BATLEY, Walter Daniel

1850 - 1936

Walter Daniel Batley was born at Westgate Street, Ipswich in 1850, second son of the five children of Henry Baring Batley (1809-9 July 1863), a plumber & glazier, and his wife Maria née Orford (21 June 1819-2 April 1904), who married at St Helen's Church, Ipswich on 5 October 1842. Owing to Walter’s poor health due to catching smallpox, in 1860 the family purchased a seaside cottage at Felixstowe where Walter lived with his mother who became a widow in 1863, but they retained a home in Ipswich. A student at Ipswich School of Art 1868-1873, living with his mother at 7 Norwich Road, Ipswich and went on to study at South Kensington School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools, London and in 1874 was lodging with his brother Henry in London. In 1874 was selected to copy the Raphael Cartoons for the government and, during the same year, won the South Kensington’s Gold Medal for his fine black & white drawing of a cast of an antique figure. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy from 2 Dane Villas, Lebanon Street, Wandsworth in 1875 and sent work until 1919, he also exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery, Manchester City Art Gallery, the Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. Walter was an artist, figures & landscapes, of 3 King Street, Ipswich and a founder member of the Ipswich Fine Art Club 1874-1936, and in 1881 he exhibited amongst others ‘Knights Templars Monument, Westminster Abbey’ and exhibited from 12 St Matthews Street, Ipswich in 1883 eight items ‘The Two Homes’, ‘Old Crag Pit, Suffolk’, ‘Near Lucerne, Switzerland’, ‘Market at Berne’, ‘The Wood in Russet Mantle Clad’, ‘Source of the Reuse, St Gothard’s’, ‘Midsummer’s Night at Lucerne’ and a drawing ‘Henley Toll Gate' he also exhibited at the Bury St Edmunds Fine Art Society 'Under the Opening Eye of Dawn', 'Foxhall Heath' and others and in 1889 at the Woodbridge Art Exhibition four oils 'The Gipping at Blakenham', 'Silent Night', Companions through Silent Night' and 'Amid Lingering Light'. Walter married at St Matthew’s church, Ipswich on 21 December 1878, Catherine (Katie) Emily Bird (20 January 1851-10 October 1939), second daughter of Buckingham Bird of 17 Westgate Street, Ipswich and their son Claude was born the following year. He lived at 12 St Matthew's Street, Ipswich until 1900 when he moved to ‘Little Roundwood’, Sidegate Lane, Ipswich with his wife and four of his children, Wilfred, Eva Alice, Vera and Sybil from where he again exhibited at the Ipswich Fine Art Club in 1915 five works, 'Bathers, Foxhall Heath', 'Bawdsey', 'Rising Mist', 'In a Wood' and 'Greenwich Farm Lane, Ipswich'. Walter, after living for a brief time in Felixstowe where he exhibited from Westwood, Felixstowe in 1923 a watercolour 'Dawn on the North Sea' and two oils 'Sandy Lane, Ipswich' and 'Early Morning Spring', in 1928 they finally settled at ‘The Anchorage’, 129 Cauldwell Hall Road, Ipswich from where in 1932 he exhibited an oil 'Gainsborough Lane' and a further two in 1933. He was also a member and exhibitor at the Norfolk & Norwich Art Circle in 1932. One of Walter's 'indiscretions' was in 1918 for 'unlawfully sketching' some war defences at Milford, Hampshire for which he was fined £5.15s.6d and the sketch ordered to be destroyed. Walter Daniel Batley died at the Ipswich & East Suffolk Hospital on 29 September 1936.

Royal Academy exhibits
from 2 Dane Villas, Lebanon Street, Wandsworth
1875 849 How calm...when the Storms are Gone
from 143 Woodbridge Road, Ipswich
1878 1378 Cottage Homes
1882 140 Old Crag Pit, Suffolk
from 12 St Matthew's Street, Ipswich
1886 401 'Without o'erflowing, full'
         767 A Suffolk Scene
1887 316 A Silent Shore
         441 Now May again break Winter's Chain
         471 Time Honoured Occupation
         642 O'er Silence Heath on Lonely Mere
1888 339 For Nature Smiles as Sweet...
         809 Companions through the Silent Night
1889 305 Her Heart is over the Sea
         473 When Smiling Spring its Early Visit Pays
1891 596 Golden Autumn
         890 Moonrise: on the Orwell
1893 597 The Heronry, Orwell Park, Suffolk
from Little Roundwood, Ipswich
1897 18 Spring
         1154 Spring, Sole Bay, Suffolk
1899 1177 Moonrise
1901 87 Struggling Moonbeam’s Misty Light
1905 53 Watergate Bay, Cornwall
1906 357 A Woodland Glade, Woolverstone Park, Suffolk
1909 587 A Haystack
1913 472 Kesgrave, Suffolk
1919 85 When the Hedges are brown, and the Trees are bare

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Works by This Artist