Charles Simpson

Charles Walter Simpson was the son of Major General C. R. Simpson of the Lincolnshire Regiment. Due to a riding accident Charles could not join the Army and was largely self-taught, but he studied for a while in 1904 with Lucy Kemp Welsh, who was well known for her horse paintings. In 1910, he worked at the Académie Julian in Paris. In 1913 Simpson married fellow artist Ruth Alison and a few years later they started a painting school at St. Ives. Simpson mainly painted landscapes, and bird and sporting motifs. He also wrote and illustrated a number of books. From 1913-24 the Simpsons lived in London but they later returned to Cornwall.

Charles Simpson competed four times in the Olympic art competitions: 1924, 1928, 1932 and 1948, but was never able to win a medal or achieve an Honorable Mention. From the numerous pictures that he submitted over time, a number could be identified with a high degree of probability. These include for 1924 _ La chasse à la loutre, victim_,probably Otter Hunting, The Kill, oil on canvas, 61 x 91.4 cm, now in the Derby Museum; and La chasse aux canards, l’affut en bateau actually Duck Shooting, The Punt Gunner, 1924 oil on canvas, 199 x 226 cm, now on display at the Russell-Cotes Museum. Less clear are Canards sauvages au clair de lune, possibly identical to 1922’s The Flight of the Wild Duck and Cygnes sauvages. Even in the early version of the catalogue, the latter two works are listed under different names. The title Chasse aux Loutres appeared again in the 1928 catalog. This could well be again the painting already exhibited in 1924 or the similar work Otter Hunting, tempera on paper painting, 61 x 76 cm, which has been in the Shipley Art Gallery since 1921. Since La meute is designated as a watercolor, the title could be a short version of The Bramham Moor dog pack after a hard day (watercolor and gouache on panel, 36.8 x 52 cm). The Grand National, 1927 was created in mixed media (pencil, watercolour, gouache and oil on paper) and measures 53.3 x 73.6 cm.

In 1932, Simpson again entered three paintings, all oil on canvas. Wild Duck and Water Lilies most likely corresponds to Among the Waterlilies (64 x 89 cm). The St Leger is a horse race held annually at the Doncaster Racecourse. The respective painting was acquired by the Doncaster Museum in 1931 under the title Finish of the 1931 St Leger (100 x 126 cm). Through the years, the artist painted a whole series of pictures of the Grand National, the famed British horse steeplechase. In this case, the actual entry can be identified by the illustration in the catalog. Finally, in 1948, Simpson submitted the painting Sunrise on the Estuary. This may be the work On an Estuary, a print of which was sold together with Simpson’s book “The fields of home - A book of English field and hedgerow, coastline and moorland”.