Sir William Russell Flint (4 April 1880 – 30 December 1969) was a Scottish artist and illustrator who was known especially for his watercolours of women. He also worked in

oils An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done ...

, and printmaking.

Biography

Flint was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

on 4 April 1880 and was educated at Daniel Stewart's College and then Edinburgh Institution. From 1894 to 1900 Flint was apprenticed as a

lithographic Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

draughtsman while taking classes at the Royal Institute of Art, Edinburgh.Theo Cowdell
"Flint, Sir William Russell"
''Oxford Art Online'' From 1900 to 1902 he worked as a

medical illustrator A medical illustration is a form of biological illustration that helps to record and disseminate medical, anatomical, and related knowledge. History Medical illustrations have been made possibly since the History of medicine, beginning of medicin ...

in London while studying part-time at the

Heatherley School of Fine Art The Heatherley School of Fine Art is an independent art school in London. The school was named after Thomas Heatherley who took over as the school's principal from James Mathews Leigh (when it was named "Leigh's"). Founded in 1845, the schoo ...

. He furthered his art education by studying independently at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. He was an artist for ''

The Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication i ...

'' from 1903 to 1907, and produced illustrations for editions of several books, including H Rider Haggard's ''

King Solomon's Mines ''King Solomon's Mines'' (1885) is a popular novel by the English Victorian adventure writer and fabulist Sir H. Rider Haggard. It tells of a search of an unexplored region of Africa by a group of adventurers led by Allan Quatermain for the ...

'' (1907 edition),

W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most fam ...

's ''Savoy Operas'' (1909), Sir

Thomas Malory Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author of ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', the classic English-language chronicle of the Arthurian legend, compiled and in most cases translated from French sources. The most popular version of ''Le Morte d'Ar ...

's '' Le Morte d'Arthur'' (1910–1911) and

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

's '' The Canterbury Tales'' (1912). Flint was one of the leading illustrators selected by Percy Bradshaw for inclusion in his '' The Art of the Illustrator'' (1917-1918) which presented a separate portfolio for each of twenty illustrators which was accompanied by a plate showing an illustration typical of Flint's work and five other plates showing the work at five earlier stages of its production.. Flint's coloured illustration shows one naked and one half naked young woman picking fruit on a sea shore. Flint was elected president of Britain's Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours (now the

Royal Watercolour Society The Royal Watercolour Society is a British institution of painters working in watercolours. The Society is a centre of excellence for water-based media on paper, which allows for a diverse and interesting range of approaches to the medium of wa ...

) in 1936 to 1956, and knighted in 1947. During visits to Spain, Flint was impressed by Spanish dancers, and he depicted them frequently throughout his career. He enjoyed considerable commercial success but little respect from art critics, who were disturbed by a perceived crassness in his eroticized treatment of the female figure,Postle and Vaughan 1999, p. 76. clearly borrowing inspiration from similar works by

Lawrence Alma-Tadema Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, (; born Lourens Alma Tadema ; 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom becoming the last officially recognised denizen in 1873. Born in Dronryp, the Netherlands, ...

.''Fantasy, Fashion & Affection'' - Jay A. Gertzman Flint was also a published author of short stories. In 1965, a collection of his short stories were published as a limited edition of 500 titled ''Shadows in Arcady''; for which Flint designed the graphical layout and the illustrations. Previously, Flint's story "The Angelus" had been published in The Times newspaper. Flint was active as an artist and a writer until his death in London on 30 December 1969.

Illustrations to ''Savoy Operas''

''Savoy Operas'' is a collection of four opera librettos by

that had been set to music by Arthur Sullivan, originally published 1909.

Princess Ida ''Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant'' is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. ''Princess Ida'' opened at the Savoy Theatre on 5 January 1884, for a ru ...

File:William Russell Flint - W. S. Gilbert - Savoy Operas - Princess Ida 1.jpg, "I can tell a woman's age in half a minute—and I do!" File:William Russell Flint - W. S. Gilbert - Savoy Operas - Princess Ida 2.jpg, "Must we, till then, in prison cell be thrust?" File:William Russell Flint - W. S. Gilbert - Savoy Operas - Princess Ida 3.jpg, Enter Princess, reading. File:William Russell Flint - W. S. Gilbert - Savoy Operas - Princess Ida 4.jpg, Enter the "Daughters of the Plough," bearing Luncheon. File:William Russell Flint - W. S. Gilbert - Savoy Operas - Princess Ida 6.jpg, The Gate yields. Hildebrand and Soldiers rush in. File:William Russell Flint - W. S. Gilbert - Savoy Operas - Princess Ida 7.jpg, "Though I am but a girl, / Defiance thus I hurl." File:William Russell Flint - W. S. Gilbert - Savoy Operas - Princess Ida 8.jpg, "Where are your rifles, pray?"

References

*Postle, Martin, and William Vaughan. 1999. ''The artist's model from Etty to Spencer''. London: Merrell Holberton.

External links

* *
William Russell Flint biography

* ttp://www.visualhaggard.org/illustrators/28 Profile on Visual Haggard* {{DEFAULTSORT:Flint, William Russell 1880 births 1969 deaths 20th-century Scottish painters Alumni of the Heatherley School of Fine Art Artists from Edinburgh Members of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters People educated at Stewart's Melville College Royal Academicians Scottish male painters Scottish watercolourists 20th-century Scottish male artists