Winifred Freeman
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artist Winifred Freeman |
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| Winifred Freeman - Artist | ||
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Medium |
Watercolour |
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Speciality |
Portraits, Marine Scenes, Coastal Views Landscapes and Townscapes |
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| Life and career | Great Aunt Winifred by Margaret Powell (Great niece) MARY WINIFRED FREEMAN was born on 26 April 1866 at Florence Place , Falmouth into a prosperous family of granite merchants, a family firm that dominated the granite industry in the West Country. They were a large, close knit, hard working, well respected family, deeply religious. Winnie, as her family called her, was intelligent and well educated and it must have been from an early age that she began to rebel against the strictures and repression of women in the Victorian era. Marriage was not for her; she chose an independent lifeearning herown living through selling herpaintings. She chose to live alone, travelled widely on her own, much to the chagrin of her family, but earning respect from others, a contentious personality. To further her ambition as an artist she studied with Sir Hubert von Herkomer at Bushey, Hertfordshire, where she received invaluable grounding in the techniques of her chosen medium, watercolour. It was here that she met Henry Scott Tuke, who was to remain a lifelong friend with their affinity of spirit; they both chose solitary lives and shared the creative delight in painting. To get around and paint local scenes Winnie had a bicycle. To ride one with the long skirts of that period was impossible, so she wore knickerbockers, and with her canvas and easel strapped to her back she was a familiar figure. To add to her unusual lifestyle she smoked heavily and enjoyed cigars, even smoking in public. She travelled widely, spending long times in Canada with her brothers Alfred and Bernard. She travelled on her own to Brittany , Venice , Paris and Lourdes , painting wherever she went. She exhibited at the Royal Academy and often sold through the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society at Falmouth . She was close to her older sister who had married Charles Napier Hemy RA, the country's leading marine artist, who lived at Churchfield, Falmouth , and she painted many domestic scenes of his house as well as portraits of his family. It was in 1926 that she moved to her home at 7 Bellair Terrace, St Ives. Her work is distinctive, tackling the difficult medium of watercolours with skill, obtaining a luminosity seldom achieved in this medium. Winnie tackled a wide range of subjects with competence: sea and landscapes, architectural subjects, snow scenes and portraits of both young and old with great sensitivity. Her work is robust with none of the gentility of Victorian ladies, and her intimate works remain a joy to live with. The end of her life was sad due to health problems. She had a stroke when on Skidden Hill, St Ives, rolling down the hill and was confined to her bed for eight years, nursed by her saintly neighbour Agatha Johnson. Winnie died on 10 August 1961. The Requiem Mass was led by her dear friend, Father Delaney, at the Roman Catholic Church, St Ives and was attended by friends, a great niece and six of her great great nieces and nephews who were on holiday at St Ives - so she was surrounded by family at the end. She was interred in the Freeman family vault at Falmouth Cemetery, hopefully, in peace with all her family at last. |
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| Click here for Winifred Freeman's portfolio |
