EAST, Sir Afred Edward

1844 - 1913

Alfred Edward East was born at Lower Street, Kettering, Northamptonshire on 15 December 1844, youngest child of Benjamin East (1796-1882), a shoe clicker, and his wife Elizabeth née Wright (1799-1876), who married at Kettering on 13 October 1817. In 1851, Alfred was a 6-year-old, living at Lower Street, with his parents, 55-year-old Benjamin and 52-year-old Elizabeth with two of his several siblings, Emily 14 and Mary Jane 12, both born at Kettering. Alfred attended the local grammar school and took up his father's occupation as a shoe clicker before becoming a commercial traveller in boots & shoes and was a partner in Charles East & Co., shoe manufacturers at Kettering. In 1871, he was boarding at 5 Queen Street, St George's, Glasgow and studying at the Glasgow School of Art, later studying at Académie Julian and L'Ecole Des Beaux Arts, under William-Adolphe Bougereau (1825-1905), in Paris. He married at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire in 1874, (Sarah) Annie Heath and in 1881, a 36-year-old married artist, staying at his brother-in-law's home at High Street, Street, Somerset with fellow artist, 36-year-old Alfred Townsend (1846-1917). In 1891, a 46-year-old artist painter, living at 14 Adamson Road, Hampstead, London with his 41-year-old wife Annie with four of their five children, Alfred 13, Gertrude 12 and Annie 9, all born in Scotland, and newly born Mildred who was born at Hampstead. By 1901 they had moved to their final home at 49 Belsize Park, Hampstead. His romantic landscapes show the influence of the Barbizon School and in April 1888 he had shared an exhibition at the galleries of the Fine Art Society with Thomas Cooper Gotch (1854-1931) and William Ayerst Ingram (1855-1913), and the following year was commissioned by Marcus Bourne Huish (1843-1921), Managing Director of the Society, to spend six months in Japan to paint the landscape and the people of the country and an exhibition of the 104 paintings from this tour, was held at the Fine Art Society in 1890 which was a spectacular success. Elected an Associate of the Royal Academy on 31 January 1899, having been a regular exhibitor since 1883, and elected a full academician 1 July 1913, when his year of birth is incorrectly given as 1849, his watercolour 'Lee Manor Farm' was sold at the Royal Academy in 1900 for the then considerable sum of £150. In 1906 elected President of the Royal Society of British Artists, a position he held until his death. In the same year he published his 107-page illustrated 'The Art of Landscape Painting in Oil Colour' in which he described his techniques using colours, half-tones and pencil sketches. He travelled extensively, both in England and in Europe, and was a member and exhibitor at the Woodpecker Sketch Club, later named the Norfolk and Norwich Art Circle, in 1904 and of the Ipswich Fine Art Club in 1909 in which year he exhibited an oil 'The Shepherd's Walk, Windermere'. In 1910, King Edward VII knighted Alfred Edward East. The Alfred East Art Gallery in Kettering, designed by John Alfred Gotch, was opened on 31 July 1913 and is Northamptonshire's oldest purpose-built art gallery. Sir Alfred Edward East died at Belsize Park, Hampstead on 28 September 1913, when his body was taken back to Kettering and lay in state in the Art Gallery, where it was surrounded by the pictures he had presented to the town. Philip de Laszlo painted his portrait.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 65 West Regent Street, Glasgow
1883 178 A Dewy Morning
         951 Evening Shadows - watercolour
         1014 The First at the Fair - watercolour
1884 411 A Wintry Dirge
         467 Full Tide after a Storm
from 14 Adamson Road, Belsize Park, Northwest London
1885 241 Where the Sunlight Lingers
         351 The Dark Island
         1029 A Spring Melody
         1241 The Village Ferry - watercolour
1887 131 The Land between the Lochs
         608 An Autumn Afterglow
1888 461 An Autumn Morning
         492 A Frosty Sunse
1889 301 A Gleam before the Gloaming
1890 1104 October Glow: Yardley Woods
1891 142 'Reedy mere and sunlit hills'
1892 104 Hayle, from Lelant, Cornwall
         591 Autumn Afternoon
from 4 Grove End Road, St John's Wood, Northwest London
1893 809 Newby Bridge, Windermere
         837 The Golden Valley
1894 336 The Lonely Road
         364 A Sunlit Harbour
1895 516 Autumn Haze
         575 Midland Meadows
from 2 Spencer Street, Victoria Street, Southwest London
1896 382 A Pastoral
         648 The Valley of the Chess
1897 418 The Sleepy River Somme
         597 The Silence of the Morning
1898 872 An Evening Song
         930 Opulent Autumn
1899 220 The Monks' Pool, Breadsell Priory
         296 A Combe in the Cotswolds
         441 The Shepherd's Walk, Windermere
         601 The Miller's Daughter
1900 92 Early Morning in the Nene Valley
         268 A Morning Moon
         544 Lake Bourget from Mt. Revard
         1193 Lee Manor Lane - watercolour
1901 16 In the Cotswolds
         353 The Citadel, Cairo
         486 A Gleam before the Storm
         835 The Edge of the Somme
1902 132 The Valley of the Lambourne
         294 Morning Sunshine
         696 Idyll of Como
         733 Gibraltar from Argeçiras, Spain
1903 249 Tintern, in the Valley of the Wye
         468 Morning in a Berkshire Meadow
         473 The Turn of the Road
         761 The Castle of Coeur de Lion (Chateau Gaillard)
1904 70 Cairo
         334 Morning at Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais
         525 Land of the Rising Sun: Fuji Yama from above Hakone
         786 The End of the Vintage: Rhone Valley
1905 108 In the Thames Valley
         148 Dance and Provencal Song
         334 Early Morning in the Cotswolds
         741 Autumn in the Valley of the Ouse
1906 131 A Midland Valley
         479 Haro-no-Yuki (Snow in Spring)
         544 Algeçiras, Spain
         956 In Sicily - watercolour
1907 199 Old Durham
         275 The Aftermath
         560 A Storm in the Midlands
         882 The Nuns' Garden
         965 The Cathedral Church, Algeçiras - watercolour
         971 In Andalucia - watercolour
1908 11 A Wooded Corner in the Cotswolds
         157 Outside the Bull Ring, Algeçiras
         861 Serenity in the Morning
         986 A New Neighbourhood
         1120 A Wet Day at Knaresborough - watercolour
         1139 Winter in a Swiss Valley - watercolour
1909 146 Lavingdon Water
         223 Rochester
         434 Amberley Bridge
         450 A Sicilian Wedding
         765 The Happiest Day: Ronda, Spain - watercolour
         769 Amersham - watercolour
1910 21 Autumn in the Valley of the Seine
         157 The Green Pool
         279 Morning Sunshine
         318 A View from the Bungalow, Rivington, Lancashire
         902 In Lever Park - watercolour
         908 A Spanish Carnival, Algeçiras - watercolour
1911 12 The Foot Bridge
         124 A Lancashire Valley
         147 A Spanish Landscape
         248 Rivington Water
         922 The Enchanted Castle - watercolour
         948 At Bushey Mill - watercolour
1912 156 A Tranquil River
         450 Autumn in England
         464 Under the Wold
         802 A Castle in Spain
         999 The Market Place, Taormina - watercolour
         1024 In Sicily - watercolour
1913 168 From Rivington Point, Bolton
         504 The Rainbow
         962 Etna in Sunshine - watercolour
         1060 Etna in Gloom - watercolour
the late
1914 320 Evening in the Cotswolds
         358 Mid-day Sunshine
         479 Richmond, Yorkshire
         716 Afternoon in Gloucestershire
         930 The Meadow Pool

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Works by This Artist