Philip Connard, R.A. 1875-1958

Francis Moore Esq., by 1913;
Phillips, 12 June 1990, lot 130;
Private collection

When Marion Hepworth Dixon wrote her commentary of the work of Philip Connard for the Studio magazine of 1913, she chose to illustrate only two paintings in colour, one of the illustrations being Bayswater and the other being Supper (private collection). Both of these pictures had been exhibited for the first time at the Leicester Galleries in the summer of 1912 and bought by a collector named Francis Moore. They both capture what Dixon described as 'Joyous lightheartedness [which] is their key-note, for whether the spectator is brought face to face with a masquerade in a Chelsea studio or with a white-robed woman dawdling in a boat near the splashing fountain of Kensington Gardens, the electric and vivacious impression is the same.' (Marion Hepworth Dixon, 'Philip Connard, in Studio, February 1913, p. 276)

Philip Connard was born in the Lancashire seaside town of Southport in 1875 and began his working life in the building trade as a house painter, whilst attending art classes in the evening. A turning point came in 1896 when he was awarded a National Scholarship to attend the Royal College of Art at South Kensington. A further award of the British Institute travelling scholarship allowed him to follow the traditional artistic training path by travelling to Paris to enroll at the private academie of Benjamin Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens. He worked in Paris for six months and shortly afterwards became engaged by a carpet factory in Liège as a designer where he worked for a short time.

Upon his return to London, Connard worked as a book illustrator to supplement his teaching work at the Lambeth School of Art. It was at this time that Connard began to establish a reputation as a painter of interior scenes and plein-air landscapes. Philip Wilson Steer and Henry Tonks were instrumental in Connard being elected a member of the New English Art Club in 1909, his work being shown there since 1901. In 1912 following the highly successful solo exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in London which featured Bayswater prominently, Connard finally devoted himself to painting and ceased to teach at Lambeth. In 1914, Connard enrolled in the army where he was an official war artist until he was badly injured at the Battle of the Somme and invalided home in 1916. He did not begin to exhibit at the Royal Academy until 1918, therefore Bayswater can be considered an early example of his work. The painting captures the brilliance of summer sunlight upon water and the carefree joy of the young woman deeply engrossed in her book as the punt is navigated into the shade of an overhanging tree. The setting is the boating lake in the formal gardens at the North side of Hyde Park with the Italianate fountain which he also painted in a picture entitled The Fountain. As Dixon noted, Connard was a painter of realism; 'Life for him at any rate is no impenetrable riddle. On the contrary, it is something to portray and enjoy... With Mr. Connard it is not the fascination of the unknown, but rather the actual thing seen which haunts and preoccupies him. Others may seek the barren moor, the rock-bound coast, Mr. Connard's muse is the muse of the Great City.' (ibid Dixon, p. 269)