George Price Boyce

{"Id":1899,"Name":"George Price Boyce","Biography":"\u003Cstrong\u003EGEORGE PRICE BOYCE\u003C/strong\u003E was the elder brother of the brilliant, and tragic Joanna Boyce, the great woman painter who died in her early thirties with her potential unfulfilled. This remains one of the great losses to English art of the nineteenth century.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EGeorge Boyce was initially training as an architect. Following a meeting with the artist \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=2294\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EDavid Cox\u003C/a\u003E, he decided that his real interest was in painting, and resolved to train as an artist. His father supported him in this change, as he also supported the artistic aspirations of his talented daughter. David Cox, whom Boyce met in 1849, was also instrumental in this new direction, and seems to have been his artistic mentor. He became a close friend of \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=76\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ERossetti\u003C/a\u003E, and member of his circle. He and had a close friendship with Fanny Cornforth, with whom I think he had a sexual relationship. He remembered her cheerful personality with warmth and affection in his diaries, not denying her existence like William Rossetti. Boyce\u0026rsquo;s diaries, published in the 1940s are a valuable source of information about the Pre-Raphaelites. He became an Associate of the Royal Water Colour Society in 1864, and a full member in 1877, which was felt by many people to be extremely late recognition of his considerable talent as a landscape painter. His watercolour landscapes are accomplished and beautiful. George Boyce was unmarried.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cdiv align=\u0022center\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan style=\u0022font-family:courier new;\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan style=\u0022font-size:16px;\u0022\u003EDeath Notice\u003C/span\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cu\u003EThe Times\u003C/u\u003E, Thursday February 11, 1897\u003C/div\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EBOYCE : On 9 th inst at his residence, West House, Glebe-place, Chelsea after a long illness George Price Boyce, retired Member of the Royal Water Colour Society in his 71 st year. Funeral Service at St Luke\u0026rsquo;s Church, Sydney-street, Chelsea at 12 0\u0026rsquo;clock Saturday 13 inst.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cdiv align=\u0022center\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan style=\u0022font-size:16px;\u0022\u003EObituary\u003C/span\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cu\u003EThe Times\u003C/u\u003E, Friday February 12, 1897\u003C/div\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EThe death is announced of Mr GEORGE PRICE BOYCE who died on the 9th inst at his residence West-house, Glebe-place, Chelsea, after a long illness. The \u003Cu\u003EAthenaeum\u003C/u\u003E says: He was the eldest child of Mr George Boyce and his wife Anne Price, and was born in Bloomsbury on September 24, 1826. He went to school at Chipping Ongar, and afterwards stayed for a considerable time in Paris. Proposing to become an architect, he was articled to the late Mr Little, but becoming convinced his vocation lay elsewhere, he made a lengthened tour in North Wales in 1849, and encountered \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=2294\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EDavid Cox\u003C/a\u003E at the Royal Oak at Bettws-y-Coed. In 1851 he was again in Wales, where he made several of those beautiful studies upon which his reputation in after life was founded.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EBefore this he became intimate with several artists, such as Mr H. T. Wells (Henry Wells RA 1828-1903), who married his sister Joanna, herself an accomplished painter, and he found himself drawn in to a distinguished circle. A second meeting with Cox at Bettws confirmed him in his new departure, and on returning to London in the winter of 1852 he took a studio in Great Russell-street, and, joining the long renowned Clipstone-street Academy, studied much from life and tried his hand at oil painting. Some time before this, Boyce, possibly by means of Mr Wells, was, we believe, brought into contact with \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=76\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ERossetti\u003C/a\u003E while he was finishing the \u003Cu\u003EMary, Virgin\u003C/u\u003E picture, or that \u003Cu\u003EEcce Ancilla Domini!\u003C/u\u003E now in the National Gallery. The date of this introduction is doubtful - it may have been 1849, or even later - but the effect on Boyce was such that he became an enthusiastic friend of the great artist, although their characters were entirely different, bought some of his pictures, and always regarded him with a most unusual affection. On Boyce\u0026rsquo;s style of painting, on the other hand, , Rossetti had no influence.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EIn 1853 Boyce was at Dinant, and visited the Pyrenees and Babbicombe Bay, where he produced some charming water-colours. In this year, too, he made his first appearance London exhibitions, sending to Suffolk-street \u003Cu\u003EThe Royal Oak, Bettws-y-Coed\u003C/u\u003E (a reminiscence of Cox), and \u003Cu\u003EBeeches\u003C/u\u003E, and to the Academy \u003Cu\u003ETimber Yard, Chiddingstone\u003C/u\u003E, and \u003Cu\u003EEast-end of Edward Confessor\u0026rsquo;s Chapel, Westminster\u003C/u\u003E. He repeated the last subject more than once. In 1854 Boyce was studying in Switzerland, at Ticino, Milan, Venice, and Verona, where he made a fine drawing of the tombs of the Can Grande and Mastino. In 1855 he was again in London, drawing at Langham Chambers School, and again visited North Wales. In 1856 he moved from Great Russell-street to 15, Buckingham Street, Strand, and had William Burges for his fellow-lodger.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003ELater in the same year we find him painting at Airolo and Giornico. In 1858 Boyce became a founder member of the original Hogarth Club, whose rooms were in Piccadilly and Waterloo-place. Among the members were Street, W. Burges, \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=511\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EMadox Brown\u003C/a\u003E, A. D. Fripp, \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=14\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ELord Leighton\u003C/a\u003E, D. G. Rossetti, and [Thomas] Woolner [1825-1892, English sculptor \u0026 poet]; and of men still living \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=72\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ESir E. Burne-Jones\u003C/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=2024\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ESir F. Burton\u003C/a\u003E, and \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=2080\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EMr Wallis\u003C/a\u003E. To the private exhibitions of this society Boyce contributed, as he had previously done to the collection of Pre-Raphaelites held in Russell-place, Fitzroy-square. In successive years we find him busily painting at Streatley, of which he was one of the discoverers, and long before P. Walker and his friends drew attention to it; at Whitby, where he made drawings before Alfred Hunt went there, at Rievaulx and Whitwell. Some of the results of these visits were exhibited at the Academy and enhanced his reputation. In the autumn of 1861 he went to Egypt, with Mr F. Dillon (Frank Dillon R1 1823-1909), as his companion, and remained for six months. In 1864 he was elected an Associate of the Old Society, and thenceforth an almost constant contributor of drawings, always beautiful, delicate, and unobtrusive, which were conspicuous for their fidelity and unaffected simplicity. The simple \u0026ldquo;Englishness\u0026rdquo; of their technique was almost demure in its graceful modesty. A less unassuming man would have held a place among the leaders of the \u0026ldquo;Old Society,\u0026rdquo; and it was hardly to their credit that so fine and sound an artist remained an Associate until 1878. Personally Boyce was like his pictures - modest almost to a fault, undemonstrative and sincere. Highly cultivated, he found in art his chief occupation and resource. He was also an excellent amateur musician, and at one time a good oarsman.\u003C/span\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cu\u003ESource:\u003C/u\u003E\u003C/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EOur thanks go to Paul Ripley for kindly allowing us to reprint these articles from his website, \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.victorianartinbritain.co.uk/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EVictorian Art in Britain.\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp\u003E","Awards":null,"HasAlbums":false,"HasPortraits":true,"HasRelationships":true,"HasArticles":false,"HasDepictedPlaces":true,"HasLetters":true,"HasLibraryItems":false,"HasProducts":false,"HasSignatures":false,"HasVideos":false,"HasMapLocations":true,"TotalArtworks":10}