- Harold Gilman
The British artist Harold John Wilde Gilman (
Rode, Somerset ,11 February 1876 - London,12 February 1919 ) was a founder-member of theCamden Town Group . He died in the influenza epidemic of 1918-19.Life and work
Developing an interest in art during a childhood convalescence period, he began his artistic training after a non-collegiate year at Oxford University (again cut short by ill health) and time working as a tutor to an English family living in Odessa. Studying at the
Hastings School of Art (1896) and then theSlade School of Fine Art (1897–1901), he then spent over a year studying the Spanish masters (Velázquez as well as Whistler were major early influences) and meeting and marrying the American painter Grace Cornelia Canedy. Moving back to London, where they settled (apart from an abortive trip to visit her family inChicago , in which Gilman ducked pressure to join the Canedy family business), they had two daughters (one in London, one in Chicago).Meeting
Walter Sickert in 1907, Gilman became a founder member of both theFitzroy Street Group (in 1907) and theCamden Town Group (in 1911). In the meantime he joined theAllied Artists' Association , moved toLetchworth , and began to show influence from work ofVuillard as well as Sickert. He soon outpaced Sickert's understanding ofpost-Impressionism and moved out from under his shadow, however, using ever stronger colour and identifying withCharles Ginner as a 'Neo-Realist' (exhibiting with Ginner under that label in 1914).Gilman visited Scandinavia in 1912 and 1913, and may have travelled with the artist
William Ratcliffe , who had relations there. Gilman made studies of the environment, and painted "Canal Bridge, Flekkefjord", an accurate depiction, whose subject is likely to have been inspired byVincent van Gogh 's depiction of a similar bridge inProvence . [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=5339&searchid=9476 "Canal Bridge, Flekkefjord" circa 1913"] ,Tate . Retrieved15 September 2008 .] Gilman had rejected Van Gogh's work when he first encountered it, but later became a strong admirer and, according toWyndham Lewis , keeping postcards of Van Gogh's work on his wall and sometimes hanging one of his own works next to them, if he was especially satisfied with it.At that time he also joined Robert Bevan's short-lived
Cumberland Market Group with Ginner and John Nash. Remarrying in 1917, in 1918 he was commissioned to travel toNova Scotia by the Canadian War Records.Legacy
Exhibitions were devoted to him at the Tate in 1954 and 1981, and he also featured in its 2007–2008 Camden Town Group retrospective at
Tate Britain .Gallery
Notes and references
Bibliography
Robert Upstone, Modern Painters: The Camden Town Group, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London, 2008 ISBN-10: 1854377817
External links
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=1172&page=1 Harold Gilman] paintings at
Tate Britain
* [http://www.groveart.com/shared/views/article.html?from=search&session_search_id=528110533&hitnum=1§ion=art.032298 Harold Gilman] at Grove Art Online
* [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37457?docPos=1 Harold Gilman] in theDictionary of National Biography
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