Sir William Russell Flint RA PRWS ROI RE
1880 - 1969
William Russell Flint was born in Edinburgh and apprenticed as a lithographic draughtsman while taking classes at the city's Royal Institute of Art, Edinburgh. From 1900-2 he worked as a medical illustrator in London while studying part-time at the Heatherley School of Fine Art. He worked for "The Illustrated London News" from 1903-9, and produced book illustrations for editions of several books. He utilised his illustrator's draughtsmanship and abilities with a watercolour wash to produce many fine watercolour landscapes, as well as the better-known figure subjects. The latter were often based on studies of Spanish dancers, drawn on visits to Spain, as well as in the studio with his favourite model, Cecilia Green, and was an outstanding draughtsman of the model. He became perhaps the dominant figure of British watercolour painting in the mid-20th century, serving as President of the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) from 1936-56. Some of his best works were wartime watercolours, such as the monumental "Incoming Tide, No. 1 Slip, Devenport Dockyard", which was his RWS diploma work. It is perhaps not so commonly known that Flint was an outstanding maker of line etchings and drypoints, producing a beautiful series of prints of Spanish and Italian subjects in the 1930s, many of which were shown at the exhibitions of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. Russell Flint was also a published author of short stories. In 1965, a collection of his short stories was published as "Shadows in Arcady", for which Flint designed the graphical layout
William Russell Flint was born in Edinburgh and apprenticed as a lithographic draughtsman while taking classes at the city's Royal Institute of Art, Edinburgh. From 1900-2 he worked as a medical illustrator in London while studying part-time at the Heatherley School of Fine Art. He worked for "The Illustrated London News" from 1903-9, and produced book illustrations for editions of several books. He utilised his illustrator's draughtsmanship and abilities with a watercolour wash to produce many fine watercolour landscapes, as well as the better-known figure subjects. The latter were often based on studies of Spanish dancers, drawn on visits to Spain, as well as in the studio with his favourite model, Cecilia Green, and was an outstanding draughtsman of the model. He became perhaps the dominant figure of British watercolour painting in the mid-20th century, serving as President of the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) from 1936-56. Some of his best works were wartime watercolours, such as the monumental "Incoming Tide, No. 1 Slip, Devenport Dockyard", which was his RWS diploma work. It is perhaps not so commonly known that Flint was an outstanding maker of line etchings and drypoints, producing a beautiful series of prints of Spanish and Italian subjects in the 1930s, many of which were shown at the exhibitions of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. Russell Flint was also a published author of short stories. In 1965, a collection of his short stories was published as "Shadows in Arcady", for which Flint designed the graphical layout
and the illustrations. Russell Flint was knighted for his services to art in 1947.
4 ITEMS
