Walter Langley

An English Post-impressionist painter, who was one of the founders of the painters’ colony of the Newlyn school in the port city of Cornwall.

Walter was born into a poor family. At first, he studied at lithographer.

He painted mostly narrative paintings from the ordinary life of the common people and genre portraits. Walter Langley was a member of two official societies in England – the Royal Artistic society and the Royal Aquarelle Artists. In 1895, the Uffizi Gallery (Florence), as a sign of merit, bestowed the artist special attention, ordering him a self-portrait for the Medici collection.

Key ideas:

– Being the first artist to settle in Newlyn and organize a school there, W. Langley painted pictures reflecting the real life. At the same time, not the most festive of its plots fell into the field of his work. Keeping an eye on the life of the common people, Langley created works permeated with sympathy for the working people.

– Despite the fact that socially oriented canvases were not particularly in demand, the artist was not tempted by popular subjects. Over time, his talent was appreciated and recognized.

– The painter’s palette is no different, with rare exceptions, neither in the special brightness of colors nor in the light excess. However, in the composition, the artist in a certain manner follows the methods of Post-impressionism, using the movement of characters or their static posture as a way of organizing space. The artist proved himself to be a subtle psychologist, observing the life of young people and depicting old age unvarnished.