Biography
British landscape painter Alfonso Toft was born into an artistic Staffordshire family in 1869 and became known particularly for his lyrical views of castles, open countryside, waterways and expansive skies. A member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, he exhibited widely in Britain, represented the country at the Venice Biennale, and travelled as far as Newfoundland in pursuit of landscape subjects. Yet for all the breadth of his career, Toft remained unmistakably British in temperament. There is something peculiarly British in his pleasure in an old ruin on a hill.
Toft was a painter of atmosphere rather than granularity. Buildings, trees and distant hills are frequently gathered into broad tonal masses, while broken, vigorous brushwork allows light to flicker across their surfaces. His castles are seldom archaeological studies. Instead, their dark silhouettes provide an emotional anchor within a much larger landscape of shifting cloud, evening glow, mist and atmospheric distance. He understood the developments that had transformed European painting during the later 19th century, particularly the liberation of colour and paint associated with French Impressionism, but never attempted to imitate them. His technique looked towards modern painting; his heart remained among the ruins.
This tension gives Toft's work much of its character. He inherited the emotional vocabulary of British Romantic landscape - weather, solitude, history, memory and the sublime - while painting with the freer touch of an artist who had experienced a very different age. A castle might be reduced almost to a shadow, while an enormous sky carries the emotional weight of the picture. His landscapes ask not simply what light does to a place, but what light feels like when it falls across eight hundred years of history.
There is consequently an appealing eccentricity to Toft's artistic identity. His long life carried him from the Victorian era into the 1960s, through Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism and abstraction, yet he continued to find poetry in ruined battlements, distant hills and changing skies. These were not escapist fantasies but real places transformed through feeling. Toft painted what it was like to stand within a landscape shaped simultaneously by nature, weather and centuries of human memory.
Known For
Lyrical British landscapes, particularly views of historic castles and ruins; expansive skies, atmospheric light, waterways and distant countryside.
Student Of
- Birmingham School of Art
- Hanley School of Art
- Royal College of Art, London
Lived In
- Staffordshire
- Chelsea, London
Public Collections
- Royal Collection
- National Museum Cardiff
- Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
- The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery
- Wolverhampton Art Gallery
- Newcastle-under-Lyme Museum & Art Gallery
- University of Hull
- Brampton Museum
Timeline
1869
Born on 11 September in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, into an unusually artistic family. His father, Charles Toft, was a distinguished modeller and pottery artist associated with Wedgwood; his younger brother Albert Toft became a prominent sculptor.
1870s-1880s
Studied at Birmingham School of Art and Hanley School of Art before winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London.
1890s
Developed his career as a landscape painter, increasingly establishing the atmospheric approach to landscape for which he became known.
1898
Began exhibiting with the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and elsewhere.
1902
Recorded living at Trafalgar Studios, Manresa Road, Chelsea, an important artistic community in London.
1910
Represented Britain at the Venice Biennale.
1912
Again represented Britain at the Venice Biennale.
1913
Held a major solo exhibition at the Fine Art Society in London.
1914
Represented Britain at the Venice Biennale for a third time.
1917
Elected a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.
1919
Travelled to Newfoundland, spending approximately three months painting its landscape, particularly the country surrounding Grand Falls.
1920
Exhibited his Newfoundland landscapes at Walker's Galleries in New Bond Street, London. A contemporary report praised his ability to capture the island's exceptionally clear atmosphere and its unusual colour effects. Asked why he had painted no sunsets, Toft explained that the evening mosquitoes had made working outdoors impossible.
1920s-1930s
Continued producing British landscapes, including numerous views of castles and historic sites. These became among the most characteristic works of his career.
1939
Recorded in Buckinghamshire as a landscape painter. He later lived at the Chelsea Arts Club, of which he was a founder member and eventually its oldest member.
1964
Died at St Luke's Hospital, Chelsea, on 10 February after a career spanning more than seven decades.
1986
Plans were announced for a major reassessment of Toft's work. Curator Stephen Jones described him as chiefly known for his “magnificent series of lyrical paintings of English castles”, comparing their pastoral quality with the poetry of Housman and music of Elgar.
1997
An exhibition of his work was held at Abbott and Holder in London.
Described By Others
Writing in 1986, curator Stephen Jones characterised Toft's castle paintings as possessing a “pastoral lyricism”, drawing parallels with Housman and Elgar - an evocative description of their combination of history, landscape and restrained nostalgia.
Following Toft's death in 1964, fellow painter Herbert Holt remembered him as “an extremely good painter of landscapes and flower pieces” and predicted that his work would increase in appreciation. Holt also recalled another side of Toft's character: he was apparently a remarkable Shakespearean entertainer.