SQUIRRELL, Leonard

1893 - 1979

Leonard Russell Squirrell was born at Ipswich on 30 October 1893, son of Frank Squirrell (1 December 1866-1947), a carpenter, and his first wife Henrietta née Clemmence (1863-1902), who married at Ipswich in 1889. As a boy, Leonard lived at 82 Spring Road, Ipswich with his brother and widowed father, together with a housekeeper until 1905, when his father married again, Alice Lucy Watson (8 November 1874-1946). In 1911, Leonard was a 17-year-old art student, still living at 82 Spring Road with his 44-year-old father, 36-year-old stepmother, 19-year-old elder brother Sydney Frank (1891-1968) and his stepbrother, 2-year-old Leslie Watson (1909-1987). Leonard was educated at the British School in Ipswich and in 1908 joined the Ipswich School of Art as a full-time student under George Rushton and remained there until 1916. In 1913, one of his water-colours was exhibited at the Royal Academy and he exhibited in every year 1915-1959 and in 1915 he won the British Institution scholarship in engraving. In 1918 he returned to Ipswich Art School and in 1920, on the recommendation of Rushton, entered the Slade School of Fine Art in London under Professor Henry Tonks (1862-1937) and Philip Wilson Steer. On leaving Slade he travelled to Italy and France producing etchings related to the landscape and received gold medals at the International Print Makers Exhibitions in Los Angeles in 1925 and 1930 and a silver in 1923. Briefly a member and exhibitor at Norfolk & Norwich Art Circle in 1932 but was a member of the Ipswich Art Club from 1914 until his death, exhibiting from 69 Foxhall Road, Ipswich in 1927, twelve watercolours and was a prolific exhibitor and at the centenary in 1974 he had on show 'Framlingham Castle from the Air', 'Barden Tower, on the Wharfe', 'Autumn Sunshine, Bramford', 'From the Church Tower, Framlingham' and 'the late James Martin' and in 1977 exhibited from Merrydown, Witnesham, near Ipswich 'A Little Market at Whitby' and 'Bodiam Castle, Sussex' but was a regular annual exhibitor also exhibiting at Tibbenham's Art Gallery, Upper Brook Street, Ipswich in 1943, 'The Forge', 'Ramborough Sands', 'Blakenham Bridge-Summer Afternoon', 'Barn at Kirkham Farm, Cotswolds', 'Morning at Tuddenham' and a dryprint 'Bamborough Castle', an aquatint 'Morning at Durham', an etching 'Top of Street-Kersey' and a mezzotint 'Haddiscoe Church, Norfolk' which he exhibited at the Royal Academy. Squirrell published 'Landscape Painting in Pastel' (1938), and 'Practice in Watercolour' (1950). As well as being a prolific watercolourist, he produced several railway carriage prints and glowing railway posters as well as images for local commercial companies such as Ransomes, Sims & Jeffries and Fisons Fertilizers. In 1929 he succeeded Charles Edward Baskett in teaching etching at the Ipswich School of Art where he remained until 1940, living firstly in Foxhall Road before moving to 46 Crabbe Street, Ipswich. Squirrell was on the council of the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours and the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers and also exhibited at the Abbey Gallery; Connell & Sons Gallery; Fine Art Society; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Walker Art Gallery; Manchester City Art Gallery; New English Art Club; Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers; Royal Hibernian Academy; Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour and the Royal Scottish Academy. He married in 1923, Hilda Victoria Bird, Hilda Victoria Squirrell, having a son Martin Squirrell and a daughter Annette Squirrell. He lived at 'Greenwood', Crabbe Street, Ipswich and retired to Merrydown, Witnesham, Suffolk where his wife Hilda died in 1972, aged 72 and where Leonard Russell Squirrell died on 10 July 1979. His only son Martin was also a gifted artist and died in 1950 at the early age of 24. Leonard is represented in many collections locally and internationally. In 2010, a blue plaque was installed at 82 Spring Road, Ipswich where the artist had spent his childhood. He signed his works 'Leonard R. Squirrell' but occasionally with initials only.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 72 Belle Vue Road, Ipswich
1913 1544 The Maltster’s Domain
1915 202 Old Wharf at Ipswich
252 The Rainbow
1916 236 Debenham, Suffolk
330 The Bridge, Misty Moonlight
332 A February Sunset, Ipswich
1917 1267 The Entrance, Freston Wood
         1276 November Moonlight
         1278 In Freston Wood
1918 1259 A Meadow Bridge
         1280 Holmhill Farm
1919 1190 Wet September
         1196 The Sunny Hill
         1304 Playford Hall, Suffolk
1920 1051 The Storm Child – aquatint
1080 Knaresborough – charcoal
1095 Barden Tower, Yorkshire – charcoal
1921 864 Portrait of an Old Woman
         877 A Derbyshire Valley – charcoal
         879 Moonlight, Dove Dale – charcoal
1922 1079 A Morning Dell, Suffolk
         1090 The Great Hoarding, Strand
1923 1119 Early Spring in Suffolk
from 69 Foxhall Road, Ipswich
1924 1030 Notre Dame, Paris
1043 Fondamenta Bragadin, Venice
1114 The Shadowed Within
1925 927 Sun and Storm in Suffolk
1001 The Hill Top
1926 1094 Bulwarks of France: Night at Dieppe
1927 757 Villeneuve-Les-Avignon
1129 Strand Gate, Winchester
1196 Les Baux, Provence
1928 772 Fierole and the Hills of Tuscany
849 Notre Dame Paris
1143 Roquebrune and the Monte Carlo Road
1929 651 The Sunny Hill
         672 The Old Town, San Remo
         1066 The Washing Place, Sospel
1930 1170 A View of Ipswich in 1929
1190 An Ancient Glory of East Anglia
1931 1178 The Trees at Barnard Castle
1210 Bamburgh Castle
1932 872 Housetops of Old Ipswich
948 Norwich from Crown Point
1073 From the Tyne Bridge, Newcastle
from 46 Crabbe Street, Ipswich
1933 814 The Frontier Bridge, Mentone
1206 Richmond, Yorkshire
1210 Morning at Ventimiglia
1934 898 Ipswich from Stone Lodge Lane
1136 The Palace of the Popes, Avignon
1291 Wymondham Abbey Church, Norfolk
1935 875 A Hamel in Green Dovedale
         1223 Sun and Shadow at Tintern
         1295 Castle Acre Priory, Norfolk
1936 1200 A Basket Shop, Dieppe
1234 High Force, Tees-Dale
1937 746 Tall Corners, Paris
925 Conisborough Castle
1242 Stormy Sun on a Chalk-pit
1938 767 Twelve Black Huts at Hastings
942 Walberswick form Southwold Common
1121 Cley Church, Norfolk
1939 303 Fragment of Chester
         892 Sunlit Chalk-pit, Needham Market, Suffolk
1940 800 Heart of Paris
         1228 The Customs House, Kings Lynn
         1251 Cromer
1941 789 Haddiscoe Church, Norfolk
808 Walberswick Ferry, Suffolk
1942 661 Terrington St Clement, Norfolk., the “Cathedral of the Fens” - mezzotint
1943 663 Souvenir of Summer
1944 801 East Anglian Seaboard. Cromer from Beeston Hill
830 A Farm at Tuddenham, Suffolk
833 St Paul’s Triumphant
1945 838 Houses on a Hill, Marseilles
         968 Chalk-pit and a Suffolk skyline
         971 Inverlochy Castle, Fort William
1946 829 Near St Osyth, Essex
928 Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland
939 Looking West from Scunthorpe
1947 826 Ely
1948 745 Cloud Shadows over Winchester
797 The Brooding Towe, Richmond, Yorkshire
920 Arcades and Dieppe
1949 952 Haddiscoe Church, Norfolk
1950 914 Old Folkestone
1168 Low Tide at Boston
1951 781 Golden Afternoon
979 Suffolk Coastline – etching
1952 1192 Trees by a Stream – mezzotint
1953 747 The Snowdon Range, from Harlech - watercolour
         904 The Keep, Kenilworth Castle - watercolour
         991 View of Salisbury - wash
1954 709 Ramsgate Harbour
802 Houses near Notre Dame, Paris
939 Caravan Dwellings, Dieppe
1955 709 Durham
810 Richmond, Yorkshire
819 The Market Place, Boston, Lincolnshire
1956 775 Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire
813 Prospect of Whitby, Yorkshire
882 The Abbey Church, Wymondham, Norfolk
1957 943 Mill Dale, Derbyshire
1958 887 Golden Afternoon, Knaresborough
1959 1038 Richmond, Yorkshire

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Works by This Artist