OLIVER, Benjamin

1861 - 1936

Benjamin Oliver was born at 18 St Margaret's Street, Ipswich in 1861, youngest of the eight children of Thomas Oliver (1817-1892), a bootmaker, and his wife Lucy née Dorling (1817-1892), who married at Bury St Edmund's, Suffolk in 1845. Benjamin studied at Ipswich School of Science and Art, winning prizes 1875-1876. In 1881, Benjamin was a 20-year-old general clerk, living with his parents, 64-year-old Thomas and 64-year-old Lucy, at 31 Cobbold Street, Ipswich with his sibling sister 22-year-old Harriet. He married at Ipswich in 1885, Alice Maud Hupton (27 September 1862-1953) and in 1891, a 30-year-old accountant clerk and portrait painter, living at 149 Cemetery Road, Ipswich with his wife and 4-year-old son Herbert Benjamin Oliver. In 1911, a cabinet maker's clerk, living at 98 Cemetery Road, Ipswich with his wife and two of their three children Eva Hupton 16 and Beatrice Maud 9. A member of the Ipswich Art Club 1883-1885 and exhibited from 22 Cobbold Street, Ipswich in 1883, a watercolour 'On the Orwell', in 1884 three watercolours 'Sunset', 'The Orwell from the Umbrella' and 'One of the Feathered Choir' and in 1885 a watercolour 'Gainsborough Lane'. In 1923 he had six pictures on show 'Near Freston Woods', 'Ufford Mill', 'Afternoon at the Chantry', 'Autumn Afternoon Stoke Park', 'The Orwell Ebbing Tide' and an oil portrait of his daughter. A prolific exhibitor at Ipswich exhibiting annually five or six works, his last exhibits were posthumous in 1937 from 57 Burrell Road, Ipswich when five of his pictures were on show, an oil 'Portrait' and four watercolours 'A Sketch in Sutton Hoo', 'Gamekeeper's House, Bradfield St George', 'Willie Lott's House, Flatford' and 'In the Meadows, Bramford'. He was also a member and exhibitor at the Norfolk & Norwich Art Circle in 1932, from Ipswich. Benjamin Oliver died at Ipswich in 1936, aged 75 and his wife died at Eye, Suffolk in 1953, aged 90.

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Works by This Artist