Charles Wellington Furse was born on the 13th of January, 1868 in Staines, United Kingdom, the son of the Review C. W. Furse, archdeacon of Westminster, and rector of Street John's, Smith Square and descended collaterally from Sir Joshua Reynolds. And in his short span of life demonstrated such skill as a portrait and figure painter that he forms an important link in the chain of British portraiture which extends from the time when Van Dyck was called to the court of Charles I into the 20th century.
Education
Charles Wellington Furse attended public school at Haileybury College. He entered the Slade School in 1884, winning the Slade scholarship in the following year, and completed his education at Julian's atelier in Paris.
Career
Charles Wellington Furse's talent was precocious. At the age of seven he gave indications of it in a number of drawings illustrating the novels of Sir Walter Scott. Hard worker as he was, his activity was frequently interrupted by spells of illness, for he had developed signs of consumption whilst still attending the Slade School.
An important canvas called Cain was his first contribution (1888) to the Royal Academy, to the associateship of which he was elected in the year of his death.
Foreign some years before he had been a staunch supporter of the New English Art Club, to the exhibitions of which he was a regular contributor. She later became known as Dame Katharine Furse.
The couple had two sons. Peter Reynolds Furse (born in 1901) and John Paul Wellington Furse (born 13 October 1904). His fondness for sport and of an open-air life found expression in his art and introduced a new, fresh and vigorous note into portraiture.
There is never a suggestion of the studio or of the fatiguing pose in his portraits. The sitters appear unconscious of being painted, and are generally seen in the pursuit of their favourite outdoor sport or pastime, in the full enjoyment of life. Such are the Diana of the Uplands, the Lord Roberts and The Return from the Ride at the Tate Gallery. The four children in the Cubbing with the York and Ainsty, The Lilac Gown, Mr. and Mistress
Oliver Fishing and the portraits of Lord Charles Beresford and William Johnson Cory. Nearly all the work completed in the few years of Furse"s activity show a pronounced decorative tendency.
Charles Wellington Furse's sense of space, composition and decorative design can best be judged by his mural decorations for Liverpool Town Hall, executed between 1899 and 1902. A memorial exhibition of Furse"s paintings and sketches was held at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1906.
Achievements
Charles Wellington Furse's first real success was a portrait of Canon Burrows (Royal Academy, 1889). This, and a head of his uncle, William Cory, shown at the Portrait Painters in 1891, secured his recognition as an artist of distinction. Many of his most notable pictures were exhibited in the gallery of the New English Art Club, of which he was an active member from 1891 to his death. He joined in the foundation of the International Society, and was a member of its council. He exhibited also at the Portrait Painters and the New Gallery. A collection of his works, 53 in number, was shown at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1906. The 'Return from the Ride' was bought after his death under the Chantrey Bequest; 'Diana of the Uplands' was purchased by the trustees of the National Gallery. Both these pictures are now at the Tate Gallery. The larger 'Lord Roberts' (unfinished) has been lent by Mrs. Furse to the same mstitution.
