Reginald ASPINWALL
The artist was born in Preston, Lancashire (3 January 1855 GRO), the son of John Aspinwall, a newspaper reporter, and his wife Jane, nee Clemmey. Aspinwall moved to Lancaster in the early 1870s, where he did most of his painting and latterly died (26 February 1921, age 63, GRO). [See note under miscellaneous related to his dates.] The 1871 Census lists Reginald Aspinwall as an apprentice at the School of Art (4 Hill Place, Christchurch, Preston).
A portrait of the artist by J Cross is owned by Lancaster City Museum, and a reproduction can be viewed at www.lancs.ac.uk His titles include Mountain Mists, Home with the Evening Tide (1886) and Arnside. Known date of a connection to West Cornwall is a Newlyn title in 1886.
The artist died of arterio-sclerosis, with lung involvement, in the Lancaster Lunatic Asylum.
media
Painter of landscapes and coastal paintings in oils and watercolour
works and access
Likenesses: A portrait of the artist by J Cross (Lancaster City Museum: a reproduction can be viewed at www.lancs.ac.uk)
Access to work: Wessex Gallery (Mountain Mists ); Brunswick Gallery (Arnside); Hardie 2009: col pl: Home with the morning tide
Local: Penlee Gallery & Museum
exhibitions
RA (7); RCA (24); SS; NWS
memberships
ARCA
misc further info
Note: On file in the WCAA are birth and death certificates for Reginald Aspinwall, with the dates and age of death as reported here. A sharp-eyed correspondent has pointed out that the dates as reported do not calculate with RA dying at 63 years of age, rather at 66. This is a mistake on the part of the Registrar, as the death age is clearly written '63 years'. The asylum in which he died may not have had access to his date of birth at the time of registration.
references
Bednar (3rd edition)
Brook-Hart
Hardie (2009) Artists in Newlyn and West Cornwall col pl
Johnson & Greutzner (1975) Dictionary of British Artists
Public Catalogue Foundation (PCF) Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly: Oil Paintings in Public Ownership
Wood (1995) Victorian Painters