MARNY, Paul

c.1829 - 1914

Charles Paul Marny, his real name was Charles Paul Godard, was born in Paris around 1829, in 1871 he gives his age as 35, but at his death in 1914, his age is given as 85. A porcelain decorator for the Sèvres factory before moving to Belfast to work with a French architect where he may have assumed the Irish name of Marny. In 1860, he was persuaded by photographer Olivier Francois Xavier Sarony (c.1820-1879) to move to Scarborough where he taught Albert Strange (1855-1917) and many other Scarborough artists and visited France from time to time but remained living in Scarborough. In 1871, a 35[sic] year old artist painter, living at Olivier Villa, Falsgrove, Scarborough with a 23-year-old wife Claire and father[-in-law?], 71-year-old Lione Frirek, all born in France. In 1874 the 'British Photographic Journal' reported that 'A Gallic brother, M[onsieur] Paul Marny Godard of Paris, has obtained a patent for the application of carbon printing to porcelain or other similar substances'. Although not making much money at first, in 1878 his work came to the attention of a local art dealer John Linn, who made an arrangement to take all his paintings in return for a stipend of £5 per week. He painted many scenes of France and the Continent, from memory and of local scenes in Yorkshire, always in watercolour and signed his work with a monogram, a 'M' split into two parts. In 1893, he is recorded as 'artist at 12 Royal Avenue, South Cliff, Scarborough. A member of the Ipswich Art Club 1897-1898 and exhibited from Esplanade, Scarborough in 1897 six watercolours, 'Durham Cathedral', 'Street at Rouen, Normandy', 'The Old Buss Tower, Rouen', 'Evreux, Normandy', 'Barfleur, Normandy' and 'Venice' and his watercolour 'Continental Riverside Town' was on show at the Ipswich Art Club 1974 centenary exhibition. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy and at the Paris Salon in 1857. In 1911, an 81-year-old artist painter living at 30 Westbourne Grove, Scarborough with his 63-year-old wife Claire, born in France. Both Paul and his wife died at Scarborough in 1914, Claire F. in the 3rd quarter aged 66 and, both as Charles Paul Marny and Charles Paul Godard, was of 30 Westbourne Grove, Scarborough when he died at 71 Westborough, Scarborough on 24 October, aged 85, when his effects were valued at £70.0.7d, they had no issue. His famous painting 'Scarborough from White Nabb' is in Scarborough Art Gallery and other works are in galleries in Birkenhead, Lincoln, Scarborough, and Whitby. It is reputed that artist William Edwin Tindall (1863-1938) was his brother-in-law, but Tindall married a young Doncaster girl, Alice Booth in 1884.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from Flowergate Cross, Whitby
1890 1275 Saumer-upon-Loire, France - watercolour

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Works by This Artist