Paintings of the village and parish of Thursley

Mar 9
4 min read

Thursley has a fine history of supporting artists and this entry adds current and historic paintings of the village. We would welcome any new entries be they current or in the past. See also the entry for Thursley's Artists Through the Ages as it provides some more background on some of the artists featured.

John Hassel (1767-1825)

Three paintings by John Hassell

From the Surrey History Centre:

John Hassell (1767-1825) is remembered today as a watercolour painter, engraver and drawing master. He was born in 1767, perhaps in Wales, and first appeared as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 1789. He was a popular drawing-master and published several works on the techniques of drawing and painting in watercolour. He also published books of topographical views which owe much to the romantic interest in the picturesque. Several of these books, notably his ‘Views of Gentleman’s Seats Adjacent to London‘ (1804-1805), ‘Picturesque Rides and Walks within Thirty Miles of the British Metropolis‘ (1817-1818) and ‘Excursions of Pleasure‘ (1823) show Hassell’s deep interest in Surrey which was to take him to most parts of the county and result in at least 750 watercolour views of churches, houses and other buildings of architectural or historical interest which he found. They provide a superb glimpse of the county’s architecture over two centuries ago before the face of Surrey was transformed by the coming of the railway.

James Edward Grace (1851 - 1908)

James Edward Grace was a landscape painter born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in 1851. Little is known about his early life and by the time of the 1881 England Census he was living in Witley, Surrey. He was active exhibiting in London between 1871 and 1903 showing at the Royal Academy, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour as well as many commercial galleries.

*Thursley Common; pool in foreground, beyond two cows at left near trees, and in background surrounding countryside. Watercolour. British Museum 1957,1012.14*

*Sketch of Silver Birch tree and lake, Royal Common, Elstead. Watercolour. British Museum 1957,1012.15*

Edward Wilkins Waite RBA (1854-1924)

He was a prolific English landscape painter, born in Leatherhead, Surrey, the son of the Rev. Edward Waite, MA, and captured scenes and vernacular architecture throughout the Surrey Weald and the Sussex and Berkshire Downs.

*The Old Parsonage and the Granary of Hill Farm Barns*

The Old Parsonage has attracted painters for decades past — *The Old Parsonage* *has attracted painters for decades past*

Arthur Robertson (1850 - 1911)

He was a late Victorian British watercolour artist and topographical painter active in the 1880s and 1890s. He specialised in village and town scenes, domestic and architectural subjects and figures in contemporary dress and exhibited intermittently at the Royal Academy in London from 1883 to 1905.

*Arthur Robertson and family outside The Lodge. He is buried in Thursley Churchyard.*

Arthur Roberson also painted these commemorative windows in St Michael & All Angels Church in Thursley:

Amy Paine and Beatrice Victoria Paine Hill (not sisters, and for more information see page 111 of "Tales from a Country Churchyard" by Guy Singer.

Alfred Robert Quinton (1853 - 1934)

He was an English watercolour artist know for his paintings of British villages and landscapes many of which were published as postcards. Sadly, his postcard publisher, J Salmon Ltd was disolved in 2021.

Postcard of painting of Keeper’s Cottage by A.R. Quinton. — *Postcard of painting of Keeper’s Cottage by* ***A.R. Quinton.***

Henry Edward Spernon Tozer (1864 - 1965)

He spent his early years in Newlyn, Cornwall with his parents. His father, Henry Edmund Tozer, also an artist, exhibited “Surf and Rocks at the Mouth of the Cove” at the RA in 1892. Henry Edward painted scenes of country life (many of them from his life in Thursley) in oil and watercolour. By 1891 he had moved to Thursley, although we don’t know why, and in 1894 he married Mary, sister of William Fosberry. He continued painting alongside running the Post Office with his wife and died aged 90 still at “The Clump” in 1955.

Minding the Fire by Henry Edward Spernon Tozer who is buried in Thursley Churchyard. — *Minding the Fire by* ***Henry Edward Spernon Tozer who i****s buried in Thursley Churchyard.*

He was a man who loved fireplaces!

This book, published by J Salmon Ltd, Sevenoaks, contains numerous illustrations by Tozer

Thursley History Society is grateful to Art UK for permission to reproduce this entry and illustration:

Born on 5th December 1864, in Sheerness, Kent, ‘H. S. Tozer’ (as he generally signed) was elder son of London-born Henry Edwin Tozer (1838–1913) and his wife Louisa Jane (née Griffin, 1835–1904). Henry Edwin was son of a tinplate worker and though he also became an artist, his stated profession on marriage at St Martin’s in the Fields on 18th May 1861 was ‘Civil Engineer’; Louisa’s father was a hairdresser. After Henry Edward in 1864, their second child was Marianne Alice (1866–1958), and the third Eustace Arthur Tozer, also an artist, born in 1869 at Milton, near Gravesend. By April 1888 the family had moved to Newlyn, Cornwall, possibly drawn by the artistic colony there. In the 1891 census Henry Edwin, his wife, daughter, and son Eustace were all at 3 Cape Cornwall House, Boswedden, St Just, Penzance.

https://artuk.org/discover/artists/tozer-henry-edward-spernon-18641955#:~:text=Born%20on%205th%20December%201864%2C,Louisa%20Jane%20(n%C3%A9e%20Griffin%2C%201835%E2%80%931904)

Eveline de la Belinay Lance (1866-1937)

She was born in Essex, but moved to “The Outlook” in Thursley in 1929. She was known as a watercolour landscape painter, but also illustrated books. She has a comprehensive back catalogue and her work is very much still in demand. Her work is included in 'The Dictionary of British Artists 1880 - 1940' and 'The Dictionary of Victorian Artists'.