Thomas Keyse (1722–1800) was an English still-life painter, and the proprietor of Bermondsey Spa. Thomas Keyse Chapman

Life

A self-taught artist, Keyse was a member of the

Free Society of Artists The Society of Artists of Great Britain was founded in London in May 1761 by an association of artists in order to provide a venue for the public exhibition of recent work by living artists, such as was having success in the long-established ...

, and exhibited with them from 1761 to 1764; he painted

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

, flowers or fruit. From 1765 to 1768 he was an occasional exhibitor at the Society of Artists, and twice sent pictures to 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 ...

. In 1768 he obtained a premium from the

Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

for a new method of setting crayon drawings. About 1770 Keyse opened a tea-garden in

Bermondsey Bermondsey () is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham, a ...

, then a suburb of London, where a chalybeate spring had been found, and which became known as the Bermondsey Spa. Here, with other attractions, Keyse kept a permanent exhibition of his own drawings. Obtaining a music license, he made the gardens an imitation of the

Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens Vauxhall Gardens is a public park in Kennington in the London Borough of Lambeth, England, on the south bank of the River Thames. Originally known as New Spring Gardens, it is believed to have opened before the Restoration of 1660, being m ...

, open in the evening during the summer months, and provided fireworks, including a set-piece of the

siege of Gibraltar There have been fourteen recorded sieges of Gibraltar. Although the peninsula of Gibraltar is only long and wide, it occupies an extremely strategic location on the southern Iberian coast at the western entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. It ...

, constructed and designed by Keyse himself. Keyse died at his gardens 8 February 1800, in his seventy-ninth year. The gardens remained open for about five years longer, and gave their name to Spa Road in Bermondsey.

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Keyse, Thomas 1722 births 1800 deaths 18th-century English painters English male painters British still life painters 18th-century English businesspeople 18th-century English male artists

Life

See also

Notes