Brush with genius
Oct 9 2009 By Sally Hoban
Sally Hoban looks at the work of one of Birmingham’s finest painters.
Successful collectors and antique dealers share the ability to be able to predict which antiques to invest in that will go up in value in the future. The same is true for the art market.
Canny collectors buying the work of an exceptional artist early in their career, or before prices for their works start to rise, will very often reap the rewards of their investment in the future. The secret is to look for quality and originality.
Collectors in the 50s, 60s and 70s buying the work of late 19th and early 20th century artists from Birmingham were doing precisely this. Over the past few years, despite the uncertain economic climate, the work of Victorian and Edwardian painters from Birmingham has continued to rise in popularity in the collectors’ market.
In 2006 for example, a private collection of the work of the Birmingham artist Joseph Southall (1861-1944) which was amassed over many years by an eccentric and reclusive Halesowen pensioner came under the hammer at Christie’s auctioneers and sold for more than double their estimates, with several selling for in excess of £10,000.
This sale was an early indicator of the growing popularity of Birmingham artists and set a precedent for the prices for Southall’s work, so if you have a painting or drawing by him hiding in your attic you could be sitting on a valuable treasure. If you’d like to invest in an example of his work, the Fine Art Society in London has a couple of Southall works for sale – with the price for each on application.
Southall is perhaps the best known artist from the Birmingham Group of painters. The jewel-like, enamel qualities of his frescoes and paintings are instantly recognisable. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has an outstanding collection of his work on permanent show, with one of his best works situated at the top of the entrance stairs to the main art gallery.
Simply titled Corporation Street, Birmingham, in March 1914, this supreme example of fresco painting gives us an outstanding snapshot of life in the city before the First World War.
Southall worked on this commission during the winter of 1915-16, actively supported by Sir Whitworth Wallace, who was the first keeper of the Art Gallery. It is a wonderful example of Southall’s mastery of form. It is also a great record of the fashions of the time (Southall was a great lover of painting hats and the hats in this painting are by no means the most spectacular that he painted).
Southall was born in Nottingham to a Quaker family but, in 1862, after the death of his father, he went with his mother to live with his grandmother in Edgbaston. He was educated in York where he was taught drawing by Edwin Moore, who was a brother of the artist Albert Moore.
In September 1878, he was articled to Birmingham architects Martin and Chamberlain and in 1879 attended the Birmingham Municipal School of Art’s Branch School in Osler Street in the evenings. Later that year he joined the Central School of Art in Margaret Street, where he continued his studies, but he did not return to classes the following year because of ill health.
In around 1881, he began cultivating his love of medieval art and mural decoration. He went back to the School of Art at the end of 1882 and left architecture at about the same time to develop his own career.
Southall visited Italy in 1883 and took with him a copy of the influential art critic John Ruskin’s St Mark’s Rest. The art that he saw in Italy inspired him to learn more about Italian Primitive art and also to learn how to paint in tempera (where coloured pigments are mixed with an egg solution to make the paint), to try to recreate the rich, enamel-like qualities of these Italian works.
Southall met fellow artist Arthur Gaskin at the Birmingham School of Art and the pair quickly became close friends.
In the mid 1880s, Southall moved into what had been his uncle’s house in Charlotte Road in Edgbaston, where he lived for the rest of his life.
He had his first work accepted at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA) Autumn Exhibition in Birmingham in 1887 and also started to experiment with oil painting.
Southall returned to Italy in 1890 and was again inspired by the early Italian artists.
In 1893 he met the artist Edward Burne-Jones when he visited the School of Art.
By 1895 Southall was painting in tempera again and had his first work accepted at the Royal Academy.
In 1898 Southall was elected an associate of the RBSA and in 1899 he exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society.
In 1901, along with Walter Crane, William Holman Hunt and other painters, Southall formed the Society of Painters in Tempera and in 1902 he was elected a full member of the RBSA.
Southall’s success as a painter continued over the next decade, including regular trips to Italy for inspiration and exhibiting as part of the Birmingham Group of artists at the Fine Art Society in London.
Southall was a leading figure among Birmingham Quakers, the Labour Party in the city (he was very active politically) and pacifism movement. His success as an artist continued at home and abroad throughout the 20s and 1930s and he continued to travel.
He died in November 1944 in Birmingham and his wife Anna died in 1947. The following year, the majority of the Southalls’ possessions were sold by auction in Birmingham with bequests of important works to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Bournemouth, Nottingham and Oldham Art Galleries.
