Henry Stannard
Henry John Sylvester Stannard RBA FRSA was a British watercolour artist whose patrons included the British Royal Family.Life
Henry John Sylvester Stannard was born in Bedford on 12 July 1870, the son of Henry Stannard, a sporting painter. Stannard and his father descended from a family of well known Bedfordshire artists. He was educated at Bedford Modern School, and the National Art Training School in South Kensington. He was elected RBA in 1896.
In his work, Stannard typically depicted pastoral scenes and the rural idyll. His paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, the New Gallery, the Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art.
In 1906 Stannard was honoured by Queen Alexandra with a commission for a number of pictures including Her Majesty’s Wild Garden and Woods at Sandringham. In 1922 he held an exhibition with his daughter at Brook Street Galleries in London where Queen Mary became a patron of his colour drawings. In 1934 he was commissioned by the Governors of Guernsey to paint a view of St Fermain’s Bay and the harbour, a painting that was subsequently presented to the Prince of Wales. In 1936 he painted a view of the Prince of Siam's gardens at Virginia Water, and in 1937 two of his water colours of the River Dart were hung in the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours.
Stannard died in Bedford on 21 January 1951.
