Thomas Mostyn 1895-1979

Garden

Oil on Canvas

40x30cm

Framed

Thomas Edward Mostyn (1864 1930) was a unique and most diverse British Victorian artist. Born in Liverpool in 1864 and raised in Manchester, Tom Mostyn, the son of the artist Edwin Mostyn, studied at the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts and with Sir Hubert Von Herkomer, whose school he entered in 1893. He had his first local exhibition in 1880, and was showing at the Royal Academy by the age of 29. In his earlier work he showed the influence of the Symbolist and Pre-Raphaelites. He later lived in Devon, where he was an important contributor to English Impressionism.

He exhibited 14 works at the Royal Academy, commencing in 1891. His style was very diverse throughout his career. Many of his early paintings, strongly influenced by the strong anti-"Victorian Materialist" sentiment of his teacher Von Herkomer, depicted the poverty of the working classes in the style of the realists - an effective way of raising social consciousness. He also painted portraits, such as those at the Manchester Art Gallery and several landscapes.

In 1918, he moved to Devon, and began a series of romantic garden paintings, for which he is primarily recognized. Their fantasy-like enchantment was enhanced by thick jewel hues of paint thickly layered by palette knife. Although these strong colours often caused controversy and criticism, he would not let his work become influenced by the “impressionism” of the day – relying entirely upon the dictates of reality and romance as he saw it. These garden paintings and his later impressionist work were associated with the Newlyn School of Art, otherwise known as British Impressionism. He died in 1930.
Mostyn was also a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, The Royal Cambrian Academy, and the Royal West of England Academy. He also exhibited in the Paris Salon, and at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh.

Literature:
The Magazine of Art, "Our Rising Artists: Thomas Mostyn". 1899 v.22 p.129-133.
International Studio, "Painter of Romance: Mr. Tom Mostyn" v. 46
The Antique Collector, "Tom Mostyn 'A Full Blooded Romanticist’", November 1989.
Shining Sands -Artists in Newlyn and St Ives 1880-1930, T. Cross 1996.
My School & My Gospel, Sir Hubert Von Herkomer; Archibal Constable & Company, 1908.

Biography, copyright , the Rehs Gallerie, New York