VAN SOMEREN, Edmund

1875 - 1963

Edmund Lawrence Van Someren was born at Bangalore, India on 4 July 1875, son of Col. Gotlieb James Van Someren (3 July 1842-13 January 1915) of the Indian Army, and his wife Sarah née Marsden (27 June 1849-11 January 1919), who married at Bangalore on 15 July 1868. Edmund was educated at Linton House School, Worthing followed by a period under a private tutor and then at Dresden Academy and, on returning to England, in 1893 studied for the entrance examination for the Royal Academy Schools, succeeding two years later. At the outbreak of the South African Wars, following family tradition, he was commissioned into the Lancashire Fusiliers and served in the Boer Wars and at the peace, established an Academy of Painting in Cape Town where he painted several important portraits. He returned to England in 1906 taking a studio in Chelsea and married at St Simon Zelotes, Milner Street, Chelsea on 7 February 1912, Hildegarde Mary Fullerton (13 February 1870–3 June 1942), daughter of Revd Charles Garth Fullerton (1838-1890) and his wife Catherine Lucy née Kenney-Herbert. Van Someren exhibited at the Royal Academy and was elected to the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1912. He also exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery; New English Art Club; New Gallery; Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Royal Scottish Academy. At the outbreak of the First World War, he re-joined his regiment, serving as a major in both France and Belgium before resigning his commission in 1920. After a time at Chelsea, in 1927 he came to Suffolk, living at Melton House, near Woodbridge where he began painting the Suffolk countryside but continued with his portrait painting also giving lectures on art and artists. A member of the Ipswich Art Club 1923-1937 and exhibited from Melton House, Woodbridge, Suffolk in 1923 five works, four oils 'Wilford Bridge', 'Low Tide on the Deben', 'The Pilgrim' and 'The Spinning Wheel' and a watercolour 'Storm Clouds' and in 1927 four works 'Portrait. Miss Elsie Murray', and watercolours 'Across the Lake, Bromeswell', 'Decoy Farm, Melton' and 'Deben Willows, Ufford' and was a regular annual exhibitor, his oil portrait of 'Miss Marian Van Someren' was exhibited at the Art Club's centenary exhibition in 1974. In 1939, 'an artist', living at Melton House, Woodbridge, Suffolk with his wife and where Edmund Lawrence Van Someren died on 3 September 1963, he was buried in Melton Old churchyard. He signed his works 'E. L. Van Someren'.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 6 Stanley Studios, Park Walk, Chelsea
1908 511 Miss Kathleen Turner
         591 The Interior
1911 529 "Come In!"

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Works by This Artist