George Spencer Watson


George Spencer Watson R.O.I., R.P., A.R.A., R.A. was an English portrait artist of the late romantic school who sometimes worked in the style of the Italian Renaissance.

Career

He studied at the Royal Academy Schools from 1889, and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1891. He won Royal Academy Schools Silver Medals in 1889 and 1891, and the Landseer Scholarship in 1892. He was elected to the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1900, Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1904, Associate of the Royal Academy in 1923, and a Member of the Royal Academy in 1932. His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics.

Personal life

In 1909 he married Hilda Mary Gardiner, a dancer and mime artist, and follower of the actor Edward Gordon Craig. They had a daughter, Mary Spencer Watson, who became a sculptor. In the year of 1923 he bought Dunshay Manor in the hills of the Isle of Purbeck, after already having spent holidays in nearby Swanage.
He died in London at age 65 and a memorial exhibition was held at the Fine Art Society in the same year. There is a memorial to him in the north vestibule of St James's Church, Piccadilly.

Works

Some of his works are held at Tate Britain, the Harris Art Gallery, Preston and collections in Bournemouth, Liverpool, Plymouth and the National Gallery of Canada.
Born in London, Watson studied at the Royal Academy from 1889; he exhibited there from 1891 and also at the Paris salon. Retrospective exhibitions were held at the Galerie Heinemann, Munich in 1912, and at the Fine Art Society in 1914.
His work A Lady in Black is owned by the Tate Collection.