The Idyllists

The following is a transcript of an article by Gilbert Dalziel that appeared in the The Publishers’ Circular and Booksellers’ Record on 10/1/1925. “As a painter in watercolours, North’s sense of colour was simply superb. He saw in Nature hues and effects which to an ordinary pair of eyes would be unobservable; and that he … Continue reading →

 A fragment of surviving correspondence between the artist J W North ARA and C Churchill Osbourne of 6 De Vaux Place Salisbury. Osborne was briefly editor of the Salisbury Journal. The correspondence concerns the Wiltshire writer Richard Jefferies, arrangements for the financial relief of his widow and children and the adminstration of various funds raised … Continue reading →

Based on a talk given to the Richard Jefferies Society in Swindon, Wiltshire :December 2003 Most readers of Richard Jefferies will know something of his friendship with the artist John William North from the references in Walter Besant’s ‘Eulogy’ published in 1888. John North was born in Fulham on New Year’s Day 1842, second son … Continue reading →

J.W.NORTH, A.R.A., R.W.S., PAINTER AND POET. BY PROFESSOR HUBERT HERKOMER, R.A., M.A. A Lecture delivered in Oxford, 1892 ONE of the most truly original painters of our times is Mr. J. W. North. Of this originality he himself is not aware, and was once greatly astonished to read in a criticism on his work that … Continue reading →

By R M Billingham The Somerset countryside has always been a landscape artist’s paradise but it was unknown to many of the greatest painters of the nineteenth century, and was never immortalised by a major artist such as Constable whose inspiration was the Suffolk countryside. But in 1860 one young illustrator penetrated the rural depths … Continue reading →