Thursday, January 23, 2014

Henry John Yeend King

Henry John Yeend King (1855-1924) was a painter of rural scenes, many of which (but not all) fall into a category that I would describe as "nostalgic kitsch". Still, he was extremely popular, and quite prolific. 

A London landscape and rustic genre painter, Yeend King studied with Bonnat and Cormon in Paris and worked for three years in a glass works, but became a highly successful artist. His painting entitled Milking Time (see it below) was purchased by the Tate Gallery. He had a robust plein air technique, using bright bold colours which stem from his French training. His pictures were highly prized by the Victorian industrialists of the day and consequently a great many of them have been donated by these collectors to their local art galleries and museums, resulting in Rochdale, Oldham, Burnley and Sheffield having examples by him in their collections. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1879 and a member of the Royal Institute in 1886, later becoming its Vice President.


 A Walk in the Country
  
 A Woodland Glade
  
 An Afternoon Picnic
    
April Sunshine, Carteret, Normandy (1908)
 
 At the Farm Gate
  
 By the Well
  
 Feeding the Ducks
  
 Feeding Time
  
 Gathering Flowers
  
 Harvest Scene
  
 In the Cottage Garden
  
 
 Milking Time
 
 Their Favorite Spot
  
 Twas the Night Before Christmas
  
 Victorian Garden
  
Young Beauty by the Old Mill Stream

1 comment:

  1. I can see where you're coming from with the kitsch label. I do agree that would fit some of his work but it's really genre painting. The type of rural farm paintings you can see more of in Paradise Lost by Christopher Wood. Although I don't think some of his paintings were that interesting, he was a bit different than other British artists of that time with the use of Impressionism. This would have come from his training in France. I'm not sure why an artist like Daniel Ridgway Knight commands the high prices he does at auction while Yeend King sits in basements (like Milking Time at the Tate) and draws much lower values. To me, Knight has much more a kitsch factor.

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