A Sussex Autumn

Henry La Thangue studied at the Royal Academy and at the école des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where his teacher was Jean-Léon Gérôme. In 1886 he was a founding member of the New English Art Club which attracted artists interested in reviving naturalistic, simple and vivid painting from nature. A man of strong convictions and with a forceful personality, La Thangue was the primary instigator of a move to reform the Royal Academy by opening up its membership. He failed however to attract sufficient support or financial backing to effect any change in that august and powerful establishment. La Thangue left London and lived in Norfolk for a time, painting genre scenes before moving to Bosham in Sussex where he continued to paint large, social-realist works. He quickly attracted a wealthy clientele who responded to scenes like this one, showing contented workers surrounded by rural calm and plenty. Specialising in effects of dappled light rendered in richly-textured paint, he used broad, square brushes and a very bright palette to create work which was much admired and widely imitated. Attracted to the work of the French Impressionists, he travelled regularly in Europe; during the 1920s he painted many halcyon scenes of orange groves and gardens. He died shortly after learning of the loss of several of his paintings in a shipwreck off the coast of New Zealand. (from The Guide, 2001)

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