Albert Chevallier Tayler

Albert Chevallier Tayler (1862 in Leytonstone, Essex – 1925) is an important English artist who specialized in portrait and genre painting, but was also involved in the plein air methods of the Newlyn School. He was a member of the British Royal Academy of Painters, and he studied at Heatherley's School of Art, Royal Academy Schools and with avant gard painters in Paris.

Early years with the Newlyn School

He is most known for his twelve year involvement with the Newlyn School of painting. The Newlyn school was spawned after many international artists followed the En plein air school in France, whereby artists would leave Paris and take up rural life in small colonies of kindred painters. Thence, as artists returned from France to their own countries, they sought out remote locations to congregate and pursue the En plein air method. The Newlyn School is also known as British Impressionism.

A typical painting of this early period is "A Dress Rehearsal" (1888), hung in the National Museums Liverpool. This painting makes use of light and shadow and is based upon a genre scene as might have occurred in Cornwall. The Newlyn School drew their subjects from everyday life in the local area. Other associate artists of the Newlyn School were Henry Scott Tuke, Thomas Cooper Gotch, Stanhope Forbes, Leghe Suthers, Walter Langley and Elizabeth Armstrong.

The London era

During the 1890s he maintained connections with the art center of London and exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy; however, about the turn of the century he moved to London and converted to a more genteel, urban lifestyle. Tayler began painting more grand scenes of the cities of Europe. In 1901 he painted one of his largest and most masterful works, "The Ceremony of the Garter", depicting the famous late Middle Ages scene at Eltham Palace in which the fallen garter of Joan of Kent is picked up by King Edward III. This event circa 1348 led to Edward III founding the Order of the Garter.

By 1903 Tayler was renowned and was commissioned to paint a large panel at the Royal Exchange in London; the resultant painting of "The Five Kings" depicts the kings of England, Scotland, Cypress, Spain in a drunken but dignified celebration. Tayler was an avid cricketer, and in 1905 produced a set of twelve watercolours of famous and mostly royal cricket players. Lord Leverhulme used the series to produce lithographs and advertise his Lever Brothers soap products. The promotion proved popular, and The National Portrait Gallery, London has nine of these images hung. In 1906 he painted a famous picture of a cricket match in progress, "Kent v Lancashire at Canterbury", which was commissioned by Kent. In June 2006, the county sold the painting at auction for £680,000, a record price for a cricket painting. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/5121736.stm Auction feat for cricket painting] . bbc.co.uk, 27 June 2006.]

References

References

*Cooper, John, "A Visitors Guide to the National Portrait Gallery, London, ISBN 1-85514-298-8
*"English Literary Magazine", Volume XXXV (1906)
*Royal Academy, London
*Strandberg Art Gallery

External links

* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/tayler_albert_chevallier.html Albert Chevallier Tayler at artcyclopedia.com]