Lyndon Harris; reluctant artist (AMAZING)
Hyfler/Rosner
21 September 2006
Simon Fenwich
Lyndon Goodwin Harris, artist: born Halesowen,
Worcestershire 25 July 1928; died Halesowen 4 June 2006.
Lyndon Harris was an artist whose life was almost
overpowered by his talent. The traditional story of a young
man or woman struggling against family disapproval or
financial circumstances to follow their artistic dreams was,
in his case, the opposite of what happened. When his mother
discovered at the age of 38 that she was pregnant with her
first (and to be only) child, his father pronounced that the
child would be a boy and he would grow up to be an artist.
It was as if he was given no choice in the matter.
He was brought up in an oppressive household. Sidney Harris,
Lyndon Harris's father, had a relatively modest clerical
position and taught book-keeping; in the traditional
Victorian sense, he believed that free time was not for
pleasure but for self-improvement. Asked why she did not
stick up for herself more, his wife Polly replied simply:
"You don't have to live with him." Sidney however was also a
passionate -and discriminating - collector who filled with
china and fine paintings the substantial house he built for
himself in Halesowen in Worcestershire. He gave his son the
middle name Goodwin as a mark of his friendship with the
watercolour painter Albert Goodwin, whose pictures he
collected.
Albert Goodwin (1845-1932) believed that painting was an
almost divinely inspired activity. His pictures, deeply
influenced by Turner, are imbued with considerable feeling
for atmosphere and a love of landscape; Harris's own work
was in turn inspired by Goodwin and is in the English
landscape tradition of Turner and Cotman. Harris was
surrounded by art from the start of his life, and his
carefully nurtured talent was obvious even from childhood;
at the astonishingly early age of 13, in 1942 he exhibited
at the Royal Academy for the first time with a watercolour
entitled Old Houses and Church at Halesowen.
After leaving Halesowen Grammar School, Harris spent a year
at the Birmingham School of Art, from where in 1948 he won a
Leverhulme scholarship to the Slade School of Art in London.
In consecutive years at the Slade, he won Certificates of
Merit at the Paris Salon (later, in 1956, he also won a Gold
Medal).
On graduating, he spent his two years' National Service in
the Royal Air Force - during which time his photograph
appeared in the Birmingham Sunday Mercury with the headline
"Started at 13" and the description of Harris as "probably
the most distinguished young artist in the Midlands". His
father insisted that Lyndon gain a teaching certificate,
after which he taught at the Stourbridge College of Art: he
was totally unsuited for the work and, although it provided
him with a living, he detested every moment of it until
eventually he retired.
Already by 1947, Harris had been elected to the Royal West
of England Academy, and he also became a member of the Royal
Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1952, and
of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 1958.
The greater part of his work was in watercolour, although he
also etched and painted in oils. Although he was very
reluctant to let go of his pictures - for which he could
achieve high prices - his work was acquired by, among
others, the Ministry of Works, the Birmingham and Midland
Institute, the City of Worcester and by the family of Sir
Henry Tate (of the Tate Gallery and Tate and Lyle).
Signing himself "Lyndon G. Harris", he never let go of the
Goodwin tradition and, arguably, the narrow constraints in
which Harris painted, as well as his own natural facility,
prevented his developing a contemporary artistic voice. The
death in 1971 of his father, who had dominated his life,
traumatised Harris and he ceased to paint altogether.
He had never married: his father had told him it would be to
his detriment to do so. Despite the fact that his mother
lived for another three years, his reply, on being asked why
he no longer painted, was that "he had no one to paint for".
His yearly journey up to London to attend the Annual General
Meetings of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours
became a rare opportunity for artistic companionship, even
after he no longer exhibited.
Old age added to his problems. Formerly an accomplished
organist and pianist, Harris grew increasingly deaf. He
suffered badly in a cycling accident and this was the excuse
he gave to his artistic societies for no longer painting. A
short, spare and quite gentle man, he could also both
immensely stubborn - especially when it was a matter of his
own possessions - and litigious. A major theft from his
house of 16 works, both of his own and by others, affected
him greatly. Although the burglar received a 12 months' jail
sentence, only two of the stolen works were recovered.
The burglary made Harris more reclusive and eccentric than
ever, and he ventured as seldom as possible from the house.
When he failed one day in June to appear at a neighbour's to
take Sunday lunch and collect his washing the police were
called to make an entry. Every door in the house - which was
in squalor - was locked; his body was found in his bedroom,
where he had probably died some days beforehand (4 June was
given as an official date).
He died intestate although, oddly, the deeds to his house
were found lying on top of his grand piano. His father's
china and coin collection, as well as the watercolour
drawings by Albert Goodwin, a number of oils, and a painting
by a pupil of the 17th-century Italian artist Salvator Rosa
are to be auctioned by Christies and Bonhams.
Simon Fenwick