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Washerwomen
c.1920s
Oil on Board
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
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This work is undated, but may have been painted early in Fleetwood‐Walker's career while on holiday in France. The drawings collection has a number of figure studies showing men and women going about their daily business for examples see drawing references 053 and 169 although none relate directly to this oil.
Exhibited Wolverhampton Art Gallery, January 7th to July 7th 2007
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The
Interval
1927
Watercolour, 7½" x 10½" (19.1 x 26.7 cm)
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
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This charming watercolour shows a young ballet dancer, resting during a performance, her legs and billowing dress reflected in the studio mirror behind her. While initially it appears unlike anything else painted by Fleetwood‐Walker, there are recurring themes - compare the bare arms, slender fingers and floating skirts with the 1920s portrait of the artist's first wife, Repose, the young girl, also possibly a dancer in The Mirror and drawing 465. The overall palette is subtle, but the quiet reverie of the scene is off-set by the dancer's black hair and red lips, and the way in which, like the girl in Amity, this young woman looks self-assuredly out at the viewer.
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Alderman James
c. 1928
Oil on Canvas, 40¼" x 30" (102.0 x 76.5 cm)
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
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Alderman Alfred Henry James served two terms in office as Lord Mayor of Birmingham between 1926-28. Although the majority of Fleetwood‐Walker's civic portraits were painted later in his career, this portrait appears stylistically more in keeping with his earlier more decorative works, see, for example, the portrait of Mr Floyd , painted in 1930.
The painting is on loan to Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery from a private collection.
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The Bane
1931
Oil on Canvas, 45" x 38" (114.3 x 96.5 cm)
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
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During the 1930s Fleetwood‐Walker painted a series of nudes in the classical tradition. Of these, Sea-Born Thetis, The Model's Throne and this work all depict lone women and appear to allude to literary or archaic symbolism. The title, The Bane is associated with death, destruction or ruin, while the young woman holds a foxglove, itself a highly poisonous plant. In his exhibition catalogue, The Birmingham School, 1990, Stephen Wildman described the painting '....as typical of the sharp, well-balanced design in his oils of the 1930s....'.
Irrespective of any underlying meaning or message, these nudes were appreciated at the time for their sensuous beauty; for a while this painting was on loan to HMS Birmingham where it was displayed in the Officer's mess and no doubt viewed as a welcome diversion.
Exhibited Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1932, number 661 and illustrated in the Royal Academy Journal
Exhibited Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Memorial Exhibition, 1966, no. 81
Exhibited Wolverhampton Art Gallery, January 7th to July 7th 2007
Exhibited Birmingham Museum in The Art of Birmingham 1890-1939, October 2007 to February 2008
 See related drawings in the collection
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The Family 1932
1932
Oil on Canvas, 39½" x 36¼" (100.5 x 92.0 cm)
The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent
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The
artist's first wife, Mickey, and two sons, Colin and Guy
are the central features of this painting of his family,
and while Fleetwood‐Walker himself is a somewhat shadowy
figure in the background, his presence is almost like a
guardian angel. The family are on a summer's picnic in
an idealised landscape, possibly in Cornwall where the
whole family went with students from the Birmingham School
of Art on sketching tours.
The bright colours and 'props' such as the checked
blanket and basket motif are similar to those seen in
Amity.
Exhibited Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1932, no. 29
Exhibited Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Memorial Exhibition, 1966, no. 79
Exhibited Wolverhampton Art Gallery, January 7th to July 7th 2007
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R H Butler and Family
1932
Oil on Canvas, 50" x 60¼" (127.0 x 153.0 cm)
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
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This portrait is of Robert H Butler, the director of Mitchells and Butlers brewery, together with his wife and young family. Unlike many of the portraits of civic figures and grandees of industry painted by the artist in the 1940s and 50s, this painting is in similar vein to the earlier group portraits of his own family with the Butlers portrayed in an informal setting, seated in a garden amid trees and sunshine.
The detail shows the quality of the brush strokes - in places so light that the canvas beneath is clearly visible.
Exhibited Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1935, no. 105
Exhibited Wolverhampton Art Gallery, January 7th to July 7th 2007
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Amity
1933
Oil on Canvas, 40" x 37¼" (101.3 x 94.7 cm)
The Walker Art Gallery, National Museums
Liverpool
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Although seemingly an informal picture depicting, maybe, two young lovers enjoying a picnic on a sunny day in the country, the painting exudes an air of menace. The whole canvas is filled by the circular composition that should in theory bring the couple together, but the contrapposto of the young woman's body separates her from her companion.
Tim Wilcox, in his catalogue, A Day in the Sun, describes the relationship between the sitters,
"The image of the happy courting couple receives an unexpected twist in this painting, as the girl, provocatively toying with a daisy, seems to make herself available to anyone but the boy she is
with".
Despite the title of the painting, 'Amity', meaning friendship or harmony, according to Peggy, the artist's second wife, the two models, Jeffrey and Nella, were in fact barely on speaking terms!
On permanent exhibition at The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Exhibited Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1933, no. 138
Exhibited Wolverhampton Art Gallery, January to July 2007
Exhibited The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, in The 1930s: The Making of "the New Man", June to September 2008
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Amity
Detail
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Family at Polperro
1934-36
Oil on Canvas, 50¼" x 40" (127.6 x 101.9 cm)
Birmingham Museums and Art
Gallery
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The same strong design is evident again here in another of Fleetwood‐Walker's large canvases from the 1930s, but unlike Amity or The Family, 1932, the colours are cool and more muted. The artist appears again with his family on a day out in the country, this time at the beach in the Cornish town of Polperro. The group are close both physically and emotionally; it is a satisfied and satisfying picture.
The painting was presented to the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery by the artist in 1939 in memory of his first wife.
Exhibited Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1936, no. 154
Exhibited Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Memorial Exhibition, 1966, no. 82
Exhibited Wolverhampton Art Gallery, January 7th to July 7th 2007
Exhibited Birmingham Museum in The Art of Birmingham 1890-1939, October 2007 to February 2008
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Three
Boys
1937
Oil on Canvas,
29½" x 36¼" (75.0 x 92.0 cm)
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
(1937-0010-1)
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This group
portrait, Three Boys, was a gift to the Museum of New
Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa from The New Zealand Academy of Fine
Arts in 1937.
Laurie Benson, Curator, International
Art, at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne has
described the painting thus:
"... Rather than deeply exploring the psyche of his
sitters, [Fleetwood‐Walker] was more adept at articulating
their emotional and romantic sentiments. His work continues
the British tradition of intimism and his strongest works are
group studies in which he perceptively captured the sense of
relationships through subtle facial expressions, gesture and,
most importantly, touch. Among masterworks are portraits of
his family, notably of his children, of which 'Three Boys' is
an outstanding example. His two sons, Colin in the centre and
Guy on the right are joined by a friend, and the loving
gesture of the elder brother's arm around his sibling
personifies Fleetwood‐Walker's ability to show deeply felt
emotion in an understated way."
The boy posing with Colin and Guy is their childhood friend Harvey Gray.
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John Ball and the Peasants' Rising of 1381
1938
Mural, 14' x 14' (427.0 x 427.0 cm)
County Hall, Chelmsford, Essex County Council
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The painting depicts a well-known historical figure from the County of Essex ‐ John Ball whose criticisms of the feudal system lead to his being removed from his post as the priest of St James' Church in Colchester. As a traveling priest and barred from preaching in local churches, John Ball continued his crusade on the local village greens. Following imprisonment in Maidstone he was rescued by Wat Tyler and his rebel army of peasants, 30,000 of whom marched on London, and afterwards suffered at the hands of the King's army. John Ball was finally captured in Coventry, and found guilty of high treason was hung, drawn and quartered on 15th July, 1381.
Fleetwood‐Walker has chosen to show John Ball at a peaceful time, before the bloody battle, preaching to a captivated audience of men and women, young and old. The scene is idyllic, the sun shining on the up-turned faces of his audience who appear to show no animosity to the wealthier members of the crowd, such as the man in green on horseback or the man dressed in fur edged robes in conversation with a monk. Ball himself, however, looks somewhat haggard and ashen faced, perhaps anticipating his fate. The mural measures 14' x 14' and is in the Council Chamber Foyer at County Hall in Chelmsford.
Arrangements can be made to see the mural ‐ contact Essex County Council.
heritage.conservation@essex.gov.uk
Exhibited Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1938, number 752 and illustrated in the Royal Academy Journal
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Joan
1930s
Oil on Canvas, 20½" x 24¼" (52.1 x 61.7 cm)
Birmingham Institute of Art & Design (Birmingham City University)
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This powerful portrait of a young woman is composed of strong lines and bold areas of
colour, with the sitter in a relaxed and recumbent pose and brought forward almost into the arms of the viewer. It has a formal quality to it typical of works prior to the artist's move towards the looser brushstrokes characteristic of his later portraiture.
Exhibited Wolverhampton Art Gallery, January to July 2007
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Auntie
1946
Oil on Canvas, 29½" x 24½" (74.9 x 62.2 cm)
Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
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'Elderly aunts' were a feature of life in the Fleetwood‐Walker household, for Colin and Guy at least, but whilst this painting always remained a family favourite, the sitter is unidentified. One idea might be that the old lady was a pianist or piano teacher - her hands form a central part of the composition and there is a piano behind her in the background. Fleetwood‐Walker's first wife Majorie (Mickey) was also a pianist.
The armchair, like other motifs, appears in many drawings and paintings, for example, the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists's watercolour of Joan Woollard, Still Life and, indeed, in its own portrait entitled simply The Armchair.
Exhibited Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, 1946, number 170.
Exhibited Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Memorial Exhibition, 1966, no. 112
In the collection of The Royal Academy of Arts purchased by the RA Stott Fund in 1946.
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Children
1947
Oil on Canvas, 30" x 25" (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
Dudley Museum & Art Gallery
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Fleetwood‐Walker was well known for his paintings of children, although by this date most appear to be individual portraits. Despite the fact that there are numerous studies in the drawings collection for the different children making up this group, in particular the boy with the apple, the painting seems to be curiously unfinished and does not display the definition evident in the two other group portraits of 1941 and 1942, respectively Children from the Town and Children in the Country. None of the children are known, but Fleetwood‐Walker frequently painted local children or those of friends, and neighbours.
Exhibited Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1947, no. 50
Exhibited Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Memorial Exhibition, 1966, no. 121
Exhibited at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Portraits in Birmingham, May to June 2007
See related drawings in the collection
 See other related works
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In the Dordogne
1947
Oil on panel, 20" x 16" (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
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While Fleetwood‐Walker was known as a portrait painter, many drawings and a number of oils exist of landscapes. Some of these are of farms and villages, acting as studies for the backgrounds of other works as for example that seen in The Family 1932. Later paintings such as this loose tree study is similar to Hillside near Caranac and Woodland Scene possibly painted in the late 1940s on sketching tours in France.
Exhibited Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, 1959, number 27
Exhibited Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Memorial Exhibition, 1966, no.125
Purchased by the RA 1959 (Harrison Weir Fund), copyright assigned to the RA 25th July 1959
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Miss Bryan
1949
Oil on canvas, 17" x 12" (43.2 x 30.5 cm)
Museums Sheffield
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Head of a Girl
Unknown
Oil on board, 13½" x 9½" (34.4 x 24.4 cm)
Museums Sheffield
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These two works are in the collection of Museums Sheffield and were probably produced in the same period. They are similar in style to many other paintings of female heads; compare the fresh faces and animated eyes with the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists's portrait of Caroline or the broad brush stokes and areas of bold colour in the painting of Louise in Dudley's collection.
Both paintings are unfinished; they may have been abandoned commissions or else samples of the many quick oil sketches carried out during a teaching sitting.
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Seated Boy
1940s
Pencil
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
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Fleetwood‐Walker was well known for his studies and portraits of children, many of whom were the children of friends and neighbours. The drawings collection has a number of similar pencil studies of a young seated boy, some of which may relate to this more finished work, in particular see drawing number 653
While the sitter has not been identified, it is similar in pose and mood to the finished oil painting of 1944, originally called 'Boy' and submitted to the Royal Academy in 1956 by Fleetwood‐Walker as his Diploma work with the title 'Peter' [click here]
Exhibited Wolverhampton Art Gallery, January to July 2007
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Joan Woollard
c.1950
Watercolour
Royal Birmingham Society of Artists
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This watercolour is typical of the rapid sketches that Fleetwood‐Walker made to explore the harmony between a particular pose and the elements that make it. The concern here is not so much with the detail of the line, but with the colours and their relationships.
The work appears to be on the same paper as a watercolour sketch of Joan in the collection and may have been executed during the same sitting ( see related image 386). Both studies could relate to the finished work Joan
Joan Woollard became the first female President of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists.
Exhibited at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Portraits in Birmingham, May to June 2007
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Douglas Gresham Esq.
1950
Oil on Canvas, 36" x 28" (91.4 x 71.1 cm)
Dudley Museum & Art Gallery
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Fleetwood‐Walker undertook numerous commissions especially during the 1940s and 1950s of local businessmen and politicians. This portrait has been described as being a particularly sensitive portrayal of Douglas Gresham and yet remained in the artist's studio and was subsequently purchased by Dudley Museum & Art Gallery from the Memorial Exhibition held at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1966.
In the drawings collection there is a pencil study showing the sitter at a slightly different angle, together with a quick compositional sketch ( see related drawing 122).
Exhibited Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1951, number 149 and illustrated in the Royal Academy Journal.
Exhibited Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Memorial Exhibition, 1966, no. 137
Exhibited at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Portraits in Birmingham, May to June 2007
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Dr. Edward Bramley
1950
Oil on Canvas, 43¼" x 33½" (110.0 x 85.0 cm)
University of Sheffield
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As a local solicitor and secretary to the Sheffield Law Society, Edward Bramley (1868-1969) was instrumental in establishing training for future attorneys at the University College of Sheffield in 1899. He continued his law career at the University of Sheffield, as Head of Department between 1900-06, as Dean of the Faculty of Law by 1908, Treasurer 1941-6 and Pro-Vice Chancellor 1946-51. His legacy is recognised today through the Edward Bramley scholarships and the student law society that bears his name.
The style of the painting, with the sitter seated in full robes, in ¾ length view and against a painterly background of neutral toned, free brushstrokes is typical of these late portraits of public figures (see also the portrait of Alderman H.B.W. Cresswell).
The painting was donated by the sitter to the University of Sheffield.
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Thomas Ferrers (1887 - 1970), formerly known as Thomas Walker
1952/3
Oil on canvas, 34" x 39" (86.0 x 99.0 cm)
The National Trust, Baddesley Clinton
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The Ferrers family had lived at Baddesley Clinton, a moated manor house in Knowle, Warwickshire, since 1517. In 1940, a distant cousin of the last member of the Ferrers family, Thomas Walker, who later took the Ferrers name, bought the house. Thomas and his wife Undine set about restoring the house and it was their wish to pass the property to The National Trust. Unfortunately, the endowment that accompanied the bequest was insufficient and on Thomas's death, the estate was run by his son Thomas Weaving Ferrers-Walker, for a further ten years until 1980. Two local donors then generously provided an endowment that allowed the estate to be bought by the Government through the National Land Fund, and then be given to the National Trust. In 1982, after two years of restoration work the house was opened to the public.
The House and Gardens are open for much of the year and the portrait hangs on the main staircase, leading to the upper landing.
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Lucy
1953
Oil on hardboard, 24" x 20" (61.0 x 50.8 cm)
Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
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This work was submitted to the Royal Academy in 1961 in exchange for Peter, the painting which had been deposited as a token diploma picture after the Artist's election [to the Royal Academy] in 1956
Exhibited Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, 1954, number 116 and 1965, number 244 and illustrated in the Royal Academy Journal in 1965.
Exhibited Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Memorial Exhibition, 1966, no. 145
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Julie, No. 2
1954
Oil on panel, 19½" x 23½" (49.5 x 59.7 cm)
Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
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Fleetwood‐Walker had trained at the School of Art with the Birmingham born artist Henry Rushbury and they remained friends and colleagues throughout their lives; working together latterly at the Royal Academy of Arts in London where Rushbury had been elected Keeper in 1949 and Head of its schools until his retirement in 1964.
This work, along with another almost identical painting titled Julie no.1 was first exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer exhibition in 1955. Fleetwood‐Walker painted several other portraits of Julie
(see all works) as well as Rushbury's elder daughter Janet.
Exhibited Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, 1955, number 114 and 1962, number 568 and illustrated in the Royal Academy Journal in 1962.
Purchased by the Royal Academy in 1962 (Stott Fund).
Exhibited Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Memorial Exhibition, 1966, no. 153
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Alderman H.B.W. Cresswell
1954
Oil on Canvas, 50" x 40" (127.0 x 101.6 cm)
The Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry
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Alderman H.B.W. Cresswell was the 1st Lord Mayor of Coventry. Fleetwood‐Walker was often commissioned to produce portraits of dignitaries, some of which can be seen here.
Exhibited Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1954, no. 162 and illustrated in the Royal Academy Journal.
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Professor Thomas Bodkin
1955
Oil on Canvas
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
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Thomas Bodkin (1887-1961) grew up in Ireland where he studied law and began his love of art under the influence of his uncle, Sir Hugh Lane. He was Director of the National Gallery of Ireland between 1927 and 1935 and wrote a number of art books. He came to Birmingham to take up the appointment as a professor of fine arts at the University and also as the first Director of the newly established Barber Institute where he was charged with acquiring the finest works for the city. He remained at the Barber Institute until 1952.
There are similarities with the slightly earlier portrait of Douglas Gresham for example the sitters' right hands and the same studio chair appears in both works. There is one preliminary study for the finished oil drawn on buff coloured Dixons David Cox Drawing paper (see related drawing 121)
Exhibited Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1956, no. 555.
Exhibited Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Memorial Exhibition, 1966, no. 154
Exhibited Birmingham Museum in The Art of Birmingham 1890-1939, October 2007 to February 2008
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The Armchair
1960
Oil on Canvas, 29" x 20" (73.7 x 50.8 cm)
Dudley Museum & Art Gallery
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This high-backed armchair, and others similar, featured as a studio prop in paintings as early as 1937 and continued to appear regularly in Fleetwood‐Walker's works for example, the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists's watercolour of Joan Woollard, Still Life and in the portrait of Auntie.
Here it becomes, delightfully, a character in its own right; the Yorkshire Post reviewing the RA exhibition in 1960 said that this painting 'demonstrates how much a painter with an eye for design can make of the simplest materials'.
The armchair remains in the family and is still well used!
Exhibited Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1960, no. 90. and 1965, no. 45.
Exhibited Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Memorial Exhibition, 1966, no. 162
Exhibited at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in Portraits in Birmingham, May to June 2007
This drawing of a similar composition appears in the drawings collection ( 622)
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Study of the head of a woman with short hair - Christine
c.1961
Oil on Hardboard, 16½" x 12¼" (41.7 x 31.2 cm)
McLean Museum & Art Gallery, Inverclyde
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This portrait of a young woman is typical of the loose brushstrokes of Fleetwood‐Walker's later work. The effects of light and shadow are strong and the blue tones unusual. Labels on the reverse of the work indicate he painted it once he had left Birmingham and was living at 13 Walgrave Road, London SW5. The painting was acquired by the Inverclyde Museum in 1961.
Either this painting or other entitled Christine (ref. 298 in All Known Works) exhibited Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1960, no. 724.
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