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Harry Morley

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Harry Morley
Harry Morley
Born
Harry Morley

(1881-04-05)5 April 1881
Leicester
Died18 September 1943(1943-09-18) (aged 62)
London
NationalityBritish
Education
Known forPainting, etching and engraving

Harry Morley ARA (5 April 1881 – 18 September 1943) was a British painter, etcher and engraver known for his classical and mythological compositions.

Early Years

Harry Morley's etched Self Portrait 1923 & 28 (Private Collection)

Harry Morley was born in Leicester where he attended Alderman Newton's School. At age 16 he left school to study architecture at Leicester School of Art under Augustus Spencer and Benjamin Fletcher.[1][2] In 1900 he was awarded a scholarship to study architecture under Professor Beresford Pite at the Royal College of Art (RCA). He won an RCA scholarship in 1903 which enabled him to visit Italy for the first time. Later that year he was articled to Beresford Pite whose architectural practice was on the RCA campus.[3] At the Royal College, Morley also attended the mural painting department and life classes. He won two further scholarships in 1905 - an RCA Architecture Award and another from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) for the study of colour decoration. These awards allowed him to spend long periods in Italy between 1905 and 1908 where he came to admire early Renaissance painters such as Pinturicchio, Pietro Perugino, Paolo Uccello and Sandro Botticelli. Now determined to become a painter himself,[4] he attended the Académie Julian, Académie Colarossi and Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris.[5]

While in Paris Morley produced illustrations for The Nightside of Paris (1909) by Edmund B. d'Auvergne. Following a visit to Sicily toward the end of his period on the Continent, he mounted an exhibition 'London and Continental' in his London studio.[6][7] Morley was later asked to make drawings from photographs of Palestine taken by author Richard Penlake. Sixteen of these drawings, subsequently coloured by an unknown hand, were published by Thomas Nelson in Penlake's A Book of Palestine - for Boys and Girls some time between 1910 and 1913.[8] Morley was to illustrate several more books with original watercolours.

Marriage and Family

Harry Morley's watercolour St Marks from the Piazza for E. V. Lucas's A Wanderer in Venice (1914)

In London 1911, Harry Morley married Lilias Helen Swain ARCA (3 January 1880 - 30 January 1973). A skilful calligrapher and embroiderer, Lilias had studied design at the Royal College of Art under William Lethaby. She was trained in lettering and illumination by Professor Edward Johnston and went on to become his first assistant. She studied embroidery under Grace Christie (1872-1953) whom she assisted after her graduation. Lilias was teaching calligraphy and embroidery at the Royal College when she became engaged to Harry Morley.[9][10][11]

With fees from a commission to illustrate A Wanderer in Florence by E. V. Lucas (1912), Harry and Lilias Morley honeymooned in Florence. There he was engaged in making illustrations for the book. The couple travelled on to Venice and Paris, studied paintings in the galleries and sketched. Watercolours made by Morley in Venice were used two years later to illustrate Lucas's A Wanderer in Venice (1914). His watercolours of Paris were published in The Charm of Paris by Alfred H. Hyatt in 1913. Over a decade later, a commission to illustrate a third book by Lucas, A Wanderer in Rome (1926) took the couple back to Italy. The bird's-eye maps of Italian cities that appear on the end papers of all three books for Lucas were drawn by Morley and feature his wife's calligraphy.

The couple lived in London where they had two daughters, Elinor Beryl (7 September 1912 - 26 September 1998) and Julia Morley (2 September 1917 - 16 May 2008). During August each year, Morley and his family took regular sketching holidays to countryside or coastal areas of England and Wales. They were often joining - or joined by - artist friends. Morley drew quickly and with assurance.[12] His watercolours, which looked back to the English landscape tradition with a 'strong sense of place, technical assurance and characteristic integrity' were noted for their 'freedom and spontaneity'. In contrast, his oil and tempera paintings were 'painstakingly constructed', reflecting Morley's admiration for the early Italian painting tradition.[13]

Lilias all but gave up her artistic career to support Harry Morley in his work. Whenever the opportunity arose, she undertook private commissions in calligraphy and embroidery design. She continued to draw and paint under the name Lester Romley. A quiet feminist from an early age, Lilias shared digs in Chelsea with fellow Royal College of Art student Sylvia Pankhurst, who like Lilias was from Manchester. Lilias designed and embroidered for the Pankhursts a demonstration banner (now lost).[14][15]

Morley's two daughters attended the Royal Academy Schools. Julia Morley won a scholarship to study mural painting at the Slade School of Art before joining the Air Ministry Camouflage Department. She went on to become a professional painter and muralist.[16]

1920s

Harry Morley's Heloïse and Abelard, tempera and oil on canvas, 1926. (Private Collection)

By 1921 Harry Morley had been elected a member of the Art Workers' Guild. He joined the Society of Painters in Tempera two years later. The ethos and camaraderie of artist groups appealed to him. He was an active member of both organisations. The Society of Painters in Tempera frequently held their meetings in Morley's studio. John D. Batten, the painter-activist Mary Sargant Florence, Francis Ernest Jackson, Maxwell Armfield and Joseph Southall were among the many that attended. The revival of British interest in tempera painting had begun as early as 1901 with the formation of the Society. By the 1920s the medium was better understood. However, it was only after the Royal Academy of Arts' groundbreaking Italian Art at the Exhibition at Burlington House (1 January 1930 - 20 March 1930) that the Academy accepted contemporary tempera paintings in its Summer Exhibition. A tempera of Morley's was one of the thirty-six tempera paintings shown that first year.[17]

Morley was considered to be an 'artist's artist'. His pictures 'proclaim their dependence on the early Italian masters, not only by their oil and tempera technique but in their visual vocabulary'. The artist's 'strong sense of monumental form and spatial clarity' reflected his early training as an architect. Together with his use of clean lines, academic coolness and detachment, Morley's work is clearly distinguished from the narrative purpose and sentiment of the Pre-Raphaelites.[18]

Morley's principal concern was the mythological and biblical figure paintings in oil and tempera that he exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1912. In 1924 his tempera painting, Apollo and Marsyas was purchased for the Tate under the terms of the Chantrey Bequest. The 1920s and 1930s marked for Harry Morley a period of relative success and public recognition.

Printmaking

Harry Morley's Tarantella, line engraving, March 1929. (Private Collection)

Morley first took up etching in 1919 under the guidance of his friend and contemporary Malcolm Osborne RA RE. In 1928 he was persuaded by his younger friend and Osborne's assistant, Robert Austin RA PRE to try line engraving as the medium better 'suited his strong sense of form and taste for classical themes'.[19] In 1925, commissions to illustrate E. V. Lucas' A Wanderer in Rome (1926) and Edward Hutton's Cities of Sicily (1926) allowed Morley and his wife to return to Italy. For several years they spent a few months each Spring travelling and working in Italy. In 1928 they stayed with artist-friend Job Nixon sharing his studio in Anticoli Corrado. The following year, Robert Austin joined the Morleys in Anticoli. The two men went on pilgrimages in the Abruzzi hills in search of interesting subjects for their engravings.

While Morley's etchings are vigorous and experimental, his line engravings are precise and considered. Arguably, the engravings reveal the Arts and Crafts influence of his student days. They certainly reflect his knowledge and appreciation of Italian Quattrocento art. In 1930 Morley, Robert Austin and his brother Frederick Austin staged an exhibition at Leicester City Art Gallery.[20][21]

1930s

Despite the collapse of the art market during the economic depression that followed the 1929 Wall Street Crash, Morley continued to paint, engrave, and exhibit. In 1932, he reluctantly accepted a post at St. Martin's School of Art where for eight years he taught painting and life drawing two days a week. Portrait commissions also supplemented his income during the 1930s.[22][23] Morley's friend and Keeper of the Royal Academy Schools, Sir Walter Westley Russell invited him to attend the Schools as visiting teacher to critique students' work.

Morley was appointed to the Faculty of Engraving at the British School at Rome in 1931. He was elected Associate of the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) in 1927 and a full member in 1931. He served as RWS Vice President from 1937 to 1941. Having been nominated for Associate Membership of the Royal Academy of Arts (ARA) since 1921, he was eventually elected ARA in 1936.[24] That same year he was also elected Master of the Art Workers' Guild. A series of six articles by Morley on the 'Theory and Practice of Figure Painting in Oils' appeared in The Artist magazine between September 1936 to February 1937.

Morley's mythological and classical figure compositions helped establish his reputation and attract critical approval. By the mid 1930s, however, he had begun to experiment with a new approach to landscape painting, influenced in part by his longstanging admiration for the work of Paul Cézanne. Were it not for the disruption caused by World War II, his relocation out of London, his ill-health and early death, it is impossible to tell where this new direction might have led.

World War II

Harry Morley's The Tank Park oil on canvas, 1941 (Art.IWM ARTLD920)

Although Morley was energetic and hard working, a weak heart and lifelong asthma excluded him from active duty during both wars. In 1940 Morley was staying at the Bishop's Palace, Wells working on his portrait The Very Reverend Bishop Underwood of Bath and Wells when his London home and studio were damaged by a bomb. Though Lilias and Julia Morley were unharmed, pieces of the bomb were found in the back garden and the house and studio were uninhabitable. Morley and his family relocated to live with his newly-married daughter Beryl and her husband Captain John Castle. They shared a small cottage in Wool, Dorset near Bovington Camp where Castle trained soldiers to drive tanks.

The Ministry of Information provided Morley with a permit to produce drawings of the Camp. Other commissions followed including one to record the destruction at Southhampton docks. Morley also completed a number of short commissions for the War Artists' Advisory Committee. These paintings are now housed in the Imperial War Museum.[25] During his time at Wool, Morley suffered his first heart attack.

By 1943 Morley's London home and studio had been patched up enough for the couple to return home. He had remained determinedly cheerful. In letters to his daughter Julia, Morley relates how several artist friends who evacuated from London were either depressed or had even given up art. Hearing of a friend who despite advice had returned to London to sleep at his club and work in his studio by day, Morley wrote that he could hardly blame him for risking 'being bombed rather than bored'.[26]

During his last years Morley undertook several posthumous portrait commissions of men who had lost their lives in the war. Though glad of the income, he regretted the sad circumstances under which he was working. Weakened by a series of heart attacks and recurring bouts of asthma, Morley died at his London home on 18 September 1943. He was sixty-two years old.

Memberships

Morley was a Member or affiliated to the following organisations:

References

  1. ^ Beryl Castle & Julia Morley (1981). Harry Morley ARA 1881-1943, Painter, Etcher, Engraver. Leicestershire Museums. ISBN 0 85022 102 1.
  2. ^ "Harry Morley". Hargrave Fine Art. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  3. ^ a b Frances Spalding (1990). 20th Century Painters and Sculptors. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1 85149 106 6.
  4. ^ Benezit Dictionary of Artists Volume 9 Maele-Muller. Editions Grund, Paris. 2006. ISBN 2 7000 3079 6. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |authors= (help)
  5. ^ "Artist biography, Harry Morley". British Council. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Beryl Castle & Julia Morley (1981). Harry Morley ARA 1881-1943, Painter, Etcher, Engraver. Leicestershire Museums. ISBN 0 85022 102 1.
  7. ^ The Harry Morley Archive. Private Collection.
  8. ^ The Harry Morley Archive. Private Collection.
  9. ^ The Harry Morley Archive. Private Collection.
  10. ^ Beryl Castle & Julia Morley (1981). Harry Morley ARA 1881-1943, Painter, Etcher, Engraver. Leicestershire Museums. ISBN 0 85022 102 1.
  11. ^ Christian, John (ed.) (1989). The Last Romantics: the Romantic Tradition in British Art, Burne-Jones to Stanley Spencer. London: Barbican Art Gallery & Lund Humphries. p. 137. ISBN 0 85331 552 3. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
  12. ^ The Harry Morley Archive. Private Collection.
  13. ^ Christian, John (ed.) (1989). The Last Romantics: the Romantic Tradition in British Art, Burne-Jones to Stanley Spencer. London: Barbican Art Gallery & Lund Humphries. p. 137. ISBN 0 85331 552 3. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
  14. ^ The Harry Morley Archive. Private Collection.
  15. ^ Beck, Thomasina (2004). "A Quiet Advocate". Selvedge Magazine. 1 (1). PMID 1742-254X. {{cite journal}}: Check |pmid= value (help)
  16. ^ The Harry Morley Archive. Private Collection.
  17. ^ Sprague, Abbie N. (2005). 'The British Tempera Revival' in Joseph Southall (1861-1944) from the Fortunoff Collection. London: Fine Art Society and Antique Collectors Club. ISBN 9780905062174.
  18. ^ Christian, John (1988). Harry Morley ARA RWS RE (1881-1943). London: Milne and Moller. p. Introduction. ISBN 01 435 4400. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)
  19. ^ The Harry Morley Archive. Private Collection.
  20. ^ The Harry Morley Archive. Private Collection.
  21. ^ Beryl Castle & Julia Morley (1981). Harry Morley ARA 1881-1943, Painter, Etcher, Engraver. Leicestershire Museums. ISBN 0 85022 102 1.
  22. ^ The Harry Morley Archive. Private Collection.
  23. ^ Christian, John (ed.) (1989). The Last Romantics: the Romantic Tradition in British Art, Burne-Jones to Stanley Spencer. London: Barbican Art Gallery & Lund Humphries. p. 137. ISBN 0 85331 552 3. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
  24. ^ Beryl Castle & Julia Morley (1981). Harry Morley ARA 1881-1943, Painter, Etcher, Engraver. Leicestershire Museums. ISBN 0 85022 102 1.
  25. ^ "War artists archive". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  26. ^ The Harry Morley Archive. Private Collection.
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