Edward Sherard Calcraft Kennedy (1833-1900) RA
Untitled: ‘The West Wind’
oil on canvas
Description: A fine painting of a woman standing in the wind, entitled ‘The West Wind’ by listed artist Edward Sherard Calcraft Kennedy (1833-1900) R.A.
Markings: unsigned, the previous frame contains a gilt brass plaque “E. S. KENNEDY.”
Artist/Maker Biography: KENNEDY, Edward Sherard Calcroft (15 Jul 1833-11 Jan 1900) Birth & Lineage: b. Camberwell, Surrey c. 1837 to Robert Sherard 6th Earl of Harborough (-1856) and the contralto/actress Emma Sarah Love Calcroft (1798-1881) wife of Ct. Granby Hales Calcroft (-1856 95th Regiment of Foot, son of John Calcraft, MP for Wareham in Dorset), married c. November 1828, during a long-standing affair (at least 1824-1837) that resulted in two other sons Edward’s brothers Robert Sherard Calcraft and Bennet Sherard Kennedy (married Jane Stanley Wordsworth, daughter of poet William Wordsworth and father to Robert Harborough Sherard first biographer of Oscar Wilde). Marriage: Kennedy married first Emily Paul, married in 1857 and divorced 1862. Married second fellow artist Florence (Laing) Kennedy (1853-1952), married c. 1882, daughter of Samuel Laing (1812-1897), member of Parliament and author) and sister to Mary Eliza Kennard (1850-1936, author), who was thought to have an annual income of £8,000 and, after Kennedy’s death, would establish, along with 2nd husband John Gennadius, the Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA). Life: Well integrated into society the Kennedy family was friendly with many notable artists including Anna Lea Merritt[1] and James McNeill Whistler. Both Edward and Florence were members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Buried at St. Peter and St. Paul, Edenbridge, Kent. Work: Genre painter and Canvas Supplier, worked in the Porthemro Studios, St. Ives, Exhibited extensively at the Royal Academy, Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Watercolour Society, Dudley Gallery, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Grosvenor Gallery, 19th Century Art Society, Royal Institute of Painters in Oil Colours, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Walker Art Gallery Liverpool, Manchester City Art Gallery, Boston Museum of Fine Arts and Praised by Dante Gabriel Rossetti Literature: Popular 19th Century Painting: A Dictionary of European Genre Painters, Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940, Dictionary of British Art, Benezit. (Sources: National Portrait Gallery, National Archives Kew, Family Search, Wright & Davis, House of Lords Journal Vol. 63, Bohemian Past of Madame Gennadius, Natalia Vogeikoff, Checklist of Painters from 1200-1994, The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler, Oxberry’s Dramatic Biography and Histronic Anecdotes Volume 3, Emma Sarah Love by O’Brien and Johnson)
