GEORGE OWEN WYNNE APPERLEY (1884 Ventnor, Isle of Wight, England - 1960 Tangier, Morocco)

Oil on Canvas

Measurements:
Sight Size: 14.17 x 21.65 in. (36 x 55 cm.)
Framed: 22.04 x 29.53 in. (56 x 75 cm.)

Provenance: [European Art Market]

Accompanying certificate of authenticity issued by Mr Enrique Riki Apperley, son of the artist.

George Apperley (1884-1960) was an English-born artist who has been referenced by sources including Christie's Auctions as “one of the finest of the last romantics.”

Apperley was born on the Isle of Wight in 1884, descended from an aristocratic Welsh family keen for him to follow in the family’s tradition of military service, though George harbored desires from an early age of becoming an artist. His childhood was initially spent in seaside towns on the south coast of England and in Alton, Hampshire, but George’s father died in a hunting accident when George was six, leading his mother to take him to Torquay, where they then settled. At his family’s behest, George spent time at the Eagle House Preparatory School in Berkshire, the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and the Uppingham School, but George forsook his family’s chosen path and enrolled at the Herkomer School of Art in Bushey, Hertfordshire, in 1903, though his rebelliousness led to his expulsion the following year. In 1904 he departed for Italy to further his artistic explorations, and that same year, at the age of 20, he had several of his works accepted by the Royal Academy in London as part of a collective exhibition. His first solo show was two years later at London’s Baillie Gallery.

In 1907 Apperley secretly married Miss Hilda Pope in a union deemed unsuitable by her parents, with the couple spending time in Lugano, Switzerland, before returning to England and establishing a home in West Hampstead, London, the first time Apperley was afforded a stable base from which to develop his painting techniques. He exhibited at the Leicester Galleries in 1908 and 1910, with noted British journalist and critic Huntly Carter favorably reviewing the Leicester Gallery shows. In 1913 Apperley was elected into the Royal Institute of Watercolour Artists, and that same year he traveled to Spain to paint, becoming impressed with Granada in the autonomous Andalusian region, in particular with the Alhambra and Generalife Palaces, which Apperley himself described accordingly: ”The Gardens of the Generalife.... where goldfish swim in emerald ponds, fountains splash under ancient cypresses and ilex, roses clamber over shady loggias and crystal waters tinkle eternally by the side of steps and terraces in perpetual shade.”

Shortly after Apperley returned to Britain, the First World War broke out. Apperley was declared unfit for military service, and was advised by doctors to travel south for health reasons, which he did, returning to Spain in 1916, first traveling to Madrid and then back to Granada, where he moved on from painting landscapes and concentrated on portraits, eventually becoming known for his exotic female semi-nudes and nudes, often of the gitanas (gypsy women) of the Albaicin District in Granada. It was during this time that Apperley painted a series of sophisticated and sensual classical narrative pictures inspired by the Old Masters (inducing an essay published on Christie's website in 2006 to draw "strong parallels" between Apperley’s semi-nude portrait of his second wife, Enriqueta Contreras, and the Venus of Urbino by the Italian Renaissance master, Titian). Apperley’s reputation was also considerably enhanced by an exhibition of his work held in in Madrid in 1918 that was opened by King Alfonso XIII and his English Queen, Victoria Eugenia. In 1920, an article about Apperley appeared in the internationally renowned fine arts magazine, The Studio. Although he was living abroad, Apperley’s work continued to be exhibited at the Royal Academy.

Fleeing the political instability in Spain in the 1930s, Apperley escaped to Tangier, Morocco, then a European Protectorate filled with expatriates. While living in Tangier he held a number of important exhibitions in the city, including one in 1945 promoted by the British Consul. The same year he was awarded the prestigious Order of Alfonso the Wise by the Spanish Government. In the 1950s his work was exhibited in Madrid, Barcelona and Malaga, as well as Granada and Tangier. Though Apperley resided in Tangier until his death in 1960, he continued to make return visits to his beloved Granada. Following his death, many posthumous exhibitions of his work were held in London and Spain (both in Granada and in Madrid), and in 1987 a show about Apperley's life and works was held at the Bushey Museum in England.

Today, examples of Apperley’s work can be found in prominent institutions and private collections throughout the world, including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Malaga, the Palace Art Museum in Brussels, the Municipal Museum of Fine Arts of Tandil in Buenos Aires, the Museum of Sydney and the Museum of Fine Arts of the City of Sydney (Australia), the Lady Lever Art Gallery (Liverpool), and the Bushey Museum (England).

Written by Brian Flon, author of "Hell's Kitchen Requiem" (2014), available as an e-book at Amazon, ITunes, and Barnes & Noble.

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