Celebrated as a genius, Edward Ladell was regarded by many as the finest still life painter of the Victorian era. A “most genial, kind-hearted and affable man”, he was self-taught and deeply influenced by the works of the 17th-century Dutch masters.

Born in the sleepy Suffolk village of Hasketon, his father was a reputable coachbuilder and taught his son the family trade. It appears that he initially worked for the business before turning his hand to engraving. Little is known about his early success aside from a newspaper advertisement in 1849, which referred to him as a “Picture Dealer, Carver, and Gilder”, currently working on an engraving titled ‘The Village Pastor’.

It’s interesting to consider when young Ladell was first exposed to the works of the great Dutch flower painters. The region of East Anglia (Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire) has a long-established connection with the low countries and numerous pieces were imported. Popular with the aristocracy, no country manor was complete without an exquisitely-rendered vase of vivid blooms. Perhaps during his time as a dealer/engraver, he was asked to produce copies of Dutch works from notable local collections.

During the mid-1850s, with his career beginning to blossom, Ladell debuted at London’s Royal Academy where he continued to exhibit for 30 years. His sumptuous works were met with an ever-increasing level of acclaim - lauded for both their precise draughtsmanship and superior approach to colouring. Described as “so true to nature as to excite the admiration of all”, they had the critics in raptures.

Here in this work from around 1870, he’s brilliantly captured the curved reflection of a window in a roemer (or rummer), with its studded ‘prunts’ and coiled stem. It stands on a carved wooden ledge alongside cobnuts, raspberries, black grapes, and a leaf.

There’s a similar composition in the collection at Touchstones Rochdale. While another sold for 36,000 CHF (£30,000) at a Swiss auction in 1997.

At around the same time, he provided lessons to a small number of local students including Ellen Maria Levett (1853-1912) who would become his second wife and worked in a similar style.

Edward Ladell is represented in numerous public collections including at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Bristol City Art Gallery.

Exhibited

Royal Academy, Royal Society of British Artists, British Institute.

Public Collections

Bristol City Art Gallery, the Colchester and Essex Museum, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Essex, the Harrogate City Art Gallery, the Reading City Art Gallery, Exeter Memorial Museum, the Mappin Art Gallery in Sheffield, the Museum of Croydon, the Mercer Art Gallery, and Touchstones Rochdale.

Timeline

1821

Born in Hasketon, Suffolk, to Christmas Ladell, a coachbuilder, and Mary Ladell.

1841

Lived in Colchester with his family.

1846

Appointed as organist for the Church of St James the Great, Colchester.

1848

Married Juliana Roofe at the Church of St James the Great, Colchester.

Worked as an engraver.

1849-1853

Worked as a picture dealer, carver and gilder.

1853

Gave a lecture on ‘vocal music’.

1854

Gave a “Grand Vocal Concert” at the Cups Assembly Room, Colchester.

1856

Debuted at the Royal Academy with ‘Study from Nature’, where he exhibited until 1886 showing 21 works in total.

1857

Gave his “fourth annual concert of vocal music at the Literary Institution”.

1861

Lived with his wife and daughter in Colchester.

1861

Death of daughter, Kate.

1865-1867

Nothing at the Royal Academy.

C. 1868

Painted 56 ceiling panels for the first floor of the Abbot's Lodging of St Osyth's Priory, Colchester.

1871

Lived alone in Colchester.

1878

Married Ellen Maria Levett.
Moved to Torquay in Devon.

1882

Undertook a commission for Lady Aitchison, widow of General Sir John Aitchison, to paint “a group of fruit and flowers”.

Lived in Exeter.

1886

Died in Exeter.

Reviews

Express and Echo (1885)

“The name of Mr. Edward Ladell is well known in art circles in the West of England as that of a remarkably successful painter of still-life subjects. His ‘Prawns’, exhibited a few years ago at the Royal Academy, won the warmest admiration by its realism and its great technical skill. At the recent exhibition of the Bristol Academy one of Mr. Ladell's fruit and flower pieces created quite a sensation among the critics. Mr. Ladell's reputation, however, does not rest on his exhibition pictures, which, numerous as they are, represent only a small fraction of the work done during a long and successful career. The majority of Mr. Ladell's pictures go straight from the studio to the private gallery. A very fine study in oils of fruit, flowers, and still life has just been completed by Mr. Ladell, and he has favoured a few of his private friends with a view of it at his studio Kenwyn Lodge, Exeter, before sending it home. The picture, which is one of the artist's best efforts, represents a group of roses and other flowers, flanked by various kinds of dessert fruit.

Many of the flowers are contained in a plain glass vase, which, stands on a marble-top sideboard; others lie in careless grace on the marble slab; there is a richly-chased gilt vase on the left, backed by the folds of crimson plush drapery, while a brass plaque behind the flowers helps to throw them into relief. A cut pomegranate, clusters of grapes, two or three peaches, some plums, and a handful of fiberts go to make up the group, which is skilfully composed. The scheme of colour is exceedingly rich, and the component parts of the group are balanced with that perfection of art which conceals art and suggests nothing but the natural beauties which it has been the painter's object to deliver. Nothing can be more tenderly treated than the blush roses, the Maréchal Niel, and the scarlet poppy, which, with its foliage, forms the apex of the group; and the fruit, especially the luscious pomegranate and the peaches, is almost tantalising in its realism. There is a touch of poetry in the glistening dewdrops which tremble on the edges of the petals of a rose and on the soft down of a plum. So wonderfully effective are these little drops of water painted that at first sight the spectator is half inclined to take his handkerchief and test whether they have not been accidentally spilt on the glass which covers the picture. A fly which has settled on one of the peaches, and it is feasting on its sector, is also most deceptively real.

Mr. Ladell's greatest success, however, is in the marvellous truth with which be has painted the vase. He rarely composes a picture of this kind without introducing glass in some form, and the touches with which he renders the crispness and transparency of the material are magical in their effect. In the present care the task was a difficult one. The vase has not a single line of ornament on its surface, so that there remains nothing but the most subtle effects of reflected light for the artist to seize. These Mr. Ladell has put on the canvas with great skill; and the semi-opacity of the water in which the flower-stalks are immersed is also rendered in a way that bespeaks the cunning hand of master.”

Essex Herald (1881)

“Devonians often have the satisfaction of seeing artists employed in transferring to canvas glimpses of their lovely county. No county can boast of more picturesque spots, and no London gallery of painting seems to be complete without a few Devonshire landscapes. We are pleased to welcome artists among us as temporary sojourners, and much more pleased when they settle down in our midst and make this land of beauty their abode.

We are not without studios at the present time, and a most acceptable addition to their number is that of Mr. Ladell, who is one of the most accomplished painters of still life connected with the English school. I have recently had an opportunity of inspecting several of his works, and am brimming over with admiration for their exquisite finish. He paints with the fidelity of an old Dutchman, and with a brilliancy of colour all his own. A dead duck lying upon a board, as represented by Mr. Ladell, is a duck indeed. There is no necessity for retiring a distance from the easel in order to realise the effect of the picture. Near to the vision, or a space removed, the effect is the same. You have the very bird before you, and close scrutiny seems to show real feathers and not the painted semblance.

Mr. Ladell has just completed a fine picture for a member of the Western circuit, the main feature of which is a vase of flowers resting on a carved oak table. The blue and white porcelain glistens like a veritable piece of pottery; and the roses and poppies that form the posy are copied with a delicacy of outline and a perfection of colouring that leave nothing to be desired. At the foot of the vase a branch from a raspberry tree is laid carelessly down, and while the fruit is round and luscious, over ripe or scarcely ripe, the leaves, whether fresh or fading, are represented with a verisimilitude that is marvellous. To the left of the picture stands a Rhine glass, half filled with chablis, and the painting of that simple glass is in itself triumph over difficulties. The roundness of the actual glass, the brittleness, the glowing surface, the reflection of the houses in the street, are all there, imitated with a truthfulness that deceives the eye. And yet finished as in the picture to the slightest detail, there is no stiffness, but softness and naturalness throughout."

Obituaries

"An Elegy on Edward Ladell, Artist. Obit Nov. 9th, 1886.

Cold; cold and stiff, at thy command,
Now lies that master limner's hand,
Ah, envious Death! Of its rich pow'r
Of rend'ring Nature's fruit and flower
Immortal thou must even rob,
Must bid that warm heart cease to throb,
And glaze that eye with cruel decree,
Which Genius lit with brilliancy,
And marked him as her gifted son
In whom the mother's soul did run.
Thou needs must stand and bar the way
To greater fame, and bid him lay
His honours by, nor reap him more,
Nor let art swell his treasur'd store;
But lowly, lowly, rest his head
Upon thy chilling nuptial bed.
But, mighty Death, thou canst not steal
The wondrous pow'r his works reveal.
Thy touch may still his gen'rous heart,
But cannot bid his fame depart:
Thy breath may dim his lustrous eye,
But cannot bid his offspring die;
Thy with'ring grasp that hand may blast:
Its cunning trac'ry still will last;
And though the grave may hide his clay,
The Artist's name will not decay,
Life's fairest dreams before thee fly:
The works of Genius never die!

Edward Jesty (1886)"

Suffolk and Essex Free Press (1886)

“We regret exceedingly to have to announce the death of Mr. Edward Ladell, the celebrated Colchester artist, who passed away at two o'clock on Tuesday afternoon at his residence, Kenwyn Lodge, Exeter, to which place (after spending a short time at Torquay) he removed from Colchester some years ago.

The deceased gentleman, who was sixty-five years of age, was a native of Colchester - son of an old and respected inhabitant of the Borough, the late Mr. Ladell, who carried on business as a coachbuilder, on the premises now occupied by Messrs. A. and A. Adams, on East Hill. After leaving school he was brought up to his father's business, but he subsequently took to engraving, and afterwards to painting, at which he worked most assiduously, and, although entirely a self-taught artist, he quickly gave promise of a great career in the line of art which he specially marked out for himself, namely, ‘Still Life.’ At first, of course, his pictures did not fetch much money, but soon the time came when his genius as a faithful depicter of fruit was recognised, and the works from his easel were much sought after and commanded heavy prices, among connoisseurs, by whom he was considered the foremost man of his day in fruit painting, and as even superior to the late George Lance, who, by the way, is also said to have come from Essex.

Edward Ladell certainly excelled in the perfection of his manipulation, he was a thoroughly conscientious worker, aimed at perfect fidelity to nature, and never painted a picture but what he endeavoured to make it surpass his previous ones. His studio was always represented at the Academy and other leading Exhibitions, and his works ever ensured flattering notices from the leading representative journals, as the columns of the Essex Standard have from time to time testified. Mr. Ladell had a large picture in this year's Academy, and it had a place on the line. Unquestionably his pictures have gone up considerably in price during the last few years, some of the smaller ones fetching a hundred guineas and upwards, and no doubt now that the artist himself is no more they will very much increase in value.

While enjoying a world-wide reputation as an artist Mr. Ladell was held in the highest esteem by his fellow-townsmen in Colchester. He was a most genial kind-hearted and affable man - a man who made many friends and never an enemy, and consequently much regret was felt when eight or nine years ago he left the Borough for the West of England, while a very large circle of friends will now mourn exceedingly his somewhat sudden and unexpected death. At Exeter, too, he was much respected, and the newspapers of that city of his adoption testify to the gloom cast over the community by the sad occurrence, while they speak in the highest terms of his genius as an artist and of his sterling worth as a private citizen. The deceased gentleman notwithstanding his leaving Colchester, has ever taken great interest in the old Borough, and has maintained his many private friend- ships by occasional visits to the place.

He was a staunch Conservative, and attended at the 1885 election to record a vote for Mr. Round. It is not more than three weeks since he was in the Borough apparently in his usual robust health. About ten days or a fortnight since, after his return to Exeter, Mr. Ladell took cold, but on Sunday week he went to Exmouth with some friends. The weather was showery, and his cold was aggravated. Nothing serious was, however, apprehended, and on the following day Mr. Ladell was out as usual. On Tuesday his cold was worse, and the remedies applied failed to give relief. On Friday Mr. Caird, surgeon, was called in and he found the patient suffering from congestion of the lungs. Inflammation followed, and Mr. Arthur Cuming consulted with Mr. Caird. But little or no hope of recovery was entertained on Sunday; and the deceased passed peacefully away early last Tuesday afternoon. He leaves a widow and only son.

Mr. Ladell was twice married-first to Miss Julia Roofe, second daughter of the late Mr. C. Bell Roofe, of High Street, Colchester, and afterwards to Miss Levett, of Ipswich, who survives him. It is almost needless to say that the greatest sympathy is felt both in Colchester and Exeter with the widow and her only son, in their sad bereavement. It may be added that in the present Mrs. Ladell, the deceased had the good fortune to find a lady who sympathised with his tastes, who from being a pupil of his, has herself developed into a well known artist, and who was, thereable, to assist and encourage her husband in his work.”

Devon and Exeter Gazette

“We record with extreme regret the death of Mr. Ladell, the artist. Mr. Ladell, who was connected with the Eastern Counties, came to Devonshire some years ago, and took up his residence at Torquay. After a time he removed to Exeter, and died yesterday, after a brief illness, at Kenwyn Lodge. Mr. Ladell's courteous bearing and amiable disposition quickly won for him in Exeter a large circle of friends, and while years extended the circle time deepened the attachment of those who had known him longest. Mr. Ladell gained a position entirely his own in art. Few men of the present day approached, and none excelled, him in the reproduction of still life. His studies of fruit were so true to nature as to excite the admiration of all; there was a lusciousness about the colouring of the grapes, a fidelity in the representation of the bloom upon the fruit, that struck even the most casual critic; while judges of art were filled with admiration for the marvellous faithfulness of detail which distinguished every work that came from Mr. Ladell's easel.

His death leaves a blank in the art world. In the narrower but still wide circle of personal and professional friends his premature removal has caused a gloom. Impulsive by nature, yet considerate by habit, frank and outspoken, yet courteous and kind, he was one of those men who made hosts of friends, and escaped anything like personal enmity. In Mrs. Ladell he had the good fortune to find a lady who sympathised with his tastes, and who herself, being a well-known artist, was able to stimulate and encourage her husband in his work. Sympathy will be felt for her and her son in their bereavement; and, although their loss must of necessity be the most severe, yet not a few unconnected by family ties will deeply deplore that Edward Ladell should be no more.”