Today, on 9 September 2024, we mark Fred Appleyard's 150 years since birth. Nearly forty years before the artist laid roots in his beloved Itchen Stoke, he lived in the newly thriving industrial heartlands. His story is steeped in the changeable nature of the era he was born into. The beautiful works in Rising Splendour celebrate Fred’s astute handling of ideas, materials and techniques, old and new, from that time. In this article, alongside our current Appleyard exhibition at The Arc, we look at three key developments that impacted his life.
Fred lived across eras and locales beginning in Middlesbrough and ending in the Itchen Valley.
Industry
The Industrial Revolution is key to understanding Fred’s legacy. The meaningful changes in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century created the conditions Appleyard arose from. For some, the opportunities created by reforms and new income streams created opportunities for social mobility, and Fred grasped at the opportunity. Key industrialists were involved in founding art schools such as the one Fred attended in Scarborough. Many schools emerged alongside drives to fulfil the needs of manufacturers and businesses. Fine drawings were an asset in any field. Fred excelled in this regard, and in 1893, he won a competition in the renowned periodical, The Studio, for a ‘refined’ treatment of a teazle wallpaper. The industrial age ensured Fred’s education and income early on.
Reform
Greater individual and religious freedoms, brought about by reforms in the nineteenth century, would have increased the number of clients requiring artists to adorn their homes or churches. Between 1851 and 1875, 2,438 churches were built or renovated in Britain. These numbers are so large because of the movement of people due to the Industrial Revolution and the development of the ‘high church’, whose buildings required artworks to embody and evoke the divine. Fred produced several church paintings, including one at St Marks, Audley and the Pickering Church in Yorkshire. Interestingly, these commissions reflect not just Fred’s great draftsmanship but also passions close to his heart such as music and gardening. Various other private commissions also synchronise with his interests. Reforms brought Fred clients and allowed him to explore subjects close to him.
Romanticism
In painting, literature and even architecture, Romanticism, since it appeared at the end of the eighteenth century, was irrepressible. Fred encountered environments shaped by Romanticism from an early age. Fred's elementary school evidenced this. Fleetham Street School in Middlesbrough was built in a Gothic style and even had a spire. Undoubtedly, Fred encountered Romantic texts and paintings as a youth. Tellingly, Fred’s love for romanticism is attested throughout his works. The painting, A Secret, purchased by the Chantry Bequest and currently held by Tate Britain, was inspired by lines from the poet Wordsworth. A Secret is a narrative-led composition, but Fred also produced Romantic works that relied on explorations of land and light for their poetic intent. Romanticism stayed with him whether he was painting loosely like an Impressionist or in more detail like a Pre-Raphaelite. This formed much of the core of Fred’s practice and life.
The exhibition covers many aspects of Fred’s work and life.
150 years have passed since his birth, but his presence is abundant. Rising Splendour, Fred Appleyard: From the Royal Academy to the Itchen Valley is a worthy birthday celebration full of Romantic wonder from an artist who ironically began life in the furnace-strewn ironopolis of Middlesbrough.
Don't miss your chance to visit and celebrate this unsung hero with us!
Fred Appleyard: From the Royal Academy to the Itchen Valley is open until 18 September. There is also a beautiful accompanying catalogue that can be purchased here and in store.
