Person:Sydney Carter (1)

1881 Census: Dwelling:High Beech Census Place:Waltham Holy Cross, Essex, England Source:FHL Film 1341340 PRO Ref RG11 Piece 1396 Folio 115 Page 16 MarrAgeSexBirthplace Richard S. CARTERM45 MTorquay, Devon, England Rel:Head Occ:Gun Finisher Emma E. CARTERM35 FWaltham Abbey, Essex, England Rel:Wife Herbert R. CARTERU10 MEnfield Wash, Middlesex, England Rel:Son Occ:Scholar Sydney CARTERU7 MEnfield Wash, Middlesex, England Rel:Son Occ:Scholar Ethel M. CARTERU1 FHigh Beech, Essex, England Rel:Dau

1901 Census:

WALTHAM HOLY CROSS, Epping, RG13/1276, Folio 118, Page 17 High Beech,

 Richard Samuel Carter,  Head,  M, 65, Retired Gun Inspector,  ,              Torquay Devon
 Emma Elizabeth Carter,  Wife,   M, 55, , , ,                                                         Waltham Abbey Essex
 Herbert Richard Carter, Son,     S, 30, Bank Clerk, ,                                      Enfield Highway(?) Mdx
 Sydney Carter,                  Son,     S, 26, Artist Sculp,Own acct, At home, Enfield Highway(?) Mdx
 Ethel Mary Carter,           Daur,   S, 21,  , , ,                                                         High Beech Essex
 Clive Edwin Carter,          Son,     S, 12,  , , ,                                                         High Beech Essex

From the http://www.abelanani.com/painters.html#3 website "Born 1874 Enfield, Middlesex, England Died 1945 Harrismith, Free State, South Africa. Sydney Carter was a painter of landscapes, generally incorporating trees, and of portraits. A cartoonist, he painted in oil and gouache (method of painting in opaque pigments ground in water and thickened with a glue-like substance). After being ignored in favour of his more-well known counterparts for many decades, Carter's works are now being sought after by South African collectors. Having studied at various art institutions in London including the Royal College of Art, Carter was illustrator to editions of works by authors such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte and Dorothea Fairbridge's Skiddle. Carter participated in several group exhibitions in London, Paris and South Africa and held numerous solo exhibitions in South Africa. A Gilbert Garrett prize winner, his work is exhibited in several South African museums and collections. " [green4.FTW]

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SYDNEY CARTER

Article scanned from book Sydney Carter, distributed by Central News Agency Ltd, South Africa. Printed by The Swan Press Ltd, Johannesburg.

SYDNEY CARTER was born at Enfield, Middlesex, England, on April 2nd, 1874. When he was very young, the family went to live in Epping Forest, Essex, where they built a house among the trees at High Beech. Sydney was the first child to be baptised in the little High Beech church, which is still standing in the forest. He grew up in the midst of beautiful trees. No wonder that he developed such a love for nature, especially for trees. The forest abounds with all kinds, such as birches, elms, oaks and beeches.

The Carter family was much interested in literature and art. Sydney's father, Richard Carter, was an artist of merit whilst his mother had a passion for history, historical novels, prose and poetry. The eldest son, Herbert, was a great reader, and good books were read aloud by him almost every day after the evening meal, especially in winter, when the family gathered round the fire to listen to him. Sydney was well acquainted in this way with all the best aixthors and this proved to be very helpful to him in later years when he illustrated so many books. Herbert also did a great deal of artistic work, black and white and water colours. Sydney's sister, Ethel Mary, who was five years younger than himself, possessed considerable literary talent. She wrote many articles for magazines, also for the " Westminster Gazette " and the " Manchester Guardian." The youngest brother, Clive, gave promise of becoming a talented musician but died when he was fifteen years old of scarlet fever.

At a very early age, Sydney showed a great aptitude for drawing and painting, and his father encouraged this gift. When he was eight years old, Queen Victoria came to Epping Forest, to open it to the public. Even at that early age he made complete sketches of the procession, carriages, horses and the Queen herself in her carriage.

The father, who spent every moment that he could spare in sketching, always, when possible, took his little son with him on these expeditions. His style was full of the most elaborate detail. This interested the boy greatly and he endeavoured to paint in the same way. Every year the family went by train to visit the Royal Academy, London, and Sydney was first taken there as a small boy. He told me many years later, that he well remembers spending a good deal of his time that year sliding about on the polished parquet flooring. The Carters also frequently went to London to see the good plays. Sydney often spoke of those great actors and actresses whom he had seen - Sir Henry Irving, Ellen Terry and Marie Tempest.

At the age of fifteen, he was sent to study at the Walthamstow School of Art. He progressed very rapidly and gained a bronze medal for a drawing from the antique, the first that had been obtained in that particular art school. A few years later, his brother Herbert and he went for a holiday to Cornwall. Here Sydney came under the influence of the Newlyn School, meeting Stanhope Forbes, Frank Bramley and others who represented Nature so vividly without the aid of detail. He was so impressed by their style that he started painting m the same way. He did some delightful work at this time, and the following year, when he was twenty, had the distinction of having a picture hung at the Royal Academy, London. The news was a great joy to his father who fully recognised his son's artistic gift.

Having obtained the Art Master's certificate and an art scholarship at Walthamstow, he proceeded to the Royal College of Art, London, where he worked with many notable artists, like Philip Connard, R.A. and Lee Hankey. Philip Connard was anxious that Sydney should work with him and share a studio in London, but after discussing the matter with his family, he decided to return to his forest home and build a studio there. Had he gone to London at that time, fame might have come to him much earlier in life, but Sydney was a very simple soul and cared nothing for publicity or money. At the Royal College of Art he gained many honours, medals for life drawing, for still life, for portrait painting, and a British Institute scholarship (£100) for painting a portrait of a woman and a figure composition. This was in competition with the R.A. schools and all the important art schools in London.

In the year 1898, he won the highest award for landscape, the Gilbert Garrett Prize, in competition with all the London sketch clubs. Here in London, at the Sketch Club, he worked with Phil May and other famous artists. The winning of this prize probably gave him the idea that landscape was his particular vocation. A future career was difficult to choose at this time. He had been successful at portrait painting, figure work and landscape, and had obtained honours for design. The only prospect seemed to be to make use of those branches of art in which he had been most promising. So he continued to send pictures and have them hung at the Royal Academy, the Paris Salon, British Institute of Painters in Watercolour, Royal Oil Institute and other galleries. He painted portraits, did figure work for publication (a vast quantity of the latter has been reproduced) and illustrated Dickens, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte and many other writers. It was at the height of this period of success that he experienced a severe nervous breakdown, which prevented him from continuing his work. Dr. Mitchell Bruce, a specialist of Harley Street, ordered complete rest and no work was allowed for over a year.

At last the joyful day arrived when brushes and paints were taken out again and a period of ten or twelve years followed when his skill for both portrait and landscape painting was recognised in England. On one occasion a gentleman who had bought at the Royal Academy a large canvas of Sydney's asked him to come to his home, a considerable distance by train, to assist in the hanging. On arrival, the size presented many difficulties, as the picture had looked much smaller on the Royal Academy walls. A happy spot was at last found at the end of the day and Sydney set free to turn joyfully from picture hanging to painting. At another time a beautiful landscape which had been well placed in the Royal Academy had not been^old. Funds were low just then, so, on the last day of the Academy, he took the picture in desperation to a dealer who had a shop near by. "£10," said the dealer. This miserable offer was accepted but when he got home with the news, his mother burst into tears. The next day Sydney was passing the shop and saw the picture in the centre of the window, priced at £50. It was quickly sold. Such is the way of life. On the same day he received a cheque for a full page illustration in one of the leading papers; but this did not console his mother.

Towards the end of 1914 Sydney was walking along a London street on the way to one of his publishers, when he saw a party of men in the road, calling out, " Join up !" On the impulse of the moment he fell in with them, riot pausing to think that perhaps he should go into the Artists' Rifles or some other regiment suitable to his taste and talents. He certainly was not cut out for a soldier. His mind was occupied with different things. He was given a job as military postman at first. This he liked as it took him into the country, where he could revel in the scenery round about Wiltshire. Unfortunately for him, in an absent-minded mood one day he dropped all the registered letters into the pillar-box. This was unforgivable and his job was changed. His skill at drawing and painting, however, was soon found out and he was frequently in request for drawing scenery for theatricals, sketching his comrades and making endless humorous cartoons. In fact, he spent a considerable period of his army life as military cartoonist.

During these years, he was sent to Exeter in Devonshire, where he was immediately captivated by the antiquity and beauty of the old churches and buildings, many of them dating back to the thirteenth century. The old city walls and quaint streets were a dream of delight to him, and he spent all his spare time in painting them. The beautiful river Exe, with elm trees along its banks and its double locks, afforded him much material. He would hire a boat and row for miles along the river and come back laden with sketches. The great artist, Terrick Williams, later visited the Exeter studio and asked where these fine elm trees were to be found. Sydney had much pleasure in showing him.

The soldiers were regularly billetted at the houses of the towns-people. Those who had rooms could not refuse to accommodate them. Sydney was billetted at a certain house and there he met me, Elizabeth Ann Crosse, a schoolmistress, whom he was to marry five years later. Soon after our engagement in 1918, Sydney was discharged from the army. He rented a charming studio in an old building in the Cathedral Close, Exeter. Part of this building contained the famous old Law Library and was visited by sightseers of many countries. These people also visited the studio and Sydney's work was sold and taken to France, America, Australia and many other countries. The famous novelist and hymn-writer, the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, met him there, and a portrait of this great man was painted by Sydney and was hung in the'Exeter Art Gallery. On the death of the Rev. Baring-Gould in 1924, the portrait was reproduced in the " Illustrated London News." Sydney Carter and I were married at St. Paul's Church, Exeter, on December 23rd,

1922. What a perfectly happy marriage that proved to be ! No one could fail to be happy living with such a person as Sydney. He possessed a beautiful spirit, and was gentle and patient at all times. I did not appear to be very strong at that time. Continual chest colds, due to the English climate, caused some anxiety, and the doctor suggested that South Africa would be a good place for me to live. So it appened that we sailed for South Africa in October, 1923. ten months after our marriage. Thus began another phase in Sydney's life and work.

Not a soul did we know on our arrival in Cape Town. It was an adventure ! We had very little money but our joy and boundless interest in everything new more than made up for this deficiency. We lived for a time at a Sea Point hotel, and later took a furnished house at Wynberg where Sydney found endless sketching material. The scenery certainly was on a much larger and grander scale than that which he had experienced in England and on the Continent. Very soon his work became known among the artists of Cape Town and he was asked by Mr. F. K. Kendall, the President of the Art Society, to become a Fellow of the Cape Town Society of Artists. Mr. F. K. Kendall was a well-known architect who was given the work of restoring Groot Constantia. With his help and that of other artists, Sydney held an exhibition in Cape Town, and his name became well known there. After several months we decided to travel throughout South Africa, before choosing which place to make our home. First we went to Johannesburg to hold an exhibition at Herbert Evans' galleries. Here we met Mrs. Ranee who was on a visit from East London. She was intensely interested in art and gave us a cordial invitation to visit her home town and hold an exhibition there. The show proved to be a great success and many homes in East London possess Carter pictures.

In this town a new Ford car was bought, destined to take her master and mistress to practically every corner of South Africa. The roads were not good in those days and many were the nights we and our well-laden car got etnck in out-of-the-way places. Those were happy days for both of us, especially for Sydney, who gathered masses of material for future work. From East London we travelled by car to Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth. Uniondale, Tulbagh, Swellendam, Ceres and other lovely places were visited and numerous paintings of old farms, homesteads, mountain and river scenes and native life were added to his collection.

A rather amusing incident occurred at Tulbagh. Sydney was sitting on a camp stool in one of the side streets enjoying the scenery and gazing dreamily upwards with hands in lap, when an old coloured woman came along and dropped a penny into his palm. He was very touched by this incident, saying later, " I must carry some money in my pocket, so that I can give a present to these kind-hearted coloured people." He seldom carried money and had little interest in it. After spending some time in many of the most beautiful places in the Cape Province, we decided to make ovir way to Bloemfontein. Here we renewed acquaintance with Mrs. Everitt, whom we had known in England. Mr. and Mrs. Everitt were anxious that Sydney should help all those interested in art in Bloemfontein. A class was formed and happy days were spent in out-of-doors sketching. Sydney also painted portraits and beautiful moonlight scenes many of which remained in Bloemfontein.

After about a year in this part of the country, we decided to go to Johannesburg and that was the place destined to become our home. We bought a thatched cottage well away from the town and called it " Devon Cottage," so much did it resemble the little cottages in Devonshire. Sydney was asked to teach at the art school, to give sketching lessons, to hold exhibitions. His success was assured and after some time he was glad to stop teaching in order to carry out the many commissions that came his way. Once every year a matriculation class came with their art teacher from one of the High Schools to spend the afternoon in his studio. He demonstrated to them and answered questions. This was a joyful occasion for the students and also for the master, who loved nothing better than helping art students whenever possible. Numbers of artistically-minded people came to his studio at different times to ask for his advice and help. He gave of his store of knowledge ungrudgingly and many letters of appreciation, from old pupils and admirers came regularly to him throughout his life. Undoubtedly, Sydney Carter contributed greatly to art in South Africa and has left a wealth of glorious paintings to perpetuate his name. The five landscape panels in the New Jeppe Street Post Office, Johannesburg, are his work ; and more recently he completed two large panels for the New Cape Town Post Office, the subjects for the latter being the Malay Quarter, Cape Town, and a Cape Homestead. Two of his portraits were bought for the Pretoria Art Gallery collection, and are now hanging in the Pretoria City Hall. A fine portrait of an old woman was bought by the Municipality of Pietermaritzburg, Natal, and can he seen in the Mayor's Parlour there. Works were also purchased by East London, Grahamstown and Cape Town for their Art Galleries.

His versatility was amazing. He did pictures of fairies and goblins reminiscent of Arthur Rackham and exquisite paintings in pre-Raphaelite style. At one period he was an ardent admirer of that great illustrator, Randolph Caldecott, and for a time was under the influence of his work. Raphael Tuck published many of his toy books. Other stories written and illustrated by him include :-" The Wonderful Adventures of Mr. Fox," " Pinkie and Pearl," "Mr. and Mrs. Elephant's Golden Wedding" and "The Walrus and the Jabaru." Black-and-white work and architectural studies are also among his, achievements. During his stay in Cape Town he illustrated a hook written by the late Dorothea Fairbridge. This charming animal study, " Skiddle," is now unfortunately out of print. Every year he visited Kroonstad to help artists there and on one occasion met and talked with General Smuts. After discussing England and South Africa for some time, the great statesman said, " I love the veld best of all : only God is there." Most of the public of South Africa know Sydney Carter for his grand paintings of trees, especially of blue gums, which he revelled in painting. But he dearly loved all trees and was never happier than when wandering among them. He wrote many verses about trees, birds and nature in general. A few years ago he wrote a little verse for his Christmas card :- " I love the trees, I love the gentle breeze That makes sweet music in the rustling leaves ; Leaf unto leaf, in answering echoes meet, Till the whole wood resounds with harmony complete." These words are typical of his life and thought.

In 1944 Sydney was not well and a change of air was recommended. We both travelled by train to Cape Town. Whilst there, a serious operation was necessary. From this he recovered and returned to Johannesburg in better health, continuing his work every day with much happiness. The kindness of many friends, the beauty of the scenery and the great appreciation of his work by the public made him grow to love South Africa, the country of his adoption ; and though he often expressed a wish to revisit his beloved Epping Forest and to see his brother and sister, the War prevented this. For Christmas, 1945, we decided to visit the " Golden Gates," on the border of Basutoland. Sydney had orders for paintings of these parts and was eagerly looking forward to going there, as he had not previously seen this part of the country. We went by car via Harrismith, intending to spend a few nights there witli an old friend before going on to Basutoland. On arrival in Harrismith on December 20th, Sydney was in perfect health. He was not a bit tired after the long journey, and during the afternoon went into the garden to paint a picture of the house with the English Church in the background, as a present for his hostess for Christmas. The next morning he said he would do some painting in the park as the trees were so lovely there. At 10 a.m. on December 21st, I took him to a beautiful spot under the trees and near the river. On my return to the park about two hours later I found him lying as though asleep, with his painting materials all round him . . . Thus that beautiful spirit, that great and gentle soul, was taken up whilst painting among the trees he loved so well.

He was a vital and creative painter, whose gifts were recognised increasingly throughout his life. Many are those who mourned his passing, his simple sincerity and kindly outlook on life enriching all who came into contact with him. Modest and unassuming about his work, he often amazed his friends by his simplicity and deep humility of character. He created an atmosphere of gentleness and peace wherever he happened to be. Truly, Sydney Carter was a great artist and a Christian gentleman. ELIZABETH A. CARTER.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Elizabeth Ann Crosse's book on Sydney Carter.
2. ↑ Birth certificate : ONS Edmonton 1874 Jun 3a 231.
3. ↑ Marriage certificate : ONS Exeter 1922 Dec 5b 193.