Harold Speed
(1872-1957), ArtistArtist of 9 portraits
A portrait and landscape painter, and writer on art. Initially studying architecture at the Royal College of Art in 1887, he turned to painting, and won a gold medal for life school studies in 1890. He continued his training at the Royal Academy Schools from 1891 to 1896, where in 1893 he was awarded a gold medal and a travelling scholarship that took him to Belgium, France, Italy and Spain. He exhibited his work at the Royal Academy for fifty years from 1893, and became a Member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters 1895. He was the author of a number of books on art including The Science and Practice of Drawing (1913), The Science and Practice of Oil Painting (1924) and What is the Good of Art? (1936).
Charles Francis Annesley Voysey
by Harold Speed
chalk, 1896
NPG 4116
Charles Francis Annesley Voysey
by Harold Speed
oil on canvas, 1905
NPG 5140
Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, 2nd Bt
by Harold Speed
sanguine, 1908
NPG 5122
Charles Robert Wynn-Carington, Marquess of Lincolnshire
by Harold Speed
sanguine, 1909
NPG 5121
Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon
by Harold Speed
oil on canvas, 1927-1934
NPG 3120
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Mike Hicks
04 March 2020, 11:41
Harold Speed lived at ‘Woodside’, Ringsfield in Beccles, Suffolk and taught at Bungay Grammar School and Sir John Leman High School. Please see an extract from Beccles & Bungay Newspaper:
"1939 Beccles & Bungay 1 Apr FUNERAL of ART MASTER: Mr Harold C Speed, aged 52, who had been Art Master at the Sir John Leman School for the past 19 years and at Bungay Grammar School for the last 5 years."
I have two paintings by Harold Speed and one "Trawlers in Dry Dock" has his address and reference to "Beccles Modern School" on the back.