Francis Meadow (Frank) Sutcliffe (6 October 1853 – 31 May 1941) was an English pioneering photographic artist whose work presented an enduring record of life in the seaside town of

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Clif ...

, England, and surrounding areas, in the late

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

and early 20th century. His documentation of the Victorian and

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

periods in Whitby, led him to be labelled as the "pictorial Boswell of Whitby.'

Early life

He was born in

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

, to the painter Thomas Sutcliffe and Sarah Lorentia Button. Frank was the eldest of eight children, and as a child, he slept in his father's studio. He had an elementary education at a dame school before moving into the new technology of photography. His father moved the family to Whitby in 1870 with the hope of commissions, but he died a year later when Francis was 18, leaving him as head of the family.

Career

He made a living as a portrait photographer, working first in

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. T ...

, Kent, and then for the rest of his life in

, living in Broomfield Terrace in Whitby before moving to

Sleights Sleights is a village in North Yorkshire, England. Located in the Esk Valley in the postal region of Whitby, the village is part of the civil parish of Eskdaleside cum Ugglebarnby and the borough of Scarborough (borough), Scarborough. Sleights l ...

, Yorkshire. His father had brought him into contact with prominent figures in the world of art such as

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...

, and he resented having to ''prostitute'' his art taking photographs of holiday-makers. His business in ''Skinner Street'', a converted jet grinding and polishing works, rooted him to Whitby and the Eskdale valley but, by photographing the ordinary people that he knew well, he built up a most complete and revealing picture of a late Victorian town, and the people who lived and worked there. His most famous photograph was taken in 1886; '' Water Rats'' caused a little comment at the time as it featured naked children playing in a boat, but the image is not erotic. Sutcliffe was using the conventions of the academic nude to show how photography can approach art. He was, however, excommunicated by his local clergy for displaying it, as they thought it would 'corrupt' the opposite sex.

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

(then the Prince of Wales) later purchased a copy of the picture. He was a prolific writer on photographic subjects, contributed to several periodicals, and wrote a regular column in the ''Yorkshire Weekly Post''. His work is in the collection of the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society and in other national collections. Sutcliffe was a founder member of the Linked Ring Brotherhood (a society that existed to promote photography as an art form), and was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in 1941.

Personal life

He married Eliza Weatherill Duck, the daughter of a local bootmaker, on 1 January 1875 and had a son and three daughters at his home in

. He died in Sleights, aged 87, on 31 May 1941 and was buried in Aislaby churchyard.

Gallery

File:Sutcliff27.jpg, ''Portrait of Polly Swallow'', 1889 File:Sutcliffe21.jpg, Girl on the shore, 1889 File:Sutcliffe, Frank Meadow (5226243308).jpg, ''Three happy boys'', 1889 File:Sutcliff30.jpg, ''Fisher girl'', 1890 File:Sutcliffe10.jpg, ''Whitby'', 1890 File:Francis Sutcliffe - Three Naked Boys Around a Coble.jpg, ''Three Naked Boys Around a Coble'', 1880s File:Sutcliff36.jpg, ''Whitby winter'' File:Sutcliffe14.jpg, ''Whitby'', 1890 File:Sutcliff41.jpg, ''Farmers Whitby / Dinner Time'', c. 1889-91 File:Sutcliffe11.jpg, ''Whitby'', 1890 File:Sutcliff38.jpg, ''Farmer people Whitby'' File:Waterrats by Francis Sutcliffe 2.jpg, ''Waterrats'', (''Sea Urchins''), 1886 File:Sutcliff24.jpg, ''Women'', c.1890 File:Sutcliff23.jpg, ''Women'', c.1890 File:Sutcliff35.jpg, Fisher people, c. 1898

References

Sources

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External links

Sutcliffe GalleryNational Museum of Photography, Film & Television gallery of his works
300+ photographs {{DEFAULTSORT:Sutcliffe, Francis Fine art photographers British portrait photographers 1863 births 1941 deaths People from Headingley People from Sleights People excommunicated by the Church of England 19th-century English photographers Photographers from Yorkshire