John St Helier Lander

Who was John St Helier Lander?

John St Helier Lander was a noted portrait painter. Born John Helier Lander, he added the St. to acknowledge his birthplace of Saint Helier in the Channel Islands. He was given his first paint box by Lillie Langtry, the famous beauty, actress and mistress of the Prince of Wales, later to become Edward VII. He studied at Calderon's School.

On leaving school, he was sent to become a watchmaker at the age of fifteen, but spent so much time drawing that he was taken away and allowed to paint. On reaching the age of seventeen and having sold some of his pictures, he went to London to study in an art school. Although he remained there a year, he hated the school. He was invited to breakfast with Sir John Everett Millais, a fellow Jerseyman, who advised him to continue his artistic career and to go to Paris. In Paris he studied at the Académie Julian under William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Fleury.

After a year in Paris he returned to London to enter the Royal Academy Schools where he stayed for three years, before returning to Jersey and setting up a studio, taking Millais and Walter William Ouless, another distinguished fellow Jerseyman, as ideals in the art of portrait painting.