The Social, Political and Economic Determinants of a Modern Portrait Artist: Bernard Fleetwood-Walker (1893-1965) by MARIE CONSIDINE A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History of Art College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham April 2012 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT As the first major study of the portrait artist Bernard Fleetwood-Walker (1893- 1965), this thesis locates the artist in his social, political and economic context, arguing that his portraiture can be seen as an exemplar of modernity. The portraits are shown to be responses to modern life, revealed not in formally avant- garde depictions, but in the subject-matter. Industrial growth, the increasing population, expanding suburbs, and a renewed interest in the outdoor life and popular entertainment are reflected in Fleetwood-Walker’s artistic output. The role played by exhibition culture in the creation of the portraits is analysed: developing retail theory affected gallery design and exhibition layout and in turn impacted on the size, subject matter and style of Fleetwood-Walker’s portraits. Emerging, and soon dominant, tabloid newspapers shaped content and language to attract readers, influencing the articulation of the reception of the artist’s work. This thesis also makes a contribution to the regional perspective, demonstrating the temporary co-existence of multiple, heterogeneous, modern art worlds. Throughout the thesis the relevance of economic factors is emphasised, reappraising the Marxist theory of modern art and concluding that a more complex economic description is required to provide a sensitive and insightful analysis of art history. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people have helped me with this thesis and I would like to thank all of them. The late Dr Gordon Thomas, the Hon. Archivist at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, (RBSA) first showed me the Society’s archive and permanent collection, so deepening my curiosity about the history of art in Birmingham. Professor Stephen Wildman’s erudite and entertaining talk on the collection inspired me to start my research and Dr Richard Clay of the University of Birmingham provided early and enthusiastic encouragement. The RBSA kindly allowed unlimited access to their archives—and the flexibility to pursue my academic work alongside my full-time role with the Society. I would like to thank the Membership and my colleagues for all their help. Professor Kate Fryer’s personal memories of Bernard Fleetwood-Walker and introductions to his family have been invaluable and I am deeply grateful to Pat Fleetwood-Walker, Nicola Walker and Timothy Walker for making so much material available to me. I would very much like to thank Nicola in particular for showing me Fleetwood-Walker’s studio collection, as well as her rapid responses to my many requests for information and clarification. Dr Jutta Vinzent’s supervision combined commitment and academic rigour with unfailing generosity, for which I am truly grateful. Finally, my deepest thanks go to Dr Lloyd Blewett for his unwavering support. CONTENTS Introduction 1 Literature Review 4 Methodology, Premises and Central Argument 8 Structure of the Thesis 18 Chapter One Becoming a Portrait Artist: The Social, Political and Economic Determinants of a Portrait Artist’s Career 21 Family Influences 24 The Politics of Late Nineteenth-Century Birmingham 28 Birmingham School of Art 32 Teaching and Studying before the 1914-18 War 39 The 1914-18 War and Beyond 42 Fleetwood-Walker’s Exhibiting Career 46 The Local Economy and Politics in the Inter-War Period 54 The 1939-45 War 70 Birmingham after the 1939-45 War 73 The 1950s and Fleetwood-Walker’s Later Career 76 Birmingham and Glasgow, a Comparison 90 Summary 95 Chapter Two Business and Modern Portraiture: Fleetwood-Walker’s Portraits and Industry in Birmingham 98 Portrait Subjects in Twentieth-Century Birmingham 108 Local Politics 111 The Clergy 115 Portraits of Business Leaders 118 Group Portraits 132 Advertising 148 Leisure 149 Unexploited Sources of Portrait Commissions 154 Self-Portraits and Portraits of Family Members 156 Summary 157 Chapter Three The Artist-Led Gallery, Exhibition Culture and the Portrait Artist: the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists and Bernard Fleetwood-Walker 160 The RBSA Gallery and a Social Production of Architecture 163 Modern Rituality: Crouch, Butler and Savage’s 1913 Gallery 166 Blurring the Boundaries of the Galley Interior 192 Display Methods 213 Fleetwood-Walker and Exhibiting in the Artist-Led Space 225 The Role of the Curator 246 Summary 256 Chapter Four The Relevance of a Modern Artist’s Reception for the Economic Value of Portraiture 262 Social Factors and the Development of Media Communications 267 The Vocabulary of Description 269 An Analysis of Contemporary Critics: the Formalist Approach 281 An Alternative Critique: ‘Character’ in Portraiture 284 Writers, Newspapers and Contemporary Art 303 The Portrait Artist and the Emergence of Tabloid Culture 322 Publications, Politics and Ideology 329 Summary 333 Conclusion Bernard Fleetwood-Walker and Modern Portraiture 342 Appendix: Works Exhibited by Bernard Fleetwood-Walker 348 Bibliography 371 ABBREVIATIONS RA Royal Academy RWS Royal Watercolour Society RBSA Royal Birmingham Society of Artists NEAC New England Art Club ROI Royal Institute of Oil Painters INTRODUCTION There is now on view at the Ruskin Galleries a collection of sixty examples— chiefly in oil and water colours—which claim attention by their free and independent character. They are the work of B. Fleetwood Walker, who is perhaps the most enterprising among the younger painters of the city, and certainly one to whom every encouragement is due from the fact that, at the crowning point of his studentship, the war happened, and, as in innumerable cases, his career was interrupted. Few, however, have set to work with greater determination to recover lost ground.1 This is how Bernard Fleetwood-Walker was introduced to the readers of Birmingham’s Daily Post in January 1927. There is no doubt that Fleetwood- Walker set to work, and continued to work, with ‘determination’.2 From 1919 onwards he exhibited—usually portrait and figure paintings—at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA);3 he was elected an Associate4 and subsequently Member5 of the RBSA and in 1950 he was invited to become 1 E.S.H., ‘Pictures by B. Fleetwood Walker, Exhibition at the Ruskin Galleries’, Birmingham Daily Post, 18 January 1927, unpaginated press cutting, Walker family private archive, London. 2 Ibid. 3 His first exhibit is listed in Spring Exhibition 1919, exhibition catalogue, Birmingham, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, 1919. Royal Birmingham Society of Artists’ (RBSA) Archive, Birmingham. See Appendix for a complete list of works exhibited. 4 Bernard Fleetwood Walker’s proposer was W. Midgley, seconder E.S. Harper, voting was ‘14 aff., 5 neg., 2 neut.’. Minutes of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists’ General Meeting, March 24th 1923, Minute Book 5 September 1912–25 July 1928, 256, unpublished manuscript, RBSA Archive, Birmingham. Note: layout of names given to meetings and of titles of minutes varies; in each case these are recorded exactly as they appear in the original documents 5 Bernard Fleetwood Walker was proposed for full Membership by Harold H. Holden, seconded by R. R. Carter and W. Midgley. Votes: ‘for 20, against, 4, elected’. Minutes of the Royal Birmingham 1 President of that Society.6 He also exhibited frequently in London; his work was shown in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition every year, from 1925 to 1965, excepting 1929.7 In total 141 of his works were shown at the Royal Academy (RA).8 He was elected an Associate of the RA in 1946 and an Academician in 19569 and was closely involved with many other exhibiting groups in the Midlands and in London.10 As well as pursuing his career as a portrait artist Fleetwood- Walker taught art throughout his life.11 Bernard Fleetwood-Walker was one of the most prolific portrait artists in Birmingham in the first half of the twentieth century and an artist whose life and work reveals the social, political and economic factors affecting modern portraiture in a city that, because of its proximity to the capital, offers intriguing insights into art production in a regional setting. The press cutting cited at the beginning of this introduction encapsulates many of the themes that this thesis seeks to explore and contest. The reviewer of Bernard Fleetwood-Walker’s exhibition at the Ruskin Galleries, by emphasising the artist’s ‘determination’, concentrates on the artist’s character and, when describing the work itself, through the use of words such as ‘free’ and ‘independent’, implies a belief that the artist’s work is detached from society. As will be argued throughout Society of Artists’ General Meeting, March 22nd 1930, Minute Book 3 October 1928–3 February 1936, 40, unpublished manuscript, RBSA Archive, Birmingham. 6 Minutes of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Annual General Meeting June 10th 1950, Minute Book, 7 November 1947–14 October 1955, 63, unpublished manuscript, RBSA Archive, Birmingham. 7 Royal Academy Exhibitors, 1905-1970: A Dictionary of Artists and their Work in the Summer Exhibitions of the Royal Academy of Arts, Wakefield, 1978, 76-77. 8 Of the 141 works by Bernard Fleetwood-Walker exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition during his lifetime only four were not portraits or figure studies.