Walter Greaves (4 July 1846 – 28 November 1930) was a British painter,

etcher Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

and topographical draftsman.

Biography

The son of Charles William Greaves, a

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

boat builder and waterman, and his wife, Elizabeth Greenway, Greaves was born in 1846 at 31

Cheyne Walk Cheyne Walk is an historic road in Chelsea, London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It runs parallel with the River Thames. Before the construction of Chelsea Embankment reduced the width of the Thames here, it fronted ...

, Chelsea, London.Tom Pocock, ‘Greaves, Walter (1846–1930)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 16 Oct 2009
/ref> His father had been

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulen ...

's boatman. Greaves and one of his brothers, Henry Greaves (1844–1904), met

James McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

in 1863, introducing him to the sights of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

, and becoming his studio assistants, pupils and close friends for over 20 years.Greaves biography on Answers.com
/ref> The American painter later used these Thames expeditions for inspiration when painting his ‘nocturne’ views of the river at night. "He taught us to paint", Walter Greaves said, "and we taught him the waterman's jerk". Walter Greaves had initially trained as a shipwright and boatman. The most famous of Greaves' paintings is ''

Hammersmith Bridge Hammersmith Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the River Thames in west London. It links the southern part of Hammersmith in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, on the north side of the river, and Barnes in the London Borough ...

on Boat-Race Day'', a naïve masterpiece which he claimed to have painted when he was aged sixteen in 1862; however, since he was unreliable over dates, its history has never been settled. The Greaves brothers accompanied Whistler to life class and Walter Greaves attempted to paint portraits, some of his most successful being of their neighbour

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...

, whom Whistler also painted. Greaves also drew and painted Whistler, sometimes in

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...

, in Chelsea settings and in characteristic moods. In 1876 the Greaves brothers helped Whistler decorate ''

The Peacock Room ''Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room'' (better known as ''The Peacock Room'') is a masterpiece of interior decorative art created by James McNeill Whistler and Thomas Jeckyll, translocated to the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. ...

'' (now in the

Freer Gallery of Art The Freer Gallery of Art is an art museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. focusing on Asian art. The Freer and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery together form the National Museum of Asian Art in the United States. The Freer and Sac ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

), for the shipowner

Frederick Leyland Frederick Richards Leyland (30 September 1831 – 4 January 1892) was one of the largest British shipowners, running 25 steamships in the transatlantic trade. He was also a major art collector, who commissioned works from several of the Pre-Rap ...

. During the late 1870s Whistler began to gather a more sophisticated group of friends about himself, including

Walter Sickert Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...

and

Mortimer Menpes Mortimer Luddington Menpes (22 February 1855 – 1 April 1938) was an Australian-born British painter, author, printmaker and illustrator. Life Menpes was born in Port Adelaide, South Australia, the second son of property developer James ...

. Excluded from this distinguished circle, Greaves suffered years of neglect, misfortune and poverty before his discovery by William Marchant, proprietor of the Goupil Galleries, who exhibited Greaves's work in his London gallery in 1911.Greaves
in ''

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'' May 7, 1911 Greaves's new-found glory was short-lived, however: three weeks after the exhibition opened, Whistler's self-appointed biographers,

Joseph Pennell Joseph Pennell (July 4, 1857 – April 23, 1926) was an American draftsman, etcher, lithographer and illustrator for books and magazines. A prolific artist, he spent most of his working life in Europe, and is known for his interest in landmarks, l ...

and Elizabeth Pennell, damaged Greaves's reputation by claiming that he had plagiarized Whistler's work. In May 1911, Greaves sold eight letters from Whistler to his father and himself at auction. Another exhibition of his work was held in 1922 at the

Grosvenor Gallery The Grosvenor Gallery was an art gallery in London founded in 1877 by Sir Coutts Lindsay and his wife Blanche. Its first directors were J. Comyns Carr and Charles Hallé. The gallery proved crucial to the Aesthetic Movement because it provided ...

arranged by

Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...

, William Nicholson and

William Rothenstein Sir William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945) was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Emerging during the early 1890s, Rothenstein continued to make art right up until his death. Though he c ...

. He was elected an honorary member of the

Chelsea Arts Club The Chelsea Arts Club is a private members' club at 143 Old Church Street in Chelsea, London with a membership of over 3,800, including artists, sculptors, architects, writers, designers, actors, musicians, photographers, and filmmakers. The club ...

. Despite the support of a few fellow painters, including Sickert, Greaves again fell into obscurity and spent his last eight years as a Poor Brother of the

London Charterhouse The London Charterhouse is a historic complex of buildings in Farringdon, London, dating back to the 14th century. It occupies land to the north of Charterhouse Square, and lies within the London Borough of Islington. It was originally built ( ...

. Greaves died, unmarried, of pneumonia in the West London Hospital,

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

, on 23 November 1930. He was buried in the Charterhouse graveyard at

Little Hallingbury __NOTOC__ Little Hallingbury is a small village and a civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England. Geography Little Hallingbury parish is on a high rise of ground and contains the small settlements of Gaston Green, Wright's Green ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. The

Tate Gallery 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 ...

holds examples of his work, including two self-portraits. The Parkin Gallery held exhibitions of his work in 1980 and 1984. His former home at 104

in Chelsea, where he lived from 1855 to 1897, has a commemorative

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

.104 Cheyne Walk on the UK Attraction website
/ref>

Gallery

Image:Greaves Old Battersea Bridge 1874.jpg, ''Old

Battersea Bridge Battersea Bridge is a five-span arch bridge with cast iron, cast-iron girders and granite pier (architecture), piers crossing the River Thames in London, England. It is situated on a sharp bend in the river, and links Battersea south of the riv ...

'' (1874) by Greaves Image:Walter Greaves 001.jpg, ''Hammersmith Bridge on Boat-Race Day'' (1862) by Greaves Image:James Abbott McNeill Whistler by Walter Greaves.jpg, Whistler by Greaves Image:greaves-belloc-plaque.jpg,

Blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

s to Walter Greaves and

Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (, ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a Franco-English writer and historian of the early twentieth century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. H ...

in Chelsea

References

External links

*
Greaves on Artcyclopedia.comGreaves
on 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 ...

Collection website
Greaves on Artnet.com
on the

Museum of London The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall, London, Gui ...

website
Portraits by Greaves
in the National Portrait Gallery
Biography of Greaves
on the

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Greaves (artist), Walter 1846 births 1930 deaths 19th-century English painters English male painters 20th-century English painters English etchers Landscape artists 20th-century British printmakers 20th-century English male artists 19th-century English male artists