Artistic Style
Watercolour ‘Pond on the Hill, Swanage’, 1919
In Kathleen’s art you can see the influence of the era she lived in, her art training, and her gender.
Kathleen’s time at the Slade School of Fine Art [1] (1899-1902) coincided with women finally given access to the study of life models as a central focus of teaching, enabling them to have an art education on equal terms with men (see section: Art Education). All her tutors contributed significantly to the development of art education and artistic expression at the time and would influence generations of young artists for years to come [2]. In drawing, her tutors (Brown, Tonks, and Steer) encouraged the use of drawing and painting from the antiques, from prints, and from life as a basis for individual development. They continued the tradition of naturalism in painting and realistic reproduction of the human form [3]. Kathleen reflects these skills in her nude sketches and her portraits. It was common for students to study and copy Old Masters as a learning exercise – Kathleen was adept at this and produced lovely large oils of Frith’s ‘Sherry Sir,’ Raeburn’s ‘Miss Forbes,’ and Rembrandt's ‘Francoise Van Wasserhoven.’
Oil, Kathleen’s copy of Rembrandt's ‘Francoise Van Wasserhoven’
Kathleen’s tutors had also reacted to French Impressionism and helped create a new norm that emerged known as Edwardian Impressionism [2]. This was the result of the gradual acceptance of the principle of French Impressionism, and of an understanding of how to integrate it, conceptually and practically, into the native tradition. Her tutors in watercolours (Rich and Russell), also employed the English watercolour tradition of painting out of doors (en plein air), and the looser, more spontaneous brush techniques produced an Impressionistic quality. Alfred Rich was an advocate of a natural approach to painting, trying to capture the emotions which a subject provoked, rather than accurately reproducing a scene [4]. Kathleen’s watercolour pieces display these artistic skills, attributes and loose brushwork, and her habit of painting en plein air resulted in the production of quick portrait studies and small watercolour landscapes.
Watercolour Drachenfels from Bonn’, 1907
“Kathleen Temple-Bird works in a traditionally classic way, with her style being very simplistic. But this simplicity itself is the strictest truth and each of her portraits are better than a simple image, they are life itself - rarely do painters delve so deep into the atmosphere surrounding their models, nor do they show such a sympathetic expression through their paintbrush.”
For many decades, women did not have the same access to public and private spaces and travel as their male counterparts, so female artists painted different subject matter related to their domestic realm. However, from the late 1880s female impressionists, such as Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot, had been creating arresting pictures of family life and turning images of domesticity and interiors into tributes to, rather than trivialisation of, the feminine experience [6].
Photograph of Kathleen’s oil ‘Miss Betty Bleloch’, 1937
“We are far from hasty sketches when we contemplate the drawings and oil paintings from this woman painter. K.E. Temple-Bird doesn’t aim at effect nor force. However she obtains these through her feminine qualities of grace and tenderness. A penetrating charm and an attentive observation show us people not only through a superficial ‘physical resemblance’ but also through the subtle evocation of their spiritual characteristics. In this way a portrait becomes an intimate and nuanced poem.”
In the early twentieth century, still-life was a medium through which to explore aesthetics and politics. Women artists reclaimed the definitions of the value of the home and showed this in the construction and circulation of their still-lifes [7]. Kathleen’s output also reflects the places she could easily and frequently access - including the interiors and locations of the houses and landscapes surrounding her extended family and friends, still-lifes of flowers and portraits of family members.
Oil possibly ‘Oranges in Vase of Flowers’, c 1950s
Kathleen was a suffragette and passionately believed in women’s emancipation - she broke the female domestic-artist mould by: -
being one of the more enterprising British artists travelling to Europe to study and paint before the First World War [2] (see section: Art Training)
being fortunate and confident enough to travel further afield alone in 1908-1910, and paint in remote places - the Rocky Mountains (see section: Teaching Art in Canada)
painting en plein air when many did not
seeking out renowned people that interested her to sit for portraits – such as Gandhi (see section: Art Commissions)
putting her artistic skill to the “service of the (suffrage) Cause” by executing quick portrait sketches for sale (see section: Politics)
from 1899 to 1960, successfully painting commissions, regularly exhibiting at renowned institutions such as the Royal Academy and selling her paintings to eminent buyers such as the French Government, even though commercial activity was hard for female artists of the time (see section: Commissions, Exhibitions, Sales).
Prestigious organisations accepted Kathleen’s paintings for exhibition (see section: Exhibitions). She followed her tutors and fellow alumni of the Slade School when they went on to form other art movements, for example, Kathleen frequented the Chelsea Art School [9] where fellow Slade alumni met during her early years in London. She exhibited regularly at the New English Art Club later in London (see sections: London, and Exhibitions), and was an active member of a variety of art clubs, such as the Society of Women Artists (see section: Memberships).
Kathleen had different studios at various times throughout her life. Her work method involved creating a sketch, followed by a watercolour version, and then an oil painting, so a piece with the same title could be available in different media. The subjects of her portraits had multiple sittings, although her sales records occasionally mention painting ‘from photograph.’ It appears that if she sold a painting, she would often create another iteration for sale, thus the same titled piece sold more than once. Married life brought challenges to being an artist – for example she had to take a three-year break from exhibiting when her husband’s health deteriorated. After his death in 1927, Kathleen continued painting, exhibiting, and selling her work while raising a child alone.
References
The Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London, founded in 1871. This signalled a fundamental change of attitudes concerning the training of women as artists. From the outset, the Slade offered women an education on equal terms with men. Studying from life models, was a central focus of teaching and by the turn of the century, women students, outnumbered men by three to one. Access to life drawing had been regarded as the last barrier to equal opportunity. Now, they could study from life, some critics argued it was up to women to prove they could be successful artists. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/slade/
Chris Beetles, “A Century of British Art: 1900-1945”, June 2021, Chris Beetles Ltd. https://issuu.com/chrisbeetles/docs/20th_century_volume_one_issuu
Naturalism was a broad art movement in the nineteenth century which represented things closer to the way we see them: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/n/naturalism
Alfred William Rich: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_William_Rich
Henri Vitérac, journalist and art critic, “Artists recently seen in exhibitions/galleries, including …. the Royal Academy of Art, and …… ,” La Revue Moderne - illustrated Arts and Life, published in Paris, No 16, 30 August 1930
Sarah Bochicchio, “Mary Cassatt Painted Domestic Life in a Way Male Impressionists Couldn’t”, 23 November 2017, Artsy.net article: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-mary-cassatt-painted-domestic-life-way-male-impressionists
Rebecca Birrell, ‘The Women Artists who Radically Reclaimed Still Life’, 19 August 2021, Art Uk article: https://artuk.org/discover/stories/the-women-artists-who-radically-reclaimed-still-life
In France the ‘Revue des Arts’ was the official journal of the International Union of Decorative Arts published in Paris in the early 1930s, its offices were in Avenue Basquet, Paris
Chelsea Art School, 1903-1907, was a teaching studio at 4-5 Rossetti Studios, Flood Street, Chelsea set up by Slade alumni William Orpen and Augustus John as a joint venture. The school admitted both male and female students, but the sexes seperated for Life classes. John was able to co-opt ex-Slade colleagues for lectures and demonstrations.Both male and female students were admitted to the school, but the sexes were segregated for the Life classes. John was able to co-opt several of his ex-Slade colleagues for lectures and demonstrations.
https://suffolkartists.co.uk/index.cgi?choice=painter&pid=6437
