Arthur John Elsley

(British, 1861-1952)

Won't You Try?

Footnotes

Provenance
With W. W. Sampson, London.
Private collection, Ireland.

Exhibited
London, Royal Academy, 1905, no. 524.

Literature
T. Parker, Golden Hours: The Paintings of Arthur J. Elsley, Yeovil, 1998, p. 99, illustrated in black and white.

Arthur John Elsley was born on 20 November 1860. The son of a coachman and sometime artist, Elsley joined the South Kensington School of Art at the age of fourteen and first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1878, two years after being a probationer. Elsley's interest in painting animals had been heightened by regular visits as a boy to the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park. His ability to paint animals, and in particular domestic breeds such as dogs and ponies, meant that his sentimental depiction of late Victorian and Edwardian genre scenes found a ready market amongst collectors.

In 1894 the death of Charles Burton Barber, who had been considered the pre-eminent painter of animals and children, left this particular field open for Elsley. He was able to exploit the contemporary taste and although a bout of childhood measles had partially affected his eyesight, he was the undoubted master of this genre by the dawn of the new century. Well regarded amongst his peers, his reputation was enhanced by having shared a studio with the artist Fred Morgan in the mid to late 1890's. After the two artists fell out, Elsley continued to work in his studio on increasingly larger canvases depicting children and animals at play. His daughter Marjorie became one of his favourite models and he drew inspiration from the open countryside which he regularly visited on his bicycle. His popularity grew as many of his paintings were reproduced as prints and calendars. In addition some of his images were used by companies such as Bibby's Animal Feeds and Peak Frean Biscuits to promote their products.

The outbreak of the First World War and the immediate post war years resulted in an understandable change in taste as the country tried to come to terms with the horror of the trenches and the loss of a generation and Elsley's sentimental compositions appeared somewhat anachronistic to a war embittered British public.

Elsley continued to paint, mainly for pleasure, exhibiting a number of works at the Royal Academy until 1927. Increasingly poor eyesight meant that by 1931 he had ceased to paint almost entirely and spent most of his time gardening. He died in Tunbridge Wells in 1952 at the age of 91.

Painted in 1905 and one of three works he exhibited at The Royal Academy the same year, Won't you try? is a quintessential work, featuring many of the elements that came to define his art. Like many of Elsley's paintings, the present lot was reproduced in various formats, in this instance as a photogravure, under the title A Passive Register (1906, Weldon's Bazaar of Children's Fashions), and by The Rotary Photo Co., as a black-and-white postcard, under the title Come Along, circa 1909.