DOWNS, Edgar

1876 - 1963

Edgar Downs was born at Claughton-cum-Grange, Birkenhead on 12 October 1876 and baptised on 3 December 1876, son of Dublin born William Downs, an export beer merchant, and his wife Margaret Stuart, only daughter of David Stuart of The Firs, Claughton, Birkenhead, who married at Claughton on 7 July 1870. In 1881, Edgar was a four-year-old living at Upton Overchurch, Wirral, Cheshire with his parents 43-year-old William and 38-year-old Margaret with siblings Stuart 9 and Mary McHenry 6, both born at Birkenhead, with four indoor servants. Edgar studied at Birkenhead School of Art and the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, from where he received a silver medal. An animal painter in oil, and in Kelly's Directory of Suffolk 1904-1912, is listed as an artist living at 'Poplars', Nayland, near Sudbury, Suffolk and was a contributor to 'The Sketch' 1910-1912. During the First World War he served as a war artist with spells at Gallipoli in 1915 and Salonica in 1916. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and at the Cheltenham Municipal Art Gallery from Arun House at Clymping, West Sussex in 1930 'The Edge of the Wood' and was a member and exhibitor at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters where in 1911 he exhibited an oil 'Suffolk Meadow' also showing at the Royal Academy; London Sketch Club; Dudley Art Society; Chelsea Art Society; Royal Cambrian Academy of Art and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. He married at East Preston, Sussex in 1922, Isabella Anne, widow of Herbert Lyne Geoghegan, née Pickthorn (1866-1949) her late husband was a Fleet Surgeon in the Royal Navy and was killed in action at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 and in 1927 Edgar and his wife were living at Arun House, Clymping, Littlehampton, Hampshire. In 1939, an artist, living at Brix Mudeford, near Christchurch, Hampshire with his wife Isabella, and three indoor servants. Edgar Downs died at Brix Mudeford on 8 March 1963, leaving £60,000. His oil 'Geese in a Field' was sold at Sotheby's Chester in 1987 for £2,035. He signed his works 'E. Downs'.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 57 Bedford Gardens, Kensington, London
1907 608 In the Sweat of the Night
from 12 Bedford Gardens, Kensington, London
1911 675 Our Daily Bread
         724 The Edge of the Bog
1912 131 The Donkey Cart
         771 Mother Earth
         789 At the Gate
from 18 Ravenscourt Square, West London
1913 87 Toil
         551 The Edge of the Wood
1914 346 Carting Seaweed
1919 425 The Forge
1922 67 The Stable
         485 Donkey and Foal
         553 A Quiet Corner
from Arun House, Clymping, near Littlehampton
1924 148 The Edge of the Wood
         338 Low Tide
1925 195 The Shore
         281 Field Work

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Works by This Artist