Helping Grandad, Branscombe

John White, RI ROI RBA (1851 – 1933)

Bodycolour. Signed.

10” x 19½” (25.4 cm x 49.5 cm)

Born in Edinburgh, John White spent most of his childhood in Australia after his family emigrated there in 1856. He was educated in Melbourne and, on his return to Britain, studied art and design at The Royal Scottish Academy Schools from 1871. He lived at Shere in Surrey and in London before moving to Devon, where he lived at Axminster, Exeter, Branscombe and Beer. White specialised in rustic genre subjects, coastal views, landscapes and village scenes, particularly in East Devon, North Devon, Dorset and Dartmoor. He exhibited 40 times at The Royal Academy and was a member of, and a regular exhibitor at, The Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, The Royal Institute of Oil Painters and The Royal Society of British Artists.

John White painted in both oils and watercolours and often featured his family and local villagers as models in his pictures. The gentleman here is one of the respected elders of Branscombe, known as the Worthies, and the scene is outside the village pub.