Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue
Joseph Edward Southall (1861-1944), Artist and craftsman
- Gallery portraits
- All known portraits
- Biography and References
Joseph Edward Southall, painter; born 23 August 1861, in Nottingham. Trained first in architecture, then at Birmingham School of Art; influenced by Italian fresco painting, the writing of John Ruskin and friendship with Edward Burne-Jones; early work featuring romantic subjects was partly superseded by land- and seascapes; exhibited Royal Academy, New English Art Club, Paris and elsewhere; founder member Society of Painters in Tempera 1901; president Royal Birmingham Society of Artists 1939–44; as a Quaker, pacifist and member of the Independent Labour Party, he was politically active from 1914; died 6 November 1944, in Birmingham, by which time his reputation had been almost wholly eclipsed. [1]
Temperamentally, he was a ‘sterling character’ [2] with ‘a profound religious conviction that such experiences of truth and beauty that had fallen to his lot, were part of the general inheritance and he must, for very gratitude, do what he could … to open up ways – educational – political – social – for others to share these life-giving experiences’. [3]
Anna Elizabeth (Bessie) Southall, née Baker, craftswoman; born 1 February 1859. Married Joseph 23 June 1903; as first cousins, they deferred marriage until she was over child-bearing age; his close partner in all fields, she died 29 October 1947.
Dr Jan Marsh
Temperamentally, he was a ‘sterling character’ [2] with ‘a profound religious conviction that such experiences of truth and beauty that had fallen to his lot, were part of the general inheritance and he must, for very gratitude, do what he could … to open up ways – educational – political – social – for others to share these life-giving experiences’. [3]
Anna Elizabeth (Bessie) Southall, née Baker, craftswoman; born 1 February 1859. Married Joseph 23 June 1903; as first cousins, they deferred marriage until she was over child-bearing age; his close partner in all fields, she died 29 October 1947.
Dr Jan Marsh
Footnotesback to top
1) By 1950, he was remembered as an unnamed ‘old artist antiquary’ who had ‘devoted that part of his time left to him from his study of the Gothic ages to a portrayal, in pure, bright, almost encaustic tones of paint, of sailing ships in full rig against a flat sea’, whose work had been inexplicably praised by Picasso: Osbert Sitwell, Noble Essences, 1950, cited by Gere 1969, p.2.
2) Rothenstein 1939, p.202.
3) Harvey 1963, p.257.
Referencesback to top
Breeze 1980Breeze, G., Joseph Southall 1861–1944: Artist-Craftsman, exh. cat., Birmingham City Museum & Art Gallery and Fine Art Society, London, 1980.
Breeze 2004
Breeze, G., ‘Southall, Joseph Edward (1861–1944)’, ODNB, Oxford, online ed., September 2004.
Gere 1969
Gere, C., intro., The Earthly Paradise: Works by the Birmingham Group, exh. cat., Fine Art Society, London, 1969.
Harvey 1963
Harvey, M.M., ‘A Quaker Artist and Rebel’, The Friends’ Quarterly, October 1963, p.257.
Hill & Midgley 1928
Hill, J., and W. Midgely, eds, The History of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Birmingham, 1928.
Rothenstein 1939
Rothenstein, W., Since Fifty: Men and Memories 1922–1938 [vol.3], London, 1939.
Southall 2005
Sixty Works by Joseph Southall 1861–1944 from the Fortunoff Collection, exh. cat., Fine Art Society, London and Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, 2005.