Thomas Churchyard
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Kyson Point looking towards Woodbridge
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A true artist of Woodbridge, Thomas Churchyard was born in Melton
in 1798 just before the start of the Napoleonic wars. A bright child,
he was sent to Dedham Grammer School, where John Constable had been
a pupil some 20 years earlier.
Although painting and illustration was always his first love, he
trained as a solicitor, spending much of his spare time studying artists
from
the Norwich School, as well as illustrating a book of botanical
subjects. Having finished his Articles he moved to London where
he visited exhibitions at the Academy, seeing and being influenced
by
works by Constable.
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Lime Kiln Woodbridge
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He married in 1825 and he and his expanding family set up home in
Well Street (now Seckford Street) in Woodbridge. He continued to
paint and
in 1830 began to exhibit in London.
Churchyard was one of the founder members of the Ipswich Society
of Professional and Amateur Artists; other members including Edward
FitzGerald,
later to become a great friend. He tried his hand at painting
full time, but natural landscapes were not as popular with the public
as they are now and in 1833 Thomas Churchyard regretfully returned
to
the law and opened an office in Quay Street, Woodbridge, painting
and drawing whenever the opportunity arose. His love of quick sketches
fitting in with his limited time frame.
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Sketch of Ufford Bridge
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Many of his paintings include watery greens, black in the blues,
purple in the distance with touches of pink in the sky and blue touches
in the
foliage.
He had a tendancy to scatter
lights
rather arbitrarily. Often the ground was not well prepared
and the grain shows through. He rarely signed his work or dated it,
although
he sometimes initialled it on the stretcher.
Churchyard formed a deep friendship with Bernard Barton, a
Quaker poet
and banker and through him renewed his friendship with Edward
FitzGerald.
A great collector, an inventory of Churchyard's possessions made
in 1854 lists works by Gainsborough and Constable, Crome, George Morland,
Richard Wilson, Turner, Stothard, Dunthorne, Rowe, Rubens
and Etty.
By the time of his death he had a collection of over 4000
paintings. |
