HAGREEN, Wat

1811 - 1866

George Walter Hagreen, known as Wat, was born at Bury St Edmund’s, Suffolk on 2 June 1811, eldest son of James Hagreen (9 January 1786-28 February 1860), a furrier & straw-hat maker, and his first wife Fanny née Harrold (1785-1821), who marred at Bury St Edmund's on 25 May 1809. Wat, who was a half-brother to Henry Browne Hagreen, was a draughtsman, etcher, painter, carver, and church decorator, who in the 1840s was living in the Butter Market, with a studio at Fore Street, Ipswich, where he discovered an overmantel with painted panels and an inscription which showed that it was formerly the home of explorer Thomas Eldred (1562-1624). In 1851, an unmarried ‘etcher’, lodging at 1 Bibby Place, Lambeth, London, the home of Robert Groome, a tobacconist, and his wife Mary. Wat married at Lambeth on 26 August 1856, 33-year-old Catherine Smith and in 1861, they were living at 3 Paris Street, Lambeth with their two daughters Kate 4 and Mary 1. He collaborated with Frederick Brett Russel, who did the watercolours, in etchings for Hollingsworth’s 'Stowmarket' (1843) also 'Picturesque Antiquities of Ipswich' (1845) and Austin’s 'History of Chelsworth' (1850) and several others. George Walter Hagreen died at Wimborne Minster, Dorset on 16 September 1866, aged 55, leaving a widow and four children, including a 1-year-old namesake son.

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Works by This Artist