Byam Shaw
Encyclopedia
John Byam Liston Shaw (November 13, 1872 – January 26, 1919), commonly known as Byam Shaw, was an India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n-born British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
painter, illustrator, designer and teacher.
Family
John Byam Liston Shaw was the son of John Shaw and Sophia Alicia Byam Gunthorpe. In 1899 Byam Shaw married the artist Evelyn Eunice Pyke-Nott, later known as Evelyn CE Shaw (1870–1959). The couple had five children including the actor and theatre director Glen Byam ShawGlen Byam Shaw
Glen Byam Shaw was an English actor and theatre director, known for his dramatic productions in the 1950s and his operatic productions in the 1960s and later....
and the art historian J. (Jim) Byam Shaw. The family are depicted in the artist's semi-autobiographical pastel
Pastel
Pastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation....
painting My Wife, My Bairns and My Wee Dog John (1903).
Life and work
Born in Madras, Byam Shaw's father John was the registrar of the High Court at Madras. The family returned to England in 1878 where they settled in KensingtonKensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
, living at 103 Holland Row. Recognising early artistic promise, in 1887 Millais was shown Byam Shaw's work and he recommended the 15 year old enter the St John's Wood Art Schools. It was here that he first met fellow artists Gerald Fenwick Metcalfe
Gerald Fenwick Metcalfe
Gerald Fenwick Metcalfe was a British portrait painter, miniaturist, illustrator and modeller. He was born at Landour, India. In 1881 he was living with his widowed mother in Walcot, Somerset. He studied at the South Kensington, St John's Wood and Royal Academy Schools...
(also born in India), Rex Vicat Cole
Rex Vicat Cole
Reginald Rex Vicat Cole was an English landscape painter, son of the artist George Vicat Cole and Mary Ann Chignell. He was educated at Eton and began to exhibit in London in 1890. In 1900 he was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists. His work to 1906 is extensively reproduced...
and his future wife Evelyn Pyke-Nott. From 1890, Byam Shaw studied at the Royal Academy Schools where he won the Armitage Prize in 1892 for his work The Judgement of Solomon.
Throughout his career Byam Shaw worked competently in a wide variety of media including oils, watercolour, pastels, pen and ink and also deployed techniques such as dyeing
Dyeing
Dyeing is the process of adding color to textile products like fibers, yarns, and fabrics. Dyeing is normally done in a special solution containing dyes and particular chemical material. After dyeing, dye molecules have uncut Chemical bond with fiber molecules. The temperature and time controlling...
and gilding
Gilding
The term gilding covers a number of decorative techniques for applying fine gold leaf or powder to solid surfaces such as wood, stone, or metal to give a thin coating of gold. A gilded object is described as "gilt"...
.
Later in his life, as his popularity as an artist waned, Byam Shaw turned to teaching for his living. He taught at the Women's Department of King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
from 1904 and founded the Byam Shaw and Vicat Cole School of Art in 1910 with Rex Vicat Cole
Rex Vicat Cole
Reginald Rex Vicat Cole was an English landscape painter, son of the artist George Vicat Cole and Mary Ann Chignell. He was educated at Eton and began to exhibit in London in 1890. In 1900 he was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists. His work to 1906 is extensively reproduced...
, later renamed the Byam Shaw School of Art. Evelyn Shaw also had an active role in the new school, teaching the miniatures
Portrait miniature
A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, watercolour, or enamel.Portrait miniatures began to flourish in 16th century Europe and the art was practiced during the 17th century and 18th century...
class, her area of expertise. Byam Shaw had had a long association with the artist and illustrator Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale
Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale
Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale was an English artist from London. She studied at the Royal Academy and worked at first mostly in illustration, moving to paintings influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite artists. Later, she also worked with stained glass. She was a staunch Christian, and donated works to...
and she also taught at his and Vicat Cole's new school.
At the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Byam Shaw and Vicat Cole enlisted in the Artists' Rifles
Artists' Rifles
The Artists Rifles is a volunteer regiment of the British Army. Raised in London in 1859 as a volunteer light infantry unit, the regiment saw active service during the Boer Wars and World War I, earning a number of battle honours; however, it did not serve outside of Britain during World War II, as...
although Shaw would soon transfer to the Special Constabulary
Special Constabulary
The Special Constabulary is the part-time volunteer section of a statutory police force in the United Kingdom or some Crown dependencies. Its officers are known as Special Constables or informally as Specials.Every United Kingdom territorial police force has a special constabulary except the...
. Byam Shaw produced war cartoons that were published in many newspapers and also found work with memorial commissions. Not long after the war ended, Byam Shaw collapsed and died. His funeral was held at St Barnabas', Addison Road. Years before, he had designed two stunning yellow-hued stained glass windows for this church, depicting Saints Cecilia and Margaret and an ornate red, green and gilt monument to his life, in a 15th century style, still stands here. He was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in Kensal Green, in the west of London, England. It was immortalised in the lines of G. K. Chesterton's poem The Rolling English Road from his book The Flying Inn: "For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen; Before we go to Paradise by way of...
.
Notable works
Paintings- Love the Conqueror (1899) Now lost, but documented in a series of photographs taken during its creation, Byam Shaw considered this his masterpiece. The work contains over 200 figures. Widely lauded at the time of its exhibition, it is now recognised as somewhat flawed.
- Boer War 1900 (1901 - City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) The subtitle for this epic is 'Last summer green things were greener, brambles fewer, the blue sky bluer,' a Christina RossettiChristina RossettiChristina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems...
quote. - The Greatest of All Heroes is One (1905) Inspired by a Thomas CarlyleThomas CarlyleThomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
quote, the painting reinterprets Carlyle's 'Great Man' with a more imperialistic ideal. Another lost work, it included amongst its large cast colonial military heroes of the Victorian era such as General Gordon and General NicholsonJohn Nicholson (general)Brigadier-General John Nicholson was a Victorian era military officer known for his role in British India. A charismatic and authoritarian figure, Nicholson created a legend for himself as a political officer under Henry Lawrence in the frontier provinces of the British Empire in India...
stood alongside historical icons like Alexander the Great.
Book illustrations
- Poems by Robert BrowningRobert BrowningRobert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
, (1897) - Tales from Boccaccio done into English by Joseph Jacobs (1899)
- Chiswick Shakespeare - 500 plates
- Laurence Hope's book, The Garden of KamaGarden of KamaThe Garden of Kama is a book published in 1901 and written by Adela Florence Nicolson under the pseudonym Laurence Hope, and illustrated by Byam Shaw. The poems in the book were passed off as translations of Indian poets by a man, and thus the book received much more attention that they would...
(1901) - these illustrations form some of Byam Shaw's more famous. - Historic Record of the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra (1904) - commissioned to produce 34 illustrations
Other works
- Designed costumes for Beerbohm Tree'sHerbert Beerbohm TreeSir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor and theatre manager.Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre, winning praise for adventurous programming and lavish productions, and starring in many of its productions. In 1899, he helped fund the...
Much Ado About NothingMuch Ado About NothingMuch Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
at His Majesty's TheatreHer Majesty's TheatreHer Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
(1904) - Assisted Edwin Austin AbbeyEdwin Austin AbbeyEdwin Austin Abbey was an American artist, illustrator, and painter. He flourished at the beginning of what is now referred to as the "golden age" of illustration, and is best known for his drawings and paintings of Shakespearean and Victorian subjects, as well as for his painting of Edward VII's...
in the scheme to decorate one of the corridors in the Palace of WestminsterPalace of WestminsterThe Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
with murals. - Act Drop for the London Coliseum (1914) No longer in existence, the curtain Byam Shaw designed for the Coliseum featured Shakespeare presiding over a court of 101 diverse figures including GainsboroughThomas GainsboroughThomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...
and Elgar.