Hits: 493
Category: PAINTERS
Harold Wyllie (1880-1973) was the eldest son of William Lionel Wyllie. He studied under his father and shared his fascination with naval history.
Harold Wyllie was particularly interested in the development of the sailing ship and devoted himself to in-depth research eventually becoming a recognized expert on the subject. He exhibited at the Royal Institute, at the Royal Academy from 1905-1924, and was a founding member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists, of which he was vice-president in 1858. He served as Honorable Marine Painter to the Royal Yacht Squadron, Cowes, from 1934-1946, although only a handful of his yachting paintings in oil are known to exist. This is the only one of the America’s Cup as far as we are aware.
Harold Wyllie (1880–1973)
Marine painter, sculptor and engraver, born in London. Was the son of the marine artist William Lionel Wyllie and married the portrait painter Euphans Hilary Strain. Harold Wyllie was intended for the Navy, but failed his examinations and turned to art. In 1898 he went to New York as a special artist for The Graphic, then served in South Africa during the Boer War. For part of World War I he was a pilot with the Royal Flying Corps, then gained a commission in the Army, which he left in 1920 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Wyllie was then a student with Frank Short, having prior to the war studied with his father, Thomas Graham Jackson and Edwin Austin Abbey, the American painter. Acknowledged as an expert on shipping matters, Wyllie was in 1932 called on to supervise restoration of the Implacable.
He listed nautical research as his recreation to the end. He was honorary marine painter to the Royal Yacht Squadron, 1934, and served with the Navy in World War II. Exhibited RA, RI, Leicester Galleries and Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. The Imperial War Museum and the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, hold his work. Lived in Perthshire, Scotland.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
| Harold Wyllie : The 1930 America's Cup off Newport - Shamrock V and Enterprise |
 |
