1953 Oil Painting. 'Two Friends,' Harold Storey (1888 -1965)

1953, British School Painting. 'Two Friends,' Harold Storey

A delightful British 'kitchen sink' painting from 1953, charmingly observed study of two friends sitting by the fire, one lost in thought and her friend ensuring she doesn’t drop a stitch.

A rare interior painting by this well listed artist.

Artist Bio

Harold was born in Sowerby, Yorkshire on 12th January 1888, the eldest son of eight children, five sons and three daughters, born to Joseph Storey, an Officer of the Inland Revenue and his wife Rose Anna McKean. His father was later appointed as an Inland Revenue Officer in Aberlour where he died in 1898, aged 39. Following her husband's death Rose, moved south with her children and in 1901 was resident in Main Street, Lennoxtown, Stirlingshire. Now head of the family, she had found employment as an Innkeeper.

By 1905 the family were living at 73 South Portland Street in the Gorbals area and Harold, aged 18, was enrolled in evening classes in the 'lower school' at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA). He continued his studies, enrolling mainly at evening classes at the GSA, until 1912. . By 1908, he had obtained employment as an apprentice designer and in the 1911 census he was living with his family at 55 Eglinton Street. The records state that he was a designer of stained glass and his mother, who before her marriage had undertaken teacher training, was now employed as a teacher.

He does not seem to have won any prizes as a student, however, he was clearly respected amongst his peers as he was awarded the Gertrude Annie Lauder Prize, which was a fund designed to support young, aspiring artists in the Glasgow Art Club. Harold showed considerable talent, as he submitted an etching entitled '297 Virginia Place’ which was accepted for display at the annual exhibition of the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts (RGIFS) in 1912. Indeed, 119 examples of his work, watercolours, oil paintings and etchings, were accepted for display at the RGIFS annual exhibitions until 1964, the year before his death.

His work was exhibited also at the Royal Scottish Academy over a period of 50 years, 38 items in all having been accepted.

The titles of his works reveal that he frequently painted landscapes, most often in the Newton Mearns area, and that he seemed consistently fascinated by atmospheric effects and changing patterns of light.

Two pieces of his work, 'A Bit of Old Glasgow' and 'In the Gloaming, Mearns' were exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh in 1914. He must have fallen in love with Mearns at this time because, except for a period of four years, he lived in Mearns from 1919 until his death in 1965.

A number of his paintings which have non specific titles such as ‘Winter Sun’, ‘Sunset After Storm’, ‘June Morning in the Woods’, may be of Mearns, but listed below are those of his paintings which can be identified as his ‘Mearns’ subjects.

Examples of his work can be found today in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University, in Paisley Museum and Art Gallery, in Glasgow Museums Resource Centre at Nitshill, in Museums in Northern Ireland and Newport, Wales

Images of six of his oil paintings can be viewed online, courtesy of the Art UK at: www.artuk.org/discover/artists/storey-harold-18881965

Original frame, supplied free of charge, ready to hang.

Size:
Frame: Width X Height
CM: 57 x 52
Inches: 22 1/2 x 20 1/2
Painting:
CM: 46 x 41
Inches: 18 x 16
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Provenance: Signed and dated lower right. Signed, Inscribed and dated verso
Date; 1953
Condition; Excellent

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