Sir William Russell Flint RA, PRSWA (1880-1969)

St Malo



original watercolour, signed lower right
Image size 9.5" x 11"

Price on application

William Russell Flint was a much loved landscape painter and watercolourist, who is most famous for his female nudes. He was the son of a commercial painter and at the age of 14, he was apprenticed to a firm of lithographs where he spent 6 years learning about lithography and printing. Born in Edinburgh, on 4th April 1880, his remarkable talent was discovered at an early age. Having been a student at the Royal Institution School of Art in Edinburgh, and serving a six year apprenticeship at a large printing works, he decided to move to London to become a medical illustrator at the age of 20. In 1903 he joined the Illustrated London News which took his talents to the far reaches of the British Empire thanks to its extensive distribution. Russell Flint married Sibylle Sueter in 1905 and eventually became a freelance artist in 1907 which lead him to illustrate a number of classical limited editions such as Mallory's 'Morte D'Arthur', Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' and Homer's 'Odyssey'. He served in the First World War and became Admiralty Assistant Overseer - Airships. During the 1920s and 1930s, he painted in France and Spain and produced wonderful paintings reflecting the local scenery and culture. St Malo was his favourite holiday resort from 1924 to 1932 and he would spent many happy hours on the beach producing watercolours (see example above). He was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1924, full member in 1933 and in 1936 became President of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour. After living in Devon during the Second World War, he and his wife moved back to London and set up home in Peel Street, Kensington. His talent with both the watercolour medium and his skill in depicting the female form created a hallmark style which would later become legendary. He was knighted in 1947 and Sir William Russell Flint's work was acknowledged in 1962 by a retrospective exhibition in the Royal Academy. At the time, Charles Wheeler, the President of the Royal Academy, paid tribute to the artist, describing his watercolour technique as a 'baffling skill'.