Ernest Townsend
Encyclopedia
Ernest Townsend was a portrait artist from Derby
in England
.
Townsend studied at Derby College of Art, Heatherleys
in Chelsea and the Royal Academy
. Among his notable works were a 1915 portrait of the Right Hon. Winston Churchill
when he was First Lord of the Admiralty. This picture now hangs in the National Liberal Club
in London.
Townsend was commissioned to create a design for the roofs of the Rolls-Royce
aircraft engine factories in Derby so that they would appear to German bombers to be no more than a village.
in Gloucestershire in the late 1850s. However by the age of eight, Townsend's caregiver was his elder sister.
His early education was at Abbey Street School and at the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a firm of architects, Wright and Thorpe (later known as T.H. Thorpe Associates), practising at 23 St James St, Derby. Thomas Harrison Thorpe, the junior partner, recognised Townsend's artistic ability immediately and a lifelong friendship developed between them.
and Lawrence Alma-Tadema
. His friends included Aubrey Beardsley
, Alfred Munnings
, Augustus John
, and Laura Knight
. Townsend exhibited 15 paintings at the Academy between 1910 and 1937, as shown below.
As an impecunious art student, he lived with his brother, William Paulson Townsend, who had become Design Master at the Royal School of Needlework
and was an author and editor of various art publications. Ernest supplemented his income with design work for these magazines, in particular for the Art Worker's Quarterly.
In 1904 he won the Royal Academy's Landseer Scholarship for figure painting and in 1905 he won the Academy's Creswick prize for 'Willows and Weeds', a painting donated by his family after his death to the Derby Art Gallery.
and the Netherlands
, he returned to Derby, where he had a studio in Full Street, living in nearby Coxbench. In 1912, Townsend, like his friends, Alfred Munnings and Laura Knight, represented Great Britain in the Olympic Games
in Stockholm
by entering a painting in the Olympic Art exhibition
.
At the age of 25, Townsend was commissioned to paint his former headmaster at the School of Art, T.C. Simmonds. This painting was later accepted by the Royal Academy for its 1910 Summer Exhibition. Perhaps it was this success that led to another commission from the Town for a portrait of the Libraries Museum and Art Gallery Director, William Crowther, upon his retirement
in 1911. Many more "official" commissions were to come from the Town for the remainder of Townsend's life; a succession of mayoral portraits can be seen in the Council chamber today.
when he was First Lord of the Admiralty was commissioned anonymously. This picture now hangs in the National Liberal Club
in London, but it was not hung until 1944. Churchill had been unavailable to unveil it in 1915, and when he was available, he was no longer popular in the Liberal Club. The portrait was mothballed and retrieved for public viewing only following Churchill's success in 1944, when he was belatedly asked to unveil it.
(also noted for his fine early photography), S. H. Parkin, and Frank Gresley
. These and a number of lesser known but competent artists met via the Derby Sketching Club
, to which Townsend was immediately attracted. He was to remain a member of the club for the rest of his life and he found a patron in Alfred E. Goodey
via the club.
It was at the Sketching Club that he met Peter Campbell and his son Percy. Peter had moved from Stockton-on-Tees
to work for the Bemrose Company as a commercial artist, although he later went freelance. Campbell produced much work for the Midland Railway
. The friendship led to Ernest being invited to the Campbells' home on Havelock Road in Derby, which was then almost in the country. The three men shared an interest not only in art, but in amateur music. In this they were joined by Peter's daughter, Doris, who was an accomplished pianist to her father's violin and Townsend's baritone. Doris was also a member of the Sketching Club. Townsend married Doris Campbell on 30 December 1912 at St James' Church in Clapham
.
engines that powered the Spitfir
e and Hurricane
fighters. Using his skills, he made the factory appear from the air to be no more than a village.
In 1944 Derby Art Gallery put on a memorial exhibition in his honour. Derby Art Gallery
still houses a large collection of his work, although not on permanent display. Townsend's death in 1944 means that his works will not be in the public domain until 2014 and use of his paintings requires the permission of the copyright
owner. There is a permanent display of reproductions of many of his works in the Standing Order public house in Derby.
Derby
Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Townsend studied at Derby College of Art, Heatherleys
Heatherley School of Fine Art
The Heatherley School of Fine Art was named after Thomas Heatherley who took over as principal from James Mathews Leigh . Founded in 1845, the school is affectionately known as Heatherley's...
in Chelsea and the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
. Among his notable works were a 1915 portrait of the Right Hon. Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
when he was First Lord of the Admiralty. This picture now hangs in the National Liberal Club
National Liberal Club
The National Liberal Club, known to its members as the NLC, is a London gentlemen's club, now also open to women, which was established by William Ewart Gladstone in 1882 for the purpose of providing club facilities for Liberal Party campaigners among the newly-enlarged electorate after the Third...
in London.
Townsend was commissioned to create a design for the roofs of the Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
aircraft engine factories in Derby so that they would appear to German bombers to be no more than a village.
Early years
Ernest Townsend was born in Parliament Street in Derby, the youngest of James Townsend's five children. His father was a coach builder with Holmes of Derby (later Sanderson & Holmes). Coach building had been the Townsend profession practised for at least three generations. James' father, William, had moved to Derby from BittonBitton
Bitton is a village and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England, in the Greater Bristol area on the River Boyd.It is in the far south of the South Gloucestershire district, near the border with Bath and North East Somerset...
in Gloucestershire in the late 1850s. However by the age of eight, Townsend's caregiver was his elder sister.
His early education was at Abbey Street School and at the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a firm of architects, Wright and Thorpe (later known as T.H. Thorpe Associates), practising at 23 St James St, Derby. Thomas Harrison Thorpe, the junior partner, recognised Townsend's artistic ability immediately and a lifelong friendship developed between them.
Heatherleys and the Royal Academy
Townsend's early promise was justified and eventually he left architecture altogether and embarked on a full-time course at the Heatherly School of Fine Art in London. He then moved to a five-year course at the Royal Academy Schools. He was enrolled as a student in the School of Painting at the Royal Academy from the 28th January until January 1907. Amongst his tutors at the Academy Schools were John Singer SargentJohn Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings...
and Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, OM, RA was a Dutch painter.Born in Dronrijp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, he settled in England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there...
. His friends included Aubrey Beardsley
Aubrey Beardsley
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley was an English illustrator and author. His drawings, done in black ink and influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts, emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He was a leading figure in the Aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James A....
, Alfred Munnings
Alfred Munnings
Sir Alfred James Munnings KCVO, PRA was known as one of England's finest painters of horses, and as an outspoken enemy of Modernism...
, Augustus John
Augustus John
Augustus Edwin John OM, RA, was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in the United Kingdom....
, and Laura Knight
Laura Knight
Dame Laura Knight, DBE was an English Impressionist painter known for painting the world of London's theatre, ballet and circus.-Early life and education:...
. Townsend exhibited 15 paintings at the Academy between 1910 and 1937, as shown below.
As an impecunious art student, he lived with his brother, William Paulson Townsend, who had become Design Master at the Royal School of Needlework
Royal School of Needlework
The Royal School of Needlework is a hand embroidery school in the United Kingdom, founded in 1872.It has an archive of over 30,000 images covering every period of British history...
and was an author and editor of various art publications. Ernest supplemented his income with design work for these magazines, in particular for the Art Worker's Quarterly.
In 1904 he won the Royal Academy's Landseer Scholarship for figure painting and in 1905 he won the Academy's Creswick prize for 'Willows and Weeds', a painting donated by his family after his death to the Derby Art Gallery.
Return to Derby
In 1907, he left London. After some time in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, he returned to Derby, where he had a studio in Full Street, living in nearby Coxbench. In 1912, Townsend, like his friends, Alfred Munnings and Laura Knight, represented Great Britain in the Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
by entering a painting in the Olympic Art exhibition
Art competitions at the 1912 Summer Olympics
Art competitions were held as part of the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. It was the first time that art competitions were part of the Olympic program...
.
At the age of 25, Townsend was commissioned to paint his former headmaster at the School of Art, T.C. Simmonds. This painting was later accepted by the Royal Academy for its 1910 Summer Exhibition. Perhaps it was this success that led to another commission from the Town for a portrait of the Libraries Museum and Art Gallery Director, William Crowther, upon his retirement
Retirement
Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours.Many people choose to retire when they are eligible for private or public pension benefits, although some are forced to retire when physical conditions don't allow the person to...
in 1911. Many more "official" commissions were to come from the Town for the remainder of Townsend's life; a succession of mayoral portraits can be seen in the Council chamber today.
Portrait of Winston Churchill
Townsend's 1915 portrait of the Right Hon. Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
when he was First Lord of the Admiralty was commissioned anonymously. This picture now hangs in the National Liberal Club
National Liberal Club
The National Liberal Club, known to its members as the NLC, is a London gentlemen's club, now also open to women, which was established by William Ewart Gladstone in 1882 for the purpose of providing club facilities for Liberal Party campaigners among the newly-enlarged electorate after the Third...
in London, but it was not hung until 1944. Churchill had been unavailable to unveil it in 1915, and when he was available, he was no longer popular in the Liberal Club. The portrait was mothballed and retrieved for public viewing only following Churchill's success in 1944, when he was belatedly asked to unveil it.
The Derby Sketching Club
Just as the Academy Schools had its elite band of artists—Munnings, Laura Knight, et al—so did Derby on a lesser sca1e. Edwardian Derby had its own band of regional artists: Alfred John KeeneAlfred John Keene
Alfred John Keene was a British watercolour artist working in Derby.-Biography:Keene was the fourth son of photographer Richard Keene who published the Derby Telegraph and brother of watercolourist William Caxton Keene and photographer Charles Barrow Keene...
(also noted for his fine early photography), S. H. Parkin, and Frank Gresley
Frank Gresley
Frank Gresley was a British artist. He painted mainly landscapes, most famous are those of the river Trent in Swarkestone, Barrow and Ingleby. His father was the artist, James Stephen Gresley and his two sons Harold and Cuthbert also became artists.Gresley lived most of his life in Chellaston,...
. These and a number of lesser known but competent artists met via the Derby Sketching Club
Derby Sketching Club
The Derby Sketching Club is a members' club now meeting in Littleover, Derby, England. It was founded in 1887, and still meets today, providing members with facilities so they and others can work and share their interest in painting and sketching. Early members included F...
, to which Townsend was immediately attracted. He was to remain a member of the club for the rest of his life and he found a patron in Alfred E. Goodey
Alfred E. Goodey
Alfred E. Goodey was a collector of paintings, prints and photographs, especially those connected with the English Midlands town of Derby.-Biography:...
via the club.
It was at the Sketching Club that he met Peter Campbell and his son Percy. Peter had moved from Stockton-on-Tees
Stockton-on-Tees
Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in north east England. It is the major settlement in the unitary authority and borough of Stockton-on-Tees. For ceremonial purposes, the borough is split between County Durham and North Yorkshire as it also incorporates a number of smaller towns including...
to work for the Bemrose Company as a commercial artist, although he later went freelance. Campbell produced much work for the Midland Railway
Midland Railway
The Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922, when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway....
. The friendship led to Ernest being invited to the Campbells' home on Havelock Road in Derby, which was then almost in the country. The three men shared an interest not only in art, but in amateur music. In this they were joined by Peter's daughter, Doris, who was an accomplished pianist to her father's violin and Townsend's baritone. Doris was also a member of the Sketching Club. Townsend married Doris Campbell on 30 December 1912 at St James' Church in Clapham
Clapham
Clapham is a district in south London, England, within the London Borough of Lambeth.Clapham covers the postcodes of SW4 and parts of SW9, SW8 and SW12. Clapham Common is shared with the London Borough of Wandsworth, although Lambeth has responsibility for running the common as a whole. According...
.
World War II
When Townsend died in 1944, some said it was due to overwork. He had been busy during the war creating designs that could be used to camouflage Rolls-Royce's aircraft engine factories in Derby. These factories built the MerlinRolls-Royce Merlin
The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British liquid-cooled, V-12, piston aero engine, of 27-litre capacity. Rolls-Royce Limited designed and built the engine which was initially known as the PV-12: the PV-12 became known as the Merlin following the company convention of naming its piston aero engines after...
engines that powered the Spitfir
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...
e and Hurricane
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force...
fighters. Using his skills, he made the factory appear from the air to be no more than a village.
In 1944 Derby Art Gallery put on a memorial exhibition in his honour. Derby Art Gallery
Derby Museum and Art Gallery
Derby Museum and Art Gallery was established in 1879, along with Derby Central Library, in a new building designed by Richard Knill Freeman and given to Derby by Michael Thomas Bass. The collection includes a whole gallery displaying the paintings of Joseph Wright of Derby; there is also a large...
still houses a large collection of his work, although not on permanent display. Townsend's death in 1944 means that his works will not be in the public domain until 2014 and use of his paintings requires the permission of the copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
owner. There is a permanent display of reproductions of many of his works in the Standing Order public house in Derby.
Major works
- Exeter Bridge, Derby
- Derby Fish Market by Night
- Winston Churchill, 1915
- Scene in Market Place during Gun Week, November 18 to 23 1918
- A Glimpse of Derby Market Place on Carnival Day, 1926
- Hospital Carnival Day, 1935
Exhibits at the Royal Academy
Ernest Townsend Exhibits at the Royal Academy 1910 - 1937- 1910 T C Simmonds Esq
- 1913 Arthur Smith Esq
- 1915 “And battle, death and destiny roll-on, while loving hearts beat anxiously at home.”
- 1916 A Native of Derbyshire & The Studio Doorway
- 1917 The Attic Stairs & A Derbyshire Cottage
- 1918 Gossip & Summer Morning
- 1919 The Balloon Man
- 1927 A Balloon Shop
- 1932 Hanna
- 1933 Schoolboy’s Holiday
- 1934 T Harrision Thorpe Esq
- 1937 Carnival Day in Derby