Shared Comforts

WALTER BIDDLECOMBE

Exhib. 1883-1896 English School

Shared Comforts

Oil on canvas, signed and dated 1894

61 x 102 cms 

24 x 40 inches

Walter Biddlecombe was a painter of landscapes, figures and animals who was from Southampton originally but who had moved to Marseilles in France by 1895.
He exhibited comparatively few paintings at the London or other principle exhibition venues but this was probably for geographic reasons. His work is of high quality and acute observation and it is likely that he had a successful career through reputation and word of mouth. This would have brought private commission work of which this painting is almost certainly an example.

He showed two pictures at the Royal Society of Artists in Suffolk Street, one each at the Royal Academy and the Royal Hibernian Academy and two at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. Exhibited titles include: The Gleaner, At Eventide; an ancient lichgate at Pulborough, Sussex, And Dora took the child and went her way... (from a poem by Tennyson).

Bibliography:
The Dictionary of British Artists - J Johnson and A Greutzner
The Dictionary of Victorian Painters - Christopher Wood