James Philip Sydney Streatfeild (5 November 1879 – 3 June 1915) was an English painter and bohemian descended from the historic
Streatfeild family of
Chiddingstone Castle, Kent.
Streatfeild was born in
Clapham
Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (most notably Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth.
History
Early history ...
, where his father was a bank clerk. His grandfather was the vicar of East Ham, Essex. He studied at art college. A successful artist, he had a studio off the
Kings Road
King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both ...
in London. It has been suggested he received training under
Henry Scott Tuke
Henry Scott Tuke (12 June 1858 – 13 March 1929), was an English visual artist; primarily a painter, but also a photographer. His most notable work was in the Impressionist style, and he is best known for his paintings of nude boys and you ...
. He painted portraits of industrialists, the occasional actress and young children. He was acquainted with London society and was a friend of
Robbie Ross
Robert Baldwin Ross (25 May 18695 October 1918) was a Canadian-British journalist, art critic and art dealer, best known for his relationship with Oscar Wilde, to whom he was a devoted friend and literary executor. A grandson of the Canadian ...
, patron of the arts and a former lover of
Oscar Wilde.
[Day, p. 33]
In 1914, Streatfeild became a mentor to the then-14-year-old actor and later famed author
Noël Coward. Coward's social ascendancy began thanks to Streatfeild who, before his death, asked wealthy socialite Mrs Astley Cooper to take Coward under her wing.
[Evangeline Julia Marshall, an eccentric society hostess (1854–1944), married Clement Paston Astley Cooper, grandson of Sir Astley Paston Cooper. She inherited Hambleton Hall in 1899, and there she entertained rising talents in the artistic world, including Streatfeild, the conductor ]Malcolm Sargent
Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent (29 April 1895 – 3 October 1967) was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works. The musical ensembles with which he was associated include ...
and the writer Charles Scott Moncrieff, as well as the young Coward. See Callow, Simon
"Englishman abroad"
''The Guardian'', 19 April 2006, accessed 8 February 2009
The Peerage, accessed 8 February 2009; an
"History"
Hambleton Hall website, accessed 8 February 2009 Mrs Astley Cooper continued to encourage her late friend's protégé, who remained a frequent guest at her estate,
Hambleton Hall in
Rutland.
[Hoare, pp. 39–43]
Streatfeild enlisted in the army in November 1914 but contracted
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...
and was invalided out in the spring of 1915.
[ He died from the disease in June 1915 at age 35.][
]
See also
* Uranian
Notes
References
*Day, Barry (ed). ''The Letters of Noël Coward'', Methuen, 2007,
*Hoare, Philip
''Noel Coward: A Biography''
University of Chicago Press, 1998.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Streatfeild, Philip
Philip
1879 births
1915 deaths
20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
English portrait painters
20th-century English painters
English male painters
English LGBT painters
British Army personnel of World War I
Tuberculosis deaths in England
Sherwood Foresters officers
20th-century English male artists