William Caparne

William John Caparne

William Caparne in later life
Born William John Caparn
17 November 1855
Newark-on-Trent
Died 31 January 1940
Saint Martin, Guernsey
Nationality British
Spouse(s) Louisa Jane Atkins (c.1860–1894)

William Caparne (1855–1940), born William John Caparn, was a horticulturist and a painter of floral and other subjects. He created the first hybrids in the intermediate bearded iris group, and is thought to have created more than 100 cultivars of bulbous iris.

Life

Flowers, by William John Caparne, now in the Guernsey Museum & Art Gallery
Cradle Rock and Pea Stacks, by William John Caparne

Caparne was born on 17 November 1855 in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire. He was the eldest child of William Horner Caparn, an organist and teacher of music, and his wife Sophia Warwick. His grandfather and two of his uncles were seed merchants and his father grew irises.[1] Caparne attended Magnus Grammar School where he had art lessons from the painter, politician and art-master William Cubley of Newark-on-Trent, who had been a pupil of Sir William Beechey, a former pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds.[2][3] Caparne taught in an art school from the age of 16, and in 1877 was taken on as drawing-master at Oundle School. In 1879 he married Louisa Jane Atkins. A daughter, Louisa Winifred, was born in 1880, and in the same year he was appointed art master at Oundle.

References

  1. D. E. Allen, Caparne , William John (1855–1940). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48821. Accessed April 2013
  2. Patricia Reed (2011) William Nicholson: Catalogue raisonné of the Oil Paintings. London; New Haven: Modern Art Press, Yale University Press. ISBN 978 0 300 17054 2
  3. Jill Campbell (2011) Alderman William Harold Cubley 1816-1896 Newark Archeological & Historical Society. Accessed April 2013.


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