The New English Art Club (NEAC) was founded in London in 1885 as an alternative venue to the Royal Academy. It holds an annual exhibition of paintings and drawings at the Mall Galleries in London, exhibiting works by both members and artists from Britain and abroad whose work has been selected from an annual open submission. [2]
Young English artists returning from studying art in Paris mounted the first exhibition of the New English Art Club in April 1886. Among them were William Laidlay, Thomas Cooper Gotch, Frank Bramley, John Singer Sargent, Philip Wilson Steer, George Clausen and Stanhope Forbes. Another founding member was G. P. Jacomb-Hood. [3] An early name suggested for the group was the 'Society of Anglo-French Painters', which gives some indication of their origins. As a note in the catalogue to their first exhibition explained, 'This Club consists of 50 Members, who are more or less united in their art sympathies. They have associated themselves together with the view of holding an Annual Exhibition, hoping that a collective display of their works, which has hitherto been impossible, will prove not only of interest to the public, but will better explain the aim and method of their art.' [4]
The Society held regular Spring and Autumn exhibitions, a number of which were held at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London, until its demolition in 1905.
The Impressionist style was well represented at the NEAC, in comparison to the old-school academic art shown at the Royal Academy. For a time, the NEAC was seen as a stepping-stone to Royal Academy membership. Today the NEAC continues in a realistic, figurative style, while the Royal Academy has embraced abstract and conceptual art.
NEAC members include Peter Brown, Frederick Cuming, Anthony Green, Ken Howard, Charles Williams, Richard Bawden and Martin Yeoman.
Historic NEAC members and exhibitors include: Thomas Kennington (founder member and first secretary), Prof Fred Brown (founder member), Frank Bramley (foundation member), [5] [6] [7] Walter Sickert, William Orpen, Augustus John, Gwen John, Ambrose McEvoy, Philip Wilson Steer, Henry Tonks, James Whitelaw Hamilton, Alfred William Rich, James Dickson Innes, Margaret Preston, Charles Wellington Furse, Katie Edith Gliddon, Ethel Walker, Fairlie Harmar, William Rothenstein, Lindsay Bernard Hall, Thomas Cooper Gotch, Mary Sargant Florence, Henry Strachey, Clare Atwood, Evelyn Dunbar, Eve Garnett, Frank McEwen, James Jebusa Shannon, Cecil Mary Leslie, Mary Elizabeth Atkins, William Brown Macdougall, Neville Bulwer-Lytton, 3rd Earl of Lytton, Muirhead Bone, Robert Polhill Bevan, Dugald Sutherland MacColl, Neville Lewis, Charles Holmes, Carron O Lodge, Geoffrey Tibble, Alexander Mann, Hercules Brabazon Brabazon, Thomas Esmond Lowinsky, Frank Hughes, Albert Julius Olsson, Helen Margaret Spanton, [8] Margaret Green [9] and Leslie Donovan Gibson.
The NEAC is one of the member societies of the Federation of British Artists. A history of the Society from its foundation to the year 2000 was written by the art historian Kenneth McConkey and published in 2006. [10]
James Ferrier Pryde was a British artist. A number of his paintings are in public collections, but there have been few exhibitions of his work. He is principally remembered as one of the Beggarstaffs, his artistic partnership with William Nicholson, and for the poster designs and other graphic work they made between 1893 and 1899, which influenced graphic design for many years.
Sir Alfred Edward East was an English painter.
Sir George Clausen was a British artist working in oil and watercolour, etching, mezzotint, drypoint and occasionally lithographs. He was knighted in 1927.
Kenneth Howard OBE RA was a British artist and painter. He was President of the New English Art Club from 1998 to 2003.
The Royal Society of Portrait Painters is a charity based at Carlton House Terrace, SW1, London that promotes the practice and appreciation of portraiture art.
William Bowyer RA was a British portrait and landscape painter, who worked in a traditional manner.
Wynford Dewhurst RBA was an English Impressionist painter and notable art theorist. He spent considerable time in France and his work was profoundly influenced by Claude Monet.
Alexander Mann was a Scottish landscape and genre painter. He was a member of New English Art Club and Royal Institute of Oil Painters.
Frank Edward Burnham Hughes, N.E.A.C (1905–1987) was an English painter and member of the New English Art Club.
Thomas Millie Dow was a Scottish artist and member of the Glasgow Boys school. He was a member of The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour and the New English Art Club.
Peter Kuhfeld is an English figurative painter. He was born in Cheltenham and is married to the English figurative painter Cathryn Kuhfeld, née Showan. They have two daughters who have often appeared in their paintings.
Henry Herbert La Thangue was an English realist rural landscape painter associated with the Newlyn School.
Arthur Ambrose McEvoy was an English artist. His early works are landscapes and interiors with figures, in a style influenced by James McNeill Whistler. Later he gained success as a portrait painter, mainly of women and often in watercolour.
Thomas Benjamin Kennington was a British genre, social realist and portrait painter. He was a founder member of the New English Art Club (NEAC) and the Imperial Arts League.
Frederick Hall, often known as Fred Hall, was an English impressionist painter of landscapes, rustic subjects, and portraits who exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Paris Salon, where he was awarded a gold medal in 1912. He was an important member of the Newlyn School, in Cornwall, and is notable for both his series of witty caricatures of his fellow Newlyn artists and his artistic development away from the strict realism of the Newlyn School towards impressionism.
Diana Maxwell Armfield is a British artist. She is known for landscapes, and has also painted portraits, literary subjects and still lifes. She has a particular interest in flower paintings, and is considered to owe much to the Sickert tradition. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Central School of Arts and Crafts. Armfield was elected as a Royal Academician in 1991.
George Percy Jacomb-Hood was a painter, etcher and illustrator. He was a founding member of the New English Art Club and Society of Portrait Painters.
Martin Yeoman is an English painter and draughtsman who drew members of the British Royal Family. He was commissioned to draw the Queen's grandchildren and accompanied Charles, Prince of Wales, on overseas tours as tour artist. He is described as one of the finest draughtsmen working today and is a member of Senior Faculty at the Royal Drawing School.
Jean Manson Clark née Wymer was a British artist known for her depictions of townscapes, landscapes, for her flower paintings and murals.
Margaret Thomas was a British painter. She is remembered in particular for her still lifes and her flower paintings which received considerable acclaim, and are in numerous UK public collections.
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