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Garden bench and stone steps

Drawing
ca. 1860-1927 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Sir (Samuel) Luke Fildes (1843-1927) was a major English illustrator and painter. He was born in Liverpool, the son of a shipping agent. He attended evening classes in art at the Mechanics' Institute, Chester, and moved to London in 1863 having won a scholarship to study at the Government Art Training School, South Kensington; an institution linked to the South Kensington Museum, now the V&A. He went on to study at the Royal Academy Schools. He started his artistic career as an illustrator, with a strongly realist style based on direct drawings from nature. When Fildes began to exhibit oil paintings he quickly developed a radical form of "social realist" painting, combining the campaigning subject matter of contemporary journalism and novelists such as Dickens - the urban poor and the effects of industrialization - with the scale and rhetoric of traditional history painting.

This drawing is one of 265 works acquired by the museum through descent from the artist (museum numbers E.451-715-2003). The V&A is the principal repository of Fildes's drawings, having received major gifts in 1971, 1977 and 1987. The bequest of 1971 (E.580-981-1971) was from the son of the artist, Sir Paul Fildes, O.B.E., F.R.S. Sir Paul had compiled a Catalogue raisonné of the published reproductions of Luke Fildes's drawings, revised in 1965, but which remained unpublished; a typescript of this is in the National Art Library (formerly E.981-1971, now L.5859-1975, pressmark 86.W.71). This provided much information about the works which made up the gift. The bequest of 1977 was from Mrs Kitty Whittaker-Ellis, daughter of the artist (E.1704-1804-1977), and that of 1987 came via another daughter, Mrs Cedric Ripley, (E.65-142-1987). The 2003 gift similarly descended from the family and ranges from slight sketches, to worked up designs, probably for Fildes's published illustrative works.


Object details

Category
Object type
TitleGarden bench and stone steps (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour on paper
Brief description
Watercolour sketch of garden bench and stone steps, attributed to Luke Fildes (1844-1927), Great Britain, ca. 1860-1927.
Physical description
Watercolour sketch of garden bench and stone steps
Dimensions
  • Height: 98mm
  • Width: 172mm
Marks and inscriptions
'P.K.E' (Location : Left Medium : Ink Author : [?])
Credit line
Given by Mrs Pamela Myers through Art Fund
Object history
Gift of Mrs Pamela Myers through The Art Fund; by descent from the artist
Subjects depicted
Summary
Sir (Samuel) Luke Fildes (1843-1927) was a major English illustrator and painter. He was born in Liverpool, the son of a shipping agent. He attended evening classes in art at the Mechanics' Institute, Chester, and moved to London in 1863 having won a scholarship to study at the Government Art Training School, South Kensington; an institution linked to the South Kensington Museum, now the V&A. He went on to study at the Royal Academy Schools. He started his artistic career as an illustrator, with a strongly realist style based on direct drawings from nature. When Fildes began to exhibit oil paintings he quickly developed a radical form of "social realist" painting, combining the campaigning subject matter of contemporary journalism and novelists such as Dickens - the urban poor and the effects of industrialization - with the scale and rhetoric of traditional history painting.

This drawing is one of 265 works acquired by the museum through descent from the artist (museum numbers E.451-715-2003). The V&A is the principal repository of Fildes's drawings, having received major gifts in 1971, 1977 and 1987. The bequest of 1971 (E.580-981-1971) was from the son of the artist, Sir Paul Fildes, O.B.E., F.R.S. Sir Paul had compiled a Catalogue raisonné of the published reproductions of Luke Fildes's drawings, revised in 1965, but which remained unpublished; a typescript of this is in the National Art Library (formerly E.981-1971, now L.5859-1975, pressmark 86.W.71). This provided much information about the works which made up the gift. The bequest of 1977 was from Mrs Kitty Whittaker-Ellis, daughter of the artist (E.1704-1804-1977), and that of 1987 came via another daughter, Mrs Cedric Ripley, (E.65-142-1987). The 2003 gift similarly descended from the family and ranges from slight sketches, to worked up designs, probably for Fildes's published illustrative works.
Collection
Accession number
E.633-2003

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Record createdSeptember 9, 2004
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