William Harold Dudley (1890–1949) was a

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, born in

Bilston Bilston is a market town, ward, and civil parish located in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. It is close to the borders of Sandwell and Walsall. The nearest towns are Darlaston, Wednesbury, and Willenhall. Historically in Staffordshi ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

the Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

. He taught at

Cheltenham College of Art , mottoeng = In Spirit and Truth , established = , type = Public , endowment = £2.4 m (2015) , chancellor = Rennie Fritchie, Baroness Fritchie , vice_chancellor ...

and was Head of Art at

Newport College of Art The University of Wales, Newport ( cy, Prifysgol Cymru, Casnewydd), was a university based in Newport, South Wales, before the merger that formed the University of South Wales in April 2013. The university had two campuses in Newport, Caerleon ...

between 1922 and 1940. 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 ...

Royal West of England Academy The Royal West of England Academy (RWA) is Bristol's oldest art gallery, located in Clifton, Bristol, near the junction of Queens Road and Whiteladies Road. Situated in a Grade 2* listed building, it hosts five galleries and an exhibition program ...

Royal Birmingham Society of Artists The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists or RBSA is an art society, based in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, England, where it owns and operates an art gallery, the RBSA Gallery, on Brook Street, just off St Paul's Square. It is both a re ...

and the

Paris Salon The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

. He painted landscapes which display the effects of light and colour on the landscape, often working out of doors. As well as painting the area close to his home in the West of England, he also produced numerous views of

Polperro Polperro ( kw, Porthpyra, meaning ''Pyra's cove'') is a large village, civil parish, and fishing harbour within the Polperro Heritage Coastline in south Cornwall, England. Its population is around 1,554. Polperro, through which runs the River P ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, which he and his wife visited regularly. In his 50s he developed

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

, which hampered his ability to paint and he died in 1949.

Early life

Dudley was part of a close knit working-class family. His father, Mesach, was an ironworker, employed at Bowen's ironworks in Bilston and his mother, Mary, was a coal-dealer's daughter from

Ettingshall Ettingshall is an area of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England, and is a ward of Wolverhampton City Council. The population of this ward taken at the 2011 census was 13,482. History Historically part of Staffordshire, Ettingshall was mention ...

. He had three sisters Annie (b. 1882), Harriet (b. 1884) and Mary (b. 1894) and an older brother, Thomas (b. 1886) He studied at

Bilston School of Art Bilston School of Art was built in 1897 on Mount Pleasant, Bilston to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. It was designed by town engineer, Captain Wilson, who reputedly based the design very closely on an institution in Glasgow. ...

and later at 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 ...

, London, graduating from there in 1916.

The war years

During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Dudley worked for the Intelligence Corps, drawing maps and he is

mentioned in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

for his bravery crawling through the trenches to deliver maps to the front line. Some works from this period exist, including an etching of a monk and a watercolour of a young boy. At around this time he married Frances Wells, who had been his art teacher. The couple did not have children but they shared a love of art and were both keen travellers.

Teaching career

After the war Dudley taught art in Cheltenham and Newport, South Wales as well as pursuing his painting career. His style was similar to that of the 'plein-air' painters of the

Newlyn School The Newlyn School was an art colony of artists based in or near Newlyn, a fishing village adjacent to Penzance, on the south coast of Cornwall, from the 1880s until the early twentieth century. The establishment of the Newlyn School was reminisc ...

, which included Alexander Stanhope Forbes and his wife Elizabeth Armstrong. After his death in 1949, his wife Frances, bequeathed many of his paintings to Bilston Art Gallery.Wolverhampton Arts and Heritage Service artists files and they are now in the collection of Wolverhampton Arts and Heritage Service.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dudley, William Harold 1890 births 1949 deaths 20th-century English painters English male painters People from Bilston Alumni of the Royal College of Art Military personnel from Wolverhampton English cartographers English landscape artists British Army personnel of World War I Intelligence Corps soldiers 20th-century English male artists 20th-century cartographers