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Illustrator: Birket Foster
BRITISH ARTISTS
BIRKET FOSTER, R.W.S.
IN THE SAME SERIES
GEORGE MORLAND
JOHN PETTIE, R.A., H.R.S.A.
KATE GREENAWAY
A. AND C. BLACK . SOHO SQUARE . LONDON, W.
AGENTS
BIRKET FOSTER
R.W.S.
PUBLISHED BY A. & C. BLACK 4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON MCMX
LIST OF PLATES
OWNER OF ORIGINAL
BIRKET FOSTER
The dainty water-colour paintings executed by Birket Foster probably appeal to the majority of the British public more than the work of any other artist.
For many years during the early part of his career he was engaged in drawing on wood-blocks for the engraver, from which he acquired a minuteness in detail that continued to pervade his paintings in later life. The result was that he produced scenes from Nature with an exactness that the most uninitiated in art are able to understand and appreciate. The chief features, however, in Birket Foster's paintings are the poetic feeling with which he indued them, and the care and felicity with which his compositions were selected. These qualities lend a great charm to his drawings, and especially to those representing the homely scenes, so frequently selected from that picturesque part of Surrey, where he lived for many years. He revelled in sunny landscapes, with sheep roaming in the distance and with rustic children playing in the foreground; he was also attracted by peaceful red-brick cottages covered with thatch, and enlivened by domestic scenes. It is perhaps by these rural paintings that the artist is best known. He, however, wandered far afield in search of the picturesque; he was an indefatigable painter, and produced works selected from all parts of England, Wales, and Scotland. Birket Foster was especially partial to the Northern counties and the district surrounding his native town in Northumberland. His rambles were not confined solely to his own country; he travelled frequently on the Continent; Venice, as well as the Rhine, had its charms for him. The picturesque scenery of Brittany has also been portrayed by his brush, and on one occasion he went as far as Spain and Morocco in pursuit of his art.
Birket Foster, as he is generally known, or Myles Birket Foster, to give him his full name, was born at North Shields on February 4, 1825. His ancestors held good social positions for many generations in the North Country, and were staunch members of the Society of Friends. One, Sarah Forster, as the family name was originally spelt, married a descendant of Margaret Fell of Swathmoor Hall, who, after the death of her first husband, Judge Fell, was united to George Fox, the founder of the Quakers.
In 1830 the artist's father migrated with his family to London, voyaging all the way by sea. He took up his residence at 40 Charlotte Street, Portland Place, and founded the well-known firm of M. B. Foster and Sons.
Quitting school at an early age, young Birket Foster was at first placed in his father's business; but, owing to an accident, he did not remain long in that position.
As the youth showed a decided tendency towards art, his father consulted a Mr. Stone, a die-engraver, with whom he had a slight acquaintance, and it was arranged that the son should be apprenticed to him. Before, however, the articles of apprenticeship could be signed, Mr. Stone unfortunately committed suicide. In his dilemma the father next sought the assistance of a fellow-townsman, Ebenezer Landells, who at that time had established his reputation as a wood-engraver. He offered to take the boy into his business to see whether the work would suit him. The offer was accepted, and the day on which Birket Foster entered Landells' office may be said to be the commencement of his artistic career.
At this period our artist was greatly sought after by publishers to execute pencil drawings for wood-engravings for books, and from the year 1847 to 1863 more than eighty different volumes, produced by various firms, were illustrated by dainty engravings after his drawings.
After the year 1858 Birket Foster practically abandoned the drawing on wood-blocks, and devoted himself almost entirely to water-colour painting. He received little or no instruction in the art, and in later years, when he was frequently pestered by persons asking him to give them lessons in painting, he used to say that he never received any lessons, so he never gave them, believing the best instruction to be obtained from studying the great masters. He was a profound admirer of Turner and Clarkson Stanfield, and it is probable that he was more influenced by the latter's works than by those of any other artist, especially with regard to composition. He delighted to surround himself with paintings by these and other artists.
With regard to his method of working, Birket Foster's early training for drawing on wood-blocks considerably influenced his water-colour work, which was very dissimilar to the "wash" methods of the early school of water-colour painters. He, indeed, worked with his brush as dry as it well could be, and probably no artist in using the medium of water-colours ever used so little water. Of course, all painting may be said to be drawing with a brush, but Birket Foster's was practically drawing to a peculiar degree, not washing with a brush. He used a very fine brush with very little paint in it, and owing to his habit of frequently putting it between his lips to make the point of it as fine as possible, it used to be said that the paint came out of the artist's head.
Birket Foster worked very rapidly in his own way of obtaining the effects he desired, and his remarkable gift for composition enabled him to people his scenes with wonderful facility and felicity. He never engaged a professional model; his children were all sketched from the rustic boys and girls, whom he found in the course of his wanderings.
In 1860 Birket Foster was unanimously elected an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society, and became a full member two years afterwards. He greatly appreciated the honour conferred upon him, and thoroughly gave his best interests to the Society.
He was a most prolific worker, and beside the large number of water-colour paintings exhibited at the Old Society, to which he contributed more than four hundred and fifty, many of his drawings were bought by the picture-dealers straight from his studio, and in some cases he received direct commissions for paintings from collectors.
Birket Foster, like many other water-colour artists, turned his attention to painting in oils, and for the nine years, 1869 to 1877, he regularly contributed oil paintings, thirteen in all, to the Exhibitions at the Royal Academy, but after that period he abandoned this medium, as he found that his little water-colour gems were far more appreciated by the public. In 1876 Foster was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Berlin.
Although the rural scenery of his native country had its peculiar charms for his pencil, still Birket Foster was greatly attracted by the grander views to be obtained on the Continent. His early visits were made to the Rhine, but subsequently the Italian lakes and Venice were his favourite hunting grounds in search for "bits" to sketch. The word "bits" is particularly applicable in the case of Birket Foster, for he almost invariably preferred to make a drawing of some detail rather than a broad landscape. He used to say that the mountain scenery of Switzerland was too panoramic and had no attractions for him. It is somewhat remarkable that whilst he relied to a great extent on lanes and fields, and hedgerows and rustic children, for his English drawings, the views for his Continental paintings were largely selected from towns with architectural details introduced into them.
The first visit made to the Continent by Birket Foster was in 1852, when he was commissioned by a publisher, who was bringing out an illustrated edition of "Hyperion," by Longfellow, to follow in the footsteps of Paul Flemming, and to depict on the spot the varied scenes amid which the poet had laid the incidents of his story. Paul Flemming, as is well known, was Longfellow himself, and the romance was a passage in the author's own life.
From that date Foster made almost annual tours along the Rhine and through Switzerland, but it was not until the year 1868 that he was first able to feast his eyes upon the beauties of Venice, and afterwards he made numerous subsequent trips to Italy.
Our artist for many years resided at St. John's Wood, and when he took seriously to water-colour painting he at first selected his subjects from the fields about Hampstead and Highgate. He soon, however, wandered farther afield, and was attracted by the picturesque scenery of Surrey. During his wanderings in this delightful county he found himself at Witley, near Godalming, and he resolved to have a residence there.
It cannot be said that Witley was "discovered" by Birket Foster, for other artists were there before him. J. C. Hook, R.A., had already built himself a residence and studio upon an eminence with a beautiful view overlooking the Weald of Surrey. There can, however, be no doubt that the genial disposition and the liberal hospitality of the owner of "The Hill" afterwards attracted many of his fellow-artists to the neighbourhood.
Witley station stands at a spot where the railway emerges from a deep cutting with pine woods on either side, and at this period there were but few houses or even cottages in the vicinity, for the village itself lies a mile and a quarter to the northward; but Birket Foster managed to secure the possession of a picturesque cottage called "Tigbourne," situated by the corner of the road leading to Hambledon at the foot of Wormley Hill, and resided there during the summer months.
Birket Foster eventually became so pleased with the neighbourhood that he determined to take up his permanent abode at Witley. After lengthy negotiations, he secured a beautiful site, between Wormley Hill and the railway station, on which he erected a house which was called "The Hill," and finally quitted St. John's Wood. He was practically his own architect, and residing near by at his cottage, he was enabled personally to superintend the erection of the entire
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