Walter Langley

Painting, Visual Artist

1852 – 1922

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Who was Walter Langley?

Walter Langley was an English painter and founder of the Newlyn School of plein air artists. He was born in Birmingham and his father was a journeyman tailor. At 15 he was apprenticed to a lithographer. At 21 he won a scholarship to South Kensington and he studied designing there for two years. The sometimes highly ornate work is mainly in gold and silver and in a Renaissancestyle. He returned to Birmingham but took up painting full-time, and in 1881 was elected an Associate of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. In the same year he was offered £500 for a year's work by a Mr Thrupp. With this money he and his family moved to Newlyn where he was one of the first artists to settle.

Politically left wing for his era, he was noted for his social realist portrayals of working class figures, particularly fishermen and their families. He was a supporter of Charles Bradlaugh, a radical socialist politician. Many of his paintings reflect his sympathy with the working-class fisher-folk amongst whom he lived. One of the best known is his 1883 For Men Must Work and Women Must Weep based on Charles Kingsley's poem The Three Fishers. Another is Between The Tides.

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Born
Jun 8, 1852
Birmingham
Nationality
  • England
Died
Mar 21, 1922
Penzance

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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