Surrey Landscape. Alfred Conquest. 1881. Oil on canvas, 50 x 76 cm. Collection: Guildhall Art Gallery (no. 1731). Transferred from the Mayor's Court, 1966. Click on image to enlarge it.
The landscape painter Alfred Conquest was born in Woodford, Essex, in 1849. He is chiefly associated with Brittany, where he spent time at the Pont-Aven artists' colony, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere there; and Cornwall, which he visited during the mid- to late-1880s. The Daily News of 1 April 1884 found him to be "in good vein" with his On the Breton Coast: A Sunny Morning, exhibited at the Society of British Artists, and on 15 May 1885 the Royal Cornwall Gazette congratulated him on his first appearance at the Grosvenor Gallery, saying that he had "attained classic ground almost at the outset of his artistic career" with a painting entitled On the Quay, St Ives. Both Brittany and Cornwall were represented in the work that Conquest exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1885. In 1890 he was still painting in St Ives, although Woodford seems to have been his home address until the end of the century. After that he moved to Hastings in Sussex, and in other works, like the one shown here, he presented landscapes in the south-east of England. — Jacqueline Banerjee
Sources
"Alfred Conquest." Cornwall Artists Index. Web. 1 October 2016.
"Alfred Conquest." The International Magazine. Vol. 1 (1885): 74-75.
British Library Newspapers, Parts I and II: 1800-1900. Web. 1 October 2016.
Last modified 1 October 2016