Past Portrait Artists

A new book featuring past artists of the Bradford area, including some with Brontë echoes:

Past Portrait Artists of the Bradford District

by Colin Neville

Not Just Hockey series

ISBN:  9781838493875

Past Portrait Artists of the Bradford District is the 8th book in the Not Just Hockney series commemorating the lives and artwork of visual artists from the Bradford district of West Yorkshire.

Thirteen portrait and figurative painters are featured in this book: Cowan Dobson, James Exley, Peter Kenneth (Ken) Jackson, Arthur Kitching, Marie-Louise Pierrepont, William Rothenstein, Doris (Dorie) Schrecker, William Shackleton, Ernest Sichel, John Sowden, Frederick Stead, Henry La Thangue, and John Hunter Thompson.

There are over 100 mainly colour illustrations, including images of artworks in private collections and the biographical profiles draw on original research by the author and other local history and art history contributors.

The Thompson connection is clarified by the author in The Telegraph & Argus:

Other intriguing questions are raised by the portrait of Charlotte Brontë by the Bingley artist, John Hunter Thompson.

Thompson was a friend and drinking companion of Branwell Brontë during Branwell’s short-lived attempt in 1839 to become a Bradford portrait painter himself. It is likely that Thompson met Charlotte Brontë through his association with Branwell at that period of time. However, Thompson’s portrait of Charlotte was most likely done after her death in 1855 and was perhaps a shrewd initiative prompted by a growing public interest in her work. It was also a full colour alternative to other artworks of her circulating at that time, for example, George Richmond’s 1850 portrait in chalks of Charlotte.

However, to what extent it is a true likeness of Charlotte Brontë is still a subject of question today. Thompson’s fading memory of Charlotte, combined with his 19th century portrait painter’s instinct to bring out the best in a subject - particularly one becoming increasingly famous - may have influenced his rendering of her image in the artwork.