Lewis Pinhorn Wood

For the American politician, see Lewis N. Wood.
Lewis Pinhorn Wood
Born 1848
Died 7 November 1918
Nationality British
Other names L. Pinhorn Wood
Occupation landscapist, watercolourist
Evening on the Tillingbourne (1889) by Lewis Pinhorn Wood, painted near the Woods' family home in Shere

Lewis Pinhorn Wood (1848–1918) was a British landscapist and watercolourist, best known for his rural scenes of Sussex and Surrey. In the tradition of the Victorian era, his work depicted idyllic scenes of rural life across the home counties.

Personal life

Born in Middlesex in 1848, his father was Lewis John Wood (1813–1901),[1] the 19th-century architectural artist and lithographer renowned principally for his specialisation in architectural scenes from across Belgium and Northern France. In 1875 he married Louisa Howard Watson in the church of St Saviour in Hampstead, Middlesex. They had four children; the illustrator and designer Clarence Lawson Wood (1878–1957), Eveline, Esmond and Enid.

In early married life Pinhorn Wood lived and worked at Burnside in the village of Shere, Surrey,[2] before moving to Highgate, London, and latterly to Homefield Road in Chiswick.[2] In later life he lived in Pevensey, Sussex, where he registered as a member of the Sussex Archaeological Society[3] in 1910, and died on 7 November 1918.

Career

'Westham Church from Pevensey Castle looking west' by Lewis Pinhorn Wood

Early in his career, Pinhorn Wood continued his father's Northern European interest with scenes such as Rue de Hallage, Rouen (1869) and A Tyrolean Scene. He studied at the West London School of Art,[4] in Bolsover Street when it opened it 1870.

From the 1870s onward, Pinhorn Wood focussed on rural landscapes, working mainly in watercolour but occasionally in oil, across Sussex, Surrey and some London Boroughs. His work played into the Victorian appetite for idyllic, sentimental scenes of rural life. He exhibited regularly in London at the Royal Academy, the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, the Dudley Gallery, and elsewhere.[5]

Pinhorn Wood travelled widely around Britain in pursuit of iconic scenes beyond his mainstay of Surrey and Sussex. From early in his career he compiled an album of his travels entitled Sketches from Nature 1869-1908. Full of dated pencil and watercolour sketches, it provides a record of many of the places to which he ventured, including Cumbria in the summer of 1890, North Wales in the summer of 1891, and as far north as the Trossachs in Perthshire.[6]

'Limburg an der Lahn' by Lewis Pinhorn Wood

In 1892 Wood returned to the continent to paint in towns in Northern France and travelled to Limburg in Germany, which his father had portrayed in his 1862 scene Limburg an der Lahn, Blick in die Altstadt mit dem Dom St. Georg.[7] Paintings from Pinhorn Wood's trip included the substantial Limburg an der Lahn, an idyllic view across the Lahn river towards the castle and cathedral of Limburg.

In 1890, aged 41 and with a young family of four, he wrote a story for children entitled "Harry Goodchild's Day Dream: A Tale".[8] The 28 page book was published by George Stoneman. The monthly magazine The Coming Day reviewed it as "A childish but rather pretty story about two children who were gifted with wings to enable them to fly for once to the moon".[9]

In January 1901 he joined the Savage Club as an 'Art' member.[10][11]

Selected works

References

  1. ↑ BBC Your Paintings: Lewis John Wood
  2. 1 2 "Esmond - Public Member Photos & Scanned Documents - Ancestry.com.au". Search.ancestry.com.au. Retrieved 2014-03-16.
  3. ↑ Sussex Archaeological Society
  4. ↑ "Full text of "From studio to stage : reminiscences of Weedon Grossmith, written by himself"". Archive.org. Retrieved 2014-03-16.
  5. ↑ "Wood (Lewis Pinhorn, 1870-1913). Landscape with - by Dominic Winter Auctions". Artfact.com. 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2014-03-16.
  6. ↑ Bellmans Antiques & Interiors Sale - 24 Jun 2015
  7. ↑ artnet - Lewis John Wood_Limburg an der Lahn, Blick in die Altstadt mit dem Dom St Georg
  8. ↑ Harry Goodchild's Day Dream: A Tale
  9. ↑ The Coming Day (September 1892)
  10. ↑ "ebooks/oca3/14/savageclubmedley00watsuoft/savageclubmedley00watsuoft_djvu". booksnow2.scholarsportal.info. Retrieved 2014-03-16.
  11. ↑ Savage Club Candidates' Book (1901)
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