RIDLEY ART CLUB
Ridley Art Club was founded in 1889 by the students of painter Matthew White Ridley (12 December 1837-2 June 1888), the painter etcher who was born in Newcastle in 1837 and who studied in Paris in the 1860s with James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier (1834–1896), Valentine Cameron Prinseps (1838-1904) and other 'greats'. He opened an art school in Notting Hill and after his sudden death in 1888 his students formed themselves into 'The Ridley Art Club', originally membership was confined to Ridley students and their friends but later attracted many other artists. Their first exhibition was held at Queen's Gate Hall, Harrington Road, South Kensington from Friday 1 November 1889 but later exhibitions were at the Conduit Street Gallery until 1893 then at the Grafton Galleries, where they held its 25th anniversary exhibition 'Artists in Tableaux' in 1912. In 1926 they were exhibiting from Spring Garden Galleries in New Bond Street, but the following year from New Burlington Galleries and later at various London galleries. By 1977 it was known at the Ridley Art Society when they held their 80th exhibition at the Alpine Club Gallery. The Ridley Art Society was still in existence in the year 2000 with some fifty members worldwide and is made up of painters, sculptors and printmakers and held its annual exhibition at the Atrium Gallery, Houghton Street in London. Artists that have exhibited with the Ridley Art Club include Harry Becker, Frank William Brangwyn (1867-1956), Charles Edward Conder (1868-1909), Adrian Durham Stokes (1902-1972) and George Frederick Watts (1817-1904). Suffolk artist who have exhibited with Ridley include Wilfred Muir Evans, Jack Leslie Fairhurst, Charlotte Mary Monier-Williams, Malcolm Osborne, James Kidwell Popham and Arthur Dacres Rendall.