William Alfred ROLLASON
One of the Birmingham Art Circle revealed due to the recent research of Roger Langley to extend our knowledge of the artists who without doubt came to Cornwall to paint en plein air, but did not (to our present knowledge) actually exhibit their work in Cornwall. It therefore takes study of the exhibition lists and catalogues in places far afield to discover some of the works related to us.
Rollason was born in Birmingham, the son of Mark Rollason, brassfounder, and his wife Eleanor. He was a painter of rural scenery and storytelling pictures who exhibited Cornish-related work at the RBS and in the Art Circle exhibitions in some quantity. He did not come to Cornwall initially until about 1889 but continued to show Cornish subjects until 1898, probably indicating that he made a number of visits. In all Langley has identified 31 titles that were exhibited, though no illustrations have yet been traced.
By 1901 he appears to have moved to Cornwall to work as an art master in Truro. He and his wife Frances Alice, had one daughter, and lived in the Kenwyn area.
media
Painter in oil
works and access
Works incl: A Peep of a Cornish Fishing Cove (1889); A Cornish Village by the Sea (1890); A Toiler of Both Land and Sea (1891); A Sunburnt Cornish Lassie (1891); Gathering Seaweed (1893); Technical Instruction (1895); etc. full list in R Langley (2011)
exhibitions
RBS
Birmingham Art Circle
memberships
Birmingham Art Circle (Hon Sec 1890-91)
references
Ancestry.com (accessed July 2011)
Langley R (2011) Walter Langley, From Birmingham to Newlyn Bristol: Sansom & Co. p119