Mr and Mrs RH Butler and their Children by B Fleetwood-Walker. Courtesy Wolverhampton Art Gallery
A new exhibition featuring paintings by Birmingham-born artist, Bernard Fleetwood-Walker runs until July 7 2007 at Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
The first in a series of spotlight exhibitions exploring in detail a particular strand of an artist’s work, the exhibition focuses on the artist’s life and work during the 1930s and provides an insight into the vision of British family life between the wars.
In his time Fleetwood-Walker managed to build an international reputation as a portrait and child painter. A well-known figure in the West Midlands, he was a member of the Birmingham Society of Artists, of which he was president from 1950, as well as head of painting at the Birmingham School of Arts and Crafts until his retirement to Chelsea in 1951.
Joan by B Fleetwood-Walker. Courtesy of UCE, Birmingham Institute of Art and Design Archives
Thenceforth he solidified his ties with the Royal Academy by devoting more time to his students at the Royal Academy Schools, where he was Assistant Keeper from 1956 until his death in 1965.
The exhibition in the Spotlight Gallery is the last before Wolverhampton Art Gallery re-opens its £6.7 million extension to the public on March 31 2007 and is designed to have a strong appeal local people and families.
Several family group portraits are featured; including those of a famous local family, the Butlers, who set up the famous Midlands-based brewery, Mitchells and Butlers.
The exhibition is the first in the gallery's Spotlight series, which looks at a particular strand of an artist's work. Courtesy Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Elsewhere middle class families and their children are depicted in a variety of idyllic and often pastoral settings – picnicking or merely relaxing in the countryside.
A portrait of a melancholy girl reclining, Joan, shows how Fleetwood-Walker could paint in a relaxed but somehow formal style, whilst other pieces, in particular his family and group portraits, reveal an artist who meticulously plotted his canvases.
Amity, a portrait of a young boy and a girl picnicking together, perhaps best reveals his skill as a draughtsman as well as a portrait painter who revelled in a formal approach to composition.
Amity by B Fleetwood-Walker. Courtesy of the Estate of Mrs P Fleetwood-Walker
Wolverhampton Museum spokesperson Vicky Godfrey added: “Many people from the region will remember Bernard Fleetwood-Walker through his previous links with Wolverhampton, and it is a great chance to see what life was like for the middle classes in the 1930s.”
Nicola Walker, the grand daughter of Fleetwood-Walker, has set up an online archive, www.fleetwood-walker.co.uk for people interested in finding find out more about the artist.
