William Russell Flint

Sir William Russell Flint RA ROI (4 April 1880 – 30 December 1969) was a Scottish artist and illustrator who was known especially for his watercolours of women. He also worked in oils, tempera, and printmaking.

William Russell Flint
Born4 April 1880
Edinburgh, Scotland
Died30 December 1969(1969-12-30) (aged 89)
London, England
NationalityScottish
Alma mater
Known forPainting, illustration

Biography
Frontispiece to Savoy Operas, showing a scene from Gilbert and Sullivan's Princess Ida.

Flint was born in Edinburgh on 4 April 1880 and was educated at Daniel Stewart's College and then Edinburgh Institution.[1] From 1894 to 1900 Flint was apprenticed as a lithographic draughtsman while taking classes at the Royal Institute of Art, Edinburgh.[2] From 1900 to 1902 he worked as a medical illustrator in London while studying part-time at the Heatherley School of Fine Art.[3] He furthered his art education by studying independently at the British Museum. He was an artist for The Illustrated London News from 1903 to 1907, and produced illustrations for editions of several books, including H Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines (1907 edition),[4] W. S. Gilbert's Savoy Operas (1909),[5] Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur (1910–1911)[6] and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1912).[2]

Flint was one of the leading illustrators selected by Percy Bradshaw for inclusion in his The Art of the Illustrator (1917-1918) which presented a separate portfolio for each of twenty illustrators.[note 1]

Flint was elected president of Britain's Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours (now the Royal Watercolour Society) in 1936 to 1956, and knighted in 1947.[1]

During visits to Spain, Flint was impressed by Spanish dancers, and he depicted them frequently throughout his career.[3] He enjoyed considerable commercial success but little respect from art critics, who were disturbed by a perceived crassness in his eroticized treatment of the female figure,[3] clearly borrowing inspiration from similar works by Lawrence Alma-Tadema.[9]

Flint was also a published author of short stories. In 1965, a collection of his short stories were published as a limited edition of 500 titled Shadows in Arcady; for which Flint designed the graphical layout and the illustrations. Previously, Flint's story "The Angelus" had been published in The Times newspaper.

Flint was active as an artist and a writer until his death in London on 30 December 1969.

Illustrations to Savoy Operas

Savoy Operas is a collection of four opera librettos by W. S. Gilbert that had been set to music by Arthur Sullivan, originally published 1909.

Princess Ida
  • "I can tell a woman's age in half a minute—and I do!"
  • "Must we, till then, in prison cell be thrust?"
  • Enter Princess, reading.
  • Enter the "Daughters of the Plough," bearing Luncheon.
  • The Gate yields. Hildebrand and Soldiers rush in.
  • "Though I am but a girl, / Defiance thus I hurl."
  • "Where are your rifles, pray?"

Notes
  1. The portfolio contained: a brief biography of Flint, an illustration of Flint at work in his studio, an explanation of Flint's method of working. This was accompanied by a plate showing an illustration typical of his work and five other plates showing the work at five earlier stages of its production, from the first rough to the just before the finished drawing or colour sketch.[7] Flint's coloured illustration shows one naked and one half naked young woman picking fruit on a sea shore.[8]

References
  1. "Sir William Russell Flint". Sir William Russell Paintings and Drawings, Nottingham, UK. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  2. Theo Cowdell, "Flint, Sir William Russell" Oxford Art Online
  3. Postle and Vaughan 1999, p. 76.
  4. Sir William Russell Flint's illustrations for King Solomon's Mines (London: Cassell and Co., 1907)
  5. "Savoy Operas: With Illustrations in Colour by W. Russell Flint", George Bell & Sons (1909)
  6. Malory, Sir Thomas. Le morte Darthur. 4 vols., 1910–1911. London: P. L. Warner, publisher to the Medici Society; illustrations by W. Russell Flint
  7. "The Connoisseur Bookself". The Connoisseur: An Illustrated Magazine for Collectors. 51 (204): 223. 1 August 1918. Retrieved 12 August 2020 – via The Internet Archive..
  8. "William Russell Flint: William Russell Flint and His Work: The Art of the Illustrator (Limited Edition Prints)". Illustration Art Gallery with The Book Palace. Retrieved 22 August 2020..
  9. Fantasy, Fashion & Affection - Jay A. Gertzman
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