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Claude Allin Shepperson ARA ARWS ARE RI RMS (25 October 1867 – 30 December 1921) was a British artist, illustrator, and printmaker specializing mainly in social scenes and landscapes.

Early life

He was born in Beckenham, Kent, England on 25 October 1867, to Allin Thomas Shepperson of Winsland Bargerton, South Devon, and Florence Mary, the eldest daughter of William Hinkes Cox, Justice of the Peace.. He was baptised in Beckenham on 3 April 1868. Shepperson was educated privately, but spent 1880 to 1882 at Weymouth College. He began to train for a legal career when he abandoned this and began to study painting instead, attending the Heatherley School of Fine Art in 1891. He then travelled to Paris to study art there.

Shepperson married Mary Isabel (born 2 November 1868), the only daughter of Arthur Wellesley George Adey (born 6 January 1827) of the Indian Medical Service, in St. Mary Magdalen's in St. Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings, on Tuesday, July 10, 1894. Mary was given away by her father. The marriage was a choral service, and the couple received over 150 wedding presents. The couple had two children, a girl Barbara Isabel A. (born third quarter 1895) and a boy, Derek Allin Adey Shepperson (29 June 1898 – 15 September 1923).

Shepperson worked in a wide variety of media including oil, watercolour, chalk, charcoal, paster, ink and pencil, and he was a practised etcher and lithographer. Bryant notes that for line drawings, Shepperson "would first sketch nudes in charcoal on very thin banknote paper and draw clothes in ink over this, usually at near-reproduction size." Percy Bradshaw, commenting on a Punch reader's remark that Shepperson was a "Sketcher of Aristocrats", said that Shepperson would rather be called "an aristocrat who sketches".

Shepperson was one of the leading illustrators selected by Percy Bradshaw for inclusion in his The Art of the Illustrator (1917–1918) which presented a separate portfolio for each of twenty illustrators. Shepperson was also a tutor at Bradshaw's Press Art School, and provided feedback on the work submitted by students.

Shepperson exhibited widely, and his work is held in many notable galleries. These include the Tate Gallery, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the National Museum of Wales.

Sheppersons was not only a painter, a book and magazine illustrator, a cartoonist for Punch, but also a commercial artist, producing images for advertisements.

Later life

Shepperson was elected a member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers (RMS) in 1900, and also of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI) in that year. Five years later, in 1905, Shepperson resigned his membership of the RI. In 1910 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Watercolour Society. In 1919 he was elected both an Associate of the Royal Academy, and of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers (ARE)

Shepperson was at his studio at 5 Mulberry Walk, Chelsea, London when he died on 30 December 1921. Gerald William Shepperson was his executor and his estate was valued at £1,852 0s. 3d. He is buried at Brompton Cemetery in London.

Assessment

Shepperson's style of drawing was much admired. Ellwood stated that Shepperson was "an inspired draughtsman who can give us the smartest English girl or the rustiest farm hand with equal penetration in a style which is always distinguished." He also said that his work shows the perfect combination of naturalistic drawings and decorative qualities, and that Shepperson "was the greatest master of placing or composition in English pen drawing", and that "his drawings should be analysed and pondered over by students." He noted that Shepperson had begun as a "costume" illustrator, but that he had later "turned to the society note, for which his temperament was admirably fitted", and that his drawings in Punch were "classic examples of the ultimate in patrician atmosphere."

Peppin and Micklethwait say that Shepperson "specialised in Society Scenes based on sketches from life in Kensington Gardens and elsewhere in the West End" and this his sketches were "drawn with great elegance in a hazy and slightly elongated manner and often featuring the ‘Shepperson Girl’ who embodied every contemporary notion of aristocratic refinement."

Houfe called him "a graceful artist whose work is at its best when children and pretty young women are involved". Sketchley stated of him that "The energy of his line, the dramatic quality of his imagination, render him in his element as an illustrator of events" and the vigour that projects itself into moments of action also inform his representation of moments when there is no action.

In his survey of illustration in the 1890s Thorne said that Sheppersons' drawings for Sketch were "full of that promise which was afterwards fulfilled", and that his colourful pen-and-ink drawings for a story in The Idler were excellent and distinguished.

Example of illustration

Illustration for a book

Shepperson prepared the following pen and ink illustration for a 1899 reissue of the 1851 book Lavengro: The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest by George Borrow. The book falls between a memoir and a novel and is the first part of a two book sequence, with The Romany Rye (1857) continuing the story directly from the end of Lavengro. Images by courtesy of the British Library.

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Notes

1. The portfolio contained: a brief biography of Shepperson, an illustration of Shepperson at work in his studio, an explanation of Shepperson's method of working. This was accompanied by a plate showing an illustration typical of his work and five other plates showing the work at five earlier stages of its production, from the first rough to the just before the finished drawing or colour sketch. Shepperson's pen and ink illustration shows two women with a girl and a pet under a tree in a park. This is presumably Kensington Gardens, which Shepperson often used as a background. The way in which Shepperson built up his illustration from sketches of different elements is clearly shown.
2. This was a little-known exhibiting society that held exhibitions at the Grafton Galleries between 1889 and c. 1919. It had been founded by students of the painter Matthew Ridley.
3. This was a minor gallery at 2 Victoria Street in Westminster, London
4. This presumably refers to the second gallery know by this name (there have been three), The second was established by P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. and Knoedler in 1912, with American artist and critic Francis Howard as the managing director.
5. Johnson and Greutzner show Shepperson exhibiting 256 works at the Leicester Galleries, 68 at the Ridley Art Club,, 39 at the Royal Academy, 38 at the Royal Watercolour Society, 17 at the Walker Gallery, 16 at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, 12 at the Fine Art Society, eight at the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours, five at the London Salon, four at the Manchester City Art Gallery, two at the Abbey Gallery, and one each at The Grosvenor Gallery, The International Society, Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers and the Royal Scottish Academy.
6. Associate status was created in 1769 in order to generate a pool of artists from which to elect full Academicians. The grade of membership was abolished In June 1991, and all then ARAs became RAs.
7. The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers became the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in 1991. Newly elected Members, being Associate Members, are entitled to use ‘ARE’ after their name.

References

1. ^ A. & C. Black Ltd. (1967). Who Was Who: Volume II 1916-1928: A Companion to Who's Who Containing the Biographies of Those Who Died During the Period 1916-1928. Vol. 2: 1916-1928 (4th ed.). London: Adam and Charles Black. p. 955. Retrieved 10 August 2020 – via The Internet Archive.
2. "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975: Claude Allin Shepperson, 1868". FamilySearch. 24 March 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
3. ^ "Claude Allin Shepperson ARA ARWS ARE RI (1867-1921)". Chris Beetles Gallery. Archived from the original on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
4. ^ Greenwall, Ryno (14 June 1905). Artists and Illustrators of the Anglo-Boer War. Vlaeberg, Western Cape, South Africa: Fernwood Press. p. 206. ISBN 0-9583154-2-6.
5. ^ Peppin, Bridget; Micklethwait, Lucy (6 June 1905). Dictionary of British Book Illustrators: The Twentieth Century. London: John Murray. p. 275. ISBN 0-7195-3985-4. Retrieved 19 June 2020 – via The Internet Archive.
6. "India Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947". FamilySearch. 5 February 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020 – via Family Search.
7. "Local Weddings". Hastings and St Leonards Observer (Saturday 14 July 1894): 3. 14 July 1894. Retrieved 28 August 2020 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
8. "Shepperson-Adey". The Queen (Saturday 21 July 1894): 43. 21 July 1894. Retrieved 28 August 2020 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
9. "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Archived from the original on 31 August 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
10. "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Archived from the original on 31 August 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
11. ^ "Claude Allin Shepperson". Find a Grave. Archived from the original on 31 August 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
12. ^ Bryant, Mark (2018). Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Cartoonists and Caricaturists. London: Routledge. p. 204.
13. "The Connisseur Bookself". The Connoisseur: An Illustrated Magazine for Collectors. 51 (204): 223. 1 August 1918. Retrieved 12 August 2020 – via The Internet Archive.
14. "Claude Shepperson: Claude Shepperson and His Work: The Art of the Illustrator (Limited Edition Prints)". Illustration Art Gallery with The Book Palace. Archived from the original on 12 June 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
15. "Ridley Art Club". Artist Biographies. Archived from the original on 14 July 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
16. "Abbey Gallery". Artist Biographies. Archived from the original on 31 August 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
17. "Grosvenor Gallery". Artist Biographies. Archived from the original on 19 February 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
18. "The Grosvenor Galleries". The Times (Tuesday 25 January 1921): 6. 25 January 1921. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
19. ^ Johnson, J.; Greutzner, A. (8 June 1905). The Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors' Club. p. 457.
20. "Claude Shepperson". The British Museum. Archived from the original on 31 August 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
21. Obituary of Claude Allin Shepperson A.R.A. (1922) The Connoisseur, Volume 62, Hearst Corporation
22. Cundall, H. M (1908). A History of British Water Colour Painting: With a Biographical List of Painters. New York: E. P. Duttone and Company. p. 174. Retrieved 28 August 2020 – via The Internet Archive.
23. "Members, Associates and Honorary Members of the Royal Watercolour Society". Royal Watercolour Society. Archived from the original on 15 February 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
24. "Glossary". The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition: A Chronicle, 1769-2018. 2018. Archived from the original on 5 June 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
25. "Our History and the RE Diploma Collection". The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. Archived from the original on 16 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
26. "Election". The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. 2020. Archived from the original on 31 August 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
27. "Wills and Probates 1858-1996: Pages for Shepperson and the year of death 1922". Find a Will Service. Archived from the original on 31 August 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
28. ^ Ellwood, G. Montaguer (1927). The Art of Pen Drawing: A manual for Students, Illustrators, and Commercial Artists. London: B. T. Batsford. Retrieved 27 August 2020 – via The Internet Archive.
29. Houfe, Simon (1996). Dictionary of 19th Century British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors' Club. p. 298. ISBN 1-85149-193-7.
30. Sketchley, R. E. D.; Pollard, Alfred W. (1903). English Book-Illustration of To-day: Appreciations of the work of living English illustrators with lists of their books. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., Ltd. p. 74. Retrieved 28 August 2020 – via The Internet Archive.
31. ^ Thorpe, James (18 April 1905). English Illustration: The Nineties. London: Faber and Faber.

• 1867 births
• 1921 deaths
• English illustrators