John Flower (artist)

John Flower (14 Oct 1793 – 29 Nov 1861)[1][2] was an English landscape and architectural artist known to locals as "the Leicester artist".

Old buildings on the West bridge, Leicester (1826)

Flower was born in Leicester, the son of John Flower, a wool comber, and his wife Mary, whose family had for generations owned the Castle Mill on the River Soar. The family became reduced in circumstances after the early death of his father and in 1806 he was apprenticed to a framework knitter, Benjamin Withers.

However, Flower's talent for drawing was noticed by a local doctor who gave him art lessons, and he was eventually taken under the wing of Mary Linwood (a local schoolmistress and celebrated seamstress) who arranged for him to study art in London with Peter de Wint for a year.

On returning to Leicester he became a professional art teacher and landscape artist. In 1813, he married Francis Clark - they had 3 children, but only one, Elizabeth (b. 10 Nov 1816), survived to adulthood. By 1819, he was a member of the Unitarian church. He lived at several addresses in Leicester, eventually moving, in 1851, to a substantial house in Upper Regent Street (now 100 and 102 Regent Road) designed by himself and architect Henry Goddard.[3] He remained there for the rest of his life.

Flower died in 1861 at his home in Leicester. There is now a blue plaque on the wall commemorating his residency there. He is buried in Welford Road Cemetery.[4]

Work

Early in his career Flower drew and painted in Leicester and Leicestershire, but later worked further afield in neighbouring counties and north Wales. He worked in oils, watercolour, pencil and wash, and is mainly known for his landscapes and drawings of buildings. His art, particularly his book of Lithographs, "Views of Ancient Buildings in the Town and County of Leicester" (1826) is an important historical record of Leicester and Leicestershire as it looked in the early 19th century.

A number of Flower's works are in Leicester's New Walk Museum & Art Gallery, and the William Salt Library in Staffordshire[5] but many are also in private collections making it difficult to compile an exhaustive catalogue.

Notes
  1. Bennett. John Flower, 1793-1861 (Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society)
  2. John Flower, 1793-1861 (Leicester chronicler)
  3. The house is still in good condition and is now used as offices and 'The Regent Sports and Social Club'.
  4. Flower's grave (flickr.com - accessed 1 May 2010).
  5. The John Flower Sketches (William Salt Library)
gollark: Instead of having eaten pizza, I simply didn't, in all cases.
gollark: Why? Not eating pizza is basically the default option.
gollark: I don't even *eat* pizza.
gollark: This is NOT true. I have not in any way been sponsored by pizza companies. There have been no advertising agreements whatsoever with any companies producing pizza or otherwise to have me subliminally advertise pizza, as my profile picture is not a pizza. Since it is not a pizza, this is obviously not pizza advertisement whatsoever. No monetary exchanges or otherwise have occurred with companies engaged in pizza production for any reason relating to my profile picture. You are clearly engaged in libel and attempting to discredit my non-pizza-advertising status. It is IN NO WAY subliminal pizza advertising because I DO NOT work for pizza companies in any form. It's not pizza. There were no deals, under-the-table or otherwise, with pizza companies. No pizza companies pay for any kind of subliminal advertising involving me. People make that mistake, but I am not working for pizza companies doing subliminal advertising; that is not in any way what I am doing. I am NOT being sponsored by ANY pizza companies to display subliminal pizza advertising OF ANY KIND. Pizza companies have NO AFFILIATION with me in ANY FORM.
gollark: Footballs use pentagons and hexagons, actually.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.