Animal Painting Artist Arthur Wardle

Arthur Wardle Biography

British, 1864-1969

Born in London and self-taught, Arthur Wardle was one of the best-known British animal artists in the 20th century. Arthur Wardle portrayed an astonishing diversity of subjects with an engaging naturalism, and a command of different media. Unlike most British animal and sporting artists who restricted themselves to horse and hound, deer and domesticated beasts, Arthur Wardle both drew and painted every mammal from elephant to mouse, in watercolor, pastel and oils.

Wardle's reputation may have been made with his large mythological paintings, but his most individual work was in pastel, which underwent a revival in Britain in the 1890s. Inspired by French art, many leading British artists had experimented successfully with pastel, leading to the foundation of the Pastel Society, of which Wardle was elected a member in 1911.
His paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Society of British Artists at Suffolk Street. Many of his paintings were reproduced on cigarette packages, postcards, calendars and boxes of chocolates.

Arthur Wardle lived and worked in London. By the unusually young age of sixteen Arthur Wardle began exhibiting his painting at the Royal Academy. His first exhibit was a study of cattle on the banks of the Thames and this was the start of his life long interest in painting animals.

Largely self-taught, Arthur Wardle received no academic training yet he became one of the pre-eminent animal and sporting artists of his generation.

In 1880 Wardle lived in Oakley Square, Camden, in North London, but such was his artistic success Arthur Wardle was able to move to the more fashionable Alma Square in St. John’s Wood by 1892. Between 1880 and 1938 Wardle exhibited frequently at the Royal Academy and other venues. Arthur Wardle painted both domestic and wild game; his more exotic subjects, such as leopards, tigers and polar bears were painted from ‘on the spot’ sketches which Arthur Wardle made during his visits to London Zoo.

As well as oil painting, Wardle worked extensively in watercolor and pastel and was elected to the Pastel Society in 1911 and became a member of the Royal Institute of artists in Watercolors in 1922. In 1931 Arthur Wardle held his first one man exhibition at the Fine Art Society and in 1935 the Vicar’s Gallery held an exhibition devoted to his work. Wardle also exhibited in Paris.

By 1936 the artist was living in West London. His career had been highly successful and his paintings continue to be sought after. Arthur Wardle remains one of the foremost animal artists of the period. Wardle died on 16th July, 1949.

Improvements in publishing techniques coincided with the canine fancy’s rise in popularity, these two factors combined in a growing volume of canine literature during the late nineteenth century. With photography still in its infancy, requiring long exposure in studio settings, the canine artist became as much a feature of the show scene as the photographer is today. Of this band of artists, capable of capturing a show’s essence and atmosphere in a few strokes, Arthur Wardle stands head and shoulders above his contemporaries.

Born in 1864, Wardle proved something of a prodigal, exhibiting at the Royal Academy whilst still a teenager, but the subjects of these early canvases give little insight into his later work. Largely self taught Arthur Wardle did, in later life, suggest his artistic education had been undertaken privately, and it is probable Arthur Wardle learnt much from the artists that frequented the area around his family’s Chelsea home.

Whether owing to this lack of formal training, or because Arthur Wardle liked experimenting with various art forms, Wardle’s talent was slow to mature. However his move to the North London district of St John’s Wood did provide increased opportunities to study the inmates of London Zoo at close quarters, and often Arthur Wardle would be seen with easel or drawing pad in hand. Portraying a remarkable diversity of subject matter, whilst exhibiting an amazing command of widely different art medium, Arthur Wardle achieved the appreciation he both craved and deserved during the twentieth century’s first two decades.

A series of large oils depicting mythical themes, combining the human form, often loosely draped and surprisingly erotic, surrounded by wild and exotic beasts, excited much needed critical acclaim from the late 1890s. This recognition allowing Wardle to develop his more naturalistic animal paintings, mostly featuring big cats set in expansive landscapes. In both these areas Arthur Wardle walked in the footsteps of earlier if different British artists, whilst developing a more subtle and dramatic style capable of capturing both grace and ferocity.