James Bateman (22 March 1893 – 2 August 1959) was an English painter and engraver specialising in agricultural topics, rural subjects and pastoral landscapes.

Life and work

Bateman was born in

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of th ...

, the son of a blacksmith. During World War One he served with the

Northumberland Fusiliers The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers was an infantry regiment of the British Army. Raised in 1674 as one of three 'English' units in the Dutch Anglo-Scots Brigade, it accompanied William III to England in the November 1688 Glorious Revolution an ...

, the

Machine Gun Corps The Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front in the First World War. The Heavy Branch of the MGC was the first to use tank ...

and, from 1916, with the Artists Rifles. Although he had studied sculpture at

Leeds School of Art Leeds Arts University is a specialist arts further and higher education institution, based in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a main campus opposite the University of Leeds. History It was founded in 1846 as the Leeds Schoo ...

from 1910 to 1914, and won a scholarship to the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

, a serious war-time injury caused by a gunshot wound to the spine and lungs, led him to concentrate on painting, as it would be less physically demanding. Bateman studied at the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

between 1919 and 1921, and was a Rome Scholarship finalist in 1920. After the Slade, Bateman taught art, first at the Cheltenham Art College, then the

Hammersmith School of Art West London College, legally known as the Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College is a large further and higher education college in West London, England, formed in 2002 by the merger between Ealing Tertiary College and Hammersmith and West ...

and, in 1929, at

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

. He exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

from 1924 onwards and was made a full member of the Academy in 1942. He was also a member of the

New English Art Club The New English Art Club (NEAC) was founded in London in 1885 as an alternative venue to the Royal Academy. It continues to hold an annual exhibition of paintings and drawings at the Mall Galleries in London, exhibiting works by both members and a ...

, the Cheltenham Group and the Cotswold Group. At the start of the Second World War Bateman worked as a Camouflage Officer at the Civil Defence Camouflage Establishment for the

Ministry of Home Security The Ministry of Home Security was a British government department established in 1939 to direct national civil defence, primarily tasked with organising air raid precautions, during the Second World War. The Ministry for Home Security was headed ...

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...

. He was unhappy with the work and resigned, in March 1940, when offered a commission for four paintings on land work subjects by the

War Artists' Advisory Committee The War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC), was a British government agency established within the Ministry of Information at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and headed by Sir Kenneth Clark. Its aim was to compile a comprehensive artist ...

. For the commission he visited farms in Cambridge, St. Albans and Reading and he completed three pictures, including one on the

Women's Land Army The Women's Land Army (WLA) was a British civilian organisation created in 1917 by the Board of Agriculture during the First World War to bring women into work in agriculture, replacing men called up to the military. Women who worked for the ...

, and was offered a further commission for two production subjects at

Shoeburyness Shoeburyness (; also called Shoebury) is a suburb of the city of Southend-on-Sea, in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. east of the city centre. It was an urban district of Essex from 1894 to 1933, when it ...

but he declined due to other commitments and the commission went to

Kenneth Rowntree Kenneth Rowntree (14 March 1915 – 21 February 1997) was a British artist. Career and life Kenneth Rowntree was born in Scarborough, the son of Howard Doncaster Rowntree (1879-1974). He was educated at Bootham School, York. He studied at th ...

. After the war Bateman continued painting and teaching. In 1948 he was elected an Associete 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 ...

. He painted a number of boxing scenes and portraits of boxers including one of

Freddie Mills Frederick Percival Mills (26 June 1919 – 25 July 1965) was an English boxer, and the world light heavyweight champion from 1948 to 1950. Mills was tall and did not have a sophisticated boxing style; he relied on two-fisted aggression, relen ...

in 1951. In 1957 Bateman wrote ''Oil Painting'', part of the ''How to do it'' series published by The Studio. He also began to experiment with new subjects, most notably Ancient Greek myths. He died in London from a combination of liver failure and pneumonia in 1959. Works by Bateman are held in the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, the

Laing Art Gallery The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, is located on New Bridge Street West. The gallery was designed in the Baroque style with Art Nouveau elements by architects Cackett & Burns Dick and is now a Grade II listed building. It ...

and the Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bateman, James 1893 births 1959 deaths 20th-century British printmakers 20th-century English male artists 20th-century English painters Alumni of Leeds Arts University Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Artists' Rifles soldiers British Army personnel of World War I British war artists Camoufleurs English engravers English landscape painters English male painters Machine Gun Corps soldiers People from Kendal Royal Academicians Royal Northumberland Fusiliers soldiers World War II artists 20th-century engravers