John Anthony Park (1878-1962) – Estuary Landscape

Description

John Anthony Park Biography

John Anthony Park was born in Preston, Lancashire in 1878. After working in the Lancashire cotton mills and assisting his father painting and decorating, Park moved to St. Ives at the tender age of 19, where he met the established painter Julius Olsson. From 1902 till 1904, Park studied with at Julius Olsson and Algernon Mayow Talmage at their art school quickly becoming their star pupil. The elder artists encouraged Park to continue his studies in Paris, where he enrolled at the Académie Colarossi in 1905 where his classmates included Amedeo Modigliani, he also studied at the Académie Delacluse before returning to St Ives in 1906.

Known for his impressionistic touch with colour and light, best known for brilliantly coloured impressionistic depictions of boats in St Ives harbour, he also painted still lifes, and landscapes including Devon and Exmoor. In WWI he served in East Surrey Regiment, and married his wife Peggy in 1919. The couple lived in St Ives by 1921 moving to 3 Bowling Green in 1923. In the Show Day of 1924, he exhibited with the paintings he was sending away to the RA. They included the largest, Drying Sails, another of St Ives with the herring fishing in full swing, Herring Time St Ives, and the third, Souvenir from France, depicting the entrance to the harbour of La Rochelle.

John Anthony Park moved to London 1933, his studio in Maida Vale close to that of Dorothea Sharp and Marcella Smith, but he returned to St Ives in 1940 where he felt more comfortable. Sadly, he died almost penniless in Preston, his wife having predeceased him in 1957. Sven Berlin said, “He painted like an angel – simply cathedrals of light.”

Available works by Modern British artists.

John Anthony Park artworks in UK public collections.