Henry Albert Payne
RWS, also known as "Henry Arthur Payne", (1868 – 4 July 1940) was a British
stained glass artist,
watercolour
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
ist and painter of
frescoes.
Payne was one of the
Birmingham Group of Artist-Craftsmen who formed around
Joseph Southall and the
Birmingham School of Art in the late nineteenth century. He was involved in several of the group's collective projects, most notably the decoration of the chapel at
Madresfield Court, which numbers among the seminal achievements of the
Arts and Crafts movement.
Early years and studies
Born in the
King's Heath area of
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
, Payne studied under
Edward R. Taylor
__NOTOC__
Edward Richard Taylor RBSA (14 June 1838 – 11 January 1911) was an English artist and educator. He painted in both oils and watercolours. He became a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1879.
Biography
Taylor ta ...
at the
Birmingham School of Art, where he was one of the students commissioned to paint a series of murals under Taylor's supervision for the redecoration of
Birmingham Town Hall - the first "outward and visible sign of the rise to fame and importance of the Birmingham School".
[Breeze, George: "Decorative Painting" in Crawford, Alan (ed): ''By Hammer and Hand : the Arts and Crafts Movement in Birmingham'', Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, 1984 pp 62-65]
Birmingham School educator
In 1899, Payne was appointed to the School's staff, initially as a teacher of drawing and painting, but increasingly concentrating through the 1890s on the design of
stained glass. In 1900, he installed a glass kiln at the school and studied stained glass manufacture in London under
Christopher Whall
Christopher Whitworth Whall (1849 – 23 December 1924) was a British stained-glass artist who worked from the 1880s and on into the 20th century. He is widely recognised as a leader in the Arts and Crafts Movement and a key figure in t ...
so that, in the
Arts and Crafts tradition, design and manufacture could be taught as an integrated process.
[Harrison, Martin: "Stained Glass: Windows on another World" in Crawford, Alan (ed): ''By Hammer and Hand : the Arts and Crafts Movement in Birmingham'', Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, 1984 pp 120-123] Among his outstanding students was
Margaret Agnes Rope.
Stained glass and painting
From at least 1904 onwards, he established an independent business designing and manufacturing stained glass, producing large and notable works for churches such as
E. S. Prior's
St Andrew's, Roker, St Martin's, Kensal Rise, St Mary's, Madresfield and
J. L. Pearson
John Loughborough Pearson (5 July 1817 – 11 December 1897) was a British Gothic Revival architect renowned for his work on churches and cathedrals. Pearson revived and practised largely the art of vaulting, and acquired in it a proficiency ...
's
St Alban's, Bordesley.
In common with most of the Birmingham Group he worked across a wide variety of media, producing book illustrations for the
Birmingham Guild of Handicraft and interior decoration for the
Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts
The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts (1898–1966) was a company of modern artists and designers associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement, founded by Walter Gilbert. The guild worked in metal, wood, plaster, bronze, tapestry, glass and ...
. Although most prolific in stained glass, Payne's most notable achievements were arguably in the field of decorative painting. Between 1902 and 1923 he worked on the wall paintings of the chapel at
Madresfield Court near
Malvern in Worcestershire. Painted as
fresco in
tempera
Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done ...
and sitting alongside work by other figures of the Birmingham Arts and Crafts movement such as
William Bidlake
William Henry Bidlake MA, FRIBA (12 May 1861 – 6 April 1938) was a British architect, a leading figure of the Arts and Crafts movement in Birmingham and Director of the School of Architecture at Birmingham School of Art from 1919 until 1924. ...
,
Georgie Gaskin and
Charles March Gere, Madresfield Court is "not only Payne's most important scheme of decorative painting, but probably the most famous of all such Arts and Crafts schemes."
File:West Window, Hook Church - geograph.org.uk - 685266.jpg, West Window, Hook Church: The "Good Shepherd" window by Henry Payne. A mix of a typical English country scene, with lambs and a stream, but with lions behind the wicker fence and a biblical king complete with what appears to be a zither.
In 1908, he was commissioned to produce a wall painting for the later stages of the decoration of the
Palace of Westminster. His work ''
Plucking the Red and White Roses in the Old Temple Gardens'' - an allegory on the
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought bet ...
- now hangs in the Palace's East Corridor.
Payne also painted
landscapes in
watercolour
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
, exhibiting at the
Royal Academy from 1899 to 1935
and being elected a member of the
Royal Watercolour Society
The Royal Watercolour Society is a British institution of painters working in watercolours. The Society is a centre of excellence for water-based media on paper, which allows for a diverse and interesting range of approaches to the medium of wa ...
in 1920.
Henry A. Payne (1868 - 1940)
The Modernist Journals Project for students and scholars of modernism. Accessed 30 October 2018.
St Loe's Guild
In Amberley, Payne continued producing work in fresco and stained glass, and in 1912 established ''St Loe's Guild'', initially modelled in the Arts and Crafts tradition on the Bromsgrove Guild, though ultimately little more than a vehicle for his own works.
Personal life
In 1909, Payne and his family moved to Amberley in Gloucestershire, one of several significant Arts and Crafts figures to move to the Cotswolds.["Henry Arthur Payne (1868-1940)" in Christian, John (ed): ''The Last Romantics: The Romantic Tradition in British Art - Burne-Jones to Stanley Spencer''. London, Lund Humphries Publishers, 1993 ]
References
External links
Biography for Henry Payne
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
Henry Payne Stained Glass Work At Birmingham School Of Art
History West Midlands
{{DEFAULTSORT:Payne, Henry
1868 births
1940 deaths
Arts and Crafts movement artists
English artists
Artists from Birmingham, West Midlands
Alumni of the Birmingham School of Art
Academics of the Birmingham School of Art