Albert Chevallier Tayler was an esteemed British painter of portraits, country scenes, military, and genre subjects. He trained at several distinguished institutions including Heatherley's, Royal Academy Schools, the Slade and at Jean-Paul Laurens’ ateliers in Paris.
Tayler is also considered an important contributor to the Newlyn School - a colony of artists who were brought together in Cornwall with a shared fascination for ‘en plein air’ painting. During his time in Newlyn, he worked closely with Henry Scott Tuke RA RWS (1858-1929) and Stanhope Alexander Forbes RA (1857-1947).
However, aside from his spirited impressionistic works, Tayler is best known for his cricketing works, which include a large oil painting depicting a match between Kent and Lancashire. He was a keen cricketer and took part in Authors v Artists matches along with numerous leading creatives, such as Arthur Conan Doyle, P.G. Wodehouse, and J.M. Barrie.
He’s represented at numerous public collections including the Walker Art Gallery and Birmingham Museum.
Exhibited
Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham, Dowdeswell Galleries, Fine Art Society, Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, Manchester City Art Gallery, New English Art Club, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Royal Academy 49, Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Hibernian Academy, Ridley Art Club, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Arthur Tooth & Sons Gallery.
Public Collections
National Portrait Gallery, Birmingham Museums Trust, Alfred East Art Gallery, Chesterfield Museum & Art Gallery, Dorman Museum, Folkestone Museum, Gordon Museum, Guy's & St Thomas' Foundation, Guildhall Art Gallery, Harris Museum & Art Gallery, History of Science Museum, University of Oxford, Lady Lever Art Gallery, North Hertfordshire Museum, Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Walker Art Gallery, Williamson Art Gallery.
Timeline
1862
Born in Leytonstone, Essex, to William Moseley Tayler, a lawyer, and Elizabeth Sarah Warren.
1871
Lived in Bloxham, Oxfordshire.
Boarded at Bloxham School, Oxfordshire.
1879
Studied at the Heatherley School of Fine Art.
Studied at Royal Academy Schools.
Studied at the Slade School of Fine Art.
Studied at Jean-Paul Laurens’ ateliers in Paris and also under Carolus-Duran.
1881
Lived in Bloomsbury, London, with his parents.
1884
Lived in Newlyn, Cornwall.
1886
Elected a member of the New English Art Club.
1890
Elected a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.
1891
Awarded a medal at the Paris Salon.
1896
Married Elizabeth Christiana Cotes Allingham in London. Elizabeth was the daughter of a surgeon to the household of the Prince of Wales.
1901
Lived in Kensington, London, with his wife, children and staff.
1903
Commissioned to paint a large panel at the Royal Exchange in London.
1905
Produced twelve portraits of well-known cricket players, which were used by Lord Leverhulme as lithographs to advertise Lever Brothers soap. The National Portrait Gallery holds nine of the originals.
1906
Commissioned to produce a large work depicting a Kent vs Lancashire cricket match at Canterbury. This was sold in 2006 for £680,000.
1908
Elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists.
1909
Lived in Marylebone, London.
1911
Lived in St John's Wood, Marylebone, with his wife and staff.
1918
Death of son John Allingham Churchill Tayler in France.
1919
Death of son William Ulrich Chevallier Tayler.
1925
Died in London.
Obituary. Cornish Post, 1926.
“A Famous Newlyn Artist
Mr. Albert Chevallier Tayler, of Orsett Terrace, Hyde Park, Park, the well-known artist, died on Sunday at the age of 63. Mr. Tayler, at one time a member of the Newlyn colony of artists, was educated at the Slade School, in Paris, and delighted in the execution of picturesque episode pictures, streaked with a dash of idealism, or travel. He was a prominent member of the Royal Society of British Artists and was awarded the medal at the Paris Exposition of 1891.
Upwards of thirty years ago, at Newlyn, he won the lasting admiration of artists and laymen alike with his ‘Gentlemen, the Queen!’ a masterly picture, that revealed his wonderful abilities in the portrayal of character. Asked once for his method of seeking out ideas for his pictures, he replied that he studied human nature, and the ideas came of their own accord.
There can be no doubt that he was always at his best on a crowded canvas. He above all preferred, and, indeed, concentrated on, figure painting, though he never dealt with the nude. There was a chastity and in many cases a religious fervour in all of his pictures that had to portray vice, which was most marked; and which, surely, few artists have shown better.
His skill and handling, and his love of dealing with, figure painting, with decorativeness outstanding, is strongly evident in his ‘Honi Soit Qui Mal y Pense,’ and this picture, perhaps, typifies the artist's nature more than any other of his works; although the canvas from his own brush which gave him the most satisfaction, was ‘The Last Blessing’ (which was painted at Newlyn). This latter effort was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1891, and won for him the gold medal on that occasion. It was later purchased for the permanent art gallery in Buenos Ayres.
The artist’s works (he was by way of being a prolific painter) are prominent in the chief provincial galleries, as well as in those of the overseas capitals of the Empire, and his portraits of Earl Beatty and Earl Haig are outstanding canvases in the Guildhall Art Gallery. In 1896 he married Mrs. Cotes, a daughter of Mr. Allingham, the well-known surgeon.
Mr. Tayler was the seventh son of the late William Tayler, solicitor; he was born at Leytonstone in 1862, and spent about ten years at Newlyn, in the early days, when Mr. Stanhope Forbes was bringing that place into wide renown. He had worked with Frank Bramley, T. C. Gotch, Norman Garstin, Fred. Hall, H. M. Rheam, and others. He had been a Catholic for many years, and a requiem mass has been held at the Church of the Rosary, Marylebone-road, London. The interment took place at St. Mary's Cemetery, Kensal Green.”