Frank Wright Bourdillon (1851 – 1924)

Born in India on 7th November. Lived originally in London & Dorking. Aged 31 he went to study at the Slade School of art and then Paris. Returned to England in 1884. Moved to Polperro in May 1886, then on to Newlyn. Mainly painted romantic ‘Elizabethan’ seascapes, also landscapes and figures. He liked to paint his models in period costumes ‘plein air’. In 1892 he left painting to become a missionary in India. Some years later he returned to England and spent the rest of his life as a curate in Ramsgate. Died on February 18th at Little Sodbury, South Gloucestershire.

His work includes ‘Across the Beach’ (1887, oil on canvas), ‘Jubilee Hat’ (1887, oil on canvas), ‘A Wandering Minstrel’ (ex Dowdeswells) and ‘From A Newlyn Studio’ (Dowdeswells).