Philip Wilson Steer (28 December 1860 – 18 March 1942) was a British painter of landscapes, seascapes plus portraits and figure studies. He was also an influential art teacher. His sea and landscape paintings made him a leading figure in the Impressionist movement in Britain but in time he turned to a more traditional English style, clearly influenced by both

John Constable John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...

and

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 ...

, and spent more time painting in the countryside rather than on the coast. As a painting tutor 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 ...

for many years he influenced generations of young artists.

Life and work

Steer was born in Birkenhead,

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, the son of a portrait painter and art teacher, Philip Steer (1810–1871) and his wife, Emma Harrison (1816–1898). When Steer was three years old the family moved to Whitchurch near

Monmouth Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. I ...

from where, after a period of home schooling, he attended the Hereford Cathedral School. After finding the examinations of the British Civil Service too demanding, he became an artist in 1878. He studied at the Gloucester School of Art and then from 1880 to 1881 at the South Kensington Drawing Schools. He was rejected by the Royal Academy of Art, and so studied in Paris between 1882 and 1884, firstly at the

Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number a ...

, and then in the École des Beaux Arts under Alexandre Cabanel, where he became a follower of the

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

school. In Paris he was greatly influenced by seeing works by Édouard Manet and

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 ...

and the French

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

s. When he returned to England, Steer established a studio in London and began to develop an impressionist style in which he depicted beach scenes and seascapes in a silvery translucent light. His painting of ''Poole Harbour'', completed in 1890, is an example of the outstanding atmospheric effects he was able to capture. Steer often stayed at the

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

coastal town of

Walberswick Walberswick is a village and civil parish on the Suffolk coast in England. It is at the mouth of the River Blyth on the south side of the river. The town of Southwold lies to the north of the river and is the nearest town to Walberswick, around ...

and the works he painted there are remarkable for their freshness and depiction of light and shade. Works such as ''The Bridge'', ''The Beach at Walberswick'' (1890) and ''Girls Running: Walberswick Pier'' (1894) show Steer at the peak of his abilities. His misty Impressionist style is striking in such paintings as ''The Beach'' and ''Fisher Children''. Steer also painted scenes at nearby Southwold. Between 1883 and 1885 Steer exhibited at the Royal Academy and in 1886 he became a founder of the New English Art Club, with whom he continued to exhibit regularly. With Walter Sickert he became a leading British Impressionist, showing works at the London Impressionist exhibition held at the Goupil Gallery in 1889. Besides the French Impressionists he was influenced by Whistler and, later, such old masters as

François Boucher François Boucher ( , ; ; 29 September 1703 – 30 May 1770) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who worked in the Rococo style. Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories ...

, Thomas Gainsborough,

and

. Steer was frequently criticised by conservative British critics for his impressionist works such as ''Boulogne Sands'', so much so that for a period he stopped showing his more adventurous works. In the 1890s as he moved away from French Impressionism, Steer's work received greater appreciation. Portraits, such as ''Girl Reading A Book'' from 1895, a portrait of Rose Pettigrew, his model and girlfriend, and ''Portrait of Mrs Raynes'' (1922) were well received. In 1887 Steer spent some time at the Etaples art colony. In the early 1890s he began to paint more in watercolours than he had previously. Between 1893 and 1911 he visited several sites associated with the 18th century picturesque tour. In 1893 Frederick Brown, the newly appointed Slade Professor of Art, appointed Steer as Professor of Painting at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Steer would teach there, alongside Brown,

Henry Tonks Henry Tonks, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, FRCS (9 April 1862 – 8 January 1937) was a British surgeon and later draughtsman and painter of figure subjects, chiefly interiors, and a Caricature, caricaturist. He became an influentia ...

and

Walter Russell Walter Bowman Russell (May 19, 1871 – May 19, 1963) was an impressionist American painter (of the Boston School), sculptor, autodidact and author. His lectures and writing place him firmly in the New Thought Movement. Russell wrote extensivel ...

until 1930. This group would continue the Slade tradition of realism in painting and drawing and would influence generations of young artists including Augustus John, William Orpen,

Stanley Spencer Sir Stanley Spencer, CBE RA (30 June 1891 – 14 December 1959) was an English painter. Shortly after leaving the Slade School of Art, Spencer became well known for his paintings depicting Biblical scenes occurring as if in Cookham, the small ...

, Paul Nash and Anna Airy. Based in Chelsea, in the summers he painted in Yorkshire, the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jur ...

and the West Country and on the south and east coasts of Britain. During World War I Steer was recruited by

Lord Beaverbrook William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964), generally known as Lord Beaverbrook, was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics o ...

, the chairman of the British War Memorials Committee, to paint pictures of the Royal Navy and he spent some time painting naval formations at Dover. In 1927 Steer began to lose the sight in one eye but he continued to paint, although mostly in watercolours rather than in oils, and his compositions became much looser, at times almost abstract but by 1940 he had stopped painting. In 1931 he was awarded the

Order of Merit The Order of Merit (french: link=no, Ordre du Mérite) is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by K ...

and died in London, 18 March 1942. His self-portrait is in the collection in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Steer never married and throughout his life was a hypochondriac but was also benign, modest, amusing and held in great regard by those who knew him.

References

Note

''Note: Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition of 1911 incorrectly refers to Philip Wilson Steer as Paul Wilson Steer.''

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Steer, Philip Wilson 1860 births 1942 deaths 19th-century English painters 20th-century English painters Academics of the Slade School of Fine Art British alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts British Impressionist painters English male painters Members of the Order of Merit People educated at Hereford Cathedral School People from Birkenhead People from Walberswick 20th-century English male artists 19th-century English male artists

Life and work

References

Note

Further reading

External links