Salisbury UK - 28th October
2007:
9.00am
Paul Mansfield sent this snippet from
the West Somerset Free Press, 15 Feb
1930:
Several artists have been
associated with Nettlecombe
and the surrounding district. Of
those, one of the
most dstinguished was J W North, the
painter and
illustrator. He seems to be kindly
remembered by those
who knew him. Sir Walter Trevelyan,
the squire was
among those acquianted with North and
recalls
interseting anecdotes in regard to
him.
The artist often painted in the
neighbouring valleys,
and occasionally it chanced that on
his homeward way
with his canvas he would fall in with
a farmers waggon
and some friendly labourers, whereupon
he would be
invited to place his work aboard to
save him the
labour of carrying the uncomfortable
burden. By and by
the waggoner or his fellows would
venture a remark
about the picture; later, when one of
them had grown a
little bolder, a criticism would be
proferred and
finally, as the artist appeared to
show no resentment,
advice would be freely given. An
amusing reversal of
position for the eminant Royal
Academist certainly.
From the descrition of an old man I
knew in a village
close by it seems that North must have
been of
remarkable appearance, with the
characteristic
features of a Patriarch or a Rabbi. He
now lies buried
in the new graveyard at
Nettlecombe.
Salisbury UK - 28th August 2006:
10.30pm
There were skylarks on the Quantocks
hills earlier this summer. Above
Triscombe on the hogback ridge that
stretches away to the Severn, a pair of
thesae beautiful birds singing as they
fluttered into the sky, descending with
a haphazard glide.
I spent the night at the Blue Ball
Inn -
good food and a superb base from which
to explore the hills and the 'North'
country. It is an easy walk to Halsway
where JWN, George Pinwell and Fred
Walker stayed and worked. The West
Somerset Railway still puffs its steamy
way slowly from Bishop's Lydiard to
Minehead and is largely unchanged from
North's day.
Salisbury UK - 21st August 2006:
10.30pm
Just the other day, I was asked about
the use of Chinese White in North's
watercolours. The best source of
information about North's watercolour
technique comes from Herkomer's Slade
lecture that I have posted on the
site. But from memory...
Many of the English watercolour
artists of the middle to late C19 used
to mix their pigments with an opaque
white - known as Chinese White, but
more properly titanium oxide. This
created a medium more akin to oils
than watercolour and is nothing like
the free handling washes associated
with modern watercolour painting.
In his early years, North prepared his
early canvases with a solid base of CW
building up thinner grounds of
pigments mixed with CW and
then elaborated his designs onto this
surface - with what was described as
an enamelled effect. He also removed
this underpainting in
places, by scratching out or
scraping away. In later years he moved
away from this technique, preferring
to use only pure watercolours without
CW. However, he still used the thick
undiluted pigments to work in the
grounds, rubbing it into the surface
of the paper - sometimes straight
from the tube. Once the ground was
worked in North would create an effect
of shimmering colour that became his
trademark in later years. Onto the
solid bases, he would add washes and
then enliven the surface with a unique
technique - adding tiny drops of water
to the surface and adding pure pigment
to the droplets. This technique has
been described as pointillist and is
much more evident in the later works.
It was not to the taste of all
critics, his obituarist in the Times
called it 'wooly.'
Because of his very physical handling,
North needed a hard paper surface
(hence the early CW bases) in
the end he developed his own - OW
Paper - and set up a Company to
manufacture it using 100% linen rags
instead of the usual mix of linen and
cotton. The paper was not well suited
to most watercolour techniques, but
was used quite
extensively for high quality prints
and engravings.
Anyway I stray, CW was said to deaden
the vibrant watercolour pigments, and
this was often criticized in the large
exhibition watercolours of the day -
particularly by Ruskin who had a pop
at Fred Walker for using it too
heavily. Walker responded with a
cartoon of himself working with a tube
of CW larger than himself coiling the
repugnant oxide onto his pallet with
glee. Because of the opacity of CW,
the white of the paper that is today
used to add highlights and light
effects was completely obscured by
Victorian watercolourists. Highlights
had to be worked in with CW or else
scratched out.
North remains one of the
unacknowledged masters of English
landscape, his visionary handling,
spiritual and poetic approach remains
uniquely engaging to this day. You
can view his work in many of the
larger provincial galleries (although
rarely on show). Preston, Birmingham,
V&A, Tate, Manchester, Leeds,
Bournemouth, Southampton, Bradford,
etc.
Salisbury UK - 17th August 2006:
11.00pm
My birthday today, so not much time
for blogging. I have for some time
been collecting information about
North's association with Richard
Jefferies. I first became aware of RJ
in 1987 when I started work at
Salisbury District Council because
there in the main committee room
stands a bust of the great Wiltshire
worthy. Of course at that time I knew
nothing about him at all, and it was
only a couple of years later that I
discovered the connection with my
grandfather. Cyril Wright of the RJ
Soc illuminated the matter splendidly
and gave me the address of the Hon Sec
at the time Phyllis Trietel who was a
great help.
Anyway, I discovered
that the bust was donated to the
council in 1925 by Alderman Sutton a
Salisbury confectioner. The bust had
been offered to the council by the
Society of Authors - co-founded by by
RJ's biographer Walter Besant. It was
Besant who first owned the bust and it
was he who had donated it to the
Society. The council refused the
offer to buy the bust, but the dashing
Alderman stepped in promplty donated
it to the council. It has rested
peacefully in a niche high above the
local politicians - cringing
occasionally at the florid adjectives
below.
Besant visited North to
view RJ's papers shortly after the
Author's death, but it was a Salisbury
man Churchill Osbourne who first
suggested the idea of the Bust in
Salisbury Cathedral and after
consulting RJ's widow Jesse, North
encouraged the idea. As Victorians
did, they formed a committee to raise
funds for the bust, enlisting Arthur
Kinglake of Taunton to assist. The
bust in the council house is a copy of
that in the Cathedral. Another copy -
one with RJ atop a copy of his mildly
sacriligious autobiography - The Story
of My Heart is in the NPG.
Blessed be the time, I must go.
Salisbury UK - 5th August 2006:
11.00pm
When I was looking through Pippa
North's papers I found a load of 35mm
movie films - about 30 reels, I would
guess. These films must cover the
period 1929 - 1960 and probably
includes a lot of footage of life in
Hong Kong before the war. I'm no
expert in these matters but I imagine
these would be of considerable
historical interest. I will try and
get this record digitised for
posterity.
Salisbury UK - 5th August 2006:
6.00pm
Sadly, John North's grand daughter,
Phillipa died earlier this year at the
age of 76. I had correponded with
Pippa over 10 years and she was always
helpful and supportive of my research.
Pippa was the daughter of Roland North
and Leo Greening. Her elder brother
Peter North died last year.
Roland North was born at
Beggearnhuish House in 1886, just 3
years before his mother Selina died.
After Oxford, Roland joined the Civil
Service as a Cadet 2nd Class. Posted
to Hong Kong, North worked his way up
to the senior position of Secretary of
Chinese Affairs. Roland took a leading
role in the evacuation of Hong Kong
prior to the outbreak of hostilities
with Japan. He was interned during the
war, returning to Port Madoc to join
Leo and Pippa on his release. Despite
offering to return to Honk Kong, at 55
Roland was considered too old to resume
his previous duties and following a
brief spell at the Empire Office he
retired in 1947 and moved to New
Zealand.
Following Roalnd's death in 1961 Leo
and Pippa returned to the UK and lived
in Somerset. Following Pippa's death
in January this year I had access to
some of the family papers and was able
to photograph some of the material -
some of which now appears on this
site.
Alas annother link to the Artist is
lost.
Salisbury UK - 3rd August 2006:
9.00pm
Started this Blog, now I am wondering
why! Mmm, anything to say?
Well,
two
North relatives contacted me last week
and want to get in touch. It's really
exciting when things like this happen -
more doors open. Funny old business
mind,
families.
As it goes, I'm North's
great
grandson by his mistress, muse and
model Maria Milton. He kept her in St
Pancras, a small cottage not far from
Cleeve Abbey in Rodewater, Somerset.
She had 5 children but died in her 30s
of TB. The children were scattered -
Beatrix and Frances went to an
Orphanage in Broadclyst, Devon. Two of
the boys - Gilbert and Ronald (my grand
father) were sent to an naval training
orphanage on the Thames called
Warspite. Lionel stayed in Somerset and
worked first at Dunster Mill then as a
delivery man for a local bakery,
delivering bread and provisions all
over Exmoor. He lived most of his
life in Alcombe near Minehead. Beatrix
married and settled in Portsmouth -
where I stayed with her in 1976.
Frances went abroad and worked as a
Nurse, she married and had a daughter -
Liz, who came over to visit a few years
ago and met all the Milton's I could
muster! Gilbert died in the War - you
can find out more about that on other
pages - and Ron served in the Merchant
Navy before going into service between
the wars. He married a teacher
Margorie Sharpe and they settled in
Somerset, where Ron worked at Horlicks
Dairy in Ilminster. A reserved
occupation, Ron missed the war but flew
the flag in the Home Guard (good excuse
for a beer it sounded like to me).
There is a jolly photo of Ron in his
Home
Guard get up on display at Perry's
Cider Mills and Heritage Centre
near Ilminster.
They have all gone
now, Lionel was the last to leave in
2002 - the last of North's children
(well the last that I know of). Anyway
that's my lot on the Milton side, on
the Speed side, well ...
Salisbury UK - 2nd August 2006:
9.00pm I managed to
buy a copy of the Life and Letters of
Frederick Walker from eBay last month
for less than £30 - a bargain. It's in
good nick and better than the
photocopied pages I have been using for
reference. The other book I am reading
is Barabara Hirsch's Life of Barabara
Bodichon. I bought it for the North
and Walker references - it confirms
that the two painters visted Barabara
and her guest Gertrude Jekell in
Algiers - but its proved much more
illuminating providing a colourful
glimpse of aesthetic late Victorian
society. Worth a look I should say. I
should try to gather a comprehensive
bibliography - might be useful. I'm
always dipping into Jefferies - still
can't say I am his biggest fan, he can
brilliant, he can be terrible. The
brilliant is briliantly brilliant mind
you. I've bought some good copies of
RJ on eBay for under £5 - if you are
after anything give me an email.