Walter Greaves - Cheyne Walk, London, UK
Posted by: Groundspeak Regular Member Master Mariner
N 51° 28.915 W 000° 10.504
30U E 696146 N 5707202
This blue plaque advises that the artist, Walter Greaves, "lived here 1855 - 1897". The plaque, erected by the Greater London Council, is attached to a building on the north side of Cheyne Walk at the junction with Milman's Street.
Waymark Code: WMPEXR
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/20/2015
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member bluesnote
Views: 1

The Tate website has an article about Walter Greaves that tells us:

English painter and etcher. His father was a Chelsea boat-builder who had been J. M. W. Turner's boatman. Greaves and one of his brothers, Henry Greaves (1844–1904), met Whistler in 1863, introducing him to the delights of the Thames, becoming his studio assistants, pupils and close friends for over twenty years. Such early works as Hammersmith Bridge on Boat-race Day (c. 1862; London, Tate) and Old Battersea Bridge (c. 1863; priv. col., see 1984 sale cat., no. 2) show Greaves as a master of primitive art, but his later nocturnes, drawings and etchings demonstrate his absorption of Whistler's teachings. Much of his work also provides a fascinating record of 19th-century Chelsea (e.g. Duke Street, Old Chelsea etching, ?1860–73; London, BM). During the late 1870s Whistler began to gather a more sophisticated group of friends, including Walter Sickert and Mortimer Menpes. Excluded from this circle, Greaves suffered years of neglect, misfortune and poverty before his discovery by William Marchant, proprietor of the Goupil Galleries, who exhibited Greaves's work in his London Gallery in 1911. Greaves's new-found glory was shortlived, however: three weeks after the exhibition opened, Whistler's self-appointed biographers, Joseph and Elizabeth Pennell, sullied his reputation by claiming that he had plagiarised Whistler's work. Despite the admiration of a few fellow painters Greaves again fell into obscurity and spent his last eight years as a Poor Brother of the Charterhouse.

Blue Plaque managing agency: Greater London Council

Individual Recognized: Walter Greaves

Physical Address:
104 Cheyne Walk
London, United Kingdom


Web Address: [Web Link]

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