The Painting
A watercolour measuring 12" x 8½". Signed Ernest George. Inscribed verso ‘West Wickham
Ch[urch] June 4 1864’.
About the Artist
Sir Ernest George RA, RE, PRIBA (1839-1922) was born in Southwark, London, and educated
at Clapham, Brighton and Reading. He entered the Royal Academy School in 1858 and
was awarded the Gold Medal in 1859. In 1861 he opened his own architectural practice.
He won the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 1896, and became President of the
Royal Institute of British Architects in 1908. He was knighted in 1911, elected Associate
of the Royal Academy in 1910 and Royal Academician in 1917. He exhibited at the Fine
Art Society (760), Royal Academy (43), Royal Society of British Artists (19), Royal
Hibernian Academy (14), and Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours (3).
Sir H. Von Herkomer RA considered George to be ‘one of the finest architectural water-colourists
of his generation.’ Fellow architect and former pupil Sir Edward Guy Dawber (1861-1938)
noted: ‘beyond everything else Ernest George was an artist, with perhaps more of
a bias towards the picturesque in architecture than the monumental, but as a draughtsman
and water-colour painter he was absolutely unrivalled... Many of his water-colour
drawings will rank with those of our greatest architectural artists. His work was
so free, so delicate and yet forcible. His drawings show a delightful freedom and
yet absolute accuracy of perspective, a power of selection and composition which
always appeals.’
Professor Hilary J. Grainger has recently published a landmark new book on the architecture
of Sir Ernest George, the first major study to be devoted to him.
The Subject
The Lychgate, Church of St John the Baptist, West Wickham. A lychgate is a roof over
the entrance to a churchyard, beneath which bearers paused when bringing a body for
internment. The lychgate at the Church of St John the Baptist, West Wickham – near
Bromley in Greater London – dates from the 15th century. This watercolour is dated
verso 1864, a particularly early work for Ernest George, painted only 3 years after
he opened his own practice.
