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| Walter Langley, "Old Fishwife." |
Walter Langley (1852-1922) was one of the first members of the Newlyn School art colony of Cornwall, England.
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| Head study of the "Old Fishwife" |
Langley also painted in oil, but many of his finest life studies were painted in watercolors from real people wearing their authentic costumes.
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| Walter Langley, "A Fisherman's Son," watercolor 1884 |
According to
Penlee House Gallery: "Langley started his artistic career at the age of fifteen, when he was apprenticed to a Birmingham lithographer. At twenty-one, having completed his apprenticeship, he won a scholarship to South Kensington, where he studied design. Langley returned to Birmingham to continue as a lithographer, but spent his spare time painting and soon gave up lithography to concentrate on this aspect of his work. Although Langley was an accomplished painter in oils, he mainly painted in watercolour, often on a large scale. Using this demanding and difficult medium, he portrayed scenes of everyday life in a small fishing village, highlighting the hardships and tragedies that were commonplace during that period."
For what must be the 127th time, thank you for bringing a previously unknown artist to my attention. The degree of observation and care Langley gives these portraits is striking; each hole in the boy’s sweater given its due.
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