Harry van der Weyden
Harry Van der Weyden (1868 – 1952) was an American Impressionist painter.
Harry van der Weyden | |
|---|---|
| Born | 8 September 1868 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S |
| Died | 1952 |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Slade School of Fine Art, London |
| Style | American Impressionism |
Life
Van der Weyden was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on 8 September 1868, the son of Henry Van Der Weyde, the Dutch-born American painter and photographer. Henry Van Der Weyde married Mona Wetherbee at the Swedenborgian Church in Boston in 1867, and migrated to London in 1870. In 1871 the family was living at The Birches, Jasper Road, Upper Norwood, and possibly at Van Der Weyde's studio at 182 Regent Street, Westminster, in 1882.[1]
In 1887 Van der Weyden won a scholarship to the Slade School of Fine Art, where he studied under Alphonse Legros. In 1890 he moved to Paris, where he studied at the Académie Julian under Benjamin Constant, Jean-Paul Laurens and Jules Joseph Lefebvre. Exhibiting at the Paris Salon from 1891, he won a third class gold medal in that year.[1]
Until the First World War he lived at Montreuil-sur-Mer, near Étaples in northern France. In 1914 he and his family left France and settled in Rye, East Sussex, living at 15 Market Street.[1] Aged 46 he joined the British Army and between 1916 and 1918 he worked as a Camouflage officer with the British Royal Engineers, when Étaples was a major transit point and storage depot. Both of his sons joined up with him, one being awarded the Military Cross in 1918. His 1919 painting Desolation: Trenches North of Lens 1919 depicted the aftermath of the Battle of Hill 70, in which 10,000 Canadians were killed. There are two watercolour studies in the Imperial War Museum, one inscribed Chicory Trench, N. of Lens 1918, the other dated 1919. Both are close to the finished painting, suggesting it was completed early in 1919. Van der Weyden exhibited the work that year in the Camouflage Exhibition at the Royal Academy.[2]
Van der Weyden developed a reputation for his scenes of the war. He maintained his house in Rye until at least 1922, but in 1919 he and his four children were living at 22 Temple Fortune Hill, Hendon. They then began the process of naturalisation to become British subjects. In 1924 his father died at that address. From the end of the decade, he lived at 26a West End Lane, West Hampstead.[1]
By the 1920s van der Weyden was working in the "tonal" style of painting, with soft twilight effects, owing much to the Japanese print revival of the 1920s, particularly the style known as shin-hanga, that was known in the West from articles in The Studio magazine.[3]
He died in London on 23 September 1952.[1] A number of his works are held by the Rye Art Gallery in Rye, East Sussex.[4]
References
- "Chris Beetles Gallery". chrisbeetles.com. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
- "Harry van der Weyden 1868-1952". Counterpoint: Modern Realism 1910 - 1950 (PDF). The Fine Art Society. 6 May 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
- "Maas Gallery – Category: British Pictures 2013 – Image: 39. Harry van der Weyden, 1868-1952". www.maasgallery.co.uk. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
- Harry van der Weyden - The Collection. Rye Art Gallery. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
External links
- Harry van der Weyden at artnet.com