Completed Portraits: British 20th C, South East England: Artists and Subjects 37 Do you recognise the sitter or artist of this portrait at the University of Reading?

BBO_UOR_152
Topic: Subject or sitter

The collection does not have any additional information about the sitter, and the artist is also unidentified. Suggestions are welcome.

Completed, Outcome

Edward Stone,

The sitter of this portrait has been identified as Allen William Seaby (1867–1953), Professor of Fine Art at the University of Reading. The artist has been found to be Harold James Yates (1878–before 1963), who painted the work in 1928. The painting record has been updated accordingly and these amendments will appear on Art UK in due course.

Thank you to all for participating in this discussion. To those viewing this discussion for the first time, please see below for all comments that led to this conclusion.

36 comments

Osmund Bullock,

The usual questions: (1) Are there any clues whatsoever on the back? And (2) would it be possible to see a higher-res version and/or to get a close-up digital snap in bright light of the bottom right of the canvas - I would expect a signature on a portrait of this vintage, and I think there may be something there (though these things often turn out to be 'ghosts'). See attached image with tweaked brightness/contrast.

Barbara Bryant,

Oliver, your suggestion seems plausible and worth testing. The Reading Museum held an exhibition of Seaby's work in 2014-5. Michael Andrews gave a talk on the artist and his life and produced a book along with Robert Gilmour, a descendant of Seaby. Perhaps worth contacting them via the Museum.

The resemblance is striking, and supported by other photos of the artist, e.g. http://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/news/2015/oct/reading-museum-celebrates-poetry/?pg=3. The University's own website has an image of Seaby teaching: http://www.reading.ac.uk/web/files/special-collections/featureorlando.pdf.

It is so sad when a portrait of such a significant figure in the history of printmaking has lost its identification in his own institution. Martin Andrews and Robert Gillmor may know of documentation at Reading that would identify the portraitist - perhaps someone working at Reading c.1950?

Osmund Bullock,

Yes, well done, Oliver - he looks extremely likely to be our man, and Andrew's ballpark date seems right.

Andrew, you are also clearly right that those two are the ones to ask, as co-authors of a book on Seaby's life and work: http://amzn.to/2muBHtq . As well as confirming the sitter's identity, one or other may well know of the portrait or at least of a likely artist. Contacting his grandson Robert Gillmor may perhaps be more roundabout, but Martin's direct (U. of Reading) email address is easily found on the internet - beware, though, there is another Martin Andrews at the Uni. Will you contact him?

Malcolm Fowles,

I went to that exhibition in Reading Museum. It was a joy. I bought the book. Inside the front cover is a pencil portrait of the artist by Cyril Pearce, "an excellent likeness" , according to the authors, dated 1924 . This is unmistakeably him.

There are several other portraits and photographs of him as a younger man, but crucially for dating there is a profile of him at his workbench, dated "c. 1940s". There he is very white haired, certainly older than the portrait under discussion. The closest, I'd say, is a group photograph surrounded by students and staff in 1933, the year of his retirement. Perhaps ours is a retirement portrait.

Thank you for spurring me to get the book out again! Seaby in my opinion must be the towering figure in woodcuts in this country. I hope Reading University and Museum have collections to load onto Art UK now they are taking works on paper, and will do so soon.

Malcolm Fowles,

The sitter wears an academic gown. Do, or rather did, emeritus professors still wear it? If not, 1933 is the latest painting date.

The sitter is certainly older than in Pearce's 1924 portrait, and probably also older than in the photograph at Oliver's orginal link. (IMO, do you agree?) This photo comes from Robert Gillmore's family collection, and in the book is dated "c. 1930".

This gives us quite a narrow time window in which to look for portraitists who might be likely to be commissioned by the University of Reading.

However, Seaby was the revered head of the University's Department of Fine Art. So there's a distinct possibility that the artist was a colleague or a student, not otherwise known as a portraitist.

Malcolm Fowles,

Following up, I've browsed the other works at Reading Uni. There are two more "Portrait of a Man" by Unknown Artist.

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/portrait-of-a-man-26717 is damaged, but beneath does not share the same brushwork as ours.

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/portrait-of-a-man-26749 similarly does not share the brushwork, and is quite striking in its representation of form aroung the head.

The whole collection has a number of works that appear to come from students, including a copy of the Van Gogh night cafe terrasse (my favourite painting!) and a head study of another portrait in the collection. It produces an eclectic range of styles.

Not to be ruled out immediately, of course, is a self-portrait. It seems uncharacteristic of the man at this stage of his career, but there is broad brushwork in his works on Art UK, and in the Gillmor family's oil portrait of Great Aunt Annie, c. 1900.

Malcolm Fowles,

I have emailed Emily Gillmor, Robert's daughter and also a fine printmaker, telling her of this discovery, which will be of great interest to her family, and asked whether anyone might be able to shed more light on the painter.

Malcolm Fowles,

Emily replies:

"It certainly is my Great Grandfather A.W.Seaby. I'm very surprised the university needed help identifying him!

I shall forward your email to my parents. My father is extremely knowledgeable about his Grandfather and will no doubt be able to give you plenty of information.

Just to clarify - the portrait is in the University collection? Interestingly, I am now based as Printmaker in Residence the same building that was built for the first art department where Seaby became Professor of Fine Art and where my father studied Fine Art in the 1950s!"

Would the collection please identify themselves to Emily and tell her where she can see the portrait? She may even have the right id badge! Or indeed give me a name here so that I can pass it to her.

Malcolm Fowles,

"... All this means is that the portrait is somewhere in the University’s care. I would not put it past them to have it in someone’s office in your building, someone who knows nothing of the history!

Art Detectives is fun, but I’ve never known anything remotely as emotionally satisfying as this one."

We have spoken to Emily Gillmor about this painting today and are delighted that she has been able to confirm the sitter is her great grandfather Allen W. Seaby.

Additionally having managed a trip up to see the artwork to get a closer look has resulted in the discovery of a date and signature. We can now say that the painting is by Harold J Yates and dates to 1928.

Malcolm Fowles,

Oliver, yet another spot-on lead. Logician, intuitive, or diviner; which is it? Anyway, great stuff. This has been a good day.

Osmund Bullock,

I’m having trouble trying to pin down the identity of the artist, Harold J Yates, at least as far as basic biographical detail is concerned. However, I have been able to establish that he was on the staff at University College Reading School of Art (as a fine art lecturer) from at least 1922 until at least 1940.

As he’s a former staff member now certainly deceased, could we ask the Collection if they can tell us anything more about him – in particular his middle name and his year of birth? Any other information would also be welcome.

The matter is complicated by the existence of another, slightly later but overlapping artist called Harold W Yates (1916-2001). Their identities have been thoroughly mixed up in recent years – by ArtUK as well as many others – and it will be a service to both artists if we can separate them clearly now.

Osmund Bullock,

The “other” man, Harold Wilfred Yates, is the better known artist, but is himself a confusing figure as his style changed dramatically over the years – born at West Ham in June 1916, he started out as a figurative commercial artist, returning to it during and after WWII (when he served with the Duke of Cornwall’s L.I.). But in the late 1930s and beyond he received some renown as an edgy young modernist, experimenting with everything from geometric abstraction to more organic surrealist symbolism. Later still he seems to have produced some conventional landscapes in watercolour. He was married to the artist Constance Stubbs (b.1927), and died at Bury St Edmunds in Dec 2001. Some of his often entertaining watercolours of army life are held by the National Army & Imperial War Museums: http://bit.ly/2nqX0k5 & http://bit.ly/2nU9YTT . They also appear regularly on the art market, as do some of his more esoteric works of the 30s & 40s. See http://bit.ly/2mGw9vO , http://bit.ly/2nciZuu , http://bit.ly/2nI8NHZ , http://bit.ly/2mYQbU9 . He generally signed with a simple ‘Yates’ in a cursive hand, followed by a date.

Osmund Bullock,

Now to our artist, Harold J** Yates. Reading Museum has two paintings by him, one a local view, the other of Barnard Castle: http://bit.ly/2mL5yyu . These are, prima facie, the only two works of his on ArtUK, though in fact there is a third one wrongly attributed to Harold (Wilfred) Yates, which I will come to in a minute.

The Barnard Castle work is mentioned in this book http://bit.ly/2n5shIs - the snippet view tells us HJY was “a lecturer [at the University] in the 1930s”. An advertisement for University College Reading School of Art in ‘Studio International’ http://bit.ly/2mL9ob1 lists him as on the staff under Allen Seaby as early as 1922, and he was apparently still there in 1940: http://bit.ly/2mjpJYh (p.6). He also exhibited at the first exhibition of the Reading Guild of Artists in 1930, and was likely a member: http://bit.ly/2mjyul2 . Three more local views by him, watercolours, came up at auction in 2013 http://bit.ly/2mGAuiK , and there was also this wonderful oil of a Corsican landscape in 2008: http://bit.ly/2n5iuSG . Although signed and correctly catalogued as ‘Harold J Yates’, this painting is already to be found on the internet attributed to the wrong artist. All the other works of his I can find are also landscapes – his portrait of Seaby was perhaps a one-off.

The catalogue entry for the Corsican view gives active dates of “c.1927-c.1951”; Johnson & Greutzner (who only cover up to 1940) note exhibiting at the RA [1], RBA [2], RI [5] & ROI [4] from 1927-40, and give an address at St Michael’s, Shinfield, Reading – and an ‘H J Yates’ is indeed listed there in telephone directories of 1938 & 1941, after which he disappears. ArtUK, however, gives active dates of 1912-1954 – I’m not suggesting it’s wrong, but I’d love to know the source as I’m unable to find it mentioned anywhere else.

The misattributed work on ArtUK is this view of Bath at the Victoria Art Gallery: http://bit.ly/2mLtQs6 . As the attached 1937 article from the Bath Chronicle clearly confirms, the Bath work is by Harold J Yates of Reading, not Harold (W) Yates (1916-2001) – it specifically mentions a view of the City from Beechen Cliff, and there is further useful information on HJY besides. Interestingly the ArtUK image is marked “© the Artist’s Estate”, which presumably can only be that of Harold Wilfred Yates...surprising, really, since he didn’t paint it!

Also mentioned in the piece are “Cornwall land and seascapes”, which links us neatly to this work by him, signed and dated 1936: http://bit.ly/2mGMEYH ; another (unillustrated) work, accompanied by a 1921 letter from the artist, passed through the same Exeter auction room five years earlier: http://bit.ly/2mGIqAg . The location of both auctions in Devon, along with the Cornish works, may or may not indicate some connection with the West Country.

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Malcolm Fowles,

The painting is dated 1928. Only HJY fits.

I met Emily Gillmor at an exhibition yesterday. I believe she said her father knows the painting was by Yates. Yates and Seaby would have been relatively close colleagues, as suggested above.

Osmund Bullock,

Sorry, Malcolm, I haven't made myself clear. Yes, it's obvious that it's by Harold J Yates of University College Reading School of Art, not the 12 year-old Harold Wilfred Yates (d.2001) - but who exactly was Harold J Yates?

As things stand there is much confusion between the two similarly-named artists. In order to separate them clearly for posterity we need (at the least) middle names and dates of birth and death. A little digging has ascertained all of those for HWY...but despite a lot of work over the weekend I cannot determine any of them for HJY.

Malcolm Fowles,

I will ask my contacts in Reading University. He would have been of more than just administrative interest to them.

Malcolm Fowles,

Browsing Reading Uni's Special Collections, I've just found another oil painting by Harold Yates at http://www.reading.ac.uk/adlib/Details/collect/20038. Not recorded on Art UK. It represents a farm, and once resided at the National Institute for Research in Dairying, which might explain why it was overlooked.

Malcolm Fowles,

Given the 1922 date above, he may be the Harold James Yates who was living SW of Reading in Finchampstead, Wokingham in the 1911 census.

If so, he was originally from SE London, had married a Mary Louisa in Hartley Wintney (S of Reading) a couple of years earlier, and was about 32 years old. He’d have been about 49 when he painted the Seaby portrait in 1928, and 61 in 1940 (which fits roughly with his last association with the University).

He may be the HJY whose death was registered in Maidenhead in 1962.

Osmund Bullock,

The NIRD farm painting is a good find - in the same collection Reading Uni also have an associated watercolour by him. And I will much look forward to any info your contacts there can dig out - thank you.

Harold James Yates of Finchampstead is certainly the most geographically suitable candidate I could see. But despite a long search I could find nothing at all to suggest he was or might become either an artist or a teacher. Born at Plumstead in early 1879/v late '78 (birth reg 1879Q1), the son of a timber merchant, in 1901 he was (like his two brothers) a timber merchant's clerk living at home in Frimley, Surrey. In June 1909 he married at Farnborough (where he was living) Mary Louisa Adams, his profession given as 'clerk'; and then as you'll have seen in 1911 he is still in the timber business, as a commercial traveller.

Could it be him? Well it's always possible, I suppose, that in his thirties he radically changed direction...but I wish I could find some trace of a connection somewhere. The only possible positive point is that the cousin living with him in 1911, Ernest Arthur Brooks, was a 'woodcarver', which might hint at something artistic. And certainly no-one else presents themselves as a more likely candidate - I have explored in depth many other Harold Yates's (both with middle initial 'J' and without), but all failed to reach the finishing line.

Most frustrating of all is that although we have the same Shinfield address for our artist in both 1938 & 1941, I have been unable to find him in Findmypast's 1939 Register. Nor can I find Harold James Yates (whether he is our man or not) - and that's anywhere in the country, not just in the vicinity. I am mystified. Perhaps he/they dropped the 'Harold' and used their middle name(s), or at least swapped them round.

Osmund Bullock,

It is him! Your post jogged me into a revisit, for which many thanks, and I had another go at the 1939 Register. Finally found Harold J and Mary L Yates at Shenfield in the index, and £6.95 later I have the details and image (attached). The problem when I tried before is that (a) the transcriber couldn't read his first name at all on the form, and indexed it as '???', and (b) Shenfield was mis-transcribed as 'Sherfield'. I belatedly realised it was worth trying Mary's name and leaving the place off - and up it came. Not easy to read, but it says:
"St Michael - Yates Harold J - M[ale] - Dec 16 1878 - M[arried] - Artist..University [?Lecturer]". The bit on the right reads "ARP University" - i.e. he was an air raid warden.

So we now have two of the three details - Harold James Yates, born Plumstead (Greenwich) 16/12/1878. Not sure that the 1962 'Harold Yates' death you found is him, though it might be - but perhaps more likely to be the 'Harold J Yates' who died at Poole 1959 Q3 aged 80. I'll explain more later.

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Malcolm Fowles,

Well done Osmund.

The Yates are entry 320 in your 1939 register image. Have you noticed who is at 318? Allen W and Ada Seaby. I imagine they were more than colleagues; rather, neighbours and - barring fallings out - close friends. No wonder Robert Gillmor remembers Yates as having done a portrait.

The place in Wokingham District is actually Shinfield; the university campus is on Shinfield Road. Then it would have been a nice little village, very popular with better off university people. 319 is the Chaplain to the Mayor. 321 is the Professor of Agriculture. Get the picture?

Reading was a (the) major agricultural university. Shinfield was the location of its farm, and the farm's old barn is the subject of the painting I located yesterday.

Malcolm Fowles,

Having discovered this, I suggest that it is worth the collection's time to revisit its other two anonymous works titled "Portrait of a Man". Emily Gillmor told me (along the lines of) Special Collections reckon they'd have quickly spotted Seaby if they'd had time to think during the original digitisation effort. The same may apply elsewhere.

I'd bet on University eminences. The stylistic differences suggest not Yates, but who knows how many styles he was capable of and migrated through, as a Fine Art teacher, and how many neighbours said "would you do one for me, but more like X?"

Osmund Bullock,

Hah! No, I hadn't noticed the Seabys - well spotted! And yes, sorry, Shinfield of course - I finally cracked it at, um, 6 o'clock this morning after an all-night session, and I'm afraid by then my brain was doing some very odd things indeed. Utter madness.

Malcolm Fowles,

Before the university goes off in a huff, Reading IS THE major agricultural university (students come from all over the world) and Shinfield STILL IS one of its three farms.

The sitter of this portrait has been identified as Professor Allen William Seaby (1867-1953). The date of the work is likely to be circa 1930-33. The input received on this discussion has been exceptionally good, from a number of valued contributors, all of which has been much appreciated. My recommendation is that the discussion may now be closed on the basis outlined above.

Edward Stone,

The collection has been contacted about this recommendation.

Osmund Bullock,

Edward & Grant, could we delay closure for a few days, please? I've been rather out of commission (and also away) recently, and unable to do much detailed work.

I have unearthed a fair bit more about our artist Harold James Yates that I think is worth sharing, including his date of death - you were right, Malcolm, he *is* the Harold Yates who died in April 1962 at a Maidenhead nursing home. I was put off the idea (a) because the age in the index is wrong (he was 83, not 88 - ?a misreading); and (b) because HJY did indeed (as I surmised above) move from Shinfield to the West Country after retiring - and though Maidenhead is a plausible area if he moved back again later, the probate calendar record for the Harold Yates (no middle initial) who died there says he actually lived in Wraysbury, Bucks. So for a while the 'Harold J Yates' of exactly the right age who died at Poole in 1959 (and lived in Paignton) seemed a better bet - but, as it turned out, the wrong one!

Assuming the thread stays open, I will write up everything I've found in the next day or two.

Osmund Bullock,

I think Malcolm’s suggestion that this is a retirement portrait of Seaby is sound – it fits well with the date it was exhibited by Harold Yates at Reading Guild of Artists (Nov 1934), and perhaps justifies a slight adjustment of the execution date to ‘circa 1933-4’. The portrait’s exhibition was also noted by The Times that month – image attached, along with one of another piece about him I found in a 1931 Somerset paper. I’ve also found that Harold and his wife Mary Louisa had a son, Peter Weston Yates, born in 1913 – he married in 1938, but died without issue in 1999.

After retiring from the School of Art circa 1940, Harold Yates seems to have moved, at least for a while, to East Devon. A ‘Harold J Yates’ of Honiton Hill, Widworthy, Honiton, exhibited a flower piece at the RA in 1951; probably the same man (‘H.J.Yates’) was elected a Parish Councillor for adjacent Offwell in March 1946 (Western Times); and a ‘Mr H.Yates’ was one the founders of the Axminster Art Society in Sept 1948 – see http://bit.ly/2scpMnk - and he is doubtless the ‘Harold Yates’ who in Dec 1950 was an active committee member of the Society (Devon & Exeter Gazette). I’ve been in touch with the AAS (which certainly had members as far as Honiton), but their records are not easily accessible, and confirmation that he is our man may not be possible. The RA exhibition entries are confusing, too: there are two other exhibits (in 1936 & 1954) by ‘Harold Yates’ (no middle initial), the first of which is certainly him (of ‘The University, Reading’) – but the other (from an address in Barnes, SW London) is harder to call. See attached. Older East Devon Electoral Registers are not online anywhere, alas, and there’s no phone listing for him. The Elec Registers held by the BL might perhaps clarify, but that would be a hard slog.

Osmund Bullock,

Does it really matter whether he lived in Devon or not? Probably no, as long as we can be sure when/where he died. Unfortunately my certainty that the correct death had been identified turns out to be quite wrong. I was misled because the Probate Record for his widow, Mary Louisa, shows that she died in Jan 1963 at the same Maidenhead nursing home where ‘Harold Yates’ had died nine months before, and that both had lived in Bucks. It is definitely her – described as a widow, her executors were her brother Ernest and her son Peter; but further research shows that is most unlikely that it was our Harold Yates who died there in April 1962, unless he was separated from his wife and estranged from his son – his executors were not relatives, but his next-door neighbours (a father and son) in Wraysbury; and the 1956-62 Electoral Registers for the street show no female Yates living with him, and he has no middle initial. And of course the Death Registration age was wrong – in fact I think I’ve found that Harold Yates, a quite different man born in 1873, on the 1939 Register in nearby Eton.

Nor can I find any other suitable death – I’ve probably identified the Harold J Yates who died at Poole in 1959, and it’s not him either. So that’s the best I can manage for Harold James Yates: Born 1878 Plumstead – died before 1963’. If Reading want to know more they could always see if there are any records held by the Uni: he worked for them for close to 20 years...a pension, perhaps?

Malcolm Fowles,

Osmund, the collection found a date of 1928 on the work. So the 1934 showing was probably celebratory rather than introductory.