Philip Connard, R.A., R.W.S.
Richmond Bridge
Oil on canvas
Unframed: 42 x 62 cm.; 16½ x 20½ in.
Framed: 62 x 82 cm.; 20½ x 32¼ in.
Framed: 62 x 82 cm.; 20½ x 32¼ in.
Signed lower left: Philip Connard
WB1316
Copyright The Artist
£ 6,500.00
Philip Connard, R.A., was born in Southport, Lancashire to a family of modest means. He received a basic education before joining the building trade as a housepainter. As a result...
Philip Connard, R.A., was born in Southport, Lancashire to a family of modest means. He received a basic education before joining the building trade as a housepainter. As a result of his employment, Connard quickly realised he possessed a dextrous hand, affirming the artistic inclination he had thought he held for much of his life. This natural ability was confirmed as he began attending evening art classes, excelling to such an extent that he was awarded a National Scholarship in 1886 to attend the Royal College of Art in South Kensington. A further award of the British Institute travelling scholarship allowed him to travel to Paris in 1898. He enrolled at the Académie Julian, a private art school which at this time had distinctly international outlook, featuring students of more than fifty nationalities.
Like earlier British painters such as Walter Sickert and Wilson Steer, Connard’s time in the French capital shaped his artistic practice. He found himself enthralled with Impressionist painting, particularly its practice of en plein air, and which became a defining characteristic of his work, exemplified in the present painting.
With free and light dappled brushwork, Connard offers an atmospheric scene at Richmond Bridge, utilising a modest colour palette with soft inflections of colour in the sky and water. Figures are seen along the river bank in various activities while two swans grace the foreground, creating a highly atmospheric work.
Connard was elected to the Royal Academy in 1925, becoming Keeper of the Royal Academy school and principal tutor from 1945 to 1949. Outside of his landscapes for which he is best known, he was given a number of important decorative commissions: murals at Windsor Castle; two panels for a ballroom in New Delhi; and a large panel on the subject of England for the Cunard liner, RMS Queen Mary. His work can be found in the Tate Gallery, London; the Musée d’Orsay, Paris; the National Gallery of Australia, the Royal Academy, London, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the National Museum of Wales and the Imperial War Museum (having served in the army and subsequently as an Official War Artist).
Like earlier British painters such as Walter Sickert and Wilson Steer, Connard’s time in the French capital shaped his artistic practice. He found himself enthralled with Impressionist painting, particularly its practice of en plein air, and which became a defining characteristic of his work, exemplified in the present painting.
With free and light dappled brushwork, Connard offers an atmospheric scene at Richmond Bridge, utilising a modest colour palette with soft inflections of colour in the sky and water. Figures are seen along the river bank in various activities while two swans grace the foreground, creating a highly atmospheric work.
Connard was elected to the Royal Academy in 1925, becoming Keeper of the Royal Academy school and principal tutor from 1945 to 1949. Outside of his landscapes for which he is best known, he was given a number of important decorative commissions: murals at Windsor Castle; two panels for a ballroom in New Delhi; and a large panel on the subject of England for the Cunard liner, RMS Queen Mary. His work can be found in the Tate Gallery, London; the Musée d’Orsay, Paris; the National Gallery of Australia, the Royal Academy, London, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the National Museum of Wales and the Imperial War Museum (having served in the army and subsequently as an Official War Artist).
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