Arthur John Elsley Antique Paintings

Biography of Arthur John Elsley

Arthur John Elsley was a painter of domestic genre subjects and portraits, especially of children. His parents are known to have been John Elsley, a coachman and Emily Freer, residents of Curzon Street, Soho in London. The couple had six children, three girls and two boys. Arthur John Elsley was the fifth child. Arthur John Elsley became a probationer at the Royal Academy Schools in 1876 and he studied there until 1882 under Frederick Pickersgill (1820-1900, Keeper of the Royal Academy between 1873 and 1887), Edward Armitage (1817-1896, Professor of Painting 1875-1882), John Marshall (d.1896, Professor of Anatomy), and Henry Bowler (1824-1903, Professor of Perspective between 1861 and 1890). Arthur John Elsley exhibited his first antique painting, Portrait of an Old Pony, at the Royal Academy in 1878.

Arthur John Elsley lived most of his life in London, first in Angel Court, then in the Gloucester Road and later in ‘the highly respectable artistic colony at St John's Wood.’ Elsley had many close friendships with other artists such as Solomon Joseph Solomon (1860-1927) and even Arthur John Elsley shared a studio with George Grenville Manton (1855-1932). Elsley was a keen cyclist and had taken a cycling trip through Belgium and Northern France with Manton in their student days. Manton also introduced he to Frederick Morgan (1847-1927) and when Manton left the studio in 1889, Arthur John Elsley moved into Morgan’s studio in St John’s Wood.

Elsley paintings, which Arthur John Elsley continued to exhibit at the Royal Academy until 1917, testify his fondness for children, in particular his own daughter Marjorie who was often the model for many of Arthur John Elsley paintings. He preferred themes of sentimental narratives are often placed in rustic settings, suggesting that he was well acquainted with the countryside. His young, pretty children are often depicted playing amongst themselves, or with their pets. I'se biggest, which shows a small girl standing on a book, measuring herself against an enormous St Bernard Dog, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1892, and won him considerable public acclaim. Arthur John Elsley occasionally deviated from his pet and childhood themes, producing antique paintings as Suprised! of 1904 which shows a lady on her horse out hunting, leaping over a monastery wall and scattering monks in all directions. Arthur John Elsley often collaborated with Morgan with whom Arthur John Elsley shared a studio near Lord's Cricket Ground at Northbank. Arthur John Elsley typically painted animals in these joint compositions.

Elsley married his second cousin Emily Fusedale in November 1893. She was the eldest of three sisters and ten years younger than Arthur. They had one daughter Marjorie who was born in 1903. With the outbreak of the Great War, Arthur John Elsley joined a munition factory where myopia was a virtue rather than a disability. After a delightful holiday in Tunbridge Wells in 1928, Arthur John Elsley purchased a huge Victorian house there, 28 Madeira Park. Having been forced by his failing sight to abandon painting, Arthur John Elsley happily continuing with his woodwork and gardening until his death at the age of 91.

Elsley paintings were often engraved or used for advertisements, greatly enhancing his popularity and making him a household name. Elsley’s idyllic images of childhood became the icons of the Edwardian Era.

During the middle of the nineteenth century, genre paintings with domestic life subjects became popular in England. The new affluent middle class favored in particular antique paintings that depicted scenes of children with their pets in playful settings. He was one of the most popular English artists who depicted such childhood scenes in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. his paintings were so popular during his lifetime that many of Arthur John Elsley paintings were reproduced as prints, and were often used in calendars, advertisements, books and magazines.
Arthur John Elsley was born on November 20, 1860 in London, England. Arthur John Elsley was one of six children born to John Elsley and Emily née Freer. His father was a coachman, and an amateur artist, who had exhibited a painting, entitled A Group of Horses at the British Institution Exhibition in 1845. However, around 1872 Arthur John Elsley was afflicted with fibroid phthisis, which forced him to retire as a coachman and take the position of resident caretaker for a firm of stockbrokers in London.