father was a journeyman tailor.1861 Census, RG9; Piece: 2136; Folio: 72; Page: 8 At 15 he was apprenticed to a

lithographer Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German ...

. At 21 he won a scholarship to South Kensington and he studied designing there for two years. The sometimes highly ornate work is mainly in gold and silver and in a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

style. He returned to Birmingham but took up painting full-time, and in 1881 was elected an Associate of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA). In the same year he was offered £500 for a year's work by the Birmingham-based photographer Robert White Thrupp (1821–1907). With this money he and his family moved to

Newlyn Newlyn () is a seaside town and fishing port in south-west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 ''Land's End'' It is the largest fishing port in England. Newlyn lies on the shore of Mount's Bay and for ...

where he was one of the first artists to settle and began recording the life of the fishing community. Politically left wing for his era, he was noted for his

social realist Social realism is work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers, filmmakers and some musicians that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structures ...

portrayals of working class figures, particularly

fishermen A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishermen may be professional or recr ...

and their families. He was a supporter of

Charles Bradlaugh Charles Bradlaugh (; 26 September 1833 – 30 January 1891) was an English political activist and atheist. He founded the National Secular Society in 1866, 15 years after George Holyoake had coined the term "secularism" in 1851. In 1880, Br ...

, a radical socialist politician. His own working-class background enabled him to identify with the villagers and the hardships they endured, many of his paintings reflect this sympathy with the working-class fisher-folk amongst whom he lived. One of the best known works is the watercolour ''For Men Must Work and Women Must Weep'' (1883; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) based on

Charles Kingsley Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 – 23 January 1875) was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian, novelist and poet. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the workin ...

's poem '' The Three Fishers'' (1851). Another is ''Between The Tides'' (1901;

Warrington Museum & Art Gallery Warrington Museum & Art Gallery is on Bold Street in the Cultural Quarter of Warrington in a Grade II listed building that it shares with the town's Central Library. The Museum and the Library originally opened in 1848 as the first rate-su ...

). ''News of the Missing'' was shown at the

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 ...

in 1884 and sold to an unnamed buyer for £250. Although one of the first to settle in the Newlyn artists' colony Newlyn School, Langley initially benefited little from its growing fame, partly because of his working-class origins and partly because until 1892 he painted largely in

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the ...

rather than the more prestigious medium of

oils An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturat ...

.Fox, Caroline and Greenacre, Francis, "Walter Langley", ''Painting in Newlyn 1880–1930'', London, Barbican Art Gallery, 1985, pp 62–65 His early training in lithography gives his paintings a detail and texture that show his technical skills. On 12 March 1881 Langley was elected an associate member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. In 1884, Langley was elected a member of the RBSA and continued to exhibit widely throughout the UK and abroad. Later in his career his reputation grew. Langley's ''In Faith and Hope the World Will Disagree'' was singled out as "a beautiful and true work of art" by

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

in his book '' What is Art?'',Tolstoy, Leo,
What is Art
'', (Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky) while in 1895 Langley was invited by the

Uffizi The Uffizi Gallery ( ; , ) is a prominent art museum adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of th ...

to contribute a self-portrait to hang alongside those of

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of clas ...

and

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

in their collection of portraits of great artists. Today his work is considered "vital to the image of the Newlyn School" and "alongside

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'. Langley's '' Motherless'' was selected for the

's Summer Exhibition in 1894 and well received. It was painted the same year that Langely's wife, Clara, and the mother of his four children, died of a stroke.

References

* Roger Langley, ''Walter Langley: Pioneer of the Newlyn Art Colony'', Sansom & Co., 1997.

External links

Biography
(Birmingham museums and art gallery)

(Penlee Gallery, Cornwall)

(Artcyclopedia)

(Bob Speel's website) {{DEFAULTSORT:Langley, Walter 1852 births 1922 deaths 19th-century English painters 20th-century English painters Painters from Birmingham, West Midlands English male painters English watercolourists English landscape artists Members and Associates of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Newlyn School of Artists 20th-century English male artists 19th-century English male artists

Biography

References

Further reading

External links