Londons Artists Houses

LONDON’S ARTISTS’ HOUSES BY COLIN PITT

First published 2020 Pembroke Publishers, Main Road, Hockley, Essex, SS5 4QY. © Colin Pitt 2020 The right of Colin Pitt to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

CONTENTS Chapter 1 Kensington and Holland Park....................................................................................................4 Chapter 2 Chelsea............................................................................................................................................. 42 Chapter 3 Hampstead and Primrose Hill....................................................................................................58 Chapter 4 Marylebone, St John’s Wood & Baron’s Court.......................................................................74

CHAPTER 1 KENSINGTON AND HOLLAND PARK In 1867 George Howard asked Philip Webb and William Morris to design and decorate a fifty room house for him opposite Kensington Palace at 1 Palace Green (now known as millionaire’s row). Webb had to revise the drawings and construction began in 1869. Burne-Jones, Morris & Co., and Walter Crane contributed to the interior decoration. In 1860-1862 W. M. Thackeray remodelled the house at 2 Palace Green. In 1869 F. P. Cockerell built a five storey house at 33-37 Palace Gate and he completed three more houses for painters and sculptors during the 1870’s and only his early death stopped him from keeping up with architect Richard Norman Shaw who had four painters’ commissions to his name by the end of 1871. In 1874 he undertook another at 196 Queens Gate, South Kensington for stockbroker J. P. Hesseltine and Shaw used the contractor W. H. Lascelles to start building it. At this time Richard Norman Shaw had plans for three more townhouses including a pair on the Chelsea riverfront (17-19 Chelsea Embankment) and one for himself in Hampstead (6 Ellerdale Road). Shaw was to build two houses in Melbury Road one at 8 Melbury Road, Kensington for Marcus Stone that was just over the fence from Leighton in Holland Park Road and another at No 11 (now No 31) Melbury Road, Kensington for Luke Fildes. The painting Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward (1874) bought Fildes to prominence. Fildes rose to Associate of the Royal Academy in 1879 and Fildes like Stone hoped that a house from Richard Norman Shaw would boost them to Royal Academy status. 4

KENSINGTON AND HOLLAND PARK The houses of Fildes and Stone were built at virtually the same time. Filde’s plans being dated August 1875, Stone’s dated September 1875 with Stone moving in early 1877, Filde’s moving in October 1877. The rivalry between the pair was revealed in a letter from Fildes to his brother-in-law artist Henry Woods. It was written in November 1876 where he speaks of his house: “it is a long way the most striking and most superior house of the lot. I consider it knocks Stone’s to bits tho’ of course he wouldn’t have that by what I hear he says of his but my opinion is the universal one.” Marcus Stone’s career as an illustrator was helped by Charles Dickens who had been a friend of Stone’s father Frank Stone. The Studio of Sir Frederick Leighton 5

KENSINGTON AND HOLLAND PARK Leighton House, 12 Holland Park Road. Built by George Aitchison, Leighton House was the home and studio of Lord Leighton (1830 - 1896), one of the most successful painters of his generation. Webb’s Gothic studio for Val Princep was next door. 6

KENSINGTON AND HOLLAND PARK The Studios, Holland Park Road (Val Prinsep’s house and Leighton House are in the distance. Val Princep’s house was at 1 Holland Park Road. 7

KENSINGTON AND HOLLAND PARK Studio-building in Hollland Park, that began with Val Prinsep’s house, was largely due to George Watts. George Watt’s house in Melbury Road was by F. P. Cockerell and George Aitchinson and built 1874-1880. Soon after Watts moved into 6 Melbury Road proposals to build houses on the next two plots west became known and were commissioned from the architect John Belcher by engineer and sculptor Thomas Thornycroft. Six artists were to move in, Thomas and Mary being the senior members. The Thorneycrafts had lived at 21 Wilton Place off Belgrave Square. Alyce was the eldest daughter. John Thorneycroft, the eldest surviving child took up engineering and founded the boatbuilding works J. I Thorneycroft and Company. Thomas Thorneycroft was elected ARA in 1881 and RA in 1888. 2a Melbury Rd, another studio, was added next door in 1891 again designed by John Belcher. Edward Sterling, husband of Marcus Stone’s sister, bought a double plot at 38 Sheffield Terrace, Kensington and his house was to be built by Alfred Waterhouse in 1876-1877. Others in Kensington included George Boughton at West House, 118 Campden Hill Road (by architect Richard Norman Shaw) and landscape painter Matthew Ridley Corbet at 80 Peel Street. A Dutch Sea-Side Resort by G. H. Boughton. 8

KENSINGTON AND HOLLAND PARK Sir John Millais’ house at 2 Palace Gate, Kensington was built 1873-1878 by Philip C. Hardwick. In 1885 Sir John Millais became the first English artist to accept a baronetcy. And in 1896 Millais took over the RA presidency from Lord Leighton who died in office that year. On the left is William Holman Hunt’s house at 18 Melbury Road. On the right above the blue plaque marks the sight of Colin Hunter’s house. Hunter was the fourth painter to commission a house in Melbury Road. Born in Glasgow in 1841 Colin Hunter’s first painting to be hung at the Royal Academy was ‘Taking in the Nets’ in 1868. The plot Hunter acquired in Melbury Road was on the bend just before it turned south to join Kensington High Street and it was opposite Luke Filde’s house in Melbury Road. Colin Hunter’s architect was J. J. Stevenson who had worked with George Gilbert Scott in London. Colin Hunter’s move to Lugar Lodge, Melbury Road was followed by his election to Associate of the Academy in 1884. 9

KENSINGTON AND HOLLAND PARK 1875 William Burges, architect, bought a plot of land in Melbury Road that was to the west of Luke Filde’s house. William Burges lived in tower house and was Filde’s immediate next door neighbour. The design stems from French domestic Gothic of the thirteenth century 10

KENSINGTON AND HOLLAND PARK It was only in 1887 when Luke Fildes had reached the fullness of his powers and was a Royal Academician elect that he painted a portrait. His wife was the first subject. This picture was exhibited in the Royal Academy exhibition of 1887 together with a portrait of Mrs W. Lockett Agnew. It was two years later before further portraits were exhibited and in the exhibition at Burlington House, in 1889 appeared “Sisters,” being portrait of two young ladies – the Misses Renton – one seated and the other standing. Commissions now came in for portraits almost faster than the painter wished, and Luke Fildes had more commissions that he could possibly satisfy. The Academy of 1890 contained, besides a portrait of a lady, Mrs Thomas Agnew, and the Academy of 1891, the same exhibition that contained ‘The Doctor’, a portrait of Mrs Lockett Agnew, another smaller work of brilliant success. To the exhibition of 1892 Mr Filde’s sent no less than five portraits, four of them ladies – Mrs Edwin Tate, daughter-in-law of the owner of ‘The Doctor’; Miss Ethel Ismay, Mrs Herbert S. Leon, and Mrs Bibby. In 1893 a further development took place when Mr Luke Fildes exhibited his first man’s portrait – Mr G. B. Wieland, a presentation picture to the retiring secretary of the North British Railway. Sacrifice by Marcus Stone. 11

LONDON’S ARTISTS’ HOUSES BY COLIN PITT The homes of artists from those in Holland Park and Chelsea to studios such as Chelsea Studios, Pembroke Studios, Glebe Studios, Wychcombe Studios and Primrose Hill Studios all feature in this book about how artists came to congregate around Melbury Road and Glebe Place. PEMBROKE £14.99/$25.95 PUBLISHERS ISBN 978-1-8381757-0-2 02595 9 781838 175702 www.pembrokepublishers.co.uk Pembroke Publishers, Main Road, Hockley, Essex SS5 4QY. 12