William Edward Arnold FORSTER

William Edward Arnold FORSTER
Will; also seen incorrectly as Foster
1885
1951

The artist studied at the Slade (1905-08).  In 1909 he was signed in as a guest at the St Ives Arts Club by John DOUGLAS, but did not settle down to live in Cornwall until after WWI, when he arrived with his wife Katherine (aka 'Ka', nee Cox, a friend of Virginia Woolf, the novelist.)

At first they rented, then purchased, 'Eagle's Nest' at Zennor, the former home of the ANDREWS-WESTLAKE family. Here he built his own studio and constructed a wondrous garden in what was surely 'the windiest' space in Britain, open as it was to the sea beyond. He did not practice art full time, working for the League of Nations and other international causes. A chalk portrait of William Bateson, the Biologist was drawn by Will Forster in 1923, and is in the National Portrait Gallery.

media

Painter of landscapes and pastels

works and access

Works include: William Bateson, the Biologist (1923, NPG)

Access to work: National Portrait Gallery, London; Swindon

memberships

STISA 1928-c1932

references

Bird (2008) St Ives Artists: Place and Time

Hardie (2009) Artists in Newlyn and West Cornwall (p325-6, under Forster)

Johnson & Greutzner (1975) Dictionary of British Artists (under Arnold Foster mis-spelled)

NPG, Complete Illustrated Catalogue: Wm Bateson by Arnold Forster

Tate (1985) St Ives 1939-64: 25 Years of Painting, Sculpture and Pottery (Arnold Foster mis-spelled)

Tovey (2003) Creating a Splash; (2009) St Ives: Social History (under Arnold-Forster); (2010) Sea Change

Whybrow & Dell (2003) Remembering St Ives

Wood (1995) Victorian Painters (under Forster)